THE WILD ━━━━ embry call.

Chapter Twenty-Six

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Slow Movement

***

*THIRD PERSON POV*

Anthony Carter was dead. 

 Well, for two and a half minutes. 

 He was in his human form, in the one minute it took for Carlisle Cullen to get him back to the Rez. His neck was a dark purple bruise, the rapid-healing being the one thing that saved his life. The first slow, shaking breath that he took sent a sharp spark of hope through all of the pack. 

 Even when he didn't open his eyes.

 Carlisle did everything he could, but he had bones to break, so he had to leave. 

 Embry Call sat on the floor next to his bed, gnawing on his nails, his face as white as a sheet, and his stomach seeming like it was trying to digest itself. He leaned his head back on the wall, silent tears flowing down his face, that during any other circumstances, he would have tried to hide it. He kept telling himself that he didn't care anymore. If Tony wasn't okay, who cares?

 Embry and Tony met when they were eight years old. He remembers that day even more vividly since he imprinted.  

 It was sunny, and hot which was unusual for Washington as is. Embry, obviously, went to the beach, since that was kind of his thing. He didn't have any siblings, and his mom was so busy, that he was just kind of... alone. 

 Well, at first. 

 He heard them before he saw them. Loud laughter that made his head spring up. Two boys his age were walking toward him, enveloped in what seemed to be a very amusing conversation. 

 "Wait, no, say it again!" The taller of the two, the boy without glasses, requested, crossing his arms. The short boy with the glasses rolled his eyes. "Quil, I have already said it a million times!"   

 But the taller boy-Quil-was persistent, and kept nagging glasses until he sighed deeply and began speaking in a very rushed voice. "Hydrogen, helium-" 

 Embry's jaw dropped open in a mixture of shock and amusement. Was this kid saying the periodic table? Embry only knew that that was a thing because his mom was a scientist... he could barely memorize his classes, how could someone memorize so many elements? 

 "Hey!" 

 Embry's head flew up when suddenly the two boys were running at him. Glasses skidded to a stop and grinned. "Hi!" 

 Embry raised a shy hand in greeting, "uh, hi?" 

 "My friend thinks I am a nerd, so I have a very important question to ask you," he took a deep breath, his cheeks pink from the sun, the taller boy rolling his eyes from behind his back. "Just because I like science, doesn't automatically make me a nerd, right?" 

Embry shrugged, "I don't know... how old are you?" 

 "Eight."