Chapter Thirteen
Kim was at work at the dentist's office when she got the text from Leah to call her. Since it was a slow day, she was able to get the other receptionist to cover the desk for a few minutes so Kim could take a few minutes.
She stepped into the small employee lounge and took out her phone, pressing and holding the number 3, then listing the phone to her ear and waiting as it rang.
Leah answered immediately, after a single ring. "Kim, you're never going to believe what happened," she said, and Kim's eyebrows shot up when she caught Leah's tone. Leah was a hard-ass, and hardly anything rattled her like this. There was a note of shock behind the urgency in Leah's tone, and was that a hint of excitement?
When she ended the call a few minutes later, she was dumbfounded, and practically vibrating with immense curiosity and excitement. Sam had finally imprinted! Finally another girl to add to the group! And yet, she was also a shifter, so that meant another girl in the pack, too! But she wasn't Quileute, or even American! And witches actually existed?! And God, it wasn't even lunch-time yet! How was she going to last the rest of the day? She was tempted to call Jared, but Leah had told her Jared was busy gathering the elders. So instead she called Emily.
Emily, Embry's imprint, was also at work, at the doctor's office where she worked as a nurse, when she got a similar call from Embry at about the same time that Leah texted Kim to call her.
"Hey, babe," Emily said as she answered.
"Hi, Em, listen, I hate to bother you at work, but this is important. Can you contact Billy Black when you get a chance? They're probably going to want to call for a bonfire tomorrow night once Jared's finished talking to them, and you know the pack's gonna want to eat. Leah's gonna talk to Kim so she knows about it, too, and she, Leah, and Sue will be able to help you shop and cook," Embry told her in a rush.
Emily listened, trying to process everything he was saying without losing track of his rapid speech. "Wait, babe, I don't understand. It's kind of short notice just for a bonfire, don't you think? And what makes you think they'll want to call for a bonfire tomorrow? What's Jared going to tell them? Embry, what's going on?"
"Oh, man, Em, you should have seen it!" Embry exclaimed, sounding thrilled. "There was this wolf in the woods, a white wolf, like us, but she obviously wasn't part of the pack. And she was looking for something, but we didn't know what, so we followed her. One of the younger pack members stepped on a branch and gave us away, and she saw us. Sam stepped forward to confront her and she started growling at him, so he challenged her and she ran. Since Leah's the fastest of us, she chased her down and caught up with her and they were facing off when we caught up with them. Sam didn't want to let Leah fight the other wolf since we didn't know how she'd be in a fight, so Sam challenged her instead. We could tell she was trying to warn him to back off but he couldn't – we had to find out who she was. When he didn't back off, she attacked, and there was this huge fight between the two of them."
"Oh, my God, is Sam okay? Is everyone else okay?" Emily asked, shocked.
"Oh, yeah, Sam's fine. Nobody else got caught up in the fight, we just stayed in a circle around them so she couldn't run away again. No, she was pretty vicious, and we were glad Sam kept Leah from fighting. She would have torn Leah up. As it was, Sam and maybe Paul were the only ones who would have been able to handle this wolf, and Sam was able to do it without getting too seriously hurt and without hurting her too badly, either. But here's where the plot thickens – turns out the white wolf is in fact a shifter, but not only is she not Quileute, she's not even American. Some British chick. She phased right under him, I guess because she thought she could get away, but Sam was ready for that. He phased, too, and get this: he imprinted! He imprinted on this British chick who was holding a wooden stick like she was about to try and poke his eye out! Seriously, you'd think it would be Paul who would get in a fight and then imprint as a result, not Sam. But anyway, Sam helped her up, and here's what's really crazy: she waved her stick at him and made clothes appear on his body! She's a witch! Like a real, live, wand-waving witch! Only she's not green and covered in warts and wearing a pointy hat! She was wearing jeans, a flannel shirt, and hiking boots!"
Emily was completely speechless at this point. On the one hand, witches? Really? She was almost tempted to brush it off and tell Embry he'd been dreaming, or hallucinating. But she knew for a fact that he'd been with the pack all day. And she knew his history was clean as a whistle in terms of drugs, unlike Paul who'd gotten in trouble a couple of times before phasing, so it wasn't hallucinations. And on the other hand, before Embry had come into her life, she hadn't thought vampires and shape-shifters were real either. So who knew?
Emily finally managed to pull herself together and make her brain work again. "So what's going on with Sam and his imprint now? Did he bring her back to La Push? When do we meet her?"
"Well, I'm not sure," he replied, much more calmly now that he'd gotten the excitement of the story out of his system. "She said she was looking for the Cullens because they were the key to keeping her friend alive. She didn't say what was wrong with her friend but it must be serious if they're the only ones who can help. She said she was going to find them and threatened to leave us all frozen in place in the forest if we tried to stop her. So Sam agreed to let her go under two conditions. One, she agreed to come back to La Push with us later for some explanations, and two, she let Sam go with her to find the Cullens. She tried to refuse, but Jake snuck up on her and stole her stick. I thought she was going to fall apart. She screamed at him not to break it, so I'm guessing the stick is the key to whatever it is she can do. After that, she pretty much had no choice but to agree to Sam's terms. So he told Jake and Paul to come with them and told the rest of the pack to come back to La Push. He told Jared to go talk to the elders, and told me and Leah to talk to the imprints. He figured the elders would want to throw the bonfire so that Sam's imprint can hear the stories of the pack's history with the tribe and the imprint."
"Wow," Emily said softly, hardly able to believe what Embry had just told her. But he wasn't the sort to tell even little white lies, let alone tall tales like this. As far-fetched as it sounded, it must be true. And so it was that Emily could feel a thousand questions beginning to crop up, but it seemed like Embry had told her everything he knew. She'd have to wait until later. God, and it wasn't even lunch-time. How would she ever get through the day?
"Look, I gotta go, babe. I gotta see if Jared's talked to all the elders yet. I'll see you tonight. Love you," he told her, and she responded in kind.
After the call ended, she called Billy Black at his house to see if he'd spoken to Jared and/or any of the other elders yet. He confirmed that Jared had been able to call the three elders – himself, Sue Clearwater, and Old Quil Ateara – together and tell them the story all at once. And they were in fact calling for a bonfire to take place the next night. So Emily then called Sue so they could arrange to go shopping that evening so they could have everything they needed for tomorrow. Emily hung up the phone with a promise from Sue that she'd get Leah to help cook tomorrow, which was luckily a Saturday so they had all day, and called Kim to see if Leah had gotten ahold of her yet. Kim said she had, and agreed to help out tomorrow with cooking, and then together they pondered the significance of what they'd been told by Leah and Embry.
It was indeed difficult to get through the rest of the day, but she managed. At lunch, she got a call from Leah, and they went through the same conversation Leah had had with Kim. And so it was settled between the three of them that together with Sue they would spend the day tomorrow cooking for the entire pack and the elders, plus the new imprint. Emily was so jazzed every time she thought the words "new imprint" that her coworkers noticed her improved mood upon her return from lunch and remarked on it.
"Wow, Em, what did you eat?" joked Lizzie, one of the other nurses. "Whatever it was, tell me where to find some. You're totally jazzed." The pretty half-Quileute, half-Chinese girl laughed.
"Yeah, you look like you're about to vibrate yourself right out of this room!" added Rhonda.
Feeling somewhat sheepish, Emily thought fast. There was no way these ladies could know the real reason for her excitement. "Oh, my boyfriend Embry just called to say that he wants to take me away on a camping trip this weekend. It's been a while since we took a trip together," she replied, trying to sound more casual than she felt.
This of course led to some slightly off-color jokes about what they would be doing on their camping trip; since it was a lie Emily took the ribbing with good grace, and after a few minutes of playful teasing, it was time to get back to work.
Finally – finally – it was time for her shift to end. She grabbed her things from her locker, clocked out, and walked out to her car, trying very hard not to break into a run.
She was halfway between the door and her car when the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She looked up, her eyes immediately drawn to the tree line, half expecting to see a large, furry, four-legged body hidden in the shadows. Her lips had already formed halfway into a smile when she saw who was half-hidden in the tree line, and her smile instantly froze.
He was large and hairy, yes, though he wasn't horse-sized, and she could see patches of tan skin around his face. And he stood on two legs, not four.
He was dressed very poorly, in little more than rags and what appeared to be a raggedy fur coat of some kind. There was something wild and rangy about his ragged, unkempt look, as if he lived hard but came out the stronger for it. Seeing this, she might have assumed he was homeless and gone to ask if he needed help. But something stopped her, and it took her a moment to realize that it was because of the way he held himself, and the way he stared at her.
He held himself very deliberately, as if he meant to be wherever he was, and every step he took was planned. Though he was standing still, she imagined he'd walk with a lethal grace, like a predator. Like a wolf.
And his gaze as he watched her was also deliberate, more than it was intense. He watched her as if he expected something of her, and was waiting to see if she would measure up to his expectations. He watched her like a predator.
Filled with unease, she continued cautiously to her car, glancing back up every couple of steps to see if he would follow. He did not move.
She reached her car with a sense of relief; she didn't think he was a vampire, and she'd never seen him on the reservation, so he likely wasn't a shape-shifter. As soon as she was inside and driving she'd be safe. Trying to ignore the voice in her head that whispered about non-Quileute shape-shifters and witches and wizards, she hastily opened the car door and tossed her things in, with far less care than she normally took. She practically threw herself into the car and scrambled to turn it on and throw it into reverse to back out of her spot. All the while she kept glancing out the window. He still had not moved.
Unnerved, she sped home, and luckily was neither stopped nor followed. She pulled into her driveway and with almost as much haste as she'd thrown herself and her things into the car, gathered her things and left the car. She paused when she reached the front porch and turned to survey the road and the woods, and relaxed when she saw nothing. Feeling a little calmer, she went inside and greeted Embry with a kiss.
She didn't want to worry him, but she couldn't help but tell him about the strange encounter. He frowned hard, but agreed that the man didn't sound like either a vampire or a shifter. Still, he insisted on phasing and accompanying her on the sly as she drove to Sue's and then as the both of them drove to the store, and said that he'd round up a couple of the other Pack members and take a sniff around the town to see if he could pick up anything that smelled like a vampire or another shifter.
Knowing he wouldn't change his mind, Emily went upstairs to change her clothes. When she came back down, she took her purse and car keys and stepped onto the front porch with Embry in tow. She kissed him, hating to leave his side, and got in her car, where she waited while he jogged to the tree line. She could see him turning his head all around, looking for signs of trouble. He disappeared for an anxious moment behind the tree line, and she hardly dared to breathe until she saw his brown fur and intelligent golden eyes peeking at her.
Feeling much safer, she started her car and pulled out of the drive.
The drive to Sue's was much less anxiety-inducing than her drive home from work. Though she couldn't see him, she knew Embry was following her car closely from the forest. He'd keep her safe.
Finally she reached Sue's place. She parked in the driveway and walked up to the front door, debating whether or not to say anything to Sue. She decided not to for now, not wanting to worry her until she knew there was something to worry about.
She was a bit surprised to see Charlie Swan at Sue's, but the Forks Chief of Police had been spending more and more time with Sue lately and it wasn't a secret to anyone but the two of them that they had a thing for each other.
Sue had explained to Charlie a bit of what was going on – that there was going to be a bonfire tomorrow because one of the Pack had imprinted, though Sue hadn't told him of the new imprint's particular nature – so he bade them a placid goodbye before sitting down to watch the game. Well, a game. Neither Sue nor Emily knew who was playing what, nor did they particularly care.
Once at the grocery store, they parked and stepped out of the car. Emily glanced toward the forest and caught another glimpse of Embry's brown fur and golden eyes; he inclined his head and stayed to watch the two women walk inside. At the door she glanced back once more, and caught his gaze just before he turned to melt into the forest.
Emily followed Sue into the store, where they split up to make their purchases. By now the store employees were fairly used to seeing them do this, and they always kept the store pretty much stocked with just about everything, never knowing what the two ladies would be purchasing at any given time.
Tonight's purchases included a mountain of hamburger meat, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and pickles along with bottles of ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and barbecue sauce, as well as several bags of frozen French fries and all the necessary ingredients for lasagna, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, and apple pie.
By the time they pushed their carts into the parking lot, the light had faded a great deal, and it was much harder for Emily to see anything in the tree line. But there, two glowing points of gold alerted her to the presence of her imprint, and she was relieved. She and Sue drove back to Sue's with no mishaps.
They unloaded everything at Sue's house, where she kept an extra refrigerator and a large freezer in the garage for just this purpose. Tomorrow everything would be taken to Sam's house, which had a larger kitchen with more cooking space, and which was also closer to the bonfire site on the cliffs.
Emily bade Sue and Charlie, who was in the same chair where they'd left him, goodbye, and got back into her car after locating Embry's golden eyes among the trees once more.
He followed her home, and she waited at the door for him to come jogging up. Once they were both inside, she locked the door, using both the lock on the door handle and the deadbolt. Then, without a word, she wrapped her arms around Embry's middle and laid her head against his chest, allowing his heartbeat to calm her.
"Geez, you're really freaked out," he said gently as he embraced her.
"You have no idea," she replied. "Did you find anything?" she asked him, not looking up.
"Nope. All we smelled was just wolves, like regular wolves. In the spot that you described there was something that kind of smelled like maybe a homeless person had been hanging around there for a couple hours, but that's it," he replied. "Nothing to be afraid of."
She heaved a deep sigh, feeling the tension leeching out of her at his words. "Thanks, babe. That makes me feel so much better," she murmured, pressing her face into his chest.
"Quil and Jared and I will look around a couple more times again tomorrow, just to make sure, but for now, let's make dinner. I'm starved!"
She laughed. Embry, like the rest of his Pack, was always hungry. But she was lucky – he always helped make dinner, without being asked. When she'd asked, once, he shrugged and said, "I dunno. I never really think about it, it's just an urge. I guess it's just another way to spend time with you, babe." She was baffled by how teary-eyed that made her.
Dinner was spaghetti with her mother's famous meat-sauce, which her mother had taught her to make at a young age, with the admonishment to never disclose the secret ingredient to anyone but her husband, and, someday, her own daughter when she had one.
After dinner, they retreated to the living room, where Emily turned on her computer for a bit of mindless internet-surfing while Embry went for the TV. Both were rather tired, however, so they soon went upstairs to bed. After a quick but rather intense love-making session, they were both out cold.