Thank you MammaNita4, sarae32, .7334, catgrl, lazygirl89 and rachel625 for your reviews.
A/N: A very kind reader, lazygirl89 pointed out that Sam and Leah were actually related with Leah's mother Sue Clearwater's maiden surname being Uley and so them being together and mainly having children would be a recipe for disaster if you take in account the medical disadvantages of being physical with someone so close to you in blood. To answer what you have mentioned, yes I was aware of this and honestly was equally creeped out when I first read about this. I did my own small research to be able to talk more about this and found out that though Sam and Leah are related, they were third cousins with Sue and Joshua being second cousins. Now I know that while many would be comfortable with such type of a relationship, there would be some who would not be so agreeable and so, for the purpose of my story, have changed the back story a bit. Sue is still an Uley but she was adopted into the family and given the surname 'Uley' when her mother Charlotte Harris married Jonathan Uley who already had a son Lucas from a previous marriage. I hope that makes sense and hopefully this would solve the problem of Sam and Leah being together. Thank you for reading and I hope you like this chapter.
Part IV- Imprint
Chapter 11- The fight
He nodded his head as he crouched to pounce on me and I too got down on my own crouch to attack and fight for my position in the pack as the alpha.
"Stop" commanded a firm voice in my head, roughly stopping me in my tracks "What is wrong with you both?" "Bella, you are not fighting and Jared, if you so desperately want a fight, why don't you fight me instead? I will give you such a fight, you will remember it till the day you die" said Sam menacingly, showing his teeth in a clear gesture of dominance.
I could see in his thoughts how livid he was at the moment as he ran at his fastest speed in the direction in which the both of us were. He was frustrated at what he termed our 'childishness' and Jared's misplaced aggression.
"Come on Sam" said Jared tauntingly "This is between me and our alpha, or is she too much of a pussy to fight for herself that she needs a man to support her?"
Simultaneous loud growls from both Sam and me filled the air "Don't fucking go there, Jared" I warned him. I was being nice till now, but one more word from him and I would lose it "I am trying to be very patient here, don't you dare test my patience"
He ignored my threat as he continued speaking "I am sure our great alpha can fight to prove why she deserves to be the alpha in the first place. So, why don't you just shut up and stay out of this?"
Sam growled at him, his hackles rising in anger "I will show you who the coward here is. Once I am done with you, you won't be able to look at yourself in the mirror, from all the shame you will be experiencing at losing that badly. You just wait for it, and you know what the funny part is, you asked for this" he said throwing a glare that could make a person shake in fright and terror of what was coming their way.
"I am not afraid of you" said Jared unafraid, as he took one step ahead, preparing to take on Sam.
"Stop" I commanded loudly before this got out of hand "He is correct Sam. He has a right to challenge his alpha if he is not happy with my decisions. The rules say so, and I would rather fight and lose than sit back and be termed a coward. So stay out of this and let me fight my own battles" "I know you are my brother and don't want to see me hurt" I said, my voice a bit softer than before "But in this pack I am the alpha and I have to prove why I deserve to be here"
"Not if I have anything to say about it" he said, scowling at Jared as he plotted ways to attack him, as he got closer.
"Stop right there" I commanded, noticing through the mind link that his legs had roughly come to a standstill a few miles from here, as the alpha command came into effect "You will not interfere in this fight, as it is not your battle to face. After I finish talking to you, you will phase back and go home and not phase again till I don't howl for you…"
"But" he interrupted "What if he plays dirty and you need me?" he said accusingly, looking at Jared who was just smirking, standing in his place.
"He will not" I said confidently and reassuringly "And like I said before if I need you, I will howl"
He still did not look convinced but nodded his head once, giving one last glare to Jared.
"And I had sent you to talk to Seth and explain everything to him. What happened over there?"
He sighed "The kid is a freak. He was excited. He thought that he was now a part of a supernatural movie came to life or something. He wanted to go and blurt it out to everyone he saw, telling them how his life was so 'cool', but somehow I managed to stop him and convince him otherwise. Luckily he had not told anyone till then and hopefully he will be able to keep mum about this"
I sighed in relief "So crisis averted?"
"For now at least" he said with a grin
I nodded my head. One crisis was averted but I still had another to go before this day ended. It had started badly, only for it to get better as the hours passed and now finally, we were back to the start, in one big complete circle.
"Now that that is sorted let's get this done with" I said looking at Jared "Unless you decided to chicken out"
"Ha ha" he said with no humor in his tone "In your dreams"
"You are really not worth of coming in my dreams" I said sarcastically "But I guess whatever makes you sleep at night"
He raised his eyebrows at my sarcasm "I hope you are as sarcastic after you lose. I really like your sarcastic self"
I snorted a laugh "We will see who wins and who loses" I said pointing at me when I said 'wins' and pointing at him when I said 'loses'. I knew it was childish but it got a reaction out of him, so I guess it was worth it.
He growled taking in a crouch and showing me his teeth in a gesture of a threat.
"Sam, phase out" I commanded, leaving no space for any arguments and saw through the mind link, how he reluctantly obeyed and phased out, leaving just me and Jared now in our wolf forms.
I quickly mirrored his crouch, getting ready to fight and get this done with. My strategy was simple. Instead of going all out and attacking, I was going to defend myself for the first few minutes of the fight. The reasons for doing so were several. First and most importantly, I did not want to give Jared the chance to complain later on, saying that the only reason why I won was because I was the alpha and so was naturally stronger than him. This was my way of giving him a fair chance at this fight, no matter how angry and annoyed I was at him at the moment. The second reason for me doing so was that I was waiting for him to tire out, I was waiting for him to use up all of his energy in his attempts to attack me so that when I attacked he could do no more than weakly defend himself. I was waiting for him to get annoyed and irritated by my defensive attack, which would lead him to make an irrational mistake in his irritation, and which I would be taking full advantage of. My third and final reason for doing so was that Jared was still a new wolf, who was running high on instincts and craved the adrenaline that came with a good fight and so, I was trying to exhaust him out. All three of us had different ways to release this pent-up aggression that came with being a wolf shape shifter. While Sam preferred to punch trees when angry, I found that a good run helped me clear my mind and calm down, and so probably a good fight was what worked for Jared.
Jared growled as his face took the form of a sneer before he took a step ahead in my direction. I mirrored his actions and walked ahead till we were standing directly in front of one another. The game of circling the other then begun, with the both of us locking eyes and waiting for that one second when one of us lost concentration and looked away, only to give the other a chance to pounce and finish the game, winning the fight.
I knew that I could have played dirty by using the mind like to manipulate him into losing but I stopped myself. I would not stoop so low and I had the expectation that same could be said for Jared. Yes, he was running high on instincts right now and was annoyed and desperate to see Kim, but he wouldn't do something like that, would he?
At least I hoped he wouldn't.
Suddenly a twitch of his leg grabbed my attention, a movement so minute and quick that if I would have blinked, I would have missed it before his entire body took one big leap and pounced on me, his teeth snarling in aggression and trying to take a bite out of my fur. Having expected the attack though, I quickly sidestepped, making him pounce on dry air instead.
He growled loudly clearly unhappy at the result before he once again tried to attack, once again to pounce on dry air.
He was quick and aggressive I would give him that but the one thing he was lacking in was experience. He had no prior training on how to fight with another being that was running solely on instincts, and needless to say he was too hasty to calm down and strategize before he pounced, a rookie mistake I would say.
I, on the other hand apart from being the alpha and hence being the strongest, had also fought nomadic vampires before and so knew a few basic fighting techniques and the simple art of mixing these techniques with the basic survival instincts that each person has, in a way that I would be able to stand my ground in a fight. Even Jasper had helped in teaching me how to fight. We both could never literally fight as we were afraid that if either of us got seriously injured, it could be considered a breach in the treaty but that didn't stop us from discussing about it and performing the moves in air, pretending that we were fighting the other instead.
Yes, I had never fought a wolf before but the mechanism was pretty much the same while fighting a vampire or a fellow wolf. You had to pin them down and bite them into submission. The only difference between the both, being that in the case of vampires you later had to tear them apart and burn their parts while obviously you didn't do the same with the wolf. Because of this being more of a friendly fight in comparison, the same rules didn't apply and we were not fighting to death, nor were we going to bite so deep that it results in any serious damage or like I mentioned last resort death. This was a simple fight of who surrenders first.
The third time Jared pounced, I was not as lucky as the previous two attempts and was a few seconds late in defending myself, resulting in him hitting me on the side harshly, making me lose my balance and fall on the ground roughly.
A battle of claws and teeth was what followed as he tried to stop me from getting up, while I tried to get out of his grasp, using my teeth to tear into him.
I yelped in pain as he bit over my paw trying to get me to surrender, something I refused to do so easily before he once again attempted to bite me, over the tail but before he could be successful in doing so, using all the strength I had within me, I pushed him over, roughly pushing him away from me and standing up with my tail wagging high.
He looked shocked for a minute at being pushed away with such force, before he once again started the game of circling and attacking between us. He would attack and I would sidestep at the last moment, defending myself.
I could clearly see it on his face that he was getting annoyed, irritated and tired of this game that I was playing. Attacking again and again without any results was exhausting him and more importantly frustrating him.
Good! That was exactly what I wanted. I wanted him to be annoyed, to be frustrated and to be angry enough to make one stupid mistake that would cost him the fight. I knew that I could have played it easy ending the fight in the first ten seconds itself but what was the fun in that? Seeing Jared huff and puff was much more fun. It was a blow at his ego and it was giving me intense satisfaction at the moment.
In my opinion physical fights were much more than just a test of physical strength. It was also a test of patience, resistance and will power to stand up after you fall. Sure, you could show your aggression in a fight but if you wanted to last long in the fight, you needed to think strategically and at the moment it looked like if Jared were to fall, he would not have the energy or the will power to stand up and get fighting again. He was tired, having used up all of his energy in his attempts to attack while I was still as energetic as when I had started.
Suddenly as if knowing that he was exceptionally close to losing, Jared's mind started playing a scene on repeat, forcing me, begging me to take a glance at it.
'"Paul, have you seen my shirt. I can't seem to find it" came a loud shout from the master bedroom upstairs as Kim and I stood at the door of Paul's house talking to him. He had just returned to La Push last night and though Kim had insisted that it was way too early for turning up at someone's house unexpected, I had ignored her, not expecting that I would be witnessing something like this.
"Jane" Kim had murmured under her breath, a sound so soft that I wasn't even sure if she knew that it had come out of her mouth. I could feel her stiffening and immediately I had squeezed her hand tighter. We were not here to judge or create a scene. Paul was a grown up and what he did in his personal life was none of our concern.
"So what time did you reach here last night?" I had asked Paul ignoring the female voice that we had just heard.
"Umm not very late, around eight or so" Paul had said, too deciding to ignore that voice
I had nodded my head and we both had started to talk about Paul's road journey and where all he had stopped en route while I could feel Kim's stares at Paul every few minutes.
I could read my girlfriend like an open book after being with her for so long and so it was no guesswork for me to know of what she was thinking. She was judging Paul and judging Jane for being so fast and again, it was no guesswork of what had just been happening in Paul's house and why Jane had spoken those words. It was as clear as crystal, but like I said who was I to comment on someone's personal life. It was their choice of who they slept with and who they woke up next to and I was nobody to judge, and I was sure to tell Kim the same when she argued with me on this later on…..'
I growled at him, gritting my teeth in warning as the memory ended. I was boiling in anger and all I could think of doing was ripping him apart. How dare he? He knew that I had imprinted on Paul and still he had played dirty and used this to his advantage. Maybe I had been quick to judge when I had said that Jared would not play unfairly.
Seeing how I had been distracted in watching his memories and burning in anger on seeing them, Jared pounced on me, using all of his force to stomp my leg and managing to break two of my smaller bones.
I howled in pain as I felt the crack in my leg. I was livid and furious. I had not expected such a disgusting behavior from Jared out of everyone. He being a new wolf was no excuse for him purposefully hurting my feelings. I had known of this happening through Kim, but hearing and seeing are two completely different things and Jared was nobody to reopen closed wounds. This was between me and Paul and he was no fucking body to show me this memory of my imprint and hurt me and for what, to win a stupid fight?
"I am sorry Bella" said Jared, sounding as genuine as was possible in this situation "You left me with no choice but this. I need to see Kim and you will heal very soon"
I could hear Sam's thoughts in my head, him having phased on hearing my howl, as he plotted and planned to permanently maim Jared for hurting me but I ignored him for the moment. I needed to pay attention.
With a loud terrifying growl that left no doubt that I was furious, I exhaled visibly, using all of my power in getting out of the death grip Jared had me in. He was not expecting me to use my force like this and jumped half a mile away, looking terribly shaken and scared for the first time in the fight.
Good. This was exactly what I wanted.
I snarled at him. He should not have brought Paul in this. He had tested my patience and I was in no mood of being fair and giving him a fair chance anymore. He was going to get what he deserved.
In one big leap I pounced on him, landing directly on top of him and pushing him roughly to the ground, on his belly. I stood directly over him as he writhed and squirmed in pain. As a human I weighed nothing in comparison to him but call it the magic of the spirits, because as the alpha, his strength was in no comparison to me.
He shifted in embarrassment and pain, trying to get out of the dead grip I now had him in but I snarled at him.
"This ends now" I growled out "I am your alpha and you will submit to me"
There were no words left for argument here. My words were firm and final.
"No" he croaked out, shaking his head
I tightened my hold on him, as another whine left his mouth.
"Surrender nicely or I will be forced to bite you into submission" I warned him. Biting someone into submission was demeaning in my opinion and so threatening him of that was my last option.
He shook his head as he used every effort in the book to push me away but I refused to budge and let him go.
I sighed, realizing that he was not going to give up "Know that I did not want it to happen this way" I said apologetically.
With this I opened my mouth wide and went to bite his exposed neck…..
"Stop" said a voice in my head, the urgency in the voice stopping me for a brief second.
I sighed, honestly I was tired of everyone coming and disturbing me like it was a one-time only offer while I was trying to fight here.
"Could I please just get this done with without someone else deciding to interrupt?" I pleaded, sarcastically.
"Bella" Levi sighed, shaking his head in disbelief "What are you kids doing fighting amongst yourselves when we have bigger problems at hand?"
"What problems?" I asked suspiciously, straightening a bit but not letting my grip over Jared get loose.
He sighed once again "Can't you smell it?"
I looked on curiously as I sniffed the air once, then twice but apart from a slightly smoky hue that had the undercurrents of rotten months before expired candy, I could not smell anything amiss.
"I don't smell anything out of place"
"Seriously" he questioned, surprised before he sighed again, this time more to himself "Of course, how could I forget, you are not an old grayed man having lived decades like me" he chuckled, his voice though betraying the fact that he was extremely worried.
"What is wrong?" I asked worriedly
He took a deep breath before answering "This smoky hue that you smell, it is a vampire's power, the power of masking their real scent and reducing it to just a mild scent that one would generally not pay any attention to. Nearly three decades back I was unfortunate or in a way if you see fortunate to come across one such vampire in Seattle. I captured him alive and managed to question him on why his scent was almost non-existent. That was when he told me that this was his power. He also told me that lighter the scent the more powerful the vampire and older too. As a favor for telling me all of this, I let that vampire who meant no harm, go. He had been just roaming Seattle when I had come across him"
"So you mean a vampire is approaching our lands and so this scent" I clarified
He nodded his head in answer, already making preparations in his mind of how we were going to deal with this.
"But still we are four of us. With you being as experienced and even me and Sam being able to fight, that is hardly an equal fight. Why are you still so worried?" I asked confused, surely one vampire powerful or not, could not be such a big problem.
He shook his head "That is not it. I have a strong feeling that said one vampire is masking someone else, possibly his coven. My wolf can feel the tension in the air and is rattling in the cage desperate to kill them"
"Which direction are they coming from?"
"I am trying to trace it. Follow me. We should all run towards the source of the smell"
I nodded my head as I looked down at Jared. I did not want to let this go, but it seemed like I had no other choice. Fighting the vampires who had entered our territory was much more important that fighting my own pack member.
"We will continue this later. Whenever you feel ready for it" I said as I got away from Jared who was still whining in pain and embarrassment.
He huffed but did not say anything otherwise and I took that as my cue to continue "Sam, Jared, a vampire or possibly more than one are on their way into our territory. We need to find them before they hunt on our lands and our people"
They nodded their heads, having heard a bit of my conversation with Levi. As we were in separate packs, they could not hear his side of the conversation but they had heard enough from my side to know of what we were facing.
"Are you sure that they are not just your bloodsucker friend's friends? You better confirm with them before we kill them and waste all that time and effort" he said tauntingly "And anyways it would be very rude of you as a 'friend' to do so, I must say"
"Jared not now" I glared at him "We have a bigger problem on hand than your desire to see your girlfriend" he growled at me but I ignored him "And Friend or not, they should know better than to enter our lands. The Cullens generally inform us if they are having visitors but despite of that, the rules are clear, if they or any other vampire enters our land, we rip their head off their body"
"Which direction are they coming in from?" asked Sam, steering the conversation in a more important direction.
"Levi is trying to trace it. He has said to follow him" I said as I took off in a run following Levi who was running in the southern direction.
"Jared" I spoke through the mind link "If you wish you can go home. In my pack I don't force people to fight if they don't want to. I would never ask anyone to put their life in danger if they are unwilling to. I am the alpha and I am going to fight as it is my responsibility to safeguard our lands and our people. Sam had been offered the same choice before his first fight but he refused to let me face danger while he rested at home. If you decide to fight there is a chance that you will get hurt. We, as a pack will make sure that there are no casualties but still, accidents happen. You are new to this and if you decide not to fight, no one will hold this against you or at least if they do, I will make sure that they know that I was the one to offer you this choice. So, what will it be?"
He scoffed "You must be crazy if you think that I will let the opportunity of ripping apart a few bloodsuckers go in waste" "And anyways, why would you do that for me? Why would you put your neck on line for me? I have been nothing but rude to you"
I sighed "Jared, I have been through this phase. I know how desperate one feels to see their loved ones and so, I am not judging you for it. You are afraid that you will not imprint on Kim and thus are behaving like this. It is fear that is making you do so and as your pack alpha I cannot let you get into something without knowing of its consequences. These vampires are not going to be understanding and are definitely not going to show mercy. You fight without being completely in the fight there is a thick chance you die. So either you fight with your head in the fight or you go home. I will teach you how to phase back and you can see Kim if you promise to be careful around her"
He huffed, a little guiltily than before "I am fighting and I am going to kick their asses"
I nodded my head deciding not to say anything more as the three of us ran in silence, following Levi in the deep dense woods.
Finally after running for what felt like miles together, Levi suddenly stopped and sniffed the air "This way. They are close"
Once again we started running in the direction from where the mild scent arose and after a few minutes of blind chasing stopped, when we were directly standing in front of three vampires, a dirty blonde haired male, a red haired female and another male with dreadlocks.
Levi and I stood in front, with Sam and Jared a step behind us ready to fight and kill these vampires.
A/N: The confrontation with Jared is not yet over. I really wanted to cover that part in this chapter but it was getting really long so had to cut it into two.