Revenant Paul Lahote

Chapter 16

Paul was silent. 

The boy whose mouth constantly got him in trouble, refused to speak. He had dark under eye circles from both constantly patrolling and searching for the vampires, and the sleep that he couldn't seem to get at Sam and Emily's house. 

After the situation with his father, Sam didn't allow him to go back to his dad's house, telling him that he needed to stay where Sam and the others could watch him. 

It made Paul furious. 

Not only was Sam babying him as though his bad temper gave him a reason to be locked up, he had allowed Jacob to have Bella around. It was no secret to the other pack members that Paul had quickly stood up to his 'alpha'. After what happened when Bella found out, Paul hadn't hesitated to spit venomous words towards Sam, questioning his authority which only got him sent to back to the doghouse - pun intended. 

It had taken Paul a week to shift back into human form. He was simply too angry and upset to be able to calm down enough. 

Caylee was his home. 

She was the only person he truly believed to care about him, and the only person he wanted to be with. Staying away from her had turned out to be the hardest thing he'd ever had to do. 

So now, as he sat at Emily's table not bothering to listen to Jared rant loudly about something random, Paul felt empty. As if a part of him was missing when not around her. 

As if on queue, his phone began ringing, and he had to stop himself from crushing it completely under his grip. Waiting for it to finish, everyone went silent - all preparing for any outburst Paul was likely to have. 

Emily gave him a sympathetic glance. She had tried to talk sense into Sam; tried to get him to at least let Paul talk to Caylee. But every time he would stop her, knowing that if he listened to whatever his imprint had to say then he would let it slide to make her happy, and Sam was adamant that Paul would be dangerous because of his anger. 

Paul glared at Sam, making him fidget under the younger boy's gaze as Paul lifted the phone up to his ear to listen to the voice message. Everyone could hear except Emily, they could also hear Paul's heart beat a lot faster the further into the message he got. 

When it was done he stood up quickly, his chair flying backwards and nearly breaking as it fell onto the floor just as Embry ran in. 

"We've got the scent. We need to hurry before the leech is gone." 

The rain was beating down, and it encouraged Paul to push faster. 

Near the cliffs, Embry's voice flooded into his head. Another thing he hated about the wolf gene. 

They were hidden along the treeline of the road, but the further Paul ran the closer he could see headlights. The truck was moving fast and when he realized why it looked so familiar, it flipped. 

Choruses of concern came through Paul's head, but all he could think about was Caylee. It was obvious Victoria had gotten away, not that that was the biggest concern for anyone other than Sam at the moment. 

Caylee had slammed on the brakes so quickly that the truck had spun due to the wet road and flipped, rolling multiple times before skidding to the edge of where the road met the edge. 

Paul shifted back quickly, sliding on his shorts and running as fast as he could across the road. 

"Fuck, Caylee!" He yanked on the door only for it to creek and the truck to teeter closer to the edge. Tearing the dented door off its hinges, Paul could now see his best friend upside down and unconscious, bits of glass stuck in her hair and a large cut near her temple. 

Jared was the first to be at his side, but Paul refused to let Jared touch her and instead tried his best to pull her out himself. Leaning her against his chest he pushed the hair out of her eyes and tried his best to look at her through both his tears and the rain. He didn't miss the sweatshirt she was wearing, which only made his heartbreak more.

"Cay open your eyes. Yell at me for touching you, please just something!" His voice was raspy as sobs made their way out of his throat.

His voice grew quiet, mumbles coming out of his mouth as he begged for any sign of life outside of her dangerously slow heartbeat. "C'mon baby please. Please, please. Wake up for me." His forehead was leaned against her bloody one. "I'm sorry for everything, I'll never leave your side again if you don't want me to just please don't leave me. I love you, please." 

His pleads didn't stop. 

When the bright lights of an ambulance showed up, Paul felt shouts of protest leave his mouth as Jared, Embry and Sam all tried to pry him away from Caylee, and he begged them to let him go. He begged for whatever higher being that may be out there to not take her. He had known she had barely survived the car crash with her parents, and he couldn't handle the thought of this being it. 

And all he could do was cry.