Chapter 4

"So, this is Isabella Marie Swan, Edward Cullen's muse and chosen one," a cold voice said to another figure standing in the shadows.

"Yes."

"She is with a child."

"With two."

"Twins? How charming. How much longer till she gives birth?"

"I haven't been able to get hold of her records, but I would say one and a half to two months."

"Excellent. I'm able to wait till she's given birth to her children. Then she will be mine."

"Or we could take her now to save us from another trip here and just get rid of the babies. Her body heals after you've changed her."

"I'm no baby murderer. Let them be born, and their father can take care of them. I don't want to be seen as a heartless monster. She would hate me for eternity for that. We come back for her when the time is right."

And at that, the two figures left the concert hall.

Paul smelled the sickening stench of leeches, two of them this time; the other one was the same as in the first concert. He fought down the urge to phase and turned to look at Embry, who was sitting two rows behind him. How the fuck Embry hadn't smelled them already. He nodded, and Embry vanished, taking Jared, seated two rows further back with him. He was itching to run after them, but he could not leave Bella; his wolf didn't allow him to leave his mate and babies, not when there was a threat to them.

Paul didn't know what he exactly hoped Embry and Jared could do; they were in the middle of fucking CBD Boston, so they might be able to track them for a bit to get an idea who the fuck they were. But that's it.

He turned his attention back to Bella and caught her eye. She looked at him and smiled, but she had a very concentrated look on her face, and soon she tuned to look at the conductor.

He felt so damn helpless. How the fuck was he able to keep her safe from something he didn't have a fucking clue it was? Paul thought, pushing down the rising panic.

Jared and Embry followed the trace of the bloodsuckers as they ran out of the concert hall. The trace led them out through one of the fire doors and along the alley to the street. As soon as they got to the road, it vanished, which could only mean they had left with a car. They looked around, but there was heavy traffic and no way of knowing which car was theirs. And even if they did, what the fuck could they do?

"Fuck!" Jared shouted. "Paul will lose his shit."

"Hey man," Embry said, panting, "there's nothing we could have done to them anyway here in the middle of the city."

"Yeah, but if we'd seen them, it would've been better than nothing," Jared said. "We got too careless after a no-show in the last concert. The fact that Paul can't leave Bella makes this fucking impossible. He's the only one who could kill them while still human. We are useless unless in wolf form."

"And that is why he should be with us chasing them," Embry said.

"Yep. This is so fucked up. If those fuckers only show up when Bella is out of the Res, there is no way we can ever catch them like this," Jared said. He was starting to feel fucking irritated due to not phasing in eight fucking days. Kim was still being a damn bitch, which made him angrier and depressed. Why the fuck she couldn't let their relationship go to its natural course. That he hadn't gotten laid in seven months didn't help either. Damn, that he needed to get laid. Soon he would fuck just about anybody willing, and that was not what he wanted; he'd never been one to fuck around, not even before Kim. His mind drifted to Anna, the way she'd looked when he had met her in a café in Forks, her big blue eyes and pink lips... but he shook his head to get rid of the image of the girl he could not stop thinking about.

"Let's go back," he grunted, and they started to walk towards the concert hall's main doors.

The concert was still full-on. Jared texted Paul, telling him they lost the fuckers without a visual, and sat down on the bench at the foyer. He didn't want to go back in; the big hall full of people made him uncomfortable, and he rather waited here.

"I'll go and find us something to drink," Embry said.

Jared listened to the music. He had to say he'd never thought Bella was so talented she could make music that sounded like that. He could still remember the day Paul had brought her to meet the gang a bit over three years ago at First Beach, how shy and reserved she'd been. She had changed quite a bit from those days. Being with Lahote changes a person, as does being almost killed by a fucking vampire.

Jared's phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen

It was Paul answering him.

"Fuck!"

He texted back, "Yes fuck. But we never catch them in the city without your help. You know that."

"Yes." came Paul's reply.

Jared sighed and rubbed his face. He was so damn happy that he and Paul had been able to get back to being friends. They've known each other their whole lives, and they'd been pretty much separable before Jared had phased. He hadn't shared his man-whore habits, but partying with Lahote had been epic shit.

But things had gone haywire when Paul had started dating Bella and when he had brought Bella to their pack meeting, a girl that wasn't an imprint, a girl that he loved and wanted nonetheless ...

Jared shuddered from memory, the rage he'd felt. It'd been so fucking irrational but so powerful emotion he'd lost all his marbles at that time. He had hated Paul and Bella, and Kim's jealousy had fueled the hate. In hindsight, it was so easy to see; deep down, they both had known what Bella had said was true, that Kim was afraid their love wasn't real, like Paul's and hers was. They'd both known.

The instant relief Jared had felt after the spell had been broken, after that shaman dude had taken the smokescreen off, had been unbelievable, to finally understand why he had felt and behaved the way he had.

But the thrill hadn't lasted long after Kim had lost her shit. But no matter how Kim was behaving, he loved her with his soul connection, and he was able to forgive her; he understood her he really did. But she just had no other choice than to let him go. It is the only way they can go on with their lives.

He would always be there for Kim and she for him, but they weren't lovers anymore. They'd tried once after the bonfire... She had begged him to make love to her... that had been the most heartbreaking moment in his life and would probably stay like that till the day he dies; the look on her face when he just couldn't make love to her anymore, when she'd realized he didn't want her anymore...

"Fuck," he muttered and rubbed his face again, clenching his teeth. The guilt was terrible, even now, more than six months later. But what the fuck should he have done? He didn't want her anymore. That was the cruel truth. There were days when he wanted to kill Old Quil for causing them so much pain. Kim was a wonderful girl, she could be his best friend, his soul mate, but now they almost hated each other.

His phone buzzed again. He knew without looking it was from Kim. He glanced at the screen.

"Is it finished?"

Jared sighed but didn't open the message. He would answer her later. She would flip out at him for not responding right away, but it was time she learned that she was not his keeper. This shit would never end if he didn't put his feet down, and this was as good time as any to do it. Being away from her has given him the courage he'd needed.

The music ended, and applause erupted. The audience had loved what it had heard, which would mean one or two encores, and it would take another hour, probably two before they could leave the concert hall.

He got a text from Paul, "I'll try to her out sooner than in NY can't promise. Let you know 10 min before we're coming out."

Jared had to laugh. Paul was behaving like they were freaking bodyguards to the president of the United States. But guess he had every reason to be. Just to think that something would be threatening Kim or Anna...

"Here's coke."

Embry came back, handing him a cold can.

"Thanks, man. Maybe we should go to the pub nearby to wait for them to get out. Who the fuck knows how long it will take this time. "

Paul hopped out of the shower and grabbed a towel to dry himself. He wiped the steam off the mirror and looked at his reflection. Tired eyes looked back at him. It had been long eight days; he could not sleep when they were out of the Res, constantly worrying about Bella and the babies. They would leave the day after tomorrow, and then there was just one more gig in Seattle. He was so fucking relieved about that.

He opened the door silently to the bedroom and went to pull on some sweats and a t-shirt. He tiptoed to the bed and kneeled to kiss Bella's forehead. She was deep in sleep; she'd been wiped out after a long day and had crashed right after they'd come back to the house after the concert. She was getting more tired more quickly these days, and Paul hated the idea that there was still one more concert before she would stop and stay at La Push before the babies were born. Patrick had tried to get her to do two more concerts, one in LA and another in Atlanta, but she declined.

Her mouth was slightly ajar, and she was snoring softly, something less cute that had come with the last trimester of her pregnancy. Paul had to suppress a chuckle when she turned, and she snorted loudly.

He placed his hands on her bump and kept them there. Both babies were sleeping, too, no kicking or wiggling. He kissed the bump softly and left the bedroom to have a beer with Jared and Embry before going to bed. They were all staying in a house that was someone Patrick knew but wasn't staying at the Boston right now. Some fucker loaded with money, it seemed.

"So, what happened today?" Paul asked as he sat on the couch. He'd been damn disappointed about losing the fuckers without a visual. He should have been more alert, but since no one had come to the second concert, he'd hoped it had been a coincidence, after all, a leech being in the first one, but after today, there was no doubt that who the fuck they were, they were there because of Bella.

"Not much," Jared answered. "We ran after the trace, but it immediately vanished when we got out of the concert hall."

"Damn. How the fuck are we ever going to catch them?" Paul said.

"You need to trust one of us to be able to protect Bella," Embry piped in, "at least in the city, you are the only one who can take them down as you don't necessarily have to phase to kill them."

This fact had been established in Seattle a little less than three weeks ago. He and Bella had gone to the bank to discuss the loan, and on their way back to the car, they had come across a leech. Jacob had been with them at that time, and Paul had decapitated the fucker before realizing what he was doing. That deepshit had come too close to his mate and babies, and Paul had acted purely on his instincts. In hindsight, he should have tried to find out who the tick was, and what he wanted. But when he had realized this, the fucker had already been in pieces in the trunk of his car apart from his head, which he had burned in the garbage tin in the parking hall.

Thank fuck they'd been in a parking hall where there hadn't been any other people; probably the corpse had chosen the place for that reason. Jacob had been a fucking ace when he realized to take Bella out of the parking hall, so she hadn't seen anything too upsetting, only him ripping the head off. She'd been fucking terrified, and Paul had been scared shitless that it would cause something to her pregnancy, but it hadn't. Thank fuck for that.

"So, Jared, do you mind if we talk about you and Kim," Paul took a swig from his beer. He'd been putting off this discussion, but they needed to have it nonetheless. He'd seen a lot in Jared's mind, and Jared knew that, so in a way, they didn't have to talk for him to understand what was going on, but things had to change.

Jared sighed and emptied his bottle. He got up, "you want another one?"

"Yeah, bring me one," Embry answered. Paul shook his head to say no. Embry was reading a book, and Paul was thinking should he ask him to leave but decided against it. The pack had no secrets, so Embry would find out about what was said from Jared's mind sooner or later.

Jared came back with two beers.

"I don't mind, but I don't know what the use is to talk about it. It is what it is," Jared said somberly.

"What the fuck is it?" Paul asked.

"Kim still loves me, and I don't want her that way anymore, but she's unable to let me go."

"But she has to, and you need to make her understand if she continues to be a bitch."

Jared winced. It was one thing for him to think Kim was a bitch but to hear someone else say it... But then it was the truth.

"It's not that simple, as you know, well you don't, not exactly, we cannot hurt our imprints."

"But she's hurting you all the fucking time."

"It's easy for you..." Jared started

"Don't fucking dare, Jared. There had been nothing easy in our relationship until these last few months, and now we have this fucking threat hanging over us."

Jared whined inwardly; to piss off Paul was one the dumbest thing anyone could do.

"Sorry, man, you're right," Jared rubbed his face again. "I tell her this can't go on anymore. I know it won't be easy, but this shit must change."

"Good. And tell me if there is anything I can do," Paul said, ending his beer. "Now, tell me about this Anna chick."

Jared's whole demeanor changed and the biggest grin Paul had ever seen spread on his friend's face.

"Fuck, man," Jared started.

Paul's phone buzzed. He thought about ignoring the call, but he glanced at the screen and saw dr. Leech's name flashing on the screen. What the fuck?

"Speak!" he answered the phone.

"Paul, we have a problem," the doc said.

AN:

What do you think Carlisle is going to tell Paul?

Thank you for your support for this story. It means a lot and is a great motivator.

Enjoy your Sunday, where-ever you are. Here where I am, the trees are finally getting leaves after very cold spring.