Howling At The Moon

Mercy

A/N: Hi guys, just to clarify, this is referring to Sunday, and then going into Monday, their last week of Summer Vacation. Someone mentioned in a review, that they were not sure what days these events occurred on. The club was Saturday Night.

Happy Reading!

Seth POV

She left. She's gone. And I don't know where. This was the only thing running through my mind. I don't remember getting to the parking lot. I don't remember being driven home. I guess I was lucky that Brady decided to drive, because I would have probably wrapped us all around the nearest tree or telephone pole. I don't remember getting home, or my mother apparently asking me what was wrong.

Leah told me this later.

I do remember staring at my ceiling and wondering why I hadn't had the presence of mind to follow her, or at least see in which direction she went. I remember Jake coming to see me the next morning. Morning? How did it get to the morning. We just got home from the club. This was weird.

I remember Jake telling me that the spirits were never wrong about this. I imprinted. How did he figure it out? That meant that wherever she was, we would find our way to each other. It was inevitable. I would just have to wait. I winced at this memory later; because that was the point I had snarled at Jake and asked him if it meant I was supposed to wait around like him and Quil. He didn't have a chance to explain or even reply to my accusation, because that was the exact point where Leah barged into my room, teeth bared and told Jake in no uncertain terms that if he ever again tried to make me feel better with poorly chosen comfort, she would personally rip him to bloodless shreds.

Wow!

My sister, the protective beta of the pack. I had seen her go to bat for Quil and Embry as well over the past couple of months and I knew that despite the hell she had gone through when she first joined the pack, she had finally found her place as Jake's second in command. And even though this meant she reported to him officially, it didn't mean that she let him get away with anything she considered off color. While she was like this with our pack, it was pretty informal. With Sam's pack though, it was a little different. She could rag on all of us as much as she liked and she could take a good ribbing as well; but when it came to Sam and his pack, they were very, very, careful with how far they pushed her. The twins were the only ones she treated like kid brothers, and that was because they were my best friends.

Leah had always been the fastest in the packs, but now that she had embraced being a wolf much more than before, she had learned to fight much better than she had earlier. Back then, her size meant a slight disadvantage against a wolf like Paul, or even Jared. But some time working with Jake, and Edward, of all people, had turned her into a wolf to fear. And fear they did. Especially when Ryan had made an off-hand remark about Embry's lack of a father.

Leah was still phased at the time, as were the rest of the boys, the only difference being that now, like the two alphas, we could share thoughts, but on a limited plane. More like talking aloud. She had growled low in her throat, crossed the meadow where we were meeting, and pinned Ryan to the forest floor, before he had time to realize she had growled. He tried to shake her off, so she jumped away and then stalked him while he tried every tactic he knew to shake her. Including the ones his brothers were shouting at him. Suddenly she grew tired of him and had snarled before tackling him like a streak of grey lightening. Once she pinned him to the ground again she bared her teeth at his neck and addressed the rest of the pack as well. "One word about any of my pack, and the wise-ass who did it will be running on three legs."

And that was the last time anyone voiced the theory that Leah was any less of a wolf because she was female.

Leah was my security blanket for that entire day, because around mid-morning I had jumped up, run to the window and looked around for a car or truck or any kind of vehicle, because I had distinctly caught that same scent as I had last night. That hint of lemon with the salty sea-air behind it. Leah came into my room bringing me a bowl of soup, and just placed it on the side table, and came over to the window to stand next to me. I told her what I had sensed and she simply looked at me before putting her arms around me while my insides crumpled.

The next morning, the twins dropped by to try and cheer me up. They told me that they had explained to Jake that I had imprinted, but they had left the rest of the packs out of the secret. They had even found a way to circumvent it coming out when they were on patrol with any of the others. They had simply asked Jake to order them not to think of it when there was a chance anyone else could find out. Since Jake had always been meant to be Alpha to both packs, it had worked and none of the others had found out. I couldn't say why I felt glad that no one knew I was suffering, but I was normally so optimistic about stuff, I didn't want anyone seeing me when I felt so down.

I had spent the whole of Sunday in bed, feeling sorry for myself, so I decided that since today was Monday and I had a week before we were all back in school, I was going to do something with myself. I got as far as the kitchen for breakfast before I felt the pull of the couch, which was where Collin, Brady and I were when my mum got back in the evening.

And that was all I had managed to do all day.

I was not going to last very long. That was for sure. I kept wondering where she was, and what she might have been doing. I also wondered what her real name was. For some reason, Kiki felt like a nick-name, because there was something about the way it fit her that just didn't sit right. It was like wearing someone else's jeans. They might be the right size, but the way they fit you was off. You knew they were some-one else's.

All I could do was wait for school to start, because that meant I could throw myself into my school work and not on this gnawing at the inside of my head that felt like it was going to burst open any second. I didn't think the day would ever come when I would wait for school to begin.

A/N: Please review!