A/N: Thanks again to everyone who's been reading and reviewing, and to all the new readers who've put SSW on story alert. Things are about to get bumpier than ever for Leah and her vamp-boy!

Thanks as always to Evelyn-Shaye and MunkeeRajah for helping me keep this hot mess on track. They are the cat's pajamas!

Chapter 21 – A Big Hurt

Jacob POV

The only thing more humiliating than getting laid low by a shot to the nuts is having a girl be the one who delivers the shot. And the only thing worse than going down clutching your package because of a girl is taking that fall in front of your fiancé.

I'd been sucker-punched before, but it had never hurt this much—physically or psychologically.

When Leah's fist connected with my junk, I couldn't do anything except collapse and curl up in a tight ball. I didn't even see her go out the door, although the single molecule of my brain that wasn't focused on the pain knew that's where she was headed.

My brutalized balls felt like they were trying to escape my scrotum—not to mention the burning agony—by shriveling back up into my guts. I opened my mouth to curse. My lunch came out instead.

Fucking ball-busting psycho-bitch. I hate her guts.

Well, no, not really. But it was a little hard to remember that when I was trying to breathe past the excruciating pain and avoid flopping in my own vomit at the same time.

It was bad enough that Leah had probably just delayed the arrival of the next generation of Blacks by a few years. She had to do it in front of Renesmee.

She'd pulverized my pride almost as badly as my testicles, and the betrayal and humiliation hurt just as much as the physical impact. I was a mondo-huge, super-powerful shape-shifting Alpha werewolf, for fuck's sake. And with just one punch in the nads, none of that meant anything.

She'd reduced me to a whimpering little boy flailing on the floor.

It didn't help that my girl was hovering over me at the moment, all loving and caring. It should have. But it just didn't.

"Sweetheart, should I get you some ice?"

My balls screamed at the mere suggestion of coming in contact with anything cold. I groaned.

"Fuck, no!" I squeaked like a choir boy.

Her voice was hesitant as her soft hands tenderly caressed my forehead. "Maybe we should call Carlisle," she said tentatively.

From above and behind, I heard Charlie clear his throat. "Nessie, I think Jake just needs a moment."

See, Charlie got it. He knew—most likely from painful experience—that the only treatment for a battered nut sack was time, which, unfortunately, I didn't have a whole lot of right now. And being a dude, he also understood that Renesmee's attempts to take care of me were not making me feel any better. In fact, she was making me feel like even less of a man than I already did, thanks to Leah.

"Honey, can you roll over so I can take a look?"

Oh. Fuck. Me.

"No!" I whined, mortified at the suggestion that I'd let her examine me with Charlie and Sue standing there.

"Baby, I really think I should call Grandfather," she tried again. She tugged gently on my arm in an attempt to convince me to roll onto my back.

Normally, I wouldn't object to Renesmee calling me pet names, mostly because she rarely did it. In fact, since we'd gotten engaged, I'd kind of wished that she would use endearments more often. But hearing them now was almost as nauseating as the pain. My pride had taken about all it could today.

"For fuck's sake, just leave me the fuck alone," I growled, fighting down a dry heave. I jerked my arm out of her hand and pressed my burning cheek flush against the cold wood floor. "Just go away, would you?"

I was being an asshole, but I just couldn't care. The stabbing intensity had died down a bit, but now the pain was cresting and receding in waves. Each peak felt almost as excruciating as the initial moment of impact. With my mind focused on riding out each wave, I was only vaguely aware that Renesmee was gone and that Charlie was now kneeling beside me.

He clapped my shoulder gently. "You let us know when you're ready to get up, okay? Sue and I will just clean up around you."

I nodded my head minutely and closed my eyes against the mortifying scene of Sue on her knees, wiping my puke off the floor with some rags.

Thinking I needed to focus on something besides just how much the pain hurt, I began counting the waves, ticking off the numbers with each successive crest. By the time I reached three hundred and seventy-eight the burning had died down to a dull ache, and I felt like I might be able to get the hell off the floor.

I opened my eyes and tentatively stretched my legs from their curled up position. When the ache stayed under control, I slowly rolled to my back, keeping my knees bent. Sue had long since finished mopping up my barf, and I could hear her and Charlie in the kitchen.

"Charlie?"

He stepped into the kitchen door. "Yeah, Jake?"

"Can you give me a hand? I think I can get up now."

"Sure, son." Charlie crossed the room and stopped beside me. "How do you want to do this?"

I considered. "Maybe just steady me until I can get to the couch?"

He nodded confidently. "Sounds like a plan. Let's do it."

I rolled to my side, pushing my knees under me. When I was on all fours, Charlie wrapped an arm around my waist. With the other hand, he took my arm under the elbow. "On three," he directed. "One...two…three!"

With a lot less effort than I'd expected, I was on my feet. Prolonged pain had made my legs rubbery, but with Charlie's help I managed to keep them under me and moving just long enough to flop down on the ripped up sofa. The movement had stirred up the discomfort, but the pain was definitely more manageable.

I was pretty sure Leah's punch would have ruptured a normal set of testicles, but wolf nuts were apparently stronger. And recovered faster. I figured I'd be back to a hundred percent in another hour. Then I'd go after my fucking beta and kick her ass six ways from Sunday. I'd help her find her imprint, and then I'd kick her ass again just for good measure—and because I'd probably still feel like it.

Charlie eyed me warily. "You good?" When I nodded, he continued. "I've been looking around to see if I could pick up any evidence, but I'm really out of my league here. You going to be up to checking things out soon?"

"Think so," I huffed. "But really, I don't expect to find much. It's pretty clear that we're dealing with vampires." Charlie flinched at the word, but I pretended to ignore it. "They tend to not leave a whole lot of evidence."

Charlie glanced around at the trashed living room. "Normally, I'd call all this a lot of evidence, but other than trashed stuff, I can't find any prints or hairs or anything. Course, I'm not a crime scene expert, but I'd at least expect to find something."

"This was a message," I explained. "Whoever took Nahuel wanted us to know it. I'm just not sure what their message is."

I scrubbed at my face, catching a whiff of my own puke-rancid breath. Man, I really needed a toothbrush and some Scope. "As soon as I'm back on my feet, I'll phase and go after Leah. Meanwhile, I'll call Carlisle to fill in the Cullens on what's going on. And I need to get ahold of Paul and Seth to go with me when I start tracking."

The thought of Leah chasing after Nahuel and his captors on her own made my still-queasy stomach roll a bit, but there wasn't much I could do right now except trust that she could take care of herself. At least until I could follow her.

I glanced around the room. "Where's Ness?"

Charlie's eyes turned steely. "She went for a walk after you bit her head off. Haven't seen her in more than an hour."

Shit. I'd been out of it for that long? I sighed. "Guess I need to apologize."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Charlie blew out his mustache and frowned. "I'd say so. And Jacob, I let it go because you were in a world of hurt at the time, but if I ever hear you speak to my granddaughter that way again, Leah's punch is going to feel like a love-tap compared to the ass-kicking I will give you. Capiche?"

Jesus, who still says 'capiche?'

"I got it, Charlie." I pulled out my cell and punched in a quick text.

Sorry. ima asshole. Come back?

As I hit "send," Sue appeared in front of me with a glass of water. "Thanks, Sue."

She nodded sympathetically. "No problem. I'm really sorry for what Leah did. I know she's frantic over Nahuel, but that was no excuse."

I shook my head and sighed again. "No, it wasn't, but it's partially my fault. I should have known she wouldn't wait. After all, I wouldn't if it was Nessie that was missing. I'd resort to any dirty trick I thought I had to in order to go after her right away."

Sue smiled regretfully and headed back to the kitchen. I knew her cleanup efforts were really a ploy to distract herself from her worry over Leah and Nahuel.

My phone chirped a text alert.

u r a MAJOR asshole. apology not accepted. grovel.

I chuckled and punched in my response.

will gladly grovel. miss u. come back baby.

can't. little busy.

That was weird. I tried to imagine what she could be in the middle of, given what was going on right now.

doing what?

chasing leah.

Fear slammed into my gut. I completely forgot the pain in my balls.

come back now!

can't. gone 2 far.

Where r u? i m coming.

due north for the past hour. leah 30 mins ahead

Fuck! They would be well across the border into unfamiliar territory by now. It was a miracle Ness still had a cell signal, and it probably wouldn't last much longer.

stop moving stay where ur phasing now

will stop when catch her. find us

Shit! I needed to phase in order to track Nessie and Leah. They were both freakishly fast and I was sure it would take me longer than an hour to reach wherever they were, even if they both stopped moving this minute. As soon as I phased, I wouldn't be able to communicate with Renesmee, but Leah might still be in range. Whether she'd listen to me was another matter entirely.

Charlie had been watching my frantic texting over the last few minutes, and when I slammed my phone down on the coffee table with a curse, he raised his eyebrows. "Problems?"

"Yeah," I replied, grabbing my phone back off the table. "Do me a favor? Call Paul and Seth. Sue's got their numbers. Tell them to phase and start following me."

My groin protested as I stood up and moved toward the door, pulling my T-shirt off over my head.

"Where are you going?" Charlie called after me.

"Ness went after Leah. They're moving north. From the sound of it, they're halfway to the Yukon by now."

Charlie's face blanched white behind his dark mustache. "Shit! Why would she do something that stupid?"

"You can ask her that when I bring her back."

I stepped out onto the front porch and finished shucking my clothes. I wadded them up and jammed them along with my cell phone into the drawstring bag I used to carry stuff as a wolf. Naked, I raced to the trees and phased.

SSW/SSW/SSW

I'd been hoping that I'd be able to make contact with Leah in wolf form. Hoping I'd be able to talk some sense into her. I'd even considered giving her an Alpha command to stay where she was. I'd never used "the voice" on her before, but I figured she deserved it now after her crotch-punching stunt and disobeying a direct order.

But when I phased and began running north, I couldn't hear her. Embry and Quil's minds were there, rumbling around, begging me to let them follow. But there wasn't even a hint of Leah's acidic mind voice.

My heart plummeted like an anvil pushed off a cliff in some stupid Saturday morning cartoon. Except there wasn't anything funny about the implications of why I couldn't hear Leah. There were only two explanations.

Either she had managed to run more than three hundred miles—the limit of the pack mind's range— or…she was dead. Since Nessie had seemed confident that she was on Leah's trail, I had to believe the former. I reminded myself again that Leah was fast. And highly motivated. It was entirely possible she'd gotten that far in less than two hours.

Quil's voice elbowed aside my internal monologue. Jake, we're ready man. We'll catch up with you. We won't slow you down.

No, I fired back. I need you to maintain your patrol around the rez and Forks. Charlie's trying to reach Paul and Seth.

I knew I could use their help, but I still dreaded bringing Bella and Edward into the situation. Still, they'd be even more pissed at me if they found out later that their daughter had been in jeopardy and I'd kept it from them. Plus, I was pretty sure Charlie would tell them if I didn't first. And if that meant two more sets of super-powered hands and senses in this rescue mission, all the better. I'd take my licks from my future in-laws when Ness was safely back in our arms.

I pounded through the forest, eating up acres of woodland in great, rolling strides. I didn't really need the connection to Leah to track her and Renesmee. My bond with my imprint would pull me toward her and Leah as surely as my beta was being drawn to her imprint. Nessie's scent also helped. I'd been living with that heavenly aroma in my head from the moment she was born; I could never mistake it and would never lose its trail.

I did lose track of time, though. It's the hardest thing about being a wolf. Animals have an internal clock that follows the sun and moon, but they don't really have a time sense like humans do. Neither did I, when I was in wolf form. I only had "now." What's in front of you, under your paws or tickling your nose is what's important. When Seth and Paul finally popped into my head, I wasn't sure how long I'd been running.

What the fuck, Paul? I blasted my anger through the pack mind and felt Paul's mental cringe. You left Nahuel alone against direct orders!

Paul's guilt would have been gratifying if I weren't so worried about Renesmee and Leah. I didn't want to, but he asked me to go, Jake!

So what? You couldn't say no? I wasn't letting go of this until Paul showed belly.

I tried to, but he wanted some privacy. Embarrassment overlaid his guilt. I figured he was planning to … uh … surprise Leah when she got home.

Leave it to Paul to read something sexual into the situation.

I don't care if he TOLD you he was going to hump her on the living room floor in front of you, your orders were to guard him until Leah got back.

Seth had been silent until now, but he couldn't let that mental image go by unchallenged. Guys, c'mon! You're talking about my sister!

Stow it, Seth, I shot back. You have no room to talk. You think it's not uncomfortable for everyone around you for you to have your tongue down Anjali's throat all the time?

Their stunned silence told me I'd gone too far.

Shit. I'm sorry guys.

Seemed like I was doing a lot of apologizing today. How was that fair when I was the one who'd gotten slugged in the crotch?

I'm stressed and worried and my balls hurt like a sonofabitch. How far are you behind me?

We got a little delayed while the Cullens decided who should go with us, Paul replied. Emmett and Jasper won the toss, but only because Bella and Edward were in Seattle. They'll follow us when they get back to Forks.

I'd been so busy ragging on Paul that I hadn't even thought to ask if they were bringing vampire reinforcements. I was intensely grateful they'd thought of it because I'd been in such a hurry to go after Renesmee that it hadn't even occurred to me. Christ, I'm as bad as Leah.

Paul interrupted my mental face-smacking. Don't beat yourself up, man. We get it. I'd have socked you in the nutsack, too, if you tried to keep me from going after Rach.

Thanks. I think. Look I don't know how far you guys are behind me, but we're probably going to lose contact for a while at some point.

Seth radiated worry. They've gone that far already?

Yeah. Actually, I'm pretty far off too. I haven't recognized any of this terrain for a while.

Renesmee's trail had been leading me due north, the direction she'd said she was taking to follow Leah. While Nessie's scent still hovered, potent and compelling, along the forest floor, my beta's was significantly fainter. Leah must be running flat out. Nahuel's scent and two strange ones that I assumed belonged to his kidnappers were barely detectable.

Look, guys, I really need to focus if I'm going to catch them. I'll try to keep in touch as long as possible, but at some point I'm going to lose you.

Man, we gotta get a service provider with better coverage, Paul joked.

I appreciated his effort to lighten the mood, but my head wasn't in a place for it. Instead, I pushed my pack brothers' thoughts to the back of my mind and concentrated on where I was going. I needed to pay attention to my location while also following Renesmee's pull.

I was well into British Columbia, and I knew there were some decent-sized towns before you got to the wilderness, where there was literally nothing but a lot of trees, snow and elk. But the trail didn't go near any human settlements. Whoever had taken Nahuel was the one who'd established the trail that Leah, then Ness, and now me, followed. It made sense that they were steering clear of humans, but I had to wonder where they were going.

The farther north I ran, the fainter Seth and Paul's thoughts became. By now, the scenery had taken on the look of winter, rather than the autumn we were having in Washington. Bare tree branches, already dipping low with the season's first snowfall, scraped lightly over my back as I ran.

I told myself the shivers running up my spine had nothing to do with the sense of isolation that was growing with every stride I took. It was the snow melting into my fur, and not the fact that I'd never felt truly alone since Renesmee was born, that had my stomach quivering. The thought of my imprint, apart from me, alone, made me run even faster.

When my connection with my pack brothers finally broke, I heard and felt the snap in my head. I knew the limit of our pack connection through my shared memories of Sam testing that limit years ago. But experiencing it first-hand was profoundly disturbing. I hadn't expected the silence to be so loud and unsettling. I focused on the sound of the wind whistling past my ears as I ran, trying to ignore the ringing quiet around me and in my head.

No matter how fast I ran, or how much I concentrated, I still felt desperation hazing my focus. I couldn't figure it out. I was worried, sure, but the feelings that were building inside me were almost … panicked. I realized they weren't my feelings when my connection to Leah flared to life and her confusion, chaos and terror blasted into my brain.

Leah's emotional turmoil was so potent, even at this distance, that I actually stumbled as I ran. One front paw caught on a gnarled tree root and I went tumbling head over tail across the frosty ground. I paused where I landed, trying to force my beta's panic into a manageable compartment in my brain.

Leah, stop!

I started running again.

Brief flashes of shame, regret and guilt edged out her obsessive fear. Then her mind went off in a different direction as she wondered how she should interpret my command—as an order to stop running, or a demand that she get ahold of her emotions. Two seconds later she was thinking about how silky and perfect Nahuel's hair felt when she ran her fingers through it.

She was totally off the deep end.

Stop running. Calm down.

This time, when it was clear she wouldn't obey me, I didn't hesitate. I Alpha'd her ass.

STOP. RUNNING. NOW.

Her shock and frustration echoed loudly in my head, but I didn't feel guilty at all.

Years ago, when I'd defied Sam and vowed I'd never take someone's will from them as he'd tried to take mine, I'd been nothing more than an ignorant pup. Oh, I'd been right to challenge Sam, because he'd been wrong. His error would have made our pack the worst kind of murderers. But I'd had no clue then that there would be times when my responsibility as an Alpha would mean taking on the burden of decision-making for a pack mate who was in no shape to decide for herself. Leah was putting me in that place, right now.

I felt her grind to a halt. Saw in my head the forest whirling around her as she turned in tight circles, helpless to resist my Alpha command. She wasn't running, but she still wasn't coherent either, and I needed her to get her shit together.

I mentally slapped her again. Be still. Calm down.

Her angry whine crawled along the connection, and I could feel her struggling to organize her thoughts enough to protest.

Let me go! I've found him!

Show me, I commanded.

She flooded my mind with bedlam, layers of impressions, sights, scents, sounds. And overlaying all of it … fear. Desperation.

Those feelings were obscuring the facts. Ruthlessly, I began poking around in her head, sifting through the mess, looking for real information about her current location and situation. When I found what I needed, I pushed her tangle of emotion beneath the surface of the pack consciousness, forcing her to separate from it.

It wasn't easy and I wasn't gentle about it. Leah let me know in no uncertain terms that she felt invaded while I did it.

You shit, she seethed at me.

'Scuse me, Miss Crotch-puncher.

Guilt flared again, strong enough this time to pull her thoughts into more coherent focus.

I'm sorry. Really sorry. But I had to do it. You weren't going to let me go.

Damn right. And this is why. You're alone in the middle of nowhere with no help. You've found Nahuel and you have no way to rescue him alone. Plus, Ness is out here, too, because she followed you when I couldn't.

With the worst of her hysteria under my mental lockdown, Leah was able to turn her attention to something she'd been ignoring for hours—the scent and sound of Renesmee approaching.

Shit, she's almost here and I had no idea she was behind me. Why the hell did she follow me?

I'd been asking myself the same question as I ran. I knew my pissy treatment of Nessie was partly to blame, but I just couldn't believe a lover's spat would be enough to inspire her to run into danger this way. We were going to have a long, detailed conversation as soon as I caught up with her and Leah.

Through Leah's eyes, I saw Renesmee appear through the dense forest of bare branches and the occasional evergreen. Her eyes were trained on Leah as she approached. She never paused as she strode right up to Leah, cocked her little fist back and belted my immobilized beta right across her wolfy jaw.

Leah reeled in shock and pain, but thanks to my Alpha command she couldn't even stagger backward, let alone take a snap at Nessie. She snarled a low growl in her throat but kept her position on the ground, glaring up at my imprint.

Renesmee's beautiful chocolate eyes were hard with fury. "That is for what you did to Jake," she declared. "I still owe you one more for leading me on this wild goose chase."

She stepped back from Leah and dropped down to sit on the snow-dusted ground. "I take it, since you're not still running and not going for my throat right now, that Jake's in range."

Guess I deserved that. Leah's thoughts sizzled with resentment, but underneath was grudging respect. Impatience and fear were starting to claw their way over the wall of calm I'd forced on her, and Leah could barely spare a moment to give Renesmee a low, affirmative huff.

"Well, while you were sitting here having your mental toe-to-toe with Jake, I scouted the area," Ness said, knowing that I'd be able to hear her through my link to Leah. She gestured to a high ridge of trees behind Leah's shoulder. "I'm sure you already know that Nahuel is somewhere just over that ridge. I spotted a structure. Looks like it might be an abandoned camp of some kind. Nahuel's trail leads there. There were at least two others, one full vampire, one hybrid, with him on the trail here, but I can't be sure who's in there now."

If you want to phase to tell her I'm not far, that would be fine.

Yeah, I don't think so, chief. If I'm stuck sitting here, wasting time until you get here, fucked if I'm going to do it without fur to keep my ass dry.

I couldn't help my mental chuckle. Leah didn't see the humor, though.

Laugh it up, asshole. God only knows what's happening to Nahuel while we sit here waiting for you.

That thought pushed her panic back up over the calm wall. In my mind's eye, I saw that wall begin to bulge in the middle, like a dam trying to hold back flood waters. Unbelievably, Leah stood up and began to pace back and forth at the base of the rise. A chill crept up my spine. She shouldn't be able to move at all.

Sit your ass back down, I ordered.

She ignored me completely, now turning her attention inward to explore that bright band of energy that tied her to her imprint. I knew everything there was to know about that band; I'd lived with my own version of it for six years.

When all was well with your imprint, that cable was a glowing, warm ribbon of comfort and affection, and it pulsed with a white light more pure than a nun's dreams. Through Leah's awareness, I could see that her tether to Nahuel was streaked with crimson, and instead of comfort, it radiated pain, fear and desolation.

There was only one way to interpret those signs, and we both knew it: Nahuel was in trouble. Big trouble. And he was on the verge of giving up.

That thought leaked out of my mind and whipped through our pack link before I could squelch it. And it was like someone had gouged Leah in the ass with a red-hot poker. She was over the ridge and racing toward Nahuel's scent in an instant.

No! I roared at her, throwing every ounce of Alpha authority I had into my command. I order you to stop where you are.

Leah paused for only an instant. I'm sorry, Jake. I have no choice.

Then Leah did the impossible. She defied my command and kept running.

And she snapped our connection like a dry, dead twig.

End note: I'll be posting another outtake soon, so if you don't want to miss it, you might want to put me on author alert. What scenes would you like to see from Nahuel's POV? Other than the lemons, of course. Let me know and I'll work your ideas into future outtakes.