The Twilight Series belongs to S. Meyer, no copyright infringement is intended. I'm just playing with the characters.
None of them noticed Quil or Paul's departure. Embry and Jake were frozen—suspended and unable to use their instincts to either fight or flee. Sam and Jared were too focused on each other. Their mutual dislike and hatred which had been spawned from their feelings toward one girl, Leah Clearwater.
It was inevitable with Sam's return that they would have difficulty being friends. Even if Jared hadn't phased into a giant wolf and Sam hadn't imprinted on Emily. Leah was a girl whom they both fell in love with and neither was willing to admit that the feelings of the other were real.
To Jared, even knowing the truth of Sam's disappearance—he hated how Sam's return signaled the end of their blossoming relationship. The wounds which appeared on his soul as he slowly realized what was going to happen. That Leah had so easily walked away from what they had and the words they had spoken that fateful day could still cut those wounds open; leaving them festering and bleeding.
To Sam, it was the ultimate betrayal and even though his imprint on Emily was a betrayal of the worst sort. He didn't have a choice but she did—she being Leah. She had chosen to forget him, gave up on him, and instead, loved another in his place. He would never admit it, but he was jealous of their love—Jared and hers.
It was so natural. A progression of two individuals who had found common ground in their grief and discovered a passion that rocked him to his core; his wolf may have chosen Emily, but it wasn't the same. As a man he loved Emily more and more with each passing day—though there were quiet moments when he was alone when he still wondered, what if? What if he had never left? What if Emily had never come to visit? What if Leah had waited for him?
Paul stood in his human form, naked and watched the group warily. The air thick and clogged with emotions he didn't even want to begin to decipher. Jared and Sam faced each other off. Embry and Jake were still—like a pair of mismatched bookends. And Seth, he had seemed to grow over the last few moments. His fur standing on end, his eyes glittering with lupine rage, lips pulled back showing the sharpness of his teeth.
He wasn't sure what to make of it. Seth strode forward toward Jared and Sam, breaking their focus on one another. The two older wolves cowered, shrinking down in fear and attempting to make themselves submissive. Embry and Jake's wolf bodies lowered to the ground as they whined softly.
It was like watching a wolf pack in the wild. Seth's wolf embodied the traits one would expect from the alpha. Even in his human form, Paul found it difficult to resist the need to submit to Seth's power. He wished he had stayed phased in, but at the same time he was glad that he didn't.
Embry and Jake's whines became louder while Jared and Sam lowered to the forest floor onto their bellies. Their snouts buried into the ground as neither dared to look at Seth. Seth snarled at them, his snapping jaws coming within inches of the tender flesh of their exposed necks.
Paul had never seen anything like it—well, that wasn't exactly true. Yesterday, with Leah, he had seen something similar only she had done it in her human form. The wolf bonding the two halves perfectly together until they were a seamless unit; though she didn't seem aware of the wolf's actions—the wolf was easily able to communicate with them.
He quivered, closing his eyes as it seemed to be the only solution he could think of at the moment to keep from falling to the ground. Even with his eyes closed he could still sense and smell the emotions of the gathered pack members. Their distress, unease, and confusion.
Seth's snarls reached an extreme volume, cresting toward a violent outcome and Paul fell to the ground, breathing heavily. He fought against the drive to phase and accept Seth's commands as law. He crouched forward, fists clutching the debris covering the ground.
He squeezed his eyes tighter, trying to block it out, but it was all in vain. His breath rasped in and out harshly from his lungs. His body contorting as the burn and stretch of an imminent phase flashed through him. His lips parted as he screamed silently—the sound quickly replaced by the anguished howls of his pack members.
Blackness surrounded him and just before he succumbed to it; he heard the pounding of paws venturing away from them. His body collapsed to the ground. It was undignified, clumsy, and completely unlike the normal smooth and subtle movements of the predator he was.
If what Paul experienced outside the pack mind was hell—what they experienced inside the pack mind was 100 times worse. They had never felt this degree of compulsion. Not even an Alpha order from Sam felt like this. And for Sam, who had never experienced the weight of an Alpha order—it was completely foreign to him.
What the hell? Jake murmured as he looked from Embry to Seth and back again.
I don't know, Embry replied as he backed away from Seth; Jake copying his movements.
Guys… Jake started but realized Jared and Sam were too locked into their endless battle. It wouldn't matter what they said or did—it wouldn't be enough to get them to see what was happening.
Too late Embry and Jake realized that Paul and Quil had already phased out. The phrase lucky bastards came to mind before they were frozen in place. Seth's wolf form had grown in size and the power radiating from him had them both lowering their forms. A gesture of submission to his dominance over them; a dominance they hadn't recognized until now.
Seth's wolf eyed up its prey—Jared and Sam. Stalking toward them with purpose and salivating as they cowered down in fear. His wolf didn't care about the hierarchy of the pack, the rules or protocols. His wolf acknowledged the familial bond they shared with Leah and her wolf.
A bond which the other wolves needed to recognize and understand. His sister wasn't some object to be fought over. She had the right and ability to choose and no one was going to take that from her. Not even him—he would defend whatever she decided but first he needed to lay down the rules.
None of you, Seth began. His lips pulled back, saliva dripping from his sharp, white canines. Are to think of my sister in any shape or form. She doesn't belong to any of you. She's not some chew toy for you to fight over.
Jared buried his snout further into the ground and he couldn't help the memories that slipped. A mash-up of him and Leah, Leah and him intermixed with the odd recollections of Bella and the moment of his imprint on her. The pull he felt which was so different from the others.
The entire imprint was oddly dissimilar in a way he couldn't put into words. He hadn't wanted it and half the time his wolf didn't want it either. But the more he was exposed to her—the wolf stopped arguing and complacently accepted their fate. It angered him how easily the wolf was able to forget Leah. Even now, even after the few shared moments they had stolen in the last 24 hours—the wolf was willing to bow down to Seth's commands.
Because Seth was right—she didn't belong to him. Fate had already decided that when Bella was put in front of him. Even worse was realizing that he wasn't sure he would be able to fight the imprint at all. The others had already provided the example for him and Bella to follow.
Imprint. The new word rattled around in Seth's mind. Unfamiliar and foreign to him—to his wolf; though it wasn't long before the others provided the definition.
The greatest downfall of the pack mind—its ability to force their thoughts in a direction they didn't want to go to. While Jared looked at Bella and their imprint with a dark stain of horror, disbelief, and disgust; it was completely different for the others. Jake and Angela, Embry and Rachel, even Sam and Emily—it was as though their imprints were the sun and they were merely a planet which revolved around them. Their imprints inspired them to be better men.
NO! Seth raged at them. His snapping jaws drew ever closer to Jared and Sam. Stay away from her! Worry about your imprints, he snarled the word in loathing, leave my sister alone. You will not think, speak, or go near her, ever again!
Jared chanced a glance towards Seth, trying to find the boy that lingered somewhere within the giant wolf. The black eyes that met his held nothing of the boy that he had forced to phase a short time again; while not completely soulless, there wasn't a single lingering human emotion that he could see.
The howl that he let loose was the only way for him to express the feeling of his soul tearing itself apart. Broken and bleeding on the ground for them all to see. The animal that was Seth didn't care or didn't understand—Jared wasn't sure which one it was.
The pack, except for Seth, echoed Jared's pained howl as the intensity of his angst was pushed forward into their collective minds. The pounding of Seth's paws as he ran back to his house was nearly drowned out by their howls. Someone needed to figure out exactly the Clearwater legacy was and how it was going to influence the pack and its future.
Jake and Sam phased back first, Embry falling closely behind. Jake ran over to Jared, quietly coaxing him to phase back. Paul meanwhile was finally coming to after fainting. If the situation hadn't been so intense—they would have savored it and teased him, but at the moment there was nothing funny about it.
With Embry's assistance, Paul pulled his body from the undignified heap he had fallen down into. His head pounded and he brushed his fingers through his hair. Raising his head further upward, he caught his first sight of Jared since the entire showdown between Seth and the pack.
Jared's howl had turned into soft whimpers. His body still trapped in the form of his wolf as he twisted and contorted, trying to escape the agony piercing his body. Jake words to him were soft and urgent as he pleaded with him to phase back, telling him if he did that the pain would be less. Whether it was true or not, remained to be seen.
Their nakedness wasn't something that had bothered them in the past, but suddenly they all became cognizant of it. Whether it was from the confrontation with Seth or Leah phasing only yesterday; it was uncomfortable and too difficult to concentrate. Paul pulled on his shorts as Embry and Sam did the same. Jake pausing for just a moment to do the same before turning back to Jared. They stood there in awkward silence, watching and waiting for Jared to change back.
The moments ticked by infinitely slow. Measured and chaotic at the same time; until Jared's body slid into its human form. Tear tracks running down his face, his eyes red-rimmed and swollen; his pain still present and palpable despite the fact they were all in their human forms.
"What was that…?" Paul asked, failing to put into words what he had felt and witnessed.
"I don't know," Jake answered softly with a shake of his head. "Seth…I've never…"
"None of us have ever felt that before," Embry finished for him. "It was like an Alpha order, only different…"
"What did he say," Paul asked.
"He was angry—furious about Le—" Sam's words cut off abruptly.
"Leah," Paul supplied.
Embry, Jake, and Sam nodded in unison. Each trying to form the words to elucidate what had occurred but their jaws were locked shut. Their minds and thoughts unable to hold onto a single thought of Leah before it was expelled. A different technique was needed.
"You can," Jake murmured, waving his arm in the air.
"Yeah? You can't," Paul countered back.
A shake of Jake's head confirming Paul's question. "So," Paul continued, "None of you can speak her name—I'm assuming there's more."
"No thinking or seeing," Embry supplied before Seth's order snapped his mouth shut.
"Okay, but I can. So, what are we to do with that?"
"Old Quil—bring him, pick up Seth, and then go to the hospital," Jake answered.
"This is your plan?"
Jake nodded, "Old Quil is the only one who might be able to help."
"His wolf…like…Le—" Jared whispered softly.
With those words, Paul dropped his shorts and attached them to his ankle. Phasing he ran toward Old Quil's house and prayed the old man was at home and would be able to help them. Between what he had witnessed and what the pack had been able to share with him—it seemed Seth had put an order on them that was unbreakable. He had only been spared by being in his human form and he assumed it would be the same for Quil. If Old Quil wasn't able to help; it was official they were screwed.
FF_8756144_24 01/01/13 7:51PM