Bella was nervous as she and Jacob pulled up to Sam's house on the bike. She had been confident about skipping school and heading to La Push to get some answers, but she feared the pack would hate her now that the Cullens were back.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Bella asked as they got off Jacob's bike. "I'm the 'vampire girl', remember?"

However, a second later, the front door burst open and a horde of shirtless boys piled out, shoving food in their mouths as they scrambled to meet Bella with smiles on their faces.

"Look who's back!" Embry said, beaming.

"What up, Bella?" Quil asked.

She looked at the boy in shock. Just as Embry and Jacob had, Quil had filled out and cut his hair short and joined the pack of shifters. "Quil, you too?"

"Yep," he said proudly. "Finally made the pack."

"I'm glad you're here, Bella," Embry told her, smirking. "Maybe we can get a break from Jake's obsessive inner monologue."

Paul laughed and shoved Jacob to the side. "I wish Bella would call," he mocked

"I wish Bella wouldn't call," Jared joined in.

"Maybe I should call Bella," Embry added.

"Maybe I should call Bella and hang up," Quil finished as they all cackled.

Jacob awkwardly avoided Bella's gaze, ready to punch all of his brothers in the face. "Alright, you can shut up now."

Bella smiled as the boys pushed each other around, Jared spitting bits of chicken everywhere as he laughed. Then a tall, pretty girl with cropped hair walked up with a scowl on her face. And the scowl deepened when she saw Bella.

The laugher died down, and Jacob cleared his throat. "Bella, this is Leah Clearwater. Harry's daughter."

Immediately, Bella offered her a sympathetic smile. "Hey. I'm really sorry about your father."

"If you're here to torture Jacob some more, feel free to leave," Leah snapped, narrowing her eyes at her. Bella was taken aback by her response but didn't defend herself.

"Fun, isn't she," Jacob muttered, not even caring that Leah could hear.

"Leah, be nice when there's a guest over." Bella looked to the door to see Sue Clearwater exiting the house. Sam Uley followed not too far behind. The smile on Sue's face contrasted her daughter's scowl greatly. "Bella, it's wonderful to see you."

"Same here," Bella said as the older woman hugged her. She only had a few memories of Sue Clearwater from growing up, but given that both her children were now shifters, she'd probably be seeing more of the woman.

Sam nodded politely to Bella as a greeting, who returned it. Then Jacob caught his eye. "Sam, we're good?"

"We're good," he confirmed, speaking about Victoria. "She won't be getting through our line anytime soon."

The guys were happy with the declaration from their leader and started to shove each other around and back toward the house. However, Bella stopped them, remembering what was in her bag.

"I almost forgot," she said, opening up her backpack. "I don't know why she'd think you guys would want anything from her, but Edward's sister gave these to me when she found out I was coming."

Bella pulled out two big containers that had taken up all the space in her bag. Sam was the one to take them and stare down at the lids. One had a pink sticky note that listed the contents and who they were for.

"Valeria made these?" Sam asked, doing his best to hide the smile on his face from Bella.

"Yeah—"

"More muffins!" Jared exclaimed. He tossed the chicken bone in his hand to the ground and snatched the containers. "Sweet! Chocolate chip for us. Apple for you guys. Blueberry for Sam. She even made banana nut for you, Paul."

Paul hesitated for a moment, not wanting to give in, but as soon as the lid came off and he caught a glimpse of the banana nut muffins, he grabbed one.

Bella watched, completely confused by the situation. Two days ago, Paul was close to killing Emmett, but now he was voluntarily eating Valeria's muffins. Even Leah's scowl dropped a little as she took an apple muffin. And Jake, who had never and would never say a nice thing about the Cullens, ate one as well. And Bella certainly didn't understand why Sam was staring down at the handwritten note with a soft smile on his face.

"I kinda thought you guys would immediately throw them in the trash," Bella said, awkwardly messing with the zipper on her backpack.

As soon as she heard Bella speak, Leah's scowl returned. She finished off her muffin before running towards the woods, shifting and not even caring about her clothes that were ripped. Bella watched her leave, surprised because she hadn't known girls could shift.

"Bella," Jared said in a serious tone. Though, she didn't take him very seriously with the chocolate smeared on his chin. "These muffins were blessed by the cooking gods. You don't throw away things blessed by cooking gods."

"But she's still a—"

"Look," Jacob said, placing a hand on Bella's shoulder. He cast a glance at Sam and sighed. "Don't go asking your bloodsuckers about it, but we tolerate Valeria. Can't tell you why. She doesn't even know why. Top secret werewolf business."

"Top secret werewolf business?" Bella repeated, raising an eyebrow. "That sounds ridiculous."

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter if it means we get food," Embry said, shrugging. "Tell her we said 'thanks' and that we aren't opposed to all varieties of baked goods."

Bella chuckled and nodded her head, still a bit confused by the situation. "Will do."

"Quil, Jared, leave some chocolate ones for Seth," Sam ordered. He was watching as both boys tried to finish them off. Given that Seth was the one to give Valeria their favorite flavors in the first place, he deserved some chocolate chip muffins as his reward once he was done with school for the day. "Put them up in the house. We've got to run patrol."

Bella watched as the pack ran off, full of questions. What made Valeria so different from the other Cullens? How had she known everyone's favorite muffin flavor? Why had Sam even allowed them to eat them? And why did the big, bad, vampire-hating Alpha fold up her note and stick it in his pocket with clear intentions to keep it — it was nothing special after all, only listing which muffins were for who and signed with her name and a heart at the bottom.

Yup, she was definitely confused.

☽︎

It was another two days before Sam saw his imprint again. He picked up on Valeria's scent as soon as he stepped out of his house with Paul and Jared. The fact that he could smell her meant that she was close to the treaty line again, and excitement ran through him.

"I'm gonna pass on cliff diving," Sam stated, sparing a glance at the two boys.

"Ooh, is your leech back?" Paul asked, smirking. No, Paul didn't approve of Sam's vampire imprint, but his opinion of her was softened when she went out of her way to make him his favorite kind of muffin even though no one else in the pack liked it.

"Don't tell me you're actually gonna speak to her this time," Jared said, chuckling.

Sam rolled his eyes and shoved Jared. "It took you two weeks to say something to Kim, and she's been in your class for years. So you can't say anything."

"Fair point," he mumbled. "Alright. Go meet your bunny muncher."

Sam held back a snort. Since meeting Valeria, many of the pack members had started calling the Cullens bunny munchers. It was a less hostile nickname compared to leech and bloodsucker.

"And drop hints that we want more food," Paul told him, smirking.

"I hope Leah shoves you off the cliff," Sam muttered before running off.

He didn't shift, opting to stay dressed. He was determined to meet Valeria as his human self. He wanted to be the one to ask her questions and make her smile, not Seth, who was on the fast track to becoming friends with the vampire.

Sam followed Valeria's scent to the treaty line once again, however not to the same spot. The river didn't separate the land where she was sitting. Once Sam reached her, he also realized that she wasn't alone as he peeked through the tree branches.

Seth and Valeria were both laying on their stomachs with books and homework spread out around them. Each was on their respective side of the land. Valeria was wearing a pair of baggy, corduroy overalls and looked quite relaxed as she helped Seth with his algebra homework.

"What's the formula again?" Seth asked, squinting at his worksheet.

"X is equal to negative B, plus or minus the square root of B squared minus four A C. All over 2 A," Valeria said. Or rather she sang the formula to the tune of 'Pop Goes the Weasel,' which must have made it easier to remember.

"Thanks," Seth said, scribbling on his sheet of paper. Math wasn't his strongest subject, but it was Valeria's. However, she lacked in other subjects like English and History. "How's the study guide going?"

Valeria squinted down at her history study guide that was half-filled out. "Do you happen to know which war the Armenian genocide started in?"

"World War I."

Valeria's head snapped up when a voice that didn't belong to Seth answered her question. She felt her mouth dry up as a handsome man who was almost as big as Emmett walked through the tree line. He was clearly a shifter and wearing a simple pair of shorts and a long-sleeve black shirt. He had deep brown eyes that were fixed on Valeria, who felt nervous all of the sudden. But not a bad kind of nervousness.

"Oh, thank you," she said, softly smiling at him. After scribbling the answer down, she looked back at the man. "Hello. I'm Valeria."

"I know." Valeria found his low, deep voice to be very calming and wanted to hear more. "We've already met."

Valeria looked at him, confused for a moment because she certainly wouldn't have forgotten a handsome face like that no matter how bad a short-term memory she had. But then it hit her that he had just been in a different form when they met. She quickly sat up on her knees.

"Sam!" Sam loved the way she said his name, seemingly happy that he was there. "It's nice to have a face with the name instead of a snout."

A barely-there smile graced Sam's lips. "It's nice to meet you too." Then he glanced down at Seth who was lying close to his feet. "The others are cliff diving if you want to go once you finish your homework."

"Awesome!" Seth said excitedly. "I've just got one more. Val, what's the square root of five thousand six hundred twenty-five and then divided by five?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Asking someone else to do your work isn't—"

"Fifteen," Valeria told him, only taking a second to think of it.

"Thanks," Seth told her, trusting her answer. "Can't believe you could figure that out so fast in your head but you don't know what year World War Two started."

"You don't know when World War Two started?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow at Valeria. "Didn't you live through it or something?"

"Uh, I was born in the nineties," Valeria said, chuckling. She glanced at Seth, who was packing away his things, finished with his homework for the day. "Have fun cliff jumping."

"Definitely. Maybe you can come with some time," he said, not really thinking of it. Though Valeria didn't seem to think anything of it, Sam cut his eyes sharply to the boy, not wanting him to discuss the treaty and the imprint.

"Well, we'll have to find a nice neutral place that's good for it," Valeria told him. "There are a couple of other nearby beaches."

"We'll check google maps," Seth said, nodding along. "Thanks for helping me with my homework, Val. I'll see you later."

"Bye, Seth," she called. She was expecting for Sam to follow after him, but he stayed behind. "You not going cliff diving? It sounds fun, though I'd probably be too chicken to actually jump."

Sam looked at her, slightly amused. "You're basically indestructible."

"Doesn't make heights any less scary," she said, shrugging. "Or are you hanging back to make sure I don't cross the line?"

"Something tells me I can trust you not to," he said, walking a little closer. "And I couldn't really respond, but being around you wasn't the worst." Of course, 'wasn't the worst' didn't begin to cover how Sam felt, but it was likely too soon to admit he hung on her every word.

"Well, thank you for allowing me to stay and do my History homework. I hate doing it at the house. Jasper is this, like, fanatic who gets frustrated when I don't remember basic things," she explained. "Such as when World War Two started."

Sam smirked as he sat in the grass across from her. "September first, nineteen thirty-nine."

Valeria smiled as she scribbled the date at the top of her paper. "I did not live through it, so, unfortunately, am not a master on the time period."

"If you were born in the nineties, how long have you been a vampire?" he asked curiously. Evidently, his imprint wasn't some ancient, knowledgeable being.

"About two years," she answered. "If this hadn't of happened to me, I wouldn't even be able to drink yet. Well, legally."

"Your leader told the Elders that he only turned those who were dying and couldn't be saved," he said after a moment. He knew it might have been too personal of a question, but he felt like he needed to understand why she was like this. Maybe with more answers, he'd understand why the ancestors had chosen her for him. "How — I mean, were you sick or something?"

Valeria smiled sadly at the ground, toying with a blade of grass to distract herself. "I had probably taken that short cut through the alley fifty times with my friends during the day. Turns out at night and alone isn't as safe."

Even without the gory details, Sam grew angry at the thought of someone hurting Valeria. Even though he hadn't known her then, he wished he had been there to protect her — that was his job after all.

"Emmett was the one to find me," she continued, not looking at Sam for his reaction. "We weren't friends really, but we liked to team up in gym class and terrorize the other team during dodgeball or whatever sport we were playing that week. Next thing I know, I wake up like this and they tell me I have to drink blood for the rest of my life, I have to leave behind my family, give up my college plans."

Sam had never thought about if any of the Cullens ever wanted to be vampires. He had always assumed they were like Bella and wanted nothing more than an immortal life, not caring about the cost.

"I'm sorry," he said after a moment, "that you had to go through that."

"It's alright," she said, shrugging it off. "I mean, it could be worse, right? I was taken in by a bunny muncher family. I've never killed anyone or hurt anyone — I don't think I could handle that. I'd probably cross the border just to give you guys an excuse to take me out."

Sam hated how she carelessly mentioned dying. Just the thought of his imprint dying sent gut-wrenching pain through his whole body. He wanted to reach across the treaty line and hold her, knowing it would wash away that pain.

"Do you miss your old life?"

"At times," Valeria said, thinking for a moment. "I miss playing volleyball — none of my siblings like it. They prefer baseball. I miss my parents and brother but I know they're safer with me on the other side of the country. I miss my dogs. Carlisle won't let me get one."

"How many dogs did you have?" Sam asked, smiling softly. For all he cared, she could make the pack her dogs if it made her happy.

"Six," she replied, grinning. "Biscuit, Legolas, Scotty, Fish, Oingo, and Chessie."

Sam couldn't help but laugh, running a hand through his hair. Valeria loved the sound of his laugh. "Fish and Oingo?"

"Don't laugh!" she said, giggling. "I named Fish when I was, like, six, okay? And Oingo is after the band Oingo Boingo. Watch it, or I'll give your wolf a stupid name."

"What, like Frodo?" Sam asked, clearly teasing her other Lord of the Rings named pet.

Valeria crossed her arms and looked away in mock hurt. "No. You're far too mean for a name so good. I'll think of something extra stupid to embarrass you in front of your wolf buddies."

"Looking forward to it," he said, rolling his eyes playfully. "Really though, six dogs is a lot to own."

"You can never have too many dogs," Valeria declared. "I remember right before they brought me to Forks, everyone complained about your werewolf smell, but they're exaggerating. If they'd have grown up with so many dogs, they'd be able to handle it. It's definitely not enough to drive me away."

"Nice to know our stench isn't a deal-breaker for you."

"Although, you don't really have that wet dog smell," Valeria told him. He watched her nose crinkle as she smelled the air, a soft smile on her face.

"What do I smell like?" Sam had been a little worried that she wouldn't feel the imprint bond as he did. After all, vampire mates worked differently than a shifter's imprint. But it seemed his scent was different to her just as hers was to him. That had to be a good sign.

"Nice," she said shyly, avoiding his gaze. "And warm. A woodsy smell — like the forest and a bonfire."

Strawberries and wildflowers. Forests and bonfires.

After a moment, Valeria tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled at Sam. "You know, you seem to know a lot about me now, but I know nothing about you, Sam Uley." She sat up on her elbows with her head propped in her hands, giving him her full attention.

"I'm afraid there's not much to know," he said, rubbing the back of his neck almost nervously. "I'm just the Alpha of the Quileute pack."

"You're more than just an Alpha, Sam," she told him gently. "You have likes, dislikes, hobbies, friends, family. I understand if you don't want to tell me though — I tend to overshare and then remember others don't."

"Family's not a topic I like to discuss," Sam said after a moment. And so Valeria made a mental note to not bring it up anymore. "Jared Cameron's my best friend, before and after we both shifted. But I'm close with everyone in the pack — they're my family."

After a moment, Sam smiled, and it was infectious as Valeria smiled back.

"I like blueberry muffins." Valeria giggled, having already known that. "I'll eat pretty much anything, though — all of us do."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"I like a lot of 80s pop and rock music because that's what my mother would play around the house."

"Like Oingo Boingo?" she asked eagerly, leaning forward.

Sam laughed again, blessing her ears with the sound. "Not Oingo Boingo, but if I'm in a good mood, I'll tolerate the Dead Man's Party album around Halloween. And you were actually humming one of my mother's favorite songs when I came across you that day."

Valeria thought back, recalling that she was singing Chiquita by ABBA that day. She also noted that he had now mentioned his mother twice despite saying he didn't want to discuss his family. Even without mention of his father, he clearly cared for his mother even if there was some tension surrounding the two.

"Now, I can get down to some ABBA," Valeria told him. "And Emmett and I force everyone to watch Mamma Mia! at least once a month."

Edward often threatened to throw Valeria off a cliff when they did it, but then she and Jasper would team up with their mood control power and force Edward to join the family.

"I've never seen the movie."

Valeria gasped dramatically and shook her head. "Sir, it is now my life's goal to get you to watch that masterpiece. I'll drag my laptop out here and have Seth hold you down if I have to."

Sam chuckled, knowing that Seth wouldn't be able to hold him down, and Valeria knew that as well.

"So, any hobbies that don't include eating and chasing vampires?"

"Well, cliff diving, as you know," he told her, earning a nod. "I like the adrenaline rush. I used to play a lot of sports before I shifted. Still managed to get a soccer game going between the pack every now and then."

"I love soccer. Wish I could convince my family to play soccer instead of baseball," she grumbled.

"That's the second time you've mentioned not liking baseball. What's with the grudge?" Sam asked. "It's America's favorite pastime."

Valeria snorted and shook her head. "Well, for starters, I lived in Puerto Rico until I was eleven, so I don't have the same pastimes as America, I guess. And it's stupid, but my first boyfriend was a baseball player. We both got sports scholarships to the same school and were gonna go together. Then, he cheated on me with the head cheerleader, Allysa Johnson. Of course, I died, so none of that matters, but I'm still allowed to be bitter about the sport."

"A fair reason to hate it," he declared. "And I don't know how anyone could ever cheat on you."

If she could, Valeria might have blushed, but then after a moment, decided he was just being nice. "Well, Michael decided he liked blondes better."

"Michael—" He said the boy's name in an almost mocking tone. "—was an idiot to even think of someone else while he had you."

"That's sweet of you to say."

There was a comfortable bout of silence as the two looked at each other, simply enjoying each other's presence. Valeria was the first to look away, feeling her stomach flutter as she took in his deep, brown eyes that were solely fixed on her.

"You said you had a scholarship. What sport was it for?" Sam asked after a moment. "Volleyball? Basketball?"

"Volleyball in the fall and track in the spring," she answered. "You'd think that'd make me a faster vampire than Edward, but no. What about you? Were you on your school's soccer team?"

"Soccer and lacrosse, actually," he revealed. "Was going to go play soccer on a full ride at a school in California, but then I shifted. I couldn't leave this place unprotected, couldn't abandon my duty to the tribe. That life doesn't even seem like it was real sometimes."

Valeria studied him thoughtfully for a moment. Her family had practically forced this life on him and the other shifters, taking away their normal lives, their innocence. The guilt weighed heavily on her heart, but she also knew there was nothing she could do to change the circumstances.

"We should start a club," she said, a playful smirk growing on her face. "Athletes whose dreams were ruined by life-altering supernatural occurrences and are now creatures of the night."

Sam appreciated how she tried to lighten the mood. "And will this club be just us two, or do we have to invite others?"

"Oh, definitely just the two of us," she assured him, grinning. "Everyone will be jealous of how exclusive it is."

"Just you and me." Valeria wasn't sure why the idea of more alone time with Sam made her happy. But based on the smile on Sam's face, she thought maybe he felt the same. "Sounds fun."

Valeria couldn't explain it, really. Because Sam Uley was a werewolf and she was a vampire. Just managing to make friends with him and Seth was pushing the very boundaries of their existence and long-going feud.

But being around Sam made Valeria feel warm, like she was meant to spend all her time with him — not Seth, not her siblings. Just Sam.