His kiss wasn't the tentative softness she'd imagine would be her first. It wasn't a whispered loss of sweet innocence, nor was it overtly enjoyable. It was hard and rough, demanding and domineering. Her whole body was in complete shock, but as his hands gripped her hips, one sliding to the bare skin of her stomach, she felt something nameless and desperate rise within her.

Pressing her hands against his shirt, what started as an initial intent meant to push him away, suddenly became a source to pull him closer, and as his ferocity ebbed slightly she all but melted underneath him. Bella didn't know what was happening to her, but she knew without a doubt that she was a part of it. She felt herself returning his kiss, her body pushing back against the truck, not for support this time, but as a means to drive herself closer to him.

She wasn't sure how long she would have stood there betraying her sensibilities, but as a sharp set of teeth bit down hard on her lip, she was jolted back into awareness with a piercing influx of pain. Instantly she felt herself sober up from his intoxication. She knew her cheeks were flushed and she could hardly bring herself to chastise him when she had so obviously been a somewhat willing party to his actions, but she was still angry; at him, at herself, at everything. Feeling him pull away from her body, the loss of him unnerved her, the intensity of the emotion making her wonder just who she had become since waking up this morning.

Not willing to meet what she knew would be his cold unapologetic stare, she raised her fingers to her coppery lip, bringing them back to see a streak of pure crimson. Evidence of his cruelty brought frustrated tears to her eyes and though she was confused by everything that had just transpired between them, she knew crying now would be a terrible idea.

With her fingers about to reach up again, she felt him press down on her once more and automatically she closed her eyes, hiding from him in clear sight. Feeling his breath on her own, she stopped her lungs, the effort squeezing against her chest as she did so mid-breath.

Her heart began to race, pounding defiantly within her as she felt him all over her body, but it was the warm tingle as his tongue slid across her broken lip that almost sent her tumbling to the floor as her world all but collapsed around her with a burst of pure, unadulterated excitement.

He righted her with a firm hand to the small of her back and when she was secure with the responsibility of her own frame once again, he stepped marginally away.

Resting her body against the truck, she stared intently into his dark shirt, tracking the seams at his shoulders as she desperately tried to piece herself together again.

The last of the daylight spilled from the land as they simply stood in each other's company, and as darkness all but fell in moments; she lifted her hand to her eyes once more, the crimson proof of his crime turning a deep mauve under her scrutiny in the fading light.

"What're you doing, Paul?" Called a voice and Bella couldn't help herself as she focused her eyes to find the source. Trailing her gaze within the thick forest starting thirty feet or so behind where the truck was parked, she struggled to see any distinct forms within nature's obscurity.

Paul himself immediately responded to the familiar tones and as he walked away from Bella, leaving her propped up against the truck, he stilled at the edge of the tree line, waiting obediently.

An ominous feeling swept over Bella and though she wanted to turn and walk away, her whole body remained unresponsive, as though it needed an external directive in order to function again.

"Just having a bit of fun." Paul responded, not a hint of amusement on his face as three dark figures emerged from the abyss, two of them dwarfing what Bella was sure was a petite girl standing between them.

"Who's that?" One of the men asked and Bella felt her whole upper body shift forward as she worked to identify the shadows.

"It's Chief Swan's daughter. Isabella." Paul said, a wide smirk appearing on his face as though he'd done something particularly clever.

"And you're here with her because…?" The shadow persisted with his questions, and as Bella tried to figure out why he felt so familiar, she felt an icy shiver startle down her spine with Paul's answer; "Because for right now, she's mine."

With a light shrug of his shoulders, they all turned and though some buried instinct told her to retreat, her body had nowhere to go. The faceless forms began to step forward and as they approached, Paul morphed effortlessly into their ranks, forming a diamond of protection around the still unidentified girl.

As the shadows surrounding them dropped away, Bella wondered if she needed to pinch herself. Incased in the muscular protection of the intimidating men was a girl she had become aware of only recently, though it was a little strange not to see abject sadness or a trail of tears obscuring her flawless face.

"Leah Clearwater?" She asked quietly, hoping a female bond might be the source of her redemption in this strange moment, but the girl didn't respond. She simply looked up at one of her towering companion with eyes that held a silent deference.

Following her gaze, Bella wondered why he hadn't seemed so intimidating in his pictures. She wondered if the weak attributes of someone who could find themselves missing had tainted the way she read his picture in her mind. Sam Uley, the man who had essentially held her captive under her father's watchful glare for weeks now, wasn't anything of the helpless man she'd imagined him to be. Taller than Paul, if it was possible, and broader too, his watchful stare held a calculating intelligence that readily forged a thick knot in her throat.

Crossing her arms over her body, she pulled herself inward, trying to believe the soothing words in her mind that nothing could happen to her here, not in Billy Black's open front yard, a prominent and well known elder of the tribe.

Just thinking of Billy made her head whip around, her eyes methodically crossing every inch of the halcyon house, but the dark windows offered her no suggestion of hope.

A twig snapped somewhere close to her body and Bella darted her gaze back to the incoming group, finding them so much closer than they had been before.

It was clear now that the third of them was a man she didn't know. But from the dark strength in his eyes, the obtuse muscles he wore effortlessly and his intimidating presence, even alone, she would never be able to think of him as an individual. The three men were so similar, yet there was nothing in any one of them, bar a twist of physical features, that seemed remotely the same.

Seeing her focus, the stranger winked, his eyes glinting roguishly for her benefit and for just a moment, she thought maybe they were crossing paths by accident. Her eyes shifted to Paul with optimism and immediately his absorbed stare captivating her with his deep intensity. But what little confidence she'd found ebbed away, and as Sam stole her attention once again her errant thoughts disintegrating.

"Isabella Swan, I seem to hear your name a lot these days, little girl. I didn't think that was going to be a problem, but now it seems that you've taken that decision from my hands. I think perhaps though, you need to reassess your previous friendship with one of our own."

She didn't think it would be wise to correct him, especially as he clasped his hands behind his back, puffing out his chest further in a show of dominance. Nodding her head slowly, her only thought was how bad this was going to turn out for Jake or Embry, whichever he was referring to.

"Well, I'm happy to see that you agree. So how about we say, starting now, without an express invitation from myself or one of the Tribe's protectors, I'm not going to see you again, am I?" The question was out there, but she was fairly certain it was rhetorical. Looking over the four of them once again, she caught something that looked like pity in Leah's eyes and it was all she needed to see to know this was her cue to leave, whether her head was bubbling with questions or not.

Panic set in as her body finally stepped back into gear and without waiting to hear her fate if she disobeyed his directives, she turned quickly and escaped into the night. Eventually, after pounding feet and straining lungs, she found her way back to her truck. Taking a few necessary deep breaths to stop her hands from shaking, Bella knew as she drove away, her eyes glued to the inky road and nothing more, that they had let her go. Just as surely as she also knew something in her didn't want to return to this place, not unless it held the promise of kissing Paul again.

The whole way home, she tormented herself with memories of their kiss and the further she got from La Push, the less she found she could account for her actions. Turning off the engine as she sat in her father's driveway, she let out a little shudder of terror. Thrown haphazardly into the drive was Charlie's police cruiser. Never before had she believed that so much could be interpreted from something metallic and impassive, but she knew with absolute certainty that just inside that doorway, there was a whole heap of trouble waiting just for her.

"Isabella!" came a loud roar as she stepped through the door, her nerves almost detaching as she pressed herself back, recognizing she'd escaped one battle only to be caught in another.

"Where the hell have you been?" Charlie pounced into view, his eyes hard and dangerous as she tried to muster the strength to tell him the truth.

"I… well, I…. I was with Embry." Her voice was shaking from the exorbitant emotions she was trying to suppress, but this was simply one push too far. A single tear escaped, racing down her cheek in a cold desertion.

"Try again." Charlie said coldly, his fingers gripping down on the back of the couch, his knuckles turning white with tension.

"I was!" She protested petulantly, because this was actually the only truth she planned on telling him.

"Really, then why did I just speak with his Mom, who I had to call by the way, and she told me he's home with her right now and has been for quite a while?"

Feeling herself backed into a proverbial corner, Bella let out a little hiss of air between her teeth, knowing she wasn't going to get out of this without some sort of answer. "I was with him. I went to see him and then we both went to see Jake…" But he interrupted her before she could go on, as he yelled "Liar!" out across the living room.

"I called Billy too, eventually tracked him down at Harry's place, Jake's been with him all night and he didn't have a clue where you were."

Keeping her eyes diverted from the fire in his, she tried to carry on with shaking words. "…we both went to see him, I guess Embry didn't know he wasn't in, but then Embry's Mom showed up and took him away. I was waiting in Jake's garage and I guess I must have fallen asleep while I waited because when I woke up I was alone and it was dark and I came right home. I came back as soon as I could." Ending her lie with the truth, she chanced a look upward to see Charlie running a hand over his tired eyes, some of the wrathful flames extinguished. Bella knew deep down this was a symptom of his love, of the stress he was currently under, but it didn't stop her from acknowledging that she was also truly afraid of him right now.

"Just go to bed. If I say anything else right now, I know I'll regret it. Oh and Bella, if I find out you've been down there again without my permission, I'll send you to live with your Mom."

Pulling her exhausted body from the corner of the room, she slid past him and up the stairs, but by the time she was hidden in the dark safety of her bed hours later, she had to admit there were no words to justify her actions from the day. She had acted with purely selfish intentions and Charlie had every right to be angry with her. Throwing her clinging sheets from her restless body, she felt disgusted with herself. Not only that, but she had lied to him, omitted what she was now sure was an important truth when she'd kept her encounter with Paul and Sam to herself. Fighting her thoughts, she couldn't find a pure root to any one of her choices, something that worried her in and of itself.

Though she had been thoroughly scrubbed raw in the shower, she couldn't shake Paul from her skin. Even in the dark, wrapped up in a place that should have only invoked feelings of safety, she could feel his hands on her body, his fingers delving underneath her exterior and grabbing hold of a part of her that she hadn't even known existed.

The absolute worst thing, she decided, was that when she managed to push her guilt aside, she was actually feeling more disturbed about what she now saw as her ban from La Push. Both Sam and her father had all but named her persona non grata, something which yesterday, she somehow believed she might have taken in nothing more than a slightly aggrieved stride.

Tossing and turning all night, her dreams were wrapped up in a haze of muddy fantasies, tremors and nightmares, until in the coursing light she had nothing left to acknowledge. Her choices from the day before weren't simply going to go away, not because she so desperately wanted them to, but more importantly because without even knowing it, she had set something very dangerous in motion.

a/n: Firstly, once again a huge thanks to Twiticulate, my super beta extraordinaire... as always you rock hun! Secondly, a huge ridiculously effusive thanks to all you readers for being so positive about this story, I'm knitting you all your very own pair of wolf socks right this very moment!

The next chap will be with you on Wednesday... and it's going to feature a Cullen or two. x

For those of you who also follow What About Love? - I'm working on the epi right now, so it should be with you in a few days. I'm sorry for the delay, but I didn't want to just throw something together for the sake of it.

Oh and I keep meaning to do this, but I'm forgetful... I want to rec one of my absolute favourite wolf fics written by mel (dot) wolfgirl - (stupid ff and it's bizarre need to take out words - anyway, you know what to do with that dot there).If you haven't read it yet, get on over to her story The Imprinted Chronicles: Book One. She's just brought out Book Three and I just love how complex her pack is... and seriously her words deserve way more love than they get.