AN: Hi loves! Again, always sorry about how long it took me to update! But this chapter is extra long, so please don't be too mad at me. I love reviews, and comments or questions you all have.

And again I don't own anything

For the next couple of weeks, Paul was always around. When I got to school, he was there waiting, usually bouncing on the balls of his feet with his brows furrowed and his eyes darting around. When I got out of class, there he was: waiting outside the door. At lunch, he was by my side the minute I stepped into the cafeteria. It was pretty annoying to be honest. Well, it was at first. I could tell he was serious during those weeks, and when he didn't try to make a move or feel me up, well, I started to believe him. Maybe he did just want someone to be friends with. We started having more meaningful conversations as he started opening up to me. I learned that his dad had left when he was eight and he hadn't heard from him since. Now, it was just him and his mom, an amazing lady that worked at the nearby diner. The way Paul talked about his mom, it was easy to see how much he cared.

Soon a month had gone by, and Paul and I were officially friends. We would sit with Kim and Jared at lunch, and Brady had been better at actually going to class. There were still some days when Paul, Brady, and some of the other boys they hung out with missed school, but for the most part everything seemed to have calmed down.

One Wednesday, when Jared and Kim were busy making googly eyes at each other, Paul turned to me. He gently put his hand on my arm, making me look over at him. He fidgeted a little before taking a deep breath and turned his eyes towards mine.

"Jenny what happened that day I went to your house? Why weren't you in school that day?"

I froze, and looked away, my mind racing for an adequate answer.

"Uhh, I didn't feel good that day, so I stayed home and slept."

Paul narrowed his eyes, "you had a cast on." He looked thoughtful for a second, "wait you haven't had a cast on since that day, or before."

He pulled my arm toward him to inspect. Unfortunately his was correct, I broke the cast off my arm after that day, so no one would think there was anything wrong. This meant that I didn't immobilize my wrist though, and had since not healed all the way. When he grabbed my wrist I hissed in pain, wincing slightly.

His eyes snapped up to mine and I tried to put an expression of innocence on my face. "What. Was. That." He deadpanned.

I rolled my eyes, slowly trying to pull my arm back to myself, "nothing Paul, leave it alone."

He grabbed my upper arm, so as not to jostle my wrist, "come on, we're going to the doctor."

He dragged me out to the parking lot, and when we were almost at his car, there was a howl from the woods next to the school. He looked toward the woods, seeming to wrestle with a decision. I took that opportunity to yank my arm from his, and push him.

"What the hell, Paul? Where do you get off on dragging me out of school? You can't manhandle me like that!" I narrowed my eyes, "don't ever treat me like that again. You know what, don't talk to me for a while, okay? Just leave me alone."

I pushed him and stormed back toward the cafeteria as he shouted out at me, "Jenny, wait! What the fuck, I'm sorry okay?"

I expected him to follow me back into the school, so when I didn't hear his footsteps, I turned to see what happened. He wasn't there anymore. I looked around more, and saw bushes in the woods rustling. I shook my head, and turned back to school.

That night, Brady didn't come home. The next day, none of the boys were in school. I waited up all night for the next three days looking for Brady. I thought Brady had gotten over himself and realized how worried I was and how important school was. Not to mention, this was something that I would be in trouble for if Mother ever found out.

Six days had gone by, and there was no word from any of the boys. Kim was surprisingly not nearly as upset as I had expected her to be, though she told me she'd had no word from Jared either. Surprisingly, and honestly I wasn't totally ready to admit this, but I kind of missed Paul. Actually I really missed Paul, even with the way things ended during lunch the week before.

Finally, on Tuesday afternoon, there was a knock at my door. I threw it open, hoping to see Brady, though I knew he would have just barged in. Not in a million years had I been expecting to see Paul standing outside my house dressed in cut off sweatpants and no shirt.

Even though I was still angry, and ridiculously worried about Brady, I felt a twinge seeing him. I moved to shut the door, and was interrupted by a giant hand slamming against the door. "Paul leave me alone."

He ran his hand through his hair, "Jen, wait." He shifted awkwardly, "can we go for a drive? Please? I really need to talk to you."

I looked over my shoulder up at where Maggie's room was, "Where is Brady, Paul? I need to know he's safe, I need to see him."

He looked down, then back up at me then nodded, "yeah, I'll take you to him, but, uh, that's what I needed to talk to you about."

I nodded shortly and ran upstairs to grab my jacket and purse before following him out to his car.

We drove through the reservation and arrived at a quaint yellow, two story house. The whole ride had been silent, with Paul anxiously glancing at me, then back to the road, shifting in his seat.

"What's going on, Paul? Where are we?"

He cut the engine and turned to me. "Ok, Jenny, you know I'd never lie to you right? Brady is here. He's not doing so good though, he got hurt. He's doing ok, don't worry. He's gonna be fine so don't freak out ok?"

I narrowed my eyes, "what the hell."

He shook his head, "just come inside and see Brady, then I'll explain more."

I nodded and stepped out of his car. The walk up to the front steps seemed to last for hours, as I cycled through all the scenarios I could think of, progressively working myself into a frenzy. Paul opened the door and lead my inside, where I was assaulted with an onslaught of noise. There were fumes from the kitchen of many different kinds of food, all of which smelled amazing were I to be remotely thinking about food at the moment. Voices, male and female, some of which I recognized, were bouncing all around me. I stopped inside the entry way, unsure of where to go next. Paul put his hand on the small of my back, gently pushing me toward the stairs at the back of the house. I turned to look at him, and he nodded at me, gesturing for me to go up.

The voices seemed to quiet as they heard the door close, and a large man came out of the kitchen. He was tall, but not as tall as Paul. Even with the height difference, I could feel Paul's stance shift as he nodded in respect to the man in front of me. The man returned Paul's nod, and smiled as he turned toward me.

"You must be Jenny, I'm Sam. Welcome to my house." He stuck his hand out for me to shake.

Once the introductions were out of the way, Sam led Paul and me up the stairs and to a door on the right side of the hallway. He quietly knocked before pushing the door open, revealing a cozy bedroom.

"Brady" I gasped before quickly striding over to him. He didn't look too beat up, but was slightly pale. He was reclining in the bed, leaning against the headboard and reading. He looked up when we came in and smiled slightly.

"Hey Jenny". When I reached him I moved to hug him, but remembering Paul's word about his injury, I quickly stopped myself.

Brady reached up, crushing me to his chest. "Jen, I'm so sorry. I should've called and let you know I was alright, but I've been sleeping for the past couple days."

I shook my head, slightly tearing up upon seeing that he was in fact alive, and seemingly doing well.

I punched his shoulder lightly, "Braids, what the hell happened?"

Brady shifted uncomfortably, and looked behind me at the other men in the room. I turned around and looked as well. Sam was looking at Paul and Paul was shaking his head slightly.

Brady glared at Paul before sighing and turning back to me.

"Jen, Paul needs to talk to you first, then I will tell you, okay?"

I shook my head.

Brady grabbed my hands, pulling me toward him slightly. "Jenny, I promise I'm okay. I'll be back to school tomorrow. I'll be right here when you're done talking to Paul, and then we can have dinner together, or read or talk for a little bit."

My eyes watered. My baby brother was sounding so much like an adult, but he was still my baby brother. And he was still hurt. Somehow. But I conceded, nodding and squeezing his hands before turning to Paul.

Paul looked apologetically at me, and opened the door, motioning for me to head out.

We went down the stairs and into a large backyard. Paul led me over to a small picnic table near the edge of the property, and sat me down. He fidgeted and looked around, avoiding eye contact as I stared at him waiting.

"Paul, god damn, just fucking tell me. I'm not in the mood to be kept waiting right now."

He nodded, still looking away from me, and slowly pulled his eyes back to mine. He looked down at his hands and started speaking.

"Jenny, you know the stories of our ancestors?"

I nodded, unsure of where this was going.

He looked up at me, "do you know all of them?"

I nodded again.

He paused for a moment. "They're true."

I quirked an eyebrow at him, huffing. "Paul quit stalling. What do you need to tell me?"

He shook his head, wide eyed, "I promise Jenny, I'm not lying, or stalling or any of that. The stories, they're true, they're real. We're descended from wolves, and vampires are real too."

"What the fuck. Vampires?"

He nodded slowly. "I can show you. Well the wolves part"

"Okay, show me."

He stood, offering me a hand. He kept a hold of my hand as we walked toward the woods at the edge of the property. I unconsciously tightened my grip on his hand, and he squeezed back. We walked a bit further until we reached a place with a little more room. He stopped, dropping my hand, and steering me toward a log. I sat as he stayed standing.

"Okay, I'll be right back. Don't freak out, everything will be okay." Paul said, backing toward a thicket of trees. He disappeared behind them and then all I heard was some rustling of the branches. Before I knew it, a giant grey wolf dog stepped out. It crouched low, flattening its ears. It almost seemed like it was trying to look as small as possible. I watched the wolf, not moving, as it slowly crept toward me. For some reason, I didn't feel afraid of it. It almost seemed familiar to me.

"Paul?" I looked around for him. Nothing. Wait the wolf's ears were cocked as it looked like it was panting. No, smiling? I furrowed my brow. "Paul?" I asked again, this time to the wolf.

The wolf popped it head up and down, tail wagging behind him.

I let out a little laugh. "Paul you're a wolf!"

I strode towards him, crouching down next to him and reaching out to let him sniff my hand. He licked it, and nuzzled underneath my hand. I took the hint and reached up to pet the top of his head. His fur was so soft, and his eyes matched Paul's grey ones, cementing my theory that this was Paul. I scratched behind his ears, and patted him on the head laughing.

"Okay Paul, come back so we can talk some more."

The wolf stood up, licked my face, and then bounded back into the trees. I walked back to the log, waiting, and Paul stepped out, adjusting the waistband on his cut offs. Seeing him as a wolf had lightened my mood, so much that I accidentally looked him up and down. I mean, he was only wearing cut offs, leaving his chest bare. And wow, what a chest it was. I knew Paul had to be fit, he was the ladies' man, but his body was beyond what I had ever thought. Not that I thought about it. Much.

He sat down next to me, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. I laughed quietly.

"So you're a wolf?"

He nodded, shyly looking up.

"You're a pretty cute wolf."

His head snapped up the rest of the way, a giant smile breaking out across his face.

"So you're not freaked out or scared?" he asked.

I shook my head, "Paul, I've been getting to know you for the past month, and I'm really comfortable with you. I trust you." I put my hand on his arm, and he put his hand on top of mine.

"So is Brady a wolf too? And Sam?"

Paul nodded, "almost everyone else is here actually" he pointed back at the way we came, "you can come meet them all if you want."

I nodded slowly, "Paul why are you telling me all of this? I mean we just started to become friends"

He sucked in a breath, "I want you in my life. And this is a big part of my life."

I nodded, taking in everything he's told me. "Wait, you said all the stories were true, right? So the third wife? Imprinting?"

Paul tightened his grip on my hand, accidentally jostling my injured wrist. He nodded, "yes that one is true as well."

I felt like someone punched me. So he would have an imprint. Someone he'd fall madly in love with. She would become his whole world.

I pulled away from him slightly, "so you'll imprint on someone." A thought occurred to me, "have you already imprinted on someone?"

He nodded slowly, and my heart constricted. We were quiet for a moment, me thinking, and him watching me.

Then my phone rang with that special ring tone. The one at meant get my ass back home. Fuck.