[ So, the first chapter is from Paul's POV, but all of the rest will be from Shaylee's. Just to let you know. Enjoy! 8) ]

Chapter One

Paul's POV

Emily had just pulled a casserole out of the oven when we heard it. A wolf howl. One of ours. That could only mean one thing.

Vampire.

Jacob, Jared, Seth, and I all traded glances. It'd been awhile since a bloodsucker had dared set foot on our territory – the Cullen's battle with their precious Volturi had seen to that. We hadn't had a vamp in almost a year.

Even so, we hadn't slacked off on our patrols – Jacob, the Alpha, was adamant about that. I think Collin, Brady, and Sam were supposed to be on patrol now, so it must have been one of them that signaled.

Almost at the same time, the four of us pushed our empty plates away and stood up, jogging out the door – empty bellies forgotten.

"Keep it warm for us, Em." Seth called over his shoulder.

Under other circumstances I would have pointed out how dirty that sounded, but I had other things on my mind. A pity two, because Sam wasn't even there to hit me for "talking rough" in front of his wife.

"Be careful. Stay safe!" Emily called from her porch as we hit the tree line. She's such a worrier.

I could already feel the adrenaline and excitement coursing through me. It's been too long since I had a good fight. Hopefully this would be worth our wile. There are sixteen pack members now, so there's not a whole lot that can pose a threat - or even a challenge to us. I don't know why Emily even bothers to worry for us.

We'd hit the woods at a light jog with Seth in the lead. He stopped a few yards into the forest and started taking of his shorts, getting ready to phase. I was about to follow suit when I felt Jake stiffen next to me.

"Hold up guys, wait." Jake said, signaling the same thing with his arm.

"What? Dude, come on! There's a vamp out there we gotta go get it." I protested, practically jumping up and down with excitement. This is kind of a time sensitive situation. We can't just sit around waiting for our personal invitation to join the fight – we've gotta just go and take it.

"Yeah, they could need…"Jared started, but Jake cut him off.

"No for real." Jake said. His tone was so serious that we stopped and listened to him. "I hear something."

I cocked my head and started listening as hard as I could, and I know my pack brothers were doing the same.

You know…now that Jake mentioned it…I did hear something. Footsteps I think, moving casually along the forest floor.

Our hearing isn't nearly as good as it is in wolf form, but I was pretty sure that howl had come from deeper into the woods. So, these footsteps couldn't be a vampires. Unless…unless there's more than one of them!

The guys seemed to have come to the same conclusion as me – or at least were curious enough to check it out, because when Jacob started walking towards the footsteps we all followed. We pushed past the last of the underbrush to reveal a girl. Just a normal human girl of about our age, I think. I couldn't be too sure because she had a hood covering half her face and sunglasses on.

Sunglasses? In the middle of the woods? When there's no sun? Maybe she's not human. Maybe she's hiding her red eyes.

"She is kind of pale. Maybe she is a leech." I thought to myself. If only she wasn't so covered up. I couldn't get a good enough look at her to tell anything! I wouldn't have even know she was a girl if she didn't have her hair peeking out of her hood and if her jeans weren't so tight.

Dudes aren't shaped like that.

During a tense moment where she just looked at us and we just looked at her, I decided that she must be human. I could hear her heartbeat and…is that blood I smelt? Yep. Her knee was bleeding. Definitely human. She hadn't moved since we'd appeared – we'd probably scared her.

"Um…hello?" She greeted first, though it came out as more of a question.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. It came out kind of rude, but I was in a bit of a hurry. All I wanted to do was get to the fight, and this girl was holding us up. She's just one more thing to worry about – making sure the leech didn't catch her scent and come after her.

"Ex-CUSE ME?" She said with lots of attitude. Oh great. Now I'd pissed her off. Now she's gonna make things even more difficult for us.

"You can't be here. You're not supposed to be out here." I said, frustrated with her already. She didn't freakin understand. She's messing everything up. I JUST WANT TO GET TO THE FIGHT! And not have to work around some stupid hiker that insists on putting herself in danger.

Just then I noticed what she was holding. A skateboard. Who brings a skateboard on a trip into the woods? I didn't have much time to think about this though, because she was talking again.

"It's a free country dip wad! I can do what I want." She yelled. "You don't own the woods." Her free hand formed a fist down by her side.

Not only is she holding us up, but she's insulting me now two? Ugh! What is wrong with this chick? We're just trying to keep her from getting KILLED! It's our JOB!

I had to concentrate really hard to keep from shaking.

Jacob, seeming to sense I was done with being civil, spoke up. He told the girl that she was on our turf. He had better control over his temper than I do, so he managed to make the words actually come out sounding somewhat polite.

Had I just kept my big mouth shut, Jacob probably would have been able to placate her. But, me being me, I couldn't. I had to throw in my two cents. As soon as Jake had finished speaking, I said. "And WE say YOU can't be here. So…go on." I shooed her with my hands.

That really ticked her off. She straightened her back and furrowed her eyebrows angrily. "No." She said bluntly. How childish.

"No?" Jake asked, surprised. Since he'd taken over as Alpha from Sam, he wasn't used to people questioning his orders.

"No." She repeated. I could tell she'd made up her mind to be as annoying as possible.

Right then, another howl went out through the forest. Oh man, that couldn't be good if we were getting another summons. That probably means they really need the help. And here we were just wasting time.

"Come on Girl! We don't have time for this! Just go!" I growled, clutching my hands into fists so she wouldn't notice how much they were shaking.

"Make me." She challenged.

What? Is this chick serious? I'm Paul Freakin Lahote! Not even my fellow pack members talk to me like that – much less some little human girl that couldn't dent me if she had a baseball bat. And my temper is quite impressive, if I do say so myself.

The guys and I traded looks, making sure we were on the same page. They seemed just as shocked and at a loss for what to do as I was.

"We can't just leave her. She's bleeding." Seth said with a shrug. Ugh. Why does that kid have to be so nice? But I knew he was right. Even though she wasn't Quileute and therefore not technically our responsibility, that didn't mean that we could just ignore the danger she was in. We operated on a see vampiric danger, protect from vampiric danger kinda system.

"Aw crap." Jake groaned, rubbing his face all frustrated like. I guess he hadn't noticed her knee before. Typical Jake. He'd noticed she was nearby when none of the rest of us had, but hadn't noticed that she was bleeding. Which is exactly what all of the rest of us were worried about. What a weirdo. As an Alpha, this was probably worst case scenario for him.

"He's making this way too complicated." I thought to myself. I just knew he was trying to find some way to talk her to safety. But I personally didn't care what she wanted. We're bigger, and stronger, and there are more of us than her. Thinking along these lines, I knew what to do.

"Right." I said, steeling myself. I rolled my eyes at myself for not having done this earlier and saving us, like, five minutes of delay.

I walked right up to the little spitfire and chunked her over my shoulder, wrapping my arms around her legs so she'd have a harder time getting away. Haha she did NOT like that.

"HEY! What the hell man!" She shrieked. Man she's loud! They could probably here her all the way in Seattle. She'll lead that vamp straight to us!

"Go." I said, turning back to the guys and jerking my head in the direction we'd heard the howls. "You guys go. They need you. I'll be there soon." They nodded and took off running, phasing as soon as they were out of sight and running even faster to assist Sam, Collin, and Brady.

"Put. Me. DOWN!" She yelled, hitting my butt with her skateboard. Spankings? Really? What am I, 6? Now she's being violent as well as loud. THAT ought to make her easier to manage. Not. "You big jerk!"

"Shut up! And keep your voice down." I hissed. I started walking with her still over my shoulder, in the opposite direction from where I'd heard the howls. I needed to get as much distance between that knee of hers and the vampire.

"You're not the boss of me. You can't tell me what to do." She declared. Silly me, thinking she might actually want to listen to me and save her own life.

"Seriously. Shut up!" I emphasized quietly. I'd though I heard something…I stopped moving and tried to focus really hard, but that damn girl just started talking again.

"Put me down and I'll think about it." She haggled. What? Oh yeah. We'd been having a conversation before I'd heard it. I flopped her down on the forest floor, flat on her ass, and growled in frustration, hoping she'd shut up now so I could see if the vamp had caught her scent yet.

She let out an "umph" when she hit the ground. "Whoops." I thought to myself. Maybe I could have been a bit more gentle. Too late now though. Who cares if she's a little bruised, as long as she's still alive?

"Now shh!" I held my finger to my lips to reiterate, praying that she'd listen this time.

She glared at me from her spot on the forest floor, but at least she was being quiet.

Good thing two. Because I definitely WAS hearing something. Lightning fast footstep, flying across the forest floor. Headed straight for us.

I felt my wolf senses kick into high gear, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

Crap. The leech had probably honed in on the scent of her blood. Crap crap crap crap crap.

Alright, this wasn't good. This definitely wasn't good.

Don't get me wrong. I'm down for a fight. Looking forward to it in fact! But I'm not used to having to watch anyone's back but mine. The guys and Leah can all take care of themselves, but here I am saddled with a fragile human. I can't give a vampire my full attention (like I'd need to since I'm out here by myself) if I had to watch out for this girl as well.

What am I gonna do? WHAT AM I GONNA DO?

"Alright!" She spoke again, bringing my attention back to her. DANG IT! Why couldn't she just shut up! "Well…you can keep doing…that." She said. She stood up and started dusting herself off. "I'll just be on my way. Don't worry. I'll get out of 'Quileute Territory.' Since it's such a big deal to…" But here I cut her off.

There was no way I could get her out of the forest before the parasite caught up to us; and even if I could get her out of the forest, it wouldn't guarantee her safety. Leeches go crazy at the scent of blood. It could attack her in broad daylight in the middle of a crowd, never mind about exposing the existence of its whole race. But I could hear the vampire getting closer and closer. It'll be here in another minute. And I had to do something.

What I really needed to do was phase. Check in on the fight, see what's going on so I'm not fighting blind.

No way had my pack just let the leech go. And there were so many of us (even though a few of us probably hadn't been able to answer the call) that a leech escaping was highly unlikely.

Unless the leech had some kind of special power, like the Cullens do. They have a mind reader, a psychic, and a mood controller… Yeah…they're kinda freaks.

So…maybe this vamp had some kind of special weapon that took out my whole pack!

"Or there could just be more than one of them." A voice of reason in the back of my head said just as I was really about to worry. Yeah…that seems much more likely.

Whatever the case, there was still a vampire headed our way, and I was limited by a bleeding girl. I couldn't phase with her here, unless it was absolutely necessary.

But time was running out. I could hear the parasite getting closer and closer.

I had to do something.

A quick glance around the forest sparked the semblance of a plan. Without stopping to think it through, I lunged at the girl midsentence, tackling her to the forest floor then rolling the two of us into the bushes. It was shoddy camouflage at best, but it would have to do. It's the best I could come up with.

I knew this would only last us a few seconds. A vampire's hearing and sense of smell are even better than ours, so it wouldn't take it too long to find us. Hopefully I'd be able to kill it then without too much trouble. Or come up with a better plan…

Maybe by that point another wolf would show up to help me out. I could kill a vampire all by myself, but not if I had to babysit this chick at the same time.

I thought all of that in the space of like a second. We had barely stopped rolling when she gasped out "What the…" but I clamped a hand over her mouth. We really needed to be quiet now, and I went to tell her that yet again, but I looked into her eyes, and that was it.

I imprinted.

Only seconds ago I was beyond annoyed with this girl, and would have been perfectly happy if she disappeared and I never saw her again. Now I knew the only way I could ever be happy is if she let me look into those baby blues for the rest of my life.

"Did that really just happen? Is this for real?" I asked myself. "This is crazy! I don't even know her name!" But even as I thought it, I knew it really didn't matter. This is the one for me.

In the back of my mind I was dimly still tracking the vampire's path to us, but I was mostly focused on the girl.

Hadn't she been wearing sunglasses before? When'd she take those off? Oh well. I don't care. I'm just glad she did.

She gulped and almost brought me out of my post-imprint daze. Almost, but not quite.

It did make me notice how big her eyes were. And she seemed to be frozen that way, only moving to breathe. Then again, I wasn't moving either. I was still just staring at her. God, I was probably freaking her out. Yeah, I was definitely freaking her out. Her heart was beating really fast, and I could see her pulse going in her neck.

But no way was that vamp going to get anywhere near her. I don't care what I've got to do.

She let out a shiver, wait…is she cold? I don't want her to get sick! What if she's uncomfortable? I bet if I wrapped my arms around her she'd feel better – well, I'd feel better. And she might be less cold. But that would probably freak her out even more, so I restricted myself to talking my hand off her mouth and softly trailed it down her face. I wonder if she can feel the electricity. Probably not…

"She's beautiful." I realized. Big blue eyes, long brown hair. I bet it's silky. Would it be weird for me to run my hands through it? Yeah, yeah I should probably learn her name first…

A twig broke about twenty feet away in the forest. The vampire! Right, crap. What do I do? I've gotta protect this girl, my imprint, but how? Do I fight the leech and hope nothing else comes after the girl, and that she can take care of herself? Or stay with her and make sure she's fine? Nope, option number two won't work. The vamp wouldn't just forget about the scent of her blood…

"Looks like I'm gonna get my fight after all." I thought decisively, but instead of being happy about it like I normally would have, I was worried. This lovely imprint of mine is way too close, and I don't like it that this vamp is gunning for her – not that it'll ever get to her of course. I'd never let that happen. I'd tear that bloodsucker limb from limb!

I felt her turn underneath me – trying to see what I was looking at probably.

With a burst of supernatural strength, the vamp crouched and jumped, landing in the middle of the path that the girl and I had been on only a minute or so ago.

This particular parasite was a woman with long black hair that seemed impractical considering she probably spends most of her time running through forests like this one. Just because she's undead doesn't mean a branch can't rip out a chunk full of supernatural hair – Leah had learned this the hard way. Her skin was a weird shade of gray. It always looks funny when black people turn, but it's harder to see the dark rings around their creepy red eyes.

Speaking of red eyes, hers were scanning the forest in our general direction, looking for us. She could hear us and smell us, but she hadn't quite located us yet. Until my imprint gasped. Then the vampire looked straight at us and smiled.

"Shit." I said.

The vamp threw back her head and let out an evil laugh, and I braced myself for the attack I knew was about to happen. Sure enough, not even a second later she'd launched herself through the air, soaring straight towards us.

I rolled my girl deeper into the bushes and popped up into a crouch, launching myself straight to the vampire phasing mid leap, all in a fraction of a second. No WAY was I gonna let this blood sucker get past me. She's not gonna lay a fang on MY imprint.

We collided in mid-air, and my momentum knocked the leech back a few feet. But she was back in less than a second, trying to lung past me again. I swung my paw around and yanked my claws through her hair, dragging her back towards me and bending her neck at an awkward angle. She let out a screech, and kicked blindly out at me, but I dodged it easily.

We continued on this way for several minutes, gnashing and lashing out. She kept trying to get past me – crazed by the scent of blood - but I managed to keep her at bay.

"Guys! This leech is crazy!" I said to the guys through the pack mind. "This is probably the best fight I've ever been in, this vamp's a freakin beast!" Ordinarily I'd be psyched for such a challenge, but not with my brand new imprint on the line. So instead of reveling in the fight and striving for complete domination, I found myself wishing the vamp would just give up. Simply go away.

Through the pack mind, I could see the rest of my pack engrossed in four other vampires. No way had they just coincidently wondered onto Quileute land at the exact same time this chick did. They must be together.

"Four of them?" I thought, still struggling against the walking corpse. "That's a pretty big coven. I thought they only traveled in pairs."

"Yeah, I know. I have no idea what's going on. I've never seen an enemy coven this large." Sam thought back.

Crap. Something's going on. There's something brewing beneath the surface here, because this is NOT normal. And it's taking us completely by surprise.

"Shit. Fuck. CRAP!" I cursed in my head when I found an opportunity to look over and check up on my imprint. BUT SHE WASN'T THERE!

A chorus of "What?," and "You alright Paul? What's wrong?," rang through my head.

"SHE'S GONE! FUCKITY FUCK FUCK FUCK!" I've had a soul mate for all of five minutes and I've already lost her in a forest full of vampires.

"WHO? Who's gone?" Quil asked. He and the rest of my pack brothers were still focused on their own battles, but my frantic worry was leaking into their minds as well. They weren't real sure what I was talking about, but they knew I was seriously freaking out.

"MY IMPRINT! SHE JUST FREAKIN DISAPEARED! Oh God, oh God! WHAT IF ANOTHER VAMPIRE GOT HER?!"

"Wait, you imprinted? Congrats man!" Collin said, as usual only hearing half the information. Did he not hear me say SHE'D DISAPEARED?! THIS. IS. NOT. GOOD! If he was closer, and if I weren't so distracted, I'd rip him a new one.

"Leave it to Paul to imprint at a time like this. Jesus, the most inconvenient moment!" Jacob said. He was joking, but it was kind of true. Not that I'd go back on it of course, I just wish it had happened at a safer time when I could have turned on the old Lahote charm and, like, gotten her name.

"On that hot chick from earlier?" Seth asked as he ripped an arm of one of the male leeches across the forest. "Haha nice man."

"Shut the fuck up!" I growled, anger bubbling up inside of me and lending me a new fever for the fight against my own leech. She's mine. And I do not like people talking about her like that. Now, if only I knew who 'her' was...But I couldn't think about that now. I had to focus. "I could use some help over here if anyone gets freed up." I thought, trying to remain calm. This vamp bitch is one tough cookie.

[ Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. ]