Chapter's song: "Another Love" - Tom Odell

My mind flew through thoughts as I raced into the woods picking up Joshua's scent almost immediately and following it while dodging trees as if I were in an elaborate labyrinth mother nature had erected just for me.

Could this be real? Could Joshua have actually imprinted on my Ma all those years ago in that diner? And if he had, how could he have left her and never even returned? I'd felt the feelings of imprinting myself, second-hand that is, and it was nearly impossible to just abandon an imprint- the bond was entirely too strong. The pull that the tie two people felt when an imprint happened was... unreal... and to fight it was completely unheard of.

I just couldn't understand why he would even want to fight an imprint. The feeling was euphoric almost- a constant high. From every view that I'd seen through the eyes of my brethren when in wolf-form, it wasn't the kind of thing you could talk yourself out of.

The triangle between Sam, Leah and Emily was proof enough of that.

As for the other lucky few who had imprinted, their entire personalities changed with it. Even Jared who had once professed that he was a real 'ladies man' was no longer interested in romance. After Kim entered his life, his entire personality shifted to better acclimate to his newfound relationship.

To be fair, Jared, like the other guys, relatively kept the same personality. They still had their usual sense of humor and many of the guys continued to be hopeless flirts- despite the fact that they were not even that good at it.

You could say boys will be boys but I was more convinced that it was simple habits they couldn't seem to shake- even with an imprint at their side. At the end of the day, I didn't mind watching their foolish attempts and trying to stay true to who they once were when they were all bachelors like I was.

What can I say, it made for decent free entertainment when out in public.

And thus for the most part, Jared, the self-proclaimed ladies man and his flirting accomplices, had retired.

Me on the other hand- I wouldn't call myself a 'ladies man' in any way, shape, or form. But that was partially my own fault. I'd dated some and gone out to 'sow my wild oats' as the saying goes. It wasn't like I was some hopeless virgin or anything who couldn't get laid... I just didn't see the point in dating or sleeping around. If I was going to eventually imprint on somebody someday, why hurt a random person's feelings in the process?

Of course, I hadn't imprinted yet which figures since I'd purposefully attempted to try and spare innocent girl's feelings because of the eventuality of imprinting, but whatever. It didn't really matter. With my luck, I'd be a terminal bachelor and spend the rest of eternity phasing and never imprinting. I'd be stuck with Leah and we could be bitter about it together with Sam hating the both of us until the end of time.

Fantastic.

As my mind wandered down the railway of random thoughts that transitioned into things which hardly had to do with Joshua and his possible imprinting on my Ma, I eventually made it back to the original question plaguing my mind- could him imprinting on her really have even happened?

As I slowed my pace through the woods to focus further on which way his scent led and which scent was the most recent of the ones I'd picked up, I began to go over the evidence I'd discovered from Ma's story in favor of him imprinting on her inside of my head.

First and foremost, there was the way she described their first meeting at the diner. She had been so descriptive about how he'd acted when he first saw her that it was hard to dismiss the reality of it- clearly the whole thing had been weird enough for it to stick out in her memory so well. I could hardly imagine it: Sam's dad looking at my Ma like that as if she were some kind of angel sent down from above. Had he felt the tie most imprinters feel that drives them to go where their 'person' is before the imprint takes place? I know it happens inadvertently to many of them and they don't even realize it until the imprint actually happens. Is that why he went to that particular diner on that specific day at that very moment just when Ma happened to be working? Was that fate or the imprint at work?

My next piece of evidence was the picture Ma had held onto for so long. The look he was giving her in that Polaroid was hard to ignore. It was a look I had seen so many times in Sam's face as he watched Emily do the simplest of tasks like cooking or putting one of their two children down for a nap. It was a look like Jared gave Kim or Paul gave Rachel- that look of pure, hopeless and true love; the kind that even the mightiest of powers couldn't break, not even in death.

It was a look I'd grown to envy and almost become sickened by, but was also a look with which I had become incredibly accustomed to.

Just like the infamous Leah Clearwater.

Together, we merely rolled our eyes in unison and turned away knowing we weren't part of the club and maybe we never would be.

Seth and the others however didn't seem to be bothered as much. They were far more hopeful, younger, and obviously didn't have our kinds of trauma when it came to the imprinting department: Leah with Sam and me with what I'd thought was just the inconvenience of everyone around me imprinting all the damn time. I thought the worst of it was that I'd essentially be left behind to wallow in self-pity all by myself and to be the eternal third wheel or something when it came to pure, unadulterated happiness.

Apparently though, it might be much worse than that with this whole new prospect of Joshua Uley, my newfound father, having possibly imprinted on my Ma some 20 years ago. That definitely qualified me to be in the left-behind-club that, until now, Leah had been the sole member of.

Oh wait, that's not true.

If Joshua had imprinted on Ma, that would mean Allison Uley could come join our little club too. Although I doubt she'd want to spend any time around me, her ex-husband's bastard son as Sam so eloquently called me the other day.

I shook my head at the memory of Sam's apparent new nickname for me and refocused my attention of my two tasks at hand: following Joshua's scent and gathering my evidence in my head. Taking a large whiff from a nearby pile of branches hidden underneath some snow that had fallen from the above tree, I decided to take a right and follow this path while continuing my thought process.

My mind instantly went to my next piece of indication in favor of imprinting on my Ma- the way Joshua had acted when I'd first met him those few days ago. I had to admit, I'd kind of freaked out, even if I had every right to do so. I mean, the man showed up on our doorstep for Christ's sake practically saying, "Hey, its me, your biological dad. Remember me? Probably not, seeing as I abandoned you and your mom before you were even born. I also abandoned your half-brother Sam Uley, I'm sure you remember him cause he lives just down the road. Oh- and I probably imprinted on your mom too. Merry early Christmas!"

Fine. I only discovered most of that recently, but still. He kind of showed up and turned my whole life upside down, so yeah, I'd say I had every right to freak out. It was his reaction to my freak out that I'd consider to be evidence helpful in proving my wild theory correct.

I remembered how he had tried to calm me down like he was deathly afraid of me hurting her in some way. He kept getting in between the two of us which, granted, at the time only made me angrier because I love my Ma more than anything and I'd never hurt her in a million years- but it seems to fit the theory of imprinting. Any of the guys who have imprinted would do anything to stand in the way and fight against whatever they had to in order to protect their imprints; even if meant risking their very lives.

Altogether, it seemed like I had a pretty fitting case of a probable imprinting. However, it begged one question that I couldn't seem to shake from my mind no matter how hard I tried and it was a question that seemed to answer how Joshua might have been able to steer clear of my Ma for all these years.

That question was: did Joshua even know what imprinting was?

I mean, he had to, right?

That question was the driving force behind my quest to find the man whose scent I followed through the woods. It continued to grow stronger in my snout with each step I took and I could tell I was drawing near to discovering where he had been hiding out.

I just knew I had to talk to him. I had to present my case to him and pose the question like a seasoned detective. I had to say, "Joshua- it was you who was at the diner. It was you who imprinted on my mother that day some 20 years ago and it was you who never returned until now... Why, Joshua? The court demands to know the truth. Why?!"

I shook my head at the ridiculous idea my imagination had conjured up of me as some kind of lawyer in a crime show or a cheesy detective in an old 1940's black-and-white movie complete with over the top dramatic line delivery.

Ultimately, the goal of meeting with Joshua was to find out what exactly happened between him and my Ma all those years ago. Sure, I wanted to know if he'd imprinted on her, if he even knew what that was, how he'd stayed away from her all these years, and why he was back here in the first place.

I couldn't help but let my mind drift to Sam though, and what all of this would mean to him if I was right about the imprinting. Somehow, I'd have to find a way to get him to talk to Joshua without killing him in the process. As much as he hates him for leaving him and his own mother, he couldn't completely blame Joshua for what he'd done because at the end of the day, isn't what Joshua did essentially the same thing that happened between him, Leah and Emily?

I mean, sure, Joshua 100% could have dealt with it better than he did, there is absolutely no denying that in any way. It just seemed to me that if Joshua didn't know about imprinting, maybe the whole thing kind of freaked him out? I couldn't imagine having a family back home and then imprinting on some random woman and accidentally getting her pregnant in the process. That's why I had to talk to Joshua and figure out what all happened and then find a way to get Sam to talk to his dad.

Secretly, I hoped that Joshua had imprinted on my Ma. At least that would explain all of this. Because if he hadn't? Well... then Sam had every right to hate his father and he was probably a dead man by staying here on La Push territory. It would only be a matter of time before Sam found him and finished him off for hurting him and his family- I'd seen his thoughts... the kind of hurt and hatred Sam felt for that man ran deep inside of him and you can only hold hatred like that off for so long.

But Sam probably wouldn't kill Joshua, at the most he'd just make sure he left and never came back- for his mother's sake.

At long last I finally came upon a small campsite in a relatively tiny clearing of the woods. In it, there was a dead fire that was smoking from just having gone out and a few feet behind the pile of charred wood was a canvas tent; the shadow of a man sitting just inside who appeared to be reading something in front of a bright light.

Quickly, I took a few steps back from the campsite and ran forward to phase back to my human form. I then pulled my pants up from where they'd been tied around my ankle in one fluid motion; a move I'd perfected from years of phasing. With a dramatic clearing of my throat, the shadow inside the tent turned around as if to notice the noise I'd made and peaked his head out from the opening flap to reveal himself to be exactly who I'd been looking for.

His dark brown irises met mine in the soft glow of the early morning sunrise above us; a concerned look painted on his face. "Embry?" He questioned while beginning to crawl out of the tent more completely once he recognized who I was. "What are you- what are you doing here? How did you find me?"

I set my hands on my hips before huffing and dropping my arms to my sides then picking them up again and huffing once more to finally settle on crossing my arms over my chest; my body not entirely sure on what kind of stance looked the most threatening and serious in this sort of situation.

In my head I thought back to how I had initially thought I might confront him; 1940's cheesy detective style. I wanted to present all the evidence in a succinct sort of way before just coming out with the question. I wanted to sound smart and like I knew what I was talking about but firm so he knew that I meant business and that I wouldn't be fooled if he tried to, you know, fool me. With a nod of my head I took a small breath to sort of steady myself and opened my mouth, completely ready to present my case in verbal bullet points.

What ended up coming out of my mouth-hole was: "You imprinted on my Ma."

Joshua eyed me quizzically and let out a half-laugh. "Excuse me?"

Clearing my throat (because I genuinely felt like I had a frog the size of Jupiter stuck in my esophagus instead of just doing it for sheer dramatic purposes), I tried to reiterate what I'd said before but with even more fervor and confidence than I had previously done. I also decided to add more volume thinking it might add to my intimidation factor. "You imprinted on my mother."

Joshua, who was now completely outside of the tent, stood upright and sighed to himself while setting his hands on his hips and shook his head minimally in my direction. This time however, there was a hint of confusion laced with the familiar look of sadness he seemed to carry with him at all times. "Embry, what are you talking about?"

"My Ma," my words were accusatory and I leaned in towards him as I practically yelled at him though he remained unphased by both what I was saying and how I was saying it. "You imprinted on her, didn't you?"

He reached up to rub at the bridge of his nose and let out a deep breath before dropping his arm and then gesturing towards his tent. "It's pretty cold out here. Why don't we start this fire back up, have a seat and you can explain what the hell you're talking about."

I pointed a lone finger at him and tried to find the right words to spit at him next, though the ones that came out of my mouth tumbled all over each other in a series of unfortunate stuttering mishaps that didn't really do me any favors in terms of making me sound like a confident man in his twenties ready to present his case for his long lost father. Instead, I sounded more like a bumbling man in his twenties who was learning the English language for the first time after being locked away in a closet since birth and had never seen another human person before in his life.

"Don't...You...N-no, how could? But...That's...What?" Was what managed to escape my lips despite knowing all along that Joshua may have no clue what imprinting even was. Joshua chuckled to himself while pointing behind me to a nearby log that sat by the smoking fire pit he planned to stoke until rebirth.

"Sit," he suggested and I glared in his direction like some kind of rebellious teenager who was ready to fight the man, wag my fist and stomp my foot before I ran off to my room only to slam the door behind me in proper temper tantrum fashion.

Instead, I ultimately waited a good five minutes while he worked on building the fire up to a steady flame and then casually sat down as if it hadn't been his idea the entire time but rather mine instead. I'm sure he noticed, but he never said a thing.

Once the fire was good and properly built, I watched as Joshua wandered into his tent only to emerge with a sweater in hand which he then tossed in my direction to catch. I looked down at the old, gray knitted sweater and smirked. "I uh, I don't need this." With that, I threw it back at him.

Catching it with ease, Joshua smiled and shook his head. "It's pretty cold out, Embry. I don't think your mom would want you out here in the middle of winter without a coat, God forbid, a shirt on." He balled the sweater up and threw it back at me and I caught it angrily and balled it up tighter.

"You're a wolf," I said through semi-clenched teeth. "I think you know that our temperatures are just fine without the help of some cheap ass fabric." I chucked the sweater back at Joshua and offered a fake smile. "Really. I'm good."

Without the slightest bit of anger in his voice, even though I was clearly pretty ticked off, Joshua merely looked at me and sighed that sad sort of sigh my Ma sometimes does that gets me every single time even when I really, really don't want to give in. "Embry," he said just above a whisper. "I'm not trying to piss you off. I know you don't need the sweater, okay? I'm just trying to... to..." He let out a breath he seemed to be holding and looked down at the balled up material that lay in his hands. "I don't know what I'm trying to do anymore, honestly."

I watched as he shook his head and closed his eyes; the sweater laying in his hands as the crackling fire mixed with the sound of the gentle winds to play as the soundtrack for the early morning as it was nearly six o'clock already and the sun was beginning to rise.

Chewing on my lip for a moment, I rolled my eyes at myself. "Fine," I grumbled under my breath and slapped my hands on my thighs dramatically to push myself up to stand and walked over to where Joshua sat on the log across the fire from me. Joshua opened his eyes and tilted his head up to see me walk towards him and a slight twinge of fear scattered across his face. Although instead of hurting him or yelling in his face, I merely reached out and snatched the sweater from his hands and walked back to where I'd been sitting to quickly throw the sweater on like he'd originally wanted me to.

"There," I said while outstretching my arms in a presenting sort of pose before dropping my arms to my sides. "Happy?"

Joshua smiled a half-smile in my direction and I scoffed while averting my gaze to focus instead on the flames that reached up to the brightening sky that was beginning to awake with the morning of a new day.

"So?" Joshua voiced after a good minute of silence between the two of us and I snapped my head in his direction while narrowing my eyes at him.

"So what?"

"Embry," he began in a quiet and calm voice. Joshua displayed a kind of patience I had never expected from someone who had abandoned not one, but two different children. It was not something I had anticipated. "You kind of showed up at my campsite at six in the morning accusing me of something I have never heard of before. I'm assuming it's not a good thing and I'd kind of like you to explain it to me so I can either-"

I cut him off and reached up to rub at my forehead with the palm of my hand and closed my eyes as if the action itself would help wake me up. After all, I had been up for over 24 hours by now I figured, but it was hard to keep track with everything going on. "Right, right, right. The imprinting thing."

"Imprinting," Joshua repeated softly and thought about the word before shaking his head definitively and then choosing to look at me directly in the eyes from across the fire. "Look. I don't know what this imprinting thing is, but I really never intended to hurt your mother. I care...very deeply about her in ways I still don't even understand to this day. Honestly, that's why I'm back here I just... I had to know she was doing okay before-before I..." his voice trailed off and I eyed him curiously wanting him to finish his statement before I went and told him what imprinting was in the first place.

"Before you...what?" I asked and he sighed while shaking his head.

"I'm sure you know that this life, it isn't all it's cracked up to be," Joshua said with a shake of his head. "As you can tell, I-I can't age. I never get old." He sounded as if he was going to cry and a confused smile teased at my lips.

"Rrrrriiiight..." I said, elongating the first part of the word and Joshua looked up at me almost insulted.

"Do you not understand ?" He snapped, which was the first time he'd seemed to lose his temper since I'd met him and I shifted my eyes back and forth before narrowing my eyes at him skeptically.

"Is this a joke?" I questioned and Joshua stared at me incredulously; completely baffled by my reaction to what he was telling me. "Like... you're messing with me, right?"

"In what way would I be messing with you?" Joshua countered and my eyes widened as I leaned back and gasped as I spoke my next words.

"Holy shit, you don't know anything, do you?!"

It was Joshua's turn to be surprised by my words. "Know...what?"

I leaned forward towards him where he sat across the flames of the campfire which sat between us. "Like...well, anything! Jesus, man! No wonder you ran off and abandoned everyone!" I laughed to myself before stopping and then giving him a serious look. "Sorry."

I tried to compose myself before I began explaining everything I could possibly think of. Obviously he knew the old legends, but he didn't know any of the specifics for whatever reason. I told him about the aging thing and why he still looked to be my age- the poor guy didn't know he could just stop phasing and start aging again. I explained why he heard all of our voices when we met up in the clearing the other day though we couldn't figure out what exactly made him hear them that day and not any other day he'd been around us wolves- guess like Jake said, there really isn't an exact science to it.

I mentioned everything I could think of until we finally circled back around to imprinting and I tried to think back to the feeling everyone showed up with once they'd first phased after a fresh imprint.

"I guess imprinting, the technicality of it anyway, is like a soulmate. It's a bond sort of deal, but stronger in a way. If I had to describe it though?" I began, before fixating my gaze out passed the treeline. Through the empty branches that looked like spider-webbing I could see the freshly painted pinkish hues of the skyline that grew brighter as the sun rose above the horizon. My eyes lingered there and I focused on the feeling I'd felt second-hand so many times before; that feeling that was like a contact high- never enough to really get you high but enough to make the pain in your own body subside enough to talk yourself through to another day.

It was like a band-aid that mentally made the cut stop hurting though the cut never really went away.

At the end of the day, the cut was always still there hiding just beneath the surface of the band-aid.

"To describe it," I began again while taking a deep breath and staring out at the picture mother nature had painted for me, "is almost an impossibility. The feeling is so indescribable that there aren't really words that would do it justice. The world just...changes. Things that were once so important cease to matter and...and..." I blinked rapidly before deciding to go a different route. "Let's put it another way. Imagine seeing the entire world in black and white all your life and then one day everything is just in color for the rest of your life. Or-or... imagine there are strings that extend out of your body in all different directions to all the important people and things in your life and then one day you meet someone and those strings are all suddenly taken from those people and things and given to that one person to hold onto for the rest of your life. It'd be like that."

Joshua nodded his head, a light-bulb clearly turning on in his mind, but I continued to talk.

"Its like, once you imprint, there isn't a sun anymore that the Earth is revolving around or that is keeping you warm and alive, you know? It's that person. They are the sunlight for you. Forever. Nothing is ever the same. Ever. And you can't escape it no matter what you do. They can reject you, you can try and reject them- though nobody has ever tried, because why would you want to, they make you so happy," I was hinting at him, but Joshua only smiled and nodded his head in understanding, "but life is just different. You'd do anything and fight anything to make sure they were protected and safe... it's intense."

"Wow," Joshua breathed out, the entire explanation seeming to make sense to him. "So this imprinting, you've experienced it too? I'm not the only one?"

I smirked and reached down to pick up an exposed twig from the snow beneath me. "No, Joshua, you aren't the only one, that's for sure," I answered first before snapping the twig in half and tossing one half of the twig into the fire. "As for me?" I glanced down at the remaining half of the twig still in my left hand and sighed. "I just know the feeling from the thoughts of the lucky many who have. I however, have not had the distinct pleasure." With that, I threw the other half of the twig into the fire and brushed my hands against one another to dispose of the bits of bark residue sticking to my palms.

I could feel Joshua's eyes on me watching with concern but I kept my focus on the dancing flames that distracted me from the usual irritation which accompanied conversations surrounding the fact that I still hadn't imprinted yet like so many of my brethren around me.

Instead of apologizing like most people do when they realize how butt-hurt I am about the imprinting thing, Joshua did something I wasn't expecting. He chose to offer up his story, free of charge without any sort of prying or probing, and I listened without looking over to him. After all these years, it was finally time to learn his side of everything first hand.

"I'd met Allison when we were in high school, you know," Joshua started out his story with a small smile in his voice. "She uh, she was my third girlfriend but I was her first boyfriend and she got pregnant with Sam nearly a month before we graduated," I glanced over to him and he smirked at a memory he had recalled. "We were in the same grade the two of us, and we did graduate but," he offered me a shrug and I eyed him carefully, "we thought the smartest thing to do with a kid on the way was to get married because that's what you do, right?"

I didn't respond to his question because frankly I don't really think you should get married unless you really want to get married but hey, that's just me. Maybe I'm just a modern kinda guy.

Joshua smiled while nodding his head as if he had read my mind and continued his story anyway. "Honestly, our marriage wasn't horrible or anything. I probably wasn't the best husband because I had no clue how to be a good husband seeing as I was so young and I didn't really have the best role model in my own dad. Allison was a great mom to Sam, though," he recalled with a big grin. "She was so attentive and stayed at home with him while I went out and worked which sucked but what are you gonna do? We were parents and we had responsibilities."

So far, the story didn't sound horrible. I knew how the story ended though, and I waited patiently for him to get to where it inevitably derailed and crashed into what I know it to be today.

"My job was with this factory doing some assembly work way out in Port Angeles. It was really far away, but it offered great pay and hours that supported our family in a way that Allison could stay at home for Sam and we could live off of one income," Joshua went on to explain. "However, because it was on the outskirts of Port Angeles, I had to walk a ways to get to the bus stop that picked me up and dropped me off at the next stop that transferred me to another bus that would take me to Forks so I could walk back to the reservation," he laughed at the description he'd given and shook his head.

"Geez, that sounds like a pain," I commented with a furrowed brow and he agreed.

"It really was but like I said, the convenience it gave our family really made it worth it in the long-run. Or so we thought," I could tell this was where the story was about to derail. "Anyway, on this particular night I had finished work late and was about to miss the bus so I decided to take this shortcut through an undeveloped area that led right to the bus stop."

"It was a wooded area?" I asked and he nodded his head slowly.

"Yeah, it was. Now, I didn't know it at the time, but there must have been some vampires nearby to trigger the fever. At one point I got turned around and lost which in turn caused me to start panicking and wouldn't you know it- BAM!" He clapped his hands together making me jump slightly at the sound. "I'd turned into this big furry creature thing and had no idea what to do or how to get out of it. I was terrified."

I raised my brow in mild confusion. "What about Levi Uley? Wasn't he your great-grandfather or something? Hadn't you heard stories of him or met him or something?"

Joshua laughed at this. "You really think I believed that story? There wasn't any proof of it as far as I was concerned. I hadn't seen any shapeshifters up close and in person so in my mind it wasn't real and it was all some hocus pocus mumbo jumbo." He waved it off and shook his head. "I hardly paid any attention to the stories growing up and so it was pretty much my own fault that I knew next to nothing when I phased. I had nobody to blame but myself."

"Why didn't you ask someone for help? You didn't think you could go to an elder and be all, 'Hey I just turned into a huge wolf! Could you help a brother out?' I feel like they would have helped you..." I suggested and Joshua merely shrugged his shoulders.

"I can't even tell you why because I have no answer for that," he said. "It's a pretty lame excuse, isn't it? Who knows why we don't do things we should do and know we should do. Fear? Cowardice? I probably could have even gone to Allison and explained what happened- she'd heard the legends and probably paid more attention to them too, but for some reason I didn't feel I could so instead, I ran."

He frowned and looked down at his feet in shame. "The excuse I made for myself at the time was that I was fearful I might hurt her and Sam. He was so young back then and he didn't deserve this in a father. I figured I was already hardly in his life what with the job and being gone all the time from that... so what did it matter if I just left for good? He was young enough yet that he wouldn't even remember me enough to miss me. So I just took off."

"You realize nobody sees it that way, right?" I told him and he nodded his head while keeping his eyes downward.

"Of course I do. I'm sure they say I was some bad father who couldn't live up to the responsibilities of being a parent and you know what?" He asked while looking up at me with an earnest expression, "They're right. I don't even blame them for what they think or say because they're right. I left. I could have asked for help and I didn't. I could have stayed and sought counsel but I tried to run from my problems and only made more." He pursed his lips and sighed. "I thought running away was the answer, but then I met your mom and as you explained with the imprinting thing... everything changed."

"I know I told you what it was and all, but it is sort of different for everyone," I lied. "How was it for you exactly? Like what did it feel like for you especially since you didn't know what it was and all?"

A warm smile erupted over Joshua's face as his eyes lit up at the question. "I don't know exactly why I went to that diner in the first place, it certainly wasn't for the ambiance because that place was a dive," he commented before going on. "But I walked in and sat down and the moment she came over to my booth I couldn't take my eyes off of her." He thought about this memory for a moment before looking over to me and explaining further. "You know how girls always say that when you are with the right person the whole world fades away and it just feels like you two are the only ones in the room?"

I smirked and raised my brow. "Girls always say that? To you? Really?"

Joshua frowned, "You told me to describe it for you and I'm pretty sure it's a thing people say, Embry." He leaned back slightly and crossed his arms. "Just because I'm a man doesn't mean I can't say romantic things. Romance isn't dead, you know."

"No, no, no, I definitely believe in romance, don't get me wrong." I took a deep breath and let it out before gesturing with my hand for him to continue. "Go on."

"Anyway, I just felt like Tiffany, sorry, your mom-"

"No, in this story, you should call her Tiffany," I corrected him. "It weirds me out less, honestly."

Joshua nodded his head in understanding. "Right, well, Tiffany was just unlike anyone I'd ever met before and that was before we even began talking. She ended up being younger than me, sure, but we had this kind of connection I'd never had with Allison. It was a bond like I'd never had with anyone before and I felt drawn to her, you know?" He shook his head in disbelief. "It was crazy to me, the whole thing. How could I feel so strongly about a complete stranger when I had just gotten done crying over my wife and child I'd abandoned back home- my other love. How could I just get over them so quickly and move on to this new person I didn't even know? It was instant and terrifying but she was all I could think about, so I asked her to sit with me at my booth and the rest was, as they say, history."

Joshua was grinning from ear to ear now. "I couldn't stay away from her. We spent every moment together for months but..." his voice trailed off and I knew what was coming next. "then she told me she was pregnant with you and it was as if something clicked in me. I suddenly knew I couldn't stay and ruin her life- and yours ultimately –like I had Sam and Allison's back here in La Push."

"But hadn't you already?" I countered which surprised him. "I'm not trying to be mean with this statement, really, I'm just asking. Hadn't you already come into my Ma's life and essentially mine so you'd already ruined it anyway. What more harm could you do, really?"

"Put yourself in my shoes for a minute," he tried, "You know so much more than I did about phasing. I'd never taken anything seriously or asked for help. I was a coward," he said sadly. "And honestly I wasn't expecting your mothe—Tiffany, to come out to La Push and search for me when I left."

"Dude, she was in love with you. She was pregnant with your kid."

"I know," was his answer though it offered no answer, only sadness and shame. "But I kept tabs on you two," he went on to say as if it were some kind of consolation prize. "Something in me wouldn't let her go no matter how hard the rational side of myself told me to. It was as if my heart threatened to physically stop beating the longer I stayed away."

I held my hand up to stop him in his tracks. "Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me you've been hanging around La Push this entire time and you've only just decided to show your face? You're kidding me."

Another deep breath followed by a heavy sigh. "I'm not kidding, Embry, no."

"That's impossible," I refuted his claim instantly. "We would have smelled you. There's absolutely no way you could have hid your scent from both us and the Cullens at the same time."

Joshua pursed his lips and reached up to rub at the back of his neck coyly. "There kind of is a way... because I've been doing it for years. I had a system."

"Oh really?" I tried while crossing my arms and stretching my legs out straight to cross one over the other at the ankles and encouraged him to continue. "Let's hear it then, genius."

"Well first of all, as far as I know, until Sam there hasn't been any other wolves after me to phase, correct? And nobody even knew I had phased in the first place so for the first many years, it really was no problem at all to hide myself because nobody was sniffing around on La Push territory...am I right?"

I frowned. He had a point. "Yeah, fine, you got me there. But what about after we all started phasing, huh? What then?"

Joshua nodded his head for a moment before continuing to explain his methods of keeping us in the dark. "I observed a lot, that's how it started. I was careful and I made sure not to be in wolf form once I came into La Push territory because our scents are stronger in wolf form. Also, I didn't want to chance a run in with any of you and have to explain why there was another wolf nobody had ever heard of while also explaining why I was back in town."

This all seemed pretty ballsy to me. "And if they caught you in human form?"

Joshua seemed amused at the concept of my question and he laughed while shaking his head nonchalantly. "Oh Embry, I'd never get caught. That was one thing I was absolutely sure of," he told me in confidence. "Honestly, the thought had never even crossed my mind, that's how sure I was. I'd been observing you all for so long; watching who patrolled which areas for how long and during what time of day... There's even areas you leave unchecked more than others and I caught on to that pretty fast so really, if it's one thing you take away from our conversation today, it's that you shouldn't all be so predictable."

I swallowed hard and made a mental note of his advice. "I'll be sure to tell Jake that..."

"Honestly, Embry," He continued with a small smile, "It's really very simple when you think about it. You would move right, I'd just move left. I began to exist without being seen, you know? It was like playing cat and mouse, almost. A cat may hear a mouse, but if it never actually sees the mouse, as far as the cat is concerned the mouse doesn't really exist and the cat can't really chase it."

I frowned. "So what you're saying is we're all just some dumb cats and you're this really smart mouse. Like Tom and Jerry."

Joshua sighed and shook his head. "No, that's not what I'm saying at all. Look. All I'm trying to say is that it was all about living under the radar for me and moving just out of your line of sight. Even the best trackers and hunters could miss someone playing how I was playing. You can't find what you aren't looking for, right?"

He had a point but I certainly wasn't going to admit that to him. I looked down at my feet in mild defeat and muttered, "I guess so..."

"Don't be nervous, really," Joshua assured me. "I had years of practice and great knowledge of the area. Plus, I wasn't living here in the woods constantly or anything, that wouldn't have been safe or smart. Most times I was only here for brief periods of time to check in and see how the two of you were doing," he smiled a melancholy grin. "It hurt me to see how of you lived without me but I was glad to see you were alright and had each other. At least you two seemed close."

"And Sam? Allison? You ever check up on them? Or have you forgotten about your other family? The ones you initially left behind?" My words were pointed and I could tell Joshua mildly resented the insinuation behind them.

No matter what he thought, he answered me anyway. "Yes," he murmured. "I never forgot about them either though I'm afraid there's no repairing the damage I've done to the two of them."

"And how do you know you can fix what you've done to me and my Ma?" I practically demanded.

"I don't, honestly," he replied bluntly. "I'm just hoping I can try. At the very least I want to offer Tiffany something I was never able to give her before or even Allison when I left her all those years ago. Unfortunately with Allison I know she isn't interested in what I have to offer."

"Oh really? And what exactly is that?" I wondered aloud and Joshua blinked twice before giving me two words as his response.

"An answer."

"An answer? An answer to what?" Though I was pretty sure I knew what he was talking about.

"I want to, at the very least, tell her why I left in the first place." My eyes grew wide with panic but Joshua held a hand up to calm me before I went into a full blown attack. "Not about the whole phasing thing, that isn't what I mean. I just mean I want to explain it in the best way I can about how I felt and why I left without telling your secret."

"Technically it's yours too," I muttered and Joshua chuckled.

"It isn't for my sake I'm protecting it right now," he simply stated and I knew there was a hint of a smile on my face but I hoped he couldn't tell given the low light of morning.

Silence settled between the two of us, the sounds of the world waking up beginning to surround us at light filled the open sky above. After a few minutes had passed, Joshua yawned while stretching his arms high above his head and then dropped them to his sides while nodding passed me as if pointing with his head. "You should probably get going. I'm sure your mom is worried by now."

I began to yawn, his yawn having triggered the one in me to be let loose at last. Once it had escaped, I stood up from the log. "Ma is always worried about me. It's like... her job."

Reaching down, I started to pull at the edge of Joshua's sweater which I was still wearing and attempted to pull it off but he was quick to stop me. "It's fine, you can keep it for now," he said with a smile and I shrugged my shoulders before turning around to head home.

However, something in me stopped my legs from walking away. It was as if I were stuck in cement and I instead turned my head to look back at Joshua who sat on the log poking the fire in front of him with a stick like some pathetic weirdo who sits in the woods all by himself lingering on the past he single-handedly screwed up. Irritated with the decision I knew I'd secretly made but already regretted, I dropped my head back and closed my eyes in frustration.

"I can't believe you're about to do this, Embry," I mumbled to myself before returning my head to it's upright position and announcing to Joshua: "Alright. Get up. Let's go."

Joshua turned his head to look over at me. "What?"

"Dude, don't argue, okay? Just get what you need and let's go, okay?" I waved for him to get going in a circular motion. "Quickly, before I change my mind."

"Embry, you have to tell me where we're going first, I don't-" Joshua started but I turned to face him and looked at him with sincere annoyance.

"Listen Joshua," I declared, "I may not like you or like what you've done to my Ma or Sam's family but... if you really have imprinted on my Ma" I sighed and looked down at my feet beginning to mutter under my breath, "well, she deserves a chance at being happy even if that means being with you so..." I looked back up at him and widened my eyes while waving for him to follow me. "C'MON."

He scrambled to gather a few things and soon he was following me as we walked out of the woods in the direction of my house. "You really don't have to do this for me, you know," Joshua told me.

"Oh believe me, I'm not doing it for you," I assured him. "I'm doing this for my Ma. Oh! And one more thing, I almost forgot..." I chuckled to myself in mock humor before turning unexpectedly to face Joshua and stop him dead in his tracks while pointing a finger hard into his chest. "YOU. You get to sleep on the couch. Got it?"

He nodded once and offered a nervous smile. "Got it."

I dropped my hand from his chest and sighed as we continued our walk towards my house. I couldn't believe I was going to willingly let him back into the very family he had abandoned so many years ago and possibly open my own Ma up to another heartbreak, but after our talk I thought she might need this. At the very least, Joshua may have been right about one thing, she really did deserve that answer he wanted to give her.

And if he was telling the truth and what had happened between the two of them was indeed a real, true imprint, then they deserved to give their relationship a real try.

The only problem now was figuring out a way to get Sam to understand what the truth was behind what his father had done- there had to be some way to get him to willingly listen to Joshua the way I just had, but what?

All I knew was that my Ma was willing to give Joshua a chance for whatever reason and I was willing to do anything to make her happy because, well, she was my Ma and Seth had been right- she deserved her happiness.

There was one thing that I was not willing to do, however, and I was sure to address that the moment we made it onto the porch of my house.

"Hey, Joshua? One more thing." I said before I opened the front door.

"Yeah?" He replied while looking to me in curiosity.

"I am not going to call you 'dad.'"

Please be sure to let me know what you thought of this chapter- drop me a review! I want to hear from you :)