I am sorry for the huuuge delay but I have a good explanation. To make a long story short... I got hit by a car! I am alright now, my worst injury being my left arm that required surgery to put my bone together again. I have had a lot of rest and exercises and am now back on the horse... walking , talking and of course writing :D .

I don't own any character in this story, they are all Stephenie Meyer's.

Enjoy.

CHAPTER 5: Enchanted?… Give me a break! Freaking CURSED!

I wake up in the middle of the night and in the middle of nothing. Everything is blurry but only for a few seconds. Then I can see.I can see everything. Although moonlight is virtually none due to the thick trees and therefore I shouldn't be able to make out my own hands in the darkness, I can see as clear as if in daylight. What am I talking about? A couple hundred times better, I think.

I look at my naked body, conscious for once that I am comfortable when I should be frozen.

I sit there for the thirty seconds it took me to understand, or at the very least try to understand, what had happened to me last night – If it had been yesterday the day I changed or a week ago. I couldn't ascertain time.

It had been just like my dream, only this time I am one hundred per cent sure that I am awake. The images in my head, the feelings… are not the memory of a dream, but an actual memory. As much as I want to deny it, to forget all about, I can't. How can I deny the changes if I am looking at them right now? My body has stretched and my limbs are not slim and plain but long and delicately muscled. My stomach is no longer just plain, now it is hard, too. And I could swear that my breasts are larger, but that will have to wait until I try to fit into my clothes – that I remember are, by the way, waiting to be put in the washing machine.

It is impossible, as simple as that, to even try to leave it behind. I can't do that, not when I can hear all the creatures and the wind and each individual freaking leave in the forest. Not when I can smell individual scents and their different mixtures. One of those being the even moister smell of mud when mixed with tears that comes from my messy, dirty hair.

I changed, undoubtedly. What I changed into… I have no clue.

All of that realised in only 30 seconds.

I am up now, following the rumble of a river. Thinking that it will eventually hit the ocean and then, I'll be at running distance from La Push. But do I really want to go back? I am a freak, Sam's getting married in a matter of - jeez, I don't know the date! -, Seth doesn't talk to me. I don't know what it was with him, anyway. Physical changes, obviously. The kid was growing right before my eyes. My mum, she just wasn't there. Do I really have a place to go back to? A family? Nope. I'm toasted.

At least I have to go back to do the laundry and take some clothes with me. I can't be wandering around the state naked.

I hit the river a couple of hours later and take a swim. It was more a bath than any other thing. My own scent was killing me. Well, not my scent itself, but its newest acquisition: tears, mud and rain. I am enjoying the warm feeling of the water ant dawn when I hear a different rumble. A rumble made by several pairs of powerful paws against rocks and mud. The gigantic wolves.

I hold my breath and hide hoping that being covered by the water blanket will help to disguise my scent and heartbeat, and keep me safe from those beasts. A whole minute passes and … no more sound is heard. I raise my head out and in front of me stand five massive figures. Sam's gang. All of them painfully looking like him. They are all wearing nothing but sweatpants and they all stand with the same business-like posture. Their arms crossed over their chests.

I get to my feet still inside the river, which covers my body up to my waist. I'm covering my chest with my arms – hoping I am succeeding at it. T hey try to look away – some try harder than others. I recongnise Jacob Black, by far, the biggest among them. He has two pieces of fabric in his right hand. He approaches me with his arm extended. I don't mimic his motion, so he drops the clothes by the river. Slowly and rather awkwardly he steps back to his position and at once, all of them turn around. Obviously, they're giving me some space to get dressed.

As I come out of the water I bend to pick up the clothes. I put on the pair of shorts and immediately the way-too-over-sized shirt. I pick up the scent in the second one… Sam's.

I clear me throat and the five boys turn around. The younger-looking at the back – the ones who didn't try really hard not to look- have their eyes in my forehead, clearly trying hard now.

Jacob nods at me and says "Now follow us." To what I answer clenching my teeth. They turn their backs to me again and disappear into the trees. I blink twice and follow them.

"No!" I yell at my mother. "Those are stories that can't be. That…"

"Leah, you know it's true,"

"Are all of you out of your minds?"

"Believe, Leah. We… I wouldn't lie to you" Sam whispers from behind. I don't turn around as I don't think that I can meet his eyes for the shortest second.

"This is insane, I can't be…"

"Do you remember? The stories you were told when you were kids. Every kid in the reservation…"

"I get that! Jeez, mum! But …"

"The descendents of the Quileute warriors who could transform still carry the gene and, therefore, it is in them to transform" Billy Black says as everybody shuts up. All eyes are on me, obviously waiting for an answer. A whole minute passes and not a breath is heard.

Finally I manage to say between my teeth "But I am a woman" This did it. Judging by the look on all the elders' faces and their newest member, my mother, I can see that this is a detail they have thought about and that does take them all by surprise.

How ironic. Even in the middle of a freak show I manage to be the freakiest freak.

Nobody dares to put forward any argument. The boys look down and the elders clench their teeth. My mother is the only one still looking at me. I realise tears are being born in the corner of my eyes and rush to sweep them with my arm. "I'm leaving now. I don't want to hear more of this nonsense ever again." I say getting to my feet.

Nobody says anything as I pass by them on my way out. I get to the door and the deep, husky voice of Jacob stops me.

"You were missing ten days," He says. I turn around and quickly search for him among the audience. When my eyes find him he looks up.

"You spent nine days in your wolf form and I bet you don't even know how to phase to that form" a small smile forming in his mouth. "I bet you don't even know how you became human again."

"What do you care, kid?"

"You are right. You are not cut out to be what we are. You are no warrior, are you?"

"You know nothing about me!" I yell at him as I start seething with rage.

"It's OK princess, there's no need to feel ashamed. We get you are too scared to face the truth."

"You. Know. Nothing." I manage to get out of my mouth through my teeth.

"Leave, Leah, and you are no part of this pack either. We are family. Our job is to support each other and you don't seem to understand that, or respect that for that matter. Leave." Something is off here. His words are supposed to be meant to hurt me. They are. It is just that this anger doesn't meet his eyes. His eyes say You need time to get used to the idea. You need time alone. I know. I understand.

Two heartbeats later he understands what I am seeing in his eyes and changes the expression. With certain nervousness and pity – God, I hate freaking pity! – he finally says. "Leave, weak woman."

That does it. I feel the explosion of heat once more and my body ripping into a bigger one. In the same second I am being pushed outside and before I touch the floor I am all wolf. There's the big russet wolf in front of me but his eyes are again full of understanding. I pull my lips back and feel my enormous sharp teeth letting escape a growl.

I turn around and leave. Being capable of hearing everything and at the same time feel so comfortably alone is good. I now know, at least, how to phase into wolf form: getting mad. What I have no clue of how to do it is phase back to human, as Jacob has said – weird dude that one.

If it has to do with anger then I guess I just have to calm down… but be really Eden-like, I-just-took-my-yoga-lesson peaceful. That is not going to be easy.

And now reasoning strikes me and … How on hell did I become a werewolf? According to the legends – Ok, so now I have to start calling them history – only men have ever been able to transform. According to them, and as far as anyone knew, I was the only she-wolf in the world and in the history of, well, forever. This fact creeps me out. Does that mean I am not 100% woman? Is there something strongly boyish in my genes? Am I some kind of hybrid or something like that? How is it that I get to be a werewolf? At this pace I am years away from calming down. Come on, Leah. Go to your happy place I think. After that it occurs to me to actually go to that happy place. I easily locate myself and head east from where I am.

It takes me little time to get there. One of the advantages of being a supernatural disgusting animal is that I can run faster than pretty much anything. I am at the river now, the river by the clearing where my dad used to take us camping. The cottage is there and the trunk we used as a table outside is still there.

I am still thinking about the many messed-up details of my existence when I get in the water and start making my way to the lake, my dad's lake.

I am glad as I start seeing the trees with brighter and brighter colours. That means I am close. I am caught by surprise by the smells and sounds and the perfect view. With these eyes… everything is much beautiful and detailed. It's like perfection has melted right here in this little lake.

I move slowly and cautiously so that I don't scare the butterflies. As I reach their nest the unease in my body begins to fade leaving behind it only numbness.

After the magnificent show is over I find myself human again. I've done it! It might not have been relaxation but happiness that worked on me. Whichever… take that Jacob! I am human again.

Alright,then. I am a freaky monster.I get mad and burst into an over-sized wolf. I calm down and go back to being Leah, – well, naked Leah – human. Damn it I just wish this curse had come with a manual or something.

Actually, if it was wishing matter… I'd wish I wasn't cursed at all.

I really hope I haven't lost my skills. I won't know for sure until you REVIEW :D

Once again, I apologise for taking so long.I hope my abscence hasn't discouraged you from reading my story- that is , btw, about to end.

Don't miss the final chapter and please comment on this one.I am always happy to receive suggestions and criticism, too.