A/N: Hello lovely readers! We are winding up with New Moon! I was wondering if you guy would prefer me to continue Jacob and Alex's story in this fic, or if I should make a separate fic for the sequel? Again, I'd just like to say thank you to everyone still reading. This is an angsty fic, and I know a lot of you were hoping for fluffy happy times, but unfortunately, there's still some bumps in the road before we get a happy ever after. Also, I don't know how many of you were waiting for Leah, but I certainly was! Enjoy the second last chapter of Mine!

A sudden swooping shift in gravity woke her with a start, and she screamed, coming to awareness mid-air. Her throat felt as if she'd swallowed sandpaper, and the jolt in her breathing made her chest seize and she began to cough violently.

"Oh! Shit, shit, shit!" The loud but familiar voice eased the panic that had gripped her, and she was set back on her feet abruptly. A large hand slapped awkwardly in-between her shoulder blades, which only made things worse. Alex tried to turn and swat at Paul's hand, but doubled over instead with the force of her heaving shoulders.

"Paul, you fuck-wit!" Embry came to her rescue, stumbling blearily up from the couch, and shoving the older boy roughly off of her, and crouching to meet her eyes. "What can I do?" he asked worriedly, mouth turning down at her loud rattling breaths. She tried to shrug, unsure herself. Maybe she still had water in her lungs or something. Would it evaporate? Alex had no clue, and closed her eyes, focussing on regulating her breathing. Embry's hands left her shoulders as her breathing slowed, and he reached over her to swipe at Paul again. "Stupid."

"Sorry…" Paul said mournfully, and Alex straightened gingerly to look at him. He looked – as the others had – completely wrecked. He wasn't the only one who had returned. Jared was slumped over at the kitchen table, nursing a tall glass of soda, and pressing a bloody cloth to a long cut up his arm.

At Alex's attention, he managed a smile. "Glad you're okay, Alex." He said.

"Thanks." She said, frowning. "Jesus, Jared – what happened? Was it the vamp?"

Jared grimaced, leaning back to expose his abs, and another set of raised, healing wounds running almost the full length of his torso. "Leah." He sighed. "We have no idea where that red-headed bitch is, but right now, she's the least of our problems."

Alex looked at Embry, who shrugged, obviously as out of the loop as she was. Paul ran a tired hand over his face, and Alex noticed the cuts and bruises Paul was sporting too, including an almost healed nick across his forehead. "Leah and Seth are still Phased, and they don't seem to be able-"

"Or willing…" Jared interrupted Paul with a grumble.

Paul rolled his eyes at his friend, "to Phase back. Poor Sue is still in shock, the girls got her home… and Bella Swan just fucked off with a Cullen, and Jacob's lost the plot." Alex felt her heart stutter. Bella was… gone? "The vamp fled east, and we can't find her trail. I doubt she's coming back." Paul said, and then reached for her. "I'm just happy you're alive, Alex, seriously." Alex returned Paul's fierce embrace, burying her face in his chest as he rocked her back and forth slightly. "Kitty's been - well – just holding it together."

Alex winced. "That is not going to be a fun conversation." Paul laughed, and let her go with a fond and aggressive ruffle of her hair. Alex hesitated, biting at her lip. "Paul, what do you mean about Jacob… is he okay?"

Paul gave her an unreadable look. "He'll be okay." He said shortly. "You jumped off that cliff after Bella, didn't you?"

Alex frowned. "Yeah… I couldn't let her drown." She was getting tired of explaining herself. How was she to have known that they had been nearby? "What was I supposed to do, Paul?" she asked a little defensively.

He shook his head. "You were brave, Alex. Stupid – but brave. I'm just thinking… Jacob could be a little more fucking-"

"Paul." Jared's voice was sharp but tired, and something told Alex that whatever Paul had been about to say, Jared had already heard it. "Enough, dude. It's not the time."

"Yeah, whatever." Paul said sourly, scowling like thunder. Alex looked between the two of them, Jared offering her another weak smile. "I'm just saying. He's being overdramatic." He reached out almost unconsciously, ruffling her hair again. "I'm going to go check on the newbies." He said, and stomped towards the door.

"Are they here?" Alex asked, squinting out of the window, and realising belatedly it was pitch-black, and obviously well after nightfall. She must have been asleep for ages.

Jared shook his head, sinking back down until his face was squashed on the table again. "Not in the backyard, but we managed to herd 'em closer to the house, just in case they shift back." Already, his eyes were sliding shut. "They'll at least…have somewhere to…to sleep." He managed, his face falling slack. Alex smiled slightly as he began to snore quietly.

"I'm sure Jacob's okay." Embry said quietly, and Alex turned to meet his worried expression.

Alex nodded. "Yeah… I guess." She wasn't so sure. "But if her vamp is back in town, he'll be devastated. He really loved her, I think." Embry looked troubled. "It's cool. I get it."

"Do you?" He asked quietly, and there was an odd knowing look on his face that made her frown. He shook his head. "Never mind. Are you gonna sleep some more?" he looked a little longingly back at the couch, and Alex smiled.

"No, but you go ahead." There were things Alex had to do now. Her accident today, whilst justified, had caused more damage than she had intended. Bella could not have chosen a worse time to perform her little stunt, and her sudden disappearance wasn't helping matters. Whilst Alex could understand Jacob's despair, whilst she could blame him for his emotion, right now, the Pack needed him.

Alex couldn't go out into the woods and help Paul wrangle two newly Phased werewolves, she couldn't just go and help Sam arrange a funeral, she couldn't go and comfort a woman who had just lost her husband, and she couldn't help track the vampire that had eluded them. But she could help the Pack stay whole, and she thought she could at least ease some of the burden if she could just bring Jacob home.

Jacob.

It was her. He knew the second she entered his consciousness, could feel the invasion, and place the soft sensation as Alex immediately.

What?

Perhaps he could have been more polite, but she had promised to never do it again, and right now anger was all he could really focus on.

I'm sorry.

It was easier now to discern her feelings, made more palpable in this state, joined as they were. Right now, she was sadder than he expected, frustrated, a little lonely, but mostly wanting. There was a lot of that going around tonight. Bella's face swam in his memory again, the memory of her turning from him, choosing that bloodsucker again-

He howled, the sound tearing from him just as involuntarily as his initial shift. It echoed off the quiet forest around him, loud and mournful. He should have better control than he did, but Bella had always been his weakness. Fuck.

"He left you, Bella. He didn't want you anymore, remember?"

"I'm not gonna let him kill himself out of guilt."

Jacob snarled wheeling in tight circles. Distantly, he could feel the minds of the two newest members of the Pack. Leah seemed to be even more angry than he was, and Seth's distress was as palpable as the dirt beneath his paws – but he blocked them out. Their grief was their own, and maybe it was callous of him to think that, but he just needed to-

They need you. The Pack needs you-

"Please, Bella. Just... stay here. Not for Charlie. For me..."

He could perfectly picture the way Bella's face had creased in regret, in pain that he had caused, and yet… and yet… she had turned from him. That stinking sucker beside her had the gall to look offended by his words, and it seemed Bella had sided with her, with him again.

"I'm begging you. Please."

"Bye, Jacob."

She had chosen Edward and left without a second glance. After everything he had-

Come home.

Alex was insistent, and the Imprint was just as forcible. His wolf didn't like hurting his Imprint, but Jacob wasn't ready to return, wasn't ready to think and be. He would dissolve out here if he could, just lie down and be washed away by the rain… he turned his head to the East, to the mountains, to the wide world beyond La Push. If he ran, maybe he could escape it all.

Jacob, please… for me. Just this once.

And then Alex was gone, and Jacob was alone with his thoughts and traitor heart. Because right then, he hated Bella. He hated her. She'd told him once about the hole she felt had been punched through her, the horrible, aching displacement, the theft of her joy, her heart – taken by the Cullens, taken by him. Right then, he thought he understood it. Because he ached. He had put everything into her, into making her smile. Fuck. She had turned away from him like she was nothing. Maybe he should do that same.

Bella had also said once that Alex was intimidating, that Alex wanted him all to herself. He'd laughed, juvenile and unassuming, so sure she was exaggerating, maybe a little pleased she had been jealous. That had been before all the Imprinting shit, back when he thought he'd just been crushing on Bella, before he knew love-

Fuck.

He turned, and raced for home.

Alex sat up slowly from where she had crumpled onto the ground. The light rain that had been a gentle mist had turned back into a downpour, and she was soaked for the second time that day. She'd tried to sit up against a tree, but it looked as though her unconscious body hadn't cooperated.

Jacob was…

Torn up.

That was the best way she could think to describe it; with his messy, red-raw emotions, pain and anger burning through him. Alex had known Jacob loved Bella, but she hadn't known just how much. Was it cruel of her to wonder why? What exactly did Bella give him, to make him so enamoured, so reliant?

And it seemed that she'd failed anyway. Jacob hadn't been listening to her, and she hadn't recognised the trees around him. He was too far from home, and didn't seem to care. Alex thudded her head back into the solid trunk of the tree, wiping her mud-stained hands on her wet jeans.

She was just so fucking tired. She just wanted-

Footsteps in the bracken, just audible over the patter of raindrops, made her still. She didn't have time to be properly frightened, as a tall figure stepped out of the trees. Alex blinked, gaping for a moment before regaining her senses. "Jacob – you came back." Jacob's face was unreadable, but there was something hot and heavy in his eyes that made her heart ache. He was shirtless and barefoot, and Alex could see steam visibly rolling off of him as the cold rain hit his bare skin. He was still staring at her, eyes like thunder, and Alex realised he might have come back just to yell at her. She had broken a promise afterall. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have, but I was just worried about you. And the others, they need you right now, and I-"

He moved so quickly, so inhumanly fast that Alex let out an aborted cry, stumbling backwards as he lurched for her. He was in front of her before she could take another breath, and she felt her back hit the wet trunk of the tree again. This close, she could feel the heat radiating off of him, suddenly very aware of how much larger he was, as she craned her neck to meet his eyes. His hands moved slowly, tremulously, and Alex sucked in a breath as his fingertips trailed up her arms, up over her shoulders, skimming her pulse, until he had her face between his hands, as if cradling her head. The Imprint had flared to life, and that desire made her heart begin to pick up its beat, and Jacob's eyes darted to her chest, as if he was listening. "Jake." She said, quietly, almost a warning.

Then he kissed her, and she was alit in a dizzying wave of euphoric heat so overwhelming that she almost tipped over.

His lips were demanding, clumsy – Alex realised distantly this must have been his first kiss – and as his grip tightened upon her face, she reached up to grasp his wrists, weakly tugging at him. This wasn't- He bit at her bottom lip, a challenge, and she sighed involuntarily, leaning into him as the flame inside her grew and grew and grew- no. NO.

Alex shoved at Jacob as hard as she could, trying to lean away. He didn't move far, but his hands dropped from her face, and she took a shaky breath, trying to calm down. "What are you doing?" she asked breathlessly, her lips tingling, skin on fire, fingertips aching with the need to touch him again. He opened his mouth briefly, as if to explain himself, and Alex made the mistake of watching the quick rise and fall of his shoulders, his swollen lips, his blown pupils. Shit.

They collided again, and this time he seemed surer of himself, and Alex groaned as he pushed her firmly against the tree, the full length of their bodies pressed together. The rain around her seemed to be evaporating, the heat of their union defying nature. And it felt so right. Everywhere they touched, fit together like interlocking puzzle pieces, each breath shared, the hands on her body, her nails raking down his chest, fingers, skin, lips, tongues-

The snarling yowl that ripped loudly around the trees was their only warning before Jacob was bowled over by a large, white furred form. The force of the take down left Alex prone, eyes wide as she watched an unfamiliar wolf bare its teeth and snap at Jacob's neck. Jacob burst into Phase, and Alex pressed herself into the trunk of the tree as Jacob's massive form took up what felt like every inch of the tiny clearing.

The white wolf's size was near laughable compared to Jacob's bulk, but whoever it was fast, and enraged in way Alex couldn't remember seeing since Jacob's own first Phase. She couldn't make out anything but fury in the white wolf's eyes, and it was terrifying.

"Fuck! LEAH!"

Paul emerged from the direction of the house, and threw himself into the melee without a second's hesitation, and Alex froze in horror as he waded between the snapping and snarling wolves, still human. Paul let out a growl of his own, bone chilling and loud, and there was a weight to it that made Alex's mouth dry up, as he reached for Leah, somehow managing to get his arms around her muzzle, roaring with exertion as Leah bucked up and around him, trying to force her jaws open again.

Jacob was panting, and began to pace, eyes still locked on Leah as she thrashed around in Paul's grip. Alex gasped as one of Leah's paws caught Paul's torso, opening up a gash that began to bleed.

Paul grunted, digging his bare feet into the churned up earth and held his ground. "Leah, stop! You can't attack an Imprint-"

And then the white wolf was twisting and shrinking, fur disappearing, bones cracking and reforming, muzzle disappearing into a human face, and Paul lost his grip on the suddenly very naked, very human girl that slipped out of his arms and into the mud with a sneer and another snarl. Alex blinked, averting her gaze as Leah Clearwater stood on her own two feet, and glared at them all. She seemed unashamed of her nakedness, upright in her fury, and what Alex recognized as grief in her eyes.

"I'm not attacking her." Leah jabbed a finger at Alex, with such derision in her tone that Alex shrank into the tree. Leah turned her glower on Jacob's form, baring her teeth like they were still fangs. "He's the one I want to gut-" whatever had made her so furious with Jacob took a hold of her again, and Alex watched as she shook, blurring, and Phased again – exploding into the white wolf with a furious howl.

Paul rubbed his hands over his face, smearing his own blood and mud across his cheeks, completely exhausted. Alex shivered, chill creeping down her spine as the mad heat from the kiss faded away to be replaced with an uneasy nausea. Something wasn't right-

Leah managed to get a hold of herself again, and she Phased back again, still shaking like she had a fever. "He's kissing her, breaking her little heart, just because he wants to make Bella jealous. I heard him think it-" Jacob leapt at her, and they dissolved again into combat, Leah yowling with such volume that Alex covered her ears as she felt her stomach sink. Right. She nodded to herself, and took a step away. Paul had turned back to the fight. Alex took another step. And then another. And another, until she was out of sight. There was nobody watching her leave. Still with her hands clasped tightly over her ears, Alex stumbled her way through the trees, away from the fight, away from the wolves, away from the house, away from the Pack, away from him.

And she pretended that the tears running down her cheeks was rain, and she pretended that she wasn't hurting, pretended that she didn't care that he used her. After all, it was just magic and make believe. She'd been fighting the stupid Imprint since it had happened. Why should she care that he was too?

Why did she care?