A/N: Chemistry is crazy. Also I hope this chapter is okay, I did read through and edit it but I was kind of hopped up pain meds earlier so I was a little out of it. Should have waited but I figured I'd just push through anyway.
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters.
Leah woke up at 9 a.m. to a series of phones calls from random numbers.
By 9:10, she had woken up just enough to listen to the multiple voicemail messages she had gotten.
Emily:Hi Leah, it's Emily. I was thinking that if you guys were free today that maybe you'd want to stop by La Push. Most of the pack will be there for lunch and I really think it would be a good opportunity for Embry to get to know Davina. I really think you should consider allowing Embry and Davina to hang out together…alone. Well, give me a call back when you get this message.
If Davina wasn't still asleep on the bed beside her, Leah would have burst into laughter. Embry had a snowball's chance in hell of getting any alone time with Davina.
Sam:Leah listen to Emily (Leah snorted at the command). Embry has been hurting a lot about not being able to see this girl.
Leah almost laughed loudly at this one as well. At least Emily had tried to be polite before letting her true colors show, Sam didn't even bother.
Paul:Quit being a bitch Leah and just let Embry have his imprint.
Leah just rolled her eyes at this one.
Quil:It's not anything disgusting Leah. It would never be like that. Embry's a great guy and that girl's real lucky to have him.
Leah felt nothing but anger towards this one. If she could have stopped the Claire/Quil monstrosity she would have. No child deserves to groomed from the age of two and attached to a creepy wolf uncle who most tried to claim was better than her own parents. A spoiling playmate was never better than a 365/24/7 parent who had to deal with all of the hard crap.
Jacob:Look Leah, I know I'm not your alpha anymore but please just listen to me. Embry is a good guy. He deserves this girl…Davin, right? And it's killing him to be away from her and keeping her away from him and hurting him this way is wrong. Let him see her. I don't care how, just do it and do it now.
Leah wondered how much work it took to drag Jacob way from Renesmee and the Cullens' long enough to 1. Get him on the phone and 2. Get him to call her. She also wanted to know who Jacob thought he was fooling. At the very end of his message, she could hear his authoritative alpha voice creeping in. The term subtle, was not in Jacob Black's vocabulary. However, it didn't bother her a bit. In Jamaica, she had learned from the Black River pack that her wolf was her own and that while she should cooperate and work with the pack her wolf was only under her own direction. Working with Wesley, Davina's father, had built up her mental strength and control. Wesley had lived for a very long time and had spent years building control and balance between him and his wolf. Leah admired the old wolf greatly.
And lastly, was the voicemail Leah had been expecting to be first or at least closer to the top.
Embry:Please Leah, please don't keep Davina from me. I love her and I need her. Please don't do this to me…to us.
With this message, Leah almost crushed her phone her hand. He loved? No he didn't know what loving Davina meant and she knew he never would. For the last several minutes all she had heard was Embry this and Embry that. Loving someone actually required thinking of and considering them. No one, not even Embry who claimed to love her so much had once even thought about what Davina may want or think about the situation.
She didn't even bother listening to the rest of the voicemails, which seemed to mostly be coming from Emily, she was so angry. Instead she turned over and shook Davina awake.
"Whaa?" Davina popped up with messy, tangled hair framing her face and wild dark eyes.
"Wake up zombie, we're going to go wolf out in the woods." Leah said smiling at the girl.
That's all it took to get Davina out of the bed and moving.
When the two finally finished getting dressed and ready, Leah drove them away from Forks and closer to La Push. She parked the rental car on the side of the road and led them into the woods.
"Where we going?" Davina asked as they trudged along.
"There's a clearing up ahead where we can change out of our clothes and shift."
And sure enough, a couple of feet later the two entered a small clearing.
Davina wasted no time and stripping down to nothing.
"Finally, finally!"
Leah rolled her eyes and smiled. "Calm down Dav, it hasn't been that long." Then she stripped as well and then immediately shifted into her wolf form. A large gray and white wolf with a thick muzzle and strong muscled legs.
Davina smiled and moved away from Leah a bit before she shifted as well.
Davina's wolf looked more like a giant fox than a wolf. Her face and muzzle were lean and narrow, and her ears, which had white fur bordering their edges, pointed straight out of the stop of her head. The rest of her body was slender and covered in short reddish-brown fur and her chin, chest, the underside of her legs, and her paws were white. Her tail (what Leah considered the most beautiful part of the girl's wolf after her dark piercing eyes) was thick and bushy, the top of it splashed with white fur and the bottom tipped with dark brown.
When the girl finished shifting, she shook her body and then took off into the woods. Leah wasted no time in taking off after her.
As Leah followed after the running girl, she noticed how Davina was focused intensely on one direction.
Where are you going kid?
Leah knew the girl would not answer. The wolves of Black River did not speak mentally; they spoke through body language, instinct, and familiar bonds. Leah also learned that the further away from the La Push wolves she was, the less she her them. In Jamaica, her mind was completely silent. Even though sometimes Leah missed the mental link, her mind was empty now of everyone but herself. As it should be.
Except at the moment it wasn't.
Leah?
Leah heard her brother's voice ask.
She struggled with not allowing her irritation to seep through.
Nope, it's the boogeyman.
Haha…but Leah?
Yeah Seth?
I'm not sure if mom mentioned it but I wanted us to all have dinner at my place…our home, ya know as a family.
Even though Leah loved her brother, he had questionable loyalties as did her mother. She wasn't sure if she trusted either of them and their motivations behind this dinner.
Just the four of us?
Yeah, just the four of us.
Leah could feel the warm smile behind his words. And she wanted to believe him. She wanted to believe her family would not betray her and the pup she loved so dearly.
You'll come? He asked hopefully.
Okay. She answered softly. She prayed silently that later on down the road she will not have to add this to the list of painful decisions she's made.
YEEESSS! Tonight at 6, don't be late.
Then she felt him leave her mind and all of her focus was on Davina again.
The girl was a couple of feet ahead of her, running through the clearing that came just before the cliffs where the natives usually jumped into First Beach.
Leah sped up in an attempt to tackle Davina; knowing what the crazy teenage girl was planning.
When Davina heard Leah's footsteps coming closer toward her; she looked back and gave the older woman a wolfish grin before turning back around and running faster. She knew that Leah would never catch her, her body was swifter and leaner.
As Davina neared the cliff, Leah gave out a bark in warming but it was too late. Davina jumped over the cliff and shifted back to human form mid-air. Leah followed suit.
They both fell into the water, one after the other, with a huge splash and were submerged a few seconds before their heads popped up above the surface of the water. When they had caught their breath, they wordlessly swam to the shore and crawled unto the sand.
After a few moments of lying on the sand and breathing heavily, Davina spoke.
"Did…you…feel…it?" The girl asked between breaths. "Just…"
"Free." Leah finished with a small smile painting her lips. Leah knew the girl too well.
Davina smiled as well. "Yeah. The running, the wind, the weightlessness-."
"The fear for the crazy kid running in front of you?"
Davina laughed. "The fear is nice too. Your heart feeling like it's gonna explode, ya know?"
Leah nodded slowly.
"And when it does it explode, it just, it just," Davina's hand's gestured around wildly as she struggled to word her thoughts. "it just does and suddenly all the fear is gone and your just feelin' alive and excited."
Leah turned to the girl and studied her. Davina's dark face, framed by her dark sand covered kinky locks, seemed to be glowing and her pink lips were curved into a huge smile.
"There's something I need to explain to you kid."
Davina turned to look at Leah, the smile still on her face and her dark eyes gleaming with excitement as they gazed into Leah's.
"What?" She asked happily.
Leah almost stopped herself, she didn't want to ruin Davina's good mood but she knew it needed to be done.
"Do you remember what happened at the Summer Solstice party a couple of days ago? With Embry Call?"
Davina thought for the moment. "Creepy staring dude?"
Leah laughed. "Yes him."
"Not much. I fell asleep in the car, remember?"
"Before that. The part where he said he imprinted on you."
"I remember that…I guess it's got nothing to do with baby animals."
Leah shook her head slowly. "No, it doesn't." Leah swallowed. "It kind of means he's chosen you as a soul mate. It's involuntary, so it's not his choice really. It like magic that makes him only see you, it makes him feel like he loves you above all else and makes him completely devoted to you. It also is painful for him to be away from you. He feels these things because the imprint tells him to." Leah paused for a moment trying to keep the angry out of her voice. "I can't really tell you how or why it happens because I really don't know. I can only say that he and the pack are very relentless. They feel like I'm keeping you from him, and they also probably think I brainwashed you because I don't like imprinting. They feel like they need to convince us otherwise. They think you'll be okay with this, that you'll accept being attached to him without you having any choice."
After Leah finished, Davina stared at her for a long time before she spoke.
"This is bullshit."
Leah laughed again; full and hearty and loud. When she regained some control she looked at Davina with a huge smile on her face.
"I'm supposed to tell you to watch your language," Davina rolled her eyes at this. "But that is exactly how I've felt since it went down."
"On one hand I do feel kind of bad for him. He can't really help his creepy, stare-y devotion and I don't really like causing others pain."
Leah almost felt worried. Almost.
"But I'd never choose him. I'd never throw away the love of my family and my pack or my freedom…never my freedom or my choice. He's not worth it, he would never be worth it."
If there were times Davina seemed more like the rambunctious, playful four year old that Leah had met her as, this was not one of them. In this moment, she sounded more like the mature young woman that she was growing into every day.
"Besides who wants some random dude who's love and devotion came…well out of nowhere." Then Davina thought for a moment. "Mama said love is built."
Leah nodded. "It is."
"Over time, and hardship, and joy, and loss, and shared experiences. It doesn't just come outta nowhere." Davina paused. "Imprinting seems very artificial…very fake."
Leah sighed. "That's because it is. The people who are together because of imprinting would probably not be otherwise. It's forced and can be very destructive to lives of those it affects."
Davina stared at Leah again a thoughtful expression on her face. "Are you ever going to tell me that story?"
"One day." Leah stood slowly and then offered a hand to Davina. "Come on Dav, we should be getting back."
Davina groaned before grasping Leah's hand and lifting to stand. "Aww, we didn't even get to run that long or wrestle!"
Leah laughed. "We're going to back to the clearing at least. There's no way in hell we're walking back naked!"
"Well come on then!"
Davina took off down the beach and shifted mid-run. Leah laughed once more before doing the same. Together, grey and brown side by side, they ran across the beach and back into the woods.
Around 5:55 p.m., Leah and Davina arrived at Seth's house for dinner. Sue had come over hours earlier in order to help Seth with cooking the meal. Leah knew better though; Sue was probably cooking the entire meal.
But Leah knew something was up the moment they arrived at the house. Seth's driveway had two extra cars in it. Leah found that to be very odd, since Seth came to the house to pick up Sue and because of that tiny weeny fact called Seth only owned one car. So the two extra cars in the driveway seemed off.
Leah got out of the car warily; she knew she should have expected the worst. When she looked towards Davina, she noticed that the girl was sniffing around.
"What's up Dav?"
The girl looked at Leah with a worried expression on her face. "I-it's not just Sue and Seth in there."
Leah sighed. "I know." Then she walked to Davina, wrapped her arms around the girl's shoulder and proceeded to walk them towards the door. "It'll be okay, it's going to end before it can even begin."
When they reached the door, Leah barely had a chance to knock before it's answered by Sue.
"Leah, Davina." Sue greeted. She had opened the door smiling but as soon as she saw the looks on their faces it dropped. "It-."
"Save it." Leah says cutting her off. Her arm slips from Davina's shoulder and slides down until she captures the girl's hand in her own. Then she barges past her mother and into the house.
The front room of the house was filled with little children running around and playing, some of them Leah recognized from the beach party a couple of days ago. Leah knew most of the La Push wolves had kids from her weekly skype call with her mother. It seemed like a new baby was being born every month for a couple of years. Even though Leah's mother had mentioned all of the children at least once, Leah didn't know any of their names, ages, or genders. Heck, she didn't even know who half of the children belonged to. However if she were to be completely honest, she didn't really care. She didn't hold anything against the little ones but she didn't know them and nor did she ever want to know them.
As they passed by the children Leah waved at 14 year old Claire, who was looking after the younger children, before she entered the dining room with her mother and Davina beside her.
When she entered the room she was not surprised by what she found.
Sitting side by side, around two long rectangular tables were the La Push wolves and their imprints. The only empty seats at the table was one beside Embry and one beside the seat that Sue had taken quickly occupied after following Leah into the dining room.
Leah almost snorted. Did they really think that this was how they'd get Davina to interact with Embry? They were fools.
Leah took the seat beside her mother and left it out slightly. Davina wasted no time and squeezing into the space and seating herself on Leah's lap. Davina was heavy but Leah was very used to the girl plopping her body against her in some fashion or another.
Leah looked up at the shocked faces (and the disappointed Embry) around the room and smirked.
"So what do you all want? Because obviously it wasn't about a nice, intimate family dinner between the four of us." Leah looked between her mother and her brother as she spoke the last sentence. Both looked very, very guilty.
"Come on Leah, we just want to talk." Emily said.
Davina cocked her head at the older woman. "My mother says 'Don't pussy foot around, just say what you mean.'"
Leah loved Sharon, Davina's bold carefree mother, that she-wolf had not tact and often spoke very bluntly.
Emily seemed frazzled by the girl's statement. "Well, uh…"
"Leah your being unreasonable." Sam stated. "We're here because you're holding a grudge and it's not right."
"Unbelievable. You think my not allowing Davina anywhere near this mess is because of you? Are you kidding me?! Has anyone in this room listened to a single thing I've said since this went down?"
Sam shook his head. "We don't need to listen because we all know what this is really about."
"I can't even." She took deep breath trying to calm herself. "I don't want Davina around this because you're all strangers who don't have her best interest at heart. Besides, I know for certain her parents don't want a strange man staking a claim on their teenaged daughter."
"Who's David?" Emily shot back in the most accusatory voice Leah had ever heard. "I'm pretty sure her parents wouldn't want you bringing strange men around Davina either."
On the other side of Leah, Sue stiffened and grew ghost white.
"You were eavesdropping on my phone call?" Leah asked flabbergasted but she seemed not to even be heard because Embry decided to jump in, continuing where Emily left off.
"Exactly! Why should you be anywhere near my Davina when you make reckless choices all the time. You ran away from La Push and abandoned your mother and brother. Now you're running around Jamaica with random men!"
Leah's eyes grew so wide it looked like they were about to fall out of her skull. She completely taken aback by Emily and Embry's statements. Who the hell did they think they were? But before Leah could confront them, Davina burst into laughter. Leah could feel vibrations against her body as Davina buried her face in her neck. Leah looked down at the laughing girl and soon she began to relax. After a moment she began to laugh as well because even though Emily and Embry's statements had been insulting they were also very, very hilarious when one knew the truth.
"What the hell is so funny?" An irritated Paul asked, he didn't even flinch when Rachel elbowed his arm. "Sorry Rach, but they're starting to get on my nerves."
Davina managed to calm herself down just enough to look up at Leah and ask, "Can I say? Can I say?"
Leah just smiled down at the girl and nodded.
Davina turned to Emily and grinned widely. "David's my older brother. Our parents named us so that both of our names begin with D-A-V-I-. Get it? David and Davina?"
"D-david is your brother?" Emily stuttered out.
This time Sue answered. "He is. I met him a few times when Leah flew Charlie and I out to Jamaica to visit." Then she turned to Leah. "What's this about the two of you?"
"Madness!" Davina said giggling.
Sue's eyebrows scrunched up. "Madness?"
Leah rolled her eyes playfully. "Madness because I've made the crazy decision to accept David's proposal to marry him."
Sue's eyes widened and she and Emily asked at the same time. "You're engaged?" While Emily sounded surprised, Sue sounded very hurt.
Leah looked towards her mother, choosing to ignore Emily. "Yes. We planned to tell you when you and Charlie came for your visit this year but instead you ambushed me with this," Leah gestured around the dinner table. "and continued to ambush me in the name of this because they wanted to force a teenager to interact with a 27-year old man."
"Lea-." Her mother tried to plead.
"No I'm not finished. This is not cool. Lying to me is not cool. Trying to shame me with my personal life is not cool. Hurting Davina is never cool!"
"How am I hur-." Embry tried to interject. Tried being the keyword.
"Not. Finished. Yet." Leah ground out before she took a deep breath and then focused her gaze on Embry. "I may not have been able to prevent that," She gestured towards Quil, the only wolf not sitting with his imprint. "but I will walk through fire before I ever let you think that imprinting gives you more claim to this girl than her own family and her pack."
"Look Leah," Jared began, trying to get a handle on the situation. "Quil is good to Claire and Embry will be the same to Davina. He's a good man and he deserves her and she belongs with him."
"I don't belong to anyone." Davina stated quietly. All eyes fell on her. "I don't belong to anyone, ever." Her voice was stronger this time. "I belong only to myself and nature and those I choose to share myself with."
Leah smiled at the girl because there she was again, the strong bold young woman Leah knew she would become.
Then Davina climbed off of Leah's lap and when she stood she looked around the table at everyone. "I can't say it was a pleasure to meet any of you." Then she turned to Sue. "And I'm sorry Ms. Clearwater that I'm not thankful for this invitation to dinner, well really the lack of dinner actually." Next she looked at Seth. "I'm sorry you're a terrible brother." Lastly, she looked directly at Embry, who was staring at her like a lovesick fool. "And you, creepy stare-y dude, stay away from me."
When she finished speaking she turned and left the dining room. Leah got up and followed after Davina; she left without saying a single word to anyone.
The two left the house and hopped into the rental car and Leah sped away from her former childhood home. They made one stop in Forks to grab their things from the Swan-Clearwater residence and then they took off out of town and down the highway. But instead of heading towards Port Angeles and William Fairchild Airport Leah drove towards Seattle.
A/N:
Sorry for not updating sooner.
I decided to save the 'history' sneak peek for next chapter.
If you want to know what Davina's wolf looks like google: Ethiopian Wolf.
Lastly, I hope everyone enjoyed reading the chapter. Also please review and thanks to those who already have, it's greatly appreciated :)!
