(Trigger warning; blood, death, beating. Very mild but I thought I'd put the warning up anyway, just to make sure you all knew before hand.
-About half way through the chapter-)
I awoke from my sleep when Bella came barging into my room "becka!" she whisper yelled at me "becka get up!" she was shaking my shoulders now and I groaned.
"I'm awake what?" I shot daggers at her with my eyes.
"I need to show you something." she said through gritted teeth. I sat up and looked from my clock to her.
"at three o'clock in the morning Bella, seriously?" she grabbed at her hair in desperation. "fine what is it?" she shot up off the bed and motioned for me to follow her.
When I entered her room it was dimly lit by the computer screen she sat infront of, I walked over to look at it and saw that she had several tabs open with pictures of what I could only assume were vampire's due to the blood and beautiful women being bitten "you called me in here because there is a new dracula movie?" I asked confused, she looked to me with frustration.
"no, I did some research into an old legend Jacob told me the other day when I came over to talk to him. We ended up going for a walk on the beach and he told me about the cold ones, I searched it and it came up with vampire's." she looked desperate and scared suddenly.
"Bells, they're just legends these things don't exist." I waved towards the computer and yawned.
"I think they do." she said suddenly. My eyes grew wide and I had to look at her for a moment, is she serious? I thought to myself.
"okay, bells. I'm going to say this once so listen carefully, that's some certifiable shit you're talking about right now. If you told anyone else that you think this mythological creature exists they'll have you in a straight jacket and a padded room." I was trying to be cautious with her feeling but I honestly didn't know what to think, my sister has gone mad.
"fine, if you don't want to believe me go away." she mumbled.
"bells, just think about what you're sayin-" she held up her hand to stop me.
"just go." she said quietly looking back to the screen in front of her, I let out a loud sigh and went to leave the room stopping at the door to look back at her. She was hunched over her computer writing something on a piece of paper. I made my way to my room and plopped on to the bed with another sigh, what the hell I thought to myself.
There was suddenly a soft tapping sound on my window, my heart skipped a beat as I looked around. When I reached the window I looked down to see a figure standing at the edge of the woods, I flung the window up and was about to tell the creep where to go and how to get there when they stepped out from the shadows "Paul!" I whisper yelled.
He waved and motioned for me to back up and I did, a few thuds sounded before the boy hauled himself through the window.
"woah, ten points for gryffindor." I said thoroughly impressed at how he effortlessly climbed a two story house and jumped through my window.
He mock bowed and sauntered over to my bed where he plopped down, I crossed my arms over my chest and looked to him. He was wearing his signature smirk as he patted the bed beside him, I of course was more than willing to oblige and plopped down beside him.
"what do you want Lahote?" he chucked at my failed attempt to sound serious.
"well you but among other things can I guy not come to see the girl he's dating?" he asked running his fingers over my arm.
"we aren't dating, we haven't even gone on our first date." I stated as I shoved his shoulder gently.
"so you admit there will be more after the first?" he questioned raising an eyebrow at me, still running his finger over my arm causing electricity to run up it. I took a breath in and groaned.
"if youre lucky." I smiled, he moved closer to me and put his arm around my shoulders so my head was laying on his bicep. His warmth quickly engulfed me and I snuggled into him further bringing my head to rest on his chest. "why are you here though, Paul? I'm not complaining I'm just slightly confused."
He sighed and the air shifted between us suddenly, there was a serious feel to it and I rolled to bring my eyes up to his own.
"something went down, I'm not ready to talk about it but I wanted to see you. I don't know you take my mind off things." he wouldn't meet my eye and I knew from that small gesture how serious it was, Paul always looked me in the eye, for what I assumed was a dominance thing but now I'm starting to think otherwise.
I pursed my lips and nodded placing my head back down in his chest "you better have a quick escape route if Charlie catches you." I said through a yawn, he chuckled again and nodded tracing small circles on my back.
The next week of my recovery, went on like that Paul would come over and spend the night. We'd just snuggle up together, which was nice he never tried anything more and I couldn't help but appreciate that. Jacob and Quil came over to see me every afternoon when they had finished school, Jacob of course would always end up in Bella's room leaving me with Quil I didn't mine though he was one of my best friends. It just bothered me that Bella was talking to Jacob but she refused to talk to me, I mean seriously? How did she expect me to react to her 'I think vampire's are real' break down at three o'clock in the morning.
Fingers snapped in front of my face causing me to jump "earth to Becka" Quil teased.
I chuckled "I'm sorry what?" I shook my head slightly not knowing what he was saying.
Quil let out a loud sigh before continuing "I was thanking you for whatever you said to Paul because he has stopped giving us hell, he even apologised." he bought his hand up to rub his chin in thought "on second thought, the apology didn't seem that sincere." he sighed.
I snorted at the boy in front of me, Quil always made me laugh "oh, Quil..honestly I don't think Paul is ever really going to be sorry." He furrowed his brows as he let his head drop with a groan, I tapped his knee reassuringly and chuckled again before looking back down at the book I had been reading about the Quileute legends.
"you know you didn't have to spend money on an overpriced book I could have just told you the legends." Quil said laying back onto the bed, I began to play with my wolf necklace the man had gifted me, to tell you the truth I hadn't taken it off since then.
"I know, I suppose I just wanted time to process it all. If you were to tell me I'd probably miss half of what you were saying by getting distracted by something else, it's better if I just read it." I let out a small noise of discomfort, of revealing weakness. Even if it was minuscule, I hated to do it. Quil knowing all to well what that noise meant smirked at me.
"that's true you have to attention span of oh! Tree." he said as he looked out the window towards the trees, I let out a loud laugh and shoved him slightly making him chuckle.
A knock on the door made the laughter stop "come in!" I called wiping a tear from my eye, Quil and I still giggling slightly.
A familiar boy walked through the door though it was none of the people I expected..at this hour and actually walking through the house not throwing himself through my window. My eyebrows raised in shock as I looked towards him, his eyes were cast downwards and I could swear I saw tears staining his cheeks he sniffed and went to turn away.
"Paul wait what's going on?" I threw myself off the bed and rushed towards him grabbing his shoulder in my hands.
"I'll come back later, you're busy." he said bluntly trying to pull out of my grasp. Quil raised his hands in defeat and rose from the bed.
"I've got to head off anyway, my dudes." he began as he made his way past us "gotta save Jacob from embarrassing himself in front of Bella again." he winked at me as he shut the door behind him.
Paul relaxed suddenly and threw his arms around me, I returned his embrace with a sigh "what's wrong, Paul?" I questioned softly.
"I don't know what to do, Loca. He-I told him to stop but he wouldn't stop. H-He's d-de-" I pulled away suddenly not knowing how to respond.
"who's hurt, Paul? What happened?" I rushed out suddenly extremely worried, he fell to his knees and shook his head. A cold chill of dread washed over my body when I realised that Paul may have been the cause of this "Paul did you do something?" I asked kneeling down to him, taking his big beautiful sad face into my hands.
He looked me in the eye suddenly and whispered "I'm a monster." I bought a shaky hand up to my open mouth and wrapped my arms around him pulling him close.
"okay, it's okay. Show me?" I asked softly he only managed to nod in response.
The drive to Paul's house on the reservation seemed to drag on forever, the heavy silence between us was almost deafening. My thoughts were racing what has he done? I really hope it's not as bad as I think. Of course it is! He would not be acting this way if it wasn't. I continued to argue with myself about what I was about to see, I pulled my truck into his dirt driveway and stopped when I saw Sam, Jared and Embry on the porch. Paul groaned and lowered himself into the passenger seat, I reached out to cup his cheek with my hand and bring him to look onto my eyes "Paul," I said calmingly "I'm going to fix this, do you understand? It's all going to be okay." he slowly nodded, not once taking his eyes off my own "but you have to get out of the car so that you can explain to me what went down, okay?" I kept my voice even but my heart was racing a million miles an hour, I didn't know what to expect when I walked in there but I knew from the looks on the other boys faces and from Paul's reaction it wasn't good. I placed a quick kiss to his forehead before hoping out of the truck, when I reached the hood of the truck Paul was already waiting for me. I took his large hand into my much smaller one and kissed it giving him a small smile to reassure him as we walked to face the rest of the group hand in hand.
"what are we dealing with?" I looked to Sam, something snapped inside me and I took on a new stance. I didn't care what happened here, I was not letting Paul get into any trouble.
Sam looked away from Paul to me and nodded his head "come inside, it's better if you just see it." I nodded and followed him into the house. My nose scrunched up when a copper smell hit my nostrils, the house was dimly lit but I could see the dark stains on the walls. I turned to see that the rest of the group huddled around Paul protectively, satisfied that he wasnt going to run off on me I turned and went deeper into the house. My shoes were sticking to the floor as I walked, I didn't need to look down to know that I was walking in blood, I rounded a big timber table and that's when I saw him. Laying on the floor was a man, he was already long dead you could tell from the amount of blood scattered around the house but looking at him now there was barely anything left. I swollowed the bile forming in my throat "who is he?" I asked opting to look out the glass doors beside me rather than look at what was left of the man in front of me.
Sam let out a loud breath "Paul's father." he said gruffly.
"what did he do?" I asked.
"Paul didn't do anything, this isn't his fault." Sam began defensively.
I raised my hand stopping his rant "I'm well aware of that I meant what did his father do? Paul wouldn't do this to him for fun or because he was a little mad he has anger issues yes, but this he wouldn't have done this without a cause." I motioned to the body before meeting Sam's eyes again.
He nodded looking pleased with my answer "I think that's Paul's job to tell you-" he began.
"cut the shit Sam, I want answers and I want them now. We both know Paul isn't going to tell me anytime soon, if you want my help-and you do by the way-you'll tell me what the hell is going on." my voice took a stern tone, I was sick of beating around the bush and something needed to be done fast about this...mess.
"His father beat him, has done it on a daily basis since he was a kid. His mother left when he was young, his father became an alcoholic and blamed Paul. Paul's been through some...Changes. His anger has become worse, it's not his fault though." he scratched the back of his neck.
I crossed my arms over my chest "you don't need to keep reminding me that it's not his fault, I know. I need to know what changes you're talking about but that's for another day, we have to deal with this right now." he nodded as I turned away from him. "burn it."
"wait what?!" Sam called after me.
I stopped and turned my head towards him "did I stutter Sam? I said burn it, there's to much blood for them to not rule this murder. Burn it." I continued down the hallway and met the eyes of the boys outside, Embry looked at me with simpathy he knew the reason none of this was overly shocking for me but the others didn't that's why they were just gaping at me. When I reached Paul I wrapped an arm around his waist the other wiping the tears away from his cheeks "let's take a drive." I said softly leading him down the stairs towards the truck.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
We drove in silence for hours, I didn't know where I was headed I just knew I needed to get Paul as far away as possible. My fingers gripped the steering wheel and I was focused solely on the road in front of me.
"how are you so calm about this?" Paul asked his voice rough from crying.
"I'm not, this just isn't the first time I've dealt with something like this." I sighed not wanting to meet his eyes.
I could feel him staring at me "my gran—" I started "I used to stay with her every now and again, she lived outside of phoenix." my voice broke and I chocked back some tears.
"what happened to her?" Paul whispered.
"I went to surprise her for the weekend and when I got there, she was—she was gone. I walked into the house and she was —she'd been dead for days." I finished. I couldn't talk about the story it was to much for me to handle even after all these years, the tears started to fall and I pulled the truck over. I slammed my head onto the steering wheel and took many breaths in, before starting the truck again. I reached for the gear stick but Paul's hand intercepted my own.
"Becka, I'm sorry I shouldn't have pushed."
"it's not your fault, Paul. None of this is your fault." I looked to him "Paul, I don't know why I'm so protective of you. I can't explain it, I don't know why I feel the way I do about you in such a short time. But I do, what I did before goes against every instinct in my body well I thought it did but then I realised my only instinct is to protect you." I sighed "this is so much to take in, I wanted to run and not look back but I couldn't. I just couldn't leave you there like that. You need to tell me what happened so I can piece this all together." I was pleading with him now, he averted his eyes and groaned.
"Becka, I'm dangerous. I don't know if I can trust myself to show you." I held up my hand and shook my head.
"you don't have a choice. I just helped you get away with murder, Paul." I said bluntly. He nodded and opened the door.
"are you sure you're ready for this?" he questioned, I nodded.
We walked into further into the woods that lined the road and stopped when we came to a clearing, Paul was in the process of removing his pants which confused me greatly but I didn't say a word. He threw them towards me and I caught them not taking my eyes away from him. His body started to shake and a loud cracking filled the air, when the shaking grew into violent convulsions he was gone and in his place stood a grey wolf. I gasped and took a step back. I didn't know what to say every instinc in my body was telling me to run but my head and heart screamed at me that this was Paul, it was just Paul and he wasn't going to hurt me. I took a step forward and he took one back letting out a soft wine.
I shook my head a retracted my out stretched hand, I gaped at the sight of him.
His wolf form shook and was replaced back with a man "Paul—" I started only to be interrupted.
"no, Becka if you're going to tell me that I'm a monster, I already know. If you want to leave I don't blame you, I really don't. But please don't say the words aloud, I don't think I could handle hearing them." his voice broke towards the end and my heart sank.
"you're beautiful and I'm not leaving. I'm not going anywhere." I said softly, his eyes met my own as his body froze. I motioned for him to come to me and he was there in an instant, his body inches away from my own I took a small step forward to close the distance and wrapped my arms around his waist, he wrapped his arms around my neck and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. We stood like that in the dark woods for what felt like an eternity before we had sat down just starring at each other, no words were needed at this point I knew his secrets and he knew mine. Despite everything that happened tonight we were going to be okay, whether that be together or serperately, no matter how long it took we were going to be alright.
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(WOAH OKAY, SO I THOUGHT I'D ADD A LITTLE BIT OF DRAMA TO ALL THIS, I MEAN COME ON IT'S A TWILIGHT FANFIC AFTER ALL OF COURSE THERE'S GOING TO BE BLOOD & DEATH. HOPE YOU GUYS DIDN'T MIND THIS CHAPTER TOO MUCH!)