EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you have read this story through before this update, PLEASE go back and read Chapter 6! I made a very important revision that is crucial to what plays out in this chapter. Please and thank you!

S/O to my lovely reviewers for this last chapter: Roc2Roll, MeganRosey123 and Jenn! This chapter, however, is dedicated to Jenn, who posted an extremely insightful and helpful review! I appreciate your critiques!

I'm opened, You're closed

Where I follow, You'll go

I worry I won't see your face

Light up again.

Even the best fall down sometimes,

Even the wrong words seem to rhyme.

Out of the doubt that fills my mind,

I somehow find.

You and I collide.

- Collide (Acoustic Version), Howie Day

You know the little moments in life when you close your eyes and know that, in that moment, you couldn't be more happy?

Well this was one of those moments. As I was shutting my eyes, I saw a blur out of my peripheral vision. Before I could scream, I was knocked off Yana.

Chapter 19

I saw the trees overhead sharpen and blur as I was whacked off Yana's back. I landed on the ground and rolled a couple of times. As I was finally stopped by a tree, my arm flew out and hit the trunk. I felt shooting pain up and down my right arm, and when I glanced over at it, I noticed my wrist hanging at a funny angle.

"Great." I griped. "How am I supposed to explain this? Another tree-climbing incident gone wrong?" I shook my head to clear it, and slowly sat up, cradling my hurt wrist. I suddenly remembered what happened, and my eyes anxiously searched the forest, looking for Yana.

He was lying about 9 or 10 feet away from me. I could see his form heaving as he struggled to get air. I got up and ran over as fast as I could, holding my arm close.

When I got to him, I let my legs sink as I knelt down to examine his injuries. I couldn't see much outside damage, just some blood on his muzzle and face where it had been scratched from the forest floor. But when I pressed on his ribs, he looked at me and let out a snarl. One of his ribs must've been broken. Great. I'm going to have to have to explain to his father how I knew about the whole "bear" thing in the first place. I'm pretty sure outsiders aren't supposed to know. This could get tricky . . .

I rubbed his head, "Jeez Yana, why do you always have to get us into trouble?"

Yana snorted. But he suddenly stopped and jerked his head up. I could see his eyes scanning the woods around us. I heard some rustling behind the trees. A twig snapped. And out of the brush, walked a wolf.

My wolf. It was Jacob.

My knees quivered, and I couldn't hold myself up. I felt my butt hit the ground, and for a minute I couldn't breathe. A million questions ran through my head. How did you get here? How long did you run? It must've taken days to get here!

Damn, Jacob. Why do you always have to do this to me?

Jacob started to move towards me. I could hear Yana growling behind my back, but I ignored him. My eyes were absolutely fixed on Jacob's. Legs shaking, I slowly managed to get on my feet. By that point, he was about five feet away. I was about to close this silly gap between us when Yana came up from behind me and knocked me rather unceremoniously to the ground. I just could not catch a break today.

I looked up to see both Jacob and Yana snarling at each other, eyes locked. I looked on in horror as they started to lunge at each other. I scrambled up from the forest floor and threw myself in between them.

"STOP IT! Guys, please stop! JAKE! YANA!" I pushed at their chests, trying to separate them. After a few seconds, realizing that there was a very human girl in the middle of them, they managed to quit clawing at each other and stepped back. Although I could feel them both shaking like crazy.

I turned to Yana first. "Please, please, please Yana. I know I ask you to do so much for me, but could you please go behind that tree over there and phase back to your normal self. I'm going to be okay with Jacob, alright? Pinky swear."

He looked at me hard for a really long time. Sighing, he raised one of his paws up, and I linked my pinky finger with one of his claws. "Thank you."

He rambled back behind a tree and did . . . well you know.

I turned to Jacob, and his eyes immediately caught mine. His eyes were a swirl of pain, anger, confusion, and oddly enough, relief. I knelt down, my hands reaching out to him and latched on to the fur on either side of his face. He nuzzled into my right hand. "Jacob. Jake. I know you're probably still angry with me, and you don't want to let me out of your sight, but I need you to phase back too. I need to talk to a person, not a wolf. Okay?"

I started to get lost in his eyes again. Just before I was gone for good, he wriggled out of my grasp and trotted over to a nearby pine tree. By then, Yana had come back. I sat back down and brought my knees to my chest. He knelt beside me and grabbed my shoulders.

"Ce, are you okay? Any damage?" By then, my wrist was starting to swell. He cradled it in his hands. "I need to get you to a hospital."

"She's not going anywhere without me."

I whipped my head around, and was faced with Jacob not two feet away from me. Damn boy must have snuck up behind us. "Jacob." I let out air I had been holding in since the day of our fight. I quickly closed the space between us and enveloped him in the most ferocious hug I could muster. I could feel his body flinch in surprise, then swiftly tighten around mine. And, like that, all of the aching in my muscles over the past week vanished. Even my black and blue wrist quit screaming out in pain.

I looked up at his face for a minute. I re-memorized his features, taking in all the little things that had faded over the past week. Is this what I let go because I just wanted to have fun? Because I was scared? Because I couldn't trust him? He ran, most likely nonstop, for days. Just to bring me back. Just to know that I was safe.

Right now, this was enough for me. He was enough for me.

"Why did you come?" I had to know.

He looked at me in disbelief. He slid my hands into his. "I couldn't let you stay mad at me for another day. I had to let you know sorry I am."

Jake pressed his lips against mine, pushing all of his emotions out onto me. The hurt, the anger, and an overwhelming sense of longing. I felt them all. I unwillingly broke it off, and glanced over towards Yana. He had a look on his face that I couldn't distinguish.

"Come on Ce, let's get you to your mom. You need to get your wrist checked out."

Jake grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him, "I don't know who you are, and I don't want her going anywhere with you."

"Jacob, Yana is one of my closest friends! We've known each other since we were seven!" I admonished.

Jake turned to me and cupped my face in his hands, "Cecily, I can take you to the hospital, and then take you home. I just got you back."

Yana stepped toward us, anger flashing in his eyes, "Yeah, what did happen between you two? When Cecily came today, she reeked of alcohol."

I whipped my head over to him. He shrugged, "Ce, we've known each other for a while. And you're not as good at hiding it as you think you are."

Yana continued, "Obviously, she's been drinking herself silly for the past week. Now I'm going to ask again. What did you do to her?"

Jacob's whole body stiffened. "I don't need to explain myself to you." He grabbed my arm and tried to lead me away.

Yana pulled at Jake's shoulder so he was now facing him, "Like hell you don't". I watched in horror as his fist connected with Jake's nose.

And the fighting began again.

Once again, I had to get between them. "Yana, stop it! I love him!"

Well, they certainly stopped. Both of them looked over at me in shock.

Jacob grabbed either side of my face, and pulled me close, "What did you say?"

I looked up at him, and gave up a little half-smile, "I love you."

His mouth dropped into an "O", and I was soon enveloped in two strong arms, my feet dangling a foot of the ground. "I love you too, Cecily. I love you too." He put his hands on my waist, and spun me around.

My surprised squeal soon turned into a painful yelp. My wrist was starting to throb again. Jake set me down and placed my fractured bone in his hands. "I think it's broken." I stated.

Yana and Jake glared at each other. I sighed. I guess it was up to me to make a decision.

"Jake, I think it's gonna be up to Yana and I to deal with this." Jake whipped his head over to me. "In fact, you probably need to stay hidden for now." He looked hurt. "We're flying back tomorrow! We'll be together soon, I promise."

He still didn't seem convinced. I pulled him in softly, and sealed my words with the most heartfelt kiss I could muster. "But I have to go for now."

I saw Yana break out into a grin. "Yana, wipe that silly smirk off your face." I turned to face both of them. "Look, y'all need to learn to get along. I can't have my best guy friend and my boyfriend always mad at each other. Y'all cool with that?"

Jake drew me into him, both of us facing Yana. He held me close, resting his chin on the top of my head. The two boys stared at each other for a long time, facing-off silently.

Finally, Jake released his grip on me and walked over to Yana, his hand outstretched. "If you're important to Cecily, then you're important to me. Besides, my pack could always use a friend that's like us. Truce?"

Yana looked warily at his opponent's hand for a moment, then gladly met it. "Truce. I have some questions for you, anyways. About shifting and all that. Mind if we talk?"

Jake stiffly nodded. "Sure man. What do you want to know?"

"Um, guys?" They both looked over at me.

"Not that I'm not thrilled that y'all are burying the proverbial hatchet, but . . . broken wrist here?"

Jacob blushed. "Oh, right. Sorry Ce." He turned to Yana, "Why don't you give me your number and we can talk once I get back home?"

Yana gave his approval, and they exchanged numbers.

"So . . . who wants to shift and take me back to the powwow? . . . Don't all volunteer at once."

I ended up riding back to the bonfire on Jacob's back. It felt so good to be this close to him again. I leaned down on his back, burying the side of my face into his fur.

I finally felt warm again.