Sam Uley POV
"Bloody hell," I say while approaching the young girl. She's asleep, and very cold by the look of her. She's extremely pretty- I think to myself, and she's dressed to impress. Nobody could beat my Emily thought- I think dreamily, but from an outsiders view, the girl is gorgeous.
Her head is leaning back against the tree, and her hair shines in the moonlight. Why is she here? Doesn't she know it's dangerous for people, especially pretty young girls to be out in the woods, at night? Myself and my pack patrol as much as we can, but it's still common sense. But maybe she hadn't meant to fall asleep.
The girl has been crying- I can see the tear tracks on her cheeks. What had caused her to run all the way out here to seek peace? It must be something bad.
Anyhow, I can't leave her on her own. Not out here.
So I pick her up. She's as light as a feather to me, my muscles are so big now. I sniff her, trying to let her scent cover my senses. Hopefully I can find where she lives. I trace her scent back to a place where- I can hear from here- sounds like a party. That can't be her house! Maybe something happened at the party that upset her?
I sniff her again, then walk a little to try and get a trail that works. But it's too old now, I can't distinguish it. My mind is filled with scents, distinguishing is a hard thing to do. I can smell my Emily baking... cookies? My stomach rumbles, but then I remember the chilly girl in my arms and scold myself. Getting distracted by food and Emily's chest is something I do often.
The girl stirs in my arms, reminding me that I need to find her home. But I can't find it for some reason, maybe because I'm tired from a long day of patrolling and the girl's scent is mixed in with everyone else's.
So what can I do now?- I panic in my mind. Leaving her here is not an option- I may be tired, but I can't leave her. It's our job to protect the town, and so I have to find her a safe place for tonight, or at least until she wakes up.
She looks like a nice girl, not dressed like a whore, perhaps Emily wouldn't mind if she slept on our couch for a while? I scold myself for the second time that night: of course Emily wouldn't mind. I felt a rush of love for my beautiful, kind fiance. She wouldn't care if a messy, dirty tray dog stayed on our couch.
I clutch the girl tighter in my arms as I run back towards my house. Thoughts of bed and Emily's cookies run through my mind, and my mouth nearly drops open to drool. It can be an exhausting job, patrolling, and it makes you very hungry. Not that that's the only excuse: werewolves have a very high appetite anyway. I could eat a whole batch of Emily's chocolate chip cookies in ten minutes.
The ground crunches against my bare feet as I run swiftly toward my house, being careful not to jostle the girl awake. Her long blonde hair hangs off my elbow as I run, being swept by the wind and waving like a flag.
My home is in sight, and within seconds I'm there. The young girl still hasn't stirred, and I'm getting worried that she's been out in the cold so long that she's slipped into unconsciousness. What could cause her to come out in this weather? Her heart is pounding, I can feel it slightly- as I always do with humans- and even though it's a little too slow for my liking, the thumps are strong. If I can just get her inside, to warmth and sleep, she'll be perfectly fine in the morning.
The girl is, luckily, very light and I can shift her onto just one arm as I open the door. Warmth and the scent of fresh cookies hits me, and I can sense my Emily in the kitchen. Oh, Emily... I think, freezing in the doorway for a second, my heart pounding in my ears. We've been together for a while now, but every time I see her is like the first time my eyes met hers. My beautiful Emily, all mine, nobody else can touch her.
I make my feet move, walking swiftly into the room where my fiance is waiting.
Emily... She's facing away from me, but the sight of her makes my eyes widen like a puppy. Em's so beautiful, just standing there with her back to me.
When she hears my footsteps, her head turns.
My heart seems to stop for a moment at her beauty. But when I see the three scars on her face, as usual I feel guilt. Those scars were caused by me, and my stupidity! I'm cursed to forever wake up in the morning and want to kill myself for the pain I've caused her. But she loves me, god, the most beautiful girl in the world loves me! I'm not even worthy of her love, not worthy one bit.
My breathing quickens slightly as she spots the girl in my arms.
"Who's that? What's happened to her?" Emily gasps, dropping a dirty pan into the sink- soapy water flying everywhere as she rips off her washing up gloves and runs toward us.
"I found her in the woods," I say, managing to avert my eyes from my beauty to look down at the girl in my arms. Her lips are, worryingly, turning a bit blue.
"The woods? What on earth was she... Surely her parents told her to not go into the woods alone at night!" Emily flusters, brushing white blonde hair off of the girls forehead with her fingers.
"I think she was very upset. I found her and tried to trace her scent back to her home, but all I could find was a party that she had gone to," I reply, looking back up at my angel.
"Was it the one that Brady went to? Maybe he knows what happened to her. I swear to god, if he did anything to make her cry Sam..." Emily threats, pointing a finger at me as if it were my fault.
"Perhaps it wasn't him, Em," I say in my brother's defense, but even I am wary. Brady had just completed his transformation from human to werewolf, and he was such a heartbreaker at school- not even caring about the people he hurt.
"Hmph. Talk to him. And put he on the couch while I get her some blankets, I really don't like how cold she is Sammy," Emily frets, kissing my cheek as I place the girl on our slightly old but homey couch.
I hear Emily's footsteps as she runs around upstairs, trying her best to gather as many blankets as she can. Feeling slightly useless now, I go into the kitchen and run some warm water into a large bowl, picking up a hand towel on my way back into the living room.
I dip the tiny towel into the water, squishing it in my hand to stop dripping, then placed it on the girl's forehead.
A huge thump on the front door makes my head snap up quickly, twisting a muscle in my neck a little. My mind immediately goes to Emily upstairs, hearing that she had frozen. Protecting her is the only thing on my mind, and as I run to the door, ready for a vampire, pure rage is in my head. The thought of someone hurting my Emily... it makes me want to kill.
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I yank the door open, a low growl building up in my throat, when I see who it is.
The noise dies don in my throat, and when I speak shock and confusion are clearly heard.
"Brady? What are you doing here?"
His nostrils are flaring, and for some unknown reason he looks a mixture of angry and worried. Why is Brady knocking at my door at this time, and so ferociously?
"Her scent leads here," he urgently says, anger barely contained in his voice. "Why is she here, is she safe? Please tell me she's safe?"
My brows furrow in confusion. Of course Emily's scent would lead here but... oh, the young girl's. But why on earth is Brady so interested? I nearly laughed at the situation: Brady, the womanizer, this interested in a single girl. Brady should be an actor: this obviously cannot be true. A wave of anger hit me- Brady could be so insensitive, especially to women. Here we have a very upset young girl, probably humiliated, and now Brady has come to make everything worse and make fun of her. How on earth could one of my pack members do something like this?
"Very funny, Brady. Who told you she was here?" I practically growl. I don't know the girl inside my house, but for some reason I feel very protective of her- she reminds me of Emily somehow, perhaps because of her innocent looks. No woman deserved to be treated like this.
"What? Sam, you don't understand, I need to see her. Is she safe?" he asks, shaking in his anger.
"Now listen here," I say angrily, stepping onto the porch and shutting the door behind me, "I don't know what's happened to her, but that girl in there is heartbroken about something. And I know that you kids need to have a laugh over something, but this has gone too far Brady. I know that you're still a young werewolf, and I don't want to be too hard on you, but you need to learn right from wrong. Now," I say, my finger urgently pointing at him. I have my Alpha-wolf voice on, but for once, it doesn't seem to do anything.
"Sam, I swear on my life that I'm not lying to you, I need to see her. Sam, please!" he cries out the last bit, looking like a little lost pup.
I can see in his eyes that he is telling the truth: no wolf can deny his Alpha. My confusion is not helped at all, and my eyebrows furrow again.
"Sam, I imprinted on her. And it's my fault that she's so upset," Brady shakes, hanging his head in shame.
I'm too stunned to speak. Brady, the impossible womanizing machine, has imprinted. And on the innocent young girl inside sleeping on my sofa.
"I need to see her, Sam. I need to," he repeats urgently, raising his head, still shaking.
I'm frozen for a second. I can't believe this is happening. I never thought that Brady would imprint, ever. He just... isn't the type. He's too involved with himself and getting into girls pants. But, I put my shock to the back of my mind for now, focusing on the best interests of my pack member and his imprint.
"Brady, you need to go home and calm down," I tell him firmly.
"Go home? How can I go home when I can stop thinking about her? She was so upset, Sam," he cries, actual tears coming out of his eyes now. Brady crying? Brady is actually crying?
"I need to know that she's safe."
"She is safe- she's sleeping on the couch. We didn't want to wake her up, when we found her she was turning blue in the cold. We'll take her home in the morning," I quickly update him.
"She's safe? Oh, thank god, I thought-" he sighs in relief, head in hands again, but he quickly raises it. "I need to see her."
"Didn't you hear what I just said Brady? We need to let her sleep, and get her warm again," I say angrily.
"I just want to see her, then I'll leave. Please, Sam, I'm begging you. If it was Emily, you'd feel the same," Brady pleads. I honestly think that he'll get on his knees and beg me, looking that desperate. I'd like to tell him that there's no way I'll let him near her tonight after making her so upset but, if it was Emily, I would want the same thing- just to see her face again and make sure that she was safe.
There's a silence as I mull it over in my head, eyes narrowed on Brady's. He can't exactly pick her up and run away with her... so I guess I have to accept it.
"Fine. Only for a minute," I ordered. He nods eagerly, eyes looking extremely thankful.
I open the old door with my hand, and notice that Emily is standing on the bottom of the step with her arms crossed looking confused.
"Do you know what happened to her, Brady?" her eyes become wide with suspicion, and she steps towards us.
I look at Brady: he can get himself out of this one, he deserved the punishment. Whatever he did to the girl on my couch, it was something bad.
He hung his head again, and sadly nods, tears in his eyes that Emily can't see. Nobody but a fellow imprinter could understand how he's feeling- and even though I do, I'm still mad at him.
We enter the living room, Emily hot on our heels. I stand next to the couch while Brady stands and looks down at his imprintee.
"She's so beautiful," he chokes out, kneeling down next to her. I stiffen slightly, but when he doesn't move any closer I calm down.
"I never knew that having an imprint would feel like this. I love her so much, she's an angel," he says, staring at her face as if it was a light in darkness.
I understand how he feels- I felt the same thing when I had imprinted on Emily. Each time I see her is like the first time I saw her. Of course, my situation was complicated back then, me and Leah, but luckily Brady doesn't have to deal with that. Although I can't be sure if what he has to deal with is worse or better than what I went through. He has many 'girlfriends', so this girl will probably be heartbroken when she learns of what he's like. Does she even know who he is?
"What did you do to her, Brady?" I sternly ask, arms crossed over my chest. Emily's sat down on the armchair next to me, concentrating firmly on Brady.
"I- I did something horrible," he chokes, barely able to talk. He reaches out, shaking with his tears, and strokes her cheek as if it was a precious jewel.
"I get that. What did you do, though?" I make my voice softer for him. I'm starting to pity him, to be honest.
"There was this girl, I can't remember her name- Chloe, or something like that. She walked up to me at the party and started flirting. I thought she was hot so I flirted back, then we went upstairs and fooled around. They were, I think. Then Kayla came in and-" he choked up, unable to finish- perhaps because of his guilt. He quickly put his hand on his mouth, as if the thought of what happened makes him physically sick "-and Chloe was trying to apologize to her- they must've been friends or something." He puts his head in his hands.
"Kayla is this girl?" I ask, pointing at the sleeping teenager, and he nods. His expression changes into one of unimaginable love as he gazes at her, as if someone else saying her name filled him with adoration.
"She was so upset, Sam," Brady looks at me, unshed tears in his eyes. He seems to sense that I understand- I can see it in his eyes. I narrow mine, but partly in concern and wanting him to finish the story.
"Why was she so upset?" I ask.
"She probably had a crush on him, otherwise she wouldn't have reacted the way she did," Emily explains, looking tired. I want to take her into my arms, but I reluctantly realize that I have to help my brother.
"So she just ran off?" Em asks, looking at the sleeping girl.
"Yeah," Brady turns back to look at his angel, staring at her lovingly. I'm still in shock over all this- never would I have imagined Brady to be so loving with someone, or look at them like that if it weren't a joke.
"I think you should leave now Brady," I say, moving toward the door.
"Already?" I've never seen Brady, or in fact any person, look as pleading as he does right now.
"She might wake up, Brady. I don't want her to feel uncomfortable when she does, you'll just upset her more," I explain, feeling sorry for him, but I know it's the right thing to do.
When he doesn't move, just remains staring at her longingly and lovingly, I walk back over to him and place my hand on his shoulder.
"Brady, it's the best thing for her. You don't want to frighten her. You can see her at school tomorrow," I say comfortingly. Emily stands up, trying her best to give him a supportive smile.
In the end, Brady won't go- I have to drag him out the front door and lock it. I hate doing this to my brother, but I need him to think about what he's done and how he can make it up to his angel.