Chapter 8: The Truth
Emily's POV
"You absolute moronic idiot!" I shouted at Junior once Brittany had left.
"First of all keep your voice down, and second of all what the hell are you so upset about?" he asked.
"You just imprinted on my worst enemy!" I shouted not even bothering to lower my voice.
"What?" he asked.
"That girl that you imprinted on used to torment me all the time. She and her friends caused my first phasing incident" I said.
"You phased in front of her?" he asked in disbelief.
"Yes, I did. That's before I even knew about the existence of wolves or vampires and of this nonsense" I said.
"At least I won't have a hard time convincing her of what I am" he said.
"No, she'll believe you alright, but I'm just warning you she'll probably make your life a living hell" I said.
"I highly doubt that" he said.
"Will see" I replied.
"Well, we should probably leave now. We'll keep an eye on you from the woods" he said.
"Okay, hopefully Leah is ready to leave. She can't get away from my brother down there" I said.
"I'm sure she's ready. Besides now she has two reasons to watch over this house" Junior said.
I guess he does have a point there.
They left after that. With my keen eyesight I could see them all hiding in the woods in their wolf forms.
It started snowing sometime during the night and by morning the whole house and yard was covered in snow.
I attempted to leave the house but not before being stopped by my mom.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked.
"I'm going out with some friends. I'll be back later" I said.
"Without a jacket?" she asked.
I had forgotten that I would need a jacket to keep appearances up.
"I forgot about a jacket, thanks for reminding me" I said.
"I can't believe that you were going to leave without a jacket in this freezing weather" she said.
If only she knew the snow would probably melt as soon as it touched my skin.
I put on a warm jacket and left.
Once I was outside I found Junior, Seth, and Leah right away.
"We have to go back now" Junior said urgently.
"Why?" I asked.
"Jacob is a more than a little upset that Sam let you come back. He wants us to bring you back right away" Seth said.
"What if I don't want to go back? Nothing is wrong with me" I lied. The truth is that the bullets were still causing me immense pain. I've just gotten better at hiding it.
"You don't have a choice. We have to bring you back. He wants to talk to you urgently" Leah said.
"About what?" I asked.
"Just come with us" Junior said.
I wondered what he wanted to talk about. Why does he need to speak to me urgently?
When we got back to their place I saw Jacob pacing furiously through the snow. As soon as he saw me he looked relieved.
"What the hell were you three thinking in taking her home?" he asked.
"It was Sam who told us we could take her back as long as we kept an eye on her" Seth said.
"Why would he do that?" Jacob asked.
"You said to keep an eye on her. You never said where" Leah said.
"Oh, well next time I'll make sure you can't find a loophole. Nessie and I were worried about her when she went missing last night" he said.
"Um, I'm right here. Can you please stop talking about me like I'm not here" I said starting to get annoyed.
He then looked at me and his face softened. "Can you three leave. We need to talk" he said.
"Sure dad" Junior said and they all left.
Dad?! Jacob is Junior's father. Well that explains why they have the same name.
"Dad? He's your son?" I asked.
"Yes he is" Jacob said looking nervous.
"Is he you're only kid?" I asked.
For some reason Jacob was starting to look and act very nervous.
"No, my wife and I had another kid that we thought was born human. We gave her up for adoption because she was in danger. We've only just realized that we were wrong. She is a shifter too" he said.
"Why? Do I know her?" I asked. I was starting to get a bad feeling
Then I figured it out and I started trembling.
"It's me isn't it? I'm your daughter" I said. I was 99% sure that I was right. I just needed him to confirm it.
He hesitated before answering. "Yes. You and Junior are twins"
I ran. I ran away as fast as I could.
"Wait! Let me explain!" I could hear him shouting in the distance. But I didn't want to listen. He abandoned me. My own parents had abandoned me just because I was human.
I phased and continued to run as fast as I could. I didn't want to see or face the man that abandoned me.
I could still hear him calling after me. I turned around in time just to see him phase as well. I ran a lot faster than him though and pretty soon I could no longer see him. I ran and ran until I had no idea where I was.
I didn't want to be anywhere near him right now. I was upset. I felt so much pain and anguish. I felt so heartbroken. How could he do this to me? How could my parents abandon me? I think what hurt more than anything else is knowing that I had a twin brother and they kept him. They kept my brother but gave up me. Why? Did they prefer him over me? Was that the problem?
No, somehow I didn't think that was it. I'm not sure how I knew but I just did.
As time went by it started snowing harder and harder. Within a few hours it was a full blown storm. The temperature seemed like it was dropping by the minute. Soon it was too cold, even for me. How is that possible? It must be extremely cold.
I realized that it was getting late too so I started to head back, but I quickly got lost. I had no idea where I had come from so I had no idea where to go. Great! Now I'm freezing, starving, and lost! I hadn't eaten all day so I was starved. Can this get any worse? What was I thinking? Why did I run off like that? Oh right, because I couldn't stand to face my so called 'father'. Just thinking about him made me tremble with rage.
I finally found a herd of deer that was looking for shelter. Finally, some food. I charged towards one of them and tried to pounce, but as I was about to attack I suddenly got very dizzy again and I missed the animal completely and one of his antlers got me right in the leg. The same very same leg with the bullet in it.
I yelped out in pain as I felt my leg break. I stayed there for a few minutes waiting for it to heal. However when I got up it felt weird. I yelped in pain again as I walked. I realized that my leg had not healed correctly. The bone needed to be set for it to heal properly. Mine was not set and therefore it healed incorrectly.
I really do have the worst luck in the world. I'm starting to think that this rapid healing is more of a curse than a blessing
I finally found a cave that offered some shelter from the storm. It was still freezing, but it will have to do until the storm subsides.
After awhile I saw a wolf moving in the distance. I instantly recognized him as Jacob. What was he doing? Was he still looking for me? I thought that he would have given up a long time ago. I was a little touched by this. Maybe there was a side of him that did care about me. But I still couldn't forgive him, I couldn't forgive him this easily.
The poor guy looked like he was suffering out there. Should I let him know where I was? No, I still didn't want to be anywhere near him. I didn't even want to look at him. No, I couldn't leave him out there on his own. No matter what I still had a heart.
I reluctantly let loose a howl that would get his attention. The howl echoed throughout the cave.
He instantly froze and his head snapped in my direction. He looked happy and relieved. He instantly ran over here.
He started pushing and nudging me. He was urging me to get up. I yelped when he nudged one of the bullets.
He looked extremely worried again. Part of me wondered again if he actually did care about me.
He kept trying to get me to stand but I just nodded 'no' at him. Then he gave up and instead he went and laid down right by me and started licking me. Okay, now he's just being a stubborn idiot. Well, at least it's warmer now.
If he doesn't stop licking me I will bite him.
We just laid there for a long time and my stomach was growling loudly the entire time. Suddenly Jacob got up and left. Where was he going? I shouldn't worry about him, he's probably abandoning me again.
I fell asleep after he left. It was only when I found something bumping into me that I woke up again. It was Jacob and he had a dead deer with him.
I looked at him confused and he just pushed the animal towards me. Then I realized what he had done. He had brought me food. He left in the middle of a storm to go and hunt down some food for me. It was touching. It really was. I think he did care about me, but I still couldn't forgive him. It was going to take a lot more for me to forgive him.
I saved half of the deer for him thinking that he might want to eat something, but he kept pushing it back towards me so I ended up eating the whole thing.
I looked at him and wished that I could hear what he was thinking. There was a huge part of me that wanted to know why he had abandoned me. I wanted to hear his story. Now would be the perfect time to hear his story since we are both stuck here. I knew that whatever the reason was it wouldn't excuse what my family had done, and I still wouldn't be able to forgive for awhile, but I wanted to know anyways. Why couldn't I hear him? I thought we could all hear each other's thoughts.
"He's part of a different pack. Different packs can't hear each other's thoughts" came the voice of Taha Aki.
"So I can't ever communicate with him?" I asked.
"You can, but you would have to join his pack" he said.
"Join his pack. How do I do that?" I asked.
"All you have to do is decide that you want to join his pack. Once you join you'll be able to hear all of their thoughts because your mind will be connected to theirs and theirs to yours" he said.
"So all I have to do is decide?" I asked.
"Yes" he said.
"But I wouldn't be able to hear you anymore" I said.
"No you won't. But it's better if you join his pack. Trust me" he said.
"Okay" I said.
How does this work? I want to join his pack so I could communicate with him. So he could tell me his story. Then my mind was made up. I was going to join.
Suddenly Jacob looked at me. His eyes widened.
"I can hear you" he said.
"I decided that I wanted to join your pack. If that's okay with you" I said.
"Nothing would make me happier" he said.
So he told me his story. I told him how I felt too. He stayed silent the entire time that I told him everything that I was feeling. I told him how I felt when I was about to phase and I had no idea what was going on. I told him everything.
I still wasn't ready to forgive him even after hearing his story. What he and my family had done really hurt, and that wasn't something that I could just pretend never happened. However, I could see that he did care. I was willing to try to forgive him. That's all I could do was try. He understood too.
He started licking me again much to my annoyance. What is it with him and licking me?
Two seconds later he was the one yelping in pain.
"That's what you get for being naturally irritating" I said to him.
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