Prologue (Present Day)
The wolf stood motionless in the forest, head lifted so that the pair of golden eyes set into the black fur of the animal face could focus on the second-floor window of the house in his nightly ritual. Curtains partially drawn over the half-open window fluttered in the breeze, but there was enough of a gap for him to glimpse the girl who lived there. She was lying on her stomach on the bed, head canted downward-most likely reading a book, the human part of him decided. His lungs expanded to absorb every molecule of her scent that the air brought to him. With each inhalation, the itchy twitchy feeling in his bones calmed slightly. It would never go away completely as long as she lived here, but installing her in his cabin wasn't possible yet, no matter how much the wolf insisted it was the only option.
Patience, the man reminded the wolf.
She is our mate, countered the wolf. She belongs with us. We must care for her, protect her, claim her.
We will. We have been and will always protect her. And keeping our distance is caring for her-no one would understand if we claimed her now.
The wolf did not agree, but the man would not be swayed. In this he had won the battle-must always win. Even half a century ago, it might have been possible to do things as the wolf wanted, but times had changed. Society would not accept this now, but once the time was right...
She will be ours, Samuel Uley vowed.
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The book was closed and laid gently on the table next to the bed. Rising from her comfortable reading spot, the girl who had just finished reading "Pride and Prejudice" for at least the dozenth time wandered to the bench built under her bedroom window, tugging at the hanging curtain to give more of a glimpse of the night outside, though with darkness fully fallen and no lights shining outside, her view was limited to her own reflection. Hair the shade of rich mahogany fell in loose curls almost to her elbows. Skin nearly as pale as that prized in her historical novels lacked any typical teenage blemishes—for which the often awkward and clumsy girl daily gave thanks. Eyes of a dark and serious brown looked out on a world filled with the unknown—all that she didn't know and couldn't wait to learn. It was as if her future—mysterious to her as it was at the moment—was out there, just waiting to be discovered.
"What is out there, waiting for me?" she wondered aloud.
Rarely one to resist the urge to skip ahead and read the ending of a book first, Bella was equally impatient to learn what life had in store for her. Rationally, she knew she had no choice in this but to wait, yet still she couldn't help feeling that it-whatever it might be-was almost within her grasp.
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AN: I must congratulate my reader YankeeGirlNJ for getting her wish to be my winning bidder in the recent 3rd annual Tricky Raven Author/Artist auction. One of the options she presented me for her one-shot was for a Bella/Sam imprint story (so, no Emily imprint). I'd actually considered doing something along this line a few years ago, but ended up starting my current Bella/Embry story instead. Now, I have an excuse to start thinking about that idea again. For now, this will be a (very short) one-shot-and more of a drabble/teaser than anything else-but I'm structuring this development process with an eye toward it likely being the next big story that I start to write. So everything my bidder hoped for might not end up in this particular part, but I hope this will suffice for now, with my promise to add in all the stuff that you asked for when the full story unfolds.
I also apologize for being over a month late in getting this submitted to the auction page. Pretty big kick from real life during the initial writing month. Then I kept starting and discarding story beginnings. Just couldn't get something that felt right. Finally came up with what I'm presenting here. Short and mysterious, and I hope I can live up to this start with another kick-ass story.