A/N: Woot! I have six reviews! You guys make me a happy writer! Yays!

To HelloSexy: Ben is the only Asian student at Forks High - on the Twilight Lexicon, Personal Correspondence #11, Stephenie Meyer says "Ben Cheney is of Asian descent, with black hair and dark brown eyes. He is 5′7" and wears glasses."

To butterfinger45: A beta is basically like an editor.

Disclaimer #1: I am not Stephenie Meyer, so I don't own anything. Stephenie Meyer has a life. I got a life for Christmas, but I don't carry it around much because it's heavy.

Disclaimer #2: I'm not Zukaddy. So I don't own Ashton either.

I inspected Ben closely while we were strolling toward our next classes. (Angela and Ben were in Biology II, while I was headed in the direction of government. It was a junior level class, but I had never gotten to it in Texas.)

Ben was small, with traditional dark brown Asian eyes and glasses. His black hair was somewhat similar to the female bloodsucker's, except that his wasn't spiked – just messy. In the five minutes since I had met him, he had never stopped grinning once – although if he was like me, that would just be because Angela hadn't let go of his hand in those five minutes. Angela simply had that effect on people.

Looking at them, their hands twined together, Angela laughing at something Ben had said, I was forced to admit that he was probably a good kid, and very much in love with her. My own hands were shoved in my pockets, and I found myself jealous of Ben's position. But would Angela want me that close to her if she knew what I was? A werewolf. A danger. A freak. I wouldn't tear her away from something she already had – something good and normal – just so that I could have her.

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I crashed face first onto the bed in Jacob's room, having slung my backpack onto the floor. I didn't have any homework, as the teachers had decided to be merciful on my first day. "Tough day?" Jacob asked from the other side of the room, where I knew his bed was positioned. Since he went to the Quileute school, he got home before I did. I grunted in response to his question. "What happened?" he asked sympathetically. I looked up at him.

"It wasn't all bad."

"What part was bad, then?"

I stared at him. "Why didn't you tell me there were vampires at that school?"

Jacob swore loudly. "I'd forgotten about the leeches! Did you get close to any of them?" I nodded silently and he swore again. "Come on. We have to go to Sam."

"Who's Sam?"

"He's the alpha of our pack." I stared at him blankly. "You know, the leader?" he continued as if I should know this already. Which, knowing me, I probably should. "Anyway, we were going to see him today anyway, to make sure he'd accept you, but..."

"Why is it so urgent to see him now?" I was thoroughly confused.

"We have a treaty with the Cullens – those bloodsuckers. If you killed one of them, you've broken it." He was racing down the hallway now, hurriedly pulling off his unmatching socks.

"But -"

"How do I know you killed one? You're a new werewolf. You've got powerful instincts and little self control. Obviously you're not dead, so you must've won the fight."

I stopped walking. "I didn't attack any of them."

"You – what?" He turned to stare at me, his shirt pulled partially over his head and one arm sticking out at a strange angle. "How'd you manage that?" I shrugged. "Sheesh," he said, slowly pulling his shirt back on, "I still have trouble sometimes and I've spent time around them." He was staring at me in amazement now. "Seriously, how'd you do it?"

I was sure that part of it was that I had been beaten into submission my entire life - I was good at controlling myself. But I wasn't going to reference my previous life out loud, and I knew there was another reason. "Angela. I was sitting right next to her, and one of them was on the other side. If I had given in to instinct, she would have been hurt." I watched comprehension slide in among the expressions on his face. "She – the short vampire – looked kinda mad, too."

To my surprise, Jacob sniggered. "That would be because she can see the future. Or at least, she can when there's not a werewolf around. It really annoys her when one of us gets in the way. It's pretty funny."

"Oh." I pondered that for a moment. "Bella was there too," I recalled suddenly. "She was giving me weird looks – does she know?"

"Yeah. One of them is her boyfriend, remember?" I wrinkled my nose in disgust.

"It must be tough for you – being in love with someone who loves your enemy," I mused.

"Yeah. But that's not as bad now. Not since I imprinted... and it's tougher being in love with someone who is your enemy."

"Do you still love Bella?"

He hesitated. "Well – in a way. The same way I did before, I guess. But... imprinting is different. It's... stronger, I guess. And my pull toward Kenz overshadows what I feel for Bella. I still love her as a friend, but... well, you already know it can't compare to imprinting." His face and tone turned bitter. "It's like I'm being torn in half. I've seen Kenz twice since she was bitten, and both times I couldn't decide whether I wanted to kill her or kiss her."

"How can you just sit here?" He looked at me with raised eyebrows, but I pressed on. "Even if Angela was bitten," (I shuddered,) "I don't think I'd be able to just let her leave, even if I had to run away again as soon as I found her." I was having problems resisting the urge to check on her now, for crying out loud.

"You think I don't want to?" He was angry, but then he sighed, and the emotion in his face evaporated. "But the pack needs me."

"Surely they can do without you for a while."

He shook his head slowly, staring at the ceiling. "No. We're having... problems. Come on. Sam can explain better than I can."

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Sam was huge. He was extremely tall, even taller than Jacob (who was taller than me even though I was a few months older.) He wasn't thick muscled, but he was obviously very strong. He looked very similar to Jacob, and with a jolt, I realized that I was beginning to look a bit like them too, although my skin was not as dark. He looked about twenty-five, although Jacob told me he was only twenty.

I had been surprised when Sam had accepted me so readily, but when I asked him about it, he merely said, "Of course. You're family." Now he was talking to Jacob. "We're going to have to call the others – "

"Others?" I interrupted. They both looked at me. I reddened but continued. "How many of you guys are there?" I knew there were more than just the three of us, but if there were enough not to call them by name...

"Eight, including you. We're thinking you should meet them now."

"Uh... okay." I'd been here for less than a day and I had already imprinted, seen vampires for the first time in my life, and now I was going to be meeting five more werewolves. All in all, a somewhat hectic twenty-four hours.

I followed them outside, and they both pulled off their shirts and walked in opposite directions. "Uh... what are you doing?" I asked, feeling stupid.

"Phasing," Jacob said, looking at me quizzically over his shoulder.

"Uh, guys? I've only ever done it once before... I can't exactly do it on command..." They both stared at me.

"Right," Sam said finally. "We'll take the car then. Hang on, I'll be right back." He jogged away into the forest.

"What's he doing?" I asked Jacob, who had returned to the driveway, where I stood.

"Calling the others," Jacob said, as an earsplitting howl echoed from the trees. It would have been a mournful sound to anyone who didn't recognize it for what it was, but I heard the call it contained.

"Will they know where to find us?"

"Yeah, we have a designated meeting spot."

"Oh." A few minutes passed, and then Sam jogged back out, and we all clambered into the car. Jacob called shotgun, so I squished myself into the back seat. I may have been the smallest, but I was still no pixie.

It was a short, silent ride. We stopped on a small, muddy road in the middle of the forest, and I pried myself out of the tiny car. One guy was already standing there waiting for us, and he was quickly joined by four others.

"This is Ashton." Sam got right to the point. "He's Jacob's cousin, and since he's living here now, he's joining our pack. Ashton, this is Jared-" he gestured to the first boy, who smiled and nodded his head in a friendly way, "Paul-" a boy who looked sort of mean, except that he was grinning, "Embry-" a skinny boy took a hand out of his pocket and waved shyly, "Quil" a shorter, muscular boy with a confident laugh shook my hand, "and Leah." She was the only one who didn't smile. She looked distant, and she returned to staring at nothing after she inclined her head toward me. She was exotically pretty except for the way that she set her jaw, as though she was angry, or holding herself back from something. She was also the only one who wasn't taller than me, although she was pretty close. There went the reputation I had in Texas for being the biggest kid around.

"Hey," I muttered in response to their introductions, looking down and scuffing the ground with my foot.

"So, Ashton," Sam said purposefully, "We've got a problem. Did Jake – ?" He looked toward Jacob, who shook his head. "Alright, here's the deal. Long story short, the Cullens left Bella here for a while last year, and we had two bloodsuckers come through looking for her, a male and a female. We cornered and killed them both.

"Since the Cullens came back, we've exchanged information and figured out that one of those two had a mate up north. She - I think her name is Irina - wanted revenge on us for destroying him, but her coven is friendly with the Cullens, and because of the treaty, they wouldn't let her come after us." His expression darkened. "As near as we can tell, she decided she wasn't going to give up that easily, even though she couldn't come at us directly. She apparently went to the vampire royalty of sorts – they're called the Volturi – and told them that there were humans here who knew everything about vampires and werewolves, which is against their rules."

"But there aren't," I said puzzled. "We haven't told anyone."

"If you imprint on someone, you're allowed to tell them." Great, so I was allowed to tell Angela. But would she want to know? She was happy now. She wasn't likely to have a favorable reaction if some new kid who was abused for half his life came up to her and told her that myths exist and that she needed to run away with him because of some weird wolfy connection.

"So now they're after us." I pulled myself back to Sam's words. "They've threatened that either we kill everyone we have imprinted on, or they'll step in and do it for us."

"What!?" I shouted. "No way! There's no way we – "

Sam interrupted me. "Of course we're not. Jared, Jacob, Quil and I have all imprinted – although they're not going to care about Jacob's imprint-ee since she kind of knows anyway – and by your reaction, I'd guess you have too." I nodded. "So we know how you feel. There's no way we're going to let that happen. The problem comes in their strength. There are fourteen permanent, very powerful members, plus many more disposable ones. They all have special abilities, and their numbers most likely triple ours. And we can't ask the Cullens to get involved against their own... rulers, I guess."

"So we can't spare anyone," Jacob muttered.

Sam ignored him. "Ashton, before I ask you to formally join the pack, you're going to have to know that we're fighting a big battle here, and the odds are against us. Since you didn't grow up here, you're not obligated to participate, but if you join us, I'm going to have to ask you to fight."

They all looked at me solemnly, and I realized that I had a choice that none of them had. After hearing that they were essentially fighting a losing battle, I was sorely tempted to give in to cowardice and leave the state. But Angela was one of the people these vampires were targeting. I wasn't leaving her to face that, alone and unknowing.

I looked up into Sam's grave face and said the bravest, and stupidest, thing I had ever said in my life.

"I'll join."

So, waddya think? Remember, Victoria died last year - it's Irina that hates the pack for destroying Laurent! And note: ASHTON IS NOT IMMUNE TO VAMPIRE-KILLING INSTINCTS. He just has unusually good self-control, and he would have attacked if he gotten much closer or if one of them made a threatening move.

Do my poll! What color wolf should Ashton be?

Thanks again to Ninja C for being my beta! You wrock! XD Also thanks to butterfinger45 for looking over this chapter!

As always, I can't respond to reviews, but I can promise that I ALWAYS look through the stories of all my reviewers! Review and help me improve this story!