Delicate (Jasper Whitlock Hale)

Chapter 1 *edited*

The forest had become my home. There wasn't another place that I could truly feel safe in. Despite my size, I was still well hidden and hardly ever had to worry about someone seeing me. Washington provided everything I needed in order to stay safe. Stay hidden. For the first few months after the murder of my family, I escaped to Canada and stayed hidden in any place I could. The news of three family members from a small town being murdered while their daughter was nowhere to be found made it's way across the border and staying in the city wasn't an option. It drove me to the woods and I didn't look back.

When I would cross back into America, I typically headed to straight to the Olympic National Forest, but I headed to the far edge and strayed to Forks. I had learned years ago to trust my instincts. It took a couple days for me to reach it, but I wasn't in any sort of rush, either. I wasn't sure what day I had actually crossed into Forks, but I was eventually greeted by another shifter.

As soon as the scent surrounded me, my lips curled over my teeth, exposing them all as I growled out. It took a couple seconds for me to find him, but when I did, I wondered how I hadn't spotted him earlier. He was massive.

Who are you and why are you here? This isn't your territory. The deep voice bellowed around in my head.

My name is Laela, I don't have a pack and was just looking for someone or something that lead me here. I didn't realize the territory was claimed. I replied, standing up straight and dropping my snarl.

You're alone? With no pack?

Yes, I was the lone survivor of an attack. I don't know why I told him this, I could've said I was separated from my pack or just followed to close to city lines and apologized and left but I didn't. Once again, I was trusting my gut and hoping that it wouldn't start doing me wrong.

My name is Sam, I'm the leader of the Uley Pack on the Quileute reservation. How would you like to meet the rest of my pack? Wolves aren't meant to travel alone. You've been in Forks for a couple days now, when we picked only one scent, we all discussed offering you a place. He offered, causing me to perk my ears up in surprise, stuttering a bit before finally accepting.

I followed him. I don't know why I followed him, but I followed the giant black wolf through the woods until we reached the edge and he phased back into his human form. "You can phase, too. I promise you'll be safe here, the only thing you'll have to worry about is Seth, but that's because he's easily over excited."

I saw a pile of clothes sitting beside one tree, folded and freshly washed. At the very least, I got a change of clothes out of this.

"Thank you, for taking a chance on me. For all you know I wasn't alone and you still opened your home to me." I said after we were both dressed.

"It was easy to tell you were alone and weren't lying, your pack would've came to your side when you noticed me." He pointed out, and I couldn't deny it. Sam was right. It ran in the loyalty of our blood, we wouldn't leave our own when another pack was close.

He asked me about why I was alone, and I told him my story about how the red eyed men killed my family and how I was running from them ever since. The look that flashed across his face said he knew about the red eyes, but I wasn't too keen in finding out more.

"I'm sorry to hear that, your secret is safe with me." He reassured before guiding me to a small house, where a woman waked out. I hated myself for it being the first thing I noticed, but the giant claw marks going down her face were her most noticeable feature.

"Hi, baby. Who's this?" She asked Sam, her eyebrows furrowing together in confusion as she looked between him and I, although she kept a smile while she asked the question.

"This is Laela. She's the wolf that has had the boys and I on high alert for the past couple days." He told her, throwing me a wink to assure me it was just a joke.

"Well, my name is Emily, it's a pleasure to meet you. I hope he didn't scare you when he first found you. He doesn't realize how intimidating he can be to the people who don't know him." She said. With the smile on her face, it was easy to trust her and allow myself to smile back.

"He was fine, I promise. I was expecting a lot worse for, even if it was an accident, entering someone else's territory." I heard laughing coming from inside the house and my attention turned towards the screen door, spotting a couple people inside at a table.

"If you decide to stay, those are some of your pack mates." Sam told me.

"They can be a lot, but I promise they're all nice. Just hyperactive." Emily followed.

They guided me inside, quickly gaining the attention of the three shirtless boys. Even though it was cold and rainy outside, any of us would've been just as comfortable in nothing at all. Running extremely hot had it's perks, even if it made summers uncomfortable sometimes.

"Damn Sam, you told us you were going out to find out who was walking our woods, we thought it was wolf, not a fox." One of them said, earning him a slap on the head from Emily.

"Shut up Quil and leave the poor girl alone. She just got here." She said, looking back at me and rolling her eyes, "You'll have to excuse them. They don't have any house training apparently."

I couldn't help but laugh at their playful banter, "Don't worry about it. It's been two years since I've really spoken to anyone and even I know how lame that line was." I fired back, earning a little bit of laughter from the other two guys sitting at the table.

"Damn, Quil, she just met you and already isn't putting up with it. Step up your game man."

"Shut up, Jared, It's not like you've said anything to her at all." Quil fired back.

"Technically you didn't say it to her either, you said it about her." The final one who's name hadn't slipped out yet said. He looked over to me, finally speaking to me instead of about me, "I'm Paul Lahote, the only one out these idiots who still knows how to introduce myself."

"Laela Jaime." I said, shaking his outstretched hand and offering him a small smile.

"So, Laela how old are you? Our youngest pack member is Seth who's 15, and Alpha Sam over there is the oldest at 24." Paul asked.

"Well I'm glad to hear I'm not the youngest or the oldest, I'm 18." I replied, earning a fist pump from Quil,

"Hell yeah, finally got another 18-year-old in the pack." He only earned an eyeroll from Jared and a small eyebrow quirk from Sam who had remained quiet most of the time, only now speaking up.

"You got another 18-year-old here and she'll probably still kick your ass." Sam said, a smirk on his face as he saw Quil struggle and fail to come up with comeback. He still had an arm wrapped around Emily's waist, as if he was unable to pull himself away from her.

Eventually the rest of the pack and some of the elders showed up as the day continued into the night and I had to reintroduce myself multiple times that night. I couldn't help but feel comfortable around the family I had been so easily accepted into. Even the elders seemed to accept me that night, although they were surprised that I was a female wolf and were quick to introduce me to the other woman in the pack, Leah.

As soon as we were introduced to each other, we were inseparable. While the boys were great and trying to make me feel more comfortable with everyone around, there was something about having another girl to be able to talk to that was in the pack that made me realize I might actually feel like I could stay here.

For the first time in two years, I felt like I could breathe and stay where I was, even be happy.