A/N: So this is a pretty big chapter! Plot twist! Did anyone see it coming? Thoughts/theories on what will happen next?
Leah POV
I looked at Paul dumbstruck for a while.
"Is that even possible? Can I turn wolf again after all this time?"
He nodded. "Sam and Jared did it a few years ago when we had a big leech attack and needed more wolves. It took them some concentration because their wolves were dormant for so long, but they did it. We found a way to make it work."
I crossed my legs and looked him dead in the eye. "I can't believe you are springing this on me," spit out of my mouth. Truthfully, I didn't mind actually being a wolf. Back then, everything else about it sucked: being connected to Sam's thoughts, having to obey him, him imprinting on Emily, stopping my life to kill vampires. Sucked, Sucked, Sucked and sucked some more. But actually being the wolf. Moving like a bullet through the forest, feeling my fur wave in the wind, letting my inner beast out, fully out, that was all invigorating. I bit the inside of my cheek and let his proposal sink in.
"How would I even go about doing it? I mean if I go about it like I used to, I don't think it will work."
He placed his hands on his hips and took a deep breath, like he had a doozy for me.
"It's gonna be like virgin sex again, Leah. It's gonna hurt and not be super fun, but you gotta power through, it will get better."
I rolled my eyes at him. "That's a really odd and unrelatable metaphor Paul… I haven't had virgin sex in a very long time…"
He cut me off. "I'm gonna have to taunt you and talk shit,"
"What?"
"Make you pissed. I'm gonna have to say a bunch of shit I don't mean and make you angry. That's what worked for Jared and Em,"
"Paul… I'm not sure… I mean I am not really like Jared and Embry,"
"It will work. And it will help Ava, Leah. I know it will. Trust me to be the Alpha here. Okay?" He was confident and nearly heartfelt in his words. I sucked on my cud, contemplating. If being a wolf meant helping that girl that was in for so much bullshit, why not?
"Fine," I said, standing completely straight and looking at him dead in the eye. I decided to put all my eggs in his basket and trust him, for better or worse. Definitely was going to be worse.
Paul grinned and then immediately changed his stance and turned tough.
"You're old as fuck,"
Okay, I guess the insults are starting now.
I rolled my eyes. This was never going to work, he just said he didn't mean it.
"You were way hotter at 20,"
That's actually not true at all. Whatever… come on, Leah. Just buy into it! Get pissed, you gotta turn wolf. Wolf, Wolf, Wolf.
"All the guys think you are a bitch because you are, you could never be Alpha,"
Well this is a snoozefest. UGH…just let it make you pissed. Think wolf. Wolf, Wolf, Wolf.
I closed my eyes and cupped my face with my hands. Wolf, Wolf, Wolf. Come on. I know you are in there. Come out! It's been a while, but I am ready for you now!
"You could never be Alpha because you're weak, Leah. You act strong, but we all know it's bullshit. You're a scared, bitter little girl and will never be a powerful leader. You will never be brave. You were too weak to be a warrior and we all fucking know it…" His voice was biting with that one, but I knew it was senseless bullshit that Paul didn't mean in any way at all.
This is actually the stupidest, most unbelievable insult anyone could ever…
My thoughts were interrupted by a scathing voice and pounding footsteps. I turned away from Paul's tired attempt at slander to view something truly horrific: My 15 year old daughter, raging like King Kong and headed toward us.
"Leave her alone!" her shrill shriek wailed through the forest. I watched a fuming Akeala outraged and charging rapidly toward us.
Well, fuck me.
"Honey, no... it's not…he's not…" My hands were out stretched to her, but she was gunning for Paul. Eyes full of fury.
She gave no sign that she heard my words. Her legs ran up to him like a stampede, her mouth moving like a motor; screaming and irate. Since when could she run that fast?
Akeala's petite frame plowed into Paul like a bulldozer. I tried to stop her but she ran through my arms like a warm knife through butter. I fully expected her to slam into him like a wall, but she hit him with such force. He actually took a slight step back at her might. Oh, fuck. How was she this strong?
She glared at him — red, seething and shaking. Chills ran through my body at the sight.
Shaking?! Can't be happening. Can't be happening.
"Sweetie, you have to calm down, he wasn't really…" I tried to sooth her but was completely ignored, her eyes completely black and pointed toward Paul.
"You can't fucking talk to her like that! Who the fuck do you think you are?!"
Paul placed his hands out, trying to disarm her.
"Akeala… I wasn't – please, you need to think of something calm,"
"Shut up!" she snapped at him as she shook with indignation.
"No. No. No." I pleaded. I made desperate eye contact with Paul.
"Make it stop!" I screamed at him. We both knew what was happening. We had both seen it before.
"I can't, Lee." It came out like defeat. There was also sorrow and remorse in his voice. We both knew he couldn't stop it: it was now her destiny.
I stood and watched her, trying desperately to mask my terror as Akeala's skin ripped open, her limbs stretched and fur sprouted all over her body. It may have been seconds but felt like excruciating hours stretched out with a rolling pin. This was my baby, who I birthed and held and nursed and tried to protect for 15 years. My child who I made with Antwan. One of two pure things I actually created in my life, and now who I completely failed. She was destined for a life like mine. To be a monster killing machine, and all I could do was sit and watch.I killed my father and now I had turned my daughter. What kind of mother was I? How could I let this fucking happen? No. No fucking way. Tears rolled through my eyes as my arms started to shake.
"No!" I screamed.
"Leah. It's fate. Predestined. There is nothing we can do."
Rage poured into me and I shook more. He stood back.
"NO, Paul!"
And then it happened. But It wasn't like the first time. It didn't hurt, but I did feel the stretch and the pull and then all the fur, and then there I was again. A wolf, looking at my daughter, who had now phased into a wolf herself.
Akeala's wolf was jet black with blue crystalline eyes, the color of a glacier. She wasn't seething anymore, just looking at me cautiously as her silky fur waved as the wind rolled in.
"Mom…" she softly sent over the mind-link. I could tell she wasn't scared and the anger seemed to subside too. She was just looking at me and waiting for me to take the lead, like she did so many times before.
"It's me. I'm here, Sweetie. I got you, okay? We're gonna do this together, Honey".
I could hear her sigh. And then I saw inside her head. Thoughts of me and her. Old ones of me holding her hand as a child, or cradling her when she cried. She trusted me. She wanted me, needed me.
I took a step forward and nuzzled her with my snouth. I licked her face and sent her a memory of me holding her as a baby. Her cheeks were red and cubby in my arms while we rocked in a chair in the middle of the night. A little pink cap on her head as I sang to her awash in soft night light.
"Oh my god," she exclaimed. "That's me?!"
"I got you, baby. I am here and going to hold you through this. We can do this."
Another sigh, and then just a whimper, "mom."
Ava POV:
There was definitely shouting. We both heard it, but it was more clear to me. I held Omar's hand tightly as we made our way to the clearing. Once we got there we saw two wolves and Paul. Two I had never seen these wolves before. They were smaller than the others and different in some other way. Maybe more majestic, but there was something else too. An unabashed closeness between them was evident.
My eyes shot over to my Alpha who had the biggest 'what the fuck' face I have ever seen in my life. As we approached he glanced over at Omar and I and then to our laced fingers. His mouth went agape.
"Oh, you have to be fucking shitting me,"
I shook my head no.
"When the fuck did this happen?"
"Just now, when I came to Seth's."
"And you explained it to him?" He coacked his head over to Omar who stood tall and unafraid, fully backing up beside me and allowing me to take the lead. Man, I was drawn to him. I had to fight every urge not to mate with him right there in front of Paul and the two new wolves.
"Just did." I intoned. I looked back over at the two wolves who were licking each other.
"What's going on here?" I gestured to wolves oddly behaving in front of me.
Paul huffed out some air, his hands on his hips, just on the edge of the waistband of his sweatpants.
"Akeala, go back to Seth's house as a human and get him, now. That's an order."
I knew it was a fucking order, thanks dipshit.
"Why don't you just phase and call him, like Theo did for me?"
"I need to give these two some privacy." He gestured over to the licking wolves. "They fucking deserve that, okay? Go now."
I looked over at Omar, but he was looking at the ground. His hand slipped out of my hand like slippery soap as he went over to pick up some ripped running shorts and then a shredded t-shirt with a picture of Avril Lavigne. He then moved close to the wolves, almost studying them as the larger one licked and groomed the black one. They noticed him and started to stare in his direction. As if they knew him. As if they were trying to convey a message to him.
"Oh, fuck," he said, color leaving his face. "Akeala? Mom?"
