Waxing Gibbous

Defecting (A)

I was right on the edge of sleep.

The sun had risen behind the clouds an hour ago—the forest was gray now instead of black. Seth had curled up and passed out around one, and I'd woken him at dawn to trade off.

Even after running all night, I was having a hard time making my brain shut up long enough to fall asleep, but Seth's rhythmic run was helping. One, two-three, four, one, two-three, four—dum dum-dum dum—dull paw thuds against the damp earth, over and over as he made the wide circuit surrounding the Cullens' land.

We were already wearing a trail into the ground. But I knew they didn't mind, they worried more about the reason we had to be here.

Seth's thoughts were empty, just a blur of green and gray as the woods flew past him. It was restful. It helped to fill my head with what he saw rather than letting my own images take center stage. I wanted to go see Rosalie, but I was afraid to phase, I didn't want a chance to be caught off guard.

And then Seth's piercing howl broke the early morning quiet.

I lurched up from the ground, my front legs pulling toward a sprint before my hind legs were even off the ground. I raced toward the place where Seth had frozen, listening with him to the tread of paws running in our direction.

'one' Seth replied

'Morning, boys. Well, boy and girl.'

A shocked whine broke through Seth's teeth. 'Oh, man! Go away, Leah!' Seth groaned.

I stopped when I got to Seth, head thrown back, ready to howl again—this time to complain. 'Seth... quiet'

'right... sorry'

Leah trotted into view, her small gray body weaving through the underbrush, shaking her fur out. 'Stop whining, Seth. You're such a baby.'

'Leah, what are you doing here?'

She rolled her eyes playfully 'did you really think I was going to let you go alone.'

I breathed out a sigh of relief before turning to Seth

'Seth, go tell the Cullen's it was a false alarm. And that Leah's here'

'okay' he grumbled. Taking off back to the home. I knew he wanted to do something without his sister guarding him, but in a few hours he'll get over it.

'Now, how the hell did that happen?' Leah thought about Rosalie's pregnancy just to clarify what was going on.

'no clue, but my mates there and my child... I really hope he or she is okay and not something worse, but I won't hurt her or Bella or the babies without knowing the truth. For all we know they are just like us. I think we'd have to worry more about mine than Edward and Bella's, at least that one is some part human.'

'you're fine, after being bit by all those vamps.' Leah added, I nodded.

'i don't want to think about what will have to be done if he or she turns out like a newborn... but I can't let them kill her'

We were interrupted by Seth, thinking his explanation at Edward. Leah whined anxiously. Edward's face, framed in the same window as last night, showed no reaction to the news. It was a blank face, dead.

'Wow, he looks bad,' Seth muttered to himself.

The vampire showed no reaction to that thought, either. He disappeared into the house. Seth pivoted and headed back out to us. 'with Leah here, we can push the perimeter out farther. And this puts Sam down to seven. There's no way he's going to mount an attack that outnumbered. It's probably a good thing....' Seth added.

'okay Leah. What happened after we left last night?'

'Lots of howling. But you probably heard that part. It was so loud that it took us a while to figure out that we couldn't hear either of you anymore. Sam was...'

Words failed her, but we could see it in our head. Both Seth and I cringed. 'After that, it was clear pretty quick that we were going to have to rethink things. Sam was planning to talk to the other Elders first thing this morning. Jacob kept muttering about how he was waiting to rip you a new one. We were supposed to meet up and figure out a game plan. I could tell he wasn't going to mount another attack right away, though. Suicide at this point, with you and Seth AWOL and the Cullen's forewarned. I'm not sure what they'll do, but I wouldn't be wandering the forest alone if I was a leech. It's open season on vamps now.'

'You decided to skip the meeting this morning?' I asked.

'When we split up for patrols last night, I asked permission to go home, to tell my mother what had happened—'

'Crap! You told Mom?' Seth growled.

'Seth, hold off on the sibling stuff for a sec. Go on, Leah.'

'So, once I was human, I took a minute to think things through. Well, actually, I took all night. I bet the others think I fell asleep. But the whole two-separate packs, two-separate-pack-minds thing gave me a lot to sift through. In the end, I weighed Seth's safety and the, er, other benefits against the idea of turning traitor and banishment. You know what I decided. I left a note for my mom. I expect we'll hear it when Sam finds out....'

Leah cocked an ear to the west.

'Yeah, I expect we will,' I agreed.

'she knows everything. I told her what they planned to do with your mate. She'll agree with our choice, I know it...'

I looked between the two and I realized, that if things went bad, if we died here I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else. These two here were my family.