Gabriel

"Emilia Kirkland and Gabriel Black." Mr. Phelps called out my name and my head shot up. I looked across the room at Emi. She was staring out of the window of the classroom, seemingly mesmerized by the rain. She was playing with the ends of her choppy black hair, not even noticing me staring at her.

"Now, you have two weeks to get his project done. I expect both parties to do an equal amount of work, so will be doing partner reviews after the project is finished." Emi's head snapped towards the front of the classroom and she blinked a couple of times, confused.

It seemed like she wanted to raise her hand, but before she had a chance, the bell rang. As the other students made their way out of the classroom, I got up from my desk and made my way over to Emi. She was quickly trying to place her things in her cherry red bookbag, stuffing some paper in the bottom of the bag.

"Hey." She looked up at me and gave me a small, shy smile.

"Oh, hey!" She pushed her chair back and stood up. She was quite tall, only a few inches shorter than me.

"So, I guess we're partners…" She nodded her head slowly.

"I guess we are… To be honest, I wasn't really paying attention to the assignment."

"Oh, It's just a ten page paper on the civil war from one of the states' perspectives. I think we should choose Texas, one of my uncles is a history buff on the subject."

"Okay. That's fine, whatever works best for you." She tucked some of her hair behind her ear and shrugged her shoulders.

"Maybe we could meet up sometime? Like get some lunch and head to the library?" She wasn't really looking at me, and it seemed like her mind was someplace else.

"Sure."

"Is, uh, everything okay?" That seemed to snap her out of it and she blinked a couple of times and cleared her throat.

"Yeah, of course!" She cleared her throat and placed her bookbag on her back. "I just have galaxy brain right now. Yeah, we can meet up sometime, but you might have to come by my house. I have to watch my sister after school." My heart began to speed up at the mention of her sister.

"That's no problem!" I tried not to sound too excited. "Here, let me give you my number." I held out my hand for her phone. She reached into her pocket and handed me her tiny iphone.

I placed my number in her phone and gave her a tight smile. She smiled back and began to make her way out of the classroom.

"Well, I'll see you around."

"Yeah, see ya." She left first and I followed. I had half a mind to follow her home to check on Ellie, but before I could bolt after her, I was stopped by Mitchell.

"So you're partners with the new girl, sweet." I rolled my eyes, watching as Emi dashed from the school exit and out to the parking lot. "Look, I just wanna know if you're gonna go for her, or do I have free reign…"

"No, I'm not." Mitchell smiled and cleared his throat.

"If that's the case, can you play wing man?" I sighed.

"I don't really know her well enough to play wingman Mitch." I muttered and began to walk out towards my car. Mitchell followed close behind me.

"Well you seemed to be pretty chummy in History_"

"We're partners for a project man." I ran my fingers through my hair, a feeling of frustration washing over me. I hated feeling like this, trapped. Maybe I should come clean to my parents and my pack about the whole imprinting thing. I mean, they would know how to handle it better, they could advise me on what I should do.

I opened my car door and slipped inside.

"Are you okay Gabe?" Mitchell leaned against the back door of my car and crossed his arms. "You look… Upset."

"I'm just stressed, that's all." I didn't know how to tell them. It wasn't like Ellie was some girl from the reservation or someone that had been around my whole life. She was God knows where, and the only ties keeping her here was her mother. At any moment in time she could pack her things and leave, and I would have my fucking heart ripped out. How was I supposed to express that to my parents?

"Well I'm here if you wanna talk about it." Mitchell was always there when it counted.

"Thanks, but I gotta head down to LaPush." Mitchell backed away from my car and headed over to his black sedan.

"See ya' Gabe." I waved and pulled out of the parking lot of the school. It was almost like it was an instinct, because instead of heading straight for my patrol shift, I made my way over to the middle school and tried to see if I could catch a glance at Ellie.

God, I felt like such a fucking creep.

I glanced around, hoping to catch a glance of those intense curls. However, it seemed like Emi had come and gone, and they were most likely home. Gritting my teeth, I took the loss and made my way to LaPush so I could start my patrol.

When I pulled up to Avery's house, she was waiting outside for me. Her arms were crossed and there was a sour expression on her face.

"You been avoiding me, Gabe?" Great, she was already trying to bust my balls, and I hadn't even gotten out of the car yet.

"No, how's your mom?" Avery made her way down the stairs and lightly punched my shoulder. Rolling her dark eyes she shrugged her shoulders.

"You know, going crazy since she imprinted." Oh yeah, I forgot aunt Leah had imprinted recently. Some guy from Forks; they had met one day when he was down at the beach, took one look at each other and the rest was history.

"It just… Pisses me off. It's like she forgot all about my dad in favor of some guy she's known for a fucking month." Avery just didn't understand. When you imprint, it's fuckng hard to think about anything or anyone else. "But enough of that bullshit, how have you been? I've called and texted but you never replied."

I stretched my arms and yawned, not really sure what to say. Avery was probably the first and last person I wanted to tell about my imprinting. She was my closest friend in the pack, and I loved her like a sister, but she was raw about the whole imprinting thing. Her mom had imprinted nine months after her dad died, and she wasn't ready to accept her mom's new boyfriend as a new father figure.

"Awe, were you worried about me?" I tried to change the subject by teasing her, but she didn't bite.

"Yeah, I kinda fucking was." She tucked some of her dark hair behind her ear and rolled her eyes. "I wanted to bitch and you were MIA. It's not like I can talk to anyone else. The rest of the pack is lovesick losers with their heads up their asses."

Great, Avery was definitely off the list of people I couldn't tell about my imprinting.

We made smalltalk as we jogged to the edge of the woods and phased.

Avery resembled her mom in not only her human form, but her wolf as well. However, she was larger in stature, and her eyes held a mischievous wit that her mother's did not.

Many people told me that I looked like my father. Both of us had russet colored fur, and we were similar in size. Since I was next in line to become alpha, I towered over the other wolves, just a few inches smaller than my dad.

We ran into the woods, listening in on the other's thoughts. Avery's uncle Seth was leading the patrol, with one of the newcomers, Ester, following closely behind him.

'Good, I'm glad you two finally decided to join me.' Avery rolled her eyes and Seth laughed.

'Sorry, we were just talking about mom and her new boo.'

'You mean her imprint?' Waves of confusion filled the group as Ester quietly chimed in.

'What's an imprint?'

'Shit, I forgot you haven't learned about that. It's when_'

'It's when you go head over heels for a stranger and abandon everyone else_'

'Avery_'

'It's hell…' I let the thought slip out.

'It's not. Avery, you sound like your mom and Gabe, I'm surprised. You've never been the one to talk against imprinting.' I needed to be very selective with the thoughts that I shared with them. One slip up and everything that I had been trying to hide these last few weeks would spill out like a dam cracking.

'I'm just sympathizing with Avery_'

Avery rolled her eyes and huffed.

I shut down my thoughts after that, not wanting to talk anymore. I could hear Seth and Avery calling out to me, but I just zoned them out and continued my patrol.

It was a quiet night, luckily for me, and I was able to head home by eight. Saying bye to Avery, Seth, and Ester, I made my way back to my car and groaned. I almost let it slip about Ellie.

Ellie. She was snarky, mean, but she also seemed shy and caring. She was young, and she acted like it. She was quite immature, but that was to be expected. She was 13.

"What am I supposed to do?" I wanted to be close to her, get to know her, protect her, and be her friend. She seemed lonely and withdrawn and also the type to get herself into serious trouble.

How was I supposed to get close to her? She was 13 and I was 17. I could try to be friends with her sister, but that felt like I was just using her. Not to mention, it was so Goddamn creepy.

I rubbed my face in my hands and groaned again, before starting my car and making my way back to Forks.

At least her sister and I were partners in History.

*I am so unbelievably sorry for the super super late update. Things in my life were absolutely crazy from a death in the family to a new job that takes up a lot of my time. I am doing my best to get back to this story because I love it and love the characters. Thank you to those who reviewed, it means a lot to me, and I will try my damndest to update more regularly. Please keep on reviewing, it keeps me going, and thank you to all who still read! The story picks up, I promise. *

XOXO RandomKay