CHAPTER NINETEEN:
HARDEST OF HEARTS

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MEETING THE ELDERS FELT a lot like a day of judgement for Mae Cooper. Beneath the light of a half-moon, the pack and their imprints gathered together for a meeting with the council, a group made up of faces Mae only vaguely recognised. The first she spotted happened to be Billy Black, Jacob's dad, whose dark eyes were quick to meet Mae's through the glow of the fire, piercing, like he was trying to decode some kind of message only she knew the answer to. Beside him was Sue Clearwater, who Embry introduced as Leah and Seth's mum.

She took over for their father, Harry, when he died. That was what Embry had said about her. Suddenly, Leah's rage and Seth's reclusive nature made a lot of sense to Mae.

Across from them was a man who she presumed was Quil's grandfather. He was sitting with Maggie's uncle, Everett, who Mae knew was also Quil's uncle, speaking in hushed tones while Quil shared food with Maggie from an overflowing paper plate. On Maggie's other side was Paul, his arm wrapped around her shoulder, head thrown back as he laughed with Jared and Kim. The only person missing from the meeting was Jacob, which made Mae worry that she might've been delaying the meeting, too.

"Are we late?" she asked, shuffling closer to Embry as Seth and Maggie's brother, Zeke, chased an airborne football. "Oh, God, did my dad and Kira hold us up with dinner? You should've told me, Em."

"Mae, relax," Embry laughed and squeezed her hand. "We're not late. Jake's late, but we're right on time."

Mae let out a momentary sigh of relief. At least she'd dodged the bullet of a horrible first impression. That was something.

Grinning, Embry's eyes scanned her face with a sense of fondness that had her insides screaming Look at him! He's so sweet. What have you done to deserve him? "You know, you don't have to worry, Mae," he said, completely matter-of-fact. Mae hated that he knew her so well. "Everyone already loves you."

"Not everyone," she retorted, gaze flickering from Embry's amused expression to where Billy was surveying the crowd for his son. He turned as Sue laid a hand on his arm, whispering something that Mae couldn't catch over the sudden hearty laughter that came from Maggie's lot.

If anything, this seemed to amuse Embry more, for his laughter flowed into theirs. He pulled her closer to press a kiss to her temple. Once again, Mae's insides performed a whole elaborate gymnastics routine, right down to the finishing pose. "They haven't even met you, Mae. They've got no reason to hate you."

With that, Embry promptly led her over to a long table on the other side of the fire. It groaned beneath the weight of various dishes that were obviously the work of Emily and Sue. Embry was quick to grab two paper plates — one for him and one for Mae. Tucking his own under his arm, he began to fill Mae's, occasionally confirming with her what she did and didn't want.

Mae's heart was warm by the time they reached the end of the table. Waiting for him to go back and grab his own food, she couldn't shake that blasted gymnastics routine from making another appearance.

How did she get so lucky?

And more importantly, when was that luck going to run out?

Embry was quick to return to her side with a plate piled sky-high. She grinned and shook her head as he successfully balanced his food with one hand then reached for her waist with the other. Together, they approached where Maggie and the others were sitting. Mae greeted them with a grin as she sat cross-legged beside Maggie.

"Hey," the Sullivan girl leaned over to greet her, voice low so that the boys wouldn't hear. "You look so nervous."

"That's because I am nervous," Mae sighed, sparing a fleeting glance at Embry to make sure he hadn't heard her. Fortunately, he was too caught up in speaking with Maggie's uncle, allowing Mae a moment of naked truth. "I don't know what I'm doing, Maggie."

"Trust me, no one does," Maggie tried her best to reassure her. Mae felt the tide suddenly shift, uncertainty and fear warring with yearning. She tried her best to smother it down, to breathe as Maggie added, "If it makes you feel any better, this is technically my first council meeting as Paul's imprint. We can be nervous together."

Grateful, Mae went to respond but was interrupted by the group's sudden looming silence. Frowning, Mae turned to where Billy was sitting, half-expecting the bonfire to have begun. But when Billy stayed quiet, stubborn, staring through the flames at something behind them, she realised that wasn't the case. Following his gaze, she froze at the sight of Bella Swan following Jacob towards them, nervous eyes scanning the crowd.

"I thought this was a tribe thing?" Mae leaned over to whisper in Embry's ear.

Embry's face was grim. "It is. But Jacob wanted Bella to hear the stories."

"He hasn't imprinted on her, right?" she asked, because she genuinely couldn't figure it out.

She hadn't heard anything about it when Embry initially explained the ins-and-outs of imprinting. As far as she knew, Sam had imprinted on Emily, Jared had imprinted on Kim, Paul on Maggie, Seth on Zeke Sullivan, and Embry on her. Neither Jacob or Bella were mentioned, but the way Jacob looked at Bella with such love and devotion made Mae believe otherwise.

"He hasn't," Embry said. "But he's convinced he can love her enough, that he can somehow make her love him without it."

"But imprints don't always have to be romantic," she recalled, the two of them watching as Seth bounded over to greet the new arrivals. "Zeke and Seth are only friends."

"It's different with Bella," Embry explained, finally tearing his eyes away to look at Mae's face. "She's with that Cullen dude, and they've got their own form of imprinting. Mates or whatever it's called."

"Oh."

In all honesty, Mae didn't understand it one bit, but it didn't really bother her. As far as she was concerned, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with Bella or her band of vampires. The most interaction she'd ever had with the Cullens was through Emmett and Rose, and even that was at arm's length and mainly for Lina's sake. Bella was so far out of her radar that Mae lost interest in her just minutes after her arrival. Soon enough, she and Jacob had sat down opposite his dad, and the group had gone quiet. Even Paul paused in scoffing down both his and Maggie's plates, sitting at attention like he was waiting for some kind of command from the elder.

"The Quileutes have been a small tribe since the beginning, but we've always had magic in our blood," Billy began with a proud smile curving his lips. Mae sat back, content to listen with her chin resting on Embry's shoulder. Billy had a good voice for story-telling, words warm as the fire itself spilling out across the flames. "We were great spirit warriors, shape-shifters that transformed into the powerful wolf. This enabled us to scare off our enemies, to protect our tribe."

For a moment, he let the words hang, dark eyes drifting towards Bella with a pointed raise of his brows. Bella was quick to turn away, her face flushing pink from both the heat and the attention. Eventually, Billy turned away too, gaze flickering once to Maggie before he cleared his throat and continued.

"One day, our warriors came across a creature that looked like a man but was hard like stone and cold as ice."

Both Mae and Embry tensed at the same time — Embry at the mention of his natural-born enemy where Mae tensed at the reminder of the Cold Ones. Blinking, she spied Victoria haunting the shadows behind her eyelids, freezing cold hands gripped tight around Mae's neck, squeezing and squeezing...

She didn't need Billy's imaginative words to set the scene for her. A red-eyed, cold-as-ice vampire tearing into the flesh of an innocent human from the village of La Push, the first spirit warriors bursting through the trees to tear him apart instead. The human was already dead by the time they phased, but the first shape-shifter pack had officially been created. If they had their way, no human would ever die at the hands of a Cold One again.

"Our warriors' sharp teeth finally tore it apart but only fire can completely destroy it," continued Billy, prompting Mae back to confront the present. She slowly pushed away from Embry's shoulder, catching Maggie's widened eyes for a second before the other girl averted her gaze to the flames. Mae squinted, tears pricking from the stinging heat, but refused to avert her gaze either. "They lived in fear that the cold man was not alone, and they were right."

With the next blink, the scene changed. Another red-eyed monster appeared, screaming as she tore the village up from the roots, bodies lying dead in the streets. For a second, Mae couldn't help thinking about Victoria taking her place and the bodies of Mae's friends and family being the victims of the legend.

"She took her vengeance on the village. Our Elder Chief, Taha Aki, was the only spirit warrior left to save the tribe after his son was killed. He fought hard, but Taka Aki's spirit wife could see that he would lose." Spirit wife. Imprint. One and the same. "Now, the Third Wife was no magical being, with no special powers but one. Courage."

The story drew something out of Mae, something raw and ugly and primal with fear. Having reared its head just a week ago when she first learned the truth, it returned ten-fold as Billy painted the picture; Taha Aki's imprint sacrificing herself to save him from the Cold One. As one more body of blood coated the streets red, Mae wondered what she would do. Would she be able to lay down her life for someone she hadn't learnt to love yet?

Was it cruel that she'd hesitate? It didn't look like Emily would, not even Maggie, though a glimmer of scepticism reflected in her own eyes.

"Over time, our enemies have disappeared," Billy murmured, the legend coming to a close as a sense of finality settled in his voice. "But one remains. The Cold Ones. Our magic awakens whenever they're near, and we can sense it now. We feel the threat in our blood. Something terrible is coming, and we must all be ready."

With one last pointed look at Bella, he said, "All of us."

Mae would like to believe she was confident in herself and her choices, that she wasn't in the same rocky boat as Bella Swan. But that would be a lie. She had no idea if she was ready. She thought she was. But if anything, hearing the legends of Embry's heritage only made her doubt herself even more.

When the time came, Mae would have to make a choice. To love and be loved, to love enough to protect that love with her haphazardly beating heart. Perhaps Mae was more selfish than she truly realised, for she didn't think she'd ever be ready to take that leap, to open herself to acceptance.

Piece-by-piece, she splintered away, one more fracture in her fragile existence. Another band-aid added to the slowly decaying wound.

Already, it was failing.