Thank you Kedrane, catgrl, .7334, Elisabeth123, MammaNita4, rachel625, Twibookworm, Stephiest and the guest reviewer for your reviews.

A/N: This story is strictly fan fiction and I don't mean to offend the Quileute tribe or their sacred legends by the medium of my work. I pay my respect to their Gods, and I apologize if anyone feels offended.

Also on a lighter note, I know many of you wanted or were expecting Paul to phase in this chapter or after seeing Bella's condition, but spoiler alert, he will not be phasing right now as I have left his phasing for a very crucial part that is still to come ahead in my story….. Thank you for reading and I hope you like it.

Part IV- Imprint

Chapter 14- Crossroads

Paul POV-

"I am waiting" I snarled, when I realized that Sam Uley had no immediate intention of telling me what the fuck was going on. For Fuck's sake the man had been staring into space for the past ten minutes, and frankly I had run out of patience hours back.

He sighed audibly, as if this was a big responsibility dumped on his fragile shoulders that were now slumped by the burden, before looking directly into my eyes.

"So, keep an open mind while listening to what I have to say" he said finally, taking in another deep breath, as if breathing in would somehow give him the immense courage required for whatever he was going to blabber out and dump on me.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at his dramatics that was again, frankly annoying and unneeded, before nodding my head once, anything to get this done with and to get him to answer my questions.

He once again trailed into space for a few minutes, before coming back to Earth and opening his irritating trap deciding to answer my question of what the fuck had just happened here and why was Bella in that condition, and most importantly whose ass needed a good kick delivered to it?

"Paul" he said my name slowly, as if testing the waters for my mood "How much do you remember of our tribal legends?"

I glared at him in irritation, wanting and wishing that I could slap the shit out of the guy. Was he purposefully trying to annoy me and test my hanging by a small little thread patience?

"What the hell?" I shouted, shaking in anger "Is this the time for cracking lame jokes, or talking about things that really don't matter in my, or your life for that matter. 'How much do you remember of our tribal legends?' I mimicked his words in an annoying tone, crossing my arms in anger.

He sighed "It does matter or I wouldn't bring it up. Now answer my question"

I rolled my eyes deciding to humor him and his twisted way of answering a one word answer question with a paragraph long answer.

"Not much" I said with a nod "We are descended from wolves. Then there was this dude, some Taha or Kaha or something. He was blessed by the spirits and entered the body of a Tiger or Panther, or no Wolf. Yeah wolf, and then there was some crap about the cold ones and the Cullens who were supposedly these cold ones and yeah that's it…." I trailed off, frowning at the mention of Jasper Hale Cullen. He was no better than a leech even if he wasn't a literal leech.

He hit his forehead with his hands harshly, as if he couldn't believe the audacity of the words that had just left my mouth.

"What" I questioned him, giving him an exasperatedly bored look. He was annoying me and simultaneously boring the shit out of me with his melodrama.

"Why me?" he said, shaking his head, looking at the sky above, and I almost, maybe, saw a tear fall out of his eyes.

Yeah, I felt bad for the guy. Not. He got himself in this situation, and if he wanted to blame someone, he should point the finger at himself. Who told him to be the one to open the door? You do the deed, you pay the price.

"You know nothing?!" he scowled and stated, first asking the question and then answering it too.

I just shrugged. Who really paid attention to all this, anyways? And it was also no guesswork that my deadbeat father was not much about educating his only son on our tribal culture and beliefs, in his free when he was not drunk time. Neither did he care nor did he bother enough to make me care. The only things I knew and remembered was a bit of what Billy had pushed into my mind by repeatedly reciting it to us at the Sunday gatherings or the tribal bonfires that we were obliged to attend when we were kids, on first beach. And after not really hearing or thinking about them for years I could confidently say that I didn't remember anything substantial of it.

He sighed, taking another deep breath in "Okay, no big deal. I will just have to tell them to you again" he said more to himself than to me, and I rolled my eyes at his pep talk. Have I mentioned before, how overdramatic he was acting?

"Now, Listen carefully" he said in all seriousness and I nodded my head, my eyes wide in disbelief. The guy was even weirder than I had thought him to be.

He started telling me how the Quileute's had always been a small people from the beginning and we still were but we had never disappeared, because we had magic in our blood, the magic of being spirit warriors, and then shape shifters. He narrated the story of Kaheleha who was the first spirit chief in history, and how he had used magic to defend our lands by transforming into a spirit warrior to protect our land against intruders… Blah….. Blah….. Blah

"Whoa, hold on" I interrupted him and his tiresome monologue "Does this really have a point to this, because I don't know about you, but I definitely have work to do. Starting with finding who and why, is responsible for Bella being like this, and making sure that he or she pays for it"

He sighed, shutting his eyes tight "If you let me continue, you will know that this does have a point to it"

"Okay fine" I conceded "Just keep it short this time around"

He nodded his head reluctantly, as he once again started speaking "The Legend goes that one spirit warrior, Utlapa wanted to use his powers to enslave neighboring tribes, the Hohs and the Makahs. Unwilling to use the warriors' powers for such monstrous purposes, his chief Taha Aki banished him from the tribe. One day, the chief left his body in a hiding place to sweep through the valley in his spirit form, searching the area for anything that may pose a threat to the tribe. Utlapa followed him and possessed his body, then cut his own body's throat to prevent Taha Aki's return. The chief wandered for a while in spirit form, watching the thief do horrible things to his people. One day though, the chief's spirit found a large, beautiful wolf in the woods. Though jealous of the wolf's physical form, an idea came to him. He asked the wolf to share his body with him, to which the wolf agreed. Rushing back to the village as a wolf, he met a party of warriors, and tried to make himself known by yelping Quileute songs. One of the warriors, an elderly man named Yut realized that the wolf was under a spirit's control, and disobeying the usurper Utlapa's orders not to enter the spirit world, left his body to talk to the beast. The false chief was enraged at Yut for entering the spirit world as he feared that his treachery would be revealed, and killed the warrior. Taha Aki who had witnessed this was furious, and he lunged to kill the man; his emotions were too much for the wolf, and it transformed into a magnificent human, the glorious flesh interpretation of Taha Aki's flawless spirit. The false chief was killed, and things were rapidly set right. Taha Aki sired many children, and found out that his sons, at the age of manhood, could transform to wolves too. And so, these are our tribal legends" finished Sam, taking a deep breath in.

I rolled my eyes in answer, still unable to comprehend why I had been subjected to this. I know I know that this is my tribal history, and I should be more respectful towards it, and I want to, believe me, but isn't there a time and place for everything?

"Now can you tell me what I want to know, if you are done with informing me about stuff that makes not more than a percent difference in either your or my life. And anyways, I need to go check on Bella again"

Ever since I had seen the extent of her injuries, my craving to be around her had increased to nearly double, almost as if I needed to protect her and keep her safe, now that she was at her most vulnerable.

Sam laughed, first merely a few chuckles, but soon there was full blown laughter that could be heard for miles "Only if you knew" he muttered, his hysterical laughs soon toning down to amusement filled chuckles "Oh, Paul! It makes much more difference than just a percent for the both of us. It is the exact opposite actually"

"How" I raised an eyebrow at his supposed confidence.

He laughed once again, an expression of amusement and mild gloating on his face.

"Wait here. I will just be back" saying so, he disappeared behind the trees that surrounded the Uley house, leaving me standing there, staring at absolutely nothing, like a freaking moron.

"Look I don't know what pleasure you are getting from my misery, but don't you think it is getting a bit too much. I know you don't like me, the feeling is completely mutual, but don't you think you should be thinking about your sister right now, and wasting my time is not going to help anyone at this point of time. So let's just cut the crap and…."

"Whoa" I stumbled back in shock, my earlier spoken words trailing off in mid air, as a freakishly massive Black wolf walked out of the surrounding trees, directly in my direction. Actually, walked would be the wrong word here, coz that wolf was galloping instead of just walking, his head held high, and his dark coal like black eyes burning into me, giving me the most menacing look that it could possibly muster. Almost as if it meant to scare me to shit… and unfortunately, I guess it was working.

"Umm" I said, partially looking at the ground, shying away from meeting the wolf's eyes, in a small act of submission. No need to anger the beast, more than he already was "Look, if you know Snow, you can ask her. She has met me before" Okay, met was probably an exaggeration, she had just seen me once, but when you lie, you lie to your best "I am pretty harmless, and I am not even much fun to eat…. not much mass you know, not like she has any experience in that, but I guess you get the point" Yeah I know, talking to wolf who did not even understand a word of what I said was not my brightest idea, but in such crucial life threatening situations, you work with what you have "But my friend Sam, he is built like a fucking Mack truck. It will be like eating at a buffet. He is just behind those trees….." I said pointing towards the woods behind the wolf.

Hey! I know that that was evil, but in a crisis, it is always each man for itself.

I took a step back, as slowly and stealthily as possible. I knew it was stupid to run from a wolf, and yeah, I was not even that stupid to try so.

The black wolf then did something completely unexpected, making my eyes widen again, this time in surprise and disbelief. He barked out loud, his bark sounding like a million loud guffaws, almost like if he had been a man, he would be holding his stomach from laughing that hard. He then trembled, his entire body shaking from head to toe… and then Lo and behold, in front of me stood the great Sam Uley, exactly where the wolf had once stood.

"Are you always this much of a loser, or is today a special occasion?" asked the freak of a man who could turn into a wolf, pulling me out of my gaping trance, with a big taunting smirk on his face.

"Ha Ha Ha, you are so funny" I said in a monotonic voice, attempting to be sarcastic. "So, what is this, a lab experiment gone wrong?" I could not think of another sane reason how this could happen.

He chuckled, shaking his head with a small smile on his face "You know, Bella had thought the exact same thing when she phased for the first time, and saw the human turned wolf shocker. I had seen it in her head. No wonder….." he left his sentence hanging in mid-air.

I nodded my head. Yeah, that was something Bella would have thought.

"Wait" I mumbled aloud, the implications of his words catching onto me, a second too late "What do you mean by 'you saw it in her head'? Is this some twisted, unusual, nonsensical way of saying she told you so, because that would make complete sense if it were?"

He laughed once again "Are you not at all in shock?"

I shrugged, Stranger things have happened before, if not with me than with others at least, and anyways I had always known that the guy was a freak. Now it was just confirmed. The only thing I was glad about was that I was not dying anytime today. That would have been a real pity.

"So, I am guessing this is why you told me the legends" I stated

He nodded his head "Yeah, they are true. And when I said I saw it in her head that is exactly what I meant. When we are in our wolf forms, we can read each other's thoughts and can communicate through our mind. It helps in protecting our heads in a fight"

"Wait" I whispered, as my feet involuntarily took a step back in shock "You mean Bella too is this….. this…. this…."

My words stuttered in disbelief, as my years of learning failed to provide me with a suitable word that I could use to express what I was feeling and thinking off, at the moment.

"Shape- shifter, that is the word you are looking for" Sam interrupted my nervous stutter "Yeah, she is a wolf too. Actually she was the first out of us to phase, and is the Alpha"

"How" I whispered, still in shock.

Apparently, learning that shape shifters exist does not lead to me getting surprised, but news of my best friend turned new friend being one, is enough to push me into deep shock, rendering me incapable of speech.

He shrugged "You heard the legends. Proximity to the cold ones triggers the change"

"You mean the Cullens are really vampires? But how" I questioned, horrified.

He gave me a 'duh! Wasn't that obvious' stare "If shape shifters exist, wouldn't the one who triggers their change exist to?"

"But, Jasper and she….." I started to protest. How was this possible? Bella was dating a vampire? I shuddered in disgust and worry. Disgust because it was creepy, the guy was dead, and worry because again the guy was dead. He was literally a dead man walking. That was creepy, wasn't it?

Sam interrupted me, his body trembling in anger "I don't know how she bears to be around him. They smell disgusting to us, like rotten garbage. But you know how Bella is, she does not see the fact that he is our mortal enemy, and is a fucking blood sucking leech. All she sees is the person, over the name tag or identity they have been forced to accept. She somehow believes that he is a good person, as he helped her once before in life, and even that leech is just not ready to let go of his clutches that he has over her. His first friend in over a century is what he says" he scoffed in disgust.

The anger and annoyance that he felt over the situation was clear on his face, and I had to give it to the guy. I did not specifically like him, understatement, but anyone who disliked Jasper Fucking Hale as much as I did, was good in my books. No matter the fact that we had completely different reasons for disliking him, but then again that hardly mattered. Isn't there a saying- The enemy of my enemy is my friend, or something like that.

"Yeah, sounds like Bella" I mumbled with a nod "So, are you the only two in this….." I waved my hand in mid air, not knowing what the correct word for this 'group' of theirs would be. Wolves generally had a pack, but shape shifters were still part human, weren't they?

"Pack" he finished my unspoken sentence, confirming my doubts.

"Really" I questioned him, mildly amused "You guys really call yourself a pack of wolves?"

He shrugged "As strange as that sounds, and as today is your lucky day, and I am the unfortunate one stuck in this terrible situation, I will answer your question. Bella was the first to phase and become the Alpha of our little pack, then me and lastly Jared. Even Levi Uley is a wolf, but he is in a different pack, as he was the Beta or the second of the last pack"

"Jared too" I raised my eyebrow in question, trying to digest all the information that he had thrown upon me.

He nodded his head, looking slightly irritated and even mildly angry, as if a thought was bothering him.

"I guess it is story time again" he said with a small humorless laugh "You will understand more if you know the entire story"

I nodded my head, listening on with curiosity as he went on to divulge how Bella had phased, the actual term for their changing into a wolf, close to a year back, and how she had roamed around these woods, having no idea of how to change back, or even how she had become this in the first place. He told me how she had come to meet Levi and Ellen, who were from the last pack and had kept on phasing, living as immortals, and how finally she had found out the truth, becoming the Alpha or the leader of their little pack. Sam had been the next to phase and his phase had been comparatively easier as Bella had been there to guide him, and lastly Jared had phased, making their pack strength to three.

I nodded my head, as he finally finished updating me about the events till date "All this is hunky dory and shit, but now will you tell me how Bella ended up like this? She has deep red painful scratches on her body and someone obviously has bitten her too. Has that Cullen done this?" I shook in anger "Did he hurt her?"

Sam shook his head, sighing "No, I would have gladly ripped him apart if he had even tried to hurt her, but it was not him"

"Then who" I asked suspiciously "Did you do this?" I took a step ahead in anger, the threat clear in my voice. He may be a mighty dangerous looking wolf, but I was not scared, now that I knew the truth.

I knew blaming him was irrational. Entire La Push and Forks knew how overprotective Bella's brothers were when it came to her, but that is the thing about anger. Rational or irrational just doesn't matter in a fit of rage.

He rolled his eyes, huffing in annoyance "It is definitely not me, though I don't know how you got this terrible idea"

"Then who" I said through gritted teeth

He sighed, a heavy invisible weight falling on his shoulders; pushing them downwards with the weight they held "It was a coven of nomadic vampires. We attacked them, as that is what we are meant to do when human feeding vampires trespass our land, and while fighting one of them, Bella was bitten and scratched. We called Dr. Cullen who removed the venom from her body before it could have reached her heart, but even he could not say when she would wake up. He said that once her body has healed internally, she will open her eyes"

As soon as the last word of his sentence reached my ears, off I was in the opposite direction, with a clear plan in my head, the plan of taking revenge. I don't know how I would do this, but I would find a way to kill that vampire who dared to do this. I was fuming in anger and the thoughts of creating destruction when Sam's voice stopped me in the tracks.

"It is no use" he said, sympathetically for once "She is dead. We killed her and burnt her pieces"

I nodded my head, relieved that this 'she' who had hurt Bella was dead, but also angry that I had not been the one to do so.

"So wait" I said aloud, another piece of the puzzle falling into place "What color is Bella's fur?"

I had my doubts, but I needed the confirmation.

"White" he said, with a frown etched on his face, almost as if he was privy to something I wasn't.

"Snow" I whispered under my breath. So Bella had been Snow the wolf all along. She was the wolf I had seen in the woods, and more importantly the wolf that I had seen in my dreams. No wonder the she wolf in the woods had been so intelligent and responding to human contact for a wild animal.

"Yeah" he replied, standoffishly

"Who is the silver wolf then?" I asked my next important question.

According to my dreams, he was Snow's mate, as in Bella's mate. So did he also exist in the real world? If so, then who was this silver wolf?

My body convulsed in anger at this thought that she was meant to be someone else's. That somewhere out there her perfect mate existed. No…. I did not like this. I did not like this a bit.

Sam gave me a confused stare "We don't have any wolf whose fur is silver, in the pack. I am Black and Jared is brown"

"But he is her mate" I shouted in disbelief "I saw it in my dream that they were together, a family I could tell"

He stared at me for a few seconds, with a completely unrecognizable expression on his face "You should talk to Quil Sr. about these dreams. You may be having some minor prophetic powers, but only he will be able to tell you more. Though from what I have understood, I can tell you this that the silver wolf is yet to phase"

"And how would you know that?" I narrowed my eyes in suspicion

He shrugged, nonchalantly "Just a hunch" his face though betraying the nonchalance in his voice, almost as if he knew who this silver wolf was.

"You know who it is" I accused him "Who is it?"

"You should not know of some things before the time for it arrives" he said, his eyes wiser than normal.

"Who" I repeated, my teeth gritted and my entire body shaking in anger. I wanted to know who this was. I needed to know who this was.

"It is not my place, Paul" he sighed "She has to decide this. I can't….."

"Just tell me who it is" I shouted, spitting out the words in anger.

I didn't know what I was going to do with this information, but at this point getting the name out felt like the first step in the correct direction.

"Okay" he sighed, after a few long tense minutes "I am telling you the name, but I really hope my risk pays off. Maybe you will be the key, the motivation she requires to finally open her eyes. We can only hope"

"Who" I repeated through gritted teeth, as he opened his mouth to say the name.

X-X-X-X-X-X

"Imprint" "Really, Bella?" I questioned, saying the word out loud for possibly the first time, in front of the sleeping form of the girl, who….. Who had imprinted on me, tying us both together through a mystical bond for life. I had repeated this one word close to hundred times in my head in the past two days, but still saying it out loud felt more real, more permanent, more absolute…..

"How could you hide something like this from me?" I questioned with a sigh "Though to be honest, I probably would have done the same, if I was in your place. I know how scary it would have been. We had just become friends again and to tell the other something this big… it couldn't have been very easy"

I shook my head with a deep sigh, taking my head in my hands the next minute. The past few days, ever since Sam had told me everything, had been stressful to say the least. I didn't know how to react any longer. It was as if my entire world, everything I had known of, had now tilted on its axis, forcing me to accept a completely new reality, one whose existence I was not even aware of.

"Can you even hear me?" I questioned Bella, sitting on a chair beside Bella's bed in her bedroom. It was now almost three days since she had been attacked and had fallen unconscious, but she was still to wake up. Her scratches though had nearly faded, but according to Dr. Cullen the bite mark would remain a testimony to her bravery "Oh" I said with an understanding nod "Now I understood why you are not responding back. You are angry at me right?" I said, my throat drying up a bit with unshed tears that I knew were not going to fall "I know you are angry that I did not come to meet you for so long, but Bella you know me. You know how I run away from anything that has to do with feelings and emotions and all"

I knew it was silly talking to someone who possibly couldn't even hear a word of what I was speaking, but it was sort of cathartic I guess, and even showed hope. We were hopeful that she would wake up. I was hopeful that she would wake up. And I was not the only one to do so, Sam, Allison and even Kim, who was now in the secret because of Jared imprinting on her, often came to talk to Bella like this, in the hope that maybe she was listening, but this was the first time I had been able to raise enough courage to come here.

"You know your ass of a brother hardly told me anything about imprinting" I playfully pouted, trying to lighten the mood "He just told me the basics, the gravity moving and that person becoming the most important person in your life, after which he quickly shifted to his own imprinting on Emily Young and how he was fighting it, telling me that it was not the end of the road, and being imprinted on did not necessarily mean that I needed to ruin your life by being tied down to me" I gave out a small laugh "Can you believe it? He did not even try to hide his dislike for me, but then again I am equally vocal when it comes to him" "The bottom line though is that you need to wake up, because trust me when I say this we have a lot to talk about. I know I know that that would have been enough motivation for you to keep sleeping on, but I promise that if you wake up, we will do whatever you want us to do" I finished, my voice breaking at the end. You know they say that you understand the true value of a person when you are close to losing them. I had already lost her once due to my own stupidity and I was not willing to do this again.

"Paul" Allison said softly, from the door of Bella's room "Cherry is waiting in the living room for you. She came looking for you, and I have prepared some sandwiches. Should I get you some, or will you come downstairs to eat?"

I looked at her, looking away from Bella for possibly the first time since I had come to see her today, and quickly told Allison that I would be down soon, once I was done talking to Bella. She nodded her head and left the room, leaving us both alone.

I sighed. I would have to tell Cherry something, regarding my weird behavior that I now knew was due to the imprint, but I would worry about that later.

"Did I tell you" I said, looking at Bella again "I kicked Jared's whiny puny ass. Sam told me how he had fought you. That asshole" I spat out in anger.

Sam had been quick to fill me in on what Jared had done to Bella, once he had realized that I was willing to kick anyone's ass who had hurt Bella and I had not let him or myself down when I had gone to confront Jared, as wolf or not, no one messes with Bella. I had even managed to leave two permanent scars on his extremely fast healing body.

"Yeah, he too is desperately waiting for you to wake up. Kim has stopped talking to him, and I have warned him that if he doesn't apologize to you as soon as you wake up, he will have two matching scars to his first two, again given by me" I gloated with a smirk.

Bella's face remained as impassive as it had been, and I sighed. We would have to try another way to make her wake up.

"Okay, I am going to let you sleep in peace now" I smiled at the irony in the situation "I am feeling a little hungry so I will go and feed myself, but don't you worry I am coming back up soon. I have taken reading duties from Allison today. She has some urgent work to attend to"

Allison had made it a point to read Wuthering Heights to Bella every day, as it was her favorite book and she felt that Bella would enjoy listening to it and so today as Allison was busy with some last minute urgent work, I had volunteered to read to Bella.

Looking at Bella one last time I quickly left the room and walked down the stairs to where Allison and Cherry were sat talking, and after grabbing my plate of sandwiches from the kitchen counter, I made my way back to sit on the adjoining sofa. Allison quickly excused herself saying that she had some work in her room.

"So, I have hardly seen you in these past few days, and that is saying something as we live in the same house" said Cherry, a bit bitterly and equally confused.

I shrugged. It was not like I had any answer for her.

"Do you want to go to the beach today?" she asked, her voice filled with hope.

I shook my head hastily, ignoring the pain in her eyes when I said no. I was not leaving Bella and going anywhere.

She sighed "But….."

Her voice and the words that came with it faded to the background as Allison's loud whisper filled the room "Paul, Bella has opened her eyes"

A/N: I generally don't give story recommendations but I just could not resist myself this time. If you are a fan of reading Jasper- Bella stories and don't prefer much angst, I recently read an amazingly wonderful story - A Forest Fire by Bedelia. It has a very unique story line. There is also no character bashing, be it wolf or vampire. Also another bonus, it has a strong Bella. So give it a read, if you get the chance. Thank you.