Blessing - Jared Cameron

chapter three

Oh s**t.

The only words that crossed her mind. For a moment everything was blank and it was like she couldn’t hear or think anything other than what Jared had just said. Carlisle had once explained to her a lot of things about the Quileute Pack – or at least, what he knew about them – and she knew what the term imprint entailed. s**t, s**t, s**t. The term imprint, Carlisle had explained, was something like the term mate to them. She knew it wasn’t exactly the same, werewolves and vampires were completely different creatures but there were some similarities.

“So, you’re telling me that you’re my mate?” she asked, moving from her previous spot on the big root. Jared took a step back as if to prepare himself and shrugged.

“I don’t know what that mate thing you’re talking about is, but you’re my imprint… It’s really difficult to explain but it is like something that keeps us grounded, that keeps us tethered to this world. It doesn’t have to be a lover, that person could a friend, a best friend but it can be a lover too,”

She raised her brow at his words, his face turned scarlet red, “I’m not suggesting anything,”

She hummed in return, a playful glint in her eyes.

“So, I can be your friend?” He nodded almost immediately. “This is going to be really fun, Jared,”

“Oh yeah. I want to see reactions but how about we keep low for the moment. We wouldn’t want them to have a heart attack…” He rolled his eyes as he leaned against a tree and then, sat down. He gestured for her to sit down across him and did as she was told. She followed his lead and leaned back on the tree across him.

She chuckled, “You mean, you wouldn’t want your pack to have a heart attack. My family isn’t exactly alive,”

He nodded, “That, yes. Mostly my mom though. I know the others won’t take it well but they’ll have to deal with it anyway. Just like how we deal with Sam and Emily,”

She c****d her head to the side in question, “Never mind, I don’t want to know,” He nodded in agreement.

They sat in silence after that. Cassandra could feel his eyes on her but she didn’t dare to look at him too. She kept her gaze on the thick white clouds on the grey looking Forks sky. It would be weird to say that but she loved the rain and the bad weather in general.

Not only was she able to run free in that weather but she also loved to watch it. She loved staring at every single drop of water or snow as they slowly fell on the ground and made their impact on the land. It was such an amazing sight and she couldn’t help but wonder when it would rain again.

Knowing the weather in this town, very soon.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” her eyes darted back to Jared, “What is a mate?”

Cassandra sighed, “Something like your imprint but that exactly. It’s a vamp – my kind’s soulmate if you will. Someone you choose to live eternity together,”

“So, you can choose your mate?”

She nodded, “Yes, you can,”

Jared cleared his throat and then, said, “You can’t choose an imprint if that was what you were wondering,”

She let out a light chuckle, “I have a feeling you wouldn’t want me to be your imprint if you could have a choice, Jared,”

He winced, knowing that was very true. He felt bad for some reason, he knew that those words hurt her and he didn’t want her to be sad so he said, “To be honest, I would have had you not be a Cold One,”

“I know,” she gave him a small smile, “So, do you want to spend some more time talking about this and learning more about each other or do you want to go?”

He thought about it for a moment, “Let’s take a walk, I’d love to learn something about you,”

And so, they did. They talked and walked for hours. It made her happy because, by the time they were done, school was definitely over. She had missed all of her classes and she didn’t have anything to do for the rest of the day which was the reason why their little meeting lasted a lot longer than they had hoped for.

After a few hours of walking around, always on her side of the treaty, they started walking in silence. It wasn’t like they had nothing to talk about. It was just they felt better just walking for now. They didn’t want to rush whatever this was.

After a while, when the sun started to set, Jared had to leave for his turn on patrol duty and she made him promise to meet up with her soon. By the time he was gone, she realized she hadn’t given him her phone number. Great, now we won’t be able to meet without passing the treaty line and alerting the other, she thought.

The thing though, was that she did want to talk to someone about this and so, that’s what she did. Talking with Carlisle and making sure no one else from her family would listen was going to be difficult inside their house which was why the next day – after making sure to avoid Edward at all costs – she visited him at the hospital during lunch time. She could see people giving her odd glances as she moved towards his office but she only gave them a small smile and continued walking.

Her adoptive father didn’t look up from the paper he was signing as she walked in without knocking but she knew he had heard and smelt her arrive there so it didn’t matter. She sat on one of the chairs across him and crossed her legs as she thought over how she wanted to start this conversation.

“Wow, this is the longest time you’ve kept quiet. You usually hum a song, murmur under your breath and oh, so many things but now, silence. Which is how I know that what you have in your mind must be very important,” He stopped whatever he was doing, placing everything back in its original place before he turned his full attention to her. He leaned back on his chair, his bright blond hair gelled back away from his golden eyes and she couldn’t help but smile at him.

Carlisle was beautiful, there was no denying that but she always thought of him as a father, a better father than the one she had before. And she would be eternally grateful for that.

“Um, so I may have some news to tell you…”

He hummed, gesturing for her to go on, “Good or bad?”

“Depends,” she stated, “I am… It’s difficult to say, ugh!”

Carlisle let out a small laugh, “You can tell me only if you truly want to sweetheart. I won’t judge you; you know that!”

Cassandra nodded, “I know but saying this will makes this true and I still think I’m just imagining all of this. Like I’m just stuck in my head like I always am, you understand?”

“Yeah, I know what you’re talking about,” He nodded, “I love that about you. You still have dreams in some sort of way and that’s really good. I am a little jealous sometimes of your imagination and your ability to still have some sort of humanity in this life,”

She laughed, “I’m sure,”

He gestured her to continue again. She, for no apparent reason, took a deep breath, “I’m a wolf’s imprint,”

By the way his eyes widened a bit, she could tell he was shocked. To be honest, so was she when she found out.

“Now, that’s going to be difficult to explain to your siblings,”

Oh, how she dreaded the moment Rosalie found out.