It made it easier that your grandfather had been a shifter, and you had grown up with him. He recognized the tell-tale signs and wasn’t surprised when you shifted.
But you were. Oh boy, were you ever distraught. It took you three days (almost a pack record) for Sam to calm you down enough for you to turn back to human. And this was in the middle of the red-head lady crisis.
With the end of the school year came more time to learn how to be a shifter. You still delivered papers in the morning, the early morning, but you couldn’t get another summer job since you had to be able to drop everything to protect the rez. You couldn’t even go away with your friends, and you barely had time to hang out with them, anyway. They were moving on from you, holding a grudge ever since you “joined Sam’s cult”.
Now it was a Sunday morning, and after flying through your paper route, you couldn’t even go back to sleep. You had to walk into the forest behind your house and strip like a crazy person (clothes don’t grow on trees, you know) and shift so that you could meet up for the “training”. The “training” was more of a demonstration for the Pack, since the bloodsucking Cullen coven wouldn’t actually be touching any of you.
You’re gonna be late, Y/N! Embry teased as you shifted. He could hear your thoughts, hear you grumbling in your own mind about the damn Cullens and Bella Swan, the ‘vampire girl’ as Emily calls her. If it wasn’t for them, you wouldn’t even be in this position. It was cruel for them to move to the area, in your opinion, when they knew it would set off changes in the genes.
They don’t know that, Y/N Sam rumbled in your head.
And quit your whining, the rest of us are already here and the mind-reader can hear you Jared thought.
FUCK you thought to yourself.
You picked up speed, feeling embarrassed that everyone was waiting for you. Leah told you the shortcuts, watching you race through the woods in your mind.
Finally, you came to the clearing, stumbling over the last log to fall into the second line of the wolf audience.
“Is that everyone?” A blond, curly-haired man asked. The sight of him made your hair stand straight up. From your spot about fifty metres away, you could see bite scars all over his neck and forearms.
“Yes,” said the mind-reader.
“Perfect,” said the scarred man, turning between his wolf and vampire audiences. “Fighting newborns requires a different strategy than fighting aged vampires…”
As he began his lecture, your eyes wandered over the rest of the vampires. You had only seen some of them in your pack mates’ heads. Other than Mr. Scars and the mind reader, there was the doctor, Angry Barbie, Tinkerbell, Momma vamp, and
Your packmates knew what was happening, could hear your thoughts and feel your experience as your gaze met Emmett Cullen’s for the first time. Not that you knew his name at that moment, not until Jake supplied it a second later.
You were freaking out. It felt like someone had hog tied your soul and chained you to the monster of a man, at least 6ft 4 with muscles that would make anyone cower, supernatural or not.
Upon feeling the attachment, your instinct was to pull at the binds. You moved to turn and bolt but Sam’s orders stopped you.
“What’s happening?” you heard a voice in the distance, the human girl’s, Bella.
Your claws dug into the soft dirt and you ripped open the earth since you couldn’t move, whining and contorting your body. None of the others had reacted like you had—no one else had been in pain.
“Y/N imprinted.” The mind-reader said, his voice even. “On Emmett.”
His voice felt like thunder to you. Your paws pulled up the dirt and flung it away until you were digging yourself in.
LET ME OUT LET ME GO LET ME OUT SAM HELP ME PLEASE LET ME GO SAM HELP
The worried thoughts of your packmates layered on top of your own thoughts in a mess.
Go to your house and wait for me. Don’t tell your grandfather what has happened Sam instructed. No sooner did he finish his order before you were retreating, your joints protesting the hair-pin movements as you propelled yourself away from the disastrous situation.
Running was easy enough, but shifting back to human was proving to be a harder task. You wandered around the edge of your backyard, trying to calm yourself down. The pack had continued the ‘lesson’ with the vampires after a short conversation. Unfortunately, since you could not shift, you understood what was happening, and your pack mates continued to be bombarded with your fear. You could also hear Paul’s thoughts about you: obviously you had to be made wrong as a person to imprint on a vampire.
You trotted back and forth, occasionally whimpering out loud as much as you tried not to. You were a disgrace, your grandfather would kick you out, you would drop out of school, the Pack would disown you. What would you do? Join the bloodsuckers? Would Emmett drink your blood and kill you? You felt drawn to him. Would it make him happy to eat you? Maybe that would be easiest. What was wrong with you?
You didn’t think anymore— you needed to get away. You ran the perimeter, but it wasn’t enough. You kept running, running until your whole body hurt, your back leg sore from rolling your ankle too many times in gym class as a kid.
The running had worn you out. Whatever happened, it would be best to face it. Imprinting wasn’t under your control, even if your brain had decided Emmett was the ‘one’ all by its dumb self. If the Cullen’s moved and you stopped shifting, would you even still be attached?
You slowed down to a trot and tried to gather your senses. You were deep in the woods, the canopy of the trees making the area you were standing in even darker.
You curled up on the cold ground and tried to calm yourself down. If the Cullens were leaving town soon, maybe everyone would stop shifting. Things could go back to normal.
You tried a few breathing exercises. Your heart rate slowed for a minute, until you smell it.
A vampire. A scent you didn’t recognize.
You had a split second before you saw it in the distance.
RUN, Y/N! Sam shouted in your head. You turned, wincing from the pain in your leg, and took off. You were exhausted, but running for your life gave you an adrenaline boost.
You turned to look behind you and you let out a shriek of a howl—the vampire was only about ten feet away. You took a sharp left, jumped over a fallen tree and tumbled down a sharp hill until your body was stopped by slamming into a tree. You let out a sharp whine, your eyes darting to the vampire looking at the top of the hill.
You couldn’t help the yelps and the whines—your ribs were definitely cracked, if not broken on the one side, and your foot had to have a stress fracture.
MOVE Y/N! GET OUT OF THERE! C’MON, DON’T GIVE UP! Leah shouted in your head. WE’RE ON OUR WAY!
The vampire, with his red eyes, slid down the hill on his heels and grabbed you by the back of your neck, dragging your body back up the hill before launching you like a frisbee into some other trees. In a blink of an eye he was standing over you, contemplating his next move. Was he going to kill you quickly, or did he want to see you in pain a little longer?
Luckily for you, the vampire’s time was cut short as huge pale blur slammed into the vampire, sending the two of them flying into some trees. The trees snapped easily, and the thunderous noise of two boulders colliding made your ears ring.
You tried to stand up, dizzy and in overwhelming pain.
Limbs flew by your face. Overwhelmed with fear and pain, your body finally gave up.
Before you fully became conscious, all you knew was that a sickeningly sweet smell, almost chemical in its sharpness, filled your nose and made your head pound.
A sharp pain in your ankle yanked you back into reality. You shot up straight, making Sam jump back. The vampire doctor had your foot in his hands.
“It’s just a stress fracture. I’ll tape it into the right position, it should be healed later tonight.”
“Thank you, Carlisle.” Sam said, his eyes on you.
Looking down, you realized you had been dressed in athletic shorts and a baggy t-shirt.
You unconsciously raised a hand to your nose to block the pungent odor.
“What happened?” you asked. You didn’t remember anything past the rogue vampire throwing you into the trees. You ran a hand down your sore ribs.
“Those should heal as quickly as your foot,” the doctor says, offering you an icepack, “granted that you don’t phase for the next 24 hours.”
“That can be arranged.” Sam said. You pressed the ice to your ribs and sighed with relief.
Everyone was quiet for a minute. Looking around, you realized you were in the living room of a very, very fancy house. Judging by the smell, it had to be the Cullen’s house.
“We should get you home, before your grandfather starts to worry.” Sam said, standing up. He tentatively reached a hand out to Carlisle, who took it for a shake. What a weird sight.
“Before you leave, I think Emmett wanted to have a word with Y/N.” Carlisle said as you stood up. You noticed the tall, muscular man standing over by the stairs.
“I will be outside,” Sam said to you. He nodded to Carlisle, then to Emmett, and then descended down the stairs, leaving you alone with the vampires.
When you turned to look to Carlisle, he was gone, and you were alone with your imprint and rescuer.
You stood very still, but it felt like you were in a storm, the winds pushing your towards him. You crossed your arms as he walked into the room, taking a seat on the arm of one of the couches across from you.
“So. Imprinting, huh? What’s that all about?”
You swallowed nervously. He waited for you to speak, golden eyes assessing your movements.
“Um, it’s like love at first sight, kinda.” You said quietly, looking to the ground before looking up again.
“Okay. Sounds good.” Emmett said. He stood up and stretched before extending his arms to you.
“Don’t you want a hug? I thought you loved me.” He said with a grin.
“No offense, but you kind of smell.”
“So do you, but I wasn’t going to say anything,” he said, flopping back down onto the couch. You caught yourself letting out a sharp laugh, a release of tension, a breath you didn’t know you’d been holding.
“Well, I’m pretty sure it must be some sort of mistake. Shifters shouldn’t imprint on vampires.”
“It’s these guns, babe. I don’t know how anyone could resist,” Emmett said, theatrically kissing his biceps.
“Riiight,” you said, unable to force away the smile on your lips.
“C’mon, come feel them. Hard as rock,” he said, flexing with one arm and motioning to you with the other.
“I’ll pass,” you said. “Sam’s waiting for me.”
“But babe, it’ll just take a second.” Emmett whined, and this time you had to full-on laugh at the absurdity of situation you were in.
“Fine,” you said, lurching forward and placing a hand on his arm. You tried to squeeze, but it really was rock solid.
“That’s weird.” You said to yourself.
“Um, I think the word you’re looking for is cool.”
You tried to squeeze it again, out of curiosity. Emmett watched you, silent for a moment.
Sam’s trunk honking cut through the calm, and you remembered that you needed to go home and probably have a crappy talk with the elders.
“Can I have your phone number?” Emmett asked.
“Ummm,” you said, not really wanting to admit to anything, but his pout made your heart melt into a little puddle on the floor. “I don’t have a cell phone,” you said. “But you can have my home phone, if you want.”
“Okay!” He said, just smiling at you.
“Do… do you want to grab a pen or…?”
“Nope. I’ll remember it.” He said. “Just go ahead, when you’re reading.”
You sighed to yourself. Whatever, today had already been so freaking weird to begin with.
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