Ch. 7

Embry was sitting in his kitchen, at one in the morning, staring at his computer screen; the facts just didn't add up, he wasn't guilty, he had to be guilty, Embry just stared at the stone cold truth in front of him. He didn't do it, how could he not have done it. Embry closed the case file and shut his lap top off. He was just too worked up about this case and he didn't even know why.

Embry got a soda out of the fridge and a bag of chips off the counter as he made his way to his room. He slipped out of his clothes and plopped down on his bed in his boxers. He flipped through the channels till he found some crappy movie that he could fall asleep watching; the trick worked, he was out within the next 15 minutes.

Embry was looking at Shanelle as she cooked what looked like breakfast. "Hey, honey you should hurry up before your late," she said putting two plates down, and later another. "Nelly, come eat," she called. Embry looked to the kitchen entry way as a young girl around the age of six came running into the room in princess pajamas. Her eyes were like his, but everything else looked like Shanelle.

"Mama, how come Troy gets to spend the night at Uncle Jake's and Aunt Leah's and I don't?" the little girl asked.

"Because, Troy didn't have a fever yesterday," Shanelle said patting the little girls head. "Embry, you should get going you're going to be late." It felt like he was in a trance. "Embry,Embry," he would hear her call his name.

"Embry, man! Wake the hell up!" Paul said pushing him onto the floor.

"Why did you wake me up?" Embry asked.

"Because I found this," he said pointing to Shanelle who was standing in the door way, "banging on your front door. In order to shut her up, I found your spare key and let her in." Paul said walking out. Embry got off the floor and sent Shanelle a small smile her way as he made his way to the bathroom. When he walked back out freshly shaven and all that other stuff, he found Shanelle looking through his closet.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"You're closet is so bland, we need to go shopping, so put some clothes on and meet me down stairs." Just then he notice what Shanelle had on, skin tight jeans, sandals, and purple top, ya she didn't look like she wanted to watch movies all day. "Hurry up, we haven't got all day." Embry let out a silent whine, in his head.

About an hour later he found himself looking at his death trap, the mall. He got out of the car and put his arm around Shanelle's shoulders as they walked past the stores. "Oh Victoria Secret, I need to get a few new bras," she said pulling him into the store. No man likes looking at underwear unless it was on the girl holding it up. Embry sat down in one of the chairs as Shanelle tried on five different bras, that all looked the same to him. By the time they walked out of the store Shanelle had two different bags, he knew what was in one and could care less what was in the other. When Shanelle tried to drag him into Mac, he said he would meet her back there, and went to go get a pretzel.

He passed a jewelry store on his back and noticed a Hello Kitty diamond necklace in the window. He could just see Shanelle wearing that, so he bought it for her. I mean what's 400 dollars to a lawyer, right? As he made his way back to Shanelle he could hear her talking to someone. "I have a boyfriend," she said as he rounded the corner.

"I don't see him," the voice said, as Embry got closer he smelled it, the male was a vampire. He quickened his pace and had his arm around Shanelle in a second.

"Hey baby," he said kissing her on the forehead.

"Hey," she said as they walked away from the vampire. "That guy was so weird, his eyes were like burgundy," she said walking into a shoe store.

By the end of the day Embry was carrying at least twenty bags, only one of them was for him. This time, Embry got in the driver seat and took off towards a restaurant down the road, but not before he texted Jake and told him there were vampires in town. He pulled into a parking spot in front of the restaurant, and helped Shanelle out. His mind was wondering why a vampire would even talk to her. She had to smell like a werewolf she was always around them, unless she was the vampires singer, that's the only way he would look over the smell, or he was on some kind of mission. He was pulled out of his thoughts by Shanelle's hand on his knee. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, just thinking," he said. "Hey I have something for you." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the jewelry box and handed it to her. When she opened it, her eyes went wide.

"It's beautiful Embry!" she said holding it up.

Embry got up from where he was sitting so he could put around her neck. But before he sat down he whispered the words every girl loves to hear. "I love you." the night went on like any other, they took a stroll through the park and shared a kiss under the stars, it was perfect in Shanelle's mind. This is how a relationship should be, just like this. It seems like she had found her first love, her first true love—a wolf boy. When they got back to the Clearwater's, Embry took her bags up to her room and left saying something about pack meeting, or something of that nature.

Shanelle was currently blow-drying her hair, when there was a knock on her door. She heard it open and someone walked in. "Ugh Shay-shay are you here?" she heard Trey's voice ask.

"Yup, I'm just blow-drying my hair, give me a second," she called from her bathroom.

Trey took a seat on her bed looking around at Shanelle's things, she was never the cleanest person, but it was one of the many things he loved about her. A picture on the desk, next to her laptop caught his eye. Her and Embry standing on a rock at the beach, he had his arms wrapped around her from the back looking down at her as she looked up. Trey thought about how it used to be them, how they used to be the two love birds of the group. By the time Shanelle was fifteen he was head over heels for her, so he asked her out. She said yes of course, but when they broke up two years later, Shanelle quickly got over him and put him back in the friend zone—but he never got over her. He had to tell her, he could go on being happy about being her "big brother", while she kissed this Embry dude, or he could get his feelings cleared.

"So what's up?" Shanelle asked walking into the room as she put her hair up.

"Nothing, just thinking," he paused looking up at her, "about how things used to be, when we were a couple." He came right out and said it. Trey never beat around the bush.

"Ugh." Shanelle came to a stop, her eyes went big, she didn't like where this was going.

"Come on," Trey said getting up from his spot on the bed, "don't act like you don't think about it sometimes," he said as he stopped a few feet in front of her.

"I don't," Shanelle looked up at Trey, "I don't think about that ever."

"Why? Cause you have that Embry guy? I know you can't forget what we shared, what we did together. Do you remember or should I tell you."

"I remember, Trey. I try to forget. Why are you bringing this up? I thought we moved on, that we could be just friends again." Shanelle was backing up as Trey was getting closer.

"Can't you tell, I'm still in love with you? I never got over the way your eyes squint when you're mad, or how your nose wrinkles when you smile, and especially the way your lips curve when you kiss…kiss ME, not that piece of garbage." Shanelle's back was against the wall now.

"What's happened to you?" Shanelle asked looking up to him.

"I've changed Shanelle, that's what's happened to me. I learned the way of dealing with the big boys, Shanelle." Trey said looking at her.

"You're in a mob," Shanelle knew right away.

"One of the best, and they've got a hit out on you. I won't tell them where you are if you do something for me," he said, gently sliding his hand down the side of her face, then tracing her lip with his finger. She turned her head away from him.

"Why would they be after me?"

"Because your dad made a bad deal with them. They want something dear to him and you're the only thing he has left, but if you want them to go away and stop, all you have to do, is do something for me." Trey ran his hand down her side.

"You're sick, I'd rather have them find me than do anything with you," she said.

"Come Shay, it will be just like old times," Trey said pushing her up against the wall more.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Shanelle screamed out as he tried to kiss her. Shanelle had heard the front door open and hoped the person walking in heard her. She thought right when Leah and Embry came barging into the room.

"GET. THE. HELL. AWAY. FROM. MY. GIRLFRIEND." Embry growled. He was shaking so bad he could have caused an earthquake. As he pulled Trey away from Shanelle, he threw him across the room. "Keep your filthy paws off her, I swear if you ever touch her again I will kill you with my own bare hands." Growls ripped through his chest. By this time, Shanelle was on the floor crying as Leah tried not to rip Trey's head off.

"I suggest you get your butt out of my house before I kill you myself." Leah said as trembles visibly ran up and down her spine.

"Fine, but you'll be sorry," Trey declared as he slammed the door and left the room.

"I'm going to make sure he leaves," Leah said following him out.

"Are you okay?" Embry asked appearing next to her. He kneeled down next to her and wrapped her in his arms as she cried. He carried her over to the bed and just let her cry. He looked down; sadness filled him as he watched her cry. It was breaking his heart. How could that scum have such an impacted on his imprinted. When the crying stopped he looked down to see she was asleep with silent tears running down her face. He had to fix her but how? Then it came to him.