Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, not me.

Author/Note 1: This story is the sequel to Our Dawn 5. For the ones who don't know anything about Our Dawn Series, you can always read Our Dawn 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and Our Dawn Series Specials but if you don't want to bother I have a resume on my profile page. As it would be expected this is a next generation story and as such, it's focused on Jake and Leah's children.

A/Note 2: A huge thank you to everyone who reviewed Our Dawn Series so far.

A/Note 3: I'm not a native English speaker so I'm sorry for my grammar and spelling. Thank you for reading.

Alpha

Book I – The Third

Isaac Black

77. Adulthood

In the state of Washington, eighteen is the age at which a person has the legal rights and responsibilities of an adult. At the age of eighteen, most people are off in college, having left their parents' home. Others don't pursue a higher education and start working immediately to provide for their families or to have their own income.

I was different from everybody else though. I was now eighteen years old and I had already gone through college, I had lived in the University Campus on my own for three years, and I was perfectly able to win money for myself without having a full-time job. Nobody knew but I had been writing Biology and Geology essays for the most important national magazines under a different name. I was receiving between 900 and 1,200 dollars per essay. I had been writing less since my transformation but prior to coming to La Push, I had written six essays in three months which gave me about 6,000 dollars.

It wasn't all that much but not many eighteen-year-olds were gaining this kind of money, so I guess that being a genius was paying off. I was saving that money for a special occasion. Travelling was an old dream of mine but now I couldn't abandon my duties. Maybe when this was over and my pack wasn't needed anymore, I could quit being an alpha and resume my life.

Maybe I would ask Sophia to go with me to Somalia or Ethiopia. We could both go on a Humanitarian Mission. I knew she would like that.

"Hey there, birthday boy!" My brother William greeted. "You don't seem too happy for someone who just got a car for his birthday."

When I woke up that morning I wasn't expecting much. A surprise party, maybe even a cake, and a few symbolic gifts. However, this year was different. My parents had given me our old family car completely restored.

I was so stunned that I couldn't even complete a sentence for about five minutes or so. Dad was keeping his promise and he was trying to make up to me for all he had missed out in the last ten years. Dad had done a fine job. The car was in pretty good condition given the fact that it had been bought eighteen years ago. The old Nissan was appropriate for a family of five but after Sarah and JJ were born, dad had bought a 7-seat Toyota Highlander, and the Nissan was kept in the garage for years untouched.

"The story about your birth was unnecessary though," William added making a disgusted face. I rolled my eyes.

Apparently, I was very close to being born inside the old Nissan. Fortunately, mom had made it until they'd reached the Cullen's house.

"What are we doing here, Will?" I asked my brother.

"We're going to celebrate your birthday baby brother!" He stated cheerfully.

"The afternoon party was enough... The cake was awesome and I loved your gift."

"I didn't give you one."

"I know. I was being ironic."

"Haha." He faked a laugh. "Look... Isaac, you're eighteen now. You're an adult, therefore certain things are expected from you."

"Will... I'm not the one with the pregnant girlfriend."

William frowned.

"You really need to stop being so... nerd." He said.

"I'm not a nerd, I'm just not in the mood to celebrate."

"But we're celebrating anyway. EJ is as drunk as a skunk and Danny's already posted like a hundred pictures of his brother drinking beer from a dildo-shaped bottle on youtube, so the least you can do is playing along." He said.

"Are you paying for their drinks?"

"Of course not. Harry is."

"And where's Harry exactly?" I looked around the bar but I couldn't find Harrison anywhere. "Don't you think Harry's been acting strange lately?"

"He's not acting strange, he's just feeling guilty about Sarah."

Five days ago my sister had been bitten by a vampire. Because she was on the verge of becoming a wolf, the activation of her gene was accelerated. She phased for the first time in Italy in the woods in a small location called San Lorenzo.

When a new wolf phases there's always a time when it's difficult to establish a connection with him because he doesn't share his thoughts unless he submits to an alpha wolf and joins a pack.

When dad was a wolf there was only one alpha and the new wolves would connect within a few hours with the rest of the pack. Now things were different. There were more packs, more alphas and Sarah herself had alpha genes.

She attacked Harry when she saw him and remained in her wolf form until Carlisle Cullen sedated her. Unfortunately, when she recovered consciousness she didn't go back to her normal human self. She was different. Her eyes were golden and she didn't speak, only growled. And the worst part was that she didn't trust anyone or even allowed anyone to touch her.

Except for Levi Uley. And that was another problem. One we were still trying to solve.

"He couldn't have done anything to prevent what happened to Sarah."

"You know Harry. He always had that instinct in him that makes him believe he needs to protect everyone. And maybe it's his fault..."

"No, it's not." I defended my older brother. I really didn't believe Harry was to be blamed. We all knew Sarah had gone to Italy with Season to help.

"I'm not saying it's his fault that the vampire bit Sarah but he shouldn't have left her alone with Levi."

Carlisle had mentioned that Sarah didn't mind Levi because he had been with her when she had phased. She kind of recognized him as someone who had tried to help while she saw everyone else as threats. Levi was like a protector while everybody else was an enemy.

It was only thanks to Levi's help that Carlisle had been able to sedate her a second time in order to put her on the airplane so they could come home. That was four days ago and since then, a lot had changed.

We were now on red alert because the Romanians had sent a vampire to watch over us keeping their agreement with Harry. The leech was a guest at the Cullen's residence. Carlisle and the others had investigated him the best they could but there wasn't much information about a 500-year-old vamp who had always lived in clandestinity.

Fortunately, he had accepted to stay with the Cullens and follow their rules so he didn't hunt, he fed on hospital blood instead. His name was Janos and he was from Hungary. That was all we knew about him. According to Edward, he was not a bad person and he didn't know much about Vlad and Stefan's real plans except that they wanted to make sure that the pack didn't conspire with the Volturi.

"Look... tell Harrison that I appreciate the gesture but I can't stay the whole night in the bar. My shift is about to start."

We were patrolling the Cullen's lands now that Janos was here. Four wolves per shift, twenty-four hours a day.

"I asked Collin to cover your shift, birthday boy." William grinned. "I mean you're an adult now. Eighteen is an important age. So we thought it would be good for you to experience more adult stuff."

I had a bad feeling about this.

"Harry went to pick up someone to celebrate this special occasion with us. Plus... the rest of the guys just arrived."

I saw Jay, Quinn, and Levi coming inside the bar and I sighed in despair. Now I was stuck there.

"You're going to like the surprise." My brother added with a huge smile. I highly doubted.

Wolves could hold their liquor better than humans but that didn't mean they wouldn't get drunk. EJ had already too much to drink when I arrived, now he was completely wasted. He was on the counter trying to get the red-haired bartender to notice him. But by now she either thought he was a lunatic or a dickhead.

"You should take EJ back to La Push," I told Danny.

"And miss EJ being humiliated by that girl? You have to be kidding me."

"Stop being so serious, Isaac," William told me giving me another beer.

"Will's right. Don't let my efforts be in vain."

I turned around and saw Harry.

"You didn't bring her?" Will asked surprised to see Harry alone. I sighed in relief.

"I know you both had... good intentions but I should warn you that I have no interest in sleeping with a prostitute or whatever you had planned for me tonight."

"You really think we would do that to you?" Harry asked sounding genuinely hurt.

"I would," Will whispered.

"No, you wouldn't." Harry chastised his twin brother. "And she's outside, she's just finishing a phone call."

"Good." Will cheered. "Go get her, tiger! I mean... wolf!"

He suddenly pushed me out of my chair and the rest of the guys started to hit their glasses on the top of the table, encouraging me to go and meet the woman Harry had picked up.

"You'll thank me tomorrow morning, little brother," Will called from his seat.

I walked outside the bar ready to leave. I wasn't going to meet anyone much less sleep with a girl I didn't even know.

"Isaac?"

I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"I guess I was able to come here after all." She said.

I was astonished when I realized that Sophia was there. She was wearing a red dress above her knee with black high heel shoes and her hair was tied up in a long braid.

"Happy Birthday." She whispered.

"Thanks... Did my brother go to Astoria to pick you up?"

Sophia nodded.

"But today it's also your birthday. Shouldn't you be celebrating with your friends?"

"Yeah... well the party was over earlier than expected thanks to my ex-boyfriend."

"I see..." Somehow I had a feeling that my brothers had something to do with that party gone wrong. "Hey... do you want to go somewhere else?"

I didn't want to go back to the bar but I couldn't stay there either. My brothers and friends had super-hearing powers and I wanted some privacy with Sophia.

I liked her. It wasn't just a crush. We had been in contact ever since we'd met two months ago. Unfortunately, she didn't live nearby but we talked almost every day by phone. It was nice talking to her. Talking to her gave me a sense of normalcy that I didn't have with my family because we weren't normal people.

Sophia didn't know about the supernatural world, so with her, I could be the old Isaac. And I could dream about doing the things that I shared with her. Like going on a trip to Brazil, or skydiving or saving the world from famine. We had recently found we had similar tastes in almost everything.

"Your father is keeping up his word," Sophia said when we entered the car. "My father never gave me a car for my birthday." She added.

I had told Sophia bits and pieces of my past. I mentioned my lonely childhood and she shared more about the incident that had made her quit dancing.

"So... where are we going?" She asked.

She liked the cliffs especially because tonight there were no clouds in the night sky and we could see the stars and the moon.

"You had a good day?" I asked sitting down on the soft grass near the edge of the cliff.

"Yeah... it's was good."

"What about your ex-boyfriend? What did he do?"

"He's just an ass. Mac thinks he's God or something... but I really don't want to talk about him."

It was easy to speak to Sophia on the phone and online but being with her personally was a lot better. She had the most beautiful green eyes I had ever seen and lately I had been thinking about what to do after this whole mess with the Romanians was over.

There were four packs in La Push right now. Too many in my opinion. Dad wanted to quit and give his position to another alpha wolf. He had told me that I was the best candidate he had so far, but I really didn't want to accept the offer. That was Harry's position by birthright, not mine. After all, I was only dad's third son.

"You talk a lot more when we're on the phone," Sophia said. "Is there something holding you back?"

"No. I just... Today has been weird." I confessed. "I never thought I would end up here in the cliffs with you."

"It's a nice place."

"Yes, it is..."

There was a long pause. The sound of the ocean hitting the rocks was almost deafening.

"I've quit my job." Sophia finally broke the silence.

"Really?"

Sophia was a monitor at a school for kids with certain disabilities. She taught them music and acting classes and she was one of the best monitors they had. She also enjoyed helping those kids so it was weird knowing that she had suddenly quit.

"Yes."

"Why? Didn't you love your job?"

"Yes, but my brother was right. It's time to stop running away. It's time to face life."

"Mackenzie got accepted at the Academy?"

"Yes, she did."

Sophia had always dreamed about entering the Las Vegas Dance Academy. That was a dream she had shared many years with her best friend Mackenzie. A car accident had taken her chances away but her friend had pursued the dream and now she was very close to succeeding.

"She called me earlier. The results got out today. She was accepted in the Academy that I always dreamed of entering on my birthday. Isn't it ironic?"

"Yes, it is." I conceded. "I'm sorry that you can't be with her."

"She called me asking for my permission to accept. She feels that she's betraying me and wants me to be happy for her."

"And you're not?"

"I don't know." She said putting her head down in shame. "I don't want to be jealous."

"Then don't be," I told her. "I was jealous of my older brothers for years. They had a relationship with our father that I thought I would never have... but look at us now. I managed to solve my differences with Will and my dad got me a car on my birthday! So maybe one day you'll find something as important to you as dancing once was."

I guess that it wasn't just Mac who had ruined Sophia's birthday party. Mackenzie's news had done some damages too.

Sophia started crying.

"You told me once that you wanted to travel," I recalled.

"Yes, I remember. But I can't go now." She said wiping her tears away.

"Why not? You've already quit your job."

"Because I want to try something first."

"Try want?"

"This."

And then, Sophia kissed me.

xxxxxxxxxx

I almost had a heart attack when I entered my house after taking Sophia to Astoria. It was around six in the morning and I wasn't expecting anyone to be up at that hour but Harry was.

He grinned when he saw me coming inside the kitchen.

"Now William will never shut up about this."

I ignored his words. I knew what he meant but I didn't want to discuss that right now.

"Why are you up?"

"I'm waiting for mum and dad to arrive. It's my shift."

"You look worried, Harry," I said going for some food that was inside the microwave.

"I'm fine." He lied. Harry was a terrible liar.

"Look... what happened to Sarah... it wasn't your fault," I said remembering the conversation Will and I had earlier. "She made the decision to go with Season on her own. She knew it would be dangerous."

"I appreciate what you're doing but it was my fault. I should've been there."

"She's not dead, Harry."

"Well, she's not our Sarah either."

"But she will be. As soon as Doctor Cullen realizes what's wrong with her, she'll be back to normal."

Sarah was still acting strangely. Her eyes were still golden and she was unable to communicate with us. It was like her animal side had come to the surface and refused to leave. She didn't talk or behave like a normal person. She was always on edge, always on the defensive and didn't want anyone around her.

Initially, she reacted violently when we approached her, but now she was starting to tolerate our presence. Mum and dad knew it was dangerous to have her in the house because she was even more unpredictable than Will on a bad day but we couldn't just take her to the woods and stay there with her because we had no idea how long she was going to stay like this.

"This shouldn't have happened. The vampire's venom must have done something to her."

"She's healthy, and she's alive. That's all that matters for now."

"Yeah, but her life is on hold. She can't leave this house. She can't go to school or even hang out with people. And we need to be watching her constantly."

Sarah was a ticking bomb. A ticking bomb that turned completely harmless, even docile when she was with Levi Uley. Somehow she trusted him and didn't feel so anxious when he was around. The first night after they arrived from Italy, Sarah ran away from home and went to Levi's house. She had sneaked into his bedroom and slept with him.

Nothing had happened, but since then dad had forbidden Levi to be around Sarah.

"It's not Sarah... is it?" I asked as I watched my brother staring at the wall. "What's bothering you? Is it Season?"

He shrugged but his eyes told me that I had hit the jackpot.

"You don't have to take care of everything alone, you know? Whatever happened, you can count on us."

"She went to talk to her family yesterday."

"You mean the mother that neglects her and the stepfather who's a douchebag?"

"Yeah."

"And what happened?"

"Her mother said she wants Ryan and Norah back."

"She never cared for those kids before. Why did she change her mind now?"

"Go figure... Anyway, Season's worried. She believes that the social services will give the kids to her mother and Bruce."

"I'm sure the Cullens can get her a lawyer to take care of that."

"Yeah... but that means she'll have to go to court and she's scared. Plus, I don't want her all stressed out either."

"Why? We all know she'll win the kids' custody. Her mother and stepfather are both junkies. He doesn't have a job and there are police reports about child abuse, right?"

Harry got up from his chair and pulled me up the stairs with him. He took me to my room where Season and her two siblings were sleeping. I had given them my room temporarily.

"I got married," Harry said with a smile. I looked at him and then at the girl sleeping in my bed.

"Congratulations." I placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm happy for you."

Harry nodded. I guess that as Season's husband, he did have the right to feel worried about her and the possibility of a future custody bout over Ryan and Norah.

"Are you listening?" Harry asked me when I was about to leave.

"Yeah... you said you got married."

"No, not that. Focus, Isaac. Focus and listen carefully."

I didn't understand what he meant because I couldn't hear a damn thing. Everyone was sleeping. There was just me and him by the door.

"Focus." He repeated.

"I don't know what you're..."

Then I heard it. It was a faint rhythmic beat but it was there. And it came from Harry's wife.

"Well... mum and dad are going to be thrilled to know they're going to have not one but two grandchildren soon," I commented trying not to laugh.

"Well... try not to laugh too hard when they ask you why you didn't use a condom," Harry replied, clearly upset with my mockery. "I can smell it on you, Isaac. And if I can smell it, so can they."

Sorry for the long wait. ;)

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