sharp tongues {Embry Call}

²³ Lamarr

"Does dad hate me?" She questioned, her voice cracking and breaking. Her cheeks were hot and wet. Her lips were bitten raw. Oh, if Grandpa Young could see her now.

The man on the other side of the line stitched his brows together and his jaw dropped. "Sweetheart, no. He- just..."

"He's a good dad to Claire," she noted sadly. "I've seen it. He takes her on walks through the park with Maya. He goes to every doctor's appointment he can. He's already looking at kindergarten programs and she's, what, like three?" Harper shook her head and lifted herself off of the small rug that she had been laying on in the middle of her room. She sat up, staring at the pictures that had been pinned to a corkboard along with assignment dates and maps. There was one of her, her dad, and Emily when she was little. It was Halloween and she went as a vampire. She had to be scary. Emily was a fairy princess.

"He loves you, Harper," her grandpa pleaded but it fell on deaf ears that had already known the truth.

She shook her head. "He has a funny way of showing it, doesn't he?" She questioned rhetorically. Harper didn't wait for an answer before hanging up. She had to get ready for school anyway. The world doesn't stop for one sad little girl.

The ride to school was fast and reckless. She even thought she knicked the car next to her when she parked but luckily it was just a previous scratch given she was sure her powder blue jeep wasn't purple. She slammed the door shut and roughly grabbed her backpack from the passenger seat.

She didn't even notice the group of guys in the bed of Jared's ancient beat-up truck staring at her as she passed in a hurry.

"Am I going crazy," Quil began warily looking between Paul and Embry, "or did she look like she was crying?"

(She hadn't known that she was.)

Embry jumped down from the bed of the truck and would have gone after her if it wasn't for the vice-like grip Paul had on his forearm. Embry lowered his eyes to look at Paul's hand before trying to tug away to no avail. "Dude," Embry hissed out as he struggled against him. The others averted their eyes. "What's your deal?"

Paul sighed and shook his head. He had been over at Emily's today. He couldn't miss breakfast, not with the, uh, high metabolism that came with being a shifter. But he had heard it. He had heard her calling only to be met with a voicemail and a sharp pitched tone. He also heard her asking for a certain leech that they knew would be a problem at some point. They just hadn't expected it to be now.

"It's her dad-" Paul began and this was a mistake. As soon as the d-word left Paul's mouth Embry was all but thrashing to get out of his grip. Paul tightened it and grabbed his other arm too. "Listen, you obsessed little shit," the older wolf hissed out, stilling Embry's movements, "she called her dad and he hasn't been answering her." Embry widened his eyes and made a move to leave only for Paul to tighten his grip. They heard a crack and the rest winced while Embry yelped.

"Paul-" Seth began only to be cut off by the older wolf who had already started to set the bone in its place. Somehow the healing process hurt more than the injury itself.

"No, then she called Grandpa Young, you know him, the one who brings pumpkin bread," they all nodded except for Embry who glared at him like a petulant child. Paul still hadn't let go. "Yeah, and get this, she was asking about," he lowered his voice to whisper, "Mina."

They stilled, eyes wide and thoughts running rampant.

"She knows," Embry finally croaked out, doing what he does best, jumping to conclusions.

Jared and Quil both shook their heads while Jacob pouted. "There's no way," Quil said. His voice betrayed his thoughts as it shook nervously.

Embry shook his head and scowled at the ground before his face softened slightly, the corners of his lips coming up into a small smile. "Don't underestimate her," he warned. "She's smart," he finalized with a small nod.