Chapter 11 - Running
The wolf pushed himself hard. Sharp, deadly claws digging into the earth, mud splattering behind him like sideways rain. Bracken fern and sapling stood no chance against the powerful rampage of the wolf.
Running. That was all he could do now. Run. Run to live, run to forget, run to hide.
Because that's what he was really doing. Hiding from everything and everyone. His father, Old Quil, Charlie... Bella.
The tools in Jacob's workshop lay idle. Planks of cedar and pine gathered thick layers of dust while untreated pieces of leather turned dry and brittle. There was no solace to be found there. Whatever temporary reprieve it had provided was lost the second Bella Swan returned to town.
The fine thread holding his sanity together was close to breaking. It wasn't only because she had not come to see him. Hunting had once again consumed him. Jacob had the pack doing tight patrols trying to track down the scent that they found on that asshole who shot Charlie. Whoever this vamp was, they'd made it personal by going after the one man he saw as a secondary father. Not only that, but he was Bella's father. The amount of suffering it would have caused if the jerk-off had gotten a decent shot in was enough to make the wolf turn him into a pile of ash and rubble without a second thought.
The sight of Charlie Swan on the ground, blood pouring from a wound that would not automatically heal, frightened Jacob Black more than he'd like to admit. He replayed that day in his mind, its events unfolding in slow motion as if wound on a broken a super-8 reel.
A couple of fresh trails had kept them busy that day. The wolves moved efficiently through the trees, their jobs and orders clear. Find the threat and take it out. A mantra that had been ingrained in their mind from the moment Jacob took over as Alpha. There were no second chances, no explanations or questions involved. Any vampire who dared cross their paths was doomed to execution by fire.
Jacob was on the northern end of the forest teaching the newly phased pups to secure the perimeter when the sirens caught their attention. Through Seth's eyes he saw Charlie's squad car tear into the crumbling parking lot. At first it seemed to be nothing more than a routine call. A vagrant passing through, startling the sleepy town into sudden awareness.
The sandy wolf had crept closer to watch with the unspoken understanding he was not to intervene. Within seconds the cloying scent of rotting flesh and synthetic drugs assaulted his nostrils, setting the wolf on edge. Whoever the man was, he had fraternized with the enemy. On Jacob's orders, the pack surrounded the abandoned service station. "Don't make a move until I get there." A human who mixed with vampires was out of the ordinary, a cause for alarm. "Collin, phase back and get to a phone. Call Paul at the station and fill him in."
The mental flame that was Collin's mind flickered out instantly.
Sam and Embry advanced from the side, their vantage point enabling a clearer view of the scene. "Shit." Sam dug his claws into the earth. "Fuck, he's got a gun. Jake, this son of a bitch is higher than a kite."
Before anyone had time to think, the greasy-haired addict fired, leaving Charlie Swan on the ground bleeding like a stuck pig.
Jacob's claws dug into the ground, propelling him forward with the force of a rocket. The drifter pissed himself when three men barreled out of the woods, naked and consumed with righteous anger.
Seth dropped to Charlie's side, trying to stop the bleeding. Just as Jacob was pulling on some pants, the screech of Paul's tires tore into the lot. Instead of rushing to Charlie, Jacob strode over to where Seth and Embry had the fucker pinned to the ground.
The stench of vampire emanated from his dirty, ragged clothes. Jacob leaned close, violence radiating from his shaking form in waves. "Who sent you?"
Whoever this was, the man was stoned beyond reason. The pupils of his eyes dilated so much that the green ring of iris was barely recognizable. His greasy blond hair looked like it was crawling with lice and the hallmark sign of a junkie was apparent when he fought to scratch the vein in his arm.
"Jake, don't." Paul's voice commanded him from across the lot. "If he's on heroin, you won't get anything out of him. If you bust his jaw I'm gonna have to explain it. Get him cuffed for me and in the car. Sam and Embry need to get outta here before the ambulance comes." Paul tossed the handcuffs at him, leaving little room for argument.
Once the bastard was ensconced in the back of the cop car, Jacob dropped to his knees by Charlie's side. Blood was everywhere, soaking through his immaculate uniform, staining the weeds that grew between the cracks of the faded concrete. He was unconscious, passed out from the pain.
Even as Jacob sat there, his thoughts turned to Bella. He hoped and prayed that Leah would be with her when she heard the news.
When the ambulance pulled away, Jacob Black stood in the setting sun with the blood of Charlie Swan on his hands, determined to find out who had really done this.
Since that day, no amount of running or hunting would ease his conscience until the vamp was tracked down and eliminated. Jacob's mind was such a wreck that he allowed himself to envision Bella standing beside him, lighting the match for the funeral pyre.
Wolf and man wanted her desperately. It was all they could do to not rush to her side. This time Bella needed to come to them.
Jacob tried to suppress the nagging guilt that tore him up inside. To be fair, Bella did not know that the dreams were more than they appeared. For all she knew, it was just a subconscious manifestation of desires left unclaimed six years ago.
On the other side of the coin was the extreme disgust he felt after picking through the images in Leah's head. Jacob had abused his power, invading the privacy of both women and became angry when he saw Bella lost in the arms of another man. He himself was not without sin. True, no other woman had warmed his bed since that fateful night all those long years ago, but he had sought release in the arms of nameless strangers. Wetting his dick in an effort to forget... an effort to live.
Blond, auburn, brunette, fire-engine red... none of them were enough to satiate the carnal desires of the wolf or the emotional needs of the man. Indeed, all human feeling was so far removed from such trysts that the women were nothing more than nameless faces to him. Ships passing in the night, searching for harbor.
Jacob would not wait much longer. The wolf would not allow it. If Bella did not come soon, he would seek her out.
Damn the consequences.
oooOOOooo
While the Alpha of La Push hunted, Paul Lahote was stewing.
The night before he'd stayed late at work interrogating the junkie who'd shot Charlie. The greasy-haired punk stonewalled them on every question asked. What Paul really wanted to do was take him outside and go furry on his ass and watch the fucker shit himself. Sooner or later, he was going to have to figure out a way to get him alone if the pack was ever going to get any information about the vamp they smelled on his clothes. Although that itself was looking like a grim prospect. The kid was clearly half-delusional, his brain addled from too much drug use. Paul wasn't sure they'd ever get anything out of him.
On the way home he'd driven past the Swan place, only to see two figures illuminated by the amber glow of the porch light. Embry Call had taken it upon himself to pay Bella a visit.
Paul had it on good authority that Bella would be swinging into the diner to pick up lunch for Charlie. With that bit of information, he called up Embry asking his pack brother to meet him for a late breakfast.
When they walked into the diner, the stinking scent of strawberries cloyed his nostrils. Bella fucking Swan. It hit him like a ton of bricks, sending the wolf inside of him reeling. Part of him wanted to claw the shit out of her and the other part wanted to haul her over his shoulder, hog tie her and drag the bitch down to La Push for safe-keeping.
Paul hated feeling angry all of the time. It made his life a living hell. It was only in the arms of his imprint that he felt peace, but even Rachel could not make him feel any sort of empathy over the situation between Bella and his alpha. The vampire girl had tripped right over Jacob's heartstrings, snapping them in two. Bitch stumbles through life like it's some kind of fucking game.
As angry as he was, Paul didn't hate her. Not yet anyway. A sick part of him lusted after her, thanks to being in Jacob's mind for so many years. Another part of him was waiting to see what she'd do. If the girl would run away again or if the woman had the guts to stay.
They ponied up to the counter, ordering half the menu while the waitress made sure to lean over giving them a good view of her cheap cleavage and a whiff of her designer knock-off perfume.
Embry acted shifty through breakfast, nervous and twitching like a prison bitch.
Paul seized the moment, latching onto it like a magnet. "Dude, she lookin' at us?"
"How should I know?"
"Turn around and get the ketchup off the table behind us and find out."
Embry did and saw that Bella was glaring at the pair of them with murderous rage. A twinge of guilt stabbed his chest, knowing her anger stemmed from him. "Nah, man. I don't think she cares. Let's just get out of here."
"Hell no. I'm still eating." So they sat there. Paul shoveling food into his mouth, ordering desert, getting his coffee topped off by a middle-aged waitress that didn't stand a shot in hell for either his bed or affections. Embry breathed a sigh of relief after an hour when it seemed his brother's bottomless pit of a stomach was full. Paul peeled a handful of twenties from the wad he carried in his pocket and tossed them on the counter with a flourish. "Let's roll."
When they got outside, Embry looked around to make sure nobody was watching so that he might slip off into the treeline. Just as his feet began to move, Paul clapped him on the shoulder hard. "What the hell, bro? You run here lassie style carrying all your shit in your teeth?"
Embry said nothing. The truth was he had run. He was halfway home when Paul called him, knowing the best way to get Bella's scent off his clothes was to let mother nature do her work. Wolf slobber would take care of the rest.
"Man, I'll give you a ride." Paul fished around in his pocket for his car keys. "Shit, must have dropped them. You wanna go check inside and I'll look out here?" he suggested. Then he waited.
"Really, I can just..."
"What the fuck, Call? You can't help a brother out? Or is it because you don't want me to see you in there talking to the vamp tramp?"
Anger prickled along Embry's spine. Bella was no tramp, just as much as Paul wasn't really an asshole and he wasn't a bastard. "Shut-up."
"Why should I? You're the one who's been sneaking around talking to her without permission."
Embry cringed, having been found out. The pack had agreed to avoid Bella Swan. It wasn't an edict, exactly. Just a bad idea considering Jake hadn't seen her yet. "Look, she's our friend. Her dad is in the hospital and none of us have gone to see them. It's just wrong anyway you slice it."
"What's wrong is you pulling this shit. You know what he'd do if he found out you went to see his girl."
"She's not his fucking girl!" Embry nearly shouted in frustration. He was growing weary of walking on eggshells and the power struggle going on in Jacob's mind. "Bella made that pretty clear when she left Dodge six years ago."
"Don't be stupid, Call. Stay away from her until she decides."
"Bullshit. How in the hell can she do anything if she doesn't know what's going on? I didn't tell her jack, but someone should. Oh, and for the record, I'm pretty damn sure she's got a boyfriend."
"Fuck." The word spewed like venom out of Paul's mouth. Neither man needed to communicate with each other to know what that revelation could do to Jacob Black... and them.
When Bella walked out of the diner, both men stopped arguing long enough to look at her, wondering just who this woman she had become was and if any part of her knew yet what role she had to play.
oooOOOooo
In the midst of a mental breakdown, Bella Swan drove to the hospital to collect her father. There was nothing she could do. Not now at least. Charlie was waiting for her at the hospital, leaving her with no time to think. Later. I'll think about it tomorrow. If I do it now, I won't be able to stand it. I won't be able to do anything else.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'll make Billy give me some answers.
She strode confidently into the hospital, determined not to let her father see the worry that was eating her from the inside out. Tonight she'd concentrate on her dad. Getting home, fed and rested. As she approached Charlie's hospital room, Bella could hear her father talking to someone. Another man with a deep voice, familiar to her, but so far away.
All conversation ceased when she entered the room.
Charlie grinned excitedly at his daughter. "Bells! You finally here to spring me from this jail?"
"Yeah, you bet Dad." Bella shifted nervously, her eyes darting around the room, landing anywhere except on the man that stood near her father's chair. He was big, formidable and scared the living shit out of her. In fact, he always had. What in the hell are you doing here? she wondered.
"Bella, you remember Paul Lahote?" Charlie indicated his head toward Paul, whose eyes lit up and smiled at her so widely she was sure it must be a case of mistaken identity.
"Of course she does, Chief. We've spent a lot of time together." If Charlie looked a bit confused, it faded quickly when Paul kept talking. "You losing your memory already Chief? You forgot how much all us boys goofed off together. Jacob and Bella hardly got a minute to themselves with all of us hanging around like a pack of wild animals."
He surprised her even further by stepping forward and pulling her into a tight hug. "Good to see you little sister."
What the hell?
Then shocking her even further out of her wits, Paul stood back, placed his hands firmly on her shoulders and looked her square in the eye. "How are you, Bells?" he asked, with just the least bit of stress on her nickname.
Nobody but her father and Jacob called her that. She wouldn't let anyone else do it and sure as hell not Paul Lahote, of all people. What kind of game are you trying to play? This shit with the pack was seriously pissing her off, making her wonder if they all ate the brown acid or something.
"I'm fine, Paul. What are you doing here?" Bella didn't care if it sounded snotty. Enough was enough.
"I'm here to help you get your Dad home." He turned to Charlie and winked. "Don't want my boss out any longer than he needs to be because he tried to get around by himself."
Bella's knees buckled. "Boss?"
Charlie smiled. "That's right, Bells. Paul's one of my deputies these days. Best man I've had working with me in a long time. He's good at sniffing out troublemakers."
Paul watched in amused silence while her jaw dropped.
Bella glanced between the two men, brows raised and forehead creased, wondering if her father knew about Paul and his furry little secret. She couldn't help the twisted smile that crossed her face. "Yeah, I'm sure he's a real bloodhound."
It seemed like it took an eternity for the doctors to sign off on Charlie's release. The small room was cramped and stifling with Paul's presence there. At first Bella had wandered aimlessly around the room, desperately trying to look anywhere but at him. Paul made every excuse in the book to get up and move around, brushing against her and being far more congenial than he'd ever been known to be.
It was unnerving, considering the fact that Embry and Leah had been so careful to avoid touching her. She was sure that after the hug she had gotten from Embry that morning he had probably dove into a lake on his way home to rid himself of her scent. Bella was itching to get Paul alone so that she could demand some answers from him.
The nurse came to escort Charlie out, reminding him it was hospital policy that all patients leave in a wheelchair. Bella excused herself from the argument, grateful for the excuse of needing to pull the truck up to the entrance.
Both men were waiting for her by the main doors when she put it in park. Charlie with a shit-eating grin on his face, ready to ditch the wheelchair and Paul smiling as if his life depended on it. What are you up to? she wondered, knowing there was no way he was being this nice without some sort of motive.
After he helped Charlie get situated in the truck, Bella expected Paul to leave. What she didn't expect was for him to tap her on the shoulder just as she was opening her door. Paul towered over her, a crooked grin on his face that might have looked kind to anyone else but all she saw was something sinister. "Gimme your keys, Bella."
Bella blinked, baffled by the demand. "What? why?"
Completely amused, Paul rolled his eyes and held out his hand, wiggling his fingers. "Keys. I'm driving you and your dad home."
Bella gave him a hard look. "No. I'll drive," she stated unequivocally as she yanked open the truck door.
A hot, strong arm clamped around her waist while at the same time said keys were wrenched out of her hand. Paul's warm breath tickled her cheeks. "I told you, I'm driving."
Fuming, Bella stomped her foot like a four-year-old child. "Why?" she demanded, ready to slap Paul. Her face was flushed with red, smoke practically rolling out of her ears.
Paul looked over her shoulder to her father and then back at her again. "Because Charlie and I are both too big to ride bitch"
The short drive home seemed more like a hundred miles rather than the ten it really was. Bella sat between the two men, arms crossed, trying to make herself as small as possible. It was an epic fail. Paul kept brushing against her, patting her knee like he was her best pal in the world. He kept his eyes on the road, whistling an old campfire tune while drumming his fingers on the steering wheel as though he didn't have a care in the world. Bella cringed mentally. Calm, cool and collected Paul scared her more than angry Paul ever did.
The second Paul's long legs unfolded through the door, Bella bolted from the truck, stumbling up the path to the house in an effort to reclaim some personal space. It was short-lived. Every time she turned around, he was behind her. Reaching over her shoulder for a glass, snatching the phone from her hand to talk to the pizza delivery place, seating himself next to her on the loveseat.
It unnerved her. As much as Bella had wanted earlier to get Paul alone so she could question him, now she just wanted to hide. After an hour, he and Charlie seemed to be absorbed so deeply into ESPN that she figured it was safe to slip away.
Bella crept out on the porch, leaned against the banister and tried desperately to regain some semblance of composure.
"Hiding from me?"
Paul's deep voice rumbled behind her, startling her so badly that she nearly dove headfirst over the railing.
"What in the hell is the matter with you?" Bella demanded. "I've about had it with this crap!"
"Don't know what you mean, Bells. Charlie's my boss and he needed a hand. I have two," he explained flashing her his best impression of jazz hands.
Paul's sardonic smile and cocky reply enraged her. Bella crossed her arms over her chest, glaring daggers with her eyes. "Cut the crap and tell me why you're really here." Her voice was icy, but there was a small quaver to it that she hoped he couldn't sense.
Paul leaned in close... too close. Bella could feel the heat emanating from his body. His cheek brushed against hers ever so slightly and he sniffed the surrounding air like a predator. "Fear isn't the only thing we can smell."
He backed off, looking her directly in the eyes. "Alpha orders."
Bella stared back at him, unblinking, her mind slowly processing the information. Paul grew impatient. He could see the wheels turning in her head.
"That's the answer to your question. I'm here on Alpha orders."
"Jake sent you here." It wasn't so much a question as it was a statement. As though she needed to say it out loud in order to understand.
Paul threw his hands up in the air dramatically, waving them around like a game show host. "Bingo! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner."
"Why?" she asked, ignoring his apparently new found flair for dramatics. "Why the hell did he send you? Why doesn't he just come himself?"
"What makes you so sure he hasn't?" Paul saw the recognition sweep over her face and took the opportunity to bait her some more. He stepped forward, backing her against the wall of the house, then placed his hands on either side of her, effectively caging her in. "How have you been sleeping, Bella?"
That snapped her out of it. Bella pushed hard against his chest to no avail. "That's none of your business!"
He laughed openly at her, but there was no humor in his eyes or in his voice when she heard the low rumble escape his chest. "I'm his beta and he's pack. It is my business." Pushing off from the wall he stepped away from her to leave, but stopped at the bottom of the porch steps looking back at her one last time. "Don't even think about leaving town, and if Embry comes back tell him to stay away."