The Little Things

8. Aftermath

I slept in until eleven the next morning. I chose not go to Jacob's house that day as I was still exhausted and I needed time to mentally process everything. Instead, I relaxed and tried to organize the events of the past two weeks in my brain. I decided that the next day I would go visit Emily and hopefully get some answers.

I biked to Emily's the next day through a light mist. I pulled my hood up the best I could and knocked on the door.

"Oh dear! You're practically soaked! Come in, come in," Emily exclaimed as she opened the door. She was dressed very casually and her hair was pulled back in a low ponytail.

"Thanks," I shivered, stepping through the door. I shrugged of my jacket and hung it on a hook that Emily showed me. A delicious smell of cinnamon hit me as we walked into the kitchen.

"Smells amazing in here, what are you making?" I said, sniffing the air.

"I'm making cinnamon rolls. This tray should be done in a few minutes," Emily told me. "Is there anything I can get you? Coffee? Tea? Cookies? If you want to wait you could have a cinnamon roll."

"I'll wait."

"So what are you doing here? Is there anything I can help you with? Sam and Jared are out right now, just so you know," Emily gestured for me to sit at the table.

I took a seat and leaned forward. "Actually I came to ask a few more questions about the wolves and legends and stuff."

Emily sat down across from me. "I'll do my best, but Sam knows more about this than me."

I waved that away. "Anything you know is more than what I do. Anyway, umm, how long have they been wolves for? Will they stay that way forever?"

"Well, Jared has only phased for about two weeks, but Sam has been like this for a few months. I think he first phased back in November. And apparently they don't age as long as they keep phasing," Emily said.

"Really? That's interesting. So, next question. How do you know that someone is going to phase? Sam said that he was waiting for more people to phase," I asked. Just then a buzzer went, signalling that the cinnamon rolls were ready.

Emily got up to remove them from the oven. "I'm not completely sure, but Sam told me that only those descended from Levi Uley, Quil Ateara Sr, and Ephraim Black. So any direct relatives are most likely to phase is the vampires stick around. There is also a chance that more distant relatives like great nephews could phase as well." She put the rolls on a rack for cooling and placed a new tray in the oven.

What she said got my attention. "So there is a good chance that Jacob could phase then?"

She nodded. "He is the rightful chief and alpha if he phases, but until that happens, Sam is the alpha."

"And he doesn't know anything?" I asked.

Emily shook her head.

"This may sound a little rude, but why do you know? If it is such a big secret, how did you find out? Was it like how I found out?" I leaned over and snagged a warm cinnamon roll and bit into it. "This is amazing."

Emily sighed. "It's not the best story. Before Sam phased he was dating my cousin Leah. We had met a couple times as Leah and I were really good friends, and he was always nice to me, but we never interacted as more than friends. So there is this thing called imprinting. Basically it is when a wolf finds his soulmate. He would do anything for her, really. So when Sam phased he disappeared for a couple weeks and Leah was distraught, so she called and I came to help her. When Sam came back and didn't imprint on Leah, he broke up with her because he didn't want to hurt her more if he ever did find his imprint. When that happened we were at the beach and Sam saw me. He imprinted on me, but I didn't know that. He pursued me for a while after that, and I got angry. Why should he be interested in me when he had just broken up with my cousin? He had always seemed like a nice guy, and was very devoted to Leah, so I couldn't understand why he would do such a thing We went for a walk in the woods so I could yell at him. It backfired and he got very upset and phased too close."