It turned out the Council's idea of the best course of action was to attempt to harness whatever was going on with her. Sam had laid it out to her in much the same way she imagined he told brand new wolves what the deal was, and it just left her more anxious than she'd started.

Apparently, she could progress to doing it at will – which also included not doing it all at will. She had to let it happen to make it stop. It meant ditching her magic-sleepy-time pills, and it meant going back to the unsettled state she had been in before her little hospital stint. It meant that, much like Embry, Alex was given a sanction to get out of school. Her parents had been confused, and on the verge of calling the Council, though who to call and what to say had stumped them enough that they let it happen without much complaint.

The school had been informed she would be taking a Council approved leave of absence, and whilst it did get her out of attendance, it didn't get her out of homework. For the first few days, she had tried to maintain some kind of circadian rhythm, but as her spotty insomnia returned, she was forced to abandon the notion, and whenever she felt tired, she slept – trying not to force her body into it. It meant that she was awake, bent over a difficult math worksheet, when at three in the morning, she heard something in her yard.

She straightened, unsure if it was her imagination. Alex squinted through her window, turning her lamp off to see better. For a moment, it was still, but when a furred muzzle poked tentatively through the tree line, she grinned – pushing herself away from her desk and hurrying quietly downstairs.

Embry met her in the middle of the yard, wagging his tail and darting his tongue out to lick over her face. She sputtered and laughed. "Yeah, I'm going crazy too." She told him, and stroked the short fur right over the bridge of his nose. He sneezed at the contact, and she laughed again. "How's wolfy business?" She asked quietly. "Sam's really got you out this late?"

A definitively guilty look was her answer, and she sighed. "If he doesn't know yet, he'll know whenever he phases in." Embry made a gesture as close to a shrug as she had seen from a wolf, before he nudged her – clearly asking the same. She leant against him, and he supported her weight easily. "I'm tired. Each time I think I'm dreaming, I'm not, and each time I think I'm Walking, or whatever, I'm not." She resisted the urge to stomp her foot. "I don't know how to control it."

Embry nudged her with his big head, with a little too much force, and she wheeled for balance whilst he lowered his ears in apology. "It's okay, Em." She told him, and moved back to him. He was so much stronger than her now. It should have frightened her, should have made her keep her distance, be watchful.

But Alex didn't see the wolf, not really, didn't see his new bulk, new height. She only saw Embry. And Embry would never hurt her. None of them would. Even when Paul was furious, when Jared was impatient, when Sam was fed up – when the little cracks shone through their impressive control – even then, she was unafraid. Perhaps she was just stupid. Maybe she had no sense of self preservation.

No.

She just trusted them.

And they seemed to trust her. They trusted her enough to want her to do this, they trusted her enough to be in their heads. Maybe it wasn't much to a wolf used to sharing his every thought with the others, but to her, it meant more than she could fully express.

Embry jerked up, and looked to the woods behind him with a faint whine. Alex smirked. "Busted!" she told him. He headbutted her in the gut, albeit much softer than the last time, and she rubbed his cheek one last time before he turned and slipped back into the woods.

Alex lingered in the yard, trying to work out if she was feeling a little fuzzy because she was happy, or because she was tired. When she yawned, she turned in place, and almost ran back to her room – remembering to keep to a walk just in time, trying to keep her heartrate down.

When she lay back in bed, she tried to hold onto that thought of trust, a two-way street that she was just honoured to be walking on.

Maybe it was because she'd felt like this before, maybe it was because of some other subconscious trigger, most likely because the silver cast of her paws was familiar.

Here, she separated herself.

Not her paws. His paws.

This time when she slipped into Paul, she could recognise the way his form felt. She felt calm, calmer than she had the first couple of times; perhaps due to the fact that she knew where she was, who she was. Experimentally, she tried to speak to him, to call to him, as she had apparently done before.

Paul's thoughts remained constant, unchanging. It was strange to be aware of them as his instead of hers now.

He'd caught Embry in Kitty's yard, that little shit. He was lucky he hadn't been spotted, or worse, woken his Imprint.

Sorry Paul.

And Alex was supposed to be sleeping.

I know.

And Embry better be on his way home. A distant flow of consciousness that she could attribute to Embry was flashing faint imagery; a mixture of actual words, images and emotions. It was dizzying, and she had to work for a moment to separate the two again, clinging to Paul's rather more heated fizzle.

I'm nearly home. I think my mom is awake.

Don't let her see you, she can't know. Paul was worried, and Embry was too, but all they could do was hope for the best. Then Embry's cooler trickle was gone, and Paul was alone. Alone but for her; his invisible and silent voyeur. She saw them – him – for a moment, jumping across a slow moving stream, extended in a leap and strong.

Paul was tired, but mainly hungry. She thought Paul seemed a little less appreciative of his surroundings than Embry had been, but figured the elder wolf was probably used to it. She didn't think she could ever get used to it.

Paul's patrol was to last until 5:00, and when the first rays of sun split the horizon, Paul turned for home, and she was struck with a very strong pull, deep and hot and loving in her gut – as Paul headed back towards her sister.

Alex blinked awake, a lot calmer than she had been in a while.

She still felt tired; she'd only been sleeping for a couple hours. But she felt a faint sense of pride that outweighed whatever minor exhaustion she felt. Obviously, it helped to be thinking about the object of her Walking. Could she only Walk with the wolves? And did they have to be awake?

Alex made a note of the questions for Billy, and headed downstairs for a bowl of cereal, managing to eat fast enough to be out of the kitchen by the time she heard the rest of the house stirring. She let herself quietly out of the house, and started the walk to the Black house, knowing by the time she got there, Jacob would be gone. It wasn't a particularly hard walk, but the day was warming up a little faster than she had expected, and by the time she crested the faint hill that his house rested atop, she had tied her sweater around her waist, and her short hair into a pathetic ponytail at the nape of her neck.

It was humid. The sky wasn't even clear; and she knew it would rain, despite the fact that it was warm.

As if he had sense her arrival, Billy Black was on the porch when she arrived. She waved at him, and he smiled. "Good morning, Alexandra. You seem in good spirits." He greeted her.

Alex shrugged, jogging up the stairs, and opening the door for him. "I guess. I mean, I did it last night."

Billy hummed, interested, and Alex relayed her questions to him. Billy was quiet for a moment, and began setting out two mugs. Alex didn't know how to tell him she hated tea, and she didn't see any coffee in the house – but before he started speaking, he pulled out a small tub of instant chocolate powder. Right, Jacob. She thought a little ruefully. It wasn't as though she was a stranger here, though being in the kitchen without her friend did feel a little strange. "I can tell you candidly that we are mostly in the dark, Alexandra." Billy said, stirring a little milk into both of the mugs. "What information we have, we are basing off what legends survived." He levelled her with a strong look. "Whilst you have you have strong ties to the Pack, there is no way to tell if Walking is limited to the Pack because of this, or simply because the wolves are receptive to other minds."

"Right." Alex said seriously, taking her mug with a smile of thanks. "So basically, we can assume… nothing?"

Billy nodded, looking thoughtful. "There should be no reason why you are Walking, Alexandra. None at all." Alex tried not to look hurt, but she must have failed, because Billy gave her a reassuring smile. "I don't say it to be cruel. You are neither an Imprint, nor are you a wolf yourself – and you are not even Quileute. And yet, to my understanding, you are as much a part of them as, say, Jared, or your sister."

Alex shook her head. She hadn't been looking for, like, a way into the Pack. She knew they liked her to some degree, like one liked a mildly amusing and annoying pet, else she'd have been shunted aside a long time ago, and yeah – most of her connection to the Pack stemmed from an accidental exposure, and her sister, and now her boyfriend. "No, I know that's not the case, Billy. I get that-"

"It is." Billy was frowning. "For reasons unknown to me, and to anyone else, the wolves claim you, Alexandra Faye."

"Is it true?"

Sam looked up from the broken kitchen mixer he was tinkering with. Alex eyed the dismantled thing, before she affixed her eyes on the Alpha sitting peacefully at his kitchen table. He didn't look surprised at her arrival; how could he have been, when he could hear, see and smell things beyond her comprehension.

"What, Alex?" he asked her, not seeming the least bit put out by her rude interruption. Alex figured that after dealing with Paul, Sam was probably equipped to deal with anything.

"About you guys. Like, the Pack." Sam did put his screwdriver down at that. Alex crossed her arms in his front doorframe, wondering why she was feeling confrontational.

Sam sighed. "You're going to need to be a little more specific, Alex. Do you want something to eat?" Alex fixated on the casual rebuke, on the casual drive to care for her tacked onto the end. Care. Care and protection. That was what had always been offered to her here, always. When did it stop being friendly, and becoming obligation? When did it start to become about the Pack?

"Billy told me that I'm Pack." Alex said, and Sam rubbed at his chest, eyes glazing over for a moment. It was gesture she'd seen before, and she still didn't know what it meant. Finally, Sam nodded silently. "What? How?" Alex demanded.

Sam looked suddenly tired. "I don't know, Alex. All of this stuff with you makes no sense." At her faint flinch, he looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, Al. Would you come and sit?" Alex debated, and then shrugged. It didn't look like she was going to be getting concrete answers anywhere, but Emily's was a good enough place to hang as any. Sam, however, wasn't finished. He had crossed his arms and was giving her a considering look. "You've been a part of our lives since Kitty and Paul Imprinted, whether focally or not. Kitty's family is important. Then you found out, and integrated yourself here. I didn't want that, and neither did the Council." The blunt admission made Alex pang with hurt. "Not that I didn't enjoy your company, Alex," he said with a faint wince and a smile. Alex figured she deserved that one, "But you were still, ultimately, an outsider. You knew our secret, and your sister was your only legitimate tie to us."

"Dangerous." Alex realised, and felt a pang of guilt for all the stress she had caused. She hadn't known, but it didn't make it better.

Sam nodded. "But Paul kept bringing you around, and you just got on with the wolves. Emily adores you, Kim thinks you're a riot and Kitty loves you. I don't know when it happened, but after a while, I think we – me and Jared, that is – just… got over it." Alex snorted, and Sam grinned, suddenly looking younger, looking his age. "You grew on us like a rash, and eventually we succumbed."

"You've been spending too much time with Paul." Alex told him.

Sam shrugged, looking serious. "And then I realised my wolf, that I saw you just the way I saw Kim, or Kitty, to an extent. It's different with them, they're Imprints, which mean something different, but Alex, trust me when I say that you are Pack. For some reason, somehow. You are Pack."

Alex laughed slightly. "Everyone keeps saying that despairingly." She couldn't help the faint bitter edge creep into her voice.

Sam smiled gently, parentally. "Only because we want to know why. Not because of who."

Alex tried not to look pleased, and when Sam's smile grew knowing, stood up to flee to the fridge. Hopefully Emily had some leftovers tucked away somewhere.