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"Leah, please!"
I could still hear the argument echoing in my head even from my current altitude. I was so stupid, for so many damn reasons, but least of all for not seeing what was right in front of my face all along.
"No, Bella, you made your choice when you married Cullen. You never even gave me a chance, so why should I put my life at risk yet again because you can't make up your damn mind!?"
I'd flinched at her harsh words, but where was the lie? I'd been waffling back and forth between the weird emotions I kept feeling for Edward and Jacob, all the way up until my heart stopped beating. The moment Renesmee had been born, all of those feelings had disappeared.
All of them.
"You know I didn't have any more choice in the matter than Jacob did! It was genetics fucking everything up for all of us and you know it! We know better now! We're free of those burdens! We can be with each other now..."
Her next words would be what drove me to leave the Cullens for good, to travel the world for 10 years, only to find myself on those very cliffs overlooking the very peninsula where my love still lived.
"It's too late for us, Bella. We haven't looked each other in the eyes and I refuse to now. I refuse to bow to the whims of genetics or 'fate' anymore. Besides, I wanted a warm body in my bed, not a corpse. Go back to your family of undead freaks and leave me to live out the rest of my life in peace."
I had made the mistake of visiting Forks after my 10 year jaunt, keeping to the shadows of course. Couldn't have a dead woman just showing up out of nowhere. It took only a few minutes of listening to overhear that Charlie had ironically married Sue Clearwater not long after I'd run away. I found that quite hilarious in a way that tore apart what little remained of my dead heart.
Timing of all timings, Leah was there visiting, though it was a mystery to me why I hadn't smelled her until I heard a child's voice, followed by the deep laugh of an unknown man. Leah had managed to stop shifting, had a family and sounded...content, happy even. With a twisting feeling in my gut, I'd rushed out of that town and made my preparations. After all there were only two outcomes for a vampire whose mate has died or rejected them: vengeance, or death. Leah's confirmed rejection hurt worse than a lifetime of vampire venom, but it didn't warrant her death.
It did, however, demand mine.
With one last heavy sigh, I looked once more towards the direction of Forks and La Push before setting the device to detonate in the next 30 seconds. I was just about to jump off the cliff so my ashy remains would be scattered to the winds when the sound of a body hitting the ground had me spinning around to find a black-leather-clad woman coming to a tumbling stop moments before she would have skidded right off the cliff.
"Oh, that bitch!" the stranger grumbled--in an oddly familiar voice. "Oh, it won't hurt too bad," she mocked in a childlike voice. "It'll be like walking through a cloud, she says! Yeah a cloud filled with fucking vampire teeth and wolf claws!"
Well, I guess I didn't have to worry about the supernatural aspects of things, but then again if I didn't jump soon then I was likely taking this woman with me as I'd made sure this device had no means of disarming it once it was activated. As if summoned by the very thought, the woman's hand appeared from the pile of limbs she'd made of herself and a concussive force struck me in the chest before even I could move. Then a cold like nothing I'd ever felt began to spread across my chest, and when I looked down I could see a layer of hoarfrost spreading from whatever she'd hit the explosive with. She fucking froze a homemade incendiary bomb solid in an instant?!
I was just contemplating--well, a lot of things, like where the hell this woman came from and how I didn't hear her coming. But all of those thoughts were shot right out of my mind when she finally managed to right herself and her face was revealed to me.
It was like looking into a goddamn mirror! Same face, same body type, same everything! Even our clothes were the same down to our knock-off Converses I refuse to give up. No wonder her voice sounded familiar!
"Alright," she clapped her hands together, briefly startling me. What? I was still wearing an explosive! "Calm our tits! I neutralized that crude boom-boom you made so we had a chance to talk before you caused a massive landslide, which would have ended up with a buried bloodthirsty vampire who failed to kill herself."
I frowned at the carbon copy of myself with doubt, causing her to roll her eyes. "Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the worst idea we've come up with apparently, but unless you exposed part of your venom midway down, the explosive force of that device would have been diverted away from your body without damaging it enough to expose your venom to the flames. The resulting concussive force would have unseated tons of rock and stone, burying your ass for months until either the humans could dig through the area, or you managed to dig yourself out. Needless to say, a starving veggie vampire doesn't survive a month without going feral. You would have decimated every human within smelling distance."
I fell onto my ass as her words hit me full force. I might crave death as much as my body craves blood, but I would never want to be the cause of a body count because I failed to take my own life. "Huh." Articulate, as usual. "So...what the fuck?"
My mirror image laughed, the sound echoing like bells and yeah, this was getting weird. "You're lucky I speak dumbass, because I know exactly what you're asking. Mostly because I just left my own 'what the fuck' behind not too long ago. Only I chose to go out in a blaze of glory by trying to kill the Volturi solo."
I blinked, flinching at the reminder of those power-hungry assholes. I got at least a couple of invites to join their coven a month, mostly via text or e-mail since I never stayed in one place long enough for them to track me down. I seemed to truly confound their aura tracker, Demetri. We'd kind of made a game of seeing how close he could get to me before I disappeared, leaving him little presents behind to deliver to Aro as my form of politely declining their invites: usually the head of whatever animal I'd recently fed from.
"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you didn't get very far," I chimed in, smirking. I can't say Emmett and I hadn't considered it before. It was all theory, but he and I were the only ones sensible enough to know that we hadn't heard the last of the Volturi threat and we wanted contingencies. Turns out the Volturi's base of operations in Volterra was practically impenetrable, and thanks to Heidi kidnapping a few ingenious scientists over the years, the castle had the latest in security and military-grade reinforced structures. The Kings' thrones were lined with the most advanced incendiary-based claymore mines ready to donate at the twitch of Aro's finger, regardless of how many guards he took with them. The only safe zone was the very specific space the Twins always stood.
A snort from the woman in front of me brought me out of my internal analysis of years of old Volturi blueprints Emmett and I'd stolen to find them other women smirking at me in return. "When the Volturi capture your mate and use Chelsea to break your matebond, there's not much that can keep us from our vengeance. Even if it means taking several years of tunneling beneath the Volturi's Castle to bypass their advanced radar and security, ripping your way through the throne dais and tearing all three Kings' heads off before setting off their own incendiary device to decimate the ruling body in one go." I was gaping at that point because the thought of digging had never once crossed my mind. Of course, Leah hadn't been captured by the Volturi so I suppose my oversight could be excused.
"Of course," she went on, "it was a simple matter at that point to detonate the Volturi's last failsafe, but in the process I not only killed Chelsea, the only vampire capable of restoring my matebond, but also the woman I love more than anyone in any universe..." she pulled a picture out of her pocket and handed it to me, drawing a surprised gasp from my throat.
It was a sweet picture of myself--or rather this other me, sharing a tender kiss with Alice. "Holy shit," I whispered, eyes wide as I stared at the picture for a moment longer before abruptly shoving it back into her hands. I could only stare at myself kissing my sister before nausea and a weird sort of curiosity began to settle in my stomach. "You're mated to Alice Cullen? That's like dating my sister, so weird!"
"Correction," the other woman interrupted softly, staring longingly down at the picture on her hand. "Mary Alice Swan. We were married not long after the Volturi threat was taken care of. I only wish I'd kept a closer eye on the threat in my own home, because it turns out an empath scorned is not a man to turn your back on. When I learned to manipulate my shield to the extent that I shut Jasper's gift off from influencing Alice, it broke the false matebond he'd created using his gift and allowed my bond with Alice to form. He left the Cullen family, and Edward and I had a nasty breakup that sent him on a journey of self-discovery--which also might have involved discovering where I'd hid his genitals."
I snorted out a laugh, mostly because my own breakup with Edward was a simple set of divorce papers left on his side of our bed before I ran off on my 10 year sabbatical. "So Jasper went to the Volturi and set up Alice to be captured? How did she not see any of that coming?"
The other me clenched her fist not holding the picture so hard I could hear it cracking. "He knew he couldn't go to the Volturi directly, not right away anyways. We actually had a few blissful years together, my Alice and I. We were always on edge, waiting for the Volturi to come back for us for our gifts. But no, it would be a passing comment to the Russians that would lead us into a trap that distracted us enough for Jasper to get word to Aro about 'his mate' being stolen, the Cullens having broken yet another law while trying to take out another coven to strengthen their own. We miscalculated that conniving Confederate bastard and while we were dealing with the Russians and the forces they had been trying to amass against Aro, the Volturi snuck in under my own shield and took my mate without warning while I was trying to keep the rest of the family from being killed by those ancient dust piles."
We sat in silence for a while after that. I was heavily contemplating my own existence against this other version of me and realizing that, though I'd been rejected by my mate and was ready to die, she'd been through so much worse. She'd tasted the love of having her mate and then had it snatched away by a manipulative bastard who couldn't let the two women be happy together.
"So, eminent-death-me," the other me said suddenly, "what's your story? What brought you to this ill-thought-out vampire suicide attempt?"
I felt a glare try to form on my features before my face fell into its numb mask of pain. "Long-story-short, I married Edward thinking we were mates--" the other woman snorted, which I couldn't fault her for "--and got pregnant on our honeymoon. Of course, the moment Renesmee was born and I was turned, all of my attractions to Jacob disappeared, but so did any lingering affections I had for Edward. No, it wasn't until I was in the presence of another wolf that I finally understood what it meant to find your mate."
"Wait," the other me interrupted, waving her hands rather dramatically. "You matebonded to a wolf shifter?! How is that even possible?!" She seemed to pause on thought before her gaze went wide, laughing as she rushed out, "You didn't matebond on Seth, did you? Leah would kill you!"
I flinched at the mention of the one name that could still stab into my dead heart. Looking away into the distance, I sighed heavily as I answered quietly, "Right family, wrong Clearwater." Her whispered 'oh fuck' went ignored as I plowed on. "Apparently, Leah and I weren't able to imprint or matebond so long as the part of me that was Jacob's imprint still existed inside of me: one of my eggs, from what Carlisle was able to deduce. By then, I was already married, had a hybrid child, nearly went to war with the Sam's Pack with Jacob, Seth, and...Leah on our side. And then I was a vampire and everything changed. I felt her everywhere in my heart, body, and soul, but she wouldn't acknowledge my existence until after the Volturi were taken care of."
"Let me guess, rejection?" she asked, with no small amount of sympathy.
I swallowed the nonexistent lump in my throat and I nodded. "She said she was done letting genetics decide our fates. She refused to look me in the eyes, refused to form the imprint bond. So I served Edward divorce papers and left to go roam the earth for a decade before finally deciding to come back to Forks to visit my father one last time. Turns out he not only married Sue Clearwater, but Leah stopped shifting and settled down with some guy and had a kid with him. So here I am, fully mate-rejected and ready for death. So, I guess thanks for the advice. I'll wait for this to thaw and make sure to tear off an arm or something before it goes off."
We both stood at the same time, though the woman stepped into my path as I approached the cliff's edge again. "Are you not the least bit curious who I am or how I came to be here in the first place?"
I shrugged, my heart aching with the echoes of Leah's parting words. "I figure you're some weird ass manifestation from my vampire mind that saw the flaw in my plan and decided a delusion was the only way I was going to understand. I bet I never even got around to setting the timer." As I looked down only to find the same frozen device, I received a healthy smack to the back of my head.
"Alright, you emo little shit," she paused to shake out her hand. "As you can no doubt tell by your senses alone, I'm a vampire version of you in every way. Only I'm from a different reality. It's a self-preservation instinct of our shield that only activates when it senses we're about to come under life-threatening idiocy, such as blowing ourselves into ashes."
I slowly looked up to meet my own darkened gaze. "But you said I was going to fail."
Her following grin was in no way promising. "That's true, which is why I ended up being spit out here instead of into Alice's arms with Jasper's head in my hands. There's a caveat to our gift that we can only use it once, and if our next self is in danger of failing their jump, we get dumped on them to correct whatever oversight they might have going on. My version of us found me in the middle of the Volturi throne room ready to let the remaining Volturi guards finish me off when she showed up with a huge .50 cal hand-cannon capable of taking off vampire heads at point blank range. Turns out they weren't going to kill me, they were going to torture and probably do worse for the rest of eternity and she wasn't going to let that happen. So she explained the same things I'm explaining to you before dropping me back down the hole I'd dug along with what she called an implosion incendiary. Needless to say, my shield activated and pulled my entire body in on itself until I felt like I was being squeezed through a razor-sharp tube. The next thing I know, I almost ended up ass-over-tea-kettle off this cliff."
I looked around and then down at the still-frozen device on my chest before looking back at the other woman. "How did you know you'd need to freeze my explosive before it went off when you got here? Also, how did you do that??"
Her smile fell into a chagrined look of annoyance. "Ugh, yeah, about that. That last version of me was mated to a vampire named Mele who can transfer gifts from one vampire to another. My other me said that I was going to need this gift and that was all I got. Cryptic bitch."
I nodded as if any of that made sense to me, before gesturing to the device once more. "So, back to me being stuck with this..."
"Oh, right," she said, that grin returning to her lips reminding me of the time Alice had made me dress up for Halloween as Harley Quinn. "I can't guarantee where you're going to pop out, but tell Leah she's a sexy bitch that can go fuck herself."
Without warning a beeping noise from my chest went off, drawing my attention to the suddenly thawed device. The timer was counting down and was already down to ten seconds. I felt panic welling up as the other version of myself's words about my flawed plan echoed in my head. Before I could decide how to wound myself, I found my own face inches away.
"Goodbye, Bella." Then with a vicious bite to my throat that surprisingly didn't burn like other vampire bites did, she stepped back and kicked me off the cliff.
3... Venom was leaking from my neck and soaking my shirt.
2... I could feel a new pressure exerting itself on my head that I knew to be my shield reacting to an outside force pressing in on me.
1... The pressure increased infinitely until I was sure my entire body was being crushed under the weight of it all.
0... With a deafening explosion, everything went dark and I knew I was no longer in the space above Mount Olympus.
There was no way my physical body could possibly survive so much agony. I'd been in my share of fights, lost my limbs a time or two and even been bitten by other vampires, their foreign venom burning like a bitch until my body purged it. But this was worse than all of that combined with being turned added together. It felt as if my flesh were being flayed from my body over and over again until, with a jolting sensation, I found my body being thrown through the air until I landed on something warm and soft.
Something that wheezed upon impact!
I quickly rolled off what I assumed was a - hopefully still living - person. "Oh, gods, I'm so sorry! Are you oka--" the rest of my words got stuck in my throat as I caught sight of the woman I had inadvertently assaulted--Leah Clearwater.
The she-wolf was growling as she leaped to her feet, only to freeze completely as our eyes met. And I swear on every single thing I've ever believed in that my heart came alive again at the instant feeling of oneness that came over me at finally connecting with my mate after so many years of rejection. Leah, for her part, was staring open-mouthed and as pale as I'd ever seen her. Did she not want to imprint on me even here? Would she still be willing to reject the imprint bond, even now?
Then her eyes were filling with unchecked tears that began pouring down her cheeks as she choked on a sob, her strong, warm hands reaching out into the space between us. "B-Bella? It can't be. How are you here?!"
I smiled as reassuringly as I could while clinging to the blooming hope in my chest. "It's kind of a long and really weird story. Where are we?"
I suddenly found myself pinned on my back with a glowing-eyed Leah baring her teeth down at me. "Don't you fuck with me, leech! Bella Swan died giving birth to that demon child because it ate its way out of her fucking stomach! Now who the fuck are you and why do you look like my imprint?!"
I gaped up at my mate as her words hit like a newborn fist to the gut. Slowly, hesitantly, I raised my hand to cup my wolf's cheek, seeing the reflection of my years of rejection and loss in her manic gaze. "I know you imprinted on me the moment our eyes met just now, Leah. It's really me, Bella. I don't know what happened to the woman you knew in this world, but I'm here now. We have to move forward from that fact, okay loba ?"
Leah's body remained tense over mine for several minutes before she began to shake. But instead of bursting into her fur as I feared she might, she collapsed on top of me with a wail that would haunt my soul for the rest of our lives. The next thing I knew, I was clinging to my mate with a desperation born of years of longing and self-loathing. I was certain I heard her spine pop several times with the force of my grip around her back, but neither of us were complaining as a love two lifetimes in the making was finally acknowledged.
Gods, she's as warm as I always imagined she would be. I had only ever had glancing touches of the wolf in my arms over the years, but none of that compared to the addictive heat searing its way into my very core. Unfortunately, all good things came to an end and our embrace was halted by the sounds of several vicious growls rumbling around us.
We pulled apart, though our arms still clung together, unwilling to separate entirely. The moment my face was revealed, the entire Pack went silent and it was only in that moment that I finally caught the scent of wet dog rolled in hot garbage fumigating the air. Damn, I forgot how bad they stink! I would have wondered how they had snuck up on me but then again a hurricane could have blown in off the sea and I doubt I would have noticed until we were already soaked and airborne.
Eventually, Sam and an unknown gray wolf ducked out of sight behind a few trees, the sounds of their shifting and dressing giving me time to take in my surroundings. I was obviously deep in the Quileute territory, though I didn't recognize any landmarks. The Uley Pack all appeared the same save for the mysterious beta that followed Sam, but I soon found out why when Sam's tall frame stepped into view...followed by his imprint, Emily Young!
I was busy gaping at the half-Quileute shifter when Sam's deep voice finally interrupted the silence. "Leah, is this really..." even he couldn't seem to finish the thought, and I hated to think what this Pack had been through at the implied loss.
I turned back to my imprint, watching as she nodded at me with a watery smile. "I don't know how, but yes, as soon as our eyes met I imprinted on her. This is Bella Swan."
Sam's severe frown only seemed to deepen as his dark eyes landed on me. "How is this possible? We were informed Bella Swan died in childbirth--that Jacob's imprint caused too much damage eating its way out of her body for their venom to repair."
A fierce growl from my mate had my arms clenching in hers as she glared at the Alpha. "And if it hadn't been for you and your Pack attacking when you did, then someone could have been there to save her sooner! But thanks to you and your attack-first, ask-questions-later approach, you nearly killed two imprints that day!"
I was quickly putting things together and I didn't like where this timeline had gone. In my world, the wolves had waited us out until Renesmee was carefully, if not crudely, chewed out of my womb by Edward's teeth. His injecting venom directly into my heart and biting while pumping my heart is what allowed my body to heal and revive from its lifeless state. During that time Jacob had gone to kill my hybrid daughter only to imprint on her, which would ultimately cause a ceasefire between our two species while I underwent my transformation.
According to what they were saying, these wolves had gotten impatient and attacked sooner, leaving their Bella alone with a broken spine and no help giving birth. From what I had learned of hybrids from Nahuel and his sisters, it is their natural instinct to use their fully grown teeth to chew through their mother's womb in order to free themselves when they are old enough to survive outside of the womb. Who knows how much of their Bella's body had been eaten away before Renesmee had been pulled off of her?!
Before I could contemplate it further, Sam was speaking again--more like growling, something I did not appreciate. "You have your imprint right there! Obviously something isn't right here or else we wouldn't have attended her funeral three days ago!"
I found myself on my feet and hissing at the wannabe Alpha. "You listen here, Uley. I did not just spend a decade being rejected by my mate only to jump realities literally into her open arms for you to talk down to her. She's always been more than any of you pups will ever be and if any one of you assholes disrespects her again then I will be wearing your fur for the winter. Are we understood?!"
A warm body pressing in against me from behind had me instantly calming as the smell of cedar and woodsmoke washed over me. "As hot as that was," she husked into my ear in that clit-tingling register of hers, "I'm really not in the mood to go to war with a Pack of fifteen wolves, my love."
I jerked, gaze narrowing on Sam's raised brow as the scent of garbage-dog increased exponentially. It would seem their numbers were dramatically changed in this universe, as well. More than likely, Emily wasn't the only difference I would find in the shifter gene activation. "As loath as I am to admit, you're right, but only so far as I'm not willing to risk losing you after finally having you. That being said, I feel we need to clear some things up." Still facing down Sam, I pulled Leah forward until she was standing at my side where she belonged.
I glanced at the various wolves surrounding us, their hatred stymied but not forgotten in light of my seeming resurrection. "I am not the Isabella Swan you all have known. As Leah can attest, I appeared to her out of thin air, crashing into her and forming our imprint bond the moment our eyes met." I paused, giving Leah the chance to nod before I continued. "Apparently, my shield that blocks out the gifts of others has a built-in failsafe to protect me from what we call 'life-threatening idiocy'. In my case, I was rejected by my mate when she refused to let our genetics have a say in who we love and refused our connection. When a vampire's mate rejects them, there is only one course of action: self-destruction by any means necessary."
A distressed sound from my mate had me smiling sadly at Leah, years of pain slowly ebbing away at the sight of her whiskey colored eyes alight with tears. "It wasn't you , please know that I'll never blame you for her actions. But the Leah Clearwater of my universe rejected me and refused to meet my gaze. She eventually moved on and had a family. Hell, my dad even married Sue, so I missed out on a lot of hilarious step-sister jokes."
My attempt at humor fell flat as Leah glared at me through her tears, so I forced myself to move on. "Your world is already subtly different from my own in many ways. For instance, by this time there were only a total of ten wolves and two of those were barely in their teens. And Emily there was only ever an imprint, never a shifter. In fact, Leah was the only known female to shift in the tribe's entire history.
"That being said," I mustered on, sensing the growing agitation in the wolves, especially Sam at the mention of his imprint and his ex-fiance, "I have a feeling not all is as it seems with the Cullens and their Isabella as well. Was it an open-casket funeral?"
There was a moment's hesitation before Sam shook his head. "The cover story from the head leech was that she had come down with some rare disease while in Rio on her honeymoon and so the body had to be cremated. Charlie keeps her ashes in an urn on the mantle in his living room."
I nodded, frowning as I considered my hypothesis. "I don't think Isabella technically died. At least, she didn't stay dead since as far as I know, only vampire versions of myself can withstand the pressure of being compressed through time-space long enough to pass into the next universe. And we only have one destination when this happens: our mate. I have a feeling the Cullens are covering up for something they don't understand, and I'm going to assume by your gathering here that you were about to go to war over Isabella's death?"
Sam's eyes narrowed on mine, confirming my suspicions as I turned to Leah who wouldn't meet my gaze. "And you left Jacob's Pack to get vengeance for your lost imprint, following the very man who caused this nightmare to begin with. Seriously, do none of you actually learn from your mistakes?!" I grabbed Leah and wrapped her tightly in my arms as she turned her wrath on me, our growls matching as she tried to fight my stronger grip. " Enough! " My shout was loud, echoing around us and bringing every wolf to a halt as I clutched my mate to me as sorrow invaded my soul. "You see with your own eyes that wolves can imprint on vampires. We are not enemies! Yes, red-eyed vampires kill humans to survive and should they threaten your people, then by all means defend yourselves. But look at the evidence of the last eighty plus years."
I pulled away from Leah, staring into her tumultuous gaze while including the rest of the Pack. "The Cullens respect human life, fight to protect it as hard as they can, even from themselves. You aimed to kill an innocent child because it would be a mixture of both human and vampire. Not only that, but you didn't give a damn what happened to the human carrying her. Once she'd made her choice, you wrote her off and look what happened." This time I turned to look directly at Sam, my gaze turning deadly as I let the full force of my abilities manifest as a grip around his throat. " YOU MURDERED AN INNOCENT WOMAN!!! "
It took everyone several moments to realize what was happening as Sam began to grab for his neck, no sound escaping his throat as I nearly crushed the life out of him. Leah was the first to understand, grabbing me and pulling me away to face her, her beautiful gaze enough to break my concentration on my physical shield. "Spirits, Bella, what the hell? Weren't we just talking about not fighting his Pack?"
I was panting beneath the onslaught of emotions as rage boiled through me. I think I was only just now realizing just how easily their Bella could have been me, and regardless of whether she was dead or reality jumped, the fact remained that she only reached that point because Uley had jumped the gun and attacked before she'd had her child. How close had I been to my final end at the hunger of my own daughter just because she couldn't fight her own instincts? I was, after all, the only known woman to live on after giving birth to a hybrid, and that's only because I was turned last-second.
"Stand down! " came the most unlikely of shouts as Emily's voice echoed around the clearing. Her Alpha voice?! When both Leah and I looked up, it was to find Emily standing several steps in front of Sam. It was only then that I got the chance to look at her and with a surprised jolt, I realized she looked nothing like her human self from my world. This Emily was taller than Leah by at least an inch, roped muscles flexing from every inch of exposed skin much the way I had seen from Leah in her cutoff shorts and tight tank tops. But most importantly, she lacked the scars that had always marred her natural beauty, torn through by Sam's own claws and lack of control.
As the shock of Emily's appearance and Alpha voice wore off, I finally noticed how close the wolves had gotten to my mate and I. We were surrounded by no less than nine horse-size wolves. Emily had called them to heel it seemed just in the nick of time because they all looked ready to pounce at any moment.
"Let us make our own treaty," Emily began, voice tight as she focused her attention on myself and Leah. "You are currently an imprint, and as such are protected just as any other imprint would be. But if you attack another imprint or Pack member from this moment forward your place among us will be revoked, as will that of your mate, Leah Clearwater. Is that understood?"
I stared down the other woman for several moments before a smirk snuck its way onto my lips. "An Alpha Bitch," I teased, causing Leah to tense at my side. "Gotta say, this is a much better management of resources. When were you planning on stepping up? Before or after Sam got half of your Pack killed?"
There were growls from all around me, though Emily quickly silenced them with a look. Not rising to the bait, she simply arched a brow at me, crossing her arms over her chest in a display of raw authority. "Alpha females can only take charge when their male counterpart has been shown weak by another. No one has bothered to challenge Sam's bloodthirsty rage since he became Alpha except Jacob, and that was before I shifted. Thanks to you, I now lead the Uley Pack, which is why I offer you peace only once."
I considered the woman a moment longer, digesting this new bit of Quileute shifter lore I hadn't ever heard of before. Maybe it's unique to this world? After all, Leah was the only female shifter in my world. In the end, it didn't matter. After years of nothing but pain and rejection, I yearned for peace.
Nodding, I pulled Leah close into my side. "I accept this treaty, and hope that we can build on it someday. For now, I would ask what you plan to do about the Cullens? Something tells me you're not as ready to go to war and potentially kill another imprint without just cause."
Emily's grin was all teeth and gleaming golden eyes, and I had a feeling I was either going to really enjoy the next few hours, or live to regret ever learning about jumping. Either way, with Leah finally at my side, I was willing to stay the course so long as I got to keep her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We were gathered at the treaty line a half hour later waiting on the Cullens to arrive. I was hidden behind Leah with the rest of the Pack having taken up strategic positions scattered in front of us so that no matter what angle the Cullens showed up from, they wouldn't catch sight of me. When I mentioned my scent, Emily smirkingly told Leah and I to go roll around in the dirt for a while. She had not been joking, and after a good playful tumble through the woods together, I was now properly covered in Leah's scent. So long as we maintained the down-wind advantage our current position gave us, then the Cullens shouldn't be able to smell me for quite some time.
Why were we meeting with the Cullens rather than the original warpath? Because Emily, it turns out, had more than half a brain cell in her head and understood what I had been hinting at. She didn't want to see any of her friends and family die in a war if she could avoid it, and if that meant asking the Cullens for a 'Tribunal' to verify Jacob's imprint and the validity of Bella Swan's death, then so be it. Carlisle, while seeming reluctant to expose his family to the entirety of the wolves, promised to bring everyone to the treaty line to prove their innocence.
I could hear the argument from the rest of the Cullens, but Emily at least was able to assuage most of their worries by promising more than half of their own wolves would remain in human form. After the time was set and we all made our way to the treaty line, I decided to lay the rest of my cards on the table.
"You know that if Edward is present then he will see me in your thoughts." This had Emily, Sam, and Leah all turning on me with frowns and nods.
"We have learned that through an Alpha command, our Pack can be temporarily ordered to block certain memories or thoughts," Emily explained, drawing my own surprised gaze her way. "That being said, the stronger the will of the wolf, the quicker the command is to wear off so we cannot guarantee Edward Cullen will not see you in our packmind."
I nodded before tapping the side of my head. "Not long after becoming a vampire, the leaders of my kind called the Volturi came to wipe out the Cullens and take myself, Alice, and Edward to join their guard because of our abilities. I had to learn to expand my shield in order to protect our side from the gifted vampires of the Volturi. This means I can cover your Pack from Edward's mind-reading, but he will know the moment they arrive that something is off."
Emily seemed to consider it for several moments before sighing heavily. "Let me use the Alpha command first. Leah will be in her wolf form so you should hide her thoughts, but if she starts sensing any thoughts straying towards you, she can warn you, then you have permission to lock down our thoughts."
I looked at Leah and we both nodded our agreement. I had to admit, having my scent subtly coating her fur was calming my beast in a way nothing ever had. It was just another validation that my mate was with me finally and that nothing would ever tear us apart. Then the bitch was stripping in front of me and I felt my beast roaring to life with a vengeance as Leah's gloriously toned body was quickly revealed to my ravenous gaze.
My eyes were pitch black and there was a continuous growl rumbling from my throat even as Leah shoved her clothes into my hands. "Hold onto those," she husked into my ear, her voice doing damning things to my body. "Wouldn't want to have to shift back with nothing to wear home."
I was so tempted to 'accidentally' shred her clothes, but before I could contemplate it she was shifting into her fur with such a smooth grace that I was in awe of her all over again. She always was a magnificent wolf, no matter what form she took, and it seemed this universe was no different.
Unfortunately, we had to focus because soon enough, the Cullens could be heard skirting their side of the line, no doubt performing reconnaissance. Emily, Sam, Paul, Quil, Embry, and - will this universe ever make sense? - Rachel Black of all people stood in human form at the front of the Pack closest to the treaty line. I was well-hidden, and considering I couldn't even smell myself over the stench of the Pack, I was pretty confident the vampires wouldn't sense me until we were ready.
Finally, I could hear the Cullens line up at the treaty line, a pair of paws alerting me to Jacob's presence. Once again, I felt nothing maternal for my daughter, and while part of me expected to get guilty, all I experienced was relief. I had never wanted children or marriage, but my genetics and Edward's vampirism had manipulated my fragile human psyche into turning me into a walking doormat and a baby factory. I only hoped Rosalie took to motherhood in this world as well as she did in mine when I abandoned the Cullens and left them all behind.
"We have come, just as you've asked," was Carlisle's calm and collected opening statement. "But if I understand correctly, during our previous... encounter , wasn't Jacob Black's imprint confirmed via your packmind?"
"You will address the Alpha when you speak," Paul growled, practically spitting the words and I could only guess Carlisle had defaulted to speaking to Sam despite Emily having been the one to speak first.
There was quiet from the Cullens for several moments before another voice spoke up, my dead heart aching at the familiar loving tone. "Apologies," Esme replied cordially. "We were unaware there had been a change in leadership. Allow me to introduce myself, as well. I am Esme Cullen-Platt. I have since been named leader of this coven due to Carlisle's failure to protect our family and uphold our laws."
There was another pause of consideration while I fought to hold back my laugh of disbelief. Esme with a backbone? The coven standing up to Carlisle's bullshit and favoritism for Edward? Definitely some Twilight Zone shit going on in this universe. "Very well," came Emily's still-surprisingly authoritative voice. "Miss Platt, we have asked you here for two reasons, one of which was false pretense. We know Jacob is imprinted on the child of Isabella Swan. What we want to know is what truly happened to Isabella Swan the night the Uley Pack attacked unprovoked."
This time the silence didn't last long at all, a voice I had hoped to never hear again growling across the clearing. "My wife died thanks to you and your mangey Pack! My mate is dead thanks to you mongrels."
I had to fight with every ounce of strength I had to control both my own rage, and to keep Leah pinned in place with both of my shields. She was releasing a fierce growl that was luckily being drowned out by the combined growls of the other shifters, showing a surprising solidarity on our behalf after our earlier debacle. One thing was for sure: Emily was not likely to let his words slide.
"You will watch your fucking tongue, Edward Cullen." She didn't raise her voice, but the power and authority in her tone was enough to bring everyone to stillness. "Do not take us for fools. My husband may have been led by his emotions and tribal indoctrination, but I have no such traits impeding my mental facilities."
There was a slight shift, and I could only guess it was Emily taking on a more relaxed stance to prove her point. "We know for a fact that Isabella Swan's heart stopped, verified by Jacob before he imprinted on the daughter. What we want to know is what happened when her heart started beating again?"
There was once again silence, only this time I felt a nudge from Leah, my shield immediately expanding to include the entire Pack as thoughts of my existence began to spread. With Jacob in wolf form, it was too dangerous for him to catch wind of my presence just yet and alert the Cullens.
"Edward?" I blinked at the chiming voice of Alice, joy shooting through me as I heard her voice for the first time in ten years. "What are they talking about? We all saw her body before you and Carlisle burned her remains. What did you do to my best friend?"
When Edward remained silent, Esme's stern voice growled out its own demand. "Carlisle! What did you do to my daughter?!"
The shock of her motherly support after so many years of emptiness nearly had me losing control of my shield. I had forgotten just how warm Esme could make a person feel with her unconditional love, even vampires.
"You don't understand..."
"I'm a very intelligent woman, Carlisle," Esme growled at her husband, the viciousness of the sound foreign coming from the maternal woman I'd always known her as. "I'm sure I can keep up. Now explain yourselves!"
There was a sigh from Carlisle and hiss of displeasure from Edward before Carlisle began to speak. "We tried so hard to turn Isabella after the ceasefire was called, going so far as to inject venom directly into her heart while attempting to perform CPR to pump the venom through her body with the hopes that it would be enough to repair the damage to her body. Unfortunately, our plan was too late, as your attack delayed our retrieval of Renesmee from Isabella's womb, and her subsequent turning."
Several growls went off, though they were quickly silenced by what I assumed was a look from Emily. "Go on," she ground out between clenched teeth.
Carlisle cleared his throat, unnecessarily , but he always was good at pretending to be human. "I cleared the room so that Edward could grieve the loss of his mate, knowing I had not only lost a daughter but my son as well. I knew he would follow her soon. But then the unthinkable happened and Bella's heart slowly started beating on its own. The venom was working very slowly but her body was repairing itself."
"And when did she vanish?" Emily asked, obviously ready to draw this meeting to a close. Several gasps could be heard from the Cullens side of the line, but Edward's growl was louder still, cutting off whatever surprise might have taken root in his family. "How the hell did you know--" his voice cut off suddenly, his voice losing its hostility in place of shock. "I can't hear their thoughts. I could hear them when we arrived so I didn't realize their thoughts had gone silent. How are you doing this?!"
Instead of answering, Emily continued Carlisle's unfinished story as if Edward had never spoken. "You see, the Isabella Swan we all know is truly gone from this world, but not because of any end to her mortality. When she vanished before your very eyes, it was because her body had transformed enough to shift her to a different dimension where her true mate lies in wait to hopefully finish healing her."
Edward made a noise of dissent but this time it was Esme who interrupted. "Be silent, Edward. You've done enough damage to last this family lifetimes!" She paused, and when next she spoke it was with a painful amount of hope aimed at Emily. "Please, tell us how you know this to be true. Tell me my daughter didn't suffer through all that pain for nothing."
Gods, in gonna hug the fuck out of that woman! But that would have to wait, as this was my cue. I waited only long enough for Leah to shift, giving me another mouthwatering eyeful of her glorious body before she clothed herself, before the wolves spread out on either side of us. We made our ways up to stand beside Emily, hand-in-hand as I stared down my old family, lowering my mental shield while erecting a physical barrier across the treaty line.
It was just in time, too, as Edward immediately launched himself towards me. His impact with my shield resounded like thunder around the clearing, dropping the confused idiot back several feet. "I wouldn't try that again," I smirked, glaring at my ex. "My physical shield is impenetrable, as is my mental shield as you've just found out. Let's get one thing straight here: I am not the Isabella Swan of this world. I come from a world parallel to this one where I survived Renesmee's birth, only to be rejected by my true mate." I have Leah's hand a squeeze, sharing a sad smile with the woman who was everything my had ever yearned for, before turning to address the perpetually shocked faces of the Cullens. "I'll give you the full story someday, but this meeting is to verify my other self's disappearance rather than death to ensure she was able to move on to her true mate as well."
Leah, however, didn't seem to be so willing to let it go at that. "Bella was my imprint, whether it was meant to be this world or the woman at my side. You Cullens have a lot to answer for, letting that boy pursue someone who didn't belong to him."
I held up my hand, slamming my palm parallel to the ground to create a shockwave of force that startled everyone out of what was about to be a rather lengthy argument. "There will be no debate or disagreement on this issue. Look at my eyes. I've been on the vegetarian diet for over a decade from my world. Your Isabella would still have the red eyes of a newborn had she remained in this world. Neither she nor I are Edward Cullen's mate, and according to my previous version, neither was she." My gaze traveled unwillingly to Alice, and her eyes widened almost imperceptibly. "In the case of my previous self, she lost her mate to the Volturi. They used Chelsea to erase their matebond and so she went on a suicide mission to kill the ruling body, killing Chelsea and her mate in the process. That's when another version swooped in and sent her into my realm to claim her mate properly. When our lives are guaranteed threatened, our shield compresses us through time and space into a parallel universe similar enough that we can still find and be with our true mate."
"That's imposs--"
I interrupted Edward's lip-flapping by grabbing him by his throat with my shield and pulling him into my physical grasp, an unhinged snarl leaving my lips. "You have a lot to answer for, Masen, least of all why you claimed your singer as your mate. But let me do you the favor and show you the truth beyond a shadow of a doubt." Even as he struggled uselessly in my grip, I used my mental shield to pierce his mind and show him everything. And I do mean, everything . From the moment I realized Leah was my mate, through her rejection and my instant hatred of Edward and Jacob, and even Renesmee for having kept my bond with Leah from forming until she was born. I especially let him see my other self and forced him to experience the agony of jumping through time-space.
After what felt like a lifetime of memories, I pulled my shield back into place and threw Edward back across the treaty line. Only seconds had passed for the others, but my ex and I, time had held no meaning for those brief moments. Carlisle was at Edward's side in an instant, though Edward simply laid where he fell, his gaze distant as he processed everything I'd shown him. As I rewrote the truth of the universe in his mind.
"It's all true," he eventually whispered, his gaze as distant as his voice was hollow. "This woman is not the Isabella we know. What Carlisle and I witnessed was our Bella jumping into a parallel reality to be with her true mate. This Isabella is mated to Leah Clearwater--their bond formed the moment their eyes met. And I...I am a fool in so many worlds. The Volturi will find out about Renesmee if we do not explain to the Denalis about her being a hybrid. They will come for myself and Alice under the threat of having created an Immortal Child, and without Isabella's shield to protect us, we will all fall."
At the end of this speech, everyone turned to look at me, even the wolves. "It's true. In my world, we gathered witnesses and friends to join us in proving hybrids weren't a threat. The wolves joined us but we were still outnumbered and outmatched. I had only had months to train my shield and was able to canvas our party from the Volturi's gifts. Luckily, Alice and Jasper found a hybrid who reached physical maturity by age seven who was a hundred and fifty years old. He was able to prove our innocence without a shadow of a doubt. Irina Denali was the only casualty due to her reporting Renesmee as an Immortal Child."
A growl from Jacob brought my unfortunate gaze over his way, which happened to force my gaze upon my daughter resting on Rosalie's hip. "I hope you love her as much in this world as you did in mine," I told the blonde beauty, meeting her arctic gaze without flinching. Turning to Jacob, I sent every bit of loathing I had in my soul into my darkening gaze. "Renesmee has a choice of what your relationship will become. If I find out you filled her head with anything beyond her own autonomy, I'll slowly break every bone in your body from the inside out. Understood, boy?"
Jacob looked like he wanted to argue but whatever he saw in my eyes was enough to have him nodding his acknowledgement. I could see a flash of a smirk from Rosalie but I ignored it in order to finish addressing the vampires as a whole. "I'm leaving with my mate. Being around you all is painful in a way you can't even begin to understand. Maybe one day we'll be able to connect, but for now we both need to mourn our losses. Alice will know when I'm ready to speak."
Without waiting for a response, I turned with Leah at my side and began walking away. The rest of the wolves would remain, I knew, as a new treaty needed to be built around the idea that wolves can imprint on vampires. Old prejudices and illegitimate hatreds needed to be put aside to figure out where their kinds stood. But that was not for me to contend with. I had done what I'd set out to do, and now, as I gazed lovingly down into the dark eyes of my mate, I had eternity to spend with my wolf.
And as she burst into her wolf and howled her joy to the heavens, I couldn't help but laugh for the first time in over a decade as I gave chase after my darling she-wolf.
Eternity starts now!