Paul's POV

I watched as Gabby heaved herself out of her chair and slowly drifted from the room. I fingered the little ring in my pocket as a small ache radiated from my stomach. I hated thinking that Gabby had gone through that. That she was ever wronged so badly.

It made me feel nauseous, that she was once hurt, and is still hurting, and I couldn't do anything to help her. I felt useless as I watched her head down the hall and then listened to her hideaway in her room. I wanted so badly to do something, to ease the pain that she so clearly felt.

The guilt grew as I realised that her current pain was, in effect, my fault. I was the one that said we deserved the truth. Now I realised that we had not deserved anything, we had no right to bring up those ghosts. I bit the inside of my cheek as I thought about what I'd just done and at what the memories were likely doing to Gabby now.

My chest contracted painfully as I realised what I needed to do, what I should have done last night. After the momentary pain I was left feeling slightly numb; I was losing someone else. In the grand scheme of things, after the tale I'd just heard, I figured the pain of not having someone to love was nothing in comparison to not having anyone, at all.

I excused myself from the room, not caring what the others would say, and headed down the hall to Gabby's room. I knocked gingerly on the door and waited for a reply. There was none. I bit my lip and opened the door.

Gabby was in there, but she had phased and was curled into a ball in the corner. She was facing away from me and the only movement that told me she knew I was there was the involuntary flick of her ears as she heard me approach. I wanted to reach out and touch her, comfort her somehow, but I couldn't do it.

The green eyed monster that lived in my stomach reared its ugly head.

I had intended to give her back the engagement ring, to tell her that I would not behave inappropriately towards her or about their engagement. I had been willing to let her be happy with Randall, as she deserved to be.

But now that I was looking at her. Now that I could smell her and hear her breathing. There was no way that that selfish part of me could let her be with him.

It was different to how I felt about Rachel, it should have been weaker but it wasn't. Rachel was with John and when I saw them together I knew they wanted to be together, I knew they had to be together because Rachel would never be with me.

But Gabby had kissed me, she'd wanted to kiss me. And she was with me. I didn't care that Randall had proposed, that Randall had given her this stupid ring. Gabby wasn't really his, she'd sent him away. She'd asked him to leave so she could stay with us. She could stay with me. I could convince her of that, I knew I could. Because when I kissed her, she kissed back.

I knelt down beside her, not caring whether she wanted me there or not. She needed me. Okay, so maybe she just needed someone but I was here. Where was Randall? He was probably running away right now, following the orders of the coward of an Alpha. I was here, and Gabby was in need. I had to do something.

I reached out to Gabby, nervous to the pit of my stomach. I had never touched Gabby in wolf form, not in an affectionate way, and I knew that she reverted to this form when she was feeling exposed or afraid. I knew that there was a good chance she would try to bite me but I couldn't not touch her. Whenever she was around it was all I could think of, touching her. Touching her hands, her hair, her face. Any part of her body that was exposed to me, that was what I wanted to touch.

As I looked down at her huddled body it wasn't the wolf that I was thinking of, it was the woman. The athletic woman who was shaded with hints of being fine and delicate, the woman who haunted my dreams and had me sweating in my sleep.

My fingers brushed against her fur and her skin twitched, but still she just lay there. I let my hand push harder against her coat and was surprised at the feel.

Where mine and my brothers' coats were soft and bushy all over, and our hairs were fine and woolly, Gabby's was just the opposite. Her coat was shorter and although it was thick the hairs were coarse and prickly. I loved that she felt different, I had just not expected it from the bushiness of her mane.

I pushed my fingers into her coat, digging them down to the hot skin. I could have spent the rest of my life doing this, inspecting every inch of her pale golden coat. As long as she didn't complain I was going to continue playing with her fur.

Unfortunately my body wasn't aware of my want to play with Gabby's coat and after, I'm not sure how long, my legs started to cramp. I looked around for some way to sit down, not wanting to break contact with Gabby's skin. I dropped awkwardly sideways and adjusted my position to sit against the wall on the edge of Gabby's dog bed. I could barely believe she was still using that bed.

I wished that she wasn't.

The thought of her in human form, lying curled up on the bed where I could lie beside her and stroke her hair, had me feeling a little too excited. I pulled my knees up to my chest to make sure that there was no way she could see my... growing affection. I felt dirty to be thinking of that when Gabby was hurting, but I couldn't help myself.

I kept massaging the base of her skull, I could feel the definition between where the skull ended and the neck started and I wondered if she actually liked me touching that spot. All I could go off was her physical reaction, and all she was giving me in that regard was a lack of movement. She didn't pull away or press into my hand, the best I could really guess was that she didn't care either way for my touch.

It upset me. That she wasn't showing any emotion towards me. I wanted her to be open with her feelings, to be honest. If I was being honest, I just wanted her to act like she liked me. Whether it was the truth or not, I'm sure I would have accepted any type of affection from her.

Gabby whimpered. I couldn't be sure what she meant by it exactly but I stopped rubbing her neck, concerned she was voicing her discomfort. She stretched and fidgeted a little before getting to her feet. From my spot on the floor she looked massive, and fairly intimidating, and she looked me straight in the eye.

I wanted so badly to read something good in her eyes. I wanted to see her love for me, in fact I would have settled for lust if that was being offered. I wanted her to reciprocate my oh-so-confusing feelings, but she didn't. All I could see in her eyes was the shimmer of pain that softened her face.

The scars on her face were frightfully clear. I could see each separate bald scar that radiated from her golden eyes. Her skin wasn't black like everyone else that I knew, it was pale brown, a liver colour and normally her light fur blended well with her light skin. She stared at me with agonizing eyes for a few moments before turning in a circle and settling back down.

I smiled as she lay down. Because this time she lay with her side pressed to the corner and her head rested beside my outer thigh. The top of her head tucked firmly against my hip and I dropped my arm to rest it along her neck, I played with the fur on her shoulder and she nestled her head into me.

I couldn't deny that I liked how this felt, just the two of us.