AN: Love the feedback on the last chapter! Most of you were happy to see Big Quil, and I think almost everyone was surprised. That's always a good thing. Several of you picked up on the interaction with Bella at the beginning of the story, so good for you there- see, there is a method to my madness ;)

This chapter skips back just a bit to the end of Chapter 24. We'll see what happened with Bella and Embry before the wolves showed up to save her. And we'll hear what Big Quil has been up to.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but some shirtless pics of Alex Meraz that clog up the memory on my phone. SM owns all.

Chapter 26

Bella POV
When Paul pulled my truck up to the house, Charlie's cruiser was already there. I knew we would have to face Embry at some point, but when we walked inside he was already asleep in my dad's chair, his leg propped up in its brace.

Tiffany gave me a big hug as she wiped tears from her eyes. I could tell she was going to be shook up by this accident for a while.

Dad had to go back to work, but Paul stayed there throughout the afternoon and into the evening. We ordered pizza for supper, and Embry finally roused from his drug-induced sleep as Charlie walked in with the pile of steaming boxes.

Everyone was quiet as we gathered at the table, and we all watched in amazement as Embry allowed Paul to help him to his chair. I had tears in my eyes seeing my brother and my mate beginning to make peace with each other, and I knew our talk after the meal would only help move things along.

I watched Embry surreptitiously, trying to gauge how much he ate compared to Paul. If I was being completely honest, I was just watching him. It was hitting me hard that I nearly lost my brother—and that he had saved me at risk to himself.

His head turned toward me at the exact same time Paul did, and I realized there were tears clouding my vision. My face heated in embarrassment at the sudden attention of my family, and I covered my cheeks with hands to try and cool them down.

"I'm fine," I blustered as I waved off my concerned mate. "I'm just being a girl."

Paul wrapped his arm around my shoulder as he returned to his meal, and I managed to give Embry a watery smile. Tiffany stopped to give Embry a hug, then dropped a kiss on my head and Paul's as she was gathering up empty dishes from the table. Embry rolled his eyes when she stopped and gave Charlie a very different kind of kiss.

"Okay, kids, I think we'll head up to bed. It's been a long night." Sure you will, Dad. At least I didn't have Paul's sensitive hearing…

Paul helped Embry back to the couch where he would be sleeping until he phased or his leg healed. We sat down together and Paul gave him the same lesson about wolves that he had told me not too long ago.

Embry took it all in with the same steady approach he faced everything in life. He hid his fear well, but I knew my brother better than almost anyone. It was easy for me to see he was worried about becoming a wolf.

When Paul explained imprinting, Embry's temper shot to new heights. He nearly came up off the couch as he glared at my mate. "That's why you're with him, Bells? You don't have a choice? It's just some wolfy gods' decree?"

I waved off Paul and turned to face Embry. Taking his hand, I noticed his temperature had risen even further, and I hoped my words wouldn't be the ones that finally forced him over the edge. "Embry, I chose Paul a long time ago."

Embry sighed, almost deflated with resignation. I ignored Paul's happy smile as I comforted my brother, urging him to lay back when I saw how exhausted he was. "Sleep, Em. We'll talk some more tomorrow, okay?"

Paul followed me upstairs, grimacing as he looked toward my dad's room. "Whatever they're doing in there, I don't want to know. He laughed quietly, leading me toward my room with a hand on my lower back.

I didn't remember Paul leaving after he tucked me in, so I must have fallen asleep while he was still there. It was dark and quiet when I woke up, and I laid still for a moment trying to figure out what it was that woke me.

A low groan from downstairs had me up and moving quickly—something told me that Embry needed my help.

I made it down the stairs without incident. The last thing I wanted to do was trip and make enough noise to wake our parents. It took my eyes a minute to adjust, but with Embry's next quiet moan I was able to make out his trembling form where he was sitting on the couch.

"Em?" I approached him slowly, knowing that startling a potential wolf was probably not the smartest idea. "Are you okay, Em?"

"Bells," he gasped, turning to face me, his body shaking so much it was starting to blur. "Help me, Bells, please!"

I moved forward without another thought, reaching out to grasp the hand he held toward me. His skin was burning—hotter than Paul's even—and I realized that this was it. My brother was phasing.

"Come on, we need to get you outside." I kept my voice low, trying to soothe him as I helped him up from the couch. He tried to take a step, then growled as he looked down at the brace on his leg. With a few quick movements, he had it unstrapped and laying on the ground in seconds.

"Does it hurt?" I asked him quietly, grunting as he leaned heavily against me.

"Everything hurts." He bit the words out harshly, his teeth gritted in pain. I chose not to respond, knowing there was nothing I could say that would help.

We had just walked out the back door when Embry recoiled, snorting and shaking his head in disgust. "What is that–"

I didn't hear what he was going to say because I was jerked violently from his grasp by a cold, hard grip on my arm. I couldn't hold back a cry of pain, and I vaguely heard Embry echo me though I couldn't see him around the twisted face and dark red eyes of my captor.

"What do we have here?" he hissed, and my stomach turned over as he lowered his head to run his nose along my throat. "She stinks of wet dog, but the scent of vampires also clings here." I shivered as his cold breath washed over my skin, and a tear escaped me as I thought of my Paul.

"James, I have a bad feeling about this." The high voice was unexpected, and the man—vampire—holding me spun me around to face a woman with bright red hair. Her red eyes narrowed as she took in our position.

The man held me tight to his chest, one hand on my bicep and the other wrapped tightly around my waist. "Victoria is right." Another man spoke with a soft accent, and I could barely make out his form in the dark. "The boy is a wolf, and his pack won't be far."

I glanced out the corner of my eye, seeing Embry's body twist and jerk painfully on the ground about fifty feet away. The woman suddenly turned and looked behind her, then jumped into the trees. "James, let's go," she hissed urgently, and I couldn't stop the wave of hope that bubbled up in my chest. Was Paul coming?

"In a moment, dear." The hand around my arm tightened, and I couldn't hold back a cry as my bones protested. He brought my wrist up and inhaled against the blue veins that seems to be standing out like a neon sign. "You intrigue me," he hummed, just before a loud rip and a growl sounded in the yard.

Sound exploded around me, and I felt myself virtually fly through the air. I was pulled from James' grip by another cold hand, then pressed against the warm, familiar fur of my mate's wolf form.

Relief washed through me and I felt Paul melt back to his human skin and pull me tightly against his bare chest. I couldn't hold back the tears as the gravity of the situation finally hit me. I was nearly killed. I was in the grasp of a red-eyed vampire and I somehow escaped with all my blood still in my body.

Paul held me tight and soothed me with his quiet growl. I didn't lift my face until the scent of burnt sugar reached me, and I looked over to see a smoking pile of rubble topped off with a dirty blond ponytail.

Sam's black wolf was standing between me and the pile, with a grey mottled wolf beside him. A soft growl brought my attention to another wolf, one whose fur was long and matted, giving him a wild appearance that looked more like a real wolf than a shifter.

Edward Cullen shocked me when he spoke—I hadn't realized he was there. "Do you know who this is?"

I turned away when Sam phased back, blushing red as I caught a glimpse of him before he pulled his shorts on. I looked back when he and Edward began discussing the new wolf.

The wolf inched closer to who I assumed was Embry, but my breath caught in my throat when he turned his warm brown eyes toward me. There was something familiar about those eyes, something that made me feel safe in a completely different way from Paul. I knew those eyes.

"He's saying my pups."

At those words, something seemed to light up in the wolf's eyes, twinkling with humor and familiarity. My brain made some giant leap of intuition, and I voiced my hope before I could fully process it. "Big Quil?"

The wolf—my biological father, the man I thought was long dead—gave a happy bark and my world began to grow grey around the edges. I looked between my brother, our father, and back to my mate, mumbled something about puppies, then sank blissfully into unconsciousness.

~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOO~

Paul POV
We didn't walk far, just out of sight of the house in case its sleeping inhabitants decided to finally wake up. I had no idea how Charlie and Tiffany had slept through Embry's first phase and the vampire dismemberment, but the Chief was still in there snoring away.

Once we stopped, I realized my dilemma. Embry and the wolf who was apparently Big Quil were obviously not going to phase back anytime soon. Even if they did, I wasn't sure I could control my thoughts enough to be in their heads—I did have a lifetime of Bella fantasies that ran through my mind on a near-constant loop.

"I don't want to impose, but I can stay and translate if you would like," Edward offered, looking between the wolves and where I stood with my imprint in my arms. Sam gave me a questioning look and I shrugged, willing to accept his help after all he had done to help save my mate.

"Sure. I'll phase in and try to talk them down, but I may need your help, Paul." Sam froze and then shook his head. "I can't believe I just said that," he laughed, slipping his shorts back down before he fell forward onto his paws.

As the wolves all sat back on their haunches, I turned to settle on the ground under a nearby tree. I arranged Bella in my lap, making sure her injured wrist and newly-bruised arm were resting comfortably. I wanted to rip that leech to pieces all over again for daring to touch my mate.

Cullen shot me a wary look before turning his attention to the phased wolves. His eyes widened as he listened to whatever they were saying, and I had to run my fingers through Bella's hair to distract myself from my anger.

After several minutes, it got to be too much. "Well?" I exploded, making the little vamp jump as he turned to look my way. "I thought you were gonna translate! What are they saying?"

The mind reader nodded, then looked at Sam for permission. At his nod, Edward began to speak.

"The wolf is indeed the man known at Big Quil. He said he lost his fishing boat in a storm eight years ago, although he had no idea it had been that long. He phased for the first time after he went into the water—Sam thinks the struggle for his life brought the wolf forth, but he must have been exposed to vampires somewhere along the way. Probably when he was in at port.

"Quil was confused, and unable to regain his human form right away. Sam showed him that his first phase was similar, and that it took him weeks to change back. Quil's father is actually the one who found Sam and talked him down.

"He's not sure where he came ashore, but he kept to the woods and tried to avoid people. He tried to find his way back to La Push, but he must have been further up the coast than he realized after the storm. He's been wandering around the Canadadian wilderness these past eight years."

Well that explained his absence and his stray dog appearance, but I still had questions, and I knew Bella would too. "What made him come back now? How did he get here right when Bella needed him?"

At my question, Quil whined and moved closer to where I was holding his daughter. She hadn't moved since she passed out, and I could see where he would be worried. He didn't have the benefit of an imprint link like I did. "She's fine," I told him, looking him in the eye. "I have her."

Big Quil growled softly, but Embry surprised me by snarling right back at him. Edward snickered as he glanced at me. "He's defending you—it seems like Daddy Wolf isn't too excited about your imprint."

Before I could say anything else, Cullen picked up his story where he'd left off. "Quil has been feeling a pull this way for months. I think it may have something to do with Embry's change, but it was just blind luck that he arrived in time to save Bella. His presence must have interfered with Alice's visions, because that was not the outcome we saw before."

I shivered and tucked my head down to drink in Bella's scent, even though it was still tainted by that dead motherfucker. I didn't want to know what the little leech had "seen," I could guess well enough on my own.

Seeing the look on my face, Edward backed away slowly and nodded toward Sam. "Well, if you don't need me any longer, I will be going. My family and I will keep our eyes out for any other stray vampires in the area, but hopefully they will keep their distance now that they know about the wolves."

Sam and Quil let out growls of agreement as Embry shook and whined a bit. I didn't watch the leech go, I just laid my mate carefully on the ground, slipping my shorts under her head for a makeshift pillow.

Stepping back far enough that I wouldn't hurt her, I took a deep breath and tried to shut down my thoughts. Morning was coming and we needed to get Embry back in his human form. As for Big Quil, he had a lot to answer for.