From the dark pile of steaming, rotting rubbish, the sound of cracking bones echoed through the gloomy fog of the thick sleeping night. The guards froze, fear flushing their cheeks, as the figure of a woman rose from the heap, the face fiery and wild against the relatively calm nights sky. Both wizards withdrew their wands and shouted pointless spells at the reformed corpse.

With a smile sweeter than the thickest honey, and a hand quicker than lightning, the beautiful woman flashed between the two, their spells useless against the perfectly formed, diamond hard body. With a final crack the head rolled back into place as she sped away, reaching a thicket some three miles from the house. Esme allowed herself to heal fully, slumping to the ground beneath the protective leaves. She knew she didn't have long before they came searching for her. Pulling herself up, she prepared for another, longer sprint. One thought consumed her, and one thought kept her from falling once more into the dark pit she had so recently occupied.

"I must get to Carlisle…I must get home…"

Esme, her hair dark and scraggy in places from her vicious ordeal, repeated her thoughts in a steady mantra as once again she broke into a steady, lightning quick run, the images of her loving family flashing through her mind like photographs on the wind.

*

"Got any threes?"

"Go Fish!"

"Leah, I know you have three's, just hand them over and we'll say no more about it!"

"What are you gonna do Seth? Take them from me?"

"I will if I have to!"

"You'll have to catch me for them!"

Both brother and sister starred at each other for a split second before Seth, jumping on his feet, leapt gracefully into the air. Leah slipped sideways, leading to Seth tumbling to the ground. He huffed and returned to his seat mumbling 'If I were in wolf form I'd have pinned ya!'

"Will you two just stop!" Jacob snarled, his eyes sweeping the landscape across La Push.

"Why are we here anyway, Jake? If it's cool to ask?"

Embry who had remained in wolf form after his dawn patrol of their new perimeters, huffed at Seth's question in concurrence, then laid his head on his paws and fell asleep.

"Sam reckons he has something important to tell me and, as a friend, I agreed to his terms of meeting on his grounds. Be on your guard, though, I am not one hundred percent sure of his motives."

The alpha role suited Jacob, he had grown even bigger, if that was at all possible, his short black hair had grown thicker and longer once more, but rather than hanging around his shoulders, he wore it in a tightly knit braid (Leah's idea) down his back.

"Aww Boss, it makes you look like Pocahontas!" She had added after it was finished. Mockery aside, it suited him, and was practical when phasing as it simply came apart. His skin had tanned and rippled against his muscles, making him as impressive as a man as he was as an alpha male wolf.

A scent caught him and he turned to see Sam and the remaining Quilute pack emerging from the buildings on the Res, the strength they once possessed being almost a shadow of what it once was, before the wars.

"Sam? Why have you asked me here?"

Sam approached Jacob with his arms outspread, and Jake was pulled into a large bear hug that seemed to have a secondary agenda, maybe a subtle display of strengths. Jacob hugged back and heard a soft click as he accidentally knocked a bone from somewhere on Sam's body. Sam let out a laugh that boomed across La Push and Jacob smiled back, his body still on alert in case of a strange trap. Jacob knew that although Sam had accepted the break up of the pack, he never truly accepted his demotion from leader. He may not have loved the job, but something within him missed it, which is why he had kept his own pack of the remaining Quilute males, and had forced a boundary on Jacob's pack. The Res was neutral, but the other boundaries from the ancient treaty were still impressed upon Jacob's pack, they know subconsciously being marked as the "Blood Sucker Lover's". Sam began through his laughter at a playful joke made about Jacob's hair.

"We have some news from Charlie, you have been away from civilization so long, you and the pack, they thought you'd moved forwards to Canada or something."

Sam at these words swept his eyes over Jacob's pack, lingering sadly for a second on Leah, who locked eyes ferociously, then turned her face away in self-reproach. He instantly moved his eyes back to Jacob, who seemed unconvinced at his friendly exchange of recent news. He continued strongly,

"Charlie says that Renesmee and Bella have been with Esme for the past month and they apparently are somewhere in Romania, visiting friends. But he hasn't heard from them since. He mentioned that Carlisle had gone to England for a while and he was hoping to meet up with the girls there. But Charlie hasn't heard anything else."

Sam smiled again, this time it seemed to be falser, like he was holding something back. Jacob noticed and, after staring at him for a long while in silence, he nodded slowly.

"Is that all? We could have found that out by visiting Charlie, or I could have called in on Billy. Why have you called this meeting, Sam?"

"I was just…concerned…Jake, from regular calls, suddenly Charlie gets nothing from the girls for a month. Carlisle say anything to you before he left? Did he even leave you a message? I mean I don't want to pry in your business, but it sounds wrong to me, and I just thought you should go away with that bit of info. I mean I highly doubt the blonde bloodsucker and her mate will give you anything useful, so I felt…"

"You felt you needed to check up on me and my pack as soon as we got back. Thanks, Sam, but just because we haven't checked in at The Res lately, doesn't mean we have moved anywhere. Sorry to disappoint…"

"Jake, I'm not trying to…"

"Goodbye, Sam!"

Jacob turned from Sam firmly, the rage beginning to boil in the pit of his stomach. If am had wanted the low down on his pack, why didn't he just ask Billy, or call him on a land line or something. It had nothing to do with him anymore how his pack grew.

Jacob phased, quickly followed by Seth and then the remaining members of his pack. As they left La Push, he heard the other wolves phase too, and run off in the opposite direction.

What was all that about?

I don't know Seth.

Duh! Obviously Sam just wanted to check the pack out, see if we've grown. Right Jake?

Jake?

Jacob remained silent; he had learnt to keep his thoughts independent of the pack as well as part of the group. What had Sam meant by bringing up the girls trip to Europe? He had appeared to be almost smug in his passing of almost redundant information. He huffed as continued to run through the forests until he smelt the familiar, putrid stink of the vamps house. He had to check this out with blondie, she'd put his mind at rest.