Saturday was mostly spent at Emily's, hanging out with the girls and any guys that stopped by. However, Lilly went home for dinner, since she felt she hadn't seen her Grandma much in the past week. After she ate, she took a quick shower and decided to get some reading in for her English class, since she had a quiz over the next two chapters on Tuesday. She had no doubt that Paul would approach her by the start of class Tuesday to get a brief synopsis of the content.
Around 10:30, Lilly decided to call it a night, returning her book to her backpack and falling into bed, Dash curling up at her side.
It felt like she'd only just closed her eyes when they flashed open again. She sat up quickly, her blanket falling to her waist, as she quickly scanned the dark room with her eyes.
They landed on her alarm clock, which flashed 1:35 AM.
Lilly sighed, looking around her room as she tried to figure out what woke her up. Out of nowhere, a shiver ran violently up her spine, making her arms wrap around her middle in an attempt to stifle it.
A second later a sharp howl ripped through the sky, making her head snap toward her bedroom window.
It didn't sound like a good howl. It sounded like one of the howls the guys let out just before the rest of the pack bolted out the door.
Lilly tried to fall back asleep, but it was difficult. It wasn't until about four in the morning before she finally drifted off.
XXX
The next morning Jake arrived bright and early to pick Lilly up to take her to Emily's for breakfast. Well, it was bright and early to her, at 9:00 in the morning on a Sunday. She went willingly, but scowled tiredly the whole time, still not missing the fact that Jake was on edge.
When they got in his car she kept her eyes fixed on his profile, noting how his jaw ticked with tension and his hands kept re-gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles.
She also noticed he kept glancing at her from the corner of his eyes.
Finally, he sighed, his whole posture deflating with his eyes fixed on the road ahead. "Why are you staring at me?" he asked tiredly.
Lilly bit her lip, contemplating what she even wanted to ask. Finally, she pulled her phone out of her jean pocket and typed out, 'I heard howling last night'. She held her hand toward him patiently.
His eyes left the road for a second, flicking over to read the small screen. He sighed when he looked back to the road, knowing what she wanted without her needing to ask. Heck, he knew what she wanted before he even asked.
"Last night…this redheaded vampire we've been chasing for a while ran through the area. The Cullens were chasing her, too, on their territory. Damn leech knew what she was doing, jumping back and forth over the border to get away from us. After a while the big Cullen followed her over the border onto our land and crashed into Paul. Paul almost went after him, but the other Cullens showed up and we probably would've had a fight on our hands 'cept the Doctor talked us down. Unfortunately, the redhead got away because of that."
Lilly's brow furrowed in concern at the thought of a human-drinking vampire running rampant in the area.
Jake glanced at her and seemed to understand what she was thinking. "Don't worry. The redhead usually disappears for a couple weeks at least until she comes back. She's pretty tricky but as soon as we show up her first instinct is to run, that seems to be all she's good at. Getting away. So you're pretty safe as long as you stay out of the woods, and preferably stay on the rez."
Lilly nodded in understanding, turning to face forward in time to realize they'd turned onto the wooded path that lead to Sam and Emily's house, coming to a stop in front of the small home.
Lilly climbed out and followed Jake up to the house, where they found most of the pack in the kitchen.
Seth, Jared, and Embry were laughing and messing around, stealing each other's food; Sam was leaning against the kitchen counter next to the stove, eating out of his plate, while Emily was making something on the stove; and Paul was sitting at the table with the guys, but he was glaring at his food. Leah and Quil were nowhere to be seen, probably on patrol.
Jake went right for the huge serving bowl of scrambled eggs and giant plate of bacon on the counter, taking a smaller plate and piling the food on.
"You better not eat all of it, Jake. Lilly needs to eat, too." Emily pointed out, smiling at Lilly over her shoulder.
Jake glanced back at Lilly before grudgingly stepping back from the food and waving her forward. Jared and Sam hid their smirks by eating as Lilly approached the food, giving Jake a smile.
She piled about half the amount of food a wolf ate onto her plate before going to the table and sitting between Seth and Paul. She noticed throughout the meal that Paul remained unusually quiet, simply devouring his food without so much as a sarcastic comment or wisecrack. Lilly also noticed that Sam and Jared glanced at him a few times, as if they knew what was bothering him.
She had a bit of an idea what was wrong.
As soon as he was done, Paul dumped his plate in the sink and walked out the back door. The guys were all finished before Lilly and went their separate ways; Sam stayed in the kitchen with Emily, Jared left to get Kim, and Embry, Seth, and Jake went to the living room to watch TV.
When Lilly was finished eating a few minutes later, she stood up and had to reach around Emily to place her plate in the sink. Before she left she quickly wrapped her arms around Emily's midsection in a tight hug. Emily chuckled lightly, hugging Lilly back just as tightly for a few moments before Lilly pulled back. She smiled at both Emily and Sam before leaving the room and entering the living room where the others were.
The guys were taking up the whole couch, Seth leaning forward and watching a sports game eagerly while Jake and Embry were relaxed into the back of the couch.
Lilly's eyes flickered to the back door and spotted the top of someone's cropped, black hair.
Instead of sitting down like she'd planned, Lilly crossed the room to the back door and quietly turned the knob, opening the door and slipping outside. The door clicked shut quietly, but she knew he heard her. She crossed the short, back porch and took a seat on the top step next to Paul.
They sat in silence, staring out into the trees, lost in their own thoughts. Part of Lilly considered coming back to this spot later to draw a sketch of the shadowy trees and worn pathway.
"I'm assuming Jake told you what happened last night." Paul stated simply.
Lilly turned her head to see him still staring ahead into the trees. She didn't answer, or nod her head. He already knew the answer.
"That leech was on our land." Paul snarled, his lips drawing back to reveal his teeth for a moment before falling back into a thin line. "The head leech claimed he was in No Man's land, but that's crap. I know our territory like the back of my hand, the whole pack does, and that parasite landed on our territory. I was in every right to take him down."
Lilly nodded in agreement. From what Jake had said, as well as the little tidbits she'd heard from the guys at breakfast, it sounded like they were all in agreement on the fact that the one Cullen had landed on the pack's territory, which violates the Treaty. And in any fair Treaty, if one side is in violation of their agreement, the other side has every right to retaliate to protect their land and families.
Paul turned his head to look down at her. "Why are you out here, anyway? I'm surprised the guys are letting you sit with the hothead without any kind of supervision."
They both looked over their shoulders and through the window next to the back door. Sure enough, Jake and Embry were watching them both closely, looking away rather quick when they were caught.
Lilly laughed quietly, causing Paul to smirk a bit as they both turned around.
"Sam almost put me on extra patrols as punishment for 'almost starting a war', but deep down he agreed that they were the ones in the wrong. Jake knew from the leech lover that the big Cullen and the blondie are mates, and if I killed him his mate would've gone insane. We're already having issues with the redhead because of that, we don't need the same problem, along with the entire coven backing blondie up."
Lilly nodded but was still confused. When Paul noticed her furrowed brow, he went into further detail, "The redhead we've been chasing for a while wants to kill Bella because her Cullen killed the redhead's mate. An eye for an eye."
Lilly nodded slowly, not really liking the fact that this Bella was causing yet another problem. First, she breaks Jake's heart by leaving him first chance she gets, then she brings a human-drinking Cold One into the area who's causing problems for the pack.
Paul suddenly chuckled and Lilly looked up. "What's with the face?" he asked in amusement, and Lilly realized she'd been wrinkling her nose.
Not wanting to explain her thought process, she pulled out her phone and typed out, 'Who named her leech lover?'
Paul glared teasingly. "I did. Why, you gotta problem with it?" he joked.
Lilly grimaced and typed out, 'It's ok'.
"'Okay'? And I suppose you can come up with something better?" Paul asked in amusement, turning to sit sideways with his back against the post, arms crossed, one leg bent up on the porch with him, and the other foot on the next step down.
Lilly looked up thoughtfully. Vampires went by lots of names, especially in the packs' case. Vampires, Cold Ones, leeches, bloodsuckers, ticks she'd even heard Paul call them a corpse once. What kind of name could she give Bella that wasn't using the word 'leech'. Playing around with words for a moment, her face literally lit up as an idea popped into her head.
She quickly typed out, 'Vamp tramp' on her phone and held the screen out for Paul to see. He took one look at the words and burst out laughing, his eyes bright with amusement and mischief as he practically curled in on himself. His laughter was contagious as Lilly soon joined in. They were laughing for a good minute before someone cleared their throat.
They turned to see Jake, Embry, and Seth standing in the open doorway, watching them curiously. Lilly quickly deleted her message so Jake wouldn't see. Since he liked Bella he probably wouldn't like that she gave her an insulting nickname.
"What's so funny?" Embry asked with a smirk, a devious glint in his eyes.
Paul and Lilly glanced at each other, and Lilly knew he was tempted to tell them, so she subtly shook her head, even though the other guys could probably see. Paul rolled his eyes, but abided by her wishes. "Oh, nothing you'd be interested in."
They looked like they didn't believe them, but turned and headed back inside anyway, Jake throwing one last suspicious glance at the pair as he went.
Paul and Lilly stood up to head inside as well. Just before Lilly crossed through the doorway, Paul leaned down and whispered, "For the record, I am so calling her that from now on."
Lilly smirked at him before walking inside and sitting on the floor next to Seth.
XXX
How does everyone like the new nickname? Sure, it's not the best, but it randomly popped into my head one day and I ran with it. 'Leech Lover' is just so overdone ; )
Anyway, since I won't be updating again until after the 25th for sure, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!