A/N: Okay, you were all far kinder to me than I deserved after leaving everyone hanging last chapter. I do love me a good sexual cliffy, but I promise none in this chapter. Evelyn and MunkeeRajah worked their magic again with this chapter. I love them more than Jake's abs!

Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, but if she doesn't get off her butt and finally finish Midnight Sun, well, SOMEONE might just decide to do it for her!

Chapter 14 – What's Really Happening?

Leah POV

Nahuel was not a fighter. Jasper had sure tried to turn him into one over this past month, and he was passable at hand-to-hand against a single opponent. But when it came to the bigger picture and making tactical decisions, well, let's just say it's a good thing he was pretty because he sure wasn't smart.

Which is probably why Nahuel made the worst possible move in our current situation; he immediately jumped the one foe whose superior strength and speed pretty much guaranteed his attack would fail. It wasn't an opening move I would have recommended. If I'd had time to think about it and communicate with him, I would have advised him to go first for the dark little female, who was obviously in charge. She was smaller, probably slower and less strong, and killing her would be like cutting the head off a snake.

As soon as short stuff made her less than generous offer to spare my life, however, my imprint made his move. He launched himself straight at the creepy-eyed male who looked to be a newborn. Amazingly, he actually managed to connect, hitting the male squarely in the midsection. His blow had no effect at all, other than to put him within the hands of his opponent, who was a hell of a lot stronger and faster.

Moving so fast he blurred, the male flipped Nahuel around, slammed him to the ground and pinned him there with a foot on his throat. Nahuel snarled and thrashed beneath the newborn's boot, clawing at his leg. The newborn completely ignored his struggles, instead turning his attention to me with an almost bored expression. The two females quickly assumed defensive postures, placing themselves between my trapped imprint and me.

"Leah, run!" Nahuel shouted, pulling frantically at the newborn's ankle. "They will not harm me. Run!"

If I'd learned to read Nahuel's emotions in the past month, he'd become equally adept at interpreting my body language when I was in wolf form. So he knew without my verbalization what my answer was to his command. There was no way in hell I would run and leave him. But I had no idea what I was going to do to save him.

Terror lanced through my body. I was never afraid for myself in a fight. But the thought of seeing Nahuel injured, or worse, was nearly paralyzing me with fear. I froze where I stood, gripped by totally unfamiliar indecision.

All of this happened before the echo of my warning howl had faded. In the next second, Jake and Seth's thoughts blazed into my awareness.

There in two minutes! Jake my pack brothers' thoughts, I knew they were on their way, following our scents. Jasper and Emmett were with them. Within seconds, Paul and Beau's thoughts joined the mix. Help was definitely on the way, and when it arrived, the hostile vampires would be severely outgunned.

Too bad Nahuel and I were getting our asses handed to us right now.

I was pretty sure both females were Nahuel's hybrid sisters. The leader referring to their "father" seemed to confirm that. I had no doubt that vampire bastard had sent this trio to grab Nahuel. All three of them seemed to know instinctively that I was a threat. Maybe they were beginning to realize just what had happened to the newborn Joham had sent to attack Charlie.

One of the females began moving slowly, cautiously to my left, while the little leader danced to the right. Their attempt to divide my attention might have been obvious, but it was pretty much guaranteed to work. My head knew I should be watching what these two femme fatales were doing, but the psychic tether that bound me to Nahuel ensured that I couldn't take my eyes away from him.

They were fast, they were focused, and they were a practiced team. As the two females jockeyed for position, the newborn upped the ante. He leaned his weight on the foot that held Nahuel to the ground, cutting off his air. My imprint's eyes bulged and his thrashing grew weaker. I knew it was a ploy to get me to tip my hand, but that didn't stop me from responding.

My field of vision constricted to a single narrow and terrifying point: Nahuel's gasping face. I leapt at the newborn without another thought. The females hit me from both sides, and I felt the sharp spear of pain that could only be a rib or two cracking beneath the impact. I knew I had to keep moving, and I jumped straight into the air, managing to shake the leader off. The other one kept her grip despite my leap. I began writhing, rolling over her repeatedly, trying to use the ground to scrape her off me. No matter what I tried, she stuck, snapping her jaws above my shoulders and back, heading inexorably toward my throat.

I don't know where Nahuel got the air to scream, but his hoarse shout halted the hybrid's attack instantly. "I will go! Stop! I will go with you!"

That breather was all I needed to throw the hybrid off with a heave that I drew up from my soul. She rolled across the clearing, regaining her feet in a single fluid movement that again put her between Nahuel and me.

Now that Nahuel appeared willing to do what they wanted, the newborn relaxed his weight off Nahuel's throat. Not even bothering to draw a full breath, he continued shouting at his sister, his raspy voice intense, pleading, cajoling. I didn't need to understand the language he spoke to know that he was bargaining with her for my life. I realized he couldn't know that the fight would be over in less than a minute when Jake and the others arrived. His distraction would buy us just enough time.

The smaller female didn't take her eyes off me, but inclined her head to indicate she was listening to him. Nahuel was still talking, his voice strained, his tone urgent. Then, he said something that fully captured his sister's attention. Her eyes—an unusual hazel shade—went wide with astonishment and then whipped to Nahuel. He had her full attention now, which was why she didn't witness the spectacle of my pack brothers arriving with Jasper and Emmett on their heels.

"We need one alive!"

Jasper's shouted command drew everyone's eyes to him, just as Seth's huge, hairy body slammed into Nahuel's tiny sister like a wrecking ball. Their entwined forms went careening across the clearing, splashing into the stream.

In the next instant, Paul and Beau were shredding the other female. Killing a hybrid vampire was not like terminating a full vamp. Ripping apart a full vampire was actually a pretty clean process that didn't involve any messy fluids. Hybrids, however, had heartbeats and blood. Tearing one apart was a gruesome, unpleasant task. Within seconds, my pack brothers and a patch of ground around them were bathed in blood and gore.

The newborn lost it. Being a newborn, his control couldn't have been great to begin with, but at the first spray of blood from the injured hybrid, he flung himself toward his erstwhile ally. Emmett caught the crazed newborn easily and gracefully the instant its foot left Nahuel's throat. It was a testimony to the amazing self-control the Cullens cultivated that neither Emmett nor Jasper so much as blinked at the bloodbath taking place under their noses. Emmett easily held the newborn's arms behind it while Jasper deftly twisted its head off.

It was over in seconds, before I could even think to move, before my melting mind absorbed that my imprint was safe, no thanks to me.

Completely ignoring the bloody, dismembered body of his half-sister, Nahuel scrambled on his hands and knees across the short expanse of grass separating us. He threw his arms around my neck, knocking me to the ground and sending shards of pain through my cracked ribs. His hands fisted in my fur, and he buried his face against my pelt. Relief washed through me, and I clenched my eyes shut, relishing the feeling of his muscled body, warm and alive and safe, pressed against me.

In the next heartbeat, my relief evaporated as I realized I couldn't hear Seth's thoughts in my head. My eyes sprang open and swept the clearing, searching for my brother. What the hell was going on?

Paul and Beau, covered in blood and standing over the torn body of the hybrid, were gaping toward the stream behind me. Their tongues lolled out of their yawning maws, and blood-tinged drool dripped off Paul's canines. Jake stood at the edge of the stream, puzzlement written on every line of his enormous form. Jasper, still holding the newborn's head tucked under his arm like a football, was looking in the same direction. So was Emmett.

The biggest Cullen let out a low whistle through his teeth. "Well what the hell is that all about?"

I swiveled my head toward the stream, dreading what I would see. But instead of the horror I expected—Seth's battered, bloodied body—what I saw was bewildering and bizarre.

My brother sat waist-deep in the water, naked, in human form. That was why his thoughts had dropped out of my awareness: he'd phased. Nahuel's hybrid sister was sitting in Seth's lap, twined around him like a baby possum clinging to its mother. Seth hunched his body over hers, his beefy arms wrapped around her tiny form. He almost looked like he was protecting her. His normally clear, open and friendly eyes were narrowed, distrustful and almost feral. When he spoke, I barely recognized his voice as my brother's.

"Stay back, all of you," he growled, baring his teeth.

Instantly, Jake phased to human form. He took a cautious step toward Seth, his toes edging the low bank of the stream. "Seth, take it easy, man. What's going on?"

"I mean it!" Seth shouted, peeling the female off him and pushing her miniscule form behind him. She was so small she practically disappeared behind his broad back. During the whole process, she didn't allow her skin to leave contact with his for even a second. She shifted fluidly behind Seth, but kept her arms and legs woven around him. Tendrils of her long, wet hair stayed wrapped around his throat and chest. Seth growled again. "Stay the fuck away!"

Jake's spine stiffened at the frantic threat in Seth's voice. I'd heard him do it just a handful of times in the past six years, but I still immediately recognized the Alpha authority Jake infused into his next command.

"Seth, explain yourself. Now."

Seth flinched and gasped like he'd just been hit in the face with a sock full of wet sand. He adored and idolized Jake, and that made the lash of the Alpha command all the more potent for him. He squeezed his eyes shut, the trembling of his body stirring splashes in the stream around him.

I'd gotten used to thinking of my kid brother as a huge, nearly invincible predator. But in that moment I could only see the little boy he'd once been, crawling into my bed when a bad dream woke him, and the almost-man who'd sought the same comfort from me the night our father died. Seth made a visible effort to control himself. When he looked at Jake again, his eyes were clear and aware.

"I know you think she's the enemy, but I can't let you hurt her," he said. "She's mine, Jake."

Christ on a crutch.

I knew what he meant as soon as the words were out of his mouth. From the stupefied expression on Jake's face, I was guessing he got it, too. But Emmett, Jasper, Paul and Beau didn't know that there were already two wolf-hybrid pairs in our pack. They needed Seth's elaboration.

"She's my imprint."

Informing us that he'd just been elected supreme mighty ruler of the seventh inner circle of hell might have been more shocking, but only slightly. Paul and Beau both yelped in surprise, and Jake was so stunned he sat his naked ass down in the mud beside the stream. In a rare slip of control, Jasper wafted a wave of his own astonishment through the group, making the moment seem even more surreal than it already was.

Nahuel's shaking voice didn't make the atmosphere feel any lighter. "Jake, I also must ask you for her safety," he said. "I owe her my life. Without her aid, I would never have been able to reach Forks."

Jacob's dark eyes, uncharacteristically round and bewildered, found Nahuel. "This is the sister who helped you escape?" Nahuel nodded once.

Jake climbed to his feet. "Seth, are you sure? Can you phase with me so I can check?"

Seth shook his head. "I don't want to frighten her. If I phase I won't be able to communicate with her," he said. "Trust me, Jake. I'm sure. I've seen enough through the pack bond to know what I'm feeling." His eyes flashed to me before sliding away guiltily. My heart rate hadn't really slowed yet, and Seth's stealthy glance pumped it up again.

Was it possible my brother had guessed my secret, as my mother had predicted he would?

On the heels of that worry, I felt Nahuel tense beside me. He hadn't released his hold on me this whole time, and didn't miss Seth's look. Was the truth finally crystalizing for him? Was seeing it happen to Seth and his sister making him realize he'd lived through the same thing himself just a month ago?

I didn't have time to wonder, because Nahuel's sister chose that moment to speak in her musical voice. She was still plastered to Seth's back, her body visibly shaking. "Seth?" He started, almost as if he hadn't realized she could speak. He craned his neck to look at her over his shoulder.

"Yes?" His voice was tentative and unsure.

"Your name is Seth?" He nodded. "I'm Anjali." Her eyes moved warily over the rest of our group, lingering a bit longer than I liked on Nahuel. Then, as if she'd made a decision she didn't entirely trust, she crept back around Seth's body, still touching him, so that she was kneeling in the water before him. She slid her trembling hands up his neck until her tiny palms came to rest on either side of his jaw.

"Do you know what's happened to us?" It didn't sound like she was asking him for an explanation, as Jake had, but rather confirmation that he also understood something she already knew. When Seth nodded, her lush mouth curved into a slight smile.

"You are my mate," she said, her voice now sure and strong. "I never dreamed I would find one. It wasn't what Father had planned for me. But nothing matters more to me now than you. I will do and be whatever you require." As if they were completely alone, she sealed her lips to his, and Seth returned her passionate kiss without hesitation. His big arms pulled her tiny body flush against his chest and he kissed her like sucking face with a half-vampire was something he did every day of his life. Actually, knowing Seth, he probably would do it every day from now on.

That was it. Like everything else in his life, Seth approached this catastrophic shift with an open heart. That easily, he accepted this realignment of his reality and embraced his future with a half-breed imprint he knew next to nothing about. And that easily, she accepted him—if the fact that she now appeared to be trying to suck his tonsils out through his teeth was any clue to her state of mind at the moment.

Of course she loves him already. Everyone loves Seth.

I felt like I'd been kicked in the gut. Why couldn't things be this easy, this effortless, this certain, for Nahuel and me? Maybe the source of our difficulties wasn't that he was half-vampire, but that I was a mistrustful, maladjusted bitch.

While my brother and his imprint acted like they were alone in the back of my mother's Buick, the rest of us stood and sat around like morons. None of us were used to feeling this unsure of ourselves.

Finally, Emmett broke the stagnant silence. "Jeez, get a room," he grumbled, as he pulled his cell from his pocket and speed-dialed.

"Carlisle, we need you and Edward. We have injuries and an alleged imprinting." He snapped the phone shut, shrugging at Jake's questioning expression. "What? I could hear Leah's ribs crack from a mile away. And Edward will be able to read what's really going on with these two."

Nahuel seemed to skip over every other part of Emmett's statement except for one small detail. He dragged my head around to face him, so that he could glare disapprovingly into my eyes. "You are injured? Why did you not phase and tell me?" Did he really think I was willing to be naked in front of this motley crew? I rolled my eyes and shook off his hands before climbing to my feet. And then sat back down just as quickly when my ribs screamed in protest.

Still sitting in the stream, Seth and the female had finally come up for air. Her arms were clamped around his neck; her head nestled on his shoulder. They look so fucking peaceful.

Jasper, Paul and Beau began to drag vampire and hybrid pieces into a pile. Jasper dropped the newborn's head onto the stack of body parts. He approached Jake, who still hadn't said anything. Our Alpha's face clearly said he was trying to process the fact that there were now three members of his pack with hybrid imprints.

"Might be better for us all if Seth's right," Jasper murmured, nodding toward the girl. "If he is, stands to reason she'd be more willing to help us. She could give us the break we need to get a step ahead of Joham."

I didn't know what to think, much less what to hope for. But as Nahuel sank back to the ground beside me and rested his forehead against my shoulder, I was pretty sure the time had come to have a talk with him about imprinting.

And, in particular, about ours.