AN: I'm having such a great time writing this story! Thanks again to all the people who continue to read, favorite, alert and review my tale. You make me smile when I'm having a rough day and I really needed that a couple times this week. As always, special thanks to Lita of Jupiter the best beta in the world and my honorary triplet (I already have a twin.) First chapter review shout out to Thinker320 and thanks to all my reviewers: nakala, and the tree was happy, 45JacobandAlex45, hgmsnoopy, PeggyMarie, Jada91, Black-Luna, Inosolan (sorry about getting your name wrong),Babaksmiles, Azrael Aria, brankel1, PopcornGirl-Eva, Karamelkat, the original bitch, MissGracieKathy,TheRYU, Jessica-semnadaprafaze123, lady555, and Twisted Happy Ending. Remember, reviews are love, and love makes the world go round.
Disclaimer: I still don't own Twilight, I just like to play in the dark :)
In the week since Leah had informed her family of her pregnancy, Seth had taken to checking on her as often as he could. The last thing he did before he left home and the first thing he did when he returned was to make sure she was okay. Every time he passed her room, he would glance in, careful not to wake her if she was asleep, but needing to make sure that she was safe. As Seth made his way to the bathroom, he paused, sensing that something was amiss. For a moment he was unsure why alarm bells were suddenly clamoring in his head, then it hit him. The house was too quiet. In the stillness of the pre dawn hour, Seth could hear only one other heartbeat beside his own. With a terrible sense of foreboding he rushed to Leah's room and yanked open the door, almost pulling it off the hinges in his haste. Sure enough the bed was empty and Leah was gone.
Seth allowed himself one moment of mindless panic before he exploded into action. He raced from the house, not bothering to strip before he phased on the fly, howling as he took off in the direction of the Black home.
The frantic pounding on Jacob's front door probably woke a couple of his neighbors as well as Billy, but Seth didn't care. Billy would understand about pack business and the rest of the Rez was remarkably good at looking the other way when strange things happened. He thanked his lucky stars that, for whatever reason, Jake was on the Rez tonight instead of babysitting his imprint at the Cullens. He would have hated to go to Sam for help, but he would have had to if his Alpha was unavailable. Jake opened the door wearing only a pair of shorts and a furious expression.
"What the hell, Seth? Are you crazy? It's like three in the morning, man!"
"Leah's gone, Jake! Her scent went into the woods and I need help to cover more ground."
Jake pulled the door closed behind him as he stepped out into the darkness. There was no question whatsoever that he would help with the search. Yes, he was the alpha of their little pack but, more importantly, Leah was in trouble and therefore he needed no further explanation and would do whatever was necessary to help her.
"I'll take the Northern woods, near the Cullens, you take the section nearer the Rez..."
"What's going on? I heard you howling."
Jacob cursed silently as he and Seth turned to find Sam looking at them expectantly.
He exchanged a look with his pack brother. Even though they both knew Leah wasn't eager for Sam or his pack to find out about her baby, another searcher meant she'd be found sooner, before anything could happen to her or her baby. She would just have to understand. At a nod from Seth, Jacob decided to give Sam only the barest of details.
"You might have noticed that Leah's been kind of a hermit lately, well she's... uh... going through some things, hasn't been feeling well and now she's disappeared from the house so we're a little concerned."
Sam nodded in understanding. Regardless of how things had ended between them, everyone knew he still felt responsible for Leah and cared for her.
"Where do you need me to search?"
In the La Push Woods
Although the seizure lasted only a couple of minutes, for Demetri it was a lifetime. In those seemingly endless seconds, he experienced terror and helplessness that he had not felt since the night of his transformation. As he held Leah in his arms, waiting for her spasmodic movements to cease, he gazed down at her body. She was wearing only a blood drenched nightshirt that clung to every curve and revealed smooth, bare flesh to his hungry gaze. His eyes had not been deceiving him earlier. Her face, still the loveliest thing he had ever seen, was definitely paler and slimmer; her hair was longer, falling just past her shoulders now and, more importantly, she was undeniably bearing a child.
The vampire could not control the low growl when he considered how this female had occupied his every thought for the last four months. Venom burned his throat like acid as he visualized what she had obviously been doing while he had been mooning over her (oh the irony) like a lovesick puppy. Demetri forced away the images of his lupa with another man before his temper got the best of him and he crushed her fragile body with his bare hands. God knows he wanted to destroy her. He yearned to bite into that slender, delicate neck and drain her until her traitorous heart was still. But, even now, something within him rebelled at the thought of allowing any harm to befall the woman in his arms, even if the sight of her, round with another man's child was breaking his heart. He remembered the last time he had seen her, touched her...and he wanted to touch her again, despite the obvious evidence of her betrayal.
After an eternity, Leah's movements stilled, but she remained unconscious. Without any hesitation, Demetri rose to his feet and started running.
As he ran with Leah held close to his silent heart, he knew he should take this opportunity to spirit her away to Volterra. He could say with absolute certainty that there was nothing Aro wanted to possess more than the only known female shapeshifter. As much as the Volturi leader desired the power wielded by Edward and Alice Cullen, they were nothing in comparison to a being as unique as a breeding shapeshifter with the potential to create an army of wolves. Wolves which could be trained to be completely loyal to Aro. Wolves which, at Aro's slightest whim, would be unleashed upon the enemies of the Volturi. It would be so easy too. Once he got to the airport under the cover of night, the coven's private jet would be waiting and within hours he could proffer Leah to Aro like a Christmas present. So easy. It was the very least she deserved after betraying him with some mortal, probably one of those filthy canines! Yet Demetri did not head toward the airport. In under a minute he was standing at the end of the Cullen's driveway. He knew that he could still turn back and take the she-wolf to Aro, but again something stopped him, rebelled at the thought. He glanced down at Leah's motionless body and, almost imperceptibly, tightened his hold on her.
Alice opened the door and just stared at the Volturi tracker and the wolf in his arms with a mixture of surprise and resignation. Demetri guessed that surprise was not an emotion the psychic vampire was familiar with and a part of him wondered if he was not the only vampire to whom Leah was invisible.
"Well, well, Demetri, I didn't believe it when I saw it and I certainly didn't understand it but here you are. Here you both are."
Demetri's ability told him that Carlisle was in an upstairs room with Esme so he shouldered his way past Alice and stood at the bottom of the stairs. His shout would have woken the dead.
"Carlisle Cullen! Get down here!"
The doctor and his wife appeared within seconds of Demetri's bellowed demand and were immediately by his side. Esme took one glance at Leah and rushed ahead to the hospital room that had been set up for Bella. Carlisle frowned slightly as the crimson eyed vampire instantly turned and followed Esme without showing any inclination to release the woman in his arms. Once they got to the room he very reluctantly, and surprisingly gently, placed the she wolf on the bed but only stepped back far enough for Carlisle to get to her side.
"What happened?"
Demetri couldn't take his eyes off Leah as he answered.
"I found her a few minutes ago. She had a seizure."
Esme couldn't hold her tongue anymore. As she drew blood from Leah's limp arm, she glared at Demetri. The expression was rare on the vampire known for her loving, and gentle nature. Rare except for times when her motherly nature reacted to a perceived threat to those she considered her own.
"What did you do to her? Why is she covered in blood? Why is she dressed like this? If she catches pneumonia..."
Demetri completely ignored the vampiress as he continued to watch every move Carlisle made.
"What's wrong with her? Shouldn't she have regained consciousness by now? To hear Caius tell it, these wolves are practically indestructible."
The doctor opened Leah's shirt and paused for a split second before proceeding to listen to her heartbeat. Then he took the blood vial from his mate and examined it under the microscope that was beside the bed. After only a few seconds, he turned to Demetri to obtain answers.
"What was she doing right before the seizure?"
The tracker remembered the moment he had come upon Leah in the woods. She had been standing above the corpse of a bear, he had smelt the scent of blood and been concerned for her safety...only to realize that none of the blood had been hers. Yet, she had been covered with it.
"She was standing over a dead bear when I saw her. A couple minutes later she had the attack."
Carlisle glanced back at Leah and his frown deepened as he bent over her, lifted a chain off her neck and turned to dangle it before Demetri's eyes.
"Why is she wearing a Volturi ring?"
Demetri stared at the ring he had given to his Leah just before he left her that morning several months ago. He had wanted so badly to take her with him and just get away from everything: the wolves, the Volturi and the Cullens. Nevertheless, he had been alive for far too long and seen too much of life to think it could ever be that easy. Aro would have hunted them to the ends of the earth, and realistically, he doubted she would have been able to live with his preferred diet. So, he had walked away from her and tried to bury her memory and ignore the strange need to be near her. However, even though he knew he was doing what was best for both of them, a selfish part of him did not want Leah to forget him. So he had given her his ring.
"What does that have to do with anything?" He replied without answering the question, not about to explain himself.
Carlisle pocketed the ring and its chain.
"Maybe nothing, maybe everything."
He turned to Esme.
"Darling, please call Alice and have her help you get Leah cleaned up and into warm clothes. When Leah's comfortable, give her mother and brother a call so they won't be worried if they notice she's gone. I need to speak with Demetri, privately."
The vampire very reluctantly followed Carlisle into his study but refused to take the seat the doctor offered him. He could not sit because he needed to be near Leah. The only reason he was able to let her out of his sight was because he could still hear the steady beat of her heart in the next room. Carlisle sat behind the desk and picked up some papers, Demetri kept glancing towards the door.
"I've been treating Leah, sporadically, for a couple months now, Demetri. I had assumed any...irregularities in her pregnancy were a result of the fact that she's a werewolf."
The other remained silent, so Carlisle continued.
"From what I was able to determine, it has been a mostly a normal pregnancy, except that her core body temperature has been steadily dropping. She has also experienced a lack of appetite and trouble digesting the food she was able to consume. However, I wasn't overly concerned since she is a werewolf, the only one of her kind."
Demetri growled impatiently. He wanted to get back to Leah and he definitely did not wish to hear about her child. The doctor ignored his obvious impatience and carried on speaking.
"I noticed something odd in her blood tests last week, but it was so minor that I didn't give it much thought. There was a trace, an almost infinitesimal amount of vampire venom in her bloodstream."
Demetri's crimson eyes immediately clashed with Carlisle's golden ones. Suddenly the doctor had his complete attention as he continued speaking.
"Tonight, when you brought her in, the level of venom in her blood was extremely high. That is what caused the seizure."
When the tracker remained silent, the doctor sighed and continued.
"So you tell me, Demetri. How did Leah get all that venom in her system? There were no marks on her body that I could see, so I know you didn't bite her..."
He took the chain with the ring out of his pocket and placed it on the desk between them.
"In fact, you were so concerned that you brought her here for help instead of delivering her to my old friend Aro. And let us not forget, she was wearing this ring, this symbol of the Volturi who came here, four months ago, to kill us all."
Carlisle rose and went to stand by the window, holding several papers he had taken from his desk. The other vampire's unblinking gaze following his every movement.
"Allow me to share my theory, Demetri. I think that you and Leah ..."
He cleared his throat and threw a glance at the Volturi Guard who remained silent and impassive.
"were intimate ... and that Leah now carries a vampire wolf hybrid. Fortunately, the child has been developing at a normal rate so the side effects were originally minimal. In addition, her werewolf body, thankfully, is much more robust than a frail human one."
Carlisle started leafing through the papers in his hands, seemingly concentrating on them.
"Unfortunately, as the child continues to develop, Leah's body is unable to sustain him because of his vampiric nature. The last time she was here she admitted to drinking animal blood. It probably wasn't enough to give the child any true strength."
Carlisle frowned down at the test results in front of him.
"Today, and again I am just theorizing based on the condition you found her in, today Leah ingested enough blood for her child to become vibrant. Unfortunately, his stronger vampire physiology began pumping venom into her bloodstream..."
He was interrupted as Alice rushed in the room.
"Carlisle! You better cut this little discussion short. There are three werewolves in the front yard and they're pissed as hell."
The doctor knew it was only the fact that he had previously treated Leah that stopped Jacob and Seth from breaking the door down to get to her. As he walked outside with Esme and Alice, he heard as much from Jacob.
"Sam! Regardless of the fact that there is an unknown vampire whose scent was in the same area as hers in there, none of the Cullens would allow her to be hurt."
"I want to see her!"
Seth growled at that and Jacob spoke quickly before the situation escalated.
"Thanks for your help, Sam, but I'm sure you'll understand that you're not Leah's favorite person so..."
Seth interrupted.
"So you don't have the right to make any demands and you need to leave before she realizes you're here and you piss her off!"
The listening vampires barely controlled their mirth. As serious as the situation was, it was certainly amusing to see the laid-back Seth so blunt.
Sam sighed but nodded at Jacob.
"I would appreciate it, Jacob, if you would keep me informed. You know I care about her."
With that, he phased and ran into the woods.
The Cullen patriarch threw a couple pairs of shorts at both wolves as they ascended the stairs. Alice had started buying them when Bella was carrying Renesmee. She had found that werewolf werewolf tempers ran high and would often result in the demise of two or three pairs of shorts in one day. Not surprisingly, Seth was the first at his side.
"Where's my sister? Why did she come here? Is it the baby..."
Jacob cut him off with a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Seth, I'm sure he will tell us everything when we get in the house and see Leah. Come on, let's not do this outside."
As soon as the Cullens left to confront the wolves, Demetri returned to Leah's side. He did not want to but he was drawn there, he couldn't stay away. What Carlisle had suggested... that in the one incredible time they had been together he might actually have fathered a child with his Lupa ... It was too impossible to consider. Yet a tiny part of him wouldn't stop thinking about it, hoping that she had not betrayed him and that no other man had touched her.
Leah was still unconscious when he entered the room, the machines she was hooked up to were beeping softly, accompanying the thump of two distinct heartbeats. He stood at her side and looked down at the pale face then allowed his gaze to drift to the gentle swell of her belly. Hesitantly his hand crept forward until it rested, so very lightly, on the mound where her child lay. Just as he was about to pull his hand away he felt a strong movement. His eyes widened with shock and he was in the process of moving closer when he heard a deep, angry growl behind him.
"You have two seconds to get the fuck away from sister!"
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