Cris's POV

I was frustrated, but couldn't let it show; I desperately wanted to speak with my pack. We were currently following Sam and were surrounded by his wolves. In my mind, I knew Shay would be bursting to start a scrap with the grey one because he took any kind of aggression personally. Corey, on the other hand, would be nervous for me in human form. I was just glad Jaden was still out of sight, and that I'd guessed what his calls meant earlier.

I was slightly comforted; I knew Jaden was logical enough to keep Shay calm. I also had no doubt that at least one of the twins would be listening in from home. If something did go wrong, there'd be some sort of back up, even if it was delayed. Saying all of this, I was glad my thoughts were my own right now since I was a tad nervous. At the end of the day, I was going purely by instinct. We'd never had much conflict in Barrow, and as an alpha, I was expected to conduct myself in a certain way. Let's just be honest, I was winging it.

I also had no idea how many skin walkers we were truly dealing with. A big surprise, considering I never really expected to find any. It was possible our group was bigger, but what if this wasn't all of them? There was also a 'him', and I had no idea who this could be. Is there anyone higher than an alpha? Perhaps a tribal leader?

I could at least understand Sam's motives. From what I had witnessed so far, I felt I could have respect for this man. He had control over his pack and made his intentions clear to us: they didn't trust outsiders, but he'd give us a chance to speak. By inviting us to his home, he was doing one of two things: either offering a piece of his trust as goodwill, (I was hopeful it was this option), or leading us to our deaths.

I mentally kicked myself; it was never my intention to meet this way. I hadn't even realised this was their territory because we were too caught up tracing the demon scent. Don't get me wrong, we all knew the risks we faced coming here; we had even agreed that if there was any threat, we would go down fighting. Death certainly didn't scare me, but I wanted it on my terms.

We'd been walking for a few miles now, and the forest was thinning. After a few minutes, we started to see the back yard of a small, but quaint, wooden house. It was painted blue, and there were window boxes full of bright spring flowers. Sam stopped us and looked at Corey and Shay. "If they can change now, they'll be able to come out in the open."

I could tell they were anxious. It was one thing, phasing naked in front of each other. Doing it in front of hostile strangers was something else.

Sensing the tension, Sam added, "My pack will phase once you have, you have my word."

Shay and Corey still hadn't moved and were watching me for confirmation.

"Change back." I nodded.

On my command, they began to phase and stood swiftly pulling on their shorts and t-shirts. Corey, like his animal form, was smaller than me in stature, but Shay was like a hairy rugby player on steroids. I saw one of the wolves closest to him step back. Satisfied, one by one, the other wolves changed. We were suddenly surrounded by five men.

Silently, we started moving again and came out of the woods. I could hear waves crashing in the distance and the familiar smell of sea salt hit my nose. In my head, I had an idea of where we were, but I still wanted to see our actual location. We quickly cut across the garden and were led up to the back porch. We came in through the back door, to a small kitchen; there was a large table in the centre, along with six seats. Sam gestured for us to sit and then pulled up the chair opposite. The remainder of his group filed in.

As soon as the door was shut, one of the young ones opened the fridge and passed some beers out to the others who quickly cracked them open. Sam proceeded to roll his eyes, waiting while they made themselves comfy. Some stood around the kitchen, others sat on the counters. There was a mix of expressions on the surrounding faces, from distrust, to excitement, to plain boredom. Some even looked like they could barely stay awake. I gave both of our packs their dues; despite the beers, they hadn't said anything yet, and left their alpha in control.

Sam cleared his throat. "So, I suppose we should start with, who are you really Cris?"

"Like I said before, I'm Cris, but this is Corey and Shay." As I said this, they nodded their heads in Sam's direction. "We're here because of the growing rumours about giant wolves in Washington."

Sam raised his eyebrows at this. "Ok, I buy that. Let me rephrase, just so we're on the same page. What are you?"

"I thought it was obvious," I smiled. "We're skin walkers...like you."

Sam looked stumped. "Skin walkers? If you mean shape shifters then yes, but your brothers have different forms? How is that? Is your form not fixed?"

Well that cleared up my question about them all being wolves. "No, we're given only one spirit guide; we take our shape from them. Our guides reflect animals of the tundra and ice from home." My response led to a dozen more questions on questions.

I answered everything as best as I could, and Sam gradually started to trust us. Bit by bit, everyone relaxed; eventually, Shay and Corey even joined in. We explained our heritage and the first night we changed. We didn't speak of the other guys' shapes, but confirmed there were seven of us. The wolves didn't question their whereabouts, assuming we were on our own.

Sam introduced his pack members and then asked what my form was. I said I took the same shape as my brother. In exchange, we learned that there were five fully fledged wolves and seven young ones. The young ones, also referred to as 'cubs', had phased due to an 'almost' war years ago. It was clear to me that it was complicated here. Sam didn't divulge any personal details, but their pack dynamics weren't simple like ours. It seemed they shared their land with vampires, much like those in Denali, and had some loyalty to them. At least it seemed that way, based on the battle they were willing to fight.

I became confused however, when we were told of the half-vampire, half-human child that they'd protected from the Volturi vampire mafia. It concerned me greatly that so many vampires had been to this place, and my skin crawled thinking about it. I couldn't begin to understand why they'd protect the vamps. They said there were connections they had to stand by, and yet, there was an air of awkwardness when they spoke of them.

During the discussion, we told them of our only other run in with vampires. I never said where, but they knew that I referred to Denali. It was explained that they were family of the Cullen's. Wow, vampires with family and surnames; that was really weird. By the time it started to get dark, we'd been talking for hours. Everyone had joined in and it was clear we weren't a threat to each other. Regardless of the heart to heart, I still made clear the purpose of our visit. It was to highlight the need to be more careful. Sightings equalled exposure, and it wasn't just their identity they were risking.

To my surprise, Sam agreed and admitted they'd been getting lax. They had lost focus since there had been no leeches for some time. He added that occasionally, the wolves ventured out of state for personal reasons which explained the sightings. I mentioned the source of the rumours was a russet wolf, but Sam only frowned at this remark, so I quickly dropped it.

Just then there was a loud knock on the front door; Jared went to answer it. I heard a low voice grumble something about getting a message. A few minutes later, a huge scruffy man, with long black hair entered the room. He was bigger than me and Sam, and looked incredibly irritated.

"Who's this?" he asked, pointing at the three of us.

I guessed manners weren't his strong point.

Sam stood up, ignoring the pointing finger. "Guys, this is Jacob. I'm sorry I haven't mentioned him yet. He's not part of this pack, but I gave him a call earlier anyway."

So this was 'him.', I stood up and addressed the guy who was clearly not keen on being here. "Hi Jacob, I'm Cris and this is Shay and Corey."

"And?" he grunted.

Just then, the front door opened again. Another guy walked in; this one was lankier and had a huge grin on his face.

"What did I miss?" He took one look at Jacob and us, and then paused. "Aw man, you still being cranky?"

I began to wonder how many more would be joining us. The kitchen was packed, and everyone in such close vicinity was making me feel a bit feral.

"Hi, I'm Seth," the newcomer said. "Sorry about Jake over there! He's not normally quite as rude; he's just got some withdrawal symptoms at the ..."

Several people shouted as a glass flew past Seth's head and hit the wall. It all happened at super speed, but Seth's reactions were spot on as he ducked.

"Next time I'll aim!" Jacob hissed.

There were a few sniggers from Sam's pack, while we just looked on confused. As I said, their pack dynamics really weren't simple. I took in the sudden testosterone coming off Sam and Jacob. It clicked in to place again; Jacob's an alpha too! Just as my brain realised this, my body did. Corey saw my nails dig into the table as I started to shake. He knew I was trying not to phase. I rarely lost control, and I didn't want to, but in the animal world, alphas don't mix; now there were three in a very small space. It was instinct over head again, just like that first night. Thinking of that, I glanced at Corey's face. My lack of control was evident. The shaking ceased immediately, but as always the shame stayed; I was a pitiful alpha and brother. I realised the room was now watching me intently. Removing my nails from the table, I blushed; the wood that came loose was reduced to dust.

"When everyone is done wrecking the kitchen, can we get back to the situation?" Sam stated, frowning.

"What was that about?" Jacob questioned, glaring at me.

"Just a guess, but alphas seem to piss each other off automatically." Sam was clearly making a dig.

"Alphas? You mean him! He's even smaller than you. So what, you're like werewolves too?" Jacob was accusingly looking at the three of us.

God, this guy was totally obnoxious! I was hardly smaller than Sam; I was just glad my alpha mode was still subdued, or I'd have gone off again. I'd be quite happy to learn what we could and get back to our life; all this drama was too much. Everyone here had so much to say for themselves. It was such a contrast to us. We had been raised to listen and only say what we were sure of (Although, that didn't normally work out too well for Shay, so he usually kept his mouth shut). Acting like these Washington wolves was shameful and frowned upon by our elders. My eyes met Jacob's, and for one minute, I saw something other than arrogance. There was a flash of sadness that I couldn't begin to comprehend.

That one look made me decide to be amicable, but before I could do anything, Corey stood defensively in my place. "Right. Shall we start this again? Jacob, Seth, I'm Corey." He spoke, offering out his hand.

Jacob looked at it begrudgingly and then took it. Talk about mood swings! Seth followed his lead; his vibrant energy was obvious, even after the glass incident. Shay and I did the same, introducing ourselves and ignoring Jacob's bad attitude. Finally, Sam and the pack brought them up to date on the day's happenings. By the end of it all, Jacob seemed a little less angry, but that sadness began to crawl back into his eyes.

My thoughts began to drift to how Sam and Jacob spoke to each other. There was clearly no love lost between them, but as alphas, surely they should be respecting each other. We all should.

Just then I heard our owl screech outside, reminding me that we still hadn't brought up Jaden.