"Will you listen to me! It isn't a gang – "
"Nope. I hauled ass all the way here from Seattle when Mama Call reached out and I find you skipping school as soon as I show up. I'm pissed."
"My mom didn't tell you to attack anyone!"
"Precious, naïve Embry. There is no fucking way I'm letting some creepy-ass grown man brainwash you. I might let him off easy and just taze him – "
"If you get arrested again you're going to be fired and then you won't be able to pay rent and then you'll have to –"
"Nah, Greg has been arrested a few times. The boss-man wouldn't fire me."
Paul was openly listening in on the conversation going on in the grey SUV that had just pulled up outside of Sam's house. Embry's voice was a hilarious cross between angry and scared. Paul wasn't going to let him forget this.
Embry scrambled to grab the arm of the woman who was in the driver's seat, looking incredibly apprehensive. When Embry looked through the windshield and saw him sitting on the porch outside Sam's house, Paul let an unrepentant smirk cover his face.
"If you don't let go of my arm I'll bite you. I have very strong teeth."
Oh yeah. This was going to be good.
The woman narrowed her eyes and seemed to size up Sam's house after getting out of the car, probably overhearing the pop song Emily was blasting in the kitchen.
After Paul could see her clearly, he let out a long laugh.
Embry was scared of this chick? And she was planning on confronting Sam? The woman looked like the least intimidating person he'd seen in a while. She wearing leggings, laced up black boots, and an oversized sweater with the sleeves pushed up while her purple hair was up in a ridiculous-looking ponytail considering its short length.
"Ames, stop!"
The woman – Ames?– caught sight of Paul and immediately locked on to him. As she started striding over and scanning over his shirtless body, he was amused again when her only response was to lift an eyebrow and look skeptical. Ever since he'd become a wolf and suddenly beefed up, he'd been getting very different reactions to his abs. It became even more entertaining when she muttered, "Steroids."
This girl was weird. She looked out of place in La Push just by being non-Native, and she was as white as they came. If it weren't for the freckles and heartbeat Paul would have pegged her as a leech. When Ames had completely looked him over and finally made eye contact to glare at Paul, the situation got a whole lot less fucking funny.
Paul had seen imprinting through other people's eyes. It felt different for everyone. Sam had felt like he was sinking into warm water and Jared had felt like his heart was beating twice as fast. When Paul stared into Ames's eyes, it felt like someone had hit him in the stomach with a baseball bat.
Letting out a thin, wheezing breath, Paul bent forward slightly and tried to catch his breath. By the time he was able to straighten, the woman stood right in front of him.
"I – "
"Are you Sam Uley?"
Paul couldn't call any words to mind. Fuck. This was so weird. He knew he had just imprinted, it was like some kind of instinctive acknowledgment or something. But he wasn't – he didn't even know what he was feeling yet, it sure as hell wasn't love. The only thing going through his mind was something along the lines of mine mine mine mine –
"So you are Sam?"
Paul knew his eyes were wide, still sort of in shock. However, a second later two things happened at the same time.
One: Paul dimly heard Embry let out a high, panicked sound before shouting, "No, no, no!"
Two: His imprint took a step back and roundhouse kicked him.
Amelia Ingrid Metzger was not in the best of moods.
In fact, she was in a very, very bad mood.
Amelia would pretty much do anything for Tiffany Call. Her mom had been best friends with the woman all throughout college and they were still really close, so Amelia had spent what felt like a significant chunk of her childhood around Mrs. Call. Amelia was the youngest in her family with three older brothers, so she'd basically used Embry as a practice little sibling. There were actually some pretty great photos of her attempting to feed him mashed peas when she herself was a toddler.
She had gotten even closer with the Call family when she'd decided to settle down in Seattle. Back when she hadn't made any friends yet on the West Coast, Mrs. Call was always inviting her over for dinner or coming to Ames's apartment to give her a familiar face. And chide her messiness.
So getting a distraught call from her other-mom and finding out that Embry was in a gang and sneaking out at all hours of the night? Not going to fly. She'd gotten the day off work and drove over immediately. It was a long, long fucking drive which hadn't put a smile on her face in the first place.
Sam was still on the ground, having fallen on his ass. Instead of getting up or hitting back like she'd expected, he just kind of… sat there. Staring. It was actually a little unnerving. Was he on drugs right now? Embry had basically sprinted over and grabbed her arm. He had seemed like he was going to pull her away, but after watching Sam's lack of reaction he seemed to relax a little.
"Paul, man, why – are you safe?"
…so this wasn't Sam. Oops.
Amelia shook Embry off of her and cringed before stepping forward, extending an arm to the man she'd just assaulted and offering him a hand up. She was hoping he wouldn't press charges. Her brother Matthew would give her a disappointed look if she did actually get arrested again.
"Shit. Fuck. I'm so sorry, I thought you were the guy that's been creeping on Embry, I thought this was his house."
The guy, Paul, took her hand and let her yank him up – and damn he weighed a ton, he was probably just humoring her. Instead of replying, he cleared his throat a few times and frantically looked back and forth between her and Em. God, Amelia was feeling bad, he seemed really shaken up. She hadn't even kicked him that hard, it was mostly to get him on the ground so she could yell at him.
"I – this is Sam's house. I'm Paul."
He hadn't actually let go of her hand, so Amelia shrugged and simply shook her hand up and down.
"Hey, I'm Amelia. I really am sorry though, it was way out of line. If uh – if you couldn't call the cops it would be awesome of you."
Embry was sort of shuffling around next to her, so she pulled her hand out of Paul's and turned to size him up.
"You could have said he wasn't in the gang before I went off on him."
Embry winced and looked down at his feet before muttering something Ames couldn't make out. When she kicked at his shin with her left foot he let out a small pained sound and winced before he spoke again.
"Paul is in my group of friends. But that's what it is, we're just friends. It isn't a gang! We don't do anything bad!"
Amelia snorted, but her temper tantrum had essentially cooled her off, so she decided to give Em a chance to convince her. She'd known him forever, and if he was really this insistent she had a hunch that Mama Call might be overreacting, even if it was out of character for her.
Amelia considered it, and finally said, "Okay. I'll hear you out. But you've been giving your mom a fucking heart attack."
Before either of the boys could respond – and Amelia was honestly kind of shocked Paul wasn't convulsing, it was fucking cold- a new voice sounded out from the porch.
"Do you want to come inside? I just made muffins."
Amelia looked up at the house and saw a woman leaning against one the columns just in front of the door. She had some gnarly looking scars, but Amelia wasn't fazed or anything.
She had some pretty hardcore scars of her own.
