Disclaimer: It still isn't mine! Geez!
A/N: I hope this was soon enough for you all! Enjoy and review!
Chapter 11
Kim
As I walked from the band room, I was swooped off of my feet by a pair of strong, warm arms and I let out a laugh as they spun me around in the air. A few moments later I was placed gently back on my feet and Jared was smiling down on me as took my backpack from me, pulled me close, and intertwined our fingers. My smile was so big that I thought my face might split in half as Jared kissed my cheek, my forehead, my nose, before finally finding my lips.
"I love you, Kim," he whispered to me so lightly that I thought it may have been the wind. My head snapped up and my brow furrowed in confusion.
"E-excuse me?" I breathed out. I knew that I was in love with Jared. That had never really been a question, I had just never really thought that someone like Jared could ever love me. I knew it wasn't a joke; Jared was too good for that, so he was either in dire need of mental help, or he was completely sincere. Personally, I was really hoping for the latter.
"I am completely in love with you, Kimberly Connweller." Between the sincerity in his voice, and the completely sane look of love and amazement in his eyes, there was nothing I could do but tell him the truth.
"I love you too, Jared," I confessed with a shy smile. So what if we had technically only been on one date, there was not a doubt in my mind that Jared Thail was the one for me. Any further thought was stopped by a perfect, blissful, mind-numbing kiss. Everything was perfect.
It turns out that when you don't spend your days almost completely alone, they go by a lot faster, and with every day that passed, I only fell more in love with Jared. I spent the majority of my evenings at Emily's house, surrounded by giants, always wrapped up in Jared's arms. It had grown into a routine which is why, as we all sat at Sam and Emily's kitchen table, the discomfort of a silence filled with unspoken words was easily distinguished. The only noise came from the clanking of dishes and silverware, and Jared's unusually rigid posture was mirrored by Paul and Sam both. I looked up from my homemade cheese pizza to glance at Jared's face only to find that those wonderful lips were still pressed in a straight line and those perfect, loving eyes were still narrowed.
Jared
I was still fuming at dinnertime, but for Kim's sake I pressed my lips tight together to hold back my outburst; Kim hated fighting. It was Sam and Paul, ganging up on me again, urging me to tell Kim the truth. It was getting to dangerous around here for Kim not to be in the know, they had said. It was easy to see where they came from, but selfishly, I wanted to let Kim's normal life last for as long as it possibly could. I knew that she wouldn't be happy with me for keeping her in the dark for the whole month that we had been dating. With that thought, I knew what I had to do; tell Kim the truth. Suddenly I stood up, pushing away from the table, all eyes on me.
"Kim, will you come with me to get some air?" I asked lamely, holding my hand out for her. Without asking any questions, she nodded, stood up, and took my offered hand. I walked her outside, and toward a path in the woods just far enough away so that the others wouldn't be able to follow, before I found a fallen tree and took a seat, pulling Kim onto my lap and wrapping my arms around her. We sat there like that for a few moments before I spoke.
"Kim, do you know the tribe legends?" I asked, taking a deep breath to calm myself. Kim let out a loose laugh.
"Of course I do, we all do," she replied with a smile that I gratefully replied.
"Okay, yeah. So…what if I told you that some of them were real?"
Kim
Jared took me away from Emily's house in the middle of dinner, led me into the woods, and was asking questions that were beginning to sound a little crazy. If I wasn't one-hundred percent positive that Jared would never hurt me, I'd say that this felt like the beginning of a horror movie. Was he trying to tell me that he believed in the legends? I can't say that I did, but the reservation was full of people who thought otherwise. 'What if I told you that some of them were real?' How is a person supposed to respond to that question?
"Well," I said, struggling for words. "There are a lot of tribe legends. Which are you talking about?"
"All of them," He said rather quickly. "Specifically the ones about imprinting."
"Well if you believe them it's not really my place to judge." I told him with finality. Something in the back of my mind told me that I wasn't going to like where this conversation led if I let it continue.
"Yes it is, Kim. It is your place, because this is about you. And me. This is about us. I imprinted on you." Jared looked at me with eyes begging me to believe, but I just couldn't seem to wrap my brain around this. I thought back to the legends, but couldn't recall a human ever imprinting-it was a wolves-only thing.
"Don't be silly, Jared," I said softly, my tone disapproving. "This isn't funny. In the legends only a wolf can imprint…" I trailed off as it hit me. Jared was a wolf. I knew I was completely insane for believing it, but at the same time I felt utterly stupid for not coming to the conclusion sooner. Over the past month I had noticed more about Jared than just his body heat that fit the bill. No, there was the sudden growth spurt, the strength, the speed, and the list could go on. And if Jared was a wolf, that meant that the other boys were too. That they had been all lying to me. And suddenly it hit me; Emily's scar was not from a bear.
I sat there for what felt like forever, thinking of Emily's scars, and the pain that must have caused them. That they were a constant reminder of what she lived with, and that the same thing could easily happen to me at any given moment. It scared me that I didn't care, that I still knew that I wanted to be with Jared. I also knew that I couldn't stay. There was no doubt in my mind that I would break my resolve and go back to Jared sooner or later, and I wasn't going to fool myself into thinking otherwise, but at that moment I needed to be home, wrapped in a blanket, drinking tea, finding heat from anything that wasn't Jared. I needed to think.
Slowly but surely I got off of Jared's lap, put a few steps between us, and looked him dead in the eyes.
"I am going to walk myself home," I told him in a quiet but no-nonsense voice that clearly told him not to argue. "And I don't want you to come after me, understood?" I waited for him to acknowledge my order, which he did with a nod, before I turned and started for home, dazed. I stepped to cross the road, and the last thing I heard was the honking of a horn before I was overcome with pain. Then there was only unconsciousness.
A/N: Cliff hanger! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I, for one, thought it was a nice relief from all of those chapters of constant fluff. Don't get me wrong, I love fluff, but some action is nice too. They should combine those words to create…flaction? Fluffy action? I like it! I'm going to add it to the dictionary on my computer! I totally just created a word. So, review and tell me what you think of the story, give me your opinion on my new word, tell me what your worst injury was. I usually just get stuck with a bunch of little things all at the same time. Except for yesterday, when my best friend accidently kicked me in the face. We're both very clumsy! Don't forget to review, more soon!
