Leah's POV

He's coming! Seth exclaimed, relief flooding through his mind and mixing with the same emotion in mine. I allowed myself a second to breathe before turning to face the young wolf standing next to me.

You need to leave, I thought, realising it in my own mind and ordering him in the same split second.

What? Leah, no way am I-

Seth, I told him. I'm not playing anymore. You need to go back home now. You need to finish school, look after mum, protect the tribe. I was never any good at that, but you are, okay?

You can't tell me what to do. I'm not a child, Leah.

Except that you really fucking are, I replied. Me and Jacob are leaving. I could hear sadness in his mind, but not surprise- he'd known that if Jacob came out of this alive he was running away again, 'going wolf' for real, and known that I wanted to join him. And in my mind? In my mind the sentence sounded good, right somehow. I just... I just had to hope that he'd let me come.

I can go with you, Seth begged.

No. You know why you have to stay.

But Leah...

Seth.

You can't make me!

Seth Clearwater, I choked out, hearing my voice echo and boom in a way that was still unfamiliar to me, never mind to Seth, who whined, panicked, surprise and confusion radiating from his mind. Once I have finished speaking, you are going to leave. You are going to run back to La Push, or the first member of Sam's pack that you see. You're going to tell them that you're sorry. You're going to say that me and Jacob have gone away and that you've come back to join them. Then you're going to go straight home and give Mum a hug and tell her you love her, I finished, daring him to argue- as if that was physically possible.

Can I ask where you're going? He thought nervously, his excruciatingly Seth-like perseverance showing its face and almost making me regret what I was doing. Almost.

No, I said firmly. His tail dropped between his legs and he turned around slowly, running in the direction of La Push with jagged, unnatural strides. I watched him for a second before he disappeared, and then spent another five seconds staring at the trees he'd vanished behind. I considered phasing-I needed to think, and neither my alpha's mental anguish; Seth's anger and confusion nor the primitive, feral nature of my wolf side were going to help- but decided against it. I wanted to be ready to leave as soon as we could. In just a few short minutes Jacob would be here, and letting him run was the only thing I could think of saying or doing to help himI hadn't been able to tell everything from his mind- it was too crazy and jumbled- but I had heard everything that mattered. Bella was dead, that I knew for sure; nothing else could have made Jacob lose control like that. And... and the child was alive, if only thanks to my intervention. I might no longer hate the Cullens for what they were but I hated them letting this happen.

I guessed we were leaving after all then. Neither of us would be able to bear staying here, especially not him, and even if we could I wouldn't have wanted to. I've needed to get out of this dump for years. Call me selfish, but a part of me was glad that Jacob had given me the chance. I prayed to a God I didn't believe in that that part of me kept silent when I phased back.

I heard the sound of Jacob rushing towards me sooner than I expected, and seconds after that he was standing by my side, panting heavily, his mind-as much as I tried to ignore it- filled with images of blood and hopelessness. Gathering all my courage, I turned to face him. I am so sorry, I thought simply. He stared back at me, and for the first time since I'd become one of the pack I truly appreciated just how fucking terrifying our species could be.

I'm coming with you, I told him firmly, trying to convince myself as much as I was trying to convince him. I couldn't believe this was happening. Don't even try and say no, I warned.

His eyes flickered restlessly towards the woods behind me, his head bobbing up and down in one unnatural looking movement. I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank you so much.

We ran west, away from La Push and away from where we knew our old pack would patrol. I have no idea how long for- at first each passing second was filled with the same thoughts whirling around in Jacob's head, the same failed efforts to ignore it on my part and the same background of trees and greenery. Then, after a while, even the thoughts stopped and when I looked into Jacob's mind all that I could see or hear was the woods rushing past from a slightly different angle to the one I saw myself. I had gotten pretty good at concealing my emotions when I was in wolf form, for obvious reasons, but I didn't think that Jacob was avoiding thinking or feeling in order to hide something from me. He was hiding from himself.

That day I ran further than I'd ever run before.

Werewolves still get tired. We're not vampires, with never ending supplies of sparkles and wings and whatever the fuck else they decide to pull just when we think we understand them. We're fairly normal to be perfectly honest. We run on the energy in our bodies and it lasts a hell of a lot longer than a human's (or a wolf's, for that matter) but after that gets worn down we need to sleep and eat a lot to build our energy back up. Or at least I do. Jacob on the other hand just kept going, if anything speeding up as the sky got darker. I could beat him in a sprint any day, but I had nowhere near this much stamina... I wanted to prove that he was right to let me come with him, though, so I kept going.

After what felt like years Jacob slowed to a halt and I eagerly followed suit, every muscle in my body aching. There was nothing special about the small clearing surrounding us, so I could only guess that he'd sensed I couldn't go much further. Thanks, I thought at him reluctantly, receiving only a vague hum of acknowledgement in reply.

You get some sleep, he told me. I'm going to go hunt.

Are you sure? It could wait until morning, you know...

Leah, I'm sure. It's more or less morning already, he thought at me, and then, less deliberately, I don't want to go to sleep.

Reluctantly I let him know that I was okay with that- not that it would have mattered if I wasn't- before curling up on the ground and passing out.

What felt like two minutes later I was woken by Jacob's bloodstained nose nudging a fresh deer carcass under mine. I had always said the only thing worse than hunting was eating meat off things that had already been killed for you- you didn't have the adrenaline of the hunt to take your mind of what you were doing- but I was too tired to care. As I tucked in I let gratitude wash over me, mostly for Jacob's benefit, but it wasn't entirely imagined. After all, it was food and I was fucking starving. You're welcome, he thought wearily once I'd finished.

While listening for his words I made the mistake of getting dragged deeper into his mind and into the awful memories of today- no, yesterday. Jacob... I thought, my heart breaking for him.

Don't, Leah.

I growled in frustration, knowing that he would understand that my anger was aimed at myself more than him. I was shit with emotional people. It was bad enough enough when all I had to deal with was people whining about homework and the opposite sex, but this was actually serious, and I hated feeling useless with so much at stake. If I could help you, I would, I thought eventually. You know that right?

Just go to sleep, he replied.

Jay, come on. Talk to me.

Silence.

It will seem better in the morning, I tried weakly.

I didn't think he was going to reply, until a minute later he thought my name tentatively. Leah?

My ears pricked up. Yeah?

I know I should thank you for stopping me. I will, one day. Just...

Not yet, I finished, and focused on projecting as much reassurance as I could into my thoughts, I know, Jay.

And I'm not going to kid myself and say that my stupid attempt at niceness 'cheered him up' or anything, but it did allow him to, a few minutes later, sink into a restless sleep, and I counted that as a victory. Strangely happy despite everything, I closed my eyes and joined him.

I woke up before Jacob, at what looked like about midday, with the sun glaring down at us. It felt strange... Being in wolf form, in the middle of a forest miles away from human civilisation, with no intention of going back and no real idea of where the hell back was anyway (I always have had a shitty sense of direction). I was completely isolated. Although the wolf in me was ecstatic at the idea, the human me shivered just contemplating it. Thinking back to my morning routine at home I decided to try and replicate it as best as possible. Checking that Jacob was still asleep I stood up gingerly, muscles aching from yesterday, shook myself a bit to rid the dirt and leaves from my coat and headed to a stream we'd passed what I guessed was around a kilometre ago.

After I'd left the clearing where Jacob lay I phased back into my human form and untied a top from my leg-a faded baggy thing that I'd stolen from him yesterday morning when all of this seemed so unlikely, or at least far away- but didn't bother putting it on. I doubted that the wildlife were excessively bothered about my naked body, and besides, it wasn't really oversized enough to cover everything anyway. I had just been past caring when I took it.

Somehow being damp and covered in filth was a lot worse as a human than as a wolf. While I personally found it uncomfortable in both forms, there was a certain safe, musky familiarity when you were a wolf that you definitely didn't have when you phased back. Hurriedly I stepped over the undergrowth between me and the stream, putting more thought than strictly necessary into where I was going to put my feet in order to take my mind off things. When I arrived at the stream I splashed in eagerly, letting the water wet my legs. I could tell that it was freezing but it didn't bother me; if anything it was pleasantly refreshing, waking me up, freshening my skin and soothing my aching muscles (I did however need to shave, so, stupid as it may seem, I let myself worry about that.) The water was deeper than I remembered. One rare section pooled deep enough for me to completely submerge myself in the water... heaven! Once I felt slightly calmer and more human I shook the water out of my hair in what I imagined was a disconcertingly canine-like way, and made a half-assed attempt at washing my t-shirt- in the end I wished I hadn't bothered. Instead I sat on a rock, swirling my feet in the water and trying to make patterns out of the ripples of colour I created.

"Leah Clearwater," I said to my naked reflection in a stern voice. "What the fuck are you doing?"

It didn't answer.

Thank God that's over! I literally got so pissed off with this chapter that I refused to look at it for weeks- sorry :S I also randomly started writing from Leah's point of view which wasn't at all part of the plan. Anyways, I've finished it now and I think it went okay(?), although obviously it's more about setting the story up than any of the juicy stuff- we'll get to that later! Thanks so much for reading and please let me know what you thought, or what you think should happen, or what you had for dinner last night. Just say hi, and I'll try and do faster updates in return! xoxo