Chapter 37

Sam POV:

Paul and I were running patrol when he suddenly picked up a vampiric scent heading inland. It wasn't Edward, and it wasn't the redhead, but it also wasn't any of the 'good' ones that had been hanging around Bella either. We put our noses to the ground, and chased after it.

I'm not getting a whole hell of a lot of anything. Paul thought as we were spinning our furry asses in circles trying to figure out where the hell this leech had gone.

It doesn't make any sense. I can't catch a scent in the trees, so they didn't climb, but the scent is just in circles here in this spot… I couldn't figure out what exactly had happened.

Oh well...maybe we should just move on. The scent isn't brand new or anything anyways. Paul suggested. I was ready to go along with his plan to just move on, but that's when I had an overwhelming feeling of being in danger. I wasn't in any danger though, so that could only mean one thing.

What the hell was that? Paul asked, his wolf whining since he had felt it too through me.

Bella. Bella. Bella. Her name was like a mantra in my head as I realized that this scent had been some sort of diversion. Bella, who was on the beach, in the opposite direction of where we'd been heading, was in grave danger. I then realized that Bella was with the rest of the pack, I pushed my wolven body to run as fast as it could.

Emily! Oh, fuck no. Paul was right behind me. The two of us barreled towards the Pacific ocean, miraculously not running into any trees on our way.

It didn't take long for the burning smell of bleach to hit us stronger than before, and this time it was the redheaded leech. We realized quickly that the rest of the pack was not in immediate danger… just Bella and Emily. For some reason, they had made their way down the beach, north of where the pack had planned to have the bonfire.

We were met with the terrible vision of Victoria stalking her prey, our mates.

We have to stay calm Paul. I said, fighting my own need to rip through the trees to save my mate and my friend. I needed a clear head for all of us to come out of this alive.

What the fuck Sam… I can't stay calm… Em… his wolf whined, his form shaking, even in his wolf's skin.

Fuck. We both thought at the same time as we saw the redheaded bitch grab Emily into her clutches, her fangs elongated, readying herself to bite into Emily's flesh. I could feel the panic from Bella, I could feel my own panic, and I could feel panic coming off of Paul in waves. There wasn't anything we could do to the vampire without hurting Emily as well while she was in her grasp.

Baby, no. I smelled Bella's blood and my own panic shot up tenfold. Then I realized what she had done when I saw Victoria shift her focus back to Bella, and she dropped Emily. I heard an awful crunch as Em hit the ground, but she was going to live thanks to Bella.

Damn. Paul thought as we took our que to pounce as the leech stalked towards my mate. I could hear the admiration in his voice and could feel as his disposition towards Bella changed, just like that.

We made quick work of the dead bitch, both of us wanting it to be over so that we could go to our other halves. I felt a physical need to be with Bella and check her for injuries aside from her arm, which she had left a huge gash in to distract Victoria. I needed to take care of my mate, and I knew that Paul felt the same drive.

As soon as we had lit the leech on fire, we phased back human, not daring to leave our women for even long enough to phase and put some shorts on, we just took care of that there in the open, making use of the shorts we kept tied to our ankles in wolf form.

I pulled Bella into my arms and held her tightly to my chest. I took in her scent and looked her over for injuries. I ended up tearing a part of her undershirt and using that to wrap up her still bleeding laceration. Then, she was back, safely tucked in my arms. I knew I was still growling softly, but I couldn't control it, my wolf was very much in control at the moment.

When I finally let go of her, well mostly, Paul had, mostly, let go of Emily too and the pair of them regarded Bella with intense eyes.

"Thank you Bella… you saved my life." Emily spoke gently, with a small, watery smile. Paul nodded his thanks from behind her. Bella frowned.

"That's what you do for pack." Bella practically spat at her. After that she allowed me to lead her away from the pair, and back home. We only stopped when we came across the rest of the pack who had loud music blasting out of large speakers and were happily talking amongst themselves. No wonder they hadn't noticed what had been going on.

Based on Bella's reaction to Emily's thanks, I could assume that they had excused themselves from the group to talk about recent events between the two of them, and that it hadn't gone well. It seemed like the rest of the pack had been none the wiser, but at least it made sense as to why they had let the pair go off by themselves in the first place. No more of that. Victoria may be gone, but we still had Edward to contend with.

Bella left my grasp to flip the music off, then she used me to steady herself as she stood up on a large piece of driftwood, so that she could be standing at the same height as me. She'd effectively gotten the group's attention. She looked to me first and I realized that she wanted me to do the talking. I'd kept quiet until this point because I knew that she needed to feel her leadership role with the pack, but now, we were a team.

"Listen up, because I am only going to say this once," I started. Everyone faced me and I allowed the alpha timbre to ring out in my voice. "Bella IS my mate. She is my chosen mate, and now she is my marked mate. She has sacrificed for our pack." I gave a pointed look at Paul and Emily as they walked up to the bonfire area. "She is to be given the same respect that you give to me."

"I am the alpha's mate. I will do whatever I can for the pack, and for the tribe. I will always put you first. I will kill for my pack. I will die for my pack." She spoke out, her voice rang with command, her presence was the epitome of an alpha female.

One by one, each wolf and each imprint bowed their head to my fearsome mate and I, finally giving the respect that we have earned. We watched as each of them accepted her as my mate and accepted her place as their co-leader beside me.

We looked towards Paul and Emily. Paul looked us both directly in the eyes, nodded his head and then bowed it before us. He had always valued loyalty and strength above all else, so I wasn't surprised by his acceptance. Emily looked at him, certainly more shocked than I was. She gave a disapproving look his way, but then followed his lead, bowing as well. I had a feeling that whatever had been going on between the two women, wasn't behind us just yet.

While all of the packs' heads were down, I turned to look at my beautiful, strong mate, eye to eye.

"I will kill for my pack. I will die for my pack." I repeated her words in a whisper full of conviction. Instinct took over and I leaned forward to bite down on her neck, leaving a new mating mark on the opposite side of the first one.

Once I had let her go, I helped Bella to step down off of the drift wood log and we made our leave. The pack stayed silent for as far as I could hear as we walked back to my house. We didn't make it all the way into the house before instinct took over again, and I had her pressed up against a tree.

"Mine." I growled as I nibbled at each of her marks. She raised her hands to be pressed on my bare chest and used one to claw down my collarbone where my mark was. We both moaned as we teased the sensitive spots.

"Yes, Sam," she breathed out, letting me lift her so that I could grind my hips into her center. She wrapped her lean legs around my hips, drawing us closer together. I kissed her roughly and grabbed her ass in handfuls, using the leverage to pull her into me again and again.

I let one of my hands wander up the hoodie and undershirt that she was wearing and let my hot hand sear across her cool skin. I started to walk us up to the house, unwilling to pull away from her for even a second.

As soon as we made it through the threshold, I slammed her up against the door. We made quick work of my hoodie that she was wearing and then the skimpy undershirt she was wearing too. Both were tossed somewhere in the living room and forgotten about.

"Fuck me, Sam." She whimpered right in my ear. I couldn't deny this woman anything, even if I'd wanted to. I slid her jeans down her legs, exposing beautiful, creamy skin as I went, and helped her to remove my shorts, as her hands were too shaky to snap the buttons.

I eagerly shoved two fingers in her tight cunt to make sure she was ready for me, and my baby was ready. Bella was dripping wet and I growled, looking up at her.

"All this dominant, leadership stuff got me hot as hell, babe," she explained, her eyes hooded with desire. I used those same fingers to circle her throbbing clit and she moaned, cumming just like that.

"Hell yeah." I said as she gushed and her juices ran down my arm.

"Baby, now…" She whined, desperate for my dick to be inside her. I couldn't wait for a lifetime together of this kind of sex and passion. She reached her little hand down and wrapped around me as much as she could and started to guide me to her entrance. I wanted to tease her for a while longer, but the wolf in me needed to know that his mate was his. I needed to claim her.

With that thought in mind, I loosened my hold on her so that she fell just the slightest bit, allowing my dick to slip between her slick folds. She cried out at the intrusion and I bit down on her mark yet again. I held on to her and my teeth held to her neck as I drove into her repeatedly and relentlessly.

"Sam! Oh, fuck!" She screamed as I hit places inside of her that no other man had ever touched. My wolf preened at the knowledge that I had been and would be her only lover.

Eventually, I left her neck and trailed hot, open-mouthed kisses down her chest and bit down gently on one of her rosey pink nipples. Her perfect buds were already hard and at attention from dragging along my chest as I continually thrusted up into her.

Her beautiful eyes were shut and her soft lips were parted as she panted out my name over and over, in time with our fucking. I let go of her sensitive peak and sucked her mark back in my lips and nibbled down on it between my teeth.

"Sam...Please…" Bella gasped, throatily. She didn't need to say anything else, I knew just what she needed from me.

I stilled our movements to steady us and I held her tightly to my body as I carried her to the bedroom. I laid her down so that she was laying on her stomach. I grabbed a plush pillow and placed it under her hips to angle her back towards me.

Bella looked back at me for a moment, then rested her forehead on the mattress, trusting me to take care of her. We both sighed in pleasure at being connected again. Those sighs turned to moans as I started a steady pace.

I leaned my body forward and held myself up by placing my forearms on the bed, on either side of her body. This way, her tiny body was encased almost entirely by my much larger form. The new angle helped me to hit her just right with every movement. I kept up the fast, rhythmical pace that had us both sprinting towards our climactic ends.

When we finished, I gave a few more gentle thrusts, then simply held her to my body. I kept holding my weight up so that I wouldn't crush her. I could have turned us so that she was resting on my chest, but I just wasn't quite willing to pull myself from her warmth yet. She had only nuzzled closer into me, so I didn't think she was ready for me to leave her body yet either.

"Can we talk?" Bella muttered, when I finally turned us over, keeping her close. I pulled the sheets around us and realized that I wasn't at all worried over what she had to talk to me about. Prior to being mated I would have definitely been thinking over anything I possibly did wrong. Now, I was able to just trust that there wasn't anything that would pull her away from me.

"Of course, baby," I spoke quietly, leaving a kiss on the top of her head.

"I still don't think that Emily is over it. I don't understand what her deal is, but I don't think she is going to accept me as her alpha female. How can I fix this?" She sounded vulnerable. I knew that she was right, Emily wasn't going to just roll over and allow someone else to take over.

"Emily has been the leading wolf-girl for years now. I think that's what this stems from… also Paul has his own set of reservations that could be influencing her. Thankfully, Paul definitely accepted you tonight, so that should positively influence her now." I explained. "It's not a good excuse, she needs to get over it. You're my mate, therefore, you are the new lead wolf-girl. The only one who could possibly have any leverage for taking the role from you would be Angela, but she isn't cut out for it at all, and Jake still has not shown any desire to lead."

"No, Angela won't challenge me for it, she doesn't want to be in charge of anything," she said thoughtfully, then yawned. It didn't take long for her breathing to even out and she fell asleep. Her resting, steady heart rate lulled me to follow her.

Author's Note:

We needed a little bit of Sam's POV on the issue! Emily and Bella may not ever get along, but now that Paul has accepted Bella (even if he still doesn't really like her) Emily is just going to have to get over it.

Now that everyone has accepted Bella as their alpha female, her and Sam can move forward with the mating rituals! Just in time too, because they need to be strong, and the pack is going to have to work together to get through.

I hope ya'll enjoyed the chapter and I look forward to all the commentary! Just another reminder, I don't respond to reviews because I will totally let stuff slip and I don't want to ruin anything! If you want an actual response from me on something then PM me and I will do what I can to respond but not spill my guts lol

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Happy Reading!

-Dahlia-