PREVIOUSLY-
He was so close to me. I could feel his hot breath on my lips, and I couldn't help myself.
I closed the distance and pressed my lips against his. The feelings that came with my action were completely and utterly indescribable. In an instant, I replayed the visions I had when he imprinted on me, and I was entranced.
After a moment, he pulled away. After resting his forehead on mine for another moment, he pressed a soft kiss to it and pushed himself off to my side, sitting on the bed next to me.
"I could definitely get used to that. A lot of that." He whispered excitedly.
"Feel free to indulge whenever you want." I winked at him before he leaned over and lightly kissed me again.
"Oh I will." He replied, leaning back again.
After a few moments of sitting there, I felt the mood shift back to where it had been at Sam's.
"Why did you jump, Bella?" He asked me quietly.
I knew immediately what he was referring to. "I wasn't trying to hurt myself. I promise." I began with, making him relax a little before continuing. "I've been a bit… reckless lately. Adrenaline seeking, I guess you could call it. I think it was part of the, you know, the 'withdrawals' we were talking about, but when I did reckless things, I would see him. I would hear him telling me to stop. I felt like I was maybe going crazy. I saw you guys jumping off the highest cliff one day right after Embry phased. Jake told me it was a huge rush and I just thought—"
"You could've died." He replied with a shaky voice, looking away. "If Jake and Sam hadn't been in the area at the time… Paul, Embry, and I were still tracking the redhead but she jumped in the water near where you were. Other than the storm with the swell and rip currents, she could've been coming for you too."
I sighed. "Trust me, I know. Jake's already given me the third degree about it. I told you I wasn't in my right mind. Even just the thought of doing it now makes me cringe." I shivered at remembering the frigid waters.
"I know you weren't. Those leeches definitely did something to you. Just promise me no more recklessness, alright?" He whispered to me.
"I promise. I'm sure you and Paul wouldn't even let me if I tried." I responded to him with a small laugh.
"Oh we'd let you do whatever you wanted, we'd just go with you." He told me, matter of fact, causing me to look at him strangely. "Bella, neither of us are ever going to tell you what to do."
His words hit me like a brick as they created a feeling I wasn't used to any longer. I had a sense of freedom. Freedom of my own choices and I couldn't begin to explain how much that meant to me. It had been so long since I'd experienced that and I didn't even know it.
"Thank you." I whispered back to him as I leaned over to rest my head on his shoulders.
He just held me there for a little while before I felt his attention shift to something else.
"Yeah bro, we'll be out in a second." Jared said out of nowhere. I knew he was talking to someone I couldn't hear and I assumed it was Paul. He stood up and held out his hand for me to get up as well. "Paul's in the kitchen."
I held his hand as we walked into the kitchen where Paul was standing with half a chicken leg shoved in his mouth.
"Forks is clear. The leech went north into Canada and Charlie's still over at the Clearwater's. Sam went over to relieve Quil and keep an eye on the new pups." Paul told us after swallowing the food in his mouth.
"New pups?" I asked him curiously.
"Shit, I completely forgot about our new pack members." I heard Jared mumble beside me. I turned to face him in confusion. "Seth and Leah Clearwater both phased when they found out about Harry."
"Seth and Leah? How is that even possible? I thought Jake said it was only males in the genepool that phased?" I asked right away.
Paul decided to answer. "Fuck if we know. Took us all by surprise too."
"So what happens now?" I questioned.
"One of us will have to watch them at all times until after the funeral, then they'll be under house arrest for about two weeks until they learn to control themselves." Jared replied to me before grabbing one of the chicken wings from the plate Paul had pulled out of the refrigerator.
"It was your turn J, but looks like you get a free pass for the night. Sam says you get lunch watch tomorrow though." Paul told him.
I looked over at Jared who was making an 'oops' type of face.
"To be fair, I was a bit sidetracked." Jared told him while scratching the back of his head.
"And that is the only reason Sam gave you the night off. You got lucky, bro. Beta gets off the first night of having two new pack members? Un-fucking-believable. Sam even gave me your patrol tonight."
"What does that mean?" I asked Jared.
"As Beta, I'm supposed to help Sam with the new pack members." Jared explained to me in between bites of his chicken.
"Shirking your duties for me already?" I laughed as he walked up to me and put his hands on my waist.
"You're top priority now babe, even over the pack." He responded. I knew it was the truth because I could feel it in his emotions, but I needed to make sure the pack carried the same level of priority as me.
"You're the beta, Jared. The pack needs you just as much as I do." I said to him truthfully. I meant it too. I didn't want him to pay more attention to me and leave the pack hanging.
"Alright, I'll compromise. You get my full attention when I'm not patrolling or being beta and you get to hang out with this loser when I am." He leaned forward, still holding onto my waist, and pressed a chaste kiss to my lips.
"I think I can go for that." I whispered back to him, touching my lips to his once more.
"Damn, you two work fast." Paul mentioned as he leaned against the counter with his arms crossed, looking at us with a smirk.
Jared and I looked back over at him and Jared responded. "Dude, I've got my whole future right here. Why wait?"
I smiled at that. He was right. The future I'd seen in the visions I had when he imprinted were now the most precious thing to me. It's what I wanted to happen more than anything.
"I call best man." Paul laughed as Jared raised his eyebrows looking back at me.
"You can't be best man if you're my man of honor." I replied with a wink. It was definitely the smoothest comeback I'd made in a long time.
"Anything you want, B." Paul responded with a smirk. I was beginning to think the whole best friend thing with Paul would come much easier than I'd expected when the imprint happened.
"Should we go over to the Clearwater's and see if they need anything?" I asked them both after a few minutes.
"Wouldn't hurt. We can just walk over there from here, it's only two streets away." Jared replied. "You coming too?" He asked Paul.
"Might as well, got nothing better to do."
"Walk? But it's dark out…" I questioned and they both chuckled.
"Babe, we're wolves, we can see just fine. I promise I won't let you trip over anything." Jared replied. I should've remembered that, but my brain chose a great time to stop working.
"Shouldn't you guys maybe put some shirts on? Not that I'm complaining, but my dad is there…" I mentioned to them. They looked back and forth between each other and nodded.
"That's probably a good idea." Jared muttered before walking back to his room. He came back with two shirts and threw one to Paul before pulling his on.
We all left the house and began walking down the dark street while Jared held my hand to lead the way.
"I guess I should probably introduce you to my dad as my boyfriend, but what backstory are we going to use?" I asked Jared as we walked.
"I was thinking we could tell him we've been dating for a while and just wanted to keep things to ourselves maybe? I mean, it's going to look like we've been together for longer than just today no matter what. The whole pack will vouch." He responded.
"I think that sounds perfect." I told him as I smiled up at him.
We made it to the Clearwater's and I could see Charlie's cruiser sitting out front.
Jared and Paul didn't even knock before walking inside. Jared took my hand and held it as we walked toward where the voices were coming from.
Charlie was standing in the kitchen talking to Sue Clearwater. He looked over at me as we walked in and saw where my hand was immediately.
"Bells." Charlie said, acknowledging I was there. I could see the sadness in his eyes, so I let go of Jared's hand and leaned forward to hug him.
I pulled away and looked over at Sue who was talking to Paul before she turned her attention in my direction. "I'm so sorry for your loss, Sue. Is there anything I can help with?"
"Thank you, Bella. You don't need to do anything, honey. I think we have everything covered. It was so nice of you to come by though." She said to me with a kind smile.
I looked back at Charlie and he motioned for me and Jared to follow him out the back door. I worried about what he was going to say but Jared grabbed my hand again, reassuring me that it would be okay no matter what.
A/N- Uh oh! What's Charlie going to say?