Authors note: I don't own any of the Twilight Characters. We have Stephenie Meyer to thank for bringing them into our lives.

Chapter 3 – Party

A week later I rolled out of bed in the early afternoon, Seth, Quil and I had been patrolling the entire night. A long boring night.

I got downstairs and noticed a note from my mom on the counter.

'I let you sleep, you looked like you needed it. We need to talk about this. I'm going to Emily's to help set up for the party, come help when you've had breakfast'

Right, I grinned. The party was today! Excellent.

I chomped down a sandwich and a glass of milk before heading out to Emily's. It was still late summer and the weather was great ,but there would be people there today that didn't know our little wolfy secret, so we had to act like regular kids. So I put on a pair of flip flops and even a t-shirt, mom would be so happy.

When I got there Paul and Sam were dragging the tables and chairs outside onto the yard. Sue, Emily and mom were putting on the cloths and plates and stuff. I was just walking up to the house to help when Jake, Quil and Seth came sprinting out.

'Hey Emb you're here!' Quil grinned

'Yeah brother, you can help lugging the tables around, were going to go to the store,'

Jacob wiggled his eyebrows. I had a hunch they weren't just going to get more food.

They bolted to Jake's Rabbit and drove off, I laughed and walked inside.

Sam and Jared were just grabbing the last two tables and took them into the yard, so I picked up the sound system and took it outside and put it on a table. As I started to connect the electricity mom came over and she didn't look to happy.

'Embry,' I could see she was trying to smile and I kissed her on the cheek.

'Hey mom'

'Embry. I know you went out again last night. You know how I feel about that. We have been having this fight for over a year now.'

She sighed and I could see she was struggling. 'And you look so tired lately, that's the only reason I let you stay in bed this morning. Embry…Did I – did I do something wrong, for you to act this way?'

As my face contorted to shock and horror in response to her thoughts, she looked relieved, like she had been wanting to ask that question for quite some time. Like she finally asked the question she'd been wanting to.

'Mom! Of course not! I told you, I'm not out drinking, doing drugs or having sex,' my voice dropped to a whisper at that. 'And I'm not going out to punish you or something, if you think that. I don't know why you would think that. You're a great mom and I love you!'

'One of these days I'm really not going to tolerate this anymore Embry. There is no reason for a 17 year old to go out almost every night!'

She looked as stubborn as I did and I knew we weren't getting anywhere. I could see Sam and Emily talking to each other, throwing me sad looks. I looked straight at Sam, frowned and quickly shook my head. We talked about this before – keeping the secret was more important.

'Lily, could you help inside with the salads please? Oh, sorry I'm interrupting.' Emily looked genuinely sorry as she walked toward us.

'No, Emily. We were just done, I'll help'

Mom and Emily walked inside the house and as determined as I was not to show how much the talk had affected me, I still felt like I needed a minute. So I made sure all the electricity was hooked up and put a hand on a speaker, standing there for a second just breathing.

I saw Sam getting his huge barbeque out of the garage and went to help, picking up a couple of packs of charcoal. I walked to the barbeque and started setting things up with Sam.

'Embry man, you know the offer to tell her still stands'

I sighed and nodded, 'I know Sam, thanks'

'I know you feel protecting the secret is more important but there are so many people involved already, probably because we have such a big pack. One more wouldn't matter'

'No Sam, it's just the wolves, imprints and the tribe elders that know'

I looked at him with probably the same stubborn expression my mom had given me five minutes ago and he nodded. We went back to work on the barbeque until it was all set up. We just needed to wait for it to warm up completely.

'I won't let this drive you insane though, or worse,' Sam gave me the stern Alpha look to show he meant it.

At that point Jake, Seth and Quil returned and howled from the car for some help. Everybody laughed at them and grateful for the distraction, I ran to the car. When I grabbed a couple of bags, Jake's heavy palm came down on my shoulder.

'Emb, those go into the garage behind the bikes. You get me?' He ginned and winked at me.

I laughed and walked to the garage with the bags. After I hid them in the back of the garage, I peeked inside, seeing twenty bottles of wine and some scotch and tequila. I shook my head grinning and walked out of the garage, seeing a couple of crates of beer stacked against the house

This was going to be a party all right. Between the fight with my mom and the still sour aftertaste Leah left in my gut yesterday- I needed a party .

Slowly, one by one people started to arrive. Jake left to get Billy and when he got back, Bella and Charlie got there. Jared's imprintee, Kim, had picked up little Claire Young on her way to the party and as soon as Claire saw Quil she took off as fast as those little legs could carry her. Quil beamed and caught the two year old in his arms. Weird I thought, also imprinted but so different than Sam was with Emily. Although of course Quil couldn't yet and he didn't want to. He loved his Claire so much that he just wanted to be her friend, her big brother and to protect her from anything. It was clear though that he hoped they one day would be like Emily and Sam.

Rachel and Leah arrived together. Rachel was Jacob's sister and when she had come to visit at the beginning of summer, she had run into Paul. Bada-bing bada-boom! Imprint central.

He captured her in his arms as she walked to him and his face melted. He planted little kisses all over her face. Geez- all these imprints were enough to have my stomach doing backflips. I needed some food.

I couldn't help but look at Leah; if I was having a hard time with all these imprints, she must definitely have a hard time. She had grabbed a beer and sat down with Seth. At these parties, everybody, even us underage wolves were allowed a few beers. Not too many and not if you couldn't handle it, and nothing but beer. Even Charlie pretended he didn't see anything, just because Sam and Billy had explained it was a 'special occasion'. And heck, none of us looked underage.

But tonight I would stay sober, just having some sodas. I could feel my mom's eyes on me and I had just told her I didn't sneak out at night to drink. So I would prove that at every opportunity.

When my food was done I went and sat down with Jared, Kim, Quil, Claire and Bella. We talked for a while before I noticed Jake was nowhere to be seen, I asked Bella where he had gone off too.

She laughed slightly, 'You'll see.'

I looked around and saw everybody enjoying themselves, I really loved my extended family. It was good to see everybody having a good time, especially knowing what was about to happen in a week or two.

Jake suddenly reappeared and jumped on a chair, almost falling off in the same motion.

Everybody laughed as he raised his hands and asked attention, 'Friends! Family!'

We all quietened down and looked at him.

'I had a blast and I'm really glad we could do this…just for the fun of it!'

People, mainly wolves, started banging their fists on the tables in agreement.

'But all good things must come to an end! But not yet!' He laughed and almost fell again.

'I would like my fellow 'teenagers,' he air-quoted the word with his fingers and looked at the pack members.

'And their special someones to come with me, the time has come to ditch the old folks!'

He jumped down, took Bella's hand and took off. Rachel, Paul, Kim, Jared and Seth followed quickly. Rachel came back and dragged a reluctant Leah with her.

I waited for Quil, who had a sleeping Claire in his arms. I watched him hand her to Emily as Sam looked sternly at me.

'Embry, make sure nothing crazy goes down'

I nodded and figured that Sam and Emily would be staying here. Quil kissed Claire on the top of her head and we walked off.

'Come on man, Jake and me set everything up on First Beach. The part you can't see from the road.' He grinned widely and we both took out in a jog towards the beach.

I was determined to have a good night.

When we got to the beach, they were all sitting on logs surrounding a campfire. There was a seat left between Jake and Leah and one between Kim and Bella, and Quil quickly sat down between the girls, giving me a huge grin.

Strangely, a part of me was happy to sit next to Leah, although we hadn't talked since the fight a week ago.

Jake passed beers around and I happily took one now I was away from the gaze of my mother. Not that I needed to get drunk, just wanting that small buzz.

'Ok. Scary stories are in order now, before we all get completely wasted. I'll start'

Jake started telling the old American classic 'Bloody Mary'. He paused at the right times, did all the voices and even jumped up at the scary bits. I could see Rachel and Kim tug the arms of Paul and Jared tightly around them. The guys looked smug.

Halfway through the story I stole a glance at Leah and saw her twirling her drink, staring into the fire. I saw three empty beer bottles lying in the sand at her feet, shaking my head knowing she already had a couple back at the house. Seth caught my eye and he looked at Leah, his eyes showing worry in them.

As Jared was next, he started to tell the story of 'Bluebeard'. Rachel started to pass marshmallows around. While people started putting their mallows on twigs and roasting them, Quil got up and headed for the water. I was about to make a crack at him for needing to cool off from sitting in between Bella and Kim, but he had already returned with wine and a bottle of tequila.

He grinned, 'We put them in the sand under the water, to keep em nice and cool'

They were passed around and I shook my head, sticking with the beer for now. There weren't a lot of stories being told after that, and I laughed. Everybody was talking, cracking jokes and getting slightly more drunk. Slowly the subject moved to the upcoming fight and everybody was excited about it, even Leah smiled. Only the faces of Bella, Kim and Rachel turned sour, not liking the fact that we were so excited about it.

When I got up and walked to the water to get a bottle of wine, Seth followed me.

'Embry, look, it's like five to midnight and I gotta get home. Mom still says I'm fifteen and need to be home in time. But Leah won't come with me. Can you keep an eye out on her? Make sure she comes home safe?'

I looked at Seth and quietly damned the huge, honest eyes the kid had.

'Of course man, go make your mom happy.' I nodded

I pushed back the thoughts that surfaced about my mom. Seth grinned and thanked me, I pushed him back up the beach and he took off at a jog.

I sat down again, wondering what I had done to become freaking Captain America. What made me so responsible that people keep asking me to look out for the others? UGH – I took a big swig from the bottle. They never thought to ask Paul.

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