Friday

In the pack mind, I could see that Sam had found the girl. Her thick auburn hair was caked with mud. I couldn't see her face well. Half was covered in filth like she had been laying in a mud puddle. The other half was clean, facing up in the misting rain.

On the clean side of her face, her cheek looked sallow. There was no color in her skin. It looked like she had been kept out of the sun for an extended period of time. The vampires may not have sucked her blood, but they did drain the life out of her.

At Sam's instruction, Jared and I waited at Chief Swan's house with Harry Clearwater. We just stood there, waiting for Sam to lead her out of the woods. Finally he stepped out of the trees cradling the girl in his arms. She looked around. The movement of her head was weak, uncertain. Her eyes were adjusting to the bright flood light illuminating the backyard.

I stood to the side of the light, not in the shadows. Her gaze rested on my face. She took in a sharp inhale.

I couldn't breathe at all.

The universe's order that I had built my life on crumbled in an instant. This girl was gravity to me, my foundation for all of existence. All I knew was that this pretty little mud splattered girl needed my protection, my care, and my love.

My love? How could the leech lover need my love? I did not give out love so easily. I barely gave out love at all, except with my dick. Maybe that's what she needs: a good dick down. Maybe that's what that was all about. That must be it.

As Sam walked past me, the girl and I maintained eye contact. She blushed and averted her eyes. Her blush melted me.

Through the smell of rain and dirt was the faint scent of strawberries and vanilla. I wanted it.

Sam handed the girl off to her father, the Chief of Police, Charlie Swan. He stumbled under her weight. I stepped forward to make sure she wasn't dropped. Charlie caught himself before my help was needed. He threw us a quick "thank you" and shut the door behind him.

Sam spoke to Harry Clearwater privately. Then Harry spoke to the three of us as a group. "You boys can go. We'll let you know if there's anything else we need."

I started walking away, ready to get back to my life. Before I could phase in the woods, Sam clapped his hand on my shoulder. I turned around. He and Jared were both staring at me.

"What?" I asked. "Harry said we could go."

"Are you sure you want to go, Paul?" Sam asked, suppressing a smirk. "How are you doing?"

"What do you mean?" I asked. I had no fucking clue what Sam was getting at.

Jared chuckled and Sam was smiling at him with a knowing glint in his eye. "We saw you back there," Jared said. "We saw you imprint."

I yanked my shoulder away from Sam. "You've got to be kidding! You think I imprinted on her?" I started walking away, pulling my shorts down to phase. I just wanted to get away from them.

"Paul, stop!" Sam commanded in his alpha timber.

I froze but did not turn to face them. "What do you want?"

"If you did not imprint, show us the memory in the pack mind. Show us the memory of you watching me carry Isabella to her father."

"Fine," I said, deeply annoyed by how much of my Friday night was already wasted. "But then I'm leaving."

"Fine," Sam agreed, "if you didn't imprint, you can go."

I bent at the waist and tied my shorts to my ankle, knowing that I was showing the boys the prime view of my ass hole. If they were lucky, they'd get to see some of my ballsack through my thighs. Then I phased.

When we were all in the pack mind, I shared the memory. I included it all. I even included Isabella's blush before she averted her eyes.

PHASE OUT, Sam ordered.

The three of us stood there, naked in the forest. They were both staring at me again.

"What?" I finally demanded. "Can I go now?"

"Go where?" Jared asked.

"Home!" I answered. "I'm not on duty. Why do I still need to be here?"

Sam sighed. With sympathy, he said, "Paul, you definitely imprinted on Isabella. Her being in Forks, it's going to prove challenging for both of you."

"What are you talking about?" I was getting angry now. I didn't want his patronizing sympathy.

Sam put his hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged it off.

Sam said, "That whole 'reordering the universe' thing, that was you imprinting."

I furrowed my brows. "Is that why I kind of wanted to fuck her?"

Jared facepalmed. "No, Paul, that's just how you feel about every girl you see."

"Eh, it won't be any more, though," Sam said, elbowing Jared in the ribs with a grin.

"What do you mean?" I asked defensively. "That's, like, my special talent. I can pleasure any woman."

Sam groaned. Jared reached out to pat me on the shoulder. "Not anymore it's not."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I shouted. They were making me mad. "Just because you two are pussy whipped doesn't mean that is ever going to be me!"

Jared and Sam gave each other a look that I didn't like.

"It's Friday," Jared stated the obvious. "Let's go clubbing."

Sam looked thoughtful, then said, "I'll have to explain it to Emily." He was so whipped. "Let's meet at Paul's in twenty minutes."

Jared nodded.

"There we go boys," I said excitedly. This night was finally turning around. "Leave your women at home and we'll all get laid tonight."

Sam rolled his eyes. Jared seemed to be humoring me. "That's right, Paul, we'll all pick up chicks at the club tonight and get laid."

"See you in twenty minutes," I called, then I phased. I ran back to my house for a shower. I picked out one of my tried and true clubbing outfits: black jeans, white tee shirt and my black leather jacket. A little gel in my hair and a clean shave and I was ready to go.

There was a knock on my door just as I was putting my wallet in my pocket.

"Come in."

I was expecting the boys. Instead, Anna walked in. She was drunk and not looking good at all.

"Get out!" I said, pointing to the door.

"Paul, what do you mean 'get out?' I thought we had plans." She sounded so whiny. I didn't know what her problem was tonight.

"I don't think so," I said firmly. "I'm going out with my boys. And you're a mess." It made me cringe just looking at her.

"Fuck you!" she screamed and flicked her lit cigarette at me.

The cigarette missed me. I rinsed it in the sink. I did not want a fire while I was gone. And she knew I hated cigarettes in the house. She was being such a bitch!

Anna brushed past the boys as they came in. Sam shut the door behind him. "What was that about?"

"Anna was a mess," I said, embarrassed that they had seen her in my house like that. "Let's see what pussy is out and about at the club tonight."

Jared was grinning, clearly excited for some variety. I would be too if all I had was Kim.

Sam looked concerned. He always looked concerned about something or another. "Did you and Anna have plans, Paul?"

I cocked my head to the side. "I mean, sometimes we get together on Fridays but only if I can't find someone better."

Sam pinched the space between his eyebrows. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah," I said enthusiastically. "I'm ready to find someone better than Anna tonight."

We all went in Sam's car. I set the ground rules. The deal was, whoever got a girl would get a hotel room in town. They'd have to bring the car back in the morning. Any guy who couldn't find a girl would leave their clothes in the car and run home in wolf form.

I was psyched that they were both putting real effort into getting girls tonight. They were both well dressed, clearly ready to snag a fresh pussy.

We were all let into the club without a problem. I was appalled at what we found when we got inside. There were usually a ton of hot girls dancing to the blaring music. Tonight there were no hot girls. Zero.

"I'm sorry, guys," I said when we ordered our first drink. "This place usually has a great selection."

"What about her?" Jared said, pointing with his head. He was pointing out a saggy tit skank.

"Go for it, Jared," I said, "she's not really my taste."

Jared burst out laughing. "Since when do you have a particular taste in women? Just earlier you were saying that you could pleasure any woman."

"Yeah, but I don't want to pleasure her." She just looked so… unappetizing.

"What about her?" Sam said, pointing his head toward a woman in red that was approaching our booth. She sat right next to me, way too close to me. Her fragrance was nauseating.

She grabbed my hand. I threw up in my mouth a little bit. "Let's dance!" She hollered in my ear.

I yanked my hand away and slid further into the booth. "You go ahead, I'll join you in a minute," I told her, trying to sound convincing.

As soon as she left the table, I said to the boys, "let's get out of here. This place is cursed tonight."

They followed me to the car. Sam started to drive us back to the res. Jared took the back seat so I could have shotgun.

"I'm really sorry about that, guys," I said, feeling like I had let them down. "I don't know why it was so lame tonight."

"Since you didn't find anyone better, do you think you'll hook up with Anna tonight?" Jared asked.

Sam glared at him in the rear view mirror.

"I don't really feel like it." I said honestly. "She was drunk and grimy when I saw her earlier. There's no way she's gotten better since then."

"This is exactly what happened when Jared imprinted on Kim. Do you remember that?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," I leaned my head back. "Neither of you are as much fun now that you've imprinted. Sam, when you were with Leah, you still would come out to the clubs and dance with chicks and shit. And Jared, we used to have a good time catching girls. But now that you're with Kim, it's like you don't even see other girls as attractive."

"He's so close!" Jared said, weirdly excited about some inside joke between him and Sam.

Sam just shook his head and kept driving in silence.

"So close to what, Jared?" I asked, turning to look at him.

He just smiled at me. "None of the girls were hot tonight, huh?"

"Nope."

"Has that ever happened to you before?" Sam asked. "That none of the girls at the club are hot?"

"Never," I admitted. "Usually I have to decide which one to take with me."

Sam asked, "Did the club change or did you change?"

Hmmm. There had to be an explanation for this…. "Maybe they got a new bouncer and the club filled up with uggos. Then when the hot chicks arrived, there wasn't any room."

"Do you think that's what happened?" Jared asked.

"It's hard to imagine a bouncer that stupid." I had to agree.

Sam made a suggestion that cut deep. "Is it possible that you imprinted and now hot girls just don't seem that hot anymore?"

My brain went into overdrive for several minutes as the boys let me process my thoughts.

Fuck!

I imprinted.

"What do I need to know?" I finally asked. "I mean other than the pussy whipped part. What am I supposed to do?" I felt panicky, almost desperate.

"Talk to her, bro," Jared encouraged me.

"Let's pretend I'm not ready for that." I didn't know how to talk to girls, not really. I knew how to get them to bed, but not how to get to know them. I knew I wasn't ready. "If I don't want to talk to her yet, what do I need to do?"

"The most pressing thing," Sam said, "will be staying near her. You might find you have terrible sleep if you're not near her. I used to sleep under Emily's window."

"Stalker," I said under my breath.

"Kim lives on my street so that was never an issue for me." Jared said. That was not helpful information.

"Anything else?" I asked. I had tried to block out all their imprinting nonsense. I knew nothing!

"You'll want to talk to her before too long," Sam urged.

"I feel like we won't have much in common." What could I possibly have in common with a leech lover?

"You could take her to the club," Jared suggested. I'm pretty sure he was kidding but I tried to picture it.

I pictured her little body grinding against mine. I thought about how it would feel to have her flush against me, looking me in the eye. I imagined her blush, the beautiful reddening of her cheek. I pictured her sweaty from the dancing. I tried to imagine how it would feel to have her hands on my body and my hands on hers.

"At least then there'd be someone hot there," I said, completely serious.

Shit.

The imprint had totally fucked me up.

Sam laughed. "That's right, bud. Hey, we're going through Forks now. Do you want me to let you off?"

"What? No! I'm not going to stalk her!" Yet something in me did want to get out of the car. I shoved that urge down.

"It's up to you," Sam said. "Just know that if you have terrible sleep when you two are apart, she will too."

"Well that's not fair!" I slammed down my fist on the dashboard. "She didn't ask for this!"

"Neither did you, Paul," Sam said somberly. "I kind of expected you'd be asking about how to break it by now."

"Break it? Is that a thing?" I knew I didn't want to break it. The idea made me queasy. "You know what, don't answer that, Sam. I don't want to break it. I want to see how it all plays out."

Sam seemed to be smirking again.

Whatever.

They dropped me off at my house. I went right to bed. But there was a problem. My bed smelled awful. It smelled like Melissa, the girl I brought home last night. I put all the bedding in the washing machine and doused the mattress with vinegar.

As I walked around my house. I could smell the lingering scent of girls in every corner. Some things could be cleaned easily, like counters and the shower. Other things I had to treat with vinegar or put in the washing machine. I drenched the couch in vinegar then set up a fan to help it dry. I was cleaning everything. The smells were nauseating. They had to go.

I just wanted more of that strawberry and vanilla scent that drifted from my Isabella.