BEFORE LIGHT | PAUL LAHOTE - 2. *ON HOLD*

𝟎𝟔

𝐒𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐚

I chewed my nail anxiously, my eyes fixated on the marble top of my kitchen counter as I searched through what I had witnessed for the ninth time. It was my biggest nightmare — everything I wanted to avoid — and yet it was about to become a reality. My family was under threat, my dad again, my son, my girls and the prospect of something happening to them was something I couldn't bare to think about. I was terrified, something I hadn't been in a long time after living a peaceful life since our altercation with the Volturi almost 21 years ago.

But it wasn't the Volturi that was threatening us, it was a different coven and one that I had never seen before. They were bigger than us if you were only counting in vampires and even with the pack we would still struggle to outnumber them. That was perhaps why I saw the Denali coven stood at our side too as we all gathered on that same field we had when we to stood up against the Volturi — the only difference now was that the grass was green and fresh, not covered like a blanket by the snow.

I was thankful Arelle and Kyra were staying the night at my grandpa's and that they hadn't been here to see me drop the glass I had been holding at the time to the floor. I was glad they hadn't seen me break down completely in a full blown, paralysing, panic attack. I was glad they weren't here when the coven and the entire pack had piled into my open plan living room and kitchen because I wasn't ready to explain to them what was going to happen.

I didn't even want Carter to hear it because in my eyes he was still my baby and it was my duty to protect him from things like this. He was an adult though and the Alpha of the pack, he had more of a right to be here than anyone but it was still hard knowing he had to hear this. Not to mention I felt incredibly guilty about pulling him and his friends away from the party they had been at — the one night they had off together for a while and I had ruined that.

Carlisle — as always — had been the one to take charge of what was going on. There was just something about his calm demeanour that eased up everyone's nerves and the way he handled things made it a whole lot easier for us all. The one thing he did though that put me on edge was pace. It was his own way to relieve his stress, of course, because he held it together in every other aspect but seeing him pace really put me on edge.

Paul rubbed his thumb across the back of my hand as he held me tightly, encasing me in his arms and holding me against his chest. He swaddled me, his arms wrapped around my body and in turn I wrapped my arms around his — effectively hugging myself. He rested his chin on my shoulder gently, occasionally muttering the odd word or two to me to try and comfort me. We'd been in this position since he'd managed to calm me down from the panic attack I had endured.

Not only had I seen what — or rather who — was coming for us but Alice had seen it too. It lifted a weight off my shoulders in the sense that everyone wasn't relying solely on me to hear what had been witnessed. That didn't mean to say Alice wasn't rattled either, just not as much as I was.

"Were there any casualties?" Carlisle asked the both of us. Alice and I had learnt from that vision we'd had years ago to tell people of what was possibly going to happen.

I shook my head fractionally before saying, "I didn't see enough to know for certain."

"Neither." Alice aided me, "It was short and to the point. There's a coven coming, that's all we know."

"And you don't know what they want?" Emmett then asked us.

I shrugged as Alice took the point, "Whoever the leader is they know one of us. It's about family, that's what I heard."

"Family?" Carter asked. He was standing on the opposite side of the kitchen counter with his arms crossed. Amelia had her arm wrapped around his and she was resting her head on his shoulder, "We're family. There's no one outside that we know of."