small update: thanks for all the love on poor temper guys! i’ve got the afternoon off so the plan is to get stuck into something for embry, but if you guys have any requests feel free to throw them my way.
SUMMARY: taking place during new moon. you are paul lahote’s imprint, the two of you trying to take the whole bond thing slowly while you get your head around the whole wolf thing and get to know him. still, when you hear his temper could have been the cause of injury to bella swan you can’t help but say something. ( fluff with a little angst. requests are open. )
WORDCOUNT: 3,000
The length of time you spent at the reservation really shouldn’t have been surprising to anyone anymore. Schoolwork, your part-time job at the cafe you loved in Forks and trying to keep some sense of normality at home all tried to keep you away and yet, you still found yourself sat in Emily’s kitchen most Saturdays. Listening to the howling laughter of the boys whilst sat at the table doing homework. Sitting beside Paul and Embry watching a movie, you didn’t care what you did when you got there. You even helped Emily make a muffin or two, although no one could claim you were a match for her in the kitchen. Settling in amongst them all had been as easy as sighing after a long day, easy in a way you weren’t really prepared for. It almost seemed as if you had never needed to be anywhere else.
The packs reasons for inviting you tended to change. It was usually something like letting you get to know the pack, them needing another player for their board game of choice, or even just to escape the chaos of forks for a little while. You had however come to have your own suspicions. The pack was getting larger and you were no stranger to stories of Paul’s temper. It had been a point of warning for you once sat next to Emily at a bonfire. You had had to promise her to get out of harm’s way the second something had seemed off. There was a part of you wondered if he was simply easier to be around when you were there too. Something along the lines of making him softer, getting him to let his guard down. The thought was enticing, no matter how new this thing between the two of you. You had to admit it was endearing to think you could have such an effect on him.
Today had been one of the busier days between the sightings of the ginger vampire and Jacob admittedly struggling to handle the shift Paul had made it clear when he’d called the house phone that you weren’t likely to see much of him that day. You headed over to Emily’s anyway ignoring the feeling of disappointment in your gut. On busy days like these, you figured Emily was going to need all hands on deck to make sure the pack didn’t make a mess of her place.
The sound of a truck outside and the familiar hooting of wolves pulled you from your thoughts. Turning your head to grin at Emily. The boys were back and going by the fact none of them had run in at full speed yelling about a problem they were in one piece for now at least. Embry and Jared entered through the screen door and you busied yourself fetching some juice for the table, Emily taking the muffins from the oven.
“You guys hungry? Like I have to ask,” You heard Emily joke as you turned around, a grin spilling onto your own features as you knew exactly what appetite she was referring to.
Still, when you lifted your gaze to the door, it was not Sam, Paul or Jacob standing there, but rather none other than Bella Swan. A girl you had barely spoken to since you were kids.
“Who’s this?” You heard Emily ask looking to the boys for an answer, you meanwhile lifted your hand in a somewhat awkward wave. Luckily she didn’t really seem to notice too busy looking just about everywhere in the house but at Emily. You figured one of the boys must have mentioned her scars and she was now actively trying to avoid making this any worse than it had to be.
You couldn’t be sure whether or not Emily had noticed, but you watched her grin anyway as you moved to take your usual seat at the table leaving a seat between you and Jared that Paul would fill later. Shooting a confused look to the two boys who all of a sudden seemed hesitant to meet your gaze. The very fact that their behaviour was off and Bella was there meant that something must have happened. You opened your mouth ready to fill the silence and ask where the other three might be, but Emily beat you to it.
“So,” Emily hummed. “You’re the vampire girl,”
Relief washed over Bella’s features as she stepped into the room, her hands stuffed into her jacket pockets. You could help but be amused by Emily’s ability to put people at ease.
“So you’re the wolf girl,”
Laughter flashed over Emily’s features then, you could tell she’d decided at that moment that Bella maybe wasn’t as bad as some of the boys had made her out to be “I guess so… well I’m engaged to one,”
The moment the muffins finally hit the table you knew they weren’t they were going to last very long. Not that that stopped Emily from trying her hardest to make sure that the boys kept their manners reaching out to catch Jared’s hand.
“Save some for your brothers,” she sighed pushing their shoulders. “And ladies first,” Her eyes bounced between your’s and Bella’s then gesturing to the plate. You didn’t need to be told twice, having learnt from past experience that you needed to act fast.
“Sure, thanks.”Bella seemed to get the hint, heading over in your direction and taking one for herself.
“You okay Bella?” You asked cautiously, ensure what you could and couldn’t say even though she clearly looked like she had been shaken up.
She raised a brow in response, almost as if she had forgotten that you were there at all. “Yeah, I guess,” Bella shrugged. “Given… everything,”
You didn’t really have time to think about what it was that she might have meant as it seemed Emily had managed to put the pieces together much faster than you.
“Leave Jacob to figure out a way around Sam’s gag order,”
What really took you by surprise was just how calm she sounded.
“Wait… what?” You questioned seemingly the last to know. As far as you were aware the boys weren’t able to go against Sam, so just what has Jacob done?
“He um, didn’t tell me anything,”
“Yeah it’s a wolf thing,” Embry spoke despite the daggers you were shooting him over the table. “Alpha’s orders get obeyed whether we want ‘em to or not. Oh and check it out we can hear each other’s thoughts,”
You didn’t need wolf based telepathy to picture Sam cringing.
Luckily Embry’s comments were enough for Jared to try and step in even with his mouth full of crumbs. “Would you shut up? These are trade secrets. Damn it this chick runs with vampires,”
“You can’t really run with vampires,” Bella corrected to Emily’s amusement. “’ Cause they’re fast,”
You couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy about the way she found it so easy to talk about the bloodsuckers that you had become so scared of in the past few months. What would Bella have been like, you wondered, had your places been reversed and she had been witness to so many stories about the destruction the cold killers could leave in their wake.
“Yeah?” Jared commented as if he could hear your thoughts. Leaning forward as if it might make Bella take him more seriously. “Well, we’re faster, freaked out yet?”
Everything was going to be a competition to the pack it seemed but at that moment you were glad for the normality. Shaking your head at just how standoffish Jared could appear to be to strangers.
Bella shook her head, you could have applauded her for the way that she was willing to stand up for herself. “You’re not the first monsters I’ve met,”
“Jake’s right,” Sam spoke from where he finally appeared in the doorway. His appearance a welcome sight to everyone. “You’re good with weird,”
You watched him walk across the room then his focus on Emily alone. He took the few steps across the kitchen to reach her side before he whispered the softest ‘hey’ you ever heard and kissed her about a hundred times.
It always made you feel a little odd watching Sam and Emily, despite how dear the two of them had become to you. They were the only other imprinted couple in the pack and were about as close to true love as two people could get and that was from the viewpoint of an outsider. The fact that you and Paul had the chance to have a similar relationship was not lost on you, even if you preferred not to think about it for the moment. Imprint or not, you owed it to him to get to know him as a person rather than just the wolf.
Seemingly responding to your thoughts Jake and Paul arrived on the porch a few moments later, shoving at each other in a way that had become familiar and playful. Whatever tension you had been holding dissolving for a moment at the sight. Clearly, whatever it was that had happened out there had done no permanent damage.
Jake and Bella were, of course, wrapped up in each other from the moment he arrived, you, however, could say nothing given the way that Paul’s eyes lighten slightly upon noticing you at the table. You grin as his hand brushes against your shoulder and he, as predicted, pulled out the seat beside you and reached for a snack of his own. It was no big romantic gesture compared to what you had seen between Sam and Emily but it was enough for the two of you at that moment.
Then when after he had seemingly convinced himself that you were indeed real rather than something made up in his mind. He turned to Bella, the grin still filling his features highlighting the way that he could never manage to take things seriously.
“Sorry,”
Sorry? You questioned. What had happened?
You didn’t miss the way that Jared had to get five dollars out of his shorts to hand to Embry five dollars, that being the biggest clue any of them could have given.
Bella and Jacob disappeared a few seconds later off to one of the beaches most likely. The pair leaving behind a few beats of silence after they left like the others needed to catch their breath. It was a big deal for all of you, trusting someone else with such intimate knowledge not just about the pack but about their tribe.
“Something tells me we’re going to be seeing her more often,” Sam spoke from where he was still standing, arms wrapped around Emily like he hadn’t seen her in months.
Embry scoffed shaking his head. “As long as she knows that she has to keep quiet,“
“Says you!” Jared spoke in disbelief.
The shook your head then, despite the softness you held towards the pack their bickering could still be annoying.
“Look,” you sighed. “Is one of you going to bite the bullet and say what happened, or are Em and I supposed to figure it out for ourselves?”
The mood at the table shifted then, the boys looking over to Paul expectedly while the playfulness alighting his features disappeared. Clearly, you were more frightening than Bella.
“Well?” you asked pointedly looking between the four of them for answers.
“You should have seen it y/n,” Embry spoke excitedly. “Jacob phased like that,” snapping his fingers for effect.
“Embry shut up,” Paul huffed in his seat beside you. He looked more anxious than before like he was scared of something.
Sam got the hint then, moving from Emily’s side to clasp the two other boys on the shoulder. “C’ mon lets give them the room,”
Paul shot him a grateful glance, while Emily moved to squeeze your shoulder lightly before following after the other three.
You waited until you were sure the two of you were alone before shifting in your seat. Moving to take Paul’s hand, not really thinking about anything other than the way he always seemed to find comfort from your touch. It must have been an imprint thing you guessed. Standing with his arm around your shoulder, or a hand or in the small of your back, or even sitting so close your legs brushed under the table. The two of you had long surpassed any form of physical boundaries in that regard.
“You gonna tell me what happened? Remember unlike most people in your house I can’t read your mind to help you out,”
That caused him to laugh at least.
“We were heading over to Billy’s to check on Jake, you know what he’s been like lately,”
You nodded. Jake had been the first real newcomer to the pack you had witnessed, you had been too new yourself when Embry had phased, but even with your limited experience, you could tell he wasn’t taking it all that well.
“Well Bella was over for something, I don’t know, and so she bolts up to the four of us and starts yellingat Sam. Really aside from Jake I don’t think anyone’s ever really yelled at him like that ever. Anyway, she’s shoving at him and I’m already frustrated thinking Jake must have told her somehow and then she makes this claim that he’s afraid of us and that’s why he’s not speaking, which of course I laugh at because, you know, Jake’s our brother, but she really didn’t like that because next, she slaps me right across the face,”
You couldn’t help but cringe, not because it would hurt but that might have been the stupidest decision Bella had made in her entire life.
“So then I just can’t take it anymore and I phase right there in front of her,”
“Poor girl you must have given her a heart attack,” You sighed. There could be no doubt the wolves were an intimidating sight when a person first lay eyes on them.
“I mean it was fine,” He backtracked “Because Sam had gotten her to at least give me some space, and I at least had enough sense not to hurt her, but then Jake comes running out of the house, volts over the porch and shifts jumping over Bella as she ran away,”
You raised your brow at that, unsure if you had heard of anyone else shifting that fast.
“Anyway the two of us got into a bit of a fight and may have broken Billy’s boat,”
You sighed then, resting your forehead on your free palm for just a moment. “Well for starters I hope you apologised,”
He nodded. “Look y/n -” He went to speak before you cut him off.
“That was stupid you know,” You sighed although there was no real annoyance in your tone. “If she’d been standing closer if there had been someone else with her…” Your thoughts providing a never-ending list of just how that could have been so much worse. Still, you don’t move your hand from his. You had known that his temper was an issue right from the first time he took you to First beach. it was not going to scare you away now.
“I know it doesn’t sound like it, but I did try to stay calm,” There was a degree of tenderness in his tone, directly related to the way that (admittedly unsaid) you simply refused to be scared off.
You nodded then. “I’m sure,” If there was one thing you had faith in it was that Paul was a lot more emotional and caring then people might think initially. “Listen if she slapped me I would have been… Maybe just try and remember how intimidating you guys can be from the outside next time alright?”
He seemed to visibly relax then, squeezing at your hand a little more and slumping back into a more comfortable posture in his chair somewhat, even though it seemed like there was still something he needed to say.
“It’s just with this and what happened to Emily, I just didn’t want you to think that I wasn’t trying, or didn’t take this seriously. I’m not going to put you in danger, I’d rather die,”
The two of you had had plenty of quiet intimate moments between the two of you, with just how loud the pack could be, and how chaotic your life was at the best of times they were necessary just to make sure the two of you had some time together, but you could have sworn you’d never seen him be that vulnerable until that moment. Emotions were usually something Paul could disguise pretty well so for something to have shaken him up this much must have been a pretty big deal.
“I know,” You spoke gently, looking right at him. “Just like I know exactly what signs to watch out for if things get bad… I’m not going anywhere Paul, so you can stop worry about scaring me off,” Usually you wouldn’t have been so stern with him, but it was what he needed to hear at that moment.
Getting up from your seat, you saw a second of confusion in his gaze whilst you closed the gap between you and wrapped your arms around his (quite bare) shoulders. Not really thinking about what it was you were doing you pressed a kiss to his cheek, before the two of you just held onto each other in a moment of silence.
Then when you were sure you had been of some comfort to him, you pulled away and grabbed his hand again. You tugged until he stood up from his chair a stray hand coming to reach for your waist.
“C’ mon,” You spoke lightly. “We should go catch up to the others. Emily will want to make sure you’re okay,”
