I took a stab to the heart when bravely looked up to see Emmett's face. He had a pained look on his face. A pain far beyond anything I could ever imagine. It was a kind of pain that I will swear to myself never to inflict on him again. No one deserved this kind of torture. Especially not the most loving man in the world.
"What?" He choked out in a horrified voice.
"You don't know the whole story." I told him. "Let me explain it all before you judge me." I pleaded.
"Please, it's not what you think." Alice interrupted. I saw intuition flicker on Edward's face when she said that, he must have heard the story in her head. I turned to her and mouthed a thank you before turning hesitantly back to Emmett.
"In order to explain, I have to take you back a couple weeks ago…" I started. This was going to be a long story to rehash.
I was getting out of the car hesitantly. I could not believe that Bella had actually planned a sit down with the dogs. Even more horrifying, I could not believe that Carlisle agreed to such an invitation. Werewolves and vampires are not supposed to be getting along. But everything kind of changed after we defeated Victoria and her gang of psychopath newborns together.
"Rose, I think we are going to live." Emmett tried to comfort me. It didn't work.
"This should not be happening!" I hissed back at him.
"Easy there, Kitty." He tried to calm me down.
I growled at him, annoyed because of this whole situation.
"Jeez, I would hate to be the poor sucker who would ever cross paths with you." Emmett muttered. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to hear that. I ignored it just incase.
"Now, Rose." Alice had turned toward me suddenly. "This is very important to Bella. So don't blow this."
"No need to worry about that, Alice. I am completely under control." I attempted to assure her. She eyed me suspiciously, not even close to convinced.
"You make one wrong move, and it will be the last move you make. You got that?" She asked me with absolutely no humor in her eyes.
"Bring on the chick fight!" Emmett joked. "I want to see you two rip your clothes off each other. That would put on a lovely show for the drooling mutts."
I snarled at him furiously. "Those damn dogs aren't going to see anything!" Alice agreed with a low growl. He just laughed at our anger.
"Ok, time to be serious. Everyone on their best behavior." Esme turned to us and raised an eyebrow. "No shenanigans." She was talking to all of us, but looking directly at Emmett. "And be nice." She turned to eye me.
"It's time to put our game faces on boys." Emmett said as he smoothly put on his sunglasses.
"Emmett, we are about to go inside." Esme shook her head disapprovingly.
He just laughed and took them back off.
Carlisle rang the door bell politely. We waited for about fifteen seconds until a girl answered the door with an inviting smile. This chick have been Emily.
"Thanks so much for coming." Emily smiled at us welcomingly. "Come in and please make yourselves at home. Dinner will be ready in approximately twenty minutes in case you guys want to try something." She looked uncertain as if uncomfortable about talking about human food to a group of vampires.
"Thanks." Bella said suddenly. "We'd be happy to join you guys." Yeah, speak for yourself, Honey. It isn't so easy being a vampire and having to choke down disgusting human food.
Emily smiled and stepped aside, giving us all room to walk through. The inside of Sam and Emily's house was modern and quite elegant. It was small but inviting. It looked moderately roomy, even though I prefer bigger houses.
"Take a seat if you'd like. All the boys are in the family room watching a football game."
"Hell yes!" Emmett exclaimed and then ran in to join the werewolves.
"And Leah and I are finishing up dinner in case anyone wants to join us." Emily continued as if Emmett hadn't just interrupted her. Esme, Alice, and Bella followed Emily into the kitchen to assist with the meal making while Jasper and Carlisle followed Emmett to watch the game. I was stuck to choose between a bunch of guys and a bunch of girls. So I hesitantly walked into the kitchen where the girls were hard at work cooking something that didn't smell at all appetizing, but that was coming from a vampire.
"You have got a nice group of boys in there." Esme casually commented to Emily while looking into the family room at the pack.
"Oh, thank you." Emily replied with a shy smile. "They are usually very nice and very polite but they do have their moments." She admitted, laughing at some past memory.
"Oh, trust me. Vampire men are no walk in the park either at times." Esme assured her. They both laughed.
"Emily, can you give me the knife, please?" Leah said in what seemed like an irritated voice. Oh, so she does speak, I thought she was a mute for a while there. I guessed that she was just as uncomfortable with this as I was.
"Yes you may." Emily said politely as she handed her the knife.
"So, Leah, how has your werewolf experience been treating you?" Bella asked hesitantly. Was this girl seriously intimidated by a chick werewolf?
"A nightmare." Leah said, not holding back the truth. "Besides getting annoyed at all the guys' stupid thoughts and having them listen to my thoughts, being a werewolf can be kind of fun." She said.
"Really? Fun?" Bella asked.
"Oh yes, having anger issues and ripping off my clothes every hour and being completely naked in front of a big group of guys is just the cherry on top of my every day." She said with icy sarcasm.
"Leah!" Emily scolded. "Our guests are being polite, you show them kindness too." She commanded. "Now you promised that you would be nice."
Leah childishly stuck her tongue out at Emily and then proceeded cutting the carrots and throwing them into the boiling stew on the stove.
"Do you have a bathroom?" I asked Emily suddenly.
"Umm, yes. Just go down the hall a little bit and it is the first door on your right."
"Thanks." I muttered as I walked out of the room. I went into the bathroom and shut the door behind me. It smelled terrible in this house. Like werewolves. A bunch of werewolves, which was even worse. My nose twitched in disgust. I turned on the sink and splashed cold water in my face. I needed to be refreshed.
"Boys, time to eat." I heard Emily's voice shout above the TV noise. I didn't want to be too impolite and skip dinner so I grudgingly walked back out of the bathroom and into the dining room, where the table was set beautifully. But I wasn't going to admit that.
"It looks amazing, Em." Sam said gratefully as he kissed her on the cheek. I couldn't help but notice Leah's look of jealously at their romantic exchange. I wondered if Miss Attitude had taken a fancy for Sam.
"Thanks, I had a lot of help though." She looked at us appreciatively.
"It was our pleasure." Alice smiled at them sweetly.
But something about this scene wasn't right, I noticed as I took my seat next to Emmett and Alice. Something was off and I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
I watched in disgust as the boys dug into the piles of food on their plates and wondered if they would ever come back up for air. Wow, I'm sure all the human girls would consider their dinner manners very attractive.
"Werewolves have huge appetites." Emily told me when she realized what had gotten my attention.
But there was one dog that wasn't eating. He was staring instead. At me? No, it couldn't have been me, why would a werewolf stare at me like that? But he was. I had no idea why, but he was looking at me like I was his lover. I quickly looked away.
I had carefully avoided his gaze after that, though I was still hyper aware that he was still staring at me with intent eyes. What kind of freak was this guy anyway?
"Wasn't that game something?" Emmett coolly tried to make conversation.
"Oh yes." Sam replied as he wiped his face with his napkin. "Very intense."
Leah's eyes narrowed as she too noticed Embry's gaze. "Something wrong, Embry?" She asked him, not taking her eyes off of me.
He grudgingly looked away from me to smile angelically at Leah. "I have never felt better in my entire life." He said seriously. "Would you excuse me?" He said as he got up and left the room.
"What the hell is wrong with that boy?" Jacob said with his mouth stuffed with stew. "He didn't even touch any of this tasty food."
"Why would he just leave?" Emily wondered aloud.
I kept quiet as I wondered if something about me had anything to do with his departure.
"Are you ok, Rose?" Esme asked when she saw the confused look on my face.
"Er, yes. I am fine." I tried to recover quick enough to look convincing, her worried expression never vanished.
"Hey, Alice?" I whispered to her and then nudged her shoulder lightly. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Sure." Alice looked confused. But followed me out of the room anyway.
"We will only be a moment." I assured everyone as they looked up to see I leaving.
She followed me into the other room. "Can wolves go insane?" I asked her seriously.
"Very funny, Rose." She frowned at me.
"I am serious." I told her. "I felt like one of the boys, the one who had just left the room before us, was staring at me. I wanted to know why."
She just shrugged. "Rosalie, you are making a big deal out of nothing. He probably just thought you were pretty. It's not like anyone has ever not thought you were gorgeous. Don't worry about it." She went back into the other room, leaving me to sit on the couch, still wondering what had happened.
"Come here." I heard a guy's voice whisper from the room next to me. I saw the Embry boy looking straight at me. I pointed to myself questioningly. He nodded and waved me forward.
I hesitantly followed him. Not sure where we were going or what he was about to do. At that moment I was seriously wondering if werewolves could go insane. We walked outside and he turned to me with a radiant smile.
"I love you." He told me. It looked like he was serious.
I snarled, not at all amused by his antics. His smile faded and he began to look worried. "No, you don't understand. I have imprinted on you. That means that you are my soul mate, the one person in my life who I am bound to please for the rest of my life. You are the one I have been waiting for. Just like Emily is to Sam, and Kim is to Jared, and Claire is to Quil, you are my element of imprint." His smile was superior.
"I don't believe you. What the hell does imprinting mean?"
"It is when a werewolf lays eyes on his soul mate for the first time and realizes that he has finally found her. I found you. The moment you walked through the dining room door I knew that you were her, the girl I have been waiting for." He took in my expression for a minute. "Believe me, Rosalie, I wouldn't be lying to you. I don't joke about this subject. If it has happened, then it has happened. You are destined to me with me."
For the rest of the night I avoided Embry. I snuggled unnecessarily close to Emmett when I entered the dining room again. I was terrified that this werewolf was going to try to come between my marriage.
We left on a good note. The wolves shaking hands with the boys and kissing the ladies' hands. It was a quiet ride home, and a quiet rest of the night for me.