We are Wolves.

Bella thought Christmas was meant to be filled with joy and holiday cheer, not a car accident, giant wolves and bizarre naked men running around in the rain. Eventual Pack imprint Fic.

Disclaimer: Twilight is the sole creation of Stephenie Meyer, whom I am not. I take no claim to any of the characters herein and make no profit from this publication. This is merely artistic expression.

Chapter start: Goodbye Kansas.

"We are not men disguised as mere dogs. We are wolves disguised as men."

The pack was gathered together in a leech hunting trio. Three massive wolves, black, silver and masked-brown, tearing through the forest in a blur of colour and a series of communitive howls.

Paul, make it to go left. Sam snarled through their shared link, jowls quivering with the thought of the impending kill.

Got it. Paul was in front, currently the fastest of their three man pack, with Sam close at his heels. Ahead of them a blond vampire zipped to and fro, agile on his feet. Flicking up into trees and using them to projectile himself ahead of the wolves.

Always just out of reach. Aggravated, Paul threw himself at the tree, knocking the leech from its perch. Sam, using his pack mate with skilled ease, kicked off from his beta's sturdy hide and snapped at the vampire's heal. Sam managed to catch the blood suckers pants within his teeth, just barely grazing the hard, cold skin that lay beneath the now tattered fabric.

The blond vampire let out an unearthly screech and shot off to the left.

Good job, Paul. Sam huffed with pride, taking off after the stinking blur of white and gold. With Jared zipping ahead. Paul righted himself and joined them with effortless grace, rolling his body in a distinctly lupine way before digging his heavy paws into the soft earth and launching after them.

I'm always good, Sam. Paul snickered through the link, taking the lead once more. The leech was making its way towards town again, heading towards the road that lead into Forks.

Shit. The thought was simultaneously shared throughout the packs connected mind.

Too far left. Jared snarled sending out a splitting howl of anger. Paul was getting closer, snapping his massive jaws joyously at the leech who had no safety of trees to jump up into. There was about a mile of flat ground before they hit the road. Sam's head suddenly lifted skywards, nose twitching, ears erect and alert.

Civilian! Heading this way in a car. The thought was enough for them to get it together. No more playing, it was time to end this.

Sam used his bulk to run into the back of Paul's legs, sending him vaulting forwards. The nomad was just out of the silver wolves reach when another blur joined the first, propelling itself into Jared, who let out an agonized whimper. The brown wolf was bodily thrown into the ground with a sickening crack. The two rolled in a frenzy onto the road. Jared bleeding from a bad break in his hind leg and the newcomer with her arms around his neck.

Jared! Paul turned to his fallen friend, losing focus on the blond who had spun, now brave with the sudden appearance of help, and punched the silver wolf clean in the snout.

Paul, focus! Sam dove over the sprawled form of his stunned beta and took down the vampire with eager claws and gnashing teeth.

None of them had time to react to the car that was suddenly upon them. Tires screeched ineffectively over asphalt, in an attempts to break. A terrified scream came from within the car as it hit the back of the vampire that had Jarred in a choke hold. The force of the impact knocking the vampire away from the wounded wolf, before skidding across the road, going headlong into the 'Welcome to Forks' sign before stalling. The Vampire had barely landed before Paul was on it, dragging it away from the wreckage by the neck.

'I hope this was a good idea.' Nerves shook Bella as she began to doubt her idea of returning to Forks for the first time in two years.

A wiry smile curled Bella's features as she watched the alien green scenery speed past, rain beating down in thick sheets against her hire car.

"We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto." She laughed humourless to herself, reaching down to pet the lump of shaggy fur resting it's head on her lap, looking up at her with barely open, unamused eyes.

Settling back into her seat, hands at ten to two on the steering wheel, Bella let her mind wander aimlessly.

Almost immediately Renee's face floated to mind. Sad, doe- brown eyes pleading Bella to understand unnecessarily. Bella had seen firsthand how happy Phil made her mother. While Bella had been busy with school, with passing grades and extracurricular actives, Renee had been slowly slipping into depression.

Until Phil that was.

Phil had returned the smile to her mother's face, and it was all sunshine and puppies. Bella couldn't have condemned Renee for finding love even if she'd had the inclination to. Besides, Bella was seventeen now, old enough to leave the nest and maybe reconnect with her father.

While Bella had not seen much of Charlie the last two years due to exams, she knew he had made the effort even when she hadn't. He had taken time off work and flown to Phoenix just to see her, and even taken her out afterwards for dinner with Phil and Renee.

Surprisingly there had been no awkwardness. No lingering glances towards her mother or envious looks towards Phil. Charlie had been alight with pride. Laughing along with Phil's stories of Bella's clumsiness while sipping on a beer, his arm slung behind Bella's shoulders in a loose hug.

Anxiety tried to rear its ugly head, but she forced it back, determined to make this year a great one. She had already secretly enrolled and would start after the winter (Big thanks to Khyharah for helping me realise my blunder here.) holidays were done. She would spend Christmas with Charlie, and it would be great.

The back seat was a mess of wrapped packages of varying sizes and shapes. Ranging from tackle to new 'state of the art' fishing poles. A testament of all her hard work with after school jobs and savings.

A soft 'whuff' emitted from her lap and Bella laughed, realising that she should probably focus more on driving than stressing because she had just veered into the wrong lane.

"Alright you, I'm looking." She teased the dog that perked at her words, ears spiking up and his pink tongue just barely poking out of his mouth.

Reaching for the stereo dial, Bella hit the button and let the soft sounds of music fill the car, tapping her hands the wheel in time with Jewel. Her lilting croon lulling Bella into a sense of calm. She took a sip from her energy drink and began singing along as a new song started up.

"I've got a new age girl, tell us what she's like. Environmentalist girl, does she ride a bike? She has a crystal necklace; she spend a lot of cash? Though her vibes are rather reckless, heading for a crash."

The rain had turned from buckets to a torrential downpour that was both blinding and threatening to wash her clean of the roads in combination with the high winds. Looking away from the road for a second, Bella turned up the heat and hit the wipers up a notch. By the time she looked back up the window had started to fog up and she was driving nearly blind.

"Holy crow, this is dangerous!" She exclaimed, briefly considering pulling over until the rain let up a bit. However, this was Washington, and the likely hood of the rain dissipating was as about as likely as Bella spontaneously having a tan. Not very likely.

Wolf's head suddenly lifted off of her legs, his body shooting towards the windscreen in the blink of an eye.

"Whoa, boy, calm down. It's just a bit of rain." She tried to coo, but the dog was having none of it, letting out a series of barks with increasing volume and pitch, until he sounded like he was in pain. He darted heavily onto her lap, obscuring her already limited to the view of the road.

"Wolf, calm down buddy I can't see." Bella urged, trying to push the mountain of fur off of her. Wolf tossed his head back and let out a howl, lips curling back over his teeth. Pushing the dog with all her might, she managed to get him off enough to catch a glimpse of the road, her body seizing when she did. There in the middle of her lane was a massive lump, fuzzy and hard to see.

'A bear?' Her mind provided with blind panic. She stamped down on the breaks, cursing herself when the car lost traction, sliding across the road with no sense of direction, steering wheel spinning out of her hands. Something hard and heavy hit the car, rolling up the cracked window shield only to slide over the roof and bounce off of the boot.

'Oh no, had she hit the poor animal?'

No, it hadn't looked like the thing on the road. Whatever she had hit had looked…Well, human. Sort of. Albeit blurry but human-ish nonetheless.

An involuntary scream left Bella as the car careened right towards a sign post, hitting it dead on with startling force. Her head hit the steering wheel, bouncing off only to hit it a few more times for good measure before the airbags finally burst free in an explosion of white power.

For a moment, all Bella could do was groan weakly in pain, the husky-cross snarling snapping in the seat beside her, paws scraping at the passenger side window. The presents were all thrown askew across the backseat and floor. Coughing on the thickly powdered air, Bella flapped a hand in a feeble attempt to clear the cab of the small Ford of the thick white cloud. When it proved useless, she rubbed delicately at her forehead that seeped blood upon contact.

Well, shoot. Another scar to add to her ever increasing collection.

Pulling the lever to her seat, she pushed the chair back and fumbled with the door handle, toppling out ass-over-heels into the rain. She landed hard on her face. Gravel biting into the torn flesh of her head.

'Ouch!' Hissing, she dragged herself up, quickly shut the door to keep Wolf from jumping out after her and wobbled across the road. There exactly where she had seen it previously was the huge, hunched figure of a furred animal. Bella looked around in alarm for the person she could of sworn she had hit but found nothing but mere scraps of tattered clothing. Confused, she turned back to the beast that was now trying to stagger to its paws.

When a shard of white popped out of rendered flesh with a sickening wet sound that had Bella wanting to gag, the animal gave a pitiful whine and flopped back down.

'What had she done?' Had she killed it? Terrified, she staggered a few steps towards it. The wind whipped her long hair into a frenzy of strawberry scented mahogany around her face, and her heavy duty coat now felt like ten tons of brick, clinging wetly to her skin. From within the tree line, a series of howls broke out over the shrill sounds of the wind and the sound chilled her to the bone.

What had she gotten herself into?

"Shoot, shoot…shoot!" she hissed, turning in circles. She wanted to help the animal. She honestly did. Wanted to see what could be done. But the fear of it turning on her had her heart hammering in her chest.

"Please, please don't bite me." She whispered mostly to herself, before steeling her spine. She inched towards the great lump of rain soaked fur. Her eyes widened when she realised exactly what she was looking at.

Glowing amber eyes stared up at her unblinkingly. Long muzzle pulled up in soft snarls.

This huge beast was a wolf. What the hell was in the water around here! To clarify, it was a wolf the size of a freaking horse! Swallowing audibly, Bella extended a shaking hand and tried her best to muster up a bravely sounding tone.

"Hey there boy, I'm not going to hurt you. I- I just want to help."

The wolf seemed to analyze her critically. Eyeballs the size of her headlights roved over her quacking figure in a look that felt more human than animal. As if pacified she wasn't a threat; the wolf lowered it's lips over it's pearly white teeth and huffed out a great puff of air, head sagging against it's paws.

"Yeah, that's right. I'm not going to hurt you." She continued to coo as she slowly closed the distance between them. It was still out of reach when she first felt the heat radiating from it. It startled her. The poor creature was burning up. Bella uncertainly pushed her hands into thick downy soft fur and gently scratched it between the ears as she bent down to assess the damage.

Bella had to force back a mouthful of bile when she saw ribs and muscles from beneath luscious brown fur. Its leg was a tattered mess. Snapped bone and torn ligaments spilling out of the wound.

Shucking out of her coat, Bella quickly pulled her soaked camisole over her head. Exposing her bra to the bitter cold wasn't ideal, but it was necessary she assured herself as she shivered violently against the wind and drowning downpour. With strength she didn't know she could gather, Bella began tearing her soaked top into thick strips. The wolf reared back, looking almost abashed at the sight of her semi-bare top-half.

"Bet this is a first, eh?" She tried to joke, leaning over the gargantuan wolf in an attempts to bind its chest. "Strange human hits you with her car than gets naked in front of you."

The wolf let out an odd sound from between it's lips that kind of sounded like a laugh before whining when she knotted a scrap of her top around its wound.

"Shh, shh. It's okay. I know it hurts. But I need to staunch the bleeding." It never occurred to her that it might come off as nuts that she was talking to an animal that probably had no idea what she was saying. It was comforting to her, and that's all that mattered.

The leg was going to be hard. Crawling down towards the twisted limp, Bella felt a sob welling in her throat. It was a mess. How could she help this? Turning to face the wolf, which had lifted up its head to watch her, she bit her lip and nodded.

She had no idea why. It seemed like the thing to do.

Promising herself years of psychiatric help after this, Bella set about tying together segments of her top. Standing, she gave the wolf a quick reassuring pet before darting awkwardly across the road to gather up a couple of sticks before returning to the wounded wolf.

"Oh, boy. I am so sorry, but this is going to hurt. I just hope you don't snap at me." She croaked around the lump in her throat.

Placing gentle hands on the animal's leg caused it to flinch and let out a soft whine that cut through her like a knife. Determined, she steadied her hand and with all the practice she'd gotten from her first-aid course, pushed the bone back into what she hopes was the right position. The brown wolf threw its head back and let out a piercing howl of pain which dissolved into whimpers.

"I know, I know, it hurts. I'm so sorry." She sobbed, and quickly braced the leg before binding it with the remaining sections of her shirt. The instant she was done she fell back onto her butt and crab-crawled back towards the head of the wolf that was thrashing as it gurgled out sounds of agony. She pushed her hands into the scruff of its hackles and pulled it gently onto her lap, hunching over it in sad attempts to shield it from the rain, and maybe the pain also.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking. This is all my fault." She sobbed, blowing snot bubbles as tears burned salty paths down her cheeks, mixing with the rain that washed it away. Her hair hung in heavy tendrils down her shoulders and clung to her face.

"I won't leave you here, I won't I promise." She assured the gorgeous animal, looking towards her steaming car with apprehension. Was this thing going to fit in her car? Doubtful. And what about her dog? If she put this beast in the backseat of her car, Wolf would probably have a meltdown. She had to do something though.

Nibbling her lip, Bella tried to gauge the size of her back seat from where she was sitting and then the size of the wolf. Maybe if she laid the seat down? Charlie's gifts would have to get a bit wet. She was sure she could make it up to him. Besides, wasn't fishing stuff designed to get wet?

Bella had no idea but was going to go with that train of thought.

"Think you can stand if I help?" She turned her gaze back to the wounded look she was being shot by huge amber eyes. It was then that she noticed the mottling of silver and white around the animals eyes. Giving it a racoon mask look. It was cute. Another wave of hysteria hit her as she realised that she had probably killed this magnificent animal. Would it survive such grizzly injuries?

Scooching back out from under it's limp weight, Bella squatted to give it another soft rub before telling it unnecessarily and stupidly to stay. Which earned her a 'whuff' that probably meant? Where was I going to go? before dashing to her car.

Wolf pounced on her the second she was inside the car, snuffling along her hands and neck before delivering an extra slobbery lick to her cheek.

"Cross your paws, Wolf, and hope this car still starts." She muttered, looking over her shoulder as she turned the key. After putting the car in neutral and three attempts to start it, the Ford finally sputtered to life.

"Yes! Thank heavens." She cried, pumping her fists before jamming it into reverse and skidding back up into the road in a flicking of gravel and debris that was mostly foliage but also a little bit her car. Once on the road, she aligned the car dead center before spinning it around to face rear towards the wolf on the road. She backed up slowly, so she didn't startle it – hopefully-, before killing the engine.

She popped the trunk then kicked open the door hastily.

"Don't move you." She commanded her faithful canine companion before shutting the door.

She rounded the back end of her car hastily, coming face to face with a naked man that glared at her balefully.

Bella squeaked and stumbled back.

What on earth?

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Mystery man growled at her, his gaze boring a hole through her face like a laser. Bella didn't dare meet his eyes, so she went from studying his very straight nose to looking at her shoes.

"I- I hit a wolf." She croaked out sadly. Ashamed. This person was probably native, and she'd just hit an animal they revered- if memory served her correctly.

"Well, I can fucking see that! I meant what the hell are you doing running around shirtless and in the rain." The man barked, and Bella flinched.

"I was g-going to take it to an animal shelter." Her lip quivered with the urge to cry, voice stuttering with nerves.

Where had this person come from and why was he naked? Was he going to charge her? Get her kicked out of Forks? Report her for animal abuse or indecent exposure?

Bella could feel the sneer being sent her way.

"An animal shelter. Really? You think they're going to fucking help?" the man before her radiated the same out of this world heat the wolf had, scorching Bella through the measly layers of her clothing.

"Paul! Knock it off." A second voice joined the fist and Bella looked up to see yet another naked man charging toward her. She backed up hastily, eyes saucer wide almost stumbling over her feet. She was forced to a standstill when her back into the boot of her car.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't see it. It was so dark and the rain, and... I'm so sorry." Hysteria won over at last, and an apology spewed out of her on a hiccuping cry.

Warm hands touched her shoulders, and she shuddered in their hold. A hundred tiny ants were crawling along her skin with sensation. The hands jerked away, and she was glad for it, rubbing her arms to ease the tickling feel.

"You did fine. Paul is just being an asshole. You get used to it. Are you from around here or just visiting?" This voice was gentle and kind, but baritone and so low it rumbled over her like thunder.

"I- I came to see my father." She murmured out, casting a saddened look at the wolf still sprawled across the road. Her hands lifted to her mouth and sound bubbled out of her that was all distress.

"Really, that's great. Can you tell me your name?" the guy continued, probably trying to keep her focus away from what was happening.

"Bella. My name is Bella." She sniffled; head tucked in shame.

"Well, Bella, how about we get you back to your car, and I drive you to Forks. Does that sound like a good idea?" The suggestion was smooth and silky, and Bella almost immediately wanted to agree. Like an invisible hand of willpower wrapping around her own and snatching it away from her.

Just as she was about to nod, movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention.

"Shit, Jared, not yet buddy." The guy called Paul hissed out, eye flicking to where Bella stood. However, it was the scene on the road that had Bella choking on a scream and her eyes rolling back in her skull.

Where there had once been a wolf, now lay a very naked, profusely bleeding man. And she had seen it happen. Seen fur ease way into rain slick russet skin and dark hair. Bandaged with ragged strips of what once had been her shirt.

The world shrank in to a tunnel of dimming light, which involved nothing but that low rumbling voice and hands flying out to catch her as she collapsed in a dead feint.

End Chapter.

Hopefully this wasn't too dark for you guys. I am so excited to be writing this, the idea has been bugging me for a while. This is going to be a long, bumpy road with laughs, life lessons and love abound, and I hope those of you that give this a chance, stick around to ride it out with me. I look forwards to your feed back, answer any questions and just give out love in general. Also if there are any inconsistencies or holes, let me know and I'll go back and fix them up. Any/all spelling and Grammatical errors are my own, and I apologize or them, this is unbeta'd.