Sam's eyes snapped open wide and alert, his hand seeking his imprint as his heart thumped uncomfortably in his chest and his wolf paced anxiously within. With a finesse only a werewolf could pull off, he had rolled towards the heat signature of Leah while preparing to launch from the bed as soon as he knew what was wrong.

"Sam?" Leah called out, her voice not the least bit quiet or fearful. "Are you awake?"

Motherfuc…

Slumping back into the mattress, Sam allowed himself to relax. He should have known his girl was fine and brooding at three o'clock in the morning. Hands still seeking the comfort of her, Sam groped for some flesh, finally mumbling out, "Yeah, Lee-Lee, I am. What's wrong?"

Huffing loudly, Leah stroked his head that had suddenly become burrowed just beneath her breast. "I can't sleep and I think we should talk about it."

Of all the…did she really need to talk now when he had to be up in a few hours for work?

Keeping his eyes closed but forcing himself awake, Sam tried to accommodate his mate. "Go ahead, sweetie; I'm listening."

Oh, a nipple! Fingers having finally found another acceptable goal, Sam inched closer up his imprint's body, allowing his mouth to latch on the perfect piece of tautness.

"Well, it's about Paul and hi…his imprint." Sucking in a delightful sound, Leah tried to concentrate on something other than the pleasure Sam's mouth was creating. "Do you…mmm...do you think she's okay? We never did take anything over for her to…to wh…wear." Almost panting now, Leah arched slightly as Sam's hand began to caress her other neglected breast.

"I'm sure it's fine, Lee," Sam continued to mumble around his mouthful of luscious tit, his body falling out of its natural sleeping rhythm and quickly jumping into a different pattern.

Oh god, what the hell had she been thinking.

Closing her eyes in bliss, they just as suddenly reopened as the image of an ill and mistreated woman laying helplessly on Paul's couch filled her head.

"Sam, how can any of that be fine?" Leah asked, fighting against the quickly building ardor only Sam had ever been able to deliver. "Did you see her? That poor thing has no one to help her; hell even if she did she's small. Paul could accidently snap her in half!"

Sam lifted his head by centimeters to answer Leah, making sure his warm breath would blow over her moistened nipple.

"Paul won't hurt her, Leah; you know that. She's his imprint and the wolf would sooner rip off its own tail than allow anyone to harm her including its host," Sam said, dropping back down to engulf her. If he was awake, he might as well make the most of it for both of them.

Shoving his head away from her boob, a loud pop issuing as the suction from Sam's mouth broke its contact, Leah sat up, huffing in anger. "Sam, I'm not talking about the damn wolf thing. I love Paul like a brother, but he is an asshole; plain and simple. I don't think he knows what he's doing."

Groaning and rolling over onto his back, Sam stared blankly at the ceiling. No nookie tonight, damn it. "Leah, he's fine. I wouldn't have left him alone with the girl if I thought he couldn't handle it. Jacob had patrol tonight and he would've come bouncing over here if anything had gone wrong."

"Patrol ended two hours ago," Leah exclaimed in a voice that clearly said Sam was incapable of telling time. "In two hours, plenty could have happened and Paul wouldn't know what he was supposed to do if it bit him in the ass."

Leah had been thinking about this ever since they left fucknut Paul's house. Her mom might have trusted him to call in an emergency, but Leah didn't. Paul was the type of person to casually build a fire pit if his house burst into flames rather than bothering to ask anyone for help. That poor girl could be screaming in agony and Paul would probably place a pillow over her head to douse the sound while he Googled 'How to make a person stop screaming'. Pride was definitely his sin to call; Leah could almost guarantee it was tattooed on his ass somewhere.

Sam had no hope of winning this argument. Hell he couldn't even foreplay his way out of it which meant he had to talk his imprint through her concerns; preferably quickly.

"The girl was asleep, Le; I doubt she's woken up and if she has, Paul will know what to do. He promised your mom that he'd call her if anything was medically wrong. What more do you want me to do?" Sam asked, turning his head to stare at his imprint.

God, she looked beautiful in the dark; a princess warrior if there ever was one. And feisty. Maybe there was still hope for some nookie…

"Call him," Leah demanded petulantly, aware of Sam's ogling. Casually she brought the tip of her index finger up to her mouth to nibble on promisingly.

Neither the man nor the wolf inside was aware of anything, but her lips and finger.

"What?" Sam finally asked, mentally cataloguing all of the delicious names he'd like to be calling his girl, starting with sugar lips and where he'd like to feel them.

Pulling her hand away sharply from her mouth, it smacked loudly against the mattress between them. "Call him and make sure everything is okay with the girl," she demanded.

"Leeaah," Oh, shit! Was he begging? Sam tried to stop thinking about naughty body parts. "I can't call him in the middle of the night for a friendly chat. Honey, we both have to work tomorrow. Just let it go, let me help you relax and we'll call him first thing in the morning, okay?"

It sure as snot wasn't okay, but Leah was all woman and knew how to extract what she wanted out of her man.

"Sammy" Leah cooed, trailing her hand down his chest to cup his balls, "if you can make the time at three o'clock in the morning to give me sex…" squeezing gently, she moved to pump his hardened shaft, smirking when her bad boy moaned appreciatively, "…then you can certainly make the time to call Paul for two minutes and make sure his ass isn't in over his head. Please?" She whispered, rolling on her side to suggestively rub against his thigh.

"Fuck!" Sam muttered, his leg flexing to accommodate his imprint's movement.

With his left arm holding Leah captive to his side, he stretched his right hand to the nightstand, banging against the lamp and alarm clock as he blindly searched for phone while his imprint continued to tease him.

"Two minutes to talk and no more," Sam grunted, dialing Paul's number while his imprint promised to make it worth his while.

The small chirp of a phone caused Bella to awaken, her eyes wide and staring at the ceiling above her as she struggled to understand where she was. None of the men she had lured to their dooms had ever been financially stable or even owned a house; at least most of them hadn't.

She didn't hear him, but she saw the man's shadow pass by her as he went to retrieve the phone.

Sleeping in the Underground of Seattle, there were always loud noises, bangs and cracks none of which ever aroused Bella from her sleep. She assumed that since she had fallen asleep in such a quiet environment that the noise, even slight as it was, had seemed out of place and disturbed her.

The man, Paul he had said he was called as Bella began to remember from earlier, answered the phone, talking quietly to someone he sounded irritated with. Bella saw his shadow pass by her again as he returned to a room in the back of the house. She waited a few minutes before getting up off of the couch, silently creeping towards the back of the house to see what this Paul man was talking about. He wasn't a monster and wouldn't be able to hear her if she stood outside of his door to eavesdrop. Bella really hoped it wasn't the cops on the phone.

"…Sam," Bella heard the Paul man's voice say, "I don't care what your imprint thinks, it's three a.m. and I was asleep. What the hell is so important?..."

Bella wasn't sure if she liked the idea of this Paul talking to another man in the middle of the night; that was probably a bad thing if he had friends like that.

"…Yeah, she woke up after you guys split…no...no…..NO, I'm not fucking kidding. She didn't say one damn word to me; I thought she might have been deaf, but she responded when I snapped my fingers…"

Of course Bella hadn't talked to this Paul man! Did he think she'd give away her identity so easily? She had no idea why he thought she was deaf; it was common knowledge that she was not to speak. It had been so long that Bella had talked, she wasn't even sure if she remembered how to talk unless she was being tortured and then answers were a must!

"…I tried that…that too. What do you want me to do? I asked and she either couldn't or wouldn't answer! I'm not about to terrorize her to get an answer that right now doesn't seem very fucking important. She's hurt, has no place to go and I'm going to keep her…"

Keep her? Oh…oh, no. This was not good, not good at all. Only the monsters could keep Bella and they wouldn't give her up just because she had been caught stealing when she was being punished. The fact that she had been caught by her target—a target she had not been told to bring—would only further enrage the monsters. This was really bad.

"…Fuck off, Uley. I didn't mean it like that and you know it. I offered her the phone to call anyone she wanted to and she didn't move…"

The Paul man let out a growl, the sound eerily close to sounding inhuman and much like the monsters Bella was familiar with. She took a small step away from his door, worried that she would be caught and something bad could happen to her. When he spoke again, his voice sounded smoother and more collected.

"…I guess until she somehow communicates it, or I can guess correctly, I'll call her my urchin….you can tell Leah to shove it up her ass…No, that's not a threat against your girl! In fact, do us both a favor and shove it up her ass for her…"

Shrugging to herself, Bella didn't really care what the Paul man called her; at least it wasn't a bad word like a few of the other men had referred to her as. The monsters called her 'pet' but when they said it, Bella felt scared. When this man called her urchin, it almost sounded…pleasant? Names didn't mean much to her at this point.

"…alright…yeah…I got it, Sam! Jesus, drop the shit already. I'm going to be even more pissed than I already am if your Mother Hen-ing causes me to wake up the urchin!...Tomorrow, I got it. I'll call you then."

Bella heard the phone snap shut and she backed away from the partially closed door, unaware that Paul knew she was there and awake. Back on the couch, she huddled again, uncomfortable to be sleeping in an open space even if it was really soft. When she could hear an occasional soft snore from the other room, she moved from the couch, slowly sliding down the side until she was crouching on the floor with the blanket that had been draped over her, balled up under her arm.

Scurrying over to the closest window, Bella looked up, eyeing the frame. She couldn't tell if it had any type of alarm attached to it, but it was far from your average looking flip a lock and push up type. Dropping the blanket, she kneeled up; arms above her head to trail up the window. There wasn't any type of switch to be found and she spent several minutes tugging and pulling at it to no avail. Running her hands over the inside of the frame, she felt funny indentations… maybe some type of key hole?

Trying not to cry, Bella pressed her forehead against the window pane, staring out into the night. She couldn't understand why this man who she had tried to rob had taken her. She hadn't made any of her usual advances to make it known that she was interested in pleasuring him. She knew, of course, that some guys didn't care and tried to take whatever they wanted. Her clothes weren't ripped, nor were any missing, failing to immediately notice that her shoes were gone and that she had new socks on. Plus…the Paul man had covered her up to sleep on his couch. No, Bella thought some more, he didn't look like he was that type of guy, although she knew she could probably tempt him if need be.

Gently she tapped her head against the cold pane of glass in frustration. She just wanted to leave and go back to her cubby hole in the Underground. Aside from the monsters, she was generally left alone and over the years she had collected some nice things.

Her hole was lined with a mattress; a high-end belonging for the squatters. It had taken her almost two weeks to drag it back from the dumpster it had been leaning against. It may have been thread bare, stained and possessed a few holes, allowing some of the foam to stick out, but it beat sleeping on the concrete.

Pillows had been easy enough to configure. With the thousands of recycle barrels located in the city, Bella had managed to gather a large assortment of plastic bags in varying sizes and colors. Choosing the best ones as 'cases', she filled them with other bags until the case formed a pillow like structure.

The thing she was most proud of however was her Swiss Army knife…well had been most proud of it. The day of her meeting with the monsters, she had been trying to open a can she had found in a dumpster behind the supermarket. There wasn't any label on it, not that it mattered to her; food was food.

She should've waited until she was back in her cubby before attempting to eat, but it had been a hard year for the scavengers. Excited to have found anything, Bella had sat behind the dumpster, pulling out her knife to open the can of nourishment. She wasn't very good with the tool, constantly slipping and cutting her hands accidentally. Still she had just managed to open the can when a bigger man had come to inspect the trash and found her with the prized can.

Darn her hunger. If she had just dropped it and ran, not only would the monsters not have been angry at her, but she still would have had her knife and not an ugly gash across her stomach from the scuffle. That large meanie had taken both and then stabbed her when she bit him in anger. He had been really mean, though, yanking her find from her fingers and then kicking her when she tried to grab it back. Out of pain and desperation she had bitten his leg, earning the nasty cut.

Sighing over her bad luck, Bella thought about the one other possession that she held dear. It wasn't useful or even practical for a homeless person to possess, but it had been a gift from a long time ago and the only reminder she had of her family: a small white teddy bear she had named Moonbeam. He was dirty, missing an eye and probably couldn't be considered a real teddy bear since it was in the figure of a polar bear and not one of those fancy ones she sometimes saw in shop windows; however, Bella loved that stuffed animal. He wasn't helpful to her other than being a friendly face she could pretend to talk to, but Bella really hoped Moonbeam would be waiting for her safely when she returned to her cubby.

Having never communicated for very long with any other homeless people—the monsters got easily angered when Bella tried —there was no way she could've know that her well-protected hideaway in the underground was adequately patrolled by the monsters she unwillingly worked for. In fact, they kept several such transients on staff, as it were.

Trying to forget about her past home and whether or not the monsters would destroy her things simply because she hadn't shown up, Bella focused back on her surroundings. There weren't many lights outside. Straining and squinting, Bella could barely see anything out there with the cloudy sky and rain.

Studying the landscape more carefully, she also realized that if there weren't any lights, there also weren't any neighbors. Not always a good thing since it meant no one could hear her yell—not like she would anyways— but if she were to break a window and then climb through, her location wouldn't be given away by an unknown motion light. Plenty of times she had had to ditch certain alleys when attempting to dig through the trash as an unexpected light would beam brightly when she got too close.

Feeling the windows again, Bella realized that she still had no way of knowing if this man had an alarm system of sorts. If that was the case, the high pitched sound would probably have him running from the room faster than the sound of breaking glass and it would most definitely bring the cops.

Don't talk, avoid policemen at all costs and always stay hidden unless performing a job.

Those were the rules the monsters enforced as a litany each time she was to appear before them.

Frowning, she made her way to the front door. Through the window she had noticed there were a lot of trees; closely growing spruce, fir and pine trees with a lot of thick bushes throughout. Bella figured even if there was an alarm, she could be out the door and into the darkness before the guy could find her. Her clothes weren't brightly colored and she herself was small, making an escape seem easy. That man, Paul, might try to come after her, but it was raining, nighttime and he was kind of big. There was no way he could slide through the forest quietly and that would give Bella the opportunity she needed to get away.

She stopped directly in front of the door, listening to see if that Paul was still sleeping. There weren't any noises and Bella could see that no lights had been turned on other than the little one dimly glowing near the couch. If he had woken up, surely he would've turned on a light to find her quickly already.

No, she knew he was still asleep and now was her chance to leave before he did something to her, like try to force her into one of those shelters or alert the police of her whereabouts. She had never been caught, but heard stories on occasion while walking through the city of people who had supposedly committed the perfect crime and then later got caught.

It was really dark here in the entryway, where the flooring had turned from wood to some type of tile. Tentatively she reached out to search for the main lock and to also check for a chain type. She had seen plenty of those in some of the motel rooms she was forced to visit, but they were the easy kind to undo. As her hand found the doorknob, she slowly ran it upwards, looking for the lock. By the time her hand was stretched far above her head, Bella realized there was no lock.

Huffing over the guy's stupidity and her dumb luck at being brought to a house with no locks, she grabbed the handle, using her thumb to push on the vertical release and pulled gently.

Nothing happened.

Bringing up her other hand, she tried again, pulling with more strength and expecting it to give way. When the door still didn't move, Bella scowled. Had she missed something? Dropping to her knees, she felt along the seal, hoping to find a jam of some sort that was preventing her from opening the stupid door!

The tile was exceptionally cool as she traced her fingers along the seam, hoping to find whatever contraption was keeping her prisoner. However, the polished feel of the door gave no indication that there was an object blocking it.

Back on her feet, Bella tried again, this time pushing instead of pulling, thinking maybe the door was backwards. Her thumb slipped a few times as her anxiety grew, making a small clicking sound. Desperately she wanted to kick at this thing and make it open for her. The minutes ticked by and Bella soon tired, realizing that in the dark, there was no way she could figure out how to leave. Tomorrow when it was daytime, Bella decided she would casually look to see what held it shut. As long as that Paul left her alone, she could wait another day to escape.

Creeping her way back to the couch with her blanket in hand—a new luxury she could add to her collection once she returned home—Bella froze in fear. What if the monsters came to find her? They had done so before, easily, when one of her would-be presents had decided that he would cash in on Bella's favors, but at a later date when his friends could enjoy themselves, too.

It had only happened once and Bella would never forget it. For hours, she had been handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded in a basement, silently crying and trembling violently; to the point she was worried her wrists would snap. Feeling slowly drained away from her numbed and confined hands, her tears soaking the cloth wrapped around her face. When she could hear the noise from the rooms above become crowded with people, she had nearly fainted. She had only had sex a few times and while there wasn't anything grand about it, her abductor had lead a large party of people down to her, where they rudely commented on how many times they could have their way and with more than one person using her.

She hadn't been released from her confines when the groping started, alcohol tainted breath exhaled near her nose with a voice snidely saying how small she was and if that meant fucking her would feel like taking a virgin to them. Bella had almost peed herself when her jeans were tugged off of her in one swoop, missing the noises coming from upstairs.

"Go see who that is?" A rough voice yelled out close to her ear. At that point Bella didn't care who it was and by the time she realized it was somewhat in her favor as to who had arrived, she was almost hysterical.

"Well, well, well," a familiar voice drawled out, the tone making Bella freeze instantly, tremors and all. "You guys wouldn't be happening to start a party with my girl here, now would you?"

"Who the fuck are you and why did Tony let you in? You want some, you better go find your own. This is my tail."

"I'm afraid…Tony was it? Is feeling a little drained at the moment."

The familiar voice, the one Bella had been answering to for a long time, was suddenly closer to her. "This really isn't any way to treat this young girl, gentlemen. She is a young lady, after all."

A cloth dropped over her waist and Bella felt her handcuffs fall away, a pair of ice cold hands rubbing delicately at them. Her gag wasn't removed, but her blindfold was and Bella blinked uncomfortably in the dim light, trying to focus on the monster.

"Sugar," the voice addressed her, trailing a finger down her cheek. "Did your present get anything for himself before his time is to end?"

Mutely, Bella had shaken her head, unsure if that would be a considered a penalty on her part. The monster, however, smiled viciously.

"Excellent! I don't think he deserves such a thing after the way he's treated you."

Bella hadn't even seen the monster move, hi s appearance of suddenly standing, slightly scary.

"Be good, Sugar, and watch how we treat those who would harm you when you are under our protection."

At once the monster was at the base of the stairs she could see, overtaking one of the five men in the room. One by one and in a matter of minutes, all five were killed; the last two screaming right along with a gagged Bella as the second monster joined them in the basement to feast upon the men.

When they were finally done, the bodies slumped haphazardly across the floor, Bella was still screaming into her gag. She had always figured the monsters hurt people, but had never wanted to know at what extent.

"Silence," the newcomer had hissed, causing Bella to choke a few times before she bit her tongue to stop any more noise. "You should be grateful we came to save you instead of letting these pigs fuck you until you bled from every orifice."

"Now, now, dear. No need to get so upset with our pet," the first one had cooed lovingly. "Sugar was just a bit surprised at how rough we handled them, weren't you, Sugar?"

Both creatures had stared her down, and Bella violently nodded her head in agreement. After that incident, Bella had decided to stick closer to her cubby to lure men. She made sure none of her presents had keys on them; or a cell phone to get away/ take her away or call for help/back-up.

The memories wouldn't leave Bella's head as she stared at the ceiling. Those monsters would come for her; she just knew it! And it would be nighttime; when most scary things came out to play. Pulling the blanket over her head, Bella trembled at the thought. She didn't want to be laying here out in the open when the demons showed up.

Her body moved before her mind could catch up. Slinking back off of the couch, Bella crawled along the floor with the blanket still covering her, occasionally lifting an edge to see which way she was headed. When her hands touched the cold surface of tile, she crawled towards a row of cabinets; carefully opening the double doored one under the sink, relieved to see that there wasn't much there. Pushing back a few of the cleaning supplies and box of trash bags, she crawled in, closing the door behind her.

Balled as tightly as she could make herself, Bella pulled the blanket over her, covering her head and using the trash bag box as a pillow. It wasn't the most comfortable, a lot less than the couch, but much safer and not the harshest place she had ever tried to sleep.

Inhaling the faint scent of bleach, Bella really hoped the monsters didn't show up. She was too tired to move and the image of red demon eyes fluttered in her head long after she finally succumbed to exhaustion.