The sound of a flushing toilet woke me up from the Swan's front porch, where I slept as a wolf. I ran home. The school day flew by in a blur.
That afternoon was sunny and warm. I went to Newton's Sporting Goods Store to see my Isabella. She smiled at me when I entered the store. I kept my eyes on her as I picked up the granola bars, then sauntered to the checkout counter.
Isabella was wearing a t-shirt as part of her uniform. It fit her just right, hugging all the right places. I paid for the granola bars, then leaned on the counter to flirt with her for as long as I could before she shooed me away. My eyes raked her body quickly. I saw a bite mark on her wrist. The scar was white as snow.
I grabbed her wrist, probably not being as gentle as I usually was with her. She shrieked at the shock of it.
"What is this?" I demanded. I could feel my face harden.
"It's just an old scar. A kid bit me on the playground when I was five."
Fucking lies.
I ran my thumb along the scar. It was ice cold. Isabella shivered.
"Did Edward do this to you?" I said, looking her in the eye.
A look of pain, then confusion crossed her face. "He would never hurt me."
"Now sweetie," I said, my voice ice cold, "we both know that's a lie. Where did you get this? And how are you still alive?"
She gulped. "I can't talk about it here." She glanced around. That blonde guy was glaring at me.
I snarled at him.
He flinched and went back to work.
Isabella giggled. "You don't scare me." She sounded so self assured and it was so fucking hot. Right now was not the time for that.
"Maybe I should scare you. It seems like your sense of self preservation is all out of whack if you're letting blood suckers snack on you."
Her face turned tomato red. She was getting mad. "That's not what-" she cut herself off mid sentence. "You don't know what you're talking about! And I can't talk about this now anyway."
"When do you get off today?"
"7:00 pm."
"We'll talk about it then."
Without another word, I stormed out of the store with my box of granola bars. After fiddling with the old box and the new box in her truck, I paced in the woods by the store.
I considered calling Sam, but I needed to take care of this myself. My Isabella was bitten. Maybe I needed Sam. I was walking back and forth, then in circles in the woods. I was driving myself mad with worry about what this bite meant for my girl.
I thought about phasing. Sam had patrols right around now. But Isabella wouldn't open up if Sam was here.
The next step was talking to her. I couldn't do that until she got out. As I watched the sun approaching the horizon through the trees, I knew the time was approaching.
Suddenly, she was running to her truck. She was scared. She was running pretty fast. I was much faster.
I ran to the passenger's side just as she was turning on the truck.
"I can't talk to you about this!" She was shouting, her hands stiff. "It won't be safe for you! It's not safe!" She looked me in the eye and there were tears on her cheeks. Her voice softened as she said, "He might kill you if I tell you."
"Isabella," I tried to make my voice soft, but still firm, compassionate. I reached my hand to her cheek and told her, "I already know that the Cullens are vampires. And they know that I know. Do you remember who made the treaty with them?"
She looked down. "Quileute wolves."
"Men that turned into wolves, honey." I wiped away her tear with my thumb. "Those men still exist, and we can protect you from vampires."
She wrapped her arms around me then climbed into my lap and buried her face in my chest. "Are you saying…"
My hands were on her back, holding her tight. "I'm one of them, the men that turn into wolves."
"How can you keep anyone safe from vampires? They're so fast and strong."
"Honey, I'm faster and I'm stronger." I pressed my lips to her forehead. "That's how I put those granola bars on your seat. I literally run to your house in the night to do it. It only takes a few minutes."
"That's really romantic," she said looking up, then she kissed my lips.
"I was afraid you'd think it was creepy but I wanted you to know I was thinking of you."
"It's definitely romantic," her mouth was on mine again.
I indulged her for a minute before saying, "Isabella, as much as I'd love to just sit here kissing you all night, I need to know how you got that bite."
She told me a wild story about vampire baseball. A nomadic vampire came to play until he got a whiff of her. Then it turned into a crazy hunt. Some of the Cullens took her to Phoenix where she used to live with her mom. The nomadic vampire tricked her into meeting him at a ballet studio by making her think he had captured her mom. That's when the vampire bit her. The Cullens killed the vampire. Edward sucked out the venom so she wasn't turned.
"So there was just one nomadic vampire that came to the baseball game? And he's destroyed now?" I asked.
"No, there were three nomads but only one hunted me. Although his mate was helping him. The other two are alive, as far as I know."
"He had a mate?"
"Yes, Victoria, who had fiery red hair. And they had a friend traveling with them, Laurent. He had dreadlocks."
I was panicking inside, holding her tight. "Baby, what do you know about vampire mates?"
"Not much. I know that they mate for life. Edward said that I was his mate but that was obviously a fucking lie."
"No, you're my mate," I said without thinking it through first.
"What do you mean?"
I watched her face carefully. "I mean, men who turn into wolves also mate for life. You're my mate, not his." I was looking for any sign of distress or disappointment. I found none.
"Um, ok?" She didn't look disappointed, her face was calm.
I brought the conversation back around. "We'll talk about that later. Is it possible Edward still thinks that you are his mate?"
She shrugged and it was fucking adorable. "I'm not sure he ever did. He said he didn't want me anymore."
"Ok. Is it possible that Victoria still thinks you're Edward's mate?"
"Yeah, probably." She laughed a little. "I don't know where she gets her gossip from but it's probably not Anna or Kim."
"Probably not." I chuckled. "So Doctor Cullen said you were fine, that you weren't at risk of turning into a vampire or anything?"
"I'm fine. He said there was no risk. It happened months ago."
I was stroking her hair with my palm. "Good. I can't lose you like that."
She was nuzzling her face into my neck. "You won't."
"I'll let you go home now." I closed my eyes, not wanting her to go anywhere. "I'm sorry if I was overbearing in there. I don't want you to be afraid of me."
"I'm not, Paul. I was afraid for you. I was afraid Edward would hurt you. I've never been afraid of you."
"That feels like a challenge," I said, teasing her a little.
"I've been nervous around you," she said, looking up at me from under her lashes, "before we kissed, before I knew how you felt. Sometimes I'm still nervous, just being close to you, but it's a good nervous, not a scared nervous. Like butterflies."
"I'm nervous around you sometimes too, and you give me butterflies all the time. But I like how bold you are with me, kissing me and holding my hand."
"Mmmm." She placed a closed mouth kiss on my neck. "Are you warm because of the wolf thing? Is Jared a wolf too?"
"Yes to both of those."
"And Kim knows?" She asked, lifting her head and looking me in the face.
"Yes."
"Is that why she was into Beauty and the Beast?"
I laughed pretty hard. "That's why I'm curious about it."
"Have you started reading it?"
I nodded. "Mmhmm. I'm about fifty pages in."
"And?"
"And I'm still in the build up. I haven't gotten to the spicy stuff yet."
She smiled at me. "The spicy stuff?"
I kissed down her neck, sucking on it ever so gently until I could smell her arousal. "You know. The spicy stuff."
She gasped a little, then whispered, "I don't want to go, but I probably should."
"What time do you want me for dinner tomorrow?"
"You can come anytime after school, but the earlier you come, the more you'll have to help cook."
I smiled at that plan. "Sounds awesome. I'll have to bring my car so it will probably be around 3:30."
"Ok, and if you come by tonight, will you knock on my window?"
I didn't know what to say to that invitation. So I told her the truth. "I can't. After the first time in the tree, I haven't been back to look through your window. It made me feel like a creep, watching you. I don't want to be a stalker."
"I think I understand. It's just… Edward used to come and sometimes I get lonely."
"He used to come into your bedroom?" That was concerning for a whole bunch of reasons.
"Yeah, and lie with me on the bed."
"But you're still a virgin?"
She nodded. "He wanted to wait until marriage."
"Is that what you want?" I could wait until marriage, but I wasn't sure how my wolf would handle it. I'd probably have to marry her pretty soon, but that was fine by me.
Then she said, "No. I'm not sure I even believe in marriage, like as an institution."
"Oh." I had just been thinking she'd be my wife one day, maybe one day soon. So this surprised me. It disappointed me, honestly. But she could be my soul mate and life partner without marriage, I guess.
"Why does that make you sad?"
"I'm glad you don't want to wait until marriage because I wasn't planning to marry you until after graduation and that's a long time to wait. But you not believing in marriage, that kind of changes the plan too."
She giggled. "I'm not sure if you're being serious or not but that's a sweet and kind of fucked up thing to say."
"Thank you." I kissed her this time. "I'll see you tomorrow around 3:30."
"Yeah, ok." She climbed off my lap. I got out of the passenger side door of her old truck. I watched her drive off before phasing and running back to the rez.
I ran right to Sam's house. We phased together and I showed him the whole memory. Then we sat on the picnic table to talk it out.
"We need to be on the lookout for those two vampires." He had immediately recognized that those two were a threat, and I was grateful.
"We should extend the border around Forks, too," I suggested, "since that's where they'd go to look for either the Cullens or her."
"Good plan, yes, let's do that. I'll tell Jared. Have you eaten?"
"No," I said, "I was going to go make something then head to Forks."
He stepped into his house, then opened the door for me to follow. "Emily, can you make Paul a plate?"
"Of course," Emily answered. She had been doing the dishes. She wiped her hands and grabbed some leftovers from the fridge to heat up.
"Oh, thanks, Emily," I said. "That will save some time."
"So you told her about the pack but not the imprint?" Sam asked me, sitting at the kitchen table.
"I want to bring her here on Sunday. I'm nervous to tell her about the imprint. I think I'll fuck it all up."
He kicked a chair away from the table, inviting me to sit down with him. "Mmm, that's fine, understandable. We can help with that."
I didn't meet his eye. "Thanks, Sam."
"But what are you nervous about?" He asked, his clear eyes twinkling. "She seems crazy about you. She was on your lap during that whole memory, kissing you half the time."
I leaned back in my chair, looking at the white ceiling. "I worry that she's only into me because of the imprint and after we talk, I'm worried that she'll think the same of me."
"Maybe we should bring Kim and Jared, too," Sam suggested. "They seemed to have worked through those insecurities the best. What time on Sunday?"
"Let's say 1:00 pm, after lunch."
Sam nodded.
Emily set down a heaping plate in front of me. "Thank you so much!" It was fucking delicious. I realized I had never had Isabella's cooking and she had never had mine. Tomorrow, that will change.
I ran to Forks. The TV was on in the living room. Isabella was reading in bed. I put a fresh granola bar in her seat in the truck and enjoyed the clear night under the stars.