A/N: Thank you MissArticWolf, YaleAceBella12, catgrl, brankel1 and Sarae32 for your reviews.

'Two broken people will either fit together perfectly or destroy each other beyond repair'

Chapter 2-

10 days, 240 hours, 14400 minutes and 8,64,000 seconds had passed since fate had decided to meddle in my life once again and had eternally tied me to another being. Imprinting, a blessing or curse many would agree, the imprinted wolves saw it as a blessing, another person to share their happiness with, to adore, love and care about, to share your worries with and most importantly the only one who knew the most important secret of your life that you were a shape shifter and went furry on a daily basis.

In our Pack of ten, the only one apart from me who swore to detest imprinting had been Paul and Brady. Both man whores who could not fathom the idea of being tied down in life. Well that had changed when our residential playboy Paul Lahote had imprinted on one Rachel Black nearly six months back and overnight he had seen a new light and had vowed to become something Rachel would be proud of. That had left me and Brady in the league of the ones who did not want to imprint though our reasons for this were completely different. He was an immature fifteen year old who wanted to experience all life could offer with his attractive new look and built body while I, I just could not accept something that had successfully ruined my life once already. I lost Sam because of imprinting and accepting this mystical bond, would feel like a slap on my face. No even if this was the last thread by which Sam was in my life, in my memories, I would gladly hold onto it.

But destiny had had different plans and my bitter life had taken another extreme turn when I had walked into the Black's house exactly ten days back. My plan had been simple, give Billy the box of food, which my mother had asked me to and then get out of there to continue wallowing in my own painful thoughts. A simple hello said out of courtesy had uprooted the balance of my life which I had maintained since the past one year and my life had no longer belonged to me but now belonged to one Charlie Swan, a man almost on the cusp of middle age and a father to a nineteen year old. Of course we had known that imprinting was not bound by any fixed laws and there were no guidelines for us to follow and the biggest example of this had been Quil and Claire. For days everyone had mercilessly seen Quil as a pedophile for imprinting on a then two year old and had only given up when they saw how different their imprinting was. But till ten days back I had still been guilty of this, my father always used to say think before you speak and if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. In my bitterness and frustration to avoid the shitty cards I had been dealt with in life, I had more often than once taken out my anger on the other pack members and mostly on the imprinted ones out of those. For me they were all in the same boat as Sam who had not even tried to fight this compulsion named imprinting that had been thrown upon us but how wrong had I been.

Imprinting was difficult to comprehend, your life no longer belonged to you but to someone else who could very well be a stranger and even if you didn't want to your feet would unknowingly take you to their doorstep. I had always thought that it was forced instant love, a way in which your free will was taken from you, but now that I was the one going through this, I could see that I had been wrong in this matter, it was more like instant attraction followed by the immense need to care and look after the said person. The love part of this equation was completely on the human side.

But to fall in love you need a heart that has the power to love and my heart was shattered into pieces beyond the capacity to be mended. Broken, irrevocably damaged, I was merely surviving instead of living. Many people have over and over told me this, the most important being my mother herself that I need to let go and move on but how do you move on from your first love, your first serious crush, the one you saw a million dreams with for your future and when those dreams shatter, it is difficult to just get up and pretend that everything is normal because it is not and never will be. You never forget your first love because that was the first time your heart learnt what it was to love someone that immensely and selflessly.

Somehow I had managed to hide this latest catastrophe that had recently occurred in my life from the others who surrounded me, namely the pack and my mother. I had always been better at hiding my thoughts from the pack and the only information that I wanted them to know was what they heard in my mind. They knew that something was off with me as I was rudder and bitter than usual and had even snapped on Embry, who was the sweetest out of the lot, a few times but they could not name the exact reason why and in the end Paul had said that I was probably going through my usual PMS and should be left alone.

My home life was no better than my pack life these days as I had lost all my appetite and sleep and even my mother and Seth were not saved from my mood swings and anger. Often after everyone slept I would run to Forks in wolf form and sleep outside his window for a few hours relishing in the peace that I felt when I was around him. Since the past few months due to the lack of bloodsuckers trespassing in the area, our nightly patrols had been called off and so there would be no one in mind for those few hours of calm. Before the first ray of sun would hit us, I would run back to La Push and pretend that I was at home the entire night. This nightly ritual was the only freedom I had given myself when it came to this imprinting.

Jake had promised me that this was my secret to share, if I chose to share and neither he nor Billy would be spilling the beans and for once I was thankful that he was our Alpha. He was a good leader and a fair one too. A few weeks after the newborn war, Jacob and Sam had mutually decided that Sam would step down from the position of the Alpha and Jake would take his rightful position. Sam wanted to stop phasing eventually and grow old with Emily and start having Kids. For days after I had heard about this I had been more bitter than usual. Of course I knew that they would be having a family one day, that all the dreams that Sam and I had seen of our future life, Emily would be the one to live them with Sam by her side but Sam saying this from his own mouth had made it more final and that was one of those many times when I had stormed out of a pack meeting, not even bothering to hide my anger.

Today was the pack bonfire, a day for the wolves, imprints and elders to sit around the fire, talk, eat, listen to stories and enjoy each other's company but for me, the loner and unwanted member of this 'family' it was a day to stare in the water and wait for this mandatory to attend event to end.

Emily and Bella had prepared a ton of food and from my spot near the cliffs on First Beach, far away from all of them, I could see Collin and Paul fighting for the last hot dog. Billy had not yet started reciting the legends and the imprints and elders was merrily laughing and cracking jokes while eating before that part of the evening began. The boys were all now playing football at a distance in their own way of pack bonding, roughhousing and pushing one another.

The sun was just setting on this small village located on the Pacific coast leaving a slightly orange glint on the light blue water. I could feel the temperature dropping leaving a chilly feel around and the imprints and elders tightened their warm clothes around their selves that they were wearing. But I was sitting there wearing my trademark pack attire which was just a pair of short and a tank top. The cold no longer affected me or any of the other shape shifters. We were just immune to the cold and because of our high temperature I could never feel anything other than heat. Quil had once tried to see how long an ice cube would remain in the form of ice when placed on our body and it had melted in a few seconds. I just stared at the waves in the water as I did on every other pack bonfire. No one bothered me they knew better than that, after all who would want to ruin their happy mood by being around a morose person like me. The only person who could tolerate my presence was Seth and that had more to do with the type of person he was. In the imprints, I knew that most of them were scared of the harpy bitch image that I owned. Rachel had once been a friend, growing up together, but after she came back and joined the list of imprints, things between us had very quickly gone downhill. The fact that she was close to Emily was enough for me to dislike her. I had not cared when she had tried to talk to me.

"Hey you okay" asked a voice as the said person sat next to me

I nodded my head without even looking at the person. It was a reflex for me now. The weeks after Sam had left me for Emily, I was often asked this question and my only answer would be a nod. I knew that their question was just out of courtesy or curiosity and they did not actually want to hear what I was going through and so a nod was all they got from me. The ones who were closer got to witness my anger and tantrums and by the end of those few weeks I had no friends who I could genuinely term as friends remaining.

He sighed "Leah, you need to stop doing this to yourself"

"Jacob" I started irritated. I was tired of this same conversation. Just because he had imprinted did not mean that he knew what I was going through.

"No" he said in a sharp voice "Shut the fuck up Leah Clearwater and listen to me. I am done with your moping. You are just torturing yourself and everyone around you"

"Sorry oh great Alpha for being a pain in your ass" I snapped at him

"Leah" he said as if he was talking to a child "It is inevitable, none of us could fight it and neither will you be able to. You are just stopping yourself from being happy"

"I have told you this many times in these past few days Jacob. I am not interested in having this conversation and seriously aren't you even a bit grossed out by this imprinting?" I asked him. I had expected that his first reaction would be to be grossed out, disgusted by this mess that fate had pushed me in.

He shook his head almost instantly "No I am not at all grossed out by you imprinting on him because there is no reason for it. Love does not see age, gender, color or religion. There are several couples out there who are extremely happy irrespective of the age difference between them. It does not matter if the both of you love one another and our happy to be with each other. When you find the one made for you, you just go with your heart"

A quote by Mark Twain made its way in my mind 'Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter'

I could see at a distance, Sam kiss Emily on the cheek as she sat in his lap. Jared was listening to Kim talk like she was the only person to exist in the world. Paul and Rachel were playfully fighting and nudging one another and Quil was playing with the three year old Claire and all of them had a smile on their face.

Did I even deserve such happiness, such love, this feeling of absolute adoration and devotion?

"But he is my father's friend" I whispered

"So?" "Harry wanted you to be happy in life and he knew Charlie and trusted him"

"But" I said trying to convince him how wrong this was. I can't love again I don't have the power to do that.

"Leah, stop making excuses for yourself" "Tomorrow I am having dinner with Bella and Charlie at their house, come with me"

I looked at him disbelievingly "No way" no I can't go in front of Charlie. It is better for all of us if I avoid this.

He sighed again "I did not want to do this but you leave me with no choice. Leah as your alpha I order you to come to Charlie's house with me tomorrow for dinner"

I glared at him, asshole traitor. He just smirked in return.

"I will see you tomorrow, now I am going to go back to my 'imprint'" he said getting up from the seat next to mine.

I saw him back go back to where the others were standing and then I turned back to look into the water in silence.

X-X-X

'It is just dinner' I said to myself for the fiftieth time since I woke up this morning after a restless night of hardly any sleep.

'It does not mean a damn thing. Just a forced dinner with someone you don't even like very much. Go there, stay a few hours and then leave, never to go back again'

My wolf whined in protest from inside me. She had desperately been waiting for tonight. 'Our imprint' she shouted proudly with a tinge of possessiveness while I just shushed her. My wolf was the only she-wolf of this pack and had an aura of power around her. She did not like taking orders from anyone except the Alpha and was protective of her status in the pack.

Luckily I did not have to patrol today or I would have definitely not been able to control my thoughts giving everyone a front view of my imprinting. In a pack this big with no need for it, each person only patrolled thrice a week.

"Leah, are you going anywhere?" asked my mother standing at the entrance of my room, with the surprise evident on her face. No doubt she would be surprised. In the last one year I have rarely ever left the house willingly unless it was for patrolling or work and today I had even taken the effort to dress up, applying light make up too which I rarely ever did. For some reason which I was aware of but wanted to pretend like it was not true, I wanted to look good today, the best I had ever looked.

"Are you going out on a date?" she asked when I did not answer. Her eyes wide, gleaming with happiness and surprise. She thought I was finally moving on.

I shook my head "I am going with Jacob to…" I stopped myself from saying Charlie "Bella's house"

She nodded her head with a smile on her face "Oh good, enjoy"

I gave her a small smile in return and walked down the stairs. Jake was going to pick me up in his rabbit so that we could drive there together.

"Lee, you are going somewhere?" asked Seth staring at me from his place on the couch, where he had been playing a video game. Somehow he had been so engrossed in it that he had not even heard our conversation upstairs.

I nodded my head and repeated what I had just told my mother.

He looked at me suspiciously "Why?"

I shrugged "Maybe Bella wanted to talk to me about something. I don't know"

He nodded his head once before diverting his eyes back to the game.

Soon Jacob came to pick me up and the both of us left for the twenty minute drive to Forks. The entire way was spent in silence and I played with the bracelet I had worn in my right hand trying to keep myself calm. 'It is just dinner, not a big deal' I kept repeating to myself.

We got out of the car in the driveway of their house and Jacob knocked at their door while I nervously stood behind him and a smiling Bella opened the door, Jake wrapping her in his arms laughing, kissing her with all he had in him. I turned my eyes. It felt like I was intruding on them.

"Oh hi Leah" said Bella looking at me "What a surprise?" she said almost like a question

"Bells, I invited Leah for dinner. I hope it is okay?" said Jake and I glared at him. Couldn't he have told her that he had forced this on me, in advance?

She gave me a small smile "Of course Jake, Leah please come in"

I gave her my own smile in return and walked in.

Charlie, my Charlie was sitting on the couch wearing a Flannel shirt with a pair of jeans and was watching a basketball game on the TV. He looked up when I entered and our eyes met again. I felt like I was imprinting all over again and I just could not look away. The world around us did not matter. It was just him and me.

Jacob coughed breaking the staring contest that had been going on. I nervously looked at the floor. No, I could not give in, I would not give in. He was not mine and never would be. I was doomed to be single and alone in life and that was how it was going to remain.

"Oh hi Leah, I did not expect to see you here" he said gaining control of himself again looking nervous

I just gave him a small smile "Jake made me tag along"

Charlie gave out a nervous laugh and Jake and I sat opposite him on the couch. Bella excused herself to the kitchen to ready the side dishes while Jake and Charlie had a conversation about sports which I half listened to majorly lost in my own thoughts.

Soon Bella called us at the table and we sat on the small dining table in the Swan's house which had mismatched chairs.

A small part of my mind was registering on the conversation going on around me or on the fact that the food was indeed delicious but mostly all I could think about was my imprint. Finally after eleven long days, I was in the same room as him, breathing the same air as him, feeling relief and calmness after so long. I did not even remember the last time I felt so peaceful.

"Leah, are you okay?" asked Bella with genuine worry on her face

I nodded my head

"So Leah, where are you working these days?" asked Charlie looking into my eyes, I forced myself to not fall into them again and answer the damn question asked.

"Umm I work as security with the other boys on the res" I said picking on a piece of bread. Suddenly I felt a small stab in my chest and I winced, moving a little in my seat. What was this sudden pain?

"That is the pain you feel when you lie or hide information from your imprint" said Jacob at a volume which only the both of us could hear.

"And I take shifts at the Ateara general store" I said as Charlie nodded his head.

"Yes Jake once told me about how the tribal council had entrusted you all with this work" he said "Though I still feel that this is too much responsibility for a bunch of teenagers"

"Charlie, it is not like that. We don't even have much work these days" said Jake and Charlie said something to him in return.

I floated into oblivion not bothering to concentrate on the conversation going on around me. I looked at the room I was in, the people I was around and mainly at my imprint. Would I be able to have this life, this life filled with happiness and love for one another, if I accepted this imprint and if by chance Charlie accepted it too? Would Charlie look at me, how Bella looks at Jake or how Kim looks at Jared? Could we be happy together or was I just dreaming about something that could never be achieved, after all this was my life where everything had a record of going wrong.

"Jake, can I talk to you for a minute?" said Bella pulling me out of my thoughts making me realize that I had been staring at Charlie. I looked at the floor flushed with embarrassment.

Jacob reluctantly nodded his head and the both of them left the room leaving us both behind. I kept my eyes to the now empty plate in front of me. I could not look up and I felt Charlie do the same. After a few minutes of silence, Jacob and Bella reentered the room. I could decipher the expression on Bella's face. She looked shocked, surprised, angry, happy, confused all at the same time.

Soon we cleared the table after finishing dinner and I offered to help Bella in the kitchen while Charlie and Jake moved their discussion about sports to the couch.

We worked in silence for a few minutes before Bella sighed heavily and looked at me

"We need to talk" she said and from the expression on her face I knew that she knew.

A/N: There won't be many chapters to this story, as of now I am planning to wrap this story by the fourth or fifth chapter. Thank you for reading.