Chapter 1: Food
Bella was the one who wanted to come here today; she on the other hand wanted to be anywhere but here. Daiane wished she could leave the Swan residents without feeling like a piece of shit. They were so kind to take her in. Charlie had even found her a job at a local coffee shop.
She could tell that Bella was going through something hard, some kind of brake up with a guy that ghosted her a few months ago. She would count herself lucky that she got out of something like that without drama. If a guy ghosted her, she wouldn't cry or be sad about it. If that guy would rather ghost her than work things out than he was never worth her time in the first place. But Daiane was diffident, Bella was a soft girl and apparently, she really loved that asshole.
Bella's father found Daiane at her lowest point so far in her journey to freedom. Sometimes she wished she wasn't a shifter, the hunger of being a young shifter was unbearable at times. Charlie had found her on the edge of the forest right after Daiane phased back to human form after she hunted and ate as much of a deer she could stand. She needed to eat and she was starving. It was gross and not want she wanted to do but what she could do. She could have stolen food but then she would be taking it from someone else. Someone who may not have the means to replace the loss, the thought of taking it for a family who needed it stopped her for stealing it. There was also the risk of being caught and she really didn't want to go to jail that would be a greater hell, not being able to shift when she needed or shifting and being a freak show.
But it was a moot point at this point, Charlie found her after her poor decision making and took her to the sheriff station. She was too weak at that point to fight back or run. This must have been the reason her grandmother band hunting in their shifted form. She felt so sick afterward that she wished had starved.
Charlie was the nicest cop she had every met and after only a few questions about the blood and her nudity near the forest, he gave her food and a place to rest at the station. The kindness he showed her in those moments were not lost on Daiane. He didn't badger her about where her parents were or how she got here or even how she got so thin. He just let her rest and eat, he of course tried to get the information from her later after she rested. He was a cop after all and wanted to know how to stop this from happening to someone else.
She wasn't an idiot though; She knew she could never tell him what really happened to her or that she was a shifter. She felt a strange connection to him after the kindness he showed her and couldn't fully lie to him. She told him that she was a runaway, which was the only truth she could share. He seemed to understand and after three days at the station Charlie invited her to come to his house for the night. She was 19 so he wasn't breaking any laws by not taking her in and not back to her family.
A night turned into a week then a month, were Charlie treated her like a second daughter. His own daughter was going through a strange brake up so she thought that he needed a friend or maybe someone to help him with his own daughter or maybe he thought that Bella would feel better with another person in the house.
Daiane was more than willing to help; she was a healer in her old pack. Shifter healers have the power to make people feel better just by being around, kind of like a human Prozac, well she wouldn't say she was human but an antidepressant, of sorts. She went into Bella's room to drop off food and things she needed and would try to send out her healing scent as much as possible, it worked for a while and she started coming downstairs more and moving and eating more, going to school; but she was still pretty down about to whole brake up thing.
Honestly, Daiane hated going into her room at first, it smelled so bad in there, like death. She honestly wondered if Bella was keeping some died carcasses in her room. Was she some type of weirdo or something? But over time the smell went away and she found out Bella was an ok girl, a little plain but nice all the same.
Now she was being dragged to Jacob's house, how annoying. She wanted to introduce her to the boys at La Push. Daiane had seen them for afar when Bella and Jacob were going through a rough patch in their friendship. Bella had been upset and needed a little support to go see Jacob after he stopped answering her calls, so she told her that they would go together to see what was going on.
Jacob's dad had turned them away at the door. She had convened Bella to leave that time, but they had seen the La Push boys near the tree line. Bella told her their names, those that Bella knew from Jacob, Sam was the leader with Jared, Paul, and their newest member Embry, one of Jacob's closest friends. Bella thought that Jacob was felling in with a bad crowd after his friend joined this pack of boys. And that's what they were to her—boys—running around like they owned the place, they reminded her of some of the boys of her old pack, which was one of the reasons she left.
That time she could have sworn one of the boys looks at her like he wanted to attack her or something. He stared at her like he couldn't think of anything better to do with him eyes. Plus, his stare put her on edge, like he wanted to come over and devour her. Her animal lifted its head at the time too, sitting at attention inside her. She didn't like it and when he started to walk towards them, she glared at him, showing him all her animosity and loathing making him stop died in his tracks and look hurt. She didn't care, Daiane even flicked them the bird as she jumped into Bella's truck to drive back to the Swan house.
If that guy wanted to talk to her, well too bad, she didn't want or need another man in her life after what happened with—no she wouldn't think back to it. She still felt bad for leaving, but she didn't have a choice after she told him no. It was either stay and be killed or run and live, at least until they find her. She probably should leave Forks soon, just to be safe.
They pull up to Jacob's house in Bella's old beat-up truck. Three guys were on the porch bantering with each other. She watches them through the windshield as they laugh and push at each other, they make jokes to themselves. She recognizes Jacob and another boy she's seen Bella hanging out with, Embry, she thinks. She didn't know the last one's name but she knew he was one of the boys she saw at the edge of the forest the last time she was here, she only saw them from a distance, and she didn't let my animal forward to see sharper at the time so she couldn't quite make out fine features at the time but their build was unmistakable. They were all tall with strong bodies, they reminded her of shifters, but that was impossible, her kind were the only ones.
Bella was the first one to get out of the truck and yells a greeting to Jacob, waving at them and smiling for the first time in weeks, at last that was the first time Daiane's seen one. She really shouldn't complain about being bragged here today. This was good for Bella; she missed her friend Jacob and it looked like whatever was going on between them was now resolved. She smiles to herself as she gets out, she was truly happy that Bella and Jacob were on good terms again. It would make it easier to leave without a trace if Bella had a friend like Jacob to go to for comfort. But the question was, was this a bad crowd, like Bella thought a week ago?
Bella seemed like a very sensitive girl and would take Daiane's disappearing personally. But it wasn't anything against the Swans, she just wanted to make sure they were safe. Hopefully whoever was sent up here to chase her down would just pass by the Swan house if she wasn't there.
She jumps out after Bella and start for the house, she notices that one of the boys on the porch jumps to attention as her approaches, the one without a name. She makes a mental note to stay away from him, his stare was too intense as she walks up to the house. It puts her on edge, but her animal stops and stares right back at him, interested. Just like before? Why would it do that? It made no sense sometimes.
"Hey girls," Embry say.
"Hey, Embry," Bella says shyly. "This is Daiane Swan, she's staying with us for a while." Nice introduction, sounded like she was a leech. She knows that's not how Bella meant for it to sound but that how it sounded to her. Charlie had let her use his last name on her employment forms to get a job, another kindness she would never be able to repay.
"Cool," Embry says. No introductions on their part, but she already knew most of them. Just not the one who wouldn't stop staring at her.
Her eyes lock with the nameless boy and they have a little staring contest as she walks up the step and into Jacob' s house. She was not one to back down but she had no choice as she walks through the door and he is now behind her, to turn around and confront him again would only prove that she was staring and perhaps interested in him, he would get the wrong idea, which she wasn't. Interested that is. He wasn't bad looking, she suppose.
"Are you girls' hunger?" Jacob askes.
Bella nods shyly as she says, "Yeah, what do you have?"
"Sue brought over some of her Cherokee Style Succotash with some homemade cornbread. She found the recipe online," Jacob answers. That sounded good and her stomach ached to eat something.
"What you guys don't like your own tribe's cooking," she teases. Her people were very proud of their family recipes and things that only they made that were different from the people around them.
"Hey those are fighting words," Embry returns. "You should come to our bonfire parties some time. It's all tribal foods that have been pass down for generations."
"Well except for what Quil's mom beings," Jacob laughs. "She not a Quileute." He says quietly in explanation.
The nameless boy moves pass her into the kitchen, brushing pass her shoulder, even though our shirts she could feel the heat redating off his body. She looks up at him, into his chocolate brown eyes. Her eyes were green like so many of her packs'. He stares at her, then grins as he crowds her to pass by her, pressing his arm against her. He made it look like an accident but she wasn't fooled.
She narrows her eyes as she stares at his back in the kitchen. What was he trying to do by being here? He didn't even introduce himself. So, as Daiane moves to the kitchen table, she puts her hand down on the table and says, "And who are you?"
"Oh, shoot," Embry says before the nameless boy can speck for himself. "That's Paul." What, could he not speak? But a low growl comes from Paul as she turns to Embry.
"Shut up, Embry," Paul growls, glaring at the younger boy.
"You can speak," she says, teasing. Teasing was just her natural go to in new unfamiliar environments, to hind how unsure she was of herself.
His chocolate eyes lock with hers again and she could feel the electricity in them, the intensity in them scares her a little. But she had stared down an alpha and this guy would not scare her, or she was determined not to show it. Like he can sense her determination to not show her uncertainty, his lips curve up into a knowing smile.
"Yes, I can speak. My name is Paul Lahote," he says, his continued stare unnerves her still.
So as a way to take to attention off herself, she says to Embry, "You said there was food."
The boys take everything out of the fridge and put things out on the table for everyone to eat. Goodness the spread they lay out reminded her of how much food her people would normally put out to feed a bunch of shifters. It was enough to feed at least ten humans but it would only be enough for maybe four shifters.
She was always grateful to the Swans for letting her stay with them and eat with them but they never made enough food for her likely. She always left the table feeling hungry and she was still too thin because of it. But they were human and didn't know that shifters needed more food than humans, and it wasn't something she was going to share either. So, every meal she ate only enough to keep her going, the amount of a normal human, but she was always hungry.
"Are we planning on having leftovers," she asks as they sit down. She wanted to see if it would be ok to eat it all, God that would be heavenly.
"No," Paul says, sitting next to her and rakes a large portion of food onto his plate. His undisguised hunger for the food in front of everyone calms her inner nerves, she just starts in on the food, uncaring about who may be paying attention to the large amount of food going into her stomach. This would be the first time in months that her would leave a table full.
By the time she nears maximum capacity and looks up from her plate to the others around the table. She sees three sets of eyes on her and a nearly empty table. She was sure they had never seen someone so small eat so much food in one sitting.
"What! You said you weren't expecting leftovers," She mockingly says to the table. "I was just helping you make that happen."
Embry laughs and says a quick joking remark as he shoves another spoonful of succotash into his mouth. Jacob smirks and asks Bella if she wanted to go outside for a walk. She watches them leave and then turn back to the food in front of her. But before she can take another bite of food, she notices Paul tense frame next to her.
Turning her eyes to him, she sees a grim expression on his handsome face. His eyes are down cast, staring at his plate angrily, still full with food and looking untouched for some time now. His hand grips his fork hard, in a death grip and his body shakes a little. Was he angry? What did she miss? She didn't think they were talking about anything that would make him mad?
Sensing her eyes on him, his head jerks in her direction, brown eyes colliding with her green ones. Daiane can't help her eyes going wide at the intense look in his, like he was angry about something she did. What did she do? She looks to her plate and loses her appetite as she thinks that she revealed something she shouldn't have. Damn, she felt like a child when her grandmother would scold her for something. She felt the whisper of old tear form in her eyes, missing her grandmother and the pack she left behind and something else that she couldn't name.
She quickly brushes them aside, so no one notices. But Paul next to her see the action and moves closer. She feels the heat of his skin next to her shoulder. Looking up, expecting to see his anger again, but instead his eyes look sad and filled with guilt.
"Here, don't stop until you're full," he practically orders as he pushes his plate in her direction.
"No, I'm good," she says quickly, getting up. Frankly this was one of the first times in a long time that she was leaving a table full.
But before she could move away, Paul grabbed her arm and pulls her back into her seat. Daiane was shocked for a second that she couldn't move before she turn an annoyed glare in his direction. How dare he grab her! She was about to give him a piece of her mind when he says, "I like watching you eat."
His words shocked her again into silents as she stares at him. He looked so serious about it. Was he joking? Playing with her? Was he making fun of her for eating so much? She was not one to let people walk all over her.
Sending him a challenging look she says, "Fine, if that what you want. I'll only eat more if you let me watch you eat." Ok she felt a little childish for that one, she could have thought of something a little wittier but she was surprised.
Paul stares right at her, something appears in his eyes saying 'challenge accepted.' His eyes never leave hers as he takes a large spoon full of food and slobbishly puts it into his month, some doesn't even make it into him mouth just falls into his lap. The contrast between the seriousness of his eyes and the way his month exaggerated the slobbish way he ate his food was so comical that after the initial shock of his actions, she just broke out laughing.
He anticks reminded her of Alec and Jason, her brothers in the pack, teasing her at mealtimes. They would tease each other about who could eat more, who come be the more polite and eat like some English aristocrat, or sometimes they would give her that same challenging look, that Paul gives her now, before starting a food fight at the table. Grandmother always got so mad at them for that, food was not to be wasted, but she loved us all the same.
Paul smiles at her as she laughs out loud at him. She decides to show him some mercy and take one of the last cornbread muffins and takes a bite, giggling as she does so. Her stomach seems to realize that she wasn't fully satisfied and wakes up again as she inhales the muffin between giggles. As she looks over at Paul again, he was staring at her with this goofy smile on his face.
Getting up again she says, "I'll help with the dishes." Daiane grab all the dishes on the table, even as Paul and Embry say they can handle it. She goes to the sink and start running the water to start the dishes, Paul coming up right next to her.
"So where are you from?" Embry askes, still lounging in his chair, unhelpful.
She goes still at his question. She didn't want to answer that question, she couldn't let anyone know where she was truly from, it would put her family in danger. If anyone ever found out what she was and thought to destroy all of her kind, that would be a disaster. Even if her family hated her now, she would never wish to hurt them.
Seeming to sense her unease, Paul turns a glare at Embry and a low growl escape his throat. Embry quickly jump out of his chair and says a quick bye before running for the door.
She looks to Paul, grateful that she didn't have to answer the question but unsure what to do now that they were alone. She barely knew him, before today he was a stranger to her. She turns back to the dishes and start washing them to distract herself.
"Didn't worry about Embry," Paul says next to her. "He just has a big month."
She turns to him and sees his eyes staring back at her with such earnestness, she wasn't sure what to think of his words. Of course, people would ask about where she was from. She didn't look like the people around here. Charlie was kind enough to let her stay at his house and help her find a job and start a new life here, but she was still an outsider here. Plus, with the Swan name and not looking anything like them, well people would wonder.
She nods and starts washing the dishes as all the differences between herself and everyone here run through her head. She was still too thin but she still had her runner's body, strong and lean. All her people had the same body type, like runners, somewhat feline and sleek. Her skin was kissed by the sun and she had long chestnut brown hair, which fell in waves down her back. Most people would think that someone with her compaction and heritage, that she would have brown eyes like Paul's, but she had bright emerald green eyes. The eyes of an animal.
Paul was very different from the men of her pack. He was tall with broad shoulders, his arms looked well-muscled and strong. He was wearing a gray tee shirt with cargo shorts. His body wasn't sleek like her people but bulky and solid. She could make out lean muscles under his shirt. He had copper tone skin, darker than hers by a few shades, high cheek bones and those deep chocolate brown eyes.
She couldn't help peek at him as he wiped off the table, puts away the dishes that they didn't use and store away the meager leftovers from their meal, one lone cornbread muffin. She watches him look at the muffin then at the inside of the fridge and back again. And with a quick flick of his wrist the fridge door closes and the last of their leftovers disappear as he turns away from her to take out the trash in the corner, muffin nowhere in sight. She can't help but smile at that.
Finishing the dishes as Paul walks back into the kitchen she says, "I'm from the jungles of South American, Brazil near the Amazon River." She couldn't say why she revealed this information to him. She just felt like she needed too, which was weird.
Paul's face lights up at the information which seems to do strange things to her heart, it jumps and beats a little faster as she looks over at him shyly.
"You grow up in the jungle? So can I call you Jane?" he teases.
"No," she returns, curtly, but she smirks as she turns away from him; letting him know that she was only half joking.
"What would you like me to call you?" Paul askes. Jumping into her vision to lean on the counter, blocking her way out of the kitchen and into the backyard were everyone else was except them. He has a teasing and challenging air to him as he stares at her; he was trying to be nonchalant, leaning against the counter with his hands crossed over his chest.
"My name, Daiane," she says.
"Daiane," he says, testing the name on his lips. And she has to admit it did sounds good coming from him. "I could call you beautiful," he purrs at her.
Yeah, right, not gonna happen. She laughs as she put her hand over his smug looking face. If he thought she would fall for that one, he had another thing coming. "No, Daiane is good," she says.
He smiles but moves away from her after that and askes, "This must be a big change for you than, coming for the rainforests of South America to the cooler north woods. Cooler because I am here, right?" He playfully wiggles his eyebrows at her, making her smile.
"No," she answers, enjoying his company and the noninvasive questions. "The cold doesn't bother me. I do miss the trees in the rainforests but the forests around here are beautiful." The cold really didn't bother her much, with an internal temperature of around 102 degrees, it took a lot to make her cold.
"What is your favorite place here?" he asks.
She starts telling him about the places in the woods she found when she was in her animal form and needed to run. She felt so coped up sometimes in the house. Running through the wood, feeling the damp earth under her paws, and the wind in her fur; that was what she lived for. She loved running in her animal form! She tells him about a place she found on the top of a cliff that looked out over the mountain in the distance and of a meadow she found last week with a river running through it. She couldn't go running in she animal form very often because she wasn't eating enough to really maintain herself and shifting to her animal took a lot of energy. But maybe she would go for a good run tonight, this meal was good and she was full for the first time in a while. She could use the extra energy to let out her animal a little.
Paul stands captivated as she tells him of how she found a hiding spot in one of the tallest trees in the area and how she loved to hang in the trees. Her animal loved to climb and the trees around here were great for climbing. She doesn't even think twice about him not asking how she was able to get to all these places without hiking for hours or even days. But as they talk about the woods and the different animals they've seen and places they liked; Paul would ask her constantly if he could show her some of these places. But she always skirted around agreeing to go out into the woods with him. She would be able to see these place a lot easier without someone with her, and she would be able to run.
She could tell that her evasions to his invitations did not go unnoticed, but he still smiled at her and didn't take offense to them.
"You are amazing to get all the way up here from so far away," he praises her.
This makes her stop short and sobering quickly. Her? Amazing? No, she wasn't amazing for leaving. No, she wasn't amazing for abandoning her pack, she didn't deserve praise. She left her family, her pack, her home. She couldn't help looking at the floor, disappointed in herself and all the things she left behind that her grandmother told her were her responsibly, to watch over her pack and people. She was the biggest disappointment in the world.
"No, I'm not," she whispers, stepping back. "I'm a runaway."
Paul's hands reach for her and take her face in both of his large hands, forcing her to look at him. "You are amazing to come here all by yourself and so strong to leave when things were wrong," he says, like he knows her whole story. How could he know what she went through? How could he understand her pain? She wasn't sure how but the expression in his eyes felt like he did understand completely, the understanding and comfort in his chocolate brown eyes send a trill through her.
It was hard to get this far, over 5,000 miles through some of the roughest places in the Americas without being discovered. She couldn't say that it was a small feat. She had to stay in her animal form longer than she would have liked and travel at night so no one would stop her passing over borders. Running from drug dealers and thugs left and right. Being hunted by man who accidently saw her in animal form and then wanted a trophy for their wall. Hiding in gutters, holes and slums; all the while praying that her pack wasn't just around the corner ready to kill her.
But Paul looked at her like she was some incredible treasure, strong and full of fight. If she could see herself through those eyes, what would she be? His face moves closer to her and she feel a strange pull inside her. His eyes captivate her and as his lips touched hers, she couldn't seem to pull away. He didn't demand anything from her as he kisses her, but she feels herself lean into his touch. He felt wonderful against her, the heat of his body burning into hers, he felt so warm so unlike any other human she met before. Humans always felt a little cold to her with her higher body temperature. The feel of his hands on her face, gently stroking her cheek with his thumb; made her melt into him more.
Their lips move over each other's but as his hand moves from her face to her neck. Memories assault her, of another hand on her neck. A strong grip tightening on her neck, cutting off her air supply, choking her, tearing at her soul. She jerks away from him and jumps out of reach, nearly across the room from him. Paul stares at her confused for a moment before his eyes darken with fury. She raises her hand pleading with him not to come any closer. Her animal feels to close to the surface with her panicked mind reliving old memories.
"I need air," she says before running out the door.
She runs down the driveway of Jacob's house and down the road. She hears Bella yelling for her, asking what was wrong. She just keeps running not slowing in the slightest, she would see Bella at the house later and disappears into the woods. Phasing quickly and runs deeper into the woods and way from Paul and the others.