Sam had explained the sickness I was feeling, it was his duty as the alpha to explain these things to me. He said that there was an old Quileute legend that said they were descended from wolves. He told me that the legend was in fact, very true. He explained that the legend described a certain Ephraim Black stumbling upon some 'cold ones' vampires. Or in this case; the Cullen's. The same fucking Cullen's that I'd just allowed my sister to marry into. "She knows," Sam told me, "She's always know and she just hasn't cared. When Ephraim, Jacob's however many Great's grandfather stumbled upon them hunting on our land, they assured him and the tribe that they were different from other of their kind. That they didn't feed off of humans, but rather animals. So they made a treaty. We'd allow them to live if they stayed off our land and didn't kill humans."
"Okay, but what does this have to do with me?"
"Hm, okay, well, here's where it gets kind of crazy."
"Sam, a bunch of boys I've known since I was little turn into giant wolves and I just let my older sister marry into a family of fucking vampires. I'm sure I can cope."
"Right, right. Okay, well, we have spirits, not like, ghosts or anything, but we have...spiritual...spirits, er, guides, that help us through life, okay?" I nodded. "Well, when the boys shift for the first time the spirits choose something called an imprint for them. Their imprint is someone who they can spend the rest of their life with. The sort of relationship they hold is up to the imprintee. The wolf's job is to protect her. To do anything for her. To be anything for her."
"Does it have to be a girl?" Sam shook his head.
"No, not always. There's special cases. Leah Clearwater is a shifter and she's straight. She hasn't shifted yet so nobody knows. I will tell you that we've heard of some men imprinting on other men. It's not too common though." I nodded.
"How do you know once you've found your imprint?" I asked, glancing over to my door where Emily was stepping in, a large bowl in her hands. "Wait, Emily...she's your imprint?"
"Yeah, for a long time, now." Emily smiled, sitting the bowl down and pulling a washcloth out, wringing it out and pressing it to my head.
"It's not something you miss," Sam started, to answer my question. I nodded. "It's as if the world stands still. Nobody else is as important in that moment." I felt my jaw drop.
"Does...does that mean that Jacob...Jacob imprinted...on...me?" Sam grinned at me, Emily patting my hand and pressing the cold washcloth to my head. "So why do I feel so shitty?"
"Jacob is in denial. It's not something that happens a lot, I promise, but for the majority of people imprinting is a good thing. A happy thing, and I'm sorry that it couldn't be like that for you and Jacob. He's denying the imprint. When we shift into of wolf form, depending on how close the other pack members are we can read each other's minds. It's how we communicate with one another. Some of the boys on patrol wanted me to assure you that Jacob is not going to leave you high and dry, he just needed time to think. He was in disbelief, we'll say, and the imprint reacted strongly to that." I nodded.
"So I shouldn't be hard on him is what you're telling me."
"This is very new to him, sweetheart," Emily assured me. "You'll just need to give him time to adjust. He's heading back now, which is why you're feeling better. He'll stay here for a bit until the fever runs down and you'll be as good as new by tomorrow." Sam examined me closely when I furrowed my brows.
"What is it?"
"This might be a stupid white girl question, but the story you told me? About the cold ones?" Sam nodded to show he was listened, adjusting the way he was sitting on the chair he'd pulled from my desk. "You said the chief that found him was Jacob's distant grandfather? Wouldn't that make him the alpha instead of you?"
"No, right, he would have. It's not a stupid question. Jacob turned almost two years ago. I had turned a fair few years before that. I offered him position as Alpha but he turned it down. He told me he didn't sign up for this and he thought it'd be better for me to be Alpha because I had more experience. He was still learning. He's my beta." I nodded. "You should get some rest. Jacob should be here soon, if you think of any other questions you can ask him. I'm sorry I have to cut this short, but I have to go meet with the rest of the boys."
"Thank you, for coming to take care of me." I told Sam, but directed it to Emily as well. Emily smiled, leaning down to hug me tightly and kiss my forehead, Sam giving me a wave, and the two left, leaving me to fall asleep.
When I woke up I found Jacob sitting at the foot of my bed, the book I was currently read in his hands as he started at the words on the pages. "You're a Wuthering Heights fan?" I asked him, making his eyes snap to mine.
"No, no, I was just reading this to pass the time. These characters are awful people." He commented lightly, setting the book on the bed.
"You denied the imprint." It wasn't a question.
"You weren't supposed to know that yet. It's traditionally the imprints job to tell their mate about it."
"From what I gather it's also pretty traditional to accept the imprint." Jacob winced at that.
"I never knew it would hurt you. If I did I wouldn't have ran off like that. Sam phased and showed me what you looked like and I came here straight away." I nodded, turning on my side and looking down at him. "Do you feel any better?" I nodded.
"Much."
"Good, good. I'm sorry our relationship had to start off like this. It was never my intention to hurt you."
"You mentioned that, yeah." He stared at me with these massive puppy dog eyes and I felt bad straight away. "I'm better now. This isn't going to work if we dwell on that."
"You know you're unusually passive about everything?"
"Yeah, well, I don't want to be high strung like Bella."
"Do you want to do something today?" Jacob blurted out. I just stared at him, my brow furrowing. "I mean, since you're feeling better and all. Bella mentioned once that you like to go thrift shopping. I know a couple places that I think you'll like. It'll be a chance for us to get to know each other better, you know?"
"Like a date?"
"Uh…yeah, yeah I guess that's what it is," he replied, rubbing his neck nervously. I sat up, crossing my legs under the quilt.
"I'll go out with you." Jacob gave me this cute, sideways grin that I would basically do anything to see again before he stood up.
"Great. I'm going to go back to my place and get dressed and stuff. I'll let you get ready. Is an hour good for you?"
Just as I opened my mouth to respond the door downstairs opened and I heard the patter of Alice's feet coming up my stairs. "You better make it an hour and a half." Alice told Jacob after she burst into my room. I watched him stare at her uneasily, hackles raised before he glanced back at me. I nodded and he got up and left, but not before bending down to kiss my forehead.
"You smell like dog," Alice commented lightly as she ushered me into the shower.
An hour and a half later my hair was pulled into it usual half up half down style, a pair of distressed high waisted light washed jeans on, matching with a black cropped muscle shirt style tank top. I pulled on my combat boots and Alice tosses me this cardigan that was meant to be worn around your elbows, rather than like a normal cardigan, but of course, you had that option. I grabbed a pair of circular sunglasses and my knockoff Celine bag just as there was a knock downstairs.
I shooed Alice before grabbing my phone and keys and skipping down the stairs, pulling my door open to find Jacob. And a motorcycle.
"What?" He questioned, noticing my hesitation. He turned to follow my gaze and upon seeing my horror he laughed. "Should we take your truck for now?" I nodded eagerly as he walked towards it, pausing to lock the door before I tossed the keys to him, crossing over to the passenger side and sliding in.
Twenty minutes later we showed up at this cute little store called Henry's. We got out of the car, Jacob holding the store's door open for me as we walked in and I was immediately in Heaven. "Don't go too crazy, we still got a few places to go if you're up to it."
I went crazy, obviously. I don't have an ounce of self control in me and decided just to do what I wanted. I bought an old Polaroid camera for decoration and a grammar book from the 1880's. I bought the hanging chalkboard that was shaped like a cat, and a really, really, really awesome old ladder that I was going to use to store my blankets on. It was a one sided one, just something you'd throw against that house, and it was a little too big, but Jacob promised me that he could cut it down and round off the new top to look like bottom. For the five dollars that I paid for it I figured it'd be worth a shot.
The next place we went to was pretty nice, not as great as Henry's, but a really nice little store. It had mainly clothing, rather than home decor, but still like it. I found a huge, woolen cardigan, a flannel shirt, a pair of already worn out Daisy dukes, and my favorite, this super cool pair of ankle boots that had been heavily decorated with studs and brightly colored fabric and stuff.
Jacob found this really cool Mariners baseball cap and after some convincing I assured him that I could wash it for him and it's be alright. So he got it. Or I got it for him. "Consider it a finders fee," I assured him, bumping his shoulder (or his elbow) with mine. Jacob was much, much taller than I was. He was probably 6'4 or 6'5 and I was only 5'2. That was like, my ideal height for guys. I literally loved tall guys and for whatever reason tall guys like short girls.
"Alright, well thanks."
"What do you want to do tonight?" I asked, throwing our haul into the back and letting him help me climb into the truck, pulling myself in as he shut the door behind me.
"We could watch a movie or something like that, if you wanted?"
"Yeah! Yeah we can have a movie night and we'll stay up until like, a super ridiculous hour watching movies and then we can fall asleep on the sofa while our body is processing diabetes that we'll no doubt have given ourselves thanks to all the sugar we ate."
"So I'm staying over?"
"Charlie went on a fishing trip with Sue for three weeks. We can do whatever, basically. The Cullen's are my supervision." Jacob nodded.
"Well, I'll swing home and get stuff the stay over and then we'll go back to your house, I'm sure Dad will want to see you again."
"Let's play a game."
Hey guys! I now I said I'd update on Saturdays, but I'm just so overwhelmed by all of the positivity and love you guys are showing my story I figured I'd upload an extra chapter this week to thank you guys. As a result, this chapter was shittily beta'd by yours truly, so it might be a little wonky. My beta/best friend, Maya, is currently on vacation with her family and I felt it would be wrong of me to text her and interrupt her Pokémon Go - ing and request that she beta for me.
Once again, thank you so much for all of the love that you've shown me and my story.
x
