CH.30-2 Whispering Spirits- Prt2 Council
(From Ch.29 Celebrate)-"Well Charlie how about we sit down and discuss your first bit of council information." Billy said.
Immediately after Seth, and Bella left to begin their journey.
Charlie's Pov
I walked back to the bonfire taking my seat and looked around at my friends, the same friends I had known for 30 years who were now my family. Young men I had known since their birth, watching as they grew into the men before me, never knowing the immense weight they carried on their too young shoulders. I looked at the women that stood beside these men, wondering of the strength it must take to endure the uncertainties that the magic surrounding them brings into their lives.
I had become a part of the magic and the legends; I had been trusted with secrets and honored with a role in each of their lives, in the lives of their people.
I Charlie Swan was a humbled man.
"It's a lot to take in." Sue said walking up to stand next to me.
"It is." I told her not having the words to say anything else.
"Charlie my son went from a 15 year old boy on the football team to a grown man, and essentially married all before he could legally drive, my daughter became the first female shifter in history trust me when I tell you I understand how hard all of this is." Sue told me patting me on the back as she took a seat next to me.
"Let's bring this meeting to a start." Old Quil announced as he too took a seat around the fire. I watched as Harry rolled Billy's chair over and then sat beside Sue, Sam taking his place next to Billy and Emily next to him and around the circle it went until everyone was seated in what felt like a ranking system.
"Charlie as a council member within the pack you will be involved in decisions that we make to better the pack, you will offer council to pack members and will be a vital part of the inner circle. You were chosen for your loyalty, friendship, and acceptance. You are an honorable man and our pack will greatly benefit having you on their side." Billy said.
The son-of-a-bitch was determined to make me cry like a fool.
"Thank you." I said and from the smirk on his face, he knew what he had done.
I watched Paul grab a beer and take a long pull from the bottle.
"This is one of the things we wanted to explain." Harry gestured to Paul, and I could see they had been looking for my reaction. I never made a big deal of the kids drinking but I can't say it didn't bother me either. I am a cop.
"Charlie we can't get drunk, well not as far as we can tell and believe me we have tried. Mostly it relaxes us and makes us feel normal. We spend our days and our nights patrolling the lands, and occasionally hunting and killing vampires when we come back home the only thing we really want is to feel like we are still the same guys we were before all this happened. A beer or two helps with that." Sam told me.
It made sense, and even if it went against the cop in me, I could understand the need to feel normal in this world. I nodded to Billy to let him know I understood.
"OK onto the next topic." Old Quil said.
"The only guide we have to help the pack are the Histories from the packs that came before us. We are finding out that they are less than accurate. This makes recording the information we learn from this our largest, and youngest pack in History all the more important. With the need to record the happenings of the pack and its members, we have knowledge about our children and their private lives that no parent would or should have. It's an embarrassing (often more for us than them) fact." Harry told me.
"We're talking about Bella and Seth aren't we?" I asked knowing the answer already.
"It's different the way moms see sons and dads see daughters. The first time the council sat with Bella and Seth I wanted to hide under the couch, there are some things a mom just does not want to know. My heart ached for poor Bella; I just kept thinking of how I would have felt if I had, had to sit before Harry's parents and divulge such private information. I cringed, I got sick, and then I realized if I could laugh about it, it wasn't so bad. It made things easier for me, and for Bella.
Charlie the truth is, after you get past the fact that we're talking about our own children some of this stuff is hilarious." Sue told me patting me on the arm.
"Well I'm at least glad I've been introduced to certain knowledge in the last couple of weeks. I mean what could be worse than broken beds and ceiling mirrors." I said putting on my big boy Chief of Police briefs.
"Here!" Sam said handing me a beer trying to cover his laugh. Well shit, I thought.
"Sam." Billy nodded for him to start.
"Charlie, I know we've explained the imprint to you and the marking but I want to explain it from a wolf's perspective so that when we start the actual meeting you can have an idea of why we're having a meeting specifically about Bella and Seth." Sam told me.
"Ok." I told him nervous about everything I would no doubt be learning.
"Imprinting is a gift from the Ancestors, it's their way of giving the wolf his or her perfect mate, it centers them in a way nothing else could or would. Each imprint and their wolf are each other's perfect half. We exist because they do, we sense each other, we orbit around our imprint. They are what give us the strength to endure the wolf.
We as a pack believe there is something much deeper going on with Bella and Seth's imprint than any of us know how to explain. The bond the two of them share is beyond anything described in our books, or anything anyone else has experienced. We have several reasons for believing the way we do. The first is Bella herself, Bella has been able to know things that we cannot explain and are not typical of an imprint." Sam told me.
"Sam can I?" Leah asked.
"Sure." Sam told her smiling.
"Charlie you and dad have been friends for a long time so I know you're aware that Sam and I had at one time been together." She said.
I nodded letting her know that I had indeed known that.
"We dated all throughout high school, and then he disappeared. We know now he had phased but at the time not even, the Elders knew what happened to him.
When he came home, he was different but we became engaged even with me not knowing of the wolf. Emily is mine and Seth's cusion and she came down to help with wedding arrangements, the second Sam saw her he imprinted, only I didn't know what had happened. I thought they both betrayed me and to say I turned into a bitch would be the understatement of the century." She said shaking her head.
I hated them, and was furious with mom and dad because by them supporting Sam and Emily I felt betrayed by them as well. When I phased it was another blow.
The first, and only female wolf in our Histories. I have no idea if I will be able to have children and until I imprinted on Brady we didn't even know if I would be able to do that. Knowing the truth about Sam and Emily didn't help, because even though I knew they did not betray me like I thought it still hurt and to make matters worse I had to see inside Sam's head how much he loved her. It was hard and I did everything in my power to make sure everyone suffered along with me.
All any of us (except Jake) knew of Bella was she dated the leech; to say I was not her biggest fan would be an understatement. When Seth imprinted on Bella, I liked her right away, but more than that she felt like my sister much to the shock of everyone." She said laughing and I could see the guys nodding.
I was coming home from Patrol one day; I heard Bella and Embry in the kitchen talking. He was explaining the Sam/Emily/Leah fiasco. He told her not to look at me with pity because I hated it, and I did. Nothing worse than seeing people look at you with pity in their eyes, even if you know they mean well it's a reminder of your loss and it deepens the wound.
That's when I heard Bella explain to Embry that she felt like I had imprinted on her just as Seth did, as a sister because she loved me as her sister from the beginning. Then she told him she didn't pity me, she admired me.
She said she didn't believe I was a fluke or that any of us could know if I would or would not have the ability to have children. Bella told him I must have been chosen for a reason. Charlie no one had ever looked at my phasing like that, I'd always been the anomaly and here was Bella non Native, didn't grow up with the legends saying and believing that I was a wolf because the Ancestors saw something in me.
It was the first time I had ever felt proud to be what I am.
When I made it home, we talked about the whole kid issue because no one ever wants to talk about it but she did. She told me she believed that I would be able have children but if I couldn't; she would carry a child for me.
She heals people Charlie; she takes broken souls and puts them back together without even knowing she's doing it. So yes, I think Seth imprinting on Bella has far
more meaning than we understand. She healed me when no one else had." Leah said, and I knew I was not going to make it through this my first council meeting without shedding a few tears.
I could see both Harry and Sue wiping tears, and the pack looking down. I had a feeling not everything Leah just said had been known to all.
"We were at Seth's when Leah imprinted on Brady. Seth and Bella came walking down stairs and Seth introduces Bella to him. She starts asking him twenty questions and decides we're over due for a slumber party." Embry tells us.
"She makes a deal with me that if I'll finish Leah's patrol she'll keep Seth from killing me." Quil picks up where Embry stopped.
"Yea, you deserved a broken nose for that stunt." Embry snorted.
"Maybe." Quil laughed.
"So Quil leaves and Bella meets Leah at the door, drags her downstairs, and when they come up Bella is bouncing and introduces Brady and Leah and just like slow motion. Seth, me, and Embry watch Leah imprint. Bella knew. How we have no idea but she did." Jake finished telling the story.
"To go along with what Leah just explained, and what Jake and Embry just told you, when the incident with Will happened I was at my house with Emily, Leah and Brady. Before we knew, anything was wrong, Leah and Brady both tensed up and were out the door before I had the full story.
Neither of them should have been able to sense that, but they did.
Normally no male would have been able to get near Bella without Seth taking him apart, not even you Charlie, yet he asked Brady to guard her.
Seth's wolf sees Brady as Bella's sister just as he sees Leah as her sister, it's only possible if Leah does in fact have a sister imprint with Bella." Sam told me.
"There's nothing in the books to explain it." Harry told me.
"My scars, like Leah with the child issue no one talks about them but we all know they're there. Bella asked me one day why I never wore my hair up, and when I motioned to my face, she rolled her eyes and pulled the rubber band that is always on her wrist off and proceeded to put my hair up. She looked at me and said…
Now everyone can see your pretty eyes.
Then she went back to making lunch. It didn't take my scars away but that simple gesture told me that she really did not see them, and that they are not the only thing people see when they look at me. Leah's right, she does heal people." Emily told us earning more tears from our group.
"We could say it's Bella's nature to be kind, and it is but it's deeper than that she makes people feel whole where they didn't before, its things like this that lead us to believe Bella and Seth imprinting serves a higher purpose. We just don't know what it is. There are examples like this, and then there are the more uh private matters." Billy told me.
"This is the part where you try to picture someone else's kids we're talking about." Sue told me handing me a beer.
I can do this, I told myself. "Ok let's get this over with." I said pulling the cooler next to me making Billy and Harry laugh.
"After Seth marked Bella, he told us he always knew he would; that he had been fighting it from the very first time he kissed her. I can tell you Charlie that Jared, and I being the oldest wolves and the first to imprint do not feel the need to mark Emily or Kim, while the thought of marking our mates' crosses our mind, our wolves have not demanded it, as Seth's did.
The unusual thing is he felt the need to do it before he ever claimed her. Then he not only marked her once but twice and before we could hold the council meeting, Bella had a third mark. Nowhere in our books does it describe multiple markings, and honestly, I have no idea how many times she has been marked at this point. The last solid number I knew was eight.
There has to be a reason that his wolf has felt the need to mark her as much as he has. We just don't know what it is." Sam told me passing me another beer.
"Seth bites her throat and I don't mean a little nibble. I mean full on K-9 teeth imbedded in her throat. The first time I saw it in his head I didn't know what to think and ended up with a broken nose and jaw complements of Seth and Leah." Sam said rubbing his jaw.
"The BBQ?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Harry, Sue, Old Quil, Billy, Jared, Leah, and I have seen it in person the night that the rez shine made its way into Bella's hands. It was surreal to see and not even close to what has been in his head. Bella bites him too; of course, it is much different as she doesn't have K-9's but she is drawing blood nonetheless. When we brought it up at the now infamous council meeting, they both said it was instinctual and it was much more spiritual than sexual.
Charlie we cannot find anything in the books to explain it, and none of us have that desire. We know they are exchanging blood and while it may be only small amounts we have to believe it serves a purpose again we just don't know what it is yet." Sam explained.
"Then there are their silent conversations, they seem to be able to know what the other is thinking or feeling simply by looking at each other. It's kind of creepy." Embry said laughing.
"We watched them make breakfast one morning and they moved like a choreographed dance." Harry said shaking his head.
"I can tell you that is not a typical imprint thing; Sam is always in my way in the kitchen." Emily laughed.
"Don't forget the night of Brady's welcome bonfire." Jake said, making him, Quil, Embry and Paul squirm and shake their heads.
"What's a welcome bonfire and what do Bella and Seth have to do with it?" I asked.
"Charlie remember we Natives have certain beliefs that you pale faces might not have." Billy told me chuckling.
"When we welcome a new brother or sister into the pack we hold a welcome bonfire. We retell the legends and we celebrate in the exact customs of our ancestors the protectors that came before us. We pass around a peace pipe, and allow the spirits to enter into us through the smoke." Billy explained.
"You get high?" I asked.
"Yes, but it does have a spiritual meaning for us. It is how our ancestors celebrated the welcoming of each new pack member. The herb is blessed." Old Quil told me.
"Anyway, we had bets on whether Bella would participate because well she's your daughter plus none of us could see her doing it. She did, all I can really say is half of us will never be able to smoke up without needing a cold shower. The crazy thing is they were not doing anything I mean not even kissing. It's like that with them, they can sit beside each other and do nothing but hold hands and the room feels like it's on fire." Jake told me.
"There are just too many things to be coincidences, one, or two we could write off as being an especially strong bond, but there are simply too many things that we cannot explain, and appear to be much deeper than we have the ability to understand. Our ancestors teach us that there is a reason for everything and we must always pay attention." Billy told me.
"We are hoping the Ancestors will give Seth and Bella some of the answers while they are on their Spirit Journey." Sue told me patting my arm.
"We know it's uncomfortable to know these personal things about Bella but we needed you to understand why it's important we know them." Harry told me glancing at Leah. He too would have to know certain things about his daughter that like me he would rather not know.
"Now that the serious stuff is over with I vote for some funny Seth and Bella stories." Emily said throwing me a smile.
"Well my sister has to be the most stubborn person to ever live." Leah started grinning.
"Those damn converse she loved so much that were falling apart, I'm not kidding she put duck-tape on the bottom to keep her toes from coming out yet she refused to buy new ones. Seth threw them away then spent three days helping her 'look' for them before he told her with sympathy they would just have to buy a new pair." Leah told us laughing.
"Didn't she 'lose' that old ratty sweatshirt, the ones with the holes in the sleeves too?" Kim asked laughing.
"Yea, he walks into the house one day with a black garbage bag and puts it in our trash can. He looks at me and says… "I was never here, you never saw me." Then leaves and searched the beach where we had the bonfire the night before with Bella looking for the ratty thing." Jake told us, cracking me up.
"She will not let him spend money on her, drives the guy crazy. He has to get devious and sneaky to get her anything." Brady said shaking his head.
"She's always been like that." I told them laughing at how frustrating she can be.
"Come on Charlie you can stay in Seth's old room." Harry told me after we'd sat around the bonfire telling stories about the kids which quickly turned into stories of him, me and Billy when we were young, I was glad Bella was gone for those.
I woke up to the smell of coffee, and made my way downstairs, Harry and Sue's house already filled with pack and imprints, with Billy and Old Quil thrown in.
I sat down with a cup of coffee just looking at the scene in front of me; the house was overflowing with bodies. I really did miss having Bells at home with me.
"Think there's any left overs in their fridge?" Jake asked. "What?" He asked seeing us all look at him. "Oh come on you can't tell me none of you haven't thought about checking." He said. I could see Paul and Embry smirk obviously having thought the same thing.
"I'm going to go look." Jake said heading towards the basement.
"You stay out of their apartment." Sue scolded but Jake was already down the stairs. He came back cracking up.
"What?" Paul asked.
"Seth left us a note, taped to the locked door." Jake said.
Stay out of our apartment, you slobs are not messing up what Bella works hard to keep nice. And NO, there are no leftovers in the fridge. Get your own wife.
Seth
"What are you looking so smug about?" Jake asked Old Quil who sat in the chair looking like the cat that ate the canary.
"Nothing." He said clearly full of shit.
"What are you hiding?" Billy asked the grouch.
"Not hiding a thing." He said about to stroke out from trying to keep himself from laughing. Jake got up and walked over to him and started sniffing, then stepped back and looked at him.
"She left you food." Jake said.
"She sure did. I even got a coconut pie." Old Quil said licking his lips and patting his stomach. Jake was grumbling making Billy snort through his laughter.
"Charlie come give me a hand." Harry yelled.
"I walked in to see him pulling out big pans of something from the extra fridge they kept in there.
"Bells." I said smiling.
"Yea she left this for us, now is a good time to pull them out before the boys break in to Old Quil's to see if they can find any crumbs." Harry laughed.
"Now watch and see how long it takes Leah to fly down the stairs, this is her favorite thing Bella makes." Harry said as he carried three trays of something that smelled delicious even raw as I carried three trays myself.
One minute and 46 seconds found Leah flying down the stairs yelling Bella's name. "They're still gone but she left us a little something." Sue told her.
"Oh man I think I could eat all six trays." Leah said looking at the uncooked trays of food in front of her and nearly moaning.
"Leah you better learn to cook, you and Brady are going to starve when Seth and Bella move out." Jake told her laughing.
"Nope, we're going to live next to each other and have a connecting garage." Leah told him seriously. Harry just shook his head laughing.
"Don't any of you have your own food?" Leah asked looking around as the entire pack had found their way into the kitchen.
"Do you blame us, the girl can cook." Paul said eyeing the pans that had not been put into the oven yet.
"Half the time Sue and I sit up here and argue about going downstairs and inviting ourselves to dinner." Harry said laughing.
"Hell at least you don't have to sit in the cafeteria with tuna noodles while Seth has left over roast or pork chops." Quil said scowling.
"Don't forget the desert; I almost stabbed him with my fork when he pulled out the carrot cake last week." Embry said shaking his head.
"Don't even laugh, your ass gets homemade lunch too just because your imprinted with Leah." Jared told Brady who was trying not to crack up.
"Hey what can I say, my sister loves me." Brady said grinning.
"The first time Seth came in with his 'lunch box' we were laughing our asses off until he pulled out a container with stuffed chicken, hell even the vegetables looked good." Jake said.
"Think she'll let me be her guinea pig for all the new recipes she comes up with?" Jake asked making Emily snicker.
"What?" Jake asked.
"I don't think her current guinea pig is resigning anytime soon." Emily said making everyone's eyes go big.
"Who?" Jake and Quil asked at the same time.
"You old coot." Billy hollered laughing. I turned to see Old Quil sitting at the kitchen table with a huge grin on his face.
"That is so unfair." Quil whined making Old Quil crack up.
"Seems fair to me." He said smacking Quil in the leg with his cane.
"Yea, for you." Quil told him.
"How long has she been feeding you?" Billy asked laughing.
"Since shortly after the first council meeting. She came over with lasagna and the questionnaire she told us she was going to make." Old Quil said laughing.
"She actually made one?" Sam asked grinning.
"She sure did, fed me got me all fat and happy then handed it to me and told me never to upset her Seth again, then yelled at me for all the unhealthy food in the house and made me go grocery shopping with her. She's full of fire for such a tiny little thing." He said shaking his head.
"She made you?" Harry asked laughing.
"Have you ever made that little firecracker mad? I would have done anything she said to get her to quit giving me the stink eye." He said making everyone laugh.
"Yea I've been on the receiving end, it's not fun." Sam said grimacing making Emily snicker.
We were interrupted when the oven timer went off. "Don't move." Sue ordered laughing as she and Emily got up to take the first cooked trays out of the oven.
"Oh man that smells good." Jake said and I think a little drool fell from his mouth. "I really do hate Clearwater sometimes." Quil said sniffing and diving into the plate of food Sue handed him.
"We know." Everyone said at once. I looked around slightly confused.
"Bonehead here has imprint envy." Old Quil told me making me laugh.
"Yea how many times has Seth broken your nose now?" Embry asked.
"Seven." Quil said with a big grin.
"Your arm?" Paul asked.
"Twice."
"And your shoulder?" Sam asked him.
"Never broken just dislocated, once." Quil informed us all the while grinning.
There was something seriously wrong with that boy. I thought.
Emily and Sue finished passing out the plated food, I really miss Bella's cooking. After several moans and grunts of pleasure around the table, and the remaining trays put into the oven we resumed our conversation.
"Why would Seth fight with his pack brother?" I asked wondering how the whole thing worked; I knew the basics but not the inner workings.
"Quil doesn't think before he speaks, and his thoughts are vivid." Embry told me.
"It works like this, once a pack member imprints that imprint becomes part of the pack it's instinctual. Seth imprinting on Bella made her our pack sister, family. Take Leah and Brady out of the equation because that's something entirely different, Sam and Jared have their own imprints so it's not an issue with them either, but for the rest of us, Bella is like a hot stepsister. You know she is hot but you also know never, ever to admit it.
We all think of her as a sister in terms of protection. We would protect her with our lives as we would Kim and Emily but we're not blind either (well not us single guys). Bella is hot. So you have a hot girl who cooks, hates shopping, and is nice on top of everything. She's every guy's fantasy, and while we may think that, you don't say it unless you want to die… or you're Quil and have a death wish." Embry explained with nods from both Jake and Paul.
"The fact that she has no idea how hot she is only makes her hotter."
Paul said laughing.
"I mean really the girl has no clue." Embry said shaking his head.
"Most of us are smart enough to keep our mouths shut and in return Seth ignores our mind slips, after all it's not like we want him to know what we think, we can't help it with the pack mind. Quil on the other hand has verbal diarrhea and doesn't know when to shut up and his mind slips are like mini movies and usually end with snapped bones… HIS." Jake told me.
"So sue me, the girl is like sex on legs carrying a chocolate cake." Quil said. "OUCH! Damn it granddad that's not funny. I'm going to burn that damn thing, you don't even need it." Quil said rubbing his head where Old Quil hit him with his cane.
"Sure I do, needed it just now didn't I?" He said.
After all six trays were polished off, Paul and Embry left for Patrol while Kim and Jared left to do something that had Kim all smiles and Jared trying to hide a grimace. The phone started ringing and Harry answered saying a loud Hello followed by him laughing so hard I thought he was going to fall down. Jake and Sam were just shaking their heads and Brady and Leah looked amused. Harry hung up the phone and walked into the living room.
"That was Tommy said he wants to start planning early this year for our fishing trip, suggested we meet up in November to catch up." Harry said laughing again. "November what…." I started to say. "How in the world does he know?" I asked already shaking my head.
"Seems the kids pulled over to discuss a change in route and got distracted and met Old Tommy who just happened to be the one to interrupt the distraction." Harry said through big guffaws of laughter.
"Oh please tell me it's not as bad as I think." I said already feeling my face heat up. "No just a little kiss, he said he didn't even know they were 'distracted' till he got to the window, he originally stopped to see if there was car trouble. He said Bella's face was priceless when he asked them how you and I were doing. Said Bella was mumbling about being five hours from home and finding the only cop who knew both their dads." Harry finished wiping his brow he was laughing so hard.
"Said he'll see us in November that he wasn't about to miss seeing you hand your only daughter over to my son for the world." Harry laughed.
"So Old Tommy's finally ganna make it down to the rez again?" Billy laughed.
"Looks like it." Harry laughed.
"Didn't you boys cause enough trouble together when you were younger?" Old Quil asked quirking his brow at us, the way he did when we were kids.