Hi, so this is my first story for this pairing and I have to admit I am liking it so far so let's see where it goes! I hope you all enjoy this story and this chapter.

Leah is criminally underused and criminally treated. She's the Rosalie of the Wolf Pack. Seriously the shit that she goes through because she's not skipping at the idea of being Emily's maid of honour (and seriously what the fuck possessed Emily to ask that? Like seriously Stephanie). So this story is a love letter to Leah.

I also have a huge amount of respect for Embry's Mom. Not sorry. Also I know she has a different name in the books to here but here she is Layla and she was seventeen when she got pregnant.

Also on Embry's father...I know a lot people assume it is Joshua Uley but somehow that seems to nice and neat, I also think it's pretty ironic, that both Jacob and Quill end up being friends with a kid who might be their half brother. So my views on Embry's Dad is that is has to be one of them and I do tend to lead towards Billy just for reasons I can't name. The council bit deciding whose parents should know and who doesn't is my own and I know it does not correlate with the books but then again this whole story is AU so (shrugs), I just think it's a fun angle to explore that everyone is terrified with who Embry's father could be.

Again, all of this is my own design, the characters belong to someone else, I am just playing in my writers box.

On a note with Chelsea-As a teenager I thought her powers were cool, now a a woman grown I think she essentially is the definition of cohesive control, she forces the Volturi to stay together stripping them of free will. Bitch needs taking down and my girl Rosalie helped by Leah were the woman to do that. Any conversation that Leah and Rosalie might have had about this is one hundred percent fictional and probably wouldn't have happened even in the realms of Fanfiction, but wouldn't it be wonderful if it had?

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.

Please Read and Review.

I have been struggling a little recently but hopefully I can now bring you the Final Three, yes THE FINAL THREE chapters of this story sooner rather than later. I didn't go into detail with the battle simply because it was always a bit more of a Cullen fight for me rather than a wolf one regardless of how it was described in the books.

That's it from me, enjoy!

First Time For Everything

Chapter 20-Somethings Are Worth The Risk

Leah and Embry the night before the Volturi arrive and the morning before they transform for what might be the last time. And then...then it begins.

"Is…is Seth playing in the snow with the vampires?"

Leah stuck her head out of the tent to check and she rolled her eyes heavenwards.

"Yep, looks like. And it's a snowman, and it's…no it's not just Nessie now Emmett has joined in and that one who can control the elements—"

"Benjamin"

"Jesus did you actually learn their names?"

"Leah I will learn the names of anyone who can move snow with their mind."

Leah snorted but said nothing else. She sat down on the edge of the bed in the tent and he came and sat with her pulling the flap closed. If it was any other time then he suspected that someone would say something, Seth, Jacob hell even Edward but the truth was that everyone was too high strung to notice that he and Leah were sleeping with each other.

What that meant he didn't know but he knew it meant something.

Anyway…

Embry came and sat down next to her and she wrapped her arms around him curling up at his side and letting her eyes drift shut. It was hard to believe that this might be the last night that she was alive. it was hard to believe that she had found some happiness finally and that tomorrow she would die.

"You okay?" Embry asked into her hair and she shrugged.

"Happy" she said truthfully. "Suppose that's something right, if you have to die, die happy and all that?"

Embry pressed a kiss to her hair and said nothing but his hands tightened around her waist and she knew that he understood.

"I love you" he said quietly. "I have loved you for a long time. And I know that right now your not ready to say it back but there it is, if we get through this then I am gonna do whatever I have to do to get you to say it back."

Leah said nothing, there was a whole argument to be made about what she could or could not give him going forwards but as she didn't know what it was going forwards or what was going to happen then she surmised that it was not the right time to talk to him about this.

What she wanted to say she said.

"If we survive this then I am done, this will be the last time that I transform"

Embry was silent for a second and then.

"Okay"

"Okay?"

"Okay. I think after this we have more than earnt it"

Leah smiled and closed her eyes as he kissed the top of her head again.

Tonight she thought, was a good night.

The morning was quiet and the snow was thick on the ground. She watched as she transformed how her vision changed and she thought that if she could have one wish it would be that this would be the last time that she ever transformed for good reasons and not because she was about to be killed by a horde of vengeful vampires simply because Bella Swan believed again and again that the rules of magic, nature and plain common sense did not apply to her.

Embry padded over to her and he nuzzled her for a second before he went to stand by Seth who was watching. Her little brother mentally raised an eyebrow but said nothing, Leah got the impression he was too nervous, too in game mode to say anything. God she hoped he would be okay. Their Mom could lose her, Seth would kill her.

"Fuck off Leah" Seth said in her head with an eye roll. "She'd be gutted if she lost both of us"

She smiled as she padded out to join Jacob.

And they waited.

They didn't have to wait long.

They were sort of majestic in a murder-like kind of way Embry thought.

Tall, dark, imposing, all the good stuff, the main one speaking looked old. Not old in the way the Doc was but even older. Embry listening to him thought he had never heard more of a load of bull in his life—and that was saying something when you considered what the story of his conception was like.

Aro the main guys name was, was explaining what was happening and what was wrong. Embry half listened to it but he was looking up and down the line trying to see what was going on. He knew that he was missing out on some of the big bits but to be honest he was trying to see if there were weak spots amongst the guard.

Carlisle Cullen had told them what the guard could do, had given them descriptions of the special gifts and each one who had them. Embry knew looking at them that Emmett and the one they called Felix were going to go at it, both of them too big to go for anyone else but each other. He looked down the line picking out weak spots as Edward Cullen desperately tried to explain why his family had not broken any kind of rules and then the blonde woman who had betrayed the family was dragged forwards and after a brief conversation with another blonde vampire she was decapitated.

Okay…so there was probably a lot more to that than the way Embry described it but he was half paying attention to what was being said and he was distracted almost immediately by the vampires on their side of the line…the one who had electricity in her veins for a start—trying to start the fight before the signal had been given.

Embry was in two minds on weather or not it should be. Of course he didn't want to die…but at the same time killing these pretentious fucks would be a good way to go.

He paused waiting. It would be Leah that gave the instruction for what came next he knew. Jacob would be too busy with Nessie and if he was being honest Embry suspected that Jacob was always going to run with Nessie if he had too. That left Leah, the beta, the unspoken leader in charge. He shot her a look but her thoughts were blank, her eyes were closed for a second as if she was gathering herself and he realised as the vampire came closer to speak to other vampires on their side of the line, that Leah had known this was coming probably before Jacob even knew that there was a plan.

And there had to be a plan wasn't there? Edward Cullen might not have one but Embry knew Bella Swan of old, there was some kind of a plan to get her daughter out of this mess one way or the other. It was what mother's did. Hell he knew his own too well enough to know that if this had been him there would have been a plan.

And then a word spoken on the breeze by Edward Cullen who was watching…Aro? Speaking hit the wolves like a tone of bricks and the amber eyes next to him snapped open with derision even as he felt an intense kind of fury.

"Guard Dogs."

Oh that motherfucker.

The howling that came with that statement was so loud Embry was sure it would get back to the Government that there was some wolf event in Washington.

It wasn't just him, it was everyone. You didn't need a pack connection to know what Paul and Jared were thinking about right now. You didn't need a pack connection to know what Sam was thinking. Leah next to him was swearing in a highly impressive way and Seth was much the same though he was still sweeping the line. His eyes narrowed on a dark skinned vampire and then he settled in target locked and acquired.

Aro went to vote and then people were saying goodbyes.

Embry tuned out the strange threesome that was Jacob, Edward and Bella, he watched in a detached kind of way the Doc and his wife saying goodbye on in the complete certainty that soon they would see each other again if not in this life then in the next. He saw other vampires do the same and he padded over to Leah.

"I love you" he said quietly so only she could hear. "I don't expect you to say it back but—"

"I love you too" she said quietly and his paws nearly gave out in shock. He stared at her and she raised one eyebrow and laughed quietly. "Ah darling don't look like that, I can't help but be unpredictable even in the face of death."

"You love me?"

"Yes." She said simply as if it was that simple and Embry had a wonderful vision of maybe it was. Maybe it could be that simple. Maybe it could be as simple as two people saying that they loved each other.

He brushed his shoulder next to hers even though it was a paltry excuse as to what he really wanted to do. He wanted to kiss her deeply, wanted to sink into her warm embrace and—

"Embry, Leah!" Seth snapped next to them with a disgusted expression and a disgusted tone of voice to boot.

"If the two of you could please stop thinking about what you would both like to do with each other—which is disgusting by the way—then you might just learn a few things. Like the fact that we are picking off vampires that we want and they are picking off us. But thanks to Bella they might not be"

"Fuck." Came Leah's response. "I am not now, nor ever going to thank Bella fucking Swan for anything. Even this"

Even Seth had to crack a smile at that one, it was just so, so, so Leah.

"And you both love me for it" came the smug reply.

Embry conceded the point, so did Seth, even Jacob though he was hardly listening to them.

There was a growl down the line and Embry listened to what Edward said about how the Volturi was waiting for them to fall and they weren't. Blondie who caused pain was screaming and Embry watched Bella Swan smile.

"Oh you have to concede that is impressive?" Seth said quietly.

"I concede nothing" Leah said with a scowl. Seth snorted pawing the ground.

"You got who you want yet Embry, cause that back Spanish guy is giving me looks and I know I can take him given half the chance."

Embry looked down the line and sighed. "I suppose I could take out one of the wives" he said quietly. There was an ashy blonde woman who was half bent at the waist as her blonde husband spoke as if she was in thrall of him, hanging on his every word and he thought of his mother who had raised a child single handed facing down prejudice in the small things and he thought for his mother he was going to take down this bitch who was really setting the movement back years.

Leah pawed the ground giggling. She tilted her head down the line to meet Rosalie Hale who watched her for a second. The two woman stared at each other and then Rosalie turned to eye a blonde woman and then jerked her chin at another woman by Aro's side. Leah nodded and that was the end of that.

"Hang on—"

"Blondie and I have an understanding. The one she wants is Chelsea who takes peoples will away from them as a gift. Renata the one I am going after is Aro's shield, again she too takes people's will against them. We've both been living rather vicariously. Believe me we both know what we are doing"

Embry didn't know what to say against that. The idea of Leah and Blondie having an understanding as to what vampire they were going to kill for the sake of womankind was a conversation that he did not want to ever envision happening and judging by the face of Seth he was not alone.

Anyway…he turned to be prepared, turned to take down the vamps that were milling around them, turned to be prepared to die and then…

Nothing happened.

The Volturi retreated.

They were not going to die.

All in all it was a bit fucking anticlimactic.

Okay so Alice Cullen skipping out from the forest conveniently late to the party had thrown a wrench into the plans, her shocking revelation that Nessie was not one of a kind had nearly floored them all and the story though nice had not been the most interesting. Embry had half listened. He was not as invested in this as other people, he was invested in leaving this clearing alive and when the Volturi finally retreated he howled with the rest transformed and fucking kissed Leah Clearwater for all that he was worth.

Okay…that bit was fun.

He caught sight of Sam turning back to his human form to speak to the Doc for a second and the two of them stared at each other. For a second they locked eyes even as Leah unseeing of this hooked her arms around her brother to hug him tight. Sam flashed him something that might have once upon a time been a small smile and Embry flashed him one back.

He bit his bottom lip as Leah leaned her head on his shoulder.

"We survived" she said as Seth went to embrace the Doc.

"Yes I guess we did" he said beaming. "And were together"

She shot him a look smiling brightly and this he realised with a flood of pride and happiness in his belly, this was Leah happy.

God he loved Leah happy.

He loved Leah full stop.

"I love you"

It came left of him and he paused staring.

"What?" he said again, despite how she had said before he still wasn't used to hearing it.

"I love you" Leah said simply. "I can say it now. Don't ask me why but I can say it now. I don't want to talk about it now, we can talk more about it in the morning or the night or whenever we get chance to catch our breath but right and now, I am free, I can say it, I love you."

There was a pause as Embry stared at her, he was still staring at her for a second unaware of what was going on around them and then he kissed her long and slow again wrapping both arms around her, hands sliding down to her waist where he could grip it into his hands.

"I love you too" he said into her dark hair. "And the rest can wait"

She smiled into his shoulder as Jacob in human form with Nessie on his shoulders came over to them.

She was right.

Right now the rest could wait.

And there you go, hope you enjoyed this one.

Next Chapter-Leah goes back home and finally talks to her mother. Perhaps it's time to move on from the past and look towards the future.