Chapter Three

Tongue-Tied

"If a man is tongue-tied, don't laugh at him, but, rather, feel pity for him, as you would for a man with broken legs." -Abraham Cahan

Her mate was in distress, but she was busy and he could probably handle whatever it was bothering him. It had been exactly one day since she had seen him and her inner animal was getting antsy.

Go to him. She whispered.

Nope, Taylor responded while whistling. They both knew that their mate was not in any danger and running to aid him in whatever his endeavor was would only weaken him. Taylor would not always be around to save him as he would not always be around to save her. They had both lasted this long without each other, he could survive whatever was causing him discomfort. Besides, her pack needed her right now.

None of them liked malls, but this was the only place that allowed them to get almost everything they needed in one place. Taylor needed new bedding. Whoever had occupied her room before had long since abandoned it, but their scent still lingered in the rooms and on the covers no matter how often she washed them in unperfumed detergent. Max and Jaden needed new beds completely. She ordered two bed frames that more or less matched the décor of their room's furniture and bought twin sized mattresses. The new furniture would arrive at the house later that day, but the mattresses would be strapped to their truck's roof. David wanted to buy new pots and pans for the kitchen and he needed a good set of knives to butcher their game with. And Evan was somewhere in the mall looking for a job with a very flexible schedule or at the very least one with hours set in stone.

Taylor needed to be with them to make the purchases since she covered most of their expenses right now and hadn't yet transferred banks. So at each counter she was asked to show ID before the stores accepted her bank card. Taylor also needed to be with them because the last time Evan was in a mall alone he had gotten banned for life. The closest mall to La Push was in Port Angeles, after that the next best one was in Seattle. She did not want to have to travel all the way to Seattle to go shopping.

She felt a strange, unfamiliar flittering in her gut like there was a small bat taking flight inside her stomach. A false wave of nervousness washed over her, but she pushed it away and ignored the feelings in her body. They didn't belong to her and she had nothing to do with them. It would do them both very good if her mate would learn to tamper his emotions.

Then she felt a very familiar scraping inside her skull as if someone, or something, was scratching at the inside of her forehead.

Go to him. Her wolf growled, very angry that she could not make her human do the things she wanted it to. Taylor just rolled her eyes and mentally pushed the wolf to the back of her mind. There weren't a lot of things that the two of them disagreed on and there were a few times that the wolf would win arguments, but this was no argument. The human refused to listen to the wolf and was flat out ignoring her. Taylor was pretty sure that she knew what she was doing. It was the wolf's place to choose the mate and it was the human's place to choose how they handled him. Their mate did not need pampering, he needed confidence and to work out his problems on his own. Coddling him would do no one any good.

After completing their shopping at the mall, the pack drove back to La Push and hit up the grocery store before returning home. Killer was more than pleased to see that her mate was sitting on the stoop of their front porch. Taylor was more pleased that the she wolf accompanied him.

…

Embry didn't understand why Sam chose him and Leah to be the peacekeepers. Leah was one of the most volatile wolves in their pack and Embry was less than eloquent with words. He had argued that Seth, who was a smooth talker and generally likeable person, and Quil, who was both peaceable and strong enough to show strength of pack, were way better candidates. The alpha explained that the other pack had shown blatant interest in both Embry and Leah so it was less likely that they would attack either one of them. And that Embry had imprinted on the girl and that in itself was reason enough to send him above anyone else. Also, Leah had kind of volunteered.

Embry knew that Sam was right, but that didn't stop him from dragging his feet all the way from Emily's to the other pack's lair. As they approached the house he could pick up the different scents and he wondered which one was hers as Leah went to knock on the door. Naturally no one answered so, with nothing better to do, the two wolves sat and waited. It was a long time before the others came and Leah managed to get in a good nap while leaning against Embry's shoulder.

Embry was much too nervous to even consider sleep. At first his thoughts were occupied by how his imprint could have possibly perceived him. Did she find him handsome? She must have with how she was watching him in the diner, or was he behaving so strangely that she couldn't keep her eyes off of the one wolf that was so different than the others? Then after a while, as more time passed, his thought pattern shifted. Where the hell was she? What was taking them so long to get home? Had they left?

Oh God, he thought. They left last night. They packed up their things and just up and left to get away from us.

He decided that he would wait until noon before he hunted her down because really, he and Leah had only been waiting for maybe two hours. It was a bit stalkerish for him to just… what? Chase down the car of a girl whose name he didn't even know? No, he wasn't going to do that. At least not until noon. Fortunately, he didn't have to resort to that because sometime around 11:30 a little green truck with two mattresses atop it rolled down the street. Embry nudged Leah awake and together they watched the vehicle pull into the driveway.

The group piled out onto the concrete drive, but the La Push wolves only had eyes for the girl.

This was the first time that Embry actually looked at his imprint. The day before he had stared into her dark eyes and measured how dangerous she was, but he didn't look at her like a man looks at a woman. Out here, under the sun, Embry could see that her hair wasn't as nearly as dark as he thought it was. The light reflected off of her choppy brown locks in a beautiful shade of golden red-brown that made it seem like she was wearing a devilish halo. Her skin tone was darker than the La Push wolves' and therefore very dark in comparison to his. While his pigmentation held more red, hers had more brown. He didn't know if that was from genetics or a lot of time in the sun. Her skin seemed smooth and soft, but was not without blemishes.

Her narrow nose was covered in dark brown freckles that made her seem a little less dangerous to him. There were a few splattered across her shoulders and chest from what he could see. Embry thought that they were kind of cute on her, but he wasn't sure how many native girls could pull off the spotted look. Her perfectly feminine cupid's bow shaped lips were a dark shade that he could not name. The other features of her face were all sharp and angular in a way that made her look a little too wild to be completely human.

Looking at her, he couldn't tell if she was an angel or demon. The slow smirk that graced her lips at the sight of them had him leaning towards the latter.

"Hello." She said, voice wonderfully soft and pleasant despite the mischievousness of her smile. Leah nodded her greeting and Embry waved in the dorkiest way he possibly could. "Can we be of any assistance to you on this fine morning?"

Behind her one of the pups snorted in amusement in a way that made Leah roll her eyes.

"Shut up Max, I'm trying to be diplomatic and official or whatever," The other she wolf said without looking to see if it was actually Max that was laughing before turning her attention back to the La Push wolves. "So how can we help you?"

"We're supposed to be inviting you to a meeting of sorts to work out the logistics of having two packs in the area," Leah answered using Jared's words.

"Oh ok," The other woman looked to the biggest male with a questioning look. He simply raised an eyebrow at her to which she sighed with a shrug. He tilted his head to the side for a few seconds before righting it to nod easily at her. "When is this meeting?"

"We're supposed to bring you back with us if it's convenient for you right now, but if not we were instructed to let you pick a date sometime soon." Said Leah.

"Well we're waiting for furniture that should be here in a couple of hours and we have to put all this stuff up. After the beds get here we can go meet your pack at around four."

"Alright," The older she wolf said and made to leave. This peacekeeping crap was a lot easier and a bit more formal than she thought it would be. Oh well, maybe after the meeting she could get some time to talk to the other woman.

"Hold up," The girl called before the wolves could leave. "How about ya'll just turn, deliver the message and hang out here for a bit while we wait on the furniture? Then we can all head over to wherever we're supposed to go together."

"That sounds like a good plan. Embry why don't you go inform whoever is out there patrolling?" Leah suggested. Embry had never moved so fast in his life. He seemed to be the only one who felt awkward in this situation and his imprint had hardly even acknowledged him, which was strange seeing as he was twenty minutes away from hunting her just a moment ago.

He crossed the street and entered the forest in front of his imprint's house before stripping off his cutoffs and shoes. He let the easy feeling of phasing wash over him as he fell on his paws. The thoughts of Jared, Quil, and Collin swam through the pack mind.

Jared can you tell Sam that the meeting is at four whenever he phases in?

Absolutely.

So what happened? Quil asked. It seemed to Embry that Quil was more excited about his imprinting than he was himself. Did you talk to her?

Embry replayed the scene in his mind and Quil gave his best friend a sad little tsk.

Dude. You didn't even talk to her, you just sat there and stared like a moron.

Thank you Quil, Embry snapped. I think I know what I did.

It's ok. Lucky for you I know a thing or two about women. (A quick flicker through the images of the three different girls Quil had dated before he imprinted.) You should probably start out with learning her name and maybe telling her yours. And then ask her where she's from and what brought her to La Push…

It was embarrassing for Embry to have to consider Quil's wisdom, but he really was the more experienced friend. While Quil was playing the field, Jacob was pining over Bella and Embry was staring at the face of every man that passed, looking for similarities. Looking for his father. And because Embry didn't have a dad growing up, he had no one to explain to him how to properly approach a woman. As a twenty year old shapeshifter Embry was no stranger to the female body, but he knew nothing of courtship. And so, because of that, Embry listened.

…

Taylor watched her chosen mate scurry away from the pack as if he was a small woodland creature avoiding the sharp talons of a predator. She was torn between hunting him like the prey he portrayed and laughing cruelly at his display of weakness. She refrained from both urges and instead addressed the La Push female without taking her eyes off of the naked back of her mate.

"Shy, isn't he?" Taylor asked already knowing the answer to the question. The alpha smiled a tiny, but genuine smile as she turned to the she wolf.

The other girl shrugged and lied. "Just a little."

"I'll have to work on that won't I?" She stuck out her hand in a way that seemed almost unnatural for her. Taylor would have preferred to hug the stranger, but settled for a handshake. "I'm Taylor Grey."

"Leah Clearwater," She said grasping the younger wolf's hand, slightly confused by her statement. Did she know that Embry had imprinted on her? Or had the girl also imprinted on him? Could she wolves even imprint?

Taylor didn't let go of her hand like social standards dictated. Instead she dragged the girl towards the green truck and popped the trunk. She handed Leah more than a few of bags before grabbing some herself. Leah followed the girl into the house, the men of the pack right behind her. The girls had managed to carry all the groceries in by themselves with only one trip so they opted to stay in the kitchen while the boys did the rest of the work. They moved quickly and managed to put up all the food in record time.

Taylor could tell that Leah wanted to talk to her, but about what- she didn't know. So she let the woman gather her thoughts while they worked. When the last can of chili was shoved haphazardly into one of the cabinets the older wolf finally started to speak, but was interrupted by one of the pups.

"Tay! Your boyfriends back!" The young wolf yelled as he entered the kitchen.

Taylor rolled her eyes when her entire pack walked in behind Max, followed by her mate. Both Leah and Embry noted that she didn't correct the boy.

"Leah this is Max," The alpha managed to hold both annoyance and pride in her voice as she introduced them. Leah simply nodded as Taylor continued down the line. The other pup was Jaden. The big brute's name was Evan. The one with the stilted movements was David.

Leah wasn't exactly a dominant person, but she definitely was not going to submit to anyone that she didn't have to. She looked each wolf in the eye for a short while before moving on to the next one, when she reached the end of the line something very strange happened to her. Inside her head, at the very back of her skull, she felt something… move. It was so soft a nudge that she wondered if she had imagined it, but then it happened again. Leah was so preoccupied with placing the odd feeling that she didn't notice that every muscle in David's body had tensed so tightly that his chest wouldn't even allow him to breath.

Embry did notice because that was what Embry did, he observed. And while Embry saw what was happening, Taylor felt it.

The emotions leaping off of David were so strong that she couldn't shield them from herself even if she tried. First it was complete elation, but that wasn't really his elation- no. That outstanding joy was all coming from his wolf. Then there was confusion from David because it had been such a long time since his wolf had felt so strongly. And finally there was fear because David associated strong emotions from his wolf with bad things.

David had just imprinted on Leah and she hadn't even recognized that it happened.

The older she wolf shook off the disconcerting feeling of something inside her head moving and introduced her pack mate to his imprint.

"Taylor this is Embry Call, Embry this is Taylor Grey." Leah said.

"Hi, I'm Embry Call." He said before sticking his hand out. The words were sort of stilted and rushed as if he was reading them from a notecard.

Leah rolled her eyes. Real smooth Call, real smooth.

Taylor smirked at him and took his hand before pulling him into a bone crushing hug. She had been reserved about hugging Leah earlier, but Embry was hers and she could do with him what she pleased. She spoke into his shoulder, "It's nice to meet you Embry."

"Yep," He said popping the "p" before gently shoving his imprint, Taylor, an arms length away. When she was that close he couldn't think. All he knew was her scent. There was that overlaying smell of wolf- the earthy, woodsy fragrance that they all had. And underneath that was a natural perfume that was completely her. She smelled strongly of honeysuckle and jasmine with undercurrents of lemon and spice. He kind of wanted to lick her.

"So um, what are you doing here?" He asked. Taylor's eyes widened in amusement as he stumbled over his words in an attempt to explain himself. "I don't mean what are you doing here, well I do, but not in that way. What I'm saying is, why are you on my reservation? But like… um. Wha-what brings you to La Push?"

There was a lot that the she could do in the moment. She could poke fun at his obvious discomfort, or even throw him a bone by being sweet. She could act offended or she could just tell him the truth. Instead Taylor's smirk grew before she gave him a playful wink, "You do."

Embry didn't know what to say to that but something inside of him was very pleased with her statement, so when she grabbed his hand again and pulled him out to the front porch to wait for the furniture delivery, he didn't protest.

My Corner: Thank you for the awesomely sweet reviews and the favs/follows! As a reward you all get candy. It was weird writing this chapter because in my mind Embry and Taylor should know each other so well already, which is silly. They just met yesterday.

Questions, comments, concerns, confusion?