i dont own anything Stephenie Meyer owns the characters and tootoo owns the plot

Bleeding Blossom NOT FINISHED

Prologue

The first day I met Colby Black was the first day I saw a madman kicking cans in the supermarket. It was no coincidence. I dragged my feet as I strode beside my mother, not even bothering to keep pace with her. If there was one thing that I hated the most, it was definitely her Fi rst Sunday Of The Month shopping; I was only twelve, and just a little girl; I h ad no superpowers - someone had to have superpowers to get all this amount of fo od to our car. Something caught my attention as I grimaced; a weird combination between designer clothes and messy hair flipping through cooking magazines on th e stand next to the cashier. As if my confused stare made him physically aware of my presence, Weirdo caught my eyes and then a wide, goofy smile spread on his face, making me snicker. If o nly he wasn't ten times as tall as I am, I would love to feel these cheeks under my fist. Okay, I would give you that much: I wouldn't hurt a fly even if I mean t to, but some people just screamed obnoxious. Beside me, Mom announced that our shopping trip was over, and that we were final ly heading home. I broke contact with Mr. Weirdo for a second, only to hear a cr ashing sound as soon as I did. Instinctively, my eyes shot back to where he was, and sure enough, it was him who caused the noise; the whole magazine stand fell above him. He grunted and stood up, getting the stuff back into place hastily. I broke into a fit of giggles; someone who looked that big shouldn't be so clums y. That was when the can-kicking began.

Chapter 1

ALISON ANDERSON I had no idea what I should do that day; I sat on my bed, exhausted from the sho pping trip - not the trip part, but the dragging part I had to do. I hated how m y fingers would be forever damaged by the plastic bags. Some day, I might just g o to one of those miracle-making doctors to replace my hand just because Mom cou ldn't stand doing shopping on two parts, or actually going to a proper hypermark et where you could drag your shopping cart to your car. I was staring at the ceiling of my room, contemplating whether or not I should c ount to hundred and sleep the day off or actually go downstairs to help Mom with lunch, when a rock landed painfully on my forehead. "What the...?" I glanced at the only possible source: my window. Guess who was there? I glared at the Weirdo from earlier today, my stomach flipping mostly in slight fear but also in excitement; I wanted to know why he was there. "If you're some kind of a stalker you might want to back off," I muttered, pulling the window do wn, "my uncle is a policeman and he'll have you arrested." "Hey, wait!" I rolled my eyes, raising an eyebrow at him from behind my window, thanking God I was on the second floor. "Do you know Mary Call?" That was when I frowned, never bothering to answer him; for one, he really might be a stalker (or a super awesome spy dude, but probably a stalker) and for anot her, I had to go call my cousin and ask her if she knew any mentally distorted m en where she lived. She said it was something along the line of shoving or hitti ng, and started with a La or a Le. Oh, La Push. COLBY BLACK "Hey, Embry," I muttered into the phone, sliding into my Ferrari. "Colby?"

No, a teddy bear. "Yeah. Are you at home?" "Yeah?" "I wanna talk to Mary." "Why?" I huffed, tapping the window impatiently. I didn't know how to answer him; shoul d I say 'because I think I just imprinted on her cousin', 'I totally picked the wrong time ever to imprint', or 'shut the hell up and hand the phone to your wif e, Call'? "I just need to ask her about something." "Can't you ask me?" "Dammit, Embry, just give her the damn phone!" "Colby!" "Does she have a cousin who's twelve or thirteen? Short with light brown hair, b lue eyes and an attitude?" He sighed. "Couldn't you have just asked?" "Embry," I growled in warning, not in the mood of Embry Call. "Yes, I guess that's Allie. How did you know about her?" "Why doesn't she ever come to La Push?" "Answer me, Colby." Before I could register it, my hands were shaking subtly. I had to take a deep b reath to prevent myself from phasing in public; something that almost happened f ar too many times during the past two and a half years, ever since Randy, my sis ter's little imprint, told her he hated her. It wasn't only getting on my nerves , but on everyone's as well, especially Dad, Paul and Sarah herself - only she w as taking it differently. "I saw her at the supermarket this morning," I stated truthfully, "and, well, I kind of, uh, err, you know..." "What did you do to the poor girl?" "Stalked her home?" I didn't want it to sound like a question, it just did. "Did you -" he paused, "Oh. What are the odds?" "Yeah, yeah," I said, "I imprinted on her. Big surprise. Now, why am I only awar e of her existence now?" "Her mother refuses to have her come here with her father alone - we only visit them on rare occasions." "Well, now I have a problem," I said, "How can I see her?" He laughed. "What? Does your charm has age restrictions?" I rolled my eyes. "Be serious."

"I can get Mary to call her, I s'pose, or-" I stopped listening when a small hand tapped my shoulder, and I turned to see on e very angry Allie Anderson, shooting daggers at me from her ocean blue eyes. "W hat the hell do you want from me?" I blinked. "Uh, Embry?" "Yeah?" "Is that Embry Call on the line?" she asked, snatching the phone from me and pre ssing it to her ear. I never resisted. "Uncle Embry?" she paused, "Yeah, I'm fin e and all. Who's the Weirdo with the Ferrari?" That's me, ladies and gentlemen. "Ah-uh," she said, "No,"-pause-"Yeah, sure, I don't think she'll mind, but I'm n ot going anywhere with him," -ouch?- "Okay. Okay. Tell Mary Congrats for me!" She snapped the phone shut, eying me skeptically. "Wait, Weirdo," she mumbled be fore she turned on her heels and ran into her house, only to come out fifteen mi nutes later with a small backpack, letting herself in the passenger seat, huffin g. "Hi," I said, trying to bring up any kind of conversations with her. "My name's" "Colby," she answered for me, "You're Uncle Embry's distant cousin or something and you're taking me to his place now, at least that's what he told me and I tol d my mom, because they have a party for Mary Call, my cousin, because they found out she's pregnant today. My name's Allie and I don't talk to strangers, especi ally weirdos and stalkers, and you just might be both of them combined, so I'm n ot talking to you." Did she have to leave me speechless every time she spoke? "Er, I'm not a stalker, by the way." She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and I'm a bloodsucking vampire." For less than a second, I froze, focusing on the road, until I got that she was being sarcastic, so I decided to play along. "Too bad," I said, "Because werewol ves don't like vampires." She finally glanced my way, arching an eyebrow. "Your point." "I'm a werewolf," I announced with all the seriousness in the world. She rolled her eyes. "Just because I said I was a mythical creature doesn't mean you have to do the same," she said, "And try to be more creative. Werewolf? Rea lly?" I chuckled. "So, what about this?" I cleared my throat, "I'm a half-human, quart er vampire creature who can morph into a horse-sized wolf any time of the day, t he month or the year, is immortal and can project thoughts into people's brains. " She smiled, the corners of her mouth reaching the maximum it could with her rosy cheeks. "Now we're talking!"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON So maybe Weirdo wasn't so bad after all; he could name powers and qualities of v ampires and werewolves more than I could have ever imagined possible, and, besid es, his car was pretty fast and comfortable. "You see," he said, "I want to show you a little place where the wolves meet up with the vamps - it's called The Clearing." That was when Mythical-Loving-Weirdo disappeared and Creepy-Stalker kicked in. " Can you please just take me to Uncle Embry's house?" "What? Are you afraid they might hurt you?" My smile disappeared. "No," I said, "But, please take me to Uncle Embry." He pulled over on the side of the road, eying me warily. "Are you afraid of me, Allie?" My heart pounded in my chest as I took in the situation. I was stupid to agree t o all this to start with. I was stupid to lie to Mom and tell her Uncle Embry wa s the one waiting for me outside, knowing she wouldn't want to meet him. I was s tupid to ride with a stranger; for all I knew maybe it wasn't Uncle Embry on the phone. Maybe he was a stalker, really. Or worse, a kidnapper who just knew too much about my family. "No." "Hey, hey," he soothed, his eyes softening, "I'm not-" "Don't touch me!" I snapped when his fingers touched my shoulders. Thankfully, h is hands found their way back to the steering wheel as he sighed, finally moving out of our position. "I swear I'm not going to hurt you," he mumbled in a daze, "Never, Allie, rememb er that." My breath hitched. "Please take me -" "We're three minutes away," he grumbled, "Don't worry." How can I not? I buried my face in my hands, speaking my thoughts. "I'm really stupid," I mumbl ed into my palms, "if anything happens to me, it will be all my fault." "Nothing will happen to you!" he yelled, making me shrink in my seat. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I sobbed dryly, never having the will to close my eyes a nd let my tears fall down. Calm down, will you? his voice echoed in my head, causing me to jump, staring ba ck at him with astonishment. He glanced at me with the corner of his eyes, and I could swear he knew why I jumped. This was all beginning to sound like a weird, unlikely dream, and my head was swirling blankly. "D-Did you just-?" I asked breathlessly, finally losing my vision and consciousn ess - everything turned black.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK "Just what did you do?" Embry asked, looking at Allie (whom Mary was trying to w ake) warily. "I couldn't help it!" I said, keeping my eyes on her, too, as I did, "She freake d out and I just - I kind of -" "Messed up. Big time." I nodded. "How?" I sighed. "She started hyperventilating and she wouldn't let me soothe her," I explained, "So I told her to calm down." He closed his eyes, cursing under his breath. "Told her as in in her head?" I nodded. "Colby, go home and I don't want to see you anywhere near this house tonight," h e ordered, "Anywhere, if you want to ever see her again, that is. Don't ruin my happy bubble and go home." I grimaced, taking in her fluttering eyes and paled skin, before I turned my bac k to her, resisted every physical law, and ran.

Chapter 2

ALISON ANDERSON The next thing I felt were warm hands on my forehead. I pushed my eyelids open, at last, to see that I was -somehow- in Uncle Embry's house (I only knew that be cause he, and Mary, were there). Nervously, I searched around me for Weirdo (a.k .a Colby) but found no trace of him. If I wasn't where I was, I would probably s ay it was a bad dream. A very bad dream. "What happened?" I asked. Uncle Embry and Mary exchanged a meaningful look that

I didn't miss before they answered me. "Colby dropped you here, remember?" The last thing I remembered was being scared - afraid that the person driving th at Ferrari was going to kidnap me, and then there was the voice in my head, and then everything was hazy. "Actually, no. Not the dropping part." "Well," Mary said, fidgeting beside me on the comfy couch. "He's Embry's, er, co usin, and he was-" "I know who he is," - at least now I was sure - "But the last thing I remember w as - was-" I couldn't get it out of my mouth; Mary would call me crazy, Embry would think I was delusional, and I wasn't sure if I was. After all, according to my mother, 'my imagination was too wide for my own good'. They would send me back to her, o r worse: get him here to tell him what I thought he did. Suddenly, for some reas on, I felt like I wanted to disappear. For good. "Never mind," I breathed, looking down at my hands. A moment of awkward silence framed the atmosphere, choking me, at least. "So I g uess Embry told you the good news." I smiled politely at her. "Yeah; you're having a baby. Congrats." She just grinned from ear to ear, genuinely happy. For one, very selfish, very g uilt-intriguing moment, I envied her. I envied how she could just decide her lif e, control it and be happy when she wanted to. Even though I knew it was practic ally impossible at the moment or even within the next few years, at least. I sig hed. For the next couple of hours, the house went from super empty to super crowded. People of different sizes, colors, styles - people that didn't match together ca me to celebrate with the Calls. I congratulated Mary one more time and managed t o pull a pillow from the stock of moving people to sit in the farthest corner of the room, nibbling on a cupcake a woman (with some serious scars - but I did as Embry said and didn't stare) had made, counting the minutes left until my uncle (Mary's father) would take me home. Today was officially a weird day; I couldn't stop thinking about Weirdo. You kno w, for a second there, I did believe that he wasn't going to hurt me, but, hey: all the circumstances were against him. I couldn't act stupid and trust him twic e in one day; then I'd be sure that I lost some serious IQ points. During this s econd, I wanted to forget about who I was, why I was there, and where I was head ing; I just needed to press pause for one time in my life. That's the kind of speech Mom was going to -eventually- send me to some kind of a hospital for crazy people because of. "Allie?" My stomach clenched painfully at Weirdo's voice, my eyes shutting for a long mom ent. "What do you want?" I snapped. He knelt down beside me. "I'm sorry for today," he said, "I didn't mean to scare you." "If by scaring me you mean making me think I was kidnapped then freaking the hel

l out of me, then apology not accepted." "I can explain," he promised, "Just let me-" "Please leave me alone," I said, "I have enough to deal with already." He gave me that look. The look everyone gave me when I said something honestly o r spoke my thoughts, telling me I wasn't mentally healthy - that I was either tr ying to act like a grown up when I was merely twelve, or that I was crazy. Just crazy. I had to look away, down at my hands. He had just ruined his chances of m aking me respond to him like a normal person would have. But, again, I was every thing but normal. "And exactly what do you have to deal with?" I huffed irritably, standing up when he caught my arm, his temperature making me jump. "Leave me-" "What's your problem?" "My problem?" I asked, "I'm not the one with a stalking issue. I don't know you, so stay away from me!" I watched him release my arm slowly, taking a step back. "I'm sorry, Allie." "My name is Alison," I said, "And I-" "What's going on here?" Uncle William asked, pulling on his old 'officer' mode. "Nothing," I replied, "Can you please take me home now?" He nodded, pulling me gently by my hand outside. I didn't even bother to say goo dbye to Mary or anyone else of this crowd. All I wanted to do was go back home a nd forget today ever happened. If only it was that easy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK The next day, I sat next to Sarah on the couch, none of us bothering to speak; s he usually didn't these days and I just didn't feel like talking. I leaned back, wishing I could sleep for a peaceful moment before anyone interrupted. I'd wish to see Alison again today, but I knew I wasn't that lucky. I just wanted her to accept me. Instead, I freaked her out every time I saw her. I could understand where she was coming from, but I wanted to let her know that I would never scare her intentionally, let alone hurt her. Every time I saw her face, I just wanted to sit and talk to her, be her friend, protect her. I wanted to know what she ' had to deal with'. I believed that we, wolves, imprint on specific people at spe cific moments for a reason. Dad imprinted on Mom that instant because, otherwise, if he hadn't lock eyes wit h her, he would've killed her. When Embry imprinted on Mary he got her out of he r problem with her ex, when Sam imprinted on Emily it was to stop whatever that was going on between him and Leah, when Paul imprinted on Rachel it was to make her finally stay here in La Push, and when Sarah imprinted on Randy it was to ge t her out of the consequences of her break and break-up, both physically and emo tionally.

It was either I had a role I was destined to fill, or fate must've made a huge m istake. "Spill," my mother said, sitting on the table in front of us. Sarah looked at th e two of us confusingly, before deciding to drop it all together. "I imprinted yesterday." Both women stared at me, their eyes screaming Why Am I Only Aware Of This Now? "On a little girl that hates my guts." "Join the club," Sarah mumbled, giving me a quick pat on my shoulder before spri nting to her room. "What did you do?" Mom asked, tilting her head sideways. I didn't bother telling her what happened; I just projected the whole day into her head, watching her t ake it all in. "Colby Thomas, you practically - how could you do that? She's jus t a little kid, you know." I rolled my eyes. "You think I don't know I messed up? She's afraid of me now." Wait until she knows what I really am. "Honey-" "Is there any reason I should be worried about future restraining orders, Colby Thomas Black?" Dad grunted as he entered the house, throwing Mom a quick Hello. "What?" "Embry told me about yesterday," he said, throwing himself beside me on the couc h. "Think you should've been a little bit smoother?" Apparently, this was something they were going to hold against me. Forever. I ju st hoped Allie would be there to hold it against me, too, and that wasn't going to happen if I didn't start working for it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON I decided that maybe, just maybe, I could make this a Stupid Week, instead of on ly one Stupid Day. Ever since yesterday, his memory wouldn't escape my mind. May be I could trust him, for only a couple of hours then I would decide if he was w orth it or not, 'it' being my curiosity. I couldn't help it; his voice in my hea d just made me wonder; was he really a mythical creature? Or was I hallucinating? Sure, he could have the power to project speech to people's minds - possibly. An d he could be stronger than an average person, but he still could have been some guy who was on steroids or went to the gym way too much, with a simple 'sense'. We all heard of people who could read minds, or bend spoons, didn't we? Maybe h e was just one of them. He could be all he told me he was, well, excluding the w erewolf and vampire parts. Sure, I loved reading fantasy novels, and I adored va mpires and werewolves the most - more than fallen angels, or zombies, or ghosts combined, but I was a tad more realistic than that; I knew they didn't exist in real life. So, to celebrate the traditions of another typical Stupid Day, I asked Dad to dr ive me to La Push - as if I would spend time with Mary and Embry or something. A nd, here I was, waving my father goodbye, and turning to knock on Mary's door.

"Looking for someone?" Damn, he really was a stalker. I thought for a moment whether or not I would continue 'celebrating' before I no dded. "I was looking for you, actually." One corner of his lips spread to a half-smile - almost crooked. "Yeah? I thought I scared you off pretty well last night." I rolled my eyes. "I just need to ask you something," I said, walking towards hi m as he leaned on a tree. I decided to stop walking after a few steps; one more and I'd have to look up to see his face. "Go ahead: ask me anything, Alison." I bit my bottom lip. "I wasn't hallucinating yesterday, was I?" He frowned, pausing without a sound. I sighed and closed my eyes, preparing myse lf for the crazy speech once again. "No, you weren't." My eyes shot open, staring at his wary face, scanning it for any sign of lying of trying to trick me into telling him what I thought were the 'hallucinations' , but I found none. "So you talked to me...mentally? How?" He pinched the bridge of his nose. "If I told you I would tell you later, would you trust me on it?" I gritted my teeth together. "What's wrong with now?" He knelt in front of me, keeping us in the same eye-level. "If I told you right now you'll get scared." I raised an eyebrow at him. "Try me." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Since I was sure I was practicing my Stupid Day with nailed perfection, I was st ill just the slightest bit excited about knowing the secret behind the voice I h eard in my head yesterday. I wanted to know if he was part of some secret group of superpower-heroes. Okay, maybe not that much. But I wanted to know - why me? In every story I've read or watched, no one with any kind of powers shared them with just some random person he met in the supermarket; said person had to be sp ecial - or beneficial to said hero, and I was neither. I eyed him, trying to mat ch him with Super Man or Spider Man even, but he just looked big. He didn't fit the description that said that all heroes should be so kind to other people (if that was his attempt at kindness, he needed some lessons), he wasn't discreet ab out his ability, and, most importantly: heroes didn't stalk people just because they felt like it. "It's a long way there," he repeated for the millionth time. "I'm not riding on your back!" "I told you I can-"

"And you won't carry me, either. God, just shut up." I didn't bother to ask him where he was taking me; for one, I wanted to know, an d it was Stupid Day anyway, and, for two, if he wanted to kidnap me or even kill me, he could have done that when I was out cold yesterday. He had the perfect c hance to do whatever he wanted. The thought made me shiver in fear. He watched me, shaking his head. "I swear you need therapy." I stopped in my place. "Fine!" I said, "I'm messed up, and crazy and freakin' de lusional - just tell me the catch line and let me go home!" He blinked. "I didn't mean-" "This was a bad idea to start with," I muttered, turning on my heels, walking th e opposite direction. "You know what, Allie? Come here!" he said and grabbed me, sprinting deep in the woods. For a few seconds, words were knocked out of me, until I finally placed my lungs and screamed them off only to have him put a hand on my mouth, hushing me. I panted, knowing it was no use to try to wriggle free, unwilling to close m y eyes, afraid my tears might fall down. He let go of my mouth and I sobbed, for the second time in two days (which was a record for me). "I'm sorry!" I whined. I won't hurt you, Alison. Please, please calm down. It only made me cry harder. His hand ran over my back, his pace slowing down noticeably. "Allie, hear me for a sec, will you?" I didn't move "I'm going to take you home, to my house, I mea n, where everything can be explained properly." -He set me down on my feet, whic h really weren't supporting me right now- "Are you okay with this? I can take yo u back to Embry's - or your house, if you want." My blood's favorite hangout probably wasn't my face anymore, or so it felt. "Jus t tell me what I want to know and please let me go home," I plead, "I'm begging you, Colby. Please." He grimaced, patting my hair gently, telling me it was okay, and that I should just sit down. He took off his jacket and laid it on the damp grass for me. "Are you sure you're ready?" I spoke my thoughts. "I just want to get it over with." It was no surprise that my Stupid Day was one of the stupidest ever, because the next thing I knew Colby was doing a back-flip and landed on fours, a 'horse-siz ed' golden wolf replacing his former presence. I gasped, covering my mouth, my e yes never leaving the sight. Colby - Weirdo - Madman: he was a werewolf. And I was there to witness. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK It was more of a 'is-there-any-worse' reaction to her behavior. Of all people, I

imprinted on a mini, more girl-y version of Paul. Don't get me wrong, I liked A llie; she was unique, but her 'unique' personality was making this worse on me t han anyone else. I could've lied to her, I could've told her that I had no idea what her hallucinations might be. But, years later, she was bound to find out, a nd then she would hate me for lying to her. Besides, I would bet my soul the gir l couldn't go a whole week without bringing up the subject of vampires or werewo lves, and then I would be lying every single moment I tell her they weren't true and that the powers and abilities I was talking about were all my wild imaginat ion. The day would come when she would find out the truth, and I wanted that day to be as soon as possible. Miss Mini Paul kept calculating what she had just seen in her mind, and I crouch ed in front of her, waiting for any reaction. I wondered when her screaming woul d begin. Did you just call her a mini version of me? - Paul thought, wandering around the borders in his usual Monday patrol. I swear she can pull off your mood better than you - I said - Look at her, as ca lm as if she has just seen a rabbit pass by. She's probably gonna get into shock or something - what were you thinking, showi ng her this now? Shut up, Paul. He sighed mentally. Clothes? Please.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------She kept fiddling with the grass beneath the jacket she was sitting on, not spea king for a long while, before she snapped her eyes to meet mine and demanded to get out of here. "That's it? I just showed you I'm a werewolf and you don't have anything to say?" Frankly, I was far more worried about her sanity right now to care if she was af raid of me or not. She shook her head. "No." "At all?" I still couldn't believe it. When I turned into a werewolf I showered everyone w ith questions, and so did Sarah when she found out about me. Something must be g oing on in her head. "Well, I like your color," she swallowed, "But, yeah, I do have a question." Finally something sane comes out of her mouth. "Shoot." She took a deep breath, going back to her fiddling. "Why me? Why show me this?" Because you're special, because you're my soul mate, my imprint - but I still wo nder why you.

"I have no idea," I told her, "I'm still trying to figure it out." She stayed silent, licking her lips. "Where's the way out?" I raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm going to-" "I want to go alone," she snapped, then added a, "please?" I rolled my eyes. "Focus real hard here-" I pointed towards the direction of Emb ry's house "-Can you see that mailbox?" "Yeah, yeah," she said quickly, and I knew she was lying; I had to focus to see it. "Yeah. Bye." She stood up, fixing her light t-shirt and headed towards where I pointed. "Do not follow me!" she yelled, raising a hand and running with all she had of power. I sighed again (something that I'd been doing far too many times) and quietly fo llowed her, taking my time as I did; out of all the insane decisions I had taken today, leaving her alone in the woods would probably be the worst of all. She w asn't aware of my presence, even though she did glance behind her every now and then. Luckily for both of us, she made it out of the woods with no trouble at al l, and I watched her knock on Embry's door. "Hi, Mary," she said after a while. "Allie," Mary acknowledged, popping her head to see if someone was with her. "Di d you come here alone?" "No," she answered, pointing towards me with a glare, "Weirdo over there followe d me. And he thought I didn't know. You suck for a werewolf!"

Chapter 3

Mary let me in her house with a grimace, patting my back. "So he told you alread y, huh?" I blinked. "You knew?" After my rant about how he 'sucked for a werewolf', I half-expected Mary to call me insane, half-expected her to call my father and tell him I was insane. What I never expected was her knowing something like that. I didn't expect her to kno w Colby was a werewolf; did everyone else know? Was it some kind of a region thi

ng? I was right, then. I was nothing special - but I still didn't get why he tol d me. She smiled sheepishly. "Yeah," she admitted, "what exactly did he tell you?" I shrugged. "Just that he's - oh." That was when I remembered. He told me, back in his car, he told me that he was a half-human, quarter vampir e creature that can morph into a horse-sized wolf, is immortal and can project t houghts into people's brains. I thought that he was kidding back then, but now t hat I knew he was a werewolf and could project thoughts, I knew for sure that ev erything else he said was more or less true. He was a vampire descendant, vampires were marble-like, ice-cold and extremely p owerful and some vampires had unusual powers like reading minds or seeing the fu ture. Werewolves were a different story, though; they could tear vampires into s hreds, communicate together mentally and imprint. At that point, he had smiled a nd told me that imprinting was when someone found their soul mate - whatever his or her age was, he told me that to imprint on someone was to sign a lifetime co ntract of being there for them, protect them, and love them the way they needed to be loved. "Please," I started, breathless, "please, please, please, please tell me I'm not his...imprint. I'm begging you." "Why are you saying that?" I raised my eyebrows. "Because - because!" I took a deep breath, "because I don' t need him! And he's not - I can't be his imprint, Mary!" "Why don't you sit down a bit?" she dragged me to her couch, "Now, what's your p roblem with him?" "I am his imprint?" She rolled her eyes. "Think about it that way: you can ask him for anything you want - isn't that great?" "No," I insisted, "no, it's not." "I can't understand you." "Don't you get it? I don't need him. Why would I need someone to watch my every move and just pretend he cares? I already have two of those at home!" She fell silent, grimacing. "Allie, honey, he won't be pretending." "Yeah," I grunted, crossing my arms over my chest and looking away. "If the peop le who gave me life don't care, then why would he?" She shook her head. "They care, Allie." I huffed. "No, they don't. Now can you get that fur ball to come here? I need to to tell him-" "Alison, be nice." I bit the inside of my cheek, looking down at my hands, not speaking a word; if

I did, I would cry, and crying in public was something I loathed doing; people d idn't need to pity me, or think I was just a whiny brat. I closed my eyes, sinki ng deeper into the couch, wishing I was invisible. Again. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------I kept flipping through the channels at home. In Forks, Washington, this was pro bably the usual afternoon hangout, only that today it wasn't so usual. There was nothing usual about today. When I couldn't find anything good enough to watch o n TV, I leaned on the arm of the chair and tried to put everything that happened today in the back of my head. I tried to think how I was starting yet another y ear of school tomorrow - I would be a seventh grader at Forks Middle School - bu t it didn't make me feel any more comfortable. It sucked - it totally and universally sucked - not being able to figure everyth ing out. For 12 years that were my entire life, everything was definite - even t he bad things. But now, I felt helpless, like someone was deciding my life for m e. I hated it. "Allie, shouldn't you go to sleep now?" "Fine, Mom," I grunted. Hope tomorrow turns out better. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK I scanned the crowds of relieved students, spreading out of Forks Middle after t he last bell rang until I finally found her. I knew this wasn't going to improve my stalker status, but there were a few things that needed to be explained, esp ecially after she guessed that I had imprinted on her. She needed to know that w e could be some kind of friends, but we wouldn't if she didn't want to. She had to know I wouldn't 'stalk' her if she didn't want me around. Sure, it would hurt like hell and all that, but I wouldn't mind to if it meant she wouldn't feel th e same. She locked eyes with me before she narrowed them, stomping her foot angrily. "Wh at is it?" a girl that was standing next to her asked curiously. "Do you notice anything weird with the teachers' parking lot?" Allie asked, sigh ing. The girl's eyes widened when she saw my car. "Whoa." "It's not as comfortable as it looks, Cloe." Lie. "You know him?" "And I wish I don't," she whispered under her breath, too low for Cloe to hear. "Yeah." Cloe seemed to think about it for a second. "Oh." "What?"

"You like him." Allie faked a gagging expression. "Ew. He's - like - twenty-something!" That wasn't even half true; when it came to age, I was only three years older th an her. But I guessed I looked way over my normal age, which wasn't helping me r ight now in the least - not like I liked her or something; not in the way her fr iend meant anyway. She was just way too young - she was just a kid - and I could n't think about her that way. Cloe raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you know why he's here?" "Not really." Another lie. "Well, why don't you go ask him? Come on!" She huffed loudly. "Fine, Cloe. Fine." She strode over to me, her friend on her tail. "What do you want, Colby?" I smiled at her, genuinely happy to see her. "Good afternoon to you, too, Alison ." She rolled her eyes, suppressing a hint of a smile. "Seriously, what do you want ?" Beside her, Cloe hit her arm subtly. "Can we talk?" Cloe smiled at that. Allie didn't. "There's nothing to talk about - you should g o back home and never come back." This time, Cloe wasn't being subtle. Allie narrowed her eyes at her. "I believe there's a certain issue we left undisclosed yesterday," I said. She leaned to whisper in my ear. "I'm going to the bonfire with Mary - I better not see you there. The only reason I'm going is because I don't know what the he ll you want from me, and I seriously hate stalkers." "Alison, we both know I'm not going to harm you - you can trust me." "There's a difference, Colby." "Allie, please." She sighed, grimacing. "Guess you can drop me home, but tell anyone and you're d ead!" I chuckled, opening the passenger door for her. "Sure, sure. C'mon." She turned to her friend before sliding into her seat. "I'll call you. Bye." I sprinted out of there, the wheels screeching deliciously on the ground. "How a re you?" "Good." "Good?" She gave me a confused look. "Yeah, I guess I'm fine."

"How was your day?" "What's imprinting?" I licked my lips. "I thought I told you about it." "Well, yeah, you did," she said, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. "But I don 't get it- how do you know it's me?" I smiled, recalling the first time our eyes met. "The second the wolf sees his i mprint, the whole world shifts - it's more like that person is the gravity that pulls him down," -she rolled her eyes- "And then he can't live without her - eve n if his feelings for her aren't necessarily...romantic." "So, it's like some magic force, right?" "Kind of. Yeah," I nodded, taking a turn to the left, seeing her house and stopp ing in front of it. "Oh joy," she muttered, stepping out of the car and turning to my side. "You kno w, Colby, for once I thought someone cares, but even the one I might've trusted turned out to be forced. Look, I don't need you - go un-imprint or something, ok ay?" "It's not like that-" "Listen to me, Colby," she sighed, taking a deep breath. "If I need you, I'll fi nd a way to contact you. Fair enough?" - I shrugged - "But, seriously, don't cou nt on it." I won't stalk you, if that's what you're talking about. She put both hands on her temples, turning towards the porch. "I'm never getting used to this." For a reason, this made me smile; she expected some more of me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON "Why won't you tell me?" Cloe whined over the phone, "I thought we're best frien ds!" Why didn't I just ignore him and walk away? This was worse than him stalking me. "There's nothing you need to know about him, Cloe. Really." "Why did he want to talk to you?" "Okay, so he's my cousin-in-law's," - was that even a word? - "cousin and I have a huge crush on him and I told my cousin who told him and he was telling me how wrong it is." I almost seriously gagged at the scenario. 'Almost' because I had to contain my tone. "Oh. My. God!" she exclaimed, "She told him? Gee." "Ah-uh, yeah, yeah."

"Sorry, Allie. I didn't know-" "It's okay, I'm fine - totally." "Okay, then," she said. Translation: I got the gossip I need. "T-T-Y-L." And the call ended. I re-opened the book I was reading, but ended up comparing Colby to the werewolv es I had imagined; I imagined them scary and tough, but Colby looked more like a huge golden teddy bear - almost surreal. I couldn't bring myself to think of hi m fighting a vampire - a powerful tricky vampire that could easily 'poison him w ith his venom'. I stared at the sky outside the living room's window: dark and f rightening, the moon crescent. Right now, he could be wandering around the borde rs of La Push, fighting off a stray vampire. I thought I had the slightest tende ncy to worry about him. I had to admit it, he was better than boring shopping tr ips. And maybe, just maybe, he wasn't totally a stalker. I got up slowly, reluctantly, and dragged my feet upstairs to my room, only to h ear something crash in Mom and Dad's room, followed by Dad's shouting. "I thought I talked to you about this before!" "What can I do, John? It's not like I planned this!" I frowned and stood still in my place; what were they talking about? Something else crashed. "One 'accident' is enough - 13 years ago I told you loud and clear that I didn't-" "Come on, John. Say it. Tell me you didn't want her!" Huh? "You know damn well I love my daughter!" he hollered angrily. What? "Do you, John? Do you really? You still think she's a mistake!" I leaned my back on my room's door, my breath caught in the back of my throat. "Would you lower your tone? She'll hear you!" Too late for that, Dad. Too late. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------After that conversation, I buried myself under my covers, trying to shake it off , telling myself they were both mad for some reason and that they didn't mean wh at they were saying. They couldn't mean what they were saying, right? I mean, Ma ry should be right, they must care about me. People argue all the time, and it w asn't like I was supposed to hear that conversation. After all, all I had were m y parents, and they loved me, didn't they? They had to. Five minutes later, I heard the loud slamming of our door downstairs, followed b y another after half an hour, and I knew I was home alone. I got up, walking cau tiously to my parents' room, then the living room, the kitchen, and the two bath rooms - I was right; no one was there. Without thinking, I grabbed the extra key

s from the kitchen counter, stuck it in the pocket of my pajama pants, grabbed m y sweater and hopped into my sneakers. If they didn't care then, well, I didn't give a damn either. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------I could've been walking for hours inside that forest, trying to figure out what way would take me to La Push. I wished I had taken his number, or known where he lived. Right now, all I needed was someone who cared - and I didn't care if he was forced to. I needed someone to just be there, I didn't want to talk to him o r discuss anything; I just wanted to feel wanted somewhere. Before, I wondered why people could be so selfish - why sometimes people like my parents didn't care. I thought I was normal, until I made a couple of friends, and found out I was nothing but normal. I was an extra addition to two previousl y-happy people, and only tonight I found out I wasn't welcome in their lives in the first place. People who have others who care should never complain about cur fews or having to take permissions before buying something or any of what they c all "unnecessary parental controls". It took me a while to know that I was probably walking around myself in circles when everyone sank in: I was standing in the middle of enormous trees, the dampn ess of the grass almost getting through the fabric of my shoes and the coldness in the air creeping to my spine - all alone in a place where vampires were real, and God-knows-what-else was out there as well. "Where are you?" I breathed, sliding into a sitting position, getting my clothes soaked as well, shuddering. "Shouldn't you be here now, huh? Did you decide jus t now to stop following me?" The woods were quiet - very, eerily quiet - and I k new no one could hear me. I buried my face in my freezing hands, just letting th e few tears I had been holding for so long warm them slightly. "This whole wolf pack sucks! I'm here alone and I could be sucked dry and no one's there to even know what happens!" I yelled into the darkness, desperate, knowing it wasn't the ir fault I was where I was now. "Hello, there," a silky feminine voice greeted, making me jump. I looked up to f ind a woman, pale as ivory, wearing a light silk dress that didn't make sense wi th the chilly weather, smiling sweetly at me. "I'm Alice. Were you looking for s omeone?"

Chapter 4

COLBY BLACK From my position, upside down on our living room's off-white couch, I saw the va mpire side of my family (who just came from Canada) suddenly stand up, alerted. I raised an eyebrow, along with Sarah, and listened carefully to my surroundings in hope to understand the reason behind the surprise. In at least 2 miles distance, there were two people approaching one definitely a v ampire; I could barely hear the footsteps, and two miles were nothing compared t o my hearing distance in case of humans. They were both silent for a whole two m inutes until one of them spoke. "I know it'd be much faster if I carried you, but, believe me, the last thing yo u would like to experience is the fall flu," Alice's musical voice broke the sil ence. "Th-think I-I already c-caught it," a young, heaving voice commented, followed b y a humorless laugh. I jumped to my feet, sprinting out of the door, nobody bothering to stop me. Wha t in the world got Alice with Alison now? "Alice! Can you hear me?" I said softly, knowing she would. "Yes, Colby." "H-he's here?" Allie asked, but I didn't hear a reply from Alice. "Where exactly are you?" "Can't you track me? That would be some serious problem." I growled; it definitely wasn't my fault I couldn't concentrate on tracking a ve ry familiar scent when my priority was Alison. Believe it or not, worry twisted both brains and stomachs in a way that made my natural, and much-practiced track ing skills fade in the thin air. "Turn 45 degrees to the west, go straight ahead and you'll find us. We'll stay s till." Without another thought, I ran towards them in my full speed the fastest I could i n my human form, only looking in Alison's height level. She stood there, her eye s puffy, trails of tears striking her pale cheeks, shivering and looking at her feet. "I found her in the woods, about a mile away from the borders of La Push," Alice informed, stroking her hair gently once, causing her to shiver even more, and r unning towards the house. "I'll get her something to wear!" I kneeled down in front of her, cupping her face in an attempt to bring back som e color to her cheeks, afraid she might snap at me if I hugged her. "You're warm ," she breathed. Words failed to express me at that moment; I hated seeing her so broken even for a reason I didn't know about. Under other circumstances, she would've glared at m e, at the very least, for touching her face. "What happened? Are you okay?" I honestly expected a 'do I look okay to you, Weirdo?' but, instead, she just sh ook her head. "What happened is that I've never felt so damn worthless my whole

life, Colby." I hugged her, her wet clothes not bothering me as much as the tears that I could feel fall on my shoulder. "Would you come home with me? Or do you want me to ta ke you to your home?" She wrapped her arms around me, squeezing briefly, before she pulled back. "No, not my home." "Embry's?" She shook her head. I grimaced. "Come on, Allie ed." no one will know where you are

you'll get everyone worr

"Well, the first part is true," she muttered bitterly. "What do you mean? What happened?" "Colby? Can you take me somewhere a little bit warmer than here?" I stared at her tired ocean blue eyes that were practically begging and nodded o bediently, but before I could move, Alice was back with a heavy blanket. "There you go! Nessie's trying to find some clothes your size at home until we go back. Shall we?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Alison!" I hissed, "You can't just stay silent like that! No one will be able t o help you if you don't say what happened to you!" She winced. "I don't need any help." "Colby, I can, you know." "No, Edward," I insisted, if she's not going to tell, then I'd rather not pull t he information out of her mind. He nodded understandingly. By that time, she had changed into one of Sarah's old pajamas she had outgrown, still wrapped with the blanket, refusing to let me warm her. She wouldn't say w hat happened to her, and it was getting on every nerve I had; I knew she was suf fering and I couldn't do anything about it! She reminded me of Sarah, in a very painful way, when she had refused to let us help her when she was kidnapped back in Paris. What was with those girls and being masochistic? "Then why did you come here, huh? Why?" "Calm down, Colby!" Dad warned from downstairs. She played with the edge of the blanket, her lower lip quivering for a brief sec ond. "Because you said you cared," she mumbled. I sighed. "I do, Allie," I reassured, "But you're not helping me." She closed her eyes, pulling my pillow so she could rest her head on it. "If I t ell you, you'll be scared," she quoted me, one corner of her lips hinting toward s a smile.

My heart clenched at the words. "What do you mean?" She sighed. "Colby, please. I don't want to talk about it." "You do know you have to be home by 5 a.m., right?" I said as her heartbeat slow ed down; Alice said that was 30 minutes before her father would return (why was she home alone anyway?). She grimaced but nodded. "And you'll have to tell me la ter, okay? Because I care." "Guess maybe I can 'spend the day with Mary' tomorrow," she said, her eyes still closed, "you'll have to show me the cliffs, by the way; a lot of people talk ab out how beautiful it is there." "Only if-" "Can't promise you I'll tell you, but I'll do my best," -she yawned- "okay?" I gritted my teeth. "You're impossible," I said, but she was already asleep. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON I slept like I hadn't slept in ages. The next morning, I woke up to find myself at home, a note stuck in the cuffs of the pajama I was wearing. "Good morning =) Hope you slept well. You were home b y 4:30 (sudden change in plans) I tried waking you up but the world could've been crashing and you wouldn't flutter an eye. Call me if you need anything Colby." I smiled at the note. I wasn't sure what exactly I was thinking last night by go ing out to the woods all alone, but I was glad to find out Colby wasn't nearly h alf as bad as I thought he was. Sure, he was shaking like crazy when I wouldn't tell him what was wrong with me, and, sure, he could've been forced to build a f riendship with me, but, honestly, all I cared about at the moment was that there was someone whom I could turn to whenever something upset me (without having to deal with the gossip at school, or the ignorance at home). It felt new refreshing . It wasn't until about five minutes later that I realized it wasn't 7 a.m., but n oon. Frankly, especially after Colby-picking-me-up yesterday, I didn't want to d eal with the rumors I knew were bound to be spread, but I also didn't like skipp ing my second day of school. I jumped out of the bed, changing into another paja ma (wouldn't want to explain the new, silky, over-sized pajama) and hopping my w ay downstairs. "'Morning, Allie," Dad greeted from the kitchen, "Any better now?" "Huh?" He smiled kindly. "You went into a coughing fit last night. That's why I didn't wake you up for school," he explained, opening the fridge, "Hungry?" number on back of the page. Won't stalk promise.

I ignored his question, pulling a chair to sit on. "Where's Mom?" "I don't know," he replied, "We, er, had a disagreement last night; I didn't find he r when I came back, but she's probably at your granny's." "Oh, really?" I pulled the innocent card, "What happened?" "Nothing that you should worry about, sweetie. Now, I gotta head to work be back by seven." I should

He grabbed his keys and headed towards the door, throwing me a quick 'bye' as he did. It was hard; I wanted to sound rude, I wanted to express my annoyance, but every time I attempted, my love for them prevented me. I hit the counter with m y fist. I was such a girl. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK Emmett grinned victoriously, pinning me to the ground. I snarled, pushing him of f me as I jumped to my feet. "C'mon, kiddo," he said, "You can do a bit better t han that." "He can't think straight when he's mad," Edward pointed out, and I threw a growl towards him, only to earn an all-too-knowing smile. "Colby you have to stop this right now!" "Way to kill the fun, Jacob," Emmett muttered, flexing his biceps, before he tur ned to me. "Later." Dad stood in front of me, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm beginning to re -think allowing you to become the Alpha," he said and I narrowed my eyes at him, "You used to have better control. Gain that back or you're off the pack for goo d - you choose." "Jake," Mom said, flashing by his side, "Leave us alone for a bit; I need to tal k to him." I dug my paws in the ground, vibrating my tail irritably; they were talking abou t me as if I was some kind of a misbehaving 5-year-old while I had very good rea sons to be off the mood today. Ever since we dropped Allie home, I could barely contain my anger, and I knew I had to phase to let all the negative energy out. We, both, were lucky I could control it while around her - I couldn't get over h ow she wouldn't tell me. She sneaked out of her house and was, according to Alic e, looking for me in the woods. Alone. With no one there to protect her. But whe n she saw me, she didn't tell me, she didn't cry her eyes out and whine about ho w her life sucked - nothing; she just fell asleep, and soundly, may I add. Given another imprint, I wouldn't have worried so much; some were plain nuts and woul d leave their houses at the middle of the night just because they felt like it ( ask Aunt Rachel, or Paul) but she wasn't willing to trust me just twenty-four ho urs ago, and I knew I'd have to work hard to gain that, but she just came to me when she was upset? Something huge - something horrible- must've happened. And she still wouldn't tell me. Dad's eyes flew between Mom and I, his mouth set in a hard line. "Nessie, please go back into the house; I'll talk to him."

"Jake, stop being ridiculous." "Nessie," he started, "Please." In a minute, he was in his wolf form, and I knew I was in deep shit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------I knocked her door lightly, finally calming down a bit, the plastic bag in my ha nd being squeezed repeatedly. After rapid footsteps, a groan and the shuffling o f the door knob, she opened the door with an expressionless face, her hair wet a nd raised in a high pony tail, her ocean blue eyes dull, but a lopsided smile th reatened to spread on her face. "Colby," she acknowledged. "Hey, Allie," I said, smiling, "How are you now?" She shrugged. I flexed my fist, trying to be in a better control of my temper, raising the pla stic bag in my hand. "Heard you're sick." She took the bag gently, peeking inside it. "How did you know what I take? Did oh, Alice." I nodded. "Well, I don't feel like spending the whole day here, eating soup and drinking t ea or whatever," she said, "Can you take me somewhere?" "Are you sure?" I asked, laughing, "I'm the stalker, remember?" "And a good one at that, Weirdo," she winked, "Can you, or can't you? Oh, and I need to pass by the school, too." "Well, well," I teased, "Taking advantage of me, eh?" She rolled her eyes. "Mary said I can ask you for whatever I want," she reasoned , "I can, right? Because, otherwise, that would be some serious bummer." I laughed. "Sure, sure. Go get ready, I'll wait in the car." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON "Aw, come on!" I said, bouncing in my seat, "I didn't go out just to go to anoth er house - I want to see the cliffs!" "It's really cold today, Allie, and you're sick - you come on!" I should've felt guilty for leaving home without telling anyone, or taking any p ermissions; I'd never done that before, but being with him didn't make me feel i n any way guilty; he was comfortable to be around (now that I tried not to think about him without the stalker profile). And, I had to admit, he was better than cable. Only that cable wasn't stupidly stubborn and unreasonable.

"Fine," I snapped, "Take me to school then back home." "Listen, Allie," he said sternly, turning to look at me, making my stomach flip - he was driving really fast, and he wasn't even looking at the road, "Are you a lways like that?" My eyes kept jumping between the road and him. "Like what?" "Like that," he said, "Like whatever I say makes you mad - I'm sorry, Allie, but I have my reasons!"- I shrunk in my seat - "Like whenever I want to make you fe el better, you won't let me help you! I want to." I sighed. "What do you want me to do, then?" He blinked, taking his time before answering me. "Tell me what happened last nig ht." "I don't want to talk about it, Colby - please understand that." "You know," he said, his eyes finally back on the road, "Alice and Edward know, but I wouldn't let them tell me." "Why not? You want to know, don't you?" He patted my head gently. "That's not the point; I don't want to know it for the sake of knowing it, I just want to be there for you, Allie, when I know no one else is." I closed my eyes, trying to savor this dream. "Fine," I surrendered, "I'll tell you." And I told him. Everything.

Chapter 5

COLBY BLACK Twenty minutes later, I ended up with a panting Alison, a ruined shirt and a sha king body I had no idea how to stop. Normally, these would be the expected consequences of either a stray vampire, a stupid, uncontrolled pack brother or a car accident; I had no idea how, one day, this would be the result of letting someone as young and as angry as Alison And

erson tell me the reason she was upset. I couldn't blame the irrational amount o f emotion and my personal out of character behavior and reactions on imprinting this time - no, never; because if I had witnessed the same situation sans the su pernatural, I would've reacted the same. Well, if you didn't count the shaking. She had just told me what really happened last night; she told me she heard her own parents call her a 'mistake'. This time, if it wasn't for the imprinting, I wouldn't have imagined the kind of pain such a simple word could cause; my paren ts were always loving, supportive and proud of both Sarah and I, the idea of a p arent hating a child or regretting him or her just made me confused; they were t heir own flesh and blood - part of their souls. A person who hates part of him i s a person with serious complications. She told me how she never felt connected to them, how she blamed herself every t ime she couldn't make them understand her. She told me how people used to judge her just because she brought a book to read during her free lesson, and how when she came back home and tried to tell her parents, they would say she needed to "fit in" with everyone the way they were and try to be something she wasn't. I hated it. And what I hated even more was how I came in a very inconvenient way and overwhe lmed her with everything mythical - even yesterday, when she was stupid enough t o go to the forest alone, Alice found her and explained how she could see the fu ture. Allie, of course, being Allie, connected it to what I'd told her about the vampires' super powers and asked Alice, who explained she was my great aunt. Perfect, just freakin' perfect. "Colby, why are you shaking?" Allie asked, pulling herself away from my shoulder . I closed my eyes, almost squishing the unmoving steering wheel with my bare hand s, taking a deep breath. "It's nothing." "Colby," she whined, "You can't just make me gush my heart out then just say it' s nothing - c'mon!" I didn't mind telling her anything, but admitting I wasn't in control of my ange r - especially around her - just hurt my manly ego - and that's an understatemen t, so I just sighed. "Seriously, it's nothing. Happens a lot - it's a wolf thing ." She nodded. "Can you take me to school now?" "Sure, sure. When do you want to go home?" She shrugged. "Dad said he's coming home at four, and I don't know if Mom's goin g to come home today; she usually takes a whole day before she does after a figh t with Dad." She said it so casually my stomach clenched. I turned the keys in the ignition, heading towards her school. "What did you wan t from school? Don't think you'll miss anything on your second day." She chuckled. "I won't. I just need to get something from my locker."

"How important is it?" She narrowed her eyes. "Why?" "Well, I thought you wanted to see the cliffs." "I thought you're unreasonable enough not to let me." "Well, I changed my mind." "Well, a man doesn't just change his mind." I blinked. "What?" "Get me to school, Colby." Why me? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON "Whoa, whoa and whoa,"Cloe exclaimed, her eyes wide, standing half-way between o ur football field (where the gym class is) and the main building of Forks Middle . I mentally groaned, trying to ignore her and rush inside. "Hey, Allie, wait!" Shit. Shit. Shit. I stood still in my place, deliberating whether or not I should run to the Ferra ri and tell Colby to get out of there, full speed. Instead, I just turned to her . "Cloe," I acknowledged. "What's that?" she pointed to the Ferrari. "Yeah, Allie, who's that?" her other best friend, Jarrett, asked, practically dr ooling over the car. "You know what's that, Cloe," I said, "That's Colby's car." "Colby, huh?" she smiled, and I knew she remembered, "The one you have a huge c" I put my hand on her mouth, my eyes widening. "Shut up." He'll hear you! And the last thing I want to explain is why I told you I've a crush on him. She laughed as soon as I let her go, a very confused Jarrett staring at both of us like we had finally lost it. "You don't get it! It's not like that." "Oh, yeah, it is." "It is?" Jarrett asked, and I could bet my life he had no clue what he was talki ng about. "It's not!" "What's not what, honey?" Colby said, and I almost cursed out loud when I heard his voice right behind me. He kissed my cheek and I almost punched him. I would' ve if I didn't know for sure I would hurt myself doing so. "Who are your friends ?"

I buried my face in my hands. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. I could swear he was laughing as I angrily strode inside the building towards my locker. I opened it hastily, grabbed both my diary and the homework that was du e tomorrow, and snapped it shut. "Oh, wow," Cloe said, "I'm not going to ask you anything but - how?" "What do you mean?" "I mean," she started, "He's- sorry- but you're just a little kid to him - and y ou're - you're-" "I'm what?" I snapped. She sighed. "You just don't match." I walked past her, not speaking a word. "Wai t, Allie, I didn't mean it like that!" "Look," I said, my free hand on my hip, "Colby and I don't have a 'thing'," - I made sure the quotation marks were visible - "He's just a friend; he's Embry's c ousin!" "Who's Embry?" Jarrett asked. "Oh, God," I whispered to myself, "Embry is my cousin's husband, okay? I asked h im to drive me here since no one else could, okay?" They both nodded curtly, startled by my tone, I assumed, and I just huffed, runn ing my way back to the Ferrari, sliding in. "A-" "If you dare talk to me, I will-" I huffed again in frustration, "Don't talk to me." He laughed. "Your face was priceless." "I hate you." He kept on laughing, then pouted at me. "Aw, come on, Allie-bear." "I still hate you, very, very much." "I'll take you to First Beach." "No." He was still laughing. "I'll show you how I fight vampires." I stayed silent for a second, thinking it through. "No, not even that." "Cookies?" "Nope." I would've told him to take me home if I wouldn't be so bored; sure, I was angry at him - very, very angry at him - but I had to admit it, again: he was better than cable. "I can still take you to my house, right?"

I bit my lip. "Who's there?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, Mom, Dad, Sarah, Carlisle, Esme, Edward and Bell a should have been home, but, as I took the final turn to our driving path, Dad called me and told me they were divided into two groups; one went hunting and th e other went shopping (I didn't even need to communicate with Sarah mentally to know she was on the first group), and that they wouldn't be home for the rest of the day. So, instead of a day at my home, I was taking her to the zoo. A.K.A Sam and Emily's. Once she stepped inside the house, she was welcomed by pretty much everyone. She smiled politely at them, fidgeting in her place awkwardly, repeatedly glancing towards Mary, something definitely on her mind, when Paul came. "Look who's ther e!" Please don't tell her I called her a mini version of you. Please don't tell her I called her a mini version of you. "...The oh-so-famous Allie. Hey, kid." Phew. She frowned. "Hi...?" "Paul; this jerk's uncle." Yeah, yeah. He was pointing at me. I rolled my eyes. "Good afternoon to you, too." "Oh," she said, a smile playing on her lips, "Can you do me a favor?" He glanced at me with the corner of his eyes, suppressing a smile. "Sure, kid, w hat do you want?" Everyone in the room (Embry, Mary, Quil, Claire, Jared, Kim, Sam, Rachel and Emi ly) was watching silently, not even a hum in the room. "Can you tell me how can you hurt a werewolf? Like, real bad." I raised my eyebrows at her while everyone was coughing laughs, trying to be dis creet about it. Paul grinned seriously at her. "Well, there's always the classic baseball bat," he suggested. "Mhhmm.." "...But you'll probably hurt your wrist. Or you can just pout at him and tell hi m he's so mean-" "That didn't work." "Wrong!" I corrected from my place, leaning on the wall, "I remember you saying you hated me, not that I'm mean." She just turned to stick her tongue out at me, and the coughed chuckles turned t

o full-blown laughs. "...Or I can just personally beat him up for you. What do y ou think, kid?" "Think I'll risk my wrist with the bat, then you can beat him up." Everyone couldn't stop laughing, except me. I stayed silent, expressionless; she was getting along with Paul more than she could get along with me at first. Paul attempted to pat her head, but she stepped back. Well, well. "Here's your Alpha, Alpha," he winked at me then returned his attention back to her, "What did he do, then? Stalked you again?" "You're the last one to talk about stalking, Paul," Rachel and Jared said in one breath. He rolled his eyes. "No," she said, her cheeks darkening, "I just feel like hitting him." "Do all imprints suck at lying?" Quil asked, wrapping an arm around Claire who p inched him lightly. "No, really. What's up with that?" She just grimaced, looking at her feet, then glancing at me, her cheeks still da rk. Adorable. "Um..." Emily decided to speak. "The food should be ready by now. Who's hungry?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON Emily practically saved me. Apparently, today was the international Embarrass Al lie day and I wasn't aware. I turned to Colby, sighing as half the room (all the wolves, except Colby) sprinted to the kitchen, and he motioned for me to go to him. I stood beside him, leaning on the wall as well. "What do you say? The bat or Paul?" He pinched my cheek. "You're not really upset, are you?" "You don't know what you've done," I muttered, my voice low, but he heard it lik e I knew he would. "It's not like they believe we're together or something." - I just glared at him , raising my eyebrows - "They do?" I crossed my arms over my chest. "Well, I'm s orry, then," he said, kneeling in front of me, putting a hand on my shoulder, ke eping our eyes in one level. "I really am." Every time I looked into his eyes I remembered how cute he looked as a wolf - as a golden teddy bear - and it made it hard to stay mad at him. "Fine," I said, " You're forgiven." He smiled widely, happiness radiating through his smile. "You're awesome. And, e verything's going to be okay, Allie-bear." "What did that come from?" I forgot to ask him about it earlier. He shrugged. "I dunno."

"What do I call you, then?" "Not Weirdo," he suggested, "But you can call me by my middle name - Thomas." "Thom-as," I tried it out in my mouth, "Sounds good." "Wow," Rachel said, "I can't believe you! You won't let your own mother call you that!" "A little privacy would be good, Aunt Rachel, thanks." Someone boomed with laughter in the kitchen. "Privacy. Yeah, right." Someone else barged in the house; I could hear the door slam open. "Hey, everyon e! Look who I brought!" Colby tensed at the sound, his teeth clenching together and I could swear I saw his chest rumble a bit. His eyes stayed fixed on me, not even glancing towards t he visitor. It was just someone else I hadn't seen before, not even at Mary's li ttle party a couple of days ago, but he looked like everyone else here, except t hat he wasn't as big as the others - the wolves. "What? What's wrong?" I mumbled. "Hi!" A girl-y voice greeted, but I didn't avert my eyes to see who it was; all I could think about was how serious Colby's shivering was, his hand squeezing my shoulder so much it hurt. "Colby, what's wrong?" He snapped his eyes shut, his shivering turning into stronger shaking. "Randy! Come join us in the kitchen! Did you get your girlfriend with you?" Emil y asked out loud. "Yes, Mom," Randy, the one who just barged in with his 'girlfriend' answered, an d Colby's frame almost turned blurry, my shoulder feeling his vibrations. It took me a second to realize what was happening. "Calm down, Colby. Thomas, ca lm down!" He didn't look like he was listening to me, but his hand released my s houlder. Embry got out of the kitchen, running towards us, putting a hand on Col by's shoulder. "Let's get you out of here." "No," he snapped, "I'm fine, Embry. I won't phase near her." You're not scared, are you? "No," I answered his mental question, "But I don't understand why you're acting so weird." "Colby Black, you have to get out of here now." "Leave me alone, will you?" "Jared! Paul!" He stood up, facing Embry. "I'm in control, Embry."

Embry snorted. The shaking wasn't fading. At all. "Sure doesn't look like it." His hands balled into fists, then, in a flash, he turned to me, threw me a quick 'Stay here' and ran outside, leaving me dazed. Wow. "What is it?" Paul asked, his face stuffed. Embry pointed to Randy while he wasn't looking and then back to me. "Colby." "Damn," Paul said, "I'm going - you get Allie home." "What? No!" I said as Paul disappeared behind Colby. Embry sighed, turning to me. "He just needs to calm down, Allie, and you're goin g to be late if you don't go in a few." I glanced at my watch. 2:45. "Can't we wait for him a bit?" He grimaced. "When do you have to be home?" "Before four." "'Kay," he agreed. "Don't worry about him," Rachel said, "It's complicated." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------"How complicated?" I asked Colby, sitting on the trunk of his car. "I didn't want you to see this," he breathed, leaning both arms beside me, "I'm really sorry." "Stop it!" I said, "Stop saying you're sorry and just tell me what's wrong!" "I just can't stand Randy," he muttered, "I don't know how I'm gonna be his Alph a some day, how I'm going to have to endure him all the time." I frowned, fixing his now-very-messy hair. I hated it when things weren't clean and in order. "What has he done?" "He's my sister's imprint." "I thought he isn't a wolf?" He shook his head. "He's not, but Sarah is." "Oh." I still couldn't get it. "Are you mad at him because he's got a girlfriend?" I guessed. Colby breathed out slowly. "Kind of." "Well, he has a choice, right?" He raised an eyebrow at me. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," I licked my lips, "Just because she imprinted on him doesn't mean he h as to choose her, right?" He stayed silent, his eyes unreadable. "Right?" "Are you saying- you know what? Never mind; I'll have Billy explain that to you in the bonfire." Before I could reply, we heard Emily's house's door open. "Guys," Mary said, ski dding towards us, "Uncle John found out you're not home," she told me, "Allen," -her brother, my cousin - "called and asked about you, and I told him you're wit h me. You'd better go back now." "Shit." This time, I cursed out loud, and Colby had the most amused face ever.

Chapter 6

COLBY BLACK I rested my head on my hands, facing the midnight blue with glittery dots of sta rs and streaks of clouds sky, my legs dangling on the edge of the cliff, lost in thought. After running miles and miles (to and from Canada five times), I becam e too exhausted to be angry at anything, and too hungry to care about the drama that choked my life every day, but finally clear-minded enough to flashback my w hole day without having to intrigue any unwanted emotions. Even with my strength and vampire side, my muscles needed to rest after a run like this, and splashin g into the water just because the shaking got too bad seemed like a very, very b ad idea. I still couldn't wrap my head around two things: one, Allie Anderson in general, and, two, how Randy Uley was still alive and breathing until this very moment. Allie - Allie was wonderful, and I knew, for sure, that's not even biased. Only her presence was enough to remind me that, after all, everything would be okay; everything was meant to be okay, even if I had absolutely no idea how, it would. Add that to her speech: I swear that kid was better at bossing me around than J acob Black, Sam Uley and Alice Cullen combined. She had me wrapped around her pi nkie already and I didn't know how much she was aware of that fact. Then I figured it out, if Allie wasn't there today, Randy Uley would be dead, an d then I'd owe poor Sam and Emily a very difficult apology.

Randy was one name I couldn't stand any more; everything he did made me a bit an grier at him, and added to the reasons I despise him one more line. I couldn't b lame him for 'choosing someone else' if that was just the case, because (even th ough he wouldn't find anyone better for him than Sarah. Imprinting and a very bi ased brother said so) she would be just friends with him, and if that what he ne eded, she wouldn't be in pain watching him with someone else. Sure, she wouldn't be able to actually be with someone else, as that would feel like she was betra ying him even if their romantic connection was forever ruined, but she wouldn't be hurting over his lack of presence like she was now. Imagine watching your own flesh and blood, the person you had always shared a ve ry special type of connection with, the person that went through the good and bl oody horrible (literally) stages of your life with you, the person you had alway s thought of as your eternal responsibility, wilt helplessly. Imagine what I fel t watching her hold back her tears, refuse to eat food and even throw it up at t imes, phase uncontrollably whenever something threatens to turn towards anything that might upset her, hurt emotionally beyond repair and still made sure he was back home safely every day - still smiled when she watched him smile, and get e ven worse when something upset him. He still hated her, he still couldn't stand her name, he still thought of her as a liar (while she lied for his sake), he mo ved on, had girlfriends, and never looked back. I was beyond hating him or even despising him. I wanted to see that sick jerk of an excuse of a creature die, and very slowly. But Allie stood in the way. Unlike what I would've expected, her wide, ocean blue eyes weren't frightened at my continuous shaking, she didn't freak out or yell at me to get the hell off o f her, she just told me to calm down in a what-are-you-thinking kind of way. The natural urge to protect her was fighting restlessly with my need to phase at th at moment, and I was glad it won. The wind blew one more, strong, relaxing time, before I heard someone whistle be hind me. I didn't even have to turn; the smell was too obvious. "Rosalie," I ack nowledged as she took a seat beside me. The Cullens (also known as the previous Alpha's in-laws, and the current Alpha's family) were allowed on the Rez any tim e they wished. "Hey, mutt," she greeted and I never took it personally; I knew Rosalie loved me like a second mother. "Heard you blacked out all the way to Canada for Alice more than once. What is it?" I shrugged, sitting up. "Nothing, really. I just had quite an...eventful day." She smiled. "You saw that little girl again, didn't you?" I nodded. "My soul mate," I flipped the words on my tongue - they didn't feel ri ght just yet. "And Miss Attitude of The Year," Rosalie added with a chuckle. "You know what? Y ou deserve her, but I don't know what she's done to deserve you." I punched her lightly, knowing that we were both equally strong while I was in h uman form. "I'm not that bad." She shook her head. "It's that you're that good, kid and she just seems so..." "What?" I asked, my voice dripping acid. When you're naturally defensive and pro

tective of someone and really, really tired, that result was inevitable. She ran a hand through her long, blond hair. "She's nice, I suppose," she said, "But there's something about her. I can't say I can quite put my finger on it, t hough." I frowned. "What do you mean?" "She's so...weird - and I'm not sure if it's the good way." "Can't agree more," I sighed, "That drama with her parents - it all seems so unb elievable. I mean, I know she's telling the truth but-" "It's too horrible to be true," she breathed, "Stuff like that happen, kid - eve n worse stuff happen," she said, staring at the horizon. "By the way, what did y ou do with her father and that other kid - what was his name, again? - Mary's br other, right?" "Allen," I said, "Mary actually took care of the situation; she told her brother how she needed to go shopping so she picked her up and just forgot to tell her uncle, and that I was the only one who would get her back," I explained, "It's a ll really silly; for one, Allie wouldn't go shopping by her own free will, and f or two, why would someone who shops in Port Angeles and lives in La Push go to p ick up a kid from Forks before shopping?" She grimaced. "Let's just cross our fingers her parents will buy it." "Yeah," I agreed, "Hope so." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------"They," Allie swallowed over the phone the next morning, "-bought it." I rubbed my groggy eyes. Did you have to call at 7 a.m., Alison? "They did?" She sucked a crispy, vibrant breath. "Yeah." I flipped on my bed, trying to produce coherent thoughts. "Will I see you today? " "I don't know. I don't think so." I frowned, burying my head in my pillow. "Why not?" She sighed. "I'm going to school, and I just can't. Dad told me they needed to ' talk' to me today, so I don't know, really." "Then call me when you're done, please?" "Colby, I'll call if I need you - you, too, do the same - but you gotta give me some space to breathe!" I smiled. "Humor me." "You're horrible," she said and ended the call. My smile just got wider and I dr ifted into sleep once again. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------"'Mornin'," I mumbled as I strode into the kitchen, opening the fridge.

"What morning? It's 4:30," Bella remarked. "He's been running a lot," Mom said, to my defense, then came to whisper in my e ar, "You really have to get that anger issue under control." I poured some orange juice in a glass, a strand of hair falling on my face. "I h ave it under control; that was me controlling it." "I have to admit," Jasper said, walking into the kitchen, "Your mood swings are kind of refreshing." I gritted my teeth together. "This is beginning to feel less like home and more like rehab," I muttered, swallowing my juice and turning around towards the door . "Where's Sarah?" "Sleeping the day off," Mom answered, the grief in her voice unveiled, plain. I closed my eyes and went for the run, savoring the last blow of wind I experien ced in my human form, morphing into my other self. It was more like a daily rout ine now, and since I hadn't any Allie for the day, I'd have to spend it the oldfashioned, boring way. As a wolf. Please, God. If I'm going to die, let mom take it easily. She would die from the news. Who the hell was that? Then it hit me, from Embry's mind, stronger than Emmett after a couple of good g rizzlies. It was Randy Uley, in his wolf form, finally morphed. I growled fierce ly, digging the ground with my paws. Oh, shut the Hell up, idiot. You're not going to die. Embry told him, and I coul d see they both fell off a cliff, splashing into the water. Swim, you can. Not v ery well, but you can, come on. When did that happen? I asked. Just now, Embry said, pulling Randy to the shore. Couldn't he swim himself? He's not focusing. I bet he can't even concentrate on our voices now. Don't be so harsh, Quil said, even you went through that mental silence. I sighed. You have to keep in mind he's still a pack brother - what happened between him a nd your sister stays between them as long as you're the one in charge. Quil adde d. From Embry's mind, I could see they were already on the shore. That's it, welcom e to the cult. Was that Uncle Embry's attempt of a joke? Randy wondered, and I had to admit; Em bry wasn't the best when it came to humor. At all. Shut up, Embry, he's not doing so well. I knew he had no brains but I didn't thi nk he could stay that silent for so long. I said, knowing very well how hostile I sounded.

Colby Black? Yes, that's me. And no, I'm not your biggest fan, so don't expect me to be. What did I do? A lot of drama, Quil answered. What are all those voices? Am I imagining things? What's going on? How come the son of Sam and Emily Uley was so incredibly stupid? No, Uley, you're a werewolf-slash-shape-shifter, that's what's going on. What? I couldn't take it anymore; I would love to explain the legends and the truths a bout them to a new pack member any time, I would endure their shock, I would rep eat the explanation, I would give them a break to think about the whole thing, a nd maybe even decide whether to continue this path or not. But, not with Randy. I was biased and I hated it; an Alpha should never be biased, an Alpha should ne ver be that hostile to his brother and an Alpha should never mix personal affair s with the pack. I was all those combined. Embry, Quil, work with him. I'm phasing back. Before I could hear any responses, I phased back to my shorts and got out my phone (that, thankfully, wasn't ywhere without my phone when I always needed someone I y mind - also known as my imprint), but before I could ce called. human form, slipped on my crushed. I couldn't go an couldn't speak to using m dial Alison's number, Ali

"What is it?" I said, my mood obvious in my tone, as soon as I pressed the green button. "Family quality time," Bella chirped, "We're leaving tonight, and we don't see y ou that often, so you're coming with us." "Where?" "Toronto, Canada." "You know I can't. See if Mom or Sarah'd like to go; I have stuff to keep up wit h." She sighed. "To tell you the truth, this isn't about quality time," she admitted . I frowned. "What's it about, then?" "Your sister," she started, then breathed a 'sorry' to someone else, "She's wors e than ever. Something happened today, and thanks to you guys Alice couldn't see it." "What? What happened?"

I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. "She woke up screaming and crying - that never happened before. It was like some one was hurting her." Damn this imprint to the deepest, darkest, hottest hell. "What did Carlisle say?" I asked, already on my way to the house. "It's nothing physical - we both know that." It took all my effort to stop myself from phasing; if I did, I would hear him, a nd then I would most definitely kill him. If it wasn't for what could happen to Sarah, and the fact that Alison deserved someone better than a murderer, it didn 't sound like a bad idea at all. I didn't speak, and neither did my grandmother, until I was in the house. Everyone was there; Carlisle, Jasper, Emmett, Edward, Dad, Paul, Billy, Charlie, Seth, Esme, Rosalie, Alice, Bella, Mom, Rachel and Sue. They were all wearing t he same, worried-to-death face, all looking at me expectantly, as if I would car ry some sort of news with me. So many people cared about her and would die for h er, but she would still cling to the one person that caused her hell. That was s omething I would never understand, even when I had an imprint and full access to a lot of people's minds. "Where is she?" "Asleep," Dad muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's been three years ," he whispered, "Three years and it's getting worse by the second." I shook my head. "I know why." He frowned, along with the rest, until Edward got it but let me speak nevertheless. "Randy phased today." Several gasps filled the room before Billy spoke. "Don't tell her now." "Why not?" Aunt Rachel asked, tilting her head sideways. "It's her right to know ." "This is getting more and more complicated," Seth said. "She'll freak out," Dad said, "Besides, she's exhausted - it was like the first day she phased, but ten times more powerful." "This is wrong," Paul noted, "Very wrong. Unfair - she's just a kid!" "We'll tell her," I decided with finality, Billy and Dad throwing me warning gla nces, "Tomorrow," I continued, "She'll phase sooner or later and know it - she s hould know from us first." "He's right," Carlisle agreed, "It would be harder on her if she knew by chance. " "There's no treaty now, right?" Emmett asked, I nodded, "If I kill him, no one g ets mad, then." I chuckled. "Believe me," I said, "Even if there was a treaty, I would've." "Boys," Esme warned, serious. Just like I was.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON "We think of you as a young adult, Allie, and you have the right to know what we have decided to do." I stared at my mother, trying to rationalize her calmness, but couldn't. I would 've preferred it if they told me they were different creatures - mortal enemies - that couldn't stay together because of some unspoken prohibition, because some zombie would come looking for them to kill them if they stayed together, but he aring how they decided to get a divorce because Mom was pregnant was beyond conf using, let alone depressing. How could they be so selfish? I needed them in my life - both of them. But, oh, they didn't even care. "Who am I going to live with?" "Normally, that would be me," Mom said, "But, i-if y-you don't want to-" "I would love to have you stay with me, Allie," Dad completed. "You're making me choose?" They both fell silent, looking at the ground as if th ey were guilty little kids. "Un-freakin'-believable." "I'm going to be moving to my old house in PA," Mom breathed, "There's a room th ere that we could move your things to." "But, of course, if you don't want to switch schools, you can always stay here," Dad said. I buried my face in my hands, unable to respond coherently. "Allie," Mom breathed, patting my back, "We know this is hard on you - but, beli eve me, it's for the best; you wouldn't like to live between people who always f ight, would you?" Something was hitting my head with an iron hammer, and a big one for that matter . I couldn't put things together, I couldn't answer the one question I'd been as king myself for so long: why me? Why did I with? Why er people e because have to be the outsider - the one no one can find something in common did I have to be interested in things that are weird and boring to oth my age? Why did I have to have two parents who decided to get a divorc of an unborn child? Why me?

"Lemme think it through," I decided, dropping my hands. They both exchanged a meaningful look, getting up and walking outside my room. D ad held the door before getting out, "Think carefully." I nodded thoughtlessly as he closed the door, snuggling under the covers and get ting out my phone, dialing Colby's number. Colby was something else I was very c onfused about; even if it was some magical kind of eternal bond, why did I turn to him every time I needed to let something out? He imprinted on me, not the oth er way round. I was going to hang up before he answered, but he did before I cou ld.

"Alison," he said, taking a long, deep breath, obviously out of mood (or half-as leep). "How are you?" I stayed silent, bringing my knees to my chest. "Allie?" "I'm here," I breathed. "What's wrong?" he asked. "I -" I was going to tell him, but decided against it, "-Is everything okay with you?" Last night, he wasn't in a great mood. "It's a total mess," he admitted, sighing, "There's a lot going on here." "What is it?" I asked, glad the conversation wasn't about me anymore. "Randy phased," were his only words. "Let me guess - his mind wasn't exactly your Lala Land." He laughed. "No, it wasn't." I snuggled deeper into the covers. "You're the Alpha," I yawned, "You're gonna h ave to endure him." "Wow," he said, "Thanks for the reminder." I smiled. "Anytime, Tommy." "So," he said, "While the night's still young, wanna do something?" "You have some serious biological clock issues," I mumbled, "It's 10 p.m." "I woke up only 6 hours ago." "Your imprint here woke up at fifteen hours ago," I mumbled, yawning again, "I'm a growing teen, I need my sleep." He chuckled. "Go to sleep then - oh!" he exclaimed theatrically, "Do you think y ou can distract me that easily? 'Your imprint here' has a little vampire in him with this super awesome memory. What's wrong?" I snapped my eyes shut. "Leave me alone." "Alison.." I groaned uncomfortably. Did I want to do this? Did I want to trust him that muc h? Did I want to tell him everything? I wasn't sure.

Chapter 7

COLBY BLACK I wished werewolves could get drunk. Of course, we could, but I would need an average of thirty bottles (calculation courtesy of Carlisle) to get anywhere near it, and an average of fifteen minutes of drunken status afterward. I wanted to put everything aside for a few moments , I wanted to forget the last 24 hours completely - erase them from my memory. Being with Alison would've had the same effect on the problems part of my brain, if she wasn't so upset herself. "So here's the deal," she said, taking a bite of her sandwich, "I might move awa y." My hand stopped mid-way to my third sandwich, and the wind on top of the cliffs seemed to do the same. "Move?" She nodded. "That's, uh," she swallowed, breaking eye contact, "What was botheri ng me last night." I stared at her. "Move?" I repeated, like my brain - though able to process move s of vampires in their fastest speed - was unable to process the idea. Move? She was going to move? I thought if I was fast enough, I could drink up to fifty bottles in five minute s and get drunk for a little more than fifteen minutes, just a little more. She didn't even glance my way. "Mom's moving." "You can't move away." She turned to look at me, and then I could see the sparkle hints of tears appear ed in her eyes. "Excuse me?" "I m-mean," I stuttered, shaking my head, "You sh-shouldn't - I - you know you c an't just move away!" I wasn't shaking, I wasn't angry, I wasn't even anywhere near it; I was just com pletely, and hopelessly, desperate. "Because of the imprinting thing?" she asked, cutting eye contact again, "I won' t be that far; it's just Port Angeles." I heaved a sigh, closing my eyes. "You're gonna be the death of me, Allie." She chuckled. "You take things too seriously."

"You make things sound too serious." She shrugged. "Sorry, then." "You didn't tell me, though," I said, opening my eyes, "Why might you move?" She stayed silent, bringing her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on them. I rubbed her back soothingly. "You can tell me." She vibrated gently. "I know." "Allie..." "My parents - they're getting a divorce," she said, "They told me I could choose who I live with." She turned to me, her eyes wide, a tear rolling down her chee k, "Can you believe them? They made me choose!" Without thinking, I pulled her into a hug. "Shh..." "And," she breathed on my shoulder, "I want to stay - but then he hates me and I can't - I can't stay with someone who-" I patted her back, her pain making its way through me. "It's okay, everything's gonna be fine." "No!" I stayed silent. "I wish I can disappear." "Oh, sweetie..." My grip tightened around her. This was a slow day for my head; things couldn't b e digested easily, maybe because they were so, unbelievably horrible. I wouldn't have described this as 'unbelievably horrible' any other day (seriously; two of my ex-girlfriends moved away and it was okay), but to think someone so little s uffered so much hurt me, and I knew exactly how much she was hurt, and it hurt t wice as hard knowing that. A moment later, she pulled away. "Stop making me tell you," she muttered. I gave her the best smile I could muster, and it wasn't even a good one. "Ain't gonna happen." "You know," she said, "I was right." I frowned. "About what?" "You are better than cable." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------With Allie finally back home, I needed another way to tune the current events do wn. I loathed how I couldn't control my emotions any more. Maybe I did need a va cation away from everything, from everyone. I needed to sort things out a bit so I could continue. Sometimes I wanted to go back to my father and tell him I cou ldn't be what he wanted me to be; being responsible of a whole pack of werewolve s, a sister and an imprint with problems and being mentally stable just did not match in any possible way. The old man was still in an excellent shape, he could

take charge of the pack whenever he wanted, and this was the first time I was s eriously considering it. Running - running was powerful. It came in third place after Allie then alcoholslash-drugs in the tuning out policy, and it was even better as an animal, when everything was processed simply. At 3:45 p.m, nobody was on patrol; this was the time when the younger ones studi ed, and the older ones ate and just stayed at home. I, on the other hand, was ne ither; I finished high school (and never got the chance to go to college like I wanted. Talk about unfair) and, thankfully, wasn't married or even engaged. I ju st had this bond with a 12-year-old that insisted to jumble my life a tad more e very day. But it was relaxing not having to hear voices and thoughts in my head. It was that sweet until my sister phased. I can't do it. It just...doesn't feel right. What can't you do? I asked. Instinctively, she answered. I can't be his girlfriend now. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whose what? I could see she wasn't in control of her thoughts. I just saw Randy and he impri nted on me. How come you didn't tell me he phased? Why? I stopped mid-track, breath knocked out of me. Randy imprinted on you? When? About thirty minutes ago, she beamed, can you believe it? Randy Uley imprinted o n me! I believed it, but it still made me sick to my core, especially after hearing wh at she was worried about. Three whole years of the suffering that surrounded Sarah and our whole family, he told her he hated her and made her live the consequences; you couldn't just t ell a wolf that imprinted on you that you hated him or her - Randy and Sarah wer e a first (and hopefully a last). Don't get me wrong, I was happy my sister woul dn't have to go through it any more. But it still made me fucking sick. According to what twisted kind of imprinting was he able to get her, even as a f riend (that girlfriend issue was a whole new deal)? According to what sick sense was he able to take her for granted? With some magic look he could have her as whatever he wished? Just because she was ready to be everything he needed, he co uld use her? Did he ask her to be his girlfriend? Was that why she was so confus ed about it? A wave of pain rushed through my body, and it took me a second to realize it was n't coming from me. Shit. She was listening. I'm phasing back, gonna sleep at home, she thought, and my head was clear again. Without any further thinking, I ran towards the Uley's, phased back and waited f or Randy to come out; his patrol today should start at four p.m. Once he got out , I jogged his way, catching him before he phased. I stood right in front of him

. "Um, hey?" "I need to talk to you," I said, crossing my arms over my chest, glaring at him. "Yeah? What do you want to tell me?" he asked, leaning on the tree behind him ca relessly. I wondered where he got that attitude; neither Sam nor Emily were no w here as arrogant and careless as that kid was. I narrowed my eyes at him, approaching him slowly, the riffle of the grass the o nly obvious sound. "You think it's easy, huh?" I said, my voice dripping acid, " You just imprint on her and everything goes back to normal? Everything is okay?" He raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?" My hands ached to meet his face. I just wanted to feel him hurt and bleeding. Da mn my inappropriate thoughts. "You broke her too much, Uley," I explained, "You can't expect her to just heal with one magic look or any of that." That was the nicest way I could put it. "Did she say something?" I shook my head, my hands balled into fists. He'll heal. If I act immature now n o one will blame me. We've all walked home with scratches and broken noses at so me point. But, no. I knew that if I started to let just some of my anger out at him, this wasn't going to be over except when one of our souls goes back to its creator, and I was much stronger than him - I didn't even want to think about a mourning Sarah. The one I had now was depressed and broken, add mourning and I h ad the perfect zombie right at home. "No, but that was what she was thinking on patrol," -well, kind of - "She was thinking how she couldn't feel for you more t han just a friend, and she blames herself for it," I added, "I don't know about how you feel, but I came here to tell you one, very important thing, Randy." "What is it?" "Don't you ever dare to force her into anything just because she cares for you," I warned, hissing, "The last thing you'd ever want to do is mess with a part-va mpire shape-shifter." "I would never-" I cut him off, my hand snapping to his throat. Somewhere deep inside me, I felt bad for enjoying his physical pain, but the rest of me was beyond the point of c aring. "You don't know how much I hate what you have done to her -how much I jus t want to-" kill you, torture you, feel you writhe in pain. No, Colby, no. You'r e the Alpha - you can't think like that. I took a deep breath, stepping back, my hands falling to my sides. "Don't hurt her more, understood? She was supposed t o patrol this evening as well, but she's sleeping at home. Don't think of going there, if you don't want any angry vampires and a werewolf. Family's visiting." He grimaced and nodded. I ran a hand through my hair before running the opposite way and phasing mid-air . I needed to get out of there before I did something really stupid, so I took a couple of quick steps only to hear him say, "What? No other rules?" I swear, he was digging his own grave.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON The atmosphere at home was beyond choking; Mom was at her old apartment, getting everything ready for her to move and ever since Colby dropped me (and accidenta lly met my father in the process), Dad had been eerily quiet; he didn't say anyt hing for about three whole hours and it was making me nervous. I didn't know wha t to tell him - how to tell him I didn't want to live with him. Sure, he might h ave thought of me as a 'mistake' he didn't want to repeat, and sure, he might no t be my biggest fan, but he was still my father, and I couldn't just tell him I didn't want to spend any more time with him - because, deep down, I did, and it was confusing me. But, suddenly, cutting the silence, he muted the TV and turned his head to face me. "How do you know that Colby guy?" I blinked. "He's Uncle Embry's cousin." He nodded. "I know," he said, "But why did he drop you here? How do you know him ?" he repeated. Oh, Dad. He just saw me in the supermarket, imprinted on me, followed me home, t hat type of wolf stuff. "He has this super awesome car," I explained truthfully, "So he always offers to come pick me up when I call Mary and tell her I want to go spend some time with her." He raised his eyebrows at me, unconvinced. "A-And he, uh," I stuttered, "Why are you asking?" My relationship with Colby was hard to explain, period. He eyed me warily, leaning his forearms on his knees. "Because I don't like you hanging around him that much." "W-Why not?" "Because," he said, licking his lips, "Because he's just - Allie, I don't want y ou around him and that's it." I closed my eyes, leaning back in my seat. "Do you have to add to the reasons wh y I'm not staying here?" Most of the times, I hated it when I spoke my thoughts without processing them, but this time, I was glad I let it out. He sighed. "I know you need your mother," he said, "I won't keep you from her; y ou can see her whenever you want-" "It isn't about that," I snapped, never opening my eyes, afraid I'd see him hurt - I didn't want that. I was no angel, but there were some people that, no matte r what they did, would always be precious to me - that was one of the reasons I couldn't get how he didn't love me; what had I ever done? "You don't want me to stay, I know that." "What? No," he rushed, "No, no, no - what are you saying, Allie? I'd love to hav e you stay here with me." Stop it.

"...You're my daughter, honey. I love you." I finally opened my eyes, only to find him standing right in front of me. "No, y ou don't!" He knelt down, putting both our eyes in the same level. I totally got my blue ey es and light hair from my mother's side. "What makes you say that?" I was going to cry. Shit I was going to cry. "I heard,"-I swallowed- "I heard yo u call me a mistake." His eyes widened. "You're not a mistake, honey. Stop thinking that way," he said and attempted to pat my head but I pulled back, "I - you heard our argument tha t night, didn't you?" I nodded. "I never - I don't think of you like that, Allie" he said, "You're my little gir l." I wanted to believe him so bad, but I was a 12-year-old, not a brainless creatur e. "Do," - he took a deep breath - "Do you want to know why I said that?" I grimaced, deliberating, but nodded anyway. "Will you believe me?" I didn't respond. "You see," he said, "My father - your grandpa - he was a," - he took another dee p breath, "He wasn't exactly what you might call normal." "What do you mean?" "He wasn't human."

Chapter 8

ALISON ANDERSON "He wasn't human."

My eyes widened, and I gave him the best gasp I could muster. After learning abo ut Colby, the whole pack, and the Cullen coven, learning that my grandfather 'wa sn't human' wasn't exactly what you would call surprising. Maybe I was a little surprised how I never knew about this, but then, I'd never met my grandfather fr om my father's side. "What was he, then?" I whispered, leaning close to my father's overly-worried fa ce that I was probably witnessing for the first time in my life. He grabbed my hand, pulling me after him. "I'll show you, come on." We walked into what used to be both my parents' room, and I watched him get out an old-looking book from the bottom of his wardrobe and handed it to me. "This i s his diary, take a look at the first few pages." Cautiously, my heart pounding with anticipation and excitement, and read. '15th of January 1999 I thought it skipped my generation. Billy and Harry said it did. They told me, loud and clear, that because no cold ones were around, the gene wouldn't be activated. I don't know why that happened today, I truly don't. I thought moving to Canada would guarantee a normal life for me and my small family, but I guess something like that couldn't be guarante ed when you're a Quiluete. If you're reading this, you're probably either a thief, or I'm dead. Let me intr oduce myself properly, in case you don't know much about me. I'm Ben Anderson, a twenty-three-year-old, the father of John and Betty, step-fa ther of William (even though he now holds my last name) and the proud husband of their mother. For a couple of days, I've been noticing how some stuff were off about me; my temperature has been running a lot higher and my anger took another , more physical form. There was no doubt I was on the verge of phasing any secon d. What scares me even more than the idea of phasing, was why I was going to phase. There were cold ones around, and I couldn't feel safe or secure with them aroun d my family. Apparently, I'd be able to take them down, but what sort of defense could my six-year-olds and twelve-year-old children pull against something so p owerful? Help me, God.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------28th January 1999 The moment I meet those vampires in person, I'll just let them kill me; I deserv e it. Today, I phased. Let me put this more accurately: I was sitting peacefully at home, surrounded by my wife and kids, playing cards on a dark, winter night. Moments passed quickly

, and soon everyone was heading to sleep. Just before I followed, Betty - sweet, little Betty - came running out of her and her twin's bedroom, holding her pink blanket in her hands. "Daddy," she whined, "I can't sleep." I huffed irritably, wanting to get some sleep after a tiring day at work and at home as well and told her I needed to sleep. She insisted to make me tell her a bedtime story like I used to before, since her mother was already asleep. Withou t going into horrible details, I overreacted and started shaking harder than eve r before - something that didn't make my little girl even flinch at my image. "Please, Daddy. C'mon, you love me, right?" That was when it clicked, and I burst into a giant wolf. Tomorrow morning is my daughter's funeral - the daughter I murdered with my own hands. I love you, Betty. I hope you forgive me.' I gasped, covering my face with my hands, the images of both the scarred Emily a nd a little girl covered in her own blood never leaving my sight, tears fighting their ways out of my eyes, thoughts scrambled in my head. "I saw him myself that day," Dad mumbled, sitting on his bed, "I saw him on all fours, and I saw my sister, too." "I didn't know I had an aunt," I breathed, "Does Uncle William know?" If he did, I didn't think he would let his daughter marry a werewolf. Dad shook his head. "William was told the official story - that it was an animal attack." "Oh," I breathed, hugging Dad gently, quickly. "Sorry." "That's why I didn't want kids, honey - in case I became the person my father wa s. But, now I'm sure I won't phase, I don't want to take the risk that maybe my child will have that gene - what if he's a boy? Then he'll definitely be one of them." I froze, taking in the information. "Believe me, I don't regret you, Alison." Words were knocked out of me; I couldn't believe what happened - from the start; from the fact that I was part Quiluete, that I might be carrying the wolf gene somewhere in me, inactive, to the drastic scenario that happened right before my father's eyes. It was too horrible to be true. And I thought I had family issue s. "I'm sure you don't believe that he really was-" I shook my head. "No, I do." He raised his eyebrows. "You do?" I just nodded, biting my lip. "Don't tell me," he muttered, "He told you."

I played dumb. "He who?" He grimaced. "That Colby - he's a werewolf, too, isn't he?" I groaned internally; the next scenario was inevitable: I'd tell Dad he was a we rewolf, Dad would forbid me from ever seeing him again (he did have a point, but I knew Colby would never hurt me), and everything would be a lot harder. "Colby? A werewolf? What makes you think that?" He huffed, standing up. "You're taking this too lightly, he's a Quiluete who's t oo warm and too big for an average human, and he's hanging around you way too mu ch - he's a werewolf and you know." Did you have to meet him and shake hands with him, Colby Thomas-freakin'-Black? I stayed silent, looking down at my feet. "What's his last name?" he asked. "Black," I answered, not looking up. "He's Billy Black's son?" he asked, surprised. "Grandson," I corrected, still in my position. "How old is he?" "Fifteen," I replied truthfully. "How d-" "Dad, please," I whined, "Enough with the twenty questions, please." "Don't you get it?" he exclaimed, and I looked up to find him pacing back and fo rth in front of the door, "He can kill you if he loses control for a second." "But he won't." "How do you know that, huh? My father killed his own flesh and blood - nothing w ill matter when he loses control," he insisted, still pacing, "Allie, you have t o promise me you won't see him - or any of those werewolves ever again." I crossed my arms over my chest. "I can't promise you that, Dad." "You have to. Mary made her own decisions when she married Embry, and William wo uldn't listen. But, you - you can't even be around them. I can't-" "He won't hurt me!" I repeated, "I know he won't - Dad, please." "No!" I stomped my foot angrily, fighting inappropriate tears. "It doesn't matter, I'l l move in with Mom anyway." "First of all, even if you do move with your mother, you're still my daughter, y oung lady," he said sternly, "And, secondly, you're not seeing them again and th at's final." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK

Everyone around me in the mansion was talking, discussing some nonsense, or eati ng, as I ruined my phone's keypad with the constant redialing of Allie's number. It was 8 p.m. now, and for half an hour, her cell phone had been switched off. This girl was definitely, definitely going to be the death of me. She did that w hile she was twelve - what would she do to me when she becomes a couple of years older? Alice walked over to me with gentle, barely-audible steps, landing on the couch next to me, leaning to whisper in my ear. "I'm so sorry." I frowned, redialing. "Why?" She stayed silent, and I could see from my peripheral vision how she looked down at her hands for a brief second, before looking up to me. "Allie won't be seein g you for a while, a long one." My fingers stopped, lingering over the keypad. "What? Why? What happened to her? Is she okay?" She grimaced. "She's fine," she reassured, "But her father wouldn't let her see you anymore, and he took her cell phone as well." I inhaled deeply, just the slightest bit relieved. "Why wouldn't he?" She shrugged. "That I didn't catch. Sorry, Colby; I would've if you told me to k eep an eye on her." It was hard to believe that tiny, guiltily apologizing creature was my great aun t. "Don't worry 'bout it," I said, mainly to myself, "He'll come around; it's ju st that - Allie and I are hard to explain; you can't really call it a normal fri endship, and at the same time, we're not a couple, so he might be having a probl em with that, right? Please tell me he'll get over it." I sounded too calm, but I knew it was Jasper's doing. Esme spoke from across the room. "You have nothing to worry about, honey. Seth had the same problem when A my was Alison's age, didn't he?" "Yeah, but her mother knew the legends and was okay with the imprint - that made things easier." "I think all you should worry about right now is this," Mom said, flinging a sta ck of papers on my lap. "What's that?" "What you've always wanted - college applications," my mother said, smiling kind ly in my direction, "Seeing the current situation, you don't have to fill them n ow, or even this year, if you don't want; just know you can, and you don't have to worry about the pack during that time." For a moment, I forgot about everything - about Allie, about her father, about R andy or anyone around me; I just remembered my old dream. Even though I might no t look like it, ever since I was a little kid, and Aunt Rose was home-schooling me, I'd grown a passion for mathematics. I'd always wanted to study it purely not combined with physics or chemistry; just pure mathematics. The responsibilit ies I'd always had on my shoulders forced me to throw everything related to coll ege in the back of my mind. I smiled involuntarily, and I saw how it was reflect ed on everyone's faces, including Sarah's, and that made me grin harder.

"You deserve a break, son," Dad told me, winking. "Thank you guys so much. You don't know how mu-" "Actually, we do," Edward said. "Ruining the moment, honey," Bella giggled, hugging him. He was smiling, leaning down to kiss his wife's hair, when he suddenly froze, gl ancing at Alice then Dad. "Jacob, I need to talk to you." Everyone immediately stood up. "What is it?" I asked in my Alpha voice which, un fortunately, never worked on anyone but wolves. Edward deliberated for three seconds and stayed in the room, looking at Dad. "Do es the name Ben Anderson ring any bells?" Dad concentrated, frowning. "Ben, Ben Anderson - I remember that name, I just ca n't remember whose name it is." "Anderson? Isn't that Mary's last name?" "And Alison's," I added. "Why, Edward?" Bella asked before turning to Alice, "What did you see?" Leaning on Jasper's shoulder, Alice answered calmly. "It looks like little Allie is another wolf descendant." Before anyone could express any surprise or curiosity, Dad spoke. "Bidziil Atear a - Old Quil's younger brother. Changed his name before immigrating to Canada, u sed to be one of the elders, but he wasn't a wolf - this whole generation didn't phase." "Do you mean..." Sarah started. "Alison is Quil's third cousin," I breathed, stunned. "First cousin once removed, actually," Esme corrected. "How come nobody knows?" Mom asked, "That means Mary is, too." Edward answered her. "She doesn't know, and neither does her father and I don't think John Anderson ever mentioned it around the wolves - they would've known an d-" "Nothing stays a secret in a wolf pack," Dad continued, grimacing. "But her father isn't a wolf," I noted. "Mary told me once about that; William, her father, moved back to Forks from Can ada just before she was born and John came about ten years after that, married A llie's Mom and has been going back and forth between Forks and British Columbia, " Mom mumbled. Thank God for vampire memories. "So he wasn't around vamps long enough," Emmett noted. "Maybe that's why," Carlisle said.

I sunk in my seat, thinking it through. That little fact changed everything, and if I wanted her truly safe, I knew what I had to do. "The farther she is from m e - from us the less likely she'll phase." "Why do you have to stay away?" Jasper asked, "Once we go back to Canada, only N essie will be the vamp in town." "I can still drink blood, I'm not taking any risks," I declared. "You do realize this is absolute nonsense, don't you, Colby? That means you'll h ave to stay away from her forever," Sarah noted. I shook my head. "No, not forever," I immediately answered. "She can phase at any minute, and we, all, can't move away, Colby - and when my generation first phased, the Cullens being in Forks and us in La Push didn't sto p us," Dad said. "She's a direct descendant!" "And so are Rach and Becca, but they didn't phase," Mom reasoned. I sighed. "I don't know," I admitted, but I knew deep down how she had always ha d that temper, "This is too confusing; I mean, why else would her father want to keep her away?" "Afraid of another Sam/Emily incident, maybe?" Bella suggested. I flinched at the image of Allie in Emily's place, but stayed silent. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON "Cloe, Cloe," I stage whispered in class. She turned her head slightly to me ove r her shoulder, giving me a look that said 'What?'. "I need your cell." She rais ed an eyebrow but handed to me discreetly anyway. "What was I saying Miss McHenry?" Our science teacher said. "Something about how light refracts between media, right?" Cloe answered. He nodded and went off explaining while I attempted to text Colby. 'Will u pick me up early today? i need 2 tell u sth -A.A' Fidgeting in my seat, I waited for him to reply, which he did after about a minu te. 'no ditching. -Tom' 'i wont get 2 c u l8er!' 'PE in 2 hours?' 'and art after. c'mon.' 'meet me where we met ur friends last time at exactly 11. pay attention to class now'

I sighed, the bell finally announcing the end of the short science lesson, Cloe snatching the phone from my hand. "I don't have unlimited texting, you know." I smiled. "Sorry, Cloe." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Mr. Thomas," I mumbled, "Heard the latest news?" "Well, let's see," he said, "About you being a descendant?" I rolled my eyes. "Is there anything else?" "Yeah," he shrugged, "Like, I don't know, maybe you switching your phone off-" "I didn't!" "But your Dad did," he smirked, only relying on his left hand to drive. "Why doe sn't he want me around you? What did I do?" "He's afraid you might, er," I swallowed, "Hurt me - but I defended you! I told him-" "No, he's right," he said, his face straight, emotionless. "I might just do that ." I frowned. "What? But you said-" "I said I would never, not I could never." I raised my eyebrows at him. "Well, I know you can, but you won't, and that's mo re important." He winced. "Allie," he started, "I think we should-" he grimaced, "-keep a dista nce. We'll hang out every now and then - like today. But you can't be around me or any of my family for a while, and, believe me, I don't know how long it will be."

Chapter 9

ALISON ANDERSON "Take me home," I insisted, "Now."

It didn't need a genius to know the reason behind not being around me wasn't 'no t hurting me'; obviously, if that was the real reason, he wouldn't have approach ed me or made sure we never skipped a day without each other in the first place. It had something to do with what my grandfather was, and I had no idea what it was. I was his imprint, wasn't I? Did that information just some sort of disqual ified me from being his imprint? Was it who my grandfather was? I honestly felt like I was going to cry, but I had no will to. "Please, now." "But Allie-" he started, but I cut him off. "Home. Now." Dad wouldn't be back until four, and I knew where the spare key was ; it wouldn't be a problem to get in my house. "Just let me explain-" "Don't talk to me," I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest, trying to trap t he tears inside. So he didn't, he didn't even try to explain anything to me; he just pulled my cl oser to him, kissed the top of my head, and that was, apparently, the last of Co lby Black for me, and would be for a very long time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK It stung, and the more I drove away from her house, the more it did. I wanted to go back to her, but, no; I wouldn't take back my words. I would've if it didn't mean that she could be hurt, in a way or the other, if I did. I was almost onehundred percent sure I wouldn't hurt her myself - not in a million years. But th ere's one thing about us, werewolves, that we all have in common, without any ex ceptions: if we had the choice to be normal - completely human - we would take i t in a heartbeat, and if we had the choice to stop someone so human, so pure, so , incredibly innocent, from turning into the beasts we knew we were somewhere de ep inside ourselves, even if our reasons and acts were noble, we would never hes itate to take it, and embrace it with all our will. Even I, the part vampire, the son of the previous Alpha, and the one who had nev er been, not for a second, a human, would hate to see my little imprint face the same life we're facing. Immortality, youth, power - they all meant nothing comp ared to humanity, nothing at all. Even if I had to watch her grow older than me, at least in looks. Even if I had to hear her complaints every day about not being immortal. Even if I had to watc h her die someday. Even if I had to explain, several decades from now, how we we re, maybe, just maybe, husband and wife. Even if I had to explain to other gener ations that would follow us. Even if I had to watch her die and live without her for what would probably be forever. Even if I had to watch my own descendants s ome day, at some point, grow older. I would rather be tortured to death than mak e her live a life of a werewolf or even worse, a cold-blooded vampire - things I was a combination of. She might not be able to understand my point of view now. If I told her the real reason behind the gap I decided to place between ourselves, she would throw a f it about it and guilty me into taking back my words. But someday, I was sure, I would tell her, beg her to forgive me, and then, maybe, just maybe, everything w

ould be right again. Everything would be okay. I sighed deeply, jerking the car to a stop, running my hands through my hair, tr ying to regulate my breath when I heard my phone ring. I glanced at the caller's ID - Alice. Without processing the act, I flung the phone out of my window, hea ring it crush into fine pieces. I didn't need to be reminded of what I did right now, nor blamed for it either. I didn't want to phase, I didn't want to go home , I didn't want to go anywhere or do anything - I needed to be alone, both physi cally and mentally. I wouldn't even answer Sarah if she 'communicated' with me. That was why I ended up in San Fransisco, California later that day. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Oh my God, Colby!" Mom screeched through the public phone, "We were worried sic k!" I grimaced. "Sorry, Mom. Didn't mean to. But I'm not a little kid anymore." "Hell yeah, you are!" Dad yelled, apparently taking the phone from Mom, and I wa s half-tempted to hang up, "A person who takes this sort of decisions isn't an a dult. Do you realize what you've done? You left your pack behind, your resp-" "You said I deserve a break!" I protested, my body shaking a bit, "It's not like I'm moving away for good - just leave me alone, dammit!" "You're fifteen - you're barely even-" "What, Dad?" I muttered, "Are we talking real age now? Because if we are, you ma rried Mom while she was six - so don't even go there." I heard him growl, throwing the phone somewhere solid, before Emmett picked up t he phone. "You're in a huge trouble, man," he said, "I've never seen him this an gry." "Just tell Alice to keep an eye on Allie," I mumbled, "It's important." I hung up, not regretting either of my decisions, but wishing I wouldn't have to suffer their consequences. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON Unlike me, I stayed in bed all day, refusing to get out of it even when my fathe r insisted. He tried to know what was wrong, but even I had no idea. I didn't kn ow what was wrong - what caused this whole thing. There was something wrong with me, or with who my family was, I knew, but I didn't know what or why or how and it was driving me insane. "Allie, you might want to unlock your door, you know," Dad said, "You haven't ea ten anything and I made some pasta." Dad had crossed the line between stern and pleading about six hours ago, but eve n if I was in the mood for eating, I wouldn't risk my life and try something my father, the John Anderson, had cooked. I would rather die from a heart attack th an full-blown food poisoning.

"No, thanks, Dad." He sighed. "I know you're mad at me because I wouldn't let you see that guy, but trust me, it's for the best." What was with those people and deciding what was best for me? This was my life, and I was ready to deal with any damn consequences if I had to, but they had no right to decide what was best for me. Only I did. "I'm not mad at you," I said, burying my head in my pillow. I wasn't, really; I was just totally and universally confused. "Yeah, right," he snickered, "You just locked yourself in your room and refused to see me because you woke up feeling like it." "Dad, seriously just leave me alone," I whined, flipping the pillow on my head. I could've been talking to a brick wall because a couple of minutes later, I hea rd him unlock my door, obviously with his spare key, and felt him sit beside me on the bed, patting my back. "I'll order some fast food," he reasoned, "And we'l l even go out this evening-" "Dad, stop." "Allie, honey, I told you I'm sorry. I don't like how you're unhappy, but you're gonna thank me in the future." "Nope." "I'm serious, Alison," he said, getting up, "I want you downstairs in three minu tes." I groaned as he slammed my door shut; I hadn't realized until that moment how mu ch Colby's presence affected me, and now that Dad was probably one of the reason s he knew who I am, and thus the distance he decided to put between us which I s uddenly felt wasn't temporary, I didn't feel like even talking to him, let alone going downstairs. And I still really, really, didn't want to die with bad pasta. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK Twenty-two bottles of vodka, all sour and completely unappealing, completely eva porated from my system three minutes after I swallowed them, only leaving me wit h a burn in the back of my throat similar to the one I used to have when I regul arly hunted. Hm, that doesn't seem like a very bad idea now; one of those drunke n bastards can get the alcohol in my system better than this whole bar combined. Stop thinking that way, Colby. Oh, just damn great; I was talking to myself. I banged my head to the bar, managing to keep it intact in the process somehow, groaning. This whole plan to stay in my human form, away from home and everyone in a city I'd never been to was so simply worse than a psychotic stray bloodsuck er looking for his dead mate, and that was a major understatement. What was wors e than both combined was my idiotic plan to stay away from Allie. By now, at 4 a .m, I was sure Alice could find the blind spot on the map - probably the only bl

ind spot in CA - and knew exactly where I was, and a private jet to a Cullen was like the a cab; they could take it any time. But they left me alone, and I was part-glad they did; I didn't want anyone, especially Mom, to see me like that. I f I looked anywhere near what I felt, she wouldn't even recognize me. Are you okay, Colby? Sarah asked for the thirteenth time in two hours, and, as u sual, I didn't respond, not until I remembered something. Tell them to stop worrying about me. Why don't you phase? It'll help relieveI want some privacy, dammit! Now, could you stay the hell out of my head? And she did, at last. Half an hour later, another voice interrupted my ignorant bubble. "Hello, there. " I gritted my teeth together. "Stay away, I'm in no mood for talking." "Mmm," the female voice - the female vampire voice- hummed, "Interesting...cinna mon with an edge that burns, and a little stink." From my position, on the table, very carelessly, I replied. "Here's the deal: ei ther you turn vegetarian, run off or pick your death wish. That's not my happies t day so I'm letting you choose." She laughed. "Special indeed." I growled discreetly, knowing she would hear. "You're lessening your options." I felt her hand approach my face, but, apparently, she knew better than to touch me. "Why don't you listen to your options?" "Get. Out. Now," I rumbled, getting up, slamming the money on the table, stridin g towards the door, feeling her on my trail. Once I was out of the bar, I inhale d the air deeply, only distracted by her burning scent as she stood beside me, l eaning on the wall of the bar, which was when I took a look at her. She was tall , a couple of inches shorter than me, with dark blond hair and dark red, thirsty eyes, wearing simple jeans and a hoodie that was two sizes too small. She felt familiar in a way - her scent was familiar. Maybe in someone's head at some poin t, but not recently - no; I would've recalled that. What scared me was how I cou ldn't exactly remember who she was; usually, vampires run off nomads or as coupl es, and rarely three in one coven with the exception of the Cullen clan and what -used-to-be the Volturi. I couldn't put her face with her scent, or her scent wi th anything actually. "Who are you?" She smiled playfully. "My name is Chelsea," she said, "A nomad." I snickered. "You're lying, Chelsea. Gimme some credit." "How about," she mumbled, "My name is Chelsea and I'm here to get you."

Chapter 10

COLBY BLACK Get me? A bloodsucker came suddenly and was there to get me? Me? And I thought I 'd seen it all. "If you're here to get me, you must know I can snap your head in half now if I w ant to." She smiled. ''Impressive,'' she purred, ''But once you know why I want you, you won't want to kill me.'' I almost rolled my eyes. ''Then why do you want me?'' ''Well,'' she started, pausing, ''I lost my coven several years ago.'' I frowned. ''The Volturi?'' She nodded. ''They used to rule us.'' ''Funny how you say 'us','' I noted, ''I'm not a bloodsucker.'' She chuckled. ''You're Edward's grandson, how can you not be?'' ''What do you want from me?'' I groaned, leaning my head on the wall. ''Their death was leaked, we need a new ruler.'' I wanted to laugh at 'ruler', or tell her to go buy one, but I focused on what m attered the most. ''Again, what do you want from me?'' She raised an eyebrow at me. ''You're a member of the largest-'' ''I'm not a 'member' in the Cullen clan; they're family and there's a difference , leech.'' She ignored me. ''The largest coven, the Cullens. And you're, by far, the most p owerful vampire of all.'' I huffed. ''How many times do I have to tell you this? I am not a fucking vampir e! Now leave me alone, go find yourself some idiot to agree, and stay the hell a way from me and my family.'' ''Let me rephrase,'' she said, ''You're the most powerful creature of all - you' re more powerful than vampires, more powerful than shape-shifters, and I bet you 're even more powerful than werewolves,'' she added, ''Plus, you'll be well-resp ected by the whole vampire world, you won't have to worry about anyone coming ne

ar Washington if you will, and you'll have fortunes running between your fingers ,'' she continued, putting a light hand on my shoulder, taking me in a daze, ''W hat are you waiting for? Let's fly to Volterra, or do you have someone to go bac k to?'' And for a second, I wasn't sure. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON Finally, I thought as soon as the bell rang, announcing the ending of our PE les son; even though we were out playing in the open field (yes, a miracle happened and Forks was not raining), and today we played tennis, the air felt so thick an d so still - every few minutes I had to concentrate on the act of breathing. "Are you okay?" Cloe asked, frowning, "You look kinda pale." I shrugged. "I don't feel so well," I whispered, the tightness in my chest not a llowing me to speak any louder. I winced. "Should I take you to the nurse?" I shook my head. "I'll be fine." Ever since yesterday, nothing went well; I couldn't sleep until 2 a.m, I had nig htmares, I woke up thirty minutes late, I totally forgot to bring my homework an d, now, I wasn't feeling well. Thank you very much, Colby Black. Yes, I thought he had something to do with all of this; why did all these things happen to me w hen he wasn't around? Even his phone was off. I walked with Cloe, Jarrett following us. With every step I took, my chest tight ened up a bit more, and my breaths got shallower. I tried to think of something else, but every happy thought in my brain seemed to end up with Colby - I know h ow cliche that sounds, but it was true; even the thought of chocolate chip cooki es ended up reminding me of how he thought it would improve my mood a couple of days ago. That was the tightness struck. Hard - harder than ever. And I stopped in my plac e, trying to work on my breathing, attempting to inhale, but the pain making me regret it. "C-Cloe." "Oh God, oh God, oh God," she panicked as I sat down, leaning my back on the loc kers, still concentrating on the process - sometimes enduring the pain to breath e, and others enduring the breathlessness to avoid the pain. "Jarrett! Jarrett! Go get someone! Quick! Now!" In, out. In, out. In, out. I could tell people were gathering around us, blocking my last chances of air, a nd the more people gathering, the less my vision was aware of their presence. Fo r a second, I seriously thought I was going to die; the less breaths I took, the less control I could take over my body, and the less control the less safety, a nd the thought of death wasn't irrational at the point. I was never suicidal, bu t I had moments when I thought it would give me the rest I sometimes craved - li ke now. I'm not ready to die, a voice in me said. ''Allie, Allie," Cloe said, shaking me, hard.

''Is she breathing?'' Someone asked. ''Her lips are blue.'' ''Where's that nurse?'' ''Give her some room!'' What's wrong? Tell me what's wrong! Colby's voice, from more than one memory, ec hoed in my head, and, for a while, I think I even forgot how to breathe before b lackness crept over everything. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK "What are you trying to do?" Chelsea huffed, frowning in concentration. "So strong," she muttered, "I can't e ven shake it." This morning, Chelsea kept asking me some absurd questions; stuff like if I want ed to see 'Sarah'. "Sara who?" I'd asked her, and she'd smiled, "Your sister," s he'd answered. Sister. Hm. Interesting. I had no will to see her, to call her or anything. I didn't forget her, but her identity to me was blurry; I didn't feel like I wanted to go back home because I missed her, or Mom, or Dad; I wanted to keep wandering a bit more to keep Allie safe. I missed her, so much it was painful at times, but knowing that what I was doing was for her best benefit. "Look, Chelsea," I said, sitting up, my eyes sore from the lack of sleep. "I don 't know how you're thinking, but you just sticking around me isn't going to conv ince me. Seriously, go find someone else - I'm not interested." "So you're going back to Washington?" I sighed. "I don't know - maybe not." "Then why won't you come? People would kill for a position like that! You'll hav e the most talented, most experienced vampires and wolves following your every w ord," she said, then leaned her head on my shoulder, running her fingers up my a rm, intriguing both my primary wolf and puke instincts, "We could rule the world ." "Chelsea," I growled, "Get off of me, and leave me alone. I don't want to become the new Volturi and I don't want to be with you," I shrugged her off, "One more second in my car, I'll chop you, burn you and the car." Her features hardened as she opened the Ferrari's door. "If that's how you want to play." "Yes, please." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON "Allie," Mary whispered in my ear, trying to wake me up, not knowing I was alrea

dy conscious and was savoring the freedom of breath, "Colby's here, don't you wa nt to talk to him?" I snapped my eyes open, scanning the nurse's office around me for Colby, only to find Embry, standing behind Mary, shaking his head. "Where?" I asked, "Where is he?" Mary looked down at the ground, "Sorry, but you won't wake up - he called an hou r ago though. He got a new number. Do you want me to call him?" I sat up with no difficulty, as if I was only sleeping. "Really?" She nodded, getting out her phone. "Alice told Nessie she saw you," she said as she dialed a number, handing me the phone, "What happened?" I just scowled at her, pressing the phone to my ear, my heart thumping when he f inally answered. "Hello?" I stayed silent; I still didn't know why he decided to separate us - maybe he wa s avoiding me, in particular. Will he be mad when he knows I'm the one calling h im? For a second, I didn't care. "Colby." He breathed into the phone. "Oh my God," he said, "Allie, is something wrong?" I couldn't answer him; if I did, I would need to explain why, and if I explained why, I would just humiliate myself even more. "Are you there? Allie?" he repeate d after a while, "Are you mad at me? Is that it? Tell me, please, Allie, you can 't stay silent like that." "I just want to know why, that's all." "Al," he started, "You wouldn't understand me, sweetie. I-" "I'm not a kid anymore, Colby!" "Just trust me, okay!" he yelled, making me flinch. "You know what, Colby?" I muttered, licking my lips, "If you think I'm so immatu re you can't tell me why you did what you did, then you're the immature one who just can't face me." "Allie, you're getting on my nerves. I don't wanna be mad at you." You already are. "Well, I'm sorry I make you mad, and I'm sorry you just can't a ccept who I am," I muttered, "I hope you're feeling half as bad as I'm feeling a bout this, Colby Black." And, with that, I hung up.

Chapter 11

ALISON ANDERSON TRRRN. "Not now, not now," I muttered as I canceled Allen's phone call, re-positioning my new laptop on my desk, opening a new text file that was to be thrown in that over-crowded folder just like any other one. I cleared my throat, clicking my fi rst keys into the document. Dear Colby, I know it's been a few days since I last wrote to you. So, sorry. I hope you're not mad. Yesterday, I went to school. As usual. You know, 7th grade isn't as exciting as I thought it would be before I started; no-one is thinking about anything but ru mors. Rumors, rumors, rumors - I hate them. And when you think they'll forget as soon as something else shows up, they don't; they just stop talking about it fo r a while, but it's brought up in any argument/tease/bullying, etc etc etc. Now you're curious. Hm. I don't know what to say, really. I guess I have to tell you now, since this is bound to be the headline for a couple of days at the ver y least. Last week, that son of- okay, toning it down - I mean, Nate, Jarrett's CrossFire buddy, to my surprise, asked me out (you don't have to ask: I said no) , and now no thanks to Jarr, the whole student body thinks I'm depressed because I 'broke up with the Ferrari guy' - A.K.A you. Arrrrgggghhh... I know how stupi d that is; I mean, I never even dated you! And it's been three months - how do t hey even remember? They can't stop bugging me about it, and I yelled at them, a little too loud and too rude, and now I have daily detention for two weeks. Yeah . Dad's not the proudest father on the planet, but I hope he won't tell Mom. I'm not depressed over what happened, you know? I'm not. Really. No. Never. Okay , maybe a snitch - just a teeny tiny little tad, but not what they think. Someti mes it hurts, like now, but the good kind of 'hurt' you know? Um, you don't. Uh. . well, shutting up. But what I'm trying to tell you is that, even though I know you won't be back, and you don't want to ever see me again (for some reason, yo u idiot) and I don't call you and I changed my number and, and, and - I just kno w dating someone else isn't right; we're soul mates, so even if we're never gonn a be together, being with someone else means that they're DEFINITELY not the one for you - and I seriously don't feel like wasting some time with some jerk when I know we won't get along. Moving to something else. I WENT CLIFF-DIVING YESTERDAY! Yayyyy! Cousins are THE best! You can kill Quil l ater, but it was Claire who insisted I would try, and he can't say no to her and it was the best day E-V-E-R! (But I'll try to convince him to go higher than th e lowest cliff next time). I hope you're okay. I really do. Seriously. I hope you're happy, too. I hope you have cliffs wherever you are. Phase a little more so I can hear about you.

Did you know you look so much like your Dad it creeps me out? Whatever, Allie. I clicked save, threw it in Colby's folder, and shut the laptop down, knowing he would never read them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK "Colby, if not for you then for us. Look, I know you don't miss them, but Ness a nd Jacob just want to see you," Edward told me, "You don't even have to pretend; they understand - just be there." I sighed. Chelsea, for some reason, 'cut my relation' - as Edward put it- with b oth my parents and Sarah, but not the Cullens. Now, they were strangers to me, o r as close as family friends, but they weren't family to me; it made me feel inc omplete in a way, and if Edward hadn't fully explained the reason, I wouldn't ha ve guessed. Of course, I felt bad that someone out there was hurting because of me, and this was the only reason I was going to be there. "When?" "They're there now," he said, "Even your sister. Please, Colby: just try not to be hostile to them." I frowned. "Why would I be?" I said as I slid into his newest Volvo (something a bout an obsession my grandma developed). He didn't reply, instead, he drove and took us to the Canadian mansion. The three of them were sitting in the vast living room, each either fidgeting or looking at the ground, looking abnormal; not the way I remembered them. The las t thing I saw or heard of them (even mentally) was three months ago. I phased tw ice since then; once out of boredom and the other out of frustration of not seei ng Allie or hearing anything from her for so long, and neither of those times I found Sarah or my 'father' there. Once I entered the room, their heads snapped u p, and Mom was the one who hurried to hug me. It felt...out of place. Pleasant, but out of place. Two seconds later, I wrapped my arms around her awkwardly and she took a deep breath, pulling away, taking m y face in her little hands. Her eyes were glistening with hints of tears and her lips quivered whenever she tried to speak, so she sent images through my head, expressing her thoughts. I miss you. The thought itself sent goosebumps in my arms; I wanted to tell her that I misse d her, too. I wanted to make her feel better, but I couldn't lie to her about th at. I couldn't tell her I missed her while I didn't. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I thought, taking a step back. She looked at her feet, sniffing, her curls falling to cover her face. "It's okay; I don't blame you," she muttered. "You know what?" Sarah yelled, jumping to stand between both of us. "I do! I bl

ame you for what happened, Colby!" "What?" I snapped, "It's not my fault some bloodsucker-" "No, it is!" she insisted, growling, "You let her that close when you could've e asily killed her! What did she tell you, huh? What did she have to do to make yo u listen to her?" she yelled, "You make me sick." "Sarah!" Dad warned, "It wasn't his choice." "But he let it happen," she replied, turning to me, "You're not my brother anymo re, you know that? My brother is more responsible - more reasonable. I can't eve n talk to you anymore." "If I could reverse it, I would," I hissed, "So don't even go there." "Yeah, right." "Listen, Sarah," I glowered, "If you deny the fact that I wouldn't reverse what' s been done, I'll-" "What? Kill me? Say it; you left your pack behind, why wouldn't you?" "You two stop this right now!" Dad said. "You know why I left Washington!" "Yeah?" she said, "Because 'Allie might phase'? Is that it? Well, I'm a genetic carbon copy of you, and she's still human. Six vampires crossed the borders in t hree months and she's still human; if she was to phase, she would have." "I don't want to take the chance; I don't want to be whatever triggers her genes ." "Are you even listening?" she said, "She's human, her father's human - she-" "You listen, Sarah," I cut her off, "Rach and Becca are both direct descendants , but both of them left WA for a long time. Leah stayed - she phased. Do you see a pattern here? It's not about gender anymore." "What about the rest of the tribe? How many girls are direct descendants? Brady' s sister, Paul's cousin, Mary... why didn't they phase? It's impossible! Leah an d I are exceptions!" Shut up! You're just saying that because you know I'm right. We both froze; we hadn't been able to do that ever since Chelsea. Ever since wha t happened, we weren't able to communicate mentally, privately. "Did you just... ?" I asked. She smiled, winking at Jasper and Edward. Yes. Yes, I did.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON

"What are you doing up there?" Quil asked. I giggled. "Figured the scene is much better up the tree," I answered. He rolled his eyes. "Well, Monkey Of The Year, your boyfriend called." I raised an eyebrow at him. "What boyfriend?" Quil and Claire often visited/sneaked in/sneaked me out to keep me company since they (and I) knew we were blood-related. "Said his name was Nate, I think. Wann a tell me?" I huffed. "He's not my boyfriend!" I groaned, "I don't even like him!" "He told me to tell you that you can always call," he said, wiggling his eyebrow s. "Quil?" "Yeah?" "Shut up." He laughed. "But he sounded so, so desperate." "Aw, poor little kid," I said, gasping dramatically, "I should bring him chocola te." "You're impossible," he chuckled, shaking his head. "Now hop down; Claire and I are going home, and you probably should-" I covered my ears. "Not listening." He rolled his eyes. "Colby's coming!" he yelled. I stared at him, removing my hands from my ears. "What?" He smiled. "Colby's dropping by to say hi in a few; he's back in town." I blinked. "Dropping by where?" Quil raised an eyebrow at me. "Here...?" I set my mouth in a hard line. "Tell him not to," I decided, "I don't want him t o come." "What do you mean?" I swallowed, not wanting my tears to show in my voice. "I mean," I inhaled deepl y, feeling a slight strain as I did, "H-He- I mean, I don't want to see him agai n." Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. He didn't smile, he didn't nod, he didn't move. "Are you serious?" Tightness, fo r the fourth time in six months, crept over my chest, so I just nodded, turning around, climbing back down as calmly as I could manage, sitting on the grass."II'm not sure i-if - why?"

"Why what?" Claire asked, popping her head from behind him. He shook his head. "Let's go home," he mumbled, giving me a last glance. "I'm so rry, Al." Not wanting to speak, I nodded, waiting until they drove away to finally let som e of the tears out of their cage in my eyes, the silent sobs painful as my breat hing got shallower. This was the fourth time this happened, and the last three w eren't necessarily connected with the thought of Colby, but rather with very ina ppropriate settings. But, again, since when did illness pick a good time to appe ar? I let my mind wander, flash back to when Colby told me he wanted to leave a spac e between us, and when I decided to make that space clear and permanent by not a nswering his calls, and ignoring his frequent e-mails. Instead, and to try to re place the gap he left behind (for some reason, that jerk-head's imprinting reall y did affect me), I kept writing letters to him - letters that never made it out of that folder, neither to the e-mail nor to the recycle bin; they just stayed there, staring at me, telling me how much of an emotional failure I was, and how much I lacked personality - how did I rely on him that much in such a short tim e? How did I let myself be dependent on him? When did I lose control over my breathing again? I didn't know, but the next thi ng I registered was that I was hyperventilating, and for the first time, I didn' t care. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK Every couple of steps towards Allie were followed by a hesitant step back; I kne w speaking to her wouldn't be easy after all this time of disconnection, but I w anted to see her pretty face, hear her musical voice, argue with her stubborn se lf and just be around her; the last few months, regarding Allie, were painful to say the least, but what dulled that pain was that I knew I was doing it mainly for her to achieve the peace neither I nor any of the pack members could achieve since the day we first phased. Alice was monitoring her steps, telling me when she was around wolves, sneaking behind her father's back, and when she was alone or at school. She told me once she had a recent problem that was represented in difficulty of breathing, though . Since she got back to normal after the two 'attacks' Alice caught, neither Car lisle nor Edward could really diagnose it. I was worried sick when she had that problem, but since it'd been two months since Alice's last vision concerning tha t, it faded gradually, leaving me with only the pain of missing her, and missing her alone. How did I survive fifteen years without her before? I had no idea. So when I finally caught a glimpse of her honey-colored hair, I automatically sm iled, quickening my pace to reach her, getting a full-view of her, curled on the grass of her garden, shaking and wincing. Without thinking, I was by her side i n a flash, taking her in my arms. "Allie, Allie," I called, shaking her head, trying to know what was wrong. Her lips' color was fading and she tried to open her eyes, but couldn't. "Al, are you okay? Can you breathe?"

She shook her head faintly, her chest heaving with short, irregular breaths. I w as about to call the ambulance, but suddenly, everything stopped - the shaking, the heaving, the fading of her lips' color - everything. She just took one deep, relaxed breath and straightened herself, taking a second to realize who was the re. Her ocean blue eyes kept going back and forth, taking my presence in slowly. I s tayed silent, noticing how she looked just the same - cute, but instead of her l ooks that could kill, her eyes were soft, and not two seconds passed before she threw her arms around me, hugging me tightly. "I missed you," she whined. Slowly, deliberately, afraid she'd snap, I wrapped my arms around her as well. " I missed you, too. Are you okay? What just happened?" She ignored me. "Would you please forget who I am? Forget I'm a Quiluete too. Pl ease. I don't want you to leave again. Ever." "Honey, I-" "Never, Tommy, do you hear that? I'm begging you. I'll do anything - a-anything. " I winced; I'd never seen her so...so broken. "I won't, I promise." "Ever?" "Ever, Allie. I'll never leave you again." Now, as I remember this situation, I wish I never promised her that; breaking pr omises isn't on my top-five actions.

Chapter 12

ALISON ANDERSON "Cloe, you know I hate surprises," I warned, struggling to get free of her iron grip. What did they feed that chick?

"But you'll love this one, I promise!" she said, "You'll love it so much you'll cry." "Wish you can see me rolling my eyes now." She laughed. "Aw come on! Wait for a second, we're almost there." "Almost where?" "Allie, sweetie, don't worry so much," her mother said, "We're just going to-" "Mom!" She chuckled. "Shutting up." I huffed. Why wouldn't anyone tell me where we were going? Dad called and told me Cloe was driving me after school, and that I was spending the day with her as her mother requested and all I could do was wonder why Cloe freakin' blindfolde d me on the way. God, I wanted to kill her. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Half an hour later, I stepped out of the car, still blindfolded, the cold wind s uddenly hitting me, making me shiver. I could hear people laughing in a distance , but the voices stopped altogether as soon as I took a couple of steps towards them. Cloe was pulling me, excitement obvious in her pace. After thirty minutes of nagging, I learned better than to ask her what was going on again, I just obe yed her demanding pulls silently. When we stopped, she let my hand go, and before I could pull off the blindfold, a very familiar set of arms wrapped themselves around me from behind, knocking t he breath out of me, my heart quickening its pace. I could smell his delicious m usky scent and feel him smiling. "Happy birthday," he whispered in my ears, taking off the black piece of cloth t hat covered my eyes, giving me mental and physical room to breath. Birthday? What birthday? My birthday was last month - I turned thirteen last mon th. I wished I could express that in actual words, but I couldn't; everyone was ther e - Jarr, Cloe, Quil, Claire, Billy, Sarah, Mr. and Mrs. Black, the rest of that goddamn large pack and probably every person on the reservation. "Surprise!" I blinked, my eyes as wide as saucers, unable to form comprehensible (or incompr ehensible) responses, just staring at them. Colby turned around me, kneeling in front of me, his face worried. "You okay? Earth to Allie - is your brain working anymore?" I punched him lightly. "Shut up," I breathed. He laughed along with the others. I hate wolf/vampire/half-vampire super senses. "I know you wouldn't want anything too noisy, and I'm sorry I wasn't here for t he real one - So Little Allie is now Little Allie." I pouted playfully. "C'mon, you're only fifteen."

"And you're only thirteen, honey." "Do not call me little!" He shrugged. "I'll call you little as much as I want." I frowned. "Are you-" "O-kay! Enough of that. Give the girl some space," Claire said, pulling my hand, "Happy birthday, sweetie. Sorry there isn't much, but Colby only told us this m orning." "No, it's fine. That's great." There really wasn't much; if it wasn't for the birthday wishes (and the presence of Jarr and Cloe), I would've thought it was a bonfire - just one held in the b ackyard of Sam and Emily's house (AKA the meeting and event venue and the place where Sarah and Randy hide when they want some 'time alone'. I swear it was gett ing more public by the second). It was sweet, though, how all those people cut t heir plans, made space and time for an event an idiot like my lovely imprint dec ided to throw on the same day. The thought on its own made me smile. She leaned to whisper in my ear. "Let's go say hi to Billy then we're all headin g to the beach. Emily is waiting for us there." "Don't tell me," I mumbled, "She cooked for all those people?" She just laughed and led me on to where Billy was sitting. Billy, at that time, was growing really old, and I knew that despite his young spirit, the grandfathe r and the elder was weakening physically, and thus he couldn't move around a lot , only in planned moves (on his wheelchair, of course). It was a good thing he h ad Rebecca to take care of him continuously. He was leaning his elbows on the arms of his chair, looking at us expectantly. " And finally, we meet, Alison." I smiled kindly at him. Colby had shown me Billy' s pictures before, but I'd never seen him in person. "Happy birthday." "Thank you." He, then, exchanged a brief glance with Claire and she nodded, leaving us alone (as alone as we could be with all those people present). "Stay here for a moment ; I need to tell you something." "Hm?" "That boy over there," he said, jerking his head towards Colby, "Made a very unw ise decision a couple of months ago." I looked down at my feet, grimacing. "...He thought he could prevent you from phasing that way." My eyes snapped to meet his, wide as saucers. "Prevent me from what?" "As Jacob told me, you are aware that you're a Quiluete, too, aren't you?" I nodded. "And you know that what intrigues phasing are the cold ones, don't you?"

Behind me, everyone went silent. I nodded again. "But what Colby doesn't know is that even though factors might be present, if yo u're destined to phase, nothing would stop you," he swallowed and I heard someon e groan from behind, "Alison, I just need you to know one thing." I looked at him questioningly. "Your grandfather was a dear friend of mine, if you need anything, please come a nd ask me, okay?" I nodded. "Thank you." He just smiled and patted my shoulder. Cloe and Jarrett came at that moment. "Ho w do you like it so far? There're still so many things to do on the beach," Jarr noted. I narrowed my eyes at him. "I still hate you." "Aw, come on, it's not like I meant to - I told you I was sorry." I sighed. He was way too tall and too goofily innocent to be mad at, he kind of reminded me of Joey of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, except that I was Monica and he'd broken m y favorite set of china when he spread that stupid rumor and led Nate on - the g uy probably thought he was my boyfriend or something. I shrugged. "What can I do? It's my birthday, gotta be super gracious." Paul roared a laugh. Literally. One thing about being around wolves: you couldn' t have any kind of privacy. "If we knew that, we would've thrown it earlier, Div a." I rolled my eyes. He'd been calling me that for a while. "Thank you so much, Pau l. Such an awesome birthday present!" He just laughed, and I was sure Rachel would at least glare at him later. How co uld Colby possibly compare me to that creature? Sure, he wasn't so bad, but he c an be obnoxious as hell if he wanted to. "Leave the girl alone," Colby whined, stretching out his hand for me, "Shall we? The beach is a few minutes away." I was about to take his hand and go with him when suddenly, and for the second t ime in two days, my recently developed lack-of-breath attack hit me with full fo rce, and I had to take a step back. Shit. "I-I'll just go to the toilet," I excused myself, "Be right back," I whispered, turning around, trying to go inside before the attack took a more physical shape - when I wouldn't be able to support myself standing up. Damn, I needed to go t o a doctor soon. "Are you okay?" he asked, following me. I nodded quickly, knowing my voice would betray me if I spoke, skimming my way i n there. As soon as I was inside, I locked the door, sliding on the clean, tiled floor, wincing as another wave of breathless pain hit me. Tears were forming in the corners of my eyes, squeezed down by my wincing. Someone knocked on the door. "Allie, are you okay? Can you breathe? Should I cal

l the ambulance?" I wished he could hear me think, no, no and no. It'll go away soon. Instead, he invaded my thoughts. Allie, can you hear me? Make a sound or somethi ng. Two seconds and I'll break that door! I tried to take a short breath in order to get any words out, but the pain was t oo much for me to bear. Why was it taking longer than usual? Will it ever end? S hould I let him take me to a hospital? I wasn't sure, and I had no energy to eve n try to decide.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK I knocked again, trying to calm myself down, but it wasn't working. At all. "Ali son!" Her breath hitched one more time, then it got back to its normal rhythm an d I heaved a sigh of relief. "Allie, come on, open the door." She didn't answer. "Allie?" "Is everything alright?" Sam asked from behind. I ignored him and pulled the doo r open only to find her curled in a ball, leaning her back on the wall, her head between her knees. I knelt down in front of her, caressing her hair. "What happened?" I mumbled, "Are you sick? That's the second time-" "Shush," she said, still in her place, "Just a sec." Sam clicked his fingers, capturing my attention. "Hospital?" he mouthed. Should I take her there? That was the second time that happens in two days, and when it happened yesterday, it wasn't the first time. What was going on with her ? I nodded. "I'm taking her," I said. Sarah, I need your car. Are you going to leave her alone? Where the hell are you going? I sighed; typical Rosie. I'm taking her somewhere. Keep them busy until we come back. Now? Seriously? Could you please not argue for one day? Make it quick. "Don't take me anywhere. I'll be fine." I stared at her. "No arguing," I decided, standing up, "Let's go - can you stand up?" She stayed still, her head still buried between her knees. "I'm fine, Colby. I d on't need to-"

"Allie!" I didn't mean to yell at her, I really didn't; I just couldn't watch her do that to herself and not react. When did the girl become so damn masochistic? How cou ld someone lose the ability to provide themselves with the very basic elements o f survival, and then refuse the medication? She could be stubborn at anything homework, hangouts, food, anything - but not her health; that I wouldn't allow. One of her fists clenched tight and she took a deep breath. "Please don't yell." "Have you lost it, Alison? You couldn't fuckin' breathe!" Much to my surprise, she stayed silent, not moving an inch. "Keep it down, Colby," Sam warned. I turned to him furiously. "Look at what she's doing!" She stood up beside me, sighing, and for the first time since I'd known her, she looked scared. I hated myself for ever scaring her. She tucked on my shirt like a little kid. "Please, I'll tell you later. I'm really fine." I wrapped an arm around her. "Just come for me, and if you're fine then you shou ldn't be worried." She grimaced. "Dad'll have to know." "Mmm... Carlisle's still in town - and I'm sure he wouldn't mind-" "Will Edward be there?" I blinked, leading her outside. "Well, yeah, I guess." She rested her palm on her forehead, drawing relaxing circles. "Colby, I swear I 'm fine. It's no use." C'mon. They'll eat dinner as we go, no one will even notice we're gone. As soon as we stepped outside, and finally became alone, she spoke. I noticed ho w Sarah's Porsche was parked and running in a distance, left for us to use. "It' s - is - is that normal?" I frowned. "What's normal?" "I-" she glanced around her nervously, her heart thumping faster, her hands clen ching to my shirt harder. "Tommy, I'm afraid." Why? I opened the door for her, sliding in the driver's seat soon afterward. "What ar e you afraid of?" She shrunk in her seat. "Oh God," she breathed, covering her face as I started t he engine, quickly heading towards the Forks mansion. "Frankly, Allie, I can't understand you." She hitched a sob. "You just came yesterday!"

I frowned. Was she on something? "What? Allie, for heaven's sake, tell me what's on your mind." She didn't speak; instead, I felt her hand rest on the top of my arm and I refle xively let go of the steering wheel and held it reassuringly when she gave me a slip of paper. I raised an eyebrow and held it in eye-sight, reading what it sai d. Wondering what's wrong? Every time you get a little closer to your imprint, I will knock your breath awa y. A shudder, stronger than any other, ripped through my muscles and a growl escape d the back of my throat. I had to concentrate to get my driving straight. "Who g ave you this?" "I couldn't see who it was - it slipped through the bathroom window just before you opened the door," she whispered. I brought it closer to my nose and sniffed. Nothing. There wasn't any scent on t he piece of paper, not even human. "Oh shit." "What is it?" I huffed. The bitch. The only one who could go around without having any scent Jemma, an Italian half-vampire and one of the few survivors of the Romanians/Vo lturi encounter several years ago. "I need you to listen to me, Al," I started s ternly; the last time that creature was involved, Sarah was almost killed, "From now on, someone's gonna be on your trail - either me, someone from the pack or one of the Cullens, you-" "Please, no," she said, shaking her head, "If he or she wanted to hurt me, they would've done that months ago." "How many times did that happen exactly?" She concentrated for a minute. "Today's the fifth." "The fifth?" I exclaimed disbelievingly, "But I wasn't here - and we didn't even call each other. How did that happen?" She blushed subtly, looking out of the window. "One time I was with Quil and Cla ire, and I was looking through your pictures when you were little in Paul's hous e," she explained, "And the other two I was...typing something on my laptop." "Typing something?" I retorted, tilting my head sideways, forgetting -for a seco nd- what was going on. "T-typing, uh," she stuttered, "Diary entries." "Oh." I still couldn't get it, but I let it go, looking for the nearest U-turn. "I'm gonna take you back now then call for a pack meeting, I should be back befo re the cake." She blinked. "Can it wait until we're done? I don't want you to leave me." I smiled at her. "I thought you said you didn't need protection." She looked down at her hands. "Looks like I do."

And, just then, I knew how much she needed me; getting her to admit that was the next hardest thing after trying to move earth the opposite direction. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------ALISON ANDERSON He didn't leave my side. For the rest of the day, I didn't care what everyone would think with us moving around together like that - especially Jarrett and Cloe. All I cared about was t hat I felt...safe. It was one powerful thing about imprinting, and the one thing I would trade the world for. Of course, I knew there was a good chance whoever sent me that note wouldn't hur t me, but I didn't get the point out of it. And, even though I knew me being eve n closer to him was directly defying them, I couldn't care less; either ways I'd be afraid, and after the three months I witnessed without him, I knew that if I had to endure something, I'd rather endure it with him there. The pack members plus Mrs. Black shot us worried and confused looks every now an d then, but Colby would explain, mentally, that he would tell them later. Puttin g everything aside, though, I had to admit, the cake was delicious. Emily couldn 't go wrong on anything that had to do with food. "You didn't tell me, though," I said between chunks of cake, "How'd you convince your Mom?" Cloe shrugged. "I knew about that just when you did. Mom's the one who told me." I raised my eyebrow at Colby, who was standing beside me. "She knows Jasper." "Aha," I said, swallowing another chunk, when he suddenly stiffened. "Al, stay here," he said before he called for his Dad and Paul and sprinted towa rds the woods.

Chapter 13

ALISON ANDERSON

I watched him as he ran towards the woods, towards something I couldn't see. Bes ide me, Cloe raised an eyebrow. "Where are they going?" I shrugged. "I have no idea," I said, "But they'll probably ph-" Shit. "-come back soon," I finished slyly. "They'll probably ph-come back soon? Awesome," Jarrett mocked, rolling his eyes. I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes. From my peripheral vision, I could see how the pack members were gradually excus ing themselves, and I knew they were all going to join Colby, Paul and Jacob in the woods. My palms were so sweaty I had to rub them on my jeans; what was so ur gent and so sudden that they all had to leave? Did it have to do with the note I received? Why did you go now, Colby, and leave me alone? "How's the cake, kids?" Emily's voice was even, confident; it wasn't like her son (who had just phased t hree months ago) had just run after (what probably was) a vampire. Maybe the yea rs gave her a little too much faith in the pack. If that vampire could make me u nconscious - could make me lose my breath - with all those wolves around, then i t could do much more, and I wasn't even ready to imagine that. "Delicious," Cloe answered and Jarrett simply swallowed the rest of his piece in one bite as proof. Emily smiled kindly. "Would you mind if I borrowed the birthday girl for a minut e?" They shrugged and she held a hand on my back, guiding me towards Sam, Nessie and Rachel. "Sweetie," Nessie started, "We need to get you out of here as soon as possible." I stared at her. "Why? Did something go wrong? Who are they-" "God, you're just like Paul," Rachel groaned, "Can't you just take the word-" "Rach," Nessie and Emily warned before Nessie turned to me, "Colby wants you as far from her as possible at the moment. Could you do that for him?" "But, why?" I insisted, "Is he okay? Is everyone okay?" "They're all fine," Sam reassured, "It's just a...request from Colby." Before I could respond, Nessie spoke. "I'm going to take you and your friends to the Cullen mansion in Forks - my family's there, so it's pretty much safe." "Safe?" Something was wrong. Just. Plain. Awesome. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

COLBY BLACK The grass beneath my paws almost burnt with the speed as I chased Jemma. She was definitely faster than last time, and a million times more cunning, but I wasn' t letting her go anywhere tonight, not after what had happened to Allie. Sarah and the rest of the pack were a couple of steps behind me, the leech never tired from the continuous chase, even though I knew she needed air to breathe. As if on cue, she stopped, climbing high on a tree, knowing we couldn't follow h er up there in our forms, but I was at least double as strong as that bitch in m y human form. I was just going to phase back when I heard her speak. "Enough with the running, eh?" I growled. "I'm just here to tell you one thing, Black. Remember the offer back in Californ ia? It wasn't an option," she said, "And I heard the only way the power of the i mprint can be broken is death. We wouldn't want to go that far, would we?" I wanted to fuckin' drink her blood. Calm down. It's exactly what she wants. Dad thought. But I wonder what she would taste like, Sarah said, please, Daddy? Sal, you're not helping, Randy warned. "Meet me tomorrow at 7 a.m. in front of Forks Middle School. It's either you or the little girl, Mr. Alpha." I dug my palms in the ground, unable to attack, bound by my loyalty to my pack. Just one, quick lick. Colby! I almost rolled my eyes at Quil's urgency. It's not like I'm actually going to b ite her. No matter how tempted I was. It's not that. Allie's freaking out, you might want to phase back. Is she breathing well? I couldn't care less about anything else at the moment, n ot even the half-breed on the tree. Yeah...yeah, I guess. She's just...well, freaking out. Oh, God. What was happening to my mini-girly-Paul? Be right there. Would you please just stop comparing her to me? It's weird. I tried my best not to provoke Paul a little more, pushing all the voices to the back of my head, trying to concentrate on my way to Sam and Emily's, phasing ju st before I was in their line of vision. I ran towards her scent only to find he r, arms crossed over her chest, stomping her foot angrily on the ground. She spoke without even attempting at any eye contact, looking at her feet instea d. "Why'd you leave?" "Um-"

She didn't even give me a chance to explain. "It's that vamp, isn't it? We need to set this straight." I exchanged a meaningful glance with Mom, and they left us alone quietly. "Set w hat straight, Al?" I asked softly, aware of the amount of stress she must be und er. She took a sharp breath. "Well, it's either you...go back wherever you are. Or-" I sighed, cutting her off, kneeling in front of her, but she wouldn't look at me either ways. "I'm not going anywhere this time, Allie. I promise." She winced. "It's out of your control now, Tommy; you'll leave because you'll ha ve to, right? Because of those attacks I have." I patted her arm. "We'll consult the Cullens - we'll figure it out." She huffed, closing her eyes. "But you'll end up leaving me again anyway, right? " I frowned. "No, Al. I won't. I told you-" "Bec-Because you're afraid I might phase and you're just being ridiculous and th is is just way too much," she struggled through the words I barely made them out . My patting turned to full-blown comforting rubbing. "Shh...relax, sweetie. We'll talk this through later. D'you want to go now? You don't want to be late, do yo u?" She shook her head over and over, a silent tear running down her cheek. Instinct ively, I dragged her to my embrace, holding her tight. "Sometimes I wish I never met you, Colby." It should've hurt. It should've made me feel bad about myself - maybe even bring out my insecurities, my flaws. It should've made me re-think what I had done ev er since I'd met her. But, no. I knew exactly what made her feel that way, and I felt it deep in my soul; if she'd never met me, she would've avoided a whole lo t of trouble. Maybe if she'd never met me, she'd never know, or bother herself w ith, who her ascendants were. If we'd never met, a vampire wouldn't want to hurt her. Not on planned, cruel pu rpose anyway. "I'm sorry," I whispered, "But it's all going to be just fine, Al. Everything wi ll turn out great, you have to trust me on this." "I do, but-" "Shh..." I said, "Don't worry about a thing, Allie. Have some faith in us, will you? She'll be dead by tomorrow." I wished. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------I ran another time around her house on all fours, doing my best to concentrate o n every voice out there; before, we mainly depended on our super sense of smell when we were on the hunt, but with Jemma present in the equation, we had to use

everything else we've got. But as I tried to concentrate on the voices, I heard her in her room, mumbling i n a low voice, accompanied with soft, keyboard clicking. I didn't really mean to pry on her, but curiosity was killing me. The day would come when I'd apologize to her, I thought. "Colby, You came yesterday after such a long time. I didn't want to do that, but I welco med you back. You see, you (or that imprint magic stuff) make it super impossibl e for me to be mad at you, or decide to be hostile to you without a very good re ason, which I didn't have twenty-four hours ago. But now I do. I'm not suicidal, Tom. Every attack, I thought I might just die. I don't want to . Really, I don't. I'm not into that self-hurt issue and I'll never be; I'm not masochistic. I need you close, so close. I need to see you, to listen to you, to talk to you, to have someone to go to when I'm mad or just in need of a talk someone to be there for me when Mom's not here and Dad's acting all weird, someo ne to listen to me nag over and over and yet still listen. I need you. But I can't let this go on. I might not tell you right away, and I don't know if you were out there right now, fighting the vamps off... Wouldn't it be much easier with us apart? I mean, you wouldn't have to worry abo ut 'the little girl' you're leaving behind, and I won't get those attacks again. How could a vampire do that to me, though? Even the Cullens had absolutely no i dea. Figures. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for what I'm going to do. I rea lly am. But I think we'll both be better off that way, and I could always write to you here, right? Okay, that would have to stop, too. I'll find a way to stay sane; I'm not some sort of a clingy imprint who'd just die without her wolf ther e - I survived very well without you for three months, and I could survive for a s long as I please. Sorry again, Tommy-Wolf. Al." I stayed in my place, frozen. I couldn't believe my ears. I couldn't comprehend it, not at all; I felt like a ten-year-old B-student in a college grad pure math ematics class - absolutely baffled. Why did she think that way? How could she do that? But I couldn't object to one syllable she'd pronounced; after all, vampire or no t, it was her choice, and her health (even though not seriously affected) was at stake. I was sure she felt double as bad as she seemed during her 'attacks', so I couldn't open my mouth. If she decided to do that, I would let her. "Allie?" her father suddenly called, "Are you awake?" She took a deep breath, and I heard her mouse click twice before she answered hi m. "Yeah, Dad." A door opened (probably hers) and her dad spoke again, softer this time. "How wa s your outing today?" "Fun," she replied icily, her voice dripping venom. Whether it was at her father or at the situation itself I couldn't tell.

"What'd you guys do?" I heard her laptop click. "They had a late surprise birthday for me," she explai ned, "Lots of cake and, er, presents. But I forgot them in, uh, Cloe's mom's car ." More like left them in my car. But she'd never actually tell him that. "Aha, I see," he mumbled, "Who was there?" Why? "My friends." Mostly, yes. "Mhhmm," he said, "Who, exactly?" I wished I could see her face. "Jarrett and Cloe." "Only?" "What is it, Dad?" He paused, and I heard her mumble a small "Oh God". "Did or didn't you go to the Reservation, Alison?" "I- I-" "Answer me, right now." He was speaking slowly, trying to control his anger. My paws yearned to drag me in there, but I kept my discipline. "Yes," she whispered. "Didn't I tell you not to go there or see any of the wolves? Don't you know how freakin' dangerous it is?" Aw, come on. No one would dare touch a hair of Alison's. "Ye- Yes, Dad. But I didn-" "What'd they do to you, huh? Why didn't you call?" He was getting angrier by the second and this was just not good. She was too clo se. "They didn't do anything to me. I'm completely fine!" "Then why did Elizabeth call and tell me you needed to see a doctor? Why'd you g o to the hospital?" "What hospital?" she said, "Oh. Oh." From the speech between Jasper and Cloe's mother, I figured that was her. "Oh what?" "I just wasn't feeling so well. I had an...attack, I think. Asthma. Yeah, he tol d me it was asthma." You're a suck-y liar, but I hoped he would believe her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his tone calmer. If he was going to phase, this defini tely wasn't his first time. A first-timer could never control his anger like tha t. First-timer or not, it was a good thing she wouldn't have to witness it. "I'm fi ne, now, Dad," she breathed, "Very." "Just don't go there again, okay? And when something like that happens-" "I'll call." "We have a deal then," he said, "Sleep tight, sweetie. And keep the door open so I'll hear you if you call." "'Kay, Dad." "Love you." She paused. "Yeah, okay." What was going on in her mind? I had no idea. "Humans - they lose their phones s o easily." I turned around, growling. What does Jemma want now? "Good idea - you patrolling around her. Like that would protect her, Stupid. Let go of her already!" she whined, "Oh," she said, "I'm not supposed to talk to my ...future master that way, am I? Hm, I should keep my discipline." I wanted to rip her into teeny tiny little pieces. And I would.

Chapter 14

ALISON ANDERSON Something was off this morning. I couldn't quite put my hand on it, but I knew i t was. The atmosphere was choking at school; murmurs filled the teachers' parkin g lot, everyone was practically staring at me and, most importantly, Colby was t here. I wasn't ignorant - I could feel him there, and, seriously, how many Ferra ri's parked in front of the school? He was there, and he surely made it obvious.

I still couldn't figure out what to tell him. I knew it was for the best that we grow apart, that we continue our paths without each other, at least until that new vampire threat was over. I needed him close, but at the same time, I couldn' t hurt him, or myself, by doing so. It was a golden rule - whenever someone thre atens you, and you have no power over him, just obey whatever he says. "Where are you, Colby?" I mumbled, knowing that wherever he was at the moment, h e would hear me. Stay where you are. Don't go inside just yet. I've got Jemma right in front of m e, and, judging by scent, no one else is there. "No fighting. Not worth it. We should stay away like she said." Shut up, Allie. I seriously don't want to get angry at you. "Can she hear me?" No. She's a hybrid, her senses aren't that high. We're a mile away. Oh. Wow. "Is anyone there with you?" I'm at least double as strong as her in my human form, I can rip her apart with the back of my paw now. "Concentrate, then. Really hard." "And she finally loses her mind!" Jarrett chirped, punching my cheek. "You talki ng to your imaginary boyfriend or something?" I narrowed my eyes at him. "Shut the f-" Allie, Allie, Allie. "Shut up, Jarr." Better. "Will you please just concentrate for heaven's sake?" "What?" "Not you, Jarrett." "'Morning, guys." Oh, shit. I looked up at Jarr (yes, I was that short and he was that tall), and I was glad he looked as uncomfortable as I was in Nate's presence. I highly doubted that k id ever liked me, but, hey, who's complaining here? I am, kind of. It was endles sly annoying to be approached by someone you didn't even like. And he plays Cros sFire. I hate CrossFire. "'Morning, Nate," Jarrett replied, "Let's get to class; Mrs. Andrews hates it wh en we're late." He sighed and nodded. "Nice to meet you, too, Anderson," he said as he walked aw

ay. Did I mention I hate him? Oh, and seriously way too much at the moment. "Colby, how is it going?" No answer. "Colby?" None. "Tommy?" I squeaked. At all. And 'freaking out' couldn't quite describe what I was feeling. "Allie!" someone called from behind. I turned to see who it was and was actually surprised to find Uncle Embry. Before I could say anything, though, he grabbed my hand. "We need to get you out of here right now." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------EMBRY CALL I didn't know what to tell her - how do you tell someone that young and that ner vous that she's wanted? How do you tell Allie that the bloodsucker - the other o ne, the French dude from the last encounter, Frederick - is now after her? How d o you tell her that her stupid imprint (who happened to be, by some miracle, a B lack) ruined it all when he killed his mate, Jemma? How do you tell her she was the third victim of the vampire/mate chain in less than a decade? How? I had no idea. I was cut off by her voice. "Hello?" I turned to her questioningly, frowning. "Who is it?" Her face lost a few shades as she spoke. "N-No, I-" she paused, "Look, Dad, I do n't know-" I held out my hand for her, and she willingly gave me the phone. I pressed it to my ear, pushing a little harder on the gas pedal. "Mr. Anderson, this is Embry. " I was pretty sure I was the only Embry he knew. "Where are you taking my daughter?" he yelled, "I swear this won't end the-" I was trying to be as calm as ever possible. "Mr. Anderson, you have to understa nd this is an emergency. I have to get her somewhere safe as soon as possible." "What are we talking about here?" Damn, Colby was right when he said that man, if he was a werewolf, wasn't a new one. No young wolf could control his anger that strongly. "We're talking about a vampire - male, looks about twenty-something, brown hair, red eyes, slight Fren ch accent - and a possible female - blonde, old, red eyes if not wearing contact s, relatively tall -"

"After Allie?" I sucked in a deep breath. Were I him, I wouldn't want to hear what I had to say . "Yes." "Where are you taking her?" "The Cullen mansion in Forks." "Will they be there?" "Yes, definitely." "I'm on my way." I was tempted to smile. "But, sir, more humans there will complicate things." "Let's just leave it at...things aren't going to get any more complicated." And bingo. We have a winner! "Oh," I 'stupidly' said, "Oh. Then, we'll be waiting." "What is it?" she asked as soon as I hung up, "Is he coming?" I nodded. "Have you noticed anything...weird about your father lately?" I asked, "Anything abnormal?" She frowned. "Like what?" "Like...I don't know," I lied, "Something out of normal - supernatural, if you m ay." She sighed, looking out of the window. "Like shaking when getting angry?" How frequently did he get that angry around her? And he was worried we would hur t her. "Exactly." "Then, yeah. Only recently though. Do you think he's...?" I shrugged. "That's a pretty good chance, but to be honest, if he is, then he's an old one." "Old?" "Like, this won't be his first time to phase, if you know what I mean." "Mm," she mumbled, "How's Mary doing?" I could see how she and Mary were related; they both thought people were so shor t-sighted they couldn't see how they kept alternating subjects. "She's fine." An d safe with three pack members right at her doorstep (at Sam and Emily's, where everyone else was staying). Mary had always been super vulnerable, and now that she was pregnant, I needn't be reminded of how worried I was; she'd always had this pressure condition - whe never she was just a little nervous or excited, she would faint. Unless, of cour se, if she took her medicine, then she would only get dizzy without actually fai nting. I was no medical genius, but with a baby on their way I couldn't help but

worry about her own health, let alone the baby's. Her doctor said she'd be okay , but, well, I needed a little more evidence than one sentence. It's just that you don't discuss that with a thirteen-year-old girl. But my lovely pack brothers knew all about it, and it sucked to no end. In less than five minute (thanks to Black Jr.'s Ferrari), I parked in front of t he huge mansion where Colby was waiting. Needless to say, Allie jumped out of th e car and to his arms within three seconds. "Are you okay? Why weren't you answering me?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLBY BLACK "I chased her farther and couldn't locate you to answer you, sweetie. I'm just g lad you're fine." She broke our brief hug to stare at me. Hard. "Why did you bring me here?" I grimaced, guilt washing over me. "There's a vampire loose - and he's looking f or you." She frowned. "He?" "Yeah - a French dude." "Oh," she said, "The one Embry was telling Dad about." "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what? Does your father know?" What the fuck, Embry? "Tune your thoughts down, Colby. Thank you," Grandpa said, walking outside, "Now , would you all please come inside? Frederick's disappeared from Alice's visions , so that means either he's on the right track, that he guessed where you are, o r-" "He's on the Rez," Dad continued, staring at me, "Embry - go back there. Get the rest of the pack on the borders, combing every inch there for any trail." Embry nodded. "What about you?" "He's probably not that dumb; he won't come attack with a full coven and four we rewolves present." "Should I go then?" I asked. He shook his head. "There's still a fifty percent chance he is that dumb. And do you really want to leave her here and go?" She squeezed my hand. "No. Of course not. Only if I absolutely have to." "Alison," Esme called softly, emerging out of the door, "Your room's ready." She frowned. "My room?" "It used to be Nessie's spare room here," Edward explained, "Colby, if you may?"

I nodded automatically, not really paying attention to them as much as I was try ing my best not to break Allie's hand as I squeezed it reassuringly, taking her up to 'her room'. I knew it was temporary, until I got that bastard's limbs on f ire; it was my fault I got her in this situation. True, now I wouldn't have to w orry about how we could be apart because of that leech I killed, but at the same time, this was a lot worse. "Tommy," she whispered in a small voice as she sat on the bed, "I'm sorry for th e mess. If I-" "Don't." I shook my head, sitting down beside her. "Just don't." "But it's my fault," she insisted. "Totally mine." "Allie, for God's sake..." She snuggled close to me, leaning her head on my forearm. "I'm just confused," s he said, "Why did all of that happen to you when I show up in your life? It can' t be a coincidence, you know." I caressed her soft cheek gently. "Believe me when I tell you this: this has bee n going for a long time. You're just here to witness it." "Did something like that ever happen before?" I laughed humorlessly. "Yeah. The biggest was about twelve years ago, when Sara h and I were three," I began, "The same vampire worked with a Romanian coven aga inst the Volturi-" "The Volturi?" "Yeah," I said, "They were, like, vampire royalty back then," I paused, watching her expression turn to that of amusement. I was honestly glad someone like Alli e didn't witness the Volturi back when they were 'glorious'; she would've joined the bastards in a heart beat. "And they kind of tricked me and Sarah into going to Europe - it was their version of kidnap." "Wow." Shit. "We ended up fighting, and one of the Volturi almost killed Sarah - she came hom e with ten broken bones." "That must've hurt," she mumbled. "Very, very much," I answered exaggeratedly. She chuckled. "But I bet it was one hell of a fight, wasn't it?" "Al, to tell you the truth," I swallowed, "You scare me." She laughed, rolling on her back to face me. "I'm telling you the truth here - I would very much like to be able to phase or something like that." And I spent three months away from you, afraid that you might phase with me arou nd. Why did I even bother? "Don't even try to think about it, okay?"

She raised an eyebrow. "And why not?" "Because - because," I huffed, "That's not something I'd choose for myself." Tha t's not something I'd choose for you. "You are such a liar, Thomas." She crossed her arms. "You love what you are." "But you can't be-" "Is it because I'm a girl? Or because you think I'm just way too vulnerable?" "Neither," I said, shaking my head, "It's just not right - it'd ruin your life." She rose to her feet. "What life?" she exclaimed, "The one where I have to be su rrounded by a dozen vampires and four werewolves just because some vamp's on my trail?" Is it that simple? "The one where I had to choose which parent to live w ith? The one where my own father wouldn't even get what I need the most? Or is i t the one where I have to be the scared little girl while everyone else is fight ing for me? Huh? What life?" I stared at her, unable to react to her little outburst. Faintly, a sparkle of t ear formed in her eyes. "Or the one where I have to give up on you in order to f uckin' breathe?" "Do you really expect me, even if you were some wolf or mythical creature yourse lf, to let you fight off a vampire yourself?" "Yes!" she said, "Otherwise, that would be your problem." "Listen, Allie," I started, trying my best to control my temper. Jasper's presen ce was helping me, too. "I appreciate the fact that you're...fond of what we all are; it made explaining this whole thing to you and getting you to accept it mu ch easier than it was with anyone else. But you have to understand how dangerous this whole world is - you just don't get it, do you?" She shook her head. "You're just as dangerous as a human, Tommy." I raised an eyebrow at her. "If you haven't already noticed: I'm definitely not. " Rolling her eyes, she explained. "You won't hurt me, right?" she asked, tilting her head sideways, "Right?" I nodded. "Because you're a good guy, and you love m e. Now if you weren't and you didn't, you could hurt me, true?" "That's exactly my p-" She held out her hand. "Let me finish," she said, "And if you hurt me - you coul d kill me, right?" I closed my eyes and reluctantly nodded. She's theoretically speaking. She's theoretically speaking. "Same with humans - if you're a good guy and you love me, you won't hurt me, and if you weren't and you didn't, you coul d kill me. Believe me when I tell you: I'd rather get killed by some vampire tha n by a rapist." I stayed silent, staring at her. "And I'd rather get hurt than watch you fight for me." "That's something you're gonna have to learn because even if you could defend yo ur self, little girl, I will never let anything lay a hand on you."

She put her hand on her chest. "Flattered, but still." "Still?" "When this is over, Colby, I'll do whatever it takes to-" I covered my ears with my hands. "Don't." "-phase." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------"And he's after my daughter because...?" Carlisle grimaced briefly, Allie fidgeting on my lap (when three overly sized wo lves (plus Sarah) try to sit on one couch, away from the glares of that guy, you can't just 'find a place for your imprint'), Jasper almost going crazy with all the emotions. "Some vampires are just born to chase. Alison being surrounded an d protected by a large group of wolves definitely presents a wonderful challenge for a hunter." He was being very vague and very general. This wasn't why Frederick was after Al lie, but in order to maintain any possibility of any kind of relationship betwee n me and that poor girl on my lap, Carlisle (the Dr. Carlisle Cullen) had to lie a 'white lie' for me. "And if she wasn't surrounded by the pack?" "There'd still be a great chance he'll want to chase her as Colby's imprint," Em mett very kindly elaborated. Her father's eyes widened considerably, turning his glares at me. "You imprinted on my baby girl?" I stayed silent; any response would tick him off further. "Mr. Anderson," Edward cut the silence, "Frederick should be here in less than t hree minutes. Now, if you will, Jasper will take you back-" "Back where? I can help." Edward smiled cunningly. "Really? How?" The old grandpa was tricking him into speaking his thoughts. "I'll phase." "What?" Allie snapped, "You - what the hell, Dad! You're not even as warm as the m!" Quicker than lightening, his eyes turned from anger to pleading sympathy. "I pha sed again a couple of days ago. I wouldn't touch you." Al was practically shaking. I ran my hand up and down her arm soothingly. I wasn 't surprised; I just had my suspicions confirmed. "Again? You mean-" "Yes. I phased for the first time back when I was sixteen." She stared at him before turning to me and burying her face on my shoulder, hint

s of tears soaking their way through my shirt. "Sorry, kiddo," I whispered in he r ear and she just shook her head. "I didn't believe it when Embry told me," she breathed, "I thought - I thought-" "Shh, honey. It'll be okay." He took a couple of steps towards her and was about to speak when our most-antic ipated 'guest' arrived. "Cutting some family moment here?"

Dear fans, First of all, I'm extremely sorry for my absence. Truth is, life has been partic ularly hard and I've been having a severe writer's block. Anyway, I tried to continue Bleeding Blossom, I really did. But I can't. It just died - I'm sorry :( Sincerely, TooToo