Chapter Twelve: Leah's Imprint Story. Totally Crazy But That's What Being A Wolf Means.
Leah had her hands folded over her stomach exactly the way Bella had when she was pregnant.
"Oh my god! How? Who? When?" I spluttered. I was so stunned.
Leah reached behind her for the male's hand. "This is David. I met him twelve years ago. I had run around as a wolf for a while after all the weddings and after you left. I came back to visit a friend in the Makah tribe when I heard that she had had her first child. I went to get her some things from the store one day. The bottom of one of the bags I was carrying fell out as I was going back to her house. I bent to pick everything up when a hand reached out to pick the container of baby formula up that was rolling away from me."
David spoke for the first time. "I had seen her walking and stopped to watch. She was beautiful. I was trying to find a way to talk to her when her bag broke. It was the perfect opening. I went to help her."
Leah continued the story then. "I looked up to see who was helping me only to drop what little I had picked up. The moment I looked into his eyes, nothing else mattered. The things that had mattered to me before, the pack, my friends, my mom and my brother, my life, it was all meaningless compared to him. This helpful stranger had me. I had imprinted on him, something I never thought I would do." She turned to David and looked lovingly into his eyes. He smiled at her with just as much love in his eyes.
"So you weren't bothered that Leah is a wolf? David, you must either be really brave or really crazy." I commented.
David chuckled. "Maybe a little of both. I don't know. I was taken by her from the moment I first laid eyes on her and I couldn't deny that. It was a year after I met her that I found out that she was a werewolf." He paused under my stare. I watched him in disbelief for a second. I was frozen where I stood; the shock of new information left me at a standstill.
"How did you find out? What did you do, David? Please continue." Nessie had a tenor of curiosity in her voice.
"I was twenty-two and in love with Leah. I was ready to settle down with her so I went out and bought an engagement ring. I was on my way to her house when I saw a large, gray wolf. It was headed in the same direction so I hurried to get to Leah and warn her. Apparently, I was downwind and Leah was occupied because she didn't notice me. The wolf ran behind the little cottage Leah lived in. she wasn't home but I didn't want her to come home while the wolf was around. I watched as the wolf ran around the cottage to the back, stand up on its hind legs and turn into the girl I love. Scared the hell out of me." David seemed perfectly at ease now.
"What were you doing, Leah? How did you not notice David there?" I asked her.
"I was coming back from La Push that day. We were doing sort of a family reunion. All the wolves were there, except for you, Jacob. Everyone knew about David and they were angry that I hadn't told him the truth yet. I had been struggling with the right way to tell the man I love that the woman he loves is a giant wolf. Jared yelled at me the whole way back to my cottage through the mind link. I just wanted to be human again so I wouldn't have to hear them anymore. I was careless and eager to escape them. As soon as I reached my backyard, I phased. I heard a gasp from behind me and there was David. He was staring at me as I stood there naked, wide eyed with shock and fear." Leah bowed her head in shame, as if she had done something terrible.
David wrapped his arms around Leah in a gesture of comfort before continuing. "I demanded that she tell me what was going on and what she was. Leah explained everything to me. Being a Makah, I had heard the legends of the Cold ones and the Quileut wolves but I had never believed them until that day. As a child, I thought it would have been cool to meet one of the wolf-men but never suspected I would fall in love with a wolf girl. I decided it was cool and that I loved Leah no matter what she is. We got married a few months after that. Been married for over ten years now." David beamed and put a hand on Leah's pregnant stomach. "This is our third child. We have an eight year old son and a four year old daughter at home."
I stood there for a minute, dumbfounded. There were so many questions I wanted to ask. Leah's imprint story was something else. It wasn't nearly as crazy as mine though. This wolf thing was the craziest concept you could ever imagine. Apparently, they were all waiting for me to speak but I couldn't remember how to.
"Jacob, close your mouth. You look like a gaping fish." Leah snapped after a minute of my stunned silence.
"Sorry. Too much information at once; Gave me a brain overload. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy everything worked out but, Leah. I told you that you were wrong about imprinting. I knew that was ridiculous." I was happy to tell her that.
"What?" David and Nessie said at the same time. They wanted an explanation to my comment so I turned to Nessie.
"It was the day before you were born, honey. Leah and I were doing recon to make sure it was ok for the vampires to leave and go hunt. She was going through my mental images of Bella and Rosalie. See, they were protecting you even though you were killing Bella. I thought Rosalie just wanted a baby and was willing to sacrifice Bella so she could have one. Those two were the only ones who referred to you as the 'baby'. You were either the fetus or the abomination to everyone else." I explained before she interrupted me.
"So what did you call me before I was born?" she asked, slightly annoyed.
"Don't take it like that. We didn't know what you were and you were killing your mother. If you had been in my shoes, you wouldn't have liked you either." I tried to ease her. She gave me a pointed look that said 'answer the question'. I sighed. "You were the spawn of a demon killing the girl I loved. You are the girl I love now. You are my entire world."
"Ok, I accept that. Continue the explanation." She allowed.
"I got ticked when Leah said she could understand Rosalie's explanation for helping Bella. It was Bella's only chance for a kid. Leah explained that she would do the same if Bella had asked her for help. She didn't believe that she would ever imprint or have a child of her own. Called herself a biological dead-end." I smirked at Leah as I said the last part.
"Well, at the time, I was." Leah frowned like she didn't want to explain but did anyway. "As soon as I imprinted on David, my system started up again. It was waiting for him. I didn't think I would ever have a child of my own and now I'm expecting my third. That is more than I ever expected."
"That is so sweet. When are you due, Leah?" Nessie asked sweetly.
Leah's expression warmed and her hands folded over her rotund stomach tenderly. "Just a month after Quil and Claire's wedding. Carlisle is helping me because I can't go to a normal hospital. Just like with my first two."
"How come I wasn't told about this? If I had known, I would have come back." I said as I let my brow crumple in a frown.
"Couldn't reach you, of course. Carlisle said you were in Mexico at the time." Leah replied.
"You missed a lot. You should have been here." Embry said sullenly.
"Sorry, I guess I have lost touch with you all." I apologized.
"Ya think?" Embry folded his arms over his chest.
"What's with you? Look, I'm sorry I left you guys. What's up, man? Talk to me." I tried to reason with him.
" I got nothing, ok? You have Nessie, Quil has Claire. Even Collin and the younger wolves have an imprint. I have no one. I don't even have my mother anymore." Embry yelled at me.
" Hey, easy, man. Why don't you come back with us to the Cullen's place? We can catch up. Nessie and I need to get back to her party. You look like you could use a good party." I offered. I hoped he would take it.
"Yeah, fine. Whatever." He bit out.
"We have to be getting back home. Later, guys." Leah said.
"Nice meeting you." David said and followed Leah into the woods.
"Come on, Embry." I said and lead him into the woods.
A minute later, Nessie had our clothes in bundles and embry and I were wolves again. We headed back to the house. On the way, I sifted through Embry's memories and saw that his mom had died a year ago. He really was alone.