I sat down beside him on the large rock, my smaller legs dangling off by a few inches. I pulled the sleeves of my sweater down over most of my hands, my fingers curling around the hems. He took a long breath, his hands flexing nervously.

"Once I tell you this... I can't take it back. And if you decide that you want nothing to do with this... with me, I'll understand and I'll respect that. You'll never see me again if that's what you want," he let this hang between us, his eyes darkening as they searched mine as if trying to read my reaction.

I nodded slightly, my mind racing as I tried to guess what could be so serious to make him say that. Finally, he continued, "I do need you to promise you'll keep this secret no matter what. It's not just mine to keep. There are a lot of people bound to this that need to be protected by it."

"I promise," I said immediately, my voice just above a whisper.

Jake took a deep breath, leaning over with his elbows on his knees as he stared down at the wet rocks under his shoes. "I don't... I don't know how much you know about our tribe's stories. I know we were taught some of the Makah stories since our tribes are so close."

"We learned some stories, but I don't remember a lot of it... Emily is so much better at stuff like this. She always paid a lot more attention to it," I admitted, my right foot bouncing as I crossed my legs. My fingers absentmindedly picked at the seam of my jeans.

He didn't say anything for a moment, glancing over at me. "That's the thing, they aren't just stories."

I snorted out a soft laugh, shaking my head. "Yeah, we definitely have a monster that steals kids away in a basket. I've even seen her myself," I teased to which I earned a small grin from him.

"At this point, I'd believe anything," Jake replied, his smile fading quickly. "Everything I thought I knew about my life, the people in my life- changed overnight."

Based on his tone, I had a hunch the same thing was about to happen to me. I tried to swallow, a tight nervous knot sitting in the back of my throat. My teeth aching with a dull anxiety. I wanted to ask what he meant by this, but I couldn't get myself to say anything.

Thankfully he continued after a long pause. "Our tribe believes that our people are... descended from wolves. The magic around it is why your tribe cut ties for a while a few hundred years ago."

I nodded, remembering this from our assemblies in school and what was taught during our tribal festivals. "I did know that. So, did you find out your great-great grandfather was a woodland creature?" I joked, somewhat light-heartedly though my voice was strained. He looked back over at me; a dark eyebrow arched in suspicion.

"Not... exactly," he drew out thoughtfully, wiping his hands against his jeans. "This sounds absolutely insane trying to say this out loud." I realized he wasn't saying this to me, but more to himself.

"It's not so much that we are actually descended from wolves... but we have the ability to shape shift into one. Or a small group of us can," his eyes darted away from me as he said this, his tone too serious to be joking.

My brow cinched together in confusion, my mouth opening and closing as I tried to form all my thoughts into one sentence. "Wait, what?"

I waited for him to break into a smile, for a signal that this was just a joke. The somber, slight frown he wore as he looked at me told me otherwise. "Jake, that doesn't make any sense," I shook my head a little, a strand of my hair falling from the lazy job I had done pulling it back.

"I know," he replied quietly. "Trust me, I know it doesn't."

Taking a deep breath, he began explaining, "I told you before that there was a lot you didn't know. I meant it when I said it would become your problem too. It's not like some... full moon, eating people thing. It's meant to protect our people. A small group of us have the gene. There's still a lot that we're figuring out. No one who's lived through this before is still alive, so we're trying to go off of what they documented."

I digested this, a flurry of questions popping into my mind. "Protect them from what?"

"Cold ones." His tone was matter of fact, though I was sure he could easily read my nearly permanent expression of confusion that I wore. "Leeches, bloodsuckers, vampires—whatever the hell you want to call them."

To this, I burst out laughing. None of it was funny, but the nervous, shocked energy in my body had bubbled up until I was hysterically laughing. I clamped my hand over my mouth to muffle the sound of my giggles, my eyes watering. 'I'm going insane,' I thought to myself.

After a long minute, I had calmed down enough to speak again. "You really aren't kidding about the vampire thing? About any of it? What the fuck."

He snorted, his shoulders relaxing slightly. "No, I wish I was kidding. We just killed one a few weeks back."

"You killed it," I echoed, trying to wrap my brain around this.

He nodded, looking over his shoulder at me as he leaned against his knees again. "It's what we do."

"And you can really turn into a dog?"

"A really big dog," he confirmed, his lips turning up into a small grin.

"Can I see?" I asked, noticing his eyebrow twitch in shock. "Maybe not right now, I don't think I can handle that today. But... maybe some time."

He sat up, bumping his shoulder into my own lightly. "If you want to."

"Do you like this... being a wolf thing?" I questioned.

He shrugged. "No. I mean, I don't know. I'm getting used to it, but I hated it at first. I still kind of do."

I nodded, thinking to myself for a moment. "Who else is one?" I asked, already having a good guess in my mind who else was part of this.

"Paul, Embry, Jared, myself, and Sam," he answered, confirming my suspicions. "Leah and Seth just joined a few weeks ago."

My jaw dropped as my head snapped to look at him. "Leah and Seth?" I whispered, the sudden memory of Seth's comment about Sam this morning flooding back into my mind. The way Leah darted out of the garage last week without an explanation.

"Yeah," he nodded. He looked away back toward the water, but not before I could see the flash of pain in his eyes.

"We kind of expected Seth, but not for years. And at that point we hoped that it wouldn't happen. The family of leeches that caused this had moved away. Anytime a new one comes into town; it triggers the phasing. Lucky for us, there's a whole fucking gang of them that like the area. That's why there's so many of us," he spat out, biting down on his lip with a bitter shake of his head. "Harry had been watching Seth, but no one knew it was possible for a girl to phase. Leah lost it and turned right in front of him while they were arguing. The shock of it caused Seth to turn too. That's how Harry had his heart attack."

I closed my eyes, feeling the dull pain of losing my uncle come back. "So, Sam is one of you too." I didn't say it like a question, it wasn't really. "I've heard the way people talk about him. He's in charge."

He nodded, the heel of his shoe kicking the bottom of the rock we sat on. "He was the first to phase like a year ago. He's the Alpha, what he says goes."

"When Em said he worked with the local youth and with the council..." I trailed off, and he filled in the blanks.

"That's what she meant. Technically he's the head of the council because of it. They listen to him."

"I feel like I have so many questions," I admitted, picking at the sleeve of my sweater again.

"I have answers, but... that's not all of it," he said with a sigh, brushing his hand over his short hair.

"There's more?" I laughed lightly, unsure how much more my mind could take as the mental exhaustion started to set in.

He frowned again, nodding his head softly. "There's a reason why I can tell you about all of this, but no one else could. Well... I guess they could but it needed to come from me and not someone else."

I listened, noticing his hands shaking again before he clenched them into a tight fist. "There's something that can happen to us... it's called an imprint. I-I don't know how to fully explain it. I had only seen it through the views of people who it had already happened to. It wasn't what I thought it was. I thought it was love at first sight or whatever. It wasn't like that. When I saw you the day of Harry's funeral..." he stopped, his jaw clenching as he stared out over the water.

"It was like... gravity shifted. I was drawn to you. I don't know if that makes sense."

"You ran off," I recalled barely above a whisper, remembering how Jared had darted out the door after him. The way the air in the house became tense and awkward in a split second.

"I ran off," he nodded. "I was furious. I hated imprinting. I wanted nothing to do with it. I was angry that it took away my choice. I was angry that it could take away yours. I didn't want to drag anyone else into this hell. It took Jared four hours to coax me back to the rez. He tried to convince me that it wasn't so bad. I don't know... maybe it wasn't. But it felt like I had the rug pulled out from under me, just when I was finally getting used to my new life."

"What does an imprint mean exactly?" I felt my heart thudding in my chest, my head spinning.

He finally looked at me, his dark eyes holding mine. "Our legends say it's like a bond. You would do anything, be anyone for her. Or him, I guess. A friend, a lover, a protector. No one knows why it happens exactly. Our best guess is that it's like your soulmate. Sam thinks it has to do with the bloodlines, or whatever. I think that idea is fucked."

"And you imprinted on me," I confirmed as he nodded once, his gaze moving to the ground.

"By the time I had finally calmed down, I had decided that I wasn't going to tell you. I wasn't going to do anything unless I thought you liked me on your own. No one else had really tried to stay away from their imprints before. I was planning to be the first to find out, but you kept showing up everywhere." He took a deep breath, sighing heavily. "I wasn't going to take your choice away. I didn't want you to feel pressured to want me around. I didn't want you to feel guilty about turning me down. If you never knew, no harm was done. I would just learn to live with the pain until it went away. I was looking for any excuse to keep myself busy. I think if I wasn't on patrol, I was in my garage."

"The timing was just shit. My friend, Bella... I had a thing for her for a while. Two days before you showed up, she had just taken off to Italy after her bloodsucker of a boyfriend. Harry had just died. Seth and Leah both just joined the pack. I wasn't exactly expecting anyone else to enter the equation. I didn't know how to feel."

"She's dating one of them?"

He cringed, a quick nod confirming. "Yeah I don't get the appeal of dating a dead guy. Technically his family, coven, whatever... they feed on animals. We have a treaty with them that they don't bite any humans and we allow them to live where they are just outside of Forks. My great-grandfather was the one to negotiate it with their leader. They did move away last fall, when he broke up with her. But now they're back."

I didn't say anything for a while, processing all this intense new information. "You said 'live with the pain'. What does that mean?" I wondered, his forehead resting against his head before he sat up again.

"I don't know that pain is the right way to describe it. More like fighting against the pull of a magnet, of gravity. It's a tense, jittery anxiety. When I'm around you, I feel like myself. I meant it when I said I shouldn't have kissed you. I beat myself up all last night. I think I drove the guys nuts with my thoughts."

"I wanted you too," I admitted, my voice soft. He fought back a small smile, shaking his head. "Wait... your thoughts? What does that mean?"

This earned a chuckle and amused grin from Jake, who seemed to shed most of the stress he was holding in his body. "When we're in wolf-form, we can hear each other's thoughts. It's how we communicate."

I narrowed my eyes at him as he reached his hand out toward me, resting the back of his hand against mine. "I'm also 108 degrees normally."

This explained the intense heat I felt with each kiss, my body humming at the memory. "That's definitely not normal," I giggled, my own hands freezing from the cold wind.

I listened as he explained more about his life as a wolf- the speed, the enhanced senses, the growth spurts. We sat quietly for a few minutes after he finished before he spoke up again.

"Do you like me or is it this imprint thing?" I asked, biting on my lower lip. The question was nagging at my thoughts, and I knew I would regret not asking though I was scared of what his answer would be. What if he didn't like me. What if he had to like me.

He didn't answer right away, and I felt my heart sink the longer the silence stretched. "I would never have chosen this. I'm not saying I wouldn't have chosen you—I think I would have eventually. But I wish this... imprint wasn't part of it. I do like you, and I would have liked you even without it. You're cute, and you have a little attitude. It's funny, you're not mean with it. You have these little dimples that show when you laugh, and your eyes... Yeah, I would have liked you anyway. That part doesn't change. It might have just taken me longer to fully realize it." As he finished, he turned to look at me. I tried to bite back a soft smile, relief washing out my nerves.

"Okay good, because I like you," I admitted. I felt my smile match his, this time taking my turn to bump my shoulder into his arm.

His smile faded, biting his lip before he spoke again. "I want you to know that being around us... It's dangerous. We can mostly control our phasing, but it's not guaranteed. If any of us lose our temper for even a split second near you, you could get seriously hurt. Some of us have better control than others, but shit can still happen. None of us would ever try to hurt you or anyone else, but... it's happened before." He watched me carefully, his eyes following my expression.

At first I was about to shrug this off, then I realized exactly what he meant. "Emily," I whispered, my heart sinking as I remembered the panicked phone call from the hospital. He nodded silently. "Who was it? How did that even happen?"

I could feel myself slipping into a panic attack, my vision tunneling as I was thrown back into the memories of a sleepless night spent crying in an empty hospital lobby with Jen while my mother and Sue talked down the hallway. The exhaustion and relief I felt when the doctor was able to assure us she would live. All this time we believed it was a bear attack.

"Sam... he had imprinted on her. That's why he and Leah broke up, that's why he kept going up to Neah to see her. That's why they're together now. He had only been a wolf for a few months at most, Jared was the only other one by then. He didn't have the iron-tight control on himself that he does now. They got into an argument, and something she said set him off. She was standing too close when he exploded. From what I've seen in his mind, he was reaching out to push her away, but his hand wasn't a hand by then," he explained, his hand instinctively moving to my back as my breathing came in short, fast beats.

"Hey, hey, breathe," he murmured, rubbing my back as I tried to calm down. My eyes burned with tears, and I angrily wiped them away. "He still hates himself for it. Emily never blamed him. She forgave him, but I know the guilt and pain he still carries from it."

"Has it happened to anyone else?" I asked, unable to find the words for anything else. I couldn't pinpoint one single emotion: my body a mix of old fear and new anger.

"No, Sam has insisted that we all stay away from people as much as we can as new pack members. He knew you were around Seth and Leah and nearly lost his shit. Leah has pretty good control, but that's why Seth has been scarce lately. Not that Leah listens to most of what Sam says," he said, and I smiled slightly at the thought of Leah's attitude. Of course, she wouldn't.

"I'll understand if you want to stay from me, from any of us, because of this. I can't blame you. Not after what you've been through." His hand dropped away from my back, and the loss of contact made me frown. I looked over to him, the gentleness in his deep brown eyes making it hard to reconcile what I knew he was capable of.

I shook my head, taking a deep breath. "No, I don't think I want that. I can take care of myself." I did want to talk to my sister, already planning out what I wanted to say. The frustration I felt that she would keep this from me. Knowing that she would have kept this secret forever had Jacob not been involved.

He nodded in agreement, his eyes flicking down to my lips before he turned away to the ground where the waves were creeping in with the tide. After a few moments, I stood up, checking the time on my phone. Somehow it was almost 5:30pm, the beach darkening as the sun began to set behind the dark clouds. "Do you want to hang out tomorrow?" I asked. He raised an eyebrow, grinning as he shrugged.

"Do you want to hang out tomorrow?" he returned the question. "I'll be in my garage by the time you're out of school."

"Then that's where I'll be," I smiled, starting down the beach to my car, his long strides following beside me.

Whew! Its finally finished! It was very dialogue heavy, and making sure I fleshed everything out was very important to me. The amount of notes and screenshots of Eclipse/New Moon reference text in my phone is a little insane. I'm excited to explore their relationship and how they work through the implications of the imprint, and how Olivia and Emily can grow together. All of this before we introduce Bella into the mix. Thanks for reading, and I'll be back very soon with the next chapter!