I was sort of pissed. But, I was trying not to be. I was trying to be understanding. But, no one would give me a real explanation as to why Paul now looked at me the way he did. You'd think the sun rose from my ass every morning.

Billy assured me all would be explained tonight. I was going to blow it off but Seth gave me his puppy dog eyes and the rest is history. I was now on way to the meeting. I tried to ignore the pairs of footsteps trailing me.

I turned around suddenly my hair getting in face as I did so. "I feel like I'm being stalked." I said to no one in particular.

I groaned in frustration.

My mom, Billy, and Old Quil were already seated around the bonfire.

I sat by my mom hugging her hello. Since I moved out we hadn't spent as much time together.

I looked around everyone was already here. Directly across me Sam and Emily were intertwined into each other. Emily smiled at me warmly.

I rolled my eyes getting up opting to sit on the ground instead leaning my back against Embry's legs. I'd noticed a while ago that if I sat like this against Embry he'd subconsciously rub my shoulder. With the day I had I needed to have some tensioned relieved.

"Get your hands off her." Paul practically growled.

"Huh?" Embry retorted innocently and understandably confused.

"Okay then." I sighed getting up and sitting by Seth. I better get some answers soon.

Thankfully Billy started. "The Quileute have been a small tribe from the beginning. And we've always had magic in our blood. We were great spirit warriors, shape-shifters that transformed to the powerful . . . wolf." Billy said glancing over at me.

"Wolf?" I thought to myself. Wasn't that just a legend?

"This enabled us to scare off our enemies and protect our tribe . . ."

By the time Billy finished I held my head in my hands. "I can't believe what I'm hearing." I said getting up. "Even you Seth?"

He nodded.

"For how long?" I asked.

"Leah—"

"No."

"Please just—"

"No! How long!?"

"Since dad died." He said sadly as he stared at the ground.

"Dad's heart attack." I said as tears brimmed my eyes.

"Leah . . ." Emily began moving towards me.

"You!" I said pointing at her accusingly. "Emily you don't get to talk to me anymore."

I looked at Sam. "You imprinted on her didn't you? And you three . . ." I said looking from Jake, Embry, and Quil. How could they keep this from me? We weren't the best of friends but . . . friends nonetheless. Didn't that mean something?!

"I have to go."

"Leah please wait." Paul said catching up to me. "Are you okay?" He said trying to offer me comfort.

"I'm fine Lahote." I said brushing him off. "I'm not some fragile little girl. See! You don't even know me. How can I be your imprint?"

"Leah I'm sorry about your father—"

"Listen Paul. I know what this means for you and I'm sorry but I don't love you." I said as delicately as I could.

"You don't have to."

"I don't?"

"You define the terms of our relationship." He continued when I remained silent. "We can be friends . . . I'd like to be your friend."

I looked past him back towards Jake, Embry, and Quil.

"I don't know if I'd take the friend angle if I were you."

"C'mon Leah. I'm not that bad."

"I don't know . . ." I sighed. Technically Paul had never done anything to deserve my mistrust. But, that was because I'd always kept my distance from him. "I have to go." I said backing away from him. He grimaced. It was like walking away from him caused him physical pain. I hated this whole imprinting thing. Despite my indifference towards Paul I didn't want to cause him pain.

"This isn't fair!" I groaned. I could feel stinging tears spring to my eyes. I forced myself to remain composed. Imprinting had caused me heartache and now I was doing the same to Paul. Only the roles were reversed. I'd been hurt by an imprinter now I was causing hurt as an imprintee.

Impulse took over and I ran. The fact that I'd hurt my ankle didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was I had to get away.

Paul's POV

I wanted to run after Leah but I didn't. God she was beautiful I couldn't look away at until she completely disappeared from view.

"Told you guys she'd run." Seth said to the guys. He looked pretty concerned about the whole thing.

"Are you going to go after her?" Jake asked.

"She doesn't want anything to do with me." I paced back and forth. "Fuck!" I said kicking at the dirt.

"Paul calm down." Sam said.

"Yeah Paul she'll come around." Jake asserted.

"What do you know about it Black?!"

"Hey she might not be our imprint but we know what it's like to need Leah in your life."

"Even Sam wishes Leah would accept him as a friend. Too bad she won't even look at him." Embry teased. Sam growled.

"Hey I've got an idea." Quil said thoughtfully. "Seth you were going to spend the night at Leah's right?"

"I was . . ." Seth replied.

"This is what we do." Quil started uncharacteristically with mischief.