I have decided to write a fanfic about the original Denali coven. First of all because so little is known about them, you can let your imagination run free on their personalities and pasts. Second of all because I wanted to give them a story in which they are not slutty, bitchy or annoying. And third of all because they belong to the few characters I actually like. This story takes place during new moon/eclipse and Breaking Dawn, a considers memories of the women's pasts as well. Tanya, Kate and Irina all have a few chapters of their own.

KATE

Suddenly a memory hit me. One of before. It happened sometimes, I would forget to keep my mind occupied and one of those thoughts could slam in there, right trough the wall I had build up with so much care in the past years.

A long time ago, Sasha and Tanya had agreed to take turns in choosing an activity to spend the evenings with. Most of the time this activity was debating. Sasha was, or maybe had become, a calm person who picked her arguments thoughtfully, elaborating her opinions until she knew exactly what she wanted to achieve with her words. Tanya was more of an attacker, much less profound. She brought up argument after argument , trying to convince Sasha of her right. Sasha would always listen and reply in earnest, but when she believed in her statements it was not easy to convince her.

I could merely dream about possessing such sereneness. I wasn't calm, never. Not now, while I was watching that French piece of shit whispering lies in my sister's ear. Not yesterday, when I just laid on my back in some field. My mind always seemed to be one step ahead of me.

I was born to be lethal, in some way. Trained to kill since I was a little girl. I thought nothing would ever be able to hurt me. I thought I was powerful. I thought so much of myself and I knew so little.

A few months after I was changed, when I wasn't so aggressive and terrified anymore, Sasha asked me;

'What would you like to do tonight? What were your favourite activities as a human?'

An easy question, you might think. It wasn't for me. I had had twenty-one years of exercising, fighting and pushing myself to my limits (and further). One thing had been taught to me in particular. Don't show yourself. No emotions, no pain. One time I had been tied to a branch and they had whipped my back, until there was nothing recognizable, nothing but torn flesh. I hadn't made a single noise. It was what I was supposed to do. Take it, stay quiet, go on. In my human life there had been no room for personal issues. The children I grew up with were all sold by their families, me as well. I had been grateful. It was either this life, even though it was not ideal, in which I would learn to defend myself, or a life like my mother's. I had never wished for the latter. A life like hers, of submissively following her husband's orders, of bearing a new child every other year, of being slapped and kicked and raped, that wasn't for me. I already knew that when I was nine.

Due to my harsh training I had never had the time to develop myself mentally. I became anxious and scared. I felt too much and did not know how I was supposed to deal with my emotions. I was twelve when I cut myself for the first time.

All of this went through my head as Sasha stood there, waiting for an answer I did not have. What had I liked to do as a human?

I tried to push the memory away. It was a long time ago. I knew myself a lot better now. However, it didn't matter how much I disliked it, Sasha's anticipating, slightly worried expression was in front of my eyes, even when I closed them.

'What is it?' Tanya suddenly was next to me, I hadn't heard her coming. Talking about Sasha would only make her sad, so I mentioned something else that was bothering me. 'That dog is luring Irina into perdition with his fancy accent.'

'Aren't you slightly exaggerating? Perdition seems kind of extreme.' Tanya tried to soothe, but I knew she felt the same way. Neither of us felt much for Laurent and we had both been surprised when Irina had practically launched herself at him. The two sat just out of hearing distance, where we could spy on them.

'I don't understand what she sees in him. There is something vicious about him. I don't know.' Tanya shook her head.

'He is a liar. He will hurt her.' I said, and gritted my teeth to this. 'Have you talked to her about him?'

My sister sighted. 'I wanted to, but she came in two days ago, all beaming. She slept with him. Said it is so much better, when you love someone.' I sighted too. I did not want to trash my sister's dreams.

'She doesn't see it because she doesn't want to. I know she knows, that none of it is truth.' Tanya said. My sister put a string of curls behind her ear and went back inside, again shaking her head unconsciously. 'I hope she'll get her head straight before things get painful.' I heard her whisper to herself.

Then I knew what to do.

Irina sat next to the fireplace, Tanya's head in her lap. For once my little sister was without her new lover. I went outside and took a deep breath. I could smell him immediately. He was not far for me, a couple of hundreds of meters to the left in the woods. I sprinted. 'What do you think you're doing?' I hissed as soon as he saw me.

'I don't know what you're talking about.' He smiled, his eyes kind. The eyes of a liar.

'You know damn well. You don't love my sister, Laurent, you never did. Why are you telling her you do?'

Laurent lifted his eyebrows in innocent surprise. 'I very much like Irina. She's cute.'

I grunted. 'She is. She is cute, sweet and loveable. She is funny and sensitive. She is too good for you and yet she thinks she needs you. You don't want her like she wants you and still you pretend you do and you make her believe that the two of you are going to have a romantic future forever!'

Laurent dropped his smile, a seemingly hurt look on his face. Yeah sure. 'Why do you think I don't want her like she wants me?'

'You hold her close and happily tell her how much she means to you, while your eyes are on Tanya's ass. No one buys your shit, Laurent. '

Laurent's smiled reappeared. 'If it makes her happy now, what's the problem?'

I wanted to scream, but I had to remain cool and distant. 'If you tell her now, that you don't like her enough to get serious, you can prevent a lot of damage.' I grumbled the words trough my teeth.

'She is a dear. I like her for now and I'm not done playing. She's a good woman.' The sentence ended in a grin, not a mean one even. He was actually pleased with the current situation. He didn't bother to think about what it would do to Irina if he had enough of her. I was angry and could feel my gift buzzing all over my body. I smashed him into a near rock and shocked him. 'If you make my sister unhappy, if you inflict the slightest pain upon her, no matter how or when, I will hunt you down and I will fucking kill you. '

I had my lower arm pressed against his throat and he looked at me in fear. That was one thing I had learned in all those years, how to frighten someone.

'You leave her now or you never leave her. Do you understand, Lohrahn?' I concluded that my voice did sound a little insane. Good.

He nodded in understanding. I let him go, turned around and ran back to our house.

Five months later

I would have killed Laurent, hadn't he already been dead. He had left our place a while earlier. If I closed my eyes I still saw him pressing his lips against sister's cheek, promising her a fast return. I had believed that he took my "advice" seriously and thus had decided to stay with Irina forever, provided that he could sometimes take a break to fall back on his former nomad habits. It had relaxed me. I knew a relationship wasn't supposed to be based on the man's fear to be murdered by his lover's relatives in case he screwed up, but I was ensured he would not do any damage to Rina.

Until now. Tanya spoke softly and in a comforting tone trough the phone to my youngest sister. Carmen and Eleazar stood next to her, both of them with pursed lips and eyes filled with sorrow. I was glad they reacted that way. That they did not despise Irina for the ridiculous request she just asked from us. I felt bad for Irina, because I, too, had believed that her and Laurent would now actually be the happy couple he had promised her they would be. And I was thrilled for her. Is it worse to get your mate killed or for him to leave you because he doesn't like you anymore. I suppose the latter.

'Listen, you are upset and I understand. But the Cullens are our family and we would never want put them in danger...' Tanya's word trailed off and I heard Irina's reply on the other side, her voice higher than usual, full of grief. It struck me that it was not the first time I had heard her like this. No, not now. I didn't want to think about Sasha now.

'They might come back. And then the wolves will harm them.' Tanya said it so gently. I respected her for how good she was at the whole console-thing. I wanted Irina to speak louder. Normally I could hear her talking on the phone even when she wasn't calling me, and now her voice was so soft that it probably already took Tanya great efforts to hear her.

All I could hear was more sadness on the other side of the line.

Irina wanted to kill the werewolves who had killed her Laurent. I could not place myself in her situation, because I didn't have a mate (and I was not planning on ever getting one. Mates made you weak) but I knew what it was like to lose someone I cared for. I imagined that Sasha had died because of those werewolves instead of the Volturi. That thought of her death was so painful that I gasped. No one looked at me in a strange way, they might not have heard. I understood Irina anyway. I would want to kill those werewolves too, if I were her.

'Irina is more important to me than the Cullens are.' I said it out loud and they all looked at me, as if I had said something horrible. Even Tanya. My next line was spoken directly to her.

'You and I know what it is like to lose someone you love. Irina deserves a revenge. How can she possibly get over this when the murderers of her lover are still wandering around on this continent somewhere. They will be demons to her then. Too.' Eleazar and Carmen looked confused, only Tanya had gotten it. It was no surprise, we had grown close. Tanya used to call Aro and Caius 'her demons', when she was in a very bad shape. I knew this now, there were no secrets between us anymore. Even though there used to be.

My mind pulled me back to one of our previous houses in Siberia. It was only months after Sasha'd died. I heard myself yell at Tanya, for not taking her responsibility, for hurting Irina, for leaving me alone even when I still had no idea how to manage my own grief, let alone Irina's, for never being home, for being a coward, for fucking the pain away, for not facing her problems. I had never apologized for that rant, and sometimes I remembered and felt bad about it. Tanya had not protested at the time. She had only looked at me, more and more hurting with every accusation I had flung at her. Ironically, I had blamed her for being so selfish, while it had probably been me who was the most egoistic. I was mad at Tanya, because she didn't do what I wanted her to do. I wanted to deal with my grief alone, like I did with all my aches, not with a sobbing, 5'2'' tall bundle of misery around me, who searched for comfort and was constantly claiming my attention. I wanted Tanya to soothe Irina so she would leave me alone, but Tanya had fled our house and our company. She would come back every few days for clean clothes, and every time she looked more distressed. When she was back, she barely spoke a word and she left as soon as she could. This absence made Irina even more cheerless, because truth is, I am not that much of a people's person and quite useless in emotionally tough times. She wanted Tanya. Tanya was not present. So I considered Tanya selfish. Later on I realized that Tanya was aching more than Irina and me together and I had no single right to expect her to take care of us. I never said sorry, anyway, because sometimes I was like that. I just hoped she had forgotten, even when I was aware of the fact that this was an unrealistic desire.

I realized I had drifted off and focused on my sister again.

'Irina, I will call Carlisle about it first. We have to make sure we don't expose him and the others to any danger. Is that all right? Wait at their house, I will be there as soon as possible.'

Apparently Irina had asked very softly, if I was coming too, because Tanya shot me a questioning look. I nodded.

'I will come as well.'

'Kate comes, too.'

Irina's voice didn't sound so hysterical anymore.

'Irina? Don't do stupid things, okay?'

Tanya smiled then. She ended the conversation with an 'I love you' in our original language. It had always intrigued me how her voice sounded so different, so melodious, when she spoke those ancient Slavic words. Tanya felt more comfortable with her roots than I did. I had easily been able to drop my original first name during the Red Scare. Ekaterina1 was not really a name you could get laid with when everybody around you was on the hunt for possible Russian intruders and commy's. My descent meant little to me, whereas Tanya wore her nationality with pride.

TANYA

The man, or maybe I should say boy, had fallen asleep on top of me. His head was in the space between my chin and cleavage and he carried a pleasant musky smell, with traces of honey and something I could not quite place, something fruity. Tempting, but I had long lost my need to feed on those men. The moment after, like now, was something I could enjoy for hours. The heath of a young man on my skin, to feel a body in its most relaxed, innocent form against me, I loved it. Sometimes I got impatient and I would wake them up (which they did never mind), but tonight it would be a shame if this man interrupted the moment I was having. I glanced at his muscled back, the freckles on his shoulders, and I felt his heart pounding steadily against my chest. It did not bother me. I had often heard that my lifestyle was against nature. Why would a huntress make love with her prey? Why not? I was all in for physical games and I was a fantastic lover. I just did not want to love someone like that forever.

Carlisle had once asked me if I had lost my believe in true love because I still hadn't found it. He had concluded that I was one of the many women who had fruitlessly waited for their prince charming to come along. That I was now bitter and disillusioned, since he never came. It was not like that at all. I had never had faith in the kind of love he believed in. The idea that there was supposed to be only one soul mate for you among the seven billion people on this planet, the thought itself was depressing. Love was something that, in my opinion, you should not think about at all. Carlisle believed that love was only real and valuable if it lasted forever. I knew better. Love was pure and it had no rules. If I decided that I would love a certain man, just for the night, that love was as valid as the love between a married couple. It was different, it was fleeting, but it was love anyway. A soft sight slipped out of man on my chest. I decided that it was time to leave. I turned us around, very carefully to not wake him up, and kissed him on the cheek. 'Farewell.' I whispered.

Only seconds later I was back in my car.

I came home and took a shower, to be disturbed by Kate immediately, who walked in with an irritated expression on her face. 'I've called six times already. Why doesn't she pick up?' I was rubbing shampoo in my tangled hair. 'Maybe she doesn't want to speak to us. Give her some time, Kate.' My sister looked just as frustrated with me now. 'I want her home. She is a mess. Who knows what will happen to her.' She let out a furious grunt. I turned the shower off and stepped out it. 'I prefer having her here, too, but if she doesn't want to be here, we can't force her.' Kate didn't seem to have a problem with bringing Irina home by force. In fact, her face showed that forcing didn't sound like such a bad suggestion to her. I rolled my eyes. 'She is an adult. She'll come back when she's ready.'

Kate angrily strode out and slammed the door. She was pissed with me, for not undertaking any action. I understood, because at first I had gone after Irina myself in my despair to find her. However, I had decided that it was better to give her some space. After me and Kate arrived at the Cullen's house a month ago, we had been able to convince Irina that killing the wolves was no solution for her grief and that attacking the pack would harm Carlisle and his family. Irina had followed us to our home without a single protest, but once we were back in Denali she had become restless and, in some way, ashamed. As if she didn't dare to share her sorrows with us. I had tried multiple times to talk to her, to give her some solace and cheer her up, or just to hold her, but she kept to herself and shook me off every time I tried to wrap my arms around her.

I thought that, maybe, she was still mad with me, for what I had said a few days before she went off to look for Laurent.

When she, to no avail, had tried to get in touch with him for the umpteenth time, I had carefully suggested that maybe he had decided to leave for good. He had obviously not been a fan of our lifestyle and I strongly doubted that he cared for Irina as much as he said he did. 'He promised me that he would be back soon!' she had shrieked with a furious look in her eyes. I didn't dare to say what I really thought of Laurent's promises. Kate, who had never been very discreet, had spoken for me out loud.

'He made you many promises that he did not keep, sister. I don't mean to hurt you, but it is highly possibly that Tanya is right.'

Irina had accused us of being jealous, cruel and malicious (etc.) old maids who did not permit her her happiness. Then she had ran off, completely wired up. I knew she would not have reacted this upset if she had been truly convinced of Laurent's adoration.

Anyway, even after I had apologized for my misplaced words that day, she hardly spoke to me and Kate and she never spoke to Carmen and Eleazar at all. And one day when the four of us went on a hunting trip and she refused to come, she just left. We found a note on her desk in which she stated that she could not be here right now and that she needed to be alone. At first I panicked. I did not like the idea of her being away from us when she was so…not herself. I was afraid that she would assault the wolf pack, after all. She was sensitive and her feelings always weighted down on her heavily. Luckily, this fear left me rapidly. Irina was emotional, not stupid. She would not raid a troupe of giant monsters on her own. Nevertheless it bothered me that she didn't let us hear from her at all. How much effort does it take to send a text, after all? Worried, I went after her, but I was a horrible tracker and realized that I would never find her and my search was for nothing. And who was I to force her to talk to me? She had all the rights to get away from us for a while and I was certain she would return. Kate did not share this opinion with me. She believed that Irina was very irrational at this moment and would probably, maybe even unconsciously, return to Forks and try to perform a guerilla attack. And then die. Kate, optimistic as always. If it was up to her, she would chase Irina up to the border if it was necessary, and then she would drag her back to Denali by her hair.

But since I was our unofficial coven leader, I could persuade Kate into leaving Irina be. I had to face Kate's sulking expression every day, but I allowed my youngest sister the time she needed. Even though I felt blasts of agony when I pictured the worst case scenario's. I had made a promise to my mother, after all. I would keep this clan together, and although I had failed in the beginning, I was determined to protect my sisters and our bonds. And Irina's disappearance put me in a great dilemma. In order to be able to watch over her, she had to be here. But if being here made her unhappy, it might only make her distance from us more and more, and that was not something I could allow.

1 I know SM said Kate's original name was Katrina. But Katrina is not a Slavic name, its Germanic. The Slavic version of Catherine/Catherina would be Yekaterina/Ekaterina(also pronounced Yekaterina)