I am writing this extremely late at night on New Years Eve, though I think it's technically New Years Day, as it's past three in the morning. I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and apologize again for the ongoing delay in posting chapters. I'm not slacking in writing them; the Internet connection is just nonexistent where I am. Enjoy your chapter!

Last time:

I knew I wanted him to stay with me, but that would be selfish. We were complete opposites, in almost every way I could think of. I closed my eyes and leaned my arms on the porch railing, and searched for an answer to my dilemma.

I wasn't sure exactly how long I had been out here. Time seemed to drag. So while it seemed like it had been ten minutes, it might have been two. All I knew was that one second, I had been staring into the trees, and the next, I heard a voice calling my name.

"Haley? Haley? Are you here?" It was Seth. He sounded a bit frantic.

I walked in the door. I didn't want to make him worried. "I'm right here," I said. I looked at the expression of relief and happiness on his face. That solved my earlier dilemma. I couldn't break up with him, no matter how selfish that decision was, because it would make him sad. I couldn't bear the thought of Seth in pain.

I knew it was egotistical to think that I had enough power to make someone sad by leaving, but I thought I'd started to figure out how imprinting worked. It made the imprint very important in the wolf in question's life. I figured that if the imprint went away, the wolf would be crushed. This was all a hypothetical model case going on in my head.

It seemed to fit what information I'd figured out so far. Seth had gone into detail about the aspects of being a wolf, but he had skimmed over the imprinting thing, probably because he didn't want to overwhelm me. I'd been overwhelmed enough.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. I realized I'd been staring off into space for the past ten seconds. I just couldn't seem to stop making a fool out of myself.

"No, nothing's wrong." I smiled genuinely. The happy look on his face was just so infectious. I walked with him back to where the rest of the wolves were munching on chips, cookies, and sandwiches. They looked up when we squeezed into the table.

"So. Little Seth finally imprinted," Quil teased.

I raised my eyebrows. Little? Seth? He was probably around six and a half feet tall. Some of the others looked a few inches taller, but he was still enormously tall. It was a wolf thing.

"Well at least he doesn't have to baby-sit his imprint," Embry put in. He grinned.

I was confused. Quil didn't have a girlfriend at the bonfire. Then I remembered Claire, the little girl he was watching. Oh my God! Could you imprint on a toddler? That was sick.

My emotions must have been showing, because Seth laughed. "No, he doesn't feel that way about her. He will once she's grown up, but now he just wants to keep her happy and safe. Trust me, I've seen his mind."

I was relieved, but I still thought it was a little weird. Even when she was fifteen, sixteen, eighteen, or whatever age she was going to be when they got together, there would still be a gigantic age difference between them. Plus, wouldn't it be hard to take someone seriously if you baby-sat for them almost her whole life?

I brought my attention back to the present. No matter what I thought, it wasn't my business. Claire could do whatever she wanted about it when she got old enough to decide, though it was hard to picture the adorable four-year-old as a teenager.

The meal continued with more friendly bantering, including discussion of a sports game that I couldn't follow, despite growing up with two brothers, and an outrageous betting game. I felt myself becoming happier. It was almost impossible not to be, in this atmosphere. I'd almost forgotten about the disservice I was doing Seth.

He was such a great guy, he deserved better than me. I didn't want to make him do anything against his will. I was starting to see imprinting as a type of chain. It didn't do the wolves themselves any good, but they were bound to us imprints, and that scared me a little. No one should have that type of power over another.

Great, I'd just reminded myself again.

I started chatting with Kim. I was right about her being older than me, she was already a senior, but she was very nice. I was curious to hear about what imprinting was like for other people. I asked her about Jared and how she'd met him.

"I actually knew him before he phased," answered Kim amiably. "He never paid much attention to me before. I kind of liked him, though." At this point she lowered her volume and blushed a bit. I smiled. I could just picture Kim as a blushing schoolgirl with a crush.

"So one day I just walked into class and he was staring at me. There was no real drama. I already knew the legends before I found out they were true. I felt a bad for you, moving to a new place and then getting pulled into the pack with pretty much no warning. It must've been scary for you."

"I guess," I said. "I was never scared of Seth, though," I added hastily.

Kim grinned broadly. I knew I'd found someone who could relate to what I was going through. Emily and Rachel seemed nice enough, but Kim was closer to my own age. I could sense that we were going to be friends.

Seth asked me if I was ready to go after a few hours, a few of the pack had already left. I agreed, and walked with him back to his family's car. Once I was in and buckled, I turned to Seth.

"What happened to Leah?" I asked.

Seth started the car. "Why do you ask?" he said, while driving back onto the road and in the direction of my house.

I couldn't very well tell Seth about the confrontation with Leah, so I told part of the truth. "She just seems a little sad and apart from the group, that's all."

"She wouldn't really want me to tell you this, but you should probably know. Leah and Sam used to be together."

"What?" I was shocked. Emily and Sam seemed so perfect together. I honestly couldn't picture him with anyone else. Not with the way he looked at Emily, very similar to the way Seth looked at me.

"This was before Sam phased. They really loved each other, too. I could tell. After Sam phased, he was told to stay apart from her, because he didn't really have much control over himself yet. Then our cousin Emily came for a visit."

I grimaced. I could tell that this was one story that was not going to have a happy ending.

"So Sam saw Emily and imprinted on her, but then he lost control around her and, well, you've seen her." We both sat in silence in the car for a few moments. I had seen Emily. It was so tragic that Sam had injured his true love and broken his former love's heart so fast. It was like something in a soap opera.

Seth continued, "Leah was crushed. She didn't know about the imprinting until she and I phased over a year ago. It was really terrible for her to have to share Sam's mind. That's why she joined Jake's pack when he broke off from Sam's last year. She's a lot happier now."

I nodded, keeping a poker face. Inside, however, I was shouting 'Eureka!' It made sense now, why she wasn't a fan of imprinting, and why she had described it as 'sickening.' I didn't blame her. But then, couldn't she imprint someday and forget her bond with Sam, like he had forgotten her? I mentioned this last idea to Seth and he sighed.

"She doesn't think she can imprint. She's the first ever girl wolf in our history and she thinks it's because she can't have kids, and so can't imprint. She's even more crushed, if you can believe that, over that."

I nodded again. Poor Leah! It made even more sense now. Not only did a part of her not like imprinting, another part of her was probably jealous of her brother for being able to imprint.

"I had a lot of fun with all your friends," I ventured, trying to get the subject onto a lighter topic.

"Yeah, they're pretty fun people in general. You haven't spent that much time with them, though. Trust me, you'll get sick of them."

I smiled. I honestly couldn't imagine getting sick of anyone, not while I was with Seth. He seemed to bring out the best parts of me. The impatient, cynical parts of me almost never appeared.

We sat in silence for a while after that. It was not the awkward silence I'd been expecting after my encounter with his sister (that he, of course, didn't know about) and his explanation of her depressing story. It was the comfortable silence that we seemed to be able to communicate to each other with.

I relaxed against the seat back. I was a horrible person for staying with Seth after what Leah had told me, but even that didn't decrease my comfort around him, or my feelings for him. If I was being honest with myself, those were growing exponentially.

"Haley?" Seth asked softly.

"Yes?"

"Do you want to go on a normal date sometime? I mean without talking about mythical creatures. We could go to the movies on Saturday. You know, in Port Angeles." He looked excited, pretty much the same way I felt. Everything was more fun with Seth around.

"Yeah!" I was taken aback by the enthusiasm in my own voice. I knew my life was starting to seem like a bad soap opera as it was; now I thought I might be falling in love with Seth. Even thinking the words had me embarrassed.

I felt like hitting myself on the head. Seth had all but told me he loved me that day in the forest. He'd certainly linked imprinting and love together, but he'd never exactly put the words in that order. He must've known I was freaked out enough already. So I felt like a complete and total idiot for being surprised by this. If Seth really were my perfect match, then why wouldn't I fall for him?

It was just that there was such a sense of finality to the words, and I was still new to this, no matter how much I felt like I had known him my entire life. I supposed there was an excuse in that. Under my shock, a sense of pleasure formed. First love, it really was all that it was cracked up to be.

I came back to reality to discover that Seth was looking at me, expectant. I'd spaced out again! He must've asked me a question.

"Sorry, could you repeat that?" I asked, mortified.

"Sure, I was just wondering if there were any movies you wanted to see." Typical. He was such a sweet guy, looking out for anything I might want or need.

I decided not to torture him by making him sit through some chick flick (I learned something from my brothers, after all) and named a comedy that I'd thought looked kind of funny. There had to be some middle ground between chick flick and action/horror.

He agreed, but the next thing I knew, we were at my house. It was raining again (when didn't it?) but Seth still insisted on walking me up.

I tilted my head back to look up at his face. "Thanks, so much. It was great." Except for the part where I'd considered breaking up with him because of what his sister said to me, but there was no need for him to know that.

Seth bent down and kissed me once, very softly on the lips. It took everything I had not to faint (again), but I stayed standing, smiled as widely as my lips would go, and opened the door.

"Bye," I said as I stepped over the threshold.

"Bye," he replied. His large, warm hand moved to my face and tucked some of my damp hair behind my ear. "See you Saturday."

I turned around and walked towards my room, backpack in hand. Falling in love with a werewolf or not, I still had to do my homework. I stepped into the room. Sophie was standing just inside the door, looking very interested in something, and a little devious.

"So," said Sophie finally, "when did this happen?"