Loving You / Paul Lahote - [EDITED]

18 - [EDITED]

The next day Edward was the one who woke Ashley up.

"If it were up to me I'd wait until you woke up on your own, however, there is someone waiting to see you," Edward had said. 

Ashley's mind quickly went to Paul but Edward shook his head. "Not him, same species though," 

Ashley put on some comfortable clothes as fast as she could and got ready in the quickest time possible. Edward didn't tell her who it was. Curiosity was killing her as she sped out of her room and to the living room where Edward told her the guest was waiting.

Up until the moment she walked into the living room Ashley had a theory of who it could be. Jared, Embry, Jacob, hell even Sam. 

But no, she was not expecting to find Leah Clearwater sitting on the sofa looking uncomfortable as she eyed the place.

"Leah?" Ashley asked in surprise. 

The female shifter's gaze immediately turned to her and she got up. "Ashley, hey, sorry to wake you up, it's just, I don't really have much time and I needed to talk to you,"

Ashley nodded. "Okay, it's not much of a problem, I was going to wake up soon," she replied. 

"It's actually four o'clock Ashley, you've slept for almost the whole day," Edward said. 

Ashley rolled her eyes as she turned to her uncle. "Thank you for the info Eddy boy, can you leave now? I feel like this is a private girls' talk," she said. 

Edward chuckled quietly as he nodded and left. Then Ashley turned to Leah. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Look, I wasn't lying when I said what I said. When we are in our wolf form we can hear each other's thoughts and one time when I was patrolling with him and Jared he was thinking of you. And then Jared thought of the difference in him. How he didn't want to imprint before and how much he changed. Paul agreed. That's how I know it," Leah started. 

Ashley nodded but didn't say anything.

"I'm not going to say sorry if that's what you were expecting," Leah then said. 

"I wasn't expecting you to Leah, " Ashley replied. 

"Good, 'cause everyone expects me to," Leah mumbled.

"You don't have to, you just said something you knew. It's between me and Paul," Ashley said and Leah nodded. "But I'm wondering why are you here, explaining it,"

Leah sighed. "Because he's miserable and everyone's mad at me for saying something and I'm sick of it. I know they look at me like the freak I am and I do not need that pile getting bigger,"

"Leah, you're not a freak!" Ashley exclaimed.

Leah rolled her eyes. "Yeah, just the first female in the tribe to shift, nothing big," she said and sighed, "I don't need your sympathy, this is my shit and I'll deal with it, just like I always do, I just want things to get better, God knows it's already like hell," 

"Why?" Ashley asked her and Leah looked somewhere else.

Ashley didn't know why she cared so much but seeing Leah like that, ever since she met her, it hurt Ashley. Leah had lost her father and then phased. She was the one who took care of the family, as far as Paul told her. 

Her mother was heartbroken and her brother was so young. With her joining the pack the amount of responsibility she had on her shoulders only got bigger. 

Plus, just like she had said, Leha was the first female shifter in the whole history of the tribe. Her little brother Seth's phasing didn't help her at all as well.