Cats and Dogs

“What the hell are you?” Embry immediately released his grip as if the thought of touching me now disgusted him. I don’t know if it was sudden movement of my shoulder being released, or fear of the now angry looking wolf in front of me, but I stumbled backward, unaware that I had literally walked right off the edge of a cliff.

“Embry!” I screamed and tried desperately to reach for him, sadly my effort was useless and I found myself falling toward the water below.

“Alai!” If this had been any other time I would have rolled my eyes at the fact Embry looked like he was about to kill me a second ago but now that my life was on the line, he seemed genuinely concerned. It must have been a dog thing.

I thought the fall would have lasted longer and was honestly surprised when my body hit the freezing water. But if there was one good thing about plummeting off a cliff into the insanely cold ocean below, it was that the shock had effectively banished my cat half to the back of my mind. This allowed me to think and I managed to swim back to the surface without thrashing about and causing myself even more harm than the fall and sharp rocks had already caused.

“Alai!” The wolf’s voice didn’t come from above me but from the beach a few hundred yards to my left. “Alaivera!” Embry seemed shaken up and on the verge of a panic attack so I decided not to answer and to watch his freak-out episode.

“Oh shit,” he told himself as he continued to walk back and forth along the shore. His head was down and he was gripping at his hair in a way that had to be painful. “Jacob’s going to kill me,” he continued and I scoffed at the fact that if I had died, the red and white wolf wouldn’t have cared in the least.

“How am I going to explain this, ‘hey Jake, your imprint’s eyes looked a little weird so I pushed her off a cliff. I didn’t get a good look of course, but in that half a second that I saw them, they didn’t seem normal. Sorry for taking away your soul mate.’ Yeah, I’m dead, really dead. Dead, dead, dead, dead, and super dead.” Watching the boy freak out and start to practically plan his funeral gave me a sick feeling of satisfaction. Now he’ll think twice before causing someone to fall off a cliff; I could say “pushed” but even I realized that he had done no such thing.

“Em, get your morbid ass over here and help me up these god damn rocks.” Unlike a normal beach, this one didn’t meet the water and there was a seven foot tall cliff-like face made of boulders that needed to be climbed in order to reach the soft sand at the top.

“Alai?!” He called as he reached the area I was at and looked down at me.

“No, it’s the Queen of fucking England,” I hissed. Of course it was me, how big of an idiot does one have to be in order to think otherwise? Maybe I should ask the wolf that was currently staring at me as if I really was the Queen of England; apparently he would be able to answer that question.

“I swear to all that is dark and evil in this world that if you do not give me your hand and help me up, I will kill you and get away with it.” Fresh water I can handle, chlorinated water I can live with, but salt water just plain pissed me off; in case you couldn’t tell.

“Okay, okay, no need to kill a person. I’m helping.” Embry lied down on the sand and extended his hand downward for me to take. I, in turn, raised my right arm to grab it but immediately cried out in pain.

“Damn,” The wolf barely let the words slip from his mouth before he jumped down onto the narrow ledge that I was standing on and took my arm as if to examine it. “Do you remember your arm hitting anything?” he asked without even an edge of humor in his voice for the first time since I’d known him.

“Yeah, I hit it on a rock while the rest of my body hit the water,” he twisted my arm to the left and I let out a whimper that didn’t even sound human to my own ears.

“My god, that had to hurt.” Well of course it hurt! I fell off a cliff and part of my atomy hit a ROCK! You don’t have to be a genius to figure that out. Then again, canines aren’t the brightest bunch. Oblivious to my mental tirade, Embry lifted the sleeve of my shirt to get a better view of my arm and both he and I gasped at the crooked limb that quite obviously had been broken before healing improperly.

“It shouldn’t have healed that quickly,” said the wolf in amazement. “You have a lot of explaining to do.” His gaze met mine for the first time since he started inspecting my arm and I nodded silently for him to continue. “This is going to be really painful,” he explained as he griped my arm, alerting to me what he was about to do. “I’d say I’m sorry about that… but I’m not.” He twisted my arm painfully and I barely managed to keep from screaming.

“You’re an ass,” I hissed at him, remembering the unneeded comment that flew out of his mouth before he broke my arm for the second time in a ten minute period.

“Yeah, well, you’re a bitch for lying to everyone.” Embry didn’t look at me and kept his eyes locked on my arm as it started to glow. “Does that always happen?” He asked confused.

“No,” I answered honestly, not bothering to argue with his “lying to everyone” statement. Sometimes, even the best the liar, the biggest bitch, and the most awesome of people, must admit defeat. I wasn’t happy about it, but I was admitting it.

“My god is cruel, and probably finds this funny.” The glowing stopped; a sign that the damaged was repaired, but as always, the pain was still present. This was just one of the drawbacks to being a magical creature instead of a natural one.

“Your god?” Embry asked with a perplexed expression clearing plastered on his face. “Don’t you just mean God?” One thing most people will learn about me fairly quickly; is that I say what I mean unless I’m lying through my teeth.

“No, that’s not what I mean.” I said and jumped onto the sandy beach above me without so much as a sound.

“You didn’t need my help at all,” the boy said in amazement as he climbed up the ledge, apparently not possessing the jumping ability of a feline.

“No, I just figured it’d raise a few questions if I didn’t ask for it.” I cradled my arm against my chest and Embry eyed it suspiciously. Almost as if he thought I was faking the injury. “The arm may not be broken, but it feels like it.” I explained and he nodded in understanding even though I knew he didn’t have a clue as to why that was.

“Now, come with me. I think you need some answers.” I turned to walk back to my house, but stopped and turned around before I could get very far. “I trust that whatever I tell you will be kept between us, correct?”

“Um… I don’t think I have an option there, do I?” He asked sarcastically and I couldn’t help but smile. Now he’s getting it.

“No, you don’t,” I told him and started walking once again knowing the wolf was close behind me.