Stephanie Meyer owns the Twilight Saga. I own twitchy fingers that enjoy writing for no profit.

Chapter 47: Meltdowns and Meetings

Watching his imprint fondly as she walked back into the house muttering about needing more muffins, Sam was unaware of the incredulous looks he was getting from almost the entire pack. Paul was too busy snarling at Jake and trying to get him to engage in a fight, and Quil was too busy spinning around trying to get a good look at his own tail and, for some reason, his groin but the rest of the pack, including Embry who had just arrived on the edge of the forest and was loping over to join his packmates, were staring goggle-eyed at their Alpha.

"Erm… I think I speak for all of us when I say 'Huh?'" Jared was the first to speak "I thought we weren't allowed to let Bella know who the wolves are?"

"Let's all just phase." Sam replied calmly "It'll be a fuck-ton quicker and easier for everyone to understand what's going on that way." Suiting his words, he strode around behind the house and gestured to the other men to come with him, giving Leah a sliver of privacy at the front of the house so she could phase without shredding yet another dress.

From the instant he had taken his wolf form, Sam found himself soaked in the confusion, shock and rage of three of the other wolves phased. This was finally enough to draw his attention to the sharing of emotions he was experiencing, a quick mental survey was enough to show him that several others were also aware of the change, though whether or not the remaining members of the pack were also sharing emotions but not noticing the change was another question Sam would have to set aside for a later date. Again.

Regardless of who was and wasn't aware of the emotional sharing, Sam wasn't beneath making good use of it. Layering his own calm and peace over the top of the torrent of other emotions, he found he was able to cool off the worst of the excesses and within record time he was able to direct all of their attention on him. He pointed his nose at the forest and the whole pack moved as one without delay to conceal themselves a few hundred yards back from the treeline. They stopped in a small clearing and instinctively formed a circle, facing inwards, all eyes on Sam except for Quil who had once again started turning this way and that, trying to get at his groin.

"First of all, welcome, Quil." Sam nodded at their newest companion. "We know you've had a somewhat chaotic introduction to this new life of yours, but to be honest most of us had some kind of drama on our first phase. At least you were able to understand immediately what had happened. Later each of us will share with you how our own first phase went."

Quil stopped whatever he was doing by trying to investigate his undercarriage and stood straight to give a wolfy grin at his new brothers "To be honest I'm just relieved to have my friends back. It was getting fucking lonely, you know? It's cool that Bella knows about us too, though after her comment I'm seriously tempted to go piss on a rug at her house in human form on purpose." He laughed loudly, the sound from his wolf's throat surprising him. He looked around at his new pack mates. "So, if this is like the old stories then we've started phasing because there are cold ones around? They must've been around for a while for there to be this many of us. Oh! The Cullens! Was it the Cullens? I've always thought they were creepy weird, and Grandfather had a real thing about keeping away from them! Oh wow! Bella was dating one of them. Did she know? She's such an unpredictable one but man is she funny!" It took a few minutes for Quil to notice the other wolves were staring at him in shock at this rollercoaster of chatter and then he ground to a halt.

Jake and Embry laughed "Dude I've missed your verbal diarrhoea but even for you that was a torrent!" Embry nudged his friend and new brother with his shoulder. "To answer your questions; yes, the Cullens are leeches. Yes, Bella knew. Yes, the change is triggered by the presence of the leeches. And yes, Bella is hilarious. But for now, we've got some important shit to get sorted so how about Jake and I fill you in on the need-to-know later on over a game of poker, ok?" Quil gave a strange wolfy shrug and settled down a bit.

"Sure, sure." He replied cheerfully and went back to turning halfway round and bending to look at his underside.

Sam watched the interaction with amusement. Quil was going to be an interesting addition to the pack mind. Kind of the polar opposite to Paul in that he seemed to take everything at face value without stressing over it. He turned to the others "Quil will need the usual training and introductions. He can join Seth and Leah with their fight training in a couple of days and in the meantime, let's have Embry handle the phasing training as he's got the best knack there."

"Ok, Boss."

"You got it, Boss".

"Yes, Boss"

"Sure, Sure."

The various answers reflected the wolves that made them, and Sam inwardly laughed, relieved that even though the pack seemed to be steadily growing closer in the pack mind, the essence of who each of them were remained.

"Jared and Jake, let's get your part done so we can move forward more comfortably." The two wolves in question stepped towards each other, Jared easily bending his neck to the larger russet wolf and offering his jugular. The other wolves froze, instinctively understanding what was happening and not wanting to accidentally turn a symbolic gesture into a real threat. Jake in his turn opened his huge jaws and placed them around Jared's neck, barely disturbing a single hair as he accepted the role of Beta from his friend. All the wolves shuddered in unison as the shift in dynamic settled upon the pack and instantly, they all felt the harmony of the pack mind settle into a more comfortable background hum. Jared and Jake stepped back, grinning at each other with their tongues lolling.

"Fuck, that feels better!"

"Fuck, that feels better!" they both said at the same time, setting off a round of laughter among everyone.

"In case there's any confusion there, Jake has officially accepted the role of Beta, offered willingly by Jared. Jake's wolf was struggling to accept Jake passing on taking the Alpha role and Jared's wolf wasn't comfortable trying to issue orders to his packmates so now the balance is much better, and we should be a healthier and more effective pack as a result. While we're sure many of you assume the next order of business should be our little melodrama of a few minutes ago, It would actually be easier if we shared our own personal news. We imprinted." Learning from how things went when he told Jake, Sam didn't hesitate for a second to replay the moment of imprinting from his memory for the pack to see and feel for themselves. He deliberately flooded the pack mind with the calm he found in his bond with Bella, using it to blunt the edges of the anger and heartbreak he could feel coming from Paul and Leah respectively. Showing the pack the entries in the journals noting a previous similar delayed imprint, Sam was relieved that even the two who were unhappy about the turn of events clearly accepted the veracity of the bond. Paul grumbled and shifted his paws but some of his rage was clearly wiped away simply by the pack imperative to protect the imprints, especially the Alpha's. Bella had been wise to insist on lancing that boil before Paul knew about the imprint. He would've found himself fighting against his wolf all the more had the hate and rage not been exposed to the open air to let the pressure out.

The sorrow Sam could feel from Leah was acute, but she'd lost the edge of fury that had overshadowed the pain before. Perhaps Harry's illness had reminded her about what was really important, perhaps Bella having been the one to save Harry had lessened her hatred, perhaps the fact that there was now an imprint involved, meaning Sam would've broken Leah's heart eventually anyway, perhaps it was the new harmony in the pack mind… or perhaps it was a bit of everything. Regardless, Sam was relieved to note that Leah finally seemed to be on the road to acceptance and healing.

"Apart from being our imprint, we discovered something else extraordinary about Bella this morning." Sam made a valiant attempt to rein back his flash of memory about his (honestly earth shatteringly good) blow job in the kitchen before it was seen by the others but he wasn't completely successful. The chorus of mental whoops and wide-eyed admiration from the pack was brief before he was able to force his thoughts back to more innocent memories. "Ok, ok. Minds out of the gutters, thanks. What we were meaning was this…" Readying himself for the absolute shock he knew would blow through the pack mind, Sam showed them all his revelation that Bella was a Spirit-Talker. Sure enough the entire pack was astonished and more than a little in awe. Jake broke the shocked silence.

"Dude is that how she knew the name Taha Aki?" He asked in relief "Remember when she was concussed, she said 'Taha Aki's seen your butt.' And then you were stressing about who could've broken taboo and told her the name?"

"It seems that she has indeed been having private chats with our ancestor." Sam confirmed, adding further to the shock. "She says it was just in dreams at first, then during her meditation and then…" he glanced at Seth and Leah who were standing close together to his left "apparently, he shouted at her while she was fully awake, making sure she got to Harry in time. She tells us Taha Aki warned her weeks ago that an elder was going to need her resuscitation skills, so she's been floating about ready and waiting to go into action when needed. We literally have to thank the Spirits that she was there for Harry when he needed help." The Clearwater siblings whined and shifted uncomfortably. Seth breaking their silence.

"We already decided we needed to talk to Bella and officially thank her." He said quietly "Looks like now we should also bring her a regard gift like the traditions say people should do when a Spirit Talker intervenes for them?" Sam had a feeling that Bella was going to find her new position more than a little uncomfortable and couldn't help but chuckle to himself in anticipation of her reaction to the embarrassment.

"Yeah, we're not sure how she'll feel about that. Might be a bit awkward. But we're glad you mentioned the traditions. We've decided that we've had enough of the ridiculous interference and hindering we've been getting from the council of elders. Never before has an active pack not been directed by a council of elders with experience in phasing themselves. We can't help but feel we're sailing dangerously blind towards a disaster and that can't be allowed to continue. We're sorry to sound disrespectful to your elders, Quil, Leah, Seth and Jake but from time to time, Old Quil, Harry and even Billy have either accidentally or deliberately obstructed pack business, kept things from us and interfered in the running of the pack. Even the fact that we've not been offered a seat on the council as the Alpha and Chief is a huge insult to us and to the pack. We're done with just rolling over and taking the insult so starting from this afternoon's meeting, we're going to fall back on some old traditions. Once we're done with this meeting and the breakfast Bella's cooking up for us all, some of the pack need to stick around and help us go through the journals Billy passed on. The old ways of running the council, pack and tribe should be at least hinted at there, giving us a template to work from going forward."

The chorus of "YES!" from the pack was instant, unanimous and full of righteous indignation, much to Sam's relief and pride.

"Boss, how did you not rip Paul's head off earlier? Or at least lose your shit and phase, or drag Bella off and into the house?" Jared asked, genuinely baffled by the restraint Sam had been able to show in the face of his imprint's danger. "Spirits know there's no fucking way I wouldn't have exploded in some way if my Kim was in even a fraction of the trouble. Especially when the bond was so new." The others rumbled in agreement, equally confused.

"Part of it we think is that Bella understands the bond so well – maybe better than we do even – and accepts it so completely. For another part, my wolf has considered her 'ours' for ages anyway so to him things don't seem so new – remember how crazy he went the other week when he learned the red-head is after Bella specifically? Even at the time we all noted it was more the behaviour of an imprinted wolf. Now that the human side has imprinted, we feel much more in sync with each other. Being phased is no longer that constant fight over the controls – we're working together in unison mostly. It makes it a fuck-ton easier to keep our temper and stay calm in both forms. When we're phased with other wolves we're getting more information through the pack mind than before – it's not just that we can hear and see what you all do, and that we can see what you think, but it's like we can feel a reflection of your emotions too and we can send out waves of our own emotions when we want to. It's fucking weird but also kind of cool. Just now we were able to send some of our own calm out and chill everyone out way quicker than normal so we could get on with the meeting. Are any of you others aware of feeling emotions from pack members when phased?"

The whole group paused and thought for a moment. For most of them the struggle when phased to keep hold of the controls was constant and overlaid pretty much everything they did – except fighting leeches and training to do so. All of them felt completely in unison with their wolves when in fight mode.

Jake, Jared and surprisingly Embry spoke up saying that now they thought of it, they were able to feel emotions that weren't coming from themselves. Both Jared and Jake added that they felt more in harmony with their wolves in the last few minutes since the change of Beta than they'd been since first phasing and perhaps that was why they were now able to notice things they weren't able to before.

"I've always noticed it." Embry said quietly "I just thought everyone else did too, so it wasn't worth mentioning." Sam gave a humourless chuckle.

"What's the bet that if we take some time to talk through our individual experiences, we'll find there's a lot of things that one or the other of us has assumed was universal to all wolves." He growled angrily "Another reason why being ordered around by elders who've never phased is actively dangerous. We came across something in one journal referring to 'The Wildness' like some kind of condition wolves can get and even from the brief mention it sounds fucking sinister. We're flying blind and could hit a fucking mountain without even knowing it's right in front of us!" Sam stalked back and forth for a moment, trying to get hold of that calmness again.

"Anyway, back to how we were keeping calm earlier -the biggest part was having a hand on Bella's pulse point. Just having a hand on our imprint sets off this little calming hum that both Bella and we can feel and that's great to help calm us when it's a minor thing." The other imprinted wolves nodded in agreement, clearly finding the same true within their own imprint bonds. "But Bella can do this meditation thing – you know how we all noticed her heart rate slowing that time we killed the leech with the dreads? Well, when she puts herself right at the edge of her trance state, that's how her heart rate gets, so she does it on purpose when she needs to feel calm in a bad situation. And if we're feeling her pulse when she does it, we can sort of tag along on the wave of calm. That's how we were able to stay so chill while she was shouting at you, Paul. Even when you phased the calm still held." Sam had an idea "We wonder if she could teach the other imprints how to do it too so they could help their wolves" He mused. Paul snorted loudly.

"Wonder-Bella to the rescue yet again?" He sneered sarcastically, though perhaps with a bit less heat than he would've done before. "We're going to have to build a fucking shrine to her before long."

To Sam's astonishment although he was already growling furiously at Paul it was Leah who angrily cut in. "You know, Paul of anyone here I've got the most reason to hate Bella. And the Spirits know I gave it my all. But what she did for my Dad was no small thing. He'd be dead without her. No question. Now for that alone I'd give up a whole football field of Sam's – sorry Sam – and I'd swallow my pride a thousand times over. I hated her for what I saw as a valid reason but her and Sam imprinting proves that I was wrong and even if I hadn't been wrong, I'd still be telling you to get over your bullshit. So, she dated one of the Cullens and their leech presence forced you to become a wolf. I can see seven others here who are faced with exactly the same and six of them are somehow managing not to blame Bella for their fate. The seventh is me and even I am managing to get over myself and admit she's not the reason for me currently having four legs hairier than I've ever let my human legs get."

Paul turned and snarled at his pack sister, angry at her interference undermining his (rapidly becoming more tenuous) position.

"Fuck off, Leah. When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you."

"That's enough, Paul." Jake ordered before Sam needed to speak. "Venting your temper on your packmates is unacceptable" The rumbling tenor of Jake's first order wasn't far off the authority of Sam's own and despite how infuriated it made Paul, his jaw clacked firmly shut and his sniping at Leah came to an immediate halt.

"Um Boss? Can I ask a question?" Seth spoke up a bit timidly.

"Of course you can, Seth. This isn't school; you don't need to raise a paw. As long as you're not interrupting anything important, you should always feel free to talk as you want." Seth nodded in understanding.

"I was wondering about you using 'we' and 'us' and 'our' all the time instead of 'me, I and my' all of a sudden." Seth began with more confidence. "I don't remember you doing that before, but it seems like you're doing it almost exclusively now. You become a British Queen all of a sudden?" The whole pack chuckled. And Sam flopped down to the ground, indicating to the rest of the pack that they could all relax a bit too.

"Yeah, we were talking about that with Bella earlier too. She pointed out that we've been doing it most of the time since we imprinted. Seems like the closer my wolf and I get to being completely in sync, the more we think of us as one being with two sides instead of two beings in one body. The difference in the way I think is coming out in the way we talk, we guess. Perhaps being more accepting of the wolf is also why we're not feeling the struggle for control anymore. But don't any of you go experimenting until we've got more information to hand. We have no idea what would've happened if the wolf had snatched control one of the times he tried but we feel like it wouldn't have been anything good." He shuddered, mirrored by all the others "We really need to get reading through the journals ASAFP. Hopefully we'll find some answers there. Jared, Paul, do you think Kim and Rachel would be willing to help read through them all?" Sam asked to the surprise of the others.

"You don't think the elders will throw a shit fit at the idea of anyone other than a wolf reading them?" Paul asked.

"Oh, we're certain they'll be furious" Sam relied with relish "but to be completely honest we don't give the tiniest shit. We need to know. We need all of the information, and we need it last month. The fastest way to get it is to have as many eyes as possible going through those journals and as far as we're concerned Pack is Pack, regardless of the gender or number of legs they have. This ridiculous misogynistic shit the older generation have adopted from the white American culture is just not going to cut it. It's not a part of our tribal tradition and even if it was, it's a part we would be giving the boot anyway. In matters of danger, we have no choice but to have the wolves exert authority over the full humans but outside of that, Pack pecking order aside, Pack is Pack. Equals with equal respect."

"YES!" Once again, the Pack's unanimous response was instant and triumphant. The wolves as pleased as the humans. Leah looked particularly relieved.

"You ok, Leah?" Sam asked her quietly, noticing her strange blend of emotions. Relief, pride and a bit of grief flowing off her.

"Mainly ok, yeah." She replied. "It's just, as the only female wolf I was wondering how I fit into the whole dynamic. Was the sexist bullshit I've become so used to out in the human world going to carry over? Was I doomed to a life sharing a mind with assholes telling me that when they wanted my opinion, they'd give it to me…" She glared at Paul who had the good grace to look guilty.

"Sorry, Leah. I lost my temper again, but I didn't mean it. I just always say the meanest thing I can think of when I lose my shit." Paul apologised sincerely without prompting, much to the amazement of literally everyone. Sam nodded.

"Well, we're afraid that the stunt you pulled with the council last week has naturally placed you right at the bottom of the pack for now, Leah. But you need to know that's got nothing to do with you being female and everything to do with disregarding Pack loyalty." Leah nodded sadly.

"I get that. All I can do is make sure everyone knows I've learned to do better, but it's still a relief to know that I won't be at the bottom just because I'm a woman." The emotions that Sam could feel through the pack bond were almost all sympathy with a bit of curiosity from Quil – likely because he'd not witness Leah's betrayal at the council meeting so was wondering what she'd done.

"We should probably start wrapping things up here and get in to breakfast. There's lots to be done today so we can't afford to waste time. But we do think that for our own morale and mental health it would be a good idea to start doing something together as often as possible just for fun and to blow off steam. A bonfire here and there, cliff diving, cookouts, movie nights, just messing about on the beach, stuff like that. And anyone who wants to make extra money doing some basic labour for us on construction and repair jobs, let us know; we've got a lot of work on at the minute." Sam started wrapping up the pack meeting, "Embry, can you take Quil on your last patrol loop, explain the basics to him and then come back here and show him how to phase back?" Emry and Quil nodded and stood, Quil nearly tripping as he had one last good look at his underside. Jake's curiosity finally got the better of him.

"Ok, dude I give in. What the fuck is the big interest down there?" Quil looked up with a huge wolfy grin, his giant tongue flopping out like a slice of raw liver.

"I'm trying to see how big my dick is." He said like it was the most natural thing in the world. "I mean if it's in proportion we must have fucking colossal dicks as wolves, right? I just can't work out how to get it to come out…" The whole pack froze and then burst into gales of wolfy laughter. Paul and Jake falling into each other and collapsing on the ground in hysterics. Quil looked at them all in bemusement. "What?" He asked innocently. "You're telling me that not a single one of you has wondered about your wolf dick?" He sounded truly amazed. "Next you'll tell me that none of you have considered if you'd be able to give yourself head." The laughter ramped up a gear, none of the wolves able to catch their breath for several minutes Quil just stood there with and easy relaxed grin, watching his new Packmates roll around in mirth.

After a few minutes Sam managed to drag in enough breath to steady himself.

"Well do let us know if you ever work any of that out, Quil. We'll be eagerly awaiting an update." A new wave of giggles hit the rest of the wolves and Embry dragged himself back up to his feet and, nudging his friend, the two of them trotted off into the forest. Sam forced his mind back onto the task at hand.

"Ok, he's going to be an interesting addition to the Pack. Jake is he serious or should he have been a stand-up comedian." Jake shrugged.

"It's been years and Embry and I have never been able to work that out and he just plays innocent whenever we ask. Maybe now we share headspace we'll find out."

"Well, he definitely seems to be taking the change well. Though we dread to think what he'll decide to focus on when trying to phase back to human." Seth snorted loudly at that, and Sam grinned at him.

"Leah, Seth we know you're both eager to spend time with Harry and to help Sue out as much as possible so how about if you take a half shift patrol when Embry returns, Leah and then trade off with Seth. That way you can both get some breakfast with the pack and one of you can still get down to the clinic to take over. Until Harry is back home, we think you two splitting a shift between you will mean you can still spell Sue at the clinic and spend time with your dad, but the Pack won't be worn thin. We'll let you two decide between you how you split the shifts as long as the patrols are covered. The siblings nodded, happy to be able to fulfil their duties both to family and Pack without too many compromises. "We're going to be taking Sue to the council meeting this afternoon so one of you will probably want to go in and sit with Harry then, and if possible, we'd prefer to have the other one on patrol. Your mom will be the Clearwater representative at the meeting, but we want one of each family as a minimum at this council meeting. It's important that we show a united front." Sam stood, ready to draw the meeting to a close and go find his imprint and some food. "One last thing. Who can spend some time this morning reading journals with Bella and us – and hopefully Kim and Rachel. We know it's probably not everyone's idea of fun but the more eyes the better as we want to be much better informed before our meeting this afternoon."

Embry and Quil, still listening in from their patrol loop volunteered, as did Leah, Seth, Jake and Jared. Paul hung his head, ashamed.

"I won't be any help there." He said quietly. "I'll just take the extra patrol so Jared can stick at it longer." Sam walked over to him and pressed his huge black forehead against the silver shoulder.

"We've been through this before, man. You know that finding that the words don't stay still for you doesn't mean you're dumb. You've got a fucking quick mind and if Rachel reads a journal to you, you're more likely to weed out the important parts than any of the rest of us. Come and at least give it a go before you write yourself off." Sam held his breath knowing that Paul could be stubborn when it came to his newly diagnosed Dyslexia. Paul sighed.

"Fine. I'll give it a try. But only because I'll be getting some extra time with my Rachel." He agreed, still needing to disguise his vulnerability.

"Cool. That's everyone willing to help then, thanks. Now let's go eat. And make sure you save some for Embry and Quil, you vultures!" Sam added as everyone eagerly filed off towards the treeline ready to phase and eat.