Chapter Four

Brianna

They are doing all this for me, because I am afraid and do not want to blindly love a man I do not know. My brother snoring loudly and my sister snuggled into his back. They are both happy with their imprints they accept them, and I have taken them away from them. My brother calls out in his sleep an name her name. Even in dreams he cannot help but think of her. My sister is contented also asleep but I can't sleep this night, thinking of many things. So many, a man who I can love who will love me but both of us have not one bit of choice in the matter. Six people's happiness depends upon my decision he was wrong to force me into wolf form but he must have been desperate for me to see him, to see what he sees.

My brother grunts and rolls onto his side his hand clenching and unclenching in the little movements that only sleep makes. I smile and gently kiss his forehead, I am ready, he is so good but I can't let him do this for my sake. I feel the ground under my feet and I can vaguely hear the pack their voices like gentle murmurs in my mind. I can tell that most are asleep and I write in the dirt. Gone to Seth, I decided that this is too hard for all of us. Well not for me but for the people that I love and their loves, and Seth who has no choice in who to love.

I run lightly through the forest avoiding the patrol and sneaking into the house where I can hear troubled thoughts although they are both sleep softened. I climb up through a lattice and into his room through an open window. I take a deep breath and look. The world stops and then starts again and all I can think of all I can see is him. His furrowed brow his sweating face. His nightmares in my head and gently I push at them with my own thoughts changing them to good dreams. I climb into his bed knowing that I have made the right choice knowing that love comes first and knowing will come in time. I gently stroke his face and whisper. "I love you." Love such a simple word he makes me feel light and wonderful. Like dancing on clouds, my Seth. I do not have a choice but I do not care anymore. All my thoughts before seem meaningless the thoughts of a girl instead of a woman. I have changed in these minutes into a woman, a woman instead of a silly girl and one that loves Seth Clearwater.

Seth breaths deeply and mumbles my name upon his lips. I gently kiss them and he starts snoring contentedly I will not sleep this night all I want to do is think about the changes in my life and hear his breathing. It is strange how suddenly everything changes.

He snorts in his sleep and I laugh quietly behind my hand. He is so cute lying there, I suddenly wonder what he must have been like as a child. He turns over and wraps his arms around me. I wonder for a second if he is awake but a gentle touch with my mind tells me that he is still asleep. A glass is on the table and a bottle of extra strong sleeping pills. It makes me sorry that he had to virtually knock himself out to get any sleep. I wonder for a moment if Leah and Embry also had to. I won't ever be this much of a problem again. I sigh and snuggle deeply into his arms knowing that I chose this life comforts me. He mutters my name in his sleep again and love. I don't want to pry but wonder what he is dreaming of. I slowly expand our link and can't help but laugh making no effort to quiet it knowing that he won't wake. I am in a meadow with him and he is stroking my hair I come up to him and embrace him it is interesting to see myself from his eyes. I know that I could never be as beautiful as he sees me. I gently run my fingers through his short hair and he breathes deeply into my face. I smile at him he is so beautiful I want to surprise him though and not with being in his bed when he wakes. I slowly untangle myself from his arms feeling an ache at the parting.

I run back to my brother and sister and erase the message that seems so childish now, as if written by another. I smile and look up at the stars thinking of Seth and realizing that imprinting is as wonderful as everyone tried to make me see. We have no choice in who to love but it is so strong and beautiful when we do. Slowly the skies lighten into dawn and day. My brother is at the edge of awakening and I hunt in the forest binging back more rabbits and skinning them with my teeth, roasted rabbit tastes so good. I then take out the entrails and start to roast them on the fire. I smile as I do so, my brother's nose is twitching, stirring and waking the rabbits smell good and I eat a done one, one handed as I roast the others. He sits up and stretches.

"Good morning Brian." I say smiling his hair is sleep stirred about like a whirlwind.

"Morning Brianna." He replies.

"You know I don't mind being blindfolded, you seemed so miserable last night we can go back to the reservation." I tell him and he smiles at me.

"You would want to be blindfolded, or look at him." He asks. "A blindfold can easily be ripped off you know."

"Yes, but you are so unhappy and I know that Embry and Leah must also be if you are." I tell them. "I can't make three people that I like feel unhappy, just because I want to have a choice in who I love." I say and he stares at me for a second.

"I never knew how grown up you were little sister." He said, "Until this moment." I blush and he smiles at me.

"We don't have to wake Breena." I say and I gently pick up my twin. We put dirt atop the fire and leave. Brian takes Breena from me as soon as we exit the woods and I put on the blindfold. It is completely dark under it and I don't much like the smell but over all it doesn't matter all that much. We walk through town Breena wakes up half way through and insists on walking. It is about mid morning and we are the only people awake in the pack. I smile gently touching Seth in his dreams again. I feel connected and not at the same time as though I have given a part of myself but not all to this place and this pack.

"Good morning." She says happily noticing that we are going home. I turn to her voice and smile at her. I can see through Brian's eyes and know where she is it's weird but functional.

"You know I can see through your eyes." I say. "And hear your thoughts it's weird."

"Can I do that?" He concentrates for a minute before shaking his head. "No only in wolf form I suppose. Can you only hear mine?"

"Yes." I reply, if he can't do it it means that it isn't normal which means that I am a freak. I don't want to be.

"So where should we go? It won't make much sense to go to the house." Meaning Jacob's house.

"True, lets make something for the pack." I say and he grins. "I want to apologize I know that I have messed it up for everyone."

"Nonsense not for me."

"I heard you last night and I could see your dreams they weren't nice." I said not nice was putting it mildly. He blushes and his thoughts were embraced.

"You saw my dreams?"

"I can't quite control it yet, and you are the closest to me." I reply and then it is my turn to blush my cheeks turn warm.

"That is too bad." He says but brightens. "Could we stop by Leah's house?" He asks forgetting for the moment that Seth is her brother.

"Why not." I reply and he piratically runs to the house I laugh and fallow him. He knocks on the door and Seth answers his hair slightly askew I know that we have woken him with his knock not to mention Leah and Embry. He sees me and he grins broadly.

"You want to see Leah right?" He asks him.

"Yes, if it won't be too much trouble."

"You are welcome to come in." He says and then lowly eyes downcast. "All of you." I realize that Emmett is here with them eager to see my sister. They had come together for comfort and I feel terrible.

"Thank you." I reply. His mind buzzes in excitement. She said thank you, she said thank you. I smile down at the floor.

"Come in." He says again forgetting that he said it a moment before. I enter my sister behind me and Embry turns to her. His thoughts at once turn to her. Is she alright, was she warm enough last night I don't know what I would do if she got so much as a cold. Please let her be fine.

"Hello." She says shyly and I can hear her voice from his point of view it sounds like heaven itself. Leah enters from the main hall and runs to my brother throwing herself into his arms. He swirls her around and she laughs happily. I smile at their happiness. Seth is watching them full of envy and happiness for his sister. That could be us. Touching her hair letting my fingers sink into those long black hair. She goes blindfolded when I am near, her beautiful eyes veiled. What is she so afraid of me? Maybe if I talk to her tell her how beautiful she is she will find that she likes me. No I tried to give her complements and she ignored me. Maybe if I give her insults, no that didn't work either. Maybe if I just talk with her.

"How do you like the reservation?" He asks quickly. Please say you like it, please tell me you do. Tell me that you will stay.

"I like it." I reply. "Not as much as my brother perhaps but I like it just fine. The trees are wonderful and the wolf form incredible." I am glad that he didn't mean to make me transform, he was just looking for a reaction any reaction.

"I am so sorry." He says. "I didn't mean to, it was an accident. I didn't know you would transform I swear I didn't." Please believe me.

"You did not mean to? Are you sure?" I ask him hating to do it but I have to make this look authentic. My Tiger she roars. I wish she wouldn't hurt me so. White Tiger the rarest and most beautiful. I blush at that and fake a temper rise and then go back to myself. "Curse this being able to hear others thoughts." I say.

"You can hear my thoughts?" Then you need to know that I think you the rarest beauty. You are wonderful, and you can't get angry at me because these are my private thoughts. I wish to know all about you everything little things big things everything. Eventually you might love me enough to show your pretty eyes to me again but until then I will miss them.

I gasp and turn away wishing that I could kiss him for such beautiful things. A tear falls and then another and before I knew it I was weeping. I wanted to tear off the blindfold and kiss him and the same time I don't. I cry rocking back and forth feeling like a silly little girl and then my sobs fade away. Everyone is staring at me.

"Why are you starring?" I demand with a bit of my old fustyness. "I just don't know how to take any of this. I have a man that one day is pledging love to me the next insulting me. I turn into a dog and now I can hear everyone's thoughts. I can't control it and he takes advantage of it saying such beautiful words. You are right I can't get angry at you but you confuse me so." I say and start rocking back and forth again crying the blindfold slips and I close my eyes tightly. My brother puts his arms around me and fixes it when I want his arms around me. I don't know what to do and I realize that I am still a silly little girl and not a woman at all.

"Shush its alright." Brian says.

"No it isn't Brian, I need to figure this out." I say and fiddle with the bandage. Please, just untie it. He asks me. I throw a pillow at him and run out away out of that house away from the stares. I put my blindfold in my pocket knowing that he is not near. I smile at myself in humor and then run it felt good to run to play to be a little girl. to feel the soil against my feet and the thudding oh the glorious thudding. I don't know where I am running just that I am. The next thing I know I am outside the reservation and a familiar car pulls up. I can feel my sister's thought which means that she too is also a werewolf. I gesture madly at her and she smiling pulls over.

"Hello Brianna." She says and I get into the car. "How is the fam?" She asks.

"Good." I reply. "There is something called imprinting though, its forced love." I tell her about me and Seth, Embry and Breena and Brian and Leah.

"Why don't you tell him you looked?"

"I want the right moment you know I have always been a romantic." I reply and we both giggle she is twenty and four years older than I. We have always been close though ever since I was little. She was someone to look up to. My brother and sister were my companions and she was more mother than our mother to us growing up.

"Yes I I know, it was I who read you countless fairy tales." She smiles at me and I grin in reply. We park the car at my uncle's just as Jacob is coming out the door. They both freeze and I smile, knowing that they have imprinted. I take my sister in hand and lead her to Jacob. "This is our cousin Jacob, Jacob this is my sister." I leave them as they stare at each other making me giggle. I run off and start skipping just for fun. I notice Seth coming closer and I tie the blindfold on. We are alone and I feel about for anyone nearby. No one.

"I wanted to talk with you. I want to find out more about you." Everything about you.

"Well you know where I was before I was here." I reply.

"What is your favorite movie?"

"Now or when I was little?"

"Both."

"The Parent Trap, but now it's the Princess Bride or Monte Python and The Holly Grail." I reply and he laughs.

"Really we are the knights that say Ni."

"Ni, Ni, Ni, Ni." I reply and we both dissolve into laughter. "Give us a shrubbery." I say in a high pitch voice and he doubles over in laughter.

"That is also my favorite movie, my sister loves the Princess Bride, admittedly the rodents of unusual size are so unrealistic that the make me crack up each time."

"I will save you." I say and use my finger as a fake sword pretending to fence. He laughs and suddenly I am on the ground and he is tickling me. I laugh and right myself. "You dog." I push him. "Taking advantage of a poor blind girl."

"You not be." He says. Please take it off I want you to see in me what I see in you. I want to see your eyes again, those beautiful green orbs.

I hesitate for a minute before my my hand goes down. "I think I want to get to know you better before deciding to love you forever." I tell him and he sighs.

"What do you want to know?"

"What is your favorite color?"

"Blue because it is the color of both sky and water." He replies. "And you?"

"I like light shades best I can't decide between the pink or orange of sunsets. You know the shades I mean just before the sun comes up or goes down." He smiles at me.

"Yes I do." He replies and smiles. "We are both obvious romantics." I smile at him in his general direction.

"I like being a wolf, but if I were born in a previous century and a boy I would be a knight. I have taken fencing lessons." I smile. "I can teach you if you want."

"How can you do that blindfolded?" He asks and I laugh.

"It would make things difficult admittedly." I reply.

"Fair damsel." He says and kisses my hand I laugh.

"The ladies would slap you with their gloves." I tell him and he laughs too. We laugh together and it feels right somehow beyond imprinting, I know that in the end I might have fallen in love with him even without the imprinting.

"I enjoy the sun but I like the rain best. When I was little I would dance in it." He blushes and his mind adds without any clothes on. I laugh imagining him as a little boy dancing naked in the rain and touch where his cheek is lightly. It was a light touch but we both enjoy it. He held perfectly still but his thoughts raced on. She touched me, maybe if I am still she will do so again. It feels so good like sunshine. I gently stoke his face and then back away. He looks at me I know he does and I want to see him, but not yet.

"So did I." I tell him smiling. "I would also sing for no reason other than to enjoy myself silly isn't it?"

"No, wonderful." He replies. I blush and smile at the same time it feels nice to talk to him like this with no mention of imprinting. Just a boy and a girl no complications no werewolves nothing but his hand touching mine. His hand touching mine? I snatch back the hand and glare at him well I would glare if I could see.

"Seth, why do you hold my hand?" I ask.

"It was there." He replies simply and clenches his hands. "So close I could touch it and so I did." He starts crying, I want to kiss him oh how much I do but then the surprise will be ruined.

"Now you employ tears?" I ask him as he weeps. "Have you no shame?" He continues to weep and I want to comfort him, but I do not thinking of my surprise. Stop crying. At once he stops and I feel my mouth drop. Dance like a chicken. I can see it through his mind he doesn't know why but he wants to dance like a chicken. I smile this could be fun. Stop. He stops and smiles at me. I can work with his thoughts and give him orders in his mind. I reach out through the minds and tell Jacob and my sister to come to me at once they appear. Both seem confused as to why they are there.

"Sorry." Jacob says taking in the scene and they both go away once more.

"What was that about?" Seth says wiping at his eyes. "I suddenly wanted to dance like a chicken." I laugh I can't help it, I can have fun with this. Not that I would hurt anyone, but at least it will be fun.

"I think I can give the pack orders that they seem compelled to obey." I reply. "I tried it with Jacob and my sister just to make sure."

"You can give us orders that we literally can't resist?" He asks.

"Pretty much that's the case." I reply and he stares at me.

"Orders, we have been obeying Sam because we respected him as the oldest of us and as our leader." Seth said. "I would never have imagined this."

"You never would have imagined it think of how strange it is for me?" I ask him, "A freak among freaks."

"If you are a freak at least you are a beautiful one." He says and my cheeks color. He smiles at me and I grin in reply. He shoves me lightly and I shove back.

"Thanks." I say and he stares at me in amazement. Did she just thank me? I gently close his jaw. "I can be civil." I say.

"You can't seem to be civil around me." He says and I look around I suddenly realize that it is dark. I yawn and he does too. I check on the rest of the pack and see that they were all either asleep or on patrol. Suddenly I feel very sleepy. Go to bed and sleep. Seth yawns again. "I am going to go to bed." He says if I had not ordered it I would have been upset. He starts moving slowly as though already half asleep. Within a few minutes he is deeply asleep he has left his house door a jar. His sister is sleeping soundly and I know that his mother is away on business. I go up to his room and order him, Stay asleep but fallow me. he does so moving slowly. I make sure that the wolf pack is far away and guide him to the meadow. lie down he does so and his snores soon echo throughout the meadow. I lie down and also sleep.