Fire & Gold » Lahey

14.

Isaac couldn't help but laugh at her voice, the first real laugh and first real smile he let out all day. "You know, oddly enough, I waited for that to be our full circle conversation." He released her hand, opting to let his arm wrap around her shoulders and pulled her closer to his lean frame. Openly, he'd say it was to make her lift her big head off his shoulder and she could be more comfortable. Secretly, he wanted to remember the warmth of her skin, the way her body spray clouded her like an aura and he just wanted to remember every single detail of her. From the messy ponytail she wore with some of her hair falling into her face in thin, tiny tendrils to the way her legging clad legs looked so small in the over-sized sweater she wore which happened to be his. He wanted every moment to be stored in the memory bank, for the moments he missed her, he'd always remember her for who she was. It's how he remembered Allison and he was sure this is how he'd remember the tiny little Latina who came into his world like a storm. "Those guys were werewolves. The circles of wolves aren't exactly as widespread as you think they are. Me? I should be dead, an American werewolf in Paris—"

"Wasn't that a crummy movie?"

"You're going off the topic, toots." The nickname earned him a hefty slap to his chest, which he simply laughed off. "Regardless of home and nationality, I should have been dead a long time ago. These French packs, they know nothing of the Hales."

Eden squinted her eyes. "So what is the thing that keeps you alive?"

"That I'm the proclaimed Beta of the true Alpha, Scott McCall..." There was something in his voice that Eden couldn't pinpoint. It sounded like a bit of bitterness, a bit of homesickness, a bit of a million different emotions he keeps at bay. "Even when I up and desert him, he still manages to save me in a completely different country."

The huntress bit her lip. "Do you resent him?"

"Never. He changed how I think, how I defend myself. When I became a werewolf, I wasn't a punching bag anymore. I wasn't invisible, I wasn't the grave digger. I was bad ass Isaac. I was powerful, I had claws that could kill and I could roar loud and mighty. I thought I was invincible. I thought I was the ruler of the world because the Hales, they thought that way. Well, at least Peter did. Derek at times too..." Isaac spoke, his chin resting on top of Eden's head. Throughout him speaking, he found his eyes looking down at Eden's head, memorizing the shade of her hair, how it often bordered raven dark and deep, rich brown like her eyes. "Scott, he showed there's more to this than power, than fighting, than being fearful. Because if everyone fears you, who's going to want to fight for you? Sometimes, you have to be strong to think fast and not fight, than to make the decision to fight."

Eden knew that whole speech all too well.

"So, I lived. I get to roam the streets of Paris, scratch free. I live my life. So when I ended up at the club that night, and I saw the same girl I bumped into at the airport that I couldn't just understand why since seeing her, the voice of Allison Argent kept leading me to her. When the two guys began to mess with you, I saw you hold your own but something told me to do what I had to."

"And then you called me a fire starter."

Isaac laughed again. "Good times, I swear."

"Tell me to stay."

Isaac wanted to open his mouth, give her a million reasons to stay. He's rehearsed it in his head for days, waiting for this most opportune moment to let it loose and say what he wanted to say to make her keep her feet planted into the France soil with him for a while longer. But every time he thought of a million reasons for her to stay, he'd realize he's being selfish, which is something he wasn't sure he could do. So he found a million and one reasons why she should go. He was nothing but trouble, he's guarded, he's the kiss of death, she's bound to end up in the worst case scenario with him or worse than that, dead. "I wish I could tell you every single reason why you should stay, but when I do, the reasons you need to go back home remind me to let you go."