Chapter 8

A.N. Hi, this chapter is Bella's POV from the last chapter, it's the same day and stuff. Sorry it's been so long, I've had a long week. Leave a review and I hope you enjoy!

(BPOV)

Three imprints. It's crazy. I can't believe that there is such a thing as imprinting. Loving someone forever sounds nice, but there's something to it that puts me off. Maybe it's the fact that the imprinter has no choice over what they do, and that they're bound to what makes the imprint happy instead of what makes themselves happy. Or maybe that I feel like it's completely fake feelings from the imprint. I call bullshit. You look into some strangers eyes and instantly fall in love with them even though you don't even know their name? It doesn't make sense. And what about the imprint itself? They might not want to be bound to that particular wolf for their entire life, they might have someone they already love. It doesn't make sense and it isn't right and just in my eyes.

A loud knocking sound on the door breaks me out of my reverie.

I walk away from the kitchen, away from my thoughts, and over to the front door where a six foot four oaf relentlessly bangs on my door. I wretch it open to the lovely sights of Paul, who smugly smiles at me before walking his way into my house, all without a 'hello'.

"Why, Paul, how lovely it is to see you! Please come in come in, my dear friend. Would you like something to eat? Drink? My God, where are my manners?!" I taunt him, falling in step behind him as we retreat into the living room.

When we reach the couch he turns around with a shit-eating grin on his face and a devious twinkle in his eyes. "Coffee, black, two sugars. And today I'm in the mood for... oatmeal raisin, wait no! Peanut butter cookies, but not the kind where you press it down with a fork, the fluffy kind. And do you have some cool cloths or something, it's hot in here."

I roll my eyes at his antics. "It is not hot in here, the fucking windows are open!" I gesture my hands to the windows to show him, but he just snorts at my response.

"Not that kinda hot, princess. I mean the overall attractiveness in the room just shot up since I came in." He grins at me and flexes his pecks as a joke. I shove his shoulder, but he doesn't even budge. Stupid strong wolf-powers.

I must've muttered something about how strong he is because his obnoxiousness gets worse. "Oh ho ho princess! You have no idea how strong I am." he then proceeds to lift up the bottom of his shirt to show off his impressive abs, and flexes his bicep at the same time, showing me just how strong he is.

"Please fido, I know exactly how strong you guys are, just like I know exactly how furry and cute you are! Who's a good boy? You are! Yes you are!" I mock him and then stick out my tongue and walk into the kitchen, my voice raising into a girly squeal at the end of my sentence.

"Right, well when the next time you trip and fall straight on your ass, don't come crying to me about how my canine reflexes could've helped you." He walks into the kitchen right behind me and then pauses and sniffs the air. I know exactly what he is smelling, and my face goes up in flames.

"Something to say princess?" He then cackles, yes cackles, and proceeds to rummage through the pantry and fridge, pulling out only the most obvious ingredients for what we need. Peanut butter, sugar, butter and eggs. I choose to ignore his question, although my red painted face answers the question just fine without having to say words.

"Just, just c'mon we need more ingredients than that. I've taught you better over these past few weeks, what else do we need?" I ask, genuinely curious to see if he is actually retaining any of the information I've been teaching him.

"What are you talking about, I have the peanut butter for flavor, sugar for sweetness, eggs because um.. you just need eggs, and butter because butter is butter and you need butter." I scoff at his response, and then list off the rest of what we need. He lines it up on the counter, as I crouch down to collect the mixing bowls and cookie sheets.

"Okay, while I spray the pans and preheat the oven, I need you to start beating the butter and sugars together, and then add the eggs and vanilla once you're done with that. I'll sift the dry ingredients together."

By the time we're done two hours later and the dishes are all cleaned, I am in pajama bottoms and one of Embry's shirts that was forgotten at my house, because Paul practically dumped the entire bag of flour on me. He is standing right next to the oven, waiting for the cookies to be done, in nothing but his usual attire of cut-offs. I'm staring at the kitchen counter, lost in thought about the things Embry and I did on that very counter, when the oven beeper goes off; I jump about a foot in the air with surprise, and then open the oven door. I am about to put on oven mitts and take out the cookies, when Paul stops me.

"Hold on princess, I wanna try something." He then bends down in front of the oven, takes his bare hands, and casually takes out the burning hot cookie sheets from the oven, all without batting an eye.

"How the hell did you do that?!" I exclaim, going over to check out his hands, still momentarily stunned at the action.

"Well, we all run a temperature of 108.9, and I wanted to see what would happen." He replies nonchalantly, and then walks over to the cooling cookies, and plucks one off the pan and shoves it in his mouth.

"Paul! We're supposed to wait! And save some for Embry too, he's coming by later." He rolls his eyes at Embry's name, and then grins evilly. I'm just about to ask why when he leans forward and takes a long scent of my neck. "What the hell Paul?"

"I just wanted to see if you still smelt like what you were doing earlier with Embry. And yes you do princess, you reek of sex." He laughs at me, and I blush crimson which just makes him laugh harder. "And I was just wondering if you were gonna be getting up to the same things later when he stops by?" He grins wolfishly, and the crimson red on my face gets even darker. I scowl at him and then stomp my foot down as hard as I can on his foot, eliciting no pain from him anyways. "C'mon princess, you know that won't hurt me." He distracts me by making me stomp on his foot again, and when I do, he just proceeds to throw another cookie down his gullet.

"Paul! Cut it out!" I shriek at him. This makes the situation worse because Paul then just takes a stack of still burning cookies and runs out of the kitchen, effective in making me chase after him. He runs around the couch so it separates us, and he continues to laugh at my expense, making me even more annoyed. I am just about to follow him around the couch when I stub my toe on the coffee table. This and my natural ability to trip over my feet send me tumbling down to the floor, my hip hitting the edge of the coffee table, resulting in a bruise.

"Oh, princess that looks like it hurts." He mocks me, and then eats the last cookie in his stack. Striding over to where I am red-faced on the living room floor, he grabs my hand and hauls me up, setting me on the couch. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you trip, but otherwise that was pretty funny. You're not bleeding right? I don't smell blood." I shake my head, and sigh, suddenly beat and exhausted from the day. "Tell you what, I'll get you some milk and cookies, and then we can watch movies for the rest of the day until Embry's shift is done." He then does just that, and we get comfortable on the couch, watching Forrest Gump. Just as Jenny is about to die, and I am about to burst into tears, there is a knock on the door. I look at Paul in confusion, but he is dead asleep on the other side of the couch, his warm, smelly feet in my lap. I chuckle and then get up, blinking back the tears from the movie. He stirs, emerging from his nap as I make my way to the entryway of my house.

I pull open the door, shocked to see Jacob there with an array of flowers.

"Hey Bells!" He greets, and I stand there a little too shocked to react any different; I really wasn't expecting his arrival, especially with flowers. "Can I come in? I need to ask you some things." I must've given some indication of yes, because he starts moving inside. I come to my senses just a little too late, because Jacob walks into the house and into the living room, stopping frozen at the sight of a once drowsy Paul, now alert, sitting on my couch.

I run into the room right behind him, and don't stop until I stand in between Paul and Jacob. "Jake, it's not what it looks-" I start to explain, but he cuts me off before I get to say anything else.

"What the fuck is Paul Lahote doing on your couch half-naked?" He all but growls out, shooting daggers at Paul, then me. "And why are you wearing a guy's t-shirt?" He paces around for a moment, drops the flowers on the floor, and then briefly steps into the kitchen, sniffing the air, and turns back around to us, Paul now standing up slightly in front of me. "And why in the ever loving name of Taha Aki, does it smell like sex in there?" His black eyes are a fire of rage, and I find it hard to keep his gaze, and intensity behind it making me want to cower.

"Jake, I swear, Paul and I are only friends, we never have done anything." I reason, trying to calm down his now violently shaking frame. "Why don't we go outside, and I'll explain even more." I try to usher everyone out of the room, and we do, the present company and I spilling out onto the back porch.

"Jacob you need to calm down, you're going to hurt Bella if you don't." Paul tries to get him to back off, but that fails miserably.

"Like hell I will! The only person who's hurting Bella here is you! Bella how could you even be around him? He is part of Sam's gang, he's a man-whore, he's no good for you!" Just as I am about to respond to his question, a shift in the wind causes mine and Paul's scent to wash over Jacob's nose; His senses no doubt heightened with his imminent phase. His eyes darken with the scent of me, Paul, cookies, and sex. "Don't even try to explain your way out of this one Bella! You both smell like sex! How could you do this? We were going to start a relationship, dammit, we practically already had one. I came here to ask you on a date!" He starts to ramble, and his shaking intensifies, the edges of his person starting to blur. "Ahh, what's happening to me?" He groans out as the pain starts to overtake him with his phase.

"Bella back up!" Paul shouts out, and I comply, too fearful to take my eyes off the figure of Jacob Black phasing on my back porch. Paul hauls him off the porch and into the woods surrounding my house. My feet lead me after them, still a safe distance from the pair. Paul phases into his silver wolf, just as Jacob's bones break one final time. His head snaps up to look at me, and within the blink of an eye, a russet-red wolf is in his place, his fur extra shaggy and long.

I stare at his large form, in awe of the two magnificent creatures before me. Jacob's wolf first looks around, and then back at me, making eye contact with me.

Life as I know it changes, and the look in Jacob's face reminds me all too much of the one Quil had a week ago; A little strange coming from a wolf, but unmistakable.

An undeniable and unwanted connection forms between us, though the love in my heart and soul still stays with Embry. The only pull I feel to Jacob is brotherly, but the growls from Paul let me know that is not what Jacob wants. And as I think all of this in the span of a few seconds, everything fades to black.

A.N. EEK! Okay so now you know that those thoughts were from Jacob in the last chapter, although that was pretty obvious. Also in this story, the imprint is going to work a little differently in this story. Instead of being whatever the imprint wants (brother, father, lover, etc.) the imprinter is only going to feel a pull to be with them romantically, to mate, and to mix their scents. What the imprint wants really won't deter the wolf in what it desires. Until next week!