Chapter 35

New Arrival

Kori smiled as she watched Nessie bounce with excitement. They were watching High School Musical and Nessie's favorite song, 'Breaking Free', was about to start. Kori was sitting on the couch with Jake, but Nessie was sitting on the floor a few feet in front of the large flat screen TV, literally bouncing with excitement.

When Emmett walked into the room and saw what was on, he rolled his eyes and left the room again. Jake chuckled before turning his attention back to his imprint.

Kori smirked teasingly at her older brother.

"Hey Jake, how come whenever I wanted to watch movies like this with you when I was little, you refused, but now you'll willing watch one with Nessie?" she asked lightly.

Jake's mouth opened, but nothing came out for several seconds. "Um…well, uh…" Jake closed his mouth and he swallowed, licking his lips nervously before he opened his mouth again.

His answer, however, was interrupted by a loud howl.

Jake and Kori glanced at each other for a second before bolting out the sliding glass door. Seth and Quil were on patrol, and the howl had definitely come from Seth.

The moment they hit the trees, they stripped and phased.

"Seth, are you okay?" Kori asked frantically, but her question was drowned out as several other members of the Black pack started firing off questions.

"Can I talk please?!" Seth shouted over everyone's voices.

Everyone fell silent as they waited for him to explain what was happening.

"Quil and I are on our way to the Cullen's place, we found an injured girl near the road. Has a huge gash on her leg. We're not sure if she's gonna make it. Could someone give the Doc a heads up? We'll be there in a few minutes."

"Yeah, I'm at the Cullen's right now with Kori. We'll let 'em know." Jake answered tensely before turning and running back to the house with Kori on his heals. They phased and redressed before hurrying back into the Cullens' mansion.

The whole coven was already there, minus Edward and Bella. They had left a few days prior, staying with the Denali coven to spend time with them for a few weeks. It had been about five months since they'd last seen them, during all the Volturi drama.

Carlisle stepped forward. "Is something wrong? We heard someone howl." he questioned in concern. Nessie had turned off her movie and was now clinging to Rose's waist nervously.

Jake nodded to the Doctor. "Yeah, Seth and Quil found a girl near the road with a gash on her leg. They aren't sure if she's going to be okay, but they're heading this way. You think you could help her?" he asked nervously.

Carlisle nodded tensely. "I'll see what I can do." he glanced over his shoulder at his coven. "Alice, you and Jasper go for a hunt near the Canadian border, we don't want to risk anything. Emmett, do you think you could take her from them when they get here, and bring her up to the spare room? I'm going to go set everything up so we're ready for her. Esme, Rose, you two stay in here was Nessie and everyone."

The whole coven nodded before Alice and Jasper blurred out of the house, in the direction of Canada, and Emmett walked out to stand at the bottom of the porch steps. Carlisle blurred up the stairs to the room he mentioned, to set everything up for the girl.

As the others waited, Sam, Leah, and Embry came into the house, probably to see what was going on for themselves.

Kori's head snapped up and she looked out the window to see Quil arrive, running in human form with a girl gripped bridal style in his arms. He handed her to Emmett, who blurred inside and up the steps with her in his arms. Kori barely caught a glimpse of sickly, almost-tan skin and dark brown hair before they were gone from sight. Quil walked inside more slowly, and then followed Jake, Sam, and Embry as they went upstairs to see what was happening.

Seth appeared outside a moment later before he hurried into the house, wearing only a pair of cutoffs.

"Seth!" Nessie shouted as she hurried over to him, leaping into his arms happily. Seth smiled gently as he hugged her back, before setting her down on the floor.

Kori couldn't take it any longer and ran to her imprint, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her face to his shoulder. She felt him wrap his arms tightly around her waist, holding her flush to him as he buried his face into her neck.

Kori realized she could feel him shaking and pulled her face back to look into his eyes. They were clenched shut, along with his jaw, and his face had an agonized look to it. Kori could feel the fear, terror, and guilt tearing at him, making her swallow thickly.

She pulled one hand away from around his neck, letting her fingers trail across his cheek. His face relaxed instantly and a sigh escaped through his nose as he leaned into her touch. Kori continued to watch his face as she moved her fingers up to trace her thumb over his brow, letting it trail around the corner of his eye and then below it.

One corner of Seth's mouth twitched, knowing she was silently asking him to open his eyes. Giving in to his imprint's wants, he opened his eyes and looked down at her for a moment before leaning down to rest his forehead against hers. She continued to watch him, her eyes searching his.

Seth's eyes glanced toward the stairs, where he knew the girl had been taken before he look back down at his girlfriend.

"It made me think of you." he whispered hoarsely, his voice scratchy as if he hadn't used it in a long time. "Seeing that girl…just…laying there, on the side of the road…with blood pouring out of her…" Seth's mouth stayed open but he couldn't seem to get any words out as his eyes started to glisten with unshed tears. Finally giving up, he closed his mouth and dropped his face to her shoulder, pressing it into the muscle between her neck and shoulder. Kori felt warm, wet tears soak her shirt and her own eyes glistened. He didn't need to finish what he was going to say, Kori knew what he was thinking.

Seeing that girl bleeding out on the side of the road made him picture what it would look like…if KORI were there instead.

Kori swallowed as she ran her hand soothingly through his hair.

"Seth, it's okay. I'm right here, holding you. I'm perfectly fine." she whispered in his ear before pressing a kiss to the spot behind his ear, the only part she could reach without moving.

Seth breathed in after a moment, trying to steady his breathing before he pulled back and smiled sadly down at her, his eyes red with tears staining his cheeks.

Kori smiled gently back up at him before she wiped his tears away with her thumb, her other hand resting on the side of his neck as her other thumb rubbed the skin of his neck soothingly.

Seth smiled a tiny bit wider as he moved one hand from the small of her back to wipe a thumb over her cheek, where a single tear had escaped.

"Sorry I made you cry." he whispered lightly, his smile wavering slightly as he slowly moved his hand from her face.

Kori rolled her eyes at him before kissing him lightly on the lips. She pulled back and stepped out of his arms, grabbing his hand to pull him over to the couch. They sat together, with Leah sitting on Seth's other side.

The room was nearly silent for a good twenty minutes as they waited for some kind of news from the activities upstairs.

Finally, the sound of a few quiet footsteps made everyone look over to the staircase.

Quil, Jake, and Sam entered the room quietly, Sam's head was down slightly, and he glanced over his shoulder up the stairs a couple times.

"Well? Is she okay? What's going on?" Seth asked worriedly, his arm wrapped tightly around Kori's waist.

Jake glanced over at Sam before looking back down at his pack members that were sitting before him.

"Well, it sounds like she should be okay," Jake started slowly, casting another glance in Sam's direction, who was looking at the floor. Well, more like glaring at the floor.

"But?" Leah urged impatiently.

Jake sighed before looking directly at the other Alpha. "Sam."

Sam sighed heavily. "She's…my sister." he said after a moment, his voice was quiet, as if the fact was still sinking in. "Mine…and Embry's."

Tense, dead silence fell over the room as his words hung in the air.

"Wait, I didn't know you and Embry were brothers." Emmett spoke up in confusion. He had come back downstairs while Seth and Kori were talking.

"None of us did." Sam nearly growled, still glaring at the floor. Kori had never seen him show that much anger before. He was usually all emotionless, keeping a tight control over his anger and other emotions.

Then, Kori looked around the room. "Hey, where is Embry?"

Quil answered quietly, "He wanted to stay with the girl. He sat in a chair right beside her bed."

Kori grimaced sympathetically, feeling bad for her pack brother. This probably wasn't the best way for him to find out who his father was.

"So," Leah broke the brief silence, "Joshua's the unlucky winner, eh?"

Sam growled loudly.

"Leah." Jake warned as Quil and Seth glared at the bitter she-wolf. Sure, she had been a lot better since breaking off from Sam's pack, but she was still Leah. No one expected her to be all sweet and giddy.

"I've gotta go give my pack a status report. I'll probably be back in a couple hours to check on…to check on her." Sam finished quietly, not quite knowing what he was supposed to call the girl yet. He turned and left the house. The second his feet hit the dirt outside, his wolf took over and he raced into the trees, showing just how much anger he was trying to suppress.

XXX

A couple days later, most of the Cullens were lounging around the living room of the Cullens home, along with Jake, Leah, Seth, and Kori. Jake and Leah were discussing patrol stuff, while Seth and Kori were sitting on the floor with Nessie trying to figure out a one-thousand piece puzzle. Sam and Embry were upstairs with Carlisle talking to the girl, who had just woken up about ten, fifteen minutes ago.

The sliding glass door slid open to reveal Brady and Collin.

"What are you guys doing here?" Jake asked curiously.

They both shrugged as they walked inside.

"Jared told us to fill Sam in on what we saw on patrol; which was nothing, by the way." Brady answered as he rolled his eyes.

Collin walked ahead of him, and tripped over the black and silver backpack that had been sitting on the floor for the past couple days. It belong to the girl upstairs.

When it fell on it's side, something fell out of it, thumping loudly against the hardwood floor.

It was a black handgun.

Everyone stared at it in shock before Collin slowly bent down and picked it up.

"Um, why is there a gun in that backpack?" he asked slowly.

"It belongs to that girl we found." Seth spoke uncertainly.

"Well, um, I'm going to go ask her then." Collin answered as he picked up the bag and walked up the stairs.

"Wait-what-Dude!" Brady shouted after him. "You can't just ask her that after snooping through her stuff. Will you-oh come on." he groaned as he hurried up the stairs after his best friend.

Kori blew a strand of hair out of her face as she picked up a piece of the puzzle. "Well, that's not going to end well." she stated simply before placing the piece where it belonged.

About five minutes later loud footsteps thumped against the steps as Embry and Sam stormed down the steps with Brady scurrying nervously ahead of them. Wait, why would he be in trouble? Collin was the one who snooped through her bag.

"What's going on?" Seth asked worriedly as the trio walked through the room.

"Brady imprinted." Sam growled, causing everyone's jaws to drop. Jake got up and followed the others outside, probably to act as interpreter since Embry wasn't part of the Uley pack like Sam and Brady.

Kori looked around, just noticing that Carlisle had come down stairs as well.

"So, how's she doing?" she asked curiously.

"Jamie, that's her name, is doing a lot better. Though, she seems to be nervous about something. Apparently she ran here all the way from Port Townsend."

Kori and Seth glanced at each other in shock. Port Townsend was a good hundred miles from Forks.

"She ran all that way on that leg?" Leah repeated, letting the shock slip into her voice.

Carlisle nodded. "Yeah. And she claims that she must have cut her leg on a fence early on in her journey, though that gash doesn't look like it came from a fence to me." he added the last part quietly, as if talking more to himself.

The door slid open and the four wolves reentered the house, with Brady in the lead as he headed back up the stairs to where Jamie's room was.

"Well?" Kori asked her brother as he headed back to where he was sitting on an armchair.

"Well, we'll just have to see how things go." Jake answered with a shrug.

XXX

Author's note: Okay, don't hate me, but I'm not really going to get into too much detail on Jamie's story IN THIS BOOK. I'm currently in the process of writing another story that's all about Jamie, and I don't want to give too much away in this story, or there'd be no point in you reading that one. I'll mention her once in a while, but I won't talk too much about her actual story. So, please, be patient with me, as I will probably be uploading her story when I've finished with this one.