Hello, friends! So I think I'm going to slightly adjust my update day. Instead of Saturday, I'm going to move it to Saturday/Sunday. That way if I have a busy week and end up too exhausted to get much writing done, I have the breathing room of Saturday to get a chapter together. Then I can shape it up and finish/edit if need be on Sunday before posting. Mostly I'm trying to keep the momentum of weekly updates without stressing myself out enough to burn out. Cool? Cool.

All the thanks in the world go to everyone who left a review. I can't say enough how excited I am to write this story with y'all sharing your enjoyment of each chapter. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now, here's chapter 14!

Chapter Fourteen

Anna

The day after the bonfire was like whiplash. My mind still spun from trying to digest and process the reality of people I knew and was building friendships with having the ability to shift into wolves. And that those wolves existed for the purpose of protecting their kin from vampires. There was still so much unknown about that—the details and intricacies of how it worked—but I had enough trying to sort itself out in my head as it was. Then there was the fact that I was apparently the one true match for Paul? It was shocking. Hard to believe. But…I wanted to believe it. I enjoyed the idea.

But I'd gone from trying to process all that to spending a lazy Sunday at my grandfather's house. Where everything was achingly normal. There wasn't a hint of the magic and intrigue that encapsulated the night before.

"You doing alright, Anna Banana?" Grandpa asked. "You have faraway eyes."

He said this to me often. Normally my "faraway eyes" were due to regular daydreaming. I was thinking about a book I'd read or a story I wanted to write. Today, however, my mind was latched onto a new topic. Not that he needed to know that. "I'm good," I told him. "But how are you? I feel like I've barely seen you. How are you doing, really?"

My question drew Alex's attention while our grandfather's gaze flickered over to our mother. His tone was steady when he said, "I'm fine. I'm always fine. You never have to worry about me, Annie, okay? Remember that. No matter what happens."

That wasn't exactly reassuring. "What do you mean?"

Alex's train of thought was the same as mine because his eyes were narrowed as he asked, "What might happen?"

A worried glance was shared among all the adults in the room and my trailing thoughts were firmly planted in this room as they wound through the many grim possibilities. A weight settled in my chest, making it difficult to breathe while at the same time making me want to scream. "You don't do us any favors by keeping us in the dark about everything," I said breathlessly.

My parents looked at me, and they could likely see the worry rising in me because my mother waved a hand. "Everything is fine. You both need to calm down." She said both but her attention was centered on me. As if telling me to calm down would help anything.

A gentle hand settled on mine. I turned my head to focus on my grandfather. "No need to get so worked up, Banana. If there were definitely something irreversibly wrong, we would share. For now, let's just enjoy our time together and be happy, yes?"

His words basically confirmed there was something wrong, though it supposedly wasn't serious enough for them to tell us. It didn't make me feel better, but I didn't have the energy to sit there and argue. Not when it was an effort to pull in each breath. "Okay, Grandpa."

The rest of the visit was more tense than it had begun but also uneventful. I didn't say much more, my thoughts too busy spinning worst case scenarios. Until recently, my family had mostly been my only companionship. I loved them deeply. My grandparents had been a source of friendship even from afar. And now Grandpa was the only one left, and there was more than likely something wrong with him. Since we'd lost Grandma so recently, the memory of losing her was fresh. I didn't think I could handle going through that again—and so soon.

By the time we went home, I'd worked myself up into a certified mess. My parents kept all conversation light while otherwise turning a blind eye to my state. Alex watched me like a hawk, clearly uneasy, but probably not knowing what to do.

Join the club.

As we were heading into the apartment, a door down the hall opened and Paul stepped out. I froze in my tracks. While the earlier portion of the day had been full of thoughts of him, I had been too wrapped up in my new worry for the past few hours to think of anything else. The reminder of the wolves and imprinting wasn't unwelcome.

"Hi, Anna," he said, moving closer cautiously.

I watched him for a moment, confused as to why his tone was so…polite. Then my mother stepped forward. Oh. Right. "Hi, there!" she said way too enthusiastically. "You must be Paul, Felicity's roommate. She had nothing but good things to say about you when we met, and now I'm glad to finally get the chance to meet you myself. Especially since our Annie seems so fond of you." My face heated as she sent me a wink that was not nearly as sly as she thought it was.

Paul smiled, holding out his hand. "Paul Lahote. It's so nice to meet you, Mrs…" he trailed off. Did he not know our last name? Now that I thought about it, this was the first time I remembered him saying his last name too. How had we had such heavy conversations already without even sharing last names? I was torn between amusement and concern that maybe we were biting off more than we could chew.

"Judge," Mom said easily. "But you can call me Colleen. And this is my husband—"

"Mr. Judge is good," Dad said, voice more stern than I'd heard it in a while as he shook Paul's hand.

Paul nodded. "Of course, of course. It's also nice to meet you, sir."

Dad leveled him with a look that wasn't quite a glare but was still an attempt to be intimidating. I wondered if it actually worked on Paul, considering he could eat my father for lunch. "You be good to our Anna, you hear? She deserves the best always."

Paul nodded again, quickly. "Absolutely. I agree. Of course."

While this was fascinating, considering Paul seemed more nervous than he had about anything so far—and one of those things was sharing with me that he could shapeshift into a wolf—it was also verging on awkward. Luckily, Alex spoke up to defuse the situation. "Great. Now we all know each other. We all agree that Annie is awesome. Now, I'm sure Paul didn't come out here for more of a third degree. He probably wants to talk to her. So let's go inside and leave them be."

Dad raised a brow at him. "Really?"

Alex smiled. "Or at least give them the illusion of privacy while we eavesdrop from the other side of the door. But obviously I wasn't going to lead with that, you know?"

Dad laughed. "Come on." With one more stern glance at Paul, he led the rest of my family inside, firmly shutting the door behind them. I had no doubt they were still right on the other side, though, taking turns looking out of the peep hole and listening as much as they could.

I grabbed Paul's hand and led him down the hall. When we stopped, I leaned a little closer and spoke quietly, "Are you okay? What's up?"

He appeared confused. "Why would I not be okay? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. But I just saw you yesterday. It's weird to see you two days in a row like this."

He blinked for a moment before realizing that I was teasing him. Then he grinned. "You're cute."

I rolled my eyes. "Really, what's up? Or did you just want to say hi?"

"Well, I always want to say hi," he hedged. "But really I want to nail down our plans."

"Plans?" I asked, trying to connect the dots. "Wait. No. Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't think my brain is working right now. Today has been…stressful." And now my hands started to shake because this was more candid than I'd been with someone who wasn't stuck with me due to blood relation or financial obligation in…ever.

The hand that held mine tightened and his free hand grabbed mine. Clutching both of my hands securely, he raised them to his chest. "Why has it been stressful?"

I bit my lip. Could I really get into this and not sound paranoid? "I think there's something wrong with my Grandpa."

Paul frowned and his eyes turned concerned. "Oh, no. I'm sorry. What is it?"

Tilting my head back, I shut my eyes for a moment, trying to hold myself together. "That's the problem," I whispered, unsure if I could even speak louder at this point but also definitely not wanting my parents to hear this. "I don't even know. My parents…well, we'll get into them and how they get overprotective later and what that means, but with this…" I sighed. "They don't want to keep my brother and me in the loop on whatever it is. We know there's something wrong, but supposedly it's not serious enough to worry us with yet. Except we're already worried because we know something is wrong, and there's really no telling how serious it is because our parents aren't likely to share anything with us until—until—"

"Until it's too late?" Paul finished helpfully, his tone sad.

"Yeah," I confirmed, looking at my feet for a moment before meeting his eyes again. "And with the way my head works I'm not sure if it's worse to not know or just leave myself to wonder, but it seems like no matter what I can't help but obsess and it's overwhelming."

"Have you tried explaining this to them?"

"Kind of. Maybe not in those words exactly but both Alex and I have asked about it, but our parents are so sure they know what's right for us. It's not like they're purposefully making things hard. They just tend to be incredibly misguided."

His fingers tightened around mine. "And you suffer for it."

I shrugged. "Not always. I think right now I should try to take my mind off of it."

He watched me closely, his eyes trailing over every inch of my face. "If you're sure."

"I'm sure."

"Okay…" He took a deep breath, pressing my hands to his chest so I could feel the rapid beating of his heart. "I'm glad you're home. We're cutting it close. I have pack obligations soon. I knocked on your door earlier, but obviously you weren't home. Since then I've been keeping an eye out hoping you'd return before I had to go."

He'd spent all day waiting around for me? "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault I never thought for us to exchange phone numbers. Which we will be doing in a minute, but first—plans."

"Plans?" I asked, still unsure what he was talking about.

His eyes danced. "Plans."

Paul

Leave it to me to be the wolf who forgets to ask his imprint for her phone number. I had to go run patrol soon, and was hoping to get some time with Anna to chat and work it out so we didn't have to go days upon days without seeing one another, but my dumb ass didn't ask for her phone number and she wasn't home. Had I just expected her to be in her apartment for my access at all times? Damn, I was an asshole.

At least I was an asshole who didn't have to deal with my friends witnessing me being an asshole because Felicity and Jacob were on the rez spending time with his father. Something they would hopefully do more often so the apartment could be free—if that'd give Anna the comfort she needed to hang out with me one on one.

It was good that I could pace by the door like an idiot without my friends heckling me. It was especially good that they weren't around to see me throw my ass out that door so fast when she and her family walked by.

My gaze was drawn to her as I walked over, and though she seemed troubled at first, her expression appeared to lighten when she saw me. I was definitely the more obsessed of the two of us, but it was nice to know that she liked to see me.

I met her parents as she watched on with barely concealed amusement—the only thing that made that exchange anything but mortifying. I'd never cared enough about anyone else to go through the whole meeting-the-parents thing, let alone make a decent impression. Lucky me, I had Felicity on my side and working up a reputation that wasn't garbage to build the foundation of what they thought of me. Or Anna's mother anyway. Her father didn't seem nearly as at ease, not that I could blame him. He was right; Anna deserved the best. And for the first time in a while I wanted to try to be good enough for that.

As it turned out, Anna had been troubled when I walked up, and my heart hurt at her worry for her grandfather. I didn't have strong ties to my family, so I could only imagine how she felt. The closest thing I had to losing a family member was when Harry Clearwater died. He'd been a guiding figure to all of us, but I didn't think it was quite the same thing. Still, I was willing to support Anna however she needed.

Right now, she needed me to take her mind off of it.

"Plans," I said, a little mischievously.

"Did we have plans today that I forgot about?" she asked uncertainly.

"Ha," I huffed a short laugh. "No. But you did finally agree to a date with me, if that rings any bells?"

Her expression cleared and I could tell it definitely did ring some bells. But my sweet imprint shook her head. "A date? With you? Meh."

Now I really laughed. "Ouch. Do I have to convince you again?"

She sighed. "No, I suppose not. I'll take pity on you. We can have our date. When did you have in mind?"

"See, this is why I said plans, plural. With an s."

She blinked at me, and I thought I might love that just as much as her shrugs. "Thanks for the grammar lesson."

I lifted her hands I had held close to my chest to my lips for a quick kiss. The touch of my lips on her skin sent a flare of warmth through me. "Stop being so cute. I can't take it."

She rolled her eyes, brushing it off—because she didn't believe me or because she was uncomfortable? This was a tight line to walk. All the more reason we needed to spend more time together so I could fully read her and disprove the former while avoiding the latter. "You're ridiculous," she said. Then, shyly, "I like it."

Had I ever smiled this wide before? "I'm glad. Now, for those plans, plural. I think we should have our date next weekend. And I have it on good authority that I can have next Saturday evening free if that works for you?"

Her brows went up. "On good authority?"

"Emily said she'd help me plead my case. Which basically means it's a done deal because Sam isn't going to get into an unnecessary argument with Emily."

Her head tilted a little to the side. "Is that an imprint thing?"

I nodded. "Yes, but I think it could also be a they're-in-love thing."

"Don't those go together?"

I could see what she was trying to ask without outright asking, and it was sticky territory. I didn't want to hurt her feelings…or scare her away. "Yes and no. Imprinting does show you your person. And it puts a magnifying glass on them, right? So they become the center of your world. And you'd do anything for them. But we still go through falling in love."

"So it's like a step before love at first sight?" she asked. "It's…a shove in the right direction."

"A little stronger than a shove, but basically."

She pressed her lips together in thought. I watched her until she figured out what she wanted to say. "The more I learn about imprinting the more I like it."

And here I was, grinning like a fool yet again. At least I was her fool. "You don't know how relieved I am to hear that. All the other couples have had some sort of issue when they imprinted. Something that made one or both of them hold back. I'm glad we're not holding back—that you don't hate the idea of imprinting and that it doesn't scare you."

"Why would it scare me?" she asked, cautiously as if it had never occurred to her but now she was thinking about it.

I took a page out of her book and shrugged. "Because it can be construed as a forced bond. Like we don't have a choice. But personally, I think that's bull. I think it's an excuse for people who don't know what to do with something that gets very serious very quick and so they try to slow it down by denying it. Which just causes hurt all around. And it's pointless. Because we can go slow. We can go slow and build things however we want. We don't have to push each other away. That would be dumb."

She smirked. "Glad I don't have the dumb response."

"Well," I said, backtracking a little, "you are perfect so no matter what you did, you wouldn't be dumb. But that's a special case."

"AKA, you're biased." She giggled.

"Me? Never."

She giggled some more, and my insides lit up. How could I try to resist this? How could anyone? What could be better?

"Anyway," I said, getting us back on track. "We could have our date on Saturday. But I obviously don't want to not see you at all between now and then, so I was thinking maybe we could have another game night with Felicity and Jacob?"

She bit her lip. "You want to do that?"

Now I was confused. "Yeah? Why wouldn't I?"

She blushed. "I wasn't sure if the last game night we had…well. I wasn't sure I made a good impression."

"Anna. You have never made anything but a good impression with me."

"Really?" she asked, joking but still uncertain too. "Because when we first met—"

I interrupted her before she could say it. I didn't think there was anything I regretted more than that being her first impression of me. "I know what I said. I never said I was smart. Perfect, yes. Smart? Debatable."

She laughed. "I like how it's debatable instead of a flat-out no."

"I contain multitudes."

Her fingers tightened around mine as she laughed some more, and I relished this moment. She was so relaxed. So open. I lived for the day when most, if not all, of our moments together could be exactly like this.

"If that's all that's holding you back from a game night, then that means we'll have one?" I asked hopefully.

"Sure. Which day?"

"I don't know yet. It'll have to be a day both me and Jacob have freedom at the same time. I'll let you know—speaking of, take out your phone." I let her hands go and did the same. When she had hers out of her pocket and in her hand, I held mine out to trade. "Add your number, and I'll add mine."

As I went into her contacts, I refrained from the urge to scroll through and peek at who was in her list. I couldn't help but see that right underneath her brother's name was someone she'd listed as "Asshole," however. I'd have to ask about that sometime. But it was getting close to when I needed to be on the rez, so I added my number quickly and we traded back.

"Good, good," I said, tucking my phone away so I could grab her hands again. "Now I need to go. But we have plans. We'll have a game night this week, and a date on Saturday, and phone numbers so we can keep in touch in the meantime."

She nodded. "Right. We have plans. Plural."

I narrowed my eyes. "Are you mocking me, Anna?"

Her eyes widened innocently. "Me? I would never."

I smiled. "What did I say about being cute?"

"That's becoming your response to everything, Paul," she said.

"What can I say? You're cute all the time. If you want me to stop saying it, you need to stop doing it."

"I don't even know what I'm doing!"

"Likely story."

Now her eyes narrowed. "Are you mocking me, Paul?"

I laughed. "Never." I squeezed her fingers. "Never, Anna."

Her expression cleared and her honest gaze met mine. "I believe you."

There was something so monumental about that statement, and I knew I couldn't grasp the enormity of it yet. We'd have to talk more. I'd have to learn more. Then I'd understand fully. But for now, I did feel it and my heart soared. "I have to go, but I really don't want to."

"I should probably go inside anyway. We've been holding hands basically this whole time; my family's gotten an eyeful."

"We could give them more of an eyeful…" I waggled my eyebrows suggestively.

She scoffed. "No."

I brought her hands to my mouth for a kiss. "I'll see you soon. And talk to you even sooner."

"Okay. Stay safe?"

On a whim, I pulled her closer and pressed a light kiss to her forehead before letting her go. "For you? Always."

She watched me for a second before taking a few steps back. "Yeah, I really like this."

I stayed in the hallway as she headed into her apartment. I knew she would be fine, but it was better if I could assure that with my own two eyes. Once she was inside safe and sound, I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

Before I went to my own door to lock up and head to La Push, I sent her a text.

It's good you really like this because I really, really like this.

I'd expected her to take a little while to respond, since her family had been waiting for her to return and had likely started asking questions once she went inside. But barely a minute later, my phone vibrated with a message.

My heart was practically bursting when I read it.

Anna: Okay, maybe I more than like this.

Thank you so much for reading! It'd make my day if you took a moment to leave a review with your thoughts. Take care until next time, everyone! :)