Chapter 32: Aftermaths of The Big Bonfire

As we got closer to everyone else, I saw Paul with his wolf in the front waiting for us with crossed arms. He was growling lowly at Embry.

Embry went in front of me, approaching Paul cautiously while showing his bare neck in submission and said, "Hey, the conversation took a lot longer than I thought. Sorry for touching her. I didn't mean anything beyond a simple hug of a pack brother to a pack sister. She let me hear what I needed to hear, and she let me use her shoulder to cry."

Paul gave a sigh and said, "Fine." He passed by Embry and went to nuzzle me in the neck. Smooching me passionately on the lips, kissing my claim mark, and exploring my body to rub his scent onto me, it led me to get a little aroused. I whimpered, "Paul, not in front of everyone."

Paul chuckled as he bit me on the lip, "they gotta know who you belong to" and I said pointing my belly, "this is not enough of an indication?"

He shook his head with a wolfish grin, "nope" as he kissed me passionately on the lips. I wasn't used to showing my affection like this in front of hours, so I felt shy. Paul chuckled lowly sensing my embarrassment.

He wiggled his eyebrows, "it's not like they don't know what we do behind closed doors. It is what brought us our pups."

I said, " Yeah true."

I cracked a smile until I heard Emily shouted, "Everyone gather up. We're going to celebrate for our first pack babies!" as she waved for Paul and I to get to the table. I walked shyly to the front with all the guys wohoo'ing and cheering. My face was flushed with embarrassment.

Lol. They didn't need to get that excited. It's not like it's my birthday haha.

Paul was right behind me, hugging me from the back with his hand caressing my belly. I look down on the table and it was a two-tier chocolate cake with a white candle in the middle. The was an icing writing that says Congrats! My mouth was watering. It looked delicious.

I heard clicking from the distance, and when I turned to look where it was coming from, it was Sue taking pictures. She looked at all of us sheepishly and said, "this is to document for the future.. I took it upon myself to be document everything that has happened."

She glanced at Charlie then back to me, and I nodded. Okay, she is saying that due to Charlie being around.

I nodded and said, "that is a good idea."

Sam went behind Emily and wrapped his arms around her as he softly kissed her scars in front of everyone. Emily giggled and said, " I..we want to apologize of how we behaved toward you Ale, and I hope that we can get closer as family. I want to show you how much you mean to us and the ..crew , and we are so excited for the babies that are coming!"

I saw Sue frowning slightly with Seth shifting awkwardly in his feet and Leah rolling her eyes at Emily. Charlie noticed all of our expressions and he just looked at all of us suspiciously. I cringed internally because she apologized to the open, now I have to accept the apology, so I said with a forced smile, "It is alright, Emily. We're..family. There will always be some fighting and bickering, right? It's natural, and..I don't know what the spirits have in store for us" I placed my hand on my baby bump "but I am excited to be in this journey with you guys and Paul by my side as my..partner and the father of my children."

Paul pecked me on the lips, and I went to blow the candle. All the guys cheered and lined up to taste the chocolate cake. Paul served me and myself, and I followed him to a table far from the fire, so I won't inhale the smoke. I was cuddling next to Paul, eating my tasty slice of cake as I watched everyone.

I saw Charlie was hanging out with Billy and Old Quil until he got up and said, "Alright guys. I have to go hit the sack. I got work tomorrow at the office. Don't make me regret leaving you guys on your own. I don't want to hear or see anything in the morning after this party. Good night!" Everyone said bye to Charlie, he left with his police cruiser and drove away.

Once we didn't see Charlie's cruiser, Quil and Embry said, "Now, lets get the real party started! Let's celebrate for the departure of the vampires and the success of our brothers. Their success is our success! Because they did well with this business opportunity,we got offered to build motels by the freeway between Forks and Port Angeles for the next three months!"

All the guys including Paul howled in excitement as Quil was passing through everyone and saying "We got beer and moonshine!"

I told Paul, "you could drink a little", but he pouted, "but that means I won't be able to kiss you as much, I don't you tasting alcohol."

I said, "Okay, do what you want."

I stayed by Paul side for the rest of the evening, as I told him everything from the appointment today with Sue. He also told me how everything went with Jason, and he got all the stuff that we wanted ordered, so it will start coming in within a week or two. He is working for a friend of Jason's, and Paul, Sam, Jared, now Brady and Collin are going to start working next week. It won't be as intense as the past two weeks, and they only going to be gone half a day few times a week and the other half of the week, he is going to help out the others with patrolling. In short, he has work like 8am to 5pm Monday thru Friday for the next few months. He was able to get what I asked him to get, and it is already in the house, so that got me happy. Seth and Leah felt the party early to go patrol until early morning to give Jared and Sam the time to spend with their imprints since they haven't seen them for almost two weeks.

It was starting to get late in the evening. I saw Embry asking Sam to go talk to him in the woods, and I gave him an encouraging smile as they disappeared to the forest and phase…I hope it all goes well with Embry at this point on.

Everyone else cleaned up after themselves since the girls were the one who cooked everything, it was only right for the guys to help clean up. Now, the only one left was Sue, Paul, and I at the beach.

Sue asked Paul, "Can I speak to your mate for a moment?"

Paul nodded and said, "I'll be waiting for you guys by the car."

I nodded, and Sue waited until Paul was gone when she said, "I want to thank you sweetie for everything you have done for the pack. "

I said, "it is nothing to be thankful for. I did it..because I care for everyone and I want to do well as the peacemaker"

Sue said, "I also want to apologize to you on how Emily treated you."

I frowned, "it's nothing for you to apologize Sue. It is she who needs to apologize..but I am not looking for apology, so..its fine"

She shook her head and said, "No it isn't fine..I..I did wrong with how I handled Leah when Sam first phased and when Sam imprinted on Emily. Because ..Harry and I were the only one who in the know of the secret compare to her family in the Makah Reservation, we tried to be there for her and help her adjust to everything..but..I failed to realize that it came at a huge cost…it cost me my relationship with my Leah..I knew Leah was hurting, but I thought she would pull through on her own because she is strong and as the wife of a ..council member, my lips were tied..I couldn't be there for my Leah. I shouldn't have listened to them because I didn't notice the physical changes that was going on with her that led to her phase.. I ..thought that being there for Emily at every point in her new life as the first alpha's imprint in the new pack, I was helping her..But hearing from what you have said to Leah, Sam, and Emily. I slowly came to realization that I...I didn't help Emily to stand on her own feet. I only crippled her emotionally. I didn't notice that my sweet niece has become emotional, easily tempered, and insecure individual."

She continued, " I know she had made mistakes with you and made you feel unwelcomed with her..insecurity, but she is a sweet girl in the inside."

I said a little bit firmly, "I agree I can see that she really nice girl, and she means well, but it doesn't justify her actions."

Sue sighed and said, "I know..I know.. I'm sorry for that, and I take my responsibility as the member of the council on how we handled Emily, Leah and Sam… We didn't realize we handle them so poorly managed until I heard what you said to each one of them.. Now that I am part of the council, they will have to listen to me….But, when I saw you at my front porch that evening and found out that no one came to check on you, I ..was forced to see that Emily isn't doing what she supposed to do like we all thought we were. The cracks of the image that we helped create for Emily as the alpha female, it was being shown... It was part of her fault that you weren't adjusting to the life of the reservation well when the guys were gone for few days.. She should haven't let her personal feelings get in the way, so that is why I reprimanded her tonight. As the alpha's imprint, it is her responsibility to make all the imprints feel welcomed in the pack and look after the imprints while their wolves are away regardless of anything… "

I paused and said, "it seems like she isn't doing well with being alpha female, Sue..I..no offense to you guys, but I don't think it is a role that Emily should've taken upon herself. If she really was alpha female, then it wouldn't have been so hard for her."

She sighed, "The men in the council..they thought she was alpha female when Sam first imprinted on her since he is the alpha, and when Jared imprinted on Kim and more wolves were phased, so they made me prepare her, mentor her to be alpha female Then, when Jacob phased, we thought he was going to take on the alpha mantle, but he surprised us all, he was adamant that he won't become alpha. So, I started pressuring her to do well because we weren't certain of the future of the pack, so we thought that preparing Emily to take on the alpha female role, she would be okay."

She added with a plead at the end, "if you give her some more time, I think..she would be a good alpha female."

I said frowning, "But Sue, now that Jacob is on the spirit walk and it has been weeks since we last saw him, I think there is a higher chance that Jacob is going to come back to take on his rightful status as alpha. Then, once he does take the status as alpha and imprints, it would be a huge disservice to Emily. I know you guys are just preparing for the worst-case scenario, but you are making Emily believe that she is something then it gets taken away immediately when the true alpha female comes. Emily..how she is now..she won't take that well because her self-esteem is so low due to her scars, she takes pride being the 'alpha female' and it would just destroy her and make her bitter Sue. She did so much trying to be the 'alpha female' that the council, you and Sam wants her to be, and for it to be taken away immediately from her? She'll need to come to accept that her role is temporary just like Sam's, but she won't if the council and you keep feeding her ideas."

Sue paused for awhile, and said, "I'll..talk to the council what you have said..I..I didn't realize that we are making Emily to be something that she isn't then to be ripped away from her. Thank you for your wisdom Ale..I didn't see it this way."

Is it really wisdom? It seems pretty out there, but I don't know, what can I say? These people were manipulated by Meyers, so they could be dumbed down for the sake of the plot for Twilight and to keep people focused on the love story between Edward and Bella.

Seeing that Emily is having a hard time trying to be something it is not, it is only confirming my theory that Leah may be an alpha female. Heck, Leah has been more of an Alpha female than Emily these past days without feeding the pack like Emily usually does. Maybe that is why Jacob is taking so long to come back from the spirit walk? Leah needed to be ready when he comes back? I don't know.

Sue said, "Well, it is time for us to rest now. The food that you made was delicious , and I am very thankful that you have come here as the peacemaker and Paul's mate. You have helped Leah so so much..I..I don't know when it was a last time that Leah focused on the future and even talking about making something of herself..Thank you" and there was few tears in her eyes.

I said warmly, "Not a problem, Sue. I..I care about Leah ,and I am also caring sentiments of many people from my world and timeline regarding her. When we learned about her, so many of us felt so sad for Leah and would like to do something to help her, so to be able to help her, it makes me happy to see that she is doing okay little by little…But, it would also be nice to see how things improve with you and Leah" I was hesitant to add the last part, but I felt it was important for Sue to know that she gotta patch things up with Sue as well. It's not all on me to help her to get close to Leah. Either way, it is up to Leah if

Sue smiled sadly, "..it's still hard because now I am Emily's confidant. I heard what Leah told her about not being her bridesmaid. I am sad, but I didn't want to push it with Leah. I need to think about Leah's feelings, but its hard not seeing them like how they used to be..

I said, "Yeah..but it's up to Leah if she wants to patch things up with Emily..and with you regardless of the fact that you are her mom..….I can't imagine how alone Leah felt when Emily was getting all the support when Leah was also hurting…You made your mistakes, and its good that you recognize it. But now, you need to take responsibility by showing Leah again that you're reliable, consistent, and trustworthy..I don't know how long or when ever Leah is going to warm up to you again Sue.. What you, your husband, and the council did to her, it runs very deep and it'll take time for her to come around. Or she'll never come around, but if she is able to move on her life despite of it, then that is fine too. It's up to Leah whether she want to forgive and let it go, or forgive and not let it go. Don't force her. Okay?"

Sue said, "I understand.. but I ..didn't mean to make it look like that I cared about Emily more than Leah.. I did what I thought it was right, but..now I think about it, I..we only dealt it as how convenient it was for us. .It was easier to help Emily than Leah...but..I don't understand? I am her mother, isn't it automatic that I am reliable, consistent, and trustworthy?"

I said, "Well, I don't know everything about you guys, but you probably were reliable, consistent and trustworthy at some point in the past. Then how things played out after Sam phased, it all went to shambles…I don't know, but you don't really know a person until you seen them in time of stress and struggling. Sometimes, the real character of a person comes out, or maybe that is just them in that time. I can't give you an answer to that, only you know if how you responded during that time was really you or due to the stress, it happened. That…is what you and the council need to think about. Nevertheless, Leah do need an apology because no matter what the reason was, she was still mistreated."

Sue sighed, "Yeah. I'll..I'll need to think about it.."

She paused before saying tiredly, "now we need to take you to bed, so mama and the babies can have a good long rest."

I nodded as she guided me to the car with Paul leaning against the car as he patiently waited for me. He looked up with a tired smile, and he helped me get inside the car as we drove back to the house.

Author's Note:

Hi. The next chapter would be a filler-ish chapter, and then we will start getting on with the plot from Breaking Dawn. Keke

Thank you guys for the kind comments! I appreciate them a lot.

What did you guys think about Sue? She knew it was wrong of what she did to Leah and Emily but still did it. She is apologetic, but she gotta do better to really show her apologies. That is how I am, you can say sorry all you want but no actions, its just manipulation.

If I were Leah, I won't forgive so easily. I would take it into consideration, but I wont trust Sue that easily lol.