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Chapter 14:

I laughed my butt off, and yes I did the high screechy laugh. It was just the entire image of Jacob standing there, threatening to spray me with Febreeze…

He actually thought I would be afraid!

Oh my gosh, my gut hurt.

I think he was kind of put out because he seemed to be pouting, which of course, only made me laugh harder.

"Okay, okay, okay," Jacob said, striding towards us. "I get it, you don't find me threatening. You don't have to rub it in."

"Stop Jacob, stop," I said, holding my hand up, leaning on Seth for support. "I can't breathe."

Aww, he looked like I had rubbed him the wrong way.

Oh my gosh, did I just think that? I started laughing even harder. People rub cats and dogs the wrong way. Haha, and he was a dog!

"You know," I said. "It could be kind of fun, making fun of the fact that you guys are dogs."

"Wolves." Seth stated. "We're manly wolves!" He reiterated.

"Yah, well," I said, standing up on my own. "I think we've established that you're manly something."

He blushed at my reference to our earlier conversation.

"Wow," Jacob said, now standing next to me. "You're taking this way better than I thought you would."

I shrugged, I'm not one for hysterics, well unless you count all my mental musings.

"Why?" I asked, "How have other people taken it?"

Jacob grinned, "Well, most of them faint or definantly scream their heads off. Two of the girls actually threw up. Only Nessie and Claire handled it like pros."

"Yah well," Seth said, "They grew up knowing, not all of us could get that lucky with our… girls."

"Why," I asked again. "Are they related to a werewolf or something?"

"Uh," Jake said, averting his eyes.

"That's one of those Paul questions," Seth piped up.

My eyes narrowed, I was starting to think he was saying that just to annoy me.

Speaking of which, "I take it that Ana is inside?"

Jacob cringed, "Yup."

"Oh come on she's not that bad," I swatted his arm lightly, so I didn't need to get a cast.

"I don't know," He smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "She's the kind of person that needs to grow on you."

"Yah she is," Jake said sarcastically, walking with me towards the house.

I was starting to get a little nervous. Would Paul be in there?

I wasn't about to tell Jacob, but I was really glad he pulled the whole Febreeze stunt. Now I knew that I wouldn't be afraid of them. But there was one huge difference between Paul and Jake, I wasn't falling hard core for Jake. It was different getting along with a werewolf than it was staying in love with them.

"He's the same person Talli," said Jake.

"Mhmm," I murmured, just now noticing Seth had disappeared. "Where's Seth?"

Jacob didn't even bother looking behind him. "He probably phased to show Paul what you talked about."

"What," I croaked.

He looked back at me, "I take it Seth didn't tell you about our… unique communication?"

I shook my head.

"Well," he went on. "When we're in our wolf form, we can hear one another's thoughts. Kind of like me being able to hear what you're thinking right now, only you're not a werewolf and we're in human form."

I paused in shock. "Are you telling me, that Paul will know about everything we discussed in the car?"

"Basically," Jake said.

Not that I had anything to be embarrassed of, but dang. Note to self, never tell Seth a secret.

Oh my gosh, not only Seth but all of them.

At least one good thing came out of Seth tattle tailing, now I knew Paul wasn't in the house. Somehow I was expecting that news to cheer my up or relieve the pressure, but now I just felt bereft.

I'm so loco.

Walking into the house, the first thing I noticed was how every pair of eyes were on me. I tried ignoring it, but they all made it so obvious.

"Uh, hi," I smiled. That's all it took, then everyone was back to talking normally. Not that they weren't still chancing glances in my direction, but at least it wasn't as pronounced as last time.

I walked over to the table where most of the girls were sitting. Claire looked like she was about to burst at the seams. Emily looked at me in sympathy and Ana… well Ana was in one of her moods.

"Soooo," Claire said, dragging out the 'o'. "I heard you spotted some wolves today?"

My eyes bugged, I thought we weren't supposed to bring this up in front of Ana. My eyes skidded over to said best friend, she didn't seem to notice.

"Uh," I looked over at Emily who was shaking her head at Claire. Oh, oh! Claire was speaking to me in code. Oh, this could be fun.

"Yah," I said, winking at Claire. "They looked pretty porky to me, maybe they should chill out on the food intake."

Five heads whipped around to scowl at me, including Jacob's, Claire and I laughed. Out of nowhere Emily joined it, "Yah, I've been thinking the same thing. Maybe I should stop feeding them scraps."

Pure silence followed her statement. I looked over and every male in the house was staring at Emily like… a lost puppy.

I looked at Claire and we both started laughing at the same time.

"That's just evil," Jacob walked up beside me. "You can't feed people and then just stop."

"We're talking about the wolves Jacob, not people." said Ana. "They're just getting lazy anyways, not hunting for themselves."

I could tell Jake wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth shut.

I grinned, well at least until the door opened. Then it was Jake grinning and me feeling sorry for myself.

I didn't need to turn around to know that it was Paul that walked through the door. First and foremost, I sensed him. My body tingled all over and my heart rate picked up. Second the room suddenly grew abnormally quiet, as if everyone was expecting something to happen. Finally, my last clue was Ana, her face split into the largest smile I've seen out of her all day.

I wanted to turn around, I could barely wait to see him, but I didn't. Instead I gave Emily a 'please talk or say something' look. She stood up, causing everyone to avert their eyes to her.

She's so amazing!

"Talli," she said, causing everyone to look at me again.

Did she want me to hate her?

"I need to start cooking dinner, would you like to help?"

I practically spit on her saying 'yes' so fast.

Going into the kitchen, I realized that I had momentarily forgotten that the house had an open layout. So going into the kitchen really wasn't much of a safety zone.

Well, I had to give Emily credit for trying.

Sucking in air, I turned around, looking towards the door. There he was, all brooding and sexy.

Had we started cooking yet? It was getting hot in here.

He was looking at me, which wasn't a surprise, there was no doubt in my mind, that when I looked, he would be. Wow, I'm just a little conceited.

"Hey," I murmured.

"Hi," he said gruffly, making his way towards one of the benches on the other side of the countertop.

Whoosh, I let out a sigh of relief. Now all I had to do was get through the next conversation without looking like a complete moron.

Good luck with that. I wanted to whimper.

I glanced up, everyone was still being nosey. I scowled at them. Do you mind, I thought. Jeeze, as if it wasn't hard enough having this conversation with one person, I didn't need an entire audience listening to it.

I was pretty darn proud of myself, everybody had stopped staring. Yes, who's yo mamma?

My glance returned back to Paul, he had his neck craned around looking at everyone in the living room. I could hear what sounded like a low growl emanating from him.

So much for me being the intimidating one.

"Paul," I said, causing him to turn around. "Do you want to come with me to buy some…" I glanced at Emily, about to pull carrots out of the fridge, "carrots?"

Emily must have heard because she shut the drawer, putting the little orange veggies back.

Paul watched my expression for a little bit before nodding.

I looked around the room in general, "This is my last trip to the store, does anyone want anything?" Male voices came from all directions, so I held up my index finger. "Sorry, I should have been more specific. Women do you want anything?"

All the women in the room grinned, shaking their heads.

I smiled back, ignoring the whiny looking faces of the men. Sorry, but there was no way I had enough arms for all that they probably wanted.

I took a deep breath and followed Paul out the door.

Here goes nothing.

Neither of us said anything as we walked to… a truck.

"Is this your truck?" I asked.

Paul looked a little embarrassed, "Yah."

"I've never seen you with it before," I said, jumping in, because it was so high up.

He didn't say anything so I looked over.

I laughed, "Why are you turning red?"

He blushed harder. "I don't normally drive but…" he trailed off.

"But what?" I grinned, loving this moment for all it was worth.

He avoided looking at me, "but I wanted you to see that I'm every bit as human as the next guy."

I paused, what was I supposed to say to that?

"I like you the way you are," I said.

I could have murdered myself for saying that out loud. Why was I born this way?

There was no way I was going to look at Paul after I said that, I stared straight out the front window.

"I'm guessing we don't really need carrots?" he asked, I nodded.

"I'm also guessing you have a lot of questions?" I nodded again.

"Are you up for a walk on the beach?" he asked.

This time I glanced at him, he was frowning. "Sure."

Silently I was jumping up and down in little circles at the idea of not having to talk about such an intimate topic in a cramped space with lover boy here.

We didn't speak until we were out of the truck and halfway down the beach. "Okay, I'm ready. Ask a way."

I took a deep breath. "What did Seth mean when he said you were my werewolf?"

"Wow," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "You really don't tip toe around, do you?"

I stopped walking, waiting for his answer.

He closed his eyes, wincing. "Before I tell you this, I want you to know that… well, I couldn't be happier."

Um, okay. That was a weird way to start a werewolfy conversation, especially when he was wincing.

"Have you have heard of imprinting?"

I thought about it then nodded, "Yah, like off of Fly Away Home, when the little goslings imprinted on the girl."

"Mhmm." He murmured, "Well, werewolves do the same thing."

"Get out," I shoved him. "Aww, that's adorable."

He tried smiling, but it looked more like a wincey smile. "Yah well, we don't imprint on… moms."

Okay?

"Dad's then?" I asked, confused. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Is that where the whole wolf trainer thing comes in?"

"Uh no," he groaned. "That's a completely different topic. Imprinting… well first off, we aren't born werewolves. It's only when danger comes to our home that we, uh become one."

He finally looked at me for the first time, I just stood there listening.

"I for instance, became a werewolf in my teens. So it's not like with the ducks, I didn't fall in love with the first person I saw."

"Oh," I mumbled. I was officially confused.

"Okay, back to who we imprint on." He started fidgeting, moving his weight from one foot to the other. "Like I said before, we don't imprint on parental figures… we imprint on our soul mates."

Huh.

You don't hear that every day.

"Um, well…wow" I stuttered. "Lucky you."

His eyebrows drew together. "It's more than that."

My eyes flew to his, of course there was more. I mean, mythical creatures that came to life couldn't be simple. What was I thinking?

"We don't know who they are, they could be sitting next to us for years in the same class and then suddenly we look them in the eyes for the first time since becoming a werewolf and we're hooked. They're our everything. Our reason for anything. Why we live, breath, function, you name it."

Damn, they should make that into a fairytale. Forget frickin prince charming. Haha, I want a werewolf.

"So I take it that's what all the werewolves' wives are?" I said, mentally connecting the dots.

"Yah," Paul said. "Actually Kim was the girl that sat next to Jared for years and he didn't notice her until he become a werewolf."

My eyebrows came together, "Wow, that must have sucked for her."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

I gave him a 'guys are so dense look'. "Nobody sits next to the same person for four years by coincidence; she must have been crushing on him for a long time."

"But isn't that a good thing," he rushed, "now they're together and she gets what she wants."

"Yah," I said himhawing. "But it must have hurt at first, knowing that he didn't care about you until he became a werewolf."

"What?" he started shaking. "Yah he was an ass for not noticing but she's his world now. Nothing matters beyond her, how can you say it's horrible for her?"

"Easily," I narrowed my eyes at his shaking. "He couldn't give her five minutes before he was a werewolf and now he expects her to love him regardless. That's about as selfish as you can get!"

"WHAT!" he flipped out, throwing his hands up in the air. "Are you insane? This is her soul mate, why should she care about the past?"

"Calm down," I yelled, putting my hands on my waist. "I refuse to talk to you while you're not under control."

My statement was met with silence.

It stayed that way for a good few minutes.

"Okay," he said, talking very very calmly. " I—"

I cut him off, knowing that there was a possibility of him losing his temper all over again.

"I never once said she shouldn't love him. A person has to feel uber sorry for themselves if they're willing to give up a once in life time opportunity. I mean how many people get to say they're married to their soul mate, especially in today's society."

I paused, but not long enough for him to say anything.

"All I'm saying, is that it must have hurt her at first. Wondering why he couldn't see the potential in her before he became a werewolf."

He didn't say anything.

I looked up into his eyes.

"Okay?" I asked.

He smiled, "Okay."

"Now, what were we talking about?"

He laughed nervously, running his hand through his hair. "We were talking about imprinting."

I laughed to, "Yah, I'm pretty sure I got that part."

He let his hands fall to his sides. "Now, back to your question."

My question? Oh my question. Uh, yah, I completely forgot what I had asked.

Paul interrupted my thoughts, saying, "I'm your werewolf because… you're my imprint."

Okay, now I remembered my question.