Hello, darlings! Here comes another chapter.

I have to tell you that updates for this story and Red Moon might come on the weekends now because I started working at one of the vaccination centers in my town and it's all day.

Be patient with me. :) I promise to do everything I can to update on the weekends.

Stay safe, alert, review, and enjoy :)!

SILVER

Chapter 22: Celebration.

Life was getting easier now that the threat was over for good. The last month had been bliss for all the wolves and their significant others, particularly for Bella and Paul, as the former was the main target of Victoria's army. They were enjoying the time they got together, the summer air that was slowly fading and giving space for colder days the closer autumn got.

Bella was waiting for Seth's news about his final exams and his date with the girl he liked. She had never been this nervous before. Is this what having a little brother felt like? She felt like she wanted to wrap him in bubble paper so nothing could get at him. She had gotten really close with him, and she loved it. The other younger wolves were cute as hell too, but they were too engrossed with their own lives to be too close to the imprints. Sam had managed to give them as little patrol time as possible without endangering their lives for lack of training; he did so they could focus on school and succeed. He had to give up community college when he first phased, and the last thing he wanted was for the phasing to affect anyone's education. And now that Victoria was dead and things were calm again, he had decided to finish his degree online. He had a good life, a wonderful girlfriend and friends, and things were looking bright now.

The pack hadn't had time to celebrate officially the end of their worries with Jake being convalescent and his bones still healing; they hadn't felt like celebrating, but since the amusement park day when Jake could join them on a little bit of fun, they had been planning a get together to celebrate officially. At first, they thought of a bonfire but decided against it. They wanted it to be a private celebration, so Paul offered his house for a change (giving Emily a break from all the people in her house).

"Do we really need this amount of food?" Bella asked, looking at the countless packages of assorted chips, cheese, beers, wine, crackers, etc.

"Baby, we're hosting a party for eight wolves plus girlfriends. Of course we need it."

"Yes, but eight bags just of chips? Isn't that too much?"

Paul chuckled and shook his head. "You'll see." He said ominously.

She shrugged, not really caring if it was too much, she was spending the weekend with him, and she wasn't planning on leaving the house; if they had leftovers, the better.

…

…

…

Bella and Paul were lying in bed, her head on his chest, while he ran his hand up and down her back. She felt like purring in content. She loved these small moments where they were just lying in bed, holding each other, even if they hadn't had sex. Despite Paul's teasing of having constant wood, he craved her company more than he craved her body.

"Tell me something that no one knows about." She asked softly, tilting her head to meet his eyes. He thought about it for a few seconds. "The night that I fully imprinted on you, I slept in the woods behind your house."

"Really?" He nodded. "Why?"

He shrugged. "I'm not sure. I came home, and I tried to sleep, but for some reason, I couldn't, so I thought that running could help me, and somehow I ended up behind your house."

She sat up, but he remained lying down. She smiled down at him; he was too cute.

"Your turn."

She nodded, she wasn't sure if she had told him this before, but she said it anyway. "Before the imprint was completed, I had a buzz in my head. Imagine a beehive in your head for weeks. It was so frustrating. But the morning after you took me home from the clearing, the buzz was gone, erased, as it had never been there."

Paul seemed to like this new game of theirs, so he continued with another fact that no one knew. It was like neither revelation required much commentary. "I think Embry might be my brother."

"What?!" That did require commentary.

He sat up. "Embry is originally from the Makah reservation, he moved here when he was little, but he was not supposed to phase. That means he's a direct descendant of a wolf. The only options are Sam's father, my father, or Billy Black. My parents never got along very well. I don't doubt they cared about each other, but they fought a lot. I heard a lot about one mistress my father had and how he had messed up big time."

"What about Billy, and Sam's father?"

"Sara had just passed away when Embry got here, and we all know that Billy always thought Sara hung up the moon, so there's no way he would have cheated on her. And Sam's father left a few years after Embry moved here. I mean, he could have still been his father and just left him, but I think it might have been my dad that cheated on my mom and never dealt with the consequences."

Bella thought about it for a few minutes. "Are you ok with it?" She knew he cared about his pack brothers, but having an actual brother was different.

"I am. I might not be sure of it, but if we ever find out the truth, I don't care about it. He's my brother either way, and he's not at fault for what our parents did."

"That's a very mature way of thinking about it."

He laughed, not offended by her surprise. "I have been thinking about this for some time. I wasn't this rational at first." She smiled at him.

After a few minutes of silence, she dropped the bomb that she was too afraid to drop before.

"Edward proposed when we came back from Italy."

"I assumed you said no." He was taking this exceptionally well. Who was he, and what did he do with her hot-headed and impulsive wolf?

She tried not to take offense by his words, so she breathed in deeply a few times and answered as calmly as she could. "Well, I'm here with you. Of course I said no. I didn't want to marry him. I was angry and hurt and scared shitless. Those were not good reasons to either propose or accept. He asked again a few days before the third wife night, and I said no again. By that time, I wasn't in love with him anymore, but of course, I was in denial. However, I still had enough sense to say no. He didn't ask again after that. I think some part of him knew that I would have said no again."

"But what if I hadn't imprinted on you?" A shudder ran through his body at the mere thought of this. He might have been angry at first when he realized he was falling for the leech-lover, but he wouldn't have wanted it any other way by now. He couldn't imagine his life without her sweet presence, her dirty mind, and her sleep talking.

"I don't know. I liked you before I even knew you had imprinted, or half imprinted on me. I loved you before it too, so I would have probably ended things with him at some point. I don't think I would have stayed with him if we hadn't ended up together."

Paul just hmmed as an answer, which made Bella roll her eyes. "What have you done with my impulsive and hot-headed boyfriend?" She asked, squinting her eyes in mock suspicion.

He rolled over, getting on top of her and kissing her neck. "You tamed it."

…

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…

"How was your date yesterday?" Bella asked Seth when he walked into the kitchen to refill his drink. She didn't have the time to ask him about it when he arrived because he was carrying more beers and more alcohol into the house. Apparently, when these wolves said celebrate, they actually meant 'get drunk.'

Seth groaned. "It was awful."

Bella didn't know what to say. She looked at the other girls, who seemed to be in the same position.

"What happened?" Emily asked sweetly, steering him into one of the stools where he sat.

"It was a disaster. We went to a steak place that my dad used to love, and it turns out that she's vegan. She's VEGAN! what the hell?!" It was beginning to feel hilarious how offended Seth looked at the fact that his date had been vegan. He didn't care that she might have been offended, or taken aback, or any other feeling. His primary concern was that she was vegan, which was unbelievable to him.

Bella's lips quivered, but she didn't laugh. "What did she do, then?"

"She ordered a salad, and then the conversation was just forced." Angela shook her head, poor Seth. His first date and it turned out to be a disaster. The girl he liked, who liked him back, had nothing in common with him, and it didn't turn out as one of those situations where you could say opposites attract.

"I'm so sorry it didn't go the way you wanted it to." Kim started. "But sometimes, that happens. You meet a girl, you like her, you ask her out, and it just doesn't work. It will happen a few more times. It doesn't say anything about either of you individually. It just says that you two are not the right combination."

Seth nodded, knowing that Kim was right, but it still sucked that his first date had been such a bummer. He had had high expectations about it, he had been excited and scared, and he ended probably insulting the girl's choices by not asking about her food preferences beforehand.

One of the guys was about to come inside the kitchen, but one look from Emily sent him the other way, scurrying like a frightened rodent.

"I thought you were getting something to eat." Jake asked Quil when he saw him coming empty-handed. Leah was sitting on Jake's lap on the couch watching Embry and Jared embarrass themselves at beer pong.

But Quil didn't bite the hook that Jake had thrown; instead, he looked confused. "I have no idea what is going on in there." He pointed to the kitchen.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Seth is in there, and all the girls are around him."

Leah rolled her eyes at Quil. She knew why her baby brother was in there. His first date hadn't gone as planned, and he was sad about it. It was instinctive that the girls sought to comfort him. Besides, he was too cute for his own good.

"You're only jealous because it's not you they're giving their attention to." She teased.

Quil just answered her with a sarcastic 'ha ha' before dropping down next to them.

No one seemed to care that Leah was sitting in Jacob's lap, or that he was constantly touching her or kissing her, or most surprisingly, that she giggled and allowed it. They knew those two were together the moment Leah dropped down next to him in the field after he was crushed by the newborn and then when she asked to see him before anyone had the time to process what the doctor had said.

Sam had been a little jealous at first, but he quickly got over it. It was good to see her happy again. She deserved to be happy.

…

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…

Paul is very competitive, even when he doesn't have to be. No one cares because they all find it funny. It was nice to see him really carefree. He usually didn't drink, but today he felt like having a few drinks, but then, he got very competitive, and those few drinks turned into more. They were playing all sorts of games, from board games to card games to drinking games.

Paul decided to join the drinking games, taking Kim's place when it was clear she was losing at a fast rate. Paul was ahead at first, but when Quil decided to play against him, they both got drunk fast. It was not only a beer-pong game. It was whatever liquor was closest-pong. At the end of the night, Bella basically dragged Paul to his bed. But he was not being cooperative.

"I have a girlfriend." he slurred, eyes dropping, while he fell on the bed.

She grinned amusedly while trying to take off his shoes. He rolled over, making her task impossible. "Paul, you have to roll over. You hate sleeping in your clothes."

He managed to wake up enough to walk out of the room, mumbling, "I have a girlfriend. Bye." Bella didn't know what to make out of his behavior. It was hilarious. She shook her head, following him out of the room. In the minute it took for Bella to catch up to him, he lied on the couch, fell asleep, and started snoring softly. She sighed and shook her head. At least he discarded off the Jean's and shoes. That told her he wasn't as drunk as she thought he was. There was no way he would have had enough coordination to undress if he had been more drunk. She grabbed a blanket, covered him, and dropped a kiss on his cheek before going to his room. She changed into her pajamas and crawled into the bed, fastly falling asleep.

An undefined time later, she woke to the sound of her phone. She quickly answered.

"Hello?" She cleared her throat after hearing her sleepy voice.

"Bella, there's a girl on my bed." She had to do a double-take to fully comprehend what was happening. She kind of had a flashback to watching The Big Bang Theory and hear Sheldon complain about someone being in his spot.

"I know." She answered finally. It was a funny situation, really, but she was so tired.

"What do I do?" She knew he meant if he should throw her out now or later.

"Join her." She said. She also knew he wasn't completely sober yet.

"What?"

"The girl on your bed is your girlfriend. She's exhausted and would love to go back to sleep. So if you want to join her, you're welcome." She hung up the phone and put it on the nightstand.

She waited a few minutes to see what he would do. She felt the hallway's light being turned on and the door slowly opening. Paul took a peek inside the room and confirmed it was his girl. He returned, turned off the light, and joined Bella on the bed.

She smiled when his soft snores started again.