Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight universe. But I do own my OCs and the plot.

A big thanks to my beta Tragically Magical! You're great :)

This is the third story in my Wolf's Den series. It can be read without knowing the other two. If you want to read the others nonetheless, please note that they are rated M while I'll try to keep this one rated T. However, since it takes place 18 years after Breaking Dawn, you'll need an update on the wolves and their imprints/families. Ages are in brackets. The wolves and Nessie have two ages: the first one is what they look like and the second is their true age. Those OCs whose names are bold are the more important ones, so that you know which ones you should remember.

The original wolves:

- Leah(30/38): Beta, engaged to Sebastian "Basti" Reichenbach(31) who descends from a German bloodline of shape-shifters, Leah has three children from a previous marriage: twins June and Janelle "Nell(y)"(12) and son Jayden "Jay"(5)

- Collin(17/31): active shape-shifter, imprinted on Janelle

- Sam(34/38): retired from being a wolf, married to Emily(36), father of Adrian(14), Emma(11), and adoptive father of Embry's imprint Autumn(19)

- Embry(20/34): retired, used to be Deputy Alpha, works as a ranger at Olympic National Park, imprinted on Autumn(19), Embry is Sam's half brother

- Seth(19/32): retired, imprinted on Basti's cousin Julia(19), lives in Port Angeles

- Jacob "Jake"(18/34): left La Push together with the Cullens; is the official Alpha, but a deputy usually leads the pack; currently living in Europe with Renesmee "Nessie"(17/18)

- Jared(31/34): retired, married to Kim(34) who is a doctor at Forks hospital, father of Tate(10) and Ray(8)

- Quil(22/34): retired, dates Claire(21)

- Paul: dead, his widow Rachel(38) moved to Hawaii after his death with their children Noah(13), Lily(9) and Paul Jnr.(2)

- Brady: left into the wilderness of Canada after a vampire killed his imprint, pack lost mind connection to him two years later, might have retired the opposite way, meaning that he gave up his human self and lives like a wild wolf now

The seven wolves that joined the pack shortly before the battle with the Volturi:

- Chadwick "Chad"(18/33): active shape-shifter, hasn't imprinted yet, police officer at Forks police station

- Aaron(18/33): current Deputy Alpha, hasn't imprinted

- Skyler "Sky"(17/31): active shape-shifter, Aaron's brother, hasn't imprinted

- Zachary "Zack"(16/30): active shape-shifter, hasn't imprinted, Paul's cousin, has the Lahote hot temper

- Leonard "Lennie"(23/31): retired, imprinted on Ava(21), a girl from Forks

- Cory(22/30): retired, imprinted on Olivia(19)

- Simon(17/32): active shape-shifter, imprinted on Ruby(15), they're still in a brother-sister relationship

Recently phased wolf:

- Dave(18/20): Zack's brother, imprinted on Willow(17), is going to retire as soon as he has complete control over his phasing

Humans:

- Charlie and Sue are married

- Silke Reichenbach-Finch: Julia's mother, her father was killed by vampires when she was two, Silke remarried an American

Quite a lot of names, I'm afraid, but hopefully with the progress of the story you'll quickly get to know the important characters.

Pronunciation of the German names:

I tried to explain the pronunciation in my past stories, but I've discovered that Google Translate gives you the possibility to listen to a word and even names. I guess it's much easier to repeat something that you hear than to go with my written description of the pronunciation. Julia, Sebastian, Silke and Reichenbach all sound very well at Google Translate (don't forget to change the language to German). Basti sounds a little weird there, in reality it sounds a lot like 'busty' :D

Future Plans

-Leah's POV-

Thursday, June 6

Summer break had just begun and everybody seemed to be busy planning something. Autumn, Julia and Olivia had graduated this year and wanted to go to Washington State University together with their imprinters Embry, Seth and Cory. All of them had already been accepted, but now they had to find an apartment that was big enough for three oversized shape-shifters and was also in their price range. They had to organize everything for the move and make lists of what they would need to buy for their very first house together. Although Embry, Seth and Cory had had their own houses for years and owned pretty much everything they needed, the girls wanted to replace some things because they were just too "bachelor's den-ish", as they said.

Now that Ruby was fifteen, Simon wanted to take their relationship to the next level. He was afraid to screw up and therefore planned his strategy very carefully, knocking it on the head and starting over again every other day.

Ava had just found out that she was pregnant and she and Lennie were thinking hard on how to tell her parents. They had never liked Lennie. Hearing that he had impregnated their daughter at the age of twenty one and kept her away from her studies would certainly not improve their opinion of him.

While Quil planned his proposal to Claire, Basti and I were already one step ahead. The date for our wedding was August first, and Emily and Kim had dragged me to a florist in Port Angeles today to choose the flowers for the bridal bouquet and the decorations. I was glad that I had them to help me, because all of this wedding planning stuff just wasn't my thing.

"Come on, Leah. Choose the main flower already!" Emily pleaded. I had been staring at the flowers in front of me for at least half an hour now. The florist had pointed out the meaning of each flower in relation to a wedding and Emily and Kim had told me their preferences, but I just couldn't make a decision.

"I don't know!" I whined.

"Okay, do you have any tendencies? There has to be some flowers that you like more than others," Kim said patiently.

"Well… roses, peonies and carnations."

"Alright. Peonies are quite expensive, especially in August because they're not in season. How about a mix of red carnations and white roses?"

She took a few flowers of each kind and held them together in a small bouquet.

"That looks great!" Emily exclaimed.

"Yeah," I admitted with a slight smile, "I think I'll go with these."

Emily sighed in relief and went over to the green extras.

"Any preferences here or shall the florist decide that by herself?"

"Actually I have not only a preference, but a favorite. I loved the ivy decoration you had on your wedding and I think ivy looks good in a bouquet, too. You don't mind if I copy your decoration, do you?"

"No. I'm glad that for once you know what you want," she laughed.

"Alright," the florist said, "I'll make some sample arrangements for our next appointment, which is…," she looked into her calendar, "on Friday in two weeks."

"Thank you," Kim replied, "see you!"

We walked out the shop and I let out a sigh of to prepare for a wedding was more stressful than I ever thought it could be. I always used to make fun of the women who were ripping their hair out over decisions they had to make for their weddings. Right now I just felt like doing exactly the same thing. There was so much to do, and every time I thought I was making some progress there would be more added onto the endless to do list.

"So, since we're already here, shall we check out the wedding gown boutique around the corner?" Kim asked.

"We have an appointment with Silke in an hour. That's nowhere near enough time. I suggest we surprise Seth with a short visit," Emily said.

"But he's coming to the Den tonight anyway," I objected.

The Wolf's Den was Seth and my restaurant. When the Cullens left Forks they funded the Den as a thank-you gift for our – well, mostly Seth's – friendship and support. Since Seth moved to Port Angeles, I've been sending him the paperwork. Other than that I'm practically running the Den alone. The whole pack – retired and active shape-shifters, their families and imprints – always has dinner at the Den together and Seth and Julia join us as often as they can.

"So what? He's your brother and he's moving to the other side of the state at the end of summer!" Emily argued.

"Okay, okay. I just hope we don't break in on a make-out session or, worse, him and Julia having sex."

Emily laughed.

"Come on, that's nothing you haven't seen yet."

"Not of Seth and Julia. Seth has his thoughts under control. Dave though…," I shuddered. The youngest member of the pack was talented when it came to hiding thoughts, but it still hadn't become second nature to him. He had to concentrate on it and after some hours of patrol he often lost that concentration.

"I can't wait to stop phasing," I added.

"Then why are you waiting? Stop it already," Kim suggested.

"I can't. I promised Aaron and Collin."

Embry stopped phasing a year and a half ago. Aaron had become our Deputy Alpha and Collin would become Beta when I retired, and though they both had nine years of experience ahead of me, they relied on my advice.

Four years after I first phased I had managed to stop it and I began to age again. I happily discovered that my menstruation came back. I fell in love, married, and had twin daughters who are twelve now and a son who would be five in a week. But my husband and I grew apart. He became addicted to alcohol and four years ago, when I found out that he had cheated on me for two years, I lost it. I got so angry that I phased without warning, and it happened right in front of my ignorant husband. When I had managed to calm down enough to phase back, I kicked him out and scared him to death to keep him from revealing my secret. I haven't seen him since.

Three years ago Seth imprinted on Julia Reichenbach, a German girl whose mother, Silke Reichenbach-Finch, had married an American and owned a bakery in Port Angeles. On Christmas her two cousins from Germany came for a visit and I, Leah Clearwater, the first and probably last female shape-shifter ever who nobody had believed to be able to imprint, imprinted on Sebastian Reichenbach. I didn't have much time to win his heart because he and his sister were only staying two weeks and I was afraid to annoy him by practically stalking him. He took it lightly though and my strange behavior didn't seem to puzzle him at all. When it was only one day till his departure, I was devastated. I didn't know how to make him stay and I already thought of flying to Germany after him, when he dumbfounded me by saying that he knew what I was, what had happened the second we met and that his sister would be flying home without him.

The Reichenbachs turned out to be a German family of shape-shifters. Although Basti himself hadn't phased when he reached the right age, he still carried the gene and his father had told him the family secret and everything related to it. Julia carried the gene, too, which explained why Seth and I would both imprint on blood-related pale-faces.

Basti and I had planned to take it nice and easy, but soon discovered that we both weren't able to. We had been crazy about each other and that state hasn't changed at all during the last two and a half years. I was happier than I've ever been before. I looked forward to the kids we'd have. Although I knew how much work and trouble "only" three kids already caused, I wanted to have at least two more with Basti. I don't think the first one will be a long time coming as soon as I stop phasing. Basti's and my relationship is very physical, if you know what I mean.

We had reached the huge house that Seth usually shared with Edward, Bella, Alice and Jasper, but they were in Norway for the summer, visiting Jacob and Nessie who were studying in Oslo. Seth wasn't home and so we walked to Reichenbach's, Silke's bakery, instead, where we found not only Silke, but also Julia and Seth.

"Lee-Lee!" Seth cheered. Today was obviously a good day since he almost acted like the optimistic little brother I used to know. Four years ago he, Paul and Dave had been captured by a large, powerful vampire coven. They had tortured them mercilessly. We had to wait for reinforcement before we could try to save him. The coven planned to dispossess the Volturi of the power over the American vampires. Therefore, not only did the Cullens and Denalis come to help us, but Jane, Alec, Felix and Demetri did as well. We hadn't protested against their willingness to help too much since we needed all the help we could all this support, the rescue was a walk in the park. However, it was still too late to save Paul alive and Seth unbroken. Dave was lucky, because one of the vampires had a talent to make people forget. But his talent didn't work on Seth, leaving my baby brother with PTSD and a radically changed personality. Julia helped him a lot. Before he met her, he hadn't been able to smile properly anymore, let alone laugh. She taught him how to be happy again and his nightmares don't occur as often anymore.

Seth hugged me and his eyes sparkled.

"Good to see you too, little brother," I chuckled, "what's up?"

We sat down at the small table in the bakery. Julia sat down on Seth's lap to make room for us.

"Silke invited me to join them on their family vacation to California! It's going to be awesome!"

Julia smiled at him, amused about his excitement. I could understand him though. We had gone on vacation with our parents a few times, but we had never left Washington, except for the few times we crossed the Canadian border as wolves. I had no reason to envy him though, because Basti and I planned our honeymoon to be in Marathon, Florida.

"That's very kind of you, Silke," I stated.

She shrugged it off.

"It's not that big of a deal, actually. Ben has a lot of college work to do this summer and we had already booked for four people. And I know how much Seth always misses Julia when we take her with us on vacation."

Ben was Julia's stepbrother. The Finches/Reichenbachs always went on vacation for two weeks in the summer. Seth had been craving for Julia to return in the past two years. He always fell back into his "broken soul" mode, meaning that he was quiet and depressed, couldn't sleep through a single night without a bunch of nightmares and he never laughed either.

"Okay, Leah, this is a photo album of wedding cakes I've already made and here are some pictures of wedding cakes that I've seen and would like to try. These are just examples though. You can choose the type of cake from one of the pictures, the decoration from a second and the structure of a third. Of course you can also come up with your own ideas. And here's a brochure with different cake toppers, mainly brides and grooms, but also hearts, roses, rings and a few others. You can take all of these home and let Basti have a look, too. Unless you want to make the decision on your own."

"He said he was okay with anything as long as there's at least one other color apart from white. However, I'll ask him for a more detailed opinion. I already picked the flowers on my own – well, not all alone, Emily and Kim helped me with that. A lot," I laughed.

Emily chuckled.

"Do you have any questions on the cakes? Because otherwise I'll head home and do some paperwork," Silke said.

"Uh, yes, actually I have one question. Which price range do we have to expect?"

"None. The cake will be our wedding gift."

I gawked.

"What? N-no," I stammered, "I can't accept that. That's too much!"

"It's okay, Leah. A big part of the usual price for a wedding cake is for the working hours rather than the material. And I love my work so the working hours aren't really work for me. Plus, Julia's going to help me. It's really not that big of a deal."

I sighed unsatisfied.

"I'll discuss with Basti if we can really accept that."

"Whatever, I'll refuse to take money from you for the cake. Since we've established that, I'll head home. Can I expect you for breakfast tomorrow, Julchen?"

"No, Mom. We're staying in La Push until Sunday, remember?" Julia said a bit annoyed.

"Oh, right, I forgot. Tell Basti I said Hi, Leah, okay? Bye, everyone!"

She left in a rush.

"Alright," Julia started, "Susan is going to close the shop later, so I'm free to leave. Shall we go?"

All five of us got into my old Buick Verano and I drove us to La Push. During the ride Seth asked, "Have there been any vampires around recently?"

Seth had retired along with Embry.

"No, none," I replied, "It's been a year, can you believe it? As if every vampire in the U.S. has heard of us by now and is scared to come across us. We've reduced the patrols to a minimum. It's just one wolf at once, so everybody has to patrol only three hours per day."

"I hope they stay away for several more years," Emily sighed. Her son Adrian was fourteen and she didn't want him to become a shape-shifter and carry the burden entailed by being a protector.

"You know the pack wants him to phase, don't you? He's the rightful Alpha."

"No, he's not! Jacob's kids should have been the next Alphas. Just because Sam was one when Jacob didn't want to be one, doesn't mean the heritage went over to the Uley family. If anyone is rightful next Alpha, it's Noah."

We had had that discussion several times before. Noah was Paul's and Rachel's son and just a year younger than Adrian. Rachel lived in Hawaii with her kids, but she came to La Push every Christmas. Although Noah, being the great-great-grandson of Ephraim Black, nephew of Jake and inheriting the gene from both his parents, seemed to have the best background an Alpha could have, every current and former pack member had agreed that Adrian seemed to have the better Alpha disposition. Noah had inherited the infamous Lahote hot temper. In his school in Hawaii, he was a loner, while Adrian was the most popular guy of his age and leader of his clique at the tribal school. Noah and his younger sister Lily didn't get along well while Adrian was very protective and caring of his younger sister Emma.

Emily believed that Noah would change once he first phased and that he would be the bigger wolf and therefore the rightful Alpha. We had given up trying to convince her of the obvious. Maybe the vampires would stay away and Adrian wouldn't phase. None of us believed that Hawaii attracted that many vampires and when Jake had visited his sisters he had never smelled even a faint vampire trace, so Noah would most likely not phase, which made the whole discussion somewhat pointless. Anyway, who was I to judge Emily? My greatest fear was that my daughters would phase. Of course Jayden could phase, but I didn't worry about him, he was a boy after all. However, the girls… I really didn't want this for them. Boys' minds are just disgusting and annoying and the nudity that comes with phasing is not easy to get used to. Besides, there's a reason why fighting is a man's business in most human cultures. June might be tough enough to be a wolf, but sweet innocent Janelle wouldn't be able to handle it.

This story is starting out a little slower than my other stories. In the next chapter the actual events of this story will start to take their course. Please give it a try.

I'm going to update this story about twice a week. Most of it is already written, but I still need my beta to look over it. Next update is going to be on Saturday, maybe Friday.

I love reviews, no matter if they're signed or anonymous. So please review and let me know what you think!