Authors Note:

So. Last chapter is up next.

Disclaimer: I don't need to tell you? Do I?

I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS.


For a while, everything between the pack was awkward. Leah noticed the way Paul was overly skittish, looking this way and that as if he thought the boogie man would come out of no where and scare him. Quil was pushing jokes to the edge of extinction. Embry avoided eye contact with anyone. Sam was gone, on a honeymoon with Emily. If it weren't so tense, she would have laughed at how much of a cluster-fuck everything was.

A lot of questions went unasked. Some of them didn't need voicing. But Embry glared at Jacob silkily as if the alpha might burst into flames. Leah wrinkled her nose in Embry's direction, raising a quizzical brow. He just huffed in response and Quil slapped him on the shoulder.

Finally, someone spoke.

"So why did you put an order on the pack?" Edward murmured softly in a tone she didn't altogether like.

"Because," Jacob voiced out loud with a sigh "It seemed safer for Leah."

"But you did try to…" Bella murmured softly, looking at her daughter who lay asleep in Jacob's arms. He stared at her and she knew the imprint was a magical thing, but she felt kind of wrong to be watching the adoration on his face.

"I know," he almost growled. "But you don't—couldn't possibly—understand what that scent was doing to us."

The room fell silent.

Paul jumped up.

"I need to go."

He ran out the door faster then Leah could blink.

When Edward received a look, he laughed softly.

"Rachel" he murmured.

They all nodded somberly.

Leah could still feel eyes on her as she turned around and spoke to Seth about dinner.

Embry's face was grim.


After she finished off her third hot dog Leah yawned tiredly.

She was laying on her bed, almost asleep when she heard a pebble hit the window. She jumped up, and looked out into the night, her eyes adjusting quickly. She caught a flash of fur as the figure darted into the forest. She grinned toothily.

Chucking on some track pants and a singlet, she ran downstairs quickly, avoiding the floorboards that groaned and creaked loudly no matter what the pressure. She flung the door open, closed it and ran, her blood pumping as she felt the air brush across her skin, the moonlight making everything seem so much simpler.

Then she stopped dead when Embry stood before her. In wolf form he was both beautiful and dangerous. She stepped toward him and he whined softly, lowering his head. She smiled, kept walking forward and stroked behind his ear. He fell to the ground and let out a sound that sounded like a whimper. She sat in front of him.

"Embry. I never got to… thank you for before… When you protected me." She murmured, rubbing his ear gently, knowing it was the most joyous of places to be petted.

His tongue lolled out the side of his mouth, licking her other hand, his hot wet tongue tracing up her palm. She found herself shuddering.

"That's not fair," she whispered and he let out a barky laugh that made her laugh right along with him.

"This may seem crazy, Embry… But I think…"

She almost finished her sentence, but that same long hot tongue ran across her cheek, sending her heart thudding dangerously in her chest.

He kept licking though, and when she began to cry, his licks grew more insistent. Had it been anyone else, she might have phased right on the spot.

But this was Embry. Her savior. Her…

She whimpered brokenly, and her heart threatened to shatter in a million pieces.

And damn her, the heat wave must have still been because she felt so emotional; happy, (that she realized something she had never thought possible) sad, (because he might imprint one day and she could not go through that again) angry (at herself) and she didn't know which emotion to stick with.

She cried.

He rested his head on her shoulder and dipped his chin, urging her forward into his big warm chest, and her fingers laced into his fur, clinging desperately.

She sobbed, and finally, all the aggression, all the depression from her fathers death, all the grudges? They were wiped clean from her consciousness. She didn't know how long she stayed there, didn't feel the shift beneath her hands, only felt the smooth warm heated skin, so much like her own holding her back tightly like she might fall apart. She felt his breath slither by her ear.

That's when it happened.

Her lips met his.

And her world tilted on its axis.

Because she was in love with Embry. Stupid, adorable, questionable, funny Embry.

And he had yet to imprint.

Could her pride be any more damaged?