Chapter Seven: Werewolves Are The Best Nightmare Remedy.

That night when I finally fell asleep, it was still raining and thundering outside. I still heard nothing from Embry, and it hurt me down to my soul. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I was feeling like my mom was right. I have no doubt in my mind of Embry's love for me, I know he really cares about me. But me not hearing from him all day has me thinking the worse. That maybe he was mad at me or something, which led me to review all the things I said in our conversation the last time we spoke. It took up most of my time, and I sat around wallowing and missing him. And the worse scenario I could think of was…well…I don't want to talk about it.

I mean, did I do anything to make him upset at me?

It's times like this I wished my father wasn't always gone. His job makes him travel a lot, leaving me with just my mom. It gets really hard, and I miss him a whole lot. That's why whenever he's here, he and my mom try to spend as much time together as possible. And they're happy. Usually, we're one big happy family. And my dad is always the one who holds me when I cry or when I'm upset. Times like this. When Embry couldn't possibly be here for me, I knew he would. Embry probably wouldn't even want to see me right now.

I cried myself to sleep as the rain attacked my slightly cracked window, regrettably bringing my worst case scenario to life in my dream. Or I should say, nightmare.

It started out very dark, with tall thick trees around me. I could barely see through the fog, all I could make out in the sky was a full moon. I finally reached a clearing in the trees, a meadow. Through the fog two big, beautiful brown eyes began to form yards away from me and I immediately felt safe. I started to run towards them, calling Embry's name. As I began to slowly run, the fog began to disappear and the picture became clearer. I quickly realized Embry the Wolf wasn't alone, a man was there.

His body was tall and thin and his skin was pale, lifelessly pale. His teeth were sparkly white. His eyes were big and black, and he had big, intimidating fangs.

He reminded me of the vampires I saw in that one movie I was forced to watch where the werewolves and vampires were at war, and it gave me nightmares. For weeks. They just recently stopped.

This man stared creepily at me with a hungry look in his dark eyes, his mouth turned into an eerie smile. More like a grin. He slowly started to make his way towards me as I stood frozen at the edge of the meadow till Wolf Embry ran and attacked him seconds before he got to me. I tried screaming, I tried everything I could to possibly stop what was happening but nothing worked. I called Embry's name countless times, but it was like he couldn't hear me. I couldn't hear anything.

The fight between Embry and the vampire was the most frightening and terrifying thing I've ever had to watch. It was the darkest fear I held in the back of my mind since Embry told me what he was, and it was coming to life before my very eyes. Embry was putting up a very good fight and he was strong, but the vampire steadily had the upper hand. Finally he had Embry in his grip and Embry couldn't escape, and he smiled evilly at me one last time. For the first time in the entire dream, I heard sound. I could hear a sad and scared whimpering coming from the wolf, Embry. And it made my heart shatter into millions of pieces, the helpless and fearful look in his eyes made me want to die.

The vampire opened his mouth slowly preparing to bite Embry, as I screamed at the top of my lungs crying my eyes out for him to stop. Begging him to take my life instead. I tried to move to run over to them, to do something, but every muscle in my body was frozen. I felt helpless, useless and alone as I watched the love of my life…my reason for living…about to be killed by the one fictional being who has haunted my nightmares since birth.

I finally fell to my knees as I saw his mouth closing in on Embry's throat and said one final soundless 'no' through my tears, then I jerked awake almost screaming from the nightmare.

I was panting rapidly as my heart beat raced in my chest, my entire body was sweating and my pillow was drenched from the tears I cried in my sleep. I felt myself shaking all over as I thought about the dream, the thought of losing Embry scared me more than anything in the world. I continued to sit up crying for a few more seconds, unable to calm down. The nightmare scared me too much.

Till I saw a second later my cracked window moved the slightest and there he stood, dripping wet from the ran, rain drops traveling down his bare chest, his cut-off shorts damp from the rain, hair sticking to his face. His eyes were filled with fear and worry. He kept is distance, cautious and unsure, yet his face was still twisted with worry.

We stared at each other for a minute, his eyes were still crystal clear through my tears and the darkness that engulfed my bedroom. He finally spoke.

"Are you okay?"

I felt my heart rate speed up even more at the sound of his voice. I still could make my voice work. I was dumbfounded. There were so many things I wanted to say, so many things running through my mind, yet none of them could make my voice work again. What are they good for?

"It sounded like you were in trouble."

He had spoke twice to my none. What was wrong with me?"

"How did you hear me?" Finally. Wait, no! That's not what I meant to come out.

He looked down sort of ashamed, then glanced at the window as if he contemplated leaving. My heart stopped when he did this, I didn't want him to leave. Not yet. Not ever. Not now. He then looked back over at me as if he noticed.

He took his time and hesitated for a while, as if he was scared to say what he had to say.

"Um," he said in a nervous voice. But I was already starting to piece together what was happening.

"Were you outside?" He looked like a deer caught in headlights, and whispered so low I almost didn't catch it.

"I was sleeping outside your window."

My eyes got wide at the thought of this. He was sleeping outside my window?

"Do you do that often?" Where were these questions coming from? They were not the questions I wanted to be asking right now.

He rubbed the back of his wet neck as he thought about how to answer my question, slowly taking another step toward my bed. My heart sped up when he did, and he stopped again.

"I sleep outside your window every night I'm not on patrol."

I took in this information glancing back and forth furiously between my window and him. He noticed. He noticed how I noticed how violently the rain was coming down outside my window. He slept out there? He knew I was about to freak.

"You do what? Embry, it's storming outside. You could get sick! And you're sleeping on the ground? Are you nuts? Why didn't you just tell me?"

He bit his bottom lip for some reason, finding my sudden outburst funny. I did not. "I watch over you no matter what the weather is doing, Kourtney. And sleeping in wolf form isn't that bad. Just about any ground that is even is comfortable. I actually can't sleep unless I'm close to you."

I bit my bottom lip blinking away at this statement. It made my heart flutter.

"I've……been doing it since a little while after we started dating." I could tell by his voice his face was red slightly with embarrassment. But I could still hear a hint of worry in there. For him, he still hadn't gotten to the bottom of this.

But I was stunned by that last part. If it was anyone else in the world, I would've been terrified. But since it was Embry, it was…flattering. Again, I felt my heart flutter in my chest.

"I almost never sleep at home. Jacob and Quil won't stop teasing me about it." This made me laugh a little, I can just picture Jake saying something smart.

I wiped my tears away from my face, I had completely forgotten the fact I was even crying in the first place.

"Why were you crying?"

By the sound of his voice and his face, I could tell that overhearing my nightmare was the entire reason he came in my room and it scared him fiercely.

I looked down at my hands, not willing to talk about my nightmare. I don't think I would ever tell him.

"I was having a really bad nightmare." As much as I wanted to and tried, I couldn't stop the new tears falling down my face from even thinking about that horrible dream.

This was all the confirmation he needed, he then walked over to my bed and sat on it, holding me close to his chest without thinking twice about approaching me again.

He wiped my tears away and I buried my face in his chest, missing his scent and his touch and him entirely.

He ran his hand up and down my back then kissed my head, comforting me. As soon as he touched me, all my fears from the nightmare went away. My own personal nightmare remedy.

"It's okay babe, it was just a dream."

When I finally calmed down, he slowly leaned away from me with my hands in his. He looked deep into my eyes, squeezing my hands in his strong, warm grip. He put a hand on my cheek softly, then kissed my forehead. For some strange reason, it felt like a good bye.

He leaned back and looked at me. I was right.

"Well if you're alright, then I'll just go."

Before he could get up from my bed I grabbed his hand to stop him and he looked back at me surprised.

"You didn't think I would let you leave, did you?"

He smiled that signature grin that was so Embry.

I walked over to the basket of laundry I had in my room from earlier, and found some of my dad's old sweats and the t-shirt he lent me for him to wear. Minutes later he emerged from my bathroom in them, and the sweat pants were an okay fit. A little snug, but not too bad.

He came over to my bed and got in the covers with me, wrapping his arms around me tightly. I began to wonder, how did I ever sleep in this bed, or any bed for that matter, prior to this moment? How was that even possible? Embry was so warm, so perfect, so soothing, so relaxing, I can't even imagine sleeping without him by my side from now on. This was something I dreamed about for some time now, and now that it's coming true it was something I never wanted to let go. As we laid there staring in each other's eyes, I remembered those questions that slipped my mind earlier. I was afraid to ask them, but I just had to know.

My remembrance of this shocked him, because I hit his shoulder.

"Ow, what was that for?" He smiled as he softly chuckled at my angry-but-not-really-face. Since he was here, laying here with me, I couldn't stay mad at him. But that doesn't mean I would forget.

"I haven't heard from you all day."

He got quiet and he clenched his jaw, and made the face he only made when he was upset at something. I hadn't seen this face on too many occasions because Embry hated to get angry around me, but I had caught it a few times.

"I was mad."

My heart dropped. I was right. It was something I did. It was me. I felt the tears building in my chest again at the thought of Embry being so mad at me that he would stay away from me, I would never want to make Embry mad.

"Mad at what?" My voice cracked slightly as I fought my tears, luckily he didn't notice.

He took a deep breath. "I heard all the stuff your mom said last night. You know, your mom is crazy. None of those things she said were true. I do care about you, I'll always care about you. Words cant express. I love you so much it hurts, Kourtney. You mean everything to me. I could never lose you. I could never intentionally hurt you. The thought of even making you frown makes me sad. I always want to make you smile, make you happy. Give you everything you need, and be whatever you need in me. I can't possibly leave without you. She made me so mad I stayed in wolf form all day. I couldn't phase back because I was so mad."

I took a deep breath feeling so relieved it was nothing I did, and then I felt heavily guilty for mother's statements and actions. I never dreamt Embry would overhear all the stupid things she said.

"I'm so sorry Embry…" I snuggled closer to him, feeling entirely responsible for my mom.

"Don't worry about it. No matter what she does or says, we'll be together. I love you, and I'll always be there for you babe. Nothing will change that."

This made me smile, nothing in the world compared to hearing him say that to me.

"I'm sorry you haven't heard from me all day, you must've been worried sick."

I frowned. "You have no idea."