CHAPTER FIVE

All noise in the kitchen ceased.

No one made any movement and grew increasingly concerned at the stillness of Zora and Jacob. She stared at him through newborn eyes, all amazement and fear, wonder and confusion. And he stared back at her, looking as if she'd just stolen something from him.

They all knew this wouldn't end well.

"You can't be serious," Jacob grumbled to himself. He gaped at the mesmerized girl in front of him, hoping that she would break free from her trance shouting "Just kidding!", that they would all have a good laugh and move on, that the pull - the freakish, invasive thing - awakening inside of him would disappear. When none of the above happened, a tremor of anger passed through him.

"You can't be serious!"

In an instant, Quil and Embry were behind him, rough hands gripping his shoulders. They pushed him back into his seat with brute force, the chair creaking from the abruptness of his weight. They managed to restrain him for all of two seconds before he shot up again.

And when Zora came to, the noise rousing her from her daze, she was face-to-face with Jacob.

She found him - her soul mate - and though he was no longer smiling at her, his dark eyes no longer holding any of the kindness and mirth she had seen only a minute ago, she thought he was beautiful.

"Jacob?" she muttered, soft and curious, her voice subduing the wolf trembling beneath his skin.

One moment, he had been fighting his friends' hold, and the next, he was lost - in thought, in her. He saw freckles stippled sporadically across the bridge of her nose, the small scar etched into her right eyebrow, the richness of her brown skin. He saw the flush of her cheeks, could hear the acceleration of her heart, and he thought she was beautiful, too. The realization planted a seed of anger within him, its roots growing and spreading. With fury in his voice, his mind, and his heart, he said, "You've ruined everything," and tore himself from the hands clutching him, quickly launching himself through the door.

Zora didn't have to look to know that he had made the transformation. She heard the familiar tearing of cloth and bone, heavy paws thudding against the earth as he ran towards the woods. She felt empty suddenly, his absence more poignant than she expected. She was…sad. Sad that he was so angry with her even though they had just met, sad that he was gone.

And confused, as hell, as to why she felt that way.

"What…what just happened?" she asked to no one in particular, her eyes still focused on the chair in front of her. She was fighting the irritatingly strong urge to run after him.

She received silence as her answer, the pack too stunned to respond. They had never witnessed an imprinting in person, and though they had seen and felt Sam and Jared's through shared memory, watching it in real time was more overwhelming, more intimate.

Another person soon burst through the door, huffing with excitement and adrenaline. Her short, dark hair was disheveled, the gleam in her eyes wild. She was the other female wolf - the first.

"I just saw Jake's thoughts," Leah said. "The new wolf...she did it. She really did it."

Zora would soon understand the vigor of Leah's excitement, but for the moment, took her reaction as taunting. "Did what?" she replied defensively, her eyes narrowed.

Leah stared back at her with just as much fire. "You imprinted. On a boy who happens to be in love with the world's biggest vampire ass-kisser."

"I did…what, exactly?"

Leah laughed this time, the noise flat, hollow. "You've got a lot to learn, new girl."


In time, Leah had become Zora's best friend.

Though she had been given an explanation of what "imprinting" was, it was Leah who relayed to her the seriousness of the bond, how true and deep it was.

"You're bound to him," she said dryly, "for life."

Zora's stomach churned at the thought. She'd had few crushes in her day, never interested enough to actually seek out a person romantically. So the fact that she had somehow found a "soul mate" was overwhelming.

"But what if I don't want to be bound to him?" she questioned, her knees pulled up to her chest. "Don't I get a choice?"

"Seems like choice is the one thing we're not afforded."

Zora could hear the bitter edge in Leah's voice. From the corner of her eye, she could see her struggling to maintain a hard exterior, her brow furrowed and her bottom lip quivering. Zora had an inkling of thought that the topic was more personal for Leah than she originally let on.

"Did…something happen?"

She expected the older girl to snap at her for not minding her business - they were still strangers to each other - but instead, watched as a tear fell down her cheek.

"Something happened," Leah murmured, recounting the story of her and Sam. She told Zora that she was young and stupidly in love, that Sam was all she wanted. And when he had run off after weeks of strange, inconsistent behavior and sudden physical changes, she was afraid she would never see him again. When he returned, he was different – a new and improved version of himself. And though she was willing to accept him, he could no longer accept her because he had new eyes, and his new eyes were fixed upon Emily Young, her older cousin.

She told Zora of the heart break, of his assertion that he couldn't control it, that it was hardwired in him. She told her that Sam ended their relationship through a pathetic confession of love, that he would always love her, but that he was no longer in love with her. And she told Zora about the accident: Sam shifting too close to Emily, scarring her forever; and that it brought them closer, made it possible for them to fall in maddening, nausea-inducing love.

"I used to wish that he'd injured her beyond repair, so that he could feel the pain of losing someone you love. Or that it had been me instead." Leah furiously wiped at a tear, turning her head to avoid Zora's expression of pity. "I liked to think that maybe he'd come back to me...but they belong to each other now. Nothing can come between them."

Leah explained that imprinting was absolute – it couldn't be changed and it couldn't be broken. Whoever a wolf imprinted on was destined for them, although the imprintee had a choice: the connection could be romantic love; it could be platonic, friendly; it could offer something as little as protection; and if they wished for nothing – no love, no friendship, no protection – then, so be it.

Because the wolf would be whatever their imprint needed them to be.

It was with this information that Zora understood Leah – the way she acted around others, the way she carried herself. The anger, the betrayal, and the pain were still there, still lingering in the background, and having to join Sam's pack never allowed her any sort of closure or release. However, Zora gave Leah hope. If she could imprint, then that meant Leah could, too.

It eased Zora's mind to know that Leah could one day find her person, but it opened up another door of possibility that she wished had been sealed shut. The ability to find a soul mate was embedded in the wolves, and though she had apparently found hers, she realized that Jacob, as a member of the pack, still had the ability to do the same.

Her heart sank.


(Revised 1/8/2021)