I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach. -Elizabeth Barrett Browning "How Do I Love Thee?"

Prologue:

I watched as the monsters came into the clearing; their red eyes never leaving me. The horrible feeling of deja vu creeping up on me made me sick to my stomach.

This has happened before. I know i've been here before, and the worst possible thing has begun to occur. It's happening again; everything i've ever feared has come back to haunt me.

I watched as they moved almost in slow motion, their angelic faces never flickering to any sort of emotion except that of indiffernce. Only one evil smirk was looking our way, and the angels red eyes were boring into mine.

This was it. It was happening.

They've come to kill. My family, my friends, my Jacob.

My world was crashing down, the earth was spinning. The ground beneath my feet began to tumble down.

Fear, an emotion of weakness. Vulnerability creeped its way into my heart and I couldn't help but feel as if this was the end.

This was it.

Chapter 1

Bonfire's & News

The sky in Forks, Washington was the same as usual; incredibly gray and dull. Seeing as it was the start of winter, I wasn't very surprised. Snow fell gently to the ground, and the cold air went ignored by me and practically everyone else in my family.

I looked away from the window and towards the fireplace where my family was gathered. I skipped merily towards them and took a seat next to my aunt Rose on the couch who wrapped her cold arm around me; her cold skin not bothering me in the slightest.

"Renesmee, why don't you call Jacob. He's been trying to reach you," my mother said, using my full name. Out of everyone, only her and Aunt Rose chose to use my full name. My mother because she didn't like how my nickname might have referred to the Loch Ness Monster, and Aunt Rosalie because she despised the person who grace me with my nickname.

I furrowed my eyebrows as I reached into my pocket for my cell phone which was oh so conveniently turned off, I was wondering why it hadn't gone off. I looked at my father who had an innocent look on his face, and rolled my eyes. My father wasn't with nor against the idea of Jacob spending too much time with me, but he accepted the fact that I loved Jacob but that didn't mean he didn't try to bug me every once in a while about it.

I walked out of the room all the while turning on my phone. The screen showed that I had multiple missed calls and unread text messages. I dialed Jacob's number and waited for him to answer, pressing the phone to my ear.

"Hello? Renesmee?" Jacob's tired, yet frantic voice said.

I smiled to myself, Jacob was always one to over-react especially when it came to me. At times I loved the fact that he was protective but other times, not so much.

"Hey Jake, did I wake you?" I asked, glancing at the watch on my wrist that Grandpa Carlisle gave to me for my fifth birthday. It was half past noon, and usually Jacob slept way past that. I tried lecturing him on his sleeping habits and getting him to sleep earlier but it was like telling time to stop, it just never happened; what with his patrols and late meetings. Not to mention the job that occupied a lot of his time.

It felt like almost an eternity since I had seen Jacob, everyone was keeping him away from me, well maybe not coherently but it sure felt that way. For some reason, whenever Jacob was apart from me for a certain amount of time I felt like something was missing, like another half of me was gone. I never mentioned this feeling, but it did bother me some.

I hadn't seen Jacob since the day before and already I was missing him like crazy. It was rare these days that he had a day off but I missed him dearly. I tried to get him to ask my Aunt Alice to help him invest, especially since with patrols and everything his energy was running on low; but him and his pride wouldn't allow it.

"Yeah, but it's fine. You know you can call me whenever, and by the way I've been trying to reach you all night do you know how worried i've been?" He rambled.

I giggled slightly and rolled my eyes. He was definitely over reacting.

"Sorry, I guess my dad turned off my phone in the middle of the night. I didn't even realize it was off." I said.

"Of course he did, well anyway, I was wondering if you would want to go to the bonfire tonight, the guys want to see you."

Sometimes I wondered why he even bothered asking me anymore since he already knew I would say yes, no matter what. Well, I would say yes but of course I would have to get parental permission first.

I loved going down to La Push and seeing everyone especially the pack. They were like the big brothers I never had, always joking with me and playing around. Even Leah was growing a bit fond of me. Plus, the legends that were told always fasinated me and held my attention. I found the Quiluete culture to be amazing, the more I knew about it, the more I loved it.

"I would love to; let me just ask my dad, okay?" I told him.

"Sure, sure."

I smiled once more and listened for my father's voice that I knew was coming soon. He always kept tabs on my mind and listened in on my conversations with Jacob. Bless him.

"Yes you can go, just be back earlier than last time or I swear I will go and get you myself." My father said from the other room.

"I can go, what time were you planning on picking me up?" I asked him.

"I'll be there by six-thirty, be ready. Oh and Nessie?" He asked.

"Hmm?"

"From now on make sure your phone stays on."

I grinned, "Sure, sure,"

He chuckled, "I love you, Ness. See you soon."

"Alright Jake, love you too." I told him before hanging up.

I walked back into the living room and took a seat once again by aunt Rose. I looked at my mom who smiled at me along with everyone else.

"What?" I said.

"Nothing." They said in unison.

I rolled my eyes and leaned my head against my Aunt's shoulder.

Everyone was acting so strange lately, of course I didn't think much of it though. What was more strange than vampires? The whole idea of it was so absurd and I'm sure that was the main reason why our existence was still a secret. To think that blood sucking immortals existed; ludicrous, impossible. Genious if you ask me.

I was listening to Uncle Emmett joke on my father when Aunt Alice appeared in front of me with a huge grin on her face. And that grin only meant one thing; clothes.

I smiled back up at her and took her hand when she offered it to me. You see, unlike my mother, I was very fond of clothes and fashion. Probably because Aunt Rose and Aunt Alice always used me as sort of a barbie doll, not that I cared. It was perfectly fine with me. My mother on the otherhand didn't wear dresses in fact she refused to wear anything silk. This of course didn't go well with my aunt and my mother had to promise my aunt that on special occasions she was allowed to dress my mom in anway she pleased.

Which is why on any occasion, no matter how ridiculous, my mother wore dresses that looked dazzling on her. She disagreed as usual. My father didn't seem to mind though, and neither did I. I loved seeing my mom in dresses, they amplfied her already impossible beauty.

Aunt Alice led me upstairs and into her room where she had enough clothes to fill three closets. I sat down on her bed while she went to rummage through her color coded clothes, looking for something I could wear on such a dreary night.

She came back with a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, and a long sleeved, loose fitting, lilac colored shirt. She laid them beside me and went and brought out a pair of black Uggs.

"I wish it weren't so cold outside, I would put you in a sundress that I just bought. It would go perfect with your skin." She explained to me, messing with the ringlets that fell to my waist.

It's not that the cold bothered me, my body temperature was higher than that of a humans but since it would look weird with me going to a bonfire when it was so cold outside in a sundress I thought it would be best to dress warmly, even though my body temperature kept me warm even in the coldest enviorments. Imagine, walking around in Alaska in a tank top and not being bothered at all by the cold, crisp air. Yeah, you get a few weird looks. The Denali's had to explain to me that it didn't look right to a human, and they made me put on a jacket. This was when I was at the physcial age of a ten year old, and it's not like I knew any better considering the only humans I had ever been around were Grandpa Charlie, and Sue.

I didn't exactly know the "norms" for humans. My father has explained them to me multiple times, and I understand them somewhat but hey, you can't really try to be something your not right? Well I suppose you could try, but you would probably end up making a fool of yourself.

Anyway, the bonfires that the pack usually held were basically what I would call family events. That was what the pack was to me, they were my other family. Jacob told me quite a few times that they loved me because he did. Of course, I knew that was true. They usually take to the ones that the other members of the pack loves.

I went downstairs, with Aunt Alice trailing behind me, seeing as I had a couple of hours to kill until Jake came to pick me up.

By that time I noticed that a couple members of my family were missing, I turned to my Aunt who smiled at me and skipped to where Uncle Jazz was sitting, placing herself happily unto his lap. I smiled at the two of them and walked to the place where I had been sitting earlier.

"Where are my parents?" I asked Uncle Jazz, who was watching Aunt Alice, the love in his eyes so intense I felt the need to turn away.

"They went to the cottage, to... er, clean." He said.

I raised my eyebrow, and cracked a smile. It was still amusing to me that my family was so uncomfortable talking about such a subject with me. What wasn't amusing was the unwanted double meaning. Maybe it would have been different if it were anyone but my parents, I mean, ick. Who would want to think of their parents in that way. Of course, my innocent little ears had to be concealed of such awful things.

My family, no matter how much I adored them, tended to be a bit overprotective; not to mention annoying. Technically I was only six years old, but I had the physical appearance of a sixteen year old and the mental age of a twenty year old. I knew things, whether they wanted me to know about them or not.

"Oh... um, okay. How about Aunt Rosalie, and Uncle Em?" I asked.

Uncle Jazz grimaced and I wrinkled my nose. "Jeez..." I said.

Both my aunt and uncle laughed at my expression and I got off the couch to find something to do.

My half human part didn't allow me to sit around for too long, since I got fidgety or got utterly bored, so I had to occupy doing something productive, or somewhat productive. Which is why I found myself in the kitchen with Grandma Esme, helping her polish her silverware; talk about boredom.

"Special plans with Jacob tonight?" She asked, a hint of something in her voice. I don't know why I blushed, probably because of the accusation in her tone.

"Yeah, the pack is having a bonfire." I told her.

She smiled at me, and went back to polishing the silverware.

After she was done, she offered me food which I accepted since I couldn't say no to my grandma. She was just too... sweet, and I'd hate to deny her the chance to cook. She loved taking care of others, and I loved that about her. She had such great maternal instincts and it made it impossible for anyone to hate her.

I was sitting down at the table eating when warm hands covered my eyes, leaving me unable to see anything.

"Guess who." The lovely voice said.

I grinned at the husky voice and turned around wrapping my arms around my best friend. He lifted me up and spun me around in his arms, kissing my forehead and then setting me down.

"So Ness, ready to go?" He asked. I looked at the time and realized that it was six-twenty. My eyes widened and I darted upstairs and got dressed in record time. I was in front of Jacob again within three minutes.

He was trying to contain his laughter and I was resisting the urge to roll my eyes as I dragged him outside to his car. I got in and buckled up since Jake was beyond paranoid and didn't want to take any chances, which if you ask me was crazy considering the fact my skin was practically impossible to pierce.

"How was your day?" he asked me, while taking his eyes off the road. He's lucky he has shapeshifter instincts otherwise he would have probably wrecked his car a long time ago.

"Boring," I said, wrinkling my nose, a habit that has become hard to break.

Jacob grinned and reached over to ruffle my hair to which I rolled my eyes; again, another very bad habit.

"Miss your old buddy Jake?" He said, teasing.

I shrugged my shoulders, teasing him back. "Not really." I said, keeping a straight face; well trying to anyway.

I smiled as his face fell and couldn't hold it in anymore. I bursted out laughing causing Jake to look at me as if I had gone insane.

"I'm kidding, of course I missed you! This had to be the most boring day of my life." I said, which was probably true. This was like the only day I had not done something that was remotely fun.

"Well don't worry, because your day is about to get a whole lot better." He promised, and I knew that. It was never a boring day with the pack.

When we arrived at the bonfire the pack and elders were already gathered around it. Billy was sitting where everyone was able to see him, the light of the fire casting a very eery glow onto his face.

Jacob took my hand and sat me down on a nearby log. I giggled when he winked at me and went off the grab a plate stacked high with food, where most of the pack members were.

"Hey Nessie," A familiar, friendly voice greeted me. I turned to see Seth, who who had a hotdog still sticking out of his mouth, I giggled and shook my head. Seth had to be the most goofiest member of the pack. And the most innocent. I swear that boy was clueless, which made him all the more adorable.

"Hey Seth, enjoying yourself I see." I smiled.

He grinned his wide grin, his white teeth an amazing contrast against his russett skin.

"You have no idea, the legends never get old. Well not exactly legends, as you know. Since they're true, take imprin-" He began but was cut off when Jacob smacked him upside the head. Seth let out a yelp and rubbed his head, he looked up at Jake and glared. I ignored the sentence Seth didn't get to finish seeing that Jake had decided it wasn't appropriate. (Insert eye roll here)

"You could've just told me to shut up." Seth grumbled.

"Well you could've kept your big mouth shut, now move." Jake told him. Seth got up and scrambled away, deciding to sit next to Leah instead.

Leah, wasn't exactly my best friend but she was friendly with me. Jake said she tolerated me but I knew a small part of her enjoyed me to some extent.

"Aww, that was mean Jake. That was just Seth being Seth." I told him.

"No that was just Seth being stupid."

"Hey, I heard that!" Seth called from his seat next to Leah.

"Good." Jake told him. Before Seth could respond, and trust me, he was going to; Billy cleared his throat and everyone's attention went to him.

My eyes never left Billy as he told the legends one by one. His deep voice could keep anyone entranced. You could hear different emotions run through his voice as he told the legend of the third wife, and Taha-Aki. His voice boomed with power, and with such pride it was hard to ignore. The noise of the waves as they crashed against the shoreline seemed to add dramatic effect to the stories, and not one person spoke while Billy told of the culture.

When he was done, everyone cheered and I leaned against Jacob who wrapped his warm arm around me, while using the other arm to stuff his face.

Billy wheeled up to us and smiled, I smiled back and got up to hug him.

"Nessie, still beautiful as ever." He told me, causing me to blush.

"Thanks Billy, it feels like I haven't seen you in forever." I told him, which was true.

Over the years, I have grown super close to Billy. He was one of my most favorite people, always telling me old Quileute legends whenever I was over his house, or funny fishing stories of Grandpa Charlie, the funny part of the stories seems to come amiss to Jacob since all he ever does it roll his eyes at his father, to which I elbow him in the stomach and make him pay attention.

"Well don't be afraid to stop by more often, this old man enjoys company." Billy said, a smile lighting up his beautiful face.

I nodded and felt a warm arm wrap around my waist, making my heart beat faster, an effect I had never felt before because of Jacob's touch.

"Alright dad, I'm gonna take Nessie to hang out with the guys for a bit." Jacob said. His father only nodded and with that Jacob towed me to the cliff where the boys were waiting.

I frowned at the fact that Jacob didn't really seem to acknowledge his father all that much anymore. Father's were an important factor in my life, considering I love my father dearly.

"You know, you shouldn't act so cold towards your father." I scolded him. He sighed and turned to look at me, his deep brown eyes boring into mine. The gaze was so intense it caused my heart to soar. I ignored it and just kept my reprimanding gaze on Jacob.

"Ness, we've been over this. That's just how we are. Billy isn't exactly an affectionate person." He told me.

I frowned, "But you are."

He grinned and brushed his thumb across my cheek, "Only for you, sweetheart."

And once again my heart soared. I blushed a deep crimson I'm sure and found a spot on the cliff where the girls sat. Claire ran over to me and plopped herself next to me, although she was older than me in earth years, I was much older than her physically.

"Ness! I haven't seen you here in forever." She greeted, hugging me tightly. I hugged her back just as tightly, and smiled.

"I know, sorry, Jake's been busy lately." I told her. She shrugged and looked at Quil and back to me.

"So has Quil, seems like he doesn't have much time for me lately." She pouted, and from the corner of my eye I could see Quil frown.

"He's your bestfriend, he'll always have time for you." I assured her. She didn't look so sure though.

"Trust me." I told her. She smiled and nodded, and began to braid my hair.

"You should come by the house tomorrow, we could use your amazing cooking skills." Emily said coming over to me and giving me a quick hug.

"Oh please, Emily. We all know you're the best cook." I told her. Personally, it didn't matter to me. I didn't eat food all that much, although I did love eggs. But the way the guys scarf down her food within seconds pretty much guarantees the quality of her food. And I'm sure it's more quantity over quality for the boys, anyway.

Emily smiled back at me, and shook her head slightly. Ever the modest women that one.

"Personally, I don't care who cooks the food as long as there's food." Collin said, plopping down right beside me, wrapping a warm arm around my shoulder.

Jacob growled.

Collin grinned.

I rolled my eyes... and then smacked Collin upside the head.

He rubbed his head while grumbling about 'Stupid Hybrids'

Jacob looked at me and grinned and I grinned back, he came up next to me and sat down and shooting glares Collins's way.

I chuckled softly at Jacob's behavior. I don't know why but a surge of satisfaction went through me when I realized that Jacob was jealous. It was an odd feeling but one I enjoyed.

"Collin isn't getting any, obviously." Embry said, causing an eruption of laughter to course through the pack.

Collin who had at some point gotten up from beside me and decided to sit next to Leah was once again rubbing his head.

What had I missed?

"Idiot," Leah spat.

"Hey, you were asking for it." Collin said, arrogance leaking into his voice.

Everyone, not just me, rolled their eyes. We were used to Collins's perverted behavior. It was true, he really wasn't getting any. Sure, he did draw female attention but that didn't mean he didn't annoy them away. Poor him, I pity the person he imprints on.

"I didn't ask for you to touch my ass, you little shit!" Leah snapped.

You see, the pack and the other imprints made it a point not to mess with Leah because second to Paul, she had quite a temper and a very wide choice of cuss words.

I saw Jacob beside me shaking from laughter and I couldn't help but join in. His beautiful laughter was contagious.

Leah looked at us, and after a minute of scowling at us she finally cracked a grin.

HAH! Imagine that, the great and menacing Leah, grinning.

"Listen up, tomorrow we're heading to the Makah reservation." Sam said, his deep voice showing the alpha in him.

I looked at Jacob puzzled. Why would they go to the Makah reservation? I didn't want to involve myself so instead I chose to keep quiet instead of asking questions knowing it probably wouldn't be very appreciated. All the girls kept quiet, we never really bothered with pack business, but then again, pack business was never really discussed in front of the girls except for rare occasions.

"What? Why?" Seth asked.

Sam kept a steady eye on everyone, making sure everyone was paying attention before he announced the news, "A few years ago, a few women from our reservation were abducted. We never really caught them because the scent cut off at the ocean, all we know is it was vampires. And by that time we felt as if it were to late to save them, and the vampires never returned. Now we've been told of some women who have gone missing at the Makah reservation a few days ago and have been asked by the elders to check it out." Sam said.

Intense much?

I didn't realize that women had been captured before.

"Is that what we were looking for?" Jake asked.

Sam nodded at his question and again left me extremely confused.

"I'm confused." Brady said.

Sam huffed, "I was told by the elders not to tell you about the women, they wanted things to quiet down instead of creating a giant uproar so I kept my mind safe of those thoughts, but a few weeks after the volturi came for Nessie, (Add cringe here) a vampire crossed into Makah lands without our knowledge, I don't know how but they did. And they took women, their bodies were never recovered." He explained.

"Then why weren't they of such great importance? They were people, we're supposed to protect humans." Jared said, his arm wrapped lazily around Kim.

"They were drunks, addicts, and homeless on the rez." Jake said.

"... So no one would miss them if they turned up missing." Jared said.

Well these boys were smart today.

"Exactly," Sam said, taking his seat next to Emily.

"Tomorrow we're heading out there to see if we can follow the scents, some of the Cullens are coming aswell. They're willing to help." Sam explained.

I smiled at the fact that the pack had become somewhat closer to my family despite the fact that they were supposed to be enemies.

Thirty minutes later the fire was burning out and I was yawning. My head was laying in Jacob's lap and my eyes were steadily shutting closed. I fell into a slumber, finding comfort in Jacob's warmth.

I jumped awake when I felt arms sweep my up, Jacob was smiling down at me and held me tighter.

"Sorry Jake, I fell asleep." I said, I could even hear the tiredness in my voice.

"Don't worry about it, Ness. Sleep sweetheart." He told me and I abliged.

When I woke up again, Jacob was bringing me inside where my parents were waiting for me. He kissed my forehead, whispered goodnight and handed me to my father who took me upstairs not wanting to take me to the cottage, I didn't mind anyway; I enjoyed staying at the main house with my grandparents.

"Goodnight, love." My father told me, kissing me on top of my head, shutting off the light and walking out of the room and I fell into a deep sleep.