Kiara and Leah sat in silence as they listened to Sam, her father and the pack elders argue inside the house. The rest of the boys had been sent home by Sam, except from Jared and Embry who had taken over on patrol. They didn't think the red head would be returning any time soon, especially as they'd chased her out of their territory only an hour prior.

"It'll be okay, right?" Kiara asked the older girl, knowing that neither of them knew what wound happen next. They were both unforeseen factors in the pack, and Kiara's imprinting just seemed to make her seem even more unnatural. She couldn't help but wish she'd just left La Push without waiting for graduation, because she knew that she'd never have been around enough vampires to cause her to shift.

Leah didn't say anything. What could she say? Only minutes ago she had been overwhelmed with disgust at the girl sitting beside her, appalled that she could have imprinted on one of their kind - one of the kind that killed her father. A vampire had caused her father to have a heart attack, and Leah didn't care what type of diet it ate. She didn't want to learn to differentiate the bloodsuckers, not when they'd taken her dad from her.

Now here she was, Kiara Black clinging to her side like her life depended on it. Maybe it did, Leah thought, because who knew how the elders would react to this. She could hear various voices arguing over the imprint, her mother and Kiara's father amongst the midst. Sue Clearwater loved Kiara Black with all her heart and this wasn't going to change that - but it appeared that some of the other elders disagreed with her presence in the pack now.

Paul was inside. 

Kiara had begged him to go home, to stay out of whatever happened in there. Sam had taken one look at his beta and opened the door wider, ignoring Kiara's begs for Sam to tell Paul to go home. Paul was her closest friend since she'd learned about the wolves and she didn't want whatever the elders and her father said to cloud his thoughts about her.

Then, Paul was outside.

A loud snarl and four paws sped away from the packhouse, the two girls watching him go with sinking feelings in their stomachs. Paul was a hothead but it was clear that he wasn't angry with Kiara but rather the elders. They were calling her things that Sam wished she wasn't listening to. Things that no-one should hear their father call them.

"I'll reject it," Kiara told Leah, the girl beside her tensing up a little as she turned to look at her in shock. She knew that Kiara had feelings for Rosalie, and she also knew that there was a ridiculous amount of willpower required to even try and stay away from an imprint. They didn't even know if you could reject an imprint - never in the history of the pack had any wolf done so. The elders believed that an imprint was for eternity, not like a childhood relationship.

"Kie," Leah warned her, her eyes full of emotions as she looked at the girl that she'd began to associate as a sister. "You don't know what that will do to you."

"I'll do it," Kiara said, her voice more rash and less calm than before. "I'll fucking do it."

Leah didn't know what to say. She was conflicted. She hated the Cullens, she hated vampires and she hated that Kiara was now linked to one. But she didn't want her best friend to go through whatever rejecting an imprint entailed. She just wished they'd never been forced to enter this life.

The door opened, the dark haired woman storming down the steps towards them.

"Kiara, you're staying at ours tonight," Sue said, a coldness to her tone that Kie had never heard from the woman before. She nodded, rising slowly to her feet as Leah gave her shoulder one last squeeze. She didn't want to hear the reasoning, because the look on her father's face as he rolled out of the house told her why she wasn't going home tonight. He didn't want to be around her right now.

She paused as she began to walk to Sue's car, turning back to look at her father. A silent plead to not send her away like this, a silent plead to forgive her for what she couldn't control. A silent plead to love her just the same.

Billy Black just looked right through her, as if she wasn't there. As if she was a ghost.

_____

"Hey. Charlie said you left town," Jacob said, his arms crossed as he leant against his bike. He knew Kiara wasn't far behind him, so he'd hoped to get his confrontation with Bella and Edward out of the way before she arrived for her first day back at school since she shifted. He knew that she'd lose her shit and call Sam if she turned up and saw him antagonising Edward.

"Yeah. To visit my Mom, why?"

"He's checking to see if you're still human," Edward snarked, a small twitch at the corners of his mouth before Jacob turns back to Edward with his main intention in mind. The older Black twin hadn't came to have a friendly chat with the vampire, and Edward knew that.

He looked the vampire up and down, knowing fine well that Edward probably could take him in a fight. "I'm coming here to warn you. If your kind come on our land again..."

"Wait, what?"

The conversation paused as Jacob looked at Edward, amusement on his face as he realised that Edward had been hiding the encounter the previous night from Bella. He realised that this was a chance to cause a drift between the couple, thoughts of him and Bella storming his mind as he saw Edward tense.

"You didn't tell her?"

"Just leave it alone, Jacob."

"Tell me what?" Bella asked, turning to Edward in confusion.

"Emmett and Paul had a misunderstanding, there is nothing to worry about."

"It wasn't Paul and it wasn't a misunderstanding when he almost snapped her leg," Jacob growled before remembering that Sam had ordered him not to reveal that Kiara had shifted. Not that it mattered - Jacob could see by the way that Edward's eyes widened that he had seen it in his head now. "Listen to you. Did you lie to get her out of town, too?"

"You should leave. Now." 

"She has a right to know. She is the one the red-head wants." 

"Victoria?" Bella asked, the name sending a chill up Jacob's spine for a second as Bella and Edward began to argue between themselves. "Alices's vision. We're gonna talk about this, but... You. Why haven't you called me back?"

Across the parking lot, Bella and Kiara's friends were watching in anticipation. They'd known that Bella and Kiara's twin brother had a slight "will-they-won't-they" going on after the Cullen's had left town but now that Edward was back together with Bella, they were curious to see if a fight was about to break out in the car parking lot.

Jessica chuckled as Bella got on the back of the boy's motorbike, leaving Edward standing alone in the parking lot as he stared after them. All of the friends exchanged amused glances as he and his siblings brushed past them into the school building, the bell due to signal the start of the day at any moment.

Just as the bell echoed across the car park, Mike tugged at Eric's sleeve as his jaw dropped. They all turned to follow his line of sight, noticing the sight that had caused the boy to freeze in surprise.

It was a pretty beat up dirt bike, similar to that of Jacob's but definitely a little more derelict. While the bike stood out against the cars in Forks High parking lot, it was the girl that had just climbed off it, no helmet to be seen.

"Kiara's back."

____

Bella was back by the time lunch break rolled around. Jacob had taken her for a drive before dropping her back off at school and promising that he'd pick her up to finish their conversation. Edward had been delighted to hear Bella returning to school, surprised that she hadn't stayed at the reservation all day - although he knew that Charlie had spoken to Billy about how Jacob couldn't let Bella miss anymore school days after... Edward's disappearance.

Things had been going fine all morning for Kiara, who thankfully had no classes with the three Cullen's that remained in education despite her now knowing that they'd done high school numerous times over the years. That was, until Bella decided to sit with them again. Kiara hadn't realised that in her absence, the Cullens had begun sitting at her lunch table.

"My fellow students. We are the future. Anything is possible... ... If you just believe," Mike continued, listing off the notes that he had written for Jessica's speech. "Blah, blah, blah... Perfect. And got your self a speech."

Kiara snorted at that, noticing how Mike seemed delighted in himself for making the girl amused. Jessica rolled her eyes, knowing that Kiara never would have any interest in the boy and she almost thanked Kiara silently for that. They all said hello to Edward, Bella, Jasper and Alice as they joined them at the table, unaware of how Kiara had tensed a little.

They'd all believed her excuse of having mono for her absence, all of them minus Edward who had discovered the truth during his confrontation with her brother that morning. He hadn't had the chance to catch Alice and Jasper up with the information that he had learned about the girl, but it didn't matter because they could smell her as soon as they walked into the canteen. He'd shot them a look, a flurry of emotions coursing through them as they noticed his eye line had trailed to Kiara then back to Bella with a subtle shake of the head.

"No, this will be my speech. When I want everyone to throw diplomas at my head. So... Thank you," Jessica replied, taking the sheet of paper and throwing it back at him. Kiara smiled at her friends as she tried to ignore Alice's eyes that she could feel boring into her. She was well aware Jasper could feel her nerves - Sam having caught her up with the powers that some of the Cullens posessed. 

Her friends continued to joke about the valedictorian speech, but Kiara was overly aware of Edward now looking at her too. She looked up from her tray at him, something that didn't go unnoticed by Bella as the two seemed to stare each other down.

Stay out of my head, leech.

Edward almost flinched at the hatred behind her thought, not having expected Kiara to harbour such strong hatred towards them since she'd been so close to Rosalie and the others before they had been forced to leave town. He'd always had a pretty good relationship with Kiara but this was just a sign that things had certainly changed since he'd seen her last.

"Kiara, are you okay? You look like shit, girl," Eric noted, noticing how Kiara looked like she was in physical pain. Kiara nodded, even though Jasper could feel that something was making her feel like she was being crushed from the inside out. He'd never felt that before on a person - the closest was maybe only when Jane had used her powers on other vampires. That however was more of a sudden stab, whereas this was like a dull throb.

Bella opened her mouth to speak, but Alice had noticed the tension building between the two and acted quickly to draw attention away from them. There was something so unnerving about how they were glaring at each other that she knew humans would pick up on it easily too.

"I've decided to throw a party," Alice informed them all, instantly capturing the attention of the whole table. Jessica beamed instantly, the excitement of being able to see the Cullen's house bringing her a newfound sense of joy. 

"After all, how many times we gonna graduate high school?" Jasper replied, smiling a little as he sensed a slight flicker of entertainment from Kiara before she went back to being stoic with them. Jessica and the others just put it down as her being upset with them for leaving so suddenly, but it was no secret that everyone was thinking about her "not" relationship with the other Hale sibling. 

"I've never seen your house."

"No one's ever seen their house."

"Another party, Alice?" Edward questioned, having not realised she was being serious until he caught whiff of her thoughts about dress codes and invites and decorations. Jasper shrugged in response, knowing that there were precautions in place now. It wouldn't happen again. 

"It'll be fun."

"Yeah. That's what you said last time," Bella muttered, so quiet that only the vampires and Kiara were able to pick it up. The rest of the table looked convinced but Alice was aware that Kiara was not. She knew the treaty was in place, but Carlisle had always made it clear that he didn't mind exceptions to that when necessary - and Alice knew that a graduation party was a necessary exception from the rule.

"Oh come on, besides, you'll get to catch up with the others," Alice told them all, angling the remark as if it was for all of them but refusing to take her eyes off Kiara. It was like the rest of the table were waiting for the girl's seal of approval before agreeing to anything. "Emmett, Beverly and Rosalie will be there and I know you guys haven't seen them since they graduated last year!"

Rosalie.

Edward's head snapped to Kiara as the name instantly caused her to flinch. He furrowed his eyebrows for a second as the thoughts and memories of the night before came flying at him without warning, a breach of privacy that he didn't even intend to see. Kiara's head was screaming at her, and Edward was picking it all up like a broken satellite dish.

Everyone started to murmured agreements before the sound of Kiara's chair scraping across the ground caused the table to fall silent. The girl grabbed her bag from the floor, looking around in a hurry before muttering out an apology to the table.

"I need some air."

They all watched in confusion as she stormed off, Edward rising to his feet. Bella stood up too but Alice grasped on to her wrist, shaking her head and mouthing that she'd explain later but to let Edward go after the youngest Black child. Bella nodded slowly, unsure about that but watching as her boyfriend went after one of her closest friends.

"That was weird," Jessica spoke before turning back to the group. "So, dress code?"

_______

"It was you."

"Fuck off, Edward," Kiara snarled, her hands on her knees as she tried to regain her breath. She'd ran straight from the canteen into the forest that lined the side of the school, knowing that if she'd spent any more time in there she might have let her temper rise too much.

"You were the wolf Emmet hit," Edward muttered, not reacting as she spun around and threw her rucksack in his direction. He simply caught it in midair, before gently placing the back down at his feet. She heaved a little with anger as she looked at him, the dull throb a little more persistent now that she had been reminded of her imprint with Rosalie.

Shit, Kiara thought, noticing how Edward's eyes softened with an understanding. 

"You imprinted on her," Edward voiced out loud, although he knew it was unnecessary. Kiara had figured out that he'd heard her thoughts and the cat was out of the bag now. He hadn't been there when they'd lost trail of Victoria but he'd seen recaps of it in his siblings mind's and had noticed how the wolf that Emmet had attacked had stood shockingly still before being dragged away by the other wolf that he had recognised as Paul. 

"That's none of your business," Kiara spoke, but the anger was being replaced with unease as she realised that Edward knowing meant that Rosalie would eventually find out. Her original plan of avoiding her forever and never letting her find out about the imprint bond suddenly seemed impossible to put into motion.

Edward seemed to see this train of thought and instantly understood why she was in so much pain. She was attempting to reject the bond - something that he wasn't aware was possible. They'd learned about imprinting throughout the generations of the tribe wolves, but Kiara seemed to constantly be surprising their expectations of a typical shapeshifter. 

"She deserves to know," Edward told Kiara, realising that the terminology of words probably wasn't the best. Kiara snarled a little, taking a threatening step towards him with clenched fists.

"And I didn't deserve to know you were bloodsuckers?"

Edward didn't take offence to her words. He could hear that she didn't mean the phrase, that she didn't feel right calling them what her pack brothers called them. It was unnatural on her tongue and she hated how it felt as it rolled off. He knew that she was just trying to make this detachment easier for her - when it just seemed to be making her life worse.

"You know that wasn't our choice to make," Edward gently spoke, reminding her that it wasn't just his family that had hit the truth from her. In fact, Edward knew that it would be argued one day that her family had lied to her more by not informing her of what they were after exposing her to the supernatural lifestyle.

"And you think this is a choice?" Kiara replied, knowing that wasn't what he meant but twisting his words anyway. If she was going to lose an argument, she'd better have tried a little manipulation before accepting defeat. "If this was a choice, I'd turn it off. I'd make myself not feel this!"

"Not now," Edward suddenly spoke, louder than their conversation had been and causing Kiara to furrow her eyebrows in confusion. She'd been so engrossed in what he was saying that she hadn't noticed the sweet scent that had drifted into the clearing they were standing in.

"Kiara?"

The wolf spun around, her eyes instantly connecting with a set of golden ones and softening. Her chest clenched a little, the pain of the imprint flooding through her once more as she wished it away.

"Rose?"