[Edit: 3 Oct 2021]
[A/N: I'm not particularly happy with this chapter, it just feels awkward. At the moment, however, I can't think of how to change it...so.]
The words tumble from my smiling mouth and if I were in any other state of mind I might have punched myself repeatedly for that comment. But if you protect them properly, whether they beat or not isn't important… Who says that kind of sappy bullshit? As it was, it seemed that even I was capable of such word vomit and despite my horror at it, I can't manage being sorry I said it.
The vampires seem just as perturbed as I am; they stare at me in some agreed silent bewilderment, various expressions of scowling and dropped jaws with the special further addition of my personal nervous smile. We must look like lunatics standing there in the stillness, focused on my foolish attempt at…well, I'm not too sure what I was attempting to achieve with that, but we must still look rather bizarre.
All I can say in my defence is that the words were not my own. Yes, I said them and surely that would make them mine, but I refuse to believe I had that cheesy nonsense cooped up in me all along. I was to blame it on the fact that I had literally just bloody imprinted on a vampire – okay, a hybrid, but it was still pretty close.
And, my sweet mother of all things holy, I realised for the first time how truly left out I had been before. The pack had often thought about their imprints, only the actual imprint was hardly ever dwelled on. No one had ever bothered to mention how bloody awkward it would be to realise that the person standing in front of me would be the centre of my world now. No one had bothered to helpfully think about, how do I tell this complete stranger that my heart and soul belong to them now? How had Jacob first told the Cullens that he imprinted on their baby girl? How had Sam told Emily? How had Paul told Rachel?
How do I tell Klaus?
Klaus, with his handsome face and rich, accented voice, could so easily throw me away. He didn't know of our wolf customs, at least I didn't think so, and surely by the cold glint I had witnessed in his eyes before, Klaus would not hesitate in disregarding how I felt.
It hurt slightly, suddenly, that clearly if hybrids could imprint, he had not done so. What if he imprinted later? Found himself a lover and life partner? I didn't mind the role of confidant or friend too much, not when it was him, yet if he managed to imprint on another he would hold her above all else. I would not be able to help and protect him the way my whole body was suddenly aching to do, I could never be enough.
But still, gazing at him, with his cold, gem blue eyes, I feel...comforted.
Like a stupid, loyal puppy.
So happy just to be in his presence, just to know that he knew I was there for him, willing to do anything to make sure that for some precious seconds I existed in his world. Originally I had thought Jacob's connection with the vampire child had been strange, everyone with their imprints were strange. Yet, looking at Klaus now, a man I barely know, who surely doesn't care about me in the least, I feel like my life finally holds some sense, that there is a reason for my existence other than to keep Seth out of trouble.
A soul mate or whatever he was to me now, I would do anything for him, be anything for him. I would never leave his side or turn away from his anguish, never close my ears to the sound of his voice or forget the way his eyes lightened or darkened. I would bear the brunt of his anger or delight in his joy. I would never allow anyone to harm him. Because, without him even knowing it, he was my world, the thing that kept me tethered to the Earth and the air in my lungs.
There is a part of me – the rational, old part of myself that has weathered years of heartbreak – that is terrified that Klaus won't understand; it was the same part of me that looked on this imprint thing as a sort of prison. The whole thing is a shamble of insane devotion to a complete stranger.
A stranger that now holds my life in his unknowing hands…
I want to scream and rage and beg the ancestors to take it back. Was my life not hard enough? Am I to be punished and cast aside forever? But I can feel warmth in my chest and a kind of peace in my muscles I've never felt before. It's unfair, I think, that even now my heart aches for Sam. If this is how he felt when he met her, if this is it, then my hurt is invalid.
He couldn't have loved me, I decide, not like this.
Elena makes a comment and I turn my head to her, blinking as I try to shake off the fuzzy daze that keeps sucking me toward Klaus's sculpted face. All I could manage past the emotions gnawing at my stomach is an undignified grunt of, "Huh?"
The female vampire gives me a concerned look; "Are you alright?" the way her lips purse ever so slightly suggests that she is questioning my sanity. "You-you were saying strange things."
I manage to nod once, indeed I'm not myself. Strange wasn't appropriate for it, I would think, maybe indescribably sappy or disgustingly fluffy would be apt. Unnatural for me, certainly. If I could tell her 'I'm all right' I would, but I doubt I'd ever be so again.
Imprinted – On a half-vampire.
This was torture and absurdity and delight all in one.
"I'm," my eyes slide back to the Original and for a moment I'm lost for words, whether it's because he is mesmerising or I just don't have a reasonable answer for Elena, I don't know. I press my lips into a line, tensing my jaw and grinding my teeth together, forcing my legs to support my body. "I'm fine,"
On either side of me the vampires seem to shudder their disbelief, but neither says anything to disregard my answer.
Across the room Klaus is getting clearly impatient and when he groans, he calls all our gazes to his attention. "Can we get on with it already? I'm bored of this and, despite the obscene identity crises of the wolf, we have things to discuss."
Stephan nods, "Elena," he begins and the vampire on my other side straightens, her hands tightening on me more in a need for comfort than to give me unneeded support. "We need your help searching for the cure. The vampire cure," he adds slowly, making sure to cover all bases.
My gaze is still on Klaus and so I see his eyes narrow minutely, I watch his eyes sparkle with a deadly threat that somehow has butterflies flying within my stomach. I recognise that gaze as that of a predator, a creature used to staking out its prey and attacking where they're most vulnerable. It makes me feel proud to have imprinted on him. Well, at least my wolf side is impressed; the human side of me finds it eerily dark and harsh, something not looked on with admiration.
Because of this it takes me a moment to catch up with what they're saying.A cure? For vampirism? Something like that can't possibly exist. It seems insane, I don't see how such a thing could work. Granted, I knew a few vampires who would jump at the chance to have a cure. Rosalie for one, the vampire would likely do anything to get her hands on a cure, I've never met a creature more desperate for a chance to have children.
"Yes, yes, I know all this already. Do you really think I haven't figured out everything you are doing?" Klaus straightens and one of his long-fingered hands waves delicate, lazy circles in the air toward us. "Why would I help you?" he asks, his sky-blue eyes verging on icy. "I don't necessarily like you, mind me, Elena, and I don't trust Stefan enough to blindly follow you into the unknown."
Next to me Elena snarls, looking more like a vampire than I had seen from her so far. "What, so you'd help us if we had one of your lackeys tag along? What about Damon?"
"Well now, he is a rather unpredictable character and I do like him more than I like the two of you." He pretends to think for a moment, hand resting on his chin, "But you're aware that Damon has as much interest in finding the cure as I do?"
Stefan stiffens, "He'll be happy for Elena, whatever she decides to do."
"That's what it all comes down to isn't it? Elena, Elena. Everything is always about Elena. Stefan loses his humanity for Elena." The vampires recoil at the words. "Caroline turns into a vampire, because of Elena." My eyes dart to the side to affix on the girl's contorted face. "Bonny's grandmother dies, because of Elena. I make hybrids with Elena's blood. Katherine is jealous of Elena. Both Salvatore brothers love Elena. Elena's aunt is a sacrifice. Elena tries to have me killed. Elena chooses Stephan over Damon. Elena gets killed. Elena is a vampire. Elena doesn't want to be one. Elena is all I ever hear about."
We are silent, only my lonesome breaths fill the air.
"You see, Elena, I'm sick of everything always revolving around you. For some time it was amusing, but now I'm bored. You are not the only doppelganger, it might take me some time to find, but I'm sure there is another out there. I need you less than you expect. And how were you going to get me to agree? It's clear that this wolf wasn't an offering after all and how do I assume that as soon as you have the cure you'll give me some of your blood? I find it hard to believe that you'd do that, and even less that Stephan or Damon would allow you to."
"They don't allow me to do anything," Elena growls, "I'll do as I wish."
"And if your wish threatens Damon and Stefhan's position in your life?"
"We'll do what Elena wants," Stephan says with hard eyes.
"No, correction," Klaus stalks across half the room to stare the vampires down. "You'll do what Elena wants, Stefan. Damon will do what he pleases and finds appropriate to carry out his selfish ways."
As if by saying this he had finished off his court case, Klaus turns away and strolls back to the desk, three sets of eyes following him.
He leaves in his wake, a compelling scent that makes my stomach curl and despite my weakest protests, I want to follow the unique brew all the way to the scowling man across the room from me. Klaus, I decide, is probably a man that I shouldn't cross, a man used to being the Alpha of his pack. An Alpha who's lost his pack. I want more than anything in that moment to wrap him in a hug, give him the comfort he was too strong to admit he needed.
I expect Elena to continue fighting for what she wants, but she half-turns to Stefan and mutters a barely there whisper, "Let's go,"
They turn, with me still between them. But I can't leave. Because I have a reason to stay and endure the sullen gaze of the Original hybrid. I want to stay. He might not know it, but he needs someone and I need to be that someone.
"Leah?" The female asks when I don't move.
I turn to her and give a small shrug. "I'm going to stay."
"Stay?" Stephan says incredulously.
With a nod, my eyes flicker to Klaus, I watch his confusion be replaced by annoyance. He seems to be annoyed a lot. "Stay?" the Original copies.
"Yes," I'm not much of a smiler, but recently my lips haven't been cooperating with me so I ignore their attempt to tug at the corners and reassure those around me. "I think I'll stay." And to give some context to the situation, "Klaus wants wolves to make hybrids," not that I'd let him turn me into one, "I need a pack and you need a peace offering," or a mediator, "It works out for the time being,"
"Who said you could stay?" Klaus growls.
I look at him, gazing deeply into those expressive eyes and running appreciatively over his angular facial structure. "I was hoping you would,"
Now, I know from the short time I've been in the room already, Klaus isn't one to be gentle and forgiving. In fact, if I managed to get him to allow me to stay here, I doubt he would treat me any better than dirt or care if something happened to me. My staying would probably be to amuse him at most.
"You were now, were you?" His light eyes sparkle with a meaning I cannot read, but I don't bother to decipher it. He was my gravity now, whatever menacing things he could come up with, I would bear. "Very well," he says eventually, "You can stay. I'll have Hayley sort everything out for you."
The female wolf slips into the room as soon as her name is mentioned. She gazes at Klaus with something between adoration and respect. "Yes?"
Elena turns to me, "Leah, you don't need to-"
"She wants to stay, let her." Klaus interrupts and the female vampire's face manages to go slightly green before she gives a curt nod and escapes the room with Stefan in tow. "Alone at last," Klaus sighs and turns to look at me, "Hayley, show her a room and then bring her to me in the dining hall."
It crosses my mind briefly, that if these hybrids are Klaus's pack then from what I've seen, Hayley must be his Beta. My position in Jacob's pack was Beta when Renesme was born. Yet when I returned to Sam's pack I was lucky to escape being an Omega, for the mere fact that I was a descendent from all three the Ateara, Black and Uley lines and happened to be the fastest wolf in the pack. My being fast was a key to hunting vampires.
"Of course," the girl mutters and her mouth juts out in clear displeasure. "Follow me," the woman frog marches me out of the room and for the second time that day I'm too confused and weary to do anything but obey.