“Two paths? There are so many more than just two paths Call.” But which one did I want? My hand flinched remembering what that feeling was when I hadn’t stopped him. Even when the Spirits had told me how to stop that pain, I thought I was doing the right thing for him.
“Call...” I took a step towards him and then stopped. “Do you still think that this… wasn’t something I wanted to do?” He’d said it a couple of times now, and I wouldn’t blame him if he was looking to run.
@HotHeadSheWolf
I knew she was right... but there was no way to cover every potential outcome. "I know Leah... this isn't going to be simple no matter what, but were jump ten steps with taking the first one." I knew I wasn't explaining this right... but if she let every potential scenario in she would spiral.
"No... maybe that thought entered my head for a moment... but I know that you make your own choices no matter what." I looked up at her again.
"And you certainly wouldn't lie when >
@HotHeadSheWolf < you told the same thing. But just because you wanted to... that doesn't mean you have to want it again. This is me and you... neither have all that much experience with the /After/ part of things. So... doesn't that make the biggest question whether or not this is something that you want again?"
She owed me nothing... I mean... I had crossed a few too many lines tonight. And I knew I shouldn't be putting this all on her shoulders, but I knew in my gut that I did want it. >
Mow my mind was thinking about a million outcomes. He was right of course, but hearing it coming from his lips made it real. And I’d hit hard. What were we thinking?
𝘕𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 /𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳/ 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. 𝘚𝘰... 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯?
“That’s… that why I said you needed to be protected.” I swallowed taking a few steps back from him. Giving him the distance he clearly needed-
Turning away I stepped into the open window my eyes looking out to the new day, one that brought so many questions with it.
“We’ve both never done any of this. Do we even know how…” it was a whispered question one the air. Closing my eyes I let my elbows rest on the windowsill.
Did I feel something I couldn’t explain to anyone when he was around.. Yes. Did it make it right for me to be stood here and act upon it? I didn’t know.
Those words that had become my reason -
For being were playing in my mind over and over again.
𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦.
This wasn’t sacrificing, this was hoping for more. Did I even have the right to want that?
@HotHeadSheWolf
“Don’t do that Leah.” I stayed where I was but my body was buzzing with the want the close the space she made between us. “I don't need to be proud tea any more than you do... And more importantly, I don't want to be.”
Spirits! I really wanted this... I wanted to do this with her. “All we need to know is how we feel.” I couldn't stay sitting still so I stood up and poured a health measure of the bourbon into my empty glass and knocked it back. I moved a to be the coffee >
@HotHeadSheWolf
< table, just to try and sate the urge to be closer to her.
“Just be... Selfish for one minute. What do want to do right now?” I chuckled at my own words. That was like asking the sun not to rise. “You don't have to say out loud, just think about it. Not tomorrow or a week from now. What do you want right now?”
I thought about the same thing, and my stomach the same thing again. My fingers tracing the contours of her lips, learning the details of her face and then... I >
I could hear his feet moving behind me, and from the sounds I could tell where he was and what was happening without needed to turn. I let my head drop a little between my arms with my eye remaining closed to the world.
He was asking me to not be me, okay that’s not what he was asking. But for me not to see the impact something like this would have on those around us was like asking me to change who I was in my eyes.
-
“Be selfish?” Slowly I allowed myself to open my eyes to glance out again. “I don’t know how to do that. It’s not in my DNA to be selfish.” And I’d never wanted to be. It’s why it was easy for me to put my walls up and never look back.
He asked me what I wanted, that was something that made my heart do something it never did before. I began to feel that weight close around my chest, making it hard to pretend it wasn’t happening. I closed my eyes once again. -
The Spirits had told me to stop him for me, and my wolf when she had spoken, had told me to listen to him. So, I did as he asked. For a moment, I tried to push everything that lay on my shoulders to the side. I stopped thinking of myself as the beta of a pack of Spirit Warriors, and for a second, I let myself become Leah once again… Just Leah….
I straightened up like a bolt at what I saw. It was light, it was warmth, it was joy, and -
it wasn’t something I ever had aspirations of.
Those deep brown eyes, the smile, the hair falling into his eyes when it was a little too long. And dimples… When did it register in my mind that Embry Call had dimples? A long time ago, but when did they become something, I looked forward to seeing? Spirits! I didn’t even know.
Turning to face him my eyes searched for those things… For the pull that I was feeling, and I wanted to be there with him in case I missed them.
-
“Spirits… Embry…”
Before I could stop my feet, I closed the space between the two of us. My eyes still searching him for a sign, did he really want this too?
@HotHeadSheWolf
I watched her... the confusion seemed to run deeper the more we talked about it. I didn't want this to cause her stress and I really didn't want this to cause her anything negative.
It all seemed to all disappear for a moment and there she was again... the same woman only not guarded, her eyes were filled with all the things I could get glimpses of were there... wide open and laid out just for me to see.
She moved towards me and I threw all the caution I had wrangled to >
@HotHeadSheWolf
< let Leah come to her own conclusions to the wind. I smiled and meet her halfway.
"Thank the Spirits!" I smiled and brought one hand to her waist and the other to her cheek again. My eye's locked on hers and my heart thumped loudly again. I leaned in and kissed her, there it was again. The heat of her body next to mine and the electricity of the kiss coursing through my body at the contact.
Maybe I had no idea what I was doing but I was going to figure it out. I knew that >
@HotHeadSheWolf
< there was something here, something I wasn't ready to walk away from.
My mouth moved against hers and a deep, low sound swelled up out of my chest and my hand slipped back into her hair again, it was a feeling I couldn't resist now.
His reaction left me blinking and taking aback once again, it was like he was reading my mind. The questions where all still there of course, but the main question that I’d been in search for he answered without even saying a thing.
He met me half way, 50/50, we both took those steps towards each other when we were the two most unlikely to do such a thing.
When he thanked the spirits, they were listening. They were never far from these lands or their people.
And the -
@BadBoyEmbryCall - moment Embry placed a hand on my waist the wind came to life and pushed me forward.
My arms slipped around him, I stepped into his broad chest and closed my eyes. Listening to words of the unspoken conversation that he had started.
Our lips moved together like this was the rightful place for them to meet, I tilted my head slightly as I heard and felt his heart. The rhythm of it played like a song, one that only a few could understand.
His fingers found their way into -
@BadBoyEmbryCall - my hair once again, and this time I didn’t want to kill him. The calm washed over me and I told myself. “Let yourself have this.”
Whatever 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 was. There were no guarantees in life, and I never asked for them. So, it was time to take a leap of faith with the one you trust, maybe?
@HotHeadSheWolf
Something somewhere deep inside of me clicked into place, something that I just realised now that had been disjointed for a while. Heat flooded my veins again, I wound my arm around her and tilted her face up to me to deepen the kiss.
She wanted this too? She had let in the moment, had she truly taken just what she wanted into account?
“Spirits.” I muttered softly against her lips, my fingers twisting in her hair. I wanted this... I wanted more and more moments like this >
@HotHeadSheWolf
< with her.
The strangest feeling of all was the this was everything I wanted. Standing in the middle of her living room, holding her... And kidding her like we had all the time in the world. When was the last time I kissed a girl without the sole intention being to fall into bed with her?
I knew that was something more here... Something better... Something that stretched out beyond tonight, and that idea didn't fill me with dread.
A low hum left my lips and I leaned >
Waterfalls…. That’s what came to my mind as he deepened the kiss. I felt like the water that was flowing down a river until there was a unforeseen turn, and then I was alive with the current. Which elevated me and filled me with something more. But going over the edge, it wasn’t scary, it was enlightenment.
His arms engulfed me, which wasn’t easily done for someone like me. I never gave this to anybody. I didn’t trust any guy enough to be in a place where they could take a -
hold of me in this way. But with Embry, it all just fell into place.
I twisted my fingers into the back of his shirt, tightening the fabric in my hand as I let myself take this moment in. It was his murmurs which caused my eyes to flicker one.
“I believe we both answered that just now.” I whispered like it was something I only wanted him to hear. Because I didn’t want to share this moment with anyone but him.
Resting my forehead to his jaw I -
closed my eyes and then they flew open. I was resting my forehead on him! That was new for me!
My scent? It hadn’t changed, but like me his outlook on it had maybe?
“We both…. Want… this…” we were repeating ourselves. But the more I said it the more calm washed over me.
I swallowed closing my eyes when he kissed my temple ( another first ), and slowly pulled back to find his eyes. Nodding my head.
“That’s the next steps. You know it’s going to be….” I wasn’t sure -
Right now what it was going to be.
The two words kept dancing in my mind…. 𝘚𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭.
@HotHeadSheWolf
My hand moved through her hair afsinand I still could hardly believe that this was happening. I could the heat of her body against my chest. She had stepped into me, she had met me halfway.
"We do." I whispered, making sure she knew there were was two of us in this. And I was all in.
The way she rested her forehead against my cheek... I could feel the ease in her body how close she was the way her arms had come around me, making me feel that overwhelming sense of being >
@HotHeadSheWolf
< exactly where I was meant to be.
I pulled to see her face, letting my lips brush against her temple again. It made my stomach do that twisting thing again.
Those eyes were captivating, I got lost for a moment. “Tell me what you need so we can explore all of this together.” Whatever she needed I would do my best and I knew should do the same in any situation for me. “And I’ll tell you too…” her eyes were deep and pulling me in. This was far too good to walk away from.
Was this all a dream? Had I fallen asleep last night while watching the videos from the open mic night? But I knew… I didn’t dream… I was never in my body long enough to have dreams.
The Spirits allowed my body to rest, they protected it for me while my soul walked their plains.
So, this had to be real? I had to be stood in my living room, after the night we had, had. Embry was still stood here too. Asking me what I needed for us to take this path.
-
It was the brush of his warm lips against my temple again that sealed it for me. I was not dreaming.
“I… I don’t know what I need. I’ve never even thought something like this is where I could end up. I’d made sure that I never felt this thing.”
My chest wasn’t as heavy as it had been, in fact him being this close had lightened it for me.
“Rules….” The word was out right away. “If I/ we can’t plan… I need rules.” Rules was something I could manage and keep me sane. -
His eyes were drawing me in again. How had I missed the way he did that until recently?
@HotHeadSheWolf
My hand unwound itself from her hair and when she stopped talking my finger traces the curve of her lips. Spirit's... she was perfect... every detail of her. I knew she was gorgeous, anyone that saw her couldn't deny it.
But now that I could get close to her and let my gaze linger on her mouth, her eyes, the graceful curve of her mouth and her eyes. Th gracefully arch of her neck. Things I could never do without her wanting to punch me.
She was incredible.
With my arms >
@HotHeadSheWolf
< still around her I stepped back around her coffee table and towards her couch.
I chuckled a little at her saying she needed rules. She was incredible... but she was also ridiculous. "Okay." I smiled. The back of my legs lit her couch and lower myself down and moved my hands to her waist and pulled her down too, right next to me. I didn't want to lose that feeling of belonging that came from being close to her. "I can do that..." Following rules was really my thing... >
My eyes blinking because it was the boy part of me that would move. I was frozen in my spot. Watching him as his eyes roamed eyes vet me. My lips parted a little, sucking in a sharp breath. His fingers were leaving a burning fire in their wake, but for some reason I wasn’t pulling back away.
I could imagine taking him down. If I hit him in the side of his ribs…. I shook that thought out of my mind, I couldn’t go back to doing that. -
Why was I still thinking of that? Maybe because I wasn’t used to being this close to a man, well… not in this way at least.
My feet started and I was letting him take me back around my table, and towards the couch. And I was going?
Swallowing hard as my mind and push the sensations I had felt before when I had sat down on there with him.
“Embry Call…” I was breathless, still feeling his fingers trailing over my lips.
“Since when have you been good with rules?”
@HotHeadSheWolf
I was in awe of her... How had I ever been so blind? She sat with me and I kept my thigh pressed against hers, still craving the contact. My hand moved from around her waist and slid down her arm. She whisper my name and my stomach flipped
“I'm not... but...” I bit my lip while I considered how the phrase this. “I mean we are kind of winging this… right? And that’s definitely something I’m good with… so other least I can do is try to follow a few rules.”
>
@HotHeadSheWolf
< I tilted her chin up and brought my lips to hers are with a soft smile.
“Within reason.” I locked gazes with her, so she knew I meant it. But I was still me and following rules wasn’t exactly my style. “I can meet you half way, Leah. I want to.”
I didn’t know where this was going but I wanted to. So I did… and I started out with something I knew that she would agree with. “First rule, family before anything else… Mom, Sue, Seth… if they need us there’s no questions >
“I don’t want you to change who you are for this, not for me. Not for anyone.” The words were well placed as I started to take back control of myself.
𝘐… 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘩 𝘊𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳… 𝘋𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦!
I shook my head, at the fact that I was sat here thinking those words.
“We all need to evolve, to learn and grow but that is different to change.” Or it was in my eyes.
-
As I spoke at the same time I was fully aware of the fact that his legs was touching mine… but it was something more and the same again. It was Embry… and he was the same temperature as me. For me the men always were cool to the touch, not as cold as the Cullens, but cooler than my / our 108 degrees.
“Winging it?” Of course that was his outlook, and it was how he lived his life. But me. “I’m a very private person Embry for a reason. -
I don’t tell others how to live their life, and I don’t want them thinking they can do it to me. Maybe we need a little something more than 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵?”
Shaking my head, my gaze darted back to him as I continued to listen, and he took the step to come up with the first rule. The moment he said it I knew he was worth the leap. The first rule he came up with was the first rule in my list for life. For me Rule One had been;
-
ꜰᴀᴍɪʟʏ ꜰɪʀꜱᴛ! ᴀʟᴡᴀʏꜱ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ᴀꜰᴛᴇʀ ᴍᴏᴍ ᴀɴᴅ ꜱᴇᴛʜ, ᴅᴏ ᴡʜᴀᴛᴇᴠᴇʀ ɪᴛ ᴛᴀᴋᴇꜱ ᴛᴏ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴇᴄᴛ ᴛʜᴇᴍ.
I nod my head slowly. “Hundred percent agree. Always. No questions.”
Biting the inside of my cheeks, my eyebrows pulled together as I thought what the second on my list was, and how it would need to be on this list too.
“Rule Two; The pack is second only to family. We will never leave our packs blind-sighted by not showing up. -
Never put our needs before them and the people we were born to protect?”
I knew Call was like me in this way. He’d never skirt his responsibilities when it came to it.
I chuckled softly my hand run down her arm and over the back of hers. My finger skimmed hers and I turned her hand over in mine. Tracing the lines of her palm. “I don't think trying to follow a fee rules counts as changing who I am. And I'm only promising to try my very best... You’ll still need to keep my arse in line... That will never change.”
My attention moved back to her eyes when she spoke about being a private person. I knew that she was. “I know, and I understand >
@HotHeadSheWolf
< this can all stay between us. Not because I don't people to know. Just..” How did I say without putting my big foot in my mouth? “It feels like something that's ours. Something to protect.”
I nodded to her next rule, the pack was a priority too. “Definitely, and work.” my job wasn't exactly protecting the pure and innocent. But hers was a huge family investment.
I allowed my eyes to flicker and take in the way he was examining me, the way his fingers glided over my skin, the way he turned my hand and traced the lines. Did he know what his touches were doing inside of me?
That burned grew and crawled its way up the sides of my neck, making me nerve endings come to life in a way to my hadn’t before.
I couldn’t understand how it was ever possible. This wasn’t the first time Embry had touched me. But the intent behind these touches -
Weren’t the same as before. Before me catching him looking at me in this manor would have resulted in a arse kicking.
“That’s something else we can agree on. I’ll always be happy to kick your arse to the ground, with a smirk if you ask nicely.”
I was nodding nice again, curling my fingers as his slipped into them.
“Hmm… you mean like a bubble? Something that can protect this… whatever it is?” Nodding once again as I spoke. “That’s what my home is for me. Somewhere -
To be me, and to keep the world out. Even if lately it feels like there is a revolving door instead of a front door.” Muttering the last part.
“Yes! Work… no matter what… we don’t mess with work… we both have responsibilities, we can’t miss work. I’m onboard with that.”
I was all onboard with it. Family, pack and work were my three top priorities.
@HotHeadSheWolf
I smiled. "Yeah... exactly. We don't need anyone else's opinion on it until we know more about where it's all heading. And if me showing up here all the time gets too much you can tell me... I'll get it... I won't turn clingy or dysfunctional on you." I was sure she knew that already.
My hand lifted from hers and brushed her hair back behind her ear, then trailed along her jaw and I thought about what I had said for a moment.
"So how about, when we do see each other... >
@HotHeadSheWolf
<
Instead of saying goodbye, we say see you soon, that way if we need space or time, its easy to say... and we know that unless we say goodbye.. we're still in this."
I knew words weren't her thing... and for me when it came to talking about how I felt wasn't a problem... but all of this was new and I wasn't I knew the right words either. But with this little code, we could make sure both of us could say what we needed without fear of misspeaking.
“I’m never good with other’s opinions, and it’s why they know better than to give them to me. But, if we faced facts…”
My eyes dropped to our hands again as I spoke, and then they lifted to meet his. Stilling as he brought his fingers to push strands of my hair behind my ear.
“They will have something to say.” The pack, the imprints, the tribe, they would all have something to add. Good, bad or ugly.
My mouth worked, and then my lips dropped open. Tilting my head into -
His touch, as my mind worked over his next rule. And that was ingenious. “So, we only say See You Soon, and if this all gets too much… then Goodbye is our code to say how we feel?”
I was nodding my head, this was slowly making sense and that was shocking. “I like that. And I can agree to it.”
He was truly working to build a foundation here? Giving me the rules I needed to hold onto.
“Okay, here’s one need too. If we are going to keep this to ourselves… -
No PDA where we can be seen.” Rubbing my hands over my thighs. “And definitely not on the Rez. Or around the pups or anyone from the pack.”
I didn’t do well with being touched as it was, he’d felt the brunt of that in the night a few times.
@HotHeadSheWolf
"No one else's opinion matters, only mine and yours. But, you are right... Everyone would have something to say and I only care about what you want to say. "That works." and then I smiled a little teasingly... "Or a promise for the next time we're alone together.
my fingers stilled on her cheek when she said the next rule. Of course, I realised this wasn't public... but still. I was overdoing it, I thought bout the at few minutes of our conversation... I had been touching >
This time I was the one reaching out. My hand placed in over his mouth. It wasn’t that I didn’t know about my Beauty, it was a gift from the spirits for the pack. We all turned heads, and we weren’t shy about it. ( Well, maybe Quil and Collin a little. )
The guys made the most of it, and I wasn’t one to back down or underplay my looks.
But hearing him say it, here and now, it made my stomach come to life with something that never lived in there before. My mouth drying up,-
At hearing him with the burning in my veins moving up the side of my neck didn’t help.
“Could you stop that. You saying so many things, flirting, you knew would earn you a smack down.” He understood what he was doing, but then I hadn’t stopped him.
“I promised not to hit you, but you don’t have to push me to it.”
ᒪEᗩᕼ ᑕᒪEᗩᖇᗯᗩTEᖇ
Embry Call