The Blood Moon

Year Three, Chapter Twenty-One

Embry and Imprinting

Renesmee's Point of View

I loved hunting! I loved everything about it. Running through the Canadian woods, feeling the speed and freedom, the way my heart rate speed up, how my muscles stretched and loosened up. Normal, everyday life just didn't give my body much of a workout. It was only when hunting that I really seemed to come alive. I could run for hours and was getting faster and faster all the time. I was almost as fast as some of my family, but even within the Cullen clan, speed varied greatly between everyone. My father was the fastest but even he was not as fast as my Jacob, when he was in his Wolf form. Maybe one day, if I lived long enough, I would become as fast as him. That was my goal, even if it was a nearly unattainable one. It was what I pushed for every time we hunted together, every week. I needed to have goals, desires, dreams . . . something to make life, or existence, worth living.

Then there was the blood. Animal blood was simply delectable. Well, actually herbivores blood was just okay, but still a hundred times better than human food; carnivores blood on the other hand was amazing, almost as good as human. Not that I would ever hunt or even harm a human, but still I remember the taste from when I was a newborn baby and my family gave me donated blood. I can't imagine anything better.

And I can't think about drinking blood without thinking about my Jacob. No, I would never drink from him, he was my go to hunting partner. When I appeared to be a toddler and my family was trying to transition me off of donated and onto animal blood, he was the only one that could get me to hunt. He turned it into a competition to see who could bring down an animal first, the two of us, or my mother or father. My meals were always just a fraction of the size of theirs, but when I was younger I didn't require so much blood so it didn't matter that I wasn't able to take down a full grown animal. I had gone after smaller animals or the young of larger ones. Soon enough Jacob and I developed a sort of rhythm. tag teaming the chosen animal After spotting my next meal, he would corner it while I swooped in for the kill. As I aged we went after bigger and bigger prey.

Now I was almost at the point where I could take any size animal down all on my own. I have been growing steadily, and now appeared to be around 13 years old. I was around the same size as my Aunt Alice and was almost as strong as a full Vampire. I knew I could do it on my own, but I didn't want to lose this camaraderie with Jacob. It was one of our favorite things to do together, or at least my favorite thing to do with him.

"Nessie, are you paying attention?" he said eyeing a pair of mountain lions twenty–two meters north-east of our current location.

"Always Jacob, I'm just waiting for you." I was really. My brain worked almost as fast and multilayered as my families; better if you asked some of them, especially when it came to languages.

I hadn't really thought much about it at the time but when Grandma Esme and I were learning Greek and Latin I had picked it up faster than her. I thought, at the time, that she was just pretending to go slower, as a pseudo study aide, but learned recently that it had in actuality taken her longer. Comparatively anyway. Whether learning an entirely new language in two weeks for me compared to one month for her it was still amazing compared to a human's ability to do the same. But they could think on many more levels than me.

My grandfather had once explained to me that the average human could only process one or two things at once, like a parent reading a bedtime story to a small child, while making a mental list of everything they needed to do after said child was asleep. Comparatively my family, and all Vampires, could handle seven to eight things at once, possibly more. And then there was my father, he was able to sort out hundreds of others mental thoughts while at school and never seemed to get overwhelmed. I on the other hand seemed to top off at four to five separate things.

"I'm not going to help you this time Nessie." Jacob said to me "It's all you. I've got my eye on that one over there." He pointed to the cougar on the left. "You get to get the other one on your own. I'll meet you back here in when done. Okay?"

"Oh, alright." Wait, was that it, was this how my hunting happiness died?

Jacob had already taken off and phased. He looked so beautiful as a Wolf, even if he was wearing those silly shorts that Aunt Alice made him. He never complained about them, at least around me, so I wasn't going to say anything. But a giant Wolf in shorts kind of looked ridiculous.

My mother kept saying they were a modesty thing. I had learned that my father was the one who had put Alice up to in the first place. And I could see how it would make sense . . . if I had not already seen everything, by accident, when Aunt Alice was first testing the shorts on him.

Everyone knew I had a perfect memory. It's not like I was going to forget what I saw. I remember everything in prefect clarity and detail, just like a full Vampire. But I think it was one of those things that my family did to make themselves feel better and then tell me it was for my own good. That's fine, I could humor them in this, as well as in all of the other things we were pretending I was too young to know about, but already did. I could wait and when they were finally ready, they would relent.

Most things that they were uneasy with appeared to be tied to the rapid growth of my physical appearance. There seemed to be this unwritten rule with my family where they ignored the fact that I was mentally an adult, and sometimes only let me behave as I looked physically. This was true even as I was beating Uncle Jasper at Chess, (I finally did last week, I think he's still in shock!) performing side by side with my father on the piano, mastering a dozen different languages, the list went on and on.

Why did my physical development lag behind my mental so? Perhaps Jacob letting me hunt alone this time was a sign that things were changing.

I sprang swiftly across the gorge, landing in a tree, adjacent to where my mountain lion was, but not close enough to alert him to my presence. I made a few more small jumps, leaping from branch to branch, getting closer and closer to my prey. When I was close enough I sprang and easily incapacitated the beast. Seconds later, after sinking my teeth into his neck I had completely drained him. Scrumptious!

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jacob, with a huge smile on his face. "I knew you could do it, looks like you don't need my help anymore."

"Were you watching me the entire time?" I'd be willing to bet he hadn't even hunted himself, just followed me.

"Yeah, I wanted to give you a chance to try to take down something on your own, but couldn't risk being too far away, just in case. You know I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you." He came over to me and wrapped me in a hug. "Congratulations!"

Jacob, what could happen to me? I'm nearly as fast as a full Vampire, and almost as strong, much stronger than any animal, and my skin is impervious to their claws and teeth. What exactly did you think could happen to me? I thought to him. Really the worst that would happen was me being too loud and spook the creature and loose my meal.

"I know that honey, but I can't help but worry." he shrugged, releasing me from the hug, but brought his arms down to hold my hands, keeping us connected.

"That's understandable, you're a Wolf, and I'm your Imprint. It's your job to protect me." I wonder if he ever stopped to think that maybe something got screwed up somewhere, in whatever mystical Quileute magic that connected us, with the Imprint bond though?

Jacob suddenly flinched, dropped my hands, and gave me a look, like I had just ripped his heart out. Oh no! He must have heard me and misunderstood what had I thought. I needed to clarify myself.

"No Jacob, what I meant is that I really don't need you to protect me. I'm not some weak little human, like the other Imprints." His face fell even further. Crap! I needed to try to make my point again without further upsetting him. I needed to choose my words very carefully. "It's just that . . . um, are you sure there isn't something more to Imprinting than just being my protector? The Quileute spirits must have brought us together for more than that right?"

Come on, I'm not stupid, I clearly had seen how all of the Wolves in La Push were romantically involved with their Imprints, (with the exception of Claire and myself, but we were children, well Claire was a child, I am . . . whatever this in-between thing, that I am, is.) But why had he never told me about the romantic side of Imprinting?

"What do you . . . hold on Nessie," Jacob broke off from whatever he was about to ask, as he retrieved his chiming cell phone from his pocket. "I needs to phase, something's wrong." Jacob quickly explained when he saw a text from Quil. Damn, I was so close to finally talking about this.

Jacob immediately turned into a Wolf, and with the direct connection to his Pack, found out whatever was wrong faster than talking over the phone. A minute later he phased back and was standing next to me telling me we had to go.

"What's wrong? Was there a Vampire attack, is one of the Wolves hurt?" That seemed the most obvious reason but my mind was running through a hundred other possibilities. Was Billy sick? Did Paul accidentally injure Rachel? Did something else happen in La Push?

"No nothing like that. Embry got arrested. I need to go bail him out." He seemed really pissed. I could understand why. Embry must have done something reckless to expose himself. Just like my family, all of the Wolves had to be so careful, all the time. It was too easy to get angry, lose control, and accidently hurt someone. But Jacob would have mentioned if some innocent person had been injured or even killed. Right?

"Jacob, what happened?"

"I'll tell you everything in the car, we need to drive to Portland, Oregon, it will take awhile." We had been hunting in Canada as usual, so it took us some time to run back to the car, but once we were there it was a long drive south, from Vancouver, Canada through Washington, and then into Oregon.

I had called my parents once in the car, to let them know what was going on. They did not like me going all the way to Oregon, but Jacob didn't want to waste any more time having to drop me off, back home first. That would have almost doubled his drive time. I know he did not want to risk leaving a possibly angry and explosive Wolf locked in a tiny jail cell for longer than necessary. That could be very bad.

After a bit of convincing, my parents understood, or at least relented, and agreed to let me go. Which was good, because I didn't see Jacob listening to them right then.

The trip normally would have taken over five hours, but Jacob drove double the speed limit, luckily avoiding any cop cars. Alice was able to warn us ahead of time of any potential trouble, like speeding tickets. She couldn't see us, but learned to see around us, and she could see my parents reaction to us getting a ticket, or worse, and called just in time for Jacob to slam on the breaks, when needed.

"So Jacob, now would you like to tell me what is going on?" We had been driving for over thirty-five minutes and he had not said a word, yet.

"Embry Imprinted," he said through a locked jaw. Why would that make him upset? Wasn't Imprinting a positive thing? And what did that have to do with him getting arrested?

"Um, Jacob, I am going to need more information than that." He took a deep breath. Whatever had happened had greatly upset him and he was desperately trying to calm down. I needed to give him some time so I waited patiently until he was ready. Eleven minutes later he began again, this time a lot calmer.

"Like I said, Embry Imprinted . . . over a year ago."

"Really? I had no idea, he never brought her around."

"That's because she rejected him." Jacob looked like he was angry and sad at the same time.

I felt so bad for Embry, he must be in so much pain. But why would she do that? "How is that possible, who would want to turn down a . . . protector."

He huffed. "Nessie, you were right before, Imprinting is more than just protecting your Imprint from harm." Duh!

Jacobs face looked worried, and I don't think it was because of Embry being locked in a jail cell anymore. "Why don't you start at the beginning. What happened with Embry last year?"

"He had gone to a club in Seattle with some of his new college friends. One of them spotted a cute girl across the room and on a dare, Embry went up behind her and said . . . used a disgusting and highly offensive pick-up line." It didn't look like Jacob was going to repeat whatever it was that he had said. "It wasn't something he would ever have done or said on his own, one of his stupid guys friends thought it up. But Embry's not one to turn down a dare, even one that obviously would never work. And of course she was offended and pissed at him. When she turned around, screaming and telling him off, their eyes met and Embry ended up Imprinting on her. It turned out she's from the Makah Tribe."

"The one north of La Push?"

"Yup, it's where Emily and Claire are from, too. Anyway after hearing his horrible pick-up line she wanted nothing to do with him and pretty much now hates him," Jacob said through a snarl before clearing his throat. "He had immediately started apologizing, groveling really. But nothing he said helped, not after he had offend her so badly. Really I'm surprised she hadn't slapped him right there on the spot." Oh!

Jacob took another deep breath. Talking about this seemed to be making him more and more upset, instead of calming him down like I had hoped. But I still think he needed to talk through why this was upsetting him so much. Thankfully he kept talking.

"I knew something was wrong with him, he had been acting odd this past year." Jake was shaking his head, clearly blaming himself. "Normally Embry's a carefree and happy guy, you know . . . when not overcome by hormonal Wolfy rage by a leec- err Vampire. But lately he's become more and more aggressive, lashing out, being extremely irritable, picking fights with the rest of the Pack. I tried to talk to him a few times, to find out what was wrong, but he refused and never thought of his Imprint, not even once when he was phased. I don't know how he managed that. He was keeping up with his patrol duties so I let it go. It must have been extremely difficult for him though. Maybe I should have used my Alpha voice and made him tell me what was wrong. Then he never would have gotten into this mess!" Jacob yelled, slamming his hands on the steering wheel, causing the car to momentarily swerve.

"Jacob, you know you would never do that. You have always told me how you hated when Sam would use it on you, and the rest of the Wolves. You vowed to never take someone's freewill away from them, and you never have. Embry made his own choice and now he just has to deal with it." Well, him, and us.

"I know you're right but I don't know why he didn't let us help him. We could have done something." Jacob was so agitated, fidgeting in the driver's seat. He was mad - some at Embry, but as Alpha more at himself.

"Well it's too late for that now, so just get over it and move on. If you go storming into the police station like this you are going to get yourself thrown in a cell too." Jacob desperately needed to calm down. I didn't think he was in danger of phasing but also didn't think he heard a word I just said.

"JACOB!" I yelled, grabbing his hand and repeated what I just said, this time using my gift so the words went directly into his head. I also sent him all the calming thoughts I could muster. It wasn't as good as Uncle Jasper's gift, but it looked like it was working. He stopped shaking at least.

Twenty minutes later, all the while still holding his hand and continuing to send calming vibes, when I was sure he was more relaxed I tried talking to him again.

"Embry has been spending the past year trying over and over to be with her, in any way she would let him, but she won't even talk to him," Jacob explained.

"I don't understand why he had to talk to her though. Couldn't he have kept an eye on this girl from afar? Made sure she didn't get hit by a bus or something, from a distance." I was pretty sure I actually did know, but I wanted, no needed to hear it for myself from Jacob and have him confirm it.

It looked like he wanted to talk, to tell me the truth but at the same time he hesitated, debating with himself. "I guess you are getting old enough to know the truth," he signed. I've always been old enough. When I saw him take another deep breath before he started talking again, I got worried, but it wasn't like I could take my questions back. "Renesmee, Imprinting is more than just protecting your Imprint, and keeping them safe. It is a much deeper connection. Our Imprints . . . .well you are our . . . soulmates." He struggled but managed to get the last word out. I could see him taking his eyes off of the road to look at my reaction when he said it. I kept my face neutral, even though I wanted to break out into a giant grin. I wanted him to keep talking, to tell me everything, and after a brief pause, he continued. "We are connected to you like gravity. You draw us in. You already know that you are the one we would do anything and everything for, you're who we live for. But it's also an incredibly deep and intense love. It can be platonic like Quil and Claire currently have, or a more . . . romantic one like Paul and Rachel's. But we all have to be with our Imprints in some way. It hurts us physically to be away from you. We would do anything for you, be anything for you, but we have to be with you in some way." He paused to take a few more deep breaths. "Do you understand? Do you have any questions?"

Nothing he said was news to me, but it felt good that he had confirmed what I had seen on my own while at La Push, and what I felt between Jacob and myself. I was about to say something, but before I could Jacob started talking again. I think he was too excited to hear what I was going to say. I didn't think it was possible but maybe he was nervous and wanted to delay it in case anything I said was going to be bad.

"Imprinting is how Wolves find their soulmates. But even if I never Imprinted on you Nessie, you'd still be my best friend and . . ." he didn't finish the sentence. "I would still feel the same way about you. It is just more like a helping hand, that led me to you sooner. Do you remember Jared, he's in Sam's Pack?" I nodded. "Well back in High School, in La Push, before he first phased Jared thought Kim was cute. Once he imprinted on her, it . . . gave him the confidence to ask her out, which was great news for her because she had had a huge crush on him. They were meant to be together." He glanced over at me again.

"So what went wrong in Embry's case?" I wanted to talk more about the true meaning of our Imprinting but that could wait until later.

"A couple of days ago his Imprint went with a group of friends to Oregon, and he followed her, just to make sure she was safe. He had accidentally run into her multiple times in Washington, but when she saw him in Oregon, so far from home, she realized he had followed her and must have thought he was obsessed or crazy. She started screaming, her friends were yelling, and Embry panicked. He didn't want to scare her more so he left, but once he was away from her he was so upset he phased. Eventually, once he calmed down enough, he phased back, but he wasn't thinking clearly because he didn't have any clothes and someone saw him. They ended up calling the police and he was arrested for indecency."

"Oh, no! How did Quil finally find this all out?"

"When Embry was phased, he was so upset he didn't seem to notice Quil was also in his Wolf form and didn't block his thoughts. Quil could see everything Embry had been hiding for the past year and a half."

"Jacob, we need to do something to help him, beyond just bailing him out of jail. We need to help both of them, they belong together."

"I know Nessie. I already talked to the guys while I was phased, they are going to go talk to his Imprint when she returns to the Makah Reservation."

"I'm not sure if that is a very good idea. She has essentially been stalked for over a year, by a very tall, very imposing, very muscular man. I don't think sending all of his big, equally well built, and intimidating buddies to talk to her will go over very well."

"Sure, sure. I can see how that might not be the best thing. But what else can I do? She needs to see that she has nothing to worry about with Embry and will probably be very happy with him around, even if they do just become friends."

"Why don't you ask some of the Imprints from Sam's Pack to go talk to her instead. I'm sure she would be much more comfortable speaking with a group of women. I could go too, and maybe Claire could come with me."

"That's a wonderful idea, Nessie. But I don't think Claire should go. She is just a child."

"But that is why she should go. So this woman, that Embry has Imprinted on, can see that he won't hurt her, that there is no danger."

"I can see why you would think that Nessie, but I need to think of Claire too. Like you, she was not told everything about Imprinting. She will be, when she's older, and the time is right. But don't you think it would be confusing for her if she found out now when she's still so young that one day, Quil, who has always been her best friend would be . . . that is, he could be . . . if she wanted . . . that they would be . . . um, together -"

I got the feeling that we were no longer just talking about Claire and Quil anymore.

"Jacob, I am sure that Claire can see how much Quil loves her and I know how much she already loves him. I am fully confident that when she is old enough she will effortlessly transition from platonic to romantic love just like the rest of the Imprints, if she wants to. Give her some credit, she understands more than you think."

Jacob's mouth erupted into a gleaming white grin that I loved, understanding my meaning, but then got serious again. "I don't know. I'll need to talk to Quil about this. It affects him as well. He deserves a say."

"If it makes you feel better I can keep Claire away from the romance portion of the Imprinting talk. We can just be there for the basics and then excuse ourselves. I'm sure I'll be able to think of some reason for us to not be there the entire time."

"That would be perfect Nessie. Thank you."

"No problem my Jacob." After a minute of neither one of us talking I changed topics, slightly. "Jacob, can I ask you something?"

"You can always ask me anything, Nessie. What is it?"

I was not sure I could ask out loud so I placed my hand on his. Am I the only Imprint not from either the La Push or Makah Tribe?

"Yeah, I guess so. Why?"

My question didn't seem to upset him, so with my confidence restored I switched back to talking out loud. "Don't you think that's strange? All of the Wolves Imprinted on someone from either your Tribe or that of your closest relatives. I'm not one of you, I'm not even human, well not completely. How did you end up Imprinting on me? It seems beyond unlikely."

Jacob got very quiet again. What did I say this time to upset him?

"Well Sam, and some of the Elders have a theory. Not about you, particularly, but on why a Wolf Imprints on one person over another."

He stopped talking again. Oh no! Are you going to . . . I mean . . . can you share this theory with me?

"Um, well," he looked nervous now, "remember it's only a theory, but Sam thinks that we Imprint on the person who we will . . . create . . . um, well . . . who we have the greatest ability to, err . . . reproduce with . . . and create the strongest Wolves with." He looked over at me apprehensively.

That would make sense. The people from the two Tribes should have the most compatible genes that would be more likely to produce the desired outcome for the next generation of Wolves. "But that still doesn't explain me," I said, but then as I thought more about it, it started to make sense. "Of course being half-Vampire, I guess a part-Wolf/part-Vampire child would be extremely strong."

"You're taking all of this really well Nessie," he said, but I wasn't so sure if I was or not. I was still processing the reproductive aspect of Imprinting. That facet had never dawned on me and I wasn't sure what I wanted anymore. Jacob immediately sensed my internal conflict. "You have a choice though, we don't have to be together that way, if you don't want to. We can just stay best friends. It's completely your choice. And you don't have to decide until you are older anyway. I never meant to tell you this so soon . . . Edward will probably want to kill me when we get home," he smile while rolling his eyes at how my father tends to overreact to things sometimes.

"I think you're safe, he won't try to eat you . . . probably," I chuckled. And I should confess that I already knew most of it, I just needed to hear you say it. And I'm sorry if I upset you, but felt that it was, for some reason, important that I hear the truth from you and not what I had already figured out on my own." Then I added with my gift, Sam's theory was news to me though. That seemed to make both of us uneasy. "Maybe all of the un-Imprinted Wolves should take a field trip up to the Makah Reservation. It seems to be a great match maker." I added to lighten the mood back up.

It worked. We both chuckled and spent the remainder of the car ride talking about random things to pass the time until we reached our destination. Time to bail out Embry!

Thanks for reading.

I thought this chapter was all set a week ago but as i was about to post it i gave it a final read and realized that I needed to redo a lot. i think it works much better now. Hope you like it.

Please review. Thanks