The Unwanted Imprint

Chapter 14

As soon as Nichole walked into the study and saw the looks on Carlisle and Esme's faces, she knew that she was indeed going to be getting 'the talk', just not 'the talk' that she had been expecting.

"Nichole." Carlisle's voice was grim. "There's something that we need to talk to you about."

"If this is going to be the talk about the birds and the bees, I already learned about that stuff a long time ago."

"This isn't about...that. What we wanted to talk to you about was Jacob."

"Jacob?" Nichole frowned a bit in confusion, and Esme placed a gentle hand on Nichole's forearm. "Your father and I have been talking, and we decided that maybe it isn't such a good idea that you go over to Jacob's."

"Why not? It's not like we're going to be screwing or anything, the only thing that we're going to be doing is working on my project for school."

"Couldn't maybe Alice help you? She's helped you with other schoolwork."

Nichole folded her arms across her chest. "What's really going on here? It's not because of Jacob, is it? It's because I'm going to be on the reservation."

"Nichole," Carlisle spoke in a soft tone. "Esme and I are both just concerned about your safety, that's all. If something were to happen while you were there, then we wouldn't be able to do anything to help you."

"Carlisle, I'm going to be fine. I'm not completely defenseless, you know. And besides, really the only thing that I would have to worry about would be Paul Lahote, and according to Bella, Jacob doesn't go around Paul or Sam or any of Sam's pack. He's convinced that they're some kind of cult or something like that. Please let me go." She looked at Carlisle with pleading eyes, and he sighed softly. He had never been able to say no whenever she gave him that look. "Fine, but I want to ask you something first. Why are you so desperately wanting to spend time with Jacob? He doesn't mean anything to you, you only first met him at the beach."

"I know, but...I want to get to know him better, there's something about him that I just can't explain."

"Do you have romantic feelings for him?"

Nichole gave a little laugh. "Carlisle, I think that it's just a bit too soon to be thinking about things like that. Although Seth did try to convince me that Jacob was attracted to me, but I think that he was just reading into things too much."

Nichole didn't believe in things like love at first sight. She had once upon a time, but everything that her biological father had done to her had made her stop believing in things like that.

When Nichole left the study, she found Edward waiting for her.

"Want to go for a walk with me?" Edward asked her. "There's something that I want to talk with you about."

"Uh, sure." Nichole grabbed her jacket and slipped on a pair of shoes before following Edward outside. It was chilly, but there wasn't any rain for once. "What's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you because I know that you have an attraction to Jacob." Nichole's face went red, but Edward decided to ignore it. "Jacob isn't a werewolf yet, but there's no telling when or if he'll turn into one. If he turns into a werewolf, then he will find an imprint, and then any attraction that he felt towards you will be erased from his mind."

"Edward..." Nichole stuck her hands into the pockets of her jacket and blew out a puff of air, the cold weather making her breath visible. "I'm pretty sure that it's safe to say that Jacob has no attraction towards me. Why should he?"

Edward stopped walking, and he looked at Nichole with wide eyes. "You're joking, right? Nichole, you're beautiful and smart. Jacob would be lucky to have someone like you in his life."

"I also have a lot of baggage, and not every guy would want to deal with that."

"The right guy would put up with anything if it meant that they got to be with you. And besides that, everyone has baggage. Some people's problems just aren't quite as obvious as others are."

"Thanks, Edward." Nichole gave him a hug, and Edward chuckled softly before hugging her back, pressing a kiss to her head.

Rosalie drove Nichole as close to the border as she could get. "Are you sure about this, Nichole? There's no telling what Lahote is going to do if he sees you."

"Rosalie, I'm going to be fine. You guys need to stop worrying about me so much."

Although, they did kind of have a point, since Paul had threatened to kill Nichole, and in a very colorful way as well.

Nichole exited Rosalie's convertible, slinging her backpack over her shoulder.

Jacob met her at the end of his driveway. "Hey." He greeted her with a bright smile. "You were dropped off pretty far away."

"Oh...um, Rosalie had an appointment that she was late for, so I told her that she could just drop me off there."

"Oh, okay. Come on, I have the perfect place for us to work on your project."

Jacob took Nichole to a little garage area, where there were various motorcycle parts scattered everywhere. "Sorry about the mess, but I thought that this would be a quiet place for us to get your project done."

"It's perfect. You like working on motorcycles, then?"

Jacob shrugged his shoulders. "It's a hobby. Dad's not a big fan of it because he thinks that they're death traps. but working on them keeps me out of trouble, so he lets me go at it."

Nichole picked up a carburetor, holding it in her hands. "I know a bit about motorcycles because of my brother, Emmett. So tell you what. Since you're helping me with this project that I would probably fail at if i didn't have any help, I'll help you with your motorcycles."

"Sure, that sounds great!"

At that moment, there was a knock on the garage door before Seth entered. "Hey, um....there's a guy here looking for Nichole, said that he's her dad."

Nichole frowned. What was Carlisle doing there? "Did Carlisle say what he wanted?"

Seth looked confused. "It's not Carlisle. The guy said that his name is Owen Williams. He actually looks a lot like you."

Nichole's face lost all color, and Jacob gripped her arm. "Hey, you okay? You look like you're about to pass out."

"H-he can't see me." Nichole gasped. "He can't know that I'm here."

"Nichole."

Shit. Nichole turned around, staring into the cold eyes of her father. She shook her head, hiding behind Jacob. "How did you find me?"

"Why, Carlisle told me where you were, of course. He's such a good friend, looking out for you while I was trying to get back on my feet. Come on, let's go home."

Nichole shook her head vehemently. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Nichole." His voice turned icy. "It's time to go home, let's go."

Nichole knew that her father was getting angry, and when he got angry, he also got violent. Nichole didn't want to risk either Seth or Jacob getting hurt, so she stepped out from behind Jacob.

Jacob watched the two leave. Something didn't seem right here, but maybe he was just thinking the worst. Still, surely a call to Carlisle couldn't hurt.