Disclaimer: I don't own these characters - if only...

Nayeli's POV

Okay so here's the thing, I know that Jake never fully got over Bella. I'm a girl, we can sense these things. It's in the way his gaze sometimes becomes so distant when he sees something that reminds him of her, in the way he sometimes falls silent and won't tell me what he's thinking about. But he had also accepted the inevitable fact that she would never be his, and made a conscious decision to let go of the future he had previously imagined with her. I made sure of that before I let myself fall for him. We had a chat about it at the inter-tribal dance.

Flashback

I was dancing with Zach, one of the guys from my pack when Jacob tapped him on the shoulder and asked to cut in. Since Jacob was at least 3 inches taller than him and out-ranked him in every way, Zach nodded and handed me over immediately. I thought about protesting – I wanted some say in the matter – but somehow it felt good to have Jake's arms wrapped around me, secure, safe. The bonfire cast light gently around us, the sounds of the forest blending in with the music to make me feel perfectly safe and at home.

When the song ended he took my hand and led me to sit on a log by the bonfire with him, roasting marshmallows. Smores should be their own food group. Enough said. I'm a pretty direct person. I won't lie; I am used to getting my own way. It goes with the territory of being the oldest in the family and being the alpha of the pack. So I tend to tackle things head on.

"Okay. Spill. Everyone says you've got an imprint." Everyone around me had been buzzing about it all night – I was the first girl Jake had shown any interest in since Bella chose that leech Edward, she was his imprint, he must feel like he was cheating on her by spending time with me. The gossip mills were running on overdrive.

"Yeah." He scratched at the ground with a stick, frowning at the thought of her. His answer was completely unsatisfactory though. I needed some answers if I was gonna let myself fall for this guy. Although part of me was pretty sure I was falling too fast to stop myself anyway. Not that I would let him see it. Instead I kept pressing for an honest response from him.

"You're acting like you're interested in me…how is that even possible if you have an imprint? You shouldn't be able to be into anyone except her." He just grinned at me.

"And this coming from the girl who's been acting like I didn't stand a chance." I shrugged and smiled back at him. I was the alpha of my own pack; it wasn't like I was starved for attention. There were plenty of guys who would kill to get a chance to date me; I didn't need one more on my list. I would be fine regardless of how Jake felt about me.

"Don't let it go to your head, I'm not interested in you, I'm just curious about the way you're behaving." Lies. Blatant lies. But hopefully he wouldn't see through them. It did get his attention though; he turned his head to look me directly in the eyes, his face moving closer so that he was only a few inches away from me.

"Not interested huh? So your heart always beats this fast? And that would be sunburn making its way up your face, not you blushing by any means." He actually stuck out his tongue at me. It's like he's mischief personified. He's so gorgeous. I looked down; trying to avoid his eyes, but all I could see was how strong and well-toned his arms were. I elbowed him to diffuse the tension, hard.

"Just answer my question." Seriously, what is it about Jake that makes it so hard for me to keep my cool? I mean other than his obvious physical perfection of course. He looked me in the eye and finally gave me the answer I wanted.

"Yeah, I have an imprint. Her name is Bella. And she chose to marry a blood-sucking leech instead of choosing me. It was a while ago. And I think the reason I'm able to feel so strongly attracted to you may be because she broke my heart so badly that she actually damaged the imprint. It may also be an Alpha thing – I have to continue the Alpha bloodline so maybe part of that is that if the imprint is not going to be an option I'm programmed to be able to find someone else. I'm not sure. It's just speculation. Either way, Bella made a clear choice and it's been a couple of years since she left – I made a conscious decision to let her go and move on with my life. Even if she came back begging me to get back together with her now, I would say no. No matter what." I nodded slowly as I processed his response.

"Okay." He shot me a quizzical glance and replied,

"Okay, what?"

"Okay that's a satisfactory answer." I grinned at him and jumped up, waltzing over to one of the other guys in my pack, tossing Jake only a quick over the shoulder smile as I walked away.

That answer did tell me what I needed to know though, and it started the foundation of trust that we build our relationship on. I knew he would always have feelings for her, but he had chosen to move on. That was what matter. That's the only reason I agreed to date him. And until she came back, that had been enough. Now, I wasn't so sure.

Jacob POV

My favorite thing about Nayeli was her unshakeable confidence. She knew I had a past, but it never seemed to bother her, she just accepted me as I was and assumed I was into her. Which made her that much more irresistible. To me, and to every other man she encountered. I couldn't walk down the street without some random guy trying to make a move on her, even right in front of me. It made me feel awesome to be the one she was giving her attention to. Not to mention that she was absolutely beautiful.

After that one conversation at the inter-tribal dance about Bella, she never brought her up again, never questioned it when I withdrew sometimes, she allowed me to be completely myself and did not try to change me. It allowed me to be completely honest with her in regards to everything we did discuss. Although my pack had a direct line into my thoughts, Nayeli was the one who had access to the thoughts I only allowed myself to open up when I was in human form. She was the one I shared with about my hopes and dreams for the future, where I saw the future of our tribe heading. She came from such a similar background to me, and as the alpha of her own pack, she understood the responsibilities that went alongside my position. Things with her were just so comfortable.

But the truth was that there was still a significant chunk of my heart that felt like I was cheating on Bella. There would always be a part of me that still loved her. There would always be a piece of me that was imprinted on Bella, and as much as I tried to convince myself it was broken, the truth was that it was more like a piece of string, frayed down to its last thread, but stubbornly resistant to being completely destroyed. I had done everything to break that connection, but it was still there, and it would probably always be there.

Bella POV

I walked into the staff room at the school today to the sound of silence as everyone realized I was the one who had just entered. They had been talking about me, and I assumed it was something to do with Jake. I sat down and tried to make conversation, but of course all they wanted to talk about was him. So much for trying not to think about him. Questions came at me from all sides as all the female teachers my age surrounded me. I was the only teacher who was not part of the tribe so I was a novelty at their school to begin with, but my history as the girl Jake had loved was fascinating to them.

"Do you miss Jake?" "Are you here to try to win him back?" "How do you feel about Jake having a girlfriend who isn't you?" Their questions spun around me. I tried to answer the first couple by just shaking my head and asserting that I was only here to get my own life back on track, that it wasn't anything to do with Jake. But when someone mentioned that he had a girlfriend I felt the room start to turn in circles, my mind started to grey over and I felt queasy. I took deep breaths to settle myself. I had coped this long without Jake, I could continue to survive. And I still was not strong enough to have in him my life again anyway. I had to follow through on my plan to learn to stand on my own feet before I could let myself even consider trying to talk to Jake again.

That conversation was what triggered my first panic attack since I had returned to Forks though. It pushed my already frayed nerves to their limit. I managed to drive halfway home before I found myself struggling to breathe, hyperventilating and unable to drive any further without crashing. I pulled over and got out of the car to sit on the edge of the narrow, curving road, gasping for air. It was all too much. I had known at the back of my mind that Jake had probably moved on, but hearing it spoken out loud made it real. Although I had always told myself I was not going to let myself depend on a man anymore, part of me thought that when I really needed him, Jake would just turn up like he always had in the past.

As I sat on the edge of the road for the next half hour calming myself and no Jake appeared to rescue me though, I finally let go of the hope that he would welcome me back with open arms. I had pushed Jake too far, it was completely selfish of me to hope that he would just come running to reassert our relationship now that I was back in Forks. I should just be happy for him, he had moved on. Good for him.

Eventually I did hear someone honking at me as they pulled over to check that I was okay. It was Seth.

"Need a ride Bella?" He had grown up so much since the last time I saw him. He was taller than me by quite a bit now, and he had filled out. He reminded me in some ways of how Jake used to be, before everything had gone haywire. The panic attack had left me shaking and weak, I could come back to get my car later. For now talking to someone actually sounded kinda great.

"Yeah." I climbed in the passenger seat and clicked in my seatbelt. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, the silence was suddenly tense and oppressive.

"You okay?" He looked at me and for a minute it felt like he could see straight into my mind, that he could understand the turmoil I was in. The compassion in his eyes nearly undid me completely.

"I just found out that Jake has a girlfriend, it kinda shook me up. Stupid I know, I should have realised he would have moved on." Seth turned back to the road and nodded slowly.

"Yeah, he has moved on. But it wasn't easy for him. He really did love you Bella." I looked over to see him grimace.

"I loved him too. I just realized it too late. I'm not here to cause any trouble though Seth, honestly. I'm just tryna get my life back on track, trying to finally learn how to be strong and stand on my own feet instead of depending on other people to keep me emotionally healthy."

"That's good. You really were a mess before. I mean don't get me wrong, we all loved you to pieces, but we didn't think you were healthy for Jake with the state you were in - he needed someone who was strong enough to guide the pack with him, not someone who he had to keep rescuing. And I think he's found that in Nayeli, his new girl." I had come to realise the truth of this statement myself, but to hear that everyone else had been thinking it about me still stung. Especially coming from Seth who I had always been close to.I had to ask the question I was scared to know the answer to though,

"Is he happy?" Seth paused for a while before he answered, looking out at the road as if he was thinking hard about his response. When he did reply it was slow and uncertain.

"Yeah...I think he is."

"Well that's good for him." I couldn't keep the slight undercurrent of bitterness and pain out of my voice. Seth smiled at me in understanding, then asked,

"Bella why did you really leave Edward?" I sighed, I had known this question would come up soon enough.

"It wasn't a healthy marriage. I had a miscarriage early on and Edward got really overprotective and controlling. I lost my identity. I left him because I needed to completely rebuild myself from the ground up, and I knew I wouldn't be able to do that if I stayed with him." Seth nodded and sized me up as if decided how much to tell me in response to my admission.

"Damn. Okay. Bella I'm gonna tell you some things you're gonna need to understand if you're gonna stick around here. Even if Jake didn't have a girlfriend, he wouldn't have just jumped back into a relationship with you. You would have had to prove that you had changed before he would be able to trust you with his heart again. You would have had to gain his trust back slowly over time. You broke his heart when you chose Edward and not in a way that was easily repairable. He's never going to let himself solely act on his feelings again. I just think you should know that." I got the feeling Seth knew a lot more about how deep my feelings for Jake went than I was telling him. I wasn't sure how, but I didn't want him running back to Jake and telling him I was still hung up on him. I had too much pride for that to happen.

"I'm not here to try to get back together with Jake. I promise I don't want to make his life any harder than I have already made it. I do miss his friendship a lot though. I think I always will. And he'll never know how much I regret choosing Edward over him." I stared out the window as I spoke, not wanting Seth to see the tears pooling in my eyes involuntarily.

"Well. Its good that you realize it now. And Bella, I have a lot of respect for you for choosing to leave Edward. And for not trying to throw yourself at Jake constantly now that you're back. Look...I get the feeling you're gonna be finding things tough for a while. If you ever need a friend to talk to I'll be here for you, k."

"Thanks." I smiled, and for the first time in as long as I could remember, it was genuine.