A/N: I have to tell you that I'm really excited about where we are in the story. Thanks to each and every one of you for reading and especially to those of you who take the time to let me know what you think. You all rock.
I've never tried to write anything like this before and these next couple of chapters were a little harder to get out than I expected them to be. I don't wanna spoil anything, so I'm gonna stfu for now and let you read.

SM owns all things Twilight - even if my Leah is WAY cooler than hers :D

Prey For Protection

Chapter Twelve:

Leah

How much more fucked up was shit gonna get? I mean a girl could only take so much right? I thought the whole reason we were there was Bella. Keep an eye on Bella. Keep Bella safe. This was our sole purpose until Sam told us otherwise. Don't get me wrong; I didn't begrudge the assignment at all. In fact, there's a chance I would've never even met Bella if things had worked out any differently and I couldn't imagine not having her around.

The problem was that I was only one third of 'Bella's guard' and the other two thirds seemed to be in heat. Yes, I did know that that's not how it works. But, to say the very least they were definitely doing a lot more thinking with their little heads, than with the heads that were equipped with a brain. At school I only got to see Bella at lunchtime. In that sense it kinda sucked being a year ahead of her. This shouldn't have been a problem, because Jake and Embry were in a lot of her classes.

Yeah.

Well…

Embry and that Stanley bitch had become practically inseparable, a fact that annoyed the holy hell out of both Bella and I. I couldn't even complain about the fact that they were always making out in front of us, because at least that kept the bitch from talking. She had one of those high-pitched voices and she did that baby talking all the time. Fortunately she never talked about anything worth listening to, because five minutes into the conversation, it was all I could do to refrain from clocking her and telling her to shut the fuck up already.

Then there was Jake; I got that his feelings were hurt. He put his heart out there and found out the hard way that it doesn't always pay off to do so. Shit, I doubt you'd find anybody anywhere that gets that more than I do; but if it's meant to be it will be, and if it's not… Well if it's not it won't, no matter how much you want it to. You just can't fuck with fate, another priceless gem I have firsthand knowledge of.

He didn't see it that that way. He thought she still hadn't gotten over James and the whole unresolved mess that that turned into. He thought he could give her some time and space and maybe even make her jealous by whoring around in the meantime. Dumbass. He was sadly mistaken. Bella lost a little more respect for him with every new bimbo. If there was ever a chance for the two of them he was quickly destroying it; she wasn't jealous, she was disgusted.

To make matters worse, we were expected to 'make nice' with the local bloodsuckers. Really? Would Spiderman sit quietly next to The Green Goblin and miss the opportunity to rid the world of one of the vile creatures he was put here to destroy? I think not.

It got better still! My soul sister slash best friend, Bella Swan, was totally crushing on one of them. What the fuck is with this girl and leeches? I mean at least James was human at first right? How the hell would we be able to protect her when she seemed drawn to the very type of thing that was hell bent on destroying her? She drove me crazy with her obsession over the 'Greek God,' as she'd taken to calling the bloodsucker. She was killing me, but when she talked about him, I couldn't ignore the way her eyes glazed over, or the way her voice took on that far off 'dreamy' tone. She had it bad and while I did make the obligatory, warning remarks and prayed that it was just a silly schoolgirl's crush; I couldn't bring myself to actively get in her way.

That might have been the most fucked up part of the whole situation.

Monday morning, Bells didn't offer any objection to me doing her hair and makeup for her. I loved going through the 'girly routines' with her, she always seemed so much more confident afterwards, which was crazy, because she was already gorgeous. I'd never really been into stuff like that before, the whole hair and makeup bit had just never been my thing; but I'd used it as a ploy to hang out with Bella a couple of times early in the summer and found myself enjoying the girly-time more than she did more often than not.

She wore a pair of her new, dark washed jeans and a navy blue corset-style shirt with a sheer white blouse under it. I slipped her a pair of black heels that I'd convinced her to buy, but she rolled her eyes and grabbed for her blue ballet flats instead. I knew she wouldn't wear the heels to school, but if I'd offered her the ballet flats she would've gone for her sneakers. Gotta aim high with Bella.

Tuesday morning I was sitting in Trig, and as I wrote the heading on the top of my paper, I realized the date, September tenth. That meant Bella's birthday was Friday, the thirteenth. I couldn't help but chuckle at the superstitious implications. I knew she was hoping no one would remember, but she was outta luck there.

I called home between classes and arranged to have my mom pick me up at Bella's after school. I spent most of the evening with her and Emily, planning and organizing Bella's seventeenth birthday party. We decided that since she hadn't had a chance to really get to know any of her classmates yet, we'd keep it to her father and her La Push family. I knew she'd want us to keep it simple, if we did anything at all, so we did. Bella was a simple girl and it was the simple things in life that made her happiest. No over-the-top decorations, just friends and family getting together to celebrate someone we were all crazy about. She'd pretend to be pissed and she'd blush like crazy, but she'd love it and I knew she would. She'd just never admit it.

I filled the guys in on my plans for Bella's birthday the very next morning. Both of them were too self-absorbed to do anything other than offhandedly commit to being there. Embry was sucking face with Jessica, one hand lost up under her black, vinyl, mini skirt and Jacob was wrapped around some skank named Lauren. She was all oohin' and ahhin' over his 'big strong muscles', I left before the nausea got the best of me.

Assholes.

I decided that a nice long chat with our beloved Alpha was long overdue. I'd have to rectify that this weekend. This shit was getting old. Those two needed to regain their focus, and if Sam couldn't get them to do it, I'd just have to neuter their asses myself.

Wednesday and Thursday Bella and I ditched the guys at lunchtime. We hung out in the library and worked on some of our assignments. Without her knowledge, I'd already cleared it with Charlie and she was going to spend the weekend with me in La Push after her birthday party. I hadn't made any concrete plans, but I definitely didn't want us to be stuck doing homework.

I caught a ride home from school with the guys each afternoon in order to get things ready for the party, but I always ended up back at Bella's before bedtime. She was a little suspicious after it happened twice, but when I pointed out just how little time I'd actually spent at home in the past couple of weeks, she let it go easily enough.

Emily was a huge help; she'd offered to take care of almost all of the food. I almost felt guilty over just how excited she was about helping as much as possible. We'd been more like sisters than cousins once upon a time, before she met Sam; and while I sincerely held no grudge, our relationship just wasn't ever the same.

Thursday evening I borrowed my dad's truck and drove into Port Angeles. The cake was finished and Seth had managed to convince mom to let him stay home from school the following day to help her blow up balloons and hang some streamer. The only thing I needed to do before heading back to Bella's, was to pick up her gift.

I stepped into the local jewelry store and quickly found what I was looking for. I made my purchase and left the jewelry store. On my way back to the truck, I spotted the bookstore across the street. I detoured without making a conscious decision to do so, and found myself walking inside a moment later.

It was a small store and I browsed the aisles for several minutes, not sure what I was actually looking for. I came across a small section with several titles dedicated to local histories of the surrounding areas. That was when I spotted it. I flipped through the pages and debated for all of thirty seconds, before heading back to the front of the store. There was a selection of bookmarks next to the cash register, and I immediately spotted one with a beautiful silvery wolf on it. I smiled and grabbed that as well.

I paid for my purchases and returned to my truck. Happy with the gifts I'd chosen, I sang along with the radio as I made the long, and otherwise boring, drive back to Forks.

Friday morning, I woke up with an unexplainable sense of foreboding. The room was still cloaked in darkness and the digital display on Bella's alarm clock read 4:19. I rolled onto my side and squeezed my eyes shut, hoping to force myself back to sleep.

Instead, I heard Bella whimpering and the sound of her tossing and turning fretfully in her sleep. She mumbled softly, but I couldn't make out what she said. I sat up from my pallet on the floor to look at her restless, writhing form. She'd been plagued by nightmares almost every single night during her first month or so in Forks, but I was pretty sure she hadn't had one in weeks. There was no doubt that she was having one right then, as she groaned and twisted around in her bed, tangling the sheet around her legs.

I crawled up onto the bed beside her and lay my hand on her arm; it was damp and slick with a thin sheen of perspiration. I leaned down to whisper soothing words of comfort into her ear, but instead of calming down she flinched away and cried out in her sleep.

"No! Please!" she whimpered.

"Bella," I spoke softly as I took hold of her shoulders and gently shook her. "Bella wake up," I urged her.

She gasped and bolted upright as her eyes fluttered open. She looked around the room wide-eyed and panic-stricken until she realized where she was. She fell back onto her pillow, and seemed to focus on steadying her breath.

"Hey," I whispered, "it's ok."

She nodded but didn't say anything, just turned onto her side facing her bedroom window and closed her eyes.

I lay down behind her and wrapped my arms around her. She was trembling and I could feel the pounding of her accelerated heartbeat. "Was it-?" I started, unsure if I could say his name without further upsetting her.

"James." She finished for me, almost immediately. "He's gonna find me Leah. He won't stop until he does," she said with conviction.

I propped myself up on my elbow in order to see her a little better. I could feel the tiny warm droplets, as her tears ran down her cheeks and dripped onto my arm. "Has anything happened that you haven't told us about Bells?" I asked, unable to imagine her withholding anything like that.

"No," she replied simply.

"Are you sure?" I asked, "I mean why are you so freaked out all of a sudden, if nothing new has happened? I'm not criticizing you or anything Bells, I just… I want to understand." I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, wishing with everything I had that I could somehow bring her the comfort she so thoroughly deserved. "Do you wanna talk about the nightmare?"

"Leah…" Her voice was weary. She sighed deeply and continued staring out the window instead of meeting my gaze. "I swear nothing has happened. Do I keep secrets from you? No." Her voice dropped several octaves as she went on. "It's just a feeling I have. Like I woke up knowing that James was coming." I felt her shrug, "I don't know. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Maybe a little more sleep will help." She did still sound awfully sleepy, "Just until the alarm goes off," she mumbled, and closer her eyes.

She nestled into me and I did my best to sooth her by smoothing her damp hair down her back until her breathing steadied and she drifted back to sleep. 'What a crappy start to your birthday,' I thought.

Between her nightmare and the awful feeling that I'd woken up with, I knew I needed to talk to Sam about Jacob and Embry sooner, rather than later. I could've dismissed the nightmare OR the ominous feeling without a second thought, had either occurred on their own. For both of us to, on some level, sense something amiss, I couldn't help feeling like it was some sort of cosmic warning.

When I decided she was sound enough asleep that I could get up without waking her, I carefully slid out of her narrow bed. I dressed quickly, grabbed my cell phone and quietly slipped out of her room and down the stairs. I heard Charlie moving around in the kitchen and stepped in to bid him a good morning and help myself to a cup of the coffee he'd just brewed.

"Morning Leah," he smiled warmly and patted me on the arm as he walked past to take his seat at the kitchen table. He glanced toward the doorway and lowered his voice conspiratorially, "Everything all set for our birthday girl?"

I smiled and nodded, taking a sip from my mug. "I was just getting ready to call and check in to make sure they're all set in La Push," I offered, holding up my cell phone.

"If it turns out you need anything last minute, you just give me a call and I'll take care of it. You gals have done too much already, not that it goes unappreciated mind you. Although Bells might decide to skin ya alive," he added with a thoughtful chuckle.

"No worries there Charlie, we're blaming the whole thing on you," I winked and walked headed back out of the kitchen to the sound of his light-hearted laughter. I made my way through the living room and out onto the front porch to call Sam.

He picked up after the first ring, so I was pretty sure I hadn't woken him, in spite of the fact that it was just after five in the morning. "Hello?"

"Hey Sam, it's Leah," I started.

"Leah? Is everything ok?"

"Well," I floundered for an indecisive moment before taking a deep breath and steeling my resolve. "No, Sam, everything is not ok. I was planning on waiting until this weekend to talk to you but… I… I just feel like I need to do it now." Once I started talking it was like a dam had opened up. Every ounce of my frustration and irritation came pouring out of me as I expressed my disappointment and disgust with my pack brothers.

"Ok, Ok… Look, Jacob and Embry are due in from patrol any minute. Why don't you just head out into the woods behind Charlie's and phase and we'll sort all this out?"

I hadn't phased since school started and while my inner wolf desperately longed to be free, I needed to avoid the pack mind for a little while longer. If they knew Bella was crushin' on a bloodsucker, they'd probably force her into home schooling or something. I was hoping she'd come to her senses and allow the situation to work itself out before the others felt the need to get involved.

"No," I sighed, knowing he wasn't going to like what I had to say. "You listen to me Sam Uley, I've tried to talk to those numbskulls on several occasions and it hasn't done any good. I know you said that I was here to keep them in line, but that, my beloved Alpha, is your job. I will do everything in my power to keep Bella safe and you know that as well as I do, but you'd better straighten those boys out. I'm going with the 'if you're not with me you're against me' philosophy on this and if they don't start acting like her god damn protectors then I'll be more than happy to treat them like the enemy."

"Lee-Lee!" He gasped, shocked by my outburst.

"Don't Sam, just… Don't. You talk to them. Make them get their priorities straight before something bad happens and they end up with blood on their hands. I can't live with any on mine."

"Ok. I'll talk to them, tomorrow. That ok? That way everybody has a good time this evening."

"Thank you," I replied curtly and then closed the phone without another word. It would have to do.

I stepped back into the house to find Charlie sitting in his favorite chair tying his work boots on. "Everything set?" He asked brightly.

"Yes sir," I replied as brightly as I could force myself to sound.

"Good to hear," he said as he stood and shrugged into his jacket. He grabbed his gun belt and fastened it around his hips and offered me a mildly awkward one-armed hug as he reached for the door. "Six thirty right?"

"Six thirty," I confirmed, and he was gone.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to force out the negativity and think happy thoughts for Bella. It was her birthday and at the very least she deserved to get through the day without any of my moody bullshit. I opened my eyes and felt marginally better as I took off up the stairs to wake up the birthday girl.

~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~

Bella

I was walking across the school parking lot, rushing to get out of the rain while simultaneously trying not to slip and fall into the nearest puddle. I'd nearly reached the sidewalk when I faintly heard the sound of my name being called. The voice was velvety and familiar and I instantly spun around, looking for him. The lot was surprisingly empty as I scanned across it for the beautiful face that belonged to the melodic voice. He'd never spoken to me outside of our Biology class before and there was no denying the surge of hope that swelled deep within my chest when I heard his voice for the second time.

He was standing on the far side of the parking lot, near the tree line. His mouth turn up into that beautiful crooked grin when he realized I'd heard him and he waved me over. I turned and headed toward him, biting down on my lower lip and trying to keep the butterflies that were swarming in my stomach at bay.

As I drew nearer, he turned and headed into the woods. I picked up my pace and continued to follow him, curious as to where he was going. A moment later I realized he'd disappeared from sight. I stopped and called out to him, but the only answering sound was that of the crickets chirping and the raindrops falling through the trees.

"Edward?" I called out again as I heard a rustling sound just ahead of me. There was no response, although I was quite certain he should've heard me. He couldn't have been that far ahead of me. I continued to walk forward until I came to a small clearing. Standing there, seemingly unaffected by the rain, was the boy who'd ruled my dreams since the day I first laid on eyes on him, Edward Cullen.

He stood with his back to me, but something about his stance told me that he knew I was there. I heard another familiar voice calling out to me from the direction I'd come from. I looked over my shoulder, but saw nothing but the trees. When I returned my attention to Edward, something seemed different. I couldn't put my finger on what it was at first; but as he slowly turned around to face me, I gasped as I realized my error.

The bronze hair faded to a dirty blond and instead of those beautiful golden orbs, I was met with a familiar pair of blood-red eyes. Cold, calculating eyes that immediately made me feel like a hunted animal, helplessly staring up at a hungry predator.

James.

He smiled and started to chuckle darkly. His laughter sent a chill down my spine as he took a step toward me, causing me to take a step backward.

"Izzy, Izzy, Izzy…" He leered. "Did you really think you could hide from me? Did you think I'd give up on you so easily?" He shook his head and gave me a disapproving look. "You should've had more faith in me Izzy."

I realized he was still advancing on me, and there was only a few feet separating us by then. A whimper escaped my throat as I took another step back.

"Are you trying to get away from me?" he asked, his tone somewhere between amused and annoyed. "I follow you all the way to this dinky little Podunk town and this is the hello I get?"

He lunged and with icy hands he grabbed my arms and roughly pulled me into his rock hard embrace. One of his hands trailed up my arm and he crooked a finger under my chin, forcing me to look at him. His smile was dark and dangerous as he pushed my hair back, away from my neck. He lowered his head and pressed his firm lips against my own in a chaste kiss. He then trailed cool, feather-light kisses down to my chin and along my jaw. When his lips found my neck he inhaled deeply and I felt his mouth twist into a smile.

"You still smell divine," he whispered against my skin. I gasped then, as I felt his cool, wet tongue slide between his lips and he licked the length of my neck, from my collarbone to my earlobe. He took another deep breath, his chest rumbling against mine as he hummed happily. "And you taste like pure heaven," he whispered huskily.

I felt his teeth scrape against the soft flesh of my neck, and involuntarily let out another whimper.

He pulled back enough to stare into my eyes again, and I felt the familiar fog taking up residence in my fear-addled brain. "Are you afraid of me, Izzy?" he asked softly.

I nodded as he bent his head back down, chuckling as he returned his mouth to my neck and throat, where he kissed, licked and sucked the tender skin. I felt his teeth scrape against me again and I tried to twist to free myself from his vise-like grip. It was all in vain however, and I was quick to realize that my struggle only seemed to further excite him. I felt his mouth open over my jugular and immediately knew with unexplainable clarity and certainty, that he was going to bite me.

I pushed against him with every ounce of effort that I could muster. The only words I could manage were a pathetic, "no! Please!" But there was no escaping his iron hold on me.

"Bella." He never called me Bella. It was almost always Izzy with James. If he was angry, he'd call me Isabella, but never Bella. I couldn't wrap my head around why he'd start doing it now.

"Bella wake up," I heard, and realized it wasn't James' voice I was hearing at all. It was Leah's…

I gasped and bolted upright in the bed as my eyes fluttered open. I looked around the room feeling momentarily panic-stricken until I realized where I was. I fell back onto my pillow, and focused on calming down. It was only a dream. It was only a dream I chanted internally.

"Hey," Leah whispered from beside me, "it's ok."

I felt her lay down behind me and she wrapped her arms around me. "Was it-?" she started, but abruptly cut herself off. She didn't want to bring him up.

"James." I finished for her. "He's gonna find me Leah. He won't stop until he does," I told her; unsure as to how I could feel so certain about it. The tears immediately started flowing down my cheeks.

She propped herself up on her elbow and I felt her staring at me in the darkness. "Has anything happened that you haven't told us about Bells?"

"No," I assured her.

"Are you sure?" she asked, "I mean why are you so freaked out all of a sudden, if nothing new has happened? I'm not criticizing you or anything Bells, I just… I want to understand. Do you wanna talk about the nightmare?"

I did and I didn't. Part of me was holding firm to the belief that as long as I acted like James wasn't a threat, he wouldn't be. Another part of me, believed without a doubt that he would find me, just like he said he would. Yet another, albeit a tiny part of me, wished he'd just do it and get it over with.

"Leah… I swear to you nothing has happened. Do I keep secrets from you? No. It's just a feeling I have. Like I woke up knowing that James was coming." I thought about all the Bella-sitting that I was already being forced to endure. I didn't think I could handle them to try stepping that up any, so I tried to backtrack. "I don't know," I sighed, "maybe I'm just being paranoid. Maybe a little more sleep will help, just until the alarm goes off."

I snuggled into Leah and the last thing I remember was feeling her hand in my hair, soothingly smoothing down my tangled locks.

~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~

"Yoo-hoo! Bella Bella Belllll-aaaaa!" I groaned, turned away from the sound her voice and buried my head beneath my pillow. Not that I thought it would stop her. "Bellllll-aaaaahhhh!" Leah called out in the most annoying, singsong voice I'd ever heard.

She was quiet for a minute and I thought that maybe she'd given up and decided to give me a few more minutes. I really should've known better. Just as I went to peek out from under the sanctity of my pillow, she pounced. She jumped onto the bed and nearly bounced me right off from it. She threw my pillow onto the floor and was bouncing like a five-year-old on a trampoline and chanting, "Wakey wakey!!! It's uppy-uppy time! It's uppy-uppy time!" over and over again.

I had never seen her act quite so ridiculous and in spite of the fact that I was gonna wet myself if she didn't stop bouncing and let me go pee, I found myself overcome with a paralyzing fit of giggles; a fact which did nothing for my near-bursting bladder.

"Stop!" I pleaded between gasps for air and bouts of giggles. "Please Leah! I swear I'm gonna pee all over you if you don't!" That did it. She immediately hopped off the bed and burst into a fresh bout of laughter as I sprang from the mattress and all-out ran to the bathroom, barely getting there in time.

I felt kind of gross after waking up all sweaty earlier, so I decided to go ahead and shower and brush my teeth before leaving the bathroom. Standing under the hot spray of water, my thoughts returned to the previous night's dream. I didn't understand why the nightmares would return now. I thought I'd gotten past all of that. I shoved it to the back of my mind as I shut the water off and reached for my towel, deciding not to worry about it unless it became a recurring situation.

When I returned to my room I found Leah, all ready for school and digging through my closet. She emerged with a victorious looking smile on her face and a black pencil skirt and white cotton blouse with tiny black buttons in her hand.

"Don't fight it Bells," she said tossing the outfit in my direction. "You liked it enough to buy it, the next phase is actually wearing it."

I sighed, rolled my eyes at her and opened my mouth to argue. She'd actually convinced me to buy it during our Seattle shopping trip; but, not wanting to argue with her, I shut my mouth and shrugged my shoulders. I got dressed and even succumbed to Leah doing my hair without argument. She brushed a hint of gray shadow on each of our eyes and dabbed some gloss on her own lips before touching some mine.

When she was finished, she dragged me over to stand in front of the full length mirror that hung on the back of my bedroom door. I had to admit that I was surprised at the young woman that stared back at me. She was pretty, very pretty; and when she smiled at me, she was prettier still. It was difficult to accept that I was that young woman, but as I stepped away from that mirror I felt lighter somehow.

Leah was dressed much more casually, I noticed; in her favorite black skinny jeans and lavender cotton t-shirt. Her long, black hair hung straight down her back. She'd had quite the effect on the male population at Forks High, but she never paid any of them any attention.

"Hey Bells, how 'bout you grab some clothes and we hang out at my house tonight?" She asked as we gathered our books and put them into our respective bags.

"Sure," I smiled, "I'll just have to call Charlie this afternoon and let him know." I grabbed my overnight bag and hurried around the room getting my belongings together.

Five minutes later I was grabbing my jacket and we were walking out the front door. It was raining, which wasn't by any means a surprise, but it struck a chord within me as I remembered that it had been raining in my dream as well. I forcibly shook my head and mentally chastised myself as we climbed into Leah's truck and started off for Forks High School. I wasn't going to let one bad dream get to me, but no matter how many times I said it, I couldn't shake the feeling of dread that was suddenly creeping over me.

A/N2: Sooo... Can you feel it??? It's comin'. What's comin'? Something... definitely something. How obvious am I? Or do I just seem that way to me because I'm privvy to all the facts? Or maybe it's not what you're thinking. Because I don't know what you're thinking, unless you tell me! I do answer questions, though not always as straightforwardly as ya might like, but I DO always answer them. :P
Don't forget, the 'short list' for the final voting round will be posted 7/18. Voting runs 7/22-7/26. There were tons of fan-tab-ulistic stories nominated, so make sure you go check it out!
And as always thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU for reading.
Reviews = teasers, just hit the little button and tell me what ya think.
Xoxo,

Sonia