Chapter 4

"Oh, Paul, I love you so," Angela sighed as Paul moved inside her. He could not say anything back, his usual words trapped in his throat. Instead, he kissed her neck so she wouldn't see that he kept his eyes shut. Not that she usually watched; ever the prude, she often kept her eyes closed when they had sex. Now he was happy about that.

He was having sex with Angela, but in his mind, it was Bella who was under him. It was the only way he could get and stay hard enough to perform. If Angela noticed, she hadn't said anything. And she wouldn't because she was too embarrassed to comment anything on his dick.

Paul made sure Angle came, and while her inner walls were gripping him tightly, he was able to orgasm thinking about grabbing Bella's hips while he pounded into her from behind, her moaning his name.

Damn, this was so fucked up.

He pulled out of Angela and took off the condom. He was acting like a robot. But he needed to do this. He needed to be able to continue and do things as he chose to. It was like his whole being was dependent on it. His self-respect was tied to his free will, and he clutched it like a drowning man onto a rope thrown at him.

He held Angela as he usually did after they'd got to finish. Angela drew her finger across her chest, and he kept breathing, concentrating on keeping it together. The beast was growling and waiting to get out. This was not his mate. He didn't want her. But it was Paul who the fuck decided.

"Are you working tomorrow?" Angela asked.

"Yes, I'm working every day this week, even on the weekend." That was a lie, Sam didn't need him to work on Saturday and Sunday, and he had planned to take Angela's brothers on a little camping trip on Saturday, but that idea had flown out of the window. He needed to get away as far from Forks as possible. He was going to run as a wolf for a few days.

"What did you think of Bella and Tyler?" Angela asked. "Aren't they cute together?"

Paul tensed. Why the fuck does she ask about them?

"Why, you ask?" he asked, trying to sound amused. "I don't think them after having sex with you."

"Oh, you're right. Stupid of me," Angela giggled nervously.

"No worries. Let's get up, and I'll make us lunch now."

"Okay."

Paul pulled his shorts on and walked to the kitchen. Angela went to the bathroom probably to take a shower, and when he heard Angela turning on the water, he picked up his phone and called Sam.

"What's up, man?"

"Hey, I need to get out of here for a few days. I thought about running to Canada and back."

"What is it that you are running from?" Sam asked, amusement evident in his voice. The fucker.

"Nothing, I just need to go. You alright here while I'm gone?"

"Yeah. There haven't been any other leeches around than the Cullens. Now that they're back, we might get more activity, but I'll let you know if that happens. Be back next week, on Tuesday at the latest."

"Thanks, man. And hey, if Angela calls, I don't know why she would, but if, can you tell her that you've sent me away."

Sam was quiet for a while.

"What are you trying to accomplish with all this bullshit?"

"I just need time to get my head around things."

"By lying to your girlfriend. Making me a liar?"

"Will you just say it?" Paul didn't have the patience for this shit.

"This once. But you must tell Bella. And find a gentle way to break up with Angela. You can't go on like this for long."

"Watch me." He hung up.

Yes, that's what he would do. He would run. He hadn't got a fucking clue what he was doing or what he tried to achieve by running away; all he knew was that he needed to get the hell out of here, where Bella was only a few miles away. He constantly fought his instincts to run to Forks to her father's house, take her, and never let go. It was fucking insane. But Paul knew it was only instincts. He could fight his animal's basic needs. He was a human, and the man was the head of this game. The beast could do the leech killing and all that shit, but the man decided who he was with. Damnit.

"So, have you seen a lot of people after high school?" Bella asked Angela. They were catching up at the café they met the other day.

"I meet those who have stayed here, but almost everybody had left for college. I see Mike quite a bit. I wonder how he never told me you and Tyler were dating."

Bella shrugged. Mike had always been a bit weird but a good friend.

"I remember that you had planned to leave as well. What changed?" Bella asked Angela.

Angela blushed, and Bella guessed: Paul.

"It was my original plan to have a gap year or two and work here in Forks to save money and leave for college. But then I met Paul ... and I just couldn't leave even though I had everything planned out. I know it's stupid, but I just couldn't."

"You love him, don't you?" Bella asked. It was so clearly painted on Angela's face: she was head over heels in love with this Paul.

"I do. And I know what you think. We are too different, and I'm not the kind of girl a guy like that usually dates..."

"Hey, Angela. It doesn't matter what I or anybody else thinks. If you two are happy together, that is great, and that is all that matters. But I must confess he's not the kind of guy I ever pictured you to be with."

"Yeah, me neither," Angela sighed. "He is so gorgeous, and I'm..."

"None of that, Ang. You are beautiful and smart and funny. He's lucky to have you. I think that you are too good for him."

Angela blushed. "Oh no, Bella. He is amazing. I know he was acting up last time, and I honestly don't know why. But he isn't like that at all, and I've heard much about his past. He's not like that with me; he's changed." Angela said with fervor, her cheeks flaming.

Bella took Angela's hand. "I hope I haven't offended you and Paul."

"No, you haven't, and I understand where you're coming from. Honestly, I'm not offended."

"Okay. But I'm sorry anyway." Bella squeezed Angela's hand.

Angela smiled. "You and Tyler are a dream couple. How long have you been dating?"

"About a year. We actually bumped into each other here when we were both on spring break. We started talking, and Tyler asked me on a date. I knew he was also studying at UW but hadn't seen him there."

"Tyler had a huge crush on you already in high school."

"Yeah, I guess," Bella said and took a bit from her cookie.

"So did Edward Cullen," Angela giggled.

Bella groaned. "Don't know what it was. But it was a bit creepy. He never said much but always seemed to be around." Bella shuddered. It really had freaked her out sometimes how that guy just had kept appearing in the strangest of places all the time. It had been so weird. In a way, she had been intrigued by him at some level but hadn't known how to make contact. He behaved like he didn't want her to talk to him, but still, he was there, always there.

"Did I ever tell you that we once had dinner together, well, sort of?"

"No!" Angela gasped, dropping her hands on the table and spilling some coffee from her cup.

"Yeah, it was my second week in Forks, and I was in Port Angeles when my car broke down, and he showed up and offered to help me. I didn't think it that strange at the time that he just happened to be there, we'd been in the same school only a bit over a week, and he'd been away most of the time. So, I thought it was just a coincidence, and maybe it was, I don't know. But anyway, I wanted to thank him by buying him dinner. What happened was that I ate, but he didn't want anything. It was so weird."

"So, you ate, and he watched?"

"Pretty much. He sipped a bit of water. That's all. He didn't even talk much. I don't know; maybe he has some sort of anxiety that prevents him from eating in public,"

"Yeah, right," Angela snorted.

"No, really. It is a thing called deipnophobia. But yeah, it was probably the most uncomfortable situation I've ever been in, and I could not wolf down the ravioli fast enough."

"I wonder if they all suffer from that deip..."

"Deipnophobia."

"They always stuck together during lunch and ate hardly anything. And maybe they hate eating in general. They were all so pale and thin, well apart from that big guy, Emmett," Angela said.

"Yeah, serious lack of iron," Bella laughed. She had always wondered what the deal was with them all being so pale. Heck, they were paler than her, and that was saying much.

"I did see Dr. Cullen a few days back. I wonder if the kids visit them, but I haven't seen any of them around since high school."

"Oh, I can live without never seeing Edward Cullen again. I mean, I hope he's doing okay and has found whatever rocks his boat. But he always made me feel nervous."

"Me too."

"So, is Paul working today?" Bella asked.

"Yeah. He works for Sam Uley in the rez, who sometimes sends his workers around to do construction work or help clean places after storms and things like that."

"So, it's there where he gets his impressive frame. You, lucky girl," Bella winked at Angela, who giggled and blushed. "I saw Jake a couple of days ago and didn't recognize him. He's gotten huge and tall, and his face looks like he was closer to 30 instead of 19. My dad thinks there must be something in the water; they are all so big."

"They are," Angela laughed.

Bella had thought about asking Angela what Paul's problem had been when they met in the café earlier in the week but decided it didn't matter.

They talked about Angela's plans to become a preschool teacher. Bella was happy that Angela had found her calling, although she had abandoned her dreams to leave for college.

"Hey, Angela, I need to leave soon. Tyler and I are going to catch a movie in Port Angeles, and my dad is coming along. But let's try to keep in touch, okay."

"Yeah. It would be easier if you were on Messenger or Snapchat," Angela said, giving her a pointed look.

"Maybe, but phones work as speaking devices too, you know. But I'm on WhatsApp, so we could at least chat."

"I've never heard of WhatsApp."

"Oh? We use it a lot in the UW. I'll show you. I like it because I don't have to be on any social media platform to chat with friends."

Bella showed her the app, and Angela downloaded it on her phone.

"Okay, so let's chat on WhatsApp," Angela said as she slipped her phone back into her bag.

"Yeah. It's so easy and convenient to use. But now I must go. Tyler just pulled in front of the café."

"What do you mean Paul won't tell his imprint about the imprinting?" Emily asked Sam. She couldn't understand why he would do something like that.

"Just what I said. He's going to fight it."

Emily gasped. "But how could he fight it? It doesn't make any sense. Why would he deny his wolf his mate?"

"He thinks that it's not the wolf who decides, who he is with," Sam said, pulling her to sit on his lap and nuzzling her neck. "It will be a total clusterfuck if he doesn't take his head off his ass. To think that he is somehow separate from his wolf is madness."

"What do you mean?" Emily couldn't understand Paul, she never had, and she wasn't surprised Paul would think something like this, not wanting to do things as the rest of the pack did.

Sam sighed and brushed his hand through his hair. Emily pecked his cheek, trying to ease his evident frustration over the matter. Being an alpha hadn't been very stressful lately, but they could trust Paul to cause confusion and trouble. Emily hated that his girlfriend Angela would suffer, but Paul could not deny his imprint; that was a fact.

"He thinks that he can bend his wolf under his will, like what he and the wolf want and need are two different things. And the most fucked up thing is that he wants Bella, he wants her bad, but he doesn't want her by imprinting. He wants to fight the imprint so he can have her as normal people do. He says imprinting isn't real, and the feelings aren't real." Sam said, sounding stumped.

Emily nodded. Those were things she'd thought about when Sam had imprinted on her. Were the feelings real? For her, they were; she'd been in love with Sam as long as she'd known him. Secretly, of course. But Sam hadn't noticed her, not really before he imprinted on her. He'd been happy with Leah, madly in love with her, ready to get married.

"Have you ever regretted that you imprinted on me? That you... that you had to leave Leah?" Emily asked. Even after almost two years, it was still a sore subject for her. The elders had told her that she could choose to be a friend or a lover or to have Sam as her protector and nothing more. But since she had always been secretly in love with Sam, she couldn't help wanting him. Even if it meant she hurt her best friend and dear cousin. She had wanted Sam.

"No, of course not. It's you who I love. You wanted me, and I wanted you," Sam said, kissing the corner of her mouth and tightening his arms around her.

"Do you..." Emily started her heart beating frantically now. She'd never dared to ask this before. "Do you believe I could have chosen not to have you as my lover but as a friend?"

Sam looked at her, and for a second, she thought she saw something in his eyes that made Emily nervous, but it vanished so fast she was sure she'd imagined it.

"No. We were meant to be. And so are Paul and Bella. I saw how he feels about her even though he tried to hide it."

"Poor Angela. I hate when this happens. There should be a rule that no one who hadn't imprinted should not date a girl. The heartbreak is so cruel."

"Break-ups are part of life. But I agree that getting serious is stupid and irresponsible since everybody knows what can happen," Sam said with a hint of sadness in his voice, and Emily knew that he was thinking about Leah. And it made her heart ache. Sam had loved Leah first and would still be with her if he hadn't phased.

"Baby, I know what you are thinking," Sam said, lifting her chin so she had to look at him. "And no, it is you who I want. Yes, I was in love with Leah, and we planned to get married. But it wasn't meant to be."

Sighing, Emily nodded and kissed Sam.

"Bella Swan. Jacob's friend. How do you think she's going to react?"

"Honestly, I don't have a clue. I met her a few times just after I phased when I visited Billy, and she was there with Jacob. But it's two years at least since I last saw her. She's studying to become a doctor, so most likely, she won't accept things easily. I'm sure she's not ready to give up her life in Seattle. But she has no choice either."

Emily sighed. She had a feeling that things would not end well.

AN:

I love your comments. Thank you! Also thank you for favs and follows. Always love hearing from you.

So, no, Bella didn't date Edward. There is another thing that I just can't put my Bella through; dating Edwin. I know it would make excellent drama, but after dumbing Team Edward and moving to the pack, I just can't stand the guy, and I wouldn't slam him on anyone I like. So as all my other stories, this is pretty much made up from start to end, taking ideas and some events from the original story, to which all the credits belong, of course.