Jasper's POV

I stared up at Leah's face from my position on the floor for a long minute, expecting her rant to last forever, but she didn't say anything else. She kept staring at me, seriously waiting for an answer to her question. Did you like breaking me?

"No!" I shouted, feeling and sounding horrified. It was all I could think of. "Of course we didn't want you to get hurt. I thought he'd tell you to stop and you would. Maybe curse at you. I never expected him to fight you."

"No one knew what an imprint was." Carlisle said, trying to protect me.

"And we sure as hell didn't know he was yours." Edward chimed in.

"So maybe you should calm your wolfy ass down." Rosalie said seriously.

Anything that Carlisle and Edward had made Leah reconsider saying, Rosalie obviously stopped it, because I felt the rage sweep me up again, all flowing from Leah.

She looked indignant as she gaped at Rosalie for a moment and then her mouth opened again, she looked to me as if nobody had spoke since I had and I held my breath."He didn't fight me." she bellowed furiously. "A fight would've been both of us going at each other. I couldn't move. It's not like I decided to listen to him because he is my Alpha. I literally could. not. move." she said bitterly. "Do you understand that? I was practically paralyzed...and Seth had to sit there and watch me get attacked while I was helpless. His older sister, the one person that's supposed to be strong enough to protect him...and I couldn't even protect myself. All that while you stood there and watched without even a flicker of emotion. You couldn't even muster up an inkling of horror. So you don't care for me...you weren't angry, I get that! But just the sight of a male ripping at a paralyzed female should have got some kind of emotion from you. How can you act all uppity and better than other vampires? Sure, you don't kill humans," she whispered the last sentence but I felt her anger pulsating as her eyes darkened on me, "but you're still a monster."

Finally, she stood from the couch, balancing on her good leg while I felt the dizziness threaten to push her back down. I stood from the ground quickly and grabbed her arm to help her stand. She yanked her arm away, not caring that the action was too much for her dizzy and injured body to take. She fell back onto the couch but I grabbed her before she hit too hard and lowered her down, her angry eyes never leaving me.

As soon as her butt touched the material, she shrunk back from me and for the first time since I stopped drinking from people...I felt like a monster.

But I'm not! Right?

"So, you've imprinted on a monster?" I asked her in a low voice, trying to show her that it couldn't be true. Someone with so many morals couldn't possibly imprint with someone that had none. Why I felt the need to prove it to her was beyond me.

"Yes, I have." she said, a bitter laugh twisting her lips into a grimace. "God hates me! He took my boyfriend and best friend from me and put them together. He took my father from me and left us with a bitchy mother. He lets Seth- one of the two people I care for- watch me get beaten. While the other watches too. A-"

"You care for me?" I interrupted, still quite shocked by the idea. Imprinting was against her will, but if she actually cared...

"Let me rephrase that." she said quickly. "Seth is one of the two people that I choose to care for. Seth and Jacob. And he had to watch too." She heaved a big sigh. "And then he forces me to care about you... who also watched. But you did it with a smirk on your face. He forces me to imprint on you." She said again, trembling. "Someone who can sense any emotion that anyone could ever have, but doesn't seem to actually feel anything."

"Leah..." I said, trying to soothe her and warn her at the same time, "You have to understand that we're natural enemies." I don't want to like you, even if I already do.

"You think I don't know that!" she yelled, trembling again. How could she possibly be able to do this with so much morphine in her system? She took a few calming breaths and sat there in silence for a few moments. I tried to probe into her but the anger seemed to trample any other emotions she had.

I went to Edward's chair. "What's she thinking now?" I whispered to him, so low that not even the other vampires in the room would hear.

"She's keeping me out again." he said slowly. I looked back to Leah who had her eyes closed, brow furrowed in concentration, and clenching her fists in the blanket around her. She was keeping me out too. I was now positive that the anger had to do with that... although I wasn't sure if she was keeping me out purposely.

"Leah..." I started again.

"Shut up." she hissed, clenching the sheet tighter. The anger that had been like a hum all around her, which I'd escaped most of by backing away to Edward, suddenly rushed out like a wave, crashing on the walls of the room and lapping back towards me. I was drowning in it.

"Stop!" I screamed at her. Her eyes flickered open and the waves settled but they were still there. "I won, now you tell me right now how you're doing that. What kind of mind trick are you doing?"

Her gaze was steely but she shrugged. "I don't go back on my word. You won... but I'm not doing a mind trick. I'm just being angry."

My gaze narrowed. "You're projecting your feelings onto me." I accused.

She shook her head slowly like she pitied me. "No. I'm not. I swear." Her steady angered heartbeat never went uneven or quickened more, and the look in her eyes was angry but honest.

"I don't understand."

"I think maybe her emotions are linked closer to you because of the imprint." Carlisle spoke up.

"No." Leah said quickly. "If I was an empath, that would make sense. The Imprint has no effect on the Imprint-ee. We usually have to win our Imprint over by showing our affection." She looked to me. "I have no intention on showing you any affection." She scoffed. "And I have no intention of winning you over."

"So, you can refuse the imprint then?" Carlisle asked, sounding genuinely curioius.

The daggers in her eyes aimed at him. "No." she seethed.

"Okay...so what are you going to do?" Edward asked.

Leah rolled her eyes. "That was the reason I was asking for you to say 'I need you to leave me alone.' If that was what you needed, it would fulfill the imprint. And I could leave you alone."

"Oh."

"So?" she asked. My eyes flashed up to meet her steely gaze.

"What?"

"Release me." she ordered. That little flower in my heart closed up.

I stared at her for a long minute, wanting to deny her request. But that would just prove I was a monster. That I was forcing her to be tied to me. And why exactly did I want her to be tied to me anyway? She widened her eyes. "Well?"

"I don't need you here. I need you to leave." I told her. I guess I expected to feel something. But besides my own uneasiness and disappointment, I didn't fell a tie breaking or a chain that kept us together falling free. I was almost convinced that it didn't work when a huge smile lit up her face. Her eyes twinkled, this time with joy, and I'm sure mine got darker. She should love to be imprinted to me! She should want to, right? Or was I really that bad? Is that why Alice had left me too?

Her face dropped for a moment and I felt her nervousness. I knew she was thinking it could be a joke. She was thinking I would tell her that I wanted her and keep her from going. To my understanding, I could have her back with only a word. But while I was tempted, I would never do that to her. Never make her think that her views of me were true. Her nervousness was still there but she pushed it down, getting happy again. Her smile would've made my breath hitch if I breathed.

She looked up to me then and her smile slowly dissolved until she was just looking worried. "What's wrong?" she asked, immediately looking uncomfortable for asking but keeping her gaze on me. I wanted to tell her but there were too many people in the room. It was too late now anyway.

I stood and left the room.