A/N: Kudos to my wonderful beta, ShadowPast620. Wolfy hugs and kisses to all of my wonderful reviewers. :)
I humbly apologize in advance for the awkward chapter cut off. This scene was rather long and the second half is almost done with just a few minor touch ups required.
Paul stretched long and wide, his morning yawn silent as he reached his arms across the mattress in search of his future, fingers seeking…an urchin who wasn't there.
Another semi-wonderful morning of waking up alone, Paul thought as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. He fucking hated that his girl woke up before him and felt the need to sleep elsewhere but chalked it up to nervousness. Five out of the eight sleeping hours she was next to him and that mattered more than he could even begin to fucking understand.
Tilting his head in search of urchin sounds, he determined she was in her room probably still asleep considering the only thing he heard was soft, even breathing. Fucking perfect as far as Paul was concerned as this gave him the chance to jump in the shower and then go start breakfast for them.
Yeah so frozen waffles weren't exactly gourmet shit or anything, he observed fifteen minutes later in the kitchen, but he had plenty of strawberries and whipped cream to make it look damn impressive. Looking at the leaning tower of waffles with red and white stuff leaking everywhere, Paul figured it probably more closely resembled a condemned house for Strawberry Shortcake.
Fuck it! Demolition was just as much a part of construction as building was and Urchin wouldn't give a shit what it looked like as long as it tasted good. As he carried the dishes into the dining room Urchin looked up with a tentative smile.
"Here," Paul told her as he set the plate down in front of her before taking his own seat. Wisely keeping his own fucking mouth quiet, he waited until his girl finished and pushed her plate away before he slid it in front of himself to finish it off and let her know of the plans.
"So, look, Urchin, I know we didn't really talk about it and that's fucking fine, but Leah would really like it if we went over to her house this afternoon for a party."
The look of contentment Urchin had been wearing vanished quickly, replaced by one of extreme caution.
"Yeah, I know," Paul agreed softly, wishing he hadn't waited so long to ask her. "I mean, if you don't want to go, we won't. I swear. It's just that I figured…" trailing off, he was fucking lost.
What the fuck had he been thinking? That Urchin would smile happily at being stuck in a room full of people she didn't know? Fuck, Paul did know these people and he wasn't exactly tickled pussy pink at the idea of wasting a whole afternoon and evening with them!
Urchin had yet to move and Paul decided he'd better just man the fuck up and spit this shit out.
"Anyway, Leah said she really wanted to do this for you and it'd give you a chance to meet the rest of the girls. But if you'd rather not and just want to hang here, that's cool, too. I can just call Leah and tell her to shove it and it'll be done, okay?" Paul stressed, halfway standing to go grab his phone and do just that.
Urchin still had the wariness all over her face and mixed in with her scent, but it was the slow head shaking that caused Paul to sit back down in uncertainty. Damn, what a fucking douche he was! He hadn't asked her in a direct line and now he really wasn't fucking sure what she was hinting at.
"Urchin?" he tried again. "Do you want to go to Leah's this afternoon? I mean we can-" Paul had to bite his fucking lip to shut the fuck up and let the poor girl answer before he became some blubbering, excuse spouting idiot.
Her head had frozen as soon as he said her name and now that the question was out, she just as hesitantly nodded.
"Really? Because we don't have to and I can just-" If Paul didn't think it would have completely freaked out Urchin he would've sucker punched himself in the damn mouth. When the fuck had he become such a whiny assed, pansy bitch that couldn't shut up?
For once the gods must have taken pity on him, considering Urchin tried to give him a smile as she softly agreed to go out.
Pulling into Uley's driveway, Paul yanked the brake hard before jumping out to help Urchin get out as well. He loved his jeep but it sure as hell wasn't a girly type of vehicle and he kinda felt bad that the door stuck and Urchin didn't have the muscle to strong arm it open.
"Hey, Paul, Arial" Embry greeted as he walked to the front door and disappeared inside, his arms full of containers of food that Emily had no doubt insisted upon.
Grunting somewhat hospitably, Paul took in the yard where more than half of the wolves and their imprints still loitered about, talking and laughing happily. Leah must have just exited her house, still approaching Embry's car which held a pregnant Emily waiting for her wolf to return and help her out.
"Paul!" Quil's voice boomed, too loud and too close as Urchin plastered herself against his side in fear.
"Jesus Christ, Ateara! Mind lowering it down a little bit?" Paul spat back, allowing his arms to brace around Urchin who was trying to take cover behind his back.
"Sorry," Quil grinned sheepishly. "I just didn't think you'd get here so early."
Taking in Paul's empty hands and the cowering girl behind him, Quil's smile wilted.
"Urchin," Paul spoke quietly while giving Quil a death stare, "this is the very loud and obnoxious Quil Ateara. He won't hurt you, but don't even take anything he offers you to eat."
Snorting in amusement, Quil just shook his head. "Don't listen to him, Arial. Paul's just a sorry loser 'cause I convinced him to try a new type of vegetable."
"You said it was a new type of jalapeno," Paul growled, his mouth beginning to water from the memory of Quil's little gag. If Paul had been able to talk after eating the disastrous pepper, he'd have asked someone to cut off his tongue and then to kill Ateara.
"Easy there, killer," Quil joked, slapping a hand against Paul's forearm. Just as quickly he sidestepped Paul to look at Urchin and stick out his hand. "I'm Quil. I promise not to feed you any peppers. I save that shit for the guys.
Urchin's body didn't even have time to fully tremble once before Paul side swept Quil's feet, pushed him to the ground and took a few healthy steps away from the downed wolf with Urchin still protected behind him.
"Hey!" Leah yelled out, seeing Quil on the ground and Paul looking about to bust out of his skin. "Knock that shit off 'til Sam gets back. Then the lot of you can go out back and beat the crap out of each other."
Leaving her cousin's side just as Embry stepped back out, looking nervously between his imprint and the two wolves fifty feet away. Leah passed Embry as she went to go and retrieve the poor imprint caught between Quil and Paul while the other wolf went to stand protectively close to his pregnant wife.
"How are you doing, Arial?" Leah asked, ignoring Paul. Unlike Quil, Leah didn't need to restrain Paul as she stepped around his form to approach the girl and hold her hand out. "Come on, let's leave these morons out here. I want to take you inside and introduce you to Nadine, Jake's girl. You'll like her."
Bella didn't know what was going on. The Quil person had appeared out of nowhere and she didn't like that he had been so close. She also hadn't expected the Paul man to react the way he had and while it was a bit disturbing it was also comforting, knowing that he had felt her fear before she had.
The Leah lady, though, Bella did know. She was pretty sure it was safe to follow her and waited to see if the Paul man was okay with it.
"Go on," the Paul man told Bella in a nice voice before turning mean. "I need to explain a few things to this asshole before we come inside."
"No blood in my house, Lahote," Leah grumbled as she led Bella towards the house. As they approached the door, another large male stood in the threshold.
"Hi, Arial," he said warmly, his features relaxed.
"Yeah, yeah, introductions later, Black," Leah snapped. "Get your ass out there and make sure Paul doesn't kill Quil."
The nice looking man suddenly looked upset as he stared out into the yard. "Oh, shit. Not again. Damn, Quil never learns." Taking a step around Bella, he continued to talk, louder. "Emb, hurry up. Quil's probably going to lose his tongue for real this time if we don't break that up."
Bella felt herself being pushed into the house by Leah rather gruffly until she realized that someone else was also behind them.
"Embry, for goodness sake's, put me down," a female voice asked laughingly. As Bella slunk over to the closest available wall to get out of the way, another man came in to sit a pregnant woman down on a couch.
"There, now you're down, Em," he laughed back, kissing her on the forehead before leaving the house again.
"What's going on?" A new person asked, coming out from somewhere deeper in the house.
"Sorry, Claire, looks like your man stepped in it again with Paul," the pregnant woman offered.
"Right, well whatever," Leah interrupted, clapping her hands for attention before turning to look at Bella.
"Arial, let me introduce you to everyone. My cousin on the couch is-"
"Emily," the pregnant woman broke in to introduce herself. "The lovable giant who was carrying me is my husband, Embry."
Nodding, Bella smiled that she understood before her gaze turned to the other woman in the hallway. She blinked once, realizing that suddenly there was actually more than one woman there.
"I'm Claire," the first one announced, a pretty, dark toned lady said. She was very small like Bella although she still had a few inches of height on her.
"And I'm sure you recognize Regina," Leah offered dryly as the next woman came into the living room. Regina had her arm linked with an equally beautiful female who held an icy stare towards Bella.
"And her sidekick, Claudia," Leah continued to speak, failing to witness the way Claudia eyed Bella as she went over to the couch to sit down next to Emily.
Actually, no one seemed to see what Bella did and it frightened her. So far, all of the women had looked like they might be nice, even Regina who looked a lot more relaxed here than she had a few days ago at the restaurant.
"So would that make us the three stooges?" A soft yet sultry voice questioned as three more women filled the already crowded room.
Taking another look around her, Bella wondered if they were all models with their beautiful features and perfect bodies. It wasn't like she couldn't tell them apart with the varying heights and hair lengths, but no way did Bella belong here and she wondered why the Paul man wanted to keep her.
"If any of you are the three stooges it'd be Regina, Claudia and Denise," Leah said, pointing out the third woman to Bella.
"Hello, Arial, I'm Nadine. It's a pleasure to meet you." Stepping away from Denise, Nadine approached Bella in a fluid motion, stopping far enough away not to crowd her, yet close enough to be welcoming.
Nodding in understanding, Bella watched the last woman approach as well. This one seemed to be just as bubbly as the Claire lady had been and didn't even hesitate when she reached Bella's side to pull her into a quick hug.
"I guess that makes me last. Hi, I'm Kim," the hugger said, giving one more squeeze to Bella before stepping away. "Now that we're all introduced, Leah, I need to know what you want to do with all of Emily's stuff she brought. Embry just kinda threw it all down on the counter before he rushed out."
"Ohhh," Emily huffed in exasperation as she tried to stand up. "I'm going to kill him. He better not have tipped the salad, I told him a million times it was meant to be layered and not mixed."
"Just stay there, Emily," Nadine requested as she started back down the hallway. "We can take care of organizing the food. Goodness, you didn't have to make so much, we all brought stuff as well."
"Come on, Arial, let's go see what a mess Embry made in the kitchen," Leah suggested as she gently tugged on Bella's arm.
Not entirely uncomfortable around most of these strangers, Bella was still willing to leave the presence of that Claudia person and she happily followed Nadine, knowing Leah was right behind her.
The kitchen was proportional to the rest of the house, small yet cozy. Not knowing what she should do, Bella watched as Nadine and Leah chattered away while unwrapping dishes, placing some in the fridge leaving others on the counter. Eyeing the small dining room connected to the kitchen, she wondered where everyone would sit to eat.
"Everything's fine," Nadine yelled out suddenly, startling Bella.
"Good," Emily shouted from the other room. "At least Embry gets to live another day."
All of the girls seemed to laugh, making Bella wonder what was so funny. No way did that Emily woman think she'd be able to hurt one of the men from before, all of the guys were almost a foot taller! Pondering what the joke could be, Bella tried not to flatten herself against the wall when Claudia came into the kitchen, followed by what appeared to be everyone else.
It was Regina who actually pushed past Claudia to speak to Leah.
"We're going to head out back to sit at the picnic tables. God knows once the sun sets all the boys will be chomping at the bit to herd us weak females inside." Rolling her eyes, Regina grabbed one of the heavy dishes and passed it to Claudia then reached for another to hand to the other females as well.
"That's fine," Leah agreed as she ransacked a drawer, pulling out numerous oversized spoons and utensils. "I'm going to wait for Sam to get back. I can't believe the dork forgot to buy hamburger buns."
"I'll join you guys," Nadine offered, grabbing two cartons from the fridge of what looked like beer to Bella. "Arial, do you want to come out with us as well?"
Nadine seemed to wait very patiently as Bella cast glances at the retreating females and then back towards Leah. If she sat at the very end of the picnic table, she'd still be able to see inside of the house, making it possible to flag down Leah if she needed her. Just as she was about to agree, she watched as the Claudia person took the end seat.
Turning back to Nadine, Bella carefully shook her head no, hoping the nice woman wouldn't be upset with her.
Nadine was nothing but real smiles. "Okay. But if you change your mind, come on out."
Happy to have avoided a disaster, Bella sighed in relief before turning her attention back to her friend, Leah. She probably wasn't really her friend, but Leah had been very nice to her and she hoped she could return the favor some way to show her appreciation.
"Leah?" A male questioned, making Bella freeze once again in her stationary wall position. The voice was quickly identified as belonging to the Jake guy as his massive form entered the area.
"Most of the guys headed around the house to out back and Paul wants Ar…OH!" The Jake's man face swung from a slightly scowling Leah to a terrified looking Bella.
"Just the person I was looking for, Arial," he said, smiling brightly. "Paul was hoping you'd come into the living room and-"
"Urchin?" The Paul man bellowed from the front of the house, making Bella wonder if she was in some kind of trouble. He appeared directly behind the Jake person and pushed him out of the way to get to her. "Are you okay?" He asked in a very quiet voice as his arm slipped around her.
"She was," Leah snapped, glaring at him. "Until you screamed for her loud enough for half of La Push to wonder what the hell is going on."
"Oh look," Jake said in an over chipper tone. "Nadine looks like she needs me for something. I'll just be-"
"Get over it, Clearwater," he snapped right back, ignoring whatever the Jake man had been trying to say as he tugged on Bella for her to follow him.
"Black, don't fucking forget what we talked about. I want to do this shit now!" The Paul man directed, his harsh voice belying the gentleness of his hands on Bella's shoulders.
She didn't have long to wonder what was going. As soon as she and the Paul man were in the living room, he sat down in a single chair and pulled her into his lap, whispering in her ear.
"Listen, Urchin, I know people creep you out and I don't want you more uncomfortable than need be, so I'm gonna ask the guys to come in here one by one to introduce themselves to you, okay?"
It really wasn't okay as far as Bella was concerned, although, she appreciated the Paul man's effort to make sure she didn't have to meet these strangers alone. Her tense muscles must have told Paul all that he needed to know.
"Urchin, I know this is hard for you, but these guys are almost always around and I want you to feel somewhat comfortable in their presence. You don't have to shake their hands or any of that shit. Just let them tell you who they are so if you were to ever see them when I'm not around, you'll know they're okay and aren't gonna try any shit with you."
Bella really wanted to try for her Paul man, but this…this was asking a lot. She was pretty sure that whether either of them wanted her to or not, she was going to panic and end up embarrassing, or worse, angering him. She didn't have any more time to worry about it as someone came into the living room.
"Arial? Hi, my name's Seth, Seth Clearwater. I'm Leah's brother-"
"-Incredibly sweet but younger, retarded brother," Leah hollered from the kitchen.
"-and Claudia is my girlfriend. She's great! I bet you guys will be really good friends. She's going to college in Port Angeles. We live here on the Rez, although it's on the other side. Well, technically I still live at home but I spend most of my time with Claudia at her place. You can walk there from Paul's house, it's not far, but probably not a good idea this time of year since it's so cold. Do you have a cell? I can give you both of our numbers and then if you need us, you can text-"
"—Shut the fuck up, already," Paul cut in, causing the Seth guy to stop talking instantly. "For fuck's sake, I said to introduce yourself, not give your damn autobiography in one breath."
Bella wasn't sure if she had ever heard someone say that much in such a short amount of time, though she had tuned him out a bit once he had mentioned Claudia's name. Still, despite his hulking figure, he didn't give off any bad vibes and while she'd still be hesitant, Bella felt like she could probably handle being around this Seth person.
Seth was still grinning as he stood against the opposite wall and another male came in. Collin was his name and he was just as talkative as Seth was, even more so when Seth chimed in to add additional information Bella had no idea what to do with. Despite being wary around strange men, she was too shocked at their easy going banter to notice that she should be scared and relaxed even further when Brady came in next.
Her apprehension snapped back like a rubber band when the front door opened unexpectedly and that scary Sam man walked in with several bags of groceries, disrupting the smoothness of conversation. Only the Paul man noticed, one of his hands reaching up to rub the back of her neck as Leah made a sudden appearance.
"Sammy!" she squealed excitedly. "You're back and just in time! I think Quil is rigging the grill for something to happen and Jake and Embry are too busy laughing to stop whatever it is."
Any scariness the Sam man had vanished as his features softened and he smiled happily in the presence of Leah.
"Hello, my beautiful, Lee-Lee." Dropping the bags, he held out his arms to let Leah jump into them, both of them hugging affectionately as if they hadn't seen each other in a long time.
Dropping her eyes, Bella tried not to smile at the emotional bliss they seemed to have for each other. She had watched many people greet and hug or say they loved each other, but in comparison to what was happening, it almost seemed to be a lie. Bella may not have experienced love, however, there was no doubt that her friend Leah and this Sam man did so.
"You did good, Urchin," the Paul man whispered, his chin resting on her shoulder. "I'll introduce you to the others when we go out back, okay?"
Nodding in agreement, she tried to remember the peacefulness when the Sam man came back into the room and sat across from them.
"Hello, Arial," he greeted her in a deep, controlled voice. "It's nice to finally meet you properly. I'm Sam, Leah's man."
"Yes, you are," Leah piped up from the doorway, grinning. "Come on, Arial. Let's leave these dweebs by themselves while you help me finish some stuff up in the kitchen."
The gently squeeze from her Paul man, told Bella that it was okay if she wanted to go. With help, she slid off of his lap to follow Leah, unconsciously making a wide berth of any of the guys in the room.
Leah was tossing stuff out of the bag when Bella entered. "Finally! Now we can light up the grill and hopefully eat soon. I'm starving," Leah exclaimed as she bustled about to put stuff where it belonged.
Bella was only vaguely aware when Collin and Brady came in to grab drinks from the fridge. They moved into the dining room but didn't leave completely and Bella's apprehension rose in an unwelcomed feeling.
"Samuel L. Uley. What the fuck is this?" Leah screamed loud enough for even the people out in the back yard to look towards the house.
"Now what, Leah?" He asked tiredly as he appeared in the kitchen.
"This!"
A small box was suddenly airborne as Leah threw it full force at her boyfriend, the large man easily catching it.
"What?" he asked in confusion, barely looking at the box as he stared at Leah.
"I know you think you have a monstrous penis and all, but my twat is not some mile wide trench needing to be plugged up with super absorbency tampons because you think you've stretched it that big!"
Whatever gentleness Bella thought she had seen in Sam vanished as his face contorted into anger. He made some weird, possibly a growling noise and began to yell on his own.
"Goddamn it, Leah! I'm not a girl, I don't know these things," he yelled as Seth and Paul filled the space behind him. "And you have some mouth on you to just yell that shit out while we have guests."
The weird sound he had made before started again as he took a step towards Leah and Bella panicked. This was it. He was going to hurt her friend and while Leah should know better than to anger such a large man, Bella was not about to let him hurt her.
Dashing around him, she stood in front of Leah and held her arms out, waving them like one would to attract the attention of an attacking wild animal. The movement worked more than Bella could have hoped for and when those blistering eyes of the Sam man met hers, Bella faltered.
She held her ground for as long as she could, but the rage on his face was more than her conscious could handle. He took another step and the scary noise increased. The last thing Bella remembered before she passed out was the sound of her own pitiful 'eep' and then nothing.
Like the other guys, Paul had been highly amused as Leah delivered one of her stellar explosions. She'd scream at Sam, he'd yell back at her and by the second or third slap, Sam would grab her hands and then kiss her into passiveness which was when the betting would occur.
Most of the time, Leah would mellow back out with just a few errant grumblings about whatever offense had taken place. On the more amusing occasions, Sam would think he had won the 'battle' and after receiving a doe eyed look from Leah, he'd relax his grip on her hands. Leah, ever the opportunist would either knee him or yank hard on his junk, telling Sam he'd better learn or else, and then walk away.
He watched in transfixion as his little urchin stepped in at the last minute. Nobody got between Sam and Leah during these times and Paul didn't even know how to react when Urchin did. If the situation hadn't occurred as quickly as it did, he might have been prepared to tell her no or to haul his ass in gear and step beside her. It was that god awful eeping noise that sent him moving.
Paul caught his Urchin before she hit the ground and because he was still positioned between one very pissed off Alpha at his imprint, he equally hauled ass back out of the way and back into the empty living room.
"Now look at what you did, you demented dork!" Leah continued to yell at Sam. "My mouth may shock the shit out of people, but I've never had one pass out from it, unlike you who-"
Either he blocked the sound out or Sam had reached his own limit as Paul could no longer hear what else was going on. He touched his hand to Urchin's throat, feeling her rapid pulse rate begin to slow down as her adrenaline surge left.
Jesus, what the hell had she been thinking, trying to stand up to Sam like that? It's not like the guy would've hurt her, you just didn't get in the way of a wolf fighting with his imprint. If Paul had half a brain, he'd take Urchin home right the fuck now, post some 'Trespassers Will Be Fucking Eaten Alive' signs on his house and just hole up for the next week.
His inner wolf seemed to like that plan, too, images of his couch/pseudo-wolf-den flashing big and bright. Paul knew, though, that Urchin had acted because she had been worried. For Leah, of all people which was beyond ridiculous considering more of the wolves asked Sam if he was alright after one of their fights than they or the imprints did of Leah.
"You pick some strange ass people as friends, Urchin," Paul finally muttered, moving his hand from her throat to brush softly at her temple.
"Pssst," Jake hissed from the hallway, peeking into the room when Paul's eyes snapped up and away from Urchin. "Is she okay? Do you need anything?"
"Aside from an Alpha pairing that has more common sense than the two currently in that position have, no, I'm fine."
Jake bobbed his head to the still prone figure. "What about Arial? She probably needs a cool rag and glass of water, hmm?"
Paul's own heart rate started to increase as he thought about his Urchin's situation. She could go either way once she woke up. Either she'd be okay or she'd go zombie and then what the fuck was he supposed to do?
"I don't know," Paul answered hesitantly and fucking pissed off that he sounded like such a pansy bitch. "See if Leah has any juice instead and no rag. Urchin freaks sometimes with water."
Nodding quickly, Jake disappeared back down the hallway. Paul heard the guys whispering and then it sounded like everyone went back outside, probably to explain to the rest of the asshats what was going on.
Not long and Jake came back, minus juice. "Leah gave the last bottle of juice she had to Emily since the girls are drinking and Emily can't. I grabbed a soda, though."
"Fine," Paul grumbled, grabbing the can to set on a nearby table. He went back to staring silently at Urchin, realizing that Jake had yet to leave the room.
"What?" Paul hissed, refusing to look up again and subsequently encourage the moron to stay and chat.
"I..uhh…sorry. Nothing. I'll be outside if you need us," Jake stammered, turning to make a hasty exit.
"Thank fucking god," Paul half heartedly cursed as silence enveloped the house and Urchin began to stir awake.