Sarah's Trust

There was silence for a moment. Sarah was unable to comprehend what Embry's words actually meant, and whether or not she was actually having this conversation with him. It was strange to her because things like this don't happen to anyone, much less her. She was getting used to having no eyesight – sure, she hated it but she had to get used to it because it wasn't coming back anytime soon and it wasn't like she could just curl up into a ball and not do anything ever again, no matter how tempting that once was. Then Embry came along and it was great to have someone to spend time with who was someone other than her parents, but then he got weird with the whole legends bonfire he took her to, which was then followed by him trying to convince her that he was a shapeshifter and that she was his imprint – which is what, exactly? She didn't quite know, and if she were honest, she didn't really want to know either.

"Sarah?" Embry asked, breaking the silence of the room. But how could she reply? "You know that I would never let anything hurt you, right? Ever. I just had to tell you because you have a right to know about me, about my secret. You trusted me by letting me in even though you were vulnerable with your eyesight gone, and I have never betrayed you even though you must think I have."

She shook her head slowly. "I...I don't think you've betrayed me."

"Yes, you do. You don't have to admit it but I can see that you believe I have. But you have to understand that I couldn't have told you straight away because you would have thought I were crazy and never would have given me the time of day."

She couldn't help but mentally agree with that. If someone had told her that they were a shapeshifter and she didn't know them, she would have thought they were crazy and would have never talked to them again, no matter how much they tried to talk with her. Yes, she did think Embry and everyone he was friends with who believed this nonsense were crazy as well, but the difference is that Embry was right – she had let him in and she had trusted him, and right now, she didn't feel like that trust was doing her much good. However, there was still a part of her that did trust him, whether that was because he had been around her for a while and had been one of the only people she had been seeing on a regular basis, she didn't know.

Embry stood up from where he was sitting and grabbed her hand. "I want to show you that you can trust me."

Immediate, Sarah started protesting. "No, no, I'm fine. You don't need to show me anything, please, you really don't."

"I need to do this, Sarah."

"You really don't. Embry, honest." Her pleading didn't stop him from holding her hand tightly and pulling her out of the house that she was comfortable and safe in. He took her into the garden and let go of her hand, instantly panicking her.

"I told you I would never let anything happen to you," Embry reassured, grasping her hand again and making her panic subside. "But I need to do this."

She didn't know what he was talking about until he stepped away from her again. Being out in the open like she was, unaware and unprepared, wasn't something that she liked and for a moment she felt herself verging on a panic attack, something that was only heightened when something furry brushed against her hand. Without thinking, she let out a shriek and stumbled backwards, tripping over her feet and falling to the ground, scraping her hands in the process as she blindly tried to catch herself. Her heart was racing madly as she started patting around her to make sure that she was alone on the floor and could stand up without falling again, but her hand brushed a furry paw and recoiled into herself.

"Em-bry?" she stuttered, and was rewarded by a wet nose brushing against her cheek. A shudder racked her body at the thought of his words being true, that this wet nose belonged to a shapeshifter that was actually him. It didn't seem possible and yet he was desperate to prove to her that it was true and that he wasn't crazy so therefore she could still trust him. Sure, maybe she wanted to be able to trust him again, but she didn't want to be scared out of her mind while he was trying to prove it to her.

A furry paw rested beside her hand and with a deep breath she cautiously placed her shaking hand on top of it, a part of her fearing that whatever animal this was might attack her now and a part of her on its way to believing what Embry had said. That part gained a big surge when she felt the furry disappear beneath her hand and her skin came in contact with human flesh. Surprised, she drew her hand back and held it to her chest.

"Sarah," Embry said.

She shook her head. "How does that happen? You just changed from an animal to a human and I don't know what just happened and I'm scared because I can't see what it's like and I feel so lost," she cried, tears falling down her cheeks. It wasn't just because of the fact that she felt lost that made her cry because she was also crying over how scared she had just been. Before the accident, she would have never cried over something like that – she probably would have believed Embry at first reveal, too – and she hated that the accident changed her in so many ways that she still wasn't accustomed to, including her own feelings.

Immediately, Embry's arms came around her and held her while she cried. He didn't say anything and for that she was oddly grateful because she knew there wasn't anything he could say that would make her feel better because he did not know what it was like to deal with sight loss and he never would truly understand, but then neither would her parents or the doctors and they tried to help her feel better, even though it never actually helped.

After a while in his warm arms, she felt herself calmer than before and managed to wipe the last few tears from her cheeks. "You have no idea how scared I am every day I wake up because what if I don't wake up in my own bed? How would I know?" she mumbled, resting her arms on his bare ones.

"Won't you be able to tell just from the feel and the smell?"

She sighed. "That's what everyone says but I fell asleep on the sofa before and woke up in my bed and panicked because I didn't recognise it," she said, letting her arms fall to her lap and one of her hands to brush against his shorts. With a frown, she touched the fabric again. "Do you change with your shorts on?"

"No. Our clothes shed when we change so we take off our shorts otherwise it gets a bit pricey," he explained.

"So I just saw you naked?"

Embry laughed. "You did."

She wrinkled her nose. "Gross."