вυмp ιn тнe nιgнт

TWENTY EIGHT

soon enough, jasmine and paul ended up at emily's place. jasmine had known where it was due to all her constant jacob tracking, having realized it was probably a pack house or something of the sort. paul had recognized its location on her map, so he'd led the way, while asking how she'd figured out their patrol lines and where emily's place was despite not actually being marked on maps.

"magic, paul," she says casually, and he huffs at the vague answer before she rolls her eyes playfully at him. "i did a lot of locator spells because i was worried about jacob. he leaves stuff at my house sometimes so it was pretty easy to track him using that. blood is normally one of the better and more popular ingredients to use in order to track someone, but using objects is also a handy way when you're in a pinch or don't have the blood you need. i first learned how to do one of those spells while playing hide and seek with my older sister, willow."

paul listened intently as she spoke of magic, but she abruptly stopped when they came upon the adorable little house emily and sam occupied. listening out for any noise from inside, paul figured none of the others had come back yet. jared was also the one out on patrol, last he checked.

"now, please don't stare at emily. sam doesn't like it," he brings to her attention, confusing the girl slightly, but she simply nods and follows him into the house.

sounds from the kitchen alerted them to someone else inside, and paul easily calls out "emily! i brought someone here to meet you!"

moments later, a woman walks out of the kitchen. she has long, straight dark hair cascading down her back, dark eyes, and scars marring her already beautiful face. glancing at the marks, jasmine averts her eyes from them swiftly, but she sends the woman a small smile of greeting. there had been many people in her hometown with scars in places that were hard to hide, so she was used to seeing people with marred features.

"hi. i'm guessing you're emily, leah and seth's cousin?" she asks pleasantly, and though the woman smiled and nodded in confirmation, jasmine noticed how she'd grimaced at the mention of the two.

"yes, that's me. are you friends with them?"

"i'd say that i am, yes. i'm jasmine, it's nice to meet you."

emily's eyes widened once she heard her name, and she snapped her head to meet paul's gaze with a steadily growing smug look at him. the teen simply rubbed the back of his neck at the look, trying to avoid meeting emily's eyes as she continued staring at him.

"oh, so you're jasmine, hailey's friend," the woman says, continuing to smirk at paul despite the sudden glare he gave her.

"i'm assuming you know about the wolf thing?" jasmine questions all of a sudden, making both their heads snap back to her at her bluntness, before emily looks from the girl to paul.

"you actually told her? i mean, it's about time, but wow."

jasmine chuckled as her friend sent the woman another heatless glare, but then turned to watch as someone else joined them. the man was tall, taller than paul by a few inches, and he was almost just as bulky. he shared the same shortly cropped hair as paul, and there was a matching tribal tattoo on his shoulder that jasmine guessed showed they were part of the same pack.

but what caught jasmine's attention the most, though, was how familiar he was to her.

"you're sam," she states, locking eyes with him after drawing his attention. "you're hailey's cousin. and the leader of these shifters, i take it?"

sam nods, eyes slightly wide at how quickly she'd deduced it all. "right. it's nice to meet you, again, in better circumstances. i hear bella's finally come out of her slump, yeah? that must be good."