BPOV
"What do we do about Angela's parents?" I asked Jake. Who'd just finished installing… something, in the Rabbit.
"Well, they aren't Quileute so we can't let them in on what's going on, plus having not been brought up with our legends, they would likely freak. Hell, I freaked and I was always told they were true."
"That's a good point. Ok so she definitely won't be going home tonight if she's as angry as you say. I'm going to call her parents."
I walked over to my phone and dialed Angela's house.
"Hello?" Mrs. Weber answered. She sounded upset and I couldn't blame her.
"Hi, Mrs. Weber. It's Bella."
"Hello, Bella. I'm sorry, Angela isn't home right now." I could hear her sniffle away from the phone.
"I know. I'm actually calling on her behalf. She is really upset right now and asked that I call you. She loves you both and she knows you love her too, she just needs some time to adjust. She's asked if she could stay at my house for the night."
"Oh. I'm so glad she has you to talk to. Of course it's ok. Thank you for calling, Bella." Mrs. Weber said, sounding a bit less upset than when she answered.
"You're welcome. I'll make sure she calls you when she's less upset. Have a nice night."
"You as well, dear."
I hung up the phone and Jake looked at me with an eyebrow raised.
"What happens when the weekend is over if she still can't phase back? What about school? She can't go with the Cullen's."
"Crap." I picked up my phone again and dialed Alice.
"Bella! I knew you were going to call me." Alice said in her much-too-happy voice.
"How? You can't see me when I'm near Jake."
"No, but I can see me since I am not near any wolves, and I saw me pick up the phone and talk to you. I have no idea what you said though because the vision cut off."
"Long story short… Angela is adopted. Has a Quileute mother. She phased. Could you maybe not come to school for a bit? Get work emailed or something? We don't know how this is going to work but we know she can't go to school with you there."
"Wow." Alice said, speechless for probably the first time ever. "I… Of course. We can make that work. We'll stick to our house and surrounding areas until we get everything figured out."
"Thank you Alice. I can fill you in more later. I have to go."
"Alright. Bye Bella." Alice hung up the phone and I was left standing there pinching the bridge of my nose like Edward would do when stressed.
Jake came up behind me and started to rub my temples with light pressure in circular motions using his middle fingers.
"Ohhh, that… Ohhmm." I couldn't seem to form coherent words as his hands worked to relieve the stress I was feeling at the situation.
There was a knock on the garage door.
"Come on in." Jake said, his fingers still working a miracle on my temples. Somebody walked through the door but I was too relaxed to open my eyes. "Leah, why are you back?"
"Angela said she'd be good with just Embry and Quil. She's calmer but not nearly calm enough to phase back." Leah said, brushing her hair behind ear. "I just figured I'd fill you in. I'll see you tonight at the bonfire?"
"Yeah. I'm going to get Angela to sit nearby to hear the story and relay it to Paul and Jared."
"Sounds good, boss." I opened my eyes just in time to see Leah wink then leave the garage.
"Boss?" I asked, unable to keep the humor out of my voice.
"Seth really looks up to me and he started calling me that when we switch shifts in the morning. Leah's just giving me a hard time about it." Jake bent down and rubbed his warm hands up my legs before picking me up to straddle his waist.
/Later/
I was surprised by how non-fishy the swordfish tasted. It was delicious, and everyone enjoyed it. There was still plenty left in the freezer too, so I knew Charlie would want it at least once a week.
Jake and I walked, hand-in-hand toward the clifftop meeting place, where a bonfire already roared brighter than the cloud-obscured sun.
It wasn't just kids in attendance, though. Billy was here, his wheelchair stationed at what seemed a natural head of the circle. Beside him on a folding lawn chair, looking quite brittle, was Quil's ancient, white-haired grandfather, Old Quil. Harry and Sue had chairs on Old Quil's other side. Seth was sitting next to Sue, talking to Sam animatedly.
Beside Sam was Leah, their fingers intertwined despite the different directions they were facing, which put Leah's left hand at an odd angle, allowing the diamond ring that adorned her third finger to reflect the fire perfectly. I gasped and she looked over at me, a large smile plastered on her face.
"Congratulations." I whispered, knowing she and every other wolf could hear me, they all looked to where I was looking and smiled. Jared loudly "Wooo'd" but nothing else was said as she continued her conversation with Jessica who sat beside her on a log. The place next to her empty, saved for Embry, I assumed.
On the other side of Billy was Charlie. They talked amongst themselves, looking carefree despite everything that's bene going on. Beside Charlie was Jared on a log and Kim between his legs on the ground. Paul sat next to Jared. He got up when they were done their conversation and walked over to us
"We have to switch up with Quil and Embry in a bit." Paul said, worry on his face.
"Paul," Jake said, "Phasing with someone you're in a relationship with is going to be tough. Anything you want me to order you not to think about to make things easier in case the thought slips through?"
"I… I have nothing to hide. How is she?" Paul's answer made me happy. He was so good for her, and she for him.
"Leah said she's doing better, but still upset. She'll soon be just inside the trees, waiting for the stories to begin. We didn't want anyone to miss out because of patrol."
"Good idea. I haven't heard these stories yet since phasing. I'm going to go talk to her before starting my shift. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Paul jogged off to the treeline.
I decided that the voices of the old Quileute men would eventually be forgotten and someone, maybe Jake, would have to take over the tradition but I didn't want any of it lost. I pulled out a voice recorder from my bag and checked to see that it was working before hitting record and setting it on a rock in front of me, the mic pointed toward the old men.
/Paul POV/
It wasn't hard to find Angela once I neared the trees, her familiar scent mixed with the newer, more wild scent of the wolf was burned into my mind. Her wolf was just as beautiful as she was, the fur long though since her hair had not been trimmed before she phased but not super long since she kept her hair only just longer than her shoulders.
"Hey, baby. I'm going to phase, I'd like to talk." She responded with a low whine, which I didn't know quite how to take. I walked over to a bush and started to undress behind it, tying my clothes loosely to my ankle.
By now, with the memories of the other members of the pack, she should already know how I look as a wolf, but for some reason I was self conscious about phasing in front of her. I wasn't sure if anyone had yet to show her how it looked or if she was freaked out knowing her boyfriend was a wolf.
I took a deep breath and phased. The first thing I noticed was that she definitely was happy to see me, regardless of in wolf form or human. The second, I was unfamiliar with. The love radiating from her was overwhelming, but in a good way. It enveloped me like a hug, and she came closer to me.
"Paul, I... I don't…" Angela mumbled, her eyes focusing on mine.
"Shhh. It's alright. You don't need to say anything."
"But I do, Paul. I need to tell you how I feel about you. The way I've always felt about you has been like, finding my soul mate. And now you can hear my thoughts and my feelings and it's just overwhelming… I don't know how to say this."
"What? Are-are you breaking up with me?"
"No! Oh God, no, I'm screwing this all up. I love you. You know I love you. But now you KNOW I love you, do you understand what I mean? And I know you love me. You love me so much and it's such an amazing feeling to not have to doubt that, not that I EVER doubted that."
"Ange, whatever it is, just relax. It's me. You can talk to me about anything." I needed to know whatever it was to know if she needed something from me, space, less space, a shoulder, a punching bag. What was she looking for?
"Jake told me that the way I'm feeling is normal. That first, I needed to get used to having you in my head because we will phase together sometimes. That I also needed to get used to the possibility of nudity because sometimes we had to change on the go, and that meant no clothes when we change back, sort of like the situation I'm in now."
"That's true. Your clothes got shredded when you phased, like the hulk but before he got the purple pants."
Angela giggled, and in her head it was adorable, but from the wolf it sounded like a terrifying bark of a rabid dog.
"You think I sound like a rabid dog?" She asked, and my head bowed down.
"Sorry, trying not to have the inner monologue going is difficult." I apologized. "Continue."
"He also told me that there was a real possibility I would be needed in an upcoming battle between us and… vampires?"
"Yes, we can talk more on that later, there's plenty of time." I didn't even know what all Jake had told her yet.
"And last, that uh… this feeling I have, when I think about you. He called it imprinting?"
"What?" I sat there, silent for a second, taking in her words. She imprinted on me? I just couldn't believe it. "You…?"
Angela made a face that looked like a smile though the wolf features made it difficult to say for sure.
Embry and Quil had stayed silent for our private exchange, knowing how personal it was. When Jared phased in and took over, he quietly said through the pack mind that I could take my time, and headed off into the woods, giving us our privacy.
I continued. "I didn't imprint on you. We don't know fully why things happen, but I kept wishing I would. I knew that if I didn't that there would always be a possibility that I'd meet 'her' someday and I didn't want to break your heart. I loved you too much. I'm glad that we don't need to worry about that anymore. So fucking glad. You're sure?"
"Yes, he said that he thinks maybe you DID imprint on me, but because you're so unfamiliar with the concept of love that it didn't quite register the same with you. That's why you got defensive um… he showed me when we were in the moving truck and Bella asked if Seth imprinted. He said it all made sense that you did, but just that every wolf feels different so nobody recognized it."
"That's. Yeah I can see that making sense."
Did I really imprint and not even know it?
I walked over to her and nuzzled into her neck, taking in her scent. When I touched her, she visibly started to relax, her muscles softened beneath her thick layer of fur.
"Maybe this is what you need to get back to your human body." I spent the next 10 minutes nuzzling against her neck, gently nipping and even licking at her face and her body sunk to the ground, relaxing as I did it.
It was odd to hear her thoughts and her to hear mine as I did it. It was by far the closest we'd ever been, we had never been intimate with each other so hearing the unfiltered thoughts of each other set my body on fire. She enjoyed what I was doing, and I couldn't wait for her to phase back so we could explore the more physical side of our relationship.
We listened to the stories Billy and Old Quil told, her mind racing at hearing about her ancestors for the first time. Eventually, as the stories gave way to chatting and enjoying the cool breeze, Angela fell asleep on the ground, curled into a ball against me. I stayed with her all night, making sure nobody stumbled upon her while focusing on Jared and his surroundings to make sure he didn't miss anything.
When Jake and Leah phased in at 2am, I decided to curl into her and fell asleep. I didn't want to leave her alone. I slept better that night than I had since I accepted my fate as protector of the tribe.
