Of course, it hadn't been quite as simple as I told Kara.

The reason it took me so long to get to her house was that life was never as simple as I wanted it to be, especially when it came to my pack. First, we had to listen to Dinah complain about how high-handed we were about everything, never bothering to consult with anyone. Second, we had to listen to Dinah protest when Francy tried to turn down our offer of help. Then we had to convince my imprint to accept it.

"Life's kind of a communal effort for us," I explained.

That didn't seem to help her. In fact, the more I spoke the more flustered she seemed to get. I think having me in charge was throwing her. It's not like I had been five when she left. I had been days away from turning seventeen and big for my age (probably bigger than Will was right now, actually). She shouldn't be that surprised I could get people to listen to me.

"Brian, we can't just take things from other people."

"They aren't other people. They're pack."

"But all that? Brian, we can't. It's not—"

"Oh, shut up," Will said. "Drop the self-righteousness, take the damn money and go to school like we all know you want to do."

"You're really going to pay for me to go to school, William?"

Her laughter faded when he just stared her down; she looked from him to me to Brian to Dinah and when none of us laughed, she stared like we had all grown second heads. "So this wolf thing is like a cult?"

Dinah didn't even hesitate. "Oh, so, so much."

"We just want to help you," I said. "That's what we do. We help people."

I wanted it to be true more than I ever wanted anything in my life. I didn't want the whole point of having fur to be about trying to out-run my mother. I wanted it to be about making a real difference. Even if it was small (like Will not actively trying to kill himself or Sam trying to self-destruct a little slower than he used to).

"Why help me now? I'm just that special?"

"Well, yeah."

She blushed as I looked at her; Dinah was frowning. I needed dumber friends.

"You cannot be serious. Levi…she was my friend first."

"I already hit him if it makes you feel better, darling."

"A little bit."

"You hit Levi?" Right. She didn't know that life equalled violence all of a sudden. "I don't know why I'm finding that freakier than the mindreading, but I think I just hit my weirdness quota for the day. Can we take a break?"

"He needs to explain about imprinting first," Dinah snapped at me. "She's not getting stalked without warning."

"We don't stalk," Brian murmured.

"You got a job in Makah to make stalking easier. You stalk. It's less creepy than it sounds, but it's still stalking, Brian. You better not be dumping Kara, you jackass. She just barely got over being scarred for life by your idiot friend."

"Sorry my emotional trauma was inconvenient for her," Will said as he flipped Dinah off.

I laid out imprinting before Francy could get more confused. How it was a normal part of the werewolf experience, where we found someone that would be the centre of our universe. A grounding influence, if you would. I had to reveal the way most of the adults around us were imprints, but I made sure to mention that Dad and Nessie lived on separate continents most of the year and they were doing fine. Wolves just needed their imprints to be happy.

And we had all imprinted.

"Is that why you and Di are together again? Because of this imprinting thing?" she asked her brother.

"Uh, actually, I imprinted on Ginger."

I had imprinted on her and I still thought she looked funny just then, with her mouth half-open and the repeated blinking.

"The center of your universe is Artie's ex-girlfriend? His twelve year old ex-girlfriend? So…werewolves approve of hebephilia?"

"It's not like that," Dinah quickly explained. "Imprinting isn't a sexual thing."

Will couldn`t help it: "Sure, it was the best thing that ever happened to my sex life but—"

"You still can't stop bragging?" Dinah snapped. "Really, Will? What the—"

"Could we get back to telling me how my brother isn't a pervert? Please, Di? The fight will hold. Meanwhile…freaking out here."

"I couldn't hurt her," Brian promised. "Imprinting means I…even if I wanted to, which I never will, I couldn't hurt her. She means too much to me. It just means that until she's old enough I'm going to see her as a little sister that I have to protect and take care of and…other stuff. Not that way."

"What do mean," Dinah asked, "Until she's old enough?"

Brian looked like he had just found out he had been locked in a cage with a lion—because he sort of had. My sister did not look happy (and I have to say, I wasn't particularly happy at that moment, either).

"Darling—"

"No. You don't get to say that while you're waiting until she's old enough. You said—I thought you were in love with me."

"I am."

Francy gave me an apologetic smile, Will went to find something to eat and I started worrying about when I'd have to jump in to protect Brian.

"So where is this coming from?"

"It's—I was just explaining that it's not like that with Ginger now."

I groaned out loud; Brian was just walking into them now.

"It's not going to be like that ever. Because you're with me."

The way she snarled the last bit would have ordinarily made me laugh; she should at least make it sound like he had a choice about it. I didn't laugh.

"I know. I—today is apparently foot in mouth day for me. Will already hit me for it."

"Good."

My imprint looked exasperated with my cousin, who shrugged unapologetically. I think it was then that I realized how much my life was going to suck for the rest of eternity, trying to get these four people to all get along at once. Hell, it had taken me a year to get Brian and Will to wherever they were now. I did not want to add even more people to the mix. Too bad it looked like I didn't have a choice about that.

"I didn't mean anything by it, Di. It's just habit to talk about it like that. From listening to all the adults."

"Sometimes we imprint when they're even younger than Ginger is. My dad's imprint was a baby and Quil imprinted on Claire when she was two," I explained to Francy as Brian continued begging Dinah to forgive him.

"And mostly waited until she was legal to fuck her," Will said.

Francy was starting to look a little sick, which is sort of how I looked when I glanced over to see that Brian had managed to talk Dinah down and was busy making it up to her.

"We're still here," I snapped.

"Sorry," Brian muttered. Dinah didn't look sorry at all (though she didn't look happy, either; I almost told him to kiss her again).

I think Francy realized we could use a distraction.

"So if Brian imprinted on Ginger and William…Levi, who did you imprint on?" She knew. It sort of hurt my pride how unenthused she looked about it. The next words out of her mouth were, "I have a boyfriend. As flattered as I am, Levi, I have a boyfriend."

"A man friend," Dinah muttered. "A dirty old man friend."

"We just finished saying it wasn't like that," I reminded her. "I just want to help you. That's all. I have a girlfriend myself."

"Oh. Sorry, I forgot. Kara, right? How is she?"

"She's probably not going to be great, actually. But I'll think of something."

"Yes, well, I'm sure she knows how important she is to you so this whole centre of universe thing won't...I'm sure she'll understand. Right?"

"Seriously?" Will sighed. "You're really going to keep Kara? Levi..."

"Are you five?" Dinah asked. "Stop whining."

"I really don't want to listen to him go on about both of them."

"How did you manage to get through this morning without getting hit?" I wondered.

"The trick is to be an asshole all the time, so it would be a waste of everyone's time to hit me when I piss them off."

I laughed and for the first time all morning, I felt like I used to. Without all the worrying about everything and everyone and how the hell I was going to explain this all to Kara… I couldn't even enjoy that because I could hear their car coming down the road.

"Sam's coming."

Even if I hadn't been attuned to her every move, I think I would have noticed how pale Francy turned just then.

"Oh."

Dinah and Brian were doing weird things with their eyebrows that I think was their way of asking each other if she was okay. Eventually, Brian went out to buy his sister some time to prepare while my sister sat down on the couch and wrapped an arm around her friend's waist.

"You don't have to see him if you don't want."

"He's my father. I have to see him. I just…"

"I'm going to take the kids for ice cream. Or something," Will blurted out. Yeah, this wasn't really his thing. "I'll find out how the whole teary reunion went later. See you on patrol."

"Thought we were all on a budget?" I called as he hurried out the back.

"That's why we're going to your house."

I should have seen that coming.

But I had a freaked out imprint to deal with, so I left the rest of them to Will. Sam and Brian were on the front porch, so I could confidently report, "He sounds happy that you're here. Nervous, but glad."

It snapped her out of the daze she had fallen into. For a second she just stared at me, like I was a puzzle on display and she couldn't quite believe the pieces had come together like that.

"So imprinting means I feel better with you here even though…?"

"It makes absolutely no sense?" I offered. "Yeah."

Sense was overrated.

That was the first rule of being a werewolf.

Sam kicked us out.

We probably should have seen that coming, actually. Even Dinah didn't fight him on it (she even dragged Brian and I out of earshot). We talked jobs the kids could work (Dinah laughed and reminded me I wasn't even a year old than Baxter so I could stop acting so superior) and what we wanted for dinner.

When they weren't confused about each other, Brian and Dinah were pretty awesome.

Eventually, Sam came and got us. Then we all had to sit down and explain everything for him. As predicted, Sam was…less than enthused about taking our help. But his daughter's wishes swayed him in the end (even before I pointed out that some of what Will was giving him was probably his money in the first place). He would let us help him.

Once that was taken care of there was the small matter of explaining to him that, yes, by the way, I had imprinted on his only daughter.

You would think reuniting with his daughter would put him in a good mood. Nope. Sam decided to turn evil, instead.

He made me call my parents.

Conference call my parents, as if life wasn't already awkward enough for everyone.

Why did they pick this weekend to be out of town?

At least he let Dinah and the twins leave to find the others. I was not going to have this conversation while everyone could hear.

"Is everything all right?" my mother demanded as soon as my parents, Sam and I were all settled around the phone. Of course she was freaking out. She knew I wouldn't call unless someone was bleeding and even then I would have waited to see if they looked like they were going to heal up first.

"Dinah kidnapped Francy and brought her home, but she's apparently okay with that. Francy and Brian seemed to have agreed to pretend everything is fine and then she did the same with Sam. I think. I also imprinted on her."

That seemed like everything of importance. The line went silent for a second as my parents digested the news. This sucked; Sam should have just let me wait until they came home. I needed to be able to see them. The silence could mean anything.

"Well, Sam," my father said, "I think we owe Seth some money."

"You were betting on my imprint?"

Sam looked down at his hands, but my father answered cheerfully, "Of course. I thought you'd imprint on one of the hybrids. And Sam was delusional, thinking no one would imprint on his daughter."

"At least it wasn't Will," Mom said to Sam.

Hey, it worked on drunk girls. Maybe it would work on Sam, getting him to see me as the less-likely-to-get-thrown-in-jail alternative. Maybe not.

"That would have been better." And I was so telling Will and he was so never going to let Sam forget he had said that. "At least he didn't try to abandon his imprint minutes later."

"Actually, Will offered to dump Marley if I didn't..." Not like Will would have actually gone through with it, though I had appreciated the offer, but I shut up just then because Sam did a pretty good growl as a human. Apparently, he disapproved of me. Who would have thought?

"Sam, I'm sure Levi made sure Francy was okay with it first," Dad said. Oops. Her brother said she didn't want to; that was close enough.

"You're not surprised." Sam sighed. "Why am I not surprised you're not surprised?"

"You can't be that impossible unless it's genetic," Mom said. "Levi, have you gone to talk to Kara yet?"

"I'm going over as soon as this torture is over."

"Don't try and be smart. You did talk to Francy, right?"

"Yeah. She has a boyfriend."

"She what?" Oops again. Not that it was Sam's business.

"She could have just been saying that to save face. I don't think anyone's ever turned her down in her life." I don't think Sam bought that; my imprint was going to kill me. Probably not the best way to start off being the most important people in each other's lives thing we'd have going on for the rest of forever.

"You did give it some thought, right, Levi?" Mom asked. "Because she would be good for you…" I stared at the phone, sure I must have heard my mother wrong. It was kind of hard to tell because my father was laughing so loudly. "Oh, shut up, Jake. She would be! Not that Kara isn't good for you, Levi, I just think someone a little older might be…"

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you say that," I decided.

"As long as you're happy I don't care how old she is," my mother promised. Then she realized that we weren't really allowed to say that, what with all the potential pedos around us. "As long as she's sixteen."

"Even then," Dad said, "If you could stop sneaking around it would make my life easier. Kim disapproves."

"We disapprove," Mom stressed. My dad didn't; hell, Sam didn't. Oh, when it came to his daughter he was furious that I wouldn't devote every second of every day to her every whim, but he didn't care what I did with Kara as long as I didn't get caught.

I wondered what the pack would have been like without my mother. It would have been like my pack without Brian—probably not the best idea.

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered. "Keep the belt on. I get it, I get it. Can I go now? I still haven't gotten to see her and I'm sure Judy's blabbed to the whole rez by now."

I shouldn't have let Will take the kids, but it hadn't occurred to me what a bad idea that was until my grandparents had called me at the Uleys. Grandpa Billy had laughed and congratulated me and wished me good luck in making up my mind. Grandma Sue called me and told me if I hurt either one of the girls she'd shoot me. I'm not sure she was joking (the next part definitely wasn't a joke—she said I sure as hell wasn't allowed anywhere near the girls when I was upset, no matter how confused I got. That I promised her as fast as I could).

Maybe Judy had taken out a sky-writing plane or maybe the Uley boys were just louder than bullhorns. Either way, I'm sure Kara knew by now. I had to get out of here.

"Good luck," Mom said. "Be patient. It won't be easy for her."

"It took me years with your mother," Dad said. "But it was worth it."

And suddenly I was glad they were far, far away and I couldn't see their faces. Sam was too, if the way he hastily hung up the phone before the sound of my parents macking got even more obvious.

"Well, then. They know."

"They know. They think I'm right," I said smugly as I stood up to leave.

"They think it's your mistake to make," Sam corrected. He thought I was going to regret this.

In the interest of not hitting him (hitting your imprint's father was bad form) I just showed myself out.

After the day I had (and the very enjoyable evening of proving to Kara just how serious I was about sticking with her), I just wanted to relax with my pack by the cliffs and not think about anything, anymore. Brian and Will were less obliging.

"You're really going to give Fran up for Kara?"

It was Will who asked. Brian wouldn't dare. Having Francy and his father on opposite sides of the-being-with-me issue meant that he wasn't sure what side to pick. And having Dinah in his life meant he wasn't allowed to be conflicted about it. Will, on the other hand, had obviously picked the side that would annoy me most.

"Why does everyone seem to think she's so much better?"

"They have eyes."

"She's so much hotter, you take her then."

Will laughed, but it was the sort of way he laughed back when…I hated that laugh.

"You know, I can't even tell, anymore. I mean, I know she's hot. I remember that. Hell, I spent years of my life listening to you rhapsodize about it so I couldn't forget if I wanted to. But I look at her now and…she looks the same as Kara. They all just look…like nothing."

But he put Marlena away before Brian and I could say anything.

"It's a job, Levi. Being your imprint is a job and Fran's going to be better at it. That's just a fact. Kara couldn't handle it. I mean, even Fran can't get Dinah and me to get along, but she can get the barbarian horde that is her brothers to behave, so she's not completely useless. Meanwhile, Kara can't actually speak while I'm around."

"She thought you were going to kill me."

"I've done worse. Kara does not get points for getting me shipped to Canada, either. Not how I want my Alpha's girl to handle things. Fran's a coward, but she get's things done."

"I'm not saying she's not going to be my imprint." For Francy's sake, I hope she didn't view it in the same way Will did. Nessie was barely involved with us. Francy didn't have to help out unless she wanted to (she'd want to—I didn't have to be have imprinted to know that. I had grown up with her, stalked her, been so freaking in love with her…she'd see it as a job she had to do. And Will was right—she'd be better at it than just about anyone we knew, used to looking after people). "I'm just going to be with Kara at the same time."

"You think you can handle them both?"

"Yeah, actually."

"I barely remembered you were alive and you were in my head. Kara doesn't stand a chance."

"What do you think?" I asked Brian.

He took a long time in answering. He'd been happy this summer, with my sister, but there was no denying he still cared about Ginger way too much to be healthy.

"I love Dinah. And Ginger. I want to be with Dinah. But..."

"But?"

"I don't know what the but is, just that it exists. It's driving me nuts, feeling like there's a but that I'm missing. But if you don't feel that way…I don't know, Levi. It might help that you're the Alpha."

"You do know that if you break my sister's heart there's going to be a hunting accident around here, right?"

"Now he listens to me." Will sighed.

"I won't hurt her. I just…I don't know what will happen. I can't know until it happens. If it makes you feel better, I'm Team Kara. Because if you could do it…"

Then maybe he could, too.

There was nothing to do. I was in love with Kara (not that I was telling my pack that part) and I had imprinted on Francy. Just because Will was too lazy to deal with both of them didn't mean they couldn't co-exist in my life. Just because Brian was too worried about what he would do didn't mean I couldn't do it. It was a good thing Dinah was on my side (and Judy would be too, because she was always on my side).

"The two of you are the most annoying, depressing people on the planet. Why did I leave my very willing girlfriend for you?"

Will reminded me, "Because her mother was home."

Oh yeah.

Stupid Kim.

We dropped Will off and then I walked Brian home. His sister was sitting on their car, leaning against the windshield, staring at the sky.

"Everyone's sleeping," she warned Brian. She smiled, teasing him. "You let them stay up far too late."

Her brother didn't seem to find it funny. "What time should I get them to bed, then?"

The silent criticism washed over her. "Be careful not to wake them up on your way in."

She went back to looking at the sky while Brian looked at her helplessly. She had turned away so he headed in. I headed over. I hadn't actually gotten to be alone with her yet and, well, you couldn't blame a guy for wanting to be alone with her.

"Star-gazing?"

"Something like that." She patted the space beside her, but I couldn't. I'd crush the car. She laughed when I explained. "Suit yourself."

"What are you doing out here?"

"Just thinking. Too much information, today. Too much…too much, today. At least the wolf stuff helps make everything else…I'd rather it had just fixed everything, instead of just explaining it, but I'll take what I can get."

"How are you dealing with it?"

"It would be better if you stopped looking so old, Levi. It's kind of really creepy."

"Oh, shut up."

"Are you allowed to tell me to shut up, imprint?"

"You're the imprint."

"Please. Dinah explained it much better than you did and, I'm sorry, Levi, but you get to be the bitch."

"Is that how it's going to work?" I asked with a laugh. I'd like to see someone try to out-stubborn me. I got it from both my parents, thank you very much. I hung out with Will, I survived being Dinah's little brother, I could stare down Sam. Francy could try. It would be cute, but it wouldn't work. The only people on the planet I couldn't resist were Jubes and Kara and that's because one was evil and the other was mine.

The smile faded from her face. "How does this work?"

"I have no fucking clue. Don't tell anyone, but I'm making it up as a go."

When her laughter faded, though, she just looked sad.

"You seem to be doing a better job than I did." She bit her lip then asked, "The two of us…we could have what Lena had, right?"

"Will annoying us all the time? Yeah, sorry about that, but we're kind of stuck with him at this point."

My imprint decided that she was just going to ignore me when I was being purposely dumb. "She would have married Ray, you know, and been perfectly happy. But...even over the phone I could tell it was different with William. She was...glowing or something. I don't think I've ever been that happy in my life and she was always like that all the time after...that's what we could have."

"Probably. With less gifts; I hate shopping."

Francy laughed and wrapped her arms around her legs. Leaning her head on her knees, she studied me in faint light of the porch. It was kind of disconcerting.

"You have a boyfriend."

"Di hates him."

"So?"

"I could never get serious with a guy she hated."

"That's not going to leave you with a lot of options."

She laughed again. "I like this. You're funnier than I remember. And bigger, but…it's reassuring. Just having you here is reassuring."

"And I write fifty percent less bad poetry than I used to."

"It was sweet." She sounded like she meant it, even though if she had thought that at the time things probably would have turned out a lot differently. "You were always a sweet kid."

"My parents would disagree with you."

"I might be stretching the truth a little."

"Your imprint thanks you for your lies."

"See? I knew you'd learn fast." Again the smile faded quickly. I didn't know what I'd have to do to keep it there, but I wanted to try. "We could have what my parents had."

"Yeah."

She pushed her hair behind her ear. Her fingers lingered along the smooth skin of her cheek. "Do you believe in fairy tales?"

"I don't know." But I couldn't not answer her. "Those dumb princess movies Judy makes me watch all the time? I hate them, but, sure. I guess. It's got to happen to someone, right?"

"You should read some. Real ones. I think you'd like them more than you'd think. Dancing until your heart explodes and thorns tearing at eyes and horrible things like that."

"Awesome."

She laughed again, slipping off the car as she did so. Before she went in, she said, "Dinah's not going to drive me back until the afternoon, so I have some time to kill in the morning. I'd like to see Kara, if you don't mind. I haven't talked to her since I left and it would be good to catch up with her and Kim."

"Sure?"

"Only if it's okay with you."

"It's fine with me. Just...she's a little shy around strangers."

"Obviously, only if it's okay with her, too. And I won't stay long if it makes her uncomfortable."

"Okay."

And then she was gone.

Honestly? I was kind of glad. Even if I hadn't had a girlfriend, I don't think a few good make-out sessions would help Francy any. But I could be her friend. I would be the best damn friend she had ever had and then maybe she wouldn't hate coming back so much.