Three Days of Searching
"I am looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, Inconvenient, Consuming, can't-live-without-each other love." ~Carrie Bradshaw

I grumble as I continue stomping through the trees. Embry is not too terribly far ahead of me, but at the same time he hasn't been anywhere near me for the past three days. I have never seen a man so intent on finding an animal before in my life. I sigh as I step into yet another mud hole and mentally groan because I thought that this woods stuff was done with. But no... I have to have a heart and feel sorry for running out on some random, rather clingy, man while I was a cat... A cat!

I would understand it if I was a human...

"Umm... how about we stop for the day?"

"No! We need to keep looking! What if she's hurt?! What if she's starving?"

This little rant only seems to freak him out more and instead of stopping, the two of us increase our pace. So much for stopping...

After another two hours of nonstop searching I'm thoroughly bored with this entire thing and I've pulled my iPod out of my pocket and I'm singing my new favorite song and not really paying any attention to where I'm going. Yes... I blame Angry Birds...This is why when I look up to inform Embry we should go back due to increasing darkness, I notice that he is no longer in front of me.

I blink as I look around the quickly darkening forest.

"Embry?" I call as look into the trees every which way.

"Embry?!" I call alarm setting quickly into my voice. I take a deep breath in order to stay calm, but with the quickly darkening sky and the promise of what's in the woods that can't be seen by simple human eyes, wolf or not, I begin to panic. Embry has no idea how dangerous this is and partially this is my fault. Already, I can hear the excited chatter in the trees of nearby pixies. Among the whispers I can hear a name...his name... They are looking for him.

I groan and curse myself for zoning out and losing track of him in the first place and for staying too long in the forest. I begin to run through the trees as I follow the excited whispers. I come to an abrupt stop as I hear the forlorn howl of a wolf. I turn in that direction and run. I'm not sure where I'm going, all I know to do is follow the sounds of wolves. When I get to a clearing I see them. A large wolf is suspended in midair and three other wolves are on the ground growling, howling, and jumping to try to get at their suspended friend. Floating around them on tiny wings are the pixies laughing and giggling while they suspend the poor wolf above the forest floor. There is panic and confusion in their eyes because they don't know what is going on.

Before I even know what I'm doing I'm muttering a spell under my breath. The trees in the area come to life and one long limb that looks more like a hand extends out to reside under the suspended wolf. Without warning I release a blinding flash of light and the pixies, that are only visible to my eyes, vanish into the forest. I watch as the tiny bulbs of multicolored light vanish among the trees.

I whip my head around as I hear a yelp and notice that the wolf is now hanging on for dear life from the branch that I placed underneath him. I concentrate and levitate him before gently placing him on the ground. The other wolves who were just standing there watching in astonishment rush up to greet their brother. I watch for a moment too long as the wolves are suddenly surrounding me growling and nipping at me.

From behind I hear the approach of something else before the familiar voice of Sam breaks in, "What are you?"

I glance over my shoulder at the male behind me. I simply smirk before muttering "Wouldn't you like to know..." and vanish into thin air right before their very eyes.

I end up back in my living room with twigs in my hair and mud on my shoes and Vera lounging on my couch...

"Hello Essie..." she all but purrs, taking delight in my current predicament.

"Hello Vera." I grumble as I glare at her while crossing my arms over my chest and cocking my hip to one side.

"Seems you've run into some trouble..."

"Whatever do you mean?" I fake innocence.

"The council is aware of the wolf men and your little stay with them. I would be careful if I were you. You remember what happened to the last witch that let slip what she is..."

Of course I knew... How could anyone ever forget?

"There is nothing to be concerned about... I'll handle it."

"See that you do."

The glare doesn't leave my face until the witch is long gone and I'm firmly in a hot shower.

I can hear them puttering about my living room and kitchen as I get dressed and dry my hair. I step out to see my covenant lazing about my living room and eating my food.

"Well I'm glad that you all have made yourselves at home..." I mutter not bothering to hide my annoyance.

Four heads turn to look at me, Luke doesn't even look guilty as he takes a bite out of a very large sandwich. I roll my eyes as I gaze at them, I know why they are here.

"Heard Vera stopped by..." Scarlet states from her spot in my favorite chair, the one she likes just because she knows it annoys me when she sits there. Scarlet has dark maroon hair and almost black eyes that she makes even darker by the obscene amount of dark eyeshadow and eyeliner that she puts on.

"Indeed."

"You should be more careful," reprimands Elllen, as she takes a seat daintily on the sofa crossing her long legs as she pulls her cardigan tighter around her. Ellen comes from a very posh family and still isn't comfortable around us being the newest to the group. Plus we clearly aren't her cup of tea with her perfectly straightened blond hair pulled back into a low ponytail with a headband. Her own blue eyes hold slight disdain as she watches Tyler nonchalantly recline with such a pressing matter at hand. The thought of anyone finding out what she is still terrifies her far more than it does any of us...expectations and all..

Tyler is a tall and rather muscular guy with dark hair and bright green eyes, his face hasn't been shaven in a few days making him scruffy. He turns to glance at me, checking me up and down to make sure I'm not hurt before he gives a nod of approval. of course don't let this fool you, if I had been hurt there would be a dead wolf tonight; he is by far the most protective in the group.

Luke just smirks as he makes his way over towards me and quips, "Enjoy your walk in the woods?"

I roll my eyes and flop down on the couch with him leaping over the back and sitting down beside of me. Luke has dark hair, well kept, with deep brown eyes that twinkle with mischief and a smirk that he never seems to be without. He throws an arm around me and I lean into him laying my head on his shoulder.

"Long day?"

"Umm hmmm..."

"Want me to handle it?" Tyler asks as he pops open an eye.

"No... I'm sure I'll be fine... Is that why you all came by?" I question as I glance around the room.

"We wanted to make sure you weren't summoned..." Scarlet says as she avoids my eyes.

"Nope... they just sent their bitch after me..." I glare off into space as Vera's smirking face crosses my mind. Being the apprentice of one of the council witches makes her think she is far more important than she actually is. Of course, she was a bitch to begin with...

"Should we call Sybil?" questions Ellen as she sips her tea.

"No... that shouldn't be necessary."

"Are you sure?" Luke says as he gives me one of those looks.

"Yes Luke... I'm sure..." I growl out hoping to end the conversation.

Everyone gets up to leave except Tyler, he simply gives me a look before he walks in the direction of the guest room, or his unofficial room. Tyler and I have known one another since we were about sixteen, when our powers began to manifest themselves. Somehow the two of us found each other and now we are pretty inseparable, especially when he feels like I am threatened. He was orphaned when he was pretty young and grew up in the system making the covenant the closest thing that he has to a family.

I make my way into the kitchen to make myself my own cup of tea before turning all of the lights out and heading to my room. As I walk by the guest room door the warm glow that peeks out beneath it makes me feel safer as I make my way farther back into the house.

It's the pounding on the door that jerks me out of a dead sleep, the kind of sleep that comes from walking about the woods all day. Almost immediately I hear the heavy footfalls of Tyler as he gets up and heads toward the door. Quickly I rush over toward a chair in the corner and grab the hoodie that I threw haphazardly over the chair and rush toward the living room. Tyler is talking with a male on the other side of the door and upon closer inspection I see Embry on the other side. When he sees me he pushes Tyler out of the way like he weighs nothing, which is quite hard to do considering how big he is, and comes toward me.

"You have a lot of explaining to do!"

Without warning I throw my hands up and freeze him in place. He stops in his tracks unable to move anything except his eyes which have widened in shock.

"How did you find me?" I question appearing far calmer than I felt.

"I followed your scent..."

"Well...you need to forget that scent and forget where I live, leave, and never come back."

For the briefest of moments he looks hurt by my words.

"I need to know what you are and who you are."

"You know who I am... I'm the girl with the lost cat..." I mutter feigning pity.

"No, you are the cat... I can smell it now... I don't understand how you are her but you are."

I roll my eyes, "So, you're just now noticing?"

He growls, "Do you know what you've been doing to me?! I thought I was going crazy because I imprinted on a cat!"

"Imprinted."

He holds my eyes with an intense stare and mutters, "It means we're soul mates."

"Uhhh huh... Okay time for you to go home and forget this ever happened," I say with a fake reassuring smile.

"What?!" His eyes widen in panic as I cast the spell to erase his memory sending him into a deep sleep, then I send him back home. He will wake up tomorrow with no memory of me or that cat, thinking it was only ever a dream and that is just the way it should be...

Hey all! Sorry it took so long! Life has been hard and busy and all kinds of things lately... I hoped that you enjoyed the chapter and that you will review and let me know what you think! Speaking of reviews I'm in awe of the amount of attention that this story is getting I honestly didn't think that it would get any attention what so ever and here it is getting all kinds from my lovely readers! Please keep it up! It really means a lot to me!

Also! I am look for a beta for this story as well as Desperation is Unbecoming if you have read both stories or have not and would like to take that time to now ... ok done? Good! Then please PM me! I would greatly appreciate the help!