J X K

Paul, Kim and Jared

Jared's POV

"You'll like him," I reassure.

"Didn't Paul get a month long suspension for getting into a bad fight two months ago?" Kim squirms in her chair.

"Yeah, he did," I pause, remembering how Sam had to get involved with the principal because that's when Paul first started to turn. I might have been able to help, but I was already pulled out of school from changing the week before. "That wasn't Paul's fault." I add.

Well, it was his fault. He did start it. But he couldn't control himself.

"Paul is doing a lot better," I barely believe myself as I say it. Paul is less volatile, but he still has a lot to work on. "He's pretty funny, you know."

We wait at my kitchen table at my mom's house, the library not seeming very Paul friendly. Actually, Paul isn't very big on libraries; he'd get kicked out if he gets too frustrated. Emily's and Sam's was also out because Kim still doesn't know about the legends, and she's still weirded out by how Emily first invited Kim over. So my place was next. Quiet enough, not too stimulating, and my mom bought extra snacks to keep Paul and I docile as puppies.

"You two hangout a lot?" Kim harmlessly asks, organizing her sticky notes. At first I thought it was cute, but after she confessed to me about how she struggles in school, now I notice how she anxiously color codes her cards.

"He's like a brother to me now."

"You two weren't really close before," Kim pauses, eyeing my short hair. I can tell by the look in her eyes she's connecting the dots, it's the same look she gets right before answering in class. The whole school has noticed it too. One day I just stopped coming to school for a whole month, a week later Paul disappeared too. We both stopped talking to our friends, stopped going to classes, stopped being normal. When we did show up again we've both cut our hair and had matching tattoos.

"Now you guys are always together." Kim observes.

"We're um," The wolf in me takes advantage of my panic and tries to leap up to the surface. I stifle the deep growl with a nasty sounding fake cough. Kim lets me have a minute, not realizing how I'm struggling to keep my breathing even and my head leveled.

"Paul and I are both going for anger management." I finally settle on the safest lie I can think of. Now I have to tell Paul he's has to lie about anger management till I tell Kim she's my imprint. Her face slips, her jaw nearly dropping before she catches herself and smoothes it out.

"Oh." She nods. "Group therapy?" She pauses before adding in a small voice, "Court order?"

"Sure, kind of like group therapy." I go along with it, "Hey, don't bring it up to Paul if you can."

"Of course. I won't tell anyone." And I know she wouldn't.

She drops it, and I try not to feel too guilty how she believes my bullface lie. It gives me a dull ache in my body, and my heart drops to my stomach. Worse of all, it makes me feel farther away from Kim. How instead of getting closer, I'm just ruining everything before anything happens. Just when it gets too difficult to look Kim in the eyes, I hear Paul pulverize through the tree line. Faking a stretch, I see him through my kitchen window over the sink, transforming back in the middle of my yard.

"What's up, Cameron?" The screen door claps hard against my house as Paul lets himself in, helping himself to a fistful of chips as he drops down into a chair. He nudges his chin at Kim, "Nice seeing you again, Mrs. Cameron."

I hear the uneven, hard pound of Kim's heart in her chest before her face goes red. So red it makes the freckles across the bridge of her nose vanish. Trying to bite down a grin, I shove his shoulder in warning, "Knock it off, Lahote."