A/N: Oh my! But I had an adventure in the last 24 hours. It may be fodder for a new story.

Meanwhile, I got 2 1/2 more chapters completed. I'm now up to 20 chapters and almost done. There shouldn't even be a delay. I'll send them off to my wonderful beta and startled friend MarinaNamaste soon.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. And I hope that 2017 is kinder to all of us than 2016 has been. Happy New Year!

For right now...here's some lemonade.

Bella's foot bobbed up and down on the old linoleum floor of Charlie's kitchen. The thump, thump, thump filled the kitchen before she dropped her fork onto the plate. It's not like she was actually eating. Who could eat with a crazy, ginger vampire creating an army to kill you and another crazy vampire trying to convince you to live with a house full of vampires? Her blood sang to one and she'd been attacked by another. And another one didn't even like her. At all.

At least Rosalie wasn't in town.

What the hell was she even thinking all those months ago?

For the first time in her life she had both clarity and a back bone all at the same time. She was too weak to crawl out of the deep hole she'd found herself in after Edward left, but now she had a pack of wolves to help her fight her way out.

Her knee stopped bobbing at that thought. She didn't feel safe necessarily, and she was still worried about what might happen. There was danger for her and all who loved her. But she did feel something that was new and a little refreshing: hope.

"What are you thinking about, little girl?" Relief washed over her and her eyes fell shut. She didn't hear him move, but she could feel him before he got to her. "Don't say my name, okay?" Her eyes opened at his request. "Okay?" his eyes pleaded.

"Okay," she nodded.

She yelped when he picked her up and ran her upstairs to her bedroom in two seconds flat.

"Do you trust me?" he asked, kicking the door shut.

"Always," she breathed out. He smirked and lay her on the bed. He straightened up and Bella took in his shirtless form. Damn, he's sexy. Her thoughts must have shown on her face because his smirk widened into his shit-eating grin and he lowered himself to hover over her.

"We're going to meet with the blood suckers. Your dad is going, too." His hips lowered to meet hers and Bella gladly opened up her legs to accommodate him.

"When?" she moaned out as he moved back and forth over her pants a few times.

"We'll all be there in an hour. Charlie called to set it up." He was nipping at her neck and he stopped. He pulled back to gaze at her. "Bells, you did good today. Leah showed us all how you handled that mother-fucker." Bella raised her eyebrow at his use of Jake's nickname. It was the first time he'd called her Bells without a sneer. He lowered his head and pressed his hot lips on hers. She'd felt so much this afternoon, and Paul was her release valve.

So she let go. She placed one arm around his shoulder for leverage and the other around his waist. She moved in concert with his thrusting. He groaned when her hand slid into his pants and cupped his ass.

"Fuck me!" he groaned out in pleasure.

"I'm trying," Bella smiled into his neck as he kissed hers.

"But I gotta get to the meeting," he purred. But he didn't stop. His hands had already removed her shirt. "Fuck Bells, where's your bra?" His lips wrapped around her nipple. Bella gasped. She loved that.

"I took a shower to get the leech stink off and didn't put one back on. Does that bother," her breath hitched, "you?"

"Not at all," Paul sighed when he'd had his fill her flesh.

Bella had pushed his shorts down his hips and was working them the rest of the way down his legs with her feet. "You are so hot when you're horny."

"You think I'm hot all the time," Bella replied, unbuttoning her own shorts.

"Because you're always horny," Paul pulled her shorts off in one swipe, panties and all.

"Just when you're around," Bella replied.

"That was the right answer," Paul growled and plunged into her. It was fast and hard and Bella loved it. He seemed very pleased with her and she could tell he was up to something. So she just played along. He understood her. It's why she was able to be this free with him, always. And she thought she understood him, too.

Paul pushed her up to the pleasure peak faster than he ever had before. They both jumped off together in a shuddering mass of groans, and moans, and grunts. "Fuuuuuuck, Bells." They both lay panting for a few moments. Bella knew what this was. And she was fine with it.

"Go to your meeting now that my scent is all over you," Bella grinned at him.

"You," he said, and kissed the tip of her nose, "are one of the sharpest knives in the drawer."

"Happy to help," she said, pulling him in for another kiss. She pulled back though, and he gazed back into her worried eyes. His eyes bounced back and forth between hers. He knew. He could read her like a book.

"It was his idea, Bells. The imprint helps. A lot." She palmed his cheek. He did know her and that she was still worried about Jake. Jake knew her, too. And all of them valued her. They let her contribute and they listened to her opinions.

As soon as she and Leah made it to Sam's after school, the whole pack showed up with a simple howl, sans Paul. He remained on patrol. Charlie showed up fifteen minutes into to Bella's retelling of her encounter with Edward where she'd figured out that Victoria was building an army of newborn vampires to hunt her down.

Bella watched as Jake and Sam looked at each other meaningfully and then Jake asked Bella to go back to her house while they planned. She was about to object when Jake had placated her.

"Bells, please. You brought us some very important information. We recognize what it means that you figured this out. Do you trust me?" That last bit caught Bella's heart. Yes she'd been angry at him for how he hurt her, but she still trusted him. Now that she knew the reasons he left her for so long. She thought he was an ass, but she still trusted him.

"Yes. I trust you."

"Then please go back to your house and wait for someone to come fill you in. I promise someone will soon." She looked over at Sam who nodded and over to her father. They all loved her. They had all saved her.

"Fine," she said curtly. "But someone better show up soon." She grabbed her bag and her keys and headed home.

She'd been trying to swallow some left over spaghetti when Paul had pulled her up to her bedroom for a quickie.

Bella ran her fingers through Paul's trimmed hair. His eyes fell shut. "Is someone going to fucking tell me what is going on?" Bella asked, moving her hand over and pulling on his ear gently.

"Yes. When someone fucking knows something," he smiled back down at her. He adjusted a little bringing her attention to the mess between them.

"You know how to fuck," she replied, looking down between them. He smirked.

"You're okay if I go?" He'd moved and sat back on his heels. He reached for his shorts and wiped them both clean. She thought it was a very sweet thing for him to do. She was aware it was another way to scent him, like marking his territory—or hers. But it was still sweet.

"Yeah," she said. She'd be better if he stayed. But the fact that he asked at all made her heart thump with happiness. Paul never wanted attachments. He was very clear about that from the beginning. But he was still giving her what she needed, too: showing her he cared by letting her stand on her own. She'd had one or the other…but never both together.

"You go do your thing," she said, sitting up and kissing his cheek. "I'll be fine."

"Someone will be close," he said, pulling her into a hug. "If you need anything…"

"I know." She squeezed one more time and then pushed him away. "Go! Don't be late because of me!" He gave her one more appraising look, grabbed his shorts again, and left out the window without putting them on.

Bella got redressed and plodded back downstairs. Now she was hungry. She smiled at herself while she put her plate in the microwave to reheat the dinner she'd previously just pushed around on her plate. She pulled her warmed noodles from the box and devoured them. Paul really did help her work up an appetite. She'd just finished washing her dishes and placing them in the dish rack when someone was pounding at the door.

"Bella! Bella! Open up, please!" a woman shouted from behind the locked door. Bella was alarmed, but not scared. She peeked through the spyglass and saw Kim. "Bella, please! I know you're in there! You're truck is outside!"

"Okay," she answered irritated, reaching for the top lock. There were three deadbolts and Charlie only locked one of the three. It was a stalling method. Sometimes he locked two of them when he was really worried. She'd been the one to lock the first and third. She pulled the door open and looked out at a frantic Kim.

"Kim? What can I do for you?" She'd been crying.

"It's Emily. She's gone crazy and she's doing something really stupid and I need to tell someone and no one is around!" Her eyes were wide and she really did look frightened. Bella unlocked the storm door and pushed it open.

"Come in, it's chilly out there," Bella said. "They're all at a meeting at the Cullen's." Kim stepped inside, looking grateful.

"Yeah, Jared told me. He said if anything was wrong that I should come right over here and he texted me your address before he left."

Bella led Kim into the living room where Kim took her off her coat. Bella sat in Charlie's chair and motioned to the sofa for Kim.

"Okay, take a deep breath and tell me what's wrong," Bella said, trying to sound soothing. Bella didn't have good memories of Kim from the bonfire, but Bella suspected that was more Emily's fault. Kim did as Bella suggested.

"Okay, so Emily came over to my house yesterday totally freaking out saying that you were fucking Sam and was trying to get him to dump her and if I knew what was good for me, then I'd pull Jared in on his leash, whatever the hell that means, because you were trying to screw the whole pack. Well," she looked up at Bella with wide sincere eyes, "I told her she was crazy. Jared would never cheat on me and she needed to leave if she was going to keep saying stupid things about Jared."

Emily was a piece of work.

Bella nodded, but held her tongue.

"See, last week, I would have believed what Emily said about you because I didn't understand some things. See, I thought Emily had the same…er…connection with Sam that I have with Jared."

"An imprint?" Bella said, showing Kim the depth of her knowledge. Kim's jaw dropped, but she picked it back up again. "She doesn't."

"I know that now. But she always led me to believe she did."

"How did you find out?" Bella asked. Bella wanted to get to the point, but she knew if she pushed Kim too hard, too fast, Kim wouldn't trust her.

"I was complaining to Jared about how Emily treated Sam. I've never liked it and I mentioned how their imprint was so weird. That Sam must have something wrong with him to need that kind of treatment. That's when Jared told me that it wasn't an imprint." Bella nodded and Kim cocked her head to the side, seemingly to see Bella in a new light.

"Are you an imprint?" she asked.

"We think so," Bella answered, reveling nothing else. Kim blinked waiting for more, but not getting anything else out of Bella.

"So, you're not out to screw the whole pack?" Kim asked. Bella only smiled as an answer. "I knew she was full of shit!"

"She's lonely and jealous," Bella reasoned. "She's lashing out because she wants to belong to something. People do stupid things when they are lonely." Bella surprised herself with how reasonable she sounded. Kind even.

Kim considered her again.

"Like date a vampire?" Kim smiled and Bella couldn't hold hers back. It was clever. Kim wasn't as bad as her first impression.

"Yeah," Bella chuckled. "I'm in a much better place now." Bella could see Kim was calm now and they had established a little bit of trust. "Now, tell me what happened."

"Well, Emily left yesterday, because I told her to. Then she showed up today, saying she'd just seen Sam and that you'd turned the whole pack against her. Then she got really crazy and said that you must have had some kind of group orgy with the whole pack to win them over and that they'd all be sorry because she was going to go find the red head. Why is everything so sexual with her? It's like she thinks the whole world revolves around it. I'm not saying sex is bad. It's actually pretty great. But come on. There's more to life than getting off, right?" Kim rambled on but stopped when Bella wasn't responding anymore. "What?"

"You said she's going to the red head? Victoria?" Bella asked.

"Yeah, the one who the pack has been chasing for weeks," Kim looked interested again. "Do you know about her, too?"

"Yeah, Kim. She's after me. Edward, my ex, killed her mate. She's after me to even the score."

"Shit!" Kim breathed out. "This is all making so much more sense now. I'm scared, Bella. Emily is crazy. She'll do it. I never understood her paranoia before. But knowing now that she isn't an imprint. No wonder she was so worried about losing Sam. And she did."

"When are people going to realize that you can't force someone to love you?" Bella said under her breath. "We gotta let the pack know," she added louder.

"But how? They're all at the Cullens." Kim eyes were big with worry.

"A crazy, red-headed leech is creating a vampire army to hunt me down and probably torture me. Do you think the pack left me unguarded?" Bella asked, getting up from the couch.

"Oh, so much makes so much more sense now," Kim said with wide eyes. "Bella, you're not a clingy bitch at all, are you?" Bella smirked as she headed towards the back door.

"I used to be. I got over that, though."

Kim was too scared to be alone. She followed Bella. Bella opened the back door and put her two pinky fingers in mouth and blew. A shrill whistle rang through the air as Bella blew for a good ten seconds. She didn't know if it would work, but it was better than screaming "Hey! WOLVES!" into the darkness.

"Who's out there?" Kim asked.

"I don't know."

"Then how do you know how to call them?"

"I don't."

Kim looked over at her as Bella watched the tree line.

"They've never let me down, yet."

Kim turned to watch with Bella. They heard the puffs of heavy breaths and the padding of heavy paws. Bella knew how silent they could be. She understood whoever was out there was giving them a heads of on his arrival. He burst through the trees with great urgency and Bella smiled at Embry's salt and peppered wolf.

"We're okay," Bella said firmly and calmly, taking a step off the back porch. "I just need to give everyone some information."

"Bella! Be careful!" Kim called urgently. Bella had moved to Embry's side and was scratching behind her ears.

"Why?" Bella called back up to Kim. Embry snuffled into her side and then into her crotch. "Stop that!" Bella said, smacking his nose.

"Aren't they…" Kim came down a step towards them, "dangerous in wolf form?" She took three more steps closer.

"You sniff me again, and you're gonna get neutered with my butcher knife!" Bella said to Embry. "Now phase so I can talk to you without Edward hearing every fucking word I'm saying." Embry's head bobbed up and his great brown eye captured her. She watched it un-focus and focus again. Sam or someone else was giving him directions. In a ripple of air and a sigh on the breeze a naked Embry was standing in front of her.

"Fuck no, we're not dangerous!" Embry said, his head turning to face Kim, then back to Bella. "Neuter me? What the hell?"

"You were sniffing me!" she said, slapping his chest.

"I was told to!" Embry replied in a voice that mimicked and mocked Bella.

"I don't believe you!" Bella screeched.

"I was. And it drove the vampire mad! Then, when you told me to phase so Edward couldn't hear you. He almost came unglued. That was fucking genius."

"Embry! You're naked!" Kim said, looking up at the sky.

"Yeah, and you're an imprint. It's not like you're gonna go for me or vice-versa. We're always naked. Get used to it." Embry picked Bella up over his shoulder and she squealed as he carried her back up towards Kim and the porch.

"Put me down!" Bella squealed and smacked his bare ass which was almost in her face. "If you fart, I seriously will neuter you." Kim just watched the pair who looked a lot like a close set off siblings. They'd reached the top of the back patio and Embry sniffed. He put Bella down, spun around and lunged down and pulled a pair of shorts off the floor. He pulled them up to his hips and Bella recognized them as the pair Paul had used to clean them both off. She eyed them and smirked.

"Yeah, I know. I can smell it," Embry said, making a face. "But that's kind of the point. You're lucky that bodily fluids and nudity don't bother me so much since the phase. It's like, since the wolf doesn't care, we don't either. But when the wolf wants to smell something…"

"So it was his wolf that wanted you to smell me?" Bella asked. "Wouldn't that be, like threatening his territory?"

"So, Embry's not your imprint?" Kim said. It was meant to be a question, but she already knew the answer.

"Hell no," Embry scoffed.

"Wow. Thanks," Bella quipped sarcastically.

"Fuck, you women can take everything out of context, huh?" Embry smirked at Bella. He looked over to Kim. "She was there when I phased for the first time. My wolf really, really likes her. He's like…how do I put this…it's so hard in words. My wolf is best mates with the wolf that did imprint on her. There's no rivalry. Just loyalty. Does that make sense?"

"No," Kim stated flatly. "But I'll keep thinking about it. What stinks?"

"What?" Embry was lost to Kim's reference to his earlier statement.

"The shorts he's wearing," Bella answered. "They smell like sex. Mine and…"

"Don't say it," Embry warned.

"Why won't he let me say his name? He wouldn't let me earlier, either." Embry smirked.

"The vamp can't tell us apart. In our heads. He totally doesn't understand the pack mind. We all know each other's' mental voices, but Eddie can't seem to figure it out. We call each other nicknames so he can't figure out all the…ah…voices. It doesn't help that Quil keeps singing Abba songs. And, since he's never met all of us, he doesn't know our scents."

"Ah," Bella said. "So his wolf told you to sniff me and you did. He could smell it and think about earlier and that drives Edward crazy. SHIT!" Bella said, horrified. "What the fuck is he showing you?" Embry smirked.

"Not enough to make anyone too horny or too angry. But enough to get the gist." Bella's fear subsided. She trusted Paul.

"And if they don't know all the scents, Edward doesn't know who is imprinted on you," Kim added.

"Yep," Embry added with a pop on the P.

"So you wearing those shorts puts my scent on you," Bella worked out. "And they all hugged me before they left for the meeting…"

"Yep."

"Edward must be furious," Bella smiled.

"So why'd you whistle? That was smart by the way," Embry added. "It didn't sound urgent like you were in trouble so there wasn't a huge panic. Sam, was able to keep Edward from coming because you weren't screaming your head off."

"That was kind of my thought," Bella said.

"Our wolves don't pick dumb girls, do they?" Embry smiled. Bella noticed that Kim beamed and that statement. So Bella thought she'd make Kim the star.

"Kim has some important information for us," Bella said, opening the door and gesturing them all back in.

Who loves Embry? *raises hand*

Some of you smart readers called this! Good job!