I was wrapped in a blanket, but I could not warm up no matter how hard I tried. It was then that I noticed that the blanket was made of snow. I looked around, and found that everything, even the people tending to me, were made of snow and ice. I also couldn't get up out of the snow-bed that I was in. My body heat was causing my snow blanket to melt, and then re-freeze. I was sure I was going to freeze to death.
I heard a car screech and a worried voice near me a few seconds later. It was muffled as I was still stuck in the winter wonderland, but the sounds outside of it were breaking through this nightmare. "She's ice cold." The voice remarked. It sounded kind, and warm. I began to feel myself finally warming up, and I broke through the dream enough to ask for help. That is at least what I had hoped.
I remembered how to open my eyes for a split second. What I saw before lapsing back into my snowy dream was a shape that vaguely resembled a person's face, but it was in silhouette. I tried to hold onto the image and the heat that was enveloping me, but I was soon defeated by my dream. Now however I was in a real bed with a wool blanket and a heated pillow.
When I finally started to wake up again, I heard a few voices. They were muffled, but I could understand them. "Will she be ok?" the young male voice that I remembered asked sadly.
An older, calmer, unfamiliar male voice replied, "Yes Embry, she will be just fine." Questions filled my foggy head. Who was this Embry? Who were these people? Where was I? Were they worrying about me? Was this Embry the same person I asked for help?
While I deliberated these things in my head, I unknowingly twitched my fingers. "Hey, she's waking up." I heard a new female voice say excitedly. The voice sounded younger, say six maybe. When I finally opened my eyes, I saw the face from earlier when I was in the snow looking back at me, but it took my eyes a few minutes to adjust to see it clearly. Soon I brought the boy's face into focus.
He had a slender, handsome face, with russet skin and a slightly dimpled chin. His hair was short and black. The look in his warm brown eyes was protective and kind. I knew that I was safe from the Cold Ones. "You're awake." He breathed happily.
I shook my head, trying to dispel the fogginess that clouded my brain, and made it hard to think, but I ended up getting dizzy. The boy still stared intently at me, like I was the most important thing to him. "Are you Embry?" I asked slowly, my words slightly slurred.
"Yes. Who are you?" he asked in a velvety soft, yet silky smooth voice that I instantly trusted.
"My name is Anastasia, but I prefer to be called Anne. Where am I?" I asked.
A woman with long black hair handed me a cup of tea. It was calming and tasted faintly of chamomile. "I'm Tiffany, Embry's mother, and you are in our home, and out of the cold."
"Thank you." I told her and smiled. ''How long have I been….?" When I looked straight ahead, I screamed and dropped my teacup. It shattered on the floor as I scrambled to get away from the angelic man with gold eyes. He was a Cold One, I just knew it.
"Anne, Anne, what is wrong?" Embry asked. He held my hand tightly and stoked the back of my hand in a circular motion to try and calm me down.
"He… He's a Cold One!" I stammered, my eyes wide and terrified.
They all gasped at my response. "You know about us?" asked the man with the golden eyes.
I nodded timidly like a bobble-head. "Please don't hurt me." I begged him.
The man chuckled. "Don't worry. My family doesn't feed on humans."
Embry kept stroking my hand. "Do you know about…?" He trailed off, like he couldn't let the words out. I knew what he was trying to say. He was asking if I knew about the Werewolves.
"I do know about the werewolves. I know the Quiliute legends well, about the shape-shifters and all of that." I expressed after I had calmed down. Embry kept holding my hand even after I was ok. "That was how I knew that I would be safe once I got into La Push. That is where I am, right?"
"Yes Anne. You are in La Push. What were you running from?" Embry asked.
I shivered and he automatically draped another blanket on top of me. "Thank you Embry." I took a deep breath and answered, "Vampires."
"Why ..?" He stopped himself. "Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Would you please tell us your story from the beginning, Anne?"
I smiled at him. "I'd lived with my family in Seattle until Thanksgiving day. My entire family was there to celebrate the holiday. But, vampires broke into my house and killed them all, even my baby brother." I started sobbing and Embry let me lay my head on his shoulder and cry.
Embry stroked my hair comfortingly. "If you want to finish telling us later that's ok Anne."
I lifted my head from his shoulder- his shirt now bearing tear stains-and wiped the rest from my eyes. "No. I have to get this off my chest." He nodded at me. "My parents told me to run, so I did while they sacrificed themselves for me. I just ran north, because I knew that if I got to the reservation, I would be safe from the vampires. I have no idea how I was able to outrun them. I'd hide in the woods every night and run during the day. The last morning that I remember before now I was ambushed and I ran in a panic into La Push. The rest is a blur and the next thing I know I'm here."
"What would vampires want with you?" asked the girl who first noticed when I was waking up.
"The leader of a coven near here wants to change me."
"Why?" asked Embry.
"I have a gift that he desperately wants. Can I show you?" I held out my hand expectantly to him. He didn't hesitate to let me touch his face like I thought he would. His bonds and connections flooded my mind, plus one that I did not see coming. "You have intense love for your mother, a hatred of vampires, except for the Cullens." I looked closer into his emotional connections. "You love your pack, especially Jacob and Quil, but Paul annoys you, and… you have a very special bond to me, kind of a mating bond?"
"Yes, that's right." He drew away from me, but instantly held my hand again. "How did you do that?"
"I've had that gift for as long as I can remember. I can see the emotional ties that people share, but I can't affect them, only see them."
"That is very interesting Miss…" asked the vampire, drawing a blank on my last name.
"Elliott. Anastasia Alison Elliott." I answered him politely. I was afraid that if I offended him, he just might eat me.
I turned my attention back to Embry. "Embry; you just met me and I've only been to La Push a few times, but your bond with me is so strong. Why?" I asked, analyzing his face. I was hoping the answer would pop out at me.
It did in a way, but from his mouth. "Do you know the story of the Third Wife?" he asked.
I let a puzzled look envelope my face. Did I know that one? I thought back to the book on Quiliute legends that Amber Clearwater had given me not too long ago. I remembered looking that one up specifically during one of my bed-time readings but found the entire section ripped out.
"No Embry, I don't."
"Ok." He began explaining. "The story of the Third Wife is how imprinting is explained to the children, but they think that they are purely bedtime stories." I listened, mesmerized. He continued. "But I think I can tell you the truth. When a wolf imprints on a girl, it's as if his personal gravity shifts. Gravity no longer ties him to the place where he stands, she does. The wolf is anything that his imprint needs, be it a friend, protector, brother, or a soul mate, and her safety and happiness is his first and foremost priority."
Everything was making sense now. "Did you imprint on me, Embry? Is that why your bond to me is so strong?"
"Yes Anne. You are beginning to understand."
"You won't let the vampires get me, will you, Embry? I don't want to be changed." I asked timidly.
He smiled and hugged me tightly. "Never Anne, I will never let them take you from me." He promised.