Disclaimer: I am not Stephanie Meyer. I do not own Twilight.

Chapter Sixteen

Paul's POV

Exhaustion weighed me down as I walked up the steps into Sam and Emily's house. This had been the worst week of my life, filled with problem after problem.

Jacob Black was a pain in my ass, constantly bitching about how unfair it was that he had phased and how he couldn't hang out with his own friends. Add in his snide comments about his fucking sister on top of that and I was ready to kill the pup. It's not like I had wanted to imprint on Rachel, it had just happened.

And now I spent all my time thinking about her.

"Sam? You here?" I called as I walked into the house.

Jacob came out of the kitchen, munching on a sandwich.

"Sup," Jacob nodded in greeting.

"Where's Sam?" I asked tiredly.

I so did not want to deal with Jacob in that moment.

"Dunno," Jacob mumbled, shoving the rest of the sandwich into his mouth.

"Alright, well, if you see him, tell him I headed home to catch some sleep," I sighed, turning to leave the house.

"Oh, hey. Bella was here looking for you earlier," Jacob said nonchalantly, flopping down onto the couch.

I paused, my hand on the doorknob, and looked at him. He flicked on the TV and began surfing through the channels.

"What did you tell her?" I asked huskily, trying to keep down my panic.

I couldn't see her. Not yet.

"Hmm? Oh. Uh, I told her you were probably at my place with Rachel," Jacob shrugged, not looking away from the TV.

"You told her about Rachel?" I asked, feeling an entirely different kind of panic take over.

"Well, yeah," Jacob frowned, briefly glancing at me.

"What did you tell her?" I demanded, storming towards him.

"Dude, chill. I just told her you'd imprinted. No big deal," Jacob defended, holding up his hands innocently.

"You fucking idiot!" I roared, dragging him up off the couch by his throat.

I slammed him against the wall, growling as he grappled against my hold.

"Where did she go? WHERE?" I shouted, cracking the wall as I slammed him into it again and again.

"Don't… know! She… left… didn't… say… where," Jacob gasped, struggling to breathe.

I dropped him to the floor and raced outside, sniffing the air for any linger trace of her. My wolf growled when we finally caught her scent. In seconds, I was running through the woods as the wolf, tracking her.

What are you doing, Swan? I wondered as I followed her trail up to the cliffs.

Fear fed my adrenaline, pushing me harder, faster, until I came upon her. She stood at the very edge of the cliff, her face tilted to the sunlight streaming down. My sensitive ears picked up on her whispered "I loved you" right before I watched her disappear of the edge.

"NO!" I screamed mid-phase, following her over.

Bella's POV

"Please. Oh, God, please. Wake up, Bella. Please, wake up."

Hot hands ran over every inch of my body, shocking against the icy water that had frozen my veins.

"Please… Bella, please," a voice sobbed from above me.

The inky blackness pressing down on me was comforting, but the voice sounded so sad that I fought against it.

"I need you, Swan… please," the voice pleaded.

Wet warmth fell on my cheeks as the hands gently brushed across my jaw and neck.

"Please," the voice breathed, hot breath fanning across my face.

Forcing my heavy lids to open, I blinked up into the darkest brown eyes I'd ever seen swimming with tears.

"Oh, God. Thank, God," Paul cried, pulling me into his arms.

"P-Paul?" I rasped, unable to move my arms.

"Shh. I've got you, Swan," Paul soothed, rocking me gently.

"No," I whimpered, trying to pull away.

His arms tightened around me, his nose buried into my neck as his chest began rumbling.

"Why? Why did you jump?" Paul asked, his voice rough.

"You… were going… to leave me," I managed to gasp out, each word setting fire through my throat.

"No. No, no, no," Paul crooned painfully.

"Jake… said… Rachel," I tried to say.

"No. God, Swan, no. Never. I promised, remember," Paul insisted.

"You… lied," I accused before coughing violently.

Paul whined, the sound incredibly wolf-like as he nudged his nose against my cheek. I jumped slightly when his tongue began licking my neck, showing even more of his wolf.

"My wolf… he wants you, not Rachel," Paul whispered against my skin.

"Liar," I croaked, wincing at the sting in my throat.

"Stop talking, Swan. You'll only hurt yourself more," Paul murmured, kissing my throat.

I swallowed with difficulty and tried to sit up. He let me, but his arms stayed wrapped around my waist. As soon as I was somewhat vertical, he shifted me into his lap, placing my head on his shoulder. I was too tired to fight him and relaxed into his embrace.

"Now, you keep quiet and listen, alright? Yes, I imprinted on Rachel, but it doesn't change anything. My wolf doesn't want her. In fact, he hates her. I've been hanging around with her because I'm trying to make my wolf like her enough not to kill her. My wolf… he thinks she's a threat to you and he wants to hurt her for it. You are our mate. We only want you," Paul vowed as he rubbed my arms to warm me up.

I started shivering, the shock of the jump and the cold wearing off as his body heat penetrated through the ice encasing my veins.

"W-w-what ab-bout R-R-Rach-chel?" I stuttered.

"We need to get you back to Sam and Emily's. You're going to freeze to death out here," Paul frowned, standing up with me cradled against his chest.

Although I knew he hadn't answered my question, I realized I really did need to get out of my wet clothes. As he situated me in his arms, I clung to him, hissing as my fingers burrowed closer to his warm skin. He took off at a brisk jog, the slight breeze making me shiver that much harder as it dried the water on my skin.

"Hold on, Swan. We're almost there," Paul hushed when I started whimpering from the cold.

I nodded against his shoulder, unable to answer him with the way my teeth were chattering. The return of heat and feeling to my limbs was painful and I couldn't hold back my soft cries of pain. Paul's chest rumbled against my side as he nuzzled into my hair, murmuring soothingly.

"Oh my God! What happened?"

I looked up at the scream, unsurprised to see Emily running towards us from her car.

"Emily, can you get her some dry clothes and warm towels? I'm going to try to warm her up with my body heat, but blankets, towels, and dry clothes will help," Paul said as he carried me inside.

"Of course!" Emily gushed, hurrying to do as he asked.

Paul carried me inside, carefully maneuvering us through the doorway without bumping me against anything. I started when I noticed Jake sitting on the couch, an icepack to his head. Sam and Jared stood over him, frowning ferociously.

"Wh-what hap-p-pened?" I asked, unable to control my stutter just yet.

"Don't worry about it, Swan," Paul rumbled, glaring towards Jake.

"Are you alright, Bella?" Sam asked tenderly, coming to rest his hand on the top of my head, fingers brushing my hair back tenderly.

I nodded, realizing it would probably be best not to try and speak until I'd gained normal speech patterns back.

"I'm going to take her back into the guest room to warm up, if you need us," Paul told him.

"I think we have things under control here. Take care of your girl," Sam nodded.

My heart gave a little thrill when Sam addressed me as Paul's, despite the lingering pain. Maybe Paul had been telling the truth and the imprint really didn't matter. I was angry with my body, wanting to be able to ask questions, but knowing I needed to warm up and rest before I'd be able to talk to anyone about what had happened.

Paul laid me down on the guest bed before stripping me of my wet clothes. I didn't bother trying to help, knowing I wouldn't be able to manage with my trembling hands. Emily came bustling in while he was pulling off my pants, her arms laden with blankets and towels.

"I'm throwing some of my flannel pajamas in the dryer to warm them up, but I figured you would want these now," Emily explained, handing Paul the pile of material.

"Thanks, Em," Paul grinned weakly, layering the blankets over me.

She nodded once before disappearing from the room and heading towards the living room, no doubt to talk with Sam. Paul wrapped my body in towels, drying any lingering water from my limbs before viciously attacking my hair. I whimpered in protest, thinking about the mess of knots I would have to untangle eventually. Paul hushed me gently before tossing the towels into the corner of the room. I blinked when Paul stripped out of his shorts before crawling under the covers with me.

"Come here," Paul mumbled, shifting me against him.

I turned into his chest, hissing as my cold limbs tangled with his much hotter ones. He reached behind me, wrapping the blankets around us in a cocoon-like fashion until we were completely snug. Almost instantly, I could feel his heat chasing away the remaining ice in my body. Exhaustion weighed heavily on me as my tremors slowed, gradually stopping all together.

"Sleep, Swan. We'll talk when you wake up," Paul promised, kissing my forehead.

Burrowing further into his embrace, I allowed the day's events to wash away, pushing all the pain that had been dealt to the side. I knew I would have to address the imprint sometime, if only to learn what Rachel had that I didn't. Paul's heartbeat beneath my palm, along with his gentle humming, chased away the bad thoughts as I finally succumbed to sleep.