Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, if I did, Vampires would not sparkle and Bella would get a personality transplant. This story is also inspired wholly by songs from the album Absolution by Muse. I'm also entering this into "The If You Dare Challenge" on HPFC.

A/n: Story is AU and begins in it has been years since I read the books and since I haven't watched any of the movies, there might be quite a few differences, apart from the ones I made for the plot. Also, in this story vampires DON'T sparkle.

Prompt: My Worst Nightmare (#101)

"Declare this an emergency
Come on and spread a sense of urgency
And pull us through, and pull us through
And this is the end, yeah, this is the end of the world."

-Muse, Apocalypse Please

Every wolf became quiet and still where they'd stood, lined up, watching the Cullens. The air became tense, as the Cullens noted the sudden change that came over the shape-shifters.

This wasn't supposed to happen. It seemed impossible. And yet, there it was.

Leah Clearwater, the first female shifter in their entire history, had imprinted on a leech. And not just any leech, it had to be on papa leech. Who was married.

Leah was aware of this fact, seconds after the imprint occurred, once she'd come too from the daze that would have left her on her knees if she'd been in her human form. As it was, her wolf had merely stepped out of line, stepping ever closer to her imprint, needing the proximity as she moved in a daze, barely aware of the sudden growls that erupted behind her.

Regaining some semblance of her bitter self back, Leah felt her heart fill with self-loathing as she glared at the man whom her universe now revolved around as her head erupted in a stream of slur directed at her... at the leech... at the entire situation. Only one wolf whined in sympathy for what had just occurred.

Turning her head around, Leah took off towards the forrest and to her relief, Sam (who had been her whole world only moments ago, and whom the very thought of filled her with pain) let her go, his mind curiously blank.

It didn't take very long for Leah to get far from the clearing where their midnight trainings took place. Phasing out, so that she wouldn't have to hear the ridicule of her pack, proved to be of some difficult as her heart continued to beat and plead with her to return to the clearing, to return to him. But in the end, Leah's will won that battle against her heart.

Mechanically tugging on her cut-off jean shorts, and a black t-shirt, she picked her way barefoot towards home, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

But there wasn't any sense to it. Just as their was no sense to her becoming the first female shifter. Just as the death of her father made no sense. Nor Sam imprinting on her cousin and best friend.

This was just the universe, giving Leah just another 'fuck you' as thank-you-for-your-service.

As if she really needed another reason for the pack and her tribe to hate her. As if she needed another reason to hate herself.

If anyone thought that she was happy in becoming La Push's biggest bitch, both literally and figuratively, they were wrong. But it was the only way Leah knew how to survive. The only way she knew how to mask all the hurt and grief she felt. And that no one understood that, or even cared to try to understand that, hurt more.

While she'd always had a temper, and been a girl that no one would dare cross, she'd been La Push's crowned princess. Everyone used to love her. She'd been considered feisty, sassy and beautiful. She'd been all the little boy's dream girl.

Now, she was just a freak. A genetic dead end. She was the bitter bitch of La Push. And now, she was a traitor to her pack and people, because she'd imprinted on the enemy.

Leah didn't understand why life had to be so cruel to her. Was it because for the first seventeen or so years of her life, she'd been resplendently happy? Because her life had been so blessed? Did she have to pay some sort of balance for so much happiness by living countless years of misery now?

For months, her life had seemed nothing but misery. She'd thought that imprinting might provide her with some relief, maybe then she wouldn't have to be so tortured by her memories of Sam, or by witnessing as he moved on with her cousin... a girl she'd loved better than a sister.

Her feet were carrying her home. Tears were trekking down her cheek, but she barely noticed them. Unwanted thoughts came to her mind as she recalled his face, his scent.

He was absolutely, devastatingly beautiful... she had to give him that. With his golden hair, and golden eyes, his perfectly sculpted features, his tall stature and built physique... he was absolute perfection. And unlike the rest of the leeches, he didn't stink of sweetness, and death. Instead he smelled of lavender and chamomile, and fresh linen. It was an enchanting scent, and Leah had wanted nothing more than to burry her muzzle in his middle and just breathe him in.

Wiping furiously at her cheeks, she shoved away her thoughts angrily.

She was not going to give in. Imprint or not, she would fight it with every bit of her strength of will, a force to be reckoned with.

XxX

"I thought I would find you here," his voice was deep... it came from deep within his chest and she knew it made it vibrate. She knew because she'd laid her head there so many times, and listened to the beat of his heart, trying to memorize it.

Leah didn't turn to look at him as she continued to stare out at the waters, painted midnight blue and reflecting the sky. Her right leg hung over the edge of the cliff while the other was propped up so that she could hug her left knee. Distantly, she noted that all she felt at his presence was a dull sort of pain, like a faint echo. For a moment, she closed her eyes and marveled at it the way she marveled at her wounds as they healed before her eyes due to her accelerated healing now as a werewolf. She'd often wondered why it was that that oh-so-special power didn't help wounds of the soul.

"You should go to sleep, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow," he told her.

The dawn would soon be approaching. Leah could already see hints of it as the sky started to become cobalt blue.

"Is that an order, oh mighty alpha?" Leah asked, though there was no real bite in her tone. In truth, she was too emotionally weary to be angry, bitter or resentful.

Sam didn't respond as he merely plopped down beside her. The fact that Leah made no objection only made him worry more, though a part of him was happy to be allowed so close to her. That she would left him.

For a while, they both sat in silence, merely staring at the quiet and dark scenery before them. The waves pressing against the beach and the rocks below somehow providing the serene soundtrack that seemed to soothe their spirits. On the eve of battle as they were, it seemed so strange that such peace could exist anywhere in the world.

"I'm going to ask the elders to amend the treaty so your imprint can enter the reservation," Sam stated suddenly, breaking the silence.

Leah furrowed her brow, the statement causing her to look at Sam for the first time. "Why?"

"As much as I don't like it, he's your imprint. You need him in your life-" Sam stated before trailing off, unsure what else to say as Leah continued to stare at him with an inscrutable expression on her beautiful face, that was so pretty that it made his heart ache so much that he had to turn away.

For a while longer, Leah stared at the face of her ex, the man she'd loved for years and almost above everything else.

Sam was doing this for her. She knew it, without him having to implicitly say it. As difficult as this might be for him, as much as he disliked it, as much trouble as it would cost him... he was doing it all for her. So she could have some semblance of happiness.

He throat constrict as she stared at him, forcing her to look away. The man used to be her best friends, her lover, her everything... and for the first time, she could remember why she had loved him so completely. When before it tortured her to remember all their happy moments, and she had focused on the things about him that irritated her the most, this was the first time she allowed herself to recognize those things he did that made her love him.

"That isn't necessary," Leah stated, clearing her throat.

"Why?" Sam asked, confused, but still unable to look at her.

"Because I'm going to fight it... I'm not a home-wrecker," Leah replied in a hard and steely tone while Sam turned to look at her with a sympathetic look.

"You can't fight it Lee-lee... I know, because I tried," the 'and I failed' was left unsaid.

Leah could feel her hear pulse with pain, but could ignore it as easily as one does a pesky little fly. When once that statement would send her into a blinding kind of fury, that had her snarly and snapping her sharp teeth, now she felt almost nothing but a vague kind of disdain.

"Yeah well, you're not me," Leah replied simply, getting to her feet and walking away. And who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll die and this whole point is moot, Leah thought grimly as she lost herself within the tree line, each of her steps weighed down beneath the strain of her imprint.

TBC...

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