Squeezing her eyes together tightly, Keegan buried her face into the crook of her partner's shoulder, his leather jacket cool against her heated cheeks.

She could still feel the momentum of the Jeep and knew that Rowan had to be tearing away from the reserve. She just hoped he wasn't leaving Bella behind. Weird disabling wolf magic or not, they had promised to look out for her and she wasn't one to break a promise.

"Bella?" Keegan asked, her voice muffled but it seemed that her partner had no trouble understanding what she asked.

"She's still behind us. That rubbish truck is surprisingly swift it seems." He assured her and she further relaxed against him.

It was only when they just reached the border between the reservation and Forks that Rowan slowed the vehicle down. By the way he tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, Keegan could tell that the last thing her friend wanted to do was stop and wait so close to the pack.

Luckily, Edward was already waiting for them as well.

"Eddie doesn't look too pleased, but he also doesn't seem like he's going to rip Bella limb from limb..." Rowan muttered, more to himself as if he was thinking aloud than anything else.

After only a few more seconds of waiting, Rowan finally spoke up loudly inside the vehicle.

"Thanks for the wheels, Fangs." He stated before the tires were spinning and Rowan was whipping the Jeep onto the road once more.

Keegan could already feel her phone buzzing like crazy in her pocket.

"What are we doing, Ro?" She asked softly, finally peeking out of the sanctuary that she had found in being tucked against him, hidden from the world.

"We're getting away from here. We can't leave yet, not with all the newborns still in Seattle, but I can't stand another night in the Vamp's den and you... we just need to be further away from this fucking place." Rowan reasoned, shaking his head as Keegan finally sat fully upright.

"Are you going to tell me what all of that was?" She asked him, rubbing the heel of her hand against her chest where it still felt as if a large hole had been violently stamped through it.

"I only know what I can deduce and what I overheard, Key, but we were right about them keeping something from us and this something was big." Rowan spat, obviously still pissed about the wolves' secrecy.

Sighing softly, Keegan nodded her agreement as she gazed at the Washington forests flying by as Rowan drove, still not paying much mind to the local speed limit.

"Whatever it is, I can take it, Rowan." She told him after a few moments of silence stretched between them.

"I know you can, Keegan. I just wish you didn't have to." Rowan replied, wrapping one of his large lithe hands around hers now that she wasn't leaning against him as fully. He gave her hand a gentle one-two squeeze and Keegan reflexively returned the gesture.

"I promise I will tell you. Just... let me get you somewhere else, okay? I just need us to be somewhere else." Rowan requested and Keegan considered her friend for a long moment before nodding.

"Alright, Ro. Take us where we need to go."

And just like that, without fear nor hesitation, Keegan put complete trust in her partner and leaned her head back against the passenger seat back, letting her eyes fall shut as she pushed back against the breathlessness she had been battling since Rowan had first pulled her away on the beach.

Before they stopped, Keegan spotted a city sign that read, 'Port Angeles.'

As it turned out, it was a larger town that was definitely bigger than Forks but also most definitely smaller than Seattle.

Rowan guided the 'borrowed' Jeep into the parking lot of one of the first brand-name chain hotels they spotted, the logo being familiar enough that they didn't completely fear being stuck in a shitty room for the night.

Besides, it wasn't as if the two of them hadn't slept in worse.

"Sit tight, love." Rowan requested before he climbed out of the vehicle and made his way into the lobby of the hotel.

For a moment, Keegan considered chasing after him and beating him upside the head with her sword. She hated being coddled and that was what Rowan seemed to be dead set on doing.

However, she couldn't bring herself to be mean enough to reject his protective gestures. It was obvious that her partner was shaken up, that whatever he heard on the beach and whatever it was that she felt was big enough that it had him in full-blown guardian mode. He had even turned her cellphone off after the various calls would not stop coming in.

Only because she loved and trusted him would she accept his coddling behavior, especially if it helped soothe his soul and his nerves.

"Third floor," Rowan announced once he had pulled the driver's side door open and plopped himself back down inside the car.

"High enough where only the supernatural should be climbing through the windows, and not if they don't want to raise any suspicions, but low enough that the stairwell can still make for a fairly quick escape," Keegan said, her training causing her to list off the merits of his choice as if he had outright asked her.

"Exactly right, love." Rowan praised.

They were both used to the routine that came with being at the peak of their training years. It was on them to keep one another sharp. If Rowan had poorly selected a room then Keegan would have been just as quick to list of the downsides of his decision as well.

With no luggage and no reason to dawdle, Keegan and Rowan were soon stepping into their room for the night.

The single queen bed was of no concern to the woman as she knew it was less attention-catching than if he was to order a double when it was just himself checking in, or even if they had come in together.

No one questioned a young couple rooming together, but more people became interested at a mixed-sex pair rooming together who were seemingly not related nor involved.

Humans were nosey, that was a fact.

"Do you think you want to take a shower first or-" Rowan began to ask but Keegan cut him off, knowing stalling from the man when she saw it.

"Sit, Rowan. Sit and tell me why it feels like my heart is actually compressing my lungs." She commanded, trying to keep an impatient bite from her tone as she pointed firmly at the bed.

It was only once her partner gave a resigned sigh and took the time to remove his boots before crawling up the bed to lean against the headboard that Keegan did the same.

Once they were settled, half-facing one another with one of Keegan's outstretched legs propped on top of Rowan's, both of her hands wrapped in one of his this time, Keegan looked at Rowan expectantly.

He blinked at her once, then twice, then began to speak without any more build-up.

"From my understanding, the shapeshifters have something similar to our True Partners." Rowan began and when Keegan already went to ask him a question, he held up a hand to silence her.

"Please, Key. I just need to get this all out at once."

Conceding, albeit hesitantly, Keegan pressed her lips together and nodded.

"They have a bond-link that forms upon eye contact... and much like with True Partners, once it's formed, it didn't sound like it's something that goes away. They call it imprinting, like ducklings on their mother for fuck's sake. Definitely doesn't sound manipulative as hell or anything." Rowan scoffed then pressed his lips together tightly, seeming to catch himself ranting and so he took a moment to gather himself once again. "They tell themselves that it's the same as soulmates, love at first sight but more powerful. Apparently... well, it sounded like it's not something that people resist. The devotion is apparently hard to ignore or put aside."

"Emily is-"

"Sam's imprint, yeah. That's what it sounded like."

"And he still-"

"Doesn't seem like they always have the most control over themselves."

Nodding to herself, Keegan worked to beat the new information into something that she could wrap her mind around when suddenly another puzzle piece clicked into place.

"The Third Wife." She gasped, looking at Rowan with wide eyes.

Her partner's expression seemed to darken by the second.

"That would... well, it would make sense why they told that story that night." He said slowly and Keegan swallowed hard.

Tugging on of her hands from her friend's grasp, Keegan pushed her palm firmly against her breastbone, covering where it felt like a deep ache had settled within her. Almost ironically, it was much like the gesture that partners-in-training and True Partners made to one another where they covered their heart with their hand, holding eye contact until dropping their arms as one.

"And I am..." She trailed off, not even being able to complete the thought. It was outrageous to even consider. She had been preparing her entire life to bond herself, not necessarily romantically, to one person and that person was the man sitting across from her who somehow had both anger and concern battling behind his eyes. Not a shapeshifter she had just met... no matter how his voice echoed inside her head, the memory of it nearly sending goosebumps up her arms.

"The silver wolf thinks you are, but it's just magic, Keegan- and magic has rules. They can't just force this on you!" Rowan growled out and as it was second nature for her to do so, Keegan reached out to lay her other palm gently against his cheek to soothe him.

"It feels like they can, Rowan. I feel it, deep in here." Keegan told her partner, trying to not let her voice waver as she shifted the hand that was on her chest.

She was being torn in half.

One part of her wanted to high-tail it out of America as a whole and take refuge on her family's compound with Rowan until they completed their ceremony together like they were always supposed to.

Another part of her, one she feared wasn't truly her own thoughts and desires, wanted her to get back in the Jeep and drive straight to La Push and to the shifter than she knew (why did she know? how did she know?) waited for her there. He was waiting and would explain everything. He would ease the ache in her heart, in her bones, because he could. He was made for her.

"What do I do, Rowan?" She asked, raising her eyes to meet his just before he tugged her hand from her chest to place it against his over his heart, the thumping of his pulse faster than usual but still comforting under her fingertips.

"What do we do, Keegan. There's never an I with us." He corrected, pressing her hand a bit more firmly against the fabric of his thin t-shirt. "We'll figure this out. We can call my father. We can hunt in Seattle and request back up for the shifters."

"We can't bring the Council down on the pack, Rowan. They haven't done anything wrong!" Keegan protested, trying to pull her hand away from him now but he held fast.

"They bound you with magic without your permission, Keegan! That's something wrong!" Rowan shot back but Keegan continued to shake her head at his claim.

"Maybe they did, but it didn't sound like they realized they were doing it. It sounded like a random shapeshifter thing, we don't know..." Her rampant word vomit of defense for the wolves came to a dwindling halt as she trailed off in thought.

"We don't know. Ro, we don't know anything about their imprinting, or their pack life, or their anything still. We don't know what they know about the supernatural outside of themselves. We don't know if they have malicious intent. I mean, they had never even heard of hunters before us and it seemed like most of them didn't know about vampires until the Cullens returned to this area." Keegan reminded her partner who was looking at her through slightly narrowed eyes.

"Rowan, we need to know." She declared finally and the expected protest was immediate.

"The fuck we do." Rowan spat, bristling like a cat whose tail had been trodden on.

"Rowan, gathering information is what we do." Keegan reminded him but he shook his head.

"Fuck that, not when it puts you in danger." He refused, but she wasn't letting up.

"We're always in danger, Rowan. You know I can protect myself-" She protested but Rowan cut over her.

"If he was going to be coming at you with teeth and claws or even a fucking sword then I would agree, Keegan but he's not. He thinks that... that he has some kind of wolfy claim to your life and heart and soul and he fucking doesn't. He doesn't, but he's going to use that and the magic that he bound you with to... This is a different kind of danger, Keegan." Rowan ranted, nearly whispering the last few words.

Leaning forward, Keegan cupped her partner's face between the palms of her hands and bent until their foreheads were lightly touching, their eyes still on one another.

"We need answers before we make that call, Rowan. I could never live with myself if we called your father and the Council acted without doing their due diligence. It's happened before and... I can't have that hanging over either one of us." She said softly, knowing she had won the argument when more than a couple of heartbeats had passed between them without Rowan responding.

Rowan was quick to have a biting word falling from his tongue and he was also quick to make up his mind.

"We need to prepare... and differently than we ever have before. This... this is going to be a new kind of fight, Keegan." Rowan said solemnly, leaning back so that he could fully look at his partner once more.

"I know, and I know that with you by my side, we can do this."