𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬. sam uley

𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

Night falls, and owls hoot at the dark sky, the moon shining through the canopy of trees that shade him in the forest. Crickets are chirping in Sam's ears, drowning out his thoughts.

That's where Edward finds him.

"Found you," the vampire says, coming to stand across from where Sam is lying down, head perched on his paws.

When he sees that it's Edward, he stands erect, and hates that his first thought is, Is she okay?

Edward smirks, crossing his arms over his chest. "Yeah, she's fine. Had her first hunt today. It went well," he adds like Sam was going to ask how it went. (Sam wasn't, but relief floods through him anyway at the thought of everything being okay.)

Why are you here? His mouth curls and a quiet snarl falls from his lips. It's only now that he remembers how Edward had threatened the cold one (Sage) with death earlier. How he had whispered those hateful words knowing that Sam was downstairs. He wants nothing to do with Edward.

"I'm sorry," Edward says instead of answering. "About earlier. It was wrong of me to do that to Sage, especially when she's just now settling in, but Sam, come on. You can't deny an imprint. You're not Jacob."

Sam winces back, recoiling from the blow. Jacob didn't deny his imprint. He didn't, did he?

"You know as well as I do that Jacob's imprint to Reneesme isn't like the one you have with Sage," Edward explains, and Sam takes another step back, snarling a warning. "He told me about it, about how it's a different bond to the one the other wolves who imprinted have. Quil's the same way. It's a different imprint and you know it."

What does that have to do with anything? Sam hates this. Hates the fact that they're talking about how Jacob and Quil haven't found their imprints, not yet. Reneesme and Claire weren't the right imprintees for them, they were too young. Instead, Jacob and Quil found their platonic imprint, one that would never touch the intensity of a real imprint when one inevitably was found.

But Jacob didn't deny the imprint, it's just different from Sam's. Sam could still deny his if he so wished to. He has to.

"Do you want to?" Edward asks suddenly. "Do you want to deny the imprint with Sage?"

Yes, Sam automatically responds, but it feels weak in his thoughts. He can't stop remembering the way she spoke to him on her first day there.

"Why?"

She's from the Volturi.

It's enough of an explanation.

"At one point, Carlisle stayed with the Volturi," Edward responds, sounding bored. "Does that make him the same as Sage?"

Carlisle's never killed a human.

"I have," Edward replies, scoffing. "I've killed tons. Jasper's killed. We're not a house full of saints, Sam. We've all got our shadows. Sage killed because the Volturi had control of her. She was exiled for speaking out against turn, saved because Aro loved her powers too much to truly eliminate them. Her time there wasn't pleasant. She was tortured, beaten, starved-all so Aro could force her to siphon powers from someone she didn't truly want to kill."

How do you know all this? Why are you telling me?

Edward takes a step forward, crunching on the leaves. He looks translucent in the pale light of the moon. "How do I know? It's all she thinks about. The guilt she feels, the remorse-the terror that she's going to be sent back-it's all flowing out of her head like a dam that's been broken.

"Today-" Edward laughs before Sam can form a response, "-today she was hunting, and she wasn't listening to anyone but Seth and when I asked why, she said it was because I put you in an uncomfortable situation. Because I made it seem like you needed to acquaint yourself with her to ease her fears."

Sam reels from that, coiling back as though slapped. Shame burns through him as hot as a stake, and guilt eats away at his insides, bitter and vicious as it tears through him. He wants to be sick with himself. He had heard some of the atrocities that the Volturi had committed, but Edward telling him that she had been beaten and starved-Edward saying that she was concerned for Sam when she should have been worried about the fact that she was going to die.

What's he supposed to do with that?

"When I wanted to-" Edward cuts himself off, bringing Sam from his roaming thoughts. "When I went to the Volturi to die, Sage was there, and I just remember her thoughts the entire time being terrified. As though she was going to get in trouble at any time. She was tense and scared, but she didn't want to kill me. The only thing on her mind before she attacked me was, 'I'm sorry. I don't want to do this.' She was sorry for me, and she mourned that my life would be over. She wanted me to live."

Then why didn't she stop what she was doing?

"Because you don't mess with Aro's orders," Edward explains. "When he wishes for something to be done, it is done. She had to follow through, or she would be punished for treason against the Volturi."

Sam doesn't respond with an answer, but he thinks about what Edward is saying. Carlisle once told Sam that there's a lot more to her than Sam assumes, that she's more than her time with the Volturi, but Sam had not believed him. He assumed that she was heartless, cold like the two twins everyone seems to fear. The ones that rid people of their senses.

But Edward has said that she was that way only because she was forced to be that way. Just like his mother said. She had been concerned for Sam, not herself. She had mourned her brother, missed him. Found him alive, undead and happy with a new life.

She came here not because she wanted to take them all out, but because she simply wished to find her brother. Her brother who she found out that was alive. Her brother who she loved. She had no ulterior motive. She is-she is innocent. Not good. Not evil, but somewhere in between.

"She is learning," Edward says. "She really is. She thinks about the Volturi a lot, but not because she misses them. She is relieved that they are far away, and she is with us. She wants to stay, and Sam, I'd like for her to be able to without you scaring her into her room. She needs to socialize if she's going to become more comfortable with us.

"If you want to try and deny the imprint, go ahead and do it all you want, but please stop making her feel bad for living. She got enough of that with the Volturi. She deserves better."

Yeah, Sam throws his head down in shame, she does.