A/N: Sending all of you my gratitude for reading:)

~ M. x

Whitlock Wolves

"What's with the construction project out front?" Leah asked.

"I'm makin' something so y'all can go in or out of it as wolves where you can keep some clothes. You know, walk in as a human, have privacy to strip off, put your clothes and shoes somewhere dry, phase, walk out as a wolf," he explained. "Or walk in as a wolf, phase back to human in privacy, pop some clean and dry clothes on, walk out."

"Really?" Leah asked with a smile.

"Yeah," he nodded. "There'll be one outside your house and one outside here. We can place them so the front isn't visible to either house so no one gets an eyeful by accident. Since your bedrooms at the cabin don't have outside doors, this seemed like the best way to ensure you had privacy. And we can just leave a few outfits in the one up here so that y'all can come and go as wolves from this house without having to pull on clothes that are wet or slushy from snow."

Almost before he'd even finished speaking, he was practically tackled in a hug from Leah. "Thank you," she laughed.

Jasper shook off his surprise and hugged her back. "You're welcome. Y'all deserve the same respect as anyone else. Why should any of you have to put up with people seeing you naked if you don't want them to?"

"Do I get a hug?" Bella asked. "I built a whole storage cubby locker thing for your clothes all by myself. It was my first ever construction job."

Leah laughed and hugged her, too, although a little bit more gently because she was both human and pregnant. "Thank you, Bella. Thank you for making us storage cubby locker things."

"Speaking of construction jobs, how did you guys do all that work on our cabin just in the two days we were gone?" Paul asked. "Thank you, by the way. We'd been arguing about who was going to share a bedroom so we were shocked to see what you all had done for us. And the bigger bathroom is great, too."

"It's your house, it should accommodate all of you," Jasper shrugged. "And vamp speed is fuckin' great for most things, including construction."

"And all of our experience fixing up Emmett's housing disasters came in handy, too," Esme laughed as she walked in the room and sat beside Bella on the couch.

"Emmett has housing disasters?" Seth asked, a little confused about how that was a thing.

"Baby vamps are pretty rough on houses," Jasper laughed.

"So is enthusiastic vamp sex," Bella added with a smile.

"True," Jasper nodded.

"Are you saying he and Rosalie have sexed whole walls down?" Leah asked incredulously.

"They have," Esme laughed.

"That's… impressive," Paul smiled.

"Don't tell them that, I don't want them to think it's a challenge and start ruining our house," Jasper laughed as he shook his head. "Leah, before I forget, there's a big box near the front door for you. I put some books in there for you to take back with you that I think you'll like based on what you've borrowed so far. Same authors, same genres, that kinda thing. You're still always welcome to come take whatever you want, whenever you want, but I thought you might like to keep some at your house."

"Thank you, Jasper. I appreciate that," Leah smiled. "I love the new bookcases."

"That was all Esme," Jasper laughed. "Most of that was Esme and Charlotte, honestly. We all helped out with the labor but Esme designed all the changes and she and Charlotte did the bulk of the decorating, though Bella and Rose helped pick out some of the furniture."

"Thank you," the wolves all said at the same time.

"You're very welcome," Esme laughed. "We wanted you all to have your own space that you didn't have to share."

"Where is Charlotte?" Bella asked.

"She and Peter went off for a little alone time. They should be back in a few hours," Jasper smiled.

"Is this what having a real family is like?" Paul asked quietly. "You guys opened your home to me and Leah before you'd even spoken a word to us, Jasper. You offered us your name, made us honorary aunties and uncles to the baby, welcomed Seth in just as easily, and then the changes to your house, the changing rooms for outside… Is this what families are supposed to do for each other?"

Jasper hated the amount of sadness in the wolf. He didn't know Paul's history in detail but he knew his home wasn't a happy one.

"You offered them your name?" Seth asked curiously before Jasper could answer.

"I did," Jasper nodded, but left it there. He didn't want to tell the kid it came out of Paul and Leah not wanting to be associated with anything to do with Lahote or Clearwater, with the exception of Seth.

"Who else is a Whitlock? I know Peter and Charlotte are, but the rest were Cullens, right?"

"Esme and Emmett went by Cullen, Rosalie most often uses Hale, her human last name. But after Volterra, no one wanted to use Cullen anymore," Jasper explained. "Rosalie and Emmett are using McCarty, Emmett's human last name, and Esme is using Whitlock. But even if no one was using my name, they'd still be family just the same. Emmett and Rose are no less part of this coven because they're McCartys, just like Bella's no less a part because she's a Swan."

Seth gave him that sunny smile that made him look like the young sixteen-year old he still was. "Seth Whitlock sounds good, huh? If the name's on offer for me, I'll take it in a heartbeat."

"Really?" Leah asked in surprise, eyes wide.

"Absolutely. I want nothing associated with Clearwater or the Quileute tribe," Seth answered. "Why would I want to keep the name of a woman who doesn't want me as a son? I've been here all of twelve hours and this group has been more warm and welcoming than anyone on that reservation. Screw all of them."

Jasper laughed and nodded. "Seth Whitlock has a nice ring to it."

"While we're on the subject of names, we're going to need new documentation for Rosalie, Emmett, and myself," Esme reminded Jasper.

"I already spoke to Jenks," Jasper assured her. "I ordered all three of you everything you'll need. And while on a day to day basis y'all can go by Whitlock and McCarty now, you'll have to officially hold on to Cullen and Hale just until your finances are all squared away."

Bella smiled as she put her head on her mate's shoulder. He wasn't even a daddy yet and here he was already acting like a father should, just quietly taking care of his whole family.

Rosalie walked in the room and sat down beside Paul, then carefully took his hand, doing it slowly so that she could make sure he wasn't uncomfortable. "I couldn't help overhearing some of your conversation, and to answer your earlier question, not all families are like this one, but it is how they should be. My human family wasn't at all like the Whitlocks. Money and status were more important than love, and I'm ashamed to say that I was just like them before I was changed. All of us in this room - Esme, Jasper, Bella, and myself - were betrayed in some of the worst ways by people we loved and those we believed loved us, and for those of us who are vampires, that happened both before our change and after. The fact that the three of you have had the same thing happen is what makes all of us want to offer you a home and a family that will always stand by your side and accept you just as you are. We've had the privilege of already finding those people for ourselves, so we want you to have the same thing."

"It's true," Jasper nodded. "You know my history, so you know I spent seventy-five years fighting beside a woman who claimed to love me. Although 'beside' might be a stretch, she didn't do much in the way of battle. She mostly just made my life more miserable than it already was. She had no qualms about taking her anger out on me in truly painful ways. By the time I showed up on the Cullen's front porch, I'd learned that I could trust precisely three people in eighty-seven years. Peter, Charlotte, and Alice. That was it. And I was obviously wrong about that last one. I didn't trust a single Cullen when I walked in that house the first time, and it took me a long time before I did. Yet with as skeptical and suspicious as I was, Esme loved me practically from the moment she laid eyes on me, and the love between me and Rosalie and Emmett grew far quicker than I'd thought it would. They all just saw a young man who'd clearly lived through hell and offered him their unconditional love and support, and I gained two sisters and a brother."

"You and Leah know most of what happened in Volterra," Bella said. "All of us found out just how badly we'd been betrayed by people we'd loved and who we thought loved us. We were fortunate that we had each other to lean on. When I went through the very worst days of my life, you both stayed by my side and let me lean on you. Why wouldn't we want to do the same thing for you? You deserve to have solid, dependable, loving people to lean on just as much as we do."

Leah looked around the room, then looked at her little brother, who was giving her one of those smiles that meant he knew exactly what she was thinking. "Yeah, alright," she nodded at Jasper. "I'd like to be a Whitlock if you'll have me."

"I'd be honored, Leah," Jasper smiled, and Seth broke into loud cheering, making everyone laugh.

"I want to be whatever, whoever, my fellow wolves are, so if you'll have me too, I'd like to be a Whitlock," Paul smiled.

"I'd be honored by that too, Paul," Jasper laughed.

"Yes! The Whitlock pack!" Seth cheered.

"The Whitlock family, Whitlock vamp coven, Whitlock wolf pack," Bella laughed. "You've got it all now, hon. You even have a human and a half," she added as she put her hand on her stomach.

"Still no mermaids, though," Jasper shrugged.

"Oh, damn! I forgot to email Aro," Bella swore as she jumped to her feet and tore out of the room to get Jasper's laptop.

Rosalie laughed and looked at Leah. "I know Jasper and the others started teaching you guys how to fight. Feel like sparring?" she asked. "Jasper trained me when he joined our family."

Leah jumped to her feet. "Absolutely. I want to know everything I can by the time Edward brings Jake's pack here."

"You're going to fight your former pack?" Rosalie asked in surprise as the two walked to the door.

"Fight, kill, whatever," Leah shrugged, making everyone laugh.

"Since the room Jasper's working on isn't finished yet, why don't you go into the garage. None of the cars are in there right now and it's big enough that you can phase in there in private so you don't rip your clothes," Rosalie suggested. "If you put the door up before you shift, I'll stand guard so no one sees you."

"Thanks, Rose," Leah smiled and veered off to the back hallway where the door to the garage was.

"That's what sisters are for," Rosalie laughed. "I'll meet you outside."

"No fair," Bella pouted as she came downstairs. "I wanna do supernatural sister stuff too."

"You may not be able to do supernatural stuff yet but you're more than welcome to come out to the pasture with us for sister stuff," Rose smiled. "I can teach you how to fight humans."

"Yes!" Bella shouted and ran for her coat and boots.

Jasper met her at the hall closet with a smile and handed her a smaller winter coat that was easier to move around in. "Try this one instead."

"You're not gonna try to stop me?" she asked in surprise as she jammed her feet in her boots.

Jasper gave her a weird look. "Why would I want to stop you?" he asked as he helped her get the coat zipped.

"I don't know," Bella shrugged. "Too dangerous or something?"

"I don't think watching Rose and Leah spar is dangerous, and I don't think Rose teaching you how to fight human-style is dangerous. You fighting vamp-style while human might give me a little bit of pause, though," he laughed. "You're perfectly aware you're still human and carting an extra little human around with you, Bella. I know you well enough to know you'll be careful," he assured her as he tugged her in for a hug.

Bella wrapped her arms around his waist and propped her chin on his chest to look up at her too-tall mate. "I sure am glad it's you."

"What's me?" he smiled as he leaned down to kiss her.

"That you're my mate, not Edward. Can you imagine his reaction if he was standing where you are?"

"I imagine it would be loud and dramatic and contain precisely zero words you wanted to hear," Jasper laughed, then unwrapped her arms from around him and shoved her towards the door. "If you get cold maybe ask Leah for a cuddle."

"Will do," she laughed as she opened the door. "Bye, love you."

"Love you. Have fun," Jasper smiled as he watched her jump down the porch steps to meet her vampire sister and Leah in her wolf form. He laughed when Bella stopped in her tracks at seeing how big Leah was with a quietly muttered 'holy fucking shit'.

He walked back into the living room to grab Bella's plate so he could get the dishes out of the way before he went back to work outside, and smiled to see Seth standing in front of one of the windows, nearly his entire emotional palette made up of happiness and relief as he watched his big sister.

When Jasper walked past him, Seth spun around. "Are you one of those guys who think hugging other guys is gross or weird or whatever?"

"What?" Jasper laughed. "No, Peter and Emmett can both attest to how not gross or weird I think that is. Hugs are great."

"Good," Seth nodded, then quickly stepped forward to hug Jasper as tight as he dared. "Thank you," he whispered.

Jasper hugged the kid back with a smile. "She's gonna be just fine, Seth. She's got a whole huge crew lookin' out for her. And now she's got you here with her and Paul. You were the one part of La Push she held any love for. She hated havin' to leave you behind."

Seth just nodded but held on a little bit tighter. When he sniffled a couple times, Jasper felt the embarrassment and shame bloom to life inside him.

"You know what else isn't weird?" he asked quietly. "Guys who cry. I may not be able to cry anymore, but I still get tears in my eyes sometimes. Emmett and Peter, too. I got all teary when I was talking to the kings of our world in Italy a couple weeks ago and none of them so much as batted an eye. Guys crying isn't weird or unmanly or girly or whatever other bullshit anyone has ever told you."

"Man, you're really gonna nail the whole daddy thing," Paul laughed.

Jasper and Seth both laughed as Seth pulled away and wiped his eyes. "I have to agree with my fellow wolf," Seth smiled.

"I don't know that anything I just said makes me more likely to be a good father. Seems like common sense to me," Jasper shrugged as he grabbed Bella's dishes. "Now come on. Y'all can help me with the breakfast dishes and then help me finish up the changing rooms."

"That sounded very dad-ish," Seth laughed as he trailed behind the vamp who already seemed a better father than the man who'd raised him and Leah.

By the time Rosalie, Bella, and Leah came back to the main cabin from the pasture, both changing rooms were done and put in place. Just like Jasper promised, they were positioned in a way that the open end was out of sight of both houses.

Leah cautiously stepped in as a wolf, then quickly phased back to human. When she opened the storage locker against the back wall, tears stung her eyes.

There were four sections for hanging clothes up and four drawers, three of which had a wolf's name on it, along with spaces at the bottom for shoes. Leah's section had a big stack of yoga pants, leggings, and an assortment of tops in the drawer, along with a few sports bras, and three hoodies hanging on hooks. There was also a pair of sneakers and some sheepskin boots that were easy to pull on. All of it was new. Looking at Paul and Seth's compartments, she saw they had all new sweatpants, hoodies, and sneakers also. The fourth compartment was labeled 'Whitlock Pack' and when Leah opened it she found a stack of thick towels, a hairbrush, some small hair clips, and about six pairs of soft socks.

She quickly pulled on a pair of yoga pants and a hoodie, then grabbed the sneakers and put those on. When she turned to walk out, she saw that Jasper had hung a curtain rod over the open doorway on the inside, and there were outdoor curtains hung on it so that they could pull a curtain across to close it off for more privacy. There were also battery operated lamps hanging on the walls on either side of the long storage cubbies and two more on each of the long walls, so that they had the ability to turn on lights when it was dark out.

Damn, vamps sure were nothing like what Leah had been told.

She took off running for the front door of the main house and followed the noise to find Bella, Jasper, Paul, and Seth in the kitchen making dinner. Without even stopping to think, she barreled into Jasper and hugged him as tight as she could. Jasper just laughed and hugged her back.

When she pulled away, she looked at him with a mile-wide smile. "That room is so fucking perfect! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You're welcome," Jasper laughed. "These guys helped also. Paul's the one who helped me solve how to have a roof on it without y'all feelin' too claustrophobic."

Leah turned to Paul and yanked him into a hug too. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome, Lee," Paul laughed as he hugged her back. "Jasper's right, you deserve the same dignity and respect as the rest of the world. Just because your genetics decided you should be a wolf doesn't mean anyone has the right to see you without your clothes on without your express permission."

Leah pulled back with a smile and then hugged her little brother just because she could. "I noticed the roof was taller. How'd you do that?" she asked Paul.

"Jasper picked up extra lumber when he bought everything and there were still some supplies left from the renovations at our cabin. We took the roof off and built the walls up a few more feet and reattached the roof to that."

"Good thinking," Leah smiled. "Who thought about the curtain for the doorway?"

"That was me," Jasper said. "I wanted y'all to have the extra privacy if you wanted it. The lights were all Seth, though. With my vision, even the darkest moonless night is just as clear as a sunny day. I didn't think about lights."

"And the clothes and shoes and towels and stuff?" Leah asked.

"Charlotte," Jasper smiled. "She saw what we were doing and took off for town practically before I even finished explaining. We just got the whole thing finished and everything put away a few minutes before y'all got back. Charlotte's down by your cabin puttin' the rest of the stuff away in that one."

"Thank you doesn't feel big enough, honestly," Leah smiled. "This is quite literally life-changing for this lone female wolf. I'm not just being dramatic either. Being in Jake's pack was complete fucking hell because of the way they treated me. They'd either be leering at me and making me uncomfortable or critiquing my body like they had every right to. Paul's light-years better than all of them put together, so he always tried to give me what privacy he could, but it's virtually impossible when you lose clothes so easily as a wolf. Especially when you don't have any money to replace the ones you've torn to shreds. And now that Seth's here, this means even more. We'd both be traumatized for fucking life if we had to catch sight of each other naked all the time."

Seth shuddered dramatically. "Thank you for saving me from having to bleach my eyeballs."

Jasper had to really work at unclenching his jaw, and when he felt a jolt of rage, he knew Rosalie had heard Leah also. Not a second later, she came flying into the kitchen looking like an angel made purely of wrath, startling the wolves a little.

"Sorry," Rose said as she skidded to a stop beside Jasper and Bella. "Didn't mean to scare you. Is there a way to keep you from phasing if you're in your human form?"

"You mean to keep us from going wolf if we're trying to?" Paul asked.

"Yes," Rose nodded, and Jasper started laughing when he realized where she was going with that.

Leah looked between the two, a little confused. "I'm not sure. Why?"

"Because I want every single one of those assholes to be stuck in their human forms completely naked. Let them see what it's like to have people leer at them and criticize their bodies. I guarantee you every single one of those schoolboys have smaller dicks than Emmett and Jasper so I have no problem letting them know just how lacking they are. What? Why are you all looking at me like that?" she snapped.

Jasper lost it and started laughing.

"How do you know how big Jasper's dick is?" Seth asked with a smile.

Rosalie laughed and rolled her eyes. "Wolves aren't the only ones who have trouble with clothes on occasion. When you have vampire strength, clothes are a notorious casualty. When we're sparring or just wrestling for fun, things get ripped too easily. And remember, Jasper lived a life where he maybe had a single pair of pants that had to last for like twenty thousand years. He was still half-feral when he showed up at—"

Rose was cut off by Jasper pulling out the spray nozzle of the sink and turning it on right in her face.

"Half-feral, dear sister?" he growled playfully. "I wore clothes, thank you very much."

Rose wiped the water from her eyes and started stalking towards her brother. "What have I told you about getting my hair wet, asshole?" she growled back while fighting a smile.

"Not to do it," Jasper laughed.

"Please don't break anything in this kitchen," Bella laughed. "I'm human and need to eat and I love this fucking kitchen."

"Sure thing, sweetheart," Jasper smiled. Keeping his eyes locked on Rose, he leaned down to kiss his mate. "Be back in a minute."

And then faster than Bella's eyes could keep up with, he bolted from the room with Rosalie half a step behind him. The front door slammed into the wall a second later, and then all Bella heard was laughter and growls as Rosalie and Jasper tumbled outside.

When all three Whitlock wolves started laughing and followed them out the door, Bella grabbed a towel and started wiping up the water on the floor with a smile. Her family was entirely fucking crazy but damn, she sure did love every single one of them.