The Hawk Shifter (Paul Lahote x oc)

Chapter 24: Battle

It was the night before the battle and I couldn't sleep. I was lying in Paul's bed staring at the ceiling. He had fallen asleep awhile ago but I couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes I saw someone lying dead on the battlefield.

I shifted onto my side, facing away from him. I felt him shift too. His arm tightened around me and pulled me closer. His face buried in my neck.

"Can't sleep?" He mumbled.

"No." I whispered back.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" He propped himself up on his elbow so he could look at me.

"Not really."

He brushed some hair out of my face. "The only way I can help you is if you tell me what's wrong."

I sighed. "Every time I close my eyes, I see someone lying dead on the battlefield." My eyes started to water. "I'm so afraid something is going to happen." A tear leaked out of my eye.

He brushed it away with a gentleness he saved for me. "Nothing is going to happen. We are all going to walk away from this. I will make sure of it." He pressed a kiss to my forehead.

"But what if something happens to you?"

"Nothing is going to happen to me." He settled down again and tucked me into his side. "This time tomorrow we will be celebrating. Ok?"

"Ok." This time when I closed my eyes, making myself a promise to not let anything happen to him, I fell into a restless sleep.

When we woke up, the sun was just creeping over the horizon. Paul and I got ready silently and headed to Sam's. Once we got there Sam gave us a pep talk and we headed out to the battlefield. Before we shifted though, Paul gave me a peck on the lips.

"We will be back here when this is over." He said softly. "All of us." I nodded and we both shifted and took off.

When we got to the battlefield, the Cullens were already there. Except for the mind reader.

"They will be here soon." Said the short pixie haired one.

The pack grumbled in acknowledgement. We all got into position when we heard rustling in the woods. The first newborn jumped into the clearing. The Cullens attacked it as we started fighting off the rest of the army. We had a great system going. I would call out anyone trying to surprise us, attack any stragglers, and the pack did the rest.

When we had finished off all of them, one of the newborns decided to switch sides, everyone gathered in the middle. I landed on Paul's back as carefully as I could, earning a weird look from some of the Cullens. Guess they didn't know I had an imprint.

Bella and Edward came out of the woods with Seth not too far behind. They had just reached us when a straggler jumped out of the woods, trying to attack Esme. Leah jumped to attack as the rest of us got into position to help. The vampire almost got his arms around Leah so Paul jumped in. Leah got away and the vampire's arms wrapped around Paul and crushed his ribs.

Everything froze. I forgot how to breathe. When my world finally unfroze I shifted and ran to Paul.

Carlisle and Jasper made it first. They looked like they were trying to get him to shift back since he was still in his wolf form.

As soon as I reached his side, I started gently running my hands through his grey fur.

"Hey, Paul I need you to shift back." I said, holding back tears. His eyes met mine but the only thing they held was pain.

'I can't, it hurts too much'. He whimpered through our link.

"Yes you can." I encouraged.

He scrunched up his eyes in concentration and he finally shifted back.

I moved so that his head was on my lap. I ran my hand through his hair, brushing it off his brow. I laced my hand with his and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Paul flinched and pulled away when Carlisle started to feel his side.

"Hey it's ok. He is going to help you." Jasper said from Carlisle's side. Paul looked back at me and I gave him a small nod. If Carlisle could help him, despite what Paul thought of vampires, I was going to let him.

The rest of the pack gathered around after defeating the stray vampire. Someone slid shorts on Paul and Jared knelt next to me. He put his hand on my shoulder. I met his eyes and saw the silent question in his eyes.

'you ok?'

I nodded a little but he didn't seem convinced.

"The bones on the right side of his body are broken." Carlisle said, drawing everyone's attention. "The Volturie is coming so you guys need to get out of here."

"We can take him back to Emily's." Sam nodded to the rest of the pack. They all carefully picked him up and started carrying him through the woods. If the situation was different it would have been comical.

I started after them but Sam stopped me. "I need you to fly ahead and tell Emily what happened and give her a heads up."

"But-"

"You need to warn Emily." His gaze softened. "The best way to care for Paul right now is to be prepared. I know you want to be with him right now, if I was in your situation I would too, but if we walk in unexpectedly, Emily won't have time to prepare a bed for him and it could make things worse, ok."

I nodded, "ok." I sniffed a little and took off. I flew fast, faster than I had ever flown before. By the time I got to Emily's I was out of breath but I didn't stop until I was inside.

"Emily!" I called out. "Emily!" Emily came downstairs, hair wild and eyes wide.

"Olivia, what happened?" She looked behind me, "where is everyone else?"

"They're heading here." I said my voice became wobbly again.

"Is everyone alright?" She didn't want to ask the hard question. Was everyone alive.

"Yes, yes we are all ok, well not all of us." I took a deep breath. "Paul- he- he got hurt." Tears rolled down my cheeks. Emily came up and pulled me into a hug.

"It's ok." Her head rested on my shoulder. "How about we go set up the guest room for him." I nodded and followed her upstairs. We had just finished putting fresh sheets on the bed when we heard the back door open.

I waited in the room, on a chair I had taken from the kitchen. They eventually entered the room and gently set Paul on the bed. One by one they left and I moved to the bed. I brushed some of Paul's hair out of his face.

"Hey." I said softly.

He mumbled something in response and leaned into my touch. I kept running my hand through his hair and grabbed the hand on his uninjured side. We sat in silence for a while until Sam came in.

He took the chair I was in before. "Carlisle is on his way." He ran a hand over his face. "When he gets here you need to listen to what he says." He looked over at me. "Even if he asks you to wait outside." I nodded a little and squeezed Paul's hand.

Carlisle arrived not long after and started figuring out what to do first.

"I'm going to have to re-break his bones so I can set them properly." That sounded painful.

"What can we do?" Sam asked, sitting at the foot of the bed. Carlisle gave me a look and Sam got the unspoken message. "Olivia, go wait outside."

My head shot up in surprise. "What! No!" Same gave me a look. I knew he wasn't going to budge on this so I leaned down and pressed a kiss on Paul's forehead and squeezed his hand. I made my way downstairs and just as I stepped outside I heard the first of his screams. I walked over to where Embry and Jared were and settled in the space between them. Jared took my hand and Embry rubbed my back as I cried into his shoulder. This was going to be a long night.