A/N: Hi Guys, I had someone hack into my laptop and a lot of my scribbling disappeared, but the advantage is I had it all written down in my trusty little notebook. The delay was in getting it all typed up alllll over again.
Hopefully you guys like this.
Yawning, Seth slowly rejoined the world of the living. His head still felt groggy and he wasn't sure why he was already awake. Somewhere in the back of his foggy brain, he knew it was a school day… Tuesday maybe? He wasn't sure.
He knew he should be getting dressed and moving for school, but he also knew that there was no way Kaia would want to go to school yet anyway. Resolving to stay with her today, regardless of detention he might get, he slowly opened his eyes, trying not to jostle the sleeping girl in his arms.
Except, she wasn't sleeping anymore.
Bright green eyes stared at him with careful concentration. "Kai?" he questioned, wondering what she was doing already awake.
"Seth, we need to talk."
After all the dating nightmares he had heard about, those words were ones he had come to fear. Especially when spoken by a girl.
And the fact that it was THIS girl saying that to him, was enough to give him apoplexy.
"Umm, sure Kai, what's up?"
"Give me a few minutes, I need to clean myself up a bit... Can we go to the beach after that?"
Again, all Seth could do was mumble "Sure" and then listen to his heart stutter when she climbed off the sofa and walked into the tiny hallway that he knew led to the bathroom.
As she disappeared, he felt like his lungs were in a vice. Breathing was getting harder and harder, and it didn't improve when Paul stuck his head out of Rachel's room to whisper, "That doesn't sound good bro... you ok?"
Replying seemed like a waste of very precious air to Seth, a commodity he was fast running out of.
Why had she said that? Using that tone of voice no less, like she had come to a decision and all that was left to do was let him into it.
He had developed a feeling over the past few days that she suspected something. How much of his secret had she divined?
Had she realized what he was?
He knew she was smart, she had probably figured out long ago that all the pack shared similar physical traits. The builds, the temperatures they ran at, the way all their reflexes seemed to be that much faster than the other normal humans.
Rachel had told her that this was because they all shared the same genetic condition.
At least that part was true.
They DID all share the same genetic issues.
If it weren't for who their forefathers were, none of them would be able to turn into the giant defenders most of the tribe didn't know they had.
He had been planning on telling her everything about the pack just the other day, but that was when Rachel had received the phone call that took away the last remaining member of Kaia's family. Her blood family at least.
He was almost resentful of the way Collin and Brady acted around her.
It took constant reminders for him to tell himself that they were thrilled to have another trouble-maker around. Sam was always on their cases if they got in trouble at school. Although they both had motorcycles, they had worked through 3 straight summers to be able to afford them. Their parents had refused outright to buy them.
Ryan and Seth tended to be a little more sidelined at school, actually bothering to finish their home-work now and then, while the Jamesons had been sent to the principal's office on so many occasions they had their own assigned seating in the waiting room outside his office.
Since Kaia had joined them, they managed to cause the same amount of trouble while getting away with it a lot more, since she was usually their spokesperson and managed to get all sniffly just in time for the principal to forget to call their parents.
Rachel had practically adopted her and Embry would hamstring anyone he considered a threat. She had become such an integral part of all their lives. What would he do if she decided she couldn't deal with this? Emily, Rachel & Kim had grown up around legends of their people, Claire was too young to care, Ness was a half-vampire and it wasn't like she didn't know how to deal with weird.
Kaia on the other hand, was completely new to all this.
The first time she had heard of any of this, was the other night at the bonfire.
And she had been strangely perceptive of him after that, observing him and the other guys in turn, including Leah in her scrutiny.
Aware that he was almost hyper-ventilating, he tried to calm down before Kaia came back.
She had barely been gone for a few minutes, and he had already imagined a scenario where she was condemning him for what he was, what he could do.
What he had no choice in.
Shaking himself, he looked up at the doorway as she walked back into the room. "Shall we?" she asked, looking strangely calm, but he could hear her heartbeat going a mile a minute. Following her out of the house, he paused as she stalled in the doorway, bracing for the chill of the wind outside. Without thinking, Seth stepped closer to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, finally noticing that she had tugged on one of his over-sized sweatshirts while she had been gone.
He had to stifle a small laugh at the fact that it dropped to her knees in a shapeless mass.
Leaning a little into him, she sighed a little and started walking. He took a deep breath in relief; she wasn't running away from him.
Yet.
Would she stick around once she knew what he really was?
Hopefully she would stay true to whatever he knew of her so far and accept it.
Once they reached the beach, she stopped walking and glanced around until she spotted a clump of rocks that looked like they were guaranteed to get uncomfortable very quickly.
Sitting down on them, she looked straight at him with a piercing gaze that felt like it was searing right through to his soul.
After what seemed like an age, she finally spoke.
"There is something different about you Seth Clearwater... And it started coming to me that night at the bonfire, where Mr. Black told us those old tribal legends... I started thinking about it then, but I got side-tracked the next day..."
He nodded to show he was following her, but the truth was, he couldn't maintain the eye contact anymore.
He was terrified now, and looking her in the eye while she was telling him these realizations was costing him. His fear was becoming overwhelming and seeing contempt or even terror in those green orbs that hypnotized him, would have killed him.
So Seth stared at the sand at his feet and waited for her to tell him to leave... or to tell him that she was the one leaving.
Meanwhile, Kaia was still talking. He forced himself to listen. "Even after Jason's funeral... I went to the tree house because it was where we spent the most time... He was the one who convinced my dad to build it, and he was the one who always found me up there when I was hiding or upset about something... I loved it up there because it was so hidden. Someone spotting it without knowing exactly where it was is next to impossible. So how did you manage it? You always hear things so clearly even when someone is whispering across a room Seth, how is that humanly possible?"
His head jerked at the reference to the fact that being human might not fully apply to him.
"Seth?" she called gently. "You asked me to be your girlfriend... I said I would love to... but these things don't work like this. I need to know the truth. Something is different about you. Not quite normal... and don't think I havn't noticed the others either, but the one that matters the most to me is you. Is there something you need to tell me?"
Finally looking up, he met her gaze with a hopeless expression on his face and then muttered miserably. "It might be easier to just show you... even if you do go running for the hills after that."
He took a deep breath, "Kai, how much of the legends do you remember, from the night Billy told them to us?"
"Quite a bit" came the immediate reply. "I kind of missed out on the part where he explained why the protectors existed.. something about the cold?"
Nodding, Seth looked her in the eyes and then asked, "What if I told you that the legends weren't just legends? That they were recorded parts of our history? If I told you that the protectors were real... that they are still real?"
She gazed at him steadily.
His voice dropped, became more intense.
"What if I told you that the threats that came after our people then were real, horrifying things that haunt nightmares, and that the reason we exist are just as real?"
"Kai, if I told you that I was one of those protectors, if I told you that who my grandfather was, has changed my life forever... would you believe me?"
His voice became a whisper at his next question, "Would you stay?"
Following the same figure of speech he used, she looked him in the eyes and then said, in a steady voice, "If you said those things to me Seth, then I would want to know more... I'm not a runner, never have been. But I don't like being lied to... and I don't like being kept in the dark. I want the truth... and I want all of it. No more side-stepping. Either you tell me everything or..." she trailed off, and then looked from him, into the distance, "There is no either, or here. You tell me everything. I deserve that much."
Raising his hand to her face, Seth gently pulled her chin until she was looking directly at him again. "No eithers, No ors. I promise. The whole truth. But not down here... The cliffs. Where we went diving remember?"
She nodded and stood, reaching for his hand. Grateful from the bottom of his heart that she was still giving him a chance, even after realizing what he was, he took it, and then turned it, kissing her palm.
"I'll meet you up there. Take Jake's truck, its got a four-wheel drive. There's something I have to do first."
She looked at him quizzically and then nodded.
He stood there watching her walk away and then slowly walked toward the tree-line. Once he was far enough back in the trees, he stripped and phased, and reached out with his mind to see if any of his brothers were around. Only one consciousness was around. He didn't automatically hear the thoughts, so it couldn't be someone from his own pack.
"Hey" he called mentally.
"Seth, what's up man?" Ryan was just coming back into range from his late-night run to Seattle, and he quickly figured out what was going on with Seth. As was Ryan's way, he inquired if his brother needed help, and then phased back as soon as he reached his own home, after Seth declined.
Just about to phase back, Seth sensed another mind in the pack-link. It was Jake. He quickly filled in his alpha about the impending reveal to another imprint and Jake told him he would be around in case Seth needed him to be there.
Realizing that Kaia would be almost to the cliff-top by now, Seth raced there on 4 legs, and quickly changed back into his clothes, waiting for his imprint to pull up.
His heart thumping so loudly he was sure she would hear it, he watched as she put the truck in park and jumped out. She was frowning and he knew she was wondering how he had gotten up to the cliffs that fast.
This was it.
His own personal moment of truth.
He beckoned to her and was slightly relieved when she took his hand without hesitation. Sitting down against a tree, he pulled her into him sideways, so she was sitting in his lap and still able to see his face. Then he proceeded to tell her the legend again. And her eyes widened as he spoke, putting into context everything she was hearing and applying it consciously to everything she had already deduced about them.
Once he had finished, she closed her eyes for a second, only to open them to meet his worried expression.
Finally she spoke, "I just have one question..."
"Sure," Seth mumbled, practically choking on his own voice.
"Why do you look like you are going to meet your doom?" she deadpanned.
Seth couldn't help but chuckle, and confessed, "The others... they've grown up with this you know... they have heard these legends at least a million times, so when Sam and Jared told Emily and Kim... and Paul told Rachel... well at least they had something to base their heads in... You got thrown into this with no warning whatsoever... and I was scared... terrified actually, that you would go running for the hills as soon as I told you this was all real..."
She nodded, still grim-faced.
"I want to see it Seth," she said firmly. "I believe you, but I want to see what this is all about." Knowing that this would have come from her sooner or later, Seth nodded in acceptance and helped her stand. Turning her to face the woods, he told her to watch a particular clump of bushes, and then started taking his shirt off.
"As much as I appreciate the impromptu strip-tease, what are you doing?" she asked in a puzzled voice.
Recalling Jake's reaction to Bella's almost identical question, Seth grinned and said, "My clothes don't exactly phase in and out of existence when I change you know..."
"Is that what you call it? Phasing?" she enquired.
Wordlessly nodding, he shucked the rest of his clothes and walked to the bushes in just his shorts.
Without turning back to her, he stopped and called out, "Whatever you do, don't be afraid. I'd die before I hurt you."
and then he walked behind the bushes, stripped and walked out from behind the covers, in the form of the large sandy wolf.
Her eyes locked on his and she smiled just a bit.
Creeping along the ground until he was on his belly in front of her, Seth was petrified beyond words that she would come to her senses and run. Instead, she stared at him and then took a deep breath before plopping herself down on the ground, leaning against the same tree as he had before.
"Whoooo... can't blame me for being a little light headed now can you," she muttered to him, watching his eyes as she spoke. "Your eyes though.. they don't change at all. Yours are still the same warm black they always are... although if you look close enough, you can see these little brown specks... but only when you smile... wow, am I rambling..."
Seth stayed crouched in front of her, slowly raising his nose to her outstretched hand.
As she ran her small fingers through his fur, he let a contented growl rumble through his chest, smiling to himself in relief when she didn't jerk away, but laughed instead.
"Ok Wolf boy... now go change back. I want my boyfriend back."
Chuckling at the idea of someone her size giving him an order while he was roughly as big as a horse, he went back behind the bushes, and came back wearing his shorts. Kaia stayed sitting on the ground while he pulled on his jeans and his sweatshirt. He kept his eyes locked on her the whole time, until she finally mentioned his scrutiny, "Why are you staring at me like that Clearwater?"
He shook his head with a small smile and answered, "I keep waiting to wake up... Or for you to suddenly realize that this is all real and you don't want anything to do with me.. or for you to be afraid of me..."
She cut off his monologue by placing her fingers over his lips and shushing him.
"I'm still here you know... I have like a million questions right now... but I am still here. I am not going to run Seth.. not from this, and definitely not from you"
His heart melting at the truth he could see in her clear guileless eyes, Seth could say nothing. He pulled her into his arms and wrapped himself around her; breathing in the scent of her hair, he mumbled the words he hadn't been able to say yet.
"I love you Kai..."
She froze, but he didn't let go of her. "You don't have to say anything yet... I know that you're not ready, and that is not how you feel yet... but I just wanted you to know how I feel... No pressure on you... not for anything. I just need you to know."
Snuggled under his chin, he felt her head nod.
"I think we should be getting back to Rachel's soon. I don't want them to wake up and think I kidnapped you, Paul would KILL me... if Embry left anything of me to kill that is..."
"Yeah, you forgot that we would be first in line there bro..." came a deep voice from the side of the cliff.
Whirling around, Seth immediately placed himself between Kaia and the source of the voice. Only after he did this, did his brain kick into action to identify the voice.
"Nice to see your instincts put her first man, even from horrible threats like us" came an amused voice that matched the first.
"Another day guys," pleaded Seth, not willing to deal with the clowning the twins would come up with if allowed to.
Meanwhile, Kaia was still silent, and just stood there, studying Collin and Brady until they were both very uncomfortable. "Umm.. Kai, why are you staring at us like that," Collin finally asked.
Without taking her eyes off the two boys in front of her, Kaia directed her question to Seth, "I just thought of something, if all of you were in on this secret, how come you didn't tell me... and how come you can tell me now?"
Seth froze.
In his relief at her knowing his secret, he had forgotten that he still hadn't let her in on the biggest secret.
His imprinting.
Swallowing hard, he turned to the twins, looking for some kind of help.
They both just stared blankly back at him, knowing this was his call.
Looking her directly in the eyes, he finally spoke, "There are a few other things you need to know, but I can't tell you all of it yet. There's another bonfire on Friday, and Billy is planning to tell the legends again. It might make more sense to you if you hear about it then."
Still looking suspicious, Kaia only nodded and then with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, she asked, "SO... you guys have all seen each other naked?"
Giggling amidst the groaning that particular comment caused, she walked to the car and climbed in, slightly surprised that Seth joined her. When she looked at him askance, he only shrugged and gave her a crooked half-smile. "It beats running back with those two poking around in my head. Mind-reading can be inconvenient now and then..."
"They what?" she yelped. Laughing outright, he explained how the pack could read minds in wolf form, by which time she had reached Rachel's house again. Hopping out of the cab of the truck, she stalked up to Collin who was lounging against the porch railing, and poked him in the chest with her index finger. "You... and your wolfy twin... stay out of my boyfriend's head ok..." she emphasized each word with a finger poke.
Exaggeratedly rubbing his chest Collin faked injury and collapsed right on top of the tiny brunette assaulting his person. Seth rolled his eyes at her high-pitched squealing, and her pleas to save her.
Brady walked out of the kitchen only to watch in disbelieving amusement as she got up from the ground, thumbed her nose at Collin who was now lying there laughing, and told him in a very condescending tone to, "Sit boy... staaaaay" before racing to Seth and hiding behind him.
"So... you know our secret... does that change anything?" came a serious, deep voice from the tree line beside the Black residence.
The two clowns in the comedy production dropped the act and all 4 turned to see Embry leaning up against a tree, wearing nothing but cut-offs, and watching Kaia very carefully, a blank expression on his face.
She stilled, then looking determined, she walked up to him and hugged him fiercely, muttering, "NOTHING has changed" under her breath, knowing by now that he would hear her.
Hugging her back, Embry felt a rush of emotion for the youngster who had such a hold on his heart.
They spent the rest of the day explaining to her other details about the pack, all of them carefully skirting the topic of imprinting, knowing Seth was going to have his work cut out for him when he eventually gave her the whole story.
Seeing her begin to recover from her depression, Rachel knew she was starting to accept her brother's untimely death; that wound would take a long time to heal, but being around other people, especially the pack, would make it heal just a little bit more.
Smiling inwardly, Rachel realized something.
Emily was like the pack mother, they turned to her for advice on something. Kaia was like their touchstone, where they all found some kind of attachment to her, stronger than the kind they felt for their brothers' imprints, but not something they could explain.
She helped them keep their heads above water. Rachel could only hope that she took the news of the imprint as well as she was taking the news that they all turned into giant creatures that fought evil.
Judging by the white-faced, open jawed expression she was wearing, followed by her flying at Seth and pummeling him while the others guffawed, Rachel guessed that they were telling her about the time he took on a vampire all by himself.
The rest of the week passed in the same fashion and finally Friday came. Seth was a bundle of nerves by the time they got to the bonfire, and could barely stop himself from holding on to Kaia and begging her not to leave him and the rest of the pack.
The bonfire passed much the same as before, the arguments over who got the most food, the dozing off before the legends could begin, everything was just as it had been at every other bonfire before. Except for the extremely shaky wolf who sat next to Kaia and could barely eat his usual meal, because he was that worried about her reaction.
Finally Billy reached the story of the Third Wife and Taha Aki, and he told of how it was HER that had been his true spirit wife, his true soul-mate. His other half. All the time that Billy was talking, Kaia clutched Seth's hand, knowing that Billy's tales were what had him so shaken.
Slowly, Billy moved from the stories of years passed and began to talk of how the wolves in later generations all found their own spirit wives and how they called them imprints now. Kaia fidgeted as he indicated Emily, Rachel and Kim, nodding at Quil and Jacob, both of whose imprints were absent.
Seth knew the minute she made the connection between what he was saying and what had happened.
She turned slightly, not facing away from Billy fully, but making sure that she could see Seth as well, and then all of a sudden, she stiffened, her eyes going wide.
Her hands in his became icy cold and he knew that she had realized the truth.
She was silent for the entire ride home and Seth had been on the receiving end of quite a few sympathetic glances from his brothers while they were getting into the truck.
Once they were parked outside the Black's house, Seth turned off the engine and they sat in silence for a while. Finally she spoke up. "You did, didn't you... Imprinted on me?"
Heart sinking at the tone in her voice, Seth could only mumble his confirmation.
"So you asked me out only because of that? You fell in love with me only because you imprinted?" she cried, voice breaking, as the tears finally broke loose.
Desperately trying to make her understand the circumstances behind an imprinting, Seth finally understood the crippling fear that had been hampering him from the day he realized he had to tell her the truth.
He wasn't afraid of telling her. He was afraid that she would think he had been forced into this.
Knowing what he had to do now, he wrapped his arms around her so she couldn't storm away, like he knew she wanted to.
Then, in a low voice he finally spoke. "You remember how we met? You came outside the club, because you were hiding from Michelle? The first time I heard your voice, it was like listening to music I had never heard before, and yet... It was like I knew the tune playing. Imprinting is not some whole love at first sight deal. Its not compulsory. You could be imprinted on someone and never actually fall in love with them. But once you imprint on someone, its like you can't help but notice these things about them. Little stuff. Like how you cannot eat enchilada without tobasco... even though you get red as a lobster because of it. Or how you hunt through your food to get rid of every bit of celery before you even take your first bite."
She shifted in his arms and he loosened his grip enough for her to turn to face him.
"Imprinting is not falling in love immediately. Think of it as this big ass sign-board, like neon lights spelling out "Here she is, dumb-ass, now don't screw up." like the spirits way of telling us that the only we are going to get out of this whole being-wolves situation, is if we have the other half of our souls around... something like that. We don't have a choice, but you do..." looking directly into her green eyes, Seth felt his heart clench at his next words. "If what you really want to do right now is walk away, then you can. And I swear I will let you go. No questions asked."
She said nothing, only watching him carefully as he spoke.
The silence in the cab of the truck was turning stifling when she finally spoke up. "You realize that the reason I'm mad right now is because you didn't tell me about this earlier, when you told me about the packs? It's not the imprinting thats annoying me. Its you. You could have told me anytime this week, but you left me in the dark... and you know I hate that."
Seth could only nod, knowing that he had dug himself into this quickly deepening hole.
"I need you to leave me alone for a bit Seth. I need to think. And I need to do this thinking away from you," she said with a marked air of finality.
Realizing that Kaia wasn't offering this information as a negotiable state of affairs, he nodded again and kissed her goodbye with a small peck on the cheek, waiting until she got inside the house before he drove away.
Knowing he would get no sleep at home, he phased in his driveway and headed back to the Black's. After a restless night under his imprint's window, he finally fell asleep at the crack of dawn.
He woke up suddenly and was confused for a second, wondering what had woken him so suddenly.
Then he heard an engine rev in the driveway.
Ice fingers of dread crawled up his spine as he raced around the house to the front. Jason's.. no, it was Kaia's now, deep blue Camaro was in the driveway and the engine was running. She was in the driver's seat and that was where his thought process stalled. She was leaving.
As he stood behind the bushes, he saw her look around and he nudged a branch aside so she would know he was there.
Looking directly in his eyes, she mouthed something and even with his super-human hearing, he had to struggle to hear what she said. "I need to disappear for a while. Rachel knows where I am. I'll be back... don't know when, but I will. But please Seth... please don't call me"
And then she gunned the engine and careened out of the drive-way.
She was gone.
His imprint was gone.
He couldn't follow her because his first instinct was to do what she wanted, and she obviously didn't want him to follow her right now.
So he would wait.
But would she come back?
As the sun rose higher in the sky, he could only hope against all hope that she would.
What would he do if she didn't?
He wouldn't survive it, and when he felt the twins in his head, he knew that he wasn't the only one who would be hurting.
This was bad.
A/N: Please review?
And please vote on the poll on my profile page. I can't start posting the next story until you do!
HATM will be coming to an end in 1 more chapter, 2 tops.
Ryan and Michelle's story will be posted immediately after that, but I don't foresee that taking more than 5 or 6 chapters.
The story that comes after that depends on who you guys vote for.
Loves always
- N