The UnForeseen Fall of Lahote (A Paul/Bella Fanfic)

5. Isabella Swan

  Hi all!
I've been so freaking excited to post this chapter! It has a lot going on... And that's all I'll say!
Thank you so much for reading, it means the world!
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Paul's POV

Paul's POV

What happened in those next three seconds, it's impossible to say. We were sprinting, certain of the girl's demise when two more steps were heard. They were even lighter than the leech's steps that we had heard prior. Which wasn't possible. Couldn't be. There were two in that valley: a human and a leech. A human's footsteps were comparatively heavy, no matter how small and dainty the person. It was impossible.

A grunt, not sounding like a female, came to our ears.

The clearing we entered was alit with the full moon and it highlighted a scene that was unbelievable. The leech and Bella stood back to back, and the leech's arm was ripped, no sliced, off. The snarls ripping from the leech were unreal, and in Bella's shaking hand was an ornate dagger that couldn't have possibly done the damage. Only our teeth could do that.

Bella spun around inhumanly fast, but the leech was faster. He lunged at her throat and it was with further disbelief that we watched the girl block him with her free arm. His teeth sunk down into the fabric of her shirt and into her forearm and crimson soaked the fabric. Bella in turn brought the dagger through the vamp's skull with a sickening crunch. She then, just as quickly, gathered her legs up and kicked across the leech's chest.

The resulting momentum freed her arm and dagger. She landed as light as cat, albeit still shaking and with that heart still thrumming, and ran from the still standing corpse. And the pace was fast, but it was easy to see that it wasn't as fast as a leech, or even us for that matter. And we all would've sat there, stunned into silence if it weren't for our alpha.

Jake, Embry, Jared, get the leech! Paul with me! We didn't need to be told twice.

I didn't look behind me as Sam and I raced towards Bella. My pack brothers could handle an injured leech perfectly fine, almost too easy with three against one. Bella, however, was an unknown and that was scary. Even with the blood streaming down her arm, the girl obviously wasn't as helpless as we all believed.

The sail of her hair beckoned as me and Sam began to outpace her.

Bella's graceful gate quickened, but it still was no match. We were almost at her heel when we reached the trees. And then she leapt upward, the moon casting a shine to her skin that was almost alien. Up above was a large oak that would've surely been a great help in evading us.

I caught her foot in my mouth in the nick of time. I was gentle regardless of the possible threat, and I felt Sam's approval. As we began our descent down, I threw Bella further down and landed with my teeth above her throat. Checkmate.

I then saw her eyes, a honey brown with specks of gold in them. They almost shone like an animal's in the night. And then I felt a gentle push by the Spirits, my world wasn't gone but it wasn't all there either. I would die for this girl, be what she needed of me. But if it came between her and the pack, it wouldn't be her. I would kill for her, but wouldn't betray my tribe for her, the Spirits whispered. The compulsion towards Isabella Swan wasn't all-consuming of my thoughts. It was merely a large part.

The pack was chaos in my mind as they soaked up the peculiar moment. Sam knew it wasn't quite an imprint, but also not quite not an imprint. Jacob was beyond thought or reason, he was struggling against both Embry and Jared's holds on top of the leech's remains. Remains that needed burned.

Reality threw me into hyperdrive when I suddenly realized that there was still a threat and that my near-imprint was bitten. Bitten by a fucking vampire. Unable to bear my teeth at her throat any longer, I shifted. No one could've stopped me, and there was no attempt to.