Early Imprint [Book 3] ✔️

12 • Imprint Problems

QUIL'S POV

"I'm leaving."

I glanced up from the order sheet I'd been looking at to view Embry standing in front of me.

"What?" I asked. I had to really focus on Embry. It wasn't easy. Ever since Claire and I had been having issues, it was hard to focus on anything.

He looked awful. In fact, I hadn't seen Embry look this bad since he first imprinted. A couple of months ago, Rebecca had come back for a few weeks to visit. Embry had been so ecstatic the entire time she had been here except for when Ian had shown up for a couple of days. Even after Rebecca had gone home, Embry had finally seemed a little bit more content with his life. Now he looked like he had just been raked over the pits of Hell.

"I'm leaving," Embry repeated, looking slightly insane.

"What happened?" I questioned, putting aside the clipboard.

"Rachel just told me that Rebecca and her husband are expecting their first baby."

I sucked in my breath. Having major problems with my own imprint right now, I could definitely sympathize. But this was something so much worse than I ever had to deal with.

"What are you going to do, Embry?" I asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. He looked tortured.

"I'm going to leave La Push for awhile. I just can't take it anymore. Every time I see Paul and Rachel...Rachel reminds of Rebecca. I can't handle it. I thought when she was here last...I thought there was hope...and I...I just can't be here anymore," Embry finally got out desperately and I saw the tears in his eyes.

"How long will you be gone," I wondered feeling sick for him.

"Not sure. A few weeks...years, maybe. I just can't live my life this way anymore. I keep hoping that every time she comes back things will be different. There's no reason to hope anymore. She's got her life and I've got to get mine."

I nodded, "I'll take care of the garage, maybe see if Seth wants to join our partnership. Will you at least let me know when you get settled somewhere?"

"Yeah," Embry said. I leaned in and gave him a quick comforting hug and then he turned and left.

Although I felt Embry's pain as though it were my own, I couldn't help but let my mind drift to my own problems. I squeezed the bridge of my nose to try to relieve the tension. I had a nagging pain through my whole body. It was like a dull headache that was always there. It had been like this for seven months; ever since Claire had kissed me.

Things had gone from bad to worse between us during that time. Ever since Claire had overheard me telling Emily that I wasn't romantically interested in her, Claire no longer attempted to flirt with me. She didn't even acknowledge me if she could help it. We didn't talk on the phone anymore, and she never came to La Push unless she had to.

I still went up to Makah on occasion to watch football or baseball games on TV with Ronnie. Sometimes if Claire didn't know in advance that I would be there, I would occasionally see her rush by whatever room I was in before she would leave.

If she knew I'd be there though, she was never there. It was so incredibly painful to be ignored by her that I would have preferred to not go up to Makah at all. But it would have been too weird if I suddenly stopped having contact with the family after all these years, so I continued to go up there and suffered in silence.