A/N: The final chapter. Here we go.

December 15th, 2010

My relationship with Embry was becoming normal again. That became apparent as we approached the one month mark of being back together.

As it turned out, however, my relationship drama and the adjustment period to a new relationship had been a great distraction from the other going ons of the pack. With the other aspects of my life under control, I was hit in the face with the threat of the Volturi. A threat only made more terrifying by my inability to phase.

Mine and Embry's worries about the future might have been unfounded. We might wind up dead in a month or so's time for all we knew. Hindsight made our worries about anything else look ridiculous in comparison, but I wasn't the only one becoming more worried about the threat as time went on. The fact that the entirety of both packs had been invited to the Cullens' house was a sign that some big shit was about to go down.

Since that first day when we had confronted them, Jake had relayed information between the Cullens and the wolves. Now we were expected to sit in front of Bella and Edward and listen for ourselves, which sent alarm bells off in my head.

I was on high alert before I stepped foot in the house, but to be fair, the strong smell of leech was enough to do that to me.

The place felt empty this time even though the space had never felt lived in whenever I'd been there before. There was always a sense of artificiality that must have been caused by the fact that it was occupied by vampires. With Bella, Edward, and Nessie the only ones left in Forks, it felt like a real ghost house. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought no one had stepped foot in it for years. Actually, the place was spotlessly clean, so perhaps it felt more like one of those fancy show houses that realtors took potential buyers to. The ones you knew were an ideal of the house, not the way it would look once someone lived there.

That was the least of my concerns today as I settled onto the couch beside Embry, pressed close to his side to make as many seats for all of the wolves as we could.

Bella and Edward stood before us, making themselves the center of attention. Bella looked almost nervous, but it was hard to tell what Edward was thinking.

"What is it that you wanted to discuss?" Sam asked the vampires.

He, too, had remained standing, taking one side of the room while Bella and Edward stood at the other side. Jake was standing too, but he was behind Sam, up against a wall. Nessie hung from his arm like she was scared. Understandable considering how the other times the packs had faced her family had gone.

"Alice's visions have changed," Edward announced. It was enough to have the attention of every wolf, if he hadn't had it already.

Everything seemed to hinge on Alice's visions, and despite mocking such visions as unreliable in the past, I knew that the guys were placing a strong importance on them in determining whether we would live or die.

"What are they now?" Jake asked.

Edward wasn't keen to share the details, which didn't help my anxiety as Edward didn't often seem worried about sharing bad news with us. Sometimes I thought he reveled in it, and the fact that I could have such a thought without a glare from him, only confirmed to me that this was serious.

If I'd needed that confirmation after everything else.

"Something happened among the Volturi," Edward continued. "Alice can't figure out what as she can't see the past, but something has them angry in a way they weren't several days ago. Alice was already paying close attention to them, and the change was so sudden that she collapsed when she received the new visions." I gripped Embry's hand as Edward continued to speak. "They've sped up their plans to attack us, although Alice still can't see how soon that means they'll come. In vampire time, it could still be a while."

"'Still be a while' but not as much of 'a while'," I quipped, earning myself a frown from Edward. I'd have considered myself a failure if I managed to be in his presence for any extended period of time without eliciting that response.

"You could put it that way," he responded wryly.

I wanted to continue to mock him. It would have made the fear that had iced over my stomach easier to deal with. Maybe it could have pulled my attention away from the goosebumps I could feel along Embry's skin or the way I could see my little brother burrowing closer into Al's side. Maybe I could forget all of it and focus on the fleeting amusement of annoying Edward.

None of it would do any lasting good, so I didn't say anything more. Instead, I gripped Embry's arm in the only way I knew to bring him comfort in a room this full.

Tomorrow, the wolves would train again. This time more frantically than ever, but for now, that was all they could do. I didn't even have that.

December 20th, 2010

Jacob paced the room in what had become a familiar fashion. I was sure it was even more familiar to Embry and Quil than it was to me. I'd missed a lot of this during the time I'd avoided their apartment like the plague.

I pushed that from my mind. It wasn't the time or place to feel regret.

"I don't understand why they're doing this," Jake ranted as he went back and forth, back and forth. I sat on the couch between Embry and Quil, watching him in silence. "Carlisle's, like, five hundred years old or something. Why does he think bringing the Denali to Forks is a good idea? All it does is put a larger target on our backs."

"Does it?" Embry spoke up. All I could do was mentally curse him. Jacob had worked himself up into a state, and Embry was going to direct that onto himself instead of the room at large. "It can't be any worse than having Bella and Edward and Nessie here. They're the three the Volturi really want alive, right? Along with Alice?"

Jake looked confused for a second, like Embry had made a point that he hadn't considered, but he was soon back on track.

"Well, yeah, but that's kind of a liability, isn't it? The Volturi want them alive. They'd prefer the others dead. Maybe that means they'll attack England first, but if they know the Cullens are bringing in other vampires, then it looks like we're planning to fight."

"We did it before," Quil pointed out. "There were a lot more vampires here last time than a handful of the Denalis."

Jake sighed, stopping his pacing to lean against the wall.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I don't know what it means. All I know is that we have more vampires to deal with, and we're never going to be ready for whatever the hell is coming. I'm...I'm lost."

"Aren't we all?" I asked.

The three of them turned to me, but they didn't answer my question. They couldn't because none of us knew what should be said.

The future was a mystery, and while I'd begun to find a strange sense of relief in that as I clutched Embry's hand, this was one time where I still wouldn't have minded being a seer. One far more knowledgeable than Alice Cullen. Maybe then I could have given us some peace of mind.

A/N: Thank you everyone for reading, especially anyone who's taken the time to read all four stories in this series (and possibly even the Seth story). Here's the plan for the future. There is a fifth story in this series that is written and less than half the length of this story. I'm going to post that as a one-shot in the next couple of days, so be on the lookout for that. After that, there will be a one-shot epilogue to the series that is significantly shorter, but as that's still being written, I can't promise when you'll see it. I hope every one sticks around for the fifth one as well.