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Chapter Twelve

Fighting

If I thought arriving at the school was tense, lunch was worse. As it turns out, the table we had been sitting at was formally the Cullen's. Most of them didn't seem to care, but the blonde was obviously still peeved from our earlier encounter. I could hear Edward tell her to leave it alone, but she practically spit venom in his face. Bella curled more into his side, sending us a sympathetic smile. I would have to have a talk with her alone. I was supposed to be protecting her, not watching her throw herself at a leech again. If she was going to do that, I might as well leave… The wolf didn't like that idea at all.

"You're at our table." The blonde practically slammed her hand down on the wood as she hissed. Several of my pack members growled in response.

"I must not have gotten the memo that the cafeteria seats were assigned." I took a long swig of water as her face contorted even more. "Besides, you don't even eat. What good would a lunch table do you?"

I was aware of the attention we were drawing, but the primal part of me didn't care. A fire erupted in my stomach and up my spine as Emmett approached. "Rose, come on, it's just a table." I couldn't help but notice that even though he spoke to her, his eyes were on me. The blonde seemed to notice to.

"I won't let her take what's mine." His eyebrows shot up. It was obvious that she wasn't talking about the lunch table.

With the tiniest of smirks, I stood to match her stance. "I always get what I want. I don't give a rat's ass if you've claimed it as yours or not."

"I'm not going to give up without a fight." Her tone was more level now, more serious.

"Either am I."

"Umm… are we still talking about the table?" Emmett scratched the back of his head and let an easy laugh pass through his lips. I couldn't help but left my features soften as I turned to him. His personality hadn't changed much. He was always one to make light of a situation.

1933

Gatlinburg

"I was wondering where you went off too." Emmett smiled down at me, his bright blue eyes shining in the dim lights that they hung in the barn.

"I just thought I would rest a bit." I put on my best fake smile. Behind Emmett, I could still hear the women talking.

I knew they were jealous of how much attention I had been getting from Emmett, but that didn't mean their words didn't hit a nerve. They spoke about how much better Emmett was than me; how his family was of a higher class. It was true enough, hell, all my clothes were borrowed from Bridget. Emmett followed my gaze, a deep frown pulling at his perfect lips.

"You shouldn't let the Adams sisters get to you. They gossip about everyone." I shrugged his words off. "Come on, Darlin'." Again, a bright smile lit up his features as he held out his hand.

"Where are we going?" I placed my hand in his much larger one and allowed him to pull me towards the center of the barn.

"We're gonna dance!" My eyes widened as he turned to hold his arms out to me.

"I don't dance!" I whispered, allowing him to take me in his arms nonetheless. "And everyone is watching!"

"Well, let's give them something to talk about then." He cupped my cheek with one hand and brought his lips to cover mine. My breath caught instantly as I was wrapped in the warm feeling that filled my body. "Just follow my lead." He winked, his large smile in place. With a shuttered breath, I let him show me the dance steps.

Present Day

"Let's go Emmett." The blonde snapped, her eyes rolling as she flipped her hair.

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding as Emmett gave me one more small smile before following the leech. Slowly, I let myself sink back into my seat. "I didn't know you wanted him back." Ty rose an eyebrow, but there was no judgment in his tone.

"Neither did I." I mumbled as I watched Emmett walk off. The wolf made the decision for me. I would fight for Emmett. I had to believe that there was still a part of him in there. Now, I just had to figure out my approach.

The rest of the week seemed to pass by in a blur, every day growing tenser. Emmett was in a few of my classes, but so was Rosalie. I hadn't been able to talk to him one on one yet, but there would be times when our eyes would meet, and it would be easy to see them as a light blue again. It wasn't until Friday night that I really got to speak with him, and that was just a coincidence.

My eyes traveled from Bella's window to where Emmett stood only a few feet away from me. Ever since their return, the Cullen's have been working full force to help us take out the red head. It was the least they could do. Still, she managed to evade us. Edward had contacted Sam earlier, informing him of his plan to send Bella to her mother's for the weekend. She would leave in the morning, giving us the chance to concentrate on the leech. Until then, it appeared that Emmett and I were on guard duty. I could only assume Blondie didn't know. I let out a deep breath through my nose. It might not be the ideal situation, but I needed to talk to him. With my mind made up, I allowed myself to phase.

"Whoa!" I couldn't help but smirk as Emmett's eyes quickly darted to me and away. "You're uh- you're a bit naked."

"Nothing you haven't seen before." I shrugged as he pulled off his shirt and thrust it into my hands.

"Yeah, but I kinda don't remember." I slipped his shirt over my head, eyeing his bare chest. Was it possible that he was in even better shape now? "Man, I'm not gonna be able to get this out of my head before seeing Edward." He mumbled, causing my smirk to stretch into a smile.

"I thought this would be a good time to talk, since your lesser half isn't here."

"Rose really isn't that bad once you-…" He paused, looking me over now that I was covered. "You cut your hair." The corners of his lips pulled into a deep frown.

"Oh… Yeah, just this morning." I ran a hand through my short bob courtesy of Emily. She even added some shaggy bangs and feathered layers. The woman seriously missed her calling as a hair dresser. "Does it bother you?" I watched him, wondering if he remembered.

"Yeah… I – I think we talked about this before… I can't really remember." It was my turn to frown as he brought a large hand to his temple.

"You always liked it long." I offered. "You said you liked the way it fell."

"At my mother's Christmas party." His eyes lit up as the memory came back to him. "You told my mother you were thinking about cutting it because it was getting in the way, which I didn't really understand."

Guilt flooded me. "For the record, I had planned on telling you the night you-" I took a shuttered breath. After all this time, it was still hard to talk about. "The day of your accident." When he didn't respond, I looked to him again only to find him watching me with sad eyes. "What?"

"I guess I'm just realizing how real these memories are for you. For me, they're like remembering parts of a dream. They're foggy and don't make much sense by themselves, but they're familiar. It's just hard to wrap my head around that they actually happened, that we actually had a past." I nodded. I guess I could understand where he was coming from. "And I don't hold it against you. Living this life, I know how important it is to keep a secret like that… I just don't understand why you did if we were so in love."

I was sure he didn't mean his words to be like a punch to the gut, but they knocked the wind out of me nonetheless. "We were." I frowned, wanting to drive the point home. I turned so I was fully facing him. "I loved you Emmett, more than any creature could have. The imprint was so strong and so instant that it was hard to remember my life before you… It was also the reason I was so afraid. How was I was I going to know you wouldn't run when you found out what I was? Or worse, question if the imprint was responsible for everything." He immediately looked away. "You do, don't you? You think it's the imprint that made you fall in love with me all those years ago."

Panic rose in my throat before I could stop it. It shouldn't matter now, we were back at square one. "I'm not saying that… exactly." He sighed and turned to lean against a tree so he was facing me. "I just don't remember supposedly being in love with you, and now you're here and my memories are coming back…" He looked at the ground before meeting my eyes again. "I haven't told Rosie, but it's like you're calling out to me. All the time. I just know where you are… It's like I can feel you."

Hope blossomed in my chest. The imprint was still alive in him too. "That is the imprint, but it doesn't force you to feel things that aren't there. The imprint points us out to each other and throws us together head first. Anything after that is all you."

We fell into a short silence, my words hanging between us. "You smell good too." He added. It was so blunt and random, I couldn't help but laugh. A heat spread across my spine as he smiled and his shoulders relaxed. "Seriously, I've never met a wolf that actually smelled good to me before."

"You smell good too." I brought the collar of the borrowed shirt up to my nose, giving it a quick sniff. It was covered in the scents of the other leeches, but underneath it all, his scent was surprisingly familiar. "It's the same as when you were human, but stronger." When I looked back to him, I found him watching me with an intense gaze. It made my heart skip a beat. I couldn't remember the last time he looked at me like that… "I suppose you want this back." I reached for the hem of the shirt, but he held his hand up.

"Keep it. I'm an old man at heart, and I don't like the idea of a woman running around naked in the woods."

I let a smile pull at my lips. I could sense Chase drawing closer for the shift change. "Won't your mate mind?" I couldn't help but spit out the word as a large black wolf appeared at my side.

"Nah, Rose'll be okay with it."

With a glance to Chase, I turned to head back to the rental house. Pausing a few feet away, I looked back to Emmett with a smile, pleased that his eyes had already been on me. "For the record, McCarty, you never had a problem chasing me through the woods wearing a whole lot less than this."

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