Chapter 28

In my head, Leah was always wishing to see me and when I showed up she'd beam up and gladly receive me. Unfortunately, it never turned out that way. I'd show up and she'd merely tolerate me until things got awkward or silent and I left. Don't ask how, but I could feel that she liked me. I was confused and couldn't explain it, but I was sure she liked me too even though she'd send me conflicting signals. Four days ago I'd slipped into the woods to offer her my company, as a wolf of course, and what I'd thought would be a dumb joke had earned me a smack with a hard piece of wood. How was I to know I'd scare her? We'd been phasing together for how long now and she still couldn't distinguish my growls from anyone or anything else's? Seriously.

In the end, it turned out to be a sweet day. How many of the pack mates could say they'd taken a hot girl for a wolf-back ride? Not that I was going to tell any of them. I enjoyed having whatever secret I could, it being difficult to have any when you shared a brain in the first place. When I got home that night, I must have had the goofiest grin on my face because even my dad looked up from the game to comment on it. Rachel began her usual round of interrogations but over the years I'd perfected my ignoring skills when it came to either of my sisters.

That night, I dreamt of Leah. I had the kinkiest of dreams too and you know what they say: erotic is using a feather, kinky is when you use the whole chicken and being a bastard is not calling the chicken the next day. So today I went back to the Clearwater's looking for Leah but Seth burst my bubble by telling me she had left a note stating she'd be at Sam's and later at the library.

Lately, I liked Sam about as much as I liked getting indigestion. The fact that he had shoved his tongue down Leah's throat made me want to shove my fist down HIS throat. Then that conversation in Leah's kitchen that lead me to believe he was trying to win her back, from then on even his name upset my spleen. What gave him the right to play around with her anyway?

I had marched back home and busied myself with homework. Nothing would keep me from graduating this year, not even that thick idiot. But as soon as I was finished, I marched back to Sam's to demand what the hell was going on. I met him out front but we quickly took the conversation out back where we were away from prying eyes and ears.

"What's going on, Jacob. What are you dragging me out here for."

"I wanted to keep Emily out of this conversation."

"Emily and I have no secrets."

"Then she knows that Leah tried suicide because all of us were making her life miserable, especially the two of you?"

"I haven't told Emily about Leah's attempt, no." he seemed to pause to track any sound coming from the house in case she was eavesdropping but it didn't matter if she was, not at the volume we were speaking anyway. She wouldn't have been able to hear us if she tried.

"I thought you told each other everything?"

"I don't want to get her involved. I don't think she could handle it. She's been through enough, I'll take all the blame."

"How sweet of you. Maybe you should be the one with chocolate brown fur! You're just a saint."

"What is it that you want, Jacob?"

"I want to know what's going on between you and my beta."

"Why are you so concerned all of a sudden?"

"Because I don't want her getting hurt. You've already caused her enough anguish and now you're spouting nonsense to her about imprinting."

"I don't know what she told you, but I haven't said anything that wasn't the truth. It's even in the legends, Taha Aki had three wives and he felt that only the third one was his soul mate."

"I knew it, you're trying to get back with her despite the fact that you're already with Emily. How could you even."

"What? No!" had his head not been attached to his neck and it in turn attached to his spine, his head would have done a full spin at that moment. "I'm not trying to get back with her. I tried to explain to Leah that imprinting is not like we were told. The whole universe does not cease to exist. Sure that person becomes the center of your world but they don't become your sole world. Imprinting on Emily didn't just simply override all my feelings for Leah. Those feelings are still there, they're just not as strong as before and they're not something I can either ignore or something I can simply act on. Taha Aki felt it too. Even though he felt love for his other wives, only one was meant for him and he chose to become old with her."

"Wow, you're just delirious. I don't know what you've been smoking but now you're even twisting the legends to suit your needs. We've seen Quil with Claire, Jared with Kim." He made absolutely no sense to me. None. He might as well have been using moon speak or Klingon. I'd taken French when I was thirteen and I understood it more than whatever he was trying to say.

"I'm not twisting anything, I'm illustrating the point that it is possible to love more than person at the same time." He came closer to me and I stood my ground hoping that he made an attempt to hit me so that I could fight back and my actions would not seem as unprovoked. "Your concern , Jacob, sounds a little biased, though. You sound like you're threatened by me. You wouldn't be interested in her, would you?"

"That is no concern of yours."

"You're wrong there too. It is my concern because I don't want you hurting her. Someday you'll imprint too, Jacob, remember that. I didn't know back then what was going on, what to do or realized what I was doing to Leah but you have all the tools. I gave you all that knowledge. I handed it all to you in a silver platter. If you chose to hurt her, you are a worse person that I'll ever be."

While it was true that he'd shared all his knowledge with me, it didn't mean I was about to back down.

"If you want to keep all your limbs, Sam, stay away from Leah."

"I can't, she's still part of the pack."

"Not anymore, she isn't." I turned and walked past him as I left.

Where as before I hated giving out commands, I wanted nothing more than to alpha Sam into staying away from her. The only reason I hadn't used the double timbre was because it was Leah's life and her choice to make. It didn't matter how big a mistake I considered a relationship between her and Sam to be and no matter how much it would hurt me if they did have anything together, I really had no right to interfere. Even though I'd already admittedly done so. Still, if they wanted to be together, I was nothing more than a hurdle to jump over. Had I given out an alpha command, the story would play itself out completely differently.

My only option now was to fight for her. It was my right. I wanted to be with Leah and I would fight for her and try to win her over the right way. Not by making direct choices for her or by prohibiting and hindering her actions. I wasn't Edward and Leah wasn't Bella. I would never tell Leah what she could and couldn't do.

Leah was my choice and I hoped that I would be hers.


Short but revealing.

For some reason the site seems not to be sending chapter update alerts. I usually get email alerts even for my own story and not even that is working. I had at least ten reviews yesterday that I knew nothing about because I got no email. What's up with that, fanfictiondotnet? Huh. *shakes fist*

Oh well, I hope someone reads this chapter! 583 reviews. Must remember that number so that I can come back and check if anyone has reviewed. Yes, patience is not one of my virtues.