Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, any of its' characters, plots, or affiliated media.
This was written as a birthday present for my best FanFiction friend, laurazuleta18. Happy 19th, hun! :)
Enjoy everybody!
The cold air smacked across Leah's bare skin like whips. Angry tears threatened to spill out of her wide, brown eyes as she ran through the dark forest, tree bark and twigs tearing at her skin. She was covered in blood and cuts but didn't care. All Leah knew was she wanted to get the fuck out of La Push.
More importantly, she wanted to get away from Embry. She growled at just the thought of the fucking bastard and began to run harder, faster. Leah's sensitive ears could just make out the furious beat of feet following her, and it stemmed only rage…rage that she had bottled up for so, so very long. Too long, it seemed. And her inner wolf agreed…it wished only to tear and shred and force that pain outward.
An infuriated beast reared its head and rampaged through her body, shaking each trembling limb enough for Leah to feel the pain. She welcomed it, though. She loved the pain, it took her away from her thoughts and allowed her to focus on one thing and one thing only: not phasing. She fought the monster that was her wolf as hard as she could. She could not phase.
"Leah!" The husky, dark voice broke through her hearing range and she snarled again. The sound of her name escaping his lips was too much for her to bear, and pushing back tears was near impossible but she managed it. More rage swept through her body, and suddenly there was nothing more she wanted to do than hit him so hard, he'd hurt as much as she did. She stopped so sharply that her heels skidded across the forest floor, kicking up leaves and dirt like the screeching turn of a racing car's tires.
"What, Call? What the fuck do you want?" she screeched. Embry studied Leah for a long moment before snorting.
"Since when do you call me Call?" he asked without fear of retaliation. Leah snarled at this and raised her hand angrily, curling it into a fist and throwing it at him as hard as she could. He stumbled backward, blinking a few times in obvious shock. This gave her a sick sense of pleasure. He flexed his jaw and then opened his mouth again, as if to speak.
The fucking son of a bitch had the nerve to speak to her after what he did? The hit she threw at him was the same hit she was taking emotionally, and she wanted him to know that. He knew exactly what seeing Emily and Sam had done to her, he knew that she was angry and pissed as she was to admit, fragile. She had gotten betrayed by two of the most important people in her life. Foolishly, she had let Embry into her soul and heart and mind and body and trusted him.
And then, he went and imprinted. He imprinted on another woman. He did exactly what Sam had done, exactly what Jake had done. Embry had knocked down every wall she'd built to protect herself, managed to become a shield and a safety…and then left her standing alone and in the cold with no one to turn to and nothing to protect her.
A deep fury and hate was beginning to burrow in this chest for not only Embry, but all of the fuckers who'd imprinted. Why did such a thing have to exist? If it hadn't, Leah might have never gotten her heart broken in the first place.
Another tremble shook her body as she watched him take a small, almost nonexistent step towards her. Embry's face contorted into hurt, but she couldn't bring herself to feel sorry for him. Whatever bad things happened to him, he deserved it. He deserved every bit of it, and she prayed to God that his imprint would hate him and deny him like Emily was too weak to do, like the half-vampire spawn was too innocent and unknowing to do. Her fists clenched again and she welcomed the urge to punch him again openly. Her fist once again made contact with his face and this time she was happy to hear the crunch of his nose breaking.
"You're nothing more than a last name to me, now." Leah's cold voice was like razors dragging across his skin. He hated to see her in this misery, hated that her fiery eyes were now dead and shrewd with contempt. A deep feeling of self-hatred clawed through Embry's heart because he knew that he was her undoing. She had now gotten her heart crushed three times, broken into thousands of pieces and stomped on by three men who were really monsters inside. A shudder rippled through him in addition to Leah's, and this prompted Leah to fall back several steps, lips pulled up to show off her sharp, white teeth.
He cursed Sam in his head first, because the fucker hadn't just left Leah, he'd taken away her best friend too. She was betrayed by both him, and Emily…Emily who had no right to take away her cousin's trust and happiness. Sad thing was, Leah would have gotten over it…everybody knows she would have, but then she had to fucking phase and have their relationship be thrown in her face every single day. She had to relive the pain, put up with all of the pitying stares, and know that she was never supposed to be a wolf in the first place. She was a woman surrounded by men, in their thoughts and aware of what exactly they thought of her. Jake had later come along, brooding over Bella and worn from his lover's neglect.
She had, against her better judgment, fallen for him. They hadn't even begun to flirt with each other when he'd seen the mutant Renesmee and imprinted. Every thought of Leah was drained from his mind and instead he was entirely focused on the little girl. It repulsed Leah, but it didn't hit her as hard. She hadn't loved him, hadn't let herself go completely.
With Embry, though, she had. After the mutant's first birthday, Leah got upset. She got so upset that she had tried to run away, hide from all the men that made her life a living hell. But Embry wasn't one of those men, and he wasn't going to let her leave them…leave him. So he caught up with her, and showed her exactly how much she was loved. She had embraced it deeply and from that moment on, they'd been inseparable. They made love well into the night, held each other close and passionately let it be known that no matter what anyone else said, they'd be together. They loved each other and no one was going to take that away from them.
All of that came to a halt yesterday when, to the horror of both Leah and Embry, Rebecca Black visited La Push for the first time in years. She was a married woman and a happily married woman at that, one who had no interest in breaking apart from that husband or giving attention to another man in any way. Embry was furious at himself for not only imprinting on a fucking unaware, committed woman but also breaking his true love's heart. The worst part was, he didn't even tell her right away.
He had arrived home in an upset rage and Leah had thought that all he needed was to be adored so she…she made love to him. Now, it disgusted her. She'd slept with an imprinted man. He'd lied to her, purposefully kept information hidden. She hadn't ever believed Embry to be the type to elicit sex from someone he didn't care about anymore, but he had and he couldn't take it back. When she found out the next day, from motherfucking Sam no less, her heart shattered into a million pieces, and she feared they would never be put together again. She fought the raging urge to phase and instead started to run.
She wanted so bad to get away, escape the boundaries that were encasing her and actually spread her wings and be able to do whatever she damn well wanted to do. But Embry had caught up to her, and fuck him! He was hurting her even more, didn't he know it? Every particle of her being wished so badly to touch him, stroke him, kiss him… But she held off, straining and tearing away at the bitter love still twisting her heart. He was gorgeous as ever, standing frustrated, saddened, and desperate in the howling wind. He was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts because Leah was sure he was going commando as well, just to torture her further.
"I'm nothing more than that? Really?" Embry barked. He wasn't trying to be rough with her, but it was hard when she was being so fucking stupid. She didn't even realize how very much he loved, didn't realize that he wasn't going to let her go, wasn't going to let some unknown force dictate who his lover was going to be. What he was going to do was love her until his heart stopped beating, maybe even after, and never let go of Leah Clearwater, because whether the girl liked it or not, she was his. He wasn't going to let her slip away…no, not the best thing that ever happened to him.
The pull in his chest screamed and pleaded for him to go to Rebecca, but his mind, his heart, even his fucking body wanted him to stay with Leah so much more. "Call me by my last name when you don't love me anymore," he snarled, taking a few strides toward her. She flinched involuntarily, and then recollected herself as best she could.
"Shut up! Don't you ever say that to me again, you asshole!" Leah shrieked, eyes watering. Choking back a sob, she picked up the nearest rock she could find and threw it at his chest with every ounce of the strength she could muster. As soon as the stone hit Embry's stomach, it broke into hundreds of pieces and scattered across the forest floor. Embry hated seeing her cry, and more so than usual because he was reminded again that it was his doing. A deep loathing for Rebecca Black filled his chest, even though he was almost programmed to love her, he could still hate her.
Which meant, and he just knew it, that he could still love his Leah. Leah was his world and he wanted her to fucking know it. So he strode forward and grabbed her. She fought him as hard as she could, but she was worn out and he was strong, so it was no use and soon she gave up, falling against his chest stiffly and continuing to cry.
She despised that she was showing such weakness, but could not suppress them now. The tears were coming too quickly, too fast and it felt so fucking good to get them out. It was like she'd been holding them back for years, and she supposed she had. Since her dad died, she hadn't been able to sink so low and now...now it felt like she was free of the stewed, caged emotion. The tears represented so much: anger, sadness, fury, resentment…And all of it was gone. Relief flooded through her system and her tensed muscles relaxed slightly.
Embry began to stroke Leah's head, as he had always done, and she hissed, jerking backwards warningly. He sighed and let her go, knowing he would have to prove his love with more than just gestures. She cursed as she stumbled back, then straightened and faced Embry with malice. Her limbs were still shaking, a telltale sign that she was protesting her body's demand to phase. He took a deep breath, then looked into her eyes and tried to move his mouth, tried to voice his thoughts.
"Leah, please just listen to me! Please!" he finally pleaded. She sucked in a deep breath and crossed her arms, indicating that she wasn't happy about it, but she would hear what Embry had to say. The corner of his mouth twitched up when she did, and her face immediately smoothed into a blank pain. A shard of glass lodged into his heart as he saw this.
"I don't want…this imprint. I'm going to resist it as hard as I fucking can," he whispered brokenly. She laughed bitterly.
"Just like all the other wolves tried to fight it? It worked so well, didn't it?" she growled. Embry flinched and looked away from her, not being able to bear it. She growled again, fury letting out in one, unbroken sound.
"If you're going to tell me something, look me in the eye! Don't you dare look away from me! Don't you fucking dare, bastard!" she screamed wildly. Her shaking body wanted so badly to tear at him, to fight him and redistribute all the pain he had caused her. Embry took another shuttering breath and met her conflicting eyes once again.
"I don't care about my imprint, Leah. I hate her, I hate what she stands for, I hate that she has so much power over me. Fuck damn, she went back to fucking Hawaii and I don't plan on ever seeing her again. I love you, I'll always love you. No matter if you forgive me or not, you're it. You're the one I'll always love." He fell onto his knees, clasped his hands, and begged. He didn't find it shameful, because he needed to do this for her. She had gone through enough and he was more than willing to acknowledge that. She stared at him in anger.
"How do I know that you won't go back on this stupid-ass promise of yours?" she asked in a brittle tone. Embry's face darkened. He stepped forward a few pacers and then outstretched his hand feebly. She was still trembling when she leaned into his hand. She pressed her cheek into his rough, calloused fingers and closed her crying eyes.
"Show me then," she finally croaked. "Show me how much I mean to you, Embry Call. Right now." Embry took a deep breath, then pulled her body to his chest again and began kissing her gently, so gently that it almost tickled her. She couldn't suppress the smile that crossed her lips as slowly, he slid her shirt off and started to massage her breasts.
She leaned deeply into his embrace and thought that maybe, just maybe, things would be okay. Because she loved him, too. If Embry was really strong enough to fight off the imprint…then she would finally be happy.
Looking into his passionate, loving eyes, she decided that her chance at happiness might be a big one.