Youth ✿ Paul Lahote [1]

xv. bella swan, who else?

Alex carried the basket of muffins to the center of the table and placed them there gently, right next to the several other plates of baked goods that Emily had prepared.

The brunette often wondered how she kept up with it all—if Alex's home ever became the wolf pack meeting place then she wouldn't even know where to begin. But Emily was a natural, her mother instinct had been out ever since Alex had met her. It made her the perfect person for Sam—to help keep the wolves in check.

"Anymore news on the vampire running around?" Alex asked Emily, who had orange juice in hand and carried it over to the small table.

Jordan was spending the Sunday afternoon with their father, which left Alex with not much to do. Then add in that all of her friends were out patrolling and keeping an eye on a freshly turned Jacob, and Alex didn't have much places to go beside Emily's. This didn't bother the girl however, Emily had always been nice to Alex and she enjoyed her company.

"Not since yesterday when they chased her to Canada," Emily answered Alex, although it was something the brunette already knew. Paul had kept her up to date with it all but Alex simply wondered whether anything else had come forward since she last saw him.

Which was last night.

It wasn't very often that Alex and Paul spent the night apart, he always insisted on climbing through her window each night. Something about making sure she didn't freeze—although Alex knew it was for the kisses and cuddles he got in return.

The girls both turned at the sound of yipping in the driveway after a car had rolled up. That confused both Alex and Emily—the pack didn't usually use cars, they were faster on foot.

Jared walked through the door not long after. Alex watched from where she had come to sit at the table, a confused look on her face.

Jared noticed this and let out a small laugh. He was shirtless as per, jean cutoffs the only thing that hung off him. "Your boyfriend just got punched and it was amazing."

That made Alex's eyes widen. It wasn't like Paul couldn't take a punch, but it still only made the girl more confused as to what had happened. Her stomach bubbled slightly in anger, not wanting Paul to get hurt in any way. "What one of you idiots would be stupid enough to punch my boyfriend—who has a history of anger outbursts?"

"Wasn't one of us, Lexi."

That didn't help the confusion in any way shape or form. The only thing she took from the small conversation with Jared was that the boy didn't seem too worried about Paul, which gave Alex wind that this wasn't too serious. Her stomach still bubbled in nerves despite this.

"You're not going to happy with your boyfriend," Embry announced as he walked through the door. He looked directly at Alex as he said this before his gaze moved to Emily. "And you probably won't be happy with Jake—Sam's not."

"We leave you lot alone for a few minutes," Emily breathed out, sure that the drama the boys were talking about wasn't much. It usually wasn't.

Alex looked between both Embry and Jared now, the pair already having digged into the food on the table. They weren't paying that much attention to her.

Alex hit Embry's shoulder with her hand, which caused the boy to look at her with slight confusion. He was a lot more relaxed recently—it had been around a week since his imprint and it had all come full circle. He hadn't made the biggest effort to talk to Jordan yet, but it was all still new. Although Alex knew that Jordan was due to go back to Ohio soon and she had yet to bring it up to Embry, not wanting to add extra pressure.