Disclaimer: The characters you recognize from the Twilight Saga belong to S. Meyer, but all the other characters belong to the very talented writer yay4shanghai, and live in the universe she has created. She's just letting me borrow them for a while, to write this story which is part of her wolf-verse.

If you haven't read any of the stories from yay4shanghai's universe, you totally should, they're very well written and will have you hooked in no time! Reading her stories will help you understand this one, since it revolves around two of her characters. Phil, being one of the six wolves to join the pack just before the end battle in BD, and his imprint Tara.

AN: A huge thanks to my beta yay4shanghai, for helping me to get to know her characters, so I could get started!

Prologue - It all starts with imprinting

POV: Phil

~*~*~*~

"Didn't I promise I'd check on her… again! Look man, she's fine, it was just the flu." What the hell was I thinking when I told Solace Maddox had been at home sick for the last few days, he was not handling the news well. Kids get sick, but when it's your imprint you don't think that way. I'd been over there six times in the last three day to see how she was doing and she was smiling. Kids that are dying don't smile (except for those freakily brave terminally ill ones), so obviously she was okay, but Solace was not reasonable when it ca

"Claire should be more careful, she shouldn't let her outside when she's sick, she might catch pneumonia," Solace said worriedly.

"Solace, you gotta stop this man, she's feeling better, she's already back at her dance class, I'm picking her up tomorrow." Claire was taking care of the remaining two of the Ateara offspring, apparently Maddox had infected them, and since Quil would be still at work, it would be my job to bring her home safely. When Solace decided to get married, defying his imprint I was the first person he talked to, because the only way he could handle it would be if I took his place.

"Just make sure Phil, I hate not knowing whether she's ok or not." Ugh, he was worse with Maddox than he was with Amber, at least then he'd had a just cause for concern, now he was just constantly worried.

"Yeah, I know," I sighed, and snapped shut my phone.

I don't really understand what it feels to worry about your imprint, to be so far away from them, I hadn't imprinted myself and I wasn't exactly waiting for an imprint anymore. When I was new to the pack and everyone around me was doing it I wanted to be a part of the cult, but now it just seemed to brig problems all around. The amount of drama caused by imprinting, was immensely huge, so I was counting my blessings that I was still able to retain my bachelor status.

Look at Solace, the guy is married to a beautiful girl, who loves him more than anything, but he's constantly worrying about an eight year old girl he doesn't even know. It was too crazy for words, but it was Solace, so I would check up on Maddie, if it made him feel better. Solace had been my best friend since I was a child, he had done more for me then my own blood family. So I'd babysat, bought presents for, watched movies with and even played chauffeur to Quil and Claire's little girl Maddox, and I'd do it all again if that's what it took to make Solace happy, he was my family.

Once I'd shoved my phone back in my pocket, I laid down and rolled myself under the car I had been working on. It was obvious from the second I saw it that there was a problem, which was caused by the exhaust but I still had to do a survey to know what the extent of it was. The owner had dropped it off today, Thursday, at Embry's old garage, which was now owned by Collin.

I'd been working here since Embry left La Push, Collin was the owner but other than a simple oil change he wasn't much use under the hood. Before I took a job here, I spent most of my time working on one of the two classic cars I owned, I didn't exactly need a job. After selling my hardware stores over ten years ago, and getting a fairly good deal, if I say so myself, working had become unnecessary. I enjoyed it just the same though, more even now that I didn't have to worry about making a living.

The owner, a much older lady, would be picking it up tomorrow afternoon and I had still quite a lot of work ahead of me. I looked up at the damage in front of me and snickered, damn, that must have been one hell of a speed bump! The exhaust pipe was completely busted, it had become loose to the point that it wiggled when you tapped it. Just as I wondered what had happened to the old lady's car, two feet appeared to the left.

"How's it looking?" Collin's voice reached me from above.

"The exhaust needs to be replaced, it's wrecked, hanging on by a thread. How did she say it happened?" it seemed highly unlikely to me that the women in question, had been driving at the speed she would have needed, to scrape over something with enough force to cause this kind of damage.

"She has no idea, she just heard a weird sound and decided to bring it in to have it looked over," he explained.

"There's no way this could have happened unnoticed." If she was suffering from dementias of that caliber, it probably wasn't safe for her to be driving at all.

"Yeah, I think it has more to do with her 16 year old grandson, who I've seen driving it regularly since he got his license a few weeks back." I laughed loudly rolling myself out from the car, yeah, that sounds more like it!

I had almost reached the end of my work day, so there was no use in starting the work tonight, I would get started tomorrow. I still had some time to take a look under the hood and apart from some minor things, the engine was in good shape. After further evaluation I concluded that I should be able to finish it in time.

It was ten in the morning when I came in the next day, getting up early was something I didn't do unless it was absolute necessity.

A few hours later the major work had been done, the parts had been replaced and the minor adjustments that still needed to be performed wouldn't take me more than an hour.

I glanced at my watch, by the time I would be finished, I'd still have plenty of time to get cleaned up. Looking at my black greased hands as I wiped them on my work pants, I concluded a long hot shower would definitely not be a luxury right now. It was an hour drive to Port Angeles, where I would pick up Maddox from her dance class, at seven 'o clock.

After some thorough scrubbing, most of the grease was finally gone. I got dressed I hopped in my '66 Ford Mustang Gt350, deep red with racing stripes. My favorite, a blue Cadillac convertible ala 1964, wasn't exactly suitable for today. The cold didn't bother me of course, but I was picking up Maddox, and the weather was still quite chilly at the end of March. If Maddox got sick in my care, I'd have three very angry people to answer to.

When I arrived it was still early. The dance studio was small, excessively pink and girly, but it had a comfortable atmosphere.

After examining the wall of pictures and trophies, I walked over to the window so I could watch. It was the kind where you could only see through from one side, and there was a mirror on the other side.

Maddox was completely focused as she danced, unlike a few other girls who were busier with each other than with their class. Smiling slightly I watched her work with pride, as one of the few exceptions among children, she hardly caused me any trouble and I liked her a lot.

Most kids were bad at following rules, were nosy, made a lot of noise and generally annoyed the hell out of me. Solace's imprint was ok though, she always listened to me, and was fairly easy going. I suppose picking her up wasn't the end of the world, especially since Harley wasn't with her, that would have been a completely different story.

Harley was the exact opposite of her older sister, that kid had more energy than any kid needed. She always seemed to be bouncing around, she just could not sit still. Harley seemed to enjoy constantly testing my patience, as if she was trying to find my breaking point, which I had very often came close to reaching; I'm not good with children.

The class ended and little girls were pouring out of the doorway, running towards their parents, I scanned their faces searching for Maddox. I waved at her to let her know where I was, and she smiled widely, coming my way. Maddox had a crush on me, which made our interactions easier because she was more willing to listen to me. Before she reached my open arms she was called back by her teacher, who was gesturing Maddie to get back inside, while she held a phone to her ear.

Was there something wrong? I ventured forward and as I came closer, my eyes wandered over the teacher's body. I couldn't help it, when there was a young woman in my general area my eyes raked over her body, from feet to face and damn this woman was hot! She had a body to kill for starting her endlessly long legs up to her narrow waist, smooth dark skin and long pith black wavy hair, which was currently blocking her face from my view.

"Claire? Yes, it's Tara, Maddox's dance teacher." What?! Why was she calling Claire, I focused on trying to hear the other end of the conversation.

"Tara? Is there something wrong?" Claire asked concerned.

"Well, there's some guy here, who wants to take Maddie with him, I thought it best to call first," I heard her whisper.

"Oh Tara, I'm so sorry that I didn't call you, I totally forgot about it…" she continued explaining, but I was no longer listening.

Has this woman lost her mind?! Did she think I was here to kidnap Maddox?! I stepped forward angrily, with the intention of giving her a piece of my mind, but when her head whipped around to face me, my jaw dropped. The moment her sparkling almond shaped hazel eyes met mine, I was done for, this was it, my number was finally up, today was the day I imprinted, on Maddox's drop dead gorgeous dance teacher.

She was a goddess, she was my goddess. Tall, lean, toned, purely beautiful.

"Right ok, well I'm just glad I was wrong. Bye Claire," Tara hung up the phone, countering my stare with a fierce intensity, as she stared right back at me.

"I'm sorry for the confusion, I'm Tara, Tara Li, Maddie's instructor," she extended a hand, which I took immediately, causing sparks to run up my arm the moment we touched.

"Hi, I'm Phil Lynch," I introduced myself a little more enthusiastically then I normally would have.

"Mommy, can Maddox come with us tonight, she could stay over?" A little girl ran forward clinging to Tara's leg. Mommy? Shit! Kids?!

"No honey, we can't today, this man here has come to pick her up."Another girl, even younger joined us and shot up a pleading look. You have got to be fucking kidding me! TWO?!

"Ava, didn't I just say no to Chloe? We'll call Claire tomorrow to see if she can come over," she answered the youngest.

Panic rose in my throat, how was it possible! Weren't you supposed to imprint on your perfect match? So how was it possible that I, who isn't exactly a huge fan of kids, managed to imprint on a mother of two. Then the next wave of horror hit me, if there are children, then there was a daddy somewhere.

That's just my luck! Of course I would be the first wolf to imprint on a fucking married woman! Frantically I started scanning her fingers for a wedding ring, there wasn't one. My relief didn't last very long when I was unable to find one, just because she wasn't married, didn't mean she'd be single. There was really no way someone as utterly breathtaking as her could be single.

We said our goodbye's quickly, this was one of those moments where I was so grateful that Maddox actually listened to me. She didn't make a fuss when I asked her to say goodbye, and just made a deal with Chloe to call her in the morning. I couldn't stand there anymore, frantically trying to figure it out. I needed time to think.

We walked out of the room and out of the dance studio a moment later. During the ride back I was completely distracted, as always picturing the worst case scenario. I drove way too fast, but was completely oblivious to Maddie tensing up next to me. When we reached LaPush a full 15 minutes ahead of schedule she practically ran out of my car and up the stairs.

As soon as I got Maddie inside, I had to fight the urge to overflow Claire with questions about Tara. She would know about her, at least more than I knew which was that she was a beautiful mother of two… maybe more.

"Phil, I'm so sorry I forgot to tell Tara that you were picking Maddie up." The apologies continued but no matter how hard I tried. Claire was a wonderful woman, probably the closest thing to a friend I had among the pack imprints. She was kind and appreciative of my help I the place of Solace. Usually we would talk, chat about Maddie or make plans but I couldn't focus enough on her to actually understand what she was saying, until she mentioned Tara that was.

"It must be hard being a single mom, I can't even imagine," Hah! There without asking, the key piece of information I needed, no hubby or boyfriend around, the tension that had formed in my chest finally lifted, well almost, there were still two girls between me and Tara.

I needed to know more. Where was the father? How old was she? Were there only two? Was she looking for someone? Seeing anyone? Should I tell her about the fact that I had imprinted on Tara?

Until now, the fact that Maddox and the girl she knew from her dancing lessons, didn't hold much significance to me. But now that I knew that girl was named Chloe, and that she was my imprint's daughter, everything changed. I was torn on one hand they looked like her, like miniature versions of my Tara's perfection, but on the other hand they were a huge cause for concern.

My imprint was a mom, which meant that she and her girls would come as a package deal. Tara with her daughters had the potential to be disastrous, but I knew that Tara without her daughters was most likely not an option.

Then there was also the idea that she had already been with another man, I'm not talking about wanting her to be a virgin or something like that, that would be irrational. The thing that bothered me was that she'd already built a life with someone once, had children with that man. She had a world and love without me, so would she have room left in her heart for me?

I kept my imprint to myself, while I liked her I didn't think Claire should be the first one to talk to about it.

The promise to give Solace a call later tonight, was suddenly very convenient to me, despite the fact that he didn't live here, we still had each other's back and I knew I could trust him with my life. He would know what to do, so after I had convinced him that his imprint was ok, I'd have to tell him all about mine.