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Chapter 25

"Man, I don't give a damn," Paul cursed into his phone, and I immediately knew what was about to happen. "Fine …Damn it."

He sat silently on the edge of the bed and I fiddled with the sheets trying to come up with a distraction.

"It's kinda ridiculous," I started. "What is a damn? How do you give it or not give it?"

"Ridiculous?" he turned, giving me a grin. "What the hell is frick on a stick then?"

"Frick is already a friendly curse word-"

"For fuck, yeah?" he interrupted – his grin growing even larger.

"And on a stick – everything is better on a stick – better meaning greater meaning more meaning… well it rhymes and sounds catchy," I shrugged, giving up my train of thought.

"I'll have to remember that," he laughed, falling back onto the bed.

It was quiet for a long moment before either of us said anything.

"Do you have to?" I whispered.

"Yeah you know Seth," he sighed.

"Tell him to go frick himself…" I grumbled.

"On a stick," he grinned before leaning over me. "I'll hurry back - I promise."

"Aren't you higher ranking than Seth - why are doing all this stuff?"

"I'll explain later, but I got to go. Love you," he kissed me again for the thousandth time.

"Love you..."

Paul was running another errand for Seth, and I was filing a complaint with him or someone tomorrow. I had finally gotten this close to getting rid of my frustrations, but Paul's cell phone started to ring.

I tried to sleep tossing in bed for an hour before turning the lights back on and opening my laptop. Harry joined me on the bed and we googled ideas for Christmas presents.

He wasn't much help.

I still had no idea what to get Paul. Well I had come up with me naked with a bow on top, but I felt like that was more for me rather him. He'd still enjoy though.

I closed my laptop when I heard the front door open, but Harry started barking. He'd never barked at Paul like that before. I was panicking and looking for some kind of weapon when I heard a voice.

"It's me Rachel! Collin!" he called up the stairs as Harry kept barking.

"Collin?" I hurried into the hall, flicking on lights. I didn't know much about Collin - only that he was one of the older pack members. And I definitely didn't know him well enough for him to be in my house at two in the morning.

"Rachel," he started but paused.

"What's happened?" my stomach dropped.

…

Before, I never understood why people paced when they were anxious or worried, but me and my carpet definitely knew now. Pumped full of adrenaline – I didn't know if I wanted to strangle Paul or swing a bat at him. Getting himself hurt? He told me he was good at killing vampires!

I stopped and watched for Collin again. He was slowly tracing a path around the house protecting me – because another vampire might show up following the Cullens' scent. He hadn't explained very well, but I'm guessing he meant Rosalie and Emmett. Collin had just said that Paul got injured when a vampire crossed into the reservation. He did kill the bad vampire – which I assumed was his way of telling me it wasn't a Cullen or one of their friends – but also broke his arm in the process. I was a nurse! I could have set it – not Sam! Or at least Collin could escort me to Sam's or wherever he was.

I was told to wait. I didn't do well when someone told me something that I didn't want to do.

A deep growl woke me from my thoughts, and I glanced out the window to see Collin running off as another appeared out of the trees. This one was very different from Collin – he'd had reddish brown fur, and this one was silver and slightly larger. The wolf slowed his pace but still stepped toward the house.

Paul.

"You!" I pointed my finger at him, opening the backdoor. My anger suddenly turned into mush and I was holding back tears.

I blinked as he quickly phased back. Then I stared.

"I'm done – I'm sorry," he spoke in between kisses before hugging me.

"What?" I tried not to be so aware that he was naked. "Paul! Oh my god, look at your shoulder!" It was a scary dark purple color covering areas on his chest to his shoulder blade. It had to been more than a broken arm.

"It's fine-"

"Let me get you some ice and-"

"Rachel, it's okay," he pulled me back. "It'll be gone by morning. I just need you."

"Paul," I cried as he kissed me.

And then my body was on fire.

After that I didn't remember how he got me inside or up the stairs, but I certainly did remember how he got me into bed.

…

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" I asked more awake than when he had left to get us breakfast.

I couldn't decide if he looked ridiculous or adorable holding two bowls of cereal in his underwear. With as much breakfast food as Paul cooked, you'd think he would have made me a special breakfast-in-bed feast – but apparently cereal is fast and easy and super fast.

"Now?" he pouted, managing to fit three spoonfuls into his mouth.

"That or I'm going to eat really really slow..."

"I guess I should start with the fact that when I first phased, there was only one pack. Sam was alpha, but Jacob is a descendant of Ephraim Black, so he was supposed to be alpha. He didn't want to be at first, but around the time when Bella was pregnant with Nessie, he somehow started his own - he didn't want to follow Sam's orders to attack her or the Cullens. Then Leah, Seth, Quil and Embry joined his pack because their loyalties were tied to him. You following any?"

"So far," I nodded still chewing on my cereal.

"Well Sam and Jared had imprinted already, and after all that was over they were ready to leave the pack to start their families, and ... I became alpha. That's when I accepted the money from the Cullens. I thought it was easy - I'd planned to live as long as I could, so that no one had to go through what Sam did when he phased. He was all alone and was going insane. It was terrible so I thought I could do it, but... You happened.

"You messed everything up and then you fixed it. We - the council and I - had to find a new alpha and Seth has the bloodline to be one. It was complicated, but Seth's now alpha to the original pack."

"That's why you've been out late at night? He's been making you do stuff for him."

"Yeah that was a pain in the ass, but I was also going through... training, I guess that's what it was - for my temper. Brady and Collin were in charge of aggravating me, and I had to control myself and not phase."

"How does that work?"

"It didn't," he scoffed. "But in the end, I was so frustrated with it that it did work. I was grateful for it because I want to make sure that I never hurt you."

"You think you could get that angry at me?"

"Maybe not at you, but definitely around you. And I know we'll argue – that's kinda our thing," he smiled.

"You still haven't explained about last night..."

"This was my last week of patrol - only two nights. Last night I was out running when Brady caught a scent - a vampire. We followed it and found it had red eyes - a sign it killed humans. So we attacked. It was unusually fast, but Seth and Quil showed up so I decided to leave to come here. I didn't want to risk the chance of it or another one coming here. I was distracted - it grabbed my leg and swung me into a rock. It should have kept running because then Seth broke its neck. They ripped it apart and burned the pieces.

"My shoulder was dislocated and most of ribs were broken. They took me to Sam and Emily and fixed me up. I didn't want you to see me like that. I shouldn't have even phased after I was mostly healed, but they told me Collin was here and I couldn't wait."

"Does it still hurt?" I rested a hand on his chest feeling his ribs moving up to his shoulder. The bruising was gone, but he should have been sore.

"No," he sucked in a deep breath.

"So what do you do now?"

"Anything we want," he grinned as I fell back into the pillows.

AN: only one more chapter left! It'll be an epilogue of sorts but I don't like to call it that.

I definitely don't know if Seth could become Alpha of Sam's pack…

frick on a stick is a very personal phrase for me - use it well

Thanks for Reading!