A/N: FFNet has been a bit of pain a few times this last week. I was incredibly swamped at home and at work this past week. Unfortunately, MY free time, and FFNet's FUNCTIONING time rarely seemed to coincide. I did not get most of the reviews replied to. For this I apologise. I read them all, and appreciate them all, and managed to answer a few. THIS week will be better. I know.

Thing I'm pretty sure about in this chapter: I'm pretty sure you may be wondering about Mstislav's back story. No, you haven't missed anything. Jasper knows a bit, from things Mstislav told him back in "Running". Bella knows a little bit, too. But nobody has really bothered REALLY talking to the werewolf. It may be time for a little backstory, maybe as an out-take or a one shot. What do you think?

Thing I am SURE about: Peter is a shitty babysitter.

Chapter 11

There was chaos in the Cullens' cabin in Alaska. Bella thought she'd seen chaos already—they seemed to be constantly bickering, arguing, or discussing some issue or another. Not Carlisle and Esme, but the younger members of the family. Always. And now Peter and Charlotte seemed to fit right in. Even Charlotte was voicing an opinion. Loudly.

But nothing like this. She stepped slowly back from the yelling match, trying to decide if she should flee or not. Jasper was right in the center of it all, looking like he was having a good time. In fact, he looked downright gleeful, so she thought she should probably stay.

Her retreat from the fray brought her closer to Mstislav, though, so she was trapped anyway. She'd have to get even closer to him than she was comfortable with if she wanted to exit the cabin.

"Do they do this often?" Mstislav asked her.

She looked at him for a moment without speaking, debating on whether she should move away and pretend like she hadn't heard the question. Finally she decided that speaking to him really couldn't hurt anything. It wasn't like she was alone with him, and Jasper had worked his way through the arguing group of vampires so that he was standing near them, watchful in case anything happened to her.

"Um...from what I've seen so far, yes."

"You sound like you are not familiar with their ways."

Nosy bastard, she thought. "I'm still new."

"Ah. So you were a youngling when Jasper was chasing you across my part of the world. That explains your erratic behaviour."

"Uh...yeah, sure."

"And now he has brought you back to his coven, and you live here with him and his other mate..."

"What? No! I'm his mate! He only has one mate!"

"My apologies," Mstislav said, lifting up his hands. "I'm only going off something he said when I first met him."

"Oh. Well...things changed. I'm his mate now," Bella said firmly.

"Interesting. I was not aware these things could change, even in vampires."

Bella snorted. "Yeah, well, it was news to a lot of people."

Emmett's voice sounded above the fray, his words causing the rest of them to fall silent. "But don't you all see? This could solve our problems!"

"And how, pray tell, could it solve our problems?" Rose asked. "Explain it to us, please, Emmett."

"Well, this chick comes to Alaska...and BAM! Almost front door delivery for Mstislav here. He's got his mate, he's happy, and he goes away, incidentally taking with him the very person that is hunting down Jasper and Peter! What could be more perfect?"

"For starters," Rose said, "it's not a single person looking for Jasper and Peter. Its the FBI, Emmett, and losing their agent on the case isn't going to make them go away. It's going to bring them all up here, and Jasper and Peter will probably be blamed for her disappearance, too!"

"Well...true. Maybe. But Carlisle and Esme could have a good alibi for where they were at the time, and Jasper and Peter aren't even up here, as far as they know. And we'd still be getting rid of the only real threat to us here. The werewolf. Sorry, man..." Emmett said, directing his apology in Mstislav's direction.

"No worries, my friend," Mstislav said.

"Not to mention, Emmett, we cannot just...just deliver this woman to a werewolf! For the love of God! What are you thinking?"

"Um...I'm thinking she's his mate...?" Emmett said, sounding confused.

Rose tilted her head back and shrieked in frustration. "So he says! Has anybody asked the woman?"

"Maybe Carlisle and Esme can take him with them when they go to meet with the agents... You know, introduce him as a friend or cousin or something..."

"The idea has merit," Mstislav said, sounding eager.

"It does not have merit!" Rose yelled, rounding on the werewolf. "It is stupid. How could we be sure that you would not just throw her over your shoulder and take off with her, in front of her partner and anybody else that happened to be around?"

"I would do no such thing," Mstislav said, sounding affronted.

"So you say."

"I did not take her like that when she was in my country, and it would have been so much easier..." he pointed out.

"Oh, and what do you really expect them to say? 'This is our cousin. He thinks he's imprinted...or bonded...or something to you. He swears it's love. Oh, and please excuse the drooling. He's a werewolf'? Does nobody else in this room think that might be a teensy bit of a problem? We're talking about somebody's life here!"

"Well..." Emmett said, looking at Mstislav, "we've never really sat down and discussed it, you know? I mean, how does it work for a human when a werewolf is...uh, attracted to her...or him?"

All eyes turned to stare at the werewolf in question. "I don't quite know for sure, not from first hand experience."

"Wait a minute. I thought that whole thing with the Volturi was because they stole your mate way back when..." Jasper said, confusion clear in his voice.

"They stole my wife, the love of my human life," Mstislav corrected him. "I have never found a mate as a werewolf, although I have known several that have, and the pairs appear quite happy."

"But didn't you say you had, um, family?"

"I have taken lovers through the years, and sired children, yes, but they all remained human. This is different."

"Oh, great!" Rosalie said. "So we're not just expected to procure you a human, we're actually leading somebody to their life-changing doom. How can any of you actually consider being a part of this?" She glared around the room at all of the vampires.

"Actually, Rosie..." Emmett said, hesitantly, "I'm kinda happy you found me, and that Carlisle turned me."

Esme was nodding. "So am I. And I felt drawn to Carlisle the first time I met him, even though I was little more than a child at the time."

Carlisle was also nodding. "It seems rather clear to me that in vampire pairings, both parties feel something, even when one is still human. With the Quileute's imprinting, I have yet to hear of a case where the human is opposed to the bond. Why would it be any different with werewolves?"

"You are all crazy," Rosalie said. "Could we at least agree that maybe, perhaps, we could address one problem at a time? I mean, great, we know who the wolf is looking for. Fantastic. Let's make sure we can get them off Carlisle and Esme's back before we go and start playing matchmaker."

"You're right, Rosalie," Carlisle said.

"I am?" she sounded surprised.

"Yes. I don't want to confuse our own issues any more than they already are. If our guest could, perhaps, agree to wait a while in his pursuit...? Preferably when she is no longer anywhere near Alaska?" He looked at Mstislav.

"I can do this, yes. I thought it would take a very long time to even track her down. To find out her whereabouts so quickly puts me way ahead of schedule."

"Great. He has a schedule," Rose muttered.

"Gotta love a man with a plan," Emmett said.

"All right, Esme and I will go meet the agents when they arrive in the state. Hopefully, they will be satisfied that we truly know nothing of Jasper's whereabouts and they will leave again. When we're sure that we are no longer persons of interest, we can address our other pending problems."

"I'd like to go with you," Alice said. "I could see them so much better, I think, if I could just meet them in person."

"No," Carlisle and Jasper said at the same time.

"But—"

"No," Carlisle said again. "Chances are, they will conclude that you are with Jasper, wherever he supposedly is. People in Forks knew you were together. If you are with us, they might want to grill us even more."

"Like I'm afraid of that," Alice scoffed.

"I'd rather not make this a cast of thousands, if you please," Carlisle said. "We'll have to tell them Emmett and Rosalie are still alive, and there's a chance they'll want to talk to them, too."

"Well, I could just—"

"No."

Alice huffed in disgust but didn't argue any further. Jasper eyed her speculatively before turning to Carlisle and speaking. "I, however, should go with you...so I can be on hand in case there's a problem."

"Like what?" Rose said. "They pull a gun on them? Come on, Jasper, it's just a couple of humans. Carlisle and Esme are better equipped than any of us to pull the wool over their eyes."

"You aren't coming, Jasper," Carlisle said.

"But—"

"No. Now, Alice, are you able to see anything about the coming visit?"

"Not as much as I could see if I could just—"

"Enough, Alice. Just tell us what you've seen under the current circumstances."

"Well, it's not much. I see Emmett and Rose in a cabin with strangers' luggage laying around. They're doing something to electronic equipment."

"That's gotta be it," Emmett said. "Sounds like our moment of glory is coming up, Rosie baby!"

"I still think I should go along," Alice tried one more time.

"No. I want all of you to stay here," Carlisle said. "Don't try my patience, Alice."

Peter laughed. "Y'all are just too funny. Do you want me to stay here and babysit them, Carlisle? Make sure everybody stays where they're supposed to?"

Carlisle looked around the room at his family, most of whom were trying very hard not to look like they were sulking. "That might not be a bad idea, Peter."

In the end, though, Emmett and Rose were in the truck with Carlisle and Esme when they left the next morning. A call from Agent Anderson let Carlisle know the two agents were flying into Fairbanks, and Alice had been able to see them arriving in Tok and meeting with Carlisle and Esme. Carlisle called and made lodging arrangements accordingly. A lucky cancellation gave them two cabins at a bed and breakfast, where the owners were familiar with Carlisle and Esme. Emmett and Rosalie went along, both to give the agents a chance to interview them rather than hunting them down later and to give Emmett an opportunity to hack into any equipment they might bring with them and gather additional information.

The rest that were left behind were a sullen bunch except for Peter, who found the whole thing rather funny. "You people can't decide if you're a coven of vampires or the Brady Bunch!" he said, chuckling.

"I'm going to work on my house," Mstislav said. "Things have changed, and I must build accordingly."

"Great," Jasper mumbled, "he'll probably have a ten room monstrosity put up by tomorrow."

"He's not bringing her back here, is he?" Alice said, horrified. "How does changing a human into a werewolf even happen?"

"I have no idea, Alice," Jasper said. "I think I better make sure that he's not planning on doing it here. I just thought...well, I'm not sure I thought that far at all, to be honest."

Peter rolled his eyes. "Great planning, Tex."

"Wanna come with me, Bella?" Jasper asked.

"Um...no, thank you. I think I got my daily dose of werewolf earlier. Baby steps, you know?"

"Okay, you stay here. I'll be back..." Jasper said, sounding rather vague, and disappeared out the door.

"Well. I might as well start taking measurements for my cabin since we're wrapping things up with this one..." Alice said, following him out. Bella bristled and started to follow, but Peter stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"Shhhh!" he said, putting his finger to his lips. "Listen. She is going nowhere near him, Miss Bella. Don't fret."

Bella cocked her head, listened, and realized he was correct. Jasper was heading further down the lane, and Alice could be heard prowling around one of the closer cabins.

"She does not want your mate, Bella," Charlotte said. "If she did, you would know it. Vampires are not known to be subtle in such pursuits."

"Even if she did want him, she wouldn't be interested in stealing him away from you," Peter added. "A mate is a mate. But sometimes they can be lured away with promises of temporary pleasures."

"Be quiet, Peter. You are not helping things," Charlotte hissed at him as Bella bristled up again.

"What? I'm just trying to tell her how things are with us. I think sometimes Carlisle skims over the less pleasant aspects of our lives. She needs to know to be watchful when there are strange females about but not," he added, looking back at Bella, "to be worried about her coven sister. Alice is not interested in your mate as anything more than a sibling. That sort of thing usually isn't tolerated in a coven. Carlisle would never stand for it, I'm sure."

"I try not to worry," Bella whispered, "but it's difficult."

Peter nodded. "It would be, with her being an unattached female, even without the bizarre circumstances surrounding their relationship. You are doing very well."

"I don't feel like it sometimes," Bella said.

"Well, she's in one piece and still moving, so I'd say you're doing very well indeed. Why don't we straighten up in here. All this discussing of things has made a mess of what few things Carlisle and Esme have moved in.

Straightening the cabin took all of two minutes. They all stood looking at each other for a moment, listening to the silence.

It was very, very silent.

"Shit," Peter said.

"They're gone," Charlotte said.

"All of them!" Bella said before rushing out the door and disappearing into the forest.

"Carlisle is going to be so pissed at me," Peter whimpered. "I'm a terrible babysitter."

Charlotte patted his back. "That's all right, Peter. They're all grown vampires, able to take care of themselves. And if you're really, really lucky, they'll all come back before Carlisle and Esme do. Why don't we go find those hot springs Emmett and Rose were telling us about and have a good long soak..."

~AM~AM~AM~AM~

Bella quickly checked all the cabins, just to be sure, but it only confirmed what she already knew. All three of them—Jasper, Alice, and Mstislav—had taken off. The scent trails were all separate but quite clear, even to her poor tracking ability. The pull towards Jasper was strong, though, and she wouldn't need a scent trail to find him.

That son of a bitch, she thought. He left me. He said he wouldn't, and he did. When I catch him...

Suddenly she realized she was almost on top of him. He was standing stock still in a clearing, watching her approach.

"You left! You asshole!" Bella shrieked, launching herself at him and taking him down in a tackle that he didn't bother to deflect.

"Bella—" he tried to say, but she started punching him.

"You left! You left! You left!" she continued to yell, trying to emphasize each word with a punch. He might have allowed the tackle, but he quickly grabbed her fists and refused to let go.

"I didn't leave. Well, I did... Alice took off, and I knew Carlisle didn't want any of us to follow them...but he hadn't ordered us to not follow him, so I knew I had to try to stop her. But I couldn't leave you, I had to stop. I waited for you. I knew you'd follow... I could feel you coming. I just didn't want to drag Peter and Charlotte into this."

"ARGH! You make me so mad sometimes!" she yelled once more before jumping off him and beginning to pace. He stood up slowly and began to brush pine needles off his clothes.

"Look, Alice...I can't let her just go waltzing in there and disrupt Carlisle's meeting. She thinks she knows best, but she doesn't always," Jasper said, trying to explain. "I need to catch up to her and stop her. But I couldn't leave you behind, either. And now...now I—we—may not be able to catch her."

"Oh!" Bella said, stopping her pacing. "Well...all right, then. Sorry. I jumped to conclusions."

"Easy to do around here right now," Jasper muttered. "Things haven't been this confusing since Alice and I joined the family. And I should have just come and got you first. Sometimes I just act on instinct, too."

"So...shouldn't we be going?"

"We'll never catch her now," Jasper said with a sigh.

"Mstislav is gone, too," Bella told him.

"Son of a bitch!" Jasper swore. "Well, I guess we better head out anyway. Him, at least, we can catch up to and stop."

"Jasper...you might be able to still catch Alice if I'm not with you, don't you think?" Bella asked, the words almost choking her as they came out.

"Maybe..." Jasper said hesitantly. "Why?"

"Well...you can run on ahead and try to catch her, and I can follow the pull and find where you go. And we'll all still arrive before Mstislav. He may be faster than a human, but he's not nearly as fast as we are, right? Alice has her visions to guide her, and we have Alice to guide us. But even if he can follow us by scent at this point in his cycle, he'll be way behind us in no time. I mean, he might even have to be sticking close to the road, which will slow him down even further."

"True...but I don't want to leave you behind. Even this little bit of time just now...and look how it made you crazy."

"But I didn't know you were waiting for me, don't you see?" Bella said. "I'll know where you are, and I'll know I just have to catch up. It'll be like a game...kinda of," she added, sounding doubtful.

"I don't like it."

"Come on, Jasper, I can do this!" Bella said, stomping her foot for emphasis.

"Really, Bella? Foot stomping?" he asked, grinning. "This from the woman who, not a minute ago, was willing to rip my limbs off for leaving her? Lord save me from erratic teen vampires."

"UGH! Just...just GO! She's getting away!" Bella yelled, shoving at him.

Jasper laughed. "Okay, if you insist... Just remember, it was your idea."

He took off running, Bella hot on his heels. Gradually, though, he pulled ahead of her, and soon he was out of sight. Bella had known he was faster than her—they'd raced more than once since they'd gotten together—but she hadn't realized just how much faster he was. Not nearly as fast as Edward had been, but he was probably the second fastest in the Cullen clan. She kept thinking of it as a game of chase, though, and the panic that had hit her back at the cabin did not return. "So there!" she thought smugly.

She'd realized moments after Jasper had taken off that this would be the first time she'd be truly alone since he'd found her in Siberia. She hadn't been lying to him when she told him she could do this. She could do this. But still, being alone was an odd feeling, and she held tight to the feel of his pull. She'd never truly be alone as long as she could feel that.

She thought that they were all running parallel to a highway now. Remembering the maps she'd seen of the area back at the cabin, she knew it had to be the highway that eventually went to Tok. The scent trail suddenly turned, heading straight for the road, and Bella slowed down, not willing to cross it until she'd made sure it was safe to do so. Evidently Alice and Jasper had felt no such need. There was no sign of either of them slowing down on their approach to the road. Alice, of course, would have seen exactly when it was okay for her to cross. Jasper probably just didn't give a shit.

Bella was more cautious. She paused in the thick brush several yards from the road, listening carefully for any cars and inhaling to check for any scents. The road seemed to be deserted at the moment, no sounds of vehicles in either direction. To the east she could hear the sounds of human habitation, though, and it made her even more cautious. She crept closer to the road, still not willing to run across it.

In the distance to her left she could hear the sound of an approaching vehicle. She could have easily crossed the road before it ever came in sight, but instead she crouched even lower in the brush, waiting for the large truck to pass. When it did, she was glad she had, for it carried with it a very familiar smell.

"Son of a bitch!" she cursed under her breath, not realizing she sounded exactly like her mate at that moment. Indecision filled her now. Continue following Jasper's trail or follow the werewolf? He couldn't hurt her, not at this point in his cycle. She was sure of that. Well, fairly sure of that. He was alone, and she could run faster than him, of that she was sure. Her instincts pulled her towards her mate. Duty to her family, tenuous and in its infant stages still, told her she should follow the werewolf and keep an eye on him. After all, they were all going to the same place, right? And at the end of the trip, both Jasper and Carlisle would be waiting.

She nodded to herself. She needed to follow the wolf. Someone needed to keep an eye on him.

It took her no time at all to catch up to the truck, especially since it had stopped for gas. Hiding in the shadows between two trucks parked in the gravel lot, she could see that the lock on the back of the large truck had been broken. In a flash she was across the parking lot and slipping into the truck, the blur of her passing causing a couple of the people nearby to startle thinking it was perhaps a low flying bird or something.

The inside of the truck was almost black, but enough light filtered in through imperfections in the seams to allow Bella to see. She didn't need her eyesight to tell her Mstislav was inside, though. The stench was more than enough.

"What are you doing?" she hissed as quietly as she could, avoiding the area where she could tell he was hiding amongst the boxes.

"What do you think I am doing?" he whispered back. "I am not nearly as fast as your kind at this point. I needed to find the next best thing. I did not think it would be wise of me to steal a vehicle and bring unwanted attention upon either myself or my host. So I am...how do you say it? Hitching a ride."

The truck started up again and lurched back onto the road.

"And what do you think you're going to do when we get to Tok?" she asked. "I can't let you make a scene."

"I said before I have no intention of 'making a scene'. I merely wish to see her and confirm if it is the same woman. After all, there may be many women of the same name. It could just be a coincidence."

"We couldn't be so lucky," Bella muttered. "I have no doubt that it is the same woman."

"I can feel her coming..." Mstislav said softly. "Or at least I think I can. You know this pull I speak of, yes?"

"Yes, I know it," Bella confirmed, sitting down on a box, being sure to still keep her distance from the werewolf. Mstislav had emerged from the shadows and was seated several feet away from her on a another stack of boxes.

"I could not believe it when I first saw her. I did not know whether to laugh or to cry. It is a wonderful thing to find one's mate, but when they are human it is a cursed decision to have to make."

"Edward felt the same way," Bella said, and instantly wondered why she was sharing this private, personal information. Except...she knew how Mstislav must feel.

"But he changed you in the end, this Edward of yours. Your dead mate..." Mstislav observed.

"Yes, he did. The pull was stronger than any desire to remain apart could be."

"Then you do understand."

"We all understand," Bella growled. "That's why we didn't kill you out of hand when you arrived. You're just lucky you fell in with such a soft hearted group."

Mstislav chuckled. "Yes, truly you are all an aberration in the vampire world."

"You should meet our cousins, the Denalis," Bella said. "They spend their lives lying with human males."

Mstislav nodded. "The succubi. Yes, I know of them. They are, after all, from my part of the world. They are spoken of still, in some circles. But how do they go unnoticed now if they are still practising their craft?"

Bella shrugged. "They started feeding from animals at some point, as the Cullens do. They no longer kill their men. They just bed them."

"Ah, yes, that would be easier to hide."

Silence fell on the truck for a while.

"So..." Bella finally said, curiosity eating at her. She'd wanted to know so much about him but hadn't been able to approach him. Now that she was stuck with him, though, she felt she might as well indulge. "That vendetta with the Volturi... That wasn't over your mate?"

Mstislav shook his head. "No. It was over my wife. It all started a long time ago, when I was still fully human. The Volturi came and took her away, and so I hunted them. Eventually, with your help, of course, I was able to destroy them."

Bella stared at him in the low light. "That is really fucked up."

"Were you not in the process of wanting to do the same when my people first found you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, yes...but I was...I'm not human. It's different with us."

Mstislav shrugged. "Perhaps it would have been different with me, as well, had I remained human. But in the time and place I come from, vengeance was a very strong motivating force, even amongst humans. Enough to cause me to search out and embrace this change. And then...well, violence and revenge fit easily into what I had become."

"It sounds like an interesting story," Bella said.

Mstislav considered her for a moment. "I think perhaps we both have interesting stories," he said. "Perhaps we could exchange them while we wait for this truck to get to it's destination."

"How do you even know it's going to the right place?" she asked.

He laughed quietly. "If you had paid more attention, you would have seen that it had "Michelson's Hauling Services, Tok, Alaska," printed in large red letters on its side. You need to pay more attention if you are going to be playing these games with us."

"Us?" she asked.

"We're not the only ones headed to Tok, are we? You didn't come here following me. Your mate never would have allowed that, I think. You just happened to stumble upon me while you were following him. And Jasper...who was Jasper following?"

Bella didn't answer, asking a question of her own instead. "So...tell me your story, Mstislav. I have a feeling yours is longer than mine."

"No doubt you are correct. Well, it all began long ago in my homeland, what you would now call Czechoslovakia."