BOREALIS ☽ Leah Clearwater ✔

Chapter 9... Followed

"How..." Jacob and I began in unison.

"...did we find you?" Edward finished plucking the rest of our words straight from our heads. "Well, that's a bit of a long story."

I had a million questions I wanted to demand answers for, but my mind stuck on one thing he said. "Wait, we?"

Just as the words left my mouth, the passenger side door of the shiny red car popped open. Out stepped Bella, quickly followed by their pint-sized daughter Nessie. The little girl's brown eyes caught the dim morning light as she ran towards Jacob.

"Jakey!" she cried, leaping at him with her arms wide.

Jake caught her easily and twirled her around in the air. "Hey there, Nessie!"

She giggled and looped her arms around his neck. "I missed you, so, so, SO much."

"I've barely been gone a day!" he replied with a laugh. Edward and Bella chuckled too and shared an exasperated look.

I scowled at the happy scene playing out in front of me. If three was a crowd, what the hell did that make this? "I thought you didn't tell anyone where you were going, Jacob."

"He didn't," Edward replied for him. "I tracked the cellphone Alice gave you."

"You what?" I snapped.

He suddenly looked ashamed. "I'm sorry to have invaded your privacy like that, but I needed to find you. I knew Jacob was hiding something in his mind from me and I became suspicious. When I told Bella, she insisted I find out what it was."

I rolled my eyes and snorted, the heat of my temper quickly rising. Sometimes I just wished these damned vampires would mind their own business.

"Jacob is our family," Bella interjected, watching my disdain; her perfect brows folded together. "And, as you may have noticed, we're a bit protective of our family."

The pack is his family, I thought bitterly but I chose to bite my tongue.

"The pack is welcome in our family, too," Edward said, catching my thought. One side of his mouth perked up. "Even you, if you like. I mean, Alice has already taken a shine to you."

The mention of Alice threw a bucket of ice water on the fire inside me. After all she had done for me, here I was, acting utterly ungrateful. I thought you were gonna be better, Leah Clearwater.

"Why truck all the way out here?" Jacob asked calmly; he didn't seem to be bothered by their sudden appearance. "You could've called and asked."

"If you went through the effort to block the thought from me, I didn't think you'd be up for much sharing," Edward chuckled darkly, before his humor disappeared entirely. "And, well, we already had an idea of what was going on. I found your research in the search history of the computer." Once again he looked ashamed.

Geez, I had no idea the Cullens were such detectives...

Jacob set Nessie down, patting her head. "Alright, then. What did you think of it?" he asked, almost conversationally, like he was commenting on the weather and not the possibility of a rogue pack of werewolves. Only the hard angle of his jaw betrayed his anxiety.

"It's compelling," Edward said, the fold in his brow deepening by the second. "But, I have to ask: what spurred your search?"

Jacob paused for a second to shoot me an apologetic look—Sorry to spill your secret!—before explaining. "Leah saw another one, another... wolf."

The Cullens' eyes, pulled wide in shock, fell on me.

"More... wolves?" Bella choked.

"Out here?" Edward gasped. "How is that possible?"