All Paul knew was Bella had left Jacob to go save that leech then came back almost a year later so depressed she couldn't speak. Of course, Baby Alpha just ate up whatever sob story she'd given him and forgave her. It was disgusting!
Since she came back, she hasn't left little Jakie's side. He's had her glued underneath his arm to every event, every barbeque, every bonfire, hell, even every pack meeting. Paul was fed up.
It was at another pack meeting that it all blew.
According to Alpha Sam's sacred rules, only wolves and imprints were supposed to be at pack meetings. No elders, no girlfriends, no outsiders… Yet there the little paleface bitch was, curled up underneath Jacob's arm once more like a fucking puppy. Even Jacob's imprint was in on the pity party, sitting on the bitch's other side patting her on the head. All three of them looked so fucking cozy on the brown leather sofa in Sam's living room. It made the rage-loving wolf sick.
Turning to Sam, he asked casually, as if he was asking for ice cream, "Why the fuck is the leech-lover here?"
Tense silence answered him. The little leech-lover didn't even twitch, her chocolate eyes staring vacantly at the woven rug on hardwood floors before her. He waited a beat, two, then the predictable, "Shut your damn mouth, Lahote."
Paul's eyes cut to Jacob. "Or what, Baby Alpha? You gonna grow some fucking balls?"
Eyes flashed lupine gold. Baby Alpha growled, as if that was supposed to intimidate him. "Bella has every right to be here."
"Says who?"
"Says me!"
"She doesn't!" Paul snapped, standing up. "She's not an imprint, damn sure not a wolf. She's just a leech wanna-be, draining your emotions and everyone else in the fucking pack."
Jacob leapt from the sofa and moved until his chest was pressed against his pack-mate's. Neither spoke for a moment, a silent war of dominance in their hateful glares and tense, shaking bodies. No one moved to interfere, knowing from experience that even the slightest movement might be enough for either wolf to explode - literally - in the volatile atmosphere.
After a few minutes, Paul broke the tension with a sneer, "Why doesn't Little Miss Leech speak up? For once, let her defend herself."
Nostrils flared as Baby Alpha opened his mouth, no doubt to defend her again, but he stopped. Both glanced down at the small pale hand resting lightly on Jacob's bicep. Only Paul followed the hand along the slender arm, up the long neck, to the face of the little bitch who stared their discussion. Her eyes were still focused on the rug beneath her feet which pissed him off that she couldn't even work up the nerve to look at the people whose fight she was interrupting.
Her little champion released a heavy breath before backing up two steps into his imprint's waiting arms. Bella stepped up into his vacated spot, facing Paul, and slowly lifted her head. He watched as her eyes traced up his body, steadily moving over his stomach, his chest, his neck, before pausing on his lips. Her chest lifted on the deep breath she took before her eyes continued up, crossing up his nose to finally meet his eyes.
Her chocolate gaze shattered his world, collapsing everything around him into darkness, then held him captive as it slowly rebuilt. The mountains rose around them, the water rushing loud in their minds, and finally the light returned as the world began to revolve once more, a little smaller than before as it spun hypnotically around the two alone together in its sphere of revolution.
Outside their sphere, chaos exploded in silence as the pack inferred what had occurred. Jacob's arms tightened around his imprint. Quil and Embry both rose to approach the couple, but a slashing glance from Sam stopped both in their second step, Emily's tight grasp on his hand preventing him from physically restraining them. Jared and Leah exchanged expressionless glances, neither invested enough to have a first reaction and content to wait and see the results.
Neither Paul nor Bella noticed any of this. The previously angry wolf let out a shuddering breath, the tension completely vanished from his body as his black gaze traced Bella's features, for the first time noticing all the details he'd missed the past few months since she'd been back. A large scar intersected her left eyebrow, dangerously close to her eye. Tiny puckered scars littered her cheeks, as if someone had dragged a grater across her face. Her nose was slightly crooked, a sign he knew from personal experience meant it'd been broken at least once and hadn't been set.
"What happened to you, baby girl?" he whispered as his hands rose to cup her cheeks, his thumb lightly caressing the scars nearest her lips.
His little girl slowly opened her mouth, and he waited breathless for the musical sound of her voice. It never came. Her head was tilted slightly back, her eyes on his as he stared frozen at the scar tissue inside her mouth. The longer he stared, the blurrier his sight became as his mind put words to the image in front of him. He collapsed to his knees, bringing him eye level with the sickening vision before him as he finally accepted what his mind was screaming at him. Her tongue had been ripped out.
Eyes shifted the few inches to her resigned eyes, his wolf flaring up at the bare hint of hope in the chocolate depths. His thumbs moved beneath her jaw, gently applying pressure until her mouth was closed once more, then covered her lips in a loving graze.
"I can speak enough for the both of us, baby girl," he whispered.