This chapter is significantly longer than intended, sorry about that. We're finally getting into the action, I'm super excited! There's a lot of action coming soon for this story. Let me know what you think of the direction it's taking in your review!

I had to force myself to not say anything about transforming into an animal to my dad that night. I tell him pretty much everything, and when your boyfriend(?) turns into a wolf, that's one thing. But when you yourself turn into a coyote?

I have no idea what to do. So instead of freaking out, I try to ignore it. Maybe it was just a bad dream.

I do my yoga, I do my homework, I eat and sleep and clean.

That was yesterday, now it's Monday, and I have to be in school all day.

In my head, I know that Sam, Leah and Emily are the only ones who know I'm... a shapeshifter. But I overthink everyone's glances at me, wondering if they've somehow figured it out.

This is ridiculous.

I sit with Kim and Shayna at lunch again, and the boys are as loud as they always are. Since I'm sitting between the girls, Hisaka understands that I need space and sits at the other end of the table. I feel bad that I've been pushing him away, but really, he's kind of abrasive.

After lunch, Kim runs up behind me and speaks in a whisper.

"Hey, are you and Hisaka good? You guys have been really weird lately."

"Yeah, I know." I tell her, trailing off when I realize I don't have any reasonable thing to tell her.

"You know? What's going on? He's your soulmate, you guys should be all over each other!" She protests. I am at the end of my rope with her, Hisaka and this whole thing. I stop walking and look at her.

"Yeah, I should be a lot of things but right now, that's just not how it is. I get that you and Jared were making eyes at each other from across the classroom before he imprinted on you, but I just met Hisaka. Like a week ago. I just met all of you. And then he visits my bedroom at night, gets my phone number somehow, shows up at my house to hang out unannounced and talks to my dad? I'm not ready for that, I'm going through... a lot of other changes in my life, and this is way faster than it would be in any other universe. So stop telling me what SHOULD happen. I'll figure out what WILL happen on my own!" I take a deep breath as I finish my rant. Kim's eyes are tearing up, and she lunges forward to give me a tight hug.

"I'm so sorry, Kaliska, I'll back off!" She promises, sniffling. I don't know what's in her water, but I pull out of the hug to avoid it wearing off on me.

"Thanks." I tell her, shrugging my backpack onto my shoulder and walking in the direction of my next class.

xXx

"Dad?" I put my pencil down and wait for my dad to look at me. His glasses sit far down on his nose and he knocks them up higher with his knuckle.

"What's going on, peanut?" He asks, giving me a smile. I can't help but smile back. Then I remember what I have to tell him and get serious again.

"I have something I need to tell you. It's real bad." I whisper. My heart is pounding out of my chest as I wipe my sweaty hands on my jeans.

"You know you can tell me anything," he frowns slightly. I nod.

"I know. But you're gonna think I'm insane. Like, batshit crazy. And maybe I am crazy."

"Just tell me what happened."

I squeeze my eyes closed and say it in a rush.

"My native genes make me transform into a coyote and I need to drive back down to Miwok and talk to my uncle about it." I take a deep breath.

My dad is staring at me, trying to figure out how to respond.

"What?"

I try to think of an easier place to start. The boys aren't really werewolves, they're shapeshifters, so that's off... Vampires. Everyone knows vampires.

"Vampires are real. I saw one in the woods the other day." I told him, figuring that was an easy place to start.

"Sweetheart, I have no idea what you're talking about. Vampires don't exist, I don't know what you saw but it wasn't a vampire."

"You know Bella's fiance, Edward? He's a vampire. That's why they don't have any pictures of him in their house." I say, pulling out my phone. I call Bella as my dad continues to stare at me.

"Hello, Kaliska?" I hear Bella's voice on the line, and I put it on speaker.

"Hey Bella. I know this is gonna sound weird but can you just tell me, is Edward a vampire? I know about the wolves." I ask. I can hear Bella and a male voice whispering in the background, and she finally answers me.

"Yeah, Edward is a vampire."

"Thanks, I'll talk to you later." I tell her, and hang up. My dad's mouth is hanging open. I quickly jump back in. "Don't worry, he doesn't drink people blood, just animal blood. I can explain later."

"Kaliska, what's going on?"

"I can turn into a coyote, I'd show you, but I don't know how to do it on purpose. I did it the other day when I saw the vampire and ran away from her. I just... I think my uncle might be able to tell me more. Can I go to Miwok?"

He ran his hand over his face.

"I don't have a problem with you going, but I can't take time off work yet, and I don't want you going by yourself. Do you have a friend you can take?"

I bit my lip to contain my excitement at seeing my uncle and Miwok friends again.

"I'll ask around and let you know. Thanks, Dad. I know this is really weird."

"Yeah, it is really weird, and I wanna hear the whole story. What wolves?" He asks, looking concerned.

"I, uh... I can't tell you that. I'm not allowed. They're the good guys though. Them and Edward's family. I mean honestly, his name is the first clue. Who names their kid Edward these days?" I mumble, more to myself than to him.

"I'm going to talk to Charlie, too." He says, moving to get up.

"No!" I grab his arm before he can get his phone. "You're not supposed to know. Don't tell anyone, please?" I beg him, and he sighs.

"Okay. I trust you know what you're doing. I won't say anything," he promised. I breathe a sigh of relief.

"Thanks, Dad. For everything." I tell him.

"I want you to be careful, I don't know what's going on and I can't help you."

"I know. I know people that can help me. I'll keep you posted." I promise, grabbing my homework and heading up to my room to see who could go with me.

I flopped down on my bed and grabbed my phone.

Hisaka? No, I don't want to spend that much time with him. Kim and Shayna are out of the question, they're both human. Leah... Leah is a possibility. But I don't know how to get ahold of her. I open a message to Shayna.

Me: Hey Shayna! Do you have Leah's number?

I kept thinking about the situation as I waited for Shayna to text me back. If I can leave tomorrow and head straight down there, we could make it in just a couple of days. I've heard the wolves can run as fast as cars, but I'm not sure for how long. I'd have to ask her. My phone buzzed.

Shayna: contact attached

Shayna: u good?

Me: thx

Me: yeah, just need to ask her for a favor

Shayna: good luck with that

I grimaced. Leah may not be my first choice to spend time with, but she is the best choice for this trip. I don't know many of the wolves, but I definitely don't want to go with Hisaka, and that pretty much leaves Leah.

I hear a knock on the door downstairs, and my dad answers it. I send a quick text to Leah seeing if she'd be okay with running down there with me, get off my bed and go to see who is here.

"Bella?" I ask, seeing the back of my cousin's head. She turns around.

"Oh hey Kaliska. I'm actually here to talk to you." She says, moving to come upstairs. She stops when I continue down them.

"We can talk down here." I tell her, glancing at my dad. He thumbs the pages of his book awkwardly, staring at the floor. Bella looks at him.

"Okay, I just wanted to talk about your call earlier?" She hinted, raising her eyebrows. I nod.

"Is Edward here?" I ask. Her eyes dart towards the door before she speaks.

"No, he's with his family this evening." She lies, sucking in a breath as I walk towards the front door.

"Edward?" I call into the dark. Edward steps around his car to meet my gaze, walking towards the house. I look back at Bella, who shrugs.

"Look, I'm not gonna keep this from my dad. I don't like lying and it freaks me out to keep secrets." I tell them both, and my dad looks proud.

"This is not just about you." Edward tells me softly, and I squint up into his eyes.

"You sure you should be here? You haven't eaten in awhile." I tell him. He looks back down at me.

"How- Bella..." He looks at his fiancee in annoyance. "You gave her those books?"

"Yeah, I figured she's going to be on the res..." Bella trails off, and Edward looks back at me.

"Don't worry about me, I haven't tasted human blood in decades."

At this, my dad whips his head to look at Edward.

"So you actually are a vampire?" He looks shocked. Edward nods. "Prove it."

With a sigh, Edward grabs the letter opener sitting on the coffee table and 'stabs' himself with it, resulting in nothing but the sound of metal hitting stone. He puts the letter opener back down and shrugs.

"I don't know what else you want me to do. I can read your mind right now. Yeah, I know you were reading page 52 of that book when Bella knocked on the door. Socrates, right?"

My poor dad nods nervously.

"No, I'm not going to kill Bella, Charlie, you or your daughter." Edward promises, going up to Bella and wrapping his arm around her gently. "They'll be safe with me around."

"Okay..." My dad nods again, processing everything.

"What else did you need to talk about?" I prompt, and Bella looks at me again.

"You can't just go around telling people that vampires exist." Edward tells me, and I frown at him.

"It's not 'people,' it's my dad. Didn't you guys tell Charlie?" I accuse, surprised when both of them shake their heads.

"How do you explain... him?" I ask. Edward barely looks human, and definitely not 18 or 19 or however old he says he is.

"We don't. He hasn't questioned it." Edward tells me.

"Whatever, I'm still not keeping secrets from my dad. I don't want to get grounded because I have to run away to figure this out." I tell them with finality. "I'm going to Miwok to talk to my family about this, I'll see you guys when I get back."

With that, I go back up to my room and sit back down on my bed. I check my phone, seeing two new messages from Leah.

Leah: i wouldn't mind, but can't leave the res for awhile. working a new job and don't wanna lose it

Leah: ask ches

Chesmu?

I stare at the message. Hisaka is my imprint slash boyfriend, but I'm really not a huge fan of him. He kinda sucks.

Chesmu is actually pretty great, we've had a good time hanging out, and he gave me a ride back to my house after the bonfire. My phone buzzed again.

Leah: attached contact

I texted back an 'okay thanks' to Leah, and opened Chesmu's contact.

Me: hey Chesmu? this is Kaliska

I hit send, and my leg bounced up and down as I waited for him to text back. About a minute later, he responded.

Chesmu: hey! yeah, this is Chesmu. What's up?

Me: can you come meet me at my house? I have a huge favor to ask you..

Chesmu: yeah sure

Chesmu: beating people up is off the table tho

Me: haha

Me: no it's not beating people up.

I put my phone in my pocket, grabbed a hoodie and went outside, climbing the fence to leave my yard. I sat down to wait for him.

"Hey Kaliska, you okay?"

I jumped when I heard his voice.

"Yeah, yeah, fine. Just.. well, I have a secret to tell you." I fiddled with my hoodie strings as I tried to find the words.

"No worries," he sat down against the fence next to me. "What's going on?"

"You were in the pack chasing the vampire, right?"

"Yeah, I was. Did Hisaka tell you about that?"

"No, I was there." I tell him, but he just looks more confused. "Did you see what she was chasing?"

"The coyote? Yeah, I saw it. What about it?"

"That was me. I'm a shapeshifter, too."

He's quiet for a minute.

"Okay, that's pretty dope, right? You cool?"

"Well, I mean... I kinda thought it would be cool to be a spirit warrior... but I'm such a tiny animal, that doesn't really seem like an option. I can't even run that fast." I admit, shrugging at my latent disappointment in my spirit's choice of animal.

"But still, like shifting into any other form is pretty cool, like it can be fun. And running on all fours is way better than running as a human." He puts his hand on my shoulder, giving it a little shake. "You're part of a very small group of people that can shapeshift. No matter what you phase into, it's still dope."

I have to smile. He takes his hand off my shoulder and stands up.

"C'mon, I'll take you on one of my favorite runs. You'll see how cool it is."

I stand up too.

"Problem is... I don't know how to..." I gesture with my hands. "Phase." I admit.

"Oh, that's chill. It takes awhile to get used to moving back and forth between person and animal. You'll get the hang of it."

"That's kinda what my favor is about. I was wondering if..." It seems like such a ridiculous request now, but he just smiles at me, waiting for me to ask. "Well, I wanted to go visit Miwok, where I'm from, and talk to my uncle about all this. I think he might be able to help me."

"Gotcha. Yeah, I'm down. How far is it?"

"Over 960 miles." I make a face. "Wow, nevermind. That's way to far." I mumble to myself. What was I thinking?

"Hey, wait, that's not too crazy. We could do that in a couple of days, like run for a few hours, stop and chill, run a few more... It's definitely doable."

"Really?" I ask, a grin coming onto my face. "And you wouldn't mind missing school?"

"School? Nah, all the wolves can take time off for 'work related activities'" He uses airquotes and winks at me. I smile.

"Okay, cool. So like... leave tomorrow morning?" I ask hesitantly. Chesmu shrugs.

"Yeah sure, that's cool with me. Like 8?"

"Yeah, 8 is perfect." I grin, getting way too excited for this.

"Alright, I'll come back here to pick you up around then. Anything else you wanna talk about?" He asks, his hands moving to his waist as he got ready to strip down and phase.

"Nope, I think that's it. I'll text you if I think of anything else." I promise, moving towards where I climb the fence.

"Awesome, I'll see you in the morning then." He smiles, walking into the woods. I think of something right before he disappears.

"Oh, Chesmu?" He turns back towards me. "Don't tell Hisaka?"

"Of course not." He smiles, holding up his right hand. I smile back at him, waving. He walks away into the night, taking off his shirt right before he's out of sight.

Being a shapeshifter might not be so bad after all.

Bella, being Bella, had written notes in her Quileute books that she lent to Kaliska, which is how she knew about the eye color thing on Edward. I'm not sure if the rest of the Cullens will make an appearance in this story, but we'll see! What do you think of Ches and Leah? I like Leah being less bitchy overall since she's actually a pretty cool person a lot of the time in the books. Leave a review with your thoughts, I'm always open to suggestions!