ASPEN ➵ Paul Lahote [1]

ten

Salty mist blew through Aspen's brunette tendrils, and sand crunched underneath her feet as she and Paul walked side by side down La Push beach. His skin radiated heat down her left arm, and her fingertips tingled as the light breeze swarmed around the two.

Since leaving Emily's house, the two have been walking in a comfortable silence. Aspen has been thinking back to the last week of her life and analyzing everything that has happened. From leaving Emily's house abruptly a week ago to Paul walking into the store to the meadow with Bella and Laurent. How it all ended up with a storybook opening into her world and dumping vampires and werewolves into her life was beyond her. But the panic has settled. The acceptance began rolling in like the waves on the shore beneath her feet. Something within her kept placating her fear with understanding.

"So," Aspen said once they reached the water's edge, "You have a tail?"

Paul huffed, shaking his head. "There is a lot more to it but I guess you could say that."

Her mind thought to the wolves and how she had encountered them more than once now. There was so much she wanted to know, but began her questions with the beginning of all of this, "Embry told me that you were the wolves in the clearing from last night. Were you the wolf I saw in the woods a few weeks ago, too?"

"Yeah, that was me," Paul answered. His deep brown eyes sat beneath string brows that looked at Aspen with many swirling emotions she couldn't quite decipher.

"I almost bear-sprayed you!" Aspen exclaimed, her mouth dropping.

Paul just shook his head, "I am sure glad you didn't."

"I think you have some explaining to do," she said with a soft smile as she glanced away from her feet brushing the seafoam sloshing up from the tide. Aspen held her shoes in one hand, wanting to feel the icy cold of the ocean on her toes, almost grounding her to the moment, reminding her she was, in fact, here on the beach and not dreaming.

"Where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning," she said.

"Well, it all starts with the tribe. There are a few members of the tribe born with the gene, and it gets triggered when those bloodsuckers are present. I was sixteen when I first phased, right after Sam and Jared," he began, pausing when he noticed Aspen slow down, her own eyes furrowing.

"Bloodsuckers... Is that what you call vampires?" Aspen hesitantly asked. "Embry just told me that the Cullen family are vampires and that the man you saved us from in the woods was one, too."

"Yes," Paul began, "Those leeches are the reason we are the way we are. They hurt people, and it is our job to protect the reservation and humans. We were made to protect people like you from vampires; they are the only things we are made to kill," Aspen hated hearing about more death but allowed him to continue his explanation. "There are legends, ones you will hear about eventually from our tribe elders, that explain how it all started. But the Cullens are a coven of their own, who do not drink human blood. They are a part of the treaty made many, many years ago that allows us to live on our own lands, and they cannot cross our borders."

"So werewolves and vampires have existed for a long time?"

"It has been in our blood since the creation of our tribe. As far back as the tribe can tell, they have been the same. We believe, or rather, we know, it is a vampire that is killing all these hikers in the woods, and we have been hunting them down. That's why we were in the woods last night. And I am glad we were." Paul's seriousness had not lifted, and Aspen took a deep breath as she digested this information. "He won't be able to hurt you, Aspen. We took care of it."