Chapter Twenty-Seven

When Jared ran out of her room with only the one-word explanation that Paul was the reason for the howling, Kim decided it was all of her worst fears being realized. She knew what that hasty exit had to mean: Paul found out.

He knew that Kylie was his sister and he knew that Kim had also known but had kept it a secret just like her mom kept it a secret from his dad. She wasn't one-hundred-percent sure how he found out, but judging from how close-by the howling sounded, she thought it was a pretty safe bet that he'd overheard something from inside her house—potentially her own outburst that he would hate her when he found everything out. Actually, yeah, knowing her luck today that was exactly what he heard.

And judging from how quickly Jared jumped through that window to go find Paul, she was pretty sure she hadn't been far-off at all in her ongoing worries.

Her worry only grew as first one hour, then two, and then three hours passed without word from Jared. At first, when it became apparent that Jared wasn't coming right back, Kim finally made her way back to Kylie in their mom's room and sat with her sister for nearly another hour before Katie entered the room. After a hushed conversation with her mom—in which she learned that Mr. Lahote had left to go talk to Paul and they would both hopefully be coming back for dinner—Kim left the room so that Katie would talk to Kylie. Unfortunately, this meant Kim found herself back in her room without anything remotely resembling a distraction.

Which left her with endless time to worry and pace.

Paul hated her, there was no doubt.

Jared was probably seriously injured, since it had been hours and Paul had yet to charge into her house; Jared was likely fighting him off as a perceived threat to Kim.

Sam…well, knowing how seriously he took his role as Alpha, he'd probably joined in at some point, especially if he'd heard that howl. So that meant he either agreed with Paul and thus hated her now, or he agreed with Jared and was potentially grievously injured as well. And Sam being injured got her thinking about Emily's reaction…well that was one more person with a reason to hate her.

Kim's thoughts continuously circled in this tangled web of anxiety for well over an hour, even more so once she noticed that Jared had now been gone for over three hours. Basically, being inside of her own head was fast becoming a nightmare.

And then she was suddenly brought out of her thoughts by the sound of laughter outside. Hurrying over to her window—having been on the other side of the room due to her nervous pacing—Kim looked out to see Paul and Jared emerging from the woods. Both looked relatively unharmed, and clearly Paul was at least partially over his anger, judging by the way he gave another loud laugh and shoved Jared as they walked across Kim's backyard.

Kim shoved her window open as Jared quickly approached when he spotted her, leaving Paul several paces behind him.

"Hey," Jared said easily, leaning against Kim's ground-floor window frame and kissing her briefly in greeting. "Sorry that took so long—I had to chase that asshole to Canada," He jerked his thumb over his shoulder in Paul's direction, who rolled his eyes.

"No one made you follow me, asshole," Paul threw right back at him.

Oddly, this exchange helped to calm Kim's nerves. It was a good sign if they were acting with each other like they normally did. Maybe she'd over-exaggerated imagining how everything would turn out.

"Paul wants to talk to you," Jared continued to his girlfriend, steadfastly ignoring his pack brother. "Do you think you can come outside so we can go into the woods?"

Kim didn't miss the unspoken just in case.

We need to go into the woods just in case Paul loses his temper again and phases.

"No problem," Kim replied swiftly, promptly shutting the window and turning on her heel, only pausing to grab the sweatshirt she'd discarded earlier on her bed and tugging it on again before exiting her room.

"Mom, I'm going out with Jared! I'll be back in time for dinner!" Kim hollered, not bothering to wait for a reply before leaving the house through the back door. She barely took a step into the backyard before Jared was beside her. He held out his hand and she immediately threaded her fingers through his.

"We'll just go a little bit into the trees," Jared explained. "Paul went ahead to wait for us."

"How did he take the news?" Kim asked hesitantly. It was too late now, but that didn't mean she still wasn't entirely sure she was ready for this showdown.

"Badly," Jared said with a shrug, clearly not even bothering to sugar-coat anything. "But he got over it…mostly. I told him you could explain things to him better."

"Better than what?"

"Better than your boy toy's pathetic excuse of an explanation," Paul's voice sounded suddenly and Kim looked away from Jared to see that she recognized where they were now standing as the open area where she first witnessed Jared phase. That felt like so long ago now…

"Dude," Jared groaned. "Really?"

"Well you said 'lover-boy' was out," Paul replied with an unapologetic shrug.

"You're such an asshole," Jared retorted.

"Thank you," Paul said immediately and, even with today's ever-present nerves, Kim barely restrained an eye-roll at the boys' antics. "But maybe you should start thinking up some new insults."

"Moron," Jared muttered, but Kim knew there was absolutely no chance Paul didn't hear him, especially if the other boy's cocky grin was anything to go by. Then, at a normal volume, "So is this conversation going to happen, or what?"

Kim took on last, final deep, calming breath. This was it; the moment of truth was finally here.

"What, exactly, did Jared actually tell you?" Kim asked Paul.

Paul shrugged and a small part of Kim was glad to see he felt just as awkward about all of this as she did; at any rate, it was much better than being angry.

"I know what you told him earlier, basically," Paul replied. "We were both phased so he showed me your conversation."

Kim nodded slightly, thinking back a few hours to remember how much she'd actually said to Jared. Due to the fact that what she told him was actually the bare minimum, she quickly determined that she was going to have to explain to Paul basically everything that her mom told her more than a month ago. And after proceeding to do just that, Kim bit her lip anxiously and waited for Paul's reaction.

Paul, having been sitting on a moss-covered log to begin with, was now sitting with his elbows on his knees and head in his hands, fingers clutching his hair. After an extended moment of silence that Kim honestly thought was never going to end, Paul finally lifted his head with a resigned sigh.

Kim fought the frown that instinctively came to her face—this was too tame of a reaction for what she'd been expecting (i.e. dreading).

"My dad is such a man-whore," He finally announced. Well, Kim definitely didn't know how to respond to that (was there a correct response?). Luckily for her, Paul continued speaking almost immediately.

"It's all my mom's fault; at least I've always thought so," He explained. "They got divorced because she cheated on him and then decided she wanted to be with the other guy more; sleeping with anyone who offered has been his classy response ever since then. I never minded before, because he always made more than enough time for me. But that's just the thing: dad had me. Didn't your mom know that? Why would she think my dad wouldn't care about another kid when he had me?"

Kim sighed. Of all the things for Paul to question, it was the one thing she purposefully left out of her explanation. This wasn't something she liked to talk about—mostly because it was so difficult to even get her mom to talk about the subject.

But this was Paul (and Jared, too). Both boys had mentioned more than once that she was a part of their pack, and she knew the pack was like family. Truth be told, that was exactly why she had been so anxious about Paul finding out—there was nothing worse than breaking the trust of a family member. But no one in the pack had ever given her a legitimate reason not to trust them; Kim could trust them with this. And as she thought that, for the first time ever she actually found herself wanting to share what she privately thought of as her darkest secret.

"As far as I know, my mom knew about you," Kim began slowly. "But she based her decision off of past experiences…she went with what she expected."

"She expected my dad to be a complete dick and not want his own kid?" Paul questioned. And out of the corner of her eye, Kim saw Jared tense as Paul clenched his fists to contain the small tremors beginning to shake his arms.

"My dad didn't want me."

Kim knew the moment her words sank in for Paul, as the tremors abruptly ceased. There was a fragile silence in their small clearing after her announcement; a silence that was suddenly broken by Jared.

"What?" He demanded. Kim could tell that he was completely outraged on her behalf; he was sweet like that.

"He never wanted anything to do with me; he didn't want to be saddled with a kid," Kim explained, refusing to make eye contact with either boy out of embarrassment, as she fought and barely succeeded in keeping her voice even. Jared clearly saw through it, however, as he immediately grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, keeping it tightly in his grasp afterward. "I guess he left town not long after that. I've never met him and mom says she hasn't seen him since before I was born. She expected your dad to be a dick because mine was, Paul."

Paul frowned. "Now I kind of feel like a dick for making you bring that up."

"You are," Jared immediately reassured him, causing Kim to elbow him in the side for being rude. She didn't think it did any good though; actually, the only indication that he actually felt her physical abuse was the brief raised eyebrow he directed at her. Damn wolves.

"You're rude," She resorted to informing him shortly, instead. Then, turning back to Paul, "I'm sorry you had to find out about Kylie like that."

"It's not your fault," he waved her apologies away. Then he sighed. "I still can't believe I have a sister. Kylie is my sister…"

"She's a good kid," Kim told him earnestly. Her nerves quite possibly finally getting the best of her as she continued in a rambling fashion, "Crazy-energetic and an appetite like a pig, most of the time, but she's still really sweet. And of course we already know that she adores you. I can't imagine what it feels like finding out you have seven-year-old sister, but I really do think the two of you will be alright…once the shock wears off at least."

Paul scrubbed a hand over his face wearily. "Dad is going to be so awkward with her."

Kim's eyes widened as a sudden thought struck her. "Shit."

Paul looked over to her with a smirk. "Swearing Kim is totally my new favorite; way more amusing than Sassy Kim."

"Your dad, Paul," Kim said urgently, causing the smirk to vanish from his face and a serious expression to take it's place.

"What about him?"

"He left my house almost two hours ago to go talk to you about all of this," Kim told him. "And clearly he hasn't found you yet—"

"He might have asked Sam—actually he probably did," Paul was on his feet in a flash. "But Sam doesn't know what's going on. Shit. I need to go find him."

And without waiting for a response, Paul turned on his heel and ran off into the trees.

"Well that actually went a lot better than I expected," Jared said after a beat of silence.

Kim narrowed her eyes as she rounded on her boyfriend. "So you're saying your weak attempts to placate me as I completely freaked out weren't even sincere?"

"Well geez," Jared replied with a roll of his eyes. "I sound kind of like a jerk when you say it like that. Besides, I totally knew he wouldn't hate you as long as everything could be explained to him.

Kim merely shook her head at his explanation as she turned and began pulling Jared in the direction of her house. "You can't have it both ways; either you thought everything was going to be fine or you thought your friend was going to explode in a giant ball of fur and anger."

"It's two separate things," Jared argued back good-naturedly. "A bad reaction that would turn out alright in the end; it makes complete sense. You totally know I'm right. Admit it."

"Hmm…" Kim glanced at him and tapped her lips thoughtfully with her free hand. "Maybe I can concede to your point—"

"I knew it!" Jared exclaimed triumphantly.

"—on one condition," Kim continued over his shout.

"Just name it," Jared replied with a teasing grin, "Anything to get you to admit that I'm right."

Kim grinned back, and she could tell that Jared knew he'd maybe been a bit too hasty with his promise.

"I'm totally referring to you as my boy toy from now on."