Embry's POV
"If we all understood that everyone has their own battles to fight, insecurities to face, loves to contend, and goals to attain, the world would be a gentler place." -Uknown
Her laugh. Her smell. Her beauty. As we danced through the meadow I once found so long ago while on a night shift, that's all my mind could focus on. She was wearing a big baggy sweatshirt, skinny jeans, and combat boots, her long dark blonde hair was down and flowing. She was wearing no makeup except the slight blush on her cheeks from the cold. She looked like she just rolled out of bed, but she couldn't look more beautiful.
Her small, delicate hand rested on my shoulder, her other one held tightly in mine. My hand rested at her waist, our chests almost pressed together.
The white smile on her face stretched from ear to ear, making me want to smile even bigger than I was already. She wasn't looking at me in the eyes, instead she looked at her feet.
Sensing her shyness I stopped our dancing and used my finger to lift her chin so that she would look at me in the eyes. Her beautiful blue eyes met my brown ones, and I felt my heart leap in my chest.
Her face was only inches away from mine, and I felt it getting closer and closer. Soon our foreheads were touching, and I felt my heart speed up. Thump. Thump. Thump. Hard against my chest.
"I love you," I whisper to her, "I'm so glad I have you in my life."
After a few moments after I say it she doesn't say anything back. She just continues to stare back up at me, her smile gone from her beautiful face. I'm about to ask her what's wrong, but I don't know how to address her. I don't know her name. It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't force it out my mouth.
She leans up to kiss my cheek and when she pulls away I can see the smile back on her face causing me to smile to. She rests her forehead back on mine, and we just stand there gazing into each other's eyes.
I play with her fingers and when I'm done she wraps them around my neck, making me shiver. She plays with my hair, running her fingers through it and places her hands back on the back of my neck. They're cold from the weather, but I don't mind.
I take my hands and place them on either side of her face, making her shiver. She takes her hands from the back of my neck and places them over mine. I don't know what I'm doing, but before I second guess myself I lean down and she leans up and our lips are about to touch before:
"Come on, Em, snap out of it!" Paul yells in my mind.
My dream crashes and the mystery girl disappear. I gain back focus and open my eyes, looking at the dark silver wolf standing in front of me.
"Sorry, Paul," I mumble.
"Daydreaming again?" He mocks, giving me a smirk.
"Shut up, Paul!" I yell, annoyed, shoving past him and walking in the other direction.
"If you didn't want me knowing about your secret fantasies then maybe you shouldn't be thinking about that stuff," he says catching up to me, walking at my side.
I mutter something under my breath and say annoyingly, "You shouldn't be reading my mind in the first place."
He gives a short laugh, "Kind of hard not to do, wouldn't you say, considering I need to read your mind to communicate with you?"
"Well you only need to read my mind to communicate with me. All the…other stuff you don't need to poke your nose into."
He laughs, and I give him an angry glare when I see the thoughts that went through my head go through his, "Lay out of my business," I growl.
"You really think the elders are going to allow you to fall in love with some girl without imprinting?" He says walking faster to stand in front of me, causing me to stop in my tracks.
"I'm hoping they will," I growl, "I don't need to imprint to find my soul mate."
"Embry, just face the facts. If you haven't imprinted by now, you're not going to."
"Your point?" I mumble.
He sighs, "My point is is that I know how much you want to imprint but in reality your fates already decided for you once you join this pack. It's just not in the cards for you, Em."
Like I didn't know that? I think angrily to myself, noticing that Paul can hear everything I'm thinking.
"I know you're sick of hearing it Embry, but someone has to tell you. So stop having these ridiculous fantasies about this girl you don't know, alright?"
It not like I can help it. I can't get her out of my mind. I don't think that though. I don't want him giving me crap. Instead I just stand there not looking at Paul in the eyes.
This isn't the first time one of the guys has caught me fantasizing about this mystery girl. In fact, this isn't even the second time, or the third time, or the fourth time that one of the guys has caught me. This is more like the hundredth time. I don't know why I kept fantasizing about her. Asking people if she looked familiar, driving my motorcycle miles and miles to find her. She didn't live here, she probably wasn't even real. I'm such a love-struck idiot.
What's even worse is that every time Sam, Paul, Jared, or Quil read my mind while I'm daydreaming they'll give me this big long speech about imprinting and how I probably won't imprint. None of the guys think I will. Paul used to make jokes that it was because I care so much that I won't imprint, but in all honesty I don't want to imprint. I want a normal, real relationship with a girl I love without being forced to because of some crazy werewolf tradition.
It's not like Sam, Paul, Jared, Jacob, and Quil aren't in love with their imprintees, sure they are, but it's not the same love you read about in books or see in movies.
I've never told any of the guys that I don't want to imprint. It's one of the only secrets I've managed to keep through this whole experience.
"You're daydreaming again," Paul says annoyed.
I snap out of my thoughts and immediately turn my attention back to Paul.
"If you don't like," I growl pushing past him, "Then stay out of my head."
"I'm just stating the facts, Em," he says catching up to me.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I mumble not wanting to talk about it any longer, "Where's Sam anyways?"
He gives a short laugh, "Probably out with Emily, his imprintee," He hisses the last part and I roll my eyes and continue to walk forward.
I'm not arguing with Paul. Sam probably is out with Emily, Sam's girlfriend…no fiancé now. Also his imprintee. As I'm not arguing with Paul as if he were to say that Jared was probably out with Kim because he was. He is 95% of the time. As is Quil with Claire and Jacob with Renessmee.
My two best friends sucked into the world of imprinting.
The only reason Paul wasn't out with Rachel is because she's spending the day with her dad. Rachel is Jacobs's sister and twin sister of Rebecca who lives in Hawaii, I think, after she met some guy and they got married shortly after. Jakes mom died a while ago so it's just him and his dad most of the time, Billy, but after Rachel returned home from college early, she was walking on the beach, Paul and her encountered each other, bada-bing, bada-boom, love. As what happened with everyone else. Love at first sight is what everyone tells me, but stronger as Sam would always add at the end.
"Hey guys!" an excited, cheerful voice cuts off my thoughts, "Where are ya? Oh don't tell me, I know, I know!"
Paul and I stop where we are and five minutes later a small, sandy colored wolf comes barreling out of the woods, running up to us, a wide wolfy grin on his face.
"What's up, Seth?" Paul asks with a grin on his face.
"Just checking to see if I need to do anything," he says, still smiling.
Seth, one of the youngest wolfs in our pack, is always excited to help out if needed. He always shows up hours early to the meetings and night shifts. He always has the biggest smile on his face, even if our lives are on the line.
Edward, Bella's wife, Jacob's former love, once said that Seth had one of the purest, most sincerest minds he's ever read. Yeah, Edward reads minds. Sometimes he even reads my mind and then occasionally comes up to me and asks me questions about my daydreams. It's embarrassing to say the least but Edward is actually the only person that knows that I don't want to imprint. That I can trust not to tell anyone else that I don't want to be sucked into the world of imprinting.
"Hey Em," he says giving me a bigger smile.
Seth and I have always been close. We were the only five werewolves' left that haven't imprinted on anyone. Considering Seth was only fourteen, Collin and Brady were only thirteen, and Leah was a girl, they still had a chance of imprinting. Me. I was out of chances.
"Hey Kid," I say forcing a smile onto my face.
"What's up?" He asks, still that goofy grin on his face.
"Sam old, same old," I say shrugging.
"Daydreaming again?" He laughs cocking his head to the side.
"Shut up," I mumble as both he and Paul laugh their wolf asses off.
"Can't we just get going, I think I heard Sam," I say walking past both of them.
I hear them both continue to laugh, and I run through the woods fast trying to get as far away from them as possible.
"Come on, Em, we were just joking," I hear Paul chuckle in my mind.
"Shut the hell up," I growl not wanting to talk to anyone.
"Please, Em," I hear Seth beg, and I almost stop in my tracks, but I force my legs to keep going. Even Seth couldn't stop me from being mad right now.
"No, Seth," I say pain in my voice, "I need to be alone right now. I'll see you tonight."
I don't hear them say anything else, so I keep running until I reach my backyard and transform back into my human form, changing into a pair of cut offs and a blue t-shirt with white sleeves that are elbow length that I keep in a nearby tree for occasions like this.
I run through my backyard and into the front yard seeing my mom's car in the driveway. She must have gotten home early from work.
"Shit," I mutter.
Hesitantly I walk through the front door, closing it quietly behind me. I tiptoe about five feet before my mom stops me, "Embry Call, where were you?" She demands.
"Shit," I mutter again before turning around seeing her standing a few feet behind me, her arms crossed over her chest.
"I was just out for a walk," I shrug.
She sighs and comes over to me, reaching up to rest her palm on my cheek. Her hands freezing cold against my burning skin, "Embry, what's wrong?"
"Mom," I mutter, pulling my cheek away from her palm, "I've told you this a million times, everything's fine. I'm fine."
I hated lying to my mom.
Especially since it was just her and me. My mom and I have never had the best relationship. Ever since I changed and started to do late shifts I've been having to escape late at night through my bedroom window and when my mom would come in late from her late shifts at the hospital and check on me, I would be gone.
The first time I left late at night she had called the police thinking I ran away. Sam heard the police outside my house and immediately told me my mom was looking for me, so I had to come back through the window, and when my mom demanded where I was all night I had to lie and tell her I had went for a long night walk.
She believed me the first few nights, but then she started to get worried that I had insomnia and took me to a doctor who told her everything was fine with me.
After a few more nights of escaping, she grounded me, but I kept leaving anyways. Sam told me he would help tell my mom if that made me more comfortable, but I told him it wasn't necessary. This secret was too big to tell.
So every night since I've changed I've left my house late at night and went to late shifts to be with the pack. Every night when I would return home my mother would be sitting in my room waiting for me, tears in her eyes. She would ground me countless times. I'm technically grounded for life now.
Seeing her crying on my bed, waiting for her one and only son to return home made my heart break every time. I didn't want her thinking she was a bad mother because she wasn't. She worked hard to raise me and as far as mothers go did a pretty good job. She just wouldn't understand what's going on in my life right now.
Tears had just begun to form in her eyes and she reached up again to touch my warm cheek. As werewolf's we had unusually warm skin. Also, before I changed I was all skin and bones, no muscle. Now muscles corded my body and that's basically all I am.
Being the tallest and skinniest of the pack, despite my muscle, some of the other boys looked down on me. Especially Paul and Sam. At 6'5" I was the same height as Sam but while Sam was big and tall, a leader, I was tall and lanky, a leader trapped inside a follower's body.
At first my mom thought I was taking steroids, but I told her I had just begun working out after school. Can't believe she believed that one.
"Embry Hun, are you sure you're feeling alright? You're feeling warm again," she says putting both her palms on either side of my face, so I was forced to look into her eyes. We had the same chocolate brown eyes that my mother used to tell me when I was younger would make any girl swoon one day. Seeing I didn't have a girlfriend and never would imprint, I have a feeling she just told me that to tell me that.
"Yeah mom, I feel fine," I say reaching up to put my hands on top of hers, "I'm just feeling a little warm."
"Do you want some aspirin, Hun?" She asks, her thumb now stroking my cheekbone.
I nod and she takes her hands off my face and walks over to the kitchen cabinet. Sighing in relief, I walk over to the kitchen island, resting my forearms on the countertop. My mom is reaching up into the highest cabinet on her tiptoes to get the aspirin bottle.
My mom's always been pretty short. She was probably around 5'2" and very petite. She always puts her long black hair in a ponytail that reaches about mid-back. As a kid teachers always told me I looked exactly like my mom, but I didn't see it. We may have the same colored hair, skin, and eyes, but other than that we were nothing alike. She's never told me this, but I must have gotten my personality and physical features from my dad.
But heck that I'd know. I've never known my dad. He wasn't dead or anything, he just has never been around. Sixteen years ago when my mom got pregnant with me she moved here to La Push. She's originally from the Makah tribe, but as the guys and all the elders have told me she had an affair with a La Push man and moved here in hopes of marrying him, but when she got here she found him happily married with kids. She couldn't go back so instead she just stayed here.
The guys, especially Leah, love to bring up the fact that I was a mistake child. In reality though, I guess I was a mistake. Since the werewolf gene runs through generations of Uleys, Blacks, and Clearwater's and my mom isn't one of those, or related to one of those people, the man my mom had an affair with is either Joshua Uley, Billy Black, or Harry Clearwater all married at the time.
My mom has never told me though who was my dad, and I could never ask her. The elders and everyone else say its Joshua Uley though. He was never much of a dad to Sam, abandoned him at a young age, so they said it was a possibility that he might have gone to the Makah tribe and hooked up with another woman.
The possibility that I tore apart another family makes me want to throw up every time I hear or think about it.
My mom finally finds the aspirin bottle, opens it, takes out two tablets, fills a cup with water, and sets the items in front of me.
I take the pills in my hand and put them into my mouth, quick washing it down with a gulp of water. The water feels cool and refreshing down my throat and I drink till there's no more left. Even though the pills won't do anything because I really didn't feel sick and because I'm a werewolf and we heal automatically, making us never sick, they still make me feel a little better.
I set the cup back down on the countertop and my mom takes it and puts it in the dishwater. She comes back over to me, so that's she standing to my side, and I turn to her.
"Do you feel any better?" She asks resting her hand on my forehead.
"Y-Yeah," I stutter, "I-I think I'm just going to go to bed, I'm not really feeling well."
"You do look a little pale, you sure there's nothing else you need?" She asks concern in her face.
I shake my head, "N-No, I think I just need a good night's rest."
"Alright, Hun. I'll see you in the morning, goodnight." She says reaching up to kiss my cheek.
"Goodnight, mom," I say attempting to give her a reassuring smile before walking down the hall and into my room, closing the door behind me.
Breathing hard, I rest my back against the back of the door. Sweat is running down my face, and I feel my shirt stick to my back and stomach.
I feel the same as when I first transformed. I was 15 years old, a freshman in high school. My mom and I had gotten in a big argument about school and my friends, and I had run away into the woods in pure anger. My skin felt as though it was on fire and there was a loud painful pounding in my head. Bomb. Bomb. Bomb. Like cannons going off in my skull. In pure frustration I threw my fist against a tree and watched as it broke and fell over. Scared, I backed up until I tripped over a twig and fell to the ground shaking in sobs.
Soon my head felt better, and I stood up and walked back to my house collapsing in my bed.
My mom took me to the doctor the next day and they diagnosed me with mono, the kissing disease. I got about a million questions after that from my mom, but since I didn't have a girlfriend at the time I told her I must have gotten it from something else.
You're supposed to stay home when you have mono but the doctor said that since it wasn't serious I could go to school. The next three days went fine until one day in math the pain in my head became unbearable, and I ran out of the room and outside into the woods nearby. I got far enough that I finally had to stop, and I collapsed to the ground on my knees, my whole body shaking.
I closed my eyes and let out a blood curdling scream as I felt my spine bend back, a spasm rippling through my whole body. Then my spine bent back forwards and the next minute I know I'm standing on four legs. I reopen my eyes to a whole different sight. Everything's in different colors and for a minute I feel as though I'm in a dream. I stumble back, confused, only to find that I'm really standing on four legs, hair covering my whole body.
I'm a wolf, I panic continuing to stumble back until I hit a tree, No, this can't be happening. These things just don't happen.
"Embry, calm down," I hear a voice in my brain.
"W-What, what's going on?" I demand shocked.
"Embry, its Sam," the voice, now identified as Sam, says.
I knew about Sam because that's all the elders talked about. How great Sam was, and how Sam was going to be a great tribal leader someday. The guys and I tried to stay away from Sam and his little gang as much as we could. I hated them more then both Quil and Jacob combined, so I didn't want anything to do with them.
But now it's though Sam and I have been friends for years. All that unknown anger and frustration I have towards him melts, and I cling to him as though I'm sinking in the ocean and he's the only life raft nearby.
"Sam?" I say confused, "What's going on? How are you in my brain? How are you speaking to me? Where are you?"
"Embry," Sam commands gently, "I need you to calm down for me, can you do that?"
"How am I supposed to calm down?" I demand, "I'm a wolf, how am I a wolf?"
"Embry," he says louder this time, "I'm a wolf to. Me, Paul, Jared, we're all wolfs."
"What?" I ask astonished at what I'm hearing, "What's going on?"
"Embry, I need you to stay there, alright? I'll be there in a few minutes and explain everything to you. I know you're scared, but I'm going to help you, alright?"
"Alright," I say uneasily.
A few minutes later Sam shows up, in his wolf form, and tells me everything. I was scared at first, hearing all this weird, unbelievable information, but it all started to make sense after a while. Sam told me that I needed to control my anger, so I wouldn't burst into my form out of control and hurt anyone.
It was nice of Sam to help me because no one helped him. I once told him thank you, but he said it wasn't necessary, he knew what I was going through and wanted to help me any way he could. Thinking about it now I don't know if he did it because there's a chance we might be half-brothers or because he was really a nice guy, but I would like to think it was because he was a nice guy, which he was.
It wasn't hard for me to control my anger. I think I only burst out of control a few times at first, but soon controlled my anger completely. I remember staying home from school, telling my mom the mono was getting worse, and soon I started to feel better.
I avoided my friends though, as Sam told me to do. I knew I was worrying Jacob and Quil, but as Paul told me they would transform soon. Hearing that from him in the voice he used made a chill go down my spine. I didn't want my friends to have to go through what I was going through, but when they transformed we would all get to hang out again.
The next month Jacob transformed, and Sam went through the same process as he went through with me. It was different with Jacob though. Jacob was supposed to be Alpha, but he gave it up to Sam.
My mom soon started to get concerned about the friends I was hanging out with and commanded me to stop spending time with them, but I couldn't. I lied to her and told her I would stop hanging out with them, but I didn't.
A few months later Quil transformed, then Seth, then his sister Leah, becoming the first female werewolf ever. It was weird having a girl in the group, considering she once dated Sam, but after Emily Young, her cousin came Sam imprinted on her and him and Leah had to break up, leaving her devastated.
We've all heard her bitch and moan about it, but we've dealt with it I guess. Like me, Leah also didn't want to imprint, as she told us a million times. Maybe that's why I put up with her because I understood what she meant.
Snapping out of the memory I shake my head and pull myself off the door, standing up straight. I walk over to my bed and sit down, putting my face in my hands, resting my elbows on my knees. I breathe in as Sam once told me to do to stop myself from getting to mad and look at my bedside clock.
10:15 it reads. I hear my mom's door close to her room and know that I should be heading out to work my late shift. The uneasiness still in my stomach, I stand up and walk over to my window, taking off the lock my mom put on it with a paperclip and opening it. Cold La Push air hits me but doesn't affect me.
"I'm sorry, mom," I whisper before hopping out of the window, closing it behind me, and running into the woods.
When I reach far enough into the woods, I strip out of my clothes, folding them and placing them into a nearby tree before transforming into my wolf form. I quickly shake out the uneasiness before running further into the woods, to the spot where we always met.
Everyone was standing in a circle waiting for me when I arrived, and I walked up and stood beside Seth.
"Embry!" Seth greets me happily, "We didn't think you were coming."
"Hey Kid, of course I'm coming. I just needed to finish up some things at home, that's all." I say shrugging.
"Trouble with your mom?" Sam asks, his black Alpha eyes connecting with my brown ones.
I shake my head and shrug, "It's not important right now."
"Embry, if you need help telling your mom we can help you-" Sam starts to say, but I cut him off.
"I'm fine," I say forcefully, but shake it off and force a smile onto my face, "So, what's on the agenda for tonight?"
"Just the usual defending our land from bloodsuckers, you in?" Sam asks giving me a sadistic grin.
I give him the same wolfy grin back, "Why else would I be here?"
A Note From The Author:
Sorry for the long chapter :/ haha. I decided to make this chapter super long to answer a lot of questions about this new character I'm bringing into the story. I hope you guys like this little change in direction for now. Thanks always for reading, appreciate it greatly :) Ave Atque Vale.
What Songs I was listening To While Writing/Editing This Chapter:
Give Me Love- Ed Sheeran
Stars -Grace Potter & The Nocturnals