CHAPTER 10

The Archer – Taylor Swift

Leah did her best to distance herself from the pack, but somehow she kept getting dragged back in.

A few years after breaking from the pack, she found herself in Utah. Seth and Jacob were nearby, while others from the pack were further away. Her brother had called her frantic. One of the younger wolves broke from the pack and disappeared. Noah phased after the Volturi confrontation.

It did not surprise her that boys, some as young as ten, were still phasing. After all, the Cullens were still in town. It didn't matter that they were 'vegetarians'. Instinct doesn't make that distinction. They were a threat. Especially, since they can snap at any time (even Bella the Wonder Bread, apparently). So the little boys kept phasing.

She remained unphased, while the others were in their wolf forms. Carrying a backpack, wearing trainers on her feet. She's done a lot of travelling, got in and out of a lot of messes, dressed as she was right now.

Besides, now that she's no longer a pack member, she's no longer in the pack mind. This was not a detriment, in Leah's opinion.

Jacob, on the other hand, wished he could tell what Leah's thinking. She's become secretive, even more than before. The Cullens have her on watch, so they know that she goes off and disappears for days or weeks at a time, but never says where she's been. When confronted, she would say, "Vacation" or "Out of town". She never volunteers information about her life. Didn't invite her mom or Seth to her graduation. And what's worse, she didn't even bring up that she's graduated voluntarily.

On this current crisis though, Jacob was glad that Leah couldn't read his mind. Leah would have been pissed if she found out that it took him several moments to even realize which one was Noah. Until now, he only has a vague memory of how the boy looked as a wolf or as a human. There were just too many, he reasoned to himself. Why there were too many, he doesn't dwell on. Because the Cullens should have left a long time ago. They hadn't because of the imprint. To keep Renesmee safe. And because Jacob didn't want to leave home. They were trapped, he and the Cullens. And they'd trapped the Quileutes right along with them.

Truthfully, he felt as detached from the pack as Leah does, and maybe more so. Leah somehow gets info about the pack. How? Another mystery . Seth only knows as much as Jacob does, so how does the she-wolf that lives in Seattle know more than they do?

He and Seth were phased. Leah was keeping up with them in her human form – yet another mystery.

Noah was not within the pack mind which made tracking him difficult. Him breaking off happened suddenly, like when Leah cut off. But back then, it was unfamiliar. It took days to figure out that Leah was missing, and what must have happened. When Noah broke off, they knew immediately. The opposite of imprinting where cables snap you to a person, this was a painful mental and emotional cut, like a piece of their flesh being sliced off. All the wolves felt it.

Jacob wondered if Leah felt it too. She wouldn't say. Did she feel their absence as much as they felt hers? The missing wolf. They've lost one of their own. Their pack was incomplete.

And now, they're missing two.

The wind was sharp and brought pieces of hale with it. It was a miserable state being outdoors like this, even for supernaturals.

It took days before they tracked the spotted gray wolf, much larger than a regular wolf.

Leah was relieved. The whole time she was worried that the Volturi or a vampire would get to the boy first.

It was clear that Noah had gone feral. He had no intention of returning to his human form. He growled and snapped when Jacob or Seth would come close. Good thing none of the Cullens came or the boy's reaction could have been worse.

"Noah," Leah said his name slowly, crouching low on the ground to take a non-threatening stance. "I know you don't want to hear anything from us right now. And you really just want to pretend that you can't understand what we're saying. But you need to come back…"

Noah growled low in his throat.

"I get it. You're broken. Not your fault that you got broken, but you were left alone to pick up the pieces by yourself. And then they get mad because you couldn't pick up the pieces fast enough. When you got enough pieces together, they get mad because whatever you cobbled together wasn't as pretty as it was before. So you want to break everything all up again.

"But, kid, this is your life. You want to stay broken, no one but you is going to suffer for it. Definitely not the people that broke you. You're not making any kind of point to them. They won't care. They'll go on living their lives, while you stay broken. So pick up what pieces you can, cause there's nobody else to help. And if it isn't pretty and they don't like it, at least it's yours."

The wolf with the still giant paws grew still, then slowly got back to human form. She gave him the clothes she carried in her backpack.

The whole way back, he stayed close to Leah. She was quiet. Which, Seth knew meant that she was more furious than she'd ever been. Leah's a screamer when she's mad. So when she's quiet, it's scary.

"Leah, thanks for the help," Sam and the council had gathered when they returned. "We got this."

"Do you?" Leah spat. "From where I'm standing, you all got nothing."

She visits Charlie regularly. They became very good friends after the episode with the nomads that killed the campers. So Leah's heard about the younger wolves running wild. The pack and the council have trouble keeping them in line. Charlie had to step in a few times to keep them out of jail.

"Right now, you're gathered because you want to punish Noah. Because none of you can understand that not everyone is happy to be a wolf." And that was the gist of it. Most often the wolves got something from phasing. They got status in the tribe, a family to belong in, the love of their lives.

For most, it's a gain. For others like herself and Noah, it's a loss. It's picking up whatever pieces are left on the ground and cobbling together some semblance of a life.

"What we do is none of your business, you chose to leave." This was Old Quil speaking. "All the bad things happening to the pack is your fault for straining the balance."

For a moment, Leah internalized the blame. Is it my fault?

"How could it be my fault? I wasn't even here!"

"It's because you weren't here that you threw the pack balance off!"

"When I'm here you're mad at me. When I'm not here, you're still mad at me!"

"Ever since you phased, you have done nothing but be a thorn on our side. Your father would be ashamed of you," a low blow said quietly. "You never should have become a wolf."

Leah looked around, to Billy, Sam, Jacob. Her mom. And knew that not a single one will defend her here.

Because a part of them agreed and felt the same way.

In a world of strange creatures, she was one of the strangest. In her years of travelling and research into the supernatural, she had never found another she-wolf.

And here, in her tribe, she was a usurper.

She looked at Old Quil, an old man near death. She will never grow old. She will never get sick. She will never be in a wheelchair. Why her? She had always asked herself. They were asking themselves the same question. Why her, ungrateful brat, and not us?, was their question.

She stole this chance from a more worthy man, and can't even appreciate it.

And maybe she could have offered this understanding, reached out and reacted with empathy. Maybe it would have resulted in peace and harmony.

But Leah wasn't like that.

Leah was Leah.

She was proud. Maybe a bit too proud. When attacked, she defends herself. Loudly. Rudely. If they can hate her, she can hate them right back.

She burns bridges and herself in the process.

She sneered at the old man.

"Well, I'm sorry that you're one leg in and one leg out of the grave, old man…" Leah said, using her insight as a weapon and aiming for the lowest blow. A collective gasp goes up in the room.

"Leah!" her mother's admonishment, in the heels of Seth's, "Holy shit, Lee!"

In the tribe, elders were held in high regard.

"As much as you like to spin your bullshit like you know what it's like to be a wolf, or the legends, or whatever, I'm not really here to be blamed for anything. So I'll be heading out." Turning her back to leave.

"You leave when we say you can leave!"

"Who's going to stop me?" Leah shot back.

Billy shook his head. "You've gone too wild, Leah. This can't end well for you. You'll bring the pack down with you!"

"You all are doing a pretty good job bringing the pack down all by yourselves, without any help from me."

She slammed the door behind her, and started walking to where she kept her motorcycle.

There's nothing in the world like family to make one feel worthless. All of a sudden, everything that she's accomplished up to this point felt like nothing. Awards? Nothing. Degrees? Nothing.

Noah will be fine. He is, after all, still a boy. He's a hero. He'll fit in, eventually.

Leah never will.

She's glad that she could help. But this is not territory that she's familiar with. She and Noah may have found common ground for a short time. But he will eventually move away from her too, as he finds his place and his stride in the pack.

After a few miles of driving, and she takes a turn off. She parks, and walks into the woods. She was never one of those girls who was afraid of the dense forest. Their father had taught them to love it all the way back from when they were toddlers.

She walked until the forest began to clear, and she found herself atop a small inlet bordered by cliffs. The sea waves were wild below. She strips down to her underwear, delicate, lacy things that made her feel more like a woman. Then jumped.

Jagged rocks aren't something she has to worry about anymore. She won't break against them. They will break against her.

Everyone wants her to go back to being the docile girl that she was in her childhood. Docile, manageable, obedient. But even back then that hadn't been enough. She had been so desperate for approval then. She lets the ocean water disguise her tears. If there's one thing she'd learned all these years as a lone wolf, it's that tears are a weakness.

Then, she felt it.

Someone was watching.

She turned round and round, treading water, until she saw him. There, standing on top of a tree like a Christmas ornament. Black hair blowing. He had stayed downwind and had most likely been following her for some time.

She cursed herself for not paying attention to her surroundings, allowing her emotions to distract her. Now, she was in the water, where she was at her weakest. As she struggled to swim as fast she can to the rocky shore, the vampire disappeared from her sight.