"Yes, about two hundred yards into the treeline on the north side of First Beach. Yes, that's right. White female; 18 years. Black male; 19 years. I was at the beach and heard her yelling for him to stop and when I found them, he was grabbing at her body. She kneed him in the groin and picked up a tree branch. Yes ma'am, she hit him and knocked him out."
Jake's grin split his face as he gazed at me proudly, a cell phone to his ear as he walked up to my panting, sore form. Holding the phone away from his face, he hugged me and smoothed my hair, flinching when I winced in pain. My fingers were still tightly gripping the baseball bat branch and Jake eased the wood from my hands.
Looking from the phone to me meaningfully, he said, "What's your name, honey?" His voice was loud enough so that the 911 operator could hear him. "You gotta say it so they can hear it on the phone."
My trembling made me stutter. "Is...Isabella S...Swan."
I heard the operator ask a question but didn't know what she said. Jake repeated it. "Do you know your assailant?"
I glared at the pile of asshole on the ground in front of me. "My date." I sneered. "Malcolm McCoy."
It was hours later before I was able to go home. It had been mortifying having pictures taken of my body for evidence. Bruises on my arms and waist, the cut on my cheek and inner thigh, the tuft of hair he ripped out of the back of my head. I felt like a living experiment. They took swabs even though I was adamant that he did not actually rape me and they confiscated my pretty panties that Malcolm had torn anyway.
Charlie had been frantic when he got the call from the hospital that I'd been admitted for sexual assault. Jake assured me that he erased both our phones of our messages and then he drove my truck to my house. Malcolm was taken off to jail, much to the chagrin of his mother who apologized profusely for her filth of a son. Turns out, his father didn't get reassigned to Seattle, he'd had to make a new name for himself in Seattle because Malcolm had pulled this shit in California too. Lauren came to see me at the hospital and with her statement and mine, Malcolm wouldn't be getting out of jail for a while...Not even with his lawyer father's help. The look Lauren gave me though, told me that we were going to have a conversation about this another time. I smiled as well as I could through the pain in my cheek which thankfully wasn't broken and bid her a goodnight to which she glared half-heartedly.
When Charlie went to bed that evening with a hug, that left me to sit on the back porch alone with my renewed weed stash, my back pressed into the banister behind me and a coke at my feet. I stared blankly out into the forest, half patting myself on the back for doing what I'd thought I had to do, half berating myself for being a class-A idiot. Putting myself in that position was an incredibly stupid thing to do and if Jake hadn't gotten my texts or taken me seriously, things could have ended up much different.
It was about ten minutes after Charlie went to be that I heard a rustle in the treeline and I stiffened, even in my high state. My large wolf made himself known, the bright white moonlight shining down on his fur and he sat on his haunches. I could see his eyes judging me, narrowed as they were, and I looked down at my hands.
"I know it was stupid. I didn't know how else to help Lauren get justice." I whispered the words into the cool night air and used one hand to tug my loose hoodie closed tighter. The zipper was broken on this one but it was one of my favorites, one Renee and I had picked up in Maine at Bar Harbor one summer. The wolf didn't move and I didn't lift my eyes from my now cooling bowl. "When she told me what he'd done, when I heard what she told my father...I knew I had to do something." I sniffled as my sinuses filled from the pressure of the sob that wanted to escape my mouth. "I'm well aware how stupid it was but I really didn't know…"
The day had finally gotten to me and though I was proud of the way I'd given Lauren some closure...so she wouldn't have to see her rapist day in and day out in the halls of the school, the reality of the danger I'd put myself in had finally caught up to me. Bringing my thighs to my chest, wincing at the pain of my cheek and the back of my head, I sobbed into my knees. I heard the wolf whine and then move away.
I was alone now.
A few moments passed and I finally lifted my head to take another hit of my bowl and yelped, tossing the glass into the air one way and my lighter the other. My sexy, stranger man caught both with ease and handed them to me. There was no judgement in his yellow ringed eyes as he stared at me with an unfathomable expression. So many emotions were displayed on his face for me to see as the tears dried on my face. He stared at me, the wind ruffling the longer strands of dark hair on the top of his head, his hands hanging limply by his sides. I don't know how much time had passed before he finally sat down beside me and took the pipe back from my hands, holding it up to my lips. I let the lighter go just as easily and when he lit the bowl, I inhaled the sweet, pungent weed deeply into my lungs.
His intense grey-blue gaze never wavered from mine. I couldn't even blink. There was no pain in my chest from some phantom heartburn. There was nothing else in the world except for this man's gaze and the euphoric feeling that flew through my veins from the weed.
"Paul." His velvet deep voice poured over my entire body, drenching me in a feeling I'd never felt before. Something I couldn't put a name to.
My mate's name is Paul. I love the name Paul. It's my new favorite name in the whole world. I felt my lips pull into a sappy, wide smile. "Hi, Paul." I whispered.
"Hi, Bella." He said very quietly back to me. "You done being an idiot now?" His voice was soft and though I knew he had judged me at first, I really don't see any judgement in his gaze or hear it in his words now.
"Yeah. I am." I said quietly. It was as if we were afraid of waking the woods, afraid of breaking some magical spell between us as we stared intently into each other's eyes and spoke so quietly that no one else could have heard us even if they sat right next to us.
"You better be. I never want to see you in danger, ever again." There was so much passion in his words that I couldn't help but agree.
I nodded enthusiastically and made myself dizzy. A large hot hand on my shoulder stopped me from tipping down the porch stairs. "I never wanna see me in danger again either." Edward and Alice's demon doubles sprang to my mind but I shoved the dark image away. They were gone for good. I can only imagine that my dream told me more about the wolf and my subconsious was more upset about being controlled by a vampire than them actually coming after me.
That's my hope anyway.
A dark chuckle passed his full lips and I found myself staring, remembering how those same lips felt on mine. "You will call me instead of Jake from now on when you're in trouble." Though it was a demand, I couldn't find it in myself to be angry with him. I knew eventually I would rebel. Jake is my best friend so I'm sure to call him first sometimes, but I found myself nodding nonetheless.
"Have a good night, Bella." Paul leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "I'll be watching over you." A burst of electric heat enveloped my body from the point on my forehead where his lips touched.
In my completely stoned state of mind, I just nodded, thankful that he would stay around. "See you soon?" I asked, lazily.
Paul nodded and I watched as his muscles bunched and coiled as he walked backward toward the treeline, keeping his eyes on mine. "Definitely. Go to sleep."
In a last ditch attempt to not be controlled, I stuck my tongue out. "When I'm good and ready." I said petulantly.
Paul chuckled again and shook his head. His smile looked so amazing on his face. "Goodnight, Swan."
"Goodnight, Paul." I whispered to his retreating form, sighing happily after he disappeared from my view.
I leaned against the banister and finished my bowl slowly before downing my coke and heading inside. The world was a little shaky and I was a little high but I felt amazing. I knew my wolf's name now and I put away a rapist. Maybe not my smartest day but I still climbed the stairs with a smile on my face, careful to sleep on my left side so I wouldn't hurt my cheek anymore than it was.