I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in such a long time. Real life got in the way of my fangirling. I'm going to try and do better with regular updates but I can't make any promises. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Reviews feed the muses and help produce chapters faster!

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.

Jake's POV:

"She strolled in with Caitlin like she owned the fucking place. She waved and she chit-chatted and she was dressed like a whore-bag and then, AND THEN!"

I leaned back in my chair to bear the brunt of Leah's wrath at a more comfortable position.

"She had the nerve to drink!"

When I didn't reply, she threw up her hands. "DRINK...ALCOHOL!"

"Oh dear." The chuckle I'd been holding in since Leah had banged through the door and started raging slipped through my lips. She glared.

"Why are you not as devastated and offended by Nessie's behavior as I am?"

The answer would send her into an even more dramatic tailspin but I knew Leah wouldn't settle for less than the truth from me. "Don't get mad when I say this."

"I won't get mad," she promised immediately.

"You're already mad," I pointed out.

She rolled her eyes. "I won't get more mad."

I leaned forward and gave her the best puppy dog eyes I had in my arsenal. "In a weird way, I'm proud of her."

There was silence for one, blissful moment before she shrieked, throwing her head back and baring her teeth at the ceiling. "WHY?! Why would you…why…how could you…why?"

I shrugged. "She's doing what she wants. She's forging her own path. She's not falling blindly into a relationship with a guy she barely knows. I think I'd lose respect for her if she did."

"Like you lost respect for Bella?"

I sighed, exhaustion overwhelming me suddenly. The subject of my relationship with Bella was a dead fucking horse, over-analyzed and over-used. I offered her a pained expression in answer and she groaned while mashing the heels of her hands into her eyes.

"Sorry."

"It's alright." I rose, the empty glass in my hand aching for more Vodka. "I'm not happy about this situation but there's nothing I can do about it. She's still my imprint. I'll still do whatever she wants, even if it's the most painful, hardest… I really need you right now but not as a vindictive spy. I just need you to be my friend. I need your support."

She blinked rapidly, trying to quell the tears. Leah wasn't a crier by any means but I knew her triggers. My relationship with her, the loyalty and trust that bonded us, could make her cry rivers. "You have it."

I kissed her cheek and had just turned toward the kitchen when Embry burst through the front door, carrying a seemingly unconscious and naked guy over his shoulder. "We have a problem."

He shuffled inside and unceremoniously dropped his burden onto the couch.

"Uh, good grief, he's naked!" Leah shrieked.

The body was pale and skinny, covered in bruises and scratches. Clumps of dirt and leaves clung to the sweaty patches of skin on his stomach. I raised my gaze to Embry. "What the hell?"

"Why are you bringing strange, naked men into the house?" Leah asked. She had one hand over her face, the other held out in front of her, as if to ward off the nude guy.

"Because before he was a strange naked guy," Embry looked at me and I finally noticed the sheen of moisture on his brow, the heightened color of his cheeks, and the fright in his eyes. "He was a wolf."

"What?" Leah asked, dropping her hands with a smack against her thighs.

"He changed into his human form when I was about halfway back here."

Leah crept closer, peeking over my shoulder hesitantly. "He's not Quileute."

Embry nodded gravely. "I realize that."

"So, he can't be a werewolf if he isn't part of the tribe." She glanced at me. "Can he?"

"I've never heard of such a thing."

"There's something familiar about him." Leah said softly. I nodded as I stared at his gaunt face. She rounded back to Embry. "You're sure he was a wolf when you picked him up?"

Embry snorted. "No. I just saw him, naked and cold, strung out on the ground and thought 'You know what I haven't brought home in awhile.'"

Leah opened her mouth, snarky reply at the ready, when naked guy stirred. He rolled toward them, stretching with a groan before he lost his equilibrium and fell off the couch and onto the floor with a resounding crash. "What the shit?"

"Hey, there." Embry said cheerfully. "How are you?"

He gazed around at us all, eyes wide. "Where am I?"

"Relax." Leah winced as I grabbed one of her beloved throw blankets off the couch and threw it over his lower half. "I'm a professor at Evergreen. This is my house. We're close to campus."

Naked guy sat up with a shake of his head. "Yeah, I remember, Jake."

"Holy fuck." My name in his voice slammed the truth home. I sank to my knees in front of him and placed a hand on his shoulder, half in comfort, half to convince myself that my former student assistant was actually alive and in front of me. "Aaron?"

Leah gasped as she stumbled back several steps. "You're that kid, the one who died."

Aaron swallowed, the sound heavy and frightening in the wake of our stunned silence. "I wish I had."

Embry stared at him, the beginning of tears shining in his dark eyes and I was reminded of the devastating sadness that had overcome him in the weeks following Aaron's supposed death. "Dude, what happened to you?"

Aaron sighed, his shoulders quaking as if the simple act of breathing was exhausting. "I don't know."

"You were a wolf."

"Embry," Leah said warningly but I shot her a quelling look and she fell silent.

Embry leaned in close. "You were by the dorms and you were…a wolf and I picked you up and started carrying you but halfway here, you changed."

"I was a wolf?" Aaron asked and his voice wasn't as terrified as it could have been given his current situation.

Embry hesitated before nodding slightly.

"Shit…again?" He hung his head, cradling it in his palms and muttering to himself.

Embry sat back and glanced at me, eyebrows raised in shock.

I frowned, shaking my head a little. I thought I knew everything there was to know about being a werewolf and I was certain that only Quileute blood carried the curse. Aaron was not Quileute. My mind pushed back at the impossibility of what he and Embry were saying.

"How many times has this happened?" Leah asked.

"I've lost track," Aaron whispered miserably from between his hands.

"How does it happen?" Embry asked.

He fixed Embry with a hopeless gaze. "I have no idea. It's been happening randomly, for about a year, since I died."

"This is impossible. You're not part of the tribe," I whispered but he heard me.

"What tribe?"

I met the stares of my partners. The three of us knew each other so well we could have whole conversations without uttering a word. Right now, they were both deferring to me. Your call. Share our secret, if you trust him.

I tilted my head at Aaron. I knew him once, when he was just a nice kid that liked history and loved popcorn and wanted to become a firefighter and came over for poker nights. Now, hunched over on the floor, he was just a shell of his former, vibrant self and my heart clenched painfully as I thought of him alone in the woods, undergoing a painful transformation that he couldn't control or understand. I couldn't let him face his curse alone for another second.

"We're all part of the Quileute tribe." He examined each of us in turn and the recognition of our similar features and colorings registered in his mind. "And the members of our tribe are descended from wolves."

He scrunched up his face, a trace of fear flitting across his expression before he could hide it. "Does that mean…are you?"

I smiled gently. "You're in good company, buddy." I inclined my head to Leah and Embry. "We're werewolves too."

I got Aaron some clothes and sent him to the bathroom to shower. It was obvious he needed some time to calm down and be alone after my little revelation. Leah went out to find Seth on patrol and prepare him to meet our new houseguest.

Embry descended into an eerily stoic, still trance. I'd never seen him so silent. He was always the one corralling the rest of us, the silver-lining guy, unrelentingly offering optimism in the face of my and Leah's cynicism. Now, he stared at the floor where Aaron had been sitting.

And I, well, I got myself another drink. I settled next to him, my body wearily sinking into the couch. I offered a glass of Whisky but he declined it with a shake of his head. I poured his measure into my glass and drained it all in one long pull.

"Maybe you should take it easy, boss," Embry said, a note of the familiar wryness in his tone. I breathed a sigh of relief at the small upward twist of his mouth. "Don't want to set a bad example for your assistant."

"God, I hope he doesn't look up to me because I have no idea what the fuck to do right now."

Embry snorted before tiredly rubbing at his eyes. "This is probably, right. Any minute, Leah's gonna start shouting at our lazy asses to get out of bed."

"Wishful thinking, bro." Seth bounded through the door then, Leah trailing in behind him.

"Is it true? Aaron's alive. He's a werewolf?"

I could just barely see Leah roll her eyes behind him. He was so excited, typical Seth, focusing only on the adventure at hand and none of the consequences. "It's true. He's in the shower."

His eyes went impossibly wider as he jumped on the balls of his feet. "Holy cow, oh my, this is crazy. How is this possible?"

No one answered him. There were no answers.

"Do you think I should call Sam?"

Leah visibly froze at the sound of his name. It had never been spoken aloud before in our home, in deference to her, but now…

"He won't know anything," Embry said calmly. "We were all told the same legends."

Leah nodded, beyond grateful that the idea of contacting the former love of her life had been squashed so effectively. I wasn't so sure. For the first time since taking responsibility for this pack, I doubted my ability to lead them. I desperately wanted some guidance and, besides my dad, who wasn't in the greatest health, Sam was the best source of Quileute knowledge that I had.

"This has nothing to do with us, or our legends. You guys have to know who did this right?"

Seth's statement was met with bewilderment from Embry and me but Leah groaned with annoyance.

"Seth, please don't start that again."

"You bet your ass I'm starting it again." He glared at her for a moment before turning back to glare at us.

"Spit it out, bud." Embry said tersely.

Seth steeled himself for the big reveal, puffing out his chest and standing as tall as he could before he opened his mouth. "It's the witches."

"Witches," I said skeptically and the hurt that crossed Seth's face almost had me apologizing but Embry spoke before I could.

"Like Hocus Pocus, I Put a Spell on You, witches?"

Seth crossed his arms, offended through and through. "I doubt they sing but yes."

"Witches aren't real, Seth," and I hated how superior and chastising my voice sounded.

Surprisingly, instead of bowing to my tone, he laughed ruefully. "Neither are werewolves or vampires or half-vampires-"

I held up a hand. "Alright, you made your point."

"I've heard people talking, during patrols." He kneeled in front of me and I met his astonishingly steady gaze. "How else can you explain Aaron being alive, being like us? There's something dangerous at play here." He grabbed my hand, his ragged fingernails biting into my skin. "It'd be stupid to ignore it."