Chapter 5: The other side of the Looking Glass

The ground was soft and loamy beneath my paws as I made my way silently through the foggy woods.

Surprisingly, I found my self alone as I did so. None of my brothers or sister were anywhere to be seen or 'heard'. My thoughts were my own for once. It was sort of a bitter sweet notion, relieving, yet lonely somehow.

Suddenly, I heard a deep feminine voice call softly out to me from somewhere through the mist. "Embry…"

Instead of wary, as I should've been in a case like this, I was intrigued and made quick work of tracking down the mysterious voice.

"Embry…"

I came to a small clearing in the woods, where I found the source of the voice.

A girl had just stumbled through the brush, looking breathless yet beautiful, with short hair and large eyes.

I stepped forward to get a better look at her, despite my instinct screaming at me to do otherwise.

Then the girl spotted me, her already large eyes widening even more at the sight of me. Much to my surprise, she actually reached out to me, as if to pet my muzzle.

Just as we were about to touch, the same voice whispered loudly in my ear:

"Come find me."

"Embry! Wake up! Is he having a fit or something?" Quil's oh-so-familiar voice was whispering loudly somewhere near my ear, startling me into sudden alertness.

I jerked awake suddenly, gasping.

Both Quil and Jake's anxious faces were crammed into my small beside window.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, dude." Jake teased me half heartedly.

I squinted at him, not quite awake yet. "What time is it?" I asked blearily, trying to find my alarm clock, but it wasn't on my desk, like it usually was.

"Almost seven thirty." Jake answered, staring at me oddly. "You okay, man? You don't look so good."

I frowned as I leaned over the side of my bed to look under it, not hearing my brother's question. "Why are we..?" I trailed off as the answer came to me. "Oh, patrol. Right. I knew that." I said slowly as I found my alarm clock under my bed and reached for it.

"Embry, man, are you okay?" Quil asked this time, concern making him frown in the blue-ish light of dawn.

I straightened and crept outta bed quietly, so I didn't wake up mom in the next room. I gave him a look, "Yeah. Why?" I asked, confused as I grabbed a pair of jeans and shoes from my open closet.

Quil and Jake looked at each other, almost guiltily, "Well.. You were kinda having a fit or something when we got here." Quil explained carefully, like he was trying really hard not to offend me.

A fit? Had I had a nightmare last night? I asked my self silently, trying to recall my dreams last night as I pulled on my pants over my boxers, then my shoes.

I stopped and paused for a second just as a flash of large eyes came to mind suddenly, leaving this gaping feeling in my chest. I almost gasped at the sudden feeling. It was like some leech had punched me dead in the chest.

"I.. think I had a bad dream or something." I muttered slowly, as if I was talking to my self instead of my two best friends. Both Jake and Quil looked at each other again and just shrugged, they knew better than to try and get me to talk if I didn't want to.

In a moment, the three of us were on our way towards the woods. I tried my hardest to brush off the weird pain in my chest and the sight of those eyes, but somehow I knew that that would be easier said than done, especially since my mind wasn't my own any more. It was a part of the pack.

Things wouldn't ever be the same again, not since Jake had claimed dominance over Sam.

It was hard on them both, everybody could tell. There was like this, unspoken animosity between the two of them now. But I guess that was natural since there could only be one Alpha male in the group.

I slipped off my shoes and pants and transformed into my fuzzy alter ego.

As I finished, Seth loped easily over towards me, nudging me with his sandy tan head. 'What's with the freaky dream, man? You have some bad take out or something?' he asked, whining in concern.

If I could, I would've rolled my eyes. Nothing was secret when you were a part of a shape shifting pack of wolves. Not even bad dreams. 'It's nothing. Just a messed up dream.' I answered tiredly.

Jake gave me a look as he passed, one of brotherly concern. I smiled wolfishly. I was fine. Why was everybody freaking out about me?

'We're just kinda worried about you, man. You're kinda a loner these days, since ev…' Seth trailed off, looking away.

Frustration and bitterness bit down on my chest like a vice. 'Yeah, I get it.' I answered shortly, bearing my fangs a bit.

Besides Seth and Leah, and the two pups, I was the only one in the packs who hadn't imprinted yet. It was frustrating as hell, watching everybody else being all mushy and crap. It just felt like something was missing in my life and it bugged the ever-living hell out of me that I couldn't figure out what or who it was.

Sam had Emily. Jared had Kim. Paul had Rachel. Quil had Claire. Even Jake had found his reason for living in the little half breed Nessie.

Oh god, I was becoming as bitter as Leah!

And just as that thought crossed my mind, I received a light nip on my hind quarter from my grey sister.

'Watch it, Call. Or else I might not be so gentle next time.' the she wolf threatened coolly in my mind.

'Hey', Jake warned gruffly, 'cool it, Leah.' he admonished the grey wolf behind me, then he turned back to me, 'Don't worry about it, Embry. You'll find your mate eventually. There's no rush.' he reassured me, his 'voice' softer now within my head.

If I could have shrugged, I would've. I really didn't want to talk about this anymore. I just wanted to get patrol over with and go back to bed.

Apparently Jake understood this and sent us on our way.

Patrol came and went in a blur of green, no sign of any rogue leeches.

Once our rounds were over, Jared and Paul met up with Quil, Jake and I near the beach. Seth would've come too, but he and Leah had other plans made with their mom, Sue.

Even though I'd told them I didn't want their help, they were all coming up with insane ideas to help me imprint.

"You should just start looking at the girls around town." Jared was saying, "I mean really looking at them. I never noticed Kim till I went fuzzy." he said with a grin.

"Been there, done that." I muttered as I pulled on my shoes once again. I'd looked and no girl in the Res or Forks had stood out to me in the least.

"Maybe she just hasn't gotten here yet." Paul muttered with a shrug. He hadn't met his imprint till Jake's sister had come home from college.

That was an option. Imprints usually gravitated towards La Push in some way or another…

"You should just be patient, man. I had to wait nearly a year for my Nessie to even be born." Jake laughed.

My face fell. What if my imprint hadn't even been born yet? I didn't want to wait that long!

Jake noticed my expression and quickly back-peddled, "Well, we should just take you to the city and see if anyone there catches your eye!" he suggested, putting an arm around my shoulders as we walked towards the beach.

I smiled weakly, "D'ya think that'll work?" I asked hesitantly.

Jake beamed, "Who knows? We won't know 'till we try, right?" he asked eagerly.

"So the city it is!" Quil crowed, pumping his fist into the air.

The rest of us just stared at him for a moment. "That.. Was really weird." I muttered quietly.

We were silent for another moment, then we all busted up laughing as we finally reached the edge of the woods, near the cliff on the beach.

"Did you just see your self, dude? You were totally super jazzed about going to the city!" Paul cackled, waggling his fingers sarcastically.

"Sh-shut up.." Quil sputtered pitifully as the rest of us continued to laugh our asses off.

"You are such a dork!" I laughed, barely able to hold my self upright, my stomach hurt so bad.

"Uh. Guys, we have company." Quil stated dryly, nodding to the cliff ahead of us.

Our laughter died down as we all looked down a ways to see a short haired woman with a cane sitting near the edge of the rocky cliff.

"Well why don't we give her a show then?" I asked suddenly, kicking off my shoes. This was the cliff we usually dove off of, after all. It was fun to scare the living daylights out of the tourists who came to our beach and I could use a swim to clear my head.

The rest of the guys chuckled knowingly.

So I took off running towards the cliff, but as I neared the woman by the edge, my vision just sort of shifted towards her and stayed glued to the side of her face.

There was a roaring in my ears and my blood ran as hot as molten lava as I came closer to the woman.

As I ran past the woman, I locked eyes with her, at first just to see her shocked expression, but it became so much more.

First off, she didn't look that much older than me, maybe a year or two older at best, the next thing I noticed were the tear tracts running down her face.

It was like my whole life had been leading up to this moment in time, when I looked into her strangely familiar large blood-shot blue-green eyes, and right then and there, I just knew.

This is what I had been waiting for all this time.

Time seemed to halt for just a second, where it was just her eyes and mine.

She was mine and I was hers, and that's all there was to it. I already knew I would die for this girl.

But before I knew it, I was already falling towards the sea below. But it didn't register in my brain until I hit the ice cold water. Only one thought seemed to stick and replay in my head:

I had just imprinted on a girl I had just seen for a split second.