CHAPTER 25

Leah POV:

Mom and I made spaghetti and meatballs, Seth's favorite, for dinner. The hospital gave her the next couple of days off so she could take care of Seth and catch up on her sleep. She had taken a nap when we got home, but she was up in time to fix dinner. We all sat down and ate together, Seth eating his usual three plates full, and I told her I would clean up the kitchen for her so she could rest.

"Thanks, honey. I would really appreciate that. I am tired," she said.

"Thanks for the spaghetti. I was starving! The food they gave me in the hospital was barely enough to keep me alive," Seth complained. Mom and I laughed. "Well they aren't used to feeding growing werewolves, you know," Mom replied. She reached over and tousled his hair. He got up from the table and put his plate in the sink.

"Want to watch some of the Mariner's game with me, Mom?" Seth asked. Mom smiled and said, "Sure. Let's go." They got up and left the kitchen and I got to work. I cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher. When I was finished, I walked into the living room to find Mom asleep on the couch and Seth dozing in the chair. I smiled at them. I looked at the clock. It was seven thirty, and I was taking Seth's patrol at eight. I decided to go ahead and leave. I would run over to Sam's and see who I was patrolling with and where.

I went to the kitchen and left quietly through the back door. I decided to walk to Sam's and I could phase over there when it was time to patrol. It was a nice evening. Now that it was September, we wouldn't have too many nice evenings left. I enjoyed having some time to myself and walking through the woods instead of running. I walked up to Sam and Emily's and knocked at the door. I heard Emily holler out, "Come on it!" so I did.

They were sitting in their living area off of the kitchen watching TV. Sam was on the couch, and Emily was reclining against him. "Hey Leah!" Emily called as I walked in. "How's Seth? I heard he came home today." I walked in and sat down on a chair by the couch they were lounging on and answered, "He's fine. He was dozing on the couch when I left. He's already whining about going to school tomorrow."

She smiled and Sam said, "Are you here to fill in for him tonight?" I nodded. "He didn't tell me where, so I came here to find out." He explained where I was to patrol and I would be with Paul. Great.

"OK. I'll head out back so I can, uh, well phase in private," I said with a smile. "See you guys later!" I said as I stood up and walked toward the back. "Be careful!" Sam called. I smiled.

I went out the back door and walked toward the woods. When I knew I was going to patrol, I wore as little as possible. They guys had it so easy. They could wear a pair of basketball shorts and slip them off and tie them to their ankle with a cord. I finally found that wearing a sports bra or tank top and a pair of gym shorts was the easiest for me. I found a spot behind some bushes and slipped the shorts down then peeled off the sports bra. I rolled them together and tied them to my ankle. As I was finishing tying the cord, I heard a twig snap. I knew it was too big to be an animal, so I said, "OK, who's spying on me? Very funny." No answer. Now I was a little creeped out. I knew someone was here. There was no vampire stink, so it had to be one of us. Just then, I felt arms come around me from behind and before I could think, I reached back and grabbed one of those arms and flipped whoever it was over my head. I heard a "SHIT!" as they hit the ground.

"Leah! What the hell? It's me, Embry! Ow!" I covered my mouth and laughed. "Embry! I'm sorry." I reached down and gave him a hand to help him up. "What are you doing here? And, I'm naked by the way, in case you haven't noticed!"

"Oh, I noticed, baby, believe me. Why do you think I put my arms around you?" He pulled me to him and ran his hands down my body before he crushed his lips onto mine. I couldn't help but melt into him. I always felt that way when he kissed me like this. I wrapped myself around him and gave up any resolve I had. I completely forgot where I was. I ran my hands over his shoulders and back and ravished his mouth with mine. His hands were traveling my body and oh, it felt so good! My hands slid down his body and touched his shorts. They were basketball shorts, so I pulled on them and they fell to the ground. He pulled his lips away and smiled at me. We slid down to kneel on the ground, all the time kissing and touching. His lips left mine and he nipped at my shoulder and neck with his teeth, which always drove me crazy. I pushed him to lay back on the ground and I moved on top of him with a smile. I leaned down and kissed him and let my hair fall down as a curtain around us. As I was kissing him, I slid down so that he was inside me and it felt so empowering! I began moving up and down and found out how much I liked it and I kept moving until Embry groaned and rolled me over and we moved in a frantic pace until we both cried out in ecstasy. We lay there panting, trying to catch our breath. He whispered, "I'm sorry, baby, but you make me crazy. Watching you move like that . . . Leah, you are so hot!"

I smiled and said, "I can't believe how much I like this, Embry. It scares me a little sometimes."

He lifted his head to look at me and said, "Me, too." He put a kiss on my lips and rolled off of me to lay beside me.

"You know I'm supposed to meet Paul. He will wonder where I am," I said.

He looked over at me and said, "I'll go with you. If Paul wants to, he can go home, OK? I want to run patrol with you so we can spend more time together." I smiled and nodded. He sat up and reached for his shorts. He rolled them and tied them to his ankle. "Ready?" I was gathering up all of my hair and I wound it up into a messy bun and secured it with the hair tie I kept on my wrist.

"Let's go, babe!" I answered. We stood up and Embry pulled me to him for a quick kiss. Then we took off and phased on the run.

"Where the hell have you been, Leah? I've been waiting forever," Paul wanted to know. Embry showed him flashes of what happened before we got here.

"Holy shit, you two! Man, and you complain about me when I think about Rachel. Knock it off, Embry! "

"Just a little payback, dude. You can go ahead and go. I'll patrol with Leah."

"You got it! I'm out of here." Paul turned and ran off.

"Man, that was fun!" Embry was enjoying this a bit too much. I wasn't sure I liked what Paul saw of me. "I'm sorry, Leah. I didn't think about that. Don't be embarrassed." Too late for that!

"Let's hit the patrol, OK?" I took off at a run, and as usual, loved that feeling of pure freedom. Running through the woods at top speed, my fur flattened back. I remembered how I used to want to run and run and never come back. I didn't feel that way about it anymore. I slowed down so Embry could run beside me. We ran our patrol route and then I remembered: "There's someplace I want to go. Come with me, Embry!"

I had a place that I loved to go, especially at night. I heard that a full moon would be rising, and I wanted to see it. I ran to a spot that rose above the rocky coast. I slowed to a walk when I looked out over the edge and saw the big, yellow moon coming up over the water. I stopped to soak in the scene before me. It was so beautiful, it took my breath away. I sat down on my back haunches then stretched forward until I was laying on the grass with my head facing the ocean. Embry came up beside me and did the same. "Wow, Leah. This is amazing."

"I know. It's almost . . . magical." Embry nuzzled my neck with his nose. It was strange laying beside him in wolf form. I had never done that with anyone before.

"Well, I hope not," Embry commented on my thought. "But, yea, it is strange, and yet it's not. You know?"

I did know. No matter what form we took, human or wolf, I always felt comfortable with Embry. We laid there and looked at the moon and I knew, no matter where I was, or in what form, as long as I was with Embry, I was home.

The next day, after I had finished folding laundry, I noticed the book about the Uley family that I had borrowed from Embry sitting on the table. I picked it up and was looking through it when I came to the family tree that Emily had drawn. I studied the picture of Sam and Embry's dad, Joshua. I saw the resemblance that Emily talked about through the eyes. They were Embry's eyes. Joshua was quite handsome. I could see why Angie was instantly attracted to him. I noticed that Emily had written in a birth date, and the death date was blank. It made me wonder yet again if he was dead or alive. What had happened to him? Why did he leave in the first place? There were so many questions, and no answers.

I wondered if anyone had ever really tried to find him. No one ever talked about that. I always heard people say he left and never came back, but I never heard anyone say that they couldn't find him. My brain started working on a plan. I knew that Bella's dad was a sheriff. I wondered if he could do some digging for me and find out what happened to Joshua Uley. Should I really do this? I felt like Sam and Embry had a right to know what happened to their dad, but would they really want to know? And what about Angie? She has pined for this guy for 18 years. What if he was alive and just didn't care? I couldn't help it. Curiosity was killing me. I would dig first, and decided what to do with what I found later.

"Thanks, Charlie, for taking time to talk to me," I said to Charlie. Mom was home sleeping because she was working second shift this week, so I borrowed the car and drove to Forks.

"Sure, Leah. What's this about?" Charlie said as he leaned back in his big, padded chair behind his desk that was completely covered in papers and file folders.

"Um, well, I wondered if you could help me find out what happened to Joshua Uley," I said slowly.

He furrowed his brow and stared at me. "Are you sure you want to go there?" He leaned forward and said, "That's something that happened a long time ago. Bringing it up may upset a lot of people. Especially Sam and Embry."

"I know. That's why I didn't tell them. Only you know what I'm thinking. I don't want to upset them, Charlie. If I find out that he's dead, I think it would help them to know. Give them some closure, or whatever. But if we find him alive, well, I don't know. I know they both have a lot of questions that have gone unanswered, and they might want a chance to ask him. But if they don't, that's fine too. Same with Angie. Will you help me? I guess we can decide what to do with the information once we have some."

He was quiet for a moment, thinking about what I proposed. "OK, how about this? I will look a little and see if I can find anything on him. If I come across anything, you come here and we'll talk about it and then we'll make a decision."

"Yea, that sounds good," I answered. He nodded and said, "I'll take a look this afternoon and give you a call, OK?"

I nodded and said, "Yea, that's great. Thanks, Charlie." I got up to leave then remembered I had a copy of that picture of Embry and Jake for Bella. "Hey, can you give this to Bella? I made a copy for her. I thought she might like one." I handed the photo to Charlie.

A big smile spread across his face. "Look at those two. I remember the day this was taken. Billy and I had taken them fishing, and they didn't catch a thing, but they had a good time. Those two always found a way to have fun."

"They still do!" I told him. He laughed and nodded. "See ya later, Charlie."

"Yep. Tell your mom hi for me, OK?" he asked.

I smiled and nodded and left his office. I closed the door behind me walked out to the car. I got in and sat there for a second thinking about what I had just done. I hope I'm not opening a can of worms here. I couldn't stand it if Embry and Sam hated me for doing this. I took a deep breath and started the engine. I would just have to wait and see what Charlie came up with then decide.

Embry POV:

School, work, homework, Leah, patrol, bed. That was pretty much my life. I was in the truck heading to Leah's for supper. She called me at Jake's and told me that she was cooking hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, and that her mom had made potato salad before she left for work. That did it! I jumped in the truck and took off.

I walked around the back of the house and went up the steps of the deck. Leah was just closing the lid of the grill when I snuck up behind her and put my arms around her. She jumped and I laughed. "Hey baby, I missed you." I said into her ear. She leaned back against me as I kissed her neck. She turned in my arms and kissed me on the lips. "I missed you, too," she said with a smile. We kissed a little then we pulled back and Leah took my hand and led me inside. I closed the door behind me and said, "Man, I'm hungry! That school lunch doesn't go very far. I'm going to have to bring my lunch. Although, I don't really want to walk into the cafeteria with a full grocery bag as my lunch!"

She laughed. "Yea, I could just picture that. Seth has the same problem. He eats like a pig when he gets home from school!"

Just then, Seth walked into the kitchen. "You calling me a pig? You eat just as much as I do, you know!" She laughed again and, "Yea, I guess I do!" We all laughed at that. She asked us, "Do you guys want to eat in here or out on the deck?"

Seth said, "I'm eating in front of the TV. There aren't too many Mariners games left, and there is one on in 20 minutes."

"OK. I'll go get the burgers and hot dogs." She picked up a plate and I took it from her and said, "I'll get them." I opened the door and went outside. I piled all of the burgers and dogs onto the plate, shut off the grill and went back inside. I set them down on the table as Leah set down the ketchup and mustard. She smiled at me.

"OK, guys, dig in!" she said. Seth filled two plates and went back to the living room to watch the game. I filled one plate with potato salad and chips and the other plate with two burgers and two hot dogs. Leah looked at me and I said, "What? I'm a growing werewolf, remember?" She laughed and said, "Let's eat outside." I nodded and went out onto the deck.

We sat down at the table out there and I picked up my fork and started eating. "Oh, Leah. This is so good," I said with my mouth full. She laughed and said, "Mom took some to work with her tonight. She said she knew that would be the only way she would get some of it!" I smiled and shoveled in some more.

We ate our supper and talked about our day. "Oh my gosh! I forgot to tell you. My mom gave me a laptop computer! Can you believe that? One of the nurses at work had it, and wanted to sell it because she got a newer one. It still works great, it just needed more memory to run faster. Mom took it to some guy who looked it over and added the memory, and she just gave it to me today. This will really help me take these classes. I can do all of my homework on my own computer instead of having to do it on a library computer and keep it on a flash drive. She even said she would look into getting the internet hooked up here so I don't have to go to the library. That would be awesome!"

I smiled. I loved to see her get so excited! "That would be great, Leah. I wish you could actually go to school instead of taking classes online. You're so smart."

"Yea, me too. But, for now, this is OK." She took a bite of her burger. I wished there was a way I could help her. I knew she couldn't get to school because she didn't have a car. Maybe Jake and I could keep an eye out for one. I would have to talk to him about that.

We finished our supper and I helped her clean up. "Do you have any homework, Embry?" she asked as she wiped down the kitchen table.

"Nope. Not tonight," I answered.

She put the dishrag in the sink and washed her hands and dried them. "Good. Want to go for a walk?"

I smiled and said, "Sure." Neither one of us was on patrol tonight, so we actually had some time to spend together. She went into the living room to tell Seth we were leaving then she walked back into the kitchen. "Let's go," she said.

I opened the back door for her and followed her out. She took my hand and we walked toward the trail to the beach. We walked in silence just enjoying being together. The sun was going down by the time we got to the beach. "Let's sit over her and watch the sunset," she said as she led me to a old dead log that was sitting on the beach. We sat down on the sand, and leaned against the log. I put my arm around her and she laid her head onto my shoulder as we watched the sun sink down to touch the water.

As I sat there and soaked up the moment, I hoped that life would always be just like this.