"i wanna hide the truth

i wanna shelter you

but with the beast inside

there's nowhere we can hide"

-Demons by Imagine Dragons

Chapter I – Big, Furry Surprise.

When it happened, Ahala had been curled up in front of her laptop. She had awoke to a pounding head and a burning chest, so she had stayed home from school and hoped to recover the next day. But as the hours ticked by, the pain only seemed to intensify.

She had just been reaching for her phone to call her mother when the burning suddenly burst from her chest in a flurry of raging flames across her shoulders and her thighs and her toes and oh god she was going to be sick all over her bed if she didn't get to the bathroom in time –

Tripping on her comforter in her rush, her black-rimmed glasses flew off her face and off into a region unknown, and as she crawled towards her bathroom she could feel something rising inside of her; it didn't feel like bile, but what else was she going to make of it? The most she could think to do at that point was sit in front of the toilet and pray to God it wasn't cancer.

Her fingers found the cool linoleum of the bathroom, and a within a few paces she was in front of her toilet. Thrusting the seat up, she began to retch; nothing came out, but she could still feel something coming. The burning touched every part of her; it was like she had been tossed into one of the huge bonfires people sometimes had down on the beach. She had never felt anything like this before, and she could only hope that her body built an immunity to it after this little bout; the thought of having it again was almost as sickening as the illness itself.

There; something was finally coming up. It was like a hook had been dragged through her body, taking up all the burning and putting it all –

A loud tear echoed off the tile walls and pieces of clothing went flying, and suddenly the nicely sized toilet was a crumbled mass of porcelain and leaking water, and as Ahala looked down at her hands, she didn't find them - she found paws.

She screamed, but all that came out was a loud bark.

Ahala had always been able to keep a level head; when her dad died, she didn't bury herself in that pain. When boyfriends broke up with her, she cried a little and got over it. When she saw blood or injured herself, the only tears that sprung to her eyes were the impulsive stinging ones.

But in that moment, all those things that had been under her belt vanished. Blackness engulfed her vision and she slipped into a nothingness that was welcome after those few horrifying moments.

Ahala awoke on an unfamiliar couch in an unfamiliar living room. Muffled voices carried from somewhere in the house, but she didn't recognize any. It felt as if she had never fainted; the image of two furry paws before her rested in her mind like a two ton weight, but now as she looked down at her copper-fleshed hands she shook her head.

"Ahala." The voice was a deep baritone, and it scared her out of her examination.

As she looked up at the tanned man standing in the archway, she did recognize him; it was Sam Uley. Local hero, rumored drug dealer; but as she thought back to her furry paws and the burning pain she knew that one out of those two things weren't true. Bone-shaking fear began to tremble through her.

He came to sit down next to her, and uncomfortably, she shifted; she noticed that she was not wearing her clothes anymore, but a large, baggy t-shirt that must've belonged to Sam. If she wasn't already terrified, she would've been terrified. Bringing her knees to her chest, she rested her chin between them and waited for Sam to say what he needed to say.

"I know you're scared right now," He said quietly. "We all were, at first. But once you know everything and get the hang of changing, it'll all be okay." She silently appreciated him for not making her meet his eyes; she might've started crying.

With a shaky voice, she said, "Explain,"

Without so much as a nod, he jumped into an explanation; it was like he had written a speech. She thought that he must've had to say it a lot; even she, who had once been an outsider to the mystical world she was just discovering, had noticed the frequent changes in the kids on the res. There were three in particular, but she couldn't remember their names…

It felt like hours passed before Sam neared the end of his speech, and she had to give it to him, she felt very informed; shocked and a little freaked out, but thoroughly informed. She understood what had happened in a clear way, and considerably less terrified. Letting her legs fall from her chest, she faced him now. "So I'm a werewolf, and I'm the first female wolf, and you'll teach me the patrol schedule?"

Sam nodded, offering a tight smile. "Yes."

Just as she began to smile back – tentatively – a loud banging came from the other side of the house. "We heard there's a new one! Who's the lucky guy?" Came a voice; Ahala stayed in her seat as Sam stood, just in time to greet three more tanned bodies.

"Paul, Jared, Embry," Sam said a bit formally, "you boys always have perfect timing," he glanced over his shoulder at Ahala, who looked like a kicked puppy as she realized his silent order: stand. "I'm sure you all know Ahala."

"You're that chick who got suspended for writing about the principal being sexist!"

"I saw you fall down the stairs once,"

"You're a chick?"

Ahala wrinkled her nose; she had never been good at first impressions. From what Sam had said, she would have to get to know these guys on a level that she had never known anyone before, so she supposed first impressions weren't that important in this kind of situation. Nevertheless, though, it still irked her.

"Nice…to see you guys again, I guess." She said, with a shrug.

The bigger one, Paul, smiled widely. "Nice to see you too, little lady," he added a wink, which frankly, made Ahala want to crawl out of her skin for a little while; no doubt he was the sleaze ball of the Pack.

Jared snorted, and bumped Paul's shoulder with his. "She's out little sister now, idiot. Don't hit on her." But he himself sent an admiring glance towards her. Sam seemed to catch that as well, and stepped in front of her protectively.

"Just as you respect each other, you will respect her." He said in an authoritative tone.

Embry, smallest and youngest of the guys, smiled shyly. Endeared, Ahala smiled back brightly and waved; she thought back to her schoolyard crush on him. It had been ages ago, fifth or sixth grade, and she hadn't really even known him. He had just been really cute and unattainable, and that was exactly Ahala's type.

Having seen the exchange, Paul wooed petulantly. "We've got a pair of lovers on our hands!"

Embry scowled and punched his shoulder and said, "Don't rag because no one ever taught you common courtesy."

"Common courtesy is for common people,"

"We're supposed to be common, Paul."

"But we're not! We turn into giant fucking wolves and protect the res from vampires."

Sam sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, and Ahala covered her mouth to hide her smile. Jared gave a parting wave and disappeared into the next room, leaving Embry and Paul to argue and Sam and Ahala to listen to them.

"Okay, I see what you're saying Paul, but what I'm saying is –"

"I don't care! I'm right and you're wrong, end of it."

Embry clenched his fists. "What I'm saying is –"

"Nope." Paul smirked down at the smaller wolf with his arms crossed; Ahala could see that Paul found some kind of sadistic joy in pissing people off, and began to giggle a little –

Embry shot forward so fast that he was a blur. Ten seconds passed, and Sam was racing after an enraged Embry and a struggling Paul out of the living room. Ahala's stomach had dropped somewhere behind her as she sprinted – uncaring of the revealing t-shirt – the way they had gone.

The front door was ajar, nearly off its hinges, and outside was a sight that Ahala would never forget:

A large grey wolf clamping down on a tan wolf's neck and something must've gone wrong because the tan wolf went limp and Sam was yelling and the grey wolf glanced to him and then Ahala in the doorway. In his dark eyes she could see him; it was Paul, and behind his goofy exterior there was anger so much that it spilled from his eyes and pooled into hers.

It occurred to her right then, standing in that doorway, that there was a reason they were all here; to protect the res, of course, but another one too. There was a reoccurring trait in all of them that in that one, defining moment Ahala realized that to be alive in them, it had to be alive in her.

Anger filled their hearts to the brim.

A/n: this is a story I wrote a long, long time ago. It's obviously rewritten, but the whole idea sort of makes me cringe; right now I'm on a quest to complete all of my unfinished stories from when I was younger. I'm going to warn you right now - this story is in no way prepared for the reader's eye and is unedited, save for the dividers between sections.

reviews are always welcome, but this is posted more for myself than anything.