A thousand thoughts were racing through the small blonde's mind, as hysterical laughter continued vibrating throughout her tiny body. The boys all glanced at each other warily, until Jacob let out a piercing howl that broke their attention away from the laughing girl, and only increased her laughter.

Sam gestured to Jared, whilst Paul continued trying to calm down. "Embry, take Dallas back to Em's. Jared, I need your help and for the love of god, someone ring her mother!" Dallas wheezed, throwing a thumbs up in the direction of the three men (plus wolf), while Embry helped her stand. With a quick look of concern in his imprints direction, Paul begrudgingly turned around and followed his alpha.

Once standing, Embry glanced down at his best friend. "Dallas, are you okay?" He asked quietly, eyes still on her as her laughter began simmering down.

Wordlessly, she nodded. The taller boy sighed, before bending his knees into a crouch. When Dallas shot him a confused look, he gestured to his back. "Piggy back, I really don't think you're in any state to walk." Dallas walked behind him and jumped, wrapping her thin arms around his neck once he grabbed her legs.

The duo quietly walked through the dark woods, Embry not wanting to scare his best friend any more than she might already be, and Dallas thinking hard about what she had just witnessed.

It felt like minutes before the two reached the small cottage home that Sam and Emily shared. She frowned when she saw her mother's car in the driveway, alongside Sue and Harry's, and Joy Aterea's. "Council members usually come by when we phase, y'know to explain everythin' properly." Embry explained, walking up the three wooden steps and into the warm home.

The chatter of the room instantly died down once the two best friends entered, and Dallas wished nothing more than to run and hide. Monica spotted her first, awkwardly standing as her daughter's hazel eyes flicked in her direction. Dallas glanced at Embry, who nudged her shoulder lightly in encouragement. Her mother's arms were warm and welcoming when she finally reached her.

Monica ran one hand up and down her daughter's back, whilst the other was holding her head in a motherly face. "It's gonna be a lot to take in, why don't you sit down so we can explain everything." Dallas shook her head against the crook of her mother's neck, wanting nothing less than to sit down right now.

"I missed you." The blonde admitted, her voice just above a whisper. Monica sighed, one of complete content and relief. She met Billy's eyes, who had rolled around the table to greet his son at the door when he finally phased back.

"I missed you too, so much. But now,-" Monica pulled her daughter at arms length, removing one arm from her shoulder and moved it to her daughters face as she lightly pushed the wayward hair out of her eyes. "-you need to hear everything, so that all of this makes a little bit of sense up here." And with a quick tap on her head, the mother daughter duo shared a final smile before Monica directed her to a seat at the table.

Sitting at the table already was Old Quil who greeted the younger girl with a wise smile which she warily reciprocated. Beside him, was his daughter Joy who's worried brown eyes were darting to the door every few seconds. Emily wandered over a few seconds later, placing a mug of hot chocolate in front of the shaking teenager, which Dallas responded with a small 'thank you' that was more of a whisper than anything else. Harry Clearwater said nothing, -not that he said much anyway, he was a man of few words- instead opting to wrap his arm around his best friends daughter. To which, she leaned her head against his shoulder as a form of comfort.

Harry gently placed his own head atop her own, and chuckled lightly. "This will all make sense soon, I assure you Dallas, you aren't in any danger whatsoever." Dallas sighed, but nodded anyway. She didn't know what to make of any of this. She was all of a sudden finding out that the legends she had been told as a child, were in fact real. A world she blissfully believed to be normal, was actually filled with men who turned into wolves. A world with effortlessly beautiful beings, who had skin as translucent as the finest baby powder in the world, crimson eyes that haunted their prey, or in some cases, golden eyes that-

A gasp emitted Dallas's mouth as the thought flickered through her mind. "T-The c-cold ones?" She shot out of her seat in a split second, the same second that Paul and Jared had walked back into the house.

Paul frowned at his imprint, having heard the sentence exit her lips with the use of his super-human hearing. "Woah slow down, what's goin' on?" His brown eyes that were filled with accusation darted across every person's face as he joined his imprints side. Dallas felt a wave of nausea hit her, as the thoughts kept racing through her mind at an unprecedented rate.

Rearing back, her back slammed into Paul's front, having not realised he had moved behind her. "The....the...Ugh!" She took a deep breath, trying to focus on the words that were supposed to exit her mouth. "The Cullens, cold ones..." She pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers as another frustrated breath emitted her pink lips. "....vampires...But they can't be, it's impossible." She scoffed at the absurd thought, but after looking around at everyone's faces in the room, she quickly realised it wasn't as absurd as she originally thought.

Monica was in front of her in seconds, followed closely by Embry and Jared as they attempted to calm her down. Paul had placed both of his hands on the smaller girl's shoulders in a way to steady her. "Look babe, I know it's a lot to take in. I really get it, I was freaked out for so long when I found all of this out. But you are so safe, The Cullens never hurt humans." The older woman explained, receiving nods in agreement from the two boys beside her.

"Yeah I mean we don't particularly like them, but a treaty was made so long ago that prevents them from ever crossing our lands." Embry explained, smiling at his best friend in an attempt to reassure his terrified friend.

Jared nodded, reaching over to lightly ruffle her hair. "And they can't ever harm a human, breaks the entire definition of the treaty. 'Sides, we could kill them in an instant if they ever tried anything. Especially when it's in regards to our 'lil Bee." He added, shooting her a playful grin that made her lips twitch upwards slightly.

The reassuring words spoken, mixed in with Paul's arms on her shoulder and his body heat transferring onto her cold skin, she began to calm down.

"So the legends are real, all of them?" She asked in a quiet voice, already knowing the answer. Which was confirmed by the various nods of yes across the room. A sigh emitted her mouth. 'Wow,' she thought, 'I can't believe it's all real.' She wasn't as scared as she originally thought, I mean she had grown up with this information. It wasn't really news to her, though admittedly she was shocked. Moreso that Bella, had been hiding a dark secret. Edward was a vampire, she would've had to have known. There's no way the soft spoken brunette couldn't have.

Two sets of loud footsteps bounded into the cottage style home, causing everyone's attention to divert from the shaking blonde towards the two men who had just entered. Sam cleared his throat, moving slightly to allow Jacob to awkwardly walk into the home after him. "Monica it's probably for the best if Dallas goes home now, it's a little tricky right now with Jake." Monica nodded in total understanding, before handing Embry her car keys.

Embry took them with a crooked smile, before he lightly pulled Dallas's arm. "You ready to get outta here?" Dallas nodded once, before quickly turning around and giving Paul a hug.

"You take care of yourself Paul, I mean it. And call me later if you aren't too busy." Paul chuckled, before he pulled away and tucked another piece of hair behind her ear. Leaning down, he pressed his lips to the top of her head in a quick kiss.

"Always, thought you'd be sick of me by now?" He teased, ignoring the frustrated look that Embry was directing at him.

Dallas smiled, as she finally let Embry pull her away. "Somehow, I'm not." Paul smirked in response, causing her stomach to flip.

Before she could let Embry pull her totally away, she looked at her mother once before smiling. "I'll be going home, if you were wondering." Monica gave her a watery smile in response, and made a mental note to stop ask Sue to stop at Billy's on the way home so she could collect her daughters things.

Once she was outside, she wasted no time in throwing herself onto her best friend in a much needed hug. "I missed you, so much. Never ever leave me again!" Embry crushed her against his chest, feeling the happiest he had felt in weeks since he changed.

"I'm not leaving again, you're stuck with me as your best friend. For lifers, remember?" He held his pinky up, and the duo shared a laugh when their pinkies interlocked in a pinky promise that signified the platonic bond they both felt within one another.

"For lifers." She confirmed, before turning her head at the feeling of eyes on her. On the porch, Jacob stared at his two friends, a conflicting look on his face. Dallas smiled up at him, a smile that made him feel like everything might just be okay. Because he knew he had those two idiots to help him through this. And even though things felt totally bizarre, and he felt scared, he knew once he could sort out his phasing he would have his closest friends in his corner.

::::

"So now that you're now aware of the totally awesome, yet freaky secret i have been hiding-," Embry began as the duo walked up the small steps to the smaller girl's two story home. "-I was thinking we could have a sleepover, y'know for old times sake." Dallas laughed, whilst rolling her hazel eyes at her friend.

As she began unlocking her front door, she briefly glanced at the boy behind her. "Um, you realise it hasn't actually been that long since our last sleepover, right?" Embry lightly shoved her into the house once the door was unlocked, causing a look of annoyance to cross Dallas's face.

"Yeah, but it feels that way. It's been crazy, and it's been even harder not being able to tell you any of it." Dallas smiled sadly at him once the duo were seated on the lounge in her living room.

"I know, how's everything been anyway?" She asked, shuffling slightly when an object underneath her caused her to feel uncomfortable.

Embry's face dropped. "I was so rude to Audrey. On Christmas, she uh, gave me a present. And I basically told her that she needs to leave me alone, that I never had any feelings for her and she was getting on my nerves. None of that is true, I just wanted to protect her."

Dallas smiled sadly. "Jesus Christ, Embry."

Embry bit his lip sadly. "Fuck I miss her. I miss her so much. Every time I see her, I feel like my heart just breaks even more. And she's going through so much, I can't even be there because I fucked it all up." Dallas sighed sadly, pulling the taller boy in for a hug.

"Oh Embry. It's gonna be okay, I'll help you through it."

The duo stayed like that for a while, arms wrapped around each other as they tried to make sense of this newfound life.

"Oh and Paul like, never shuts up about you either. Like the man is totally inlo-" He cut himself off once he saw the object that was in Dallas's hands. A look of recognition flashed in his eyes, whilst a sinking feeling happened in his stomach. It was the book he bought her for Christmas, the one she had left behind during all of the drama with her newly found father.

"Sorry Em, I was listening I just..." She trailed off, moving the book around in her hands as she met her friends saddened gaze.

"...Em don't look at me like that, I understand why you couldn't give it to me yourself." She continued, before grabbing his hand.

Embry sighed, before plucking the book out of her hands. "I feel so bad though, you deserved it from me and I couldn't even give it to you. I uh, got your present too. Paul gave it to me that night." He handed his friend back her book, whilst she looked up at him expectantly.

"What did you think?" She asked, suddenly feeling nervous. She had never felt nervous giving her best friend gifts, it was just different this year because Embry went through such a significant change in his life that she wasn't sure he would like the same things.

Embry grinned down at her, pure happiness radiating off his smile. "I loved it, seriously. The scrapbook? Amazing! It brought back so many happy memories, while everything felt so sad and wrong. It brought me out of the slump i was in, that's for sure." Dallas had made a scrapbook for Embry, with photos of the duo, photos of the mini group they had, tickets of places they had been, and a lot of other random items the pair had mutually collected over the years.

Leaning her head on his shoulder, she smiled at the warmth he brought. "I'm glad. You know you can talk to me whenever, day or night. I know this is really hard, I get it. I just want you to know that you're not alone, you won't ever be alone with this again."

Embry sighed in content as he rested his own head against hers. "Thanks for being my best friend Dals, I love you."

"I love you too, Emz."