Author's Note:

Hello fabulous readers and I am so sorry about the wait! I didn't forget, I promise, I had a family emergency but I'm back now and the next chapter will also be up soon.

I'd like to welcome aboard a new member to this crazy rollercoaster ride, LemonDropMartini, who has very graciously agreed to put up with me and beta read for this story. I hope you all appreciate it as much as I do. The previous chapters will be updated soon with some grammatical corrections as well as a few wording changes but don't fret you don't have to go reread it all (unless you want to) as they're not all out rewrites.

Enjoy!


It all started when Quil, with no understanding of what the word subtle meant, asked her where her husband was, and only got worse from there...


Chapter Twelve - Video Games and Vampires

Dude, when are you going to tell her? This was Quil, again.

He'd asked the same question every time he and Embry ran together. It was really all Paul's fault. No one had said a word until it had crossed Paul's mind the night of the would-be-dinner-party, after a fight with his father. He'd been doing well at not phasing, given his temper, but sometimes it was too much. Once he calmed down, and after seeing the events of that evening through Embry's eyes, Paul had wondered if Alex would ever know their secret. Since then, Quil had been pushing Embry to tell her their hairy secret nonstop, and Embry was going to pummel him.

No.

You have to.

No.

She's an imprint, you have to tell her.

SHUT UP! I AM NOT GOING TO TELL HER, NOW OR EVER! SHE'S NOT MINE, AND SHE'S NOT GOING TO BE, SO I'M GOING TO SPARE HER THE PAIN. JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!

Whoa. It was Seth, having phased just in time to catch the outburst. What'd I miss?

Embry could only growl in response. Of course he couldn't tell her. She may have been his imprint, but she was someone else's wife. What was Quil expecting him to do, say 'Hey, I know you're married and you're really happy and in love with Mark, but I'm a werewolf and I imprinted on you so we're soulmates'? No! That was just all kinds of wrong. He wasn't going to do that to her. He would let her be happy, it was what she deserved.

Jacob knew Embry's decision and supported it, for the most part. While Jacob understood why Embry didn't want to tell her, he also thought that it might be best for their growing friendship if, when Alex was ready, he told her about the wolves - just the wolves. He could tell her about the wolves, and leave out the imprinting part. Embry didn't think so. He thought it was a slippery slope and didn't want to risk it. Once she knew one secret, it would be too easy to tell her the rest out of selfishness, or a slip. Or, if he told her, she might wonder why she had been allowed to know the secret and figure it out. So she would never know. Jacob still tried to sway him, because it was possible she'd ask questions about his temperature, or dress, or there might be an accident. It would be easier, if she knew. But he'd decided. Of course, then, Embry hadn't anticipated the events to come.

It was supposed to be an easy-going night; just three werewolves, one gorgeous woman, a few hundred video games, and a tower of pizzas. At first, it seemed to be just that, a fun time. It was all of the makings for a fun night.

Alex had seen Seth a few times when he'd worked at her house, and she'd met Quil the day she moved in, so she was already a little more at ease when she knocked on the door. Her heartbeat always was her tell.

"Hey," he said, swinging the door open to greet her, a huge grin on his face.

"Hey." She couldn't help her answering smile; it was like his happiness was contagious. "I brought brownies." She thrust a huge container toward him. "I may have made too many, though I'm sure they won't go to waste."

"There is no such thing as too many in this house." It was true; with the three of them living together, the fridge was always empty, though they never turned away food. "We won't let any of it go to waste, so not to worry. Come on in, it sounds like they started without us."

Sure enough, once he'd taken her coat and put the brownies in the kitchen, they found Quil and Seth sitting on the floor in the living room yelling at each other as they raced around a track, throwing bananas and turtle shells at each other.

"You started without us," Embry accused.

"Hey, you told us we had to wait to start the racing until she got here, you didn't say she had to be inside," Quil quickly stuck his tongue out at him over his shoulder.

"Very nice guys."

"I wanted to wait but he called me a chicken!" Seth protested, shoving his shoulder against Quil.

"Well I'm sorry about these two; apparently their mothers didn't beat their manners into them enough." He put placed a hand on the small of her back and gently guided her to the couch. "I guess we'll have to wait."

She smiled up at him from her seat as she neatly tucked her feet underneath her. "I don't mind waiting, I'm the one crashing anyways."

"You're not crashing anything. I invited you and I- uh we want you here." He smiled at her, brown eyes meeting blue, and he suddenly couldn't remember how to breathe. She was perfect. They were silent for a moment, until he realized he was staring."Um, so...would you like something to drink?"

"Sure, what do have?"

'Water, Pepsi, Sprite, maybe orange juice?"

"Pepsi would be great."

"Coming right up."

He wanted to kick himself. Could he have been anymore awkward? He grabbed a can of Pepsi and a cup of ice before heading back into the living room. He handed Alex the soda without looking at her, instead turning to face the guys, "We should probably order the pizzas now, it will take them awhile. Any requests?"

"Pepperoni!" Seth yelled, trying to knock Quil over with his shoulder.

"Everything." Quil had taken to ordering his pizzas with everything but anchovies when he was with the guys so they wouldn't tease him. He'd ordered Claire's favorite pizza, cheese and pineapple, once, because he missed her while she was visiting her grandparents in Neah Bay, the Makah reservation, and never heard the end of it; although Embry was starting to understand.

Taking a deep breath he turned to Alex, "And for you?"

"Cheese is good." She was looking past him, at the screen. She'd noticed the awkwardness too. Great.

An hour in, Alex had somehow ended up jammed between Quil and Seth on the floor, dodging light elbows as she attempted, and failed, to beat them. Embry was paying the delivery man for the ten pizzas they'd ultimately ordered as well as four orders of breadsticks and three bottles of Coke. It took two trips to bring the all the pizza into the living room.

"Pizza's here."

"Awesome! What'd we get again?"

"Three pepperoni, three everything, three sausage and pepper, and one cheese." Alex looked at him over her shoulder, eyebrows raised. "Yes, we always eat this much." Her eyebrows rose further. "What? We're growing men." She laughed then, standing up and moving to help him, clearly having given up all hope of winning the race.

"You should all weigh a thousand pounds. If I ate anywhere near that much…" she shook her head smiling. She set up the pizza in four piles on the coffee table that had been pushed to the side and grabbed some extra cups from the kitchen. When she came back, Quil and Seth were piling pizza on paper plates and Embry was putting a movie in the DVD player. She grabbed her own plate and settled into the couch next to Seth, Embry sitting on her other side.

They watched less than the first twenty minutes of the movie before muting it to talk and that's when it happened…

"So, Alex, your Grandma said you have some sort of hunky lawyer husband?" Her eyes widened but she nodded. "Then where is he?"

She didn't answer right away, and for the first time that night she was nervous. She was usually uncomfortable when the subject of her husband came up. At first, she had been thrilled at the sound of his name but after only a couple of mentions she started to become sad and then uncomfortable. Embry suspected it was because she missed Mark but never asked, choosing instead to help her avoid the topic.

"He's working." Her voice was quiet, weak.

"Well that's stupid. Why wouldn't he want to be here with you?" Embry glared at him, trying to get him to shut up.

"He...he really wanted the case so I told him to take it."

"I still think it's stupid. Sounds like a dick move to me. Who wouldn't want to be with their girl if they love them? Especially their wife. " Alex turned red and Embry fought the urge to punch Quil.

"I'll be right back," she nearly whispered.

Once he heard the bathroom door close he punched Quil, hard.

"What the hell man?" Quil asked, rubbing his arm.

"What was that? Seriously? Do you have any idea how uncomfortable you were makin - oh hell!"

"What?"

"You made her cry you jackass!"

"I didn't. She wasn't crying, I swear I di-"

"Listen!" Embry hissed, and the three were silent. After a moment, they could hear her sniffling.

"Aw man! I swear I didn't mean to! I'll...I'll go talk to her or something. I really didn't…"Quil stood up but Embry tugged him back down.

"I doubt she wants you to go talk to her. She probably doesn't even want us to know she's crying. When she comes back out here, we aren't going to say a damn word about it. We are going to play video games and be nice. You got it?"

Seth nodded feverishly but Embry was only looking at Quil, "Yeah, I got it. I really didn't mean to."

Before Alex had left the bathroom, however, the guys heard a loud howl, followed by another. They exchanged looks. Another.

"We'll go see what it is, be right back." Quil and Seth sprinted out the backdoor and Embry sat, waiting. What seemed like only minute later Seth was back. "Dude, I'm sorry but we have to go. We need you too. It's bad. Alex probably shouldn't leave the house... just let her know." He sprinted out again.

What was he suppose to say to her? She was crying in their bathroom because Quil was an ass and he was just supposed to just leave her there? Another howl sounded. He stood up slowly and headed down the hallway and knocked on the bathroom door.

"Hey, Alex? There's a little work emergency and we have to head out. We shouldn't be long so you can just hang out and we'll be back. Okay?"

"Okay." Her voice cracked. He sighed and ran out the back hoping she would stay there, stay safe.

But, as it turned out, Embry and the guys never made it back that night. There were four vampires on the loose running circles around La Push. After a fairly quiet few years, it was strange to have so many at once. They were a little out of practice, but mostly it was just the fact that they'd never had so many vampires near their border at once who weren't the Cullens. They ran until three in the morning, when the vampires finally retreated, and all thoughts of Alex were far from Embry's mind.

When they arrived home they found the pizza boxes and trash had been taken out, the living room clean, and all the lights off. They also found a note, and after reading it Embry had immediately tried to call Alex, but her phone was off. He ran to her house but all her lights were off. He could hear her heart and her breathing so he knew she was ok, physically at least, but he had wanted to apologize. He stayed up until the sun rise, staring at the bright green sticky note she had left. There were deep indents in the note where the words were, so he knew she'd been mad. All it said was two words.

Went home


Disclaimer:

Sadly my friends, I still don't own Twilight.