ROUTINE

Paul

My head tilted back as another laugh wracked through my body, one of my arms swinging out to slap at Jared's side out of pure instinct to ensure he was enjoying this as much as I was. And he was, tilting back on the log we sat on until his whole body tumbled backwards, nearly taking Kim with him, and sending everyone into another fit of laughter. I couldn't tell what was warmer; the feeling of being surrounded by the pack, everyone in good spirits for the first time, or the fire that was illuminating the whole scene.

"Alright, jackasses, it's not that funny," Jacob sulked, tossing another log into the fire and sending sparks towards the sky. "What ever happened to Pack healing Pack?"

"Dude, she broke her hand on your face," Quil reminded in between his own giggles, bouncing his knees up and down like a little kid.

It was the night's favorite topic ever since Jacob had returned from dropping off Bella. He had been steaming when he told the story, mostly fixated on the part where Edward verbally tore into him a little bit, but telling a bunch of guys that you got punched in the face was always a recipe for laughs. Telling a bunch of guys that you got punched in the face and the girl broke her hand in doing so? We couldn't stop bringing it up if we tried.

"You fucking earned it, too," Leah added, her sour face turned towards the fire. "Brynn would've had your ass lit up if she heard about you doing something like that to a woman, even if it was Swan."

Instantly the mood around the firepit flipped like Leah's words were a finger that knocked a switch. Silence fell over everyone, and I didn't have to look up to know that everyone's eyes were hesitantly skirting to and away from me. I couldn't be bothered to check; the air that had been sucked out of my lungs from laughter was now taken by grief, my hand coming up to rub at my chest like it would help at all. The misery of being away from my imprint never lessened, but it was at a whole new high tonight. These were the nights I had been looking forward to with Brynn, knowing how much she loved the beach and spending time with the Pack, undisturbed and entirely relaxed. I could almost feel her pressing against my side, seeking out my warmth and giggling into my neck, fingers clutching at my shirt or my arm or anywhere they could just to have a hold of me. It made it worse when I closed my eyes, able to picture her face as her nose scrunched up and the way the fire would dance in her eyes as she looked at me, but I still did it. If basking in her was only possible when they were closed, I didn't have much of a choice but to give into it sometimes.

The only thing that made it even remotely more bearable was the way our bond had swelled to life yesterday. I had been on patrol, taking on extra shifts just for something to do, when my entire being was lit up by that little string tying our souls together. I knew it meant she was closer than before, had felt it breathing more steadily as she neared, and that thought eased my mind as much as it could. The bond was still airy enough that I knew she wasn't home, but that didn't stop the disappointment from punching through my chest when I went by the Price house anyway.

My eyes opened, washing away the image of her that had painted my eyelids. She would be home soon. She promised.

"Yeah, she would," I said, relaxing into the atmosphere as everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. "Remind me to tell her to do that when she gets home."

Quil's snort caught my attention, but I knew better than to be offended by it. A glance around the fire told me what was on everyone's minds, even Leah's; they were upset. My imprint leaving may have broken something in me, even if just temporary, but I was starting to realize that I wasn't the only one who lost someone. Humans and wolves alike had bonded with Brynn, saw her as one of our own, a true family member; her extended disappearing act didn't sit well with anyone. It was clear in the way Emily frowned at the dinner table sometimes, in the way the guys all stared at her empty chair, in the memories of her they would let slip occasionally in wolf form. But with that sadness came anger, something that I still wasn't sure how to handle yet. I knew my own anger, felt it like a punch to the gut every time it crept up on me, but I also knew that Brynn could walk on to this beach any second and be in my arms. But the Pack? I didn't know how they would take her coming back, how many of them would be on eggshells around her, wounded by her actions. What sucked even more is that I would side with them if she ever told me it upset her, and the image of her face crumpling because of that made me feel sick.

"How long is that internship going to take, anyway?" Sarah asked as she walked up with a plate of food, taking a seat next to James. "I still can't believe that she got into something so serious so young. She's not even a senior!"

My lip curled in distaste as she spoke, taking a swig from my beer just to keep her from noticing. While Brynn was running for her life, her dad had decided it was the perfect time to get cozy with the damn nurse he had been seeing. I hated the idea when it first started, but now the very sight of the two of them was almost enough to make me lash out. He knew as much, glancing over at me with a thin-lipped smile that did nothing to ease the anger. But Jared noticed too, his hand reaching out to shove my head and bring my attention to him instead.

"She give you the heebie jeebies or is it just me?" He stage whispered, knowing her human ears wouldn't pick up on anything.

"I've always hated the bitch," I grumbled carelessly before wincing at the mental image Brynn gave me for using that language. "She stares too damn much."

Jared nodded his agreement, discreetly watching the woman across the fire and making my eyes follow. Just like always, her eyes were bouncing around the Pack like she was cataloging their every move, going from Emily and Sam curled around the Pup Bump to where Embry, Quil, and Jacob were wrestling in the sand. It made my spine straighten out of pure protective instinct, hating the idea of an outsider watching us just be ourselves. She didn't know anything after Billy swore James to secrecy, but it all felt wrong. I chalked it up to just detesting the idea of James being able to forget all about Brynn at the hands of another woman, but deep down I knew that wasn't the case. Something was off about her, I just didn't know what.

Finally, her eyes met mine. I didn't drop my gaze, refusing submission, and I watched as her lips pulled into something like a sympathetic frown before she nodded once, softly, and looked away.

I shuddered.

"Paul," Brynn's voice said, airy and soft and too far away. "Paul, help me"

My hands pressed against the forest floor and slid dirt and fallen leaves around, trying desperately to locate where her voice was coming from. I knew it was underground, I could feel it in my chest, but each time I moved it felt like she was getting further away.

"He found me, Paul." She was crying, I could feel each shaky breath she took like my ribs were shaking with hers. My hands moved faster, faster, desperately trying to figure out where she was. "This is it."

No, no, this wasn't it, it couldn't be. My body had a mind of its own as it shifted, the wolf coming out and instantly beginning to dig. I was screaming at it to stop, that we were wasting time, but its paws were relentless. Mountains of dirt were thrown behind our body as the wolf dug deeper and deeper, a whine so desperate peeling through our throat that it terrified me.

Our paws hit something solid, and then I realized that we had dug a grave. I looked up at the grey sky over the trees, seeming lifetimes away from the hole we were in, before I looked back down. Beneath our paws was a glass coffin, Brynn's eyes peering back at me through the glass.

"I'm so sorry, Paul," she said, but her lips didn't move as she spoke. I watched as her eyes began to turn glossy, no longer looking at me but through me instead. "I love you."

The wolf lifted his paws to break through the glass, but when we touched down it was only solid earth beneath us. A sprinkle of dirt hit our shoulders, and when we looked up Adrian was at the top of the grave, smiling as he kicked dirt into the hole. I blinked, and suddenly Brynn was in his arms, looking down at me tearfully.

"She's mine now, Paul," he laughed. "You will never see her again."

I woke up sweating, my hands gripping the sheets and pillows beside me, searching the other side of the bed, nostrils flaring as I tried to breathe her in, reassure myself, feel that she wasn't gone. But the bed beside me was cool and my hands only gripped the letter that was stored under her pillow, and my body shook as a scream ripped through my throat.

"Where is she?" I screamed into the empty room, vision blurred by the tears in my eyes. "Where the fuck is she, you fuck?"

It wasn't the first nightmare, but it was the first one that had ever felt like this. Her voice had sounded so close, too real for comfort, like she was calling out to me. And the way she had looked at me, how miserable and sorry she felt, I couldn't get the image out of my head. I felt our bond curl tight around my chest, cutting off my next scream as I tried to stand and slammed into the wall, losing my balance.

"Where is she?" I screamed again, feeling like my vocal chords would snap at my volume.

It shouldn't have been a surprise when Jared and Sam entered my room, on patrol and hearing the shouting, and I wished that they weren't. I knew what I looked like right now, knew that they probably came out of fear I had drank a liquor store until I was in some dazed state of false reality. But I was sober, sober and shaking and crying, and the last thing I needed was the way Sam looked at me as I slid down the bedroom wall.

"Hey, little brother," Jared said gently, inviting himself to the wall beside me and ducking an arm around my head. "It was just a dream, man. She's alright, you'd know if she weren't."

I felt like I could throw up, leaning into Jared's chest like some girl from a teen movie did when heartbroken, but I went anyway. I tried closing my eyes, but the images of her body in a coffin immediately invaded my mind, and they were open again. I knew I wouldn't be getting anymore sleep.

"What happened, Paul?" Sam said, and the closeness of his voice let me know he was moving into the makeshift huddle.

"I need her, man," I breathed, shaky and spent and so far from rested. I moved to pull myself away from Jared, sitting up with my knees bent and my elbows resting on them. My eyes looked up at the ceiling, and even that reminded me of her. "I feel like I'm dying, like I can't fucking breathe without her here. And knowing that she's in–"

My voice broke off into some weak sob, my hand sliding down my face to try and wipe the emotion away. It schooled my expression, but I could still feel the slide the tears did as they fell. A felt a shiver through the bond before calmness was washing over me, so close and so real that it made my head spin, and knowing she cared enough to do that could have laid me out. I knew she loved me, and I knew she was doing what she thought was best, but sometimes it was easy to forget when I remembered she chose to do this to me, to us.

"I'm going to call the Cullen leader," Sam stated, and a glance at him showed me the determination on his face, the rage that not even he could hide. His hand passed through my hair as he stood, the instinct to comfort his brother there even in Alpha Mode. "This has gone on long enough."

"Get him on the phone now," Jared growled. "I'd like to give those fuckers a piece of my m–"

His sentence cut off at the sound of footsteps coming towards the house, something we all seemed to pick up on at once. For a beat there was nothing, none of us moving as we tracked where the unsteady footfalls were coming, and then I felt it.

A steady thrum seemed to happen in my chest, like a gentle finger plucked the bond like a guitar string, and then I was running.

"Paul, don't!" Sam shouted, but I was already too far gone.

My feet carried me through the house and outside in record timing even for a shifter, body propelling me forward with my heart to guide it. My feet had only just left the gravel of my driveway when lilac hit me hard enough to almost knock me down, the scent so strong and real that I wouldn't have cared if it were a dream, if this was death and Heaven and whatever the hell else, I just wanted to be blanketed in it. But twisted into it was the sickly smell of bleach and vanilla, disgusting in its power, and a snarl came from my throat without my permission. This wasn't the smell of Cullens; it was Adrian and other's, all lingering on her like they had the fucking right.

"Paul!"

And then there she was, an angel in her white dress, cutting through the tree line and running towards me like she couldn't get there fast enough. Tears streaked her face, evident even in the darkness due to the mascara she wore, and her lips were darkened with lipstick. I took a step towards her and faltered, looking back at my house, wondering for a second if this was just another dream. My Brynn didn't wear lipstick, didn't curl her hair with anything other than last night's braids, and she would never wear a fucking nightgown. Anxiety set in then, and I felt my wolf whine as he also became nervous about the strangeness to our mate. But I could feel our bond swell, felt my heart begin to beat normally for the first time in months, and when I took a breath it was all her.

I met her halfway.

Our bodies collided so hard that I would've worried about hurting her if I had the mind to care. But all I could do was grab and hold on to her with everything in me, delicate enough not to hurt her but strong enough to leave bruises. I felt her body shake with cries, my hands sliding around her back to pull her tighter to me, to feel those halves of our strings become whole again, to keep her solidified. I felt the wolf inside of me howling with happiness, relieved that our mate was home, that our imprint was here in one piece. In that moment the two months of misery no longer existed, and the anger and hurt were dull in comparison to the feeling in me now. It was like coming home, like feeling something for the first time in ages, like every puzzle piece had finally fallen into place. This, being with her? This is the only thing that made sense to me.

"I'm–" She started to say, but I shook my head where it was buried in her neck, breathing hot air and scenting her, reveling in the way the mark still smelt like me.

There weren't any words for awhile. My hands slid up her back and into her hair, fisting the dark curls and crushing her to me more, like if I pushed hard enough she could exist within me. And I could've fallen apart when her hands did the same, when her fingers raked into my hair and grabbed to push my face deeper into her neck, when I felt her breath hot against my chest. This was living, this was existing and being happy about it, this is what I woke up for every fucking morning, and I finally had it all come back to me.

Behind me, I could hear rustling as my brothers shifted, could see out of the corner of my eye as the black and brown wolves crept back towards the trees, and I felt my eyes burn with emotion again. They were giving me this moment without interruption, letting me and my imprint have each other to ourselves first before letting the rest know.

When we made it inside it was with Brynn's body wrapped around me, every instinct inside of me refusing to let her go. I knew we needed to speak, there was so much that needed to be said, but it was like something inside of me had locked my jaw shut. There wasn't a reason to speak yet, not when I needed to be with her, not when I needed to remove any trace of anything else that has ever touched her, starting with Adrian.

Wait.

"Brynn," I said, and I felt her start at the tone of my voice, at the fact I was using my voice at all. I walked us until she was sitting on the counter, though I didn't move away. My nose trailed against her neck, feeling her blood pumping and only smell us, before I moved it up her throat. Her hair smelt the worst like them, the too-perfect curls housing the bleach stench and keeping it locked in. The dress was awful, too. "Why do you smell like him?"

The image of her standing over the grave, wrapped in Adrian's arms, flashed through my mind. It was stupid, and I knew it, but that didn't stop the possessive growl leaving my throat. Brynn didn't jump at it, hands still gripped tightly into my hair, and I could smell the salt of her tears as they fell. I didn't move my thumbs to capture them like I would have before, my jaw set as I waited for her explanation. I was relieved she was home, happier than I could say, but the emotions I had been left to deal with could only be stashed for so long. I felt them returning now, a ticking bomb that would eventually go off.

"There's an army coming, Paul," Brynn said, her voice hushed like it had been in my dream, only this time I could feel her. "They killed Adrian."

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A double update for my lovely reviewers who make me feel motivated enough to write! Seriously, I would not have come back to this story if it wasn't for you beautiful souls. Also, surprise! A reunion! I'm going to be honest and say that writing this reunion was so difficult to me due to being in Paul's head after a breakdown, seeing his imprint for the first time in months, her smelling like vampire, and for some reason dressed in a nightgown? It was weird and felt like I was watching a scary movie. I also noticed a few of you mentioning how pissed you are with our leading lady, and don't worry because she is going to get her ass handed to her soon. THIS SHIT DOESN'T SLIDE. Can you guess who's going to give her the meanest lecture? Can you guess what army she's talking about? Any guesses on what the hell went down in Seattle? Let me know when you review, review, review!