All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer

CHAPTER SIX

The next few days went by like normal, or as normal as life could be living with a pack of teenage wolves. Jake and Embry were visibly happier now that Quil had phased, and the three friends were back together again. When they weren't patrolling they would usually be at Jacob's house keeping me company, which was nice as they were always so carefree and I rarely thought about the threat of Victoria when they were around.

I went over to Emily's to help out at meal times a lot, and these were the only times I would see Paul. We hadn't had any time alone together, but he was much friendlier with me now in front of the others. Emily had picked up on this and asked me about it, but I had just shrugged it off.

One night when we were all round at Sam and Emily's place, the 'imprint' word came up again and I made a mental note to ask Jake about it. So that night as we were walking along the beach back to his house, hand in hand, I asked him.

"Jake, why do people keep calling Emily an imprint?"

He didn't make eye contact with me, and looked nervous as he searched for the right words to explain. "Imprinting is another wolf thing, probably the most powerful thing. It's hard to describe properly, but basically it is when a wolf finds their soul mate. I suppose the wolf falls in love with that person, like love at first sight but much stronger. Nothing in the world matters more to the wolf than their imprint."

"And Emily is Sam's imprint?"

"Yeah, and Kim is Jared's. No one else has imprinted, according to the tribal stories it's really rare, so there's no saying that anyone else will imprint."

"So… you haven't imprinted?"

He paused for a moment before answering my question. "No, I haven't. But to be honest, I don't think I will. There's only one girl I've ever felt anything for, and if I don't imprint on her then there's no way it'll happen."

I glanced at him, thinking he was speaking about me but I wasn't entirely sure. We hadn't spoken about 'us' in that way for a long time. "Do you want to imprint?"

"I dunno… I mean, I can see the good things about it. Having that guarantee that you'll be happy with your mate forever must be nice but, it's not exactly fair on the imprint. I mean, wouldn't you want a choice?" he asked, turning to look at me for the first time during the conversation.

"Yeah, I suppose. But it can't be a bad thing, can it? I mean, look at Sam and Emily. They're so happy."

"Yeah, they are." He said quietly, looking down at me with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, sure." I said, making him smile.

"Do you think you are over Edward? You don't have to answer if you don't want…"

"No, it's fine Jake. I think I am. I mean, I don't feel that pain in my chest when I think of him like I used to. And I've accepted that he's not coming back. So yeah, I guess I have."

"Okay." He said softly, a small smile playing at his lips.

"What are you thinking?" I asked, recognising the look on his face as the look he got when he was planning something.

"Nothing, just happy that you're doing so well." He said genuinely. I knew that wasn't all he was thinking, but I accepted it.

I went to bed that night wondering why Jacob hadn't imprinted on me, if he loved me as much as he said.

The next morning Jake went out on the early patrol and I went round to Emily's to help her clean the house and bake some goodies for the pack. A little before midday I heard howling in the distance, and Emily and I froze. It didn't sound good.

We both stood in shock, waiting for another noise or a sign that everything was alright. After a few minutes, we both began to panic. Suddenly, Jacob came running through the door with a pained expression on his face. I grabbed him and gave him a quick once over, letting out the breath I had been holding when I was satisfied that he wasn't hurt.

"What is it Jacob? Is it Sam? Is he hurt?" Emily began throwing the questions at him, the panic clearly rising through her.

"Sssh Emily, calm down. Sam's fine." He said, but his voice wasn't right. It sounded empty.

"Then what is it Jake?" I asked, feeling uneasy. "We heard the howl…"

"It's Harry Clearwater. He had a heart attack."

"Oh my god!" Emily and I said in unison. "Is he OK?" I continued, watching Jacob's expression become more pained.

"He died."

The silence in the room lasted a long time, as I gave Jake a hug. I knew our dads and Harry had been close for years. He hugged me back tightly.

"Is there anything we can do?" Emily asked, obviously wanting to make herself busy.

"Sam's over at the Clearwaters' now, it's pretty hectic."

I caught a glimpse of his expression, and knew there was more. "Has something else happened, Jake?"

He looked angry for a second, but it soon passed. "We've got two new werewolves."

"No!" Emily gasped, obviously understanding better than I did.

"Who?" I asked, glancing between the expressions on their faces.

"Seth and Leah Clearwater."

I gasped too.

"But, Leah is a – and Seth is only 14!" Emily cried. I should get over there, Sue must be going mad…"

Jake nodded as she headed out the door. He pulled me over to the sofa and sat down, pulling me onto his lap. "This is going to cause some serious problems." He muttered, hanging his head.

I stroked the side of his face, and he leaned against me. "What do you mean?"

He took a deep breath before he began. "It's a long story. Remember what I told you about imprinting?" I nodded. "Well, when Sam imprinted on Emily, he was already practically engaged to Leah Clearwater. They were so in love, then bam! Sam loves Emily and wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Not his fault obviously, but you can imagine how Leah felt."

"God. Poor Leah."

"Yeah, but that's not all. Emily and Leah are cousins, well more like sisters. At least they were, till Sam imprinted." I gasped, and he nodded in acknowledgement. "And now that Leah has phased, we're all going to be able to see her thoughts. Let's just say she's still pretty torn up about the whole thing, and she's only just going to find out what really happened."

I shook my head, feeling awful for all of them. It then dawned on me how painful it would be if I accepted my feelings for Jake as more than friendship, had a relationship with him, loved him, and then he went and imprinted. Could I ever risk suffering the pain of being abandoned by the man I loved again? I don't think my heart could take that kind of a beating for a second time.

I stayed in his lap on the sofa for a long time, just thinking about things. Before I realised what was going on, all the pack except for Sam had walked into the room looking depressed and exhausted. I gathered that Sam was still out with Leah and Seth: from what I had heard it took werewolves a long time to change back to their human form after the first time they phased. They dropped down onto various chairs and sofas around the room, and I looked up to see Paul looking at me with a strange expression. He must wonder why I was like this with Jacob after our kiss, so I shot him a smile to let him know it was just a friendly thing. He seemed to understand.

The silence of the house was quickly broken, and Quil and Embry were attempting to lighten the mood with funny stories about Harry. The spirits of the pack had soon lifted, and it made me smile that Jake was even joining in with the telling of the stories. I remembered the cookies and muffins we had been preparing earlier, so I left the pack to their talk while I went to continue baking. I put a tray of cookies in the oven, and felt a warm arm around my middle. Breathing in I realised it was Paul: his scent was slightly different to Jacob's.

"You okay?" I asked, turning in his arms to face him.

"Yeah, I didn't know Harry as well as the rest of the guys. Sucks for Leah and Seth though."

"Yeah, it does" I agreed, thinking how awful Sue must be feeling too, having lost her husband and not being able to grieve with her children.

"Listen, I need to tell you something, but I can't really do it here. Can I see you tomorrow? It'll be Harry's funeral in the morning, but we could meet later?"

"Yeah, okay" I told him, unsure what he could want to say to me that he couldn't say here.

He leant forward then and gave me a sweet, gentle kiss on my lips. I tried to continue it but he pulled away, smiling. "Tomorrow." He said, and walked back to the others.

When the pack had eaten most of the food I had cooked, me and Jake headed back to his house to get some rest for tomorrow. I called Charlie to make sure he was alright before I went to bed, and found that him and Billy were spending the night at Sue's house as she didn't want to be alone. As far as he knew, Seth and Leah were away visiting a relative. Jake had told me earlier that they wouldn't be able to go to their dad's funeral, as it was too risky in case one of them phased. I felt awful for the Clearwaters, but there was nothing anyone could do to help.

Jake was waiting for me in bed by the time I had finished speaking with Charlie, and held his arms open for me as I crawled up beside him. We slept soundly, and I found I was really getting used to our routine. I was definitely sleeping better with Jacob next to me.