EPILOGUE

(one year later)

Curled up on the couch, Bella smiled as she watched the boys load coolers and plastic bags with the food she and Emily had prepared that morning.

The whole pack was heading to a remote beach in northwestern Oregon that Sam had discovered a couple years before, when he'd been a lone wolf trying to run off his anger from his transformation. The boys wanted to try surfing, and the beach apparently had the advantage of being both remote and having decent waves.

Sam frowned at the boys, clearly concerned over his supervising responsibilities. Bella didn't think that they needed much direction packing food, but she didn't tell the alpha that. Instincts were hard to fight.

"I'm thinking we could take Leah out there when they get here on Monday," Sam said, turning to Bella. "She used to drive down to Mavericks in the summer to surf."

He seemed to need someone to explain logistical things to, since Emily had just left to pick up Rachel Black, who'd driven into town the night before without telling anyone she was coming, in what was apparently "typical Rachel fashion."

"Is Taryn still coming with her?" Quil asked innocently, looking up from where he was shoving disposable cups into a grocery bag.

Sam sighed. "Yes, Quil, she is. I'd tell you to cut it out in front of Leah, but I think I'll let her handle you."

"Come on, Sam," Quil protested. "Don't you think I'm allowed to find it interesting that Leah has a girlfriend?"

"You don't find it interesting, dumbass, you find it hot," Paul said, whacking Quil on the back of his head as he came back inside to grab more coolers.

Bella nodded in approval at the violence. She and Leah still weren't exactly close, but Bella had been the one Leah had confided to about her relationship and asked Bella to relay the message to the rest of the pack. Bella had felt protective of her ever since.

"Leah said to tell you all that if you say anything about Sam 'turning her gay', she'll punch you in the nuts," Bella added. "And you don't even want to know what she said she'd do if you weren't on your best behavior around Taryn."

Most of the pack shot her wounded looks. "Of course we'll be welcoming, babe," Jared said as he sat down next to her, looping his arm across her shoulders and kissing her forehead.

Bella closed her eyes for a moment and smiled at the contact with her wolf. A year later, and the peace and rightness of his touch hadn't faded.

Jared shifted a moment later, turning toward the front door. "Jake and Embry are here," he said, and she perked up. She hadn't seen her best friend in almost a week. He was constantly busy with the small mechanic garage he, Embry, and Quil had set up, using some of the funds from selling the Cullens' house.

She grabbed Jared's hand and tugged him outside, where Jake and Embry hadn't bothered getting out of an old Passat Jake was ridiculously proud of fixing up. The boys' heads almost touched the roof of the car. "C'mon, Bells," Jake said through the open window. "We're burning daylight."

"You just want to get to the beach first," she complained, sliding into the back seat, Jared following her.

"Alpha instincts," Jake told her smugly as he pulled out of the driveway so fast that she was thrown against Jared.

Her best friend's resentment of his birthright had faded over the past year, and he'd told Bella in private that he and Sam had discussed him gradually transitioning leadership at some point, but he didn't see any real need to rush the process. Right now Bella knew he was enjoying the freedom of being a (kind of) typical, almost eighteen-year-old guy. With the added bonus of getting to flaunt his royal heritage.

"Typical boy behavior," she retorted, and Jared chuckled, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her tight against him again.

"How's the shop?" she asked, resting her head against Jared's shoulder.

Jake just groaned, and Embry turned around to grin at her. "Better, now that Jake's stopped being a Volkswagen snob," he told her.

"Everyone in your fucking town insists on buying American cars," Jake bemoaned. "Even when they're complete shit."

"Not my town anymore," Bella told him. "Don't put that on me."

Her father was still mildly horrified at her living situation, but Jared's parents had welcomed her into their home with enthusiasm. She was sure moving in with her boyfriend and his parents seemed a little weird from the outside, but her whole life was weird, and Jared's parents already believed wholeheartedly in soulmates.

"I've told Jake touching a Ford doesn't make him dirty," Embry said, chuckling. "It also allows us to pay the bills and, you know, get paid sometimes, too."

"But at what cost?" Jake asked dramatically.

Bella laughed and kicked the back of his seat. "You're ridiculous. At least you don't have to drive to Port Ang." Jared worked with Paul and Sam in Forks and Port Angeles, completing smaller construction projects. They purposely got jobs with little oversight, meaning they could work faster than a human would be able to and be back on the rez long before nightfall.

Bella went with them as often as she could, usually sitting on the ground with a novel in one hand and a notebook in the other, working on papers for her online English classes and guarding the coolers from the boys until it was lunchtime.

She was still tired from finishing a paper the night before, since Jared had spent the evening thoroughly distracting her. She closed her eyes and let the boys' conversation roll over her. Jared turned to kiss her forehead, and she smiled, her eyes still closed, and slept.

Bella awoke to Jake's indignant swearing. "How the hell did they beat us?"

She shifted from where she had been slumped into Jared's arms and looked out the back window. Sam's pickup and Quil's mom's van were already parked on the edge of the woods, the boys nowhere to be seen.

"Remember how you had to stop and admire that Maserati at the gas station?" Embry asked him dryly.

Jake blinked. "That was only for like, a second!"

Embry rolled his eyes.

"That was like twenty minutes, dude," Jared said, chuckling. "You walked all the way around it. Slowly."

"Making approving noises and talking to yourself," Embry added. "And then you had to talk to the owner."

"Fernando deserved to be congratulated for his excellent taste," Jake defended himself as he unbuckled his seatbelt, sounding dejected. "Was it really twenty minutes?"

Bella got out of the car, the boys still arguing, inhaling the crisp ocean air and smiling. She would never stop being awed every time she saw the harsh, beautiful shoreline of the Pacific Northwest.

She felt Jared come up behind her and reached blindly for his hand. He clasped it, his warm fingers wrapping around hers. "Come on, babe," he said. "Let's leave the little boys to it and get down to the beach."

"You just want to see me in my new swimsuit," she said teasingly.

He picked her up between one step and the next, and she wrapped her legs around his waist automatically and ran her hand through his hair. "Well, yeah," he said with a grin, and then pressed his lips to hers in a hot, deep kiss as he kept walking fluidly on the path.

She heard catcalls coming from multiple boys, and Bella reluctantly pulled away, seeing Sam, Paul, and Quil's amused faces. They were all wearing swim trunks and had clearly just come out of the no-doubt freezing water.

"Okay, go away," Bella told Jared, her heart still pounding from the kiss and her legs still around his waist. "We're supposed to be here to socialize."

He laughed, pressed one more quick kiss to her lips, and let her down so her feet were touching the shell-studded beach. "Later," he promised, tossing her the easy grin that always made her heart catch in her throat. Pulling his shirt over his head carelessly, he tossed it with perfect aim onto one of the beach chairs without looking and chased Quil into the water to dunk him.

Bella rolled her eyes and walked a little farther down the beach toward Emily and Rachel, who were sitting on beach towels and smiling at the boys' antics.

Rachel rose to hug her. "Hey, Bella," she said. "Is my little brother with you? He was already asleep when I got in last night."

Bella smiled and hugged her back. She'd been re-introduced to her childhood acquaintance when Rachel had visited over her Christmas break. She had the same effortless good humor as her brother.

"He's somewhere back there," she told Rachel. "Arguing with Embry about cars."

Rachel rolled her eyes and turned to head up the path. "Does that boy ever talk about anything else?"

"Not that I've noticed," Bella called back to her, laughing, before she continued toward Emily and sat down on the beach towel Emily had laid out on her other side. "Hey, Em."

Emily smiled up at her and leaned over to hug her. Her long, dark hair was covered by a floppy white hat that protected her still-healing scars from the sunlight. The puckered scars that had once frozen the side of Emily's face in near immobility had been replaced with three thin, pale lines, courtesy of the plastic surgeon whom Carlisle had assured Bella was Seattle's best. Emily's pretty smile spread fully across her face now, and her eyes shone even more than usual.

She whispered in Bella's ear, "I missed my period."

Bella's mouth dropped open. "Oh, wow," she said numbly. "So you're—"

Emily's lips tilted up. "Maybe," she said. "In a few weeks, if Sam hears a—" she dropped her voice even lower "— heartbeat, then we'll know for sure."

Before Bella could respond, she glanced over at the sound of loud laughter to their right. Rachel had apparently found Jake and was cracking up at something he had said. She punched him on the shoulder while still grinning widely. She was so like her brother in that way, free with her happiness and wanting everyone to share it with her.

With a parting comment that made Jake and Embry laugh in return, she turned to Emily and Bella and bounded back over, her shoulder-length hair bouncing with her.

"Thanks for letting me tag along, Em," she said, plopping back down on her towel. She shared a conspiratorial grin with Emily and Bella. "For the eye candy, if nothing else."

Emily laughed. "I'm glad you came to visit, Rachel."

Rachel smiled, but for once she seemed a little sad. "I know I should come back more often," she said. "I love everyone on the rez, I love the ocean…" She grimaced. "I love everything but the moment I walk through my front door and my dad still hasn't changed a fucking thing in the house, and I'm just standing there like I'm a kid all over again, waiting for my mom to come in from the kitchen."

"Oh, Rach," Emily said, leaning her head on Rachel's shoulder. "Come stay with Sam and me, sweetie. We've got the guest bedroom, for as long as you want it."

Rachel chuckled, blinking away tears. "I might," she said. She raised her eyebrows at Bella teasingly. "Especially since that's what all the cool kids seem to be doing these days."

Emily laughed. "I don't think the Camerons' guest bedroom is getting much use, I'm afraid," she said.

Rachel grinned, impressed. "Sometimes you just know, I guess."

"You have no idea," Bella murmured. She shared a smile with Emily.

They turned to watch the closest boys, Seth, Paul, and Embry, splashing far out in the water, try to dunk each other. They'd apparently gotten bored waiting for decent waves.

"Do you want to start setting the food out?" Emily asked Bella. She spoke at a normal volume, but all three boys turned toward them.

Bella shook her head in exasperation. They needed to at least try to act normal in front of Rachel.

Paul was the first out of the water, his surfboard tucked under his arm as he stepped onto the beach and started toward them. He first turned his familiar smirk on Bella when they made eye contact, and while Bella was still rolling her eyes at him he grinned over at Emily and then Rachel.

Then he froze.

Every muscle in his body was tense and unmoving, and the cord on his wrist slipped down to rest loosely in his fingertips.

Emily reached over to clutch Bella's hand. Neither of them spoke, but Sam and Jared, who had been talking further down the beach, immediately turned toward them as if their mates had screamed out loud.

Bella watched in fascination as she saw the imprint happen from the outside. The tension between Rachel and Paul was heavy in the air, and Bella could almost feel their connection, the bond that must be wrapping them up in that moment. Paul took a half step toward Rachel, who was staring up at him with wide eyes, her lips parted.

Then Sam and Jared were standing beside Emily and Bella, and the movement in Paul's peripheral vision seemed to jolt him out of his daze. He took one step backward from Rachel, and then another, as if every step caused him physical pain. Bella knew it might very well be, but she also knew that Paul was ridiculously stubborn.

While Rachel watched him with confused, pleading eyes, Paul threw his surfboard onto the sand and stalked away along the rocky shoreline.

Sam made a sound beside her, and Bella knew that he was going to call Paul back. She rose quickly and touched his arm. "Let me go talk to him first, Sam," she said. "You take care of Rachel."

Nodding slowly, Sam seemed to trust her judgment.

Tossing a quick smile at her mate, Bella hurried up the slope after Paul. A year of outdoor walks and other… activities… with Jared had strengthened her legs. She wasn't any less clumsy than she'd ever been, but she had much more strength now to adjust her weight whenever she lost her balance.

She found Paul half a mile down the beach, sitting on top of a rock overhang, his long legs hanging over the edge. He pointedly ignored her as she climbed up the rocks and sat down cross-legged next to him.

Bella waited a few minutes, giving him time to think, and then turned to look at him. "Come here, shithead," she said. Paul's lips gave the tiniest twitch as he shifted toward her and laid his head in her lap. She rarely ever swore except with Paul, mostly because it made him smile.

Over the year since she and Jared had been together, Bella had learned to care about Jared's best friend as much as he did. She'd learned that Paul would never seek out help on his own, but if she forced affection on him, he wouldn't turn it away.

She began running her fingers through his hair, which was a little thicker and longer than Jared's (not that she would ever tell either boy that she had compared their hair). "Tell me what's bothering you."

He was silent for a long moment, but Bella had always been good with silence. She waited him out.

"I don't like how much I like her," he said finally. "I don't even know her."

"I thought you did," Bella said, surprised. "I know you're a few years younger, but still—"

She didn't have to see his face to know he was scowling. "Fine, I've met her a few times. But it's still not natural."

Bella twisted a handful of his hair and tugged gently. "And turning into a giant wolf is?"

"It's different."

She was the one silent for a while. "It probably sucked to turn into a wolf in the beginning, right? It was scary, it felt weird. Unnatural."

"Yeah," he said cautiously.

"But you got used to it. It's just part of your life now. Our lives aren't like other people's, Paul. They can't be. You can't ever not turn into a wolf. And now you can't ever not love Rachel."

He didn't respond, and she resumed stroking his hair.

"I'm biased, obviously, since I chose Jared. But I've never regretted it. Not for an instant. Does it matter that our relationship started with a weird supernatural bond? I don't know. But I know I'm happy now, and I'm never going to stop being happy with Jared. You can't stop the imprint, Paul, any more than Jared could. We can't go back and change the past, so shouldn't we just be happy with the present, and the future?"

They both sat in silence for several minutes, Bella smoothing Paul's hair and staring out over the white-capped waves crashing into the beach.

"You're weirdly wise, for a nineteen-year-old girl," Paul said finally.

She giggled. "You're just plain weird for a barely eighteen-year-old werewolf," she said. "Are you panicking less now?"

He sighed. "Yeah." Then he grinned at her, upside down. "You know you'll always be my girl, right?"

"Yeah, right," she said with a laugh. "You just put up with me because of Jared."

"Do not." He sat up suddenly and twisted around to kiss her cheek wetly.

"Ew! Paul!" He got up more quickly than she could ever hope to move, laughing as she tried to kick him in the ankles and missing completely.

"Gotta run, Swan, I've got a girl to woo!" he shouted over his shoulder, laughing as he jogged away, back toward the beach. Bella could see Rachel sitting in the distance, now surrounded by the rest of the pack. She had turned to watch Paul come back to her. Like he always would. "Thanks, babe!"

"Fuck off, Lahote," Bella muttered as she wiped off her cheek, knowing he would still be able to hear her. He just laughed again, and she couldn't stop herself from smiling, too.

Rising slowly, she let herself enjoy the cooler ocean-scented breeze mixing with the warmth of the sun as she walked slowly back down the beach. She searched her mind for the pull of her bond, the process effortless by now, and followed it away from the coastline and toward the edge of the woods, where Jared was standing with Seth, Jake, and Embry, as if to give the others space.

Farther down the beach, Bella could Sam kneeling on the sand in front of Emily and a still-stunned looking Rachel. Paul was standing hesitantly in front of his imprint as Sam spoke, though Bella wasn't close enough to hear his words.

She stepped into Jared's side, and his returning smile at seeing her quickly turned into a frown. She knew he had caught Paul's scent on her cheek, and he stopped in the middle of his conversation with the others and slipped his fingers through her hair to hold her head still and a little tilted to the side. Then he leaned over to lick a long line from her jaw to her temple.

She scowled as she heard the others cackling and then wandering away, but endured it. Paul had known exactly what would happen.

She looked around Jared so that she could glare at Paul, but he was talking to Rachel now. Even out of earshot Bella could tell it was in that naturally annoying and charming way he had, funny and cocky all at once. It seemed to be working, as the wariness and confusion in Rachel's expression finally turned into a true smile.

Jared finally pulled away from Bella, looking satisfied that Paul's scent was covered, but he didn't let go of her hair. He let his lips just barely brush hers, and Bella's annoyance was gone just like that. "Mine," he murmured against her lips, and then he was kissing her, that same tongue that had just marked her skin now marking the inside of her mouth.

She twisted in Jared's arms, trying desperately to get her hands on him, and he let her move enough to trace her fingers down his bare chest, feeling his muscles tighten under her fingertips.

"Let's walk," she whispered when they pulled apart to breathe, suddenly knowing the time was right. She had learned to accept the bond's messages, to trust that a force greater than herself knew what was right better than she did.

Jared nodded easily, sliding his hand down her arm until their fingers were interlaced, and they began walking farther down the shoreline, away from the group.

"I ordered a dress this today," Bella told him when she was certain they were out of earshot. Alice had actually picked it out and emailed her the link for her approval, but Jared didn't need to know that.

He tilted his head in confusion. He knew perfectly well how little she cared about shopping.

"A red one," she elaborated. "Pretty but not too fussy, which is good, since I plan to be barefoot when I wear it. I think you'll like it."

"Did I forget that you're going somewhere?" he asked, looking concerned. "Is this something I'm taking you to?"

She grinned, unable to keep a straight face any longer. "I'm going to Second Beach, yes. And I certainly hope you'll be there. It's your wedding, too, after all."

She had the distinct pleasure of seeing her mate completely speechless for a full ten seconds. Then the most beautiful smile she had ever seen crossed his face, and he tackled her to the sand, pressing kisses to her nose, her lips, her cheeks.

"Are you serious, babe?" he said between kisses. "Please tell me you aren't joking."

She giggled and pressed her hands against either side of his head, holding him still so that she could stare up into his beautiful eyes. "I've never been more serious. I want to be your wife."

He pressed his face into her neck for a minute, and she thought he was trying not to cry. And that made her want to cry.

"I want everything with you, Jared. I choose you, and I want everyone to know that I choose you." She sounded embarrassingly stuffy at the end of that.

Jared lifted his head and pressed her hard into the sand, grounding himself in her as he always did when he was overwhelmed. She knew she would have sand all in her clothes later and didn't care at all.

After a minute he propped himself up on his forearms so he could kiss her, and she let herself get lost in him as she had from their very first kiss, biting his lower lip and tasting him and feeling his lips moving softly against hers.

He finally pulled away and stared down at her, his eyes bright with tears. "I just… I still sometimes think I'm living in a dream, that you really chose the Cullens over me. Or that you'll wake up and realize you've made a terrible mistake, and that you're tied to me forever."

"Jared…" she breathed, arching her back to kiss him again. "I will never regret my decision. A lifetime with you is worth infinitely more than an eternity without you."

His smile lit up his face, and he kissed her again, showing her the infinite depths of his love for her with his lips and his body and the words of love pressed against her skin that came from the depths of his soul.

FIN

POTENTIALLY BORING FINAL AUTHOR NOTES (Feel free to ignore):

1) I spent a LOT of time researching Quileute wedding customs… aaand historically they didn't really have any. It was super casual, with variations of the groom bringing presents, basically "buying" his future bride, and when they started living together it meant they were married. That fact, plus the fact that most Quileutes today are variations of Indian Shakers or Protestants mean that Bella and Jared will have a fairly typical American wedding ceremony (no cool ceremonial dresses or anything that other fics have. I just can't find any evidence of anything like that existing in Quileute culture).

2) Also, I honestly think I've spent more time researching the Quileute tribe and La Push than Stephenie Meyer did. For example, the Jared not noticing Kim for ten years thing — do you know how many kids attend the Quileute Tribal School in La Push? One hundred from grades K-12. One. Hundred. That's fewer than eight students per grade. Do you think there's any possible way any student couldn't have known one of the other seven people in his class after seeing them every day at school for ten years?

3) Can you tell I have a soft spot in my heart for Paul? Haha. If anyone's curious, my headcanon (can I have headcanon for my own fic?) is that if imprinting didn't exist, Bella and Paul would have made a good match. But because of the imprinting bond, not only was this not an option (even assuming Edward was out of the picture for whatever reason), they're too bound by the magic of the bond to even really be sad about it. There's just this lingering, faint feeling of what if that both of them have from time to time. Is this better or worse than imprinting? I honestly don't know. But like Bella says, they're happy the way they are now having imprinted, and they can't change that, so what's the point of worrying about what might have been?

4) I REALLY wanted to give Bella a chance to basically propose her own wedding, haha. I hate how in canon she's continually pushed into it. I wanted this to be something in her control in this fic, and that she would propose when she was ready.

5) Finally, thank you, THANK YOU to everyone who read this, reviewed this, and (hopefully) enjoyed it. Even if you didn't have time to review the other chapters, I would be eternally grateful if you could let me know what you thought of the now-completed fic.