Chapter 11 - You're My Imprint
"You had the guts to abandon me, didn't you, after you kissed me," I snapped.
It all made sense now. Why else would Paul and Jared not have bruises or scars from those gigantic wolves? Paul Lahote, being his cowardly self, must have ran away the moment he spotted those wolves making an appearance. When he was shaking like he was going to have a seizure, he must have been shaking like a scared little girl. Ha, it's so laughable. Paul Lahote hiding behind a girl because he's scared of wild animals. So basically, he used me as a bait so he could run away.
"What? No, I didn't abandon you," Paul denied as if I would believe him.
"Yeah, cuz you were totally shaking like a scared little girl," I scoffed.
"What? I wasn't shaking cuz I was scared. I was shaking cuz I was angry," Paul argued back as he started his seizure-thing. What now? Was he scared of me?
"Besides," Paul added, "it's all your fault."
What the freaking hell! How was it my fault that two gigantic wolves just magically appeared out of the blue? How was it my fault that Paul decided to scare Andrew away and thus I had to suffer Paul's lip-to-lip kiss? If anything it was all his fault.
"How's it my fault?"
"I shifted because you keep giving me mixed signals," Paul responded.
Shifted? What the hell did that mean? Nevermind, I don't really care. But mixed signals? When did I ever give mixed signals? If I remember correctly, from day one since Paul came back to school with some peculiar repercussions of mono, I had been blunt and blatant about not wanting anything to do with Paul. In fact, I had clearly given him a heartfelt speech on why I hated everything about him.
"What do you mean mixed signals? Didn't my 'I hate everything about you' speech, make it super obvious that I don't like you in any way possible," I retorted.
"You guys," Jared started as he tried to pacify both of our anger.
"Stay out of this Jared," Paul and I snapped at the same time. Jared nodded quietly as he raised both hands as if to show us that he surrendered.
But enough about Jared. Right now, I was busy glaring at Paul Lahote, the big head who didn't seem to understand English in general. When I say that I hate someone to their face, it obviously means that I hate them. It's not an 'I hate you, giggle, giggle, giggle' like his usual La Push Barbie harem.
"But we're meant for each other. You have to like me," Paul argued. Here we go again. Why couldn't Paul just stop using cheesy lines? Besides, how was I obligated to like Paul? As long as I remember, even though La Push is a reservation, this is America! Freedom of rights.
"Yeah right, like I would want to be meant for you," I snarled sarcastically.
"Don't worry, I wouldn't want to be with you, either," Paul huffed as he started trembling rapidly. In a way, his stupid shaking was starting to vex me. Couldn't he just stand still for even ten minutes?
"Paul, calm down," an authoritative voice rang and ended our argument. Paul huffed, but he stopped shaking and just continued to glare at me with his arms crossed over his chest. I turned my head to look at Sam Uley who walked into the house shirtless. Really? What was up with all the men in this house walking around shirtless?
"Maria, your father will be here shortly. Then we'll explain everything to you," Sam noted as he left the kitchen. Why did I have this gut feeling that I didn't want to know what was about to be explained? Even more, how did this involve my dad?
I sat quietly in my seat at the Uley's dinning table as I stared at the other members of Sam Uley's cult, gang, group, whatever you call it. Apparently though, catching mono seemed to really give amazing aftereffects as Embry Call sat shirtless across Paul. But then again, there were some not-so-amazing aftereffects such as Embry Call staring at me for more than ten minutes and then looking away from me with disappointment on his face. I don't know what he was hoping when he saw my face, but I didn't really feel comfortable knowing that I had somehow disappointed Embry in some way that was unknown to me. When Paul saw this scene, he got all possessive and controlling as he tried to stick as close to me as possible, which was the reason why he was sitting next to me on my right.
On my left sat my dad who was busy whispering to Sam Uley about something, probably about Quileute artifact. Sam Uley sat at the head of the table because apparently, he is the leader of this group. Besides Sam sat Jared who glanced nervously between Paul and me as if we would start quarreling soon. While I would have been tempted to punch Paul in the face since I don't think I would ever be this close to him again, I restrained myself in order to not cause my dad any embarrassments.
Where is Emily? She was busying herself in the kitchen, and I probably would too if I didn't have to be sitting at this table full of testosterones.
"Maria, whatever we're about to tell you, I want you to listen carefully and be rational. It'll be a bit difficult to understand and let it sink in, but I want you to have an open-mind," my dad instructed.
I nodded, slightly nervous about whatever my dad was about to say. He never gave these brief intro speeches unless the matter was something serious.
"Do you remember hearing about the Quileute legends," my dad asked me. As an archaeologist's daughter, I had always listened to my dad's tales and legends behind each artifact that he'd discovered. Living on the La Push reservation where my dad spent most of his time analyzing Quileute artifacts obviously meant that I had listened to those Quileute legends like the Spirit Warriors, Chief Taha Aki, and the story of the third wife.
"Yeah, I remember."
"Well," my dad started hesitantly as he scratched the back of his neck, "it's true."
"What's true?"
"All of it."
"All of..." I stared at my dad. There was no way that legends could be true. There was a reason why it was called legend instead of history. Legends were mythical, far from reality, and tended to stay far from reality.
"Maria," Sam joined in the conversation, "do you remember about Chief Taha Aki and how he shared his spirit with the Great Wolf?"
I nodded.
"Well, it just so happens that some of us are allowed to have the same ability as Chief Taha Aki. We can shift into wolves."
We as in Sam, Jared, Embry and Paul? In that moment, I scooted closer to my dad and further away from Paul.
"But don't worry," Sam noted as he must have noticed that I moved away from Paul, "We don't attack people, only dead ones."
That didn't make any sense at all. In fact, I wasn't sure what made sense now.
"In the legends, do you remember the cold ones? Well they're..."
"Zombies," I thought mentally in my head. A person that was dead but alive. Definitely zombies.
"Vampires," Sam finished.
"What? But they aren't even dead," I accidentally blurted. I'm sure most people who'd ever thought about what a vampire is - although I doubt most people would be forced to think about it - would say that vampires are nocturnal creatures who have fangs and like to suck on people's blood, making two puncture holes in their victim's neck. Now if you've ever watched those Hollywood movies, vampires usually die in the sun, wooden stake puncturing their heart (although I think even humans would die if someone staked their heart with a wooden stake), and Christian goodies such as holy water and the cross. Well, I think the Christian thing was probably a flux. I mean how can someone die staring at a cross or getting holy water thrown at them unless they had aquaphobia (fear of water) or staurophobia (fear of the cross). But anyway, how could vampires be dead? I mean they even had terms like Vampire bats which is a specie of bat (alive) who like to suck on blood.
"Well, they are dead," Paul announced as he started his trembling.
Oh god, really? Was he afraid of them or what?
"Paul," Sam warned and Paul stopped shaking.
"The cold ones are the ones who activate this gene in us that allows us to turn into wolves," Sam continued.
I nodded as if I understood, but stopped once I realized that I had no clue why I was even hearing this. Wasn't this information supposed to be top secret Quileute Tribe information? Why was I sitting here?
"Now... do you remember about the Chief Taha Aki's third wife?"
Who wouldn't. Out of all the Quiluete legend I heard from my dad, that story had been the most saddest, yet heartwarming and poignant story ever. I mean she sacrificed her life to save her sons and Taha Aki. I also loved how Taha Aki had given up his power to stay close to his wife's corpse even though now that I think about it, it's a bit necrophiliac.
"Yeah."
"Well, we learned that the third wife might have been the chief's imprintee," Sam stated as he stared at me. I raised an eyebrow wondering when he would continue, but instead of Sam, Paul continued, "Imprinting is when a shift-shaper finds their other half, like a soul mate. And he becomes unconditionally bounded to her for the rest of his life. The imprintee become all that he can see."
Paul stared at me with this creepy dazed look.
"So, this imprinting thing, what does it have to do with me," I asked as I scooted even further away from creepy Paul. But Paul quickly, yet gently grabbed my hand and kissed it as he stated, "You're my imprint."
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Just like I promised! I did update! Thank you to those who commented! It's been a while since I've written this story, so it makes me very happy to see that I still have readers who take some their time to comment/ review. ;)
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Love CecileJ
Playlist: She's The Blade by Sugarcult
Hold On by Runner Runner
Show Me Love by t.A.T.u.
Whataya Want From Me by Adam Lambert
