A/N: Welcome to all the new readers who've found this fic through the Perv Pack's review. I'm especially thrilled to see so many Bella/Edward fans trying out pack fic for the first time. I myself am a B/E girl, but totally agree with the PPSS review that Leah and Nahuel got the shaft big time in BD and deserve their own happy ending. So here we are!

MunkeeRajah and Evelyn are still with me, holding my sweaty hand through each chapter. They are da bomb!

Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight and no copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 15 - Repetition

Jacob POV

I am six-foot eight-inches, two hundred-plus pounds of muscle, supernatural force, super strength, and—I like to tell myself—raw sex appeal. I am Alpha male to the bone. And I am owned body and soul by a woman who's about half my weight and more than a foot shorter than I. So I am usually the last person to call another guy whipped to his face, or even behind his back. Also, it takes a really overt, inappropriate level of PDAs to make me want to toss my cookies.

But watching Seth and his new imprint's near-constant pawing and petting sure made me feel like my lunch was coming back up. I could only imagine how revolting it might be to someone whose tolerance level was a bit lower than mine, say, someone like Leah.

And really, I could only imagine Leah's reaction. Because I hadn't seen her since the day Seth imprinted. As soon as Carlisle had finished patching her up, right there at the scene of the fight, Leah had taken off like a big-assed bird. She'd been holed up, alone, at her mom's house ever since, according to my sources on the rez.

Nahuel's sister, Anjali, was now staying with the Cullens, where everyone agreed she'd be safer. There was no prying Seth away from her, so he was here with us, too. Sue had been staying with Charlie for a while now, partly to help ease his transition into our weird world, and partly to avoid Nahuel. Things still weren't easy between the two of them.

As for Leah's imprint … well, I wasn't really sure what was up with him.

Instead of going home with Leah, like I would have expected, Nahuel had decided to camp out with the Cullens, too. He said he wanted to stay with his sister, help her adjust to being free of Joham, and help us get as much useful information out of her as possible. And she was a fount of information. She seemed eager to tell us everything she knew about Joham and his plans.

I remembered Nahuel telling the Volturi that he'd had a sister who'd reached maturity not long before our confrontation over Nessie. Anjali was that sister. She'd been born in India, and her mother had been one of the thousands of homeless who lived on the streets of Mumbai. Just like Nahuel's mother, Anjali's hadn't survived her birth. The difference was Joham had stuck around long enough to retrieve her, hoping she'd be useful to him. As it turned out, she had been.

Anjali was a tracker. She wasn't as powerful or precise as Demetri, the Volturi guard Bella had planned to kill first in order to give me a chance to run with Ness. It had taken her years to help her father locate Huilen and Nahuel in South America. She hadn't realized Joham would torture Nahuel and kill his aunt. When she saw what their father was doing to her half-brother, she helped Nahuel escape. Joham had punished her for that. Seth's eyes had been dark with anger and pain when he told me about the still-healing wounds left on her body.

She'd also been the "witness" who had given the false description in the Port Angeles murder. Anjali confirmed the murder and framing attempt had been a ploy to try to flush Nahuel out of hiding. She'd been able to track him to the rez, but Joham's minions couldn't get past our defenses to grab him.

She'd never been entirely comfortable with Joham's master plan to create a new race. But he was the only family she had, and the life he'd raised her to live was the only one she'd known. Until she met Seth.

We didn't need Edward's mind-reading abilities to know that she was completely devoted to Leah's baby brother. She turned her back on Joham and betrayed everything she knew about him the instant Seth asked her for information. Edward and Jasper had no problem confirming the truth of everything she said. She seemed to completely embrace the idea that Seth and Nahuel were now her family—and her allegiances lay totally with them.

Yeah, Nahuel was definitely a big help with Anjali, but that still didn't explain what the hell he was doing hanging out with all of us at the Cullens' house.

He and Leah hadn't seen or spoken to each other for three days, and I had no idea how they were doing it. I'd go crazy if I were apart from Ness for that long. I didn't know any bonded pair, wolf or vampire, that could pull that kind of time apart. Hell, Seth couldn't even last three minutes. He was almost as bad as Edward, and that was saying something.

If you'd asked me on the day of the barbecue, I'd have said Nahuel had it bad for Leah. I'd thought he was feeling the effects of the imprinting as much as she was. The dude held her hand in public and was ready to duke it out with Sam over her, for fuck's sake. So I was having a hard time understanding his rapid one-eighty from blatant fascination to apparent disinterest. And if I was confused, Leah must be spinning in circles.

I really wanted to take Nahuel aside and kick his ass—slowly and thoroughly—for putting Leah through this separation. Since that would definitely cheese her off, I figured I'd have to settle for having a talk with him instead. But before I had that conversation, there was another uncomfortable chat I needed to have.

In the past six years, Carlisle had made it one of his (many) life missions to learn everything he could about shape-shifter genetics, imprinting and how both might interact with vampire nature. There was also no one on the planet who knew more about vampire-human hybrids than Carlisle, except maybe Joham. While part of Carlisle's interest was scientific, his real impetus was the need to know as much as possible so that he could better protect his granddaughter.

My imprinting on Renesmee six years ago had been a marvel for my vampire family and a miracle to me. But we'd all thought it was pretty much a one-shot thing. I mean, what were the chances of another wolf meeting up with another hybrid, let alone imprinting on one? Then, along cames Nahuel and, hello, we've got two hybrid-wolf pairs. Okay, I could buy two such coincidences.

But then Seth and Anjali became lucky couple number three, and I couldn't deny anymore that something was definitely up. I was hoping Carlisle might shed some light onto what that was. I really needed to know if I should keep the unattached members of my pack out of the fighting if more of Joham's half-breed offspring showed up in Forks. Or was that even my call to make? Sam would have said it was, but I wasn't sure.

Unfortunately, in order for this conversation to be really useful, I might have to compromise my beta's privacy. For that, I was truly sorry. I would try to keep her secret if I could, but if it were a choice between her comfort and the safety of my pack … well, she'd see reason eventually. I hoped.

I'd have felt better if I could have limited the discussion participants to just Carlisle and me. But Seth had a vested interest in what the Doc had to say. He knew I planned to talk to Carlisle, and I was pretty sure he'd already figured out that Leah had imprinted on Nahuel. I wanted Edward and Jasper there because their gifts could possibly offer a layer of insight into what was happening to my pack.

Late in the night, on the third day after the attack, when the other vampires of our bizarre family were hunting, and Nahuel and Anjali were sleeping in two of the Cullens' guest rooms, the five of us gathered in Carlisle's study.

Seth sprawled on the leather couch, his head propped on a throw pillow. For so long, I'd thought of him as everyone's kid brother. Seeing him stretched bonelessly on the sofa with a satisfied smirk on his face reminded me that he was no longer a boy. He was a man now—a man many times over, if the sounds that came from the guestroom he and Anjali shared were any indication.

Sex with your imprint. What a treat that must be.

Standing across the room beside the darkened window, Edward blanched. "Could you please try to control your thoughts?" His tone was more revolted than angry. He knew I was going to deflower his little girl eventually, and he could even accept that—in theory—as long as I married her first. But it still made him intensely uncomfortable to hear me thinking about it. I instantly felt guilty.

Shit, Edward, I'm sorry. I'm exhausted and stressed, and I just forgot for a minute that Bells isn't here to shield me. I'll work on it.

He accepted my apology with a slight nod and turned his attention to Carlisle, who was already seated behind his desk. I sighed and dropped into one of the armchairs in front of the enormous desk. The first time I'd sat in this very chair, years ago, that damned desk had made me feel like a truant schoolboy about to get his ass paddled in the principal's office.

Carlisle jumped right in, initiating the conversation without preamble. "Jacob, I'm glad you suggested this discussion," he said, leaning forward in his chair and folding his hands on top of the desk. "I think drawing parallels between your experience and Seth's could help us better understand how and why imprinting occurs."

"Agreed." Deciding to follow Carlisle's pace for the conversation, I leaped to my greatest concern. "I need to know what's happening to my pack, Doc. Seth and Anjali, Renesmee and me … this isn't just a fluke, is it? There's some reason we're being drawn together this way."

"I believe so," he replied, glancing at Seth for a moment before looking back to me. "I've discussed imprinting with Sam and with your father at length. The best theory we've been able to develop is that the purpose of imprinting is to ensure a mated couple has the optimum chance of passing the shape-shifting gene to their progeny."

I was feeling impatient. "I know this, Doc. Tell me something new."

"You first," Carlisle said with a grin. He was enjoying peeling away the layers of this mystery, like a housewife hooked on the latest Jackie Collins novel. Usually, the Doc was a lot less annoying than the rest of his vampire family. Usually, but not tonight.

I sighed again. "What do you want to know?"

"I can tell you one thing that's different about a wolf-hybrid imprinting," Jasper interjected. He'd posted himself near the sofa, holding up the wall near the end where Seth's head was propped. He reached down and gave my young pack mate an affectionate knuckle-thump between the eyes. Seth hissed and reached up to rub the already-fading red spot on his forehead.

"It's mutual," Jasper said. "From day one."

I'd suspected as much. When a wolf imprinted on a human, there was a kind of getting-to-know-each-other period. Sam had really had to work to convince Emily that they should be together; she hadn't wanted to hurt Leah any more than he did. My sister, Rachel, had been horrified at the idea of a relationship with Paul because he was so much younger than she. And because he was a total jerk.

That warming-up period, when the wolf had to convince his imprint to accept him, didn't seem to occur when the imprint was a hybrid. Even before she was born, Renesmee had felt the pull of the imprinting bond. I could see the evidence in Nahuel's behavior, too, despite the fact that he'd been acting like a smacked ass for the past few days. And Anjali was nauseatingly overt about her feelings for Seth.

Jasper's observation was based on what his talent told him about the emotions of those around him, but it only confirmed what I'd thought for a while.

"Another difference—it's more intense," Edward offered. Like Jasper, his talent gave him a unique perspective. He didn't base his observation on speculation; he could see the intensity of the bond in the minds of each couple.

"In a human-wolf pairing, the bond is very strong but still … human … in its level of intensity," he explained. "When one member of the pair is a hybrid, the connection is more powerful. I'd liken it to the bond that exists between mated vampires. I could envision circumstances in which a human imprint might reject the bond and both parties survive the experience, albeit miserably for the rest of their lives."

His golden eyes eased from Carlisle to me. "But a wolf-hybrid pair would not be able to survive that kind of separation," he said. I didn't miss the unspoken subtext of his statement. In his own way, Edward was letting me know he accepted, and finally forgave, my imprinting on his daughter. It was a watershed moment for us, and in typical Edward style, he'd played it out quietly and subtly.

"Thanks," I murmured, not caring if the others in the room wondered why I was thanking him.

Seth sat up, sprang to his feet, and began pacing around the room. I knew he was anxious to get back to his imprint, but he also wanted to be a contributing part of the conversation.

"So what about the sixty-four thousand dollar question?" he asked. "Why is this happening?"

"I have a theory," Carlisle eagerly replied, his enthusiasm making his face look nearly as young and callow as Seth.

I had to laugh. "Course you do, Doc. Let's hear it."

"Well, we believe that a wolf imprints on a specific human with whom he has the best chance of creating children that will carry the shape-shifting gene," he repeated. "Of course, we know that gene remains dormant until triggered by the prolonged presence of a vampire in the wolf's environment."

"Been there, done that, Doc," I said, losing patience rapidly. I really should have napped today before having this conversation in the middle of the night, I thought to myself.

"Who's a grumpy bastard?" Edward teased under his breath.

Carlisle certainly heard him, but chose to ignore our one-sided banter. He continued laying out his theory like a professor schooling a roomful of hung-over undergrads. "Perhaps a wolf-hybrid union takes that biological imperative to the next level. What if the presence of vampire DNA in the progeny of such a union could ensure that the shape-shifting gene was activated from birth?"

I had to give it to him. Carlisle had dumbfounded a group of men who'd heard, seen and done just about everything. But none of us had thought of this.

Jasper broke the stunned silence with a low whistle. "Well, that would mean those children would be something entirely new, wouldn't it? A new species."

Seth made a choking sound, wheezing out his words like an asthmatic poodle. "So we're doing … naturally … exactly what Joham is trying to do? Create a new race?"

Jasper laughed ruefully. "Ya think? Hope you've been using condoms, buddy boy."

Seth turned red and collapsed back onto the sofa. "Ohhhh fuuuccck," he breathed, drawing the words out to several horrified syllables. Suddenly, his eyes flashed to me. "Jake, you gotta warn the other guys about this. I mean, I love Anjali, and I wouldn't change anything about imprinting on her, but the other guys need to know this could happen to them, too."

Carlisle shook his head. "I agree that this is a momentous development, but I don't see any need to alarm the other members of your pack," he said.

If I'd been less tired, I might have figured out faster where Carlisle was headed.

"Two instances of wolf-hybrid imprinting are interesting and unusual, but hardly constitute a pattern to raise concern," he continued.

If I'd been less brain-blitzed by Carlisle's theory, I might have realized Seth was too stunned to keep his mouth shut.

"Three," he interjected.

I don't think I'd ever seen Carlisle caught off guard until this moment. "Excuse me?"

"Three," Seth repeated, distractedly. "There are three wolf-hybrid pairs."

In the next instant, he realized what he'd just done. His guilt-filled eyes found mine, and he groaned. "Shit! I'm sorry, Jake."

Edward, of course, said nothing; he already knew just who that third couple was. I could see Jasper and Carlisle approaching the realization at the same speed. They'd put two and two together in about another second, and it would add up to my beta and the only half-vampire who would be her type.

"She should have told me, you know," Seth said, uncharacteristic anger replacing the guilt in his voice. "I mean, I'm her brother. Maybe I could have helped her somehow."

He was right, of course. I wanted to tell him it was okay, and that I wasn't pissed at him for letting slip something he shouldn't have had to figure out on his own. I didn't get the chance to say anything though, because Jasper and Carlisle were now wearing matching expressions of astonishment.

And as they both spoke in unison …

Jasper: "Leah!"

Carlisle: "Nahuel!"

… one half of the pair in question, the hybrid that had been kept in the dark by the wolf, picked that moment to open the door to Carlisle's study.

End Note: Dunh-dunh-DUH! So the wolf is (at last) out of the lair. How do you think Nahuel will react? And what's going to happen if/when Joham finds out about what's going on with the wolf pack and his hybrid offspring?

I didn't start writing this fic for the feedback, but I have to admit I've become a total review hoo-arh, so if you haven't done so yet (and even if you have), please click that little review link at the bottom of the screen and leave me some love. I promise a special treat for lucky reviewer number 200, whoever that turns out to be. Thanks for reading!