Chapter 7 – The Fight 

James and Paul went off on their own deeper into the forest, they started to play fight, until Paul fell backwards into a tree and made it fall over. James became a bit concerned when he didn't move for a while so as he walked closer to him, "Paul you alright, quit fooling around" James said. As Paul slowly started to get up James's expression changed when he caught the familiar blood scent and that ignited his thirst. Paul tried to cover his scent and to calm him down but there was no stopping James, as he was in full tracking mode. They fought each other throwing one another left, right, up and down, things had gotten pretty violent as Paul was struggling against James's frenzy.

The Pack sensed Paul's struggle and came running in wolf form to help. The fight got to the point where Paul got hurt. James had only a few scratches and was able to recover a little bit of sense and ran away as soon as he saw the pack.

"Paul? Are you alright?" Sam asked deeply, "I'm fine I just need to be alone right now" Paul said looking in the direction James had run. The pack slowly turned around before racing back to Emily's place. They were all starting to really worry about Paul.

Somewhere in the forest James intentionally spent some time away from Paul, it had been the first time in a long while and he felt free but he couldn't help the feeling that something or rather someone was missing.

Whilst Paul's healed he could not stop thinking about James, he felt anything but himself while he wasn't with James. He felt free for the first time in a long time, he knew he had strong feelings for him no matter what he did.

Paul continued to hang with the rest of the pack chatting, laughing and cliff-jumping, whereas James went off on his own hunting for human blood, though occasionally the memory of Laurent and Victoria popped into his head it made him want to keep on hunting. He knew not to draw too much attention so he spent some time in another county. He had almost forgotten how good it feels to be just moving around all over the place to the point where his mind was totally free of any thoughts of Paul.

Though it was slightly different for Paul, although he was never alone he couldn't help, but keep thinking about James. This made him somewhat felt more alone. No matter what he did, it all reminded him of James to the point where he couldn't sleep at night. He tried to hide it but with wolf telepathy he knew that everyone already knew they were just not mentioning anything, but he knew that they were talking about him when he's not around.

That same afternoon Embry came up to him to see how he was "Hey Paul, how's it going, we haven't seen a lot of you recently?" Paul just stood there for a while not acknowledging him. "So, you're ignoring me" Embry asked. "No Embry I just don't feel like talking, now could you leave me alone" Paul said and Embry just looked at him, without another word he turned on the spot and walked away. He looked back a few times and just stared at Paul unable to figure him out. He watched him phase and sprint off into the distance.

"Hey Embry, where did you go off to? what happened?" Asked Quil.

Embry wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings and was startled at Quil's questions and he looked up, "Oh... Hi Quil, nothing happened I was just talking to Paul but he didn't feel like talking and just ran off"

"Well that would seem strange if it were either one of us but it's just Paul just being Paul, Now, come on let's go, Emily has some food for us." Quil said, cheering him up.

"I know I'm just a little worried he might be drifting away from the pack" Embry said as they reached the door of Emily's place.

The following month went slow for Paul, he found it hard to get over James, he felt incomplete. One day the rest of the pack took him to La Push to just have fun. He didn't want to at first but once they were there the memory of James very slowly started to fade. Paul continued to hang with the pack just like they used to and soon as the months went by the cold season was almost over, Paul hadn't thought about James for a long while. He felt almost healed till all of a sudden, he sensed something, but didn't think nothing of it.

Elsewhere James was having the time of his life, until one day he caught a scent of something so sweet it seemed familiar to him. He hadn't felt the way he does now for a long while so he decided to track it, it didn't take him long. It took him all the way to Forks and that's when he saw him. The memories of Paul came flooding back.

Paul again sensed something familiar to what he had sensed earlier in the week but it was stronger. He couldn't see anything at first. As he looked around he stopped in his tracks and saw another set of eyes staring back at him which had him startled, but it wasn't because someone had snuck up on him, it was because the eyes looked familiar so much. He felt like it was like he was falling in love again, just when he thought he couldn't feel that way again.

He saw the figure walking closer towards him, but he stopped, which got Paul thinking. He hesitated as he took each step. Moments later they found themselves facing each other an arm's length away. Paul smiled slightly and grabbed James, he reeled him in as if to kiss him only to throw him to the ground.

"James why did you leave and why did you come back now when it has taken me months to get over you...." Paul stopped short as James pushed himself upright and kissed him on the lips. They stopped and slowly turned their heads and saw Embry just standing there and they saw his expression go from shocked to furious before he ran off.

Paul tries to stop him, but gets pulled back, "James let go, I need to sort this."

"And we will sort this out...when the time is right" James said

"Yeah the that time is now" Paul said running off

"No! It's ... Not ..." James started running after Paul 'when will I ever stop chasing you' James thought to himself.

Before they knew it they came face to face with the Pack and they looked furious and disappointed. "Paul! What is going on here? I can't even sense anything from you no more like there's some sort of shield around you" Sam said.

"A shield? Yeah like I have that kind of gift...unless I've somehow managed to cloak myself from you guys"

"Well I think you have done just that, which is why I need you to tell me...to tell us what's going on with you" Sam said.

Paul just stood there looking at everyone staring back then he looked behind him, although he didn't see him he knew he was watching. "Well I don't know what to say and even if I did I wouldn't know where to start."

"Why don't you start with how...." Sam started for him.

Paul still didn't know how to start explaining it to them and from behind his back he signalled James to reveal himself. As he slowly walked out from the farthest trees his scent became stronger to notice, the others reaction changed, preparing themselves, as they were about to attack, James had raced to be by Paul's side with his arm around him.

"I told you guys about him why are you still angry, you know that I have imprinted on James, we tried to stay away but look how that ended up..."

The others grew angrier with Leah already a wolf, Seth was the only one that seemed to accept what had happened, as he had joined Jacob's side walking towards Paul and James, though they were a little apprehensive as to what was going to happen. Paul never did like to fight his family but he would for James as he knew James would protect him from harm.

"We do not wish to fight you as I know how it feels to imprint unexpectedly" Jacob said. Paul smiled gratefully "You have always been there for me by my side Jacob I really appreciate that, thank you" Paul said emotionally

James nodded agreeingly "Naturally we are enemies but I'm glad we can set that difference aside. Thank You Jacob" Jake scowled at James and reluctantly stuck his hand out looking to Paul then back to James seemingly ready for a truce as he had taken Jake's hand to make it official and they both knew they were doing it to keep Paul happy.

They quickly broke apart and Jacob's Pack