Chapter 29: Epilogue- 14 Years Later

Twelve year old Susanna Littlesea stared down at her nails, glancing back and forth between the dark green pointer finger and bright pink color on her index finger. They were stark contrasts between one another, yet Suzy still could not decide which one she liked more. Maybe she could add some gold glitter, or even some black stripes, to the green. She might place a diamond in the center of the pink one, or use some decorative white lace nail art on it. So many possibilities.

"You have no life," her younger brother Kevin snorted, rolling his eyes at her as he drank straight out of the milk carton. He burped loudly, a white mustache on his face, before shoving the drink back in the fridge.

"And you're a disgusting little toad," she responded with narrowed eyes. How they were related, Susanna would never know. It seemed both of them pulled from a different gene pool.

"Now, now, be nice to each other," their mother declared calmly from the doorway, opening the oven to check on the food.

"I know we're supposed to be family and all, but can't we trade him for Annabelle? At least Annabelle is fun," Susanna pouted.

To Susanna, Annabelle was practically a celebrity. Annabelle knew so many beauty trips, and she almost always managed to get what she wanted between her father and boyfriend Samuel, who happened to have imprinted on her. Annabelle was Suzy's muse, her beam of light in the darkness of this fashion-less drab town. Only her mother, Annabelle, and Suzy herself had any type of fashion sense; and her mother's seemed to be getting worse with age.

"Oh please," her brother snorted loudly. "As if I want you for a sister anyways. You're so embarrassing."

"Take it back!" she screeched, stomping her foot.

"Both of you calm down," their mother hissed, losing her temper. "I don't want to hear anymore about this."

"But mom!" Kevin whined. "She always-"

"I don't care."

They both knew that was the end of it, because if they pushed any further they were likely to be grounded for a week. Susanna couldn't get grounded. She had plans. On Monday, she was going to a movie with Annabelle and Jordyn, the latter of the two was back from college and visiting. Susanna wished she could get a spring break like Jordyn, but they didn't do those at La Push. She planned on bragging about hanging with Annabelle and Jordyn to Kevin, because he could never get older people to hang out with him and that seemed to annoy him. On Tuesday, she was going to Aunt Kim and Uncle Jared's house to have Gareth give her one on one study time. Of course, Gareth didn't know that she made herself struggle on purpose, but Gareth was a genius when it came to science and loved to teach people. He also didn't know she had a crush on him. Back when she was young and stupid she had liked his twin Will, but thankfully she had grown out of that phase. Will was a jerk anyways.

On Wednesday, her stupid family had game/TV/whatever night. They had to spend time with each other. It was completely dumb in Susanna's opinion. Kevin ruined it all the time anyways, and half the time her youngest sister Lanna, who was only four, could never figure out how to correctly play a game. It was annoying. Super annoying. Especially when Lanna thought she won when really she had cheated to win.

On Thursday, she had nothing planned, but Friday was a girl's night. She was going to her best friend Emilia's house to sleep over. Sometimes Anna and Kaida came too, but those two weren't pack girls so they never could share as many secrets.

So you see, Susanna just couldn't get grounded. She had her life to live.

"Daddy!" she heard Lanna and Eric, her other little brother, shout. Susanna rolled her eyes. She was too old to race to her father like a little kid. She was practically an adult at twelve.

"Mel, how was your day?" her father whispered into her mother's ear once he got away from her younger siblings, rubbing his nose against her neck. Susanna's own nose wrinkled in distaste. She hated when her parents were all lovey-dovey.

"Besides terror one and two, everything was fine," she said, making eyes at Kevin and Susanna and singling them out.

"Mom, don't group me in the same category as him," Susanna complained in a dramatic voice, a bit of a whine working its way up out of her throat.

"Like I want to be related to you either," Kevin grumbled, glaring mutinously at her.

Susanna sniffed, going back to her nails.

"Mommy, why didn't you want to have kids?" Lanna asked randomly, nibbling on a piece of candy she had found. Lanna had to have found it somewhere gross, because Susanna knew for a fact there was no chocolate in this house. She had searched everywhere.

"Who did you hear that from?" Melody asked.

"Aunt Emily and Aunt Kim were talking about it the other day."

Their mother hesitated for a moment. "It's not that I didn't want them, it's that I was afraid."

"Why?"

Melody brought her gaze to her husband, staring at him nervously.

"Let's just say there used to be a little demon in the pack. That said demon has gotten much better as she aged, but Melody still holds a grudge," her father confided.

"Oh! Who was it dad? I promise I won't tell I'll keep it a secret!" Eric begged, jumping up and down practically making the whole floor vibrate.

Her mother grimaced while her father rubbed sheepishly at his hair. "It was Annabelle."

Susanna's nail polish tipped over.

"You're lying! Anabelle is amazing! She's a great person and she teaches me important things all the time!" Susanna defended vehemently.

"What? Like how to put in hair gel?" Kevin snickered.

"No," she said, pointing her nose in the air. "Like how to make fish tail braids and to match bright orange with other colors. Do you know how hard it is to do that when you simply don't want to take the easy way out and use black or white?"

Kevin just rolled his eyes, clearly the joke was lost on his up-tight sister.

"What? Does Gareth like your bright orange?" seven year old Eric asked curiously.

Susanna blushed deeply, her cheeks burning before shyly glancing at her parents. "I don't know what you're talking about," she denied.

"What do you mean? I heard you tell Emilia Sue that you liked Gareth," Lanna supplied innocently.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Susanna screeched.

"Oh this is great!" Kevin crowed. "Do you really think a sixteen year old would like a dumpy twelve year old like you?"

"If I did happen to like him, which I don't, Gareth would be lucky to have me!"

"You're delusional!"

"SHUT UP!"

"That's enough!" their father bellowed, making them both jump. Their dad's voice was scary when he shouted. It always became really deep and guttural, and frightened her friends away.

Susanna furiously went back to her nail painting.

"Don't worry," her mother whispered conspiratorially in her ear. "When you get a little older I'll teach you all you need to know."

Collin looked at Melody as if she were sin itself.

"You will do no such thing."

"I don't know what you're talking about?" their mother said airily, giving Susanna a wink.

"Wait, you know how to flirt mom?" Eric piped in.

"Sweet heart, do I ever," she grinned, leaning toward him and placing a kiss on his forehead.

"But you're old," Kevin said distastefully, his nose wrinkling up.

"Sweetheart I'm thirty-six years young," their mother said, daring him with her eyes to say otherwise.

"Your mother is beautiful." Their father wrapped his arms around Melody's waist, placing a loud kiss on her neck. All the kids grimaced, averting their eyes to the nearest wall.

"Eww," Kevin screeched, shielding his face in acute horror. "I need to bleach my eyes now."

"I wouldn't recommend that," their mother pipped in. "Sounds pretty painful."

Kevin only sighed, pouting at the table.

"Mama, mama, mama," the youngest shouted, racing over to Collin and Melody and jumping into her father's arms. "Look what I found! A picture of you when you were younger!"

Melody leaned down, taking the picture out of Lanna's hand. "That was fourteen years ago," she said finally, lost in thought. "It was around the time me and your father got together."

"Yeah," he muttered. "Finally got together."

"Oh, hush. Everything worked out," she said, shrugging him off.

"I want to see!" Kevin shouted excitedly, yanking the picture out of his mother's hands. "You've gotten fat."

"Mommy isn't fat," Lanna whispered defensively, her lips down in a pout and brows furrowed in displeasure.

"Your mother is beautiful," Collin repeated.

"Let's see you birth four kids and see what you look like," Melody grumbled in irritation. "That was me twenty pounds lighter."

"I want a lot of babies too," Susanna said dreamily, thinking of Gareth and his muscles and how sweet he was. He was going to be her future husband, she just knew it. So what if he didn't imprint on her, she should get preference just for being a pack girl.

"What?" her mother laughs. "You want stretch marks and little monsters like your brother?"

Susanna's eyes narrowed. "I'd rather die than have a little Kevin."

"Yeah, your mother said something similar ages ago," Collin muttered between his lips, earning an elbow in the side from his wife.

"Whatever," Kevin huffed out, crossing his arms across his chest. "Can I go over to Anton's house?"

Anton was one of Mila and Embry's five kids. Mila had started out wanting nine, but Embry had talked her down to four. After a few years Mila managed to convince him to have one more. They had the most kids in the pack. One of them even shifted, two if you count Akilina and her odd wolf situation.

"No, we're going to have dinner soon," his mother dismissed.

Kevin sighed loudly, keeping his comments to himself but showing clearly what he thought of that with his actions.

"Don't be a douche," Eric said loudly, frowning at Kevin.

"Eric, who taught you that word?" Melody asked severely, her hands on her hips with a scowl on her face.

"I, uh… why? Is it a bad word?" There was no way he was going to get his best friend Mateo in trouble. Aunt Natalie was frightening when she was mad. Eric made it a point to get out as fast as he could when she was angry. If his mom told Uncle David then Mateo would be fine, but Uncle David's wife Natalie would probably ground Mateo for a month and get a mouthful. She usually shouted it in Spanish too, which somehow made everything even scarier. He never understood a word, but from the winces Mateo made he was glad he couldn't.

"That's a horrible word Eric, and I don't want to hear it again," his mother said pointedly.

He nodded quickly, glad for the subject to be dropped so easily. But then again she would probably try to sneak it out of him. His mom always waited for his guard to be down before getting to the really important questions. She was sneaky like that.

"Is Uncle Jake really coming?" Kevin asked.

Collin frowned, pulling a chair up and sitting at the table. "That's the plan."

"Who is Uncle Jake?" Lanna asked innocently.

"Someone that you're probably going to meet very soon," he answered, poking her lightly on the nose and making her giggle.

Melody brought the dinner to the table, musing Eric's hair before sitting down herself. Melody wasn't sure where her oldest child got her personality from. Suzy got her love of fashion from her mother, but even Melody had not been that bad. The second oldest, Kevin, was barely home. He was always at someone's house, probably because he wanted to avoid his sister Suzy. They had never liked each other much, no matter what she or her husband did to try to remedy that. Her youngest two were sweeter, although sometimes Eric liked to repeat things he really shouldn't. Lanna was the perfect daughter, loving and kind. She was always making little things for her parents and saying how much she loved them. Melody looked over her family sitting at the table, and felt pride.

This road had not been easy for them. Collin had to beg Melody to marry him for over a year before she agreed, and then he couldn't get her to agree to have a child. Suzy was a little surprise, and Melody felt such trepidation during her pregnancy. All those what if's ran through her head. She had been afraid she would be a bad mother, and make an unstable home for her child. She worried that her little bean would one day grow to hate her, or not like the fact that Melody's parents wouldn't really be in their lives. Melody's first step to functionalism was to stop smoking. She had to. She couldn't chance it just because she wanted to take the edge off. Of course, this made her completely miserable during her pregnancy; but it was worth it. Especially when she finally got to hold her daughter in her arms.

Three years later she had Kevin, and two years after that Eric. She had hoped they would form some type of bond with them both being boys and close to age, but they ignored each other for the most part. Eric was actually closer to Lanna, their youngest girl, than any of his other siblings. They played with each other often, and he was very protective of her. At four she was as adorable as could be, and even had a little entourage of young boys following her around. It was safe to say Eric highly disliked this, and Collin only encouraged his behavior towards Lanna's 'friends.' Collin couldn't fight a bunch of four year old's, but when a seven year old scared them off it didn't look as bad.

Melody chewed carefully, bringing her gaze up to the painting on the wall. A few years into their marriage Collin had finally held up her promise and gifted her with his artwork. Almost in the middle was a dirt pathway that curved where it pleased. Trees were on the sides, and a blurry figure was far in the distance. When Melody asked about it he told her that it was the path leading to her. The road was unpredictable, with many things blocking the way. Sometimes the pathway had grass growing over it and he would lose his way, other times there were distractions on the sides. But in the end he got there, and every step he took had been worth it, because he got to her.

Thank you all so much for your support of my story, especially for everyone that reviewed, followed, or favorited! Reading reviews always gives me a lot of feedback, one reviewer even inspired me when I started working on a new story I'm currently writing. I'd also like to thank my beta Nameless-dono for sticking with me to the very end! It means a lot to me and you gave me a lot of great feedback.

When I started writing this I didn't think it would be so long. I thought it would be like my other short stories. But once I began I knew I couldn't rush things with Melody. Her feelings weren't magical, and it wasn't like she would be able to accept a switch in feelings overnight. She was the type to think over her feelings, attempting to understand before accepting them. So it ended up being a lot longer than I thought.

Melody wasn't perfect either, and didn't always strive to do the right thing. Sometimes she just chose whatever was easier for her. I wasn't sure how people would react to her, since she wasn't inherently a good person. She had to work really hard to be better, and then when she got better she somehow always took a step back. Sometimes she didn't even want to be better, but she loved Collin enough to try. Collin gave her that push, and when she begins to see things clearly she could continue.

I also had never done so many point of view's in one story before. I normally do two: the imprint and the imprinter. But for some reason a lot more popped into it. I felt like I needed to add Emily and Brady's point of view to help people understand more, which it did help I think. Normally things would be revealed eventually, but Melody doesn't really pry and the information I wanted to convey doesn't really come up in day to day conversation, so I did it this way.

If anyone is interested in reading more from me I'm writing a Nessie and Jacob fanfic. Currently I have two chapters out on it. I finally started jotting down plots for a Claire/Quil one I'm planning. It's been in my head for about two weeks now and I needed more details before actually writing it. On the side is a HP fanfic too, although I haven't began posting that yet either. I'm currently searching for a beta for both stories if anyone is interested.