I don't own any characters. They belong to Stephenie Meyer.

We started heading to Alaska in the next couple of days. It took us a day to put the house back to its previous state and clean up any evidence that we were ever staying there. Alice was following me around, asking questions about myself, I couldn't help but smile the entire time. Having my sister back in my life was a dream come true. She and Jasper were spending hours talking to each other in their room. I never thought of it as him stealing her away from me, in a sense he was a bigger part of her life than me and having never been in love myself, I couldn't judge them for wanting to spend time alone.

We hunted in the Allegany state park right outside of Pennsylvania. I was worried when Alice took on a large black bear by herself. It looked too big and scary compared to her, even though she was a nearly indestructible creature now, I couldn't help but worry. She fought it well and when the hunt was over, looked as nothing had happened.

"I guess, I should say thank you to Tanya when I meet her. Without her advice, you wouldn't have learned this technique, thus I would still have to steal clothes from poor humans." Alice spoke as we ran.

The night was beautiful and quiet. The owls were hooting, crickets were singing their songs, there were a lot of small rivers in the area. I wasn't sure where we were exactly at that point, but a few minutes later a loud noise, that couldn't be caused by anything other than a waterfall, was slowly getting louder. I made a point in my mind that we were about to cross the border with Canada. This time, we decided to make our way to Alaska through the Great White North and its large population of bears, wolves, and mountain lions to get a good hunt out of our travel.

It took us five days to finally reach Denali, and I admit, I was the reason for such delay. Having known Tanya for quite some time now, I was predicting she would indeed be pissed, as Jasper put it. She wanted us to join her family, so he can tell Carlisle that Alaska could become a permanent home to others, that traveling from one place to another wasn't ideal for everyone. I found that traveling made life interesting, and was honestly afraid that I would indeed turn into a hermit if we had to stay there forever. Besides, more southern states would allow me to go to school again. Now that Alice was with me again, I could start working on achieving my other dreams.

Carmen was outside working hard to get her flowers repotted for the winter when we got to the house. I was wondering why she kept doing it. Summer in Alaska didn't last very long. The female waved at us in surprise.

"Bella! Jasper! Why didn't you call? I am so glad to see you." She gave us both two kisses on the cheeks. "I see you found another one like you. I am Carmen."

"Alice," she spoke, and in return also received two kisses.

"Do you remember me promising that as soon as I found my sister, we would pay you a non-scheduled visit?" I asked Carmen and smiled. "Well, here we are."

"Oh, I am so happy for you, all three of you!" she exclaimed. "Let's get inside the house, I am sure everyone is going to be so excited to finally meet you, Alice. Hold on a second, I thought your sister's name was Mary?" she asked me.

"It's a long story, I am sure everyone will want to hear it. I am sure Alice could tell her story a million times a day without getting tired, but I've already heard it once, and not planning to hear it two times more in just one day." I laughed at my sister who lightly punched my ribs with her elbow.

As soon as we walked into the house, Tanya was running downstairs to hug me.

"Bella! I heard you and Carmen talking outside. Is that her?" she asked looking at Alice. "Wow, is everyone in your family so short or is it just you two who got the lucky gene?"

"You are not that much taller than me, you know?" I smiled, Tanya mocked me and gave a hug to my sister.

"It is really nice to finally meet you, Alice, right?"

"Yes, it is. And likewise. Bella and Jazz told me a lot about you and your family."

"Only good things, I hope. And please, it is our family now." Tanya squeaked.

"About that." Jasper started. "I think we need to have everyone come to the living room."

"Eleazar, Irina, and Kate are hunting, they should be back within an hour or two," Carmen said.

"Alright, can we use your shower? It's been a long trip."

"Of course, you remember where everything is." Tanya motioned her hand upstairs.

I took Alice's hand and she followed me to the bathroom. I grabbed her a few towels and shown her where she could find soap and hair products. Having a note to myself to ask Irina if she has any clothing that she could lend to my sister, I left the bathroom, closing it behind myself.

"What did Jasper mean when he said we need to talk about you three joining the family later?" Tanya was staring at me from behind the door.

"Can't you just wait until everyone is back at the house?"

"Absolutely not, Isabella. Have you already forgotten that I'm very impatient?"

"How could I?" I laughed. "Your patience is a force to be reckoned with, and one would think you would have a lot of it considering your age."

"What about my age? I am no older than Aro or his proteges. Definitely, a baby compared to Amon."

"You are 800 years older than me, Tanya."

"Give or take, that is still not that significant, I am keeping up with new trends, as you can see." She spoke. "Besides, you are what, 60 right now? Do you feel old already?"

"Well, no, but I could still be alive as a human, you, on the other hand, really doubtfully."

"Can you just answer my question, Bella?" she asked. I didn't know what to say or how to start.

"We'll tell everyone at the same time. Tanya, you are all our family no matter if we stay with you or not, so can you please wait a little bit longer? I would love to take a shower." I replied, all the words that left my mouth were true, I did consider the Denalis my family. I doubted I would consider any of them a brother or a sister, in my books I already had two siblings, and they were the best people in my life; however, Tanya and her coven members were very dear to me, and I couldn't think of them less than of an extended family of sorts. Cousins maybe.

"Alright, alright. Go shower, I'll be waiting in the living room. I left you a comb in the spare bedroom. It was supposed to be your New Years' gift, but since you're already here, I guess you can unpack it now."

"Thank you, I appreciate it." I squeezed her hand in gratitude and walked into the bathroom.

It took me about 40 minutes to shower and wash my hair. After our first visit to Denali, my hair was never tangled. I made sure to braid it for hunts and always carry a brush with me whenever we moved. In the past 43 years, I didn't get myself a lot of valuable things, so all of my belongings fit perfectly into a backpack. That miracle creation was acquired by me on my first outing to the human world. My eyes have just turned fully gold, I made sure I hunted beforehand and stopped breathing as soon as I crossed an invisible line separating the suburbs from the city.

The brush that Tanya gave me was absolutely beautiful. Mason Pearson brand was engraved in the handle. I knew that company as being one of the finest hairbrush suppliers. The hand-sorted boar bristles were nice and firm and the rubber of the padding was very soothing to the scalp.

I was looking outside while brushing my hair. Eleazar was the first one who I saw running to the house, Irina ran out of the forest just a few minutes later. Before I could see Kate, I was already walking towards Jasper and Alice's room.

"Bella, you will have to let me braid your hair later. I think a rolled updo would look wonderful on you." My sister spoke.

"Alice, I had an impression that I am your sister and not a mannequin doll." I smiled.

"Well, I was just thinking that since my hair will always stay this short, I can't do anything with it, but yours is so beautiful and long, I will most likely be able to turn it into any hairstyle. At least until we get to…where we are going and I can style…Rosalie's." she whispered the name so quietly; it was hard even for me to hear.

"Alright, but only until we get to the place where we are going." I used the same cipher.

"Well, you will let me do it on a few other occasions after. I am seeing a lot of weddings in our future." She smiled.

"Your own included?" I smiled at Jasper.

"A gentleman never tells." That was all that he said.

We all headed downstairs to wait for Kate's arrival, and when she finally did, it was time for us to tell them the truth. Alice started by telling her story, which made Eleazar very curious about her ability. Carmen was listening very thoroughly, without any interruptions. I could see compassion in her eyes when Alice mentioned that she had spent most of her life alone. After my sister finished, everyone was looking at us.

"So why are you not joining us?" Tanya demanded.

"In one of the visions that Alice had, we were living with another family, and just like her meeting with Jasper, it is a set future. There is a reason for that, and I am not going to stand on fate's way." I breathed out words in one flow. Maybe it was me being terrified of Tanya's reaction or maybe it was the thrill of ripping off the band-aid. Either way, the truth was out now. "That is why we would like to stay with you until the New Year, and then we would have to leave."

"Four months is better than nothing, sister," Kate mentioned. "I am, of course, upset that the circumstances are leading you away from us, but you can still visit, and we can write and call each other all the time."

"I suppose so." Tanya breathed out. She looked rather upset herself. "Wait a second." Her head flew up and her eyes met mine. "What family are you joining in your vision?" that question was addressed to Alice.

"Oh-oh." I shook my head.

"The Cullen's." my sister replied skittishly.

"Wonderful!" Tanya clasped her hands together. "Now, I will never be able to argue that staying in one place is far nicer than constantly moving around! I lost."

"I mean, if Alaska didn't have as much snow, and had more big cities in the area, maybe it wouldn't be so bad staying in one place," Jasper mentioned.

"Well, not everyone grew up in a desert, like you." Was her response.

"I will let you know, that Texas is not a complete desert," Brother mentioned.

"Jazz, let it go. It is." I patted his shoulder.

"It is a beautiful state with a lot of hills, lakes, rivers, and mountains, as well as…" he continued.

"…as well as many hot and dry deserts, semi-arid deserts, coastal deserts, and cold deserts," I interjected.

Alice giggled at Jasper's face. The anger was radiating throughout the room. Oh-oh. I made a wolf angry.

"At least it's better than your dear Magnolia state."

"Why? Because the Lone State sounds much better?" I replied.

Now everyone was laughing, Jasper was lost in words. I could see his mouth opening and closing, but no sound came out of it. In a few minutes, he gave up and pulled Alice closer to him. The tension that was in the room just a few minutes ago disappeared. And what can't a little laughter fix?

In the next few days, we were spending a lot of time together with the Denalis. Irina and Kate took us…or to be more specific, Alice, shopping. My sister was ecstatic, my savings were almost drained because of her enthusiasm. She picked clothes for all three of us.

"If we have to spend four months here, we would need our own clothes. Something that fits the body and the personality, Bella." Those were her reasons, even though I couldn't understand why would we need summer dresses during winter, especially in Alaska.

When we left the store, our bags barely fit inside the car. They were in the trunk, in our feet, and on our laps. I doubted all of my new clothes would fit into my small backpack. We would have to either leave some behind or donate them. Of course, seeing my little sister's passion for shopping, I wouldn't be surprised if in a few weeks she would come home with four luggage trunks, two of them being for herself, and demand we put our belongings in there and run to our new place caring it all. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if she would run with all four of them on herself if I declined.

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. During our time in Alaska, Irina taught all three of us how to drive. I found that the cars were too slow. Running was much faster as well as more fun. We were still playing board games most of the nights. Carmen even took me to Anchorage one of the days to find a good enough book store to pick myself some books and a map for our future traveling. We decided to go to Montana next. It was much closer to Alaska than Maine, besides we knew that the Cullens have just left the West Coast, so there would be no way for them to travel there in the next year. Alice was certain we shouldn't seek them out, she was saying they were not yet ready for us to join them. My sister even went beyond that and even asked Tanya not to mention us to Carlisle.

As usual, we ignored Christmas for my sake and were preparing for the New Year celebration. This year's wish was different than any other. It was for all three of us to finally settle down and have a much-needed emotional break. I knew we wouldn't be with the Cullens until two years from now, and in a way, I was happy about it. 8 people living together in the same house can be distracting.

When the currants rang 12 on the New Year, I saw Carmen and Eleazar kissing, so I turned around only to see Jasper leaning down to do the same thing with Alice. I smiled at them and went towards the three sisters.

"Is it always this awkward around couples?" I asked.

"You will get used to it, besides, one day you will meet yours," Kate said. "At least I hope so."

"I am sure we all will," Tanya said squeezing her sister's hand. "We just have to wait and see what fate has to offer us."

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