Bad news. I'm not really into this story anymore. And it doesn't really seem like anyone else is either. I don't purposefully withhold chapters for reviews, but it is really hard to write when you get 50 less reviews for the chapter. I'm not going to stop writing it because I hate it when people just abandon stories, but updates will probably not come out as fast. I'm going to do my best to make the story good until the end, but its really hard getting inspiration for this story anymore. But, anyways…

Thank you to the 45 of you who reviewed last chapter. This one is dedicated to you.

SM owns Twilight.

I woke up to Nessie screaming, and jerking away from me. If she hadn't been sleeping on top of me and if my arms hadn't been around her, she would have fallen off my bed.

But the wolf in me heard that scream and registered that his mate was in danger, so I did the most logical thing, I pushed Nessie off of me, (making sure she stayed on the bed, of course) and took up a defensive position while I shook and growled at the threat.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Jake, buddy! Its fine! Sorry, we didn't mean to scare her. We didn't even know she was awake!"

And the first person I saw upon returning home after ten years was the person I had hopped to never see again. But that was impossible because said person happened to be my brother-in-law.

Paul stood in front of me with a grin on his stupid face. I vaguely recognized that Rachel, Billy, and Sam stood behind him. But all I saw was Paul. And red. Sisters are off limits.

In my fury, I quickly lashed out at him and punched him in the face before he had time to wipe his stupid grin off his stupid fucking face. "MY SISTER!" I roared to the sound of his nose breaking. "DID IT HAVE TO BE MY SISTER! DID IT HAVE TO BE YOU!"

"Ah! You son of a bitch! That's the first thing you do after ten years! Good to see you, too, man!" he yelled at me, clutching his bleeding nose.

"Jesus Christ! Its like a flashback from 10 years ago! Did either one of you do any maturing?" Sam growled, forcing his way between us. "Its good to see you, Jacob." He said with a smile when he had successfully pushed us both back. I was shocked to see that I was bigger than him now.

I took a few calming breaths and when I caught Nessie's scent and inhaled it, I was able to stop shaking. "Sorry, Paul. It was ten years in the making, though. You should have been ready for that. Its good to see you." I said honestly.

Paul shrugged, "I suppose. Welcome back."

Rachel pushed passed Paul and Sam and wrapped her arms around me, "Ohh, Jacob! Its so good to see you!" she sobbed. "I missed you! Don't run away ever again!" she yelled at me. "You left dad all alone! Thank god I moved back or else this place would be crumbling down on top of him! And not to mention that you have missed 10 years of fathers days, birthdays, and Christmases!" I felt like I was 10 years old again while she yelled at me. "Never run away again!" she sobbed, falling into my arms again. "I- I missed you and Robbie and Ellie! And dad! Oh Jacob!"

I patted her on the back. "I know, Rach. I'm sorry." I said honestly.

She took a deep breath and pulled away from me, wiping her eyes. My dad wheeled over to me. Old man looked exactly the same. Maybe a few more wrinkles and grey hairs, but his eyes still sparkled with wisdom and knowledge. I knew right then and there he was going to be on my side. He would recognize that my imprint, my future wife, the future possible mother of his grandchildren, wasn't a danger.

My dad looked proud as he reached out and hugged me tightly. "Its good to see you, son. Welcome home."

"Thanks, dad. Its good to be home." I was going to ask him how he was and stuff, but Paul's annoying voice caught my attention. And it was coming from behind me. Like where Nessie was.

"So be honest, he's pretty bad, right? Like in the bed department? Does he cry after? Is-"

"If you want to keep your balls, you'll stop embarrassing my imprint like that, Paul!" I snapped as I quickly went over to wrap a reassuring arm around her. She didn't seem really scared or embarrassed. She seemed…amused.

"Imprint?" Sam echoed in surprise.

Nessie smiled, "Yep. Imprint."

"And you…are ok with everything?" he asked in a very alpha like tone.

She pressed a little closer to me and nodded, "Yeah. I mean… it's a little strange, but I don't feel unsafe. Quite to opposite, actually."

Rachel smiled, "That's great!" she blurted out, "I'm Rachel, by the way, Jake's sister."

Nessie stepped forward a little bit and held out her hand, "I'm Carlie."

Rachel kind of stared at her hand for a second before pushing it away and going in for a big hug. Nessie took it in stride and hugged her back. Paul looked conpleatly at ease, I'm sure if he know who Carlie really was, he would be so calm. "Its so nice to meet you." Rachel gushed before pulling away and giving us both a strange look. "But, um, its May. We kind of thought you were coming in June."

"Yeeeeah." I scratched the back of my neck uncomfortably.

"High school is insufferable." Nessie jumped in, "I only stayed long enough to get my hooks into him." She joked. I was so proud of how brave she was being.

Paul and Sam exchanged looks and then burst out into laugher, "You're on the run, aren't you, Jake!" Paul laughed.

"You two were caught, weren't you!" Sam added.

I shrugged, "It's a good thing they don't have my real name, I guess."

"Wait, wait, wait." Rachel said, "You pulled her out of high school because you were stupid enough to get caught!" she asked me in a scathing tone.

"Like I said, high school was insufferable." Nessie jumped to my defense, "I was home schooled for most of my life, so I was already years of the curriculum."

"And I didn't pull her out!" I insisted. "She chose to come with me." Nessie nodded in agreement.

There was a few seconds of silence before my dad broke it, "Well, welcome to La Push, Carlie. And welcome to the pack."

"Thank you." She murmured, probably recognizing the gravity of what he just said. One of the tribal leaders just welcomed a Cullen into the pack circle and onto out land.

"Are you guys hungry?" Sam asked. "I told Em that your stench was dragged though town and she immediately started to make a big breakfast. I'm pretty sure everyone will be there." He said with a smile.

Nessie gave me the slightest of nods. I was fucking excited to see everyone. And maybe a little bit for Emily's blueberry muffins… "Uh, yeah. Just give us a few minutes. We, uh, we kinda left in a hurry yesterday so…"

"Yeah, yeah. Might want to shower the sex off you before you see the kids." Paul snickered.

Oh… Right.

"Uhh. Thanks, Paul." I muttered. "We'll be over in 20 minutes."

"You damn well better be." Sam said. "I'm Sam Uley, by the way. Its nice to finally meet you, Carlie." He gave her a small wave as they all headed out the door.

"Sorry about Paul." I said right away, "I should have warned you."

She smiled. "No. Its fine. Pack mentality, right? Throw a bunch of young guys together and you're bound to get some sex jokes."

I leaned down and kissed her. "You're amazing, baby."

She smiled and gave me a small kiss back. "They seem ok. Maybe a little intimidating in size, but I can tell they all love you and want you to be happy."

Nessie and I took quick showers and got dressed all within the 20 minute time frame. I was pleased to find our Mercedes was still sitting in the driveway. I quickly hopped into the driver's seat, ignoring the eye roll Nessie shot at me, and drove the familiar paths to Sam and Emily's house.

It was bursting with people when we pulled up. Quil was practically bouncing in the front yard when we pulled up. "Shit, man! Its good to see you!" he raced over and pounded my back before I was even all the way out of the car.

"Hey Quil! Its good to see you, too, dude. I missed you." I said, giving him a hug.

He took a few steps back and his eye darted over to Nessie, who was just getting out of the car. I quickly made my way over to her and pulled her into me. "Quil, you've kinda met my imprint, Carlie Mason." I said with a smile.

He laughed. "Yeah. Kinda. Before." He said, offering his hand out. "I'm Quil Ateara."

She smiled and shook it politely, "Its nice to meet you. Formally." She added with a smile.

"Jacob Black! Get your butt over here and give me a hug!" Emily's vanilla and sugar cookie scent washed over me right before her arms wrapped around me.

I smiled and hugged her back, "Hey Em. Nice to see you,"

She pulled back with tears in her eyes. "We missed you, Jacob."

"Missed you, too, Em. I'd like to introduce you to my imprint, Carlie."

I kinda felt bad about lying to everyone, but it was necessary. Nessie smiled warmly and accepted Emily's teary hug. "Oh, honey, I'm so happy you two found each other. He's told us so much about you, he really loves you and-"

"Ok, Emily." Sam murmured to her quietly.

"Its nice to meet you." Nessie said.

"Shit, Jake!" Jared said with a laugh as he came out carrying a little girl and supporting his pregnant wife. "Where you get the sweet ride?" he slapped me on the back and then leaned into Nessie, "You must be his sugar mama. Carlie, right?" he asked her with a grin.

Kim rolled her eyes and pulled her husband back. "Jared." She said in a warning tone before turning her attention to Nessie, "Don't mind him. I'm Kim and this is our daughter, Eva."

"She's adorable." Nessie said, "Nice to meet you. And I didn't buy the car." She added, looking at Jared.

"Well I know he didn't." Brady's voice came from the doorway. He had a small little girl latched onto his leg as he made his way over, "Cant afford a Mercedes on a gym teacher's salary!" he laughed as he gave me a hug. "Welcome back, Jake. And welcome to the pack Carlie." He tossed Nessie a grin.

"Thanks." She said quietly.

"But, really? Where'd the Mercedes come from?" Quil asked.

Nessie and a exchanged panicked glances. "Uhhh…"

"Hey!" It was a voice I only recognized from the phone. Blake? A guy made his way over to me toting along a small woman who was holding a mass of blankets close to her chest. All three were tanned and had dark hair. "Its nice to finally meet you in person, Jacob. I'm Blake, this is my wife Melody and our daughter, Addie."

I gave him a firm hand shake. "Nice to meet you, Blake. You, too." I said to Melody. She seemed like a sweet woman, serious, but I could tell she loved Blake.

Next I met Sean and his imprint Kia. Sean was a quiet guy, he seemed very loyal to the pack and to his down to earth imprint. Nessie accepted all of their hugs and jabs about being jailbait. If only they knew…

Collin came over next. He gave us both a big hug and introduced us to his imprint, Jenna. Embry was right. She seemed a little…ditzy. But Collin smiled at everything she did, and their wild personalities complimented each other well.

After I had seen all the wolves and wife/girlfriends, Sam and Emily introduced us to their kids. Spencer was a mini Sam, all the way from his jet black hair to his stubborn personality, Aubree, Brady's imprint, was obviously used to getting all his attention since birth, so she was very out going and loved to be the center of attention, and their youngest, Levi, looked like Sam, but had Emily's calm, easy going personality. They all called me Uncle Jake, which kinda made me feel like shit for not being there for them. At all.

And then I felt even worse when a teary eyed Rachel scooted her two kids over. "Jake, Carlie, I'd like you guys to meet Robbie and Ellie."

I kneeled down, "Hey guys. I'm your uncle Jake."

Both Robbie and Ellie had the same dark brown eyes Rachel, Rebecca, and I do. Our mother's eyes. But there was defiantly some Paul in them. Identical devilish grins matched their Dad's permanent smirk.

"I'm Robbie." My nephew said, holding his hand out.

I gave him a firm hand shake, "Its good to meet you, buddy. I have a bunch of stuff to teach you that your mom wouldn't want me to." I grinned.

"Sweet!" he replied with a smirk thrown at Rachel.

Then I turned to Ellie. "And you must be Ellie, right? Giving your dad a hard time for me?" I asked.

She nodded eagerly, "I'm married to a boy in my class and daddy says I'm not allowed to get married until I'm 50."

"You're not. You're not allowed to date until you're 40 anyway. What's this punk's name?" I asked.

Ellie giggled. "That's not fair! Your girlfriend isn't 40!"

I shrugged, "Yeah, but I'm not her uncle."

Ellie turned her gaze up to Nessie, "You're pretty!" she declared.

Nessie smiled and blushed a little bit before kneeling next to me, "Thank you. You're very pretty yourself."

"Can I call you Auntie Carlie? I have another aunt, but we don't really see Auntie Rebecca a lot, she lives in Hawaii." Ellie informed Nessie.

"Of course you can." Nessie smiled. "So how old are you two?"

"4!" Ellie cried happily.

"6." Robbie replied.

Nessie tossed me a smirk, "So that's a total of 10 birthday presents he has to make up?"

Both kids faces light up at the mention of presents. I groaned and stood up, "Thanks a ton, baby."

"Well, come inside, come inside!" Emily usered us all in. Their house was pretty much the same. I could tell they expanded it a little bit. The kitchen was huge, probably to accommodate the pack. Emily really went to town, the table was covered with all sorts of breakfast food items. I was happy to see there was a huge stack of pancakes for Nessie.

Once everyone ate and the wolves polished off the rest of the food, all the kids went to the basement to play, leaving everyone else to torment and embarrass Nessie.

"So, uh, what happened?" Sam asked. "Where's your pack?"

"Uh, well, you see, we had to, uh, get away fast and, uh…" I tried to think of a way to explain this…

"Long story short, my ex boyfriend came into school during gym, and he can…he's observant, so he kind of exposed us and then my family kinda showed up, and my dad and uncles are pretty protective, and they flipped out and my dad banned me from seeing Jake, so I snuck out and Jake had to get out of town anyway because of us getting exposed. So basically we're both on the run." Nessie finished with a smile.

Everyone was quiet for a few seconds. "You stole that car, didn't you!" Quil asked with a smirk.

I held my hands out defensively, "Don't look at me. I don't know how to hotwire a car."

Nessie glared at me for a second. "I found the guy's name in the glove compartment, I have every intention of paying him back. Its just a 2009, so its not worth to much." She explained.

"You hotwired the car?" Jared asked. Nessie nodded. "Shit, I didn't really peg you for a badass."

She shrugged, "I'm a mechanic."

"Oh, yeah. Jake's wet dream come true, right?" Paul laughed. Rachel smacked him on the head. "Ouch."

"So, Carlie? Where are you from?" Rachel asked politely.

I saw her eyes flicker to me for just a second before she smiled, "I don't really call one place home. My family moved a lot during my childhood. The longest we've stayed somewhere is one year in Oslo. Other than that, we've just really gone on three month long vacations."

Everyone looked surprised and a little confused. "So you… What was your childhood like?" Kia asked.

"Great." Nessie answered a little too quickly. She was obviously defending her family. "I mean, my family is amazing. Kind of protective at times. But they're really great people."

"Protective?" Collin asked with a smirk, "So Jake's gonna lose his balls?"

Everyone laughed. I didn't because it was probably true. Even her tiny aunt Alice could rip any of my body parts off.

"Wait, wait." Quil said, smile fading, "You two aren't laughing."

Nessie shrugged, "They're very protective. And I'm on only child, my aunts cant have kids, so…"

"So he might actually lose his balls." Sean finished with a smile.

"Or my life." I added, trying to joke. But I think they actually understood how deep of a pile of shit I was in.

"Wait, so is your family, like, gangsters or something?" Jenna asked, leaning into Collin a bit. "Are they dangerous?"

"No!" Nessie all but yelled, "It- Its just… At fist they might seem a little dangerous, but they really aren't. You just have to… get to know them and… forget all misconceptions."

They all kinda looked at her like she was crazy for a second before Kim took pity on her and asked another question, "So are you still planning on going to college in the fall?"

Nessie shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe."

I had no idea she was having second thoughts about college. I hope this wasn't because of me.

"And, uh, will they…let you go, if you decide to? I mean, like, since you don't have a high school diploma?" Melody asked.

Nessie smiled. "Yeah. I have a guy." She said casually.

"A guy?" Sam questioned, throwing a questioning glance at me.

She nodded, "Yeah. A guy. He's good with papers."

Understand flooded everyone's face. "Ohh. Like… illegal stuff?" Jenna said with wide eyes.

Nessie shrugged, "Its not like I use it for evil or anything. Sometimes life is just easier when you have stuff to back it up."

No on could really argue with that, so Jared, in typical Jared fashion, changed the subject to something uncomfortable. "So were you creeped out by Jake at first, I mean, he was your gym teacher and-"

"Jared!" I growled.

"Wait! No, come on, we wanna hear this." Blake laughed.

"Um, the first day was a little weird. He kept just…staring at me. But it didn't make me feel uncomfortable or anything. Just…I thought it was strange." Nessie volunteered.

Emily smiled, "That always happens. As soon as they imprint, they think something will happen to you if they stop looking at you. It can get very uncomfortable." She teased.

The imprints nodded and the guys all looked a little sheepish. "So, uh, what was it like having Jake and Embry as teachers?" Quil asked, "Did they get as much hell as we gave?" he laughed.

Nessie smiled. "They were great. Mr. Call was-"

Sam snorted, "Mr. Call? Almost makes me want to take him seriously."

"He was a good teacher. Class was usually interesting."

"She's way smarter than him." I added.

Nessie blushed. "I just read all of the material already."

"And how was Jake?" Rachel asked. "Was he fair?"

Nessie laughed, "No! My ex boyfriend had to run more laps than anyone else!"

And again, all the imprints rolled their eyes, and all the wolves nodded. "Well, yeah." Jared said simply, "It's the wolf side. We're pretty territorial."

"I've noticed." Nessie answered.

We talked for awhile longer, everyone told Nessie stories about me when I was a teenager, thank god they didn't even mention Bella, and she told them stories about living with me, Seth, Leah, and Embry.

Nessie had just finished telling them about how I tackled Embry for some pancakes when the door swung open.

"Uncle Jake!" A preteen girl ran into the kitchen with a huge smile on her face. I didn't recognize her until Quil brightened up.

Claire hugged me. "You probably don't remember-"

"Of course I remember you, Claire-Bear!" I said, hugging her back. "You've kinda grown up a lot since I've seen you."

She frowned when I said Claire-Bear. "Its Claire." She told me seriously.

"Right!" I said instantly. She wants to be older so she and Quil can take the next step. Too bad he saw her as a best friend still. "Claire, this is my imprint, Carlie."

Claire-Bear smiled at Carlie. "Hi. I'm Claire."

"Nice to meet you." Nessie smiled.

"Claire-Be- Uh, Claire, how did you get here?" Quil asked with a concerned tone.

Claire froze and turned to me. "You're in trouble."

"What! Why!" I asked, thinking she ran into Edward Cullen and he was waiting outside waiting to rip my balls off.

"Aunt Sue is mad at you for not bringing her kids home." Claire informed me.

Where there was Sue… there was Charlie Swan. My imprint's grandpa. I was somewhat sure Nessie had no idea that Seth and Leah were her step uncle and aunt.

"Oh." I said with relief. "Is, uh, is her new husband Charlie Swan coming along with her?" I asked, throwing glances at Nessie.

Her hand closed around mine. What! Why didn't you tell me! He's married! And to Seth and Leah's mom no less! So they… Oh. That's what Seth was going to say. Why didn't you tell me! She yelled in my head. I'm not going to lie. That shit freaked me out a little bit.

Claire nodded, "Yeah. He's here."

Nessie tensed.

"Don't worry." Rachel said, "Charlie is in the know, now. I don't think he'll have a problem with her being 17."

"You're damn lucky I'm in the know, Jacob." Charlie's voice came from right behind us, "If I wasn't, you would probably be in jail right now."

"Charlie." Sue scolded quietly. "You know his intentions are good."

I stood up. "Hey Chief. Nice to see you."

He shook my hand. "Jake, I cant help ut feel responsible for driving you away from 10 years. If I had encouraged Bella to not see that Cullen boy-"

I interrupted him as soon as I sa the disappointment flash across Nessie's face. "Hey now, Charlie!" I said loudly. "I'm happy, and I'm pretty sure Bella's happy too. There's no need for wishing things turned out differently. I like the way things turned out."

I got several strange faces in response. Quil scoffed. "But, I swear, just the other day you said you'd have no problem ripping any of the Cullen's apart. And now you-"

"I never said that!" I said loudly, glancing at Nessie's glare. Fuck.

"I'm pretty sure you-"

I interrupted him again, "Nope! I never said that."

"So you don't hate Bella for destroying your life for 11 years?" Rachel asked.

Fuck. Nessie did not look amused.

"No! Of course not!" I smiled weakly at Nessie. "Because all of her decisions led me to Carlie. And she's like a billion times better than Bella. Right?" I laughed nervously.

Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Except for Nessie. She was looking at me like I was in the doghouse again. Pun intended. Fuck.

"Right." Charlie said after a moment. "Well, I still fell awful. I wish I could have found away to talk some sense into her. Even if she didn't end up with you." Fuck.

"Why?" Nessie jumped in.

Charlie looked a little startled. "Uh, why what?"

"She made the choices that made her happy." Nessie said with a determined look on her face.

"She's dead." Charlie started. Looks like the pack got to him.

"No." Nessie said quickly. "Her heart may not be beating, but she's living. She chose Edward and she chose to become a vampire. Because of your prejudice you think she's dead."

"She just left with out saying anything." Charlie added.

"From what I understand they left to protect themselves." Nessie said. I moved to her side and wrapped my arms around her.

"Because they broke the treaty and created some sort of half leech mutant spawn." Sam said. I could have killed him.

Nessie stiffened in my arms. "Yes." she said sharply. "They understood the broken treaty and left to protect themselves and their, what did you call it? Their half leech mutant spawn."

"Still doesn't change the fact that Bella left with out even letting me meet my grandchild." Charlie kinda snapped at my Nessie.

Nessie relaxed in my arms. "They left to protect your grandchild."

"So you're team Edward?" Paul asked with a slight frown.

Nessie smiled, "No. I'm just saying fate is cruel, but never wrong. There's a reason for everything and there's no use holding grudges."

I pulled her into me and was ready to run if anyone even verbally attacked her. But they looked at her for a few seconds and let it go. "Ok." Emily said brightly, "Well, I've planned a bonfire on the beach tonight. Everyone is welcome to stay here, just not in the kitchen."

"I'm gonna show Carlie around the rez. We'll see you guys later." I tried to sound like nothing was wrong.

I grabbed Nessie's hand and led her out of the house. No one really seemed to know what to say.