Hungry Like The Wolf: A Paul and Rachel Novella

Chapter 14: Doubt

Playlist:

Biggie – Hypnotic

Lloyd- Get It Shawty

Musiq – Teach Me

Sabrina Claudio – Frozen

Frank Ocean – Pink + White

Daniel Ceasar Ft. Kali Uchis – Get You

Author's Note 3/20/22: Hello readers [or however many of you amazing people are left]. It has taken way too long for me to get this. I checked, and chapter 13 was published 8/7/20, and before that, chapter 12 in 2015. I apologize. It is harder and harder to get into this Twilight headspace. I do have an outline planned to finish this out, and a lot of it is in my head, some of it on paper. As of today, I intend to finish this in another 7-ish chapters, but with life, you never know. Thank you again for sticking around. I really appreciate it! Also, I went back and edited the previous chapters, so feel free to reread everything from the beginning!

Chapter 14 - Doubt

The next few days were just a blur of meals and hang outs with my dad, my sister, and Jake. Paul and I took Rebecca to the beach one time, and to the coffee shop from one of our earlier excursions as well. It was amazing to be around her again—to have this time with our complete family, or as complete as it could be, without my mother. It was also wonderful to see how well she and Paul got along.

Paul, Jake and I had to strategize Rebecca's visit. With shapeshifter secrecy, it was necessary. We all knew she couldn't meet Nessie, at least not this trip. That was not a situation we could explain with intelligence. Paul agreed not to show up shirtless in shorts to the house, since it was January, so he made sure he would swing home and change before coming over after patrolling. In fact he decided not to come around so much at all. Things like this, we all had to agree to, just to keep Rebecca in the dark.

It was also a conversation I had to have with Leah before all of us hung out, but that was easier. She was up for pretending she wasn't a wolf; up for thinking about our childhood when that wasn't a factor, or asking Becky about life Hawaii. Leah and I took Rebecca to Seattle one afternoon to shop and eat. It was amazing to be around them both. We relived our childhood memories together, laughing about grade school mishaps, middle school dances, and high school drama.

On our way home, after dropping off Leah, I decided to have a talk with Becky while we sat in the car.

"I'm so glad you're here, all right. So don't take this the wrong way," I began, "but, Beck, how could you let him pay for your ticket?"

She groaned. "How did I know you were going to say something about that."

A frown crossed my face. "How can I not?"

"He didn't give me much of a choice Raych. He called his aunt in Tacoma, you know, the travel agent, and booked a nonrefundable, nontransferable ticket. The only thing I could do was reschedule it. I chose to come after the holidays so it would be at least a lower fare."

She watched as I chewed my lip, trying to decide how I felt about it all.

"I thought you wanted this. For me to get to know him more. Take him more seriously."

"I mean, yeah. Of course, I did." We'd reached the house by then, so I threw the car in park, both of us getting out and heading for the porch. "But Beck, he doesn't have a job."

"I know." She looked passed me through the car window—past our living room window at Paul who was playing a round of Call of Duty with Jake, both waiting for us to get home. "But knowing what he did for you, what things he sold and the number of lawns he cut. Just to get me here to see Dad and Jake. To see you. He said he got my number from your phone when you weren't looking. Called me himself. We did some Skype calls offline, and he even bonded with Sol for a bit. Rachel...He's pretty cool, you know. I never thought I'd feel that way about him. But he's pretty cool," she admitted.