Chapter 12

The Stranger & the Rose

"I think you have a visitor," Koda whispered playfully after we had been talking for who knows how long.

"Yeah, I know. You're gonna stick around and meet him?"

A devilish smile played across his lips. "Well, I do think that it's about time that I met the family, don't you?"

I smiled, but let it drop. Damon wasn't the only one here. I stood up and went back into my room, leaving the door open behind me. I opened the door that led to the hallway and walked downstairs to find two tall figures standing in the living room with my mom. I stopped at the sight of Keith and crossed my arms as if we hadn't just had two incredibly awkward talks this morning.

"Hey Shell," Damon said as he and Keith started walking over to me and the staircase that I was standing on. I wasn't completely sure how to react to that so I simply turned around and led them up to my room and out to where Koda was still waiting patiently. They had both started frowning the second that they were out of my mom's hearing range, which wasn't very far. Koda simply watched them with a perfectly playful air practically flowing out of him.

"You can relax. Do you honestly think that he would be out here if I didn't want him to be? He's an old friend. Damon, you might remember him if you think hard enough."

I took my place back in front of Koda and turned back to see if they were at least attempting to calm down. I know that Koda would love the challenge of taking on two wolves at once and I know that they would love to kill him. Problem is, this wouldn't be a game and my neighbors wouldn't exactly love the noise, violence, or gore of the situation. I sighed and leaned back on my hands and gave up any hope for a comfortable talk.

"Did you need to talk to me?" I finally asked.

Damon sat down in my chair and leaned his elbows on his thighs. I guess that's a start.

"We just wanted to check on you."

I was thankful that he wasn't holding onto my chair. By how tense his arms looked, I'm pretty sure that he would've broken it. Keith leaned against the railing with his arms crossed keeping himself at a distance from Koda…and me. Koda cleared his throat unnecessarily loud and raised his eyebrows at me. Introduction time.

"Koda, this is Damon and Keith. Damon…Keith…Koda."

Koda nodded at them and they did the same. Damon watched him, probably trying to remember the little boy that would come over to my house and play for hours on end. I guess that it would make sense if Damon didn't remember him. He didn't see Koda anywhere near as often as I did. Koda smirked at Keith and then back at me.

"So, by the way that she keeps trying to not look at you and the way that your testosterone picks up when you turn in her direction, I'm guessing that you're Keith. I've heard a lot about you."

Heat flowed through every part of me and I've never been so thankful that I don't blush. I would have to massacre him later when my bodyguards weren't hanging around. But then again, they might enjoy it. Stupid leech.

"Don't analyze me, corpse. There's a lot that you don't know," Keith growled. Koda only smiled harder.

"But I know more than you think that I do. And you know you should be thankful. You could've fallen for much worse than C here. Trust me, I know."

"Yeah I bet you do. You're with the small vamp, right?"

I stood up. "Okay. This has been fun-"

"Yeah, I am. Was there a point behind that question?" Koda asked, still sitting and smiling.

"Well that would be worse, right? But of course, I bet she's more fun on physical terms though," Keith said, moving his weight from his left leg to his right. They both seemed calm, but their voices were hitting me like wrecking balls. Damon was still leaning forward ready to jump in case anything broke out. Koda shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess she is, but don't underestimate Chanelle. She's not always the good girl that she tries so hard to be." –He winked at me. –"Tell me, C, are Piña Coladas still your favorite?"

With a gasp, I pounced, sending both of us through the back of my balcony. I held him down by his neck snarling uncontrollably. The weirdest part about it though was the fact that I wasn't even completely sure on why I had attacked him. Something in me just told me that he was about to say something that I didn't want them to hear, and I was willing to keep him quiet. Taking a few deep breaths, I sat on his stomach with my hands still pinning him down and leaned in, attempting to lower my voice enough that they wouldn't be able to hear me even though I knew that Keith, at least, would still know what I was saying.

"Why would you say that to him?"

"Do you honestly not remember?" he asked while rubbing his neck.

"Remember wha-?"

I stopped mid-sentence. Oh. It had been so long ago, and I had fought so hard to push it as far out of my mind as possible. It was my first time drinking and I wasn't as eager to do it again after. I leaned back and took my hands off of him. He watched me and let out a sigh. My eyes were blurred by tears and the next thing I knew I was gasping against his too-frozen chest. Suddenly, there was too much warmth around me but not as close as the ice. I wiped at my eyes as Koda rocked and shushed me. Growling controlled the atmosphere.

"Stop!" I finally managed to squeak out after nearly three failed attempts. I looked around once my eyes were clear to see Keith crouched and moving closer.

"What did you do to her?" he asked. Koda hissed, tightening his grip around me protectively.

"Back off, Cujo, she doesn't need you to spring into action. She's not in any danger."

Keith moved closer. "Says you."

"Keith, Chanelle knows him better than anyone. He doesn't want to hurt her," said Damon.

Koda ignored Damon. "Hell yeah says me. You may not know me but I wouldn't hurt her. Of course, how should I know that you wouldn't? You've known her for what, like a week? I've practically known her my whole life."

"Let her go."

"Why so you can take her and play superhero? Or maybe you want to knock her up so you can pass on your little wolf genes. You wolves are all the same. That's what this whole imprinting this is about, isn't it? Passing on the trait comes first. So after she has your kid what comes next? You have the next little dog in the pack, but what about her?"

Keith backed off, uncertainty mixing with the anger in his eyes. I pushed off of Koda until I was on my feet. They had some nerve, fighting over me and not even bothering to pay any attention to me. I have one little bad memory, a few tears and suddenly I'm a broken toy to be observed and passed around. I wiped the last of my tears away and kept my body from shaking.

"I am no damsel in distress! I don't need bodyguards, and I think that it's time for all of you to leave. Now!"

They all stared at me. Keith and Koda measured each other up one last time before going their separate ways and leaving from the directions that they had come. I jumped up to my balcony and into my room to collapse on my bed and ball myself up into the fetal position. Was Koda right? I mean, if you think about it, in the animal kingdom, finding the right mate is all about passing along the trait. Darwin's Theory of Evolution, survival of the fittest, it all revolves around producing the strongest offspring. And whose genes would be stronger for a wolf than mine and Keith's?

What if the rest of the boys imprint? I'm the only female, aren't I? They'd end up with humans, how does that work? And even if they don't imprint, what if they fall in love? How would you explain that to someone? At least I found out my fate before I was too serious with anyone. I mean, at this point, I don't really know how to categorize Dominic. The tears started to sting again. Damn emotions. That's one of the things that I hate most about crying, once I start, it's hard to stop. I got up, irritated with lying around, and started cleaning. I guess it's one of my more productive bad habits. Once my room was practically remodeled, I settled on working on projects that I had been successfully avoiding. I guess my procrastination won again because I couldn't focus long enough to really do any of it and before I knew it, I was scanning the internet on my laptop.

Maybe now would be a good time for a bit of research. My mind kept springing back to Koda's words and my fingers worked faster than my mind did. When I came to, I was on a website that supposedly defined the process of animal imprinting. Okay so…according to all-knowing , there's filial imprinting and then there's sexual imprinting.

'Sexual imprinting is the process by which a young animal learns the characteristics of a desirable mate.'

I read and re-read the same sentence before going back to Google and looking for another research page. To Sparknotes I go.

'Most animals are not monogamous. In many species, males mate and leave, while the female raises the offspring. Many animals receive no parental care at all. If a young female is raised by her mother, with no father around, how can she learn to recognize potential future mates? Females learn to recognize what an appropriate mate should look like from their siblings or neighbors. Sexual imprinting is a general imprinting; it is not specific to individuals, only species typical characteristics. If a female were to imprint specifically on his sister, or vice versa, inbreeding would result, which reduces a population's fitness. The more general system of sexual imprinting allows young to learn to recognize potential mates without inbreeding.'

My heart had stopped once I read the first line. '…males mate and leave'. What if that's true for wolves? Reproducing was inevitable, but would he really leave after and leave me alone with our child? He wouldn't do that, right? I moved on to , praying for better news.

'Sexual imprinting is when the animal starts to develop sexual preferences towards the species that it imprinted on, instead of its own species.'

I stopped on the last five words. That doesn't make any sense. Keith and I are the same species. We're both wolves and humans, aren't we? I closed my computer and leaned back with my eyes closed. This doesn't make any sense. Why were Keith and I different? Are we different? If imprinting occurs between different species then how do you explain us? And here I was thinking that it would be weird to imprint on a human when all along I'm the freak. Maybe my dad could tell me something about this. I mean, this whole wolf thing was on his side of the family. I sat up and pulled my legs to my chest. A chill went up my spine before I had the chance to stand up. I turned in time to see Keith standing at my glass door. Slowly, I opened it for him and retreated back to my bed. Seriously, does he transform into a stalker on the weekends? His nervousness made all of the mean thoughts run to the back of my mind as the worried ones took their places.

"I-I'm sorry for earlier."

This was all he said as he stood in the middle of my room slightly out of breath. For the first time in the short time that I had known him, he actually looked like a mess. He had only been gone for two or three hours and yet he looked like he was on the verge of passing out.

"Will you sit down? You're making me really paranoid," I nearly begged. He moved over to the chair that I had found him in this morning. "Are you okay?"

"I could lie and say yeah," he stated simply.

"I think you get why I got upset earlier," I said.

"I can't promise that I won't ever leave you. I'm not a fortune-teller, but I would never just 'knock you up' and run. I was raised better than that and I couldn't do that to you."

A nervous smile flashed as quickly as it disappeared from his face as my heart skipped a beat and my breathing grew just a tad louder. Every bit of me wanted to believe him, but there will always be that little insecure part of me that just believes that pretty much everything that I hear is a lie. Keith shifted uncomfortably in the chair, his eyes pointed towards the floor.

"I guess we don't really have much of a choice, do we?" I asked slowly, trying to hide the fear in my voice.

"We're still teenagers. We fight everything. Why should this be any different? Our future is our own, right?"

Awkwardly, a simple thought formed in my head, and though I was uncomfortable with the idea of it, my instincts kicked me in the gut, and I found it impossible to fight my voice.

"What if I'm not completely sure that I want to fight it?" I whispered. I expected him to freak out, but he stayed calm as always.

"I thought about that. We have a whole lifetime to figure that out. We don't have to decide anything now."

"Can I ask you something?" I asked.

"I'm sure you will whether I say yes or no."

"Why did you go all predator on Koda earlier? I know that you could hear us and it was pretty clear that I wasn't hurt, not physically anyway."

"Why wouldn't I? You were crying and he caused it. Being hurt mentally is still being hurt."

He looked away. Well he hadn't exactly been looking at me before but now it felt like he was purposefully avoiding my eyes. Yeah, he's blind, but I know that he knows where I am.

"You knew that I wasn't hurt."

"I couldn't know that for sure. What are you getting at with this?" he asked.

"I think you had more motive than you're telling. You could hear us. You know that we have a history."

I readjusted, trying to keep myself from remembering what I had fought so hard to forget.

"Was it really that bad?" he asked quietly. I guess that it would make him feel at least remotely better if I could tell him that sex with Koda was simply terrible, but it's obviously not that simple.

"It wasn't the sex that hurt, it was the aftermath."

"What do you mean?"

He moved forward in the chair, leaning his elbows on his knees. Great, I guess it's story time. "I was dating Dominic at the time and we had hit our first rough patch. Back then, before he left, I talked to Koda about any and everything. So, of course Koda and I talked… and drank. The talking was nothing out of the ordinary but the drinking was a first for me. Koda was a regular drinker, but not an alcoholic in any way. He didn't suggest drinking for me but I needed something to distract me for the night and that's exactly what I got.

"That night was a bit of a blur, but the next morning, all hell broke loose. Do you know how scary it is to wake up in a place that you don't recognize, and to have no idea of how you got there? It's a miracle that my parents didn't send a search party out for me. And in all honesty, I'd never been more upset than I was then. Things were awkward between me and Koda and my conscience wouldn't let me not tell Dominic. Koda and I didn't talk for about three days after that and for a girl, sex is a scary thing to recover from as it is.

"I didn't know how to handle any of it. I was scared that I was pregnant. I thought that I had lost Dominic. And…I thought that I had lost my best friend. Now if it nearly killed me to lose him for three days, what do you think him disappearing for months did to me?"

I stopped finally, hugging my knees so tightly to my chest that I thought that they might snap. For the longest time, Keith just stared at me in shock. I forced out a shaky laugh. It was the best way that I could keep the rest of me under control. I sighed as we both turned to look at the door. He stood up and stepped through the glass door without another word. My mom was coming. I leaned back on my bed and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself down a bit more before she walked in. She didn't bother to knock which should've been a sign in itself.

"Tell your friend to come back. We need to have a talk."

I just stared at her, but I didn't have to call Keith. He had heard her. He moved silently back to the glass as my mom left through my regular door. We stared at each other, nothing but glass and open space between us.

We walked down the stairs together. My mom had already gone ahead. I guess she sensed the awkwardness of having to walk with your forced first love and your mother.

"What do you think this is about?" he asked me in a voice so low that it took me a second to realize that he was talking to me. I smiled.

"What are you scared of meeting my dad?"

He knew what I was doing but that didn't seem to help as much as I would've hoped.

"I'm not your boyfriend, so no."

That hurt until he smiled and made me nearly fall down the stairs in shock. I think we just had a moment. I wasn't sure how to handle that.

"You realize that you're worse than a boyfriend where my dad is concerned, right?"

He sighed playfully. "I was really hoping that you wouldn't pick up on that. He knows that I'm your imprintee?"

We slowed down even more, in perfect sync, when we got to the door leading to the living room. We both took deep breaths and moved over to the couch. I sat at the farthest end and Keith seemed to finally settle on the recliner by the window. I noticed the half full glass of bourbon sitting on a coaster on the coffee table. This isn't going to be a fun talk.

"It's Keith, right?" my dad asked. Keith's posture didn't falter in the slightest. I guess there was just something about fathers and teenage boys that I wouldn't understand. Keith could kill my father in a matter of seconds and he knew it, but fear showed in Keith's eyes, not my father's. Well, I guess nervousness would be a better word for it. He had absolutely no reason to fear my father, but he definitely seemed to respect him.

"Yes sir," he answered. My dad readjusted in his seat, making me worry even more than before.

"Well, you need to go talk to your parents because we're all leaving today. Now, I'm not sure how much they know about what you are, but they're free to come along if they want."

Keith nodded. Why do I have the feeling that I'm the only one who doesn't know what's going on?

"I'm meeting them today?" he asked my dad.

"The sooner the better, especially now that you've imprinted on my daughter. There are some things that you both need to know that I can't properly explain."

"Wait. Wait, who is them and what are you talking about?" I finally asked. My dad looked at me as if he finally realized that I was in the room.

"That's not important right now. I need you to go and pack a bag for today and tomorrow while I talk to Keith. We'll be back by tomorrow night I would assume."

Confused, I stared at my dad for a quick second before heading back to the stairs. I made it to the top and stopped, but I was disappointed to hear the sound of the door opening and shutting followed by a car engine. Crystal ambushed me the second I made it to my room.

"So what's all of this about?" she asked.

"You're going?"

"Yep, Dad just told me to pack and nothing else. You don't know anything?"

"I wish I did."

The seating arrangement in the car was driving me insane. My parents were in the front, leaving Crystal between Keith and myself in the back. Our truck is spacious and all but I was feeling beyond claustrophobic and we had to keep the windows down to keep Crystal from dying of heat exposure. And yet, despite his inhuman body heat, Crystal didn't mind sitting so close to the blind giant. I plugged my ears with my headphones to drown out her interrogation of who he was to me and why she had never met him before today.

My dad shot glances at him constantly as if he was expecting Keith to slip up or do something that his fatherly senses wouldn't approve of. Earlier he had nearly treated him like his son, but now that there was only a seat between them and me only a foot or two away, he had switched over into father mode. I guess my dad didn't particularly want us alone together, but forcing us to ride along rather than letting us follow him in one of our cars seemed a bit extreme.

My mom, on the other hand, seemed a bit calmer around Keith than she had with just us lately. Maybe there was a certain vibe that he was sending or maybe she was comforted by the secret that everyone seemed to know but Crystal and me. I checked up on him every once in a while through the shade of my hair to see if he was still alive. He looked much more relaxed than I felt. Did he know where we were going? What did my dad say to him? Nearly thirty minutes into our ride, Crystal and my mom both fell asleep leaving the two wolves and the over protective father awake in a strange silence.

With Crystal perched against his arm, Keith fidgeted. His phone was vibrating. He sent it to voicemail and glanced at me, confirming that we both knew who had just called. I hadn't really considered it, but I'm pretty surprised that Erin hadn't tried calling him sooner. He leaned his head against the window and sighed. In that moment, he looked so tired that it almost made me want to cry. I felt the silent phone in my pocket and thought about Dominic. He hadn't called me since our fight this morning. I didn't mind the space, but it didn't help to know what I would have to do soon.

I guess I have it easier though. Dominic doesn't need me. He wants me, but doesn't need me and he's been a complete drunken ass since I changed. He's making it easier and easier for me to end it, but it's different for Keith. He'll always have that need to protect in him. He just may truly be in love with this girl but, at the same time, he can't explain what he has with me. I wanted to hug him, comfort him in some way, but considering the situation, that wasn't exactly possible. We rode in silence, most likely having some idea as to why the other looked so uncomfortable and my dad gave us our space, staring out the windshield in silence.

I tried to distract myself by focusing on how much louder my ipod sounded these days. I had it down almost as low as it would go and it flowed almost as if I were surrounded by speakers. I closed my eyes, enjoying the breeze that felt warm despite the fact that there were bits of ice and snow still visible on the grass that we were passing. My breathing slowed down and everything around me suddenly seemed so much warmer. I was slipping into a dream and there was nothing that I could do about it.

Trees. There was nothing but trees and darkness around me. Why couldn't this be a happy dream without all the unnecessary mystery and fog? For the first time in a while, I felt cold, chilled as a matter of fact. I guess I was walking, because everything seemed to be moving slowly. There was a bush with a single rose, my rose. It was perfect and black with its curved stem just as it was on my back. Sitting, I stroked the closest petal and waited, for what, I'm not sure. I could see puffs of smoke that must've been coming from my nose or mouth as the sounds of my breathing started to make themselves known. But of course, I wasn't alone. Rustling and crackling started around me, but this was nothing new in my dreams. They didn't scare me anymore.

I looked to the trees to my left and waited for someone to appear. Usually it was either Keith or Jared but this face was new and breathtaking. He watched me and moved slowly and carefully as if he were the one that should be scared. I turned my head to the side and waited. Something was off though. I turned back to the bush and my rose was gone. He had it. He held it carefully as if his life depended on it.

"Who are you?" I whispered, and of course he said nothing. I really looked at him, taking in his features. There was no way that he was human, but nothing else seemed to fit either. I couldn't feel the heat from him like a wolf or the cold from a vampire. His scent was beautiful, but not like Keith's. It couldn't be described. It just was what it was. It wasn't sweet, but overpowering. It was woodsy, but not musky. His eyes were a deep green and his skin was a light brown, just a few shades darker than being deadly pale. He was dressed in nothing but a pair of tattered shorts. I couldn't see much of their design due to the darkness but they weren't important enough for me to really care. He had the usual muscular build, but from what I could see he wasn't tatted. There wasn't a single scar or scratch, just perfection. His black hair reached the bottom edge of his neck and was matted as if he had been running.

He sat close to me as if we weren't complete strangers and watched me as if we were lovers. My breath caught in my throat as he moved closer and moved my hair from my face. I guess my eyes closed as everything slowly slid to black.

The last thing I saw was his eyes and the last thing I felt was his lips on mine as I slipped back into reality, chest heaving. I looked around and swallowed hard. The only thing that scared me about this dream was the fact that I was dying to know how it ended.