Chapter's song: "Running with the Wolves" - AURORA

By the time I'd woken up the next day, Joshua had already left for his meeting with Sam at the beach. Maybe it's a sad thing to admit, but for a few split seconds as I was coming back from my deep sleep into consciousness, I genuinely thought he'd ditched like all those years before and frankly I was ready to find him so I could kick his wolfy ass. Thankfully, for Joshua's sake, my anger subsided as I recalled the day before.

Honestly, I hadn't really expected Sam to agree to meeting with Joshua. I half-expected him to threaten me within an inch of my life and then proceed to kick me out of his house. I'd even imagined him yelling at me from his doorway and shaking his fist only to say, 'And don't ever come back here AGAIN!'

I shook my head of the imaginary scenario only to refocus on something entirely different: the story Sam and, with Emily's help, had told both Jake and me.

It boggled my mind to hear firsthand just how closely his own father mirrored Sam's literal heartbreaking tale. Between the two of them, they were obvious examples of how imprinting could ruin someone's life- shapeshifter or not. I could understand why Leah was the way she was after hearing just what had all gone down. The look of heartbreak was always present in her eyes but she was so strong to go on, every day, knowing she would inevitably see Sam and probably Emily.

If only everyone in the pack had heard that story to the degree Jake and I had- maybe then they wouldn't complain so much about Leah and her attitude.

While the story made me feel for Leah, it also made me realize just how badly Sam's mom Allison must feel; especially with the knowledge of her ex-husband being back in town. I couldn't imagine what that was like- to think your ex all but dead only to show up once more and turn your life upside down.

And Ma... poor Ma. She'd already told me about how horrible everyone had treated her when she first showed up in La Push. I only hoped that it wouldn't go back to that because this time around, no one was there to defend her the way Sarah Black had.

I sighed to myself and looked down at my lap from where I sat on my bed. Sam may be able to understand his father's actions, but Allison never would. Unfortunately for her and my Ma, they'd both be left in the dark to the entirety of what happened between the three of them which hardly seemed fair. If Allison understood everything, she may not despise my Ma quite so much or at least enough to not talk crap about her like she had years ago.

As for my Ma, if she knew everything, like everything everything, it would explain so much for her. Allison may not understand imprinting, but she does know about the Quileute legends and that they're real which makes life so much easier for Sam. If Ma knew the truth about what's been going on, she'd see that I haven't been sneaking out because of drugs or whatever other theories she's cooked up in her brain. Not to mention, she'd at least somewhat understand why Joshua left so long ago- not just her but why he left La Push in the first place.

I chewed on my lip while staring down to hyperfixate on the wrinkles of my bed sheets.

So much of me wanted to tell her everything. I mean, if I were being completely honest with myself, she deserved to know everything after what she'd been through. However, at the same time, I was afraid to spill the wolfy beans to her. In the past, my reasons for not telling her mostly relied on the fact that I didn't want her to know I knew some of my 'potential' fathers not to mention I didn't want her to feel obligated to talk to me about any of that stuff.

The only problem was that now I knew the identity of my father, a whole new slew of problems had arose in my mind. What if it was too much to understand and she had some kind of aneurysm or a heart-attack like Harry had when Leah and Seth phased? Or what if she wasn't shocked, but afraid of what I was in my spare time? Or instead of fear, what if she was angry? What if it changed how she acted around me or talked to me? What if everything we had based our relationship on was suddenly different in her eyes and she didn't love me the same way ever again?

Sure, that last one was a sort-of ridiculous notion, but it had always been my main fear when the thought of telling her ever popped into my brain. If I were being entirely truthful, it had always been the root cause of my hesitation in telling her the truth even before I knew that Joshua was my father.

Ultimately, there was only a couple reasons to tell her and so many more in favor of not telling her.

Seth's words from a few days ago suddenly resounded in my mind; words that had helped me talk to Joshua in the first place and I fought to ignore them as they screamed in surround sound inside my skull.

Isn't your mom's happiness worth the conversation?

I frowned at the memory of Seth's unusually wise words as they came back to haunt me. In an effort to shut them up, I pushed myself up off of the bed to slap some clothes on and make my way down the stairs in search for some food. After all, if it was anything that could shut Seth's advice up, it was the growling of my starving stomach.

As I reached the landing of the stairs and began to make my way into the kitchen for my food hunt, I stopped mid-footstep at the sound of the television playing from the living room. Doing a double-take at the kitchen, I sighed deeply and decided to head for the living room.

On the couch I watched as Ma sat covered in a blanket and clutching a cup of steaming tea with a magazine laying in her lap that she seemed to be mindlessly flipping through. Furrowing my brows in confusion, I slowly walked into the room and took a seat across from her in the recliner we'd bought at a local thrift store a few years back.

Ma glanced up at me from her magazine and offered a tired smile. "Hi sweetie," she managed and I eyed her curiously.

"I thought you worked today..." I hinted but Ma shrugged her shoulders and returned her gaze to the magazine staring up at her.

"Called in sick," she answered in a monotone voice and my eyes widened.

Ma never called in sick.

"What's going on?" I began to question in an alarmed voice; the words coming out of my mouth faster than usual. "Is it some kind of fever? Do you need me to make you something? I can heat up some soup? I know it isn't much but you know how I am with cooking. What about a doctor? I can drive you to the doctor's if-"

She smiled warmly and closed the magazine she was looking at to turn her head and face me. "Thank you for the generous offers but I'm just fine, really. I'm not even sick."

I took a much needed breath to relax myself. "Okay... well why did you call in sick if you aren't sick? You clearly aren't playing hooky by the looks of it. Who would waste a perfectly good hooky-day doing...whatever it is you're doing?"

A soft chuckle emitted from her mouth at my comment. "I'm not playing hooky if you must know, Embry."

"Well then what are you doing exactly?" I questioned further which only made Ma shake her head with a smile lining her lips.

"So nosy today, aren't we?" After a few seconds of silence as I waited for her to answer my question, she finally gave me a response. "I'm taking a mental health day if you must know."

I smirked, "Yeah, okay," I said with heavy sarcasm but by the look on Ma's face, I quickly realized she wasn't lying. "Wait," I tried again, "that's a real thing?"

Ma sighed and set her mug down on a wooden coaster that sat on the side table next to the couch. "Of course it's a real thing. Mental health is just as important as physical health, Embry."

"I mean, yeah, sure," I said with a shrug of my shoulders. "But why of all people would you need to take one? I thought things were going good now that Joshua was back in town and stuff. You seemed... happy."

"And I am happier, honey, don't get me wrong-"

"Then what's the problem?" I interjected almost angrily, though the anger wasn't directed towards her.

She pressed her lips together in a hard line as if trying to decide how to word what she was going to say to me. After a moment, she relaxed her face and settled with, "It's complicated."

With a roll of my eyes, I pressed her further for more helpful information. "'It's complicated,' really Ma? That's what you're going to give me?"

"You don't need to know about your mother's love life," she simply stated and I shook my head and pushed myself to sit on the edge of the recliner while leaning in towards her.

"Ma. I'm not some kid anymore, okay?" I tried to explain as she sat staring at me blankly. "Hell, I'm not even a teenager anymore. Just because I don't have kids of my own or am married or had much in the way of girlfriends, it doesn't mean that I don't understand how the world works."

Her eyes averted mine and instead focused on her hands which were occupied picking the chipping paint off of her nails. Whatever it was that was wrong, I could see it was really bothering her. If I couldn't help her in any other way, the very least I could do was listen to whatever problems she was dealing with. That had to count for something, right?

"C'mon Ma," I tried again in a soft voice, "what's going on?"

Slowly, her eyes looked in my direction though her head remained facing downward. As if to convince herself she could tell me what was on her mind, she took a sharp breath in before spitting out whatever had been weighing on her.

"It's just Joshua," she started and paranoid me wanted to interject and attack him for hurting her once again, but Ma knew better and held out a hand to stop me before I could even start. "And no, Embry, he didn't do anything... that's sort of the problem."

I raised a brow and began to lean back into the recliner. "What isn't he doing? Oh god, this isn't a sex thing, is it? Because if it is, I thoroughly revoke my offer to listen to your problems."

She offered a small chuckle while shaking her head. "No Embry, it isn't a sex thing. It's just- I guess I was just kind of hoping he'd give me some kind of clue as to why he left in the first place." Her words were almost full of embarrassment as she spoke; a schoolgirl crush aspect to how she described what she meant. "Not that he owes me an explanation. We sort of told each other not to dwell on the past and just to look at our possible future but..."

It was my turn to think ahead for what she was going to say next. "But it's hard to move onto the future if you don't know why he left in the first place, huh?"

Ma's eyes lit up as though I had finished her sentence exactly as she was planning to before I cut in. "Exactly! I mean, I know that I wasn't his wife like Allison, but I guess," she sighed and smiled to herself. "I guess I thought what we had back then was special enough not to abandon it."

"He's back now though," I countered and she nodded her head though her expression still seemed sad.

"And I'm so happy he is, don't get me wrong," her weak smile fell even further and she sighed deeply. "Only, no matter how hard I try, I'll never be able to trust him fully again unless I knew what happened in the first place. And a relationship is built on trust..."

I stared at her as she went back to picking at the chipped nail polish painted on her relatively short nails. Like me, she had a bad habit of picking at them until there were only nubs of nail left on her slender fingers. I'd noticed that she'd started to paint her nails recently however, and I imagined it was in an effort to both quit the picking and also appear... some kind of way to Joshua.

Without realizing I'd gone completely silent when I probably should have responded somehow, Ma spoke up to fill the quiet that was hovering between us. "I know, I know, it sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it? Thinking what Joshua and I had back then was somehow more special than what was between him and his own wife."

Blinking rapidly, her words hit me and I was quick to respond. "It's not stupid, Ma."

"It sure feels stupid. Stupid and naive."

I shook my head and leaned forward again as if my words would hit her differently from this position. "He's back though, Ma. He came back for you, certainly not for any of the rest of us. If that doesn't show you that there is something special between the two of you, then... well I don't know."

Ma simply shrugged as though she hadn't heard a single word I said. "I guess... but I'll just never be able to stop thinking I did something wrong all those years ago..."

"You didn't though!" I practically shouted the words at her and she tilted her head up to look at me curiously only to shift her expression to one of pity.

"Oh honey," she cooed, "I know you're trying to help, but you just don't understand. There's no way you could."

I scoffed at her statement, "Ma, it's you who doesn't understand." The words spilled out of me so fast that it took a few seconds after I'd spoke them to realize what I'd said in the first place.

I could see out of the corner of my eye that Ma was watching me in confusion as though the answer to all of her questions was written in blood on my forehead. "What don't I understand, Embry?"

The room began to close in on me and I started to scramble in finding some sort of response that would cover my ass for this recent lapse in judgment. C'mon, Bry, I told myself as the gears turned in my head, you've been in worse positions than this... Remember that time you showed up naked at home because you'd accidentally phased in your clothes? All you did was climb into your room and...and...

I frowned at my thought process talking to me internally. And you just let her think that you'd had a girl over. She gave you the silent treatment for almost a week. Reaching up, I covered my mouth not so I could silence myself, but more in thought at the decision I'd clearly made before I even knew I had.

It had been years. It had been years of constant lying and hiding what I really was in hopes that I'd one day move out and be able to just put all of our arguments and her wild theories behind me. Of course, none of that ever happened. While I wanted to move out and get my own place, it wasn't logical for me and I was always worried about Ma anyway so why not just stay at home?

Now that Joshua was back however, it really changed things. Even if I did leave, Ma would always feel like she did something wrong with Joshua and live in fear that he would once again leave her. She'd also continue to worry about me and my life choices and always think she did something wrong with me because she thought I was some sex-crazed druggie. Ma deserved peace of mind and some kind of explanation behind all that had seemingly gone wrong in her life. What she saw was only part of the story and it was high time she learned the other side.

Reasons or no reasons not to tell her, I had to face my own fears of telling her. Be it now or years from now this was the kind of secret I couldn't just take to the grave.

Ripping me from my thought process, Ma spoke once more; only this time she opted to ask the new question she'd come up with based on my lack of response and mildly confusing statements. "Do you know something? Did Joshua tell you something?"

Trying to find the courage to answer her, I turned my head to look outside at the freshly falling snow that covered our front yard in a blanket of white. My eyes searched passed our yard and into the woods where a sudden idea hit me and my eyes lit up like a hypothetical light bulb floating above my head.

Pushing myself up from the chair, I turned to start making my way to our front door. "Alright, Ma. Let's do this before I change my mind."

"Do what?" She asked in apparent confusion. "Embry, what are we doing?"

"We're going outside. To the woods more specifically." I reached for her coat which was draped over a dining room chair and tossed it at her as she stood up from the couch.

"Outside? Honey, it's snowing outside-" she tried but I wasn't about to let her win with her 'mom-logic.'

"That's what the coat is for," I retorted with a small grin though Ma wasn't as entertained.

"Embry Call, we are not going outside. It's freezing and-" she watched as I opened the door and began walking outside. The moment I walked into the cold air and started down the stairs of the porch, Ma followed after me. "You don't even have a coat, Embry!"

I continued in my trek across the snow; my feet leaving fresh footprints in the untouched white fluff. "Don't need one."

She continued to follow me, asking questions all the way though I didn't give in to answering any of them- at least not yet. Despite her protesting, she followed me deep into the woods until we were unable to be seen; our bodies hidden by the trunks of the thick trees which surrounded us.

Ma ran into me as I stopped suddenly in one of the clearings to turn around and face her. "This should be good..." I muttered more to myself than her.

Crossing her arms tightly over her chest in both anger and an effort to stay warm, she glared up at me. "Good for what? Why are we out here, Embry?"

"I need to tell you something," I started but Ma shook her head while laughing devoid of any humor.

"Tell me something? And you couldn't have told me in our warm living room?" Her tone was escalating in anger but I went on hoping that as I began to explain things she would be more interested in what I had to say than angry.

"It's just really important and-"

She cut me off again, "Important? So important that we had to come outside when it's freezing out and snowing and you aren't even wearing a jacket? Have you lost your mind?!"

"Would you forget about the jacket, Ma?!" I exclaimed before moving to take a few steps away from her while running a hand through my hair in hopes it would help me organize my thoughts. With a deep breath, I started again in a calm and collected manor. "Do you remember that year you took me to one of the big fires that Billy Black was holding? I must have been about five?"

Taking a moment to think about the memory I was referencing, she slowly nodded her head while trying to put together the puzzle that was jumbled up inside her head with the one piece I'd offered her. "Vaguely, why?"

"It's one of the few memories I have of Sarah Black. I think she made you come to it or something?" I was trying to jog her memory though she seemed to have a hard time placing it.

"Is this part of what you have to tell me?" Ma's voice was softer now, clearly realizing whatever I had to say was fairly important as she had suddenly regained a ton of patience within minutes.

"Very. C'mon Ma, I know you remember it. I was five and I remember," my words were tired as I tried to coax the memory out of her. "Almost everyone was there from the rez and you ended up taking me home early. At the time I figured I'd done something wrong but I'm just now realizing maybe it's because you felt uncomfortable?"

She shook her head still lost with where I was going with this particular story. "I'm sorry, honey. I just don't remember what you're talking about." Turning slightly to look over her shoulder, she attempted yet again to drag me out of my seemingly frantic explanations of things she could care less about. "Why don't we go back to the house and I'll make you some hot cocoa like you like. We can talk about-"

"No," I answered quickly. "We-we have to be out here for this."

Ma sighed in exasperation. "For what, Embry?"

I felt like we were going in circles with this conversation and as much as I hoped she might remember the stories on her own, I supposed it was time to tell her the legends myself. When it came down to it, there was no avoiding that at some point in this conversation I'd have to drop the bomb of who I was- or rather what I became.

"At that bonfire," I went on without hesitation; this time determination in my voice, "Billy talked about the legends of the Quileute tribe. Every few years they do this thing where Billy tells the story of the Quileute ancestors."

"Right..." Ma's voice trailed off and bled into my own as I continued with my story.

"Well Ma, those stories, they're...they're real."

I watched her as she shifted her weight between her feet and clutched her coat tightly around her body in an effort to warm herself from the bitter cold we were standing in. "Sure, okay."

"Okay?!" I repeated with excitement and Ma merely shrugged.

"Every tribe has a history, honey. The Makah have their own stories too that I grew up with and-"

Shaking my head rapidly, I stopped her mid-sentence. "I know every tribe has a history but that's not what I'm talking about."

"Then clue me in, would you?" She pleaded and I looked down at my feet and took a deep breath.

"Do you remember ever hearing about the Quileutes descending from wolves?" The words were finally out of my mouth and at that alone I could almost feel some of the weight I'd been carrying for years fall off of my shoulders.

Ma shrugged while looking awkwardly around her as if looking for an invisible being's approval. "Somewhat. You have to know I am not as... well-versed in the legends as you are. I'm not from this tribe, Embry, I told you that."

"I know, I know," I shook off her response and instead went on with the revelation I was working up to. "It's just..." I huffed out the breath I had apparently been holding and forced the legend I'd heard so many times out of my mouth. "A long time ago, so the story goes, there were these spirit warriors and one of them wanted to use his powers and abilities to take over some neighboring tribes and basically just be an all around horrible person."

Watching Ma to gauge a reaction, I seemed to get the okay to continue. While Ma looked like she was following me, I could tell she recognized the story but I figured she must need some kind of refresher seeing as she hadn't stopped me yet.

"The chief at the time, Taha Aki, banished him because he didn't want him using the powers for bad, but that's not the end of the evil dude," a sly smile lined my face as I continued the story. "See, one day, Taha Aki had been doing some spiritual warrior stuff- like looking around to make sure the tribe was safe and all that –so he left his body hiding somewhere."

Ma nodded her head and though she was shivering, I could tell she was engaged with what I was saying. "The bad guy found his body and took it over which left Taha Aki to be a spirit without a body because the guy slit his body's throat or something."

"Embry!" Ma exclaimed in shock at what I'd said.

I rolled my eyes and gave Ma an unenthused look. "Seriously? Still gonna act like I don't know about violence in the world?"

A light hue of red covered her cheeks as she waved me to continue. "Sorry, sorry. Bad habit."

"Anyway..." I refocused the story, "Taha Aki kind of just wandered around in spirit form watching this dude destroy the village until he came across this wolf just doing it's thing out in the woods. Seeing the wolf gave him the idea to ask it if they could share a body and when the wolf agreed, Taha Aki ran back to his village and did a bunch of stuff to try and get someone to recognize who he was."

"I take it someone did?" Ma predicted and I grinned while nodding my head.

"Yep. An elder realized the wolf wasn't just a wolf and so he went into the spirit world to communicate with Taha Aki," I paused momentarily both for dramatic effect but also to almost prepare Ma for the second violent part of the story. "And then, the bad guy got all paranoid and killed the elder too."

Ma's brows furrowed in frustration but she didn't interrupt this time which gave me the opportunity to finish the story. "Taha Aki got all kinds of angry and attacked the guy but his emotions were all over the place and the wolf couldn't handle it so he transformed into a human body which was the representation of his spirit and the false chief was killed for what he'd done."

I watched as Ma's mouth opened to ask a question, but I held a hand up to stop her. "And no, I don't know what happened to the elder's spirit. I'm sure he was fine."

She closed her mouth and waited for a beat before asking her next question. "So this story... you say it's real?" I could tell she didn't believe the statement, but she seemed willing to try and understand what I was talking about.

"That story," I explained while briefly ignoring her question, "is the story that Billy tells the people of La Push all the time. That's the public story anyway."

"You trying to tell me there's more to that story?" She asked and I nodded my head minimally.

"I mean, yeah. Most people know the basics of the other story, but only a few people in the tribe get to hear it in full. It's kind of... a rite of passage," she could tell I was hinting at something and gave in to the question I was urging her to ask.

"And why exactly were you one of the privileged few?"

This was the moment, the moment I'd feared and waited for basically half of my life. Ever since I'd first phased I'd been afraid of this day's eventual arrival but as I stood in the woods with Ma, I wasn't half as frightened as I'd worked myself up to be. It wasn't like there was turning back and pretending I had nothing to say while hiding who I was. I had made the decision- the time for hiding was over.

"You see, that other story, it pertains to me and a bunch of other people in the tribe." Ma's eyes watched me carefully and I decided to add on and give her some examples so she knew I wasn't alone in what I was about to tell her. "Jake has heard them too. So has Quil. Leah and Seth even..."

"Okay, but Embry, you said these stories were real, yes?" Her expression was that of a seasoned interrogator trying to find the motive behind my actions. "How could any of what you told me be real? That kind of thing... it's-"

"Impossible?" I finished for her and she pursed her lips while taking a breath.

"Exactly. It's just a legend, honey. You can't take stock in a story like that." It was at her words that I realized she still hadn't figured out what I was trying to tell her- in her mind, it was all just some story I believed in and she was merely trying to inform me of the 'truth' like the stories were just some alternative version of the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy.

"If it wasn't real," I pushed as if playing devil's advocate, "then why would I go through all the trouble of bringing you out here just to tell it to you?"

She shrugged her shoulders completely lost behind my reasoning. "Honestly I have no clue. I'm sure you're about to tell me though, aren't you?"

Smart as a whip, my Ma. She may not have gone to college like her dream had envisioned, but Ma had always been smarter than most without the extra schooling. When it came to connecting the dots of what I was saying however, she was completely clueless. So, doing exactly what she'd predicted, I told her the reason behind my telling her the origins of the Quileute shape-shifting legend.

However, in true chicken-shit fashion, I backed out at the last second in telling the entirety of my involvement with the story. Instead, I swallowed hard and decided to take a different approach. "I told you all of that because it is real, Ma. Not only is it all real, but it's part of the reason why Joshua left not only Sam and his wife, but you and me as well."

This quieted my Ma almost instantly and I could see the thoughts racing inside her head as she stared at me incredulously. "He... he told you then?" the few words she stuttered out seeming to be the only thing she could bring herself to say.

Glancing down at my feet, I muttered out a single-word answer: "Sorta."

Silence settled between us as the wintry wind picked up to blow around some of the falling snow that drifted down from the sky. Even though I was sure my temperature was the same overly warm number it usually was, I felt chills deep inside of my body at the direction Ma and my conversation had headed.

Yes, it was inevitable, but it didn't make it any less nerve-wracking.

"Sorta. Sorta?" Ma finally repeated my last one-worded statement back to me. "A minute ago you wouldn't stop talking and now that's all you're going to give me? 'Sorta?'"

It was obvious she was frustrated at the lack of information I'd given her and I knew it was time to explain myself a little further. "He didn't, he didn't need to tell me because I figured it out after you told me your story about meeting him for the first time. So I confronted him about it."

Ma's eyes were searching mine in hope that she could somehow understand what I was vaguely telling her by simply inspecting my gaze. "Embry, baby, you have to tell me more than what you're saying. I don't understand..."

With a deep breath, I turned around to face anywhere else but my own Ma when I told her the truth. "Like I said, the legends are real, Ma. Every time someone with the shapeshifting gene has a kid, it too gets passed down. It's been like that ever since... well... Taha Aki."

"What are you saying?" Ma asked though I was almost entirely sure she knew what I was insinuating.

I turned to look over my shoulder at where my concerned mother stood seemingly more vulnerable than I'd ever witnessed in my life. Before speaking again, I turned my head back to face the empty woods once more. "Joshua Uley is one of those decedents, Ma. He was born with the gene which means he can, when he wants to, turn into a big 'ol wolf."

Surprisingly, I didn't hear a gasp emit from her mouth. Instead, I heard her scoff and I spun around to face my laughing Ma.

"Oh Embry," she forced herself to say through her laughter, "you don't sincerely believe that, do you? If he told you that, I'm sure Joshua is just pulling your leg."

"He isn't, Ma. He's still phasing and has been phasing since before you two even met," I tried to convince her of what I knew to be true but she simply shook her head in disbelief.

"That's ridiculous. Listen to what you're suggesting!" While her laugh softened, I knew she still didn't believe me. "A grown man transforming into a giant wolf? Please..."

"Think about it, Ma," I continued to try though I feared all of this was for nothing. "You said yourself that he doesn't look like he's aged a single day since you both met, right? Well, a part of the side effects of being a shapeshifter is that while you phase, you don't age. Wouldn't that make sense?"

Though she seemed to remain unconvinced, she responded anyway. "Maybe it would make sense in some kind of alternate universe where the supernatural exist, but Embry, those kinds of powers aren't real." Ma walked closer to me and reached up to place a cold hand on my cheek. "You have to know that what you're saying isn't based in reality, right?"

I shook her hand off of my face and began pacing while trying to think up a way to convince her before resorting to the one thing I didn't want to do in front of her: show the proof myself.

"Listen to me, Ma," I could feel my own reserve of patience fading with each attempt at trying to make a believer out of my Ma. I was resilient though, and I wouldn't give up until she knew I was telling the truth. "You have to understand, he left because he didn't want to hurt his family here in La Push because Sam was still so young. It's the same reason why he left you and me even though he'd imprinted on you."

The words flew out of my mouth and it was at Ma's amused expression and next question that I realized I'd mentioned the thing I wanted to ease into rather than spring upon her like I'd just done. "Oh really? He imprinted on me, huh? And what pray tell is that exactly?"

"Basically it's like a soulmate thing," I rushed to explain in hopes that I wouldn't lose the momentum I'd been building. "When you're a shapeshifter something happens, nobody knows how or why, but when they see the person they are supposed to be with and spend life with or whatever, they imprint. Everything changes and the world doesn't revolve around the sun anymore it revolves around that person. It's an intense thing, but Joshua had so many emotions about his old life and a future life with us that he fought it. Sort of."

Ma looked at me, her expression unchanged. I could tell she was pretty fed up with the conversation I insisted on having and she began to mock me without saying so. "Sure, Embry," she said without amusement in her voice. "And I'm sure you know all of this because he told you? Or was it someone else who filled your head with all of this supernatural nonsense?"

The moment had finally come. I knew what I had to admit to her and while I'd never imagined it would be like this, it felt good to know that the time had finally come to stop hiding who and what I was. With a deep breath and a tight close of my eyes as if to hide from her ultimate reaction, I blurted out the words I'd imagined saying so many times.

"I know all of this because, well," I clenched my fists at my sides and forced the words out of my mouth. "Because I'm one too."

My words settled between us and hung in the air for a few moments before I peeked an eye open to see Ma watching me with a single raised brow. "You mean to tell me you're one of these... wolf boys too?"

I relaxed my hands at my sides and let out a shaky breath. "Yeah, Ma. I am. I inherited the gene from Joshua and him from his dad and so on and so on."

Ma gave a single nod, "Okay. Now I've heard everything."

"I'm not lying!" I shouted at her in hopes the volume alone would somehow change her already made up mind.

"Honey, I believe you think you're not lying- that you truly consider these legends to be truth but-"

I couldn't help but cut her off once more. "No, Ma, they are, okay?" I was desperate; desperate for her to understand where I was coming from and that everything I told her was fact and not fiction like she seemed to think.

"I'm going back to the house. Maybe calling you a therapist," she turned around to walk back where we'd come from but I reached out for her hand and pulled her back to face me once again.

"Just listen to me-" I attempted once more but she looked up at me in anger with a hint of sadness.

"Embry, I don't have time for this!" She exclaimed and tried to shake off my grip on her hand.

"Please, Ma," I was begging now, pleading for her to open her eyes to what I knew was true. "Just think about it, okay? The sneaking out, the disappearing, the so-called rebellion... it was all because of this secret. I didn't want you to find out and be afraid of me or angry at me or-or-or stop loving me because I was this giant thing in my spare time. Hell, Harry found out about Seth and Leah and died. I didn't want that for you!"

Her expression melted into one of concern and she moved her hand to hold mine gently while giving it a squeeze. "No matter what you believe, even if it is this crazy thing you just told me, I could never stop loving you." I returned her smile and squeezed her hand back but the warm fuzzies quickly disappeared. "Now, let's get you some help, okay?"

This time it was my turn to shake off her hold on me. "I don't need help, Ma," I tried to explain for the last time, "I need you to believe what I'm saying. It's all true, I swear!"

"Alright, Embry," she said softly and while I knew she was simply trying to take a different approach with me, I hoped she was going to at least pretend to believe what I was saying so I could try and explain better or differently. "Let's say what you're saying is the truth, okay? Why then would you go to such trouble and hide it? Surely it can't be just from fear of what I would think, I know you."

Swallowing hard, I revealed my reasoning at long last. "Like I said, I can't just get the gene from anyone, which meant what you'd told me my whole life about who my dad was, it couldn't be true. It could only be one of three people."

"I don't get it," she said bluntly and I opted to follow her lead and be blunt as well.

"I've known for a really long time that Joshua might be my father. It was between him, Jake's dad or Quil's. They're the only three options."

Ma chewed on her lip for a moment as if processing what I'd told her only to shake it all off and continue with her disbelief. "So you're saying that you've known this since...?"

"Since I first phased years ago. It was back when I was still in school and you started accusing me of sneaking out to use drugs but really I was phased and doing patrols around the rez." My eyes were wide as I stared at my Ma who was baffled in front of me. It was as if I thought by my eyes alone she could use them like a window to my memories. "You gotta believe me..."

A 'tsk'ing sound came from my Ma just then and she sighed as if she'd just ran a marathon. "Thanks for trying to make me feel better. About everything, really, but this is just too... unbelievable."

That was it.

She didn't believe me. All of that work and explanation and years upon years of worrying that she'd discover my secret were wasted because she'd never accept what I told her was in fact true. I mean, what did I have to say or do in order to get her to believe?

My mind flashed back to the original plan I'd had when I first led her out here to the woods. It was a weird and potentially dangerous plan, sure. Actually, it was incredibly dangerous but also not entirely my plan as I'd technically stolen it from Jake back when he did the same thing to Charlie when Carlie was born. I could simply phase in front of her. After seeing me explode into a giant wolf, it'd be pretty hard to dispute what I'd been telling her all this time.

Just as Ma turned around to head towards our home once more, I called out to her for the last time. "Wait, Ma, I'll-I'll prove it to you."

Intrigued, she turned around now a few feet away from me, and crossed her arms loosely over her chest. "And just how do you expect to 'prove' it to me?"

With a glance around the two of us and a centering breath, I began to take my clothes off awkwardly and toss them aside.

Naturally, laughter soon filled the open woods around us as Ma watched me with clear amusement. "What on Earth are you doing, Embry? Come on now, put your clothes back on."

"Just-just back up, okay?" I warned her and she did as I told despite her clear skepticism at what I was going to show her.

"By all means, honey. If getting almost naked in front of your mother is somehow going to help you get over this crazy-" But the moment I was standing in just my underwear and before she could finish, I shut my eyes to drown her out.

I focused on my body and took deep breaths as my blood began to boil inside my veins. Itching at my insides, I felt the urge to phase slowly overtake me and it was only seconds before I allowed it full access to transform me into the gray spotted wolf I'd taken the form of so many times before.

Once the phase had done what it usually did, I opened my eyes only to see my Ma standing stunned and frozen with her eyes fixated on me. The color had drained completely from her skin and I could see that she had begun to shake in shock and probable disbelief at what she'd just witnessed. Wanting to comfort her the best way possible while in this form, I began to take cautious steps towards her.

It didn't take much longer after that for Ma's eyes to roll back into her head and for her to drop completely limp on the ground.

Panic set in and anyone who was in wolf form at the moment knew exactly what I was thinking as I stared down at my unconscious mother. Oh my god, my mind practically screamed, I killed her.

NOTE: For those who don't remember/have only seen the movies, yes, that is the correct backstory of how shapeshifting started. I know it wasn't like that in the movie but movies are hardly adapted properly from their original source material. Just wanna clear that up as I've already gotten a message regarding this.

Only one more chapter until this story is complete! Honestly, while I know this is a side character and a side plot almost nobody cares about, it's been so much fun to write out my own personal headcanon and for anyone who has read this far and plans to continue reading, I sincerely thank you for your support.

Please be sure to leave me a review telling me what you think of this chapter and be sure to come back next week for this story's final chapter!

xo

Polkahotness