Book Two: Kim and the Wolf that Loved Her
Chapter 2: Jared Facts
"You know you're making us waste a good holiday, which is practically in honor of our supernatural awesomeness, by making us move boxes all day, right?" Paul said turning towards the truck with a substantial mound of Jared's belongings.
"Do it faster and then you're free," I said simply, trying to stuff the remainder of Jared's wardrobe into a plastic bag; it was Halloween and moving day.
Quil's mom agreed to give the apartment to Jared and I, for about the same price as my old joint even though it was more than double the size.
We were overjoyed. Everything was working out. We had jobs—well I had a job and Jared had patrolling. We had a safe clean place in a great location and we had each other. I found myself getting fluffier and more lovey-dovey by the second, it was sickening, literally sickening, Collin and Brady could only put up with us in small increments.
"Well are you at least going to throw a housewarming party?" Collin asked loading his arms with a solid wood bookshelf.
"S'not like your momma's gunna let you out," Brady joked.
He wasn't doing anything but joking, something I had pointed out twice, but still hadn't been rectified. I walked over to him, dropping a laundry bags in his hand and pointing him to the truck like a trained dog, he didn't protest. You had to be tough with this new wolves, almost like children—I was surprisingly good at it, though it made me miss my Matty.
He was back at his aunt's for the school year, but having him so long over the summer and again for a week in September had gotten me used to being a family again.
"Come on baby, Halloween and housewarming warming all in one," Jared said helping me into the van, his hand resting longer than necessary on my ass.
"Sure… but it's BYOB and you're cleaning up after yourself Paul. We're so not having another frozen bong water experience," I called to the back of the van.
It was a church van, none of us were of the church going persuasion but Solace the mute apparently was and somehow, I'm unsure how considering he didn't talk, but he pulled some strings and borrowed us the van for the day. It was a thirteen-seater but the last two rows folded up allowing for optimal house moving. Paul sat forward from the row behind me and placed his chin on my shoulder with a grin.
"Done and done Kim-bean," he cooed leaving a loud kiss on my cheek. Jared pushed his head back with his palm not taking his eyes off the road.
"Kiss your own imprint," Jared joked turning down the main drag to the only store in town, where we would be living. It was next to the post office, which was more like a post hut really, seeing as it doubled for a live bait store.
"Embry man, get your ass over to Jared's place, we're having a party!" Brady spoke into his cell as we unpacked. I heard Embry's booming voice on the other side of the, Brady's face going from excited to confused in seconds. "Huh? I don't know… well what's the difference between a shin-dig and a hootenanny?" Brady asked.
He was a cute kid but he wasn't too bright, he took everything literally which meant conversations between him and Embry, who tended to be a bit sarcastic, ended up long-winded and confusing for the both of them. I grabbed the phone from him and dropped it onto the bed, it was the largest bed in the place, in the largest room, but it was still only a full-size and took up a good 60% of the space. The rest of the area around the bed was now filled with boxes and bags we unloaded from the church van that now had to get back to the New World Evangelist Church.
The church was apparently holding a Halloween Hell House, which I was told as we picked up the vehicle, is an annual event held in lieu of a haunted house as a way to show the youngsters the consequences of sin. Solace's girlfriend Anna was going to be in the lust room, which was apparently meant to warn of the perils of premarital sex.
I tried not to laugh when the words sin and premarital sex were put in a sentence together but it was difficult. Solace didn't tell me all of this, he still hadn't said a word to me in the weeks since I met him, but his best friend Phil, now the newest member of the pack, was a chatter-box.
"Embry don't confuse the boy," I chided, he chuckled in response.
"Ah, my favorite sister! I wasn't trying to confuse, I was just asking if this was a shin-dig or a hootenanny, simple question."
"Okay, so you've piqued my interest, what is the difference between a shin-dig and a hootenanny?" I asked as Jared sat on the bed next to me, riffling through a box that was haphazardly packed with trinkets, paperwork and a bag of gummies.
"A shin-dig is a simple gathering, while a hootenanny, well a hootenanny usually includes deviance, music and ample amounts of liquor," he answered, he said liquor more like lick-a and it made me chuckle.
"I'd say it's more of a half/half dig with a dash of nanny. Can't get too wild, I do live above a reputable establishment," I joked joining in the Embry banter.
"We'll be there."
"Great. Laughs will be had by all," I said hanging up and leaving me to try to unpack the mess that was two separate lives joining into one. It was all rather symbolic but also a pain in the ass because Jared didn't throw anything away. Seriously he had a box of legos that could rival any ten year old and he had a toddler-esk tantrum when I tried to leave them behind. It was nice though, unimaginable almost, that after my shitty beginnings I would end up with such a fairytale ending.
So to a lot of people, most actually, this was no fairytale. Moving in to a tiny rundown apartment next to a live bait shop with an unemployed werewolf while still working a fast food joint, might be some people's nightmare, but to me it was heaven. It's not just that my standards were generally lower than most, no, it's because I had learned to appreciate everything. So to me this apartment was a palace, a palace that smelled a little like cat pee, but a palace none the less.
It shouldn't have taken long considering I was being assisted by four men with super speed but it was their only day off since Jordan phased almost three weeks ago, and with the rogue wolves still gone, three new wolves to train and Quil and Embry having secret meetings about Jake, Sam had kept the rest of the pack very busy and generally tired. He let the boys off only for the holiday, making it the only day we could move in.
Embry and Quil arrived after everything was settled, typical, but they came bearing Rachel and booze so I wasn't too pissed.
"Cute place," Rach said leaning against the doorway between the living room and the kitchen.
"Thanks, it's… quaint." We didn't have furniture yet, which left us leaning against the newly painted blue wall as the guys sat on the floor talking about imprinting. Jake's imprint made the tally five out of eleven in under two years and like typical teenage boys they weren't exactly thrilled about the idea of being stuck with a toddler like Quil.
When Quil imprinted I couldn't even look at him for a week. How could I? I mean it's still fairly freaksome, the very idea of him imprinting on a two year old, but seeing him with her is enough to prove he wouldn't ever hurt her.
"I think it's a fluke and none of us need worry," Embry said with a serious nod, Quil nudged him.
"I'm not worried. I think it'd be cool," Brady said seriously looking around at his brothers. Rachel grabbed my arm with a smirk and pulled me into the kitchen.
"These poor suckers," Rachel said passing me a cigarette from the counter and grabbing herself a beer. Wolf-girl time was sorely needed.
"What do you mean?" I asked lighting up and opening the back door which led to the narrow stairs that resembled a fire escape.
"They're too young to be thinking about soul mates and battles," she sighed stepping out onto the staircase.
"Yeah, well shit sorta happens," I said following her lead and taking a seat two stairs above her.
"But what if it happens too fast and everything gets fucked up?" She asked leaning into my knees. I toyed with her hair which was long and slightly wavy like her father Billy's. I met Rachel just four months ago, Fourth of July, the day Paul imprinted on her, so I can't say I know everything about her, I did know however that she didn't often sigh and philosophize.
"What's up? What's all this huffing and sighing about? Did Paul do something, cuz I know he can be a dick, but he's generally a cool guy… generally," I added for affect. She slapped my hand playfully turning to look at me. Rachel was beautiful, one of the best looking girls on the rez, and when she smiled at me like that I could see why Paul had an extra pep in his step.
"It's not Paul. I was just. You know I'm going to be 23 in a week," she said as if that were some sort of explanation for her sadness.
"So what, it's like an old age thing?" I teased. Rachel was the second oldest of the wolf girls, with Emily only as few months ahead, they were both five years older than me but there didn't seem to be an age gap.
"Are you calling me old Barely Legal?" Rachel shot back raising her eyebrow, a Rachel signature move.
"No. You are. What's with that?"
"I'm not saying that I'm old really, I'm just… you know my mom had me and Becca when she was my age."
"Yeah and I was like a year old by the time my mom was my age, it's La Pushwe don't really go by the same standards as the outside world," I reasoned titling my head up to examine the cluster of stars that were suddenly very interesting to Rachel.
"And that's sorta what I'm saying. I went to college ya know, it's like a different world from the rez. And I got so indoctrinated with this feminist notion that getting married young and having kids and all of that stuff was… I don't know wrong? It's hard to explain," she said pulling a cigarette out my pack. She didn't smoke regularly but she usually bummed my smokes when she drank.
"So are you saying you think Emily should wait?"
"No. I think it's amazing and that's what's worrying me," she said lighting up.
"So you're worried that you're excited that Emily is having a baby?" I tried to summarize this conversation but even the summary sounded crazy.
"Exactly," she sighed drinking her beer.
"Okay, I'm totally lost, I think I'm missing some vital piece of—"
"Paul wants to get married. She just graduated and now he wants to get married," she interrupted filling in the missing pieces. It was surprising, I didn't really see Paul as the commitment guy, but then imprinting changed people.
"Well it's not like you have to get married now just because you've imprinted, Teach." I give everyone nicknames from the predictable to the obscure and Rachel was an easy one because she was a teacher.
"No. I want to and that's what freaks me out, ya know?" She said with a nervous smile.
"Then what the hell is the problem? Who cares how other people do it? You wanna get married and have a bunch of little ones then more power to you."
"Heh, Paul with babies—I can't imagine that," a voice came from behind. I jumped, turning to find Emily smiling at us.
"Emily!" Rachel cried standing and pushing past me to give Emily a hug.
"Hey!" I cried as I was being mowed over.
"Sorry," Rachel whispered grabbing my hand and pulling me back into the kitchen.
"How ya feeling, Emily?" Rachel asked, brushing her hand on Emily's still relatively flat stomach. She couldn't be more than two months pregnant.
"Great, thanks," Emily whispered, slapping Rachel's hand away from her stomach.
"You still haven't told—"
"I still have no proof, so I'm not going to go down that road just yet," Emily said as Jared came into the kitchen. Jared ducked out of the fridge with an arm full of beers.
"That's all? I thought this was a hootenanny, Embry," Sam said coming in the room and appraising the amount of beer in Jared's arm.
"He looks like Mr. Alpha-man but the sounds he makes are funny," Embry said, joining us in the kitchen.
"You want more beer Sam you need to put in the cash, Big Man," Brady said taking a beer from Jared's arms.
"Well, Jared's the working man now, so I vote he goes down and gets the next round," Sam said grabbing the beer from Brady's underage hands and passing it to Emily. Emily held the opened beer in her hand and stared at it uncomfortably.
"Working man?" I asked diverting the attention from Emily, who was now being watched closely by Sam.
"Yeah, I was gunna tell you tonight. It's nothing big just some construction work with Phil's dad," Jared said opening a bottle for me and passing it over.
"And you can do with all the werewolf stuff?" I said sliding next to him, running my hands up his bicep.
"Yeah, it's a day job and—"
"Is something wrong with the beer?" Sam asked looking down at the beer Emily was refusing to drink.
"No, no it's fine," Emily waved him off bringing the bottle to her lips, but Rachel ripped it from her hand and chugged it like a true college girl.
"What the… wait. No way! Alpha-bear's gunna be a daddy," Embry said, slapping him hard on the back. Embry was much quicker than the rest of the group.
"No, I just—I gotta go," Emily ran out the room and Sam followed.
The room remained silent until they were out of sight and everyone broke into excited conversation. It's not every day that your friends become parents.
Brady and Collin the only two not allowed the drink worked on building a cabinet system we bought for the room that would belong to Matty when he came for the summer.
Jared and I cuddled in the corner listening while Embry and Quil updated the group on the Cullen situation, but the loud deep howl outside was not lost in the in the banter of the room. The merry conversation stopped almost immediately and Jared lifted us both to our feet.
"That's Jordan," Brady said stripping off his shirt as he walked to the door.
"Be careful, Jar-bear," I called. It gave the group a laugh but they stopped the grand exit when Solace the Mute sauntered up the stairs and into our kitchen.
"Hey," he breathed, his voice deeper than I expected, although at this point he was Monosyllabic Man so I couldn't be sure. He was wearing black pants and a t-shirt with a tiny adorable blinking pumpkin pin above his heart.
"What's happened?" Collin asked looking at the clock. I followed his eyes, it was 11:32pm, and his thirteen-year old behind needed to get home before his mom freaked out again.
"New wolf," Solace said simply, and Rachel elbowed me stifling a giggle. It was like bizzaro-world watching Solace the Mute speak.
"Collin, you should go home. You too, Brady," I said taking the role of Sam who had not returned.
"Who's the new guy?" Brady said ignoring my suggestion, he was obviously pumped. Seth, Brady and Collin, the youngest wolves were seriously excited about all things wolf.
"It's Jordan's brother Michael," Solace said brushing his ear length hair out of his eye.
"That was a full sentence," Rachel whispered in my ear. I would have laughed or maybe even said something witty if it wasn't Michael. This was the last thing their family needed right now so soon after their grandmother's death. He was just a baby too, a super optimistic 13 year old; this wolf thing was getting out of hand.
It couldn't be stopped though, if you had the genes. Genes. In a town this small it seemed most people were at least distantly connected in some way. When they told me about the wolves they said it was only direct descendants of Taha Aki, but he had three wives and it seemed there were plenty of his great great grandchildren waiting in the wings.
"You okay, Kim-bean," Jared asked pulling me to him from behind, wrapping his strong arms around my center.
"Yeah… can you make sure Michael's okay, he's just a little boy, just a little older then Matty?" I pouted.
"I'll go now. You should find Emily," he kissed my pouty bottom lip and allowed Collin to pull him away. Rachel and I followed the boys out and head to Emily's our arms locked at the elbow.
It was a cool autumn night, almost cold, and as we turned up her walkways the crunching of fallen leaves announced our arrival. Sam open the door for us, Emily sat pink eyed on the couch.
"Sam, there's a new wolf," I said barging past him so I could get to Emily.
"What?" Sam looked dazed, his eyes trailing down the road then back to Emily. "B-but we—I don't understand."
"You gotta go and greet the new wolf, he's a baby, he's probably terrified, so bye bye for now," I said pointing him in the direction the boys went.
"You're pregnant?" Sam didn't look at me, he just continued to stared dumbly at Emily.
"Yes Sam, for the tenth time yes," she whispered finally looking up at him.
"Wow."
"Yup, big wow! You are needed now Pack leader Uley. We'll give her some hot cocoa and girl-talk and you move along," Rachel said shooing him like a puppy. He dragged his feet walking away slowly as we pushed him out the door.
Emily remained quiet, fat teardrops trailing the scars on her cheek.
"So what ya thinking? Boy or a girl?" I broke the silence as Rachel poured me a cup of marshmallowy hot chocolate. I passed her a bowl of miniature candy bars Emily hadn't handed out during the night.
"Oh god, can we just pretend this isn't happening to me?" She whined, pulling her feet up onto the chair.
"Is it really that bad?" I asked through a mouth full of snickers.
"Yes," she sobbed, her shoulders bouncing with her tears. "Leah's gunna… hate me forever."
Emily's bright red scar stretched as she bit the inside of her cheek, something she did when she was worried. I hadn't thought about Leah, but I started to understand her tears a little better. Leah and Emily had been best friends, closer than best friends they were family, the real kind of family, and she had lost her. I didn't blame her, it was a difficult situation, the pull of the imprint was so strong, and she paid her price, she would be scarred for life—but then that wasn't enough for Leah.
"You can't think about that now, Emily. I love Leah, she's been my friend since forever, but you can't let her ruin the rest of your… forever, ya know? If you want this baby, then you have the right to be happy," Rachel said taking a seat next to her.
"And if you're not ready to ya know… there are ways to deal with this," I whispered.
I had thought about it. I had thought really hard about what I would do if I were her. I don't think I could have an abortion myself but I wanted to support her.
"What?" Rachel turned to me with wide brown eyes, she didn't like the turn the conversation was taking.
"What? Don't look at me like that Rach? I'm being supportive."
"I'm not going to have an… abortion," she whispered the last word as if she were swearing in church.
"Then you're going to just have to start dealing with this. You two will be fine, I mean—"
"What if he doesn't wanna have babies with me? And what if once I've given him one then this whole being in love with me just goes away?" Emily asked, taking a big chug of hot chocolate.
"It doesn't work like that Emily. He loves you, you guys are going to be fine," Rachel said giving me a sad smile. Rachel had thought it too, which brought us into a grand total of three women terrified of losing their wolfmen.
"I'm so scared to tell my mom, and Sue… and Leah. She attacked me when we said we were getting married, god knows what she'll do now," Emily said drying her tears.
"I'll tell Leah, I'm not scared of her," I offered, Emily smiled.
"And I'll tell Sue," Rachel volunteered, Emily waved her off.
"It's fine, really. I'll do it tomorrow after the doctor's appointment," Emily said sitting Indian style on the kitchen chair.
"You still need a blood test?" Rachel asked in disbelief.
"No. It's just my second month, I should probably get some vitamins by now." Emily had a serious face now, chomping determinedly on her candy.
When Jared finally came to pick me up, it was 1:37am, and I was exhausted. He gave me a peck, threw a "congrats" at Emily and rushed me out the door holding me in his arms as if I weighed less than a sack of potatoes.
"How's Michael?" I yawned as we turned the last corner to our new home.
"He's a chipper little guy," Jared chuckled. "I haven't seen someone so happy about phasing since Quil."
Fhat was hard to believe, Quil was like a kid at the North Pole for the first week after he phased.
"I guess that's good... poor little guy."
"What do you mean?" He asked, slowly unzipping my sweater, when we were safely inside. Underneath I wore my only festive shirt, it was actually Matty's; a child-sized Harry Potter shirt he wore two years back.
"Are you happy?" I'd never asked that question before but I had wondered. I had thought about it a lot recently; finally being happy myself, I worried about other people's happiness, especially Jared's.
"What?" Jared gave me a confused grin, his hand reaching under the hem of my t-shirt, his warm hands felt soothing against my skin.
"Are you happy being a wolf?"
"Yeah… I guess it's not so bad," he whispered, leaving tiny kisses along my hairline. "The being with you part is pretty amazing, and I owe part of that to being a wolf."
"But am I enough? Am I enough to keep you happy for the rest of your life?"
"Where's this coming from?" He asked ripping off his tshirt in one fluid motion.
"I don't know. I feel like you know everything about me, and what I know about you is all pack related."
"Well, that's my job," he sighed.
"Well, I want to know other things," I said honestly. It's not that we didn't talk, I knew every aspect of pack life, but if you asked me what his childhood dreams were I'd come up sadly blank.
"What things," he asked, pulling me close to him and kissing my forehead softly.
"Every Jared fact there is to know."
And that's where I fell asleep cradled comfortably in Jared's arms listening to his dreams as the sun came up.