"After a storm comes a calm"

Matthew Henry

Things were quiet after that, calm even. It was nice. A nice reprieve after such hard won uphill battle. Red never asked, but I saw her eyes lingering on the little cupboard above the fridge with a frighteningly curious expression. It never left the back of my mind, the sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop, but life went on regardless of that little red book.

Red was told of imprinting, by Jacob no less. I'd been sleeping off a double shift, sprawled out on my bed, nose buried in the pillows that kept Red's scent even if she only slept at my place a few nights a week. Red and Jacob were in the living room, nothing but a thin wall between us, and every word came through crisply, even in my sleep-fogged mind.

"Kim and Jared are...intense. I mean, don't get me wrong, they're...it's so obvious they love each other. Any one with eyes could see that, but...I don't know. I worry. I remember what it was like...to be young like that and think-"

It never occurred to me to consider what Red would see in them, but if I had, I doubted I would have come up with that comparison. "It's not like that Bells," Jacob assured her swiftly. "Not anything like that really. They're made for each other. They love eachother."

A pause passed. "I did love Edward," Red said tightly. "And he loved me too, I think. I know it wasn't exactly conventional and he ended up-"

"Bella." Jacob's voice was exasperated but kind, as it always was with Red. "I wasn't saying you didn't. But it's different for Kim and Jared. It's..." His words drifted into nothing, and I knew without a doubt he was hesitant to mention imprinting. The geis had been lifted, and imprinting was no longer taboo. It didn't seem fair to Jared and Kim to force them to secrecy for my own comfort. "They're soul mates."

"I don't believe in soul mates." It was said with such a firm vehemence, I could have laughed.

With a wry chuckle, Jacob replied. "Yeah, you wouldn't. Look, it's not like...okay look, people throw around the words 'soul mates' all the time, but for us it's different. Wolves imprint."

The silence was echoing, but again, Red broke it. "Like ducks."

"That's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard come out of your mouth," Jacob snorted. "No not like ducks. Not really. Okay a little. But...look. When a Quiluett wolf see's it's soul mate, it's...I don't know how to explain it, I've never gone through it. Once upon a time I thought you and I...well."

"It's better that we didn't," Red said with no pause. It made me smile. "You're my best friend, Jake. But Sam... well."

I knew Jacob was smiling, even without seeing his trademark gleam of white teeth and dimples. "Yeah, Sam. Anyway, imprinting is instant. The first time one of us sees our soul mate, we just...we know. We know that there is no other person out there that we could love more. We can fight it but...it won't matter. Our imprint is our world and...she makes everything better. She makes us better. We want to care for her; feed her, keep her close, make her a home."

My fingers clenched on in the sheets unconsciously, as I listened to Jacob, heart pounding.

"It isn't always the same for the imprint," Jacob noted, to my relief. Red had to know that the imprint had a choice, even if the best choice would always be her wolf. "They make of their wolf what they want. Friend, brother, lover...enemy." The last was uttered, and to my relief, Red let it pass silently. "Lover is most common, I guess. Imprinting isvery rare, and very little is written on it. Other than Old , no one can even recall an imprint in the tribe."

"Wait?" Red cut him off. "Old Mrs. Altera is an imprint? Quil's great-grandmother? Old Quil's mother?" I was all to familiar of Red's impression of Mrs. Altera. The woman was older than dirt and twice as crotchety.

"Yep. She's all that's left of her generation too, but no one expects her to live much longer. Her imprint died, you see. Just before well...before everything happened. He was the last of the previous pack, and the only one of his generation to imprint. And before that, there's pretty much no record of imprints, just a few stories on what it was, and half a page of nearly indescribable Quilette. It's really rare."

"But Sam could."

I sucked in a breath, sharp and pained. The last thing I wanted was for Red to think I would leave her like that. I sat up in a silent rush, my whole body straining towards her.

"No." Jacobs denial was swift and steadfast. "You're it for Sam."

"But..." Red sucked in a long breath. "But it could happen to any of you. It could happen to him and then-"

"Bella, I am telling you right now that Sam will never imprint, ever." Jacob's voice was strong, firm and gently demanding. "He has no desire to leave the Rez," he reasoned logically. Red, as every one in my pack had come to understand, was a stickler for logic. That she was living amidst a nightmare fairytale of vampires and werewolves did not matter to her. "And he's seen every one here. Plus, it's stupidly rare."

So rare in fact, that already two of my pack's eight wolves had already imprinted.

Yes. Stupidly rare.

The remnant scent of summer still clung stubbornly in the air, green grass and sea breeze. I had a rare day off, no clients to please or patrols to run. I knew of course that I'd spend it as I did all my other rare days off, at the Hallow, laying boards and pounding nails, trying to squeeze as much work into one day as I could before night fell and the rain came.

Winter laid down a dead line. I wanted it done by the first snow.

"Where you headed?" Red murmured sleepily from the bedroom doorway. "Thought you had the day off?"

"I'm a little behind on one of the properties," I admitted, smiling when she pouted. "Sorry. Want to grab dinner tonight though? Or we could stay in?"

She grinned, scratching absently at her stomach between the buttons of my shirt she wore. "Actually, I thought we could have dinner Charlie at the diner in Forks. I think he has a crush on one of the waitresses there."

"It's a plan." I grinned, swooping low to kiss her quickly. "I better get going. I made coffee though, and there's some grapefruit in the fridge for you. I picked it up yesterday."

She curled her fingers into my shirt and held me in place. "We need to talk."

My heart slammed in my chest as my skin went clammy. "What?" Her conversation with Jacob, only a week prior flittered through my head and I fought the urge to look at the little cupboard over the fridge.

She sighed, shoulders slumping. "It's been months Sam, and you still haven't given me the third reparation. I tutored the boys, I'm working on the new journal, but...it's driving me nuts okay? You can't just let me off easy because I'm your girlfriend."

I blinked at her, and tried not to grin. "You want me to punish you."

"Don't make it sound so dirty, pervert."

"I could spank you," I offered, wrapping an arm around her and smoothing my hand over her butt, giving it a quick squeeze.

She laughed, pressing herself flush against me and smacking me on my chest. "I'm serious. I feel like...it just feels unfinished." She frowned, lip pulled tightly between her teeth.

"Alright." I ran my thumb across her mouth, tugging her abused lip free. "Go get dressed. Something warm. You can come to the property with me."

Red's brow wrinkled in curiosity but she didn't question the order. "Have you seen my hoodie?" She asked instead, to my surprise. "I feel like I haven't seen it in months. You know, the red one with the zipper?"

I knew the one.

"Yeah, yeah. I know where it is. You go get ready and I'll grab it for you." I watched her slip into our room, gathering her things from the third drawer down in my dresser, the one I cleared just for her. When she disappeared into the the bathroom, I hopped onto the bed, reaching behind the head board for the for the carefully folded jacket. It had been there forever, it felt like. Ever since Red wasn't quite mine. Her scent no longer clung to it, but it was every where else that it hardly mattered. I shook it out, laying it flat on the bed, and smiled, remembering the way I'd tugged on the cords the day I'd imprinted, so cocky and sure of myself.

We'd come a very long way.

tbc