Big Trouble

Jesse's POV:

I sat on the low cliff, looking out over the dark blue ocean, it's waves spluttering into white frothy foam as it hit the cold black rocks. Somewhere in all that froth was my imprint, Ali. I completely trusted her with my heart. I didn't feel any of that freaky imprint crap trying to warn me of dangers so I let her have some fun and freedom. Personally, at anytime of the year, weather it was Autumn or the middle of summer, that water would be deadly cold. She and her friend, Lin Lin were crazy.

So I sat back, watching the two girls emerge out of the water, only to dive right back under.

As I expected, they came out shivering viciously. I ran over to them with a towel I had got from home whilst they were playing, and wrapped them up until they were warm. But then I was stuck.

"Errm.. where would your mum be?" I asked them timidly.

"Probably complaining about something to my dad." The girls giggled. My heart filled with warmth and my worries were distant unimportant memories.

"Well lets just walk down the beach and dry off."

We slowly strolled down the length of the sea shore; I kept close to Ali, feeling very content. The girls chatted a bit, I found out that Lin Lin and Ali had only met a few months ago at their school, one of the Quileute tribal schools. This sparked interest in me so I pressed on further.

"So do travel there everyday for school?" I asked them.

"Yeah, my mum drives us there every morning because it's really far. I mean really far. Sometimes I wish we didn't live in Hoh," answered Lin Lin. My heart froze. I felt like the waves had already taken me under, and no matter how hard I swam to the surface, I couldn't stop the ice of the water seeping into my heart.

My imprint lived in Hoh! How was I supposed to see her?

"Where exactly? I thought you lived in Makkah!?" I said frantically. They both stared at me.

" I do, Lin Lin lives in Hoh. I don't really live in Makkah much because most of the time I'm playing in Hoh. The forest is really beautiful," Ali answered timidly.

"BUT THAT'S 40 MILES AWAY!" I wailed. They both bent back with wide eyes. I probably looked like a screaming little kid who'd lost her favourite dress after a dog came and chewed it up.

"So what? What is it to you?" Ali asked, she seemed to be slightly more stable after my ground shaking mini tantrum.

"Well, how can I see you?" I told her out straight. Lying to my imprint was just too damn difficult, " I thought we were friends."

"Are we?" Lin Lin asked, she sounded slightly frightened. Well I wasn't really talking to her.

"I thought we were. Can't we be?" This time I asked Ali directly.

"I'm not so sure. You are a lot older than us."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, look at yourself," I did. It so happened that I was fairly taller than the two girls. "You're like how old?"

"I'm fifteen." Though I looked the same when I was thirteen but I could pass off as eighteen.

"We're both six. That's a big age difference." Well for a six year old, you talk like an adult.

"Age shouldn't matter when you're dealing with friendship," I reasoned.

"Maybe you're right but my mum would never think so. She hardly lets me go near boys anyway- unless you're a girl." The two girls giggled again, so I couldn't help but brush off her comment.

"But you're not doing what you should now. If someone told you that you two couldn't see each other anymore, would you listen? Hell no, you'd run off together, wouldn't you?" They both looked down in silence. i felt that I had won that conversation.

"Okay, you can be our friend. But you have to swear to keep it a secret, I still don't want to be in trouble," Ali said. I nodded and pretended to zip my lips and throw away the key, seriously. They both giggled and I laughed with them. I'd never felt so relaxed in my life.

"Can we meet up again?" I asked them desperately.

"Sure. We go to this secret part of this forest every afternoon. It's like this really green glade in the heart of the woods with this stream running through it and there are lots of big rocks and mossy dips to play games in. We're going there now. Do you want to come?" Lin Lin asked me. She was all right, this girl was. She seemed to like me more than Ali. I didn't know if it was me or just her personality.

"Okay. How do we get there? You can't be planning to walk." They shook their heads in that fast childish way, their soft crow black hair flying around wildly. I smiled. Thank who ever's up there that I imprinted on Ali, even if she was six.

"No silly. Lin Lin did say it was really far. Don't worry, we have something better than walking. But remember you swore that this whole ordeal is kept a secret. Don't say nothing to nobody."

"Promise."

We walked along for a bit more, the girls were almost dry, but still mostly damp, though they didn't seem to notice.

We then got to the road that skimmed along the coastline. On the other side was the forest and down south of the road was the Hoh Forest. We waited for a while, I don't know what for but I didn't question either.

The sun had started to set, part of it already dipped below the horizon, turning the ocean ripples into flickers of fiery orange and red, reflected as perfect crescent moon curves as they returned to the sea.

Ali had sat down on the road side, looking out towards the slow setting sun. Lin Lin had wandered down the road thoughtfully. I took my chance and sat beside Ali.

"Pretty, isn't it?" I tried to make conversation. I waited a while for her to answer.

"Sort of," she murmured. I was quite stumped.

"What do you mean 'sort of'?"

"Well it is pretty but compared to the rest of nature, I'd say it was just sort of pretty." I was stuck for words. How do you respond to that? I thought about it for a bit. I couldn't really grasp what she was on about.

"What do you mean, 'compared to the rest of nature'?"

"You'll see."

She said no more and neither did I.

What I really didn't expect was to my absolute horror, something that should be unquestionably a myth, emerge from the mirky forest. There was no doubt in the bottom of my heart that there couldn't be any way possible that the wolf in front of me was walking out from the trees. But there he was. A brown wolf who I could not recognise but still all the same features as our pack had. This wasn't an ordinary wolf, this was a shifter like us. The only reason why I kept telling myself this was impossible was because I couldn't bear to think what this meant to our pack.

Instinct came first, though, and I swiftly manoeuvred myself to crouch in front of Ali. I couldn't stop myself from letting out a guttural growl at my opponent. This so happened to be our territory and anyone who isn't welcome is a trespasser.

But I couldn't phase because Ali was right behind me.

"Jesse," her sweet voice sounded, unexpectedly confident. Could she not see that there was a dangerous overgrown wolf three yards in front of her? "It's okay. He won't hurt me, I know him. His name is Fred and he's my friend and neighbour. I ride him all the time. We're gonna ride him to Hoh. But don't tell anyone this secret."

Was she mad? Out of her mind?! This was a shifter she was talking about. He could harm her, she was only a little girl.

"No you don't understand. I can't."

"Don't be scared, it's easy to stay on."

"That's not what I'm afraid of. I can't really explain it. What I can tell you is that you won't be riding wolves any more, that's for certain. They're dangerous beasts that you shouldn't mess with."

The wolf cocked his head to the side, inquisitively. I glared at it. It moved forwards, right until it's muzzle was touching my nose. The it started to sniff me. I kept perfectly still, trying to save my dignity.

Then suddenly, the wolf crouched down on the ground in attack mode, ripping out snarls and growls from his chest. It lunged forwards at me but I swiftly picked Ali up and dodged to the side. She let out a heart shattering scream.

"Stop stop!" she cried. The wolf stilled. " What are you doing? Jesse's my friend." The wolf growled, barring his teeth. Ripples flowed from his muzzle along his fur like static electricity. It takes a lot to calm a wolf. "Stop it," she whispered, stroking the wolf. I growled and she turned on me. "You too. I don't understand what's going on. What were you doing Fred? You don't attack people."

"Maybe I should explain." Then I disappeared behind the trees and came out as a wolf. The pack had phased out so it was probably tea time.

I looked at my imprint as her eyes widened into shock. A kaleidoscope of emotion played on her face. First, shock, then calm, joy, confusion. Then sudden understanding as her head whipped from me to the other wolf. I couldn't hear his thoughts.

"So you two are both wolves? Cool!" I felt such relief. One thing I had been worrying about was when I told my imprint that I was a wolf and how she would take it. I guess Ali thought it was cool!

"You guys should be friends!" Okay that's going a bit far. But we could be mutual enemies. Though only if he got off our land.

Then we heard someone running down the road, a soft pitter patter of child's feet. There came Lin Lin, in a fit of annoyance.

"We waited ages for you Fred!" She looked at Ali, then at Fred then around her. "Where did Jesse go?" Their heads turned to me almost comically in sync. Lin Lin gasped. "No way! This is so awesome!" The girls giggled again. They really giggle a lot. " Hey, you can ride Jesse and I can ride Fred!" Not such a bad idea Lin Lin.

"But Jesse isn't my imprint," Ali huffed. My heart sank. But, I then realised I hadn't actually told her yet. What does that mean though? I guess Fred imprinted on Lin Lin.

Just for today, I would be on mutual grounds, and so would he. For our imprints. So I bent down and Ali climbed on my back. In minutes, we were racing through the cool green river of trees. Ali had her little fists tightly knotted into my fur, it felt nice to have her touch me, even if it was simply a necessity.

This would only happen once. I would never follow an enemy wolf again. I wouldn't run with them or go near them. I would try to keep them a secret, for I'm sure they would us. Now that I knew that the Makkah pack were real, letting the rest of the pack find out would mean big trouble.