*A/N: Hi, so glad you've decided to start reading my story. Thanks a bunch & I promise I will make this ride as interesting as possible. I would like to thank my betas HEAR and Lindsey21412. Also would like to thank Mrstrentreznor for introducing her precious insight and stories for the rest of FanFic to enjoy. :-)

Please feel free to leave a review. My version of the Rx3 helps my fingers type faster. So please read, review, recommend.

Title: Paw Prints & Other Distractions

Prologue Title: Desperate, by Decyfer Down

Intro: Bella can barely hold the pieces together after a tragedy presents itself at the most inopportune time; after Edward's abrupt departure. However, before she can afford to leave Forks, the wolf pack presents her with an offer she cannot bear to refuse and one particular wolf even presents her with the option to stay. Can Bella make the right decision or has she been doomed such as her love for Edward had been?

The following chapter is a prologue, containing two excerpts from my story, a sudden impulsive, time-consuming delight that would not stop bugging me until I wrote it down. Each chapter written ensured me a longer night's sleep than the previous one, and I hope that you enjoy it. This chapter is to get the fans tails' wagging. LOL.

BPOV

One early afternoon in March…

I paced back and forth in front of my red Chevy, anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new house guest. I knew he would arrive with a tote in hand and that horrible grin he liked to wear whenever I was close enough to see it when I would visit Jacob on the La Push Reservation; I sighed loudly. I was already getting impatient and I hadn't even had the kid in my house yet.

"What are you thinking, Bella?" I exclaimed loudly to myself. "You don't know this kid. Not really. Jacob hates him; that's for sure. The reservation sure doesn't like him. Your friends from Forks don't really care for him either. His own pack isn't that fond of him. Do you even like him?" I stopped firing off my questions and did a double take, looking at myself in the mirror. The sun was behind the clouds today; normal Forks weather, but there was a new light in my eyes. I peered closer at my reflection. Yes, Bella. There is definitely something behind your eyes. I pushed my hair back, something that Jacob usually did. With my waist-long hair and my "fondness" for accidents, Jacob and I both knew that it would be only be a matter of time before I found a way to slip and fall on my hair if it ever got that long.

I continued to wipe at my face. I was right. My eyes shone bright and my skin was radiating heat. My mouth and throat were dry from being open for too long, but I just couldn't believe that I was almost ready to smile. This was the most excited I had felt since Edward had left. Since even the accident.

Accident?

I cringed at the sound of my own voice, echoing in my head. It was no accident. Everyone in Forks suspected that it was an accident and even a few on the La Push reservation thought so too, but Billy, Jacob, the pack, and the Elders who sat on the tribal council knew better. Of course, I, Bella Swan-danger magnet extraordinaire, knew that what had happened to Charlie was no accident. It was Victoria. It had been a rogue vampire who had taken Charlie away too soon. It was Victoria's fault that my father was gone, and that now my mother pestered me with daily phone calls about moving to Jacksonville with her.

But I wouldn't leave Charlie.

Someone had to be here. Someone had to stay behind, visit him and put fresh flowers on his grave. Someone had to remember him as more that just Chief of Police of Forks, and I wanted that someone to be me. I couldn't leave now anyway. Billy and Jacob Black were as much a part of me as Charlie was. Closer than Renee even. Jacob would be devastated if I left him. Besides, Edward might come back. Edward might come back, Bella? Sheesh, in denial much? I held in a sob. Edward was not coming back and truthfully, right now he wasn't my biggest concern for the moment. The arrival of my new houseguest was and just like that, my thoughts went right back to him. I knew the main reason I was really staying behind now.

You'd miss him too much anyway.

I had almost gasped. Miss him? You don't know him. You know nothing, you silly girl. The lack of sun has done nothing for your complexion and now suddenly a hot, young werewolf is staying in your house for the next few months and suddenly you're ready to throw your future out of the window?

"I might not have much time if Victoria succeeds," I announced. Not much time at all. Yes, you are a silly girl. Case closed.

I was conflicted; Charlie had not been gone that long and even Edward was barely a lost cause or memory before I seemed ready and able to move on. That worried me. Of course I missed Charlie. Of course I missed Edward. It was so lonely being in the house by myself and now I would have someone there with me who maybe was not a friend, but he could be the distraction I needed to get through this.

"So wrong. So wrong to feel like this," I quietly spoke, more to myself than into the ominous afternoon. "It wasn't even my idea to have him stay with me. It was Sam's." Sam, the wolf pack leader. Sam, the walking and talking head of responsibility, self-sacrifice, and diligence. Christ, if I was a love-sick pre-teen with a fetish for sort-of-beautiful, exotic, native men, I would have had a crush on him too. If something went wrong, I could always blame Sam Uley.

Wait, did I just pass off my feelings for my new houseguest as a crush? I must be out of my mind. There is no way that the feelings I had for him are anything remotely close to crush-like, and his attitude was a far cry, I was sure, from "let's kiss and see what happens." He hated me as much as he hated everyone else. Or he at least liked me as much as everyone else. I didn't know anymore. Everyone in the pack was right; I was nuts for taking this boy in.

I pulled at my hair some more, making it look like I was primping myself in the mirror. "Get a grip, Bella. Get a grip," I resumed.

"Getting yourself ready for me, babe?" a voice behind me called.

My neck jerked back, already letting my temper get the better of me. His smug grin was his version of a trademark smile, but it lacked the warmth and heart that Jacob's smile had. But he's gorgeous, Bella. Gorgeous, yes, but he knew that already. You could tell that he did. His ink-colored hair, cut short to ease the transition to phase, his smooth reddish skin, his confident stance, his evenly narrowed eyes that peered into your mind, breaking down the internal walls that I fought so hard to put back up when Edward had left me, and his voice…Jesus, Bella. That voice was what would get to me. I knew it then. His dark, chestnut brown eyes may have been undressing me at that precise moment, but that voice behind his vicious smile was what made me weak. It wasn't his muscles peeking through his tight, navy blue skin-like shirt, or the way he casually hung his left hand over his left jeans pocket while balancing his huge duffel bag on his other hip, effortlessly. His lips moved, words came out, and women lost their pants. It was that simple with him and it had always been that way.

Creaking metal from a small, second-hand wheelchair broke my concentration, snapping me back to reality as I heard an even darker voice coming from behind my houseguest.

"Hey! Show some manners," Billy yelled. "Little punk."

My mind was already running amok with thoughts as my fingernails dug into my palms. Wait a minute, had he just called me…

Annoyed, I stepped closer to where he stood, his cocky stance only irritating me more. I stopped a few paces short of him, grateful for the wind blowing in the other direction. His smell. That was next after his voice. His smell was next. And then his smile would be the next seal on my death letter. Okay, so his voice, his smell, his smile, my God. I hushed my internal voices.

"Don't call me 'babe' either," I said to him sternly.

"Whatever you say," he commented back. His head turned toward my Chevy and his nose twitched as if he smelled a vampire near. My eyes grew in alarm. "That beast looks horrible."

I fought the urge to hit him; it was not the first time I held in the feeling. This would not be easy at all. "Don't hate the truck. Just shut up and get in the car." He was already on my nerves.

My guest stared at me but said nothing, swinging his bag into the cab, covering most of the driver's seat. He knew damn well that he was going to have to move it. I didn't care how small I was compared to his huge 6'5 frame; I was not going to drive him back to the house with his bag in my lap just because he didn't think my truck was good enough to hold him in it. What a prick.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Bella?" Billy asked me again, for the thousandth time since Sam had brought it to everyone's attention some days ago. "Your father would have had a coronary."

I smiled a little. I knew Billy missed Charlie almost as much as I did. Maybe even more. He had seen him and hung out with him on a consistent basis until recently. Very recently. That was something that I would have given anything in the world for a chance to do again. I wasted too many years in Phoenix not wanting to see Charlie.

And I was paying dearly for it now by no longer having Charlie around.

"It'll be fine, Billy. I won't hesitate to rub the kid's nose in the rug if he pees on the floor."

I heard a loud sneer from behind my right shoulder. Little prick, indeed. Well, maybe not so little, I amended silently.

"Okay then. Jake will be by later if you need some time away from that one." Billy pointed, not bothering to keep his voice low.

"I appreciate that, Billy. Tell Jake and the rest of the pack thank you for letting me borrow him."

"We should all be thanking you. He's been a problem for a few years," Billy said, looking toward the truck. "And Bella, don't—"

I covered my ears as the sound of my loud horn blared abruptly. It was about the only thing that worked in my car on a consistent basis.

"Ugh!" I screamed at the noise.

"Can we go now?" an ugly voice called back toward the shrunken shapes of Billy and me. "I've gotta scratch, and I'm afraid I'll get stuck in this car permanently if I move too much."

I rolled my eyes. "He'll be fine."

"It's you I'm worried about."

"Then I'll be fine too." I kissed Billy quickly, afraid that my horn would have to take another beating from the irritated, teenage werewolf sitting in my truck. I walked to the truck window and gave him the meanest look I could muster before I would have to inhale him for thirty-two minutes as we drove back to Forks. Thirty-two minutes? Bella, are you so anal that you counted the exact minutes you would be in the car with him?

"About time," my future guest commented.

I continued to look at the boy, watching his strong jaw and listening to his horrid tone, but I wasn't affected…much. "Do you mind?" I said as I looked down at his bag and back at him.

"Yeah, whatever." He lifted his duffel with a finger, pushed it through the window of the cab, and into the bed of my truck. I heard the window struggle to make the bag fit. I started to say something but I didn't want to push my luck. The teenage wolf really did look as if he'd be like tuna in a can if he moved much in my truck. "I moved the bag. Get your ass in the car and drive," he ordered.

"Don't talk to me that way. Do I need to set down a few rules—"

"I'm hungry."

I hesitated. "Is that what's wrong with you?"

He said nothing, again. It was a rarity that had not passed unnoticed by me. He was actually staying pretty calm and placid compared to other instances; after all, I had seen him almost phase when he had missed the last muffin on a table.

"No, that's not what's wrong with me."

"So what's the matter?"

He looked exasperated. "Can we just go? I've been on the rez long enough and when I finally get a chance to leave it, you prolong my stay here. Get in the car and let's move; I'm buying."

I stared bewilderingly at him. "Buying?"

"Yeah, I'm buying the food. Now, you. Car. Drive."

In all the stories that I had heard about him, I had never once heard him offer to buy a girl anything, much less food. "Buying," I repeated.

"Jesus Christ, think of it as a date for all I care. Just get in the truck before I start licking the paint chips off your car," he swore nastily.

I glanced at Billy and he gave me a knowing look. Told you so, Bella, the look screamed.

I huffed and got into the car, not knowing what else to say. I turned the key in the ignition and my passenger looked as though he had relaxed, stealing the oxygen in the cab by breathing in deeply.I was suddenly aware of the fact that I had not had a chance to shower before picking him up after cleaning the house for the last two days and I was sitting next to someone who's keen sense of smell rivaled only that of a vampire's.

Surprisingly, my guest looked as though he were in heaven, even though he was sitting mere inches away from me and had to be breathing my scent. In fact, he looked a little like Edward when he smelled my blood. But this teenage wolf possessed such a quiet beauty that was so becoming on such a temperamental guy like him that I was almost afraid to disturb by starting to drive; fortunately, he broke my trance by himself.

"Thank you," he said much more quietly. I had never heard him actually use his manners either. Not without getting a look from Emily or the pack.

I was almost speechless. "You're welcome."

"I'm not an idiot, Swan!" he shouted in my face. Though he was some feet away in the kitchen of the house, I could still feel the heat coming from his body as if it had sought me out personally in a crowded room.

His warmth and proximity caused a warming sensation to creep along my skin, and I had to fight the sudden urge to touch my arms and revel in the feeling. But I kept my hands and arms in front of me.

"I have never said that you were an idiot!"

He scoffed. "You and everyone on the rez act like it! You're all the same! I'm not dumb! I'm not invincible! And I'm not a whore!"

"You act like it!" I screamed back.

"Don't talk to me about acting, leech-lover."

The wind was knocked out of me by imaginary hands, but I pressed myself to keep going. He could not get away with talking about my family like that. At least, they used to be my family.

"Don't you dare to speak about them to me!" I argued. "I'm trying to help you!"

"Help me by moving your ass out the front of that door and let me go out. How the fuck can you stay in this house all the time? Depressed or not, missing your parasite or not, it gets old, Swan."

"It's Bella, you ass! Stop calling me Swan!" I screamed.

"Ooh, little Miss Perfect Swan cursed. Never thought I'd see the day," he sneered.

"Why are you like this?"

"Why do you like them? They're not even here and you're defending them. They left you and you still like them? How pathetic."

"What about all those girls that you were with? How badly did you treat them and they still came around you, wanting to be with you? They were like dogs in heat."

"That's exactly what they were and who the fuck are you to tell me anything about dating? Wasn't that leech your first love? How did it feel the morning after fucking a cold rock?"

I was horrified. "That's none of your business," I whispered, not bothering to fix the fact that I had never actually slept with Edward. I was afraid that my screaming partner would lose even more respect for me if he found out that I was a virgin. Something, I was sure, that he remembered nothing about.

His smile was scornful. "Disgusting. I can't believe my pack mate even dreams about you. It's gross. And you're nothing but a tease." He resumed his previous position and stepped closer toward me. I backed away as my breathing hitched, but I moved my body closer to the backdoor. I was now blocking the hothead in.

His skin turned red, steam seemingly rising off of his body, like a hot car baking under the sun. His already darkened eyes turned obsidian in color and his fists were so tight that his knuckles cracked, making me cringe. It sounded like bits of glacier breaking under the pressure of water. Every sound echoed in the house just then.

"Move," he lowly uttered.

"No."

"I'm not your sweet Jacob, Swan. I'm not afraid to get rough with you."

"Then do it," I challenged.

The world stopped. The teenage werewolf was suddenly so close to me that I could hear and feel his heartbeat pounding into my upper chest, mimicking the speed of mine. I almost flinched when he moved his hand, but I knew somehow that he wouldn't hurt me. It was just like with Jacob. I knew Jacob would have never hurt me either, but I was about to hurt my best friend in the worst possible way; I was about to kiss a member of his pack.

He was close. I could see the slight sheen across his forehead. I could even see the reflection of myself in his eyes as he continued to stare at me, suddenly unsure of how to act. I had just asserted myself against a hotheaded werewolf, the most volatile wolf in the pack, maybe even the world if there were other packs on other reservations, but I was not afraid to push him, this werewolf. He knew it and I knew it.

I felt his nose gently bump onto my cheek and heard him inhale my scent. He was right to do so; I was aroused.

He pulled back a little and I grabbed him by the roots of his hair so hard that my hand began to throb, touched his lips with mine and forced my tongue into his mouth. I had never been so upfront before. I couldn't afford to be with Edward, but with him, with this wolf, I couldn't afford not to be this close to him. He seemed surprised momentarily and his whole body twitched, but then he snaked his arms around my hips and returned the kiss, slowly and quite diligently. I retreated a little, my back pushing further into the wall, but he stole back my tongue, forcing me to keep reacting to his heat. His fingers scraped across my whole torso, grabbing my face, and leaving a burning trail behind every surface that was touched. His mouth moved with certainty, but he was so tranquil that I never would have thought that he could ever be so feral with me again. He even seemed tamed.

I pushed my body further into him as the kiss deepened and I heard him make a gurgling sound with his throat. "Bella," it sounded like. Sure, now he gets my name right.

I shook the thought from my mind, continuing with the kiss. His hips pressed into mine, making my body tingle, and I was sure that all I wanted to do was keep kissing him. I nodded my head, to confirm my own suspicions and he pushed his face into my neck, leaving my lips behind for the moment.

"Jesus Christ," one of us mumbled. I was so in tuned with him that I wasn't sure which one of us wanted to kiss more. Suddenly I knew.

He grabbed my waist and began kissing a trail from the side of my mouth down to the hollow of my neck. I shuddered against him, but did not pull away. I had never orgasmed with another person before, but I was pretty sure I was close to doing so. He kissed the throbbing vein in my throat, and I smiled as his soft hair grazed my cheek. He angled my face lightly with his tongue, careful not to force me lest I stop him too soon, and touched the bottom of my chin with his right hand. His nose moved, inhaling me again, and I rubbed the side of his face with my palm.

What was I doing with this kid? No, not a kid. This was a man. Maybe he could even be mine, one day.

"Bella," he said again as hips came between my slightly open thighs. I gasped when I felt something thick and hard between them. I bit my lip and he moved slowly again, closer to my face. I felt his fingers move toward my back, pulling me even closer and he grinned a little. I held my breath as his lips glided over my entire face before landing on my mouth again. I hunched my shoulders and my thoughts became consumed with nothing else but our kiss.

"Oh my God, Paul," I finally answered back.

*A/N: Promises, promises. ;-)