Finally right? The second chapter of Starting Fresh, I've had in the works for a while now, because I didn't know how I wanted to play out. Obviously it's a Bella and Seth story, so he's going to be 16 not 15. But he's going to look older than that, and he's going to be near Jacob's height.

Hope you enjoy the second chapter …

Starting Fresh

Chapter Two

Seth's POV

When she had turned from that beautiful chocolate wolf with white paw socks and a white under-belly, I knew I would fall in love with her as a human; there was a tingling in my bones that just knew she was the one. It wasn't like us when we changed, she was behind the tree and I could see a faint golden glow as her body shifted gracefully from animal to woman, it was like the girl herself, or what I had seen so far, she was fierce and protective and won't stop until something is done. I wonder what she'll do now that the syphon is gone, hmm, who knows. She stepped out from behind the tree with her back to me and I had to talk to her, so before anyone could I asked the first question I thought of.

"So, what are you planning on doing now? Since you have you just got your life back an all?" I asked, watching to see what she would do.

She turned to face me and froze, God she was beautiful, with soft brown/red hair. Fake Bella had been pretty but there were subtle differences that made the real one all the more classic and beautiful. Not like how the guys saw Leah as 'exotic', but softer. The shade of her hair was more dark red then brown but there was still a mixture with the brown in there. Her face was more angular with a slightly stronger jaw that looked shapelier. Her eyes were a shade lighter and stood out on her own her pale skin, but it had a slight tan to it, more like a sun kissed glow. The sleeping bag barely covered her but I could tell she was a few inches taller than Fake Bella and a little curvier, but they were only changes that people who saw her on a daily basis (or people with a keen eye sight) would notice. I noticed her chest start to slow down to a stop and her blinks were lasting for longer.

"Bella?" I asked, and went to step forward, when her feet collapsed from under her, I leaped forward and caught her head before it hit the stone. "Shit" I muttered under my breath.

"Didn't expect for her to actually fall for you pup" Paul sniggered.

"Shut up, Paul" I snapped, checking over her body, just in case anything was broken and she lost conscious from the pain or something like that. When I saw nothing I slid one had under her neck and the other under her legs and lifted her into my chest. Curling my shoulders around her and cradling her to the barrel of my chest.

"It's amusing … baby Alpha was in love with Fake Bella and baby Clearwater imprinted on real Bella, look on the bright side … at least she wasn't a leach lover" Paul said, leaning on a tree. I scowled at him and as I walking past him; I shifted Bella slightly and shot my foot out, planting it in the middle of his chest causing him to tree to snap just below where his knee's where and he fell back since her had no purchase on anything else.

The guys burst into a fit of deep laughter as Paul stomped up the little hill he'd managed to fall down and he growled at the other guys as they tried to stifle there laughter as he angrily swiped at the leaf litter in his hair, he went to attack me but I moved out of his way so he smacked into one of the guys and they both toppled over each other.

"I have a person in my hands dip shit, don't make me put her down just to hit you" I growled, and the vibration made her bury further into my body, something to remember for the future, if I had a future with her.

"Like you could" Paul snorted, puffing his chest as he stood up, and brushed the pine needles from his body.

"Whatever ass whole, I need to get my imprint to safety." I told him, and started to walk away from them. The purple smoke was over powering but we tried to breath as little as possible and once we were out of the woods, we all ran swiftly to the reservation and made it to Emily's where we put Bella on the Sofa.

"What happed to Bella?" Kim asked, but Emily – ever the observant one – just kept looking at her, running her eyes all over her body that was still wrapped in the sleeping bag.

"That's no Bella, at least not the Bella we knew anyway. She's taller and her hairs the wrong colour." Emily observed. "Right, Kim? I need some clothes from my room, shorts and a t-shit should be fine, Rachel, your cooking food with me. Quil, keep an eye on Claire, she's playing with her Barbie's." Emily said and all the imprints scattered. Emily came from the kitchen after a couple of seconds and placed a cold, wet cloth on her head. "Seth, kitchen so you can explain all this." She said as she walked back out. I looked at Jake and Sam and they nodded in silence to watch her while she was still unconscious.

I walked into the kitchen and then smiled at Emily slightly. I turned the chair so the back was facing Emily and then straddled the chair, clasping my hand on the back and trying to find the right words to say.

"Okay, you remember Bella right? Quiet, hardly talked to anyone, Jacob's best friend? In love with vampires? Well, she was a syphon apparently, she could absorb people's memories and morph their bodies to look similar, but when they touched there victims, they drained them of energy and killed the people that they were imitating. Thing is, this Bella is a werewolf, and as you should know, it's not that easy to kill a werewolf, or anything supernatural. So Bella, the real Bella has been trying to track her down for months now after she became coherent enough actually remember what happened to her. The Bella on your couch is the real Bella; she killed half the vampires that were there because they were in her way to kill the Syphon" I told them.

"Wow, poor Bella, having her life taken from her for over a year. That must suck." Rachel said. "He used to have so much fun when we were little, she was such a loud and active kid, I thought it was weird when she was all shy and could hardly remember me."

"Yeah, Jacob always said she was a happy kid, yet she seemed so … incapable of surviving." I said. "I mean, she went to shit when the leach left, and she used to look after her mom when she was living in Arizona, what teenager goes to shit because she lost her boyfriend, hell, I mean, that's just pathetic" I said.

"Tell me about it, I'm so much cooler than her" a sweet voice said from behind me. I turned to see her in shorts and she was just pulling the shirt down over her toned, flat stomach. She gave me a soft smile as she pulled herself onto the counter opposite me.

"Totally, I mean, she would completely blank me come times, I knew something was up. Good to have you back, Bee" Rachel said and Bella couldn't help but smile at her.

"Em! I hungry" a little voice said as she toddled from the living room. Claire showed her face and looked straight at Bella. "You're new" she stated.

"Yeah, I'm Bella" she said, jumping from the counter and landing in a graceful fluid crouch and held her hand out to little Claire.

"You different" she said, tilting her head slightly then started to poke Bella's cheek. Bella smiled and it was so beautiful. I hadn't realized I was staring until Bella raised her eyebrow at me.

"Sorry, you just look really beautiful when you smile" I said, blushing slightly.

"Thanks" she said, picking up Claire and balancing her on her hip as she stood and leaned back against the counter. "So, what's your name then?" she asked me and it was one of those duh moments where you remember, 'duh, she passed out before you could introduce yourself.'

"Oh, um, I'm Seth" I said, giving her a smile and I couldn't help but blush a little again.

Bella's POV

He was so cute, not in a little brother way kind of cute though, but in an inexperienced kind of way where he was just finding things out and he was still naïve to the world. He was the same build as most of the other guys, lean with a decent eight pack, tall with short spikey hair with dark brown eyes and dark skin, like the rest of the guys, except he had an innocence about him.

"How old are you?" I asked him.

"Nearly seventeen, only a year behind Jake and some of the other guys; I was last phasing so I'm the baby of the pack. But I'm up there with Paul with being good at fighting; Paul is one of our best fighters. We all thought it was because he had anger problems, but now we think it's just because he's always been a very angry person unless he's with Rachel, she's his imprint, like your mine." he told me.

"Oh, so you guys imprint? I take it you don't mark then?" I asked, since we didn't imprint, but when we found our soul mate, we had the urge to bite them, right in the junction between there neck and shoulder on the muscle. And Seth's shoulder was looking damn tasty. My stomach was grumbling when I stopped staring at Seth.

"Yeah we mark too, but that's to seal the bond. I'm Sam, the Alpha of the pack; this is my beta, Jared. You'll meet the rest of the pack later on when they come around for dinner. How long have you been phasing?" he asked me as he took Claire from my arms and motioned me to a chair. I sat next to Seth and thought about it.

"I don't remember, I was young, but mom was close with the chief of the closest reservation, since she'd grown up there and her parents where from there. So he took me under his wing from a young age, I'd learn to hunt when I was six; I remember that, and how to kill. He'd told me that was important and boy was he right, I killed my first vampire when I was thirteen. None of the other people had shifted so he couldn't understand why I would phase since my father isn't from supernatural blood that I know of. So it still puzzles me, unless a vampire was near, or my body could tell that I needed to change so I could protect my mother. But soon the novelty wore off from having a daughter that could change into a giant wolf, so she found something to keep her occupied, footballers, baseball players, the odd minor league soccer players. Until she met Phil, she was happy messing around. Having so many abortions that she was told she couldn't have any more children anyway. Then she had to get rid of me so she could travel with her new husband. But on my way into the airport, the syphon found me and kidnapped me. I was in a coma under the airport for nearing seven months, and then I had to take time to get all my memories back and enough of a bearing that I knew where I needed to be. I crashed whatever was going on with you and the leeches, so I could finish some personal business. I haven't got a clue what I'm going to do now that I have a clean slate." I said and shrugged my shoulders.

"Why don't you move down here? Can you doing anything? Are you good at anything?" Sam asked.

"Cooking, and little things around the house, I was always fiddling with the car as well, I'm a pretty rounded person." I shrugged.

"Any good at construction? Or baking? Jake was going to open a little garage at the back of his house; you could probably work there, wouldn't be much but then again, the housing is free and if you're a wolf, the council give you money to go towards your food bills. There really helpful, or you could work with the school, helping with the after school stuff. You could run the garage through the day while Jake is in school and then swap when he gets home and go help some kids with homework or something in the school." Sam suggested.

"I'll have to think about it, it's a big step, jumping from having no control over your life for a year and half and then having full access to it again. I need to adjust, and re-evaluate. But I'll let you know on Friday at the latest. Thank you, you're being so generous." I said smiling at him.

"That's no problem, Bella. It's completely understandable that you need to feel in control of your life before you make any drastic decisions. I was the same; I didn't go back to my work for two months when I first phased. I'm not saying it's the same, but it's the animal in us, they need to feel in control of a situation and evaluate it before doing anything. It's understandable" Sam said.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, wolves don't like feeling threatened, and when she rendered you unconscious, she became a major threat, were predators, we hunt and we kill. We need some semblance of control in our lives to be able to tame the beast and she took that away from you" Seth said and gave me a soft smile.

"Totally" Quil said, as he helped Claire colour in her book, I sensed Quil was a man of few (and I mean very few) words.

"Can I ask you a question, Bella?" Sam asked.

"Sure" I said, sending him a toothy grin while I waited for him to ask his question.

"How well do you know our legends?" he asked.

"Well enough to re-site them off the top of my head, along with the Makah legends and the Hoquiam legends; I'm pretty well versed in their language too. Though personally, Quileute is easier to learn" I told him.

"Would you consider teaching kids the language that would be willing to learn on weekends, I'm sure the council would be all for it, but the language is dying out and only a few selected people from the pack and some the elders speak it. We want people who can speak it to help learn, and since you learnt it yourself, well, you could help others." Sam said.

"Well see, Sam" I told him smiling.

Time skip, dinner time

Seth's POV

We were all crowded around Emily's small dinner table, the imprints where here and Quil was trying hard to keep his mouth shut. He was dying to ask Emily for the food, and Sam was millimetres away from ordering to go home and one of us would fill him in on patrol.

"Okay, before we dig in, we have a new member of our pack. I'm sure you all saw how she took out the creature posing as her, so I would like you to give her a warm welcome. Bella Swan." Sam said. I saw her stand and wave to everyone and Leah was the only one scowling.

"I bet she's just like the other one, no fucking brain" Leah hissed.

"Listen bitch, from what I could gather, you're a girl who can't get over her ex-boyfriend finding his soul mate, so she decides to put everyone else down just because you're to selfish to let him be happy and think 'hey, if I'm going to be miserable, why can't I make the rest of them feel like shit too' well news flash, babe, the world, hell, this fucking kitchen doesn't revolve around you. Yeah, you're an inconvenience to this pack because you and the Alpha have a history, but ever thought that if you moved on, both of you would be happy." Bella said and we all sat there stunned and perplexed.

"That was a little harsh" I said to Bella.

"Yeah well, she needs it, because by the looks of it all you have done is baby her and edge around her problems, if you'd all grown a damn back bone and told her straight, then maybe she would have moved on a hell of a lot faster. Your all as much to blame for babying her as much as she is for holding onto the past" Bella said, and I had to admit, she had a very good point. I looked around and there was a mixture of shock and realization on everyone's faces.

"Leah was scowling at the table, but I could see the tears in her eyes, and then she stood up so quick that the chair flew back and stormed out of the house and we all watched, then I stood up and I met Bella's eyes.

"I'll come" she said and then followed me out of the house. She thanked Sam and apologised for the scene she caused. We followed me into the forest and we walked a couple of minutes until we came to a shaking Leah on a tree. Except I don't think it was rage she was shaking from, I think it was the unshed tears that I saw in her eyes.

"What is she doing here?" Leah bit out.

"Not to say sorry, because you needed a dose of reality, but to say that I'm here if you need to talk, to vent out your frustration on anyone, or a good old fashioned bitching, I'll be here. The reason I'm not saying sorry is because you needed to hear that, you try to be too hard hearted and you don't like being vulnerable, I can see that, I don't need to know you to know that you surround your heart with walls so no one else can break it, but ever thought that maybe if you let someone in that you trusted then, maybe they'll mend it, not break it even more. You need to let go of the past Leah." Bella said in a clamming voice as she sat next to her.

"She's right, Lee. We're all here for you and we won't think any less of you if you did decide to be a girl every now and then. We know your capable of being just as tough as us, we know that. But your aloud to be weak too. We won't judge you, you know that" I said to her, sitting next to her on her other side, I was at least a head taller than Leah so she put her head on my shoulder and my arm wrapped around her waist while Bella rubbed circles in the top of her back and gave her a soft smile.

"You're not the only girl in the pack anymore Leah, I'm always going to be here" Bella said, still rubbing soothing movements into my sisters back. "Plus, if I'm going to be stuck with your brother, I'm stuck with you too right? And I don't need any more bitches in my life. It's so over rated"

And then the most surprising thing happened. Leah actually laughed. "But technically, we are bitches so it's in our nature to be a little catty every now and then." Leah said with a small smile on her lips.

"Totally" Bella nodded. And it was that point that I smiled and looked at Bella with so much devotion in my eyes and I nodded in appreciation to her. "Hey, I have to start fresh, so how about we do it together?"

"Starting fresh, it sounds like a plan" Leah agreed. If this is what the rests of my life was going to be like, then I couldn't wait for forever. Bella was everything and more that an imprint should be, plus she got my sister to be nice, hell she deserved a medal for that.

We all walked back to the house, Leah wiping her tear stained cheeks and then smiling at the guys. To say they were shocked was an understatement. And in typical Quil fashion, he broke the silence and made us all laugh with a simple sentence.

"Can we have food yet?" he whined.

What did you guys think? I'm sorry I kept you all waiting.

And I have a question for you all to ponder over. If Bella broke her hand when she punched Jacob, how come she never broke her hand when she slapped Paul? Because I can guarantee that it would have been harder than when she punched Paul because she was even angrier because of what she thought of they had done to Jacob.

Ponder away my lovelies, please review (you might need to sign out if you've already reviewed once, but if you give me your name , I will be sure to answer you with a PM) hell and even answer my question and the punch/slap werewolf dilemma.

Hope you enjoyed

Lots of love

Lauren xoxo