The Unwanted Imprint

Chapter 27

Things were light in the Cullen house that night. Bella had come over for dinner, and they were all laughing over the rather rough surprise that Jacob had gotten when he had come to talk to Nichole.

"What would make you his imprint?" Bella asked, and Nichole shrugged her shoulders. "There's really no telling what makes a wolf imprint, so I really can't tell you." Now that Bella and Edward were a couple, and Bella knew about the supernatural world, it was a lot easier to talk to Bella about things now. "But if he thinks that just because I'm his imprint, that things all just going to be all perfect and I'm going to put up with him mouthing my family, then he's sorely mistaken."

"I think that he's learned his lesson now," Edward said, hiding a grin. "It will probably be a while before he shows his face around here again, and with the mind link that the wolves have, it won't be too long before the rest of his pack knows what happened either."

"Now, normally I would ask if you were being too harsh about things," Alice said. "But in this case, I think that he deserved it, not because of how he treated the rest of us, but because of how he treated you, Nichole. I never saw any of it coming."

"It's not your fault Alice, you can't see anything that has to do with the wolves, don't blame yourself for that."

"What are you going to do if he comes back?" Bella asked, causing Nichole to sigh a bit. "I really don't know, Bella. If he thinks that i"m just going to jump in a relationship with him or something like that, then he can just forget it. I'm mourning the death of my girlfriend, it's not like I'm going to just throw her to the decide because he decided to pull some werewolf shit on me. This isn't going to be like those damn werewolf novels, where I let him 'dominate' me, or whatever it is that they put in that garbage."

This time, Edward couldn't help his grin, and he laughed loudly. "Trust me when I tell you that it's closer to those novels than you think, depends on the werewolf though."

Nichole groaned and she rolled her eyes. "Great, so I'm going to have to deal with a possible breeding kink then. That's just lovely."

Alice patted her sister on the arm. "You can always just ignore him."

"Yeah, because ignoring a wolf who has a literal instinct to be around you all of the damn time is going to wind up being so easy."

"Well, not when you have that attitude."

"Maybe talk to Sam about it?" Bella suggested. "He might be able to talk to Jacob about it or something. He doesn't mind you, does he?"

"I think that he tolerates me. Much more than that, I don't know." Nichole shrugged her shoulders again. "Wouldn't hurt to talk to him I guess. But I can't go on the reservation, at least not when Paul Lahote is out there, considering that he's out for blood. Maybe I can get a message to Seth or something and he can have us meet at the diner or something like that. I want to learn more about this imprint business anyway, like how it's going to affect me, if it's going to even affect me at all. Like, am I going to magically fall in love with him at some point, or am I allowed to hate him like I already am?"

"Are you sure that you're going to always hate him?" Edward queried. "What if you do start to like him at some point?"

"If that's going to happen, then it's a long time away. He'll need to clean up his act before we even get back to the friendship stage."

"Things changed between the two of you so quickly," Bella said as she finished her food, fettuccini alfredo that Esme had made for Bella and Nichole, along with a garden salad and garlic bread. "Like, you were great friends one day, and then he shifted and it was like he all of a sudden hated you and wanted you dead."

"Perhaps Sam had something to do with it," Jasper suggested. "He is the leader of the pack after all, and what he says goes, they have to follow what he says, because they quite literally have no choice in the matter."

"Maybe." Nichole wiped her mouth with her napkin. "What I know is that it's not something that I'm going to worry about tonight. Edward, you mind if I borrow your girlfriend for a couple of hours?"

"Well, that depends on what the two of you are going to be doing."

"We're just going to be going out and getting some ice cream, maybe get a game or two of bowling in. You know, normal teenage things. You up for that, Bella?"

"Sure thing." Bella nodded her head. "It's been a long time since it's been just the two of us hanging out."

Nichole cleaned their dishes while Bella got ready. "I know what you're really going to be doing," Edward murmured to Nichole as he helped her with the dishes. "And it's something that's dangerous and stupid, you don't know what's going to happen."

"You're right, I don't know what's going to happen, but I do know that it can help me find some answers." Nichole went quiet as Bella entered the kitchen. "Hey, you ready?"

"Yeah, let's go." Bella pressed a kiss to Edward's cheek before grabbing her purse, and the two of them headed out to Bella's truck.

"Okay, so I may have stretched the truth a little bit on the whole doing normal teenage things bit," Nichole said to Bella.

"I figured as much. You know that your nose twitches when you lie?"

Nichole's hand flew to her nose "It does? Shit, I'm going to have to work on that, aren't I?"

"I'll help you, but first of all, where are we actually going?"

"Port Angeles, there's a witch I need to see."

"Hold up, a witch? Why?"

"Because there's things that I need to find out, things about my mother, and I think that this witch is the only person who can help me. You don't have to come if you don't want to Bella, but it would be nice to have someone along for the ride."

Bella grinned a little bit. "what's life without a little adventure, right? Port Angeles, here we come."