AN: I haven't gotten too many responses on the potential rating change, but I am leaning toward doing it and having one consistent version between here and Tricky Raven, as I don't think my brain can cope with writing two similar yet different versions of the same story at the same time. I'll try to give warning before the upgrade hits. If you do happen to be reading this and are underage for the higher rating…please don't tell me.

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Sam POV

Jacob! I called out. In no time at all, Jake had closed most of the distance between where we'd been and his house.

Damn, he's fast.

No joke, Paul, Jared shot back.

Stop, damn it! Once again, my Alpha order stopped Jake in his tracks. I hated using it—avoided it as much as possible, in fact—but Jake just wasn't giving me much of a choice today. We caught up to Jake, and to Quil, who'd followed him as faithfully as ever.

I don't want you to blame your dad for this—or your grandfather, either, I said to my newest brothers. They both hoped you wouldn't have to go through this. It would have been pointless and even cruel if they'd told you it might happen only for it then to not occur. They wanted to spare you the disappointment they went through.

So instead we get the shock and pain, huh?

Unfortunately, yes.

So why weren't they sure whether it would happen? And why did it happen at all? Quil asked. He wasn't as visibly pissed as Jake was, but it was still there.

It doesn't always happen. It takes having guys in the right bloodlines and being in the right age range, plus having the trigger present. If even one factor isn't there: no wolves.

Trigger?

A vampire.

But the Cullens are gone! They left over a month ago. How could we be just fine all the time they were here only to go through this as soon as they leave?

I know. But we've had a different one, a red-eyed one, circling around lately, plus another one that just joined her. I think they're what triggered it for the two of you.

When both boys started repeating didn't warn us, didn't tell, it became clear that the exceptional calm and acceptance they had show up until now had only been temporary. The last thing I wanted was for them to lose it again in the middle of the impending council meeting. Jacob, Quil: go run this off. Jared, Paul: go with them. Maybe it'll wear them out enough that we can all phase back tonight.

Sure, Jared agreed on behalf of them all. As he and Paul started shepherding the other pair away from the heart of the rez, he added, Good thing it's still the middle of summer, huh? Gives them a bit over a month to get a handle on this before school starts up again.

Good thing I had a trial run with you and Paul then, isn't it?

I stayed phased in for a few minutes, making sure that my senior wolves had the junior ones under control. Then I took a deep breath and ran to my home to grab a pair of shorts. Much as I really didn't want a council meeting after the day I'd had, I wasn't about to disrespect the elders by attending it stark naked. In what seemed like a perfect punctuation mark, it was raining now.

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Billy POV

I had stayed outside for a while after the boys had vanished into the trees before going inside to summon the rest of the council. Now I sat at my kitchen table, Quil on one side of me, and Harry on the other. Sue sat on Harry's other side, and young Quil's mother Joy opposite her.

Off in the distance, a series of howls sounded. Soon after, and much closer, came loud growls and snarls. A louder, deeper bark abruptly cut everything off. My heart broke at the realization that one of them must be Jacob. How could I face my son and his inevitable and justifiable anger? The silence lasted for several minutes, but no one got up to see what might be going on outside. That might have changed if Sam hadn't strode into my house just then, faint wisps of steam rising into the air as the rain droplets on his shoulders evaporated.

"Sam," I greeted.

"Billy."

"Where's my son?" Joy interrupted. "All anyone will tell me is that something happened. Where's my baby?"

"Jacob and young Quil both phased today. As of now, the pack stands at five," answered Sam.

"Pack? Phased? Dad, what's he talking about?" Joy appealed to her father-in-law.

"Joy," I sighed, "certain families in our tribe have a special heritage. Under the right circumstances, the sons of these families can transform into the protectors of the tribe and become wolves. Sam was the first in this generation to transform, to phase. He is the leader, the Alpha. Jared Cameron and Paul Lahote joined him next, and now my Jacob and your Quil have also joined."

"Where is he?" Joy wasn't having a breakdown over these revelations, but her mother's instincts to worry about her only child were likely taking precedence.

"They're all out running," Sam replied. "The boys got a little…upset when they found out you two," he gestured to Quil and to me, "knew it was happening but didn't warn them. I decided it would be best for them to cool off a bit before coming home again—not that they could have phased back when they were that angry anyway."

Joy's look at Quil now was furious rather than pleading. "You knew?"

He held a hand out to her that went ignored. "I hoped he'd be spared. When I knew he wouldn't be…the law says that the boys and their families are told nothing until it happens, to protect everyone."

Everyone was quiet for a while as Joy Ateara verbally tore into her son's grandfather. "How did this happen...What if I'd been with him when it happened…how could you ever think silence was best…what happens now… ?" Between us, we of the tribal council tried to answer all of her questions.

When she had finally subsided, quietly crying into a dishtowel that Sue had handed to her, I took my opportunity to ask about my own son. I was discouraged to hear of Jacob's anger and lack of control. But I had every confidence that with Sam's guidance and Jacob's rightful status as Alpha, that he would soon become everything he was meant to be. "And the imprinting?" I asked at the end.

"He was thrilled."

The unfamiliar term brought Joy's head up, along with a demand for an answer, which Sam provided, along with the name of the girl who would become Jacob's imprint.

"Why are you so sure that it's Jacob?" she wanted to know. "Didn't my son phase today, too? I'm not in any way condoning taking away all of her choices, but what if Bella Swan isn't meant for Jacob?"

Her words brought instant silence.

"Sh—oot," Sam cut off the expletive everyone knew he really wanted to use.

"Could it be true?" Sue wondered.

"I'm sure she's meant to be an imprint," the pack's Alpha replied. "She wasn't for Paul, and with the way Jacob brought her out of her funk and sickness, I just assumed…" Sam's voice trailed off and he ran his hands through his short-cropped hair. All of us were reminded of just how young he still was and what weight he carried. "The instincts didn't go beyond the protectiveness that confirmed a future imprinting; it didn't identify the wolf in question. So, yes, I suppose it could be Quil. Damn it, I shouldn't have said anything about it to Jacob yet, not before he had a chance to see her again. Billy, he's absolutely in love with Bella, and if she's truly meant for Quil…If it weren't blasphemous, I could hate Taha Aki right now. The last thing I need on top of everything else is a love triangle in the pack."

"Another love triangle, you mean," Sue corrected. "You'd do better to thank Taha Aki instead of curse him: if girls could phase too, then Leah would be a sure bet to join your little pack, considering Harry's and my families. Leah in the pack would make your life an utter and complete hell on earth."

Sue's words made more than just Sam wince. She might have had to accept working with Sam on official tribal business, but Sue Uley Clearwater was a fierce mama bear when it came to her children, and she'd no more forgiven Sam for breaking Leah's heart than Leah herself had.

Sam knew that, just as he knew that he'd had no choice about imprinting on Emily, or Jared on Kim. Neither would whichever of our new wolves ended up being the one to imprint on Bella. But he—we—also knew that Sue didn't care about any of that.

"I'm going to go check in with the others. I don't think we're up to covering anything else here tonight, so I'd advise everyone to go home. Billy, Quil, Joy, if the boys aren't home by bedtime, please don't wait up for them. There's nothing to talk about that can't wait for tomorrow morning. And all this assumes they're able to phase back tonight."

When Joy asked what he meant, Sam's explanation of how long it had taken him to become human again after his first phase made her pale and start to cry again.

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Embry POV

As Bella had predicted, my mom was indeed stunned by both my attendance at dinner and by the fact that I was the one who brought dinner home.

"She's a good cook," Mom observed, stacking both our empty plates to carry over to the sink.

"Hey! I helped."

"I'm sorry, sweetie. You did good work, too," she paused. "Is there anything there that I need to ask about?"

"Mom!" I blushed, embarrassed.

"Embry, you can't expect me not to notice when a simple ride home turns into spending the whole day together and cooking a meal. I don't mean to embarrass you, but…do you like her?"

"Yeah," I admitted it out loud for the first time. "She's smart, the right mix of funny and serious, beautiful, kind, caring, strong…"

"Have you told her this?"

"Some of it. But not all of it, or the liking part."

"Why not?"

"Well, she just got dumped at the beginning of the summer. She's not a rebounder, and I wouldn't want to be the reboundee, either. Besides…"

"Besides what?" My mom was great at drawing a conversation out of me.

"I'm almost positive—no, I am sure—that Jake likes her."

"So there's a 'guy rule' just like there's a 'girl rule'?"

"Girls rule?"

"The girl rule is that you don't date a guy that one of your friends used to date, is dating, or wants to date."

"Yeah, that's about what the rule is. Our rule includes sisters as well as any other girls past, present, or future."

"Well, Bella isn't his sister, so you're safe there. Have the two of you talked about him liking her?"

"Mom! No, we haven't."

"Has he talked to Bella about it?"

"I don't think so. Not that I've heard about, anyway."

"I do understand what you mean, and I admire you for respecting Jacob enough to not want to step in front of him. But…if he hasn't made a move, then I don't see anything wrong in approaching her to find out for sure. If she's interested in you, then I'm sure she'll say so, and if she'd rather be with Jacob, she'll say that instead. I'd hate to see you lose out on a chance with a wonderful girl just because you're worried about what might happen."

"Thanks, Mom. I'll think about it and I guess we'll see."

Even though I usually helped with the dishes if I was home, Mom shooed me out of the kitchen, saying that "the cook doesn't clean". With nothing else that I absolutely had to do, I decided to head over to Jacob's to see how much he'd gotten done on Bella's truck after his dad's lecture. But when I got there, the truck was still sitting in front of the garage doors just like it had been when I'd left here hours ago, and with no sign that Jake had done anything with it at all. I started to head for the front door, but I must have been spotted because Jake's dad wheeled outside before I got close.

"Jake can't have visitors tonight, Embry."

"Oh. Okay. Any news on the truck?"

"No. Sorry."

I felt my eyes narrow at Billy's short answers. Maybe he was still just upset about Jake's explosion earlier, but it honestly hadn't been that bad. And even if it had been, that didn't explain why I was getting this now.

"Okay. Would you tell him I stopped by and asked about it? I'm sure Bella' already wondering when she'll get it back."

"I'll tell him. Have a good night." And with that, Billy turned his chair around and pushed himself back inside. The door closed, and I just stood there, wondering just what in the world was going on around here.