Blood Moon

10

Loss

Luckily, after Bella discovered the pack's secret, she kept it to herself. She'd also dropped the idea that Paul was bad for me after she saw us cuddled up together on Emily's couch. Thankfully, she'd seen Paul's soft side before he shifted, and decided that he would much rather protect me than hurt me.

Bella had also apologized for bruising my wrist, and took me to the hospital to get it checked out. Unfortunately, it was sprained, so I was given a brace and a note for school stating that I couldn't write until I was healed. Paul was angry, but he couldn't do anything about it now.

Now that Bella knew about the pack, I didn't feel as bad about going to the reservation. I didn't have to lie to her anymore, which made going to hang out with Paul or Jake much less stressful. I could actually spend the weekend on the reservation without coming up with a lie to tell Bella about Jake.

Dad decided that the safest place for me to be while he took his hunting party out was the reservation. He knew that while his hunting party was out searching the woods, Billy would keep me safe on the reservation. So, Friday after school, Paul was waiting right out front, leaning against his truck with an uninterested frown.

"Who is that?" Angela asked, furrowing her brow at Paul.

"He's cute." Jessica drooled, watching Paul cross his arms across his chest. "Oh, and muscular."

"What is he doing here?" Bella asked, narrowing her eyes at Paul.

"He's here for me." I grinned, racing down the school steps and towards my boyfriend. He caught sight of me and opened up his arms, catching me with a chuckle and a spin.

"Hey, baby." He greeted into my hair.

"Hey." I smiled, pulling away from him. "I thought you were meeting me at home."

"But then you'd miss the set up for the council meeting." Paul smirked.

"Council meeting?" I asked, feeling excited. "Billy didn't tell me."

'Because he knew you'd be there for it tonight." Paul shook his head. He took my backpack from me and pulled open his passenger side door. He put my backpack on the seat and offered me a hand into the cab. "Now, let's get you some food and then over to Billy's."

"Okay." I nodded, leaning over and pressing a kiss to his lips. He smiled goofily and closed the door, rushing over to the driver's side.

"I love you." Paul beamed, starting his truck.

"I love you, too." I smiled, reaching over and grabbing his hand.

After grabbing some food, Paul drove us over to the reservation. I was still picking at the fries Paul got me when he pulled up to Billy's house. He parked his truck and turned to look at me, smiling softly at me.

"What?" I asked, looking over at him with wide eyes.

"Promise me that you'll stay with Billy, inside, until I get back." Paul requested.

"Of course." I nodded. "Will you try to keep the search party alive? I don't think I could handle it if anything happened to any of them..."

"I'll keep an eye on them, baby." Paul nodded, reaching over and grabbing my backpack for me. "Come on, Billy's waiting."

I followed Paul to Billy's door, letting myself in as usual. Billy was beside the dining room table, watching Paul and I approach him with a fond smile. I leaned down and kissed his cheek in greeting, laughing to myself as Paul nodded at Billy.

"How was school, Lena?" Billy asked.

"Pretty good." I shrugged. "Couldn't really do anything because of this stupid brace."