Paul imprinted on a stranger he had never met before. As soon as she came into his life, the sooner she left. His life forever changed at that stoplight on a Sunday morning. As he idled in the turning lane she pulled up beside him in the next lane. They both looked over at the same time. Midnight blue eyes met a pair of dark brown. Paul's world felt right. For the next thirty seconds, he imagined her at their wedding. He imagined her pregnant. He imagined coming home to her cooking dinner wearing his sweatshirt. During his daydream the light turned green as her eyes flickered up towards it. With one more glance at him she slowly pulled away. Panic set in and he tried to maneuver from the turning lane he was in into the one she had just left from. The traffic was too busy and no one was letting him move to the next lane. Eventually he slammed on the gas to take after her but the small run down Toyota was nowhere to be seen, most likely having turned onto the one of the side streets off the busy road in the more suburban areas. Seattle was a big city, not like La Push or Forks. He couldn't just ask around to find out who she was. He had lost her for good. And it was the second time that day that he realized his life was forever changed. He had lost the only thing he cared about. The only thing he could do was wait. And so he did.
The eighteen year old boy matured as the years went on but the loneliness never subsided. The pack never understood how he could survive such a long separation from his imprint. He never slept well, not since the day at the stop light. He tossed and turned wondering about her. What was her name? What was her home life like? Was she happy? The only thing keeping him going was the fact that she was still out there. He went to Seattle every day he didn't have patrol. He drove on the same street that he gained and lost a soulmate all within two minutes. He sat outside a coffee shop staring at the cars that went by. But never once did he see a rundown midnight blue Toyota. Maybe she got a new car? He shook the thought away. That car was the only clue he had left of his mysterious imprint, his only symbol of hope. The car was a midnight blue, although it had lost its gloss from the years on the road. The blue color matched her eyes. The same eyes he dreamed about every night.
He was now twenty-two and his trips to Seattle became less frequent. The pack was changing. New members came in as old ones stepped down to stop their phasing to be with their loves ones. He was now beta of the pack, meaning he was needed more and more in La Push. Which meant less time looking for his mysterious imprint. He never talked about her anymore, just sat there with a far off look, as the other wolves glanced at him with pity during patrols and social gatherings.
He knew by now she probably had a new car. It had been four years and the car looked like it was on its last peg back then. He wondered what her new car was. Was it new and shiny or did she get a Junker with character again? He wondered if she was the type to name her car. Did she call the Toyota, Herb or Betsy? Or did she just sigh in annoyance every time she saw the hunk of metal sitting in her driveway. The new pack members were never informed that their beta had imprinted, although many had seen the memories of her in his thoughts. In their minds he had gone from the temperamental werewolf to the man who lost his reason to live. He never attended the weddings of his pack brothers. The pain was just too much to bare. His brothers understood but always made sure to mail an invite to his address. Soon the pack expanded as the imprints became pregnant one by one. This added to Paul's mental anguish. He would never see his imprint pregnant with his child, sleeping in his bed.
He had just turned twenty- four. He was now alpha of the pack. Jacob had finally left to live out the rest of his days with Renesmee and the Cullen's. At the moment, they vampires were in Egypt. The pack had dwindled down to about eight wolves. Just like it had been all those years ago. They were all new members besides Seth. Seth was the only wolf out of the originals to not imprint yet. The spark behind his eyes slowly went out each day he didn't met his soulmate. Seth loved happy endings, loved to see other people get their happy endings, but he began to wonder if he was meant to ever get one, to just watch everyone else from the sidelines. Paul and he had grown closer over the years because of their desperation to find their imprint. Seth was now the beta of the pack, only nineteen years old. Paul liked having company in his despair but knew the boy was still young, and would stay young, until he found his imprint. If anyone deserved to imprint it was Seth. Even after the death and bloodshed he experienced in the last six years, he never lost the belief that people were naturally good beings.
He was twenty-six when he passed down the alpha position to Seth. If he still had any hope of being with his imprint he needed to start aging. It was tough to give up the only thing that had kept him going all this time. The energy it took to be alpha distracted him from the emptiness within himself. His trips to Seattle became more frequent than ever before. He watched the families cross the street from his seat in the coffee shop window. He wondered if his imprint would be one of the women that passed by pushing a stroller while a toddler walked dutifully next to her chatting away. The scenario crushed him and he hoped to good it wasn't true. He always wondered if she felt a connection to. If she ever lied awake at night wondering about him. About what it would have been like at a different time or place. If she considered him one of the biggest 'what if's' of her life.
He came to the same coffee shop, and sat in the same spot every Sunday for other a year. The workers never asked for his name or his story and he never offered either. By now his twenty-seventh birthday had rolled around and gone. His temperament had subsided since he was a teenager, but never fully went away. He still huffed in annoyance when the barista got his coffee order wrong and he still glared at the couple who was sitting in his spot beside the window only a few weeks prior.
He looked down at his cup to see it empty. He sat up and disposed of the cup and walked out of the shop as he was done so many times before. The cold air hit him as he walked out onto the street and people rushed past him, busy with their own lives. He leaned against the wall beside the coffee shop. An action he had ever done before. Usually he walked out straight to his car without a second thought. Today was different, but he wasn't sure why. He glanced at the people walking by, each with a story of their own and he wondered briefly if they ever lost someone they loved dearly. Did they feel the same grunt wrenching pain as he did? If so, how did they survive? How did they find the will to live? He banished the thoughts soon after and turned his attention to the curb where all the cars had parked. His attention stayed on a newer Toyota, maybe about six years old. The paint looked touch up and it looked pretty taken care of. He had only noticed it because of the midnight blue color it sported. His glance remained on the car for a few minutes until a young girl, who looked to be around her mid-twenties walked out of the book store that was adjoining to the coffee shop. The wind caught her brown hair as it flowed hind her and she help the scarf around her neck a little bit tighter at the sudden change of temperature. Paul could make out that she was wearing a name tag, meaning she was an employee at the book store. She was also carrying a stack of books under he left arm. She quickly walked over to the Toyota and opened the back door with her open hand and threw the books on the backseat. She closed the door and stood there for a minute. Almost as if she could feel his penetrating stare she turned around to meet Paul's stare.
A pair of Midnight blue eyes met a pair of dark brown. And suddenly, Paul's world felt right.