Gene's POV:
My senses were everywhere, listening to every motion, smelling every grain of dirt in the ground... I knew I had to find my sister. I owed her a lot of things. Trees came and went through my vision constantly, my nostrils begging for the smell of Claire.
When Tyson finally picked up the faint scent of peaches, we all came towards him. I prayed to whatever god did or didn't exist that my baby sister was fine.
It wasn't for a good three and a half minutes before our hearts all sunk into our stomachs. Tyson came upon a huge piece of green material, covered in blood. Claire's dress... he said, reaffirming our sad thoughts.
No, no, no, no, no... Kail's mind flew through a million different scenarios. Each one ending with our little sister lying lifeless on the ground.
Mountain lion, Yuma said the moment he ran into the scene. Then his mind went blank.
Leotie's quickly followed.
Yuma and his brother possessed the power to hide their thoughts from other members of the pack. This usually meant that they were discussing something before deciding what to do with the rest of the pack.
Kail finally got to the small area we were crowded in and wrenched in between to stare himself at the piece of cloth. Bloodsucker! He hollered as if it were a curse word.
A chorus of snarls and roars erupted, mostly from my brothers and Embry.
Embry's mind was quiet in comparison to everyone else's as he thought of his best friend Quil. How could he tell Quil what had happened? Would Quil ever be able to get over her death?
She's not dead, Leotie's finally spoke again.
We sat in silence as we waited for him to confirm how he knew this information.
One of my family's friend was here. He wouldn't hurt Claire. Yuma said with finality.
How do you know? Leeches can't resist blood! Kail yelled furiously.
Yuma and I will call our family. He's most likely traveling with them. Until then I want everyone to go home. Kail, we'll call as soon as we know that everything went well with Claire. Everyone sighed with relief as our leader spoke. Please, just go home and get some rest.
Kail was the least happiest with our sentence. But there was nothing he or any else of us to do. We had to listen to our alpha.
I thanked everyone for coming out and ran home with my brothers. We phased back and climbed through Tyson's window, in hopes of not waking Eric or Holli. I dressed in denim shorts and an old Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. We shuffled into the living room.
"I don't trust any of them," Tyson whispered, being the first the actually open his mouth while we sat by the telephone.
Our father came out of his room with his hair disheveled and his face full of worry. "Where's Claire?"
Before anyone could explain, the phone came to life. My hand shook as I picked up the receiver.
"Hello?" I tried my best to keep my voice from cracking.
"Gene, it's Leotie," the tone of his voice let on no clue as to what I should expect.
My brothers and father all hovered over me as I took a seat on the couch.
"Hey, what's up?" I tried to sound as casual as possible, though each second was never ending torture.
"Claire's not dead, Gene. Depending on what your definition of dead is.."
My mouth hung open and I couldn't focus on anything. I sprung up from the couch and started pacing. "Is she okay?"
He took a deep breath and continued. "Leon, a friend of my Uncle Jasper's, found her while he was out hunting before they left to return home to Canada. He found her pinned under a mountain lion. He brought her to Carlisle, in hopes of healing her. But by then she had already lost too much blood. The decision was made to bite her so she would survive."
My head started making sloshing noises and I couldn't really comprehend anything he said after that. I just kept muttering "Yep" and "Uh-huh" until I heard the other side of the line go dead.
The next five minutes was hell as I tried to translate what Leotie told me into words my family would understand. Afterwords, my father sat with his head down against his knees. Kail stood up and punched one of the walls, causing a hole. Tyson grabbed him and they held each other as they tried to hold in tears.
I couldn't really recall anything about how I was positioned. Maybe I was up on my feet again or laying on the ground. My mind was too disoriented to even notice Holli walk out from her room. She stood with her back against the door as she watched us. I couldn't think o f anything to say to her. Finally she ran into Kail's arms and he fell onto his knees.
Vampire, I tried telling myself, Claire is a vampire. But the other part of my head wouldn't hear it. It kept repeating that that was impossible. Your lying. Claire's going to be here in just a few moments. She going to walk through that door and prove us all wrong. That moment never came though.
So I did what I was best at. I ran.
My legs felt like they were going to disconnect from my body as I was running through the dense forestland. I had never run this fast in human form before. I wasn't paying any attention as to what way I was heading, but I knew where my destination would be.
As I crossed into her yard I stared into the sky, just now noticing the rain. It didn't keep my attention for too long.
I froze. Something that I had never heard before pounded into my ears. Sniffles, coughing, sobbing, crying, screaming all at once. And there was only one person I knew that could show such emotion.
Kenzie ran out of her house and into the shelter of her brother's car. I watched as she climbed in hurriedly. Then she disappeared from my sight. I sprinted to her, not letting another moment pass by before my arms were around her.
I sat in the driver's seat, cradling this lovely soul in my arms. She didn't seemed surprised to see me at all. In fact, she was staring at me in wonder. I couldn't help but think that she knew something was wrong.
"What's happening?" She asked me in a small voice, not taking her eyes off mine.
Swallowing nervously, I brought her face closer to mine. "Nothing, sweetheart." That wouldn't be the last time I'd ever call her that.
"Don't lie to me Gene. Not anymore," she whispered before digging her head into the crook of my neck.
I looked down at her cautiously, never in my life had I been more confused. What did she know? And how did she know it?
"Let's go." Kenzie surprised me suddenly by tugging at my shirt and opening up the driver's door. She jumped off my lap and landed swiftly on her two feet. "I don't want anyone to see us, come on," she reached for my hand and I let her grab it willingly. The rain didn't slow her down as she dragged me through her yard and off into the dense forest behind her house. She never loosened her grip or slowed down. It shouldn't have been so shocking to me, I knew exactly how stubborn this girl was.
Finally we broke through a clearing. One I had often passed whenever I was patrolling in this area. The wild grass came up to our knees. She took a seat and I joined her on the moist ground. The wetness didn't seem to bother my Kenzie at all. Her true self never ceased to amaze me.
She opened her hazel eyes at me and didn't turn away. The look she was giving me screamed something, but I didn't know what?
"Is everything okay?" I asked after a few moments of her staring passed.
She groaned. "Stop asking if I'm okay. I'm fine, trust me. It's you I'm worried about, Gene."
My eyes questioned hers. "Why are you worried about me?"
"Gene, this isn't normal. At all." She gestured back and forth between herself and I.
"Uh," I knitted my brows together, "What do you mean?"
She rolled her eyes and huffed in the cutest, most non-threatening way possible. "You. And me. Look, I've never felt this way about a guy, Gene. For most guys it's just one fling and that's it. Even if we do have feelings for each other afterwords it doesn't feel anything like this."
"Oh, yeah? And how exactly does 'this' feel?" I challenged her to say more.
She picked her right hand up and rubbed at her temple. She bit her bottom lip and remained quiet for a minute or so. Finally she looked up at me. "Good. I mean, like, really good. Scary good, in fact," she started to smile but then forced it off her face, "It's as if you and I are connected. You know exactly how I'm feeling at an exact moment. And recently, I can feel you too. Even when you're miles away. Like we have walkie-talkies for our souls, or some weird shit."
Feeling good, for the first time in days, I grabbed a hold of her hand that she had her face resting on. "McKenzie Elizabeth Nahmin, I have a lot to tell you." I dropped my head to her hand and lightly kissed it. Her blush stirred up something inside me.
I figured the best way to start was from the beginning. The beginning of this story happened hundreds of years ago, in a place very close to home.
She didn't seem too surprised at first. Everyone who grew up on the res knew the legends. Only a select few knew that they weren't legends at all. When I got to the part about Samuel Uley being the first to transform, the color drained from her face. She knew exactly where I was going with that story. Or, at least, she thought she did.
"T-t-transform? Into what?" She shrunk away from me. I knew the rest of this was only going to get harder.
"Wolves," I told her. "Sam became one just like his grandfather, Levi Uley.
Her breathing became shallower. "But Levi wasn't really a wolf, Gene, it's just a story. Him and his friends just ran around in wolf hides carrying spears. They weren't werewolves."
I didn't know how to tell her she was wrong. "Well, technically, we aren't werewolves. We're shape shifters. It just happens that the spirit animal in Quiluete is a wolf."
"We?" Her eyes opened wide. "What do you mean, Gene? You're not a-"
A sigh went through me. "I am. Along with my brothers, Quil, my cousin Tona, the Clearwater boys, the Lahote girls, Skah Cameron, Jacob Black and his sons, Embry Call..." I rolled my eyes up, trying hard not to miss any one of the present pack members.
She placed her hand over her mouth. I reached out to grab her but she stood up and took three steps away from me. I stood up as well and looked at her with worry. After a few minutes I put my hand towards her again, hoping she would hold it.
Instead she screamed. "Get away from me!" She shrieked, turning to face away from me. Her breathing started to hitch and she started to sob. It was then that the rain stopped.
"Kenzie..." I begged of her from where I was standing, "Please believe me. I would never tell you a lie."
She faced me again, her expression displaying a mixture between despair and totally pissed off. "I ask you to explain what our relationship is and instead you serve me up a fresh pot of bullshit story about how you're some kind of wolf-shape-shifter who just runs around the forest with all the other wolf-shape-shifters. What kind of idiot do you think I am?"
I smirked. "A stubborn one."
A half smile appeared on er face for half a second, and then it was gone. She crossed her arms and stared at me harshly. "So, tell me more about this 'shape shifting' thing, Gene." The air quotes she used made my heart that much heavier.
An idea came to mind. "Why don't I just show you?" I pulled my t-shirt over my head.
She tried to hide her pleasure with a face of disgust. "What, are you just going to get naked and start howling or something right now?"
I laughed at the image she created. "Pretty much." I removed my shorts shamelessly. She covered her eyes with her right hand.
I slowly walked towards her and cradled her hand in mine. "Just watch. And don't come too close, okay?"
Walking towards the middle of the clearing, away from her, I started to shake. Not even three seconds later my skin exploded and I was a furry creature on all fours. I looked up carefully at Kenzie.
Her mouth gaped open. "Oh my god," I heard her say under her breath. She brought a hand up to her chest and forced herself to take a few deep breaths. "Holy fucking shit!" She yelled in wonder. "You weren't kidding, were you Gene?"
My head shook back and forth.
She laughed at that. "You're a werewolf. Oh my god... Who all knows about this?"
It was then that I realized that I was communicating with more than one person.
Gene, my brother Kail's voice intruded into my head, What are you doing? Where are you?
The thoughts and images of the last ten to fifteen minutes traveled from my head to his.
Is everything okay, Kail? Until this minute I had forgotten entirely about the whole Claire thing. My heart wrenched itself inside my chest.
No, of course it's fucking not. Claire's a fucking vampire and you fucking ran out on us and now you're fucking showing fucking Kenzie that you're a fucking wolf, you fucking mother fucker! I had seriously heard the word fuck way too many times today.
I'm sorry, Kail. This is something I have to do. Besides Kenzie deserves to know about what happened to Claire.
I could feel his level of anger rising. Why does she have to know? Why does anyone have to know? She's dead, Gene.
A growl escaped from my throat. She's not dead. My sister is not dead.
So, what now? Are you just going to hang out around her even though she's a filthy bloodsucker!?
That was it. He seriously crossed the line. She's your sister, too, Kail. She doesn't deserved to be talked about that way. I am not going to love her any less for something that was entirely not her fault. And with that I phased back. I immediately pulled my shorts back on. The nerve of that guy, I thought to myself.
"Who were you talking to?" Kenzie again pulled me from my depressed mind and into a world that was filled with happiness.
I gave her an odd look. "How did you know I was talking to some one?"
She shrugged. "I-I don't know. It just seemed like you were and I kept getting this feeling that some one was making you upset," she clutched her head. "I'm so confused, Gene."
After that I began to tell her all about being part of the Quiluete pack. From being able to read all of my pack brother's minds to switching off patrolling nights around La Push. She sat beside me, looking at me with an intrigued face.
"Wow. This is just- so... wow," her loss of words was a relief to me. And I knew there was one more part to tell her about.
So I started at the beginning. I went as far back as I knew about vampires. And for me that was Carlisle Cullen. After him I found myself trying to explain each member of the Cullen family. Eventually things led to Jacob.
"Why would Jacob marry Edward's daughter? Aren't vampires and werewolves enemies?" She asked me, genuinely confused.
"Jacob imprinted on Nessie," I said quickly. Hoping maybe she wouldn't catch the word and move on. "And they had four children, Yuma, Leot-"
With no such luck, she stopped me suddenly. "What does 'imprinted' mean?"
So here it was. The moment sat in front of me, it was now that either Kenzie would run into my arms and we would live happily ever after. Then there was also the option of her running away screaming, trying to check me into a psych ward. "Imprinting is a bond that occurs between a wolf and his soul mate. It's like, your life can be totally normal one day, and then you run into them and your entire world flip flops. Everything thing regular in life becomes strange. And all the strange things become regular." She looked at me with the most curious look on her face. I could tell I wasn't exactly explaining things with sense. "When you meet your imprint, you fall in love almost instantly. Well, kind of... Your life all comes together and you're happy and freaked out and in love and everything is just good. Does that make any sense?"
Her face looked like it had lit up entirely. "Yes, it does, Gene. That's exactly how it felt when I met you and so has every day since."
I let out a breath that I had been holding in for quite some time. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders in affection. "I love you Kenzie, and I always will." The word sprung out of my mouth, and they felt so good.
She laughed beautifully and placed her head near my chest. "I love you too Gene."
My heart pounded and she giggled even more. I would have been laughing along side her if the back of my head wasn't continuously screaming, "CLAIRE!"
"T-there's something else I need to tell you," I whispered towards her ear.
She took her head from my chest to stare at me. "What else could there possibly be?" She asked, still seeming to be swimming in bliss.
"Claire's a vampire." Whoa. Where did that come from?
She pulled herself out of my arms in shock. "What?!"
My arms abnormally tingled in her absence. "Last night one of the Cullen's found her being attacked by a mountain lion. She lost too much blood, so they had to bite her." The words put a taste in my mouth that stung so bad.
The look on her face was horrified. She started sobbing and I moved in to wrap my arms around her.
"Shh, it's okay," I whispered, hiding my face so she wouldn't see the few tears I let slip.
"Noooo," she whimpered, "No Gene. Oh my god, Claire." She repeated those words over and over again for an eternity.
When her sobbing turned to sniffles I pulled away slightly to look at her face. Her eyes were red and the frown she wore was heartbreaking. Unexpectedly, she pulled my face into hers, folding her hands behind my neck. Our lips reached each other's and my eyes sprung open. She didn't let go. She continued to turn her lips against mine. I finally let my eyes slowly shut. My head felt like it was spinning. I pressed my hands into her back and lifted her against me so we were eye level. How could today be both the best and worst day of my life?
Thirty five seconds passed before she pulled her head back, her eyes full of something I had never seen before. Something I can still not describe. Her arms dropped and she brought them to the hem of her shirt. She started tugging it up ever so slowly.
"No," I grabbed her hands into one of mine. As much as I wanted for her to be naked on top of me, now wasn't exactly the time. "Not here sweetheart."
She smiled and some how managed to enchant my face to hers again.
Never there was a day in my life that was as bitter sweet as that one.