Chapter Text
“I will be completely honest with you, I am not very experienced as a leader, despite having known I would become a pack leader one day.” Sam said, completely denying to everyone present, that being himself and Jacob, that he had never really ‘known’ anything for certain. Least of all known that he was to become a pack leader. He had always known that it was a possibility, it was technically a possibility for everyone in the pack. Still, it seemed a little bit like a dream to have been selected a leader. To have been confirmed strong enough to have the ability to be was thrilling, humbling, and frightening all at once.
“I have prepared myself for the times I will have to sit down with someone of my pack and talk to them, not as a friend or an unbiased party, but as a leader, who needs to keep the interest of my pack in mind.” Sam had begun fidgeting with the tag of the tea bag, playing with it as he spoke. He hadn’t noticed it himself, he was far too busy trying to vocalize his thoughts. “That being said, many people are uncomfortable, and worried, about whatever is going on with you. Why you’d bring a vampire into our territory, you know… those things.” He faltered at the end, and waved his hand as if he was trying to be dismissive. “Would you be, well, able to… tell me more?”
Jacob filled his cup with water, and sat back down in front of him. “Well… Uh, yeah, where to start…”
Later, after everything which had happened since, Sam would think back to that moment now and then. He wouldn’t really think of it as the ‘time when everything changed,’ and he wouldn’t think of it as the ‘start of all his troubles.’ He would instead think of it as the first time where his actual leadership skills were put to the test, and when, according to himself, he had failed.
All he was able to do at that point was question. While Jacob had presented real arguments, real reasons and real truths, all he had been able to do was poutily recoil with fear mongering and second hand stories about when things had gone wrong. It was a fact that vampires were dangerous, it was a fact that they lived by sucking blood and killing others. There was reason to believe that vampires proved a danger to the society which they currently were inhabiting, but many things could be seen as dangerous from an outsider perspective. However, isolating communities and people had many times over been proven to be a very destructive, harmful action to take in the long run. Sam knew that far too well, as his people had first had experienced that very isolation. To add to that, Jacob, and the Cullens, had provens that vampires were a lot more than mere beasts.
Sam felt strangely trapped in his situation, and it had only grown worse after the tribe started interacting with the local blood suckers. He was the leader, he had expectations upon him, and he wanted very badly to prove to others and himself that he was a good leader. However, Jacob had been bringing about change. Real change. Good change. All Sam could do in return was to be skeptical and on edge around the vampires. He felt like the overprotective parent who refused his children the opportunity and the right to explore the world, but it was also his duty to point out potential dangers and faults with certain actions taken by members of his pack. Jacob was right, he had done the right thing, and Sam hadn’t actually done anything wrong but… he felt lacking. He felt uninformed, and he felt trapped between being cautious and being allowing.
What Jacob and Edward had achieved was baffling, and it had changed both the vampire and the werewolf communities in Forks for the better. Sam felt like he had resisted that change, and he felt like he should have acted differently, but he truly had nobody with who he could discuss these things and learn better. Instead he had been caught being one of the oppressors against good healthy change, and that thought in itself was terrifying.
Essentially, he wanted to become better, but he didn’t know where to turn. There were still things he was learning, both about his role as a leader and about being a werewolf, as he hadn’t actually been one for that long. It had been a problem far before the Olympic Covenant became part of their everyday life, but adding vampires to his situation was not making it easier.
An aspect of being a werewolf that he was about to learn was the extent of pack loyalty, and how strong it could be. Of course he knew about pack loyalty as a concept, and he had of course experienced it previously, but that did not mean that he had expected to find his pack invading the Cullen household in search for Emmett Cullen, honorary werewolf and pretend-member of his pack.
Unlike many of his pack members, Sam could recall his identity fairly easily in his other shape, even during full moons. He remember who he was, and he remembered that there were dangers in the woods relating to humans and being discovered by humans. Sam was able to lead where others could not because his intellect was more than that of the beast’s. He was selected as the leader because he didn’t allow the rush of hormones and adrenaline to get the best of him, even when they were at their strongest. Or at least that was one of the reasons given as to why he had been chosen.
Houses looked so very strange through the eyes of the beast. Like a giant, unshapely rock with strange lighting coming from it. The scents were equally confusing, a mess of pleasant and disgusting, of food and of things which should under no circumstances be eaten. The beast wanted to explore it, and he wanted to run from it.
As the beast who was Sam stood observing the house, he neglected to realize that his pack had approached it. He saw the beast who was Jacob brave the porch and approach the door, scratching for it to open. Someone howled, another one barked, generally making themselves known. After realizing that he was hesitating while his pack was not, Sam slowly approached behind them. As he stood closer, he was able to hear noises coming from inside the building. It took a little, but he was able to understand and identify the speakers.
“Is that… Jacob’s pack?” Esme Cullen said. She could be seen standing in one of the floor length windows, looking out at the guests. One werewolf had noticed her, and walked up to the window. In a display of utmost intelligence, the beast who was Seth Clearwater smushed his entire face against the glass, expectantly wagging his tail as he did so.
Alice Cullen’s giggle came in response, and she appeared in the window. “Yes. Hello, Seth.” She stroke over the glass, pretending to pet the wolf outside. Seth’s tail began to wag faster as she did.
“No!” Came Rosalie Hale’s voice from somewhere unseen. “No, do not open that door!”
“What’s happening?” Edward Cullen’s confused voice joined the rest of the voices.
“I’m opening the door.” There was such excitement in Carlisle Cullen’s voice that it took the beast who was Sam a little longer to identify him.
“Dear, perhaps opening that door is not-”
“Yo, what’s the ruckus?” Emmett, honorary werewolf, spoke up, causing most of the pack to cram towards the door.
Carlisle was still quite often completely deaf to anyone’s reasons but his own, and he was not about to pass on the opportunity to invite an entire werewolf pack into his home, consequences be damned. Sam didn’t have time to think a lot about it, but he rather quickly realized that inviting a pack of werewolves would cause a mess, which someone would have to clean up, and that was generally unpleasant. There were reasons werewolves didn’t transform in their own home.
The door flung open, and Carlisle held out his arms to his guests. He opened his mouth as if to welcome them, but before he had any chances of speaking, the werewolf avalanche swallowed him up. As he disappeared beneath the waves of fur and legs, he smiled like a mad captain being pulled into the depths of the ocean along his sinking ship.
Most werewolves cascaded into the house, knocking things and people over as they went. Carlisle was the first victim, but he would not be the last. Rosalie screamed as she jumped up on a sofa, raising her magazine as a club above her head as to warn any beasts about her accepted level of cuddling, which was pretty much a rate of zero. Esme was standing in a corner, which she backed into further as the pack advanced. She was ignored for the most part, as there were much more pleasant targets to be knocked over and cuddled. Even in the shape of a beast, Sam had identified the woman as someone who seemed to take care of most of the household work, and already did feel bad for the mess she would have to deal with.
When the beast who was Sam entered, last of his pack, two werewolves were still cuddling Carlisle, who looked more messed up than Sam had ever seen him. His hair was in complete disarray, and he smiled wider than Sam had ever seen anyone smile. He just hoped that Carlisle wasn’t actually allergic to fur, as he was pretty sure that the vampire would die again before he asked the werewolves to not swarm him. Leaving the not-man to his most-likely-not-cuddle-demise, Sam continued inside the house.
He trudged on into the living room to inspect the scene there. Rosalie was still on the sofa, now playing tug of war with Leah Clearwater, and the vampire still seemed rather annoyed. Normally, the vampire would be stronger, but with the position she was currently in, Leah was on equal terms with her. Rosalie was stuttering out fragmented sentences at the female werewolf’s behavior, but Leah just wagged her tail.
The beast who was Sam noticed Jacob over by his boyfriend, Edward Cullen. The two of them were the very reason that this was all happening, and yet nobody bothered Edward with cuddles. Sam figured that some brave soul might have tried and been completely and utterly told off by the gigantic beast who was Jacob. It seemed more likely to him than all the canines being able to respect that Edward preferred his werewolf over their, to them, equally cuddle worthy faces. The two of them were already moving out of the living room, with Edward having his hand on Jacob’s back. The last he heard was the vampire asking Jacob to “mind the claws.”
The pack leader rolled his eyes as he turned towards the two werewolf piles which had formed in the room. The smaller one contained three werewolves with a giggling Alice at the bottom. She was trying very hard to pet them all, and they were all fighting for the right to her scratches. The beast who was Sam was not impressed. That woman still smelled bad to him, she smelled of illnesses and disorders which made her very unsuitable for food, which in turn led the pack leader to discard her in terms of friendship as well. He didn’t hate her, he simply didn’t really want anything to do with her, and in the end it was just instinctual.
The second pile had Emmett, honorary werewolf, at the bottom. He had most likely been tackled down and swarmed, five werewolves were rushing around him, barking and howling and pressing themselves against him in playful manners. Emmett himself looked deeply touched, and he was talking to them while trying to pet them all, not that they were able to stand still long enough to be petted.
“Aww, you guys!” Emmett laughed. “Did you miss me? Did all of you come here just cause you missed me? Or are you trying to get some snacks from us? You’re all the best, I missed you too, oh, hey, no tongue kisses now!” He pushed the head of one werewolf to the side, avoiding her as she eagerly licked his face.
This was all a little too much familiarity and happiness for the beast who was Sam, and he retreated up on top of the couch to look out over his pack. After having counted them, he counted the vampires and realized that they were one vampire short. Jasper Hale, or as Sam knew him, the twitchy one, wasn’t there.
Sam had never really seen the worst parts of Jasper, but he was well aware that the vampire had trouble controlling himself. He had never seen the worst of it, but Edward had been honest about his family member’s troubles as to promote honesty and openness between the Olympic Covenant and the tribe. Sam also vaguely recalled a part of Jacob’s story regarding Bella Swan, and how Jasper had nearly hurt the woman, even if it never quite happened. There had been no incidents, but Jasper had at times chosen to remove himself from larger groups as to not pose a danger to anyone. Normally, Sam respected that behavior, and didn’t generally think any more of it, but during these circumstances, he found himself unable to relax without at least knowing if the vampire was in the house.
Thus, the pack leader left his pack to cuddle the vampires. He trusted that everyone would be alright, and that nobody in the household was foolish enough to think that they could bite a werewolf and get away with it in the company of their pack.
Sam found the stairs, and ascended them with slow, careful steps. It was not hard to isolate a person’s room by their scent, he easily located everyone’s room by simply sniffing the ground in front of the door. Edward’s room was at the front of the building, furthest away from the stairs, and judging by the scent, Jasper’s room was just opposite of it. Sam didn’t know it at the time, but the rooms were sound proof as to allow the vampires in question to at least be decently alone in their own space. The sound proof walls made it so that vampires heard each other like a human would sometimes hear their neighbors, rather than constantly being aware of one another. To the werewolves, the sound proofing was total, but not to the vampires.
Jasper was waiting for him as the black beast who was Sam pushed the door open with his nose and looked inside. It seemed Jasper had somehow known he was coming.
Jasper’s room was modest, he had a pretty much empty desk with only a computer on it, a bed big enough for two, and a collection of bookcases along the walls. Sam was a little too much of a beast to understand written language for the moment, so he simply glossed over their existence and focused on the other beast in the room.
Jasper Hale truly appeared like a beast in his den to Sam, he was sitting upon the bed, slightly hunched forward as if ready to leap. The golden eyes shimmered faintly in the darkness, and he sat with such utter stillness that the beast who was Sam found it hard to tell if he was alive or not. He then recalled that the other was a vampire, and therefore wasn’t exactly alive in the first place.
The scent of blood was thick in the air, but it was not human blood. Sam couldn’t identify the scents perfectly, but he knew some of the blood as familiar scents, meaning that whatever blood Jasper had feasted on, it had likely been from common forest animals.
They remained still for a while, the monster in its lair staring at the intruder. Sam slowly raised his leg and crossed the threshold. Jasper followed him with his unblinking, golden eyes as he walked inside his room. Without really taking his eyes off the vampire, the werewolf wandered around in his room, carefully sniffing some of the furniture. They came to another halt, Jasper on top of his bed, and Sam on the other side of it, once he had walked around the bed frame. Unlike Jacob and Edward, they had no real way of simple communication, leading to another stare down.
Sam raised a giant paw and placed it upon the bed. Jasper didn’t object, but Sam could smell that he was tensing up. The vampire’s upper lip twitched, but he still remained in place. In a swift movement, the giant beast of a wolf jumped up on the bed, and sat down. He was far larger than Jasper, and for a moment he stopped to look down upon the much smaller creature.
With the tension still thick in the air, the blood drinking beast finally spoke up. “What do you want?” His words were a lot more than merely a threat, and a lot more than a statement. It was a very direct question hiding a collection of complex feelings and meanings. He had every right to be uncomfortable around an uninvited stranger in his house, and he had every right to feel threatened by someone seeking him out while he had removed himself from the group, but there was definitely more to it.
In response to the tense question, Sam yawned and laid down upon the bed, turning to face the door. He wasn’t directly lying in the other’s lap, but his back pressed against the vampire’s body as he focused his attention on the open door, listening to the noises which came from below. It was a position which allowed Sam to keep the potential danger to his pack isolated from those it might harm, while allowing himself the rest from the stressful task of overlooking a collection of werewolves as they hurricaned through the not-werewolf-proof house. Sam didn’t even think of it as an insulting thing to do, it was the night of the full moon and whatever understanding he had of the world around him during that night was not the same as he had when the sun had risen. He might be far more aware than his fellow pack members, but he was still a beast.
For a long time, Jasper sat silent behind him, most likely listening to the noises alongside him. Neither of them moved, until Sam lowered his head down on the bed, still looking at the door. There seemed to be a constant level of noise coming from below, and Sam was certain that more than a few fragile items lost their lives in tragic accidents caused by the pack, but he wasn’t in a state of mind where he cared. Somewhere not too long after the beast who was Sam retreated into the den of Jasper, he heard Rosalie escape the pack and lock herself into her room. Other than that, no one else came up the stairs.
Sam didn’t know how long they had sat together on the bed, with his own heavy frame resting against the vampire’s, but he jumped when he felt Jasper’s hand upon his back. He quickly turned towards the other beast, glaring at him with a warning look in his eyes.
“...It’s okay.” Jasper’s voice was soft, and Sam could feel his mind grow drowsy as the other spoke. He had such a relaxing voice, every tune and every rise and fall seemed designed to specifically adhere to his preferences. “I’m just petting you, surely you like pets?” He moved his hand upwards, stroking over his back and up his neck.
Sam let out a deep, heavy breath as he turned away from the door and put his large head on Jasper’s lap. He blinked slowly, waiting for the other to pet him more.
“So you came here to guard me, is that it?” Jasper continued as his slim fingers gently rubbed against Sam’s scalp. An ear twitched as he found a particularly relaxing spot. “Do you even understand me at this point?” He waited for an answer which didn’t come. Sam couldn’t quite understand him, but he could tell that the vampire didn’t intend to harm him. He did understand speech mostly, but his mind was starting to feel hazier by the minute.
“I guess not.” A second hand was added to the first, and Sam’s tail began to slowly wag from side to side as he was subjected to some scratches of utmost quality. “It’s late, you should probably sleep. You must be really tired.” As he suggested it, Sam yawned, licking his lips afterwards. “Go to sleep, I promise not to move.”
At the time, Sam didn’t realize what was going on. He thought that it was nothing but himself being tired, and saw nothing strange in what was happening. It wasn’t until the next day that he would realize just how strange it was for him to feel that relaxed around a man whom he clearly didn’t trust in the least. Yet for the moment, listening to Jasper’s wonderfully relaxing voice and falling asleep in his lap seemed completely natural. His eyes fluttered shut, and he sank into the welcoming grip of sleep, while the werewolf tornado continued somewhere down below.