A small smile was on Emily's face as she gazed down at her sleeping husband. Sam's mouth was slightly open, relaxed in sleep like it never was in life. He snored but she had plenty of time to get used to it. Whereas earlier in their relationship the slightest noise woke her now Emily was certain she could sleep through a train running through the house.
Yes, Sam looked very different as he sleeped.
She had a baking tin of blueberry muffins soaking in the sink, her speciality, all of them had been consumed with vigor by her husband. He didn't shift anymore, not since Emily had expressed a desire to start a family and grow old with him. It had taken convincing but at the end, he agreed. Now the wolf packs were one again. Jacob was still the alpha, she supposed, but he was in a different part of the country now having moved with his imprint, the half-vampire girl, when the Cullens did to avoid suspicion. Most of the actual alpha duties were delegated by Leah now. Jacob still visited every so often - he, Bella, and Edward could pass for the ages they were currently pretending to be even if their child had to be kept out of sight.
Bella had wanted desperately to be in her father's life for as long as she could and Emily found that she respected that. She even came to his wedding with Sue two year back and was the first one to give him a hug and an I'm happy for you. Sue's situation had been a little more complicated. Seth was of course over the moon but Leah had been incredibly close to her father and you didn't need a werewolf mind link to know she still blamed herself for what happened to him. And in their finals days together there had been a wedge driven between them.
Harry was an elder, he knew the truth to the legends, he knew about the imprint. There was nothing to be done about it, he might not be able to tell his daughter exactly wht had happened but that was no reason for not supporting the two of them. He'd advised her to be happy, true love like Sam's and Emily's rarely occurred after all, if she could just stop clinging on to the pain and anger and get out of her own little world and bury the hatchet maybe she'd see that.
Emily was certain that had been exactly what he told her the night she phased.
Still, with Jacob not around and Sam giving up his mantle it was Leah who had stepped up to the plate.
Some of the other boys - while age wise most had outgrown boyhood she still saw them only as boys and never men - had pitched a fit at the whole thing but Leah had fought back twice as hard and earned the position she had through her sheer determination and her drive to do what she believed was right.
It made pride swell in Emily's chest but at the same time, also envy. If only she had such a steely spine. Maybe she wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. Her cousin's voice came unbidden to her mind at the thought.
You're not weak, Em. Don't know why you keep saying that. Or well, I do, but you're hardly the first woman in your situation, supernatural aside, and they're not weak, yeah?
But oh, next to creatures that could turn into giant wolves and drink the blood of other living beings, she was so very very weak. That had been proven the day Sam had lost his temper and shifted too close to her. At the memory, her scars prickled with heat. But the elders had told her many times that it was an accident, Sam could not control his actions, especially not the ones dictated and driven by the imprint. Even if he had relentlessly pursued her, even after she had turned him away, even after she made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him, he still came back and that was okay, it was the imprint driving him after all. He simply needed her. There was just no way around it.
And if he needed her so severely that a mere rejection and verbal jab at his character had him exploding out of his skin because he just couldn't live a life without Emily, then so be it.
He did truly dote on her. If she said she wanted a family, for him to stop phasing so they could grow old together, then that was what he'd give her. And if in the past few years she had gone out with Leah into the city every three months for some girl bonding then hewas estatic that his imprint and his ex were finally getting along.
Emily supposed she was lucky. She heard that the shot could stop menses entirely sometimes but hers were still regular. Of course, she doubted Sam tracked them or even thought about them in general. 'Women's issues', he said, made him squeamish. Ironic for someone who used to be able to turn into a wolf the size of a horse and rip vampires apart with their teeth to be squeamish about a bit of blood but he wasn't the first and wasn't the last.
She got to scrubbing the baking tin, shaking her head with a wistful smile on her face. Sam's metabolism had slowed back to that of a normal human's after his first year of no shifting and he didn't need nearly as many calories as before now that he wasn't burnng them off as fast as he could consume them while out running patrols but he still ate like a wolf.
A wolf who very much liked blueberry muffins.
The dial of her watch struck eleven at night and she left the muffin pan to turn on her porch light. Her human eyes were weak but she could still see someone standing in the treeline by their house and once the light was on the figure made their way to it. Slowly, features formed. A tall, toned body, backpack slung over a shoulder, the feminine swell of breasts and hips, hair cropped into an ultra short pixie cut. Scowling, always scowling. Leah had always been a scowler even before she shifted. So many times boys had come up to her saying something along the lines of I'd really love to go on a date with you but I'm afraid one wrong move and your cousin will actually kill me.
"Morning, Em," the she-wolf said as she strolled through the open door.
"It's eleven at night, Leah," she replied with an eyeroll.
"Semantics," she said with a careless wave of her hand. "Big guy asleep up there?" She jerked her head to the stairs that led up to the room she shared with Sam.
"Of course," Emily couldn't help but giggle. "He practically inhaled the entire tin of muffins. Said they were the best tasting ones I've made yet."
Leah's eyebrows raised. "The whole tin? His metabolism still speedy? Was it enough?"
Emily gave an unladylike snort. "He's got normal person metabolism now as far as I know. Pretty sure what you and Seth eat for breakfast is larger than what he eats in a week."
Well, Leah cracked a wry smile. "Baked goods are a slippery slope. Or, at least that's what Quil said after Claire got into the cake that last time."
That last time referred to Claire's last birthday party in which she had managed to eat an entire sheet cake by herself, about two dozen cookies, a midnight snack consisting of all the banana bread in the house, and then spent the next twelve hours so high on sugar that they thought it might've been a permanent altered state until she spent the twelve hours after that puking her guts out in the toilet while Quil rubbed comforting circles into her back. She'd ended up in the ER needing an IV for the dehydration and solemnly sweared she wouldn't ever look at another treat ever ever again.
Despite the stomachache and dehydration it'd been amusing. What was it with kids and sugar? But neither could judge. Emily knew that one Halloween Leah had consumed so many giant pixie sticks during a party that she ended up in the middle of the woods, naked, with no idea how she got there. And that had been before she shifted. They combed the area for hours but they never found out exactly where that slutty nurse costume she had on went. Emily was just grateful that she didn't walk off a cliff in her sugar delirium. And Emily knew Leah knew that she'd consumed three entire super sized packages of double stuf oreos and a gallon of cookie dough ice cream on more than one occassion.
"Didn't suspect anything?" Leah asked, breaking Emily out of her fond memories.
"Nah," Emily said, "He's been out like a light for a while now. Thanks, by the way, for hooking me up."
"Well, I know a guy." Leah smirked, "Least I could do for you."
"Oh, Leah," Emily sighed, "You've already done so much for me. After everything, it couldn't have been easy. All those years, the fights, the pain, I can't even begin to imagine."
Leah put her hands in the pockets of sweats and shot her a look. "I mean, it wasn't pleasant but only one of us had half their face ripped off and then got stuck with the asshole who did it and it sure as hell wasn't me."
"The past few years have been shit for both of us, I guess. Still, you stood by me and I'm grateful."
Leah placed her hand on Emily's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "You're not just my cousin, you're my best friend and my sister. There's nothing I won't do for you." A rare gentleness briefly flashed in Leah's eyes before the she-wolf grinned wickedly and placed her backpack on the table, taking out its contents and weighing it in her palm. "Well then," she said. "Shall we?"
XOXOXOXOXOXO
The bonfire crackled in the chilly darkness as the pack gathered around feasting on what was probably worth a month's paycheck of barbeque. Even though Leah consumed the same amount as all the other wolves - which was to say quite a bit - she felt pity for the poor fucker who'd hit the grocery store tomorrow to find the shelves bare.
It had worried her at first, if she was honest. There were so many wolves now even if the bloodsuckers were mostly gone and none of them were from the richest families out there. She hated the idea of accepting help from the leeches but when they offered reimbursement for how she, Jacob, and Seth defending them back when Bella was carrying the spawn of Satan, she didn't hesitate to start the first werewolf food fund. Heavens knew they needed it.
She stood from the log she'd been sitting on and Emily stood with her. In an instant the pack hushed. It was only the pack this time around. No elders, no imprints except Emily, just them. She glanced at Emily. Speeches that didn't include half of the curses in the entire world weren't exactly Leah's forte. She was not the person you wanted to go to for a pep talk. Thank god for Quil and Seth. They had enough pep for all of them and were perfectly content with being pack cheerleader even if they did fight on who got to be the head cheerleader way more than Leah would've expected from men their age. But high morale was good morale and if they wanted to do a tumbling routine (they had) to a cringeworthy cheer (they did) then who was she to judge?
Emily shot her a reassuring look and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. Well, it was showtime.
"Thank you," Leah began, "for gathering with us tonight. The past few years have been crazy, haven't they? Everyone exploding into fur, the vampire mafia paying us a friendly visit, we've lost some friends but we've gained more in the process. We've hurt, fought, said things we shouldn't have. But at the end of the day, this pack? We have each other's backs. We might all get along like shit sometimes but when it truly matters we've pulled through for one another. I'm incredibly proud to be leading every single face I see here tonight. We're not always going to get along and letting go of pain, negativity, the works, that's some hard shit."
Leah paused, waiting for her words to sink in before continuing. "So I've called everyone here with some very simple instructions. Bring something you want to let go of, move on from. It can be an object, a slip of paper with the name of your ex, anything and throw it in to the fire. Then say, 'you know fucking what? this hurt like hell and that's okay. Hurt, feel, and then when you can take the next step forward into your life."
She stepped forward and tossed the backpack she'd carried from Emily's into the fire and slowly but surely each wolf tossed something they wanted to let got of in it as well until the inferno was bright and high as if touching the heavens itself.
Leah returned to Emily's side and the two girls grasped hands.
Back at Emily's house blood soaked the bed as Sam, none the wiser, never to know, bled to death from his crotch.