Charlie's POV

I sat at the table for breakfast looking between both Ryan and Birkoff. Birkoff had said that we would finish discussing the rules at breakfast this morning. Though this was not something that I was looking forward to it was something that was necessary, the last thing I wanted was to get grounded or something and be forbidden to see Embry. I had gotten a text from him last night that he had been able to swap his shift for Friday night with Paul who wanted to spend the evening with Rachel. I guess him finally finding a girl friend might help me out a bit.

"Okay. So, the other rules are pretty much easy. Mostly they are that you will help out with dishes most nights and that you will help out when we go shopping for food, as in help us pick out things. Embry did give us a bit of a run down on what you will and won't eat last night before he left." Ryan said, sitting down to join me at the table with a bowl of cereal.

Birkoff glanced at my toast then up at me. "If you are going to have energy for class, I suggest you eat more than that."

I just shook my head. "I normally don't eat in the morning. That is something that drives Embry insane. This is more than normal so please be happy with it."

Ryan got up grabbing the peanut butter, hazelnut spread and 2 different kinds of jams. "Please at least put something on your dry toast then."

I grabbed the hazelnut spread and put a bit on. Ever since everything with my parents I had a big issue trying to eat in the mornings. Jake even tried making me pancakes one morning but they happened to come right back up.

Birkoff's phone rang a few minutes later and he took it into the living room. I turned to Ryan. "So do you have any ideas as to what my mom and dad's last mission was all about. I mean with what you do for a living you must have access to some pretty nice tech."

Ryan just shook his head. "I don't know anything. Most of what I do is seeing patterns. I have some neat stuff I could bring home if you wanted to see what it is all about?"

I nodded. "That would actually be fun for the weekend. Embry has to work Saturday afternoon so maybe we could do it then. He was able to change his Sunday shift to Friday though. One of the guys who has a girl friend wanted it off and so Embry swapped with him."

Birkoff came back into the room. "That was Mikey. He called the school and was able to get signed on for the gym teacher, but Nikki has to go in for an interview."

Ryan nodded, before turning back to me. "That is great news about Embry. We will look over your homework before he comes over to at least make sure you have done it."

I smiled, knowing very well that the homework wouldn't take me that long to get done. Normally I would work on it in class if we were given time to do it. "So, after school today we are going shopping for lunch stuff?"

Ryan nodded. "You have Birkoff as a teacher today so just go to his classroom at the end of the day and that way, he can drive you to meet up with me."

I nodded. "Speaking of school though we need to get leaving like now. Give me a minute to just go grab my school bag and we can get going."

The school day passed uneventfully. Tamara pulled her usual in computers, but Birkoff had my back in there which was nice. Embry and I got paired up to work on an assignment which was due next Monday, and it would take plenty of time. Though he was off from work on Tues and Wed nights so we could work on it then and hopefully have it entirely done before Friday even happened. After my last class I headed for Birkoff's classroom with my school bag. Both History and Psychology are booklets, and we work through them at our own pace almost. We have a test each Monday, well more like a quiz on what the booklet was about the previous week. I tended to get the booklets done as fast as possible and use that class time for other things. When I walked into the room Birkoff had left a note on his computer on his desk addressed to me.

Charlie,

Had to run to talk to Mikey about something. Have a seat, Ryan said he gave you his number this morning before we left. Send him a text and let him know we are running late.

See you by 3pm.

Birkoff.

I nodded to the note taking a seat at one of the desks and pulling out my phone to text Ryan that we were running a little late, and that Mikey had held up Birkoff with something.

He texted back saying that it was okay, and if Mikey needed something it was probably something serious.

Birkoff's POV

During the final period I got a text from Michael asking if I would meet him in the teacher's lounge after my last class. I send back a message saying sure and made sure I left a note for Charlie explaining where I had gone and would hopefully not be more than half an hour helping with this thing.

Getting to the lounge he was the only one there. Well, it was after school and so most of the teachers tended to run as soon as they could, especially on Mondays as they had homework to grade.

"What is it?" I asked pointing to a couch.

"Last night at dinner how was Charlie?" he sat down looking at his hands.

I shrugged. "Honestly, she as fine. A little shy at first but that is to be expected, I think. Though with Embry there we addressed both of them and kept it pretty light until she went to bed."

"Where was her phone?"

I thought back for a minute. "Both her and Embry put them on the table. His rang once and he explained who it was before he took it into the living room to answer it. It seemed like Charlie was actually trying last night once we got to our place."

Michael shook his head. "I don't know what to do. All he and Leah did last night at dinner was sit there and text each other. Wouldn't answer any of our questions. Nikita was going to go shopping today for snacks and things for dinner for the week, but she has no idea what he will or won't eat."

I shrugged. "Charlie really didn't get into her eating habits with us. Though she did agree to go grocery shopping with Ryan and I tonight after school."

"What was she doing for lunch today?" He asked.

I smiled. "She said something about going over to see someone named Emily for lunch and that she would join us for shopping after school." I shrugged. "I don't know what to suggest to you. Try again tonight maybe and see what happens. If that doesn't work maybe call Sam and see what he has to say about it."

Michael shook his head. "I did call Sam last night and that did nothing. I was thinking of forbidding Leah to come over tonight until he is actually willing to chat with us."

I laughed. "You might want to take his phone as well for the time or he will probably just sit there and message her still."

He nodded. "I should let you go. Charlie seemed to be in good spirits this afternoon in gym class. I am working on a homework assignment for them which they will be getting on Friday as a group project just so you know."

I smiled. "Knowing Charlie, she will probably pair up with Embry and a few others."

He nodded. "She seems to get along pretty well with Jacob and Quil as well in the class and it is groups of 4 for the assignment. The written part will be due on Monday but the actual presenting of it will be due throughout the week.

I nodded. "I would almost say to tell Niki to make whatever she wants for dinner and explain to Johnathan that you two had no idea what he liked or didn't like so you can't be held responsible for what you decide to cook. Maybe then he will at least chat to you about that."

He nodded before waving me away. When I made it back to my classroom Charlie was sitting there working on some stuff. "Trying to get ahead on a few of your class things?"

She looked up at me. "Well Embry is at work right now so he can't text, and I had to find something to keep me occupied." She packed up her books and glanced at me. "Everything okay with Mikey?"

I shrugged. "Your brother is causing him some problems. Seems last night while you were chatting with us at dinner completely fine, he was just texting Leah. And Nikita was going grocery shopping today for them and has no clue what he likes to eat or if he is as picky as you are."

She just glared at me. "I'm not picky and before you ask these things all appeared way before my parents died so it has nothing to do with that." She stood there silent for a moment. "So with the assignment that is due on Monday in your class, Embry was going to come over on Tuesday and Wednesday after school so we can work on it. Was hoping to get it completely done before Friday comes around."

I nodded. "That sounds fine. Oh just so you are aware there is a group project that is coming in Gym class later this week. Groups of 4 from what Mikey said."

She nodded pulling out her phone sending a text to someone. "Just texting Jake and Quil about it and so we can all work together."

I finally placed my computer into my bag before pointing to the door. "Shall we get going to go get some stuff for dinner tonight and food for the week?"

She nodded. "So do we want to make this food for the week thing a Monday evening thing?"

I led her to the car having her put her bag along with mine in the trunk. "I think it might be an idea that way we can do something like pizza on Monday night." I thought for a second. "We are stopping by the house to drop off the bags anyway, I don't really like leaving my rig in the car when I'm not around I know what kind of people are out there."

She simply just shrugged and stayed quiet the entire ride to the house. Going into and taking her bag up to her bedroom before returning back and meeting me at the door. I passed a key to her. "I figured you would want one for the house. I had Nikita go and make a copy for you today."

Charlie nodded. "That was nice of you. But we should probably hurry. I told Ryan that we would be there in 45 min from when I texted him and that was about 40 min ago."

My mouth fell open. "Why would you do that?"

She just giggled. "You said we would be an hour. And I heard that Ryan is usually late so I thought it would be a good idea."

Just shaking my head and pulling into Ryan's work only 3 minutes behind when we were originally supposed to be there. Ryan was just coming out of the building, as he waved for Charlie just to stay where she was in the front seat.

"Were you too busy making out with Embry that you are late?" He said with a smile at her.

I glanced over in time to see her blush. "Nope. Embry left right after school to go to work. This is all because of Birkoff and Mikey. Well, my brother too apparently."

I nodded, before Ryan spoke up. "Last night when Sam called, he wanted to know if you were actually talking to us during dinner, Charlie. I explained that you were talking completely fine to us and that he had nothing to worry about from you." He smiled at her. "Now I have ordered Pizza for us. I talked to Embry last night about your likes and dislikes about pizza and think I made a good selection. Or at least I hope I did."

She glanced back at him. "What kind did you get for me?"

"Embry had said to either go bbq chicken or cheese. Though he said a few funny things about the bbq chicken one so to be on the safe side I went with the cheese option."

She giggled. "Good choice. Oh, and Embry is working on Saturday, so I was hoping you'd bring home that other stuff for us to work on this weekend."

He nodded. "I have it out on my desk. I'll bring it home on Friday night."

When we pulled into the store I tapped her on the knee. "So, we need to get 6 dinners and lunch stuff for the week. As well as I was hoping you would at least pick out some yogurt or something like that for breakfast. We can start off small with that though."

She nodded. "I'll see if there is anything that catches my eye."

The shopping trip had been really successful. I got to find out that Charlie actually does like to cook a few things. She also enjoys baking. She did get a few yogurt drinks for breakfast which made me happy. Not that I thought there was anything wrong, but I knew that breakfast was important. Ryan had called Sam today and found out that this no eating in the morning thing was something that started since her parents had passed.

That did concern me, and I did want to talk to Embry to at least make sure that she did at least eat something at lunch time.

Embry's POV

I looked over at Jake as we made our way to Sam's after school was over. "So, Paul agreed to swap any Friday night with me and make sure I had Sunday off so I can spend the day with Charlie."

Jake just smiled. Something had been bothering him since earlier today. I had noticed it at lunch, but he refused to talk about it.

When we got to Sam's he was waiting outside for the two of us. "We need to talk the three of us privately." He stated before making his way towards the woods which were behind his house.

Jake just put his hand on my back as if he knew what this was about, leaning down so his mouth was at my ear making sure that Sam couldn't hear anything that was being said. "I asked Sam to look into something."

I nodded when we got to our usual meeting spot, I expected him to start stripping only he took a seat on the rocks that were there.

"I went to see Billy and Old Quil today." He started out taking a breath looking really shaken. "It seems that the twin's parents knew of a curse that was forced upon their children when they were very young and long before the Cullens came back into the area and restarted the bloodline."

I froze. "What do you mean? What kind of a curse?"

"It would seem that they have both possibly been imprinted on but neither them nor their other halves can feel it in their human form. You see the twins do have the" he put his hand up to put air quotes around the next words, "wolf DNA running through their veins as well. But unlike ours it is going to take more to activate than just having the bloodsuckers around."

"Do we know who is going to imprint on either of them?" I asked concerned. There were things that Charlie had shared with me that she would never think about sharing with anyone else. But for some odd reason I have managed to keep that away from any of my packmates.

Sam shook his head slowly. "I wanted to get you to make eye contact with her when you are phased that is said that your wolf will know hers and although it won't pull hers out it will allow the imprint spirit to do it's thing."

I sank against the tree; I gulped meeting eyes with Sam. "My wolf has already seen her. A few months ago. One time when it was Jared and I running out on patrol. She was at the beach, reading a book while looking around. She was supposed to have been at a counsellor meeting that day. Jared saw something in me when I came back to him. Though I never admitting to meeting up with her and somehow no one has ever found out."

Jake placed his head in his hands shaking it. "We had figured the case. Since then have you noticed anything different about your behaviour towards her or hers towards you?"

I immediately adverted my eyes, there was no way that I wanted either of them to know that I had snuck into her room those nights at Jake's house. It had been hard enough keeping that from Jake and Billy, then when Paul started staying over it got even harder but somehow the two of us always managed to do it. "There is a possibility that the two of us might have a deeper connection than either of you know but on the risk of getting us both in trouble I refuse to answer the when, how and where things have happened."

Sam just shook his head. "Embry a simple yes or no will work for me right now."

I nodded. "Yes, since meeting eyes with her at the beach that day things have been different between us, I mean we have always been close. But this is something more."

Jake nodded. "Sam, what else did you find out?"

He ran his hands over his face. "By what you are saying your wolf imprinted first. Which from what Old Quil remembers of the curse means that she won't exactly be a wolf, but she will be more powerful than any of us. It also means that she can't have young. He said there was a letter explaining all of this to Charlie or Jon which ever one was imprinted on first. He said her mom had written it to her knowing that she would be powerful and quite possibly capable of taking down the one who has been cursing twins. It would seem though that when he went looking for the letter shortly after the parents were killed it wasn't included in their personal affects. Neither letter was included, they indicate how each one is to call out their animals. Though I am pretty sure we can get Jon's to come out, it would be Charlie's who I don't know."

Jake put his hand on my shoulder. "I know it hurts to find out your love is cursed, and we don't know how to reverse it. What sucks even more is that when your wolf did imprint it released Johnathan from his curse. It seems like all we really have to do is get him in close enough proximity to a bloodsucker and he might phase for the first time. I called Carlisle and he has agreed to send someone to us to hopefully allow this to happen."

I nodded. "What do we do now?"

Sam just shrugged. "She won't understand the imprinting spirit other than wanting to be close to you the physical attraction is something her body does understand. Any wolf parts though she won't get it is like your half won't be able to reach that half until it is unlocked. I don't want to try anything though until we figure out what happened to that letter. We have been looking for it for months and I am going to get a hold of a few friends who might be able to help."

Jake pulled my face up to look at him. "Do you think it is possible that she found it?"

I shook my head. "No, she would have told me if she had found something. She doesn't want to even open the Christmas presents that were found in their parent's possession that they got back. They were still packed in a suitcase that I brought over to her."

Sam nodded. "Get on patrol you two." He smiled at me, winking. "Embry if you want to stop by and see Charlie around her normal bedtime. Birkoff said he needed to ask you a few things."

POV & Time & Location – Unknown

A fire crackles in a fireplace, I sit in an armchair glancing at the screen of my computer. Mission after mission I had been on, but this one had been bad. What I had found, who I had found on the other side of this wasn't good. I could still hear woman crying, "No my baby … not the curse." We had gotten there too late; I wasn't enough to save them.

I had realized months ago I had to tell my one true love the truth about what had happened to me. I knew she was safe; I knew a very good man was looking after her. I was going to have to come out of the shadows soon enough, though I wasn't sure what it would do.

I shut the laptop; I would have to go back to my research later. For tonight I was heading to bed to hopefully for a few hours forget about the horrors I had seen that day.