Holy shit, she destroyed you! I wanna meet her.

Paul growled back at Jared, but he had expected his friend's reaction. Jared's ribbing was good-natured though. Paul could hear his that his thoughts were tinged with relieved happiness. Paul wasn't stupid, he knew that his best friend had been worried about him. Being a wolf was the best thing to happen to Paul, but it did sort of isolate all of the wolves from everyone at school. And with him graduating this year, Jared had been worried he would only be around people from the pack.

Paul had been fine with that, but since Jared was absurdly in love with Kim, he'd been convinced that Paul was going to die alone.

I haven't even seen her one on one. So no, you can't meet her.

C'mon, Paul. She seems really cool. It figures your soulmate wouldn't be normal nice girl.

Paul barely bit back a scathing thought about the delicacy of Jared's imprint, but he managed to suppress it and instead thought back, Obviously.

Jared was in the midst of appreciating Amelia's appearance and picturing her next to Paul, then had started imagining her whaling on him. Paul felt some second hand pride at the fact that Jared, someone who had an imprint, could still think Amelia was 'cute'. It wasn't accurate of course – Amelia was gorgeous and perfect. He had thought over every detail over and over again – the blush she'd had when she was angry and yelling, her overbite, the amazing freckles he wanted to trace with his tongue and explore to see if they were all over –

Jesus Christ, stop.

Paul made his thoughts stop wandering, but he then did admit something he would rather not have to acknowledge just yet.

She's almost twenty-two.

Jared literally stopped in his tracks. There wasn't any vampire activity around, so it wasn't a big deal, but the alarmed wave of emotion Paul felt wasn't exactly welcomed.

Dude… that's rough.

Paul snorted and picked up speed, focusing on the burn in his muscles instead of his imprint. Yeah, he fucking knew it wasn't the best of situations. But he was doing his best to put that out of his mind.

I let her think I'm in college.

That isn't… too bad, I guess. You'll have to get on her good side before telling her you're not.

Paul would have rolled his eyes or punched Jared's arm if they were human, so instead he had to settle for just sending over some threatening wordless threats. This was going to be… not the best situation. And Amelia had a life. One that wasn't near the reservation. She was an adult with her own apartment and job – Paul already knew that he couldn't ask her to give that up to join the tribe. It would not only put a target on her back for being a pale face, it would be asking for too much. Which meant – he'd have to live with her being four hours away.

When Jared caught on to his line of thought, he spoke in a tentative and attempted calm voice.

You could always join her in Seattle.

Fuck no. Being a werewolf was all that mattered to him now –

His own thoughts were cut off immediately. It wasn't all that mattered now. Amelia mattered.

For the first time since he had seen her, Paul found himself resenting the imprinting process. It, shit. It wasn't fair. Sam and Jared had it so easy, they'd imprinted on girls who would stay on the reservation gladly and live out their lives here. Amelia was far away, and she'd mentioned an apprenticeship in Seattle, but when that was over, who was to say she wouldn't want to move to New York or something.

C'mon man. Sam didn't have it easy with the whole Leah/Emily situation. And we won't all be wolves forever. Do you really want to make Amelia get older while you stay the same for the rest of her life?

How would he ever stop being a wolf, though? Vampires wouldn't ever just go away, and if people died because he hadn't been there he didn't know how he could live with himself. Jared decided to dole out unasked-for advice yet again and Paul had to do his best not to snarl at the unwanted counseling.

You're spending time with her tomorrow, man. Ask her what her plans are. And don't act like a hothead, you need her to actually like you, as slim a chance as that may be.

That was it. With a challenging howl, Paul sprinted in Jared's direction, set on pinning him in the dirt.

Ames was kind of stressed as hell.

She had been on the edge of an anxiety attack for the last ten minutes and now that she was slumped against the cabinets in the Call family's bathroom she felt like she was out of control. God, she knew there wasn't a reason – fuck. Her anxiety wasn't something that would just change. It was a medical illness, something she took meds for. But every time she was hit with an attack it was the same thing.

She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe. Metal was crushing her, she was trapped and couldn't get out. Oh god, her chest was tightening up and smoke was clogging her throat –

In the back of her mind she noted that Embry had burst into the bathroom, something she briefly wondered about seeing as she'd been sure she locked the door when she had felt an attack coming on. Immediately, the boy crouched down next to her.

Grabbing her hand and pressing it over her heart, he began speaking in a slow and even voice.

"Breathe with me. In, two, three. Out, two, three."

Embry repeated the phrase over and over again for what felt like forever. When Ames was finally able to breathe normally, she felt Embry slump so he sat right beside her. He had grown up beside her, so unlike people who had only just met Ames, he knew about her anxiety and how it worked – and how much worse it had gotten three years ago.

"Any trigger? Or was it just a buildup?"

Ames let out a deep breath and closed her eyes, letting her head fall back against the cabinets behind her.

"Nothing specific. I think I just got overwhelmed today and crashed."

When she opened her eyes and slightly rotated her head so she could see Embry, she saw that his expression was still worried.

"Is your leg okay? Is it cramping up – "

Ames cut him off with an exasperated voice. God, she loved this kid, but he was also really paranoid on her behalf.

"Lefty is in working order. Just my shit brain not doing its job."

Embry frowned and seemed pissed off – Ames was lucky that Mama Call wasn't home, Tiffany was always blunt and bitchy when Ames got into a self-pitying mood – before saying angrily, "Can you not talk like that?"

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I'm fine. And I'm looking forward to hanging out Sunday. You can introduce me to your friends. Quil and Jacob, right?"

Somehow, Ames had hit another nerve when she saw Embry flinch the smallest bit. When he spoke it was in a quiet, sad voice that she hated.

"I'm not really friends with them anymore."

Ames felt concern rise up, already panicking at the thought of the gang and everything it entailed, but Embry cut off her thoughts when he said, "We just drifted apart. I got more involved with the stuff the Elders held up and they didn't."

Ames nodded, even though she knew she couldn't ever really understand. Her family was close to the Calls, yeah, but they weren't Quileute. Her family was white, and the traditions upheld by the Calls weren't ingrained in the Harris family. It was something that had confused her as a kid.

Ames had white privilege. She knew that, and even though she did everything she could to try to combat racism at her schools and later in life, it wasn't something she would ever forget. She wouldn't dare to presume anything about the Elders or Council of Embry's tribe.

"I'm sorry you drifted away from them. And sorry I got so mad about your new friends. Your mom was freaking out, so I freaked out and – "

"You got all protective. I get it. You're not exactly like other girls."

The two of them sat in silence in the bathroom, both sitting on the floor and uncomfortably leaning on the cabinets. But the silence itself wasn't uncomfortable or awkward. Embry was a quiet guy, and Ames had always appreciated their moments when neither needed to speak.

However, a minute later Ames broke the silence.

"Saying I'm not like other girls isn't a compliment. It's putting me into a competition I didn't ask for. Women are awesome and gotta stick together. So, you know. Go fuck yourself."

Realizing that she wasn't actually all that angry, Embry let his head fall back as he loudly laughed. His movements made the back of his head collide with the wood paneling of the cabinet and let out a resounding smack, so Ames joined in on the laughter, this time at Embry's expense.