Author's Note: For those of you who have been following for a while, this chapter may start off familiar but read to the end. Changes have been made and you don't want to miss them…

Disclaimer: I still don't own Twilight. I just like to play with it.

"What's taking you so long, Nerissa? Tyler is threatening to leave you."

"This stupid thing doesn't fit right."

"Let me see."

When Nerissa opened the door for her mother, Beth Crowley to bear witness to the travesty that was her suit. The swimsuit she was wearing was a gift from Tyler's girlfriend, Lauren, since Nerissa's old one – a cute one piece with a zipper down the middle – no longer zipped over her bust and bit into her newly developed curves. Nerissa's new bathing suit was uncomfortable in a radically different way. It was a bikini and it was a mess of triangles and strings.

"Oh, honey, I think that's how it's supposed to fit."

"I can't wear this to the beach, Momma!"

"Well, I don't know what you want me to do, Issa. We don't have time to go to the store before you all are supposed to leave," Beth pressed a kiss to her daughter's forehead comfortingly. "I know you'd be more comfortable in your pelt, but you look cute."

"Riri! If you're not done in two minutes I'm leaving!"

"I'm coming, you bully!" Nerissa shouted back, rushing around her room to shimmy into a pair of jean shorts and throw on an oversized T-shirt she'd stolen from one of her brothers and modified beyond recognition.

"Bye, Momma," she paused long enough to give her mother a peck on the cheek and grab her bag before sprinting outside. Nerissa made it to the end of the hall just in time to see Tyler walking out of the front door and, like any little sister worth her title, jumped on his back with a flying leap.

"I told you I was coming!" she yelled in his ear as she wrapped her arms around his neck in a loose headlock.

"Three years later," Tyler mimicked the voice from Sponge Bob, jogging across the courtyard that separated the house from the one beside it. He walked into the house unceremoniously and an Asian woman looked up from where she was folding laundry on the couch.

"Hey, have you seen Dad? He said we could borrow the van."

"I think Benny beat you to it; they're in the office."

"Thanks."

Nerissa down from Tyler's back as he headed off and she began helping the woman with the laundry.

"G'morning."

"It's practically noon, little one," Kairi laughed.

"Well, I just woke up, so it's morning to me, Mom."

Nerissa's family was a bit different from the rest of the families in Forks. Nerissa had two moms, two brothers, and two houses. Beth Crowley and Kairi Cheney had bonded over their shared background and, between being two of the few faces of color in an otherwise white town and having sons the same age, they had quickly become good friends. The widowed Beth didn't have any family nearby, so Kairi and John had become that for her and her son. At some point, things had changed… as the saying goes, love is friendship set on fire.

John, Kairi, and Beth couldn't say exactly when their friendship had been set aflame exactly, but it had been some time between when Tyler and Ben were two and three. When the boys were four, their parents had bought a duplex to make their unique little family function a bit more smoothly and when they were five, their little sister had been born and the Cheney-Crowley family was complete.

Of course, none of the good townspeople of Forks knew the whole sordid tale. If they had, the gossip surely would've run them out years ago.

Fortunately, Beth was close Karen Newton, the queen of Forks' rumor mill. Whenever someone attempted to air their suspicions about the Crowleys and the Cheneys, Karen shut it down quickly and fiercely. The cover story was that the grieving widow Beth had ended up with John Cheney in the midst of an amicable separation and that Kairi was merely living nearby for co-parenting purposes. Whenever Karen told the story, this is where she would usually tout the Cheney-Crowley family's virtues in contrast with others who'd had messier divorces. (Did you hear about Charlie's ex-wife Renee? Now that's a piece of work. Those two never should've gotten together, poor Charlie…)

"Heya, Dad," Nerissa waved as she and Kairi finished up with the laundry.

"Good morning, Issa," John gave the girl a quick squeeze and clapped the boys on their shoulders before handing off the keys to the family's van. "Alright, you guys get out of here. Have fun camping at the beach."

"Remember to take pictures and be in them," Kairi added, coming around the coffee table to dole out hugs.

"And boys, please, watch out for your sister," Beth called as she walked through the private entrance in the wall that connected the two houses. She took Nerissa's face in her hands and kissed her forehead. "You know we don't have much longer."

It was a sobering reminder.

"We will," Ben walked over and laid his head on Beth's shoulder.

The rest of the family joined in on the group hug with contemplative sighs and weighty glances.

After exchanging another round of goodbyes, the three siblings got into the van to go pick up their friends… well, the boys' friends.

Nerissa quickly found herself in a car full of couples: Tyler and Lauren, Mike and Jessica, Ben and Austin. Nerissa couldn't help but pout and wish for the beach to come quickly; she hated being surrounded by so many lovey-dovey individuals. If it wasn't for the fact that this was the final get-together of the summer, and her last chance to hang out with her brothers before they went back to college, Nerissa would not have subjected herself to this.

"Is that a new bathing suit, Laur?" Jessica asked, reaching over Nerissa to flick at the strap that was peeking out of her best friend's shirt.

"Not exactly. I picked this up when I was in Cali."

Nerissa internally rolled her eyes at the way Lauren talked about California with a pompous air as though she was actually from the Golden State instead of simply going to school there and that she was somehow better than everyone else for doing so.

"I should've asked you to bring one for me, too," Jessica pouted.

"I actually did, but I ended up giving it to Nerissa," Lauren shifted her attention to the younger girl and raised her voice an octave to the weird pitch she used whenever she was trying to show Nerissa how nice she could be.

It was as though, by being nice to Nerissa, Lauren thought that she could get the younger girl to write a letter of recommendation to Tyler on her behalf. Everyone knew that Tyler was hot stuff with his football scholarship at FAMU and he was only interested in Lauren for as long as he was in Forks, but Lauren lived for the clout boost that came from being with the hottest guy in town. Despite the fact that she knew exactly what Lauren was doing, Nerissa played along, letting Lauren take her out to get her nails done and give her things, like the swimsuit… although, that particular gift had backfired.

"Oooh, are you wearing it today?" Jessica clamored and Nerissa nodded.

"How do you like it?" Lauren asked.

"Mom said I looked great," Nerissa evaded.

The other girls ignored Nerissa's lack of enthusiasm. Lauren took the opportunity to praise her own eye for fashion while Jessica crowed her agreement. Their conversation turned from fashion to the Kardashians and it was all downhill from there. Sitting in the middle of the backseat between the two of them was hell to Nerissa.

"We're here!" Ben announced as he parked.

Nerissa got out of the car and stretched, looking around in confusion.

"This isn't First Beach. Where are we?"

"It's Second Beach. Ben and I found it when we were hiking and we figured everybody might like to come to see something different," Austin explained.

Nerissa looked out at the new beach and couldn't help but agree that it was much beachier than its counterpart. She wondered why they'd never come here before.

"It's not like, sacred tribal territory or anything, is it?"

"Doubt it. I mean, I didn't see a 'no trespassing' sign. Worst case scenario we get asked to leave – no big deal," Ben shrugged as he grabbed a stack of blankets, handing them to Nerissa before taking hold of a couple of lounge chairs and following the rest of the group down the walkway to the beach.

It didn't take long for them to get situated. The boys were playing some sort of tackle football game in the water while the girls lounged on the beach. Lauren and Jessica lay on a blanket as they attempted to suntan with odd foil panels that looked like they came from the set of a B-rated space film. Nerissa was curled up in one of the lounge chairs with a copy of The Catcher in the Rye.

"Is that for scholarship or pleasure?" Jessica asked.

"Summer reading."

"No one reads for pleasure, Jessica," Lauren chastised as though her friend was the ignorant one in their relationship. "Except for Bella, I suppose, but she was always kind of different."

"Plenty of people read for fun, Lauren," Jessica replied with incredible patience before returning her attention to Nerissa. The little sister of the group was a lot like Bella in a way that made Jessica feel nostalgic. She missed the bookish girl that had existed before Bella became obsessed with the Cullens and then went off the deep end. Jessica could only hope that it had all turned out okay since Bella had dropped all communication since she and Edward had gotten married.

"You're taking AP Lit, right? I read that book going into junior year. What do you think of it? Holden's got kind of a James Dean vibe, right?"

"Yeah, I get what you mean with the whole disillusioned childhood rebel thing. It's kind of sad in some ways, but I like the way the story flows." Nerissa's eyes shifted between the blonde and brunette in front of her, wondering how in the world the former salutatorian had ended up being the dumb blonde's best friend. She supposed it was a hazard of living in a small town.

"Does Mr. Berty still teach AP Lit?"

"I've heard of him, but I think he left. I have Mrs. Talltree."

"Man, I feel old. I can't believe it's only been a couple of years since we graduated."

Before Nerissa could respond, a pair of wet arms grabbed her and lifted her out of her chair. She swatted at Tyler, screaming to be put down before he could throw her in the water.

"This is a school book!"

Tyler had mercy, setting Nerissa down long enough for her to put her book back in her bag and strip down to her swimsuit before picking her up where he'd left off. He tossed her into the water with a loud splash.

Nerissa came up sputtering and flicking her wet hair out of her face.

"Wowza," Mike spurted, earning him a friendly but warning clap on the back as Tyler reminded him that the girl in question was his sister.

"I'm going to kill you!" Nerissa dove at Tyler, attempting to push him underwater and a game of chase ensued until Nerissa allowed herself to be roped into playing water football.

The game fell apart when Jessica and Lauren decided that they'd had enough sun and wanted to play chicken with their boyfriends and Ben and Austin went back to the beach to start up the grill. Nerissa swam off, not wanting to stay with the couples, but not quite ready to get out of the water.

Nerissa emptied her lungs and dove underwater. She'd spotted a pod of seals and she wanted to see if she could swim with them. Just as she rounded the corner of the rocky headland that jutted out into the shoreline, something huge careened into the water, making a gigantic foamy explosion just behind her.

She turned around and came face to face with a man underwater. Something in his eyes stole her breath and her senses. Time, water, breathing all else fell away. All that existed was him.

So this is imprinting, Collin Littlesea thought to himself, unable to take his eyes off of his imprint – and why would he want to? She was amazing and beautiful and perfect in every way.

Reality broke through Collin's fog as he realized that his imprint was about to drown. He plucked her out of the water and set her on a rock, letting Jake's memory of saving Bella guide his shaking hands. He didn't know exactly what he'd done, just that it seemed to have worked since she was coughing up water and that her skin was soft and that he wanted to drown in the brown eyes that were blinking back up at him shyly as his imprint came to.

"Hi."

"Hi," she had the voice of an angel. "What just happened?"

"You almost drowned," his voice was low and sultry.

"How did that happen? I'm… I know how to swim."

"Maybe you were a little distracted."

"Maybe," Nerissa nodded, her eyes running over the length of him. "You are distracting."

"So are you."

Nerissa ducked her head, blushing. Collin tipped her head up with a finger under her chin.

"Please don't look away. You have beautiful eyes," his own eyes surveyed hers searchingly before dipping down to her lips and back up. He ran his thumb across her full bottom lip.

He was close enough that she could taste his breath. She licked her lips, encountering his thumb and flicking her eyes back to his. Nerissa breathed in another drag of his scent. He was invading all of her senses. He was close. She couldn't think with him this close. She reached her hands up to push him away, but only succeeded in pulling him closer.

The air around Nerissa was charged with electricity. She could feel the hair on her arms raising with static. She raised her head and saw that her hero's eyes were filled with the same energy that raced through her body dizzyingly.

Suddenly his lips were on hers. Their bodies crashed together as though they were magnets. Nerissa wrapped her legs around him like a pretzel and he laid her back against the rock she'd been perched on-

"Issa!"

Nerissa pulled back with a gasp, remembering that a world existed beyond the big man between her thighs. His lips against her neck made it difficult for Nerissa to think.

"NERISSA, WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Fuck. Fuckity, fuckity, fuck," Nerissa pushed the man – the strange man, who she didn't know and had been KISSING – away and he lifted his upper body away from her, curling back his upper lip and growling at the sound that was taking his mate away. The sound he was making would've freaked her out if she hadn't felt the vibrations all throughout her body. She fought to regain some self-control and keep her hips from rolling up into his.

"Nerissa!"

Nerissa slid away from him as the sound of her brother's voice grew closer.

"My brothers – I wasn't supposed to be gone so long," she stumbled through an explanation as she fumbled with her top.

Collin took it from her and deftly helped her to fix it, recalling Jared's memory of taking Kim out of a similar bikini and doing the exact opposite. He planted a kiss on Nerissa's shoulder when he was done and she shivered.

"I have to get back."

"I'll come with you."

"NO! No, you can't," she turned and fixed him with an imploring gaze. "I don't know what just happened, but I don't do this."

"I don't usually do this either. You're different though. I-"

"I'm sorry."

She jumped into the water and swam back over to her group. Nerissa emerged like a swamp creature behind Tyler and clambered onto his back before he could realize she was there.

"Boo!" she yelled, making him jump and Lauren scream from beside him while the others laughed from their vantage point on the beach. "Sorry, I didn't realize how far I'd gotten."

"'S'okay. It's time to eat," Tyler jogged over to where the rest of the group had gathered at a picnic bench and deposited his sister beside his girlfriend as he went to take a seat on Lauren's other side.

Nerissa hadn't realized that she'd needed to be carried until precisely that moment. Even sitting down, she felt like her legs were boneless, plus she was dizzy and she still hadn't caught her breath. Nerissa cast a glance back at the water and just in time to see Collin's head duck back underwater. Either that guy had been a really good kisser or he'd given her the ick. She groaned, feeling like some sort of after-school special about the dangers of kissing strangers as she laid her head on the table.

Collin watched from a distance. Voices from the Pack flooded his mind.

Damn, I should've jumped first.

Congratulations, dude, she's hot.

Ooh, that's gotta sting.

Bow chicka wow wow.

Hey, don't worry about Patrol tonight. I got ya.

Man, I can't wait to imprint.

She won't resist forever. It'll get better.

You okay?

I'm good… she's perfect.

-EQUINOX-

It was late and Nerissa was restless.

Usually, Nerissa slept better outdoors than she did in her own bed, but her mind just wouldn't shut off. She couldn't stop thinking about the stranger from earlier and the kiss they'd shared. She wished she'd gotten his name.

Sleep clearly was not going to come easily.

Nerissa shivered as she crawled out of her sleeping bag and grabbed her pelt. Maybe a swim would help to wash away the memory of the man… or maybe she'd see him again.

"Sneaking out?"

Mike and Jessica were finishing off a blunt when Nerissa stepped out of her little red tent.

"Just going to the little girls' room."

"Careful, there are man-eating wolves in the woods."

Nerissa rolled her eyes at Mike's attempt to scare her. The gaggle of old friends had naturally ended up telling scary stories after their reminiscing about schooldays had evolved into sharing their wildest theories about the Cullen family and the strange happenings in their town.

"Do you want company?" Jessica offered.

Nerissa shook her head.

"Bon voyage et bonne nuit!" Mike gave a cringey salute that sent Jessica into peels of laughter.

Nerissa grabbed a flashlight and walked across the sandy campsite. She stopped at the treeline, watching and waiting for them to go back to bed. When they finally stumbled into their tent, Nerissa let out the breath of air she'd been holding. She was glad to get away from the trees where it had felt like someone was watching her.

She returned to the campsite, zipping and unzipping her tent just in case anyone was listening. Each couple had a tent and she had one to herself. It was a perk of being in the Prince of Forks' inner circle. The tents and gear had all come from Mike's family's store.

"G'night, Benny! Night, Ty-ty!"

"G'night, Issa."

"Night, Riri."

Nerissa nodded to herself impressed by her own mischievous genius. Now that she had an alibi, she could do whatever she wanted. She kicked off her shoes by the entrance to her tent, dropped her flashlight beside them, and ran down to the shoreline. Nerissa carefully picked her way across the narrowing strip of sand that outlined Teahwhit, the headland that divided Second and Third Beach. She paused once she reached a patch of dry land and looked over her shoulder.

Nothing had changed back at camp and none of the other campers on the beach were outside of their tents. She was far enough away that, even with the moon shining, no one would have been able to see her if they'd tried. Those ghost stories must've affected Nerissa more than she'd realized. She shook her head, trying to dispel the notion as she stripped.

Collin watched from the woods as the moonlight illuminated his imprint's naked form.

Collin: Hot damn. Nobody look!

Gabe: You don't have to worry about that. Congratulations on your imprint, Collin.

Collin: Thanks.

Jared: You can ask Jake to Alpha order you to hide your thoughts of your imprint. (flashback to Sam's Alpha timbre… a wave of disappointment that Sam was no longer his leader)

Collin: I might do that.

He was grateful to note that two imprints were on Patrol. Jake and Leah were testing out different configurations to determine which wolves worked best together while they worked out the kinks of the merge. For now, they were only pairing wolves who were closely related or equally imprinted when they arranged schedules with wolves from the two different Packs. Collin felt their minds shift back to their own imprints and the routes they were surveilling.

Collin was drawn to his own imprint. He followed her path loosely from the treeline, not daring to step foot on the sand with all the campers there. By the time Collin reached the point where he'd seen her last, his imprint had disappeared. Her discarded clothing was the only trace that she'd been there at all.

He whined and paced the shoreline worriedly, thinking back to how she'd almost drowned earlier.

The sea breeze carried her scent to him and Collin chased after it, wading through the waters around Teahwhit without bothering to phase back first. He looked around in confusion. There was nothing there but a pack of seals.

Among them, there was a young female who seemed to be struggling to get away from a much larger male. He flopped a fin over her body and she thrust her head back, barking a warning which he seemed to pay no heed, instead scootching closer. Until recently- specifically, after the packs merged and he'd gotten back into Leah's headspace- Collin hadn't really thought much about the sexual dimorphism that was common amongst various animal species, but now he was seeing it everywhere. Now, it was weird and more than a little uncomfortable to watch the seals interact. Collin thought about intervening, but it was nature and these seals were not the object of his mission.

Collin's eyes swept the scene in front of him, across the water, and back to where he'd come from. Where was she?

Movement in his peripheral caught his attention. Collin's gaze snapped back to the mating rejection just in time to see the female stand… on human legs.

The male barked and backed away in confusion.

Collin echoed his movement, bowing in surprise as his imprint stepped out of the female seal and threw the lifeless pelt across her shoulders like a shawl.

Nerissa laughed as she took in the male seal's reaction. He went from bully to baby in less than zero to sixty. She turned to walk away and her eyes landed on the wolf that was standing too close for comfort. Nerissa wanted to hide in her pelt, but she knew that she was better off in human form since wolves preyed on seals. Still, this wolf was gigantic and she didn't know what to do.

Collin phased human with the widest grin. Now, it was Nerissa's turn to be stupefied as the reddish-brown wolf imploded to form a man.

"Wha-Wait, how?"

"You're not the only shifter in town," Collin said as he walked over.

"Shifter?"

"Shapeshifter."

"Oh, no, I'm a selkie."

"A what?"

"Ever heard of a seal woman?"

"It's not in our legends," Collin shook his head then locked his eyes on the male seal that had been harassing his imprint earlier. "Was that guy bothering you?"

"He's just a regular bull," Nerissa waved her hand dismissively.

There was a pause as they regarded each other. This was only their second encounter and they'd already shared their deepest secrets.

"What's your name?"

"We have the coolest imprint."

They spoke at once.

"Collin."

"What's an imprint?"

They shared a laugh.

"I'm Collin. An imprint… I'm sorry, I can hardly think with all that," Collin jerked his head towards the barking, moaning harem. "Do you mind if we go somewhere with less of a crowd?"

"Where should we go?"

"Are you afraid of the dark?"

"No. Why?"

"There's a really cool underwater cave that has an air pocket. Can you breathe underwater?

"Kind of… How do I know you're not going to try to eat me?"

"Feel that?" Collin traced a line down the back of his imprint's hand.

"Yeah," she breathed. Her body felt like a live wire, just humming with electricity. She shivered.

"That's how you know," Collin's voice dropped and so did his eyes.

Nerissa vaguely recalled that she was naked and pulled her pelt together so that it no longer gaped in the front. Collin smiled to acknowledge that he'd been caught staring and shrugged because he didn't care wasn't ashamed.

"We'll have to phase to get there."

"Phase?"

"Shift into your wolf- er seal."

Nerissa put on her pelt and watched Collin phase back into a wolf. Watching him turn was creepy. It was like the wolf was a living thing inside of him that burst out of his cells, changing his very essence from the inside out. The other seals barked and thrust their necks in horror. Nerissa hobbled after the wolf and plopped into the water after him. She couldn't see underwater like the wolf could, so she followed by feeling the current his body created in the water.

It was a short swim to the cave.

"I could've swum here in my human skin."

"You almost drowned earlier, so I didn't want to take any chances."

"I was distracted."

"Sure, sure," Collin switched on a flashlight that was suspended from the ceiling and turned to see his imprint shimmying headfirst through the mouth of her pelt. "That's freaky."

"Your shifting is freaky," she sat down, still mostly inside of the pelt.

"What? How?"

"I can put this on and take off. It's not a living animal," she picked up a fin and let it flop lifelessly to the ground for emphasis, "and I don't become something else when I put it on. But, you're different. You are not the wolf and the wolf is not you, but you and the wolf are one. And when it just explodes out of you, it looks painful."

"That's… fair. The first phase was the worst, but after a while, you get used to it." Collin crawled across the cave to sit beside Nerissa and took her hand. "What was it like the first time you phased?"

"I don't remember. I was born like this."

"That's incredible. You're incredible, Nerissa."

"So… imprinting?"

"Longstory short, it's basically how wolves know they've found their mate."

Collin's imprint snatched her hand back and disappeared into her pelt. He knew that she'd said her pelt wasn't alive, but he was definitely staring at a seal… and now it was talking.

"Nope."

"What do you mean no?"

"No, thank you?"

"Pardon?"

"I can't have a mate and certainly not a werewolf."

"Shapeshifter."

"Same thing."

"Not really. Werewolves are controlled by the moon. Shapeshifters can control themselves."

"Ookay. The point is, I'm not ready for an interspecies relationship."

"But the ancestors chose you-"

"They didn't ask me."

Collin's mouth opened and closed wordlessly. He felt like he was hallucinating. Was he really being rejected after imprinting… on a seal?

"Can you please come out?"

Nerissa sighed and popped out of her pelt like a turtle with a shell. Collin fought the urge to recoil. How many ways could she phase?

"Is this how it's going to be?"

"I'm still deciding," she shrugged. "I told you earlier, this isn't something I do."

"It feels different with me though, doesn't it?" Collin grabbed her hand.

"Yeah, it does," she nodded reluctantly.

"That's the imprint," they both shuddered at the electric feeling.

You'll notice that I referenced Teahwhit Head a few times. It's basically a really big rock that extends into the shoreline in La Push, dividing Second and Third Beach. Google it. It's beautiful.

In case you're curious, Nerissa is pronounced nuh-REE-suh.