Authors Note

Hello lovely readers! I am leaving for a family vacation, so I won't be able to update for about a week or so. Here's a little something to hold you over ;) In the meantime, PLEASE review! I haven't had many, and they are oh so nice to read. XX Maddie

12. Breakfast

Pauls POV

I am awestruck. I can't help but stare at Charlotte as she twirls her way around the kitchen. Her wild, dark hair is piled high on her head, with a few untamed curls framing her face and dangling at the nape of her neck. The smooth skin of her face has a soft pink glow to it, and her grey eyes are alive with energy. Her slender legs sway her to the beat of the music. Despite the fact that she is now swimming in a sweatshirt, I can't get the image of her in her bathrobe out of my head.

She's perfect. I belong to her completely, and yet she doesn't have a clue. My Charlotte.

I want to throw my idiot brothers out of her little cottage, and have her all to myself. I want to tell her about our legends, and about the imprint. I need to tell her how I feel, Sam said the quicker I lay it all out there the better off I will be, but how do I do that without scaring her off? How do I tell her I will do anything she says, be anything she wants me to be, and go anywhere she wants me to go without sounding like a lunatic?

"Earth to Paul, this is Charlotte speaking, come in," she laughs while snapping her fingers in front of me. I feel my face burn.

"Oh, um, yeah?" I say awkwardly.

"Here, breakfast is done," she says, handing me a steaming plate, "and if you want more than this I'd suggest kicking your friends out of my kitchen. They're ravenous," she lets out her brilliant giggle and sits on the rocking chair across from me.

"Thank you Charli—oh, Charlotte," I correct myself and dig into my food. Dang, my girl can cook. My chest gets this weird, tight feeling when I think the words 'my girl'. She hasn't agreed to be mine, yet. What if she doesn't want to be? The imprint can only do so much…

"If you really want, you can call me Charlie," she says quietly with a small smile that I return. Before I have the chance to respond, Seth cuts in.

"Nuh uh! Hey! Why does Paul get special treatment?" he shouted, with a mouthful of eggs.

"Because he doesn't go around giving me heart attacks at 7:30 in the morning," Charlotte shot back, attempting to give him her best stink eye, but instead cracking a smile. She is so kind and sweet. She is really the opposite of who I am, or rather who I was before the imprint. Now I want to be a better, calmer person… for her.

"Speaking of which," Jake butts in, "what were you doing up so early on a Sunday?" I am curious of this myself. She should be in bed still, not up waiting on my idiotic brothers hand and foot.

"Oh, well…" she nervously glances at me before looking back at Jake and continuing, "I was asleep, but I heard this really loud howl outside of the cabin. It kind of freaked me out, and I couldn't go back to sleep…" she trailed off and looked embarrassed.

"Oh yeah? What's the matter? You afraid of a little ol' wolf?" Seth joked before finishing off his food, but her returning smile didn't look sincere. She was actually afraid of the wolves. She's afraid of me…

I feel a growl building in my chest.

IDIOTS, I shout in my head at them. They were supposed to run the perimeter of her house and make sure she was safe, not scare her! I feel angry heat spread throughout my body, and I begin to quiver. I'm going to have to run the perimeter of her cabin on my own from now on since everyone else is so incompetent. I cannot believe I allowed this to happen. What if now she is never okay with my wolf?

As I continue to internally scold myself, I feel my body shake more noticeably. I stand up and stride outside before I do something stupid. Jumping off the porch, I begin to pace back and forth. Okay Paul, relax, I think to myself. Don't lose your shit. You sent boys to do a mans job. To do YOUR job. I failed at making Charlotte feel safe already, and I feel sick.

Just as I start to jog off into the woods to phase I feel a small, chilly hand touch my back causing me to still.

"Paul? You okay?" Charlotte asks in her quiet voice. I turn around and look down to see her sweet face etched with concern. Concern for me of all people.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry Charlotte, the boys just pissed me off. You being scared here isn't a joke to me," I close my eyes and roll my head back, taking a deep breath to keep myself from getting to worked up again. Charlotte takes both of my hands in hers, and gives them two gentle squeezes. I don't know what it is about her doing this, but it is so comforting to me.

"Hey, easy big guy," she chuckles at me, "I appreciate you caring about my feelings. I was just a little scared. I'm not used to being alone yet…" she trailed off, and I imagine she's thinking of her mom. My heart breaks for her as I feel her sadness. Please don't be sad my Charlie girl, I think to myself.

Freeing one of my hands from hers, I tuck a stray curl behind her ear. I notice her lean in slightly to my touch, which sends warmth spreading through my chest. "Plus, I know you and the guys aren't too far away, yanno, incase one decides to huff and puff and blow my cabin down," She chuckles again.

"Really? Little Red Riding Hood?" I can't help but laugh with her now. "Charlie," I pause, and rub my thumb over her cheek, "You might think I'm weird, but I do care about your feelings, and I don't want you to be scared. You're definitely not alone here either, I hope you know that." I sigh, and look at her. Beautiful.

"I'm starting to gather that," She squeezed my hand again. Is this our thing? Do we have a thing now? "C'mon, lets go finish eating and clean up. Jake and Seth say that today is perfect beach weather, and someone has to teach me to surf," Charlotte flashes me a dazzling smile before pulling me back towards the house.

As she goes to reach for the screen door with her perfectly tiny hand, it bursts open courtesy of my dumb ass brothers, and she stumbles backwards. I place my hands quickly on her hips to stable her. Both of my hands nearly wrap around her entire waist. I didn't realize just how tiny she is; oh the things I would love to do to this little lady… She places her hands over mine, breaking me from my train of thought, and smiles up at me.

"Sick, can we keep it PG? I have fifteen year old eyes yah know!" Seth jokes with fake disgust. I hear Charlotte scoff, and her heart beat a little quicker out of nervousness, and I let out a small growl at my brother. I'm going to get him good if he keeps embarrassing Charlotte like this. Jake and Seth jump off her porch while laughing.

"Well you two, we are gonna round up the pa—gang," Jake catches himself as I shoot him a dirty look, "its about 8:30 now so, uh… lets meet at Sams around 10ish?"

"That'll give you two more than enough time to clean up!" Seth yells as they turn and jog away, shoving each other. ANIMALS, I scream in my head. I've never liked a tattle tell, but I am going to have to take this to Sam if they don't stop disrespecting my girl.

Slowly, Charlotte turns to face me as I keep my hands on her waist.

"So…" She says quietly while looking up at me. She is so tiny and cute.

"So…" I reply, imitating her with a smile. I hear her heart is still a little racy. Now that tweedledee and tweedledum are gone I can't help but smile larger knowing these nerves are because of me. It's weird though, I'm both glad and upset she is nervous around me. This bond is strange, that's for sure.

I want to kiss her again. She caught me so off guard last night, and although it was an amazingly sweet first kiss between us, I want to be able to really wow her. I've kissed my fair share of girls in my days, but none as perfect as my Charlotte. I want to be able to savor those sweet lips of hers.

"I can have everything cleaned up pretty fast, and then I just have to find my bathing suit. I can meet you at Sam and Emily's, or you can stay and wait for me?" She says shyly, glancing down at my hands that still rest on her waist.

"I'll wait!" I all but yell in her face, "Uh—," I chuckle nervously, "I can help you clean, and walk you over to Sams." I try to act cool.

"Alrighty, it's a plan then," she says with a sweet grin and then turns, pulling us into her house.

"Since you made breakfast I'll do all the cleaning," I offer. I would do everything for this woman if she let me.

"Oh you don't have to do that, Paul," she says stopping and dropping my hand. I immediately miss her touch and try not to visibly pout.

"But I want to, really. You go get ready," I insist with a soft smile. Everything about my personality is soft whenever she is around. She returns my smile with a shy one, and she looks into my eyes just a moment too long before sighing and turning to walk to her room. Odd, I think to myself. Man up, bro.

I take one long stride and catch her arm. She turns around, slightly startled, and looks up at me with those big, curious, grey eyes of hers. I drop her arm, and place one hand back on her waist, and the other gently cupping her face. My little lady. Quickly I stoop down to place my lips to hers. They're perfectly plump, and cool; they hug mine completely and remind me that I was made for her. After lingering here for a few beats, I feel her body relax and her lips begin to move beneath mine to deepen the kiss. It's enough for me to lose my self-control, and now both of my hands find her hips to lift her up to me. In one swift movement, I stand straight and her legs wrap around my waist. I allow my hand to slip under the back of her hoodie and rest on the small of her back. Good god this girl is amazing. I feel her small fingers fist in my hair, and the feeling is unreal. A growl of pleasure bubbles from my chest, and just then she pulls her face away. Her cheeks are a glorious red, and she's slightly breathless. I just stand holding her, beaming.

"Uh—sorry about that," she chuckles in one breath, and hides her face in my shoulder, causing me to chuckle too.

"Definitely don't apologize for that Charlotte," I kiss her head and sit her down. I'm going to need more of that later, I think to myself.

"I'm—uh—I'm gonna go, uh, change. Yeah," she chuckles again as she gathers her thoughts and heads to her room.

Amazing, I think to myself again as I begin to wash the dishes. I listen carefully, and hear her door shut. She takes a deep breath before whispering "holy shit," to herself. I grin uncontrollably as I scrape her left over toast into the trash.