Hey guys, I'm so so sorry it's been SO long between updates- I've just had so much crap going on in my life lately, it's been really hard to find time to write. So I think by now I've learned not to make any promises as far as updates go, but I'll just say that I really don't intend to leave it so late, and hopefully it doesn't happen again. Especially considering hardly anyone in fanfic seems to be uploading as quickly nowadays- I myself have like 4 stories I'm in the middle of, but the writers haven't updated any of them for months? So I know how it feels when it's left so long, and I am very, very sorry. :D

But hopefully you like this, the story's getting a bit more action packed now, and once again, sorry that I left you on a cliff hanger for that long!

Please, please remember to review!

Chapter 26- Tomorrow Never Knows

Sam

"Shit!" I said under my breath as I felt something hard and plastic disintegrate under my foot. One of the kids' toys, I guessed, with a twang of guilt. I continued to creep as quickly as I could to grab the phone before it woke Emily or one of the kids.

Who the fuck was ringing at 3.30 in the morning, anyway?

Out in the kitchen, I grabbed the phone, turning it on and silencing the all-too-loud ringer in the quiet house.

"Yup?" I half-whispered into the receiver.

"Sam, it's Jake." Jake's voice came through hard, blunt and serious.

"Uh, hey Jake wha-" I started, confused, before Jake cut me off.

"Look I know it's late there, but I have…I have stuff I have to tell you."

"Okay." I replied, carefully opening the sliding door in the living room and walking out into the backyard.

"So I'm just going to explain everything, and wait till I'm done to say anything, okay?" Jake said in a voice I recognized as one we both adopted when talking about something very serious. I knew it was something neither of us could help, the alpha voice.

I just grunted for him to continue, eager to see what the hell was going on here.

"Okay, well I've been thinking," Jake started, "for a while, about moving home. I ran the idea past Ness the other day, and then, yesterday we decided, definitively, we were gonna come back in just over a week."

I let him go on, not really able to see where he was going with it.

"You know Alice, Alice Cullen- how she has, like, visions?"

"Yup."

"Well, she can't see…us, uh, she can't see, like the future that involves the wolves or whatever-" Jake said quickly, sounding frustrated- whatever this was had him shaken up, I could tell.

"And, uh, well when Nessie and I…decided- or, I guess, when Nessie decided, it triggered Alice to have a vision. She thinks, the reason she had it was because, I dunno I guess we must get separated or something- anyway, in her vision, Nessie was…she was sort of captured- Alice thinks it looks like Billy's house. In the…the vision, she was there, and there were these two leeches sort of like…holding her hostage...or um, to-torturing her or something." Jake said, sounding sick.

I had a hundred questions I was ready to ask, but he went on, there was more.

"She couldn't recognize the vamps, but obviously she was trying to figure out what the hell the vision was, and since she can't see the wolves it made it hard. She couldn't figure it out, so she ended up trying to focus in on the vampires from the vision. She thought it was a long shot, but if she focused on them, she may be able to pick up something from their futures."

"Okay…" I said, urging him to continue.

"So she has been. She's been honing in on them, and, well, just now she got something."

"It's a whole group- sort of an army. I guess they have know knowledge of what Alice can do because they haven't made any effort to conceal their plans- which definitely works for us. From what she can see it's a mixture of newborns and older vampires, possibly like a collaboration of a bunch of nomadic vamps from all over. The vision didn't let up a lot, but it gave us enough. We know what they're doing, we know when they're going to do it, and we know why they're doing it."

I grunted for him to continue.

"It's the pack, Sam." I guess word's been getting around amongst the leeches about our tribe, its size and the threat that it poses. They're some kind of mission to wipe it out. They plan to attack the tribe, trying to wipe out the pack."

The news Jake was delivering had all been building up to this, I was stunned, frozen. For a moment I couldn't process a clear thought. Then Jake went on.

"So I guess they would have caught us by surprise, and obviously some of them would have got to Billy's while none of us were there to protect Nessie- or to cloud Alice's vision. But the army is big, Sam, bigger than we fought that time it was the newborns, not by much, but it is bigger. Besides, a lot of them will be experienced fighters, we need to be prepared for a tough battle." Jake said, gravely.

"When?" I asked.

"Twelve days. In the vision she had, Alice got a scene of a bunch of them having a sort of meeting. They were planning. And there was a clear date set. But, that said, we have to be ready."

"Yup." I agreed nodding my head. Shit. I knew what had to be done. We needed to work more on training. Starting as soon as possible. The pack had had a pretty easy time of it for the last few years, and I doubted that they were all in the shape required to wipe out this many vamps.

"So we're coming there on the next available flight. We have to fly in to LA, and then up to Seattle but we'll be there tomorrow night. All the Cullens are coming too, of course."

"Okay." I said, still shaken. "Uh, I'll just…get everyone together I guess, start…trying to figure out some of the logistics of all this.."

"Okay," Jake agreed, "So I guess I'll see you tomorrow? At this stage, you now know everything I do. Alice has obviously still got the feelers out, but, you know, it's not something she can control, so there's nothing to say we'll get any more information."

"Um…yeah, well tell her thanks, Jake, and the rest of the Cullens too, okay?"

"Yeah, of course." He said, neither of us dropping the grave tones from our voices.

"I'll see you later, then." I said.

"Yup, bye, Sam."

Shit. Slowly I began to pace up and down the length of our backyard, gripping the phone a little too firmly in my hands, I became aware of the plastic shell beginning to crack under the strain.

Fuck. I had to tell the guys, I had to tell everyone.

Everyone had to know that, in effect, we were about to go to war. A war we couldn't be sure we'd all come back from.

Alone with my thoughts I fretted over things to myself for a little while. That is, until I became aware of the sliding door opening slowly.

"Sam?" Emily whispered, appearing in the doorway, looking tired, confused and breath-takingly beautiful as ever. "Is everything alright?" She asked.

And that's the moment I felt my insides drop with the burden of intense worry and panic. That's when I finally realized the full scale of the situation.

I felt sick. The next conversation I was to have would not be easy.

Brady

A war.

As we stood around in Sam's backyard, him filling us in on the conversation he'd had with Jake about a half hour ago, I felt like everything had been put into slow motion. It'd been years since anything had posed a serious threat to the pack, and it was surprising how uneasy I felt about it now. I couldn't remember ever feeling like this when it happened before, and that seemed so stupid to me now. How could I have been such an idiot? I can remember actually almost looking forward to the battles we'd had last time. Feeling excited, ready to do what I was born to do, without a care in the world.

Now, as the prospect of an even bigger scale battle than we'd ever faced I couldn't get over the gloomy feeling of realizing the seriousness of the situation.

Not that I was really worried about the pack's survival. We were all well trained fighters who could more than hold our own against the vamps, and with the help of the Cullens we'd probably be fine. But I just felt like ever since I got the news a weight had been pressed on my chest. This time, the concept of a war just seemed so much more serious.

And it wasn't hard to determine why. Among other things, like the fact that I must have a matured a little in the last eight years, it was clear that this time, I had a hell of a lot more to lose.

And as soon as the thought came to me, the sick feeling of dread in my stomach intensified. How the hell was I supposed to explain this to Nola?

I turned to see Collin next to me, whose expression seemed to mirror my own. We were almost too proud to admit it openly, but we each knew; we were both scared as fuck.

God. Looking around at us all in the circle, it really dawned on me how different the situation was this time around. A bunch of the guys had imprints they'd be feeling sick to have to leave like this, hell, some of them even had kids.

I couldn't get Emily's face out of my mind; I'd seen her as I'd arrived. She was currently inside with Rachel, the only other girl here, who I assumed now knew everything as well.

I couldn't have known why at the time, but thinking back, when I'd seen Emily tonight, she looked absolutely terrified.

Sam continued to explain stuff to us, having waited a little while for the news to sink in.

"So, we're going to be starting training sessions from tomorrow, and up scaling patrols, " he explained, "I want to have everyone do a shift everyday, so they'll be shorter in length, and we'll have three or four people on at the same time, basically, it means we'll have double the protection, in case anything unexpected happens, and there'll also be the chance for you guys to practice some combat during the patrols."

"Also," he went on, "we're going to work out the logistics of things a little later, but for now, I can let you guys know that there's going to be at least one wolf who sits out of the fight to protect the tribe. So Paul will stay here with the women and kids," Sam said, looking at Paul, who gave a serious nod. "Rachel's due date is just a few days after the day that Jake told us for the fight, so obviously Paul should be the one to stay behind," he added.

I nodded in agreement, though I knew we all probably felt the same heavy dread weighing on our shoulders, no way would any of us have put up our hands to be the one to sit out. There was just that sense of duty that came with being a wolf, a feeling like you had to serve and protect. It sounds lame, I know, but we all got it, we all felt it. I'd shared a mind with these guys long enough to know that despite times when some of us cursed the crap out of being a wolf, we never dropped that veneer of pride and responsibility. We knew that this is what we're here for; we have to protect our people, so there was no use trying to get out of it.

And, on some other level, and I felt like a bit of a douche for thinking it, but, as a wolf there were times when you actually sort of craved the battle. It was one of those things that you could put into the basket of more animal thoughts or feelings, but particularly when I was phased, I just felt…restless, sometimes. Now I just associated it with my early years as a wolf, when I was so young all I wanted to do was use my 'cool' speed and strength to rip something to shreds.

After a little while longer of talking, Sam finished. We all just sort of stood there for a bit. Some of the guys were avidly asking questions, wanting to know absolutely everything else, right then and there. But after some time we all just kind of dispersed, giving each other knowing nods or short, grunted phrases about seeing each other tomorrow.

I just wanted to get home. I couldn't really figure how I felt about this. War, conflict, danger was coming, and it was coming soon. And I think the seriousness and the reality of the situation was hitting me more and more with each passing second. I wanted to be home, and that home had nothing to do with the apartment above the hardware store. Home was Nola.

Phased, I ran quickly through the forest, the woods around me in a blur of dark green as I focused on my destination.

I tuned out the images and similar thoughts that flooded my head from the other guys who, like me were on their way back home, and just focused on picturing Nola, asleep in my bed, the most beautiful person I'd ever see.

As my thoughts honed in on this simple concept, the idea of what I'd find when I got inside, I somehow, subconsciously began to slow my pace. Suddenly I was merely jogging, until I was coming to a slow stop just shy of the woods' edge. Harsh reality stung my thoughts.

I knew that I'd have to tell her. I'd have to say something. And then, I'd have to see her fear. See her go through the trauma of the worry, the stress.

I know it sucks, man, but there's no way around it, we've got to tell them. It was Collin, he too on his way home, interrupting my pained thoughts.

Yeah, I shrugged off, trying to internally convince him. I'll catch you later, man. I said, quickly phasing back and pulling up the sweat's I'd had tied around my ankle. I couldn't deal with anyone, even Collin, telling me how I had to deal with this.

I just had to be alone with my thoughts for a second. I had to figure this out. What the hell was I going to say to her?

"Oh, hey babe, just found out a huge army of vamps want to wage a war with us, but don't worry, it's all good?" Yeah, somehow, I didn't think so.

Reluctantly, I resolved to just come out with it when she asked, which I'm sure would be sometime in the next few minutes, I didn't really believe she would have slept through that drama.

I walked sullenly out of the forest and through the empty parking lot of the hardware store. Climbing the stairwell, I consciously took my time slowly making my way up and into the familiar apartment.

"You're home." And there she was, coming out of my room, wearing one of my own t-shirts, looking like some complete goddess. The grey-white glow from the early morning moonlight hit her skin and made her hair shine white as it spilled from it's messy knot on top of her head to frame her perfect face. Her beautiful face, which was tonight one of confusion and concern. She leant against the doorway to the bedroom, waiting for me there as I walked over to her.

"So what was that about?" she asked quietly, as I greeted her, taking her into my arms.

I looked down at that face, those eyes. Those eyes I'd first looked into the day my world changed. The day my universe shifted. Those eyes I knew that as long as I could stare into their depths I would be happy. Those eyes, which, with my continuing silence, grew more and more filled with worry. I looked right into Nola's incredible ice blue eyes, and I lied.

"Um, nothing to worry about, really."

Now go REVIEW!