Chapter Eighteen
NOTE – ALTERED TIMING AS RACHEL AND PAUL ARE MEANT TO MEET BEFORE JAKE COMES BACK. Thank you guys so much for all the reviews on the last chapter, I appreciate it hugely!
Disclaimer – I do not own Twilight but I do own Hetani.
14th August
"Damn you, Jacob Black!" I yelled, slamming down the house phone. Jacob had run away faster than I had time to register when an invitation for Bella's wedding had slapped him in the face. It had taken fifteen minutes of soothing from Embry to convince me not to march over to Bella's house and drag her to an open grave by her hair, which Paul had found endlessly amusing. Ever since then I had been calling the cell phone Jake had been provided with but it was never on and he never answered. Charlie had taken to putting up numerous 'missing' posters in every location of the Olympic Peninsula and I couldn't go anywhere without seeing my big brother's face plastered on various colours of paper with a plea for help underneath. It was now the day after Bella's wedding and I was STILL waiting for news.
"What'd that phone ever do to you?" I froze, my hand still clenched around the receiver, not willing to believe my ears. I gradually loosened my grip and turned around, seeing Jake's smirking face. His hair was cut badly and unevenly and he was wearing well worn jean cut-offs. He looked dead on his feet but I didn't care and threw my arms around his neck.
"I want you to know that, if it wasn't for Elisha, Embry, Paul and occasionally Jared, Bella would be dead and I would be in a mental institution," I snarled, pulling away quickly. He looked too tired to care and just shrugged apologetically before making his way to his room. I watched with worried eyes but let it go and glanced at the door, beaming upon seeing Paul. Since Jake had vanished, he had taken up the post of older brother and he did his job well.
"You're due at Emily's," he said in an orderly tone and I grinned mischievously.
"I'm due or Leah's being a pain?" I asked teasingly and he rolled his eyes, which I took for a yes. I shrugged, grabbed my bag and skipped out the door after him. His quick reflexes saved me from face-planting the ground after tripping over my feet and he kept twitching every time I so much as shuffled my feet for the rest of the walk. He was extremely protective, that was for sure. But I didn't care – it was great to have another older brother. The pack were my family and that was all I needed.
XXX
16th August
Two days after Jake's return, I skipped along First Beach without caring that I probably looked like a dork. Embry frequently told me I was adorable anyway, so I didn't mind. The day was a mellow one with light cloud cover and slightly warm temperatures and I celebrated by journeying to the beach. Of course, I'd had to promise not to climb any rocks to Embry, who was spending time with his mom. I knew he was finally telling her the big wolf secret and he felt very nervous about it, which I had assured him was fine.
"Paul," I greeted cheerfully, coming up next to him on the beach. He smirked down at me and ruffled my hair playfully. I giggled and ducked out of the way of his hand.
"Hey munchkin. What are you doing out here by yourself?" he asked and I rolled my eyes as I figured that he had probably been coerced into following me for my 'safety'. Not that it would take much convincing – he took his position of protection way too seriously.
"I don't need a babysitter. I'm ok by my . . ." I trailed off as my eyes landed on someone about ten feet from us. The young woman had shiny black hair that hung in perfectly styled curls to her waist, big brown eyes that were twinkling happily at me and a curvy figure that I'd always been envious of. Her angular nose was crinkled slightly as her cupid's bow lips turned up in a wide smile.
"Who the Hell is that, Hetani?" Paul demanded in a bored tone, sounding like he was two seconds from examining his fingernails.
"Rachel?" I asked and she grinned wider, opening her arms. "Rachy!" I screeched, throwing myself into my big sister's arms and hugging her fiercely.
"Hey, Tiny Tani," she replied, using her old nickname for me. She lifted me up easily and spun me around, making me laugh. When my feet finally met the sand again, I was bouncing with giddiness.
"They never said anything!" I exclaimed in annoyance and she snorted.
"Jake managed to keep a secret? Well, I'll be damned," she answered me and I gave a secretive smirk. Jake, although she didn't know it yet, was very good at keeping secrets. Oh great, I would have to keep the freaking secret too! "Who's this?" she asked, her eyes drifting to behind me and I turned to see Paul. His eyes left the sand and his bored expression slipped from his face as soon as his eyes met Rachel's. His jaw went slack and his eyes went round as they took in Rachel's form and I gaped between the pair in complete horror. I knew that look – I had seen it before. Holy Jesus, Paul had just imprinted on my big sister. An older woman!
"Wait 'til Jake hears about this," I muttered to myself as Paul stumbled forward a step. My astonishment turned to enjoyment as I eyed them – it was pure gold entertainment to watch the guy that had always scoffed at imprinting to have imprinted!
"I'm Rachel," my sister said, her natural charm shining through as she stuck out her hand towards Paul. He remained in a stunned, immobile trance for all of three seconds before I cleared my throat pointedly and he wrapped his hand around Rachel's.
"Paul," he said in a rough voice and cleared his throat, blushing slightly. Paul Lahote was BLUSHING! Oh, where was Jared when I needed him? I couldn't wait to tell him about the entire interaction. Rachel looked at me with a questioning gaze and I simply smirked, making her raise her eyebrows.
"I think you two should talk," I said before hugging my sister and looking at Paul. "Have fun!" I called over my shoulder as I walked away. I practically ran to Emily's house where I prayed at least one of the wolves were. If Embry and Paul were off, that meant that Jared and Jake were on patrol, so that left Sam. Without knocking, I clambered into the house and into the kitchen where Sam and Emily were kissing. My gasps for air caught their attention and the pair split apart.
"Hetani, what's wrong?" Emily asked worriedly as I leant against the doorframe, smirking in a way that was Paul's bad influence. I coughed slightly before pushing off the frame and plonking myself on a chair.
"Imprinting is rare, right?" I asked nonchalantly. Both Sam and Emily nodded then Emily frowned.
"Unless you're in this pack, then no," Emily replied jokingly and I snickered before righting myself. "Hetani, what are you hiding?" I couldn't help but giggle – it was too good!
"I was walking on the beach earlier today and found Paul. By the way," I looked pointedly at Sam, "I don't appreciate being followed. Anyhow, it didn't take long for someone to appear. That someone was my older sister, Rachel, whom I haven't seen in forever. A funny thing happened; can you guess what it was?" I asked, examining my fingernails. Although I was still shy, I was a lot more open around the pack and it was only Sam and Emily in the room anyway. Emily's jaw fell open much like Paul's had on the beach.
"Paul imprinted on your sister?" she gasped and I nodded gleefully.
"I don't have to keep a secret!" I was beyond joyful that I didn't have to conceal things from my sister and I was also very close to throwing my arms in the air with happiness. Besides, Rachel would have gotten it out of me eventually. Emily smiled gently at me whilst Sam looked completely gobsmacked.
"Paul Lahote imprinted on Rachel Black?" he clarified and I nodded quickly, seeing the truth settle into his brain.
"He WHAT!?" I jumped, toppling off my chair in the process. Blowing hair from my face, I looked up to see Jake and Jared, having evidently finished patrol. Hmm, I wondered if Paul would make it to patrol. Jared lifted me off the ground and back into my chair as Jake's eyes flitted around to each of the people in the room, finally landing on me and silently demanding an explanation.
"Rachel's back, thanks for telling me. They ran into each other on the beach and we can now bully Paul," I answered and Jared snorted, a look of cunning passing over his normally gentle features. "And Paul blushed," I added and watched as a look of pure glee took over Jared's expression. Paul was in for a ribbing, I realised.
"I'm going to kill him," Jake snarled and I rolled my eyes as Jared held my brother back.
"He'll be patrolling now, Jacob," Sam stated reasonably and I didn't bother pointing out that it was likely that Embry was by himself in the woods, as Paul was most probably with my sister. Ew.
"Sit, eat," I ordered, my words returning to simple terms and I gestured to the table full of food that Emily had freshly made. Jake growled but sat down nonetheless, delving into some scrambled eggs whilst I nibbled on some toast. I wondered what Rachel's reaction would be – especially seeing as I found out before she did, ha!
XXX
"I'm sorry, tell me again," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose in exhaustion. I had spent the majority of my afternoon at Emily's until Paul walked through the door about four hours after I'd left him with Rachel. He looked crestfallen and I had instantly ushered him out of the door towards the beach. We'd made it to the same log we'd sat on when he was angry about the Cullen entering Quileute land and I'd demanded an explanation. A shattered looking Paul looked back at me and although I couldn't directly understand what kind of pain he was in, I felt intense sympathy.
"I blurted out the wolf secret after we'd been talking for a few hours. It just came out and she kind of looked at me like I'd gone crazy. Then she started laughing and I kept a straight face so she'd know I was serious, even though I wanted to smile because her laugh is just-."
"Yeah, moving on," I interrupted uncomfortably. No wonder he didn't like imprinted wolves if they gushed like that.
"She finally got that I was serious and went kind of green. Then I made it worse by telling her about imprinting. That's when she started yelling and screaming and just being generally upset. I overwhelmed her." Of course, I could have made a sarcastic comment about stating the obvious but it didn't seem like the right time. So I sat down on the sand in front of him, much like he'd done in our other conversation and placed my hands on his knees.
"I'll talk to her." Those four words seemed to restore some kind of hope in Paul and he smiled at me thankfully. "Now go talk to Jake – he's going nuts over Bella," I ordered, standing up. Paul groaned but rose too and we parted, heading separate ways. My stubborn brother and my stubborn sister needed some serious talking to.
XXX
After I had sat beside a shaken looking Rachel and carefully explained everything that she asked for – the ins and outs of the shape shifting, the imprinting and the leeches – she just looked at me blankly. I found myself wondering if anything I had said had actually gone into her head. She was a really intelligent person – surely this wasn't too hard for her to grasp!
"I've never heard you speak so much at once," she finally said and my jaw popped open. That was it? After the explanations and the development and finding out that our brother was a freaking wolf, she was amazed that I spoke so much!? My sister was a whack job.
"You're nuts," I said truthfully and she shrugged it off, like it wasn't really that worrying. I was still kind of thrown off by her observation.
"So, Paul wasn't lying." It was more of a statement than a question but I heard her need for an answer. I shook my head easily, trying to remember that she wasn't as used to the wolf thing as I was.
"Nope, he was telling the complete truth." She seemed to get my silently conveyed message and smacked her hands to her knees determinedly.
"Right, I'm going to find him," she stated strongly and stood up. I noticed that her tone hid her anxiety as her hands shook. Sighing, I stood up too and hugged her.
"He'll be at the beach. Don't worry, Rachy, he'll be so happy to see you that it won't matter anymore," I assured her and she gave me a grateful squeeze before rushing out the door. Completely wiped, I collapsed on the couch and waited to see Embry. I needed a good, long cuddle with my boyfriend.
I always wanted to make sure Rachel was imprinted on because Hetani would love it so much. Anyhow, I love you all and I'll see you Monday morning (British time). Love Bianca :) x