Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer. She messed up the story when she made Jake imprint on Nessie. Fortunately for us there's always the world of fanfictions.

Author/Note: This is a Leah/Jacob story with all the normal pairings and the events in Breaking Dawn never happened, because just like my cousin said, Breaking Dawn shouldn't even be considered a book.

Translation to English of O Nosso Amanhecer 2. This version was subjected to a few changes from the original in Portuguese.

This translation was a request by FantasyLover74.

I'm not a native English speaker so I'm sorry for my grammar and spelling. Thank you for reading and thanks the people who reviewed, FantasyLover74, She-Wolf Heiress, brankel1, Chick, Piper9004, Jo Harv, JacobLeah, CallyGreen, Mariaxxx, RobertForLife, Darkmaster of the arts, BenitaxoxoCastiel, mehr03, AllieBlack16, ItsCuzOfTheFame, brezzybrez, teamtorettosupporter, running with wolves, Blackwater Crazziii, DressageQueen14, Krizglass, akira m, bvc17.

Alert: the characters in this story curse a lot.

Our Dawn

Part II

Leah Clearwater

19. Goodbyes

Jacob spoke to the Council about our plans for the next weeks. We had trained enough and it was time to rest and prepare ourselves mentally for what was about to happen. They all agreed and seemed quite happy with Jacob's new attitudes. He was finally being responsible.

The Cullens still wanted to have a couple of meetings with us. They wanted to describe the Volturi Guard and warn us about the way we should act once they arrived.

In the meantime we could all feel the stress and anxiety building up inside. There was a part of me that was sick and tired to wait and wanted to get over with this. The other part was shitless scared that we all died in battle.

I realised that I wasn't afraid of dying. I just didn't want to die and I didn't want to see my pack killed. Even the Cullens didn't deserve that fate. Compared with the Volturi, the Cullens were a decent family. I was sorry for the animals they had to kill to feed but at least they weren't murderers.

I was worried about Seth and the pups. I was even shocked to know that I was worried about Quil and Embry, dumb and dumber. I was worried about Jared, Brady, Collin and even Paul and Sam. Well maybe I wasn't that worried about Sam…but I certainly didn't want the Volturi to kill him.

And yes…I was worried about Jacob. He had this terrible habit of playing the hero and he sure wasn't afraid of sacrificing himself for his friends, including the Cullens. My train of thought was interrupted by a phone call. Jacob was calling me to meet him at his place.

I was a bit preoccupied when I realised Sam was also there. Rachel was out taking care of Paul and Jacob told us that Billy was fishing with Charlie. I had no idea what Jacob could possibly want from us, but he explained everything soon enough.

"I've been thinking about the battle and the Volturi. The last time we left two wolves behind to protect La Push but this time we can't afford to do the same." He started.

Sam nodded in agreement.

"So…the thing is…I have faith in our pack and the Cullens are also very strong, but I don't trust our reinforcements and the Volturi have those twins who can easily wipe out an army."

"You're saying that they are going to win and kill us." Sam said.

"No, I'm saying they have more probabilities of winning. Paul was right about something…The Cullens don't have offensive powers and we're clearly outnumbered. Our so called reinforcements are merely witnesses. Aside from Peter and Charlotte, and maybe the Romanians, no one else seems interested in a fight against the Italians."

"Do you have a magical plan to solve the problem?" I asked.

"No. Things are just the way they are. We can all die fighting and if that's the case I want to be sure that not all the Quileutes are killed."

Sam and I looked at Jacob with surprise.

"How?" Sam asked.

"We can save some people by lying to them and convince them to travel. I know it's selfish because we can't warn everyone that an army of vampires is coming here, but…if we die the Volturi will kill everyone in La Push and Forks."

"How do you plan on doing that? People will notice…" I said.

"I want to ask permission to the Council to save our families but I need your support…Think about it."

We thought about it for a few minutes. We knew why Jacob was doing this. I would feel much better knowing that my mother and Charlie were safe when the Volturi arrived. Jacob was right about not trusting the reinforcements because they weren't even vegetarian like the Cullens. If something went wrong they would surely attack innocent people just to feed.

It was selfish to think only about our families' safety but at least we would know that some of them would live.

"I'll back you up." I said. Jacob sighed in relief.

"What about you, Sam? Don't you want to save Emily?" Jacob asked.

"Yes, I do. You're right…it's selfish but I can't refuse."

When later that night we spoke to all the Council members we were ready to beg if we had to but Old Quil accepted Jacob's idea. The pack members were allowed to tell the truth to their respective families only on last resort, some of them only needed a convincing lie.

But in the end the plan backfired on a few of us such as Jacob, me and Quil because the Council members didn't want to leave. They refused to abandon us even after Quil's family threatened to drag Old Quil away from his house.

He did not budge. Billy and my mother followed Old Quil's example. Seth and I tried everything to make our mother understand that she was in danger and that at least one of the Council members should leave La Push, but she just ignored us.

Embry had a few problems convincing his mother to go to the Makah Reservation for a while but in the end Sam helped him and together they managed to make her leave. Of course they never told her the truth.

Little Claire cried, yelled and kicked everyone before her parents were forced to take her away from Quil and close her up in the car so they could leave too. Kim and Emily wished us good luck and had their teary goodbyes with Jared and Sam.

Rachel and Paul's farewell was a bit intense but this time Jacob managed to stay calm. For the first time Jacob and Paul worked together to convince Rachel to go visit her sister Rebecca in Hawaii. Jacob had to use the money he had won with the bets to buy the plane's tickets for her. He offered to pay Billy a ticket too but he refused.

And then, three days later Bella came over to my place to give the good news.

"Sue is going to Jacksonville with Charlie to visit Renée and Phil." She announced when Seth opened the door after dinner.

"What? How did you manage to convince her?" My brother asked.

"Persuasion…and a bit of Jasper's powers…" She admitted. "Your mother is a piece of work. I'm actually glad for Charlie though…I think he needed someone like Sue in his life."

"That's great. Did you hear that Leah? Mum will be safe."

"Yeah. I heard that." I was happy and thankful to Bella for doing this for my mother but I didn't want to say it out loud.

"When are they leaving?" Seth asked.

"In two days. I tried to convince Billy to go too but…"

"He's too stubborn." I said.

"Yes. I really wish he would be safe too."

"Billy won't let Jacob's side for anything in the world. He's his father…"

Bella nodded and before leaving she told us we had a meeting the next day with the Cullens.

xxxxxxxxxx

We waited in the same clearing we had fought against the newborns. Edward and Jasper went to get four leeches, I mean, four of our reinforcements to the border. Jacob had given permission for them to come and join our last training session.

It was important for them to know where our meeting with the Volturi would happen. In order to make things work smoothly we didn't take our wolves forms yet. They arrived ten minutes later.

"Peter, Maggie, Randall and Garrett are here to know about our plans and nothing else." Edward said when Jacob growled towards Garrett.

"Fine." He said. "Let's just start this crap."

Jacob's impatience seemed to amuse Garrett but fortunately he remained quiet.

"Listen up…Alice had another vision last night. She knows more details now." Jasper announced. "We will take them here because you all know this part of the forest. Aro will be up to talk to us first and that's going to be Carlisle and Edward's mission."

It made sense. The Cullens told us Carlisle was their friend and they respected him. As for Edward he was quite good with words and would be able to read Aro's thoughts.

"Because you're directly involved in this matter, Alice can't see the outcome of the battle. Actually she doesn't even know if we'll be force to fight." Edward said. "She does know that Aro will place the Volturi Guard on front which means…"

"They'll be ready to attack at any time." Jasper finished.

"Our witnesses will be a couple of miles away. With so many wolves around we're sure they won't be detected." Edward informed. "Since we're outnumbered, Jasper came up with a battle plan."

We spent the next hour listening and studying to Jasper's plan. Every single one of us had a different area to cover but the younger ones weren't allowed to fight a vampire on their own. Bella was the only one who could actually escape Jane and Alec but she would never be able to take them down, so the plan was to attack the Volturi soldiers who didn't have powers to equal the numbers in the battle field. The ones in charge of this were Jasper, Alice, Edward and Bella because Aro didn't want them killed.

I could see the flaws in Jasper's plans and probably he knew it too but there was nothing we could do about it. No one knew for sure how many of us Jane and Alec could take down at once.

"Don't forget your positions." Jasper said. "They will focus on the weakest ones first."

We trained for a few minutes. Jacob and Sam were probably our best fighters. They managed to equal Emmett's strength. Alice was too fast to catch but I could match her and Seth also managed to take down Rosalie a couple of times. Embry and Quil fought Carlisle and Esme and weren't so bad either. Jasper and Edward took care of the younger ones.

Peter, Randall, Maggie and Garrett were surprised with our performance and our wolves forms. They had never seen shape-shifters before.

"I guess it's over for today." Edward announced and we all went to forest to phase back and we joined them again shortly after.

"That was quite nice to watch." Garrett said.

"I found it barbarian." Maggie said. "It's like watching wrestling…"

I laughed. That was a weird vampire. She killed people to feed and didn't like to watch a fight?

"You are nothing like the real werewolves." Randall confessed. "They were just uncivilized beasts. You are actually pretty cool."

"I think I'll fight with you too against the Volturi." Garrett said winking at me.

Jacob snarled.

"If you don't have a special power we don't need you." I told him winking back.

"I do have one…But since I'm really shy I can only show it to you. If you ditch your friends…I could show you my awesome power tonight."

A lot of growls echoed immediately and I couldn't stop myself from thinking that Garrett was clearly suicidal.

The leech gave two steps forward and we were almost touching. His smell was absolutely hideous but I wasn't going to step back because that could be misunderstood with fear and I wasn't scared of him.

"Don't you fucking dare to touch her." A deep voice roared.

I never thought my brother would sound so damn scary.

"Seth it's ok…" I said turning my face to make him calm down.

"I didn't say anything." Seth stated.

I looked in the other way and saw Jacob trying not to phase. Garrett finally understood what was happening and took a step back.

"Jasper can you calm down the mutt?" Rosalie asked.

"Don't mess with my fucking emotions!" Jacob warned. "I'm sick and tired to listen to this asshole…Just get the fuck away from Leah, alright?"

"Look here…dog…If you want her take her, if you don't just go hump a damn tree and let someone else have some fun!"

"Just go and have some fun with your own kind! If you step out of the line again, if I see you looking at her, I'm going to rip your head off!"

"I'm not scared of you, wolfy. You're not even man enough to take her."

"Jacob, stop!" I said putting myself between them. Jacob and Garrett ignored me and then Jacob held my waist and pulled me so I would stay behind him. Embry, Seth, Sam and Brady flanked him but I didn't know if they were there to help Jacob or to hold him down.

"I think she needs an experienced man over a damn puppy." Garrett spat.

That was it. The damn leech was dead meat. Not even Jasper could control Jacob now. I couldn't believe that he was attacking Garrett because of his stupid comments about me. But the truth was that I was happy that Jacob was standing up for me; he was trying to protect me almost in a romantic way. But then again I knew I shouldn't put my hopes up. Jacob only saw me as a sister and nothing else.

Sam, Embry, Seth and Brady had to literally drag Jacob and take him away into the forest. The others apologised but they, too, glared at Garrett. Then we all followed them.

"There's something you need to know about my family, Garrett." I heard Bella saying. "They're unpredictable…So be careful or you can get hurt."

Even though it was conceited of her to think the pack was also her family, for once Isabella Cullen was right.

Sam and the others let Jacob go when they realised we were far enough and it was safe.

"You do realise the leech was just pissing you off, right?" Sam questioned.

"Well he did a fine job then!" Jacob yelled.

"He was just playing around." I said joining them.

If Jacob and I were alone I would probably ask him what the hell his problem was, but I had to be extra careful around the pack.

"He's a vampire, there's no way he's actually interested in Leah." Sam insisted.

"I don't know…he sounded quite interested." Embry opposed.

"See?" Jacob crossed his arms. "And you…stop flirting with the damn leech!" he turned to me.

"Seriously?" I asked. Who the hell did he think he was?

"Yes, you're distracting us. We can't be worried about a leech hitting on you all the fucking time. We're going to fight the Volturi soon."

"I don't need protection, you idiot. I can take care of myself plus I can flirt with whoever I want and it's none of your business!"

Here I was thinking that maybe he was feeling jealous or worried about me and then I realise he was just pissed off because I was distracting everyone from our real purpose.

"So you like bloodsuckers now?" Jacob questioned.

"I guess I'm not the only one, am I?" That shut him up.

"Leah, I think Jake is right. Just ignore Garrett and let us take care of him, alright?" Seth suggested.

"Yeah…we can do that. We have to watch out for our pack brothers…I mean sister." Brady said.

Everyone agreed. How damn sweet, now all of my brothers wanted to be my knight-in-the-shinning-armour just because a leech actually noticed I was a real girl and not just a tomboy.

"We're the only ones who can call you sexy and hot." Embry pointed out with a smirk and I glared at him.

"What the fuck, Embry…you're talking about my sister." Seth complained.

"Shut up!" Sam ordered. "Let's just calm down."

"You stay away from him." Jacob told me. "And if any of you see one tiny bit of hair of that stinky leech on our lands, call me. I'm going to love to tear him apart limb by limb."

"You weren't this worried when I asked you to save me from that Gladis tramp during Sam's wedding." Quil whined.

"You mean Glaydin…my cousin Glaydin?" Jared asked.

"Whatever, it's not fault she's a tramp."

"Shut the fuck up Quil and let's go home." Jacob said. We all left.

I actually stayed behind because I was kind of angry with what was going on. I was surrounded by fucking idiots and wannabe heroes.

"Leah?" Jacob asked slowing his pace to walk to me.

"What do you want now?" I asked aggressively.

"During the battle…please wear some jeans, alright?" He then left running. What the hell? Did he just comment on my clothes? What was wrong with a top and shorts? Seriously Jacob was driving me insane.

I was too shocked with those words to react but right now I wished I wasn't in love with him because honestly that was the only motive I hadn't killed him yet.

xxxxxxxxxx

I never thought I would see my mother cry again. I thought she had run out of tears the day my father died. I guess I was wrong. Seth, Bella, Edward and I were at Charlie's house saying goodbye.

"I don't understand...How could I agreed with this? I don't want to go…"

"Mum…" Seth whined. "Please just put your bag in the car…Charlie's waiting."

"But I don't want to leave my babies."

"We're going to be fine." I said trying to convince her.

"Don't worry Sue…we'll protect them." Edward assured.

I bit my lip to avoid telling the mind rapist one of the many places he could shove up his protection.

My mother hugged Seth again and then she kissed me in the cheeks and told us she loved us and she would never forgive herself if something bad happened to us. After that she started crying again.

"Take good care of each other, alright?" She waved approaching the car.

"Sure." Seth and I said at the same time.

"Sue…can you please give this to my mother?" Bella asked giving her a pink envelope.

"Of course. I'm sure she misses you very much."

"Thanks." Bella said but she wasn't convinced. Renée was still having cold feet about Bella's…condition.

When they finally left it was really hard to think that it could be the last time we were seeing our mother. After so many bad things that had happened to us, my mother didn't deserve to be alone.

"She's not alone." Edward said reading my mind.

"I know…I meant…"

"But you're right." He confessed. "Loving a child is different…and Sue really loves you and your brother dearly and she's really proud of you."

"I told you Leah. Mum loves us even if we're freaks." Seth said.

"She would love you even if you had three heads and two asses." Bella stated.

I couldn't stop a laugh and then all of them started laughing too. It was a weird moment but a comforting one at the same time. For the first time I saw Bella not as the stupid and ungrateful leech that she had become but as the plain old Bella Swan.

"We're going home. Do you need a ride?" Edward asked.

"No. Seth and I have plans." I said.

There was one thing that my brother and I wanted to do alone. We left Charlie's place and went back to La Push but we didn't go home. We went to visit our father's grave.

"Did we kill dad, Leah?"

That question made my heart ache. No one had accused us from provoking dad's heart attack but we didn't know for sure. Not knowing was as painful as being responsible for his death because the sense of guilt was always there. It never left me since he was buried and I couldn't deal with it.

"I don't know. But I believe he knows that we still love him." I said softly and I held my brother's hand.

"I wish we could go back in time."

"Me too…"

We cried silently. Seth had grown up to be so much like our father. I was so proud of him. Everyone told us we didn't look like brother and sister. Seth was calm and easy going, while I was bitter, mean and rude. We were definitely different but we were the children of Harry and Sue Clearwater.

"Seth…If we fight the Volturi and something happens to me…I want you to know that you're the only good thing in my life. I'm proud to be your sister."

Seth looked at me amazed and shocked.

"Nothing is going to happen to you. I won't let it happen." He said firmly.

"Will you protect me?" I asked amused.

"Always. You protected me from Irina once…"

"And you protected me from Jacob the day he attacked Paul." I cut him off.

"So that means we're even?"

"No way, Seth. I don't think you get it…"

"What?"

"You're one of the reasons why I'm still here. You've been everything to me…I will never be able to repay you for what you did."

My brother smiled and hugged me tightly.

"Jake is right…You're becoming soft."

I smiled too.

xxxxxxxxxx

It was so hard to fall asleep. I didn't like to close my eyes because images of the upcoming battle were always playing on my mind. I kept dreaming about it. Sometimes it was just a brief dream where I could see an entire army marching through our forest to kill us all. Other times, I was alone in the forest crying over my pack brother's bodies.

I could clearly see Seth, Brady, Denis and Embry's bodies bleeding out. Usually the dream ended with me watching Jacob's head flying over to my feet. I didn't tell anyone about those nightmares but I probably wasn't the only one having them.

But that wasn't the only thing bothering me. I had no idea why my life was so damn complicated. I mean I was fine until a couple of months ago. Except for the fact that I could morph into a giant wolf, my pack brother's called me a bitter bitch, I was barren and my ex-boyfriend was marrying my cousin, my life was quite simple. But then my heart decided to play a stupid trick on me.

People say that it's easy to fall in love. Maybe it is too damn easy. I thought I would love Sam forever, even after his wedding. But now…everything was different and complicated.

I could rememberperfectly the day I had fallen in love with Sam. I liked him before but I only noticed I loved him when he invited me to go to the School's Winter Festival with him. We started dating a few weeks later without my parents' knowledge. For some reason now I could remember those times without feeling hurt. I guess I was finally accepting the fact that Sam belonged to the past.

The problem was the future. My relationship with him and my cousin would never be the same but I wasn't so angry all the time. I started to think about a new start, a new life and for some twisted reason I started to develop strong feelings for Jacob Black.

Jacob was present all my life. I had seen him growing up. I used to play with him and Seth when we were kids. But he was all grown up now. He was even someone I had learned to respect and follow as a leader.

Jacob had this charisma that made people follow him no matter what. After being comforted by him I started to look at him differently. That was probably a mistake. I was alone and I wanted some company, a friend perhaps. I had lost my boyfriend and my cousin at the same time. I needed someone and he was there.

I guess I was just too vulnerable and I didn't even realise what was happening. I had fallen for Jacob all of a sudden and I didn't know if I could actually love someone like that again. It was obvious that I was in love with him, but could I take it? Could I actually go through the same pain again?

First Jacob didn't love me. He had no reasons to love me whatsoever. I was simply a friend and a beta. He sure cared about me or at least he seemed to care. He had helped me to deal with Sam and Emily, with the pack, with my mother's wedding, with me becoming Bella's stepsister…he even tried to protect me from Garrett. Not to mention the time he saved me from a newborn that ended up crushing several of his bones.

Second he would never stop loving Bella. Even if he didn't love Bella Cullen, Jacob still loved Bella Swan.

Third he would imprint one day. He had to imprint so his genes would be transmitted to the next generation. I knew Jacob Black was strong and stubborn but he would never be able to resist the imprint pull. I had seen it in Quil, Paul, Sam and Jared's minds. It was impossible.

So yes, I was in love with him. I liked everything about him and not even his young age and asshole's actions would stop me from feeling that way. But I had to fight against it or I would end up severely hurt again. This time I wasn't afraid that my heart would break again, this time I would certainly die with the pain.