Chapter 16- Unreal

Paul left when Sam took Leah back to his house to 'explain' things. He shook his head, knowing exactly what kind of explaining those two would be doing. With Jared phased, he decided to go back to his own house and catch a few more hours of sleep.

It was mid-afternoon when Paul finally woke to the incessant growls of his empty stomach. As usual, there was no food in his house, but he also knew he couldn't go to Sam's house without risking his alpha's ire. Sam and Leah had been bad enough before the wolf—he could just imagine how insatiable they would be now.

Paul knew firsthand how good werewolf stamina could be in the bedroom, but the playboy had actually struggled some with women since gaining his fur. The perfumes and beauty products they used to make themselves attractive were irritating to his sensitive nose.

He'd pushed down his wolf long enough to satisfy his libido, but he hadn't been honestly attracted to anyone until he met Bella Swan. Paul's wolf approved of her scent, and Leah's as well. Now it seemed as though the Spirits were taunting him—making the only women he desired completely off limits.

Banking on the fact that Jared should still be in Forks with Bella, Paul pulled on some shorts and jogged the short distance to the Cameron home. Jared's mom was always good about feeding Paul, and he wasn't too proud to accept her hospitality.

After a hearty snack, Paul stepped into the woods and strapped his shorts to his ankles, cringing a bit as he phased to run his patrol. The pack mind was blessedly silent, and he began his duty, circling the wolves' territory before heading out for a wider circuit.

He let out a sharp howl when he crossed the scent of that same fucking Cullen from before. The scent was cutting across neutral territory, heading directly for the Swan house.

Paul stayed upwind from the vamp, slinking closer until his packmate and Bella were in his view. The leech was perched in a tree across the yard, but Paul didn't dare move closer, at the risk of the bloodsucker seeing him or scenting him.

"I can hear you, you disgusting mutt." His voice startled Paul, who thought he'd been particularly stealthy, and Jared, who had just dozed off with his mate in his arms. At his words, Jared was crouched in front of her, holding her tightly to his back as he moved closer to the house.

"Paul, come here please." Jared ground out the words between his tightly clenched teeth, and Bella's soft hand reached up to curl around his bicep, offering him a small measure of comfort.

The silver wolf glanced around before phasing back and dressing. He didn't like facing the leech in his human form, but he couldn't have his wolf spotted in the police chief's backyard either.

Bella blushed lightly as Paul moved to stand beside his brother, but Paul knew better than to look at her before they got this situation handled. "You can take her inside," he told Jared. "I'll wait here until he leaves."

Bella's voice was shaky as she attempted to look between the large wolves. "I don't understand. Who's there?"

She began to tremble when shards of light reflected off the form she could now clearly see at the edge of her yard. "It's okay, love. I'm here now. You can come with me," Edward said as he stood there, a frighteningly alien spectacle of rainbow prisms and harsh glares of light.

It was one thing to know he was a vampire, and quite another thing to see him as one. Her whole body shuddered as she saw him reach toward her.

He was jerked back suddenly by two large male vampires, just as Jared passed Bella off to Paul and lunged forward with a snarl. Her soft cry of his name was the only thing that kept him in his skin. Bella shivered for a different reason when Jared let out a threatening growl. "Keep him away from my mate, or we will kill him."