Disclaimer: I do not own and have never claimed to own the Twilight saga, its plot, or any of its characters.

Thank you, SO MUCH, to my fabulous beta, laurazuleta18. She got this chapter back like THAT, which is double awesome cause I've been a b*tch and haven't updated in forever. Sigh. Sorry about that.

In better news...I've succeeded in planning out the entire rest of the story! :D

Enjoy!

Two Winters and a Summer: Chapter Six

Shannon leaned against the doorway, trembling as she clumsily extricated the folded paper from her pocket. It was from a standard notebook, words scribbled in neat lines to form a poem-like stature. She had to praise Emily for her detail. The wolves would notice if she didn't have a specific pattern to her writing.

Carefully, she scanned the note.

I've figured out a way to
communicate secretly.
We can play hangman
and every other letter
will make up a word.

It would take much thinking prior to their game, but Shannon wouldn't have been able to think of it. Emily was quite smart, to be able to come up with a plan like that. Their only hope was that the wolves would never figure it out…she shuddered at the thought of them doing so.

She quickly dropped the note into the toilet, did her business and then flushed all of it away.

Shannon calmed herself completely before exiting the bathroom and going towards the main room, where most of the imprints and the wolves were seated.

As she scanned to see who was in the room, she froze.

And then she was running as fast as she could and leaping into Nico's arms without abandon. He laughed and caught her. She scrambled to let go and then threw her arms around Chubby for a quick hug before backing away, still grinning. "What are you guys doing here?" she asked breathlessly. If the Pack let those two in then maybe Embry – no! She cut herself off abruptly and chased those thoughts out of her mind…she would not allow herself to get her hopes up when she knew for a fact Collin would never let Embry anywhere near her again.

"Guys! Oh god!" she cried, threading her fingers through Chubby's. They smiled nervously at her before starting to shuffle her toward the stairs.

"We should talk in your room," they suggested lightly. Shannon nodded eagerly and motioned the men toward the stairs, barely containing her relief that her old friends still existed. Everyone had refused to talk about them along with Embry, so she'd assumed the worst. They didn't look bruised up or malnourished, but that didn't mean Collin hadn't pushed the Pack on torturing Embry. Shame must've been an apparent scent in her bloodstream because Nico silently bumped her shoulder in rebuke. He had done this often, but she had never understood fully until now. It was such a wolf-like action.

Once they got to her room, Shannon shut the door firmly behind her. The locks were, of course, on the outside so any imprint could barge in on any minute. She'd have to trust the wolves' ears to know if any spies were coming…actually, she wasn't sure they'd be able to talk openly now. One of the Imprinted wolves could be listening in, if they were patrolling the house.

Shannon questioned the two with her eyes, wondering. Nico grinned openly and leaned against her wall.

"Seth and Brady are patrolling. We're all good," he murmured. Shannon's knees almost gave way. For the first time in so long, she could talk openly…freely. She staggered across the room and fell into Nico's arms. She clutched his shirt tightly and opened her mouth, gaping like a fish. She was trying to speak, to ask the question she was so desperate to hear an answer to. Nico seemed to understand, because he gently unclenched her hands and moved her between he and Chubby on the bed.

"He's okay, Shannon. He was ordered to stay in Seattle, not come near you or the Imprint House. It's tough on him, but he wanted us to come back and visit, to see how you were doing," Chubby said hesitantly. Shannon was frozen, and then she began to sob. Her worst thoughts, most horrible nightmares, had been of Collin killing Embry, or torturing him. And now…she knew he was perfectly fine, she could live with that, he was all that mattered.

It was like…the pressure of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. Nico pulled her to his chest and hugged her tightly until her cries were softened to quiet hiccups. "Thanks," she finally mumbled, embarrassed of her breakdown. She wouldn't have ever let Nico and Chubby see her cry…before…before so much happened.

Wobbly, she straightened her back and pulled away from both of them. "What are you guys planning? What is Emily planning? What the hell is going on?" Shannon demanded. She was sick of the Pack's refusal to give her any straight answers. The two wolves exchanged long looks.

"It's…more complicated than you imagine," Nico finally sighed. Shannon's eyes narrowed, demanding he elaborate further. "The thing is there is a group of us who don't…agree, with what the imprinted wolves are doing. At all. That group, unfortunately, doesn't include the Alpha, Beta or Third."

"Alpha? Beta? What are…?" Shannon trailed off in confusion.

"They're the rankings. Jake is the Alpha of our Pack, Sam the Beta, and Paul the Third. When Jake tells us to do or say something, we…we have to do it. It's like he has complete control over all of us." Nico shuddered, and Shannon did too. She didn't realize how tight Jake's grip was…

"Anyway," he murmured after a moment, "we have to do our best to hide our thoughts or they'll be able to lock us in so we can't break the rules…we'd never be able to save you guys." Shannon's eyes widened, her heart thrumming with excitement.

"So what is this plan? How are you going to help me and Emily?" she whispered pleadingly. Nico met her gaze empathetically while Chubby balled his fists.

"We have to be sneaky. The right circumstances have to be set up, we can't afford to mess up," he began, and then froze. Their expressions, in an instant, went from tense but relieved to a terrified horror. Shannon's blood ran cold as they exchanged glances and then bolted from the room, scrambling past each other in their desperation. She stopped herself from calling out for them to wait, the words just barely hovering on the tip of her tongue.

The door slammed shut with finality. Shaking, she sank to her knees and wondered what the hell had just happened. Had another wolf come and overheard them?

She heard shouting from downstairs soon, and leapt to her feet. She tried to open the door, but it was locked…like it had been so many other times. Who had done that? She hadn't seen Chubby or Nico do anything…they had been in too much of a hurry…had another wolf snuck up and locked her in that short minute of time without her even noticing? Her stomach churned.

Maybe Nico and Chubby had been overheard… and that meant all hope was lost. They'd said they could just be ordered not to do anything, and now all their chances were dashed completely and utterly. Tears in her eyes, she crawled to the bed and heaved herself on top of it, throwing the pillow over her face.

That was the only hope she had. Those two, they were it. The only people who could save her and Emily. The wolves could lock them up forever and ever without any questioning. There was nothing; nothing she could ever do to escape. She would be in this room for the rest of her life. She would never see her family again, she would be forced to do things she couldn't even bear the thought of doing, maybe even forced to love… Collin. She winced at the thought; this was all just fucked up.

She would never feel freedom, or let herself go to a wicked party, or make out with a random guy because she was drunk and bored. Shannon had no choices; they'd all been made for her. She was a breeder, a bitch raised for giving birth and nothing more.

Collin held the key to her cage. He had shown her how helpless she was by stripping her of her identity and will.

Pressing her face to her pillow to prevent tears, Shannon cleared her head of thought, of emotion, and tried to sleep. It was impossible, though. There were too many thoughts, too much sorrow, woven through her brain. She tossed and turned and tried to tune out the screaming going on downstairs.

Only when she heard the smashing footsteps down to her room did her bolt upright, quaking in dread.

Her door flung open without being unlocked and Collin stood in the doorway, trembling. His form was shaking, his expression fighting ferocity. His lips moved but no sound came out, his fingers curling and clenching spastically. Shannon cried out and flung herself against the far wall, hands quickly rising to cover her face.

Collin strode forward and grabbed her shirt, pulling her up to his chest. His black eyes were stormy and belligerent as he pulled her to his face. Whimpering, she tried to move away from him. This was the scariest she'd ever seen him at. He looked like…like he was actually going to hurt her.

"What did they tell you, Shannon? What did they tell you?" he demanded in outrage. Shannon couldn't hold her panic back anymore and struck at him, her hands flying against his chest uselessly.

This seemed to only anger him further, because he threw her to the bed and stood over her, even more domineering of a position than before. "If you don't tell me what they told you, so help me God!" he screamed, eyes wild.

"No, no! I won't!" she sobbed. Collin opened his mouth again, wanting so bad to yell at her more, but choked off quickly. With one last searing glare, he streaked out and shut the door firmly behind him.

Shannon still couldn't catch her breath as the lock clicked and she was once again left behind.