(Leah POV)
The world tilted sideways. My father lay crumpled on the floor, my mother screaming his name, and beside me, my little brother — my baby brother — was no longer human.
Seth's fur bristled in every direction, his long, awkward legs shaking under him. His breath came in sharp, panicked pants, his eyes huge and glassy. He stumbled into the table, claws gouging the wood, then jerked away like he didn't recognize his own body.
I tried to speak, but all that came out was a low rumble from my chest. My thoughts tangled, half words, half instinct, a blur of protect, protect, protect beating against my skull. The scent of fear was everywhere — Seth's, Mom's, my own — drowning me in it.
Mom didn't even look at me anymore. She was on the floor, hands on Dad's chest, crying his name over and over as she started chest compressions. My claws flexed uselessly against the floor. I didn't know where to go, what to do, or what I was.
Seth gave a broken, keening whine. His legs folded, his whole body shrinking down, but he couldn't seem to reverse the change. He looked at me — no, through me — begging silently for something I didn't know how to give.
And then—
A jolt of something not-my-own slammed into my mind.
A voice. Not heard but felt.
{"What the hell—?"}
Far off, through the fog of panic, other minds stirred. Stronger, steadier. Not human voices, not exactly, but wolves.
(Third-person — switch to the pack)
On the ridges above La Push, three wolves loped through the trees, their paws silent on the forest floor. Jacob, Paul, and Jared were halfway through a training circuit, their minds brushing against one another in the easy rhythm of the pack.
They were all riding Jacobs high that Bella knew about the wolf shift now and still accepted him. His plan still had a chance… He still had a chance with her. The pack mind was a little confusing, and you had to keep a good sense of self to stop the other's emotions from bleeding into yours.
And then the pulse hit them — a surge of raw power, wild and clumsy, tearing across the bond.
Jacob skidded to a halt, claws carving furrows into the earth. His ears flattened, hackles rising. {"Did you feel that?"}
Paul snarled low, the sound vibrating through the link. {"Someone phased. Someone new. But no one we have been watching has shown any signs of it yet."}
Jared's tail lashed. {"Two. I swear I felt two."}
Paul looked around {"What the hell - ?"}
The three of them stilled, listening. The forest seemed to hum with the echo, like the air itself had shifted.
Then a voice cut through the link — raw, panicked, overlayed with a wolf's cry for help. Perhaps most surprisingly, it was a female voice. {"Wha… what is happening? Seth, look at me, are you okay?"}
A second voice joined, younger, frantic. {"Lee… Dad… what's happening?"}
Jacob's gut clenched. Leah. Seth.
His eyes narrowed, gaze turning toward the Clearwater house in the distance. Without another word, all three wolves launched into a dead sprint, the forest tearing past as they raced toward the source.
{"Leah, this is Jared… Jared Cameron. Are you okay? Is something attacking you?"}
Leah's answer came broken, terrified. {"Jared. I… I'm a monster. I got mad, and then suddenly I was no longer me. My dad, he… He saw me and fell down. My mom is trying to help him. But Seth is here too… And he changed like me. What is going on? How are we talking?"}
Jared's mental voice was steady but urgent. {"Listen carefully Leah, you too Seth. There is nothing wrong with you. You are in control, this is a blessing of our blood. You now belong to the pack, and we can communicate with our minds when we are shifted. Right now, it's me, Paul Lahote, and Jacob Black."}
Jacob broke into the conversation at that point. {"Leah, we are right outside. Jared and Paul will change back to normal and help your mother. Once they are there, you and Seth need to come outside with me so we can get into the woods and help can come for your dad."}
Seconds later, two boys, well men, rushed into the house through the front door. Leah recognized them both as people who hang around with Sam a lot lately. She approached and let out a questioning whine, the sound instinctive.
{"Is he going to be okay?"} Seth moved awkwardly over, also trying to edge closer to their father.
Jacob's voice was calm but firm across the link. {"If you are trying to ask Jared or Paul, they can't hear you right now. Please come out so they can get help, and you aren't seen."}
Seth let out an angry mental shout. {"What does it matter if we are seen. Get him some help!"}
Jacob forced a calming tone into his reply, pushing reassurance down the link. {If someone sees you, it'll cause questions and delays. That would slow help reaching your father. Come out so we can get into the woods. Don't worry — either Jared or Paul will stay with your mother the whole time. She's a nurse, everything that can be done is being done.}
Both Leah and Seth were hesitating, the whole situation was overwhelming, and fear for their father made them hesitate even more.
Jacob's voice pushed firm and steady across the link. {"Leah, Seth — now. Out of the house. Trust me."}
Seth whimpered low in his throat, torn between instinct and fear. {"I don't want to leave Dad!"}
{"You're not leaving him,"} Jacob cut in, calm but commanding. {"Jared and Paul are with your mom. They'll handle it. The fastest way you can help your dad is to get out of sight before someone else shows up."}
Inside, Jared crouched by the couch, eyes flicking between Sue and Harry as Sue continued with the chest compressions. His voice was tight but practical. "I'll call for an ambulance."
Harry's body jolted faintly under the force of each compression, Sue's rhythm practiced and unrelenting. Her jaw was clenched, her eyes locked on her husband's face with a mix of terror and discipline only a nurse could hold.
Leah's ears flattened at the sight, a whine rising in her throat, but Jacob's command cut through her panic. {"Leah. Seth. Out. Now."}
Paul moved through the house to the back door, pushing it open for Leah and Seth. "Go, quickly. You need to get under control so you can be with your mother."
Leah's paws moved before she realized it, claws scraping the linoleum as she bolted for the back door. Seth stumbled after her, nearly tripping over his own legs before his body learned how to move in this new shape.
Jacob's dark form was waiting at the tree line, dark brown eyes locking on them. He dipped his head once and turned, his massive body flowing into the forest.
{"Stay close. Don't think, just run. Let instinct guide you."}
Leah didn't hesitate this time. She tore after him, Seth at her heels, the thud of their paws fading into the woods as the pack bond hummed with their raw, unsteady thoughts.
Behind them, the wail of sirens rose in the distance. Leah's chest clenched tighter with every stride, the sound chasing her into the woods. Guilt gnawed at her, whispering that this was her fault — all of it. And still, even knowing that, her paws carried her farther away, running when her father needed her most.
The forest blurred around her. Branches clawed at her fur, mud kicked up under her paws. She didn't know where she was going, only that Jacob's massive form kept ahead of her, steady and sure, and Seth was behind her, clumsy but determined.
And then a new presence slammed into her mind.
Not Jacob, not Paul, not Jared. Something heavier. Older. Command wrapped in raw instinct.
{"What is happening?"}
The voice was steel, familiar yet altered, carrying the weight of a leader. Sam.
Leah's paws faltered mid-stride. Seth stumbled into her flank with a yelp, but she hardly noticed. The pack mind thrummed with Sam's presence, and suddenly her thoughts weren't her own anymore, they brushed against his, and he could see her panic, her shame, her guilt.
{"Leah? Seth?"} His tone sharpened, cutting through the chaos. {"Both of you—calm down. Breathe. You need to steady yourselves before you lose control completely."}
Leah's hackles rose without her meaning to, her chest heaving. {"Get out of my head!"} The snarl ripped through the bond, her fear tangling with anger.
Sam's reply was quiet, but it carried a force that brooked no argument. {"This is the pack. You're in it now, whether you like it or not. And that means I will be in your head. If you fight it, you'll only make it worse."}
Jacob interjected, his presence a buffer between them. {"Sam—easy. They just phased. Seth's barely standing on four legs, and Leah… Leah's blaming herself."}
There was a long silence, heavy and suffocating, before Sam's thoughts came again. Softer this time. {"We'll sort it out. But not here. Not like this. Keep them moving, Jacob. I'm on my way."}
Leah swallowed hard, though in this form it was more a rasp of breath. She didn't know what terrified her more — losing her father… or the thought of Sam seeing every raw, broken piece of her inside this bond she couldn't shut out.