High Tide

Facts of Life

"Oh." I was the only response I could formulate.

He looked at me with a speculating expression. I guessed he was trying to read my expression. Whatever my expression was he couldn't decipher it, because he looked down confused. I wasn't surprised he looked away confused because I didn't even know what I was feeling.

I was confused because of Leah. I hadn't seen her in years. She was never brought up in conversation with the exception of today. No one in the tribe had seen her in years. Last the pack heard, she was wandering somewhere in Canada. The pack usually tried to avoid her thoughts but she made it easy for us. She usually slept during the day which allowed us to play in daylight and allowed her to roam at night. We kept our space. We didn't want to disturb her. She didn't want to be disturbed. We'd been doing the same routine for so long I had forgotten sometimes why we even did it. But whenever I forgot the reason behind the rule I never questioned the reasons behind the rule.

"Uh Jake there's something else."

Great, Leah probably did run off to Russia. "What is it?"

"Well my mom and Charlie are getting married pretty soon..."

"Oh yeah! How could I forget? When's the date?"

Charlie and Sue were the perfect couple. They had dated for years and we all saw it coming. Slowly but surely, we all knew this day would come. They had so much in common, like their kids. Their relationship was inevitable.

"Next Friday. You have the invitation."

"Right. Anyways, what were you saying?"

"Well we were really hoping Leah would come down for the wedding"

"Uh huh" I was not comprehending whatever point he was going to make.

"Well.."

"Seth just spit it out!"

"We want you to do it. Jake, we need you to go and get her."

"What? Why the hell me? I don't even know where she is!"

"Let me explain. It's just that my mom wants Leah to be at the wedding, and be the bridesmaid, and she hasn't seen her in years. So I just thought that, I mean we all thought that you could go find her because you guys have a somethings in common." He started speaking fast again. "Or at least, you used to. Remember when we had our little pack? You guys got along then. You even thought of her as, almost a friend. And Jake...buddy you just have to do it. No one else can. If she listens to anybody it'll be you. We really want her at the wedding and if you can't bring her back just make sure she isn't doing anything crazy. We just want her safe."

I was the prime choice to get Leah? When did that happen? I thought she hated me since I imprinted. I was the only person who understood what she was going through, then I imprinted. She felt like I betrayed her. Oh boy, I was guilty again. That's twice in one day.

"If I did this, where would I even start to look for her? I have no idea where she is."

"The thing is, she was on her way back to res for the wedding but she heard me." Seth said this quietly.

"Wait, she was coming back for the wedding? How come I didn't know about that?"

"Yeah. She couldn't help but hear the news of mom and Charlie getting married. She kept going back and forth , she didn't know whether to attend the wedding or not. It seemed like she was going to, but when she heard the news-" His voice cracked. "she turned around and started heading north. She was close too. She was in Washington running along the five. Then she just started running back to Canada. You didn't know about it because I didn't tell anybody. Her mind changed from one week to the other. She was unpredictable and I didn't want to jinx it. If everyone went around thinking Leah was coming back and she didn't ...I didn't wanna get people anxious or bring their hopes up. And anyways if Leah knew people were expecting her to come back, she wouldn't come. So I really had no choice but to keep it a secret from you."