"Her neck looks like a fucking chew toy!" Sam exploded when we went to see him the next day. I couldn't move my neck and I couldn't argue with his description.
"Don't yell at him Sam," I said. I took the water Emily offered. "We had to do something."
"You could have killed her!" He yelled ignoring me completely. "That bite is like a millimeter from her jugular!"
"We had to do something," Paul echoed. "The situation was becoming impossible."
"Like you withholding sex from your imprint?" Sam shouted. "Yeah I know about that. I'm not stupid."
"That is none of your business," Paul said calmly. "It's between us."
"Not when her neck looks like that!" He said. "Seriously Paul? That is the best you could come up with?"
"It worked!" Paul said.
"How the hell do you even know that?" Sam asked. I pushed back from the table.
"I don't want to hear this," I said as calmly as I could manage. "Emily can you walk me home?" I tried not to wince as I walked but I could tell by Sam's dark look as I passed that he understood. He grabbed my arm to bring me to a stop.
"Bella is staying here," Sam said. "Until her neck heals you are not allowed near her. Do you understand?" Paul bowed his head. Even I knew this was a loss. Sam could hide me behind the pack for weeks without anyone getting tired. Especially at his house. Paul moved toward me and Sam growled. Cautiously he bent his head to kiss my cheek.
"I guess I will see you in a few days," he said. I watched him leave and Sam finally released my arm.
"Please don't try to sneak out," Sam said.
"I'm not exactly ready to handle Paul right now anyway," I admitted. I waved toward my neck vaguely.
"We should probably go see Sue to get that cleaned," Emily said. Sam shook his head.
"It needs to heal with Paul's saliva still in it," Sam said. "Luckily that means it will heal faster but it won't be the prettiest scar."
In the end it took nine days to heal. It healed cleaner than we thought and it was not as conspicuous as the vampire scar. Paul stayed true to his word and stayed away the entire time. I immersed myself in work, editing manuscript after manuscript, even occasionally falling asleep on my laptop at night. Sam and Emily pretty much left me alone. He didn't say it but I could tell Sam was unsettled by the bite. Emily told me it brought of memories of how she got her scars. On the ninth day Paul showed up at the door.
"It's time for Bella to come home," he said. Sam narrowed his eyes but let him in. His eyes scanned me briefly.
"Are you done treating her like an object?" Sam asked crossing his arms over his chest. Annoyance flashed across Paul's face but he stayed fairly calm.
"Let us deal with this Sam," he said quietly. "Nothing is being solved by her staying here away from me. It's only getting the wolf stirred up."
"If I see one mark on her," Sam started. Emily put a hand on his arm.
"Bella are you ready to go?" She asked me. Paul trained his gaze on me. Slowly I nodded.
"You come back anytime," Sam said as I passed. I nodded and slipped my hand into Paul's. He squeezed mine gently. We were both quiet on the walk back to my house. Paul unlocked the door and I followed him in.
"How is it?" He asked gesturing to my neck.
"It healed pretty quickly," I answered touching it gently. "Something about wolf saliva. I stopped listening cause…well gross." He smiled.
"I shouldn't have agreed to do it," he said.
"I didn't give you much of a choice," I said. He moved forward and pressed his thumb to it gently. It was the same temperature, oddly enough.
"It's smoother than the other scar," he said quietly though I could see his breathing was quicker. I moved his hand away gently.
"Sam says the venom makes it raised," I said quietly. "It must have distributed it or removed it completely."
"It's removed," he said. "I can still taste it in my mouth." I looked away.
"I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about all of this," I said.
"I wish I had been in better control," he said softly. "I hate that you are scared of me."
"I'm scared of what I am willing to do to keep you," I whispered. He pulled me into his arms.
"We would have figured it out," he said into my hair. "We both got impatient for a solution. That's how we are. Together, well we tend to jump before we look down."
"I got frustrated," I admitted. "You wouldn't hardly touch me unless I was asleep. You wouldn't even kiss me." He lifted my chin up with his thumb. His lips brushed gently over mine twice before settling firmly. He kissed me unhurriedly and I lifted my hands to rest on his chest. We relearned the contours of the other's lips and kissed until my lips were sore.
"I'm sorry," he said against my lips. "I tend to have a harder time with my wolf than the others. Sam calls it feral but I don't know how accurate that is."
"It's because I left before," I said. "You had to rely more on your instincts. We both just never learned how to make adjustments for that. I think we seem to feel like because it was so easy for everyone else that it should be just as easy for us. But we're different."
"That we are," he said. "Let's get some sleep. I slept like hell while you were gone."