Chapter 4: Pack Assembly
Paul kneels by the sink in the bathroom of his house. The plumber fell through and now he was trying to figure this shit out. Most of them went into trade schools, Paul was an electrician and Jared was in school for plumbing. Thankfully Jared was here to help him, he may still be in school for this crap, but he knew enough to help him install a sink. Sam stood in the doorway watching them, arm crossed.
"You could help you know," Jared says, pointing a wrench at him.
"No thank you," Sam says back, "I'm a lumberman not a plumber."
"Yeah, just like an alpha to let everyone else do the work," Paul says through his teeth as he uses all his strength to tighten a coupling nut.
"Hey, looking after you pups is a fulltime job," Sam retorts.
"We're not that bad," Jared says. The door opens and someone enters the house without knocking. They all look up, as Sam waves to who just entered, Sam had a clear view to the front rooms from the hall. "Who is it," Jared asks.
"Embry and Quil," Sam answers. Sam walks out into the hall to greet the newcomers as Jared continues to help Paul with the sink. After Jared shows him the finishing touches and the sink is working, they walk out into the hall and into the living room. Jared telling him a few things as they walk down the hall about caulking around the tub, sink and toilet and to use good paint in the bathroom so it won't chip.
In the living room he finds, Quil, Embry and Jake sitting on the couch, pushing and shoving it each other for space on the couch. Paul growls at them, annoyed about them possibly breaking something in his house. Sam stands over by Leah and Emily discussing something privately, they all tried to stay out of that drama, but it was hard with Leah in the pack.
Paul clears his throat drawing the others attention. Sam breaks away from Emily and Leah, going to the kitchen table where a map is laid out of northwest Washington, the bulk of their territory. They all follow, standing in a lose circle to see the map. A red dot marks the spot they took down the vamp with the dreads, Laurent, they now knew his name thanks to Bella. Three more dots mark places they have seen the red head, and another red one marks a spot where they kill another vampire that passed through their territory. A dotted line marks the border of their land, but a red line surrounds a larger area that encompasses Seattle, North Cascades National Park, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, and down to Portland where they routinely patrol. Pencil lines zig-zag trough the larger area marking patrol routes and check points.
Sam starts off this meeting going over scheduled patrol, and points of interest in the patrol routes. Paul would have to switch some of his patrols around so he could go to the coffee shop where Daiane works in the morning. Why did Sam have to give him so many morning shifts, probably because of the three young pups next to him, Embry, Jake and Quil were still in high school, but they were home schooled now that they made the pack.
"So, we now know why the redhead is here," Sam starts to say.
"Yeah, she's after Bella," Jake interrupts.
Sam looks at him, annoyed but says nothing as he continues, "Yes, we are going to change the patrols a little to include her house now, the Swan house is now a check point. If you even smell anything amiss, you report it to me."
Sam moves on to training and who Quil will be shadowing in the next mouth. But Jake asks, "Who going to be watching Bella while she is here?"
"No one," Sam says, "She's a big girl she will be safe on your land, no one is getting through our perimeter."
"I think we should have someone here with her," Jake says.
"What you want to hang out with your girlfriend, Jake," Embry mock swoons next to him, hand to his forehead.
"Yeah Jake, we all want more time with our girlfriends, and she not even your imprint," Jared says.
Damn right, Paul would love to protect Daiane full time. She was in more danger than Bella was on their land. Daiane refused to come with Bella to their land, which annoyed him. "We all would like to see our imprints more, Jake," he says with Jared.
"She needs our protection," Jake says defensively.
"Enough," Sam says, "There isn't enough of us to waste on babysitting."
"She can stay with me," Emily adds helpfully.
"That's fine. Bella will spend the day at Emily's place," Sam says. "Jake you are not allow to go to Emily's place while on patrol." Jake looks away annoyed at that. Emily's place was one of their check points and a place we could go to rest if needed. Jake should have known this would happen, Sam didn't go to Emily place while on patrol and Jared wasn't allowed to go the Kim's on patrol. Kim's house was another check point for the pack, imprints were to be protected. Sam didn't want any of them to be distracted on patrol, so no going to your imprint's home on duty.
"Paul, you couldn't go to the Swan house on duty either," Sam says. What? This wasn't fine, his Imprint didn't even know about them, it wasn't like he could just walk up to the house and hangout with Daiane on duty.
"But she doesn't even know, and that where the redhead is going," Paul argues. "Is Jake allowed to patrol the Swan house with Bella there?" he points to Jake, accusation in his eyes.
"Man, like Jared said she not my imprint," Jake says, sarcastically.
"Shut the hell up Jake," Paul howls, "I want to know who is protecting her house then."
"It's a check point Paul," Sam says. "We all will be." That's not what he meant, and he knew it. Imprint's homes were protected more, and he wanted to know who would be protecting it on their patrol routes, if he couldn't. "Paul it's not on our land, it's in Forks so it will be a part of route Beta."
Beta? Beta?! What the fuck, all the other imprints' houses were on route Alpha, unless Jared and Sam were on duty. "What the hell, man. She's, my imprint?" Paul says outraged by this.
"It is pretty far from the other imprint's houses, Paul," Leah says.
"Bullshit, Leah," Paul says, "It's no further then Kim's is."
"Paul, leave it alone," Jake says. "I'm not even sure she is your impir—"
Jake didn't get to finish that statement because Paul slams him against the wall in anger. Sam moves quickly to grab Paul's arm and stop him from killing Jake, saying, "Whoa Paul you don't want to ruin your house." Fuck his house, if Jake thought he could get away with that kind of talk. Not his imprint, Jake didn't know what it meant to have an imprint.
"Sam, Jake was out of line with that one," Jared says. Embry usually agreed with his best friend but even he had an uncomfortable look on his face.
"She doesn't—run – too—you," Jake growls at him through clenched teeth since Paul is holding him neck against the wall, Jake's hands pulling at his forearm. Oh, he was trying to piss him off now. Paul growls low in his throat, tightening his grip on Jake's throat. Jake needed a beat down.
"Enough, drop him now Paul," Sam says with his alpha voice. Paul growls but can't seem to help loosening his hold on Jake's neck. "Jake not another word."
"She would be the only imprint on the Beta route so it not a big deal," Sam says, "She will be protected."
He thought it was a big deal, Alpha was the route that they all took more seriously when they patrolled, because of all the imprints on it and it centered around the reservation, Qui-nai-elt Village up to La Push, it wouldn't be that hard to circle around to Forks. Whoever was on Beta route would stop there for only a second then move on to the next check point, Beta was one of the longest routes, going from Neah Bay over to Quilcena then down through McCleary, Elma, Montesano, and Aberdeen and back up to Neah Bay. Beta over lapped Alpha a little and stopped at the imprints house too but still this was unacceptable. He glares at Sam, what was his problem. He had to know this would piss him off.
"I think you know that this is not ok with me," Paul says, "And to tell me that I can't go there to check on her myself is unacceptable, Sam."
"You can go there all you want off duty," Sam says, his tone telling him that this conversation was over.
Sam goes back to Quil's training and where it would take place. He goes into detail on what he expects to see from Quil and the other on this matter. The meeting wraps up and Jake, Jared and Embry left quickly. Sam asks Quil to come with him on a run, alpha/subordinate bonding he supposed. The girls leave together, Paul thought that Emily and Leah were friends because the shit hit the fan with Sam and his imprinting, but he couldn't say he was close the either one of them really.
Paul was so pissed about the whole meeting. What did Sam have against his imprint? Why was he treating her differently from the others? He sits on his couch and turns the TV on trying to distract himself, but his thoughts always lead him back to Daiane. He wondered how this whole imprinting thing would work out for them. Would she want only friendship and companionship from him or would she want more? He had to find a way to find out more about her and to get closer to her somehow.