A/N: I bring you another chapter of I Want to See You Be Brave! This one focuses on the POV of Akeala, Leo and Omar. The first part is purposefully awkward. The next part gives some insight on why it was so awkward and the last part gives us some more background/details on Omar, Leah's son, and reveals a major plot development!
Chapter 12:
Akeala POV:
I hadn't seen Leo for a couple days. We DMed a lot and he now knew I was aware of phasing, and by the time we saw each other again I also knew about Ava.
On a warm and dark night he came over to my grandma's house. I had been clicking between two apps for hours on end and couldn't stand to stare at my phone anymore. I grabbed one of my mom's old books from a shelf in my room and sat on the porch swing, my legs dangling as I swayed back and forth in the moonlight. That's where he found me.
I eagerly dragged my feet so the swing would stop rocking. He sat down next to me, just inches away from me. I could see all of his freckles. His lips were so plump and red.
"I wanted to tell you before. I just knew it should come from your mom," he said softly as the porch swing started to rock again. I nodded, agreeing that it was the right choice.
"Is it really weird for you?" He asked. My eyes widened. Of course it was really weird. In what universe would it not be bat shit crazy. It actually seemed awful. But, I knew I couldn't freak out. Omar and I both tried to keep our composure the whole time my mom and Seth spoke to us about it. Ultimately, I felt horrible for my mom at how trapped she was within it all. Still, I didn't know how to answer his question.
"How did you find out?" I deflected.
"Oh," his eyes lit up and his voice sounded chipper, "I've always known," he said, full of delight. "When I was little and my dad was still phasing, he would take us for rides. He was even the Alpha for a little bit," his head high with pride, "but he wanted to quit to grow old with my mom."
I was quiet for a bit. He seemed so comfortable with it all. And his comfort was totally genuine.
"Do you think it will happen to you?'' I asked sheepishly.
"Not sure. I mean, I wouldn't mind it. But, I don't really feel angry all the time like Will described… I haven't bulked up too much recently. So if it does happen, it might not be right now."
We sat in more silence for a while, swinging close together and listening to crickets in the background.
Why is this so awkward? I thought.
"How is it going with Will and Ava?" I finally asked him, my voice still reticent.
"Ugh…not well," He said, scratching his head. "He's still pretty pissed about the whole thing…"
He paused, and then went back to me. "Why didn't your mom tell you everything before?" He pointedly asked.
I push my lips to the side of my face. "I don't know. I think she just wanted to keep all that behind her. I think the whole thing was pretty traumatic for me. I don't think she ever imagined coming back here. I don't even think she ever told my dad. I think she just wanted to forget it even happened."
He shook his head, in disbelief. I tried again.
"I mean, I think it was a really tough time for her, Leo. Her dad died right around that time and she had a bad break up, I think she had trouble vibing with everyone…"
"Ugh, my mom said your mom was always super intimidating,"
I slunk back on the swing and my jaw clenched at that statement.
"I'm sorry. Was that offensive?" he asked, reading my body language.
"I mean, I think she is intimidating…" I actually liked his honesty, but thought about what he was asking me and then said, "but so is that big mean guy who yelled at you from the truck, right?"
"You mean Paul?"
I nodded. "And that doesn't stop people from being friends with him, right?
"It's different, Keal…"
"I just mean, I think it was really hard for her to fit in with the group here… I don't think she has very fond memories. I don't blame her for wanting to move on, not think about it, not tell us."
I could tell this was like a foreign language for Leo. He meant well, but he was so proud to be associated with the Protectors. There was nothing negative about it for him.
I looked down and realized he had put his hand on my thigh. Was this really a good moment? We clearly weren't syncing right now. He started to rub in up and down. It felt like sandpaper.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
He quickly removed his hand.
"Oh, sorry, Keal. We've been hanging out a lot... I just thought that maybe…" he leaned in close to me, trying to shoot his shot.
It seemed highly awkward. But he was beautiful and sweet, I told myself.
Before I could say anything, Leo grabbed the back of my neck and pushed my face into his. Our teeth clinked, but I kissed him back. It was sloppy, but his lips were very soft and smushy in a good way. Although his tongue was entirely too dominant.
He took my palm and placed it into his lower abs. They were incredibly firm. Did he really want me to know that he had nice abs?
It all felt like nothing. I pulled away from him and gave a smile.
"I think I better go Leo. My Grandma is inside and I think my mom, Omar and Seth will be home pretty soon,"
He nodded and gave me one final peck on the lips.
I went into the house. Grandma was still asleep. I went into my room and collapsed onto the twin bed, shocked that I hadn't exploded from all the pressure. I took out my phone and went to Leo's social media page. I watched the video of him solving the rubik's cube.
Could he do it as fast in person? Now, I wasn't so sure.
Leo POV
My shoulders curled over when I walked through the door. The faucet ran as my parents cleaned up dinner and my brother sat at the counter, silently jabbing his finger at his phone.
"Did you finally do it?" gruffed Will, looking at his screen.
"Yeah," I said bashfully, his whole face perked up and looked in my direction along with my parents. He wanted details. "But, it didn't go over as well as I hoped. I mean, she let me kiss her, but it was kinda short and awkward."
He looked at me with disappointment. "You have to be aggressive, Leo," he commanded. "Chicks like that shit. Tell her what you want. She's not going to know what to do with herself. Tell her what to do with her body," he said as if my parents weren't both right in front of him.
"Will! Watch your language, and not all women are like that, honey. Where are you getting this from?!" My mom piped up, alarmed at his words as she washed a baking sheet. My dad, drying dishes, smirked and said nothing. Mom took notice of that too.
"Jared! Don't be complicit!" She snapped.
"What!? No, of course not." He turned to us, "You got to know your audience boys," he said firmly. Will was oblivious.
My brother slid over to me and whispered lowly in my ear, "Did you rub her thighs? I'm telling you, girls fucking love it when you rub their thighs." I pulled away from him.
"Damn, Will. Can you just get out of my head?" I cried out, my parents both turning their heads toward us again. Will had always been cocky, but since he phased he had become especially brazen and since this whole ordeal with Ava he has just acted like a blatant asshole.
"Honey, give him some space, okay?" My mom said, shewing Will away from me. Will grabbed his phone and went upstairs, and my mom directed me toward the sofa.
"Do you want to talk about it, honey?" She asked me sweetly.
"I don't know mom…" I let out with frustration. "I do really like her, and I know Seth said she really likes me, but it just seems like we haven't been fully gelling." I rolled my head back out of frustration.
"Sweetheart, try and see if from her perspective. It must be very hard for her now, learning about everything. It was incredibly shocking for me at first, even with your dad to help guide me through," she trailed off and folded her arms, looking out into nothing, "I have no idea why Leah kept it a secret," my mom seemed highly annoyed at this idea."We all agreed we weren't going to do that."
"She's always been rogue, Kim," my dad called out from the kitchen.
"Well, that's the thing mom," I said, turning to her. "Akeala seems to think that being a Protector…is like a negative thing…" I said with a tinge of surprise in my voice, "like she went on about how her mom had this really hard experience with it and that it made sense she hid it… it just seemed really…weird."
My mom took a deep breath. "Akeala's mom had a very difficult time when the imprint didn't go her way," I looked at my mother, confused. She took a long sigh.
"This was all a really long time ago sweetie, but Leah was going to marry Olivia and Theo's dad, but then Sam imprinted on Emily, Leah's cousin. Leah never really got over it when she lived here. And it became worse when she joined the pack."
I breathed through my nostrils, not quite sure what to do with this information.
"Leah is guiding Ava through this, and her perspective isn't going to be the same as yours here, Leo, and you have to respect that. But if you like this girl, try and give it some time. And I know your brother thinks he's a Casanova, but his advice may not apply, okay?"
My mom gave me an endearing smile as she pulled me in for a hug. I hugged her back. She always found a way to make things easier.
Omar POV:
I had learned two very important things from spending time as Uncle Seth's babysitting slave. The first being that it should be required that before teenagers become sexually active they witness the shit storm that is bedtime with babies and toddlers.
Each evening I would hear a cacophony like the following:
"Brush your teeth! No, don't eat the toothpaste! Don't run away from me when I am trying to put your pants on! Only one story. Fine, two stories and a song. Ugh. Code five blowout on the baby! Alex! Help me, babe!"
I had begrudgingly witnessed quite a few of these and my main takeaway was the importance of birth control.
The second thing I learned was that although La Push was weird, I was okay with it, because I liked being with Uncle Seth.
When your dad dies when you're 10 and it's just you, your mom and your sister, there is a lot of time in your head thinking about your role as the guy. Some relatives referred to me as the "man in the house," right after his funeral. I wasn't sure what to do with that at 10, but as a teenager I started to feel the need to move into that space somehow. To become very protective of them. I wanted to physically murder Devin when he hurt Akeala. I hated when kids talked shit about my mom because she was straightforward. It usually came out through anger and annoyance - like I had to be the tough guy.
After dad died, Uncle Seth spent a lot of time with us; he practically moved in with us for half a year. I felt such relief when he was there. We were still quarantined from Covid and did zoom school. But he made sure we got outside. Took us for bike rides and long walks in the park, when mom couldn't.
Uncle Seth and mom's dad died when he was 15. But he never seemed to act through anger, he always tried to be upbeat and happy. Even after he showed us his wolf, it was baffling to think of him as a gruesome vampire slaying beast. He was just so cheery as a human.
One day, not too long after he showed us his wolf, I went over to help him with his kids as part of our agreement. Aunt Alex opened the door.
"Omar, it was only half a can of beer. I think you've been an indentured servant for long enough, if you rather be doing something else," she offered, as she let me in.
The weird thing was. I kinda was okay with it. Bed time was insane, but I'd liked being around Uncle Seth and seeing him be a dad. He made me feel calm. Like I didn't have to be the tough angry guy if I didn't want to be.
"It's cool, babe. We can go on vacation to Hawaii with all the dough we are saving on babysitters," Uncle Seth said, relieving me from having to explain I actually wanted to be there.
He turned to me.
"It's gonna be you, Lex and the kids for a little bit alone, bro," he said. I gotta go to the woods with Ava to start her training," I nodded. Me and the twins had developed quite the relationship and I was pretty comfortable around them. Ultimately I was just happy I could help my Aunt and Uncle out.
The doorbell rang. "Can you get that Omar, It's probably Ava. I just need to run up and grab my phone."
I walked over to the front door as he ran upstairs. I could see a blurry figure through the frosted glass. Something felt a little heavy as I opened the door. It could have been the handle, or the air at the moment. It just all felt very thick. As I pulled the door open, I saw Ava and her hazel eyes and then everything stopped being ordinary. In an instant each gold fleck of her eye seemed to swim around and call out, scream, my name. A burning desire pulled me toward her, made me feel like I always knew her, but I knew I didn't. I only saw her that one time at the barbecue. And I knew she was beautiful, how could anyone not know that, but there was more, so much more to her. She was brilliant and confident and hardworking and compassionate and ambitious and strong. I could feel it all, creep in my skin. She needed to be supported. And how could I ever even know that in a look? And how could I ever not know that.
My breaths became shallow as I thought all of this and felt all of this in a nanosecond, but I must have stood there and stared at her for a while, while she just stared back at me.
"Ok, Ava… ready to go…" Uncle Seth chimed in as he rolled down the stairs. But then, he quickly stopped as he saw us transfixed. "Oh, shit," he let out in a deep voice.
I couldn't stop looking in her eyes. But I still needed to know.
"W What?" I muttered, slowly. "What is it?"
Before he could answer, Ava reached out a cool hand and placed it on mine. She gave me a reassuring smile and said in the voice of an angel, "Have they told you about imprinting yet?"
A/N: What do you think? Next we hear from Ava and get her side of the imprint and also see what Paul and Leah are up to.
