Chapter 4: Living Arrangements
"What's the commotion about?" A woman's voice asked in the other room. She was blocked from my view due to the giants that were leaning against the doorway. I was still sitting in the kitchen with Claire and Quil. Only now our number had grown to include Embry, Seth (who turned out to be the younger looking one) Seth's wife, Bethany, and their brown-eyed daughter, Lily-Rose. Jake hadn't returned after the pack's little pow-wow.
"Aunt Emily's up!" Claire chimed. Emily, I thought, the name sounded so familiar.
A sea of bodies parted as the alpha led the woman into the kitchen, her stomach swollen with evident pregnancy. Her crow-black hair was cut just below her chin and her almond-shaped eyes were full of kindness.
Her face, which obviously had once been flawlessly beautiful, was scarred by three long red lines on the right side. That was when Jake's warning clicked, she was Sam's wife, something else clicked too, a story I hadn't heard in a long time.
"Hello," she said warmly. "I'm Emily, and you must be Camryn."
"Yes ma'am." I replied politely, remembering Jasper's attempts at southern etiquette lessons. Her compassion reminded me so much of Esme, making my heart ache. She was just as Bella had described her.
She looked me over before turning to her husband, "Where is she staying?"
"We were thinking about Billy's, he has a few extra rooms, and Jacob will be there to watch her." Sam replied.
"Nonsense. She'd kill herself by the end of the week. Any guest of ours will not be tortured by those two grumpy men. Anyway, I don't think her family would approve of a teenager alone with two significantly older men." She retorted, hands supporting her back.
"Emily," Sam nearly groaned. Her difficult nature was obviously something he had to deal with often.
"Don't 'Emily' me. She'll stay with us, I'm sure Claire won't mind. Would you, dear?" She said decidedly, cutting him off.
"Nope," Claire said happily, "that was just my thinking."
"Good, now that that's settled. I'm going to grab myself some Raisinets. That's what I came out here for in the first place." She said, waddling past Sam towards a far cabinet.
"I told you to call me if you needed anything. You shouldn't be on your feet." Sam said, following close behind her.
Emily shot him a look of annoyance before stretching her arm, trying to reach one of the higher shelves. Sam sighed before reaching over her head to grab the desired Raisinet box.
"Embry, Seth, go get her things from the car." Emily ordered after grabbing the Raisinet box from her husband's hand.
"Sorry Emily, but we're due for patrol duty about now." Embry replied standing and stretching his arms into the air.
"I'll do it." Quil volunteered.
"Great. Paul can help you. Where is Paul anyways? Oh, never mind. He had a long night. I'll get Brady." She said, waddling to the doorway to survey the other room. She muttered to herself as she walked through the doorway. Watch out everyone, this was a woman on a mission.
"Brady, go help with Camryn's bags." Emily ordered. "What are you two doing over there?"
"Nothing." Two young boys chimed simultaneously. I could hear papers being rustled around in the boys' obvious rush to hide whatever they had been doing.
"ETHAN JOHN ULEY! Were you gambling again?!" Emily shrilled after only a few short moments. Objections could be heard in response. "And David Alexander Geyer! I would have thought you would know better. What will your parents think?"
Brady, one of the younger werewolves, strode into the room, shaking his head and laughing. His hair had more wave to it than the others did. "God, those kids are terrible at coming up with excuses. I mean, seriously, I've had my moments, but 'being possessed by the devil', sheesh."
"Hey, that's my kid you're talking about." Sam said with mock anger.
"SAM! Come handle your son! I'm going back to bed!" Emily called, her frustration evident.
Sam sighed and ran a hand through his hair before shoving past Brady into the other room. The guys continued to laugh.
"Daddy? What's gambling?" Lily-Rose asked, tugging on Seth's arm. Seth immediately stopped laughing. The others' laughter only increased. I just smiled, not really used to the hubbub of a large extended family.
"Come on honey, it's time for your nap." Bethany, Seth's curvy young wife, said. rolling her eyes at the laughing men, and plucking her daughter from Seth's lap.
"You three would understand if you had children." Seth grumbled, before getting up and following his wife.
"No chance of that happening anytime soon. Unless Claire changes her mind." Quil said, turning a meaningful glance to her.
"Please!" Claire huffed, although she was unable to hide the smile that appeared on her face. Quil pulled her into his lap and nuzzled her neck. All this public display of affection was starting to become unnerving.
"Come on, Camryn, I'll show you our room." She said, escaping from her place on Quil's lap.
I gratefully followed her out of the kitchen. "At least you have someone." I heard Embry grumble to Quil as we left.
"Lucky bastard." Brady added.
Claire quickly grasped my hand. I thought it unnecessary at first. Until I got a good view of the living room. It looked like some Animal Planet show I had seen, of animals running wild, fighting for their territory.
Two young boys wrestled near the doorway, a little girl shrieked as she was chased by a boy holding a dirty tissue. All the adults were crowded around the television set, watching some sort of sporting event. She weaved expertly through the chaos, and down a hallway. I knew I would have been lost in the unfamiliar mayhem of the house without her maneuvering.
"Here we are!" she said, pushing open one of the white doors. The room was cramped, yet welcoming, with two twin beds pressed against opposing walls. An antique dressing table sat between them, and a bookshelf with a decent sized stereo on top was at the end of one of the beds. A closet door was at the end of the other. The walls were painted a bold orange, but were covered by posters of various music artists on one side. The other wall had been left bare.
Only one thing seemed out of place. A body was stretched across the space between the two beds, feet resting on Claire's bed and the rest of it laying under a sleeping bag on what I assumed would be my bed. Claire switched on the lights and just sighed.
"Sorry about him, he does this sometimes whenever he's out late. His name is Paul, by the way. Just work around him, there's no point in trying to waking him up. He's not very responsive when he's asleep."
She proceeded to enter the room and stepped over the human barrier to get to her vanity. She started moving her clothes around. It took me a minute to realize what she was up to.
"Oh! No, no, don't worry about that, I don't know how long I'll be here anyway." I said hurriedly. I hated to inconvenience her like this.
"I used to share a room with my older sister, but she went off to college last year. So I'm used to sharing space, don't worry about it. You're free to do whatever you want to your side of the room." Claire explained, waving her hand towards the empty left side.
"Do your parents live here too?" I asked curiously, trying to piece together this extended family.
"No, they went off to London a few years ago. My dad got this great job offer there. They gave us the option of going with them or staying with Aunt Emily and Uncle Sam. Ruth, wanted to stay, of course, but only because she had just started dating Tony Newton. That didn't end well. Anyway, I decided to stay here too. Jasmine was the only one who went with them." Claire told me as she moved to clear space in the closet.
"I take it Ruth and Jasmine are your sisters." I said as I looked through her book selection.
"Yeah. Ruth's the older one, as you've probably gathered, and Jasmine is younger, she just turned eight." She said. "Do you have any siblings?" She asked as she shut the closet door and turned to face me.
"No, I'm an only child." I responded, busying myself with the back of a mystery novel. It was your typical murder mystery, with the young damsel in distress, the conniving boyfriend, the jealous ex, and the infamous drug lord.
"Can I ask you a question?" She asked casually, sitting on her bed to face me. She seemed to be completely ignoring the two large feet that sat in front of her.
"Sure." I responded warily. I didn't like her sudden switch on me; I liked it better when we were just getting to know each other.
"How did you become part of that vampire clan?" she finally asked.
"I was orphaned and they took me in. Nothing too complicated." I responded, moving to pick up another book, making a point to avoid her inquisitive gaze.
"How old were you?" She continued, still using a slower wary tone. "If you don't mind me asking."
"Four." Just then there was a knock on the door. Thank god. This was one conversation I was glad to avoid.
"Come in!" Claire called, swinging her feet to the floor. The door opened to reveal Quil and Brady. Quil held the smaller duffle bag, while Brady was hefting my overstuffed suitcase. I got up and reached out for the duffle, which contained Bella's books, and a few other personal items.
"Just put it on the bed." Claire said indicating the empty spot on the bed where Paul wasn't.
"I don't think I will ever understand why girls have to pack so much." Brady complained as he flung my suitcase, making the bed springs creak.
"Don't plan on doing anything important tomorrow afternoon. Sam's called another mandatory meeting and he wants Camryn to attend." Quil said, wrapping his arms around Claire.
"How long do you think you're going to stay anyway?" Brady asked from his relaxed position against the door frame, he looked at me with immense curiosity. A little too friendly, in my opinion.
Quil let out a low growl, but Brady didn't seem to hear and continued to look at me quizzically.
"Until they decide that it's safe." I replied, cautiously stepping over Paul's legs to get to my suitcase.
"Safe? Safe from what?" He asked. I carefully removed my family photo from the top and placed it on the side of the dressing table that Claire had cleared for me.
"Yes, safe," This wasn't a very difficult concept to grasp. I guess some werewolves weren't as smart as others, "from the Volturi, mainly."
Brady nearly choked, and Quil stared, slack- jawed. They had heard of them. Good. That would mean one less thing for me to explain.
"The Volturi? Like the large vampire clan in Italy?" Quil stuttered.
"Yes. The human-chomping kind." I responded very seriously. Claire gasped.
"We need to go. Now. The others need to hear this." Quil immediately said, his voice returning to its confident tone.
"Why? Sam and Jake should already know." I responded, not understanding his sudden urgency.
"What?" Brady gaped, bolting into a rigid posture. "How could they already know?"
"The letter, of course. Do you really think they would have let me stay if this was just some sort of educational experience?"
This was just way too obvious for them not to see, or understand. Although they did lack the talents my family possessed, it was still no excuse.
"You've read the letter?" Quil asked, his eyebrows furrowed with concern and urgency.
"But Jake said you didn't know what it said." Brady pointed out, trying to reason my greater knowledge.
"No, I haven't read it. I do know the situation, though. I got Alice to tell me the gist of it before the plane even landed in Seattle." I replied. "I'm not a complete idiot. You really think I would come here without getting a good reason."
I stepped over Paul's legs again to hang up a few summer dresses Alice had bought for me. It was only mid-February. God, how long did she think I was going to be here?
"Grmpf." I turned at the noise to see the mass that was Paul shift around, making both beds squeak with his huge frame.
"Looks like Paul's waking up." Quil observed. Both he and Brady had visibly relaxed. "He is going to damn us all to hell for not waking him up when he finds out he slept through all of this." He explained, chuckling.
Claire smacked his arm, "Language." She warned.
"Sorry." He mumbled.
"Jesus, what does a guy have to do to find a quiet place to sleep?" Paul complained as he struggled to emerge from the mass of blankets.
Paul looked very similar to the others, except that his dark onyx hair was mussed from sleep, and he was shirtless, showing off his defined muscles. Not that the others didn't have their shirts off before either, but you have to understand that this was in a completely different context.
He stretched and yawned, "What's going on anyway? I woke up earlier and heard what sounded like the whole pack. Did I miss something?" He asked, looking at Quil, who stood almost exactly in front of him.
"No new trails, but boy did you pick a bad day to miss morning patrol." Quil responded, obviously reveling in the fact that he knew more than Paul.
"Why? What happened?" Paul asked, leaning up, immediately stoked.
"More like who happened." Brady replied, nodding his head in my direction.
Paul looked confused at first before turning his eyes to me. I was still standing in the closet doorway, observing the once sleeping werewolf.
"Paul this is Camryn, Camryn this is Paul." Claire said introducing us.
I looked from Claire to Paul. He was staring more intently than I expected. His dark eyes were practically penetrating my soul and he seemed to be breathing more heavily than before. I was entranced. Terrified, but entranced. I couldn't look away.
The room was silent, until I heard a clear, low exclamation of "oh, fuck" from Quil, followed by a quick smack, which I assumed came from Claire.
