BELLA
Paul had explained everything, just like he'd promised. He always kept his promises. He had walked me to his house after 'Linner' and we had a deep conversation about imprinting. I knew imprinting existed. But I had no in-depth knowledge about it. I just knew it represented love. We sat on his carpet, between his couch and television. He explained how he felt about imprinting before he looked into my eyes and how he felt about it now. Remembering the words he had used, I felt a gush of joy in my heart.
"It's part of the legends. It doesn't happen to every shifter but the idea is that we all have a soulmate, another half, that the universe created for us to love and be loved by. To protect and cherish. And when we find our soulmates it's like the world tilts, and all the magnets re-polarise, and north isn't north anymore. She is. You are. You are what guides me now, and everything I am is yours. And I've been waiting for you since I was a shitty little eight year old." He said with adoration seeping out of his beautiful dark brown eyes.
All the blood seemed to seep out of my face. He spoke with so much love and adoration. I never realized how deep our bond went. Could I return his love to the same extent, to cherish him as much as he cherished me. He deserved so much love, and I was just a broken, confused girl, who had been through so much this past year.
Anyone who met me knew I was damaged. I knew it, and they knew it. I had been doused in gasoline and set on fire, and I still carried the scars. I was still singed, broken, and damaged. And I still carried the wounds. Until I met Paul, my chest had a hole, a big gaping hole. I was depressed and I'm sure most of my actions during that time of my life had murky intentions laced within them. Like when I hopped on the back of a random guy's bike or every time I intentionally sought out danger.
Then Jacob slowly built me back together like I was one of his bikes. Piece by piece, I was able to pull myself more and more together. When he left though, my chest ripped right back open. The gaping hole in my chest grew. I was finally getting stitched back together, and then the stitches ripped right back open, in an even wider pattern. Then I met Paul, and eventually, the hole in my chest felt like a bad dream—a nightmare. It had felt like that pain in my life was a second-rate ending to a miserable book because with Paul around I was in a witty, supernatural, tumultuous fairytale.
How did the spirits give this funny, witty and impressively gorgeous man such a dud of an imprint. I felt worthless and undeserving. I never understood the depths the imprint went until the moment he opened up in his living room.
Paul must have noticed how affected I was by his words. Because he continued. " I ran away from you at first because I didn't think I deserved you. I know you thought I hated you but I just hated —" He paused trying to find the right words.
"—the species of the person you previously dated. And I had thought that Jacob was sharing our secret with outsiders. And Embry and Jared couldn't even tell their parents the truth. But that was no reason to be so rude when we'd first met." He explained with a shrug.
"And I was a shitty kid, filled with a lot of rage. I still am. But I quickly got it under control. With each passing day during Spring Break, being around you made me feel more at peace." He addmitted with a shy smirk.
"Being around you is the most amazing feeling. Your happiness is tangible. When you worry, I worry for you. And the imprint pull was what brought me back to you the second time you were in LaPush after I had imprinted. But your presence, your energy and the happiness you bring me was what made me choose you." I swallowed hard.
This was a lot.
"You chose me? The imprint like—pull isn't why you hang out with me?" I whispered.
This was my biggest insecurity about imprinting thus far. I didn't want him to feel stuck with me or obligated to hang out with me.
"You don't feel stuck with me? Stuck with a broken, damaged dud?" I nervously giggled out, trying to ease my unstable tear ducts from spilling.
"I chose you as my best friend Bella Swan. I don't feel stuck to you. I feel complete around you. You're so caring," he said as he pulled me from my crossed-legged position on the carpet onto his lap.
"You're so beautiful, you're incredibly kind," and then he playfully growled.
"And the best cook I've ever met!" He said.
"Don't cry, Bella. I want you in my life." He whispered with finality.
"Thank you, Paul. You're my best friend too." I replied to his speech.
"You mean the world to me and I'm never leaving again. I promise." I said with a grin.
"Better not, chica." He said with a fake stern voice and then chuckled, as he began to tickle my abdomen.
.
.
.
After my conversation with Paul, I'd had to rush home before my Dad got home. I was already pushing it. I was grounded and decided to go to LaPush for hours. I had made it home just in time to put leftovers into the microwave and then I heard his cruiser pull up. Thank god. I made it in the nick of time. And it was totally, unequivocally worth it.
The next week and a half of being grounded passed by so slowly. Life felt heavy and dull for a few days after I'd last seen Paul until I decided to continue my contumacious, latchkey kid-type behaviour. Like a rebel, I decided to call Paul and invite him over to my house, after school every day, until seven, when my dad gets home. So, with a week left of my house arrest, Paul made it bearable. He'd come over every day at 3 pm and stay until the second my Dad's cruiser pulled up the driveway. Then he'd gracefully leap out of my window.
We'd watch movies. All of them comedies, including American Pie and Sixteen Candles. We'd work on our schoolwork and homework together. And we'd josh around, goofing around with one another. Hanging out inside the house, and in my backyard on days when the sun was out, we made house arrest my bitch.
.
.
.
On my first day of freedom, I woke up feeling giddy. Charlie said I still couldn't see Edward and I had easily agreed to this condition to no longer being grounded. Edward was who knows where. He could be in Malaysia for all I knew. Paul had different thoughts though. He suspected because Victoria was around, Edward might have felt obliged to stay in Forks. Perhaps the other Cullens too. I'd somewhat agreed that that was plausible. But I really didn't want to reach out and find out.
Edward had left me his phone number in case of emergencies, although I haven't used it, Paul concurred if Edward was needed for an emergency he'd have to be available and in the area. So the Cullens or some of them, or perhaps just Edward were nearby most likely. He'd given the number to Sam when I'd told him. So as Alpha, Sam would be able to know whether the Cullens were nearby or not for pack patrols or be able to communicate any sightings of Victoria. I'd said that I didn't want to know their answer on the phone unless what they said on the phone or any future phone call with them ever applied to me.
On my first weekend off of house arrest, I'd gone down to Sam and Emily's to see everyone and Paul. My friendship with Jacob took the backburner of my mind most days. I felt sad that he came second to Paul. But Jacob understood. Once I found out about the imprint everyone had congratulated me, and Jacob had made a joke about being my second best friend now. His quip was kind of— drastically true. My friendship with him was still ongoing and just as easygoing as it was before, but I just supplemented most of my old Jacob time, for Paul instead.
When I knew I was Paul's imprint, it had changed the course of my future and it had changed my outlook on Paul especially after he confessed how much he cared about me. I now knew he thought about me as much as I thought about him and it was refreshing to be able to bask in our bond without feeling like I was monopolizing his time. Jacob was perceptive and understood that the little time we got together was valuable and important.
It was weeks later when, on one Saturday I was hanging out with Paul on the beach. He had me on his shoulders. We were playing chicken in the shallow water with Kim and Jaed when Embry ran over to say the "leech" was spotted on the rez. Jared took Kim and I over to Emily's while Paul ran out to join Embry and the rest of the pack. Quil had been a member for about a week now. It was nice to have him in on the secret and he was wildly happy to have his best friends back.
At Sam and Emily's place, we all sat inside while Jared phased just outside the backdoor to keep in contact with the pack. He only entered at once to tell us Quill would be switching out with him. That was the only update we got. We were all nervous. Worried for them, worried for ourselves.
Emily started to cook to calm her nerves. She enlisted Kim to help so she could keep busy too but I declined. Something felt off. I nervously fidgeted with the tassels on the tablecloth as I sat cross-legged on a dining room chair. Once I felt that I'd abused Emily's fabric long enough, I moved on to making little braids in my hair while alternating between picking at my nails.
Thirty minutes later the backdoor opened and everyone but Jacob and Embry entered. Their faces were all stoic. Their faces were hard. Jared and Sam enveloped their imprints, while Paul quietly but firmly walked up to me and put his arms around me. He kept a protective stance around my body. I was in a concave of his abs and arms, with his head nestled into my shoulder. Jacob walked up to me, stood next to my other side, and placed a hand on my back. The energy in the room had gone from nervous chatter to stoic silence. The tension was palpable. It was as if the air got ten degrees colder when they'd walked in and we all felt it. The change was frightening.
"What happened? Is someone hurt?" Inquired Emily, asking the question that was on all the imprint's minds.
I took Paul's head from my shoulder where had it nestled and brought his eyes to mine. Although, he had the strength to keep his head anywhere he wanted, but he let me manhandle him.
"What's wrong?" I whispered.
"We got a note." He choked out.
My eyes were definitely laced with confusion but he didn't elaborate any further. He just kept his arms around me and continued to stare into my stumped face. Okay. What the hell is going on. Something was genuinely, truly, without a doubt wrong. The pack had left to chase Victoria before, and they'd always come back just —visibly annoyed because she would somehow always evade them. It was known that it was most likely her gift.
But they always came back. Always with an annoyed attitude and a need for food. And then the day proceeded as planned, with two wolves on patrol. I started to panic. My breathing was increasing in speed and I'm sure I wasn't the only girl in this room feeling the intensity of the situation whilst feeling completely out of the loop. That's when Jacob took his hand off my back, walked away from my side towards the kitchen table and dropped a crumpled piece of white paper on it. He flattened it out and made space so everyone could see. In big black letters, it said:
I WILL HUNT YOUR IMPRINTS.
The tension in the room evaporated and a collective gasp of terror replaced it. I felt like my body was just dunked in ice water. My head was swimming, trying to reach the surface. I buried my head into Paul's chest and held on to him like a life raft. He held me back, just as firm.
"We're going to find her, and we're going to kill her." He seethed into my wavy hair where his chin lay.
Then he started mumbling that he loved me and that nobody was ever going to touch me, over and over in the most soothing voice I'd ever heard from him. It wasn't just words. It was a prayer.
Sam was talking to the pack but I couldn't force myself to listen to two different voices. I had to focus on Paul's words or else I was going to down. I just listened to Paul's sweet nothings and tried to catch my breathing.
"Hey, hey Bella." Paul soothed. He cupped my head into his mammoth sized hands.
"Breathe in with me, breathe out with me. Breathe in. Breathe out." He soothed.
He repeated those words until my breathing was steady and my heartbeat felt like it was at a normal pace.
"Do you have a plan?" I finally asked.
"We're going to. Until then, we'll patrol everywhere you go. Same goes for Kim and Emily. We'll protect all of you, kid." His term of endearment helped calm me.
Despite how tranquil I now felt with my head placed in his big hands, I knew how fucked we really were.
Words of the day:
Unequivocally: in a way that is clear and unambiguous
Tangible: something that can be touched or felt, though it can be used in metaphorical senses
Tumultuous: making a loud, confused noise; uproarious, or excited, confused, or disorderly
Contumacious: stubbornly or willfully disobedient to authority
Latchkey kid: Latchkey kid is in reference to children coming home from school while both parents are away at work.
