Author's Note #1:

This story is kind of like a sequel to Two Halves. If you haven't read that but would like to know what the hell is happening then feel free to give it a read. Otherwise there in a short explanation is this chapter and I'll try to add in details as need throughout the rest of the story.

It's amazing that life still manages to surprise me.

A few years ago I was a simple teenage boy; my thoughts consisted of sports, cars and girls, although not necessarily in that order. Being rejected by the stunning head cheerleader because my car was a shit-heap was the absolute worst thing that could happen to me. Watching my friend sulk over a girl that was in love with someone our people despised, was the most awkward and annoying thing that I had to live with back then.

Weeks after said girl arrived, my life gave me my biggest surprise to date. I phased. I found out I was a werewolf, well, shape-shifter but there really isn't that much difference between the two. I could change at will from a human to a giant wolf, but if I was angry that control was taken away from me. I joined a pack, that at the time of my first phasing was only three members strong, and had to abandon my closest friends. Thankfully they were able to join me eventually but that was the hardest part about being a shape-shifter, that and not being able to tell my mother. It took me a while to get used to but it was far from the worst surprise that I would ever get.

A little over a year ago, the single greatest shock of my life threw itself at me.

I had been visiting family in Makah territory when Jacob informed me of a visitor to the La Push Reservation. He had gone into detail about how much this visitor hated the Cullens and to everyone's surprise, how much hatred Paul had towards her. At the time I didn't really give her much thought, as Jacob told me it was unlikely she'd still be around when I got back.

But she wasn't gone when I got back and that was when the shock kicked in. Jacob informed me of the evil shape-shifter that was likely coming our way and how it was the visitor's fault that it was happening. Gabriella, the Australian shape-shifter with a list of issue a mile long; not that it was surprising considering the abuse she'd suffered at the hands of her biological father.

The details of Gabriella's life are something for another story but the simplified tale is as follows. Gabriella was the first female shifter born into a massive pack of shifters, some forty individuals strong and mostly dingoes. Gabby grew up believing a shifter by the name of Ewan Butler was her father but found out at the age of ten that this wasn't the case. He accidentally killed her biological mother and then committed suicide over it. Her biological father was a psychopathic shifter who caused the deaths of her immediate family and slaughtered her whole town in the hopes of getting his daughter to follow him around the world for the rest of her life. For seven years she travelled alone, desperate to make sure that she didn't risk anyone else's life.

That didn't work well when she met the Quileute Pack, who forced her to stay and, for reasons that she still doesn't understand, embraced her as a member. She imprinted on Paul, which was both unexpected and predictable, and then the five remaining members of her pack showed up. They were devoted to her because she was their true alpha, their then leader was not up for such a role even though he didn't want to admit it. The then 'alpha' left soon after he arrived but the others stuck around, determined to claim Gabby as their alpha.

Shortly after Gabby took that role, Gunvald Stendahl, her psychopathic father, turned up. Hell bent on getting what he thought was rightfully his. Oh, did I forget to mention that Gabby was my half-sister. Gunvald Stendahl was my biological father too. I did not handle that piece of information well... but can you blame me?

Stendahl came with an army of vampires and was almost guaranteed to succeed in the slaughter of everyone in La Push, if it hadn't been for Gabby's past catching up with her. Ewan Butler had called together every shifter he could get in contact with and had been hunting down Stendahl for a while. Yes, Ewan Butler. Ewan Butler who faked his death because he couldn't handle what he'd done.

Long story short, Stendahl is dead and I have a sister. A sister who married Paul Lahote and bore him the first of the next generation of shifters. Ewan stuck around because he loved Gabby, she was his daughter as far as he was concerned, although their relationship is still a little tentative.

If you're confused, don't worry. I still have trouble believing it myself sometimes.

I remember when I first phased and how simple things had been then. There had been one pack, and the only thing we had to worry about was the small family of vampires living in Forks. Then Jacob left the pack and Seth and Leah went with him, I joined too but it was something I kind of regretted pretty soon after. It wasn't easy living beside the thing that you were born to fight against. But even two packs was easier than this.

Now there are three packs. Sam's, Jacob's and Gabby's. Jacob's Pack took care of Forks, while Sam's took care of La Push, more specifically the township and forest closest to the town. Gabby's Pack had a less defined territory but spent most of its time to the north, and included Makah territory.

Why Makah territory?

I started in Sam's Pack and then followed Jacob when he left. But now I was with family. I was part of Gabby's Pack and must say that it is a lot easier than the other two Packs. I can't stand being around the Cullens much anymore and Sam's Pack just didn't feel the same as it used to. But Gabby's Pack was comfortable.

There were nine of us; making our pack was larger than the other two, beating Sam's by just one member, but we were far more lax than his. Gabby and Paul were alpha and beta, and I was third-in-command. Gabby's cousin, Randy had followed Gabby from Australia and imprinted on Leah, so they were both in the pack too. Then there was Josh, Mitchell and Xavion, the last of the Aussies who were so sweet and friendly that it was impossible to dislike them. Finally, there was Ewan who was a tentative member of the pack as Gabby still didn't entirely trust him.

Gabby and the Aussies grew up in a predominately dingo based shifter family. In fact, Gabby and Xavion were the only Aussie's that weren't dingoes, making our pack a very mismatched one. Gabby, Paul, Leah and myself were all wolves. Ewan, Josh, Mitchell and Randy were all dingoes. And Xavion, who was the youngest and definitely Gabby's favourite, was a fox. It was quite a weird discovery for us because we didn't know shifters came in any other form than wolf.

And that is the story so far. But I have a strong feeling that it is not the end.

"Do you think you can hold my son a little more carefully than that?" Paul growled as he held up the shelf that Randy was installing in his new house.

Gabby, Leah and Xavion were out patrolling and the rest of us were helping to set up Randy and Leah's new house. Josh was playing with Takoda, Gabby and Paul's son, and he was playing a little rough. Gabby didn't care much about rough play, mainly because no one was stupid enough to do it in front of her, she had anger issues that made Paul's look trivial. Paul was a loving father and he was terrified of Kody being hurt. He threatened to dismember me once because Kody fell over and bumped his head while in my care. Leah thought it was sweet, I thought it was frighteningly unnerving.

Mitchell snatched Kody up with his one good arm. During the fight against Stendahl's army, a vampire had crushed his forearm so badly that it didn't work properly anymore. He could put his weight on it when in wolf form but he could barely lift anything with it when in human form. I felt bad for him, seventeen years old and crippled, but despite his injury he was a happy teen and he had us to support him. He held Kody tight to his chest and moved to sit on the couch. Mitchell felt that since he wasn't as physically strong as he used to be then he could help in other ways, like being babysitter to Kody.

Soon there would be another baby for him to look after. Randy and Leah's. She was about four months pregnant and if Gabby's pregnancy was anything to go by then Leah only had a month or two to go. It turns out female shifters pregnancies were shorter than human ones. Kim was livid about how she'd had to go through almost ten months of being pregnant when Gabby had had just five and she wasn't too happy about how quickly it looked like Leah was going to have hers.

It was baby city in La Push at the moment. Gabby and Paul had Takoda. Jared and Kim had Howi. Randy and Leah were about to have one. And Emily and Sam had just announced that they were expecting too. It was baby galore and for those without an imprint it was not much fun. I wanted kids but without an imprint, without even a girlfriend, there was little chance of me having one anytime soon. At least I had Kody, and seeing how Ewan was living at my mother's, I got to see Kody a lot.

"Hey, Embry..." Randy called after he finished hammering in the last nail. He and Paul turned away from the wall and Paul made his way straight to Kody.

I looked up at Randy, "Yeah?"

"I have to go on patrols this evening and Leah was going out with a colleague tonight. I was hoping you could give her a lift to Forks and pick her up." Randy beamed at me.

I shrugged, "Sure. I've got nothing else planned."

I pulled up outside of the quaint little restaurant where I'd dropped Leah off about three hours ago. I could see her through the large window, sitting opposite a woman with long brown hair punched up in a messy bun behind her head. There was something deliberate in the mess of the bun and I liked it. The casual carelessness of it made me smile.

I shook my head and looked back out the windshield, at the pouring rain and dark sky. My mind was caught on nothing but it was caught none the less. So much so that when Leah opened the door I nearly phased in my fright. She laughed at me as she struggled to heave herself up onto the raised seat.

"How was your evening?" I asked as I tried to feebly help her into place.

She smiled broadly at me, "It was so much fun. Anastasia is probably one of the nicest people I've met in years."

The car stuttered before roaring into life and again I almost had a heart attack when someone knocked on the window. Leah rushed to roll down the window, letting rain flood through the window into her lap. The young woman from the restaurant was standing there, holding out something for Leah.

She was beautiful. Her haphazard hair style was completely opposite to the perfectly precise features on her gorgeous face. She was beyond imagination. So flawlessly beautiful, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Feminine perfection, that's what she was. Her slender fingers were wrapped around a flat metallic object and I could see the cherry red painted nail of her thumb. Manicured to match the stunning beauty of the rest of her.

"You forgot your phone." she laughed and my heart squirmed with excitement, "Is this Randy?"

I couldn't speak, I was too enamoured by her mere presence.

Leah broke my reverie with a high pitched cackle, "Oh, God no! This is Embry. He's Randy's cousin's long lost half-brother; it's a very long story."

"Hi Embry." she said sweetly and I almost died in the joy of having her actually speak to me.

I don't know how long I stared at her but I knew it had to be a while because Leah eventually spoke up and sounded very exasperated, "You'll have to excuse him. He's more than a little bit of an idiot. I'll see you at work on Tuesday."

"If you don't burst by then." Anastasia joked as she stepped away from the car. She was so unbelievably amazing.

Leah wound up the window, "What the fuck, Embry?! Please tell me that that did not just happen."

Life was a master at surprises. After everything I found my imprint outside of a crappy little restaurant in Forks. Not at all like I had expected.

Author's Note #2:

So, I decided that this one would start of kind of fast, no farting around with any is she the one, is she not the one.

It probably won't be as long as Two Halves but I wanted to kind of fix the ending. So you can think of this story as the significantly long end to Two Halves, as well as a story of its own.