Chapter 7

Embry s POV

It had been about a week since the wedding when Sam and Emily had the fight. It was over something really stuoid, as far as I could tell. But I didn t know too much about it for two reasons. One, the obvious, was that I wasn t in Sam s head anymore. Even if I had been, I doubt I would have known, because Sam didn t remember himself. He just remembered the anger, the thingsa he said to her after things got heated. The second was that even if I was part of Sam s pack, even if he remembered very minute detail, I wouldn t have paid close attenetion. I would have avoided listening to Sam s thoughts at all costs. All imprinted werewolves would. It hit too close to home. Made us think about what would happen if we had that kind of fight with our own soulmates. What had happened with Sam s, was that Emil had taken Nate, and moved out. Not permanetnly, obviously. In fact, she had left giving Sam the impression that she was just going for a drive. To clear her head. To let them both cool down a bit. But when she didn t come home that night, Sam assumed that she had spent the night at her mom s maybe found a motel someplace. It broke Sam s heart. Everyone knew that. The dejected look in his eyes, the howls at three am. It took two days of hearing no word from Em to start getting Sam worried. Emily knew how much he needed her. She knew that two days wold cause him beyond pain. So why wasn t she back yet? He tried calling her cell, and nobody answered. Multiple times. And that was when he signaled a pack-well, packs- meeting.
I haven t heard from her at all-the fight wasn t even that bad-I can t help thinking . Sam spoke through Jacob s head. Or rather, he tried to. His thoughts, though, were so jumbled up, so frenzied, they were hard to understand.

Chill, Sam. Leah thought, again using Jacob as a telephone to get the message across. Her thoughts towards him were reassuring, but the members of Jaco s pack could tell something was wrong. When Emily had left, she d taken Nate with her. She was hurting almost as much as Sam at this point. I m sure they re fine. We ll just follow their scent to wherever she decided to drop off the face of the earth, and you can apologise.

Which was what we did. Or at least, we tried to. But we only made it to about the highway. That was where their scents disappeared.

Seriously.

Disappeared. Like, poof.

We cricled around, doubled back and started over, ran ahead. But it was no use. Emily's scent, her car's scent, Nate's scent.

They were all completely vanished.

It was just as Sam and Leah were getting ready to have heart attacks that Paul phased.

You guys, I m assuming, have never been an imprinted werewolf on their honeymoon, so I don t expect you to be able to fathom how odd this was. I will, however, try to explain. See, When Jared and Kim had gotten married, and when Sam and Emily had, the wolves had not phased once. I don t even think they slept. Or ate. Or did anything at all other than... you know. And when they did finally come back, their thoughts were so disgustingly perverted that the rest of us went to amazing legths in order to not be in their heads. This sex-obsession usually lasted for months befroe they were finally able to get over themselves and actually gain their personality back. But when Paul phased, he wasnot, much to all of our suprises, picturing Rachel's naked body. Sure, he was picturing Rachel, but not that way. In fact, the tenor of his thoughts were quite similar to Sam's and Leah's.
Guys, I can t find her. He thought frantically. Anywhere. She s just gone. I tried to find her scent human, but I couldn t, and now I can t in this body either .
That was when the whole search for Emily thing pretty much fell apart. Too many imprints had disappeared. We were seeing a pattern. We ran to La push at top speed, not caring whether or not we were glimped by a few hikers. Jacob howled loudly, trying to signal Quil, but again he ignored us. Which probably meant he was with Claire. So at least his imprint was safe.
I don t know how the rest of the wolves were feeling during those moments. I was much to preoccupied with my own thoughts. I can easily tell you that I had never in my life been as terrified as I felt in that moment. Every cell in my body ached to phase back to human, to find Cathryn. To make sure that she was safe. I didn t know if somebody was targeting the imprints or, if they were, why, but I didn t care. All I cared about was finding Cat. I think Jacob was tempted to not let me. To not let any of us. He wanted us all to go straight to the Cullens, for all of us to find Nessie. But he didn t alpha command it, thank God. I think that if he had we would have killed him. Literally.

As soon as I got close to Cathryn"s house, I phased back and pulled on my sweats. I felt quickly around in my pockets for my phone, ready to hear word from the others if their own imprints wer gone. Her scent was everywhere here. But then, she lived here. It didn t matter if I could smell her now. She d been all over. I circled around quickly to the front and banged on the door. I bounced up and down impatiently. Every second I didn t know where she was was a second something could be happening to her.

It was just as I was contemplating breaking the door down that her stepfather, Bob, answered. "Embry?"He asked, looking up at me warily. If I hadn t been so freaked out, I would have laughed. Her family had always been wary of me, and they thought we were just friends.

"IsCatthere!" I blurted, my words stubling over each other in an effort to get out.

Bob's eyebrows furrowed. "Excuse me?" He asked.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm down a little. The attept was unsuccesful, of course. I had to pay close attention to the way I spoke. "Is Cathryn there?"

Bob relaxed in understanding. "Oh. No, actually, I cant say that she is. Sorry." And he shut the door in my face.
Needless to say, I stopped breathing for a full minute. I probably would have passed out on the spot had it not been for my phone, vibrating in my pocket. At first, I didn t answer. I couldn t feel my arms. I couldn t feel anything. Nothing but a cold sence of dread, slowly wellig up inside me. But, eventually, I got the phone to my ear. "Hello?" I choked out. "Jared?" I took a deep breath throgh my nose, trying to get my heart beating again. Maybe they had found Emily. Maybe Cat was just hanging out at the beach, and I was freaking out over nothing.
"Embry." Jared breathed. In that one word, I knew that I had been wrong. Everything was not all right. The dread grew impossibly bigger. "Its Kim. She's-she's gone." His voice broke on the last word.
My knees buckled. I grabbed clumsily at the proch swing for suport, but my arms wouldn t work. I sat down heavily, swaying. I didn t notice when the phone fell out of my hand.

Cathryn was gone, Cathryn was gone, Cathryn was gone. The words went around and around in my head, refusing to leave. It seemed like every time I thought it, it hurt a little more.

I couldn t think.