Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight Saga, or any of its original characters.

A/N: Well, hey there guys and girls! This is my first story on this account... I haven't honestly written on this site for a long time but I still remember how it works and I'd love some feedback! Just so you know, this story is set seven years after Breaking Dawn and follows Seth's life. He's around about twenty-one and a LOT has changed in his weird world. It would be really lovely to just hear whether this is worth continuing... Thanks!

North Star

1: Bad Beginnings

I sighed as I pulled into the tiny parking lot of Ron's Food Mart. It was the only place in a fifty mile radius of the reservation that sold the right kind of baking powder – well, according to Emily anyway. It was Leah's first weekend back home since moving out to Seattle on a photography internship and my mom was set on baking her something called a Victoria Sponge cake. The problem? Mom was God awful at baking, and I knew that the only way this venture could possibly go right was to follow the perfected recipe Emily had kindly bestowed upon us.

Usually Charlie Swan, my mother's long-time boyfriend and the Chief of Police here in Forks, ran every errand she could come up with (once he'd even driven to Port Angeles to pick up something stupid for her off of eBay in the middle of the night) but he was at a county meeting this afternoon and it was left up to me to hunt down freaking cake ingredients. As if I didn't have enough on my plate at the moment, too.

After trying in vain to parallel park for almost ten minutes I gave up and slammed my car to a halt. Getting out of the rust-gathering old Astra that I lovingly called mine and out into the constant downpour that Washington was so well-known for, I realized that I'd parked over about three designated bays. Oh well. I was in a damn hurry. It would be fine.

"Excuse me, where's the baking section?" I called over to the girl at the check-out as I entered the store. She looked vaguely familiar. I think Brady might've dated her last summer but I couldn't be certain.

She looked up and smiled at me, like pretty much all girls did nowadays, and said, "At the back, cutie, just down from the tinned ravioli!"

Ever since I had grown into my muscles and abnormal height during my junior year of high school it could be said I started getting a lot of female attention. One time a soccer mom even tried coming onto me at First Beach – and I'm not exaggerating at all when I tell you she even asked if I could babysit her thirteen-year-old son that very same evening. Sometimes it was funny and kind of flattering and, admittedly, it made me feel pretty damn good about myself; however none of it ever felt like it meant anything to me.

I mean, I'd had several girlfriends but nothing that you could call serious - it was also extremely hard to have a relationship with someone with the worry of imprinting always on your mind. And, yeah, I guess that was pretty sad when you thought about for long enough.

"Thanks a lot… Callie," I read from her name-tag.

Yeah, she seemed like a nice ordinary girl. Callie was a nice ordinary name. Maybe if I ever had time I could talk to her some more.

Picking up the colourful tub of baking powder and some fresh eggs, I made my way quickly back to the check-out and handed over a crumpled handful of bills and left without waiting for my change. Since becoming the Alpha of both Sam and Jake's joined packs everything had changed. I found I was always in a rush to go somewhere or do something, whether it was tribal meetings or sorting out the schedule for patrols or running all the way up to Canada to discuss the current safety of Clallam County with my almost-step-sister Bella and her family.

The funny thing was, in the first weeks of becoming a shape shifter I never honestly thought I would end up as the one in charge. I'd always been the kid that got under everyone's feet or was told to shut up if I even tried to make an input into the going-ons of pack life. Then Emily popped out a few kids and Sam stopped phasing, and his pack fell to Jacob. Then the Cullen's decided it was time they had to relocate and Jacob went with them to British Columbia. Since I was his Beta, after Leah stopped phasing so she could get on with her human life, I was expected to take charge. So I did. (Without any complaints, I might add.)

Two years and four months later, here I am. I have the weight of being an Alpha on my shoulders and I'm still sent out on errands by my mother like I'm prepubescent again.

As I jogged out into the parking lot I lazily acknowledged the beat-up Bronco that was pulling in from Calawah Way. Without a second thought I got into my car and dumped the grocery bag in the backseat, making a mental note that I needed to rope one of the pups into cleaning out my jalopy someday soon.

I hadn't even twisted round properly in the driver's seat when something hit the back of the Astra. If I hadn't been so stupidly large the harsh impact would've probably caused me to smack my forehead against the windscreen. I felt myself start to shudder.

This guy was going to have Hell to pay if they'd got even the tiniest scratch on my precious car.

"What the actual fuck?!" It took me a moment to realise that I was already shouting at the mystery driver of the Bronco before I'd even fully gotten out of the Astra.

I continued, "You can easily see I'm parked here – literally about to drive off – and you couldn't wait two seconds before deciding to be a complete asshole!"

It was easy to say that I was stressed. I never usually cursed… Well, up until recently I'd never really had a reason to.

My skin was starting to feel looser, like it always did when one of us shapeshifters got angry or upset, and I had to remind myself to breathe deeply. No matter how pissed I was at this jerk I couldn't risk phasing in the middle of town.

"Hey, just shut up a second!" Came a very unexpected female voice from the large truck.

Suddenly this small blonde thing opened the door and climbed out, giving it straight back at me.

"If you hadn't been stupid enough to park across three freaking spaces then I wouldn't have had to try to manoeuvre around your shitter of a car, would I now?!"

"Oh because you're such a fantastic driver…" And that was when her scowl met my scowl.

Oh, please not now. Not now. Shit.

I was pretty sure my heart had actually stopped beating for those ten intense seconds where our eyes were locked together. Her eyes were blue. A deep, watery sort of blue. Like the most perfect ocean imaginable. I felt myself stop shaking; the anger that had coarsed through every bone in my body instantly dissipated into pure astonishment and wonder and every good feeling you could ever possibly think of.

I'd found my imprint. I had finally found my freaking imprint!

But in the midst of my elation, I remembered she was still screaming at me… And it didn't look like she was going to ease up anytime soon.