I don't own Twilight!

I had a really hard time with this chapter because I wasn't sure if I was going to throw a twist in there or not. I decided to throw a miny one in there, though. This has also been hard because I only have a few chapters left. I still have to plan out how I'm going to end it, but there won't be many chapters left. :( No worries, though. I will be posting either a Paul/OC story that won't be in the universe of Unexpected Imprint or another imprint story inside this realm that I have made. :)

Thanks to all of the people that reviewed...

lytebrytehybrid88

Shakilove

The Daughter of Night

Guest

wolf-girl-only-in-my-dreams

Chapter 43 (Haley's POV)

Thanksgiving. The one day of the year that had to have "been sent by God," as Jake liked to put it. It gave the perfect excuse to hang out and eat with your friends and family all day and I was really excited to spend time with the wolves. From what Jake had said, it was bound to be interesting. I had learned a lot about the wolves since finally deciding that I could trust them. The monstrous appetite- no pun intended- meant that Emily was stuck in the kitchen all morning. I kept trying to slide in and help, but she always shooed me away, insisting that she had it covered.

I wandered around the packed house, anxious for Jake to arrive. He had promised that he would be here. Of that I had no doubt. What was he going to do, pass up free food?

I felt a pit of nervousness enter my stomach as I thought about Stephanie. She would arrive any minute and Seth wasn't even here yet. What if something bad happened or one of the wolves ph-

A sudden knock at the door stopped my thoughts in their tracks. It obviously wasn't one of the wolves because they never knocked and Jake continuously tried to convince me that it was proper etiquette to barge right in. As if!

I shuffled my way closer to the door, dreading the moment when I would actually open it. Whose bright idea had it been to invite her anyway?

I laid my hand gently on the knob and slowly twisted it open, revealing my friend on the other side. It was strange looking at her for the first time in weeks. I had been too busy with Jake to spend time with her, so seeing her like this nearly made me lightheaded.

My usually bright-eyed friend looked awful. She had dark bags beneath her eyes and her normally blue eyes were bloodshot. It was obvious that she had been having a hard time with the breakup. I noted with a pang of regret that she had needed someone to be there for her and I had been too preoccupied.

"Hi, Haley," she said, her voice hoarse and cracked from disuse.

"Awe, Steph," I said, pulling her into a hug.

"No," she said, causing me to pull away and look at her face, which looked suddenly steely with determination.

"No one is going to treat me like I'm this broken little thing, okay? He broke up with me, so what? Big deal. He's just one stupid guy in a world of even more stupid guys. I'm bound to end up with his equivalent at some point. It's just not gonna' be him," she said, looking right into my eyes. If I hadn't known her so well, I would have believed her.

She crossed the threshold and walked into the living room, where everything and everyone had abruptly become silent. I saw Sam glaring at each and every wolf before he softened his expression and walked over to Stephanie and me.

"Hi, I'm Stephanie. Thanks for having me here," Stephanie said meekly. She wasn't much for new people, but I had a feeling that she would like the wolves.

"Of course. The more the merrier," Sam said, although I was almost one hundred percent sure that Emily had told him to tell her that, judging by the hesitation in his voice and the fake smile plastered to his face.

"Thanks," she said, looking down.

I tried to coax Stephanie closer to the other wolves, which consisted of a gloomy looking Paul along with Jared, Kim, Quil and Claire, when Embry burst through the front door, a bag full of groceries in hand.

"Don't worry guys, I've saved the d-" He cut off, staring at Stephanie with his eyes opened in shock. He dropped the bag and walked closer slowly. I heard a few gasps in the background as the scene unfolded.

"Stephanie?"

"Embry!" Stephanie nearly shouted, running headlong into Embry. He picked her up and spun her around in a circle as she laughed and smiled.

"Dude, I haven't seen you in forever! What are you doing here?" She asked, a grin as big as Texas on her face.

"Just helping out with the Thanksgiving feast. But what are you doing here? Do you know about-" A throat clearing itself made Embry cut off. I had been too busy watching that I hadn't noticed Jake walk in.

He looked at Embry with a stern expression, then walked over to me and pulled me into a big hug. He kissed the top of my head, but didn't say anything as he turned around to look at Embry.

"Do I know about what?" Stephanie asked, looking perplexed, but not suspicious.

I looked at the other wolves and they seemed relieved. It was obvious by the way Embry was acting that he hadn't imprinted.

"Umm-" Embry said, wide-eyed.

"About the fact that I lost the great ham versus turkey battle!" Jared shouted from his place on the couch, his arm around Kim.

"Yeah, that," Embry said, glad that someone had his back in this lie we had constructed to keep Stephanie out of the supernatural world.

I smiled. I was glad that Stephanie had at least had a respite from dealing with Seth and his atrocious behavior.

Embry led Stephanie over to a chair and sat down, pulling her onto his lap. I had forgotten how close they had been before Embry's phase. It was nice that at least she could have a semblance of her old life back, even if only for the day.

After a few minutes, the door once again slammed open, an angry looking girl stalking inside. She had short black hair and a scowl which seemed to permanently be stuck to her face. She would have been gorgeous without the frown, but she was beautiful just the same.

She sneered at the wolves behind me, rolling her eyes as she walked up to Sam.

"I may have to be here, but there is no way in hell that I'm gonna' be pleasant about it," she said in a deadly voice, walking with purpose out the door that led to the backyard.

"That's Leah. Don't pay any mind to her," Jake whispered in my ear, causing shivers that weren't unpleasant to ripple through me from the warmth of his breath.

I just nodded my head, my eyes glued to the door, waiting for her brother to enter.

If I had thought Stephanie looked bad, Seth looked ten times worse. His normal russet skin was pale and his always cheery eyes seemed dead. Although he had bulked up some from his transformation, I could tell that he had lost weight. His hair was unkempt and I was almost positive that I saw a leaf sticking out of it.

He trudged slowly through the door, seeming as if every stride took all of his effort.

"No, Embry! Don't!" Stephanie's peals of laughter echoed through the house as Embry lifted her over his shoulder in a fireman's hold and started to jog her to the front door.

"What's up, bro'?" Embry asked as he stopped right in front of Seth, obviously noticing Seth's appearance.

Seth's eyes looked panicked as he noticed my friend over Embry's shoulder.

"What the hell is she doing here?" Seth asked viciously. I had never heard Seth sound that way and I never wanted to again.

"She has a name," Stephanie said vehemently, prodding Embry in the back until he put her down. She turned around and faced Seth, when suddenly Seth looked like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time. His jaw went slack and his eyes widened. Gasps rang out behind me as the others realized what had happened.

"Stephanie, I-" Faster than I had ever seen her move, Stephanie's hand whipped back and slapped Seth across the face. She cursed under her breath as she cradled her hand and when Seth stepped forward to try to help, she put her hand up to ward him off.

"I was going to try to be civilized about this, but I just can't. You broke up with me over text message. What kind of person does something like that? I told you I loved you and then the next day, you broke up with me! The next day, Seth! I loved you! You meant everything to me!" She shouted. I noticed that whenever Stephanie used words in the past tense, Seth winced, as if it was physically painful for him. He didn't try to deny it either.

"And the best part," she said bitterly, "was when you told me that you didn't love me in that text. That was just cruel." I nearly gasped. Apparently she hadn't told me everything that he had said.

"Stephanie, I'm so sor-"

"So help me, if you say sorry, I will-" she cut off.

"Actually, it doesn't matter what I would do. I have no hold over you anymore. I could say I'd break up with you, but that's already happened. I could say that I'd never speak to you again, but it's not like that would make a difference." She took a deep breath.

"Sorry will never be enough. Even if you ever felt sorry in that miserable place you call a heart, I will never forgive you for this," she said, storming into the kitchen.

I started to run after her when all hell broke loose.

Seth, a look of pure rage and hurt on his face was vibrating, his form quickly shifting as he tried to absorb what had happened.

"Seth, stop!" Jake shouted in his Alpha timber, but to no avail.

I knew what I had to do. I ducked under Jake's arm that was still around me and ran up to Seth.

"Haley!" Jake yelled, fear coating ever last syllable in his voice.

"Seth. Seth, listen to me," I said, grabbing his arm.

"Do you want Stephanie to see you like this? Huh? Do you want her to be afraid of you? Because that's what she's going to be. She's not going to understand what's going on and she's having a hard enough time dealing with this without adding supernatural creatures into it. Seth? Do you hear me?" I pleaded with him.

"I-hurt-her," he forced out in a pain filled voice. His eyes looked desperate, pleading.

"Yes, you did," I said in a reasonable voice. I wasn't going to deny the pain he had caused my friend.

"But if you phase you could hurt her more. I know you, Seth. I know that you are a good person. You're in a fight. Couples go through that, but you can't let yourself get out of control. For her," I whispered the last few words as his shaking subsided.

Seth closed his eyes for a moment, then reopened them.

"Thanks," he said quietly, with a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"No problem," I said back, breathing a silent sigh of relief.

I could feel daggers being stared into my back as I slowly edged away from Seth.

I turned around and looked into the eyes of my pissed off imprint.

He grabbed my arm gently and dragged me out of the front door, slamming the door closed behind him. He closed his eyes as a spasm rocked through his body.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He nearly spat. I knew he wasn't mad at me, but he had been scared about my safety, which was why I let the rude tone slide.

"I was thinking that the last thing we needed was a new werewolf phasing with my friend in the other room. I knew I could talk him down," I said, trying to appease him.

"And what if you hadn't? Do you think I would ever take that chance with you? He was about to phase, Haley! Have you not seen what we can do to people? What Sam did to Em? They're imprints and he still managed to hurt her! Seth isn't even your imprint! He could have hurt you! And if he had, I would have kil-"

"No, you wouldn't. Seth's a good kid. He looks up to you. If anyone is going to help him, it's going to be you and if it came down to it, even if I had been hurt, you wouldn't have killed him."

Jake snarled in agitation, but I didn't waver. It had been the right call to make. I was right and he knew it.

Jake abruptly pulled me to him, pressing his lips feverishly to mine as he guided my head to where he wanted it. I grinned as he tried to deepen the kiss and pulled away slightly.

"Never again," he growled, pulling me to him.

"Oh, you never want to kiss me again? I get it," I said teasingly as I tried to disentangle myself from him.

"No, that stunt you pulled." He nearly growled, but I thought I detected a hint of a smile.

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