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Chapter 3: The Black pack

Quil's POV.

2006, Claire three-years-old

Everything in the pack had gone tits up.

Almost a month ago Jake had come back from Canada to visit Bella on her wedding night, which delighted not only Bella, but the whole pack. Jake, our beta and my best friend, was back for good, or at least that was what we thought. Jake went into a foul mood after finding out Bella was going to be turned into a bloodsucker when she came back from her honeymoon and stayed in his bedroom for a two weeks weeping like a little pussy. Bella came back from wherever the hell mind-reader took her with some exotic disease that was not only dangerous, but highly infectious. Long story short, Jake went to visit her, found out she was up the duff with some demon child and after Sam made a plan to kill Bella, Jake broke from the pack to protect her, taking not only happy-twat Seth, but bitchy Leah with him.

Sam was not impressed.

He had turned into Dark Vader, walking around with a permanent scowl, grumbling under his breath about stupid vampires and good-for-nothing teenagers, while also trying to keep the elders and pack-brothers (coughPaulcough) at bay. Billy hadn't said a word about it all, he just preferred to sit in his wheelchair and say "my son knows what he's doing" whenever someone asked him his opinion. Even though I knew Sue wanted her children back she wasn't complaining and shouting, either. My Grandpa just tended to glare at everyone when the topic was mentioned, so I didn't know what he was thinking about everything. Most of the guys wanted to kill the Cullen's, but didn't dare touch them in case they hurt Jake, Seth or Leah.

All I knew was that the pack was in utter turmoil and there was nothing I could do about it.

Jake was my best friend and I wanted to support him. Since the moment he left I had wanted to join his side (and I knew Embry did, too), but if I joined Jake's pack I had to leave Claire and that was too much for me to handle. Embry was seriously contemplating leaving, which was a big reason why Sam was making the guys keep a very close eye on him. The poor guy couldn't even piss without someone standing outside the door.

One of the things that made this whole shitty situation better was that I knew Jake was okay. Sam had sent a bunch of us to try and convince him to come back and though he didn't budge, he looked fine and even gave me his "take care of yourself, man" nods. He knew I would have been at his side if it wasn't for my devotion to Claire and that soothed my conscious a little.

I missed him, though. Not only Jake but Seth and Leah (gasp, horror, I know), too. Patrol was boring without Seth's constant happiness and jokiness, and it wasn't as entertaining without Leah's sarcastic comments that wound Paul up so much they made me almost like her. They were my brothers and sister and it made me realize I had taken them for granted when they were around.

Emily had asked for Claire and Nora for the weekend so I was hanging out at the Uley's. Sam wanted at least two wolves near the imprints at all times just in case the Cullen's decided to play dirty. I knew they wouldn't, but I didn't complain as I got to hang out with Claire a lot more than I did a couple of weeks ago.

"Does that look like a cat to you?" Rachel asked, holding up a piece of paper towards me.

Rachel had come home to visit her dad and Jake after finishing her course at the University. She had run into Paul on the beach and bam! He'd imprinted on her. Jake had been pissed about that, too, he punched Paul so hard in the nose it took our five hours to heal properly, which was a long time for our super fast healing bodies. Rachel hadn't liked Paul at first (who did?), but eventually she gave him a chance and now they were completely in love like Sam and Emily and Jared and Kim. Rachel was staying in La Push until Paul learnt to control his phasing and then they were going to travel together. I liked Rachel, having grown up with the Black family she was like the big sister I never had.

"No, it looks more like a horse," I answered honestly.

She looked at the brown blob again and shrugged. "I'll go with it. Isn't my horse good?" she grinned at Nora, who nodded enthusiastically.

"Qwil!" Claire giggled, grabbing every fibre of my attention. "Look wha Aunt Em got me!" she squealed, climbing onto my lap and waving a bag of seeds in my face.

"They're tulips," Emily said as she put down a plant pot on her dining table. "I promised her you'd plant them together."

Claire squealed happily again as if agreeing with Emily's words. Chuckling, I scooped her into my arms and carefully placed her on the table. Just as we Claire began to put holes into the compost, the front door opened revealing Paul and Jared who both looked miffed. Paul took a seat at the end of the table and put his head in his hands while Jared moodily kicked the table leg.

"What's up?" I asked in confusion.

Jared looked up from the table just as Kim floated to his side and gently touched his shoulder. "Jake imprinted," he answered sadly.

I didn't get it. Jake imprinting was the best thing that could happen right now. He could get over Bella and come back to La Push and the back where he truly belonged.

"And that's a bad thing?" Kim questioned before I could voice my thoughts.

"That brilliant!" Rachel smiled. "So can he come back home now? Is he here? Can I see him? Who is she? Is she nice?"

Paul stopped her and softly tugged her hand so she could fall onto his lap. He opened his mouth to explain, but nothing came out and he rested his head against her shoulder instead. Rachel looked up to Jared for answers.

"He imprinted on the baby," Jared explained further.

"What baby—" I began and stopped short when Jared sent me a look.

Holy shit, was that even possible?

"But she's part vampire!" I shouted out and Rachel gasped. "Is that even possible?!"

"Apparently so," Paul spoke for the first time. "It's the real thing, too, Sam said. Jake showed him through their mind link and it's a lot like you and Claire."

Instantly, I looked down to my imprint who was sat on the table cross-legged and staring at everyone in confusion. She didn't know what the sombre mood was about. I reached down and pulled her into my arms, she giggled and patted my cheek.

"Well, if it's the real thing there's nothing we can do about it, is there?" I concluded. There was no way, Alpha order or not, that I was going to destroy an imprint. If any one ever went after Claire...I couldn't even think about it. All I knew was that I would kill for Claire, and I wasn't going to crush Jake even if the baby was half-vampire.

"Is she—is she like a real vampire?" Rachel stuttered.

"No. Sam said she actually seemed normal," Jared gulped. "He's going over there now to see her and then he's going to tell us the plan."

"He's at the Cullen's?" Emily screamed from the kitchen doorway. "What the hell was he thinking?"

"Brady, Embry and Collin are over there with him and they'll howl if anything goes wrong," Paul comforted. "We offered to go with him but he said we were too likely to attack when there was nothing to attack over."

"Does that mean he can come home?" Emily breathed, "Does the imprint mean there isn't going to be a war with the Cullen's?"

"We don't know for sure," Jared shrugged. "But it's defiantly likely."

I couldn't stop myself from feeling excited about the prospect of my pack siblings coming home, especially Jake. The pack could go back to normal again if the imprint turned out to be okay and the whole dynamic could go back to normal. I could spend more time with Claire, I would have Jake back and Embry would stop being such a moody ass.

We waited in silence for any howl or sound of the guys coming back. Claire began to get restless after ten minutes so I continued doing the seed planting with her while we listened. Half an hour had passed when we heard the familiar pounding of paws against the ground. Jared, Paul and my head all swirled to the door, announcing their arrival before they even came into view.

"What's happening?"

"Is there a fight?"

Sam looked at each other our faces and then shook his head. "She's not dangerous," he clarified sternly. "She's...almost normal."

"Normal?" Paul exploded, making Rachel jump. "How can the spawn of a vampire be normal?"

Sam wrapped his arm around Emily and dropped a kiss onto her head before he answered. "I met Jake at the door and he showed me her. She just looks like a normal kid, except a little...freakier. She's not venomous, she loves Jake and Seth, and she even showed me that she had no intention of harming anyone."

"She showed you?"

Sam nodded at Kim's call. "Yeah, she has a vampire gift. She can show you what she's thinking by touching you and projecting her thoughts to you. She's a lot more advanced than she should be and looks more like a eight month old than a newborn, but she doesn't look like she's going to go on a killing rampage anytime soon," he chuckled as Paul let out a scoff. "It's a good thing, Paul, it means the pack can have harmony again and things can go back to normal. Don't judge her before you meet her."

"Yeah," Rachel shouted, suddenly angry. "If my brother imprinted on her she can't be that bad, Paul! Jake wouldn't imprint on a bad girl."

"Babe, she's a vampire—"

"Part vampire!" she screamed back. "And if my brother loves her you better be nice to her! Imagine if I was part fairy, would you love me any less?"

"You know I wouldn't, Rach."

"Exactly. Jake has been...understanding about you imprinting on me so the least you can do is try to be understanding about his imprint." With that, she went back over to play with Nora, defiance in her every step.

Paul sighed heavily and went back to holding his head in his hands. I kind of felt for the guy, but I was so happy about Jake being a part of La Push again I couldn't find it in myself to comfort him. Jared just went to Kim for comfort and they huddled in the corner together whispering so fast I couldn't pick up on what they were saying.

"What about Bella?" Emily asked quietly.

Sam scratched the back of his neck and sighed. "She's changing."

"What? And you're going to let them get away with that?"

"Jake gave them permission, Paul," Sam said in a hard voice. "There's nothing I can do about it. They got an Alpha's permission, which is all they needed. Now, you can fight that if you want, but it's no use because technically they broke no rules, so we'd be breaking the treaty our ancestors made for nothing."

Paul dropped his head onto the table.

Embry caught my eye from the doorway and grinned so wide I thought his face would crack. He winked, pointed to Paul and pretended to snigger at him, I couldn't help but chuckle. I planted the flowers with Claire and then read her two books before she fell asleep on my shoulder. I put her to bed, kissed her forehead and then made my way into the living room. Embry had vacated a seat outside on the steps so I joined in on the porch as he looked out into the sky.

"I'm going to see Jake tomorrow, do you want to come?" he asked as I took a seat next to him.

"Of course," I replied, glancing sideways at him. "What do you think of the imprint?"

"Weird," he shrugged, smirking at me. "But aren't all of the imprints? Sam imprinted on his girlfriend's cousin, Jared imprinted on someone he didn't even know the name of, Paul imprinted on a girl that hated him and didn't even know he existed, and you...well, only you know what's going on with yours." I punched him in the shoulder and he snorted. "Dude, all the imprinting is messed up, I think. You've just got to get on with it because there's nothing we can do to change it. I'm just happy I can talk to Jake again without getting the bitch glare from Sam."

We laughed and joked until ten when he went home and I went to sleep on the couch in Emily's house. When I woke up the next morning Claire was bouncing on my chest giggling like crazy. We had breakfast together but then her parents came to pick her up and take her home. After promising I would see her next weekend and waving goodbye as she drove off down the street, I met Embry near the outskirts of the woods.

"Finally," Embry huffed. "It took you long enough."

"Sorry, got caught up with Claire."

"Of course you did."

We walked to the treaty line and Embry howled loudly to indicate he needed someone. I heard someone jog from the trees and Seth appeared from the bushes.

"Hey guys," he grinned widely. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey, man," Embry replied, patting his back. I did the same and Seth grinned. "We're here to see Jake but we don't want to break any rules."

"Oh, he's at the Cullen's. You can follow me if you want."

We ran to the house and Seth told us to wait near the gates saying something about Rosalie not wanting us in the house. Ten minutes later Jake emerged from the front doors looking happier than I had seen him in over a year and a half.

"Hey!" he chirped (my God, had the world gone mad?), coming to a stop in front of us. "What are you doing here?"

He hugged us both and then stood back with sparking brown eyes.

"We've come to ask when you're coming back," Embry said immediately. "We've missed you, man, and now you've imprinted on Rennie—"

"Renesmee."

"—right, Renesmee, you can come back."

I tried not to look too freaked out by the name but I couldn't help send Seth a "what the fuck" look. The younger wolf shrugged, smirked and leaned back against the bush.

"Yeah, when are you coming home?" I added on excitedly.

Jake opened his mouth and then snapped it shut. After ten seconds he cleared his throat uncomfortably and shuffled his feet.

Oh, no, this couldn't be good. I felt my stomach sink.

"Guys, I'm not rejoining Sam's pack," he said finally.

What?

"Huh?"

Embry was never one for eloquence.

"I'm not rejoining the pack," Jake said, stronger this time. "I've decided to have my own pack. We're not going to fight against you or anything, we're just going to have our own way of going about things. Obviously, I'll still converse with Sam and make sure we're on the same page and stuff, but I can't go back to being a beta again and I don't want to take the Alpha position from Sam now he's so into it. Leah, Seth and I are just going to stick together and you guys can stay together," seeing our crestfallen faces, he sighed. "Guys, come on! I'm still coming to La Push, it'll be like I never left, promise. I just won't be able to read your dirty minds now. It'll be like nothing's changed."

We were all silent for a while and then Seth awkwardly cleared his throat.

"Fuck off." Embry scoffed loudly. Jake raised his eyebrows in surprise and I heard Seth laugh. "I'm not going to be in a different pack to you for any longer, Jake, sorry and all that. I miss having you to talk to during patrol, man, and to have you back means I have to leave Sam's pack and join yours, then that's what I'm doing."

"Embry—"

"Don't tell me not to," Embry cut him off warningly. "Because I'm doing it anyway."

"Me too," the words spilled from my mouth. "You're my best friend, man, we're sticking together just like we always have. Sam won't mind now he knows Ressmee—"

"Renesmee."

"Yeah, that she isn't evil and all that shit. He knows we miss you."

Jake rolled his eyes at us. "When did you two get so soppy?"

"It's Quil," Embry cried dramatically. "He's turning me into a girl now he's a whipped imprint."

I punched him in the gut.

"Shut up, Call," I snapped at him. "And we're not soppy, we're just...nice people. Try it some time, Black."

Jake snorted and punched my shoulder in a friendly manner. "I'd invite you guys in, but Blondie's being a bigger bitch than normal and she won't appreciate two extra wolves to smell."

"It's good, I don't fancy going in vamp paradise anyway," Embry sniggered. "Plus, we've got to go and tell Sam about moving to the Black pack. Man, that sounds cool."

"See yah later, Jake, bye Seth!" I called over my shoulder. "Oh, and tell Leah Paul says he misses her!"

I heard their laughter as Embry and I ran back over the treaty line and into La Push again.

That was how Embry and I joined the Black pack.

Thoughts?

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-Layla