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Since the bonfire the night before, Elise had felt worse than she did when she was holed up in the hospital. Pack members, her boyfriend included had been doting on her and making sure she was okay nearly every half an hour on the dot. Truthfully, she could barely remember how it felt to be in the state they'd seen her in but she could still feel the tingle beneath her fingertips and the very intense soreness settling deep within her bones.
Each move she made, a small groan would pass her lips or a wince would press across her face. "Do you need me to get you anything?"
"Paul, I'm fine," Elise groaned for the umpteenth time, her brown hair messily sprawled all over the pillow beneath her.
"You can barely move, just let me help." Before a complaint could even pass her lips, warm hands massaged her shoulders silencing anything she had built up to say. Lower and lower his fingers continued their mensurations, relaxing the coiled up knots beneath her skin. Pleasurable little mewls of contentment passed her lips every now and again giving Paul the challenge of finding any spot he could to make those noises spill. "Feel good?"
Nodding her head against the pillow, messy hair scrunching up and growing even messier. "So good, don't stop."
The low whisper of her voice pushed a naughty smile on the shifters sharp features. Hot hands wandering all across the smooth paths of her body, making a road map until he was worried he'd get too into it. "Maybe I should stop?"
"Why?"
"Those little noises your making is not putting my mind in the most respectable places."
Poking her butt out, his hands slid right into place with the sensual little sway of her hips. "Oops, looks like your hands aren't in the most respectable places either."
The list filled glint in her pretty blue eyes nearly made Paul lose it just there, his heart was beating so fast, his hands gripping her up and pulling her close to him. No space was left between them, quick hands and fingers gripping warm skin, taking in all they could before there was a quick knocking on the door.
Groaning in displeasure, Paul went lax, leaning his head back as his girlfriend peppered teasing kisses to the side of his neck. "You have to go get that."
"No, I really don't."
The knocking didn't stop, in fact it seemed to get more repetitive and obnoxious, effectively stopping the intimate moment. "Yes, you really do." Elise leaned all the way back, her imprint rising from the bed and stomped his way downstairs.
It was quiet for a while, the silence worrying Elise, it seemed unusual for it to run so still after such an insistent entry. Getting out of bed and walking down the stairs she was greeted with a face she remembered better than her own, Asher was standing nervously in the middle of Paul's living room. "Ash? What are you doing here?"
Seeing her again left him speechless, the heavy emotion thick in his every bone as he took her in. Such vivid memories of her covered in blood, laying in a hospital bed so close to death. "I needed to see you to apologize."
"Ash, you don't have to apologize for anything."
Stepping closer to her, his honey brown eyes were welling up with tears. "I really do, I abandoned you and I am so sorry El. Seeing you all broken and so out of it reminded me of mom and I was so scared I was going to lose you too. I guess I just needed time to realize that it wasn't the same, that you were actually going to be okay."
"I'm not going to be okay, Ash. I am okay, everything is fine."
It was like he could no longer control himself, arms wrapping themselves around her frame, his face burying itself in her hair as he just stood there, holding her and remembering all there was about her that he loved—the things he'd miss about his younger sister had she actually been gone. "You can't leave me," He sobbed, voice catching and body lurching at the mere pain he felt by just saying those four words. "You are my best friend, my family, my little sister. I love you, El and I really need you not to leave me. I can't lose you, not like we lost her, I really can't."
It was a sobering moment, the siblings holding each other for longer than they ever did before but Elise couldn't bring herself to let go. Tears of her own were trailing from her azure irises and the words she spoke hit Asher so deep in his chest he could feel the impact. "You are my everything before anyone else, you don't get to live a life without me. I am not leaving you, Ash, never."
They wiped their tears, dried their eyes and laughed at one another, bouncing right back to their teasing jokes and mending a bond that had never been broken.
Paul stood to the side, arms crossed as his burly body leaned against the supportive frame of his walls just watching. Right before his eyes, Elise had always been beautiful but from afar in her natural element when she wasn't even trying to be anything more than herself was when he found her the most stunning. Messy hair and red eyes swollen from her tears, she was the most gorgeous woman he'd ever been blessed to lay his eyes on. "You sticking around for a while? I have to leave and run some errands, I won't be back until later."
"You can say patrolling, it doesn't weird me out or anything." Asher's comment was so nonchalant that it made the nineteen-year-old shapeshifter double take. "Oh, you didn't know I knew? Leah told me the other day, she's actually the one who told me where I could find Elise."
"Leah?" Paul spoke, brown eyes closed to half slits, voice so filled with disbelief he nearly sounded like a cartoon character. "Leah Clearwater told you about our secret?"
Asher shrugged his shoulders, the younger version of himself trailing around the kitchen to cook something. "It wasn't just her, I'm pretty nosy. I had to figure out why my sister was so enamored by you all so quickly. Did some digging and remembered some of the legends Jacob Black brought up a few months back on La Push beach. I pieced it all together and Leah just confirmed." Raising a hand to scratch his dark hair, Ash went sheepish. "She's really amazing, honestly."
Groaning at the sentence, Paul started walking toward Elise. He was very much aware of what had taken place and after pressing a peck to her lips he was stepping backwards towards the door, shirt already discarded and feet bare. "All I have to say to you on that one man, is good fucking luck."
"What does he mean?" Asher was left both clueless and curious when the large man left, eyes trailing over to Elise who was bent over the counter with laughter, the innocence in her older brothers eyes too much for her to handle.
It took a few beats of time for her to pull herself together but when she did, her words couldn't have been more true. "He means, you and Leah sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g—"
