A.N. Hey guys! I really love this story and would be happy to continue it if you all are still interested. I know I'm not the best at updating often… let's be honest I'm really bad… but if you guys want I'll try harder to keep it going. Thanks for sticking with me!

Disclaimer: I own the storyline only

Max P.O.V.

I was on instant alert as soon as I awoke. At some point during my nap, I had slid so that my head rested on Fangs shoulder, allowing him to wake me with a silent nudge. It was currently 6:15 and Sam had just announced we would be leaving for the meeting place soon. It seemed the majority of the boys had been sent out as security which left Fang and I with Sam, Jacob, Seth, and Jared.

Seth insisted he was feeling fine and would be carrying me while Jared carried Fang. Since Jacob was still handcuffed to me, he would be my guard while Sam was stuck with Fang… again.

Sam strode through the front door and looked at Jacob, giving him a silent signal. Jacob nodded and stood in response, pulling me with him. He swiftly wrapped his free arm under my knees and carried me bridal style while Sam slung Fang over his shoulder. Apparently it was time to go.

Outside, Seth and Jared were already in wolf form waiting. I was surprised to see how easy it was to tell them apart just by looking. There was no mistaking the goofy grin on Seths face as we approached.

Jacob laid me across Seths back and stood close so our linked arms could relax. I shifted my weight slightly to relieve some pressure from my bad arm and settled in. I wasn't planning on causing trouble, at least not on the ride there.

With a slight wave of Sam's hand we were on our way. Fang seemed to have the same idea as me and remained uncharacteristically compliant. The ride took at least 15 minutes and as we neared I felt my shoulder begin to throb relentlessly. I kept my head down even as we came to a stop until Sam spoke up.

"Little bit early aren't you?" these few words cause my head to snap up and search frantically for familiar faces. When my eyes locked with Carlisle I felt a rush of relief. A part of me, deep inside, had been secretly wondering if he would even show up. It seemed stupid now, but I had been worried he wouldn't bother with us.

I was slightly surprised to see Edward by his side, although I suppose it made sense with his gift. I was pulled from my thoughts when Jacob slid me off of Seth, keeping one arm around me for balance. Sam pulled Fang off as well but simply let him fall to the ground, obviously still bitter from earlier.

"We followed your rules so let them go." Carlisle ground out, trying to remain civil. Both he and Edward stared at me, concerned with my obvious injury. I replayed in my thoughts how it had happened for Edwards's sake and saw him nod with a cringe in understanding.

"Not so fast," Sam began, making me grimace. I should have known this was coming. "You need to answer some questions first. It's our job to protect the people here and we can't very well do that with mysterious winged creatures flying around."

I fought the urge to snap back with a rude comeback but allowed Carlisle to answer instead. "Fine, but first let me look at Max's arm, I'm not telling you anything until I know she's alright." A look of confusion crossed the packs faces as they all turned to stare at me. It took me a second to understand why.

"Oh yeah…" I began. "sorry… I may have maybe lied about our names…" By the look on my face it was obvious to everyone how not sorry I was. "I'm Max, and that's Fang." I noticed Jacob grumbling to himself but no one seemed especially surprised.

"As I was saying," Carlisle continued, impatient to get to the point. "I need to look at her arm before I answer anything." Sam furrowed his brows and paused before nodding. He must have realized there was no way around the request.

Edward smartly remained where he stood as Carlisle approached me. As soon as he reached me he began asking questions while undoing the makeshift sling, utterly ignoring Jacob.

"How did you injure it?" I quickly summarized the incident and explained that we had to pop it back into place. I felt him cringe as he carefully inspected my shoulder. He seemed stunned at how calm I was but now that I had had time to adjust to the pain, it was easy to remain silent. He also took a second to inspect the stitches where the tracking device had been inserted.

As he finished inspecting my arm he quietly re-wrapped it back in the sling. "You're lucky more damage wasn't done. Everything appears to be back in place and with your accelerated healing you should be better in no time. We can remove your stitches when we arrive back home. Were you injured anywhere else?" His eyes met mine and I could almost feel how much he truly cared.

"You mean other than my pride? No, I'm okay." I grinned at him, easing the tense atmosphere. He hesitated and opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the big bad wolf, aka Sam.

"You looked at her arm now back away. We have things to discuss." He stepped between Carlisle and I forcing Carlisle to take a step back. With a concerned gaze, he reluctantly moved back to stand by his son. "I'm gonna make this easy," Sam began. "I ask a question and you're going to answer. Not answering is signing the death certificate of the mutants. Understood?" I really didn't like where this was going but there wasn't another way so both Carlisle and Edward nodded.

"Then let's get started. Where did they come from?" Sam's voice boomed with authority and Carlisle was quick to answer, describing the School. Sam remained straight faced but I could feel Jacob startle in shock. They had definitely not expected the answer they got.

"So what are they?" Sam continued, not giving anyone time to breathe. Carlisle answered promptly, explaining in detail out complex DNA.

I continued to only half listen as Sam asked every question you could imagine. Were we immortal? Could we fly? How many of us were there? How long have we been in Forks? Finally he asked the big question: are we dangerous? For the first time Carlisle hesitated which obviously bothered Sam. Luckily Edward was quick to fill the silence.

"If you mean are they going to go around murdering innocent people then the answer is no. They are very strong and if being attacked they are dangerous to their attacker only. They are defensive but so are you and I. They won't hesitate to protect themselves but that is the extent of their danger." I had to admit I was proud of his answer. It summarized us extremely well.

There was a silence and Sam processed everything he had been told. Sam gave nothing away with his poker face so I instead locked my eyes of Edward, waiting for the verdict. I felt a gust of air leave my lungs as Edwards's lips turned up at the corners, letting me know we would be alright.

"At even the smallest sign of trouble we will be ready to react," Sam began. "but for now I don't see a problem with them staying with your family. Welcome to Forks." He turned to Fang and I and it was obvious the welcome was the closest thing to an apology we were going to get. I could live with that.

With a nod from Sam Jacob un-cuffed us and untied my still bound feet. Edward and Carlisle stepped forward just as Fang became free as well. Carlisle refrained from hugging us, as he so clearly wanted to do, and settled with giving us a pat of the shoulder (my good one).

Before we turned to leave I glided over to where Seth stood, still in wolf form. Reaching out my hand I ruffled the fur between his ears and mumbled "no hard feelings" with a devilish grin. He snorted and pressed his face into me in response. Seth was probably the first wolf I ever liked.

I strode back over to where Carlisle stood and said with a big smile "let's go home now" before unfurling my wings and doing a U&A. I heard Fang following close behind and stopped to hover above the clearing, staring down at the shocked eyes of the pack. I made eye contact with Edward and he gestured with his head for us to go ahead. With a nod, Fang and I were off together.

As we flew I could feel Fang's eyes glued to me with a smirk. I ignored his look for as long as possible before begrudgingly turning and acknowledging him. "What?" His smirk turned into a grin before he responded.

"You called it home." I dropped several yards in the air in surprise before regaining composure. It had come out so naturally that I hadn't even realized what I said. I considered my choice of words and tried to convince myself there was no meaning behind them, but I knew the truth.

The Cullen's house had become more than just a resting place on our journey, it was our home now. One look at Fang and I knew he had come to the same conclusion.

"I think we need to have another family meeting." I announced, not feeling the need to specify who would be involved. It was clear to Fang that I meant everyone.

I looked down and saw the house up ahead with everyone standing out front. Carlisle and Edward had beaten us there so everyone was probably at least semi-filled in. I reached out and grasped Fang's hand as we went down for our landing.

The second our feet were on the ground, everyone swarmed around us talking at once. When it became obvious that we were overwhelmed, they all backed off a step. As I scanned the faces around me, I saw mixtures of relief and worry. Esme's face stood out the most to me because if she could cry, she would be right now. I took one step forward and wrapped me good arm around her tight.

She encircled me in the most caring of hugs and tearlessly sobbed onto my shoulder. Everyone else was silent as they watched our exchange. As she pulled away she paused and stared into my eyes.

"I thought you'd run away. That we'd lost you forever." She tearfully whispered. I had never heard that much emotion in anyone's voice over our safety. I glanced around and saw similar expressions on everyone. Turning back to Esme I considered my response carefully.

"I'm really sorry we made you worry, but I want you to know that we aren't planning on trying to run again. Maybe part of it is our safety, but I for one would miss you all too much to leave." I grinned, opening myself up more than normal. From the glow in her eyes I knew I had said the right thing.

"Thank you Max, I hope you know you're like our family now. All of you are." She stated, making eye contact with everyone in the flock. "We're really glad you're back" and with that she stepped back to allow me to greet everyone else.

The whole flock surrounded Fang and I in a sweet but really uncomfortable hug before giving us space. I hugged Ella and my mom as well but after that I decided I was done with all physical contact for at least a year. I wasn't especially touchy feely and had hugged more people in the past 10 minutes than I had my whole life. Seeming to understand that, the rest of the Cullens just gave us nods of acceptance or statements like "welcome home" and "don't ever scare us like that again!" of course that second one was Alice…

"I'm not sure about you all but I could really use a hot chocolate and a good night's rest. How about we talk more tomorrow? Maybe even have another family meeting?" I made eye contact with Carlisle as I suggested this so he knew that includes the Cullens. This was the first time I had referred to them as family.

After he had recovered from the shock he nodded. "Of course! We sometimes forget that humans, and part humans, need sleep. I would like to get everyone's stitches out before you go to bed if that's alright though."

"Sure, you can start with mine." I turned to Esme. "Would you mind helping the kids get ready for bed while I'm gone? Teeth brushed, dressed, you know the routine. That way after they get their stitches out they'll be ready to climb in bed." I suggested. This was my way of making it up to Esme and it seemed to be working.

"I would love to! I'll also make your hot chocolate so it's ready for you when you come down. Run along, don't worry about the kids." Esme smiled, ushering them into the house and towards the bedroom.

Grinning, I turned and followed Carlisle towards his medical room while everyone else went their separate ways. Once there, I forced myself to hop onto the table and try to relax. All of Carlisle's movements were exaggeratingly slow as not to startle me as he put on his gloves and began to un-wrap my arm. It took a moment before he began to speak.

"That was really sweet, what you did for Esme. I don't think you realize how much that meant to her." If it wasn't for my awesome hearing he probably would have had to repeat himself.

"Don't mention it, it was the least I could after all you guys have done for us. I'm just sorry for all the trouble we've caused." I averted my gaze, not wanting to look into his eyes.

I felt his hands leave my arm and I looked over to find him staring at me. I dropped my gaze to my lap and began fiddling with the bottom of my shirt.

"You guys haven't caused any trouble." He began. "If anything we should be apologizing for what you've had to go through. I can't even imagine all the horrible things that have been done to you so your mistrust is rightfully earned. I just hope that in time you can learn to trust us more so that we can help you." I could feel his eyes burning a hole in my face and I forced myself to look up at him.

"It may take some time but we do want to trust you. I don't think you realize just how much trust we have in you currently. All I ask is that you don't break that trust. We've had that happen too many times and I don't know if the kids could live through it again." I held our eye contact until he nodded and began to speak.

"We can't promise to be perfect, but we will do everything in our power to keep you safe." And with that, he continued to work on my arm.

He managed to get the stitches out with almost no pain and in no time I was on my way downstairs. I passed Fang in the hall and told him it was his turn so he headed the way I had come from. In the kitchen, true to her word, Esme had a steaming cup of hot chocolate waiting on the counter for me. With a small grin I gripped the mug and sat down at the island, blowing on it to cool.

I could hear Edward and Emmett in the living room watching something on TV and as I tuned out the noises I let my mind wander.

So many things had changed in the short time we had been here. It concerned me how fast our guard was falling down but I also didn't want to worry. I was sick of always worrying and it was time I handed everything over to fate. What was the worst that could happen? I didn't like the images that popped up and immediately changed my course of thought.

I sipped the last of my drink before loading it into the dishwasher and heading back upstairs. In our room, I found the whole flock dressed and tucked in already. Looking over at Fang quizzically he nodded, confirming they had already had their stitches removed. I must have been in the kitchen longer than I thought. I quietly climbed into bed and was out as soon as my head hit the pillow. We were home safe again.

A.N. Thanks for reading! As always let me know what you think! Constructive criticism is accepted and appreciated! Also let me know if you want more!