I'm a nightmare, a disaster

That's what they always said

I'm a lost cause, not a hero

But I'll make it on my own

"Me Against the World"

-Simple Plan

Chapter 7:

Let's just fight already

I continued to laugh my ass off about the bickering old couple that I had created in my head. My laughter continued even harder when I saw a mental image in Sam's head of Quil dressed up in a crown and make-up. I heard Sam explaining through my laughter that it was at Claire's third birthday party a few days ago.

At only three-years-old, Claire totally had Quil wrapped around her tiny little finger. Anything that the imprintee wants, the imprintee apparently gets. I was going to give Quil hell for this.

Once I stopped laughing, I picked up that only Collin, Brady, and Sam were running. I heard Sam mention something about getting something to eat. The boys quickly agreed that they were hungry as well.

I'm sure Emily has something whipped up, Sam offered.

Sweet. I heard Collin's excitement.

Oh, her muffins are so freaking good, Brady agreed.

Emily was a wonderful cook. All the boys raved about her food. She was always in the kitchen baking and boiling up a storm. And she was happy to do it. She told Sam that it was the least she could do for the pack for their bravery and protection.

Good thing Sam had imprinted on Emily and not me. I would have told them to fix their own damn food.

Leah, do you mind holding the fort down while we grab a bite to eat? Sam questioned.

Oh, sure, it's not like I have a life or anything. He knew that all he had to do to get me to run the perimeters was command me. Why even bother asking? He would make me do it anyway.

A simple "yes" would suffice. He didn't appreciate my hostility.

Yes...master. I tried not to let that last part slip out.

A few minutes later, I felt the boys phase. It was just me now. I sighed happily and tried to enjoy the peace. I knew it wouldn't last very long.

I ran for about an hour by myself. It was weird. I wasn't used to it being so quiet for so long when I was a wolf. It made me wonder where everyone was. I guessed all the boys who had imprinted were with their other halves. I had no clue where Jacob and Embry were. Seth was probably still idolizing Billy.

I had to admit, it was nice that he had so many male role models around. My dad had great friends. Billy was wonderful with Seth. And on the plus side, he knew about the wolves, so if Seth had any questions, he could just direct them to him.

And Charlie was great, too. I remember how at dad's funeral, he had pulled Seth and I aside and told us that if we ever needed anything, we could come to him. He was a stand-up guy. In fact, I had started to miss him when he wasn't around, which he hadn't been for a couple of days.

I realized I wasn't alone anymore when I felt Seth phase. Sam, Brady, and Collin were with him. Hmm, that was interesting. What had I missed?

Sam let out a howl. It wasn't very loud, but it was loud enough for any of the pack within range to know that he wanted them in formation right now.

Something's up. Sam explained to me when he heard my confused thoughts.

Thank you, Captain Obvious. Mind explaining what exactly it is that's up?

As soon as the rest of the pack phases, I'll let Seth explain.

Seth had so many thoughts flowing through his head that it was giving me a migraine trying to filter them out. He had always been a hyperactive kid. Even when he was a squalling infant, he was a busybody. My dad used to build up a toddler obstacle course around him just to keep him busy. I sighed. I was right back to missing my dad.

I closed my eyes for a moment and then pushed myself back into reality. There was no way I was going to decipher Seth's thoughts, so I just waited for everyone else to show up.

I felt Jacob phase. He was lost in his own little world, wondering what it would have been like to slice Edward in half. Just because he was choosing not to act on his feelings of hatred towards the vampire and eat him alive didn't mean that he couldn't get some satisfaction thinking about it. He didn't seem at all aware that he had several other wolves listening to him ranting and raving about having to obey Sam all the time.

Sometimes he was just so self-absorbed. That thought gained his attention.

He spouted back to me angrily, Yeah, no hypocrisy there.

Geeze. He was in a foul mood. Before I could really respond, Sam quickly broke up our bickering. For a second, I agreed with Jacob about having to obey Sam. It sucked to always have to listen to him.

Embry and Paul were on all fours, running towards where Sam had called from. I heard Embry explain Jared's absence. I grunted, thinking about the smut that we were going to have to hear when Jared phased. I got tired of hearing his sexual fantasies with Kim. In fact, I was completely tired of the teenage boy mindset altogether. It was perverted and exhausting.

I waited for Seth to start explaining. Most of us were here. I knew that Quil would be on his way soon as well. He was undoubtedly with Claire. He'd probably drop her off with my mom and then meet us later.

Paul was also running towards Sam. I heard Jacob mutter something off-color to him. I listened closer to Jacob's thoughts and then chuckled when I heard that Paul had stayed ahead on Jacob's "hate list". Apparently, Jacob broke his nose. Good to know that he took my advice sometimes.

He was running a few miles out, parallel to me. I felt him speed up, so I kicked it up a notch. The only thing I did better than the boys was running. I held the record for speed. And I intended on keeping that record. I think Jacob was just trying to piss me off as he tried to top out my speed. He was really ornery today.

Sam bitched at us to stop our rivalry, but I wasn't going to let up. He shrugged it off like he normally did and told Seth to share what he knew.

Edward and Bella got home last week…

Of course this was about Bella. What wasn't about Bella around here? I was so sick and tired of everything being about that vampire loving freak. Bella did this, Bella did that, Bella's getting married. Bella started her period. Oh, what a joyous occasion. Couldn't we go one day without hearing about her every damn move?

Sam shut me up and I listened as Seth started telling us about how Charlie had called around frantically searching for Billy.

When Charlie called our house... Seth explained.

Ah ha, so that's who had been calling when I was running off. Apparently Charlie had spoken with Billy about Bella being very ill with some rare South American disease. Hmm, so idiocy was a disease now?

I tried to keep my smug thoughts to myself as I thought of Bella squirming around uncomfortably. I quickly suppressed the thought.

No one said anything. Guess I had gotten away with that one.

It would serve her right to be in pain. She's the one who wanted to give up her life as a human to become one of those bloodsuckers. Something that she was obviously close to doing. The fake disease thing was just the tip of the iceberg. It was only a matter of time now before they faked her death and created a whole new happy life for themselves, leaving Charlie devastated.

I was sad for Charlie, but I was eager to know how the vampires were going to proceed with the plan. Either they would run away to a new town and we would be free of vampires once again. Or, if they stayed, we would get to fight them and kill the entire lot of them. Either way, it was a win-win situation for me.

My thoughts quickly ceased when I felt Jacob's pain. Damn it, I hated sharing everything with all the wolves. Even though we were back to not getting along, it sucked that he had to hurt.

All of the wolves were silent. All but one. We all listened to Jacob wondering to himself about how this was going to play out. He thought about how heartbroken Charlie would be. That one stung me a bit. Then he wondered how long it would be before Bella would be able to be around humans if her funeral was open casket.

I growled silently. If her funeral was open casket, I'd shred the bitch to pieces myself. She had no right to cause Charlie and Jacob so much anguish.

I came through the clearing a few seconds before Jacob did. I trotted over to my brother and plopped down beside him. I watched as Jacob walked over next to Sam and Paul. Paul let Jacob through to stand next to Sam on his right.

Jacob lowered his head. I could feel his heart breaking again. Jeeze, how many times was he going to subject us to this because of her? A mixture of pain, rage, and heartbreak filled his mind. And again, I knew how he felt. I had to face that same exact horrible heartache when Sam had left me for Emily. But at least I didn't subject the pack to it every day. Still, I hated it for him.

I tried to lighten the mood. Beat ya again.

He ignored me.

I sat in silence as Jacob argued among everyone about what our next move should be. I was surprised that Sam wasn't in agreement that we should just go and attack the Cullens now. Even if Bella wasn't dead yet, she was planning to become one of them. To be bitten by one of them, which broke the treaty.

Sam argued that this is what Bella wanted. Jacob countered with the fact that the treaty didn't have any fine lines or specific details, and that if a vampire bites a human, no matter what the situation, the formed alliances were gone and we were free to attack.

Sam tried to convince Jacob that it would be pointless and stupid to attack the Cullens, who obviously weren't a threat. I had to side with Jacob when it came to that. I just didn't trust vampires. We existed for a reason. To kill vampires. Plain and simple.

Sam wasn't getting anywhere with Jacob. I heard my brother backing Sam up. I paid close attention as Seth defended the Cullens. Of course he wouldn't want to fight them. I never did understand why he cared so much about them. So he and Edward had fought side by side last year, big deal. Since then, he had formed some kind of weird bond with the vampires that we were inevitably going to have to fight.

I was jolted back to the fight as Seth argued angrily with Jacob. I was a little stunned. He was usually a pretty mellow kid. It wasn't very often that he spouted off to others. He was angry. Really angry.

You aren't ready for this fight, Jacob, Seth growled.

Jacob took his misplaced anger out on my brother as he crouched forward and bared his teeth. Instinctively, I let out a growl to let Jacob know that if he messed with Seth, there was going to be hell to pay. And I was that hell.

Jacob ignored me. Sam intervened and shut us all up.

What'd I miss? Quil had phased a few minutes ago, and he was running towards us, eager to catch up on what was going on.

I couldn't help myself as I spouted out about his dress-up fiesta, Hey pretty boy, how about a little less time checking your make-up in the bathroom mirror?

Great, thanks a lot for sharing, Sam, Quil grumbled.

Sam was too busy yelling at Jacob to respond to Quil. What else was new? They were constantly at each other's throats. I listened as Jacob tried to convince Sam that his knee-jerk reaction was the right thing to do. To attack the Cullens is what needed to be done.

I was beginning to have my doubts about Jacob's reasons for wanting to kill the Cullens. I mean, Sam had a point. Once Bella was a vampire, I don't think that they would be sticking around very long. And even though I would love a good knock-down, drag-out fight, what was the point of attacking someone who had no interest in fighting us? What good would killing them do? It wouldn't bring Bella back to him. My vote continued to sway back and forth.

True, I did fantasize about ripping the whiny little runt's throat out from time to time. But Jacob just wanted to attack them because he was hurting. He was angry about something that he knew was coming. I couldn't say that he was in his right state of mind while making these decisions.

Sam quickly stopped Jacob's argument, Are you really ready to lose a brother over this?

I huffed a little. Just like him to forget that I was around.

He glanced at me, Or a sister.

That was more like it. Acknowledge me, asshole.

The argument lasted a few more minutes before Jacob finally got fed up and ran off…just like he always did. Seth pleaded with him not to run away again.

Sam softly told Jacob that running away was not the answer, and that we wanted him around. Well, I wouldn't have gone that far.

Jacob had apparently pressed the "mute" button on his brain. He wasn't listening to a word that anyone said.

I could tell Seth felt badly about Jake's pain.

It's not your fault, I shrugged.

I was out of line. Seth was feeling remorseful.

You were. But that isn't the issue here. Sam shook his gigantic head.

No one knew what to say, so we just stayed quiet. Sam disappeared for a little while. He had a phone call to make. He didn't say who it was to, but we all knew. Billy deserved to know what was going on.

When he returned, he realized that none of us had moved. A few minutes later, Jacob phased out and Sam finally broke the uncomfortable silence.

No one does anything just yet. He reminded us that he was still in charge.

You think Jake'll cool down? Seth asked.

Don't worry about Jacob.

He was pretty mad. You know how he gets… Seth was still concerned.

Let it go, Seth. Leave me to take care of that.

And the Cullens? Embry was the one to ask what we were all thinking.

No one sets foot on their land until we have more information, Sam ordered.

I could see in his soft brown eyes that something wasn't right. There was something he was keeping from us. There was a fear that he was trying not to share.

It didn't take us long to figure out what it was. I'm not sure why he didn't just tell us what he thought was coming. Maybe he hoped that we wouldn't figure it out. I think I was the first one to piece it together.

Jacob and I were a lot alike. Both of us were extremely passionate people who let our anger control our reactions. I thought about what I would do if it were me in his situation. When the realization hit, it hit hard. I gasped.

He wasn't going to run away. He was going to face Edward. He was going to fight them alone. That impulsive idiot was going to get himself killed.