"Please spare my heart and just tell me the truth."
That one tiny question had his body tense, my stomach began sinking a bit. I move my face up, seeing his reaction to be one of surprise.
"Who told you about it?" He asks, face taking form of a scowl. It wasn't what I wanted though, I wanted him to brush it off, explain it and us go to bed. Now, now I had to know.
"Toby, he was going on about what helped wolfs, and he brought up imprints. Brought up that Hallie and Brady are one." He's silent, as he stares at me like I have some kind of knife at his throat.
"Don't worry about it." He tries to pull me back in his arms but I'm already up, sitting criss cross beside his stretched out figure.
"Yet I am wide awake, because your reaction is nothing but normal." I say squinting my eyes.
"Claire." His tone has warning, like I shouldn't be asking him of this.
"Quil." I say challenging him to expect me to just let up now. He closes his eyes, I guess deciding instead to tell me is just to ignore me like a child. I huff before dragging the cover up, moving it around me as I move from the bed. If he was going to be a child, I would too.
I'm not quick to recover when Quil's form is suddenly in front of me. Never hardly seeing his wolf speed still leaves me shook. "Where are you going?"
"Home." He sighs rubbing his hand down his face.
"Your leaving because I won't answer a question?" I nodded like it was obvious and I was completely right.
"You don't trust me, that's fine, completely fine actually because-" I'm caught off guard as he kisses me in one swift motion. It starts off fast and consuming, I know to keep me from saying anything more rashly. He pulls back after a couple minutes, I'm so completely affected I wouldn't mind if he didn't tell me and kissed me again.
"Your my imprint."
I stare at him processing the words. First off, I googled it earlier said it was a 'stamp on a person or body' so that told me nothing. So the elaboration needed to come sooner before later.
"What's that?" I asked hesitating my questions because they usually like to bite me in the ass.
He moves towards the edge of the bed, I follow sitting beside him. He's looking down at me, so much adoration and warmth I could hardly breath right now.
"When we shifted, we got the wolf. We got supernatural strength, supernatural speed. My wolf and I, we are one but there are certain things the wolf takes control over and gives us, even as human. That's an imprint."
"A...a person?" I ask, slowly piecing that whatever it was, it was a person.
"Yeah, a person Claire." My heart starts racing, "This person, each of us wolves are gifted with, they are to help us be better. They in return, get our unconditional love and support. We would do anything for them, be anything they needed us to be. The wolf's imprint."
"Um...do you have this person as well?" My mouth's dry, because I'm a smart girl and I'm piecing it together quicker than I want too.
"Yes, your my person Claire." He says and I can't help the small smile that goes to my face, it soon drops at the realization that only I would think about.
"Why did you keep it from me?" He moves his hand down my face gently, holding it there for a moment as the silence pierces the night.
"Because I didn't want to scare you off, to know that I imprinted on you so young, that it made me have to be around you all the time. I didn't want you to think it was too much." There it was, the point where this hurt the longer my thoughts figured it out.
Made, he was made to be around me because of this imprint. It all started piecing together like a puzzle I shouldn't have solved. I always wondered, why he was always around me, became my best friend at such a young age. Why he always the one to come and get me when I went missing, why we were here together in his room now.
I look at him, like I've seen a ghost. My gut is completely ripped, and I finally bring myself to tear his hand from my face. He looks confused, lost even at my sudden change. I stand up, but the tears are already falling.
"Claire, no." I look at him in complete raw emotions pour from my face.
"It wasn't real." I choke out. He's shaking his head immediately, trying to reach for me but I can't take his touch, not while I'm like this.
"The memories, the way you were always there for me!" My voice rises and I can't tell if I'm heartbroken or just angry, maybe both.
"I was led to believe that...that you were just a good guy, that you did it because you cared for me."
"No! No, this is all wrong don't think like that." He begs.
"It is all wrong! You led me to believe my whole life that you were there because you wanted to be! But now," I stop, physically having to hold my hand to my chest to make sure my heart was still there.
"Now you made me believe not just that you loved me, but that you were in love with me."
"I am in love with you Claire." I hated how calm his voice was right now. He knows what I'm thinking by now, but it's too late. There is no redemption for him, no make ups after the fight. This one was like a bomb, one over time that's been hiding and counting down. Tonight, it exploded.
"Your Goddamn wolf is in love with me Quil! You, are just a liar, a liar and a user and I can't...breath...I can't breath here." He reaches out, this time sure on grabbing me but I'm already running down the stairs towards the front door.
To no end, is he standing in front of me blocking my way. Grabbing both of my wrists, he holds me there and I don't fight my body weaker than ever.
"Gods, let me explain it...please." I shake my head, the words seeping into my heart but I soon replace them with cold as my brain takes charge. Moving my head down, I stare at my barefoot feet.
"If you do, if you love me, let me go." He doesn't budge. "I can't fight right now, but I need to be let go, and I need to leave." I am so timid in my strong words.
Finally, to the disappointment I didn't understand why I had, he let's me go and moves from the door. I don't even look at his face as I run out the door, and quickly to my car. Realizing I didn't even have my keys, I start walking. Then a few seconds later, I'm running...running hopefully till I wake up from this nightmare.
'He never cared about you' the worst voice appears into my head and I just run faster. I stop realizing I was on the side of the main road, by myself and bare foot. I quickly take off through the paths I knew well, not well enough in the dark but I knew close enough.
My first thought is to go to Effie's but then I remember that she probably knew about this. That they all knew about this, just like with the wolf thing and they kept it from me. The one question I had to ask myself to decide where to go was, 'who wouldn't let him near me?'
The truth right now, is that I didn't want to be near Quil Ateara. That's my brains side of it, my heart and my soul want to run right back into his arms. Beg him to explain it to me again, that I'm just not listening right.
Finally I let my feet carry me as I run through the wet ground, till I'm in front of Leah's house. I'm not even on the porch before she's flinging open the door. I walk up to her, and her scorching gaze on me.
"Claire? What the hell?" She asks. I know she can see how I look, baggy clothes, bloodshot eyes and barefoot feet.
"Please tell me that if he comes here you won't let him in. Your the only one I know who wouldn't let him in." I beg my voice already breaking. She hurriedly nods as she moves to let me inside.
I step inside the nice home, taking notice in the dimmed lighting all the artwork that decorated the house. Jamie, her husband, was an artist and a very famous one at that. He didn't seem to be here, and most the time he was instead traveling for his work leaving Leah here alone.
"Claire, I need you to tell me what happened." Leah says as she moves to the couch to sit. I don't sit however instead watching the door, making sure a few seconds ago that the lock clicked.
"It doesn't matter...I don't want to see him...I don't want to be near him."
"Quil?" She asks surprised. I nodded and her face immediately scowled.
"Did he do something to you?" I shake my head no, then right after yes. She nods, seeming to understand somewhat. She moves to stand up.
"Go upstairs to my room, your not leaving my sight for the night. I'm going to make a call first." I shake my head frantically but she holds her hand up.
"To Emily to let her know your safe." I don't reply back, moving up the stairs before turning back towards her.
"You all knew didn't you?" It seemed Leah could read minds or she knew this situation too well because she nodded.
I laid in the bed, no sleep was ever going to reach me ever again. Not after this, not after this ripped out pieces of me. I think at the 2 a.m. clock Leah finally made her way in the room, pulling the covers back before laying beside me.
"Your not the first one, you know? To think of it in that way." I continue staring up at the ceiling.
"I hated the idea of imprinting, it's unnatural and ruining if it's not handled correctly. Quil didn't handle it correctly, which he can never do anything right when it comes to you."
Her angry tone about Quil catches me off guard. She sounded just how my brain did about him. My lip quivers immediately and i'm suddenly gasping for air as I blow out a sob. Leah reaches over, grabbing me into her arms as I cry.
"I thought he... loved... me."
The most dreadful, terrifying, empty feeling in the world overtook me and now I understood losing someone, not in death, but in life.
Quil's POV:
I never, never in the 20,000 times I rehearsed telling her about being my imprint did I expect her to do that. To say I never loved her, never cared about her. To tell me to let her go and that she couldn't be around me.
I stood at that door as I heard her footsteps move down the road, following her racing heartbeat till it was out of earshot. I tried my best to keep calm, I was probably the calmest wolf their ever was. I didn't have outburst and I most definitely could hold in my shifting.
But the idea of her running off down there without anyone to protect her, it made me have to ignore her need of being left alone and shift. Once in my wolf form I'm going full sprint, my brain completely consumed with her and what I did.
She wasn't right, about none of it. She just wouldn't let me finish my awful explanation. She thinks the only reason I came around her, gave her the time of my day, the life I built around her is because of the imprint. I'd fight anyone on that argument for the rest of my life, right now I have to argue it with her.
My wolf, hot on her trails as I'm barely a couple yards away, is tackled to the ground by a black wolf my size. It was Jacob.
'No Quil! You can't go near her right now!' He says. I growl at him, 'She needs me!' I scream through the link.
'We've had too much history to let you think about doing it Quil.' Visions of Emily's face and Effie's arm crash through my mind. I let back, still growling at my alpha.
'Where is she going?!' I demanded standing in my spot.
'She's at Leah's, she said under no circumstances are you aloud near her house.' Effie's voice appears through the link.
'I have to make things right.' My voice hollowing.
'You will, this is just a misunderstanding and you will make this right Quil.' It was a demand from Effie and I knew it. It was all my fault, if I told her sooner. If I told her in a better way, we wouldn't be like this.
The tear stained girl's face marked me a scar, not even the devil himself would bear.
Claire's POV:
I finally slept that night after crying for a couple more minutes, the sleep wasn't good and I woke up even more tired than before. I look over at the empty spot in the new bed, I'm not feeling like crying, I just feel numb...maybe from it.
I go downstairs, immediately regretting it when I see Emily, Leah, and Effie all sitting around the table drinking coffee. They all notice me, taking in my form and I'm glad I didn't look at myself before coming down.
"Claire." Effie says before running up to hug me, I don't let it last for long before I push her off. Distancing myself a bit from them. She frowns and so does Emily, Leah's face stays stoic. I turn around, set on leaving this house if they were all going to gang up on.
"Claire!" Effie's tone isn't soft, it's demanding. I roll my eyes, turning around giving her as much as a glare I can muster.
"How dare you, either of you, consider yourself my guardians when you...when you let me walk into a goddamn lie!" I wasn't calm and they obviously wanted to say their peace, so I would mine.
"Listen, we know he told you about the imprint. I just want you to know, that he couldn't help what the spirits wanted." I'm angry now, my head was pounding and I might possibly pass out but I'm so fricken angry.
"So why should I pay for it?! It wasn't some forced magic that made me fall in love with him! It was me and nothing you say can change the truth that it wasn't him!"
A gasp of sobs flutter out of me before I can help it. I'm in Emily's arms instantly as I crumble to the floor. I kick at the surface like a child as I break. All in this I wanted to see him, I missed him so much it was like a bad craving.
"It was real for him too." Emily says and I can't even believe the words from her mouth, almost like she isn't taking up for him just reassuring me.
I got home, locking myself in my room and hopping in the shower to get the dirt off. It shouldn't hurt this much, nothing should ever hurt this much. But then I remember, I remember what I was told by my therapist a long time ago, she said I would rarely ever attach to people after my mother passed. But the relationship I had with Quil, the one I told her about, she believed he might be the one person I would find it in.
Turns out, the dance recitals he sat through, the trips to the park and and the diner, it was all for that creature that lived inside him. I get out of the shower and take a look at myself, wiping the fogged mirror. Realizing no matter how long I was in there, nothing could wash away last night.