Still Breathing [Jacob Black]

Chapter Eight

Leah

All I'd wanted was to have a good, proper Valentine's Day with my imprint. And yet, everyone was angry at me for the efforts I went to in order to make it happen. So what if I brought the divorce papers to Eli's ex and asked her to sign them at work? He was going to divorce her anyway, right? So I just sped up the process. I didn't understand what was the big effing deal.

He probably wanted to take them to her himself, Lee, Seth whispered in my mind. It had been him and Quil running when I phased, and Quil had jumped out of this mindlink and into human form so fast, I'd have been insulted if he wasn't such an idiot. Now it was just Seth and me, running the route around La Push—because apparently Paul had gone to see if the precious Felicity was alright. Why did everyone fawn over her so much?

I pushed myself to run faster, growling a little in frustration.

She's Paul's friend, Seth said. And Jacob's imprint. We always take care of imprints.

My eyes narrowed. But what about MY imprint? No one seems to care about that!

Seth was quiet for a moment as he tried to make sense of what I'd said. What was so confusing about it? The man I'd imprinted on was married to another woman. All I wanted to do was be able to claim him for myself, but he wouldn't let that happen until he was unattached from her. It wasn't out of place for me to hold hostility toward the situation.

Yeah, but you've been kind of taking it to extremes, Lee. And your imprint is fine. Anyone can see that Elijah is devoted to you now. You have nothing to worry about.

I shook my head, pushing myself ever faster. But he still cares, Seth. That's what no one understands. He still worries about her. He still wants to take care of her. He's supposed to feel that way about ME. I was starting to sound pathetic and I hated it, so I stopped talking. Let little peacemaker Seth figure it out from there.

But he does, Leah. He left her for you. Sure, he still cares and wants to mend fences enough to be friends with her at some point. But at the end of the day, he's with you. And you're kind of throwing that all in his face by acting like it's not good enough. He's trying. This is all new to him. And you're being...well, not cool, Leah. Seth shut up then because he could surely tell my irritation was rising. If he were anyone but my brother, I might have bitten a chunk out of his hide.

Since he was my brother, however, I thought over his words. Was I really hurting Eli by acting the way I have about Felicity? He hadn't shown much upset—until tonight, at least. I needed to talk to him so we could sort this all out.

I'm going back to Sam and Emily's, I told Seth. You can call Quil back now. The big baby.

Quil phased back in just as I was phasing out, thank goodness. I didn't want to hear him whine. I dressed and rushed into the house, ignoring the people still gathered in the kitchen on my way up the stairs. I decided not to knock on Eli's door and instead just barged right in.

He was pacing, his face still set in anger. He barely spared me a glance as I stepped into the room, easing the door closed behind me. He was seriously mad. Shit.

"We should talk..." I said without confidence. He'd never been this angry with me before.

"Yeah," he clipped out. "We really should. Sit down." He pointed at the desk chair.

I sat, fidgeting as I did. "Eli...I'm—"

"No," he interrupted. "It's my turn to talk. You've been going on and on for a while now, and I've let you. But now you've done something to deliberately hurt Felicity." He halted his pacing and ran a hand through his hair in agitation. "I know it sucks for you to know this, but I was going to be with Felicity forever. We're young, but I married her with the intention of spending the rest of my life with her. We could have waited, stayed together or even engaged for a while, but her parents...Leah, her parents are terrible. And I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her anyway, so I convinced her to marry me. I convinced her."