Struggling to be Honest
JacobxBella
Rated M
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or the franchise, as it belongs to Steph Meyers
Struggling to be Honest
Chapter 17
Leah's brown eyes widened considerably from feeling Kai's lips against her own. Was he…was he kissing her?! Overcome with shock Leah wrenched her head away from Kai's, scooting back from him a little with a hand over her mouth.
"Wh-What the hell?" Leah couldn't help but ask.
Kai looked confused for a minute before asking, "Did you not want me to do that?"
The she wolf looked at the man like he had grown another head. Did he seriously think that was the problem? They had only really just met and he was already kissing her! Sure, she found him attractive and all, but seriously!
Seeing the internal fight in Leah's eyes, Kai reached out to take her hand only to have it yanked away from him. Realizing his mistake, he once again reached out and gently grabbed Leah's wrist before she take it away from him again.
"Leah," Kai started, but was surprised when Leah grabbed his hand and crushed it in her grip. He hissed when he felt his pinky finger crack beneath her grip, causing him to let her go. However, that gave the Quileute girl enough time to stand and walk out of his bedroom and down the hall, headed for the front door.
Kai went after her, following her outside only to see her break off into a run heading for the nearest wooded area. He took off after her, keeping up with her long strides as she ducked and weaved through the woods. He realized she was trying to not only get away from him, but try and make it back to her house on foot. Kai didn't want Leah to leave just yet, at least not without him giving an explanation as to why he kissed her. Determined to stop Leah, Kai sped up his pace and quickly closed in on the girl. He was surprised at how fast she was running, though it appeared that she hadn't broken into a sweat or was out of breath yet.
A minute later Kai reached out and caught Leah by her arm, effectively halting her in her attempt to run away from him. He however didn't expect her to turn around and attempt to slap him in his face. Kai struggled to keep her from beating the crap out of him and finally decided to just pin her down. Slipping a foot through Leah's legs, he hooked it behind her left ankle and pulled, causing her to fall on the forest floor on her back with a grunt. Moving quickly he sat on her waist and pinned both of her arms above her head. Kai waited until Leah stopped struggling and cursing at him, her brown eyes looking up at him with a mix of irritation and fear. Not the same fear of being afraid of something or someone, but the kind of fear that can be associated with being afraid of getting close to someone or feeling an emotion that one doesn't want to feel.
The man looked down at her and asked, "Are you finished now so I can talk?" When Leah gave a nod, Kai let her hands go and moved off of her to sit next to her. Leah sat up and looked at him, asking, "Why did you kiss me?"
"Leah, what would you say if I told you that you are the one for me?" Kai asked her in return. Leah frowned in confusion, prompting Kai to add, "What if I told you that you were my intended?"
Leah's confused face instantly turned sour as she said, "Don't do that. Don't fuck with me, Kai. I don't need that bullshit right now."
Kai grabbed the girl's hands, glad she didn't pull away from him this time. Holding them tightly, he said, "I'm not kidding, Leah. I don't know if you ever heard of Imprinting, but I did that to you when you hit me with your car yesterday. Well, not exactly at that moment, but definitely when you got out to check on me."
"No," Leah said weakly, not wanting to hear anymore about Imprinting. Suddenly realizing what Kai said, she said, "Wait a minute. How do you know about Imprinting and all that other bull that goes with it?"
Grey eyes regarded her closely before Kai stood up, pulling Leah with him. He told her to stay put before going behind the nearest tree where he appeared not long after as naked as the day he was born. Leah's eyes widened and her cheeks turned red, causing her to look away from the man. She's seen a lot of penises ever since becoming a Shifter, but Kai took the cake for her.
The sound of a loud rumble caught her attention, making her look up to see Kai crouched on the ground in an almost animalistic stance. Backing away, she watched as his muscles spasmed and fur sprout from every inch of his body. Kai's hands and feet turned to large paws and his perfect face was covered in fur. His body grew and continued to do so, until in the place Kai had once stood, a large grizzly bear stood staring at Leah.
Leah's mouth dropped open, no sound coming from her throat. Could this day get any weirder? Cautiously, she walked up to the bear, silently berating herself for hesitantly approaching the overly large grizzly. She turned into a giant wolf, for land's sake. As her tan hand landed in surprisingly soft fur, she looked into the bear's large face and stared into those big, grey eyes, eyes that could belong to no one else but Kai Whitfield.
Kai nuzzled Leah's neck with his snout, making her let out a soft laugh. He watched as Leah leant into him, his ears perking as he heard her whisper, "Okay, I get it now. I don't know about opening my heart to you completely yet, but I guess I'm willing to try it. I just don't want to be hurt anymore, that's all."
The bear let out what sounded like a whine and nudged Leah, sitting on its haunches and giving her an expectant look. Leah realized Kai wanted her to sit next to him, and also knew he was letting her know that he would wait for her. Smiling she sat down next to Kai in his grizzly form and leant into his side, laughing when he lifted his large foreleg and wrapped his paw around her, holding her close to him.
"Leah did what?!" Jacob shouted. Everyone was taking a break from training at the moment and Bella had taken that opportunity to pull her boyfriend away from everyone and tell him what had transpired between her and Leah that morning. Needless to say, Jacob was not at all happy with what he had heard.
Bella tried to calm him down as she said, "Jake, it was partly my fault too. I was the one that tried to assert myself to her and try and make her obey me."
Jacob gripped his hair and said, "That is still no reason for what she did! She got physical with you, Bella! Did she even apologize?" Bella biting her lip in nervousness was all the answer Jacob needed. Letting out a growl, he said, "That's it, I'm tired of her crap. I get she's hurt and bitter, but that doesn't give her the right to do that. I'm going to go and find her and make her apologize to you."
"Are you going to strip her of her Beta title?" Bella asked.
"No, but I do want her to give a formal apology. I'm going to find her and you can come with me," Jacob said before stripping and tying his clothes to his strap. He then phased into the big russet wolf Bella loved and knelt down, indicating for her to get on his back. Bella awkwardly did so and once she did, Jacob took off, ignoring the Pack's questions as to where they were going.
Bella held on tight to her Imprint as they ran through the woods, hoping that Jacob wouldn't be too hard on the she wolf. She deserved it, but she still didn't want her boyfriend to be too hard on his Beta. As they kept going, Bella realized that this part of the woods did not look familiar at all. She knew Jacob was following Leah's scent, but she couldn't help but wonder why Leah was way out here?
Jacob's growl broke her out of her thoughts as he stopped suddenly. Looking up, Bella saw what Jacob was seeing, her chocolate brown eyes widening in surprise. There Leah was standing in front of a massive grizzly bear, the bear seeming to be advancing on Leah. Bella quickly scrambled off of Jacob's back as his snarl alerted Leah and the bear's attention.
Leah's look of surprise matched Bella's as she reached out to place a hand in the bear's fur. The bear however was still growling at Jacob, Jacob doing the same. The next thing either girl knew, the russet wolf ran to attack the bear, the bear doing the same towards the wolf.
It was a blur of russet and brown fur, teeth and claws scratching wherever they could. The bear was easily bigger than the wolf, but that didn't stop the wolf from trying to beat him. He was trying to protect his Pack mate from the bear that was sure to attack her, after all. While that was happening, Bella quickly ran to Leah and grabbed her arm, trying to drag her away from the fight.
"Leah, come on!" Bella said frantically. "We need to get out of here! Jake can handle this!"
Leah planted her feet and tugged her arm away from the girl, saying, "No! I need to stop this. This is just a misunderstanding!"
Bella wanted to say something in retaliation, but before she could, she felt the ground shake beneath her. Leah felt it too and looked around with Bella as they tried to figure out what was coming their way, as the shaking got rougher.
Suddenly five bears appeared, two brown and the other three black. They were all growling and snarling as they saw their sleuth mate fighting with a large wolf. One of the black bears gave a roar and bounded for the two fighting animals, smashing into the wolf that was attacking their Alpha. The wolf let out a howl of obvious pain, making Bella yell, "Jake! No, stop it!"
Without thinking Bella ran into the midst of all the commotion, somehow evading the large bears and reaching Jacob with no problem. The bears were surrounding the two, growling at them in unison. Right when one of the newcomer bears were going to make a move, they were surprised when an unknown Native girl ran in front of the wolf and pale faced girl, a hard look on her face.
Brown eyes glared at all of the bears before Leah said, "Back up off of my Alpha. That means you too, Kai."
The bears looked at their Alpha, waiting for a command from him. The Alpha grizzly stared at his Imprint before nodding his big head and taking a step back. The rest of his sleuth did the same and they all stood and watched as the large wolf turned back into his naked human form.
Jacob looked up at the bears before looking at Leah. Standing up he advanced on his Beta and asked, "Leah, what the hell? What is this?"
A growl reached their ears and the grizzly that he had been fighting moved to stand next to Leah, towering over all three of them as he glared at Jacob. Leah looked at the bear and calmly said, "Kai, turn back. I think this conversation will be better to have where we can all actually talk."
The bear, Kai, phased back to stand next to Leah just as naked as Jacob. The rest of the bears followed suit, leaving five naked men in their places. When it was apparent that there was going to be no more fights, Jacob said, "Leah, please explain all of this."
Leah nodded and told Jacob about how she met Kai, leading up to him showing her his bear form. While doing so, she also let Kai know that she was a Quileute wolf Shifter and Beta to her Pack. It was when Kai mentioned that he had Imprinted on Leah did Jacob apologize, saying that he thought he was trying to attack her.
Jacob suddenly realized that because of Leah meeting bear Shifters from the Hoh Reservation, this could work to their advantage against the leeches that were coming tomorrow. Without hesitation, he said, "Kai, right? How would you and your pack like to help us out with a problem?"
"Okay, we're called a sleuth, not a pack. And that depends on what the issue is," Kai replied.
"There are vampires coming that are very lethal, one of which was her ex-fiance," Leah said pointing to Bella. "He's got his panties in a twist because she chose Jake here over him, and now thinks that by telling those vampires about us wolf Shifters, he can get her back or something like that. Also, they hate werewolves, so you can see where this is going."
Kai's hands balled into fists at hearing that his Imprint may possibly be massacred along with her Pack mates. He looked at his sleuth and asked them would they mind visiting the other wolves and vampires that were going to stand with them. His Beta, whose name was Caleb, stepped forth and said, "Our Alpha's mate is in the Pack that some leeches want to kill. Of course we will help in any way that we can. We're ready for a fight if there is going to be one."
Jacob smiled and held his hand out to Kai, shaking his hand as he thanked him. Kai suggested that they all head back to the Hoh Reservation to get into Caleb's dad's van to head to wherever it was that Jacob's Pack and the nice vampires were. Everyone agreed, their discussion only broken when Bella asked red-faced, "Can everybody please put some clothes on?"
Author's Note: Brownie points to those that guessed Kai was a bear Shifter!