A/N: I'm posting this only three hours after the last chapter, so make sure you've read June. And thank you to Jezebel Jai-Braxlin for beta reading this chapter.

July 12th, 2008

When I cornered Moses to wish him a happy birthday, I wasn't sure what mood I would find him in. Plenty of others would feel upstaged by the recent news that had circulated the pack. That was why I'd been intent on finding him before I found Sam or Emily.

Surprisingly, he looked thrilled, like sharing his birthday with such excitement was a treat.

"It's like an extra celebration," he told me once I'd voiced my skepticism.

"I guess."

Something about my tone sobered Moses for some reason. His smile dropped, and he looked at me like he was concerned. I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to explain himself.

"I mean, it's kind of a celebration. It's also not all that important. Just another thing. Happening."

My eyebrows went even higher.

"What the fuck are you going on about, Moses? Obviously it's a big deal."

Now Moses looked confused, which, in turn, made me even more confused.

"You look concerned," he admitted.

The realization of what he'd been trying to do hit me, and I almost let out an "oh" in response. Part of me was touched that Moses had thought about that or tried to help cheer me up or whatever he'd been trying to do. But I hadn't even considered that, and I was also exasperated that he thought I'd still be upset about that after all this time.

"I'm not upset about their news, idiot."

"Oh." Moses was relieved that he could go back to being happy without feeling bad about it. "That's good. Really good."

"Yeah, it's good," I agreed, smiling at him in amusement. "In fact, I'm going to go find Emily now. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

He nodded in consent, wandering off towards Paul and Sam while I went to the kitchen to find Emily.

"How long do you think you'll be able to do this the same as always?" I asked loudly as I entered.

Emily wasn't alone. Kim and Rachel were there as well, although only Kim was bothering help. Emily had her chopping vegetables, one of the few tasks she ever handed out to anyone else.

The woman I'd been addressing turned to smile at me only briefly before she was messing with the food in a pan again. I took a seat across from Rachel at the kitchen table.

"Ideally, I'll be able to for the entire pregnancy."

The news of Emily's pregnancy had worked its way through the pack like wildfire as soon as she and Sam had found out. But it had done so with little help from the expected parents, which meant I hadn't seen either one of them since I'd learned about it. The only contact between us had been a few text messages with the compulsory congratulations.

"If anyone could stay as productive nine months pregnant as they were before the pregnancy, it would be Emily," Kim joked, handing the carrots she'd chopped over to Emily and starting on some tomatoes instead.

"There's a lot of truth in that," Rachel agreed.

I couldn't imagine Emily taking a break no matter how worn out or sick she felt at any point in the pregnancy. It might have been a bad thing far more than a good one, but I couldn't see Sam letting her do anything dangerous. He'd force her into bed rest if he needed to. The only time he'd ever go against Emily would be when her health was at stake. And now the health of their unborn child.

"Do you want a boy or a girl?" Kim asked with a giggle.

Emily had a huge smile on her face, and for some reason, I was struck by how much this felt like the same atmosphere as when the two of us had discussed boys when we were younger. Hell, this felt like when I'd first started gushing about Sam to her. There was some sense of irony to that. In the not so distant past, I'd be angry as fuck right now. As it was, I was amused by the realization and nothing else.

"Either," Emily admitted. "Why say one or the other and feel disappointed when we find out? There are always more chances in the future."

Rachel snorted. "You'll wind up with five of each anyway."

Emily laughed. "We're not that ambitious, Rachel. Ten kids might be enough for a wolf to handle, but it would kill me. We've talked three, maybe four."

I wonder how much of a "we" those conversations had involved. Three, maybe four, had been what Emily had been saying about kids since we were kids. It was always what she had imagined. Sam and I had always said two when we were together, but now I figured he had been going along with me more than anything. If he wasn't doing the same with Emily now, I would be surprised. Not that I saw that as a terrible thing. If the imprint was as magical as it was supposed to be, they would wind up with the number of kids meant for them.

Of course, if Sam thought imprinting was all about kids, then he would think the more kids the better. A part of me wondered if they would wind up with ten kids like Rachel had joked. In fact, I wondered if Rachel's own comment came out of her fears over what imprinting meant. I knew she'd always been firm about having only one kid and later in life at that.

"Maybe you'll be the one with ten kids, Rachel," I couldn't help joking.

Sure enough, her face got a little uneasy. My guess had been right. She tried to brush off her reaction with a shrug.

"After the first one, I'm getting my tubes tied. If I miraculously get pregnant after that, Paul's not getting sex until I'm way past menopause."

A smirk rose on my face at the image of a very frustrated Paul.

"I think you'd be good after you got your tubes tied, Rach. The chances of your Fallopian tubes fixing themselves aren't better than the average person."

Rachel shrugged again. I could tell that some part of her was honestly worried a surgery like that wouldn't stop her from having kids. It made me wonder what all the imprints themselves thought about imprinting. I'd never stopped to talk to them about it. I'd figured they each bought the theory that imprinting revolved around babies too, but I'd never stopped to think about how they felt about that. It had been a given that they'd be enthusiastic about it. Imprinting was supposed to be all about what the imprint wanted. Going off Rachel's expression, some part of her felt like she was a glorified baby-making machine. I wanted to talk to her more about it, but it wasn't a good idea when all the guys were so close. I couldn't be sure Rachel would tell me the truth instead of glorified, glossed over bits of truth.

Emily came over to the table, carrying two different bowls that she proceeded to mix. She looked at ease being pregnant, like she was meant to be in this state. It was difficult to believe she felt the same sort of reluctance towards imprinting that Rachel did. And Kim had always been so infatuated with Jared that I doubted she had thought of possible downsides to imprinting. Rachel though, she had me curious.

Now that I thought about it, I couldn't believe I hadn't bothered to ask her about this before. We were close, but I'd always seen her as being sappy where imprinting was concerned, like the others. At first, I hadn't wanted to discuss it with her out of bitterness, and later on, it had felt unnecessary. Now I wished I had gotten into it with her earlier and resolved to do it sometime in the future.

July 26th, 2008

Everything about this felt strange. Almost wrong.

As I walked down the street with my duffel bag across my shoulder, I tried to remember the last time I had spent the night at someone's house. It had to have been the last time I'd spent the night with Emily, back before Sam phased the first time. I'd had sleepovers with other friends too, with friends I no longer spoke to except for Rachel. But no one as often as I did Emily. She was likely the last.

I felt too old for this, especially when I knew I was going to Kim's mom's house. I'd never properly met the woman before, and I was spending the night in her house. I was struggling to figure out how this had come about.

Emily had said that Kim had said her mom would stay upstairs most of the night, but this still felt too middle schooler-ish to me. Emily was married and pregnant for god's sake. Sure, Rachel and I both still lived with a parent, but- Well, this still just felt strange.

Luckily, both Emily and Rachel were already there when I arrived. Rachel answered the door, and I figured out quickly that Kim's mom wasn't downstairs. I could hear her footsteps above us in what I assumed was her room.

"Happy birthday," I told Kim as I threw my bag down where Emily's and Rachel's already sat.

Kim smiled up at me as I sat down with them in the living room. She always looked so happy to see people.

"Thank you," she replied. The sincerity of it wasn't something you always heard in what was, for most, the customary response.

I had no idea what to expect from this slumber party. While I considered myself to be close with Rachel and had become more friendly with both Emily and Kim lately, I never spent hours alone with them. The idea of us sitting around here all night doing god knew what was a bit intimidating.

For more than a week, my mind had been wandering to thoughts about the imprints' views on imprinting. My main motivation for agreeing to this was to see if I could coax them towards having that conversation. Kim had acted surprised when I agreed to come with no struggle whatsoever. I would feel bad if she found out I had an ulterior motive.

I did like having her as a friend, and every day I begrudgingly found myself more fond of her. She struck me as being a little like Seth in that regard. He had the same effect on people. It's just that I didn't do entire nights alone with people. I had regained some of my social skills since my self-imposed social isolation, but not to the point where I could deal with people for hours at a time. That trip with Embry had almost killed me, and I spent more time alone with him than I did Rachel, Emily, or Kim. I couldn't see how this would go any better.

"We have snacks," Kim said, motioning at the living room table that was covered in every sort of junk food imaginable.

I wondered how much of that was because she thought I, as a wolf, would eat more than the rest of them in a month. There was no way she would have bought this much food for four humans.

I nodded in a show of awareness, but I didn't make a move for any of the food. None of it had been touched since it had been placed there. I'd only just eaten dinner before coming over, and I figured the others had too.

Kim struck up a conversation about the child assembling itself in Emily's uterus. It was the most obvious topic to go with considering the timing, but it was also something that Emily and Kim were visibly excited about. Rachel and I weren't so much.

I was as happy for Emily and Sam as I assumed Rachel was, but I didn't want to spend the whole night discussing what theme the nursery should be. I didn't care. What was the point of decorating a nursery anyway? The baby didn't care. It would grow up soon enough and want it decorated a different way.

"How's work?" I asked Rachel instead.

It was another topic I wasn't interested in, but I could handle this sort of conversation more than one about buying things for babies.

"Fine," Rachel replied disinterestedly.

This was what I hated about this situation. Rachel knew I was only asking because I needed something to say, and Rachel wasn't one to go on about her days either. Neither of us were the sort of thrive on small talk. Kim wasn't either, which was why Emily was the one who kept the conversation flowing between us most days. Babies, though, were a great conversation starter with Kim, and she was gushing as much as Emily.

"I wonder what it would feel like to be maternal," Rachel mused, dropping all pretext of a conversation about work.

She wasn't talking quietly, but Emily and Kim had gone deep enough into their own little bubble that they didn't hear. I shrugged.

"I wouldn't have a clue."

"Everyone talks like us women should be obsessed with babies, and I mean, they're okay. Cute when they're happy. But I don't feel like I have that maternal thing that's supposed to kick in around now or whatever. The one that makes you want to start popping them out."

I could tell from Rachel's words that this was something that had been building up in her for a while. I would guess she'd been thinking about it before Emily had even announced that she was pregnant.

"Same here," I said. "Kids are okay when they're happy, but I've never been enthusiastic about becoming a mother. I'm not saying I don't want kids at all, but I've never felt the draw other people seem to have."

Rachel nodded quietly. She was watching Emily like she could absorb some maternal instinct through the look.

"I've thought about it," she said. "Not having kids at all. For a while, I thought that's what I'd do. I didn't even imagine being married until I was at least thirty. I planned on being too busy with work for it, you know? It felt like the only way to be successful. I had to devote myself to my career and nothing else at first.

"I didn't expect the imprint, and I'm still not sure what that means for my plans."

I hummed in agreement, but since I was the only one here who wasn't an imprint, I didn't feel like there was much I could say. Rachel's position was one I had no experience with. I didn't know what it was like. But I did want to discuss this more, so I turned to Kim and Emily.

"Kim," I called to get the girl's attention. "What did you always plan to do after high school? Is it different now?"

I knew she hadn't heard any of what Rachel and I had been discussing. I wasn't surprised when she was caught off guard by the question, but she wasn't against answering it. She shrugged a bit as if she didn't have an answer.

"I'm planning on doing an apprenticeship to become an HVACR mechanic." It was obvious right away that none of us knew what that meant. "Heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanic," Kim went on to explain. "I'd install them and work on them, stuff like that."

I couldn't repress my look of shock. That wasn't something I had ever imagined timid Kim doing. Except now I wasn't sure why. I had no idea what I expected someone in that profession to look like. Well, other than male, but considering my own anger at being the lone female in a wolf pack, I shouldn't have been surprised about that. In fact, I would be the first one to give Kim props for choosing something unexpected. It still felt odd. The answer I had been expecting was a job that emphasized Kim's quietness.

Rachel looked as surprised as I was, so it was nice to know that I wasn't the only one who had never bothered to talk about this with Kim. Emily, of course, had heard this before.

"Apprenticeship?" Rachel asked. "Really?"

"Yeah." Kim blushed and gave a self-conscious shrug of her shoulders. "That's how you get certified, and you can't work without being certified.

"So…" I continued, no longer sure of how to carry the conversation forward. "You'll, like, go into people's homes and work on their stuff for them and all that?"

"Mhm," Kim confirmed.

I couldn't help my, "Huh."

Picturing Kim walking into strangers' homes for work was like picturing a tiny deer plopped down in a lion's den. I'd seen firsthand how uncomfortable she got in unfamiliar environments, and other people's homes were the ultimate of unfamiliar environments. Hell, even I had felt out of place coming to Kim's house today, and I both knew Kim and didn't share an ounce of her timidity. I couldn't believe Kim was pursuing a job where she'd have to do that every day. Probably many times a day, although I wasn't actually sure how it all worked.

"I like working on things like that. It's enjoyable for me," she said quietly.

She was under the impression we were going to judge her for making a stupid career choice. Like we thought she was strange for wanting to work on heaters for the rest of her life or something. That wasn't what had thrown me off. I just couldn't get over the working in strangers' houses part. I wondered if Kim had thought about it because it was hard to believe she had and still wanted to do it.

"She starts her apprenticeship soon," Emily said. She smiled encouragingly at Kim to assure her that everything was fine, and Kim smiled back, looking a bit more comfortable than she had before.

"That's cool," I said, wanting Kim to know that I wasn't actually judging her. "How long does that last?"

"I have to get in 10,000 hours before I'm licensed," Kim explained, looking more at ease than she had before. The more she talked about it, the more she was in her element.

I had no idea how long it took to achieve 10,000 hours, not knowing how many hours Kim would be working per week. I could only imagine that it took years of time to get that many hours. However long it lasted, 10,000 hours sounded like a big commitment to someone like me who wasn't sure what they were going to do with the college education they were completing.

"So, you have that, and Jared just got the job at Masco," I clarified, although I already knew it was all true. "When's everything else happening?"

It was perhaps the worst way imaginable to ask Kim when marriage and babies were coming, and I wasn't surprise at the flustered look Kim gave me. I wouldn't have appreciated being asked that, but it didn't feel out of place when Sam and Emily were already making babies. It would have felt less out of place to Kim and Emily if they had overheard mine and Rachel's discussion minutes before.

Kim offered me a half-hearted shrug.

"I don't know. I'm just taking it as it goes."

My best guess was that meant she'd say yes whenever Jared proposed, which was likely to happen sooner rather than later. With Jared, Kim, and Paul all out of high school now, I imagined marriage was the next thing in mind as far as those two couples went. While Rachel appeared to still be skeptical, I had little doubt that she and Paul would be married rather soon. Still, I imagined that Jared and Kim would beat them. It was hard to imagine the two of them not being married as quickly as possible.

And I couldn't blame them. Why wait if you had concrete evidence that you were soul mates and going to be together forever?

I still wanted Kim to talk about how she viewed imprinting, so I kept pushing.

"But what did you always imagine? About marriage and all that, I mean, when you were little?"

Emily made an uncomfortable face at my question, and that was what it took for me to realize why this discussion between the two of us was strange. But that hadn't occurred to me until Emily's reaction. I'd gotten the impression lately that Emily was having a harder time getting past that whole conflict than I was. Her continued tiptoeing around certain topics was heading towards the straight up aggravating.

I chose not to acknowledge her reaction, waiting instead for Kim's reply.

"I've always imagined three kids," she admitted. "But I never thought about when I'd have them or when I'd get married or anything like that. In my head, I always imagined marrying Jared, but since he didn't realize I existed, I didn't want to get my hopes up."

I wondered what would have happened if Jared and never phased and had, therefore, never imprinted on Kim. While I had given Embry a lot of flack for his imprinting theory, he was right to say that Jared could have easily never noticed Kim existed. Kim, in turn, would have likely never worked up the courage to say anything to him. Maybe one of them would have had a breakthrough, but it was difficult to imagine.

For the first time, I let myself think about what that would have meant for their lives. I could imagine Jared marrying someone else. Maybe he'd have even been happy, but I doubted it would have been like things were between him and Kim. Imprint couples were too disgusting with each other. No other couples could measure up to it.

As far as Kim went, it was easy to imagine her infatuation with Jared continuing forever and her winding up alone because of it. Even if she'd forgotten about him, I envisioned her only dating guys who noticed her first. It scared me a little to think how easy it was to imagine her unhappy.

The thought of it made me want to take Embry's imprinting theory more seriously than I had in the past. At least partially because I didn't want to imagine myself going down a similarly miserable path because I never found an imprint of my own. A part of me would feel more at ease if Embry's theory were true. If not imprinting was fate's way of letting me know that I could discover my soul mate, whatever that meant, on my own without any help.

"What about you?" Kim asked in a small voice. "What did you use to imagine, Leah?"

I hadn't expected the question.

Emily looked even more uncomfortable now. I avoided looking at her more for her comfort than my own. She already knew this. Even Rachel knew a lot. Kim was the only one clueless to my past romantic musings. The ones that had been common before shit hit the fan.

"Married right out of high school, stay-at-home mom with two kids," I told her robotically. It was what I had imagined for as long as I could remember. It had always been the ideal that I wanted. Now I was twenty-two and single. My ideal vision of the future was unachievable. There was no way to make it a reality.

Kim nodded in a way that showed she didn't know of any verbal way to respond. Emily was looking away from me. It was obvious to all of us that Emily was closer to achieving my dream life than I could ever be, but Emily and Kim were both oblivious to the fact that I didn't care. I'd accepted that fate a long time ago and believed idealized visions of the future were useless anyway. I didn't put much stock in them anymore. While the haziness of my future made me uneasy at times, I preferred it in many ways to dreams that would only let me down. Those hurt far more.

"Now I don't know," I admitted. "The husband and kids part doesn't seem as important as it used to be. I'm not saying I'm against it. Just that I don't see it as crucial to my life like I did in high school."

Rachel nodded along like she was in agreement even though I knew that she had never been into the idea of having kids in her life. I could remember high school and how she had suggested having kids in the future, but it had never been something she had sounded too enthusiastic about or a subject she cared to talk about often.

If usual expectations were correct, Rachel should be marriage-crazy by now, and Emily noticed. I saw her eyes narrow in on Rachel with curiosity.

"What about you, Rachel? What did you used to say about marriage and kids?"

While I had known Emily my whole life and Rachel almost as long, the two of them had never known each other. All they'd had before becoming imprints were occasional comments I'd made about the other over the years. If they'd ever spoken to each other, I had no recollection of it, and even if they had, I doubted it had been a memorable experience.

Emily had no way of knowing how Rachel had felt in high school, and I doubted Rachel had bothered to bring it up. If Emily had learned anything about Rachel though, I would have thought she'd have gotten the answer. Then again, Emily sometimes acted like being a mother was the end all, be all of life. She had a hard time believing anyone could be lukewarm to the idea of kids, and that could have clouded her judgement.

Rachel shifted under Emily's intense gaze. "I never gave it much thought," she admitted. "It didn't feel immediate enough to care."

Emily nodded, but I could see the wheels turning in her brain as she thought about Rachel's answer. I knew from our talks as kids that Emily couldn't picture a young girl growing up without imagining a happy ending. But Rachel had never been a dreamer type. She was someone who focused on more attainable goals she could fulfill. Rachel liked controlling her life, and marriage relied too heavily on another person.

When it came to kids, I knew enough to know they weren't something she'd ever been enthusiastic about. I had little hope that Emily would be able to understand that mindset.

"It's more immediate now though, isn't it?" Emily asked.

I got the feeling she was searching for something now, but not even I was sure what that was. Rachel hesitated before answering, not knowing what answer Emily was looking for.

"I guess," Rachel said. "Maybe. Paul and I haven't discussed marriage yet."

Emily shrugged like that was a small matter. "You don't have to. You're an imprint, so it's bound to happen. What's there to discuss?"

Rachel stiffened beside me, and even I could feel my hackles raise. I shifted uncomfortably. Across from me, Kim appeared to shrink into the couch, sensing conflict.

When Rachel answered, there was a bite to her voice. "Imprint or not, you still have to discuss marriage."

As if dismissing Rachel's words, Emily shrugged again. "About the specifics, of course, but not about actually getting married. He's going to propose, and if the wedding is going to happen sooner or later, it might as well be sooner. There's no sense in putting it off."

I could sense Rachel getting angrier beside me. This was one of the most unbelievable things I'd ever seen, and I turned into a giant wolf. Emily rarely had a conflict with anyone. I'd always been the outlier in that sense.

While I'd been eager to get the imprints' views on imprinting, I hadn't expected for it to lead to an argument. Now I realized that I should have been aware of the potential. I'd had a good idea that Emily and Rachel would express different opinions. I hadn't expected their differences in opinion to be such a big deal to the both of them.

As I ran Rachel's previous words through my head, I got the feeling this had more to do with internal feelings on her part than Emily, but Emily didn't get that.

"Paul can't expect me to marry him like it's a done deal," Rachel snapped. "That's not how it works. If he expected me to marry him without us ever discussing it, then I wouldn't marry him at all."

Rachel's words were an exaggeration that came more from her current anger at Emily than anything else, but that didn't mean there wasn't a real sentiment there. Emily looked like Rachel had said the most unimaginable thing in the universe.

"Rachel, you're his imprint."

"I'm not his anything. Yes, he imprinted on me, but that doesn't make me his like I'm some object. I can say no. He doesn't control me as if I'm unable to think for myself. I'm an intelligent being. I have to make life decisions for myself not have them decided for me by someone else."

Emily looked more offended than I had ever seen her in her life, and a large part of me wanted to follow Kim's lead of sinking down and trying to hide in plain sight.

"That's not what I'm saying," Emily snapped back. "The imprint bond is something bigger than any one person. It chose you two for each other. Obviously, you're going to get married."

"I know Paul's my goddamn soul mate, Emily. I'm not arguing with you about that. You act like I'm betraying him or something by being an independent human being."

"You'd be betraying him by acting like the two of you aren't one unit. When two people are married-"

"We're not fucking married," Rachel snapped. "And I'd still be my own person if we were, Emily. That doesn't magically change when the imprint fairy sprinkles her magic over you, and it doesn't magically change when you get a piece of paper from the government."

"It's more than that."

"Yes, it is. Because the two people in the marriage make it more than that. You can't force other people to operate on your view of marriage, Emily. It's never going to work. You and Sam can do things however you want. All I'm telling you is how things are going to work between me and Paul. You don't have to get so fucking offended by someone else's relationship."

"Don't you think Paul should get a say in what your relationship looks like?"

Despite deciding to stay as out of this as possible, I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes at that. Luckily, Emily didn't see. She was too occupied with staring down Rachel, who was looking at Emily as if she'd gone crazy.

"When the fuck did I say Paul didn't have a say in our relationship? That's my point about the two of us discussing marriage instead of him just assuming, Emily. It's so we both get an equal say in what happens. That's the point."

"That's not what you're saying at all. You sound like you're implying that you're not marrying him, Rachel, and that's not fair to him."

"Not fair to him?" Rachel spat. "What the fuck, Emily? Would you say that to anyone who wasn't an imprint? Should anyone marry someone just to 'be fair,' not because they want to? Is that how happy marriages start?"

"We're imprints. This is different."

"It starts different, yeah. It's still a relationship, Emily. No one's going to regulate what me and Paul's relationship is like except me and Paul, okay? Shut the fuck up."

"The wolves have responsibilities, Rachel. They were created to hunt vampires. They're obligated to do it. We were created for a reason too, Rachel. We're going to marry our wolves and have families. It's what we're meant to do. It's why we're imprints."

"Yeah, well, fate didn't ask to use my uterus as a wolf-making factory, and I'll decide for myself what happens to it. Thanks."

That comment stopped Emily dead in her tracks. She stared at Rachel with an expression that could only be described as abject horror.

"You don't want kids?"

Despite Rachel's reluctance to talk about it earlier, her anger had emboldened her.

"I don't know if I want kids or not, Emily. I don't know what the fuck I want. I'm twenty-one years old, and I have the right to not have a clue what the fuck I want, dammit."

It went quiet again. Emily was still staring at Rachel in shock, while Rachel was trying her hardest to calm down. Now that things were quieter, I glanced over at Kim, noticing that she looked close to tears.

"Guys," I said. "I'm not about to step into the ring here, but I should remind you that it's Kim's birthday today."

Kim blanched as we each turned towards her. She cowered like a dog expecting abuse from its master. But the reminder snapped both Rachel and Emily out of the anger-filled world they'd been occupying.

"Right." Emily ran her hands up and down her thighs, straightening the skirt of her dress.

Rachel's eyes were cast downward. Her anger wasn't as evident as it had been, but I knew it was still shimmering beneath the surface.

This wasn't how I had expected a discussion about imprinting to go. In my head, I had imagined all three imprints going on sappily about their relationships while I attempted not to vomit in disgust. Instead, I tossed and turned that entire night (an early one since no one had had much to say after the argument) trying to sort out what had transpired.

Emily and Kim were both confident in the trajectory of their relationships. That wasn't a surprise, but I had never guessed at the inner turmoil Rachel was feeling. I'd been surprised when Paul first imprinted on her. Partially because I hadn't expected Paul to imprint, let alone imprint on someone I considered a friend. But beyond that, Rachel didn't fit the type of girl I had come to associate with imprinting.

But after the imprint, I felt like she had changed. She'd become a bit more idealistic just like the other imprints, and I had accepted that attitude as part of the imprint magic. I'd come to assume that imprinting meant the most stereotypical view of a happy relationship imaginable.

I was starting to rethink that.

How much of what I thought of imprinting was due to imprinting and how much of it was due to the imprints I just happened to know? Or how much of it was due to other forces?

I was starting to think Rachel felt more pressure than she had let on, that she had a certain impression of imprinting that she was trying to fulfill but couldn't. Not while being truly happy at least.

While I hadn't had a positive view of imprinting in the past, this was a new source of negativity that I wasn't used to. I wasn't sure what to make of it yet.

Although, if my past experiences with imprinting were anything to go on, I'd never know what to make of it.