Ocean Eyes

Pack Advice

"She reminds him of every good day he's ever had.
Every summer spent in fields of grass.
Every sunrise.
Every sunset.
She tastes like dew and smells like light.
And when she speaks it sounds like someone slowly plucking the string of a guitar,
a sadly beautiful song starting to play,
all his own.
And he loves her."
- Unknown

Emily Young's house was small. The porch overflowed with potted plants, a covering providing them shelter from the ever constant downpour of La Push. The inside of the house was surprisingly spacious for a small cottage, with a large living room and kitchen on the first floor.

It always smelled like cinnamon muffins.

"Jared, if you eat one more of those muffins, I swear I'll kick your ass right out of this house!" For a smaller, young woman, Emily could be quite intimidating. She was Sams imprint, making her the surrogate mother for the pack. Although she was only a few years older than him, Paul looked up to her.

"But they're so good!!" Jared laid sprawled stomach down on the coach, reaching futilely for the plate of muffins. The shapeshifter could have pushed himself up towards them easily, yet his laziness was too strong. Paul rolled his eyes at his best friend.

"Damn right they're good!" Emily emerged from the kitchen, where she had been frosting cupcakes for her nieces birthday party. "That's why you have to share. Paul, do you want some?"

Paul didn't speak, just turning his head in a slight refusal. He had been sitting on the love seat for almost an hour, practically unresponsive. "God Paul, just man up and ask her out!" Jared sat up, annoyed by his friends mopey behavior. The boy had been withdrawn and quiet since Halloween night. Whenever he shifted, all Sam and Jared could hear were thoughts of his imprint.

Jared didn't know Ryder Kane personally, but going off of Paul's memories, the girl was as confusing as a complex math equation.

"Shut up, Jared." Paul huffed. "You know she wouldn't say yes."

"She's your imprint, Paul." Jared scoffed, sneakily grabbing a muffin when Emily's back was turned. "I asked Kim out. That easy." A grin grew on his face as he thought of his imprint.

"Ryder's different. She's dead set on staying as far away from me as possible. Especially after the other night." It was now a week after Halloween and Ryder hadn't talked to him once. Every time he greeted her or tried to start a conversation, the girl would promptly ignore him. He saw the pain in her eyes and knew it all had to do with Halloween night. It hurt him. She was all he could think about, her ocean eyes, the way she would quirk her lip, the thin scar on her chin.

"You probably just scared her." Emily offered her input. "I don't think she's used to feeling the imprint."

"It wasn't that." Paul shook his head. "It was like I rekindled some horrible memory in her."

"Well, you know her family." Jared tried to explain in the least offensive way possible. "I doubt her life was all sunshine and rainbows."

"But it should have been!" Paul yelled. He was angry now, not at Jared but at Ryder's past. She didn't deserve anything less than happiness. It killed him to know that she had gone through painful things and he hadn't been there for her.

"Paul." Emily placed her hand on his back, trying to calm him down. It wasn't like Ryder though. Her touch was soft but it didn't even register in Paul's mind. He began to shake, his frustration pushing a shift. "Paul, calm down."

Jared jumped up, pushing Emily away from Paul as he stood up. His face was in a snarl, his body reverberating with every wave of anger. He still couldn't control his shift very well and knowing things were bad between him and his imprint drove him over the edge.

"PAUL" His alphas voice rang out, loud in the small house. San rushed through the doors, running towards his most volatile beta. "PAUL STOP!"

His order hung in the air until Paul submitted. His body began to still and with a sigh, the need to shift lessened. Paul fell back onto the couch, his face in his hands. "I'm sorry." He hated the shift. He hated his lack of control.

"Paul, honey it's okay." Emily soothed. Sam was by her side in a minute, pulling her into him. He gazed at her lovingly, pressing a few quick kisses to the scars on her face.

"No it's not." He turned back to Paul, now convinced his imprint was safe. "You could have hurt Emily!"

"I know, I'm sorry." Sometimes Paul felt like the shift was to him as alcohol was to his father. "I was just-" he sighed.

"He was thinking about Ryder." Jared supplied. Sams tenseness lessened, understanding how hard the imprint was affecting the boy. It had affected them all that way. The need to be around your imprint was all consuming. They were the most valuable thing in a shifters life and protecting them was the first instinct.

"That explains it." Sam sighed, letting go of Emily to reach for a cupcake.

"Ah!" Emily smacked his hand away. "Those are for Sophia! Get your paws away from them." Sam grinned cheekily, pulling Emily in for a kiss. As she happily agreed, he swiped a finger in icing and rubbed it on her nose. "Oh no you didn't!" The pair began an icing fight, the house erupting into laughs.

Paul smiled ruefully. He wished he and Ryder could do that. He wished Ryder would just give in to the mating pull that he knew she felt. But she was stubborn and Paul loved that about her.

"Dude, I know the date wouldn't work." Jared sat down next to him, lazily draping himself over the back of the couch. "How about flowers?"

"It might scare her away." Paul's voice was fragile and Jared knew how much Ryder Kane really meant to him.

He had never really experienced love. His mother and father fought constantly. When they finally divorced, Paul was happy. If that was what love was, he wanted no part of it. Even parental love evaded him. His mother stayed in Tacoma, his dad moved him out to La Push. There Joe Lahote fell even deeper into his alcoholism. Paul began to spend holidays alone. When Joe wasn't traveling for work, he was drinking. There was no time for his only child in between.

He had clung to his ideal that love was merely a hallucination all his life. He believed that monogamy would only lead to cheating, that staying with one person was useless. That was until he met Ryder. When he had looked into her eyes, he knew that he never wanted to look at anyone else for the rest of his life. She was his endgame.

Being away from her hurt. Knowing that she wanted to be away from him hurt even more.

"Paul the imprint is too strong for her to resist forever."Jared offered.

"I don't want her to just give in because she feels like she has to. I want her to want to."

"Being near you will make her realize just how in love with you she is." Emily pulled away from her passionate embrace with Sam to encourage Paul. "She wants you and that's why she's staying away. She's scared. So you have to make her not scared. You don't have to go quick. Just being near you will convince her. You don't need a reason to go see her. Just go do it and let her warm up to you."

"But what if she never listens? what if she never stops running?" Paul's voice was almost hopeless. Sam sighed. He normally didn't offer much comfort to his betas, but he knew what Paul needed to hear. His journey to Emily was a difficult one.

"Then you run faster."