Preventive ? Paul Lahote ?

Chapter Ten

Maddison looked down at Billy as the door was opened a crack with an exasperated look on her face. She opened her mouth, ready to demand to see Jacob, but Billy had cut her off before she had the chance.

"Jake doesn't want to see you, Maddison. You need to stay away, give the boy some peace. Go home. I'll make sure that Sue comes by and checks on you later, but just..." Billy's hard edge to his voice withered as he saw the shocked look on the girls face, "...go home."

With his final tired words the door was slammed into his niece's face.

Maddison stood on the porch, all at once feeling surprised, angry, and drained. However, anger was quick to cancel out the other emotions as she looked at the damp and muddy papers in her hands.

"SCREW YOU, JAKE. HERE'S SOME BULL SHIT HOMEWORK FOR YOU TO DO. HAVE A NICE LIFE, COUSIN."

With her angry remark left hanging in the air, Maddison let out a frustrated huff as she threw the papers onto the wet wood of the Black porch. She quickly whipped around, her brown hair sticking to her face from the rain, before rushing away from the home with tears pooling in her eyes.

The entirety of the pack within the Black household was quiet. The emotions varying from each member at such an intensity that Billy was sure that either Paul or Jacob were going to shift and do more damage than what his already old body had suffered.

"WAS THAT NECESSARY?!"

Paul shouted as he made every more to rush out the door to follow the fragile girl that he could hear running away.

Embry was quick to grab Paul's left bicep, leaving Jared to do the same on the right, so that the old man would not come to harm. Yet, as Paul's form began to heat and shake under their grips, the two did not know if they could stop Paul's wrath.

"What the hell, dad?"

Jacob was in a similar position across the room, with Sam holding him in a vice grip to keep him for either charging his father or taking after one of his best friends.

Billy took in the scene before him, not necessarily regretting the way the situation was handled but regretting who it had been. His brown eyes locked onto Paul's shaking form, then to Jacob, and back to Paul before he rolled himself close to the heated gaze of the wolf.

"You don't want her involved, then she is not to be involved. It will no longer be easy, everyone she knows is gone or will not be able to see her anymore. You chose this outcome, I did nothing but enforce your wishes. Your imprint, your rules... but don't think this is going to keep anyone from resenting you, especially her."

With Billy's angered words, he looked back to Jacob who was still seething.

"From this point forward, do to conflicts with personal lives and pack, no one is to engage with Maddison Ellison until she is aware of the... disposition... that we all seem to be a part of." Billy's eyes flicked back to Paul as his authoritive gaze dropped into a small frown. "Including you, Paul. No more patrolling near her home, that job now belongs to Jared."

Paul tried to lung forward, but the two other men held him back from doing something that he would regret.

"This meeting is over, return to your homes or patrol."

Billy took to rolling out of the room, to his own private quarters, the weight of what he just said weighing down on all of the wolves in the room. As long as Paul wanted to prevent Maddison from knowing the truth, he was -by decree- keeping her away from the few people she had left in her life.

Paul let out a low growl, as he threw his shoulder forward, and finally released himself from the grasp of the other two wolves.

"This is your fault."