Early Imprint [Book 3] ✔️

15 • Moving Day

QUIL'S POV

"So...how is this punishment again?" Collin asked me.

I sighed. Collin had volunteered to help me move Claire from Makah to La Push. I didn't know how much crap a teenager could have, but Ronnie suggested that I bring Sam's truck and also rent an extra trailer.

Collin continued to speak, "Cause if I had run away when I was her age, my parents would have busted my ass."

"It's not punishment. Her parents have been worried about her destructive behavior over the past half year and decided it would be better for her to have a change of scene," I replied.

"You should have just made out with her when you had the chance," Collin smirked putting his feet up on the dashboard and pushing the seat back so that his long body could fit.

"It's not that easy, she was only 14 at the time," I said in irritation. Collin rolled his eyes. Who was Collin to give advice anyway? He scoffed at anything to do with imprinting.

Sometimes it really sucked that everyone in the pack could read your thoughts. Because of my recent problems with Claire, I could think of little else for the past seven months. As much as I tried to hide it, the entire pack now knew that Claire had kissed me and what my reaction had been.

They had also seen my reaction when I found Claire in the apartment with those two guys. They kept saying things like "Quil you're my hero" and "Quil, you're the wind beneath my wings" when they saw what I had done to the body builders. I had gotten nonstop crap from the entire pack until Sam had ordered them to shut the hell up. It was his niece after all, and he didn't want to know any details of that side of our relationship.

"So have you heard from Embry," Collin asked as we pulled onto the Makah reservation.

"Last I heard, he was working in a garage in Maine," I replied.

Embry had moved as far away from Hawaii and La Push as he could get. Going to the opposite side of the country hadn't helped much. Sometimes when I phased, I could feel Embry's pain inside my head. Because of that, I knew he was still phasing. But as soon as he sensed someone else was with him, he quickly phased back to human form.

We pulled into Ronnie and Stacy's house and got out of the car. I was anxious to see Claire again. It had been a week since she had runaway and I had rescued her. I hadn't seen her since I had dropped her off.

She was now on her Thanksgiving break, and her parents thought it would be best if she started school in La Push after the break was over. The end of November was a weird time for a kid to start a new school, but Ronnie and Stacy wanted her to get away from Makah.

The Niks had apparently come over to the house and had gotten into a big fight with Claire. They had threatened her because I had broken the one body builder's arm when I had thrown him against the wall. I had volunteered to talk to the girls and their parents directly after I had learned of their harassing, but Ronnie said the best thing was to transfer Claire out of the current environment as soon as possible.

The door opened to the house and there she was.

"Hey," Claire said.

"Hey Claire," I responded. "You remember Collin?"

"Yeah, nice to see you again," Claire murmured politely. "Well, let's get this show on the road."

I smiled as I took in Claire's appearance. Today she was wearing a long black skirt that went down to her ankles with black boots. She was also wearing a long sleeved red sweater. I took that as a good sign. Least she wasn't wearing all black anymore. Even her black makeup wasn't as heavy.