16.
Bella was sitting in her truck with Paul, they were driving towards the clearing. They had to park away from it, next to the forest and then they had to walk. Paul took her hand in his, and while they were walking she was touching the trees with her other hand to leave her scent.
"Does anyone know where she is?" She asked.
"The seer leech told us that Victoria is hunting in Seattle. She saw her coming back tomorrow to try her luck. After that we're in the dark because she can't see when shifters are involved." Paul told her.
"Please be careful, and come back to me." She whispered.
He stopped, and pulled her into his arms. "I'll always come back to you, my shipa. I can't promise you that I'll be careful because I'll be facing her, and I want the honour to kill her."
She held him close, she knew she couldn't ask him to be careful because it was in his nature as a wolf to attack, and be ruthless with vampires. "Then get her, and burn her to ashes."
They then went on walking until the clearing, she had with her a small bag of clothes that she was going to leave there. Paul took out a small knife and grimaced. "I really don't want to hurt you, but it's necessary."
Bella pulled up her hand, and let him nick her on her palm. She bled around the clearing, and then he put a small gauze to stop the bleeding, and they left from where they came from.
Paul drove them back to town, and they stopped at the diner where they sat to drink a milkshake. He was smiling at her. "Why are you smiling?" She asked.
"It's our first real date." He told her.
She laughed. "We've lived together, slept on a fur, and basically traveled back in time, and it's our first date. We're doing everything backward. But I don't mind it, I'm actually happy to have had that time only with you."
"Yeah, I guess we're not a conventional couple, considering that you dated a leech, and that I turn into a furry wolf." He added, still holding her close. "Tomorrow you'll meet the other imprinted girls, don't worry they are quite nice. Don't stare at Emily, part of her face is scarred because Sam phased too close to her. While Kim is quite timid, she won't talk that much."
"Do you like them? I mean if they weren't your brothers' imprint what would you say?" She asked because she was curious.
"Honestly? I think that Sam and Emily could have handled the situation with Leah differently. And as I said Emily could have chosen not to love him as a boyfriend but as a brother. On the other hand Kim seems nice and sweet, but her obsession with Jared since kindergarten is not what I would call healthy. I'm just glad they weren't my imprint. I get to have an opinionated, stubborn and tough girl, I'm lucky." He told her.
Bella huffed. "And to point out all my flaws is the way to tell me that you love me?l"
He kissed her head. "Yep, I love you regardless of your many shortcomings."
She turned in his arms, and she saw his amused eyes, he was just joking around. "You're lucky that I know your sense of humour, and that I love you regardless of your much more than many shortcomings."
He laughed. "See, we're made for each other. Who else would want us?"
She shook her head, and smiled softly. She liked Paul because he was honest and funny, and never took the stupid things seriously. Overall she was sure they were going to get along well.
At quarter to midnight Paul took her home. They bid each other goodnight, and Bella went up to her room. She fell asleep quickly, but she didn't sleep well.
In the morning Paul came to pick her up and drove her to Sam's house. When the truck stopped, Bella didn't want to get out. She turned to Paul, and threw herself in his arms. "Bella I don't want to leave you either, but I promise you that I'll take care of that bitch and you'll be safe."
She took a deep breath, and tried not to cry. Then she got away from him, and got out of the truck. Paul introduced her to the other girls, and then after a heated kiss he ran to the forest.
Bella turned back to look at Emily and Kim, they looked nervous and worried too. She noticed that Emily had some ingredients out in the kitchen, and she offered her help to prepare food for when their wolves came back. The morning went on very slowly, Bella would often look out of the window, but Embry and Rosalie weren't showing themselves probably because they didn't want the girls to get out of the house.
After two hours Bella saw Embry running towards the house with Rosalie in tow. He wore a big smile and Bella relaxed, she opened the door and asked. "What happened?"
Embry smiled back. "It's over, we got her. Paul gave the final blow and now she's just ashes."
Bella felt tears threatening to fall but she refused them, she wasn't going to shed any more tears for any vampires. She turned her eyes to Rosalie and whispered. "Thank you."
Rosalie nodded seriously. "You're welcome. Bella, I'm sorry that my family placed you in danger, now we've rectified our mistake. I wish you a happy human life."
"Please send my goodbyes to all the family, and I wish you happiness as well." She replied.
The blond vampire left soon after, and after a while she saw Paul, Sam and Jared coming out of the forest, and she ran towards Paul and jumped in his open arms locking her legs around his waist. The kiss that followed was intense, and definitely not to do out in public, but she didn't care and neither did Paul.
She moved away just to ask him. "Is it really over?"
He nodded, and without letting her out of his arms he turned to look at Sam. "I'm taking Bella back to my place. See you tomorrow."
Bella blushed, and placed her head in the hollow of his neck. She couldn't wait to know how the fight went, and most of all to finally spend some quality time with her Paul.
