"Bunny Muncher, it's been too long!"

Valeria, who had been flipping through a shopping catalog, paused as Jared sauntered over from their side of the treaty line.

"You saw me, like, two days ago," she pointed out, laughing a little.

"Yes, but according to Sam's inner monologue, that's basically two year — oof!"

Jared was cut off as Sam came out of the trees and hit him on the back of his head while glaring at him. Then Sam cleared his throat a bit awkwardly before smiling at Valeria, who returned it.

"Valeria," he greeted simply.

"Hi, Sam," she said almost shyly. He always made her feel shy, whether others were around or not. "You guys on patrol or are you just stopping by?"

"No patrol," Jared told her. "Like always, Sam just wants to see you."

She would've blushed if she could've, but Valeria tried not to focus on the teasing comment. "Oh, does that mean you don't want to see me, Jared? Guess that means you don't want any of the cookies I brought just in case I ran into any of you."

Jared's smirk immediately dropped, and Sam got one of his own. "W - what kind of cookies are we talking about? Chocolate chip? Peanut butter?"

Valeria sighed and looked back down at her magazine. "I mean, who knows. They could even be white chocolate macadamia nut — your favorite — but I guess we'll never know."

"You're cruel, Bunny Muncher," he said, shaking his head. "I always knew you had a dark side."

"Ah yes, the cookie-withholding side and not the bloodsucking monster side."

Valeria looked up as another shifter joined them, having been the one to make a sarcastic comment. Right away, Valeria knew who it was because she was a girl — the only girl in the pack. Her hair was cut short and was dressed simply in a sports bra and a pair of athletic shorts.

"Watch it, Leah," Sam said, narrowing his eyes at her. He wouldn't stand for her being mean to his girl, especially not to her face.

"My bad," she said, putting her hands up in defense — though clearly, she didn't care about Sam's order. Then she turned to Valeria and simply lifted her chin lightly in a greeting. "You make good apple muffins."

"Thanks. Glad you enjoyed them," Valeria said, smiling. "Seth never said his sister was so pretty. It's nice to meet you, Leah."

Leah tilted her head slightly as she studied Valeria. With her blunt, sometimes rude personality and the fact that none of her pack members were the compliment-giving type, she wasn't used to people telling her she was pretty — more often than not, she was told smiling more would make her prettier.

From the side, Jared scoffed. "How come you never told me I was pretty when we first met?"

"Your mouth was full of chicken and you were spitting it all over the place," Valeria reminded him, chuckling. "Talking with your mouth full isn't something pretty people do."

Jared crossed his arms and pouted childishly. "Well, Sam does it too, so that must mean you think he's not pretty either."

Sam scoffed and shoved Jared while Valeria smiled. Pretty wasn't quite the word she'd use to describe Sam anyway. Handsome, for starters, and even beautiful. But pretty worked as well, she supposed.

"And Leah eats like a hyena when she's hungry," Jared added.

Leah rolled her eyes and cupped her hand around her ear. "Sorry. I thought I heard an uggo say something."

Valeria laughed so hard that she snorted, hiding her face in her magazine as she did. At hearing her laugh, some of Sam's annoyance at Leah faded simply because she had made his girl happy.

"Do you mind if we stay, Valeria?" Sam asked. "Or are we distracting you from homework?"

"Oh, I'm doing something much more important than advanced Calculus," she said, closing her catalog and showing them the cover. "I'm preparing for a living nightmare — also known as Alice and Rosalie taking me prom dress shopping."

"Awe," Jared cooed mockingly. "The immortal vampire wants to go to Prom."

Valeria playfully rolled her eyes. "Well, the immortal vampire died before she could make it to her first one. And I didn't have a date for Junior Prom last year, so I stayed home."

Sam's face fell, which went unnoticed by Valeria but not by his pack mates. Leah, taking pity on her ex and Alpha, decided to do some digging. They needed to know if he had competition.

"So you going with some pale face from your school?" she asked, leaning against the tree.

"Oh, no," she replied, shaking her head. "I don't have a date this year either." This time, Valeria did spot the relief on Sam's face. "I'll just have fun with my friends. Mike and Eric are going with Jessica and Angela, but they promised me a slow dance so I wouldn't get bored during those songs."

"Yeah, and your family is huge, so you won't be alone," Jared added, shrugging.

"I'm the only one going," Valeria said, looking through the book again. "Bella refuses because Edward already forced her to go last year, so they're staying in. Jasper can't be around that many humans, so Alice will stay with him."

While Valeria was talking, Jared and Sam were having a silent conversation. The second in command was trying to convey with his eyes that Sam should ask Valeria to her prom, but he was on the fence about it. Not because he didn't want to spend the night with her or even because despite what she claimed, Valeria's siblings could still make an appearance and see her there with the wolf, but because she might say no. But what Valeria said next shut that idea down regardless.

"Emmett was gonna take me to keep me company, but after a couple graduates snuck in alcohol last year, they changed the rules," Valeria said, frowning. "So now, anyone that's not still in school won't be able to get past security. Which is ridiculous, because the ones under twenty-one wouldn't be able to buy alcohol anyway."

Sam felt like pouting, knowing that he was too old to be let into the school dance.

"Maybe Seth could take you," Jared offered after a second. The three others looked at him surprised. "He's a little young, but at least he's still in school. Plus, you said you wanted to have fun, and watching him try to dance is very funny."

It was actually a good idea, Sam thought. Because if Valeria agreed, there'd be no chance of her going out with some boy from her school. Seth was only fourteen and saw Valeria as nothing more than a friend, meaning nothing romantic would be happening on prom night.

"Fair warning though," Leah said. "If he breaks out the sprinkler or the running man, you'll want the ground to swallow you whole."

"That sounds great," Valeria said, grinning. If Seth really danced like that, then he'd fit right in with Mike on the dance floor. "I'll ask Seth about it. Jared, what a surprisingly good idea."

"Yeah, I have those sometimes," he boasted, puffing his chest out.

She reached into her backpack and pulled out the bag of cookies, tossing them over to Jared. "Your reward," she said as he tore into the bag excitedly.

"Bless you, Bunny Muncher," he said, though his mouth was already full of cookies.

"You're welcome," she said. "Now I just have to survive dress shopping. I was trying to find one ahead of time, but I'm not really good at picking out nice things."

"Here," Leah said, sticking her hand out as she walked to Valeria.

Of course, they all knew that the wolves were allowed in the Cullen's territory and just weren't allowed to shift, but they still never crossed the border. There was nothing wrong with Leah doing so as she grabbed the dress catalog from Valeria and started flipping through it.

Sam's hair stood on end, wondering what Valeria would say if he came over and sat next to her, their shoulders and arms brushing against each other.

"I don't want anything flashy," Valeria told Leah. "Which is exactly what Alice and Rose want. Alice says I have bad taste."

At that, Valeria looked down at her current outfit that consisted of a green flannel, a plain yellow shirt, and baggy jeans. It wasn't even her own flannel. One day, she had been picking up Bella from the police station while Edward hunted and ran into Charlie Swan. He saw her in a short-sleeved shirt and assumed she must have been freezing from the cold front and gave her the extra shirt that he kept in his office. The vampire didn't need it, of course, but really appreciated the gesture.

"I like how you dress," Sam said suddenly. He liked everything from the messy Dutch braids in her hair to the well-worn white sneakers she was always wearing, not caring about the dirt on them.

"Thank you," Valeria said, shyly looking at the grass. She missed the smirk that Jared shot Sam, who rolled his eyes.

Then Valeria looked at Leah, who was quickly flipping through the catalog. With how quickly her eyes scanned each page before moving on to the next one, Valeria almost wondered if she was the one with super speed, and it also made her question how much detail Leah was actually taking in.

But a moment later, Leah was shoving the magazine back in Valeria's hands. "That one."

She gently took back the magazine and glanced at the dress Leah was pointing to. Immediately, she smiled, already liking it but she was still a little on the fence. "You don't think it's too simple for Prom?"

"You go to Forks," Leah pointed out. "The other girls aren't going to be wearing runway gowns. You'd probably stand out more in whatever your sisters would pick."

"True," Valeria muttered, remembering Rosalie's stunning red gown from the year before. Compared to Bella's plain purple dress, they looked like they were going to two different events.

As Valeria studied the dress more, Leah continued talking about it. "The length won't make you seem even shorter than you are, and the white will look good with your skin tone. Plus it'll make you look sweet and innocent but not like—"

"Like a bloodsucking monster?" Valeria asked, looking up at Leah with a sly smile.

Leah couldn't stop the amused smile from appearing on her face. "I was gonna say like a Freshman, but yours works too."

"It's perfect, Leah," she said, grinning. "And if I order it right away, then I also get out of dress shopping."

"Two birds with one stone," Jared said, chuckling. "Let's see the dress."

"Nope," Valeria said, pressing the magazine to her chest. "It's gotta be a surprise, and you might show it to Seth with your little mind link."

Jared scoffed as if she had wounded his pride. "Why aren't you worried about Leah showing him?"

"Because she's just better than you in every way," she told him, making Leah smirk at Jared.

"You met her, like, five minutes ago," he complained. "You are showing blatant favoritism to the Clearwaters, and I don't like it one bit."

☽︎

"You'll be pleased to know that I have a date to the Senior Prom."

Jessica shut her locker as soon as Valeria had made that statement and looked at her with wide eyes. "Sam?"

Valeria rolled her eyes. "No, not Sam. I already told you guys that he graduated. They wouldn't let him in."

"We could try and sneak him in," Jessica schemed.

Valeria thought of his imposing height and muscles. "Yeah, he definitely couldn't pass for a seventeen-year-old."

"Fine," she said, sighing. "Who's your date, then?"

"His name is Seth, and he's just a friend. He's a little younger than us but he'll fit in I think. He's just as dorky as Mike," she explained, smiling. "Seth and Sam are friends."

"Seth Clearwater?"

Valeria spun quickly on her heel to find Bella behind her. Thankfully, Edward wasn't with her, but that didn't mean she was in the clear yet. She looked around the hall to make sure Jasper and Alice weren't near before pulling Bella into the girl's bathroom.

"V, were you talking about Seth and Sam, as in the wolves?" Bella asked, her mouth hanging open.

Valeria sighed and ran a hand through her hair in distress. "Look, I'm kinda friends with them... and the rest of them. But you can't say anything to Edward or Alice or any of them. Please."

"W - what about the treaty?" Bella asked, clearly confused by it all. "You guys all hate each other. Edward doesn't even like me being friends with—"

"Exactly," Valeria interrupted. "Bella, Edward followed behind you in his car when you wanted to sneak to La Push and intimidated you until you ended up just going to Angela's. He literally made it so your car wouldn't start another time. Now imagine him like that with me, but six more overprotective vampires. Between his mind-reading and Alice's visions and Jasper's mood control—"

"You'd never leave the house," Bella realized. She knew how overprotective they all were of Valeria simply because she was the youngest in the family. They'd probably lock her up to keep her away from the wolves. Bella knew how frustrated she got with just Edward controlling where she went and she couldn't imagine if all of them acted the same.

Bella gently took Valeria's hand and squeezed it comfortingly. "Hey, I won't say anything, and he can't read my mind. It'll be sort of nice to have someone who doesn't hate them."

Valeria hugged Bella, glad to have her on her side. "Thank you. It feels kinda good to not have to hide this from at least one person."

"Of course, but you've got to tell me everything," Bella said, a small smile on her face. "I mean, how the hell did you manage to befriend any of them?"

"Well, it's actually kinda your dad's fault."

☽︎

Edward had not been happy when Bella insisted on going and spending the afternoon with Jacob again. But with some nagging from both her and Valeria — who made some loud claims about him being controlling and toxic for everyone in the school parking lot to hear, he allowed Bella to go to the reservation.

Jacob was thrilled to have her visit, as always thinking that he still had a chance with the girl. They made plans to hang out on the beach but first stopped by the pack house — which was just Sam's house that the others ran amuck in.

Sue Clearwater was there again and working on some burgers that the wolves were happy to scarf down. But they were even happier when Bella pulled out the ziplock bag of brownies.

"From Val," she announced. And half a second later, Paul was snatching them from her hand and fighting over them with Embry.

"Thank you for dropping them off, Bella," Sam said nicely. Though really, he was pouting on the inside because it meant he wouldn't get to meet Valeria for her to give them to him at the border.

"Yeah, she said she couldn't come by the border because of Mike and Tyler's baseball game tonight," Bella said casually.

Everyone in the room froze, even the ones eating. They looked at Bella with wide eyes, wondering how much she knew and how much she had told the other Cullens.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jared said, looking anywhere but at Bella. "What do you mean the border? We don't even know a Valeria."

Bella let out a singular laugh, shaking her head a little. "I overheard Val telling our friend about bringing Seth to Prom, and then she told me everything. I promised to keep it from Edward, so no need to freak out."

At the news, they all relaxed. Though Sam still was eyeing Bella warily, and she was doing the same.

"You know, I think it's really cool of you guys to be friends with her considering the fact that she's a vampire," Bella continued. "Though you obviously still hate the others. It's odd."

"Why don't we head down to the beach?" Jacob asked, ready for Bella to stop asking questions.

"It really makes me wonder what it is about her to deserve the special treatment," she said, crossing her arms. "It's like it doesn't even matter that she drinks blood to survive and lives forever and is everything you guys hate. You guys are all so nice to her."

"I mean, I'm not that nice," Paul said, scoffing.

"Oh, so it wasn't you and Seth that spent an hour yesterday decorating the cookies for the upcoming bake sale with her?"

Paul rolled his eyes and pushed the bag of brownies on the counter away from him, pretending like they didn't interest him. "I only did that because I knew I'd be able to steal some cookies."

"Right," Bella said, nodding. "It's for the baked goods. Not because one of you guys imprinted on her, of course."

Several of them took in sharp breaths while the others nervously glanced at Sam. Of course, looking at Sam gave Bella her answer. He had imprinted on Valeria.

"Jake, you're not supposed to tell her about imprinting," Embry said in a quiet voice, though they all heard.

Jacob winced and rubbed the back of his neck apologetically. "I was talking about Jared and Kim last time she was here, and it just kinda came out."

Bella watched Sam from across the room. He looked both like he was ready to attack and run away — clearly, Valeria being his imprint wasn't something he wanted to discuss with Bella in the room.

But Bella was nothing if not stubborn. "Why wouldn't she just tell me earlier then? I'd understand."

Jacob placed a hand on Bella's shoulder and tried to steer her to the door. "How about that beach trip?"

She easily moved under Jacob's arm and faced Sam once more. "Wait, have you even told her yet?"

"It's none of your business, Bella," was all Sam said, crossing his arms.

"Look, you're right. It's not my business," she said, running a hand through her hair. "But after one discussion with her, I can already tell that whether it's from the imprint or, like, a vampire mate bond, she's confused. And maybe she wouldn't be so confused or feel like she's betraying her family if you'd be honest with her. Valeria deserves to know the truth so that she can make her own decisions about what kind of imprint relationship she wants with you."

Valeria had done a lot for Bella over the years. She made her feel welcome in the Cullen family when no one else really did — even Alice's attempts were overbearing and not quite as effective as she wanted them to be. She was the only one that even came close to dying when James had gone after Bella the year before. She left a goodbye letter when the Cullens had left, apologizing for Edward's decision. Valeria was Bella's friend, and she would stand up for Valeria when she wasn't around to do it for herself.

"Damn," Quil whispered to himself. "Bella's got balls."

Sam couldn't say anything. He didn't know what to say. Because Bella was right, and Valeria deserved to know the truth. But what if the truth — the fact that she was Sam's entire world now and that he'd be around for the rest of her extremely long life — sent her running? Despite there being no record of it, an imprint could deny the bond, but then again, there was no record of a vampire being an imprint either.

"I'll say one more thing," Bella said, clenching her fist. It was risky, and she hoped it wouldn't set Jacob off, but it was the truth and it needed to be said. "The Cullens aren't going to be living in Forks for much longer. That includes Valeria unless she had a reason to stay. I recommend telling her the reason and soon."