Ch. 8
The moon was high in the sky, when Leah and Jacob made it downstairs where Sam and Dimitri were waiting for them. Alexi walked in through the front door as they stepped off the last step.
"Where is Thomas" asked Alexi.
Jacob nodded up the stairs, "with my son Alex."
Leah looked at the men. There was concern, fear, tension and even courage over all their faces. "What's wrong?"
Dimitri looked down at her stomach and then back up to her eyes, "we need to get you out of here now; Romi is on his way as we speak."
"She will be safe here; we have 3 entire packs as her guard. One lone wolf won't break through that." Jacob informed as he pulled Leah behind him for safety.
Dimitri nodded in understanding, "then let's set our plan into motion." He turned to Alexi, "ready Eric and yourself, for tonight we take down our brother once and for all."
"What about Thomas?" Alexi asked.
Leah interrupted the conversation before Dimitri could reply. "Thomas is a really good protector, please let him stay here…he's still young."
Dimitri nodded, understanding that Thomas could be scarred deeply due to his young age. Killing your brother to defend your future is not the way a boy should become a man.
Jacob walked Leah back upstairs to the sitting room where the boys were, they could hear Thomas and Alex playing and laughing. They stooped right in front of the door before entering and turned to each other. She rested her head against his chest and could feel his heart pounding. She felt him kiss the top of her head. His hands came up to cup her face and made her look at him. "It's one wolf, what are you afraid of?"
She couldn't answer him; her throat closed up and became too tight to utter a single word. She leaned up and kissed him and held his face between her hands. "I love you, see you soon." She then turned around and walked inside the room and closed the door behind her. She looked up to see Alex run to her in excitement.
"Mommy!" he yelled happily and then giggled when she bent over to tickle him.
Thomas stood up and walked over to pick Alex up and throw him over his shoulder. He looked down at Leah with concern, "is everything all right?" he asked.
"Of course, the packs are going to trap the stray wolf…they um…asked that you stay behind and guard us." She looked down because she was too emotional to look him in the eyes. "That's if it's okay with you?"
Thomas nodded and put Alex down. Alex looked up at the two silent adults. "Can I have ice cream?"
"Ice cream sounds good to me, let's go." She reached out her hand and Alex took it excitedly. Thomas walked around and opened the door to walk them to the kitchen in safety. Esme and Bella were there already cooking something up for when the wolves returned.
Esme walked over and picked Alex up to place him on her hip, "what can I get for you sir?"
"Well, we did come here for ice cream…is that spaghetti?" Leah asked as she leaned over and inhaled the rich scent of tomato sauce.
Esme nodded and grabbed a plate for Bella to scoop some up for Leah as she stood there salivating over the pot. Alex frowned, "I still want ice cream mommy."
Leah nodded, "are you sure? This spaghetti has meatballs."
His eyebrows went up at the word meatballs and looked at Esme with his puppy dog brown eyes, "can I have meatballs too?"
Bella laughed and grabbed him to set him down in a chair with a plate of spaghetti with meatballs in front of him, "how about you eat this first and if you have room, then you can have ice cream for dessert. Okay?"
Alex took a bite of a large meatball and said around a full mouth, "okay, Aunt Bella, but I want lots of ice cream."
"Sure sweetie." Leah said and shook her head. Everyone except Bella and Esme dug in to the Italian cuisine. Nessie walked in shortly to build herself a plate and sat next to Thomas. Everything was quiet until Seth ran through the door and scaring everybody half to death.
Leah dropped her fork, "Jesus Seth, what the hell is wrong?"
Seth walked in half naked and looked at Leah, "Jacob sent me here to help protect if need be, so far Romi has eluded us and Jacob is getting nervous because we haven't caught him yet."
"I'll catch him!" Alex yelled and ran out the door into the woods.
"Alex!" everyone yelled. Two and a half vampires and three wolves couldn't catch him. He was the child of two pure blood wolves; he was fast thanks to his mother's genes, but not as strong as an adult wolf.
Leah was up and began walking out the front door until Thomas grabbed her hand. Seth and the others had already run out into the woods after him.
"Thomas let me go, that's my baby boy out there!" she screamed at him.
"I understand that Leah, but I need to protect you at all costs." He said in a sad voice not letting his grip on her arm lighten.
She looked Thomas in the eyes, "then stay with me, that's fine. But I'm not leaving my son out there alone!" She then looked out the door, "what if it was your sister?"
She knew that wasn't fair of her, but she needed to convince him to go out there with her. His grip faltered and then altogether released. He walked past her and looked outside waiting for the sound of Alex's laughter at being caught. When only silence greeted him, he turned back to Leah. "Stay by my side at all times, do you understand?"
She nodded and followed him outside. The wind had picked up and was blowing the branches of the trees as if willing them to bend and break. The more the wind blew, the deeper they walked into the woods, and the further they walked, the more scared for Alex she felt.
"Thomas, why don't you shift and put out there that Alex had run off alone."
He nodded in agreement and exploded into wolf form not worrying about his clothes being ripped to shreds. When he looked up at her and shook his large wolf head, she knew he meant that they haven't found him yet. She wasn't going to cry or get emotional, she needed a clear head and to keep her concentration. They were near a tiny clearing in the woods when a sudden pain hit her in her lower abdomen. Thomas had shifted back immediately.
"Mrs. Black! Are you okay?" he asked frightened. As he knelt down to help her back up to her feet, a large body slammed into him from the side. His head came down on a tree stump causing a loud crack to rent the air.
Leah looked down at Thomas as the large shape that attacked him stood up and away from the now silent and unmoving Thomas. The dark shape approached her slowly. She scooted back and away from the shape as pain consumed her body. "Please…" she begged and Leah Clearwater Black never begged for anything. However the life of her daughter was too important for her to hold onto her pride now.
The dark shape didn't say anything, but only continued to advance on her trembling frame. Her body wanted to shift to protect itself, however, the body also at this very moment wanted to give birth. Her labor pains were coming on stronger now.
Jacob!
She began to pray to god and Taha Aki for protection. The large wolf was close enough now for her to make out his features and to see the look in his eyes. What she saw when the wolf looked at her made her remember what Thomas had explained earlier, "…it's a wild look in their eyes…"she saw that look as the wolf gazed at her. Then she watched in horror as he raised himself up and then charged at her the rest of the distance between them, she held her arms around her stomach as if to try and protect the child wanting to be free, she then closed her eyes and waited. Seconds ticked by and she knew she would feel the death blow at any moment, until she heard a large growl that she recognized all too easily.
Her eyes snapped open as a large russet colored wolf jumped over her body from behind and slammed into the stray wolf. The other wolves soon followed and began tearing the wolf to pieces. Jacob turned around and padded back over to her, a small whine emanating from his throat as he nudged her with his large head.
She grabbed him around his shoulders and began to cry into his fur. Soon his fur became human flesh and she felt Jacob wrap his arms around her trembling body. As soon as they began to calm down, her breathing slowed and she watched as Embry and Quil grabbed Thomas's limp body and carted it back to Dr. Carlisle to set the bones straight before they healed. Jacob stood and bent over to pick up Leah in his arms, until she arched her back and cried out in pain. The contractions had died down a bit but were back now at full force. Jacob knelt back down and made her lean back against his chest. All the other wolves stood around her in shock. A large grey and brown wolf entered the clearing and stopped to look at the situation, Dimitri turned to the wolf on his right who left quickly only to arrive a minute later with Dr. Carlisle on his heels.
Leah was panting and trying to complete her breathing exercises. Jacob held her hand and only winced every time she had a strong contraction. Soon Embry and Quil had returned with Rosalie, Esme and Seth. The rest of their group stayed behind to help Edward with Thomas.
Leah looked up at Jacob over her shoulder, "Alex?"
Quil answered, "He was in the meadow pretending he was a G., he's back at the house and Nessie refuses to give him ice cream."
Relief rushed through Leah and she sagged against Jacob as she waited for Carlisle to check her out. Leah looked around and became self conscious. "Jacob? Do you think you can send the packs away? Please?"
He looked up to see Sam's pack in a corner opposite of Dimitri's pack, and then to his left were the vampires while on his right was his pack. All eyes were on Leah to perform the magic trick of the night, pushing a human out of her body. Well, not if he had anything to say about it. "Everyone except the vamps and Seth, leave…now!"
They all nodded in agreement and Embry and Quil looked relieved, there were some things they didn't want to see. Dimitri turned back only once to look at Leah, he turned around and walked back up to her and bowed before her like he did 2 weeks ago when they were introduced, except now he was in wolf form. His two pack mates stood behind him and followed suit. Once finished, they turned and walked back into the woods towards their cabin.
"All right Leah, I hope you're ready. You're going to give birth right here, right now. We don't have time to get you to the house." Carlisle said as he began to get out his medical supplies. Esme and Rosalie were there and cleared the hair from her face and made calming noises to help her calm down. Little did they know that Jacob did that all on his own by just holding her in his arms. Leah looked back at Jacob again; he smiled and kissed her forehead.
Seth came over and sat next to Jacob, "how ya doin' Sis?"
Leah gave him a scowl that should have burned his body to a crisp on the spot, "Are you effing serious?! How the hell do you think I'm doing Seth?! Did you expect me to say 'just effing peachy'?!" she yelled back at him in answer.
He turned red and bowed his head in shame, "sorry," he mumbled. It was just to mush for Leah to see her brother like that. "Oh Seth, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you…you forgive me?" she asked with sweetness.
His head came up with a huge lop sided smile on his face, "of course Leah, just promise me you'll name the baby after me and we'll be even." The smile died on her face and she felt another contraction coming. Right before it hit she looked up at Jacob, "kill him for me please?" she asked.
He nodded, "anything for the mother of my children."
Rosalie looked at Seth and laughed, "Ha-ha, guess you're not going to reproduce kid."
Seth looked startled and stood up, "I'll go check on Alex."
Carlisle came back to Leah after the last contraction, "All right Leah here we go."
***
Off in the distance the wolves with their sensitive hearing stilled, when in the now calm night, they heard a baby crying off in the distance. One pack heard the sound of a new family member coming into this world, while the other heard their salvation.
***
Leah held her new daughter close to her chest, her hands held the tiny body, while Jacob's hands were under Leah's for support. They made it back to the house shortly before the sun began to rise. Everyone was told to give the family some time to rest and that they could come back later in the day to see the new addition to the Black household. Jacob leaned down and nuzzled Leah's cheek, "What do we call our princess?"
Leah looked down at her sleeping daughter and smiled, "I thought about this one for a while…I want the name Hope in there somewhere." She looked back up at Jacob and smiled, "what do you think?"
He smiled, "alright, but why Hope?"
She looked down at her beautiful daughter who has three entire wolf packs that are willing to kill for her safety and happiness, "because like Dimitri said she is their only Hope, and she was my only hope when I was in those woods about to face death."
Jacob nodded and rested his head on her shoulder as they both gazed down at the new addition to their family. Alex woke early and came to get up on the bed to get a good look at his new sister. "She looks like Grandpa Billy, all wrinkly."
Leah laughed, "Well she won't always."
Alex petted her soft head very gently like Jacob showed him and then looked up at Leah, "What's her name mommy?"
Leah smiled at her son, "Alex, meet Roslyn Hope Black."
***~Special thanks to Ozzie13 for the name Roslyn! All the others were really good and it was hard to decide, but as suggested I listened to Hotel Room Service by Pitbull, I fell in love with the name (and the song…lol).
***~All of your reviews are appreciated and I enjoy them so much, hope you enjoyed this chapter and as always…REVIEW! YAY!
***~A small note regarding the next chapter is that I will be jumping ahead a few years. Don't worry not to many.
