Paul Lahote

"I'm sure the leech-lover is just dying to help us out!"

- Paul on Bella Swan

Paul Lahote is a Quileute shape-shifter and the third-in-command of the Uley pack. He was the third member to join the pack (by the age of sixteen) and is the most volatile member of the pack, becoming so enraged upon learning that Jacob informed Bella about them that he turned into a wolf. He later seems to have no ill feelings towards Bella or Jacob. He is prone to angry outbursts, causing him to burst into his wolf form, but has learned to restrain himself after he imprinted on Ashley Nicole his girlfriend.

He is a distant relative of the Uley family through his great-grandmother. His Life and Death counterpart is Paula Lahote.

He is portrayed by Alex Meraz in the movie adaptations.

Early life
Paul Lahote was born in Tacoma. When his parents divorced Paul was eight, his father took him back to La Push and the tribe. He still lives there now with his father. He wasn't close to either Sam or Jared, though he was in the same year of school as Jared. He showed himself to be a shape-shifter after Sam Uley and Jared Cameron, roughly at the age of sixteen. He had his own circle of friends, so it drew attention when he abruptly stopped hanging out with them and instead became inseparable from Sam.

Since he was temperamental already before his transformation, this trait was intensified afterwards; he had a great deal of difficulty controlling his temper. More than Sam or Jared, he frequently phased by accident, which forced Sam to stay close to him to keep him from being noticed. When Sam accidentally wounded Emily after a brief loss of control, Jared contacted Paul; he subsequently found Sue, who, as a nurse and aware of their secret, was the perfect person to help and brought her to Emily. After this incident, Paul began to take his temper problems more seriously and improved somewhat, though he still found control more difficult than the others.

New Moon
In New Moon, Paul is first present in wolf form while hunting the vampire Laurent with his pack. This notes their first confrontation with a real-life vampire and their first mission of protecting mankind.

Paul is furious when Bella finds out what they are, instantly losing his temper, phases into his wolf form and almost attacks Bella, but is stopped by Jacob and Sam. Afterwards, he joins his pack in protecting Bella and Charlie from Victoria.

In the movie, he first appears with the rest of the pack cliff diving. He is later seen with the pack as they are confronted by Bella outside Jacob's house. He, along with Jared, laugh at her accusation of Jacob being afraid of Sam and his pack. Angered by this, Bella slaps Paul, causing him to lose control and phase into his wolf form. As he nears to attack her, he is confronted and fought off into the woods by Jacob in his wolf form. He later apologizes to Bella at Emily's house.

Eclipse
After the Cullens return, they try to hunt Victoria on both lands. When Emmett attempts to attack Victoria, she leaps out of the way causing him to smack into Paul by accident. Then Rosalie defends Emmett which almost turns into a fight until Jasper and Carlisle calm everyone down. He is present at the Quileute council campfire, where he takes most of the hotdogs.

After the campfire, Paul isn't directly mentioned in the book, but it's clear that he participates in guarding Bella's house and the fight against Victoria's newborn army along with the rest of the pack and the Cullens.

In the Eclipse movie, Paul, along with Quil and Embry, chase after Victoria after she is forced to cross onto their lands to evade the Cullens. Emmett attempts to cross over to the Quileute border while chasing Victoria, but Paul knocks him back, sending him into the river. He is later seen coming out from Emily's house, mocking "Jacob's obsessive inner monologue" in front of Bella. Along with rest of the pack, Paul attends the training session to learn how to fight Victoria's army.

During the fight in the movie, two newborn vampires climb onto his back, making him unable to attack until Emmett throws off one of them and Paul flings off and destroys the other. He later helps Sam destroy the newborn that shattered Jacob's bones. After the fight, he carries the injured Jacob back to his house and is last seen when Bella walks up while Paul and the others are waiting outside of their house while Carlisle is tending to his wounds.

Breaking Dawn
Sometime before Breaking Dawn, Rachel Black, Jacob's older sister, comes home after graduating from college, and Paul imprinted on her while walking down the beach. He then tells her everything and Rachel agrees to stay in La Push for a while to see how things work out for them. Though Billy Black and Jacob are happy to have Rachel at home longer, they are greatly annoyed by Paul for always being at their house, constantly using their television and eating their food. Billy deals with his presence by staying at the Clearwaters' to keep Sue company.

One day Jacob finds him overly annoying as he was eating all the food and being obsessive about controlling the TV. Jacob punches him in the face, breaks his nose after he playfully agrees to not tell Rachel if he does, but to Jacob's surprise and annoyance, he remains calm and doesn't fight back. This is because Paul is learning hard to restrain himself for Rachel's sake.

He is present during Jacob and Jared's conversation about how to deal with Bella's pregnancy, after Jacob, Seth and Leah broke away from Sam's pack. The situation resolved after Jacob imprinted on the newborn baby, Renesmee Cullen, which makes her untouchable by the other pack members.

In Breaking Dawn - Part 1, he appears on the beach with Rachel and playing soccer with his fellow pack members. He is present during Jacob's refusal to continue to follow Sam. He, Jared, Embry, and Quil later confront the Black pack. He informs them that the Quileute lands were no longer their territory. After being informed by Jacob that he would kill Renesmee, Paul angrily realizes, after hearing Collin and Brady's howls, that they were being tricked to let Carlisle, Esme, and Emmett hunt on their lands and storms off with the others. He later spies on the Cullens and after seeing Jacob crying over Bella's supposed "death", he informs Sam that she is dead. He later fights with his pack against the Cullens. He personally goes after Emmett, but is smacked down hard to the ground. He later retreats with the rest of the pack after Jacob informs Sam that he imprinted on Renesmee.

Paul's last appearance in the saga is during the Volturi's "trial" against the Cullens for having committed a "crime" by creating an immortal child, with Bella protecting him and his pack.

By this time, their pack has expanded to nine, due to the increasing numbers of additional vampires. In Alice's vision of the battle, Paul is shown destroying a Volturi guard after the latter throws Collin Littlesea aside. He is later shown to be struggling against a Volturi guard, who begins to strangle Paul. He does die in Alice's vision, as his body is found laying in the snow when Bella is thrown by Aro. In the end however, the battle doesn't happen. After the situation was cleared, Paul returns to improving his restraint in hopes of someday becoming strong enough to leave the pack for Rachel.

Physical appearance
Paul is known to be at least 6 feet tall and muscular, with the traditional brown eyes, black hair and facial features of a Native American. In New Moon, Jacob says that "Paul's just sixteen, too, shorter than me and not as beefy as Quil". This was before he joined Sam's pack. Now he's as big, tall and muscular as his "brothers".

Wolf form
Bella describes Paul's wolf form as "dark silver fur and a size five-times larger his size—a massive, crouched shape, ready to spring". He is also shorter than Sam, swift, and dark-eyed, though in the movies his eyes are lighter.

Personality and traits
Paul is described as annoying, very short-tempered (which sets off his transformation frequently), cocky and dominating, despite his young age. In Breaking Dawn, he learns to control his temper and keep himself from phasing, as when he gets punched in the face by Jacob. This is due to his newfound love for Jacob's sister, Rachel Black, whom he imprinted on and has promised to learn to control his anger so that he may someday stop phasing altogether and leave town with her. He can, however, be fun-loving and childish.

Relationships
Paul lives with his father in La Push after his parents divorced.

Rachel Black
Rachel Black is Paul's soul mate.

He imprinted on her sometime after Eclipse and before Breaking Dawn, when she came back to La Push to visit her family after graduating college. After he told her everything, Rachel decided to stay around to see how their relationship will work out; and Paul started to practice self-restraint in hopes of someday being able to quit the pack and leave with her.

Film portrayal
Alex Meraz played Paul in the following films: New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn - Part 1.

Etymology
Paul's name is derived from the name of one of Stephenie Meyer's brothers, after Stephenie's siblings requested to be mentioned in the series.

Appearances

 * New Moon
 * New Moon (film)
 * Eclipse
 * Eclipse (film)
 * Breaking Dawn
 * Breaking Dawn - Part 1
 * Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (wolf form only)