Author's Note: Typical me, updating 3,000 months later - I just couldn't resist. I know nobody cares what I've been up to in the meantime, so I won't mention it, but those couple of reviews, even when I wasn't updating, was what made me come back. This is a pretty 'big' chatter plot-wise, so let me know what you think in a review (please, I am that desperate).
True to his promise, Seth frantically spent the coming weeks (much to my protests) searching for colleges that would actually accept my less than adequate application. I tried my best to help by bringing him endless cups of tea while he relentlessly sent in applications for mid-semester positions. I would have done it myself, but as Seth said, I could barely open a word document, and I happened to agree.
Our lives sort of transitioned into these weird functional routines within the coming months. I would wake up next to him every morning, kiss him senseless until one of us had to go to work, make Molly breakfast and pack her a semi-nutritional lunch, drive to work without crashing, bully Barry with Jude and earn a deserving wage, come home, kiss Seth senseless once more, before almost burning down the house while attempting to cook dinner. As much as I hated to admit it, I was basically as adult as I would ever be – and I didn't resent it one bit.
I did screen my mother's calls and drink corpus amounts of wine when Molly wasn't around, although I do believe that is fairly adult behavior - I mean, what kind of adult actually enjoys talking to their mother?
It wasn't until a dim Saturday morning that things spiraled out of control. And while my life is generally spiraling out of control, even on the best of days, this was something that completely altered the comfortable little routine my life had developed into. Predictably – it started with a hike.
"I don't want to hike." I complained to Seth, while wearing the most inappropriate hiking gear I could muster – a pleated skirt with thick wooly tights underneath and an old thrift shop shirt with an ironic picture of a Christian rock band on it. It was my form of protest.
"Too bad – I am bribing you with a bottle of wine. You can only open it when we get there." He said, packing our gear into a wicker picnic basket.
"You're treating me like a child!" I whined, sounding exactly like a child.
"Children don't drink wine." He told me firmly. "Plus, this is important – please?"
That was all it bloody took. A please. To be fair to my obviously weak resolve, nobody can resist a toned man in cut-offs, even if he is forcing you to participate in physical activity.
While I thought he'd be gloating, Seth was unusually quiet on the drive to the trail. The windows were cranked down in his old truck, a rushing but slow intake of the world outside. During the past few weeks, I had become quite good at reading his expression, and the concentrated, pained look on his face told me he did not want to talk, but to think instead. I spent my time looking out the window, watching the beach grow smaller and smaller as we drove into the dense forest.
We arrived at the foot of the trail and I realized it was the same trail he had taken me on our first date – the memories of my self-consciousness and apprehension felt so distant and trivial. In one hand he took the wicker picnic basket, and in the other, my hand. We made our way up the steep trail, Seth only talking to warn me about malicious tree roots threatening to trip me.
I spent the majority of the walk wondering about Seth's uncharacteristic mood. He had said that the hike was important, and I vaguely wondered if he was going to break up with me. I nearly scoffed out loud at the thought – not because I was the ideal girlfriend (because I certainly wasn't), but because what was the point of being stuck with someone on a mountain if you wanted to break up with them? I wondered about his mother and his friends when it suddenly struck me – his job. Not the working as a mechanic job, which was relatively sane in comparison to his three-am wake up job. He had always been very vague about it, and I had always hoped he wasn't dealing drugs (and, honestly, had come to accept that my boyfriend was a drug lord). I narrowed my eyes as we were fast approaching the turn-off to the cliffs; however, he took a right at the fork in the trail, leading me to a more secluded area of the forest. My suspicious of Seth being a mass murderer, at this point, had passed – but I was growing more suspicious with every stretch of silence.
We arrived in a field of sorts. Golden grass grazed our knees and consumed the empty, treeless space. Around us, a thick canopy thrived; wide trees touched the horizon, tickling the space between the sun and the dense clouds. Seth stopped in the center of the field, turning to look at me with an expression of hesitance.
"Remember the bonfire? He suddenly asked. "How I mentioned the third wife, and how I would tell you the story eventually?"
Memories flooded back – the cold ones, the shape shifters, the third wife. I nodded, completely confused.
"The third wife, known for her sacrifice for the Taha Aki tribe, was more than just a wife or a soul mate to Taha Aki. To him, a shape shifter, she was known as an imprint."
"An imprint?" I repeated, trying to follow.
"An imprint," He said, hesitating, as if to find the right words. "It's hard to describe. It's more than a soul mate – an imprint, when you see her, changes your life – for the better. It's as if gravity moves and changes, your life completely revolves around her, she is all you see – all you need, and your life is meaningless without her."
I stayed silent, unable to find any words.
"You remember the battle Sam described – the third wife, she sacrificed herself to the cold ones in order to save the tribe. Taha Aki eventually prevailed, but without her, his life was meaningless. He lied next to her dead body for days and eventually disappeared, never to be seen again – in my opinion, he probably killed himself, because that is what life is like without an imprint – empty. It is literally not worth living."
It was then that his downcast eyes met mine, and there was so much intensity in them that I still could not speak – something that rarely happened to me.
"And," He paused, weighing his words. "And, Ginger, it's true – every word of it, from what Sam told you to what I'm telling you now. Not a word is made up – but it's probably better if I show you."
It was then, to my complete surprise and hormonal joy, that Seth started to take off his clothes. He first started with his shirt, exposing those abdominal muscles I usually foamed at the mouth over, but when he started taking off his pants, I forced myself to say something.
"As much as I want to see you naked," I said, slightly perplexed. "I don't really think the forest is the place for it."
He paused, looking at me in a distracted way, pants halfway down his ankles. "You want to see me naked?"
"Er," I said, going a brilliant shade of red. "I – I want to see everyone naked! Haven't you heard – that's my thing! My er, fetish, I suppose. Yes – nudity!"
"No it's not!" He cried, looking far more ridiculous than I did as a big dopey grin spread across his face, pants still around his ankles. "You want to see me naked!"
"Well – well," I sputtered. "Well, don't you want see me naked?'
"I – I – yes." He said, going red.
There was a rather pregnant pause.
"Well," I said to no one in particular. "I'm glad that's sorted then, but this is hardly the place to – to rip off our clothes and have a midday romp in the hay."
"Er – right." He said, coming to his senses. "That wasn't really the point though – I wasn't taking off my clothes to seduce you or anything, as much as it might have worked. I just wanted to show you something, and it's not my, er, boy parts."
I was still perplexed, but quite interested as to how Seth taking off his clothes in a non-sexual way would turn out, so I let him continue without complaint.
I tried to avert my eyes from what he called his 'boy parts', but honestly, I was too much of a pervert not to look – at least for a second or so. Well, probably more than a second because it took me some time to realize that he was shaking, shaking too rapidly to be from the harsh chill of the wind. It seemed like he was growing broader, larger, as if his limbs were extending and becoming inhumane – but I knew that couldn't be true.
Just as a million questions were caught in my throat, Seth seemed to explode. And where a young man stood just moments ago, a sandy haired wolf took his place. I threw myself backwards, the soft grass catching my fall, as I looked wide-eyed into the eyes of a monster.
I contemplated running, screaming my head off, but when I looked again the eyes were sad, hopeful, and incredibly human. The monster, although I wasn't sure if it actually was, shrank beneath my unbelieving gaze – it crossed its paws, which were awkwardly impropriate to the rest of its body, and lowered its head, cowering.
"I think we better open that bottle of wine." I said breathlessly, after a long period of silence.
The wolf let out a bark-like laugh and began to shake again, turning back into Seth – this time I looked away, unable to watch his limbs contort. By the time he had changed and put his clothes back on, I had already poured two generous glasses and was nursing my own, unable to look at him.
He sat down next to me silently, took his own glass and gulped.
"Look," He said quietly, obviously sensing my uneasiness. "I'm sure this seems absurd, and like it's happening all at once, and I honestly don't blame you if you think I'm insane. However, the other imprints – Kim, Emily –"
"Wait," I interrupted, my mind going a million miles a minute for once in my life. " Firstly, Emily and Kim know that you're, you know, an actual shape shifter?"
"Ah," He said knowingly, "It's not just me you see. Almost all the guys at the bonfire, except for the elders, are the same. We all changed because the cold ones – vampires – used to inhabit the area. They were friendly, however, didn't live off human blood – they hunted animals instead."
"Vampires actually exist?" I asked incredulously.
"Yes." He said quite nonchalantly, as though discussing the weather. "But their presence triggered a change in us who had the shape shifter gene – my sister included."
"Your sister?" I repeated.
"Yeah," He sighed. "Sam was the first of us to change, and at the time he was dating my sister, Leah. Dramatically, he imprinted on her cousin, Emily, and Leah was pretty heartbroken. When she transitioned and learned the truth, it ate away at her for years until she couldn't take it anymore and left town for good."
I was silent for a while; thinking of his sister, until a thought suck my mind. "When you mentioned imprinting, you said that Emily and Kim were the other imprints-"
"I was getting to that." He said, suddenly looking nervous. "You see, the first night we met, at that party, as soon as we made eye contact, I was gone, and I knew…"
"Knew what?" I said, although already anticipating the answer.
"That I had imprinted on you." He said.
"Well," I said, sipping my wine, because I didn't know what else to do. "You imprinted on me?"
He gave me a skeptical look. "You don't see yourself very clearly, do you? When I first saw you, I was overwhelmed by your beauty – it's unconventional, sure, but I was intoxicated by it. Then I spoke to you, and you were so strange, so unique, and I just couldn't get enough. When you gave me your number, I thought it was the happiest moment of my life, but that was until I took you on our first date, until we listened to The Smiths and fell asleep together, until you fell apart but held everything together for your sister, until you kissed me, and until now – when you haven't run away from what I truly am."
It was so corny, I felt I was in one of those erotic romance novels, but at the same time I couldn't help but let my insides go all gooey and wobbly, and look at his sincere eyes. 'My boyfriend is a werewolf' sounds like some crap romance novel, but I was living it, and it wasn't so bad at all.
"I might need another glass," I said, waving my empty wine glass at Seth, "But after that, I think I'll be fine with this whole shape shifter love of my life thing."
I didn't know if it were true or not, because who could be completely fine with their boyfriend turning into a wolf? However, he was Seth, and he put up with me and my cake eating habits, which were probably worse than his wolfish tendencies after all.