So, I'm going to really try and start to pump out chapters. I want to finish this story before Breaking Dawn comes out. I just know that something dramatic is going to happen to Jacob in that book and once that something happens, this story will no longer work. Once that happens, I'll be so very angry and I wont want to finish it. So, my plan is to write as much as I possibly can and then have it finished before Aug. 1st. Yes, the first, not the second. I'm going to the midnight release of the book, so I wont be able to post anything that day. So, um, if everything works according to my plans, Chapters should be popping up more frequently.
Again, thanks so much for the wonderful reviews. They make me so happy!!
"Jacob?" asked Sam, as we approached them. The confusion was clear on his face. Well, it was clear on everyone's face.
"Everyone, this is Jovie," Jake said. "Jovie, this is, um, everyone."
"Wow, Jake, that clears it all up," I said to him. Then I turned to the group of curious people and smiled at them. "I'm Jovie, I'm a skinwalker. This meaning I'm the wolf that he hit with his car last week." Everyone's eyes got really big, and they even took a couple of steps back. Well, not everyone. Quil and Embry came up to me and they both crushed me in a big hug. It was like a Jovie sandwich.
"I so knew there was something different about you," said Quil. "I told Embry the first day we met that you didn't seem like a wolf at all."
"Actually, I was the one that told him that," said Embry.
"Wait, so, you're like us?" I looked at the new voice, to see a younger looking guy. He was still much taller than me. "I'm Seth, by the way."
"Well, I'm kind of like you, only smaller. We don't get nearly as big as you guys get. That is if you all get as big as Jake."
"Around the same size," said Sam. He didn't look as welcoming as Embry, Quil, and even Seth. He had every right to be questionable though. He was the alpha, he needed to look out for his pack. "How did this discovery happen?"
"Billy found out about me. Then he made me tell Jake what I was."
"And how did you find out about us?"
"I'm in some trouble with my pack and Jake was protecting me."
"Trouble? What kind of trouble?" Sam sounded worried, and I was scared for a second that he was going to make me leave so his pack didn't have to deal with any of my "troubles."
"It's all taken care of," Jake said, putting an arm around me and walking me closer to the fire. I took a step away from him once we were by the fire. Not because I didn't want him touching me, but with his body heat and the fire, I felt so overheated. I could still feel everyone's eyes on me, but it didn't seem like anyone was going to challenge me being there. That was a good thing, I didn't feel like fighting tonight.
"So, who is hungry?" came a female voice. I noticed two woman walk up to the group. They were caring plates of food, but it wasn't the food that I noticed. What I noticed was they were human. My eyes were the ones getting big now and I started to back up. I didn't get far. I bumped into Jake's chest, not even knowing he was now standing behind me.
"What's wrong?" he asked. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but I noticed everyone was waiting for the same answer.
"Um, well, they're human."
"And?" asked Jake.
"What are they doing here?" One of the females, handed Sam the food she had, walked over to me, and held out her hand. I just looked at it. I didn't want to be rude, but I was completely confused on what was going on.
"Hi, I'm Emily," she said, with a smile. Her hand was still stretched out, so I slowly put my hand in hers for a shake.
"Jovie."
"I'm Kim," said the other girl, who was now standing next to Emily. I just smiled and nodded at her. This was strange. Humans, at a werewolf party. This would never be ok in Wolf Lake. Unless.. Oh Man. They weren't going to eat them, were they? What other reason would they have for being here. The only time humans are every invited to our parties, is when they found out about us and we brought them there to "keep them silent." I know Jake said something about Emily being Sam's imprint. Would that make an imprint be someone a werewolf is meant to kill? Does that mean Jake is meant to kill me? That could be his reason for not telling me what an imprint is. I started to panic. I could feel my heart beating faster and my scenes were now on high alert. I was ready to flip in a second if I needed to.
"Jovie?" asked Jake. He must be able to see my panic. "Are you alright?" He placed his hand on my shoulder but I pulled away. I could see the hurt in his eyes but I was too upset to care.
"I don't know what you wolves are trying to pull, but I'm not into hurting humans," I practically yelled.
"What are you talking about?" Jake asked.
"Hurting humans? We protect humans," Sam said. He sounded very offended. Well, I was offended for not being filled in on what an imprint was, and what these humans were doing here.
"Then what are they doing here?" I asked, pointing at the humans.
"Are you stupid?" came a new voice. I noticed another female, walking over to me. She was not human. She was just as tall as the other male werewolves and she smelled like them too. "Emily is Sam's imprint and Kim is Jared's." She pointed at one of the guys and I could only guess that that made him Jared.
"One, I don't know what an imprint is and two, the only reason a human hangs out with wolves is if the wolves plan on making them a snack."
"You eat humans?" asked Quil, giving me a disgusted face. I noticed that Sam had pulled Emily behind him and Jared had done the same to Kim. The other werewolves were now starting to form a circle around me. They were in defensive stances. I expected Jake to be doing the same thing, but to my surprise, he pulled me close to him. He looked ready to kill anyone who even dared to touch me.
"No! I'm just saying humans are never allowed around skinwalkers unless they know too much. Apparently, you werewolves don't mind them knowing what you are," I said, trying to defend myself. Everyone back off but they didn't look relaxed at all. They looked ready to fight if they had too.
"How can I put this so you'll understand," said Jake. He looked like he was thinking really hard, or like he didn't really want to tell me the truth. "The reason they know what we are and are allowed to know is because, Emily is Sam's mate and Kim is Jared's."
"You two mated to humans?" I asked in shock. Now I was super confused. That is a big no no where I come from. Not only is it looked down upon because it would be letting a human in on the secret, but it's also a bad idea incase a child is conceived. Half breed pups almost never survive their first flip. Them having too much human blood makes it almost impossible.
"They didn't mate in the way skinwalkers do. Jared and Kim are just dating for now, and Emily is Sam's fiancé," said Jake. "I guess it's a little more human than you are used to."
"That's an understatement. I'm not even supposed to hang out with humans outside of school, forget dating one."
"I think there is a lot we have to learn about each other," said Sam. "But first, lets eat and then we can talk." I figured I would have to wait to eat, considering I was the new person, err, wolf. It would normally put me at the bottom of the ranks, but I noticed that everyone was just digging into the food. There was no order, no ranks. Sam should have had the first pick of food but everyone seemed to be eating the same portions, the same quality, and at the same time. I was trying to figure out how to reach some of the food when a plate was handed to me.
"It can get a little crazy around feeding time." I took the plate from the hands of the female werewolf. She wasn't smiling at all. In fact she looked rather pissed off.
"Thanks," I said softly. "I'm Jovie."
"I noticed." I waited for her to tell me her name but when she started to eat off of her own plate, I realized she wasn't going to offer her name freely.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Leah."
"It's nice to meet you."
"Whatever," she said, and then walked away. I watched her walk of and sit down on the ground, by the fire. I wasn't sure if she was acting rude on purpose, or if it was really something I had done to upset her.
"Don't mind her," said Jake. I jumped at the sound of his voice. I hadn't noticed him move to stand next to me. "She isn't the nicest of people."
"She got me some food, that makes her ok in my book."
"Come on, lets go sit down." I followed him and we sat near the fire, on the other side of Leah. Jake then pointed out the rest of the pack so I would know everyone's names. I finished my food and when everyone else seemed to be done, they came and sat down near us. Emily was close to Sam, and Kim was now sitting on Jared's lap. Quil and Embry were seated right next to Jake. Seth was on my other side. Next to Seth was Collin and Brady who, Jake had informed me, were the youngest of the pack. Sitting next to Jared was Paul. Jake told me to stay away from him for awhile. I guess he tends to get angry easy, and he already seemed a little testy about my presence. Leah was still sitting by herself, but it was clear that she was listening to us.
"For starters, I guess we should tell you what we are. That might explain things a little bit better," said Sam. He then started to tell me this old Native American legend about werewolves and vampires. At first I wanted to pass it off as, just what it was, a legend. As the story went on though, I realized it was more of a history lesson. I was very intrigued on how the presence of a vampire brought forth the werewolf inside of them. It explained how all of their parents were normal humans and how come their pack was so small.
"So vampires are real?" I asked.
"Very real," Sam said.
"Are they dangerous?" I was kind of scared. Who would have ever thought vampires were real. Then again, what normal human would think werewolves were real, but we weren't going around killing humans.
"You don't have to be scared," said Jake. He placed his hand on my lower back. I think he was trying to comfort me, but we had been doing a lot of touching lately, and it was making me slightly nervous. Why? I'm not even sure.
"Who says I'm scared?"
"Who wouldn't be scared if they just found out vampires are real? There isn't anything to be scared of though, they don't like how us werewolves smell, so they tend to stay away from us."
"Don't like how we smell? Weird. Alright, now on to the good stuff. What can you do?"
"We're super strong, super fast, have abnormally high body temperatures and can read each others thoughts when in our wolf forms," said Jake.
"Read each other's thoughts? That's got to be hard to deal with. What if someone is thinking about something that they don't want others to know?"
"It won't really matter," Quil, said with a laugh. "Everyone will find out about it. We have no secrets from each other."
"We can't do that. We have mental links within the pack, but we can, um, turn it off, I guess you could say."
"I wish we could turn it off, then we wouldn't have to hear what some people are thinking," said Seth, looking over at Leah, who I had found out was his sister. I looked over at her too. She still looked really grumpy.
"Leah, are you the only female werewolf?" I asked her. She looked at me and just nodded. "Wow, that must start a lot of fights."
"Fights?" asked Embry.
"Yeah, you know, for all the unmated males."
"What would we fight for?" asked Paul.
"What would you fight for?" I was trying so hard not to laugh. Were these wolves really as innocent as they seemed. "I can't believe you even have to ask that question. Wow, you guys really are different."
"I think we've already established how different we are. Why don't you tell us what you can do," said Sam.
"Lets see, skinwalkers, we have the speed and strength that you do, just clearly not as much. We have the mental link. Our eyes flash when we are angry. We aren't around just because of vampires. We've been a pack for hundreds of years. I guess we are just like you, only we seem to live more like wolves. It's sometimes questioned if we are really wolves who turn into humans, or humans who turn into wolves. Our alpha is our leader. We follow what he says. His mate is the female alpha and the females must answer to her."
"So you have two alphas?" asked Jared.
"Actually, there are four alphas and four betas."
"Four?" asked Jake. "How is there four?"
"Our pack is separated into two groups. There is the pup pack and the adult pack. The pup pack consists of every wolf that hasn't reached adulthood. We have our own hierarchy, with an alpha and a beta. There is an alpha male and alpha female. Then a beta male and beta female. The two alphas and the two betas are not mated pairs. It's the strongest males and the strongest females. The adult pack has it's own alphas and betas. They are mated pairs though. The adults are higher rank than all of us, but it's important for us pups to form our own ranks so when we become adults, it's easier for us to know our place in the adult pack."
"You skinwalkers do seem more wolf like," said Emily. I had forgotten for a second that there were humans around us, and I felt a little odd sharing my information with them. "What do you do for fun though?"
"For fun?" I asked. Hmmm, what did I do for fun. "Well, I like to go for runs and then there's hunting. The raves are always fun."
"Raves?" asked Emily.
"They are just late night parties that we have in the woods."
"What do you do at them?" asked Embry.
"Drink, dance, sex. What normally happens at parties."
"Did you just say sex?" asked Paul.
"Um, yes?" Everyone looked shocked. Apparently these wolves were not in touch with their wild side. Funny considering they are part animal. "Ok, alright, before you all think I'm some big freak, let me explain. Skinwalkers are very sexual creatures. It's completely normal for unmated males and females to spend some quality time together."
"Quality time? Is that what they are calling it nowadays?" asked Leah.
"So you just go to these raves and have sex?" asked Embry.
"Pretty much."
"In front of each other?" asked Jared, with a smile. I noticed Kim elbow him in the ribs, but the smile stayed on his face.
"Sometimes. Nudity isn't really an issue for us either. You can't flip, I mean phase, while wearing clothes, so when we are away from the humans and out in the woods, sometimes we just don't even bother with clothing. That or we just wear very little."
"Wow," said Seth. I could see a blush coming to his face. Same with the other young werewolves.
"But you don't always sleep with the same person?" asked Paul.
"Well, it's important for one's mate to be able to please them. There is nothing wrong with finding the person that can please you the best. Sex also shows dominance for the males, it's a way to show pack hierarchy, and it helps us bond. "
"Helps you bond? Yeah, that's true," said Quil. "How does it help with hierarchy?"
"The higher ranking skinwalkers normally spend the most time together. A female that is very low ranking, normally will never spend the night with one of the dominant males. She would spend time with a lower ranking male."
"What rank are you?" asked Jake. He looked angry. He was even starting to shake a little. Last time he was shaking was right before he flipped, I mean phased, into his wolf. I wonder if me talking about sex was the cause for his anger. Why he would be so upset is beyond me.
"Alright, new subject," Leah said. I would have to thank her later.
"New subject? I have one. What is imprinting?" Oh no. Everyone was silent and had shocked looks again. "I've been waiting pretty patiently, I really want to know what it is."
"No," said Jake.
"She deserves to know," said Quil.
"No," Jake said again.
"How does she not know?" asked Leah. "You already told her that Emily and Kim are Sam and Jared's mates."
"Wait, imprint means mate?" I asked.
"When an werewolf imprints on a person, it's like finding their soul mate. Stronger even," said Sam.
"Stronger?" I asked. Only, it didn't sound like my normal voice. I sounded shaky, and quiet. I looked over at Jake. His eyes wouldn't meet mine.
"Much stronger. The werewolf feels the need to always be around that person. They would do anything to protect their imprint. Anything to keep them happy. They become whatever that person wants or needs. A brother, a best friend, a lover. Whatever is needed at the time. The bond is stronger than just being mates." Sam continued.
"Mates?" I looked at Jake again but he still wasn't looking at me. "I, um. I, need to think." Then I did the only thing I could think of. Something I seemed to be very good at. I ran.