The Life We Live

Chapter 1

Pairing: Bella / Leah

Rating: T for Language and Content - Subject to Change

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the basic idea, AU and OCs. The rest belong to Stephenie Meyer, from whom I'm just borrowing characters.

Running, no wait, chasing. I was chasing something, or maybe more specifically someone. As my paws hit the ground, I could sense myself gaining momentum. What I was chasing I didn't know, but I knew it was important. As I skidded into a clearing, the scent was just gone. I tried to recover it, but it had just disappeared. I howled, lifting my head to the night sky.

I awoke with a start, I was covered in sweat. I growled in frustration and started relax against my pillow again. I had been getting the same recurring dream ever since I had come to Forks. I would always get so close to what I was searching for, but always came up short. I didn't know why or even what I was looking for, but I knew it was important. I suppose I would just try again tomorrow night.

I flopped over to look at the clock. I groaned, as the clock glared 2:00 P.M. Yeah, I know I have messed up sleeping habits. But due to my nature, I'm a nocturnal creature. Up with the moon, down with the sun if you want to look at it that way. But I did need to get up. I was attending a bonfire with Jake tonight. Poor guy, he totally has the hots for me, but unfortunately since he isn't my mate, there will be no chance that it will happen.

I think the tribe is just going to be telling their "stories" tonight. I don't really know why Jake invited me. I mean I'm not technically suppose to know that their shifters, and they sure as hell don't know about me. Although, I suppose that is a good thing, the Cullens don't even know about my nature. Thank god for my mother. From her I gained the power to mask my scent. So now I smell like the sweeter than average human, not the dangerous creature that I actually am.

I can't let anyone know about me, it's too dangerous. I've done all that I can to squash that part of me down ever since I came here. I mean I came here in the first place to get away from the supernatural for a while, and of course with my luck I run into two different species, right on my back porch. But I didn't really want to move, and these vampires and shifters were intriguing to say the least. In all my years I had never come across vampires such as the Cullens. They try so hard to be as human as possible, resorting to feeding from animals.

Personally, I think it is a weak trait, but I'm not really in a position to judge. After all, vampires are in my sphere of jurisdiction if you will. I see nothing wrong with feeding from humans, as long as they don't risk exposure. It's just natural selection at work, those humans with heightened self preservation will survive, those without, well. It's just the way of the world, the food chain. Vampires were by no means at the top like they think. There's a reason that Caius tried to exterminate the Children of the Moon, my kin in a way.

I had mixed feelings about Caius' actions. If it was in an act of self defense I would have no problem, but he killed them all, out of fear. A werewolf nearly killed him, so he takes them all out. Werewolves were not all bloodthirsty killers. Some did live fairly peacefully, hunting what they needed and nothing more.

Oh well, enough reminiscing. Jake was going to be here in a few hours, and I had yet to roll out of bed. I sighed and threw the sheets off of me. I stumbled to the bathroom, pretty much half asleep. Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I suppose I understood my Jake had the hots for me. I'm not really a vain person, but I wasn't going to say I didn't know how good I looked. Chocolate brown hair, with light brown highlights, flawless skin with a slight tan, and I stood about 5'8". Although the most unique thing about me was my eye color, I had an icy blue, piercing gaze. It only changed in my fully shifted form, changing from blue to a bright yellow.

I hopped in the shower, allowing the hot water to clean the sweat from my body. Scalding hot showers were an amazing relaxation technique for me. It soothed my muscles and the steam helped to clear my mind. I was notorious for taking extremely long showers, so after about a half an hour just standing under the running water, I finally decided to get out. I grabbed my black towel on the rack and dried myself, along with blow drying my hair.

Wrapping it around my body, although I don't know why I bothered. It's not like anyone was going to walk in on me. I walked back into my room and tried to decide what I wanted to wear. I settled on something safe, I was going to be going in the den of the wolves, I couldn't afford to draw any more attention then I was going to for being a "pale face" at a tribal bonfire. I grabbed a pair of dark blue skinny jeans with my black Chucks, along with a plain white tank top, fairly normal for plain ol' Bella.

After changing, I went back to my bathroom to straighten my hair and apply make up. My chocolate waves were good for some occasions, but I felt the need to at least do something with my face for some odd reasons. I didn't fight it though, I learned a long time ago to just listen to my instincts, they never misguided me. I didn't apply a lot of makeup, just basic eyeliner, mascara and eyeshadow, with a bit of lip gloss. I didn't really need cover up or anything since my skin is flawless.

I headed downstairs to my kitchen and raided the fridge. I made myself a couple ham and turkey sandwiches for a snack. While I don't need to eat as much as the shifters to maintain my strength, I needed to eat more than a human. I still had a couple hours until Jake was suppose to pick me up, so I decided to call Edward, for appearance's sake more than anything. Yeah, the bronze-haired Cullen thought we were in some sort of relationship, he obviously didn't think he was my mate like he loved to tell me. It's most likely because of my scent masking power, he finds it more potent or something. But I know for a fact we are not mates.

It might also be because he is unable to read my mind, due to my mental shield, something that I had been born with. Any gift or power that could be perceived as malicious is unable to penetrate my shield. Powers like seeing the future, like my father had or emotion manipulation in the positive sense could get through. So Jasper's powers did work on me, however only if he was projecting positive feelings or emotions, any negative emotions like bloodlust or anger would not work. I had little to worry about though since Jasper only used his powers to calm people down or make them feel more comfortable.

But whatever the reason, Edward was nearly obsessed with me. It was actually getting a little annoying. I needed to do something about it eventually, but for now, it was convenient. It gave me an in with the family that intrigued me so. I genuinely did enjoy the Cullen's company for the most part. Rosalie hated my guts, probably because she thought I would expose them or something, if only she knew it was my job to keep the supernatural a secret, among other duties. Alice was a little high strung for me, but her bubbly personality was infectious. It was hard to stay annoyed at her for long.

Although despite how it may seem, my relationship with the Cullens was purely for research and exposure to new things, not because I wanted to be friends or anything with them. Sure they were nice, especially for vampires, but I still didn't want to become buddy buddy with them. But for appearance I did go ahead and call Edward. The conversation wasn't that interesting, as anything with him really. He tried to warn me off going to the bonfire tonight and I adamantly told him I was going to go. I wanted to, I had minimal interaction with the shifters, only really talking with Jake. I had met Sam before, but only in passing, and I got the feeling that he didn't like me much. Probably because I was close with Jake, and being close with him risked exposure for them.

We ended up talking for an hour or so, mainly about arbitrary and random things. I heard a knock at the door, and told Edward I needed to go.

"Be careful love, wolves roam the reservation." I hung up and snorted, he would say something like that. Anyways, I went to answer the door and ended up being picked up and spun around by Jake. I laughed, I did genuinely like Jake, he was a nice guy and his imprint would be a lucky girl, I just happened to not be her, or him I suppose if nature decided it wanted Jake to swing for that team. I internally laughed at the thought.

"You ready to leave Bells?" I nodded as he set me down. I followed him after locking up, to his truck. I climbed in the passenger side as Jake started up the engine. Jake and I didn't talk too much during the drive to the reservation. He asked how I've been, I just told him I was doing fine.

"Just fine Bells?" He questioned.

"Yeah Jake, nothing really too interesting. Been hanging out a bit with the Cullens, but that's about it." I could hear Jake let out a low growl, too low for human ears to hear.

"I'd be careful around them Bells. They seem pretty sketchy." I rolled my eyes, but stayed silent. There really wasn't much I could say to persuade him otherwise. Technically they were dangerous creatures, but little did anyone in Forks know, I was by far the most dangerous creature in this neck of the woods.

As we crossed the reservation line, Jake took a left turn to drive out near the beach. When we had parked I could see most of the pack already starting the fire. I hopped out of the truck and followed Jake over to the guys. He introduced me to Sam, again. Sam's eyes looked me up and down, like he was inspecting me, before extending a hand. I reached out and shook it, giving him a small smile.

"Bella, I've heard a lot about you." I laughed as Jake blushed.

"I'm sure you have." Sam looked over at the other guys, saying that he needed to go help them out, leaving me with Jake. Then Jake started to point out the other boys, Paul, Jared, Embry, Quil, Collin, and Brady. He had told me that Seth and Leah should be here soon. I then started thinking about the female shifter. I had never met her, although from what Jake told me, she was kind of like the tribal version of Rosalie. I wasn't scared to meet her, far from it, I was just hoping it would go well. Female shifters are extremely rare, it would be nice to "befriend" her, so I could learn more.

I heard a commotion and looked for the source. I saw a female and male, the female leaping onto the male, causing them both to tumble to the ground. They were both laughing as they picked themselves up from the ground. The female, who I assumed was probably Leah, dusted herself off. As her eyes turned and met mine, I could feel the inner beast howl within me. It took me by surprise, the howl I could feel was the same as in my dreams. Except now instead of being a voice of frustration and defeat, it was a howl of victory. This was who I was looking for in my dreams. I took a closer look and then it clicked. This was my mate.

Her eyes were as wide as saucers. Most likely because she felt the imprint pull to me. One of the ancient laws set by the First Council was that all supernatural creatures only had one mate. Therefore because she was mine, I was hers. I kept my eyes on her as I could see her panic.

"No, this can't happen to me." She whispered this, too low for human ears, but my superior hearing could pick it up. Then she ran off into the forest, most likely to shift. I saw Sam quickly follow her out of the corner of my eye. Paul and Jared were laughing and if I wasn't supposed to be confused about Leah's behaviour, I could have hit them. Laughing at my mate, regardless of whether she just ran from me or not was unacceptable. I knew she would be back, the imprint bond was too strong for her to ignore. She would come to me, I wanted her to be the one to pursue me. I didn't want to reveal myself to her before she took the first step towards me. And if I pursue her, it could frighten her and take even longer for her to accept it.

Jake was seething next to me, he was violently shaking. I could tell that if he didn't calm down soon he would shift, and that would get him in a lot of trouble with the Elders. I didn't want that, so I tried to calm him down.

"Jake, what's wrong?" His head snapped to me, as if he just realized I was here with him. He nodded his head, toning down the shaking.

"Nothing Bella, I just need to go clear my head." He said through gritted teeth, and he too ran into the forest. I sighed, shifters, they were so ruled by their emotions that they couldn't handle anything that made them the slightest bit angry, which was why they could be dangerous, especially young ones with no sense of self control. I'm hoping Sam will have them all work on that in the future. For now though, I just needed to concentrate on how to get my mate to trust me, and hope that she got out of her funk soon. I had been looking for my mate for so long, and while I knew it was only a matter of time until she accepted me, that moment couldn't come fast enough.

A/N: Hello everyone! Yes, I am rewriting this story, with obvious changes. If you read the author's note from the original story, you'll know that I'm making heavy changes from the other story to keep it interesting, while still trying to retain what everyone knows and loves about it.

If it's your first time joining this story, welcome aboard! This is a heavy AU, as you can probably already tell, Leah/Bella pairing. I started the story originally as a sophomore in high school, and never really got the ball rolling with it. However, now that I'm a freshmen in college, I'm hoping that my writing skills have evolved enough to where it will be much more readable and engaging.

Constructive criticism is always welcome and also feel free to input your own ideas of where you think the story should go. I'm kind of writing this story on the fly so I'm totally able to work in reader suggestions for sure. If you don't like the story, go ahead and tell me what you don't like specifically, I'm always up for that. Although if all you're going to is badmouth, I'd suggest taking it somewhere else.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this one!

A Charmed Vampire