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."
She paused, looking thoughtful.
"That's how I got these scars," she gestured to her face. "I spent a few days in the hospital and Sam explained everything to me. I tried to still get him to go back to Leah, but in the end I realized that he couldn't, and I was hurting him by pushing him away. And as you can see we started dating."
"Wow. That must have been hard," I said, a bit stunned.
Emily nodded. "It was. But when he explained about the imprint it was hard to say no. The hardest thing is that Leah refuses to speak to me now. I honestly don't blame her, but I wish she could understand that I never wanted to hurt her." Emily looked downright miserable so I tried to bring the conversation back to a less sensitive topic.
"Do they like being wolves?" I wondered. It looked kind of cool, but you never know. It might be awful.
Emily smiled. "Sam takes his responsibility very seriously, so he doesn't see it as a fun thing, but more as a duty. But I do know that he enjoys it. And in the short time that Jared has been a wolf, I've only seen him love it. I think it's good for Sam to see someone enjoying their changes."
I nodded. Sam has seemed quite serious when he had spoken to me. "How do they communicate as wolves? Do they have a howling system or something?"
At that, Emily laughed. "They do communicate through howling, yes. But Sam told me that they can hear each other's thoughts when they are both phased. And apparently it is quite useful."
"I would imagine so. Otherwise they might have to bark at each other and then where would they be." I laughed.
We dissolved into giggles over the thought of Sam and Jared barking at each other in frustration and after that rest of the visit was a little less serious as topics varied from one thing to another. Sam showed up briefly to eat and say hi. Before I left Emily gave me a hug, and made me promise to come back soon.
I went to bed early that day and slept soundly. The next morning I called Nina. She was very happy to talk and find out what was going on. I asked if she and Quil would meet us at Jacobs place. We decided to be there after lunch. I ate quickly and called Jake to let him know we were coming over. The house was empty as Bella was with Edward and Dad was at work. Even though it was Saturday he was at the station catching up on things that happened while we were gone. Thinking of work made me remember school. I had so much to catch up on but I wasn't ready to think of school yet. There would be time for that on Monday.
When I got to La Push, I found Jake in the garage working on his Rabbit. Embry was there, fiddling with a screwdriver. Nina sat next to him and Quil was eating a sandwich in the corner.
"Hi everyone," I waved.
Jacob jumped up and hugged me. "Liana! I'm glad you're back! How are you?"
"I'm fine, and glad to be home," I laughed.
Nina came over and hugged me as well. "I missed you. With you gone I am highly outnumbered."
I smirked. The boys could be a handful sometimes, that was for sure.
The afternoon was spent with much laughter and teasing. It was nice to be home.
The next few weeks were spent helping Bella when she was home and working hard to catch up on school. Prom week was coming up and the whole school was excited. I wasn't going as it was only for Juniors and Seniors. But the school at the Rez had a dance every year for all the older grades as there weren't as many students and the five of us were going.
Nina surprised me with the news that Embry asked her to go with him as his date. I was a little surprised, but when I thought about it I realized that they had been getting closer. I was very happy for them.
The day of the prom was interesting. For one, Embry got very sick, in a vomitus way, so Nina went with Quil. For another, Billy paid Jacob to ask Bella to break up with Edward.
When Jacob was out of hearing range I leaned over. "Is this because the Cullens are vampires?" I whispered.
Billy looked at me, unsurprised. "Yes. Sam told you."
I nodded.
"And you know not to say anything to anyone?" Especially Jacob?" He asked.
Again I nodded.
Jacob came back into the room. "Let's get this over with then. See you later Dad."
We got into Billy's truck and Jacob drove us to the Forks high school. He was dressed in dark jeans and an untucked white dress shirt. His hair was half pulled back and the rest spilled over his shoulders. I wore my new skirt and a gathered navy top and my hair was done up in a high ponytail so the ends of my hair just brushed the tops of my shoulders. We waited in silence until we saw Bella arrive with Edward. He helped her sit on a bench outside and went in.
"Lets go now," I suggested to Jacob. My main goal was to avoid Edward as much as possible so now looked like the best time to talk to Bella.
He nodded. We got out and headed towards Bella.
"Bella!" Jake called.
She turned and her face brightened at the sight of us. Or maybe it was just Jacob that she was smiling at, it was hard to tell. "Oh, Jake. Liana. I didn't know that you were coming."
Jacob laughed awkwardly. "Uh, yeah, we're not staying. Um, this is a little weird but my dad paid me to come talk to you."
Bella was surprised. "Why would he do that?"
"I need the money for a part for my car. Uhh, he wants you to break up with your boyfriend. I know, it sounds crazy, and I'm sorry," Jacob mumbled. "He also said 'We'll be watching'."
Bella shook her head. "You can tell him that it's not going to happen."
Jacob shrugged. I saw Edward coming out of the school past swarms of people. I nudged Jacob. "Let's go."
He nodded and we left.
"Well that was awkward." I said once we were in the truck.
"No kidding, I never want to do something like that again," Jacob agreed and shuddered as he started the engine.
"So what do you think of Nina and Embry?" I asked, trying to get our minds onto something pleasanter.
Jacob laughed. "He is so disappointed that he got sick. He talked about asking her for weeks."
I grinned. "And Nina was so excited when he asked."
The evening was fun all round and Jacob and I awkwardly tried to waltz. We eventually gave up when we stepped on each other's toes one to many times. Then we spun each other in circles around the room until we got dizzy. We ended up by the snacks with Quil and Nina. I tried to cheer Nina up the best I could because I knew she was disappointed that her date was at home with the stomach flu. I danced around with her a bit and then with Quil.
Probably the funniest part of the evening was when Quil and Jacob linked elbows and began hopping around the room. They were kicking their legs out and flapping their free arms in such a way that everyone quickly hurried to escape their potentially destructive reach. They stumbled to a halt in front of Nina and I and then both clumsily bent down in a sweeping bow.
That brought a real smile to her face and I couldn't stop laughing.
At the end of the night Jacob dropped me off at home and hugged me goodnight.
"Thanks for the evening, I had a lot of fun," I smiled.
Jacob grinned. "You're welcome. I had lots of fun too."
"Goodnight," I waved.
"Goodnight. See you soon," He called.
I nodded. I watched from the front step as Jacob drove away. Then I went in and flopped down on the couch beside Dad.
"Had fun?" Dad asked.
"Oh yeah. It was great! Though my toes will probably be purple tomorrow. Jacob and I tried to waltz." I stretched my legs out and rested them on the coffee table.
"Ahhh, unsuccessfully?" Dad nodded in sympathy.
"That's for sure. Though Jacob's feet are probably the same." I smirked. "We'll have to take lessons if we ever want our dancing to be better than 'miserable.'"
Dad smiled and patted my leg. "Well I'm glad you have such good friends. They've been good for you."
"Thanks Dad," I leaned over and gave him a hug. "You know I really glad I decided to live with you. And not just because of my friends, I like staying in one place. And you're really easy to live with."
Dad nodded. "I'm glad too Ana. I really missed you girls. And now you're both here."
"And I plan on staying put." I declared.