A/N: Confessions of a bad fanfic writer.... So recently I've lost a lot of my spare time as well as my writing time at work. I tried to speed up the story a little so I could get it done quicker but after re-reading the last chapter I've decided to stick with the original plan of 20 chaps (that's my goal, and I need that many for real closure on this story). So sorry if the story seems to have deviated, we're back on track now. Bad Embry owns this chap, then we have Blackwater (and possible lemonade...still undecided) for the next 2 chaps, then a battle, death, love, angst, heartbreak etc etc. I might not be able to update 2 chaps a week like usual but I'm gonna stay true to the original plotline again. Thanks for sticking with it guys! Your feedback is awesome.

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EPOV:

Leah closed the door behind her as she took her place at Jacobs's side. It was obvious that she put some distance between them for my benefit. Her face still had the look of both guilt and pity that she had worn since our talk earlier. I wanted to see what her eyes said but she couldn't bring herself to lift them to me. I was almost thankful for the news I had to share which stopped me from over analysing her every movement. Billy wheeled his way towards the front door to leave but I asked him to stay. I wasn't here to cause a scene, this was Quileute business. He positioned himself to my right as I began to speak.

"I tracked both Sam and Quil on the return trip so what I have to tell you is second hand information. They found a small coven of about thirteen vampires in an abandoned building in Port Angeles. Most of them seem to be newborns. Animalistic, out of control and full of bloodlust. A few were more 'aware' then the others, more in control of their actions." My eyes fell on Jacob now "The one that appeared to be their leader is a vampire we've already met. Jacob, it was the red head that was after Bella, the one we chased away just before.....the one that ran off. Looks like she's finally ready to make her move."

Jakes hands balled into fists as Leah stood closer to him, placing her hand on the small of his back. The alpha energy between us was already hostile so the jealous of seeing Leah comfort him now, as innocent as it was, made me grind my teeth a little. I continued with the story quickly before my voice gave my emotions away.

"The guys headed to Forks when they left the hospital as Sam wanted to pick up some flowers for Emily. When they got out of their car the fading scent of vampire caught their attention and they both phased to follow it while it was still fresh. Before long they were in the outskirts of Port Angeles at a large rundown building. They phased into their human forms careful to leave the faintest scent trail possible. Then they saw it, through a small window at the back of the building. The smell of human blood surpassed the stench of the vampires. It was coming from a young family of three the leeches were feasting off of. Sam and Quil were too late, especially for the kid who was killed in a matter of minutes. They decided to return home quickly with a full report but couldn't leave before calling 911 for an ambulance. I caught up to them not long after and they began to show me what they had witnessed. It's clear that the red head isn't stupid, she'll figure out who called the ambulance as soon as she picks up the wolf scent."

Everyone was quiet now, taking in what I had just shared. The advantage of time meant I already had a basic plan laid out. Not long after we phased Jared and Brady filled us in on the new pack members roles and alliances. I knew Jake would make Leah his beta. Although Paul was larger and slightly stronger Leah had agility on her side, second only to her alpha. She was also a great fighter and was the most composed under pressure, often being one step ahead of her opponent. For the most part I was happy that Jake had requested Brady run with Jared to start his training immediately. We needed him at him in fighting form as soon as possible. Jake and I seemed to be on the same wave length regarding pack choices amongst other things. He was also the first to break the silence now.

"We saw the family, at the hospital. They were brought in screaming and covered in blood. We knew the boy was dead, he was completely drained. The parents were still alive though...last we saw anyway."

"They were screaming? Did they mention burning?" Billy asked with urgency in his voice as his eyes darted between Leah and Jake.

"Yeah I think they did. They were clearly in pain, I couldn't really make out what they were saying" Leah replied. Billys face turned deathly serious as he looked up at Jacob now.

"They're turning. They need to be killed before they're added to the army. It takes a couple of days from what I'm aware but they'll be completely immobilised during that time. The pain will make them easy targets."

The three of us looked at each other now. No one really wanted the task of killing two parents who had recently lost a son and were essentially still human. Jacob volunteered that he and Leah would do it as they had seen the bodies already and would be sure to kill the right ones. He also knew that I needed to be here to start battle training and we had no idea when he would be able to kill the soon-to-be newborns. I had a few more theories to share before we finished up our little meeting.

"I'm predicting they'll wait for their new additions before they plan on attacking so that gives us a couple of days, maybe a few if they don't figure out that we've killed them already. That should give us enough time for basic training with Colin and Brady as well as form a proper battle strategy with the other senior members. The split pack should work in our favour as communication will be clearer without ten people fighting for attention. We need to get all them in here for the debrief. If I know the guys they'll be psyched for the fight. We've waited a long time to put our skills to the test and now we a have real opportunity." I couldn't help but feel the pre-battle buzz that was intensified as an alpha. There were other feelings of worry and possible failure but that instinctive adrenaline kick won out over them all. Ready to share it with the packs I moved to the door to let the guys back in when he stopped me.

"Just one sec Embry. I just wanted to say...ah... Look I know I've been kind of a jerk lately but I…have trouble with….well I basically handled my self pretty poorly. I'm sorry I guess. We should try to band together and all of that." It was as sincere and heartfelt as an apology from Jacob got. He moved in for a handshake and pulled me into his chest as he patted my back. I could imagine the effort it took to say those things, there was so much tension between us instinctively on top of any human issues we had with one another. I almost felt bad that over the last 30 minutes I had decided to steal his girlfriend out from under him. Almost…

"Ok, ok. Enough of the soft stuff right? We should let the guys in now, I'm sure they're keen to find out what we're talking about" I said, breaking out of our short lived bonding experience.

As we opened the door Sam entered with Emily pressed into his side. They squeezed to get through the front door together but refused separate from one another. The other boys filtered in and Seth sat in his wolf form to communicate with Jared and Brady. I left Sam and Jake to fill the guys in as Leah and Emily went into the kitchen to fix some food. I stood near out of their line of sight but close enough to eavesdrop on them. Leah was telling Emily something about her relationship with Jake. I couldn't help but notice that her voice had a girlish excitement in it that I had rarely heard before. My teeth automatically started to grind in annoyance. Then the sound of glass crashing to the floor made everyone in the room turn to look at the kitchen. I stuck my head in to see Emily standing with her mouth hanging open as Leah nodded and smiled at her. I looked back at Jake and rolled my eyes a little as I waved for him to continue.

"They're just gossiping, carry on."

The girls didn't seem to notice but Emily spoke in a whisper now as I heard the sound of broken glass being brushed into a dustpan.

"Did you say....?"

"Yup"

"But how?"

"The hard way from what he told me. I didn't want to go into too much detail, this is all pretty new." The guys were back in conversation mode so the girls raised their voices once again, confident no one else was listening.

"Did he say when?"

"At Bella's funeral, on one of her school friends, he imprinted and spent two years fighting it. He said it....."

All the voices in the room faded as I tried to grasp the concept that Jacob Black had beaten an imprint. How…but it was impossible…Could he even…No way, no there's just… no way… My own rambling was confusing me more and I tried to filter my thoughts into one coherent strain. As far as I was aware it was impossible to fight an imprint and not worth trying. The change in Leah's disposition seemed evidence of Jacobs success. The only reason she kept things at a distance with me was out of a fear that I would imprint and leave her just like Sam did. Without that fear she was free to have a real relationship with Jacob just like the one she had with Sam before it was unexpectedly cut short. I felt the jealously radiating from my skin as I realised now that I had almost no chance. I refused to give up that easily. I was in love with Leah and regardless of the talk she had given me, the less then perfect relationship we shared and the fact she was with her seemingly perfect guy, I still had to try. I would probably fail miserably but if I didn't give it a shot I'd never know. Hopefully one more rejection was all it would take for me to finally hate her like I should. As my thoughts became clearer the other sounds in the room started to come back to me and I focused once again on the female voices . Emily was congratulating Leah now as if she had played a part in fighting the imprint. It couldn't be easy for her to say she was happy that Jake had robbed some girl of the love of her life but she owed it to Leah to be fully supportive.

"You have a glow about you that I've never seen. I'm so happy, you deserve this Lee." She was almost squealing her forced enthusiasm. There was a pause and I imagined they hugged now. I wondered if Leah returned it awkwardly like she normally would or if she genuinely hugged her back. I wasn't very experienced with this side of her.

The smell of cooking soon filled the air as the girls quickly set to work. Emily came out to hand around some bowls of chips to tide the boys over temporarily. I realised this was as close to an oppourtunity as I was going to get and slipped into the kitchen . I walked up behind Leah as she stood in front of the glasses cabinet. I leaned over her easily and pressed myself into her back.

"Embry, what are you doing?" she asked in shock. She had been completely oblivious to my entrance. She turned to face me in less then a second and I pinned her back in place with my hips.

"Getting a glass, what does it look like?" I replied casually suppressing the laugh in my head at her annoyed expression. She lowered her voice into a whisper once again.

"You know exactly what it looks like Embry Call, I thought we agreed…."

"We didn't agree on anything. You spoke, I listened." She started to get frustrated with me as she looked towards the door for Emily's return.

"You had your chance and even after our little talk you decide, now, of all times, to make a move? You know how fucked up that is right?"

"Leah I can see it, you're conflicted. If you weren't I'd be on the other side of that wall by now. I'm not stopping you from pushing me away" I smiled knowing my words were true. She pushed me lightly and I pressed into her once again as I pushed off, over-exaggerating the distance as I stepped backwards.

"See? You were in that control that whole time. You can be in control of me anytime you want" I added suggestively.

"For fucks sake Embry, give it up." She seethed eyes on the door once again.

"All I'm saying is when you're sick of sorting out all the bullshit with Jake you know where I am. I know you'll come looking for me when you need the kick only hot, raw, emotionless sex gives you." I was confident in my words. She turned to look me dead in the eyes.

"That will NEVER happen again, and that's a promise Embry." Her stare was powerful and I almost gave up on persisting.

"Never say never Le...." I heard Emily coming back in and Leah quickly moved towards me as she spoke so fast I almost missed it.

"Its not emotionless anymore" she said looking guilty as she moved to the other side of the bench. Emily brushed past my arm on her way to grab some soft drink for the guys. I stood completely still wondering if I had heard her correctly. Did she just admit that I was more then just an empty screw to her now? I could tell her words were meant as a deterrent but they had the opposite effect. She did have feelings for me and if I could combine that with the relationship we use to have I still had a shot at winning her from Jacob. His voice suddenly rang out from behind me and both Leah and I jumped a little when we heard it. He didn't seem to notice.

" Lee are you ready to go? We need to get to the hospital now so we can figure out any security obstacles that could get in our way. Billy is sure we have a few days but the sooner they're taken care of the sooner we can get back to training along with our own pack."

"Yeah I'm coming" she said as she walked past without acknowledging me at all. I didn't care, I still had a shot and that was all that mattered. A new plan started to form in my head as I sat down to eat the meal the girls had prepared. I couldn't help but smirk to myself now. Neither of them is going to know what hit them I thought as I took a mouthful of the food in front of me.