AN: Hello! I've got a sort of vacation, from a few responsibilities at least, so I'll be updating a lot. I want to get a lot of writing done while I can because I will be starting college in the fall and I doubt I will have a lot of time to write then. I hope you all enjoy the chapter! And thank you all for over 500 reviews!
Chapter Twenty Two
Helping a Brother
Do you know how well you sleep with your soul-mate in the crook of your arm? It's amazing, it's not even the first time and I can't stop gushing about it. I didn't like leaving her that morning to patrol but when I woke her up to tell her I was leaving she waved me off and buried deeper into the covers. I hated to admit that she would be okay without me.
On Sunday, I really had to share her with my mother. She had no work at all, and though all the shopping was done, Mom still found ways to take Anna away from me. I found out about the phone she got as well. I was impressed with my mother for that one. Anna carried it with her everywhere, even though she was with the only two people that even knew she had a phone. It was cute.
The next day I thought I'd have more time with her, and I was wrong.
"I think I'll see if Celia can come over today." Anna told me as she packed her backpack, getting ready to leave for school that morning.
"What?" I asked, sounding like a toddler that wasn't getting his way, because I wasn't.
"Embry's imprint," She said looking at me expectantly.
"Today?" I whined.
"Do you really want to make Embry suffer any longer?" She asked expectantly. I shrugged. "Let me rephrase that, do you really want to listen to him suffer?" She asked tiringly.
"No," I answered quickly.
"That's what I thought," She said, giving me a look. She put her bag on the floor and walked up to me. "Besides, I really need to get this project started." She said pleadingly.
"Fine," I grumbled, pouting.
She smiled triumphantly. "Thank you," She said sweetly. Just seeing her smile about it made me feel less upset about the fact that I was losing time with her. "See you later?" She asked hopefully.
I nodded silently. She smiled more and pushed herself onto her tip toes and kissed me while her arms wrapped around my torso. I buried my fingers into her hair and wrapped my arm around her waist to pull her closer and kissed her with all the passion I had for her. And damn, I had a lot of it.
She pulled away before the kiss got too heated and I never let her get to school, which I could see happening given thirty more seconds. She stared up me, breathless and eyes swimming with every emotion between lust and contemplation while I played with her hair. I really didn't want her to go.
"Bye," She murmured after a few seconds and walked to the door, but stopped as she opened it. "No stalking! Actually go to class today, I'll be back after school lets out." She said firmly.
"Scouts honor," I said holding up my hand.
She let out a long sigh. "Wrong hand," She said as she walked out the door.
I put my left hand down, feeling like a dumbass.
School sucked, as always. I wasn't panicking the whole time though, because I knew Anna had her own car and a cell phone. I was almost obsolete. I thought about texting her between periods, but decided not to. She usually took school pretty seriously, I don't know what she would do if I disrupted her in the middle of class.
I stuck around the school for lunch, since my house would be empty and would just smell like Anna, reminding me of the fact that she wasn't there. After I ate I knew what I had to do and I really didn't want to do it.
Embry was off with Quil and Seth, we might have been closer than blood, but I didn't associate with anyone at school. I walked up to the table and looked down at my idiot brothers.
"Who died?" Quil asked amazed.
I ignored the babysitter and looked at Embry. "Anna is bringing Celia over today." I said blankly.
Embry looked like he might cry.
"Finish your classes and then you can come over, but if you skip, I'm telling Sam." I told him seriously, with a pointed finger. Sam would ream his ass out if he skipped school.
"O-okay, I will." Embry stammered, nodding speedily.
"And for god's sake, no cologne, or I'll hose you down before you step foot in my house." I warned him. He's tried that a few times on the few dates he has had and whatever the hell he uses smells worse than us after a week in the woods with no rain, or shower.
"Yeah – I mean, no, I won't." He said quickly.
"Someone shoot me." I groaned and then stalked out of the lunch room and for my truck.
I would never do this if it wasn't for Anna. No one would ask me to do this if it wasn't for Anna. This was me being accommodating, as convoluted as it seemed. But Anna appreciated it so I didn't really give a damn how it looked to anyone.
I drove home and crashed on the couch that Anna had slept a little on, stretched all the way across it. It was where her scent was the strongest. It calmed me as much as it made me ache. While I laid there, thinking about how much of a nightmare it was going to be, having Embry here with the imprint he was practically avoiding, I realized, I would have to inform Sam before he found out after the fact.
I pulled out my cell and dialed his number quickly. It didn't take long for him to answer.
"Hello?" He asked, sounding preoccupied.
"Anna is brining Embry's imprint over after school." I told him, sounding as void of emotion as I did when I told Embry.
There was a pause on his end. He was digesting the information. "Does Embry know?" He asked concerned.
"Yeah, he'll be here too." I answered.
"Anna's idea?" He asked amused.
"Yep," I said with a long sigh.
"Just make sure he doesn't make a fool of himself." He said trying not to laugh.
"Why?" I asked insulted. I'm more likely to make him look like the fool.
"The faster he's comfortable around Celia, the more time you'll have with Anna." He said quickly and knowingly.
Truthfully, I couldn't see how that worked out, but I didn't care, all I heard was more time with Anna and that was enough for me. "I'll do my best." I said before I hung up. I didn't worry about offending Sam. He knew the conversation was over.
Sam already knew all the details about Anna's new living situation, he had patrol with me Sunday morning, so now he was focusing on getting Embry's imprint 'settled' into the pack, La Push and really just everything in general. And it wasn't going to be easy, seeing as how she was still pretty young and living with her family in another town. It was one of the few times that I actually felt bad for Embry. He got the short end of the stick.
It couldn't have been ten minutes after the last bell rang at the Rez school when Embry came barreling through my front door.
"Is she here?" He asked in a rush. At least he didn't have the damn cologne on.
I craned my neck to look at him. "Are you stupid? Do you see Anna or her car?" I asked angrily.
"No," He muttered, looking down at his feet.
"Then she's not here. Now sit down and shut up before I change my mind." I threatened, pointing to the other couch.
Embry followed the orders like I was his Alpha and sat down and didn't move. I had twenty minutes of pure silence before I heard the Challenger's engine rumble into the driveway behind my truck. Anna was back. I could smell Celia with her and I guessed Embry did too because he visibly stiffened.
A minute later Anna slipped into the house alone.
I jumped off the couch and rushed up to Anna, ignoring the fact that Embry now looked like he was having a stroke. "Hey," I said grinning down at her.
She smiled at me for a moment before she caught sight of Embry, sitting stiff as a board. "What's wrong with Embry?" She asked concerned.
"He's just following orders." I answered casually.
She didn't look any less concerned until Celia came in. Anna slapped on a smile and took a step closer to the younger, and shorter, girl. "Celia this is Paul," Anna introduced.
I reached my hand out to shake with her, and she did, her hand even smaller than Anna's. "So you're the boyfriend," She said amused.
Anna blushed fire-engine-red. "I didn't say-" She started quickly.
"I'm the boyfriend." I confirmed proudly as I pulled Anna to my side.
Anna looked pleased and defeated in the same moment and stayed tucked under my arm as she pointed to the statue that Embry had become. "That's Embry," She said casually. Embry didn't move and Celia looked at us confused. "Embry, meet Celia." Anna pressed.
It must have taken that dumb ass a moment to gather himself or something because it was five seconds before he moved. He stood from the couch and turned to look at Celia. He managed to give her a smile that didn't scare the daylights out of any of us. "I've seen you somewhere." Celia said as she looked up at Embry with her pretty face twisted in deep thought.
We all paled and started to panic. Had Embry hung around her house in his human form?
"Don't you go to the library a lot?" She asked curiously.
Embry coughed into his fist to gain some kind of composure and nodded. "Yeah, they have a better comic book selection than the one at the school." He explained sounding a lot calmer then he actually was. I was impressed.
Anna could tell that while Embry was going good at the moment, it wouldn't last long and she untangled herself from my grasp and led Celia to the dining room table. "Let's start the outline," She said quickly, digging through her bag for her books.
I walked into the living room, shoving Embry back down onto the couch before he did something stupid, like kissed the ground she walked on, and resumed my seat on the other couch, only sitting so I had a better view of Anna and Celia. "Tell me if the movie is too loud." I said as I turned on some random movie to fill the silence.
"It's fine," Anna said over her shoulder.
The movie was some cheesy action flick from the 80's. I tried to watch it, just to be nice and give Anna some privacy with Celia, but Embry started to get jumpy. And my jumpy, I mean, he was starting to buzz. His leg was bouncing at a speed that would have made a vampire sweat. He was beginning to flip out. Embry was not the silent type, the only way he could blow off steam was to talk and talk non-stop.
Only problem with that is, Embry can't keep any secrets when he is in babble mood. Seriously, we had a huge problem with it. Originally, his mom didn't want his step-dad to know the truth about us all but when Embry got nervous at a family dinner and started yammering on, he let slip that he ripped the head off a vampire just after lunch. Needless to say, his step-dad has since been read in on the shape-shifter program of La Push. I don't think damage control would be as effective with her. Or her massive father. So, I had to keep Embry calm, or at least quiet until he chilled the hell out.
I still didn't know how to do that. I just stayed on my toes, watching out for any signs that Embry was about to snap. We were both getting hungry, but I wasn't going to leave his side until calmed down. Anna and Celia were working away behind us. They actually worked pretty quickly, within an hour they were packing their bags up.
"Do you want to hang out for a while?" Anna offered awkwardly. She was trying to get Celia to stay longer for Embry's sake and probably trying to make a friend outside of La Push.
Celia actually looked like she was going to accept and that she wanted to. "I would, but my dad is expecting me home before dinner." She said, looking a bit upset. Embry started to shake because he could hear his imprint, unhappy. We didn't do too well when our imprints were less than perfectly content.
"Oh, okay, maybe another time." Anna said trying to mask her disappointment.
"Yeah," Celia agreed, with a small smile.
Anna smiled back and nodded before she looked over to Embry. "Embry, could you take her home, I have that errand I need to run for Dana." She asked sweetly. I only just managed to not look confused because there was nothing my mom asked her to do. She was trying to give Embry more time with his imprint.
"Sure!" Embry almost screamed, bounding off the couch and zipping to right behind Celia.
We all looked at him oddly. "I'll go with, I need to pick something up in Forks anyway." I said quickly. It was a complete lie, but I couldn't leave Embry alone with Celia, Sam would kill me if I was the reason he blabbed everything to his imprint out of the blue.
Anna understood without me having to explain anything. "Okay, I'll see you later then." She said, looking at Embry worryingly.
I leaned down and kissed her forehead, as a sort of promise to be back as soon as possible, and left with Embry and Celia.
Embry already had the keys to my truck in his hands and took the drivers seat, under the pretense it was his vehicle. Celia sat in the middle without a fight and I took the passenger seat. That bastard owed me for this.
"How long have you lived in Forks?" He asked, buzzing like a fly.
"What makes you think I haven't always lived here?" Celia asked blankly, staring ahead at the road.
"You're too tan." Embry answered quickly.
She huffed, knowing she was trapped. "Almost three months." She told him, sounding irritated. I couldn't blame her.
"How do you like it?" Embry asked excited.
"Its okay, I guess." She answered indifferently.
"So, where do you live anyway?" I asked before Embry forgot and drove to her place without asking. And before he asked another stupid question
Celia directed us to the apartment, and Embry at least managed to play dumb for the most part. Not that it was hard or anything, he was already kind of dumb. Embry stopped in front of the building and got out quickly, so she would get out on his side. She looked at him strangely as he held the door open for her and beckoned her out. I dropped my face into my hands.
"Thanks for the ride," She said awkwardly.
"See you at the library sometime." Embry told her, sounding just like the creepy stalker we tried to avoid sounding like.
"Yeah, sure," She said suspiciously then almost ran into the building.
Embry was positively beaming as he got back in the truck.
"Smooth," I said flatly as he started driving back to La Push.
"It's something." He said smiling like an idiot.
"Barely," I grumbled.
Embry got back to my house quickly enough, but when we got there he dashed out of the truck and into the house. I ran after him.
Inside he already had Anna in a hug, holding her a foot off the ground. "Thank you!" He cried.
Anna was smiling and giggling, he was safe from all of my wrath and jealousy. "You're welcome," She said breathlessly.
After two whole minutes of hugging and giggling, I had to put a stop to it. "Put my imprint down." I said with a deadly, low growl.
Embry almost dropped Anna instantly and looked at me bashfully. "Sorry," He muttered, still smiling.
I put my hands on Anna's shoulders possessively when she stumbled out of his hold. "It's okay," She said still giggling. "I'll let you know when she comes over again," She told Embry with a smile.
Embry went to hug her again and I glared at him over her head. "Thank you, again." He said calmly as he moved for the door.
"Bye," She said waving as he walked out of the door.
When Embry had disappeared down the street, I looked down at her as she turned to face me.
"Were you planning that all along?" I asked curiously. It did all fall together pretty well.
"Kind of," She said unsure.
"That's pretty genius." I told her, impressed.
"Thanks," She said blushing. I admired the shades of red her cheeks were turning while she had another question for me. "Do you have any homework?" She asked confused.
"Probably," I said shrugging.
"Are you going to do it?" She asked pointedly.
"Before Friday," I answered grinning widely.
She laughed a little and shook her head. She walked back to the table and took a different book, and notebook from her bag and sat down. My procrastination wasn't going to stop her from working. I hadn't had anytime with her all day and now she was back to working and I was starving. I was going to get my book and do my homework anyway, but she looked up at me with her big, knowing, blue-brown eyes.
"Can you make me a PB&J when you get your food?" She asked sweetly.
My stomach was pleased to hear the word food, so I went to the kitchen and tossed some container full of leftovers into the microwave and nuked them for a minute while I made her sandwich.
I was glad my mother was working late that night because after Anna finished her work I had her all to myself without any more interruptions. Well, almost. Anna had taken it upon herself to clean the kitchen and continue the laundry. I managed to get her to chill on the couch with me in between loads and helped her fold the clothes.
Mom came home right about the time when Anna started yawning every five minutes. My mother said goodnight to us and went into her room. By eleven the laundry was done for the night, the house was clean because my imprint couldn't sit still and we were back on the couch. She was tucked between me and the couch and she was already in her pajama's and I was down to my shorts. When whatever we were watching ended, I grabbed the remote and turned the TV off and got ready to go to my room when Anna stopped me.
"You can stay if you want." She whispered to me, peering up at me through her splayed hair.
I did not have to be told twice. I took the blanket off the back of the couch and threw it over her, incase my body heat wasn't enough for her and pulled her as close as possible and closed my eyes.
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