Chapter Four

When I was younger, Renee and Charlie used to tell Bella and I fairytales about wolves. Mostly they would just tell us a repeat of The Little Red Riding Hood to scare us into not going into the woods, and it worked. All the stories I've ever heard about wolves they were always the bad guys, they were either blowing houses down or eating grandmas and little girls. The first time I ever came across a wolf was when I was 18, I had left Penny with her father for the weekend while my friends and I went on a hiking trip. Of course none of us expected to run into a wolf while hiking, and it also didn't help that it was 3am and we had been drinking. Stupid, I know. The wolf we came across was black and it was eating a fox, it didn't notice us at first because it was too busy eating it's dinner. My eyes widened in fear when I saw it while my friends were trying not to giggle too much. They had said something about turning around, but when they turned around one of them stepped on a twig, causing the wolf to look up at us. He snarled and snapped it's teeth at us, my friends started running away from it while I was still frozen in place.

I remember it continued to growl at me and snap it's teeth in a clear warning for me to get out of there, but I couldn't move. I remember shaking in fear as it started to stalk toward me, and then it lunged at me. It had managed to scratch my cheek, my collarbone, and across my leg as it snapped it's teeth on my wrist. I remember screaming in pain and being so scared and just defenseless. I tried to pull myself free and I tried to shake it off, but the grip it had on my wrist just got tighter. I remember one of my friends, Emily, running back for me and when she saw me in trouble she had grabbed a giant branch and started beating the wolf with it until it let me go and took off. After that day I hadn't set foot in the woods again and I always told Penny to never go into the woods so she wouldn't get hurt. Ever since that day I've always been terrified of wolves, I still had the scars from where it scratched me and where it bit me on my wrist. Seeing those enormous wolves in Jake's backyard brought me back to that night and caused me to freeze and to faint.

When I came to I was laying on an unfamiliar couch in an unfamiliar house. I started to panic and my heart rate started to increase as I sat up with a jolt. I started to calm down when Bella grabbed my hand and starting telling me everything was okay. I drew in a shaky breath and closed my eye to calm down my heart rate. When I opened them again I saw Jake sitting next to Bella on the couch and several other boys standing around watching me. I started to fidget with everyone looking at me and I started to get uncomfortable. Jacob noticed this and told everyone to stop staring.

"Bella, Hazel, there are a few things I need to explain to you." The bigger guy, Sam, spoke up and started to stand up from the chair he was sitting in. I had a few questions I would like to have answered, the first being what the fuck. "Have either of you heard of the Quileute Legend?"

"Jacob told me about it about a year ago." Bella said while grabbing my hand and giving it a squeeze. When Sam looked at me all I could was shake my head, not trusting my voice.

"Okay, well, as the legend states, a group of young men have the ability to shapeshift into wolves for the sole purpose of protecting Quileute land from what we call the cold ones. The cold ones refer to vampire, like what the Cullens are. We had thought all the shapeshifters had died off, and many of us just believed it to be a scary story. But it is very much the truth. We are able to phase into wolves to protect the land and our loved ones. When the change begins it is very painful, we experience irritable, pain, high body temperatures, and sometimes even fatigue. Once we change at first, it is very hard to change back into a person but with the help of pack brothers, we are able to calm down and phase back. What happened back at Jacob's was an accident, neither of you were supposed to know that the legend was real. Only those in the pack, the cold ones, and our imprints are allowed to know about us. Hazel, when you slapped Embry it set him off into a rage which caused him to change. If you had been as close to him as you were before Paul tackled you, then the chances of you still being alive are very unlikely." He paused to give me time to soak in everything he had just told me. I felt my heart rate start to accelerate and I started to feel nauseas.

"I think I'm going throw up..." As soon as the words were out of my mouth, a bowl was thrust into my lap as I ejected that mornings breakfast. I felt a warm hand rubbing circles on my back and another set of hands holding my hair back for me. It took me another few minutes to finally shake the nauseas feeling. The bowl was taken away from me and I suddenly felt bad for ruining. I held my head between my knees as I continued to calm down. "I'll replace the bowl." I heard laughter around me and I groaned as I felt heat rise to my face. I almost died today, I was almost taken away from my little girl again by another wolf.

"There is still one thing I need to explain to you, Hazel." I looked up and saw Sam giving me a sympathetic look. I narrowed my eyes at him silently asking him what. "Imprinting, is a very rare thing that happens when one of us mind our mate, so to speak. When we find our imprint everything shifts and changes, and my sole purpose to protect our land also now includes that imprint. To us, our imprint is everything, and if we imprint and if its rejected the wolf could die. And I'm sorry to say that one of us have imprinted with you." My eyes widened at what he said.

"So, its like a soul-mate thing. And you're telling me, one of you," I scanned my eyes across the faces of the boys in the room. "Is all of a sudden in love with me?" I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. I felt myself getting light headed again and reminded myself to just keep breathing. Sam nodded his head yes. "Which one?"

"That would be Paul, he's the one that knocked her down and away from Embry so you wouldn't get hurt." Sam nodded his head in the direction next to me. When I turned to look at who it was, I refused to look him in the eye. Which lead me to my next question, and the one I found the most important.

"What the fuck."

~~~~~TOS~~~~

After the news of me having a soul-mate and discovering who said soul-mate was, I stormed out of the house and onto the front porch for some fresh air. I was feeling so many things at once, I felt angry, confused, upset, sick, but mostly angry. I mean, why the hell did this have to happen to me? I leaned over the railing of the porch and growled in frustration. I can't have someone be in love with me now, I was here for Bella and I had a three year old for Christ's sake. I turned and looked behind me when I heard the front door open. I sighed in relief when I saw it was just Bella.

"I would ask you how you feel, but I know you well enough to know." She wrapped her arm around my shoulder as I leaned my head on hers,

"How the hell is any of this fair? Don't I ever get a say in my life, at all? I honestly feel like the only thing I can really control is my hair, and we both know that's not even true." This caused Bella to laugh and brought a smile small to my lips. We were brought out of our stuper when we saw Charlie's car pull into the drive and it suddenly dawned on me that we were still at Jacob's house. Charlie waved hello to us and once he had Penny unbuckled from her carseat, she barreled up the front porch steps and jumped into my waiting arms.

I subconciously pulled her a little tight to me and burried my face in her hair and took in a deep breath. I came so close to losing her today, and that realization was enough to tell me that I needed to keep her away from Anthony at all costs.

"I missed you today, mama." She pulled away from me to look at my face and she gave me her famous bunny face.

"I missed you, too, baby." I did the bunny face back to her and bumped her nose with mine. "What are you doin' here, dad? I thought you were having dinner at Sue's?"

"I was, but then Billy called me to tell me you girls were here and that you fainted so I decided to head right over." As Charlie was explaining he came closer to Bella and I and kissed us both on our heads. "Also, Billy said he'd BBQ." I couldn't help but laugh at the sheepish grin on his face as his cheeks reddened. Of course wherever there was good food, Charlie would be there. I shook my head at him as he continued inside. Bella took Penny from my arms to say hi to her and immediately attacked her in tickles, causing Penny to scream out in laughter.

Penny laughing caused some of the boys- including Jake and Paul- came out to see what the noise was. When Penny saw them, her little hazel eyes widened and she reached for me. When I had her in my arms, she burried her face into my neck. She didn't like strangers, she knew who Jake was but she had no idea who the rest of them were, granted, I didn't know who any of them were either. I raised my eyes to try and look Paul in the eyes but I stopped short and just decided to stare at his nose. He had a nice body and he was tall, I could tell that much.

"I'd like you guys to meet some members of the pack. This here is Embry, that's Quil and this hot head is Paul." As Jake pointed to Embry and Quil they both said hello and gave a small wave. "Guys, I'd like you to meet my other family. This is Bella," as he was introducing us he moved to stand next to Bella and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "This is her sister Hazel, and that little munchkin is Penny or little P." Penny giggled at her nickname, she thought it was the funniest thing whenever Jake called her little P. I could feel eyes on me but I didn't dare look up. I didn't want anything to do with this imprint crap, by not looking directly at him maybe it'll just go away. After introductions were over we all filed back inside and took seats on the couches in the living room.

Embry and Quil opted for the floor in front of the coffee table while I sat on the end of the long couch with Penny in my lap while Jake and Bella sat on the loveseat. I could feel someone sit down next to me and I glanced breifly out of the corner of my eye and saw it was Paul. He wasn't looking at me and this gave me a chance to look over his features without looking in his eyes. He was cute, he had that more rugged bad boy kind of vibe. His hair was short short and it was dark. He had some freckles dust across his cheeks as well as a scar on his jaw. It wasn't noticeable unless you really looked at him. I saw his face start to color red as I continued to stare at him. I cocked a sly grin and turned back to the TV as he started to turn to face me. After another twenty minutes of watching some dumb sitcom show my phone began ringing from my pocket. I pulled it out and groaned at the name on the screen. I stood up and asked Bella if would watch Penny so I could answer my phone. After I handed Penny to her I slipped outside and answered my phone just as it was about to go to voicemail.

"What do you want Anthony?" I didn't hide the irritation in my voice. I hated talking to him, I felt like these past few days have really shown me just how selfish he really is.

"I called to check on Penny." I almost laughed at him.

"Oh, you're calling to check on her but when she was with you for two days you left her with a babysitter the whole time?" I said darkly, I couldn't almost physically feel him roll his eyes. He tried to explain to me his side of the story but I didn't want hear any of it. I hung up on him and shut my phone off. I sighed and slipped it back into my pocket and leaned on the railing.

"You okay?" At the sound of a voice I jumped slightly and turned around. I didn't know it was Paul until I looked into his eyes and then I felt the whole world shift on its axis. My knees felt weak and my heart skipped a beat.

"Well, shit."

~~~TOS~~~

R&R