Chapter Three – Temperance

Title: Through the Window Came the Wind

Author : lifelesslyndsey

Disclaimer: It might not mah sandbox, but I'm building castles. But I'm not profiting from them.

Pairing: SamxBella

Rating: NC-17

Warning: language, and adult concepts in probably graphic citrusy detail.

Summary: He fought to do what was expected of him and she did the opposite. If love was less about finding that perfect someone, and more about finding that someone who makes you perfect, you never know who you might find. Love might bring out the best in us, but first, it brings out the worst.

"The worst-tempered people I've ever met were people who knew they were wrong." ~Wilson Mizner

She laughed, snorted really, throwing an arm over her face. "You're something else, Sam Uley."

"You really have no idea," I sighed. "I called your dad last night, after you fell asleep. He's already at work. He said he'd have some one pick you up but it would have to be in a squad car, when he got the chance."

"Oh God," she groaned, peeking up at me from the crook of elbow. "You're serious."

"I told him it was no problem to bring you home, but he insisted." My reply was followed with another groan. "I told him that if he wanted, he could pick you up after work. I figured it would be less embarrassing to be picked up by your own father than some deputy."

"So what? I have to hang out here all day?" she asked, sneering. "Great."

The attitude was back from last night, and I didn't particularly fucking care for it in the morning light either. "If you want to be a bitch, I can take you home now. If you want to suck it up and deal with me, I had considered bringing Jake by. I don't know how fucking generous I'm feeling though, considering you haven't bothered to show me the courtesy of pulling the stick out of your ass yet."

She blinked, pushing up on her elbows. I could see the dark outline of her nipples through her borrowed shirt, heat burning in my belly as the thin cotton pulled tight across her thin form. The urge to make her eat something was accompanied with the urge to get her naked; both sanctimoniously strange and unwelcome. I smiled through it, feeling my hands twitch beside me, as I waited for her reply.

"You're such a dick," she muttered, but it lacked the bite she was probably aiming for. "I need a shower."

"You know where it is," I pointed to the hall. "I'll wash your clothes; I can see through your shirt. Unless you want to give Jake a show?" I asked, but I was already gathering up her musty red hoodie and torn jeans.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she shot me a sleepy-eyed glare. "Asshole."

She found me on the back porch, loading her clothes into the dryer. "Your machine's outside?"

"No hook-ups in the cabin," I explained. "The washer's actually hooked to a separate pump than the cabin. It's hooked to the house's well, out front there." I pointed to the bigger white house northeast of my cabin. I grinned a little, watching the pale blue curtains in the window shift. "My momma's place. So, unless you want to meet her, I'd get back inside. You're wearing my clothes, she won't pause to ask questions, she'll just assume."

I waved my peeking mother off as Bella rushed back inside, her hands still crossed over her chest. "Momma's boy?" she asked, once again standing awkwardly in my kitchen. "What's the point of moving out, if you can see inside your mother's kitchen from your back porch?"

"If it were up to me, I wouldn't have moved out at all," I replied evenly. "She insisted she needed the space, but I didn't want her living on her own with the twins, so I built this cabin. That would have been...six years ago, I suppose..." I had caught enough shit from the boys for being a momma's boy that her snide comment did little.

"Oh," she said. "Um. You built the whole thing?" She looked mildly impressed, and the wolf liked that. It just made me feel kind of sick, and mostly uncomfortable. "Twins? You have siblings?"

"From the ground up," I admitted. "I have sisters. Two little ones, turned six last winter." She opened her mouth again, and I could almost taste the apology. I didn't want it; it was easier to think when she was being a belligerent little bitch. Better for now, I thought, to keep her separated from myself. Just for a while, while she figured which way was up in her own life. She didn't need me confusing her, yet. "Save the small talk for Jacob," I cut in, grabbing one of the chipped white mugs out of the open cabinets and plunking it on the counter. The coffee was lukewarm in the carafe, but even if wasn't, I didn't doubt she'd find something to complain about. The world, it seemed, was her enemy. I slid the mug across the counter, where she wrapped her fingers around it.

"Black?" she asked, right on cue for a complaint. I slid the bowl of sugar to her and watched her frown as she scooped it into the coffee, catching the faint crescent shaped scar on her wrist. "Why do you keep staring at me?"

"What the fuck is this?" I asked instead of answering, snatching her wrist up between my fingers.

"It was an accident," she stammered, tugging in vain against my grip. "A...a nomad vampire found me. The Cullens saved me. Dammit Sam, let go! You're hurting me!"

A shudder, so violent it shook her, ran through me and I dropped her wrist as though it burned me. I growled, watching her flinch as I pushed out the backdoor sprinting for my mother's house. I wouldn't phase, no. Never on accident, never again. The air calmed me, cool against my sweat-damp skin. The cabin must have been stifling, the kind of heat you don't notice till you step outside it. Breathing deeply, I felt the fight melt out of me as my momma stared at me, her face darkened by the screen door. She gave me a smile, set deep in her thin face, lines etched at the corner of her mouth.

"Come on in, baby," she said, leaving me to follow her into her little den. "What's the Swan girl doing at the house?" Momma never was one to mix words.

"I imprinted." Neither was I.

Momma barked out a laugh, pushing the white-flecked hair from her face. "You boys work fast these days."

"What?" I said, dropping onto her couch. The girls were out, but it was Wednesday, that meant dance class. Subconsciously, I was already working out how I could pick them up while dropping Swan off.

"I know better than to doubt you didn't imprint on that girl, but a day's passed and you already got her in your bed," she said, shaking her head and smiling. "Can't say it says much about the girl, but you are a good looking boy."

I flinched, grimacing. "Oh hell, Momma," I groaned, wiping my hand down my face. "She doesn't know, and I haven't had her anywhere near my bed. Found her half-drowned last night, walking drunk down the road to see Billy's kid. She crashed at my place. That's it."

"Oh baby," she said, a little more gently. "You gotta tell her, son."

I nodded, grimly. "I know. She knows I'm a wolf, and about the rest of the pack. I don't know... How do you drop that on a girl you don't know, Momma? She's practically a baby."

"She's what? Four years younger than you?" Momma asked, cocking her head. "Boy, you're all babies when it comes down to it."

"Six years," I murmured. "She's barely eighteen."

"Barely eighteen and seen a helluva lot more than most girls her age," Momma replied, leaning back in her rocker. "She was with one of them leeches? Those boys are pretty. I doubt she managed to keep her legs closed. Lord knows I wouldn't have."

"Yeah well, that never was a skill of yours, wasn't it?"

She gave me a grin, and I rolled my eyes. "Guilty," she said. "But I never regretted it, baby boy. Now, you calm the fuck down, and get back to the girl. Looks like she's pullin' a runner."

Twisting where I sat, I caught sight of what my mother had; Little Red tripping her way up the muddy Rez roads. "She's headed to Jacob's, I'm sure. Girl doesn't listen."

"They never do."

I kissed my momma goodbye, slipping out the backdoor. Half the pack was already in my front yard, awaiting the orders for the day.

"What's the Swan bitch doing at Jake's?" Paul asked, his lips curling back in disgust. I knew well enough that half his hate for her had nothing to do with the Cullens and everything to do with Jake. Paul had always looked at himself as an older brother, something that normally made him act like a dick, but he was fiercely protective. It made him strong for the pack, but it wasn't in me to admire him for it, at the moment.

My reaction surprised the both of us, though I think I did better to hide it.

I punched him in the mouth.

The collective silence of the Pack said enough; I was never violent with them. I didn't need to be.

"You, nor anyone else in this Pack, will speak of Swan in a derogatory manner from this moment on. You will treat her as an equal, as a part of this tribe and Pack," I said, putting the force of the Alpha behind it; something I did even less than corporal punishment. "You will not ask why; I won't be discussing it. If you should deduce the reasoning behind my decision, and I hope you all do, you should be well enough read in your lore by now, you will not share it with anyone. I will speak of it when I am ready and will return the courtesy should your time come. Now," I slapped my hands together. "It's time for you all to get the fuck out of my face. Paul, you're still on patrol. And you get afternoon patrols for being a douche bag. Jared... fix Paul's jaw, and then grab some of the guys in town and head up to the Whitman Job. Embry, get your ass to school." They dispersed, save for Paul who lingered back, scowling.

"Seriously Sam?" he said, shoulders tense. "Do I really have to do double patrols?"

I wouldn't admit it, but the punishment didn't really fit the crime. He hadn't known and to be fair, none of us, as of yesterday, particularly cared for the Swan girl. "I'll give your shift to Jake if you pick up my sisters from Dance at one," I said, working the situation to my benefit. It was punishment enough in its own right; the girls loved Paul, but they were still six, and there were still two of them. More importantly, I trusted him with them; he'd never lost his temper, though they were enough to drive a grown man to tears. "You can take my truck. The girls' seats are in the cab," I offered with a smug grin, dangling my keys in front of him. "Have it back by four."

"Dude," Paul replied reproachfully, taking the keys. "Not cool."

I grinned, basking in my moment of smugness. "Yeah but I'm baby sitting the Bitch Queen today and I don't know if I'll have time to get the girls. So, have fun with that. There's cash in the glove compartment; grab them lunch, if you could."

"Fine, fine," he said, rolling his eye, already making his way to my truck. "I'm going back home and going to bed. How come you get to call her a bitch and I don't?"

"Alpha rights," I replied, cutting through the yard toward Jake's. "I do what I want."

"Right," Paul laughed, and I had to laugh too.

I never did what I wanted.

TBC