petrichor [rosalie hale]

xiv. secrets out

Kiara noticed how Jacob seemed to slump a little at the exchange and she assumed it was because he was remembering he was responsible for it. She didn't heal quickly the way the boys did. The cast on her arm was a reminder to them all that she was a lot more fragile than the boys in the room, and it reminded them that Victoria had known that too.

The sage green cast was covered in dirt from the previous night, and Kiara didn't want to scrub it too much incase it undid the bandages. She made a mental note to ask if Sue was able to re-wrap it for her if she got a chance.

"You okay, Black?" Sam asked, his tone gruff as he placed his hands on her shoulders and scanned her over. Billy had told him that she was fine to stay over, but Sam wasn't letting her out of his charge until he knew she was fine.

Kiara nodded, smiling at the man she had hated only a few weeks prior. He accepted this with a soft squeeze on her shoulder before breezing past her to give Emily a welcome kiss.

"How long you got let of that?" Embry asked from where he and Paul had been fighting over the last pancake, half of it crumbing out of his mouth as he spoke.

Kiara held her arm with the cast up a little, shrugging as she studied the names scribbled over the material before answering Embry.

"It was meant to be another five weeks but it doesn't even hurt now so I'm hoping it'll be less," she admitted, surprising them all. They'd thought her falling over the night before would have caused it to flare up a little in pain.

Jacob grinned as he turned back to look at his sister. "Not long before we'll have matching tattoos?"

There was a beat of silence before Kiara sighed in defeat.

"Who wants to break the news?"

______

After Jacob's initial disappointment at the discovery Kiara wasn't expected to turn into a wolf anytime ever, things had pretty much returned to normal in the Uley household.

Kiara and Paul were lying on the grass of the cliff face, watching the other boys prepare to throw themselves off the cliff and into the water below. She smiled at them for a moment before flopping back and letting her head rest against him.

"This is going to kill Bella," Kiara told Paul, her head leaning on his shoulder as they lied next to each other. Jared had already pre-warned Jacob that it was strictly platonic between Paul and Kiara and not to get himself fired up at how close the duo were. Jacob understood but there was a small part of him that wondered if Kiara would ever trust him the way she trusted Paul despite having shared a womb. 

"She'll adapt," Paul replied, his eyes closed as he soaked up the sun. They'd been having some decent weather recently, although Billy had warned them all that it was set to rain heavily once again over the next few weeks. "She did when Cullen left."

There was a silence for a moment before Kiara looked up to see the rest of the boys preparing to jump off the cliff. She paused, and almost held her breath as the rest of the pack disppeared over the ledge with battle cries. Paul chuckled, before he sat up after noticing the conflicted look on her face.

"What?"

"The Cullen's didn't just leave Bella, Paul," Kiara muttered lowly, knowing that he would be able to hear her well but knowing that if she spoke much louder the rest of the boys in the water below might have heard. "They left me."

There was a moment of silence between them, and Paul seemed to swallow a breath before nodding slowly. His voice was soft and low when he spoke; a trait he only had ever really shown around his own mother and Kiara. It was gentle and understanding, so much so that Kiara wasn't really sure he understood what she meant at first.