Pen Name: Noncanonqueen

Title: Bonfires

Summary: Embry Call just wants to be a normal young person, in love and happy and hanging out with his best friends. In a world of Protectors and Cold Ones can that truly happen?

Pairings: Leah/Embry Jake/Bella

Rating: Mature

Word Count:

Song/Lyrical Inspiration: Kane Brown compilation Lose It/Heaven/What's mine is yours/there goes my everything

Disclaimer: Twilight and its inclusive material is copyright to Stephenie Meyer. Original creation, including but not limited to plot and characters, is copyright to the respective authors of each story. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: This was supposed to be for the Song Prompt contest but as usual, I missed the entry date by being flighty. I loved this story and I'm quite in love with Embry Call at the moment. What are you reading featuring Embry Call? What's your favorite?

Bonfires

Ever since the Cullens left, La Push was celebrating, there was a bonfire every weekend for a month. The Cold Ones were finally gone from their area and that meant the Protectors weren't needed, at least that's how the old stories went, but it wasn't true. The Protectors were still out there every night, every day, every minute, to protect the land from any lingering signs of a Cold One.

As the chief's son's best friend, but also as a Protector, I knew the stories were partially true. There were Cold Ones, vampires, out there and yes, we did fight them, killed one once, but the truth was we're teenagers.

Jacob, Quill and I have been friends since we were babies and we did all kinds of things together, cliff diving, rebuilding engines and sneaking nudie magazines from Jake's dad. Typical boy stuff. When I got 'sick' and I had to lie to the people I looked at like brothers, nearly broke my heart.

I was off with Sam and the rest of the pack, learning the ways of becoming a Protector while Jacob was picking up the pieces of the broken heart of Bella Swan. For a while it seemed to work, that is, until it was Jake's turn to join the pack. Bella was again broken hearted and Jake was miserable.

"Why don't you look at her, really look at her," I mentioned the day we stood outside Jake's house and Bella came to confront him.

Jake's eyes went wide and he gave his usually sunny grin before galloping off after his girl. In the end, the Fates decided they were worth each other and another imprinted couple was recognized by the pack.

Another celebratory bonfire was held and we all were in attendance. That's how it went for a while. Things were good. We were happy. Things were going as normal as they could be for a bunch of teenagers that sometimes shifted into horse size wolves.

It was in the summer, I had been restless in my own skin, I felt something in the air was different but couldn't place what was happening. Jake and Bella as usual were attached at the lips in the garage as we all hung out, Quill was texting away with one of Bella's friends and I could barely keep my skin together.

"What's with Bry?" Bella asked finally pulling away from Jake for a breath of air. Her lips were swollen but she looked so happy.

"Something up?" Jake asked.

"I just feel off, I don't know what it is," before I could even get the words completely out of my mouth, we all heard the howl.

"Bells, go straight to Sam and Em's, I'll meet you there," Jake ordered and Quill and I followed him to the forest.

Phasing in to join the rest of the pack was hectic at best, there was screaming and crying and nothing was discernible. We quickly regained our skin and took off on foot to where we knew the rest of the Pack was.

Coming up we found two new wolves, one smaller and one guarding the smaller one. Paul and Jared stood across the forest from us and Sam, in wolf form was being snarled at by the sandy colored wolf.

"Who is it?" Quill asked.

"Clearwaters!" Jared informed us.

"Seth?" Jake asked looking them over.

"He's one. Then there's her," Paul pointed at the wolf guarding the smaller one, who was obviously Seth.

"Is that Leah?" My voice cracked slightly. I always had the biggest crush on Leah Clearwater but everyone knew she was Sam's girl.

When Sam imprinted on Leah's cousin Emily, the rez was in a bit of an uproar. Sam chose an 'outsider' and 'dishonored' one of our own. It caused issues for them all over the place.

Leah on the other hand, was mad, at everyone, everything. Leah as a Protector could be dangerous.

Jake stood in between Sam and the Clearwaters and in that creepy Alpha voice he sometimes acquired, "Enough. Sam, go check on the girls. Em and I will deal with these two. It's not going to help having you in her head."

Sam obliged and was suddenly standing on two feet before us, "I don't like being ordered about within my own pack."

"This is MY pack, don't forget it." Jake warned.

I looked at Leah again and at Seth, who was small, so much smaller than any of us had been and the way she protected him.

"Jake," I gave him a look of concern, "We have to separate them."

Jake nodded and stood tall, "Leah, I command you to let Seth up."

Leah snapped, her body rigid and went on the attack towards Jake but Seth was removed from her and Quil managed to get him to the side and was chatting him up. Before long, Seth was on two feet and crying into Quill's chest.

Jake nodded at me towards Leah and I shook my head back at him. No way was I letting her in my head where all my secret thoughts about her were stored.

"You try." I urged.

Leah was snarling and barking between us and Jake just laughed. "If you've got something to say, Clearwater, say it to my face. Oh wait, you can't."

My eyes went wide with concern, was he trying to get mauled by a rabid wolf?

"Come on, don't you want to yell at me for ordering you about? Or maybe for being in love with a pale face, I heard you aren't particularly happy about that one. Cat got your tongue Leah?" Jake was pushing and I felt myself starting to shake too.

"Jake," I nearly growled at him.

"Oh, look, Bry is sticking up for you? Does Leah have a little boyfriend?" Jake goaded the both of us. I hadn't lost my temper in quite a while.

"Jacob," I warned on last time.

"It's fine, it's fine, leave it," the sweetest voice I'd heard finally said. Leah stood before us naked as the day she was born.

I stripped my shirt off and handed it to her for some bit of modesty. "Take this,"

Jacob was laughing his ass off at us and I couldn't figure out why.

"Are you okay, Leah?" I turned to her and looked her over. She seemed okay.

"I'm fine. Are you okay? You're practically vibrating." Leah's hand touched my bicep and I bit into my lip to stop a moan. "Hey, look at me, Embry, are you alright?"

"Yeah Bry, look at Leah," Jake coughed out between laughs.

I turned and there she was. My whole world in a set of brown eyes. I couldn't look away if I wanted and suddenly I knew what Jake and Sam felt, how it felt to love someone more than anything else ever.

"Leah, you, I," words didn't come out properly and I stood there like an idiot.

"What, was, that?" Leah breathed heavily.

I couldn't respond and instead just picked her up and lugged her over my shoulder. "You're mine," was the simple answer and I moved closer into the woods to show her exactly what that meant.

"Bry?" Leah's voice brought me out of my musings of the past. "Are you alright?"

With a lopsided smirk I gave her a nod, "You're always asking me that."

"You looked far away," she snuggled into my side and I thought this had to be what heaven felt like because being here, in this bed with her, made me never want to leave.

"Just thinking," I kissed her nose and then pounced on her.

"We're going to be late!" She protested but didn't give too much of a fight. We were completely going to be late.

Sometime later, we arrived as we were supposed to and I got looks for being late. I shrugged them off and plopped down on the beach.

"Now, what's the big news we're celebrating?" Seriously, there wasn't a week in La Push for the past five years that hadn't had a celebratory bonfire.

"Bella has finally agreed to marry me!" Jake exclaimed. He asked her no less than ten times and while she knew he was her forever, she thought they were too young.

My girl, my hard ass Leah Clearwater, let out a squeal and tackled Bella into the sand. Jake gave me a look and I just shrugged my shoulders happily, grabbing a beer from the cooler.

"Congrats," I toasted my best friend. "You guys deserve this."

"You know, I feel like we really do. Everything just seems...normal lately." Jake popped a beer open and took a drink after clinking his bottle with mine.

"Don't say the N word, and jinx it!" Bella's voice carried across the fire as she chatted with Leah.

That night was filled with dancing and food and more alcohol than we probably should have had but that's what we were supposed to do in our early twenties.

The girls danced together and Jake and I watched for a while. I don't think Leah knows what she does to me. She flips her hair, has her body swinging to the music, I just lose it, my heart skips a beat and before long, I can't take it.

I joined her and that space between us is lost too because I can't get close enough to her as we move to the music.

Months pass and things are still good, really good. Then before we can blink, Jake and Bella are getting married. Leah and I are the maid of honor and best man respectively and I can't stop looking at her while our best friends say their vows to one another.

The occasion is celebrated, again with a bonfire, and we're in the same spot as we always were. Slowly swaying to the music, I pulled her closer to me because I can't breathe if she's not within my reach.

"I love you," I whispered in her ear and feel her shiver against me.

"Go somewhere with me?" She asked looking at me with those brown eyes I can't ever say no to.

"Anywhere," I vowed and Leah's hand is pulling me away from the fire saying our goodbyes and then we're in my truck.

"Just drive," she ordered and fiddled with the radio.

This old country station comes on and I look over at her perplexed. "Where are we going, Leah?"

"Let's just drive until the station fades out?" Leah's head landed on my shoulders and she kicked her now bare feet up on the dash of my truck.

"I'm right where I want to be, babe," I kissed her temple and focused on the road. "What did I do to deserve an angel like you?" I asked offhandedly.

Leah's laugh filled the cab of my truck, "Embry Call, I am nowhere near an angel. I was horrible to you for months when we first imprinted. You have to remember."

Of course I remembered. It wasn't sunshine and rainbows but I liked where we were now because of it.

"You were hurting, I'm just glad you let me in eventually," the station starts to crackle and Leah's head snapped up from my shoulder quickly.

"Pull over up here!" She looks so excited and I pull onto a dirt road until I can't go any further.

There's a small clearing just to the side of my truck and Leah jumped out with no regard for her surroundings.

"Turn the radio up, find us something." She spins around in the clearing and my heart does another skip of the beat before I follow her directions.

A slow song rings through the speakers of my truck and I make my way around it and to her. She's beautiful, the moon shining down on us, she has on this dress and I couldn't remember her looking better. She was happy and here and mine.

"Dance with me Bry," Her dress falls down her shoulders and I find myself placing kisses across them while my hands wrap around her small waist.

Her hand reaches up the back of my neck and I feel her nails scratching there as we sway to the music.

"I never want to be without you," she whispered.

"You don't have to be, ever," I assured her urging her closer if it was possible.

"Do you promise?" She questioned.

"I swear, Leah." I didn't know where this came from but I would do anything to make her happy.

"Do you think we'll be like Jake and Bella?" Leah's head ended up against my chest as we danced.

"You mean getting married, happily ever after?" I gave her a little spin and she squealed happily.

"Yeah, all that." Leah pulled away from me and danced for me instead of with me.

"I know we will be. Hell we almost beat them to it." I gave her a wink and before I finished I was pushed to the ground and Leah's lips were attached to mine.

She tried to take control but I rolled her over and pinned her to the ground below us.

"I'll vow it all to you now. You saved me. You got all of me and I don't need it anymore, what's mine is yours. My heart, my house, my life. You're every breath I take, every thought of the day and every beat of my heart."

Leah's eyes gleamed with unshed tears and I reached around in my pocket for something I always carried lately.

"Til death do us part, what's mine is yours, take this ring and promise me the same."

"You, when?" She sat up and looked in the ring box.

With a shrug, "I promised Jake I wouldn't ask until Bella said yes."

Leah let out a laugh with her tears finally shedding. "Embry Call, I give you my heart. You're everything I want to be and even more. I vow that with every beat of my heart I'll love you a little more."

I slipped the ring on her finger and proceeded to kiss her senseless.

"We're as good as married now," I nudged her nose with mine.

"Minus all that paperwork," Leah snorts.

"Screw the paperwork, you're mine in all the ways that matter," I pushed her dress further down until it was completely off and revealed the rest of her body to me.

"Tell me Leah, tell me you're mine," I pulled away to strip my shirt off and watched as her breath came in pants.

"Yours, always yours, Bry," My lips found there way across her belly and along her hip bones.

We spent the night wrapped in our love and each other and didn't move until the sun came up.