Chapter Nineteen
Tranquility
"I need to talk to you."
At the tone, insolent heat stiffened Leah's spine as fury ignited in her chest.
It didn't matter that Sue was on the Council. It didn't matter that she was her mother.
Sue had effectively drawn a line in the sand the moment Leah had imprinted, whether or not she'd admit it back then. As her daughter, Leah could maybe understand the protective, newly widowed mother Sue had become. But as Council and safekeeper of the Tribe's secrets and histories, she should know beyond anyone what Imprinting meant to them. What Bella meant to her.
"I have nothing to say to you." Leah minced the words through a growl.
Up ahead, no more than a few feet, Bella had paused halfway through the door, wide inquiring eyes thrown back at Leah. Leah couldn't stop herself from focusing on the nervous hitch of her breath and every glorious heartbeat as Sue drifted closer.
In the hallway, Sam pierced her with a stare and a stiff jaw. He silently turned down the hall. Yeah, that's right, asshole. Chew off someone else's ear about manners.
Blissfully unaware or purposely ignoring the fire in Leah's voice, Sue pushed on. "Well, I have some things to say to you."
"Um…" Bella mumbled, she glanced at Sam then back at her, "I'll meet you out front?"
With everything in Leah strained towards her, the center of her orbit, Leah forced herself to nod.
With a tiny skip of hesitation, Bella turned away and let the door fall gently shut.
Swallowing a ball of magma, Leah squared her shoulders and turned to face her mother.
Sue watched her in that way she watched storm clouds roll in from the sea. Pensive and sharp, it was a look Leah knew all too well. It was the same kind that could see through mischief, strip down deception. It was the look she'd dodged like grenades all through her childhood when she'd done something her mother didn't approve of. Leah fought the urge to squirm and crossed her arms across her chest. Not like she had anything to hide, but it made her antsy all the same. Sue had been giving her that same look as Billy adjourned the meeting. As the other Elders, Sam, Jacob silently filtered out the room. Only Bella hesitated, which meant Leah stayed… and her mother.
"Your brother misses you."
"Seth?" Leah's brows furrowed as her gaze fell between them. "I saw him this morning… He was asleep."
She hadn't wanted to wake him. Healing sucked every ounce of energy from their bodies. Leah was grateful for it; their bodies burned too hot for painkillers or medicine. As much as she missed him and his infectious optimism, seeing him in pain probably would've broken her all over again.
"You should be seeing him more often." Sue shook her head. "Too young to have this much on your shoulders."
"Yeah well, blame Sam." Leah grumbled, grasping a hand through her hair. What the hell was she supposed to say? Sorry, there's rampant bloodsuckers on the loose?
Something flashed across Sue's face, too fast for Leah to read. Good thing Leah had stopped trying to read her a long time ago.
Sue smoothed her skirt, looking down with a distasteful tilt to her chin. She switched tactics. "You never came home last night."
With a long exhale, Leah crossed her arms. "So?"
"Where were you?"
"Out."
"Where Leah?" Sue's voice sharpened.
Leah ground her teeth together, trying to temper the furnace building in her chest. She had nothing to hide. And for fuck's sake, she was an adult.
"I stayed with Bella." Leah said, measured and cool despite the corner of her lip ticking up reflexively from her canine.
Sue kept her face composed, but Leah knew her well enough to know what the twitch in her brow gave away.
"I see." Sue sniffed, "And you were with her when Seth was injured?"
Blistering uproar detonated in her gut. Mother or not, anyone who used that tone to refer to her Imprint was asking for trouble.
"Don't." Leah spat, her control waning as a low-grade quake shook itself free down her arms. "There was nothing I could have done. And you're not gonna make me choose between protecting Bella, and babysitting Seth."
The carefully composed veil on her mother's face cracked right down the middle like fine China shattering on linoleum.
There it was. The one thing Sue managed to pass down to Leah: her fire.
"He's only fourteen! You were supposed—"
"Sam asked me not to! Go yell at him if you need someone to blame." Leah interrupted hotly, turning her back on her mother. "Seth's not a fucking kid anymore."
Sue huffed. "I don't care what Sam says. I won't lose anyone else."
Leah froze. The pain in her mother's voice was sobering like a bucket of ice water over her head. Suddenly Leah saw just how hard Sue was trying not to let the same thing that took her husband take her children, by force of the Council or otherwise.
But her fight wasn't with Leah.
"Bella was right. You still don't get it." Leah spat, her eyes burning a hole in the ancient wooden floor. "Don't ever accuse me of not caring about Seth. I watched it through his eyes. I felt every-fucking-thing he felt when that leech..." The words disintegrated into a growl.
"Leah…"
"And don't ever make me choose between him and Bella."
Leah shoved her way out the door with a bang of the ricocheting doorknob against the hallway wall. It hardly registered in her mind: her wolf prowled dangerously, testing the seams of her control.
She didn't hate her mom, not really… but something as complicated as human emotion and thought processes translated terribly in the wolf's simple language.
Like everything else that transpired in the last 20 minutes, Leah shoved it out of her mind because there was only one thing she cared about at the moment.
Bella.
Sucking down the mellow scent of her imprint trailing down the hall, Leah rounded the corner—And came face-to-face with Sam's pecs.
Leah's breath stalled over a low growl as every muscle slithered and jumped.
"Sam, you have point five fucking seconds," Leah hissed.
"Easy, sister." Sam rumbled, squaring his shoulders. "Keep your head."
She dragged her eyes up to meet a molten gaze from under that heavy brow. His face was stone cold and expressionless in a way that would have frightened her (coming from her Alpha) if she wasn't fixin' to punch something right about now.
Sam's eyes darted between hers for half a second. Just as her hands were beginning to clench, as quick as he'd appeared, Sam was suddenly turning away.
Leah physically laxed as her eyes finally fell upon Bella.
Cheeks flushed, wide-eyed, and nervous. But relatively okay by what Leah could see from where the small girl was tucked protectively under Jacob's arm.
Her gaze was warmth and Leah drank it greedily as she put one steady foot in front of the other. Her temper, already waning, spiked subtly at the way Jacob's arm tensed at her approach. Rolling her eyes, Leah held a hand out to her girl.
"Hey, chica."
.
It had been a whiplash of reality stepping out the door into the hall.
Like dunking her head underwater, the mood quickly plunged from success to nervous anticipation as Bella walked between the towering men.
Meeting with the Cullens was a whole other bag of worms altogether. She didn't even want to think about this upcoming battle. The thought of her friends and newly found family fighting to the death with a pack of wild newborn vampires was too much to bear. Leah, Jacob, Sam, Embry and Quil, even the kids…
Leah bumped her arm. "You look like you're about to throw up."
"I feel like it." Bella grimaced as heat rushed to her cheeks.
"Hey, don't stress… Leave that to us." She gave her a SparkNotes version of her signature smirk. "You were awesome in there, by the way. I think I'm rubbing off on you."
"Thanks." Bella snorted a gentle laugh and shook her head as the levity dissipated into sobering reality.
"C'mon, I'll take you home." Ignoring a silent Jacob and a quietly pacing Sam, Leah hugged Bella to her side and led her to the door.
Bella turned her face into the warm skin at Leah's shoulder, burning hot with whatever dilemmas boiled inside her wolf. She breathed deeply of her comforting scent, trying, and failing not to think of the muted sound of Leah and Sue's climbing argument, the bang of the door against the wall that made her jump.
"What are we gonna do?" Bella whispered.
"Everything we can." Sam answered behind them.
Bella whipped her head back to see Sam, his face tight and stern, as his eyes drifted over them then out to the room. She swallowed thickly. No matter how much anxiety Bella had about the upcoming battle, Sam probably had it a thousand—no, a million times worse.
"Take her home and come straight back here." Sam ordered in a gentle timbre. "We still gotta discuss where we're meeting the Cullens."
"Where are we thinking?" Jacob cracked his knuckles eagerly as Leah paused. "The falls?"
"No." Sam ran a brusque hand through his hair, "Too closed off. Not enough exits. I'm thinking the Three River's."
Jacob tilted his head. "That could work. Of course, we'd have to-"
"No way." Leah scoffed. Her arm winded casually around Bella's waist as she threw a scowl back at Sam.
"If we're gonna do this thing, we're gonna do it smart," she told them, deadly and slick. "They're not getting a fuckin' inch on Forks if that Mind-reader shows up."
"Yeah? You got anything better?" Jake muttered.
"I'm not risking Forks." Sam interrupted, glancing at Bella pointedly. "And I'm not risking the Pack either. I won't let what happened to Seth ever happen again."
Bella felt the words hit their mark in Leah's stiffening body and she tipped her head up, eyes searching. Leah caught her gaze with a face laced with pain that left Bella scrambling for a way to make it better. She knew, rationally, that nothing but time could ever do that. She just couldn't bear that look in her eyes.
Something about the listless ache that she could feel ebbing and flowing between the three wolves had her speaking up. If there was a way to help, even a little bit, Bella would try. "Sam? How much of the national park do you have covered?" She asked quietly.
Sam licked his lips, his head dipping back in thought as his eyes scanned ceiling. "From the coast to about… Elwha River. Why?"
Bella tilted her head. She sucked with directions, but she vaguely remembered crossing a bridge over that river right before hitting Port Angeles. It was way further than what she'd guessed they had covered, but if Sam was right then this would be no problem for them.
Bella took a deep breath. "There's a valley between Mt Olympus and…" Her brow furrowed. Dammit, she should've asked the name of it when she had the chance! "Well, I'm not really sure which peak it is. But it's this huge field, not too many trees… Could that work?"
"Mt Olympus and… Bogachiel?" Jacob mused, "That's deep in Cullen territory."
"You're sure about the location?" Leah murmured against the top of her head, her tone soft and encouraging. Bella leaned into her; Leah never made her feel like she was second guessing her.
"Positive." Bella asserted, her eyes on Sam.
Sam tapped his long fingers against his thigh thoughtfully. "How did you hear about this valley?"
The side of Bella's lips curved up in the ghost of a smile. "I didn't hear about it. I've been there."
Sam and Jacob exchanged a glance.
"The Cullens took me to watch them play baseball." Bella wrinkled her nose at the memory that seemed ingrained in her mind no matter how much she tried to forget. The night everything started…
A warm hand smoothed down her back. "Flat, open, one way in, one way out…" Leah listed off, nodding. "Sounds peachy-keen to me. We'd even get eyes from above."
While Jacob stared at her, bug-eyed over the baseball statement, Sam mulled it over.
"Well, it's a possibility." Sam stated, but he was nodding too. "We need to speak to the Cullens and the Pack. You have the number, Leah?"
Leah's arm slung over her shoulders as she recounted, from memory, the number that was already blocked on Bella's own cell.
Bella tuned it out, content to relinquish the rest of planning and location to the three as her mind spun out. It wasn't until Leah was nudging Bella towards the door did she realize how bone-tired she really was.
"You ready?" Leah murmured as she held the door open for her.
"Not really." Bella grimaced as they stepped out into the cool quiet evening. It was around when her and Charlie usually had dinner, which meant he'd definitely be home. "I still have to face my dad."
"Didn't know I was transporting a felon." Leah's chuckle bounced out with the chilly breeze that trundled down the empty residential streets.
Bella released a heavy sigh as she opened the passenger door and climbed in. "You don't think he'd actually be mad, do you?"
Leah snorted and yanked the truck to life, draping her arm casually on the back of Bella's seat. "Not a chance. I know he's a cop and all, but you seriously lucked out. He's pretty chill."
"For now." Bella pulled her knees to her chest as Leah turned out on the darkening road.
Leah fiddled with the radio until quiet 70s rock buzzed Bella's nerves slack. She reached out blindly and felt for Leah's hand in the dark. Leah turned her palm up on the seat, as if sensing her movements.
Bella tucked her cheek on the top of her knee and gently slid a finger over the winding faint veins under the skin of her wrist. It easy to forget how delicate Leah was, and it was times like this that it was almost impossible to imagine a wolf bursting from that skin.
"So…" Leah murmured quietly out the side of her mouth. "Sorry you had to hear all that. Before."
Bella felt the heat blossom over her cheeks. "It's okay. I couldn't really hear most of it anyway."
She heard Leah lick her lips. "But you heard some of it." It wasn't a question.
Bella traced her fingertips over the graceful lines on Leah's palm. She nodded in the dark. If she only heard some of Leah's fight with her mom, it was probably loud enough for Jacob and Sam to hear all of it.
"How much?"
"Just some of the end." Bella whispered, her brow pinching down the middle. "Leah, I don't want to come between you and your mom."
At Leah's dark chuckle, Bella glanced up. Leah's profile was gracefully stunning in the dark. Hidden in shadows, her eyes were an unfathomable mystery locked on the road and whizzing trees ahead.
"You didn't do that. She did." Her lower lip curled in disgust. "All on her own."
"Still." Bella swallowed and skimmed the tips of her fingers along Leah's lithe ones. "Would it… be easier if I stayed away from the Rez?"
"No!" Leah's hand jerked, which in turn made Bella startle.
Left hand tightening on the wheel, Leah used her other to grasp Bella's hand before it could fully, instinctively retreat.
"The Rez is your home too." Leah glanced at her with dark, fiery eyes for a split second and spoke directly into Bella's wide gaze. "You're pack. End of story."
Bella couldn't suppress the small smile at the searing heat in those words. She didn't just believe it, she felt it. Like that stalwart – but sometimes grudging—loving acceptance of both quirks and qualms that came with unconditional love.
She wondered if they all understood what a gift this thing was. Bella was certainly starting to.
"Well." Bella exhaled and leaned her head on Leah's shoulder. "If Charlie kicks me out, at least I won't be homeless."
"Makes two of us." Leah sniffed. "Wouldn't be surprised if I got home and all my stuff was out in the yard."
Bella hid her frown and shook her head minutely. "She loves you; you know. She's just worried."
"She can love me all she wants." Leah growled as a tremor vibrated her arm hard enough for Bella to realize it wasn't her old, bumpy truck's doing. "But if she disrespects you, she disrespects me. That goes for any of those old fu—"
"Leah!" Bella admonished under her breath.
Leah smiled blandly. "Sorry."
"It's okay," Bella whispered. "And thank you. I just wish it wasn't the case."
There wasn't much either of them could do about minds that were slow to change. But tides were changing, even if at a snail's pace. One day all the elders would be gone, and Bella's generation would be the ones who passed on the Pack's histories. She hoped they would be able to make peace before then.
Leah was quiet as Bella rearranged their hands in her lap. She slipped her fingers between Leah's, interlocking and blending together as they rumbled along the familiar roads of outer Forks. She could feel Leah relax, the muscle in her forearm softening as her fingers eased in her grip.
Bella bit her lip, knowing her next words would break the solemn peace.
"When do you think Sam would want to meet the Cullens?" Bella murmured to the dark wood flitting by.
Leah sucked in a slow inhale. "Well, they're probably scoping out that valley as we speak," she replied brusquely, "and if talks go right with the leeches… We'll probably be meeting them tonight."
Tonight! Bella sat up straighter in her seat as both hands came in to grasp Leah's on her lap.
"I'm going, too." Bella stated, her eyes darting over Leah's face as a furrowed brow lowered over Leah's dark eyes.
Bella braced for flat out refusal, or at the very least, bargaining.
"Are you sure?" Leah asked quietly, intensely, at the dark road ahead.
Bella swallowed the knot in her throat and nodded.
"Please. I need to be there. I want to be with you." Bella closed her eyes, caricatures of pale terrifying figures flitting past her lids. "And I want to say goodbye."
A soft press of full lips to her temple had Bella opening her eyes to the truck easing off the main road and into her neighborhood.
"I'll tell Sam." Leah murmured into her locks as she kept her eyes ahead on the road.
A spark of heat flickered in her chest. Not an 'I'll talk to Sam' but an "I'll tell Sam'. Leah wasn't looking for permission.
Bella bit her lip, her heart thudding louder and louder in her ears as they pulled up to the front of her house. As she suspected, the lights were on in the kitchen and living room. "He's gonna say no."
Leah pulled into the driveway and killed the engine. Without a word, Leah unclasped their hands and turned to face Bella in her seat, casually folding one long leg up on the leather.
The closeness and sudden intimacy stole Bella's breath as Leah held her gaze. Drawing forward, Leah pressed another tender kiss to Bella's forehead.
"I don't care what he says." She hummed, a wash of spicy sweetness over the crown of Bella's head. Bella swallowed and shifted in her seat to turn to her fully.
"Really?" Her fingers grasped the front of Leah's shirt and—unintentionally—brushed the solid swath of impenetrable muscle underneath. Bella inhaled quickly and softening her hands.
The corner of Leah's lips pulled up in a wry smile, and she dipped back as Bella blinked back into focus in Leah's eyes.
"Have I ever denied you anything?"
Bella realized, belatedly, Leah was right. From staying in bed and cuddling her on the worst night of her life, to baking cookies together, to staying away when Bella (stupidly) asked her to… She'd never refused or contradicted her.
She couldn't say the same for Edward. Or even Jacob for that matter.
"No," Bella breathed, "you haven't."
Leah's smile grew roots, and her hands went up to cup Bella's jaw in that way she loved. She sank into the warmth of her palms as Leah's smoky chuckle bounced through the din.
"So, since you're already a criminal, you up for sneaking out?" Leah whispered conspiringly.
"Don't remind me…" Bella scrunched her nose. "And I have snuck out before, you know."
Leah's eyes widened comically as her hands slipped from Bella's heated cheeks. "What! You? Innocent little Swan?"
"Oh my god." Bella blushed furiously and rolled her eyes as a smile tugged at her lips. "Just text me when. I'll meet you out front."
"You got it. It'll probably be sometime after midnight when most people are sound asleep." Leah grinned. "You know, it's really hot when you order me like that…"
A laugh burst from Bella's lips as she swatted at Leah. "You're an idiot."
"And you," Leah's voice dipped an octave, from light and teasing into a sexy purr that had Bella's heart flip flopping straight down to her stomach, "…love it."
Before she could properly react, Leah's hands smoothed over her hips and tugged, scooting her body gently forward so Leah's lips were a breath away, her lidded eyes melting every ounce of apprehension from Bella's mind.
She simply went numb.
"Maybe I do." Bella rasped gently, her hands finding Leah's strong shoulders.
Leah grinned triumphantly, and Bella answered with a smile of her own as she brushed wispy, feather-soft strands of midnight away from Leah's cheek.
Her eyes darted instantly to Leah's lips.
Leah watched her, her hands moving unfalteringly around the small of Bella's back. For a moment Leah just held her in her accepting, ever supporting gaze, in her tender palms. And then she gave Bella exactly what she needed.
She leaned forward and pressed her lips to Bella's in a silken honey oath. Bella found her fingers slipping into raven hair, pulling her closer closer closer as she unabashedly kissed her back, slow and sensual.
A groan revved in the back of Leah's throat like the purr of a Bugatti and Bella jolted as the sound sluiced over the fires of want that burned in her soul.
Leah's lips, like her wolf, were dangerous.
And Bella didn't care.
The hands grasping her hips like a lifeline weren't enough. Bella wanted to feel her, all of her, as she pressed forward so Leah could wind her strong arms around her waist and pull her flush.
They each broke the kiss with a gasp.
Leah sucked in a breath, her hair wildly, adorably, mused. "Dammit, woman." She hissed.
Bella panted a laugh and skimmed her hands over the strong planes of her shoulders as Leah bumped her cheek to Bella's. A soft hum of content pushed past Bella's lips as she felt Leah's heart thudding against her chest in tune with her own. She liked that she could make Leah feel… well like she made Bella feel. Even in turbulent times.
She felt Leah swallow. "I gotta go..."
When she felt Leah pulling back, instant anxiety had her eyes snapping up to Leah's face.
Leah regretfully untangled her arms from Bella and leaned back to push the cab's door open with the squeak of metal. Pressing her lips together, Bella looked over Leah's shoulder at the dimly lit porch.
One of Leah's hands slipped up to cup the back of her head, as she bent to place a long caressing kiss to her lips. Bella closed her eyes and eagerly gulped down every taste, scent, and sensation. She wanted the kiss to last forever but Leah gently, but firmly, pulled away.
"I'll see you soon, sweetheart." Leah breathed over her lips, warm and tender.
"See you…" Bella whispered, drawing a deep breath of her scent.
Leah held her gaze for a moment, and then turned away.
She ducked out of the truck and jogged across the lawn with her powerful, liquid gait. For several moments, Bella sat alone, watching Leah's tall form weave into the dark branches until she disappeared.
After several blinks, Bella sighed and climbed out the open door. She pushed it closed and fished her backpack out the back of trunk before making her way to the porch.
Bella hesitated, as a prickle of warmth swathed the back of her neck, making all the hairs stand. She spun, her eyes darting out to the dusky treeline, searching….
There! Glittering in the dark were two steady pinpricks in the night, twin firefly flames.
Bella gave those eyes a private smile.
Forcing her shoulders back, she took a deep breath, and let herself in.
The smell of diner takeout and the soft sounds of TV baseball replays greeted her as she stood in the dimly lit foyer. Bella shut the door as quietly as she dared and toed her sneakers off. She hoped Charlie was asleep on the couch.
But halfway up the stairs (that one squeaky step skillfully evaded) the crinkle of the sofa and a gruff sigh heralded the worst-case scenario.
"Bells?" Charlie cleared his throat at the entryway below her and Bella froze. "Can we talk?"
"I'm pretty tired, dad…" Bella urged a yawn that wasn't entirely false and peeked back at him. In his face she found a furrowed brow and frown that made her bite her lip nervously.
"Was Jacob at your school today?" He rumbled; his voice complaisant but firm.
Bella expelled a despairing breath and turned slowly to meet him. "Yes."
"What was he doing there?" The corner of Charlie's mustache ticked minutely.
"He came to see me." Bella murmured. "Why?"
"I got a call to the station." Charlie was trying to keep his words calm, she could tell, but there was a sharp edge to his voice that let Bella know he meant business. "One of your classmate's mother in hysterics, saying somebody native threatened her son and his friends today…"
Bella's eyes widened, her brow jumping to her hairline. "What? No, dad, she's lying! Jake was just protecting me."
Charlie's eyes snapped up at once. "Protecting you from who?"
Bella licked her lips. "Nothing. Just dumb kids at school." She dismissed quickly, dropping her eyes to the grainy wood floors with a frown. "What did the lady want?"
"Well..." He started slowly, doubt written all over his face. "We talked her down from pressing charges," Charlie's eyes darted between hers and he pressed his lips together, "but she specifically dropped your name, Bella."
Bella could only stare, unsure how to proceed.
"She talked to the school, and they called me worried about some sorta gang activity." Charlie rubbed a tired hand over the scruff on his chin as Bella nearly stumbled down a step.
"No… You know Jake." Bella whispered.
"I know I do. And while I don't want to believe her, I'm inclined to see all sides of this." Charlie stressed. "What the hell is goin' on with you and Jake? I couldn't get ahold of you all day… Billy's ignoring all my calls…"
"It's not what you think." Bella rushed out. "He's trying to be a good friend, make sure I'm alright."
Charlie watched her squirm for a moment, then released a sigh. "I don't know what to think." He grumbled and turned back into the living room. "Except that there's something you're not telling me."
Bella stepped numbly down the stairs and trailed behind him, lost. What was she supposed to say? She couldn't tell him anything! She wasn't even sure if she should tell him about Leah…
"All I know," Charlie rambled as he paced back into the living room, "Is that you're a good kid. You keep your grades up, your head down, and you don't get in trouble."
Bella stopped at the doorway as Charlie glanced up at her. "So why do they think you're involved in gang activity?"
Bella shrugged, her eyes dropping like lead. "There is no gang activity."
"Are you and Jake… ah..."
"No!" Bella gasped, her head shooting back up as a blush painted her cheeks bright red. "No… were not like that. He's my best friend. That's all."
Charlie seemed just as mortified, his brows troubled, and his lips pursed as he nodded.
"Listen, we only have criminal jurisdiction on Tribal lands, so if there is gang activity—"
"There isn't." Bella interrupted in a hard voice, her embarrassment metastasizing into a hot flash of protective heat. "Whoever put in that complaint is just plain wrong. And racist! What, Jake can't hang out with me without being accused of being a criminal just because he's Quileute?"
"No one is saying that, Bells."
"Maybe not to your face." She replied curtly.
Charlie collapsed onto the couch with the creak of furniture as the muted TV flashed behind him. "Well whatever is happening, maybe it's best you stayed away from the Rez."
Bella's mouth dropped open.
"Billy once told me Jacob was going through a hard time." At Bella's protest, he raised a staying hand. "Now, while I don't think its gang related, I thought maybe you might be a good influence on him. It's clear he's not a good influence on—"
"Jacob is going through a hard time, dad." Bella gritted her teeth. "And what he needs most is his friends not abandoning him."
Charlie's mustached buckled, a dent working its way between his tense brows. "All I'm saying is, until I talk to Billy and figure out what's going on, you're not going to mess up your last weeks of school over this."
Bella turned to the stairs and rolled her eyes in disbelief. "Nobody is messing up anything. The Rez isn't dangerous, and neither is Jake."
"Bella…"
Bella shook her head and scrambled up the stairs.
It wasn't until she reached her room did she realize how fast her heart was going. Bella dropped her bag and immediately went to her window, shoving the pane up and sucking in a deep breath of cool night air.
She was tired. Not in physical sense, but the bone-deep, soul weary kind. Rubbing her hand absently over her chest, Bella sighed wretchedly as her eyes panned across the empty, dusky yard. When she turned back into the room, it was exactly as she left it: bed unmade and rumpled, desk scattered with school papers and books, a wayward sock here or there from too many rushed mornings…
For some reason, it felt foreign. Empty. It had always been her room, but for some reason, it didn't feel like home.
Bella fingers twitched with the urge to dig out her phone and text Leah. It was stupid, she knew Leah was probably phased and wouldn't answer. She just couldn't help herself.
Taking a deep breath, Bella settled at her desk and pulled out her schoolbooks. And waited.
She was glad she had dinner back at Emily's. As she watched the clock tick into the evening hours, Bella bounced her knee and scanned her notes over and over before deciding her head wasn't in it.
She couldn't sit still any longer. And besides, it was almost time. Charlie had already gone to bed; Bella listened closely to his heavy footfalls up the stairs and the distant rush of bathroom sink. He was giving her space, and Bella was glad for it. She was still upset at him for basically blaming Jacob without any other proof than a couple of angry moms.
Bella crossed to her drawers and changed, exchanging her jeans and top for something less constricting and more inconspicuous. She settled on a pair of black leggings, with a black hoodie to go with it. She had nervously pulled down her sweatshirt and was fluffing her hair before she even realized what she was doing.
The shrill buzz of her cell on the desk had adrenaline charging up her veins as it crippled the quiet. With a humorless laugh at herself, Bella put the phone to her ear, drawing in a shaky breath.
"Hello?" She whispered.
"Hey, baby."
What was left of Bella's fleeting heart quickly plunged to her stomach with butterflies. Instant, butter-soft warmth spread over soul at that husky croon.
"Is it time?" She murmured quietly, glancing out the window into the night.
"Yeah, it is." There was a ruffling on the other end that crackled behind Leah's words. "Meet me out back? I'm in the woods by the oak tree."
Bella nodded, then remembered Leah couldn't see her. "I'll be there in a few."
Her heart galloped with anticipation. So much so she felt it buzzing in the tips of her fingers as she slipped the phone in her back pocket and tip-toed out her room. She paused briefly outside of Charlie's door, just long enough that his chainsaw-like snores could reassure her he wasn't getting up anytime soon.
Bella slowly, and silently slipped down the stairs. She took her time, knowing her clumsiness would be her own downfall. She stopped briefly to pick up her sneakers at the front door, then tip-toed again through the kitchen to the back.
Slipping on her sneakers, Bella stepped out into the windy night. She latched the door carefully—making sure it would be unlocked for her when she came back—and wrapped her arms around herself.
She had to be careful, Charlie's windows looked over the backyard. Rubbing her hands on the sleeves of her hoodie, Bella picked her way along the back wall of her house, careful to not trip over stray branches in the dark.
She reached the corner that met the other side of the house, feeling very proud of herself thus far, and peeked out to the impressive tree that stood outside her window.
And came to a halt at the sight of an empty yard.
Her brow furrowing in confusion, she paced out to the tree, her eyes scanning the dark woods behind it.
"Psst!"
"Eep!" Bella's racing thoughts broke off mid-sentence as her stomach dropped like a lead balloon, hand clutched to her chest, her head shot up to the dark figure sitting hidden in the screen of leaves above.
"Leah!" Bella hissed as the figure shifted, feet swinging playfully from one of the lower, thicker branches. "Don't do that!"
"Sorry, hon." Leah whispered down at her and then pushed off, casually dropping down the ten or so feet to the ground next to Bella. Her body warmed appreciatively at the sight of her: a navy t-shirt that hugged strong shoulders sweeping into a trim waist and athletic shorts that molded to every muscular curve. "I thought you saw me."
Bella shook her head, her lips automatically fighting a smile at her startle-prone nature because it really was starting to get ridiculous.
"What were you doing up there? Were you spying on me?" Bella arched a brow, taking in the soft, light expression on Leah's face and how her lips smoothed out to a subtle curve.
"Why, you want me to?" Leah winked, leaning back against the thick oak bark, tilting her head in an undoubtably lupine way that sent Bella's heart lunging into a sprint of an entirely different sort. "I see you're not the type to close your drapes at night."
"There was never any need." Bella pressed her lips together. Her life in Forks had always been punctuated by nighttime visits through her window. She'd never stepped back to think about how bizarre it all was.
Especially in the light of the unknown they now faced.
"Well, I wasn't. I wouldn't." Leah shook her head, her face freefalling into serious as the words were expelled in a formless, rushing whisper that sliced down Bella's sudden anxiety with its sincerity. "I'm not some creep."
Bella smiled gently as she held that bottomless midnight gaze.
"You look good, by the way. Love the fit." Leah's eyes dipped appreciatively.
"Really?" Bella wrinkled her nose. "I was trying for stealth."
A soft laugh burst from Leah's lips. In the darkness her eyes ran black as they flicked up from under the strands of ebony that had fallen in her face. "I could hear you stompin' down every step. And hittin' every branch outside too."
Warmth spread over Bella's cheeks as she swatted at Leah halfheartedly; Leah didn't bother to dodge it. "Oh, please. We can't all be werewolves." Bella snorted and turned to the front. "Where's your car?"
A warm hand gathered around hers and tugged her gently towards the tree line. "Right this way, Miss Swan."
Bella's brow arched as Leah led her into the trees.
The woods, usually frightening and eerie, seemed to bow before Leah's presence. The branches weren't startling fingers in the night but sheltering hands that made way for them.
"So," Leah whispered as they stepped over gnarled roots, "Whattya think about letting me give you a ride to this meeting?"
Bella almost tripped, her eyes jerking up to Leah's. Leah's arm wound around her waist, saving her from a solid faceplant.
"On your wolf!?" The words burst over Bella's lips as Leah chuckled at her expense.
Bella scowled at her as the taller girl valiantly tried to smother her laughter. "It's the fastest way to get there and we're already late," she tipped her head, "And it makes a point that needs to be made."
Bella's indignation dissolved into interest. "What point?"
Leah drew in a deep breath and released it on a sigh of resignation and Bella instantly snapped into attentive concern.
"That you're ours." She stated evenly, her hand tightening around Bella's. "The Cullen's need to see that we're not what they assumed we were. They see you with us…"
"It'll draw an effective line in the sand." Bella whispered. The levity was suffocated by the sheer weight of their reality now. It was us and them. The pack, her family… and the Cullens. The enemy.
"And if you're seen with me, it makes it pretty clear that you're mine," Leah continued, and Bella looked up to a fearlessly roguish smirk, "Also that I'm strong enough to rip out any of their fucking throats if they cross me."
Mine.
They way Leah said it, soft as it left her lips, it's… ridiculous. So ridiculous that warmth flooded Bella's cheeks, heat welled up in her chest.
They'd stopped walking. The house was almost completely hidden from them now. They had complete privacy.
Bella bit her lip, her little hands reaching across the dark to cover Leah's. Her touch must have been the blessed healing balm to that hair-trigger instinct. The tension in Leah's face instantly laxed, her eyes darting over Bella's as she drew in a deep breath and released it like steam. Bella could tell her wolf was agitated, but for now, lupine dominion submitted to the only force willing to contain it.
Her imprint.
"I really wish you weren't tangled in all this shit, Bells." Leah muttered, one of her hands pulling free to tuck a stray lock of chocolate hair behind Bella's ear.
Bella shook her head. She had so many wishes herself, but what good would it do them now to think like that?
"It doesn't matter. We got this. You and me." Her head instinctively tipped into her warm palm. "Together, right?"
A gorgeous smile lit that beautiful face as her arms looped around Bella's waist. Bella's arms found its way around her neck. How could she resist?
"Hell yeah." Leah purred, covetously pulling Bella closer and smiling into the sprinkle of kisses she dusted along Bella's jaw.
When her lips found that spot on her neck, right over her pulse, she gripped Leah's t-shirt in her fists as the taller girl's lips worked a bout of giggles out of Bella.
"Stop!" Bella gasped, "We're already late!"
"Then we can be a little later." Leah crooned as her gaze flitted restlessly over Bella's face. Her brown eyes were fierce and wild.
She took Bella's breath away. Every single time.
"We really can't." Bella's smile stuttered under sudden shyness, heat blooming in her cheeks at the thought of what could happen.
If only there weren't urgent matters at hand.
"Okay, okay." Leah dipped her head and pressed her lips meaningfully, tenderly to Bella's forehead. "So, wolf-back riding…"
"Is it like riding a bike?" Bella asked dryly.
"Kinda. You never forget." Leah wiggled her brows. "And once you get on top, you never go back."
Bella choked a laugh over the budding heat in her belly and met Leah's gaze with a half-hearted eyeroll.
Leah grinned triumphantly. "Don't be nervous, okay? I got ya'." She murmured then pulled herself reluctantly out of Bella's arms.
Bella could only stare as Leah turned her back on her, and without any hesitation at all, peeled her shirt over her head.
Every and all thought left her brain. It was 200% occupied by the muscles rippling down Leah's sweat-slicked toffee torso. And with each fluid, sure motion of her arms as she bundled the t-shirt up into a flat wad of fabric, her strong back bunching and flexing like a bodybuilder.
Tall, athletic shoulders, narrow waist with the slight swell of feminine hips, muscular legs… Desire instantly rose to meet Bella like a tsunami, rushing over her and filling her entire face bright red.
Bella hadn't nearly had enough time to gather herself when Leah's hands were suddenly at the waistband of her shorts.
She really really should look away… right? Bella debated with herself, automatically slapping her hands over both eyes. But then again, Leah could've changed behind a tree if she didn't want Bella to see her…
Okay, maybe she could've helped it—she just didn't want to. Bella found herself peeking between her fingers.
It was only a brief glimpse, and yet she had to stop herself from gasping at how the curve of Leah's back swept down to perfect, deliciously pert, muscular cheeks. Holy crap!
Slacked-jawed, Bella watched over hands as Leah dove forward like a swimmer off a diving block and blossomed seamlessly into a massive white wolf. The whole transformation was quicker than a heartbeat and ethereal like heatwaves on hot pavement.
"Wow..." Bella breathed, laughing at herself as Leah stretched deeply, pushing her huge front paws into the ground, and raising her tail.
The wolf jumped up from her crouch with a couple of excited, huffing hops on her forepaws, then turned back to Bella before congealing to the ground.
Leah stared at her in wolf form with unmistakably laughing eyes, her tail swishing to and fro.
"Show off." Bella whispered, not even attempting to hide the awe in her voice. Leah was beyond impressive, in either body, but what was so beautiful was to see her so free and confident in herself.
And to see that she trusted Bella with both forms of herself. Completely.
Bella's hands dropped from her face, and she went to her wolf. There was no fear at all—none of the hesitancy back in Emily's yard earlier that day—as Bella tucked her head under the wolf's long, dignified muzzle and threw her arms around Leah's huge neck.
Sultry panting breaths, sweet and musky like the forest floor, billowed over her face before snuffling idly over her shoulders, tickling the exposed skin of her neck.
Bella giggled into the soft, thick fur. Better than any oversized stuffed animal and infinitely cozier than the fluffiest blanket in the world. As a wolf, Leah radiated comforting heat like a furnace.
"Softy ole wolf." Bella cooed, taking advantage of the fact Leah couldn't respond with one of her many snarky quips.
A velvety bouncing rumble, that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle, rippled over her skin as a prodding wet nose nudged against her neck. Bella squeaked at the sudden cold and had barely pulled back before a huge, wet tongue wiped soundly up her entire face.
"Leah!" she shrilled, squeezing her eyes closed and wiping at the slimy mess with both hands. She squealed blindly as Leah's nose seamlessly started pressing into her arms and shoulders, nudging into her sleeves, and snuffling at the collar of her hoodie as if her clothes were an inconvenient barrier.
Blinking her eyes open, Bella came face to face with a felt ear as the beast began her familiar frenetic sniffing inventory of every single pore.
Smiling gently, Bella dragged her fingers through the thick ruff of Leah's neck. There was something so satisfying about watching her hand disappear into that shaggy white pelt.
Stepping to the wolf's side, Bella combed her fingers down to the swell of Leah's impressive, robust shoulders. She expelled a sigh that was captured by a big triangle ear flickering back towards her. Leah had paused her scenting to attentively watch Bella out of the corner of a big, cinnamon eye.
Digging both fists in to her fur—she was nervous even though she knew, logically, her human fists did nothing to Leah's pelt—Bella jumped up and ungracefully pulled herself up onto Leah's massive body.
With a triumphant grin fueled by the intoxicating feel of Leah's ribcage vibrating with her deep rumbles of contentment, Bella smoothed her hands down the slope of Leah's long neck.
"Okay." She announced shakily up to wolf's ear standing at pert attention.
Leah flowed up to her feet in an impossibly smooth and mercurial motion. Bella wrapped her arms around that dwarfing neck as she settled over her back. The wolf's powerful body rippled under her soothingly in smooth quicksilver waves as her soundless paws swallowed up forest, sure steps finding passage without so much as a branch disturbed in their wake.
The wolf's huge, muscled body picked up speed, undulating under Bella with such grace and fluidity it felt like she was flying while her whole body hummed like summer locusts.
Running with vampires had nothing on this.
The wind pulled her hair behind her in a flowing curtain. Nestled in against her pelt, Bella barely felt like she was moving at all. She found herself leaning into every turn, their bodies moving and molding together around bends like a motorcycle or a galloping horse. She was extra glad she'd dressed comfortably.
When she felt Leah's loping strides smooth out into a steady trot, she picked her head up—and gasped.
Through a break in the trees, Bella glimpsed the town of Forks nestled below them, bathed in the full moon that glowed dully through a shroud of overcast. Tiny lights twinkled and shimmered from tiny streetlamps and tiny houses, and the forest hugged the small town, a blanket of black on every side.
They'd reached one of the hills over looking her quaint town in what seemed like seconds.
Without a pause in her aggressive pace, Leah tipped her head up and loosened a deep and thunderous howl. It made the night seem to quiver with a power that shimmered back with the whipping winds over her body: settling, invigorating, commanding all at once. Very much like Leah herself.
A chorus of greetings welcomed them in the far distant night, flagging them to family and Bella rubbed her face over Leah's thick fur with pride.
Surprisingly, Leah didn't sprint off to meet the pack like Bella thought she would, and she glanced up in confusion.
The wolf's head was turned to one side, one soulful eye focusing back on Bella as a soft, timbre whine leaked from her snout. Her ears tipped back to Bella curiously.
"I'm okay." Bella answered Leah's silent question without quite knowing how she'd even understood it.
Drawing in a deep breath, she sat up on the back of Leah's wolf, fisting her hands in her snowy fur while her feet kept their death grip on the wolf's ribcage. It was a little (a lot) more intimidating to be sitting up while being over six feet off the ground.
Squaring her shoulders, Bella swallowed thickly.
"I'm ready."
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