Author's Note: Holy crapper! Another chapter! So soon! I can't actually believe it either!! Anywho, there is one f-bomb in this chapter, just to forewarn everybody...so yeah
Disclaimer: Reece...that's all thats mine...along with the plot...but the pack...not mine
Quil, Seth, and Jacob were not amused by my hypothesis. However, Paul and Embry thought it was genius and were rolling on the floor, clutching at their amazingly defined abs in joyous pain. I have elected them as my new favorites.
Quil sighed; he seemed seriously distressed at the thought that he could possibly ever contemplate a single glance at a woman besides the one he had imprinted upon, whoever she was, probably some hot babe. He rubbed his forehead. "This is serious," he continued in lecture mode. "If Jake is capable of committing such a thing, then what's to say the rest of us aren't." Dear God he was making it sound as if Jake was a criminal for gluing his eyes to my legs a few seconds longer than he should have. But guess what, Quil, that's not a crime, you prude!
"It's not a big deal," I argued, just to play the Devil's advocate.
Quil's eyes bugged so far out of his skull I thought they were going to up and fly away. "No big deal?!" He screeched, ripping at the hair residing on his temples. "Reece! When a shape-shifter imprints they are forever bound to that one person. Forever." He emphasized like that kid from the Sandlot, because I apparently wouldn't have been able to comprehend the permanence of imprinting by the first 'forever'. "And not only that, but we enjoy it, we want it, we need it. We stop noticing people. If a good-looking female crosses our paths we don't see her, we see just another blur as she walks by."
"Good to know I'm a blur to the majority of the people in this room," I grumbled.
"Not to me!" Seth and Embry declared just as Jake was saying "I don't think of you as a blur." This statement resulted in a round of glares and semi-shocked faces. Apparently Jake should have just ducked his head and kept his trap shut.
Quil threw his hands in the air. "We don't mean we see you as a blur," he continued. "It's one thing for Jake to have you as a friend; it is a completely different thing for him to check you out."
"Or cock block," Embry tacked on.
"I wasn't--" Jake tried, but Paul smirked and very confidently remarked: "You were."
Quil nodded. "We don't see you as a blur," he said in a slightly apologetic tone, "But we also shouldn't see you as, well, appealing, even though, I guess you must be attractive; our brains just shouldn't work that way once we've imprinted."
"But I'm free," Embry grinned at me. I raised an eyebrow, and Seth growled deep in his throat.
"Then just write it off as a fluke and be done with it," I offered as a solution. "Don't over analyze it like some psycho therapist or whatever."
Quil stared down at the carpet for a few seconds, thinking over my proposition. "I suppose we could drop it…" Embry and Paul had already moved on to wrestling with each other, but Seth still didn't look too convinced, so I swiftly laid a hand on his knee, paralyzing him with an abundance of joy.
"Let it go," I advised with a smile, then rose from the couch to grab my jeans.
Before closing the door I heard Embry hiss, "Did you see that blur's ass?!"
I wish my wrist would heal as fast as Embry's was. Apparently while I was putting on some pants, Seth leapt across the room to kill Embry for his vulgarity. Seth had a lot of pent up rage, so Embry was lucky to get out of the scrape with just a broken appendage that would heal unnaturally fast. Curse him and his super speedy healing powers.
Huh, I curse people a lot. Maybe I'm in this predicament due to karma.
Hmm…
Curse you, karma!
So now, Embry is lounging on the couch, nursing his snapped wrist bones back to heath in a matter of minutes, which is totally unfair because I'm going to have to live with this friggin' cast for a few weeks and all he has to do is sit still for a bit while it sets and he's ready to go again. And I suppose that is why he didn't learn his lesson about saying flirty things to me, like, "Hey, Reece, it must be destiny, I mean, it can't just be coincidence that we both broke the same bones."
At that, Seth was about to whoop his ass again because I'm sure he deemed Embry as a former friend, but Jake halted him with a command. He must have used his special leader domination abilities because Seth didn't budge once Jake had spoke. "And stop hitting on Reece, Embry, it's stupid," Jake reprimanded, although, by the cheeky grin I received from Embry, I'm willing to bet Jake hadn't used the same power as he had used when talking to Seth.
Paul was splayed out on the floor, utterly bored out of his thick werewolf skull. "Are we going to go show those rabbits who's boss or what?" he whined, lolling his head to glare up at the pack he wasn't necessarily part of.
"Well, somebody has to stay here with Reece," Jake pointed out to no one in particular, as if volunteering for the task.
Embry shot his injured hand into the air, winced at his idiocy, and then enthusiastically announced, "I will."
Seth yelled, "You will not! If anyone is staying with Reece, it's gonna be me."
"How're we to know you won't jump her bones?" Embry accused.
Seth's jaw dropped in rage, "And we're supposed to trust you? I would never do anything Reece didn't wish." Oh my God I have a genie!
I stood up from my spot on the couch next to Quil, holding up my hands to attract all of their attention. "What if," I thought, "I just went with you guys." I raised an eyebrow as if to say, 'Brilliant or what?' and waited for their response.
Quil choked on the cereal he was scarfing down in disbelief. Paul barked out a laugh in amusement. Seth and Jake looked at me in horror, because I was apparently too fragile in the mind to see any of them morph into their canine counterparts. And Embry grinned wide, knowing they'd have to strip down in front of me and seemingly was very confident with his man/wolf-hood.
"Oh come on," I pleaded. For once it was a nice day. There were scant clouds and it wasn't raining, halleluiah baby Jesus! Therefore, I was fully against being cooped up in Jake's stuffy house with nothing to do but play Halo and Grand Theft Auto or whatever video games the pack possessed.
Jake snorted. "You seriously want to come along while we chase rabbits for fun?" he questioned. Honestly, after he put it that way it sounded really dumb. They must have nothing to do around the reserve these days if they were excited about rounding up the neighborhood bunnies.
I nodded my head, "Sure, why not?"
Jake pursed his lips and looked me over, calculating my grit or something, then shrugged his shoulders. "Alright, fine," he allowed. "But you're going to have to ride on one of our backs," he informed me. Cool! Now I had a herd of horses! "Preferably either Paul or me, since we're the biggest," Jake mused.
"Hey," Seth protested, "I could handle it just fine."
Quil gagged on his Honey Comb. "Seth, you could not handle a grown woman--" at this Paul and Embry burst into perverted chortling, which Quil ignored and continued "--do you remember what happened when for some reason beyond my knowledge I let Claire ride your back?"
Seth blushed furiously while he remembered whatever had happened, "That was a while ago."
Quil rolled his eyes, "It was last weekend Seth, and you thought it would be 'fun' to run around the woods, but then Claire got whipped by a gigantic tree branch--"
"I said I was sorry!" Seth insisted, looking at me in an attempt to convince me of his repentance, except that I honestly didn't care that Claire, whoever the hell that was, got clothes-lined by some rogue tree.
"How about," I decided to put my two cents in again, "I drive one of those nifty bikes Jake's got outside?"
There was a flood of "NOOOOOOOOO"s from Jake, Seth, and Quil, because Paul had fallen victim to a boredom coma and Embry went along with whatever I desired, so he remained quiet. Together the trio explained that with my wrist being damaged there was no way on God's green earth that I would be allowed on any of Jake's motorized vehicles. Of which Embry, Paul, and I tried to hide our little smiles at the mention of me 'riding Jake's motorized vehicle'. Hey, without the gutter, I'm pretty sure our three minds would be homeless.
"Fine," I crossed my arms. "Then I guess I choose…" Jake, Seth, and Embry all waited in vain for my decision, certain that our lives all hung in the balance. "…Quil."
Honey Comb spewed out across Jake's front room, landing soggily on Paul's face. "What the fuck?" Paul sat up in surprise, shocked that cereal was raining down from Jake's ceiling.
Quil was still coughing up his breakfast, "What?!" Clearly he was not happy with my decision.
"You're the only one that doesn't care," I pointed out.
"Yes I care," he asserted. "I mean…I don't mind…but I don't…couldn't you have chosen one of them?" He gestured at everyone else.
"Why?" I asked annoyingly.
"Because…because," Quil sputtered, "Well…because…Claire…"
HA HA HA! I understood. "Dude, I'm not like, interested in you, because Embry and Seth and Paul and even Jake are hotter than you, so it's not like you'd be cheating on Claire…but I guess I can choose someone else if she's going to come after you with a club when you see her next."
"Or a wooden alphabet block," Embry chuckled.
A wooden alphabet block? What? I furrowed my eyebrows, "Huh?"
Embry bit his tongue, squeezing his eyes shut in silent laughter. Quil glared angrily at him, "Shut up Embry, I love Claire, no matter how old she is."
"Ohhh," I sighed in understanding, "Claire's like, a toddler, like Nessie."
"Who I love," Jake urged, eagerly trying to remove himself from the hole he had created for himself.
Embry smirked, "Don't forget your love for Reece as well." So much for getting out of that hole.
It was Jake's turn to attack now, and he shoved Embry into the carpet. Quil tried to dislocate the two from one another while Paul roared in amusement, completely out of his coma. Seth remained where he was, grinning wickedly that Jake was now doing what he had been forbade to do. "Guys!" I yelled, feeling very much like Bella on that first day we met when Jake and Edward had started their little spat. "Guys! Fine, I choose Paul! Happy now?" I spun around to stare the wolf down. "You don't mind right?" Although clearly I meant, 'You have no choice so shut up and deal'.
Paul nodded, not even taking notice of my threatening stance or glare, which made me unhappy because I had spent forever in front of the mirror perfecting it, even throwing in little sayings like, 'What're you lookin' at? Punk!' and, 'You talkin' ta me?'.
And so it was settled, Paul would ferry me about while they chased bunnies, after I had closed my eyes (as requested by the majority) while they transmutated into their doggy forms. Guess which wolf didn't care, I'll give you a hint: his name starts with the letter E(mbry). Together, with the agreements all taken care of, we headed cheerily off into the sunset, even though it was nine in the morning, and headed towards our grand adventure.
The thing is, when someone says, 'down the road', you'd imagine a nice paved road just down the street from where you are. Because 'down the road' does not mean a horrendous amount of miles into the woods. But apparently in Paul's world that is exactly what 'down the road' means. So, as I cling for dear life to the dark gray fur that is now Paul's back while he sprints through the underbrush making a creepy chuckling noise, I make a promise to myself: NEVER AGAIN will I suggest or agree to accompany the wolf pack, or any wolves for that matter, 'down the road' to 'show those rabbits who's boss'. Which honestly doesn't make any sense because those rabbits are innocent, white, poofy bystanders falling victim to adolescent puppies with nothing better to do.
At one point I caught Seth sneak attack Embry. Unfortunately Embry is bigger, and most likely a tad bit stronger than Sethkins, and won the battle. And even more sad is the fact that I'm more attracted to Embry than to Seth. And I really can't believe I just thought that. I must learn to curb my attraction for other people now that I'm a taken woman…against my will, but still. I feel it is my duty to at least attempt to stay true to Seth somehow; and then, at the exact moment of the birth of the previous thought, I got smacked across the face by a random twig and I took it as a sign that my monogamy to Seth is a bad idea, because really, I never agreed to anything.
But then I feel guilty again and my brain wants to explode and I end up just laying my head down on Paul's soft fur, wishing that stupid vampire chick had just killed me so I wouldn't have to deal with my hypocritical and masochistic thought process.
Curse my mind.
Author's Note: More pack madness ensues! Because I adore the whole pack. :D Reviews are greatly greatly appreciated! Honestly, they really do make my day! So thank you all so much!