"My Facelift Went Wrong"

It felt nice getting to spend time with two of my favorite idiots. I might have enjoyed it more if the third idiot could join us, but sadly that can't happen unless he too explodes into a giant wolf.

Speaking of, there's no way I'm going to volunteer myself to be there when Quil turns into a wolf for the first time. If  he is a werewolf.

The phasing process is pretty quick and I learned the hard way that you need to take at least ten steps away if you don't wanna get hurt. (Thankfully I always carried some ambrosia with me and I had told Embry what to do with it the day I told him my secret.) Although I did have a scar above my left eye where Jake scratched me and it wasn't exactly small enough to hide with make-up. A luttle lower and Jake could have clawed my eye out.

Ambrosia is a miracle-worker but it can't heal all wounds without leaving a mark. Smaller wounds, I guess, heal perfectly but Jacob had tried to claw my face off. It didn't help that I didn't get the ambrosia sooner.

Fortunately Embry hadn't killed our best friend for nearly killing me. I heard he phased and tried to, but Jake was kept alive.

I had been unconscious for a few hours, waking up in Emily's guest room just as the sun rose up.

Just as I got out of the bathroom after checking out my now permanent scar -- this was going to be a tough one to explain to my mom -- a phone was shoved in front of my face and it hit my nose.

"Gods, Em, my face is already messed up. Don't add a broken nose to the list," I grumbled. I grabbed his phone with my right hand while rubbing my nose with my left.

Embry smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

I glanced at his phone, my eyed widening when I realized it was in a call. The person on the other end of the line: my mother.

I glared at him for not telling me it was her before holding the phone to my ear.

"Hel-"

"Ashley Robinson why didn't you tell me you were going to stay over at the reservation?! I was so worried when you didn't come home when you told me you would!"

"Mom, calm down. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but it was unexpected. Jake and I had a lot of catching up to do since, you know, we haven't hung out much anymore." I couldn't help but be reminded of last night's event. My hand that wasn't holding the phone went up to touch the scar.

How the Hades am I supposed to explain this thing?

Embry noticed my worried look and looked at me sadly. I gave him a reassuring smile

"Can you please tell me next time? So I don't end up getting the boys arrested for kidnapping my daughter." And there's the chill mom I liked. I let out a laugh before telling her I would be getting home a little after lunch. She said it was fine, as long as I actually did go home.

I was nervous the whole ride home. There was no story I could tell my mother that would make her believe that my scar was caused by nothing too harmful. Not even Embry could think of a good excuse.

"I should just tell her the truth," I muttered. "She deserves to know."

I looked over at Embry. He was hesitant, I could tell. This whole werewolf thing is supposed to be a secret. It wouldn't be a secret if they went around telling just anybody. But I knew I could trust my mom. I mean, she's never told anyone I'm a demigod.

Besides, I had to tell her. I couldn't lie about the things that almost kill me. I mean, I couldn't if she had proof that I was badly hurt (Remember that time when I came home from the Cullens' with a huge scratch on my arm?) and there was a huge one right there above my left eye.

"Em . . . ." I couldn't tell her about the werewolves unless I had his permission. It wasn't my secret to tell.

"Tell her."

I nodded, now worried about how I can tell her without having her freak out. The rest of the ride went by smoothly until we stopped in front of the house.

Here we go...

I let myself in the house, Embry following close behind. It was quiet inside, which was unusual. Mom would usually have some music on or would be watching TV. Before I could freak out, I headed into the kitchen and checked the fridge.

I saw the note and I could breathe again. Mom had just gone out to buy some things.

Embry offered to stay and I was glad I didn't have to ask him to. Not that I'm some clingy girlfriend who wants to spend every second of every minute of every day with my boyfriend, but I didn't want to be alone when mom starts freaking out. I'd probably say the wrong thing and end up making my situation worse.

A few minutes later and mom came home.

"You know, I should ground you for that stunt you pulled last night," I heard her say. Embry and I had been watching TV on the couch when she came in. Immediately she headed to the kitchen, I was guessing to put the groceries there. "Lee, Em, mind giving me a hand here?"

I gave Embry a look and he squeezed my hand reassuringly. He pulled me up from the couch and led me to the kitchen.

"I hope my couch is clea-" She stopped when she saw me, dropping the jar of mayonnaise in her hand. "What happened to your face?" She stepped over the broken glass and mayonnaise on the floor and rushed over to me.

"Didn't you hear? My facelift went wrong," I joked, hoping it could lighten the mood.

She shot me a look that told me she wasn't amused then faced Embry. "What happened?"

"Uh, it's a long story."

"No, it's not," I muttered. "It's quite simple really. A wolf attacked me, and I lived."

Mom's eyes widened and she looked just about ready to pass out. "You were attacked? Last night? Of course it was last night. That's why you didn't come home. What happened?"

"Mom, calm down. I'm fine."

"Did you at least kill the monster? What was it this time? Hellhound? Cyclops? Dracnae? Emp-" She stopped when she remembered Embry was standing right there.

"Don't worry," he mumbled. "I know."

She looked at me, confused.

"I told him, obviously."

"Why?"

It was Embry who spoke this time. "You're gonna wanna sit down. It's a long story."

Mom took the news a lot better than I had expected. Well, she had asked for proof but changed her mind once Embry explained that he'd have to strip to Phase since he hadn't broight any extra clothes. It's not like we could let him borrow some clothes as we were both a lot smaller than he was. And female.

Of course, Embry also explained the whole Imprint thing. Mom wore a blank expression as he did so.

It wasn't until he finished when mom spoke. Her face was serious as she looked at the two of us.

"When's the wedding?"

Ladies and gentlemen, my mother asking the important questions.

Yeah no.

"Mom!" I exclaimed as my mother giggled.

I looked to Embry only to find him smiling too.

"Next week if you give us your blessing," Embry said. I glared at him and he shot me a wink.

Hades, help me.

Except I was on my own here. Apparently mom had been planning our wedding for years now.

Dear whoever god is finding this amusing, stop it. Please.

Mom and Embry found annoying me amusing, I guessed. They pretty much ganged up on me for the rest of the afternoon until Embry left after dinner.

"Can Lee come over to La Push tomorrow?" Embry asked my mom. She looked over to me.

"Well, that's her choice now. Now that you've told me about the werewolves and how you're like the tribe 'protectors' thing, I feel much better about having her stay there on the rez," I wish she had said.

Instead, she told him I had "homework to finish, so no." I didn't even have homework. I think.

Mom shut the front door as soon as Embry pulled out of the driveway. She turned to me and gave me a big smile. I was expecting some comment on Embry, but instead she was like, "You're grounded for lying to me about happened last night."

I was about to say I didn't, but then I remembered the phone call this morning. Mom went upstairs and I let out a groan before following her up.

It was a week later when mom let me go to La Push again. I was just hanging out with Jake and Embry (apparently they had made up in my week of absence) until Sam called them.

"Jared and Paul caught a vampire's scent," he told them. They both stood up and I followed.

"Where?"

"Wait, you're not going," Embry told me.

Uhh... What? "Why not?" I questioned.

"You could get hurt," Embry answered.

There was a monster out there and I wasn't going to get to fight it. As much as I hated being attacked by those stupid monsters all the time, I wasn't going to let them go fight it without me. I wasn't defenseless.

"Have you ever fought a monster before?" I said, "Because I have. I probably have more experience fighting than you do."

"Youre not going, Lee. I don't care if you think you can handle yourself," he replied. "Unlike you, we heal faster and we're a lot quicker than a normal human. You'd just slow us down."

"What? I-"

"Ashley, it would be best if you stayed here. With Emily," Sam said, interrupting me. I was about to protest again but he spoke. "If the vampire comes this way, you can fight."

He probably only said it to make me feel better about not going, and it worked. Well, for a few minutes after they left. Then I just started ranting.

"Putting yourself in danger would just make Embry protective. You're his Imprint," Emily tried to tell me. "He'd be lost without you."

"Now that's stupid. He knows I've fought monsters before," I muttered.

"But what kind of monsters did you fight before?" Emily said. "They're a lot different from vampires."

"Different? Yeah. But not more dangerous. I've met the Cullens, and I know they're vampires. They're not as dangerous as my monsters."

"But you've only met the Cullens. Sam tells me they're the 'nice' vampires. There's still vampires that kill humans."

I wanted to explain that my kind of monsters wer worse but she was already distracted with baking muffins. I fell asleep, waking up when the guys arrived.

"What'd I miss?" I questioned when I saw their restless forms. They didn't exactly look like people who just fought a vampire.

"We killed it," Embry notified me, giving me a peck on the cheek as he sat right next to me. He grabbed a muffin from the plate that I had just noticed was on the table. I took a muffin and bit into it.

"Wow, your first kill," I mumbled.

"It was a group effort." Embry's smile was big and I guessed he was proud of it. The grin was contagious and I found myself with a smile on my face despite being annoyed when I couldn't go.

It's crazy, being happy about my boyfriend's first kill. It sounds like a bad thing if you didn't know the situation.

When celebration time was over Embry brought me home. With all these things about vampires and werewolves, it was exciting. I mean, to a regular mortal a demigod's life would be exciting and all. Seriously, when all that happens at camp are prank wars and fights and stuff, you'd get used to it that it's not so exciting anymore. Annoying, maybe, but you get used to it.

Now I'm adding some monsters I've never actually encountered before into my life. I swear I'm not some stupid enough to always put my life on the line. I know when to run away and when to fight, err most of the time. I've already run away from these monsters, but it's time to fight now and Embry has got to realize that.

And yes, I've got this whole speech prepared for when, or if, another vampire comes along. Next time it happens, I wasn't going to let myself stay put, whether Embry likes it or not.

A/N:

Hey hey hey!

I want to thank every one of you guys who voted/commented/love this story :) It means so much to me. I honestly still don't understand how my story gets as many reads as it does.

Just so you guys know, there's only one last chapter before I start the third part, which I still can't decide on a title. If you have any suggestions, just comment. The third part is going to be events in Eclipse.

xoxo, nerdyhemmo (music-and-books)