Chapter Thirty Two

Harry

I managed to calm Leah down eventually and we left Charlie's,

"How many of the pack survived dad?"

"Only Sam I'm afraid, the rest were killed."

"What about the girl? Charlie's daughter?"

"Oh you won that fight, one of the vampires bit her."

"Good, then the Cullens are dead and we can be free."

"Good? Bella Swan was a girl just like you. She may have chosen her friends badly but I hardly think that justifies taking her life."

She sneered,

"She's not dead, just a leech and if it means I don't have to phase again it was worth it. What is Sam doing? Are there more wolves phasing?"

"No, the Cullens have left so there is no need for further wolves. It's over Leah, you won they've gone and I doubt they'll be back."

"Gone? And were just letting them leave like that? What about our dead? Where's the justice in that?"

"Leah you should let it go now. If Johnny H finds out what the pack did he would send you both into exile."

"Well who is going to tell him dad? Are you?"

I closed my eyes before answering, I'd thought long and hard about that,

"No, because to do so would mean losing you but that doesn't make what you did right and we now have no ally in town."

"We don't need one, we certainly don't need a leech lover like Charlie Swan."

"How did you become so bitter Leah? So hard?"

"When my body betrayed me into becoming a wolf guardian and I lost Sam to Emily that's when"

She shrugged free of my hand and ran off in the direction of the reservation while I fumbled, blinded by tears, for the keys to my car.

Leah

My own father disapproved of our actions! He was only too happy to tell the stories of the spirit warriors but he couldn't stand the brutal reality of their existence. We were owed for our dead and I would be looking to collect whether the elders agreed or not, whether Sam agreed or not. I would find Bella Swan and the Cullens and I would kill them all for my dead comrades. I stood looking up at the stars and vowed to revenge them as I shifted once more then howled my anger and loss into the silent cloudy sky. Then I ran on listening for Sam but not hearing his thoughts which meant he was in human form.

Once at our house I slipped in through the bedroom window and washed before dressing and going to look for my Alpha. Seth was alone in the house and surprised to see me,

"Where have you been Leah? We thought you'd been released a while back"

"I had some grieving to do. Where's Sam?"

"With the elders, is dad with you?"

"Your father you mean, he's no father of mine, he wouldn't even stand by his pack, or his daughter,"

"Because he felt what you'd done was wrong. It was all a set up, I see the injustice of that now. At the time I was caught up in the excitement of the planning. I think we lost sight of the innocent girl in the middle of all this. The girl who lost her humanity the same time we lost so many brothers."

"You too? Are all my family weak livered cowards?"

I pushed past him feeling my rage building and pushing it down with difficulty, I needed to stay human for a while.

Sam

I saw Leah and ran over to greet her,

"Sister, you're safe."

"Yes unlike our comrades who are all dead. What are we going to do Sam? We can't just let the Cullens leave and carry on their lives as if nothing has happened."

"The elders have asked for a face to face meeting with our supreme leader and he's agreed a video conference tomorrow. So we have until then to ensure that the story we give will get us the right result."

"And what's that?"

"An agreement for help in hunting the Cullens down and killing them for breaking the treaty, that is the truth after all. They bit Bella Swan, a human, that was in breach of the treaty."

"Do you think anyone will try to tell a different story?"

"Maybe, your father for one and he's infected Seth with his pacifist ideas. It might be a good idea if the two of them were away from the meeting with Johnny H."

"OK but how? I want to be there."

"Oh he'll want to hear your story Leah. Perhaps we can persuade Seth that it would be safer if he kept your father from attending."

"Will he do it?"

"He'll have no choice, remember he just phased for the first time. I can give him an Alpha command he can't refuse."

Leah nodded, her jaw tight with tension.

"We shouldn't have lost so many. How did that happen Sam?"

"The unknown, the wild card as always. The one thing you can't plan against. There was another vampire, a nomad, in the area and he sided with them."

"Do we know who he was?"

"Yes but I have no intention of stirring up that particular hornets nest. Leah there are a few, a very few vampires that it pays to steer clear of and he is the worst of those. I want no fight with him, we're going to let that go. He has left the area and is not a part of the Cullen family."

"But he killed our own"

"We are lucky he didn't arrive earlier or none of us would be standing here. I know this leech by reputation and I can tell you that if Johnny H hears he was involved this will turn ugly very quickly. He knows The Major would not get involved unless he thought it necessary, he doesn't usually concern himself with others, human or supernatural."

"But..."

I cut her off,

"No Leah, you will not bring him into this and that's an Alpha command. The Major was not there, it was the Cullens alone. Have you got that clear in your mind?"

Her brow creased in vexation but she couldn't override my command and eventually she looked down submissively and nodded,

"It was just the Cullens."

Harry

I didn't want to return to the res but I had no choice, I needed to see what happened at the meeting of the elders and I wanted to speak to both my children, explain why I felt the way I did, try to make them see how foolish, criminal even, their enterprise had been and the waste of life when no one had to die. If they had left the Cullens alone they would have moved on in a couple of years and the pack would have stopped phasing then, life would have gone back to normal with no loss of life. I didn't want the leeches so close but I did believe in the Cullens integrity.

When I got back only Seth was home and he was very quiet,

"Do you know where your mother and sister are?"

"Mum is at an elders council and Leah went looking for Sam. Do you really disapprove of their actions so strongly?"

"Yes I do. Lives were lost needlessly Seth. The Cullens were no threat to us, the only problem they caused was our young people to phase but that wasn't for ever. Once they left the wolves would have stopped phasing and returned to their lives. Was it worth all the deaths to get what? The same outcome, the Cullens gone. The price however was too high, lives were lost on both sides, ours and the human. The wolves reason for being was to protect us from the leeches and not by throwing a human to them."

"I phased dad. I became a wolf but Sam wouldn't let me go with him, he ordered me to stay here, said it wasn't right putting both Leah and I at risk and leave you and mum with no one."

My heart sank, I could hear my sons pride in his wolf side, so I'd lost both my children after all.