Ardor ▪️ Embry Call

"He means you're the food."

The day before, Bronwyn received a surprising message on her phone from Esme Cullen. She had tried to reach her mother, but didn't get an answer and tried her instead. Weirdly enough, Esme almost sounded nervous to ask by the way she wrote. Bronwyn started smiling down at her phone while reading the messages. She didn't really pay attention to the hint of nervousness. "Who are you texting, boo?" Jared asked after leaning his elbow on her shoulder.

He looked down at her phone while chewing on a cookie, and Bronwyn took one small step to the side so that his arm fell back beside his body. "Don't call me boo, and I'm chatting with Esme Cullen."

"Why would you voluntarily text a leech?" The girl held up her finger to motion for him to quiet down. "Is that smileys?"

"She ordered pastries from the bakery and couldn't get a hold of mum quickly enough so she texted me. I'm delivering them to her tonight."

"On their land?" His expression suggested that he did not find this funny anymore. Bronwyn was a part of his pack and he cared about her safety, while also not remotely trusting any vampires. "You know we can't reach you there if something happens?" Bronwyn simply shrugged and kept looking down at her phone. "Does Embry know?"

"I'm sure it'll come up. He probably won't stress about it."

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Embry stressed about it a lot. "You're going over to the leeches? On their orders?"

"Yes I am, honey. Esme is so nice and I'm sure there'll be no issues." She raised her arms to comb her hands through his hair calmly. His arms rested on her hips, thumbs stroking the skin under her shirt.

"I don't want you to go." Embry's gaze was still stern as he looked into his girlfriend's eyes, even though he knew he wouldn't win the discussion.

Bronwyn tilted her head and pursed her lips before answering. She fully understood why he worried for her and found it endearing to some extent. Still, he couldn't change her mind on the matter. "She's paying me." A deal is a deal.

Her boyfriend cocked an eyebrow and let out a small scoff. "It's like fast food delivery."

"He means you're the food," Seth added with a nod after appearing from seemingly nowhere. Embry shoved him away carefully.

"Princess." He took a short break to glance away before turning back to her. "I can not let you go somewhere I can't follow. What kind of boyfriend would I be then?"

"You don't trust me?" The girl tilted her head and let her arms fall back to her sides.

"Of course I trust you! I don't trust anyone else, though!"

"You can't always worry about me."

"I don't even trust the air you breathe to keep you alive. I constantly worry about you. I even worry about whether or not you're sitting comfortably!"

"Embry." Bronwyn grabbed hold of her boyfriend's face. "I love you very much." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead, making her sigh softly. "But I'm going to deliver the pastries, and you're not going to make any problem of it."

"But-"

"No buts." Silence engulfed them for a few seconds. Bronwyn was trying not to smile at her boyfriend.

"But you-"

"Nope."

"But I love your butt." Embry's final comment made her face stretch into a large grin. She giggled while squeezing her eyes shut, which made Embry's stomach go wild with adoration.

In the end, Bronwyn pecked Embry's lips before turning around towards the door. She opened the door but turned around before exiting. "I'll keep my phone on speaker in the car and we can talk the whole way." Embry fist-bumped the air like he won something.

"Drive carefully, babe." He jogged over to give her one last kiss before she strolled out the door with her coat tightly around her.

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After driving Wynny's car to the bakery, Bronwyn carried all the different pastries into the car. She was quick on her feet, as to not let rain soak the fresh baking.

Eventually, everything was in the car and the girl called her boyfriend before turning it on speaker and placing the phone in the middle section of the car. Embry picked up the phone immediately, much to his pack's amusement. "Hey, Princess. Everything okay?"

"I just drove away from the bakery. Mum told me to say hi." 

"That's nice." Em chuckled, simply from being happy. He was nervous and a bad feeling churned in his stomach. However, Bron didn't need to know that.

The couple talked the whole way into the Forks forest. Embry updated her on what the pack was doing around him, while Bronwyn always updated when she took a new turn. "Seth says he misses you."

"Tell him I miss him too. I'm at the Cullen's now, Bry, talk to you in a few minutes." 

"Okay, be safe." The phone hung up and Bronwyn exited the car.

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It didn't take long for the vampires to carry all the pastries inside their home. There was many of them, to say the least, and they were considerably quicker than humans. "Thank you so much, darling. I was delighted when you responded."

"It was a pleasure on my side, Esme. The pack told me about you guys early on, but you gave me no reason to doubt your kindness." Bronwyn felt her heart soar at the grateful look that melted onto Ms Cullen's face.

"I will admit that you being in the pack made me nervous." She fiddled with her fingers but didn't break their eye contact. 

"I noticed." Bronwyn giggled. "And I will admit that Embry didn't particularly agree with my decision to come here. I don't regret it though."

"Thank you so much, sweetheart. The payment came in, right?" Bron started moving back towards her car.

"It's all good, Esme. I better get going now, it was really nice meeting all of you."

"You're welcome back any time, honey."

Finally, Bronwyn drove away with a wave and a smile on her face. What she quickly forgot, was that she promised Embry to call him when she got back in the car. The girl kept driving happily, singing along to the songs on the radio loudly. 

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When her car finally crossed the border to the reservation, the first thing she saw was a distressed puppy, also known as her boyfriend, standing with his arms crossed. "Embry, what are you doing here?" She had opened the window to talk to him, but he just opened the car door to her seat and pulled her into his embrace. Em took in a deep breath of her smell. She smelled of leech.

"You were supposed to call me up again." 

"Oh my, I totally forgot!" Embry pulled away to look at her gorgeous face. "Sorry."

"I was about to shift and run onto their land when I heard you singing out your lungs." He started laughing at the memory. "You're not the best singer, Princess."

"Get in the car, dork." He walked around the car and got in the passenger seat. "You know you could've called me, right?"

Embry only responded by smiling sheepishly at her, which made Bronwyn shake her head and turn back to the road with a content smile on her face.