Chapter 6 Misfire

Embry's POV

As soon as they'd driven away, Kayla emerged from the store.

"OhmygodEmbrythatwassobrave-"

"Whatever. We're done." I wouldn't have been able to understand a word she's said even if she wasn't talking a mile a minute. I had more important things to think about.

I walked away, faster than was natural for a human to walk. I didn't care. I needed the safe cover of the trees. I needed to run. As soon as I'd gotten to the forest, I started running. Normal humans couldn't run like this. Normal humans got tired. It was one of the things I loved about what I was.

I stopped and took off my cutoffs quickly. I didn't have time to hang around human. I needed to talk to Jacob. Or Quil. Or Seth. Or some one from Sam's pack. Some one who had imprinted. Because Cathryn almost getting smeared on the road-I winced- had given me some things to think about. That, and the way she'd acted after I saved her.

I knew that I'd imprinted. I knew that already I loved her more than anybody could even fathom. I knew that we were perfect together in every possible way, that we were designed specifically for each other. I knew that I needed her; I could feel that even now, after being apart for just a few minutes. I knew that from here on out, almost getting run over by a truck would seem safe to her. But she knew absolutely nothing, and she could choose not to take any of it.

It scared me to even consider it, but it was true.

There were so many things that could go wrong.

What if she freaked out when she found out that I was a werewolf? What if she hated me for it, saw me as a monster? What if she thought that I was some sort of sick masochist for imprinting on her? What if I got angry, like Sam, and nearly killed her? What if she thought the whole thing was fine? So fine, that she spent all her time with one of the Packs or the Cullens, and she got hurt? What if she stubbed her toe and got a bacterial infection? What if she went cliff diving and drowned? Or hit her head on a rock? Or got stung by a poisonous jellyfish? Or got attacked by a bear? Or a mountain lion? Or a wolf? A real one, I mean. Not us wannabees.

I shook my head, trying to calm down. This Cathryn kid was going to make me gray before we'd even said two civil words to each other.

It took me a moment to focus enough to change shape. And when I did, I sincerely wished I hadn't. My head was a full house.

Hey man. What's…. Jacob started. His voice trailed off as he and the others absorbed what had happened. Their shock was so pronounced it was wordless. They all had thought that I was alone.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At least, at first it was wordless.

Awww, man! We're all alone now, Collin! Brady thought. But he was kidding. He was sickeningly happy for me just like the others.

How sweet. Our little Embry's growing up. Leah teased. She had gotten amazingly nicer since leaving Sam's pack.

She got hit by a car? Wicked awesome. Quil. The idiot.

Guys! This is not something to get exited about. She almost died within the three seconds I'd known her. When I saved her she got pissed. Near death experiences plus an over protective werewolf plus a very stubborn teenager equals one crack head cupid. Seriously, she is like the last person I should have fallen for. I tried, unsuccessfully, to explain why this was not a good thing. Of course, they all saw through me.

Oh, suck it. Imprinting was the best thing that had ever happened to me. Jacob thought.

Yeah. To you. But when you aren't head over heels for a girl that will never love you, its pretty aweful.

But this is good. You need her. She needs you. You guys are better people now. Sometimes I wished I could just live in Seth's head all the time. It was always so happy there. Sort of like mine used to be. Sort of like all of ours used to be.

For the record, it would get really annoying if you were in my head full time. Seth thought jokingly. See? Happy.

Plus, getting all freaked out about it isn't going to help anything. Going into denial is just going to make it harder when you try to stay away from her. You're all hers now. That was Sam, speaking through Jacob's head. Apparently, Jake had told our other brothers what had happened without us noticing.

So put your big girl panties on and deal with it. Leah had zero sympathy for me. She, like her brother, saw imprinting as a good thing.

You guys. She almost died.

Yeah. You mentioned that a couple of times.

Hey. Wait. You said her name was Cathryn? Drew thought.

Yeah.

What's she look like?

Reddish brown hair, amazing body, beautiful green eyes….

Whoa. Dude. Brady, Drew, we know her. Seth was shell-shocked.

Really. I had no idea.

What? Serious? For the first time, I felt like this might not end badly. If she was already invested in us, it would be harder for her to leave.

Yeah. She's like our best human friend. You know, her and Leslie and Cocoa. She's kind of like Cocoa, but with less mean and more attitude.

Mmm-hmm. I got an earful of that when I saved her ass.

She doesn't like feeling helpless. Seth defended her.

But she is helpless.

Not the point.

She's really tough. You'll have to get really close to her if you want her to..you know. Accept you. Accept all of us. Drew thought, wary. He'd seen Cathryn angry before, and it was not an experience he wanted to relive.

Look, there's a council meeting tomorrow night, right? So we'll get Keilly to take Cathryn. I'll bring Nessie. Cathryn can hang out with Embry, and she'll get a clue about werewolves.

You just want an excuse to be with Nessie.

So?

I kicked at the rocks with my foot, concentrating very hard on the way the colors glittered in the setting sunlight. One of the stones was the exact same shade of green as her eyes.

She was late.

Well, not late, technically, seeing as half of the people who were supposed to be here hadn't arrived yet, and I had never gotten a confirmation that she was coming at all. Still, though. I had gotten here, and that was late enough for me. It had been twenty seven hours since I'd last seen her. The longest, most horrible twenty seven hours of my life. Werewolves were not supposed to go more than a day without seeing their imprint. Now I knew why.

I felt a sort of…pull to be near her. I couldn't concentrate on anything. It was like I was seeing everything in black and white. Nothing was cool, nothing was funny, everything sucked. I missed her voice, her eyes, the way she gestured all wildly when she spoke. During the few hours of sleep I'd had last night I'd had a dream about her kidnapping. Which had scared me so bad that I had to trace her scent- very sweet, sort of citrusy- all the way to her house, which was HUGE, and search for her heartbeat to make sure she was okay.

I disgust myself.

When I heard her laugh in the distance, mingled with Keilly's, it was like an iron band being released from around my chest. Everything relaxed. I turned my head expectantly towards the direction of her voice.

Chapter 7 Who Knew?

Cathryn's POV

"Keilly," I hissed, grabbing her arm. "That's him. The guy who kept me from becoming a road pizza yesterday."

"Oh. Really?" She asked vaguely, following my gaze. "I know that guy. He's a little weird, but nice enough. And really cute. You know. Next to Seth, I mean."

"And really full of himself." I muttered under my breath.

Keilly rolled her eyes.

I guess at this point I couldn't really blame her. All night she and Leslie had had to listen to me complain about the guy who seemed to think that because he'd saved my life, I owed him a lifetime of servitude. I mean, I guess I did, but he had better not hold his breath. The guy irritated me. He'd saved me, then acted as if he actually cared whether I lived or died, not like he'd saved me because of instinct, or because he was a Christian and it was the right thing to do. Which was, I was sure, his reason behind saving me. Instinct or religion or something else that had nothing to do with me as an individual. But that wasn't the way he'd seemed. He acted like I owed it to him to be safe. Like there was some sort of rule that I was breaking.

As we approached the campfire, Seth got up and went straight to Keilly, closing the distance between them in two long strides. He took her face up in her hands and kissed her full on the mouth. I looked away, trying not to gag. It was hard, being best friends with people like Leslie and Keilly. One of them had a boyfriend that was obviously made for her, and the other one wasn't truly happy unless she was spying on her crush, with whom she was so in love that she was afraid to even let him see her, for fear of rejection.

Me? I had a poodle named Papaya.

The place was full of older guys, most of whom I'd never seen before. The exceptions being Embry and Quil and Drew and Brady. And the latters were playing soccer. I looked around for some place to sit, trying to appear subtle.

"Hey. You're still alive!" I glanced towards the voice. Embry was leaning casually against a log and grinning at me. I marched past him, intending to sit with Seth and Keilly. Make out session or not. But, as usual, things didn't happen as planned. A very warm, very big, and very strong hand grabbed my wrist and yanked me backwards. I landed in a heap at his feet.

"Jerk," I muttered, extracting a stone from my hair.

He laughed easily. Something about him seemed different. Lighter…happier. "Why haven't I seen you around before?" He asked me.

"I just moved here from Florida." I told him, "And I wish I were there now."

"Florida," He repeated. For some reason, this seemed to bother him a little. "That's…far."

I clapped. "Very good!"

"Why'd you move?" Embry persisted, ignoring my jibe.

"My mom married a guy who lived in Seattle. He has two kids. You met one of them yesterday."

"Lizzie, right?"

"I'm not giving you her number," I told him. "You are bad news. I can already tell."

"You have no idea," He muttered under his breath.

"What?" I sat up a little straighter.

"Nothing. So…your dad doesn't mind you living so far away?"

"My dad might. But I wouldn't know, seeing as he died when I was seven."

"Oh, crap!" Embry looked horrified. "I… I'm so sorry."

"Chill." I said impatiently. "I can't even remember the guy."

"My dad was never around," He offered. "If that helps."

"Wonder why he left?" I asked sarcastically. But I smiled, so he would know that I was kidding.

Embry rolled his eyes. "Is sarcasm your one and only flavor?"

"No. There's also bitchy, rude, arrogant, weird, psychotic…."

"You sound like an absolutely horrible person." Embry informed me. Good. Then maybe he'd let me talk to somebody else.

It was then that Claire arrived, tugging on the hand of a very pregnant woman with scars raking down one side of her body who was with yet another giant. "Kitty!" She squealed, letting go of the woman and running up to me. "Quil said you were gonna come, but I didn't believe him."

"Why not, Clairedy-Cat?" I asked, pulling her into my lap.

"You never came afor. But Quil said you was coming cause of Embury."

I looked behind me at "Embury". He was making a very rude hand gesture at Quil, who was determinedly avoiding his gaze. I pulled Claire closer so she wouldn't see. "Embry!" I scolded from behind her mass of curls. "There are children in the vicinity!"

"Oh, that's right." He said. "So sorry for corrupting your youthful innocence, Kitty." He was getting me back for clapping. Huh. So he did have a spine.

I glared at him as I gently lifted Claire from my lap and went to sit with Quil and the couple that had brought Claire. Embry sighed and went over to where some of the other guys were playing soccer.

Chapter 8 Jigsaw

Embry's POV

Soccer, as you may have figured out by now, is My Sport. I was always good at it, even as a human. When I became…not so human, the fun was kind of sucked out of it, what with there being no challenge whatsoever. But I still loved it. And when I played with the other werewolves or vampires, the game got good again. I was still the best, but it was a title that I had to fight for. Now though, I was distracted. Maybe not as good as I would have been, although my team still kicked butt.

Because as I'd gotten to know her better, I'd been mentally listing all of Cathryn's characteristics. Sarcastic, blunt, cocky, absentminded in the extreme, brave, strong-mentally, at least-, stubborn, and a little crazy. The shirt she was wearing betrayed the fact that she was a dancer, and a good one. I thought that I had her basic personality type down pat.

Then Claire came.

Something about the way she looked at Cathryn, the way she'd so willingly went into her arms. The fact that she and Cathryn even knew each other. How tolerant Cathryn had been about Claire calling her "Kitty". She didn't like me showing people the finger when she was around. Maybe Claire was the exception, but was Cathryn…maternal? Good with kids? Somewhere underneath all the toughness was there actually a heart?

That did not go with the big picture.

Although it was of some comfort to me. If she had a soft side-sort of- then maybe she wouldn't shoot me when I told her about imprinting. Not that I planned on doing that any time soon. The girl couldn't even drive yet. She was way too young to be in that sort of relationship. For now I'd be a big brother to her, like Jacob and Quil were to their imprints. A really good friend.

When, though, was I going to tell her? Because she wasn't that young. Soon she would start dating, and I wasn't sure I could handle watching her going around and being with other guys. Who didn't deserve her. Who would hurt her, even if she didn't let on like they had. Who would never feel the way I felt towards her.

But the thing was, I was scared. Yes, I admit it. I find the person I'm meant to spend the rest of my life with, and I'm scared of her. Or what would happen to her. To us. Afraid she'd get hurt. Afraid she would get killed. Afraid she'd find some other guy that she liked more than me. Afraid that she wouldn't want any part of the life I lived. The supernatural world.

What the worst thing was, however, was that it seemed pretty likely that one of these things would actually happen. She wouldn't be as willing as the other imprints, I could see that. It didn't matter who he was, she wasn't going to go around hurting over some guy. She wasn't going to put up with crap. She wasn't going to sit back and watch while I did dangerous-but admittedly awesome-things.

Which left me with this: Nothing to work with.

Chapter 9 Sa-wooooooooooon

Cathryn's POV

"So how do you know Embry?" Emily asked casually. Sam, her husband, had gone to play soccer with the others. Quil had become incapable of adult-speak the second he'd seen Claire. The two of them were currently playing tic-tac-toe by the shore, where the sand was. Which left me with Emily, Claire's Aunt.

"Uh…" How do you explain to a pregnant lady that the day before you were almost killed? "He kind of kept me from being…run over."

"Oh! Wow!" She gasped. "I…guess that explains it."

"What?"

"You know," Emily waved her hand carelessly. "I bet Embry wasn't too happy about you almost kicking the bucket. He probably yelled."

"Yeah…." How did she know that? And what did that explain?

"Which is why you aren't, like, completely in love with him yet."

Okay. Her hormones were apparently more jazzed up than I thought. "What now?"

"Oh come on. The guy is beautiful. I mean, all of them are, but…You should see the way all those girls in bikinis look at him when we all go to the beach."

"We are at the beach, honey."

"During tourist season. In the daytime. This doesn't count." She said impatiently. "I mean, when I saw you with him, I saw a little swoon maybe, but with most its like…SA-WOOON. We're talking major droolage here."

"Speaking of droolage…" Quil hinted from the ocean. How had he heard that from all the way over there?

Emily rolled her eyes. "Oh, all right. Sam!" She called to her husband, "Start grilling the hot dogs, will you?"

About five hundred hot dogs later, Embry, Quil, Sam, and all the other guys were laying on the rocks, rubbing their stomachs contentedly.

Never in my life had I seen one individual eat so much. I counted how many Embry ate. Seventeen hot dogs in one sitting. And, according to Emily and even Claire, this was normal.

I laid down next to Embry and closed my eyes, listening to the conversation around me. Seth, Keilly, Brady, Drew, and the boy whose name I learned was Collin-Leslie was right, the guy should be a male model. Beauty such as that shouldn't be limited to only a few pairs of eyes, it wasn't fair to the rest of the world-were all sitting in a tightly knit group, heads together, whispering about something I didn't care about. Probably. Emily and Sam were arguing quietly about what to name their unborn child. There was a couple a ways away sleeping, and another laughing hysterically about something a boy whose name I didn't know said.

There was also Jacob and Renesmee, but I tried to block them out. All night Renesmee had been sending me furtive looks, like she didn't trust me. With every rude remark her face had become more and more disgruntled. She, for whatever reason, didn't like me. At all. I didn't really care though. She could kiss my butt. As could the girl with multiple facial peircings who had been hanging out with Collin all night. If she was dating him, she'd better make room for competition.

"What are you thinking about?" Embry murmured.

"The girl with the lip ring." I whispered back. Normally I would have been weirded out by such a personal question, but Embry had been more or less interviewing me the whole night. I was used to it at this point.

"Oh yeah. The chick who is living on Collin's couch."

"What?!" I asked sharply, sitting up.

"Chill, Cat. Just friends. She's been having some problems with her mom, and Collin isn't assertive enough to say no."

"I can't imagine not being assertive." I said, leaning back down.

Embry chuckled. "I've noticed."

Suddenly, the atmosphere around the campfire changed. The sleeping couple was rudely awoken by Jacob, who threw his shoe at them. Sam and Emily shut up about names. One of the girls, Rachel, I think, pulled out a notebook and pencil and turned expectantly towards an old man in a wheelchair. I liked him, I thought. He had an easy smile.

Embry tensed. "Come on." He whispered. "I'll take you home."

"I don't want to leave." I hissed. "And how do you know where I live?"

"You can direct me." He picked me up and started to carry me to where he was parked a few miles away, but not before Emily whispered in my ear. "You should have seen you're face. Sa-woooon."

Well, honestly. How many guys do you know that can carry a hundred and ten pound girl two miles and not even seem tired?