CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
OBLIVIOUS

"It's like my whole life has been a lie."

Embry sat quietly on the edge of the bed, his attentive eyes soft with concern as he watched Montana pace the length of his room.

She'd turned up at his house late in the evening, and completely unannounced. In all honesty, he kind of wished she'd sent him a warning text, so he could sort out the messy state of his room and avoid embarrassment – alas, Montana assured him she'd seen worse.

Her clothes were soaking wet from the heavy rainfall, the material clinging so tightly to Montana's skin that Embry actually felt physically uncomfortable for her.

His mom had taken one look at her appearance, including the tear/rain (he wasn't sure which, probably both) streaked mascara disaster – Embry was going to tell her about it at some point, but he wasn't entirely sure she would take kindly to it, so decided to wait until she was a bit calmer. Anyway, Tiffany had ushered her indoors immediately, made her a sandwich, got her some clean clothes, and tried to get her to open up, which, after knowing Montana for almost his entire life, Embry knew wasn't an easy task.

Now, she was in his room, dressed in a pair of his old sweatpants and his Nickelback T-Shirt, freaking the hell out about the fact that she'd had her witchy genes hidden from her. Truthfully, Embry wasn't entirely sure of the full story; he'd tried to catch as much as possible from her rambling, but it was proving to be quite complicated.

What he did understand, though, was that it meant that shape-shifters weren't the only protectors in La Push. And, personally, Embry thought that was fucking awesome.

So, he said exactly that. "You know, this is cool as fuck."

Montana halted in the middle of the room, turning around to face him with a firm expression. "What?"

"Mon, you're even more badass than we thought!" He clarified, getting to his feet. Montana stared blankly at him as Embry stopped in front of her, placing his hands on her shoulders. His touch prompted her to lower them, the tension she'd held relaxing the tiniest of amounts. "This is awesome."

"Embry, I have absolutely no idea how to control this," she reminded him, shaking her head. "I mean, what if I accidentally hurt somebody? There are a million and one different reasons why this is definitely not cool!"

"Hey, we'll figure it out," he told her in a gentle voice, squeezing her shoulders comfortingly. "Your parents will help you. Kaia and your uncle are gonna come back. And we'll do loads of research between us. This is gonna be okay."

Montana lowered her head, a heavy sigh leaving her lips. "What if it's not?" She asked quietly, looking back up at him with tearful eyes. "What if it's not okay?"

Embry's heart ached at the sight of his usually radiant best friend seeming so upset. Not knowing what else to do, he wrapped his arms around her, and brought her close to her chest. "I promise you, this will be okay. I promise."

Montana sighed heavily. "I completely freaked out on people," she mumbled against his shirt. "And then I just...shut down and went to bed. Like, what the hell is wrong with me?"

Embry resisted a chuckle. "I don't even think you reacted that badly from what you told me," he said truthfully. "And everybody knows you just need some time. A lot has happened these past few days."

Montana slowly untangled herself from his arms, looking up at her best friend with unsure eyes. Her thoughts had, naturally, drifted to Jacob, who had told her his most hidden secret, and she'd left him in the dark and disappointed, with no answer or inclination to what she wanted. She felt terrible, of course, but what the hell was she supposed to say? It's not every day you find out you're somebody's soulmate!

Embry's concerned gaze flickered over her expression, lips starting to tug as he watched her lose herself in thought. "You're thinking about Jake, aren't you?"

Montana's eyes snapped back up to his. "And what if I am?"

Embry grinned, nudging her shoulder teasingly. Montana playfully shoved him off, but failed to bite back the smile curving on her lips.

"So, what happened?" Embry asked curiously, sitting back down on the bed. He patted the space beside him, and Montana joined him. "No judgement from me, promise."

"Well," Montana began, breathing in deeply. Where to start? "We argued a bit, about what happened at Sam's. I didn't understand why he was being like that, and I said he was being too protective."

Embry laughed. "How did that go down?"

Montana smiled softly. "Hmm, not great." Embry chuckled again. "I knew feelings were heightened with the whole wolf thing, but I didn't understand just how much they were with Jake. And then..." she trailed, hesitating for a moment, eyes shifting around the bedroom. Montana wasn't sure why she struggled to say it out loud, it was only Embry – oh, it was only Embry. The person who'd known everything about both of them their whole lives. There's no way he could reserve judgment on something as huge as his best friends being literal soulmates.

"He told you about imprinting," Embry finished for her, too impatient with excitement to wait any longer.

Of course Embry knew. When Jacob had left Montana's and transformed, the entire pack had inadvertently seen how their conversation went down, considering, well, it was all Jake could actually fucking think about.

Embry knew that Jared, personally, wasn't very happy that he'd lost quite a bit of money to his bet with Dakota, but, still, they were all pleased that Jacob had finally grown some balls and actually told Montana. And now they didn't have to keep it a secret anymore! Which was a huge relief to Embry, who had almost let it slip way too many times. He couldn't help it, he was just so excited about the prospect of his best friends falling into love with one another.

"Yeah," Montana confirmed. "He told me about the imprint thing." She turned her head, facing him. "How long have you guys known?"

"Since it happened," Embry replied honestly.

"When did it happen?" Montana asked. That had been the question at the forefront of her mind, the one she wished she'd asked Jacob.

"Uh," Embry deliberated for a moment. "The first time you saw us shift."

Montana's eyes widened. "That long ago?!"

"Yep," Embry chuckled. "You can see why we were all desperate for him to tell you."

Her eyebrows drew together. "Why didn't he?" She wondered, her heart dropping. Had Jacob been disappointed that it was her?

Embry caught the way her expression had crumbled. He met her eyes, wanting to convey his sincerity. "Jake wanted to get it right. He wanted to wait for the right time." Montana pondered this for a few seconds. "He really wanted to tell you. But how you'd feel was always more important than how he felt."

Her eyes flickered up to meet his. "Really?"

A faint smile pulled at the corners of Embry's mouth. "Really," he said. "Jake is..." he hesitated, thinking better of the 'madly in love with you' end to that sentence. "The way he feels about you, it's really special."

"Oh," was all she managed to say.

Embry snorted. "You really have been painfully oblivious to this, haven't you?"

She frowned at him again. "What do you mean?"

He shook his head, playful grin teasing across his face. "I shouldn't say."

"You should," Montana pressed. Embry pushed his lips together tightly. Montana lightly whacked his shoulder. "Tell me!"

He couldn't help but laugh, smiling down at her. "Well, Jake's not exactly subtle about how he feels. I thought you would have caught on way before."

"I really had no idea," she replied truthfully. Montana had obviously figured that they were hiding something from her, but she never would have guessed it would be that.

"And you never, like, questioned your feelings for him?" Embry asked, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Because, I mean, you and Jake might be blind as fuck, but the rest of us aren't."

Montana quirked an eyebrow at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Embry grinned at her again. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Montana glowered at him. "I could kill you," she threatened. "Well, once I figure out how."

Embry laughed. "Have to say, I'm really loving this whole embracing your powers thing," he commented. "Real step up from ten minutes ago."

"Don't push it."

"Hey, how long have you wanted to kick my ass for?" He asked her.

"A very long time."

"And now you can finally do it!"

Montana bit back a smile, rolling her eyes. "I don't need special powers to kick your ass, Embry," she reminded him.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Embry agreed. Their eyes met, and they both chuckled. "Anyway," he began again. "Back to Jake. I have a few questions."

"I definitely don't want to answer them," she shut down immediately.

"Well, that's a shame because I'm still going to ask them," Embry continued. Montana suppressed a groan. "Question one–"

Much to Montana's delight, the sound of Embry's phone vibrating in his back pocket cut him off. She watched as he reached for the device, both of them reading Paul's name flashing on the screen.

"Remind me to tell Paul I love him," Montana said, relieved at the well-timed interruption.

Embry shook his head, answering the call. "Hey, man–" His expression suddenly dropped. Montana sat up straighter. "Are you sure?" He got his feet quickly, moving across the room. Montana's worried eyes trailed after his movements. Embry ran a hand through his hair. "I thought Sam said it wouldn't be for a while–" There was a pause, eventually filled by a heavy sigh leaving his lips. Montana's stomach tightened with nerves. "Okay, I'll get there as soon as I can."

Embry flipped his cell phone shut, looking at Montana with an unnerving mixture of both excitement and apprehension.

"What's wrong?" She asked him.

"Quil shifted."

Montana stood up. "Already?" Embry nodded. "Holy shit."

"I gotta go," he told her, rifling through his draws for a spare set of clothes for Quil. "You can stay here, I'll be back later. Or my mom can drive you home, whichever."

"No way," Montana instantly dismissed both those ideas. She wasn't missing out on this. "You're taking him back to Sam and Emily's, right? I wanna be there."

Embry exhaled, turning back to face her. "It's dark, Mon," he pointed out. "I'm not letting you walk there alone."

"It's ten minutes," Montana argued.

Embry shook his head. "Not happening."

"Okay, then I won't walk," she countered, folding her arms over her chest.

Embry raised his eyebrows at her. "Not unless you've suddenly gained wolf powers I don't know about."

"No, but..." Montana looked at Embry hopefully, waiting for him to catch on to what she was suggesting.

The idea soon seemed to dawn on him, and Embry vigorously shook his head. "No. Not happening."

"It would be quicker, though," Montana said.

Embry gave her an unimpressed look. "Jacob would tear me apart. Literally. Limb from limb."

"What Jake doesn't know won't hurt him." Montana smiled innocently at her best friend. "Please, it'll be fun."

"No," Embry reaffirmed. "If we accidentally run into Quil–"

"He won't be anywhere this close to the human trails," Montana pointed out.

"What if we see someone else?" Embry countered back.

"It's late, nobody else is gonna be around," Montana assured. She moved closer to him, jutting her bottom lip out. "Please, I really, really wanna see Quil when he gets back."

Embry groaned in annoyance, persuaded by her case, but also knowing that Jacob was probably going to end his life for it. "Mon–"

"Embry," she stated sternly. "Just let me–" she paused, trying to think of a different way of saying it, only to cringe when she couldn't. "Um, for lack of a better phrase, ride you?"

"Promise to never say that again?"

"Promise," she agreed, holding back her amusement. Embry sighed in exasperation, glancing towards the door. "Oh! Ride on your back!" Montana suddenly exclaimed. "That would have been a much better way to say it!"

"You know what, I'll forgive the innuendo," Embry responded, shooting her a teasing grin. "I know it's 'cos you've not been able to get Jacob out your mind."

Montana's jaw dropped.

Fighting back a smirk, Embry began to leave the room. When Montana didn't move an inch, he stopped casually in the doorway, turning his head to look back at her, eyebrows raised. "You coming or what?"

"Die," she fired back.

"Not today," he responded, unable to help breaking out into a grin.

Montana narrowed her eyes a him, heading towards the door. "I hate you."

"Only because I speak the truth," he shot back as they made their way into the hall. Montana reached out and smacked the back of his head. "Ow!"

"You deserved that."

A/N

I love Embry so much.

Also, hi, hello everyone!! Sorry for lack of updates, your gal has been busy with uni work. Hope you're all safe and well 💓

I don't like to be a tease, but I'm gonna do it anyway – make sure you look out for the next chapter 👀 that's all I'm gonna say...