-Aline-Labor Day Weekend | Talu’s first time visiting Mei in upstate New York...
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My finger breaks the seal and glides under the envelope flap. A faint smile touches my lips, knowing who the letter is from.
Hey there, Sweetpea.
Greetings from Washington! I hope you've finally settled into your new place out in Syracuse. I sent this with Talu, because I didn't know where else to send it. So, hopefully you get it before he locks himself away with Mei for the weekend.
The last line makes me laugh since those two are doing a whole lot of nothing. I left them alone after our dinner with some of Mei’s classmates, thinking I'd spare myself of the — ahem — noise. But it turns out I made myself scarce for nothing. A very frustrated Talu met me at home. He thrust a letter and a package at me before headi
-Aline- ~ ✿ ~ ✿ ~ ✿ ~ The last time I wrote a letter by hand was in middle school while practicing friendly letter format. We had pen pals from a school in Shanghai, San Francisco's sister city. How different those letters about the latest pop stars and dance moves are from the one I wrote to Jian last night. I can recall every tortured phrase and every nervous thought that occurred to me as I penned my first handwritten letter in over a decade... Hey, EnviroGuy! Have you imprinted yet? You know, you'd make my life a whole hell of a lot easier if you just did already. You must tell me when you do. Put me out of my misery. It’s the least you can do. Ha. Sorry, I know. It is so totally wrong of me to point at the gigantic taboo thing between us. Utterly inappropriate. But perfect
-Aline- "Aline are you, OK?" Mei nudges her elbow into my side. I nod, still staring at the mysterious, green-eyed blond standing in the driveway. It is impossible to tear my gaze from his. He appears equally unable to move and just as shell-shocked. Another figure emerges from the back of the moving van. This one is tall, nearly as tall as I am, with a similar lithe, lean, muscular build. Her hair is shampoo commercial-worthy. It bounces lightly, golden blonde, streaked with highlights, cascading past her shoulders in an abundance of waves. Her eyes are as gemstone green as his. There is something ethereal about her. With the face of an angel, she looks exactly like the mystery man, except her features are distinctly feminine and gorgeous. While his look is one of quiet strength, she wears a more lethal, feline smile. Every horrifying thing I've been through since turning into a werewolf failed to prepare me for this heart-p
-Aline- Again, I steal a glance at the blond guy with green eyes. The pain in my head recedes. With just one look at him, the peace and tranquility I strive for in yoga are finally mine. I watch the gorgeous blonde woman next to him place a hand on his forearm and the stupor I've been in since setting eyes on his face disappears. Our connection severs, giving me some painless breathing room. I feel lighter, as though relieved of a heavy burden. A quick internal scan reveals a distinct absence of the familiar and oddly comforting pain that I nurture over Lance and Kylie’s pairing. It's gone. GONE! Incredulous, I shake my head as if trying to dislodge any loose memories of Lance. No random guy, a stranger, should have this kind of power over me! This is just wrong. I need that pain. It's been a grounding companion since Lance and Kylie's betrayal. It would have to be through some freaky thing, like a possible im
-Jian- The months since Labor Day pass quickly thanks to the intense work training to prepare me for the Florida trip in ten days. This along with my heavy college course load, and I can barely remember October, as November fades into memory. The training is more strenuous than anyone expected, but it's fun and I'm making new friends all up and down the West Coast. Before I know it, it is early December. A spate of smash and grab robberies greets downtown San Francisco’s tentative return to retail sales. The pack volunteers with Chinatown’s community safety patrols. Aline’s mom buys us dumplings and char sui baos to thank us for taking extra care to check on her at the boutique. The most intrepid store owners stock all the trimmings to make Christmas especially happy and bright. I know this because Lance just dragged me into the nearest tuxedo shop to get fitted in a penguin suit for his wedding next month. I snort at the memory of h
My finals are done, and I'm just waiting for Mei to finish her semester. She is such the nerd. I tease her even though I know studying is her coping mechanism against homesickness. At least don't have that problem — if you don't count Jian, who's written me 15 real letters, countless emails, and our rare video calls when our busy schedules coincide.Yeah, right, not a long-distance relationship.I file away each letter, every email, each Hey There, Sweetpea. Every so often, I read through our conversations to remind me of him and keep him forefront in my mind. I can't wait to see Jian again and I unfairly resent him for being chosen to go to Florida this holiday break. Regardless, at least just thinking of him makes me forget Stefan, who I, thankfully, hadn't seen since spying him through the front window months ago. Thoughts of Jian help me remember who I am, the person I want to be, and reinforce my refusal to be fate's puppet.On the first day I met Fel
-Stefan- It is early December and after three months of near sleeplessness, my dreams no longer feature the almond-eyed woman in Syracuse. Learning that distance and time dull the immense strength of this thrall brings me some relief. Her image framed in the picture window embedded itself in my head. I can’t forget her face, even though I tried. Not a moment passes without a thought of her. It curdles my blood to imagine the potential power she could wield over me. Felicia tells me the woman’s name is Aline. More important is her absolute refusal to acknowledge the connection she has to me. I stayed for three days in September to help my sister move into her new space. Three intolerable days knowing my thrall lay just beyond the wall, made of mere wood and plaster. I spent a lot of time in the woods to avoid Aline. I kept out of sight, hunting, and doing what I needed to do to keep my promise to my twin. Felicia, meanwhile, gathered intel, attempting to befriend the two women livi
-Aline- The feeling of raw terror I felt of being watched - stalked- in the woods has me trembling as I make my way to Mei’s room. I enter just in time to witness the happy couple engaged in one of their lovelorn video chats. Talu’s on-screen with his guitar, insert eye roll here, and Mei’s making cow eyes at him as he serenades her. It is a vomit-inducing scene, especially for someone as love-deprived as me. But this isn't the reason I elbow Mei away from the screen and move to take her place. I stare into the camera, holding onto Talu’s glare with one of my own a little longer than normal. He seems to catch on to my unspoken message: Contact me later. For good measure, I snarl into the camera and make my own gruff goodbye. I hit the end call button before Mei can get back on. She shouts at me, with her hands on her hips, but I don’t hear her. I am simply relieved she blocks the door since it’s my only way out. "And to think I was going to warn you about Stefan being back to visit
-Aline-If I were normal, he would have knocked the breath out of me.Instead, the ferocity of his desire inflames mine for him. My inability to give or refuse consent ignites my anger. I still hate him, I still hate this. But I can't seem to stop myself. This is not what I imagined imprinting would feel like. God, please don't let this be an imprint. If it is, this is exactly what Jian described imprinting to be. Lust, plain and simple.Desperately, I reach out for memories of Jian, but the nearness of Stefan and his freakish ability is to wipe my mind clear, neutralize my obstinate efforts to steel myself against this nightmarish obsession for him. I want to sob.A smoldering hunger sets his eyes ablaze, but to my surprise, he pulls away in what I can only guess is shock at discovering my mind’s unmitigated refusal of him and his advances. I glimpse despair in the verdant depths of his gaze.This unexpected confusion and empathy for my plight have him recoiling. When he pulls away,
-Aline-{Valentine's Day Eve} I've decided I'm a moron, believing that a singular thought would make him, the spitting image of Chris Hemsworth, magically appear in my room, or, at the very least, at my front door. I'm a blithering idiot. But not as big an idiot as Jian, though, so that’s some consolation. Ugh! I slap my palm to my forehead and shake my head. Hell, I don't even know if Stefan's in the same time zone, never mind whether he's next door with Felicia right now! I finish my internal self-condescension and finally shower, change, and put my hair up. I'm pleased to discover my mane is now long enough to put up again. Clean, and no longer feeling maudlin, I pad barefoot into the living room. I think about making tea. I squinch my face. I hate tea. Since Lance’s wedding, though, I've been drinking tea. Drowning myself in it, really. Someone at school told me that it would be soothing. It is. Soothing, I mean. But it tastes like flowers. And right n
-Jian- I sit on a log watching Stefan’s blond head as he carefully dusts off something that looks like a wooden box. He sets it aside with patience I do not possess. He does not open it, but moves instead, to pick up another artifact and clean it. It's unnerving to watch how exacting his movements are, almost loving, even reverent. "Jian, did you know your name means 'to see?'" Stefan's tone is casual and conversational. I look at him as he bows over whatever he holds in his hand. "What? Did you find that in one of my ancestor's artifacts that you pulled out of the ground?" Stefan lets out an appreciative little laugh at the annoyance in my voice. His eyes still focus downward as he carefully removes dirt from a crevice in yet another wooden box. "No. I looked it up on the internet." I stare at him open-mouthed. "You're cyber-stalking me?" "What?! No!" His gaze whips up to meet mine. Then he smiles and he's even more good-looking than before. The si
Readers Note: This chapter hops between Aline and Jian's point of view to explain the mythology. Thank you for understanding. -Aline- "So she cursed him - us- forever," Felicia says, her voice suddenly quiet. "She left him impotent among humans and shifters, unable to father children, one of the primary duties and the greatest of all blessings given to the clan's leader. But to make matters worse, he was to walk the earth attracted to the most deceitful and conniving of all human women for eternity." My brows knit as I process this information. Impotence, doesn't that mean…? Felicia lifts her index finger and then allows it to droop. Wide-eyed, I lift a hand to cover my open mouth. Poor Stefan, indeed! "How long?" "Too long, really," she says with a sigh, a wry smile on her face. "It's been so long we've lost count. At least through the Middle Ages. As you might imagine, it frustrated him through the first hundred." My eyes must be the size of dinner
Author’s note: There are a lot of point-of-view switches between Jian and Aline in this chapter. Thank you for understanding!__________________-Jian-(in San Francisco, at Talu’s house)Talu’s warning pounds in my head. I've been wallowing in self-pity for two weeks. He's right. I'm not proving myself much of a man here. And he is now allowing me to show myself worthy of Aline. I sigh and stare pointedly at the sheaf of papers he removed from the manila envelope. "So, what did the leech find out?"My gaze shifts warily between the papers and Talu. "First, let me tell you what Mei’s ex- told me." And so he tells me how the bloodsucker was hunting in the woods during a stopover to Europe at the same time the terrible twins paid Mei a visit. That was also the same night Talu was with Aline on a jet plane bound for Syracuse.####-Aline- (in Syracuse at her place)We're still on the porch and I'm mulling over Felicia's suggestion.“So, why not both?”Her words bounce aroun
-Jian- "What do you know about the archaeologist?" my voice is a low growl, frightening even to me. I've just stormed into Talu’s room, having left Lance, who proved himself a worthless fool, spouting on and on about how an imprint is never wrong and imploring me to leave Aline alone so she can get on with her life and find happiness. "Hell if I will!" I cursed his useless hide as I slammed out of his house an hour earlier. Stupid Lance! Using this Stefan guy to assuage the guilt he feels for breaking up with Aline the way he did. A little voice in my head suggested I'd recently done the same. Maybe hurt her even worse. But as I made my way to Talu’s place, I roared at the tiny, nagging voice to just shut the hell up. Now, I glare at my best friend. Talu’s expression is impassive at the onslaught of my tumultuous, emotional verbal assault. My eyes track him as he moves to the desk in his room. He pulls out a manila file folder that reeks of bloodsucker. My n
-Aline- I'm wrapped up in an oversized cashmere sweater, legs curled beneath me on the wicker loveseat on the back porch in Syracuse. Even my werewolf's body heat can't quite keep me warm against this cold, empty feeling inside. The night of Lance’s wedding keeps replaying inside my head as I stare, unseeing, out into the upstate New York winter. The mid-winter chill is so much more here than in the temperate winters in California. My hands cradle a cup of now tepid tea. I hear a door open and turn to greet Bella, only to grimace at the crazy, blonde bitch who steps out onto the porch. In my peripheral vision, I watch Felicia gracefully fold herself into the wicker rocker kitty-corner to my seat... too near. For two weeks, I've avoided her. Now, I am too tired and melancholy to bother getting up and leaving. Besides, I got here first. I huff out a cloud of hot air against the freezing morning, showing my unhappiness at her undesired company. There is no sound other than our combin
Aline left for Syracuse without a goodbye from me. I knew I couldn't see her again without groveling and I refused to do that to myself. After all, a man has to preserve some dignity. I haven't spoken to anyone since Lance’s wedding and it's been a couple of weeks. So, now it’s February, and I am still so pissed I can't see straight. In the weeks since the wedding, I didn’t hang out with my pack brothers or hit the clubs with friends from work. Instead, I torture myself with my new, self-imposed daily task of overseeing the actions of this man, Aline’s imprint. The guy I’m convinced will not only take away the woman I love, but who also wishes to rape our land. So, maybe I'm being a touch too melodramatic. But I am miserable, and therefore, I'm entitled to my feelings. I kick the dirt at my feet. Through slit eyes, I take measure of Stefan and decide he is my my unofficial love rival. On looks alone, he could claim Aline as his own. He could do so just as soon
-Asena Cai- (Jian’s Mom) I find my boy sitting in the darkness out in the backyard. From the kitchen window, I take in the sight of him. He's still wearing his tuxedo, his tie undone, the wine colored swath of color hangs around his neck against the white-white of his shirt. His dark hair is in wild disarray around his so familiar, handsome face. There is heartbreak in his expression, so happy only hours ago. My heart cries out for him. I rush upstairs to change and make my way to sit quietly beside Jian. I say nothing as he hangs his head. I watch the steady drip of silent tears fall onto the back of his large, strong hands. In the moonlight, the drops glimmer against his naturally tanned skin before sliding into the dark green grass beneath our feet. I wait for him, offering him my strength simply by staying beside him. I know my son. He does not want me to witness this weakness. He never did as a boy and I know it pains him more as a young man to know I am watching. "It hurt
-Aline- I crumple to my knees, not caring in the least that I am muddying this damn $300 dress. Sobs wrack my body as I grieve for a love I’ve only just realized I can't live without. I wail against an imprint I can not make myself refuse. I feel the sudden heat of two hands cradling my wracking shoulders. The warmth is not human. I silence myself, drop my hands to my lap, and turn to look up, eager to discover who's standing behind me. "So now you understand the force of an imprint." I stare at Jian's mother as though she's sprouted another head. She is the last person I expect to see, the very last. How can she know about my terrible secret? "I know what you are, Aline Kam. I know because I have been you." I shake my head. She can't possibly know because she can't possibly be a werewolf. She stares at me and answers aloud the unspoken question relayed by my head shaking. "But I am, Aline. I know what you are going through." She