What are you staring at?

     “So what’s the latest pack scandal?” I asked lightly.
     Jacob skidded to a halt, and he stared down at me with shocked eyes.
     “What? That was a joke.”
     “Oh.” He looked away.
     I waited for him to start walking again, but he seemed lost in thought.
     “Is there a scandal?” I wondered.
     Jacob chuckled once. “I forget what it’s like, not having everyone know everything all the time. Having a
quiet, private place inside my head.”
     We walked along the stony beach quietly for a few minutes.
     “So what is it?” I finally asked. “That everyone in your head already knows?”
     He hesitated for a moment, as if he weren’t sure how much he was going to tell me. Then he sighed and
said, “Quil imprinted. That’s three now. The rest of us are starting to get worried. Maybe it’s more common
than the stories say. . . .” He frowned, and then turned to stare at me. He gazed into my eyes without
speaking, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
     “What are you staring at?” I asked, feeling self-conscious.
     He sighed. “Nothing.”
     Jacob started walking again. Without seeming to think about it, he reached out and took my hand. We
paced silently across the rocks.
     I thought of how we must look walking hand and hand down the beach — like a couple, certainly — and
wondered if I should object. But this was the way it had always been with Jacob. . . . No reason to get
worked up about it now.
     “Why is Quil’s imprinting such a scandal?” I asked when it didn’t look like he was going to go on. “Is it
because he’s the newest one?”
     “That doesn’t have anything to do with it.”
     “Then what’s the problem?”
     “It’s another one of those legend things. I wonder when we’re going to stop being surprised that they’re
all true?” he muttered to himself.
     “Are you going to tell me? Or do I have to guess?”
     “You’d never get it right. See, Quil hasn’t been hanging out with us, you know, until just recently. So he
hadn’t been around Emily’s place much.”
     “Quil imprinted on Emily, too?” I gasped.
     “No! I told you not to guess. Emily had her two nieces down for a visit . . . and Quil met Claire.”
     He didn’t continue. I thought about that for a moment.
     “Emily doesn’t want her niece with a werewolf? That’s a little hypocritical,” I said.
     But I could understand why she of all people might feel that way. I thought again of the long scars that
marred her face and extended all the way down her right arm. Sam had lost control just once when he was
standing too close to her. Once was all it took. . . . I’d seen the pain in Sam’s eyes when he looked at what

he’d done to Emily. I could understand why Emily might want to protect her niece from that.