Chapter Four

Dining with the Cullen's

Under normal circumstances, Paul could hardly stand their friendly neighborhood bloodsuckers, but the idea of his imprint anywhere near them just made it that much worse. He felt his wolf pace in his mind, a growl nearly bubbling to the surface as Delilah shook hands with each of the Cullen's. The mind reader – Edward – watched Paul carefully, and he made sure to change his thoughts. They knew she was his imprint – there was no other reason he would be here. Bella knew too, but Charlie was still in the dark, and Paul planned on keeping it that way. The Chief was protective of his girls, and werewolf or not, a gun could still hurt Paul.

The leeches were talking too low for the humans in the room to hear. They wanted to know what Delilah was thinking – if she was suspicious. Paul did growl that time, but luckily it was too low for Lilah to hear. Stay the fuck out of my imprint's head. He thought as loud as he could. It was bad enough the leech was always reading the pack's minds, he didn't need Lilah mind-raped by some nosy vamp that was worried his secret would be blown. It was a moot point anyway. Lilah was an imprint, which meant she was pack. Whether or not Paul accepted her as a mate didn't change that fact. She would know about all of them soon enough. The bloodsuckers were just lucky that Sam hadn't told Charlie the true nature of the creature dating his daughter. It wasn't exactly a good thing that Charlie knew about the pack, and they didn't see the point in dragging him any further into their world. Paul supposed he had himself to blame. He had lost it around Charlie and phased one day. Poor guy nearly had a heart attack until Bella explained – not that they needed the leech lover to do their talking for them.

If the meeting in the entryway was awkward, the beginning of dinner was just… horrible. The only saving grace was that it was pretty amusing to watch the leeches choke down human food. "Is everything okay, dear?" Esme asked Lilah, drawing the attention of everyone at the table.

Lilah smiled politely, even blushing the slightest bit. It must have been a family trait, though Paul preferred it on Lilah. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude… but… your children are all adopted, right?"

"Delilah…" Charlie's tone was warning and parental. "That's not really an appropriate question."

"That's quite alright, Charlie." Carlisle smiled easily as Edward's brow furrowed. Maybe he couldn't read Lilah either? "Yes, Delilah. They are."

"Call me Lilah." She offered with a light smile, her eyes darting between each of the Cullen's. "I was just wondering… if they're adopted, why do you all have the same eye color?" Paul chocked on a mix of lamb and a laugh. His eyes sparkled as he glanced sideways at his imprint. She was so clever. He should have expected as much from a cop. "It's just… not a common eye color. Was that like… a criteria?"

They didn't speak. Hell, they hardly moved. Paul hardly contained the light shaking of his shoulders as he tried to suppress his laugh. At the rate Delilah was going, she would figure everything out on her own. It was both terrifying and amazing. Paul couldn't help the pride that roared through him. "Delilah, you're being rude." Bella said simply, Charlie nodding in agreement, but mumbling that she had a point.

"I apologize." Lilah smiled easily. "I sometimes speak before I think."

"That's quite alright, dear." Esme offered, but her smile was tighter now. The big one changed the topic to football, which Charlie gladly ran with.

The rest of the dinner was spent on safer topics, like the weather and how Lilah was liking living back in Forks. As soon as Delilah got her coat to leave, Paul was on her heels, the smell of bleach and burnt sugar nearly burning into his mind after being in their house for a few hours. The only consolation was knowing that he left the smell of wolf all over their expensive furniture. Once he and Lilah stepped out into the cool night air, she let out a huff. He could practically hear the leeches pressing their ears to the door – not that they had to try and listen in.

"That was sufficiently awkward." Lilah's pouty lips twisted into a frown, her brows creasing in a way that upset Paul's wolf. "That family is very… strange." She offered with a shake of her head. Paul had to contain a smile. His imprint had good intuition. It didn't look like it would take much to get her to agree to stay away from them. "I mean… they were polite enough, but something about them was just weird…"

"Agreed." Paul smiled easily, ignoring the murmuring about dogs from the blonde leech inside. "The guys on the rez don't really like them. We pretty much banned them from tribal land." Actually, that was exactly what they did, but he couldn't really say that without raising suspicion. "Speaking of the guys, we're going cliff diving tomorrow morning. You should come."

When they had been younger, Paul and Lilah would watch the older members of the tribe jump from the jagged cliff face from the safety of First Beach. Even at eight they knew it was too dangerous for them to try – not that Charlie would have let Lilah get anywhere near the cliffs. Paul saw no harm in it now – especially because he would be there to protect her. After all, Lilah was his imprint. He would never purposefully put her in danger. And if he got to see her in a bathing suit, well, that was just a bonus. His smile wavered as her frown returned.

"That sounds amazing, but I have my first day tomorrow. I'll just be making traffic stops, but I can't blow it off. There's already bound to be talk of favoritism with my dad being the chief and all." Her smile came easily, lighting up her pale face. "Raincheck though?"

"Definitely."

Paul tapped his fingers in a steady beat against the side of Jacob's car, his eyes scanning the road. Paul wasn't a patient man by nature, and it seemed Lilah brought out the worst in him in that respect. He adjusted himself in the driver's seat, unintentionally revving the engine and earning a frown from Jacob who watched him carefully. Paul would have preferred to do this alone, but the only way he could get Jacob to agree to it was if he was in the car. They guys had spent the night's patrol ragging on him for taking a longer route that brought him past Lilah's house. As an imprint, she was under their protection now as well. No one complained about having to run into Forks, but he was sure Leah wouldn't be happy with the new arrangement.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Jacob's frown deepened as he reached over to turn off the radio that had been humming in the background. "What if she's not as lenient as you think? She's new to the force, right? She might have something to prove."

"She's my imprint." Paul said simply, as if that put him above the law. The truth was that he wasn't thinking logically. It had only been about fifteen hours since he had seen Lilah, and already his wolf was growing restless.

They both fell into a silence, pausing at the sound of a radio going off down the road. Grinning at Jacob, Paul put the car into drive and headed down the straight stretch of road he knew Lilah would be on. He wasn't sure how he knew – maybe it was an imprint thing. He was just aware of her at all times. Practically slamming his foot against the gas, he watched the speedometer slowly rise. As it hit seventy, Jacob started to complain about the integrity of his car. By the time they passed the half-concealed cop car, the bug was at eighty six. Paul's grin only stretched further as the blue lights and sirens went off behind them.

"If my car gets impounded, you're buying me a new one." Jacob warned as Paul pulled over onto the shoulder.

"Relax. You're freaking out over nothing." Paul mumbled as he glanced in the rearview mirror, enjoying the sight of Lilah in her uniform as she walked to the car.

"License and reg- for fuck's sake!" Delilah's 'cop' voice gave way to an exasperated sigh. "Seriously Paul?"

"What seems to be the problem, Officer Slugger?" Paul smiled widely as Lilah rolled her eyes.

"You were going eighty six in a thirty five, Paul!" Lilah frowned as she leaned on the top of the car to look in at them. "Jacob, this is your car, right?" She shook her head. "The one Bella was helping you with? Why would you let this moron drive like that?"

"I'm sitting right here." Paul frowned, causing those deep chocolate eyes to turn back to him. "I was in a rush."

"Evidently." Lilah's lips pursed as she examined his face, obviously torn on what to do. "I'm going to give you a warning for going forty eight in a thirty five."

"But we were going eigh-" Jacob's voice caught with a huff as Paul slapped him in the stomach. "Right…"

"Don't let me catch you going that fast again Paul." She frowned and handed him the warning. "And if you guys are free tonight, I could use some help building an entertainment system." She smiled prettily, knowing that they couldn't refuse her after what she had just done.

"Jacob's working, but I can be at your place around seven." Paul offered, nearly giddy at the thought of seeing her again in such a short span of time.

"See you at seven." Lilah straightened out. "Get back to the rez safely boys."

Paul nearly counted down the minutes until seven that night. He was so obsessed with watching the clock, Sam kicked him out of the house because he was 'scarring the younger pack members'. It suited Paul just fine. Borrowing Jacob's car for the second time, he drove down to Forks. It was early, but he couldn't stop the pull of the imprint. Parking in Lilah's driveway, Paul stepped out of the car just as Bella walked out of the front door. His good mood immediately dissipated a bit. He hated the leech lover, but she was Delilah's sister – which meant he had to be nice.

"Paul." Bella said his name with as much disdain as he felt. She looked like she was warring with herself, but finally sighed and shook her head. "Look, I know that you're… that Lilah is your imprint. I just want to make sure you're not going to hurt her. I know about your reputation…"

"You don't know the first thing about me." Paul growled, keeping his voice low. He couldn't phase in Lilah's driveway. "Or imprinting if you think for a second I could hurt Lilah." He spat, his eyes hard. "Why don't you go run to your leech? I'm sure he misses the smell of your blood." Bella frowned but said nothing as Paul pushed past her. Okay, maybe nice was a bit of a stretch…