Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or anything pertaining to it.

Author's Note: I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. The end didn't quite come out as I planned. I know I probably shouldn't, but I want to turn this into a chaptered story. After watching New Moon yesterday, it reignited my Leah love as well as my Blackwater love. I want Leah to get the happily ever after that she never got in the books, but I also want her to really come into her own as a woman. There a few things I already have planned for her, but I would also love to know what you guys would like to see. This will eventually be a Blackwater story, but my main focus is on Leah growing as a character and dealing with day to day life. Please review and tell me what you think!

She deserved better.

There was nothing in this life that she had done that was so wrong for her to merit the lot she was given. Some days, when the cup was half empty (those days seem to come more often than she'd like to admit), she felt like it was all her heartbreaks came one after another without allowing any time to grieve for each hurt. If she tried hard enough, she could trace her downfall to the arrival of Isabella Swan into Forks and consequently, La Push. Sometimes, she wondered if her life would turn out any differently if Bella had never moved in with her father then she would scoff. Things always turned out perfectly for Bella. Even if she hadn't moved to Forks, fate would still somehow bring her and her precious bloodsucker together.

She was bitter.

She would be the last person to deny that. There were so many things to be bitter about. No matter how she tried to pin her problems on Bella, the main problem laid in her apparent lycanthropy or shapeshifting rather. Because of what she was, her father died. Because of the wolf gene being activated, she lost both her first love and her cousin to each other. Because she was the only wolf in history, she lost her life right as a woman to bear children. All these things because of what she had become. All these things were taken from her when she hadn't even asked for this responsibility in the first place. Yes, she was bitter, but there was just so much to be bitter about.

She was trapped.

For so long, she was static. She lingered in the crack between the past and moving forward. She played her role of the scorned lover beautifully. She embraced it wholeheartedly when the pain of tragedy was all she could felt. The only thing that kept her above water was her caustic humor and sharp tongue that never hesitated to give someone a lashing whether deserved it or not. She was well-aware of what the pack thought of her, both hers and Sam's. It wasn't difficult. She had been in all their minds at one point or another. It wasn't just the other wolves. It was everyone else. She could easily see what they thought of her. It reflected back to her in their eyes. While there was still pity there, it had grown short. It had been years since her emergence as a wolf. They had grown weary of her hostility and sullenness. They wanted her to move forward to make lives easier for everyone.

She had grown used to feeling sorry for herself and being the bitter one while everyone forged forward in their lives. Her mother had moved on from her father's death into the arms of his best friend. Her brother was as optimistic as always, content with the new pack that Jacob had created along with their other pack mates Quil and Embry. Her alpha had found his place as the pet dog among the Cullens, tending to the half-breed's every need. She was the only one who remained frozen in time. She had gotten so used to being angry that even after she stopped hurting, she didn't know what else to be.

The pain would never really go away.

Even if she had gotten over Sam slowly but surely, it was still painful to see him and Emily together. It wasn't that she still pined for him. It was the fact that they were living the life she had wanted, the life that she was meant to have in another world. It tore at her insides to see Sam protectively hold her cousin while she affectionately rubbed the gentle swell of her belly. She stood alone with her own hand over her flat, fit abdomen that would never know the distention of pregnancy.

It wasn't that she resented her mother for finding new love with Charlie Swan. He was a fairly decent man who had always been a good friend to her father. She was happy to see that her mother no longer wept at night when she thought no one could hear. She would never hold her mother's happiness against her. It was just the stark reminder at the loss of her father at those family dinners she would forced on her and Seth for the four of them. Charlie stood out among their russet complexion. He would never be Harry. They all knew that. Seth and Sue were pleased to have him their lives, helping to fill the gaping hole Harry had left in their family unit. The only difference was that she would always wish it was her father sitting at the head of the table even if it was a fruitless wish.

There was really only one thing left to do in the aftermath of disaster. After an adversity has ripped you apart piece by piece until you are no longer recognizable, there is only one thing left do really, so she did it. She took those fragments of herself and put them back together. She would never really be who she was before, but like a phoenix she would rise from her ashes anew.

She deserved better.

She knew this. She deserved that happy ending that she so envied Bella Cullen for. There would be no more time licking her wounds. The pain was a part of who she was just as being a werewolf was. It was time to stop yearning for all the good in life and crying when it didn't happen. She was a take charge kind of girl. She was going to take life by the reigns and make things happen. That old adage 'good things come to those who wait'? That was a load of bull, in her opinion. She had done that and look what good it had done her. No, it was time for this she-wolf to come into her own and make the world bow down at her feet. All this pity and snide remarks just wouldn't do. She was better than that. She deserved better than that. All she had to do was make the rest of the world see it as well. That would be simple enough. She did have a way of making seeing her point even if it wasn't in the most pleasant of ways.

Leah turned slightly from her spot on the cliff. The water crashed a frothy white against the rock below. Her face turned to the warming rays of light from the rising sunlight. She felt different. Not quite as heavy as she did before. It was a common thing for her to come to the cliff after her nightly patrol and think. She was in her human form to avoid any unwanted or shared thoughts from her pack brothers. She had begun doing this since after she joined Jacob's pack. Nothing truly significant had happened tonight. Something in her simply felt lighter after her night spent immersed in her own reverie. She was tired of the way things were. Being logical, she knew that the only way to remedy this was to change it and who better for the job than herself? Her full lips curved into a slight, almost wolfish smile as plans began formulating in her head. Anticipation and for the first time in awhile, excitement filled her being. No one would know what hit them.