THREE
{ PAUL}
Paul rolled his eyes as Jacob emerged in the clearing they all liked to meet up at before patrol duties. "What the fuck is he doing here?"
Sam gave Paul a look to keep quiet and Jacob snapped that he wasn't any happier about it than Paul was. Paul merely shrugged. The scent of vanilla and cinnamon danced in the breeze just out of his reach. Taunting him, almost. Paul tensed because just the scent of her had the feeling like a live wire had been dragged over his skin. The second Sam finished assigning routes, Paul was taking off at a run. Ignoring the route he'd been given. Driven by the overwhelming impulse to at least catch a glimpse of her.
Just enough to feed a growing addiction. He snarled in frustration at himself as he came to a full stop behind the two story house just outside of the forest. The scent of her was closer. Still too far to reach out and touch which is exactly how Paul wanted it.
He caught sight of her moving around the house. Wandering out into the back yard and over to her sister's truck. Standing there as if she were waiting on someone. Bella walked out the door and the two of them were having a heated argument, the end result was his imprint getting into the truck with her arms folded over her chest.
Bella got into the truck too and the truck drove away. Just as Jacob emerged from the brush behind him. Paul snarled. Phasing back to human.
"What the fuck do you want, Black?"
"What the fuck are you doing behind the Swan's place? Sam told you you got the woods west of the reservation tonight. This is nowhere near that. Get moving."
"How about you get fucked, Black? Hm?" Paul stepped up, prepared to shove Jacob Black. He almost wanted to ask the kid which pocket it was that he kept all his audacity.
"Answer my question and we'll see."
Rather than answer Jacob, because he'd die before the words came out, Paul took off at a run. Tearing through the forest. Emerging in the area he'd been assigned to patrol. Taking a few long and shaky breaths as he swung at the trunk of a tree in anger. He knew his attitude wasn't making him any friends, but he didn't care.
Just the audacity of the kid, demanding an answer from him.
An answer Paul refused to give because just telling anyone meant that he was acknowledging what happened.
But the longer he held back, the worse it felt. The more he wanted her. The more he needed to see her, even if just for a few minutes in passing. Just enough to know she was okay. Enough to know that she was still right there, within his reach and yet on a whole other galaxy.
Realizing that he needed to start patrol duties soon, he set to it. Diligently putting anything and everything else but the task at hand out of his head for the time being. Resigning himself to the fact that not accepting the bond was so much better than the alternative. Because the alternative?
Oh, that put him at risk to be hurt.
That just wasn't a risk that Paul was willing to take.
{ EDEN }
"C'mon." Bella caught up to Eden almost the second she saw Eden wandering out of school for the afternoon. Grabbing hold of her younger sister's arm, leading her to the truck. Eden stopped and gazed over the rim of her sunglasses at Bella, a brow raised. Laughing until she saw the expression on her sister's face and realized that no, her sister wasn't kidding. Her sister was actually hell bent on going to the res and confronting Jacob Black because Jacob had been avoiding her lately.
"Nope. You are not dragging me along this time. I refuse." Eden stood her ground. Shaking her head no as she sighed and blew at shaggy bangs when they flopped right into her eyes. Her hand raised and she tugged at her hair. "What's the point, Bells? I mean, what are you hoping to achieve here, hm? Because the way I see it, forcing someone to want to be around you if they obviously don't for whatever reason is not ever a good idea. Do you really want to resume a friendship with Jacob knowing that you had to do something and force his hand?"
"There's more to this than you think, okay? Just.. I can't do this by myself. Please. I need you there. I need someone else to see that I'm not losing my mind, that Sam Uley has got some kind of cult going and they're apparently going to recruit Jacob."
Eden shook her head. Opened her mouth and over-enunciated the word No as slowly as possible. Then she dug around in her pocket, fishing out a nearly crushed pack of Big Red. Taking a slice and unwrapping it. Popping the gum into her mouth as she offered the pack to her older sister. She took a deep breath, mostly to keep from going off and ranting at just how messed up everything her older sister had been doing lately truly was but instead, she decided to offer up an alternative.
"C'mon, Bella. We'll go down to the arcade. I might even let you take me off the leaderboard on Mortal Kombat. Then we'll go for sundaes just like we did when we were little and Dad had us for the summer. Just… This idea of yours? It's not a good one, okay? You need to let it go." Eden fidgeted and shuffled her scuffed red Doc Martens against the sidewalk, nervously. She didn't want to fight with her older sister, not at all. She just wanted everything to go back to normal even if that normal meant that Bella would become like a hovering and worrisome second mother all over again.
She'd give anything to have that version of her big sister back.
"I need to speak for Jacob. I have to stop them from doing whatever it is they do that changes everyone." Bella insisted. She gazed at her younger sister. Trying one last time to plead with her. Eden sighed and the bright yellow book bag slung over her right shoulder slipped down, settling to the concrete sidewalk with a soft rustle. Eden shuffled her feet as she thought it over.
"Ugh, fine. God damn it, Bella. This has to stop, okay? If you can't talk Jacob down from whatever ledge you're imagining he's on then you have to promise me you're done. You'll go your own way and just like… Let it ride for once."
When Bella promised she'd do that, Eden knew she was lying right through the skin of her teeth. But rather than have Bella going off alone and making a total mess of it all, Eden decided that maybe it was better if she just went along.
At least if she were there, she could sort of be a buffer between Bella and Jacob. Or Bella and the guys who worshipped Sam Uley as of late.
She trudged over to the truck and tossed her backpack inside, hopping into the passenger seat. And the drive to the Quileute reservation was filled with heavy silence. With tension and anxiety on Eden's part because Eden wasn't really the type who liked any sort of confrontation, verbal or otherwise. She had to be good and angry, pushed to her absolute brink before she exploded.
The truck pulled to a stop between Jacob's house and a house that mirrored it almost exactly. The sun was just starting to sink lower in the sky, painting it shades of golden orange and reddish pink. Bella got out of the truck and started to walk towards Jacob's house and Eden tore off her headphones and got out of the truck, hurrying to catch up to her sister. The oversized yellow and black plaid shirt she wore fanning out in the breeze as she jogged over.
By the time she got there, the four guys she'd seen at First Beach not so long ago were standing on the porch of the house next to Jacob's.
Eden caught sight of the guy who'd seemed so annoyed by her that day at the beach and she suck popped a cinnamon flavored bubble, the sound seeming to shatter the heavy and tension filled silence. This caused the attention of the four males Bella was apparently going to be stupid enough to confront to shift right to her. As a result, Eden kind of stepped back. Hovering behind her sister just slightly. Tense all over because she was getting the distinct feeling that this was not going to go well at all.
"Bella, damn it, come on."
"No. I'm not leaving until these idiots leave Jacob alone." Bella snapped.
The guy from the beach stepped up to her sister, shoulders squared. Body tensed. And a deathly calm gleam in his eyes. He nodded to her direction. "Do what she says, Bella."
Bella shoved at him.
The growl that ripped from his throat had Eden's brow raising as she popped another gum bubble and placed a hand on her hip. Her other hand raised, prepared to grab her sister's arm and make a run for the hills.
Everything that happened next happened in a blur.
Bella wasn't listening. To her sister or Paul or to any form of reason at all. She raised her hand and it met with his cheek. Eden's eyes widened and she nearly choked on her chewing gum when right in front of her eyes, the guy from the beach proceeded to turn into a very large and angry snarling silver - gray wolf.
Eden slumped to the ground. Jacob raced out of his own house, having seen and heard the entire confrontation. He took on his own wolf form and lunged straight for Paul.
Bella duck and dove, settling next to her sister Eden. Shaking and prodding at her in the hopes of bringing her back around.
And out of nowhere, Paul was there. On the other side of Eden. Bella put herself partially over her baby sister and glared, snarling out, "Get the entire fuck away from my sister. Now."
Eden came to, finding her head on Paul's lap. She sat up in a hurry, scooting out of his way. Stammering and stuttering as her brain desperately tried to make sense of what she'd just seen with her own two eyes.
Bella grabbed hold of her hand, pulling her up. "We're leaving, Eden. C'mon. Now."
"I'm not going anywhere until someone tells me what the fuck just happened."
"I said we're going. It's too dangerous. I never should've brought you along with me." Bella was apologetic, checking her sister over in concern. Taking a few deep breaths as she pulled the edge of her olive green thermal over her fingers and used it to wipe away a dirt smudge on her sister's cheek. Eden flinched away, grumbling. Complaining that she was fine and Bella didn't have to do that.
Eden turned to look at the group of gigantic teenage males, her arms folded over her chest. "Still waiting on that explanation, guys."
"Did she just tap her foot at us?"
"She did, Jared."
"Guess the wolf's out of the bag now, hm?" Embry mused thoughtfully.
After a few seconds, Sam sighed. Motioning to his front porch.
"Are you freaking insane, Eden?" Bella hissed at her sister as she grabbed hold of Eden's elbow, prepared to drag her back to the truck.
"You started this, dear sister. We might as well listen to what they have to say. I begged you to leave shit alone. I pleaded! Do you see now?" Eden griped. Pulling her elbow free from her sister's grasp and taking a tentative step towards the five males gathered on Sam Uley's porch.
Taking a deep breath to center herself. And happening to catch herself staring at the guy from the beach and promptly feeling like all the air had been ripped right out of her as her breath caught in her throat.
Bella said once in her journal that Edward was undeniably handsome. Eden caught herself having the passing thought that her sister needed an eye exam in the absolute worst way possible if her standard of undeniable handsomeness was Edward Cullen.
He was okay? Kind of?
Paul though… Paul had quite literally taken her breath away. And kept her shaken up from their first encounter on the beach.
And she wasn't sure whether to be scared to death or exhilarated by that fact.
Eden winced as a headache started to work it's way into settling in. Her hand raised to the back of her head and she tilted it slightly to gaze up at the five Quileute males. "So uh.. Anyone got a Tylenol and a bathroom? Because I'm getting a bitching headache and I really, really, really.. Really gotta pee."
"You can pee at home. We're leaving. Now." Bella grabbed hold of the back of her sister's worn thin Nirvana shirt and tried to pull her back towards where she stood and away from the danger posed by the group of guys.
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Since they've both seen what's going on, we might as well tell them. Bella, Eden come inside."
Bella grumbled. She got the sense that her sister wasn't going to leave without hearing what was going on. Deep down, Bella did want some form of an explanation herself. Taking a deep breath she ground out through a tight clenched jaw "Fine. But as soon as we've heard what you have to say, I'm taking Eden and I'm getting the hell out of here."
{ PAUL }
"Let them fuckin leave." Paul snapped, glaring at Sam, Jared, Jacob and Embry.
"They've seen everything, no thanks to you and Jacob and that little tantrum." Sam explained in a deathly calm tone. "We might as well tell them what's happening and why it's happening."
"Maybe if Bella realizes what her precious leech caused, she'll realize why he's dangerous and she needs to leave him alone." Jacob echoed Sam's sentiment.
The scent of her bombarded him. Paul took a few deep breaths and when his imprint mentioned having a headache, he wandered into Emily and Sam's house, asking Emily if she happened to have any Tylenol. Emily gave him a soft and knowing smile, nodding towards his imprint. "I'm going to take it that Sam was right?"
Paul shrugged. Refusing to answer. Taking the Tylenol from Emily, he got a glass and filled it with water. Walking back out onto the porch and over to Eden.
He stopped in front of her, holding out the Tylenol and water. Checking over her in concern. He could feel his fellow packmates staring intently at the little interaction when Eden smiled at him softly and took the Tylenol, popping them into her mouth, chasing down the pills with half the glass of water. Bella must have noticed too because Bella watched him like a hawk and edged closer to her sister. Hovering.
Paul came away with the distinct feeling that Eden might just be the one thing they both agreed on in terms of the urge to overprotect.
Eden held the empty glass back out to him and swung her leg up, tucking it beneath her. Leaning forward just slightly and gazing at him for a second or two as if she wanted to say something only to mutter a quiet "Forget it." before going silent all over again.
Paul decided it might be better to make himself scarce so he wandered back into Sam's house, sinking down to sit on the couch. Staring at his hands for a few minutes. Trying to pull himself together and get his heart down out of his throat. The reaction to watching Eden slump to the ground in a faint had been very visceral for him. And before he'd been able to stop himself, he'd been rushing to her side after snarling at Jacob that they'd settle their shit later.
It seemed as if the harder he tried to fight the bond, the more insistent the wolf within became that he embrace it instead.
Sam wandered in, sitting down beside him.
"Eden is your imprint, I take it."
Paul glanced up and over at Sam, glaring. "Doesn't matter. It's like I said, Uley. I'm fighting this fucking bond if it kills me."
"Seems to me the bond has already started to win, Paul." Sam mused before wandering back out onto his porch with the others.
Paul sat there quietly, stewing in Sam's words. Trying everything to convince himself that Sam was wrong. That there had to be a way to break this damn bond.
Bella peered in. "You better stay away from her. I don't know what the hell your thing is about my sister, Paul Lahote, but you better stay away."
"Oh trust me. I intend to, Bella. Get lost. And keep her the hell away from me. For her own good. Did you not see what just happened? If you're as smart as you think you are, Bella.. You'll keep her the fuck away."
Bella's brow raised but she nodded. Muttering a quiet, "Happily, asshole." before letting the screen door slam and disappearing out to the porch again.
[ post script ] I love you so so much! Seriously, you're over here making me blush with your kind words my darling MysteryFan1997! I'm so excited to see more of your story. I read it earlier for like the second? third time? I can't wait to see what you do with it.
For context sake, this part takes place quite some time after Eden and Paul have had their run in at First Beach. And there's still a while yet before Paul learns to control himself -or makes the decision he wants to. So, yeah. There's that.