Hey guys! Chapter 20 has arrived. I must say that I love this chapter, especially Jake's POV. Sorry it took me a few days to come back again. Been very busy with work and sleep. Embry lovers, you may very well like this chapter :)

*Disclaimer*

Please enjoy!

ShelbyPOV

The next morning, I woke up warm with the sun shining through the giant window-wall. Nessie and Jacob had tucked me in the recovery room next to Walker's room. Nessie had stayed with me, cuddling up close, stroking my back as I cried. Jacob had gone back to sit with Walker while I had my breakdown.

Now, I stretched out alone in the bed. It had felt weird going to bed without Seth curled around me. And now it felt weird waking up without him here. The thought made me want to start imitating a sprinkler again. But I held it back, stretched, and got out of the bed. I needed to check on Walker.

I'd slept in my clothes from yesterday, and I was surprised to find some of my clothes neatly folded on the chair sitting next to the door. Looking at them, I knew that each article of the pile was a favorite of Seth's, right down to the underwear. Slipping into them, I wondered if he'd left them. But no, it was probably Nessie. She was always thinking of ways to make others' lives easier.

As quietly as I could, I opened the door to the room Walker was staying in, Nessie's old room. To my complete surprise, again, I found that he was awake with the bed propped up. He was staring out the window at the woods behind the house.

"Oh my god, Walker! Does anybody know you're awake?" I asked as I rushed for the bed. His head whipped around with wide eyes.

Dimly, I had the thought that nobody was in here with him. Where were Jake and Nessie?

Walker opened his mouth to say something when-

"Edward and Carlisle know," said a low voice behind me.

Yelping with my heart in my throat, I spun around. Seth was standing against the wall in the shadow of the now open door with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Seth," I breathed. "What are-,"

"I came to sit with him. Jake and Nessie wanted to talk to Caden before the training started so I said I'd sit with him. That was a few hours ago. They're probably catching a little sleep. I called Edward and Carlisle as soon as his eyes opened. They're on their way. They went hunting."

His face looked as if he felt destroyed. Dark, sad as if he'd lost someone. I hoped he didn't feel like he lost me because he was far from getting rid of me.

I wanted to run into his arms, wrap myself around him, but that would make me seem desperate…Oh, fuck it. I was desperate. I dashed for him as fast as my feet could carry me and launched myself against him, hugging him as hard as I could. I tried to squeeze all my love into him. Because the truth was, I shouldn't have torn him apart last night. He was my male and was trying to protect me and the baby. Seth had no reason to be jealous of Walker, but some emotions, like phobias, could be completely irrational.

After a moment of me mentally begging, Seth's arms came around me, holding me tightly to him. I felt him dip down so that his face was pressed into my hair, his nose inhaling deeply, taking my scent into him.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you, too. And I'm so sorry."

Seth pulled back so that he could look at me. "For what?"

"You were just trying to protect me. I know that. But I didn't act like it. I just-,"

His fingers came up to my lips. "Hush. You were taking care of a friend. Do I like that he wanted to date you?" At that he glared over my shoulder at Walker. "No, I don't. Do I like you being near him without me? Definitely not." Looking back at me, he brushed the hair back from my face. "But sitting here, watching him, I realized you'd have acted the same way with Nessie if I'd tried to force you away from her. So, I'm sorry, too."

I leaned my face into his palm and smiled. "Apology accepted."

He smiled, and it was the most beautiful Seth-smile I'd ever seen. "You, too."

His lips pressed to mine gently as his hand moved toward my stomach. It was ended too soon with a throat clearing heartily behind us. Turning around, I found Walker with a concentrated look on his face as he tried to clear his throat. And suddenly, I realized he didn't have any water.

"Oh, shoot. Let me go grab a glass of water."

Before I could get one foot out the door however, Bella appeared in the hallway with a glass of water and a bendy straw. She handed it to me with a smile.

"Thanks."

Crossing the room, I felt Seth's eyes on me the whole time. But he didn't crowd me or order me not go near Walker. He was controlling himself. I knew that because I could feel the aggression and possessiveness roll off of him and spread throughout the room.

Walker took the water when I offered it to him and drank half of it with one pull. The relief on his face as he sank back against the pillows made me feel better. Pulling up one of the chairs in the room, I took the glass from him and set it on the table next to the bed.

"How do you feel?" I asked knowing it was a dumb question. I know how I'd felt after being attacked.

"Like-," he stopped, having to clear his throat. "Like roadkill."

I laughed. Yup, that was how I'd felt.

"It'll be over fast. I promise."

He settled back against the pillows, sighing in relief. "So, the Cullens, huh? This is where you ran off to?" I'd been kind of worried that he was gonna ask what I had mean by that.

Smiling, I smoothed the sheet in front of me. "I didn't run here. Bella and Edward Cullen came to get me. They took me away."

"Well, I'm glad someone did. You needed to get out of there. Now, are you going to introduce me to the guy glaring a hole through my head? Or will I die never knowing who killed me? And then you can explain why I'm here and patched all over with gauze."

"Oh, right," I said with embarrassment. "Um, Walker, that's Seth. He's my mate. Seth, this is Walker. A high school friend," I said with emphasis.

Walker cleared his throat again as he nodded toward Seth. "Man, I don't have any eyes for her, ok? Yeah, I had a thing for her in high school. I mean, who wouldn't? She was a badass."

Seth's expression fought between fury and agreement. He settled on calm distaste. "Just so we understand each other, she's pregnant. With my child."

Walker completely ignored the whole possessiveness thing and trained a glowing smile on me. "Really? That's great, Shelby. I always thought you'd make a good mom."

I laughed as Seth's eyes narrowed. It was easy to slip back into the easy conversation with him. We had a certain trust with each other even though we'd never be more than just buddies. Not even best friends, but he was someone I trusted implicitly. "Thanks, Walker. Seth and I are really excited about it. I mean, at first I was scared, you know, because of the whole 'my mom thing', but I'm good now. I know that I'm in a different place."

Walker's eyes went over my shoulder to my male. "You're good for her. I don't know you, but I do know that she'd have never been excited about another man's baby." Before Seth could answer, Walker looked back at me. "Now explain why I feel like I was skinned under these bandages. And what happened to me."

"You were skinned," Seth said from the doorway. "As for what happened? Not sure if we can explain that one to you yet."

Something must have caught his attention behind me because Walker stopped with the question he was no doubt about to ask and widened his eyes. Looking behind me, I found Jacob and Nessie in the doorway, looking well-rested and sporting the loose bones that only a really good roll between the sheets could give a couple. They were both calm and clear-eyed, sure of themselves and of each other. Jacob's arm was wrapped around his mate, his fingers playing just under the hem of her shirt at her hip.

"Nessie," Walker said. "Wow. I knew I was in the Cullen house, but…"

She cocked her head to the side, looking confused. "But what?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "When you didn't come back for sophomore year, everybody had thought you'd died from being sick or had been shipped off somewhere else. And I couldn't say anything. I knew you'd still be here and that you hadn't been sick. I just hadn't known if I actually could say anything so I didn't. I figured you'd had a reason for not coming back."

"Oh." Her eyes went to Walker. "Nope, I'm perfectly fine. I just went for homeschool. Figured it was less dangerous to everybody's health, ya know?"

He chuckled. "Yeah." His eyes went to Jacob. "Luke was stupid to go after you the way he did, especially with, I'm assuming, your man around."

Jacob nodded. "Yeah. I wasn't then, but I am now." He walked into the room, leading Nessie, to loom over the bed. "So, tell me what you remember from last night."

Walker frowned. "I don't know. I just remember a frenzy and then, I was passing out thinking that for once I could see the stars."

"Go back to the beginning. What were you doing before you were attacked?"

"Bonfire. I was at a bonfire with all the guys from high school. One last goodbye before I went off to college. They were getting rowdy and it was warm out so I decided to just slip into the woods for a few minutes. Out of the corner of my eye, there was something moving, something big. When I turned toward it, I literally got blindsided. Something huge took me to the ground. And then…" He frowned again. Shook his head. "Pain. That's all I can remember. I tried to scream but something clamped over my mouth."

"Ladies, if you would please leave the room."

We all looked over to find Caden in the doorway. For once, Leah wasn't with him.

When Nessie and I didn't move, he glared at us. "Nessie, Shelby, please wait out in the hall."

"Why?" I demanded.

Looking at me pointedly, he said, "The full moon is two nights away. That's a little close."

"What does the full moon have to do with anything?" Walker asked, his eyes darting to each face in the room.

"I'll explain everything if the ladies go out into the hallway. I want the males in here."

Just before it clicked in my brain, Nessie's face registered her understanding. She came to me, gripped my hand, and we went out into the hallway in silence. All the males watched us as we went. Pulling the same look Caden had, I fixed Jacob with a pointed stare and then flicked my eyes over to Seth. Jacob gave a curt nod and then shut the door behind us.

JPOV

Going over to stand next to Seth, I could feel the control in him straining. He was trying not to go after Walker, trying to keep his cool. His mate was out of the room and out of danger should anything happen when Caden told Walker what was going to happen now. Caden had told me that there was a good chance the new werewolf could change even though he'd just been infected and the full moon was just nights away.

This was the perfect time to tell him. The girls were out of the room, no doubt next door with their ears against the wall. Most of the Cullens had gone hunting. And the Cullen property was swarming with my wolves, ready to be trained.

Walker arranged himself in the bed so that he was sitting up on his own. He tried to hide the pain but the tightness around his eyes and lips gave him away. "So what does the full moon have to do with anything?"

Caden went straight to the point. "You're familiar with werewolves, I take it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Werewolves," Caden repeated slowly. "Do I need to spell it for you?"

Walker's eyes narrowed. "I don't like you."

"Nor I you."

"You don't even know me."

"Precisely. Now answer the question."

Eyes rolled. "Of course I'm familiar with werewolves."

None of us said anything further. The three of us just stared at him, hoping he'd connect the dots from his attack to waking up in the Cullen house to hearing the word. And eventually, it did click.

Walker laughed. "Wait, are you saying you think that I'm-,"

"I don't think. I know," Caden interrupted. "I can smell the disease coming out of your pores."

"Disease? Like, what, an infection?" We stared at him again, which led him to continue his earlier train of thought. "So, you-know- that I'm going to turn into a giant dog at the full moon?"

"Yes," Caden said dryly. "That's what I'm saying. Welcome to the club."

Walker's eyes went from Caden to Seth to me. And stayed as his eyes roamed me.

He swallowed hard and gave a weak, forced laugh. "You guys are crazy. Next you're going to tell me that the Cullens are vampires."

Caden, Seth, and I shared a look that Walker caught.

He shook his head. "Oh, no. Vampires and werewolves do not exist. This is a joke. A bad one."

The look on Caden's face told me he was about to do something that I probably wouldn't like. Sure enough, he whipped forward to grip where Walker's throat met his shoulder. A particularly deep cut and tear had been made there, a good hunk missing. And Caden gripped and squeezed that hole.

"Does that feel like a joke to you?" he demanded as Walker screamed.

Immediately I moved in front of the door, knowing that Shelby and Nessie would hear it and come running. A moment later, the door tried to open. I leaned my back on it to keep it closed. There was no way either or both girls were going to move me.

"Seth?"

"Jacob?"

"We're fine," I said over my shoulder through the door. "We're ok. I promise. Go into the recovery suite."

"Jacob-,"

"Go, Nessie," I said in my Alpha tone. The command wouldn't necessarily work on her, but she'd know the voice and pull Shelby back. Relief came when I heard the door next to the one I was leaning on close.

"You…bastard," Walker panted out as he slumped against the bed.

"Caden, maybe we shouldn't-,"

"You feel that?" Caden demanded of Walker. "You feel that hatred, that anger? It wants to flood through you, fill out your skin, come to life. Do you feel it?"

Taking a few deep breaths, Walker glared at the other man. "That wasn't necessary, but yeah I feel it. What is it?"

"Your wolf. Right now, you are incredibly dangerous. That means that you have to stay here where I can watch you. The full moon is two nights away. You have a very high chance of turning."

Walker swallowed hard and finally looked rattled. "What if I don't believe you?" At Caden's move forward, he continued quickly. "Not about me getting attacked. I mean about the werewolves."

With a growl, Caden got up from the chair, went to the window and nodded, holding up a finger. Then he turned to Walker.

"Can you stand up?"

"I think so. Why?"

"I want you to come to the window, that's why."

Walker looked over to me and Seth. I nodded encouragingly. "Whatever he has planned, it'll help you understand. And we're not gonna let you go through all this alone."

Seth shrugged beside me. "I may not be all that fond of you, but Jake's right."

A long moment passed between the four of us before Walker scooted himself with winces and curses to the edge of the bed. Someone had put him in some loose pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. In a wobbly tilt, he tried to stand, but his knees gave out making his ass hit the edge of the bed. Walking over, I bent down to wrap an arm around his waist and then paused to give him a second to adjust to the fact that a strange man was all in his personal space. A couple heartbeats later, his arm slipped over my shoulders.

"On the count of three, ok?" When he nodded, I counted, "One…two…three, up we go." His teeth snapped together to grind as his lips turned into a tight line while I hoisted him up. "You good?"

He nodded.

"Just a second," Caden said as I started shuffle-walking with Walker.

The other wolf walked up to us when I stopped. Did I really want to stop? No. But the ball was in Caden's court. He knew more about the workings of the Children of the Moon than I did, so I had to let him handle this. His expression was softer as he reached out to Walker, who was flinching as the other man went to grip his neck again. This time when Caden gripped, there wasn't an ear-splitting scream, just a hiss and grunt.

And then the register of surprise.

"Doesn't hurt as bad as it did a few minutes ago, does it?" Caden asked softly. "By tomorrow night, all these cuts and missing bits will be nothing but pink scars."

Walker swallowed hard. "What are you going to show me?"

"Something that will make this real to you."

Finally, we made it to the window. The four of us looked out and down to the backyard where the wolves were mingling and pacing. At our movement, Morgan looked up from where she was petting a rather large dark grey, black-masked wolf. It came to me that this was the first time I saw, in person, Lucas in wolf form. I had to admit that he was quite striking. And freaking huge.

She nodded at Caden, who nodded an affirmation. Morgan's eyes moved over to lock with Walker's…and then she phased. A smaller light brown wolf stood next to her massive male as the same light brown eyes stared up at Walker. Lucas moved closer to Morgan, baring his teeth, protecting her.

"Holy…shit!" Walker tried to stagger back, but instead, his knees gave out suddenly and I struggled to catch him around the waist.

"Easy, big guy. Let's get you back to the bed."

We stumbled back to bed where he immediately collapsed. Seth, Caden, and I all gave him a minute to himself. His entire body shook as he forced himself to lie down and pull the blankets back over himself.

"So that's what's going to happen to me?" he asked unsteadily.

"Not exactly."

Caden and I shared a look as his hand disappeared behind his back. Closing my eyes, I knew what he was doing. The energy in the room changed as he shifted his hand into monstrous claws. The sound of breaking bones and tearing muscle had me sneaking a peek at Walker whose eyes were wide as he heard the sounds.

"What do you mean, 'not exactly'?"

Caden then launched into the whole explanation of the two different types of werewolf. And that he was going to be the type that was going to have it rough, like him. Like Shelby. And then, just as Walker was starting to relax and take it all in, Caden whipped out that hand of his.

Walker's eyes went wide again and he went to throw himself out of the bed. I caught his arm, shook my head, and forced him to stay.

"No, Walker. You need to hear this, to see this. Caden's going to help you. He's just trying to get you to understand."

"What…what the hell is going on?"

"Like I just said, we're different from Morgan and Jacob. Jacob's pack is genetically labeled. We are not. Remember that disease I told you I could smell on you? That's what we are: infected."

Walker swallowed hard. "So this is really happening."

"It is. And the full moon is two nights away."

"What about my family? My mom is going to be hysterical. My sister? My dad?"

Another look passed between us. I gave Caden the "tread carefully" glare.

"For now, we need you to stay here."

Walker leaned forward. "Just let me call them to let them know that I'm ok."

Seth shook his head beside me. "They already called Charlie for a missing child. Your cell phone wasn't anywhere near you when we found you. Your dad called Charlie saying that one of your friends found your phone in the woods."

"You're missing right now," Caden continued. "You need to stay that way. It doesn't matter that you're eighteen. What matters is that your parents are going to want you home. Technically, Charlie can't drag you back, but still. I need you here. Right now, your beast is calm, allowing you to heal because you have to share a body, but Walker, you're very dangerous, especially if you get agitated. Today, I'm going to try to train the Quileute wolves and I want you to be there. I'm going to try to turn them into something like me, something fast and deadly."

"My beast? You make it sound like I have an animal caged inside of me."

"Exactly. It's because you do. Your human body is the cage, and that animal is a force to be reckoned with. And since you, like Shelby, were infected by alphas, dominants, most likely you will be, too. It also doesn't hurt that you seem to be a dominant personality."

"So what are you about to train the other pack for?"

I was very interested in hearing this explanation.

"I am about to try to get the Quileute wolves to separate their beasts from their human selves. Meaning I'm going to try to get those wolves inside them to become the beasts they resemble instead of animal reflections of the human personality."

Walker looked to me. "And you want to do this?"

"There's a lot you don't know. We have enemies in town. But for now, I want you down at the training and talking with Caden. We'll get you settled. Charlie knows about what's going on so he'll stop by here to see how you are. I and one other of my people are going to go with him to your place to talk to your parents. The cover story is…that you're sick," I said with a grin. "And are quarantined to the rez, hence the presence of myself and Embry."

Seth stiffened beside me. I turned to him.

"I want Embry because I know how important this training is to you. Plus you need to get used to him. Get to know him. Help Caden when you can."

He nodded. "I get it. It's cool."

"What are you? Like, the pack leader?" Walker asked me.

I turned back to him and stood a little straighter. "Yeah. In my kind of wolf, I'm called the Alpha. Seth is my second. He's a dominant alpha, but beta to me."

"I thought alpha and dominant were the same thing."

Caden laughed. "In my and your world, they are. Alpha male and dominant male are the same, the same…class so to speak. But Jacob was born into the title of leader, so he's the only Alpha. Seth is just dominant."

"Oh." Walker nodded. "That makes sense. I think."

"Just know that I'm in charge and Seth is right behind me. Caden is part of my pack but he's the expert on your type of wolf. In those matters, he's in charge."

"Let's put it this way, most of us are dominant males and females, but betas to Jacob since he's the president of our little organization. And if I were to have a pack of my own, and at this rate with people getting infected I just might, I would be the alpha male, the pack leader. The way our hierarchy works is the same as all the books you've read. You challenge each other to climb the ranks. Someone of my kind wants to challenge me for pack leader, that's their right. If they kill me, they win. But those are rules we'll get to later. Right now, you rest. You've had a long morning. We'll start the training later in the afternoon."

Caden, Seth, and I went for the door when Walker called out, "Hey, Seth."

My second turned back around with a deep breath. "Yeah?"

"I did have a thing for Shelby a long time ago. And I told her so that if I started acting strange, she'd know why. I don't know what she told you, but I didn't ask her out. She probably thought I was when I told her I liked her, but I wasn't. I knew she wasn't interested. But keeping her as a friend was more important to me than keeping my feelings to myself and possibly hurting her with my frustration."

All it seemed that Seth could do was blink. I hit his shoulder with mine and smiled when he turned around.

"Oh," he managed to get out. "Just friends?"

"Just friends. And I'm glad she found someone to protect her. I always felt shitty that I couldn't. I wanted to, but I had no pull to do anything."

Seth nodded. "That's good to know. I'll come check on you later and get you when we start the training."

"Thanks."

Twenty minutes later, Embry and I were joining Charlie on the front yard of Walker's house. It was nice, light grey two-story with black shutters and white trim. A wraparound porch had two swings and a few rockers on nicely maintained wood. The all American jock's house.

Charlie opened the screen door so that he could knock on the solid door behind and then closed the screen once more. A moment later, a young female opened the door. She was probably a senior in high school, not much younger than Nessie, with long blond hair and bright, ice blue eyes. A totally different picture from her brother. I'd expected a dark beauty, a female version of Walker. Instead, I got Barbie times a thousand.

"Chief Swan. We were just wondering when you'd get here."

"Patricia, how ya doin', hun?"

Her smile, when it came, was bright white. "Please, Mr. Swan, call me Tricia."

When she moved to open the door for Charlie and he went into the house, Embry's breath caught as he got a look at her. Shooting a look at him, I also put a question in my eyes. The girl was stunningly gorgeous, and I didn't know if that's what his reaction was for or…something else.

When she smiled at the two of us in invitation into the house, I gripped Embry's arm before he could get near her.

I smiled back. "We'll just be a second. I need to speak with him." Charlie gave me a look and I shook my head as I dragged Embry off the porch.

"Dude, let me go," Embry growled.

Ignoring him, I dragged him all the way to Charlie's cruiser and whipped him around. "Are you serious? Did you just imprint on her?"

The word seemed to have an effect on him. He shook his head and blinked at me. "I…uh, damn. I think I did."

"Son of a bitch," I said under my breath.

"Hey, watch your language," he hissed.

When I glared at him, he jerked his chin over my shoulder. Turning around, I found the girl, Tricia, standing behind me on the walkway.

"It's ok. I've heard worse. Luke was terrible around me."

A low growl left Embry. I shot a glare at him. He coughed obnoxiously. Great. He was going to be a pain in the ass about this.

"We were just about to come in. You didn't have to wait for us," I said as nicely as I could.

She shook her head, her long blonde hair flying around her shoulders. "I wasn't waiting. I wanted to talk to you without my parents around. They don't understand how Walker is. He and I are best friends. Can I ask you something, and you be honest with me?"

I sighed. "You're about to ask me a really hard question, aren't you?"

"Is he actually sick?"

Embry and I shared a look. Yup, that was the hard question.

She leaned forward, putting a hand on my forearm. "I don't believe that he is, not like that."

"What do you mean?" Embry asked coming up to push me out of the way so she wasn't touching me anymore. Yeah, like I was going to go after her.

"I mean that something…weird has been in the woods lately. And I know that Luke found my brother's phone in the woods."

"Something weird? Like what?" Embry asked with a softness to his voice that I had never heard from him. I stared at him.

She shrugged. "I don't know. Something big." Biting her lip, she grabbed a hunk of hair, brought it over her shoulder, and started to play with it. Then she shrugged. "I don't know. My friend, Brailey, and I…we have a spot in the woods, a clearing that we like to go to. You know, to get away from the 'rents. Anyway, we were out there one day last week and…"

"And what?" Embry asked. "You can tell us. Trust me. We've heard a lot weirder than whatever you have to tell us."

"That's very true," I said glaring at him. What I really wanted to do was slap the back of his head and roll my eyes. Was I really this way with Nessie? God, gag me with a spoon. It was no wonder Morgan lit my ass up like Christmas.

Tricia wasn't stupid. She saw how Embry was acting and how I was reacting. A small smile played over her lips. And then she got serious as she thought about whatever crossed her mind.

"We both felt like we were being watched. Needless to say we didn't stay long." She braided her hair a little more while Embry and I shared another look. And then she snapped back. "Wait, why are you asking me about that? You think that has something to do with Walker? Please, tell me he's ok. Just tell me he's alive."

This time it was Embry's arm she grabbed onto. I was quite surprised he didn't turn into a puddle of wolf-goo right here on the walkway.

But he didn't lose his head. He looked to me for permission to answer the question. I nodded with a warning in my eyes.

He turned back to her and took her hand in his. "He's alive." She visibly sagged. "He's with us, but that's really all I can tell you."

She nodded and squeezed his fingers. "Thank you. That's enough."

"Patricia, can you-,"

"Please call me Tricia," she interrupted me.

I cleared my throat. "Tricia. Could you maybe take us to that clearing that you were talking about?"

She looked back at the house as if making sure that her parents weren't there watching her.

"It's a bit of a hike, but yeah. Just let me go put on some tennis shoes. The weather's been so warm that I've been going without shoes at all."

After she took off for the house, Embry turned to me. "Are you sure that's a good idea? What if we get attacked? They could be waiting for us, to ambush us."

"Embry, if I even catch a whiff of something off, if my gut even twitches, we're so out of there, ok?" I put a hand on his shoulder. "Trust me. I know what it's like to be imprinted and have that imprint put in danger. But we need to see the area. It could help us."

He took in a deep breath and nodded. "Ok. Yeah." He shifted uncomfortably.

"What?"

"This feels weird to be honest."

That made me laugh. "I know. You don't feel like yourself."

"Yeah."

"And you won't until she knows…and accepts you. But if you play your cards right, and I will help you, she will." The sound of a door closing brought us around to find her in a pair of low-hung jeans, a flannel shirt, and tennis shoes. When she saw Embry watching her jog down the porch steps, she bit her lip and tried to hide a pleased smile. I clapped him on the back. "Doing well already," I whispered.

I wasn't entirely surprised at the elbow in my ribs.

RPOV

Shelby was antsy. And it was making me antsy.

"Just go talk to him, Shelbs," I said exasperatedly while she paced.

She sighed. "I don't want Seth to be mad at me. He doesn't want me near Walker."

Seth had gone down to talk to the pack about the whole training thing. He'd seemed calmer and more sure of himself when he came to check on us before heading downstairs.

"Shelby."

Speaking of Seth. He filled the doorway, staring at his mate.

"Walker and I are good. You can go see him if you want."

Shelby's eyes narrowed. "Just like that?"

He smiled, seemingly back to his old self. "We came to an understanding. Just go sit with him. You and Caden were right. He needs a familiar face. Jacob and Embry went to talk to his family. He's cut off from them right now. The two of you might help."

"What about you?"

I didn't think the two of them knew it, but they were slowly inching toward each other, as if pulled by the gravity of the other. Lately, I'd started noticing that with all the imprinted couples. It was even worse if both of them were wolves. If one half of the couple was in the house, they knew where. If they didn't, they went to find the other. It was that draw to keep the other half you safe, the other half of your soul.

"I'm going back downstairs. Jake and Embry should be back soon, and then we can all get started."

Finally, they reached for each other. Seth pulled her close and inhaled her scent. She hugged him back hard, burying her face in his chest. Smiling, I thought to myself that they looked normal, like the couple they'd been in the beginning. There were no harsh lines on Seth's face, no dominant bullshit or jealous stupidity. Just a male caring for his pregnant female. Just Seth with Shelby.

They shared a kiss, another few words, and then Seth said bye to both of us and left.

Shelby and I shared a look before going for the door next to us. When we knocked, Walker told us to give him a second. Half a minute later, he opened the door wearing faded jeans and a black t-shirt.

His smile was bright white in his tan face. Where he'd gotten that skin, I had no idea.

"Hey, guys. Come on in."

Before we could step foot into the room, Dad appeared out of nowhere beside me.

"Hey, Dad. What's up?"

Walker's expression was priceless as he looked between me and Dad. We looked like we could be the same age brother and sister. Except for the eyes.

Dad leaned over to kiss my forehead. "Esme and your mother have made lunch if the three of you would like to go downstairs. We can talk down there." He glanced at Walker. "That is, if you're ok with it."

"Uh, sure. I'm actually starving and I could definitely use a little exercise."

Dad left us as we made for the stairs. Walker was still moving stiffly.

"So, Nessie, can I ask you something?"

"Go for it."

"You're different, aren't you? I mean, Jacob, Seth, and Caden are different. But you're different than that different, right?"

I hesitated. Humans knowing about vampires is dangerous. But then again, Walker was no longer human.

"Yeah, I am. All the Cullens are."

We made it to the kitchen just as mom and Esme were putting the food on the table. Both of them treated Walker as if he'd always been part of the family.

"I made a joke about the Cullens being vampires if the Quileutes were wolves." He cleared his throat as the room froze. "That wasn't a joke was it? I hit it on the head."

I looked to Mom and Dad where they stood against the counter, glancing at each other. Mentally, I said, Dad, why don't you handle this. You're better at it than I am.

He nodded with a smile at Walker. "Yes, you were right. But we're not the…traditional type of vampire."

At Walker's arched eyebrow, Dad went into the whole explanation, even going into my story and explaining that I was a hybrid. That my growth had been so fast that I'd had to be pulled out of school.

Once Dad was finished with everything, Walker just sat there staring at his plate, taking it all in. Eventually, he lifted his eyes to stare at me. I knew he was studying, comparing me to Mom and Dad, trying to see what about me was human and what was vampire.

After about five minutes, Caden appeared in the kitchen doorway that led to the backyard.

"Jacob and Embry are back. When you're done, come outside. The training is about to begin."

And then he was gone. Shelby and I glanced at each other, both worried for our males. The three of us stood up and went for the door, Shelby taking my hand. Walker held the door for us, and then followed us out.

A part of me hoped this training worked.

Another part of me was terrified.

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