All those reviews…guys… I love you all so much right now ;3; Sorry the chapter isn't longer, and again I can't promise when the next update will be. I'll try my best to keep them consistent…
Without further ado, here's Christmas (kinda?).
Christmas isn't a big affair here. The vampires stopped celebrating life centuries ago and the purpose of the event has never been a part of the Quileute ancestry. No matter this, the Cullen house is decorated to perfectly match the festivities. Complete with a tree the vampires yanked out of the woods that Nessy happily strung mismatched strings of tinsel around.
It was Bella's doing, if you must know. Despite my misgivings on her sanity (she wanted to be a vampire for goodness sake), her insistence on bringing Nessy up as a normal little girl has my heart warming. Not that it took much convincing on her part. Everyone was more than eager to help set up the affair – perhaps it offered them a piece of normalcy as well.
Alice, of course, was the leading decorator and spent most of her time bossing around everyone to get the fairy lights just right. It's good she did though, because the Cullen house went from cool sterility to cheerful and, I'll admit, magical in its own right.
I carefully slip three gifts under the overflowing tree. They're small – I can't afford much with the meagre savings from the Grill – but they're worthwhile. The larger gifts act as a pedestal for mine.
As it grows darker outside the Cullen house grows louder. A squealing Nessy is getting a piggyback ride from Jacob, the vampires are laughing at Quinn's attempts to beat Emmet in arm wrestling, and the majority of the wolves are scarfing down chips, although they know that a late dinner had been planned.
It's only when the clock strikes eleven that the food comes out. By this time I'm surprised none of the wolves have started gnawing at the furniture legs. I myself was too nervous to snack.
Esme and mom usher the salivating men from their path and bring out a feast of dishes I won't even pretend to know existed. Once everything is set up Charlie, Bella, and Nessy take a moment to hold hands and close their eyes. Everyone quiets down in respect as Charlie murmurs a quick prayer, followed by two echoed 'amen's.
"Please, help yourselves," Esme retreats to the back of the horde of hungry onlookers, where the vampires all stand in reverent packs of two.
The wolf pack needs no prompting; they tear into the food like savages. I cringe and eye the humans and vampires in their midst. They must think we're barbarians. Heck, even I think the wolves are being a bunch of brutes.
When the space around the table has cleared up some, I grab a plate and observe the various dishes. My stomach churns. Delicately I separated a potato from some creamy dish. My stomach roils further and I cringe, there's this insufferable tightness in my throat. I turn to my right and push the single portion onto Jacob's growing mound of food; it's his second serving already. He doesn't ask and I don't explain.
The plate clutched in my hands, I head to the kitchen to rinse it off.
It's been six days since the call from Hayley. Six days in which I waited with variations of excitement and anxiety. They want me back. They're coming to Forks. Why aren't they here yet?
Granted I could have been back in Mystic Falls by now, but I promised Seth I'd stay for Christmas – not to mention I wanted to see if Klaus would actually come get me. Call it selfish, but the deeper part of my heart yearned to know if it was possible. Could Klaus really care?
Then again why had they bothered calling in the first place? Perhaps Hayley's sick of dealing with Klaus's mood swings on her own. This wouldn't surprise me, even though personally I've grown to miss them in my time away from Mystic Falls.
When confronted with the information of their call, Alice assured me that she couldn't pass the call on to me as they were hunting at the time; my world had seemed to stop and start spinning in reverse. If it was real, if they were really coming, what did it mean? The vampire had left me to my mussings and till this moment she's said nothing else of the matter. Vaguely I'm aware that only Alice, Jasper, and I know of this turn of events, yet I can't stop from wondering every few minutes why no one else is as edgy as I am.
I sigh and close my eyes, fighting off the nausea that's plagued me for the last two days. It can't be healthy to be this stressed over something so small.
Small. Huh. Ridiculous, this is everything. My soul mate, my forever person…vampire…wolf…hybrid. Klaus.
X|X|X|X|X
What drags me outside, I'll never know. Maybe it's some kind of sixth sense, a Klaus-Radar, if you will. Well, whatever it is I'm damn grateful for it.
I slip through the door with the murmurings of conversation trailing far behind me. For a moment my breathing stops, maybe my heart stops too. The ache in my chest surely suggests it's possible.
In the glow of the fairy lights he seems the same pale creature that escorted me to the Christmas dance. But it's Klaus. He's here. He came for me. Klaus came for me. The fact that Hayley is next to him staring up at the Cullen house in unfiltered awe hardly dampens the fact that it's Klaus, right in front of me.
He's here.
One corner of his mouth twists in that frustratingly contemptuous way he likes to use to piss me off. "Hey,"
And then I'm flying. I'm not sure how I get from the top of the stairs to the bottom and neither do I care. All that matters is the fact that my arms are around Klaus's shoulders and my face is buried against his neck. My skin against his skin. He smells familiar. He smells like home. And I'm crying. I don't know where the tears are coming from, I'm pretty sure I'm ecstatic, but they're there. So I cry – ugly, choking sounds that should have scared him off, but they don't.
A moment ticks by and his arms shift. Their pleasant strength radiates across my back as his hands come up and clutch me in return. A hug, a real hug. It's tender and tight, all the things I never allowed myself to imagine it would be. My tears flow in torrents and I'm damn sure he pressed a kiss to my hair before leaning his cheek against it.
"Klaus," I sob, or at least I attempt to. I can't imagine the word is legible in this moment.
The arms around me tighten, draw me closer – something I wouldn't imagine possible but am grateful for nonetheless.
"Miss me, Clearwater?"
I'd laugh if it wasn't for the sheer truth of the words. "Yes, damn it, of course I did."
He hums a reply and I feel the vibrations through my entire body. It's satiating enough that I almost swear to never let go. Klaus says something that sounds suspiciously like 'then you shouldn't have left', but it was likely my fanciful imagination.
"And me?"
The question draws my bleary eyes up and my face away from Klaus's shoulder.
Hayley stands maybe two feet away, her face cracked in a grin so wide it hurts my own face to see it. "Did you miss me too?"
I sniff, wondering whether I should take the chance of letting Klaus go to embrace my friend – I'll likely never experience his arms around me again. Yet, without my prompting, Klaus's arms drop and, although I'm a good double digit warmer than him, I feel cold without his hug. Taking the action as a sign, I step away from my mate (although reluctantly) and turn to the hybrid. "Why would I miss you, lapdog?"
Her grin manages to get wider and she laughs, "What are you talking about? I'm your only friend, mutt."
Extending an arm toward the other girl I'm glad when she closes the space and gives me a quick, yet firm, hug. "Guess I did miss you." The whisper is only meant for her ears. Klaus shows no interest in us despite the certainty that he would have heard it by proximity alone.
The look on her face when she pulls back would have mirrored her earlier grin if she wasn't too busy glaring over my shoulder. Klaus too has his eyes diverted.
I turn to follow their eyes, coming face-to-face with a posse of concerned faces.
"Hayley, I assume?" Alice chirps from amid the morbid faces of a wolf pack.
Hayley stiffens and shifts so that we're almost close enough to touch. "Who are you?"
"Alice," the vampire answers, her signature smile in place.
"She's the one you phoned." I tell Hayley, nudging her shoulder in a show of camaraderie. "She's harmless."
"Not harmless," Someone speaks up, but I can't tell who.
I shrug. "Trust me; once you've experienced Mystic Fall's crazy, the Cullens are nothing but shiny kittens with sharp teeth."
Both Hayley and Alice chuckle. The rest remain their sombre selves staring in mixed hostility and confusion. My eyes rest on Sam a second before I forcefully retreat them and lay my gaze on Seth. "This is Hayley and Klaus," Seth's face lights in recognition and he meets my eyes in query. "They came to-" fetch me… Or at least I assumed they had. I turn to said Original a new nervousness brewing in the pit of my stomach. The extent of the situation finally catching up with me: all the fears returning full force and blindsiding me with 'what if's. "Why did you come?"
The look on his face isn't something I'm used to. Although his attention isn't even focused on me, I feel chills crawl up my spine.
"You said you'd never leave him." Hayley states.
It's an honest answer, one that doesn't need more words than that to explain itself. It makes my eyes burn again and I close the distance to lean my forehead against Klaus's shoulder. "I know and I meant it too. I just…I needed…"
"Sam,"
My head jerks up and I stare at Klaus in mixed horror and shock at his sudden word. "What?"
"Is that him?" I follow the Orginal's gaze and swallow thickly.
The Alpha wolf stands tall and menacing among the small group surrounding him. There's no doubt that that's where Klaus has directed his focus.
My mouth moves silently in an answer I struggle to form.
As the seconds tick by Sam finally steps down, closing the gap between Alpha and Alpha. I have the inane worry that there's going to be a fight – which couldn't possibly end pretty for either party, especially Sam. Sam who has a baby girl on the way.
With my mouth as dry as a desert, my hands tighten like iron manacles around Klaus's left upper arm.
"Sam Uley," the man extends a hand when the distance is short enough, his face a familiar twist of dominance. It makes my shoulders quake with the need to lower myself in submission. "Alpha of the Uley pack,"
For a second our eyes meet and it's like the ground shifts, my knees are buckling and my head drops. A whine trembles up my throat as my hands loosen around Klaus. I'm bowing. The bigger part of me that recognises Klaus as its Alpha howls in protest, kicking and screaming under the heavy command Sam is streaming in my direction. But Klaus has only ever showcased his dominance once, he doesn't wear it like a badge how Sam does. The distinction is becoming painfully real to me in this moment as gravity pulls me down. Fresh tears burn the corners of my eyes, fighting against Sam's hold is harder than I remember it being – maybe because I never really meant it before today.
"Weak men rely on the loyalty of their followers; strong men don't need followers but choose to keep them anyway." A hand curls around my arm and drags me up from my half-crouched position. I whimper at the force of it, reaching out to cling to Klaus for strength. "From all I've heard of you, Sam Uley," The Original manages to make the name sound like poison. "I've made my decision on your position quite early on."
The air crackles with tension, distaste. Fury.
I use Klaus's shoulder as the means to keep me sane; breathing in lungful's of his old-book smell. There's the slightest hint of spice rising from his skin. If Sam decides to assert dominance Klaus will fight back; not that I couldn't have figured that out without the change in his scent.
"Careful, you're on my territory." Sam bites out. Looking over at him I recognise the only reason he has yet to do anything stupid (like attacking Klaus) is because Emmet and Jacob have both taken stationed positions of prevention on either side of him.
By the way Hayley's bristling it's no doubt she won't bother stopping Klaus if he feels the need to commit destruction.
"Good thing I only came to get what's my property then, isn't it?" Klaus's arm slips around my shoulder and the extra support has me trembling for an entirely different reason.
I know I should be angry at being referred to as property, but the giddy feeling of Klaus staking me as his clouds over my better judgement. It gives me the courage to lift my head and face the foreign Alpha without fear of succumbing to his thrall. My Alpha has my back, he's here for me, and he's claimed me as part of his pack.
"Leah," Sam's voice draws my attention and I'm pleasantly smug to note his glare has no effect on me. "These…damaged excuses for wolves are your pack?"
My chest puffs and I bare my teeth in a show of courage and defiance I never would have dared shown before. "They're mine and they're perfect."
"'Perfect' is pushing it a bit," Hayley huffs but I can hear the pride in her tone. The power of belonging is a strange thing.