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Chapter 12


Jude inspected the bulbous monstrosity against the backseat car window, the fluorescent shop lights flashing by made her dizzy as she tried to properly see her bandaged hand, and just like that Forks passed in a blur as Seth drove her back to La Push still drugged from pain medication and pissed at Sam's seemingly untouched, unblemished face, unchanged by her attack on him. It gave her no satisfaction to see him looking over the passenger front seat, no bruise to prove she had landed a blow, and having the balls to give her pitying looks.

Life seemed to not be her friend today.

Jude - 1, Life- 1.

Jude growled, "Stop fucking looking at me!"

Sam Uley thankfully listened to her command, for both of their sakes.

Too bad he couldn't keep his mouth shut too, "Can't she just say at least a thank you," Jude bit her lip in retaliation, never planning on doing so as he continued whining like a sissy la-la, "I just brought you to the hospital, you act like I am killing you-"

"I don't think that's her problem Sam," said the driver Jude wasn't very happy with either.

The fourteen year old boy looked between their hateful gazes they gave to one another, a bit worried, "Stop it you two! Why can't you just leave her alone Sam before someone gets hurt," Seth said as he stopped at a red light, he was pretty good driver for this being the third time, "didn't I already told you that she was going to be pissed off at you sticking around."

"Yeah," Sam muttered, refusing to let it go, irritated that Jude almost bit off his head for even trying to driver her car to the hospital, "I get it. Even if I thought she would at least be grateful that we took her to the hospital to get herself checked out."

"I am thankful for Seth, he is the one I am fine with," that was the truth, "it's you I can't stand," Jude added because she was sure she couldn't land another punch in her condition, her words would have to do for now.

Even when Sam made it so damn tempting to use her good hand to finish what the other could not.

Her disabled hand did nothing to confirm her threat of getting even with the gang leader.

In her drug induced state, Jude registered at the last second that Seth was driving her to Clearwater home, and when she was led out of her car, she was greeted by her parents in the light pouring from the front door, she looked up and registered that it was late in the night after her hospital visit, early morning possibly, and the only sound for miles of quiet wilderness came from the inside of the house.

"That little piece of shit," she must be talking about Seth, "he was out with Brady, I told him not to," suddenly Leah stood silent behind her parents in the warm glow of the living room, and all their equally judgy looks made Jude honestly not in the mood for anyone of them, no matter how much she professed to love and miss them.

All Jude felt like doing was brooding her pain away, and far away from her father that didn't want anything to do with her.

Instead of turning her away, the man of the house questioned them all, breaking the peace of early morning, "What happened here," it was her father that asked Sam as she leaned on Seth for support, "what happened Sam," Jude was climbing up the front stairs that dared to make her trip, not daring him a look at he father in case he remembered that she was supposed to be shunned, "Sam? What happened to her? Her hand?"

"She punched me," Sam complained like a little bitch, rubbing the back of his head, "we told the nurses she punched a wall. It was the only thing I could think of. It was her idea to leave the hospital-"

"Sorry if I don't believe in hospitals being hotels," Jude had a better idea, "I should slam your head against a wall, see if that worked better so I could clobber your big ass head," and she heard a womanly chuckle as they all huddled inside the warmer living room, and it couldn't be her mother. Leah.

Jude looked to see that it was Leah, filling the void of emptiness with her snarky humor, and for once Jude was not so afraid walking into the House of Clearwater, because for once there was no hate in sister's eyes.

That was nice development. Jude sat in on the sofa with Seth, the longer Jude returned to her conscious state, the pain her arm became overwhelming, and that meant she could barely tolerate playing nice with the enemy, "where is my pain medicine, this thing is killing me," she asked Seth, "go get it bro," glaring daggers at Sam that had not left when she had shouted at him in the car for his big ass to get the fuck out of her face.

"Sam, thank you for bringing Jude back," her mother said to the silent room as Jude swallowed her pills, and it was the first kind words any of them had said since she was allowed back in the living room where the tragedy first began, "thank you for bringing her to us."

He did not deserve her thanks, "Don't thank him," Jude grumbled, "it's his fault I am here in the first place."

Sam shook his head, as if Jude was crazy for even thinking, "Who punched whom Jude? Last time I checked I did nothing to encourage you punching me."

"I can think of a few reasons," Jude muttered.

"So can I," agreed Leah, catching her older sister's reluctant half smile.

Her father cursed in Quileute, "that is enough girls," Leah and Jude lost their matching smiles, "I think we should all get some sleep, it's pretty late, I will call Billy in the morning," her father reminded Jude about the very man she had made a promise to call if anything changed, and how easily she had forgotten about her promise, "thank you Sam for coming," her father sent an approving nod, "you should go home too, get some rest before today starts," Harry sighed, rubbing his chest, "as for me, I am going to bed," for the first time Jude saw the black under her father's eyes, see his breath pick up from as he stood up, "Seth you can take the couch, and Jude can take your bed-"

"No, I will not," Jude spoke up, not so drugged that she couldn't stand up for herself, looking at her father's straightening back as he stopped going to his room, "Billy should know I am here. This morning I told him I would be back, I promised," it seemed so long ago after her fight with Sam.

"That was yesterday," Leah piped up, amused to argue with Jude, "it's three in the morning you dufus."

That just confirmed Jude's worries about Billy waiting up, probably calling Charlie to see if she ran away again, oh, Jacob would just love that, "I told him I would be back by now Dad."

He responded, "It's too late Jude, he is probably sleeping."

Jude's mother agreed, the solution easy to her, "oh, we can call him in the morning, you should get some sleep while you are here, come I will tuck you in Jude," Sue said her name with a familiar tone, as if she was urging her to stay a bit longer, "we shouldn't wake his whole house up when there is nothing to worry about, right, come to bed," was her mother's soothing voice combined, and it really worked with the pain drugs she had in her system. The combination lulled Jude into false security, and Sue's attempt was poorly concealed.

Jude saw right past it, saw her mother's reluctance to initiate, and instead choosing to pass over the conversation that no doubt was going to happen.

Jude refused to join them, hissing when her mother touched her messed up hand as it tried to move her away, "First, am I allowed to move back into this house? Do you guys stop pretending like I don't exist?"

Her mother's eyes widened, "Jude?"

"Am I allowed back to move back in here," she repeated with no room for turning her attention elsewhere, she knew her father was no longer going to bed after her question, all the Clearwater, and even Sam sat back down in their seats, watching Harry for his answer. Jude continued, "because if I am staying with you guys, I will not be leaving to go to Billy's house," Jude knew that much, "and if I can't stay, I would rather not sleep somewhere I am not welcomed."

"Leah and Seth," Harry turned to sit on the chair he usually took to watch the ancient television box their grandmother had bought ages ago, "go to your rooms."

Before Leah even complained, Jude beat her to it, "They can hear it Dad, we aren't children anymore," Jude stood, "they should hear that you don't want me back, that you still don't trust me," Jacob had been right about how her father felt, "I could apologize for ages, and you still wouldn't want it."

"Yes," her father said, "they aren't children anymore, none of you are, everyone sit. I am only going to tell you this once," he leaned forward in his seat, the light of the lamp above him leaked over his massive shoulder, "I don't blame you for running Jude," and for once Jude noticed how very unlike he was to the father he remembered, "you were lost, you were scared of what you were seeing because you weren't taking your pills like the doctor told you to," there was no trace of him left, only tired acceptance, no longer a fight to help her, to understand her, "but staying away from your family," he shook his head grimly, "that is going to take a few years for us to accept that you are back, that you aren't-" that is when Jude's mother breaks down.

Her mother's strength dwindling to a lone cry, "We had a private funeral for you," her mother cried between her hands, the first truthful thing they had shared, sending shivers up Jude's one good arm, "I thought you were dead! We mourned you! We thought you were dead!"

Jude would never forget this tiredness that came from her father's eyes, the painfully familiar room, same jaded sofa pillows, same lightly stained leather sofas, and the indistinguishable feeling of being up way past an ungodly hour, but most of all, she wouldn't forget the way her mother cried into her hands for the loss of a daughter whom had never once tried to return to her.

Until her leaving had caused so much pain, that it made her leaving unforgivable.

"This is why I told you she wasn't ready," her father tapped his jeaned legs in erratic thought, guilt overriding his features that only increased with Sue's crying, "this is why it is hard to forgive what you did to this family," he got up to sit beside Jude's mother, his grieving wife, and leaned over to place a soft kiss on her raven hair while she kept weeping, weeping, and weeping until the rays of true light touched them all, and the sun of a new day reared it's unforgiving head.


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The lights were on at Billy's house during the early dawn hours, and for some reason this told her that Billy had slept just as much as she did.

Not a wink.

"Here you go, don't drive anywhere," Sam gave her car keys after driving her here, "lay off the arm," was his grumbled advice, Seth needed his rest for his practice today, and so Jude had complied with the enemy's unwanted help driving her home once again.

"I still don't like you," Jude said all but ripping the keys from his hands.

"Like I care," Sam said just as maliciously, jogging into the woods, leaping over the underbrush, like he some extreme marathon runner.

"What a weirdo," she muttered, and went into Billy's house.

It surprised her when someone that was not Billy was waiting on the couch for her, and in that startling moment the TV turned off just as she opened the screen door wider, giving the T-shirt-less and dark good looks the opportunity to notice her unwanted presence.

The sleepy eyed glare she expected from him didn't come, instead he didn't even look at her as he rushed a hand through his cropped raven hair, and he announced in his deep morning voice, right over his shoulder to the bright kitchen, "She's right here Dad!"

"You don't have to yell," Jude muttered under her breath.

"Whatever," Jacob Black rolled on his heels, jumping over the couch in a too swift moment that made it seem like he was doing it in slow motion, his feet barely made a thud as he walked away from her, "he waited up all night for you," was his little sassy remark before his giant ass went into his bedroom, shutting the door behind him with the same tremors it made in the walls.

Jude stuck her tongue at the closed door, at least Sam has the decency to look me in the eye, she thought, and hated that she compared the two assholes with one another. They both were a pain in her ass.

"Jude! Thank God!"

"Billy!"

Jude became entirely focused upon a wheelchair racing Billy that wheeled from the kitchen, anger flashed, then relief, than back to anger, than a frustrated smirk she had seen on Jacob's face just moments ago. How many emotions Billy could convey in a single look? Jude was honestly not sure right now, he asked her, "and, where have you been?"

Jude took a seat where Jacob had been laying before, the warmth of his body had seeped in the couch, it leaked into her own, "well for starters, I was with my parents, Sam dropped me off," that really surprised Billy, "but he just left right now, and my phone has been dead for hours, that is why I never called you."

"I guessed so," he gave a deep sigh, "I was going to call Charlie," he ran a hand through his long raven ponytail, something Jacob must have learned, "but I wanted to give you at least a day before we went searching," he continued to drag his fingers through his drawn back hair, it was longer since she had seen him that first day at Mark's Mart, he caught sight of her damaged hand, "What happened? What did you do to your hand?"

"Funny, that you should mention that," that he expected it was just her fault, "it's funny how well you know me now," Jude found it a little scary to be honest, "I went to go see Seth practice at the tribal school, I bought him some food, darn," Jude remembered that the food in her trunk must have gone bad by now, "I bought food for you too, it went bad in the car."

He used his Chief voice, "Jude focus, explain please."

"Right," she swallowed, showing off the splinted hand he had only now just noticed, "I know this sounds crazy, but would you believe me if I told you that I punched Sam, and this happened?"

She had to show him a closer look of her splinted hand, he turned it in his larger ones, and he furrowed his brows he inspected it more than the doctor ever did, "you said you punched Sam?"

"In the face," Jude said proudly, "it did little good, that guy is like a fucken wall," she cursed at the pain she felt lifting it for the unnecessary show, huffing as Billy gave her the same judgy look her parents had given her, "he deserved it Billy, he was bossing Seth around, and then he put me down for leaving him in the first place. He had no business telling us what to do."

"There is no need for violence, no matter what he told you," Billy took the role of the tribe's Chief and father into one, it was a little scarier than when he caught her stealing cookies as a child, she wondered if Rachel and Rebecca had felt the same way when they had lived here?

Billy egged her on, "then you went to the hospital, and they checked you over? Why didn't you stay with them to put a cast on you?"

"I have to go later on this week," Jude said with a grumble, "they couldn't do anything more for me, and Sam refused to just leave Seth and I alone, and then it was someone's bright idea that we go to my parents' house instead of coming here, and-" what was a good way to put it, "I had some heart to heart words with my parents."

Billy weighed the merits of entering into that conversation, no doubt he decided in the affirmative, knowing fully well that bickering could ensue with the sensitive topic, "would you like to talk about it."

"No, I don't want to talk about it," she would rather just get some sleep, but out of everyone, Billy deserved to know her progress the same way Susan, Peter, and Casey had supported her to follow through with this moment with her parents, "but there's no point in hiding it, they aren't ready for me to come back, they are more or less okay that I am here, accepting that I am trying for once to fix this instead of running away, but," Jude bit on her lip, the lone tear going down her face, "I don't think they are willing to forgive me yet."

Billy reached over, and wiped the tear from Jude's cheek, she sniffled back more tears, looking into his knowing brown eyes, and wondered why she had never seen the kindness there before, "give it time Jude, they'll come around."


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That Thursday came like any other before it.

There was no shadowy omen that would have prepared Jude for what was going to happen that day, nothing.

If she was expecting a rocking chair that morning, it didn't come.

It was oddly peaceful, the calm before the storm.

Only birdcall, sea breeze, and the rustle of the pine needles against one another welcomed her as she awoke rested with a full belly after the plentiful dinner she had prepared for Billy (and Jacob) the night before. As she got lost in the sounds of early dawn coming through her now opened window, Jude found a calm reassurance in herself, despite the chaotic day Wednesday had been for her family, and her newfound friendship with Billy, she truly believed that things would get better.

Not to mention that her mother had given her a lasting hug before she left that first night back at her childhood home. Seth brought her home. He had been sneaky, bringing her when she least expected it, but she knew it was meant well. Her mother's hug. It was brief but sweet.

The simple victories of yesterday left her daydreaming on Rachel Black's bed, refusing to leave it when she found the house empty, thankfully no Jacob lingered while his father was not here to discipline him into behaving with her, and Billy's note on the kitchen table said he would be busy for the day entire day, and so she called Casey, because she had a few plans for their soccer practice later on today.

"Don't be mad, but I am in Cali!" Casey had abandoned her, "surprise!"

"You traitor," Jude sighed, "I am just going to cancel practice, no point in practicing when I don't feel like it anyways."

"You'll live you big baby, you better not! I got you that job," said her alleged best friend.

After much convincing on not canceling practice, Jude wished her a fun weekend with her family. It would seem that Spring Break would feel like the longest week in her existence. It would be even longer since Casey had gone on a weekend vacation to California with her mother to visit her older brothers. Daniel and Conner had never seen eye to eye, and now Casey would have to spend the weekend with their nosy asses, and knowing the guilty person she could turn into, Casey was going to spill her guts to them, and that would only mean more headaches were coming her way.

"Dammit Casey," she muttered to herself, "what am I going to do now?"

Jude's arm ached with every move she made in the bed, but she couldn't complain or take back the reason she had done it.

"I need to hit him with a crowbar next time," Jude muttered with humor, "run him over with my car."

While she was envisioning her pleasurable revenge against the tank-faced Sam Uley, Billy's home phone rung, making Jude jump in the bed, and so that is how her calm evaporated, forever lost in whatever place laid between the worlds of could be's and never would be's.

She didn't stop herself as she went to answer it, bringing back to the comfort of Rachel's heavenly bed, "Hello? This is Jude."

"Jude! Please Help Me!"

"Mom?!" nothing mattered except her mother's screaming over the phone that she come as soon as possible, "Harry is dead Jude! I need you, please come now!"

It was like an avalanche of snow had just covered her head to toe. She was already moving off Rachel's bed, her mind in pure shock, "What, what happened!"

How could this have happened!

Jude didn't even know if she could drive like this. Jude forgot even how to talk because she still did not understand, "I was just there the other day," Harry had given her the liberty to speak to them on the couch, garbled conversations that went nowhere, but at least they were happening, and now, what the hell was happening, "what the hell happened! Mom are you alone! Where is Seth, Leah!"

Her mother, a perfectly sane mother, began hollering and screaming for someone to get back, and Jude snatched her car keys and bolted from Billy Black's home, with only her pajamas, and her crazy hair in a bun. She could care less. This was an emergency. Her mother needed her.

She cursed shoving the keys into ignition, her hand shook so hard, it made it impossible for her to turn it, "Mom! Mom! What is happening!"

Someone picked up the phone as her mom started hollering in the background for someone to get out, and for someone to get help for her dead father, "I need you to stay where you are Judith!"

Her voice was accusing, "you," she had known he had been up to something when he let that morning too early for her tastes, leaving a message that Harry needed help with something, "Billy! Why are you there?!"

"Yes, don't come Jude," she still revved the engine and took off for two minutes to her house at blinding speed.

"Like hell I am Billy," there was not one calm thought that went through her mind. She swerved past cars, they their blared horns at her, and her radio was full on blast until she slapped it off, but none of that mattered, only Billy's voice did, "What the hell is happening Billy! What happened to my daddy!"

"Everything is being taken care of," he repeated, the secretive shit was pulling the Chief card on her, and it did nothing to abate the anger pooling in her stomach.

Jude had enough of the Elder's secrets, Billy's secrets, she was finished with it all, "NO, that is my family, my family. I don't care if you think you are in charge of everyone in this damn tribe, even if I am your problem. No one gets between me and my family."

Billy groaned into the static of the home phone, as she could still hear her mother freaking out in the background, "This is not what it is Jude, I told you I have everything in control, stay where you are-"

She swerved her car into her home's street, the houses swished by as she throttled her car down the never-ending road, she had to turn a sharp end to get to the last house hundreds of feet away from the last, "thank god," she rattled through her teeth when she could see her house, "I am here!"

She pulled in front of the house, turned to it, and her mouth dropped.

Jude thought she was dreaming, or having a nightmare. More the last.

"Oh shit," in the backyard of her house, two very large wolves were outside snarling as two others were being submitted by a large pitch black one, the black one was the largest, and his growling was so dominating it made Jude quiver in her seat, leaning down as if he could sense her.

That is when she heard it. Thunder. Smashing thunder as the front of her house was ripped apart and the ground shook as one more wolf came out of nowhere to tackle the black one. They smashed into one another much stronger than any of Seth's football mates could dream of. Their blinding speed, strength, rippling fur, and aggressive snapping of pure razor sharp teeth was something so primal and dangerous it made every goosebump on Jude's skin raise.

"Oh my god," Jude pulled herself back as her car shook "AH!"

Her car almost tipped over as one of the massive beast bumped into her car, and she screamed in response again as it's incredibly intelligent dark eyes zoned in on her.

A few of the gigantic wolves looked her way and Jude ducked as low as she could, because she was sure they would tear her out of the vehicle, and chew her into painful oblivion.

Jude couldn't breath, she couldn't think, but she most certainly could lock the door. She did so, and painfully watched as they caught wind of her, and thankfully went sprinting into the woods.

After a few fuck-me moments of scared stupidity she was able to sprint across the war-zone of a front yard for her childhood home to find the front door and chunks of wood missing, living room torn to shreds, and in the center was a wheelchair bound Billy Black trying to console a screaming Mrs. Clearwater.

"MOM!" Jude bent down and embraced her shaking mother.

Her mother embraced her back, "Jude, my god, you came. How could this happen!"

She asked her tear-stricken mother, "What were those things! Oh spirits, did they hurt you!?"

"They protected us, they had to when she became-" her mother blubbered and Jude was even more confused now, "They said only the men, the legends only say the men but Leah, she never showed any signs, we never thought, but she did, oh my poor Harry, my god."

Jude felt her voice shatter, "Dad?"

"In the kitchen," her mother sniffled the dreadful words, and Jude turned her back to see her father face down and not moving. Billy was there, "you shouldn't Jude."

"Get out of my way," she instantly came to her father's rescue.

He was wearing his fishing hat, his face was turned to the side, and his body looked like it was frozen in pain or… oh no. Jude searched his chubby neck and checked for his pulse. It took her a few moments, but Nothing. His frigid body was already stiff and hard to the touch. How long had he been like this?

It clicked too soon. Jude screamed loudly when she soon understood what she was doing. This was her father, the man that tucked her in, kissed her head as child, and taught her to put a worm on a hook even when she thought it yucky. Her father, was dead.

She crawled away and screamed once more. The tips of her hair became entangled in her palms. This was going to give her nightmares for the rest of her life.

"This isn't real," she begged to whoever was in charge up there,"it can't be."

"Judith, your mother," Billy reminded her before she lost her mind.

Jude tore herself away from the traumatizing sight, and came back to her rocking mother, "Where is Leah and Seth mom? Mom? Where are they?"

Her mother began crying mournfully, Jude asked again, "Did the wolves take them?"

"Wolves- my babies- oh god," her mother was rambling nonsense.

"There are things you don't understand," Billy tried consoling them both, "things we don't tell others to protect them," but Jude picked her mother up and moved away from his secretive ways. She didn't need to know about his lies anymore, knowing that he had some part to play in this.

He caught on, "you have to be reasonable right now Jude. Think about your family."

That was the point, "That is all I think about! You are going to tell me the truth now Billy Black, or I swear," Jude picked up her cell phone that had still managed to stay in her pajamas pocket, "or I am calling the cops, and then you can tell Charlie the truth."

"No, you can't," he slammed his hand down on the ripped apart sofa, the one she had sat in the day before, "no one can now know about this. No one."

"We didn't even know anything about those- things, and look what happened," Jude pointed at the destruction.

Their rivaling anger only worsened the situation. Jude couldn't stop how fearful she was getting and it was leaking into her attitude as untamed rage, "My father is dead," Jude screamed at Billy Black pointing her cell-phone to the kitchen, "everyone is going to know about this. I swear if you had any part in this Billy. Every goddamn person is going to pay for this. Where is my brother and sister!"

She started dialing, and Billy sighed, "they were outside when you came in."

"What do you mean, stop playing with me! Did the wolves take them? Oh god did they eat them, they are monsters-"

"Leah and Seth weren't taken by the pack," Billy screamed back, his ancient voice cracking a few octaves. It startled Jude so much that she jumped when she stepped on broken glass that littered the ground. The wall where the windows would have been were obliterated and Jude could only stare at it and imagine the same loss she felt when she pulled into the road, "you have nothing to fear Judith. You need to calm yourself," it looked like he was waiting for something, "you need to stay calm, don't anger yourself more."

"Don't tell me what I can, and cannot do," La Push did not feel safe anymore, Billy's kind eyes no longer met her open heart.

Jude kept her grey eyes pinned on the underbrush of the forest, for the panting beasts that no doubt had hunted her at Old Mark's place, how could she have been so blind to the dangers this place could hold for her, "what if they come back Billy," because she felt like the wolves had come back. They had been quick, quicker than any animal she had ever seen, "how are we going to get away."

"We don't," was Billy's stubborn reply, rubbing his forehead as if he was getting frustrated with her common sense to run.

"We are going to die if we stay here," she would not even be able to make it to the car with her mother, let alone Billy if they decided to return.

Billy saw her stares to the green forest, and he said words that changed everything, "they are part of the pack Jude. There is nothing you or I can do about it now. They belong to the ancestors now."

Jude couldn't believe it, because her rational brain couldn't believe it.

"There is no such thing."

"Yes, there is," Billy patronized her, "you know the legends, you heard them, even as a child."

Any person that had not known the legends or understood the popularity of myths that surrounded La Push and Forks would have thought him crazy in that moment.

Yet, Jude remembered sitting around the bonfire, Billy's stories, and the Elders warnings of things that could not possibly exist. The eldest living heir of Ephraim Black, Billy Black said the legends again, just as all the Quileute chieftains before him, "The wolves descended from spirit warriors, from Taha Aki, and they are here to protect us, and care for us, against the Cold Ones, against any forces that dare attack Quileute lands."

"I know the legends," Judith yelled back, "I just never thought those wives tales were true!"

"Well from a man that memorized those wives tales," Billy sighed, rolling back against the wall. For a moment Jude pitied how helpless he looked. She would never admit to feeling such a way, he was still the Chief of their tribe for fucks sakes, but it really took a great man to live the life he did, "there I told you. This is the truth Jude. I already called some people. They will come and get Harry from the ground. I would, if I could," he tried saying, "but you know," he didn't say much else.

Jude felt like shit for her screaming at him, especially with her father's dead body not a few feet away, "If Seth is a wolf," Jude remembered how males were destined to become wolves and join the pack, "then where is Leah?"

Billy's face became grim, "Like I said, they are apart of the pack."

"What?"

"Leah is a wolf Judith," he broke it to her softly, "and her phasing and the truth gave Harry a heart attack." Jude dropped her cellphone, speechless, and for once with the amulet around her neck, she felt herself go a little insane.

She wanted to run into the kitchen and shake her father until he woke up. Tell him everything she had failed to do in the past. Jude wanted to run into the woods and bring Seth and Leah back safe. She wanted to laugh in Billy's face and tell him how stupid he was for thinking he had everything in control, and better yet she wanted to run farther away than she ever did before.

The real world had been shattered and the supernatural world had taken its place.

Instead of doing any of those crazy things, Jude decided to stay next to her mother, hug her, hold her hand, and sleep next to her. They both flinched at the sound of howling in the night.

That could be Leah and Seth, and that frightened Jude more than it made her feel better. They should have been here, grieving and sleeping in their parents bed, instead of running through the woods as gigantic wolf beings. It just didn't make sense. There was no such thing as spirit warriors, magic, and god forbid, Cold Ones… Jude wanted to forget all about today.

Sometime in the night her mother began stroking her head, "Jude, Jude, don't leave me again. I can't bear to lose you again," her mother's puffy eyes began weeping again.

Jude snuggled deeper, kissing her head like she had seen her father do when she was like this, "I am not going anywhere Mom, that is my promise," her motherly scent drove everything away and Jude for the first time in months fell asleep with someone else lying next to her.

They did not wake until the next day, when there was hushed voices in the kitchen, and her mother put a pillow over her head to drown them out. Jude decided to ignore them too, hugged her mother harder, and closed her eyes as she willed sleep to come over her again. Sleep was forgiving, and for once she was sleeping in her old home, same scent, her parent's same bed, and her mother's same smell.

Jude shut her eyes and dreamt of better times.

The skies were beautiful today, only fringes of white scattered here and there, "I see skies of blue, and clouds of white, the bright blessed day, and the dark sacred night," Jude was singing with her daddy along with the radio as they swung on the hammock, "Daddy?"

"Yes Jude-bug," he played with her hair while watching Mama with Leah, "why is the dark night sacred?"

"I don't know," was his wise answer, "why don't you ask Armstrong. He sang it."

"Daddy why is he called Armstrong?"

"Because when he was a kid his arm was so strong and so you see that is why he is called Armstrong."

"Harry," her Mama laughed, "don't tell her things like that."

"She asked, babe, what else am I supposed to say," he said and kissed Jude's head with his warm lips, "she doesn't even believe me, right Jude?"

"I believe everything you say daddy," a child Jude said and her father laughed when Mama got angry at him for filling nonsense in her head, "why are you filling my head with-"

"Hush, Judith. Listen here, I like this song," another song was on the radio now and he sang along with it,

"Somewhere over the rainbow

Blue birds fly

And the dreams that you dreamed of

Dreams really do come true ooh ooh" Jude was smiling and clapping, and laughed when Mama joined in.

"Someday I'll wish upon a star

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where trouble melts like lemon drops

High above the chimney top

That's where you'll find me."

These lazy Sunday mornings, with her parents, and baby sister Leah always made her feel as if suffering during school lessons was no so bad. She heard her baby sister laugh. Mama was playing peek-a-boo and Leah looked as if it was the greatest game in the world. Jude would have been jealous, but their parents always shared their love. Besides she was too busy enjoying herself with her daddy singing in her ear and playing with her hair.

"Jude," her father whispered in her ear, "you'll find me. Promise you will find me."

"What are you saying," she turned her head, "but you are right here daddy. Why do I have to find you?" Jude looked up at his grey eyes and saw only pain, "you need to take this off," he touched the amulet that had not been there before, "and come and find me. Promise me."

"Daddy!" The fringes of sleep started creeping in.

"Find me, Jude."

"Daddy!" Jude woke up sweating and found herself very alone on her mother's bed.

She reached for her jade amulet still there around her neck, and was thankful to find that her father's spirit hands had not taken it off. She didn't want to think what would happen if she had lost it.