𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟏

𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙤𝙡𝙛 𝙛𝙪𝙧

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╰┈˚ · ° .     To say that the days following Jacob's imprinting on Maddison had been tense, would have been an understatement.

We danced around the subject, no one had said it out loud yet as if we could avoid the situation. The one time that Kim had brought it up to Maddi, the girl had gotten so angry about it that we hadn't heard from her for two days.

If the pack had hoped for a calmer Jacob, well, that had not happened, not at first. But after a week Jacob acted as if nothing had happened, like he hadn't imprinted on Maddison. He was still following Bella like a lost puppy, and the guys continued to say that it was getting harder to be phased at the same time as him. Most of the time he shouted his thoughts through their bond unconsciously as if he was purposely thinking about Bella to quiet the instinct of the imprint bond—which enraged the others since they all thought he was disrespecting something so pure and otherworldly. Impints bonds were sacred to wolves—not to Jacob apparently— It was innate to respect it, innate to respect the imprint of even other shifters.

The hunt for Victoria still hadn't been fruitful. More than once the pack had been close to catch her, but as always, in the end she got away. And what was making everything even more difficult was the police force swarming the woods after another death. They were all searching for the animal they thought responsible for it.

Another day, another hunt. This time the coven had joined the pack in the forest, using the Transfiguration power to keep up with them as they ran in their wolf form.

Sam was leading the pack, his coal black wolf starkly different from the rest not only in color but size too. He was larger than the others, taller. Jared was on his right, a chestnut colored wolf with a spot of light gray surrounding his eyes creating the visual effect of a mask. Paul was on Sam's left, with a dark silver fur that faded to white on the belly and face, only leaving the nose to be covered in silver. Embry stood on Paul's left, and as a wolf, he had a thick coat of gray fur with black spots, more slender and swifter than his other pack members. Jacob wolf was on Jared's right, of a russet color with more reddish highlights if the sun hit him right.

They moved all together, running through the woods with their senses focused on the hunt, sight set on finding the mane of bright red curls of the vampire, nose searching for her scent, and ears ready for any sound.

"Direction?" Sam's voice echoed through the mind-link. It was completely open between the pack and coven making it easier to stay in contact.

Kim Trasmutated next to Layla, catching her hand in hers to join their powers and attuning themselves with the forest. "Right. She is following the police."

It was hard to keep up with the wolves, we had to Transmute every few seconds, blinking away to the farthest spot our eyes could catch.

"Can you slow her down like you did last week?"

I catched the eyes of my fellow witches at the alpha's question. "Give us a few minutes."

Kim, Amelia, Layla and I stopped near each other, not wasting any time to clasp our hands together forming a connected circle. Air, water, fire and air flowed like streams around our arms as we called the fifth element. We saw her then as we accessed the aether, the vampire, Victoria. Her blazing red hair a stark contrast with the green that surrounded her, her marble like skin translucent and pale without any sun. Victoria, to our surprise and immense horror, had her hand wrapped around someone's throat, lifting them in the air. Harry Clearwater.

Water came first, encasing her hand in a bubble that iced over at Layla's command, preventing the vampire from moving and creating more harm to the man. Then air shoved her away, the ground swallowing her feet in a cage of dirt. A scream tore from her lips as fire licked her skin.

It was a long range attack, we couldn't hold it for long, fortunately, the pack wasn't far away and we cutted the connection just in time to see Sam's black wolf jump at the attack.

Taking a second to breath, we looked at each other, and then we were Transmutating away to Harry Clearwater that heart we felt stop beating.

══════ 🜂🜁🜃🜄 ══════

╰┈˚ · ° .  I had never been to a funeral before and I hoped to never need to go to another one anytime soon.

Harry Clearwater had been a loved and respected man, that much was clear by the many people attending his funeral coming from both La Push and Forks.

He had a family, a wife and two kids. Sue Clearwater had tried to not let her grief overwhelm her. She had worn a brave face and watery smile for more than two hours before she had to excuse herself as tears had started to pour. And then, she was coming and going from and to the bathroom, everytime, her eyes looking more red and swollen.

Seth was the youngest, only 15. He hadn't talked with anyone and he hadn't moved from his spot on the couch since the wake had started. Surprisingly, Amelia had sat there with him, holding his hand for just as much time, letting him cry on her shoulder. She could understand him, her mother had passed away years ago when she was only 10 years old.

Leah was nowhere to be found. Even though her mother hadn't had any clue of where her eldest daughter had been, she tried to not cry as she had begged Emily to try and talk with her, but we all knew that was the worst idea ever.

I looked around again, no sign of her. It was after an hour and a half that I decided to use magic to search for the girl. I squeezed Paul's hand before letting him know what I was doing, and then I walked out of that house with a hair taken from the girl's hairbrush that I had found in her room.

I found Leah sitting on the sand of First Beach. It was a mirrored image of weeks ago when I last saw her exactly there, only now the girl looked like she was on the verge of breaking apart with anger.

"Hi." I sat down next to her not caring about dirtying the dress. "Rather shitty day isn't it?"

I knew Leah enough to know that the last thing she needed was other condolence and pitying looks, that's why I knew that my lack of sympathy wouldn't have made her angry.

"You think?" She scoffed, rolling her eyes in emphasis. "Go away, Trixy, I'm not in the mood for another 'you deserve better' speeches."

"I didn't know you owned this beach."

"Really? That's what you choose to say?"

"Do you want me to tell you how sorry I am for your loss?" I snarked back lightheartedly.

"Fuck no. I heard that enough already today."

"Then I won't."

Leah waited a second before speaking again. "How did you felt when your father wasn't in your life anymore?"

I was expecting everything but that. "I'm not sure the two things are quite the same. Your father and mine were two different kinds of people."

"Just answer me." She snapped, losing for a second the tight grip on her control.

"Are you really asking me how I felt after my abusive father walked out of my life? Well, good. I felt good. I could breath without fearing a bottle to be thrown my way." I replied full of snark.

"And your mother?"

"This is getting uncomfortable." I cleared my throat not really wanting to answer that.

"My father just died." She deadpanned.

"Oh, not the dead father card. Low blow Leah, low blow." I huffed, shaking my head before replying, "it's different from her. Even after everything, I still love her. It was her that didn't love her kids enough. And that's where it gets complicated. I love her but I'm so angry at her."

"Do you ever regret not letting that anger go. All that time spent fighting and yelling when you could just be happy and together." I had the sudden feeling that this was not about me anymore and I was very grateful for it. Leah huffed out a bitter laugh of disbelief and anger, "I hated him, I hated him for so long because he hadn't cared about Sam breaking my heart, he was always singing his praise whenever he could. He didn't care. And I hated him and now he is—" She cut herself off, her breathing getting heavier, "I hated him so much and now he left me all this guilt because–"

"Leah?" I was getting nervous. She was shaking with anger. What the hell?

Leah stood up, her breathing erratic, "how could he do that?!" She screamed, her hands turning into fists.

I touched her arm trying to confirm my suspiciousness. Holy shit. She was boiling hot.

"Sam!" I shouted immediately opening the coven-pack mental link not caring if I was broadcasting it to all the others. I was kind of panicking. I had no idea what to do with a shifter about to phase, this was not my area of expertise. "We have a problem."

"What do you mean? Are you okay?" he sounded franetic, but I almost hadn't heard him over Leah's shout of pain as she fell on the sand with a broken leg.

"Leah is phasing."

"What?!" It had been shouted from so many people that I had no idea who actually was who.

"Impossible. There is no precedent for women shifting before." Sam said.

"I'm very fucking sure since she is boiling hot, shaking with anger. And did I mention that she just broke a leg seemingly out of nowhere? Nope, now her arm is broken too."

"Leah, it's going to be okay." I was shitty and this, I realized. She had just broken her leg and arm out of nowhere and I was telling her that everything was going to be okay? She was about to turn into a giant wolf, for fuck sakes.

"What is happening?" She shouted, shaking even more. The fingers of her already broken arm snapping at that moment earning an agony filled scream.

"Where are you?" I could feel and hear the fear in Paul's tone, "Where the fuck are you Beatrice!?"

I had the sudden thought to tell him to not shout at me until Leah screamed again, breaking her spine— and sure, I guess him shouting because he was worried about my safety was actually reasonable enough at that moment— "First Beach." An howl pierced through the forest a second later.

"Try to keep her calm." Sam instructed me.

"Calm? Have you ever met Leah?"

A laugh followed, I knew exactly who that belonged to. There was only one person that could have laughed in a situation like that. "Hey, why don't you bring your ass here, Mia? "

"For what? Anger Leah even more when she laughs in her face?" Jared commented back, his tone sobering quickly. "Oh shit."

"What now?"

"Oh shit." Kim echoed a second later. "Seth is about to phase too."

Oh, what the hell. "Is Amelia with him?"

"No, I was already coming to you." She explained exasperated.

"Jared, Embry, Layla, and I are with him." Kim said.

"Beatrice focus!" Paul snapped. "You have a wolf about to phase for the first time in front of you."

"She won't hurt me and you know it."

"If I found even a single scratch on you–"

"Yes, yes, yes. I love you too."

"Disgusting." I cutted off the connection just after I heard Amelia comment.

"Leah, can you hear me?" I tried to talk with the girl coming a few steps closer to her.

"Stop!" She yelled pleasingly, "Please don't come any closer, please."

I knew at that moment that she was just about to phase. Her wolf wouldn't risk coming out in a range when she could accidentally hurt me. "Okay, okay." I shakily nodded my head doing as she had told me to do, "you know what to do Leah, it's all instinct. Just let it happen."

"Happen what?" And then a scream tore from her lips changing into a growl as she phased into a gorgeous wolf. Stunning icy white fur with a patch of caramel color on her ears and top of the head. The wolf whined sharply, the sound sending a pang to my heart.

"I swear it's going to be fine. We will explain everything to you." I wished I could communicate with her too.

She whined again until it turned into a menacing snarl. Her eyes looked almost distant and at that moment I knew that someone was communicating with her. A growl of warning echoed in her chest as Leah placed herself between me and the black wolf that suddenly appeared on the beach.

Is she trying to protect me? I guess she likes me after all—I thought.

"That's Sam." Then I remembered, "Which I guess gives you all the right to growl at him, I guess."

She huffed a laugh through her snout, turning her wolf-head towards me. Leah was acting much better than the other guys after they had shifted. I guess it's just because she was a woman. Always said the men were too dramatic.

Paul's wolf followed after Sam, and differently from his alpha, Paul didn't stop when Leah growled at him. He just growled back.

"That's Paul, my boyfriend. Which you probably know since I have the feeling he is threatening you to move away from me. I swear to god I hate not being able to talk with you."

The air around us popped lightly, and Amelia Transmutated there with us. The witch let out a wolf whistle, "well aren't you gorgeous, sweetheart."

The audacity of this girl. "Are you really flirting with her right now?" I couldn't help but ask.

"You know every excuse is good for that, and we all know I have the hots for beautiful girls."

I swear that Leah let out a snort before freezing. Oh hell, not another one.

We watched in disbelief as another wolf imprinted just before our eyes. It was like faith was playing with us.

A boy imprinting on the sister of the girl that he was in love with.

A straight girl imprinting on a girl.

Things just had gotten ten times messier.

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone! 

And here we are with the last chapter!!!

I'm part of the Leah deserves-better-squad so I had to give her an imprint. But what is this story without any unnecessary drama! We will see so much of it in the next act of this book. I swear this is my addiction. 

BTW Act 5 will be the last one! I can't believe we are almost at the end. 

Paul and Beatrice's story is not over yet, hopefully a bit of calm for them will await them in the next Act. 

What do you think about Leah and Amelia, and what about Maddison and Jacob? I have so many things planned for everyone that I can't wait to write them. I have to say though, even if we have seen only a bit of Embry and Layla, they are one of my fav pairings so far!! They are just so cute. 

Another thing, we still have Quil and Seth, so do you guys want for them to imprint on someone? Give me some ideas pls!!! 

hank you for reading this Act! A major thank you to all of you that added this story to their reading list, commented, voted and supported me! I love you guys immensely!

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾