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sethsclearwater · 1 month ago

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chapter five | tell me about imprinting

synopsis: reader begins to uncover what exactly is happening with her when she attends her first tribal council meeting.

warnings: none

word count: 4.01k

[masterlist] [previous] [next - coming soon]

sure enough, the lights sprang back to life just a few short moments later, the fluorescents illuminating you and seth in their sterile luminescence. seth’s hand slid down to your hip to give you a gentle squeeze before he lifted his forehead from yours, both of you wearing matching concerned expressions as he looked around to see what exactly had happened.

thanks to his stature, he could easily see over the aisles while you found yourself staring at more animal figurines that decorated the shelves of home decor. hopefully seth wouldn’t see them and get any more ideas - there were already plenty in the cart.

“we should go,” you whispered, and seth’s eyes softened as he looked back down at you. your cheeks flushed red as you made eye contact again. you seriously couldn’t believe you kissed him, and then the power went out. maybe it was a coincidence. maybe you really were that full of yourself and were making all this up in your head.

“i think we get your mattress and then we go,” he offered, pulling you back out of your thoughts and into reality again. despite your clear embarrassment, you really weren’t interested in sleeping on that couch again, so you knew he was right. so, with a quiet hum, you nodded.

clearly sensing your discomfort, he reassured, “we’ll be quick,” before he spun you back around to face the cart, placing his hands on either side of yours to (not so subtly) corral you over to the section of the store where the mattresses and bed frames were.

he thankfully seemed to be paying much more attention than you were. you remained stuck in your thoughts, anxiously running over the events leading up to the power outage. he didn’t seem like he was bothered by the kiss, but maybe he was just trying not to make you feel like an idiot? besides, if he hated it that much, he probably wouldn’t be so close to you right now. you could literally feel the heat radiating off of him from how close he was, caging you in until he got the two of you over to some mattresses to test out.

“you and embry really gotta work on that whole overthinking thing,” seth’s teasing voice broke through your thoughts again as he laughed, releasing the cart to squeeze your upper arm soothingly. he looked down at you with that same easy smile on his face, somehow always managing to look calm despite the raging storm of emotions soaring through both of you.

embry. obviously you hadn’t forgotten about him but you felt pretty crappy about so quickly kissing seth when you were thinking about him just a few hours prior. and paul. oh my god you really needed to figure your shit out before you fucked with all of their heads. this was really starting to become nauseating to try and figure out on your own.

seth hummed when you didn’t respond to him and you blinked a few times as you snapped out of your daze yet again, quickly averting your gaze as you tried to reorient yourself, “do you know what kind of mattress you like?” he asked, thumb rubbing gentle circles on your bicep while he gave you a minute to get it together and think about it for a moment.

mattresses. mattresses. “memory foam,” you decided after a moment, sucking in one more a deep breath before you completely reoriented yourself, “don’t like ones with springs,” you added, looking back up at seth who nodded, seeming pleased with your decision as he smiled again.

“springs are for freaks,” he teased, eyes crinkling when you let out a breathy laugh, finally relaxing as you let your shoulders drop, “let’s find a memory foam one then, yea?” he asked, waiting until you nodded before he took your hand in his so he could guide you over to the section labeled ‘memory foam’. you allowed yourself the small luxury of intertwining your fingers with his which seth tried (and failed) to hide his happiness over. he didn’t need to look over at you to know you were equally content, settling for tightening his fingers on yours for just a moment before settling back in the comfortable hand-hold you’d started with.

it only took a few steps for the two of you to get over there, quickly discovering that there were only a whopping 3 mattress types to choose from. “well that’s disappointing,” seth sighed, and you giggled when you saw how he genuinely looked disappointed at the limited selection.

“i’m sure one of these will be fine,” you reassured, lightly knocking your forehead against his bicep to reassure him which had him smiling again, his disappointment not lasting long. in an effort to prove your point, you tugged him over to the first mattress that was labelled ‘firm’ - something you were fairly certain you wouldn’t be interested in but tried it anyway.

you sat down on the edge of the mattress, flopping back with a huff. the mattress had almost no give, but it wasn’t horrible. this wouldn’t be a terrible mattress if the other two sucked but it definitely could’ve been better.

the bed dipped just slightly as seth sat down on the edge, looking over to you. despite his smile, his eyes allowed you to easily tell how conflicted he was about whether or not to lay down next to you so you gave his hand another squeeze and offered him a soft smile, “you comin’?” you teased, giggling when he laid down next to you, both of your calves’ dangling off the edge of the bed as you stared at the quite bland ceiling tiles above you.

“this isn’t… horrible,” seth managed after a moment. you lolled your head to the side to look at him, his face just inches away from yours. you shot him a scrupulous look before both of you burst into laughter. the fact that seth clearwater, who’d proven to you he could find the silver lining in just about everything, couldn’t say anything about the mattress other than it wasn’t ‘horrible’ was enough to let you know that yea, this mattress sucked.

as you two quickly recomposed yourselves, you rolled to your side and flashed him a smile before pushing yourself up, “no way the other two are worse than this one,” you reassured, giving his hand another squeeze before you were up and tugging him along to the next mattress.

as you sat down on the second one, it sunk way more than you needed it to and, with seth’s added weight as he sat next to you, you didn’t even need to lay down to know you’d definitely be at risk of drowning in that mattress, “too soft?” seth asked, chuckling when you nodded, sighing when you tried to think about whether you’d rather have a rock hard mattress or a ridiculously soft one.

“alright goldilocks,” he chaffed, both of you laughing again as you got up and stepped over to the third one, not wasting anytime before you were hopping onto that mattress. almost immediately, a heavy sigh of relief left your lips, seth laying down next to you as you both took it in. you should’ve started with this one because it was exactly what you were looking for. not too soft, not too hard, it was - “just right?” seth asked, finishing your thoughts for you. you hummed and nodded, dropping your head to the side so you could look up at him with a relaxed smile on your face.

“totally perfect,” you beamed and he chuckled, sitting back up, you following right behind him, “can you ask for one of these mattresses and i’ll go get sheets and then we can go home?” you asked him, still plenty eager to get out of the store and back to your grandmother’s house after whatever the hell happened earlier.

“sounds good - meet at the front?” he offered, and you nodded, giving his hand one more squeeze before you were up and heading over to the bedding so you could pick out a new comforter.

…

by the time you had picked out a comforter (and quite a few other things), checked out, stuffed everything in your car, and gotten back to the house so you could start unpacking it all, it was late afternoon. seth and you only had enough time to swap out the mattresses (arguably the biggest problem) before you made a quick lunch and headed out to billy’s.

the two of you had yet to address the whole kiss situation, and you were mentally praying he wouldn’t be shifting anytime soon so you could get your feelings on the matter sorted before all his friends knew what had transpired between the two of you earlier that day.

“alright so you know billy and my mom. sam uley is also on the council now, he took over old quil’s spot when he passed a few years ago,” seth rambled as he helped you out of the car, quickly sliding one hand over your lower back as he guided you down the beaten path around billy black’s house.

you’d seen the house once before, but it was years ago. you couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 the last time you were here, and it was only to help your grandma drop some food off after sarah black had died in a car accident. you didn’t remember much of it, but you did remember that the house was a much brighter red the last time you saw it. since then, it must have faded to the much lighter brown-ish red it had since become.

“... and then there’s jared cameron and his imprint kim. he also doesn’t shift anymore, but they don’t have any kids - just sam and emily have the one,” seth continued, and you hummed, catching most of it, but your mind got caught on the word ‘imprinting’. it wasn’t something you’d heard outside of a biology class before, so you weren’t entirely sure why he would be using that term to describe what you assumed to be a husband and wife pair.

“what’s an imprint?” you asked, eyes on the ground as you tried to navigate the ridiculous amount of sticks and stones on the pathway around the house without tripping. because of your gaze, you missed how seth paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain that to you in a way that wouldn’t hurt your feelings.

“seth?” you asked, lifting your eyes from the ground to meet his for just a moment, concern flickering across your features.

he let out a breathy laugh, shaking his head, “sorry,” he murmured, “‘s just hard to explain,” he added, and, fortunately for him but unfortunately for you, quil came running over as soon as he saw the two of you round the corner to the backyard.

“the princess and her keeper!” he teased, laughing when you and seth both rolled your eyes, the topic of imprinting tucked away to the back of your mind for the time being, “c’mon sam wants to meet you,” he encouraged, not waiting for you before he was spinning back around to head back just as quickly as he’d come.

“you’ve got it,” seth reassured, his hand applying a bit more pressure to your back as he gently pushed you forward, following right next to you as you approached the small group of people that had gathered in billy’s backyard. it wasn’t anything fancy, but it was nice looking - there were more than enough lawn chairs for everyone to sit on, an incredibly worn down picnic table at the back with what food and drinks set out, and a small circle of stones in the center for a makeshift firepit.

you recognized sue and billy, both sitting next to each other in what looked to be a deep conversation. paul and embry were also sitting by each other, close enough to sue and billy that you figured they could easily hear what they were saying, but far enough away that it didn’t totally look like they were eavesdropping. there were a few others, sitting across from those four, and quil waved you and seth over so you assumed sam must’ve been one of them.

“princess this is sam. sam this is princess,” quil quickly explained, a goofy grin on his face as you subconsciously curled into seth’s side a bit, telling the hulking man in front of you your name, which quil (quite loudly) failed to mention. sam was just as massive as the rest of the wolves, jet black hair and very dark brown eyes, but he his physique looked like it had been softened more than most of the boys. while paul, embry, and seth were also built like stones, sam seemed like he was at one point but had recently lost that ‘supernatural’ strength that the rest of them seemed to have.

“oh and this is jacob. sam stopped shifting a few years ago but jacob still does,” quil quickly added, and the boy he identified as jacob rolled his eyes rather dramatically.

“glad to see you think so highly of me,” jacob huffed, rolling his eyes at quil before he turned his attention to you, “it’s nice to meet you,” his voice returned to a much nicer tone when he addressed you and you smiled, giving him a shy wave. although you had been to his house almost 2 decades ago, you hadn’t had the opportunity to meet him before, but it was nice to put a face to the name you’d heard floating around the res all these years.

“alright is that everyone?” billy’s voice called, all of you turning your attention to him as the boys did a quick scan of everyone.

“not leah,” jacob said after a moment, and you glanced up at seth, who just flashed you a quick smile. you could’ve sworn that was the name of sue’s daughter, but weren’t entirely sure.

“my sister,” he whispered, quickly answering your question for you. you hummed, looking over to the beaten down path once again as a beautiful women rounded the corner. she had black, shoulder-length hair and a similar enough build to seth, though she most definitely did not match his or his mom’s soft features. simply put, she looked like a bad bitch.

the jeans she was wearing accentuated her curves in all the right places, and she had on a tight black tank top, a washed-out plaid button-up tied around her waist. you really tried your best not to stare at her, but you were finding it difficult not to as you watched her near the chairs.

“leah,” jacob smiled as he breathed out her name, and you finally pulled your gaze away from her to glance over at him, watching the interaction between the two of them unfold. jacob’s body language noticeably lightened when he saw her and leah dropped the glare she was holding as she walked in, instead trading it out for a smile that definitely reminded you of seth and sue’s as she approached him. they didn’t seem to have a care in the world as jacob pulled her into a tight hug, his lips pressing against her hair as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

you must’ve looked like a complete buffoon as you stared but you really couldn’t help it. you decided right there that the clearwater family genes were ridiculously strong.

after a moment (could’ve been more - you weren’t really counting), seth squeezed your hip as he drew your attention back to him, “wanna go sit by paul and embry?” he suggested, biting back a smile when he watched you roll your eyes at the thought of dealing with paul again.

despite the fact that neither of you could figure out how to manage your emotions around each other, you also hated how much you wanted to ogle him (and embry and seth), so sitting between the three of them didn’t exactly sound like the greatest idea of all time. you didn’t seem to have much of a choice, though as seth slid his hand back to your lower back to guide you over to embry and paul where they’d turned their attention away from each other and over to your approaching figure.

paul didn’t seem too annoyed but he wasn’t exactly cheesing when you came over. embry, in a similar vein, didn’t seem bothered by your presence, but he did seem slightly more fascinated by you than paul did. instead of wearing the neutral-ish expression paul had, his head cocked to the side just for a moment as he took you in before he was turning his attention back to billy as he got started talking.

seth had you sit you down in the seat right next to paul before he sat down on the other side of you, everyone quieting as billy nodded his head to you, “it’s nice to see you again,” he greeted, turning his attention back to the four of you when you gave you a small smile and nod back. although it had been quite a few years since you’d seen him, similar to sue, he didn’t look too different. he’d aged, of course, but time seemed to be gentle with him as the main changes you’d noticed were just some fine lines around his face.

“as we all know, the Quileutes have always had magic in our blood. we have known this always and have adapted as it has appeared throughout our lives. we’re here today to discuss what the legends have said about what has been happening since winona’s granddaughter has returned to the reservation,” billy began, taking his time, thoughtfully looking around at everyone in the circle as he spoke. his voice carried a sense of authority that wasn’t loud; it didn’t need to be, but it brought with it a comfort that helped ease your worries about everything that has been happening.

“this is not something any of us have seen before but it is something our ancestors have. we have not seen a moonbond in over a century, but it’s becoming clear to all of us on the council that this is what has transpired among you four,” he continued, his gaze drifting between the four of you as he watched you all digest the information. you did the same and, as far as you could tell, embry, paul, and seth seemed just as confused as you were about whatever the hell a ‘moonbond’ was.

“according to our history, a moonbond can only occur during certain cosmic conditions and all of them were in alignment on the day she arrived on the reservation,” billy explained, the four of you anxiously waiting for him to give you some sort of substantive information that would help any of you make sense out of what was happening, “although it is similar in many ways, it is not imprinting,” he added and that seemed to click something for embry, paul, and seth because they all turned to eachother, seeming to have some sort of mental conversation with their eyes while you glowered at seth for not explaining it to you earlier.

seth was pretty quick to pick up on your annoyance, and he just mouthed a quick apology to you, reaching over to give your hand a gentle squeeze before pulling it away again. you wished he didn’t pull away - you really could’ve used his stability.

“from what we know, a moonbond involves three wolves and a moonblood carrier. after looking at your grandmother’s bloodline, we were able to trace you back to the original bonder and confirmed that you’re a carrier.” billy continued, his attention now on you as you sucked in asteadying breath, really not sure at all how you were going to begin processing what he was saying.

sam’s voice came in then as he took over, “it’s not like imprinting because a moonbond builds over time so you won’t feel that pull like emily and i or jared and kim did. so as you all build those bonds with her you’ll strengthen it together, and it should help steady out all the symptoms you’ve been having.”

you slowly nodded, still not sure what the hell imprinting was but that sounded like a way more stressful topic so you focused on what him and billy were currently explaining to you all, “all those abilities you’ve been unlocking these past few days will work in harmony with eachother if you can strengthen your bonds. right now, though, those bonds are all over the place, so it makes sense why they’re all running haywire. from what we understand, if you’re doing it right, you all should have a better grasp on those powers by building relationships with her individually and as a group,” sam continued, notably keeping a wary eye on paul who, when you looked over to him, looked about ready to combust but seemed to be doing his best to keep it together.

sue, ever the peacemaker, came to all of your rescue then as she spoke, “clearly you four are going to have plenty to focus on for a while,” she added with a breathy laugh, “so while you four start to work on that and because of the dreamwalking, we’re going to have the rest of the pack start helping with patrols at your house throughout the night in case anything else happens, okay?” she asked, looking at you for approval. it took you a moment to come to your senses enough to nod, but you managed, no doubt looking beyond confused as you tried to take everything in.

moonbond, imprinting, dreamwalking, the list goes on. you, for one, definitely had plenty to focus on these days. and that fucking buzzing sound was back in your mind and annoying as ever so, at this point, you’d just assumed that something bad was about to happen.

while you, seth, and embry sat there trying to figure everything out in your heads, paul seemed much more inclined to work his problems out verbally, “so we’re in a harem now?” he asked, and you really wished there was some sarcasm in his voice but there wasn’t any. he seemed genuinely concerned for his future.

you, on the other hand, let out a heavy sigh when the pain in your back and hips immediately returned, rapidly ramping up. you sat forward, pressing your hands to your lower back in a vain attempt to relieve the pain there while sue responded to paul, “that’s really not what-”

paul groaned as he cut sue off, dramatically dropping his head back over the lawn chair before he looked over to you. “so do you want me to bend over now or are you waiting till dark to stake your claim on all of us, princess?” he asked and you gasped, suddenly beyond annoyed at how ridiculous he was being. he really had a way of getting under your skin.

“are you fucking kidding me right now? you’re the one who started all-” you couldn’t even finish your sentence because the pain had become nearly blinding as your voice caught in a squeak. for just a moment, a flicker of concern flashed through paul’s eyes, but you weren’t able to watch it disappear because suddenly, seth had pulled you up and into his arms.

he barely had a second to pull you away before a growl tore through the air and a massive silver wolf replaced the spot paul was in. as soon as he shifted, the pain vanished as quickly as it had come and the buzzing returned to its usual quiet level, “we are so not doing this again,” seth muttered, getting you a good ten feet away from paul before slowing his steps.

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sethsclearwater · 1 month ago

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Dude your new series is giving me something to look forward to during my hellish summer classes, and the way you write makes me feel so immersed in the story I love it so much <3

dawwwww you're so sweet!! thank you!! i'm hoping to have chapter five up by tonight so hopefully you'll have something to read before monday classes lol!! 🤍🤍

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sethsclearwater · 1 month ago

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I truly love your new series! I find myself replaying it in my head sometimes when I'm bored. I'm so excited to keep reading it and I make sure to re-read every chapter before a new one comes out. You are truly one of my favorite writers and I'm so happy you're back and writing. I cannot wait for all of the chapters to come!!! 🌷🌼🌞

this is so sweet!! tysm!! chapter five should be out sunday!! 🩷🫶

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sethsclearwater · 1 month ago

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Ahhhh!!!!!!!! I love the new chapter!!!!! I'm absolutely DEVOURING this new series!!!!!!! I'm so excited for the next chapter, whenever you'll have it ready!!! Will the council meeting be in the next chapter, or are we getting more of reader and Seth's day out? Ahh!!! Either way, I'm so excited!!!!!

💖💖💖💖

dawww tysm you’re so sweet!!🩷🩷 and yes yes next chapter will be mostly focused on the council meeting so some BIGGGGG lore on what’s going on with them coming soon!! 🩷

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sethsclearwater · 1 month ago

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chapter four | electric

synopsis: reader and seth bond some more as they kill time before meeting with the tribal council

warnings: none

word count: 4.3k

[masterlist] [previous] [next]

a low groan left your lips as you rolled over on the couch, your body aching as you shifted positions. last you could recall, you’d fallen asleep with your head on seth’s shoulder, which would easily explain the crick in your neck, but failed to explain how you ended up lying down on the couch with a blanket thrown over you and him nowhere to be found. though, the smell of bacon and eggs wafting in from the kitchen quickly solved that mystery for you.

you opened your eyes, squinting as the morning light shone in through the windows, illuminating the living room in a soft, warm glow. as you sat up and stretched your arms out, you saw quil sprawled out on the arm chair in, what you decided was the most uncomfortable position possible. he was nearly hanging halfway off the armrest with his head full of curly hair hanging off the edge. he was definitely going to be feeling that everywhere when he got up.

embry was also nowhere to be found, but you assumed he must’ve either been in the kitchen with seth or already went home. deciding to figure it out for yourself, and hopefully get some food in the process, you bundled up in the blanket before padding over to the kitchen.

the stained glass in the kitchen window bathed the room in a warm light, a comfortable smile covering your features when you saw seth at the stove making an ungodly amount of breakfast, “hey sleepy head,” seth smiled when he saw your cozy figure standing in the doorway, “hungry?” he asked, a breathy laugh escaping his lips when he saw you nod, your gaze flitting between him and the skillet that was currently housing some mouthwatering bacon in it.

“go sit with embry, i’ll bring you some in a sec,” he reassured, stirring the eggs in the frying pan next to the bacon. you hummed, not needing any more convincing as you shuffled over to the kitchen table where embry was, hands cupping a mug of coffee, that intense gaze still watching you as you sat down across from him.

“did you sleep okay?” you asked softly, readjusting the blanket so it was better wrapped around your legs, shielding them from the cool morning breeze that had begun to seep into the house from the cracked open back door. looking up when embry didn’t immediately respond to you, you raised your eyebrows, and he just nodded, still seeming a bit caught off guard that you were talking to him even though he literally just spent the night at your grandmother’s house.

“he’s shy,” seth teased, and you let out a quiet giggle, not wanting to make embry even more uncomfortable than he already looked, but you couldn’t help it. seth laughed when embry immediately rolled his eyes and glowered at him, though embry didn’t make any move to verbally defend himself much to seth’s chagrin.

seth’s smile just widened before he turned his attention back to you, gracefully changing the conversation to spare embry from any more suffering, “your headache isn’t back, right?” he asked, letting out a sigh of relief when you shook your head, clearly happy you were okay for the time being.

a loud groan from the living room pulled you out of your conversation, “i don’t think i can ever sleep on that thing again,” quil loudly whined, his voice getting closer as he walked over to the kitchen, also entranced by the smell of seth’s cooking, “oh hell yea,” he beamed when he saw seth starting to plate up food for each of you, “did i ever tell you i love you?” he gibed, all of you letting out some form of a laugh as he grabbed two of the plates from seth, taking them over to the kitchen table and dramatically setting one down in front of you.

the corners of your eyes creased as you smiled up at him, mouthing a thank you to him as he continued his theatrics when he set down the other plate in front of embry. seth followed shortly behind him with the other two plates, handing one to quil before coming to sit down next to you at the table, “so billy called. he wants us to come over tonight to go over everything that’s been happening,” seth explained as you took a bite of the scrambled eggs, humming in both agreement with the plans for the day and in love with how divine the eggs tasted. even though you’d had some chicken and dumpling soup with seth last night, it wasn’t exactly the most filling thing in the world, so to say you were hungry was the understatement of the year.

“paul’s gonna be there?” embry asked, drawing your attention as you heard his voice for the first time that morning. you also wanted to know the answer to that question, so you quickly diverted your gaze back to seth, not wanting to linger on embry too long in case he clammed up on you again. you still couldn’t figure out why he was so hard to crack, but at least he wasn’t as dramatic and obnoxious as paul was.

seth nodded, swallowing before responding, and you quickly realized that tonight was going to be interesting regardless of what billy had to say. hopefully paul was feeling a bit better today. “he’ll be there,” seth reiterated, “but we’ve got until 5 until we need to be there - so plenty of time for all of us to stress about that,” he joked, smiling when he heard your quiet giggle from next to him.

embry rolled his eyes, though he did crack a tiny smile, and you wished you could see how he looked when he was relaxed. you felt horrible with how tense he looked since meeting you, but then again, you’d assumed you also must’ve looked more stressed than normal given how crazy everything had been in the past 24 hours. the only one who seemed to be relatively unaffected by the stress so far was seth. he carried it well. or maybe this was what he looked like when he was stressed, but it was hard to imagine him being any more optimistic and relaxed than he already was.

“jake’s got us on patrol today so it sounds like you get princess all to yourself today,” quil teased seth, who looked over to you fondly, both of you beaming at each other.

“what a horrible way to spend my day,” he drolled playfully, giving your thigh a gentle squeeze when you giggled again, equally happy to have seth to yourself for a few hours at least. maybe the two of you could finally work on getting to know each other outside of the supernatural drama. you felt like you hardly knew the poor boy, but somehow knew his deepest secrets thanks to whatever the hell was going on.

you took a bite out of the bacon, humming in approval before asking quil, “how did you know paul calls me that?”

he raised his hands, shaking his fingers like there was some magic coming from them, “wolf telepathy,” he mused, “i’m shocked pretty boy hasn’t bored you to death telling you all about it yet,” he quickly added, and seth scoffed, unamused by quil’s implication.

you were less concerned with his new nickname and more concerned with the whole mind-reading thing so you turned to embry who seemed relatively unbothered by the whole conversation, “is he being serious?” you whispered to him while seth and quil began to duke it out over whether he was really that boring when he rambled about wolf things.

embry hummed, nodding, “he’s being serious,” he replied, voice as low as yours. maybe he really was just shy. literally all he’s said to you has been some form of a repeat of what you started with, or maybe he secretly hated that you came back and brought all this drama with you, or maybe-

your thoughts were silenced when embry slid his hand over yours, squeezing it before he pulled away just as quickly as he’d put it down, “stop thinking so much,” he whispered and you paused, eyes wide as you gawked at him, stupidly smacking your lips together as you tried to come up with some form of a response for him while quil and seth’s bickering continued in the background.

“okay,” you murmured after a moment. it was decided - he definitely thought you were an idiot.

he just nodded to you, lips curving into the faint ghost of a smile that you weren’t even sure if you’d actually seen it before he was turning his attention back to seth and quil, who seemed to have settled down a bit.

seth let out a heavy sigh of defeat before he looked over to you, “we can hear each other’s thoughts,” he contended, “do you have any questions about it or anything?”

you sucked in a deep breath, taking another bite of your scrambled eggs to give yourself a moment to compose your thoughts about it. all three wolves’ attention was on you as you swallowed, “so you can all hear them right now?” you decided. maybe starting with the small stuff would help you figure out how to ask all the bigger questions you couldn’t yet form as you processed the information overload.

“no, no,” seth sighed, and, for a moment, you thought he was disappointed you asked such a stupid question, but soon realized it was because he was frustrated with himself and quil for not being clearer when they first told you about it. for someone so relaxed, he really took himself seriously sometimes, “only when we’re shifted… wolves. only when we’re wolves.” he quickly clarified, opening his mouth to further explain himself (even though you were definitely starting to understand it now) but quil cut him off with an exasperated groan.

“oh brother, here he goes again,” quil dropped his head back, dramatically bringing his hands up to his throat to pretend he was choking himself, and embry huffed a laugh at that, diverting your attention away from quil and back over to him. maybe you just needed a darker sense of humor to start to win him over. you could totally do the dark, doom and gloom thing.

“you’re impossible,” seth lamented with a groan, but he winked at you as he got up. you moved to follow him, quickly figuring out he was planning on getting started on the dishes, “let me take your plate,” he hummed, setting his hand on your shoulder to gently push you back into your chair before grabbing your now empty plate from your hands so he could head over to the sink.

slowly, embry got up as well, grabbing his and quil’s plates so he could bring them over to seth. as usual, quil was much more eclectic with his appreciation than you were, “you know i love you em, right?” he laughed when embry completely ignored him, handing seth the plates so they could get to work filling the dishwasher. you weren’t entirely sure if it even worked anymore, but seth seemed much more comfortable in your grandmother’s house than you were, and he seemed confident enough about it, so you let it be.

“alright we gotta go big guy,” quil mused to embry as he got up, flashing you a quick smile before he was going back into the living room to grab his phone and whatever else he brought over to your house, “don’t need jake skinning us and using us as his new rug!” he called and even you couldn’t help but roll your eyes at that one. you’d never even met jacob black before, but you had enough of an idea to guess that he wasn’t exactly in the business of reaming his friends for being a few minutes late to patrol.

“okay well, we’ll see you later tonight then, yea?” seth asked, washing his hands off as embry got the dishwasher closed. embry nodded, “let me know if you need anything,” he added, drying his hands off with one of your grandma’s old dish towels, a navy blue one with embroidered stars dancing along the edges.

quil stuck his curly head back into the kitchen after a moment, “c’mon!” he cheered when embry sighed, looking over to you for just a moment, the two of you sharing one more fleeting glance before he was heading out of the kitchen and back over to the screen door, his large frame easily filling most of it.

not far behind him, quil pushed past him, jogging out to your yard so the two of them could get to patrol or whatever. seth’s hand on your shoulder drew your attention away from the back door and over to him, “hey,” he murmured, his features softening as you looked up at him, your shoulders dropping down as you exhaled a heavy breath. unable to help yourself, your eyes flitted from his to his lips and, for just a moment, you let yourself wonder what it would be like to kiss him. good lord, was he handsome.

a playful glimmer was in his eyes once you met his gaze again, a blush instantly coating your cheeks when you realized he’d definitely caught your staring, “you got any big ideas what you wanna do today?” he mused, sparing you from the embarrassment of having to delve into this new, unfamiliar but warm feeling that had begun forming a home in your chest.

you pulled your bottom lip between your teeth as you thought for a moment. you really needed to start working through everything in your grandma’s house and, ideally, figure out the bedroom situation so you didn’t have to choose between another night on the couch or sleeping on the bed she died on.

“mattress shopping?” you suggested, his eyebrows immediately raising. maybe both of you needed to get better at explaining yourselves before the other got any crazy ideas.

“mattress shopping?” he repeated back to you, and you just laughed and nodded, playfully pushing his hand off your shoulder as you got up, tugging your blanket back around your shoulders.

heading back into the living room to grab your phone and hopefully find a furniture store nearby, you called, “you sound like embry,” teasingly and seth just laughed as he followed you, “and you’ve got a filthy mind,” you added, seth scoffing as he picked up his strides to catch up to you. you had gotten your phone, mindlessly opening the maps app so you could start your search.

“he’s just a shy guy -” he vouched, pausing when he got himself in front of you, dangerously close to you. you pretended not to notice despite the heat quite literally radiating off of him and onto you, but he didn’t seem to take too kindly to that, resting his pointer finger under your chin to tug your head up to look at him.

he hummed when you almost immediately complied, heart pounding in your chest when you made eye contact with him, completely unaware that he could hear and feel your body’s response to him thanks to his heightened senses. he settled for an easy smile on his lips as he looked down at you, “for the record,” he lowered his voice, his brown irises gleaming with mischief as he whispered, “it usually takes one to know one.”

your mouth fell open and, for the second time that morning, you were left speechless as you struggled to sputter out a response to him. he just laughed, his chest reverberating with the intensity of it as he removed his finger from your jaw, “let’s get ready, yea?” he teased, his usual cheerful tone immediately returning as he left you standing in the middle of your living room like a complete fool while he went to grab his bag so he could join you in getting ready for the day. he clearly had plans to stick around.

it took you a few seconds to regain control of your mind and body, manually blinking as you tried to figure out what the hell just happened. somehow seth getting you all hot and bothered had you more confused than sleepwalking did. yea, your priorities were definitely straight.

once you were confident you wouldn’t be stumbling if you moved your legs, you headed into the bathroom so you could wash your face and brush your teeth while seth got changed in your grandmother’s old room. before you could finish your skincare, seth poked his head in the bathroom, changed into a worn pair of blue jeans and a faded mumford and sons tour t-shirt.

“you listen to them?” you asked before he could heckle you some more, gesturing to his shirt before going back to rubbing your moisturizer into your skin. you made a conscious effort to look at how your hands were massaging your cheeks as opposed to staring at seth again, not trusting yourself to keep your gaze on his eyes instead of his lips, or his arms, or his abs, or his- you seriously needed to get it together.

seth grabbed the bottom of the shirt, looking down at it before humming, “my sister loves them. got me to go to a concert with her like ten years ago and also loved it,” he elucidated, voice trailing off as he came to stand behind you when he saw the way you were avoiding eye contact with him, “moisturizer really that complicated?” he teased and you scowled, reaching back to jab your elbow at him, letting out a frustrated groan when he just let out a cheeky laugh.

you washed your hands off for all of two seconds before hustling out of the bathroom and into the bedroom so you could dig some clothes out of your bag and hopefully, clear your head enough and get rid of the filthy thoughts you’d accused seth of having just a few minutes prior. he knew he was right. scratch that. both of you knew he was right.

thankfully, seth had enough mercy on you to give you some space but he did call, “there’s a good furniture place in forks we can go to,” from the hallway and you just hummed, deducing from your conversations with him that he definitely had some kind of heightened hearing at the very least and should’ve been able to hear you.

you took a few minutes longer than you normally would have to get dressed, pulling on a pair of baggy jeans and a taylor swift hoodie when you checked the weather and saw that it would be yet another cold-ish, gloomy, rainy day in la push. when you finally re-emerged, seth was patiently waiting in the living room, sat down in the armchair quil had slept in the night prior, and was texting someone on his phone.

he looked up from his phone when he heard your footsteps pause at the edge of the living room, smiling when he saw how bashful you looked with your arms awkwardly crossed over your midsection as you tried to figure out how the hell you were going to last being around him all day without doing something you couldn’t take back.

“ready?” he asked softly, a warm smile coating his features again when you nodded and let out a soft exhale, dropping your arms so you could grab your phone and keys off the table, “want me to drive? it’s slippery out,” he explained, and, although you didn’t buy it for a second, you nodded and willingly handed the keys over to him when he quickly strode over to you.

“alright let’s hit the road then princess,” he drolled, opening the front door for you and gently ushering you through it by placing his hand on your lower back. the corners of his eyes crinkled when he saw the tiniest smile forming at the edges of your lips when he used paul’s nickname for you, your heart doing all sorts of flips in your chest as you ran out to the car, seth right behind you.

…

unsurprisingly, seth somehow managed to calm you down as he made easy conversation with you the whole way over to the furniture store, his teasing resuming its usual friendly tone, and you soon found yourself at ease with him once again.

you two had been in the furniture store for all of two minutes when seth found a, quite frankly ludacris ludicrous-looking statue of a giraffe playing the guitar that he decided was the perfect addition to your home.

“i think he’s offended you think he’s ugly,” seth countered, holding him close as he trailed behind you through the aisle, gasping when he saw a matching hippo playing the piano, “oh come on,” he gushed, laughing when you looked over your shoulder to shake your head.

“not getting either one of those wackos,” you giggled, unable to help the way his love for the two (rather ugly) statues was pouring over to you and maybe, possibly starting to change your opinion on them.

he lifted his eyebrows, easily holding one statue in each hand in an attempt to win you over but you quickly found yourself swooning over the way his biceps bulged against the t-shirt. as soon as you caught yourself, you spun back around, suddenly determined to continue your journey down the aisle and towards the bedding.

“oh that’s no fair-” seth whined, easily catching back up to you. you were really starting to wish you were taller so you wouldn’t look so pathetic each time he caught up to you without even a hint of effort, “you’ve gotta at least give me a chance to plead their case,” he added, not-so-inconspicuously adding the hippo, giraffe, and now a tiger playing the trumpet (who knows where the hell he got that one from) to your cart. you, though, were a bit too focused on not letting your heart beat out of your chest, and suddenly that humming was back in your mind. this time, though, it wasn’t a nuisance; it felt more like a welcome presence, helping dull out the rest of the world aside from seth.

when he saw you pause, eyes fluttering closed as you sucked in a deep breath, he immediately snapped out of his teasing and back to concerned, “you’re not hurting are you?” he asked, not bothering to wait for your response before he slid his hand over your back, his other hand gripping the shopping cart so you wouldn’t accidentally be slipping with it if you fainted again.

you shook your head, opening your eyes to look up at him, turning just enough so you were facing him, “not hurting,” you whispered, “it’s just that humming again,” your voice was nearly silent as you removed one hand from the handle of the shopping cart to toy with the hem of his t-shirt, avoiding eye contact as you went back to focusing on your breathing.

the rest of the world faded to the background, and you couldn’t have cared less. the only thing that mattered was you and him and all the emotion coursing through your veins. you were so close to him that you swore you could feel his desire seeping into your veins, electrifying every nerve in your body as you found the strength to look up at him, meeting his brown eyes.

you got so lost in him, you didn’t even hear him ask, “humming?”

his warmth flowed through you, his desire, his affection, his passion, his infatuation, his everything overrode your system, and suddenly you found yourself tightening your grip on his t-shirt, the fabric easily collapsing into your fingers as you pulled him down to meet your lips.

seth didn’t miss a beat, and you weren’t sure if it was because he felt everything in a mirror to what you did or if it was because he’d truly seen this inevitable kiss from a mile away - whatever it was, though, you couldn’t have cared less.

his hand found your waist, pulling you flush against his chest, the hand on your back sliding up to knot into your hair as you melted into each other. you worked as a team, neither of you giving a shit that you were in the middle of some random grocery store, everything in your being chanting at you to keep him close.

the world went dark then, and, for a moment, you thought it was because you’d imagined the entire thing, and you fainted, but the disappointment of seth pulling his lips from yours was too real to be in your head. the dark encapsulated you both, and he rested his forehead against yours, both of your breathing heavy as you tried to figure out what had just transpired between you two.

seth’s eyes searched yours, his lips swollen with how hard yours were smashed against his just moments ago, his fingers gently scratching at your scalp as both of you struggled to figure out what to say, “everyone stay calm and remain where you are! it looks like the power just went out but the generator should kick in in just a moment!” the store manager’s voice split through the silence like a knife, dragging you and seth out of your bubble and back to reality where you and seth had apparently taken the power out with the intensity of your all-consuming emotions.

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sethsclearwater · 1 month ago

Text

chapter four will be out sunday morning!! 🩷

chapter three | dusk till dawn

synopsis: more unknowns continue to emerge as reader’s connections with paul, seth, and embry make themselves known

warnings: n/a

word count: 4.5k

[masterlist] [previous] [next - coming soon]

it didn’t take too long for seth to heat up the chicken and dumpling soup for the two of you to snack on and, soon enough, you found yourself sipping on it while he made easy conversation about anything other than whatever the hell had just transpired earlier that day. though, it didn’t take him long to notice the way you were nearly nodding off in the middle of your conversation as you finally let yourself feel just how tired you were. it was nearly midnight, and you’d been up since 5 that morning to pack and drive over from seattle, so neither of you were surprised by your sudden fatigue.

“do you know where you’re gonna sleep? i can totally go kick paul off the couch if you wanted to lay down there,” he asked, that same, comforting smile coating his features when you yawned again and nodded.

“i can do it. don’t need him getting mad at you for no reason,” you mused, mouthing a quick ‘thank you’ to seth as he got up with a laugh, taking the empty bowl and spoon from in front of you to set in the sink. you followed shortly after him, instead heading into the living room where sue was on the phone and paul was sprawled out on the couch, half asleep with his legs dangling off one end while he kept one arm tossed over his eyes. sue gave you a small smile when she noticed you, quickly heading outside to the back porch so she could continue her phone conversation.

you didn’t think too much of it, hearing seth’s footsteps followed behind you and you smiled, looking over your shoulder at him with an appreciative hum that had him chuckling, “wouldn’t send you in here alone,” he mused, giving your shoulder a gentle squeeze which had a blush quickly creeping up on your cheeks, not totally sure how to respond to the - very welcome but unexpected - physical touch from him.

if he noticed your blush, he didn’t say anything because within a few seconds, paul was groaning as he presumably woke himself up, “can’t even sleep for ten minutes without the princess of la push needing something,” he grumbled, sitting up to get a better look at you and seth.

you couldn’t help it, a small giggle escaping your lips at how absolutely ridiculously miserable this man managed to make himself all the time. seth smiled, also letting out a quiet laugh when he heard paul’s new nickname for you, “the princess of la push needs the couch,” seth mused, an easy smile on his face as he slid one hand to your lower back to guide you over to the couch where paul began griping about how obnoxious it was that he was trapped here at such a late hour.

to his credit though, he did get up, moving to sit back in the armchair while you grabbed a blanket from your duffle bag, quickly laying down on the couch where he was just a few moments ago. as soon as your body hit the couch, you let out a heavy sigh, the warmth from his body heat radiating straight to your core.

“we run warm,” seth mused, sitting down at the other end of the couch by your feet.

you hummed, looking over to paul, who was watching you rather warily. before either of you could start your bickering again, the back door slid open as sue stepped inside, quickly closing it behind her before the cool night air could begin seeping in.

the three of you turned your attention to her, “did he say anything?” seth asked, not sounding concerned but more so intrigued by whatever insight he must’ve assumed billy would have about the whole thing. from what seth had told you in the kitchen, billy wasn’t just heading the tribal council; his son, jacob, was also the pack’s alpha, both of which had quickly immersed him into the world of the supernatural when they all started shifting over a decade ago.

sue let out a soft sigh, shaking her head, “he doesn’t know much more than we do. said he’ll call for a council meeting tomorrow to put our heads together. quil should be coming over to keep an eye on you tonight, though in case you need anything,” sue explained, looking over to you for the last part, and you frowned, sitting up on your elbows to look over at seth for further explanation. he’d already told you about jacob while he was explaining billy’s connection to the whole werewolf thing, but hadn’t gone into details on any other members of the pack.

“quil is just another shifter, around our age,” he explained, “he’ll probably be outside in the yard past the treeline, but can come in if you need anything,” seth added, running his hand over your ankle to give you another gentle, reassuring squeeze. you nodded slowly, turning to look over at paul.

he didn’t miss a beat as he stood up, stretching his ridiculously well sculpted arms over his head, the joints cracking as he said, “he’s easy pickins if you’re looking for another victim.”

seth rolled his eyes and you let out a loud groan, matching paul’s dramatics as you dropped back down on the couch, “goodnight paul!” you called as he headed over to the front door, clearly just as eager to get out of the house as you were to get him to leave.

“keep an eye on your phone for a text from jake,” sue directed as paul pulled her into a hug, his form quickly dwarfing hers.

he hummed, “got it boss,” he mused as he released her, nodding over to seth who rolled his eyes again but waved to him nonetheless, “night princess!” paul called, the sarcasm dripping through his voice as he headed out the front door and into the night, not bothering to look back. you were quite thankful for that as he would’ve only seen your jaw drop with a rapidly spreading pink blush coating your features. you were quite certain he despised you but holy fuck you couldn’t help the way he had your heart pounding.

“i’ll come back over in the morning to check on you, okay?” seth asked, thankfully choosing not to mention your body’s response to paul’s new nickname for you. you nodded, swallowing as you turned your attention back to him, only to find him smiling at you.

“see you in the morning seth,” you murmured, a shy smile on your face as he got up, mirroring paul’s earlier actions as he stretched his arms over his head, his shirt sliding up just enough for you to get a glimpse of the layer of muscles beneath. his smile widened when he caught you staring, and he just settled for letting out a breathy laugh.

“see you in the morning,” he copied, heading over to his mom where she was grabbing her medical bag and responding to what you assumed was a text on her phone, “ready mom?” he asked, grabbing the car keys and medical bag from her when she nodded, clicking her phone off before heading over to you.

you sat up, realizing you’d definitely need to walk them to the door so you could lock it behind them, “you call one of us if you need anything, okay sweetheart?” she asked, pulling you into a tight hug when you got up, pressing a quick, motherly kiss to your hair before straightening back up, “and quil is outside if you need anything. just yell if you need him.”

you hummed and nodded, “thank you,” you whispered, letting out a soft sigh as you three headed for the door, “should i…” you trailed off as you three got to the door, “like invite quil in or something?” you asked awkwardly and both seth and sue laughed, shaking their heads.

“he’ll be fine,” seth reassured, “i can make sure he comes over in the morning with me to introduce the two of you,” he added, a familiar, serene smile on his face when you nodded, happy with that compromise.

“thank you,” you said again, “for everything today.”

“anything for the princess of la push,” seth teased, and you rolled your eyes, his laughter echoing as him and sue headed down the steps of your porch and over to their car.

you waited until they were both inside safely before heading back into your grandmother’s home, locking the door behind you and quickly climbing back onto your makeshift bed that was the couch. despite his absence, you could feel paul’s body heat still radiating from the couch and seth’s warmth in your chest. the soothing sensations didn’t take long to help you drift off into some much-needed sleep, somehow more comforted knowing there was a wolf outside to make sure you were safe.

…

“i don’t know seth, she just wandered out here asking for embry. oh fuck i think she’s waking up wait a second-” you let out a low groan, blearily looking around as you tried to re-orient yourself. the buzzing in your head was back to an uncomfortable level, and your back was killing you yet again. though, as soon as your eyes managed to focus, you saw a man with ridiculously curly hair sitting on the edge of the coffee table, his expression indicating he was rather freaked out.

“are you quil?” you asked, voice croaky as you pushed yourself up onto your elbows, quickly grabbing the bottle of gatorade seth had left on the side table for you. quil nodded, and you took a few sips, the ache in your throat quickly easing.

“do you remember going outside?” he asked, and you frowned, shaking your head. the last thing you’d remembered was falling asleep on the couch, “seth did you hear that?” quil grabbed his phone from the coffee table, quickly putting it on speaker phone for both of you to listen.

“yea i heard that,” his voice came through the phone, muddled with fatigue but you could faintly hear some shuffling in the background and you’d assumed he must’ve been getting up, “i’ll come back over, couldn’t sleep anyways,” he sighed and quil nodded even though seth couldn’t see it, looking from his phone back over to you.

after a few moments, seth asked, “has anyone checked on embry?”

“who’s embry?” you looked up at quil who’s eyes somehow managed to widen.

“oh this is so fucked,” he groaned, “you don’t remember asking about him?” he questioned, whining when you shook your head. you had no clue what he was talking about, but had assumed it must’ve had something to do with you wandering outside, however long ago.

“okay i’ll call embry, you keep an eye on her, and i’ll be over soon,” seth decided, waiting until he heard quil agree before hanging up the phone.

“can you tell me what happened?” you asked, pausing for a moment as you took in his stressed figure, “i’m sorry if i scared you. i don’t remember any of it,” you added and he seemed to take that to heart, giving you a small smile as he straightened himself up a bit.

“i think you must’ve been sleepwalking,” he started, “you came outside a little bit ago and walked right up to me which was lowkey kinda creepy because i don’t know how you knew where i was and then you started asking me to take you to embry which was highkey really creepy because i don’t think you know eachother,” he concluded and you sighed, sitting up on the couch so you could sit opposite of him instead of laying down, pressing your hands against your lower back to try and massage the throbbing muscles there.

you tried racking your brain for any memory of someone named embry, but nothing was coming to mind. the only thing your brain seemed to want to focus on was the obnoxious thrumming in the back of your mind.

after a moment, you exhaled heavily, “i don’t know who he is,” you reminded and quil’s shoulders dropped as he sighed, nodding.

you offered him a small smile, unable to hold it for long before it turned into a grimace when the throbbing in your back amped up again. a frown quickly coated quil’s features as he watched you try massaging the sore muscles,“is your back hurting? seth said to call him if it started bothering you again,”

“i can handle it,” you reassured him, “can you show me a picture of embry? maybe i’ll recognize him,” you redirected, not particularly interested in having quil call seth again even when he was already on his way over here at whatever ungodly hour of the morning that it was.

quil didn’t seem to pick up on you changing the subject or at least, if he did, he didn’t say anything about it, “yea i think i’ve got one,” he picked up his phone again, starting to swipe through his photos app, giving you an opportunity to get up so you could go hunt around the kitchen for some tea or something of the sort.

quil followed you into the kitchen, wordlessly taking a seat at the kitchen table, still digging through his phone while you searched through the cupboards, “assuming i can actually find any, do you want some tea?” you asked, holding in a gag when you got to the cupboard with a ridiculous amount of tins of sardines your grandma seemed to be hoarding.

“i’m okay, seth probably will though,” he hummed, not looking up from his phone as he continued to aimlessly scroll for a picture of the incredibly elusive embry.

you nodded, grinning when you finally spotted a box of lavender tea, quickly grabbing it off the shelf before getting the kettle from the mess of pots and pans in the cabinet under the sink.

holding the kettle under the faucet, you began filling it up with water, “he not very photogenic or something?” you asked with a breathy laugh, quil also letting out one of his own.

“apparently not,” he smiled, “not sure why he’s so difficult to find. i guess anytime we take a picture together it’s on his phone,” he mused, clicking his phone off and setting it down on the table when he looked up to see you gently massaging your hip again while you got the kettle situated on the stove with the other, “you sit, i can take care of it,” he reassured, quickly coming over to shoo you away when you opened your mouth to argue with him.

you quickly conceded, “thank you,” you murmured, “fuck that really hurts,” you murmured, more to yourself than anything, the pain gradually starting to ramp up more and more along with the humming in your mind.

as you sat down on the chair quil had just gotten up from, a knock came at the back door, followed by seth clearwater’s voice, “it’s just me,” he reassured, sliding the glass door closed as he kicked his shoes off.

you flashed him a half smile, holding it just long enough to ask, “you want some tea?” before you were grimacing again, a quiet whimper escaping your lips as you got your other hand situated, massaging your hips with both hands.

“sure,” seth’s voice was soft as he came over to you, eyebrows pinched in concern as he came to sit next to you, “are you hurting again?” he asked, frowning when you sighed and nodded. you two held eye contact for a moment too long, his honey irises filled with something akin to guilt as he tried to figure out how to help you. neither of you seemed confident enough to ask if he could touch you, but you were growing more and more desperate as the seconds dragged on.

quil came to your rescue, whether it was because he was actually trying to help save you from the embarrassment of trying and failing to ask seth to help you or because he simply wasn’t paying attention, you appreciated it, “were you able to get ahold of embry?” he asked, leaning back against the kitchen counter to look over at the two of you.

you tore your gaze from seth’s as you stood from the chair, deciding trying to move around a bit would help more than curling up in the kitchen chair, “couldn’t get ahold of him,” seth’s voice was distant as he got up, following you into the living room where you paused in front of the screen door, tilting your head back to blink away the tears that had quickly clouded your vision. you really didn’t need to be having two meltdowns in one day, especially not in front of seth.

without any warning, some primal part of your brain took over, “he’s in the backyard,” you said, struggling to figure out what the hell made you say that but the buzzing in your head only grew, diluting quil’s voice as you dropped your head, looking out the glass door to the backyard, your entire focus suddenly zeroing in on the giant dark grey wolf standing in your yard, staring right through the window at you. before you even processed what you were saying, you breathed out his name, “embry.”

your legs gave out from beneath you as the room began to spin, seth’s hands catching you before you could hit the floor, pulling you back up tight against his chest. as soon as he caught you, the pain faded and buzzing stilled, “okay you need to sit down,” he ordered, “quil can you go-” he started, stopping himself when he saw how quil was already pulling the glass door open to head out into the backyard and help embry, “thank you,” he called, his grip tightening on you when you pulled against him in a weak attempt to see what was happening.

“seth we-” he didn’t even let you get three words out, immediately shushing you before he was dropping one hand down to rest under the bend of your knees, pulling you up bridal style so he could carry you over to the couch.

“quil is gonna check on him, and you and me are gonna sit on the couch while he helps, okay? if he needs anything, i’ll hear it and then we can go out,” despite the firmness of his words, his tone remained gentle. he paused his steps for a moment, waiting until you conceded and gave him a small nod before he was continuing the short journey to the couch.

you remained in a bit of a trance, not giving any more resistance to seth moving you, though you did turn your head in an attempt to look out the window while he walked you over to the couch. the couch squeaked when he sat down, and he exhaled a heavy sigh, helping get you situated next to him so he wasn’t completely overloading your senses by holding you so tightly in his lap. your head relaxed against his shoulder, his hand coming to rest against your hip as he loosely wrapped his arm around you, “i’m sorry,” you whispered, not entirely sure what exactly you were apologizing for, but it still felt right. it didn’t seem like either of you knew what had just transpired but you did know you definitely scared the shit out of him and that seemed worthy enough of an apology from you.

“don’t apologize,” he murmured, and you let out a quiet hum in response to him, smiling a bit when you felt him give your hip a gentle, reassuring squeeze. a silence settled over the two of you as you replayed what had just happened in your mind, the lack of pain making it much easier to attempt to process what was going on.

“was he really out there?” you asked after a few moments, eyes focused on the mosaic pattern dancing along the edges of the coffee table, the array of rainbow colors providing an excellent alternative to looking up at seth while you waited for his response.

“embry?” he asked, swallowing when you nodded, neither of you bothering to lift your heads from eachother as you talked, “yea, that was him,” he confirmed, “quil is talking with him out there right now, i think they’ll come in in a minute,” he added, another silence falling over the both of you, neither of you sure what to say about whatever just happened.

while the two of you waited, you settled for counting the mosaic tiles instead of continuing to futilely replay everything in your head. you’d only made it to number 74 when the sliding glass door opened again, both you and seth sitting up to look over your shoulders.

quil stepped in first, that same stressed out look covering his features he had on earlier when you first woke up from your sleepwalking endeavor. he did manage to give you a small smile when he saw you looking at him, though, both of you quickly turned your attention to the second man coming in just behind him.

you’d deduced he must’ve been embry, and good lord was he a sight to behold. he was a bit taller than quil and seth, though not by much, and he had a quiet, intense stare that almost had you looking away when you first made eye contact with him, but something deep in your gut told you he was safe.

“are you okay?” you asked softly, watching as embry noticeably paused for a moment, looking rather confused why you asked him that before he responded.

“are you okay?” he mirrored, not playful in the slightest as he took you in, also seeming to have the same struggle deciphering the depth of the connection between the two of you.

the corner of your lips curled into a small smile at his concern, “totally fine,” you responded, quickly adding, “you still didn’t answer my question.”

he huffed a barely audible laugh at that, looking down at the floor for a moment to recompose himself before he was meeting your eyes again, “totally fine,” he repeated, and you barely contained your eye roll, quickly coming to the conclusion that he was not a man of many words.

the sound of the kettle whistling cut through the moment, and quil quickly turned to head back into the kitchen, “not adding house fire to my list of problems from tonight,” he grumbled on his way into the kitchen, both you and seth letting out breathy laughs, embry only giving the smallest of smiles.

“do you want to come sit?” you asked when you noticed how awkward he looked standing on the doormat, clearly not sure if he was welcome to come in or not.

he gave you a quick, curt nod before taking a few short steps over to you and seth, opting to sit down in the arm chair across from the couch instead of next to you, “were you also sleepwalking?” seth asked, sighing when embry nodded, “i don’t think i’ve ever heard of anyone shifting in their sleep,” seth murmured as quil came back into the living room, two steaming mugs of tea in his hands.

“haven’t heard of paul’s bogus mood control nosebleed thing or your whole magic touch thing either,” quil’s voice was still playful as he handed you one mug, your old favorite actually, one you’d picked out for your grandma from pike place market when you were just a kid that had somehow still lasted nearly 20 years and counting. seth got your second favorite, an old university of washington one with a cartoonish husky in a football jersey. you quietly thanked him, smiling when he flashed you a rather large, goofy-looking smile before he headed back into the kitchen to grab another mug for embry.

seth sat his mug down on the coaster on the coffee table while you chose to hold yours between your hands, enjoying the warmth radiating off of the mug, “well i’m guessing billy is gonna make all of us come over tomorrow - or today. whatever,” seth groaned and you laughed softly, a yawn following close behind, “you wanna put a movie on? maybe that’ll help everyone fall asleep,” he asked, giving your hip another gentle squeeze when you nodded.

“i haven’t even tried touching the tv, though, so i’ve got no idea if that’s working,” you explained, the three of you looking to the old tv hung behind embry that your grandma had somehow managed to get mounted on the wall.

“i bet we can figure it out,” seth reassured, grabbing the remote off the coffee table as quil came back in, another two mugs in his hands.

“changed your mind?” you teased when you saw him hand one mug to embry and keep another for himself.

he laughed, “something about seeing two people sleepwalk in one night really makes you reconsider the benefits of hot tea,” he teased, dramatically pulling the other armchair across the room so he could sit next to embry and also sort of face the tv.

while seth spent the next few minutes getting the tv sorted out, you watched as quil and embry had a nearly silent conversation with each other. despite the fact that embry hadn’t said much to you, you could see him talking to quil, even though it was minuscule.

before you could eavesdrop too much, the tv turned on, quil cheering when some weird old war movie came on, “change the channel,” you whispered to seth, and he laughed quietly, clicking the remote again to surf through some channels, much to quil’s chagrin.

“oh come on seth, please-” he whined, getting up again to turn off the big lights, the living room illuminated only by the lamp next to you and the tv’s soft glow as seth perused the channels.

seth rolled his eyes as quil continued his dramatics, only stopping when he landed on a new-ish marvel movie you hadn’t seen before but seemed much better than the ancient black and white movie you’d started with, “this is good,” you reassured seth when he looked over to you for approval, quil cheering again when he heard your agreement.

“finally!” he beamed and the other three of you let out quiet laughs, not sure why he considered less than 2 minutes of changing channels to be so long. you took a sip of the tea as you all got situated, a comfortable silence settling over you as the movie played. after a few minutes you set your mug on the coffee table next to seth’s before settling back into his side, resting your head on his shoulder as you drifted off.

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