Chapter Three: That Sharp-Toothed Smile

She's got you high and you don't even know yet
She's got you high and you don't even know yet
It's the search for the time before it leaves without you
Have you lost your mind or has she taken all of yours too?

She's Got You High, Mumm-Ra

She was perfect. Large eyes surrounded by dark lashes made her face so expressive, and her smile – damn, that smile lit up his world.

Seth watched as she and Carlisle ran back to the Cullens' house. He couldn't take his eyes off of her and she blurred through the forest, and even as he stood on the border between their territories he longed to run after her. He needed to interact with her, find out her favorite things, let her know how much he wanted to make her happy.

It was the baffled "Holy fuck" from where Jake was standing that snapped him out of his daydreaming.

He turned and threw Jacob a questioning glance, and saw his alpha's horrified and gob smacked expression.

"Seth, you just… you…"

Oh. Ohhhh.

He had just imprinted.

The first emotion that hit him was wonder, excitement flooding through him at the thought of finding his soul mate. Unlike many of his pack mates, he had always looked forward to imprinting, to finding the perfect girl for him. Or guy, he guessed. He wasn't going to question to the Spirits.

But now… he'd found her. Or more accurately, she'd found him.

"Jake… she's perfect."

He hadn't even noticed that Quil and Embry had shifted back until Quil shouted, "Seth, she's a leech! She fucking kills humans!"

Instinct hit him fast and hard. Anger - no, rage – flowed through him as it never had before in his life. He snarled loudly and crouched into a fighting stance as he prepared to shift, ready to attack anyone who talked badly about his imprint. About Daphne.

"Shut the fuck up, Quil! Don't call her that!"

Jake's hand clamped down tightly on his shoulder, turning him so he was once again facing him.

Surprisingly, Jake let out an Alpha command when he said in a low voice, "Seth, calm down. We're going back to my house. We have to figure this out."

He automatically nodded his head, agreeing quickly as he prepared to shift. Taking off his cut offs and tying them to his leg, his thoughts began to sort themselves out.

The pack mind was overwhelming from the moment he took on his wolf form what with his three friends panicking and practically echoing in his thoughts with their booming anger that was tinged with disgust ,and they all began running toward the house where Jake and Nessie lived on the reservation. Seth wanted to tear them apart, but he ignored their voices instead as he focused his own, internally running through the last few minutes.

He had imprinted, and Daphne was a vampire, that was undeniable. Seth had never had anything against vampires, but he would admit that his attitude was mostly because his first impression had been the Cullens, and they didn't hurt anybody.

…And based on her eyes, Daphne did. She drank human blood. He knew he was reaching, but he called to mind that Nessie had drunk human blood as a baby, and Bella had when she was pregnant! Maybe she had been drinking from blood bags.

Unfortunately, it was unlikely.

Every time he heard snippets of the conversation going on between the members of the pack who were shifted, he fought against the urge to draw blood. There was nothing positive going on. What right did they have to be judging and having extreme reactions – he was the one who should have a lot on his mind.

But Seth couldn't hate Daphne. He couldn't think of her as a bloodthirsty murderer. The sound of her happy trilling laughter kept replaying in his mind. She was his soulmate, and he knew he was a nice guy, a fairly good person. The Spirits wouldn't have matched him with someone who was terrible person – they wouldn't be compatible.

Reaching Nessie and Jake's place, Seth shifted back as quickly as he could, not wanting to hear his brothers' opinions on his imprint for a second more than he had to. The four men entered the house in silence, and it was obvious that Nessie knew something was up the second she walked into the kitchen to see the group standing rigidly.

Seth saw her go on alert immediately, and she quickly made her way to Jake as she demanded, "What's going on? What's wrong?"

Not wanting to hear anyone else's opinion at the moment, he quickly interjected in a bitter voice, "I imprinted, and they aren't exactly happy with my imprint."

Quil exploded, clearly having been letting his emotions stew, and he practically spat out, "It's not that simple, Seth. You imprinted on a vampire."

Nessie cocked an eyebrow, and nearly all of the guys in the room cringed when she asked in the dangerous tone that usually led to them getting their asses kicked, "And is there something wrong with her being a vampire?"

Jake cut in, saying in a voice that was clearly meant to calm her down, "Ness, she has red eyes. She drinks human blood."

Her expression drastically changed, quickly morphing into one of sympathy as she said, "Shit Seth, I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry. You all know that I've been waiting to imprint. This was unexpected and yeah, it's not going to be easy by any means, but I refuse to see this as a terrible thing."

Embry hadn't said anything since it had happened, but Seth didn't sense any obviously negative opinions or harsh feelings regarding the imprinting. Embry was the only other one of his brothers that had been waiting an imprint, looking forward to it. He then spoke for the first time since it had happened, and seemed relatively not judgmental.

"How are you planning on dealing with her diet?"

"I… don't exactly know. But in the end, its Daphne's choice what she eats. Obviously it isn't something that makes me happy, but I won't let it impact how I feel about her."

Quil rubbed his hand harshly over his face and let out a loud sigh.

"Fuck, Seth. I'm happy for you that you imprinted, but this isn't okay. I love you man, but I won't let a bloodsucker anywhere on our land. She's protected from us now since she's your imprint, but we can't risk it. I won't risk Claire."

That shut him up. There was no way he could remain pissed at Quil when he considered that, and brought up the tribe – it hurt, but for now he had to face to reality that he didn't know if she would attack anyone on the reservation if she was hungry. Nobody said anything, and the silence became uncomfortable.

Jake spoke, surprisingly hesitant as he seemingly realized just how complicated the situation was for Seth and how his feelings were warring with each other, "Maybe she won't have to come here. Seth… if you feel comfortable doing it, you could call Carlisle. If you get permission there's no reason that you couldn't see her over there. I know that we don't smell appetizing or anything, but she is still dangerous. It would probably be a good idea for Carlisle and Esme to remain nearby. She might hold a grudge about the whole… foot thing."

Seth flinched, and he knew he was grimacing as he replayed her sort-of screams in his mind.

Jake walked over to Nessie and wrapped his arm around her waist and whispered in her ear to explain, "We came across her on our land, and attacked her before she made it over the border."

Completely unpredictably - as was the usual, she started to snort and laugh, but she quickly covered her mouth with her hand apologetically, finally gaining her composure to say, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, its fucked up but I mean – talk about a bad first impression."

There was a beat of silence, and then Seth let out a choked sort of laughter with more than a little hysteria in it. Yes, it was fucked up, but yes, it was also darkly funny that a werewolf would imprint on someone who was quite literally their sworn enemy.

Everyone in the room looked a little relieved that he hadn't reacted badly, but there was still an enormous amount of tension in the air. This wasn't the sort of problem the pack was used to. When Jake had imprinted on Nessie it was a done deal, Sam had ceased any sort of violent plans that were going to be implemented against her – she was an innocent. But there was no way that Seth could defend Daphne. For one, her red eyes were not those of a newborn, which meant that she had a steady diet of human blood. And two, he didn't really know her.

They hadn't conversed directly unless he counted the one sentence he'd shouted to her and her answering hum. But God – God he wanted to know her. He'd seen the thought process behind imprinting through the other guys who had already imprinted, but nothing could have fully prepared him for it.

Seth's priority was her happiness. It was now the most important thing to him that she was safe.

As the word "safe" ran through his head, his mind whirled. She was a vampire. And for all of the problems that the factor presented, it meant she was obviously much more durable than the average person. The only thing he would have to protect her from would be other vampire, especially now that she was protected from any harm at the hands of any of his brothers. But thoughts of her status as a vampire led to a conclusion that he was honestly surprised hadn't hit him yet.

"I'll never stop phasing."

Seth didn't realize he had whispered that out loud until he heard the sharp inhales of everyone in the room. But he couldn't stop himself from speaking as a wave of sharp sadness overcame him, making him feel like he was drowning.

"I'll never have kids. I'll never be a dad. I won't be able to settle down or grow old or –"

It was Jacob that finally intervened, sensing that Seth was becoming slightly hysterical. He left Nessie's side and stepped forward so he stood before Seth, gripping his shoulders tightly and forcing him to meet his gaze.

"Seth. It's gonna be okay. You aren't alone. I'll be right there with you. Think of… think of Daphne. Picture your imprint."

He closed his eyes and his breathing began to slow down – funny, he hadn't even noticed he was half way to hyperventilating – as he pictured his imprint.

Their life together was not going to be easy. For all he knew, she could try to reject the imprint. But no matter what, he was determined to do all that he could to make her happy. The Spirits had made it clear it was meant to be.

Seth shrugged out of Jacob's hold made his way to one of the seats placed around the kitchen table. He could vaguely hear the conversation going on amongst the other four people in the room, but he wasn't too focused on their words as he ran over the few memories of Daphne again and again in his head. Quil, Embry, and Jake were filling Nessie in, explaining that Daphne knew Garrett and by extension Carlisle. He heard them mention that she was a mute, as well as the ability she possessed.

Still mulling over what had happened, he only tuned back into the conversation when he heard his name mentioned by Nessie.

" – Seth will need to be near her, so we should give Carlisle a call and ask permission for Seth to visit in a few days. He should probably give her time to cool off. Carlisle can make sure she stays at the house for a while, and if she leaves we'll find a solution."

His stomach lurched.

She can't leave. She can't leave before I get to know her.

He couldn't be here right now. Hearing his closest friends talking about Daphne and planning for their upcoming meeting was too much. It had been an exhausting hour; his life had been turned entirely on its axis. Seth really, really couldn't deal with his life being spoken of so casually. As if it was just another thing to pencil into the pack's schedule.

He rose from his chair slowly, feeling ten years older than he had just this morning. The sun was setting, and all he wanted to do was go home to his mom, to have dinner with her and Charlie and pretend for a few hours that everything was alright. Seth was being consumed by thoughts of Daphne. Picturing the sun sparkling off of her skin before her arm became tan and lightly freckled. That trilling hum of laughter she'd let loose. And mostly prominently, the need he was suppressing to run over the border that separated La Push from Forks, to sprint as fast as he could to the Cullens' house and take her into his arms.

He cleared his throat, making sure that everyone's attention was on him.

"I'm heading home. I need to clear my head - get some sleep. Jake, could you call Carlisle about me visiting in a few days and let me know what he says tomorrow? Also, I don't want anyone else knowing about this just yet, so could we keep the patrol groups the same for a little while? I don't want anyone to find out about Daphne through one of your thoughts accidentally."

Everyone in the house nodded, though Quil continued to look hesitant to agree. Not wanting to be around any more discussion of what had happened, Seth ran home on two legs. There was no way he would risk the small chance that a different member of the pack would have transformed for the next shift already in the patrol schedule.

The run home took only twenty minutes, and he quietly let himself into the house, already smelling his mom's cooking. It was only when he saw a family photo on the wall that it suddenly hit him.

Leah was going to FREAK.