Chapter 9
Thanks again, Mel Cooley!
Disclaimer: Yeah, I think you get it by now.
AN: Uhhhh... Yeah. I'm sorry if you were waiting for this one. I won't bore you with excuses. There are a lot of them. But they're not important. What is important is... Who else is going TwilightFest this year? Because I'll... be in the area, at least. I'm playing it by ear, but I was there last fall to hike all the gorgeous trails in the Olympic National Forest and got trapped in that government shut down and threatened with arrest if I dared to "trespass" on Federal property. Not that I just drove down the road and snuck in off the trailhead or anything. Because that would be illegal and dangerous. *halo glows extra bright* So... I'll be around. PM me if you're going and want to, like, touch base or whatever. I make zero promises. COUGHpotislegaltherenowCOUGHCOUGH hashtagjustsaying.
Oh. I'm not on Twitter right now. Hashtags are irrelevant. Oops. Oh well.
Anyway. Here is the fruit of your two year wait, and the end of my rambling.
Before:
I shook my head as I stared at the electric blue car.
"At least take it for a test drive," Rose said.
I sighed. "All right," I said. "I'll take your extremely generous token of love and acceptance for a drive."
"Whoo!" Emmett screamed out.
I laughed and got into the car, waiting only two seconds for Rose and Emmett to close their doors. The garage door opened, and we were speeding down the winding driveway toward the highway.
Now:
She rode like a dream. Every curve, every dip, every hairpin turn, she handled like a pro. I couldn't fathom driving anything smoother.
Emmett hadn't exaggerated about Rose being an auto genius. At his... enthusiastic urging, I'd opened her up and blasted the stereo. Zero to sixty in about two and a half seconds, and we were hitting 120 not long after, flying down the highway with the bass thumping, resonating in my chest. All too soon, my joy ride tapered to an end, and Rosalie put my address into the navigation system to take me home.
"You're working again tonight, are you not?" was her question to my puppy dog eyes.
"Oh, come on, Aunt Rose! You can't be serious! I'm 23 years old! Missing a couple hours of sleep won't hurt me!"
"Oh, I certainly am serious," she assured me. "I know you're grown and have been on your own for a while, but a little structure won't hurt you either."
I turned my eyes to the review mirror. "Uncle Emmett?" I tried to make myself as cute and innocent as I could. Emmett just grinned and shook his head.
"Sorry kiddo," he said. "There's no arguing with Rose. Besides, she's not all too wrong."
I sighed and returned my eyes to the road, following the directions the car's navigation gave me, and within ten minutes I was pulling into my driveway.
"Wait, I should drop you guys at your house first," I realized out loud.
"We can run back faster than you could drive us," Rose said, smiling.
"We're due for a nice hunt anyway," Emmett chimed.
I cringed, remembering the previous night, then caught myself and forced a smiled that felt much more like a grimace. "And you can have that all to yourselves," I grumbled.
I opened my car door and Rose and Emmett were immediately out of the car, looking around frantically.
I stepped out at a slower pace, gauging their bizarre reactions.
"What happened?"
"Mutts." The word sounded like a curse the way Rose muttered it, and as she turned to glance at me, an ugly sneer marred her otherwise beautiful face.
"Mutts?" I was confused. Why would dogs upset-
Oh!
"The giant mutant wolves that tried to eat me a few days ago? Yeah, one of them came by after you left yesterday. Said he wanted to apologize."
Emmett looked at me curiously. "And how did that go?"
I smirked. "I broke his nose."
"Whoo! That's my niece!" He ran over to me and ruffled my hair.
I nodded, and felt myself blush.
"And then he asked me to dinner."
Emmett went immediately silent. Rose gaped.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing! It's their fault my car got wrecked! I couldn't believe he had the gall to even ask! I just walked away from him."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Not another one," she grumbled.
"Another one?" I asked. "Another what?"
Rose sniffed the air, not answering my question. "It was Seth Clearwater, wasn't it?"
"Yeah," I answered slowly.
"He's been here more recently than last night," she said. She walked over to me and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. It was... Motherly. "Think about his dinner offer," she said quietly.
Reluctantly, and more to placate Rosalie than anything else, I nodded. She smiled down at me and then headed toward the tree line at a human pace. Emmett followed but walked backward for a moment to shoot me a wide grin and a wave before turning back to follow Rosalie. I watched the tree line until I heard a rush of wind and then silence.
It almost felt like having parents. Rather, it almost felt like having a mother and a goofy big brother. I didn't fault anything about the way Grandpa Richie raised me. He did his best, and did a pretty good job, in my opinion, of playing both father and mother roles. But I never knew my mother and I was still young when Grandpa Richie died, and my stint in foster care only gave me legal guardians, no real feel of parents who cared about me and loved me. As long as I was fed and not missing after curfew, their obligation was satisfied. If it really meant so much to Rose that I rethink Seth's invitation to dinner, I would.
Rethinking didn't mean saying yes. I could just rethink all the reasons to say no.
I clicked the remote lock to the car and turned and headed up the steps to my front porch. On the second step, I caught a whiff of something out of place and froze. It was floral, mixed with something else. Pine?
I cautiously took another step up, my fears confirmed as I saw the wrapped bouquet laid neatly on the welcome mat in front of the door. A bouquet of dark pink roses, red asters, and pink carnations. Stuck in between the delicate petals was a card. I slowly spun on the spot, looking for anything else out place. Footprints, eyes peering out from between the trees, anything like that. When I was satisfied the stalker wasn't watching from the shadows, I picked up the flowers, unlocked my front door, and slammed it shut behind me, bee lining for the kitchen. I set the flowers on the counter and picked up the card.
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Let me take you to dinner
And try to make up for everything I did to you
I rolled my eyes and scoffed. He was really trying. I couldn't help smiling and shook my head as I dropped the card in the trash can and brought the flowers back to the front porch and left them on the railing before going back inside.
I slept surprisingly soundly the rest of Wednesday afternoon and work that night into Thursday morning went unsurprisingly slowly, filled mostly with texting Scooter and Rose, until Emmett sent a text requesting I stop texting my aunt, saying specifically, "Just because you refuse to get laid doesn't mean no one else wants to." After swallowing back the bile that had half risen in my throat, I said goodnight to Rose and focused on my conversation with Scooter, who was all too eager to catch me up on 75th precinct gossip. Apparently since I'd moved away two weeks prior, there were two pregnancies, one of which spurred on a divorce because the father was another cop and not her husband.
Drama.
Getting home Thursday morning yielded no surprises as I saw the bouquet from the previous day was gone and replaced with a wooden figure of what looked like a wolf. I picked up it up and inspected it curiously. It felt like it weighed about two pounds and was bigger than my hand, maybe about six inches long and four inches high. It didn't look the least bit scary or intimidating, either. In fact it looked, well, it was kind of cute. It had its head down, but looked up with wide eyes. I knew this was not Seth the man, but Seth the wolf, apologizing. I briefly considered taking it inside (it would make a nice paperweight on my desk), but quickly dismissed that idea and set it back in its place on the porch railing. I didn't want to give him the wrong idea. I couldn't get involved with anybody, least of all a ginormous, mutant wolf who had tried to eat me five minutes after I moved into town.
I turned and headed into the house, locking the door behind me. I went into the kitchen and picked up an unopened package of Double-Stuf Oreos and went straight to the living room. Falling onto the couch, I clicked on the TV and opened the cookies, not hesitating to dig right in with one hand as I channel surfed with the other. Chiller was showing a Wolf Lake marathon. Of course I immediately saw the parallel, but hey, maybe I could learn something.
I didn't know how I'd gotten from my couch to the middle of the woods, but here I stood in a small clearing, surrounded by unthinkably tall trees. I thought I was alone, until a voice spoke behind me.
"You're not good."
I whirled around, and saw a shirtless Seth Clearwater glaring at me from the tree line, more hatred in his eyes than I could fathom.
"I haven't done anything," I said, and it sounded disturbingly like pleading. "I've never bitten anyone, I swear!"
Seth shrugged as his eyes turned a bright yellow, subtly glowing in the dim light. "It's only a matter of time," he said, his voice deepening into a snarl as his face elongated into a snout, and fur sprouted out along his entire body. "You can't hold out forever," he continued in a deep growl, arms and legs becoming longer as he went down onto all fours. I was no longer looking at Seth. I was looking at a giant wolf, not dissimilar to the carved one I had found on my front porch.
"I can, Seth! I've done it this long!"
The sand-colored wolf advanced slowly, lips pulling back as he moved to reveal long, white fangs, saliva making them glisten, and dripping from the ends.
"You're a murderer," Seth's voice continued through the growling, even though his lips did not move. "You killed your own grandfather, who did nothing but try to raise you right. Hell, you killed your own mother! Your mother! How can you be trusted around people you don't even know when you killed the woman who carried you in her womb for nine months?"
Tears stung my eyes and I willed them not to fall.
"I-I didn't mean to," I said around the lump in my throat. "It was an accident, if I could take it back I would!"
"There is one way you can redeem yourself," Seth's voice said.
And without any further warning, the wolf lunged. I felt the sharp claws dig into my chest as I fell backward, his hot, wet breath on my face-
I sat up with a jolt, sucking in air that my lungs were desperately crying for. After gasping for a minute or so and coming back to my senses, I leaned back into the couch cushions and wiped the cold sweat off my forehead. This was getting ridiculous.
A knock at the door grabbed my attention. Making sure I wasn't overly disheveled, I got up and went to see who it was. If it was Seth again...
But it wasn't. It was another tribe member, accompanied by Renesmee. Perplexed, I unlocked and opened the door.
"Renesmee, hey, what's up?"
Smiling widely, she said, "Hi Alex! This is Jacob," she indicated the man next to her. "He's my- um, he's my friend. Anyway, I wanted to introduce you and, well, we wanted to talk to you."
Sensing ulterior motives, I looked closely at this Jacob fellow. As closely as I could, anyway, seeing as he stood about two and a half heads taller than me. A tribal looking tattoo on his shoulder caught my attention.
"You friends with Seth Clearwater?" I asked flatly.
"Yeah, actually, I wanted to-"
I shook my head and started to close the door, saying "No, thanks."
But the door wouldn't close. When I looked, I saw Renesmee had blocked it open with her foot.
"Please, Alex," she said with wide eyes. "Just hear us out."
Ugh, this little girl and her puppy dog eyes.
"Fine, fine," I finally grumbled, and opened the door to allow them inside.
I stared at them, mouth hanging open, the Oreo in my hand forgotten for the moment. I was beginning to wonder how many more crazy supernatural revelations I could handle this week. I'd only been in town four days and already I'd found my missing great aunt, found out she didn't go missing but was turned into a vampire, found out I'm half vampire, all after being nearly eaten by giant shape shifting wolves. And now on top of all of that, here was Renesmee and her... Her Jacob, telling me that due to some crazy voodoo, they were destined to be together.
"So this... This imprinting is absolute?" I asked, finally regaining control of my mouth. "Neither of you has a choice?"
"Well, sure, Nessie could decide she doesn't want me around," Jacob said. "But she would have no reason to. It would be like we were designed perfectly for each other. And my role is to be whatever she needs me to be. A friend, a protector. Generally, down the road when she's matured, we would fall into the role of lovers." He looked purposely at Renesmee. "But that won't even be a topic for discussion for a long, long time."
Renesmee blushed and nodded.
I looked down at the cookie in my hand and put it back into the box. I wouldn't be eating in the near future. I had a sneaking suspicion about why they were sharing this information with me. Aunt Rose's suggestion from the day before popped up in my mind.
"So why are you telling me all this?"
They exchanged another look and then looked back to me.
"Uncle Emmett mentioned Seth has been coming around," Renesmee said. "That is a very nice wolf he carved for you out on the porch."
I snorted. "Yeah, that's after the flowers he dropped off yesterday. Can't wait to see what he leaves on my doorstep tomorrow. Although, now that you've told me about this imprinting thing, it boggles my mind why he's trying so hard when his imprint could be out there somewhere waiting for him. That boy must really feel guilty."
Jacob and Renesmee just stared blankly at me. I slowly felt my smirk fade from my face. Renesmee opened her mouth as if to say something, but Jacob squeezed her knee and muttered what sounded like, "Wait for it."
Slowly, it dawned on me. Very, very slowly. Because, if Seth's perfect soulmate/imprint was out there somewhere, he wouldn't be trying so hard, guilty conscience or not. He would only be trying so hard if he were trying to woo his imprint. Who he had almost eaten a few days before.
"Holy shit," I whispered.
AN: Yes, yes, I know, hybrid gestation is not nine months, as my lovely beta was quick to point out. I just ask you to keep in mind that Alex knows little about her conception and birth. I again apologize for the absurdly long wait and want to thank the several people who PMed me and asked me where the hell the next chapter was. You know who you are. I WILL say, however, that the zero reviews of the last chapter contributed to the delay, however the PM's and several new follows did kick my butt into gear. So, I mean, if you want a chapter faster, you know, you could, like, leave a little review. HashtagJustSaying. Oh. Right. This isn't Twitter.
Speaking of Twitter, you can follow me if you want. ReneeGoetz. You can find me on Facebook. The name's Renee Goetz. And/or you can e-mail me. Rengoe84 at gmail dot com. If you didn't get it, my name is Renee Goetz.
I'm gonna just stop with the rambling now. I only ask that you please leave me some love in the reviews. I like to know how my creativeness is received.
PS- If you don't know of them yet, Betterin Texas and 4MeJasper and Karry4Harry write some good stuff. Check 'em out. HashtagJus- Damn it! I know, I know, this isn't Twitter!
