If I owned it t would be better.
A whisper in the air, a promise of something otherworldly came with cool weather, embracing Forks in a way the population couldn't explain. From one day to other the weather changed completely, having been a warm October to become a freezing one. Hunters reported weird sightings of animals moving out of their usual areas, mountain lions moving closer to the city and herds of doe moving through the small town, making traffic impossible at occasion and leaving the police confunded.
It was as if a certain awareness had hit the animals, an awareness of a predator so superior that the only way of avoiding it was by moving closer to humans, to offer something else in return.
The pack had noticed, after a month of the odd behaviour from the animals, that they slowly started to move over on pack land. The first had been a few mountain lions followed by bears and doe. Occasionally one of the lions would run with the pack, yellow eyes watching them intently as they patrolled the area around the sanctuary. The lion would move lightly with the pack, however never move over the line separating pack land from the land of the leeches, as if it too took part in the protection of La Push.
The Cullens too had noticed their sudden lack of food-source, when the last of the herbivores had moved over to La Push the vampire clan had started to move further and further away from Forks to feed. Leaving the small town of Forks alone for longer and longer periods of time.
Paul ran faster, his wolf enjoying the long strides as he competed with the lithe lion running next to him. "I wonder why it started running with us." Jacob's voice in his head, curios as the black wolf turned up on his right, running faster to keep up with his packmate. Both wolves had started to enjoy the small competitions with the lion as they patrolled. The quiet feline wasn't as strong as the wolves and therefore not as fast, however the smart animal would take shortcuts the wolves couldn't, sometimes ending up climbing trees just to lead.
The lion came up on their left side, closer to the border than it had ever been before skirting the edges of where it was on leech land. "Ah watch it!" Paul said before thinking as the lion took a mis-step out on the wrong side. Jacob's laugh echoed through their mind-link, laughing at how all of them were so used to the lion that it almost felt as if it was a part of their pack. ut his laughter came to an abrupt stop as a blur of colour tackled the lion and bit down heavily on its neck.
Both wolves came to a surprised stop as they watched the large Cullen drink their playmates blood. Growls erupted and a quick conversation followed.
"What the fuck?! He can't do that!" Pauls anger translated in a tightening of muscles, ready to pounce on the vampire that continued to eat their animal friend.
"Is he on pack land?" Jacob, as ready to kill the vampire paced the border line.
The big vampire smiled bloodily at them as he dropped the body.
"Thank you boys! Haven't had a good carnivore in months!" The wolves continued their growling and the vampire laughed but suddenly stopped. Eyes large as saucers as he looked around him. "Why is it so quiet?" The vampire made the wolves aware of the sudden breach of the usual noise. Everything had turned completely still, no birds singing, no insects moving around.
It was as if the vampires actions suddenly had created a void. He started to move, looking antsy as he stood he opened his mouth, probably to say something cheeky at the two raging wolves, but as he opened his mouth blood started to pour out.
It dripped down as he tried to keep his mouth closed, but he couldn't keep it closed as the blood suddenly flowed out of his body, landing on the dead lions body. The blood turned the animals fur a deep red as the vampire cramped.
The lions body started changing under the wetness of the blood. Paws transforming into the hands of a young woman. The head revealing a thick mane of strawberry blonde hair. The lion's neck, that hadn't looked quite so bad with the fur covering it, changed to a ripped out throat belonging to the young woman that now laid dead on the forest floor, drenched in her own blood that the vampire couldn't keep down.
Both wolves started to back away, howling a warning to the rest of their pack. One after one the other phased in, and as they shared the images that Paul and Jacob saw yelled at them to move off.
The Cullen looked at the female in front of him, eyes black again, shock and terror marring his face.
"I didn't know I…" The wolves growled at him, squaring their shoulders as others from the pack joined them.
"We should kill him." Leah's anger was consuming her as her eyes flicked from the dead girl to the vampire in front of them. All the others agreed, but Sam stopped them from pouncing.
"Not now. We have to talk to the elders first."
Leah growled. "Why?"
"Because they're not aware of the clan joining us."
"The clan?" The others, in unison.
"The clan."
The wolves watched as Emmett hurriedly moved away from the body, Sam shifting to be able to walk over and move the small female onto sanctuary land, putting her down and closing her eyes. He phased again and started trotting away from the body, the others following.
Paul sent a last look at the dead female, and as he looked up, met the eyes of another lion. It walked out of the forest behind them followed by three others sitting down next to the body. It bared its teeth at him and he hurriedly left the vicinity.
The crying of felines followed the pack of wolves all the way to Sam and Emily's place. Not one of them commented on it, not forgetting the way the felines had looked at Paul as he had moved away.
Billy Black knew all about the Quileute tribe, the stories that had been formed around them, the ones about the cold ones, the ones about the wolves. The traditions and secrets. He knew it all. He knew of the witches in the west, the ones that the cold ones had killed before the young men of his tribe had turned into wolves.
He knew it all, and could map out any change into a series of possibilities. When the animals around Forks had turned skittish and mover closer and closer to the shifters he had thought it to be because of larger predators, a larger amount of vampires around the Forks vicinity. He had told his friend Charlie that it probably was due to migration and that the forests around Forks wouldn't always be empty. But the longer it took for the animals to return to their usual roaming ground the more worried he'd been.
Animals enjoyed the shifters, they knew they wouldn't eat them and that they wouldn't interfere with their own hunting. But never before in the history of the tribe had animals looked for shelter around them before.
Or rather, he had heard about it before, however it had never concerned him and the ones he considered his. It was a parallel story to the one of the Quileute tribe where the boys had transformed. It was a parallel story where it wasn't boys, and wasn't natives who had been affected.
The story about the Clan had travelled miles upon miles until Billy had heard about it. The process of the spoken word often made stories more fantastic than they were however, after having seen the pale faces of the boys he'd been sure of all of it being true.
The Clan, a pride of lions depicted as far back as with Cleopatra, protecting her from the dangers of the roman emperor Caesar's vampires. Paintings of queens and kings all over Europe with lions closely connected to them. He had heard the boys talk about the young female, and he'd realised that, although he didn't want to admit it, the stories he'd heard probably all had been true.
That the clan had arrived, something he'd just told Sam as a story passing by, was clear. However how they'd get in touch with the dangerous felines was something else.
He moved his wheelchair to the window, eyes on the forest outside. Jacob would come and collect him before the bonfire, but until then he'd have time to figure out how to tell the stories of the clan without having to deal with a pride of even more pissed off lions.
The otherwise chipper mood surrounding the bonfires had become heavily toned down. All of the boys imprints had been left behind as the worry of what the night would bring laid heavily on the wolves shoulders.
Paul and Jacob were listening intently after the sounds they'd gotten used to while running with the lion. The soft movement of paws meeting the moss covered rocks, or a tail whipping a bit too hard against the trunk of a tree. But nothing could be heard but the quiet whispers of the pack and their elders and the occasional fork scraping against a plate.
"Hrm." Billy cleared his throat, catching the attention of the young men. Their gazes almost burning as they watched him intently. "I think it's time to tell you about the Clan, about the woman you saw murdered today." Paul's eyes flashed at the memory and a low growl emitted from Jacob, both reliving the memory of their playmate turning into a dead girl. "A long time ago, almost at the same time the first cold one visited our tribe, a young woman was blessed by the gods in what we now call ancient Greece. The woman was the love of Athena, the goddess of justice and war, and was known as Helen. She was hunted by men and women wanting to turn her life into one of theirs. She was chased by cold ones, fascinated by a goddess love, wanting to use it to their own advantage." Paul growled but was quieted by a look from Sam. "The goddess Athena chose to gift her beloved, and the ones following her, with a kiss. The kiss turned the young woman to a lion. A feline that, without hesitation easily could kill the cold ones. But Athena's gift didn't stop there. Once a female got caught and in his thrill of catching her the cold one drank her blood, thinking that her powers would be transferred to him." The fire fell on itself making sparks fly in the air above them, the surf hitting monotomaley against the beach. "But Athena had made Helen's blood poisonous to the cold ones and the cold one couldn't have her blood, it burned him from the inside and he died. Since then have the Clan travelled the world, trying to hide from cold ones as well as protecting the ones Athena loved. However, the last time I heard of the Clan they'd almost been killed by the vampire council in Volterra." Jacob's head snapped up at the name of the city, still hurt from earlier that summer when his old friend had left him for her vampire lover. Billy nodded at him: "It wasn't long before Isabella went there that I heard that they had been decimated, everyone killed. From cubs to full grown." The wolves eye sparkled in the light of the fire, rage evident in their eyes. Paul and Jacob both looked like they were close to shifting, trembling of rage as they thought of the young children killed by vampires, not unlike the one that had killed a girl earlier that day.
"So, they're born with the ability to shift rather than becoming a shifter?" Leah's longing voice cut through the thick air. The wolves almost winced as they thought of the poor girl, the one and only one who was affected by their heritage.
Billy nodded: "Yes, as far as I know they are born with the blessing of Athena, however…" Billy wasn't able to finish his sentence as the sudden crack of a twig echoed through the empty beach. Three women in different ages stood in front of them, strawberry blonde and yellow eyed, almost copies of the dead girl they'd seen earlier. Or, Jacob noticed, one of them was actually identical to the dead girl now laying on the border close to the leeches.
"How nice of you to tell our story Mr Black." The oldest woman said, her voice a deep purr. She stepped into their circle and Jacob noticed how her hair, instead of being a solid strawberry blonde had speckles of silver within it. The other woman her age stepped next to her, they were quite alike, just a few differences making it obvious that they weren't related. The one stepping forward was heavily pregnant, one hand supporting her lower back as she stood there. The identical wedding bands on their hands was the only thing giving them away as partners. Both females had stoic faces, high cheekbones, eyes framed by thick lashes and full lips. Their yellow eyes reflected the light even in human form, making the wolves within the shifters curious. The young woman behind them was still shadowed by the females in front of her. "However, I don't think you told it quite as correctly as I would have wished." She smiled at Billy, flashing two long fangs in her mouth. "Not all of us were killed this spring. Four of us survived." The younger woman stepped forward next to the older women. Both Paul and Jacob feeling their breaths hitch as they looked at her, she was identical to the woman killed earlier.
The only thing different being that her throat still was intact.
The young woman sent them a small smile, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the two of them, licking her lips.
"Fun to meet you outside your shifter form." Her voice, a bit lighter than the older woman's, but as seductively formed into a purr as she spoke to them. "We both enjoyed running with you." The young men jerked at her words. "Ah, you didn't realise that there was two of us?" She smiled sadly. "I told her to keep out of monster land, but she always wanted to win so when we switched places she didn't think at all." Jacob felt that his mouth was open in surprise but he couldn't get himself to close it up. Looking at Paul he noticed the same look on the older boys face, at least he wasn't the only one shocked to his core.
"Ah Kira, sweetness, at least we know that the vampire will be dead." The other older female, the one who hadn't spoken yet, smiled at the younger woman and tugged slightly on her thick golden mane. She then looked at the mix of men in front of her. "We are here to look for your protection, we can't roam any longer, Kira needs school and the two of us need to take it slow." She gesticulated towards her stomach. "I'll be giving birth soon, and I won't be able to be on the run." She closed her eyes suddenly, the boys could see how a small foot could be seen against the tight black shirt she wore. Sam moved forward quickly, taking the older female's arm and leading her toward one of the tree trunks they all had been sitting on earlier.
Standing up he looked at Billy who met his gaze staunchly. He nodded at the old man and looked over to where the other woman was standing and on the youngest of the three, her sadness obvious.
"We'll let your wife and your existing, and coming, children stay with us." The youngest, named Kira if he'd heard correctly, grimaced.
"They're not my parents." The older women looked at her with various degrees of sadness in their eyes. "They're just the only ones that aren't dead." Sam jerked at her words, noticing that each and every single one of his pack did the same.
"Whatever you are to each other we will make sure to protect you from whatever you need. You will be welcome here as a part of the tribe." The females nodded att Billy's words. "However I would ask for one thing, and that is that the youngest of you," He looked straight at the girl named Kira who met his eyes with a defiant look on her face. "will help the boys with their patrolling for as long as you are here." Sam looked strangely at his elder as he laid out the proposition. "We know the dangers already here, however I have a feeling you will bring with you a few others. Of which the boys won't be able to deal with." The females shared a long look before Kira turned towards him.
"I'll help them patrol, as long as I don't have to worry about being left behind. I'm still too young to run as fast as your boys." Sam nodded at her words. From what he'd seen through the eyes of Jacob and Paul as they'd run with the lion it would first lead their race until it got tired of the wolves heightened pace. When it fell back too much it would stop, and then surprisingly, end up being in front of them again. Now that he knew that there had been two of them he wasn't surprised, but it had driven the two boys crazy.
She suddenly smirked, the playful smile even lighting up her eyes. "Or I could just jump up and sit on the back of the big black one, wouldn't that be great?" Jacob sputtered at her words shaking his head vigorously as Paul laughed loudly.
The sparkle in the girls eyes made Sam smile, they all needed some joy after the long year they had behind them.
Emmett had fallen down as soon as he got inside the house, his whole family already waiting for him. Rosalie screamed as she saw him, burns from the blood he'd tried to drink marring his perfect body.
But he breathed, and as the vampires washed him off carefully Alice released her breath. By eliminating the blood on his body she could see his future again. SHe had been scared as he had been close to the border, almost moving with the wolves during the patrol. He had told her about the big lion he'd seen running with the wolves and asked if she saw him eating it. She had laughed at him, thinking that, because of the animals closeness to the wolves being the reason for her inability to see them but when he'd disappeared earlier during the day she realised that it was because of something different completely.
She watched as Rosalie held her mate tightly and how he whispered something to her before meeting the eyes of Carlisle.
"I think I know what has made the animals migrate."
Okay so I'm starting yet another story, I'm terrible at updating and probably will update a few chapters now and then forget about it for a month. However this is a universe I've always felt that it is incorrect so that's why I continue correcting it.