A/N: Thank you to Jezebel Jai-Braxlin for beta reading this chapter.
May 24th, 2008
Quil and Embry's joint birthday party had also turned into a graduation party for the wolves and Kim who had finished high school days before. Graduation usurped any birthday celebration Embry and Quil would be having otherwise.
For their part, Embry and Quil didn't care. All of them were too wound up knowing they were finished with high school forever to worry about anything else.
I hadn't been at the ceremony. Hardly anyone from the pack had. We would have been too conspicuous, so the party was making up for it.
Embry's mom looked more excited than anyone. She was acting surprised that Embry had graduated after his sneaking out and gang activities. I was surprised she was even here. She hadn't come to his birthday party the year before, and I'd assumed she was too nervous around the pack. Years later, and she still didn't know the truth.
But now that Embry had made it through school pretty okay, she was acting more relaxed about the pack. She wasn't looking particularly thrilled to be around us, but she didn't act scared. Maybe she'd sat back and realized Embry was one of the least scariest people on the planet. The people he was hanging out with couldn't be much worse. Especially Quil and Jake considering she'd known them since they were little. At some point, she would have to start trusting Embry's judgment of who he spent his time with.
Not that he'd had much choice in the matter after phasing, but she didn't know that. The least she could do was give him the benefit of the doubt.
It didn't take long for me to wind up sitting beside Embry. He was watching his mom, who was talking to my own mom and looking at ease with her surroundings.
Embry glanced over at me as I sat down, but his eyes went right back to his mother.
"It's weird," he admitted. "I didn't expect her to come when I told her about the party."
"Her child graduated from high school. Why wouldn't she want to celebrate it?"
Embry did something that was both a shrug and a shake of his head.
"She's never wanted to be around the pack before. Not that I've invited her that much. I was too worried she'd get suspicious. More suspicious than she already is, I mean."
"I still think you don't give her enough credit. She could take it if you laid it on her."
"I don't want her to have to take it. You're supposed to be on my side with that, Ms. I-Want-To-Be-Normal."
I waved off Embry's comment. "I gave up on being normal a long time ago, Embry. We have to accept that our lives are always going to revolve around the supernatural. Your mom's will too. Better for her to know about it than continue to live in the dark about what's all around her. All the other parents have taken it well. Even Charlie, and you remember how crazy Charlie was right after he was told."
"That was more to do with the fact Jake stripped and phased in front of him with no prior explanation."
I poked him in the side. "You're making my point. Just take that experience as how not to tell your mom that you turn into a giant wolf."
"I would like to point out that Charlie still gets tongue-tied and shifty when anyone brings up vampires or wolves. He may know, but it doesn't stop him from pretending things are normal."
"What he prefers most is probably his daughter not lying to him anymore."
"Different," Embry countered. "Bella couldn't have kept being around Charlie unless he knew. My mom already sees me, so that's not a problem. Plus, there was Nessie. Charlie wouldn't have been able to know Nessie if he hadn't known things were up. How do you explain a girl who grows ridiculously fast? I don't have that problem."
Deciding that arguing about this wasn't worth it, I shrugged. "Whatever you think is best. It's your decision."
"You could say that in a bit more convincing voice."
"You know what I think. If you disagree, you're the one who has to make the decision."
Embry shook his head and sighed. "If you're going to make me talk about something I don't want to talk about, then I'm going to do the same for you. I want to talk about imprinting again."
"We've talked this to death."
"We haven't talked about it in months."
"You have a theory. I don't necessarily agree or disagree with your theory. What I do disagree with is bothering to guess about something we're never going to know for sure. That hasn't changed since the last time."
Embry was quiet, but I didn't for a minute believe he had given up. Something was driving him to get me to agree with this theory, and I could tell he was preoccupied with the thought. I was starting to think he had an unhealthy obsession with imprinting. It was definitely worse than I had, yet no one ever bothered Embry about the topic. Perhaps it was because Embry kept his thoughts concealed, or perhaps it was because my own struggles with imprinting had involved lashing out. Either way, I was surprised no one had ribbed Embry yet about his apparent romanticism where imprinting was concerned.
It was strange to me that one of the unimprinted wolves would have the most romanticized view of imprinting while the imprinted ones were content to stick with the practical mating theory. I wasn't sure if it was a case of things looking brighter from the outside or if it was Embry's personality. Either way, I wished he'd stop bringing it up to me. I preferred not going on about things I couldn't control. No matter what caused imprinting, we'd never know.
Claire streaked by in front of us, laughing loudly. Nessie followed, slowing her speed and letting Claire run in front of her. Their wolves weren't far behind, chasing them and pretending to be monsters or something.
I knew Embry was watching them like I was.
The biggest bone I would give Embry about imprinting, one I wouldn't say out loud because I would be heard, was that thinking about it in terms of mating was unsettling when it came to Quil and Jake. Embry had pointed out in the past that we had no idea if Nessie would be able to bear children when she stopped aging, and I thought he was taking that as the true test of his theory. One that wouldn't be answered for years.
Either way, thinking that Quil and Jake had imprinted on young girls so they could grow up and bear their babies weirded me out. Okay. Thinking about it on soulmate, not reliant on reproducing, terms was still strange but better. It didn't go quite as far in a worrisome direction.
Even after all the time that had passed, I didn't like dwelling on the ins and outs of those two imprints much. Quil's imprint had started off as an anomaly, but once Jake imprinted on a baby too, I'd be lying if I hadn't asked what the fuck was up with fate.
I guess I wouldn't be an expert on soul mates anyway, considering fate hadn't deemed me worthy enough. Not yet.