CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The next morning I woke with that pain filling me again. I had thought being separated from Embry over Christmas was hard and then when he had broken up with me, but it was nothing like this. The ache in my chest took my breath away and at the same time I felt empty, as if a big part of me was missing. I showered and drank juice, but I couldn't face eating breakfast. So this was what Jared had been feeling? I hated it and I wasn't so sure that Imprinting was such a good thing after all if I was going to go through this every time I was away from Embry for more than a few hours. I had an almost uncontrollable urge to run straight over to his house or at least call him, but it was still only just past seven and it would only cause trouble for him with his Mom. Instead I waited impatiently, agonised, trying to force myself to stop fretting.

Embry arrived at eight o'clock and by then I was pacing around outside the shed, unable to control myself and not wanting to bother Dad with my irritability, even though he would have understood. He liked things to be relaxed when he first rose in the morning and there was me practically tearing my hair out for no reason other than that I wasn't with my Imprint.

"Hey."

Embry appeared around the corner of the building, his school bag in one hand and a smile on his face. I flew at him, grabbed him in a bear hug and swung him off his feet. He hugged me back, laughing as I reluctantly put him down, although I kept my arms around him.

"Did you miss me or something?"

"This damned Imprinting thing is a pain in the ass. It half killed me being away from you last night." I grinned sheepishly. "That sounded pretty dramatic."

"Yeah, but I kind of like it. You're cute when you're all possessive and desperate to see me."

I snorted. "Will you stop calling me cute?" I smothered any response he might have made with a kiss and we clung to each other for several minutes before coming up for air. "So, how's things with your Mom?" I asked him.

"Ok, I guess. Not great. Maybe she'll get used to me being gay eventually, I don't know, but at least she's not going to try and keep me away from you. I said if she did I'd just leave and Billy will look after me. He already told her that himself, so she gave in."

"Well, at least that's an improvement," I said, although it certainly wasn't for me. "Will you still be able to stay over?"

"Yes, I'll make sure of it; even if I have to tell her I'm staying at Sam's. She didn't object to that before."

"Oh, good. I'll tell Dad I need that new bed then," I grinned.

"Huh?"

"He said if you stay over much he'll get me a new bed so there's more room."

Embry grinned. "Your Dad is amazing. Hey, we better go and meet Quil or we're going to be late."

"Yeah, ok," I said with a sigh, grabbing him for another kiss before we set off.

We held hands on the way over to Quil's house and found him already out waiting at the end of the drive for us.

"Oh, might have guessed," he teased. "Couldn't you wait to see each other?"

"No," I grinned.

We all set off in the direction of school and Quil eyed us after a couple of minutes.

"You walking all the way there like that?" he asked, glancing at our joined hands and raising an eyebrow. "Not that I care..."

I looked at Embry. "Do you mind everybody knowing?" I asked.

"No."

I pulled my hand free of his and draped my arm around his neck instead and shortly after Paul, Jared and Kim caught up with us and we all continued to school together. Not many people seemed to take much notice of Embry and me. There were a few raised eyebrows, but most kids didn't even look our way, not even when I kissed him goodbye to head to my first lesson, one where only Jared was in the same class.

"Is Embry still staying with you?" Jared asked me.

"No, he went back to his Mom's."

"How did you feel this morning?" he grinned.

"Shit!" I growled.

"It doesn't get any better with time."

"Thanks for telling me."

It was a long day of boring lessons and I couldn't wait for school to kick out that afternoon. Paul reminded me that he was bringing his car over for me to look at and rather than go home with Embry and have to wait for him to turn up, we walked to his house instead and I took a look under the hood. The manifold was in dire need of replacement along with the centre section of the exhaust and the silencer.

"You might as well just replace the whole thing in one go," Paul told me. "How much will it cost?"

"Wholesale, about three hundred bucks," I said.

Embry whistled, but Paul just shrugged. "I should be able to get the cash tomorrow; maybe we can go get it after school."

"You got three hundred bucks just lying around?"

"No, but I can probably twist my Dad's arm," he grinned.

Embry and I left him to do his arm-twisting and went back to my house for some food, then hung out in the shed for the rest of the evening. The lube was still there and we made love in the back seat of the Rabbit before Embry reluctantly dragged himself away just before nine-thirty.

On Tuesday Embry's Mom wanted him to go straight home after school at least for a couple of hours, so Paul went into Forks with me to get the parts for his car. He had a wad of cash in his pocket and seemed astonishingly blase about spending it.

"Dad got a huge bonus from work," he explained. "So I got treated too."

"I can't wait until I can finish school and work," I said. "My Dad hasn't got much to give me. I earn a little fixing other people's cars."

"Hey, look, I'll pay for your time with mine," Paul told me at once.

"I thought I owed you for the condoms." I grinned at him, surprised I was getting along with him so much better.

"I wasn't serious about that. Were they really for Quil?"

"Yeah."

Paul laughed. "I never pictured him as a ladies' man."

"Nor did I."

"I did see him with some real desperate looking girls, though."

"Yeah, he thought the more desperate they were, the better chance he'd have. They got wise to him in the end though. I haven't seen you with anybody lately," I commented.

"I'm sick of playing the field," Paul said with a slightly sheepish smile. "I'd rather just date somebody, but I haven't found a girl I like enough for that and I suppose I'm avoiding looking too hard. Look what Sam went through. I wouldn't want to go and fall for a girl and then Imprint on someone else."

"Yeah, that must have been hell," I agreed.

"I guess I envy you and Jared," Paul went on. "If I just Imprinted it'd be a whole lot easier."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you? It half kills you when you're not with them though," I said with a sigh, already longing for Embry.

"I'd rather that than not have anyone." He laughed suddenly. "Bet you never thought you'd hear me say anything like that."

"No, I didn't."

"I'm real sorry, you know," he went on. "For what I said when we were phased. Stuff just comes out of my mouth - or my head - without my brain engaging first."

"It's ok. And don't even think about paying me for fixing your car. Can you live without it one more day though? I need to see Em," I said with a smirk.

"Yeah, whenever. I'll drop it by tomorrow and you can just do it when you got time. It's not like I need it to get to school or anything."

"I'll have it done by the weekend," I promised.

I spent a couple of hours on Wednesday and Thursday evenings working on Paul's car. Embry helped and I told him what Paul had said to me on the trip to Forks to buy the parts. He was as surprised as I had been, even though he knew Paul much better than I did by now.

"He does keep his thoughts to himself mostly," he said. "He never lets anything slip when we're phased - not about himself anyway."

I remembered Sam saying that Paul was good at suppressing his thoughts and I only wished I could do the same. The fact that I had given everyone an image of me with Embry still embarrassed the hell out of me.

We spent most of the weekend over at Sam's. Even Kim was there as Sam had eventually relented and allowed Jared to tell her what we were. Since he had Imprinted, it wasn't as if they were a casual thing that would end in a few weeks leaving her free to run around gossiping. She was fascinated and apparently even more enamoured with Jared than she had been before. She stayed with Emily while the rest of us phased and ran another practise patrol and when we returned, a friend of Sam's who turned out to be his tattooist had arrived to give me my pack tattoo as I'd told Sam I was happy to go ahead and have it. The tattooist, Mark, already had a transfer of the design with him, having got used to being called upon to ink new members of Sam's 'gang'.

Embry sat with me in the kitchen while the design was inked onto my right upper arm and the others kept out of the way in the living room. Just as he was finishing Embry disappeared to the bathroom, having already told Mark he wanted another tattoo himself.

"What's he having done?" Mark asked me.

"I'm not sure, but there's another small one that I want," I said. "Can you do lettering in a sort of script style?"

"Anything you want," he said.

"Cool, I want a name here," I told him, indicating the inside of my left wrist.

"You know, people that get name tattoos usually regret it," Mark said with a grin. "I'll be back in a month to cover it up for you."

"No, you won't. I'm sure of what I want."

"Ok, it's your skin, and Sam's money. Makes no odds to me. Write it on here." He passed me a scrap of paper and a pencil and I wrote, 'Embry.'

He glanced up at me and raised his eyebrows, then shrugged and began changing the needle he had been using for the finer one used for outlining and lettering. By the time Embry returned Mark had already completed the 'E'.

"What else are you getting done?" he asked, trying to peer over my shoulder.

"Wait until it's finished, then you can look." I leaned forward slightly to block his view, grinning.

"Spoilsport." Embry went to the refrigerator to get some juice and then leaned against the kitchen counter for the twenty minutes or so it took for Mark to finish the lettering.

"Is that it?" he asked.

"No, I still need to get mine," Embry said, coming over to the table and leaning on my shoulder. "Let me see, then."

I held my wrist up in front of his face and he beamed.

"I love it." He straightened up again and took the seat next to me. "I want the same," he told Mark.

"You want 'Embry' on your own arm too?" Mark said with a frown.

"Yeah, so he can remember his name," I sniggered.

"I want Jacob," Embry said, laying his left arm on the table in front of Mark. "Same place."

"How are you spelling it?" Mark asked and when Embry looked surprised, added, "You'd be surprised the strange spellings of names I get requests for."

I grabbed the piece of paper and wrote on it, then watched with a smile as my name gradually began to appear on Embry's skin. Afterwards Mark packed up his equipment and Embry went to tell Sam he was about to leave. Sam came back into the kitchen and pulled out his wallet.

"One-fifty, is it?" he said, counting out some bills.

"One-eighty," said Mark.

Sam frowned and Embry reddened.

"Um...we got some extras," I said. "I'll pay for it...tomorrow."

Sam handed Mark the money and saw him out of the house, then came back to us.

"So come on, what are these extras?" he prompted. "I want to know what I'm paying for."

"I said I'd pay," I reminded him.

"It's thirty bucks, Jacob, don't worry about it," Sam said.

I held my arm out to show him, suddenly convinced he would tell us we were stupid for having each other's names tattooed on ourselves, but he just grinned as he looked at mine and then Embry's. Then he twisted his arm around and showed us Emily's name on the inside of his bicep.

"I got it done the day after I Imprinted," he said. "She has my name on the back of her neck under her hair."

Embry and I left soon after and headed for my house, but as we approached I noticed Charlie Swan's truck parked in front and at the same time, Quil appeared further down the street, clearly coming looking for us. We waited until he reached us, by which time Bella had come out of the house too.

"You two are a nightmare to track down; are your phones off or something?" Quil asked.

"Um...I left mine at home earlier," I said.

"Jacob!" Bella came over to give me a hug. "What did you do to your hair?"

"Oh, it was starting to annoy me," I said. "Don't you like it?"

"I'm just used to it being long." She stared at me for a second. "Actually, it looks sort of cute."

Embry began to laugh loudly and I reached out to give him a shove.

"What the hell is that on your arm?" Quil asked at once.

"What?"

He grabbed my wrist and turned it over.

"Woah, Jake, that's a bit serious, isn't it?" he said when he saw the tattoo.

"Yeah, so? It's not like I'm going to change my mind." I snatched my arm back. He hadn't seen the pack symbol yet; my t-shirt sleeve mostly covered it.

"I got one too." Embry showed Quil his own arm and he rolled his eyes.

"You're both mad. So what are we all doing? I haven't seen either of you all weekend," Quil said.

Eventually Embry went off to spend a couple of hours with Quil, leaving me to catch up with Bella. Although we had talked on the phone regularly, I hadn't actually seen her in quite a while. We sat in my room chatting and she seemed shocked to see my pack tattoo and learn that I was now hanging out at Sam's place with Paul and Jared. I made the excuse that they had become Embry's friends and I wanted to be with him so I got to know them too. I longed to tell her the truth, particularly as she was dating one of the leeches and was in danger, but I knew I couldn't.

"Are you sure they haven't brainwashed you?" she asked. "It's not long since you were concerned about Embry being with them."

"No, they're ok," I said. "Even Paul's actually pretty decent when you get to know him. I just never gave them a chance, that's all. They're not at all like they appear."

Bella and Charlie stayed for dinner and then left, after which I immediately sent Embry a text to find out what he was doing. He was home and Quil was still with him so we arranged to meet up on the beach for a couple of hours. Quil left us to it after maybe twenty minutes as we struggled not to constantly cuddle and kiss each other.

"God, you really have got it bad," he grumbled and headed for home.

It was only about a week later when it became obvious Quil was about to join the pack. The rest of us all noticed the sudden appearance of muscles in his arms and shoulders when we played football at school on Tuesday and then on Friday Quil's Gramps called Dad to tell him he was showing signs of phasing - not only the muscle, but his usual good humour seemed to have deserted him and he was sulky and bad-tempered. I had noticed the same thing when I thought about it. I had thought he was just grouchy because Embry and I were always so close that he got left out more and more every day and he had snapped at us a couple of times, saying that we were driving our friends away and would regret it when we broke up and found ourselves lonely.

Dad called Sam that night and told him and then came to my room. Embry and I were sprawling on my new bed which had been delivered only that morning, watching a DVD on my laptop. He asked us to take Quil over to Sam's the next morning and a few minutes later I called him and asked him to spend the day with us.

"I'm not interested in hanging out with your weird cult," Quil growled. "Why can't the three of us just do something like we always used to?"

"Because you always moan we can't keep our hands off of each other," I grinned. "Come on, Quil. You get on ok with Jared, don't you? And Paul's actually really cool when you get to know him."

"Yeah, right."

"Give it a chance, Quil," I said. "You might be surprised. If not, you can always leave, can't you? Come on, me and Embry are going to be there, but we'd rather you're with us too. You might even have a good time. Sam's girlfriend Emily cooks a mean brunch."

I heard Quil sigh heavily and in the end he agreed. "Alright," he said. "What time?"

"Come over here and meet us at nine," I told him.

"Ok. I better not regret this."

"I'm sure you won't," I grinned.

When I hung up, I reached out to draw Embry into my arms, guessing there would be no further interruptions from Dad.

"So are you going to stay with me tonight and try out this new bed?" I murmured.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask me that. I already told Mom earlier that I'm staying at Sam's tonight," he grinned.

"That was pretty presumptuous. What if I hadn't wanted you here?"

"Don't talk stupid," smirked Embry, brushing his lips against mine. "You can't help wanting me here."

"Damned Imprinting," I teased. "Makes me predictable." I covered his mouth with mine, thrusting my tongue in hungrily, delighted that I was going to be waking up with him again in the morning.