Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or any of its characters. I do own The Story of the First Wife!

Embry could tell that Leah had no idea why he was changing their patrol route that night. He whispered, Come on, just follow me, as he led her toward the beach. She made the mental equivalent of a resigned sigh, but she obeyed, slowing her natural fast pace to let him lead.

When they got to the trees at the edge of the beach, he thought, We should phase back.

Hey, who's the beta here? Leah replied, but her tone was teasing, not angry, and she obligingly ran a little bit away and reemerged a moment later, her clothes mussed and rumpled as usual.

Embry had changed back and pulled on his shorts while she was gone, and when she walked slowly back to him, he grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the bonfire spot.

"The bonfire? Is there a tribal meeting I forgot about?" Leah's voice was rusty with disuse from being in wolf form all night.

"Nope. We're here to hear a brand new story." He couldn't stifle his nervous grin as he led her to the spot where the elders usually sat and pointed her toward her mother's seat. He pulled a book of matches out of his pocket, lit one, and threw it on the pile of logs he had prepared earlier that day. Then he sat down next to her, in Billy's spot, trying to look solemn.

"You're a weird kid, Embry," Leah muttered, shaking her head.

He winced a little at the word "kid," but let it pass. "The story's about to start."

"What's it called?" She seemed to have decided to play along, but patience had never been her strong suit, so he leapt right in.

"It's called... The Story of the First Wife."

Leah laughed, startled. "The First Wife?"

"Yes. Shh, listen." He cleared his throat. "They've always told us that Taha Aki's first two wives died before he did, before he married the Third Wife. But, really, the First Wife didn't." He inserted a dramatic pause as an opportunity to check Leah's expression, but it was unreadable. She'd always had a secretive face.

"She didn't die," he continued. "She changed." Leah's gaze focused with a startled intensity, and he could see that now she was listening close. "She got a spirit wolf of her own. She changed one day, and everyone was shocked, because they didn't think a woman could become a spirit warrior."

"They didn't, huh?" Leah interrupted wryly, showing that she was on to him, but he didn't reply directly.

"She was unhappy being in the pack. No one understood how she existed, so they didn't trust her, and she had to find out about all the hard parts of being a wolf-- the responsibility, not aging, and... imprinting."

Leah looked down at her hands in her lap, and Embry hurried on, wanting to get the part that was happier. The part of this story that mattered.

"So she left the pack. She found a way to break away and joined a new pack, with a new chief, from a different branch of the tribe. They came to understand her there, and she became second-in-command. They saw that she was strong, and brave, and fast."

Leah's smile was back. "She was fast?"

"The fastest there had ever been. She was fast, and wise, and beautiful." He forced himself to look Leah in the face, but she looked away, her smile closing itself off a little.

"Why did it happen to her?" she whispered.

"What?"

"Does the story say why? Why she had to become a wolf instead of just being a normal woman?"

Embry reached over and squeezed her hand. "The tribe needed her to be a protector. They needed her speed and her brave heart. She wasn't normal, because she was too special for that. They needed her for herself."

Leah let out a little sigh and let her head fall onto his shoulder, and his whole body shuddered in surprised pleasure. "What happened to her in the end?"

"The end?"

"Did she fall in love again? Settle down with some nice wolf, maybe have a few cubs after a while?" Embry ached at the mingled teasing and hope in her voice as she spoke about children, a thought that always filled her with doubt and pain.

"I don't know yet, Leah. You tell me." His voice was husky and embarrassingly uneven as he waited to hear the future, now that the past had been explained.

Slowly, she lifted her head to look him in the eyes, black staring into black, and then she leaned forward. As their lips met in a kiss that was worthy to become a legend, Embry knew that their story would have a happy ending somehow.