JARED CAMERON had been best friends with Paul Lahote since they were sixteen, and Jared had first shifted and joined Sam's pack. Before that, they were barely acquainted, but since they were the only two members of Sam's pack, they were forced to be friends and eventually, became as close as brothers are.

In those two years, Jared had never seen Paul in the state he was in right now. The boy had shown up at Kim's house of all places, frozen in his spot but moving automatically at the same time. He hadn't said a word to Jared, just a nod of his head toward the tree line and a wave of his hand as he walked away. Worried for the boy he'd never seen so struck, he kissed Kim goodbye and followed him out into the woods. Everyone in LaPush lived next to the woods.

They made it to a clearing, the ground muddy from the rain that had slowed extremely, and the Lahote boy shifted into his wolf form on the spot, nodding at Jared to do the same. He was confused, but complied anyway, and in a flurry of limbs, two towering wolves stood facing each other.

Jared was confused at first, not understanding what the hell was going on, but then the mind link clicked on, and all of a sudden, Paul's mind was washing over his own like a tidal wave of emotions. His friend was confused, worried, and all around concerned that if he didn't tell someone he would explode. Then, the memory came. It was rare that the wolves showed one another their memories through the mind link, especially since you needed a damn good one in order to tell the story right, but it seemed this was a memory Paul was not going to forget the details of for a long time.

Jared's head swam and he found himself staring at Paul and Lena, stood at the edge of the road with the boys car still running a few feet behind them. They were staring at each other in deadly silence, until Lena spoke.

"Paul." She said, "I don't know if I can stand you hating me for much longer."

"I never hated you." Paul replied, "Not really."

"So what?" She asked, shrugging, "You wanna be friends now? Because you've done and said some pretty fucked up stuff."

"I know, I know." Paul stressed, "And I'm sorry."

A smirk grew on Lena's face, "Did Paul Lahote just...apologise to me? That's a first."

"Shut up." He grumbled.

Lena giggled, and Paul found himself smiling at the sound. He liked making her laugh a lot more than he liked making her frown, Jared heard Paul's thoughts voice clearly.

"Let's be friends." Lena said, "For the sake of the pack."

For the sake of the pack.

And then the image was gone, and Jared was staring at Paul's face once again.

"What the hell was that?" Jared asked. Or well, thought.

"I don't know! I was hoping you would."

"I don't know dude." Jared replied, "Seems like you like her now. Or you always have? I'm a little confused here, to he honest."

"Me too, man."

"Well, whatever it is, I like it." Jared concluded, "I was getting tired of your glares, if I'm being truthful."

While Paul had gone to Jared for advice, Lena had simply headed up to her room and fell right asleep. They didn't say much when Paul was driving her back, and it was clear to them both that they still had unfinished business, but for now all they wanted to do was get some rest. They had a long ass day tomorrow.

To a normal human, the sight of nine huge wolves all stood in a group in the middle of the woods at night would look not only terrifying, but also a little confusing. The pack waited on their side of the treaty line for Victoria, whom of which Alice Cullen was positive was going to show up.

Suddenly, loud footsteps grew louder near them, and the pack took of in the direction of the treaty line.

"She'll get away!" She heard someone shout, and then Victoria was in their line of sight.

"No she won't!"

The wolves chased down the ginger vampire as she ran across the edge of the ravine that separated them and the Cullens, Lena and Paul getting close enough to bite her, until she leaped back across the water and back on Cullen territory.

The wolves followed her, making sure she didn't get away from them again. Lena watched as Victoria jumped over the ravine again, followed closely by the biggest Cullen, Emmet, she presumed.

Just as the vampire was about to land on the wrong side of the line, Paul leaped out and tackled him into the water. The two boys growled at one another, the distant calls of their own packs falling on deaf ears.

"Fucking idiot."

Paul froze in his spot at the voice in his head, ears perking up. He ignored the vampires in front of him and looked back at the rest of the wolves behind him, who seemed to have similar expressions of shock. Not a word was thought between them, until there was.

"What the hell is he doing?"

The voice was clearly there that time, not a figment of anyones imagination, and it became obvious who it belonged to. Suddenly, all canine faces turned toward the wolf at the end of the row, dark brown fur shining under the moonlight. Lena looked back at them in confusion,

"Why are they all looking at me? Did I phase without realising it? Am I stood butt-ass naked in front of them right now? No, I'm not, because then the Cullens would be looking at me weird too, and they seem to be on the same page as me. What the hell is going—"

"Lena?"

That last word was Sam's voice, deep and authoritative as usual. It was then that Lena, not in her human form like she thought she was, realised what the rest of the pack did.

"Lena...can you hear me?"

They stared, ignoring the looks from the Cullens behind them.

"Yes."

It seemed that none of them knew what to do, and without the help of their mind-reading member, the Cullens were also stunned to a silence. Sam shook his head at Carlisle before beckoning the wolves to follow him back through the woods, which they did without argument. It was silent the whole way, even when they split up from each other so they could phase back without flashing anyone. It seemed that nobody wanted to speak, at risk of ruining it.

Being the only girls, Leah and Lena took the longest getting clothed. The Clearwater girl stepped out from behind a bush, now covered, and stopped in her tracks at the sound of quiet sobbing. She paced slowly toward the tree it was coming from, tilting her head to see a girl with a similar haircut to her wiping her eyes and sniffling.

"Parkinson?"

Lena's head snapped up, and she wiped her face vigorously, "Sorry Leah. Yeah, let's go back."

"Are you crying?" The older—by a few weeks—girl asked.

"No." Lena denied, "Well, yes, but—it doesn't matter."

The girls walked together in silence back to Sam and Emily's. "I thought the mind link didn't work with you? That's what Sam told us anyway."

"Yeah, it didn't." Lena spoke slowly, "He said that over time it might develop, but he was never certain. I guess I just..."

"I get it." Leah finished for her, "Now it's cemented, right? Your place in the pack?"

"Yeah." She breathed out, "I mean, I only ever doubted my place in the pack occasionally, but now...I can't at all."

"That must be a lot, especially considering all the grief Paul's been giving you." Leah said, "But maybe don't tell them you've been crying, they'll never let it go. Especially Lahote."

Lena laughed, "Actually, me and Paul are kind of...friends now? I guess? I mean, we settled our differences...I think."

"Maybe that's it." Leah shrugged, "Maybe that's why you can hear them, because they all see you as a member now. Including Paul."

"We." Lena corrected, "You're in this too, Leah. Whether you like it or not."

"Actually, now they can hear your thoughts, too...I am starting to like it."

The girls laughed, and just like that, Leah made her first friend in the pack that wasn't her brother.

By the time their conversation had ended, the girls were emerging from the trees outside of Sam and Emily's small woodland cottage. The boys were huddle up outside, chatting amongst themselves. When the girls were spotted, Lena was crowded.

"We can finally hear you!"

"You're in it forever now, baby!"

"We need to celebrate!"

"This is awesome!"

"Alright, give the girl some space." Sam's voice broke through, although he was smiling just as wide at her, "Congrats, Lena. Your thoughts are never going to be your own ever again."

Lena smiled at her boys, nodding, "Feels good to be a Quilete."

"You know what that means, right?" Embry quipped, "Tattoo time!"

The pack ooo'ed at her, but Lena couldn't keep the smile off her face. She didn't think anyone could be happier at someone else hearing their thoughts.

The following Monday, Lena and the pack were gathered in Sam and Emily's kitchen, in awe at the ink that dotted her upper arm. Sam was hesitant on letting her get the tattoo, because genetically she was still a Triyukan, even if she was the only one left, and he didn't know if she was comfortable getting another tribe's tattoo on her skin. She was okay with it, though, since she already had a Triyukan tattoo on her body that the pack didn't know about.

"Why don't they know about it?" Sam had asked as he sat with her, acting at her adult supervisor even though she was an adult.

"I didn't tell them at first because I was scared." She shrugged, "I didn't want them to see me as an outsider because of my lineage, and a tattoo of that tribe wouldn't exactly help my case, would it? I guess after...it never really came up."

Sam nodded, "Where is it, then?"

"That's for me to know." Lena smirked.

Now, the pack were scoffing down celebratory chicken legs around the table, all of them permitted the day off school for the special occasion. It felt weird, because she'd been with these guys for months now, and she was only just getting a 'welcome to the pack' party, but it made her extremely happy nonetheless.

Seth wasn't there, since he was the youngest and still needed a primary education, and Leah showed up with much hesitation, since she liked Lena but disliked the rest of them. Jacob had taken a trip to Forks to see if Bella was still human, even though Lena had told him hundreds of times that she was.

Speaking of Jacob, the boy's motorcycle that he'd fixed up with Bella all those months ago revved from afar, alerting the pack of his arrival. They wouldn't admit it, but the rest of the boys were also nervous as to whether Bella still had blood running through her veins, so when they saw her on the back of the bike—the fact that she was on their land had proved them all wrong—hopped up to greet her.

"Hey, look who's back!"

"Sup, Bella."

They tumbled down the porch in a flurry of shirtless boys, Lena following behind at a slower pace. Bella looked at them in surprise, "Quil, you too?"

"Yeah." The boy nodded with a smirk. Bella hadn't had the pleasure of seeing Quil since the day they first met, so she was surprised to see him with the rest of the pack now, even if he'd been in it for months.

"Glad you're here, Bella." Embry teased, "Maybe we can get a break from Jake's obsessive inner monologue."

"I wish Bella would call!" Paul mimicked.

"I wish Bella wouldn't call!" Jared joined in.

"Maybe I should call Bella!" Embry added.

"Maybe I should call Bella and hang up!" Quil spoke, causing the pack to burst into laughter.

"Seriously, it's the worst thing to hear when on patrol." Lena spoke up with a smile at Bella.

"I thought you weren't in on the mind link?" The human asked.

"Not anymore." Lena smirked, showing off her tattoo to the girl, "It's official now."

Bella smiled proudly at her friend, feeling the happiness rolling off of her, "How'd that happen?"

Lena shrugged, "Guess all I needed was for every member of the pack to accept me."

"Paul?"

Lena nodded, "We're kinda...friends now? I guess?"

The boy in question ignored the funny feeling in his stomach when she said that, choosing instead to stand back and observe as Lena chatted with her friend happily. Her smile sent shockwaves through him, and he assumed it was because he'd never really seen her around him with anything other than a scowl.

He was so focused on Lena that he didn't even notice Leah stomp her way out of the house with a frown until Jacob introduced her.

"Bella, this is Leah Clearwater." He said, looking at her warily, "Harry's daughter."

"Hey." Bella spoke, "I'm really sorry about your father.

"If you're here to torture Jacob some more, feel free to leave." Leah said with a scowl. Lena knew of the wolf's feelings towards the human girl, having already attempted to butter her up into being nice to the girl. There was a silence after Leah walked off, the boys looking between each other awkwardly.

"Fun, isn't she?" Jacob raised his brows.

"Bella!" Emily's voice rang from the doorway, "I was wondering when we'd see your face around here again."

The women hugged, Bella talking as she did, "Yeah, same."

"Sam, we good?" Jacob asked, very much aware that Sam was still salty about the Cullen's return. There was a high chance that Sam wouldn't want Bella around their land due to her affiliation with them.

"We're good." The alpha replied, "She won't be getting into our line of fire anytime soon."

The boys cheered gleefully, Lena sending a wide smile and a thumbs up to her friend before following her boys back inside.

They gathered around the table, eating chicken and chatting, when Jared slammed both hands on the table to alert everyone. He stood up with a smile, pointing at Lena, "We need to celebrate. Not only your induction into the pack, but also your new found friendship with Paul."

Her chest tightened at the word. Friendship. She didn't know why. She'd told him outwardly that she didn't want him to hate her anymore, so why was the idea of them being friends still stinging her?

"Isn't this lunch a celebration?" She asked, ignoring her thinking.

"Yeah, but that's not enough!" Jared exclaimed, "We need to do something more...fun. Memorable."

The pack looked around at each other, nodding, that didn't sound too bad.

-mills speaks!!

sorry about the cliffhanger last chapter, hope this makes up for it ;)

so they're friends...finally.

not
for
long

what? who said that?

SHE CAN HEAR THEM?? turns out the trick was the friends we made along the way :,))) anyway she's officially a quileute!!!

Vote and Comment !!!!!!! ily guys <3