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— 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐀𝐃 gone just as Willow had thought it would.
It had been a complete and utter shitshow.
After Paul and Willow had walked into Emily's house, they'd noticed that only Emily was present — which was an odd sight to see. Normally her house was crawling with wolves munching on whatever food she had cooked up for them that day.
The couple had shared a look before Paul had made his way outside to shift and reach anyone who was currently on patrol.
Emily, of course — had noticed that something was wrong, but had wisely decided to wait for everyone else to arrive after having earned a small shake of the head from Willow.
And when everyone in the pack had arrived — the ones not on patrol having heard Paul's howling and also rushed to get to Emily's place, each had had varying shades of concern across their faces.
"You said this was urgent, Paul. What happened?" Sam had asked, cutting right to the chase.
And Paul had jumped right into it. His words were quick and to the point, with Willow jumping in occasionally to mention details she had deemed important.
Jacob had been the first to react — growling and shaking before the couple was even finished with relaying what had happened because it had concerned Bella.
Jared and Embry had tried to calm him down, while Sam had continued to listen to Paul speak.
And when everything had been put out there, Sam had clenched his teeth in anger. He'd taken a few moments to think about what course of action would be best to take, running through different scenarios in his head, before he'd finally spoke.
He'd looked everyone in the eyes one by one, and had held his head high.
"We're gonna have to work with the leeches."
— 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐍'𝐓 even gotten the chance to react to Sam's declaration, before suddenly — their heads all snapped in the same direction simultaneously.
With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Willow knew something was wrong. But before she could ask what had happened, Paul was growling viciously and rushing out of the house — barely making it to the ground before phasing. Jacob was close behind him.
Then Jared was next to phase, and Sam wasn't too far behind. His parting words were to Embry.
"Stay back and watch the girls. And call Kim. That's an order."
And then he was gone.
Willow and Emily shared a look before the former made eye contact with Embry. "Em, what's going on?"
He took a moment to pause, his stare intense and downright malicious. "The leech is back."
Emily sighed shakily, "I'll go call Kim." And then she was walking further into the house.
The two teens stayed silent, a cold feeling of dread overcoming Willow. "Things are about to get a lot worse, aren't they?" She whispered.
But before Embry could reply — another ear-splitting howl of agony came out of the woods in the opposite direction of where the pack had headed.
Willow's brows furrowed, and she turned to face Embry. "Who was that?"
He had a similar look on his face as he looked towards the woods, before looking back at her.
"I don't know."
— 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐒 for Willow were spent in a blur.
One moment, she was standing next to Embry, and the next — she was looking at a ginormous grey wolf standing in front of her protectively.
"Emily, stay in the house! Whatever you do — do not come out, alright!?" Willow called to the woman in the house, as Embry crouched, seeming prepared to attack whatever — or whoever, was headed their way.
She could see the bushes and leaves around the forest rustling ominously, as the sound of thundering footsteps continued to get louder by the second.
Willow held her breath in anticipation, as the wolf in question finally made its way out of the forest. But instead of looking ready to attack, like she thought it would — the wolf came to a stop after almost crashing into Embry.
It whimpered sadly, and turned its big head in every direction; obviously in distress.
Embry's wolf took a step forward, and she could only guess that he was trying to calm the wolf down enough to phase back into its human form.
It took a really long time, and eventually — the rest of the pack had come back to assist the new wolf in phasing back to human, but eventually the wolf got there.
And lo and behold, standing stark naked and bone-tired — was none other than Quil Ateara.
He was panting heavily and stared at each pack member in fear.
