Chapter 1 - Wolf
Adrian Delmerran glanced in the rear-view mirror, watching the girl sat in the back seat. Her chocolate eyes watched the thick forest rush by, not missing a single detail. The window was wide open, and the wind was whipping her cropped hair out of place. "Alix?" asked Adrian quietly, she just nodded, it was pointless asking, even if she was telling the truth. Daniel's dark eyes rarely left her, not that she noticed, he'd been overprotective of her since the whole 'Nathan' situation, but was surprisingly subtle about it, it was hard to make Alix unaware of something. Sat next to him was Damien, his arms folded and his head was tilted forward so his dark hair covered his face, he wasn't moving so they couldn't tell if he was awake or not. Rodney was sat in the passenger seat, he had fallen asleep hours ago, he'd done most of the driving here until Adrian had persuaded him to take a break, or 'bribed him' as Alix put it.
They rushed past the 'Welcome to Forks' sign, and Adrian slowed down considerably, he was always the 'sensible' one in the group. Alix sighed and leaned her head on the window frame as her eyes flicked up to the sky. Not even the bright light of the full moon could penetrate the thick cloud that coved Forks for most of the year.
"Goodbye sunshine... hello rain..." she muttered half-heartedly
Thick forest's lined the road they were on , yet still barely disguising the obscure turning from their way above average vision. The window was still wide open and a vile smell caught their attention, burning their noses, it was old but it was still strong enough to wake Rodney up. He growled.
"No, they're not here any more," Damien's deep, monotone, voice cut him off "Don't waste your energy"
Damien was never wrong about these things, so Rodney reluctantly sat back in his seat, but still not satisfied that the source of the smell was gone. Adrian reached across the gap between their seats a put a hand on his thigh, squeezing genitally, wordlessly telling him to relax.
As they made their way through the silent streets of Forks, Alix rolled her window up, frowning, her nose scrunched up. "This place reeks of stale leeches" she frowned, rain had started to patter against the windows, gradually getting heavier "Now I'm glad it rains so much". She'd long since given up on arguing her case against Forks. Normally this wouldn't of made Rodney suspicious, but she'd given up too easily, like a part of her had wanted to live in Forks, but the fact that she was still fighting against Adrian, Daniel and himself about the whole 'attending school' thing, put his mind at ease.
Rodney loved Alix like his own daughter, as did Adrian. Although he didn't admit it and as much of his time he spent fighting with Alix, they all knew that Damien cared for her like his younger sister, Daniel insisted on the same, but it was obvious to them that he loved her more than he should, more than she had realised. To save them the trouble when they arrived, they had already made several 'middle of the night' ahead trips with their things. Before he'd even cut the engine, Damien was out of the car and waiting by the front door, none too happy that he'd just been forced to spend the last twenty-six hours with his 'family', when he wasn't fighting with Alix or attending the school he was forced to go to, he would seclude himself to his room, doing what?, they didn't know.
Adrian laughed and tossed him the front door keys, so he could let himself inside. Alix took her time getting out the car, yawning and stretching when she stood up straight. Daniel kicked her playfully in the back of the legs "Get out of the way!" he complained, she was blocking him from getting out the car. Considering making a game out of it, Alix looked at him for a moment, but then stepped out of the way and looked at Adrian and Rodney. She pulled a face at the look they were giving each other.
"Mind if I go for a run?" she asked, they'd be at it tonight no doubt, and with her hearing, she didn't want to be around when they did. So she was going to go whether they permitted her to or not.
"Mind if I come with?" asked Daniel casually, secretly not wanting her to be wondering on her own in unfamiliar territory
"Whatever..." she muttered, linking her fingers together and stretching her arms above her head.
Alix folded her clothes and left them at the base of a tree, the fact that she was naked and the man she considered her older brother was stood only a few feet away, also naked, didn't bother her at all. As usual, it took all of his will-power to keep the urge to look round at her, she'd gouge his eyes out if he even accidentally saw anything.
A small moan escaped her lips as a familiar warmth exploded at the base of her neck and spread over her body, quickly followed by a violent shiver shooting down her spine. Only milliseconds later her forepaws hit the ground with a satisfying thud. Daniel's forepaws just hit the ground as she turned to look at him. A large Grey wolf(1) met her gaze, his stormy grey eyes flicking over her, concerned. Alix cocked her head to one side.
His eyes flicked nervously over the Tundra wolf stood in front of him, watching her carefully, she was the only one of them that had stopped growing fairly quickly after their first phase, so she was unusually small. She was about the size of a small horse in her wolf form, which was allot smaller than they thought she'd be, even though no one voiced it, they were all worried about it.
'What is it?' she asked, as wolves their minds were linked, so they could hear each others thoughts when they wanted them to, sort of like telepathy.
'Nothing.' he replied bluntly
'Race you,' she challenged 'One lap round the border'
'Of Forks? You call that a challenge?'
'Chicken' she jibbed
'I just don't want to have to deal with you moping when I beat you'
'Big fat chicken'
'There's no point in challenging me at something you know you can't win'
'Big fat stupid chicken'
'Make it three laps?'
'You sure you can manage that old man?'
'I'm only a few years older than you.'
'Big fat, old, stupid chicken'
Daniel crouched and growled at her playfully 'You've got ten seconds to run for your life'
'Catch me if you can old man!' she darted off into the trees, Daniel quickly on her tail, bounding after her.
She'd made it round one and a half times around the border before he caught up to her, running neck and neck next to her. Then before she could rush ahead of him, he shoved his shoulder against hers, knocking her over, then he bounded ahead of her.
'You cheat!' she screamed, half-laughing and before he knew it, she'd lept on his back and forced him to the ground, then swiftly got up and darted off again. He took his time getting up, there was no chance of beating her anyway.
'What the Hell!?' blurted Alix, her mind running over the scene in front of her.
Daniel ran at full pelt to get to her, instantly darting round to stand in front of her, baring his teeth and snarling at the large russet and grey wolves that had just growled at Alix. It was impossible, these wolves were the same size as him, the russet one possibly bigger. They both crouched, ready to attack. Alix stayed where she was, assessing the danger. Sure these two were bigger than her, but no doubt she could take on the smaller of the two. The grey one was clearly ready for a fight, the russet one just seemed ready to defend himself if necessary. There was a steady beat of another wolf running up behind them, Damien, and it wasn't long before the swift figure of a dark-grey Mexican wolf lept over her, landing steadily in front of her, crouching defensively. A large Arctic wolf and hefty Red wolf were hot on his tail, skidding round to flank them, Adrian and Rodney. By this point the two unfamiliar wolves had increased as well. A black wolf had stepped in between the other two, and a grey wolf with black patches on his back flanked round the sides.
Rodney growled angrily at the dark grey wolf, he was too easily provoked. Alix would of rolled her eyes, but she was watching the light grey wolf that had just darted out of the trees.
'Who the hell are they?' sounded a voice in her head, it was female, could it be... that they were shape-changers too?
'Can you hear me?' tested Alix, wondering if it was a two-way thing. The light-grey wolf stared wide-eyed at her, Daniel and Adrian noticed this and moved protectively in front of her. It took allot of effort, but Alix managed to shove them out of her way, she wanted a better look at this wolf.
Jacob had quickly joined Paul when he'd come across the unusually large black and red-brown wolf. In a matter of seconds she'd been joined by a grey and white wolf and and black/grey wolf, both of them the size of large horses. Knowing that if this turned into a fight there was no way of winning, he'd called out for Sam, Quil and Embry, the only other three on look-out tonight. Then a pure-white wolf and a bulky red-brown wolf had turned up behind them, they all seemed to be protecting the smaller female that was stood behind them, she didn't look ready to attack at all, she seemed to be... calculating? He'd been surprised when Leah had turned up, but just shocked when the red-brown and black wolf had shoved the larger males out the way to make her way up to Leah, who was already half way between the two packs.
'Leah what the hell are you doing?' questioned Sam 'Get back here' it wasn't an order, but a warning
'I can hear her,' she said, her eyes wide
We all turned to stare at the smaller red-brown and black wolf that now stood in front of her pack, she didn't seem in the slightest bit defensive, or even ready to attack. Leah stepped forward, she was no inches away from the female, half way in between the two packs.
'I've never met another female shape-changer' she said to her, Leah didn't respond, so she continued 'I can hear your brothers too, I know the Quileute legends from round here, could you be them? The Quileute pack?'
'Yeah, I thought I was the only female... what did you call it? Shape-changer? They're not my brothers, we're only related.' She could hear the questions of the rest of the pack in her head, they could probably hear her too. 'Why can't we hear the rest of your pack?'
'Men are stupid and closed-minded, and you have one pack-mind, so I think that if you were in your human form, I wouldn't be able to hear you, and your pack wouldn't be able to hear me either. Our pack can hear each other's thoughts, but only the one's we want them to.' she cast her eyes over the pack behind Leah 'We don't mean any harm here, if we've crossed some sort of border...'
'You have, the one between Forks and La Push, La Push is our territory, we wouldn't of attacked otherwise.' the other wolf looked at her sceptically 'Well maybe we would, but only because you aren't from round here.'
'We'll leave now, and we'll keep well away from your borders' the female nodded respectfully towards Leah, then towards Sam. Calmly, she turned away, the black/grey wolf and the pure white wolf followed her without argument, it took a moment for the grey and white one to follow and reluctantly. It took a sharp warning growl from the female wolf to make the hefty red-brown wolf follow after the rest of the pack.
'Is she their Alpha or something?' asked Embry, confused
'Probably,' said Sam 'They didn't seem to have any resistance to her, she's probably the only reason we're not fighting with them at the moment,'
'Yeah! That red one looked like he wanted to kill us!' barked Embry
'There's no way she was their Alpha, she's too small and Girls can't be Alpha anyway, they're too weak!' laughed Paul obliviously, Leah slammed roughly into his shoulder, knocking him to the ground.
Alix was the first to arrive home, being by far the fastest out of their 'Pack' as that other female had called it. To her surprise, she'd been able to hear them up until she phased back. When he got home, Daniel of all people ordered her to go to bed, on the basis that she had school in the morning. She still didn't see the point, she'd missed a semester and a half already. It was easy to win an argument with Daniel, she had him wrapped round her little finger, but the fact that both Adrian and Rodney were behind him on this, made it impossible. Damien was being forced to go as well, and she'd had a false hope that he'd fight against it too, obviously not.
Daniel stuck his head round her bedroom door "Don't forget to set your alarm, you've got school in the morning!" he said mockingly, joyous that he'd won.
"Go to hell!" she chucked her pillow at his head, which missed him by inches before he ducked out of her room, shutting the door behind him.
(1) Not just the colour grey, an actual Grey wolf, but bigger.(google Grey wolves)