author's note: hey beautiful readers. This chapter might be one my favourites I think it gives a glimpse into my version of Paul's character after ten years and I like hoping that you will 2. I want to think my Beta heroicunicorn99 for Beta-ing this, you're absolutely great.

Furthermore I want to thank strippedraw, KamAnDa, Kitty-Alphabet, and Livvie19 for the faves and/or follows. Thank you so much for reading this. And hey really mean a lot to me.

if you are reading this, you're reading my story I appreciate it and I thank you for it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

-Xx-

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Rae-Rae

"He's having a hard time adjusting to preschool," Leah said with a sigh, the concern for her 2 year old finally showing. She loved her son more than anybody else in this world, and his well-being was one of the most important things to her.

"Karen called you too?" Jacob asked, as leaned against the counter.

At 26, Jacob had finally grown and matured into the Alpha he was always meant to be. Leah was amazed and thankful that he had grown into such a wonderful leader, husband, and father.

"Yes, she said he's still sulky everytime we leave," Leah said, and nervously bit her bottom lip.

Jacob crossed the kitchen in two long strides and wrapped his beautiful she-wolf in his arms.

Leah might have seemed tough, but she was quite mushy on the inside. It showed when she talked about her son.

Jacob and Leah were not an imprinted couple, but Leah bore Jacob's mate mark.

A mate mark was when you exclusively claimed a woman as your own and she therefore in any sense of the word became your property.

It was binding.

Most imprinted couples eventually got mate marks, but not every imprinted couple felt the need to be bound like that.

Imprinting and Mate marking were far off from each other and bore more consequences and issues for the women, but Leah and Jacob had known a week into their relationship that they needed more intimacy.

They needed to know each other on a basic and animalistic level.

The mate mark did that for them.

Leah leaned into her husband and buried her face into his chest.

She often wondered if going back to work so soon was a good idea.

She wondered if she should just stay home with William for a couple more years, at least until he was the right age for kindergarten.

"I'm sure he's just unfamiliar with it Lee. Come on, give our little boy some more credit, he's a fighter remember?" Jacob said with a chuckle, "Just like his mom."

William was born prematurely, and there were a few weeks they weren't sure if he was going to make it. Despite that, their baby boy fought through it, and here he was; about to celebrate his third birthday in three months.

"Maybe you're right," Leah sighed, ever since they'd gotten the mark, arguing with Jacob and disagreeing with him became a hell of a lot harder. She supposed that's why she and many other women in their pack usually just shut up when their men were having conversations. It saved them the fighting effort.

Debating and arguing were a lot harder when you had to fight your husband and the instinct to instantly obey him.

In some ways, Leah could understand why there were imprinted women who chose not to have their imprints mark them.

There were some women in the past for which the mark had ended in tragedy.

"I'm always right," Jake answered and smirked.

Leah slapped her palm into Jacob's forehead and snorted, "You're such a Dork."

Jacob smiled and kissed her sweetly, "But I'm your dork."

Leah snorted again at her husband, and ran her hands through his hair, thinking about what Jacob had done for her. How Jacob had brought her from being this bitter bitch to this positive, lovesick, confident woman who ran a business.

She would be six feet under without Jacob.

Leah got brought out of her musings when rapid knocks sounded at the door. Both Leah and Jake sniffed the air and they could clearly smell Paul, though his signature musky scent was layered under a blanket of the sour smell that they recognized as anger.

Jacob sighed and laid his forehead against Leah's. Leah smiled and kissed him once more. "Go, before P knocks down our door."

Jake snorted, and rolled his eyes as he backed away from his wife, "He won't unless he wants to be knocked down himself."

He walked out of the kitchen, followed by the sound of Leah's laughs. Walking over to the door, the Alpha wondered if there was an emergency. Paul hadn't knocked on his door like this since Kayla told him she was pregnant.

That alone was a whole ordeal, but he had been there for Paul and they had talked all night about what kind of father Paul would be. And now, four years later, Paul was an amazing father. Most of the Pack dad's went to him for advice. Even Jacob had found himself asking Paul for parenting advice on several occasions.

He opened the door and Paul immediately stormed in and without letting Jacob say a word he blurted out. "I imprinted."

Jacob blinked in surprise, and could faintly pick up Leah's surprise snort and then the distinct sound of liquid spraying over a surface.

Jacob was Alpha, and therefore he knew his pack mates intimately.

He knew how to handle every situation because he knew them so well, their personalities were engraved into him.

And it was because he knew Paul so well that he knew, that no matter what, he could not react the same way with Paul as he did with the others.

Looking at Paul's face right now. He knew that Paul was Angry. Angry, with a capital 'A'.

Even after ten years, Paul still hadn't learned how to take control of that vicious Animalistic anger.

Jake nodded, closed the front door and hummed, "Want a beer?" He asked, to nobody in particular as he made his way to the kitchen. There, Leah stood doing the dishes, her mind going a mile a minute. He knew her well enough to know she was bursting with questions.

Jacob ignored his wife, grabbed two beers and walked back into the living room where Paul was already pacing the room, his anger pulsing around him. Jacob was so receptive to his packmates as the Alpha that he could practically touch Paul's anger.

"Here," he said calmly, as he handed Paul the beer and sat down on his lazy chair.

Jacob was completely ready to talk some sense into Paul before they addressed the key issues. Somebody needed to be calm and level-headed.

Paul paced some more and took a large swig of the beer.

"I imprinted." He repeated.

Jake said nothing but watched Paul take another swig, debating on what type of approach was best for Paul. He was a complicated person, and unlike with Jared and Embry, he supposed a congratulations would be inappropriate. Paul wouldn't take it well.

Now, looking at how Paul's eyes were flashing from green to yellow and back, Jacob realized that while Paul wasn't particularly happy about this, his wolf was even more so displeased.

Paul's pacing had even caught Jake's wolf's attention and he could feel the other part of himself that was the Alpha wolf map out solutions in his head. Jacob's wolf wasn't very aggressive, but he was dominant, commanded attention, required subordination and demanded respect.

Jacob himself knew that as Alpha, respect was a big deal. Luckily, in the ten years Jacob had been Alpha, he was able to establish this early on.

Now, when there was the occasional "Paul incident" (as Leah dubbed it), his wolf wouldn't even bat an eye.

It was his ironclad fist that made Jacob the only wolf Paul respected. Jacob had no mercy, and even now that he was older he was still just as stern.

It did, however, take Jacob a while to take control of that dominant nature. A couple of years ago he would've beat the shit out of Paul, if only for coming around his family with that kind of aggression.

However, he realized that his aggressive nature should not be allowed near those who could be hurt by it. Now he was older. He knew better, but he also knew that if Paul stepped one tone out of line, he would crash his head into the floorboards.

"On who?"

Paul stopped drinking for a moment and dragged the back of his hand over his mouth slowly before hissing. "Kamenna's granddaughter."

Jacob closed his eyes in exhaustion. Paul was gonna get a lot of crap for this.
"Kamenna's granddaughter?"

Paul shot him a look and took another long swig, conveniently long enough for Leah to walk into the living room with a beer, and switch the empty one in Paul's hand out for a new one before retreating silently back to the kitchen. Paul seemed to not even notice as he took another long swig from the new bottle.

Jake whistled and took a swig of his beer.

By this point, he definitely needed one.

Scratch that, he thought, I might be in need of some whiskey.

"This is not going to end well, The elders aren't going to like this."

Paul scoffed, "I don't care about the Damn Elders."

He didn't care about the elders.

The Elders had no right to make any decisions for him, they didn't really care about him or the other wolves. Everybody knew the council just wanted the wolves around to protect their asses.

Jacob watched Paul for a moment. The wolf part seemed quiet, and Paul was deeply immersed in his own thoughts.

"She was sick."

Jacob frowned.

Paul seemed deadly serious and scared as he stared at his Alpha.
"What do you mean she was sick?"

"I mean, she looked like she was about to die."

There was a haunting tone to his voice that made Jacob shiver. Jacob could only imagine what it would feel like to watch your imprint go through it. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to see Leah go through that.

"I've been inside your head Jake, I know what imprinting looks like. This was not the same."

Jacob held back his urges to wrap his arms around his packmate. Right now, he was being Alpha, and even though he'd never seen Paul hurt like this, he couldn't blur the lines between Alpha-wolf Jacob and Family Jake.

"Paul, when you say she looked sick, what exactly do you mean?" Jake asked, his eyes flashing a yellow so riveting it made Paul snap back into the present.

He'd broken his beer bottle in anger, and was once again, riding a fine line between catching the Alpha wolf's attention for insubordination.

"She said she couldn't breathe. And she kept clutching her chest and just flapping around like a fish out of water."

Jacob growled lowly.

"It's been ten damn years and still new things pop up every day."

Jacob took another swig of his beer. Paul sighed and watched as Leah finally stepped into the living room, a plastic bag in hand and a compassionate look in her eyes.
Jacob glanced at his wife, silently asking her for advice through their bond.

Naturally, she spoke up as she always did. Jacob would never dare to stop her. There were some lesser sides to this mate mark, but he wouldn't ever take advantage of it. He loved his wife way too much for that.

"P, It's up to you. We can't decide how to deal with your imprint and we know that you don't want the council involved in your matters. If you need us to take care of it with the council we will. But if you don't, then we'll leave you to it."

Jacob looked at Leah with wide eyes. He couldn't believe that she was actually suggesting they leave Paul to his own devices.

Paul had a bad attitude.

Was basically a sexist.

And very aggressive.

He couldn't just allow a guy like him to deal with his own imprint. It was like setting the spark on a bomb and then walking away hoping it would burn itself out.

Leah glanced at her husband and reached out through their bond. Urging her husband to trust her on this. No matter what, Paul was finally giving off a sense of calm like he knew exactly what to do about this.

Leah wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. She was willing to trust him on this, and because she was the Alpha female she could.

"Thank you, Lee, I got this."

Leah nodded, "Seriously Paul, anytime."

Paul nodded and took another swig of his beer before he set it down.

"She has a nice face."

Jacob snorted, "What?"

Leah scoffed, "And that's my cue to once again, retreat into the kitchen." She grabbed the broken beer bottle and left.

Paul shrugged, "Her face . . . I like it."

Jacob frowned, "I-I ... Dude, you've got major issues, but, to each their own I guess."
Paul shrugged and ran a nervous hand through his hair.

XXXX

Elae

My dad had been a Christian when he was alive. Naturally, that made all of his children Christians.

The thing was, I'd never desired to be a Christian. I didn't know if I believed in God or not, and I didn't know if I wanted to pursue and worship someone I might not believe in.

Lately, my grandmother had been lending me amazing books about our people and the spirits and the great Taha aki.

I wanted so much to just break free from the expectations put on me by my parents, but I couldn't, and I probably wouldn't ever be able to. Since my father died, I felt obligated to honor his life by following his God. And it left me unable to break away from them.

That left me here, on a Sunday in the grocery store buying groceries so my grandmother could cook an amazing roast dinner for us.

My mother and sister had attended church. I had lied and told them that Noni needed help.

And even though my Noni knew I was only lying so I didn't have to to,

My Noni still made me help.

"Are you sure you need that much mayonnaise?"

I frowned and looked down at my cart only to see that I'd been filling up the grocery cart with pots of Mayonnaise.

"Oh no, I don't. Uhm, I'll just put that right back." I said nervously and without looking up at the man who had so kindly pointed out that I was overstocking my cart.

"Here, I'll get those."

Before I knew it, a gigantic, muscled hand reached into my cart and was putting the pots of Mayonnaise back in their place two at a time.

I finally decided to look up at the owner of those huge hands and was met with a very kind and gorgeous face, and even kinder eyes, that looked like they shone only for me.

I suddenly felt like I was floating.

I recognized this feeling. It was the feeling of getting carried away.

Not only because I was floating, but because I actually felt like my heart was about to burst out of my chest just by looking at this man.

"You know, I was just walking by and noticing you stuffing your already stuffed cart full of pots of Mayonnaise. Just felt like your spirit left your body for a minute there."

Gorgeous face, kind eyes, beautiful voice.

The list kept growing and I was pretty sure that this was the most attention I had ever gotten from a guy that wasn't related to me.

"Jared," He said and held out his hand for me to shake, the kind smile was still plastered on to his face and it made my stomach all jiggly inside.

"Elaery," I whispered, not knowing what to say. I didn't shake his hand either.

"Well Elaery, just remember not to leave the bodily vessel unattended in public," He said, chuckling, then left, just as quickly as he had come.

I just stood there.

Holding mayonnaise.

Thinking about him.

Jared.