Flowers for Lilah (Seth Clearwater)

chapter eighteen

"Are you it's okay that I'm coming with you?" I quip from Seth's side, as we walked up the short, icy driveway of Sam Uley's house that weekend. I sniffed a little bit, my cold was mostly gone, daily visits from Seth with tea and soup had helped tremendously.

After asking to see a real imprinted couple, Seth invited me to a get-together at Sam, their alpha's, house. He hadn't teased me any more about my request, thank the Lord, but I could tell Seth thought it was amusing that I wanted to observe the other couples. I was nervous, to say the least. I was plain, shy, and boring. And I was literally walking into a pack of wolves. From what Seth had told me, they were loud and talkative. The opposite of me. What if I didn't fit in?

But this was important to me. It was too hard to process this 'soul mate' idea without ever seeing it, without having something to model it. I wanted to see what it was like, how it looked, it was too foreign to me right now. I was over thinking the whole concept, trying to make scientific sense of it in my brain. Seth told me it was something that I should just feel, not analyze. I had rolled my eyes at that, I knew all too well how easy it would be to just absorb myself in Seth and not give it a rational thought.

"Lil, you're part of the pack now," Seth told me for the hundredth time, and grabs my dainty hand in his warm one. It was funny, in his human form, his big hands still reminded me of paws. He opens the door for me and we cross into the small yet warm home. It was probably normal sized by La Push's standards, but the size of Seth's 'pack' dwarfed the house, and made the room feel about a thousand degrees.

There was some sort of loud commotion going on, I couldn't tell if something major had just happened; or whether this was the type of energy this group always had.

"Hey guys," Seth greeted everyone casually, leading me past the living room, where a few of the guys gave us "heys" and nods back. We ended up in the kitchen, where a few people I recognized from school were; with one girl who I didn't know as well. I think her name was Emily Young, I saw her every Sunday in church, though I had never talked to her. She had a claw marks from a bear attack a few years back that morphed half of her face into a frown... I never thought much about it... could it had been something with the pack? A vampire?

"Seth!" Emily turns around from the counter of the kitchen, and engulfs him into a hug. I don't know why, but my cheeks flare up, with a bit of jealousy. Like she was hugging something that was mine. I shook my head, my hair shagging, what a petty way to think. She turns to me, "Lilah! It's so great to finally meet you! I've been practically begging Seth to bring you around." Before I can respond, she gulps me up in an even bigger hug.

"Lil, Emily, Emily, Lil," Seth shrugs, grabbing a muffin from a bread-basket on the counter. "Lil, this is Jared and Kim, Guys, this is Lil" He nods over to the couple sitting on the corner of the kitchen counter. They're wrapped up in eachother, I recognize Kim from school.

"Yes, we all know who you are," Jared snorts, shaking my hand.

"Oh?" I quip nervously.

"You're not exactly a new topic around here," Jared shrugs, "Seth's always talking about you, thinking about you, making excuses to run past your house-"

"Enough Jare!" Kim elbows him, shooting him a dangerous look before smiling warmly at me. "Hi Lilah,"

"Hi," I can feel my cheeks burning bright red, and I know it's probably obvious.

"So, you sick of Seth's babbling yet?" Jared chortles, "Because I'm warning you, as someone who's been inside his brain, it never stops." Emily and Kim crack a smile at that, and I giggle a little bit, "Not sick of it," I bite back, looking up at Seth, "I like it, it works for me," Seth beams back at me.