Where the Story Ends

"My Heart Can't Hold This…And Neither Can My Stomach"

"Seriously Chalee, we have to go if we're going to make our plane to Seattle! My friend Rachel will be waiting for us, and if you knew her, you wouldn't want to make her mad."

Chalee looked at Raine with wide eyes as she finished shoving her toiletries in her small hanging shower bag and ran out the door behind her. Their bags were already loaded the night before; it was just the finishing touches that took so long.

The girls would be attending Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Washington in the fall and they decided they would go on and move in with Raine's friend Rachel at the Quileute Reservation before school started. It would be a pretty long drive for every day, but most of their classes were later in the afternoon and they only had classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"Oh my gosh, Raine…I'm not really sure if I'm going to make it. I didn't remember getting this sick on my last plane ride." Chalee moaned as they rose up in the air.

"Stop being such a baby, seriously Chalee you've got to toughen up a lot if I'm going to take you anywhere. There's a lot to learn if you want to hang out with Rachel's crowd. But she did give me one piece of info that I'm sure you'd love to hear."

A broad grin broke out over Chalee's face as she anticipated what was about to come out of Raine's mouth.

Raine smiled mischievously and then said, "Well maybe I really shouldn't tell you. You know, I don't want to get your hopes up or anything."

Chalee whined again, "You never tell me anything Raine. Please, please, please!"

Raine smiled and said, "Okay okay, just this once. So my friend Rachel has this big hunky brother..."

Before she could get that out of her mouth and finish her sentence, Chalee jumped in and said, "Oh my gosh, a big hunky brother! I so call dibs!"

Raine stopped her before she got too ahead of herself, "Honey, honey. Stop. He already told Rachel she couldn't set him up…apparently he has a friend or something. Personally I think he's gay but Rachel swears up and down that he's not, ha-ha."

Raine's nervous laugh confused an already perplexed Chalee.

"Oh yeah, back to my story. Anyway. So this hunky big brother has a ton of friends. In fact Rachel's dating one of them, Paul, but she said there are a few of them that are looking for a couple of nice girls."

Raine looked at Chalee for some hint of enthusiasm, but her normally giddy friend showed no excitement.

"What's wrong with you? In case you haven't noticed, we're the nice girls!"

"Oh!!!" Chalee cried as though someone had just poured water on her.

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By the time they had finished discussing the boys and college life and all that stuff the plane was landing in Seattle.

At the baggage claim Raine looked around for Rachel but didn't see her anywhere. Suddenly Chalee looked up and said, "Um, Raine. I see a sign with our names on it…but I really hope to God that's not Rachel or else she's got some explaining to do."

Raine turned suddenly and gaped at the sight before her. Two tall Quileute boys stood with a piece of pink poster board with their names on it in dark, black scrawl.

One of the boys looked at Chalee so she walked up to them.

"Hi, I'm Chalee…like the sign says. I don't suppose you're Rachel though."

"Oh, yeah. About that…Rachel was a little busy and she kind of…forgot about coming to get you. But I'm Seth, Seth Clearwater. And this dork back here is my friend Embry Call."

Chalee looked to the boy beside Seth, but had to look way up. This guy had to be at least twenty-three. But as soon as she looked into his warm, chocolaty brown eyes, she just melted.

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(EPOV)

Those eyes. Oh my God. It just happened. This beautiful girl standing in front of me, looking into my eyes. She's my imprint. My reason for living.

Okay, douche bag. Get yourself together. Don't make the first impression a bad one.

"Can I kiss you?"

Shit.

"Sorry, I mean…can I carry those bags for you? They look kind of heavy and you look a little uneasy from that flight."

Way to go dumbass. Make a fool of yourself and call her weak at the same time. No wonder she isn't falling at your feat.

I looked over at Seth and almost fell over laughing. Seth was mooning over the other girl, Raine just as bad as I was for Chalee. How is this possible that I could imprint this fast, on the first girl I had seen?

This was moving way too fast. I tried to get a hold of myself but every time she said something and I looked into her deep, aqua blue eyes…my breath just stopped and I fell for her all over again.

"Chalee, Raine, Seth…you guys ready to head back?" I tried to start things moving so that I could get back and talk to Sam. I had never needed my pack Alpha as much as I did at that moment in time.

The car ride was so long for me. I had driven Rachel's navy blue Maxima and usually I could get that thing to boogie, but today I just wasn't feeling it. Besides I had an imprint to protect.

I could hear the girls trying to talk in the car over the loud music.

Yeah I want'cho body, I need yo body

Long as you got me you won't need no body

You want it I got it; go get it I buy it

Tell 'em other broke niggas be quiet

I listened as hard as I could, and with my super-shape-shifter-hearing I could hear every word they said.

"I mean, did you see the way Embry looked at me. Can you say STALKER! And Seth was checking you out too. But in a less-scary way. But I mean really he could snap me in half. I don't think I want that. Anyway…Evan just texted me to see if we could get back together, and I really loved him…so I guess I will."

I looked in the rearview mirror to see Raine's reaction to Chalee's quiet (or what she assumed was quiet) announcement.

"Seriously Chay?! I mean really, he dumped you and fucked that slut from down the block, Chloee, or whatever. You seriously can't go back out with that fool. Embry the Stalker would be better than that. And I mean…Embry's kind of cute. I mean how can you resist those eyes? I know I'm already smitten with Seth. He probably thinks I'm a weirdo."

I smiled at the thought of Raine thinking I was cute. And at that point in time I really was happy for Seth to have an imprint that was already "smitten" with him as Raine said she was. I was slightly worried though. Stalker? I mean really…I did ask to kiss her; in fact the first words out of my mouth were asking her that…but still. I needed to find a way to calm myself down. And to prove myself worthy of her.