It had been a long, long time since I'd run like this. Well over a hundred miles per hour, nothing but a reddish-brown blur rocketing through the forest, darting around trees and leaping over rivers; half a dozen paler, skinnier blurs on its tail.

He was close. Brady, the wolf, was close.

When the images had stopped and I'd regained some sort of composure even without my dignity, we'd realised what had happened.

Brady and I had come close enough that our psychic bond, the bond each of us wolves had shared, snapped back into place; of course, that made us wonder what had separated it in the first place? When I'd abandoned Sam's pack to start my own with Leah and Seth, we'd stopped hearing the others completely because we were no longer brothers, no longer a unit, no longer a team. Had those same rules applied when the pack…when the pack died? Had my bond with Brady – the last living wolf – broken the two of us just assumed the other was gone?

There were too many questions, too many answers to figure out.

But the most important thing now was where the hell was he?

Connecticut. I'd managed to get that much out of him. Just because the bond was back, didn't mean it was as strong as it had once been – the distance didn't help. As we rushed across the state, I thought out as far as I could and in the loudest psychic voice possible. I begged Brady to hear me, to wait, to find me. I heard nothing in response.

I heard a phone ring and Tanya's voice answer as casually as if she weren't flipping over boulders and skidding beneath branches.

"Jacob found the other wolf. We're on our way to get him now. We'll be home soon, I promise, beautiful."

Nessie. It must've been Nessie. Every cell in my body burned, wanting me to phase back and speak to her myself but I fought against it, bit down hard on the inside of my jaw, focussing on the weakest connection Brady and I had. He would hear me. He had to hear me.

Eventually, we burst through the treeline at the top of a hill, a steep slope leading down to the edge of a great expanse of water. It was there, across the rippling surface, I caught the sight of an enormous wolf sprinting in the opposite direction.

I stepped forward, feeling the earth beneath my paws and the wind in my fur, I raised my head high and howled. The sound was low and deep, but loud enough to roll off the hills, to echo across the plains, to reach him.

Brady looked up.

Our eyes met and the same blinding pain that had hit in the coffee shop returned, only this time stronger, harsher, burrowing deep into my mind until it secured in place and the searing fire dwindled to a slight twinge, a tug, a pull, a connection, a bond.

A bond between two brothers.

Brady. I thought through the bond.

Jacob…

The word as clear as day in my mind.

"What's happening?" Jenna demanded. I huffed out a breath, nodded once and sent off sprinting down the hill.

The group stood waiting at the edge of the lake, a few taking the opportunity to wash the mud from their hands and faces. I'd have joined them if I hadn't needed to rush to the treeline to change. By the time I emerged, feeling the cool breeze hit from across the water, I was dressed in shorts and a tee.

"Brady?" I called out, capturing everyone's attention. "Brady!"

A moment of silence followed until a rustle in the bushes altered us and then, there he was.

Brady had been only fourteen when he'd joined the pack, a short, quiet boy who resembled nothing of the man approaching. In the two years away, Brady had grown an entire foot, almost equalling me in size as well as muscle. As most wolves did, he didn't bother with a shirt or even shoes; marching across the pebbled beach as if the stones and cold were nothing to him. His great, giddy smile hinted at that too.

"Jacob! I can't believe this, you're alive!"

I couldn't help but join in his giddiness and launched myself at him. He smelt of home; weird considering neither of us had been there in so long. Still, his shaggy black hair smelt of firewood and soil and engine grease and the salt of La Push. His warm, brown skin was a pleasant reminder that I wasn't the only one of us left.

"Do you know how long we've been looking for you!" Tanya exclaimed. Brady, a little cautious of the coven of vampires surrounding him, stepped back at being addressed. I couldn't blame him, he didn't know or trust these people, even the Cullen's whom he'd fought alongside at the Winter Battle.

"What's going on?" He demanded.

I sighed, moving to remove my shirt again. "I'd be easier if I just show you."

I showed Brady everything. I showed him my perspective of the battle, the lives we lost, I showed him Nessie and my year on the run, visiting Peru then needing to leave it, I showed him the Volturi who'd found us, the Sanctuary and its warriors who'd saved our life. I showed him our purpose, I showed him Renesmee.

"You have a choice to make, wolf." Jade addressed him, "Join us or leave?"

It hadn't even been a question in my mind that Brady might not have wanted to be found, wanted to fight again. Though I knew the moment he saw what we'd been through that there was only one answer.

Of course. He thought my way. Only I don't think it's enough. We need more of us. Our kind.

I scoffed in thought. Brady, there are no more of our kind.

It was Brady's turn to laugh. Yes, Jake, there is.

Asher's Note:

Hello! Sorry for the wait. Here is the next chapter. In this chapter, Jacob reunites with the lost wolf, Brady and discovers some exciting news.

There were no reviews to respond to in the previous chapter. Stay Safe.

~Asher~