Elizabeth Rain Swan || A Paul Lahote Love Story

Chapter 68

The twins are five now, well it's actually their fifth birthday. They are so different already. Sammy's a loud mouth who loves art. She also really enjoys nature. She tells me all the time she wants to take pictures of the rivers when she gets older. She has her Dad's brown eyes and my long dark hair.

Wyatt is super smart. He loves school and reading. He's always asking questions about how things work and why things happen the way they do. He's really great with numbers. He says he wants to be a doctor when he grows up.

Grayson is nine. I keep telling him he's growing up way too fast. He doesn't believe me though. He is super athletic. He plays football and baseball for the youth leagues in Forks. He says he wants to play basketball in High School. He wants to play in the NBA when he grows up.

All three kids currently attend the school on the reservation. Paul and I have talked about maybe transferring them out to Forks public school, but we're scared one of them will phase. The public school won't be as kind about them missing for pack duties.

Emmett still comes around every couple of months. He is still traveling the world. He wants to take Wyatt to Rome. I can't say I blame him. Emmett is actually back for their fifth birthday. We're having a party today, since it's a Saturday. All of their friends from school are going to be there. I'm a little nervous having ten five year olds instead of my normal two. Luckily, Paul and the pack will be here to help.

Leah retired from the pack, and so did Embry. They both decided to settle down with their imprints. Paul is retiring tonight. After this party, we're having a bonfire, even though it's February. Paul is insistent upon retiring. Quil and Seth are going to be in charge. Quil is going to be the alpha of the six person pack after tonight.

I'm not going to get into the boring details of chasing five year olds around for two hours, or the fact that at one point there was a cake war. Luckily, everything was outside, so I wasn't stuck trying to clean everything up.

Sue, who is still an elder of the tribe, and I made all the food for the bonfire. Emily and Sam, who now had three kids, agreed to watch our three for the night so Paul could officially resign from being the alpha of the pack. He was literally so calm now that it almost scared me.

"The Quileutes have been a small tribe from the beginning," Billy Black said, starting the telling of the oral histories. It doesn't matter how many times I hear them, I get sucked into the stories and I can't help it. I love the stories.

"Alright, Paul and Quil, go phase," Old Quil said, shooing the two into the tree line.

The two returned, and I tried to memorize the image of Paul's wolf. It was the last time I'd see it. I didn't want to let that part of him go, but I knew if I wanted him to grow old with me he would have to do this.

"Paul, as retiring alpha, you have to give up the alpha order and give them to Quil," Sue said. This whole thing involved all the elders plus most the pack.

I knew Paul had finished when Quil's wolf grew to be larger than Paul. He had to be the largest in the pack, after all.

There were some more words exchanged between the elders and Paul and Quil, but I didn't listen to them. Paul and Quil returned from the woods after phasing back. Paul still looked the same. Tall, buff, and handsome. Quil, had hit a growth spurt. He now stood probably 6'5". He appeared to have bulked up more too.

"Hey beautiful," Paul said, coming over to me and wrapping his arms around me.

"Hey," I said, burying my face in his chest. I wrapped my arms around him. His body temperature was still a lot higher than mine.

"What's wrong?" He asked as people started to leave.

"I'm not sure how to feel about this," I said. "All the other imprints seem so happy when their wolf retired. I'm going to miss it though."

"I'm still me," he said. "I just left my wolf behind. That's it babygirl. Nothing about me has changed."

I nodded into his chest as my eyes started watering. "I love you Paul Ethan Lahote."

"I love you too, Elizabeth Rain Lahote."