A/N: The whole second half of this chapter annoys me. I must've written and scrapped about five versions before I gave up and this was what I was left with. I'm practicing being optimistic so hopefully it's less awful to you than it is to me, lol.

Thank you for reading and for all the positive feedback. It really helps when that optimism practice fails me:)


Family


Leah and Paul opted to swim north a little ways and climbed out of the water where the treaty line met the coast. They'd just reached the top of the cliff, where Esme, Emmett, and Rosalie were waiting, when Jasper and Alice came vaulting over the edge.

Esme had grabbed the backpack and Alice and Jasper's phones when they dropped them, so she handed Leah the sweatshirt and leggings from inside the bag, and Emmett pulled off the shirt he was wearing and handed it to Paul. Knowing it wouldn't be long enough to cover the most important bits, Paul wrapped it around his waist instead and tucked one end in, then nodded his thanks.

Rosalie was wearing a sweatshirt with a t-shirt underneath, so she pulled the sweatshirt over her head and handed it to Alice, who was stripping out of her wet clothes, unbothered by the rest of them seeing a little too much skin. "Thanks, Rose," she said with a grateful smile. It was common knowledge in the family that Alice hated wearing wet clothes that stuck to her skin.

"What the hell happened?" Jasper asked as he tugged his shirt off to wring it out.

"There were only a few—"

Paul was cut off by Jasper's phone ringing. Esme handed it to him and he saw Seth's name on the display. He answered but didn't even have time to put it to his ear before they all heard Seth's frantic voice.

"Leah!"

"She's right here, hang on," Jasper said quickly and handed Leah his phone.

Seth had only just shifted in the trees behind the Clearwater's house and started running west when Leah and Paul had phased back to human and he lost the telepathic link with them. Leah figured he must've run back home to get his phone.

"I'm fine. We're both fine," Leah immediately assured him. "I didn't think I'd need it, so I left my phone in the cubby with my clothes back at the Cullen's."

"Did you catch her? Where are you?" he asked quickly.

"No, she got away in the water," Leah answered with an irritated scowl. "We're at the end of the treaty line where it meets the coast."

"I'm on my way."

Leah opened her mouth to answer but her brother hung up before she could. She handed the phone back to Jasper with an amused smile. "I guess he's on his way."

Jasper nodded and wrapped an arm her shoulders. The heat of her body felt good after the cold water of the North Pacific. "So what happened?" he asked again.

"There were only a few of us on patrol," Paul answered. "Embry and I were near the eastern edge of our territory so he kept running east while I cut north towards your territory. Sam was the only other one in wolf form and he was close to La Push, sort of in the middle between the coast and where we were. He thought patrolling the treaty line nearest the village so Victoria couldn't reach it was a better move than going towards the cliffs."

"Paul heard you say if it was you, you'd try to escape in the water if you had an opening," Leah continued. "He took a chance and told Embry to stick close to the eastern edge of the treaty line and then hauled ass for the cliffs, and Sam howled so anyone who was able to would phase. Jacob phased first and his priority was patrolling as close to Bella's house as he could get, and then Seth phased just after that. He immediately headed to where we were but we went human before he got close."

Jasper shoved aside his anger at Sam, knowing it wouldn't do any good. "I think you were right, Leah, and Victoria does have some kind of gift that allows her to escape danger. Any time it looked like we had an opening, she dodged at the last second. And she had far more confidence than a person should have when they're being chased by five vamps and two wolves."

Rosalie huffed in frustration. "It sure would've been nice if Edward had been with us so he could hear in her thoughts how it worked. If we knew that we might be able to find a way to work around it."

"I'm assuming he's at the Swan's?" Jasper asked. His feelings about the telepath's absence were a little conflicted. On one hand, he couldn't really blame Edward for wanting to be there to protect his human mate, but on the other, Edward's gift could be the difference between Victoria constantly slipping through the cracks until she'd finally exacted her revenge or them stopping her before anyone got hurt. Jasper would never not be a strategic thinker in situations like this, where the safety of his loved ones was at stake. In Jasper's mind, killing Victoria meant completely eliminating the threat to Bella, therefore it should be Edward's priority. If Jasper had been in his shoes, he would've sent one of the other vamps to guard Bella so he could use his telepathy to get a read on Victoria.

"He is," Esme nodded, her emotions just as conflicted as Jasper's. "He was out his bedroom window before Alice even finished explaining and I wasn't going to waste any time chasing after him."

Jasper looked into the trees behind Leah for a moment and then smiled at his mate. "Looks like I do recognize Seth's signature already. He's coming and he's not alone. And he's pissed."

"Good, he should be," Leah huffed. "We all should be. That was complete fucking bullshit and we would've had her IF YOU WEREN'T BEING SUCH A STUBBORN DICK!" she snapped as she turned and shouted into the trees.

Everyone turned in that direction when they heard a low growl. It was immediately followed by a laugh and a human Seth Clearwater came running up faster than Jasper would've thought possible in that form. Leah wasn't kidding when she said they were still fast human.

"He's definitely a stubborn dick," Seth agreed as he hugged his sister.

Sam loped into view behind him as a wolf, but stayed on his side of the treaty line, so there was about fifteen yards between him and the rest of the group.

Leah, Seth, Paul, and all the vamps looked at Sam expectantly, but he didn't do anything but stand there and glare at them while growling quietly. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the vamps all glanced at each other trying not to show their amusement.

Emmett cleared his throat so he wouldn't laugh. "Uh, Sam? You do know you're going to have to go human if you want to have an actual conversation, right? I mean, Jasper can ask you questions and you can growl and snarl while he just deduces your answers from your emotions, but I'm not gonna lie… we have had a lot of 'conversations' like that through the years and they're not as productive as you might think."

"Seriously, this guy is the Alpha?" Rosalie asked incredulously.

"Could be worse," Leah laughed. "Jake is actually the true Alpha. He's just too young and dumb still to take the job."

Sam growled at Leah, which just pissed Paul off even more than he already was. "Quit growling at her, asshole. Either go phase or go home."

Sam bared his teeth and growled again, but Paul just rolled his eyes. It really said a lot about Sam Uley that the guy wearing nothing but a t-shirt tied around his waist still managed to look less ridiculous than the giant black wolf.

Sam stalked into the trees to phase and came storming back out a moment later wearing a pair of jean shorts.

"Damn, jean shorts again? Those really are never a good look," Alice muttered under her breath.

"You don't make decisions about what my pack does or where they go," Sam snapped at Jasper as he came to a stop on the treaty line. "Protecting my people will always be more important than protecting your family. The redhead can take all of you out as far as I'm concerned."

Jasper clenched his jaw and swallowed down his rage. "This isn't about my family. Keeping your people safe means killing Victoria. You think she has the morals we have?" he asked as he gestured to the rest of his family. "Treaties and treaty lines don't mean shit to Victoria. Killing humans doesn't bother her in the slightest. She got away from us by crossing an invisible line that we can't cross, and then she escaped because there wasn't a single wolf standing between her and the coast even though you had more than enough time to get there. As long as Victoria is out there evading you on your land, your people aren't safe," he snapped.

"We heard you howl to call the pack, so we know exactly how long it took you to act," Alice added. "You chose not to cut her off at the cliffs even though we knew that's where she was going, which meant Paul had to try and get here from much further away. She got away because you fucked up, not us."

Sam's foot hadn't raised more than an inch off the ground when Jasper moved to stand in front of Alice. "You step a toe over that line and it's the last step you'll ever fucking take," he said coldly. "I've already warned you once not to come at her with that kind of rage and aggression. You won't get another warning."

Sam's eyes were blazing as he glared at Jasper. "You kill me and it'll lead to a war you won't win."

Rosalie scoffed at that. "Okay, first of all, my brother didn't say he'd kill you, he just said you wouldn't be doing any walking ever again. Second, you crossing that line to attack Alice because she hurt your delicate male ego and your precious feelings would be breaking the treaty. And third, don't ever assume you have a chance of winning a war against us," she snapped.

Sam looked at the three wolves on the Cullen's side of the line, as if he was expecting them to come to his defense. They didn't.

"Sam, if the situation was reversed and one of them was threatening you or being unnecessarily hostile, I'd defend you without a moment's hesitation, even against my imprint," Leah sighed. "We all would. In this particular instance, you're the one in the wrong. I'm not going to scold Jasper or his family for defending themselves, or for telling you this was your fuck up. It was your fuck up."

"We get that you don't like the vamps. We get that you don't like Jasper," Seth added. "But no one was asking you to blindly take his word for what was happening or his advice about what to do. You saw everything Leah saw, heard everything she heard, so you knew where Victoria was and where she was going. The only reason you didn't immediately call the wolves to action and send them to the cliffs was because he was the one suggesting it."

"Don't you have an imprint of your own?" Alice asked Sam with a whole lot of confusion. "You have a soulmate, so why are you so hostile to Jasper? It's not like he stole Leah from you. You guys broke up a year ago, right? Because you found your imprint?"

"And didn't waste any time betraying her with her cousin," Rosalie muttered under her breath.

Sam glared at them, which seemed to be his default expression. "She doesn't have to be my girlfriend for me to care about her. l don't trust any of you bloodsucking leeches, and I don't want Leah to be in danger just because he claims to be her mate."

"Claims to be her mate?" Paul repeated incredulously. "You've already imprinted, Sam, so you know exactly what it looks like, what it feels like. You share a mental space with Leah about five times a week so you fucking know Jasper is her imprint."

Leah looked at Sam in a combination of disbelief and anger, then she turned on her heel and started running in the direction of Forks.

"Where the hell are you going?" Sam called after her, but she ignored him and kept running. "Leah!"

She stopped and turned back to look at him with hard, pissed off eyes. "I'm going to get my car and then I'm driving home. Then I'm calling the elders together for a meeting. If I were you, I'd worry less about me and more about how you're going to explain this whole fucking mess. Your highest priority is supposed to be the protection of our tribe, not creating animosity with a group we have a fucking peace treaty with just because you think you have some claim on me. You're not the rightful Alpha, Sam, you're merely a placeholder until the true Alpha grows up because you were the first to phase. Maybe it's time to reconsider that."

Sam growled at her but she just rolled her eyes and turned her back on him. His indignation and rage were so strong that they made Jasper a little nervous. If Sam physically attacked Leah once she was back on Quileute land, Jasper wouldn't be able to cross the treaty line.

It was Esme that threw him a lifeline.

When it looked like Sam was going to run after Leah, she cleared her throat. "As Jasper's mate, Leah is a full member of our family. Any physical attack on her - regardless of whose territory she's in - is no different from a physical attack on one of us, which, as you know, is a breach of the treaty," Esme calmly warned him. "And if you doubt my word or our family's right to enforce that stipulation, perhaps consult your elders."

The whole group looked at her in surprise, but she didn't take her eyes off Sam. He stared at her in shock for a moment before snarling in rage and turning into the trees, where he phased back to a wolf and started running towards La Push.

"Any chance those are finally the last of the jean shorts?" Alice asked as she watched the tattered remains drift to the ground.

Seth snorted a laugh. "Why are you so against jean shorts?"

"Uh… have you seen them?" Alice asked with an amused smile, wanting to ease the tension a bit, then she shrugged a little. "Plus he's an asshole, so I'd probably make fun of him for anything he wore."

Leah had stopped running when Esme was talking to Sam and she looked at her curiously. "Did you really make that amendment to the treaty?" she asked.

"Yes," Esme nodded. "Carlisle had a long discussion with Billy Black after you and Jasper met. That was one point he was quite insistent on and Chief Black said he would speak to the other elders about it. He called Carlisle yesterday evening and said they agreed. I don't know if Sam is aware of the amendment and is pretending not to be, or if the elders deliberately kept it from him."

Leah thought about it for a moment. "I think one of us would have heard it in his thoughts if he knew, so I'm guessing they made the decision without him."

Paul nodded his agreement. "If Billy felt it was a fair clause to add and he was confident Sue and Old Quil would vote with him, they'd have the majority and wouldn't need Sam's vote. My guess is the three of them talked it over and didn't enlighten Sam so he wouldn't have an opportunity to try and stir up any more trouble."

Jasper smiled at Esme and wrapped her up in a hug. "Thank you," he said quietly as he let her feel his gratitude and love.

Leah echoed her thanks and then looked at her fellow wolves. "I'm gonna go grab my car. Want to meet me at our house and we can work on a plan of attack? I have no intention of letting Sam get away with this."

Seth and Paul nodded their agreement and headed into the trees to phase back to wolves, though Paul did thank Emmett for his shirt before he did. Jasper bounded over to Leah and took her hand, and the two ran back to Cullen's together, their hands intertwined the whole way.


Not wanting Victoria and Sam to completely fuck up their day, Leah still had Jasper follow her to the treaty line in his truck with the building materials. When they pulled off at the side of the road where the Cullen's land was the closest to the Clearwater's house, Sue was already waiting for them. It wasn't a very far walk from her house - maybe twenty minutes at her human pace - so she'd set off when Leah called her.

Even knowing his mate's mom was on their side and supported his relationship with her daughter, Jasper would be lying if he said he wasn't a little nervous to meet Sue. But the closer he got, the less nervous he was. Sue was eager and excited, even through her concern and worry - which Jasper attributed to the situation with Sam. By the time Leah had called her, Seth and Paul had already gotten to the Clearwater's. They didn't tell her much, just that something had happened that they needed to talk to her about, but Sue had heard Sam's howl to the rest of the pack and had gotten home just in time to see Seth sprinting out of the back door and running for the trees so she assumed it had to with that.

Jasper hopped out of his truck and Sue wasted no time crossing to his side of the line. She had a beautiful smile on her face as she held her hand out. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Jasper."

Jasper shook her hand with a smile. "You as well, ma'am."

Leah watched the two of them with a beautiful smile of her own, so grateful her mom was the loving woman she was. Even the grief of losing her husband hadn't made her heart close up. But as much as Leah wanted her mom to have a few minutes to get to know her imprint a little, they had more urgent things to deal with.

"Mom, can you drive my car home?" she asked. "There's some stuff in Jasper's truck that I need to get to our house. I could carry it myself in smaller loads from here but it would be a lot easier to drive it."

Sue looked in the bed of the truck curiously, but then just looked confused. "A construction project?"

"Yeah," Leah laughed. "I promise I'll explain more later, but for now I just want to get this home so we can talk."

"Okay," Sue agreed easily. She was curious about what her daughter might want to build but she was also worried about whatever happened that had Leah, Seth, and Paul so upset. "Maybe one of these days we can meet somewhere in town, Jasper, when we have more time to talk. The diner has great… Oh, never mind," she laughed.

"I hear they have the best french fries in Washington," Jasper said with a smile. "I may not join you in eating them, but I'd be more than happy to sit and talk with you while you enjoy them."

Sue beamed at him. "I'd like that," she nodded. "I'll get your number from Leah and we can make a date."

Leah laughed a little as she handed her mom her car keys. "Here. I'll meet you at home."

"Wait, before you go," Jasper cut in quickly before Leah's mom could get in the car. "I just want to thank you, not just for supporting Leah through this, but for you and the other elders agreeing to the amendment to the treaty. We don't take that lightly, and I want you to know that our whole family is grateful for your consideration."

Sue gave him a soft smile and she walked over to gently hug him for a moment. "I may not be able to invite you to my home just yet, but you are just as much a part of our family as Leah is a part of yours," she told him honestly.

"Thank you, ma'am," Jasper answered quietly.

With a last smile and wave, Sue got in Leah's car and headed home.

"That went well," Leah said with a laugh as she wrapped her arms around her imprint.

Jasper pulled her close and let himself soak up her happiness. "It did," he agreed. "She's got such a big heart, just like you and your brother. Even through her grief, she has so much love inside her."

Leah didn't let herself overthink it, she just pulled back a little and cupped his face in her hands. Just before she kissed him, she pulled back a tiny bit more so she could look in his eyes. "Is this okay?" she whispered.

Jasper didn't bother wasting time with words, he just answered by gently pressing his lips to hers, making the corners of Leah's lips tip up in a smile. It wasn't exactly a deep kiss - their relationship was still very new, after all - but it was long and lingering and so, so sweet. With Leah's arms wrapped around his neck and Jasper's arms holding her close, they easily shared their emotions with each other, making the kiss feel far more intimate somehow.

Leah eventually pulled back when she needed to breathe, but she gave him a few more gentle kisses before completely pulling away. Feeling Jasper's happiness and seeing it on his face, Leah's heart felt like it was taking flight.

Jasper rested his forehead on hers and closed his eyes for a moment. "Thank you," he murmured.

Leah smiled at him and gave him one last quick kiss. "My pleasure," she laughed. "Literally."

Jasper laughed as he handed her the keys to his truck. "Go fill your mom in. The sooner you talk to the elders, the less time Sam has to come up with a justification for his actions that they might find believable."

Leah nodded as she took them and climbed in the driver's seat, grumbling under her breath about what a dick her ex-boyfriend was.

"Please be careful, Leah," he said quietly. "He's incredibly angry. He feels betrayed and his pride has been hurt. As you know, in a man like Sam Uley, that is a dangerous combination."

Leah nodded because she knew he was right. She'd shared with Jasper that it was Emily comparing Sam to his deadbeat, adulterous father that made him so enraged that he phased too close to his imprint, permanently disfiguring her. "I will be, I promise," she reassured him. She didn't want to dismiss his worry when she knew his worry wasn't misplaced.

Jasper gave her one last kiss through the window and watched her drive across the treaty line, his uneasiness growing the further away from him she got. When she disappeared from view, he turned and headed for home.

He wasn't at all surprised that Alice was waiting for him about halfway there. There wasn't a being on this earth that knew Jasper better than she did, not even Peter, and she knew just how worried he was. Sam wasn't a threat to Jasper or Alice, or any of the other Cullens, but he was a threat to Jasper's mate.

Alice didn't speak, didn't offer any false reassurance, she just ran beside him in silence and let him feel her support and love.

Carlisle and Esme were sitting on the porch steps waiting for them when they got home. "How'd it go?" Esme asked with a smile. She might have been worried about the trouble Sam Uley had the potential to cause, but that didn't take away from her happiness about Jasper's growing relationship with his mate.

"Really well," Jasper answered as he took a seat on the ground with Alice. "She even hugged me and told me I was already part of her family. We have a tentative date for me to watch her eat some french fries," he laughed.

"She wants to get to know you better?" Esme asked with a delighted smile.

"She does," he nodded, then turned to Carlisle. "Thank you. I didn't know you'd planned to talk to Billy about amending the terms of the treaty where Leah was concerned."

Carlisle smiled at him. "I was merely stating the truth. She's your mate, and as such, she's part of this family. I simply told him we would defend Leah just as vigorously as we would defend any other member of the family."

"I appreciate it. As does Leah. She was as surprised as the rest of us when Esme dropped that particular bomb on Sam, but she was really touched that you went out on a limb like that on her behalf."

Jasper had a feeling that some of Leah's emotional reaction when she heard what Carlisle had done was because she'd so recently lost her dad. She'd lost the man who'd always sworn to fight in her corner and there was Carlisle, a father-figure fighting in her corner even though he barely knew her.

Carlisle's eyes hardened a little at the mention of Sam's name. He'd been at the hospital when Jasper called Alice about Victoria and his shift had only just ended when Jasper and Leah left to meet her mom at the treaty line. "Do we need to worry about him?"

Jasper tipped his head a little as thought over how to answer that. "Do I think he's going to cross the treaty line to attack one of us? No, not really. I'm not sure he's either stupid enough or brave enough to do that. But do I think he could hurt Leah in his current state of outrage? Yes," he nodded. "I don't know that he'll try to harm her physically, but he has plenty of other means of hurting her."

Emmett and Rosalie walked outside and sat beside Alice and Jasper in the grass. "What Leah said, about making it so Sam wasn't the acting Alpha anymore? Is that possible?" Rosalie asked. "Can the elders make a decision like that?"

"I have no idea," Jasper shrugged. "Sam phasing first seems to be why he's temporarily in charge, so it doesn't appear to be because of his blood line or his ability. It sounds more like a matter of convenience. And maybe experience, since he's been a wolf the longest. I guess it's possible that they could name another Alpha until Jacob Black grows up some, but I really don't know. That's tribe-level politics that I'm just as clueless about as any outsider."

"So what do we to keep Leah safe?" Emmett asked.

"I don't think Leah needs us to keep her safe, Em," Alice answered him with a smile. "It's sweet that you care enough to ask, but Leah's not exactly a typical human who needs our protection."

"Yeah, I get she's a super strong wolf," he answered, only rolling his eyes a little. "But that dude is seriously huge. Human or wolf, he's like twice her size."

"And she's starting to learn how to use that to her advantage," Alice laughed as she launched herself at her bear of a brother and tackled him, easily ducking under his huge arm and dodging his attempts to swat her off him.

Jasper smiled as he watched the two of them roll their way across the front yard, their playful growls and bright laughter filling the air. He and Alice may not have been changed by Carlisle, but they'd nevertheless found a true family with the Cullens. Family didn't necessarily come from flesh and blood, sometimes it was simply a matter of love.

He realized in that moment that Leah's life paralleled his in some ways. Her mom and Seth were her family of flesh, blood, and love, but it was love alone that made her see Charlie Swan and Paul as part of her family.

And now the bond between Leah and Jasper meant they'd each found another family. So yes, maybe Sam Uley was going to try and cause trouble for them, but family stuck by you through thick and thin. As Jasper looked around the front yard at the people he'd considered family for seventy years, as he thought about Sue, Seth, and Paul, and even Charlie Swan, he had no doubt that he and his mate had more than enough people willing to fight in their corner.