I Define Myself Prologue: Embry Imprints
A/N: This takes place in the same world as My New Life. However, though this definitely ties in to My New Life, you don't need to read My New Life first. Enjoy and review when you're done!
God, the spirits, whoever- they got together and decided that all the biggest changes in my life should happen in one day. They also decided that this day should happen out of the blue, when I wasn't expecting it. Let's just say that today was the craziest, best day of my life...
My mom woke me up by banging around in the kitchen. It sounded like she was clanging the lids of the pots together the way Claire does. I slid off my bed, slouched to my bedroom door, and opened it. What was she doing?
My mom, Tiffany Call, was rushing around the kitchen, shoving myriad pots and pans this way and that, trying to get to work on time. When I entered the tiny kitchen (made even tinier by my presence) Mom turned around to look at me, a stunned expression on her face.
I knew why she was so surprised. I had come out of my bedroom, not through the front door. I had been home the entire night.
"Morning, Embry," Mom smiled and I was once more surprised at how young she looked when she was happy. That didn't happen to often; Mom had two and a half jobs to make ends meet and her only son was constantly disobeying her.
"Would you like some eggs?" Mom asked.
I couldn't remember the last time Mom hadn't been mad at me. It felt wonderful... and unreal.
Sam, who'd temporarily taken over both wolf packs while Jake took a vacation, had given me a break from patrol and I'd spent it in my bed, where I was supposed to be.
After Mom and I finished eating, Mom raced off to work and I wished, for the millionth time, that I was able to afford to buy a car. Even an old one would be fine, because I could patch it up myself.
I didn't technically need a car; I could run anywhere I needed to go, but it would be nice not to have to make up explanations to my mom and every other adult how I got around without a car. Plus, I love cars.
But the best part about a car would be I would no longer have to get rides to school with Jared. Riding with him and Kim was just plain nauseating.
I went into the woods and ran, in human form, into Forks. Mom had mentioned during breakfast that she would appreciate it if I could go grocery shopping for her. According to her, there were a few items on her list that weren't carried at the rez store.
Once I was in Forks, I walked on the side of the road. I wasn't paying close attention to my surroundings when something caught my eye.
There was a small, tan Chevy truck sitting in someone's driveway with a for sale sign. It said FOR SALE AS IS: $20.
My jaw dropped; who was selling this perfectly nice truck for twenty bucks?
There had to be something wrong with the engine or transmission. I might be able to fix it up, if the damage wasn't too severe.
I walked up to the front door and knocked. The house was big and Victorian. It looked like it could hold at least fifteen people if not more.
"Yes?" A woman with long, blonde hair, an upturned nose, and manicured fingernails opened the door.
Her nose scrunched up at the sight of me.
I almost rolled my eyes; for God's sake, I was wearing a shirt and shoes, as well as my usual cut-offs.
"I'm wondering about the truck out front?"
"Come in," She stood aside to let me through the door and watched critically as I walked in.
She led me into the fanciest living room I'd ever seen and said, "Don't touch anything," Like if I touched anything it would instantly be polluted and unusable. She left the room with a muttered, "Why can't they just stay where they belong?"
I didn't touch anything, though her comment made me want to break everything in sight. Everything in the living room was coated with lace and doilies and delicate silk throws and breakable china. I felt like I'd stepped one hundred years back in time, except there was a TV (a wide-screen, plasma TV) mounted on one of the cream walls.
I shivered. God, it was awful in there.
"Yes?" The man said it in the exact same tone as the woman had, like I wasn't worth talking to.
"I wanted to talk to you about the truck out front."
"It's for sale."
Duh. "What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing," he spoke like I was a simple child, incapable of learning or thinking.
I ground my teeth together. These people were really getting on my nerves.
"Then why's it for sale for twenty dollars?" My words were mangled.
"Because we got a newer one."
I could not believe what I was hearing. This rich couple was selling a fifteen-year old truck for twenty dollars because they'd wanted a new one? How filthy rich can you get?
"I'd like to buy that truck then."
The man opened his mouth to reply, but he was interrupted.
"Father? Mother says I need to talk to you about-" The prettiest girl in the world walked into the room. She had strawberry blonde hair that could've been in a shampoo ad and a short, curvy figure that was heavily emphasized by her jeans and orange t-shirt. I met her eyes and- oh my freaking god.
I stopped breathing.
The only thing that mattered was those clear green eyes filled with mischief and surrounded by long, reddish lashes.
I felt like crowing with delight, or racing across the room to sweep her up into my arms, or anything.
It no longer mattered to me that my mom needed groceries, that I had patrol tonight, that Emily was cooking lasagna for dinner, or that I was trying to buy a truck. All that mattered was this one girl. All that mattered was... I didn't know her name. How could I not know her name?
"Georgia, what was it you wanted?" The man interrupted me.
Georgia? That didn't suit her at all. A girl with the spirit I saw in her eyes should have a unique, one-of-a-kind name, not something practical like Georgia.
"I need a ride to the yearbook committee meeting tonight. Mom said I could go after dinner was over, but I would need to get a ride from you." Her voice was music to my ears; flowing, rippling music.
"Of course, darling." The man, Georgia's father, said.
Who used the word darling anymore? This man and his wife must have been time warped to the present when they really belonged to the past. "Now go finish your schoolwork, please."
Georgia turned and rolled her eyes as she walked out of the room. Now there was almost nothing to remind me I was still in the twenty-first century.
I paid for the truck and unwillingly drove off. I knew I'd imprinted, but it didn't really sink in until I was halfway home.
I pulled off the road and put my head in my hands. I was beyond thrilled to have met her- I wouldn't think her name, not until I knew her real name- but there were already complications.
First, her parents. Those two were old-fashioned, rich, racist snobs and I'd only talked to them for ten minutes tops.
Second, my mom. Mom would not, would not, not take it well if she knew I liked a girl. She would immediately think that was the reason I snuck out every night.
Third, other than her name, where she lived, and what she looked like, I knew nothing about her.
Fourth, oh, yeah, that tiny little thing about me turning into a wolf and patrolling the woods every night.
Fifth, I had absolutely no idea whether the imprint affected her too. I mean, it was supposed to go both ways, but what if this case was different?
Sixth, I missed her desperately already.
Ugh. Had it been this difficult for my brothers? It couldn't possibly have been. Or they'd all have gone mad. Then again, that might explain a thing or two.
Kidding.
Hours later I was working in the little general store at the rez and I would've been bored out of my mind except I was thinking about my imprint. Okay, more like daydreaming, but whatever.
My dreaming was interrupted by a tiny voice that could've belonged to a mouse instead of a girl.
"Um... excuse me?" She whispered.
I glanced at the flinching girl. She looked Quiluete enough, with curly, glossy black hair, perfect russet skin, and a few curves. She was beautiful, but I wasn't at all attracted to her. She dimmed in comparison to my imprint. My imprint. I savored the feeling of the words in my head.
Her shoulders hunched, she asked in an even quieter voice, "Do you know where I can find Joe Uley?"
"The Uley's live a couple minutes walk from here, but I don't know of any Joe."
"Thanks," she mumbled and sprinted for the door.
What the hell?
I walked out of the store, closing up behind me. Curled up in a huddle on a nearby bench was the girl who had asked for Joe Uley. She was soaked and shivering.
My upbringing got the better of me and I walked over to her. As I approached, she shuddered and tucked herself into a tighter ball.
"Don't you have somewhere to go?" I asked.
The girl shook her head and hugged herself, looking absolutely terrified. I offered to take her to the Uleys' and her one-worded consent was so quiet that I almost missed it, even with my supernatural hearing.
I lead her down the road to Sam and Emily's house and she crept along a fair distance behind me. I floated on my memories of Georgia (ugh, the name didn't fit with the image) and only barely noticed that she kept looking at me as if waiting for me to hurt her in someway or another.
When we got to the house I gestured for her to come in, but she only came in far enough so that I could close the door.
Everyone in the pack was there. Paul looked at the girl then raised his eyebrows at me, probably wondering if I had brought a pretty imprint along with me.
I shook my head as she tried to vanish into the shadows. This girl was not my imprint.
When I called for Sam she winced and shrank even further away from me. I explained to Sam that she was looking for someone named Joe Uley. Maybe she meant Joshua Uley, Sam's dad.
No one was talking anymore. They were all watching the petrified mouse of a girl.
"No one here is named Joe Uley. Why do you ask?" Sam said in a voice that made the girl beside me cower.
I wanted to tell Sam to relax, he was freaking her out, but I got the feeling that I was freaking her out just as much as he was. And that saying anything in her defense would make it worse.
I frowned to myself. Why did I feel protective of her, like she was under my care? She was just a girl I had shown to Sam and Emily's.
She stuttered out something about Joe Uley being her father.
"He doesn't exist," Sam said.
The girl turned bone white, something I hadn't even thought was possible for someone with russet brown skin. Her trembling hand reached into her pocked and took out a plastic-encased paper. I could only read the biggest words on the page. They said something about the findings of a search for Elena's family. Was the girl beside me Elena?
"Isn't there somewhere else you can go?" Sam asked.
"No," her voice was so weak and hopeless that it pulled at my heart.
I reached out to take the paper and her entire body flinched away from me, her eyes closing and her head turning in the opposite direction. Like she was expecting some sort of abuse. That made me mad. But I read the paper. And then I read it again. And again.
"This says... this says that her dad is Joshua Uley, proven by DNA tests, and that she has two half siblings. Both are his children. Their names are Sam Uley and..." Sam was unsurprised, he already knew who his dad was and his dad hadn't exactly been a great dad, "me."
The girl standing next to me was my half-sister. Sam was my half-brother. Oh shit.
I took Elly (she whispered to me to call her Elly instead of Elena) back to my house and gave her the spare bedroom. Then I made some decisions.
My first decision was to plead with my mom to let Elly stay.
The second was that I would keep my imprinting on Georgia a secret, for a while at least.
I had helped my brothers tease and pester the newly imprinted and I wasn't so sure I wanted to go through that myself- not when I knew so little about my imprint. Definitely not when I had a stranger for a sister and an overworked, overprotective woman for a mother. There was enough drama in my life without my brothers adding to it.
I would get to know her then I would tell my brothers. Eventually.'
Okay, okay, so that wasn't really why I wouldn't tell them about Georgia. I was just, well, worried that she might like one of them better than me. It could happen. I wanted her to myself. Even though she wasn't actually mine (ow, that thought hurt) she would be. She had to be.
The third decision wasn't much of a decision; the choice was between getting to know Georgia and getting to know Georgia. I chose getting to know Georgia.
A/N: What do you think? This is just the prologue- it's going to be the only chapter in Embry's point of view. There will be a few more snippets of chapters in his point of view, but the majority will be in Georgia's. Review!
