Jake's POV

When I came around, I found Seth leering over me. I was surprisingly on the sofa at his house. I didn't remember lying down and my head was banging.

I tried to sit up, but Seth shoved me back down.

"Stay there." He glared.

"What the fuck Seth? Get off me you idiot." I swatted him away and pushed myself up, quickly standing.

To my surprise he got in front of me again.

"Do you want me to shove my foot up your ass? Get the hell out of my way," I growled. I couldn't figure out why Seth was acting so out of character. Then I saw Leah in the doorway and remembered everything.

She threw me a deathly glare and stormed up the stairs. Instinctually, I tried to follow. Seth threw his arm out blocking me, until we heard her bedroom door shut.

"Outside. Now!" he ordered me.

On any other occasion I wouldn't have taken this from anyone. However, I knew how he felt about his sister and the full implications of the mess I made were dawning on me.

I walked out of the Clearwater house slowly with my head hung low. If I was phased my tail would be between my legs. My head was so screwed up and I knew I had just made everything worse. Everything I had tried to pick Leah up from, everything I had promised her, I had broken. I had crossed a line.

I had to give Seth his dues. Once outside, he dragged me far enough away that Leah wouldn't hear us. He then proceeded to use some colourful language, (which I had no doubt he learnt from her), to tell me what I could and couldn't do to his sister. Needless to say, the 'could' list was a lot shorter.

Once his rant was finished, he calmed down and apologised for speaking to me like that. I told him not to be sorry. He was the only one of us left who hadn't let her down and he was protecting her.

I felt like I was now as bad as Sam. Kissing Leah was wrong, no good could ever come of it; I could never be hers. I had taken her trust and screwed it up.

I honestly loved Nessie. The problem being that we weren't yet in any kind of relationship. A part of me didn't know if we ever would be. Nessie thought I was her guardian and friend and so that was the role I played.

Leah was like a substitute - she was already my best friend, she was beautiful, she understood me and I was attracted to her. That wasn't fair to her though. I should never have tried for more because Nessie would always control my destiny. Leah knew me better than I knew myself; she saw everything for what it was.

I hated myself. I had wanted to kiss her; I saw how hurt she was and couldn't bare it. She has always been amazing in my eyes. Yet, it was undeniably wrong.

It was proof again that this imprinting thing was one big screw up. It was all well having an almighty love, but the loss of control I felt being away from her screwed my head up. As a result, my only other rock was taken from under me, just mere hours after I had gotten her back.

I knew everyone would think I was a pig for making a move on Leah when I had Ness, especially the imprints, but it wasn't as simple as that. I was just lucky that at the moment only Seth knew. Unfortunately, with the pack mind it won't stay hidden long. The easiest solution would be to issue a gag order, for Leah's sake more than mine.

Seth seemed to sense my already dejected mood and reassured me it would be ok. He warned me that Leah was not going to be easily forgiving, but she was still going to step up tonight. As if to justify everything I just thought - my heart skipped a beat that I might still have a chance to join Nessie.

Until I then, I would try and do some damage control. This wasn't the best time to be screwing mine and Leah's relationship up, especially after everything she had been through today. I had only added more crap to her plate.

I told Seth I was going to do the rounds and I would see him later at the Cullen's house. Annoyingly, the day passed slowly and I couldn't think clearly. By the time evening fell and it was time for the meeting, things had only got worse; I was irritable and pissed off - mainly at myself.

When I arrived at the house, most people were already gathered in the lounge. Leah was standing to one side talking to Seth. I had approached her and I tried to join in their conversation, thinking stupidly that it would be that easy.

The evil look she gave me was the best to date. Seth made some excuse and left us alone, but the minute I tried to speak she gave me a straight faced ultimatum:

We were done, our friendship was over. I was her alpha, she was my beta. I needed to back off immediately and either let her try to take over my alpha duties, or she would throw it all in and go home.

Either way, she wasn't going to talk to me about anything non-pack related.

I cringed at my choices. Leah was clearly hurt and angry. I just hoped she wouldn't actually follow through with this crazy idea about ending our friendship - we had been through too much together, and I cared about her what ever happened.

Leah was smart though. She knew that I would be persistent and wouldn't drop it. The ultimatum gave me no choice in the matter. I wasn't sure she would really follow through, but my future with Nessie depended on her being alpha. The risk was too high for me to gamble.

There had to be a way to make it better though. I had no patience and Leah had a ton of stubbornness.

I spent most of the meeting watching, listening and scowling as I tried to think my way out of this fucked up situation.

In the meantime, the alpha in me noted how well Leah conducted herself when talking to everyone. There was only one small blip with Brady, which in true Leah spirit she crushed instantly, but apart from that it went well - obviously, not well in the way that there were no developments with the skinning and murder, but well in that I was right to put my faith in Leah. She had the instincts of a good leader.

Unfortunately, as soon as the meeting was over things didn't change; we all hung around for a bit, but Leah avoided me. She was settling in to things though, at least until Corey decided to live life dangerously. At that point she ordered us home.

I had to control myself as I left; I was already worked up and would have been quite happy to add another skinned wolf to today's count. Corey should never have spoken about her like that.

In the end, I walked out and thought better of staying at the Clearwater's house. I didn't want to wake up being smothered with a pillow. Instead, I had to go home and suffer the noises coming from Rachel's room - there are things a brother should never hear, and with my wolf hearing I was going to be scarred forever.

As soon as I was in my room, I picked up the telephone and called Nessie. I was pleased that I did; she made everything seem better again. The bell like sound of her voice and laugh was enough to make me smile and forget the day. I picked up on a change in her though; she seemed happier and sadder in a different way to before. It made me worry even more that the distance was having as bad an effect on her as it was on me. Conflicted once again I wished that this thing with Leah worked out so I could be with my imprint.

The next morning, I called round to the Clearwater's house before patrol. I wanted to get some feedback on how Leah thought the meeting went. If I had to talk pack stuff all day just to hear her voice I would. To my surprise her car was gone, but I let myself in using the spare key. When I saw Seth was still asleep and she was definitely gone, I let myself out again.

I was admittedly pissed off that she was outside alone after I had asked her to be sensible, but I knew better than to track her down and went about my routine as usual.

By the next day and the sparring match, I was completely pissed off with life in general. I stopped myself ringing Nessie for fear of making her miss me even more and I had no idea if Leah was planning on attending the pack training. There was also no sign of our mystery guest (that seemed to be everyone's name for the person responsible for the dead wolf).

Seth and Embry still met up with me at mine and we went to the Cullen's house together. Luckily Seth was back to his normal self, (as long as Leah was left out of anything non-pack related). Embry was also ok; he had of course demanded to know what was going on after the meeting last night. He was no fool, and when he got it out of me last night, Quil had to hold him back as tremors ran through him and he lectured me about imprinting and Leah. Quil being Quil had found the whole thing fairly amusing; he enjoyed the fact that he didn't have any of this shit to deal with yet.

On arrival at the Cullen's house today, I immediately strolled outside and was at least somewhat happy to see that Cris had just given Paul a beating, (especially after his activities last night), and was waiting for the next contender. The idea of fighting someone that was actually some competition made my adrenaline soar, and I was sure it would be a channel for my negative energy as well.

AN

Hey all,

Sorry this chapters been a while, it's another short one, but the next will follow soon. Unfortunately, life has a nasty habit of biting you in the arse when you least expect it, so it's a good job I'm ahead on my chapters, or I might have been really behind with my updates.

Thanks as always to my beta and the reviews.

Maybe we can make 201 with this one though?

xxxx