Leah POV
With my arms folded behind my head, I stared up at my ceiling. I couldn't sleep, it was too bright outside and I guess I had prefight jitters. Sam had told us to meet him at Emily's an hour before the fight, this afternoon. I wasn't really anxious about the fighting but more anxious about Bella getting hurt. I grit my teeth pushing that thought into the back of my mind. I listened to the world around me, the birds chirping outside, Sue in the living room pretending to watch the news, Seth's deep snores. I couldn't help feel a little jealous of Seth's ability to sleep right now. My mind was firing on a million different pistons, making me a bit dizzy. I closed my eyes with a sigh and tried to calm my mind. I thought about running as a wolf, it always calmed me to allow my wolf to take over in my mind. Trees blurred past my vision, birds took off around me, startled by the large predator moving with such speed. This wasn't a made up image this was from earlier this week, my wolf was reminding me of the "training". She was persistent and wouldn't let me wander from the memory, with a sigh I gave in and watched the memory play out. Slowly, the rest of the pack joined in the run. I could see Seth in front of me, I pulled up beside him and slowed my pace to match his, gently bumping him with my shoulder. The pack was convening on the edge of a clearing. Sam stepped out first followed by the next in command, trickling down the chain to Seth and me, we came out together. Our wolves were the most attached in the pack which made sense with our being related and all, the two were fiercely protective of each other. I could feel the pull to look away from the fighting and I knew Bella would be at the end of that pull. I tensed my entire body, digging my claws into the dirt, my jaw locked. My eyes stared forward, struggling to keep focused on the fighting. It was so much harder to fight the imprint as a wolf, the magic of it pulling more in the ancient wolf body. I watched one of the Cullens go flying into a tree and rebound back at the attacker. I couldn't even enjoy the moment I was trying so hard not to look at Bella. I could, however, see Bella through Jacob's eyes, somehow the pull was less intense through his eyes. She was looking directly at me with a look of curiosity and maybe admiration. My heart tugged in my chest but it wasn't so bad through Jacob's mind, it was a nice little loophole. Jacob started walking over to Bella and all I could do is watch through his eyes as she looked at him with a kind smile. Then she leaned into him and looked back in the direction I knew I was. I could almost feel her weight leaning against my body, I stifled a content sigh. Then she ran her hand through his fur, still looking at me. I snapped from Jacob's mind into my own unable to stop myself from looking at her. I wanted so badly to have her run her hand through my fur, to sigh softly and take comfort from me. I took a step towards her before I could stop myself.
That's when it all went south. As soon as I had looked at her I knew it was over, her bloodsucker would hear my thoughts. It was easy to hide my thoughts through Jacob's eyes because the bloodsucker had already accepted Jacob's boyish crush on Bella. It was easy to fool the leech like that, another nice loophole, but once I was in my own mind it was game over. And just like that, he was between Bella and me, ready to attack with a growl to match. I crouched, suddenly in fight mode, my lips pulled back exposing my teeth with a snarl. I could see Jacob stalking closer to Edward and felt the pack shift from recon to attack mode. I took in the other leeches moving to protect their own, we stood still waiting for them to make the first move. We wouldn't be the ones to break the treaty, Sam's orders. If it were up to me half of them would be dead by now. The doctor leech had suggested that we finish for the night and Sam agreed, cautiously backing towards the woods so he could keep an eye on the threat. The rest of the pack followed but I stood my ground, my wolf unhappy with how close the leech was to Bella. Sam's alpha command to follow pulled me back into line. I had growled once more at the bloodsucker, letting him know how much I wanted to rip him apart. But my wolf wouldn't leave yet, she made us take one more look at Bella and I hadn't had any time to prepare myself. The full weight of the imprint came to the surface and I could feel it play across my face. Before my wolf allowed any more of the imprint out I took off after the pack into the woods.
Sam had asked a million questions about what the hell had happened. The pack went over and over it a thousand times, concluding that it was the mind reader who had heard or felt my imprint on his mate-duh. I couldn't handle anymore of the reminder of it and had phased back, opting to walk back on two legs. Seth joined me in wolf form and walked alongside me. Sam had decided that only Jacob had to go to the "training" sessions because we would be able to see it through his mind later. I was thankful for that, I wasn't sure if my wolf would be able to control herself around the mind reader.
I woke with a start. Seth was shaking my shoulder while calling my name. I looked at him with wide eyes and jumped out of bed, ready for a fight. He just smiled his boyish smile at me.
"Time to head to Emily's"
"Jeez, Seth you need better bedside manners." I scolded.
We hugged our mother and reassured her we would take care of each other then went into the backyard. Once in the cover of the trees, we separated until we couldn't see each other, stripped and phased. We silently jogged to Emily's and waited in her backyard, sitting back on our haunches. Paul was already there along with Embry. There was a mix of unspoken excitement and nerves floating through everyone's minds, it was hard to pick out what one individual person was thinking. Our minds began to weave together and became the pack mind and everyone allowed it now. Usually, we fought the pack mind, not wanting all of our secrets to be open for whomever. But today we all accepted that we would need the pack mind to be able to fight flawlessly. More brothers joined us in the backyard and in the pack mind. It was an odd feeling to have so many people in your head but not really be in your own head too. Sam phased last and suddenly our merged pack mind settled in Sam's head. Eight moved as one towards the clearing that was now as familiar to us as it was to Jacob. We could feel the presence of two others but they hadn't fully meshed into the pack mind. They had their own connection as they ran their patrol around La Push, Brady and Collin. Seth separated from us when we had almost reached the clearing, to go stand watch with the mind reader, to keep Bella safe. I knew Seth wasn't happy about missing the action but I didn't hear a peep out of him now, he knew the time for complaining was over. Sam ran over strategies through our minds and we listened intently, no one said a word.
We stood silently in the shadow of the woods, ready to attack, the Cullens in the open. It didn't take long for the scent of leech to grow stronger. Sam ordered us to hold until the very last second. When the newborn bloodsuckers were on top of the Cullens we pounced. The battle was a blur of teeth and shattering leeches. It was surprisingly easy to pick out the Cullen's scent from the newborns, they didn't smell as bad. We were almost done with the newborns when we heard Seth. There were two with him and the mind reader. And Bella. My wolf whined wanting to protect her imprint, I cried out mentally wanting to protect my brother. I had only taken a few steps in Seth's direction when Sam ordered me to stay with the pack and fight. 'There are still too many down here, Seth and Edward will be fine.' Sam stated. I found it harder to concentrate on what I was doing, half watching through Seth's mind. When Seth hit the boulder I lashed out, angrily, ripping a newborn down into unnecessarily small pieces.
Relief washed over the pack mind as the battle came to a close and the Cullens started a large fire. Seth and Edward were already heading back with Bella, having already destroyed the two leeches and had their own fire. Seth, unbelievably smug, came to stand beside me once he reached the clearing. Our wolves greeted each other quickly, his lightly brushing my side with his torso. Seth moved on to the rest of the pack, his head held high with pride. I found myself somewhat alone, scanning across the clearing taking in the carnage we had caused here. Just then the mind reader came out of the woods not too far from me, Bella on his back. As he shifted her off his back he turned to face her and say something. That's when I saw the movement, another newborn. How had we missed him? I took less than a second to recognize that it was heading straight for Bella, the mind reader's back to it. I was the only one who was close enough to cut his path off. Just like that my wolf took over, ignoring the shouts in my mind to wait for them. My body reacted automatically and I knew I couldn't trust anyone else to protect Bella. No one else would protect her with their life as I would. Something inside me caved and I felt my world completely shift. I had somehow allowed the imprint to take over. With a jolt, I was suddenly running faster than I thought I could even go. I pounced on the newborn but he had seen me at the last second and adjusted. Something in the back of my mind said something about not taking the obvious attack. The newborn and I rolled along the ground, I snapped my teeth at him trying to get purchase on him. He was too low down my torso and I could feel him squeezing tighter and tighter. I thrashed to try and throw him from me but he had too good of a grip. I vaguely recognized that the pack was converging on my location, Jacob the closest. Then there was a loud snapping noise as the newborn tightened his grip, even more, I whined as I felt the searing pain in my side. Suddenly Jacob was flying towards me and just like that the newborn was gone. I collapsed and felt the grass on my bare skin, my human arms suddenly wrapped around myself as I tried to scream in pain. All that came out was a small wheeze. I closed my eyes tight against the pain, my ears starting to ring causing everything around me to sound muffled. I heard an angel's voice shriek my name and I gained some strength from it. I opened my eyes slowly, blackness surrounded the edges of my vision but my eyes still managed to lock onto her. She was only a few strides away from me, she was sprinting. Then Bella's face was above mine. Somewhere in my mind, I recognized ice cold hands moving along my side assessing the damage. And somewhere in the distance, I picked up words like "broken" and "set" but I didn't care what was happening. She was here.
"Bella.." I tried to say her name but it sounded so weak and quiet I wasn't sure she had heard me.
"Shhh don't talk. It'll be okay" She sobbed, a fat tear landing on my forehead.
Her hands fluttered up to my face, one brushing a strand of hair from my eyes the other resting on my cheek. I tried to reach my good arm up to touch her face but even that movement was too much. I tried to scream as the movement sent another wave of searing hot pain through my entire body. The ringing in my ears became piercingly loud and the blackness on the edges of my vision closed in until everything was black.