I lay on the ground for what felt like hours. I wanted to throw up, but I don't think I had anything left in me to. A pain twisted in my gut, so I started taking deep breaths to stop the nausea. The forest was cold and full of strange noises, but I welcomed any form of animal that wanted to eat me. Maybe no one wanted a half-drunk, still sobbing teenage girl. What? Was I not good enough for them as well?
Ugh. I was complaining that I wasn't enough to feed the natural wildlife. What was wrong with me? I finally dozed off, only to wake up to find myself comfortably wrapped in a werewolf.
I screamed and flew off of him. Even though I knew it was Embry, I wasn't sure if it was my Embry or if it was the Embry that was currently really pissed at me. I froze as I heard him whine like a bad puppy, but the thing was, he was not a cute little puppy. He was so fucking big. He looked more like a giant horse-dog. The sheer size of him was enough to scare whatever they patrolled in this forest away. No doubt about that.
The Embry-wolf rolled onto his back in submission and slowly, very slowly I walked up to him. I reached my hand out in front of me to pet the soft fur of his stomach. I let out a sigh of relief and looked into the wolf's eyes. It was my Embry. Those eyes were two bottomless pits of emotion. I flung myself at him, hugging him fiercely around the neck.
I sobbed for a good ten minutes as he licked away the tears on my face. I didn't deserve this. "I'm so sorry. C-can you ever forgive me?" I choked out and the Embry-wolf pressed his nose to mine in a sort of weird pact, but I understood it. He would always love me.
I knew I wasn't completely off the hook, but this was a start. "So is this you showing me your werewolf side?" I chuckled wiping the tears and slobber off my face. The Embry-wolf sort of rumbled deep in his chest. I looked him over once more making sure I memorized every single spot on him. Even the one over his eye.
"If you were my dog I would name you Patches." I told him and he jerked his head violently as if sneezing. "What? You don't like Patches?" He growled.
"Too bad. Oh my little Patches is so cute!" I told him in a baby voice and tugged his ear gently. The Embry-wolf rolled out of my grasp before trotting off into the forest. I waited a moment and then out emerged Embry in only cut off sweat pants.
"Patches?" he thundered, rubbing his hair roughly through his hands. I laughed out loud, trying to stifle it by biting my bottom lip.
"Why did you change?" I questioned him when I could finally collect myself enough to ask.
"What, you don't like me like this?" He motioned incredulously down at his bare-chested self which I had noted immediately. I smiled and gave him a wink. "Well, it was getting a bit embarrassing anyway. Everyone else was dying laughing," he muttered more to himself. I don't think I was supposed to hear him, but I did.
"Oh you mean the other pack members? So? Who cares what they think?" Embry looked over at me stunned.
"What did you say?" he gasped out. I admitted the story about Kim telling me and my vengeance plan. All of it. Every single thought that crossed my mind in the process of making the decision to go to the party. At the party, everything.
"Wow," was all Embry had to say as I finished up. "Wow."
"I know." I murmured miserably and Embry put a tentative arm around my shoulders to pull me closer to him.
"So I guess I should tell you mine then. Well, Sam was pretty ticked off at me for that little beach stunt. That day in the car, when you brought up the subject of my parents I avoided it because I'm a coward. No, it's true. I just wanted to be so perfect for you Sophie, because you're perfect. I figured if I didn't admit my faults out loud to you then, I don't know, maybe they could be swept into my past and I could be so much better for you. What you deserve, you know?" Embry stated and I felt so insufferably wretched inside. I was the bad character in this story. Me, Sophie. The one who was supposed to be the damsel in distress. No, I was the wicked witch of the west, not Dorothy.
I groaned and put my head in between my legs so I could breathe and not feel nauseous. "What's the matter?"
"I think I'm going to throw up," I told him honestly. "I'm sick with disgust for myself."
Embry chuckled. "I think it's just the alcohol."
"I think it's just the spoiled brat part that's making me ill." Embry's face closed up at that.
"I'm really sorry. That was totally uncalled for. I shouldn't have called you that," he told me shamefully and I held my hand up to stop him.
"It's just the truth. I've always complained about my life, but I've never looked past myself to see how others suffer. Even more than me," I smacked my hand against my forehead. "I'm so clueless."
At that Embry howled with laughter. "Sophie, you are anything but clueless. You love to learn! That's just one of the things I love about you! You look so cute when you're frustrated that you don't already know something." I looked to Embry with open-mouthed wonder. How in the hell could he know all that. "I love watching you, Sophie. Don't take that in the wrong way, it's just I love watching some of the faces you make. I love when your hair is down and I hate it when other's touch it." Embry chuckled at that. "I feel so possessive over it." I smiled brilliantly at him and moved to sit on his lap.
"Is this okay?" I whispered gently to him when he froze beneath me.
"This is more than okay," he whispered back before kissing me chastely. How could I have ever doubted Embry's love for me? "Is it okay if I tell you something, but you won't get freaked out?" he asked me, pulling his warm lips away from mine. I nodded curiously.
Then he brought his mouth right to my ear, tucking my stray hair behind it. "I love you, Sophie. I've loved you from the moment I met you and I will love you even beyond my death."
I pulled away to stare at him. I knew that he loved me, but to hear him say it, that was something else entirely. I wanted to say the words back. I truly did, but they were bogged down in my mouth. I just couldn't get them right. Embry seemed to understand and he grinned ruefully back at me. "I can wait for you. I can wait forever," he promised me, and the only way I could think to thank him with was with another kiss.
"So how long were you watching me?" I asked him as we walked back to Emily's cottage.
"The whole time. Do you think I would have let anything eat you? Especially after last time." I saw Embry's eyes fly to my shoulder then back to my face to give me a grin.
"But you went off in the other direction."
"I circled around as soon I smelled you enter the woods. The entire pack followed me, even though I told them not to. I told them I was fine," Embry's face looked pinched as he said those last few words. I didn't understand.
"Oh, great, so they all saw me sob my guts out?"
"I made them leave during that part."
"Well, they saw it anyway through you."
"True," Embry agreed with me half-heartedly. I pulled him to a stop.
"What? What's wrong?" I asked him and cocked my hands up to my hips.
"Nothing."
"Embry, we just talked about lying."
He sighed and turned away from my face. "Remember last night when I transitioned? I, well, I very nearly snapped your neck," Embry murmured in a tortured voice. "You should hate me right now."
"Embry, I told you I could never hate you. You aggravate me sometimes, but I'll never hate you. Besides, I had it coming to me. I deserved what I got."
Embry jerked his head back and gave me a weird look. "Sometimes you are the easiest person to read and then other times you just come up with things way out of left field. In what world would going to a party without telling me constitute as a death sentence?"
"A world where I thought I'd lost you."
"Oh Sophie," Embry cried miserably collecting me into a rough hug by picking me up off my feet. I winced as he crushed my stomach making it nearly turn inside out. He must have sensed my discomfort because he put me down and I jerked away from him to start dry heaving. Embry grabbed my hair to pull it back away from my face, but it was pointless because I didn't have anything to throw up.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I don't think I'll be drinking again for a while though," I confirmed, wiping my mouth against the back of my hand. I reached out for a tree to steady myself on and instead found Embry.
"Or ever again," he corrected before scooping me up and carrying me back to Emily's house at a pace I could never have managed.
So, I was grounded as soon as I got there. Not for a long time though. Emily blamed herself mostly,
saying she was never home and she understood why I was bored. She was a kid once… blah, blah, blah. So I got a month, but Embry was allowed over. So in the end it wasn't really a punishment at all. Oh yeah, besides the fact that she said I needed a job. Supposedly if I had so much time on my hands, then I had enough time to get a job. Oh boy. Note the sarcasm.
School the next week was a bit trickier. Embry had forgiven me, but some members of the pack hadn't. Paul took it as a personal insult that I'd gone to that party and brought Kim. So I was back to square one with him, maybe even a little bit before that. At lunch he ignored me completely. His eyes slid over me as if I wasn't there. Before when he was angry at me, at least he would acknowledging that I was a human being and not air.
Jared was mad too, understandably so, though. I'd made Kim go to that party, even though she didn't really blame me. In fact, I think Kim and I were better friends than before. She had secretly admitted that morning by her locker that she'd had the best time dancing and it was worth it. Quil forgave me because Embry forgave me and he didn't see it as any of his business what went on in our relationship. I personally thought he was brilliant beyond his years, because he was right. And in wood shop that day… my bird house kicked ass.
So the lunch table was basically divided down the middle. Embry, Quil, and I on one side. Jared, Paul, and Kim (She didn't talk to me because Jared told her not to, but she'd already promised me she was my friend. 'Just let Jared have some time to cool off.') on the other. I felt so awful about splitting up the pack. They were a brotherhood. That shouldn't be broken to pieces over me.
Embry could feel me shaking in my seat next to him and he pulled me closer, wrapping an arm around me. My stomach kept twisting and turning in all directions, to the point where I thought I was going to throw up.
Then I did.
I jumped out my seat as Embry was talking to me mid-sentence. I ran straight for the big heavy-duty trash can situated in the middle of the room before puking up my entire breakfast and what little I had for lunch. Embry was right behind me though, holding on to me for dear life as I heaved violently over and over again. He handed me a napkin when I was done and I wiped off my mouth, completely grossed out. That's when I noticed the whole cafeteria was looking at us. Of course they were, right?
"Is she pregnant?" some gutsy freshman yelled out at us and the entire room erupted in whispers. Oh great.
"I'm fine," I whispered hoarsely, but Embry didn't believe me. He sent me straight to the office to go home. I was only sick once more at Emily's house, but that might have been because I didn't eat. I was still ridiculously nauseous. The pain churning in my stomach was unbearable, but I gritted my teeth and tried to pretend to Emily that everything was fine.
Everything was not. I knew I shouldn't have gone to school the next day, but I did anyway. I felt awful, but I tried my hardest to make it through the day promising Embry that it was a 24-hour virus. No such luck. We had barely entered the school from our morning walk there before I was running to the girl's bathroom. Embry right behind me. I heard every girl scream as he followed me into the stall and I heard them all talking none too softly about how the baby was probably due in June or something like that.
I groaned and rolled my head back to rest on Embry's shoulder. He did not look happy.
"A 24-hour thing, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess it's not up yet." I tried to laugh weakly, but he only looked at me with a blank expression.
"You know, if you are pregnant you can tell me. I wouldn't hold it against you if you did anything before we met."
I turned around to face him fully with shock written in every feature. "What do you think I am? Some sort of slut, Embry Call?" I screeched at him. I knew I shouldn't get worked up, because the nausea was going to come back with a vengeance, but I couldn't help it. He truly believed what he was saying.
"No! I'm not—" he began
"I am a virgin. A virgin. Christ, I'm only fifteen!" I cut in sharply and immediately his clouded, worry-creased face became relieved.
"Oh."
"Yeah, so I'm guessing it would be physically impossible for me to be pregnant."
"Oh," he repeated again stupidly and then he grabbed me to kiss me fully on the mouth.
"EW! Embry, I just threw up!"
"Oh my God, I don't care if you threw up I love you and I'm SO HAPPY! You don't know how long that question's been bugging me! I was thinking about it all night after what they said in the cafeteria. Quil was so annoyed with me on patrol. He was about to come ask you himself because I was so scared…," Embry trailed off into utter bliss as he wiped his hand across his forehead. I blinked. "Not that it would have mattered or anything!" Embry finished quickly once he saw my blank face.
"You could have just asked me. You can ask me whatever you want remember? Remember the honesty thing we have going on?" I told him with an edge in my voice and he chuckled nervously. "Are you?" I questioned him.
"Am I what?"
"A virgin?"
"Yep," Embry answered smugly and I leaned in to kiss him as well. If he didn't care that my breath reeked of vomit then I didn't care. He must truly love me, because this was just a bit gross. A little unknown weight fell off my chest. A weight I didn't know was there, but suddenly I felt light-hearted. It honestly wouldn't have mattered to me either, because I had dated a few people who weren't virgins, but having Embry be almost as inexperienced as me was nice. We were on equal footing in that department. The funny thing was though, Embry wasn't afraid to tell me he was a virgin… in fact he was down right proud of that fact. It was so… refreshing. "I was waiting for you. Everything is always for you," he told me honestly as his face hovered near mine.
I sighed, then leaned over the toilet to hurl again. How romantic.
We stayed like that for a good ten minutes. Both of us curled up tightly together in the tiny white stall. Embry finally forced a confession out of me. My stomach did in fact hurt.
He picked me up and walked through the halls on a mission.
"Paul!" he shouted wildly, and of course everyone in the entire school stopped to gawk at us.
"What are you doing?" I whispered through clenched teeth as I held on desperately to his large neck. The slow and steady rocking of his long strides made me really queasy. If we didn't get outside soon, the janitors were going to have a fun time cleaning up my throw up. "Outside," I panted a minute later and Embry took one look at my green face before sprinting outside. Funnily enough, that's where we found Paul. He was just clicking his car lock, about to walk into the school, when Embry accosted him.
"I need your car. She's sick," Embry breathed out quickly. Paul wasn't a happy camper, but he complied, only hesitating momentarily. Paul owned a small truck so I ended up sitting on Embry's lap in the passenger seat while he drove us to the hospital.
"If she pukes in my car I'm holding you personally responsible," Paul muttered furiously, glancing from me to the road and then back again.
"Shut up and drive," Embry growled as he pushed every air vent in my direction. I was sweating profusely and being on top of a very toasty werewolf did not help me out, not to mention being driven around like a maniac in an off-road truck was not helpful either. Needless to say, Paul had to pull off the road twice.
We finally arrived at the hospital and by that point my stomach had become my worst enemy. I was rolled into a ball, clutching at my abdomen in pain. The ER nurse swept me off to run tests while Embry called Emily up to tell her to get down to the hospital immediately because she was my guardian.
I rode around in the wheelchair strapped to an IV as the nurse told me everything was going to be fine. They just had to have me give blood, take a pee test, do a sonogram, and wait a little bit until Emily came. It was ridiculous. I didn't know how much longer I could hold out before I started sobbing from pain.
Luck was with me though. Who did I see strolling down the hallway? Why, none other than the handsome Dr. Cullen himself. I knew he was a doctor, but I didn't know he worked here.
"Sophie!" he called to me in greeting, waving the nurse to push me over in his direction. I tried to smile happily back at him, but I think I only managed a grimace because immediately Dr. Cullen's face became smooth and professional.
"What hurts?" He leaned down on his haunches to my height, taking in my pale face.
"Stomach," I grunted and curled both my arms over my abdomen as a shot of pain made me very close to delirious.
"Does it hurt when I do this?" Dr. Cullen pulled my hands away from my stomach and he pushed
down hard on one side of my lower belly. My squeal of pain gave me away. Dr. Cullen stood up and issued quick orders to the nurse. Something about 'prepping' me for surgery. What? What? I'm fine, I don't need surgery. Just some antibiotics, right? The nurse confided in him that she couldn't because I was under age. So no one would sign off on my surgery and the young boy with me was under age as well. Dr. Cullen claimed he was my family and that he would sign the papers. The nurse relinquished control of my wheel chair to him as she walked away to draw up the papers.
"Surgery?" I squeaked out, but Dr. Cullen didn't answer me. He just rolled me into the waiting room where Embry and Paul sat. Both popped up when they saw me and then sank into a sort of defensive crouch when they saw Dr. Cullen. Okay?
"Hello boys," Dr. Cullen said in his silky, appealing voice. I very nearly shuddered with delight. Then I mentally smacked myself as I saw Embry standing over me, protecting me. "Sophie's going to need an operation. She has something called appendicitis, which basically means her appendix is infected and needs to be taken out immediately."
"Are you doing the surgery?" Embry thundered and I winced sinking low into my chair as his voice echoed around the room. Paul was trembling.
"Yes. If I sign her papers then she will be entrusted in my care," Dr. Cullen said in an unwavering voice, as if a teenage boy hadn't just yelled at him. I was so embarrassed. Why in the world was Embry going to act like a jerk now?
"No, absolutely not. We will wait for Emily. You aren't touching her."
"Embry! Stop being an idiot. He's your elder, don't speak to him like that! Just let him operate. I trust him," I scolded Embry. His eyes just popped out at me in anger.
"Trust him? You don't even know him," Embry prattled out like an arrogant asshole. I could not believe what I was hearing. Of course I knew him!
"I don't know him? Please, his son married my cousin. I'd trust him more than a surgeon I didn't know."
"No."
"Embry!"
"Sophie, if you would like me to sign off all you need to do is tell me. This surgery is important. You could die if your appendix bursts and it is left untreated." I looked behind me at Dr. Cullen. His golden eyes were staring back at me completely sincere. How could anyone not trust this man? Well, I might be a little biased because he is amazingly good looking, but I don't think there was one harmful bone in his body. I could have said 'yes' just one little word and I would be carted off, but I couldn't do that to Embry. I needed him to see it my way, even if he was acting like a prat.
"Embry, I could die. It's not that bad. People have this done all the time, right?" I looked back to Dr. Cullen and he nodded.
"She might even be in the recovery room when Emily gets here," Dr. Cullen assured the two boys. Paul was still shaking furiously, but something in Embry's face changed. Maybe he was finally seeing the facts, that waiting for me to die sporadically was much worse than Dr. Cullen operating on me. Honestly, to me there shouldn't even be an argument in that; we know who would have the clear victory, by a landslide.
"ARGH!" Embry clenched his fists and the veins on his forearms stood out, contrasting against his brown skin. He pivoted away and ran both his hands through his hair furiously muttering to himself before he turned back around and very nearly lunged at Dr. Cullen. My mouth dropped as Embry got right in the good doctor's face and said "If she comes out any different than what she is now I will kill you and slaughter your family. Treaties be damned."
"I assure you, she will live," Dr. Cullen said in an icy voice and heavily leaned on the last word as if to make a point. I didn't understand the double meaning, but Embry and Paul must have because they both stood back in resigned positions.
"Fine." Then Embry stepped forward and smooshed my face in between his hands. He stared at me for over a minute trying to drastically memorize every single feature, and then he leaned in and kissed me desperately, as if my very life depended on it.
"I'll be okay," I whispered to him, a little bit worried at this display. I didn't remember anyone dying from this surgery. In fact, I was pretty sure it was a simple procedure.
"You will be," Embry promised me, and then a glint of mischievousness passed through his eyes. He
rubbed his hands all over my arms, legs, face, and then he nestled his own face against my hair taking deep breathes in and out, all around it. Dr. Cullen quickly carted me away and I took one last look at a forlorn Embry. He was really going over the edge a bit here.
I turned back to look at Dr. Cullen. His face was pinched like he smelled something particularly foul.
"What the Hell was that?" I asked him. Really I was just making conversation. I knew he wouldn't know why my boyfriend had such strange antics.
To my surprise though, he remarked, "He likes to mark his territory."
I stared at him in shock and he flashed me a winning smile that I'm sure most nurses would die for. It didn't distract me. "How do you figure?" I asked him. He couldn't know Embry was a werewolf… could he?
"Just a guess." Hm, maybe my imagination was acting up.