Paul was running himself ragged. The head leech had talked to him more in depth about Kate Moreno's attacker once Dakota was out of the room, and just like he assumed, it was a rogue bloodsucker on the loose in the territory. He had woken Sam up the second he got home that night with the news, which in turn had caused his Alpha to amp up patrols tenfold. The entire pack wanted to be mad at him, but kept their mouths shut about it.

He hadn't had any time to visit Dakota since that night, but he convinced Sam to include her house in their patrol loops regardless of the fact that she lived in Forks. She was the first imprint to live off of the reservation, and Sam agreed that even though it would involve a little extra running on their part, it was worth it to protect one of their own. Leah sacrificed some sleep to visit her every couple of days to keep tabs on the situation, and from what he could see in her memory when they patrolled together, Dakota was holding herself together relatively well, so he tried to calm his nerves and reassure himself that she was safe.

There was a memory that Paul stumbled upon that caused Leah to attack him mid-patrol, however, and she made it a point to demand separate patrol times to avoid him digging into her thoughts from that point on. The only one he'd really gotten a glimpse of included her best friend at her mother's bedside, the older woman scribbling furiously in a notebook as it physically pained her to speak. He couldn't quite see what she'd written before Leah had thrown him from her mind, snarling and threatening to murder him in at least twelve different fashions if he didn't mind his own business.

There was something odd about the attack; the fact that Kate had survived, even relatively unscathed considering what she'd fought, had caused Paul to think there had to be more to the story than just a lone wanderer passing through. Knowing that Leah was keeping secrets from the pack, especially those that centered on Dakota, only deepened his suspicion. When he voiced that concern to his Alpha, however, it was written off as imprint-related anxiety and swept under the rug. It wasn't until Kate Moreno was able to return home that anyone even considered a possibility of something more worrisome.

"What do you mean she wants to talk to us?" Sam asked, pacing his kitchen as Emily scampered around him trying to make breakfast.

"I mean, she wants to talk to us. In particular, you, but she asked you to bring whoever you could spare."

"How does she know I can't spare anyone, Leah?" His tone was bordering accusatory, but he softened when he saw the girl flinch. "What is going on?"

She sighed heavily. "In the hospital, she was talking about how fast the guy moved, how cold he was—Cullen tried to convince her that it was just her mind playing tricks on her, but when I went with Kota to visit her, she looked at me like she knew. I can't explain it. I haven't told her anything, but I think she knows."

"How could she know? She's never even heard the legends!" Paul exclaimed, fully aware of the woman's lack of free time.

"She hasn't, but Kota has! And if any of you actually knew anything about her," she directed that at him, narrowing her eyes. "You'd know that she talks to her mom about everything. And I'm not exaggerating when I say everything."

"So, saying that Kate put two and two together, why hasn't Kota?" Paul fired back, clenching the table as hard as he could without damaging it. Leah's know-it-all attitude about his imprint was starting to get old, and it took a lot of self-restraint to keep from dragging her out of the kitchen by her throat.

"Well, once again, you don't know Kota very well," Paul couldn't contain the snarl that left his mouth, but she ignored him. "She doesn't believe in anything at all, not as long as I've known her. No religion, no fairy tales, no legends—she's a skeptic, through and through."

"Then what makes you think Kate doesn't think the same way?" Sam positioned himself between the two most volatile members of his pack, doing his best to keep the peace while still getting answers.

"Her mom is a bit more… optimistic than she is. I can't explain the why and how of it, but I'm almost certain she knows."

"Why not just go talk to her, Sam?" Emily set a plate of pancakes in front of each of pack members not involved in the heated debate, who immediately dug in while keeping their eyes on their Alpha. "If she knows, couldn't that be helpful in the long run?"

Leah smiled gratefully at her cousin, remembering why they were so close before the Sam incident. Although she could come off as unbearably naïve, she was actually very smart and knew how to use being the Alpha's imprint to her advantage. When Emily spoke, Paul noticed Sam's shoulders sag in defeat.

"Fine. We'll talk with her, but I'm not going to tell her anything if I can help it. I don't want this to blow up in our faces."

0o0

The three of them packed into Paul's little single-cab truck and headed to Forks right after breakfast, deciding it would be best to talk with the woman when her daughter wasn't home. It was an incredibly uncomfortable ride, with Paul shoulder to shoulder with the one girl whose ass he wanted to kick and poor Leah sandwiched next to the man she'd once expected to marry. The two men ignored the awkward spike in her heartbeat as Sam climbed into the passenger seat, but Leah was still incredibly embarrassed about the whole thing.

When they arrived at the Moreno home, she couldn't get out of the truck fast enough. Without stopping to see if the other two were following her, she charged up to the front door and rapped her knuckles sharply on the door before letting herself in. It may have seemed rude to anyone else, but Kate had made it a point to let the girl know that she was not a guest in their house—she was family.

"Do we just… go?" For the first time since Paul had known him, Sam looked nervous. Even when they fought against the newborn army, the Alpha had showed only determination to his pack. Seeing his leader so blatantly anxious made his inner wolf squirm, too.

Instead of answering aloud, Paul just gestured for Sam to follow him into the house, trying not to dream up a million and one awful scenarios that could happen. The house was immaculately clean and smelled sharply of floor cleaner and air freshener. It made it impossible for either man to smell anything else, so instead they followed their ears to the dining room, where Kate Moreno sat at the head of the table looking more like she belonged in a Godfather movie than Forks. Leah sat to her right, staring at her folded hands on the table.

"Sam," Kate greeted coldly, gesturing to the other end of the small table, "Please, sit. You too, Paul."

Once they'd awkwardly taken their seats, Kate took a deep breath and looked them over one by one. Leah couldn't meet her eyes, as if she had committed some sort of grand sin, so the woman moved on to Sam. She took in his wide frame in one swift look, clucking her tongue in disapproval. When she turned to Paul, however, her stern look hardened even more.

"I know why you speak to my daughter," she finally declared. "And if you want to make sure you don't fuck it up, you'd best wait here until she gets home to talk to her. She's livid at you."

Paul blanched, his mind going back to the sweet woman in Rosie's who demanded not to be called miss for fear of sounding old. "I don—"

"Don't you dare play fucking dumb with me Paul!" Her tone went from level to absolutely hysterical instantly, snapping him into silence.

"Ms. Moreno," Sam interjected calmly. "Why did you ask us to come here?"

"I have a problem, and you're the only people who can help."

"What do you mean?" Leah finally looked up from her hands. Kate looked at her as if she'd just asked why the grass was green.

"You're the only ones who can protect her."

A silence fell over them as they took in her words, the three of them trying to keep their composure. Sam tried to quickly think of a way to get more out of the cryptic woman without outing his pack, but Leah spoke first.

"We're all trying to keep Kota's head above water, Kate," she said quietly, going out on a limb and taking the woman's hand.

"Leah, honey, I love you like my own. Please don't treat me like I'm stupid." When Sam cocked an eyebrow at her in an attempt to play it off, she sighed in frustration. "You know that I know, I can see it on your face."

Paul kept quiet, not wanting to trigger another screech from her. If she knew about the imprint—which is what it was beginning to look like—he needed her to warm up to him. If what she said about Dakota being angry with him was true, he was going to have to spend the day under the same roof as her. Plus, if Leah was right about how close the girl was with her mom, the woman was entirely capable of swaying his imprint's opinion of him one way or the other. The very thought made him nervous.

"You're going to have to talk about whatever it is that's bothering you if you expect us to be able to help you," Sam declared, crossing his huge arms as if to emphasize the finality of his words.

Kate dug into her pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and without a word Leah stood to find her an ashtray. She lit one with a steady hand and her eyes trained on Sam's like a hawk, and Paul had an idea as to why Dakota smoked, too. She was trying to mirror her mom. As she sat there with smoke crawling out of her nose like a dragon, glowering at the Alpha of a pack of shapeshifters while in a neck brace, he saw why his imprint would want to be like the woman before them: she was brave. Even though her bad habit had nothing to do with her bravery, it made sense that an impressionable young girl would mimic her hero in any way she could.

"Here you go." Leah slid an ashtray in front of her, pulling the woman from her thoughts and back into the reality of her situation. She nodded her thanks and thumped her ash, all the while still glaring at Sam. The silence had almost grown to the point of unbearable when she finally spoke.

"After the… incident, I remembered a story Kota had told me from one of your gatherings when she was younger. I didn't want to jump to conclusions, but when I came home I took the time to research into it a little deeper."

"And what exactly did you find, Ms. Moreno?" Sam sounded like a lawyer interrogating a witness at the stand.

"The Cold Ones," she spat. "That's what I found."

"Those are just legends," he waved a hand in the air for emphasis. "We hear them from the time we're born until we die; it's just a tribal tradition."

"And what about the Spirit Warriors? You mean to tell me that they're just part of the legend as well?"

"Yes, I do."

"You're full of shit and we both know it."

"What makes you think that?"

Kate narrowed her eyes dangerously at him, daring him to contradict her one more time. "I saw how you loved Leah, Sam Uley. I know you wouldn't have left her unless the spirits intervened," Leah visibly flinched, but the woman continued. "I saw her go from my second smart-ass daughter to a shell of herself because of you, and I know just how much she hated you for what you did. She never would have come near you again if she had a choice, yet she was the one I had to go through to contact you."

She took a deep breath, continuing with a snarl in her voice. "And then there's your fiancée, and the unexplained bear attack that happened right in your back yard," Sam began to growl deep in his throat, but Kate kept going. "But we both know what really happened to her. And the unexplained murders two years ago, all of the victims seemingly magically drained of blood, where were you then? Or when I was attacked by one of those fucking monsters as he demanded to know how to find my fucking daughter—where the fuck were you, Sam?!"

Her shrill accusation rang throughout the house, stunning them all into silence once more. Paul was shaking, replaying her last question on a continuous loop in his head. He tried desperately to calm himself, but even bringing Dakota's face to mind did nothing to stop the anger. All he could think was that one of those filthy bloodsuckers was searching for his imprint, and he wasn't with her to protect her. Immediately he stood to leave, to patrol Forks High School for hours until she was let out, to follow her home, to sleep under her window to make sure nothing was able to get to her.

"Paul, sit." The Alpha's command forced him back into his chair, but he still trembled. Sam tried to even his breathing, and Leah stared into nothingness. To say it was uncomfortable would have been an understatement.

"I know exactly what you are," Kate whispered, all anger purged from her system as her eyes pleaded with their Alpha from across the table. "And I know you can protect my baby from something that I can't. Please, Sam. Keep her safe."

Sam paused a beat before sighing heavily, running a hand down his face in exhaustion. It was obvious that the woman's accusations had taken him off guard, and had definitely taken a toll on him. He prided himself on his pack's ability to keep the residents of La Push out of harm's way, but at her accusations, he couldn't help but feel like he should be worried about more than just his own tribe.

"We're going to do everything we can," he finally relented, pulling a sigh of relief from Kate. "But you're going to have to tell us everything that happened, in detail. It might be hard, but anything you know will help."

0o0

If Dakota was being completely honest with herself, she hated riding the school bus more than she hated actually being at the school itself. When she was there, the only time she had to worry about navigating the landmines that were the students of Forks High School was during lunch, and even then it was easy to duck outside with some crackers and spend the period taking pictures of the woods behind campus. On the bus, however, she was stuck in a sea of them, and she knew that any wrong move would result in a catastrophe.

With her mother being at home during the day for a while, she could've taken the car instead, but she didn't want to waste gas on something so trivial. Neither of her mom's jobs were exactly very generous when it came to her leave, so more and more of Dakota's money from her job at the convenience store was being used for things like groceries, gas, and cigarettes for the two of them. She didn't mind—in fact, she had made it a point to do things like that before her mother's injury—but her limited hours would soon become an problem.

The only solution to that specific issue was to drop out of school so she could work during the day, but she knew that wouldn't fly with her mom, so she brainstormed other ways to make up the difference. She was in the middle of wondering how much she could charge to tutor freshmen after school when someone behind her yanked her left headphone from her ear, ripping her out of her plans and plopping her right in the middle of her own personal hell.

"Hey, I have a question for you."

She turned around to see a face she vaguely recognized, but was unable to put a name to. "Yeah?"

The boy glanced at his friends beside him and they sniggered. "Do you have any suggestions on how to off myself? I know you've tried about everything, so I wanted to know what you'd recommend."

Blood rushed to her face and the fire sparked in her stomach, but this time it spread all the way up to her chest. Her mouth went dry and she felt like she'd forgotten how to speak English, so she ended up just gaping at the hateful boy until he and his friends burst into gut-wrenching laughter.

The bus screeched to a halt, and Dakota breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was her stop. She gathered her things and charged for the exit, not pausing to thank the bus driver as she normally did. The incident hadn't been the first, nor would it be the last, but that didn't make it any better.

She was so upset by the ordeal that she charged straight into her home without taking note of Paul's truck in the driveway. When she closed the door behind her, she heard her mom call out for her from the kitchen. After dropping her backpack and camera bag on the couch, she did her best to pull a strong face and went to see what her mom needed.

"How was your day, honey?" Her mom had definitely seen better days, but her black eye was healing up nicely and she was able to move her hands to squeeze her daughter's shoulders when she saw the forced smile on her face. "What's wrong?"

Dakota let the mask fall and shrugged out of her mother's grasp, heading for the medicine cabinet and dry-swallowing two of her "counter attack" pills. "Graduation cannot come fast enough. Do you need anything specific from the store?"

Her mom caught onto the subject change, but let it drop. She knew her daughter would talk to her when she was ready. The woman made her way to her purse hanging off of a dining room chair and pulled out a few dollar bills. "I'm low on smokes, but otherwise I'm alright. Are you heading out right now?"

She waved her mom's money away. There was still enough in her savings to keep them going for a bit longer, and she didn't want her mom to have to worry about it yet. "Yeah, we're out of milk and creamer, and I'm sure I'll see a couple of other things we need."

"You want some company?"

Dakota whipped around to see Paul leaning in the doorway of her kitchen, smiling at her. She hadn't seen him in nearly a month, and he looked like he hadn't slept since then. There were massive bags under his eyes, and his five o'clock shadow had grown into an actual beard. A small voice in the back of her mind marveled at how he still managed to look good like that, but she suffocated it with her anger.

After he brought her home from the hospital that night, Dakota had assumed he'd seen enough of her instability to know what he was getting himself in for. During the first week, she tried to convince herself that he was just busy and he'd get up with her soon. The second week could be summarized by the texts to him she'd typed out and deleted for fear of being annoying. After the third week of nothing, she'd tried (and failed) to scratch him from her thoughts and focus on more pertinent matters. In fact, she was so upset that he had the audacity to show up after so long that she didn't even bother asking why he was in her house in the first place.

"I've managed this long without you around, so I'm pretty sure I can go to the grocery store on my own." She wanted her words to sound disinterested, as if she didn't care what in the hell he decided to do with himself as long as he left her alone. Instead, they came across bitter and hurt.

Sensing an argument, her mom fled the kitchen with the excuse of needing to do laundry. Once the two of them were alone, Paul began to cross the room in her direction, but she busied herself with climbing onto the counters to check the cabinets for things they might need. The logical part of her mind demanded to know why she couldn't forgive him the same way she'd forgiven Leah, but something deep in the pit of her stomach wouldn't let her. His disappearance felt more like a personal affront than anything Leah had ever done, and she couldn't explain why.

"Kota, I'm sorry," he began. "I've just been so busy with work and—"

"Don't," she interrupted. "Don't start with that shit. Just leave me alone."

"I'm not going anywhere," he fired back stubbornly, leaning on the counter and trying to get her to look at him. "It's the first time I've been free in a month and you're going to hang out with me whether you like it or not."

"That sounds a lot more like kidnapping than hanging out." She lowered herself from the counter, shrugging Paul's arms from around her when he tried to help her down.

"If the only way you'll spend time with me is through kidnapping, then so be it." He flashed another charming smile, and she felt her throat tighten.

"I really don't have the patience for this right now," she sighed, running her hands through her hair. "Can't you just go back to pretending I don't exist? I was starting to get used to it."

The smile fell, replaced with such a pained expression she wondered if he was ill. "Dakota, don't talk like that."

"Why not? It's true—you saw too much crazy and you ran like hell."

Without warning, he wrapped both of his giant arms around her shoulders and snatched her to his chest. Regardless of how much she squirmed and squiggled, he wouldn't let go, so eventually she gave up and just stood there. He was quivering slightly, and for the first time since she'd met him she noticed how warm he was. The heat rolling off of him was enough to force her anger to the back of her mind as she reached up her hand and felt his forehead: it was burning up, too.

"Paul, you're sick. You're burning up and you're shivering," she exclaimed, somehow prying herself from his arms and looking him up and down nervously. "You need to sit down."

He just chuckled, taking her by surprise. "I'm not sick, Kota. I just run a little warmer than others."

"You run warm," she repeated dumbly, unsure of if she bought that explanation. "What about the shivers? You've got chills!"

"Sometimes I… shake, a little, when I get upset. There's nothing to worry about."

She eyed him disbelievingly for a few moments, and he held her gaze strongly. "If you say so," she finally relented. "But if I get sick, I'll kill you."

The grin that overtook his face was so big it actually looked a little goofy, and before she could stop herself, Dakota returned it halfheartedly. There was a split second of disbelief on Paul's part before he reached out again and scooped her back into another bone-crushing hug.

"What are you doing?" She managed to gasp, her face squished against his shirt.

"I'm celebrating your forgiveness," he said smugly, giving her one last squeeze before letting her go.

"Who the hell says you're forgiven?"

"You said you'd kill me!" He exclaimed, far too excited for someone who'd just received a death threat. "You've come back to me!"

Although she wanted to keep being angry with him, she couldn't. Instead of continuing to argue, she just rolled her eyes in defeat and charged into the living room to get her bag.

"You've got a while before you're completely forgiven, but you're forgiven enough to come to the store with me. Get your shit and let's go, you idiot."