[Happy New Year's to everyone! Hope you like the chapter! (In Gene's POV by the way!) ]

Seeing Tyson and Claire was the ultimate punishment for leaving home. I was then reminded of my other three siblings I left. Especially Eric, who depended on me more than anyone else, was probably worried out of his mind. I couldn't deny that I worried about him too. There was some fear inside of me that he would sneak out of his room and try to find me.

Even worse, was the thought of Kenzie. She had hurt me so bad, yet my mind rarely strayed from her. I loved her more than the Earth and sky. More than I had ever loved one anyone. But, she didn't feel that way. She had used my infatuation to hurt me. But yet, I still wanted to be by her side and protect her fiercely. It was hard to know she was with another guy, but I had to pretend to be happy. I would remain a good friend to her if that's what she would need of me. I was the most fucking loyal puppy on the planet.

Once the moon reached mid-sky, I decided to phase. I knew it was Kail's night to run patrol.

I had it in my mind that I was only going to ask about Eric and then transform back to sleep for the night.

The second my body shifted into an enormous, Russian blue colored wolf I could smell our worst enemy. The reason that I was this creature. Bloodsuckers.

My feet only traveled a few hundred yards before I heard my brother in my head, along with various other members of the pack.

Gene! Hey, brother, how you doing? You okay?

About time... where have you been? That was Dena. She certainly never lacked an attitude.

Can't you smell those vamps? Let's go get them! I said enthusiastically. Everyone seemed to internally roll their eyes.

Those are the Cullen's... my mom's family. They were in the state visiting. They'll be out hunting all night, but on the other side of the border. They plan to be back in Canada by sunrise, though, spoke Yuma, wisely. He was one of the son's of Renesmee Cullen Black and Jacob Black. He was also considered the Beta of the pack.

Oh, that's too bad, I snickered. Embry laughed heartily. We all shared the the love for ripping up bloodsuckers up piece from piece. That was the moment I realized Quil was missing. For years we always ran night shifts with the exact same people. I ran with Tona, Tala, Dakota, and Skah. Tyson was with Leotie, Embry, and Howi. They kept us brothers apart so if we were ever in a dire situation we could focus more on tearing up a vamp and less about each other. Not that it mattered. After these few years of sprinting around as a wolf my group had become so close to me. They were all my siblings.

Which was why it was an odd thing for Embry to be out and about tonight. It was Quil's night for phasing.

Kail started growling. I'm glad that fuck-tard isn't here, if he was I would claw off his pretty boy face!

Huh? I thought before thought of finger-shaped bruises and Claire crying invaded my mind. No. That couldn't have happened... She's his imprint.

It's probably all a misunderstanding, Kail. Now stop thinking about that and focus, Yuma ordered. Though Leotie and Jacob were the heirs of the alpha gene, they gave Yuma all rights to order us too. I didn't mind it, but Kail was never very pleased with that fact. Quil went to Seattle to see his family. His dad had a heart attack.

Oh man, my heart sank. Quil was like a brother, and I never wanted him to ever have to go through losing a parent.

What kind of brother assaults your younger sister, huh, Gene? Kail growled at me, before being shut up by Yuma.

Embry roared, Don't talk about Quil that way.

Dena scoffed, Shit happens, Em. I once loved a man so, so much... and I thought he loved me too until...

Yeah, yeah, Kail snorted, until he raped you. We all know the goddamn story, spare us the image, please.

Yuma's mind went red. This was never a good sign. I want silence! Can everyone just shut up? His mind then closed up. Most likely he was having troubles with his 'wild child' imprint that he'd met at a strip club. Sometimes I felt like I could relate with Kenzie being just as fierce and free. Yuma sighed then, You have no clue, brother.

For a while everyone ran eerily silent. Yuma then told everyone they could talk again, but not about Quil.

Is Eric doing okay? I asked Kail.

Meh, he's a bit shaken up. I think he's worried about you, bro, more than anyone else. Before I left for the shift he fell asleep on the couch.. I put him in my bedroom with Ty. Kail said, sadly. His mind flew around, remembering bruises on Eric's arms.

That's when I knew I would have to go home today. It was Saturday, so maybe I'd take Eric to the beach before I had to work. Eric loved the beach, him and Claire went there regularly. It wasn't usually my scene, but I would go to the ends of the Earth to make my half-brother happy. He'd had a tough life for only being nine years old.

I'll see you later, Kail, I told him as I phased back to be alone with my mind.

For hours I sat in one spot and dozed on and off. My mind spun with thoughts of Kenzie and Claire and Eric... But mostly remained on my imprint.

I had my recurring dream where everyone I knew and loved betrayed me and left for some other country. It never had been very detail-oriented and more focused on me coming up with different ways to make them stay with me. Kenzie was always the last to leave on a fancy jet plane, draped all over some copper haired man.

Had Kail been telling the truth about Claire and Quil? My mind jumped around from thought to thought. Of course he had, though. He was my brother, and it's hard to lie when you're reading some one's exact thoughts.

But Claire was Quil's imprint. Him hurting her made as much sense as me hurting Kenzie. I would never live a day in the world where I could hurt Kenzie. How could you injure something that grounded you to this world? It all just didn't add up. Hopefully there was something I didn't know about, and it would become clear after talking to Claire.

My legs stretched out and I curled my toes. My back was now just beginning to hurt after laying against a tree trunk for many hours... or at least I thought it had been a while. My eyes squinted against the bright sun and I could estimate it was about five or six in the morning.

Time to head home, I thought to myself before removing the one article of clothing I had.

It took me a while to get home, since I walked mostly in human speed. This gave me more time to sort through my thoughts and come up with excuses as to why I left.

When my small, brown house came into view I stopped in my tracks. Come on Gene, you can't just keep away like a little kid. After my step-mom died (and I became a wolf) I didn't come home more than a couple of times a month. I fell behind in school. My relationships with my family were diminishing, and I thought about suicide a lot.

Before I could manage to go through with dying, my family moved to La Push. I willed myself to go to the first day of school, to make my family happy, and that was when I met Kenzie. My memories of that day were perfect.

My hair fell in my eyes and I didn't bother to wipe them away this time. I had stopped caring about my untidy appearance after I phased for the first time. And I really didn't want to be in school. But I could feel Claire's meek presence beside me and I couldn't let my little sister down, not with everything she had been through in the last couple of months.

It all started with Anna's (my step-mom's) death. I think she was the most devastated out of everyone. For days she cried loudly in her room. It didn't help that that was when my brothers and I all started phasing. She hadn't known what to do with herself.

A week later, she stopped talking. Dad took her to the doctor and he had said that it was a cause of some post-traumatic stress or something. I always thought it was from her loud screams and cries every night, despite Quil being by her side as much as possible.

Claire stood on her tip toes to kiss my nose and hug me before going into a classroom. It was then I really started thinking about skipping school and running up to Canada or something.

That was before there was a tap on my right shoulder and I turned around to see a breath-taking sight: McKenzie Elizabeth Nahmin. She had dark brown hair, wavy and all natural-like. She wore glasses and an old Gap sweater with baggy jeans. I gave her a weary smile at first before I realized that she was my imprint. Then came that "world-rotating" feeling.

"Hi," she pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose and readjusted some books she had tucking in her left arm. "I'm McKenzie Nahmin, and I heard you're new here. Do you need help with anything?" She looked so nervous, she wasn't able to keep eye contact with me.

"Uh, hey," I said right away, not realizing how stupid I was until a few seconds of staring at her flawless face. "Um, yeah, I think I need a tour. My other school wasn't as big or, uh, busy, you know?" That was a total lie. But I had to make sure she'd really spend time with me and I wanted so much to keep hearing her soft and quiet voice.

"Cool," she nodded. "Um, I have class. Let's meet here at lunch time, if that's all right? I can show and tell you everything about La Push High."

And now all I could do is sit and wonder about where that girl went. That anxious, "dorky" girl who used to put so much effort into things she really wanted.

Not that I loved her any less for who she was now. She was just harder to be with. Thinking about her now just burned me instead of bringing me joy.

Trying to get the pain of her out of my mind, I walked through the back door of my family's cottage. I slid the patio door slowly and quietly as was possible. Since it was Saturday, most likely everyone was still sleeping. As I walked in the living room I caught a glance at the clock saying it was nine o'clock.

The first place I stopped, in the hallway that had all the bedrooms adjacent to it, was my father's room. Just like I expected, he was up, staring blankly at his computer screen.

"Gene," he laughed and left his work for a moment to give me a hug. I put my arms around his shoulders.

"Hey, dad. I'm sorry for leaving like that, it's not going to happen again," I told him, looking him right in his brown eyes.

He pushed me out a little but kept both his hands on my shoulders. "I trust you, Gene. You just might want to guarantee your little brother that. He hasn't slept well the past couple of nights. You've got to stay and protect him, son."

I sighed. "I know." Boy, was that true. Eric was always beat on, by everyone. He saw himself as nothing but a small, weak boy. I knew he had the potential to be greater, though. "Never again, father."

"Good," my dad smiled, something we kids didn't regularly see.

The house phone rang, and before it could echo through the small building my father ran and picked it up furiously. I turned to leave him alone during his "important business calls".

"Claire? What?"

I turned to face him again and saw he was looking intensely at the ground with his eyebrows furrowed together. "What's wrong with Claire?" I questioned, not expecting an immediate answer.

"Um, sure. I bet she just overslept. I'll get her there as soon as I can," he finished, slamming down the phone and sitting back down at his computer. "That was Claire's work. They said she was scheduled to start at eight thirty but hasn't shown up yet. Can you wake her up, Gene?"

I walked out of the room scratching my head. I certainly couldn't remember smelling Claire's beach-y scent as I entered our home. My hand slowly turned the knob on the door to her and Holli's room. All I found then was a sleeping six year old girl and another empty bed.

My head swam, trying to think of why Claire wouldn't show up to work. My younger sister was more responsible than me!

I barged into Ty and Kail's room to grab one of their cell phone's since mine was in my room and I didn't want to wake Eric quite yet. I went to grasp Kail's phone on his dresser and started punching in Quil's number before I remembered. Quil's dad had had a heart attack last night, so he probably wasn't keeping tabs on Claire lately. Besides, why worry him when he already had so much going on?

"Ty," I shook the big figure hanging half off his bed. "Do you know where Claire is?"

He groaned. "In her room, sleeping.." he started to go back into his slumber before I grabbed his shoulder and pushed him to the ground. He sat up immediately, alert. He sniffed for a split second. "She isn't here? Oh, don't worry, she's working today."

"No," I shook my head.. "They called because she didn't show up. Did she come home with you last night after the dance?"

He thought for a second. "No. She went with the douchefag to the other kid's house. Maybe she fell asleep there."

I rolled my eyes. "That doesn't help."

He stretched as he got on his feet. "Shit. I gotta get to work myself. Look, I'll give you directions to Connor's house to go get her, okay?"

As much as I didn't want to spend an hour finding my way to some kid's house, I knew I had to help Claire out. She didn't deserve to lose her job because of sleeping in for once in her life.

Turned out that Connor Loren only lived twelve miles from our house, just on the outskirts of La Push.

"Hey, take these," Kail threw a t-shirt, jean shorts and a pair of hole filled shoes.

I raised my eyebrows in question. "Well, do you really want to go stumbling around some random kid's house in only boxer's shorts?" He had a point. My brothers and I already stood out a lot at high school. Before I entirely left the room he threw a pen at my head. "Hey, bonehead," I turned so he could see me roll my eyes dramatically, "Glad to have you back."

"Careful now Ty, don't let your brains go to your head!" I told him loudly as I walked out of his room. My feet led me out the front door of my house and I pulled on the clothing Ty borrowed to me as I ran. Usually I would take this as an opportunity to run in wolf form, but I really didn't want to deal with the pack right now.

Get Claire. Run her home. See Eric. These steps repeated over and over in my head.

I knew that the second part would be the hardest. Claire hated to be moving so fast. I didn't really get her problem, it's not like anyone would allow her to fall.

As I approached the Lorens' house I could already smell that Claire wasn't anywhere near the area. Luckily, though, I caught a strong whiff of my imprint. She would most likely know where her best friend had gone.

Passing through the almost silent house I had to step over many unconcious bodies. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at all the drunken bafoons. Perhaps I only said that because I knew that that would never be me.

By the time I had gotten within yards of Kenzie, I had already walked up two flights of stairs. The house was pretty big for being in the small town of La Push.

I stopped out of a cedar wood door with a slightly rusted brass handle. As I pressed my ear against the wood I could here Kenzie breathing slowly and softly in her slumber. I almost thought about not disturbing her before I heard an even slower breath not even inches from where Kenzie was. I bust in the door, ready to attack anyone who could have been posing as a threat to my girl.

[What's next, you ask?]

My lips pulled in as I took in the sight before me. There was Kenzie, who seemed to be nude from what I could see of her under the covers. Next to her was the Connor boy. His arm was tucked around her neck and her arm was draped around his waist.

"No," I muttered to myself. "No. No. No," I closed my eyes, wishing I was anywhere but there. How could Kenzie do this to herself? She had been so innocent... Maybe I had assumed too much. Maybe they hadn't done that... that thing.

It wasn't long before Kenzie opened her eyes and sat up in the bed, clutching a light blue sheet to her chest. Her eyes stayed on Connor momentarily, and she gasped when she caught sight of me across the room. "Gene!" She started saying loudly, but quieted to a whisper, "You're home," she beamed at me.