Chapter Three
Leah still wasn't talking to anybody except for the pups. It had been two days since the Cullen incident, and she was still fuming. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
The slowly healing gash across Paul's face was proof of that.
She refused to phase wolf, and hadn't yet changed into actual clothing, choosing instead to wear Brady's jacket. A rather heated argument between Seth and Jacob - one where the alpha had forced all of his pack aside from the beta to be human, so they couldn't hear - had given Leah the right to stay human. For the time being.
Seth was convinced they didn't need his sister at the moment, and he'd be damned if he let her be hurt or angry because their alpha was being a stuborn bastard.
So Leah stayed human, she stayed between Brady and Collin, and the other wolves did rotated shifts. Those who would fight, and those who would be the second wave. First shift consisted of Jacob, Embry, and Collin as the phased wolves. Second was Paul, Seth, and Brady. They switched off every six hours.
Carlisle stayed firmly at the alpha's side, carving his place as the "alpha" of the coven. The move was not lost on the wolves and all of them, including Leah, bared their teeth and fangs in looks similar to grins.
It caused Rosalie to show her own teeth, not bothering to mask the threat as a smile. None of the wolves seemed concerned, though, so she pulled her lips back down before Jasper could swat her upside the back of her head.
Wouldn't do any good to muss her hair up that early in the morning.
ZZZ
Five days. They'd been stalking through the damned woods for five days since they began rotating. Nothing. Nothing at all. Collin's radio had died, and the only background noise that existed was the deafening silence of the forest, and the easy in-out of their own breath.
The trip itself was on its nineth day. Nine days of mucking through mud, searching for something they just could not find, while their family at home was virtually unprotected. The pack tried to assure themselves that three wolves was plenty to protect La Push, especially seeing as Sam did it solo for so long.
Still...they had grown used to having a larger group, multiple wolves to pick up slack where it needed to be picked up.
They were so far away they could hardly hear Sam's thoughts in the back of their minds. And he was the most dominant wolf left at home. They hoped he was okay.
"He's fine." Edward's sentence came from no where, breaking the silence around them. It startled Collin, caused the wolf to jerk and swing sideways into an unphased Brady. They both nearly toppled over, but Embry was there, stabling them from Brady's other side.
"Whose fine?" Leah asked stiffly, not looking at the vampire. She was still furious over the events of five days ago.
"Sam's fine. They're all fine. If they weren't, Alice would have called. We have people there too - you're not unprotected. Alice, Esme and Emmett are still there. Alice will see any attacks and Emmett is our strongest fighter. Nothing is going to happen, and if it does, we'll go back."
"Edward's right. All this worrying isn't getting us anywhere." Carslisle's face was strained as he spoke.
Looking around, Jacob realized all the vampire's looked a little strained. They were running slower too. What's going on? He met Edward's eyes as he asked the question, and his two phased wolves stayed silent.
"We haven't...had anything to drink, since we started this hunt." Edward explained.
Then we need to go hunting. Jacob told him. We're running low on food anyway. If we can find a herd of - something, we can all eat.
"We'll drain, you dry?" Edward was grinning, his sparkling with mischief and hunger.
"What's going on?" Leah repeated Jacob's question, looking at Rosalie - the only vampire she could stand, even a little.
"I think they're talking about hunting. We need to drink, you need to eat. It's kind of a good arrangement. The bodies won't just be going to waste."
"Excellent." Carlisle slowed to a walk, taking a deep breath of air. "Maybe your wolves should phase Jacob. So they can keep up."
The russet wolf nodded and eyed his pack, watching as each of them stripped and gave in to the change. All of them, except for Leah. Knowing the she-wolf was just being annoying, his allowed an alpha order to roll over her mind.
Leah phased, ripping Brady's jacket and the clothes she now wore under it. With an irritated look at the alpha, the she wolf took flight, paws racing across the forest floor.
Edward was the only one able to keep up with her and he ran at her side, laughing at the angry, hateful thoughts she sent his way.
ZZZ
They had settled for the night, long strips of meat drying by a fire. Seth and Leah were the only two that really knew how to skin a deer, thanks to hunting trips with their father. The job had been left to them.
The remains of the deer - the stuff they wouldn't eat - had been placed in the woods away from camp. Normally they'd have buried it, but no one was worried about bears or wild cats coming too close to camp. Not with the vampires around. At least the scavengers of the woods would have a meal that night.
Embry was cooking meat over the fire, on a barbeque rack that Collin had somehow managed to fit into his bag. The younger wolf had grinned cheerily and responded it was always best to be prepared.
Brady had asked if Collin perhaps also had a kitchen sink in his over sized backpack. Everyone had laughed.
"I'm still thirsty." Bella said softly, from her seat on a log. She gave her family an apologetic look, before turning to Jacob. "Will you all be okay if I go out for another drink?" She sounded upset, and the wolf tossed her a grin.
"Don't worry Bells."
Leah rolled her eyes. "We should run a patrol around the area anyway."
Seth nodded, agreeing with his sister. "All of us. It'll be better to have everyone looking. Jake?"
The alpha sighed, but agreed as well. "All right. Let's get moving. We should let dinner cool anyway."
The rack was on the ground, meat strips cooling across it.
"Don't worry about anything stealing the food. With the way they stink," Paul jerked a thumb at the Cullen clan, "I doubt anything would be stupid enough to come close."
They phased yet again and damn but the younger wolves were getting sore from this constant shifting. The alpha hushed their worries and took the lead.
It didn't take them but five minutes for Bella to smell blood. The she-vampire turned towards the scent, following it. She hated having to kill things, but if something was already dying then it saved her a guilty conscience.
"Leah wants to race you, love." Edward chuckled at his wife. He watched her face break into a smile as she picked up pace.
The wolves and vampires aside from Bella and Leah fell back, letting the girls run it out.
The forest was thick where the deer was. There was only a small clearing in the very middle, the trees growing and winding together. It was a cave made of wood and, looking up, Leah knew that no sun would ever reach this place.
The canopy of the "cave" was a mass of tangled branches, foliage thick and green.
The deer was already dead, a small puddle of blood around the hole in her neck.
Something wasn't right.
Leah's head stopped Bella from approaching, not even realizing that the vampire girl wasn't moving forward. Slowly, the wolf stalked through the small opening, eyes scanning everywhere.
Not a noise, or a rustle. Nothing was moving. She couldn't smell any unfamiliar vampire, but something - someone had -
Leah's screech of fear sent all the wolves running.
Something was ontop of her, on the she-wolves back, and it wasn't letting go.
In their fear, the wolves didn't stop to think - they simply did. Trees crackled and crunched around their bodies, a thick trunk nearly crushing Leah's hind end as Paul's sheer strength sent him through the middle of it.
Get if off, get it off, it's biting me, it's biting me, God, Jacob, I can't get it off!