A/N: oohk, sorry for the late update, its february break in my town and ihve been pretty much sleeping the whole time. ihh think the only times ihve gotten up was to eat, go to my sister or brothers hockey game, and use the bathroom since ihh got back from sleeping ovr my aunts house for the first few days. hahaha. soo anyways, here's the

SEVEN: Paul's POV xfastforward – 2 weeks laterx

I still go over to see Bella every day, and I still have had no such luck as to getting her to open up and let her walls down for me. It hurt, my imprint was suffering and I didn't know why, or how to fix it. Let alone the fact that she didn't trust me enough to tell me. I knew that there was a reason for it though, and I knew that it was a damn good one too.

The hairs stood up on the back of my neck as the thunder rolled in the distance, following the crack of lightening with perfect timing.

I decided to go over Bella's; I knew that Charlie was still at the station and Bella was home alone. By the sound of the last crack of lightening, I was assuming that she had no power.

I phased quickly and sprinted to her house in my human form. I hope she'll make me food again, my stomach was snarling at me. I hadn't eaten in the last eight hours because of damn patrols.

The door was unlocked so I walked in and silently closed the door behind me. I found her sitting on the couch in the living room surrounded by candles and texting someone.

I silently walked over to the couch and sat next to her, wrapping my arms around her waist.

"Holy shit!" she screams before slapping a hand over her mouth as she begins shaking. Holy shit, was she about to phase?

xBella's POVx

Warm muscled arms wrapped securely around me, scaring the living hell out of me. I started to skate in fear; no female had seriously muscled arms like these. They were male.

What if it was Phil? What would I do? No one was close enough to me to hear my scream.

"Bella?" the voice asked. Paul, my mind tells me, it sounded like Paul.

"Paul?" I twist around to look at his face.

xPaul's POVx x(sry I know ihm switching pov alot)x

"Paul?" she asks, unsure as she twists in my arms to look at me.

"Hey," I smile at her. Her shaking slowly came to a stop. She still had the temperature of a human, so it could've been just out of fear. I was surprised when she stopped shaking and just relaxed into my embrace.

"Hi Paul," she sighs as she leans her head against my shoulder. "You scared me," she starts rambling; she's nervous. The thought that my presence makes her nervous was both good and bad to me. "I really thought it was Phil coming back to drag my ass back to Florida. I know he wouldn't hurt my mom, but apparently I'm different so I don't matter or something. It wasn't very nice of you to just sneak up on me like that, especially in the dark," she stops to take a deep breath.

"Shh," I place my hand over her mouth gently. "Its oohkay, I'm sorry, I won't do it again. And what about Phil? Hurt your mother? And of course you are important. Why wouldn't you be? You're extremely important, especially to me." I tell her.

xBella's POVx

Shiiiiiiitttttttttt. I cannot believe I just spilled my guts to him like that. Shit mother fucker, dahmmit to hell, oh Jesus Christ please help me. Maybe he won't notice, or maybe he will and just won't ask. Yeah right, not likely my mind tells me.

H slowly removes his hand as he starts talking. "Its oohkay, I'm sorry, I won't do that again. And what about Phil? Hurt your mother? And of course you are important, why wouldn't you be? You're extremely important, especially to me," he says softly, looking into my eyes as he tells me this. I'm screwed; he picked up on every single word of it. I really don't want to talk about this, so I decide to play dumb.

"What?" I ask.

"Was this Phil guy that 'Ph-' mystery man you spoke about before?" he asks. "Why are you so scared of him? Did he hurt you? And don't lie to me, I saw the bruises on your face that day I came to see you, was that from Phil?" I demand.

"No, it wasn't Phil, the marks on my face was from my clumsiness. I fell and hit the coffee table," I lie.

xPaul's POVx

"No, it wasn't Phil, the marks on my face was from my clumsiness. I fell and hit the coffee table," she says. She's lying; I can see it in her eyes.

"Bullshit, Isabella." I growl. She sights, I can tell that she doesn't exactly want to talk about it. well too bad, she needs to talk about it; she needs to get it out. She needs someone she can trust with this stuff, and I just so happen to want to be the one she trusts.

"I…he…" she struggles for words. I look into her eyes encouragingly.

"When I first got here," she whispers. I have to strain my ears to hear her, even with my wolf hearing. "when I was in the hospital, my uterus was bleeding out," she pauses.

"But that usually only happens from…" I can't bring myself to complete my sentence.

"Rape," she looks down.

"Ohh my god, Bella, I'm so sorry." I tighten my embrace around her as I feel drops of water hit my arm. I smell the salt of her tears and realize she's crying. "Who?" I ask softly as I wipe away her tears with my thumb.

"Ph…Phil," she mumbles.

"Your mother's husband?" I ask. "The baseball player?"

She merely nods.

"The bruises…?"

"Beatings from when I didn't do exactly as he said, or from when he had a bad day at practice. It always just happened. I don't know what I did to him, but they started the day I got there. Mom didn't know though, he told me that if I told her, he'd do the same to her, and if I turned him in to the cops, he'd have one of his guys torturously kill my mother while I watched before killing me." She starts to cry again.

"Well that explains a lot of my pain while you were gone," I mutter too low for her to hear.

"What?" she asks.

"Well, I imprinted on you before you left, and every day I'd feel pain somewhere on my body, it was always everywhere though, and then I'd feel this ache, this empty ache, like I was supposed to be saving someone from something. I never know what to do or who to go find and save though, I guess I know now though."

"I'm sorry," she says.

"You're sorry? Why are you sorry? I should be the one saying sorry. I'm the reason you left, and even though I felt the pain, too, I never did anything about it. I'm supposed to protect you, you're my imprint. I failed, I'm sorry." I bury my face in her hair.

"No," she puts her hand on my cheek, "Don't be; it's not your fault. Its not your job to protect me every second of every day. I was on the other side of the country for gods sake." She looks into my eyes, her hand still on my cheek.

"It is my job to protect you," I tell her. "And it doesn't matter that you were far away, I should've come to talk to you, I was lost. I should have come and brought you home." I'm mentally kicking my ass.

"It's oohkay, I...I love you all the same," she says. I sit, shocked for a moment.

"Do you really?" I ask.

"Yes," she whispers, hiding her face against my chest.

I tug her chin gently so that I can look into her eyes for a moment and see that she is telling the truth. "I love you too," I slowly lean closer to her, watching her eyes the whole time. I knew that after suffering what she's suffered it'll be difficult to trust a guy again, and I knew I'd have to take it slow for her, but I just couldn't help it; I had to kiss her.

I softly touched my lips to hers and was surprised as she responded back after her shock wore off. She didn't freak out or go crazy on me, she just moved her lips in a soft synchronization with mine.

After breaking apart to breathe, I picked her up off of the couch with one arm, pulled her phone from between the cushions of the couch and moved it to the coffee table as I sat down, back against the arm rest as I situated her between my legs on the couch, her back against me.

She hesitantly leaned her head back against my chest.

"It's oohkay," I say, kissing her forehead. "I won't bite; well, at least not you pretty girl, you're far to beautiful for me to eat." I smile as she giggles slightly.

She sighs. x(it's a happy sigh. Poor Paulie apparently doesn't know that)x

"What?" I ask worriedly.

"Nothing, it just feels so good to laugh again I feel like it's been lifetimes since I've laughed."

My stomach, of course, decides to make itself knows. Upon hearing so, my Bella jumps up and disappears into the kitchen before I even know what's happening.

"Pretty girl?" I ask as I make my way to the kitchen and pause in the door frame, watching as she beings making French toast.

"Breakfast for dinner?" she asks as I wrap my arms around her waist from behind.

"My favorite," I smile. "Wait, you have no power, hows this going to work?" I ask, dumbfounded.

"Gas stoves don't need electricity to work smarticle." she grins up at me.

"Oohkay, sounds good to me," I smile back down to her.

"Well good," she mutters as she dips the first piece into her cinnamony smelling egg concoction. She drops it into the pan and taking out three more pieces of bread and doing the same before turning around to face me.

"It smells good," I tell her as she smiles up at me.

"Mhm," she mutters as she stands on her toes, pulling my head down for my lips to meet hers. I was shocked at her actions, but hey, I wasn't complaining.

I was so distracted by the fell of Bella's lips on mine that I didn't even hear my pack brother enter until he spoke.

"Jesus, will you quit sucking face with my like, sister?" I break away to glare at Embry Call. "Hey man," he greets. "I was just getting off of patrol and smelled mad food," I grinned as a pink faced Bella spun around in my arms, her back to me, my arms still around her waist to flip the first four French toasts.

"I guess I can share my French toast with you," I allow slowly. "But pretty girl here, she's all mine." I grin as Bella produces a wooden spoon out of no where and smacks my arm with it, only for it to disappear again.

"Hey!" I fake pout as she turns back around to face me, laughing.

"Your face is gonna get stuck that way," she grins as I slowly drop the façade and grin.

"Yo, food," Embry reminds us loudly as Bella chucks a wooden spoon at him.

"That's my girl," I smile as she twists back around to take the first four French toasts out of the pan. She produces two plates and places them on one, covering them with the other.

"You're waiting until they're all done to eat," she scolds Embry as she slaps his hand away from his attempt to sneakily steal them away.

"How'd you know I was taking them?" he asks.

"I have eyes in the back of my head," she grins, flipping the toasts over.

"Grnalrkhslkshtk," Embry grumbles as I hear a faint vibrating from the other room.

"Shit," Bella mutters as she runs into the other room to retrieve her phone.

"Hello?" she answers.

Hi Bella! I hear Angela's voice on the other end.

"Hey Ang! What's up?" she asks.

We need to start doing some stuff for the wedding. I still have to find your dress and bridesmaids dresses including getting them fitted and everything, plus practice, plan some, and everything else. She panics.

"Oohkay, Ang, take a deep breath. Breathe, calm down, and come over my house. I'm making some French toast for Paul and Embry now, so bring your plans and laptop and get your butt over here, oohkay?" she asks as she reappears in front of me to take the French toast off the burner, only to be replaced by more.

Oohkay, see you in a few. Thanks, bye. Ang hangs up.

Bella sighs. "Embry, I need to get me the eggs from the fridge, and then run to the store and pick up two more loaves of bread and two cartons of eggs. I'll pay you back when you get back with it all."

"Oohkay," embry exits the house and I listen as he runs off.

"I swear to you Bells, you're like momma wolf." I grin as she whacks me with her wooden spoon once again.

"And why do you say that?" she asks.

"Because you take care of us and you feed us, and somehow all of us listen to you, we do what you want. Somehow." I smile as she turns to look up at me.

"Really?" she asks. I merely nod. "But isn't that Emily's job? Hasn't that been her for the past…however long she's been Sam's imprint?"

"Yes, I think you guys get to share. You both take good care of us, but you really take it to the extreme measures. You really get us," I look into her eyes. "Down in your heart," I whisper as I lean in to kiss her.

I pull back and she giggles, turning around to switch the French toasts.

"Hey," Embry bounds back in with the bread and eggs.

"Hey Embry, thanks. Money is in the left cabinet above the microwave in the 'food money jar.'" She says.

"Nah," he refuses. "It's on me." She glares at him so he puts his hands up. "It's on me," he repeats.

"Fine," she grumbles as I hear Sam's distinct howl from the woods.

"Fuck, I'm sorry Bells, but that's Sam, we got to run. I'll be back soon, I promise." I kiss her gently.

"Love you," she whispers.

"Love you too, I'll be back in a bit." I press my lips to hers once more before running into the woods to meet up with the boys.

Yo, sup? I ask as I pick up Sams scent and follow him in.

Who are you? There's more? I hear a frantic voice ask as I phase in.

This is cool. Hey, what are we? Another asks.

Sam responds to this question. Collin and Brady phased.

xA/N: oohk, sorry ihh know ihh already updated this story, but ihh forgot to add in this little note. lohl. ihm looking for a few new characters, so if you want to be one, send me a complete physical discription in ur review with a name if you can think of one. if not, ihm sure ihh can find one. if you want to just add a name to the story, ihm sure ihh can make someone up with said name. lohll. so, lehmme know :D go ahead and press that shiny yellow and blue button just below here...you know you want ttoo :Dxxblondie628