It's been so long, but I've been nervous, begging my friends for beta-ing (including ones who never read Twilight. Desperate times call for desperate measures). Also, I will own up to working on a side-project that has been begging for my attention like a (human) newborn. I hope you enjoy is all I can say.

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I own a Nintendo Wii.

"Why did you come to my house?" I asked Paul as we moved through the forest.

"I like to aggravate people," he said.

"I thought you said vampires weren't people," I said.

Paul shrugged. "I say a lot of things. Them leeches do look like people. Your mom for example doesn't seem to be missing any parts."

I pushed him hard, knocking him off his feet and leading to his back smacking into a large oak. The trunk swayed, and a flock of birds flew from it. A younger tree would have fallen.

"Oh, come on, Jake! Your mom's hot, and you know it! I can't be the first to say so!"

"Sure guys have said it, but they thought she was my sister! Not my mother! That's way worse! What would you do if I told Gwen that you were talking about the woman who raised me that way?"

"Come on, Jake. I love Gwen, and I'll never think of another girl like I think of her. But I'm not blind."

"You still suck. Don't come by my house again."

"Great. I was worried you would be friendly like a normal human. Thank goodness you're sullen and hostile."

"Shut up. You aggravate me."

"No, I don't, and you know it. Bella's what's bothering you."

Even though he had access to my thoughts, Paul's ability to pinpoint the source of my angst exactly was still uncanny.

"Maybe."

"Definitely."

"How did you know?"

"You're very predictable."

"Am not."

"See? I knew you were going to say that!"

"Shut up."

"I knew you were going to say that too! You just gotta-" He made a weird waving motion with his hands - "sweep her off her feet."

"Oh, like you're doing with Gwen?"

Paul's face turned very serious. "I think I'm going to tell her the secret soon."

"Soon? Like, how soon? Do it, man. It's been killing her."

"Like this week."

"Wow."

"It's a bad idea?"

"No! No. I mean, you have to do it sometime. You've waited a while. I don't think she'll have a breakdown or stop talking to you or anything. She knows there's a secret already. Gwen's tough. I think she'll be grateful for getting answers. Not to mention how she'll see it that you trust her with that."

"Hmm. I'll talk to Jared. You've never had to find out about any of this. You grew up weird."

"Thanks, Paul."

"Don't pull that. It's true!"

"I didn't know about werewolves until I was fifteen. That was a shocker."

"Fifteen? You phased like two months ago."

"I had a treaty to uphold," I said with a smirk.

"Oh, yeah."

"Hey, Paul?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are we walking?"

"Oh...we should probably stop walking and start running. I was supposed to get you and go."

"Crap. Instead we're two old biddies talking about our lives."

"We're going to get hounded for this."

"Ha-Ha. Hounded."

We phased and ran like the wind to try and compensate for time lost over me defending my mother from Paul's thoughts. I outran Paul, but never the lesser, he snapped at my heels in haste. I barked a taunting laugh.

We phased back in Sam's backyard. It was really an ideal location for a pack headquarters. It was a bit farther from the road than most houses and was connected to the main woods.

Sam, Jared, Embry, Quil, Leah and Seth were waiting by a couple of cars. Seth was new. He is Leah's little brother, and our youngest member to date. He's only fourteen so he looks smaller than us in wolf form and in human form. When walking on two feet, he was tall, but not so filled out, and his face was younger-looking.

The kid was pretty impossible to dislike as well. That inner peace helped him maintain control over the phasing. I had patrolled with him earlier in the week. I've been told that I'm very depressing to be around during those. Running uninhibited like that is where I do the most thinking, and since I think about Bella a lot... Seth wasn't even affected. He was optimistic that everyone would work out for the best for not just me, but everyone including and especially his sister. She had patrolled with me the next night and heard what she said with a slightly affectionate thought about how annoying that could be.

Aside from Seth who was grinning with excitement, everyone looked impatient.

"Sorry, guys. Traffic," I joked. Quil and Embry cracked smiles, but the others were not so easily swayed.

"I wanted to meet the fam," Paul said, "So I went straight to the crypt to pick Jakey up." I jabbed his kidney with my elbow twice as hard as usual- for the crypt comment and the nickname.

Sam groaned, "You make it so hard to keep a treaty."

"Hey! They were the ones who lacked hospitality. I didn't even get some AB positive for the road."

Jared's groan echoed Sam's. "You need some new vamp jokes. I think we've heard that one before."

"Let's get going," Sam said. He turned to the row of cars behind him and got into his truck. I followed Paul into his dad's van from college. Quil and Embry got in the back. This surveillance trip –for us- was going to have a rowdy start. Seth looked less than happy to be driving with his sister in her old Camaro, and her, the same. I was going to offer up my car, but I was selfish enough to not want to stand out among these rides. And Dad wasn't so eager to have the house "smell even worse."

Paul put in some old rock cassettes I found in the glove compartment and rolled down the windows, honking and whooping at passing cars. He was pretty funny, but I decided I would be the one to drive back. Quil was not one to sit out on the fun, and he opened up the window and flashed any car with a member of the female population in it, from sorority girls to grandmothers. I was thinking of Bella's worry and Edward's plea so Embry and I made up the quieter half of the car.

Having heard a trucker who honked generously, Sam called Embry after about thirty miles and reminded us that as werewolves should try and blend in.

The ride was long although the speeding we did when roads turned empty made it shorter than usual. By the time we got to Seattle, the sky was black which was how we planned it to be. True to legend, the vampires came out at night.

We split up into pairs and spent most of our time in the lower parts of town. This had been my insight. The vampires were feeding on more people than the police had found. All the others were people no one reported missing. How irresponsible their creator may be, they obviously weren't stupid so he or she must have told them to feed off the dregs of Seattle.

Paul and I walked around near the docks. There was no more laughter or joking. We were serious when we needed to be.

We moved noiselessly up the streets and down alleyways, listening for any sign of the predator. A scream, glass breaking, wind rushing past a speeding body, anything. The sounds we heard instead were normal. Car locks, feet splashing in the puddles, and sometimes a stray part of a conversation.

Paul was not a patient person though. He started walking more urgently a few feet ahead of me, looking desperately down streets for any sort of anything. I did feel sort of restless. Walking down the empty sidewalks wasn't much better than sitting at home. At least while patrolling in the equally quiet woods, we're getting some exercise.

Like a dog off its leash, Paul suddenly flicked his head down an alleyway and sprinted through it. I reacted and ran quickly after him. He turned into the street off the alley and into another one. I breathed in the night air mixed with the familiar stink. Too familiar. I swore and pushed my legs to catch up with Paul.

I found my friend in a tight alleyway, pinned down by a familiar bronze-haired vampire. I growled at him.

"Why are you here?" I snarled. He looked up at me and got off of Paul. Paul jumped up and got into a fighting stance. He was shaking violently and a series of growls were emanating from his chest.

"Paul, come down," I said, trying to keep my voice even, "You can't change here. Besides, you don't have any clothes."

Paul took a few huffy breathes and his shaking lessened until only his hands were unsteady. He didn't stop flaring his nostrils or his low snarling though. It was the only noise I could hear.

"Why are you here, Edward?" I interrogated, turning back to my uncle.

He looked at me steadily with his gold eyes, debating something. Finally, he gave a needless blink and the thoughtful gaze went away. "Bella asked me to look out for you."

The only reason I didn't echo Paul's snarling was because I knew that if I phased, he would too, and we would both go after Edward's neck. This alley was not going to fit two wolves brawling.

"I don't need a babysitter," I said, managing to keep my fury from making impediments in my speech.

"I know, but she worries. And in a rare turn of events, your mother and she became allies."

My dad jumped off the building on the left of where we were standing, smiling sheepishly.

"Hey, bud," he greeted. He was obviously forced to do this. My mother was his wife, and she had several threats that always made sure she got her way. I looked at him with disappointment.

"Sorry, junior, but she was going to put me out, if you know what I mean."

I scowled at the thought and rolled my eyes. My parents can be such teenagers sometimes.

"From my experience, those threats never really go through though, do they?" I teased. He grinned. Dad was easier to forgive than Edward.

"Did you find anything?" Dad asked.

"I thought we did," Paul said with no snarl but a dark look.

"Sorry. We're whipped," Dad said. Paul cracked a bit, betraying his anger with small grin.

"Paul knows the feeling," I quipped. He punched my kidney.

"I'm not whipped; I'm imprinted," he grumbled.

"No difference," I snickered. Imprints got away with murder.

Because he had no response, he pushed me into the wall while I laughed. I knew how to deal with Paul. You calm him down, make him laugh, and let him hit you.

We exited the alleyway and went back onto the street. It was without streetlights. The only illumination came from a few windows.

The world has a funny way of making things happen to set up for other things. If Bella hadn't been so immensely worried, Dad and Edward wouldn't have showed up and attracted Paul's attention. We would have walked past this street. We would find nothing, head home. Painfully far away.

I looked around the street and stopped when my eyes rested on a figure only someone with eyes like mine could have made out. The same eyes widened, and my heart started pounding in my ears.

Dad interpreted this as fear. "Jake? You okay? Is there a newborn?" He started looking around and positioned himself so she could easily chase after anything.

Paul looked at me for a moment before smiling maliciously. "So much worse."

So…yeah.