Chapter 14: Leah?

I was still laying down on the sand in shock. My knees grew weak, so I couldn't stand up on my own.

"Why did you submit to him?" Paul said demandingly as he knelt beside me and grabbed my both of my arms. I was getting really uncomfortable with this situation.

I sigh in frustration, "Jake needed my help. Submitting to him helped calm his alpha wolf spirit since his wolf spirit never received it not even from Jacob himself. Honestly, Paul, Jake is your pack brother. Why are you being so possessive against Jake?"

Suddenly, I heard Leah speaking behind him as she was approaching us, "Stop being a dick, Paul. She was perfectly fine with him until you showed up and made things worse."

Where did Leah come from? Also, how long she has been close by?

He turned his head and roared at her, "You let my imprint near Jacob? She could've been attacked by him from the mental state that bitch Bella left him in!" I winced since he was literally roaring in front of my face.

Leah snapped, "Don't you dare growl at me Paul. If it wasn't for Sam's orders to not attack you as humans, I would've thrown you in the ground."

I wasn't satisfied with that answer. It feels like there was another reason that he is hiding from me, so I asked again losing my patience, "why are you being so possessive against Jake, Paul?'

He turned his head, with his silver eyes blazing at me, he said, "Jake is an unmated wolf. Not only that he is a dominant wolf and I feel threatened by him. Since he has the spirit of an alpha wolf and I haven't submitted to him, it pisses me off to see my mate submit to him. My wolf is a territorial son of a bitch, and he doesn't like sharing."

I said coldly, "Paul, you think that lowly of your own pack brother? I get you don't like him for the choices that he been making lately, but everyone deserves some sisterly love. You know what my role is..."

Paul's grip got a little tighter, and I don't know if he is aware of it not. Then, he said through his grinded teeth, "I know! But it doesn't make it any easier on me. You don't know how much I just want to keep you all to ourselves."

I raised my voice, getting angry, "and you think it's easy on me? Do you even know how it feels-". My voice cracked at the end, and little slips of tears spilled.

Damn. Not the time to cry.

I looked away from him, and I stopped myself from finishing that sentence, or else , I will actually start crying. Now it's not the time or space to having an emotional breakdown. The weight of the future for all of these characters, how I handled Bree, having one big conversation to another, unable to go back home, it was all finally crumpling down on me.

Trying to deescalate the scenario and being disappointed in him, I said, "I need space Paul. I'm really upset with you. Let go of me."

Instead of doing what I've asked him to, he pulled me closer to his chest, and he started trembling. I was getting uncomfortable with his tight hold on me. It was actually starting to hurt, and then

My stepfather shouted, "You are exactly like your mother, inútil (good for nothing)!"

Mom crying in the background as he was grabbing tightly on my mom's arms with my 13 year self staring frozen. Not knowing what to do.

Because of that flashback, the old feelings of fear, despair, helplessness started to overwhelm. Preventing me from separating a memory from the present, I felt was back at that moment in time so my old feelings resurfaced in the most unexpected time. With me hyperventilate, freaking out, I shouted panicky, "let go of me Paul, NOW".

I felt two pair of hands grabbing at my waist. I was pulled upward from Paul, and it was Leah who ripped me off from Paul. The sudden movement and unable to see anything in the dark left me dizzy and disoriented. She had me steady on the hip, as I leaned on to her shoulder for support. I pounded my hand to my chest to calm myself down. I wiped the tears from my eyes, and I shoved all that I was feeling back in the corner of my mind with a tight lid. But, I don't know how long that will last…

Paul was snarling at Leah, and Leah was snarling back at Paul.

"The girl told you to let go Paul, back off now or else you would look more of an asshole than you already are" Leah sneered at Paul.

I said shakily, "No matter how upset you are and your wolf, when I say let go, you let go."

Like a speed of lightning, I felt two individuals were at either side of Paul. It was Sam and Jared because Sam ordered, "Paul go patrol now!" while I heard Jared said, "Come on, man. Don't resist the order. Don't make things worser."

Paul whined and ran off to the forest. He phased before he got to the forest, and I heard him howl mournfully to the night sky. I felt sad for Paul..I didn't want to make him think that he is an monster, but he needs to be accountable of his actions.

Leah asked gruffly, "you good?"

I said weakly, "yeah".

Sam sighed, " I will go check on, Paul. I'm sorry that you had to experience that. Don't worry about him, Ale. Let him cool off."

I nodded.

Sam asked softly, "Leah can you watch Ale, and take her back to Paul's place? It will mean a lot if you can just do me this favor.

Leah snorted, "don't think so highly of yourself Sam. Of course, I'm not heartless. Come here, Chickee. Let's go get some food before the boys eat it all by themselves."

Chickee? Not too bad of a nickname. Eh, I would need to get used to that nickname.

I heard Sam walked off, and Leah half walked- carried me back to where the others were sitting. She didn't want to deal with me stumbling over in the dark since I can't see or sense anything in the dark. There was a huge bonfire in the distance, and the closer to it, the more I was able to see. Seth was going around with a huge black bag, cleaning up the aftermath of the celebration. I guess my talk with Jacob and the whole blow up with Paul lasted longer than I expected. It seemed like Seth lost the bet since he was the only one cleaning up the aftermath. I noticed he already took his bandages around his wrist. He probably already healed by then.

There was a long table behind the bonfire, and Sue was in the middle waiting for us. She had her hands on her hip and she was looking at Leah disappointedly," Leah darling, I told you to go get Jacob and Ale because food was ready. Since you took too long, I had to fight with the boys to leave you three food. Here, is your food."

She gave us each plate of fried chicken strips, fries and mashed potatoes. I looked at hungrily, and I started shoving the fries to my mouth. I didn't care if I wasn't eating like I was a lady, I was hungry lol. Also, not like she haven't seen it from the pack before. I bet they eat even more ravenously.

She continued, "Sam and Jared came back from the meeting. Sam said Paul left immediately the meeting to go get Ale, so I didn't see him. I don't know what happened. Suddenly, Sam and Jared took off running after you three. Where did Jacob go?

I looked at her guilty and sadly, " I spoke with Jacob. He is going to go on a spirit walk to reconnect with his wolf spirit. I don't know how long Jacob will be gone but.. Paul lost his temper, so Sam and Jared are at the woods trying to calm down."

Sue put her hand close to her mouth, with tears forming in her eyes. She said tearfully, "oh this is such great news! I am going to go tell Billy at this moment. Seth honey and Leah would you mind finish cleaning this up before going home?"

Leah muttered, "Yeah, sure" while Sue started walking quickly off from the beach with Seth shouting cheerfully, "sure mom. See you at home". he waved goodbye to her.

Me and Leah sat beside the fire as we were eating our late dinner. I took the chance to asked Leah first, "how come you didn't approach me and Jake until Paul intervene?"

Leah said, "Mom told me about you. She told me what you said to the elders. That took some balls to go up against the elders. Not even Sam wouldn't go off on them. When I saw you were talking to Jake, I just wanted to see myself who you were."

I nodded as I continue to munch on my meal. Leah is a person of few words, and she tends to keep things to herself unless it is necessary. She would call you out on your issues. Even though she has her temper, it is how she deflects and protects herself since she has been hurt many times in past. I saw that he wasn't interested in eating. She was looking aimlessly at the bonfire. Because so much time has passed, the fire was going out slowly. The fire was reflecting her eyes, her mysterious eyes. Fill with anger, tiredness and a underlying pain. Pain that rarely lets people see. Knowing her she won't be talking to me about herself anytime soon. It will take a long time to gain her trust and to finally be vulnerable to anyone, so in a way, I am glad she hasn't. I honestly wasn't in the mood to be talking to anyone else today. I was just emotionally tired, and a bit embarrassed that I overreacted on Paul. I was just a mess, and all I wanted was to eat, shower, and go to bed.

"Thanks", Leah said out of nowhere.

I asked unsurely, "Hm? For?"

She turned to me and said casually, "for helping my mom. I am not a fan of the spirits at the moment, but I'm glad you came. No one was willing to search into the archives to find more about my case except my mom. My mom.. she was running into many dead ends regarding me."

She looked gloomily back to the fire, "It was hard seeing my mom exhausting herself like that, and I told her to just give up, but she didn't get it…. The more she kept trying to find answers, the harder for me to deal with it all." She said the last sentence bitterly.

Ahh. The more Sue was running dead ends to Leah's case, the more Leah felt hopeless and angry with her situation. Sad thing is, she didn't know how to handle that without retaliating through her bitterness and temper.

She sighs as she put her plate down. She was still looking down and she said with a hint of frustration, "I didn't need you to come and defend me. But with you as… the peacemaker, you have power. You're almost on equal par or even greater than the elders, so I appreciate what you said about me, and giving hope to my mom…. Because is as if you have really know, I'm not really wanted in the pack. To everyone else in a pack, I am just Sam's ex-girlfriend that he can get away from and it makes it harder for me to move on from him. It doesn't help having him in my head".

Listening to her, she keeps thanking me of helping her mom Sue, but is it really Sue that she keeps referring to? I'm getting an underlying feeling that she is thanking me for giving her hope in her roundabout way, but knowing how she is, she won't admit it because of her pride. Probably she didn't want to hope in something and then get disappointed again, so she is trying to protect herself from being failed and disappointed. It looked like she didn't want to continue this conversation, so she changed the subject.

She said, "I really like what you said to Jacob. Well, (she glanced back at me before returning to look at the fire) what you told him is what I needed to hear for myself as well. Like that kid Jacob, I felt like I was tied to this land. I wasn't able to get out of it but now I can see that really it was all in our heads. We do have more control of our life than we think.." She said the last part as if it is still a foreign concept for her and she is still trying to accept it herself.

I said trying to sound reassuring, "I am amazed that you're perspective of yourself"

She stretched her arms over her head, and said, "No not really. Once you came to our lives and started calling out things like to the elders, Jacob, and to Edward. Edward told Seth in his wolf form, so we all know. With you being here, I feel like my life can move forward again. I guess that is why I was willing to come and save you from Paul himself even though he was being a jackass."

She went through her hair, and said, " I don't even know why I'm talking this much with you when I barely know you. Probably, it is that calm aura that you have..It's making me and my wolf spirit at ease. Hell, even my wolf spirit keeps encouraging me to talk to you and to spend time with you."

I said, "Oh, that is interesting to know."

Leah shrugged.

Seth came and threw a bucket of water at the fire. Smoke went quickly up to the night sky. By the time we finish talking, Seth had already cleaned up everything from the beach, so there wasn't anything else we need to do which I am very thankful. Not to sound lazy or anything, I didn't feel like doing anything, and since its night-time, I would mostly cause more problems cleaning up than doing any good due to my eyesight.

Seth approached me and Leah. He told Leah, "I'm going to go home now Leah. I'm tired." He smiled tiredly at me and said, "It was nice finally meeting you Ale in person than hearing about you through people's heads. Hope to see more of you."

I smiled sweetly, "Sure thing Seth. Have a good night."

Seth took off jogging to the side of the road toward the reservation, leaving me and Leah the last one at the beach. Leah extended her elbow to me, and I grabbed onto her and we walked silently to Paul's place. I was nervous as we were returning to his place because I wasn't ready to confront him. I was already exhausted by everything that's happened today, and I didn't feel like having another hard conversation with him just yet. I know.. relationships are about being comfortable with having hard conversations, realizing your own triggers besides the cliché stuff that we see in romantic movies. but thankfully he wasn't home by the time I got to the front door.

Leah was being surprisingly nice because she took me all the way up to the front door. I heard her sniffing, and she said, "Oh, it looks like Paul got your place from the Cullens. I could smell all over these luggages."

I couldn't see, but apparently there were three luggages lined up by the door, so Leah lifted all three of them on her side and dropped them inside.

I got inside, and Leah said, "Imma..go now. If you need anything, holler. Paul is probably out there sulking in the woods." She walked out the door, and I called out, "thanks Leah." I knew she turned around because I saw her eyes light up silver for a second before she ran toward the woods and shifted.

I turn back to the open door of Paul's house. It was quiet with no light inside. It felt weird walking inside the house on my own. I am the type of person that likes to be alone but coming home to an empty house is another thing. Growing up the only child with parents constantly working, it is something that I was used to, but going to college and living with friends. I was able to taste how nice it feels for someone to welcome you home. Knowing how it feels, I can't go back to not being bothered by it. The silence of the house was getting too much for me to bear with everything that went down to today.

I closed the door behind me, slid down. With knees pulled up to my chest, I let everything out.

Author's Note:

I passed my certification exam today. Woo! To celebrate, I decided to send out a chapter for all of yall to enjoy. I gave you guys a bit more information on Ale. Ale is not a saint or overly op as a character. I won't make her character like that. She has flaws like everyone here including myself.

I have a plan with what I am going to do with Jacob, Leah, Embry, Emily, Sam, the Volturi and the Cullens. Just how to get there is going to take some time. Ofc, this is an imprint story too, so we will get a lot of fluff and relationship building between Ale and Paul. This fanfic isn't going to be short!

I'm still not sure whether I should eventually change the rating to M when Ale and Paul gets intimate. ..I have no experience writing smut/M material. I'll see when we get to that part of the story ( It'll be like 5-8ish chapters down the road), but let me know if you want me to change it to M or keep those chapters in a separate fanfic as additional material for this story that you guys could look at on your own.

Let's see how Ale and Paul will resolve their conflict in the next chapter. How did you guys like the small conversation with Leah?