The Wonder of You

Paula began to stir slowly; she expected to feel moist earth but was shocked when she felt soft sheets in her hands. Her eyes opened wide and she found herself staring into a pair of eyes.

She quickly slipped her hand down south and felt that her pants were still on, a good sign. Paula swallowed the lump in her throat and sat up on the bed, never breaking eye contact with the person.

She rubbed the back of her neck a little sore from her drive, and wondered how on earth she had ended up. Before she even asked a question a beautiful woman in her thirties with a couple scars on her face spoke up

“Good morning, dear. The boys found you sleeping outside in the woods and they brought you in here. We thought you’d be more comfortable.”

“Thank you, that was very kind of you. Do you know if they brought my motorcycle?”

“Oh yes! Those boys have been admiring it all morning. Now come on let’s get you showered and dressed.”

“I have my clothes on the bike.”

“Darling those clothes are filthy. I’m about to wash them, so jump in give me those clothes you got on and I’ll wash them.”

“No, that’s imposing too much.”

“It is not! I love mothering.”

“But what am I supposed to wear?”

“I have a dress out for you.”

“Thanks.”

Paula stripped and got into the shower. The warm water felt like heaven against her dirty skin. After she finished she dried herself off and put a bohemian dress on that Emily had left out for her.

As soon as the dress was on she began making her way downstairs, where she was ushered into the kitchen by Emily too have a late breakfast.

Paula sat down to the mountain of pancakes that was before her and immediately began digging in. Emily was shocked by the amount of food this girl was eating, she almost ate as much as Sam and the boys! When Paula finished the meal she heartily thanked Emily for her hospitality.

“You have a lot of tattoos they’re beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

“Which one did you get done most recently.”

“This one, I only got it about a month ago it’s my grandparents.”

Paula showed her the tattoo of her grandparents when they were young. Emily traced the tattoo delicately, as if she was handling a delicate piece of art.

Emily smiled and said, “They are beautiful.”

“Thank you, I like it.”

“You look like your grandmother but your eyes are like your grandfathers.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot. My grandpa was stubborn, you could see it in his eyes and well I’m really fucking stubborn. Pardon my French.”

Emily laughed kindly and said, “I take it that you want to go check up on your bike?”

“Yes please! But it looks like you’re about to make lunch. I’ll help you.”

“No, go to your bike.”

“Emily, no. You’ve taken me in and washed/given me clothes I’m gonna help.”

“ok then.”

Paula helped Emily cook an intense amount of food, she figured that there was going to be an army arriving at her house for a meal and sure enough when the clock hit twelve handsome tall young men walked into the house ready to eat.

They looked at her and smiled and finally one of them said, “Sleeping Beauties awake.”

Paula flashed them a smirk and said, “I take it you are the gentleman that brought me here last night?”

“Well I, Embry, carried you here those jokers just watched.”

Paula tilted her head back and let out the most beautiful laugh that any of the boys had ever heard.

Embry walked over to her and said, “So let’s do some introductions. I, your knight in shining armor am Embry, that is Seth, Sam, Brady, Quil, Paul, Collin, Seth, Jared, and Leah.”

“nice to meet you all.”

“What were you doin in the forest?”

“I was sleeping.”

“It’s dangerous in there.”

“Not even, natures not a danger man is.”

“There are wolves in the forest though.”

“I know, I met some really nice and adorable, they smelled like peppermint.”

The wolves started laughing; they had never thought they smelled like peppermint. The conversation flowed at the table and Paula learned that they were a part of the tribe on the reservation and that for fun they go cliff diving.

Paula’s eyes lit up when they mentioned cliff diving immediately the boys smiled and said that it would be an activity that they would do the next day.

“I don’t mean to be rude but where’d you guys put my bike?”

“It’s in the shed, come on we’ll show you.”

Paula inspected her bike closely and noticed that it needed a completely new engine. She cursed and kicked the side of the shed; the boys also knew that the bike needed a new engine so they told her that there was a place in Port Angeles where she could find a new engine.

“so what did you do to your engine? It’s fucking battered.”

“Well it’s been through water, sand, snow, mud; I guess it was about time it broke down on me.”

“Where’ve you been?”

“All up and down the coast. I still gotta head up to Canada before I go home.”

“Did you go to Southern California?”

“Yeah that’s where I got this tattoo done.”

They marveled at the portrait of her grandparents and began asking her a slew of questions regarding how much it hurt to get tattoos and whether or not they thought she would look good with a tattoo.

They joked around the remainder of the drive and when they got back to La Push they started taking the old engine out and putting the new one in.

Emily called the lot in for dinner just as they were putting the finishing touches on the engine. Paula turned the bike on and heard the engine purr

“Thanks guys, this maybe will be good next time we head out.”

“When are you leaving?”

“Soon, I don’t like staying anywhere too long.”

“Why not?”

“Because there’s too much to explore to be stuck in the same place. I do a week here, a week there and I see I experience more. It’s invigorating.”

Nessie and Jacob drove down to Cherryville after they had found Paula sleeping in the woods. They both knew that she was the human that Emmett was going to marry before Rosalie knew, and they also knew that Alice was probably throwing a fit since she could no longer see Paula’s future.

Bella and Edward ran out of the house when they caught Renesmee’s scent. They took their daughter in their arm and attacked her with hugs and kisses.

Jacob stood by the truck smiling at the little vampire family. Jacob walked over to Edward and shook his hand, then taking Bella into a hug. Edward smiled at them and said, “What do we owe this surprise visit too?”

“I’ll tell you when Alice is here.’

As if by magic Alice appeared in the doorway and pounced on Nessie, hugging her most beloved niece. Jasper appeared afterwards and also hugged Nessie. Alice looked at Nessie and asked her to tell them what had happened.

“Is Uncle Emmett here?”

“No, he’s out hunting.”

“Ok, good.”

“Why what happened?”

“We found Paula.”

“WHAT?! Where did you find her?”

Everyone was taken aback by Jasper’s sudden emotional outburst. He quickly composed himself, but didn’t do too great of a job he really missed his best friend and he knew Alice missed her terribly as well.

“Well we found her in the forest.”

“That’s why I couldn’t see her future!”

“Yeah.”

“So what was she doing there?”

“She was sleeping, her bike brown down on the reservation so she was stuck in the forest. We picked her up brought her to Emily’s place and then after breakfast we started driving down here. We had no clue it was such a long drive.”

“Is she ok?”

“I don’t know, she was sleeping can’t really tell.”

Alice looked at Jasper; she didn’t have to say anything he knew what she was thinking. Alice wanted to go to the reservation to talk to Paula, and Jasper wanted to go too. Edward looked at them and said

“Let’s just hunt and we’ll leave at 3 in the morning so we get there as they’re waking up.”

“Alright.”

Four o’clock soon came and they were loading up the car. The four grew uncomfortable when Rosalie walked out, Edward read her mind he was shocked that she also wanted to go to La Push

“You hate wolves.”

“I want to see her.”

“Rosalie, if you’re gonna cause her any pain just stay. She’s gone through a lot.”

“I’m not. I just want to go.”

Paula’s dreams were plagued by memories of her time with Emmett. She made herself wake up constantly to avoid having to dream about him, but it was no use as soon as her eyes closed she could see his golden eyes and feel his breath on her back.

Paula realized that tonight was going to be a sleepless night. She wrapped the blanket tightly around herself and grabbed her messenger bag walking outside to the beach at 4 in the morning. She sat there staring out into the ocean taking hit after hit from her blunt.

What she would give to turn back the hands of time and never meet Emmett Cullen. People say that it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved, those people are dumbasses.

Losing love is the single greatest pain that anyone could ever experienced, it is a pain so acute that it never leaves it even overshadows the intensity of the happiness that was felt while a couple was together.

Paula would’ve very much preferred to be completely ignorant of Emmett Cullen’s existence, than to have to deal with the ache in her heart.

Paula knew that the only way she was ever going to have peace in her soul was to confront the entire Cullen family and make them suffer as she had but she wanted to postpone that moment as long as possible.

Leah was just finishing up her patrol when she saw Paula walk out onto the beach and sit there. Leah wasn’t known for being the friendliest girl even after she found and married her imprint, a very handsome Frenchman, she preferred to not be too close to other people.

But something about Paula, made Leah want to befriend her. So at that moment Leah decided that she wasn’t going to go home, instead she would sit on the beach beside Paula.

“Hello.”

“Hey. What are you doing out here?”

“I should be asking you that. You don’t even know these parts.”

“Touché.”

“So what are you doing?”

“Couldn’t sleep, decided to come out for a smoke to clear my thoughts.”

“how’s that going?”

“Not too well, my thoughts refused to be organized. What about you what are you doing out here?”

“I felt like a walk.”

“at 4 am?”

“I’m a bit eccentric.”

“You want a hit?”

“Sure.”

Leah took the joint and took a hit, she passed it back to Paula and said, “So why are you really out on the road?”

“I told you I’m exploring.”

“No you’re not. The guys may have bought it but I don’t. You’re running from someone.”

“How do ya figure?”

“The look in your eyes. I had it once, a long time ago.”

“What happened?”

“You know Sam?”

“Emily’s husband?”

“well he wasn’t always her husband, and before they were together I was with him. We were in love, and we thought we were gonna be together forever and then one day he left me for my cousin. It was awful. I was bitter for five years until I fell in love. And in those five years I took off plenty of times, I was trying to run from my emotions but you have to know Paula you can’t run from them one day you’re gonna have to stand on your own two feet and face those problems head on.”

“I’m so scared though. If they were human it’d be one thing.”

“What do you mean if they were human? What are they!?”

“I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you.”

“Paula calm down. I’m a werewolf.”

“You’re a what what!”

Leah went into the bushes and stripped then came out in her wolf form. She expected Paula to run and was shocked when Paula ran over to her and asked if she could pet her.

Paula ran her hand through the fur playing with Leah she kissed Leah on the top of her head and Leah ran off to phase back.

“Why aren’t you freaking out?”

“My ex fiancee’s a vampire werewolves aren’t as scary.”

“A vampire? What’s his name?”

“Emmett Cullen.”

Leah tensed up at the name, that’s why Nessie and Jake had left the day before they went to tell the Cullen’s that Paula was here.

She looked at Paula and said, “What happened?”

“Nothing, I think those fucking vampires go from town to town and choose a human too woo and then once they have a big wedding they fucking ruin it and make the person look like a fucking joke!”

Paula broke down and started sobbing. She was angry, bitter, and hurt. Leah held her surprised that the Cullen’s would do something, she didn’t care for leaches but that sounded like something that they would never do.

She hugged Paula and said, “Come on kid, we should head back.”

“The suns out.”

“Yeah, we talked a little bit too long.”

They walked back to Sam and Emily’s house taking their sweet time. Paula froze when she saw a familiar Cadillac in the driveway. They Cullen’s had arrived.