Chapter 10

"Imprint"

~*~ I am so happy everyone liked my last chapter. I am also happy I am able to share them with you finally. I really enjoyed writing this chapter although I was worried about how it would all turn out, but I am confident that you will like it. ~*~

Embry's Pov

I couldn't look her in the eyes. I sat there in silence before I was able to say something. She waited patiently next to me before I said a thing.

I still couldn't believe she knew and I really wanted to know who had the nerve to tell her without talking to me first.

"Who told you?" I was finally able to ask.

"Well it sure as hell wasn't Jake or you." She bit which stung my heart to know she was mad at me.

"It was Billy…" she finally said while this time sounding more defeated than mad.

"Embry tell me this is all a prank on me. Please." She added while now putting her face into her hand.

"No it's all true Bella." I said while putting my face into my hands as well.

"Well what is this that Billy says is not his place to tell me?" she finally asked. I was trying to avoid this question. I didn't want to tell her. Not like this. Not when she felt betrayed by me.

"Do we really have to go through this now?" I asked. I then looked towards her. Her face was enveloped with sadness but not like before. This face has already witnessed the sharp pains from someone before and I didn't want to add anymore to it.

"Go through what Embry? It cant be anything worst than my ex boyfriend and my new best friend being werewolves this whole time and oh there is this thing that ties you guys down to one certain girl and it don't matter if you already have a girlfriend." She said while fading out towards the end into a whisper.

I knew she wasn't going to like the whole idea of imprinting once she found out what it has done to her life. So how do I tell her that I imprinted on her? How will she feel about that? I knew for certain it wasn't going to make her fall madly in love with me.

"I have imprinted." I blurted out. She froze next to me while waiting for me to finish. I didn't want to though.

I then turned and faced her while also grabbing her hand and holding it with mine. I wanted to touch her one last time before she thought any different about me.

"I imprinted on you, the first day I met you in the hospital." I said slowly while watching the expression on her face change so many times that I wasn't sure how she took it.

She then slowly torn her hand from mine and got up without looking at me. She then walked in the house and left me there.
I followed her inside and up to her bedroom where I found her packing a bag.

"You're leaving? You don't have to do that Bella. I could go, if that's what you want." I said while standing in the doorway. My heart was beating so fast that I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't wrap my head around how fast my day changed.

"No Embry I have used you to much and I think its time for me to leave." She said while not looking at me.

"You haven't used me at all. I was more than happy to let you stay here." I said while knowing that I was fighting a losing battle here.

"Yea because I am your imprint." She said while pausing for a moment to look at me.

Her brown eyes melted into my skin. She seemed torn between her feelings for me. I could see that clearly but that didn't help matters it only made it worst.

"If you had never imprinted on me, would you have let me live with you?" she asked.

"Yes I would have, Bella. I helped Leah." I said and I knew throwing Leah in would be a long shot but I went for it.

"Embry, I can't take all this in right now. I am so confused. I am so mad. I am so hurt. I am soo…" she said while stopping and sitting down on the bed. I could tell she was on the verge of breaking down but was trying desperately to stop it from happening.

I got brave and decided to sit next to her. Not close, not close at all. I could feel the electricity between us and it was so strong that my pinky twitched on my lap. My hand wanted so badly to reach for her but I didn't. I knew this was all going to be hard and I knew that it would come one day. I just wished that I would have seen it coming.

"I am so sorry." I whispered as I heard her begin to sob. She then did the unexpected and let her head fall into my lap. I slowly moved my hand to her face and began to move her beautiful hair away from her even more beautiful face. She didn't seem to mind and so I got brave again and pulled her up onto my chest and then leaned back on the bed. We laid there for a few minutes in silence as she cried into my chest.

I didn't know what to say to her and so as each sob got harder I kept telling her how sorry I was. She still didn't say a word and I didn't expect her to, but I could have killed to know what she was thinking.

After awhile her sobs became quiet and then she suddenly got up and went for her bag.

"Embry I have to go for a ride. I have to get out of here for awhile." She said while standing in front of me with her bag in hand. Her bottom lip trembled and her left eyebrow arched. Her eyes and cheeks were red and I couldn't do anything to make her feel better this time. I couldn't do anything at all. All I could do was wait for her and see what she wanted to do and at the moment she wanted to leave.

"Okay. Um..Do you want me to go with you or do you want to use my car. Or do you.." I began to say before she interrupted me.

"Would you care if I used your car? I won't be long." She said and I couldn't help but look down to her bag in her hand. She happened to notice and then let the bag fall from her hands. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't relieved to see her do that.

"No... No I don't care. Take your time." I said while walking towards her and handing her my keys. I inhaled sharply as my fingertips slid across her palm as the keys fell.

"Thanks I will see you later tonight." She said while now walking towards the door and then down the steps to the front porch. I instinctively followed behind her while desperately wanting to go with her.

"Bella." I called out as she reached for the car door. She looked up at me with the same heartbreaking face.

"Be careful and I am really sorry." I said.

"I will and Embry?"

"Yea?"

"Quit apologizing, because it's not your fault." She said and then she was gone. She was in the car and backing out before I could say a thing. I watched as she drove away and I clung to every last minute I had with her and then I clung even harder to the memory of her this past week. How her lips curved into a smile and it didn't seem so forced. How she would sigh happily as she curled up onto the couch next to me to watch our favorite shows. I couldn't help but panic that I wouldn't get any of that back. Sure she said that she would be back but how would she be when she did return. Would she feel weird to be around me as if I was some crazed dog? Would she act as if nothing happened? I doubted the last one but I didn't know what to think.

How did this all happen?

Billy….

It was then that I remembered how this all came about. Billy Black. The man I grew up to think of as a father of my own. I immediately ran for the woods and stripped while putting my clothes in my mouth and leaving my shoes behind. I transformed in a blink of an eye and was headed to Jake's.

Bella's Pov

I began to drive to no where and ended up in front of First Beach. I didn't know where to go. I had no one to go to. I couldn't go to Charlie's like this. So instead of going anywhere else, I sat there. I tried to wrap my head around everything and couldn't. I tried to be mad at Embry and couldn't. I tried to be mad at Jake and everyone else but couldn't. All I could do was feel extremely sad.

I thought about everything that has happened in this past month and then began to laugh at how dramatic it has turned into. Werewolves? I pinched myself just to see if this was all a dream and closed my eyes. Only to open them and find myself sitting in Embry's car and a throbbing pain in my arm from the pinch that didn't work.

I couldn't cry anymore than I had and when the verge began I couldn't help but want Embry. But what does this all mean now? Although Billy had explained to me about imprinting I was still a little fuzzy about the information he gave since I didn't want to hear about it. No I didn't want to hear that Jake wasn't my soul mate and at the time I didn't know I had one and even though I know that I have one now it didn't change how I felt about Jake or how I felt about Embry.

It was then that Leah popped into my mind. I don't know from where but she did and even though she was nice to me last night I didn't know how she would react to seeing me today but I didn't care. She would be the best person to go to at the moment and I had no one else.

I slowly made my way to Sue's only to find my dads cruiser in the drive way. I panicked and didn't know what to do. So I backed out and headed towards the other way. I was a few houses down when I seen Leah running after me. I began to slow to let her catch up to me. She didn't say a word instead she jumped into the passenger seat.

We didn't say anything as I began to drive to no where again. It was when I reached First Beach again that I realized I kept instinctively coming back here and it was sad to know why. It was because this is where I met Jake and how all of this came about.

"So I heard you know?" Leah said while breaking the silence. I was staring out the front window and wasn't really staring at anything particular, it was just the relaxing scene of waves crashing into the big rocks and how the trees moved with the wind that drawn me to that direction. I finally let a tear escape my eyes as I uttered my answer.

"Yea I know." Was all I could say because I really wasn't ready for another break down, although it did feel nice to have someone here with me, even if it was Leah.

"I heard your car pull in. I figured you wouldn't be here to see my mom or your dad and Seth wasn't home so I thought maybe I could talk to you. If that would help?" She said

"I came to see you, actually." I said while pulling myself away from the beach to look at her. I could see in her eyes the pain that was inevitably there as she must have revisited the feelings she had when she found out the same thing I just had.

"I don't know what to say actually. It's not easy I know that for sure, but life goes on and you have to go along with it. At least you don't burst into a ball of fur and hear Jake's thoughts about Raquel and you also have Embry." She said while trying to smile at the ending.

"You hear his thoughts?" I asked while trying to wrap my head around how that must feel.

"Yes I do and it is one of the hardest things that I have to go through and you would think having incredible body temperature and growth and turning into a different species would be it." She said.

"I am so sorry Leah." Was all I could say. I felt even worst about her whole situation and how harder her situation was than mine.

"I am sorry to Bella. It's not fair if you ask me but what are we going to do." She said while sighing and then looking out to the beach again.

"You know how I acted towards you when you first started dating Jake?" she then said.

"Yea."

"Well it wasn't that I didn't like you, it was that I was mad at Jake for dating you. For leading you on when it was very clear that he had not imprinted on you. Although I have became a bitter person since all of this has happened to me, it doesn't mean that I don't have a heart to want to protect someone else from going through it, but he didn't listen to me or anyone else. He said he loved you to much for him to imprint on someone else and when that day came I was furious. I was half tempted to go over to your house and tell you everything, but Sam demanded that I didn't and with him being Alpha I had to listen."

"You have to listen to him to?" I asked.

"Yes, we all do. He is the Alpha and when the Alpha tells you to do or don't do something you have to." She explained before continuing.

"Anyway when I found out Embry had imprinted on you I was actually jealous of you. To know that even though Sam wasn't meant for me but someone else was, would have helped out, but it hasn't happened and it might never happen, and that doesn't mean that I would forget Sam but it would help with the loneliness. I am not saying that you have it better than me, hell you might even have it worst. I don't know how you feel but just between you and me you should be happy if anyone was going to imprint on you that it was Embry. Embry has always been there for me through out everything that has happened to me. He is kind and sweet and he actually never even dated again after he seen what happened to me. He told me that he wouldn't even if he never imprinted because he didn't want to see anyone else go through this." She then paused again.

"Bella I am not saying that its all better now that you have Embry and I am not saying to go home and start dating him. Imprinting doesn't mean that you have to be together. We wolves will be whatever our imprint needs us to be. Whether it is a friend or a lover, as long as our imprint is happy we are and I think right about now Embry is feeling a lot of pain and is scared you're going to hate him. Its not his fault Bella just like its not Jake's or Sam's, even though I like to make him think its his, but its not and that doesn't make it feel any better. Actually it makes it worst."

We then sat in silence as I took all she said in. I really didn't know how I felt; all I knew was talking to her did make everything clearer to me.

"Thanks Leah, for talking to me." I said.

"No problem Bella. I know if someone else had been through what I did before me I would of wanted to talk to them." She said.

"Well also thanks for everything even the things that I didn't know about. Thanks for wanting to tell me before. That means a lot to me." I said.

"Just to let you know Embry was just as worried as I was about you and he never even met you. That's just the type of person he is." She said and I couldn't help but smile from all the kindness Embry held.

"Will you do me a favor?" I then asked.

"I will try." She said.

"Will you drive over to Billy's with me?" I asked while wincing at the thought of seeing Jake again.

"I think I can do that." She said.

I then pulled out and began my drive to Billy's.