Disclaimer: Twilight is all Stephanie Meyer, I own nothing.

AN: Thanks everybody who added my story to your favorite and alert list and of course those of you who are reviewing, love ya! My internet connection has been out all day, I thought I'd go crazy, it just came back online again so I immediately updated the chapter I'd finished hours ago! Hope you like it;)


Family

~*~

POV: Nadira

~*~

Later that night Nessie called me, we had grown accustomed to calling each other at night, to talk about everything and nothing, I knew she had been upset earlier tonight and she hadn't told me what was going on yet, so when the phone rang I already knew it was her without looking at the caller ID.

"Hey Nessie, are you ok?"

"No…" was all I could make out as the rest of her words were spoken through loud sobs. I was startled by the sound of it, as long as I'd known her she hadn't been this upset. We wouldn't get far like this, a face to face conversation would be much better.

"Do you want me to come over?" I asked.

"Oh, Nady you're such a good friend, are you sure you don't mind?" she sounded a bit calmer now, but her voice was still shaky.

"Are you kidding me, of course not, I'll have to ask first tough, can you hang on for a bit?" without waiting for an answer I bounded down the stairs, which resulted in two pairs of huge worried eyes looking at me when I came into the living room.

"Jeez, guys, don't overreact! There's nothing wrong, well not with me anyway. Nessie is really upset can I go over there and stay the night?" Tom and Leah looked at each other for a moment to discuss it silently.

"Sure, go get your things, I'll drop you of when you're ready" Tom said.

"Yay! Thanks guys, I'll make it quick!" and I ran back to my room.

"Nessie, I can come over, Tom is driving me, I'll be there soon ok?" my bag was already out of my closet while I was still on the phone.

"Great, I'm glad you're gonna be here soon, I really need you right now" she started sobbing again.

I finished packing within minutes and figured that if I would forget something I could borrow it from Nessie, downstairs I hugged Leah goodbye and got in the car with Tom. Driving took us about 20 minutes, when the massive house came into view I suddenly realized I would be spending the night in a house full of vampires. Tom noticed my worried look and reassured me that I would be fine.

"They're vegetarians remember? No human blood" oh yeah, that's right, I remember Nessie showing me that.

"If you're uncomfortable at anytime call me and I'll pick you up" he added.

"Thanks Tom" and I hugged him. We got out of the car and we walked up to the house, Nessie and a extremely white man were already waiting for us by the front door. Nessie jumped down the steps and flew into my arms, almost knocking me over, tears started flowing from her face as soon as she had her arms around me.

"Well I can see that you're clearly needed here" Tom laughed shaking the guys hand.

"Hi Edward, how've you been?" this must be Nessie's dad.

"Excellent, apart from my daughter's current condition, but I'm sure it will be only temporary" he said calmly.

"Leah wants you to call us tomorrow, ok Nady?" Tom said as he turned back to me again.

"Yeah, that's ok, I'll call you guys tomorrow, thanks for driving me" I replied.

"Anytime kid" and he drove off.

"Well girls, I think it's best if we take this inside. Hello Nadira, I'm Edward, Nessie's father" I nodded and mumbled a 'nice to meet you' in response, I was still very nervous, if they would ever resort to human's blood, they wouldn't eat a friend of Nessie would they. Edward was chuckling when we walked inside.

"There's no need for concern we've had quite a bit of endurance exercise and we most certainly would not ever eat a friend of Nessie's" oh yeah, he was the mind reader, I forgot about that, Nessie eyed me questioningly.

"I'm sorry, it was in my mind before I really thought about it" I smiled at them apologetically.

Nessie showed me to her room after I was introduced to the family members I hadn't met yet, there was already an extra bed set up in her room. We changed into our pj's and talked for hours before going to sleep. Nessie felt betrayed by Jake, she couldn't understand how he had let them get so close with an impending imprint hanging over his head. He had been like a brother to her, a best friend, her only friend for a long time before I had come to La Push.

I understood how she felt, just like me only ten times worse, Embry and me had only met a couple of months ago, while Jake had been there for Nessie her whole life. We decided us girls should stick together and show those wolves that we could do without them.

~*~

The next few weeks Nessie and me spend every day together, constantly staying over at each other's house. We would see Embry from time to time when we were at my place, but Nessie's need for me, was a perfect excuse to avoid him, I wanted to see him and I wasn't angry or anything like that, but I wanted to prepare myself. On top of that, I was starting to see Embry differently, I had even dreamed about him kissing me!

Nessie had banned Jake completely from her life, wouldn't take his calls made her parents send him away if he came by her house, nobody could convince her to talk to him, we all would try constantly because she was getting more depressed every day and Jake was looking like he hadn't eaten or slept since they were fighting.

Eventually with Jake's birthday only a couple of days away I got through.

"Nessie, you have to, he wants to cancel the entire party!"

"Really, is he doing that bad?" when I saw the light in her eyes I went on.

"Yeah he's terrible, he misses you so badly, please talk to him"

"Ok, ok, I'll call him" she flipped open her phone, dialed his number and waited for him to pick up.

"Jake?" I could hear his excited yelling on the other end.

"Yeah Jake, I miss you to" she sighed "you're right we should talk, but not right now, at your party ok?"

~*~

As soon as we arrived at Jake and Embry's house, Jake pulled Nessie away, he was gonna hold her to her promise. Embry and me stood there in silence, I was so tense around him, the dream of the kiss had repeated itself and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Every time I looked at him he felt less like a best friend and more like something else, although I didn't know exactly what. After a while I felt so lonely, pining for him to hold me or hug me or anything, but he was busy talking to his friends, checking up on me once in a while, but I wanted to go home and crawl into bed. So I asked Tom and Leah to wish Jake a happy birthday for me and tell Nessie that I would not be staying over at her house tonight, and I went home and cried myself to sleep.

~*~

The next morning I woke when I heard a soft knocking on my door.

"Nadira, are you up?" Leah was standing in my doorway.

"Yeah, I'm awake why?" usually that let me sleep in, so I wondered what was going on.

"Could you come down, we would like to talk to you" I wonder what about.

"Sure, I'll be right down" now I was really curious. Quickly I got dressed and went down to the kitchen, they were both sitting at the kitchen table.

"Good morning, do you want something to eat?" Tom asked me.

"No thanks, I'm not hungry. So what did you want to talk about?" just let them get it out.

"Well, you've probably wondered since the bonfire why Tom and I wanted to stop phasing, so we wanted to explain to you" Leah started.

"For a long time I thought I wasn't able to have children, when I transformed into a wolf for the first time, my monthly cycle disappeared. However, when I hadn't phased for a month, because I was preparing for your stay with us, it returned. So we want stop phasing completely, to see if we're able to conceive, and since you've been with us for almost six months we wanted to talk to you about it." My time was up, I suddenly realized, they we're going to tell me that I'd have to leave soon, they were going to start their own family, a real family, my head dropped down.

"Oh no, Nadira, you're getting the wrong idea" Leah's worried voice made me lift my head back up again.

"We want you to be part of our family, we want you to stay permanently and find out how you would feel about that and about us trying to have a baby" she blurted out.

"Really, you want me to stay?" Leah's face held a relieved expression.

"Yes we would, we want you to be ours, officially, we want to adopt you, we love you!" she said happily.

"Wh-what?" are they serious, I got that wrong right?

"You can think about it if you want, we understand" Tom said to me.

"No!" Leah's face fell.

"No, I don't have to think about it! I would love it if you guys adopted me, and I've always wanted a little brother or sister!" I ran to them, never wanting them to let me go. I was crying and sobbing loudly as was Leah, Tom was shushing to calm us down, but I didn't want to because we were crying happy tears. After standing like that for at least ten minutes, we finally let each other go.

"We'll get the papers ready then" Tom told me.

"Thanks, and…" I hesitated for a moment, but continued when I knew I would be telling me the truth.

"I love you both, thanks" I said it very soft, but they heard me. This resulted in another crying session from Leah and me, but eventually we calmed down. I ran upstairs to call Nessie, I was so happy my heart felt like it would burst out of my chest. When she picked up, I screamed into the phone.

"Nessie, Nessie, I'm staying, they're gonna adopt me!" Now it was Nessie's turn to screech.

"That's totally awesome! I'm so happy you're staying, I was afraid that I would lose my best friend if you did, so now I won't!"

~*~

Nessie and Jake had worked things out on his birthday, she had to tell me everything afterwards , since I had left the party early. So after I told her about the adoption, we had a long talk about her and Jake. She had been having more feelings for him for a while, but until that night, she didn't realize how bad it had gotten.

She told me she loved him, and wasn't about to let him go, so she would make sure he was hers, before he imprinted. For a moment I questioned her feelings, but later I realized that she wouldn't pretend, just to keep him close. She even had thought up a plan, to achieve her goal.

According to her I should do the same with Embry, but I kept denying I had those kind of feelings for him. Besides, I wasn't going to take the risk, only to have my heart broken. I had talked to Leah about it, she had told me that even though she was engaged to Sam, and they had been together for four years. He had left her the moment he imprinted on Emily, leaving her heartbroken. Her depression had lasted pretty much until she had met Tom, years later.

But Nessie claimed she loved Jacob too much, she was going to try. It didn't work, her advances were severely misunderstood by Jacob, so she got nowhere with him. Now we were preparing for our birthday party, we had already gone shopping with Alice. Nessie's was a deep burgundy, with a considerable amount of cleavage. Mine covered more, because Alice knew that I preferred that, it was an emerald green one, I loved it.

~*~

At the party things were great, even Embry and me were able to ignore most of our awkwardness during the night. He had gotten me such sweet gifts, a charm bracelet, with two charms, one with a rice grain in glass, which was engraved with my knew name 'Nadira Istaqa' and another of a wolf, I loved them.

Later we saw Nessie push Jacob against a tree and plant her lips firmly on his. Embry and I were shocked, he because she was doing this, I because I didn't think she'd go through with her plan. Later when they came back, it turned out Jake did return her feelings at least as heavily as hers. Finally I had been able to admit to her, that I did have feelings for Embry, maybe if she got her man, I could get mine.

~*~

Nessie's words kept going through my head, she had made me admit to myself that I did have feelings for Embry, who wouldn't he's so sweet and funny and sexy, yes sexy, come on look at the guy! His face was engraved in my memory, so I had been looking at him in my mind all day long, thinking about his eyes his beautiful smile. Then there was his body, tall and muscular, not bulky like a bodybuilder's, but lean and supple like an athlete's. His smooth dark skin stretched out over his broad chest and rock hard abs, I mean, if that isn't yummy what is?!

Tomorrow school would start, and since I still had to take drivers ed. he was going to drive me, I wonder how it would be. The thought alone, of being near him, made me nervous. I was so scared of the idea of our relationship changing, afraid of rejection, afraid of letting him, a guy, get so close to me. Worries and doubts were good for nothing, Nessie had said when I called her to talk about it.

I chuckled to myself, as I thought about Nessie, now that she had successfully acquired girlfriend status with Jacob, she suddenly saw herself as an expert on anything love related. The way they were acting last night, dancing and kissing, in front of everybody! If I didn't know any better I'd say he had imprinted on her, my thoughts were brought to a halt, had he imprinted on her?

~*~

The next morning Embry walked into the house as I was finishing my breakfast, Leah and Tom had already gone to work, I could feel his eyes on me, oh my god, I am pathetic, I can't even look at him.

He cleared his throat "Good morning Nadira"

"What's so good about it" I mumbled under my breath.

"Well aren't we in a good mood today" he clearly mistook my case of the gitters for grumpiness.

"Shall we get going" desperately wanting to change the subject, as I was sure he was about to ask me what was going on, and he would surely see right through my lie.

"Ok, sure" slightly taken aback by my abruptness.

The drive to school was silent and uncomfortable, when we got there he handed me my backpack, our hands touched and I gasped at the contact, I looked at him and saw his expression change, I got out quickly, before I'd have a nervous breakdown. The rest of the week our drives together were similar to the one we had the first morning.

It was a good thing that I had gotten to know Taylan and Logan so well, school had become fun, I had always been able to get good grades without working very hard, so most of my time was spent goofing around with the two young wolves.

~*~

When the week was out I was sitting with Nessie on the sand of First Beach, it was early September so the weather was still good, the guys were meeting us after work. We were talking about Jake and her, all the girly details I needed, if things weren't going well for me in the boyfriend department, at least I could live vicariously through her. She and Jake were moving quite fast, she said it was because they had been friends for such a long time an knew each other so well. She advised me to accidentally bump in to Embry and stuff like that, she said that physical contact was always good to measure response.

~*~

After the week Tom had taken me to school, it was Embry's week again and I got my first good opportunity to test the waters. I was standing on a stool to reach one of the cabinets to grab a new pack of coffee, but I still couldn't reach it, I was too damn short! That's when Embry walked in, chuckling loudly at the sight of me struggling.

"What are you doing little one? You're waaaay too short!" too short, my ass, I'll show him, within moments he stood next to me "here let me do that, before you hurt yourself"

He reached up to the coffee without much effort, I turned to look at him angrily, but forgot everything else when I saw how close our faces were. He was still smiling, but when he saw me looking at him, it quickly disappeared and looked into my eyes, we stood there gazing into each other's eyes.

My heart picked up its pace and I could feel butterflies fluttering inside of me, locked in his stare, all I wanted to do was lean upwards and kiss him, his mouth was so close to mine, but I didn't dare to and looked away. With that our moment was over, but there was definitely a moment.

"Ahem" we both jumped at the sound of Leah's voice.

"Good morning" I said quickly "I thought you would be gone already"

"Yeah, but I think this not phasing is bringing out the human weakness in me. I woke up feeling so tired and I've got a headache too, so I'm staying home today"

"Oh ok" she did look tired, hope she would feel better soon.

"So shall we go?" Embry asked.

"Sure, bye Leah" our drive was even more uncomfortable today, I was glad to see Taylan waiting for me in the parking lot. I quickly got out and waved goodbye without really looking.

"Hey, where did you leave Logan?" at that he started chuckling loudly and leaned heavily on me with his arm around my shoulders, barely able to hold himself up from laughing

"He got himself into detention last week, but instead of having to stay after school, he has to be here an hour early every day, for a MONTH!" before he was even finished I was laughing to, Logan always got himself into trouble, silly boy.

I got the sudden feeling that someone was watching me, I turned around to see that Embry was still sitting there in his truck looking very angry, what was his problem now. When Taylan spotted Embry he quickly dropped his arm, Embry wouldn't be jealous now would he, that thought brought a smile to my face.

The day passed quickly, this year I had all my classes with at least one of the twins again, just like last year, we were walking outside to their car. Just when we were about to get in we spotted Embry, he had been leaning on the hood of his truck but was now walking towards us.

"What's going on Embry? What are you doing here, I've already got a ride remember?" this seemed to make him mad.

"You're coming with me!" he growled at me, I had never seem him like this, he was scaring me. He was turning heading towards his car, I froze, then I was backing up and clutching Taylors arm, while getting behind him.

Embry realized I wasn't walking with him and turned around, when he saw me standing behind Taylan I saw anger flash in his eyes, I recognized that look, I'd seen it many times in my father's.

"You're not taking me anywhere like that" shaking my head to support my statement.

"What are you on about, you need to come with me, it's an emergency!" he came towards us and I crawled further behind Taylor, he grabbed my hand to reassure me.

"Just drive to her house and we'll follow you. She'll be ok with us, promise" Logan was trying to reason with Embry.

"Who said you were invited" he was looking more at Taylan than at Logan, I squeezed his hand to thank him that he was standing up for me.

"If it concerns Nady, I'm coming!" Taylan said loudly. This caused Embry to growl at Taylan, but he didn't move an inch.

"Look, you're scaring her man! We'll get her home" Logan said firmly to Embry, his look went from anger to shame as he suddenly understood why I was clamping on to Taylan.

"Fine, I'll see you there" he said with a chocked up voice and walked to the car.

"Come on, we'll take you home" Logan said while getting in the driver seat. Taylan got in the back seat with me.

"Are you ok?" he asked me.

"What is wrong with him? Why is he acting like that? I don't understand, what have I done wrong?" I was scanning my brain for information on what the cause was for his behavior, of course it would be something I'd done.

"It's not you Nady, you haven't done anything. Something is going on, that's why he is mad, he's not angry with you or anything" Taylan was softly rubbing my back.


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