Authors Note: Sexual activity occurs between two consenting adults in this chapter. This story is rated MA 18+! So, if you don't like it – don't read!

For my friend Reveri, because Happy New Year!

Chapter 2 - Why the fuck

If anyone had told Leah this morning that by the time midnight rolled around she'd find herself pressed up against the wall in her small flat and being fucked within an inch of her life by a pale pretty boy she would have laughed in their face.

But right now as she was trapped between said wall and the ridiculously hard, sculpted body of her unexpected partner she was definitely not laughing.

There had been no foreplay, no giggling and teasing words or gentle touches. She had barely gotten the front door open before the two of them were at each other, hands gripping and pulling at clothes and hair as they kissed like two touch starved assholes who hated each other would.

Caius' mouth was rough, and Leah certainly noticed just how hard his body was. Like abnormally hard. Once his ruined shirt was off it was obvious he was cut by the beautifully sculpted muscles of his chest; but like, there should have still been some softness there, right? Her nails scratching down his chest didn't phase the dude at all.

She might have said something about it, if it mattered anymore by the time his lips and tongue had traveled to her neck. She was working to get her pants off before he pushed her against the wall right near the front door, and once her pants were off there was only one body part she cared about being hard. By then, she really couldn't have given less of a shit about the rest of him.

"God… Fucking… Ah." Leah couldn't make a coherent sentence pass her lips if she tried, and damn did she have some not so nice comments to make when she felt Caius laugh against her.

"Not such a smart mouth now, are you?" Caius whispered in her ear, his cock hitting a place so deep inside her she wasn't sure she'd be able to stand after this.

She dug her nails into his back at this, like really dug them in and scratched him up the whole length of his back. But much to her disappointment she definitely didn't break skin at all, and Caius just let out a groan like a starving man and doubled his efforts.

Leah would never, ever, admit it to him but that was hot as fuck.

"God, I hate you," Leah grunted, feeling herself finally getting close to that peak they were both chasing. "You're such a fucking bastard."

Caius laughed again, and her eyes rolled back into her head at the feeling.

He kissed her full on the mouth for a brief moment, before pulling back and whispering, "I hate you too, sweetheart," in the most condescending tone of voice she'd heard in a while.

That was the end of them both. As they finally rode out their highs and Leah mentally thanked God for the existence of birth control, neither could care less that they irritated the fuck out of each other, and neither of them remembered the bitter argument that brought them together in the first place.

As the week wore on Leah went back to work and gradually forgot about the stuck up stranger she had taken home late that night. It was easy to keep busy because she was doing some pre-term studying to prepare herself for the new college classes she'd be taking in less than two months, as well as working in this obscenely busy coffee shop.

It was late Friday afternoon when she'd finally been told to go on break, so she stepped outside the busy cafe to go to a small deli down the street for a sandwich. It was only when she had said sandwich and plopped her butt down on the ground right outside of the deli to scroll through her emails and eat, that she got a message that all but ruined her dont-think-about-the-reason-you're-in-Italy-in-the-first-place mindset.

Right there, between five separate emails from her little brother Seth who had taken to emailing her diary entries about what he was up to each day while she was gone - because as the little goof unashamedly said each time she wrote back that they were unnecessary that he missed her too much not to write every day - was an email from Emily Young.

Don't open it, Leah told herself with her sandwich halfway to her mouth, for the love of God just delete it. Don't do this to yourself.

As if in a trance she clicked the email, the phone taking a few seconds to load it due to her shit service in her chosen break spot.

Dear Leah,

I hope everything is going well in Italy. I hope you're having a lot of fun and finding some cool things to do… I remember when we used to talk about traveling the world together after college. I'm glad you're getting to see some of those places.

I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing.

I miss you,

Em.

Leah stood, closing her email and shoving her phone back into her pocket as she stormed away from the wall and toward the nearest garbage can to trash the rest of her sandwich.

She didn't really have much of an appetite anymore.

Why would Emily do this? Why would Emily think for even one second that it was okay to reach out to her here? She came here to get away from LaPush and all the pity she got because of her cousin's engagement to her ex. She came here so Emily would leave her the fuck alone.

If it didn't mean losing her crappy barista job, Leah absolutely would have gone home so she could change into some workout clothes and go on a very long run around Volterra to avoid her feelings.

But she couldn't, and no less than thirty minute later she found herself being ushered out from behind the cafe counter by an irritated Sabrina because yet again she was too distracted to focus. And, yet again, she was balancing a drink tray on her hand as she flitted around the cafe dropping off coffee to customers and spacing out while she tried and failed to stop thinking about the email.

She made a sharp turn around a large cypress plant on her way back toward the counter to grab more drinks, and she would have walked straight into someone if said someone hadn't put a hand out to stop her at the waist. With their free hand they caught the tray before Leah could drop it on the floor and draw the whole cafe's attention to her.

Normally, Leah would have ripped anyone who felt at liberty to put their hands on her a new asshole, but she was stopped from speaking by a familiar snide voice.

"Christ, is this going to happen every single time we're together, sweetheart?"

Caius' tone was confrontational, and the way he called her sweetheart was absolutely meant as an insult.

One look at his pretty boy platinum hair and his attention seeking purple contacts lit a bonfire of rage inside her that was just waiting for the spark that would start it.

"Well maybe if you stopped lurking around corners and stepping out in front of people who obviously have places to be, this wouldn't happen."

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Oh you are in a nasty mood aren't you, kitten?"

"Don't call me kitten you-"

"Ohhh I'd think through your next words carefully, kitten," Caius placed a finger against her lips, shoving the tray back into her hands. "I can still get your manager and get your ass sent home for the rest of the summer."

Leah jerked her face away from his hand. "Yeah, you could, but that still won't change the fact that your sad and lonely ass will still find yourself here multiple times a week because you have nothing better to do with your life."

She smiled sweetly at him, and he looked like he had swallowed a lemon in response.

"Now if you'll excuse me," she continued in that same sickly sweet voice, "some people have to work for a living. Buh-Bye now."

And with that, Leah shoved her way past him and headed back in the direction of the main counter. She knew she was playing a dangerous game because Caius could totally get her fired, but right now she was too pissed to care.

If she thought that was the end of that, she was sorely mistaken, because no more than twenty minute later Sabrina was shoving another tray of drinks at her, and Leah's brain became hyper focused on her words when she said:

"-and the large black light roast goes to the platinum hottie next to the cypress plant."

Leah just about had a stroke when she realized who she meant.

It took everything Leah had not to say anything to Sabrina about the platinum hottie as she took the new tray and headed back out onto the floor. And being the totally decent and not petty person she was, Leah definitely didn't take her sweet sweet time dropping off every drink on the tray besides Caius', leaving his for last so that it would be as cold as possible.

When she did drop it off at his table, she made sure to spill some of the coffee on the table right next to his book.

She didn't apologize, and made to turn away only to be caught by one of his hands locking around her tray-free wrist.

Leah opened her mouth to say something biting, but was prevented by him speaking first.

"Are you busy tonight?"

It was like heat had flashed down her spine. She wanted to tell him he could go fuck himself and that the other night was a one time thing. She wanted to tell him that he better get his hands off her before she smacked him in this room full of people.

But she didn't say either of those things.

"No."

"Good. I'll be outside at closing."

"Jesus - Harder. Fuck." Leah knew she was going to have some really nasty rug burn on her knees and the heels of her hands as Caius thrust into her from behind, his hands on her hips and the sound of skin against skin filling the otherwise quiet flat.

Couldn't honestly say she gave a fuck though. At least her uniform pants were long.

Leah could swear she heard Caius purr behind her, but she wasn't about to say shit if it was going to make him stop doing exactly what he was doing right now. He was slamming into her at a pace that no other man she'd been with ever had, and he also gave her some of the strongest orgasms of her life.

She had already come three times from nothing other than his hands and mouth before he got her in this position. He was literally fucking all of the anger and hate out of her and replacing it with mindless pleasure.

If there was ever a doubt before, there was no doubt now that he was a significantly better fuck than Sam had ever been.

No sooner had she reached another orgasm than she felt Caius still behind her, his cock twitching inside her as he finally finished.

It was quiet for a long minute aside from their labored breathing. Caius pulled out without a word and she stood, trying to to make a face at how raw her knees felt.

One look down showed her that she was 100% correct about the rugburn.

"So, what exactly… had you in such a shit mood today?" Caius asked as they both faced away from each other, picking their clothes up from the floor around them in the small living room.

They still had yet to ever make it to the bed.

"My cousin," Leah grunted, yanking her shirt back on and ignoring her discarded bra on the arm of the couch, "decided to interrupt the trip that was very clearly to get away from her with emails about how I'm doing."

"Hm. Well here's to hoping she leaves you alone from now on. Maybe that way you'll stop acting like a total bitch-"

"Get the fuck out."

The next six weeks passed without any new emails from Emily, but not without many more visits from Caius.

The first two weeks after that second altercation with Caius, she'd end her shifts to find him sitting on that same bench across the street from the cafe that he had waited on for her the first time they hooked up. It seemed he had memorized her schedule, because all five days of the week she worked, he was waiting for her outside when night came.

Sometimes they talked, other times they didn't say a single God damned word until they were in her apartment and ripping each other's clothes off.

The four weeks that followed weren't much different, except instead of Caius waiting right outside the cafe, he had taken to leaning against the door of her flat. They had both long since passed the pleasantries that should follow with meetings like this. They knew what they were here for.

One of those nights after Caius had fucked her against one of the walls much like the first time, and again on the floor of the living room, Leah had been in the shower washing her hair and was thoroughly surprised by Caius pulling back the curtain and stepping in being her.

"What the fuck, man?" She thought he left because he usually did once they were done, but there was something about his expression that… alarmed her.

"Dude… are you alright?"

It was the first time she ever asked him a question that didn't sound like a snide remark. She had been caught totally off guard, so her words came out as genuine and concerned as they really were. For the very first time she didn't mask her real feelings behind her rage and self pity.

Caius' tortured expression becamse surprised, and a little bewildered, before he totally shut down.

His face went hard and blank, but his hands were on her again as he pulled her hot body toward him under the warm water of the shower.

They didn't talk after that. The only sound this time were the usual sounds of sex, one or both of them cursing here and there, and the obscene squelching noise that was really only ever present when coupling was a bit more… wet than usual.

Leah could barely stand when she stepped out of the shower, really not used to multiple rounds, but that didn't stop her from trying to find out what was up with him.

"Now, what's going on with you?"

Caius was silent as he grabbed the spare towel from the hook that she had taken hers off of. He gave her a long look as if he was debating if she deserved his explanations.

Leah raised her eyebrows at him. "Dude. You literally put it in my ass tonight, you can tell me what's bothering you."

He laughed. It was a small laugh, but at least he laughed.

"I just received a text that I have a wedding invitation waiting for me at home."

Leah stilled, and this time when her gaze locked with his she knew they were on the same page.

"Huh." Leah bit the inside of her cheek for a second as she considered this. "Well, you know what to do then."

"Oh?" Caius raised a brow at her as he wrapped the towel around his waist; following her as she strode from the bathroom toward her bedroom in search of new clothes.

"Mhm." Leah said lightly, letting her towel fall to the floor and not bothering to look toward him as she raided her cheap dresser for something comfortable to wear. "Tell her and her partner that they can fuck right off."

There was something bittersweet about this time as Leah laid next to Caius in her bed, both of them staring up at the ceiling and not acknowledging the fact that their hands were twined together between them.

Her suitcases were packed, her airline ticket was on the kitchen counter, and she had squared everything away with the landlord for her leaving tomorrow.

Apparently she had her rent all wrong here. When she stopped at the main office of this building after her last day of work to give him the final check he had shaken his head at her and told her he actually owed her nearly a thousand euros because she had been overpaying.

She didn't see how that was even possible. One thing Leah had been absolutely certain of was the fact that she was paying her a-bit-too-high-to-be-reasonable rent correctly and on time. Basically every penny she made here was spent on her apartment. She'd chosen to pay for this place on her own even if it meant when she got home from Italy she'd have nothing to show for it because the whole point of coming here was for her to disconnect and have a break from her real life.

He didn't let her leave until she took the cash from him. So when she'd come up to her room thoroughly confused as to how she was suddenly leaving Italy with money when she should have been going home with like twenty bucks in her bank account, Leah almost walked into Caius standing outside her door.

She forgot all about the money by the time they got inside.

This was the first, and last time they'd done it in the bed too.

Leah wasn't sure if Caius wanted to say something. A few times he had twitched beside her and his hand had tightened over hers in a way that she could only assume meant he wanted to talk, but he never did speak.

And neither did she.

Eventually they both stood from the bed to get dressed, and Leah desperately tried not to think about what she was going home to.

"Just tell her to fuck off," Caius said suddenly. Simply. Pulling up his jeans with his back to her as they both got redressed. "Tell her you're not going to be a bridesmaid in her fucking wedding. She can go to hell."

Leah stared at him for a second before sighing, "I can't do that-"

"Why not?" Caius let out a bitter laugh, rounding to face her as he started to re-button his shirt. "It's not rocket science sweetheart."

"It's not that simple-"

"How is it a hard decision to tell someone you once considered your closest friend that she can go get fucked after stealing your partner? How is it hard to tell both of them that you don't owe them shit for breaking your heart?"

Leah was speechless, she literally just stood there staring at him in silence for a solid minute with her bra hanging loosely on her chest because she was too stunned to latch it as he finished dressing.

Caius smirked at her, walking right up to her so they were nearly chest to chest and trailing his fingers up her naked back.

She said nothing as he latched her bra for her, or when he reached down to pat her ass once before stepping away.

"It's just like you told me, kitten." His smirk only broadened at the face she made when he called her kitten. "You know what to do."

Leah wished she had stayed in Italy.

Now, nearly five months later as she found herself darting through the woods like a silver bullet, her paws hitting the earth with soft thuds as she ran the perimeter around LaPush with her little brother Seth's gangly wolf form trailing along behind her, she had a million and one regrets about not staying away.

Because this Bella chick being a magnet for this red-headed she-demon to come kill her after her blood sucker dumped her in September was the whole reason her life sucked ass now.

Okay, that wasn't totally fair. If the Cullen's had stayed this still would have happened to Leah, but if they left and took this chick Bella with them she probably never would have transformed. If Leah had stayed in Italy she would still be normal, and would probably be taking classes at the local Uni and fucking her pretty boy after every shift at her crappy barista job.

But if she hadn't come back… Seth and Sam would both be dead.

The memory of that day on the beach; Leah storming across the sand toward the water where Sam was talking to Seth - Seth who looked like he was about to have a total meltdown - her angry voice carrying to Sam in the wind to get away from her little brother, and that he was going to pay for whatever he said that upset Seth so much…

That red-headed, pale woman launching herself out of the water at the two of them like something from a horror movie.

Sam transforming into a huge black dog and trying to attack the woman. Seth's yelp as, for the very first time, he turned into a huge sandy wolf with paws and ears that were too big for his body just like a giant puppy.

Victoria throwing Sam's giant wolf form nearly thirty feet, and him landing in the sand.

Sam not moving. The woman putting her arms around Seth.

The crunching of her brother's bones.

And the next thing Leah knew she had paws, a tail, and teeth. The next thing Leah remembered was standing over her whimpering baby brother's wolf form and holding the vampire bitch's detached arm in her mouth as she fled back into the water, Sam finally on his feet again a couple minutes later and coming to Leah's side.

They had burned the arm, and now that blood sucking harpy was running around as an amputee.

The tribe had called Leah a hero.

But she didn't want to be a hero. She didn't want the praise, or the unwarranted hug and thank you from Emily when Sam went home to her that night and told her everything, his pack trailing in behind him.

His pack. Her pack.

Fuck her life.

Seth whimpered, and she remembered the thought sharing thing.

Sorry, little bro. Leah thought to him, relieved this time that only Seth was in his wolf form with her right now. She was glad her thoughts hadn't been too explicit, because she was a little embarrassed thinking about her Italian fling with her brother listening.

Ugh. She slowed from her run to a trot, shaking out her fur as she remembered how truly embarrassing it had been when she first changed and only a couple weeks later was extremely alarmed when her period didn't come.

And how the whole pack had instantly worried with her, and all eyes turned to Sam because he was the last one she had been with, even if it had been waaaaay too long for her to have possibly gotten pregnant by him.

She didn't know what was worse; the pregnancy scare, or her pack assuming it was with Sam, or her pack hearing her think Caius' name and realizing it wasn't…

And feeling Sam's stab of possessive jealousy in his thoughts.

She had snarled at him. Leah launched herself at Sam and bit the ever living fuck out of him, and Sam didn't even try to fight back.

You bastard! You fucking bastard! You do not get to have a claim to me! You broke my fucking heart and are marrying my fucking cousin. You. Do. Not. Get. To. Be. Jealous.

Her thoughts were enraged, and the only thing Sam thought in response was a gag order at the rest of the pack to stay back while Leah made him fucking bleed.

The two of them had not been in their wolf form together since. Leah didn't fuck him up too badly either because it was no fun if he wasn't going to fight back.

But thankfully she wasn't pregnant. She'd been on birth control, and all of her pregnancy tests afterwards came up negative.

God, she didn't even want to think about what she would have done if she was pregnant. Fly back to Italy and go back to that coffee shop and hope to find pretty boy there?

Seth's extra loud whimper as he trotted along beside her and bumped his shoulder with hers broke through her thoughts, and she let out an irritated huff through her wolf nose.

Sorry.

It's okay. Seth thought back, somehow his mental voice was gentle, I totally get it. If you don't want to run anymore, we can head back to LaPush-

Then the wind drew a scent across their path that made their hackles stand up.

Vampire.

Oh no! Seth's mental voice was extremely panicked as Leah's silver body coiled to spring into a run. That's in the direction of Forks! Jake's not with Bella right now! He's with Sam on the Rez!

Leah ran. She bolted toward the scent with all the speed her body could muster. Seth's footsteps trailing along behind her, falling back because he wasn't as fast as she was.

No one in the pack was as fast as she was.

Warn the others Seth! I'm going to head on-

No! Seth thought back furiously, I'm not leaving you! And if I howl the bloodsucker will hear us-

Bloodsucker? Leah thought with a sarcastic edge in her mind, Oh Seth, this isn't the redhead can't you tell? This one is different… These ones are different.

Okay… yeah… I smell it now. Seth thought back at her, Definitely not leaving, I'm-

Seth's thought stopped abruptly, because she stopped abruptly, and he was watching what she was seeing through her mind.

Because from where Leah was hidden in the trees, she could see down a steep hill into a small clearing.

And in that small clearing was Bella Swan, completely alone out here in the middle of the woods with a hiking pack on her back. Across from her in this empty snowy clearing with only thirty feet separating them were five vampires standing in a V formation.

And there, right at the front, was a platinum blonde asshole she recognized.

Caius!?

(10 Pages, 4,460 Words)

Whelp, Brewed Bitter is now a short 5(?) part story, so I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and are ready for a little bit of angst for these two hot heads lol.

Come join us in Rev's discord if you'd like to chat fanfiction (link in my profile) or support me on ko-fi if you feel like it.

Happy New Year!