𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐒 ⸻ 𝖻𝗅𝖺𝖼𝗄𝗐𝖺𝗍𝖾𝗋

→ chapter twelve.

The air was crisp and cool, filling her lungs, as she walked. The exercise felt good, almost as good as the throb in her knuckles. Her head pounded as she dragged her well-worn sneakers over the uneven pavement and the bits of forest debris that had found its way onto the road. Her singular thought as she forced one foot in front of the other was: keep moving, keep moving.

A soft, balmy breeze hit her in the face, dried the faint dampness of the tears that had managed to fall despite her efforts, as she made her way down the road.

"Leah!"

She tensed at the voice as the sound of footsteps getting closer. Reluctantly she turned around and found Paul and Embry shoving each other playfully as they walked up behind her.

"Hey, Clearwater," Paul said and curled a muscle-bound arm around her shoulders as he often did. He smelled of the tree leaves and body sweat, the scent amplified by the higher temperature.

She clenched her jaw.

Embry, so keen and observant, far too fucking observant, cut off their path and stared at her face. His gaze was a physical caress, smoothing over the redness in her eyes and the faint tear tracks on her cheeks, and then dropped lower. To her red knuckles that still pulsated with pain. At the blood the had dried and begun to turn brown. Finally he spoke, his voice was a whisper. "You seem upset. You've been crying."

Nothing ever slipped past him; he saw everything and missed nothing.

Paul stilled and his arm flexed against the back of her shoulder, his bicep brushing the back of her nape. "What happened? Whose ass do I need to kick?" he growled, his voice low and dangerous.

She shrugged out of his grip. "Nothing, and no one's," she mumbled, starting forward again, but Embry stopped her with a gentle grip on her shoulder. Not tight enough to hurt her but not loose enough that she could break it by just walking away.

"No," he murmured, "something's not right."

There was the sharp tang of stomach acid in her throat as she swallowed. Without looking at either of her Pack brothers, she stepped out of Embry's way and jerked, breaking his hold. Her face flushed with heat as prickling pressure erupted behind her eyes. She blinked rapidly as she fought to keep her composure.

If only she'd braved the Pack house. If only she'd taken a different route. Why did they come across her now? When she was so fragile and so hurting, on the verge of lashing out the way she always did?

Just leave, she thought desperately.

Paul, not unlike a dog with a bone, did not leave it. "What happened?"

"Nothing." Despite her efforts to push sincerity into her voice, it came out tight and broken like she was on the cusp of tears. Which she was but they didn't need to know that. "Nothing happened. I'm just...walking home." On an empty road after a meeting with Jake and Jared. Word traveled fast in La Push and even faster in the Pack thanks to their shared mind.

Refusing to engage anymore with them, she started walking forward and fought not to break into a sprint. Or Phase right then and there and run like she longed to. Her breathing shook with strain.

"Was it the meeting?"

Paul's question stopped her in her tracks.

Those four words sank deep into her bones, into the marrow of them. As she stood, the pavement underneath blurred. Her vision had filled with tears. She blinked and wiped at her tear-wet face before either noticed them running down her cheeks. Minuscule tremors racked up and down her back and she clenched her jaw hard enough to ache against them.

He continued on. "Saw you walking into the Pack house and then Jared."

"Oh," she said, "so now you're stalking me?" Her attempt at a joke fell flat.

His eyes narrowed. "Jared said something to you, didn't he? Whatever he said, it isn't true." He reached for her then, wrapped his hand around her arm, pulled her in close, so close she could smell the sweat on his skin. He was warm and solid, and her heart galloped. Not with want, never that, but at the touch she'd been denied since Harry died. Maybe she'd punished herself with the denial of physical touch, an important thing to a wolf.

"Oh," she remarked against the skin of his neck, "so the entire Pack doesn't think I'm some vicious bitter thing to be browbeat into submission? That I'm—I'm not..." The words I'm not a monster who killed my dad faded on her lips and she pushed her face harder into his jugular.

His arms banded around her middle and kept her against him. They stood flush, Pack to Pack, and she could've wept at the way her entire body relaxed in his embrace.

"Is that what he said?" Embry asked. His voice, always, was soft and quiet and now it had a current of rage threading through it.

"What he said? It's what I know, Em." The words were choked out and tight as Paul's broad palm swept up and down her back, soothing. The rough fingertips scraped across the bare skin her tank top didn't cover.

"I can't change the past," Paul said against the side of her head where his cheek rested, "but I want you to know I never thought of you like that. Embry either. Neither of us thought of you like that. Fuck the rest of the Pack, especially Jared. What a little shit. Even more so since he imprinted." His arms tightened a fraction. "Next time I see him, I'm beating the shit out of his punchable face."

Leah laughed dryly and stepped away. She wiped at her eyes. "I think I've already got you beat," she said, sniffling. "Or, rather, him beat." Lifting her hands, she let Paul see the blood on her swollen knuckles.

He laughed too, the sound sharp and tight like he'd been looking forward to it. "I think I could give him a smack down every day and it wouldn't help." He shrugged a broad shoulder, and she fitted herself into his side. Being a female wolf, it was hard for her to feel cherished and girlish, especially since she was almost six-foot-three, but standing next to Paul, she felt both. At least he wouldn't mock her for her new, unwanted appearance the way so many humans had.

His heat enveloped her side as he pressed a ginger kiss to the topmost point of her head. His voice was thin when he murmured, "Let's get you home, honey. How does that sound?"

She nodded, not trusting her voice, and allowed Embry to place himself on her other side, sandwiching her between them. The only Pack brothers who enjoyed her company and could stand her. The idea saddened her but it was her reality.

They continued walking in silence, the only noise the sound of the asphalt beneath their feet.

The drive was devoid of any vehicles when they approached her family home, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't think she could withstand an interrogation or, worse, an admonishment.

She was half carried up the front porch steps, weighed down exhaustion from today's events, and informed Embry he had to shoulder the door. It stuck something fierce but Sue refused to fix it. Forcing herself to stand, she refused to meet their gazes as she quietly thanked them.

Embry was sweet. "We're here for you, Leah. Remember that." For a fraction of a second, he hesitated and then hugged her in an Axe-scent hug. Hugging him made her think of Seth. He was so earnest and compassionate like her idiot of a brother.

When Embry pulled away, Paul stepped in, swept her off her feet, and wrapped her in a hug that damn near broke every bone in her back.

"Even if you tell me not to, I'm still gonna kick Jared's ass. He needs his ass handed to him." He grinned around the words, obviously pleased with himself, as he set her back down on her feet.

"Jake's gonna tear you a new one," she said by way of an attempt to dissuade him, but he simply grinned, shrugged, and stepped back, hopping off the porch.

She couldn't stop the smile as they walked down the drive and disappeared around a bend. Even after she'd locked the front door and made her way to her bedroom, she felt lighter than she had in a very long time. Between the Meet and running into them, it felt like something had shifted within her, something major and painful that had been blocking blood flow.

Stripped down her only her panties, she drew the shades, locked her door, and sprawled face-down on her bed, content for the first time in almost two years.