Leah did not panic. There was no room to panic, especially not when the slightest overload of emotions could end with someone dead. Instead, she took off into the woods, just needing to run, hopefully escape what had happened to her; anything to keep herself from panicking because this was not happening to her; she did not imprint on a vampire.
She became aware of someone following her, the scent familiar, and she knew he wouldn't give up. So, with a frustrated sigh, she skidded to a halt and turned just as her brother overshot her. He stopped, turned around, and bounded back to her.
'Are you okay?' he asked with a small whine.
'I'm fine," Leah lied, a bite to her voice, 'go home Seth.'
'It's hard to lie to me, Leah, especially in this form,' Seth reminded her sitting on his back paws. 'I just felt this rush of euphoria from you, followed by some jealousy, anger, and panic…"
'I did not panic,' Leah snarled, needing that to be perfectly clear.
'Okay,' Seth relented holding up his left, front paw, 'but something happened, and the last time I felt anything remotely close to that was when Jacob…' Seth's eyes went wide. 'Wait, you didn't…?'
'Leave me alone, Seth.' Leah turned to leave, sensing the dejection from her brother. With an annoyed huff, she stopped, hanging her head, and softly said, 'Yes, okay, I did, but I don't want to talk about it.'
Before her brother could say anything else, she ran off into the woods, stopping just long enough to shift back into her human form. At least she had privacy as a human, the pack unable to enter her mind via telepathy, but it also slowed her down considerably. She still wanted to run, needed to, but beggars couldn't exactly be choosers.
As her panic mellowed, her anger began to take hold. Why was this happening to her? Why, out of every single stupid guy (hell she'd even settle for a girl) on this planet, why did she have to imprint on a stinking vampire?
Wasn't it bad enough her father was dead? Wasn't it bad enough she was stuck shapeshifting into a goddamn werewolf (shapeshifter? whatever) because of those fucking things? Wasn't it bad enough she nearly lost her brother twice because of those things? She could never have children, never be normal, and this was just another kick to the head for her.
She lashed out, slamming her fist into a nearby tree, splitting it, and her hand, in two. Blood spilled down her fist, dripping onto the ground, and she stormed away from the tree, very much aware of it crashing into the ground.
The only thing that seemed to calm her down was the fact that there were no written rules that said she had to be with the bloodsucker. Yes, for the rest of her life it'd feel like a piece of her soul was missing, but as long as she avoided Emmett she could survive. She'd survived worse, ignoring her soulmate, or whatever, was not going to be her downfall. And avoiding Emmett would be easy since the werewolves weren't going to be needed (as far as she knew). This would be cake.
Twilight
For the next week Leah did a pretty good job at avoiding all vampires (especially Emmett). She threw herself into online classes, having the free time to do so, needing to do something other than wait by the phone for Jacob to call with another disaster courtesy of the local bloodsuckers. Her life felt almost normal except for the dull ache in her chest.
It started the day she decided to ignore the imprinting thing. It wasn't anything to be concerned about, health related things couldn't exactly harm her anymore, but it was annoying. Of course, like every other non-threat in her life, she ignored it, and continued to concentrate on her classes.
About mid-way through week two of Leah's 'I'm going to ignore this crap because I can' plan, she was sitting at the park, underneath a tree, reading a book for her English Lit class, when she heard a laugh from across a small pond. Any other laugh, on any other day, she would have kept reading, but a strong impulse forced her to look up, her dull pain becoming sharp and almost unbearable.
Her eyes locked on a familiar, hulking figure tossing a small girl into the air. She squealed in delight, giggling as the figure caught her, and Leah felt her heart nearly stop, her breath catching in her throat, at the sight of Emmett.
Of course, Leah thought shaking her head. With an annoyed huff, she forced herself to look back at her book. She tried to keep reading, but the laughter pierced her ears, causing her to read the same sentence six times. With a second, more forceful huff, she slammed her book and lithely got to her feet, shoving the book in her bag.
She turned to leave, needing to get the hell away from Emmett Cullen, but froze when she heard Renesme say, "I think that's Leah."
No, Leah thought miserably. Don't see me. Please don't see me.
Her prayers (extreme thinking) did her no favors, and soon she was overwhelmed by the scent of vampire. She turned, reminding herself that she had to, at the very least, act pleasant for Jacob's sake, and softly said, "Hi."
Renesme offered her a small smile, gripping Emmett's hand. He jumped slightly, anyone not paying attention would have missed it, and said, "Could you please not do that?" Renesme giggled, squeezing his hand. "It's that mind-meld thing she does," Emmett explained turning his golden eyes to Leah's brown ones, smiling. "Been asking her to stop, but like her bullheaded father and stubborn mother she never does as she's told."
"Uh-huh," Leah muttered trying to control the way her heart slammed against her chest. She needed to get away from him before she did something stupid; like pounce on his and shove her tongue down his throat. Something she both wanted to avoid but also see what happened if she tried it.
"Look," Emmett continued, obviously not letting Leah escape with her dignity, "I know you don't exactly trust us, and, let's face it, I'm not exactly Mr. Trusting when it comes to you either, but thanks for being there when the Volturi…" he trailed off, fear flashing in his eyes, only to be replaced by gratitude. "Just thanks."
"No problem," Leah answered quickly, burying her hands in her pocket. She wanted to touch his face, reassure him that everything was going to be alright, but fought the urge. "I need to go," she stated through clenched teeth.
"Yeah," Emmett responded, something akin to suspicion flickering in his eyes. "So do we." And he turned, leading Renesme away from Leah, still tightly holding onto her hand. She must have projected something into his mind because he answered, "I don't know."
Breathing a sigh of relief, hating her body for nearly betraying her, she turned on her heel and headed in the opposite direction. She very nearly shifted right there, needing to race off into the woods, but she remembered she had driven her mom's car, and her mother already hounded her several times for leaving her car parked in random areas.
She headed towards the parking lot, digging the keys out of her jeans' pocket, only to freeze when she smelled the overwhelming stench of vampires again. She breathed out her nose, speeding up slightly, not needing to get into a fight in the middle of a parking lot, at a park, where several humans were bound to see them.
"Look," Emmett started trailing behind her, "I get it, you are the mega, super bitch of your pack," Leah nearly froze at that, but forced herself to keep going, "but you don't have to act like an ass around Renesme. She's never done a goddamn thing to you."
Leah tried ignoring Emmett, her mother's car just in her sight, but between her pounding heart, the dull (or not so dull) ache in her chest, and the way she was just annoyed with vampires in general, she just couldn't do it anymore. So, with a frustrated sigh, she turned on her heel, causing the vampire to skid to a halt to avoid running into her, and snarled, "Don't presume to know anything about me, leech."
"Oh, are we back to name calling?" he asked coolly, crossing his arm. "Fine, mongrel, then let's pretend we never ran into each other." He then turned on his heel and stormed away, muttering under his breath.
Leah watched him go, the pain in her chest intensifying. She latched onto the nearest car, her legs shaking, threatening to collapse underneath her, and fought to breathe. She managed to compose herself several minutes later, running a hand through her short hair, and slowly headed back to her mom's car.
When she arrived home, Jacob was waiting on her front porch. Glaring at the car's ceiling, she wondered how far she'd get if she shifted and took off running into the forest. Probably not far, especially when Jacob could order her to come back, so with a frustrated huff, she removed the keys from the ignition and opened the door.
"Renesme called me," Jacob said the moment Leah approached him, "said you were a little hostile towards her and Emmett."
"I wasn't hostile towards the half…" she trailed off, noting the disapproval lingering in Jacob's eyes, and corrected, "...the girl or her leech uncle." She walked past him, continuing to talk, "I was in a hurry, he wanted to chat…"
"Seth told me what happened," Jacob informed her, and she stopped, rolling her eyes. "Leah, this is a good thing. You've found your other half. You don't realize how…"
"He's a vampire, Jake," Leah exploded, unable to keep it in anymore, turning to face him. "A blood sucking, cold, dead vampire; who has a blonde, dead, cold, blood sucking vampire to keep him warm… or cold, or whatever. Just drop it because I sure as hell am." And before he could call her back, she went inside and slammed the door behind her.
Heart pounding against her chest, her ache worse than before, Leah leaned against the door and tried to ride out the pain, just as she had done at the park, but she increasingly became aware that that may not be an option anymore; just as ignoring Emmett wasn't much of an option anymore. As much as she hated to admit it, she had to confront him eventually.
But that day was not today. As her pain subsided again, she pushed away from the door and trudged into the living room, dropping her bag on the floor. She slowly sat down, sinking into the couch's cushions, wishing, for the millionth time, beyond anything, that this whole 'werewolf/shapeshifter' thing had never happened to her. Why did any of this have to happen at all? Why couldn't this one family tradition skip her and Seth? And, more importantly, why couldn't the bloodsuckers just skip Washington all together? Leave Forks, go to Timbuktu or wherever, just get as far away from their reservation as possible.
Knowing normality was just not in the cards for her, Leah dragged herself to her feet and walked back to the door. She pulled it open, Jacob still standing on the porch. She met his eyes and softly said, "I need to talk to him." Mutely he nodded, holding up his keys to offer her a ride.
Closing the door behind her, Leah followed Jacob down the porch steps. As they headed towards his place, he turned to face her and asked, "Is it one of the Cullens?" She didn't respond, but something on her face must have been answer enough because he said, "This may be more problematic than you realize."
"You think," she stated deadpan, shaking her head. "If this starts another greaser/soc, werewolf/vampire war, blame it on the imprinting thing and not me."
"Hey, you imprinted on one of them," Jacob pointed out.
"Shut up," Leah snarled, pushing his head away and speeding up. Sometimes she really hated that she joined his pack.
Twilight
Emmett and Renesme were the only two home, the others scattered across town doing whatever vampires did in their spare time. Emmett's eyes narrowed when he opened the door, glaring down at Leah, only to light up slightly when they landed on Jacob.
"Come to get your ass kicked in Mortal Kombat again?" he asked with an easy smile. "Or are you ready to take me on in a real fight?"
"Neither," Jacob answered walking inside, accepting a hug from Renesme as she ran at him. "Leah came to apologize and…" he turned his attention to Leah, obviously waiting for her to ask for whoever she needed to talk to. On the car ride, she had assured Jacob that Edward was not the one she imprinted on, but she hadn't answered him when he asked about Jasper, Carlisle, or Emmett. She wanted to keep that secret for just a while longer.
"Can I talk to you?" Leah asked looking away from Jacob, her eyes settling on Emmett. She ignored the bug-eyed look Jacob threw her, nodding her head towards the front door. Confused and a little wary, Emmett nodded and followed Leah outside.
As she shut the door, Leah heard Jacob say, "Come on, Nessie. Let's go for a walk in the woods."
She waited until she could no longer hear their footsteps before returning her attention to Emmett. He was giving her an impatient look, clearly wanting to be anywhere else, and she could totally feel his pain. Hell, she'd rather be facing the entirety of the Volturi than have to do this.
"What did you want to talk about?" Emmett asked sharply, crossing his arms. "Or are you here to kill us all and save yourself the trouble of visibly hating us with every moral fiber you possess?"
Leah prided herself on being blunt, usually she didn't hesitate to speak her mind, but right that second she was at a loss. How did she explain this? Did she really want to explain this? She was perfectly happy ignoring Emmett and the imprinting thing.
A sharp pain told her she was not happy, and she sighed and said, "Did Jacob ever explain imprinting to you?"
"Imprinting?" Emmett's eyebrows shot up in disbelief. "Is this about Jacob and Nessie? Because, let's face it, we've already accepted that it happened. Yeah, it's a little weird that he imprinted on a baby, but she's going to be an adult in like seven years so…" he trailed off, suddenly realizing what he was saying, and shook his head. "What about imprinting?"
It was now or never. She drew in a deep breath, let it out, and opened her mouth to tell Emmett. Only to have her words die on her throat when a sharp, vicious voice said, "The treaty only holds if you don't kill any of us. Just remember that."
Leah turned to see Rosalie, the blonde bombshell of a blood sucker, stalking towards them. She shot Leah a malicious look before turning her attention to Emmett, wrapping her arm almost possessively around his bicep. "Is she bothering you?"
"Nah," Emmett answered with a wave of his hand. "Nothing I can't handle, babe."
Leah felt a jolt of jealously pierce her heart, anger boiling in her stomach, Emmett calling Rosalie babe like a gunshot wound, and she heard herself blurt out, "I imprinted on you!"
It's been like five years since I read the books, so excuse any OOCness. I've been meaning to sit down, refresh my mind, but until then I am relying on the Wikia page. So, bear with me.
Thanks to those few people who reviewed, alerted, and favorited last chapter.
Thanks for reading, I still don't own anyone, and leave me a comment if you can.
Bye!
P.S. I'll try to do Emmett's POV in the next chapter.