The first thing I saw as Eric and I rounded the turn into my driveway was Jason's truck, the one he had bought with his half of Grans life insurance policy. My brother's truck was an orange and red monstrosity with shining chrome rims in the tires and a custom grill. I'd always hated that thing, like my brother it was obnoxious. It was also a symbol of the fight we just had after we buried our grandmother. It had been the fight that split us apart, or rather it felt that way because there was no one else to keep us together.

"Hey," I greeted. "I called you."

"You married a stranger." He spat.

It was an accusation and he made it right in front of Eric.

"I had to hear it from Hoyt!" who had no doubt heard the mangled version of events from his gossipy mom, Maxine.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked.

These days, little Jason did shamed me anymore. After witnessing people who weren't blood act like a family, I didn't want Eric to see me and my brother interact. In part it was because I didn't want my husband to think poorly of my brother but there was more to it.

My belief in human goodness was meager at best. I guess I didn't want my brother to personify that to another telepath. With his selfish thoughts laid bare to another that could see them; I would no longer have the luxury of lame excuses and childhood memories to defend my brother's callous behavior. Without that, I wasn't even sure I could stomach him.

After glaring at Eric, Jason followed me to the very edge of the driveway where my lawn met the woods. Eric carried the groceries inside the house. I knew that he could hear every word so I did my best to be patient with my brother despite my anger.

"We met on my cruise." I lied. "We got married by the captain. It was a shock to me too but in a good way."

Jason looked at me skeptically. No matter what was done to his mind he knew this kind of thing wasn't like me. Whoever had glamoured him didn't know that. I was the level headed one. I was steadfast and boring. I'd never allotted myself the luxury of idle curiosity when it came to people.

"Maxine said you were throwing up the morning before you left," because that old gossip thought me pregnant. My supposed cruise might have been some out of town trip to have my pregnancy terminated.

Then I'd been a virgin for crying out loud. Of all the ridiculous rumors! I'd expected Maxine to nag me for confirmation not go to my brother as if she was just so sure of herself. It was infuriating. Heaven forbid I could be reacting strongly to the murder of a member of the small town.

My brother believed the word of a known gossip. I knew the only reason that he was over here playing 'My sisters keeper' was because word was spreading through town, not because I'd called him so I could explain everything to him, best as I could without spilling the beans on vampires. Jason was like our mother. He had always cared more about what people at large thought than he did about the feelings of his blood. It sparked my anger.

"What exactly are you implying?" I challenged.

"Just that you're kinda naïve," he said.

I agreed with him on my naivety but being naïve didn't mean I was stupid. I was telepath. He knew that no matter how much he tried to ignore it or chalk it up as a quirk. For him to try and belittle me was unacceptable.

"If you got yourself knocked up, you didn't have to run off and marry the first stranger who'd have ya'."

My brother was the only family I had left and he knew it. If he thought I was coerced into my union with Eric in any way he should be furious on my behalf. Heck, even if that wasn't the case he should be grilling Eric trying to intimidate him so he treated me right. If he thought I was pregnant with a baby I didn't want or was sacred to have all by myself. He should be offering to be there for me.

Instead my brother was thinking of carting me off to the same Doctor that he had brought his many one nightstands to. I wasn't judging. I was glad to live a place where a woman had the right to choose but he was my only family. His only concern was saving face and hiding more shame that he was afraid I would bring to him. It hurt. Just when I thought that nothing about the way the very people in this town saw me could wound me anymore, my brother found a way.

When we were teenagers, his urge to distance himself from the stigma that surrounded me was there. I could understand it and at least he felt guilty about it. This… it was too much. Not to mention Jason always left me alone to make the yearly pilgrimage to our parents and grandparents graves…. Alone… Jason had always left me alone… to deal with the worst, like during the holidays when I felt so alone that I wept with the pain of it. He could only be bothered when it bothered him. This was one of those times.

Instead of worrying about me Jason was concerned about having both a freak and unwed slut for a sister. It was right there in his head. Not once did the thought of a niece or a nephew cross his mind. If I was normal like him I would have been married and have a hand full of kids. He just wanted the love of what the rest of the world thought most appealing. That was how he lived his life. I just assumed I was exempt. I wasn't.

"I'm done talking to you, Jason Stackhouse." I said calmly. "You best get in little Tonka Truck and leave."

It was amazing the things that my sudden immersion into the world of the supernatural did for me. Furious as I was at my brother in this moment. It didn't show. In my mind, Jason just looked like a foreign or alien place, a thing that I did not have the tools to face in that moment. I needed to walk away at least until my brother pulled his head out of his ass or until my ire waned. I backed away from him.

I guess this was the first time that I was not responding to him in the way he wanted. I wasn't arguing or desperate to talk things through. It bothered him. Again, it wasn't because he cared. It was about him. Jason yanked my wrist—hard. Like a lethal breeze Eric appeared. He wasn't by my side. It was more like he was a mediator in a conflict that was partial to killing my brother and he would be swift about it. My anger at Jason was replaced with fear for him.

"Let her go. Now."

Instantly, Jason's face went blank and his hold loosened. Glamour. I'd never seen it first hand and in my current state of mind it angered me further. I just had no idea who I was angry with. My guess was that I was pissed at the whole goddamned world, myself included. I couldn't stand it. I didn't wait around to see what happened. I stalked inside and by the time I was slamming the door shut behind me, I could hear Jason's truck drive away. I was scrubbing the floor in the hall bathroom when Eric found me. It was clean but anything was better than crying like I felt like doing.

"I am sorry." He said, leaning in the doorway.

The thing was that he sounded like he was. Meanwhile there wasn't a crumb of remorse, shame or compunction to be found in the mind of my own brother. I waited for Eric to ask about Jason or my family but he didn't. I guess everything he needed to know he had seen in my brother's selfish and callous thoughts. I'd never been so ashamed in all my life.

"You don't have to be sorry. What do you have to be sorry for?" I snapped, scrubbing at the floor harder.

"It's not like you're the only living relative I have in the whole goddamn world! It's not like I've known you all my life or nothin'. Ain't like I've always been there, every single time you needed me, or wanted to use me because I was the only person stupid and desperate enough to answer you call, nope, not at all. That wasn't you. So, you don't have to be sorry. You don't have to care one bit. You don't have to give a shit!"

I scoured the floor and my vision blurred with my tears and sweat but I didn't care. I just continued to exert myself as if my effort would make everything right again. It didn't and when it didn't, I lost whatever control I had left. He slid down and took a seat on the floor. He didn't try to stop me, not even after my tears spilled over my eyelids. He just let me try to clean my anger and hurt away and when that didn't work; when my tears could no longer be silenced he picked me up off the floor and held me. He held me so hard that it hurt but I was in so much pain that I welcomed it.

"It is easy to believe that all you see is all that there is but you know there is more." Eric murmured.

I knew there was. I knew that even under every selfish, hurtful thing my brother had ever done, he loved me. Despite his callousness, I knew that there was good in him. I just didn't want to see that, not when I was still hurting.

I nodded and said nothing. Sleep didn't come and I just lay there twirling my ring on my finger.

"Tell me what to do to help you." Eric said.

When I gazed up at him he looked pained. So much so that I it surpassed mine. I held his face and kissed him. While he was surprised, it didn't take him long to return it. When he climbed on top of me all I could do was exult in the luxury of having him this close to me. It made everything feel right.

Helplessly, I wrapped my arms around him and when he kissed me all I could do was give in. It felt better than the first time. It wasn't just because there was no pain. It was in my desperation to have him fill me up again. It was all the delicious things I knew to expect. It was in the less controlled way he stripped my clothes off me.

I tried not to scream. He took it as a challenge. He was between my legs and there was nothing to keep him from that deep secret place with every thrust. I tried to keep from begging him for every orgasm but he made me do all that and more.

Having his fangs inside me was as titillating as it had been the first time. I craved his lack of control. I craved the taste of his blood on my tongue cementing the passion between us. It also healed me so I could go all night with him. I didn't care that his blood only seemed to make me wetter, hotter and eager for more of him. All that mattered was that I surrendered to him and he gave into me. When I was sated beyond belief and tucked in his arms, I had another thought.

What was holding me here, to Bon Temps, to my brother? I didn't know anymore. I fell asleep but when I woke up it was to Eric touching my face. Even in sleep I couldn't explain it, it felt different. I opened my eyes and saw that I was alone with the version of the vampire that I didn't know. The one that was dangerous, except he wasn't the same. He was in his uniform but he appeared calmer. Unlike the first time, I could see traces of the man he was. It was probably because it was so quiet where I lived. There were literally no thoughts to be heard of for miles. All he could hear was me and I was quiet.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

He paused for a long beat but he nodded. "You're here."

I smiled and took his hand. "Yeah. Come to bed, Sweetheart."

He stared at me for a few moments and then out the window. I saw as his consciousness returned. The uniform magically receded into the braided bracelet on his wrist. I was looking at the Eric I knew. He was confused and for a moment he was shaken but I took his hand in mine.

"You're okay." I told him. "You woke me up that's all. You were about to come back to bed."

"No, I cannot." He said. He tilted his head to the side. "Your shifter friend approaches and he is not alone. That was what woke me."

"My Shifter friend?" I asked as I sat up. "Who would that be exactly?"

"You call him Sam. He owns the tavern."

I really thought that there was nothing that could shock me anymore. After all, I'd discovered vampires. I had lived amongst them in a hidden realm parallel to this one for a week. Somehow this bit of news managed to knock me through a loop. It was harder for me to recover from this bit of news.

In between showing me the best the Inner Wildlands had to offer and making love all day long, Eric had told me about other creatures of the supernatural. There were even more of them than I thought. Some were extinct. Others were simply reclusive and lived in other realms.

Shifters were two-natured as were Werewolves. They were human for the most part with the exception of turning into animals. Weres could only turn into one animal, be it wolf, lion or whatever and they were helpless to the full moon. A Shifter on the other hand could turn into any animal and at any time.

I knew Sam. I'd had a crush on him for as long as I could remember. He was one of the nicest people I'd ever met. I'd been inside his head, foggy as it was. If he was a Shifter, I would know. I was a telepath. Then, everything about him that I chalked up as nothing suddenly became everything. Without fail, Sam went down to Texas once a month to visit his mother. I never minded running things for him at the bar. In fact, it endeared me to him that he cared about his mother that much. Could it have been just an excuse so he could give into his nature?

A piercing howl tore through the quiet of the night. It was answer enough. I reached out with my sixth sense in search of Sam. All I heard were fuzzy thoughts that were so much like his but his unique mind was gone. It was indiscernible from the others. I kicked the sheet off and ran for the door. I had no idea what I thought I was doing but I wanted to go to my only true friend in this town and explain everything. He was a creature of the super natural. I could tell him the whole truth.

"No." Eric said, not letting me go. "Your friend is beside himself at the moment. He came to find you the day you left. When he found the scent of vampire, he has been searching for you since."

"I can tell him—"

Eric shook his head. "No, Sookie. He is not himself. He is not the man you know. In this moment, he is Pack and The Pack is hunting vampire and you smell of me. He will be too taken by the hunt and too angry to be discriminant. "

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"We are Wildling. We must avoid conflict at all costs. We need to remain here. It is the safest recourse for all involved. Per procedure, I have contacted the Enforcer for the Leclerq coven closest to our location." He replied.

Eric already had his phone in hand and was typing too fast for me to follow.

"They will sort it out and come to a peaceful understanding."

"What if they don't?"

"They will." He assured me. "I would be surprised if the Enforcer was not already familiar with the Alpha of The Pack.

"What if they don't? What will happen to Sam?"

He smiled as he set his phone down. Then he came to take my hand. "What is that you told me about worrying causing wrinkles?"

The Lord Raven wanted to die.

"You might be an old man but unless you want to die by my hands, you will never say that to me or any woman, ever again."

He laughed and despite my worry, I smiled.

"Duly noted," Eric said kissing lips, chastely.

I was helpless against the feel of his lips against mine. It made me feel like everything would be alright. It dawned on me that I didn't just trust him with my life. I trusted him with Jason's and Sam's too. Since Gran passed away there wasn't anyone I trusted that much. It was strange; stranger than being married to a vampire; stranger than Sam being a Shifter and even stranger Werewolves. Stranger yet was how good it felt to be able to rely on someone else again. Until right then, I wouldn't have thought that I missed it.