They didn't see Emily again for days. She was avoiding them. At one time this would have made Sam happy, but now he couldn't wait to talk to her again, because he was confident that he was close to destroying the foundations of the imprint for good. Late at night, when his consciousness hovered on the border between waking and sleeping, he could see it. The cables of his imprint stretched out before him, and several of them had broken free. Their last conversation had managed the feat. One more discussion and it might be gone entirely.

Unfortunately, Emily seemed to know this as well as he did. She was screening her calls, and when he attempted to go to her apartment, she was either conspicuously absent or simply not answering the door. One night, frustrated by the sound of her breathing muffled through two sets of doors, he pounded on the frame until he heard her next-door neighbors debating whether they should call the police. He fumed, but he left silently.

In the meantime, he healed and spent as much time with Leah as possible. His grandmother had taken up residence in his childhood room at his mother's house, so he had moved back into the cabin. He still climbed Leah's trellis, but since the day he woke up in her room, she hadn't let him kiss her again. She greeted him with a smile and open arms, but when he tried to press his lips to hers, she ducked her head and hugged him instead. She allowed him to climb through to talk, but she didn't let him sleep in her bed. He again asked Leah to live in the cabin with him, but she said she wouldn't consider it unless the imprint was actually broken. The rejection stung, but he could hardly blame her. It would take more than a speech and a passionate kiss to regain her trust.

The pack also kept up a schedule of patrols, but the time commitment was nothing like it had been when Victoria's threat loomed. Sam took a disproportionate number of shifts since he was no longer in school. Leah did as well, although he was also startled to realize that she had started online courses in the winter semester. Her foray to Seattle had set back her education, but not irreparably. Sam couldn't say the same. He had no idea what he was going to do with the rest of his life, and he was stuck in limbo until Emily released him. He was afraid to ask Leah about her plans for fear that they didn't include him.

But that didn't mean she wasn't making them. After an uneventful daytime patrol, he arrived at the Clearwater house to find Jacob and Bella sitting in the living room with Seth and Leah.

Through the door, he could hear Leah saying, "It seems like tempting fate, doesn't it?"

Jacob answered, "Maybe, but I'm not interested in keeping everybody's lives on hold just waiting for something to happen. I mean, generations have passed in between packs. I think it's normal for nothing to happen. If vampire attacks were so common, they wouldn't be a secret. People would know about them."

Bella added, "Plus it's not like you're planning on moving across the country or something. If you needed to, you could be back here in a few hours."

Now Sam was alarmed. Was Leah leaving? He had barely gotten her back. Things weren't the same, of course, and he couldn't expect them to be after everything that had happened. He was certain that she still loved him, but then again, she loved him when she broke up with him. She had taken him back into her life, but while he once had difficulty opening his heart to her, now it was she who was guarded. She had been hurt too much not to protect her own heart. And though he never let a conversation pass without telling her he loved her, he had yet to hear her say the words in return. Every time he looked at her left hand, he couldn't help but notice the conspicuously naked fourth finger. Their engagement ring was sitting in his nightstand drawer, and he had not yet figured out how to give it back to her. He was afraid to propose again until he thought she would say yes. Now he was afraid that she was going somewhere without him, and he wouldn't get the chance.

He opened the door. "Hi guys? Am I interrupting something?"

Leah greeted him with a smile, but it wasn't his smile. It lacked the sweetness and joy that she used to have at the sight of him. "Of course not. Come on in. We were just talking about what to do now that Victoria's dead."

Jacob explained, "I don't think we need to keep such a big pack around. None of the kids have gotten any fevers since Seth."

"And I think that might have happened because Alice was in town to see Bella," Seth chimed in.

"Right," Jacob continued. "Nobody's had any weird growth spurts, either. I'm kind of hoping it's a sign."

Bella leaned closer to Jacob, where she felt safest. "I sure hope you're right."

Leah narrowed her eyes. "Why? Have you heard something?"

"Nothing like that." Bella wrung her hands. "It's just…"

"What is it, Bells?" Jacob pressed.

She bit her lip but answered, "I was trying to figure out if I should say anything. Carlisle called me again yesterday. You know, my dad never let me talk to him before, that day when Alice showed up and you guys left to look for Victoria. I wanted to, but my dad just hung up on him after he was done yelling. Alice only stuck around for a little bit after that. It was just long enough to convince my dad not to say anything to anybody about them, about vampires, and then she took off."

"Good," Leah frowned. "Good riddance."

Bella ignored the aside. "She left me her number, but I haven't called her. After the way they left us all here in danger, well, I didn't know what to say. And while you were gone I realized how much more I missed you than them." She glanced at Jacob, who smiled at her reassuringly. "But I guess they were still worried about me. So Carlisle called again to check on me, see how I was doing…" Bella had never been good at hiding emotions, and it was clear even to Sam, who did not know her very well, that there was something more.

"Bells, you gotta tell me," Jacob insisted. "They're not good for you. You know that. They're dangerous, and I have to keep you safe. I can't do that when I don't know what's going on. Are they coming back?"

She shook her head. "No, no. It's nothing like that. I don't think so, anyway."

"You don't think so?" Leah was skeptical. "You don't sound very sure."

"I know," Bella admitted. "It was just a really stressful conversation. It's just, well, it wasn't actually Carlisle. It just sounded like him."

Seth asked, "What do you mean? Who was it?"

Bella shifted to face Jacob and took his hands in hers. "I wasn't going to say anything because I didn't want to upset you. But there's this thing they can do. They can change their voices. It wasn't actually Carlisle. It was Edward."

Jacob pulled away and stood abruptly. "What? What the heck? What the hell did he want?"

"It's nothing, Jake, sit down." Bella tugged on his hand.

Jacob didn't move and Leah scoffed, "There's no way it's nothing. He up and disappears, leaving you in the middle of the woods no less, no contact for months, and then he just calls to say hi? I don't buy it."

"That's not what I meant," Bella explained. "He wanted to know how I was. He was worried about me. That day you guys left, that wasn't Carlisle on the phone either. It was also Edward. He just didn't want me to know he was checking on me. I guess he's been out of contact with the rest of the family for months. When Alice saw me on the edge of the cliff, when she left everybody else to come see me, Rosalie called Edward and told him I was in trouble. He called to see if I was alive, impersonating Carlisle, and you know what happened. My dad just reamed him out. He wasn't planning on talking to me again, seeing me again, until he just met up with the family recently. Alice told him about you, and he panicked. That's why. He was worried about me being with a werewolf."

Jacob started to pace with agitation. "Me? He's worried about me hurting you? Are you kidding? After he destroyed you and left you here with no protection, knowing Victoria was still out there..."

"About that," Bella interrupted. "He was trying to track her. That's where he said he was. In South America looking for her."

Leah burst out laughing. "Seriously? Is he the worst tracker in the history of the world? What an idiot!"

"Did you tell him what we did to her?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I did. Jake, please." Bella reached out for him, but he was still too angry. He wouldn't phase in front of her, but he was close to running out the door to make sure she stayed safe from him. "I told him what you all did for me. How you chased her off over and over, kept me safe, how you took care of every vampire she threw at us, how you all put everything on the line to hunt her down. He was really grateful."

"Good," Seth said. "He should be."

"Yeah," Leah agreed. "It was his mess we cleaned up."

Bella continued, "And I told him how disruptive the family's presence was to the whole pack, how you guys might not have phased at all if they hadn't lived here, how your lives got turned upside down."

Jacob finally stopped pacing. "What'd he have to say?"

"He said they should have thought about that before they came back here. I guess you're the only shifters they've ever encountered, and he said they shouldn't have come back to the one place in the country where they had a natural enemy."

Leah nodded. "I hope that means they stay away for good."

Jacob was staring at Bella. "Was that all, Bells? Did he say anything else?"

Bella's face crumpled. "Well..." she trailed off.

Jacob's voice wavered. "You have to tell me. It's important, isn't it?"

"Not to the pack," Bella mumbled.

Leah said quietly, "Just to you. What did he say to you?"

Bella's whisper was so low that a normal human would not have been able to decipher her words. The shifters around her had no problem. "He told me why he left. He only said those mean things to keep me from following him. He said he couldn't believe that I believed him, and he was sorry for all of it."

"Bullshit," Leah spat.

"LeeLee, let her finish." Sam put a hand on her arm before trying to maneuver between Bella and Jacob, who was shaking.

"What'd he say, Bells?" Jacob sounded terrified of the answer.

Bella focused her tearful eyes on Jacob. "That he loves me. That he never stopped. That he wants to take me away, to be together where it's safe..."

"Safe?" Jacob roared as Seth pulled him backward. But as angry as he was, Jacob wouldn't phase so close to Bella. From across the room, he yelled, "Safe from what? Me? Us? That bloodsucking prick has the gall to accuse us of being dangerous? He thinks he can sweep in after it's all over and take you away?"

Bella finally stood and crossed the room, pulling away from Leah, who, remembering the pain of being mauled by Sam, tried to stop her. She threw her arms around Jacob's waist and held him as tightly as she could. "He's not taking me anywhere, Jake. I told him no. He said he still loves me, that I'm the only girl in a hundred years that he'd ever felt this way about, that we're meant to be together. He told me that he'd take care of me forever, pay for college, buy me houses wherever I want, travel, show me the world, do anything I want. He asked me to come away with him. He begged me to leave, but I said no. I told him no, okay?"

Jacob stopped shaking and returned her embrace, trying not to squeeze her too tightly. "You did?" He didn't sound like he believed her.

"I thought about it, Jake. I won't lie. I mean, for so long I've been waiting for those words to come out of his mouth. I've waited for him to come back and take me away from everything, to make me special like him."

Now Jacob sounded heartbroken. "Bells, no, honey. You're the most special person anywhere ever. Don't you know that? Just like you are. You don't need to change a bit."

Bella shook her head against Jacob's chest. "Let me finish. You're not letting me finish. I thought about it, okay? I dreamed of exotic places, of being able to go anywhere and do anything. I didn't just want him. I wanted to be like him. Powerful. Beautiful. Brilliant."

Jacob interrupted again, "Bells, you already..."

Leah stopped him. "Let her finish."

Bella threw her a grateful glance. "You're not listening, Jake. I fell in love with the image of him that I'd built up in my brain. But I realized that that's all it was: a fantasy. He's not who I imagined him to be. If he had been, he'd never have left me in the woods. He'd never have destroyed me the way he did. He wouldn't have told me I wasn't good enough for him, and he wouldn't have taken his whole family away from me because he thought he knew better than me. I was in love with someone who never existed. For a second I thought that that didn't matter, because I had dreams, and he could make them come true. But it would be a lie. It wouldn't be real, just like everything between Emily and Sam was a figment of her imagination. Plus I thought about what I'd be leaving behind, and I couldn't do it. If I left, I knew I couldn't take you with me. I couldn't take my dad or my mom. And I can't leave you here, Jake. I can't leave you behind."

Jacob leaned down and held her close, squeezing his eyes shut. "Really?"

Her voice was muffled against his neck, but Bella answered, "Of course not. I can't leave you, Jake. You're too important. You're necessary. You're like the sun. My sun and no one else's."

Jacob beamed. "You mean it?"

"Of course! I'm not going anywhere."

"You'd better not."

Bella looked up at him. "You know how I knew? I thought about how it would kill me if you were with somebody other than me, but then I thought about what I want for him. It's the opposite. I mean, he hurt me badly, but I get it. I understand now. He meant well; he really did. Now that I know he still loves me, I feel better, but it's not what I want. I don't want him to love me like that anymore. I don't need to be patronized that way. I want him to find someone else, someone like him, and I want him to be happy. Without me. But you? I want you to be happy with me. I love you, Jake. You know that, don't you? I'm in love with you," she whispered.

Jacob's grin was huge. He picked Bella up and spun her around while she laughed. "I love you too. I love you too."

Leah smirked at the two of them. "I hope you told Edward that."

When Jacob finally put her down again, Bella nodded. "It's how I finally got off the phone. After I told him how I felt about Jake, that's when he finally said he'd let me go, as long as I'm happy."

Jacob tipped her chin up with his finger and kissed her deeply until Leah teased, "Get a room! A room outside my house!"

Jacob and Bella ran out the door giggling, and Seth shut it behind them. "Well, that was interesting."

"Hopefully it means the Cullens won't be back in a couple generations," Leah noted.

"Or ever. But it got us off topic," said Sam. He still wanted to know what they were talking about before he arrived. "You were talking about what's going to happen next?"

"Right," answered Leah. "I think Jake wants to see if things stay calm over the summer, keep up a basic patrol schedule, but see if we can let up next year."

Seth added, "He's not going to need everyone, hopefully."

"So I was thinking..." Leah began.

Seth shook his head. "You've decided, you mean. Mom's not going to let you make a different choice."

Sam's heart pounded in his chest. "Decided what?"

"UDub. I'm still going," she announced proudly.

Sam's heart dropped into his stomach. He knew he should be proud of her, and he was, but he couldn't help but feel that he was going to lose her all over again. "Wow, that's great," he said unenthusiastically.

"It is," she grinned. "Apparently my mom applied for a deferment on my behalf, and considering when our dad died, they said yes. Still the honors program and everything." She pointed to a stack of papers on the coffee table. "Apparently I qualify for more financial aid now, too, so we can actually afford it. I've got to fill that stuff out."

"That's really... Yeah." He wished he could muster up her enthusiasm, but he needed time. He had to figure out how to join her. Otherwise she would move on from him. She would meet someone else, someone who had never hurt her like he had, and she would grow up and apart from him. It would break his heart just when he thought he had managed to hold onto it.

He was contemplating excuses to follow her to Seattle when he realized she was still talking. "...so you should really talk to her. When was the last time you saw her?"

"Wait, huh?"

"Your mom," Leah repeated. "When was the last time you saw her?"

And then he felt terrible again. The imprint had destroyed his relationship with his mother and grandmother; their existence simply did not occur to him most of the time. "I dunno. Last week, maybe?"

"In passing, I bet. Did you talk to her?"

"Not really." He shook his head. "If I'm not here or on patrol, I've been at the cabin."

She rolled her eyes. "Sam, go talk to your mom." She turned him by the shoulders and pushed him toward the door.

"Wait, I thought maybe I could take you to dinner?"

"Not tonight. Tonight you're having dinner with your family."

"You are my family," he protested.

She grinned at him indulgently. "Tonight you will have dinner with your grandmother and your mother, who love you very much."

He knew it sounded almost pathetic at this point, but he swore he wasn't going to let any conversations pass without telling her. "I love you very much, LeeLee."

"I know," she chuckled and shut the door behind him.

Allison was shocked and thrilled to see him. If he hadn't been so strong, she would have knocked him over with the force of her hug. "Sammy! You're here! Grandma, look who's here!"

Grandma Uley looked as if she had aged a decade since he last saw her. She was bent over a walker and seemed to have shrunk a few inches, and her hair had gone completely white. But her eyes were sparkling as brightly as ever. "Oh my, to what do we owe the pleasure?"

"He'll want something to eat. You're in luck! I put a stew in the crockpot this morning." His mother rushed off to the kitchen.

He followed her in and his stomach grumbled loudly. "It smells amazing."

"It does, doesn't it?" She retrieved a small measuring bowl from the cabinet and poured him a generous helping that would still barely take the edge of his hunger. "So what brings you here?"

"Do I need an excuse to see my mom and grandma?"

Both women gave him pointed looks. His mother answered, "Of course not, but..."

He shrugged sheepishly. "Yeah, you're right. Leah sent me over."

His mother's eyes brightened. "Oh yes? How is she?"

"You should have brought her with you. I do love to see my Strawberry Girl," said Grandma.

Sam answered, "She's doing great. I was just over there, and she was talking about starting at UDub in the fall."

"How wonderful!" Grandma exclaimed. "It was such a shame the way Harry died so suddenly. Really seemed to tear her up for a while, and then, well..." Sam realized she was glaring at him.

"I know, Grandma. She shouldn't forgive me. I don't deserve it."

"Nonsense," Allison replied. She knew far more than his grandmother did, and she had never revealed anything. "You're meant to be together. Anyone can see that."

Grandma asked skeptically, "Does she still think so? She used to, but you really couldn't blame her if she changed her mind after everything, Samuel."

"No, you're right. You're right. She's talking to me, but we're not there. It's so different than it was before," he sighed, "when we had all our plans together. When we were going to go to school together and figure out what we wanted to do together."

Allison shrugged. "Life changes. You adapt. She loves you, you know that. And we know how you feel about her."

"The question is, does she?" Grandma asked.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "She knows."

"And?" Allison prompted. "Can we start planning that wedding again?"

He scratched the back of his neck. "Um, I hope so, but not quite. I mean, I still have to figure out what I'm going to do when she's in school next year. I can get a job in Seattle, don't you think? There's plenty of work there, right?"

"A job?" His mother quirked a brow. "Aren't you skipping right over something?"

"Uh..."

His mother and grandmother exchanged glances. "This is why you need to come home more often," Grandma muttered.

Allison asked, "Didn't Leah tell you?"

"Tell me what? She just told me to come see you."

Allison chuckled. "If it weren't for her, I'd have thought you fell right off the face of the planet."

"Keeps him in line," Grandma added. "But she left the good news for you to tell!"

He was so confused. "What good news?"

"Well," Allison reached for an envelope on the kitchen counter. "You know how Sue got a deferral so Leah could start college in the fall?" She handed it to him. The University of Washington logo was in the upper left hand corner. The seal was already open.

"Is this was I think it is?" he asked.

She grinned. "We didn't want to say anything because we didn't want to get your hopes up. But Sue encouraged me to do the same for you. We got a letter from the doctor about Grandma's health..."

"I needed a strapping young man to help me get around." Grandma winked at him and patted her walker.

He unfolded the letter and scanned it eagerly. "I can still go?"

"You damn well better," Allison answered.

"Can we still afford it?" he asked.

His mother frowned at him. "Can you please just enjoy this moment with me?"

He finally jumped out of his seat and pulled his mother off her feet. "Oh Mom, thank you."

He could hardly believe it. Despite the fact that this had been his goal for years, the past several months were so tumultuous, so chaotic, and so dangerous that he thought it was an impossibility. He thought that the dream was dead. Now it seemed that it was only delayed. Perhaps that was still true of his other dreams, as well.

X-x-x-x-X

As spring turned into summer, Sam continued attempting to coax a commitment from Leah, but with the imprint still tying him to Emily, she would not give him one. She let him come to her, take her out, hung out with him, held his hand, and eventually even gave him kisses that made his knees weak, but her body and her heart she kept for herself. He slept alone in the cabin, aching for her in more ways than one. She didn't speak to Emily again, stating that she had said her piece and would not give her cousin any more of her time or attention.

She gave him no further guidance as to what he should do, either. Emily continued to screen his calls and keep her door closed to him. When he ran into her at the Ateara's General Store, she ducked her head and walked away quickly. He tried to follow her to talk, but she only shook her head and looked afraid, and the dirty looks from other patrons kept him from pressing her further. He must have looked like he was threatening her. He wanted to tear his hair out in frustration.

Billy, Seth, and Jacob tried to speak with Emily on his behalf. Each of them told her that she had the power to free Sam. Jacob described in vivid detail the way the imprint had expelled him from his body. Seth told her how Sam had never stopped loving Leah. Billy talked of the fissures that had formed within the pack when it split, and he outlined the dangers to the community when its protectors were not in control of their own actions.

And Emily heard them. She listened to their arguments, she processed them, and she even believed them. Sam could feel it. The anchors of the imprint alternately strengthened or weakened with her changeable mood, but they never broke. It frustrated him to no end.

One day in June she showed up at the cabin unannounced. He had felt her agony all day long. She was hurting, and his imprint told him to go to her. He did not; Leah needed him more. It was Harry's birthday, and she, Seth, and Sue were at the cemetery. He had gone with them, somberly paying his respects to the man he considered a father. He held Leah as she cried into his shirt, and he wasn't able to hold back his own. He only left her side because his pants had been torn on a branch of the bush they had planted beside the headstone. He fully intended to change his clothes and rejoin the family; they were going to cook Harry's favorite food for dinner and invite his closest friends to celebrate him. When he felt Emily approach, he almost fled back to Leah. But he had been trying to talk to her for weeks, so he stayed. He opened the door before she had a chance to knock. "Emily."

"Sam! Oh! Are you going somewhere?"

He shook his head. "Come in." He carefully avoided touching her as she passed. He led her to the kitchen and pulled out a chair for her; he wanted something between them in case he felt the urge to hold her, and the table would have to do. "I've been trying to get a hold of you."

"I know." She looked at the wood grain instead of at him. "I'm sorry. I haven't been ready to talk."

"But now you are?" She didn't answer his question. "Are you also ready to listen?" She wasn't, not really. He could feel it in his gut. Perhaps she never would be, but he still had to try. "Well, thanks for coming anyway."

"Yeah, of course. It's the least I could do, right?" Her smile was thin, and she still wouldn't meet his eyes. She cleared her throat. "Um, did you hear what happened yesterday?"

"No, I was busy with some repairs on this place, and today I've been at the cemetery." At her blank look, he explained, "It was Harry's birthday today. Is everything okay?"

The look on her face told him that she didn't have a simple answer to his question. "Um, my mom came down to drop off my niece a couple days ago. I babysat."

"Okay." He failed to see why she was telling him this.

She was looking at a point above his shoulder. "Her name's Claire. She's two."

She didn't say anything more. "Right. And?"

"And I took her to the beach. A couple of the pack were there. Quil was there."

She had trailed off again. He prompted, "And?"

She went a little pale. "And he imprinted on her. He imprinted on my baby niece."

"Oh, shit." Sam leaned back in his chair and ran his hands through his hair. "What the hell, is she okay? Is he okay?"

"Um, I guess," she frowned. "It was really weird. He was hitting on these girls, and, you know, they were kind of eating it up. I waved at him and, well, you know..."

Sam was appalled. "Yeah. Fuck. She's two?"

"Yeah." She looked dazed. "Well, he just forgot about the girls he was talking to. Like, he literally forgot he was in the middle of a conversation. It was so creepy. He came over and introduced himself, but just to her, you know? He didn't say anything to me. Not one word. He pretended to get her nose, like that trick with your thumb? He did that. Then he pulled a coin out of her ear. It was... fun, I guess. But still. He wouldn't leave us alone the whole time we were there."

"Was he, you know, inappropriate?"

She stared at the ceiling. "No, not really. Not at all, actually. They built a sandcastle, and then he found some shells to put in it, and he let her bury him in the sand. Normal beach stuff you'd do with a kid, aside from the fact that they were perfect strangers."

"Yeah, but still. She's two?"

"I know! So I ran her back to her mom."

"How is she?"

She shook her head. "Fine, I guess. Just can't stop talking about her new friend. And I guess he's okay, but... well, I've been talking to people. Jacob said he's been in Quil's brain, and he swears there's nothing inappropriate going on. Just way too many thoughts about tea parties and kids' TV shows and stuffed animals."

"Wow." Sam would phase in as soon as he could to verify this. Whether or not it was the boy's fault, Sam would end him if he had a single questionable thought about the child. "I'll make sure, okay?"

She looked relieved. "Yeah. Thanks. So I've been talking a lot to people, and they've been trying to put things into perspective for me. I don't know if there's anything we can do, but I don't want this for her. How old is he, sixteen? Seventeen? It's sick."

"Yeah it is." It was the first thing they genuinely agreed on in a long time.

"So I've been talking to people, and we're thinking maybe they can nip this whole thing in the bud. Get her to let go of him before anything happens between them."

"That would be for the best," he agreed. "And you're here because..."

She crumpled. "It made me second guess... Sam, I'm so sorry about the way this all happened. I never wanted you to lose control. It sounds awful, what happened to you."

She paused, and he knew she was waiting for him to contradict her. Instead he said, "It's been rough."

"And you didn't deserve it. I know that. It's just, can you see it from my perspective?"

"Of course I can." The imprint ensured it. It forced him to see the world from her perspective at the cost of everything and everyone else. "I said things to you, lots of things... And then the elders told you that we were meant to be."

She raised her eyes to his, and they were still shining with hope. "Yes. That it was written in the stars. That the spirits gave us to each other. That I could be for you exactly what you'd need, and that for me, you'd be everything. They said that you and me, we'd be the next legend. Our love story would be the one told around the fire to younger generations."

He felt tugging in his chest. The loose cables of the imprint, the ones that had broken loose, were trying to find mooring. She was trying to take them back. He had to stop her while he still had voice to do so. "But you and I both know it's just a story. Any force that sticks your baby niece with a grown man, well..."

Her face fell. "I know. But you need to understand. When you pulled me aside at Uncle Harry's funeral, the things you said, and then later, the way you treated me, the way you took care of me, protected me..."

"I can see why you got so confused," he admitted. He struggled to say what he wanted. The imprint was trying to close his throat again. A noose formed around his neck. "It's just... I already told you more than once. Leah..."

Now she looked angry. "Her again. It always comes back to her. Why does she get everything she wants?"

"Everything she wants?" He was incredulous. "Did she want Harry to die? Vicious attacks from monsters? The chance to die a young and violent death? Her fiancé leaving her for her best friend? Her future ripped out from beneath her feet? What on earth are you talking about? When did she want any of that?"

"Before then!" she snapped. "Before all this. She's always had everything, her whole life. She gets the perfect boyfriend, girls love her and boys do too, she gets into the perfect school. She's beautiful, she's athletic, she's smart. She doesn't even have to try. It all just falls into her lap. Name me one thing she's ever had to do without!"

"Loyalty!" he blurted out. It was the answer to her question, so the imprint didn't even try to stop him. "She's basically perfect, but the people around her? You and me? She deserved better from us! And you think she didn't work for those grades? You think she didn't put in her hours studying and tutoring and volunteering and working her ass off to get into school? You think it all just happened? The University of Washington didn't pick her name out of a hat for her admission. She earned it! You think people love her for no reason? She was your friend, and you know how good she was to you. The pack cares about her because of what she does, how fierce she is, how brave. She put herself on the line again and again, and what she does she get in return?"

"I know, I know, okay? I get it! It's just... Why can't this one thing be mine!"

The room was silent as she realized what she had said, as he absorbed her thoughtless words. She put her hands over her mouth, but it was too late. The words had already escaped. He growled, "This thing? A thing? That's what I am to you? A thing to be used? Is that what Quil is going to be to Claire? A toy come to life?"

She looked appalled. "That's not what I meant. Oh, Sam. That's not what I meant at all."

He was furious. He stood and backed away from the table, pushing himself against the counter. He shook and grabbed the edge, crushing it to dust under his hand to keep himself from phasing where he stood. "No, that's exactly what you meant."

"I didn't..." She scooted her chair back, putting as much distance between them as possible.

The imprint was trying to silence him, but his anger was too strong, and Emily's confidence shaken. "You did." He focused his rage into words. "Why did you come here, Emily?" he growled.

She whispered, "Billy told me... He told me to ask you..." her voice trailed off.

That was it. It was so close. He could end things, here, now, if only she would listen. The imprint fought him. It desperately tried to take over. His vision began to dim and the room began to spin. He forced out, "Ask me what? What did Billy say?"

"He told me to ask you for the truth. The whole thing, he said, unvarnished honesty. He said I deserved to know the truth so I could make up my own mind."

He could hardly stay upright from the force of the imprint. He felt himself being pulled from his body. "And is that what you want?"

Hesitantly, she said, "Yes," and he snapped back into himself. The noose loosened, and he could speak.

"Good. Because I need to say this. I tried to tell you before, but you refused to listen. This time pay attention. Imprinting basically gives you the powers of an Alpha over me. And it happens whether or not you're even trying, unlike the Alpha. Jake can pick and choose when he gives an order. Otherwise he's just talking, and it's like anybody else talking, and when he makes a suggestion, it's just a suggestion unless he specifically makes it an order. But not imprinting. All you have to do is want something, and I have to do it. Around you, I say things I don't mean. I do things I don't want to do. It's not fair to me because I lose control over everything, and no matter how hard I try, I can't stop. The only reason I'm telling you the truth right now is because you asked for it. It's not even conscious on your part, I don't think. You're not trying to do this to me, but it happens anyway. So I need you to hear me. My life is on the line."

Her bottom lip trembled, but all she said was, "Okay."

"It's worse than losing my mind, do you see? If I had lost my mind, maybe I wouldn't know how miserable I am. But instead I'm trapped inside, screaming, but you're not listening. You need to understand that I don't want this. I never did. If I ever said anything different, it was the imprint talking, not me. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to hurt you, but I'm not in love with you, and I never was."

Tears began to fall from her eyes. He felt bad for making her cry, but his harsh words were necessary, and he had lost all patience with her after he told her that he wanted Leah, and her inability to accept it had expelled him from his body. He deserved to speak, and she needed to know. He couldn't let any miscommunications occur when he finally had control of his words. "Why? Why am I not enough?"

He shook his head. "You're too selfish. You don't respect me at all, and you're not willing to figure me out. You don't listen. But even if you did, that wouldn't be enough. It's not about being good enough, or pretty enough, or smart enough, or any of that. I'm too in love with Leah, and I always have been. She and I have history that I'll never have with anyone else. We've been through things together, and that can't be replaced. There's no substitute for it. Not just the insanity of the last few months, not just phasing, the pack, the battles, the monsters; she's always been there for me. From the beginning. But what's between us, you and me, it isn't built on anything. It's an illusion. Maybe I wouldn't have known if I hadn't already experienced the real thing, but I have, so I know that this isn't it. I think maybe you can't tell how unreal this is because what's between us, even if it's all fake, it's still better than what you were comparing it to. It was better than what you had before. And the imprint gave you the power to paint a picture of what you wanted in your mind, and I'd have to make it come true. If it was real, then that would be great for you. But it isn't. The whole thing is fake. Plus it's at the cost of Leah, and she's everything to me, and I just won't do it. No one else matches me the way she does. No one else ever could. She just means too much to me. The last time we talked, you said that I didn't love her because I never said it. But I said it to you, so that must be true. Well, it's not fair to you, but the words that came out of my mouth weren't mine. Not when I send them to you. They weren't real until I said them to Leah."

She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue pulled from her pocket. "You told her? You finally said it?"

"Yeah. Maybe it was too late, I don't know. But I said it the first second I was able. Normally the imprint doesn't let me say what I mean, not with her, but I managed it. Then, and every day in between."

"So that's it?" she sniffed. "You just want her? Is she taking you back?"

He held up his hands helplessly. "I don't know. We're talking, and she'll let me take her out, and I'm trying to convince her. I don't know what she's going to decide in the long run, but it doesn't even matter. I love her. That's it. I want to get married, and have a family together, and get old and gray and wrinkled together, but I'll still love her if she never wants to talk to me again. If she never looks at me again, it won't matter. I'm still going to love her. Forever. I'll be some old, pathetic bachelor, still in love with his sweetheart, even if she's long gone. I'm not capable of stopping. If it was possible, the imprint would have stopped me, but it couldn't. I've always loved her and I always will."

She was struggling to keep herself together. "And what am I supposed to do?"

"You? You can do anything you want. You don't need me any more than you need that asshole Mark."

She actually smiled through her tears. "He is kind of an asshole, isn't he?"

"Yeah. You can do better than him, trust me."

"Just not you, right?" Her voice was small.

He pulled down the collar of his shirt to expose his mark. "I'm already taken, very happily so." He dropped his hand. "Plus Leah's always telling me you'd be way better off alone than with a guy like Mark. Don't you think maybe she's right?"

Emily rolled her eyes. "She doesn't know what she's talking about. She's always got guys drooling over her. She's never had to be alone. She doesn't know what it's like."

He clenched his jaw. "You and I broke her heart over and over. I don't think you're going to win that particular competition."

She sighed. "I know, I get it. I really wasn't trying to hurt her, I swear. I didn't understand."

"But you can't use that excuse anymore," he pressed. "Now you know everything, and if you go on hurting her, I'll never forgive you."

Her lip trembled again, but she couldn't use tears to stop him. Not anymore. "You really mean that, don't you?"

He nodded somberly. "I do. Please, you have to let me go. You have to break this imprint."

Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. "How? I don't understand. I haven't bothered you in weeks. I haven't asked anything from you. What more am I supposed to do?"

He looked into her heart, and he could see that it was already working. With every word he spoke, the chains were slipping loose, sliding free of their bearings, because the illusions upon which she founded her ill-conceived dreams were dissolving beneath her feet.

He moved to kneel beside her, and she looked down at him. She thought he would take her hand, but he was careful not to touch her. Instead he gestured between them. "You understand, you realize that there's nothing here, nothing between us, nothing but lies. This imprint is just a curse, not just to me, not just to the pack, but to you too. Because as long as you're holding onto it, you're holding onto something hollow. Something empty. And if you choose to embrace this lie, it won't just destroy me. It will destroy anything true that you still have. You owe it to yourself to see what's really out there for you, to find out who you really are. If you choose to keep a hold of this, if you choose to keep the imprint, you'll do it knowing that I don't actually love you, and that I never will. That knowledge will eat at you. It'll drive you mad. So let it go, and let me go. Do it for both of us. Do it for Leah. Hell, do it for Claire, so that she knows she's not stuck with Quil for the rest of her life. Don't you see how wrong it is? Maybe he's just building sand castles with her today, but what about 10 years from now? When she's starting to turn into a woman, and she starts to develop a crush on her best friend, this guy who's a grown man? What about when she's 13 and she dreams about kissing him because he still looks like a teenage boy? Do you understand that? He'll be more than twice her age, and she'll still be a child, but if she decides she wants him, he'll just have to give in. Is that what you want for her? Does that make you think that the spirits know what they're doing?"

"Of course not!" She was truly crying now, taking gasping breaths in between sobs. He could read it on her face, the horror, the disgust. And even if he couldn't see that, he could feel it. This was it. The imprint was grabbing at him, trying to twist his words, trying to move his limbs, but it was too late. She had decided. "Okay! You win, okay? Or Leah wins, or whatever. But you can go. You don't owe me anything. Whatever was between us, good or bad, right or wrong, truth or lies, it's over. It's over."

And it was. In that moment, the cables that bound him to Emily swung free, because the coals upon which they were moored cracked and turned to useless ash. They flailed wildly for a second, searching for something to hold onto, but it was too late. She had made up her mind, and she would not take them back. One by one, each cable unraveled, strand by strand, until there was nothing left but a tangled mess. "Thank you, Emily," Sam said. He gave her the most honest smile he had ever turned her way. She looked at him, saw the gratitude on his face, and she nodded, holding back the rest of her tears until she was alone.

The imprint was gone, and Sam was free.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks again to Babs81410.