Anti-Hero || Leah Clearwater

33 - Epilogue

Nine months later

"In the dark of the night, not a star in the sky
I can feel your love pull against the tide
And I see you shining bright like a lighthouse"

Leah's POV

Leah was on a mission to find a turkey. The day before New Year's Eve.

Her mom had the brilliant idea to cook the aforementioned turkey that day, completely oblivious to the fact that every grocery store in the area was sold out, thanks to the holiday rush.

Leah sighed. She was tired and wanted to get home before dinner so she could rest up before her patrol shift in a couple of hours.

She hadn't been sleeping well for a couple of days-more like a week, if she was being honest-and her headache wouldn't go away.

She'd been avoiding looking at the calendar. She knew well what anniversary was coming up and would rather pretend it didn't exist.

Emily had tried to talk to her about it, more than once, but Leah didn't want to hear it.

She preferred to pretend nothing was happening, just like everyone else in the reserve had done those months.

Her mother, maybe a month after Leah had last seen Felix, had finally decided to talk to her about it. The conversation hadn't been great, but it could have been worse. In the end, Sue had somewhat understood, even though she'd never experienced anything as all-consuming as imprinting and still had her doubts.

Her packmates, except for Jacob and Seth, hadn't asked her how she was. And Leah was okay with that.

She had no intention of talking about it with her cousin, let alone with them.

She hadn't spoken to Sam in months. He'd apologized countless times, but Leah couldn't forget what he'd said or how he'd treated her.

People around her might think she was wrong, that having an imprinting on a Volturi was somehow aberrant, but it wasn't written anywhere that she deserved to be treated like that.

It wasn't up to them to judge her. They could think what they wanted, but she would never let anyone talk to her the way Sam had again.

She sighed deeply.

It was time to go home.

Her mom would have to cook something else for dinner the next day.

It had snowed heavily the previous days and the roads were a mess, so it took her more than twice as long to get home.

When she arrived, she could smell the stew her mother was already cooking for dinner.

She walked in and greeted Charlie Swan, who was sitting on the couch in the living room watching an old western movie, and her mother who she could hear rummaging around in the kitchen.

"Mom, I'm going to rest before I go out tonight. No turkey, sorry," Leah said, putting the groceries she had bought on the living room table. Despite Charlie knowing full well that both she and Seth were shape-shifters, the unspoken rule was to never talk about pack business in front of him.

"Hey, honey," Sue greeted her, "Have something to eat before you go?"

Leah shook her head, "I'm not very hungry."