The Heat of You
by Wizardtho
Chapter 23:
Trigger Warning: Mentions of rape, sodomy, physical and mental torture, and whipping near the end of the chapter.
Bella POV
I woke to a warm kiss being placed on my shoulder. I hummed, then heard Paul’s sleepy voice asking, “You want something to eat before we go? Or would you rather try hunting?”
With my brows furrowed and my eyes still closed, I asked, “Hunting tonight? I thought Sam wanted me to start next week.”
Paul kissed my shoulder again, then explained his thoughts, “You really didn’t eat that much for dinner, Sweetheart, and with all the training you did today, I don’t want you to end up weak. You trained harder on day one than literally anyone else in the pack.”
I relaxed, knowing that Paul was only worried for me. I guess that’s why I agreed so easily. “I guess we can try. If I don’t take to it as easily as I did phasing, I promise to eat until I’m stuffed when we get home. Fair?”
Paul chuckled, “Fair, Swan. Come on, we’ll get some coffee in our systems before we get to work.”
***********
Bella! ~E
Hey, Bella. How was today? ~S
I gave a mental shrug as I thought, ‘Hi, guys. Pretty good, I think.’
Paul began thinking about our day training, surprisingly able to keep my nudity mostly out of the visuals. Like small video clips, I watched myself phasing on command, and Paul was right when he said the whistle hadn’t even stopped before my wolf came forth.
Whoa! Impressive! ~S
Kick ass! ~E
Paul continued the clips, showing my initial struggle with phasing on the fly, then my final try during dinner with my dad.
Dude, Jake’s gonna be so pissed. Even he can’t phase on the fly like that! ~E
Nice. ~S
I chuckled, then asked, ‘Wait, what? Is that not common?’
Sam answered, ‘It’s something we’ve all been training to be able to do. Of the whole pack, only Paul and I have mastered it, until you did today. Jake and Jared can both do it to some degree, but neither is very good yet. Embry is just starting to learn. It looks like you truly are your mate’s equal, Bella, and that’s something to be proud of. Keep up that determination.’
I grinned at Paul, who was filling the bond we shared with happiness and pride.
Sam thought before he and Embry got ready to phase out, ‘Get her used to our paths around Forks, show her the Cullen line, and see if she can start recognizing scents. We’ll put the two of you on the rez side next time out.’
I thought about Paul requesting that I try hunting, and Sam’s thoughts filled with his last hunt before he offered, ‘It is surprisingly natural, Bella. Just let your wolf come to the front. If there is even the slightest bit of hunger in you, your wolf will salivate for the hunt, and it will be as easy as breathing. Paul knows where the good spots are.’
I thanked him as we ran through the woods toward Forks, then he and Embry phased out just as Jake phased in.
*********
Hunting was a very… different… experience. I should have just let my wolf take over from the beginning, but I was determined to try and hunt on my own. After losing an elk to my scent spooking it, then a deer to the sound of my footfalls in the grass, I finally huffed and gave up, allowing my wolf to take over. She was salivating for the kill, knowing her prey -which I kept losing- would sate her hunger.
Of course, she was flawless in stalking and snagging her prey, which ended up being a nice-sized male elk. The warmth of her kill and the action of pulling the flesh from the bone filled a primal need in both of us, and sometime during our meal, I ended up not thinking of us as separate beings anymore. We were two halves of one being, and I liked it more that way on some base level.
Paul took me all the way around the border we were patrolling, to make sure I had a hang of what and where, then he guided me to the Cullen line in the forest. I could smell it long before we reached the line. Death, bleach, and too-sweet candy. It made my hackles rise and my nose wrinkle.
I stopped mid-run with a growl. Paul stopped and turned to me, his head full of caution as he explained, ‘You smell it, don’t you? Think beyond the smell of death, Swan. Think beyond that to the individual elements underneath. Think of what you remember of his scent. Do you smell it?’
I took a second to think rationally, then automatically thought to Paul, ‘Honey, lilac, and sunshine.’ I took a few steps forward as I sniffed the air to find where that scent was strongest.
After a few minutes of Paul following as I tracked the scent, I stopped while sniffing the ground near what seemed like an often-used spot. I could hear the growl even in my thoughts as I practically spat, ‘Here. It’s here.’
Paul was quick to offer, ‘Yes. It’s the trail he used to reach your house. Now find me another. Tell me who and where.’
After picturing and finding the scents for Alice, Esme, Emmett, Carlisle, and Rosalie, I got stumped on Jasper’s scent. Paul offered, ‘Take a minute and think. You’ve got this, Sweetheart.’
I thought back to Emse and Carlisle’s scents, and how sometimes I could smell her baby powder note on him. Then I thought about Alice’s scent. It didn’t have the tobacco, like I thought it would, so that must mean it was part of Jasper’s. My paws quickly found the tobacco scent in our immediate vicinity, then I noted that I also smelled sweet tea and gunpowder. That was Jasper.
Paul praised me for how quickly I was able to figure it out, then asked if I was ready to continue. Without asking ‘continue where’, I told him I was ready.
It turned out that ‘where’ was the Cullen manor, and I was truly not ready. As soon as I saw the house, flashes of images started pouring out like a waterfall. Images of me being bound up and left hanging in a tree for hours, of me being stripped and shoved into a freezing cold creek, of curling up inside a dead bear carcass trying to hide from Edward, of me being stuffed in a barrel filled with maggots overnight, of being sat in garbage then chained to a pipe in a dirty warehouse to let rats bite at me, of them sodomizing me with wooden objects, and of me being tied to Carlisle’s cross naked as they took turns hitting me with a whip.
Image after image of me being tortured, demeaned, abused, raped, bitten, and nearly killed flooded my mind. They hit me so fast and so hard that I didn’t even realize that I was curled up against the base of a tree shaking until I felt Paul curling around me protectively while flooding the mind link with images of him holding me.
For every image that surfaced of the Cullens, an image now surfaced of Paul, his thoughts of me, his care, how much he truly wanted me for a mate, and of his eternal devotion. Images so pure, so beautiful, that they slowly fought away the dark.
Heat engulfed me, and I clung to the images of Paul. Again and again they cycled; each time they shoved the dark away a bit more, until finally, there was only Paul and me. Paul and the beautiful, bright, and pure feelings he felt for me. Just Paul, and his snarky, crass, devilishly sexy, ‘I’m kinda broken, too’ imperfectly perfectness.
A/N: That was rough. I need to give a huge thank you to Momma2Fan for the help she gave me with this chapter. I was having a tough time with it, and she helped pull me through it. Thanks!
Trigger Warning: Mentions of rape, sodomy, physical and mental torture, and whipping near the end of the chapter.
Bella POV
I woke to a warm kiss being placed on my shoulder. I hummed, then heard Paul’s sleepy voice asking, “You want something to eat before we go? Or would you rather try hunting?”
With my brows furrowed and my eyes still closed, I asked, “Hunting tonight? I thought Sam wanted me to start next week.”
Paul kissed my shoulder again, then explained his thoughts, “You really didn’t eat that much for dinner, Sweetheart, and with all the training you did today, I don’t want you to end up weak. You trained harder on day one than literally anyone else in the pack.”
I relaxed, knowing that Paul was only worried for me. I guess that’s why I agreed so easily. “I guess we can try. If I don’t take to it as easily as I did phasing, I promise to eat until I’m stuffed when we get home. Fair?”
Paul chuckled, “Fair, Swan. Come on, we’ll get some coffee in our systems before we get to work.”
***********
Bella! ~E
Hey, Bella. How was today? ~S
I gave a mental shrug as I thought, ‘Hi, guys. Pretty good, I think.’
Paul began thinking about our day training, surprisingly able to keep my nudity mostly out of the visuals. Like small video clips, I watched myself phasing on command, and Paul was right when he said the whistle hadn’t even stopped before my wolf came forth.
Whoa! Impressive! ~S
Kick ass! ~E
Paul continued the clips, showing my initial struggle with phasing on the fly, then my final try during dinner with my dad.
Dude, Jake’s gonna be so pissed. Even he can’t phase on the fly like that! ~E
Nice. ~S
I chuckled, then asked, ‘Wait, what? Is that not common?’
Sam answered, ‘It’s something we’ve all been training to be able to do. Of the whole pack, only Paul and I have mastered it, until you did today. Jake and Jared can both do it to some degree, but neither is very good yet. Embry is just starting to learn. It looks like you truly are your mate’s equal, Bella, and that’s something to be proud of. Keep up that determination.’
I grinned at Paul, who was filling the bond we shared with happiness and pride.
Sam thought before he and Embry got ready to phase out, ‘Get her used to our paths around Forks, show her the Cullen line, and see if she can start recognizing scents. We’ll put the two of you on the rez side next time out.’
I thought about Paul requesting that I try hunting, and Sam’s thoughts filled with his last hunt before he offered, ‘It is surprisingly natural, Bella. Just let your wolf come to the front. If there is even the slightest bit of hunger in you, your wolf will salivate for the hunt, and it will be as easy as breathing. Paul knows where the good spots are.’
I thanked him as we ran through the woods toward Forks, then he and Embry phased out just as Jake phased in.
*********
Hunting was a very… different… experience. I should have just let my wolf take over from the beginning, but I was determined to try and hunt on my own. After losing an elk to my scent spooking it, then a deer to the sound of my footfalls in the grass, I finally huffed and gave up, allowing my wolf to take over. She was salivating for the kill, knowing her prey -which I kept losing- would sate her hunger.
Of course, she was flawless in stalking and snagging her prey, which ended up being a nice-sized male elk. The warmth of her kill and the action of pulling the flesh from the bone filled a primal need in both of us, and sometime during our meal, I ended up not thinking of us as separate beings anymore. We were two halves of one being, and I liked it more that way on some base level.
Paul took me all the way around the border we were patrolling, to make sure I had a hang of what and where, then he guided me to the Cullen line in the forest. I could smell it long before we reached the line. Death, bleach, and too-sweet candy. It made my hackles rise and my nose wrinkle.
I stopped mid-run with a growl. Paul stopped and turned to me, his head full of caution as he explained, ‘You smell it, don’t you? Think beyond the smell of death, Swan. Think beyond that to the individual elements underneath. Think of what you remember of his scent. Do you smell it?’
I took a second to think rationally, then automatically thought to Paul, ‘Honey, lilac, and sunshine.’ I took a few steps forward as I sniffed the air to find where that scent was strongest.
After a few minutes of Paul following as I tracked the scent, I stopped while sniffing the ground near what seemed like an often-used spot. I could hear the growl even in my thoughts as I practically spat, ‘Here. It’s here.’
Paul was quick to offer, ‘Yes. It’s the trail he used to reach your house. Now find me another. Tell me who and where.’
After picturing and finding the scents for Alice, Esme, Emmett, Carlisle, and Rosalie, I got stumped on Jasper’s scent. Paul offered, ‘Take a minute and think. You’ve got this, Sweetheart.’
I thought back to Emse and Carlisle’s scents, and how sometimes I could smell her baby powder note on him. Then I thought about Alice’s scent. It didn’t have the tobacco, like I thought it would, so that must mean it was part of Jasper’s. My paws quickly found the tobacco scent in our immediate vicinity, then I noted that I also smelled sweet tea and gunpowder. That was Jasper.
Paul praised me for how quickly I was able to figure it out, then asked if I was ready to continue. Without asking ‘continue where’, I told him I was ready.
It turned out that ‘where’ was the Cullen manor, and I was truly not ready. As soon as I saw the house, flashes of images started pouring out like a waterfall. Images of me being bound up and left hanging in a tree for hours, of me being stripped and shoved into a freezing cold creek, of curling up inside a dead bear carcass trying to hide from Edward, of me being stuffed in a barrel filled with maggots overnight, of being sat in garbage then chained to a pipe in a dirty warehouse to let rats bite at me, of them sodomizing me with wooden objects, and of me being tied to Carlisle’s cross naked as they took turns hitting me with a whip.
Image after image of me being tortured, demeaned, abused, raped, bitten, and nearly killed flooded my mind. They hit me so fast and so hard that I didn’t even realize that I was curled up against the base of a tree shaking until I felt Paul curling around me protectively while flooding the mind link with images of him holding me.
For every image that surfaced of the Cullens, an image now surfaced of Paul, his thoughts of me, his care, how much he truly wanted me for a mate, and of his eternal devotion. Images so pure, so beautiful, that they slowly fought away the dark.
Heat engulfed me, and I clung to the images of Paul. Again and again they cycled; each time they shoved the dark away a bit more, until finally, there was only Paul and me. Paul and the beautiful, bright, and pure feelings he felt for me. Just Paul, and his snarky, crass, devilishly sexy, ‘I’m kinda broken, too’ imperfectly perfectness.
A/N: That was rough. I need to give a huge thank you to Momma2Fan for the help she gave me with this chapter. I was having a tough time with it, and she helped pull me through it. Thanks!