Chapter Text
More days fly by for the new couple, and soon they’ve reached a month since Naveah’s arrival. While Naveah splits time between work and dates with Leah, the rest of the town is starting to get back to normal with the vampire gone.
Seth still hasn’t shared the news of his imprint to the rest of the pack. They haven’t been on patrol as much since Naveah’s dad left, and even when they did Seth was pretty good at not thinking about it. But he knows this isn’t something he wants to hide forever and it’ll eventually slip out through his thoughts.
“I imprinted,” he’d reveals one day during a pack meeting at Jacob’s house. It’s during an otherwise casual conversation, and everyone falls silent once they hear. He doesn’t know why he felt the need to admit it so suddenly, perhaps he isn’t as confident in things as he thought.
Motivated by everyone’s quiet reaction and his own nerves, Seth feels the need to further explain. “It’s on a guy, I don’t know who though because I kinda just ran into him and then ran away from him…”
He’s embarrassed to admit the last part. Hates himself for having run away when there’s a chance he’ll never meet his soulmate ever again. But those regrets compete with the coward within him, the part of himself that didn’t even want to admit his imprint to his pack.
But they’re supportive. “Well we’ll just have to introduce you to a bunch of guys until you find him again,” Embry jokes.
“It’s a pretty small town,” Noah adds, “we should be able to find him.”
“Where did you run into him?” “What did he look like?” “How old did he look?”
They all barrage him with questions, vowing to help him find his imprint out of all the guys in Northern Washington. The shock of same sex imprints seems to have worn off a bit to them after what happened with Leah. Seth knows it shouldn’t be a big deal either and tries to act like none of it bothers him, but inside he’s secretly panicked.
“What do you mean you're gay too?” Leah jokes dryly. “You really love to copy me don’t you.”
But other than Leah’s teasing, Seth’s confession is pretty well received. He feels lucky to have a group of friends who are so understanding. But despite their acceptance, Seth still recognizes that he’s the first shifter to ever imprint on a man. It’s still a new thing, something the tribal elders or other pack might question. And the lack of precedent also raises questions for the nature of Seth’s feelings and future of his relationship.
Seth is pretty confident that he would want a romantic relationship with his imprint if given the option. He is also scared that he’ll never be capable of a romantic relationship if his imprint is uninterested. But encouraged by his pack, either way he wants to find the mystery man again.
But even after a few days, they still hadn’t been able to find him. In a way, Seth is relieved to not have to face him quite yet.
The Black Pack turns their attention instead to Naveah’s mother’s memorial. Sue Clearwater and some of the other mothers in La Push have finally finished organizing the service, which had been in planning since before the vampire incidents started.
Today, they’d gathered everyone in the Clearwater’s living room to honor her. Originally the plan was to host it at Naveah’s house, but by now the place was almost completely empty and devoid of any life it had before. Sue was happy to host instead with Naveah’s blessing, and they planned the event for her living room. There was some spillover in the yard, since so many people wanted to come.
Seth stands outside along with most of the other younger attendees, letting the tribal elders and people closer to Naveah’s mom take up the living room.
Naveah navigates between both outside and inside, thanking everyone for coming and speaking to as many people as possible. She’s incredibly grateful for everyone who showed up and gathers around elders to hear stories of her mother growing up. Through their stories, she learns more about the Deere family, going back generations before her mother. She’s even reunited with her Aunt Flora and Uncle Albert, who had driven in for the memorial, which was a bit more like a party.
“It’s so great to see you,” Flora greets her politely. She’s around 60, unmarried and whimsical. Naveah hasn’t seen her in years, but always used to think she was made of magic. Flora is an expert in Native American folklore, and would always tell Naveah stories about it. She had a small business on Etsy selling incense and embroidered fabrics, and would always send gifts from her shop over to Naveah and her mom when they moved to LA.
“It’s great to see you too!” Naveah greets her with a big hug, taking a whiff of her usual perfumes.
Albert, her mother’s other sibling, is more stoic and mysterious. As a kid she was a bit scared of him, although he was always kind to her in his own quiet way. He smiles and nods when he sees Naveah. “It’s been too long,” he says quietly. Naveah nods.
Once reunited with them, they catch up with childhood stories of her mother.
“Who chose the nickname Rosie?” Naveah eventually asks. She’s heard everyone at the memorial refer to her mother as such, and remembers some close friends and siblings calling her it during her life. But she’s grown used to everyone in California using her mother’s legal name.
“Your grandmother, she always pointed out your mother’s rosy cheeks when she was a baby,” Sue responds.
“She was so embarrassed by it at first,” Flora adds. “But your mother was named after her grandmother and it’s a tradition not to say a dead person’s name. So after her grandmother died, she had to get used to the nickname.”
Naveah is surprised to hear that. Her mother had gone back to using her grandmother’s name when they left La Push. Naveah hadn’t even known that was a tradition. She wonders if her mother’s name is twice as important not to say now that both of them have passed away.
More and more people pile in, but eventually Naveah gets a bit overwhelmed with their questions and stories so she heads back outside. There’s still a crowd, but it’s mostly younger people she’s seen more in the past few weeks. She scans the yard to find Leah, but comes up empty.
“Have you seen Leah?” Naveah asks Emily, who’s seated on the porch swing. She’d left Leah in the yard earlier, after being dragged into the house by her aunt and uncle.
Emily smiles and shakes her head. “No, I think Sue sent her out to grab some more paper plates.”
“Oh yeah,” Naveah replies, “we ran out earlier.” She leans over the railing of the porch, disappointed.
“So I heard from Sam that you and Leah are together?” Emily asks.
Naveah’s taken off guard for a second by the sudden nature of the comment, but it’s not a secret. “Yeah,” she replies, “we are.”
She wonders if her response is loud enough for everyone else in the yard to hear, considering a majority of them are werewolves with a keen sense of hearing. But then again, they would all already know. Leah had warned Naveah that they’d hear her thoughts while in wolf form.
“I’m glad that you two are happy,” Emily gushes. “It’s great that Leah finally found her imprint.”
Naveah nods along, but one word catches, “huh?”
“Well when Sam saw me for the first time after he shifted and imprinted on me, she didn’t think she’d ever find hers,” Emily continues bashfully.
“What is an imprint?” Naveah clarifies. Emily pales.
The pack members around the front yard have frozen by now, knowing this was a subject they explicitly were not supposed to bring up. But somehow, Sam had forgotten to convey this message to Emily.
“Oh,” Emily struggled, now knowing her mistake. “Leah hasn’t told you?”
Naveah’s starting to realize that something’s off. She looks around the yard to see a crowd of people avoiding her gaze. “Told me what?” she asks again, more serious this time.
Just then, Leah’s car pulls up in the driveway. They both look over, and Emily panics. “I’m sorry,” she stumbles out. “You should ask her.”
Naveah gives Emily a pointed look, asking her to continue with the explanation. Realizing there’s no way out except to tell the truth, Emily hesitantly explains. “All of the wolf shape shifters have a soulmate. The first time they see that specific person after their transformation, they feel a mental switch. Like their life belongs to them.”
Leah’s unloading the car when she hears the conversation taking place. She quits what she’s doing to try to stop Emily, but she’s too late. She’s already given her explanation, and Naveah’s started to ask follow up questions. Neither of them even acknowledge Leah, a few feet away in the driveway.
Terrified of Naveah turning around, Leah stands in silence, forced to watch.
“They can’t choose who it happens to?” Naveah asks slowly. Emily shakes her head.
“So it doesn’t matter how they actually feel?” she asks. Emily hesitates on an answer, it’s clear she wants to say more. But Naveah takes her hesitance as answer enough.
Naveah turns to look at Leah, a mix of betrayal and hurt in her eyes. She fights back tears as she processes Leah’s guilty expression, realizing that all of it is true. That Leah doesn’t really love her, she’s just been forced to.
Naveah tries to keep her calm as she walks down the porch steps toward Leah and then past her, without saying a word. She continues on until she’s back at her own empty house. Where she can finally let out her tears.
She falls down to the hardwood floor, reeling from the discovery of what she’d just learned. Not only had Leah neglected to tell her about this, but it also meant that she hadn’t genuinely fallen for her in the same way Naveah had. Instead she’d been forced through some Quileute shifter bond to only exist in service to her. It makes her sick to her stomach.
Naveah begins to believe what she’d always feared, that she’s not worthy of love. The only reason her mother loved her was because she was her child. The only reason the Quileutes welcomed her is because she and her mother grew up in the tribe.
The only way she could even have the illusion of romance was through supernatural intervention.