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Chapter Eight
Nicky woke up, feeling amazing. Living here, in LaPush, she had no worries about her safety, men coming in at random times at night, seeing them and her mom do drugs, coming home to food on fire on her kitchen stove because her mom was too high to keep an eye on whatever she was cooking.
Nicky no longer had to pay the bills or worry about money and finances. Here, it was peaceful. Nicky had a routine, and family to look out for her.
Nicky's mom had texted her only twice in the past week and a half that she'd been here. Nicky's been here for that long so far and her mom had barely noticed.
The one text Nicky's mom sent her, had been her asking where she was. Nicky checked the time zone in Toronto, before sending at text lying saying she was late at work
Her mom sent another text directly after, asking if Nicky had any money in the house. So that was her real concern, Nicky sighed as she just stared at her phone in disbelief. She quickly responded "no." and flipped her phone away from her in disgust.
Paul said that he was talking with the Chief, and the Chief's son, Jacob, who Nicky had met about how to go about getting custody of Nicky. Paul's also been spending a couple of hours a day on his laptop, on the kitchen table, reading about requirements to adopt, filling out and submitting forms. Paul's also been filling out documents for Nicky to become an American citizen.
Paul supposes that Nicky and him will be given a court date one day, to fight for custody of her, and the judge will reach its decision in Toronto. Paul and Nicky will have to fly back to Toronto when they find out the day that it will take place.
A couple members of Paul's friend group (the pack) have agreed to fly up to Toronto with Nicky and Paul, as additional witnesses to vouch for them in the hearing.
Nicky smelled the wafting scent of pancakes, and bacon, coming up from the kitchen. She jumped out of bed and sprinted down the stairs, leaving her bedroom door open and bed a mess in her wake as she ran towards the kitchen in excitement to fill her growling stomach.
Paul had made it a habit to cook breakfast every morning. It was routine. Nicky loved the consistency.
Nicky landed in the kitchen breathless, as Paul handed her a plate of pancakes, bacon and it also seemed to consist of tomatoes. Ew, she thought.
Nicky's nose squished up and eyebrows scrunched down as she made a face of disgust without noticing it was so obvious.
Paul chucked, looking at her face.
"There's only three pieces of tomatoes. It's healthy. I can't just feed you pancakes. You basically eat more syrup than pancakes, anyways. You need a balanced breakfast." Paul said , then his lips pursed as if in thought.
Nicky noticed that Paul looked troubled in thought. He looked troubled a lot. Especially when she'd first met him. She thought he was intimidating and super scary. She'd quickly caved to his interrogation, during their first conversation.
By now, Nicky had figured out it was just his personality. But Paul had slowly been getting more mellow as the days passed and as she continued to live with him.
Embry, on the other hand, had been acting extremely weird, in Nicky's mind for days.
Embry and Paul had been having loads of private conversations lately. Then three days ago, Embry left and hadn't been back to the house.
Since Embry left, Nicky had felt more tired than usual. She'd been going to sleep earlier, her confidence dropped and she was slowly unable to finish her entire meals.
She still felt happy and excited for each day to start but she'd been more lethargic these past few days, since Embry's departure in her life.
Paul noticed the change in Nicky and knew exactly what the cause of her decrease in appetite, strength and personality was due to. The imprint.
Paul and Embry had a civil conversation when Paul had first learned that Embry had imprinted on his little sister. But since that first conversation, Embry has been pushing Paul, saying that they should tell Nicky the full truth about them being shifters, and about the imprint.
Paul had put his foot down, becoming angry each time Embry proposed it. Paul kept up a happy facade for Nicky, trying harder each day, drinking a few more beers each night after Nicky fell asleep but he was fuming on the inside.
Three days ago Embry told Paul that he was leaving. He couldn't handle looking Nicky in the eyes each day as he continued to lie to her. Paul didn't know the half of it though.
Guilt about lying to her, was currently trumping Embry's guilt regarding his attraction to her. Both guilts were rapidly eating away at Embry though. Embry was drowning in his emotions.
One night, he just decided he needed to get out of the house, where he could constantly smell Nicky's scent from every part of the house.
Especially after Nicky showered, lust and need would flow through his blood stream in pulsing waves.
The other day Nicky got out of the shower, and Embry smelled her clean, empowering scent from the living room. He was sitting on the couch, drinking a beer as he watched a baseball game, and Nicky's scent immediately enveloped his nostrils as he heard the water shut off from upstairs.
Nicky's scent overpowered every other smell. Embry crushed the beer in his hands in exasperation, immediately showering the living room with dark brown glass, as Embry tried to contain his lust.
That was the last day Embry could stay in the house. He told Paul that he had to leave because he could no longer lie to Nicky about their life, but he only shared half the reason he'd be leaving.
Paul had angrily pulled him outside to yell at him and tell him that they wouldn't know how leaving an imprint would affect Nicky. Embry said a few days with him gone wouldn't do anything and just headed to the woods exhausted, guilt ridden and feeling disgusted with himself.
Embry had spent the past few days as a wolf, unable to put aside his pride to ask one of his pack members if he could crash at their place and unable to tell the reason why.
Embry covered extra patrol shifts, and still ran by his house every once in a while to make Nicky smelled safe, healthy and sounded happy as she spoke to Paul, and then he'd turn on his heels and keep running.
It was now early morning, and Embry had just passed by his house and heard Paul telling Nicky that she needed to eat more balanced, healthy meals.
She was fine, he thought in the pack mind as he made his way deeper into the fern away from his house to find a place to rest his head for a couple of hours. He needed some shut-eye. He was constantly exhausted.
He was getting close to no sleep but that wasn't the reason he was so tired. He was constantly so exhausted from hiding his true thoughts about Nicky from the pack mind.
He was also getting worn down from his guilt. He felt like he was a piece of paper that kept being put in the shredder. He was in pieces, just barely holding himself together.
Meanwhile, Nicky had just finished half of her breakfast. She couldn't eat the rest. In the back of her head, she realized her appetite was decreasing but she didn't really acknowledge it.
She tried to eat the rest of her food but she'd just ended up picking at it with her fork, so she just pushed her leftovers into a container, put it in the fridge and put her plate and utensils in the sink.
She washed up her plate, and Paul's, as he thanked her. Then she wiped her hands languidly on a hand towel after she finished washing the dishes, feeling unusual exhaustion pull her into a haze.
Paul cleared his throat loudly from behind where she stood near the sink. Nicky turned around. Paul had his wallet in his one hand and a clump of hundred dollar bills in his other hand, reached in her direction.
"You seemed tired these past few days. I thought it might cheer you up to go look for a laptop for school today." Paul smiled.
"You're— you're paying for it?" Nicky asked quietly, in shock, her mouth agape.
"Yeah, of course I am. I'm your brother." Paul said with conviction, placing the cash gently into her palm.
That was one thing Nicky had noticed. The guys around here always moved languidly, gently, just perfectly slowly, as if they did it on purpose. It was as if they curated their own speed and strength.
Her favorite male co-worker at her job in Toronto and her would always play wrestle when it was a slow shift at work. They were handsy, rowdy and rough with each other.
Guys were always like that, she'd thought. Always play fighting, rambunctious and wild. But she'd never seen that side of Paul, Embry or any of their female friends.
They were always gentle, reserved, and touched everything with a light touch. It was an uncanny contrast to any other male friend group.
Nicky pushed away her silly revere over Paul's actions and focused more on his intentions. She filled with gratitude and awe over Paul's gift.
"Thank you so much Paul. I'll go today!" Nicky smiled.
"How about you go now?" Paul persuaded, trying not to reveal his true intentions.
"Sure," Nicky said hesitantly, feeling like she was sort of being summoned out of the house.
"I'll get my stuff in order and then go for a drive to the store." Nicky told him.
In reality, Paul could've given Nicky money for her to get a new laptop anyday. But Paul wanted Nicky out of LaPush today so she wouldn't be so suspicious of where Paul would be. Paul and the pack had planned a five hour training session in the woods.
Paul didn't want to have to lie to Nicky about where he'd be going for five long hours so he thought he'd just try to get her to buy her laptop today. It was as good a time as any.
"Okay. Nicky you have my number right? In case you get lost—or something happens?" Paul said, stumbling over his words.
"Yours, and all your friend's." Nicky groaned, not used to being so closely monitored yet.
Well, not used to having someone around that cared and wanted her to check in. Paul had made Nicky put his number, Embry'd and all this friend's number's into her phones contacts in case anything ever happened. Like that was likely in Forks.
Paul chuckled.
"Okay good. Call me if you need anything. If I don't answer, try my friends cells." Paul said with worry.
Nicky went upstairs and pulled off her pajamas that smelled of pancakes and syrup. She changed into a light blue long sleeve cotton shirt and a pair of white cotton flowy summer pants. Then, she headed downstairs, and grabbed her car keys from the kitchen table.
"Bye Paul!" Nicky called to wherever Paul was because he was no longer standing in the kitchen, and her loud voice echoed throughout the house.
She skipped out to her car, giddy with excitement, and hopped in. She started up her car, and drove out of LaPush, following the directions to the electronic store via her GPS.
There was no electronics store in Forks. The town was much too small. The nearest electronics store was in Port Angeles. Nicky had a one hour drive ahead of her.
She played music from her stereo, and got lost in her thoughts, enjoying herself all the way to Port Angeles.
…
She arrived outside one of many electronics stores in the city. The one she drove to was a small one that specializes in computers.
Nicky pulled into the parking lot and looked around at her surroundings. The little computer store she was about to check out was in a bit of a sketchier area.
Nicky felt confident that she could handle herself and if anyone sketchy approached her in a weird way, she did have pepper spray in her purse. She walked into the computer store, the bell on the door ringing as she entered, with her purse around her one arm.
Nicky was immediately approached by a salesman. She was the only person in the store so at least she'd be catered to. He helped her pick out a laptop and then she paid with the money Paul had given her, only using about three quarters of the cash.
With her new laptop safely contained in its box, she held it with two steady hands, pushed through the store's door as the bell signaled her departure and she walked to her car.
She opened her car's back left door and placed the box with her laptop in it, into her backseat. She closed the door and turned around.
She immediately squealed in fright, and almost fell over, as a blonde man stood just inches from her. She's never even heard him approach.
The man immediately helped steady her shaky frame, putting his one hand on her right shoulder and then quickly taking it away.
The man's hand was extremely cold. Her shoulder where he'd helped steady her felt like it was touched by the ice of the frozen tundra instead of by a man's hand.
Her whole body shivered in response to his quick touch.
Then she looked at him more closely. He wore sunglasses, despite the gloomy, shady it seemed to be, today. He was dressed in expensive designer clothes that looked newly bought, yet he wore no shoes. He stood barefooted before Nicky.
His features were extremely pale, yet he was absolutely flawless. He was more gorgeous than any man she'd ever met before.
He appeared to be studying her just as much as she was studying him. But, he seemed to have no sense of personal space. He was much too close for Nicky to feel safe.
But Nicky couldn't get any further back. Her spine was already scraping against the door of her car in fear. She was about to get her pepper spray out from its spot in her purse when he spoke, distracting her from her task.
"Excuse my intrusion." The man drawled, speaking in the most captivating, enthralling voice she'd ever heard.
His voice sounded like music. His voice left her speechless, and she somehow no longer felt he was a threat. She barely registered his close stance, his odd appearance and his bare feet as a red flag. She was absolutely entranced by his melodic voice.
