I sit awake that night, running through everything I knew about the myths.
Around two in the morning my phone lit up with a text.
Sorry.
It was from Embry.
For what?
Not telling you.
Sam told you not to, right?
Yeah.
Sam's Alpha, right?
Yeah.
Then you're excused for not telling me you were a dog.
Wolf!
Same thing.
No it's not.
Canis Lupus.
I'm starting to think you're just doing this to annoy me.
Really?
...
Because I totally am.
...
Hey, you didn't tell me you were a DOG I think I get ten minutes to torment you.
Point taken.
So... I have ten minutes?
Knock yourself out.
I can't believe you.
Believe it.
Dude! How could you not tell me you were a freaking DOG.
Because I'm not.
Oh, my bad. F***ing wolf.
Did you seriously just bleep yourself out.
Yeah! Live with it!
I will.
I hate you!
You have good reason.
Yeah! I do!
You done.
Yeah. I guess.
Good. Meet me at the beach tomorrow?
You'll explain?
Gladly.
Sure. After school?
No, this takes a LOT of explaining.
When?
7?
During school?
You wanted to meet the pack?
During school?
Come on. You could use a break anyways. I talked to Sam. Had to be during the day though.
Fine.
On the cliff?
No.
I swear, you don't have to go diving.
Don't care.
Log?
Sure thing.
The next day I took my mom's car as usual. She worked from home and rarely needed the car during the day and if she dud she would just srop me off at school that day. Instead of driving myself to school, I went down to the beach and walked out to the log. Embry was already there, along with Leah, Jacob, and the rest of their friends standing around near the log.
"Parker, this is the pack. You know Leah, and Jacob, Paul and Jared. This is Seth and Sam and Quill."
Seth is very young. Maybe 13 or 14. Sam is by far the oldest, appearing to be in his early twenties. And Quill looked about our age, but I didn't really recognize him. I'd seen him around school before, but never with Embry's group. He was smiling and looking back and forth between Jacob and Embry.
"First thing's first, you can't tell anyone. No one. Not your mother. Not your friends. No one." Sam says.
I nod and glance between them and notice what makes Leah stick out. She's the only girl. I guess she must be like me, just a friend or something, because I distinctly remember it saying that it was only the sons who phased.
"You're welcome to come to the bonfire tonight. It'll be Quill and Seth's first time too. From what Embry tells me, you already know an awful lot about us?"
I shrug.
"She know's pretty much the whole legend. Basically what they say at the bonfire." Embry says.
"Nice going Embry! How the hell did you get around Sam's gag order anyways? I mean, you never even thought about it. What did you do?" Leah asks, clapping him on the back.
"Nothing." He says.
Sam glares at him, as if daring him to spill.
"Seriously. I didn't tell her anything. She figured it out by herself."
"Oh, so she just guessed you were a wolf."
"Actually, dog. She guessed dog."
Leah quirks an eyebrow. "Dog? She thought you were a dog? Dude, that is't the same thing. Some one calls you a dog and they mean that you-"
"She pieced it together when Quill decided it would be a great idea to run out in front of her car." He cuts her off.
"Dude. Way not my fault. I was freaking out. I just turned into a wolf, I could hear what you were thinking, and I had a pack chasing me."
"So you run in front of a car?"
"Man, lay off."
"Even Seth took it better than you!"
"No, but from what I heard, he did go and cower in the woods for a week staring at his paws."
The youngest one grits his teeth and Leah kicks Quill in the groin. Hard.
"Shit! What the hell did I do?" Quill shouts.
"Lay off!" The shouts back, elbowing him in the stomach.
He doubles over she sends her shoulder into his nose as he does so.
"Leah!" Sam shouts, grabbing her by the shoulder.
He re-positions so that his arms are looped through her arm pits, rendering her upper body useless.
"Dammit Leah!" Quill shouts, pulling at his broken nose and straightening it.
She flares up again and kicks out, landing a foot in a solid blow to his neck. He chokes and stumbles backward.
"Leah! Back off!" Sam shouts, shoving her back at the log.
"I can take care of myself." Seth whispers through still gritted teeth. "Just leave it alone."
"The fact that you think so proves you need a babysitter." She mutters.
She lets out a breath and sits down on the log, Sam glaring at her the whole time.
"Well if you would say something to the dick-" She begins.
"LEAH!" Sam shouts, even louder than before. "It's my pack. I decide what goes. And until you can take care of your self, I suggest that you shut the hell up because all you're proving right now is that you are the one who need the babysitter. "
She spits onto the sand next to the log and glares at him.
"Sam actually said something to her." Jared taunts.
Leah jabs her heel into his gut.
"Damn." Jared whispers, holding his stomach momentarily, looking up at Sam, as if waiting for him shout at her or something.
"You deserved it." Is all he says.
"I knew it." Jared whispers under his breath, shaking his head and smirking. "Couldn't ever stand to tell her no. Especially after Emi-"
Leah kicks him again in the exact same spot.
Sam ignores it.
"We'll be right back." He says.
All of them, save Leah, run off into the woods, shoving each other every now and then.
A few seconds later, Leah leans towards the woods, listening, then begins to strip. I look away, not sure what she was doing, though it was clear a few seconds later when she phased.
My eyes bugged and she shook with what I took as laughter.
You thought it was just the guys? She writes in the sand, struggling with using a claw to write.
I nod and she sits next to the log.
Within a few seconds of her sitting down, seven more huge wolves file out of the woods.
The largest one is in the front, presumably Sam, and the rest follow. The black one that I assume is Embry comes over next to the log and lays it's head down next to where I am seated.
The smallest one, a sandy colored, gangly looking wolf, sits next to Leah, and the rest fill in around us, Sam taking a spot in the front.
He looks at Emby, who lifts his head off the log and stares straight at him. After a moment of this he runs off into the wood, then emerges again in his human form.
"Sorry about that. I was under the impression that Sam was making the introductions. This is Sam, Paul, Quill, Seth, Jacob, and Jared." He lists, pointing to each one respectively. Jared has taken a position as far away from Leah as possible. She snarls and snaps her teeth.
"And Leah. Don't forget Leah." He says, just like the first time I met his friends, the same over exalted grin over his face.
Okay. I type into my phone. Tilting the screen towards him. What's up with Leah and Seth?
"Seth's her little brother."
Oh. I thought only the sons phased?
"Yeah, well so did we. Leah is the first daughter."
What's between her and Sam?
He looks to Sam, who growls, the turns off to the cliffs, the rest of the pack running after him. Except Leah.
"Leah, go." Embry says. She growls and walks up to him, breathing out and plopping down onto the sand. "And you wonder why you're last in command." He hisses.
She bars her teeth.
"You won't."
She sticks her head out, as if to say, I dare you.
He turns around, she growls once again and phases back into a human.
"Damn Leah!" He mutters under his breath.
"I thought so." She chuckles, pulling her cropped top over her head. "If any one is talking about me, it's going to be me."
He grits his teeth and turns back around.
"Just get me when you're done. I'll be diving with the guys."
"You honestly think I'm going on that cliff with them?"
"Fine, just phase and you can run off or whatever. But come get me when you're done."
"I don't run off."
"Well you sure do leave. Even Seth sticks around."
"Why the hell is it always 'Even Seth can do that' or 'Even Seth could have done that' huh? Because considering the fact that my baby brother is ranked higher than I am, I wouldn't be surprised if behind my back that turned into 'Even Leah'! Does it? Why don't you tell me? Eh? But you wouldn't say any thing to my face, none of you would. None of you ever would, because you're all freaking cowards! You're all just a bunch of freaking cowards!" She screams after him as he walks off. "Just a bunch of damned cowards."
"That isn't why we don't talk bad about you to your face."
"Oh yeah? 'Cuz I think it is? What else would it be?"
He continues on walking off towards the cliff, ignoring Leah's shouting.
We sit in silence for a few minutes before she turns to me.
"Sam and I used to go out. In high school. When he met Emily, he imprinted and... well.. yeah. He left me. Later when I phased and they could hear my thoughts... it just got that much worse. I couldn't stay with my old friends, and they won't ever look at me as just one of the guys. I'm stuck in the middle, only in an absolutely terrible way. And I'm never going to imprint. The reason they imprint is to create the best offspring for... well... killing vampires. We don't age. We don't change. I can't get pregnant. I can't have kids. I can't imprint. I don't blame Sam. I really don't. It's just that... well. I'm never going to be like the others in the pack. I'm never going to be like anyone else either. I'm never going to be like anyone or anything and I'll never be relatively normal or similar or the same as anyone and they are never going to be the same as me and there will never be anyone who... who... who..."
She shuts her eyes and sighs.
"I'm sorry. I just. Well. This wasn't supposed to happen to me. Seth either. Seth's so young. He's only fourteen. He's the youngest, so far at least."
You have every right in the world to be pissed at the universe. I type.
She chuckles and draw designs in the sand with her feet for a bit. When a minute or two had passed she looked up.
"Let's just say that being unwanted isn't exactly a new thing for me." She whispered to the horizon.
That very moment the howl of a wolf echoed through the air as one of the tall, thin frames of a shape-shifter was hurled off the cliff. As he emerged from the water and swam to the shore it became apparent that it was Seth, and that the entire left side of his body was bright red from the impact to the water.
"Told 'em he needed a baby sitter." She whispers to herself in what is the closest thing to a loving tone I have ever heard her use.
AN: Whatchya think? The Clearwaters have grown on me. I like Leah and love Seth. I'm considering giving them an outtake. Tell me what you think :)