Chapter Thirty-Eight

It's no use, Sam spoke through the pack mind, We've definitely lost her. Everyone head back.

Jared was not happy. And there were a great number of reasons why. Chief among them: while the rest of the pack was finishing up their school day this afternoon, Sam caught the scent of a leech on the outskirts of their land. And while, yes, it was annoying to have to book it out of school at the sound of Sam's howl (conveniently right at the end of the day, as luck would have it), and the two hour chase was rather tedious now that it was over and they had nothing to show for it (they lost the scent just past the Canadian border—the working theory was the leech jumped into the ocean), and it was even more annoying that now it was going to take at least two hours to get back to La Push (because he was hungry, goddammit; none of them had eaten since lunch), none of these were what was making Jared increasingly angrier the longer he thought about the situation.

What was making Jared so very unhappy was the proximity of the leech to La Push before Sam picked up her scent. She was too close. Too close to Kim. Too close to his family. Too close to a whole town full of potential prey. Just too damn close.

We're going to have to start patrolling in pairs, Sam spoke up suddenly, clearly having been listening in on Jared's thoughts (not that that was very difficult while phased). I'll see what we can work out since you guys have to go to school, but I don't like how close she got, either. Patrolling in pairs will help us cover more ground. We don't know that we've seen the last of that leech until she's dead.

I hate to say it, Jared said, But what we could use is a couple more wolves.

None of them missed the way Embry's thoughts flickered to Jake and Quil, before just as quickly becoming focused on the newest wolf's immediate surroundings as he attempted to keep the rest of the pack out of his head.

I hope it doesn't come to that, Sam agreed, but it would definitely help us out.

Well this conversation is getting really depressing, really fast, Paul spoke up now. Personally, I'm more worried about whether or not Emily is expecting us for dinner. I'm starving. She probably made food for us, right? Kim probably told her where we were, and Emily loves us enough to welcome us back from a vampire chase with food, doesn't she?

Personally, that's definitely what Jared was hoping for.

Race you to find out! Embry shouted through their link, and in a scramble of paws all four wolves were quickly headed back in the direction they came from.

By the following Sunday, there hadn't been anymore sightings of the leech who Sam had only caught a brief glimpse of on Friday. And so, after nearly constant patrols for more than thirty-six hours, on Sunday afternoon Emily forced all four wolves out of the house after their brief lunch break to go take a mental break and do something 'normal' for a little bit.

There wasn't much to do around La Push, or even Forks, on a good day, so the four boys predictably found themselves at First Beach soon enough. Or, more accurately, the cliffs above First Beach. Cliff diving was the perfect distraction for an overcast, slightly rainy, and definitely chilly January afternoon…at least for the four Quileute shape shifters.

"It's days like today that I'm glad the cold weather doesn't really affect us," Sam commented once they reached the top of the one-hundred-foot cliff, all four of them dressed only in the pack-standard cut-off shorts. He glanced over the edge and narrowed his eyes at the dark gray, choppy water below. "We'd probably all have hypothermia by now. Oh well. Totally worth it, either way."

And then he threw himself off the cliff.

"Dude needs to get out more," Paul commented, "And he needs to work on his form."

"You think you can do better?" Jared challenged him with a raised brow.

"I know it," Paul retorted, before leaping off the cliff—with a grace Jared wouldn't have pinned him for—and ending in a clean dive into the water below.

"Alright, so maybe he does know what he's talking about," Jared admitted (but only because only Embry was there to hear him). "Do you want to go next or should I?"

But when Embry didn't immediately reply, Jared looked up to see his pack brother's gaze focused away from the cliff—towards the expanse of road that was visible across the stretch of beach down below. There was an old orange-reddish truck stopped on the road and someone was just getting back into the driver's seat. From this distance, Jared could tell it was a girl, but he didn't recognize her. The truck looked oddly familiar, though.

"Embry?" Jared pressed.

Embry started slightly at the sound of his name and then paced agitatedly towards the edge of the cliff, walking the length of it back-and-forth a few times. When he finally came to a halt, several paces back from the edge, he briefly glanced over at Jared.

"That was Jake and Isabella Swan," Embry said shortly. "I didn't realize they were still hanging out."

Jared wasn't quite sure what Embry was getting at, but he could easily tell that Kim was definitely on to something the past few days when she kept saying Embry was having a rough time. There wasn't much more that could be done for him right now, though.

"Don't think about that right now," was all the advice Jared could offer. "We're here to take a break, remember? Just don't think."

Embry smiled weakly, absolutely no joy behind it. "That's not a bad idea."

And then with a running start, he launched himself off of the cliff, spinning and twisting through the air before he hit the water below.

Jared could only frown after him.

Over the next week-and-a-half, Jared kept a close eye on Embry. And, unfortunately, after a week-and-a-half of watching Embry's interactions with the pack both in and out of school—along with his close encounters with Jake and Quil—Jared stood by his initial assessment of the situation.

There wasn't much the pack could do for Embry to help make things easier.

All five of them—the three wolves and the two imprints—had already welcomed Embry into the pack with open arms. Embry was one of them. From the beginning, they easily included him in any pack activities beyond chasing vampires—namely, enjoying Emily's delicious cooking. And Embry did take part. He came over to Sam and Emily's before and after patrolling and spent time with everyone, and didn't close himself off from the rest of the group...very much, at least. There was still the occasional time when Jared would glance over at Embry and notice that his attention was focused elsewhere, likely on the two friends he'd had to all but abandon.

The pack already included Embry in everything. And so, short of somehow figuring out how to force Jake and Quil to phase so that they could be let in on the secret—and honestly, for all that phasing brought Kim into his life, he really didn't wish the weight of it on anyone else's shoulders—there really wasn't anything more they could do to lift his spirits than they were already doing.

Like Kim had told him nearly two weeks ago, after a talk she had with Emily, the best thing they could do for Embry right now was give him time to adjust.

Jared broke out of his heavy thoughts when the bell to signal the end of the school day rang out. Unfortunately, however, Jared knew better than to get out of his seat. Sure enough, his teacher (who had been known on more than one occasion to launch into a lecture that always began with "The bell doesn't dismiss you, I dismiss you!") continued speaking—not that Jared could give any specifics about the topic, as he clearly hadn't been paying any attention. Instead, he began restlessly tapping his fingers against his leg, impatient to get out of there. It was bad enough that this was one of the few classes he didn't share with Kim this year, but added to the fact that he always got out of it late, it was also on the complete opposite side of the (admittedly, rather small—but it was the thought that counts) school from Kim's last class of the day. And Jared did not like having to wait longer than was necessary to spend time with his imprint after a long day of school.

This was especially considering the fact that lately Jared was getting the impression that he wasn't spending as much time with Kim as he should. It wasn't anything she actually came out and told him, but there had been a few times lately when Jared had the brief thought that Kim was acting...not weirdly, precisely, but definitely not entirely like herself. And the fact that he couldn't even pinpoint how the way she acted was different certainly wasn't helping him figure out why she was acting differently. Honestly, the actual occurrences were so random and fleeting that he was actually mostly sure he was imagining the whole thing. The fact remained though, an afternoon to themselves—just the two of them and nothing pack-related—was the perfect opportunity for Jared to make sure he was paying Kim all of the attention he thought she deserved from him.

Which was yet another reason it was so annoying that he was still stuck in this classroom.

Finally, though, everyone around Jared began getting out of their seats and he realized that in the midst of his annoyed inner ramblings he'd obviously missed the teacher's actual dismissal. Oh well. Hopefully there wasn't any homework assigned.

After hastily shoving his notebook and pencil into his backpack, Jared got to his feet and made his way out of the classroom, headed in the direction of Kim's locker, which was handily located just outside of her last class of the day. Although today was Wednesday and it would normally be a day for Kim to watch her sister after school, today Kylie was being picked up from school by her dad, and so Jared had Kim all to himself just as soon as he finally reached her and then got out of this school. So distracted was he with thoughts of how he and Kim might spend their afternoon together (and yes, they were most definitely not all PG thoughts, thanks to Kylie's absence today), it wasn't until he had almost reached Kim's locker that he noticed the hallway nearest to it was rather crowded.

Jared frowned at the unusual sight. For the hallway to be that congested, he wouldn't be surprised if half the school's population was up ahead. The fact that everyone's attention was clearly focused on something quickly clued him into the fact that there was obviously something happening up ahead, most likely a fight of some kind, to draw this kind of crowd. It wasn't until he reached the back of the crowd, and thus the perfect vantage point to see over everyone's heads, though, that he realized how serious of a situation it actually was.

There was a big gap in the crowd, maybe fifteen feet in front of Jared. And standing in that open space were three students: Quil, Embry, and Kim.