Early Imprint [Book 3] ✔️

9 • The Talk

QUIL'S POV

I held Claire's hand as we walked on the beach. Claire was spending the summer in La Push. It was her reward for getting good grades during the past school year. Claire loved La Push and wanted to spend every moment she could on my reservation.

She told me once while we were talking on the phone that when she wasn't in La Push, she missed it so much it actually hurt. I didn't know if that was because she generally liked the area, she was being overly dramatic, or if it was because her subconscious was starting to feel the pull between us getting stronger. No matter what the reason, I was incredibly happy that Claire was so close by.

Emily and Sam had graciously opened their home to Claire for the summer. Claire got to hang out with her cousins Nate, who was now eight, and Gracie who was six, and I got to spend time with Claire. Nate loved having his cousin nearby. He had been really upset for a long time after the Cullens and Jacob and his family had moved last year.

The Cullens had moved to Vermont. Dr. Cullen had gotten a job at a hospital there. They had moved to a wooded area that had a lot of wild game in it. Though they loved Forks, they had already stayed there a lot longer than they normally would live in an area. They had decided to leave after someone made a comment to the doc about how young he looked for his age. Stacy had pestered me about that once, but Ronnie told her to leave me alone. He had said "the Quileutes just have good genes, now stop bugging him."

With Jacob in Vermont, Seth, Embry, and I had switched our loyalties back to Sam and rejoined his pack under Jacob's request. It was another reason Sam welcomed Claire into his home for the summer. He already had to deal with Embry's longing for his imprint. With Claire nearby, he didn't have to put up with me longing for Claire.

The pack still had to be on our guard in regards to vampires coming to the area. After the Volturi had tried to attack the Cullens years ago, some of the Cullens' vampire friends who had stood by the Cullens, had fallen in love with the area. Some would occasionally come back to Forks and would use the Cullens' vacant house as a vacation spot. The Cullens okayed this under two conditions. One, their friends couldn't hunt in the area. And two, they had to meet with Sam and the pack before staying at the house.

Sam would get a call from the Cullens letting him know that friends would be in the area.

The pack would then meet with the guests at the Cullens' house so that we could smell their scent. We didn't want to wrongly attack one of their friends. The agreement was though that if the friends didn't check in with Sam first, or if they hunted in the region, we would have free will to attack them. Luckily, we hadn't had any incidents yet.

I looked down at Claire as we walked on the beach. In a couple of months she would be starting junior high. I had brought her down to the beach to give her an early birthday present. I was taking Claire to see her favorite boy band. It was still a couple of months before her 12th birthday, but the band was coming to Seattle this weekend.

I glanced down at her again and was surprised by some of the physical changes I took in. Claire had started to get a lot taller in the past year and was even carrying herself differently. There was a slight sway to her hips as she walked now. Much to my chagrin, I couldn't help but notice that Claire was also starting to develop curves that hadn't been there last year. It felt almost incestuous to think of her that way, but she was becoming a beautiful young woman.

I knew she was popular too, which was why I found her request to spend the summer in La Push a little odd. Even though she might long to be on my reservation, I was surprised that she didn't want to spend her summer with her friends. Last time she had confided in me, she and her boyfriend Jon, were still going strong.