Hey everyone! I decided that I was going to update every other Thursday until I get the rest of this story written... So I hope you like this chapter! Some of you may think I jump into the story a little too fast, but don't worry... I have a plan and this is a part of it. Please review! Seriously, good or bad, the only way I can become a better writer/incorporate your ideas for future chapters is if you review! I hope you enjoy! None of these characters belong to me, I only wish that Paul did...

New Moon, Chapter 14:

Paul twisted his head toward Jared, his lips curling back in irritation. Then he shifted his glare in my direction. Jacob took a step to put himself in front of me.

That did it.

"Right, protect her!" Paul roared in outrage. Another shudder, a convulsion, heaved through his body. He threw his head back, a real growl tearing from between his teeth.

"Paul!" Sam and Jacob shouted together.

Paul seemed to fall forward, vibrating violently. Halfway to the ground, there was a loud ripping noise, and the boy exploded.

Dark silver fur blew out from the boy, coalescing into a shape more than five-times his size—a massive, crouched shape, ready to spring.

The wolf's muzzle wrinkled back over his teeth, and another growl rolled through his colossal chest. His dark, enraged eyes focused on me.

In the same second, Jacob was running across the road straight for the monster.

"Jacob!" I screamed.

Mid-stride, a long tremor shivered down Jacob's spine. He leaped forward, diving headfirst into the empty air.

With another sharp tearing sound, Jacob exploded, too.

Chapter 1:

"Jacob no!" I yelled, trying to run after him when I was grabbed and held by two muscular arms from behind. Watching in horror, all I could see was fur and teeth as the silver and rust colored wolves attacked each other. There was nothing I wanted more than to stop them from hurting each other, but the more I struggled to get free the harder my captor held me.

"Embry, take Bella to Emily's. I need to take care of these two," Sam said, turning towards the fighting boys who had managed to take the fight from the back yard to the woods.

Laughing, Embry let go of me as soon as Sam was out of sight and began picking up scraps of clothes and shredded shoe that had been discarded in the yard. "That's not something you see every day, huh Bella?"

"Unfortunately it is something we deal with daily…. You'll get used to it, that's just the way Paul handles shit," the other boy said, coming up behind me and offering me his hand. "My name's Jared, I'm Paul's best friend. I'm sorry you had to find out this way about the pack; there's a specific protocol that's supposed to be followed… Leave it to Jake to find a way around an Alpha order," he chuckled, helping Embry pick up the pieces left behind by the boys. "Go get Sam's shoes," he called to Embry before crumbling up the scraps he had picked up and tossing them in the trash can near the end of the fence.

"You ok Bella? You don't look so good," Jared said, leaning on the truck next to me.

"Me? What about them? Why didn't you try to stop them? They could really hurt each other!" I said, the panic rushing at me as I thought of the two fighting in the forest. Instead of the guilt I half expected, my reaction was greeted with hysterical laughter from both of the boys.

"Are you serous? Jacob deserves to have a bite taken out of him for what he did to the pack! Telling you was not his place and he deserves what he gets from Paul," Jared said, shaking his head.

"Are you kidding?" Embry goaded, coming up beside us and leaning against the truck, "Jake's a natural; there's no way Paul will even leave a scratch! If anything it will be Paul coming back with permanent damage for stepping out of line."

"Paul's been fighting longer. I'll bet you ten bucks he leaves a mark."

"You're on. Jake's a natural. Paul doesn't have a prayer."

The two boys shook hands, grinning like they couldn't believe how stupid the other was for taking a sucker's bet. I tried to comfort myself, knowing that if Jared or Embry thought the fighting boys were in any serious trouble they wouldn't be joking around about what had just happened. I prayed that they would both come back unharmed, though for some reason there was a tug in my heart at the thought of any harm coming to the silver wolf.

A growling of another kind caught the boy's attention and suddenly the wolves in the forest were forgotten. "Come on Bella, let's go see Emily; she's bound to have some kind of lunch waiting. Mind giving us a ride?" Embry asked, closing in on my car door. I nodded mutely, not finding the words to say it myself.

"You better drive Embry, she looks like she's about to hurl and I've got a weak stomach," Jared said, hopping into the bed of my truck. I handed off my keys and silently crawled into the passenger seat.

We had been driving a few minutes in silence before Embry nudged my arm. "When we get to Emily's, make sure not to stare, OK? It really makes Sam mad."

"Why would I stare?" I asked, curious about what had him worried.

"Emily's scars. One of the occupational hazards of loving a werewolf," he said uncomfortably, giving me a sideways glance before turning his attention back to the road.

"And don't worry about the boys; Sam will handle them and as soon as they find themselves some new clothes they'll be back, good as new. Seriously, if there's one thing that can bring those two together it's Emily's cooking. Besides, in this pack we're a family; brothers may fight but they will always love each other and stick with each other no matter what happens."

Within seconds of pulling up to the house, a woman came out the front door to greet us. The angry red scars across her face signaled that it must be Emily, and I was thankful for the warning Embry had given me before we pulled up.

"And who is this beautiful girl?" She said, wiping her hands on the white apron that she wore and reaching for my hand to lead me into the house.

"Why Bella Swan of course!" said Embry, climbing out of the car and all but rushing to the door to beat Jared into the house.

"Paul finally told her?"

"Of course not," Jared snorted, pushing Embry out of the way and dashing into the house.

"Who then?" she asked, pulling me into the kitchen with her and placing a warm muffin in my hands as the boys started to stuff their faces with what was left on the tray in the kitchen.

"Jacob, of course" said a familiar voice coming from the other doorway in the kitchen. Paul sauntered in, heading straight for the tray of muffins, followed by Sam who was shaking his head. Sam went straight to Emily, enveloping her in his arms and nuzzling her neck, a gesture that seemed so simple yet so intimate that I had to look away. Cheeks flushed, I looked down at the muffin in my hands to distract myself from the happenings in the kitchen.

"Where's Jacob?" I couldn't stop myself from asking after I noticed his absence from the house. A low growl came from somewhere in the room and Sam shot the boys a look. "He needs some space at the moment; he went for a run to cool off until he can control his temper. That boy needs to learn to follow the rules set in place and learn not to overstep his boundaries."

"Oh."

The boys continued devouring the food at the table without signs of stopping except for Paul who caught my eye. Though it was extremely uncomfortable, the possessive way he was staring at me, I couldn't look away. His face drew me in and his eyes captivated me. I broke eye contact and looked back down at the muffin in my hand, fiddling with the paper like it was the most interesting thing I had ever seen.

The bronzed hand that was held out to me seemed to appear out of thin air, but a quick glance up showed me that it was Paul's. I hesitantly placed my hand in his and he motioned do the door. "Walk to the beach with me."

"Uh... OK?"

"I wasn't asking little girl," he muttered, dragging me out the door behind him and toward a little dirt path through the forest behind Sam and Emily's house. I tried to tug my hand out of his grasp, not liking the way he was pulling me along or the way he had spoken to me, but the harder I tried to push him away the harder and faster he pulled me behind him.

We had been walking a good ten minutes in silence before the trees started to thin out and the sound of the waves became clearer. As always, it was a cold and cloudy day, making the murky water a dark, threatening gray. I could swear that I could see a flash of red in the water about a mile out, but it must have been my imagination because Paul never said a thing about it.

"There are things I need to tell you," he started, dragging me toward a piece of driftwood on the sand and backing me into a sitting position on the log, "so just sit down and shut up until I'm finished. Then you can ask me questions or say anything you want. OK little girl? No talking."

"But..."

"No talking until I'm done"

"I don't..."

"Bella! Shut up!" He snapped, letting go of my hand and running his fingers through his hair. My mouth snapped closed and I glared at him, pursing my lips in anger. I did not appreciate his tone or the way he was speaking to me. I didn't deserve that, not from him. I was debating with myself, trying to decide if I should leave now or just wait and snap at him when he was finished talking, but he started before I had made up my mind.

"As you know, I am a werewolf. We are the wolf pack, Sam, Jared, Embry, Jacob, Seth, Leah, Quill and I," he said, pacing back and forth in the sand in front of me. I opened my mouth to ask a question, but one withering glare from Mr. Rudie Pants made me close it and glare right back. "I turned into a wolf when I was 16 and I have been one for over a year and a half now. I turned 18 a couple months ago and I am a month away from graduating high school, just like you are. I wanted to go to school to be an architect, but now that I have a responsibility to my tribe," he spit out, glaring at his shaking hands and continuing to pace before me,"I can't leave La Push. I can never leave now."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, rolling my eyes at the glare he gave me for interrupting him.

"I'm telling you this because you need to hear it from me. There are no secrets in the pack, and now that you are a member you'll be kept in the loop; you'll know all about my past whether I tell you myself or not, so its better if I tell you myself. There is this thing called imprinting. It's a fucking curse and it ruins people's lives. When one of the wolf pack sees their imprint for the first time it's like the whole world shifts and nothing means anything anymore except for the girl they imprinted on. Nothing else matters in the world except for that one other person, not family or friends, not school, not anything. It's like love at first sight but a hundred times stronger. Imprints are supposed to be cosmically made for each other; a perfect soul mate in every way. Sam thinks the point of the imprint is to mate and make the next generation of wolves stronger, but some of the elders think it's to make the wolf himself stronger. I don't know, I think it's a load of crap. I think it makes you pathetic and weak," he said, standing still and looking me straight in the eye.

"I still don't understand. Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because, Bella, I imprinted on you that day I saw you in the forest and killed that bloodsucker that was about to take a bite out of you."

"Laurent?"

"Don't tell me that was your friend," he spat, glaring at me again.

"No, not a friend. He was about out to kill me," I said, watching my words cause him to tremble again. "Wait... What does that mean? I'm your imprint? What do I have to do?"

"Nothing. You have to do nothing. Because your my imprint, I get to be anything you want me to be. A lover, a friend, or even nothing. You get whatever you want and I have to try and do anything I can to protect you and make you happy," he grumbled, sitting next to me and trying to stop the shaking in his hands.

"What about Jake?" I whispered, putting down my long forgotten muffin and watching the murky water.

"What about him?" Paul asked, popping the entire thing in his mouth and giving me a smug little smirk.

"What happened? I know he has a little crush on me, I would have to be blind not to see that, but does this mean I can't be his friend? Will he even want to be mine?"

"Little girl, I think it may be a good idea for you to spend a little time away from him. I'm not telling you not to talk to him, I would never tell you not to talk to your friend. I just think that, because this is so new to him and he doesn't know how to control his temper, it would be safer for you to give him some space for a little while. He pretty much hates me at the moment, so he may or may not take that anger out on you," he explained, stuffing the muffin paper in his back pocket.

"Why does he hate you? I thought you guys were brothers?"

"Jared told you that?" He asked chuckling, "yeah, we like to see ourselves as a big family. But sometimes when someone takes something you want, even if they don't mean to or want to, it is hard to get over. He wanted you to love him she same way he loves you; believe me, if there was a way to force an imprint he would have done it to be with you. But to have that choice taken away from him by me no less... It hurt his pride a bit. Believe me, I didn't want this. I tried as hard as I could to break it, but nothing works. I need you and it makes me sick," he said, picking up a rock from the gravelly sand beneath our feet and throwing it far into the black water.

Feeling the weight of his words hit me like a brick wall, I wrapped my arms around myself. Here was another choice taken away from me and another boy breaking my heart. Although I tried to hold myself together, I felt my eyes fill with tears as I half whimpered, "you didn't want me?"

Paul turned to look at me, studying me for a second. "To be perfectly frank, I was the last person I thought would ever imprint, let alone on a leech lover. The Cullen's are the reason that this happened to us in the first place; Vampires in the area cause the change in the men of our tribe. Because of this, I hate all vampires. For a while I hated you too, someone that loved them so desperately it literally made them sick. I thought you were weak and I couldn't stand the thought of us being soul mates. I tried for months to break the imprint, but nothing worked."

Each word our of his mouth was like a dagger to my heart. I couldn't understand why a boy I had met only a handful of times had this much of an effect on me, but it felt like the remaining pieces of my heart were shattering. Ignoring the effect his words had on me, he continued, " I kept finding myself drawn to you, running patrol by your house to keep you safe. I was even finding myself wanting to run patrol with Jake in the hope of seeing you in his thoughts, though the way he lusts after you sickens me to no end. I had finally decided to come clean with you when I saw that Jake had beaten me to the punch. I'm sorry I snapped, but I don't like people messing with things that are mine."

"I'm sorry that you're stuck with me," I said, hating myself for reasons I couldn't control.

He sighed before awkwardly taking my hand and trying to catch my eye, "I'm not. It took me a while to realize that it wasn't you I hated, it was the idea of being imprinted to someone. I hated the thought of another choice being taken away from me. When I was thirteen, my dad imprinted on a woman that wasn't my mom, running off with her and leaving mom and I behind. My mom was so heartbroken she literally drank herself to death, leaving me alone here. Sam took me in until I was old enough to live on my own. And of course you know Sam's story..."

I shook my head and he continued, "Sam and Leah were in love and engaged to be married when her cousin, Emily, came for a visit. He imprinted on her and tried to fight it, but it caused them both so much pain. After a month he gave in to the imprint and it ruined Leah. He and Emily feel so horrible about it, but it's even worse for him now that Leah's a werewolf and he has to feel what it's doing to her."

"Poor Leah," I mumble, feeling a new found sense of sorrow for the girl and guilt for ever thinking ill of her.

"Don't feel too bad for Leah... She had her heart broken, yeah, but she goes out of her way to make Sam and the rest of the pack's lives a living hell every chance she gets," he said chuckling and kicking some dirt on my shoe in hopes of lightening the mood. "Look Bella... I didn't want this, OK? After what happened with my mom, I didn't think I would ever want this... But I was wrong. The more time I spend with you the more I think this whole imprinting thing may not be so bad. You seem like a pretty cool chick, even if you do run with vampires... My wolf already loves you, of course, and I would love the chance to get to know you, but the choice is fully yours."

Before I had a chance to say anything there was an ear piercing howl and Paul snapped to attention. "Stay here, don't move. I swear to god, if something were to happen to you..." He said, taking off his shirt and running into the forest...