Honest to Christ, Paul was positive he was involved in less awkward walks of shame than being present for this particular bonfire. It wasn't that anyone was being an asshole, but he knew what toleration looked like, and as his eyes scanned the faces of people he had known his entire life, that was exactly what he saw looking back.

Nothing but toleration of his presence.

He got it. He did. If he was on the other side, he would look at him like that too.

That didn't mean he had to like it.

The only person that had approached him, that gave any indication that he was even wanted there, was Billy. A hand shake for him, a hug and condolences for Bella led to what had to be the world's worst Celebration of Life party Paul had ever fucking seen.

Bella, on the other hand, had never been so thankful for a phone call in her life. Hearing her phone ring, she pulled it from the bag at her feet, looking at the screen. Concern coloring her face, she looked at Paul. "It's Charlotte." Licking her lips as she answered, she barely got the phone to her ear before a very loud, very male voice came through the line.

"You have have any idea what that fuckin' cub did?"

Head snapping to the side, Paul growled without meaning to, causing most of the tribe to shrink back from the sound. At the quiet admission that it wasn't actually who the caller ID said it was, Paul held out his hand for the phone, crooking two fingers when Bella hesitated. "Either you give it or I take it, but either way, the end result is the same."

Once she handed it over, he stood up from the log they were sitting on, and walked a few feet away, his body deciding for him that eight feet was far enough with the other shifters present. Placing the phone to his ear, Paul's voice was darker than anyone present had ever heard, a constant, low grown in his chest. "If you ever speak to her like that again, I will rip your dick off with my bare hand, and shove it so far down your fucking throat you will once again be anatomically correct, and if you ever fucking anything my son again it will be your last act on this Earth. Am I completely under-fucking-stood?"

There was a clearing throat on the other side before a far more respectful response came through. "Gotcha."

"Good." In no way letting up on the pissyness in his voice, "Now, what did he do?" Not completely sure he heard right, Paul actually choked on his tongue. "He cl..." Shaking away his shock, there were finally complete sentences. "I don't give a fuck. He's not even two and you're a hundred and fifty fucking the hell up... is that a fact? Alright, then care to explain why he was without supervision long enough to be able to do that when his ass should have been in bed and you have no good fucking reason not to know he wasn't?... You are an actual walking headache... I swear to every last holy entity in existence, you son of a bitch, I will bite the shit out of you... Good. fucking. idea."

It didn't take a fraction of a second for Paul's phone conversation to catch everyone's attention. Kim, who had spent the time since Bella and Paul showed up trying to find a reason to get away from Jared's side, not seeing any reason that talking to Bella, who was confirmed to still be human, to not be aloud, latched on the 'my son' she heard from Paul to do just that.

Glaring at her boyfriend when he tried to stop her, Kim pulled her wrist free and walked quickly around the fire, taking up the seat on Bella's other side from where Paul had been sitting. Her eyes were bright and her smile was wide, though she did keep her voice down so as to not catch Paul's attention when he growled again, because honestly, that shit was far scarier than it used to be. "You have a son?"

Turning her head to look at her friend, Bella ignored Paul completely as he tore into Peter and grinned like only a mother could as she lit up the screen of her watch, showing off the little boy that looked just like his father, right down to the red in his eyes, smiling wider at the squeal of 'oh my god'. "His name is J.P."

Grabbing Bella's hand to get a better look at the image, Kim all but melted at the smiling face looking back at her. "He's so stinkin' cute. So that's what Paul looked like as a kid." Looking at Bella, she then lifted a brow. "What's his name short for?"

To which Bella shook her head. If Paul wanted to tell their son's namesakes what his full name was, that was up to him.

It was at that point Emily took up Paul's vacant seat, an expectant look on her face as she held out her hand for her turn to see the little scamp. Lighting up like a christmas tree at the beaming face, she placed her free hand on her chest. "He's perfect, Bella, But, for my curiosity, when did you have him? Paul said he isn't two, but he's certainly over a year."

Taking her arm back, she looked at her phone with eyes that clearly showed that little boy was her whole world. "I got pregnant while we were dealing with the Demetri situation." At the look of horror on Emily's face, Bella held up her hands. "Before you say anything... it was near the end of the bullshit. I was up close and personal with several vampires, and a wolf, constantly, and I obviously didn't smell any different that early on. Paul noticed it about 3 weeks after we got back." Giving a side eye to the aforementioned wolf, she grunted. "It was at that point Paul basically lost his damn mind, because honestly, we had no idea at what point during that it happened, before his run in with the cats or after. Not that it was all bad, but Jesus Christ."

Nodding slowly at the answer, though extremely curious what she meant by that since she had never been given the details of how exactly Paul came to be as he was, Emily took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry you had to go through everything alone."

Bella's surprise was seen by everyone present as she jerked back with a blink. "Alone? I was never alone." Casting a slightly irritated look over her shoulder, her voice dropped an octave. "Literally... never alone."

Shaking her head, Emily elaborated. "That's not what I meant. While I'm sure that to be the case, what I meant was, you, as in the pair of you. Pregnancy, labor, delivery, rearing... that's something you should have..."

Bella cut in with a raised brow, not really in the mood. "A tribe for? A family?" Lacing her fingers together, she propped her chin on her knuckles. "We've managed just fine. Sure, J.P. can be a handful but, like..." waving a helpless hand behind her, she grinned when Emily chuckled.

Smiling at her friend, Emily nodded. "I get your point."

"BABE"

The word was so out of nowhere, everyone around the fire jumped, except for who it was directed to. Bella just turned her head and looked at Paul from the corner of her eye. "You bellowed?"

Paul, still a slight growl in his throat, shook his head. "Your friend..."

But Bella cut him off. "Our..."

Narrowing his eyes and slightly raising his voice, Paul sneered at her. "Your friend..." when she didn't interrupt and just raised a brow, he grunted as he made his way back to his seat. "Is fucking useless."

Bella did not disagree, she just shrugged as she took her phone."Yeah, but, ya know... the boy likes him, so."

Standing from her stolen seat, Emily smiled up at the missing piece of her life. "Congratulations, Paul. He's perfect."

Grinning at her, Paul pointed a finger at her. "That little bastard is an asshole."

While the statement pulled a very impressive growl from the boy's mother, Emily just laughed outright. "Well, he is yours. Comes by it honest." When Paul shrugged with a wider grin as he crossed his arms, she then stepped toward him, completely ignoring Sam's sound of warning as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "I have certainly missed you, Paul." Leaning back and looking up, she tilted her head. "Perhaps one day you'll let me meet him?"

Shifting his eyes to Bella, who was looking up at him with slightly wide eyes, Paul grunted as he looked back, gently pushing Emily back and crossing his arms again. "Maybe when he's older. He's, eh... not really safe to be around humans yet." Reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck at her curious look, he cleared his throat. "He has very sharp claws, and...uh... sharper teeth."

Still slightly confused, but having a general idea what he wasn't saying, Emily glanced back at Sam. "I see." Looking back at Paul, she looked for the right word. 'So he's... um..."

When she couldn't, Bella supplied it. "Venomous, yeah." Glancing at Paul at the look of shock, she went for broke when he nodded his permission. "That's not the why not now, though. He isn't big enough for that to matter. His bites burn, but it doesn't do anything. The problem is, he doesn't have a gene that will eventually activate, because what activates it is a part of him, and he's a toddler. An overly emotional, pain in the ass, everything pisses him off, toddler. So, um..." glancing at Sam, she winced at the look on his face, but finished her statement "It's not really the teeth you would need to worry about just yet."

Now fully understanding what she meant, Emily nodded, but since she had long gotten past the scars on her face, she simply smiled at Paul again. "Mm,hm... well, like I said, he is yours, after all. It's not surprising he's all teeth and claws."

Lip curling in the corner, showing off one of his own fangs that no longer went away when not a wolf, Paul let out a gruff, growl shrouded grunt. "You're funny."

Smile growing, Emily set a hand on Paul's arm.. "And you're family." Glancing over her shoulder, she narrowed her eyes slightly. "Even if some have forgotten that."

Having had just about enough of the glares and jabs, Sam finally took a step forward, his head as high as he could possibly hold it given certain circumstances of the situation, and crossed his arms. "It was never forgotten, and no amount of saying so will make that true."

Standing her ground much more firmly than she ever would have after the discovery of a child added to the situation, Emily crossed her own arms, mirroring Sam's position. "Fine, if not forgotten, then certainly ignored, and over foolish semantics, pride, and ridiculous views that were more than adequately proven wrong on more than one occasion. Several covens, numerous creatures, and countless humans have been wiped off the face of the planet due to just that, semantics and pride. The only one to not have suffered for your decision to cast him out, was you. And for what purpose? Because he stood up against you? Will you attempt the same with me since I stand against you now since it is quite clear bonds don't mean all that much to you?"

Feeling every last eye in a hundred miles on him, Sam pressed his lips together. He never questioned his decisions before, him second guessing having never ended well for anyone involved, and he stood by the decision he made to banish Paul. What he was currently battling out in his mind, was the end statement of telling him if he ever came back, it would be his death. However, with what he had done to Jared, he still felt it was the right thing to do, and said as much... or tried to. "With what happened to Jared..."

And Jared himself was having none of it. Glancing over at Bella, who was looking back at him with what was clearly a look of challenge, then over to Paul who just seemed resigned, he straightened his spine. "That was reactive, not aggressive." With his alpha's eyes on him, along with everyone else's present, he did what he should have done 2 years ago, and defended his best friend. Licking his lips, he softened his tone as he locked his eyes on Sam's. "Think about it, and I mean really think about it. We didn't know what we would find when we agreed to ignore that asshole's warning about not looking for Paul. We didn't have the first inkling of what happened to him, or what would happen once we found them. What we did know, what we actually had beaten into us at one point, was the lengths their kind goes to for their significant other. Maybe it's because I can perfectly remember every painful detail of what happened, and I mean that in the most literal way possible, but he didn't make a move towards us," he then pointed at Bella, "until you threatened to take her. What did he actually do that either of us wouldn't have done?"

Sam thought that was an easy one. "We wouldn't have attacked one of our own."

He was wrong, and Jared proved it. "But he wasn't one of our own anymore. He didn't attack until you severed his ties to us. You sent him into exile, told him we were taking Bella, and he reacted pretty fucking understandably given the overall situation. What happened to me was far more your fault than it will ever be his. How close did he come to almost dying trying to protect her while they were in Egypt? Fuck Sam, how close did he come here? You have to at least remember that. All three of us knew that if nothing fucking else, so how anyone expected things to go any other way than it did confuses the shit out of me. You went into that altercation with the eyes of a shifter, but you need to learn to ignore the fact he now has venom in his veins. If he was as dangerous as you labeled him, I highly doubt Bella would be alive, despite their ties, because both our kind and theirs mark their mate, and he hasn't. He couldn't have, or she wouldn't be a human." Sighing through his nose as he shook his head, Jared then dropped his arms. "You've been sulking around here for the last two years, Sam, every day getting eaten alive by the choices that were made that led to this. Our choices, by the way, not his. It can't be erased, we can't change it but... it can be fixed. Look at him, and I mean really look. I guarentee that mother fucker is only dangerous to anyone that's a threat to his imprint... mate... whatever, and his cub."

There was only ever one time in his life Sam felt the weight of his ancestors pressing down on his shoulders, and he didn't like it then either. It followed the very first time he ever shifted. It was oppressive, intrusive, like nothing about him was his to control. It was the knowledge that his choices ended where the safety of the tribe began, so even if he wanted to give the benefit of the doubt, he still couldn't do it. There was no way to explain it, not in any meaningful way that would make sense to anyone else. He couldn't run to Paul's aid in Egypt and leave the tribe unprotected. He couldn't leave a human with a creature that could kill them, regardless of outside circumstances. He couldn't release Paul from the accusation of being dangerous to every living being on the planet. His responsibilities outweighed his wants, and that wouldn't be changed just because he once had a brotherhood with who someone used to be.

Any conradee with vampires expired the moment those newborns were destroyed and that coven left the area. Paul made his choice to continue his involvement with their enemies, and now Sam had to make his.

Before he could voice his damnation however, Old Quill slowly moved from his place by the fire, his steps slow and precise as he made his way to the missing wolf. Several younger members of the tribe attempted to place themselves between him and his destination, Jacob being one of them, but with little more than a shift of his eyes, every one of them backed down. Even Emily and Kim moved away from Bella and Paul as he got closer, but it wasn't until Paul meaningfully stepped forward and gently moved Bella behind him with his head high and eyes glowing with a dare in the depths did the Elder stop his approach. He had been watching the young man since Paul arrived, paying closer attention to his actions than anyone else, and when he cast his eyes to the ground, a slight grin pulled at the corner of his lips. His words were calculated when he spoke. "As I thought. 8 feet, just as before. But... only for men."

From the corner of his eye, Paul glanced down at Bella, who looked back up at him, curiosity in her own eyes. She was around men all the time and he didn't act like that. So, deciding the explanation was needed, mostly just for her, Paul returned his eyes to Quill, and crossed his arms. "No... only for wolves."

While everyone else present gasped at the short response, Old Quill just grinned wider. "That was a lifetime ago, several in fact. Surely you can trust that an old man is no threat to her."

All Paul did in response was raise a brow. "Your appearance and your abilities are not mutually exclusive when I routinely deal with bullshit in the shape of old men. And suffice it to say, though this really should go without saying, despite all the warm, fuzzy feelings that have been thrown my way all evening, I don't trust anyone when it comes to my pack."

Tilting his head, Quill jutted his chin in the direction of Kim and Emily. "You trust them."

To which Paul was quick to respond. "You sure? Because I certainly don't remember saying that, and my memery is pretty fucking good these days."

Raising a brow, Quill then began laying the groundwork to find out exactly where the tribe laid in the silver wolf's eyes.. "So you don't, then."

To which Paul just shook his head. "I didn't say that either. Besides, trust is the wrong word, Old Man. There is a big difference between trusting someone not to do something stupid, and not seeing them as a threat if they do. You and I both know as calm as you're standing there, you could shift right now if you wanted to, I just have a feeling you won't because you don't want the half century it'll add to your life time. To be clear, that doesn't show one iota of trust. It just shows common fucking sense."

Loosely crossing his arms, Quill laid out the challenge. "And even knowing that, you still won't give an inch to your own People?"

Paul then crossed his own arms as challenge entered his own eyes. He could smell the wolf just below the old man's skin, catching the slight change in scent as Quill's line of questioning continued. He just wasn't going to play the asshole's games. Paul knew he knew everything that happened two years ago, and in painful detail he was sure, so stiffening his posture and getting ready for anything, he used a level voice, not giving anything away. "Given everything that's happened with my People, would you?"

There were several responses to that question Quill had been expecting, but that wasn't one of them. Regarding Paul, he let his mind conjure up the younger version that used to terrorize the reservation as a child, to the arrogant teenager that was convinced he was on his own, to the young man that would do anything to protect his home, to the one that now stood before him, sure of himself and who he had become. Never in his long life had he seen someone endure what Paul had, nor had he ever heard of anyone becoming what he did. Shifters and vampires were the only two creatures that didn't mix, the blood of one and the venom of the other being poisonous to each. Or so that was what was thought. There was no good reason for Paul to be alive for his people to hate other than the woman next to him that has since become the mother of a Son of Taha Aki... a Son of Taha Aki that was absent from his Father's protection.

No longer challenging, simply curious, Old Quill clicked his tongue. "If you truly trust no one where your pack is concerned, where is the cub?"

Now casting narrowed eyes down at his mate, who refused to make eye contact, Paul grunted. "With his mother's friends."

Humming in his throat, Quill nodded. "Vampires, I assume?"

Growling without really meaning too, though his head was still turned away, he cut his eyes to the Elder. "Couldn't very well leave his trouble makin' furry ass with a human, now could we?" Glancing quickly back to Bella whose face was pinched at the thought, he then turned his full attention back to Quill. "Besides, I didn't pick Jared's babysitter. It came down to timeframe and lack of other options."

While the older Jared jolted at finding out the cub's real name, Quill ignored that for the moment and focused on Paul's last statement. "So you would leave your young son with someone you don't trust? If that's the case, why not just bring him with you?"

Growling this time with full intention of doing so, Paul snarled. "For the last time, Old Man. I don't fucking trust anyone. His mother, on the other hand, does, just not anyone within a 100 miles of this place. And for all the shit I fuck up just because I can, even I'm not stupid enough to argue with a mother when it comes to her kid. I may or may not be immortal. The jury's still out on that one. However, if there is a way for me to die, and I piss her off when it comes to that cub, Bella will find it, and in very short order. That said, with the way I've been treated, what would make me think you would treat him any differently?"

Starting to actually get angry over the situation, something he hadn't really allowed himself to get over the years, Paul's voice began to rise, his fangs flashing as he spoke and pointing to Sam. "He isn't here because of him. He is the last son of a bitch on this planet I want anywhere near my son. He's with vampires because they are the only species that has proven they deserve the honor of his fucking presence, and for as useless as Peter actually is, he is the only one that doesn't treat my son as some kind of freak for something he had absolutely zero control over. Is he a pain in the ass? Absofuckinglutly, but he and his mate are the only two that were trust on the table, would have earned a sliver of it."

Staying calm as ever, Quill simply pointed something out. "To the credit of those present, they didn't know he even existed."

Paul simply scoffed. "And to their discredit, they didn't give a fuck when I didn't come back, so why the fuck would any of them care I went and had a kid? And before you try it, the only ones that can claim any kind of orders to cut all contact are Jared, Embry, and whatever other wolves came about in the last two years. No one else is subject to Sam's fucking whims. 21 years I've run these trails, and while admittedly my younger years were spent being an unimaginable bastard, there isn't a single person I didn't help in every way I could for a decade. Do you have any idea what that seems like now? Expected repayment for not letting me die after my parents did. So excuse the shit out of me for the benefit of the doubt being one benefit I'm not willing to give."

When Quill went to open his mouth, Paul snapped his teeth, the clicking of his fangs silencing the old man and startling him enough to take a step back.

Because Paul wasn't finished airing his grievances yet. "Don't even try it. Their ignorance isn't their bliss. I don't want to hear shit about the secrecy of the pack. I don't want to hear shit about how they didn't know. I don't want to hear shit about dick. The secrecy, the lies, the intentional misleading is all bullshit to say the absolute least, and at most is the reason for all of this. Keeping them in the dark about us, or fuck, us in the dark about us led to all four of us losing damn near everything when we shifted for the first time, led to the mistrust in us by others, and led to someone else literally hating her own blood for years due to something that was completely and totally out of control with zero explanation allowed. You want to justify everything, Old Man. Then fucking justify any of that." Deciding to not let anyone off the hook, he then shifted his eyes to the other Elders of the tribe, his eyes narrowing dead on Billy, a growl in his voice when he spoke again. "I dare you."

Billy met his gaze head on, though unnerved by the glowing red of Paul's eyes, not intimidated by the show of bravado. Unlike most of the others present, he was confident nothing was going to happen. He understood Paul was pissed off, and had every right to be. Out of the whole fucked up situation, he was the one that suffered more than anyone else, lost more than anyone else.

And all because he tried to do the right thing.

When it came to Paul and Bella taking off to Egypt, no one could have foreseen the outcome, no one could have guessed what would happen, or how one of them would return. While baffled beyond measure Paul survived the ordeal at all, Jared was right in the fact that Bella still being human was testament to the fact he wasn't as dangerous as he and the other Elders were led to believe when Sam recounted the confrontation. Everyone wanted to lay the blame at Paul's feet, that being easier than looking in the mirror, but at the end of the day, Sons of Taha Aki put their imprint above all others, and no matter what Sam said to the contrary, had someone threatened him with Emily as he threatened Paul with Bella, Sam would have done exactly the same thing.

At the end of the day, all he did was attempt to repay a debt, and as a result lost everything, and those that should have been there for him turned their backs without giving him a second thought while doing so. No one questioned how he was, where he was, what happened to him. Until Embry shifted and everyone found out the legends of the wolves were true, they simply took the word that he left the tribe at face value, and even after the cat was let out of the bag, they still didn't really question his lack of returning. Maybe they thought the simple life was too simple for him, his aspirations bigger than the reservation once he got together with Bella since his time on the Rez had diminished in the months leading up to both of their disappearances.

Charlie never bought the elopement rumor, though, but, in the end, what they thought didn't matter. Both Paul and Bella were adults, at least in the eyes of the law, and if they didn't want to stay in the small town, there was nothing that said they had to. Either way, it did rub Billy the wrong way that no one seemed to give a shit what happened to the silver wolf but his imprint's father. Charlie went to his grave both condemning the young man to death while simultaneously praying to whatever God would listen he was in better than perfect health taking care of his daughter.

Locked in the glowing red of Paul's eyes in that moment, Billy watched the trials Paul faced over the last two years.

He listened as the growl in Paul's chest was completely cut off at the contact of Bella's hand on his arm.

He saw the red completely vanish from his eyes as he glanced down at her.

He saw a playful smirk toy at the corner of Paul's lips at the concern in Bella's eyes.

He watched as Paul set his hand over Bella's still on his arm, crossing his own to keep the skin contact as he dipped his head and whispered in her ear like they were the only two people there.

Billy had no idea how venom ended up in Paul's veins. He also had no idea how Paul survived getting that venom in his veins. But neither answer to those unanswerable questions mattered. All that mattered were three things. He was a father. He was a husband according to the ring on Bella's finger, or was soon to be. And, he was a protector of the highest caliber.

Elder Black knew more about vampires than the rest of the Elders, and he knew what he was watching wasn't a shifter with his imprint. It was a vampire with his mate, able to calm his stressed and upset female even while his own was clearly still through the roof.

A smile tugged at Billy's own lips as he watched his memories of the young man from two years ago morph before his eyes into the great man that stood fifteen feet from him.

And Paul did it all on his own.

That, more than anything, had Billy clearing his throat to once again catch the hybrid's attention, though he would be honest and admit to a slight fidget when Paul just cut his eyes to meet his, that red sheen again sliding over the once dark brown orbs and narrow slightly, a slight grunt sounding in his throat when Bella elbowed him in the ribs.

Paul wasn't ignorant to the fact he was being unfair to Billy, who hadn't really done anything to deserve the less than pleasant attitude, but damn it, he was still pissed off and to Paul's limited defense, he had interrupted his attempt to calm her ass down so there was a chance that he could chill out as well. What she failed to remember was, he keyed off of her, so if she was pissed off, upset, or even mildly inconvenienced, he was as well, and while he had a much better hold on his raging temper than he used to have, his control wasn't perfect, and she really needed to stop thinking it was.

Growling directly at his girl for the first time since they arrived at the Rez, because God damn did she have a bony elbow, Paul rolled his eyes at the responding noises from the present wolves who lacked the understanding he no longer yelped like a wolf at acute pain. Deciding they weren't even worth a side glare, he stood to his full height and looked at the one that wanted his attention. Though his voice held the annoyance of being interrupted, he wasn't as short with Billy as he had been with Old Quill. "Yes?"

Before Billy was able to say a word, Bella once again jammed her elbow into Paul's ribs, causing a much harsher growl to slip past his lip. Glaring down at his mate, Paul narrowed his eyes. "Do that again..." dipping his head, he lowered his voice as he whispered in Bella's ear. "I dare you."

Pulling back, Paul saw challenge enter Bella's eyes, and it came out in her voice. "Be. Nice."

The smirk that never failed to set his mate's blood on fire settled on Paul's lips as he leaned into her, the tip of his nose barely touching the tip of hers. "Make me, Mate."

Biting into her bottom lip as she got lost in fire in Paul's eyes, a smile split her lips as she chuckled in the back of her throat, turning away and breaking eye contact to get her heart to slow back down. "You're an asshole."

A chuckle in his own throat, Paul clicked the back of his tongue as he turned back to face Billy. "I know." Tightening his hand over hers on his arm, he locked his eyes on Billy's. "Do yourself a favor, and save it, Black. Everyone here preaches the same shit, and I'm pretty fucking sick of it." Moving his hand from Bella's, he used it to gesture around the bonfire, not surprised Billy didn't look away from him, but he knew the old man understood what it meant. "This shit is a show to an uninterested audience. I don't care anymore about this place, these people. Whatever it is you wanted to talk about is irrelevant to my life, a life, I will once again point out, no one here, including you, gave a shit about for the last two years. And before you go denying that, let me point out the obvious you've been overlooking. The phone call that got us here."

A very awkward and uncomfortable silence settled over the bonfire at that last statement, and Paul did what he did best.

Intentionally made it worse.

Refusing to allow Billy to break eye contact, Paul took a half step forward, gently maneuvering Bella behind his shoulder, because no one was about to like what he was about to say. "For two years you had a way to contact us, and you ignored it. For two years you had a way to check on us, and you ignored it. For two fucking years you had a connection to us, you wanted too long to fucking use it. Would that parasite have told you where to find us? Absofuckinglutly not, but if not him, someone would have told us you tried. Instead, you waited until it was too late for my mate to say goodbye to her father." A laugh bubbled from Paul's throat, a smile wide enough to show his fangs splitting his lips as he shook his head. "I can't pass as human anymore," locking his now fully red eyes on Billy's, "but she still is one, and you decided to take that away from her. You can't change that," cutting his eyes to Jared, "you can't fix that," returning his eyes to Billy, a growl slipped into his voice, "and I don't fucking want to."

Regarding the pissed off hybrid, Billy shifted his eyes to Bella, only to snap them back to Paul when he snapped his teeth, showing just how unwise it currently was to take his eyes off him. Shifting slightly in his chair, Billy cleared his throat. "Then why did you come?"

Jolting at the stupidity of the question, Paul blinked. "Seriously?" Gesturing at Bella with his free hand, he made the answer sound like the most obvious thing in the world. "She wanted to come. I certainly fucking didn't. I wanted to go home. She thought this was a good idea. I already knew it was a bad one, but she gets what she wants, no questions. She seems to think there is a singular redeeming bone in one of these skin sacks, yet so far, I haven't seen a single molecule of anything that even slightly resembles regret or remorse. The closest I've seen was Jared, but even he can't..." cutting his eyes to the aforementioned wolf, "look me in the eye."

Scoffing a snort when he returned his eyes to the Elder, Paul gave a slight shake of his head. "But you, and only for her, I'll give one chance of redemption if you can give me one fucking good reason to do so. And to be completely clear, the use of a dead man is off the table. Or, was I right and you are just about the most selfish son of a bitch to ever grace the Green Earth and honestly thought that extending the invite, us returning here, and seeing familiar faces would somehow erase everything, magically change something enough to make the last two years completely irrelevant?" Eyes hardening and fangs flashing in the firelight, Paul finally snarled in a low growl. "Not. fucking. Likely."

Holding up a hand to the wolves that thought it was a good idea to try and force Paul to calm down with force, Billy kept a leveled voice and look on his face, trying very hard not to come across as a direct challenge to the now very pissed off man before him. "So, Quill was right about your forgiveness only being reserved for the ladies and hostility is reserved just for men."

Once again Paul laughed, only this time it was anything but what his mate would consider him being nice, this time not being interrupted by a jab to the ribs. "And again, no. It's not my fault you stupid bastards can't see past your own noses and see that the 'ladies' didn't fucking do us wrong. My hostility, if that's what you choose to see, is reserved only for those that deserve it. You wolves are all the same, thinking you're protecting something when the last thing you ever do is that. My hostility is revered for those that called me pack, then turned their backs on me when I needed them the most. You fucking shifters don't deserve forgiveness, graciousness. You don't deserve to be dissolved of wrongdoing when what happened to me is as much on your shoulders as it is on mine. What you keep calling forgiveness isn't that." Pointing a finger to the two imprints present, he growled in his throat. "They don't need forgiveness, because they didn't do anything wrong. What you're calling forgiveness is literally nothing more than a refusal to lay blame at the feet of those that don't deserve it."

Then, to the shock of everyone present, he pointed to his former brothers. "I don't blame them for what happened in Egypt. How could I? They weren't there, and while certainly a point of contention, it was my own fucking fault I got in that fight with those cats that led to this. They..."

Blinking, Billy interrupted without meaning to. "Cats?"

While the question itself was innocent, the implication of it froze Paul's blood in his veins. He just stared at Billy for almost a full minute before he slowly turned his head to look at Sam and Jared, eyes narrowed and jaw clenched. "You... condemned me... had them, and didn't even give them the whole story?" A very dark growl rumbled the back of Paul's throat as he watched both wolves avert their eyes, teeth pulling away from his fangs as his eyes flashed to a matte black, not unlike that of a pissed off vampire. "Assholes."

Pulling his arm from Bella's grip, he grabbed the hem of his shirt, pulling it over his head. Throwing it away from him, he turned, presenting the entire congregation his back, showing off the scars that remained from Demetri carving into his back like a Thanksgiving turkey. And, while the muscle had since grown back, it was noticeably smaller than the other side.

Having long since gotten used to the reaction of his mutilated back, he ignored the noises of shock and simply looked at it over his shoulder. "I got bitten by a panther, and it wouldn't stop bleeding. So, in order to save my life, Demetri licked his palm, and sealed the punctures closed with venom to keep me from bleeding to death." Lifting his eyes and locking them on Billy's, "it was AFTER that, Jared joined in, so there was literally no reason for anyone not to know about that other than it being intentionally left out of the conversation." Lifting his pant leg, he then showed off the two crescent moon scars from when he was bitten in the leg while in Italy. "It wasn't until this happened I no longer felt any connection to anything anymore, and what finished turning me into what you see before you."

Turning back to face Billy head on, he crossed his arms. "Had it not been for what Demetri did, I wouldn't be standing here for you people to hate because that," pointing to his leg, "would have been the end." Recrossing his arms, "So... you still wanna sit there and talk forgiveness? Or, do you just wanna go ahead and give Bella what you lured us here with so we can go, since there is clearly nothing here for either of us anymore and any attempt to prove otherwise is only going to serve to further piss me off. My graciousness and tolerance for this bullshit has just officially run out."

Red eyes locked on brown, a charge sparking between the two generations of wolves, the lone hybrid ready to take on his former pack mates if he had to. The air charged between them, almost palpable with the irritation of one and the other not sure what to do in the face of the new information. No one had been told how the situation with Paul had come to be, and it had finally been revealed that the exile was based on less than half the information needed to make that call.

Yes, Paul had venom flowing through his veins. He had a vampire lurking beneath his skin, clearly always just below the surface, waiting for its release from its chains, but it had become perfectly clear, Paul had complete access to the keys to the beast's shackles.

A chime on the air did nothing to lighten the atmosphere, only adding to the building tension as Bella moved from Paul's side to answer her phone. The more space she put between them, the tighter Billy saw Paul's muscles coil, and from the corner of his eye, saw the other wolves respond in kind. The situation was about to come to its head, and as he watched Paul's head snap to look at Bella, her look of shock to the caller ID not registering with anyone else, Billy knew the pound of flesh Paul was clearly entitled to was about to be gained.

Paul's full attention on his mate, the unsettled feeling she was struck with at the sight of her phone, Paul didn't notice that Sam and Jared had both shifted, but his inner beast did, and in a maneuver that showed just how inhuman he now was, Paul jumped, kicking his legs up to his face, phasing himself midair, the flash of red that preceded him not fading until his paws were now on the ground, fangs bared and ready to defend himself to the death if necessary.

He hadn't even fucking done anything, and this was how they reacted to him? That was fine as far as he was concerned. He thought he was nice enough for long enough anyway.

Before Sam and Jared were able to get to their imprints, Paul was there, crouched between the wolves and his mate, his chest all but touching the ground, a low growl in his throat, daring either one of them to get even an inch closer. He would hate to do it, but he didn't a single fuck to give if he wiped every last soul present off the planet.

Eyes on the wolves, he ears were on Bella, both sides of the conversation as clear to him if he were on the phone himself. A snarl ripped from his throat as his head whipped around at the out cry of his name from his female at being told the stupid bastard that was supposed to be watching their cub couldn't find him.

Chin to the ground, he shot forward, aiming his muzzle between Bella's legs. Once her feet were to either side of his nose, he flicked his head back, throwing his mate over the top of his head onto his back and no sooner did he feel her grip his fur was he off like a bolt of lightning. His paws were already on the ground after leaping over the heads of those in his way before either of the other shifted wolves registered he moved at all.

Sam and Jared watched after the retreating form of the red and silver wolf for a moment before Jared looked at Sam. He could tell what the Alpha was about to do, and he wasn't going to allow him to do it to him again.

Before Sam could forbid him from doing so, Jared pivoted on point, and took off after Paul. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice in the same lifetime. He honestly had no idea Sam hadn't told the Elders about the cats, and to find that out like he did, knowing him losing his best friend was intentional, made the brown wolf sick to his stomach and in that moment, Jared lost all respect for Sam, both as his alpha and as a man.

He didn't know if he would be able to catch up to the much faster version of Paul, but he had no plans on giving up, or returning to the reservation, until his namesake was found and returned to his parents.