Leah's POV
It's been days since I have seen Percy and to say it has been hard would be an understatement. I always made fun of the guys whenever they would whine and moan about missing their imprints, but now I truly understand what they mean. Every hour that I am not with him, I can feel an empty hole in my chest that throbs with hurt. And the hole just serves to bring to mind his beautiful, windswept hair and his stunning, green eyes. I guess it doesn't help that the only time we have spent together was the day of the bonfire and that was only for about an hour.
I am also the only one in the pack that has imprinted on someone not in the tribe. To be honest, I'm the only one in known Quileute history that they know of that has imprinted on an outsider. But I don't care. There is no way that anyone in the tribe could be more perfect than Percy is.
I groan loudly and drop my head into my hands. All this thinking about Percy has only made me miss him more than I did before. Sitting down on a log, I look out at the expanse of the sea in front of me. Probably the place Percy and I last saw each other is not the best place to try to clear my mind of said person, but I do love the beach. Even though it's cold and not really conducive to normal beach activities, the beach will always be one of my favorite places in the world. When I sit here alone, the only sound being the crashing of the waves against the cliffs and the wind ruffling the trees, I can get my thoughts collected in peace, without the hounding of the pack distracting me.
My mind then wanders to what I heard in the packs mind the day after the imprinting, the conversation Bella Swan had with the boys when I ran after Percy the night of the bonfire. About how she told them that she thought it might be possible for Percy to reject the imprint because of something bad that happened back in New York involving someone he loved. Just the thought of Percy rejecting me made my heart clench painfully. I seemed to gather from our conversation together that there was something off about how he was interacting with me at first. He seemed tense and ready to run at a moment's notice, but as our conversation progressed, the tension left his body and he then seemed to be enjoying our time together. I can only hope that Percy will continue becoming more and more comfortable with me and maybe, eventually, we could really be happy together. And if what Percy needs is only a friendship, then that is exactly what I will strive to provide for him. Of course, I would love nothing more than to be in a real, romantic relationship with my imprint, but I could be satisfied with solely a friendship with him. So long as I could be in his presence.
"Are you Leah Clearwater?" I am jerked out of my inner ramblings by an unfamiliar voice. When I turn, I see a middle-aged man with dark, wavy hair, green eyes, and laugh lines. Actually, he looked kind of familiar, but I have never forgotten a voice, and since becoming a shifter, I have never forgotten a scent.
"Who are you?" I ask suspiciously, deliberately not answering his question. The man doesn't seem to react either way to the slight hostility in my voice, whether or not that is a good sign I am not completely sure.
"I am someone that would like to meet you." The man answered back vaguely. I stay silent as I search his face and body language for any indication on what the man's intentions were. It's not like I couldn't handle myself of course, but I don't want to intentionally give my name to some creep that was looking for me. The strange man is still smiling warmly at me, even though I'm not being entirely subtle about my searching his character. And even though outwardly he looked warm and inviting, I couldn't help but feel the roll of power that is coming off the man. Because of that roll of power, I just couldn't relax in his presence and because of that, I would not be giving him my name.
"And I will repeat my question, who are you?" I ask again, my shoulders becoming more tense and a small tremor begins in my hands, my wolf simmering just beneath the surface of my skin.
The man immediately raises his hands placatingly, "Peace, Leah. I don't mean you any harm." The shaking in my hands stops but my wolf remains close.
"Then please tell me who you are." I say, the hostility noticeably gone from my voice.
The strange man's warm smile widens, "I am Percy's father." At those words I am stilled into silence. I know next to nothing about Percy's relationship with his father, but I just assumed from talking about how his mother sent him here and not his parents that there must be some kind of disconnect there. Obviously since the man willing came to a little, rainy town in Washington to see his son, there can't be too much of a disconnect between father and son.
"I know there must be some surprise to see me here." I nod my head since I still can't get my mouth and brain to produce words.
The man, Percy's father, continues to talk. "I just wanted to meet the girl destined to be with my son." The floundering comes back full force.
"We're not. . . I- I mean. . . Percy and I, we're not together. I mean we just met a couple days ago."
Percy's father looks at me knowingly. "Yes, that may be true, but where imprints are concerned, does one always follow a traditional relationship timeline?" My defenses shoot straight up and as they do, I shoot up from the log I was sitting on.
"What did you say?"
"You did imprint on my son, yes?" He looks at me questioningly.
I don't answer but instead fire off another question of my own. "What do you know about imprinting." I ask, emphasizing the 'you' in the sentence.
"I know a lot more than your average concerned parent, but how I know this is probably a conversation best to be saved to have between you and my son."
I stare back defiantly. My defenses still raised and coming down no time soon. I cocked my eyebrow up and wave my hand for him to continue.
The man sighs before continuing. "I am sure you have heard that Percy has had a hard time as of late." I nod my head in answer but stay silent. "Well, it's true. I love my son very dearly and I would like to save him from any future heartache if I can do so." I don't comment on the thinly veiled threat. "I wanted to meet the woman who is most likely to be with my son in the not so distant future."
"And what have you gathered?" My face still impassive.
"From the moment I walked up, you have been a fierce woman, all to protect a secret of your tribe. I can only hope that you would be as fierce to protect my son?" He pauses and waits on my answer.
I nod my head in the affirmative. "I would."
The man nods smiling. "I'm glad. While Percy does not often need protecting physically, because he has been through so much, sometimes he will need someone to be a strong shoulder for him. Also, because of who he is, by no choice of his own, he has no shortage of enemies, and he will need someone that will not be easily frightened away. I believe you can be both of these things for him and more should the need arise. Your fierceness is admirable, Leah Clearwater."
I smile shyly at the complements that I have just heard and just as I was about to respond, I hear splashing coming from the water. Both the man and I turn towards the sound to see Percy coming quickly from the water towards us.
"Hey guys, what's going on over here?" Percy says nervously as he finally reaches us. His father smiles at him and embraces him warmly.
"Percy! My son, we were just discussing you." And while his father smiles warmly, Percy's face becomes white and he starts fidgeting with his hands.
"Oh, really, what about me."
I was quick to jump and dispel Percy's nervousness. "Nothing bad, Percy, I promise." Percy smiles brightly at me before turning to his father with a raised eyebrow.
"Dad, I thought you were supposed to be in New York, at work." Percy's dad's warm smile did not lessen at his son's accusation.
"That was the plan son, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet Miss Leah Clearwater." His dad turns his smile towards me once more.
"That's very nice but I'm sure you have some very important things to be doing at this moment." Percy looks at his father pointedly.
"Yes, you are quite right, Percy," He turns towards me. "Miss Clearwater, it was a pleasure to meet you. I hope to see you again soon." He reaches out his hand and when I take it, he brings my hand to his lips in an old timey fashion.
"Yes, it was nice to meet you as well. . ."
"Poseidon." He cuts in.
I make no reaction to the outlandish name, "it was nice to meet you Poseidon. It was quite nice to discuss everything with you and I completely agree on everything." I smile back winningly, for the first time since Poseidon found me on the beach.
Percy watches the two of us cautiously. "It was nice to see you, dad, I'll come visit soon." Percy hugs his dad quickly but tightly before his dad walk away. And since I turned immediately to Percy, I didn't see Poseidon walk confidently into the ocean and disappear.
"So, how have you been?" I asked Percy nervously.
He smiles at me, "I've been okay, met some interesting people, kicked myself for not getting your number earlier this week when I had the chance. . ." Percy leads out and his smile turns shy as he looks down quickly before looking back at me.
"Well I guess I could help with the last one." I smile back at him just as shyly.
We both stand there smiling at each other, only a bit awkwardly, as he fishes his phone out of his pocket, when suddenly a thought occurs to me.
Percy only just came out of the ocean and he has his phone in his jeans pocket, which are completely dry, and it still apparently works.
I decide to voice my thoughts. "Um, Percy?"
He looks up from his phone, "Yeah?"
"Did you not just come out of the water?"
"Yeah why?" The answer was already out of his mouth before he realized why I was asking such an obvious question. Percy looks back at me with a sheepish expression on his face.
"I guess we need to talk, huh. . ." He reaches out for my hand and I take it. Percy then leads me over to a rusty, old pick-up truck, that I recognize to be Bella's, and we get into the cab.
We both sit in silence before he starts talking.
"The interesting people that I went to meet today was the Cullen's, Bella's boyfriend's family." I tense up immediately at the mention of the blood suckers. "I knew there was something different about them the moment that I first saw her boyfriend and then out of the blue Bella said that his whole family wanted to meet me. I was suspicious, but I can take care of myself, so I wasn't too worried." Something that his father mentioned. "Because I already expected that they were weird, I wasn't all to surprised when they told me they were all vampires. However, I was pretty surprised when they said that the tribe down on the reservation were shape-shifters."
Percy looks at me for the first time since he started talking and I tense up even more under his gaze. I look at him with a guarded expression and open my mouth to explain, but he once again beats me to the punch.
"Don't worry, Leah. I'm not going to run away screaming or anything. A bunch of shape-shifters that were actually really nice to me are not the worst things I have ever met by a long shot. Besides I'm not exactly normal myself." With those words, he instantly becomes cautious like I'm going to be mad at him for keeping a secret even though I did the exact same thing.
"Well, don't worry, Percy. I'm not going to run away screaming either." We both sit in silence for a short while once again, but this time, instead of looking awkwardly at our feet, we are both looking searchingly into each other's eyes, waiting on baited breath to see who was going to speak next. Not surprisingly, it's Percy that breaks the silence.
"I guess I'll explain first since it was my dad that crashed your beach day." He takes a couple seconds to gather his thoughts before continuing. "As you probably know, I'm from New York. And my mom is Chief Swan's step-sister, which makes Bella my cousin. When I was growing up it was just my mom and me for a long time. Whenever I asked about my dad, she would always tell me the same thing, that he was lost at sea, not dead, just. . . lost. I never knew any differently until I was twelve and I was introduced to this whole world that I had absolutely no idea even existed. You see, my dad is Poseidon." Percy pauses and looks at me. "Poseidon, like the Greek Olympian god of the sea." He stops again but this time waits on my reaction. Of course, I was shocked, but I wanted him to finish, so I waved him to continue.
Percy then proceeds to tell me about the next five years of his life, surviving two wars, meeting Greek and Roman gods and monsters, and all of his friends. Only on the last one does he seem to be breaking.
"We lost a lot of good people, no more than children, in these wars, and the majority of the gods couldn't give a damn." He spits out the words. "That's one of the reasons that I ended up coming to Washington. And while my dad is different than the majority of the gods, he still doesn't totally understand us mortals and our short lives and emotions." After said that, tears started streaming slowly down his face. My heart clenched at the sight of my imprint crying. To get his mind off of what seemed to be very painful memories, I started my own explanation without commenting on his quite yet.
"I first shifted about four or five months ago. Our change is our tribes defense mechanism for when vampires move into the surrounding area, so that we can protect our tribe and the rest of the humans from vampires. We have a treaty with the Cullen family that Jacob Black's grandfather made a long time ago basically saying that as long as they don't feed on humans, turn anyone, or come onto the reservation, then we will leave them be to live as they want in Forks. I personally don't trust them, and neither does the majority of the pack. Jacob is too caught up with Bella to notice anything and my little brother, Seth, just wants to be friends with everyone to focus on them being leeches. But I guess it's not so bad. We can run really fast, of course I'm the fastest. The only downside is the patrols because Sam, our pack leader, is a stickler, and the fact that whenever we are all in wolf form, we can hear each other's thoughts." Percy quirks his eyebrow at that one and I laugh quietly. "Weird I know. It also sucks that I'm the only girl, but again I can live with that."
After I finish, I notice that there are no longer any tears falling from Percy's eyes and that makes me happy. But I then grow exponentially nervous over the last tidbit of tribal/pack knowledge that I need to share with Percy.
"There is one more thing that I need to tell you about Percy. . . There's this thing that happens to wolves. It's called imprinting. Basically, imprinting happens when we look into the eyes of that one person. When your eyes lock for the first time, everything shifts. Some of the guys that have imprinted have described it as seeing the sun for the first time, and I'd have to agree. I imprinted on you Percy. When I first saw you at the bonfire." I stop talking instantly and it seemed as if all the air was sucked out of my lungs as I awaited his reaction to this news. His shoulders tensed slightly, and he turned to look at his hands in his lap with an unreadable expression on his face.
Finally, after what seems like hours, he starts speaking quietly. "What does this mean for us exactly. Are we like forced to be with each other now?"
My eyes widen. "No! Absolutely not! That's not what imprinting means at all. It's completely your decision on what kind of relationship we have. If you don't want a... you know, romantic relationship with me, then that's completely fine, we could just be friends." I give him what I hope is a winning smile, hoping to hide the trepidation that he might not want that kind of relationship with me.
Percy's cheeks turn a light shade of red, showing his blush, and I try to hide a smile at that. "I'm not saying that I would never want a romantic kind of relationship. It's just… another reason I left New York is…" Percy clears his throat a little bit. "I was in a relationship in New York with a girl named Annabeth. We were friends when I first went to Camp Half Blood when I was twelve. We were together for about a year and then in the second war, she… she… uh, we lost her in the war. It's been hard ever since. I couldn't even think her name without my chest hurting. That was, until I met someone at a bonfire at this very beach." He smiles shyly at me, a blush once again staining his cheeks. "Since I met you, and we hung out together, I can think about Annabeth without crying or feeling as if a fist is clenching my heart. So, what I'm saying is, uh, I'm not ready for a relationship right now, but maybe someday."
I smiled widely at Percy.
"Nothing would make me happier, Percy Jackson."