Disclaimer: Don't own this, never have, never will.

Chapter Nine- Strong Enough

"I'm gonna take what's mine

I won't get left behind

Leave before there's nothing here for me

All the sacrifice, listen to my own advice

And leave my fate to something higher

Have I ignored what's been laid before me

Been scarred by crosses I've had to bear

Someone save me, am I strong enough to see this all the way? Strong enough to say

Can you hear me? Could you give me strength to fight another day? Am I alone?"

-Craving Lucy- "Strong Enough"

(Leah's POV)

Bella's scent. That was the first thing I smelled the next morning. Last night's events were fresh in my mind; I smiled into her hair and breathed in again. She sighed in her sleep. Bella and I were still naked on her bed. Her back was to my chest. I was reveling in the fact I was lying here with the woman I love after such an amazing night as last night. Did I love Bella? Oh yes.

I told her so. "Bella, I love you." I whispered. She was still asleep so I doubt she heard me. I just had to get it off my chest how I felt about her. Her sweet scent surrounded me again. I was enthralled by this woman lying in front of me.

I was so lost in my thoughts about Bella, that I didn't even hear Charlie's footsteps in the hallway. He opened the door, effectively scaring the shit out of both Bella and I.

Bella jerked awake at the sound of his voice. "Bella, I'm going- oh! I did not need to see that!" He exclaimed slamming the door shut again.

I pulled the sheet over Bella and then we looked at each other in shock. Charlie cleared his throat on the other side of the door and said, "I'm going to work now Bells. I'll uh, see you later." Then he nearly ran down the stairs.

A deafening silence fell in the room until Bella whispered, "Oh. My. God. Tell me that did not just happen." She hid her face in her hands.

"Oh, it happened babe." I said laughing. She groaned. I pulled her hands away from her face and made her look at me. Her face was red from embarrassment. I smiled at her. She smiled back.

"Ready to start the day?" I asked. She nodded. We climbed out of bed. Bella started to gather clothes for a shower.

She turned to me and said, "Um, if you want you can shower with me. Saves water, you know."

I smirked at her. "Okay." I knew there was another reason for her wanting to shower with me. If that's the way she wanted it, that's the way she'll have it.

We went into the bathroom. Bella turned on the water and climbed in first. I followed right behind her. She pulled the shower door closed, and I pounced.

Slamming my mouth to hers and pinning her against the wall. She obliged, wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist.

Our tongues enjoyed a playful dance for a few minutes under the warm spray. We were both wet now, and not just from the water from above us. I removed one arm from around Bella's waist. I slid my hand up across her collarbone, then down to her breasts. She tightened her hold on my neck. I gave her left breast a hard squeeze, she moaned into my mouth. I pinched her nipple causing her to growl.

That growl was just too fucking hot. I moved my hand down her stomach and finally reached my original destination. My wet fingers slipped between her folds and easily glided into her wet entrance. She gasped and broke our kiss for the first time, only to bury her face in my neck and bite down, hard.

I gasped this time. "Fuck Bella!" I almost yelled.

She started to kiss my neck, causing my fingers to work faster inside her. She removed her arm from around my neck and glided her hand down my wet body before slipping her fingers into my pussy.

I quickened my movements inside her, causing her to moan loudly and move her fingers faster in me. "Fuck yes, Leah! Faster!" She screamed.

I did as she asked. Her pace matched mine; we were both nearing our climax. Our moans were echoing off the bathroom walls, making us seem louder than we actually were. Our hands stilled as we came together.

Bella leaned up to kiss me hard again as we calmed down from our climax. When we had calmed down, Bella and I quickly washed each other's hair and bodies and stole kisses every chance we got. When we were finished, Bella handed me a towel I didn't need since my high temperature was causing me to dry faster.

We dressed quickly and went downstairs for breakfast. As we were eating, Bella randomly said, "I like this."

I looked up at her, "What do you mean?"

She moved her hands between us, "This. I like being able to go to sleep with you every night, waking up with you every morning, eating with you and not having to worry about accidentally cutting myself so you won't be tempted to kill me." She rambled.

I smiled. "I like it too." My answer was simple, but it made a smile spread across Bella's face. She took my hand across the table and held it as we finished our food. We were almost done with our meal when there was a knock on her front door.

Bella huffed and glared at the front door, then stood up and stomped off to answer it. I listened as she swung the door open, sighed heavily and demanded, "What do you want?"

I almost laughed it was so cute. Then I heard Jake's voice ask, "Where's Leah?"

I sighed and went to the door to stand behind Leah. Unconsciously, my hand slipped around her waist. Jake looked down and glared at my arm, then turned his glare to my face. I ignored him, "You want something?"

"Sam says you have to patrol with Quil and Paul." He growled. I sighed and turned to Bella.

"I'll see you later okay?" I said, staring into her beautiful deep brown eyes.

She nodded. "Okay." She leaned up on her tippy toes and kissed me, I kissed her back passionately.

It was a wonderful kiss until Jake sighed impatiently. "Now, Leah!" He yelled. I broke away from Bella and glared at him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bella glaring just as hard.

"I'm going, dammit, now fuck off and let me say goodbye to my girlfriend." I said. I kissed her quickly and whispered, "I'll be back later."

Jacob sighed again. This time, Bella pulled away first. "Jake, get over it already." Then she looked at me, "You should go before Sam gets mad."

I nodded and walked out the door, glaring at Jake on my way to the woods.

(Bella's POV)

I watched Leah walk across the yard to the woods. Once she was out of sight I turned back to Jacob.

"Can I talk to you?" He asked sadly.

I nodded and went inside. He followed me in and shut the door. We didn't make it to the living room before he grabbed my arm and spun me around. Before I knew what he was doing, he pressed his lips to mine and forced his tongue inside my mouth. I tried to pull away, but his arms were locked in an iron grip around me.

I couldn't even begin to describe how wrong this felt. He was too forceful, too rough and he just wasn't Leah. When he finally finished his assault on my lips, he pulled back with a smile on his lips. I felt the sudden urge to punch that look off his face, but that would only hurt me more than him, so I fought the urge.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" I shouted.

"Kissing you. You know you enjoyed that too so don't stand there with that look on your face." He said.

I shook my head. "I love Leah, and only Leah. I'm sorry if you think otherwise now please leave." I said pointing to the door.

"You do realize that you and Leah wouldn't even be together if it weren't for imprinting? You disliked her before and she hated you. How fucking fair is it that the bitter harpy who wasn't good enough for Sam imprints on the girl I've loved forever?! It's not right." He shook his head furiously.

"Jacob Black, don't you ever fucking talk about her like that again!" I screamed. "I told you, I love her."

He clenched his fists. "Imprinting ruins everything! If it weren't for imprinting, Leah would still be with Sam and you would be with me."

I shook my head. "I don't believe that. Imprints are soul mates and you find your soul mate one way or another. Sam would have ended up with Emily and I would have ended up with Leah anyway. Imprinting didn't ruin anything, it fixed things."

"SHE HATED YOU!" He screamed at me. "I know that because I had to spend every second on patrol with her listening to how much she hated you, then one good look at you made her love you and took you away from me forever. She hated your guts, Bella. She only loves you because of imprinting." He said.

Those words cut me deep. I could feel my heart breaking as he spoke. I knew it was somewhat true. Leah had treated me coldly every time I'd seen her. I wrote it off as her being upset over her break up with Sam. Hearing Jacob speak these words was soul crushing. I loved her on my own. I didn't have some wolfy claim on her like she did on me.

I kept my face expressionless as I told Jacob. "Get out. Now."

He glared at me and then left. Tears started to form in my eyes, so I ran upstairs and flopped down on my bed letting them flow freely. I heard the back door open downstairs.

"Bella?" Leah called. Fuck, I thought. She's going to see me like this. I didn't answer her, hoping she'd just leave. She didn't though. I heard her coming up the stairs and then the door opened.

(Leah's POV)

After leaving Bella's house, I stripped and phased, only to have Quil and Paul see my thoughts the moment I did. Everything I did with Bella last night was there on display for them to see. I quickly hid my thoughts. Paul growled at me for doing so.

'Please god, show me more!' Quil begged.

'No Quil, so fuck off or I'm getting Sam.' I said. Quil groaned. He didn't stop begging for a while, but then backed off and started thinking about other things. So, I let my thoughts slip by accident and Quil got a mindful of Bella and I.

'Holy fuck that's hot!' Embry said.

'Embry? What the hell are you doing here?' I asked, hiding my thoughts again.

'Your shift is over, you can go home.' He said.

Quil was quick to jump in, 'Actually, could you go back to Bella's house?' He was only asking so he could get more images of Bella and I together.

'Of course that's the only reason! I mean when Jared thinks about his imprint it's annoying as hell. Don't get me wrong Kim's a nice girl but I don't want to think about them together. I don't want to see Emily through Sam's eyes. But you can think about Bella all you want. You have my permission.' Quil told me happily.

'Mine too.' Paul chimed in.

'Thanks assholes.' I said right before I phased outside of Bella's house. I couldn't smell Jake or Charlie inside. Good. Maybe I'll get a repeat of this morning. I've been patrolling all day so I'm quite a dirty girl. Wonder if Bella will wash me again. I wondered as I walked in her backdoor.

"Bella?" I called out. She didn't answer, but I could sense she was upstairs, so I went up to her bedroom to find her crying on her bed. I dropped down next to her.

"Bells, what's wrong?" I said desperately. I was praying she'd just tell me already.

She sat up and wiped her eyes then told me everything. I closed my eyes trying to hold my own tears in. "Bella, none of that is true. Okay, maybe I hated you a little bit, but I only did because you were dating a vampire. Imprinting doesn't make me love you. You make me love you. Everything you do and say and act makes me love you. Imprinting just showed me how blind I was. I agree with what you told Jacob, imprinting doesn't ruin things, it fixes things. I was in love with Sam too much to see that we really didn't belong together. Especially now that I see what I was missing while I was wasting my time on him." I said smiling at her.

She laughed once and nodded. "Thanks, Leah."

I kissed her cheek. "No problem baby." I stood up.

She grabbed my hand. "Where are you going?" She panicked.

I sighed. "I'm going to find Jake and kick his ass."

She smiled. "Can I come?"

"Why not?" We left her room and went downstairs. Bella's truck was much too slow, so I phased and she hopped on my back. Embry was still patrolling with Jared and they told me Jake was at Sam and Emily's. They started to head towards Sam's too. I guess everyone wanted to see me kick Jake's ass after what he said.

When we got there, everyone in the pack was in the backyard. I completely forgot they were grilling tonight, huh. Sam was at the grill, Emily at his side. Kim was on the patio chatting with Emily. Quil was next to Kim with Claire on his lap. Jacob, Paul, Seth, Collin and Brady were playing football in the yard.

Bella slid off my back and started out of the woods. Sam spotted her first, "Bella? How'd you get here?"

"Leah." She said simply and went to sit with Kim, who smiled at her. I phased back at the same time Embry and Jared did. I stormed out of the woods glaring at Jacob.

"You fucking bastard." I yelled. Embry and Jared walked out of the woods behind me, chuckling. The guys all stopped and faced me. Jacob swallowed when he saw my expression.

"Leah." Sam warned from the patio.

I turned my furious glare on him, causing him to shrink back a little, and then I focused back on Jacob. I didn't even pause as I reached him. Just drew back and punched him square in the jaw.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" He jumped back up, shaking.

I started to shake as well. Sam appeared out of nowhere and stood in between us, but I paid no attention to him.

"You're asking what's wrong with me? Are you fucking serious? What the fuck is wrong with you?" I yelled.

I heard Seth ask what was going on but Jared told him just to watch.

Sam stepped in now. "All right, explain what's going on, right now."

I glared at Jacob. "Yeah Jake, tell him."

Jacob glared back at me. "I don't know what you're talking about."

I scoffed. "Like hell you don't. What was that little episode about at Bella's house after I left today?"

"Bella wanted it as much as I did." He said. That was all I could take, I lunged at him, phasing in the process.

I swung my paw at Jacob, who had phased also. My paw connected with his head sending him crashing into a tree.

'STOP THIS NOW!' Sam ordered. Jacob and I both froze. 'Jacob, explain why Leah is beating the hell out of you.'

Jacob showed Sam everything that had happened that day. From kissing Bella to every word he said to her. I growled at him and hit him again with my paw.

'Jake, you have to take Leah's patrols for the next month. What in the world made you think that kissing another wolf's imprint would be a good idea? You're also not allowed to see Bella alone. You may only see her if Leah brings her over.' Sam ordered and then phased back.

Jacob growled at me. I ignored him and went into the woods to phase. After I had phased human, I realized I didn't have any clothes. Fuck. I heard a rustle behind me and turned to see Bella.

She held out some clothes to me. "I thought you might need these." She smiled. I smiled back and took the clothes from her. I stared into her eyes the entire time I was getting dressed. Bella watched me with lust filling her eyes. When I was finished, I pinned her against a tree and kissed her.

I wanted to go further, but Jacob yelled from the backyard, "We know what you're doing in there!" I heard someone tell him to shut up and then a crash like someone had broke something. Emily started yelling so I figured I was right.

I sighed and took Bella's hand then led her back to the house.

A/N: Oh! My second lemon ever and it's a shower scene. Hope it was good for you guys. I would have had this chapter up last night, but the site decided to be stupid and wouldn't let me log in at all. Thanks for all the reviews last chapter, I they were wonderful and made me smile!

If anyone is interested, I'm writing a PaulxOC story and have the first few chapters up now. It's called "Cause I'm Awesome" go check it out!

One last thing about this chapter, normally I wouldn't have Leah beat the crap out of Jake, but what he did was unforgivable! Plus don't you love it when Leah stands up for her woman. Go Leah!

~LCM~