9. Seth's Imprint: Raven Graves (Raven's Story)
Later that night Seth and Raven returned to the cabin.
"Finally," said Jacob, as he stood on the porch with Renesmee, "I thought we were going to have to go looking for you guys. Where'd you go, Canada?"
"Rave wasn't ready to turn human," said Seth.
"He's right I wasn't," replied Raven, "It's not every day I get my own partner to run with."
"You nicknamed her 'Rave'," Jacob teased.
"Shut up, Jake," Seth shot, "You nicknamed Renesmee, 'Nessie'."
"Woah, take it down a notch, kid," said Jacob, "I was just messing with you. Rave is a cool name."
Renesmee smiled, "Come on, grandpa has your test results."
Raven looked at Seth, "This can't be good."
Jacob smiled, "You'll actually be surprised. We were."
Despite Jacob's smile, it didn't make Seth or Raven feel any better. Regardless they followed Jacob and Renesmee inside.
Esme smiled at Raven and touched her left arm in comfort. Carlisle, Edward and Bella were in the living room; Carlisle stood near the back window and the couple by the lit up fireplace. The other four Cullen's were standing around various locations of the living room. Embry was sitting on the arm of couch and the hybrid couple went to take a seat on the couch cushions.
"Bad news I take it," said Raven breaking the silence.
"Let's just say I'm glad it wasn't me," said Embry. "After your results came in I asked Carlisle to run my blood too and it wasn't a match."
"What kind of match?" asked Raven, "Carlisle, what did you find?"
"I ran a DNA analysis on the blood I collected from you, Raven," said Carlisle, "You have a unique set of chromosomes. 26 in fact."
Raven walked over to the opposite couch that faced Jacob and Renesmee and sat down. Seth followed her.
"Humans have only twenty-three right?"
"That's right," said Carlisle, "As vampires we carry twenty-five and Renesmee and Jacob, like all hybrids carry twenty-four."
Raven tried to attempt working out the math, "So there's a ninety-six percent difference between you all, a ninety-six percent difference between me and vampires and a ninety-two percent difference between me and Seth. The fact that I'm still in the ninety percentile means I'm still compatible either way with werewolves or vampires. So what exactly does that mean?"
Edward looked at Raven, "Well like you said it means your genetics are compatible with both vampires and wolves. Any lower, once you got into the eighty percentages you most likely wouldn't be. You get fifty percent of the wolf DNA from your biological father and fifty percent vampire DNA from your biological mother."
"My mother," Raven said letting that word sink in, "So you're saying that she was a hybrid herself- part wolf and vampire?"
Bella looked at Raven, "It could be why we don't burn your nose the way we do with Jacob and Embry and Seth but they've been around us a lot longer so it doesn't bother them the way it used to."
"Almost as if our own senses are evolving," said Jacob, "Same could be said for our family back home."
Rosalie looked at the group and then at Carlisle, "But didn't the Volturi take care of Joham? How is this possible?"
"There are always others," replied Carlisle, "More that are curious."
Raven looked over at Embry. He seemed so lost but she couldn't let the words he had said earlier go.
"Embry," she said to him, "What did you mean when you said you're just glad it wasn't you? Why would you even think we were a match?"
The room suddenly grew quiet. It was Carlisle who spoke up.
"We don't know for sure if your mother was a wolf. The fact that you can shape shift into any animal you like probably comes from her but there is only one tribe we know of that can take on one form of shape shifting: the wolf."
"And you think I get the wolf thing from him?" Again another silence befell the group, "So then you guys know who it is? You have to. You wouldn't be this quiet if you didn't. You know who my…father is."
"Not for certain," said Carlisle.
"But you have an idea. Who is he?" asked Raven.
"His name's Levi Uley," Seth answered.
"You guys hate him don't you? I can tell."
"Hate is too strong a word," said Jake, "but we don't particularly like him. He's not a good guy. Before this pack, the three of us belonged to another. We had another Alpha. His name was Sam. Levi got his mom pregnant but he couldn't handle being a father so he bailed."
"Great," said Raven, "So not only do I have a dead beat father but I also have a brother too."
"There was a point," said Embry, "When I thought LEvi could have been my father. My mom wasn't Quileute but I had to have inherited the gene somehow. Levi seemed like the obvious choice."
Raven could read the conflict in Embry's face. He seemed relieved that Levi hadn't sired him but confused too, almost as if wishing it had been him.
"No one knew what happened to Levi after he left the reservation," said Jacob.
"Until you found me," said Raven.
"Hey," Seth said holding her hand, "I'm glad I found you."
Embry stood up and walked toward the door, bounding into the woods. It had become too much for him, to sit and listen especially after getting his own DNA results.
"I got it," Jacob said following after him.
Raven turned to Edward, "You said that I'm compatible with humans and vampires. In the short time I've been here, less than 48 hours even, it's made sense that I have both shape shifting and vampire traits. Care to explain how that happened?"
"Genetics," Carlisle answered. "If we're going on the theory that your mother was a shape shifter herself who met Levi Uley then you could have inherited both her shape-shifting and the wolf ability. And as for your vampire traits, those could have been passed down."
"I'm a prime example of that," said Renesmee. "My mom was human when she had me. My dad's a vampire."
"So my mother's father could have been a vampire that knocked up her mom, had my mom, my mom got knocked up by a Quileute wolf and had me. Putting my range at 50% shape shifter if I take into account my father's DNA and 50% vampire since the human part in me got weeded out."
"Sure that's a possibility," said Edward, "Vampire venom does destroy the weakest part of us. Because of your animalistic nature you still have a heart."
"But I don't bleed," Raven said to them. She shook her head, "I hadn't thought anything of it at the time. I was out hiking when I tripped once. It was pretty deep and I wait for the bleeding, waited at the smell of my own blood but there was nothing. The cut healed up within minutes.
"Could be the venom," said Bella.
"Or the wolf genetics," said Seth. He turned to look at Raven, "We can get hurt but we do heal."
"Next question," said Raven, "the aging thing: vampire or wolf?"
"How old are you," Carlisle asked, "if you don't mind me asking."
"Sixteen," Raven replied, "but I stopped aging a year ago."
"Right when you said you had your first phase," said Seth, "So definitely a wolf thing, at least in your case."
"It wasn't like that for you," Raven asked Renesmee.
"Not exactly," she replied, "I stopped aging seven years after I was born. Technically I'm seventeen."
Raven simply nodded. She couldn't help but wonder if she hadn't phased, if she would stop her growth the way Renesmee had. Raven stood and walked toward the door that Embry had left out of. The night was getting darker and colder. She could feel it as she opened the door but the cold didn't faze her.
"I need some air," Raven said to them.
"Want me to come with you," Seth asked.
"If that's okay, I think I'd like to be alone right now." Raven felt bad for not letting Seth come.
She did want him with her but there were some things that she could do and he couldn't and right now the fresh air was what she needed most. She took a step onto the porch, outstretched her arms and took to the skies as an osprey. Now that she was with her new friends there was no need to hide what she was.
"Awesome," Seth said as he watched her drift higher.
"Edward what is it," she heard Bella say to her husband.
"I still can't read her mind," Edward said finally exhausted from trying.
Raven smiled. She was glad the vampire couldn't read her thoughts. It was all ready strange enough to have Seth in her head as wolves but at least in her quote on quote human form she could keep her thoughts to herself and he couldn't seem to read her mind in her other forms as well.
The higher she drifted the more at ease she felt. There was so much to comprehend and she could do so easily. That was one of the things that had also kept her guessing, the fact that she had so much room in her head to think about multiple things at once. She had chalked it up to simply a high IQ or a photographic memory but now she doubted that. It had to be a special ability just like everything else.
In less than twenty four hours she had learned more about herself than she had ever come to find on her own. Since laying eyes on Seth and seeing the future she would have with him, Raven couldn't help but think that fate had something to do with the way they all found each other. Seth was her better half and his family held the answers to who she was.
Growing up she had never had it easy. Her mother had died not long after she was born so she was placed into the system, a system she ran away from on more than one occasion due to what she had considered her freakish nature but managing to survive on her own regardless and that running had led her right into Seth and his family. There was no way it could have been a coincidence.
Despite her high temperature which seemed to be a natural occurrence in any form, the winter cold felt good along her skin as it ruffled her feathers. It was relaxing up here but she knew she couldn't stay airborne for too long.
Raven could never have enough flight time but she took a nose dive anyways and when she formed she allowed her wolf to take over. If it was part of her genetics as she had come to learn then there was still a lot to learn and biologically she belonged with Jacob and his pack.
'We both do now,' she heard.
So that was why she could hear Seth and now it seemed she could hear Embry too.
'You never knew your father either did you,' Raven asked careful of the territory she would be entering with such conversation.
'Nope. I turned and everyone knew I had the genetic makeup. We just never knew which ones,' Embry said as he came into view. 'You're kind of the lucky one you know that, at least you know that your dad is a deadbeat. Mine is just a guy who cheated on Jake's mother with mine.'
So that's why he had been so upset earlier. Of course such knowledge would bring anyone to hating themselves and clearly Embry did. His pain was everywhere but Raven didn't mind it much. She had her own to contend with. In time she had come to accept her freak nature but now that she knew the truth she wished she hadn't known at all.
'But then there's Seth,' she said more to herself. Knowing full well that had she not discovered any of it, had she not been camping where she was, she might never have met him and despite barely meeting, it felt like she had known him her whole life and the other boys she'd had flings with were nothing but blurred memories.
'Another one of the lucky ones,' Embry scoffed, 'At least you guys are happy, every damn one of you.'
'It could still happen,' Seth said as he and Jake both entered the pack mind.
'With the way I was conceived I doubt it,' said Embry. 'Look I'm glad you guys found each other but let's face it, I don't belong here.'
'What are you talking about,' asked Jacob, 'Of course you do. You're my brother. None of that step brother or half brother bullshit, you're my brother. I don't care what happened to my parents. Yeah it sucks but you wouldn't be here if it hadn't. You belong with this pack.'
'Are you ordering me to stay,' Embry asked.
'You know I won't do that. You're free to come and go as you please but I do wish you'd hang around. We've been bros since we were kids. Once you turned we knew it was always a possibility so now we know the reality, so what? Doesn't change anything.'
'You're wrong Jake,' said Embry, 'It changes everything.'
'Then we'll deal with it together,' said Seth.
'He's right,' Raven added, 'And this whole pack thing is new to me so we're both going through life altering changes, doesn't mean we have to do it alone.'
'Wish I could believe that,' said Embry, 'but I can't stay Jake. I have to deal with this on my own terms.'
Jacob simply nodded, 'Where will you go?'
'Not sure really. Maybe retrace my mom's history, find out where she and Billy met since I doubt he would ever admit to it since he hasn't yet.' Embry shook his head, 'You know that's the part that sucks the most, the fact that your dad never acknowledged me as his son. I'm just the bastard animal that my mom got pregnant with.'
None of the wolves knew what to say because Embry had made a point. While Raven didn't know their history quite yet she was starting to see a clear picture especially since Jacob ran through the memories of a reserved and stern Quileute who had always enjoyed seeing Embry and Jacob together, growing up together but not once coming clean about what he'd done.
'This will always be your pack,' said Jacob.
'I know,' said Embry, 'I can't promise I'll be back but who knows. Hey Raven, you might come from a messed up father but stick with Jake, he's a much better Alpha than your older brother. He doesn't give out orders.'
Her brother, Raven thought. She had been so focused on this Levi that she had forgotten that she'd had a brother and he was another Alpha on top of that. Part of her was now curious as to what he was like especially after Embry's comment but the wolves kept the mood in a different direction instead of focusing on Sam, though she did catch a glimpse that he was a black wolf, definitely with a look of a threatening demeanor.
'Take it easy Jake,' said Embry.
'You too, Embry,' Jacob replied.
'And Seth, stay out of trouble,' Embry called out.
Seth laughed as Embry took off into the woods, leaving his brothers and his new sister to wonder if he would ever return.
Author's Note:
Hope you guys liked the chapter.
If the science is wrong in terms of Raven's genetics, I do apologize.
Math and science, percentages and punnet squares were never my
strong suit so if I got them wrong then I own up to those errors.
I just thought it would be cool if there was a hybrid
with both wolf and vampire genetics.