La Push is a thriving community.

It is full of sunny beaches, bikini-clad girls, and half naked, caramel-skinned young men.

But underneath all of the sun there lies something darker, something a little more iniquitous than just werewolves and vampires…

XXX

He couldn't believe it. They were serious.

At twenty one years old, the time had finally come for him to choose.

And he couldn't care less.

As resident stud of La Push, Paul Lahote couldn't ever imagine having to choose an imprint. He knew that his father wanted more for him. He wanted him to find "the one", in other words, the woman who would force him to settle down. But what twenty-one-year-old in his right mind would want to settle down? He had the rest of his life to settle down – an extended one after all, due to his werewolf status – and his dad wanted him to find someone at twenty one? Bullshit.

He still had one more year of college. Why couldn't he be forced to do it then? Of course he could only go to Port Angeles Community College, but he was sure there'd be a crap load of women so sad to learn that they would no longer be able to experience the Paul-Fuck-Awesome-Lahote joyride. Yet, his father and the council wanted him to find his imprint the summer before his last year. How did that make sense? Is it because the imprint is supposed to be someone within the La Push community? Paul had a feeling that it was because the council wanted the guys to have all of their "fun" with all of the lovely, exotic women in college before they had to come home and choose a native girl to marry. Bullshit. He's been with the majority of the natives anyway.

But see, that's where the other problem lied. Even if Paul did want to settle down, all of the La Push women knew that they were in competition with one another. Though Paul knew he was irresistible, he wasn't fooled. He was very aware that the main reason half these women put themselves out so often was because they wanted to be linked to him or to one of his pack brothers for the rest of their lives. Of course, they didn't know what they would be getting themselves in to. They didn't know that the men they were so shamelessly chasing were men who regularly turned into wolves. HA. What a shock that'll be for the chosen ones.

In La Push, the council was royalty. Everyone wanted to be connected to the members. Not only were they extremely well respected, but they had decades' worth of money locked up in the council fund. In other words, they were filthy rich. And by association, so were the wolves. Each wolf had a relative on the council. For some reason, the members believed it was okay to allow the whole community to know when the wolf trade would open. Or, rather, when the men would be looking for their future brides. This felt like some Eddie Murphy, Coming to America shit to Paul. It was weird enough before his twenty-first birthday when all the girls would constantly bug him and his brothers. He definitely wasn't complaining then.

But now that they've turned twenty one, it's like all of the crazies have been let loose.

There was this one girl, Emily. Once she realized she couldn't get her hooks into her cousin's boyfriend and current alpha of the pack, Sam Uley, she moved on to the rest of the guys. Namely, Paul. But he wasn't having any of that. She was cute, but she was just too damn…prissy. Besides, Paul liked a feisty woman, not a sneaky trollop that would go after her best friend's man. But, speaking of feisty women, there was one in particular Paul had always had his eye on…

Now Paul would never admit this out loud, but if there were any woman that he would choose to end up with for more than a couple of nights, it would be his favorite leech lover, Bella Swan. Now, her? He could work with her. Whenever he saw her, he just wanted to break into his very own rendition of "Let Me Love You Down" by Ready for the World. Yes, she was a little older than him, just completing her first year in graduate school. But damn it if he couldn't love her as well as guys her age could.

Don't get Paul wrong though. He definitely doubted her sanity for a while a long time ago when she was a senior in high school. He could never understand why someone as hot as her would ever date a leech. He didn't even want to think about what they did for fun. Edwin, Eli, Ezekiel or whatever probably made her watch as he sucked the blood of the closest deer while listening to Beethoven. Anyway, after she got rid of the vamp and began hanging with little ole Jacob Black, Paul couldn't get her out of his head. At first, it was probably because Jake couldn't get her out of his head and of course, due to their wonderful mind link, Paul was stuck with Jacob's thoughts. But eventually, the little swan got to Paul. She was just so much fun to mess with. A spit fire, too. She gave it back to him as good as he dished it to her. He loved that. And he still does. Every time she came back from school, the hot-headed wolf got a case of the chills. It took a lot for that to happen. He's hinted at the possibility of them going out for a little fun but he's been shot down quite a number of times over the years. Five and a half years, to be exact. Five and a half fucking years. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why. Shit, he was Paul. Paul.

He'll wear her down though. That'll take some work, but it'll happen eventually. But, there was just one problem. A problem that came in the form of Jacob Black. As far as Paul was concerned, Jake and Bella were only friends but the kid wouldn't leave her side for a second, especially when she came home from a long bid at school. What was worse was that he had a girlfriend. She was a cute girl but apparently not enough to keep Jake's attention fully on her.

The majority of the women of La Push were in a hurry to snag one of the guys, especially the most eligible ones (according to Paul): Jake, the future chief, and Paul, the…well, just Paul. A good portion of the ladies were willing to betray their closest friends just to get a chance. Little did they know that these guys weren't very concerned with them. They were too interested in a little outsider by the name of Bella Swan. And Paul Lahote was willing to do whatever it took to claim her…at least for now.

Let the games begin.