Christy brought Bella blankets for the couch, and then sat down on it next to her. "Are you okay?" She asked softly, but it was obvious they'd have no privacy now. Most of the Denali's had left to hunt, but not all of them.

"You're going through so much to keep me safe." Bella spoke slowly.

"You're worth it." Christy smiled gently at her, "It isn't like I don't come with baggage, sure, you have a vengeful vampire after you, but really, what's that, it's nothing." Bella gave her a weak smile and Christy spoke more seriously. "I will do anything for the people I care about, and what I need to do for you is in no way the hardest I've ever had to deal with."

"They left me to this. You said I had to try and kill myself to get them back." Bella took a shaky breath. "I don't know that I want them back if that's what it took to get them here. I had to have been a mess, I was a mess before you came, and my pain wasn't enough to bring them back. They were going to let me live with that."

"They were stupid, very stupid." Christy agreed. "Personally I blame him for most of it. He sees into their heads and he manipulated them into agreeing to things they didn't want to agree to, because he was convinced he knew best, and they have some stupid idea that he had the right to make decisions for you, and that they owed him something for their own mistakes in the past. To me that says he played them, and he didn't hold back. Still, they deserve some blame, in my opinion." Christy almost expected tears, but there was just a grimace. "I'll do my best to not make your decisions, but to make sure you always have what you need to make your own. If you chose wrong, it's still your choice to make, and I'll support it."

"God, why couldn't you be Edward?" Bella said bitterly. "You wouldn't have abandoned me like this, for my own good. I'm sure he did it for my own good, without ever asking what I wanted, without even considering it."

"I can't be your Edward anymore, my shapeshifting power is gone." She smiled at Bella. "But if you decide you want a Christy instead, just ask me out." She teased.

Bella's eyes widened. "You were a shapeshifter, like," Bella's lips moved exaggeratedly as she put no sound to the last word, "Mystique?"

"That's why we became partners, no one else could follow her anywhere." Christy moved to sit back on the couch, partly laying actually. "And yes, I could have taken a man's shape and did before, but those days are over. This body is too hard, it doesn't change."

"Wow, and I thought meeting vampires was strange." Bella said but then gave Christy a hint of a smile.

"Come here, let me keep you cold." Christy smirked as she pulled Bella into her arms, so that Bella was partly laying on her. "I'm going to want to keep you close until this is dealt with, but please tell me if I'm getting annoying." Christy softly into Bella's ear, and stared over her shoulder at the fire. "I don't want you to feel like you're imprisoned, just protected." Christy remembered how Edward had dealt with this and she wasn't going to make those mistakes.

"Are you like Mystique in other ways?" Bella asked after adjusting to the new position, her voice slightly confused.

"What do you mean?"

"You said she was a lesbian." Bella whispered, and Christy took notice of the position she had Bella in finally. It was far too intimate, but Christy hadn't thought twice about doing it.

"Is this not okay, because I don't mean to make you uncomfortable." Christy spoke seriously and started to move her arms, which had been holding Bella comfortably.

"No, no, this is fine." Bella grabbed the arms Christy was moving and tugged a little as if trying to put them back, so Christy did that. "I just wondered."

"Oh, well, yeah." Christy admitted, and Bella's heart didn't beat faster and she didn't pull away.

"So I guess you two?"

"Yeah, we did." Christy smiled just a little, as Bella moved to sit up and face her. There was no disgust, no judgment and Christy, seeing that missing, was a little amused by the curiosity in Bella's eyes. "Friends, good, close friends, with benefits. I wouldn't have left a true partner behind when I left, I would have either fought harder to stay or taken her with me. No she was starting to fall in love with someone else and our 'with benefits' were on the out."

Bella frowned a little. "Of course you wouldn't pull an Edward and disappear."

"Never." Christy spoke firmly, making sure Bella understood she did not agree with him in any way.

"She was stupid not to snatch you up, no one would have been better." Bella muttered the compliment under her breath and Christy squeezed Bella's hand in appreciation.

"Thanks" Christy could see Bella was tired. "Did you want to just go to bed? It's been a hell of a day." Christy started to get up off of Bella's make shift bed when Bella's eyes looked even more tired at the mention of sleep.

"Can you stay? I'm sure I'll have nightmares after today," Bella's words trailed off. "I don't want to be alone."

"I wasn't going to leave you. I gave my bedroom up to Tanya, I was really hoping you'd share tonight." Christy spoke gently. "Regardless of what I may have done in the past, I do prefer to at least know the people I sleep with." She teased.

"You don't sleep." Bella smiled.

"Exactly."

Christy could hear Tanya chuckle from the room she'd given up. Tanya had been the one already hunting when the day started and was the one that didn't need to now.

Bella took a while to fall asleep, but she did. Christy had a Harry Potter book in her hand and was reading it by the light from the fire, as she sat on the loveseat in full view of the couch should Bella open her eyes. She could hear Tanya coming down the stairs at a slow human pace, and looked up to see the blonde glancing at Bella on the couch before stepping into the room. "You two sound very close." Tanya spoke quietly, clearly keeping Bella's sleeping in mind.

"We were both alone. She has a dad she lives with, but they aren't close. Her mother isn't close either, even though Bella will claim they are, they aren't. She had no one to turn to, and even if she were close with someone she couldn't tell anyone anything without editing it to pieces." Christy studied the sleeping girl. "And I was alone, all alone, again. Starting up in a new world is hard." Her eyes moved back to Tanya. "How close was Irina to Laurent?" She finally asked, they were alone after all.

"He was charming." Tanya sighed and looked at the fire they'd used to kill him. "And she tends to jump into things fully once she finally commits. It took some work to get through to her, but he put in the time and it seemed like she was going to finally have a mate. We've all be disappointed over the years, we've been alive long enough to play house with the wrong one a few times before having it fall apart, but we always hope." Her golden eyes moved back to Christy. "When we switched our diet to animals, it made meeting possible mates a bit harder. Not many vampires will understand, it seems like we're judging if we don't eat the way they do, or they like to share the thrill of the hunt, but moose or bear aren't what they are after. He said he was willing to change, that was a first and so his slips ups and accidents were just considered part of learning control, I never noticed how carefully he worded things, I didn't want to look too hard, I didn't want to find something I'd have to tell her about."

"People in love rarely listen when you tell them something isn't right." Christy spoke softly. "So you have to bite your tongue and just wait for the pain to hit them, for them to have to see. That is hard." Christy was thinking of Bella in that moment. Edward would come back and it was going to be a hard battle not to point out his flaws, to demand Bella deserves better. She was going to have to learn to stand aside and hope she'd instilled enough self-confidence and strength into Bella, given her enough chances to grow, that he wouldn't put her light out again.

"She'll be fine, in time. Being able to hear it from him, believing it, made a difference." Tanya leaned forward. "You made a difference, and I can't thank you enough for saving my sister. We will do what we can to spare your coven any losses as well."

"Christy, I don't want to eat lawyer, I'll get sick." Bella mumbled in her sleep and Christy turned to stare at the girl, who was sleep talking.

Tanya chuckled as Bella just tried to roll over, never waking, but on the couch she barely moved before she gave up.

"Okay, I'll try to remember not to feed her lawyer." Christy playfully grimaced and then shifted her attention to Tanya again.

"You will really let her live on our diet though?" Tanya asked after Bella didn't say anything more for another minute. "A diet you don't plan to switch to."

"If that's what she wants." Christy shrugged. "I just think I can do more good with my diet, and the animals have it bad enough with what the humans are doing to them, but not everyone can handle killing something that can talk back, even if they are soulless bastards. I don't expect she could live on my diet, it would bother her."

"I've never seen a mixed coven before, not on this issue."

"Well, we'll manage." Christy's voice went quieter. "If she stays with me, we'll manage. I'm not sure it will work if the Cullens are back though. I think they might try to make me change or drive me away. I can't say I'm eager to meet them now, she's all I have and they'll think they have a greater claim on her, even though they left."

"You told us not to tell anyone about her," Tanya motioned toward Bella, "but more help would only make this easier, and faster."

"If Bella says she wants them back, or if the situation gets so bad we need the numbers, we'll try to call them, but I will not bring them back before Bella is ready to deal with them. She was a mess when I found her," Christy looked at Bella as she said that. "You could just see she was disconnected, making the motions, but she was dying inside. He hit every one of her insecurities on his way out, all of her fears, and he did some of it on purpose to make it easier for him to leave her, easier on him. They let him hurt her." Christy heard the hint of a growl in her own voice. "I'm inclined to give her as much Cullen free time as I can, they don't respect her, they don't listen to her and I'm trying to make her strong enough to deal with that. If they come back too soon she'll become their doormat again."

"They loved her, they had to have in order to do all of this." Tanya protested.

Christy knew she needed Tanya's cooperation and she thought before she spoke. "Yes, they did love her, but they were smothering her with it. Especially him."

"You rarely say his name."

"She used to go catatonic when she heard it. I've learned not to say it. It breaks her a little more every time she hears one of their names. I'm surprised she got through tonight so well." Christy grimaced. "She'll have to see them again to finish healing, but she's barely scabbed over right now and I want to give her time to grow enough to deal with them. Once the Cullens are back they will object to me, and to the work we're doing to repair the damage they did. I'm having Bella make lot of decisions, having her plan out two lives, and making her chose the age she wants to be turned at. I want her to put a lot of thought into what being turned will mean to her before it happens, so that she doesn't regret it. I want her to wait, to choose an age that will give her the most opportunities to explore life fully. A teenager is too young, redoing high school forever would make existence monotonous, and if she were older she could explore careers, see the world, do so much more without having to build up a child's cover. HE is still a child, regardless of his age, and the repetitiveness of his life has never let him grow up. A grown up wouldn't have messed this relationship up this badly. I want more for her."

"You don't just mean a better life than the younger Cullens when you say that, you don't want her back with him." Tanya spoke slowly after a moment.

"The book that was written had her taking him back, and he was worse than before. Hell, he thought he knew better how to take care of a human than someone who was human would know. I don't believe he respected her at all, and she's not a child with unreasonable requests. If I had to trust either one of them to do the right thing it would be her, not him, and yet he doesn't listen to her." Christy's voice went quieter and she stared into Tanya's eyes. "He is emotionally abusive, and borders on verbally so with her. He thinks he is doing the right thing, it isn't hate that causes it, but I swear to god if I witness it I will make him pay. He ripped her down like this, you aren't even seeing the worst of it and I don't want him to do that to her again. She's capable of so much more and I love her, I can't let her be controlled by him."

"I didn't think he'd be that way." Tanya frowned. "But you aren't lying to me."

Christy gave a grim smile. "Is that a power you have, or experience?" She'd been forcing herself not to lie because Tanya was doing so well seeing through her, and so she needed to keep some trust there.

"Eleazer claims it's a power, but I have honed it with experience. I'm not sure my 'power' is working on either of you, but I've learned a lot about liars with my power and I can see lies even on TV now."

"Must make watching political debates hell then." Christy said to cover up her relief. If she needed to lie, she just needed to be perfect at it. It was hard, but she might have a shot at it.

Tanya laughed, "So true." Her smile faded to something more serious again. "Alice doesn't need to be told something to know it. She'll see this, I don't know why she hasn't yet, but she will see this. All of us here, at some point she'll look for one of us, and she'll come to see what's happening."

"I'm sure she will, but if we wait for her to come we might get more time."

"Edward isn't with them." Tanya told Christy something Christy was well aware of.

"I don't make decisions that affect her without her, and with Alice in the wings we don't make decisions too often that might draw her attention, so if you want me to agree to Cullen help, you need to ask in the morning, so she can be part of it." Christy hoped Bella was on the same page as her, that she'd put off calling the Cullens for a while. "I will not dictate to her what she can and cannot do if I can avoid it at all; I will not treat her like her opinion doesn't matter."

"Are you in love with her?" Tanya's question surprised Christy and she turned to stare with a little of that surprise on her face. "Some of how you talk to her, and what you want for her, it sounds a lot like love to me."

"She's still finding out who she really is. It's been buried by that asshole. Falling in love with her now wouldn't do either of us any good, and that's assuming she could love a woman."

"That was a very careful non-answer." Tanya pointed out.

"That's because I don't have an answer." Christy admitted. "Today, right now, no, but what I see emerging from her, the Bella she's becoming, I'm not willing to say never. I've turned down promising offers because the girl was too young before, and she turned into someone I could have loved, and also someone that was very committed to her lovers. I missed the boat there." Annie came to mind, not as the child she'd been when she'd asked Christy out, but the loyal and strong woman she'd become. "I'm not aging anymore and everyone is going to be too young. Still, I'll likely not get a chance to find out, because she's still so wrapped up in him and he will come back. He's doing all he can to stay away, the stupid child, he'll crack at some point."

"I see." Tanya frowned as she stared a little blankly at Bella's sleeping form.

Bella shifted and tugged the pillow closer to her face, her slight discontented moan escaped. "Don't leave me." Her words sounded pained and Christy got up from her loveseat and moved to Bella's side, putting her cold hand on Bella's cheek.

"I won't leave you." She told the girl, but she didn't expect it was going to help. It sounded too much like the Edward nightmares she'd read about.

"Christy stays." Bella whispered and Christy's eyes widened in surprise as the girl took her hand and held it, leaving Christy in an awkward pose above her. Christy moved around to the back of the couch, so it was a bit more natural and then looked up at Tanya, who was studying them.

"Are you honestly good at fighting?" Tanya asked her and it seemed an unusual question to ask at the moment.

"I've been trained by the best, and I was a spy in wartime. I have fought stronger and tougher and still won. Not little one on one matches, but real battles where someone can come at you from any side while you're busy with the one in front of you." She sighed. "This body is new to me though, and I need to train with someone that can fight back so I can learn what it can do. I've been training on my own."

"I can help you with that." Tanya offered and then looked down at the hand Bella had captured. "And you think the shifters will help?"

"I think I can talk them into it, but it might be an uneasy alliance, I'm not sure."

"Let's wait until you meet with the shifters before we go making any decisions." Tanya offered and Christy understood what she was saying. "To me it looks like you're getting somewhere with her, there is no need to introduce the ex-boyfriend into the equation." Tanya added her reason and Christy just nodded. Whatever Tanya thought didn't matter, as long as no one was calling Edward.

Tanya left them alone and Christy slowly got Bella to release her long enough to just get on the couch behind her and hold her. Perhaps she'd keep Bella's nightmares away.

Morning felt like an awkward morning after in the house, with vampires all over the house moving just a bit self consciously. It was learning to live with someone new in a new place. The power was still out and Tanya said twice she'd call Monday. Carmen offered to make Bella's breakfast over the fire, but there were no real groceries. They had breakfast bars. In seeking some normalcy, Christy offered to go out to the garage and practice tai chi with Bella, but even as Bella was accepting a noise drew Christy's attention to the front windows.

"Incoming." Kate muttered from her place in the chair.

"That's Leah's SUV." Christy spoke up and glanced at Bella.

"Hold on Seth, she's got to be home. Just hold on." Leah's voice reached her and Christy's eyes widened.

"Stay inside, at least until I tell them I'm not alone." Christy ordered as she looked at a few vampires, and she was out the door in no time at all.

"Christy, I think Seth's about to change." Leah yelled, and it must have been out of an opened window. Christy stood at the bottom of the stairs and waited for the SUV to finish coming down the driveway.

"Of course he is." Christy muttered, and then her voice rose. "Okay, don't get too close to either of them. A first time changing is traumatic and they are capable of doing damage before they even realize what is happening."

"Will you be okay?" Tanya stood in the doorway for a moment, looking at her.

"These kids trust me, I'll be fine. They don't know you." Christy explained, but she was guessing really. Tanya's frown proved she didn't believe her.

The SUV was kicking up dust as it came into sight, Christy ran toward the garage and waved with both hands in the air to get Leah's attention. The girl slammed on brakes just in time and tossed it in park before leaping out. "He's sweating and says he feels sick. Dad said that's a sign it's about to happen, and we don't have time to get home."

"It'll be okay." Christy reassured her and then moved to the other side of the vehicle. "Seth, I want to get you into the garage, into a larger space. I'll need to help you, because I can move fast enough to get out of your way if I need to. Leah can't." She stopped outside the passenger side window. "I won't hurt you Seth, but my scent is going to bother you." He had glistening skin from the sweat and he looked ill, but he nodded.

She moved as fast as she could and still be at a somewhat human speed, as she picked him up and just ran for the garage. Leah ran behind her. There was a bench in there and she sat him down on it and backed up. "Okay, so it's wolf day." She gave him a bit of a reassuring smile. "I'm glad you felt you could come here, it's not a good idea to wolf out when someone is driving, worse that talking on a cell phone, dealing with a wolf in the car."

"Funny." He croaked out. He was still sweating.

"If you like your shoes, you might want to kick them off." Christy told him and then looked over at a scared looking Leah. "It will be okay." She told her softly as Seth did kick his shoes off.

"Someone's here." Seth sounded puzzled as he looked toward the house.

"I have an animal drinking coven visiting now, and Bella's here." She admitted as gently as she could. "They are staying inside so that you aren't overwhelmed." She looked over at Leah. "We had some trouble last night and maybe after this we can talk about it."

"I don't care what Sam says, if you need our help you have it." Leah spoke, her voice shaky. "I wouldn't have known what to do today if you hadn't made sure we knew this was coming." Tears trailed down her cheeks, "He's my little brother."

"This is gonna be cool Leah, you'll see." He tried to reassure her. Since Christy couldn't get too close to him, she moved to Leah's side and pulled her into a hug.

"It will be okay. He's going to probably be the size of a horse so we can't be too close." Christy pulled back and looked at Leah, taking in her shiny eyes and her pained expression. "Are you doing okay? You might change with him."

"I feel a little sick, but it could just be the situation." Leah told her, and took a step back. "You are so nice, but you smell a bit too strongly."

"Yeah, you too." Christy gave her a small smile and stepped further back, giving both siblings enough room. The garage door was opened and it helped keep the air somewhat fresh if they weren't too close to each other.

"I don't want to be in Sam's pack." Leah whispered, her voice catching, after they waited a tense minute and nothing happened to Seth, he was just sitting there looking pale and miserable.

"If it were possible I would have taken wolves, you both, into my coven." Christy told them. "I would have been honored to have you, but the pack thing, as far as it sounded it was pretty absolute. It's not a choice we can make, but if it were I'd take you and spare you being a part of that one."

"It isn't fair!" Leah yelled, and it was sudden and loud. Christy watched her carefully, and could see a slight shine to her skin. "He broke my heart and now I have to obey him forever!" She started to cry. "It isn't fair."

Christy wanted to hug her, but given what she was seeing she couldn't get closer now. She gave Leah and then Seth a helpless look. "Yes, it is a really crappy situation."

"I won't let him order you around." Seth offered, but they all knew he wouldn't be able to stop it. "Why can't we be our own pack?" He asked weakly, after no one responded to his wish to protect her. It wasn't like Sam was a bad man, but he was her ex and the pack structure was bad enough without that.

Christy thought frantically about what she knew about the tribe, the wolves, and their history. "Jake was supposed to be the Alpha, but he decided not to be, and because of that he's just a part of the pack, and he has to obey Sam. He had a choice at one point to take over or not." With what was happening the shifters around her didn't catch that she hadn't been told that. She didn't have time to spin lies just yet, she'd come up with an excuse later. "Can you choose not to join? If you didn't need them to learn to be a wolf, or to deal with the shock of something strange happening to you, if you already knew, like you do, could you choose not to join? I could teach you to be a shapeshifter, it would be rocky, but I could do it."

"You want to be our Alpha." Seth started to grin, even as his body shook a bit more. "That would be wicked."

"I have experience with shapeshifters in a way, enough that I think I can help." Christy wanted them to believe that, and it was true, but it was a long story they didn't have time for now either. Christy was doing all she could to help, seeing how lost Leah was and how much she'd suffer. If there was a way out, they needed it.

"Or could you choose a different animal?" Christy was tossing out ideas hoping something stuck as they shifted for the first time. "Wolves are pack animals, but Jaguars aren't. It isn't that you are werewolves, that isn't it at all. You're spirit warriors, like your father said, and the wolf was the selected form, the key word being selected. You've spent your whole lives hearing how it was wolves that spirit warriors became, but that doesn't mean that is what you must be."

Seth was looking a bit worse, and the smell was increasing. "You might want to strip down to underwear, or you'll end up wearing smelly vampire clothes home, not a good idea for a brand new shifter." She told him. She looked over at Leah. "You too."

"I'm not sitting in a garage almost naked." She protested and Christy understood that.

"Can someone bring us two blankets?" She called out, a little louder. Then she moved a bit closer to the large doorway. "They won't hurt you, they are here to help with a human drinker problem in the region and I already told them I value the treaty I have with your tribe."

Irina was a surprising choice, but she walked at a human pace from the bottom of the stairs through the yard and toward the garage, holding blankets. Christy looked back to see how the shifters were taking an unknown vampire coming closer. Seth seemed to be trying not to breath as much, and was pulling his shirt off as the blanket got closer. Leah just stared at the vampire in the driveway, her eyes not blinking.

Irina's steps got slower and Christy moved out to take the blankets from her. "Are they going to be okay?" Irina asked slowly, staring at the shifters in the garage.

"It shouldn't hurt too much." Christy offered, to reassure them all. When she turned back she could see Leah still staring and Irina was taking in the standing female shifter. Christy paused and looked back and forth between them, and the odd staring match. "Oh wow." She whispered to herself.

Seth was shaking worse and those blankets weren't going to help him, it was almost time. "I'm sure you'd prefer that these shifters didn't have to join that other pack." Christy said, thinking it was a bit manipulative, but if she was right it might work.

"No, no one should have to obey an ex-boyfriend. I'd take her into our coven too, to spare her." Irina whispered and Leah finally blinked, her eyes widening.

"Back up," Christy told Irina and almost grabbed her arm to back her up, but Leah's glare at Christy's moving hand stopped her. "Back up Irina, they are about to go." She barely got those words out and Leah shifted, her clothes ripping and hitting walls and ceilings. Seth made a distressed sound before he too fell to four feet as a wolf. They were tall, her especially.

"Everything will be okay." Christy spoke as soothingly as she could. "I know everything sounds so loud, and looks so strange." She glanced at Leah, "And you feel like gravity has moved, and nothing is the same, but it will be okay."

Christy didn't ask them to shift back right away, even though the longer they were wolves the better chance they'd be caught by someone in the pack mind. No, she watched over them as they practiced walking in the Cullen's front yard. Irina stayed outside with them, and Leah's eyes went to her often. "To return to your human form you have to be able to visualize, and internalize. You have to think about having hands again, standing upright again, feeling the breeze on skin, not fur." Christy spoke softly, remembering how she controlled her own powers when she had it. "It works that way both ways, you remember what it feels like in the other form and you let yourself expect that you are in that form."

Seth stood still and closed his eyes. His form shifted slower than it had on his way to wolf, but then he stood in the yard blinking. Christy moved toward him slowly, holding the blanket out. "Thanks." He told her and wrapped it around him. Today was such a surprise he didn't notice he was naked, or didn't act panicky about it. He gave Irina a puzzled look and then just stared at his sister, again.

When Leah stood in two feet again, Irina moved closer to hand her the blanket. Leah stared at her with a stunned look on her face still, and slowly wrapped the blanket around her. "You've imprinted Leah." Christy spoke softly. "Do you want to explain it, or have me do it?"

"I'll explain." Leah sounded nervous, a bit afraid.

"Here." Christy tugged her shirt up over her head and held it out for Leah. Christy had a bra on, it covered what it had to, and it was important for Leah to feel somewhat comfortable. She was still afraid of rapists, she didn't need to be walking around in nothing but a blanket. The shirt was a little long so it would cover what it needed to, barely. Christy leaned down and pulled her shoes off as well. "Hope these fit. I don't get splinters, but I think you still might. You need shoes."

"Thank you." Leah stood in front of her holding the shirt that had to smell like hell to her, and she had tears in her eyes. "Really, thank you." It wasn't about the clothes at all. Irina held the blanket up in a way to give Leah privacy and only have her exposed to the woods, so the new wolf pulled that shirt on immediately.

"Anytime Leah." Christy told her gently. "I'll find more clothes for you, but I need these pants." The bra was modest enough, but the panties weren't.

In a moment the front door opened and a pair of pants were set on the railing. The others didn't come outside though, and Christy appreciated that. She went and got the pants and brought them to Leah as well.

"Irina, if it seems too good to be true, don't screw it up with doubts, just have her talk to Tanya." She smiled at the confused looking vampire. "Congratulations ." Christy smiled and turned that smile to a shy looking Leah as well. "Really." She told Leah.

Irina steered Leah into the woods after she was dressed again, and that meant it was Seth's turn, but he'd left his clothes in the garage. "I guess we should explain it to Irina's coven. You up to it?"

"As soon as I get some pants on." Seth blushed a little and walked into the garage where his clothes were waiting, thankfully he'd taken his off because she had nothing that would fit him. Christy waited just out of sight for him.

"Are you okay with this?" Christy motioned toward the trees the new couple had walked through once he stepped back out, dressed.

"I was in Leah's head." He spoke slowly, and that confirmed the pack mind was there, Christy hoped that wouldn't be a problem. "I can't have a problem with this. It was amazing, and I am so happy that something good came out of this for her. It was all shit for her, nothing good at all, and I'm glad she got something good. I felt a bit bad, because I was pretty jazzed to be a wolf, but she was going to hate every second of it. This makes it better. The vampire girl thing is odd, but we'll deal."

"I'm thinking we should probably talk in the yard." Christy spoke as she neared the stairs. "The smell inside would have to be overwhelming for you." She didn't point out that his scent would not improve the place for her either, but she did wonder at why his scent hadn't gotten worse after shifting, he smelled a little better actually. "Have a seat, I'll go get them." She pointed to a stump the right size for a seat and moved to go inside the house.

Everyone was in the main room. Christy gave Bella a reassuring look. "In the beginning they sometimes can't control the shifting, so just don't get too close. Did you guys get to see them?"

"They were huge." Bella spoke up, sounding a bit stunned still. Christy noticed the human blush as she looked at her and Christy was reminded she needed another shirt.

"Yep, they are huge. I'll be right back." She ran up to the room she'd been using and grabbed something else to wear, before heading back down.

"Things got a little more complicated, but in a good way. Let's go outside and get to know Seth." Christy smiled and led more hesitant vampires outside, with Bella at her own side.

"Leah and Irina will be back soon, won't they?" Bella asked, and Tanya looked like she was also wanting an answer to that.

"I'm not sure, it might take a while." Christy smiled at Seth, who gave her a somewhat conspiring smile back. "So this is Seth Clearwater." Christy had them stop about ten feet away from him. "Seth, this is Bella, she's with me." Christy turned to Tanya and ignored the smirk she was getting. "This is Tanya, and she's the leader of the Denali coven."

"Nice to meet you Seth." Tanya smiled warmly. "You've met my sister Irina, this is Kate," Tanya pointed out the members of her coven. Christy liked how polite Tanya was being, because she didn't know yet that she was meeting family. If they'd acted like Rosalie would have, it would have been a disaster.

"Okay, do you want to do it or shall I?" She asked Seth, as she settled in by leaning up against another tree.

"Well, there are stories that my people have about spirit warriors, or the wolves we become, Leah's the first girl." Seth sounded a bit shaky and Christy sighed.

"Right," She took over and saw his grateful look. "So they become wolves when there is a threat to the tribe. Lately it's been if vampires are nearby that the young with the right family lines start changing, but it's always been men in the past. Seth is too young, it shouldn't be him yet, and Leah is the first woman that they know of ever changing, like he said."

"They don't know yet, no one else was in our heads." Seth spoke up, and Christy was relieved with that. "Um yeah, we can hear each other when we're shifted." He blushed as he told them that.

"That would be hard to deal with." Tanya spoke softly.

"Yeah, it could be. She's my sister, I expect it will get weird." His blush was not going away, and Christy could understand that even though she'd never had that problem, and never would.

"There are so many stories his people have, but there is one thing that we need to talk about now." Christy took over, giving Seth a break from it. "They do something called imprinting."

"If they're lucky." Seth muttered under his breath.

"It's like finding your soulmate, your perfect bond." Christy smiled a little. "The mate that will never leave, ever." She held Tanya's eyes. "Irina scored big time, Leah imprinted on her."

"Irina and Leah?" Eleazer sounded stunned and he looked out toward where the couple had gone.

"I know, people will think it's a bit odd, but it protects Irina from the wolves, because they can't hurt an imprint." Christy felt really happy that the two people so abused in this world were going to find happiness together. "And it may give Leah a way out of La Push, because they won't want Irina there and so they'd have to release Leah. You can't separate imprints."

"I didn't even think of that. I was just so happy she was finally happy." Seth grinned. "She might be free of Sam. That would be great."

Bella seemed a little tense, and so Christy held her hand and gave her a small smile. "Leah has had it really rough, so has Irina. They deserve to be happy." She told Bella softly, but she rubbed Bella's fingers in support. Bella was still not too great with romance talk.

"I believe this makes you family." Tanya spoke slowly to Seth, studying him.

They chatted while they waited, and they waited for a while. Christy hoped it took so long because it was going well.

"How are you doing?" Christy asked Seth after a pause in talking gave her the chance.

"I'm doing okay. Dad taught Leah and I some meditation things to do to try and control the mood swings." He grimaced. "I'm doing the best I can."

"Oh, speaking of your dad, did you need to call him?" Christy asked, and Tanya offered her phone up for use when the answer was yes. Seth stepped into the woods a bit for privacy, so Christy tried to focus on other things.

Bella looked cold. "Oh, did you want to go inside? I'm sorry, I didn't notice it was chilly out."

Bella gave Christy a smile and shook her head. "I'm fine, thanks though."

"You two are surrounded by oddness." Tanya smiled at them. "Shifters and imprinting. Every day will be an adventure here, won't it?"

"We try." Bella joked just a little and Christy smiled, glad that she was joking around.

"Once we iron things out with the shifters, some of us need to go home and close the house down and pack up a few things." Tanya told them.

"I do appreciate the help." Christy spoke quietly.

Tanya smiled. "I think helping you is helping us. Every day is a new adventure."

"Christy, dad wants to talk to you." Seth said as he stepped out of the woods, holding the phone out to her.

She took is gently and held it to her ear. "Harry?"

"I can't," His voice cracked. "I can't ever thank you enough for being there for them. If I hadn't told them, like you said, exactly what you said would have happened. They were so far from home at the time."

"It's what friends do Harry, you don't have to thank me." Christy spoke gently to the man.

"Seth says Leah imprinted during her very first shift." He laughed but it sounded a little choked.

"It's a very good pairing, I think they'll be very happy. Irina is an animal drinker, so those tend to live near woods all the time." Christy told him with a hint of a smile.

"I guess that would be good." He went silent for way too long. "Imprinting on a vampire will be hard on her."

"Not as hard as not imprinting at all, or thinking because she's a female, that she just can't." Christy thought of the Leah in the books.

"I'm going to get the elders together and tell them my kids have changed now." He spoke slowly. "And I'm going to put in a good word for you and your new friends."

"I was going to contact the pack today, but then I was invaded by Clearwaters, and that came first."

"I'll pave the way." He paused, "Can I call you back at this number to set up a meeting?" Tanya nodded when he asked that.

"Sure, that works."

"Where is Leah?"

"She's explaining what an imprint is to Irina." Christy told him. "They moved off for some privacy, but they'll be back soon."

"Okay, good. You tell her I love her and it's okay. The others might say some ignorant shit to her, but she's my daughter and I'm proud of her, I'm proud of both of my kids." He spoke and after she promised they said their goodbyes.

"Wow," Christy handed the phone to Tanya, and stared at Seth. "You have a great dad."

"I know." He nodded. "I think the hospital scared him, he's on a big kick about making sure we know he loves us now. I don't know that I remember when he spent so much time with us."

"Well, at least something good came of that." Christy spoke softly, not hinting that she knew it wasn't the hospital that did it.

Leah and Irina came back out of the woods holding hands and Christy smiled, taking that as a sign the talk went well.

Christy learned that pizza didn't deliver as far out as the Cullen's unless you offered a bit of extra money and placed a big order. They did both and the wolves even surprised themselves when they saw how much they had to eat. "Oh man, Dad's going to go poor feeding us." Seth muttered as he looked down at the three pizza boxes he finished on his own.

"If you end up having to play protector, as for tribal money to supplement your groceries." Christy spoke up. "They can't dictate what you do and not pay for it." Xavier paid for her groceries and other bills when she risked her life for his missions, and it was barely fair, because of what he'd ask her to do, so she'd taken as much of his money as she wanted.

Irina spoke up after Christy and watched Leah as she said it. "I'm quite well off, if you need anything. We buy groceries we can't even eat, just to pass." Christy smiled and looked away from the new couple, catching Tanya's grin as she did it.

They were in the kitchen, it came to the point they'd have to invite the wolves in or be rude, and so they did, but they had all the kitchen windows opened to try and keep the scent of vampires down, and help the wolves keep calm. It was really only Seth they worried about, because Leah seemed to have no problem with the vampire smell. She was wearing Christy's clothes and Irina stayed relatively close and still Leah seemed fine.

"I was hoping we could stand with you at the meeting." Seth spoke up, looking around. "I mean, you've done more for us than that pack ever has, and they'll know it when we shift anyhow, so why pretend?"

"It could cause tension. How about you ask your dad about it first, if he thinks there might be issues with that?" Harry was going to call very soon about that meeting. "Also, Sam may not let you right away. We need to make him understand that you belong with this family." Christy could hear Leah's heart beat faster. "I will not let him get in the way of your imprint Leah." Christy spoke firmly. That seemed to reassure her enough to calm down. It wasn't a battle Christy wanted to fight, but someone had to fight for Leah.

"Now that I have you, no one is taking you away from me." Irina whispered to Leah and the rest of them pretended not to hear it. Irina jumped in with everything once she realized what an imprint was. The pain and gloom that had been around her even since that phone call Christy took the day before weren't there. Irina was tentative, but happy, and Christy liked that.

The phone rang and they had to get to the meeting place. Once she was off the phone, and handed it back to Tanya, Christy looked at the three non-vampires. "Okay, we could run it, drive it, or mix and match who does what."

"I'd really rather drive." Bella spoke up.

"I want to run, to see what I can do," Seth muttered.

"Sam will definitely be a wolf on the way." Leah sighed. "Still, it isn't like we're going to be able to keep any of this a secret."

"Do what you want to do." Christy told them, "Just know that what people think aren't always what they'd be willing to say, but I really think he'll surprise you. He still cares and wants you safe and happy."

"What do you mean?" Leah stared at her and Christy sighed a little and glanced around. They had an audience and she didn't want to embarrass Leah.

"He declared that I wasn't a human drinker because I saved a girl from the res from being raped." Christy stared into Leah's eyes. "He made a treaty with me in spite of my eyes, because of who I saved." She wasn't sure if anyone had told Leah what she'd done, but the wide eyes staring at her proved it was the first she'd heard of it.

"Come on, let's go check out the garage. Perhaps Carlisle left another car out there." Tanya told her people and Christy noticed Tanya gently guided Bella out as well. Irina stayed, sitting stiffly, her eyes on the two of them.

"I am never going to give you trouble over your diet again." Irina whispered as the three of them sat around the table.

"It was you?" Leah's eyes were watering. "Of course it was you, it's always you. You found me on the side of the road with a flat tire, you made my dad tell me what was happening, you were there when I needed a safe place to take Seth. You introduce me to my imprint. It's always you. Every good thing about my life lately is because of you." Christy managed to stand up just before her arms were filled with Leah, crying on her shoulder. "I want you to be my Alpha, I want it to be you. You are everything an Alpha should be."

"If I could, I would take you." Christy whispered into her hair. "I would Leah, I want to, believe me, I want to." She hugged the wolf to her and ignored the dog smell. "But I don't think Sam will be as bad as you think. He created a generous treaty with me because of you after all, so he isn't going to be a tyrant." She pulled back and stared into Leah's eyes. "And I don't have to be your Alpha to watch out for you."

Irina rested a hand on Leah's shoulder and that proved to be a gravity shift, because Leah turned and was pulled into Irina's orbit easily, freeing Christy from her grip.

When they stepped outside the others weren't in cars. In fact only Bella wanted to drive there, everyone else wanted a run, so Christy got in the car with Bella and made arrangements to meet up closer to La Push. She'd have to carry Bella in, but this would shorten the run for the human, and Christy was going to be careful not to jostle Bella when they did that run.