Her Final Days

Chapter 14

As the meeting progressed, Jacquelyn and Embry walked away from the others. The time for them to talk was long overdue...

*****

Embry looked at Jacquelyn and said, "I know that we both have had some rather tough issues, but I want you to know something..."

"Like what?" Jacquelyn said.

"I have come to care about you. A lot," Embry replied back.

"Why?" Jacquelyn said.

"It went back to when you and I first met," said Embry. "You and that little girl, along with Nahuel and his aunt were escaping from the chaos that happened in Rio. It was also when you had those five babies and Rosalie left a few months after they were born."

"So I take it that you imprinted on...me?" Jacquelyn gasped.

"I was ashamed to admit it," said Embry, "but Sam was quite intimidating and I wasn't sure if Jake was OK with it; I knew hiding my imprint was wrong, but it would have been so much worse had they found out."

Jacquelyn sighed and said, "And I know things will get worse once they discover Ezra is your son. Sam wants him to join the pack, but I'm not so sure. After all, he did question me in a rather aggressive way about Ezra."

Embry sat down and said to her, "I have felt nothing but guilt and shame at having to lie about my imprint and hide you, and even when I was a married man, I couldn't help but wonder if I was wrong to let you go."

"But you did get the chance to live a normal life," said Jacquelyn. "That was something I never had and what you would not have had you stayed with me."

"But now comes the moment that all barriers to our relationship, save for one, have been broken," said Embry, "and it would be nice if we could start our lives over the way that they should have been lived had none of this happened."

He leaned over and took Jacquelyn into his arms, both of them lying in the sunlight. They realized that it was now time for them to come clean about their relationship. Embry would face anger from Jacob and Sam while Jacquelyn would be teased by Emmett for keeping her secret.

For now, Embry was content.

-----

Nathaniel Swan knew that the Quileute myths and legends were a part of his family, as his father Darius married a Quileute woman and his grandmother Sue came from the Quileute reservation.

But that still didn't mean that the legends had any right to creep into his own life.

He had just finished making his rounds at the nursing home, checking up on Jeremy Lowe and asking the other residents about the incident that caused him to fall out of his wheelchair. Everyone was very understanding, as Nate had witnessed Billy Black's death when he was just five years old.

Billy had been very ill when he fell out of his wheelchair and died. Everyone was very sad to see the old man die, and Nate remembered his grandfather Charlie sitting in that dark room with a sad look on his face, his grandmother sobbing, and his own family in shock. Even his cousins were sad. But even then, that did not compare to the anguish the Cullen clan had felt as they watched the death of the descendant of their old ally Ephraim Black.

Nate was heading back to the car when his partner Gerard Rosen said to him, "You don't look well, Nate."

"Yeah," said Nate. "I've been getting a bit too warm for my uniform."

"I bet by the end of the week you'll be turning into one of those wolves that your grandmother told you about," said Gerard.

"I hope not," said Nate. "That's the LAST thing that I want to see happen to me."

Little did they know that Rosalie was overhearing their conversation; she knew about the Quileutes, and even then she didn't trust them as the rest of the family did. She walked into her room and pulled out a tiny portrait of herself and a Quileute brave.

Ephraim Black.

She sighed and said to herself, "Why is it that the moment we start to die that our past returns to haunt us?" She remembered what the witch had said before she was restored to her human form: "In your final days, your wish will come back to haunt you!"

Rosalie wondered to herself Was it all worth that wish? She had asked herself that question many times and most of the time, the answer was yes. But would it have been possible if she had said no?

Was it possible that she would return to her vampire form or if she would actually die as she wished? Rosalie did not know the answer.