DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The legends of the Quileute belong to them. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

CHAPTER 1

1936

CPOV

"Edward - have you decided whether you are going to come hunting with us or not?"

Edward was moping again. He felt like the odd man out, a state of affairs that had lasted ever since Esme was changed. Changing Rosalie was meant to ease his loneliness, but they were so completely incompatible that I wondered to myself why I had ever thought that they could be mates. Rosalie had found her mate in Emmett, but Edward was still alone, and his constant brooding and guilt over his vigilante days were wearing on the patience of the rest of us. He needed to hunt more, but getting him out of the house was a major enterprise every time it happened.

"Alright, I'll come, but can we please hunt somewhere else for a change? How about going further north this time?"

I considered this for a minute, 65 seconds to be exact, and decided that perhaps we could go up to the forest around La Push. I wanted to check the area out, maybe try to find somewhere for us to settle for a time. The constant moving around that our vampire natures made necessary was disruptive, and it would be nice if we could find somewhere quiet to live, maybe there was a place where we could stay beyond the standard 5 to 7 years.

Rosalie and Emmett waited with me in the yard for Edward to emerge from the house. We set off for La Push, running swiftly but quietly through the dense forest until we reached a spot that looked promising. We could smell deer, and some smaller animals, although nothing of the sorts of predators that Edward preferred, and that were found in the National Parks and wilderness areas. As this was a quick hunt, we would just have to make do with what we found.

Running towards the herd, each of us found a deer to take down, and we were draining our meals when we were assaulted with the most awful smell I had ever come across. Even after spending three days in a pile of rotting potatoes during my change, I had never smelled anything like it. I turned to my left and towards the source of the odor, and was surprised to find three men standing a few feet away. They were Native American, but there was something about them that was unlike any other tribe that I had encountered since coming to the New World.

One of the men seemed to be larger and more assertive than the others. I thought that he might be the leader, so I spoke to him.

"Good day to you, do you speak English?"

The man looked at us with an expression on his face that showed puzzlement and some hostility. I wondered what he might be thinking.

Edward spoke quickly and in an undertone "He is thinking about Cold Ones. He has noticed that we are pale, and cold, but he has also seen that we have golden eyes and this is something that he has never seen before. He has knowledge of vampires, but the ones that he is thinking about have red eyes".

As difficult as Edward could sometimes be, his mindreading gift was a godsend at times like these.

I asked him, very quietly, whether or not they were planning to attack us. But although our conversation took place at vampire speed, the tribesmen seemed to be able to hear us. How was this possible?

"You are Cold Ones. Why are you here, and why do you drink from animals?"

"My name is Carlisle Cullen. These are my family members Edward, Rosalie and Emmett. Yes, we are vampires. We are not like others of our kind though. We only drink from animals and we were in this forest hunting for game. I am sorry if we have trespassed on your territory."

"My name is Ephraim Black. These men are my fellow tribe members Quil Ateara and Levi Uley. We are the Protectors of the Quileute tribe of La Push. It is our duty to protect the tribe from Cold Ones, but as you don't have red eyes, we need to discuss this matter with our Council. Would you please return to this spot tomorrow at the same time?"

It was an unusual request, but one that I had no difficulty in agreeing to. I did not want to resort to violence, although I felt that these men were in some way a threat and I did not want to leave the area either. I hoped that perhaps we could come to some arrangement about hunting and borders that might allow us to live there for some time longer.

EphPOV

The following day, my pack mates and I travelled back to the place where we had met Carlisle Cullen and his "family" for our meeting. I had discussed the problem overnight with the Council and the pack and had come up with a possible solution.

On the way there I remembered the conversation from the night before:

I had asked the Council and pack members present to put forward their ideas for what to do. Levi was blunt: "I don't want them here. We should kill them, or drive them away".

Quil was a bit friendlier: "I don't want them to live or hunt here, but they haven't taken a human life as far as we know. We need to find a compromise".

The elders who were present, such as Quil's father, Quil Ateara II, were uncompromising. There was nothing in our tribal records to account for Cold Ones who did not try to take human lives. They did not believe the Cullens could be trusted, and they did not want to break with tradition and negotiate with them.

I suggested a compromise. "What if when we meet with them we suggest that a treaty be drawn up? We can set boundaries to prevent them from coming into La Push, and ensure that their boast of not drinking from humans is a requirement of the treaty".

Levi was not appeased. "They might not drink from humans, but if they bite them, they will turn into Cold Ones and increase the numbers in the coven".

That was true enough, I hadn't thought of that. "Well what if we make the requirement to be that they must not bite a human?"

"That would work".

"Is there anything else that we need to think about?"

Nobody else could come up with any other provisions that needed to go into this treaty. We knew that Cold Ones were beautiful, but unchanging. They would live here for a time, but sooner or later would need to move on, in order to avoid exposing themselves. When that day came, we would be rid of them, but would have a treaty in place in case they ever came back.

CPOV

The entire family travelled to the meeting place with Ephraim Black and his fellow tribesmen. I was interested to see what might happen. A feeling of unease had settled over me since the day before, and I could not account for it. These were men, albeit very strange smelling men, and I was a vampire. I was almost 300 years old, I had spent time with the Volturi in Italy, and there was nothing I needed to fear from any creature on this Earth.

So why did I have a sense of foreboding about this meeting? I asked Edward again whether or not he had read anything in their minds that would help me to work out what it was that we were up against. He looked at me and rolled his eyes, confident in his own way that I was worrying about nothing, but not giving me anything to help me feel the same way.

"For the last time Edward, what did you read?"

"Their thoughts about the Cold Ones were the only ones that I was able to pick up. After I spoke to you about that, they starting thinking in another language, probably their native tongue. There were some strange images in their minds, though."

"What was that Edward?"

"There were visions of wolves running through the forest".

That didn't seem to be important, I was sure that as Native Americans they would come into contact with all kinds of animals, so I sighed and continued running to the meeting place.

They were waiting for us when we arrived. I introduced Esme to them; she wrinkled her nose ever so slightly, and raised one eyebrow in my direction.

"These men smell terrible!" she hissed.

"You don't smell so wonderful yourself Mrs Cullen", was the reply from Levi Uley.

I was astonished, not to mention a bit offended, by that remark. Vampires do have a scent, but it is individual to the vampire and Esme's scent had always reminded me of lavender and vanilla bean.

"Never mind how my wife smells, are you going to tell us why we have been summoned back here today? Do you have a proposal or demand for us?"

"One of them wants to kill us, he is thinking that the Alpha is weak to want to deal with us at all", Edward whispered, again at vampire speed. Our adversaries visibly started at that, obviously they could hear us and were not too pleased that we were somehow able to know what they were thinking.

"Thank you Edward, I will bear that in mind. It is interesting that they refer to Ephraim as their Alpha. I wonder what that means. Please tread carefully and advise the others to do the same. I will take it from here".

Ephraim spoke then. For a human he had an air of authority and an imposing physical presence. There was something more to it than I had even noticed yesterday, a feeling of menace and purpose, although his demeanor was superficially friendly. And the others automatically deferred to him.

"We have a proposal to put to you. We would like to establish a treaty between our two parties. We want to keep all Cold Ones, including you, away from the Reservation. We also want to prevent you from biting any humans."

I had to give him some credit. He said biting humans not draining them. He must have been aware that not all bites resulted in the death of the human concerned, and that some bitten people became vampires themselves. Just then, I heard a loud snort behind me.

"Tell me again, why we vampires are talking to these men about what we can and can't do here?"

Typical Emmett, open mouth and insert foot. He was only just beyond his newborn phase, and was a bit of a handful. Then I heard a noise and turned back to face the Quileute.

There was a shimmering around Ephraim Black, a disturbance in the air around him. I stepped backward, trying to put as much space between the two of us as possible, as all of a sudden that sense of foreboding became acute. Within seconds, Ephraim Black had disappeared, and in his place was standing a large wolf, russet in color, with yellow eyes and sharp fangs. It was as big as a horse, and was growling in a deep bass rumble that seemed to resonate through my body and set my nerves on edge.

I turned to my family. Esme was clearly afraid. Edward seemed intrigued, and I knew without asking that he was trying to read the mind of Ephraim in this new form. Emmett was shielding Rosalie, and his expression had changed from derision to determination.

I looked back towards Ephraim. In spite of his changed form there seemed to be something about his eyes that held intelligence and awareness. So I decided to speak to him anyway, as I had been previously. Obviously this new development had something to do with the reason why they all stank so much, and not a little to do with their confidence in dealing with us as equals.

"Are you werewolves?"

Levi Uley looked at me with an expression of naked hostility. "No we are not. We are shape shifters. From the time of our ancestors many centuries ago we have had the ability to transform into wolves".

Having made his point, Ephraim transformed back into his human form. He was completely naked, his clothes having been shredded by his transformation, and one of the others quickly handed him something to cover himself with. Then he spoke, "we can transform at any time day or night, in response to a threat. As Cold Ones, you are the threat we were created to deal with. So know this, you can either deal with us as men now, or as wolves later".

This changed everything. I had thought we were dealing from a position of strength, but one look at those teeth had convinced me that as wolves these Quileute had the ability to take us out, and I had no intention of allowing that to happen.

"If we agree to not enter the Reservation, or bite a human, do you guarantee that we will not be harmed during the period of our residence here?"

"Yes, we do. And we expect that, should red-eyed Cold Ones enter the area that you will work with us to remove the threat by whatever means necessary. Either by convincing them to move on, or by killing them, because if you don't we will".

"That is acceptable to me". Really, the last thing we needed was to encounter any other vampires. The less Aro knew about my expanding family, the better.

"Then we have a treaty. The provisions of this treaty will be recorded by the Tribal Council so that it may be passed down to future generations. We will provide you with a copy once we have both signed it. Breaking the treaty will result in a war. Am I clear?"

"Yes, very clear". We shook hands and then a line was drawn up, beyond which towards the Reservation, we could not go. In return, we were allowed to find a place to settle beyond the treaty line and to go about our business.

In the next few weeks we moved northwards from our previous home and found a place to live just outside of Forks. It was a large white house set on a property of several hundred acres, and although it wasn't exactly what we needed I knew that Esme would soon have everything fixed up just how she wanted it.

I tried to stay as much out of her way as possible, which was made easier when the hospital offered me a post there as a surgeon. Edward, Rosalie and Emmett, being teenagers or near to it when they were turned, could pose as high school students. But as Emmett was still not much better than a newborn, we decided to keep him at the house for a bit longer with Rosalie as he would not be parted from her, and send Edward to Forks High School.

He would start there tomorrow.