Thanks and love to all my reviewers. We're almost to the end now and I'm feeling a bit sad now!
Here is the full story behind Annie's Grandma. Enjoy!
Chapter – Lydia's Story
"...Jacob, I think we may be cousins." She said, staring up into my face in amazement.
"You look like Rachel!" Was the first thing that popped into my head. "Seth, she looks like Rachel right?"
"She's beautiful Jake." Seth sighed, obviously still overwhelmed by the power of Imprinting. He was going to be no help to me in figuring this out.
"You're right Jacob, there is a definite family resemblance." Edward confirmed for me, a look of confusion crossing his face. With his mind reading capabilities, it is rare that he is ever confused about anything. That at least made me feel better about being so dumbfounded. "She doesn't know any more than you, though."
"Who's Rachel?" Annie asked, gazing in wonder at both Edward and Carlisle. Although it was overcast, it was still a bright day and their skin was glowing slightly. Picking up on my thoughts, Edward quickly motioned to Carlisle, who nodded and they excused themselves, rushing back into the house.
"Sorry Annie, this must be as weird for you as it is for me!" I laughed. "Rachel is one of my sisters."
"Wow! And you look like my cousin, Billy. So you think it's true? We're related?" she asked in excitement, looking at Seth like she couldn't believe her luck to have found him and me all in the one day.
"I don't know, honestly. But you do look like my sister." I said to her, not wanting to raise her hopes. "Who was your grandmother?"
"Well, her name is Lydia Mannock, but I don't know her maiden name, just that she is Quileute." She said, before suggesting "Why don't you come and meet her?"
I didn't need any more encouragement than that. We quickly rounded up Nessie and Leah, piling into Seth's little car and heading off down the road towards the reservation. I could feel a wave of nervous energy coming from Leah and could tell that with Seth finding his Imprint and some long lost family, she was hoping that maybe she would finally find her soul mate too.
"Leah?" I whispered quietly to her, aware that the only person who wouldn't hear me was Annie. "I hope he's there for you."
She turned and looked at me with a nervous smile, not sure what to say. "Thank you Jacob." She whispered then leant over and gave me the warmest hug I'd ever had from her. "But first can you please take back what you said... be Alpha again."
Looking deep into her eyes, I could see the pain and pressure that I had forced upon her when I had made her Alpha against her will. She was the best Beta I could ever have wished for, but she didn't want to be any more than that. She didn't want to have Sam in her head again. She just wanted to get on with her life. I then realised what this would do to Leah, this new hope, if she didn't find her Imprint here. Would this break her even more than she was already?
Without saying a word, I felt my body and mind register that I am the true Alpha and the magic swirled around us as the power returned to me. Seth gasped in shock as he felt the rush, pulling off the road quickly as the power shift made him dizzy. "What's wrong, Seth?" Annie asked in concern. I could already see the love in her eyes as she looked at Seth, trying to figure out what had made him stop so abruptly.
"Nothing Annie, everything is as it should be again." He said, turning and smiling at me and Leah. Slowly he pulled out onto the road again.
"I guess that's another one of those things that you're going to explain to me later?" she asked with a laugh. This girl was so happy and relaxed that I had to laugh with her as I realized how perfect she was for Seth.
Leah and Nessie must have understood my thoughts and they too began to laugh. "See Seth," Nessie said happily. "The other night you were right in what you said to me. It all happened for a reason. All is right in the world now."
"Yep, I have to say I told you so!" he laughed back at her smugly, glancing in his mirror at Leah before adding, "But I don't think fate has quite finished yet. There is still one more to find."
After that, Seth, Leah and I settled into a thoughtful silence while Nessie and Annie got to know each other. I could almost feel jealous of the way she was raving about what an amazing guy Seth was and how lucky Annie was to find him, but Nessie kept shooting me little smiles and winks that just made my heart ache for her. I knew that I needed to go and meet this mysterious Quileute woman and find out what she meant to my family and the pack, but all I wanted to do was get back into bed with my girl and kiss her until she couldn't take any more.
Finally we arrived at the reservation and Annie quickly directed us to her grandmother's home. When we knocked at the door, I felt slightly nervous at what we might find but when the door opened, I looked up into the face of a woman with my father's eyes. Her eyes went straight to Annie and lit up as she greeted her, pulling her in for a hug. As she let go, her eyes finally moved to take in the rest of us and when her eyes fixed on me she froze, dropping to her knees and crying out... "Ephraim?"
What the hell? She did know my grandfather! I couldn't get my head around that fact that this woman had just called me by my grandfather's name. I could see the family resemblance and knew that we had to be related but she was far too young to be able to recognise my grandfather from when he was my age.
Then a number of things hit me all at once... this woman knew my grandfather, she looked far too young to have a granddaughter the age that Annie was and she had an overwhelmingly familiar scent... Wolf.
Apparently, I had been slow in coming to this realisation. Probably being called Ephraim had shocked me for a moment. But then I saw that Leah was on her knees in front of this woman, holding her and crying, and I realised the implications for Leah. This woman was obviously able to phase like us, and yet she had children and grandchildren, a family. Everything Leah ever wanted.
"Another girl?" Lydia asked, looking at Leah in wonder. "I thought I was the only one!" She lifted Leah to her feet and invited us all into her home, her gaze once more lingering on my face in disbelief.
Once she had us all inside, she spent some time making us all comfortable, making tea and sandwiches while joking warmly that she knew we must be hungry. Eventually she came and sat down across from us, slowly looking into each face. Finally she stopped on Seth and a small smile played at her lips. "So, you've picked my granddaughter have you boy?"
"I, er... well, yes I have. I will make her happy." he stuttered at first, but finished proudly, earning a nod of approval.
"And I suppose you are still looking?" she asked of Leah.
"I didn't think it could happen. I thought I couldn't..." Leah shook with her silent tears as she acknowledged her deepest fear. "I thought I was barren."
"I did too but you will find him, I promise you that." Lydia said with conviction, making Leah smile a smile that I hadn't seen on her face since before Sam found Emily.
"You I don't know about." She said to Nessie. "You are obviously not Quileute! You're not human. You're nothing I've ever come across before, but you clearly belong to him, so I assume that you are okay?" Nessie nodded in excitement, clearly just loving that she got to be here for this moment.
"And you?" she asked, finally turning to me. "You are not my Ephraim. You are not little Billy. Who are you?"
"I am Jacob," I answered simply. "Ephraim was my grandfather, Billy is my father. But who are you?"
"I always believed that one day they would find me," she sighed in resignation, like she was finally letting go of something that she had been holding onto for a long time. "I suppose that is what kept me going all these years. My name is Lydia Black. Ephraim was my brother, my twin."
I was stunned. I had never heard that my grandfather had had a sister, let alone a twin. I had been told that twins ran in our family but never knew who that referred too. But I knew there was more to the story. "And you are one of us?" I asked although I already knew the answer. She looked sadly over at Annie, and I realised that she had carried this secret for decades, not even sharing it with her family. "Are there others?"
"It has been only me for so long," she said, looking tired. "Recently though... I think there are Cold Ones are nearby. Some of my boys, they are growing so quickly. I don't know what I am to do with them."
I wasn't sure if it was too soon to discuss this in front of Annie, and asked her if we should talk privately, but she answered that if Annie was to be with Seth, she would soon learn anyway, so I told our story. Poor Annie looked more confused than ever, but seemed to be content to just sit close to Seth, taking comfort in the Imprint bond.
"You're right. There were some Cold Ones. I came across them two nights back and tried to kill them but there were too many for me and I nearly ended up being killed in the process. Leah and Bella, Nessie's mom, they caught up in time and finished them." I explained, trying to ignore Annie's shocked gasps.
"Her mother?" Lydia asked, turning to Nessie. "What are you that you're mother can come to the rescue of such a strong wolf? Alpha, I assume?" I nodded in response.
Nessie sat up proudly before answering Lydia straight, "My father, Edward, is from the family of Cold Ones that agreed to Ephraim's treaty. I am half human. My mother was turned after my birth. To this day, the treaty is maintained by both sides of my family." Hearing her refer to the pack as her family filled me with such happiness I almost forgot all about Lydia. I couldn't believe that a little over 24 hours ago I'd been ready to give up hope completely.
"One of them came to your aide? Against one of their own?" Lydia asked me in shock, unsure what to believe.
"The treaty is still in place only in name. We now have an alliance, a friendship. Since I Imprinted on Nessie, they have become our family. Together we are too strong for any others to challenge." I said with pride, knowing that this alliance that we had formed would protect my tribe in a way that the wolves could never have managed alone. "Carlisle, the eldest, is staying with us near the town, along with Nessie's parents. Their presence may well be effecting you're family."
"I must say that when we agreed the treaty, we never imagined that it would come to this." She laughed, and I realised I had been holding my breath, unsure of her reaction. "Oh well, as long as the tribe is protected."
"If I may ask Lydia,' Leah interrupted. "What happened to you? How are you here?"
"I suppose I do owe some sort of explanation," she answered, settling back in her seat the way my father does before he begins telling our tribal stories beside the bonfire. I settled myself back, resting my arm around Nessie's shoulders, eager to hear Lydia's story.
"When the Cold Ones came, Ephraim was the first to change. I was so frightened for him. We didn't know what was happening. A few weeks later, I began to have the sweats and I too began the change. At first we didn't know why it was happening, but we knew the stories of the warriors taking the spirit of the wolf to defend the tribe.
"There were five of us when we finally came across the Cullen's. They kept managing to evade us, they seemed to be able to read our minds, to know when we were approaching. We stalked them, planning how we were to attack them. They seemed determined to avoid us at all costs. Then they changed tactic suddenly and began to speak to us. How they knew that we were human we did not know. But they could read our thoughts and tried to answer our questions. Ephraim didn't want to listen. He wanted to simply kill them and be done.
"But there was something about them. I tried to stay off to the side, to observe them. They did not behave like other Cold Ones. I stalked them at times. I seemed to be able to hide my thoughts from them, and so was able to stay undetected if the breeze was right. They were so human. The woman, she was so caring towards the others, like a mother.
"I followed their leader and found out that he was a doctor. That he worked to heal humans, that he seemed to truly want to help. I spoke to Ephraim and he agreed to meet with him to discuss their offer of a treaty.
"Before that meeting was to take place, there was a terrible accident. My husband, Quil and I got into a terrible fight. I hadn't told him the truth about my other nature, and he believed that I was being unfaithful. I got so angry that I phased. Before I knew what had happened, he was laying dead in my arms." She stopped then, tears streaming down her face as she remembered this tragedy.
"I lay with him for hours. I was so ashamed of what I had done. We were supposed to protect our people, and yet I had been the one to bring harm to the very man I loved. I laid him out where I knew that Ephraim would find him and I left. I ran as a wolf for days. I had no food and no money or clothing. I didn't know where I was headed or why I didn't just lay down and die but something just kept pulling me forward. After weeks of walking and searching, I stopped by the river to consider throwing myself in. As I sat by the bank, a canoe came passed and I looked up into the eyes of my Rey and found my reason to live.
"He somehow knew that there was something about me, that I wasn't what I appeared to be. He sat in his canoe watching me, talking quietly to me in a language I couldn't understand. But I knew that he was trying to comfort me, to let me know that everything was going to be okay. I phased back to human right there in front of him and he wrapped me up, carrying me back here and taking care of me. He never told anyone about me, just that he had found me wandering alone and taken me in.
"So many years I have been waiting for this day, when my Ephraim would come and find me. But instead fate has brought me his grandson and his friends. And it is at the time I truly need you too." She suddenly looked upset. "Please Jacob, please take care of my boys. This is such a confusing time for them."
"Of course, Auntie," I assured her and she beamed at me. "We could send you some of our most senior wolves, or your boys could come to La Push. It may help them to understand it better if they learn more about us."
"I think you are right, Jacob" she quickly agreed. "You seem so young for so much wisdom. May I ask how old you are?"
"I am twenty-five, but I began my phasing at just 16." She nodded, looking thoughtful.
"What happened to my brother? Did he live well?"
"He did Auntie. He is loved and remembered by all the tribe as one of our great chiefs." I told her honestly. "Your pack had become something of a legend until recently, when the Cullen's returned to Forks and we began to change again."
"I suppose that is what has kept me going all these years." Lydia spoke again. "Knowing that this could happen to by grandchildren and they would have no idea how or why. They wouldn't know that they needed to protect their family."
"Do you still phase yourself?" My curiosity got the better of me. "You obviously have aged a bit, but you look far too young."
"I stopped phasing for a few years when I first came to live here. I was too scared that I would harm my new family" she explained. "Then one day I was out walking by myself and got lost, so I phased so that I could follow my scent back to safety. It felt so good that I decided to allow myself to keep doing it, but only when I was away from home alone. I stopped during my pregnancies and while my children were young, but when they became old enough to take care of themselves, I began again."
"So if you had continued to phase regularly, you would probably have remained looking the same age forever?" Nessie asked, looking at me in excitement. My thoughts had been the same... It may truly be possible that if I keep phasing, I could live forever with my Nessie! An eternity of heaven on earth.
We kept talking for a while until Annie announced that she would have to get back to work if she wanted to keep her job. We said our goodbyes, promising that I would visit again before we returned to La Push. I was determined to get Lydia to agree to visit us soon so that she could see Billy and the elders.
As we got to the door, it opened and I thought for a moment that I had opened the wrong door and was looking into a mirror, but the image was somewhat smaller. This must be my cousin Billy that they had talked about. He froze with his hand raised as if to knock and stared at me in shock, before stuttering, "Gr... Grandma? I, um... Who...?"
"Billy, I'd like you to meet your cousin." Lydia announce proudly to him. His eyes drifted away from me at last and he looked at Annie, his eyes pleading her to explain.
"Cousin's? I know we have a big family, but I was sure I'd met everyone." He answered, eying Seth.
"Billy, this is Seth, my new... friend. These are his friends Nessie, Leah and our cousin Jacob. They're Quileute. They're Grandma's family from La..." her voice drifted off and she watched in wonder as Billy's eyes turned on Leah.
All I could think was, finally!
Yay for Leah! I had to find her someone after all this, and who better than a mini-Jacob! Leah deserves the best after all this waiting around worrying!
Please review!
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