Dusk till Dawn | Paul Lahote ✔️

Chapter 10

"So what, you're plan now is to avoid Bella at all cost?" I asked a grumpy Jacob Black, who was slouched on Sam's couch.

After the movies, Jacob had shifted. That was the answer to my "why Jacob would have to tolerate them" when Paul said he would have to.

Jacob groaned, giving me a half-hearted glare. He hadn't been happy when he learned I was a part of this, but it wasn't his place to judge.

"I still don't understand why Bella can't know!" Jacob grumbled, arms crossed over his chest. "She already knows about vampires. Why can't she know about this?!" He gestures towards himself and I sighed, giving a tired look to Sam.

Paul and Embry were both on patrol. Which left Sam, Emily and I to deal with the mess that was Jacob Black. Jared had imprinted on a girl at his school today, which was an incredible thing for him, and he was with her telling her about all of this - and soon we'd have a third girl at the place that knew about the legends being real.

"Jake, just because Bells knows about the vampires doesn't mean she has to know about this." I tell him gently, sitting beside him on the couch and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "This is an entirely separate matter from them." I had learned that the Cullens were vampires, which given how Bella's been reacting to them being gone makes total sense now. It hadn't been a normal breakup by any means. If Edward was Bella's mate and he just dropped her like that... well, she was feeling the repercussions.

Which made me want to punch the boy even more when I saw him.

"I know you have feelings for her," I continued, his eyes widening when I mentioned that as he looked up at me fearfully. I laughed, rolling my eyes. "I'm not mad. Anyone with two eyes can see you love her. Just... besides her... Anyways, what I am trying to say is... she's not completely over Edward yet. She still loves him. And will for a while," I told him gently, earning grumbling from the teen.

"Yeah I know..." He whines softly, and I wrap my arms around him in a hug, earning a hug back from the young Black. "It'll just take some time to get over her." He admits with a sigh.

Nodding, I sit back up - giving him a small smile. "Who knows, maybe you meet your imprint one day," I teased him, laughing when he scoffed at me - though he did give me a soft smile.

"I'm glad your Paul's imprint," Jacob admitted, "it's nice to know someone outside of this I can talk to." I knew what he meant, and I had to say I did agree with him. This did feel nice, having Jacob back like this.

"He's glad she's his imprint too," a teasing voice called into the home, and I grinned when I saw Paul walking inside the house with Embry trailing behind him. Paul smirked at me as I walked over to him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. "You truly do complete me, doll." He pecks me on the lips, making the guys groan at the cheesy line.

Chuckling, I smile back at him. "You complete me too," I purr, kissing his cheek, grinning when he flushed at the attention - though he didn't move.

"Ugh, you're nauseating!" Embry complained as he walked over to where Jacob was sitting, fist bumping the still pouting boy.

Laughing I pulled away from Paul, ignoring the whine that he gave me as I did so. "I need to go home anyway. Need to make sure Bella doesn't do anything stupid." Jake sends me an apologetic look to which I wave my hand in dismissal. When Paul told me he had shifted I wanted to come down and check on the boy, and now that I see he is alright - but won't be able to talk to Bella for a while I know things were going to go south real fast.

Unfortunately, Bella depended on people too much. I knew once Jacob started ignoring her calls and denied seeing her, things wouldn't end well.

"I'll drive you home, since I'm your ride anyway." Paul smirks, pulling me back into his arms.

After he drops me off, I walk inside the house. Bella was standing by the phone - a frustrated look on her face. Her head snaps over to me and she puts the phone back in the hanger, stomping over to me. "Have you heard from Jacob?" She asks desperately, and I frown at her. I knew that they were using mono as an excuse, but that wasn't going to fly the entire time. She was going to get suspicious, and I wasn't sure if I could continue lying to her about his where-abouts.

"Sorry Bells, I haven't." I lied, seeing that I just saw him minutes ago. She huffs, annoyed, which I didn't blame her for. Jacob and Bella had been tied to the hip these past couple of weeks. It sucks that Jacob had to wait until he could fully control his anger, so that he didn't hurt Bella accidentally. Which I knew he wouldn't do, but I also understood Sam's point of view on this. He had accidentally hurt Emily, and those scars wouldn't go away. They were a permanent reminder of what could happen when a werewolf didn't have full control over their anger. "How about we bake those coffee cakes? It'll take your mind off of it." I suggested, going over to the cabinet and reaching for the cookbook that we would need.

Sighing, Bella eyes the phone longingly. I knew she wanted to try again, and I knew Billy would just give her the same answers. "We need icing..." She trails off reluctantly, and I nodded my head as I flipped through the book - finding the recipe that we needed for the cake. "And probably more flour." She adds, nodding her head.

"Okay. We can go to the store and grab the ingredients we need." All I needed was to keep her occupied so that she didn't think about Jacob ignoring her. The last thing I needed was for her to go into another episode.

Once we got all the ingredients we needed we started baking. I was finally able to get a smile back on her face by the end of the day, when we had made some beautiful coffee cakes and some cheesecake. Even made some of that delicious strawberry jam that had been on top when I got it at the cafe, jarring it so we can just spoon the jam onto the cheesecake when we wanted to. With everything that had been going on, I had forgot how much fun it was just to spend time with Bella. When she wasn't boy crazy she was actually a decent person to be around.

We were laughing as we watched some looney tunes on TV, stuffing our faces with our creations. The door slowly opened and we turned, seeing our dad walk into the living room with a soft smile on his face. "It smells good in here, girls," he praises, leaning down to press a kiss on each of our heads.

"We made coffee cakes, and cheesecake! The cheesecake is in the fridge if you want some," I tell him with a grin.

"Coffeecake is on the counter!" Bella added, her eyes still glued to the TV.

"There's also some strawberry jam to put on top of the cheesecake." I nodded, nudging Bella who just rolled her eyes, though there was a soft smile on her face.

"Seems like you two are getting along." Dad smiles at us, and we look at each other.

"Yeah... we are..." I nodded, Bella beaming at me. It did feel nice, to be able to hang out with her like this.

Though I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that this serene feeling wouldn't last.