March, Spring Break
The second I stepped back into Charlie's house, I noticed Bella has been doing better. She's been eating all three meals, showering, and doing her schoolwork. In fact, she's been out of the house every day. Her nightmares continued, but she was happier.
"You know something's up, she's been going out more than you." Charlie said the day after I got home. "You should go check on her."
"What puts you in such a good mood?" I asked, eating a bowl of ice cream as I leaned against her door frame.
"Jacob," she said with a smile. "Jacob and I are restoring these old bikes."
"You know what, that's great, he seems to be good for you." I said before finishing my ice cream.
"Also, Quil and Embry asked me to say hi to you." Bella said with a shrug.
"Cool," I said, nodding before I stepped back into the hall. "Tell them hi back."
I went to the movies with Tala, Maria, and Siobhan a few days later, and when I came back to the house, I saw Bella sitting on the couch. She was staring at her phone, and there was a deep sadness flickering in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" I asked, sitting next to her.
"Jacob's sick, he has a…" Bella began to say.
"Let me guess, a stomach bug." I stated, and Bella picked her head up.
"Yeah, how did you know?" Bella asked, confused. My mind raced with the conversation I had with Jacob on my first day here, and the get-together when I looked into Leah's eyes. Then I thought of Edward, a vampire, something was up.
"You really buy that?" I asked, folding my arms. "Something's going on."
"I tried to visit Jacob the other day, he cut his hair short, and on his arm he had…" Bella tried to begin, but I cut her off.
"A circular, black, tribal tattoo?" I guessed.
"How did you know?" Bella asked, looking at me with shock. I rolled my eyes.
"Maybe if you were so involved with your vampire boyfriend and the Cullens you would realize that there's something off with Jacob, and his pack of friends." I said, Bella simply looked at me, dumbfounded. "That's it, tomorrow, we're going to La Push, you need to see Jacob, and I need to see Leah."
"Deal… why Leah?" Bella asked.
"Something happened at the get-together you missed, something I can't explain, I need to see her." I said, Bella nodded.
The next day, Bella and I got into the red truck, and I began to drive us to La Push. I was able to navigate our way to Jacob's house. When I stepped out of the truck, I saw Paul, Sam, Jared, Quil, Embry, Seth and Leah stepping out of the pine forest onto the large field that surrounded Blacks' house.
Bella knocked on the door, and she ran inside when Billy Black opened the door. He acknowledged me before chasing after Bella. I approached the pack of shirtless boys, and Leah, walking towards me, Bella and Jacob ran out of the house and next to me.
"What the hell have you done?" Paul asked, stern anger in his voice.
"I didn't tell either of them. You'd know if I did." Jacob retorted.
"Y/n, Bella, there's nothing to see here, you both need to go home." Sam said, looking back and forth at us. I turned my head to see Leah, looking at me, her eyes showing how nervous she was.
"Not until I know what you did to Jacob!" Bella exclaimed, staring down the two boys. I looked away from Leah.
"Not until you tell me what you did to Leah!" I exclaimed to them as well. Embry and Jared chuckled, and received glares from Sam. I could tell Paul was growing angry, he was shaking, and Sam tried to hold him back with an outstretched arm.
"What did we do?" Paul asked, trying to break away from Sam's restraint.
"Both of you, calm down." Sam tried to say.
"Sam, she knows about the bloodsuckers," Jacob began.
"He knows about the Cullens?" I asked Bella, while Jacob was still talking, who was frozen in shock.
"Like a leech lover's going to help us." Paul said, gesturing to Bella.
"Watch what you call her." Jacob glared at Paul.
"Y/n we need to go!" Leah ran towards me, grabbing my wrist and sprinting towards Jacob's house. I heard Bella, Sam, Jacob, and Paul screaming.
"What's going on?" I asked, but I spoke too soon when I turned my head. I screamed when I saw a giant wolf, with dark silver fur, chasing Bella. I tried to stay and look, but Leah yanked my arm and led me away.
"Jacob, run!" Bella shouted at him. I saw Jacob run towards Paul. In a flash, I saw Jacob convulse, when I looked back, Jacob's body was replaced with a large russet wolf. The two wolves were rolling in the grass, clawing and biting each other, until they crashed into the forest, disappearing in the trees.
"Leah!" I screamed, yanking my arm out of her grip. She looked at me, with terror in her eyes. "What just happened?"
"Take Bella to Emily's, Leah, walk with Y/n, you two have a lot to talk about." I heard Sam in the distance.
"Guess the wolf's out of the bag." I heard Embry say with a smirk.
"Leah, there's a million questions you need to answer." I said, looking at her. However, Leah rolled her eyes, and wrapped her arms around me, with a smile. She is wearing a tank top, she's unusually warm.
"I've been waiting a year for this moment." Leah said. I wrapped my arms under her, and squeezed her back.
"Leah... why did two gigantic wolves take Paul and Jake's places and begin fighting?" I asked, pulling my head away from her.
"Ok, so you see this tattoo?" Leah asked, she pointed to the black, circular ink on her right arm. My eyes widened. "All the werewolves of our tribe have them."
"So you're werewolves, huh? Why are you so warm?" I asked, punching her arm lightly as the warmth radiated on my hand.
"Guess it's just a wolf thing, our body temperature is around 108. That's why they're always shirtless, and why I wear tank tops." Leah said, we were walking down a beaten forest path, I followed her.
"Why are we walking in the forest?" I asked, kicking a small rock.
"The rest of the pack is taking Bella to Emily's house. She's Sam's fiance, but you met her already." Leah said, smiling at me. "Sam is the alpha, we have to obey his orders, and he wants me to tell you about imprinting."
Imprinting, when I heard that word, a rush of electricity shot through me.
"Imprint?" I asked, then Leah looked deeply into my eyes.
"It's a protection thing. You look into her eyes, and the world melts away. Only she matters, you would do anything in the world to protect her." Leah stopped walking, I stopped and looked at her. "Emily is Sam's imprint, and I imprinted on you."
"You feel that way about me?" I asked.
"Yes." Leah said, smiling at me. "At the get-together, last March. Sam ordered me to stay away from you, because you were an outsider, you would learn eventually, but he thought it was the best way to protect you. My job is to protect you, and even though it hurt me, I agreed. That's why you got sick, because I was forced away from you."
"Sorry, this is just a lot to take in." I said, I buried my head in my hands, and sat down on the edge of the trail.
"Are you mad? I had no control over this!" Leah said, sitting next to me, resting her hand on my shoulder.
"I'm not, it means my feelings for you were as crazy as I thought. I guess the universe knew we were perfect for each other, and now I'll always have you." I said, smiling at her. I leaned my face into her cheek and gave her a quick peck. A blush creeped in Leah's face. "Come on, let's go to Emily's."
"Last few things you need to know, we do have wolf telepathy." Leah said as a small house came in the distance. My eyebrows lifted from surprise, telepathy seems interesting. "There are three bloodlines with the wolf gene, Black, Ateara, and Uley, but I have blood from all three. The gene only awakens when… vampires are around. This summer you'll hear our tribe's histories."
"I thought they were secret." I said, Emily's house came closer. Then, Embry and Jared walked out to come greet us.
"You're my imprint, you're now an honorary member of the pack." Leah said, pulling me closer to her.
"Hey, Y/n, glad to know you're caught up, Leah's thoughts are pretty loud." Jared said as he and Embry walked towards us. "Also, you met Kim, my imprint."
"Yeah, months of psychological warfare." Leah said, folding her arms.
"Yeah, Y/n, ever since Sam imprinted on Emily, who's the Clearwaters' cousin, all Leah wanted to do was torture us telepathically. You really got us off the hook." Embry said, nudging Leah, who rolled her eyes and shot him a glare.
"What?" I asked.
"Don't worry, you're my imprint, you're all that matters." Leah said, cupping my face in her hands. The four of us walked into Emily's house, Sam was kissing Emily on the forehead, and I saw Bella sitting at a table with Seth and Quil.
"Y/n! It's been too long." Emily said as she walked over to give me a hug, I saw Leah, Embry, and Jared sit at the table, and from the corner of my eye, Paul and Jacob entered the house. "You better come around often, now that you know everything. Have a muffin."
"Thanks, your muffins are amazing." I said, sitting in between Bella and Leah as I took a muffin. Leah leaned into my ear.
"Bella doesn't know about imprinting yet." Leah whispered to me. I grabbed a muffin and began to tear it apart.
"We're good." Jacob said, looking between Paul and Sam. They both nodded.
"Bella come with me." Jacob said, they both stood back up and walked out the door. I tried to stand up, but Seth grabbed my hand.
"Y/n, this morning we had an encounter in the woods with a certain bloodsucker, Laurent, there's a redheaded one coming for Bella. We're setting up a protection detail around your house." Sam said, I looked up at him.
"Was he involved with the broken leg my sister got last year?" I asked. Sam nodded at me, and continued to eat the muffin.
"Yes, but we took care of him, only Victoria is left." Jared said. "We're just telling you to be careful, Y/n. As much as I hate to admit it, the Cullens have been able to keep them at bay. Even they are leeches themselves."
"Why do you hate the Cullens?" I asked. "I mean I get it, Edward did annoy me."
"They're leeches, we have a treaty with them. They stay on their land, they don't come on ours, and they aren't allowed to hurt the humans." Embry said, looking at me. "That's why their presence causes us to phase, so we can protect our tribe."
"Seems fair enough." I said with a shrug.
"So Charlie has a vampire girl and a wolf girl." Emily said, smiling at me.
"If only he knew." I said, shaking my head. Leah blushed.
"You know, Jacob went to visit Bella the other day." Quil began, looking at me. "He threw pebbles at her window, then when she invited him in, he climbed up the tree in your backyard and climbed through the window."
"That explains some of the thumping I heard last night." I said, remembering hearing strange noises in the night. I looked at my shoulder to see that Leah had stretched her arm, placing it across the back of my chair. I looked around the table to see Embry and Paul smirking, looking at Leah.
"We have to get you home before sundown." Leah remarked.
"Seems reasonable." I said with a shrug.
"You're awfully nonchalant about all of this." Jared said with a smirk.
"I mean, last summer I found out my sister's boyfriend was a mind reading vampire. Also, I now learned that my sister was attacked by a different set of vampires. This isn't new." I said, then I looked into Leah's eyes. "Besides, I'm sure vampires don't stand a chance against all of you."
"I like her." Paul said, patting my shoulder.
"Hey!" Leah warned, snapping her head to Paul. Leah could definitely be threatening. I giggled before grabbing her hand, which was resting on my shoulder.
"Hey, you imprints be mushy somewhere else." Embry said, half joking.
"Oh, leave her alone." Emily said, giving Embry a small flick on the top of his head. Sam had his arm around her waist. Quil and Jared began to nudge and mess with Embry. Seth was laughing along. Paul, Leah, and I just watched.
"So you know about telepathy, the bloodlines, the reason, what about Taha Aki?" Jared asked, still eating.
"Who?" I asked.
"Don't worry, she'll learn at the bonfire." Paul said with an eye roll.
"Hey, she's still processing all of this." Leah said.
"Don't worry, Leah, we got this." Jared said, reassuring him. "So are you two dating?"
"Jeez, Jared, don't overwhelm the girl." Quil said with a mouthful of muffin.
"I'm fine, stop treating me like I'm made of glass." I said, leaning back in my chair. I saw Emily chuckle to herself, I saw Leah smile in my peripheral vision.
"You're a tough imprint, you're really lucky, Leah." Embry said, smiling at me. Leah turned to him, glaring. "What?"
"Quil, you and I need to patrol." Sam said, gesturing his head towards the door. Emily frowned, but Sam gave her a kiss.
"What?" I asked.
"Our job is to protect so we take turns patrolling our lands." Jared said with a smile.
"Besides, Quil doesn't want to talk to you anymore, and Sam thinks you should spend time with Emily." Jared said with a shrug. Quil and Sam shot him a glare.
"Seriously, Jared?" Paul asked, looking at Jared, his eyebrows were lifted and his features were stern. Seth had his hand over his gaping mouth.
"That was cold." Seth said, trying to hide his smile.
"What? Y/n, doesn't have wolf telepathy, that's why Sam and Quil are going. Sam is hogging Emily and Quil wants to leave, it makes sense." Jared said, smirking.
"I am so sorry, Y/n. I'll talk to Jared and Quil about this." Leah said, looking at me, but Embry and I were just dying laughing.
"Oh, that's just funny." I said with a smile, Embry nodded at me. I looked to the door to see Sam, blushing, and Quil sheepishly walking out.
"Yeah, Sam thinks you'll be a liability because you're an outsider, Quil doesn't like you for some reason, Embry thinks you're hot, but he's getting over it, you're Paul's new hero, Jacob's glad you're back, and Seth's happy for you and Leah." Jared said, propping his feet on the table.
"And you're exploiting the girl for your own entertainment." Seth said, crossing his arms. Everyone else had their mouths wide open in shock.
"Jared, feet off the table." Emily said, then she looked at me. "You'll get used to it one day, Y/n. They're just excited to have a new imprint to mess with."
"And Leah?" I asked, but my question was met with an outburst of laughter from the pack. Even Leah snickered a bit.
"Y/n, she imprinted on you, she obviously adores you." Seth said, laughing.
"Y/n, Leah, I'd hate to be a bother, but could you please help me with dinner." Emily said, flipping through a recipe book.
"Leah can't cook!" Embry scoffed. Emily spun her head around and glared at him.
"It's no problem, I'd love to help." I responded with. Leah and I stood up and walked over to her.
"You two don't have to do anything, I just wanted to give you some privacy from them." Emily whispered, a small smirk creeping across her face.
"We can still hear Leah's thoughts!" Seth called from across the room.
"Yeah, thanks Emily." Paul said loudly. Emily rolled her eyes playfully, and smiled at us. Then she pulled out a piece of paper.
"Yeah, we're making ravioli, Y/n, Leah, make the Alfredo sauce." Emily said, looking up from her mixing bowl and gesturing towards some butter, cream, and cheese that she obviously premeasured.
"Sure, I know how to do this." Leah said, looking at the ingredients with what I can only describe as anxiety. I tried to coach Leah through the methodology, and right behind us, Emily was cooking the ravioli. An hour passed, the ravioli was formed and cooked, and Leah and I managed to have a decent Alfredo sauce. "I think we did it!"
I ate a few bites of the ravioli. It was really good, I nodded with a large smile. Emily made a fist in celebration before handing me a heaping bowl of ravioli smothered in Alfredo sauce. I couldn't help myself, and began eating. Unfortunately, right when I finished my bowl, my phone went off and I opened it.
"Hey, are you hungry?" Emily asked a rhetorical question to everyone sitting. In perfect unison, all the werewolves stood up and rushed to the kitchen, as Emily began to put the ravioli and sauce into large bowls.
"Finally, Emily. It's already sunset." Jared said, following the crowd.
Charlie: Are you coming home anytime soon?
Then I got another text.
Bella: Hey, I had a talk with Jacob, but I want to go home now.
"Ugh, sorry, my dad wants me home." I said, looking around at everyone at Emily's house. "Thanks, Emily, your muffins and ravioli are delicious and thank you so much for welcoming me into your home."
"No problem, I'm happy to be with fellow imprints." Emily said with a smile.
"I'll come with you, it's dark." Leah said, jumping out of the kitchen.
"Thanks, sounds good." I said, as the two of us began to walk out of Emily's house and onto the forest path. There was an air of silence between us, I don't know how it happened, but as we walked, we began to hold hands.
"Hey, you just need to tell no one more thing about imprinting." Leah said, looking at our intertwined hands.
"Yeah?" I asked, the red truck was in view, and I could see my sister waiting in the driver's seat.
"I don't want to pressure you. I imprinted on you, your safety and happiness is my job. The last thing I want you to feel is pressure into a romantic relationship." Leah said, looking at me, adoration in her eyes. "We can be friends, we can date, you don't even have to label this, I just need to be there for you. That's what I want to do."
"Right now," I began. I leaned towards Leah, and gave her a kiss on her cheek. We both blushed. "I just want to be with you." I waved goodbye at her as I walked towards the red truck, with Bella waiting inside.
"That's a new development." Bella said, looking at me, I was unable to read the emotion on her face.
"Yeah," I said, blushing. Bella put the car in drive, and we slowly traveled out of La Push and back to Forks. Before I knew it, I could see our house down the street.
"I'm going to bed early." Bella said, when we both walked into our house. Charlie was on the couch, drinking a beer, writing on one of the many pieces of paper on the coffee table. He immediately perked up when he heard our footsteps.
"That's too bad, I needed help with the dishes." Charlie said, cleaning up the papers strewn around the coffee table. "They've been piling up since I've swamped with this case work. That damn bear!"
"I'll help." I said cheerfully as Bella trudged up the stairs. I looked at the piling stack of dishes peeking out of the sink, and grimaced. I spoke too soon.
"I have some CDs, it'll fly by." Charlie said as we both walked over to the sink. Charlie handed me some elbow length gloves, and a sponge before turning on the sink, and the CD player. "You still like Reba?"
"I've known about you for a while now,"
I searched through the cloudy water, grabbing cups and dishes as I found them. The sponge was covered in soap foam and I scrubbed off excess food. We were nearing half an hour, and Charlie and I were cleaning our last few dishes.
"But she was too hard headed,
A single mom who worked two jobs…"
Then, the sound of Bella's blood curdling screams echoed throughout the house. Charlie and I looked at each other as we dried the dishes.
"I'm a survivor!"
"Poor thing." Charlie remarked, looking up the stairs.
"I thought she was doing better." I sighed, looking back at the soapy water."I'll go check on her."
Before I stepped away from the sink, I looked out the window, and I saw two large creatures hiding behind the tall pine trees in the distance. I immediately recognized one of the forms as Paul's wolf form. The other wolf, a smaller wolf with gray fur, though I have never seen her in her wolf form before, the first person that came to mind was Leah. That was Leah's wolf form. I immediately felt safe.
Poor Charlie, clueless that a werewolf imprinted on me, clueless that an entire pack of wolves was guarding our house because a heartbroken vampire lady is hunting my sister. Oh well, I'm going upstairs.
