Embry's POV

I went to the Cullens. Don't ask me why, I just did. I hadn't even realized I knew the way to their new place. I'd only been there like once or twice. It was a good thing I did though, or my life could have turned out very differently than it did.

Despite its unfamiliarity, I opened the door without waiting to be let in. I wasn't in the mood for pleasantries. I just wanted voices. Lots of voices. And chaos. I didn't want to have to think. I didn't want to have to remember the way I'd acted to Cathryn. I didn't want to remember the way she'd cringed away from me, what I'd called her.

Crap. I'd made her cry.

And that was why I went to the Cullens. I knew it would be madness there. They'd all be so distraught over the whole Nessie/Jakle issue that I wouldn't have to think about my own hardly at all. Of course I would eventually, I knew that. I'd probably make it to tomorrow, tops, before my wanting for her escalated to the point of pain and I'd have to see her anyway. But I wanted to prolong it, if just for a little while., Just long enough to get my head on straight.

Ha. As if. I'm a werewolf, we're all insane.

To my surprise, I came in to complete silence. I walked in to the living room to find Edward, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett, Bella, Cocoa, and Heath all there. Alice seemed to be the center. Her eyes were unfocused and she was being still in that way that only a vampire can.

I waited impatiently for the vision to end.

After a moment, she blinked, shaking her head. "Oh, God." She whispered. She looked horrified.

"What?" Jasper asked.

"They…" She put her head in her hands. "The Volturi…they're going to try again."

This had no effect on me. Don't ask me why, I know I should have totally freaked out. But I didn't. All I felt was that same drive for distractions. And this was providing one.

"How? When?"

Alice looked up at me. "I didn't know until…well, they have a vampire friend.. she won't be coming, I don't think…."

"Who?" Edward asked urgently.

"The werewolves. The Children of the moon. They're coming for you, Embry." Alice kept her eyes on me. "They want a war. To total obliviation. Only one species will remain in the end. The Volturi know we'll defend you. They know that if you loose…so do we."

I stared at her mutely. The drive was fading.

Because it had finally occurred to me to get a little scared.

Cathryn's POV

I have a happy making ritual. Stupid, I know, but I do. I think everybody does, to some extent. Just a little something to improve your mood, lighten your spirits after and aweful day. And this may have been the worst day of my life. Well, you know. Except for the day my dad died. But other than that.

So as soon as Embry dropped me off I preformed it.

I went straight to the bathroom and opened all of my drawers, contemplating. Carefully, I selected a facial cleanser, a facial mask, vanilla sugar body scrub, orange blossom lotion, and a deep-in conditioner. I turned the water on as hot as it would go, letting the steam fill up the room, fogging up the mirror before getting in. I stayed in there a long time, carefully scrubbing, rinsing and moistureizing ever square inch of me before giving up and just lying down there, letting the hot water rain down on top of me. I couldn't seem to get the icky feeling off of me. No matter what I did, every time I blinked I saw faces.

Nessie's heartbroken.

Sophi's terrified.

Embry's infuriated.

Finally, when I'd looked down and seen that my skin had gone tomato red from the heat of it all, I got out and turned it off. I flipped my head upside down and slowly massaged a towel through my hair. While I waited for my hair to stop dripping, I brushed my teeth. And applied mascara, much more of it and much more carefully than usual. Then, just because it seemed like the thing to do, what with all my self-pampering, I dipped my thumb into a small container of glitter that I'd used maybe twice in my life and smeared it across both of my eyelids.

When my hair could no longer be called soaking, I filled my palm full of mousse and flipped my hair over again, massaging it through the strands. When I was done, I looked in the mirror. Except for my having nothing on, I looked really pretty. My hair fell in loose curls down my back, my eyes looked bigger than usual and seemed to sparkle on their own as opposed to with make up, like I knew some sort of delightful secret that glowed inside me.

Then I went to my closet.

Once I was dressed, I had on pair of washed out jeans that had been professionally torn in two places, a loose white lace tank top with three buttons going down from the collar, and a blue and silver wool hoodie that had little puff balls at the end of the laces.

Normally, this worked. Normally if I could just examine myself in the mirror instead of my usual absentminded glance and think to myself, hmm, not bad, my mood improved, if not by the smallest margin. But it didn't today. Today, I looked in it and wondered if Embry would hate me less if he saw me like this.

Probably not.

Disgusted, I went out on to my balcony and, ignoring the chair, sat down on the concrete and hugged my legs, leaning against the glass. It had been snowing, and looking out into the woods at the blanket of white bellow and the sprinkling of whit on top of the trees I felt like I was in a Christmas card.

It was not a good feeling.

It was such a bad one that I found myself wishing that Cocoa was still human and lived on my balcony. She, annoying as she was, would never have let me mope like this. She'd have taken me down to starbucks in a stained t-shirt and mussed hair and made me try a frappichino that was actually every different kind mixed up and when it went up my nose or something she'd laugh hysterically. Cocoa had had the worst laugh in the human life. She'd sounded like a frog and a donkey mixed together. But it sounded so stupid that it made you laugh.

Of course now, I doubted even that could have made me laugh. The same thoughts wouldn't leave my head and, even though they were so old I had them memorized, I could never answer the questions they posed.

Thankfully, I didn't have to for long.

"-Keilly's house for the night." Embry was saying. I perked up in spite of myself. He was here? "It's just a couple girls for now, but tomorrow we'll all be over there. I promise I'll have her back in time for anything you were planning."

I went through my bed room and into the hall so I could hear better.

Bob's arms were crossed over his chest as he scowled up at the hulking figure in front of him. "Are you aware that tomorrow is Christmas Eve, son?" He asked.

Embry nodded. "I know, I'm sorry Cathryn never got around to telling you. But it's really important to Keilly that Cathryn be there."

There was no party. I knew that in a heartbeat. There was some other weird reason why Embry wanted me out of the house for the night and the following day. I had not forgiven him for what he'd said to me, and I had no intention of speaking to him, but in the past his reasons had always been illigimate ones.

"Yeah, Bob." I agreed, tripping lightly down the stairs like a little kid before Christmas and not the mature adult that I was-or was supposed to be. "I'm sure I told you about it, anyways. Time to go to the doctor, old man." I patted him playfully on the shoulder as I squeezed myself around him and out next to Embry. "Bye!"

Embry, getting the message, shut the door in his face before we could hear any more protests.

"All right, mister." I said, turning smartly to face him. "What happened that is so urgent that you dare to show yourself around here after what you said to me this morning?"

This was a perfectly constructed sentence on my part. Seriously. Reread it. It had the perfect opening for him to go in and rain kissed down upon my upturned face, apologizing profusely for his rash and cruel actions and going on and on about how wonderful I was and how he couldn't live without me and how he didn't see how I could ever forgive him, but if I could find it in my heart to do that he'd spend every day for the rest of our lives trying to make it up to me.

But of course he did no such thing.

"The children of the moon are here." He said shortly, turning around and striding quickly back to his truck without so much as doing a doule-take at my beautiful appearance. "I told you about them, right? The original werewolves? They want a war against species. We don't know how to defeat them, we don't know how many there are, but we do know that that Volturi sent them and probably gave them a boatload of information about us, so if they get a chance the first thing they'll do is try to find the imprints and destroy them."

I stared at his retreating back.

He must have noticed, because he turned around. "What?" He asked. He didn't demand it. His tone was totally different from the harsh, businesslike one he'd used only seconds before. It was sweet now, concerned. The way he normally talked to me. Like nothing had changed.

Which was why, instead of ducking my head and following him as I normally would have done, frightened by this new, black Embry, I crossed my arms and stuck out my right leg. "Are you kidding me?" I demanded, mustering up the energy it took to sound sarcastic and disgusted and altogether unphased by the afternoon's occurances.

Embry sighed and ran a hand through his already mussed hair. "No. Cathryn,. Come with me."

I didn't move. "Where?"

"The Cullen's old house. Heath and Esme and Drew and Josh-"

"Josh?" I inquired.

"Yeah," He said impatiently. "You don't know him. They'll be watching out for you and the rest of the imprints."

……………………………………………..

When I looked around, I saw tears. Everywhere. There wasn't a dry-eyed imprint in the room. Every one of them had thrown their arms around their werewolf and was sobbing into his chest or stomach, depending on the height of the werewolf and the height of the imprint in question, and was currently pleading with them not to go. Every. Single. One. Even Claire, who wasn't supposed to know that she loved Quil yet. And Nessie, who was still, I was sure, upset with Jacob. She seemed to have forgotten about it for the time being.

All except for me.

I would obey when he told me to leave. I would sit there and listen as he screamed his guts out at me for doing it wrong. I would be afraid of him. I would cry. I would take an hour long shower and let every ounce of vanity in me manifest until I was no better than Rosalie. Despite all that, when he told me some wild story about werewolves and my life being in danger, I would believe him.

But I would not, under any circumstances, loose my composure in front of Embry now. Not unless he did. And that, by definition, entailed him crying as well. Something that looked entirely unlikely, seeing as his eyes were completely dry as I glared stubbornly into them.

We'd been standing like this, one in front of the other, staring un-adoringly into each other's eyes, for the past ten minutes while the many lovers around us said heartfelt good-byes. They were starting to leave now. One by one, the wolves would distangle themselves from their imprints and reluctantly leave their imprints wailing, some of their eyes no drier than their girlfriends.

But Embry didn't move.

Finally, he put a finger to my temple and drew it down, tracing my jawline. "Love you, Cat." He whispered.

I didn't doubt the words. He meant them. I could see it in his eyes. I felt the way his finger trembled on its way down my cheek, saw the way he leaned towards me almost involitarily, like he had no choice, just needed me now. I wasn't stupid. I also knew that he was trying to apologize for earlier. That he knew he'd been mean and irrational. And he felt bad. I'd forgive him, too. Eventually. I mean, it wasn't like he'd hit me or anything. He'd had a rough day, I had been my usual disorientingly wrong self, and he'd lost it. Okay. That was going to happen. It happened with Bob and Cassie, it had happened with her and my father, it happened with fifty year old couples in Jamaica. I'd get over myself.

But, like I said before, eventually. When he gave me a full-fledged apology. Until then, I remained pissed.

So I said the thing that I knew would hurt him most.

I raised an eye brow skeptically. "Do you?" I wondered aloud.

It had the desired effect. He drew back sharply, like I'd slapped, him, surprise and hurt in his dark eyes.

He opened his mouth to speak.

"Embry!" Jacob said. "Come on!" I could hear the injuction in his words.

And so, with a final longing glance over his shoulder, he was gone.

Please reveiw, you guys? ? Come on. The button's right there.......