I stirred awake, blinking at the bright light of the room around me. I looked down at the tube feeding into my arm in bewilderment. I moved my hand to pull it out, but a cold hand stopped me.

"Don't pull those out." said the calm voice of Carlisle Cullen.

"Whasgoingon?" I slurred.

"You were hurt." he said. "Not badly. A concussion and a few scratches on your left shoulder. They'll leave scars, but other than that, you should be fine."

"Seth?"

He sighed. "He's alright, but he won't talk to anyone. He's a bit shaken up." He put a hand on mine. "Sam wants to see you, but I told him he'd have to wait until you were better."

"Let him in." I said, straightening up on the bed. My shoulder twinged and my head hurt a bit, but otherwise I felt okay. "I need to talk to him."

He nodded and left, and moments later, Sam walked into the room. "Hey, kid." he said, sitting in the chair next to my bed. "How do you feel?"

"A little battered and confused." I said. "Why didn't anyone just tell me?"

"It's supposed to be kept secret." he answered.

"Sam, it's a little hard to keep a secret if you surround people with it." I told him. "And you guys are really bad at it, anyway. I knew something was up the first day I came here."

"Yeah, well... It's a little hard to hide, to be honest." he said, scratching the back of his head. "But now that you know, I might as well tell you everything."

"Might as well."

He sighed. "I'm the leader of our pack. We're the tribe's protectors; have been since ancient times. Skips a generation, though, so none of our fathers had it."

"What about Leah?" I asked. "Is she one, too?"

"Yeah, but it's really rare for a girl to become a werewolf. There's a lot of complicated stuff... I don't want to get into it. Anyway, every day we patrol the border in shifts, which is why you don't see some of us half the time."

"And why you're always 'working late'." I supplied.

"Yeah... Sorry about that first night. I was keeping watch on the house when Embry called me. I had to respond." he apologized. "But here's the thing: Something is happening to our pack. We're phasing without meaning to, and we become dangerous when that happens. Normally, across the telepathic link we have, we can communicate with a certain amount of normalcy. But when someone changes like that, nothing is understandable except the need to... Cause issues." he finished carefully.

This was a lot to take in. It all seemed so complicated. "Seth was saying something about that before he... phased, did you call it? Anyway, he seemed like he was really trying to keep calm because he'd... um... imprinted on me?" I said uncertainly. "What does that mean?"

Sam took my hand and looked at me very seriously. "Imprinting, for werewolves, is supposed to be a rare thing, but for some reason it's happening a lot with us. It's like love at first sight. The second a werewolf sees the person he'll be with forever, he instantly knows. Take Emily and I, for example." he said. "You can't choose who you imprint on, and once you do, you can't take it back. You're instantly devoted to that person and to protecting them for the rest of your life."

"But you hurt Emily." I protested. "Why?"

"It wasn't really a conscious choice, Nani." he said. "When someone first starts becoming a werewolf, they're unpredictable and hard to control. I phased on accident, and she... she was too close." He looked almost ashamed, not meeting my eyes. "Seth's gotta be beating himself up about this. He didn't want to hurt you."

"I figured as much." I said quietly. "So... basically what you're telling me, is that whatever is going on with the pack is making them act like amateur werewolves?"

"In essence, yeah. Except we can't train them to be disciplined because it's not their fault." he answered.

I nodded. "Okay. So, the Cullens. What are they?"

"Vampires." he answered.

I nodded again like this made perfect sense. "Yeah. Fun. Wait..." I narrowed my eyes. "That's sick! What, does Dr. Carlisle get off on watching people bleed to death?"

Sam paled. "Nani, they can hear you. And no, he doesn't. He's a doctor because, as much as I hate to say it, he's actually a good guy. He's done nothing to harm us and has even helped us out on occasion. So if you could refrain from insulting him, that would be great."

I crossed my arms, wincing as the three scratches twinged. "So what's Seth doing?"

"Who knows?" Sam sighed. "He phased back into his wolf form and took off. Jared said he saw him pacing around on the beach earlier, but he won't come out of wolf form."

"Can I talk to him?"

He suddenly looked a bit guarded. "He's safe for now, but I have no idea when he'll go nuts again. It's best to leave him be."

"What about you? Can't you be affected?"

"Of course I can. But I haven't yet, and I'm determined to find out what this problem is before I do." he said. "Listen, you rest up. Dr. Carlisle will send you home when he thinks you've recovered."

"Fine." I muttered.

He kissed the top of my head as he stood. "Bye for now."

"A hui hou."

I stared at my hands, the tan skin a stark contrast to the white sheets. My world had just been turned upside down. But the weirdest part? I was okay with that. I couldn't find it in me to deny these claims, and I found I didn't really want to. Now there was an element of magic in life, no matter the danger. At least nothing would be boring from here on out.