AN: I own nothing, no vampires are mine, no wolves, either. They either belong to SM or to Ninadoll! However, Abby, Ava, Ashley, and Mitch belong to me!

A very special thanks to Ninadoll for betaing, creating the universe, and for her support. Please check out her stories The Rest of Forever and Love You For Always and Ninadoll's How Wonderful Life Is, Now You're in the World. She is extraordinarily talented and I'm honored to be a part of her universe! Check out her stories and you won't be disappointed.

To see pictures of Ava and her sisters' lives, please check out my blog at liljenrocks{dot}blogspot{dot}com or my homepage atliljenrocks{dot}web{dot}com. Including pictures of the bonfire.

Please, please, please review! Thank you to all of you who added me or the story to your favorites. You guys rock! I apologize if my review replies are delayed!

I hope you enjoy! Thank you again!

CHAPTER 2: WOLF DAY

AVA'S POV

"What exactly does one wear to a bonfire?" I asked Claire. I had been flipping through my closet for what seemed like hours. Claire looked fun in her black tights and wolf t-shirt dress. She had a thing for wolves that I didn't quite understand. She always looked cool, even when she was dressed for school or walking Quil's dog, she looked so unique and fun. I was insanely jealous.

"Just wear jeans and a t-shirt. It's not formal," Claire joined me next to the closet. "How's the whole Abby-Seth thing going?"

I shrugged. "I think it's okay. I mean, Abby doesn't really date. She hasn't, even when she was in high school."

"Are you telling me Dr. Abby is a virgin?" Claire gave me a mischievous smile.

I couldn't help but giggle. "Yeah, but don't be mean about it. I have a feeling Seth might just be the one to break the chastity spell."Claire pulled out a white long-sleeved t-shirt with the word 'LOVE' on it.

"Wear this. There's gonna be lots of single guys there. Maybe you'll get lucky," she wriggled her eyebrows and then went to flop herself down on the sofa in my room. "So, speaking of, we've not had that awkward convo."

"Which one?" I asked while I pulled the shirt on over my jeans and searched for my red ballet flats.

"Well, the one where I ask you to help me seduce Quil," Claire said, propping herself up on her elbows and smirked. I chuckled at her and threw a shirt from the floor in her general direction. "You think I'm kidding?" I nodded to her. "Hell no, I'm not! I wanna have sex and I wanna have with Quil!"

"Quil?" I ran a tube of red lip gloss over my lips. "He's old."

Now it was her turn to giggle. "Nah. Plus, we kinda belong together. And tell me, honestly, would you not have sex with that hunk of a studmuffin? Cuz one look at him, all shirtless," she was staring off and licked her lips. "He's like a…thing all hand-chiseled and buff and I wanna lick his chest all the way down to his—"

"Girls?" Abby said while she knocked on my bedroom door interrupting Claire mid-fantasy.

"Yeah, Abbs. We'll be right down," I smirked at Claire. "You were saying?"

Claire scoffed. "Bottomline is this. You've had sex, I haven't. The only person in the world I want to have sex with is Quil. And I need you to help me get in said loverboy's pants."

I grabbed my bag and Claire's hand as we took the steps two at a time. "You don't need my help. You just need the right timing is all. I can tell the lug absolutely adores you so just be patient." I managed to get the last of it out as we got the bottom of the stairs. Abby was helping Ashley put on her coat while Seth hovered near. Quil's eyes immediately brightened when he caught sight of Claire and I remembered another reason I was insanely jealous of Claire. Quil practically worshipped the ground she walked on and I couldn't find a guy to take me to the movies and she had one willing to take her to Mars, even if that meant inventing a whole new ship just to get there.

"I missed you," Quil smiled as he lifted Claire and swung her around. Claire giggled and I could see the way she was clutching his neck like she couldn't get close enough. It was very intriguing to see. It made me extraordinarily jealous. Well, even more so than I already was. "Ava, you ready for your first official bonfire?"

"Uh, sure," I replied.

"I'm nervous," I heard Abby whisper to Seth.

"Don't be," Seth said, kissing her lightly on the lips. Great, now I was jealous of my virgin sister, dammit! It was quite amazing to see them too. Seth looked at her like she was the most precious of rubies, a diamond that couldn't be bought, like he wanted so much more than any type of sex or anything. He…he just wanted her, her mind, her heart, her soul. And that was a type of love I'd never seen or had before. I knew that wasn't at all what I had with Mitch and if I ever had that with anyone, I'd marry them before they could so much as breathe another breath.

"You're riding with Quil and Claire?" Abby asked. We were locking up the house and heading to the cars. Claire's Mini Cooper already running.

"Yep, that would be the plan," I smirked. "We'll be right behind you and Quil will be there to make sure we have absolutely zero percent fun."

"Hey, now," Quil chuckled.

Abby gave him a look that I swear could've stopped someone's heart. If there was anything I knew, it was that Abby was very suspicious of Quil…very suspicious. I could've been too, but he was just too good to Claire to be.

We followed close behind Abby and Seth as we drove to First Beach in La Push but as soon as we arrived at our destination, I went with Claire to meet several of the other young people, sitting around a smaller campfire off to the side. This small fire was the place where I met him. He was sullen and looked like someone had kicked his puppy but he was the most beautiful male I'd ever seen.

"Scar, this is Ava," Claire said. I blushed. Goddammit, I, Ava Caroline O'Brien, hard-skinned, no nonsense Ava, blushed.

"Hey," the Scar boy said as he put his hand out for me to shake. I took it and lightly shook.

I wanted to kick Claire because I'd not heard a single word about this magnificent specimen of the male sex. "It's nice to meet you," I said.

"Nice accent," he smiled. "Oklahoma, right?"

"Yep," I grinned.

"I've never been there before," he said. Claire grabbed my hand and pulled me to the side.

She smiled at me. "That's the first time I've ever seen Scar smile."

I glanced back at Scar, his eyes stuck on the fire. He had a look that I had seen before. It was a look I recognized because it was a look I saw everyday when I looked at myself in the mirror. He looked broken. Just like me. He was sitting on a log by himself and he leaned his head back to look at the stars. The fire made his chin glow but the moon cast a dark shadow on him. I would learn in time that it was much like him, able to glow but the dark always close behind. The stars, though, made his eyes sparkle more than the fire and I knew there was hope. That even in the darkness, there was a flicker, a twinkle of hope. There was hope that we could save each other, maybe.

"Do you go to La Push High?" I asked him after I pulled away from Claire.

"Yeah," he answered simply.

"And you live here on the reservation?"

"Yep," he answered shortly. "You wanna sit?" He gestured to the log beside him.

I nodded. "So, um, what do you do for fun?"

He shrugged, "I go to school, then go to Jake and Nessie's where Ness helps me study. And then I work."

"What do you do?" I asked. Scar handed me a graham cracker and a marshmallow. "Thanks."

"I, um, I work for Jake," he broke off a few pieces of a Hershey's bar and handed it to me and then handed me a stick to raost the marshmallow on.

"On bikes?" my damn marshmallow caught on fire and I tried not to panic when I pulled it out of the fire. "Damn, damn, damn!" I started waving the stick but the flames didn't stop at all.

Scar grabbed the stick from my hand and blew hard until the flame was out and all that existed was a black charred shell of sugar. It was a great disappointment when all I wanted was a nice melty, thick, golden-brown marshmallow. I sighed. Damn. "I'll eat it. You can have a new one," Scar handed me a fresh white pillow of sugar.

"Thanks, but you don't have to—"

Scar lifted the blackened marshmallow to his lips and almost swallowed it whole. "Mmm…" he moaned in pleasure.

I went on to make a fresh s'more, followed by some of the best conversations I'd had with anyone since we'd moved to this hellhole. We talked about life, about school, and other things. Things were going well and I felt a better sense of belonging here than I think I had anywhere. Abby felt the need to remind me twice of my curfew, like I could ever forget. This added onto the announcement of Chief Swan's engagement to Seth's mom, which I thought was weird, because, let's face it, old people getting it on…gross. The crowd started thinning out and I watched Quil innocently chasing Claire, though I was pretty sure she was flirting with him.

"We should hang out sometime," I said surprising myself with my boldness. "Not like a date, it's just, you're the first person I've really been able to talk to." But then it happened.

"Why'd your family move here?" he asked the question I had been dreading.

My head shot down. I could taste the blood in my mouth too when I chewed on my lip. How he didn't know this story was beyond me, it seemed like the whole fucking state of Washington knew, but apparently he didn't. "Um, my parents died and I got in a little trouble so, um, we had to move here."

A long silence set in, neither one of said a word and I started to freak out a little. What the hell? Things were going so well. We were talking, not in a way where I thought we might be dating at anytime, but like he was the truest of friends. The last few people walked off and it was just me and Scar. Claire and Quil were off to the side, sitting on a log and hugging while they looked at the ocean in front of them.

"Okay, well," I started to get up but he grabbed my hand.

"I'm sorry. Don't go," Scar said and I looked into his sad eyes. I nodded and sat back down. "I know how you feel, more than you know." He didn't say much else that night and I was more curious than ever to find out what he missed so much that made him so sad and lonely. And just as I was about to ask, Claire and Quil announced it was time to go.

But Scar became a constant in my life. I honestly saw him everyday, I think. He would show up at the bakery and we would talk while he watched me frost cakes or cut out cookies. More than that though, he became my confidant, I trusted him with more than I think anyone else in the world, ever. Probably even more than Claire.

It was one day at the bakery that I found out just what was eating at Scar's heart. I was pressing forks into the top of peanut butter cookies. Anytime I did anything at the bakery, Scar usually sat on the counter or stood in the corner but today he joined me, taking the fork and pressing the dough. "Peanut butter cookies were Megan's favorites. She'd take two and put grape jelly between them. I haven't had one in a long time," Scar looked at the dough in front of him.

Who the fuck was Megan? What, was she like his ex-girlfriend? Or, well, what else could she be?

"Who's Megan?" I asked. His eyes weren't stone cold like they usually were, they were soft and light, more caring than ever.

"Megan was…my sister," he sighed, still keeping his eyes on the cookie dough. This was confusing because, for all the time that I'd known him, I hadn't heard a single mention of any sister. Plus, he said "was," as in past tense. "She died…when she was eight."

"I've never heard you talk about her," I said, my voice was a little more than a whisper and I couldn't help but want to put my arms around him and hold him. I was right. He was broken. We were two broken pieces both looking for a little super glue to put us back together.

"I don't talk about her because it still hurts," Scar said. He put the fork down and looked at me. "We were playing at the park and she ran to chase after a ball. The car didn't have time to stop." He turned around. "Pretty much everything in my life started to suck after that. My mother left, my father lost it. And the only thing I had was myself. I had to keep it all together and hope that could make Megan proud." When he turned back to me, he was hiding tears and I wanted to tell him to stop hiding, I'd cried in front of him, he was one of only a handful of people that had ever seen me cry. But seeing him cry broke my heart in so many ways.

I put my hand on his arm but didn't feel close enough to him. I came around the counter and put my arms around his waist, I couldn't reach his neck, and I knew I wanted to hug him. I held him close and he wrapped his arms around me. It wasn't anything more than a friendly hug that I think we were both in desperate need of. Neither of us cried, we just hugged. He was warm and comforting and I felt like I could melt into him. But he was just my friend, nothing more. That was the last day I saw that sort of emotion from him until the day I call "Wolf Day."

It all started with a boy. His name was Hunter and he was a "friend" of Lil' G's. I hadn't dated or kissed or even showed interest in anyone since Mitch. Things at home had been crazy lately and Ashley was recovering from an appendectomy and the near-death experience that accompanied it. Luckily, I was given the day off while Seth and Abby took Ash to the movies in Port Angeles. That was another thing that had changed. Seth had pretty well started using our address, he was at our house all the time. It was fine with me, I didn't mind, Seth made Abby happy and Dr. Abby wasn't a virgin anymore. None of that mattered right now.

We had met one afternoon when Lil' G and Hunter were hanging out at First Beach. Hunter's hands were soft and his lips were like butter. He had piercing blue eyes that offset his tan skin and my fingers loved his hair. We had met less than 24-hours ago but I was comfortable with him. We sat in the backseat of his Jeep and I promised that I wouldn't let this go too far but at the present, I was on my back, Hunter between my legs. It was a freaking intense make-out session and the windows were all fogged up.

"Can I touch you?" Hunter pulled away to ask. It was kind of a pointless question since he'd already put his hand on my boobs. He squeezed lightly and I moaned into his mouth as he placed it back on mine. He kissed me harder and started to grind into me. It felt good, fuck, it felt euphoric, but it didn't feel right.

"I think we need to slow down," I said, shoving him off me and sitting up to pull my pink sweater down.

"Why?" he asked. I didn't like the look on his face either. "You started this, remember?" That was true, I had started it. In my need to feel something again, I somehow thought that meant maybe getting it on in Hunter's Jeep but, like I said, something wasn't right. "Come on, just one more kiss?" He gave me puppy dog eyes and I caved, leaning in for another kiss. Hunter started pushing again, too much.

"Stop," I said, pushing back.

He looked annoyed. "Are we gonna fuck or what? I thought that's what this whole thing was about? Am I mistaken or are you not easy?" The moment the words came out of his mouth, I wanted to punch him. But the Jeeps door pulled open and a long strong arm pulled Hunter out of the car.

"What the fuck?!" I yelled and jumped over the seat to see Scar pounding Hunter's face.

"Do you have no manners, you motherfucker?" Scar was hitting him with such force, it scared me.

"Stop, Scar," I started to rush to him but out of nowhere, Lil' G came and pushed him off of Hunter.

"You're gonna kill him, dude," Lil' G was pulling on Scar, who was breathing heavy and unsteady. His body was shaking and the glare he was throwing at Hunter was for sure a look of death.

"Stay out of it," Scar's chest was shaking now.

"Scar, calm down," I was trying to get close again.

"Stay away, Ava," Lil' G held me back just as I heard Hunter's Jeep peel out of the parking lot. Great, he left me!

"You fucker! Why the hell did you do that?!" I was angrier than I'd been in a long time. Who did he think he was? Like I didn't have it perfectly under control?

"Shut up!" Scar was blurring and I tried to get closer again but Lil' G pulled harder on me.

"You're gonna get yourself killed. Stop trying to touch him," Lil' G said.

"Who the hell do you think you are? I'm not your girlfriend, I'm not your sister—" I was just about to open my mouth again to continue my tirade, thinking of some horrible obscenity to yell at the boy that had just, well, cockblocked me, when Scar, the boy I knew as Scar, blurred in front of me even more and with one breath, he was no longer in front of me. A huge, silver grey wolf stood, bearing his teeth. "Holy Mother…" and then I passed out, the nightmare of the terrorist wolf rolling around in my subconscious.

"Ava? Can you hear me? I need you to open your eyes. Take a deep breath." I knew that voice. "Come on, Ave." That was Seth and I slowly opened my eyes. I was lying on a sofa in a beautiful living room, Seth leaning over me, looking at my pupils. I immediately panicked.

"Where's the wolf? He has to be stopped! He was…he ate Scar!" I screamed and tried to get off the sofa I was lying on.

"Calm down, Ava, calm down," Seth said, trying to restrain me again. "Scar's alright, he's outside with Jake."

"But how? I saw it, Seth. I saw it. One minute he was Scar, and the next there was an evil wolf in front of me!" I was screaming still.

"The wolf wasn't evil, trust me. But I think Scar wants to talk to you, so lay back down and I'll go get him," Seth handed me a Kleenex and I realized I was crying and my body started to wrack with sobs.

"No, I…where the fuck is Scar?" I panicked again. I needed to see my best friend for some assurance that he was somehow okay. I highly doubted it though because I had seen that big ass wolf and he was terrifying.

He moved quickly though and before I knew it, Scar was in front of me. I launched myself into his arms and grabbed hold of his neck just like Claire always did with Quil. "It's okay, Ave. I'm right here," Scar rubbed my back and I held him like he might disappear.

"The wolf…" I held back another sob but refused to let him go. Until it hit me, until I remembered what I'd seen. The shaking, the blurring…the shredding of the clothes. "You. You're the wolf, but…how?"

Scar glanced at Seth as Jake walked into the room. "Am I allowed to tell her?" I heard Scar ask. Jake scoffed.

"She saw you phase and she can clearly put the pieces together, so yeah, I think you better fucking tell her," Jake didn't look too happy, something completely uncharacteristic for him. "Unless you want me to do it?" Scar nodded leaving Jake to tell me the tale of Quileute legends, wolves, and vampires. I was pretty sure that maybe Seth had slipped me some sort of narcotic for me to actually be hearing this but the more I saw the look of total sincerity on Jake's face and the look of pure fear on Scar's face, made it more than clear that this was the truth, all of it. All the craziness, all the words of humans transforming, magic behind it, all of it was real. Fucked up, but real.

"So let me see if I get this right," I paced back and forth, simultaneously licking my lips. "All you guys, you all have this gene that makes you transform into a wolf?"

"That's about the gist of it, yeah," Jake answered, looking at Scar.

"All of you?" my eyes roamed to Seth who was trying a little too hard not to look at me.

"Yes, all of us," Seth answered. "Which brings us to another aspect of being a wolf."

"The imprint," Jake sighed. His voice spoke with pride and he explained the whole concept of imprinting, or imprintation, or whatever the hell you'd call it. The funny thing was, it didn't hit me until Jake was practically finished with the whole conversation. The way he explained it was uncanny, the way it was like a deep connection, a look that was deeper than just love, like the imprinter and the imprintee could actually be the only two people in the world. It was an exact description of the way someone I knew looked at someone very important to me.

"Wait," I put my hand up to stop Jake from talking. I turned to Seth. "So, is Abby…is she…did you imprint on her?"

Seth nodded. "The first time I laid eyes on her. She's it, she's always been it." But then I remembered that imprints seemed more like a mythical creation than love.

"So you don't really love her, it's kinda a magic deal," I spat, wanting to rip his throat out for hurting my sister. This would kill Abby, here she thought he loved her and it was some freaky, mutant supernatural power that had brought them to one another.

"Hell no! I love your sister more than I've ever loved anything. It just took a little push from fate to bring us together, show me she was the one, to lead her to me," Seth grinned that goofy grin that made you want to punch him and/or grin back, like he was thinking of my big sister naked or something.

I turned to Scar, searching his eyes. "Have you imprinted?"

"No," he said looking away for a second. Scar and I were just friends but I always felt a connection to him. I guess I kinda hoped he might have imprinted on me. "Honestly, I don't think I ever will."

I had to remind myself in my head, "Just friends…just friends…just friends." But a part of me ached to think someone might take him from me, that I wouldn't be the most important person in his life anymore.

"Oh," I sighed. "So, like is that why you don't date? Because you're afraid you'll imprint?"

He shook his head. "Nah, like I said, I don't think I ever will. I just…the timings not right."

"Okay," I said, completely and utterly confused.

"Ava, you have to understand that you can't tell anyone. Not even Abby," Jake seemed like he was commanding and what was strange was that I actually felt like I had to do what he asked.

"Why doesn't Abby know? Why haven't you told her?" I asked Seth.

"I keep asking him the same damn question," Jake scoffed. I swear Seth growled but it wasn't a scary growl, kinda playful really.

"I can't tell anyone, not even my sister, who, by the way, is going to be beyond pissed when she does eventually find out. Like, pissed enough to have your balls, Seth," I was serious. When she found out, heads would roll! This wasn't really something a normal person would take in stride, but then again, I wasn't exactly normal.

So I kept that secret, and eventually, that secret would come back to bite me in the ass.

I wonder what she could possibly mean by that…we shall find out in the next chapter! Also, look for the next chapter of Love You for Always this weekend. There will be a new character introduced.

I have to give another shout out. The name Hunter was suggested for an OC in a review for Love You For Always by Ravenwhitlock33. I couldn't help but use it for this chapter! Thank you!