First Imprint [Book 1] ✔️

6 • Wooing

SAM'S POV

"How long do I have before Emily returns to Makah?" I asked Harry. Harry came to the office today so that he and I could discuss "tribal business." My mom, who was in the office at the time, didn't understand why the Elders kept seeking me out. Billy had explained to her a few months ago that I was involved in some confidential "tribal business." Although I knew she was curious, no one ever questioned the Elders. I decided to take an early lunch break and we headed for the cliffs. After only getting an hour of sleep the night before, I was ready to pass out and needed the fresh air anyway.

"Didn't Leah tell you? Emily's staying for the summer. Her parents want her to go to college in the fall, but Emily's undecided. She's going to help out in the store. I think her parents thought that a few months of retail would scare her into wanting to go to school."

Happiness shot through me. I had the entire summer to try to persuade Emily that we were meant to be together. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, and I couldn't very well blurt out that she was my imprint without her thinking I was insane. One major problem I had was that she and Leah were like sisters and Leah was wasting no time in making me out to be the bad guy. In the week since we broke up, any time I passed the Clearwater house, I could hear her tell Emily every dirty secret and fault I had.

I tried to remind myself that Leah was hurt and angry. I was hurt and angry too. The anger I felt was directed mostly at the leeches. If it hadn't been for the bloodsuckers, I would never have had to hurt Leah. But I couldn't regret falling in love with Emily and that's where the hurt came in. I knew that Leah was in pain, but I still couldn't stop thinking about Emily. And that made me feel so guilty that it filled me with self-loathing. I was ashamed that I couldn't be in more pain over the fact that I had hurt Leah who I had loved for years, not to mention she was my best friend for so long. Even after being as close as we were, I couldn't even picture Leah's face in my mind anymore.

Oddly enough, it seemed like I couldn't see any woman clearly anymore unless they were in extreme pain. A girl came to the reservation the other day to see a woman she knew who lived there. She was sitting on the front porch talking to the friend with her arms tightly around her stomach when I walked by. When I looked at her face, I could see it clear as glass. The whole left side of her face was black and blue and I actually saw knuckle imprints on her skin. Her friend kept telling the girl that her boyfriend was a pig and wasn't worth it.

I was able to track down the pig boyfriend in Port Angeles and had a little chat with him. I convinced him to take anger management courses, and I was pretty sure when the cast comes off his arm in 6 months, he won't touch any woman in anger again. Sometimes there were a lot of benefits to being a protector.

I sighed as I thought about Emily again. Between work, patrolling, and sleeping, my chances of seeing Emily always seemed slim. I felt physical pain from not being able to go near her. I was trying to be respectful of Leah, but I didn't know how much longer I could go without talking to Emily. I had begun to go by the Clearwater house everyday after work just to see if I could see her. I found that she and Leah liked to take walks on the beach around sunset, so I began to hide in the cliffs, always watching from a distance. I felt like a stalker, but I couldn't help myself. Even though I could hear Leah trashing me, seeing Emily even from far away actually helped ease a tiny bit of the pain I felt from not being near her.

"I convinced Leah to go to California and stay with my wife's sister for a few weeks." Harry said, interrupting my obsessive thoughts of his niece. "She's been fighting it because I think she has an idea in her head that you'll come back to her, but I told her 'some time apart might be just what your relationship needs.'"