Howling At The Moon

Scratch The Surface

A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the long delay. Explanations, excuses and more apologies are on the blog. Extra long chapter to make up for the longer wait. And as always, reviews are given special love.

Sunday

A bloodcurdling war cry sounded before the door to the Black's kitchen swung open. "Err, are we interrupting something?" came an amused voice from the doorway. Embry paused in his death rattle groaning and looked up from the floor, only to see an extremely amused Collin, a slightly confused looking Brady and Seth who looked worried until he noticed that Kaia was unharmed. That particular imprint grinned deviously at the distraction that took Embry's attention off her; a situation she took full advantage of by emptying the contents of the bowl she was holding, all over that unsuspecting individual's head. "I win Call, now you have to clean up before Rachel gets back," was her only retort before flouncing out the open kitchen door into the yard. Seth made to follow her, but couldn't help taking a second to look around the war-zone that was formerly the kitchen. There was flour everywhere, including Kaia's hair, eggs dripping off the counter and from Embry's head, and unless he was mistaken, that was Jake's motionless leg sticking out from under the table. "Wow" was Collin's observation.

Embry rolled his eyes and then began grumbling as he got around to picking himself off the floor. "That kid has reflexes. Damn, she's fast" he mumbled under this breath, as he attempted to get the sole pancake that had been made before the food fight had begun, off the ceiling. Meanwhile Brady was poking at Jake's leg and Collin was looking to Embry for an explanation. Seth had already decamped to go find his imprint, and would probably get the story from her. "Food fight. Jake ducked under the table to avoid the egg missiles. Knocked himself out. Also. Seth's imprint is evil." That was as much as the younger wolves got from the older one, as he rushed about cleaning up the kitchen before his Alpha's sister came back. Brady and Collin looked at each other once before bursting into laughter, ignoring the evil eye that Embry was shooting them.

Meanwhile, Seth had followed Kaia out behind the garage where she ducked her head under the tap, to get the flour and eggshells out. The rush of the water covered the sound of Seth's approach, so she jumped when she stood up to see him watching her, an amused sparkle in his eye. "So I hear you killed Jake and injured Embry" he chuckled. "Hmph, yeah well, Embry thought rubbing flour in my hair, was threat enough to get him some more pancakes, more fool him," was her reply. "Apparently, Jake is still out cold and I think Embry might be in trouble, coz that's Paul's truck coming up the road right about now," Seth pointed. Kaia rubbed her hands together and giggled, "Oh this should be fun, hurry up lets go see if she kills him first or lets him explain before she deals the death blow." Seth laughed and followed her into the house.

Fifteen minutes later, Seth, Kaia, Collin, Brady, Embry, Jake with a bag of frozen peas on his head, and Paul, all sat on the shore of First Beach, in utter silence. "Wow," mumbled Embry. "Small… and yet.. so terrifying," added Jake. "You realize that's my girlfriend right?," Paul stated, "I now have a very real fear for my life." "Dude… she made me want to run home to my mommy." Collin muttered; the rest of them nodding, utterly shameless in their fear of Rachel Black and her threatened retribution. Except for one. Kaia struggled to keep her sniggering under her breath, but wasn't prepared for Embry's sudden movement, when he turned and swung her over his shoulder, and stalked to the water. The only one affected by her screaming was Seth, who was stopped from going after them by Collin's restraining hand on his shoulder. He looked to his best friend and Collin just shook his head at him. "You know Embry won't hurt her," he muttered under his breath. Seth nodded and sat back down, fighting the urge to make sure his imprint was safe and unharmed. His head told him Embry would kill someone before letting Kaia get hurt, but the part of his soul that belonged to her, wanted to be holding her, so that he knew without a doubt that she wasn't getting hurt.