{{ Charlotte's POV}}

Someone was shaking me. I didn't want to wake up. I was still sleepy. I pulled the covers over my head.

"You are so lazy. You've slept more than half the day away," Dad complained.

I rolled over to stare at him. "Too bad. Still tried."

"Do you plan on keeping Seth waiting? He's been here for hours waiting for you to get up."

"He'll understand," I muttered.

"Charlotte Alexandria Duckling, if you do not get up this instant and go down to Seth I will…I will…" He trailed off as he was trying to think of a punishment.

I laughed. "Come on, Dad, can't think of a good threat?"

"I'll show him your baby pictures."

"You call that blackmail?"

"Only if I show him the ones when you were a baby, which means the good and bad ones. You looked so adorable! I'm so glad not that your mother thought to have those taken."

"Okay, okay, I'm getting up, but not because you threatened me."

"If that's the reason then I'm sure you won't mind me showing them to him anyway." He smiled broadly as he left.

"Dad!" I heard him laugh. "Seth! Don't look at them!"

"I'm a little curious as to what you looked like as a baby. I think I'll take my chances of you being mad at me."

I quickly took a shower and got dressed, putting on jeans and a t- shirt. I made a mental note to give Alice back her clothes. I scrubbed all the make-up of my face and headed downstairs. If I was lucky, my dad hadn't found the pictures yet. Not all of the boxes were unpacked even though we had been here for weeks. I hurried downstairs to find them on the couch looking at an album.

"Dad, you really did…"

"Sorry Charlotte." He laughed more as he handed the album to Seth and went to the door. "I'll see you guys later, I've got some business to take care of." I nodded as he left.

"Aw, you are so cute."

I grabbed the album from him and sat on it. "Okay, I think that's enough pictures."

"But I only saw the first few." His face saddened. It was completely worth dying for. I felt my heart sink from the site of him being sad.

I thought about giving it back but decided against it. I shook my head. "S-sorry," I stuttered.

"Fine. I see how it is going to be. I'll just have to ask your father when he gets back. I'm sure he'll let me see more pictures."

"And what makes you so sure that he'll let you?"

He grinned. "Trust me, he will."

"Then I'll just have to hide it so that neither of you can find it."

"I'll find it, one way or another."

"Sure."

He chuckled and looked around. "So what would you like to do for the rest of the day? You slept through most it anyway."

"It's not my fault we were out all night."

"I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay." Silence passed between us, then my stomach growled. "Um, I guess we're eating. You hungry?" I asked.

"A little."

"Then let's have brunch." I took his hand and lead him to the kitchen.

"What would you like to eat?"

"Anything is fine with me."

"Chocolate chip pancakes it is."

I made the batter and started to cook them on the griddle. "There are plates in the cabinet over there." I pointed to the opposite wall. "And the syrup is in the refrigerator."

I put the entire finished batch of chocolate pancakes onto a bigger plate and set it between us. He piled seven on his plate and drowned it syrup. I watched him eat for a few minutes before he looked up.

"What?"

"Nothing." I started to eat my own pancakes.

"No, really, what is it?"

"It's just that you said a little. I've never seen someone eat as much as you do."

"Aw, thanks. We all eat a lot."

"We?"

"Uh-huh. The rest of the pack as well. The wolves."

My eyes widen. "You mean there are more wolves? More than just you and Jake?"

He nodded. "You'll have to meet them. They're not all that bad. Maybe a little annoying at times, but they're okay."

"Oh."

"They won't hurt you, I promise. They'll like you."

"Okay."

We finished our brunch in silence. Seth polished off the plate and went to the living room. I followed and sat on the couch beside him, folding my legs underneath me.

"I take it that you like my pancakes."

"Yup. The best I've had in ages. I think they're even better than Emily's."

"Who's Emily?"

"Sam's fiancé. You'll meet her too. She's the best cook in the world, but I think you've got her beat on your pancakes."

"Um, thank you, I guess."

He laughed. "So what shall we do know?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"Well, do you want to talk about it now? About all the weird things you have been through in the last day or so."

"Wolves and vampires? Uh, sure, I guess. I'm still in shock that you really are a wolf and the others, the Cullens, are vampires. It just seems so unreal to me. I'm only human."

"Okay. So firstly, we are werewolves not wolves. We protect people, basically our tribe which is on La Push, from vampires."

"Like The Cullens family?"

"Kind of. The Cullens are different vampires. They drink blood from animals, not humans, that's why their eyes are golden. Vampires that drink human blood have red eyes."

"Okay, how do you protect the tribal people?"

"We protect our tribe and other humans too. If a vampire gets to close or we see them as a threat, we kill them."

"Then how can you stand being around the Cullens?"

"Bella. She was a human at first but then she met Edward. They became married and she had Renesmee. Bella had to be changed into a vampire because Edward didn't want to lose her. Giving birth to Renesmee almost killed her. But we thought Renesmee was an immortal child and we saw her as a threat to other people. We were going to kill her but then the Volutri came and everything was chaos and─"

"Wow wow wow. You lost me. What's an immortal child, who is the Volutri, and why was Renesmee a problem?"

He sighed. "This is not going as well as I hoped. There's so much you don't know and so much that is not my story to tell… Werewolves, the pack, immortal children, imprints, vampires, the Volutri, Renesmee. That's only the outline of it all. Then your father has some things to explain and your mother─"

"My mother?"

"That's more of your dad telling you."

"But you know something about her."

"Yes."

"And you're not going to tell me any of it."

"No."

"Then why are you telling me about all this other stuff. If everyone knew about werewolves and vampires then I'm sure I would have heard about it."

"I can tell you because you are my imprint."

"Which is?"

"A werewolf thing."

"So I'm guessing I can't tell anyone about any of this?"

"Only the people who know."

"Like who?"

"Your father, me, the other werewolves, and the Cullens... We are the only ones that know most of what you'll learn."

"Oh." I paused. So many people knew what was happening around me but me. I looked back at Seth. "What's an imprint?"

"It's a soul mate to a werewolf."

"I'm your soul mate?"

"Yes. We can tell our imprints everything. They're like our other half. It's hard for us to lie to them or to be away from them for a length of time. We feel there sadness, their sorrow, their pain. Their happiness, their joy." He paused. "That's one way I was able to find you when Drake was…about to hurt you. I could feel that you were in danger. I'm usually there, watching over you but I wasn't then. I'm sorry. If I had been there, you wouldn't have been in trouble with him to begin with. I could have stopped it from even beginning to happen." He dropped his head. I felt a tear slide down my cheek. "I'm so sorry," he whispered.

"Wait, you're blaming yourself for Drake attacking me?"

"If I was watching you as I usually did then─"

I interrupted him. "No stop..." I went to hug him. He pulled me into his lap. "If you had been there then Drake would have—I would not have seen how much a jackass he was becoming. I would still probably be with him. I would have been unhappy and not know the reason."

His arms tightened around me. I leaned my head against his shoulder.

"Can imprints feel their werewolves' emotions?" I asked.

"In a way."

"Then stop beating yourself up. You're making my heart hurt. I don't like to see you sad. It pains me." He was silent. I wanted to hear his voice again. "Tell me more about imprints."

He was quiet for a few moments before he spoke. "We are what our imprints need us to be. A friend, a protector, a lover."

"How do you know a person is your imprint?"

"You have this...feeling. No, that's not right. You…well...it's as if you have found a person that you can cherish with your life. You would do anything for that person." He hugged me closer. "When you first see them, it's like your world falls apart and the only thing that is holding you down is that person. You feel strongly connected to them and very protective. You never want to be alone from them. If you are, it causes you a pain that seems to ripe you apart."

"That's why when you were gone those few days I felt lonely. And that's why I felt the need to go to the clearing all those times. You were there watching me..."

"It hurt me knowing that I couldn't talk or be near you. Every night after I would patrol the boundaries, I would run here just to listen to you sleep. It made me feel better to know that you were safe."

"It wasn't your fault. I should have stepped away. I shouldn't have kissed you back."

"I don't regret it."

I laughed and raised my head. "Okay, so enough of this talk. Let's go do something fun." I stood and pulled him with me. I thought for a few moments.

Seth had walked over to a box that had my name on it. "What's this?"

I bent over the box. "Oh those are my books."

"Why are they down here? Shouldn't you put them in your room?"

"I was going to put them in that room above the stairs, but I don't want to leave them in the book for the rest of their lives."

"Then use a bookshelf."

"I would if I had one. Oh! Why don't we build one? I'm sure my dad has some wood somewhere." I ran out the backdoor. Sure enough, there were long boards leaning against the side of the house.

"You think he'll be using them for something?"

I turned to Seth. "No, I don't think so."

For the next few hours, until it became too dark outside to work anymore, we build bookshelves. We ended up building a total of seven and placed them all in the upper room. They were even painted. I wouldn't have been able to do most of it if Seth wasn't there. We sat on my bedroom floor.

"Now over half of them are empty, and I thought there wouldn't be enough. You know how many books I have?"

"Three gigantic boxes worth. I should know, I carried them up here."

"Thanks for doing that. But that's not even all of them. I have more at our old house. I think Dad was going to get the rest this weekend."

"Nerd," he coughed into his hand then smiled at me.

I hit his arm, which surprisingly hurt my hand a little. "I'm not a nerd, I just love to read."

He laughed. My phone buzzed then his. My dad was calling.

"I have to take this." He stood and left the room. I flipped open my phone.

"Hello?"

"Charlotte? Where's Seth?"

I looked at the door. I could see his shadow on the wall. "He's on the phone."

"Ask him who he is talking to."

"I don't want to interrupt him."

"Charlotte, please, just ask him." His voice sounded impatient.

"Okay, hold on." I poked my head around the corner. Seth had his back turned away from me. "Seth?" He turned to me. "Um, sorry to bother you, but my dad wants to know who you are talking to."

"It's Sam."

"Dad? He said it's Sam."

"Give the phone to him."

I handed the phone out to Seth. "He wants to talk to you."

He took the phone from my hand. "Sam just told me." He turned his back from me and walked a few steps away. He nodded. "I understand. Okay." He placed the phone back in my hand. "I have to go." He ran down the stairs quickly.

"Hey, wait! What's happening?" I followed after him.

"It's nothing important; it's just…uh…werewolf business." He opened the door and ran into my dad.

"Dad." He didn't notice me.

"Oh, Seth," said my dad. "You better hurry."

"I'm just leaving." He disappeared out the door without a backwards glance.

"Dad? What's happening?" He walked passed me into the kitchen. I looked out the door to see a large sandy-colored wolf disappearing into the trees. I closed it and went to the kitchen.

He was hanging up his phone as I walked in. "Dad?" He didn't seem to hear me. "Dad!" I screamed. He looked at me for the first time since he came. "What's happening? Why did Seth have to leave so suddenly?"

"Charlotte, it's nothing. Don't worry about it." He went to his room.

"But Dad─"

"I'm going to bed." He shut his door and I was left standing alone.