Book One: Alex

Hurt and Betrayal

For the next few days Aaron went through a series of emotions. Hurt, anger, sadness, emptiness, but she stopped at hate. I could understand why she would hate Jared Cole. They spent most of their lives together always leaning on each other and suddenly he ditches her for a girl he used to make fun of. Catalina's emotions seemed to be stuck on anger plotting out various ways to get back at him. I was simply confused. How do I handle a breakup this big? They'd been together since Third Grade. Not to mention, I had the feeling that someone had ratted out Seth and I's relationship.

Whenever we would be at the beach or at the mall, one of Sam's followers would be there. They'd follow us around waiting for one of us to screw up. But we were careful. We made sure not to make too much contact instead having a private conversation with our eyes using body language instead like a quick smile or a head nod. It wasn't enough; it wasn't… real.

Some days Jacob would come with us, and I would be hanging off Jacob's arm responding to that deep pull I felt. Being with him was natural. I didn't have to be guarded with what I say or did like I'd have to be with Seth when Sam's followers would be stalking us. It was easy… as simple as breathing.

Catalina walked up to me anger building in her eyes as she stormed past me and Aaron. We quickly spun around to watch her descent on Sam's group. Typically, we had unknowingly gotten ourselves attached to yet another member of Sam's gang and now Catalina was going to speak her mind… hopefully…

Brady Michaels shoved his hands in his pockets casually as Catalina walked up to him. Paul half-heartedly watched his sister drag Brady away. Catalina screamed something that sounded like half Spanish and half English at Brady while throwing in a few colorful words before storming back towards us and dragging us into the building. Aaron and I had wisely chose to stay quiet during the whole ordeal not wanting to anger Catalina further.

"Can you believe that faggot?" Catalina huffed stomping up and down the girls' bathroom. "He goes and decides to ditch us to hang out with a bunch of half naked guys." She rolled her eyes quickly reapplying her lipgloss. "'It's only until I get better with my anger' he says. 'Don't worry about me,' he says!"

"That's Sam's gang for you." Aaron rolled her eyes before facing me. "You always be careful with what they do." I nodded accepting her warning gratefully before stuffing my hands in my pockets. "Sometimes they sneak up on you and try to drag you down."

"Sometimes they succeed." Catalina added.

I cautiously eyed the two girls before muttering a quick excuse and hastily rushing out of the bathroom. Clearly they were having bad Juju-Vibes and that was something I did not need. What I needed was to relax and be calm. After all, today was the day that Seth and I had an impromptu date at the beach.

My mood was on high for the rest of the day pondering several outfits to wear. Seth was big on me wearing blues or purples because they frame my figure nicely but who was I to judge? I had forced him into wearing clothes that possibly made him look gay just to watch him prance around the place looking like some sex god.

It wasn't until the end of the day when Seth offered to "drive me home" that my mood went down. I couldn't help but feel like something big was about to happen. Seth told me to relax rubbing his thumb in soothing circles across the back of my hand. When I thought he wasn't looking, I quickly snuck another look behind us relaxed when nothing was there.

"Happy now that you know the mafia isn't after us." Seth mumbled sarcastically. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at his comment. "Or maybe killer dogs are hunting us down with magical fairies leading them towards my car."

"No," I stated keeping my eyes trained on the stretch of road in front of us. "I'm much more positive werewolves are following us."

Seth eyed me for a moment. "Are you sure it's not a pack of hungry bloodsuckers?"

"No, werewolves are better," I paused for a moment at Seth's shocked face, "they're safer too." he nodded his head in agreement and I gently rested my head on his shoulders.

The rest of the car ride was spent in silence until we reached the beach were we walked in the sand hand in hand. I was pressed up securely against his side gently humming to an unknown tune. Seth's eyes were focused on the water while mine were more intent on staring at the various rocks and shells that were scattered around the beach.

Eventually we ended up sitting in the sand with me in-between his legs wrapped in the small bubble of his too hot body temperature. It wasn't long before his lips were trailing up my neck, chin, cheek, and back down to my neck. I could barely breathe instead I was taking in short ragged gasps of air. Somehow, I managed to spin around planting my lips firmly against his smiling in victory when he responded equally enthusiastic.

He gently laid us down on the sand so his body was on top of mine. His lips were moving roughly against my own our tongues dancing to a different rhythm. I felt my fingers tightly grasp his shoulders pulling him down further on top of my body. Every inch of our bodies were touching but I wanted more, I was craving more.

"What the hell?" Seth instinctively leapt off of me running his fingers through his disheveled hair glancing sheepishly at whoever caught us. "I swear to God if Jacob finds out." Jared's face made me frown ruining my little moment of Seth induced haze. Kim stepped from behind Jared shocked when she saw me sprawled out next to Seth.

My moment… officially gone.

"Isn't that Jacob's imprint?" Kim-the-stalker asked shyly. I glanced up from my glaring contest with the sand only to see her pointing at me with that sly You-Done-It-Now look. "Seth, what are you doing with her? Jacob is going to kill you." She gasped when Seth shrugged it off giving me a quick wink. "You can't just steal people's imprint! You'll ruin his life if he finds out!"

"This is coming from the same girl who stole my best friend's boyfriend?" Kim-the-stalker immediately shut up allowing Jared to step in front of her protectively. "Yeah, so shut the fuck up you man stealing-"

"Control her, Seth." Jared growled easily lifting Seth off the ground by his shirt collar. "Listen to me and listen to me good." I cringed at the tone of Jared's voice shocked when Seth seemed unfazed by it. "I won't tell Jacob about this, but if God forbids he finds out I will punch you into next year." Jared dropped Seth onto the ground before grabbing Kim's hand and leading her away from the two of us. I guess it wouldn't be good for her image in Sam's gang if she was seen with two people going behind one of the leader's back.

We sat in silence for a while both of us glaring at the spot where Jared and Kim-the-stalker disappeared before Seth helped me up and took me home.

I spent many moments in my room rethinking the events through my head when I realized I had no idea what the hell an imprint was. Surely, Kim-the-stalker had mentioned something about it as reference to a sort of relationship tie between Jacob and I, but that was it. She used it like a normal person would use the word boyfriend or girlfriend. Was imprint the pack's way of signaling I was in some way dating Jacob? If so, why couldn't they just acknowledge our relationship like a normal person?

Nervously pacing back in forth in my room was doing me no good so as usual I decided to lie down on my bed to think things through. That also got me nowhere. But the constant nagging at the back of my head that when I ignored the little imprint comment I had somehow missed something big in that argument; something that only Sam's gang would know.

I needed to find out what imprinting was.

The next day I anxiously sat through all my classes before making a mad dash to the parking lot just in time to catch Seth throwing his backpack in his car. I briefly weighed the pros and cons of asking Seth about this… dilemma before holding my head high and casually strolling over to him.

"Hey," Seth gave me a brief nod in response and I shifted uneasily from foot to foot. "So yesterday when we were at the beach Kim-the-stalker and Jared mentioned something pretty weird."

"Wait," he turned to face me with a look of amusement on his face. "Kim-the-stalker… Wow that is so intelligent."

"Anyways," ignoring the snide comment, "they mentioned something called an imprint. Apparently I'm Jacob's imprint or whatever, and it's really wrong for an imprint to go and try to hookup with someone else in the gang or whatever."I rushed my words together hoping for some vague miracle where Seth wouldn't hear what I said and I could quickly back out my interrogation.

Seth's body tensed and whatever hope of him not hearing me flew out the window. "You should wait and let Jacob explain that to you." Seth muttered. His voice was low and detached giving me the chills. "It's not my place to tell you."

And that my dear readers is how I was left standing in the middle of the parking lot hurt, confused, and really pissed with Seth Clearwater and Sam's gang.