𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐒 ⸻ 𝖻𝗅𝖺𝖼𝗄𝗐𝖺𝗍𝖾𝗋

→ chapter four.

Leah scowled to herself as she trotted up to the house, lead only by the moon even though she could see perfectly fine. There were perks to being a wolf. 

While she was thankful Sue knew about the Pack, she couldn't help but mourn what her life could've been if she'd left after Sam broke up with her. Sue had convinced her to stay. If only she hadn't listened, hadn't let the pain draw her to stay in La Push. Before she Phased, Leah worked in a small newspaper that paid her decently. She had a nice little apartment right outside Forks and a beater of a car that carried her everywhere. As soon as she Phased, Sam Alpha commanded that she quit, that she return to La Push and start patrols like the rest of the Pack. His justification had been that it was too dangerous for her to be around humans, and when she had brought up the fact that all the boys were in public school, his Alpha command had been to close the conversation.

Snarling under her breath, Leah shoved open the door, mindful of her strength. Sam, she soon realized, didn't care about her well being; he just wanted control over her. Where the Pack did whatever they wanted, Leah was given strict rules: no jobs even months after mastering her temper, no dating outsiders, hell, no dating period.

When she'd refused, he'd pointed out that she might find her mate.

She had sneered and brought up her birthday party. 

He hadn't said anything in rebuttal. 

"Leah, there you are!" Sue greeted her with a smile.

A dark-haired, stout white man was standing at the kitchen counter, and a lump formed in Leah's throat. It would never be not bizarre seeing another man in Harry's place. She knew it wasn't Charlie Swan's fault—that lay in his selfish daughter and her vampire family—but just because she understood didn't mean she would ever accept him. He was kind and stoic, stormy-sturdy, like nothing could knock him down, the exact polar opposite to flighty, wishy-washy Bella. How such a man could produce such a girl was a mystery Leah never wanted to solve.

As if it wasn't bad enough that Harry was gone and that Charlie had started to fill the void Harry left behind, Sue was staring at him with unabashed interest, like a teenager hanging on the every word of her crush. She was giving him fucking heart eyes.

A quicksilver, frigid sort of heat shivered down Leah's back. It was tight and sharp enough that any breath in her lungs escaped in a rush. Her stomach twisted.

Charlie looked up at Sue and then Leah, and she clenched her jaw tightly. While most humans were quick to brush off things they couldn't explain, he'd always made both her wolf and human sides uneasy with his overly observant nature. He saw a lot, and while most would label the police chief as slow, Leah knew it wasn't the case, that he swallowed all information and chewed it until he came to conclusion. 

Her heart filled with both rage and sorrow that Bella Swan had her father and seemed completely unaware—and uncaring—of that fact. Leah would've given her life for Harry to be back.

"Oh, hey, Leah." Charlie's smile was tiny and hesitant underneath his thick mustache, but she couldn't find it in herself to smile back. The most she could manage was a small nod as she stared at Sue, wondering why he was here in their house.

His face dimmed a little, but Sue thankfully didn't notice.

"Leah, I didn't know you were home!" She stood from her chair to hug Leah but Leah stepped back.

"Uh, yeah. Jake let me go early."

Sue raised an eyebrow. Every other time she'd been sent home, it had been because she'd messed up and there was no doubt in her mind that Sue obviously thought this was one of those times.

"Early?" Charlie echoed, his eyebrows slanted over his kind brown eyes.

Leah was so tired, she struggled to gather her thoughts enough to speak them coherently. "We work in Sam's construction business, and Jake's the foreman." Even though Jake hadn't wanted the title of Beta, the Alpha's second-in-command and made it clear to anyone that he'd do everything in his power to avoid claiming his Alpha birthright.

Charlie nodded in understanding. 

All of her exhaustion, unease, and ache hit her at once. It hadn't even been a full year since Harry passed, and here Sue was, inviting his best friend into the house like Harry had never been there to begin with. The grief often threatened to incapacitate her, to ruin her, and some days were worse than others. Today was one of those, and she didn't have the energy to scrounge up to be the polite, dutiful daughter she was expected to be. She didn't have the energy to deal with the anxiety that rose within her either at his keen, all-too-seeing eyes. 

Fed up with today, she mumbled a goodbye and started down the front door corridor to sleep.

"Leah," Sue called, "why don't you stay down here?"

As if she didn't know how tired the patrols made her. As if she had no clue how ragged Leah was being run with back-to-back runs.

Leah kept walking without response. She was so goddamned tired, and all she wanted was sleep, not playing nice.

"Let her go. I'm sure she's just tired," Charlie whispered as Leah climbed the stairs. The sound of his low, soft voice was at odds with her memories of Harry's boisterous one.

Sue snorted. "She's just being rude," she insisted. "Which, as you know, isn't new for her."

Leah reached her bedroom door, yanked it open, and slammed it with a fraction of her wolf strength added. The sound reverberated through the house and the rattled her window pane. Sue's passive-aggressiveness wasn't anything new but it seemed to have been exasperated by Harry's death, who had done his best to run interference and curb the worst of it. It was amazing how blind and oblivious she could be when Leah's own pettiness reared its head, a mirror of her mother. She thought it was funny how she could say that when she knew what Leah was dealing with.

How could Sue open their home to Charlie so quickly, like Harry had never even lived there?

Just the thought sent her stomach in painful cramps as tears stung her eyes. She hated being weak but here, in the darkness of her room, her face pressed into the cold sheets, no one was there to see it.

Closing her eyes, she let the pain come.

➽───────────────❥

The haunting melody of wolfsong jolted her awake, her heart pounding and blood roaring in her ears. It was an alarm, a warning, ringing through the room, and she glanced at her door. The lights outside were off so it must've been late.

Without another thought, she stripped down and wedged open her window, folding herself into the free space between the frame and bottom of the glass. Jumping out easily, she landed as a wolf, shaking out her fur before flexing her claws into the rain-soaked earth underneath her paws.

As usual only Paul greeted her; his words were almost drowned out by the howl.

The howl continued, going on and on; it was a young pup, excited and freaked out at catching the scent of a vampire.

Leah remembered her own frenzied howls the first time she crossed the scent.

Bloodsuckers. You know, the usual. Paul sounded almost resigned.

The forest flew by, dizzying her, as he rushed to where the howling was originating from Collin Littlesea. The kid was just barely a couple months into being a shifter.

She could sense Jake Phasing in, sprinting with a jarring amount of speed towards Collin, and then she spotted them. 

Embry facing off with the bloodsucker, a white brunette with long, curly hair and blood-red eyes, waifish and girlish. From the back, she looked like Bella.

She wasn't the only who thought so.

Jake's thoughts mirrored hers before he kicked it into high gear. 

The forest passed in a blur, disorientating Leah. She leaned forward and ran like hell, racing across the rain-wet ground.