Hey guys! Thanks for reading up to this point!
-rednight73
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Bella had phoned Billy to tell him that she was finally over the physical side effects of the bite about four days after the fact. To say that the pack would be excited was an understatement. Sam was a little excited himself. Nothing much other than thankless patrols and classes at school for the most of them, Spirits knew Sam's pack brothers were always looking for a little excitement.
"When will she be over for her community service?" Sam asked curiously over the receiver. He tried not to give a purr when he felt Emily hug him from behind. His mate was always so loving.
Sam had offered the whole community service alibi for Bella for two official reasons: she was kinda imprinted to Paul (that shit needed figured out) and she had valuable experience fighting vampires. Additionally, the alpha believed everyone deserved a family, people to confide in. Bella, for all appearances and purposes, was alone at Forks. Sam had been all alone once and that period had been the most depressing months of his life. He wouldn't wish it on anyone.
"She said she would be by after school today." Billy's smile was impossible not to hear. Sam, Harry Clearwater, and the chief had all fought gallantly to make this happen.
That council meeting had been particularly irritating to attend, with Old Quil's fear of a possible threat like Bella. Which was dumb, considering Bella and Paul had imprinted with all of the Protectors as witness. Isabella Swan was officially now Quileute. After a long and fiery debate, Old Quil had eventually conceded to the outsider as long as he was allowed periodic "check-ups" on Bella. How utterly redundant.
"Good, I'll let the others know." Sam almost bounced up and down on the balls of his feet. Emily giggled.
Sam kissed Emily's hands, her scar, and then her mouth before he bounded out of the door. He tore into the woods, shifted, and let out a long howl.
Geez, what's got your panties up in a twist. Paul's thoughts came sharp and aggressive as usual, and Sam was always surprised at the sheer nimbleness of them. Although he was sarcastic and a total hothead, the boy was not dumb in the slightest. Not seeing Bella for a few days had created a new level of truculence that Sam would've been able to forgive in anybody else for the circumstances. Not Paul Lahote.
Oh fuck. Paul's thoughts had frozen in equal parts of fear and anticipation as he had put the pieces together. Thoughts of submitting an incomplete assignment drifted through, with an automatic dismissal of the idea. He'd do it later.
Sam let out a wolfish snort and was glad when the others became present after Changing.
What, Sam? It's the middle of a school day! Jared grounded out, an unusual complaint. He saw Bella's call. Oh wait, never mind that's awesome! He faded back out, heading back to classes.
Jacob let go of an impressive amount of worried glee before disappearing too while Embry emitted slight concern for his friend's heart. The stray sentiment worsened Paul's dread, and Sam could almost swear the depth of emotion wasn't something he'd been witness to before from the grey wolf. In fact, his emotions always felt muted, stunted by the violent past that stained every corner of his conscience. Him seeing Bella's eyes was the only time that the gates had been lifted, and it had been intense.
Yeah, yeah. Fuck off. Sam rolled his eyes at Paul's reprimand. His aggressive thoughts had always been wide open, on the other hand.
Only once Sam was back in human form, helping Emily garden, did he dare remember Bella's scars. He so did not want to be around when Paul discovered those.
Bella's POV
My beloved truck crept at glacial speed to the beautifully kept, but humble house of Sam's. Billy had called it Emily's house. Emily as in Sam's fiancé. I was intrigued by the notion of a human girlfriend of an alpha shapeshifter. She had to have a gift of some kind to handle the supernatural. Humans were so fragile, and I was always coddled by my family for being half-human.
They rarely let me forget it. Shuddering off the pointless reminiscing, I parked the truck best I could and approached the peeling white of the front door. Flowers lined the windowsills and I couldn't help but to consider the romantic notion that Sam had found those beautiful wildflowers just for her. I had barely raised my hand to knock when the door blasted open in a fantastic display.
"Bells! Thank goodness you're here! Are you all good from your vamp wrestling Friday?!" Jake's cheerful voice boomed as he playfully picked me up effortlessly by my armpits and shook me with the ending of each sentence.
I winced slightly at the vamp bite that still seared my skin in an ancient warning of pain. Few things heal at a human rate on my body, but vamp bites were one of them. It was a blessing I had any sort of immunity at all. Before Jake could strengthen his grip on me, I slid out in a rapid twist and landed on my feet.
I then did something I had always wanted to do since Jake had thought it was cute to grab me any time he wanted. I picked him up and swung him and held him up above my head with both arms. I grinned at his handsome, upside-down face that showed quite a bit of shock. "How's it going, Jake?" I shook him too and I could feel his laugh.
"I always knew you were a man." He mocked, and I dropped him casually while I let out a wallop of snickers.
"Yeah, well now it's time to steal all of the girls from you. I'm quite ... charming." I flexed my still bandaged right arm importantly.
Jake swooped a hand to his forehead in a demure swoon and it cracked me up more. Almost hysterically so. I felt so free and myself, more so than I had in months. Something had finally worked out and I had my best friend back.
Jake took my hand and led me into the small home, which made me feel a sudden rush of shyness. I did not know any of these guys, in fact they were doing me a favor just by letting me over here. Them not liking me would make this super awkward, if it wasn't already.
The kitchen was modest but so homey that I instantly relaxed. Two wolf boys, one that I recognized as Embry and an unknown one who appeared strangely cocky, looked up from the midst of a delicious-looking lasagna. Up against the counters with his shoulders touching the shoulders of a slender, gorgeous woman was Sam. They were both watching the boys with fond eyes and Sam casually noticed us, as though most of everybody hadn't heard us in the foyer.
"Bella." The fondness in his tone surprised me and only served to comfort me further.
I purposely let go of Jake's hand and went forward to shake Sam's. Renee, despite her naive approach to most things in an ever changing world, always told me warriors present themselves. I wanted them to respect me to a point, even if they were stronger and faster. "So what now?" I asked.
Sam pursed his lips thoughtfully at the question. "Well, you were a little too damaged to answer many questions the other day."
I nodded. "I have questions for you guys, too." A lot, actually. They were an isolated species compared to the ones I'd always known of. There were rumors of isolated "miracles" as my mother called them, but it had always seemed as if they were myths.
The irony of that sentiment coming from my mother was not difficult to miss.
Sam shrugged. "We don't have to do it all at once. I should probably tell you what I wanted in suggesting you spend time with us." He caught the animated curiosity on my face and chuckled, "Well, it's pretty simple. It's obvious you have some knowledge and experience about leeches that we just don't have."
"Yeah, I don't see how knowledge sharing could hurt anything." I agreed readily. A sudden thought occurred, distracting me from the topic at hand. "Is everybody in LaPush a wolf?"
Everybody in the kitchen laughed, including Sam. I pushed down the chagrin I felt and shrugged. How was I to know?
"No, only specific families carry the wolf gene, and it's only dominant when vampires are in the proximity."
So it was a defense mechanism that humans developed? I had never heard of anything like that before. It somewhat reminded me of the few gifts that the Cullens had enhanced from their previous lives when they had Changed. Carlisle would probably be drooling on his scrubs in anticipation over a phenomena like this one.
The Cullens ... My thoughts turned to ice at the implications, they're why the Pack is here now. It was difficult to maintain my composure as Sam looked into my eyes self-assuredly. Even the other day, the nomad Laurent would not have been wandering the woods if it hadn't been to seek revenge against the Cullens. There wasn't a single chance that the Cullens hadn't known about the LaPush wolf genes. I remembered Esme telling me it was one of their oldest homes.
I shoved those thoughts away because of the pain it carried with it. The past was over with and I wasn't feigning my ignorance on LaPush; I had no clue what was going on.
"Are there more vamps around?" I asked, hoping that they had an extra tracking sense that I didn't have. My nose was good, but it couldn't tell species apart.
All of the shapeshifters avoided my gaze and then it became apparent how tired they all were. The one I assumed to be Emily bit her lip and for the first time she was at an angle where I noticed large, deforming face scars, not unlike ones I'd grown up seeing.
We weren't the only people to be cursed then.
"Yeah, we have been scenting two leeches for about a month now." Jake was the one to answer, his arm coming around my waist again.
A howl ripped through the woods behind the house. The boys hardly took notice except Jake, who winced and loosened his grip. I hardly noticed, my heart racing at the possibility that one of those monsters was still lurking around my home. It had been a faint hope that Laurent had been bluffing about Victoria, but it was clear that naivety wouldn't get me out of this shit-storm.
"Dang it." Jake muttered, and I noticed he was glaring at his alpha with a lot of heat behind his gaze.
"Go." Something mystic floated through the air, and Jake mechanically, very slowly turned away from me and walked out of the back door. Jared snickered quietly while he stuffed more lasagna down his gullet.
I wasn't given much time to ponder the mystic wolf-mojo when a maleficent bark of laughter came from outside. The sound was almost evil in its infliction, but the childish glee within it made my head go to the side in curiosity. What was going on?
The back door opened with a boom and Paul slinked through, his shirt off, and a crispy white smile shining past his beautiful russet skin. I had always thought Jake was objectively beautiful, but there was no describing the not-so-objective reaction I had to Paul in that moment. I had seen him before, but I had kinda been burning with vampire venom at the time and had thus been preoccupied.
His features were sharper than the others, and his jaw looked ... bitable. His eyes were almost black and his lips were just full enough to where I was interested in how they would feel on mine. I blinked in confusion. When had I ever thought about males like this?
It's not possible. My evil self-conscious tainted at me. You're broken and lélek összetört. The inner insult was like a douse of water to my flame and I struggled not to grab at my stomach to hold myself together in a grief that could hardly comprehended. I was so consumed with conflict that I did not even notice the source of my distraction standing two feet in front of me.
My eyes refocused and at my eye level all I could see was that strong jaw clenched in some kind of strong emotion. I suddenly remembered seeing Paul's butt and my cheeks flamed right at the wrong moment. Curses, but I was an inconvenient blusher.
"So I've decided to call you It, cause the ambiguity of whatever the hell you are reminds me of Cousin It." A rough, dangerous voice teased from those sinful lips.
"I-I like The Addams Family." I stuttered like a dork. A nickname this early in the pack? I could handle it, as long as the blood in my face didn't mean my heart would stop in the nearby future.
"I like it too."
"W-well that's good, maybe we could watch it together?"
Paul's gaze left my eyes to skim my body appreciatively. His eyes sparkled with wicked humor. "I'll have to pass, our first date will have to be more stimulating than that."
Embry choked on lasagna and I was brought hurtling back to reality with that statement. Not only had I invited that jerk to watch one of my favorite shows without thinking, he'd used it as a chance to size me up! My face steamed for a different reason and I saw Paul take a step back.
"Easy woman, I was just kidding."
I was just about to stutter my way through some sort of comeback when an angelic interference graced us. "Bella, want something to eat? I'm Emily, by the way."
My stomach rumbled and I looked away from Paul gratefully. The spell snapped, and suddenly my time was my own again. I had been taunted plenty of times in my life, why let it bother me now? "Sure, Emily. I'm afraid I have been a little too out of it to cook these past few days so Charlie has been force-feeding me fast food." I laughed. My damaged arm tingled achingly at the reminder of the miserable last twenty-four hours.
"Oh, I'm sure. Is it completely healed yet?" Emily asked, moving to unload a still working oven.
"No, vamp bites are one of the few things that heal fairly slow. I am just now over the worst of the reaction." I admitted, I stepped away from Paul and towards the table where everyone else was sitting.
Emily threw an amused glance but didn't say anything further. Embry gave me a reserved smile and scooted his large body as much as possible to give me room and I chuckled. "I can share table space, don't worry, I'm not terribly shy."
Paul let out a deep growl that stilled the room and my body froze in dread. Judging by the condition of Emily's face, I deduced that these shapeshifters did lose control at times. I couldn't take even one of these guys on in an honest fight. Nonetheless, my szőlő whispered across my skin and the tip of the dagger poised itself against my wrist. I calmed down, readying myself to run if need be. I certainly hadn't visited these guys' home to hurt one of them.
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Translations:
lélek összetört - soul-shattered
szőlő - vines (the marks on Bella's arms)
Whew! So they finally meet again!
Will Paul ever get anywhere while acting like such a jerk?
What do you think about Bella and Jake's relationship!?