CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
HOLY GROUND

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SAM ULEY'S HOUSE WAS surprisingly nice, especially when considering the owner was the alpha of a pack of teenage boys who shape-shifted into wolves. Maggie wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, she just knew a tiny but cosy-looking beachside cottage wasn't it. A cave in the middle of the woods? Maybe. A normal suburban house that looked like something out of a rom-com? Definitely not.

Bella Swan's truck rumbled to a stop in the dirt driveway, the engine popping once before silence followed. Maggie was sitting in the bed of the truck with an antsy Jared Cameron, her eyes averted stubbornly towards the trees while Jared's own gaze burned holes into the side of her head. Inside the truck, Embry was stuck behind the wheel with a shocked Bella taking up the passenger seat. She poked her head through the open window as Embry hopped out of the truck and helped Maggie down from the back of the vehicle. Desperately, she met the other girl's gaze but Maggie's face remained blank even then.

"Hey, I think we should go back and see if Jacob's okay," she said, her worry evident in the harsh line of her eyebrows.

Jared scoffed. "I hope Paul sinks some teeth in him. Serves him right."

"No way," Embry was quick to disagree. "Jacob's a natural. You see him phase on the fly? I got five that Paul doesn't touch him."

"What about you, Maggie? Who you got money on?"

It took a moment for the question to sink in. Upon finally meeting Jared's amused stare, Maggie let out a sigh, caught somewhere between relief that at last she knew she wasn't crazy, and also a deep-seeded fear that she wasn't crazy and the world was really such a dark and dangerous place.

"Paul."

In the end, she decided to save her existential crisis for later, when she could confront the boy in question.

Jared snickered at her answer, like he knew something she didn't — which, to be fair, he probably did. "I'm not surprised you chose him."

"Bit biased of you, really," Embry added with a smirk.

The two boys had taken off down the driveway towards the porch (with Maggie hesitantly following) when they remembered the other girl who was with them, still sitting in her truck like she'd forgotten how to move.

"Come on in, Bella," Embry called out as Jared grunted impatiently. "We won't bite."

Jared rolled his eyes then, unable to hold it in any longer. "Speak for yourself."

He disappeared inside, Maggie just a step behind him. Embry hung back to speak to Bella some more but nudged past Maggie a second later to eagerly race towards where Emily Young stood with a platter of muffins. Both he and Jared snatched one up before making themselves comfortable at the table, Emily laughing at them with a fond smile, having not yet noticed the two unfamiliar girls waiting in her doorway.

"You guys hungry?" she teased the boys. "Like I have to ask."

"We have guests, Em," Jared informed her with his legs propped up on the dining table like he owned the place.

Maggie had the feeling that, normally, Emily would've scolded him for such an action, but the older woman had found herself distracted by the sight of her and Bella. With vague recognition in her eyes, she turned to face them. The scar that ran from her mouth to the corner of her right eye twisted as she smiled politely.

"Who's this?" she asked with a confused glance at Jared and Embry.

"Maggie Sullivan and Bella Swan," Jared replied. "Who else?"

Emily's smile brightened at the mention of Maggie's name but quickly turned tentative once Bella's registered alongside it. "So," she hummed, looking the girl up and down like she was caught between distrust and blind faith. "You're the vampire girl."

Bella frowned but kept her tone nonchalant as she replied, "So... you're the wolf girl."

Emily laughed, some of the tension falling away from her shoulders. "Guess so. Well, I'm engaged to one." It was then that she looked back at Maggie, and it struck her just how knowing the older woman's stare really was, like Maggie was an old friend she hadn't seen for a while. "It's nice to finally meet you, Maggie. I've heard a lot about you from Paul."

Maggie's face flushed red almost instinctively, prompting both Embry and Jared to snicker. She stuttered out, "it's nice to meet you too" trying and failing to hide her obvious blush. Paul spoke about her to his friends?

Fortunately for her, Emily was a woman, a woman who probably knew how it felt when her feelings for a guy were obvious, even to his friends. She smacked the back of Jared and Embry's heads with a warning glare, her eyes narrowing when she saw Jared trying to sneakily reach for another muffin.

"Hey! Save some for your brothers," she scolded. "And ladies first. Muffin?"

Despite not being hungry in the slightest, Maggie didn't want to be rude, so she picked up a muffin from the plate and forced herself to take a bite. Emily was a good cook, that much was obvious by the way Embry and Jared scoffed down her food like their lives depended on it, but Maggie was too anxious to eat more than half, let alone even thinking of going back for seconds. Upon insistence from the matriarch of the house, she found herself sitting at the table opposite Jared, most of her muffin laying untouched on a napkin.

"You gonna eat that?" he asked her.

Emily was quick to smack his head again. "Don't be rude, Jared Cameron."

Jared pouted, raising his hands in a surrendering motion while Embry laughed from beside him. "I was just saying..."

Without a word, Maggie nudged the napkin over to him, Jared thanking her before he shovelled the rest of the muffin down in a blink. Emily sighed but didn't say anything more as she turned to Bella, who had taken a muffin herself and was lingering behind Maggie's chair.

"Leave it to Jacob to find a way around Sam's gag order," she said, sounding displeased but trying her best to keep her annoyance in check.

Bella's frown returned as she muttered, "Uh... he didn't say anything to me..."

"That's a wolf thing," Embry explained. He had the eagerness of an overactive puppy. "Alpha's orders get obeyed whether we want 'em to or not." He met Maggie's eyes then, smirking teasingly, "Oh, and check it out; we can hear each other's thoughts."

Maggie's mind went back to every moment she'd shared with Paul. She had to fight the urge to blush again. Fortunately, Jared was too annoyed to feed into the moment, cutting it short when he turned to glower at Embry. "Would you shut up?" he hissed. "These are trade secrets, damn it. I mean, this chick runs with vampires..."

The blatant mention of Bella's allegiance had Maggie flinching and sinking further into her chair. She didn't understand it, how Bella could be so okay with even befriending one of them let alone dating one, wanting to be one.

Maybe Bella Swan really wasn't the type of friend Maggie Sullivan needed in her life.

"You can't really run with vampires," she said, sounding completely unphased despite Jared's dangerous stare. "'Cause they're fast."

"Yeah? Well, we're faster. Freaked out yet?"

Bella simply shook her head, like the thought hadn't even crossed her mind as had crossed Maggie's. "You're not the first monsters I've met."

Maggie had a lot she wanted to say to that but before she could even consider it, a new voice spoke from the porch where Sam Uley was kicking off his shoes. "Jake's right," he said with a sceptical glance over the Swan girl. "You're good with weird."

He then made his way over to Emily, his fiancé giggling as he pressed kisses to the side of her face where her scar laid, but Maggie was too busy staring out the door to really pay much attention to them. He hadn't even made it down the drive yet, but somehow Maggie Sullivan knew that Paul Lahote was close by. A moment later, as expected, he appeared at the foot of the porch, shirtless and unharmed except for one fading pink mark on the curve of his shoulder. He and Jacob were shoving each other jokingly, their laughter a sign that whatever grudge the two boys had previously shared was now put to rest. Maggie really didn't know what to think as Paul — who briefly paused to 'apologise' to Bella — came to sit beside her at the table.

"Hey, Mags," he said, smirk fading into a soft smile as he reached for a muffin and quickly bit into it.

For a moment, Maggie sat in stunned silence, her only reassurance being Bella Swan standing beside her. At least she wasn't the only one being thrown into this whole new world of wolves. Then, of course, Bella just had to chase after Jacob as he retreated back outside, leaving Maggie entirely alone.

"Hi, Paul," she replied at last, just because he was still looking at her, the hope in his eyes dying second-by-second.

Despite knowing that everyone in the room could hear them, he leaned in close and whispered, "Can we talk soon? Alone?"

Maggie nodded, and that was that. She didn't say another word, not until Paul had shovelled down three muffins before standing and offering her his hand. She intertwined their fingers after a second's hesitation, allowing him to lead her outside with Sam scolding a snickering Embry and Jared behind them.

At long last, they were alone. Maggie wasn't sure if she regretted it or not.

"Well?" she sighed, dropping Paul's hand to fold her arms over her chest. "What did you wanna talk about?"

Paul shot her a deadpan stare. "Maggie..."

Like someone had put a lighter to the unlit fuse of a bomb, every single one of Maggie's frustrations bubbled to the surface. "I don't know what you want me to say, Paul," she snapped, the muscles in her jaw visibly clenching. "For the longest time, I thought I was crazy. But you knew... for how long exactly? Weeks? Months? And you didn't tell me. If I hadn't come to Jacob's today, you'd probably still be ignoring me, keeping something you knew I needed to know a secret... So, let me ask you again. What do you want me to say?"

"Look, I'm sorry," he began, and Maggie had a feeling that was one of the only times he'd ever said those words and meant them. "But you're right. If you weren't here today, I probably wouldn't have told you."

Maggie had already known it but boy did her heart ache anyways. Bit by bit, the fuse continued to light, the seconds dwindling away. "I've been seeing Laurent and the red-headed vampire... Victoria... for months now. They literally haunt my dreams every night, Paul. I mean, fuck, I watched you kill one of them just a few days ago! You don't think that warrants an explanation?"

"I was hoping they'd lose interest in you," he retorted with familiar sparks of anger returning. "You don't need to be part of this life, Maggie. I fucking hate being a wolf, and you being tied to me is only putting you in constant danger—"

"They're not just going to lose interest," she scoffed, voice rising as she took a step closer to him. "Do you remember when I first came to live with Wren and Everett? What people used to say about me at school?" When Paul remained quiet, glowering, she continued. "Even then, I thought I was crazy, that I'd really been seeing things the night my mum died. But I wasn't, Paul. And now..."

"Now what?" he snapped, like he knew where she was going with this and didn't want to hear or accept it.

"Victoria and Laurent were there the night my mum was killed. They were the ones that killed Carson. And now, I think they want to kill me too."

There were no real words to describe the immeasurable pain that crossed Paul Lahote's face in that moment. Maggie wanted to retreat, to take the words back, but it was far too late and both of them knew it. Maggie was part of this life, whether Paul liked it or not, whether she liked it or not. Keeping her in the dark any longer would be giving Paul a pen and forcing him to sign her death sentence.

So he caved, like splintering rock, spilling whatever he knew about wolves, vampires and imprinting...

And all of a sudden, everything started to make sense.