Defining Normal | EMBRY CALL

Envoy

Lex hesitates for a second before sliding over on the mattress, clearing some room for Kim. She sits slowly, her eyes not leaving Lex.

"If you're about to ask for more details, I've said all I'm allowed to. Embry has to tell you the rest."

"No, I wasn't going to ask for that...I don't think. I don't know. I just keep thinking of how freaking insane he looked," she mumbles, rubbing her temples.

Kim strokes her back, the kind of gesture that she thinks a mother might do.

Lex wouldn't know, though.

"Do you think he would have actually..." Lex trails off, miming a strangling gesture.

"Oh, hon," Kim whispers, pulling her into a tight hug.

Kim's shirt is damp where her face presses against it, and she realises a second later that the wetness is from her cheeks. When did the tears start? Probably the same time her sniffling did, she rationalises, trying to stifle the noises that escape her chest.

"Is that something you talked to Chief Swan about?" Kim asks quietly.

Lex nods once.

"Okay. Well, um, you can talk about it if you want. Or not. That's okay too. Embry's not going to do that to you, though. He's not going to hurt you. If you don't want to see him, I get it. I can get Jared to talk to him."

She doesn't tell Kim about the dream she had last night, the one where the man in her kitchen and the figure from the station had morphed into one. She doesn't talk about the way the boundaries had blurred, shimmering and flexing until the transformation was complete, producing a horrendous looming figure that stalked her into the corners of her unconscious. Lex had awoken with tear-stained cheeks and quickened breath, stuck between the beast she knew and the beast she didn't.

He wasn't her father. Logically, she knew that.

She had to see him one more time to be sure.

"I want to go. Can you take me to him?" she says, her voice cracking.

Kim's uncertain, but it doesn't matter. Lex is already up, tugging on yesterday's jeans before she can be talked out of it. It's been a crazy few days, and she should rest (and maybe call a therapist, pronto), but she needs to see him. If seeing is believing, then maybe speaking with Embry will be cathartic, a confirmation that she doesn't need to fear his presence.

Reassurance can't come quickly enough.

Kim calls Jared, who calls Jake, who abandons his reconnaissance mission at Forks Police Station to return to the bungalow. It isn't that he doesn't trust Embry - I mean, he has been extra unhinged lately - but the one thing that Jake knows better than anyone is wolf stuff. The biggest realisation he'd come to as Alpha centred around how desperately his friends' wolves craved the presence of their leader, their spirits calling to him like a siren's song. They shared the link even when he was away, but there was a power in the physical that distance could not replace. He felt at peace when he was surrounded by his kin, and they thrived under his leadership.

La Push would always be home.

Embry visibly relaxes when Jake enters the room, striding to sit beside him on the moth-eaten couch. Jake raises a hand to rest on Embry's shoulder, hot and familiar, as if the years and the distance haven't passed between them.

"You'll do the right thing. I know you will."

Embry isn't sure if it's reassurance or an order, but he nods nonetheless. Having Jake beside him is settling - even if he's unsure of himself, he knows Jake could never harm Lex. He would never.