Finding Heaven

~Chapter 13 – First Hunt~

EPOV

"Ok Edward, no more stalling; it's time," Alice said as she flitted into the room. I grabbed her arm lightly, and led her back downstairs so we wouldn't wake Bella.

"Time for what?" I asked finally.

"Time to go hunting, of course."

"Uh, I just fed a few days ago, so I'm fine for at least another week."

"Oh, come on. You need to learn the area anyway, and I seriously doubt that you fed a few days ago, your eyes are way too dark for that."

"Ok fine, I haven't killed anyone in the US since I've been back, but don't mention that fact to Bella."

"You want her to think you've killed people….why?" Alice asked confused.

"It's not that I want her to think I have, it's just that I kind of made her believe that I killed a few people already, and I don't want her to think I'm a liar."

"You would rather her think you're a murderer?"

"No, I am that already. It doesn't matter if I never kill anyone else again, I'll still always be a murderer, and I can't just erase the past. I didn't just kill people to feed myself; I've also lured so many to their death, just so the Volturi could overindulge themselves. Men, women, even children; I've never cared about any of them before. But Bella's made me reconsider everything. I started having issues with killing people when I couldn't kill her father in Volterra, and then seeing her mother being tortured like that." I paused to shake my head. "But Bella asked me to stop killing people, so even though I hadn't in a while, I still want her to know that I gave it up for of her."

"Ok, well why does she think you've killed people recently then?"

"Her mom's boyfriend came over for breakfast one day in Phoenix, and I made a few distasteful jokes, which she took very seriously. And then there was the doctor who I had check her out; she was pretty upset after I took him home, so I figured she thought I killed him."

"Aren't you worried that he'll tell someone about Bella's unusual pregnancy?"

"So what? No one would believe him, and he'll just end up in a mental hospital."

"Well, why didn't you tell her the truth?"

I shrugged. "So I didn't kill the guy that day, it doesn't bring back all the people that I have killed before."

"You can be a real moron, do you realize that?" Alice asked me frustrated.

"Yeah. But you know, if anyone but you said that to me, I'd probably rip their head off."

"Hey moron, ready to go?" Emmet asked as he came into the room.

I growled at him, but he smirked.

If we're going to brawl again, let's do it outside; Esme wouldn't appreciate us busting up the house, and I'm sure the forest needs thinning – he thought to me.

I shook my head at him. What's the point?

"So you're staying here?" I asked Alice.

"Yep, take your time, I'll keep Bella safe from all the toothless vampires," she joked.

"You don't have to do that, I trust Carlisle."

"Well good, but I think I'll stay anyway. I've already been hunting recently, and I think this could be a good male bonding trip."

"Great, this should be interesting."

"Don't worry about it Edward, we'll take good care of you," Jasper said with an evil grin.

I ran back upstairs to quickly, to kiss Bella as she slept, and then followed Jasper and Emmett out of the house.

"Now since this is your first time hunting animals, we'll start with something easy," Emmett said as we ran through the forest.

"There's a herd of elk about half a mile east. Do you hear them?" Jasper asked me.

"Uh, what, like their heartbeats?" I asked.

"Yes, and their heavy breathing. You can also hear their hooves crunching the foliage."

"Wonderful. Let's go get some stinking woodland creatures. I really hope we find some bunny rabbits too, I'd love to try those." I said sarcastically, and then took off running towards the herd.

I wasn't stealthy enough, because I didn't care enough to try, so the herd took off running when I approached.

"Dude!" Emmett yelled at me. "You have to strike at them smoothly; be a silent hunter."

"Why? I prefer it when my prey is scared," I said, then took off running after the elk. I felt absolutely ridiculous chasing animals around the forest.

It didn't take long to catch a buck, but I just held the thing as it squirmed and tried to get away from my grasp. "Isn't there anything that smells better than this?" I asked Emmett and Jasper.

"Dude, just drink it. It doesn't taste great, but at least it quenches the burn." Emmett said annoyed by my hesitation.

"It's all…furry," I complained.

"Come on. Damn!" Emmett yelled.

I huffed, and then closed my eyes tightly.

It's just a hairy man, it's just a hairy man – I thought to myself, and then I brought my mouth to its neck. Once I got past the fur, my teeth sunk into the hide easily.

"UHG!" I pulled away after only taking a sip. "That's disgusting."

"If you don't drink it fast, it'll die and then the blood won't be good anymore." Jasper said.

"It's not good now," I rebutted, but I forced myself to bite back into it. Anything for Bella.

Drinking the animal was similar to being in pain; I could think around it. I kept my mind busy on anything else, as the foul tasting blood cooled the fire in my throat. When the animal ran dry, I threw the carcass to the side and stood up.

"See, not too bad," Jasper said.

"Are you kidding? That was awful," I said disgusted.

"But hey, you got through it." Jasper said in a praising tone.

"It gets better, and after a while, you won't even think about it anymore," Emmett told me.

Emmett and Jasper then led me to a specific place in the woods, and showed me exactly where the treaty line was. I wasn't allowed to cross it, otherwise we'd be in violation of the treaty, and the wolves would attack us. I suddenly whished that vampires could conveniently forget things; I'd love to cross into their lands 'unintentionally' and then battle the wolves. But Vampires never forgot anything, so I knew that excuse was lost to me.

Wow, you're actually out trying animals, huh? – Jacob's thoughts carried to my mind. I looked around, and didn't see him anywhere, but I could smell him.

"Where the hell are you?" I asked annoyed.

A giant wolf stepped out of the trees on the other side of the treaty line. I hadn't seen him as a wolf yet, so I was surprised how big he was. It was actually quite impressive.

"Out pissing on trees?" Emmett asked the wolf. The wolf mutt growled at him, but Emmett's grin just grew wider.

How's Bella? – The mutt thought to me.

"Not much different than before you left," I told him, feeling like an idiot for talking to a horse sized wolf.

Sam's really fucking pissed about the whole vamp baby thing, but I think I've cooled him off for now.

"Well, Sam isn't the only one pissed on the subject. Tell him not to worry, I'm going to handle the thing myself when the time comes."

Bella's not going to be happy about that.

"No fucking shit Sherlock, but she'll just have to understand after a while."

Right, good luck with that. I gotta get back, but don't even think about crossing the line parasite, because we'll end you.

"Consider me scared," I said mockingly. The mutt huffed, and then trotted back into the forest.

"Well, that was…interesting," Jasper said.

"What the fuck did he say?" Emmett was annoyed that he even had to ask me to translate.

"He just wanted to know how Bella was, and he told me that Sam wasn't happy about the pregnancy."

"Oh, so in other words, nothing new." Emmett said nonchalantly.

"Nope."

"Are you ready to head back, or do you want to hunt some more?" Jasper asked me.

"I guess I could go for a little more. Let's go find some wolves to drain," I smiled at the thought.

"Uh, killing any of the Quileutes would just ignite a war," Jasper said worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah, but we can still find normal wolves and just pretend that they're them."

"I like your style," Emmett said with his hand held towards me in a fist; I just stared at him confused. Was he trying to throw some sort of strange punch at me? "You're suppose to bump your fist to mine."

"Why?" I asked confused.

"It's to show camaraderie….man, I have a lot to teach you. Those Volturi sure did keep you sheltered over there."

"Okay," I said confused, but really not caring enough to ask further.

The three of us took off again, searching for something else to drain. We didn't find any wolves, but Emmett stumbled across a black bear, and Jasper actually caught a wolverine. I studied them as they hunted, and watched their technique. It wasn't that I was still trying to figure it out, it was the fact that one could tell a lot about the way someone hunts. In watching them strike their prey, I could easily see the type of fighters they were.

Emmett went after his bear head on. His best weapon was his brute strength, but he enjoyed the fight. Emmett didn't kill his prey right away; he wrestled with it for a while first, and let the animal land some insufficient blows on him, before he finally killed it.

Jasper was much stealthier. He was a smart, no nonsense kind of hunter, and I knew he would be the same type of fighter as well. He wasted no time with having fun, the way Emmett had, he went straight for the kill.

I could tell that they were both skilled fighters, and having them on my side would be an advantage, if a need for a fight came up.

As they drained their prey, something else caught my attention. It didn't smell anywhere near as good as the worst smelling human I ever encountered, but it definitely smelled better that the stinking elk. I followed the scent to a tree, several yards away. I looked up and saw a mountain lion stalking me from above. Was I really its intended prey? I laughed at the thought.

The cat crept closer to me, and the closer it got, the more beautiful I thought it was. He was furtive and cunning; even the muscular structure was quite stunning in a way. He reached the forest floor, and hissed at me aggressively. I thought briefly about how similar the animal was to me in that moment. Like him, I was a predator who stalked my prey, but when I came across a certain kill, the roles were reversed and I lost my life instead. I lost myself completely when I found Bella, but unlike the cat, I was happy to surrender it.

The cat and I both coiled our muscles to spring, and we launched ourselves at the other in unison. It was over quickly, he had no chance. His blood was nowhere near as appetizing as a humans, but it was worlds better than the elk. I was sure that it was the difference between drinking herbivores and carnivores; carnivores, were the closest to human I was going to get.

"Damn, you're a natural," Emmett said after I threw the carcass down.

"You think hunting animals is hard? Try catching a whole bus full of humans vacationing," I said smugly.

"Ah, your first real hunt," Emmett said, ignoring my comment. He then walked over to me and smiled. I saw him doing it in his mind before he actually did it, but his mind wasn't set yet, so I waited. At the last moment, he grabbed me in a headlock, and ruffled up my hair. I ducked out of it quickly, and shoved him hard.

"Oh, we are so on," Emmett said with an excited grin.

We charged at each other, and somehow managed to wrestle to the ground. I had him pinned, but he used his massive size to push me off of him, and into a tree causing it to crash to the ground. I ran back to him and threw him into another tree, and landed on top of him with my foot to this neck.

"I'd say Edward won that one," Jasper decided.

"No way, you called it too soon, I would have had him in the next round," Emmett complained.

"I call them as I see them."

Emmett and I both dusted ourselves off, and once again he held his fist out to me. I understood what he wanted me to do, so I humored him and bumped my fist to his. I never mock fought quite like that before. We used to brawl around a bit in Volterra, but it was more for practice and we all took it very seriously. But fighting with Emmett was actually…fun. The Volturi had fun too, but usually their fun involved ripping others heads off, and finding a good amount of 'fish' to consume.

Jasper and I planned to fight each other at a later time, because I had already been gone too long and I needed to get back to Bella. When we neared the house, I stopped because I could hear Bella talking to Rose, and I didn't want my presence to hinder their conversation.

"What's up?" Emmett asked, confused as to why I had stopped.

"Shh!" I said, so both he and Jasper waited quietly.

"He's planning to kill it, you know," Rose said to her.

"No he won't," Bella said assertively. Jasper and Emmett both gave me an uneasy look as they listened with me.

"I don't know, he sounded pretty determined when he was talking about it."

"I know, I heard him."

"No, you were sleeping, and he was talking pretty quietly," Rose said confused.

"I was faking it, I heard the whole conversation."

"And you're not pissed at him?"

"No, that's just Edward. He's afraid of change and the unknown, but I know he's not going to hurt it."

"How do you know that?"

"Because, he didn't hurt me. He was all about killing me in the beginning too, but he's all talk; he loves me, and he'll love the baby too." Bella was completely confident that my feelings for the thing inside her would change, and as much as I refused to admit it, I knew it was possible that she was right…she was always right. I absolutely hated the thing, but between her feelings for it, and Carlisle's optimism, I could feel my resolution begin to falter.

"Don't get too pissed at Rose, she's just always wanted a baby and I think her desires can get in the way of common sense sometimes," Emmett defended his mate's words.

"I'm not going to rip her head off," I assured him, and then we walked into the house.

"Hey, how'd it go?" Bella asked me enthusiastically. Her whole face lit up when our eyes locked, and I couldn't help but smile at her.

"Uh, it was disgusting…but not as bad as I thought." I told her, and she just beamed at me. "How are you feeling?" I walked over to her, and gently pressed my hand to her forehead.

"Ok, just tired."

"Why aren't you sleeping then, and how'd you get downstairs?"

"I just couldn't lay there anymore, so Rose helped me down the stairs. Carlisle wanted to wait until you got back before he started the IV." Bella explained.

"OK, well I guess we should start it then." I said uneasily.

Carlisle walked into the room holding a bag of clear fluid, and he hung it on a metal stick by where Bella was sitting. He opened the sealed needle and placed it on the end table next to the couch.

"Are you ready?" He asked Bella; she nodded so he cleaned her arm with some alcohol, and then put the needle in. She winced, but then her face relaxed as the liquid started flowing into her arm.

I sat next to her on the couch and she leaned into me, so I put my arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "I love you," I whispered to her, even though I knew everyone could hear me.

She curled herself into my side, and let her hand slide under my shirt to caress my stomach. "I love you too."

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