Temper, Temper: Chapter Eleven: You Spoilt Everything
It was early morning when the three companions arrived back in La Push, it took them longer to get home, seeing as they made a quick pit stop; sleeping lazily in a would be coveted pasture, that's grass had been heated in a short burst of intense sunlight.
It was good that they rested; Paul needed to clear his head. Plus it was nice allowing his thoughts free when Alex wasn't around to stumble upon the secret; She had run back to the Uley's to grab some breakfast.
He was getting to the point of no return now; the force of the imprint was pushing him forward. It insistently, bent and twisted his will, as much as Paul wanted to put it off, wanting Alex to accept him without feeling forced.
They were closer now, Alex had spent more time with the Quileute's and she was becoming less angry.
Now would surely be the best time to tell her, he needed Alex to understand exactly how much he cared for her and the lengths he would go to for her.
The major question though was how would she react?
Paul attempted to fill his head with positivity, Emily had told him, "Nobody could resist that level of devotion and love Paul".
She had told him that before they left for Wales, a few days before, on one of the days he was feeling particularly low. The comforting words had perked him up then, but now new thoughts demeaned them,
'Remember what you thought of imprinting before this?' Paul's own subconscious taunted him, replaying a small scene from his memories that drowned Emily's words out completely.
The boys were all patrolling, enjoying their usual comradely banter and poking fun at how completely besotted Jared was over Kim.
'Come on Ja, there must be one point when you look at someone else and think…daaaammmn' Paul dragged out childishly, bashing Jared's shoulder with subdued force.
'Nope, never. It's like Kim's in HD and everyone else is…grey' Jared was happy with his analogy, but truthfully no words could describe how imprinting on your perfect match felt, every day.
Jacob drawled out a sigh before directing the taunting to Paul,
'What about you Red?' Jacob used a nickname for Paul which connected to the older boys, anger control. 'How's it gonna' be when you lose your sight and have little misty cupids floating around your head?'
Paul thought about it, 'Their all for me Jake' he answered cockily, racing forward and snapping at Jared's love struck ankles appealing to Jared's wolf side, wanting a fight or a race, something to burn off some energy.
Lucky for him Jared was at his limit after being teased all day about his relationship, and he easily chased after a laughing Paul, raising his shackles and gnashing his teeth together. The talk of imprinting well and truly sentenced.
Shaking the memory off Paul took some quick deep breaths before taking a large step into the Sam's house and looking in to see if Alex was there. She was, Emily was talking with her over the kitchen bar while eating a muffin that had fresh steam coming from it.
"Can I talk with you for a minute Lex?" Paul shifted a little when Alex swallowed the mouthful of food she had, and raised her eyebrows inquisitively at him.
"Um, sure let me just put some clothes on" She didn't have to point out that fact to Paul, he had worked out that she had stripped out of her comfortable clothes and as soon as breakfast was ready lose her focus on putting more clothes on. Her mind focussed on food and unfazed if anyone did see in just underwear.
It wasn't as if most of them hadn't already.
They were in a more open piece of land when they stopped walking and began to talk at her,
"I just wanted you to know how much you mean to me, I'd do anything for you" Paul began, his voice remaining strong despite the fact his hands were perspiring so that he had to wipe then quickly on his jean cut offs. "I…imprinted, on you" When he finally looked up he tried to judge her expression but it was impossible.
Alex had completely frozen. Her eyes were motionless, mouth slightly agape and arms directly at her sides, palms open. "Al-"
"Shh!" She interrupted him loudly, keeping her frozen composure before slowly, very slowly, her hand started to close up, clenching into tight fists. It was so quite around them, Paul was that concentrated he even made out a small house fly whizz above them before deciding the tension was too much and flying off.
"Imprinting is, like finding your other half-" Again Paul's attempt to coax Alex from her statue disposition was interrupted by Alex's voice, which whipped out, louder and angrier than before.
"I know what it is!" She shouted, turning around and pacing around while muttering her disbelief, "No, no, no, you can't of. You can't of." Alex didn't know who she was trying to convince, she wasn't doing a very good job.
Paul was devastated, this was the worst she reaction Alex could have had and now he was going to unintentionally make it worse by trying to comfort and calm her down. One of his tan arms reached out and his hand closed around her forearm, pulling Alex to him.
"Alex calm down, it's fine" He tried to soothe.
Wrenching away from Paul's grip she pointed at him to emphasize the words she shouted.
"No it is not okay Paul! You've spoilt everything! I don't want to stay here, I don't want to get married and have babies with you. You are not my other half, you never will be!" Alex began to hyperventilate, but her tirade had made Paul's own anger flare up.
"Well you wouldn't would you! You think I wanted to imprint on you? Nature forced this Alex, and I wasn't pleased, and I wasn't thrilled. You're the most backwards wolf I've ever met" Paul spat out, Alex taking note of how he was proving all the stories Jared had told her about his anger true. She hadn't seen him this angry before. When she went to continue her rant, Paul cut her off.
"Anytime someone shows you any kind of compassion or friendship you run, here I am, thinking that you might have a shred of normality in you and accept the highest possible love anyone could have and you are once again blaming everything on me…I bet you were devastated when those leeches rescued you from the other vamps"
Alex's breathing had become more normal now, but the anger was still there burning away and she stared daggers at Paul who was now hyperventilating rather than her.
"Do you know what happened when I was in the Volturi do you? No, well I tell you lover boy shall I?" Her tone was sarcastic as she spit out the words with venom, the calm in her voice more painful than her early shouting.
"I would get bit, and they would fight me for fun, and those were the rest days Paul. In the days when they had 'business' I had to go with them, and help them on their little missions."
Alex changed suddenly, changing her demeanour from quiet and threatening to angry and violent again.
"I want nothing to do with you, I want nothing to do with your tribe and I could not care less how wondrous imprinting is. It's is forced, it traps you, making the rest of your life pointless and irrelevant. As soon as this test comes, you never have to see me again. Find another imprint Quilt boy"
That's when she left, her anger erupted and Alex's clothes were in tatters once again, and further ruined as her paw crushed them into the soil as she raced away more eager than ever to be away from the situation.
Paul's tremors raked over his body and unwillingly his anger made him phase. Clouds of hot air billowed from his nose as he took short, shallow, angry breaths. The bad reaction he originally imagined was just quadrupled in that instant.
His anguished howl ran out through the air, Paul had never been so hurt and upset in all his life.
Guilt was beginning to creep over him but he stopped that thought in an instant. Paul was a wolf, and as a wolf with an imprint, it was vital he made the situation clear to Alex. But as he ran, sprinting as far away as he could from the situation, Paul couldn't help but feel another wolfs hurt, upset an confusion. Alex was running as well, doing the first thing her body instincts told her to.
Imprinting was a funny thing, and although Paul knew he was in the right, the fact that he had been the one to inflict that on Alex made his heart sear with anguish.
All he wanted was her to be happy.