DISClaimer: I'm not Stephenie Meyer. I make no profit from this.

Hope you enjoy this.

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"Hang your coat?" He nodded mutely and I gripped his wrist without thinking. He looked down at my hand but didn't pull away. "Come with me."

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Seth's POV

"Why did you bring him here?" I hissed at Max as he left, following my sister with wide eyes and a small half-smile. "Come on, you can tell me-" I smiled at her, offered her my hand to hold. She batted me away and looked up at me, her eyes wide and furious.

"Oh, shut up." She spat angrily, I looked at her, she still looked like she was about to cry. "I…" She folded her arms and looked at me, furious. "Just shut up, Seth." She growled at me, and then looked over at the doorway.

Evan was standing there, staring at her, wide-eyed and nervous. She looked at him and he smiled slightly. She offered him a gentle smile back.

"Well?" I said to Max, loud enough for him to hear me, "Aren't you going to introduce me?" She looked at me, her eyes widening, horrified as I repeated the question.

"O-of course…" She blushed and looked over at Evan.

"I'm Evan. Evan Jackson." He held out his hand to me and waited. "I assume you're Seth?" His jaw seemed to be set in a bland smile, but I could see the muscle twitching in his face, I knew from his expression he was gritting his teeth, trying to keep from hitting me again. He half smiled at my reluctance. "I can see why you wouldn't want to shake my hand." He paused, "Sorry. I suppose I don't belong here, but… hey, what the lady wants, she gets, as far as I'm concerned."

I took a deep breath and held out my hand, enveloped his fingers in mine, and looked into his face. His fingers were cool to the touch, his eyes were a bright shade of green, swimming with confusion and despair, loss and hurt. I didn't know what to say to him. He looked at me for a long moment and I released his hand.

"Listen, I'm sorry, for earlier." He murmured suddenly, shoving his hands deep into his pockets, almost furiously, his eyes skirting down to the floor like a beaten child.

"What?" I had to be sure I was hearing right. "Did you just say-"

"I'm not normally… I thought Mac loved me." He whispered, looking up at me, and me alone. His voice seemed to change as he stumbled over the words, "I thought she was the person I'd come to… the person I had come here to see." he looked at me and then over at Max. "Turns out she wasn't the person I found here." There was a long moment of silence and he kept staring at Mackenzie.

She had tears dripping down her cheeks.

"Don't, Mac." He muttered, "I'm obviously not worth crying over."

He took three steps away from her, walked towards the doorway, and stopped, his hand on the frame. I curled my hand around Max's wrist to stop her going after him, because that wasn't her job any more. He shook his head and started to walk again.

"Where are you going?" She half shrieked, half begged, trying to pull out of my grip, stumbling as she tried to get to him. "Evan, you don't understan-" There was a slam, cutting her sentence off, as he walked out of the door. Leah appeared in the hallway, looking terrified and startled, staring back at us.

"What just happened here?" She muttered, looking at the tears on Max's cheeks and the hands I had curled into fists. "Did you guys-"

"I…" Quil's voice made us all turn to look at him. "Look, I don't have a clue what's going on, and, you know, exactly what happened, but…" There was a long pause, "I think I might go. Dinner's not going to be so lovely now, is it?"

Leah half-giggled and looked at him. He nodded, tipping an imaginary hat to her, and left. I looked at Leah; she looked like she was desperate to go too. She seemed to be waiting for approval, waiting for me to say it was OK to go after him.

I looked at her for a long, hurt-filled moment. She wanted to bring him back. She wanted to bring him back and ruin everything I had built with Max. I shook my head and there was a long moment of silence between us. She smirked and bounded out of the door, running quickly from the house, searching for him, for something she… something I think she finally deserved. He was her imprint. She needed him, and even though he didn't know it yet, he needed her.

I realised then that I couldn't take that away from my sister, even if she had been a right bitch to me for the past nineteen years.

Damnit.

Evan's POV

I didn't even know where the hell I was going. Thoughts were streaming through my head, memories of Mac with her arms around me, huge smiles on our faces, stolen kisses, moments which, for me, were perfect, but obviously meant a lot less than that to her.

I kept walking, swearing as it began to rain and I realised I had forgotten my jacket. I swept a hand through my hair and shook it out, groaning as I wandered further along the pathway; any safe pavement disappeared at the crossroads between the road Seth and Leah lived on, and a turning that led into the forest. I turned down it, half-curious, half-lost, and stepped faster, my fury growing more and more apparent as I started running through the forest, desperate to scream.

And suddenly, as I looked to my left, Leah was running beside me, two or three trees to my left, she was focussed on me, watching me. It was unnerving, but beautiful to watch her run, incredible to see her streaking through the forest, her hair, shoulder length, flashing across her face.

A tree passed between us and she looked like she was shedding her t-shirt, another one and she looked like she was hurdling over two or three logs at once, her legs stretched out, her head down, but tilted so she could keep her eyes on me. She was diving forward as we passed between the next trees, I almost stopped, looking at her, hoping she hadn't fallen, but then I realised she was jumping over more logs.

Then a block of three thick trees passed between us and there was a flickering, short burst of silent running. I looked across at Leah, expecting to see her beside me as I burst into a clearing, my head suddenly empty. I glanced at her, and hoped to see her watching me again. A silver-grey wolf had taken her place, the size of a horse, pounding through the forest like there was nothing there in front of her, nothing there in her way.

I ground to a halt in the centre of the clearing, looking at the beast, confused. My heart was pounding, but I assumed that was because of the speed, because of the run I'd just been on, and the adrenaline rushing through my veins.

"What do you want?" I yelled, trying to scare the wolf off, then, as I realised I was alone, "Leah?" A long silence, it seemed to take forever for it to break, the snapping of a twig under my foot made me leap a foot into the air and I collapsed to the floor, shaking, terrified.

The wolf took a step towards me and bowed its head, pressing its muzzle to the floor, its tail between its legs. It looked like it was submitting to me, but I had no idea how to react.

"Hello?" I yelled out, "Leah, this really isn't funny. There's this fuckoff big wolf here… it'd really help if you had a tranquiliser gun…"

Silence. The wolf let out a whine, lonely and unloved, and I shivered, cold, locking eyes with the creature before me. It seemed to be asking… something. I stared for longer and worked it out.

"No… no…" I murmured without thinking, "No. I'm not disgusted." I whispered, then, "Why the hell am I talking to something that probably wants to kill me?"

The wolf huffed, almost laughing, and I shook with fear.

"What are you? And where's Leah?" I murmured, closing my eyes and trying to think straight. I couldn't.

"Evan?" I opened my eyes and shut them almost immediately afterwards. Leah was sitting, her legs crossed over herself, one arm folded across her chest, absolutely starkers, on the floor.

"Jesus Christ, Leah, put some clothes on! We've only just met!" She laughed happily and I opened one eye, trying to keep my gaze firmly on her face. Bugger it. Why couldn't she be fully clothed?

"I can't." She said simply, and I nearly got up and ran again.

"Why not?"

"Got none." She returned simply. "Can I have your T-shirt?" I pulled it off and hoped it was long enough to cover her comfortably. Thankfully, I had decided to wear a heavy one today. It had been cold when I'd got on my flight, and I hadn't had time to change. She smiled at me and sat down next to me. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Then my heart started to pound faster, terror making me realise what had just happened. "What the hell was that?"

"I… I'm a wolf-girl." She said softly. I burst out laughing.

"Sorry…" I said between my desperate breaths, my desperate giggles. "That's just incredible."

"I know it sounds ridiculous… but-" And she launched into an incredible story, about wolves and tribal legends. I listened politely, as she spoke, though I was reluctant to believe what she was saying.

"Leah… I don't… that's-"

"No." She said firmly, "You have to understand… because…" She closed her eyes, screwing them up tight, making her look like a beautiful model in a scrunched up magazine. Her hands curled up into fists, shaking by her sides as she opened her eyes slowly, unwillingly, again. "You have to understand, Evan… because-" She twisted and caught my lips with hers.

Something exploded in my brain and confusion reigned alongside hope and elation. I closed my eyes for a second and forgot where I was. I knew, in my mind, that I was in the middle of a forest, with a semi-naked girl, shirtless and freezing, but in my heart, I was in that meadow, on that summer's day, kissing Leah on that swinging tyre.

That's when I realised, and pushed her away.

"That… don't… you… what?" I managed to start eight different sentences, not getting past the first word for any of them. I mentally berated myself and shook my head.

"You didn't…" Her face went pink; she looked distraught and hurt, pain in her eyes.

"No, Leah, please… don't take it the wrong way, you're beautiful, and I'm sure you're a fantastic person…" I rose and looked at her. She was smiling softly, as though she knew what was coming next,

"But you still love Max?"

"No! Yes… I…" I put my hands over my eyes and counted to five.

"You're not dreaming Evan. Shit happens." She whispered. I shook where I stood.

"No." I whispered. "No… You can't love me. You've never met me before. You don't know a thing about me-"

"You're nineteen. You've been in love with your best friend for seven years, but she didn't know until two years ago. It's hurting you now, because you wish you'd told her before, you wish that you'd let her know that you loved her, because maybe then she wouldn't have run away and met my brother. And you don't understand why your feelings for me are so strong, because you've known me for all of three hours." She paused, "Not even that."

I stood there, looking at her and feeling so mortal, so pathetic, as if I'd been punched in the stomach, slapped and spat on. I realised I was chewing my bottom lip as she looked at me more intensely, still not quite staring.

"You know more than I thought." She stared at me, "But… I don't agree." I whispered, "I don't understand my feelings, no, but I do understand that right now, the one person that needs me is Mac Scott. Because it was her brother that died. Because it was her that saw him die. Because she didn't talk to anyone about it." She looked like she was about to cry. "Because I love her."

I turned away and held out my hand for her to take.

"And you can't love me?" I heard her whisper, and I swallowed, taking in a deep breath as she took my hand. No, I wanted to say, No, I can't love you.

But I knew that would be cruel. I looked over at her and closed my eyes.

"No." I murmured. "Not yet."

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A/N: Please review and let me know how I did... :P

Inspired by: "Standing in the Rain" By Jamie Scott and the Town, and "Gives you hell" By The All American Rejects – thank you LiliaGryffindor'sheir376 haha

Wellll... what do you think? I heart Evan (Lol haha)

I'm really glad you all like it... so i'd appreciate more feedback...

And i'm really, really happy that you keep reading :)

Love you guys

xxx