It didn't matter how many times I'd seen the house, it always seemed to wow me. Over a hundred years old but the faded white paint had barely chipped. Esme had restored the windows and, on days where the sun remembered the town of Forks, they let in enough light to make the place glow. I parked on the driveway under heavy cedars that circled the land, offering enough cover for the two of us to step out. I caught the way Ness frowned at her brown shoes – they'd previously been white.

"That'll teach you to jump outta the car into the mud and rain." I commented as we staggered towards the house.

"Well excuse me for doing your job and protecting the town." She snapped me. I blew out a heavy breath at the hard blow and she laughed, the sound immediately loosening my tense shoulders.

"Mom's here." She said and I followed her gaze to see a shadow at one of the upper windows. Before we had a chance to blink, the shadow vanished and Bella appeared through the front door, missing steps as she rushed to meet us; but she paused half-way, arching a brow at the state of our clothes.

"I'm alright with a bit of fun but I'd expected you to come home dry, at least."

I jerked my thumb at Ness. "Blame her."

Bella smiled a soft and content smile but one I knew hid a shitload of sadness. She'd been through a lot the past ten years and had changed because of it time and time again, sometimes beyond her own control. With that thought on the mind, I couldn't help but compare her to the girl I'd met at La Push. Gone were the rosy splashes of colour in her cheeks, the pale pink of her lips and the deep brown of her eyes (at least I saw those still in Ness); the only colour in her now shone in her equally as mesmerising yellow eyes. Flannels and converse were a thing of the past, replaced with heeled boots and high-waisted jeans and proud shirts, outfits that showed off her beauty rather than hid it away behind layers of fabric. I was happy for her in that sense. Maybe I missed the old Bella so much because I missed a time when…when there wasn't so much sadness between us.

At least one thing remained from the old days: the little pinch of skin that appeared between her brow whenever she questioned something. "You both look worried. What's wrong?"

Ness ducked under her mothers' arm, leaning into her side and squeezing in what appeared to be an ordinary hug. I knew the reason behind it though, she was sharing her memory. I noticed the ways Bella's eyes dropped then suddenly widened, locking on me. I nodded once behind Ness's back, hoping it would confirm Bella's suspicions.

"Do you recognise her?" Ness asked aloud.

"A nomad, passing through." Answered another voice from the porch. Alice appeared and skipped forward, landing beside the three of us. "How was your weekend!" Alice chimed, grabbing Ness and squeezing her close like a doll despite the foot of height between them. Ness frowned and I wondered if she was about to question the drastic change in subject, but Alice added, "Did you decide on pineapple or not?"

"Absolutely not!" Ness suddenly exclaimed and I laughed, leaning to rest against the door to the car.

"Ya know, for someone with enhanced taste buds…you've got no sense of flavour." We'd spent a good hour Saturday night debating if we wanted pineapple on our pizza or not. As a kid, Ness had liked it but as she'd grown into a woman, she'd quickly found a disgust for the idea. I was impartial.

Pizza was pizza.

"Is Rose here?" Ness asked, angling her head towards the house to listen. I inhaled, scenting Rose on the land.

"Out back with your dad." Bella responded. At the mention of Edward, I realised that if anyone could get my message clearly it would be him and, at the thought of him, he appeared around the corner of the garage. Like the two of us, he was filthy but covered in what I recognised to be oil grease rather than mud.

"I was beginning to wonder if we'd ever see you again." He joked as they hugged. He ruffled Ness's bronze hair, identical to his own, shimmering.

She rolled her eyes. "It's been two days."

We'd agreed Ness could spend the weekend on the reservation with me and my dad. A change, considering that I spent most of my free time here surrounded by her family. Not that I minded. It had been a weekend of bad horror movies and take out and hunting and it had been perfect until that morning.

"Rose does want to see you," Edward said, and Ness nodded, facing me.

"See you tomorrow?"

"Sure," I answered, smiling. I purposely kept my hands tucked into my pockets hoping she'd take the subconscious signal that I wasn't waiting for a hug goodbye. On any other day, I'd dream for one but today when she could use her enhanced abilities to see the images in my head, I didn't want to risk it.

In a blur, she vanished beyond the edge of the house and through the door to the garage. I caught what sounded like an engine whirring come to a stop and Rosalie cheerfully greet Ness. The two had always shared a unique bond.

Alone, I faced Bella, Edward and Alice.

"Jake, how's your dad? He hasn't been to see Charlie in a while?" Bella asked. It took a quick glance to realise she was only asking to keep up the pretence, her focus remained on the garage door. Renesmee would still be able to hear us, we had to be careful what we said.

"Uh, he's good. Getting old and letting me know it." I chuckled. I focused my attention on Edward as Bella rattled off an absent-minded reply, sending my thoughts across to him clearly and loudly. 'It's time. We need to meet. Tonight.'

He nodded in agreement and when Bella finished her reply, Edward added. "Any plans for the rest of the day, Jacob?" His underlying message was clear. When?

I thought carefully about my answer before replying, "Having dinner with Dad but then meeting the pups so probably gonna be a late one." The Pups. The nickname we'd given the group of adolescent boys that had phased when the Cullen's had returned to Forks a few years ago. Behind my reply, I thought my reply to Edward. I'll head to the woods near your place at midnight.

"Sounds fun." Edward confirmed.

We exchanged our goodbyes and I climbed into the car, thankful to be back in the soothing warmth, alone, but couldn't help watching the three of them as they made their way across the lawn to the house.

They might've been vampires with amazing reflexes and control, but I could see through their forced smiles. Bella, Edward and Alice had been through the unimaginable. During the Winter Battle, when Aro had come to kill Renesmee, the three of them had been captured by Volturi forced, tortured and abducted to Volterra where they had their loyalties supernaturally bound to Jane. Cassandra, a female with a gift similar to the Amazonian, Zafrina, had cast an illusion on the survivors of the battle and convinced us that we'd seen them lose their lives.

When the Sanctuary sieged Volterra we discovered the truth. Chelsea had been forced to reverse her sway on the three of them and they came to their senses, returning home. Still, I couldn't imagine the ways those two years as Volturi guards had traumatised them; every ounce of love they felt for Carlisle, Esme, Rose, Jasper, Emmett, Ness – all gone. Bella had looked at her own daughter, had known it was her daughter, and felt nothing.

To come back from that? To try and repent for that?

Edward paused at the threshold and looked over his shoulder, catching my eye. I only remembered then that he'd probably heard everything I'd been thinking.

'Sorry' I thought, wasting no time before putting the car into drive and speeding down the road.


The storm had settled some by the time I reached La Push, a couple of hours later, but the beach was still dark; thousands of blandly coloured pebbles crunched beneath my boots as I made my way to the fire pit carved into the far edge. The ocean sounded far away, somehow farther than possible. The worries in my head loud enough to drown out the crashing of the waves and assault of rain against the stone. The fire wasn't lit but the boys still huddled around it, perched atop the ancient boulders and logs with their heads dropped back and smiles on their faces; unbothered by the freezing cold I knew disturbed anyone else stupid enough to take to the beach on a day like this. These pups were still young, only just discovering the bonuses of being a Shifter.

"Jake!" One of the boys, Dan, bellowed as I neared. His twin, Ben, quickly hid the crate of beers they'd brought with them. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the sight of them, practically naked save for a set of denim shorts. Unlike the four of them, I had dressed appropriately. Boots, cargo pants, thick navy jacket, hood all the way up. Just because we were immune to the cold, didn't mean we had to show it off.

"Ness must've gone home." Connor mumbled.

"Give it a rest," Tom snapped back, earning an annoyed glare from Connor. Tom was the oldest at seventeen, Dan and Ben both just turned sixteen and Connor was only twelve. I mean, he didn't look like it. The shift had sparked a growth spirt in each of them that showed little sign of stopping. Connor, at twelve, was just under six foot but still…twelve. I couldn't imagine going through the Shift at that age, an age when already the world seemed against you. It didn't help that I was already in his bad books, having let the others get the tattoo each member of the pack got upon phasing for the first time.

"It's been two days," I echoed Ness's words from earlier, "If you can't look after yourself for two days, you're in trouble." It also wasn't as if they didn't have family and friends and school. Being of our tribe, their families knew the legends of the Cold Ones and what our Ancestors had turned into to destroy them. When these four started their transformation, our Elders and I – the only active Shifter in Forks – quickly met with their families to disclose the truth behind the legends.

Connor dropped from the boulder and began kicking pebbles randomly as he circled the pit. Brown, muddy puddles filled the dip in the centre. Ignoring the look he gave me; I sat onto the nearest rock and clasped my hands. "Go on then," I said, "Anything interesting happen?"

I know it hadn't. I'd been connected to each of them when I'd phased earlier that morning to race with Ness. We'd all felt the connection, all unwillingly shared our thoughts and memories with one another in that instant, but I'd learned from Sam all of those years ago that it was important to remain as human as we could in times, we actually were human. Checking in on the wellbeing of the pack on a personal, human level could help in ways invading their minds could never.

"Forget us. What's going on? What're you hiding?" Tom said, jerking his chin in my direction. Clever pup, I thought. Unlike the others, I hadn't phased to make it here. I'd driven, parked and walked at an ordinary human pace to our secluded section of the beach. From the beer cans littered about the place, they'd been waiting a while. Tom wasn't stupid and picked up on that sort of thing, he'd have been wondering why I'd chosen to remain human and figured it out quickly; there were things I didn't want them to see in my head, things I wanted to talk to them about in person. He'd make a great leader, someday.

"Well, I wanted to warn you boys."

At this, all jocularity quickly vanished. Their heavy brows furrowed, and jaws set. "Warn us?" Ben demanded.

"There's a vampire in town, a friend of the Cullen's." I had to add the last part when I felt a wave of heat erupt from them equally. I knew it to be an instinctual reaction, something in our genes warning us to change, to be prepared to attack and defend. "I'm telling you, so you're prepared if you come across a scent that isn't theirs." Theirs being any member of the Cullen Family. "If you do, I want you to steer clear."

At this, Connor scoffed and threw down his can with enough force to split the metal, spilling the foamy insides across wet sand. "That's bullshit, Jake." He growled. "We turned for a reason! You told us it's our duty to protect Forks and kill vampires and now you're asking us to just let them go because the Cullen's know them?" The way he said Cullen's hinted his dislike. "We're supposed to fight."

Though Connor had been the only one to speak, the others felt the same way. I could tell in the way they frowned at the sand and scowled at the distant waves, the way they hunched their shoulders and turned away from me as if I were the enemy. As if keeping them from battle was wrong? Heat stung in my eyes, and I inhaled once, deeply. I flexed my palms and rose steadily to meet Connor's height.

And I phased. I felt the rush of heat burn through my body, originating from deep within. As it burned through me, my limbs stretched, and bones twisted, and fur exploded through my skin. The world appeared then through fresh, brighter eyes. Then, I barked. Loud and deep enough that the boys leapt back from the pit, startled and surprised by the sudden outburst. A clear command, even one understood in their human forms.

The four of them phased too. Salt and Pepper fur sprouting from Ben and Dan. Deep brown from Tom and Connor a silver similar of his very distant cousin, Paul. Before they even completed the phase, I began my rant.

"Listen to me carefully," I thought as calmly as I could. "Just because it is our duty to fight doesn't mean you should be so eager to jump headfirst into battle like some idiot. You lot have never met a vampire that wasn't a Cullen and I bet if you did, it'd be a hell of a lot different than training with Tanya or Emmett." The two Cullen's who actually enjoyed helping these ungrateful lot out. "I've fought their kind. Hundreds of them. I've fought in wars, and I've seen wolves slaughtered." I allowed bright images and harsh sounds to flash to the front of my mind for them to see. The crack of Seth's neck and Leah's defeated howl as she plummeted to her death. Sam and Paul's cries of pain as Jane burned them with her mind…then with an actual torch of flames. Embry's blood pooling in the snow and Jared's broken bones jutting through fur. I thought back to the battlefield of the courtyard in Volterra. The onslaught of death and destruction as Sanctuary forces and Volturi Guard battled it out to the death in the then abandoned city. Among the ruins of the buildings, I could see Ketaya's blood-stained white fur, damp with the water of the fountain she'd been drowned in and Brandon…his empty eyes as he bled out, stabbed multiple times with a blade coated in immortal venom. I remembered the look in sixteen-year-old Paisley's eyes when she realised, she had become an orphan and an Alpha in the span of one night.

The boys settled down into the sand, absorbing the images and with them, every bit of pain I related to them. "That's what happens when you rush into battle. When you're so eager to kill. Friends die."

The memories of that time brought back other faces. Brought back her face and then what had happened with Ness that morning. There was no point in hiding it from them now. I let the information flood through me and into them. The memory of that day two years ago on Ness's birthday, when she'd come to me, warned me…

"Oh, Fuck! Jake, will Ness be okay?" Ben thought.

I sighed and shook my head. "I'll be meeting the Cullen's tonight to try and figure it all out. Until I get back to you, lay low. Got it?" They agreed unanimously. I felt a rush of discomfort and regret from Connor as he bowed his head. I sent a jolt of understanding his way, letting him know I felt what he felt, had been there before but he needed to trust that I was doing everything in my power to keep them safe. I would not lose another wolf.


I was the first to arrive. The small, clearing of trees in the forest a couple miles beyond the edge of the Cullen house was in full view of the moon, its glow lighting up the space enough to not require a fire. I noted a fallen tree trunk covered in aged moss and crumbling bark and dropped down onto it to wait. It wasn't a cold night but before I'd left home an hour ago, I'd made sure to put on my quilted jacket and thick boots; I'd driven to the edge of the forest and taken the long, quiet walk through. I hadn't fancied meeting the Cullens and…her…half-naked.

I picked up the approach of several pairs of footsteps, heading from two directions I knew to be the Cullen's house and Bella's cottage. I didn't have to wait long. They emerged from the bushes one by one. Emmett and Rose, then Esme and Alice, Tanya, and finally Edward and Bells. Each had dressed for the night, black clothes and thick boots and deep hoods; but I also noted how they'd dressed for comfort, no restrictions on their movements. So, they'd also dressed for battle then too.

They'd all been through it. I couldn't imagine what it was like to be Alice…or Esme, the two of them having to return home to their families after the Winter Battle without their mates. Carlisle had been the first to die by Aro's hand that tragic day, his death initiating the battle. Jasper, Alice's husband, had died later in the fight; beheaded and burned by some Volturi guard, I'd been told. Tanya, who not ten years ago had five members in her family and now only she was left. Now I had Ness – well, now I had someone I cared for more than I had could have ever possibly known – I couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose her, for good.

I almost had, once. Jane and her forces had sieged the log cabin the sanctuary had used as a base and taken Renesmee to Volterra where she'd been used as a personal feeding bag for Jane. Ness's unique, hybrid blood being the only thing keeping the Queen of Volterra alive.

"Jacob." Edward's voice sliced through the mirage of memories that came flooding back, a welcome distraction.

"Are you cold, we can make a fire?" Esme asked, sitting beside me and squeezing my palm as if I were one of the others, one of her children. Honestly, I liked it. Mom had died when I'd been young. I'd had Sue there occasionally and though she loved all of us boys as if we were her own, it wasn't until I joined this family of vampires and met Esme that I felt her unconditional, maternal love.

"Nah, I'm fine." I assured. She smiled and looked up to Alice who took a seat by her side. "Ness asleep?" I asked.

"She's exhausted. Dozed off within half-an-hour of getting home." Bella responded, moving to lean against an opposite tree.

Instinctively, my head angled in the direction I knew Bella, Edward and Ness's small cottage house to be. It unsettled me she lay there alone, asleep, unaware her entire family met in the woods just a few miles away to discuss her behind her back. It bothered me because I knew it'd bother her but…she couldn't know the truth. Not yet.

"How're you feeling?" Rosalie asked. Anyone who knew Rose and I would never have thought she'd have cared enough to ask me a question like it but during the war, when the Sanctuary worked together to save Renesmee from Jane, Rose and I had developed a new and unusual bond. No longer enemies but not the ordinary type of friends either. Still, I trusted her with my life.

I shrugged, "Confused."

"You really saw her?" She sat across from me, elbows resting on her knees.

I nodded, then shrugged again, "Well, Ness saw her. I only saw her through what she showed me." The memory of her face surfaced, and I closed my eyes.

"Renesmee showed me too." Bella added.

Edward lay a hand on Bella's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "I've seen what she looks like in Jacob's mind. She's the same woman Ness saw today."

"Jacob," Tanya sighed, "She told you she would only ever return for one reason."

"I know," The words burned as I forced them out, my eyes stung behind my eyelids.

Not picking up that this bothered me, Tanya pressed on. "Has Renesmee been displaying anymore pow-"

"No!" I didn't intend to sound to annoyed with her and she knew that, giving a sympathetic look my way.

Emmett grunted and shook his head, catching our attention. "Maybe this doesn't mean what we think it means. Maybe it's something else. This doesn't mean Ness is in danger, right?" Emmett asked.

"She'll be here soon; you can ask her yourself." Alice mumbled with shaky breath.

At that, my body froze. "Wait. She's coming?" There was no hiding the panic in my voice.

"She knew we'd have a meeting about it. She's on her way here now, following our scents." Edward answered for Alice. As if on cue, footsteps neared from a shadowed patch of space between the tall, dark oaks of the forest, the space narrow and eerie and hollow. I listened carefully to the steps as they neared. A hundred yards. Then eighty. Then fifty. Thirty. Ten. The breeze broke, disturbed by the movement, nothing but a remnant of the storm a few miles away.

The impossible speed of the steps slowed to a human pace. Each of our heads lifted as we rose to face her. I inhaled once and waited, watching as she slowly emerged into the light. Entirely out of place, an elderly woman, dressed in slip on shoes, baggy trousers and a button up cardigan. Her pearly white hair curled into a perm. In the moonlight, her eyes glistened like rubies.

"Evening, all." She cooed in a voice that haunted my nightmares.

I rose and faced her directly forcing away any nerves that threatened to overcome me and after years of shaking away the thought of her, I spoke aloud her name. "Camille."


Asher's Note:

Hello! This is chapter two of Anhedonia. In this chapter, we reunite with some of the Cullen's and see how they are doing after the event of the previous story. We also meet the young boys of the New Pack, considering every member of the old pack died in the Winter Battle. In the end, we are visited by Camille. I wonder who can remember her story. Any reviews on chapters will be replied to on the next chapter.

Thanks for reading.

Stay safe.

~Asher~