Anna Begins [Paul Lahote]

Chapter Nineteen

Paul

Hard as I tried, I could not keep my mind off the time spent with Anna yesterday. That kiss...

Ugh. Please. Not again. Brady complained. He still hadn't been able to hold his human form for more than ten minutes, so he was stuck sharing thoughts all the time. Needless to say, he was getting sick of it.

Taking pity on him but still unable to keep my mind away from Anna for long, I focused on the conversation we'd had. How well she had handled it. How interested she was in every aspect of...everything. Her attitude reminded me of Emily, and I couldn't have been prouder.

It was like she was born for this as much as I was.

Okay, Paul, that's enough. We're going to shift now, Sam said. We were on our way to meet with the scarred vamp who was apparently some war guru. There was still a little ways to go before we reached the clearing, but Sam wanted our moment of shifting to not be done so close to those we didn't fully consider trustworthy—not if we could help it, anyway.

Sam, Jared, and I split to the spots where we'd stashed clothes for this occasion, then shifted and dressed before meeting back up and making our way to our destination.

Even though we were a few minutes early, all three vampires we were expecting were there—the blonde warlord, the mind-reader, and the one that was so huge he might as well have been a bear.

"Our names are Jasper, Edward, and Emmett, mutt," the mind-reader said impatiently.

I snorted. "Well, my name isn't mutt so I guess you can shut up."

"Paul," Sam warned, then turned to the vampires. "I am Sam, that is Paul, and this is Jared. We will try to be civil and use your names, but only if you can do the same."

"Fine by me," the big one—Emmett—said with a grin. "We're all going to have some fun this weekend—it'll be real good bonding. Names is a good way to pregame the festivities."

So maybe this one wasn't so bad.

"Names will be better for specific communication if needed anyway," Jasper agreed. "So if you don't already, you may want to learn the names of Alice, Carlisle, Esme, and Rosalie, as well."

Our faces were likely all blank because Emmett laughed. "I'm sure you know Rosie—she's the hot one."

"None of us are susceptible to your looks," Sam said cautiously—because that was a roundabout way of saying we were all imprinted. Last thing we wanted was these assholes doing something to our imprints.

Edward coughed. "We...already know that."

Sam, Jared, and I shared a look. Glad to know I wasn't the only one unhappy with this.

"We can move on," Jasper said. "We'll do introductions the next time we're all together. Speaking of, I think it would be a good idea to have a meeting before the battle to get familiar with each other's scents."

My nose scrunched up, and just the idea made me want to gag.

Jasper's lips twitched. "I am aware that our scents are not appealing, and to be frank yours aren't either, but it's best to be able to recognize everyone on that level as well. Things are going to get very scattered, and we want to avoid any accidents."

At that explanation, Sam nodded. "Yes. No accidents. I also wanted to talk about how many pack members we're going to bring. We have to leave some behind to keep patrol on the reservation. We'll have six of us."

"Is it still six?" Jared asked. "With our recent additions?"

Sam turned to him. "Who are you thinking should join us?"