HONEYBEE| Sam Uley

one

The sun sparkled high in the sky, casting an unusually warm glow over La Push reservation and that was one thing he would always remember about that day. Everything seemed so painfully ordinary then, after months of fighting the own beast that lived inside of him; Sam Uley had found control. He didn't know, as he sat at his small dinner table, shovelling food rapidly into his mouth under his mother's vaguely disgusted look; that soon, all the control would be swiped out from underneath him again- he merely enjoyed the peace and quiet of that incredibly uneventful sunny day in the reservation.

"Ooh" Allison breathed through her lips so simply that he almost didn't hear her at all over the boisterous sound of his own chewing, it was only when she continued that her son realised she had made a sound after all. "Look who's back" and she gestured with one pale hand over his head, proceeding to sip her tea calmly as Sam turned to face the small window with an incredulous look.

And that was the first day he saw her, that was the day where his life got all the more confusing yet simultaneously, the day that his life began. The entire world seemed to shift around him in just a singular second, swirling away from him as he felt everything shift, he felt everything turn- Because she became everything. Sam felt as though he should be drowning in all the newfound emotions that rushed him like a tsunami, but he was only soothed as if his heart had always belonged to her. First came the wonderment, the love... And then, came the pure and outrageous panic because he knew what had just happened.

Sam Uley had never been a great believer in love and destiny, but then he turned unwillingly into a giant wolf- and all concept of logic and self-control diminished. It meant that the girl beyond the window could be only one thing- she was his soulmate, his imprint.

She stood there so peacefully, just across the vaguely tarmacked dirt road; looking upwards with a face of confliction at the little house in front of her. The house was larger than the Uley house by two times, painted a faded grey with a wrap-around porch. It was overgrown now, her shiny car in the driveway seeming so completely out of place, just as she did. But he knew she belonged here because he knew who she was.

Estella Clearwater.

She was stunning, her skin a gorgeous tanned which was impossibly darker now, a clear indication that she had been somewhere with sun. In the dark corners of his mind, he recalled- she had been staying with her auntie, Elizabeth for the past six months- it was such a minor thing when he had first been told it, but now it seemed so painfully important. Her hair was glossy, falling below her waist in a raven sheet over her warm and curved body. She was, in all purposes of the word, Perfect.

And somehow, the ancestors chose her to be with him- her who he had lived opposite to since birth and spoken to only a handful of times. Her, who he thought of as nice-enough for the longest time, she who had always been lacking adventure- a spark to attract him to her. Estella had been nothing more than a pretty face and the cousin of his fiance- and now she was his everything. And that was a complete and utter disaster.

Though it felt so mesmerisingly perfect.

He'd never been so conflicted and he knew instantly that he hated the ancestors at that moment.

"Poor girl," Allison hummed, clenching and unclenching her hands around her mug, eyes pinned on the girl out the window even as Sam ripped his gaze away from her, his mother looked as though she was watching the most engrossing movie of all time. "I wonder how she is." and there was the concern that Allison had previously been missing.

That was all the reminder he needed for his heart to tear away from him once more. It was agonising, because, in that second, Sam felt all her emotions hit him like a brick wall- he felt that she wasn't okay. And he couldn't blame her. Estella Clearwater was the daughter of Michael Clearwater- everyone's favourite handyman, and Katherine Clearwater- the pretty woman who made the best pies on the reservation and always had a smile to share... Both of whom, Katherine and Michael had passed away in a horrifying car accident only seven months ago.

And now, their daughter was back to continue on without them.

...And Sam had imprinted on her.

Standing with a sigh and doing his absolute best to not appear royally conflicted at that time, he went bounding from the room- something his mother had long since grown accustomed to in the past few months. And before he even had the chance to make his way across to Estella- the direction his heart longed for- he bounded down the beaten track behind his house, through the sparse covering of trees to the bottom of the hill where the red-painted Black family home resided.

Sam didn't know why he had chosen Billy Black as the one to go to, but Harry Clearwater seemed too close to home, and Quil Ateara III lived further afield. The second he met the smile of Billy who sat so calmly beside his kitchen table; Sam knew that somehow, everything would be okay, that somehow he would work everything out.

The second he looked at Estella Clearwater- he knew that he would be to her whatever she needed; and right now, Estella needed a friend... His life wasn't completely shattered into a million pieces just yet.