The more the Alphas began to question the Great Alpha Male and Female the more divided the Pack became. Eventually fights began to form between the Alphas. Eventually each of the Alphas left the council and formed their own Pack. With each year that passed the Great Alphas waited for the Alphas to return home. The two were ready to forgive the ones who spoke out and were ready to reform the Pack bond. Each year the two Alphas watched as the perfect world that Q'wati made began to fall apart.

Seth fiddled with the zipper of his jacket nervously. In the front of the room, the teacher wrote the homework on the board while the students hurried to scribble down the assignment. Seth wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing, but in his defense, he was too busy worrying about the current state of his Alpha than to bother with writing down his homework.

Through the Pack bond, Seth could feel a wave of unease flowing steadily. The Beta drummed his fingers on the desk nervously knowing that somewhere in the school Jake was walking around in circles still thinking about the Asha incident.

His argument with Asha happened three days ago, and he hadn't heard a word from the Alpha Female ever since. Not to mention that Jacob was constantly beating himself up whenever he would send Seth and Leah out to search for the mysterious pack and they would turn up empty handed.

Finally, the bell rang and Seth leapt out of his seat nearly sending his desk toppling over. The teenaged wolf grabbed his bag and muttered a goodbye to his teacher before sprinting out the room.

"Seth," Brady called out to his Beta. "Where's the fire?"

"Asha is supposed to come today and Jake wants me out there to patrol early, and I want to try to make it to him before he disappears again." Seth stopped his sprint to give a hurried reply to his pack mate before continuing to run out the doors.

The Beta paused on the steps of the small tribal school before spotting his Alpha over by the beat up Rabbit. "Yo, Jake!" Seth called out to the young Alpha ignoring the string of curse words that flew out of his mouth when the car door refused to open. "Having troubles with your car again, huh?" Seth tried to keep the conversation light and teasing, but one look from Jacob caused the younger wolf to swallow nervously.

"Shouldn't you be on patrol?" Jacob folded his massive arms across his chest causing Seth to look away. "What if Asha comes by and we aren't out there to help her find where she's supposed to go?"

"See that's what I wanted to talk to you about." Seth began to play with his zipper again. "I don't think Asha is going to turn up today–"

"Seth, she wouldn't just give up." Jacob argued.

"I know she wouldn't, but she seemed pretty mad so she probably isn't gonna show up for a while."

"Seth," Jacob narrowed his eyes at his Beta. "I need you and Leah to get out there and patrol now."

The Beta frowned but turned and headed towards the woods with his head hanging down low. Normally, he wouldn't have allowed Jacob being in a bad mood affect him so much, but the Beta couldn't help but worry about how obsessive Jacob was being.

Seth groaned loudly as he began to shed his clothes. The change happened quickly and so suddenly that he didn't even notice when he was running on four paws instead of two feet. The Beta blocked off his worried thoughts from the prying thoughts of his sister which only succeeded in annoying the she-wolf. As much as she wanted to rip down the barrier, she forced herself to stay focused on the task at hand and ignore the worried feelings that were coming from her annoying brother.

Seth was really better with all these words of encouragement that Leah seemed to be giving him. The she-wolf gave no response to the Beta except for a rolling of the eyes that he didn't seem to notice.

The two wolves ran the rest of the time in silence. Silence wasn't something that Seth enjoyed too much, but it was easier to worry about his Alpha's sanity when it was quiet than it would be if the rest of the pack was also phased.

Seth needed to move faster, and Seth needed to get to his sister now. Leah's panicked thoughts broke through the mental link and without realizing what he was doing, the Beta turned around and moved in the direction of his sister. The Beta was panicking. Was it a vampire? Was Leah hurt? God damn it why wasn't she answering him?

The panicked wolf burst through the trees and skidded to a halt next to his sister. Seth crouched down low and growled loudly as he swung his massive head around the clearing. Suddenly, the Beta was confused. There was nothing here. If Leah was just playing a trick on him, then – oh!

Was it a baby shape-shifter or a normal wolf?

Clearly, it was a baby shape-shifter. Leah mentally scolded her brother's stupidity before turning her attention back to the pup. The she-wolf made a small keening noise at the back of her throat and the small wolf repeated it.

It might be injured. Seth commented while watching his sister slowly approach the pup.

Oh, Seth, it's so cute.

Indeed the tiny pup was in fact… cute. He was a black pup with white paws and a white stripe running down its back. The pup's small ears twitched and a small whining noise came out.

Don't just stare at it, Leah! Do something!

Leah phased back to her human form before sliding into a baggy shirt and loose fitting shorts. Her short black hair stuck out in every direction, but she focused her attention on the pup in front of her.

"Hey there," she cooed gently pressing her hand on the pup's side. "I'm Leah. I belong in the La Push Pack and that's my brother Seth." Leah ran her hand through its fur pausing whenever she felt a scratch or a bump. "You probably traveled for a while before you made it here, huh? I'm going to need you to phase back to human for me."

The pup whined loudly, and Seth flattened his ears to his head.

"I know it's going to hurt, but it's for the best." Leah turned to her brother and frowned at him. "Seth, give him your shirt."

The Beta whined at Leah's request. It was his best shirt and he didn't want it getting dirty. Leah pointed again at the shirt, and Seth allowed his sister to untie the clothing from his leg.

"I got a shirt for you, but it might be really big." Leah placed her hand on the pup's head. "I need you to phase for me. Is that OK, honey?"

Sam looked out of breath. In fact, he looked like he ran ten miles just to get to Jake's house, and in his defense… he did. The former Alpha had sprinted at least nine and a half miles in human form to get to his Alpha, and now he was wishing that he had least had the decency to phase before running that far of a distance. His human form couldn't handle that kind of exercise.

Sam paused for a moment to catch his breath before knocking on the door to Jake's house. He waited for about thirty seconds before knocking on the door a second time. On his third time of knocking the door, Billy finally answered it.

"Where's the fire, son?" Billy teased lightly. He took one look at the former Alpha and any trace of humor was swept from his face.

"Jacob," Billy called while backing his wheel chair into the house. "Sam's here for you."

The Alpha appeared at the door the moment Billy mentioned Sam's name. Jacob's hair was even messier than usual and he had bags under his eyes. Sam swallowed loudly suddenly at a loss for words.

"Sam, what do you want?"

"We found one of Asha's missing pack members." Jacob shut the door in his father's face not even bothering to tell Billy where he was going. The former Alpha made way for the current one. "It's a boy that can't be older than nine years old."

"Bali."

"What?" Sam stopped walking to stare at his Alpha. "What the hell is a Bali?"

"That's his name." Jacob explained not even bothering to stop and wait for his Third. "The kid's name is Bali and his mother is Aden and his father is Kato. Is the rest of his pack here, too?"

"No, it's just the kid." Sam murmured moving twice as fast so he could catch up with the Alpha. "Anyways, he's at Sue's house with Leah. The girl's been trying to get the guy to eat something, but he's too shaken up to eat. He's murmuring a bunch of incoherent stuff: something about Cold Ones, his mother, and Asha. We figured we should get you."

Jacob nodded his head in agreement. "How long has he been there?"

"Just a couple of minutes," Sam began to scratch his arm nervously. "Do you think his mother is out there somewhere?"

"I don't know, but I think we should talk to the kid first." Jacob moved even faster than before. "He might know where Asha is."

"Jake–" Sam stopped what he was saying when he saw how determined his Alpha was. The former Alpha had no right to voice his opinions about this Asha girl when the current Alpha had already made up his mind on the decision.

When the two men arrived at Sue Clearwaters house, the inside was chaos. Paul was arguing with Collin and Brady, Seth was talking animatedly – and rather loudly – to Quil and Embry, and Leah, Sue, and several other imprints were fussing over a sobbing child. Jacob ignored his pack mates and moved towards the huddle of women that were either trying to get Bali to eat or that were rubbing his back and giving him encouraging words.

"Bali," Jacob spoke quietly to the kid and the young child looked up at the Alpha. Even at a young age he already could look at someone and know their rank in a pack and this particular man screamed Alpha. So naturally, Bali did what any other pup would do. He lowered his eyes to the ground and whined.

"Jacob, don't scare the poor boy!" Leah hissed as she placed a protective arm around Bali. "He's been through so much."

"I'm not trying to scare him." Jacob replied softly. The Alpha ignored Leah's loud snort and focused on the child. "Bali, where's your mom?"

Immediately, Jacob wished he started off with another question because Bali began to bawl like a little baby. The boy's large brown eyes filled with tears that he was unwilling to shed despite the loud sobs that were coming out of his mouth.

"Bali, honey," Emily's soothing voice reached the boy's ears. "We need you to answer our questions so we can get you back to your pack."

"The Cold One killed her." The silence that followed his statement seemed to be louder than the noise that was once in the house. "When we were attacked, mom and I ran, and the Cold One followed us–"

"That's enough," Jacob murmured unable to hear anymore. The Alpha didn't know what to say, and neither did any of the other pack members. "Bali, Emily is going to take you to get some clothes. You're going to stay here with my Beta and Leah, okay?"

Bali lifted his eyes to look at the Alpha. When their eyes connected, Bali nodded his head slowly, and his tiny hand grasped Emily's much larger one. "You're going to find, Asha, right?"

"Of course, I am."