Chapter 11

Charlie

"You?"

Leah nodded. She was so scared, so vulnerable looking. She squeezed my hand. I squeezed hers back to reassure her. I was here. I didn't know what the hell else was going on, but I was here and she didn't need to be scared of me.

I looked at Emmett. Him, I wasn't sure of. She might need to be scared of him. Hell. I might need to be scared of him. Why hadn't I ever noticed how big he was? Of course the sparkling skin thing kind of dampened the big, scary monster vibe he was trying to pull off.

Edward chuckled behind me. Maybe he was telling the truth. Well, Jacob was a giant hairy dog.

"Wolf," said Edward.

Man, that was going to get annoying real fast.

"So I've been told."

"Stop. Really." I glared at him then turned back to Leah. "Help me out here. Tell me what's going on."

She bit her lip and her eyes grew glassy.

"Leah is a Quiluette, too." Carlisle stepped in to answer. "She's also a shape-shifter. Being so comes with some enhanced abilities, like speed, strength, rapid healing, immortality..."

"Immortality?" Surely they couldn't be serious, but Carlisle nodded.

"Their abilities also manifest in a unique way that they refer to as imprinting. It's the manner in which the wolves find their mate. After they turn, the first time their eyes meet with the person who is to be their mate, they imprint on that person. It's instantaneous, permanent, and irreversible."

"But..." I was confused. "What does this have to do with me?"

Leah tugged on my arm and I looked down at her. She was holding my hand. Wait. She was holding my hand.

"A few months ago, Leah imprinted on you," Carlisle said.

Suddenly there were too many people around me, too close, not enough air. I couldn't breathe. I shook out of Leah's grasp and out from under Carlisle's hand, which had come to rest on my shoulder. I paced away and back, and away again.

"But she's Harry's daughter! Hell, she's young enough to be mine!"

Carlisle turned to watch my aimless wandering. "And I am old enough to be Esme's seven-times-great-grandfather. In our world—the world that you are now a part of—age is irrelevant. When you've lived as long as we have, as long as we will, age is measured in decades, centuries, millennia even. It becomes a meaningless number. It's only to the very young that age matters."

"How—how old are you?" I stuttered.

"Approximately three-hundred and sixty-six. When I was born, records weren't as well kept."

"And you?" I pointed at Edward, wishing it was the barrel of my gun instead of just my finger. "YOU, who seduced my daughter. How old are you?" My glare was venomous. I was going to kill him, immortality be damned. Everything that lived could die.

Edward sighed. "Charlie, there's much for you to learn. Right now, I think it would be preferable to focus on Leah."

It was a diversionary tactic, but I couldn't deny the feeling in me as he said her name. "But I saw her as a baby. I've watched her grow up. She's not three-hundred-and anything. She's twenty-two, and I'm forty-four!"

Carlisle said, "Yes, and she imprinted on you. You can try to reject her, but she will love you until the day you die."

Tears streamed down her face. "Leah?" I asked. "Is that—do you . . .?"

She nodded and left me dumbfounded. This girl, this woman that I'd watched her whole life, loved me? Was in love with me? I was twice her age.

"I'm not trying to pry into indelicate matters, Charlie, but have you felt differently about Leah as of late?" Carlisle asked.

He was asking me questions. I could barely think. "Well...I mean...there was . . ." Fleeting thoughts I'd recently had when I'd noticed how beautiful Leah was, or how her body curved just right, and even a lapse in control during a moment of release when I'd shocked myself by calling out her name. They all crossed my mind.

I turned to stare Edward down, a warning in my eyes. He could keep his smartass comments to himself. "Yes, a little, though I hadn't really noticed." I glanced at Edward again. "Much."

"All your questions will be answered in time. For now, we'll give you some privacy to talk," Carlisle said, and instantly they were all gone.

Leah stood alone in the waning sunshine. Her glossy black hair fell over one shoulder. Her onyx eyes shone glassy and sad. Oh, little girl.

"Leah, I – I have no idea what to say."

"It's okay. I don't expect you to love me."

Love her? I was barely getting used to the idea that she had tits, and that I was noticing them. I'd been beating myself up for that slip up a few days ago. I was a middle-aged father, for God's sake. She was so young, so sweet. I grinned, remembering her that day under the hood of her car. So foul-mouthed and flirty and . . .

"This is a lot to swallow. I don't even really get what is going on, and I sure don't know how I feel right now. Confused, overwhelmed . . . pissed," I said, thinking of my daughter's boyfriend and the answers I needed from him. "I don't not love you. Can that be enough right now?"