Chapter Eight

Paul's POV

I think the hardest part of losing someone, isn't having to say goodbye, but rather learning to live without them. Always trying to fill the void, the emptiness that's left inside your heart when they go. Learning to go about my day without having Diana, was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. When I had to break things off with her, it was unbearable. I stayed in my room for a week straight, I ate very little and I don't even think I showered. My parents couldn't get me out of bed, and neither could Sam.

Jared was the one that eventually got me to snap out of my funk. He told me that I had a duty to protect our land, and with protecting our land I would also be protecting Diana. That helped ease the pain, but even four years later, the pain was still there and I don't think it would ever go away. Not entirely anyway. Jared was my best friend, and my brother. He was the one I always turned to whenever I was stuck and if I ever needed cheerig up. Him and Sam are the only ones in the pack that really know how much of a softy I am, and it would stay that way. No way in hell was I telling the other guys I had a soft spot.

We were all currently on our way to Jake's house to pick him up. Bella has been constantly calling and texting him and he was worried she would do something drastic, like show up to his house. The girl can't be that dense now could she? After thinking that, we all saw an ugly ass truck pull into Jake's driveway. There were two girls in the truck, and I assumed the driver was Bella with the look of anger on her face. I couldn't get a good look at the other girl because she was wearing a hat but she just looked exhausted.

Jake came out of the house and stormed over to Bella's open window and told her to leave. The girl next to Bella whipped her head to look over at us. She jumped out of the truck and started making her way over to us. Bella grabbed her arm and told her who we were and that just seemed to make this girl angier. She pulled her arm away from Bella and started walking even faster to us. As she was walking I was able to check her out. She had a nice body, it was athletic and it looked toned. She was wearing a flowy, white tank top that showed a little bit of the tan skin on her stomach. She had on an old jean jacket and ripped up jeans that were so tight they should be a sin. She also had on brown boots. It wasn't until she got in Sam's face did I get a look at her face, and I was gone.

I felt this instant pull to her and all I wanted to do was grab her and kiss her damn brains out. I had imprinted, and I was both pissed off and excited at the same time. The girl was hot, no doubt about it. Her eyes were hazel and she had freckles on her nose and her cheeks. But what really got my attention, was the three jagged scars on her right cheek. To the human eye, they just looked minor, barely visibile. But because I was a wolf, my eyesight was better than an average human and I could tell these were angry scars and they left sight indents into her skin. I was brought out of my ogling by the sound of skin smacking skin. This girl had slapped Embry! Damn she was fiesty. I noticed Em start to shake violently and I looked back at this girl. I didn't even think, I just acted. I grabbed her around the waste and knocked her a couple feet away and accidently landed on her to block her from Embry. The sound of skin and clothes tearing knocked me out of my stupor and I jumped up and phased to protect this strange girl. I noticed Jake had phased as well, and the three of us got into a fight and tumbled into the woods behind us.

We wrestled a couple hundred yards away from everyone else before Embry got away.

"Embry, calm down!" Jakes voiced screamed in my head and Embry growled again before pacing back and forth in front of us. "Hazel didn't mean it, she did it out of reaction. She's a big hot head and didn't think, she just acted."

So the girl's name is Hazel? That makese sense since her eyes are Hazel. I had to laugh a little at that. Jake and Embry both looked at me funny before Jake started growling at me.

"You imprinted on Hazel!? Bella's older sister?! The CHIEF'S daughter!? I could kill you!"

"Jake calm down! It's not like I can help it! You think I wanted this? I never even wanted to imprint! Much less on the vampire lover's sister! Hell, she's probably one too!" I regretted the words the second I thought them. Jake's ears flattened against his head before he and Embry phased back. They both quickly put on their shorts and stalked back to Jake's house. I sighed and ran a quick perimeter before returning to the house.

When I walked in, I saw Hazel was passed out on the couch, her head in Bella's lap with a wash rag on her forehead. Concern for her wellbeing suddenly flooded my senses and I dropped to the floor next to her and grabbed her hand. Bella raised her brow at me but didn't say anything. I asked what happened and Bella said she had froze when she saw us phase into wolves and then she just passed out. I suddenly felt guilty at being the cause of this girl fainting. It wasn't for another hour when she finally woke up.

Sam filled her and Bella in on everything, considering they saw us and I had imprinted. After Sam was done explaining about why we are what we are, Hazel threw up.

"There is still one thing I need to explain to you, Hazel. Imprinting is a very rare thing that happens when one of us find our mate, so to speak. When we find out imprint everything shifts and changes, and our 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 has imprinted with you." Her eyes widened to the size of suacers at what Sam told her.

"So, its like a soul-mate thing. And you're telling me, one of you is all of a sudden in love with me?" Sam nodded his head, and Hazel looked like she was about to faint again. She took in a deep breath before asking her next question. "Which one?"

Sam nodded in my direction and told her who I was and that I was the one that knocked her down. She looked over at me, but she wouldn't meet my eyes. If I wasn't already physically attracted to this girl, her next words definitely would have done it.

"What the fuck."

~~~TOS~~~

After we had told her everything, Hazel went outside on shaky legs to get some fresh air. A couple minutes after she left Bella followed her outside. All the guys turned to look at me with stupid grins on their faces. Hazel didn't even glance in my direction when she left the room.

"Dang, the police chief's daughter, Paul? You're just askin' for trouble now." Jared nudged my shoulder with his fist and laughed. I glared over at him before giving him a dead leg. "Damn, dude! I was just kidding! Fuck, why you always gotta be so violent? I don't like you anymore." I rolled my eyes. Jared was always so dramatic, and overly so. A few minutes later we heard laughter coming from outside, and it sounded like a child's. We all looked at each other confused except for Jake who had a giant grin on his face. Jake, Embry, Quil, and I all went outside to see what was going on.

When I stepped out I saw a little girl who looked no older than three in Bella's arms. The little girl immediately stopped laughing and reached for Hazel. I was so damn confused. The girl had dark curly hair and she had the same eyes as Hazel. As far as I knew, Charlie only had two daughters. The kid hid her face in Hazel's neck and I was jealous that she was able to do that. I'd kill to be able to burry my face in Hazel's neck. I noticed Hazel's eyes raking up my body and that caused me to grin. She didn't wouldn't look me in the eyes, she decided to settle on staring at my nose. Jake quickly made introductions since none of us had officially met yet. I found out the little girl's name was Penny, or little P but that still didn't explain where she came from.

After that we all went inside and took seats on the couches and the floor. Jake and Bella sat on the love seat while Embry and Quil sat on the floor. Jared and Sam were gone to do patrol. I sat next to Hazel and I felt her eyes on me. It wasn't for about twenty minutes when Hazel's phone went off and she asked Bella to hold Penny. She took her phone outside and I couldn't help but eavesdrop.

"What do you want, Anthony?" She angerly growled into the phone. My eyebrows knitted together. Who the fuck was Anthony? "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 rose to my feet and went outside to see what was going on. Whoever this Anthony guy was, I didn't like him. Her back was to me and she slid her phone into her back pocket and leaned on the railing. I reframed myself from checking out her ass, that was both the first and last thing I wanted to do.

"You okay?" At the sound of my voice, she jumped and turned around to face me and looked my directly in the eyes. As soon as her eyes locked with mine, I felt like I was in one of those cliche movie scenese. Where when you look into someone's eyes you're all of a sudden in love with them. But this wasn't some cliche movie, it was real life. And I felt like my body was on fire, my heart was beating widly and uneven. All I saw was her, as if everything and everyone else melted away and all there was, was her. Then she opened her mouth...

"Well, shit." And I swear to every God there is and ever was, that this girl was me in a female body.

~~~TOS~~~