Dalliance | Paul Lahote

━ SEVEN: BLOOD AND WATER

━━━━━━ ✧ ━━━━━━

LEAH HAD A problem.

She usually did her patrol shifts with her brother, or Embry, since they were the two people that either never or had barely ever pissed her off. Seth was her brother, so he never called her a bitch outside of arguments(even then, her little brother was always respectful), and Embry was so positive that not even in her moodiest years as a wolf had he managed to make her mood worse.

The thing was, for a few months now, she had been adhering more and more to the normal patrol shift since her schedule rarely matched that of her two usual companions anymore, Seth being a senior and Embry busy with helping Jake set up their car shop. So Leah had relented, and done patrols with the youngest members, Colin and Brady, and also Jared and Quil from time to time.

No one was stupid enough to put her and Paul patrolling together, and Leah had never been more grateful.

Her problem was, that unless she patrolled alone, someone would figure out her newest secret, which truly wasn't hers at all.

So Leah would have to get out of patrol until it was no longer a secret, lest the stupid mind link ruins everything.

Knocking on the door that she usually just barged in felt weird, but Leah wanted to be as discreet as possible. It hurt her pride more than she could say to so this, but if there was one person that could help her out with this situation, it was her cousin.

"Leah? What are you doing here so early?" Emily asked, her hair was up in a bun, and she was clad in one of those fluffy robes. "Not that I'm not happy to see you! Come in, do you want coffee? I just made waffles."

Emily always went above and beyond when Leah was concerned, and honestly, that was even before the whole fiasco ever happened. She had to admit, sometimes, it was hard not just letting the past be the past and fall into her old relationship with Emily. Before she shifted, she had been angrier at her cousin, who should've been her best friend, then her fiancé who jilted her, but after, her anger toward Emily all but disappeared, and it became more focused on imprinting and Sam.

She tried not being openly hostile, which was easier when it was just the two of them.

"Coffee sounds good," Leah answered, closing the door behind her.

She and Emily settled in the kitchen table, a plate of waffles, various types of jam, and some maple syrup on the table, along with the jar of freshly brewed coffee. Emily made a cup for her, black coffee with two cubes of sugar, just the way she liked it. "Thanks."

Emily smiled at her, her own cup now in her hands. "No problem." She put a waffle on her plate, syrup on top along with some butter. "So, how are you?"

This wasn't the first time they had breakfast alone, after Emily noticed how more receptive Leah was when it was just the two of them she tried her best to get the female shifter alone for some girl time. It wasn't bad when Kim joined either, out of all the people that Jared could've imprinted on, Kim was a good fit and someone that didn't annoy Leah, which was a bonus.