I finally fall into bed around seven a.m., exhausted from running all night. The sun is just starting to emerge over the treetops in all it's uninhibited glory – of course there would be no clouds to block the blinding rays this morning. Groaning, I roll over on my side to yank the curtains across my windows and, just for good measure, I bury my head under my pillow.

Even though I am beyond tired, my mind refuses to relax. Thoughts of tonight keep racing through my memory as my brain tries to piece the puzzle together. Sam had called us to his house last night around eleven; Henry and Jared had stumbled across a young child in an abandoned car while they were running patrol. Sweet girl – Lily is her name. Lily Clearwater, as it turns out. I'll admit that at first I had thought that maybe little Seth might be responsible – even though it would have been nearly impossible for him to keep such a secret from us – but he turned out to be just as surprised as everyone else. No, Lily's not Seth's daughter…she is Leah's. As in Seth's sister and estranged member of the pack, long gone from the rez and out of contact with everyone.

With another groan, I force my mind to stop. No doubt there'll be patrol again later today. Focusing on each breath, I feel my body start to relax, muscle by muscle. It seems as if I have just drifted asleep when -

"Embry. Hey, Embry. Come on, man, you gotta wake up or Sam'll have both our asses." Someone is shaking me and very inconsiderately pulling my pillow off my head. The harsh light manages to creep in through my eyelids despite my best efforts and I finally surrender, slowly sliding one eye open to identify my thoughtless intruder. Henry. Of course. He's like the freakin' Boy Scout of the pack – always on time, always prepared, uh, and whatever else it is that Boy Scouts are known for.

My voice is rough with sleep. "Ugh. What time is it, punk?"

"It's about 12:45. Sam wants us all at his house at like 1:30." The little wolf is way too full of energy this morning. Psh. Let him do this for the better part of a decade and then we'll see how excited he is about a meeting at Sam's house.

With a profanity and a grunt, I push myself up off of my beloved bed. I ruffle the kid's short hair as I pass by. "I'mma take a shower. You can chill here if you want; PlayStation's hooked up in the living room."

His eyes widen in excitement. "Thanks, man." Apparently, his parents have taken away all of his video games as punishment for him sneaking out at night. Poor kid. He is practically bounding down the hall as I head towards the bathroom to clean up.

*********

Fifteen minutes later, I flop down on the couch in the living room. I could hear the video game even in the shower. Henry is actually pretty good, and the game loudly announces each of his kills.

"So, pretty crazy night, huh?"

Headshot!

I let out a harsh chuckle. "Yeah, guess so."

Headshot! "Oh, man! Did you see that?! Right between the eyes!" His game is over – he won, of course – and he sets his controller down on the floor, turning to look towards me. "What exactly happened with Leah anyway? Nobody ever really talks about it."

I rub my eyes vigorously before running my hands through my short hair. Sighing, I settle back on the couch and grab a controller. "Well, you know that Leah is Seth's sister. I guess you probably don't know that she is Emily's cousin, or that Leah and Sam dated before Sam imprinted on Emily."

"Sam and Leah…oh. Yikes."

"Yeah. It was all pretty ugly. I mean, of course Sam couldn't help imprinting on Emily, but still, Leah took it really hard. She, uh, pretty much took out her, um, 'frustration' on anyone that crossed her path." Laughing, I shake my head a little at a memory of Leah bitching me out because I had the nerve to tell her that she looked hot in a dress. She did! Not my fault that I happened to notice… "Anyway, she phased soon afterward. She's the only female to ever join the pack. She had a pretty hard time being subordinate to Sam – especially because he could essentially read her mind – but she seemed to be getting a little better before she left. Probably because she had joined Jacob's pack after he broke away from Sam."

"That was after the almost-fight with those Italian vamps, right?"

"The Volturi. Yeah. Hmph. 'Almost'. Still wish we could'a gotten a chance to kick their-"

He interrupted me then; I guess the younger wolves were tired of us rehashing our desire to fight the Volturi head-on when we had the chance.

"So, she left then, or what?"

"Well, she stuck around for a little while, but then she just disappeared. No note, no explanation, nothing - just an empty closet and a scent trail that disappeared at the bus stop in Forks. No one has heard from her in over six years, not even Seth. And it's not that we didn't look. We even asked that psychic Cullen bloodsucker if she could see anything, even though she can't normally see us. But we never found anything."

"Until last night."

Ugh. Stupid game. I just got massacred. I pass the controller to Henry. "Guess so. It's so weird – no one thought that Leah could have children. It was one of the things that she hated the most about being a wolf." Lily's dazzling smile flashes through my mind. "But I guess we were wrong."

It's silent for a moment. Once again, Henry is kicking ass in the game. That's it. I am definitely practicing more. Can't be beat by a kid, it's pathetic.

"So, what do you think is going on? Where is Leah?"

I consider my answer before I speak. "I don't know. Leah would never leave her little girl alone in the middle of nowhere unless she had a damn good reason. So I figure that whatever she was running from probably caught up with her. Someone killed Lily's father…and Leah was headed back here – no doubt the last place she would want to go. I would guess that it had something to do with her past – vampires, maybe?"

Henry's leaning forward on the couch stretching towards the TV with the controller. "But why? I mean, apparently she didn't phase anymore, right?"

"I guess not. I don't know - it doesn't make complete sense, but I can't think of anything else that does either."

Henry's focused on his game now, so I lean my head back against the couch and close my eyes for a minute. I replay the events of last night in my head, trying to make sense of something, anything. Sam had sent me, Jared, Paul, and Quil to search around the car and try to pick up any strange scents. There was just the one unusual scent at first – it was human, but there was something more: it was familiar. Much like our own scents, it was wild and earthy - Leah. We followed her scent looking and smelling for anything out of place. She had wound through the trees in a zigzag pattern, running deeper and deeper into the darkened forest. The trail lasted for almost two miles before it dead ended in a small clearing. From there, it was as if she had just disappeared. What was even odder was that there were absolutely no other scents in the area. No other humans or even any of the normal forest animals. We couldn't pick up anything. It was like the area had been meticulously staged to deceive our senses.

The frustration from last night washes back over me and suddenly it's hard for me to sit still. Even if Leah was kind of a pain sometimes, she's still our sister, and the desire to find her and make sure that she's safe is overwhelming. I push myself off the couch. "Let's get to Sam's, man, see what's going on."