TIC Extra #10

Timeline: This is a scene from B3, after Sims phases and Seth starts healing from Neel's attack. I left it out for several reasons, one of which that I wasn't sure at the time where I stood on the whole "would a child imprint be able to feel an adult wolf having sex with someone else through the bond?" concept. I also didn't post it because I thought it would cause more imprinting arguments than I wanted to deal with at the time. In hindsight I think maybe I should have left it in, because I do believe that one of the few things Jack was doing well in B3 was protecting Renesmee from his own emotions.

Characters: Jack, Leah

Rating: M

Words: 1630

Warnings: Sexual content, mentions to child imprint subject matter

Jack had fallen asleep with the Alpha once again keeping guard over him, as Jake had done every night since Collin had attacked him. When Jack awoke, a far prettier wolf had taken Jake's place.

Leah was restless, edgy, unhappy. Jack could see it in her eyes, in the tightness of her jaw, in the stiffness of her shoulders. She had a lot to be unhappy about but she wasn't willing to talk about any of that right then. Her eyes kept drifting to the south and then back down to the ground, where a clump of muddy earth poked through the blanket of snow. Leah should have been sleeping, Jack was pretty sure that she hadn't done so since the Cold One's attack on her blood brother, but as tense as she seemed, Jack doubted that there was any way Leah was going to be asleep anytime soon.

If he had been more dominant, less the wolf that he was now, maybe she would have goaded him into a fight. The females had a tendency to pick fights when they were upset, but Leah and Jack had never been that way. She would chew on him, pounce on him, lean on him, and a hundred other things, but Leah wouldn't fight him.

That was good. Jack preferred it that way.

Still, Leah was unhappy and Jack didn't like that. They could run, that might help, but the Alpha was keeping everyone out of the Packmind until their newest she-wolf became more stable. More than two in the Packmind made Sims become overly confused and disoriented, a state that she was only starting to come out of with their Alpha's patient help. Leah had spent the last day doing the same, but Jack didn't need to ask why Leah had come here instead of staying on her own turf, looking like she was about to drop from exhaustion. He was sure she had her reasons, and if she wanted him to know, Leah would tell him.

The bark of the apple tree was digging uncomfortably into his damaged back, so Jack shifted away, his body protesting the movement of muscled held still for hours. As he stood up, Jack could feel Leah's eyes digging into his shoulders even deeper than the bark had done. He could smell her spiking anger and Jack softened his posture, slumping slightly to remind her that he wasn't any kind of a threat to her. When he went so far as to tilt his head sideways to appease her, the she-wolf snorted and turned away.

Shrugging, Jack stretched, wincing as it pulled torn muscles tighter across bone, and he could feel her watching him again. Confused, the ancient wolf turned and looked at her quizzically. Leah was staring at him, so many jumbled emotions on her face that even one such as he couldn't read them all. Jack stood there beneath her regard, and then finally he understood one of the flitting expressions on her face. Making a soft soothing noise in his throat, Jack immediately sank down to his heels. The she-wolf leaning against the tree glared at him, obviously angry that he had picked up on it.

There was nothing to be angry about. As far as Jack was concerned there was no anger between them, and there never had been.

"I'm not unwilling," Jack finally said, his words breaking the quiet of the world around them. Leah's eyes snapped to his face, and they narrowed.

"You're imprinted," Leah replied curtly, and Jack tipped his head to the side consideringly. That was true, he was imprinted, but his imprint was a child. Even with accelerated growth, she would still be a child for several more passings of the seasons. Smiling slightly, Jack met Leah's gaze with one of his own.

"Yes, Packmate," Jack said gently. "However I am still myself, and my imprint will be a child for a long time, if not as long as most. The gift that is imprinting was never meant to take one's own will away, and as I said, I am not unwilling."

Silently Leah held his gaze long enough that Jack knew that he would need to drop his eyes soon. Then her eyes flicked sideways, not an admittance of submission, but not a refusal of such. Understanding, possibly more than she did herself, Jack nodded and rose to his feet. The she-wolf took his proffered hand, and when he helped her to her feet, she exhaled heavily and leaned against his chest. Her breath was warm against his skin, but she was cooler than normal, a sign that her exhaustion was beginning to take its toll.

Raising a hand to her hair, Jack let her lean against him. Leah was strong, and Jack had a feeling that in her lifetime that there were very few people that Leah had let be strong for her. One of them had been the Beta, who now was weakened and needed protecting himself. One more was the Alpha, but the she-wolves were drawn almost irrevocably to the most dominant wolves, and for her own reasons Leah was fighting to keep a distance between herself and Jake. It would help her to have another female, although there was always the possibility that Leah had spent too long alone for the natural camaraderie of the she-wolves to take place. Either way, in this moment there were few that she trusted enough to let her guard down around.

A deep shudder slid through the wolf as he felt another strand between himself and his Pack tie itself into place.

Leah must have misinterpreted his reaction because a look of hurt crossed her face, as if she thought he was rejecting her. It couldn't have been further from the truth because in all honesty, Jack was equally exhausted. The thought of letting himself relax even deeper into the bonds between Pack sounded better than anything else he could imagine right now, so Jack caught Leah's hand before she could pull away.

There was the barn or the travel trailer, and while one smelled unpleasantly of Cold One, the thought of scratchy bits of hay working their way into deep wounds could make even a wolf grimace. So Jack led Leah to the home that he shared with his friend, smiling a little when she wrinkled her nose.

"You sure know how to wine and dine a girl in style, Jack," Leah teased as Jack stripped the sheets off of the small bed in the back, and he chuckled, spreading a heavy blanket down on the mattress instead.

"I'll make up for it," he promised her with the slightest of smiles, and then he turned and pulled her into his arms. The she-wolf paused only for a moment, but then she came willingly. The last time had been aggressive, nearly violent with the needs that being in heat had caused her, but unless she wanted that, Jack had no intentions of bedding her the same way. This time they both exhaled at the comfort of contact, of her body against his, and as her arms wrapped around his neck tiredly, Jack hoisted her up into his own.

Leah's legs felt good wrapped around his waist, her skin felt better beneath his own, and she gave him a look of surprise when he very carefully laid her down on the bed. It was a far cry from holding her down on earth and stone, taking her until she cried out his name, but Jack simply kissed her, helped her draw her clothes off, and then he settled down into the task of making her forget.

Sometimes it was nice to forget, if just for a while. Sometimes it was better that way.

The voices in his head were restless, angry, but they melted against her slowly warming body, and when he rolled her over onto her stomach, the movement of her form beneath his and her noises of pleasure drowned out his demons, forced them away. Long and lean and arching deliciously into him, Jack decided that of all his lovers he had taken, only one had been more beautiful to him than her. But that was a long time ago, and the forgetting was for them both right now. Slow and steady but gradually asking her for more, ignoring her demands for the same. Slow and steady, because it was driving her crazy, and it felt so damn good to have his name spoken that way. Slow and steady, but harder because they both wanted it, both needed it. Slow and steady but relentless until she bit her teeth into the forearm that held her in place, crying out his name.

His back was on fire, but there was a hotter, better fire beneath him, and Jack ignored the first for as long as he could. But then she was twisting beneath him, those long legs once more tightening about his waist, breath sweet as it mingled with his. He could smell his own blood on his back, but then it didn't matter. She was Pack, and at this moment she was his, and she felt so good…Closing his eyes, Jack allowed himself to forget, and in forgetting, for a moment he knew peace.

Then horrified, because unlike Leah, Jack had whispered the wrong name, a dead woman's name.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, devastated because if this hurt her, if he hurt her, one of his most cherished Packmates, Jack would never forgive himself. "Leah, I'm so sorry."

But then she was pulling him down into her, whispering that it was okay, that she understood better than he knew. "Tell me," Leah whispered, "Tell me what happened to you."

And as he pressed his face to her breast, Jack once again closed his eyes and he remembered...