This morning, after waking up, I remembered that Paul had my phone from last night. I really wanted to talk to him about the whole thing, but I wasn't sure how to bring it up: Oh yeah paul I should probably tell you that I have a stalker ex-boyfriend who wants to kidnap me. Yeah that wouldn't go over well at all. I hoped that he would have read the messages to make everything easier.
I went downstairs to find the smell of food. Ashley was an amazing cook. She spotted me and smiled at me and motioned for me to sit down at the table.
"What do you want on your omelet Sophia?"
I looked over at what seth had in his and it looked delicious. "I'll just have the same as what you made Seth, Ash."
"So Sophia, did you enjoy the stories last night? Or were you to focused on Paul to even pay attention to them?" Seth asked me laughing. Ashley threw a piece of cut up pepper at his head for nagging about me and paul. I laughed at that, they were just too adorable together.
"Shut up seth, and yeah I payed attention to them, they were all really good. Who came up with them though? They were really creative, with all the cold-ones and morphing people into dog things."
Ashley and Seth both got serious and just looked at each other. Ashley walked over to hand me my omelet and I thanked her for it.
"Sophia, not everything that you hear in the world is made up." Ashley said quietly, I could barely hear her.
I looked at her strangely. "What do you mean?"
"You'll find out soon enough Sophia. So, what time is paul coming to pick you up?" Seth said changing the subject from what I really wanted to know about.
"Um, I'm not really sure. I left my phone in his truck last night and that was my only way of communicating with him. Do one of you guys have his number?"
Ashley reached over to the counter and handed me her phone before she sat down to join me and seth at the table. I thanked her and quickly found his number and sent him a text asking him about what time we were hanging out today. After only about 20 seconds he replied back. Hey Sophia, yeah I have your phone. How about I pick you up in an hour? Is that enough time for you to get ready?-Paul.
I texted him back quickly, excited by the fact that I would get to see him soon. Paul, yeah one hour's good for me. I'll see you soon(: -Sophia. With that I handed Ashley back her phone and thanked her and ran up the steps to go get ready, I wanted to look good for Paul and not the wreck that I looked like right now since I just got outta bed. I hurried up and got in the shower and did my hair in the natural way. It was very curly so all I had to do was just throw some frizz control in it and then diffuse it with the hairdryer and I'd be set for the day. I decided to wear skinny jeans and my sperrys with a cute shirt. Hopefully we wouldn't be going anywhere that would ruin my shoes, they were to adorable to get dirty. I did my make-up and before I knew it I only had 5 minutes before paul was supposed to be here.
I was super excited to see him, but I was afraid of what he might know now since he had my phone last night. I was positive that he might go threw my phone; especially after I threw it out of nowhere last night. I saw his truck pull up into the drive way and I went outside to meet him. He smiled at me and motioned for me to get into the truck with him. I hopped in the passenger side seat and saw my phone sitting there waiting for me.
"Thanks Paul, I'm sorry I left it here last night. " I said while I checked it to see if Adam had texted me any more messages since last night. Even if he did Paul could have deleted them so I wouldn't know that he read them. Whenever I opened up my phone, I saw that I didn't have any new blocked messages from Adam, but I saw that he did text me last night, but it was already opened. So I knew that meant that Paul had to have read it. But I didn't want to bring it up, not yet at least. I would have to sooner or later before something happened.
"Don't worry about it Sophia. So I was thinking that today we can go down to the beach for awhile, then maybe go over to the diner in forks and eat later. Does that sound okay with you? If you had something else in mind we can do that." He said looking over at me. I noticed how tense his form was; his arm muscles were bulging out, possibly because of the death grip he had one the steering wheel. His eyes even seemed to be angry or something, not like how soft and sweet they usually look. sa
"Um, no that actually sounds pretty good Paul. As long as we don't go hiking threw the words or anything, my shoes aren't really made for that kinda thing." I said looking down at my Sperrys. I was afraid to keep talking, I didn't want to upset him since he already looked angry.
"No woods today Sophia." He looked over at me again, he was smiling this time but it kinda looked like a fake smile. At least he was trying to hide his anger from me I guess.
The rest of the drive down to the beach was in silence. Paul was focused on driving and I continued to look out the window, I could see his reflection in the window looking over at me many times throughout the drive though.
When we got down to the beach, we both got out and met each other in front of the truck. I was hoping maybe he would want to hold hands, but he kept his hands in his pockets and walked along side of me, leading me to a log laying in the sand and he sat down and leaned up against it, motioning for me to do the same. We sat there in silence for a couple minutes, before paul finally spoke.
"So, Sophia, you remember about the legends you heard about last night?" He asked as he looked out into the water line.
"Yeah, they were all really interesting, thanks for taking me last night paul." I said hoping to lighten up the conversation and to make him not so tense anymore.
"No problem Sophia. Listen, if I tell you something, you promise that you won't think im mental and go running of into the woods. Please, promise me that?" He looked over at me with pleaded eyes, I got lost in them and I couldn't do anything but sit there and shake my head yes.
"Everything you heard last night, about the shape shifters and the cold-ones, it's real, all of it." He said looking down at the rock he was playing with in his hands. "Please don't think I'm crazy. I will explain everything to you. Just don't run away."
"I believe you Paul, and I'm not going anywhere. I had a feeling something was up about the legends and everything. So how do you know that everything's real? Like the shape shifters and the cold-ones? Have you seen them? Do they live around here? Is it safe to live here?!" I asked freaking out, I didn't want to live here anymore if these things existed and weren't safe. I don't care if I had to move to Maine and live alone, I didn't want to live somewhere that was infested with werewolves and vampires. Paul and everyone else might be used to it by now but I didn't need to worry about getting attacked by them and Adam; that was just to much for one girl to handle.
"Sophia, I am a shape shifter." He looked over at me to gauge my reaction, probably to make sure that I wouldn't run away like I promised. "Me, Sam, Seth, all of the guys, we're all shape shifters. That's why we're all so big and muscular, also why our body temperatures run much warmer than yours."
I was in shock. I didn't believe it. I was afraid to be around him, 99% of my brain was screaming at me to run away from him, but there was that 1% that told me to keep my promise to him. I owed him that much. "Are Emily and Kim shape shifters too? There's no way that Ashley is one too, is there?" I sure as hell hoped not.
"No, no Sophia, only the guys are, oh and Leah, but she's barely ever around. Only people who are directly blood related to one of the elders are able to phase."
"Phase?" I asked confused, not knowing what it meant.
"Phase, it's our term for turning from a human to our wolf bodies." Paul was now looking at me while he was talking at me. Probably just making sure I was still here and not running away.
"Oh, okay. So do you guys phase a lot? Do you have control over when you can?" There was so many questions running threw my head, I didn't even know where to begin.
"We have complete control over when we can phase, normally, there are certain situations where it's hard to control it…but we can phase whenever we want. We take turns patrolling around the boarder of the reservation, mostly at night or when we think there's danger near."
"What kind of situations are you talking about? Why would there be danger around La Push? Is it safe to live here or should I start packing my things again?" As much as I didn't want to pack everything up again…
Paul started laughing at all of my questions, and I put my head down and blushed. He probably thought I was a complete moron. Once he saw that I was embarrassed he stopped and wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled my closer to him. He kissed my temple and apologized for laughing at me. I smiled at his sweet gesture.
"There's no safer place for you to live than here on the reservation with the pack around. That's what we call ourselves, the pack. And with me around, you'll have all the protection you'll ever need in life." I looked at him oddly wondering what he meant, "I'll explain that situation later Sophia. But trust me for now. And as for the danger that sometimes comes around, well, the cold-ones. There are a group of them that live in Forks. But we have a treaty with him, we stay off of each others land and we don't attack each other. They claim to be vegetarian, which means they don't kill humans, only animals, which is why we let them live and not kill them for living so close to us. But they don't cause us much trouble, so you don't have to worry about them."
He stopped to let me digest all of the information that he was giving me. I took it all in, and with doing that a million more questions popped into my head. "Okay, so you and all of the guys can turn into wolves, and there is vampires that live less than 30 miles away? Any other mythical creatures that I need to know about that live around here; loch ness monster, zombies, Frankenstein?" Yep, he probably thought I was a complete moron. Paul restrained his laughter again and cleared up all my questions though.
"Paul, can I see you? Like in your wolf form?" I was afraid to ask, but I really wanted to see it with my own eyes.
"I'll show you sometime Sophia, I promise." He held out his pinky and I laughed as I interlocked my pinky with his and we sealed the deal. I leaned my head on his shoulder and sighed, happy that there was no more secrets between us. Until I remembered Adam. Well that ruined the moment. I figured now would be a good time to bring it up but I didn't know how. Luckily Paul spoke so I didn't have to think about it anymore.
"Sophia, there's one more big thing I need to tell you about. It's extremely important okay?" He looked at me with a serious expression on his face. I just shook my head and told him to continue talking about this 'big' thing.
"With us being wolves, we have this gift that's called imprinting. Imprinting is when our wolf finds there soul mate. When we find the girl, we see her and she's the only reason why we're here, why we do the things that we do, like patrolling. We have to protect them at all costs, their the only thing that matters to us anymore. Without them, we become sick and weak, we need them to be near us, somewhere here on the reservation. Sam's imprint is on Emily, Jared's is kim, and Seth imprinted on your cousin. So there's no way that Seth will ever leave her, so you won't have to worry about healing her from a broken heart." Paul said laughing, trying to lighten up the serious tone of the information he was telling me. But I wanted to know who he imprinted on, surely whoever it was wouldn't be okay with the relationship that was developing between me and him. And I didn't need another crazy person coming after me because I stole their 'imprint'.
"Paul, who did you imprint on? I don't want to come between you and her." I didn't want to face the fact that I wasn't going to be getting into a relationship like I wanted to with Paul.
"Sophia, that's why I'm telling you this. You are my imprint. I have extremely strong feelings towards you, and I know that you feel the pull towards me too. That's why you're so comfortable around me. Please don't be upset with me about this, I can't control it. But I don't want you to feel like im rushing you into this just because of the imprint. We don't have to be soul mates, we can be best friends or I can be your brother. As much as that would hurt me, I would be whatever you wanted me to be. I'll never love anyone else Sophia, only you, forever."
I couldn't believe what he was telling me. I didn't know how to act. Without thinking, I jumped up and threw my legs over his massive legs so that I was straddling him, I grabbed his face and kissed him. It quickly turned into a hot make-out session on the beach, and I wasn't regretting anything about it. Let people stare, I wanted to kiss him. Before things got to hot, I pulled away so that I could breathe again. We were both breathing pretty heavy and I put my forehead against his shoulder, trying to regain my thought process.
"Wow, Sophia. I'm hoping that this means that I can be more than your brother or best friend?" He asked as he rubbed his hands up and down my back, comforting me.
"Yes Paul, I would love for you to be more than that. I would love that more than anything." I picked my head back up and gave him a quick peck on the lips before putting my head back down on his shoulder.
"Thank you sophia, for everything. I promise that I will make sure to always make you happy and keep you safe, no matter what." His tone got serious again, and I could swear that I heard a bit of a growl coming up from his chest. I picked my head back up in confusion and looked at him with an expression of confusion, and he instantly understood what I meant. "Me imprinting on you, makes me super protective of you Sophia. I will protect you against everything, if someone even threatens you in any way it will drive me crazy with rage. Joking or not. If something ever happened to you because I wasn't protecting you I would die. You may think it's over bearing and you might hate me sometimes, but I promise whatever I do is for you own protection." He held eye contact with me throughout the whole conversation about him explaining how important my safety was.
I sighed and put my head back down on his shoulder, I knew I would have to bring up adam now. "Paul, trust me I would never get mad at you for protecting me. Honestly, right now I think I might need protection. You see there's this—"
"Adam." Paul said angrily. His face turned up in anger and I could feel his muscles tensing beneath me since I was still sitting on his legs straddling him. "I'm sorry Sophia, I couldn't help but read the messages last night. Please don't be mad. I couldn't risk not reading them after you freaked out in the truck before you left."
"It's okay paul, I'm glad you read them. I knew I would have to tell someone eventually, but I just wasn't sure how. Adam is, well, he's obsessed with me to say the least. But I'm sure that you know that by now. We dated in Maryland, I knew there was something wrong with him, but he always kept sweet talking me to staying with him when I considered breaking up with him. He put me threw so much…he messed me up a lot." Paul looked at me in confusion, wanting to know more. "Adam had some anger issues. Sometimes if he didn't like things that I would do he would hit me. Only on my stomach so that no one would see the bruises that he made. He took a knife to my stomach once. But thankfully I was able to get away." I looked up to see how paul was handling all of the information. He didn't look happy and he was shaking terribly. "Do you want me to stop?" Paul shook his head no, and told me that he wanted to know everything. "I'm afraid of the woods and the dark now and being alone at night because of him. There's so many times I wish I could go back in time and stand up to him or tell someone what was going on. I mean some of my friends knew but he swore he would hurt them if they over opened their mouths. And now I guess he's coming to find me."
By the time I was done paul was shaking horribly. And I had no idea about what to do. So I just continued to sit there on his legs and waited for him to calm down. I put my hands on the back of his neck and started massaging it, hopefully to get him to relax. After a few minutes of doing that, he finally spoke. "Sophia, I'm sorry if this is to personal, but I have to ask. Did he, ever, force himself onto you?"
I sighed and shook my head no, Paul sighed a giant sigh of relief and kissed my forehead in relief. "No, he didn't, he did force some things sometimes, but never all the way. He tried, but I kicked and screamed and punched him whenever he tried, I swore to myself that I wouldn't lose my virginity to a psycho boyfriend." I hung my head down remembering all of those horrible nights that I had to spend with him doing things. Paul pulled my head back up and looked into my eyes. "Sophia, I promise that i would never do anything like that. If you are ever not ready for anything, tell me. I will stop right away. And I promise that he will pay for what he did to you. No one forces themselves onto my girl." He said with a growl, gently pushing my head back down into his shoulder blade and squeezing me tightly. I loved that feeling more than anything. I knew that I could trust Paul with my life and that he wouldn't let anything ever happen to me.
"Thanks Paul, for all of this. I think it's exactly what I needed right now." I said and he looked down at me in confusion. "I mean for telling me all of this and everything. It's nice to know that I'm safe and what not. It's a good feeling and takes so much stress off of me, knowing that I have someone to watch out for me and that I can come to you for anything."
"You can come to any of the guys Sophia whenever you need something, they'll do whatever they can to help you too. That's one of the good things about being like brothers, we all watch out for each other's imprints too. We're like one big happy family." Paul said smiling down at me.
I was in the perfect moment right now. Sitting here on the beach with my soul mate and knowing that I didn't have to worry about Adam anymore and that Paul wouldn't let him get to me. I was safe here. I wouldn't have to pack up and leave again like I thought. Life couldn't get much better than this right now.
"Well Sophia, if you don't have any more questions about the whole wolf/imprint situation, how bout we go down to port angeles and catch a movie? Skip the whole diner thing? Unless you wanna go there and eat, it's completely up to you."
"How about we go to the diner and eat, then go back to your place and have a movie night?"
Paul smiled down at me "That sounds perfect Sophia." He stood up and put out his hands to help me stand up. We held hands on the way back to his truck and continued to hold hands the whole drive to the diner.
Once we got to the diner and got a table, I noticed that there was a lot of stares coming for girls that were eyeing up me and paul's hands together. Paul must have noticed it to because he let go of my hands and reached across the table and surprised me with a kiss. I instantly blushed and smiled back at him for showing his affection in front of everyone. I looked back around and all the girls stood there with their mouths open, after they made eye contact with me, they rolled their eyes and went back to ignoring us. "So I guess I got to worry about a bunch of girls hitting on you now?" I asked him jokingly.
"Well yeah I mean have you seen me Sophia? I mean come on now, who wouldn't want this hunk as their boyfriend?" He replied flexing his muscles laughing. I was glad we could joke around like this, I knew that he wouldn't ever leave me for some girl that was hitting on him. I knew he would never cheat on me either, unlike adam.