Author's Note: I have been often requested to share Bella's perspective on the events of The Hardest Part, when Embry imprints on her. Rather than rewrite the entire story, I am going to provide a series of "moments" from her point of view. They will not be a play-by-play of THP, but just peeks inside Bella's head at significant moments in the story.
This is a work of derivative fiction. All things TWILIGHT are the intellectual property of Stephenie Meyer and/or her assignees. I write merely to entertain myself and others and receive no compensation.
Moment 1: Embry Acts All Weird
My stomach quaked and I felt a cold sweat break out all over me when Jake practically growled at me through my truck's window. He looked so angry! So furious! He was practically shaking with the force of all that negativity.
Still, even though he'd been sucked up by Sam Uley's Gang, I wasn't going to let him go so easily. I tried to steel myself, going so far as to glare at the others in this gang. This cult. This bunch of kids that Sam had managed to enthrall somehow into looking and acting just like him. I was livid.
Sam and the other guys just stood in the drizzling rain, none of them more than half-dressed. What was with these Quileute guys and clothes, anyway? A slight impression of heat reached me from Jake, but I ignored it. I was too angry with him and the others. I glared at them all, wishing I could just go pummel them for sucking Jake into their group!
Then one of them quit looking at me like I was an intruder. An annoyance. One of them – Which one? I used to know them all by sight! – dropped his arms out of that forbidding posture and looked as if he'd been hit with a big, fluffy pillow.
Stupid simile, but it was all I had. He looked as if something had surprised him. Not in a bad way, but in a really amazing way. I didn't get it. Who was he? He looked familiar. He did...one of Jake's friends...
Then, he smiled and I knew who it was. Embry Call – Jake's less-forthcoming friend. We met that one day in Jake's garage. We didn't get the chance to do more than become vaguely acquainted, because he was one of the earlier guys Sam brainwashed. He crossed to my truck, this strange look on his face, in his eyes. I would have thought he was drunk, but he was really underage and I didn't think that Sam's cliff-diving tribal pride guys – Jacob had been scathing in his comments about them, before he became one of them himself – would be a heavy drinker.
"Bella, it's you," he said, his voice rich with a joy and wonder that made no sense to me.
I was prepared to roll my eyes at him and snap, "Of course it's me. What's the matter with you?" But I didn't get the chance.
Jake sounded as if Embry had done more than just stand next to him; Jake sounded as if Embry had socked him in the stomach. Hard. "Embry?" he said, his voice gargled and incredulous. I could see Embry heard him – his deep brown eyes flickered in Jake's direction, anyway – but he didn't stop staring at me. I wondered what was up with him, anyway.
"Jake? What is it?" Embry asked, obviously distracted. I was becoming unnerved. I didn't feel a threat from him, but the sudden outpouring of fascination was uncomfortable. I am not the sort of girl that inspires that kind of wowed expression. And besides, Embry was – used to be – Jake's best friend.
"Embry!" Jake repeated, this time sounding as if he'd had his heart torn from his chest.
I knew how that felt – the sound echoed within me constantly, ripping a hole right through me.
"Jacob! To the forest! Now!" That had to be Sam, I guessed, though I didn't know his voice well. All the guys obeyed, not just Jake. They all took off into the forest, leaving me behind. With Embry. What was that all about?
I decided to ask him. "Embry? What the hell is going on?"
His expression brightened. "You want to take a walk?"
"Fine. Yes. Only if you promise to tell me what's wrong with Jake." I tossed my notebook aside, opened the heavy door of my Chevy and slid out to the sliding mud below my feet. I tried to roll the window back up, too, but Embry beat me to it, insinuating himself between me and the door panel to roll the window up.
And he did it without it looking hard at all. Huge, overgrown boy. Just like the rest of them. He had offered to get me an umbrella, I declined. No more stalling!
We walked – he was obviously uneasy, which struck me as perfectly appropriate – until we got way out of Jacob's property. Then, I rounded on Embry. "All right. Tell me, Embry. This is just killing me."
And, between that spot, a huge tree and the back of my own truck, Embry told me he and Jake and the other guys were werewolves. Without any of the secrets or anything I'd been used to expecting from these super-fast, super-strong supernatural creatures, he just laid it out for me. I fainted at least once – What had Edward left me to? Laurent and Victoria! I didn't disbelieve what Embry told me. Not once.
Though the memories and accompanying pain were excruciating, I did my best to tell Embry – a protector of his people and of me, apparently – everything I knew about Victoria. And about Edward not being – not being my mate, anymore, in the way vampires reckon such relationships.
And when it hurt too much, when I almost blacked out from my memories, Embry was right there, holding me up. Holding me together. His skin was warm, feverish, as Jake's had been. His eyes were warm, too; their focus entirely upon me. As if I was the only person that mattered in the world.
In the back of my truck, when he held out his hand to me, to assist in a more-graceful-than-my-usual dismount, I was struck by something about Embry Call. Two things, actually. One, he didn't disregard me when I said I could drive myself home. Maybe it seemed stupid, but Edward and even Jake would have blown me off, considering I'd fainted and had freaked out a little about this whole Victoria and the Werewolves thing. The second was the look on his face. We'd only just met again, but the whole time he was talking with me – not calling me silly or avoiding my questions – he was looking at me as if I were something beautiful. I recognized that expression because I had had it on my face often enough when I looked at Edward Cullen.
I just never knew someone would look at me that way. Edward had adored me, maybe, for a while, before he – he left me. But there had always been a hint of...something. Condescension? Maybe? Some idea that he was older and wiser no matter how much he may have cared for me. I never did deserve him.
Embry, though, just helped me out of the bed of my truck. He got into the passenger seat without rolling his eyes at my dashboard. He didn't ask any awkward questions about my missing stereo. He only assured me that he wanted me to get home safely.
I was so tired of people worrying about me being safe! I really was. Embry was a stubborn guy, though, so I gave in and let him come with me.
He never made me regret it.