AN: Well, it took me some time, but I finally figured out which direction to go at this crossroad. Thank you for those of you who chose to review the last chapter. I do enjoy hearing your feedback. As you may expect, this chapter will be told from a different POV. I'll also warn that there are some...less than pleasant concepts discussed. All right, time to roll on with the next chapter. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Sam's POV

I had seen a lot of things in my time, but nothing, and I mean nothing, compared to what was in front of me. The chaos began as my truck skidded to a stop, Seth immediately jumping out into the rain with his imprint. An older model truck that I could recognize as Chief Swan's off-duty vehicle was totaled, smoke pouring from its destroyed engine. He looked rattled, which made me wonder what he had seen, but that was far from the worst part.

No, the most important thing here was how badly my Alpha was injured. Seth was running his hand through Jake's hair, already covered in blood. Between the pool that was being washed away by the rain and what was freshly coming out of several gashes and what I could guess was a major wound on his head, I could tell that we were already close to losing him. Bruises had already formed across most of his body and it was clear that several – if not most – of his bones were broken in some manner. The boy below me was in horrendous shape.

Snapping out of my stupor, I quickly dialed Carlisle's number. He answered without hesitation, knowing that any call that I would be sending him had to be urgent. I explained the situation and it wasn't a few seconds later that he was standing beside us, several bags of blood in his hands and everything he needed to start pumping it into our brother. Charlie looked astonished, but our secrets were the least of my worries. His daughter was one of them now, so maybe it'd be easier for him to know the truth.

Carlisle attached the needle into Jake's battered arm, finding a spot that would actually allow the blood to cycle through his body. He then proceeded to empty a couple of bags, but I couldn't tell if it was staying in Jake or joining his original blood on the pavement. Still, he was at least doing something, which is more than I could say for myself.

After several minutes, Carlisle had a very distraught-looking Seth and Paul carefully lift Jake up, placing him in the backseat of my truck. He was still a mess, but he needed to be taken out of the cold rain. I was able to crank some heat on him to try and stabilize his temperature as Seth wrapped himself around his imprint. Paul hopped in the back of the truck with Charlie getting in the passenger side, ignoring his truck and refraining from asking questions for the time being.

With that, we took off towards the Cullens' house. Carlisle had left immediately to prepare his operating room for us and we were fortunate that we were only a handful of miles away from their place. I slid into the driveway, finding myself surrounded by the family as Emmett and Jasper opened the doors and carefully took Jake's broken form in. They were completely ignoring the fact that his blood was everywhere and I was grateful that they were able to control themselves in order to help us. Bella was shocked to see her father, but ushered him into an upstairs room while we all ran in to see if we could help Jake. She had a very large belly that I'm sure Charlie had noticed as well. That'd be something to discuss at a later time and I noticed Edward nod his head at me. She had looked normal a couple of days ago. If that was what I thought it was, it was progressing much faster than it should, but I'd never heard of vampire births. And if she had been pregnant when she was turned…what would the child be? I pushed these thoughts to the back of my mind as we dealt with more pressing issues.

The doctor had already hooked Jake up to several machines, both to monitor his vitals and continue to give him blood, fluids, and hopefully pain killers. The beeps indicating his pulse were far from how frequent they should be and every time a few seconds would pass without one, I worried that the tone might go solid. It was unnerving to say the least. I could also see that there was a pump running to an oxygen mask. Jake was literally being supported by machines and I shuddered as I heard Seth's whimpering at the sight.

Carlisle beckoned me over to join the Cullen males. I knew what need to be done, so I asked Jasper to try and do something to help Seth get through this. The imprint connection wouldn't make this pleasant for him, even if he didn't feel every bone being reset. Jasper nodded and joined the pup, who was already being held onto by Paul.

Jake lurched as the first bone was snapped over again, thrashing against the machines. Our healing had its detriments as well. We needed to reseat everything so that he would actually be able to move after this…assuming he survived. I held onto his upper body to prevent him from hurting himself even more, both saddened and relieved as he successfully knocked himself out after breaking free of my grasp. I glanced over at Seth and saw that he was crying against Paul, but Jasper had been able to prevent hysterics. I had been a little worried that his connection might cause him to come after us for hurting his imprint. That was the last thing that we needed to add on to this.

We finished the extremely upsetting process of placing Jake's bones in the right position before Carlisle began running scans. The fact that the doctor was biting his lip was worrying and I quietly asked him what he thought. Apparently Jake had given himself a concussion and combined with the swelling he already had in his head, Carlisle had no idea if there would be lasting damage. I immediately felt useless for having let him break free, but he had all of the strength of an Alpha, even if he was banged up. I silently prayed that he would come out of it ok.

The Cullens left the room, most of them needing to hunt after all of the blood they'd endured. Carlisle wasn't willing to leave, but he had a lot more control than his kids. Ed had promised to bring him back something though. These vampires were a true family, always looking out for each other, as well as being good Samaritans and helping us. The fact that we had been at odds with them just because of something they had no control over, especially when they had gone against their instincts to make themselves less monstrous, shamed me. I would never let my prejudices get the better of me again.

As we sat there, the sounds of the machines filled the air. It was Paul who finally broke the silence that had formed between us.

"This is all my fault. I'm so sorry, Seth. I was a coward and thought that this would turn out to be the easy way out. I didn't mean to drag you all into this." He whispered.

"Why, Paul? What did you two have to fight over?" Seth pleaded, seeking understanding of how things had come to be.

"My parents died two nights ago. My father was drunk and crashed his car with my mother inside." He began.

"I'm sorry Paul…" Seth and I responded simultaneously, shocked by the news.

"The night I submitted to our new Alpha, Jake ordered me out of my parents' house." He continued, getting a gasp from both of us. "It's not what you think though. He was trying to protect me, and if I had any sense, I'd have never come after him. I knew what he did was right, but I just wanted someone to blame. Honestly, I was pretty sure that I'd lost everything and had a feeling if I angered him enough, he'd do what he had to in order to protect himself. I didn't think that he'd be the one that got hurt…" Paul trailed off.

"But why would he order you out of your home?" I questioned, not putting things together.

Paul was silent for a long while before answering my question. "My dad has been an alcoholic for years. Since I was 12, he's taken out most of his anger on me. I saw him going after mom and decided to step between them. Since then, I've taken the brunt of things. He's broken several of my ribs and an arm, all to go along with an endless supply of bruises. At the time I just figured it'd be easier for everyone to think I got in fights a lot. I'd walk in with a foul attitude and my newest collection of injuries and people would keep their distance. Jared always tried to keep an eye on me, but he never really knew the truth."

"I didn't want anyone to know. Once I became a wolf, it was easier to hide. He could beat me, but the wounds would heal quickly. Dad knew what I was and seemed to resent that he hadn't gotten the activated gene, adding the fact to the list of issues he had with his life. He had long since figured out that I wasn't willing to stop him, so he tried to push the envelope on how much of his anger he could vent at me. Between all the slurs about how I was an accident and a huge mistake and having just gotten used to his punishment, I took whatever he delved out. I figured that it was better me than my mom, as she'd never be able to take this."

"A week before Jake showed up, my dad finally lost it…well more so than before I guess. Mom had gotten angry and gone to spend a few days at her sister's. Dad caught me as I came in from patrol, shattering a liquor bottle across my head. He finished up by shoving a jagged piece of it into my chest and spat on me as he went to drink some more. I lay there wondering if I'd actually make it out of this one, but fortunately my wolf was resilient and once I got the glass out, he was able to heal." Paul continued on, tears brimming in his eyes.

"Jake saw everything the night he initiated me into the pack. It was just us and I didn't have my barriers up, so they flowed right to him as we made the connection. That night he instructed me to stay with someone else, which inevitably meant Jared. The Camerons have always been the kind home that I never had and they never questioned it. Life has actually been pretty good since then. I was treated like a son and never felt any form of reluctance from them. I just let my emotions take over today. I know it wasn't Jake's fault, but I needed to blame someone since I couldn't blame the bastard himself. I'm so sorry, Seth. Your imprint is in this position because I was being ridiculous…" he trailed off. Seth immediately pulled him into a hug. I knew that he was still in pain because of Jake, but he was a compassionate kid. He cared about Paul, especially knowing what it was like to have lost a parent.

I couldn't speak. How could I have been so blind? I had always thought Paul was just angry, but I'd never fought to try and see what he was blocking from us in the pack. Hell, even as a human I should have known something was wrong. Even though he was always beaten up, I never had seen him actually get in a fight with anyone. Most kept their distance just because of his attitude.

After Seth released him, I wrapped my arms around Paul. "I hope you'll forgive me, Paul" I whispered against him, pulling him closer.

He pulled back startled. "For what?" he asked with a slight panic.

It took me a moment to realize that he might have thought I was going to punish him. Instead I embraced him again. "I failed you. I was a bad friend and a bad Alpha. If I had been worth anything I'd have seen that you needed help, but I was never looking. Don't try to say that you were covering it up because I still knew that something was bothering you and I never chose to ask. I'm sorry for never being there for you." I said with as much strength as I had.

"I don't think you need to ask for forgiveness, but I don't hold anything against you. If the words help, I forgive you, but I don't think it's necessary." He responded.

We allowed a silence to fill the room again, huddling together just to feel the closeness of being around pack. We had all been through a lot.

After a few hours the beeps began to pick up in pace, getting to the point that they were well above normal resting rate. Carlisle was in the room instantly, pulling out the tube before Jake could struggle against it. Our friend was already coughing, indicating that he had come out of his short term unconsciousness.

Seth was immediately over top of his imprint, planting a kiss on his lips and refraining from hugging him tightly like I'm sure he wanted to. Even if the healing had begun, Jake was going to be sore for a while.

The wolf tensed and looked up at Seth questioningly before glancing at all of us. "Who are you?" he asked, the words ringing through the room.

AN: Some of you may not believe it, but I was truly considering killing him off this chapter. Decided to push forward with some other ideas instead, as I'm not ready to end this story yet hehe. Hopefully it won't be too long before the next one is out, but as always, I can't guarantee how long it will take due to real life restrictions. Hope you enjoyed and as always, I hope to hear from you. Thanks for reading!