Chapter 16 – I Love You But

At the end of the week, the bonfire was definitely on. Paul was busting with pride as he was dying to tell everyone about Nyla being pregnant. He had the hardest time keeping it from the rest of the pack when he was phased. Nyla smirked as she saw the cheesy smile on Paul's face as he drove his truck towards the beach for the bonfire. "You so need to whip that dopey smile off your face."

Paul's chuckle filled the cab of the truck. "I can't help it. You know it's been killing me to have to hide your pregnancy in my thoughts while I'm on patrol." Paul had his hand resting on Nyla's jean covered knee and squeezed it a little.

"I know I know it's just kills you to have to not think about it when you go all wolf. But I do believe you're still alive from it."

Just as Paul pulled the truck to a stop and shut it off he leaned over and growled against Nyla's neck. "Is that really what you think?"

Nyla squeaked out in surprise because she wasn't expecting him to do that. Paul couldn't help laughing at her as he got out of the truck and put his hand out. She glared at him as she took his offered hand and got out of the truck. She was actually quite surprised he let her get out on her own. He'd been practically doing everything except actually letting her walk herself.

Paul placed his overly warm hand in the middle of her back and guided her along the path towards the area the bonfire would be. He could already hear most of his brothers cutting up around the beach. As they walked from the tree line everyone looked over at them as Kim, Emily and Alexia were the first to greet Nyla.

Emily smiled softly. "Why do you two look so happy?"

Kim giggled. "Yea you look like you're both going to bust."

Paul smirked as he squeezed Nyla's waist. "Well Nyla is six weeks pregnant."

Squeals of joy erupted through the pack's imprints as Nyla was enveloped into about a million hugs from all the imprints.

As everyone was eating and talking; trying to play catch up from whatever had been missed in each other's lives over the last few weeks. Once everyone had finished eating they all just relaxed and continued to talk amongst themselves. Nyla was relaxing against Paul when she saw three sets of feet standing in front of her, when she looked up Collin, Calvin and Brady were standing there.

"There something I can help you boys with?" Nyla asked.

Brady frowned at Nyla. "I…We - we would like to speak with you alone."

Nyla shook her head negatively. "Anything you have to say to me you can say in front of my husband."

Paul nudged Nyla lightly. "Why don't you go and talk with them. They are still your brothers Ny." Nyla looked up at Paul and he nodded to her. "Go on. You need to talk with them." Nyla nodded in agreement. Paul gripped her waist and carefully pushed her up to her feet when she leaned over and kissed his lips softly.

"Thanks for the lift big guy."

"Anytime baby." Paul mumbled as he accepted the kiss from his wife. He still loved the sound of that. Nyla was his wife. She was going to be his wife until the day they both died. Yup he really loved the sound of that.

Nyla wrapped her arms around herself as she walked off down the beach with her brothers trailing behind her. Once they were about thirty or forty feet away from everyone else, Nyla turned to face her brothers. "Okay what do you three want?"

Calvin scowled. "Do you not understand our position in handing Paul his ass because of the pain he caused you and shit he put you through for no fuckin reason?"

It was Nyla's turn to scowl back. "I don't give a shit what position you were in. No one put you in that position but you guys. Paul didn't make you, I didn't make you and Sam and Jake damn sure didn't make you and they are the alphas. No one made you do what you did; you just took it upon yourself to defend my honor. Which if you had been tearing into anyone other than my husband I would've been flattered. But you could've seriously hurt him. The wounds around his neck were so deep they were not healing. He was literally bleeding out in front of me and my husband could've died had any one of you drawn blood from the jugular vein in his neck."

Collin growled. "We don't give a shit about Paul. We do however give a shit about you. You're our sister and the bullshit that he put you though for almost four years made you so completely miserable; which in turn made us completely miserable. Paul deserved every bite, scratch, wound, stitch and pain he got."

Nyla threw her arms up in the air. "You guys aren't getting it are you? You're really not getting it at all. So let me spell it out for you. P-r-e-g-n-a-n-t. Pregnant. I'm six weeks pregnant with my husband's baby. The same husband who you attacked and almost killed. If you think I'm pissed off now, can you just imagine how I would've felt had you three gone too far and killed him, only to find out I was pregnant on top of it?"

Nyla could no longer control her emotions as she began to cry, while the tears slid down her cheeks. "You have no idea the things that rolled through my mind. Being completely terrified as I watched my brothers -the only family I have left- as they viciously attacked my husband. And then sat there and watched as a pool of blood gathered around his head as I pressed my ripped sweatshirt against his wounds trying to stop the bleeding. And it wouldn't stop. There was so much blood…so much." Nyla's bottom lip quivered as she tried to keep her sanity intact, she really wanted to just sob as hard as she could but she wouldn't do it in front of her brothers when she was trying to harness her anger towards them.

She sighed heavily. "What would you do if a vampire came out of nowhere right now and attacked one of you and Paul was the one to save you? Because it doesn't matter how mad he gets at anyone in the pack or anyone out of the pack, he is a protector ALWAYS. He even tried defending what you three did to him the same fuckin night you attacked him. Nice huh? Thirty plus stitches to close every wound and tear you made in his body, left side of his jaw was dislocated and the right side was broken and had to be wired shut to heal properly; and he's defending the very pack brothers who caused the injuries."

Nyla shook her head at them. "You don't turn your back on your pack brothers no matter what. They are you're family. I'm so pissed off and hurt because of what you've done. Do you guys even understand it now? Because I'm standing here looking at the looks on your faces and you don't even have to answer. I already know you don't get it and chances are you NEVER will." Nyla sniffled as her eyes glanced between her brothers and she could see Paul walking towards all of them cautiously. "I understand you guys want to protect me because I'm you're only sister and I love you guys because you are my brothers but you guys broke my heart. And you're going to have to accept the fact that I just don't want to see any of you for a while."

Nyla walked around her brothers and to Paul who was waiting for her as he gathered her into his arms and held her tightly to him without hurting her. "It's okay baby."

"Can you please take me home? I really don't want to be here anymore." Nyla begged him.

Paul nodded as he kissed her forehead softly. "Anything; I'll do anything to help you stop those tears baby. They are going to be the death of me."

Unfortunately, Nyla couldn't stop the tears and she couldn't get them under control as she sobbed into his chest. "I'm sorry. I just can't stop. I just can't."

Paul clenched his eyes shut as he tightened his arms around his heart broken wife. "It's okay baby. I promise everything will be okay. Let's get you home and well relax for the rest of the night." Paul leaned down and scooped her up into his arms gently as he walked back to the truck and placed her in the cab, got in and drove back to the house.

Paul lay across the bed with Nyla snuggled next to him. His arm wrapped around her waist with his mouth pressed to the top of her head as she laid with her ear against his chest listening to his heartbeat.

Nyla's tears had finally stopped and Paul's worry calmed for her. "I know your heart is hurting. I'll do anything I can to help mend it. I don't care if I'm the one who caused it to hurt or not. If you need to scream and yell at me to get it all out then by all means do it and I won't take it personal I promise. Jared even volunteered to let you yell at him. You kind of scared him tonight. He has never heard you cry that hard while talking so passionately and emotionally about what happened. He said you were so brave when you tried helping me he never suspected you were so scared because you weren't showing it." Paul mumbled into her hair as he smoothed his hand down her back.

"I love you so much. I don't even want to think about what might've happened that night had my idiot brothers gone too far. Well they went too far, but had they gone farther than that and removed you from my life forever, I would've never been able to forgive them. I don't see me forgiving them anytime soon right now as it is. You're my best friend Paul and the love of my life. You're my husband and the father of the child growing inside of me. I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I love you too Nyla." Paul kissed the top of her head as he listened to her words as they yanked on his heart strings. He couldn't be upset with her brothers. He himself had been upset when Seth had imprinted on his own baby sister. She was going to be 11 soon and was growing up so fast. He knew before long Samara was going to be falling in love with Seth. He also knew Seth would do nothing but make her the center of his spinning world.

Just like Nyla was the center of his spinning world.