North Star

19. Old Friends

"She what?"

Seth looks uneasy when he hears my tone and everyone seems a little tense, except for Edward; he knows I'm lost.

I'm not asking as a warning question, I am asking because I am genuinely confused; I have no idea what "imprinting" is.

"You have to keep in mind that it wasn't her choice. It just happened. Leah feels horrible that this happened, but she can't help it and she hopes that you can understand," Seth jumps to his sister's defense.

"No-," I begin to say but the wolves all start to jump in at the same time to try to explain the situation to me.

"We were watching over your friend Margo like you guys wanted us to. When she finally woke up, the doctors waited until it was appropriate to bombard her with questions about what happened," Quil started rambling to explain the story.

"Wait, stop."

"But!" Embry jumps in as well to continue, expecting some sort of explosion from me that wasn't coming. Although, it just might come out if they don't let me ask what they're talking about.

"The police got involved and they said that they found Margo's car not far from the trail she was on and they found her phone somewhere on the slope she rolled down and they got into contact with Lewis. Quil and I had the next shift to watch over her and that was when Lewis came in but Margo was still not awake so he waited with us. Then it came time for Leah's shift and they made eye contact and that was when-" Embry rambles the rest of the story out in a hurry but I can't take it.

"QUIET!"

He does, everyone is still and no one makes a move to say anything, wary about my reaction, even Edward. He and Alice still won't say anything, the jerks.

"Thank you. And sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you. Look, you guys are going on and on and freaking out about this story to explain to me, but there's something I have to tell you. I don't know what imprinting is. What the hell is that?"

I just need the one answer and that's just to know what imprinting means. The way that they were hiding it and the way they're trying to explain now makes it sound as though it's something terrible. Is imprinting a sort of initiation to become a wolf? Did they turn Lewis into a wolf?

I wait for someone to explain, but this part seems to be what they dread the most. Is my assumption correct? Did they turn my ex-boyfriend into a freaking wolf beast?

"Well," Jake speaks up to explain, his arms wrapped around Nessie as though he depended on doing it. "When a wolf imprints on a specific someone, the wolf becomes unconditionally bound to that someone for the rest of their life."

He continues to explain the rest of what it's like to imprint on someone, all while staring deep into Ness's eyes, as though he knew exactly what the feeling was. No, he didn't know it, he lived it. That is their connection, he imprinted on her, he is bound to her for life.

"So, you're telling me that that whole gooey eyed, bound for life, I-will-be-anything-for-them-even-after-I-die thing, that is what happened to Leah? But to my ex-boyfriend?"

Jake looks back up from Ness's eyes and nods his head once, waiting for my reaction as much as everyone else. The whole room waits for me to say something.

Tanya and her family are now in the corner of the room, not really interested in this whole discussion but are sticking around for the drama, it looked like. Kate even looks comfortable just sitting on Garrett's lap as they sit on the lounge chair in the corner.

Carlisle and his family, however, are too close with this pack and will calm down anything that goes down if they need to, especially Jasper, who is now trying to depict my emotions.