┏━━━━⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩 .𖥔˚⋆━━━━┓

THE GENE

"I'M JUST GONNA ASSUME YOU KNEW ABOUT ALL THIS WEREWOLF BULLSHIT, BUT PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG."

Rather than head back to the others inside Sam's place, Nelly opted to go home. She was nursing a killer migraine from all the information that had been dumped into her lap, but the first thing she did once she got home was seek out her grandmother.

Her grandmother had been the one that was so insistent on Nelly being in attendance at the bonfire, and she was one of the tribe's elders. Hell, she was only a couple years younger than Old Quil, so she had to have known.

And the unphased look in her eye at her plethora of insinuating words confirmed it.

"Firstly; they're shifters, not werewolves," she opted to say instead, "and secondly; will you sit down and lower your voice? You'll wake your mama up with all that yapping."

Nelly snorted, though she was not amused. "Sorry that I've just had the shittiest day of my life, and am expressing so with my yapping."

Grandma Greene merely sighed, waving the girl over with a sense of urgency. When Nelly approached, watching the woman put her knitting things away on the wooden coffee table, she took a seat on the very opposite end of the couch.

Was that just to show how pissed she was at everyone's blatant lying? Oh, absolutely.

"The women of our tribe have never been able to phase, until Sue's daughter did after Harry passed," her grandmother explained, recalling the event that had taken place after the Sequoia kids left with their father, "so forgive me if I thought it would be your brother who'd need to know first."

Nelly shifted in place. "Did he? Did he know?"

"He never got the chance to."

A breath was punched from her. Looking back, Nelly thought it was odd that Leah Clearwater was the only girl present at the meeting at Sam's place. She'd been the only female shifter in Quileute history until Nelly's misfortune caught up with her.

But Nelly remembered seeing young Seth Clearwater present, too, and in her mind, their faces were replaced by hers and Tate's. She felt a sort of envy wash over her at— at these siblings who got the chance to do this shit together.

"Why was it me and not Tate?"

Her grandmother frowned. "Your brother was sick, Penelope," she said, and the words were echoing around in the girl's skull, "he couldn't take it."

"Oh, and I could?" she asked bitterly, venom sitting in her stomach like a brick.

"You come from a long line of strong Greene women," Tabitha said resolutely, her hand reaching over to cover the girl's own, "once I saw the signs, I knew you'd be able to take it."

"But I don't want it," she all but cried out, her head falling into her hands angrily, "I don't want any of it."

There was a brief moment of pure silence before Grandma Greene hummed softly. "So, Embry told you about the rest."

Her nails dug into her hair. "Even you knew about it?" Nelly asked, her lips curling into a snarl at their own volition. "And you didn't think to tell me?!" 

"Wasn't my secret to share, Nelly," she responded with a pointed look, and it did little to diffuse the annoyance that crept into her shoulders. "I don't think it's so bad; the ancestors must've seen what I did from the beginning."

Nelly rolled her eyes, her head lolling against the back of the couch. "Oh, and what did you see, huh?"

"That boy has loved you since the minute you got here," Tabitha expressed, a softer smile gracing her features, "and you've loved him just the same."

The girl choked on the air that was suddenly lodged in her throat. Love was an incredibly strong word, especially for Nelly; she was the kind of person who viewed love as this sacred entity, one that should never be handed out to just anyone. Giving your love to the wrong person could be your downfall, and she was a firm believer in the need to give one's love only to those who were deserving of it in its most unconditional form.

And recently, Embry was not such a deserving person.

"I didn't love him, Grandma," she sputtered out in absolute denial, "but even if I did, it was definitely not in the way you're thinking. He was a friend, 'til he fucked it up."

"I may be old, but I haven't gotten senile just yet," her grandmother replied with a cock of her eyebrow. "It's rude to argue with your elders, and even more so to argue with the ancestors."

A furious groan bubbled up past Nelly's lips. So, just because the ancestors deemed her and Embry a worthy enough match, she was just supposed to let all of his shit slide? Just like that?

Nelly Sequoia a petty person first, and a shifter second. There was no way in hell she wasn't going to make the boy stew in his regret, no matter how much the mere thought of it was making her lungs constrict.

No, he owed it to her to fucking grovel.

"I think it's a load of crap anyways," she dismissed, trying her best to make the lie sound nice and homely on her tongue.

Grandma Greene shrugged from out of her peripheral. "You might say that, but what happened after the service proves that many think otherwise."  

Nelly was confused and let the emotion show freely across her face. "Wait— what happened at the service?" Nothing was out of the ordinary before she'd made her abrupt departure, so the likelihood of something happening while she was absent was high.

"... you haven't heard?"

She huffed. "I wouldn't be asking if I had heard."

Then, her grandmother uttered words of an event that she would've never seen coming.

"Sue's daughter imprinted on that friend of yours. Akira Fuller."

⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩 .𖥔˚⋆

[ wyn's note ]

we're getting an akira pov next chap!!! this is one i've beeeeen plotting, so im v v v excited!!!

also embry IS gonna grovel till he can't grovel no more!!! and so is kim for that matter because they won't be forgiven easily LMAO

thanks for 12k, y'all mean the world to me xx