This story will contain mature themes(sexual, emotional, physical abuse) It is a lot less about the structure of pack life than it is, life around the pack. I understand the subject is a sensitive one but I have tried to approach it in a way that I hope is respectful and accurate. As an Aboriginal person(Native, Canadian born.) I have personally faced some of these issues growing up in a smaller community(A reserve with a growing population of about 1700 it really is an issue on many reserves as I am sure it is in many other places, sadly it has been a way of life for many for far too many years and is only recently being addressed as is with the rest of society.) and understand that the content might be hard for some to read, please note that these themes will continue throughout the story.) Do let me know if you feel that I might have handled a subject in poor taste and I will do my best to edit those pieces out, thank you
1. Making Sense. (PPOV)
Not in this lifetime or in any other lifetime for that matter, could this be possible. Paul shook his head as he stared down at the tiny girl in front of him. There was absolutely no fucking way this was his imprint, that shit happened to pansy assed mama's boys like Quil, not to him. It was as if the walls were closing in on him, he was having a hard time breathing and he couldn't remember it being like this in Sam, Jared or even Quil's memories, this wasn't right. It was like he was being sucked into a black hole and could find no escape, it made him anxious and afraid, two things Paul Lahote had rarely if ever, experienced.
There were approximately five other people crammed into the tiny store, the four aisles were jammed together too tightly for him to be able to just squeeze by the kid without knocking her over. It was suddenly too hot, even for him and he just needed to get the hell out of there. He kept looking at the cashier, she was the store owner, one of Jared's aunties as if she could help him. She didn't seem to notice that he was currently having some sort of panic attack. The internal battle he was having with himself was scaring him, his wolf was thankfully the calm one, keeping him in check. Beads of sweat were rolling off him, why the hell did he wear a shirt today? He had to calm down. The voice in his head, the one he thought of as his wolf wanted him to make sure the child was alright, the sane part of him refused to allow this vampire killing beast have its way. Too fucking bad. He did however calm down enough to look at her.
The girl had big brown eyes and short choppy brown hair, it looked like she had cut it herself with broken scissors. There was a faded bruise on her tiny jaw, he could tell she was not alright, she looked to be about five or six years old, her clothes were too big for her and they looked and smelt like they hadn't been washed in a while. He had gone his whole 19 years not giving a fuck about anyone else but himself and a split second turned his whole world upside down. There was a war happening within him, even he knew that this child was in obvious need of protection but maybe he could call a social worker or something, he wasn't about to become some kid's nanny like Quil was, he couldn't be tied to some helpless child…there was no way.
"Listen here kid, I don't know where your mommy and daddy are but you better run home and find them alright? You shouldn't be wandering around here alone anyway, do you know what kind of monsters are lurking around here just looking for kids to-"
"My mommy left and my daddy went to find her." He hadn't expected her to say anything and he flinched because she sounded wounded, he remembered that feeling all too well. Paul gave his head a shake and scanned the aisles, she couldn't possibly be here alone and he wasn't about to make this kid his problem, he had enough of those to last him the rest of his miserable existence.
"Well are you here with a brother or sister, a cousin or aunty or uncle or something, come on kid, you cant be much older than what…" He frowned as he thought about it. "Six?" She smiled and nodded and he noticed that even her teeth were in poor condition, he was feeling worse with every passing second, he wasn't going to abandon this child but he wasn't about to kidnap her either, that was insane. He was so fucked.
"My granny sent me to get milk." She stopped smiling and he felt bad, he didn't want to be giving the poor girl a complex. He nodded and sighed, this was definitely not how he planned on spending his Saturday afternoon, he had come to pick up some eggs for Emily and then he was supposed to go to the beach, now he felt obligated to make sure this kid, his imprint or whatever she was to him, made it home safely.
He grabbed the largest jug of milk and a few cartons of eggs and walked to the counter to pay for it, she followed him around like a tiny shadow and he rolled his eyes, he was definitely not prepared for this. She handed him her crumpled five dollar bill and he chuckled.
"Its okay, I'm sure your granny and you could use the money for milk next time huh?" She smiled again and nodded. Paul had no idea how he was going to explain this to whatever grandmother this child belonged to. As he walked out of the store with the little girl, whose name he didn't even know yet on his tail, he bumped into none other than the leech lover, he wanted to tell her to watch where the fuck she was going but not in front of a kid, that was too much even for him. Bella looked scared, as she always did when he was around. She turned pink and flapped her hands in front of her nervously as she mumbled an apology.
"Oh god, I'm sorry Paul." She noticed the little girl standing behind him and then looked up at him, right in the eye and it was weird because it was the first time he'd really looked at her and that feeling was back and he felt like he couldn't breathe again. Was this some sort of sick joke? Was he actually imprinting twice in the same day? Bella sucked in a breath and blinked, she looked like a deer trapped in headlights and he needed to phase but his wolf stilled him once again, he took a breath.
"Did you just…" Bella frowned but she hadn't taken her eyes off him yet, he couldn't seem to look away like last time, it was as if he'd literally been torn into two and couldn't pull himself back together. "Did you just imprint on me?" She finally asked. He was sort of glad she was a leech lover who knew about their secret, it was going to make explaining things slightly easier. Paul finally managed to look away, to check on the little girl who seemed to be fascinated by what was happening in front of her. Clearing his throat he looked back to Bella and shrugged because he wasn't entirely sure this was an imprint.
"Honestly I don't know. It sort of happened with her too…" He looked back at the girl. "It was different though, like I need to help her, not her need for me…" Paul shut his eyes, he could feel the headache coming on, this was all sorts of fucked up. Bella tilted her head a little to look at the girl before looking back at him and nodding.
"Okay…" She stood there looking thoughtful for a moment and he couldn't look at her, oh he wanted to but he wasn't sure how to process this sudden attraction to a girl he never gave the time of day to and this overwhelming need to protect this child he had only met moments ago. "-I'm sure it will eventually make sense but right now…" she hesitated, searching he guessed for an explanation, she looked back at the girl. "Well right now maybe I can help you bring this little lady home."
Paul nodded, thankful for the help, he had never paid much attention to Bella before, he knew she was best friends with Jacob and that she was always hanging around Emily's, she had come out of her "zombie phase" somewhere over a year ago after her vampire boyfriend left her. Jacob was probably going to be annoyed that Paul had suddenly imprinted on her after all this time, it wasn't like it was his fault, plus he had other shit to worry about, like the fact that he may have also imprinted on a six year old kid.
"I'm Bella and I'm sure Paul here meant to introduce himself at some point if he hasn't already, what's your name?" He was really glad she was there now though, it was like Bella showed up when he needed her and that was even more fucked up. The little girl smiled brightly at her.
"My name is Wendy." The three of them walked down the front road, Bella still talking to Wendy, they approached a run down house, Bella's smile had faded but she managed to keep whatever worry she had off her face, Paul on the other hand stiffened up completely. They were at old Benny and Sheila's place, everyone knew they ran their own kids off the rez and were probably two of the biggest drunks in the small community.
"Is your gramma home Wendy?" Bella was studying the little girl now, he could see her jaw tighten as she spotted the fading bruise. Wendy had her head down but she nodded. "Would it be okay if I walked you inside, just to let her know you're safe?" The little girl looked absolutely terrified at the idea, Paul thought maybe she thought she was in trouble and that made his chest tighten. "I promise you're not in trouble." Wendy looked up at Bella and nodded and practically dragged herself step by agonizing step to the door. Before they even turned the knob, the door flew open and an older man wearing nothing but boxers stood in front of them. Paul could feel a growl rising, all his instincts were telling him to pick both Wendy and Bella up and get the hell out of there but he couldn't.
"Who the fuck are you!" It was Benny and he reeked of alcohol. Both Bella and Wendy flinched but Paul didn't move a muscle. The old man seemed to notice he was there and straightened himself out. "I know you…" His face contorted, he looked like he was disgusted at Paul. "You're one of Billy's protectors…" The man must have been filled to the brim with liquid courage because he stepped forward and spat on Paul. There was a whole ten seconds where Paul could swear his brain broke, the wolf and man were stunned silent, no one had ever had enough balls to even get that close to him, he could hear Bella's shallow breaths and Wendy's whimpers from somewhere behind him. This man would be easy enough to tear apart with his bare fingers but somewhere in the working part of his mind he knew that was a bad idea. Instead of tearing out his throat, like he wanted to Paul wiped the spit from his face with the shirt he was wearing. He took careful, slow steps toward the man, leaning forward so they were face to face he took a breath and made sure his voice was low enough so Wendy wouldn't hear.
"I'm going to tell you this one time. I can hear, see and smell everything that goes on around here, I've got eyes and ears everywhere, if you so much as breathe near that little girl again I will come back here and give you the slowest, most painful death possible. I know you've heard the stories, stumbled across the tracks in the woods…" Paul could smell the fear coming off him now, there it was-because everyone on the reserve had heard the stories, and they should be afraid. "I can smell the filth you and your wife think you're hiding in here. You think the whole town doesn't know about what you did to your kids?" Paul let out a low growl. "We know." The very thought of leaving this girl here made his stomach twist in painful knots and he knew what he had to do, he was going to call Charlie as soon as they left there had to be something he could charge the bastard with, and then he was going to talk to Billy because there was no fucking way he was going to allow these people to hurt any child ever again, especially not this one.
Trembling the man nodded and backed away, he didn't meet Paul's eyes again, he did motion for Wendy to get back in the house. Bella's eyes were wide as she stared at the man then back to Paul. He noticed that she was holding onto Wendy's hand and her grip seemed to tighten as the old man grunted at his granddaughter, what didn't make sense only an hour ago seemed to fall into place in that moment. Paul walked back to where they both stood and kneeled down and lowered his voice so only Wendy and Bella could hear him.
"You know where Mr. Black lives?" He hoped she did, the tiny girl nodded and he felt a little more relieved. "How about Emily Young?" Wendy nodded again and he could feel himself calming down. "I want you to know that you can go to either of those houses if you feel afraid or if he tries to hurt you again okay?" The little girl nodded quickly, she hugged Bella's waist before running into the house. It took him a full thirty five seconds to move from the front steps, Bella stood there staring at the door like she wanted to break it down, she didn't seem like the fragile girl Jake thought about all the time and this draw to her was beginning to make more sense to him.
"We need to call your dad and then a social worker, it would be best to find a home for her on the reserve or in forks, we need to get her out of there as fast as possible." He was firm in this and Bella nodded before pulling out her phone, they walked quickly and he didn't really care what the pack thought of this weird imprint situation he had suddenly been thrown into, to him it made sense to him and that's all that mattered.
AN: It has been a long time since I've posted a story here and I probably should have gone back and edited my old ones before trying to add another but I just couldn't help myself. Another Paul and Bella Story, because I don't know how to write anything else...apparently. I have several chapters written for this story and am going to do my best to keep a chapter coming once a week, seems manageable right? Lol We shall see. I understand the content is pretty dark and it will probably get worse before it gets better...so I urge you to stick with it for a resolution...which is my idea of an ending because happy endings don't just happen right? Okay that was a long enough note...
