A/N: A quick thank you to everyone who added this story in their alerts and/or added it to their favorite list. It truly means a lot to me.

Chapter 6-

Billy's POV-

No.

No.

It could not be that.

Anything but that.

I refused to believe it.

He was three!

My kid was hardly three years old!

He was a baby, for God's sake!

What was wrong with the spirts?

How could they do this to my boy?

How could they do this to me and Sarah?

Our boy…our baby…will be in pain. He will have to bear the torture of feeling his bones twist and change, hands and legs turning into deadly paws as howls and growls left his mouth instead of mere words, his mind split into two entities- a man and a beast- as he fought for dominance his entire life….

What kind of a life was this?

What worth was it even?

He will never be able to leave La Push.

He will never be able to go to college or make something out of his life.

His life….is ruined.

And he is only three years old!

How can the spirts be this cruel?

How can they do this to that little, innocent kid?

How could they do this to my family?

His life was predestined… decided, with not a say offered to him. His mate was predestined, if I was on the right track here- which I think I was.

Bella was his future.

And while I liked the girl enough, my son had just lost his most important choice of the future. He would never get to date another or fall in love the natural way, making mistakes and learning from them.

Bella was it for him.

La Push was it for him.

Pain was it for him.

While I had never been pushed into that world myself, I knew enough to know that it pained like being burnt alive the first few times one phased. It was extremely painful, starting from the onset to the point wherein you have been one of that for months together, the pain finally settling down at that stage.

And worse even, was sharing a mind with an animal.

The animal did what it wanted to do, the human tagging along with not a choice, doing whatever the animal thought necessary- hunting in the wild the 'natural way', sleeping under the trees, or making sure that no other unmated wolf comes too close to your mate, the growl that left their mouth in case so occurred, was enough to shatter a few windows in the area.

It was torture, with not one good point to be considered.

I had never wanted this life for myself.

Sure, I had never been able to leave the area, too, but this?

This had never been in the plan.

Not for me.

And not for any of my family.

I did not want this.

I did not wish for this.

But it seemed like I was stuck with this.

Jake was stuck with this.

"Will,"

I let out a sigh, coming back to the world of the present, forcing a smile onto my face as I nodded at my wife in acknowledgement.

I did not want to smile.

What even was there to smile about?

"Are you alright?" she enquired, her voice a slight whisper. "You seem to have paled?"

"Nothing, dear," I shrugged her off.

No point in worrying everyone around, not until it was confirmed, at least.

She nodded her head briefly, not quite believing me but knowing that this was neither the place nor the time to discuss on these things.

"Billy," Charlie grunted, gaining my attention. "Why do we need to see this Old Quil, again?"

He did not look any convinced.

And had I not had this particular doubt in mind, neither would I have been too convinced on this decision of mine.

The old man was one weird fellow.

The Quil's- as this entire lineage was fondly termed, were a bunch of Quil's.

Let me clarify on that.

All the men in that family were named Quil- followed by a number.

It was weird, I completely agree.

All the woman- over the centuries- got pregnant only once, the delivery leading to one healthy baby boy, who was coincidentally named Quil.

Always.

Not once had this lineage seen an exception.

Anyhow, whenever a new 'Quil' was born, the father of said kid became Quil Sr. and the grandfather- if still alive- was promoted to Old Quil, a title that changed with the coming of the next generation, the family deciding all of this internally, of course.

Which outsider would entertain this ridiculously useless idea; you tell me?

And the newest Quil- Quil Ateara the sixth- had entered this world a little over two years ago, screaming his way out and away. He cried more than Jake, for starters.

Seriously, whenever anyone saw the boy anywhere it be, tears were flowing down his eyes like an ever-present waterfall with no end to it.

I am telling you- these two are going to be thick as thieves one day.

They share the same interests- crying with no sense whatsoever a proof of that.

Either way, coming back to the point, Old Quil- No, Quil Sr- No….

Damn. This is confusing.

What I am trying to say is that Quil the fourth had suffered a fatal heart attack a year ago, his death resulting in his father keeping the title of Old Quil, with his son becoming Quil Sr at this new addition to their family.

The point here being, that Old Quil was literally a frail man in his eighties, who scowled at anyone and anything that crossed his path, hitting it away with his walking stick as he went about with his day. He was literally no pleasure to talk to, that man, but he was also the only one with enough knowledge required to answer my questions for me.

He was the son to Quil Ateara the second, a member of that first and only wolf pack that our tribe had ever seen in all these centuries.

He knew the symptoms.

He had seen them occur live in his father and his father's friends, that generation having changed in their late twenties.

He knew what to expect.

And he also knew of whether someone was phasing or it was simply a false call not be bothered over.

He knew all of that.

And we desperately needed his help at the moment.

Jake desperately needed his help at the moment.

He was the only one who could help us out.

I didn't think Jake was phasing here and now, hopefully not for the next fifteen years or so, but then why this imprint?

What need did it even have?

He was hardly three.

Why force him into this world so damn early?

"He has a few answers, Charlie." I stated, leaving no scope to be questioned, my eyes depicting my reluctance to talk about this any further.

Fortunately, Charlie understood this point of mine, being a man of few words and more action himself. He nodded his head in agreement, Bella clutched tightly to him as he walked towards his car, a silent indication given that he would be following us back.

There would be no time like the present to go and see Old Quil.

We needed the answers at the earliest.

Bella started to protest at being separated from Jake, but one look from Charlie and she pouted, folding her arms over her chest as she let herself be led to their car, protesting but silently, thankfully.

Jake too, on his part, frowned widely, but let us adults do our thing.

Thank God for the small mercies!

The ride back to La Push was spent in near silence, Sarah knew that I was hiding something from her but she refused to call me out on it, content enough to wait for me to share it with her. Instead, she busied herself in cuddling Jake and pointing out the various variety of trees that we passed by on this journey back of ours.

In my opinion though, that was one useless exercise, as it was all green outside.

What was the kid even going to understand from that big blur of green, apart from the color green, that is?

But Jake was not crying at the moment, and that was more than enough to be congratulated on.

Seriously.

Do I complain a lot about my son crying constantly?

Nah.

I could have cribbed much more than this.

I am keeping it much toned down, believe me on that!

Anyhow, our destination soon arrived on the right, the older than dirt- house with a few broken windows and a yard that had not seen a good day in decades, welcoming us in.

Actually….it didn't look any capable of welcoming anyone in any time soon.

But it tried.

So…that's there…

I left the car without any further delay, noticing that Charlie too had arrived at the house, parking his car in the driveway as he exited it and walked towards where I- and now Sarah and Jake- stood, expressionless for once as we waited for whatever was about to happen here today.

Sarah may not have known the intensity of my questions- and what all they could bring for us, but she could see the worry that dripped of my face- and that had her tensed enough.

And Jake, I don't know how he knew…. but I could see it in his eyes…

He knew that something monumental was about to happen here today.

Life changing in more than one way!

Soon, Charlie came to a stop in front of us, giving me one last nod, that being my clue to go and knock on the old man's door.

Old Quil had lived here alone in this house for ages now; his only grandson living at the end of the road, coming down for dinner once every week with his family, reluctantly at times. Other than that, no one preferred to keep much contact with the man, a fact that Old Quil much liked.

Whatever floats your boat and all of that!

With shaking hands, I knocked on the front door, the sound of loud footsteps coming my way as the sweat that dripped down my forehead started pouring out in big buckets.

Shit.

Why was I so damn scared?

I resisted the urge to run away like that one kid who finds it funny to ring an unsuspecting person's doorbell and run away before they open the door, knowing that I very well needed to do this.

I needed my answers.

I needed to know of what was about to happen in my son's life.

It was crucial that I do this…

The front door soon opened, a wide frown staring back at me, said person instantly looking away from me to take in the sight of the rest of his visitors that stood in his driveway, his eyes stopping and widening at the sight of Jake, a reaction that crossed every expectation when he took in the sight of little Bella in all her glory, waiting in her father's arms for who knew what.

Pin drop silence greeted us from every direction for what seemed like the next few hours, the old man finally opening his mouth to speak….

The moment of truth was now upon us, ready or not.