A/N: Hi there everyone! I'm MacabreMystic, and I'm new to the Twilight Fanfiction scene. I just wanted to give a quick forward about this story.

The timeline is altered from the original story to better fit the narrative of this fanfiction. In this fic, Jacob has already started phasing before Edward left Bella. Bella and Jacob were already close friends before the story begins.

Also, I would like to give a quick shout-out to my best friend and beta reader, LittleDarlingDahlia. Do yourselves a favor and go check out her amazing Wolf-Pack stories!

Chapter One

Bella's POV:

He was gone in the blink of an eye, and my heart shattered. Tears welled up in my eyes and my legs started shaking.

The man I loved, who I had sacrificed everything for—nearly my very own life—told me that this relationship isn't worth it. He didn't want to turn me, and spend the rest of eternity at my side. I wasn't enough, and I never would be.

My knees buckled, and face-first first, I fell onto the muddy forest floor. I heard a crack, and felt warm, sticky, wetness flow down over my mouth and into the earth below me—my nose was probably broken, but I couldn't feel it. I was numb.

Edward didn't love me, and he left. The rest of his family—my family—were gone with him. They didn't love me either.

It was pathetic, really. The Cullens were all the family that I had. I barely saw my father, and I didn't talk to my mom much anymore since I left Arizona—since she won't answer the phone for me anymore.

As for friends, well, I stopped hanging out with the few friends I had before Edward whisked me away. And then there was Jacob.

Out of the blue, Jacob told me to stop coming to see him, and that we couldn't be friends anymore. I don't know what I did—was it something I said? It broke my heart. Edward leaving was just the final blow.

I was without Edward, I was without my family, and I was without my best friend in the whole world.

I had nothing left to lose.

I laid perfectly still, and gave the forest silent permission to claim my life, and then my corpse as its own.

—

Sam's POV:

Hikers were disappearing and being murdered around Forks, and I knew there were leeches behind all of it. I spent weeks patrolling the woods beyond La Push—I couldn't handle knowing that innocent people were in danger.

I was running through the woods just west of Forks when a breeze blew by, and my head snapped to attention.

Blood. Human blood. I could smell it as it pooled on the forest floor and sank into the earth. The smell was quickly followed by the overwhelming stench of bleach.

Vampire.

A snarl came tumbling out of my throat, and I ran, paws hitting the ground hard, earth flying up from underneath them as I followed the foul odor.

I burst through the tree-line and into a small clearing. I cocked my head to the side when I saw someone lying face down in the dirt. They were still breathing, conscious—reeking of despair and hopelessness. I didn't smell any venom, and I was relieved. I didn't have to take a life.

I quickly phased, slipping on the shorts I kept with me for when I became human again, and quickly made my way over to the crumpled heap of a human being.

It was a girl, probably in her late teens or early twenties. Her long, wavy brown hair covered her face. The dirt under her head was muddy with blood. I quickly scanned her for any visible injuries on the rest of her body before gently turning her over. I did a double take when I saw her face.

Bella Swan, the daughter of the chief of police—the leech-lover herself. This was the girl who Jacob never shut up about?

Leech-lover or not, I was concerned to find her in this state. Catatonic in the woods with a broken and very bloody nose.

"Bella, can you hear me?" He gave her shoulder a gentle push, trying to snap her out of whatever state she was in, "are you alright?" She opened her eyes and looked at me, and immediately I understood what Jacob saw in her.

Her chocolate brown eyes were captivating—albeit swimming with sadness. Doe-eyed and dainty. I immediately wanted to protect her. I knew that she had to be an imprint—Jacob was the only logical answer.

"He's gone," she whispered, almost inaudible to the human ear, "they're all gone." My eyebrows shot up.

"Who?" I asked, tilting my head to the side. She took a heaving breath.

"The Cullens." I blinked in surprise. That was good news, but the state this girl was in wasn't okay.

"Okay, Bella, I'm taking you home now. Where do you live?"

"Here," she whimpered, clutching the earth around her in fist-fulls. I sighed. This girl was beyond depressed—she was somewhere deeper—a place that wasn't going to be easy to pull her out from.

I gave her an incredulous look. I understood that she was sad, but this was ridiculous, and I had little to no patience for it.

"Bella, get up." She averted her gaze and her lip stuck out the tiniest bit. "Did you hear me?" Her eyes slipped back closed, and I sighed. As Alpha of my pack, I wasn't used to people not listening to me and her disobedience was getting under my skin. "I hate to give you tough love, but if you don't get up in the next two seconds I'm going to throw your ass over my shoulder and take you home whether you like it or not."

She still didn't move, so I rolled my eyes, and knelt down, got a good grip on her, and threw her tiny body over my shoulder effortlessly.

As soon as the shock of the sudden movement wore off, she began kicking and screaming like a banshee.

"NO!" She pounded her tiny fists against my back, trying to get me to let go of her, "leave me here, I have nothing left, leave me here!" I ignored her weak pleas and yelling, and began following her scent trail out of the woods, hoping it would lead me to her home.

Eventually, she went quiet and limp, the fight leaking out of her slowly but surely.

Once we exited the tree line, I saw a house with a police cruiser in the driveway, and instinctively knew this was where she lived. I brought us up the porch steps and laid her down on the bench out front, and knocked on the door. A few moments later, Charlie opened the door with a confused look on his face.

"Uley? What are you—" his query broke off when he noticed Bella lying limp and bleeding on the bench, hurrying to her side, "what—" I cut him off.

"I was out for a run in the woods, and I found her like this. She said something about the Cullen's leaving town." Charlie's face went blank.

"That boy left her in the woods like this? Did he hit her?" His brown eyes flashed with anger and fear. I cut him off.

"I don't think so. It looks like she fell." Charlie relaxed slightly, then looked back to his daughter.

"That's a relief," he murmured as he took in the blood steadily leaking down the side of Bella's face, "I need to get her to the doctor, have her nose looked at."

"I'll help you get her in the car." He nodded with a look of gratitude.

"Let me get my keys," he mumbled as he lumbered back into the house. I looked over to Bella, and I felt genuine pity and a flash of anger. What did the leech do to her, and how would I keep Jake from killing him?

Charlie came back and unlocked the car, and I sat Bella down in the front seat. Charlie thanked me.

"Do you need a ride or anything, Sam?" I shook my head no.

"I'm gonna finish up my run. Thank you though. I hope Bella feels better soon." Charlie nodded in acknowledgement, and I walked back to the woods as he drove off. I watched the cruiser drive down the lazy little street from the treeline and took a deep breath through my nose.

Bella felt like Jake's, and I had no idea how to broach the subject with him. I pondered what I should tell him as I slipped my shorts off and re-tied them around my ankle.

I made my decision as I phased back into my wolf, and ran towards home.

—

Charlie's POV:

Sam may have found her alive (thank goodness), but Bella was really bad off. She didn't respond to any questions directed at her, and barely reacted to having her nose reset and packed—only a small whimper of pain. I wasn't really sure what to do. I felt hopeless...and angry.

So many bad things were happening in the woods lately, and for Edward to bring her out there was strange. He had to know how dangerous it was out there—considering hikers were being murdered and going missing.

What did that boy do to my baby girl?

I clutched my cup of gross hospital coffee, only letting up my harsh grip when I heard the styrofoam crack.

The possibilities of what happened to my daughter were nearly endless...which is probably why they had me leave the examination room to wait while they tried to get to the bottom of what happened to my daughter.

My mind went to some dark, scary places about what could have happened to my her, but thankfully I was interrupted by the doctor clearing her throat to get my attention.

"Mr. Swan? We're finished with our examination. We didn't find any other injuries on her, so she wasn't assaulted in any way," I heaved a sigh of relief, thanking whatever deity that was in the sky for sparing my daughter physical pain or trauma, "but I'm rather concerned about her emotional state. I know grief presents itself in a variety of ways, but she seems to have shut down. She's clearly not a threat to anyone else, so I don't see why she can't go home. Please, keep a close eye on her." I nodded, thanked her, and shook her hand.

I made my way back into the examination room to get my daughter, and my heart sank when I looked at her.

Her face was bandaged, nostrils full of gauze, and she looked miserable and limp, slumped over in a wheelchair.

Not knowing what to do or say, I just straightened her out in the chair, and began wheeling her out of the hospital and to the cruiser. I loaded her up and buckled her in, shutting the door carefully and wheeling the chair back to the entrance of the hospital. I walked back to the car, hands in my pockets, extremely unsure of what to do.

I still couldn't think of what to say as I drove us home, hands clutching at the wheel so hard my knuckles were white. I wasn't very good at talking about feelings, and while I loved my daughter, we weren't as close as I wished we were. Renee took her away as an infant, and I only saw her over her summer break. I was hoping we'd finally get a chance to really bond when she came to live with me, but she was withdrawn, and she immediately got whisked up by the Cullens, and that Edward boy.

Something about him never quite sat right with me. Bella acted like he hung the moon and stars, and didn't really do much else than follow after him like a lovesick puppy. She dropped her interests and just did whatever he did, and that worried me. And now she was...this. Maybe a few days to mope would help her out?

I unclenched my hands from the wheel as soon as I pulled into the driveway, and I turned to look at my daughter. She had shrunk into herself, her head resting against the passenger-side window. She looked even smaller like this. I cleared my throat awkwardly.

"I'm sorry, Bella." No reaction. It was like I said nothing at all. I shook my head, then got out of the car and managed to get her into the house without breaking my back; I'm not as young as I once was, after all.

I hauled her up the steps and got her into bed. I took her shoes off and tucked her in, unsure of what else to do. I made my way back downstairs and made her a simple ham and cheese sandwich and a bottle of water.

I brought the food and water upstairs to her room, and sat it all on her bedside table. Looking at her again made my heart hurt. This just wasn't my Bella.

She was asleep, but I could tell that it was already fitful. She twitched, eyes restless beneath her eyelids, mumbling under her breath about Edward.

I leaned down and kissed her forehead. She relaxed for a moment, then resumed the mumbling and movements. I sighed, and left the room, leaving the door open and hallway light on for her, like I did when she was little and came to visit for the summer.

I was too worried to sleep, so I went downstairs to the fridge and cracked open a cold one, taking a deep drink of it before I plopped down on my easy chair, and turned on some mindless television. It was going to be a long night.

I grabbed my six pack of beer and settled into my easy chair, and turned on the game as I tried to relax.

By the time the game was nearly through, I had finished half the pack. I was opening up another can when Bella woke up screaming.

—

Jacob's POV:

I was kicked back on the couch with my dad, watching some mindless television when I heard Sam's howl from outside my house. I hesitated, not really wanting to get up. I was having a good time watching a dumb cowboys and Indians movie and making fun of the blatant racism of it, and I was tired from patrolling all day. The hikers going missing and dying had us all working overtime, trying to find the leeches responsible for it. Dad nudged me, leveling me with a no-nonsense look.

"Duty calls, son." I groaned, rolling my eyes and him and got up off of the couch, lumbering to the door. I opened it with a huff, coming face to face with a now-human Sam.

"You rang?" Sam rolled his eyes at me, and gestured for me to follow him. I furrowed my brow in confusion. Going on a walk with Sam was never a sign of good news, but I followed him into the woods-he was the Alpha after all...something I was happy not to not have to be.

We walked in silence, the only sounds being the crunching of twigs and leaves until we got to the clearing where we all typically shifted in before we went on patrol. He cleared his throat, and took a deep breath. It dawned on me that he was nervous to talk to me about whatever this was, and my confusion only grew.

"I'm gonna keep it real with you, Jake. I think Bella is your imprint." My eyes widened. I'd been crushing on Bella for a small eternity, always looking forward to the summer, when she'd come to visit Charlie and I'd get to hang out with her. When she moved up here, I was ecstatic. I was her only friend her for awhile so I had unlimited time with her. But then Fuckward showed up and swept her off her feet. She still made time for me, but then I phased. I was hoping to have that she would be my imprint, but Sam said it was too much of a risk to be around her, due to her leech affiliation. I had to tell her not to come here anymore. I couldn't look her in the eye when I told her she had to leave and never come back.

Hearing her cry and stumble back to her truck nearly killed me. I shook the thought from my head and looked to Sam.

"Why would you think that? I haven't seen her in months, not since you told me to tell her to stop coming here." Sam let out a huff, and looked me in the eye.

"I was on patrol, and I found her face-down and bleeding in the woods," dread filled my gut, and I felt my wolf clawing at me to let it out-to tear apart anyone who dared lay a hand on her, but Sam continued.

"She's okay, other than a broken nose. The overgrown tick dumped her, and she fell, broke her nose...I brought her to Charlie, she's safe," he trailed off for a moment, clearly choosing his words carefully, "I looked at her, and immediately wanted to protect her...like a brother would a sister, kind of how we all feel about Kim, and how how you all feel about Emily. She just...she felt like you. It was strange," he trailed off and wet his lips, looking down at his feet, "I'm not going to lie to you though, Jake, she's not doing well emotionally," I opened my mouth to tell him I was going to go to her, but Sam lifted a hand as if to stop me.

"I think she needs some time, Jake. She needs to heal. Give her a few days."

My wolf was whining at this point, clawing at me and demanding that we go to her, but Sam was right, she needed time—as much as I hated not going to her at all, I needed to stay away-even if I was curious to look her in the eyes and see if she really was mine, but I'd already hurt her enough.

Going to her now would only make things worse.