A/N: PLEASE READ! *peaks out from behind laptop* hehe… hello my loves. Obviously, the summer of updates did not go quite according to plan, but I do have a valid explanation. After my last update, I had family come and visit from out of the country for over a month to celebrate the engagement of another family member, and then school started again and I hardly even have time to breathe (literally as of now, I have a cold). In the bottom A/N I'll talk about future updates, but right now I just want to thank you all for your continued support, say I love you and advise you to enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: At the time of Twilight's original publication I would have been a small child, therefore there is proof that I did not write it and it does not belong to me.

Embry POV: I sat there next to my sleeping imprint, slowly losing myself in my thoughts, still awed by what had happened. Bella was alive. She wasn't dead and she wasn't leaving me. Somehow, I was too grateful to question it, our bond had saved her life.

For all intents of purposes, she had been dead. At least that's what Doctor Snow had said. He had called her a medical miracle; and while he was working to decipher how it was even possible that she could wake up from her death sleep, I knew he would never come to a conclusion. If he ever did find out somehow what had truly saved her, I highly doubted that he would ever believe it.

From the moment I first laid eyes on Bella, I knew that I was in love with her. I knew that all I wanted was to call her mine, to start a life with her, to grow old with her. For the brief moments when I had lost her, I wasn't just weeping for her, but for all that had been taken away from me along with her. Now it was all intact. She was here again, and so was our life together.

But now that she was alright, I could only seem to focus on one thing: ripping Edward Cullen's stone appendages clean from his body and burn them one by one. Before, I hadn't been keen on the fact that I was somehow destined to take the role of alpha away from Sam, I had always thought that was Jacob's gig. Apparently not.

Hell, I didn't even know if I was ready to become an alpha. The reason why it worked so well for Sam was because he was twenty. He had gained more knowledge and patience than I would gain in a lifetime, let alone by the age of sixteen. I was nothing like Sam. I couldn't boss around my friends, talk strategy for combat or any of that shit! Even before I was a wolf I would always be the one to hang back and let Jacob and Quil take the lead on things.

"You'll be just fine you know," came a deep voice from the doorway, causing me to jump out of my skin and derail my train of thought. Sure enough, there was Sam, offering me a bleak smile as he eyed Bella's resting form. "With the alpha thing, I mean."

"How did you even know what I was thinking about?" I wondered. "And you can't use the pack mind as an excuse, because we aren't phased."

"I like to think I can," he argued. "At this point, I know you all so well I can tell what you're thinking just by your facial expressions. Plus you're technically my little brother. I ought to be able to recognize your mannerisms from time to time."

I rolled my eyes as he came and sat down next to me, placing a firm hand on my shoulder. "No, that's not it. You're just nosy as hell, so you know what all our facial expressions mean. There's nothing telepathic included this time around."

He chuckled, a low, throaty sound. "Come on Em," he teased. "I'm serious. I know you're nervous about becoming an alpha, and that is totally okay. I was nervous too, when Jared first joined the pack."

"Really?" I raised my eyebrows. "You've always seemed to me like you were meant to be an alpha, it never seemed to come as a challenge to you."

"Please," he gave an indignant snort. "After one year of having my mind to myself when I phased, I was terrified as hell when I realized I had to help someone else through it too. But I had to rise to the occasion, and you will too," he assured me.

"But I don't even know how to do that!" I exclaimed. "How am I supposed to run a pack and win a war when I can't even protect my own girlfriend from her psychotic bloodsucking ex-boyfriend on the highway?"

"You couldn't have known," he reassured me for the umpteenth time. "The imprint bond is supposed to tell us when they're in danger, but it doesn't often work when the danger comes so abruptly. Besides, every great leader makes mistakes. You're going to make your fair share of them as alpha, I know I have. You just have to learn to deal with them and keep moving forward."

"Will you help me?" I asked hopefully.

Sam nodded again, clapping me on the shoulder affectionately. "Isn't that what brothers do?" he wondered and then looked at me seriously. "I'm not kidding, Embry. Just because nobody ever told me I had a younger brother doesn't mean I'm going to ignore it. I'm going to help you in any way that I can."

"Thanks Sam," I whispered, glad that I wasn't truly alone in this.

"Anytime little brother," he chuckled. His face turned serious then. "So how is our favorite little trooper?" he asked, motioning to where my imprint lay sleeping on the bed.

"Surprisingly, she's not too fazed by the fact that she almost died," I told him shaking my head. "She said she was just glad I was here and that she loved me; like if that was all she had left she would be okay with that."

"That's Bella," Sam sighed. "Always putting others before herself, holding such little regard for her own life."

"It's not healthy."

"That may be, but that's why you belong to each other. You balance each other out. Without her by your side, I don't know if you'd be ready to take on the alpha position. But now that I see how devoted you can be to just one person, I have complete faith in you. You're ready."

I could only hope that he was right.

A/N: Well there you have it! This would have been done a lot sooner but I got really busy with school and such! As for future updates, I should hopefully be around every two-three weeks from now on! Let me know what you think of this chapter and all the brotherly bonding and I'll be back soon! Love you all!

Thanks for Reading!

-thewolfgurlgleek :)