Huge thank you's to everyone who took the time to review. I can't tell you how much it means to me!

This is not chapter 4, it's a continuation of Chapter 3 – 'Words'. I really didn't want to break it up but it just got too long. (Honestly, this was supposed to be a quick explanation of how Leah ended up going back in LaPush after living as a wolf for so many years... But, it turns out Leah had a lot more to say and she isn't the bitter, hurt girl who left all those years ago.) Huge apologies for last night's odd cliff hanger. I won't make a habit of it.

Because of this chapter evolving the way it did, it seems the time-line and how long Leah has been gone is causing some confusion. Each chapter will be in its own time – depending on whether Leah is reminiscing about her Before or talking in her Now. The time-line will become more obvious in later chapters, but this chapter and most will be, more or less, 10+ years after 'Breaking Dawn' – Not saying she's been exclusively living as a wolf for 10 years, just that it's about when Jacob came to bring her back to LaPush. I will go back and address the time-line in one of the previous chapters for future readers & Thank you for bringing the confusion to my attention.

And the standard, I do not own Twilight... Enjoy!

"Hey, you're talking! Hi! Say something else! God, it is so good to hear your voice. Slow down. Damn, I think you're faster than you used to be... Hey, Leah, c'mon..." Jacob could somehow manage to whine in a happy tone, or maybe that was change a happy tone into a whine. Some things obviously never change.

I was sure I was starting to hear him in the distance, and with the wind at my back, I could definitely smell him now. His warm, woodsy spice smell almost giving me a shiver from the shear familiarity.

"Awwww... Thanks. Do I really smell that good? Haven't showered in a week if you don't count all the times you've managed to get me in the water today."

I made sure I didn't let an answer unconsciously formulate in my head as I jumped back down the small embankment into the water and, in that moment, seeing no other choice and no way to get away from him, God help me, I phased.

Funny thing about wolves that phase into humans... Phasing gracefully takes practice. And since I was doing it for the first time in I have no idea how long, I damn near killed myself in the process. Suddenly, I was a gangly human with slick feet and long hair hanging in my eyes, trying desperately to balance on slippery river rocks in an unforgiving river current. Of course I fell, but falling sometimes has its benefits. Rushing downriver and nearly drowning did whip my hair back out of my face so I could see. And by the time I was able to grab a piece of tree and pull myself back ashore, I was quite a way down stream from where my tracks and scent had stopped.

I scrambled out of the water, pulling myself through the sandy mud. I knew I had only seconds before Jacob would figure out that I hadn't just crossed the creek again. It wouldn't take him long to catch that the reason for my missing scent on the opposite bank was because I was moving in the water. After that, there was better than a fifty-fifty chance he'd come my direction and not need to double back in his search. I rolled in the sandy mud, and grabbed a few handfuls of the wet slop to sling back my, astonishing knee-length hair. From there it was a few yards and several misjudgments of how far I could jump from rock to rock – Again, damn near killing myself more times than I care to admit, before I proceeded to climb a tree, buck naked.

I spent what seemed like a long time in that tree. Holding on for dear life; praying Jacob wouldn't smell me or notice the remnants of water that continued dripping down the trunk from my hair.

I waited, clamped onto that tree, holding my breath and willing my body not to shake, while wild emotions that I didn't even have names for coursed through me.

I waited, and considered my options as he passed under me with his nose to the ground. Thankfully never quite close enough to hear the painfully slow, shallow breaths I was forced to take when my body threatened me with unconsciousness.

I waited and watched as he circled, never closer than four thick trunks from my sanctuary. It tugged at my heart, but I waited when I heard a little frustrated whine escape him and watched as he turned and sped off in a direction that would lead him far away from me.

I waited until I couldn't hear Jacob's footfalls in the distance before I jumped from the tree, phasing in midair and ran even faster following the footprints he'd left on his journey to find me.

Leeeee-aaaaahhh... Jacob sing songed my voice about 50 million times in between saying all kinds of other crap I didn't want to hear.

Okay, I admit it. You're good. You are the sneakiest wolf in the whole world. Now come on, I need to talk to you.

Okay. You wanna play hide and seek, I'll play. I've got all the time in the world, but when I find you, you will sit still. Seriously, we need to talk.

Leeee -aaaahhh. Beloved Alllll-phaaaa here. Good old buddy Jaaaake. I can hear you not hearing meeeeee...

Please Lee, don't make me go all Alpha on you.

I knew he wouldn't do the Alpha thing to me. Before I left, he promised he wouldn't and even as I could hear and feel his frustration growing, he kept his promise.

Turns out, I should have made him promise not to sing at me, too.

It started with an evil sounding giggle. Then loud and clear the song that still haunts me to this day began echoing in my head...

Who let the dogs out?
Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!
Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!
Who let the dogs out?
Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!
Who let the dogs out?
Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!
Who let the dogs out?
Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!

It was all I could do to not laugh and give myself away when he did the first woofs.

Having heard no music, even in my own mind, for so many years, by the third set of woofs, I was tempted to sing along with him just for fun.

...And everybody was havin' a ball
Yippie yi yo
And then fellas started in howlin', yea
Yippie yi yo
And the girls respond to the howl...

By the end of the second time he'd sang it through... I was pretty much over it.

...Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!
I see ya' little speed boat head up our coast
She really want to skip town
Get back off me, beast off me
Get back you flea infested mongrel
Gonna tell myself, "Hey, man, no get angry"
Yippie yi yo
I'm gonna tell
Yippie yi yo...

I can not even begin to describe how incredibly annoying both the voice and the song became after the next few dozen times he sang it. Or how, eventually, it became laughable in an asininely-irritating way.

...Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!
Say, a doggy is nuttin' if he don't have a bone
All doggy, hold ya' bone, all doggy, hold it
A doggy is nuttin' if he don' have a bone
All doggy, hold ya' bone, all doggy, hold it
Who let the dogs out?
Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!
Who let the dogs out?
Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!
Who let the dogs out?

Then something sort of snapped. It wasn't just the singing. I was done. Done playing whatever game I'd roped myself into as we ran mile after mile. Done feeling whatever it was that I was feeling. Done. Just done. I tried to block him out. I tried to think of anything else. I tried to not think, or listen, but quickly found out that it obviously wasn't working. He overheard my non-thought thoughts so the singing stopped and he started happily chatting at me again.

No? Really? 493 words in that song? That's pretty cool and I sound good! Maybe, I could make a little money. You know, on the side, singing? I'll call myself MC Woofman. Nah... MC Wolfy? Eh... Hey, maybe just The Wolfman? No, there was already one of those wasn't there... I'll have to think about it. Who let the dogs out? Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof...

I started to put together a crack about calling himself MC Yammer, but stopped. Just not in time.

Ouch... Leah that's not nice. But hey, at least you're talking. Happy face. Happy face. You know, like texting?

He paused to see if I'd really broken my silence and when he realized I hadn't he went right back to singing.

In that moment I instantly and instinctively knew that the only way I was ever going to get him to leave me alone was to turn back into myself. My real self. My self that had no need for the words taking up space in my thoughts. I needed to find that place in my head that I'd been living that didn't need to use or think in words – where I ran through the reaches of time and space unattached to the old me, the pack or anything else. The me that lived in the moment, content with being content. I needed to let go of everything I was feeling, good and bad, and just be.

I took a couple more steps and with a tiny, mental push let myself fall back into the place I had been living for so long now.

Though I continued to leave Jacob far behind, I let go of running from him. Forgetting the reason, I just let the exhilaration of running at top speed flow through me. The sun moved across the sky, turning the shadows long and the air cooler as it rippled through my fur. My feet made easy contact with the ground before quickly deserting it again. I soared over meadows and through thick forests. My mind comfortably going back to being my mind. Quick and quiet, in its silent roar forward.

Coming to the edge of another canyon, I didn't think of how or where I would cross. I could smell my future dinner below. My body's need for food bringing me along - Riding shotgun for the hunt.

My body knew what to do. Carrying me on silent pads it crossed the cold ground. Muscles drawing taut against bone, then tethering almost painfully tight in tense sinew: Flesh hardening to a pliable stone, skin shrinking, fur lying in a silken vice. Electrical aura wrapping in upon itself, until I was tucked safely away and little more than any other gray shadow gliding across the scenery. Appearing to even the wary as nonthreatening as any of the waning sun's play of light as it fell between the barky legs of the living giants, stone and earth.

Windy paws blow through patches of grass and across the conifer's fallen needles, making no more sound in their momentary purchase than a fallen feather from one of the now silent observers above. Sparkling wetness radiates from alert predatory eyes. Glinting in anticipation, but drawing no more attention than the erratically drifting dust motes catching a ride on a shimmering ray of lazy light. A calm heartbeat of starts and stops slide the shadow towards the big lone caribou buck as he carelessly picks his way across the open meadow, selecting only the tenderest blades to plump his already sated belly.

Like the forced compression of springs, joints fold to grip the ground before releasing the pent energy that transforms the shadow into a fantastic explosion of fur and fury. Propelling the raging hunger half the distance in a single bound - the fierce kinetic bounce delivered the sharp snap of teeth and death to the buck's deflating form.

Instantly passing from this plane to the next, the buck's great spirit is left unstained by feelings of fear or sorrow. His life slipped easily from the confines of his existence and shimmered away with the breeze.

Instinctively grateful for the promising warmth of the nourishment at her feet, respectful eyes watch the shimmering form as it disappears into the tree-line. Then, for a moment, turn skyward in thanks before bowing to begin the feast...

Oh my God... That was incredible... Jacob's reverent whisper touched me gently.

The big russet wolf stood far back in the dark of the treeline, with wide watching eyes and his mouth agape.

I've never seen anything like that, Leah.

The voice in my head caught a little as he tried to string together words to adequately describe what he had just witnessed. Finally giving up, he replayed my hunt, moment by moment, so I could see the power, reverence and elegant beauty of nature in an act that, through human eyes, would be simply brutal. It touched him so deeply that his feelings brought tears to my eyes.

I blinked back the tears and, knowing that nothing would ever be the same, tossed my head in a motion for him to come closer.

I'm sorry, Lee... If I'd known it was like that for you I don't know if I would have – could have come for you...

He shuddered, slowly choosing his words and carefully stepping towards me like he was approaching a wild animal.

I think I had one of those out-of-body experiences – or whatever you call it when you see yourself doing what you're doing, but from a completely different perspective, as I watched a raggedy looking, horse sized, russet wolf walking towards a much smaller female with his tail and ears lowered in submission.

A few heartbeats passed before I broke the silence.

You look thin Jake. Come eat with me.