I wasn't thrilled when my father had begun dating Sue Clearwater from the Quileute Tribe, even less happy about it when they got engaged. Now here I was standing in my newly decorated bedroom, my father's way of making up for forcing me away from my old home, that and a new wardrobe.

Someone knocked on the door, I glanced up, seeing Seth standing there a little awkwardly. "Um, dinners ready."

"Oh. Great," I said slightly sarcastically.

He hesitated, and then entered the room. Here we go, I thought amused. "Look, I know your not totally happy about your dad getting re-married and probably even less happy about moving, but La Push isn't that bad."

I was amount to make a smart remark when something caught my attention, "why aren't you wearing a shirt?"

He got a confused look, and even felt the need to look down. "Um, it's hot?"

"I'm sure," I said shaking my head, "whatever, what's for dinner?"

"Fish, I think, Billy and Jake are here," I had no idea who that was. "Family friends," he said at my frown and I nodded.

"Why you dressed like that?" Leah asked, a sort of disbelieving look on her face when we walked into the dining room.

I was wearing my usual running gear. Very short spandex shorts and a black training bra along with my headphones and ipod attached to the top of my shoulder. The clothes clung to my body so well it looked like it was part of my skin and the material was thin too, making it easy to breathe. Not that it was ever an issue, just a precaution.

"Your running without me?!" my brother, Caleb said in disbelief.

"I was going to ask you if you wanted to come, you know, canvass the area," I said shrugging.

"Awesome! New fucking territory," he said grinning widely and standing from the dinner table.

"You run?" Sue asked, surprised.

"They're free runners, it was this big gang thing, one of the reasons we moved here," my dad said giving us a pointed stare. I tried not to glare.

"Gang thing my ass," Caleb said moving past me and up the stairs. Seth went to sit next to his sister at the table.

"You wont be going into the woods, will you?" Leah asked next, both her and Seth sharing a worried look.

"Why?" I asked tying my hair up.

"It's really dangerous out there, you shouldn't-," I cut off Sue abruptly.

"The whole worlds dangerous, and quite frankly I've taken on more then you could imagine. So I'm not too concerned about some blood thirsty version of winnie the pooh running around," it came out kind of harsh but I didn't care. The rest of the table did though.

"We talked about this Kira, drop the attitude or you wont be going anywhere," my father said giving me a hard look. Leah and Seth were glaring at me darkly.

I just made a dismissive gesture and popped a cucumber in my mouth before drinking a glass of water.

"Still, there's a pack of wild animals killing campers, you shouldn't go into the woods," Leah said in a clipped stern tone.

"I'm not red riding hood, I can handle myself," I said as my brother reappeared at my side, dressed in nothing but shorts and running shoes.

"You shouldn't go out there," Seth said standing, rocking the table because of how quickly he'd stood. "At least let me show you the safest routes."

Caleb gave me a confused look and I shrugged. I didn't know what there problem was. "I said canvass the area. We go where we please."

"What are you standing around arguing for, let's go," Caleb said, grabbing my arm and tugging me out of the front door excitedly.

We both turned on our music, and stretched as we walked down the driveway and I bounced a little. I did a few flips to start channeling my weight and center of gravity. I did a back flip and then a hand stand, before putting one arm behind my back during the hand stand and then forced my body into the air and landed about ten feet away in a slight crouch. Caleb had mimicked my movements.

"You know It never occurred to me that we could be acrobats," I said loudly over the pounding music. He read my lips and grinned.

We stood side by side before we took a running start. He ran for the woods, but I didn't wait a second before throwing myself towards the closest branch and flying forward.

We must've moved like that for over an hour. We'd even thrown ourselves off of a cliff and when we swam back out we just went right back into the woods. Twenty minutes after we got out of the water, I had the oddest sensation.

I paused, and a second later Caleb flew into me from behind, sending us sprawling to the forest floor. I pulled my headphones out and then stood up slowly. "You feel that?" I asked him frowning.

He was silent as he stood up. We'd been quiet the entire run, nothing ever heard us, not even animals. "Yeah," I turned in a circle and he did the same. "I don't hear anything."

"Me neither, let's backtrack and get back to La Push."

"Sounds good," I said shoving the head phones under the bra line and he pocketed his as we began running back home, this time on foot. We generally liked to trust our intuition because it was always right, music would make us easy targets. I dont think eithe of us expected anything to be out here though.

We got to a small clearing when something barreled into me from behind. "Son of a-," I hit the tree on an angle and then hit the ground. Caleb grabbed me and pulled me into him hard as the fast moving person met ground at the next lunge. We moved for the other end of the clearing when I heard loud howls. We shared uneasy looks.

They cut us off. No, they didn't cut us off. There was someone else with him. Both of us stood back to back and I stood with my hands open in front of me in defense. He probably stood the same way, we had the same training.

They rushed us and I flipped into the air, getting them in the face and then much to my surprise, Caleb grabbed my wrist and spun me hard and I kicked the other attacker, this time from left to right rather then up from the ground. I landed with my back turned and I didn't wait before both of us were running, side by side.

A wolf came flying through the trees and both of us dropped, sliding on the ground as they flew straight over us. As the wolf made it over us, we came to a stand before we even finished sliding and continued running.

"Wait," I breathed suddenly and then turned as two other wolves entered the clearing. I could only stare at the small silver one. It was still huge, but it appeared to be the smallest of the three. She was staring at me too. She was beautiful, this wolf. The streaks of dark grey, and the light glittering silver tips. The moment was short, seconds, before my brother had grasped my hand and turned my attention to running.

We got to the house shortly after that, we knew this side of the woods well enough so finding our way didn't take long. We were walking down the road when a cruiser pulled over. "Great, now were going to get arrested," he muttered beside me and I glared at the cruiser.

A tall native guy got out. "You shouldn't be out here so late."

"it's eleven o'clock," I said in disbelief.

"There's a curfew," he said next, glancing from my brother to me. "Why don't I give you a ride home."

"We'll walk," I said coldly, moving past him.

"I insist," he said next, grabbing my wrist as I passed him. Caleb moved instantly, separating us and putting himself between us.

"Don't touch her," he said, a cold almost possessive tone in his voice. I grinned.

"My apologies, I didn't mean to upset you or make you feel uncomfortable. It's just not safe in these parts," he said, mostly surprised with Caleb's sudden movement.

"Leave us alone and I wont call your superior and report you for harassment," Caleb said next, backing up a step and wrapping an arm around me to guide us away. The cop left.

"Little much, wasn't it?" I said in amusement.

"You know why I'm like that," he said in an even tone. I did know.

"Caleb, were not in the city anymore. Relax," he didn't relax until we got home.

I couldn't blame him much though. He was protective, they all were. We'd gotten into so much trouble with the law, that they didn't mind hurting us. They thought they'd break us by hurting us, myself the most, only because I was the girl, and the youngest. They thought I was the weak spot, and my friends had made it more then clear that I was very important to them by displays of violence bordering on brutality. A lot of the time it came off as possessive and territorial. So cops exploited the knowledge they had and it ended horribly one night when I got arrested. Someone ended up dead and I ended up in the ICU for a week, not a pleasant memory.

We got home to find several people at the house, Jake, as well as several people I didn't recognize. They were all talking heatedly in the living room, and dad was nowhere to be seen. His car was in the driveway and his shoes were here, so I assumed he was asleep.

"Are you okay?" Sue asked, rushing towards us.

"Yeah, why?" I asked frowning.

"Nothing, you were gone a long time," she said slowly, gaze flickering between us.

"Did anything interesting happen?" an older boy asked, almost knowingly.

"You mean aside from coming home to our new step mother and a bunch of shirtless dudes?" Caleb sneered. I guess he was still worked up, he really hated police. They just kind of made me nervous

None of them knew how to respond, I took the chance to go upstairs. Caleb followed.

"I call shower first!" I said suddenly, racing up the last few stairs. Caleb grabbed my ankle and I went flying forward into the last three. "Ow! Asshole."

"I get the first shower!" he said, rushing past me.

"The hell you do!" I said running after him and tackling him. We knocked over a table and after a steady wrestling match I managed to get the through the door and have it locked before him. "Ha, I win!"

I heard him swear at me on the other side and just grinned triumphantly before turning up the cold water. I liked cool showers rather then warm ones. Halfway through the shower Caleb had picked the lock, shut of the light and flushed the toilet, and left the water running. I swore at him heavily and he just laughed.

I crashed hard after that.

Someone was knocking on my door, "get up, you have school," my dad said leaving the door wide open.

"School?" I muttered so out of i had no idea what that even meant. Stumbling out of the bed and looking out the window. I jumped when i heard Caleb shout and swear and assumed Dad had just woken him up as well. It wasnt sunny but i hadn't expected any sun. It was Washington afterall. I

I went downstairs, everyone was awake and eating breakfast.

"Morning," I greeted, and everyone gave me a funny look. Maybe because I was wearing nothing but a tight purple spaghetti strap tank top and black lace panties. Caleb appeared in nothing but boxers. It was normal attire for us, and the only time our father had ever objected was when i had been thirteen and had some guy friend over. Either way when he'd made a pass at me Caleb flipped, gave him a bloody nose and kicked him out in the middle of the night.

I got my morning coffee and then just leaned against the counter. "So your school, what's it like?" I asked, Seth, once he'd come out of his surprise.

"You guys stroll around your house naked?" Sue asked, clearly disturbed.

"It's habit, we don't like to wear clothes," my brother said giving her a weird look, "though I didn't think you'd mind, what with your shirtless parties."

"Is that going to bother you?" I asked her eyebrows raised.

"Um, I guess not," she said uncertain and then left the room. Caleb and I shared amused looks.

"Why you guys like that, is it that gang thing Wade told us about?" Leah asked, looking anywhere but me for some reason.

"What exactly did he tell you?" I asked frowning, then turning to add sugar to my cup. I felt a gaze on me as I stirred it and when I glanced back I realized it was Leah staring at me. When she realized I caught her, she looked away quickly.

"Just said you guys are in a gang. A few arrests, you were almost sentenced to fifteen years in prison," Leah said next, to Caleb.

"Well that parts true," I said rolling my eyes a little, grinning slightly. That had been my fault in part. After everything had gone down and i spent a week in ICU, when i finally woke up and told my brothers what had happened, they were all pissed and it ended badly for everyone. All of us got arrested and Caleb was more or less caught red handed killing someone.

"What did you do?" Seth asked, watching him closely. He had a guarded almost murderous look on his face, probably remembering just what it was that almost got him life in prison.

"It doesn't matter," I said next, "our father over exaggerates sometimes. We were close friends, just because the rest of the world perceives us as gang members doesn't necessarily mean we are."

"Sorry," he said frowning, looking more and more curious.

"You should get ready, school starts in an hour," Leah said next, standing and quickly exiting the room. A moment later I heard the door open and close.

"What does your sister do all day?" I asked Seth next, she didn't take a car wherever she went. But I didn't feel her presence anymore.

"She works at the bar," he said shrugging. That wasn't what I had wanted to know, but I let it go. I felt like there was something in the room I couldn't quite put my finger on and Leah and Seth had the answer. It came and went when they were here. I also got the feeling Sue knew all about it. Which left the question, did dad?

Leah was twenty two, and she was quite beautiful in my opinion. It was her like brown skin, those sort of sad eyes that made me want to keep looking into them. Which is why I avoided about thinking about her. The girl was my sister, sister by marriage, but sister nonetheless.

Seth was my age and thankfully I had him for both first, second and forth period. Sadly, Caleb was eighteen and after this year the plan was to move out together. Probably back home to the others.

I missed my friends. I missed Adrian's always calm serious attitude, those smiles that seemed so rare you spent time trying to make him smile. Or Jace's endless understanding, as if you were talking to yourself, and nothing ever surprised him. Or David's need for constant adventure, I'd probably gotten into more trouble with him then anyone else. Brandon, the one who probably rivaled Caleb's own brotherly role, though they didn't see eye to eye about things a lot. Caleb liked to have fun all the time, where Brandon felt the need to watch me whenever crazy crap went down and it did, a lot.

Our first class was science and I got him right beside me. People casting weird looks at us too, and whispering. Seth looked very uncomfortable. "What's wrong?" I asked, leaning back in the seat.

He hesitated, and then someone else glanced back at us and whispered to their lab partner. "They're looking at you, not me. My friends and I, we don't hang out with people who aren't friends with us and they know your not," he hesitated again, "like us."

"Like you?" I repeated skeptically. He nodded and then the teacher entered the room.

"So we have a new student today, why don't you introduce yourself Mrs. Elliot?" I stayed where I was.

"You just did," he frowned, not expecting the attitude I guess, Seth didn't look to surprised though.

"Tell us about yourself, what do you do in your spare time?"

"What would be the fun of that, I like a little mystery in life, don't you?" I retorted amused.

"If you don't want to share just say so," he snapped irritably.

"Was I too obvious?" I shot back grinning now. Everyone looked surprised with the way I was talking. But I guess it's not everyday a new student shows up, let alone one that enjoys pissing off her teachers.

Second period was about the same way, before I finally escaped and Seth guided me to the cafeteria. A few people had said 'hi' and I made it clear that I didn't want to cozy up with a bunch of normal average kids. By the sounds of it, they all got the picture quickly. They were giving me almost suspicious looks, like I was suddenly part of the weird exclusive group of boys Seth was involved with.

"Did you want to sit with us?" Seth asked, glancing at the table of unusually buff kids. Unsurprisingly, they were the shirtless kids from last night.

"I guess," I said, not seeing my brother anywhere.

We moved through the line up of people and I stuck to the fruit and water, before someone approached us. I didn't recognize him and he seemed to be about Caleb's age.

"Hey, Kira, right?" he guessed, giving me a crooked flirty grin.

"Yes," I said, backing up when he took a step closer. Even Seth noticed the movement. But really it was for the kids own safety. At the end of both first and second I'd been asked out and I'd shot them both down, but I hadn't reacted like this. It was because of Caleb, I couldn't see him anywhere and he could be anywhere. He would flip on this kid.

"I was thinking, if you don't have anyone to show you around, maybe I could," he reached up, but he never got the chance to do whatever he had planned too. Caleb's hand wrapped around his wrist, freezing everyone around us.

"Get lost," he said coldly, dropping his hand in a sort of harsh way and angling his body between us a little.

"Caleb," I hissed, grabbing his arm and tugging him towards me a little. He didn't take his stare off the kid and I was a little worried. Then I pulled again and spoke into his ear so only he could hear. "Leave the kid alone, he didn't even touch me."

"He was about to," he retorted, giving me a look.

"But he didn't. This isn't like home Caleb, you can't attack random's, they don't know us," I said shaking my head. His expression didn't change. "We don't need to start problems here. There's two of us, not six. We can't change the rules like we did back home and they wont understand anything."

He eyed me for a moment and then nodded reluctantly. Seth was just starting at us weirdly now. "Did you still want to eat with us?" he asked, uncertain.

"Sure," Caleb said, glancing at me.

We moved to the table of kids I'd suspected we would end up at, and we took the two empty seats. They looked a little confused as we sat down and Seth just grinned and introduced everyone. "So why haven't you made any friends yet? Sounds like your pretty popular," Jake said giving me a small smile to show he was teasing me.

"People don't really understand the way Caleb and I are, things could escalate very quickly, that's all," I said shrugging.

"Yeah, it looked like it, I thought he was about to rip Matt in half," Jared said in disbelief.

"Pretty over protective," Brady added.

Caleb and I shared looks and he just shook his head and looked away and around the rest of the cafeteria. I sighed.

"Something happened a while back, actually quite a bit happened. I got hurt because of people we thought were harmless and sufficed to say Caleb never got over it," I explained.

"What happened?" Jared asked frowning.

"I'm not going into details with strangers, as I said, I got hurt a few times. But it's over and done with," I said shrugging, opening the water and taking a long drink.

"Other then the free running, what do you guys do for fun?" Colin asked curiously. Everyone having dropped the questions about our slightly painful history. I didn't ask how he knew I was a free runner. Seth had been by my side all morning.

"Random stuff. Archery, camping, hiking, rock climbing. We like nature, have since we were kids," I said dismissively. We did plenty. Usually ending with gaming out for an hour before crashing.

"Where's your mom?" Brady asked suddenly, and everyone turned to him and he blushed.

"She's out of the picture for the moment," Caleb said evenly. I just took another drink of the water, letting the beads calm my now aching heart. I hated thinking about our mother.

She was gone. Gone, gone. Gone crazy even. Hell we didn't even know where she was. In fact, her disappearance is what brought me to Brandon and the others. I forced the last memory of her from my mind. It only upset me, sometimes even pissed me off. Caleb just down right hated her.

We talked quietly, giving them vague answers when they asked questions about us or our previous life. Jake seemed to like me well enough.

"So what's with the tattoo's?" Seth asked me when I exited the girls change room. We had gym together as fourth period. This time I wore basketball shorts for the class, along with one of the training bras. Everyone else was in similar clothing and the teacher tossed me a thin short tank top to put over it. Gym logo I guess.

"What do you mean?" I asked frowning. I had two tattoo's, one was a set of angel wings down my back, with white and silver in them. They were huge and covered up most of my back, and they were well detailed, looking a little ruffled but not too much. All six of us had a sort of crest tattooed over our hearts. A half crescent moon, and a sun, attached by a small star with six points for each of us. It was all pressed close together, and both the sun and moon had an inscription and symbols in it.

"The wings suit me," was all I said in response to his curious stare.

"They look good," he said a little hesitantly. I bumped his shoulder and smiled at him.

"I know, that's why I got them," he just rolled his eyes.

"Do you play a lot of sports?" he asked next, the teacher splitting us up into groups. Thankfully, and for my benefit, he put Seth and I in a group together.

"We did when we were younger, we found a better sport and the school kind of frowned upon it. Too dangerous," I said shrugging, as we moved to the other three team players. We were doing some kind of track and field thing.

"Were just up against other teams," a brunette girl explained at my confused look, "i'm hailey, by the way."

"Kira."

We won the little competition. By a long shot. I even held back a little when I realized how pissed off everyone was getting about it. I hadn't really even noticed. "Will you be trying out for any of the teams?" the coach asked me at the end of class.

"Possibly. My brother and I don't normally join these kinds of things," I said truthfully. Practices meant being away from the others and Caleb liked to stay close. Watching me hit a ball or run around wasn't exactly his idea of a good time. And with other hormonal teenagers all of us jostling aggressively just put him on edge.

"You have a good arm, fast too, I was impressed, you should think about joining. We have rugby, volleyball and basketball coming up, you should try out, you'd be a great asset," like i didn't know that already, i thought smugly.

I felt someone come up towards us and glanced over my shoulder to see Caleb, he looked uneasy. I moved towards him and someone touched my arm, I glanced back to the coach. "Just think about it," the coach said, giving me a smile.

"Sure thing," I rushed to meet Caleb before he got too close to us.

"Come on, this place is driving me nuts," he muttered, casting a quick glance back at the coach and then guiding us to the parking lot.