Darkstar (Guest): You'll find out in this chapter what Jared heard. I've promised myself and my readers to never permanently abandon a story (and apologies to those waiting for updates to "Party Crashers" and "Revenge is a Dish..."-I'll get to them, I promise). I can't promise when updates will come to any story, but I'll always keep working on them until they're marked "complete". Thanks for the compliment on my writing. I have always tried to write the kind of stories that I like to read and to keep technical errors and continuity goof to a minimum. Glad you're enjoying this.

AN: I'd originally thought that at least some of the content in this chapter might be in the last one, but there was just so much in that one already that I thought that the last chapter could end where it did and things would pick up from that point in this one. Yes, that did mean you got stuck with a cliffie last time but it's what worked out. These two chapters aren't split up as far as the characters are concerned, so they're dealing with all this at the same time. But it might be a bit easier for all readers to have things separated just a smidgen.

So, at the end of the last chapter, I asked readers what they thought it was that Jared heard. In the reviews I received that included guesses to the question's answer, I got: Victoria (5); the heartbeat from a pregnancy (7); the Cullens (1); Paul and Jess "getting acquainted" (3); a new wolf phasing (2); Billy getting chewed out (2); Jake in trouble (1); unspecified vampire (1). Read on to find out who guessed right.

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Narrator POV

"Sam, do you hear that?" Jared stood still, head cocked to one side, clearly listening to something with focused intent.

"Hear what?" Sam asked.

"The sound of you getting smoked," Jared laughed, powerfully kicking the soccer ball right between Sam's feet to where Quil stood on the other side of the Alpha.

"He kicks, he scores, and the crowd goes wild!" trumpeted Quil, launching himself into some kind of victory dance.

Exchanging a meaningful look, Jared and Sam ganged up on him and Quil soon was dumped into the surf.

"Cool off that ego of yours," advised Jared. Quil's reply was a tackle that plowed Jared into the sand.

"They're like a pack of overgrown puppies," Angela laughed. She didn't notice how the guys all reacted to that statement. None of them called her on it, though the senior wolves did exchange another loaded glance.

"I guess so," Bella agreed, focusing on her friend. "Maybe because they've all grown up together. Shared craziness, or something like that."

"True. One of the good things about living in a small town."

"I guess. But at the same time, it could be a bad thing, too. People knowing everything about you—or thinking they deserve to. And if you know someone really well, you can hit them where it hurts if you really want to," Bella sighed, involuntarily thinking back to Jake's verbal attacks against Embry, one of his best friends.

"It can be a trade-off," Angela agreed. She was about to say something else when her phone rang. "Hi, Mom. What—I'm sorry. Really? But can't the one of the neighbors-? Okay, okay, fine. It'll take me at least half an hour though—I'm at La Push for Bella's birthday party, remember? Okay, I'm coming." After ending the call, Angela's hand clenched around her phone.

"Is something wrong?" asked Bella.

"One of the members at my dad's church just got rushed to the hospital, and my parents need to go there for his family. Mom needs me to come back and watch my twin brothers. Apparently none of the neighbors are home—or won't be a half-hour from now. Gah! Sometimes I hate being the responsible firstborn child!"

"I know what that's like," agreed Jared. "I've got a younger brother, too. It sucks sometimes, but what can you really do about it?"

"Nothing," Angela picked up her stuff and stood. She pulled a card out of her bag and handed it to Bella. "Just a little something for your birthday."

Bella quickly moved to open the gift, more so that Angela could see her do it than from an avaricious desire for presents. "An Amazon gift card. Thanks, Angela."

"You never would say what you wanted, so this will let you get whatever you might like. Books, music, even your own copy of the Friends DVD."

"Thanks," and Bella jumped up to give her friend a hug.

"Well, duty calls. Oh, crap. Bella, I can't give Jess a ride home now."

"Don't worry about it. We'll make sure she gets home."

"Thanks. Well, it was nice meeting everyone. Enjoy the rest of your party, Bella."

"Bye, Angela," was the chorused reply.

"She seems like a very nice person," commented Emily after Angela had left, retrieving her own gift and handing it to Bella. That prompted the others to do likewise.

"She is," Bella agreed, reseating herself on Embry's lap. "We started to become friends when I moved up here, and got closer this summer. She and Jess were both really big helps for me."

"What? What am I, chopped liver?" Embry mock protested.

"No, of course not, babe," Bella soothed. "You're at least a strip steak. Even a filet mignon."

"You can strip me anytime you want to," his breath teased her ear.

Quil agreed. "Angela is cool. Smart and fun to be around."

Sam seemed about to probe that further before he was distracted by Jared.

"Sam, do you hear that?" Jared stood as still as a statue, head again cocked to one side in a listening pose.

"Hear what?" Sam asked. Jared had the best ears out of anyone in the pack, so if he said he heard something, even if no one else could detect it, the others paid attention to him.

"Just listen."

Sam did so, his posture echoing Jared's stance-one of those odd things that the pack seemed to do without realizing they were doing it. After a minute or so, the Alpha's body tensed up. "What the-"

"What's going on?" Quil wanted to know. Sam's hand sliced through the air in an imperative demand for silence. Wisely, Quil shut his mouth.

Slowly, Alpha and Beta began walking, seemingly attempting to trace the sound back to its source. They swept a circuit of the beach around the pack's spot before ending up where they'd started. Two pairs of semi-lupine eyes fixed themselves on Bella, where she sat on Embry's lap with her head on his shoulder.

"Oh, shit," breathed Jared.

"What the hell did you do?" Sam growled the question to his most junior wolf in a deep throbbing timbre.

"What do you mean 'what did I do?' What are you talking about?" Embry's own voice was roughening, the wolf coming out slightly in response to his Alpha's obvious irritation.

"Listen."

Embry did. "Okay, so?"

"You hear that heartbeat?"

Embry's brows lifted in an incredulous expression. "Of course I do. I've got one, you've got one, we've all got one. What of it?"

"And your child has one," the Alpha's pronouncement fell with all the weight of a boulder tumbling down the cliffs into the surf.

"Huh?" the confusion on Embry's face amply proclaimed that he had no idea what Sam was talking about.

Bella was equally baffled. "I can't be pregnant, Sam. I'm on birth control."

"Which always has a slight chance of failing. No matter what protection is used, if you're having sex there's always a small chance of getting pregnant. And you are."

"You can't know that," she protested.

"Jared has the best hearing in the pack. And both he and I have listened to our unborn children's heartbeats, Bella. We know what we're hearing. It's light and fast, but it's there."

"Haven't heard it before, so it must only just now be detectable," offered Jared. "That means you're six weeks along, Bella."

"I-can't be. Must be-mistake-" Bella gasped the words out, shock now giving way to denial and panic. She slid off Embry's lap, gifts scattering unheeded, and staggered a few steps away before dropping to her hands and knees in the sand. Embry-as lost in shock as his imprint-didn't stop her movement; in fact, he didn't seem capable of moving himself. Emily was quickly at Bella's side, arm resting on the teen girl's back in comforting support.

"Wet rag, please," Emily requested of no one in particular. Quil took off to grab one off the table, bringing it back and handing it to the Alpha's mate. Emily shifted Bella's long braid to dangle over her shoulder so that the rag could be placed on the back of Bella's neck. Her gasp a moment later seemed as loud as a shout.

"Em?" Sam crouched beside his imprint.

"She's marked," whispered Emily, the statement clenching around Sam's chest. He shifted position for a better look and breathed out a rough curse once he'd gotten it. Centered high on the back of Bella's neck, just below her hairline, could clearly be seen the imprint of Embry's teeth.

Sam vaulted fluidly to his feet and had Embry dangling passively from his hands mere seconds later. "Why the hell did you do that?" Sam snarled. "Didn't you listen to anything I said about this? Why did you mark her?"

"I-I didn't," stuttered the younger wolf. "I-what? No. I didn't."

"You did," Sam wasn't going to put up with even the weakest of denials. He spun Embry around and bent him over where Bella and Emily still crouched in the sand. The Alpha made sure he got a good look at the back of Bella's neck. "Unless you're saying someone else did that, then it was you, Embry. And we know that isn't true, because the only scent on Bella is yours."

With a violent wrench, Embry tore away from Sam, putting some distance between them. He leaned over, bracing hands on knees. When he straightened up, Embry met Sam's eyes, bewilderment brimming in his own. "Sam, I swear-I don't remember doing that! I promised you I wouldn't mark Bella; that I'd tell you if I thought I was losing control. I never-I swear-" now it was Embry's turn to collapse onto the beach. Quil quickly landed beside him, offering silent but confused support.

Sam lowered himself to his haunches next to the pair of youths. He had no reason to doubt Embry's word, yet the fact that Bella was pregnant and marked meant that the promise against doing precisely that had been broken. How? And when?

"Embry, can you come with me? I want to see if we can figure this out."

"Huh?" he looked up vaguely.

"I need to rescind the Alpha order on your privacy and try to work out when and how this happened."

"Sam, you're sure about...?"

A sigh. "Yeah, I'm sure. I wish for both your sakes that I wasn't, but... We'll want to have Sue confirm it medically, but I know she'll say that you and Bella are about to become parents." Sam stood and extended a hand down to Embry, who accepted the help getting to his feet. The pair began silently walking to the forest, while Emily helped Bella stand up and get back to the chair. Kim reached out to take Bella's hand once she was seated, shooing Jared and Quil away at the same time. More than one of them was probably grateful for Paul's current absence, knowing he'd likely have something to say about this new development. Hopefully he and his new imprint, Jessica, wouldn't come back for a while yet, and might miss this drama completely. At the same time, though, Jessica-and Paul-would need to be warned about this future aspect of their own lives, so maybe having them coming back would be a good thing after all. Emily was resolved that this time they'd be ahead of the issue in delivering the caution to the imprinted pair. But...

"Quil!"

"Yeah?"

"Be quiet and subtle, but track Paul and his imprint down and make sure they're just talking and getting the things I asked for. If they're doing something other than talking, then be a bit more obvious and break it up before we end up in another situation."

"Oh. Yeah. Going." And Quil bolted from the beach.

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Sam and Embry phased nearly in unison.

Hey, guys. Anything wrong? Jake asked.

Not wrong, exactly, but definitely complicated, Sam replied. Flashes of what had unfolded on the beach played out in the pack mind.

Oh...boy, Jake thought-whistled, but shut himself down before saying anything else.

Looks that way. Listen, Embry and I need to get this figured out and-

You want me to phase out.

That might be best. It's bad enough that I'm going to see everything. I think it'll be best to minimize the audience.

Right. I don't need to see anything-I don't want to see anything. How long you want me to give you before phasing back in?

Try about ten minutes and we'll see where we're at then, okay?

You got it, and Jake was gone.

Okay, Embry. I'm really sorry that we have to do this, but I need you to think about the times you and Bella have had sex so I can try to figure out when the marking might have happened.

Sam felt like the worst kind of voyeur to be watching the scroll of Embry's thoughts of Bella. Scene after scene popped up, dragging feelings along with them. The awkwardness of their first touches. The first halting steps of trust and vulnerability, baring emotions along with bodies. The thin threads of control being tested by each new exploration. And then the wild unleashing of terror-fueled passion, the natural consequence of their near-death experience at the hands of a vampire. Passion that didn't abate once satiated-because it wasn't satisfied; rather, it only grew with each moment that the imprinting existed. The peace and comfort that Bella's mere presence provided, above and beyond what touching her and being touched by her did. Comfort that was desperately needed when the truth of Embry's paternity came out. The devastation that resulted from learning that his best friend's father was his own father, too...the overwhelming need to be with Bella, in Bella...

(flashback)

Embry POV

He still wants her. He will try to claim her if we let him.

We won't let him. She is ours.

Lifting Bella onto her hands and knees again…thrust forward and into her in a single smooth stroke…There was nowhere else I wanted to be than connected with her in this most intimate of ways, physical evidence of the mental, emotional, and spiritual bond that now tied us together for the rest of our lives.

"Mmmm. More," murmured Bella.

I dropped down until my chest was touching Bella's prone back, covering her completely with my body and burying my nose in the hair at the nape of her neck.

"Mine."

(end flashback)

Narrator POV

I'm sorry I had to ask you to share that, Embry, Sam told him again. I'll put the command back on you to keep things between you and Bella private, okay?

A wordless indication of gratitude was all that Embry replied with.

Hey, guys. Need more time or am I back on duty now? Jake popped back into the pack mind.

You're on, Jake. Thanks for helping out with this. Embry, let's phase back.

Once the shift was complete, Sam pulled his shorts back on and started pacing, trying to put his thoughts in order before sharing anything with Embry. The younger wolf also redressed but otherwise didn't move or show any willingness to start a conversation.

"I don't think that dream was a dream-or at least it wasn't just a dream," Sam finally told Embry.

"What?"

"What you showed me right at the end...your wolf marked Bella in that dream. I think he dragged you along with him in that, so that you marked her in reality, too."

"Is that even possible?"

Sam's shrug silently suggested that it obviously could happen-and had. "It would explain why you don't remember having done it."

"But why did he do it at all?"

"Your whole relationship with Bella has almost been a zero-to-sixty speed race-which seems typical of most imprintings, truth be told. But if you mean why it happened then and not the first time you had sex with her…or why it didn't wait for months or years…? It looked to me like you had that dream soon after the council meeting, right?"

Embry thought about it. "At Bella's house, after the meeting, yeah. That night...or in the morning maybe...I don't know. I was dreaming, remember?"

"Ah," Sam sighed, not complaining about Embry's snarky reply if it meant the shock was now fading. "That explains it. I think your wolf was trying to help you, in the only way he could think to."

"And making me a dad when I'll only barely be legal to vote is helping me?" Embry scoffed.

"You'd just found out the truth about your paternity and were reeling from it. Connecting with your imprint through sex would have helped some, but I guess the wolf thought you needed more than that. With all the uncertainties that you were and still are facing, he gave you one thing that you won't have to question-the permanence of your bond with your mate, in the form of your child."

Just now, Sam felt the full weight of being the pack's Alpha...and the burden of guilt that he hadn't been able to prevent this from happening. All the precautions he'd taken, checking up on Embry, warning him of the marking imperative...all for nothing. By the time he and Emily had remembered that the topic hadn't been addressed during Embry and Bella's 'welcome to the pack' meeting, it had already been too late. For that matter, by the time they'd even had that meeting, it had been too late, the forgetting of the topic rendered a moot point. Sam sighed heavily, closing his eyes and breathing deeply in an attempt to dispel his frustration. Why? he wondered. Why had the spirits let this happen? The forgetting as well as the marking and conception. Didn't they all deserve some kind of break? The fallout from this would surely be no less chaotic than that of Embry's paternity. What would people think about Billy Black's bastard son being the first child to make him a grandfather? What would Tiffany Call say about Embry repeating her past as a young parent? And then there was Charlie Swan. He might like Embry now...but that would likely change as soon as the police chief learned that the teen had knocked up Charlie's only daughter at the start of their senior year of high school. They'd want the checkup with Sue to confirm for certain Jared's estimate of how far along Bella was in her pregnancy, but based on that guess Sam wouldn't lay odds on Bella making it to graduation before having her baby. He was resolved that no matter what, both Embry and Bella would graduate from high school. It would be hard under these circumstances, but somehow it would get done. This young couple would face enough hurdles from this point on—they didn't need to add a lack of basic education to everything else.

He turned to Embry to suggest that they return to the beach, but found the youth curled up in a ball, face buried in his knees and arms wrapped around his shins, and he was shaking like he was about to phase. Much as Emily had done earlier with Bella, Sam now crouched down next to Embry and laid an arm over his shoulders. "It'll be okay, Embry. Somehow we'll make sure things work out, alright?"

"How?" the face Embry lifted was wet with tears.

"I don't know," Sam admitted. "But we'll think of something, I promise."

The vow helped Embry to calm down again and stand up when Sam suggested that they head back to the beach.

"You and Bella need to talk and be near each other right now," the Alpha said. He was proved right when Embry bolted toward his imprint the moment he caught sight of her. Seconds later, Bella was in Embry's arms, each wrapping around the other. They stood silently, Bella's weight insignificant to Embry's supernatural strength.

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"Where'd everyone go?" Paul wondered aloud when he and his new imprint returned to the beach with the ice and brownies.

"Angela got called home to babysit her brothers," Emily informed him. "And Bella started to not feel well, so Sam helped Embry take her over to the clinic to get checked out."

"Is she okay?" Jessica was concerned for her friend.

"I think she'll be alright. The guys might have just been a little over-cautious. Jessica, you're welcome to stay as long as you want to-we'll see that you get home if Bella doesn't make it back in time."

"I don't know...it seems weird to keep having a party when the guest of honor gets sick."

"I suppose you're right. Besides, I should get Levi home for a nap before too long."

"He's sound asleep right now, didn't you see?" Jared teased, pointing to where the little boy was indeed curled up sound asleep on a blanket.

"That does sound good," murmured Kim. Jared was instantly attentive to his fiancée.

"Are you worn out? I knew I shouldn't have let you do so much work today."

"I'm okay," his imprint promised. "I just like the idea of snuggling with you right now."

"Anytime," Jared promised. Then he turned to Emily, "Can you handle the clean-up without us?"

"Go," said Emily. "Paul and Quil can haul things for me. I'll let you split the tray of brownies," she offered the bribe to the two remaining wolves.

"If you don't mind waiting for a little while, I can give you a ride back to Forks as soon as we've got the beach cleaned up," Paul spoke to Jessica.

"I'll help, too. It'll make the work go faster, and earn me that taxi service."

"It's no trouble," he protested.

"An hour of your time, not to mention the gas? Sure, that's no trouble."

"It isn't! Bella's our friend and you're her friend, so that makes you our friend, too. In this tribe we're all about helping out when someone needs it, because we know that when we need help, they'll be there for us."

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Sue slipped out of the exam room to give the young expectant parents a little privacy. Sam Uley was waiting for her out in the hallway as she'd expected. She just gave him a nod of confirmation. He seemed to expect that, offering a nod in reply before turning and gesturing for Sue to follow him outside and over to the picnic table where members of the clinic staff sometimes ate their lunches on nice days.

"So she's pregnant," Sam said the words out loud.

"Yes, the standard pregnancy test was positive. I took a blood sample, too, as a backup, but if you wolves are sure that she's pregnant, then that test will be redundant. I'll still run it, though, to go into her file."

"Can you confirm that she's six weeks pregnant?"

"Not definitively. Usually we base that off the date of the woman's last period, but with Bella being on birth control at the time it's hard to be very precise right now. I'll say that it's quite possible that she is that far along, so we'll rely on the six-week estimate right now and refine things based on hormone levels and measurements if necessary. But, skipping backward just a bit: how the hell did that happen, Bella getting pregnant while on birth control?"

"Embry marked her. So now we know that the bite overrides the pill."

"Is that what happened with Emily? Kim?"

"No, that wasn't what happened." Not even to the pack's semi-official healthcare provider did the Alpha want to share such private details about the imprinted relationship. It wasn't exactly her business that neither Emily nor Kim had been on any form of birth control when they were imprinted on. Kim was a virgin before Jared, and Emily had been emphatically single after a bad relationship. Perhaps a case could be made that the council might need to know the full strength of the pull between wolf and imprint—so strong that Jared had never even thought about protection. But they for damn sure didn't need to know that Sam's son had been conceived as a result of a broken condom.

"If the spirits desire that there be a child of the union of a protector and his mate, they arrange the circumstances to bring about that result," Sue mused.

"Please wait a long time to bless the next pair," implored Sam, gazing up at the sky. "A very long time, Spirits."

"Sam?"

"We have another imprinted pair in the pack now. This afternoon, Paul imprinted on Bella's friend, Jessica."

"How old is she?"

"A senior like the others, so she's probably around the same age: seventeen or eighteen. I'm happy they've found each other, but I pray that they wait a while to move things forward. The last thing I need right now is another Forks girl having a baby with a La Push boy."

"Will you be calling a council meeting to share all this?" queried Sue.

"Not a special session, no," Sam decided. "There's a regularly scheduled meeting at the end of this coming week. That's soon enough. Too many unscheduled sessions will attract attention, and none of us needs the accusation that the council is conducting business secretly that the rest of the tribe isn't being informed about." The fact that precisely that had been going on for several years now wasn't mentioned—no one outside the inner council and pack knew about it. But people might start figuring things out if those 'in the know' weren't careful.

"The council won't like not being informed about these developments," Sue quietly reminded him.

"I don't like being informed about some of these things," came the Alpha's pointed reply. "So we're even there. What the council seems to forget sometimes is that the Protectors are people as well as wolves, and near enough to being grown up that their thoughts, feelings, and opinions ought to be taken into consideration. Ancient legends and tribal texts are all well and good, but not always relevant to the modern world we live in now. The way things used to be done won't work now, especially with two imprints who are hok'wats. As I've said before, the council will be consulted, but I am Alpha. They'll be informed of any pack developments when necessary."

Sue hesitated, but finally began speaking slowly. "Sam, I get the feeling that Bella and Embry would like to keep their news to themselves. Or at least just with those who know now."

A sigh escaped Sam's lips. "I can't say that I blame them. This is just one more thing for Embry to be looked down on for. Not to mention for him to get a butt full of buckshot courtesy of Charlie Swan."

"Charlie won't take this well," Sue agreed, knowing the man well from his long years of friendship with her husband. "But he'll have to know at some point."

"Will you tell him, if they don't?"

"Legally, I can't. Healthcare privacy rules are very strict about who can or can't be told a person's medical information. Spouses and parents generally have automatic approval, but Bella's eighteen now, an adult, and she can legally prevent her father from being told anything. Embry's still underage for a few more months, so Tiffany would have more rights to be told about this than Charlie would, but it isn't Embry's body that's the medical issue here. We might know that he's the baby's father, but no one else could get that information without a paternity test after the baby is born. So it would just be rumor, and that isn't reportable."

"So, legally, if they want to keep it secret, we'd need to honor that?"

"Yes. And it would probably be the best way for us to respect Embry and Bella as well. They won't be as willing to accept the help they'll need if they don't feel they can trust us. But this secrecy probably won't last too long, Sam. Bella is a petite girl—she might not be able to hide the pregnancy for as long as a taller and more sturdily built woman could, even with this being her first baby. There's no telling. It could be only another month or two, or farther into the second trimester. I can't say. I honestly don't blame them for not wanting to tell anyone until they have to. But at the same time, I'm a mother and a healthcare worker, so I can't ignore the realities of what's happening here. All we can really do right now is support these new expectant parents, and encourage them to tell their own parents what's going on, sooner rather than later."

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Embry POV

Bella and I were quiet after Sue left the room. One of us probably should be saying something, but who? And what? The paper covering the exam table Bella was still lying on rustled as she moved.

"What are you thinking?" she asked me.

"That I screwed up. Screwed up both our lives. That I've disappointed both our parents by…by getting you pregnant."

"You have to stop that, Embry," Bella sat up on the table and grabbed my clasped hands that were resting on the table's edge. "Your mother never said you screwed up her life, did she? Has she blamed Billy for giving you to her?"

I had to shake my head in the negative.

"And I'm not blaming you, either. I was just as involved in creating this life as you were."

"But I—"

"—you didn't remember making the mark. You can't be held responsible for giving in to your instinctive half. Embry," one of Bella's hands moved to start stroking my hair. "I'm scared, too, you know. It's okay to be scared. We're looking into the unknown here. But you know that Sam and Emily and Jared and Kim will help us navigate all this. Sue can help with the medical side. And beyond that, I have you and you have me. Somehow, we'll all be okay." From the pounding of her heartbeat, I wondered which of us Bella was trying harder to convince. Again, did it matter?

"Will we? We're still in high school, Bella! How can we finish school and have a baby at the same time? How can I do that and work, too?" It all boiled up out of me. I hated myself for dumping all my fears on her, but I couldn't hold it back however hard I tried.

"I don't know," she whispered. "I don't feel like I know anything right now. Except that I love you."

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Bella POV

I was torn between crying, screaming, and simply freaking out. But I couldn't do any of that. It wasn't in my nature, for one thing. For another…it wouldn't do any good. Nothing would get changed by me falling apart because of this bombshell. Bombshell—what an appropriate word. While I might have—and had—tried to dismiss what Jared and Sam had insisted was true, I couldn't do the same when Sue Clearwater, a nurse in the tribal clinic, also told Embry and me that I was pregnant. Well, I heard her, but it still wasn't real to me. How could I be pregnant when we'd always used birth control? Was that mark-thing really that powerful? But was I really surprised that the supernatural could up-end my life yet again?

So if I accept the reality that I am pregnant, what now? It goes without saying that all of our parents will flip out or explode like pressure cookers when we tell them. What will they say or do? However much Mom has gushed over my relationship with Embry, she'll freak out to think that I'm going down the same path as she did with Charlie. I just know Charlie will try to shoot Embry—can I hide his ammunition? I won't even start to speculate what Billy might think or say. And Embry's mom…she might just be as disappointed as he thinks she'll be.

Embry. Another reason why I'm not—why I can't lose it now. It's like I can see him standing on a knife-edge right now. It is so obvious that he blames himself for everything. For us having sex. For him not being able to fight off his wolf wanting to mark me. For fathering our baby. For being afraid that we can't do this. I'm just as scared as he is. Even thinking about thinking about finishing school, getting jobs, being responsible for raising a helpless baby…I have to fight not to panic. But I told Embry the truth: the pack will help us. And I have to believe that the tribe and our families will help, too. The tribe…would the baby and I be part of that? Sam had said today that people who were less than half-Quileute couldn't become official members, and the baby would be just one-quarter Quileute. Will it make a difference that Embry is a protector?

Part of me wishes we could just hide this forever, like an ostrich sticking its head in a hole. The rational part of me knew that delaying the day of reckoning wasn't a good way to go, but the rest of me was completely in agreement with Embry about not saying anything yet—or for as long as we could get away with it. But it seems like our best option until we can start figuring some things out.

"I don't know what we're going to do," I repeated softly. "But we've got to figure it out somehow. Not like we've got any other choice, do we?"

"Do you want a choice?" Embry was staring at the floor between his arms. I reached my hand out to grasp his chin and lift his head upward until our eyes met.

"I don't think that really is a choice—for either of us. I've always known that taking any action also meant taking responsibility for what might happen as a result. We might have been able to tell ourselves that using birth control would keep this from happening, but Sam was right: getting pregnant was always possible once we started having sex. Having an abortion wouldn't be taking responsibility—it would be trying to avoid it. I don't think it would be the magic potion that some people think. Having a baby is a blessing, and deciding not to have this one, just because it's not convenient…that seems wrong. No, it won't be easy, but we've got each other, and that's more than either of our moms had when they raised us by themselves.

Embry's dark eyes shimmered and he blinked hard. "I know," he finally said. "My mom could have chosen to take the easy way out when she got pregnant. If she had, I wouldn't be here. We wouldn't have each other. How could we deny our baby their future when we have ours? I still don't know how we're going to do this, but you're right: we have to try. I have to be better than my sperm donor was."

"You already are." I tugged on Embry's hand until he stood up. He circled the exam table and slid up behind me, draping one arm over me so that I didn't fall off the other side. Then we just spooned together, Embry's hand over mind, resting on my flat stomach.

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Narrator POV

Billy rolled himself into the house and shut the door behind him before heading for the kitchen.

"Hello, Billy."

He jerked in surprise when his sister Connie spoke.

"Connie, hello. It's nice to see you."

"You might not be feeling that way by the time we're done."

Entering his kitchen, Billy found that Connie wasn't alone. Her twin Jennie was there….and so were their other sisters, Nora and Emmie.

"What brings all of you here today?"

"There's been some gossip floating around here, Billy," Nora replied coolly.

"Gossip?"

"You were never a fool, brother, so don't start acting like one now," snapped Connie. "There's talk that Jacob's friend Embry is actually his brother. Rumors that you have a second son. Rumors that Jacob confirmed to me earlier today are true."

"He-" Billy spluttered in shock.

"Your seventeen-year-old son-well, one of your seventeen-year-old sons was more of a man in this than you've been! You still can't do it, can you? You can't just open your mouth and say 'Embry is my son'?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"You've had a second son living here under our noses for seventeen years, and you're asking us why we're doing this?" Emmie asked, incredulously. "Why did you do this? Why did you keep him a secret? Why didn't you tell us we had another nephew?"

"I made a mistake. I was weak. I left here when I should have stayed, and I did wrong. But I repented. I swore I'd put my past behind me when I came home, that I'd do right by my family and the tribe that now looked to me."

"But the past is always with us, Billy," Jennie reminded him. "It follows us as faithfully as our shadows. And it's just as useless to try and outrun one as it is the other."

"The mother of your child came here, undoubtedly for help, and what did you do? Threw her a few crumbs? Did you hope she'd leave so you wouldn't have to face the consequences of your weakness?"

"If I'd done more, people might have wondered why. They might have learned the truth!" Billy's words were plaintive, and didn't move his sisters.

"Maybe they should have!"

"We should have!"

"I didn't have enough for the three children I already had. I didn't have anything more to give. And Sarah had been sick for so long…Why can't you understand that I couldn't hurt my wife by confessing I hadn't been faithful to her?"

"Mom's been gone for almost ten years! Don't keep using her as an excuse!" snapped Jacob, appearing suddenly on silent feet and startling everyone. "You're the one you don't want hurt by this coming out. Not Mom. Not me or my sisters. Not Embry or his mom. You. Just you. People have been saying that I've been pretty selfish and inconsiderate in my words and actions lately. Guess I can see now where I learned it from."

"Was it inconsiderate that I didn't want to disappoint my family and tribe by openly admitting my transgression?"

"You know what?" Emmie asked rhetorically. "I think that those looking down at you from the world beyond—or the ones looking straight at you in this one—are more likely disappointed at what you didn't do eighteen years ago, and all the years since then than they ever could have been if you'd told them what happened."

"How could I have been a good chief to the tribe if they would always be judging me and whispering?"

"There's whispering now because you're still trying to hide it! You're being judged now for what you did and didn't do. You had the opportunity to tell and show people how to acknowledge and deal with errors in judgment, how to accept the consequences of one's actions and strive to become a better person. Instead, all you've provided is an example of how to cower in shame and hide from reality."

"Say the words, Dad," Jacob brought the words out in a low rumble. "Say it." Unseen by his aunts, but visible to his father, a narrow ring of gold began to appear around Jacob's irises. "Tell them now what you didn't say then."

"Tiffany Call bore my son."

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AN: Whew. So now we know what Jared heard. First prize wolf snuggles to those who guessed right about it being a baby. Second place wolf licks to those who guessed about Billy getting a tongue-lashing (since it did happen). I'm on pins and needles wanting to know what you think about everything that happened in this one, so please read and review.