GODS AND MONSTERS ↝ P. LAHOTE

[24]

"Come on, let's go!" she called as Lark jumped into the backseat, hardly waiting for Jared to jump into the passenger side before taking off from the beach, turning onto the main road with a sharp squeal of tires as they headed into town.

"Are you okay?" Jared asked Lark, turning around in his seat to inspect the girl sitting in the back, but she simply stared out the window, trying to see if Paul and the other wolf were visible from the road, but they remained hidden behind a cover of trees.

Paul had been so angry, so devastated at the thought of Bella's baby hurting Lark that he'd lost control, and she'd have been standing in the way if not for the others coming to her rescue. Her mind raced with thoughts of Sam's fiancee Emily, who had been standing too close when he lost control with no one to save her, and the guilt that Sam still carried from the incident. She knew Paul would never have hurt her intentionally, but that was the thing about their shifting; sometimes they just couldn't control it.

"I'm fine," she said softly, still watching as the houses of the reservation passed by in a blur as Leo's car pulled them further and further from the beach. "Paul, is he..?"

"Don't worry about Paul." Jared assured her. "Embry's got him, and once he calms down he'll be fine."

A silence settled around the three in the car as Leo pulled into the Clearwater family's driveway, and she put the car in park, turning the key and killing the engine.

"Paul told us," Jared told Lark. "About you helping Bella. Sure, he's angry, but he's scared that you'll get hurt. For someone to lose their imprint, it's..." he trailed off, shaking his head, and Lark noticed him glancing briefly at Leo, though the girl didn't notice as his eyes moved back to Lark's. "Well, I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

How strange the notion of imprinting was, and how the bond differed from couple to couple. There was Lark and Paul, and how the two had managed to fall head over heels for one another in the span of the months since their first meeting, or Embry and Alicia, but Lark could only imagine what it was like for Jared, whose bond was solely that of friendship until Leonora was ready to feel otherwise. It wasn't hard for Lark to see the love that he held for the girl next to him, the one he considered to be his best friend, but only until she was able to reciprocate that love would their bond ever be anything more.

"Come on," Leo said, unbuckling her seatbelt and pulling the door open. "They'll meet us here once Embry gets Paul to calm down."

Lark wordlessly followed Leo and Jared inside the Clearwaters' house, where she immediately saw Seth and Leah standing around the kitchen with Quil. Lark could feel all eyes on her as she stepped inside, the three pack members searching and scanning her for any hint of injury, anything at all to indicate that she'd been too close to Paul when he'd lost control.

"Hi Lark," Seth greeted her with a kind smile, and she smiled back softly, grateful for the welcome.

"Hi," she said, her voice coming out softly as a knock sounded at the door before being slowly pushed open to reveal Embry and a very shocked-looking Paul standing behind him.

While Lark had seen Paul angry plenty of times, she had never quite seen him like this. Like a dog with its tail between its legs, Paul kept his head down, though she could tell he, too, was searching for any sign that he might have hurt her, and the relieved sigh that escaped once he'd made sure she was okay was almost too much for Lark to bear.

She'd seen him angry, but she'd never seen him devastated before.

"Didn't take too long to get him down this time." Embry said to the others as Lark slowly stepped to where Paul still stood in the doorframe. "He realized right away what happened, and then the issue was just getting him to calm down enough to change back."

"Come on, guys," Leo said to the others. "Why don't we go outside and give these guys some room to talk?"

With a murmur of agreement, Lark watched as Leo, Jared, Quil, Seth, and Leah all stepped around Lark and Paul into the Clearwaters' front yard, where Jared instantly stepped up to a soccer ball sitting in the grass, kicking it over to Quil. It was only once they were all outside that Paul finally entered the house, shutting the front door behind him.

"Lark, I..." Paul trailed off, stepping closer to her. "I don't even know what I can say. I am so, so sorry that I almost hurt you. Please let me know what I can do to make this up to you."

"I'm okay," she assured him, "I just want us to have a mature conversation for once about all this, without you getting angry. Just talk to me, Paul. That's all I want."

"This thing could kill you." he said. "It's killing Bella, and once she's dead, all it'll want is blood. And if you're there when it's born..." he trailed off, and for the first time since Lark had first met him, she saw tears escape from the corners of his eyes. "I don't think I could handle if this goes badly and you're hurt because of it."

"I'm just helping them look for answers." Lark explained. "Something to tell us that something like this has happened before. I'm good at researching these legends, if there's something out there that will give them even the slightest bit of evidence that this whole thing might be okay, then I owe it to the Cullens to try. If I try nothing, and she dies.... well then I feel like that's on me."

Paul finally closed the distance between the two of them, pulling Lark into a tight hug. His body heat was still much higher than normal, no doubt lingering from his shifting, but Lark relished in the sudden warmth, and held onto him tightly.

"I know you're loyal to your pack and you guys are trying to protect the town." she said, nearly muffled against his shoulder. "And I support you. But I can't pick a side in this." she said adamantly. "I'm going to try my best to stay safe, and if anything happens, if she delivers while I'm there, then one of the Cullens will get me out as quickly as they can, but you just have to trust me on this."

Paul nodded. "Then I trust you." he said.

"Okay," she said with a soft smile, taking his hand and leading him over to the couch, where she sat down and he proceeded to lay down, his head resting in her lap as she absentmindedly began to play with his hair, hoping that relaxing would help to lower his body temperature even more.

"Will you tell me a story?" he asked, looking up at her, and she tried her best to suppress her surprised grin.

"I thought you hated stories." she pointed out.

"Guess I've just never had a good storyteller." he said.

"Alright then," she said. "a long long time ago, in the land of gods and monsters, lived a young Greek prince named Theseus..."