AN: Hey everyone! I'm so sorry for the long wait! I'm not officially back yet since my exams are about to start but I really wanted to get this chapter out to you guys! I'm not sure if I mentioned it before or not but this story does take place during Eclipse. I've tweaked a few things to work well with my story so I'm not exactly sticking to the actual storyline of Eclipse. Just wanted to clarify that. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 5- Bad Dog
Long ago, there lived a beautiful witch named Athina. She hid herself amongst the people of the Quileute tribe, hoping to escape from the pale-faces who were after her. Because of the tribe's small size and Athina's exotic beauty, many people wondered who she was and where she came from. She didn't pose herself as a threat to anyone so the tribe let her be, she couldn't have been more than eighteen anyways, completely harmless... so they thought. One day, Athina and two other girls from the tribe came across a creature that looked like a man but was hard like stone and cold as ice. Athina managed to escape the creature, as for the other two girls; they got their throats ripped out. Athina could have used magic to stop the vile creature from killing those two children but she chose to admire its beauty from the safety of a bush. Two spirit warriors from the tribe finally arrived at the scene and found the creature crouched over the two lifeless bodies of the tribe girls. Its eyes were blood red and its teeth were sharp and bared. The two men transformed into large, feral wolves, taking out the vampire with their sharp teeth and claws. Athina watched in horror and fascination, as another one of those creatures got ripped apart by the two wolves. Once they managed to destroy the strange creatures, the two wolves phased back into their human form, burning the remains of the creatures in a small fire. They later on found Athina hiding in the bushes and asked her what had happened. She told them exactly what happened, leaving out the part where she could have helped them. Athina wondered why these two different, yet powerful creatures were fighting each other like sworn enemies. They should be fighting against the pale-faces, the real enemies. She created the body switch curse in order to get these sworn enemies to see life through each other's eyes. She would then use this alliance to destroy the pale-faces. Some of the wives in the tribe became suspicious of the witch after they found out that she was present during the murder of the helpless tribe girls. They followed her around one day and caught her using magic. She tried to run once the women told the spirit warriors but it was too late, they had trapped her. With no vampires present, she could not go through with the switch. She confessed, telling them what she planned to do to them. The spirit warriors did not care to listen. They blamed her for the death of the two young girls, burning her at the stake along with the gem. Athina did a last minute spell that bound her with gem, making it virtually indestructible. A lightening bolt suddenly appeared out of the sky, no rain to accompany it. The bolt hit the stake, splitting it in half. The witch mysteriously disappeared. The only thing that remained was the gem. The spirit warriors feared that the witch had actually cursed the gem so they buried it deep within the earth. To this day, some still say that the witch's spirit lives within the gem and whoever awakens it will be the next victim of the body switch curse. Others still believe that you need a werewolf and a vampire to awaken the gem again. The remaining portion of people believes that the gem has no actual power.
Em's Antique Shop
"Leah, thanks again for watching the shop for me while I was gone" Emily said gratefully after a quick inspection of the shop. It was still in good condition, just the way she left it.
Sam had taken Emily out on a cruise to the Caribbean. He needed some time away from the pack and some time alone with his girl. But most of all, he needed some time away from Leah. She was starting to become that dreaded third wheel and whenever she was around, Sam and Emily would never get time alone to themselves. Sam still loved Leah but not in the way that Leah wanted him to love her. What they had was special, but it was all over once Sam imprinted on Emily.
"No problem… Did you have a good time?" Leah asked her cousin reluctantly.
The lone female wolf still had feelings for Sam and deep down inside, she hoped that he would come running back to her.
Time abruptly stopped when Emily held out her left hand, wiggling her fingers in Leah's face. A glint caught Leah's eye and her heart stopped as well.
"Sam proposed!" Emily gushed, giggling like a little schoolgirl.
Leah's mouth fell open in shock. She had no words to describe what she was feeling at the moment. She couldn't even find her voice to congratulate her cousin on her engagement.
It was over. She would never get Sam back. He would be Emily's forever.
Emily's grin slowly disappeared, but not because of Leah's heartbroken expression.
The display glass case on the front wall of the antique shop was mysteriously vacant. It was the same glass case that was supposed to hold the beautiful amethyst gem.
"The gem! What happened to the gem?" Emily gasped, brushing past Leah to get a closer look at the case. Maybe her eyes were deceiving her. The gem couldn't possibly be gone.
"Leah? What happened to the gem?" Emily asked urgently, trying to get a response out of her cousin.
"I don't know what happened to the fucking gem! I didn't touch it!" Leah cursed, her body starting to shake with anger.
Sam was Emily's now! Who could Leah possibly love now? She imprinted on Sam! He was her life! Emily stole him from her!
" Do not cuss at me!" Emily retorted," I left you in charge of the shop for a week and you still managed to lose the most valuable, most dangerous item in the shop".
They were going to get married. There was no warning. No nothing. How could they?
"Oh please! Don't tell me you believe in that whole "cursed gem" bullshit!" Leah scoffed, remembering the legend about the evil witch and the cursed gem that the elders insisted on telling them at every single council meeting.
"Of course I don't, but the elders do! They'll go insane if they find out that there is a cursed gem out there, unprotected! You have to find it!" Emily demanded, desperately.
"Me? I'm not gonna go looking for a cursed gem!" Leah said, crossing her arms stubbornly.
" I thought you said it wasn't cursed?" Emily shot back.
" Okay, this is stupid! I told you I didn't touch the gem! This is your shop! Maybe if you were here keeping watch of it, instead of partying it up with Sam in the Caribbean, then we wouldn't be in this mess!" Leah yelled, her body starting to shake uncontrollably now.
One wrong move and Emily was going to have the unscathed side of her face match the scarred one.
"Leah, this whole thing needs to stop! I'm sorry Sam left you, but you can't keep blaming me for it! I didn't pick Sam! He picked me! Get over it!" Emily yelled, hitting a nerve in Leah.
Leah's right fist struck Emily hard across the face, bringing tears to the helpless girls eyes instantly.
Leah knew she would regret this later but she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment.
The she wolf left the antique shop for the Blacks residence, ignoring Emily's whimpers behind her.
Leah barged into Jacob's bedroom, not even bothering to knock on the door first.
"Leah! What are you doing here? You can't just barge into my room like this! What if-"
"You were masturbating to a picture of Bella?" Leah offered.
" Fuck you!" Jacob growled, " What do you want?"
"We're patrolling the rez tonight" Leah replied, rolling her eyes at Jacob's forgetfulness.
"Oh…Yeah" Jacob sighed, running a heavy hand across his face.
"How could you forget that we're patrolling tonight?" Leah asked, sensing that something was wrong with Jacob. He was usually in such high spirits.
"I just did! Okay?" Jacob snapped, grabbing a dirty shirt from the floor and putting it on, "I'm sorry".
"Whatever. At least you didn't punch me in the face" Leah said guiltily, picturing her cousin lying on the floor of the antique shop, clutching the left side of her face in pain.
"I hope I didn't cause too much damage," Leah thought nervously.
"Punch you in the face? Leah, why would I do that to you?"
"I know you wouldn't. It's just that I got into an argument with Emily today and got so mad that I punched her in the face" Leah admitted, lowering her head in shame. The guilt was definitely starting to settle in.
"What! Are you insane? Sam's going to go ape shit once he finds out!" Jacob warned her, " What the hell happened anyways?"
"They're getting married, Jake!" Leah started.
Apart from Leah, the rest of the pack was informed about the upcoming proposal. Everyone decided it was best to keep it a secret from her, knowing how bitter and angry she could get in a matter of seconds.
"So that gives you permission to punch your cousin in the face?" Jacob groaned, not wanting to deal with the whole Leah, Sam, and Emily love triangle drama. He had enough issues to deal with right now.
" No, it's not just that. She got mad at me because the stupid amethyst gem is missing, the one that's supposed to be cursed or some stupid shit like that".
Jacob's face paled as soon as the words left Leah's mouth. It didn't go unnoticed.
Leah sat on the edge of his bed and spoke to him softly, " Jake, what's wrong?"
Jacob sighed before looking up at his female accomplice, "I did something bad, Leah. Very fucking bad".
"I'm sure it's not as bad as punching your cousin in the face" Leah assured him.
"No, trust me… it's really bad".
"Okay, enough of this back and forth shit. Just tell me. What did you do?" Leah asked impatiently, needing to get their patrol over with so she could help Seth with his homework. After their father's death, Seth's grades have been dropping drastically.
" I-I'm the one who took the gem," Jake confessed.
" Really? That's all? Dude, I thought you killed someone or something" Leah sighed in relief, " Just give the gem back and problem solved".
"It's not that easy, Leah" Jacob cut in, " I gave it to someone".
"So get it back!" Leah replied curtly, wondering why Jacob was turning this into such a big deal.
"I can't just take it back! I gave it to someone as a gift!" Jake said uneasily.
"Wait, hold up! Are we talking about a girl here?" Leah asked in shock.
Leah took Jacob's silence as confirmation.
" Who is it? Amy? Olivia? Wait no, I got it, Natalie!" Leah guessed eagerly. Jake needed a good Quileute girl in his life to distract him from the evil pale-faced one who was currently terrorizing it.
"No." Jacob replied in distaste, having no interest whatsoever in the girls that Leah mentioned, especially Natalie.
"Then who?" Leah growled in frustration, " Are you gay or something?"
"No! Leah, it's Bella! I gave the gem to Bella as a graduation gift!" Jacob admitted, gripping at his short hair with self-resentment.
"Wait, I'm confused. You knew that the gem was cursed and you still gave it to Bella?"
" I gave the gem to Bella so that one of those bloodsuckers that she insists on hanging around would awaken the gem. Only then could I put my plan into motion," Jacob confessed guiltily.
"I'm listening" Leah urged, wondering where Jake was going with this.
"That's the reason why I dragged Quil and Embry along to the Cullen's graduation party. In case the psychic pixie caught me, I had Quil and Embry there to watch my back. The gem was attached to a charm bracelet, along with the hand carven, wooden wolf. Once I gave the gift to Bella, she disappeared with the pixie chick for a while, when she came back to dance with me, the gem was glowing. So I made a wish on it, at least that's what I heard you had to do from one of the elders. My plan was to make Bella fall out of love with that leech. Edward and I should have switched bodies by now. Something went wrong".
"Jake, are you crazy? How could you be so fucking foolish? First of all, that's the worst plan I have ever heard! Did you think that once Edward was in your body that he'd just sit back and watch the show? What if he tried to attack the pack? Why would you risk our lives as well? You were the last person I would think to do something stupid like this! I can't believe you would actually switch bodies with a bloodsucker!" Leah spat in disgust.
"I'm not crazy! I love her, Leah! She just can't see that because of the stupid bloodsucker in the way!" Jacob growled.
"I can't believe how clueless you're, Jake! She doesn't fucking love you. She clearly doesn't want you! Move on with your life! You're only sixteen! You don't know what love is! You've got tons of girls falling for you. Girls who worship you!" Leah exclaimed, trying to get this through Jake's thick skull.
" That coming from the girl who punched out her ex-boyfriend's fiancé! You still can't let go of Sam, can you? God Leah, you're such a hypocrite! Here you are criticizing me when we all know that if the roles were reversed, you would do the same thing! Admit it!" Jake yelled.
"You know this is not the same type of situation! At least I know for a fact that Sam still loves me!" Leah yelled back, glaring at Jake through tear-blurred vision. She knew Jake was right. She'd do anything to be with Sam again.
"I know Bella loves me! I know she feels something for me! I was there for her when Edward wasn't! She was suffering, breaking down. I pieced her back together, not him! He doesn't even know who she really is! Only I do! I'm the man for her, not him! He's not even alive!" Jacob seethed.
"Exactly! He's dead! You're willing to throw your life away, just like that? What if you can't switch back! You'd be stuck in his body forever! Would you want that? Just to be with her? She's just playing you, Jake! She already got what she wanted and now she's still fucking around with you!" Leah shouted.
"Why can't this boy see that Bella is no good for him? He deserves way better than her!" Leah thought angrily.
"I was willing to do whatever it took to make Bella mine! As a matter of fact, I still am!" Jacob said determinedly.
"Need I remind you, one of those filthy bloodsuckers that you wish to be so dearly, killed my father? My little brother doesn't have a father anymore because of that red headed bitch! If it weren't for the pack keeping him in check, I don't know how Seth would turn out," Leah cried in anger.
Jake had to get away from all the yelling. A good run was just what he needed.
" Leah, I'm sorry. I know I messed up, okay? I didn't think this through. I'll get the gem back and return it to Emily myself, make something up about why I took it in the first place. No one else ever has to know." Jacob promised, " You just have to promise me that you won't tell anybody what I did. Not even the pack. Especially not Bella."
Leah stayed silent, staring past Jacob out the window. She didn't know what to think of the situation anymore. Everything was just falling apart.
Jacob didn't wait for her response. She'd join him when she was ready. He brushed past Leah, ignoring Billy's pleas to tell him what was going on and ran out of the house, exploding into a reddish-brown wolf.
Once Leah got her emotions in check, she followed Jacob outside, transforming into an exquisite grey wolf.
What the two shape-shifters didn't know was that they were too late. An unexpected switch had already been made and there wasn't much time left before it became permanent.
TBC