There was that time in 7th grade when Leah thought it was a good idea to give herself bangs. It wasn't, of course, and her shaggy fringe looked more like the edge of the old kitchen broom than the Seventeen magazine model she was imitating. She was horrified by the final result and all her attempts to fix it only made it worse.

But she would never admit that out loud.

She was Leah Elizabeth Clearwater...she cowed to no one.

She pretended that she loved it. She wore it loud and proud, even when the too short edges stuck up around her temples and the ragged line frizzed when it rained. She ignored the stares and whispers of her classmates and she informed anyone who asked that it was "creative license."

One classmate responded with a scoff and told her she should have her license suspended. Leah gave the girl a black eye. She got detention for that...and started a trend of ultra short bangs among some of the younger students.

There was a select inner circle, a chosen few, where she did not have to maintain her impermeable image. Among these, she could burst into a genuine, belly rolling, snorty kind of laugh, weep till her eyes turned red, and drop her gaze to her shoes as she admitted to a mistake. Leah kept strong walls between this inner circle and the world outside, in the same way old medieval castles did. Inside, when the stones gave way to daub-and-wattle walls, there she could take off her armor, but never outside of that sacred sphere. This circle could always be counted on one hand and rarely allowed new initiates entry. Her parents and her brother were the taluses holding up her castle walls. For a time, Sam and Emily had crossed the drawbridge and been admitted to the keep, but they were now firmly fixed outside of her battlements where they would never "slight" her castle again.

The day Leah cut her bangs, Sue Clearwater held her as she cried and borrowed Aunt Camilla's best salon scissors to try to fix it. It didn't work, but that didn't stop Sue and Leah from descending into tear-stained giggles at the absurdity of the end result. Seth generously offered her use of all of his baseball hats, if she wanted. Harry told her she might as well shave it all off and give the neighbors something to talk about.

"I already give them enough gossip to fill a tabloid twice over," she answered him with an exaggerated eye roll. She was rewarded with his fist rubbing static electricity into her mess of a hair cut and an ice cube down the back of her shirt.

Leah felt like that now. After her outspoken animosity towards the leeches, she'd have to eat her words. Yeah, she hated the parasites and all they stood for and did. She still wouldn't step one foot into the Cullens' house; she didn't care what color their eyes were. Yeah, unjust or not, she blamed her most recent bouts of heartache on the very existence of the Cold Ones and they were guilty purely by virtue of being what they were. Now she needed to learn to love an individual that epitomized all she had professed to despise...and it felt a bit like drinking orange juice after brushing her teeth.

The question was what was the best way to break the news? She could stay as she was, hidden away in the forest and ignoring the outside world. But that would only procrastinate the inevitable. She could skip the Cullens' barbeque and slowly inform her inner circle, beginning with Jacob - the one most likely to sympathize with predicament. Or she could get it over with.

She was Leah Elizabeth Clearwater. There only ever was one option.

In hindsight, Leah really should have had her camera recording the looks on everyone's faces. Her packmates resembled a bouquet of Venus flytraps, their mouths opened wide for their prey and the choking sound Embry made on his pop really almost made it all worth it.

She emerged from the driver's side of her car in the Cullens' driveway high heels first. Her hair just brushed the bare shoulders revealed by her deep violet halter top dress, perfectly matched to her eyeshadow. She hadn't been this dressed up since, well, Sam. Just the anomaly of her wearing something other than cutoffs and a t-shirt would have been enough to raise eyebrows. When the bare-chested Nahuel exited the passenger side of her car, Leah's red-rimmed sunglasses covering his eyes, all conversations stopped the same as if someone had pushed a "mute" button.

She ignored how her cheeks burned and her stomach churned as all eyes, red, black, and yellow, stuck to them like flies to fly paper. Instead, she threw her shoulders back, held her head high, and crossed over to take Nahuel's hand in hers. Then she leaned in to kiss Nahuel, calculating within her just how long and heated to make it to ensure the discomfort of all the eyes still trained on them. Then she pulled her lips away, raised one eyebrow to meet any who dared look at her, and kept an arm around Nahuel's waist.

"So, where's the food? I'm starved," she asked the silent gathering. It was like throwing a match onto a gas leak because hushed conversations exploded throughout the yard.

But that was that. Leah's eyes dared anyone present to question her. No one did and so she didn't bring it up. She went, filled her plate with chicken and corn, and pretended like nothing had happened. Like this was exactly the way things were supposed to be.

No one needed to know that they weren't.

ooooo

It was long after the s'mores had been washed off of sticky fingers, the sickeningly sweet PDA's of all the mated pairs were endured, and Leah was alone in the car with Seth, Jacob, Quil and Embry that she could open the first portcullis on her drawbridge. The silence in the car as she started the engine was deafening. She threw her car in reverse and kept count in her head, wondering which would be the first open this can of worms.

1...2...3...4...5...

"So, uh," Jacob started, his hands clumsily messing with his hair while he stared at the road instead of her. "You wanna tell us something?"

Leah mentally gave Jacob her official "awkward ice breaker" award and gave him a terse, "no."

"Ah, come on, sis! What was that?" Seth whined from the back seat. "You gotta spill."

"No, I don't. There's nothing to spill," she answered.

Embry snorted behind her and Leah rolled her eyes in response.

"Yeah, cause you disappearing for a day and then showing up lip-locked with a half-vamp is so normal for you," Quil said.

"You know me, I do that kinda thing all the time," she answered.

"And, so, what happened?" Jacob pressed.

"I saw the guy on the side of the road and he needed a ride."

"And you normally make-out with random hitchhikers?" Jacob said.

"When they're hot, yeah. Don't you?"

The four Wolves groaned in unison, but Leah refused to give in, at least not yet.

Jacob, done beating-around-the bush, said, "Welcome to the half-vamp imprint club." He tried to give her a fist bump and received only a frosty glare in response.

"Wait, so you really imprinted? Really?" Seth asked, so innocently confused that Leah almost felt bad for her sarcasm. Almost.

"Of course not. Nahuel is the man of my dreams and everything I've ever wanted. It was love at first sight. There is absolutely no genetic wolf curse that forced him into my life," she answered, exaggerating her intonations to infuse each word with her disgust and frustration.

"It's not so bad," Jacob said. "Half-vamps are pretty amazing, once you get to know them."

"Maybe yours is...Jake, your imprint is growing up in Forks. She loves lasagna and watches Saturday morning cartoons. Mine eats people."

Quil snorted in laughter and Embry soon joined him. She could see Seth's frown in the rearview mirror and she knew the "real" conversation would happen later.

"Look on the bright side, at least he's full grown," Embry added in. "Unlike Quil and Jake, here, no one can accuse you of being a cradle robber."

Jacob and Quil both groaned in protest.

"Watch it, Embry. I hear he has a sister," Quil said and he reached over Seth to knock Embry on the shoulder. Embry knocked his hand away before bumping Seth.

"I hear he has two sisters...wouldn't that be cute, Seth? You could be both Leah's brother and brother-in-law," Embry added.

"I don't think that's funny," Seth grumbled, his lips puckered in his downcast expression and he refused to join in the laughs of the other boys.

"It can't be so bad," Jacob said, bringing them back to the original topic again. "Maybe he can learn to live on people food and not, yeah, not people as food. Sure, you come from different places and he's crazy old, but he wouldn't be your imprint if it couldn't work out somehow. Our imprints are always exactly what we need, even if not what we thought we wanted."

"Your optimism is making me nauseous," Leah said.

"No, really. You know Quileute marriages used to be arranged by our families, back in the day. They still worked out," Jacob said, still trying to fill the role of "wise Alpha" and Leah bit back her desire to remind him he only imprinted six months before her. He was trying to help and it wasn't his fault she was as prickly as a porcupine and ready to pour out her wrath on anyone who came within a six foot radius of her personal grouch bubble.

"No, Jake. This is nothing like those arranged marriages," she said. "I'd trust my family over my wolf genes in my choice of husband any day. Even Seth could pick better and he struggles to choose toothpaste from the store. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's a pretty man but I kinda need more than looks to make a relationship work."

"Oh, come on, Leah. He'll make a great trophy husband," Embry chimed in.

"Yeah, more of a participation trophy," Leah replied. She dropped her voice to mimic a sports broadcaster voice and continued, "Leah Elizabeth Clearwater, in recognition of your participation on Team Wolf in this round of Bloodsuckers vs. Shapeshifters, you are hereby awarded this Imprint to commemorate your contributions. You will never forget the role you played in the Battle of the Baby with this vintage hybrid model of your own to have and to hold until death do you part."

"If it gets you out of the 'Sam rut' during patrol runs, then its a positive development," Embry said.

She was about to give a snide answer in return when she stopped. She realized it was the first time she had even thought about Sam that day...and hearing his name now felt more like a sparrow alighting on her heart instead of a charging rhinoceros. She snorted.

"You know, Em, I can't argue with you there," she answered with a grin.

Then Quil burst into a laughter, barely able to speak as he chuckled to himself. "Oh, man. I wanna be there when Sam finds out. He's gonna blow a gasket!"

ooooo

After dropping off the other three, Leah parked in the driveway to their family home. She was both relieved and terrified to see the lights on in the house.

"Why is mom here?" she asked.

"I might have called her," Seth answered, a bit too sheepishly. Leah groaned.

"What did you tell her?"

"Ummm...what did you want me to tell her?"

"Ugh...I thought I'd at least have tonight to process this before talking to mom about it. What am I supposed to tell her? 'Hi, mom. Your future son-in-law is Dracula Junior.'?"

"She knew something was up already."

"How? I haven't even talked to her since the Battle."

"That's why. Leah, you call her everyday and twice on Sundays. We all managed to survive the 'monster battle of the century' unscathed and you don't even remember to text her? Yeah, she thought you had died or something. Then, when I told her you 'needed some time' and that you giggled...yes, don't think I missed that...then she said she'd be waiting for you here when you got back."

Leah grumbled under her breath and nervously pulled her hands through her hair. They got out of the car. She stumbled to put her keys into her purse and she felt like she'd swallowed an accordion with how her stomach roiled with nervousness. Before she could walk to the porch, two warm arms enfolded her from behind and a head leaned onto hers.

When did her baby brother get so tall and strong?

"Come on, sis. You know it'll be ok," he said.

"No, I don't," she answered sharply and tried to pull away. He didn't let go. Instead, he pulled her in a little tighter and she couldn't hold up her walls anymore. Here, in her castle keep, she didn't need to pretend. She didn't fight them when the tears chose to fall and soak into her brother's shirt.

"Oh, Sethy, what am I going to do? I can't...I just can't. Why? Of all the people in the world? Sethy, what do I do?" she cried.

The clap of a screen door was followed by footsteps and another pair of arms soon wrapped around her tighter than Saran Wrap.

"Oh, Baby Girl," her mother's voice whispered and ran her fingers through her hair. "Shhhh."

"Mama, what am I gonna do?"

"You're gonna do what you always do. You're gonna hold your head up high, and meet any challenge you come across head on," her mother replied.

"But why me?" Leah began, but her mother cut her off. She pulled back to meet her daughter's eyes.

"Leah, if you don't want them to look at you with pity than you gotta get outta your own pity party. They all gonna look at you the way you tellin' them to. Stop thinking of the life you wish you had and make the most of the one you got. It ain't perfect. No one's is. The point in life is never for it to be perfect, but for it to be lived.

"When I look at you, I see my strong, fierce, beautiful daughter so busy wishing she had somebody else's life that she don't have any time to live her own. You can thrive and shine, if you let yourself, and you are gonna shine now."

"But he's not what I wanted, Mama," she said. "None of this is."

"I know, Baby. But, you know, I can't wait to meet him. You know why? Cause he imprinted on you. That alone tells me he's something special, because you, my daughter, are one-of-a-kind, and the fact that he's yours is enough to for me to know. I'm gonna love him too," Sue said, her own eyes bright with her unshed tears.

The three Clearwaters curled up with comforters on the living room floor that night. Just the way they had the night after the Nisqually quake, when little Seth was too scared to sleep alone for fear the house would fall on top of them. Just the way they had when two children transformed into wolves and their father's big heart couldn't hold them all together anymore. Just the way they had the night Sue told them she had found another and would be moving out of the home she'd lived in all their lives.

There, they fell asleep. Those three Clearwaters were stronger than even the thickest of battlements and together, they kept each other upright, even when they wanted to crumble. As long as they held on, Leah could withstand any siege.

ooo

Author's notes: Thanks so much for all your fav's, follows, and reviews. Your participation is what makes writing so fun! :)