→raised by wolves and other beasts p.l

→two

"Morning sunshine." Jacob's sly welcoming caused Gabriel to grumble beneath his breath and throw himself onto the sofa. "You good?"

"Eh." Gabriel mumbled into the pillow and smushed his cheek over it to look at Jacob. "I feel better than I did last night."

"Kinda overwhelming, huh?" Jacob guessed after he took a bite out of a left over muffin. Gabriel nodded and burrowed his head further into the cushion. "We gotta' meet the leeches tomorrow at dawn, they're showing us some kinda technique to deal with the newborns."

"Sure." Gabriel grumbled, his eyes dropping slowly as the ache in his bones finally began subsiding. At the time, he didn't correlate the calming effect washing over him as Paul gradually got closer and closer till he was walking down the stairs, shirtless may Gabriel add.

Paul Lahote stood at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes wide open in alarm as he looked at the drowsy image of Gabriel slewn across the sofa. Gabriel hadn't realised how much Paul had grown, but fuck did he. His hair was shorter and his face looked much more handsome than it did when he was younger. He filled out his body nicely, but his eyes were the only thing that stayed the same - they were kind to him. Gabriel offered a friendly smile that was returned with a nod of his head.

Ah fuck. Gabriel has an inkling that he knows whats happened, but he doesn't really want to think about it, but his mind is a traitor because Paul is all he's thinking about. Last night, the calming effect that took over him, that felt good. It felt more than good, it was the only nice feeling that had happened ever since he'd shifted and it was the only thing he needed. It was like Paul was his personal anaesthetic, he just took everything away and made him feel comfortable, almost like he could fall asleep at any moment.

"Yo, get up, we got a perimeter to patrol." Gabriel looked up at Jacob who nodded his head towards the door.

Gabriel quickly got up and shedded his jumper to the side and grabbed his shoes from beneath the sofa - he practically lived on there. As he passed the kitchen he leant over the table to take a bottle of water hidden beneath the cabinet. Gabriel stopped short when he saw Paul looking at him from the fridge, a fresh water bottle being offered to him instead of the stale, warm bottle. Gabriel took it and smiled.

"First patrol?" Paul asked and Gabriel nodded, not quite trusting himself with his words around the taller shifter yet. "It's not so bad, boring on a good day but we haven't had many of those since Bella started pulling her stunt with the Cullen's."

That he can talk about. "Yeah I don't get how she's so calm around people who wanna' eat her." Paul perks up at the reply and nods.

"They claim they feed off of mountain lions, bears and other shit. We have a treaty, they bite a human and we get to deal with them." Paul says, his eyes drifting from Gabriel to the doors behind him. Jacob was probably waiting there for him but Gabriel couldn't find the want in him to leave Paul alone.

"Still makes no sense. They have an innate need to feed on humans." Gabriel mutters low enough that Jacob doesn't hear, the last thing he needs is a moody shifter to deal with for the rest of the night. "Not sure I like her either which makes this shit more annoying."

"We don't necessarily do all of this for her, we do it for the reservation and the people we care about, too." Paul told him as he leaned against the counter. Gabriel suddenly felt the need to take a sip of water, and that he did. "I mean, it's difficult to really like Bella because of what she does to Jake, and so in a sense everything that we're doing right now is for him." Paul nodded in the direction behind Gabriel, which made the smaller shifter turn and look over his shoulder.

Jacob stood outside speaking to Sam and suddenly all the guilt of being selfish, whining about his aching bones and the smell of vampires all dawned on him. He was such an idiot. Sure, Gabriel had just shifted and everything had turned on its axis but he had the unfortunate skill of turning everything more dramatic than needs be, but Jacob was suffering silently and alone. Gabriel's heart felt heavy, the girl he loved was irrevocably in love with her mate; Gabriel couldn't fathom how painful it all must feel.

The most unfortunate thing about this is that Jake will continue to suffer in silence, because he loves to bottle shit up whereas Gabriel sorted things out there and then. It was just the way he handled things, but Jake was stubborn and if he truly wanted something he wouldn't stop until he got it. The sad thing is, Bella won't ever be his. She's in so deep and Gabriel's kind of glad that she was never Jake's in the beginning - it wasn't the whole vampire thing that completely stopped Gabriel from liking her, it was the way she treated Jacob whilst knowing his feelings for her.

"Don't worry too much, in the end he still has his imprint." Paul's soft tone had made Gabriel turn back around to see his dark eyes bore into Gabriel's. "Are you bothered about this?" Paul waved his finger inbetween them to signify the bond.

Wordlessly, because of all the nerves building up inside of him, Gabriel shook his head and took another sip of his water. Paul smiled and tipped his head to the side and then all of the nerves that fluttered around went bat-shit-crazy.

"Good, 'cause me neither."

Oh shit my dude.

"Can you hurry up?" Gabriel jumped at the sudden shout from Jacob, "Haul ass, we have shit to do, you can talk to Paul later."

Gabriel looks over his shoulder and flips Jacob off. Paul merely chuckles and thats enough to fuck over Gabriel's heart beat. He turns away, begrudgingly, and makes his way towards Jacob with a glare. The broad quilette smirks and wraps his arm around Gabriel's shoulder.

Maybe talking about imprinting is off the table this time, Gabriel didn't want to make it seem like he was rubbing it in Jake's face; and so, with that decision, he kept quiet.

Phasing had gotten a lot easier and this time it didn't feel like hours were dragging by. His wolf ripped through his skin on command and Gabriel decided that it was about time that this shapeshifting scheme saw the light of day.

The red head was followed back to Seattle. Paul and Jared haven't seen her since, and that was a week ago. I doub't we'll get much of her today, but we can't risk it. Jacob's voice flooded through the pack link.

Gotcha.

During their patrol, as Jake said, they had nothing to go on. Paul and Jared's last shift was dull - and that was exactly what they wanted - but the lingering thought of the red head sneaking upon them rattled their minds. Gabriel and Jake did not speak, they were far too focused on patroling the area.

Gabriel couldn't wait to rip her head from where it stood. If she wasn't running back and forth with vampires and werewolves tracking her trails, she could be doing something else with her life. Like, maybe finding another mate? Or even a hobby. She's looking for death considering the way she's behaving - she won't make it out alive and surely she must know that? One against the protectors of the city and some disgustingly-sweet-smelling-vampires is an impeccabe disadvantage. Gabriel didn't know the exact history behind it, why Edward killed her mate, but he didn't judge the leech for doing it; he just wished he snapped her neck whilst he was at it.

Hours passed and it was time for switching shifts, Embry and Quil were up for tonights patrol. Gabriel met up with Jake at the clearing and headed back home together. Again, their thoughts were dull murmurs floating about the pack link. Neither worrying excessively over certain things, neither worrying excessively over certain people. It felt nice for a change. Gabriel had gotten used to the constant infiltrating feeling of his pack mates peering into his mind, although he knew he did it himself, it still didn't feel all that great.

Despite the freedom of shifting, and finally putting your wolf at ease now that he wasn't trapped inside of a human body, Gabriel still preferred his human form. He hated that his instincts ripped him away from thinking things through first, he hated that he behaved like a savage, snapping and snarling, when all he could do is solve things quickly and quietly.

He had a lot of shit to get used to.