Thanks for reading! I have a correction for chapter one, although it was such a natural mistake so you may have missed it. Although Benjamin Netanyahu is the Prime Minister of Israel, he is probably not a hybrid vampire. At least, I know for certain that he and the Cullens have never met. That was Nahuel.

Now, I hope you enjoy this shorter chapter!

The treeline wasn't far away. I flung myself up the first tree that was tall enough. I crashed through the branches, working my way up until I was running and cartwheeled over the treetops. I raced a few miles in one direction, and then other, hardly caring where I ran. My body wasn't as fast as my mind, however. I pushed harder.

The sudden scent of a buck made me grind my nails into the bark of a tree I'd flipped onto. I spun around the trunk and planted my feet. But the buck heard me and sprinted blindly to the west. Anger made my throat burn. I wanted blood. I waited a moment, watching the animal's muscles stretch and bunch as it ran, then I sprang off the tree and sailed down through the branches. It was a large and slow animal. I landed easily on its back. My teeth were at its throat in an instant, tearing through the tender flesh. I could feel its hot blood bubbling up into my mouth, and I sucked it in greedily. The liquid wasn't anywhere as delicious as human blood, but I wasn't as averse to it as I had been as a child. A hunt was always a welcome distraction.

The buck struggled feebly. I snapped its neck and continued drinking. In death, the blood slows. I growled, struggling for more.

"Renesmee?" A male voice broke into my trance. With a wet gasp, I dropped into a crouch on top of the buck, my mouth smeared with red. A tall, broad man stood a couple dozen yards away. He was shirtless with tanned skin like Jacob's. His eyes were dark pools. Rain plastered his black long black hair against his neck and forehead. His nostrils flared as he took in the scene.

My heart raced wildly. Stupid! I should have sensed him coming. His wet, distinct smell mingled with the rain. I hadn't even realized it was raining.

"You are Renesmee." It was a statement this time, not a question. So I didn't answer. He smelled like Jacob. A wolf. I stepped off the dead buck and pushed my hair off my forehead.

The stranger's mouth curved up into a half smile, carving a dimple into his cheek. "You don't have to look at me like that. I'm not going to hurt you." He moved forward, and I darted to the side.

His smile widened unpleasantly. "Renesmee. I am Aaron. I am of the Quileute pack in La Push. I know Jacob." My Jacob, I amended silently. "I watched you hunt. Quite...fascinating. They say you are only half vampire." He sniffed the wet air. "Well, you don't smell as bad as the others do. Maybe it's true."

"I don't smell!" I protested, and immediately regretted it. My voice sounded high and childish.

The wolf Aaron laughed. "Not much, I admit. I am Sam's cousin," He added, as if my question were written across my forehead. "I returned...recently."

I frowned. "How recently?"

"Tsk, tsk. You should ask Jacob about that. I'm surprised he hasn't mentioned me."

"Why would he?" I straightened out of my defensive crouch. Aaron's easy pose made me feel silly. I sniffed the air.

He chuckled again. "Don't be angry with your paramour. I'm sure he has other things on his mind." He took a moment to look me up and down. "You really are a beautiful creature. More so than they say."

This time I couldn't help a sneer. "I don't know who's saying that. But I'm not a creature, and my Jacob is not anyone's paramour."

"Your Jacob? Oh, kid. All grown up, and yet as naive as your true years." He took a step forward. I snarled.

Aaron raised both arms in mock surrender. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise you that. We are only just getting to know each other. Why ruin it so soon?" His grin was infuriating.

"Does my family know of you?"

"How would I know? Does your family concern itself with the true pack?"

I couldn't answer that. Truthfully, I wasn't sure what my family concerned itself with anymore. Besides me, of course.

He took a couple casual steps to the side. "Well. Why would you know what your own family does, sweetheart?"

If I hadn't experienced the real thing firsthand, I'd say Aaron was reading my mind.

"I'm sure they are content to just let you play with your dolls and dresses." He continued. "Tell me, does the little one still treat you like her doll?"

I knew he meant Aunt Alice. I felt a hot lump of anger on my throat. I almost couldn't get the words through my gritted teeth, "It's none of your business."

His laugh was mirthless, like pebbles striking together. "Well, that's answer enough. And, actually, you are my business."

"How so?"

"You are hunting on our land, kid. And if I didn't know better, I'd say you were also preparing to attack me. Quite the breach of the treaty, wouldn't you agree?"

The anger dissolved and my muscles relaxed with shock. For the first time in my life, I'd crossed the border that marked the reservation. Not only that, I'd hunted, an explicit and unforgivable breach of the century old treaty. When Carlisle had first come to Forks, he'd promised that – in exchange for not exposing his secret – he and his coven would refrain from hunting on Quileute land. A breach of the treaty meant war.

I'd also reacted with hostility to the wolf tasked with simply guarding the land. It was a grave, unforgivable mistake. I couldn't believe it. Hot tears of shame and horror stung my eyes. I tried unsuccessfully to blink them away. If I had any doubts about my family's overprotectiveness, they were gone now. I'd ruined everything.

Aaron gazed calmly down on me. He arched a brow. Then he heaved a sigh of exasperation. "Oh, please. Don't cry. You aren't a threat. You're an idiot, maybe, but you're not a threat. Your family has done an excellent job of keeping you in ignorance."

I forcibly stifled my sobs. I wasn't used to being called an idiot. But instead of a rebuttal, I couldn't help asking, "What ignorance?"

"Look around you, kid! Have you ever wondered at the treaty between our kinds? The one you've so easily broken just now? How rare it is? Have you ever thought about the implications of the things your family did to save you? And how that might endanger others? You are grown, yes, but you haven't been forgotten, neither by my people or the savages you call your leaders."

"I don't think-"

"Of course you don't! Of course you haven't! Haven't you ever spared a single thought?" His voice rose on the question, thick with anger. He'd dropped his cavalier attitude completely. "Have you ever, just once, thought about it?"

I stared at him. His flippant manner a moment ago came with dangerous undertones, but I didn't expect this.

"No, you haven't." He decided, finally, his lip curled with scorn. "I see that."

I struggled for something to say. His sudden anger filled the air between us. I was acutely aware of his size. Shapeshifters were typically fast. This shapeshifter was also unpredictable.

"I'm leaving now. It was a pleasure." I stepped back.

He smiled at me again, but this time it seemed more feral than ever. "Well, Renesmee. Go."

I heard the challenge in his measured, even tone. "If I don't make it home," I said, staring up at him, "you know what will happen."

He sneered. "I know what happened because you exist. Do you?"

Many things had happened differently today. I'd run off on my own to Seattle, worried my entire family, gotten in my first ever fight with Jacob – who was lying to me about something – and I'd breached the treaty in my thoughtlessness. Now I was standing in the rain, involved in a staring contest with a gigantic, hostile shapeshifter. At the moment, and out of all the events of the day, he annoyed me the most.

"No! I don't know!" I shouted. Suddenly we were within inches of each other. I stood on tiptoe, stretched up towards him, all the better to scream at a dangerous monster. A fellow dangerous monster. "I don't know anything!"

Aaron bared his teeth. "If you don't know anything, then you best start your education, shouldn't you?"

I was furious, and suddenly a little scared. What the hell was wrong with me?

"It was...a pleasure, Renesmee," he growled in a tone that implied anything but that particular emotion. He turned to go, then stopped, as if remembering something.

"Don't worry," Aaron winked at me, his voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, "I won't tell anyone that you almost started a war."