A/N: This is a collaboration originally written for Fandom Cause 4 Autsim – as set forth by Goldengirl2707 of JBNP. Bkhchica and I knew while writing it that we wanted to extend our one shot into a small multi-chapter story. We'd like to give kudos and thanks to everyone who donated to receive their pdf file of the original story. I know those who received the file, already know the ending, but we the authors, hope you like what we do with the extension of our one-shot.

Beta and Pre-read by October Skies

Banner by Cat(Rhodes11)

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

~*The Beginning*~

"Embry, you have to go in for the kill. Hesitating will get someone hurt or worse," Sam's voice echoed in my head.

"But Sam, what if it's not-"

"It won't matter. If they are on tribal lands, they die. Cullen or not. I don't care if Bella thinks they're good. They're still vampires. They will not break the treaty or they will suffer the consequences," he interrupted my protest.

"Fine. I just think-"

"Damn it Embry, we know what you think! Stop being the pack's pansy-ass, little bastard for once and do your fucking job!" Paul's growling thoughts flooded the pack mind.

Paul's name-calling pissed me off. Yeah okay, so maybe I didn't have a dad that admits I'm his. But does it have to be pointed out every time I don't do something just the way they wanted it done? If I hadn't already been phased, I'd have wolfed-out then.

I was getting sick and tired of everyone in the pack insulting me or pitying me as the only member who couldn't trace their blood lineage. Paul and Leah were the ones who brought it up the most - Leah to take the heat off herself and Paul just to be an asshole. I didn't need it pointed out to me that my father wasn't there for me. Every time anyone in the pack shared memories about fishing trips they took or baseball games they watched with their dads - it was a frequent reminder of what I was missing.

Paul's insult made my hackles rise and a rumble ripped from my chest. "At least my mother loved me enough to stick around Paul! Where's your mom? Drowning in the bottle again?"

His anger at my question doubled my anger, the intensity of it echoing throughout the entire pack. We were both seeing red.

"At least my mom married my dad! She didn't forget the jimmy hat in a one night stand!" Paul snarled.

I'd had enough. White hot rage bubbled up inside me. I was ready to rip him limb from limb. Who cared about vampires? Right at that moment, Paul Lahote was going to meet his ancestors; I would make sure of it. I hunched down ready to leap at him. "Don't you talk about my mom like that!"

"Oh, so we can talk about my mom and how she's an addict, but not yours - the tribe whore?"

Paul was a dead wolf.

I struck without strategy, intent on burying my teeth into Paul's neck. My lupine form sailed through the air and landed on top of him. His defeat was going to be epic - the pack bastard humiliating the pack asshole.

Paul pulled his lips back to flash his incisors, his head twisting to meet my attack. He didn't intimidate me. I was bigger than he was. My teeth were longer. He was dexterous, turning quickly. Our bodies clashed, each of us trying to get the upper hand. We were a blur of snarling, snapping teeth and fur.

Just as my teeth gathered at Paul's neck to force him into submission, Sam interrupted us.

"Embry, release him." The Alpha's double timbre gave me no other option. Releasing Paul, I sank down to the ground. I couldn't fight Sam's order. I wanted to - tried to - but couldn't. "You're tired from patrolling all night. Go home and get some rest, Embry."

"Fine. But I swear, if he calls me a bastard one more time, I'll rip him apart," I growled in response, baring my teeth at Paul. He snarled in response and Sam quickly tamped down both our anger with an ordered, "Go home!"

Spinning around, I dashed away, the forest a blur of color around me. Sleep sounded good, but I was sick of all this - tired of the questions hanging over me. I wanted answers.

I needed answers.

And I was determined to get them. I wasn't going to let Mom dodge my questions anymore. I just had to know - once and for all - who was my father? Was it Billy Black? Was it Quil's father who wasn't even alive anymore? Was it Joshua Uley? Was my brother one of my very best friends or my Alpha? Hell, at this point, I wouldn't rule out Harry Clearwater either. Only my mom and dad knew.

I was closing in on home. The sounds of my mom moving around in the kitchen reached my ears just a second before the smell of bacon hit my nose. She was cooking one of my favorite breakfast foods. My stomach howled its hunger loudly in response. I shoved thoughts of food to the back of my mind. I was on a mission. I couldn't let my stomach distract me.

At the tree line, just behind my house, I had to take several calming breaths in order to phase back to human. I threw on my cutoffs and paced back and forth, collecting myself for what was to come. Do I just demand answers? Do I ask nicely?

Yeah, 'cuz that's worked well for me in the past. I guess I just wing it. She's my mom... I don't want to hurt her feelings, but damn it, I deserve to know! My internal debate continued until I heard her calling for me to come get my breakfast, her voice faint through the walls of the house. Shit. I wasn't in there.

Her footsteps creaked on the floorboards in the hallway as she made her way to my bedroom. The door was opened and her heart-heavy sigh reached my enhanced wolf ears, even from this distance. "Gone," she whispered.

I heard her walking back through the house. The doorknob on the back door turned and I knew this was it, the time of reckoning. It was the same every morning.

"Embry? Are you out here?" Mom called out into the misty morning air, her eyes searching the backyard for my presence. The smell of her worry reached my nose, mixed with the scent of frying bacon and the morning dew that clung to the grass. Knowing what was the cause of her worry - my nightly disappearances - my stomach churned with guilt.

She didn't know I was a shape shifter. My mother had no clue that the world of the supernatural existed. She thought I was just acting out - a delinquent rebel - disappearing at all hours of the day and night, doing "God knows what" as she put it. I can't begin to count on my hands the number of times I had been railed and fussed at, lectured and questioned, until she was blue in the face.

I hated keeping the secret from her. I hated that my own mother thought I was a bad seed, heading for a life of juvenile detention, followed by jail. Her words, not mine. It hurt worse that when I stood there, stoically silent, she accused me of not caring.

It's not that I didn't care - because I did. I cared too much.

Squaring my shoulders, I sucked in a deep breath. It was exhaled in a whoosh of nerves. I set my jaw with determination as I readied myself to face her disappointment. I couldn't let her deter me from my goal. I wanted to know who my father was and I was going to get my answer.

I emerged from the forest just as she turned to go back in the house. I called out to her, "Mom?" She stopped and her dark brown eyes lifted to mine. Already I could see the accusation in them.

"Are you kidding me, Embry? Please tell me you just got up a little bit earlier than me and were home all night. In your bed." Her hands were on her hips and her mouth tilted down.

I hung my head and dragged my toe through the dirt on the ground. I didn't need to respond to her words. She had already seen the proof in my made bed that I had not slept there.

"Why? Why are you just now coming home from school yesterday? You've been out all night again, haven't you? What have you been doing? With who? Was it those boys again? What am I to do with you?"

"Yes, I was with Sam. He needed my help." I watched as her frown deepened at my response. Inside, I was begging her to understand, to let this go and just believe that I was still the responsible kid that she raised me to be.

"Help with what?" Her question hung between us. I knew my silence would break her heart just that little bit more every day. "Em... We never kept secrets from each other before now. What is going on with you?"

My head snapped up at her words and suddenly my anger was back tenfold. We didn't keep secrets did we? She was keeping the biggest one of all.

There was a fire blazing in my eyes as I met her gaze. My fists clenched and unclenched almost spasming with my effort to cease the trembling that told of my rage. I tried to remain calm; truly I did, sucking in deep breaths of air to stave off the phase. Running away in this moment wouldn't get me the answers I sought.

"Really, mom? We don't keep secrets from each other?" My voice was harsh, spoken through gritted teeth as I confronted her. "You've kept a big one from me my whole life! I have begged and pleaded - no. Asked and cried for you to be honest with me, just once, to tell me who my father is. But you never have."

I could smell her tears even as they began to make tracks down her face. Usually my mom's crying would instantly guilt me into giving up. Not today. Crying wasn't going to get me to back down now. I couldn't let it.

"Embry, we've talked about this. Please just let it go. It's not important." My mother's words fell on deaf ears and a hard heart.

"Not important?" I was livid. How could she think knowing the identity of my father wouldn't be important? Didn't she know what I went through every day with the name-calling and whispers behind my back? Didn't she know what those who knew the secret whispered about her?

"How can you say that it's not important?" I could feel tears building up behind my own eyes. "Mom, please. I need to know. Everyone knows my father is from here. They all know! I can't take their stares any more. Just tell me! Who is he?"

She stared at me, her hands going to the tie at her robe to fidget with the ends of it. "Embry..."

I interrupted her, not wanting to hear excuses.

"You're crazy if you think it doesn't matter. I think, after all these years, I deserve to know, mother." She jolted at that word. I never called her mother unless I was really angry. I wanted to strike out at something; the wolf was begging to release the anger coursing through me. How I had held on this long, I didn't know.

"Embry, I want to tell you. You deserve to know," she was still crying, "but that doesn't change the fact I'm not going to tell you. Please Embry, don't. I just can't tell you." She hiccupped between sobs. She took a deep breath to stave off the next hiccup and added, "Honey, you wouldn't believe me if I did tell you."

"Really? Try me, I bet I could surprise you." I crossed my arms in front of my chest and dared her to continue denying me the answer.

Her shoulders rose and fell as yet another hiccup shook her small frame. Her mouth opened and then closed. I could see her entertaining the possibility of answering me. Hope flared in my chest, only to be crushed a moment later when she let out a long, drawn out, suffering sigh.

She turned away from me, calling over her shoulder, "Breakfast is ready. Come eat." She stopped, turning to face me with her hand on the door, "And Embry, you're grounded for a month because of last night."

Seriously? She had to be joking. After all this time, she still wasn't going to tell me? Red clouded my vision and I yelled into the sky, desperately trying to rid myself of the anger that overflowed. I was unaware of her gasp as my yell turned into a howl of despair.

Shit. I was going to phase. I couldn't do it there, in front of her. My feet flew over the packed ground, echoing the choppy, staccato rhythmic beating of my heart trying to break free from my chest. I was only halfway to the trees and I knew I wouldn't make it there. Flames of fury licked at my insides- fanning the flames of my pain until I was burning up from the rage.

I exploded into fur and four paws. I skidded to a stop in the trees and let loose my frustration, howling again to the morning sky. The forest around me trembled and stilled beneath my fury. When my howl silenced, so did the forest around me. No small creature scurried for cover. Even the birds stopped chirping their happy morning tune in deference to my inner-turmoil.

My first thought was for flight. Fight or Flight.

Run.

I should run.

Away.

Anywhere but here. Somewhere, where no one would know me. They wouldn't know my history as a fatherless bastard. A fresh start. Yeah, that's just what I needed. I could do this. I didn't need anything from anybody. I could grab a pair of shorts from a tree at the edge of La Push..

Turning to run, a desperate voice called out into the air, erasing my first instinct to flee. It was the grief in her tone that gripped me and held my paws still.

"Oh my God, Embry! What-?" I could hear the question mixed in with the sorrow in her voice. What she said next struck me as strange, but in my angered state, I didn't understand it. "Please sweetie! Come back! I didn't know! I didn't know..." Her voice trailed off on a sob.

I turned back around, and my wolf eyes found themselves staring into my mother's chocolate ones.

Damn.

I had wanted to keep her from this life. Jake and Quil had begged Sam to let me tell her the secret, to stop the groundings and yelling I suffered through. I had declined the offer Sam made to allow the exception. They say what you don't know can't hurt you. I was trying to keep my mom ignorant of this, the supernatural world. I didn't want her to fear the things that go bump in the night: the vampires, the werewolves, and other bad things.

But now, she could see what I was with her own eyes.

Shit.

She pleaded once more. "Please come back in and I'll tell you everything Embry. Please, sweetie."

I snuffled at her and nodded, hoping she'd get the hint. She turned and I phased back. Slipping into a pair of gym shorts that I pulled from a hollowed hole in a tree, I was almost nervous. All this time spent wondering and dreaming. Now I'd know for sure. There would be no going back.

I had a sudden moment of panic because for a split second I thought about turning around and running. I must be crazy, because this is what I wanted all this time - to know the truth about my father. Was it Billy? Harry? Josh? Quil IV? Once I knew his name, I would never be able to forget it and my life would be changed forever.

My feet made the decision for me and I found myself following my mom back into the house. Mentally I was bracing myself for her answer - imagining the worst possible scenario - but a part of me was impatient and excited to learn his name.

We sat down at the kitchen table and I waited, watching her. She was staring pensively at me, something I would see her do every so often in the past. Just as they usually did, her eyes grew distant as she remembered something I was not privy to. This time, she didn't shake her head with a look of regret. Instead her lips lifted as her gaze refocused on me and her smile was radiant.

Her eyes were shining with love. In that moment, she seemed younger and more girlish than the woman who raised me. It had never occurred to me in all the years I had seen her glance at me sideways, that she had been a woman in love, her heart broken. It never crossed my mind that whatever else she had with my father, it had been love.

I could smell that the bacon had already burnt in the hot pan on the stove. The eggs were stiffening in the pot, but none of that mattered to me. I waited eagerly as she opened her mouth to speak.

"I know you must be confused sweetie," she began, clasping her hands together on the table before her. "Your father was a very special man, Embry. Just like you." Her eyes were shining with unshed tears as she said, "He could do what you just did - turn into a wolf."

I felt my body jolt with shock at her words. In my head, pictures of Jake, Quil and Sam's fathers spun like a slot machine, only to halt on three question marks instead of their image. What did she just say?

(To Be Continued…)