I'm incredibly sorry about the long wait. Things have been hectic lately, but hopefully these next two, long chapters will make up for it. And I'll try to do better with the updates.
***BELLA POV***
We don't have to travel far to reach the others, and we soon approach a large clearing filled with several, small log-cabins.
"Roger," Sabrina calls before she jumps on her mates back.
"Hey, Sabrina," Roger chuckles before Sabrina climbs off, and the two share a quick kiss.
Like Sabrina, Roger is sixteen. He has short, blood-red hair that's slicked back and pale skin. His eyes were what surprised me the most when I first met him; his left eye is emerald-green while his right is ice-blue.
"Bell," a voice calls, and I turn around to catch the person before they run into me.
"Hey there, Lewis," I smile as I pick the six-year-old boy up in my arms. "Did you miss me?"
He just nods with his shaggy, sandy-blonde hair nearly reaching his blue-green eyes. Lewis is kind of small for his age, but the others think he'll grow soon enough.
"Throw me," he commands in his little voice, and I laugh before tossing him in the air.
He squeals in laughter as I catch him.
"Where's your dad, bud?" I ask as I look around.
"He went out to gather food with some of the others," a voice answers, and I turn to see a guy of sixteen exit one of the cabins and sit on the steps. "They'll be back soon."
"Why didn't you go with them, Shadow?" I ask as I sit beside him with Lewis in my lap, and he shrugs.
"I figured they could handle it without me; besides, I'm needed here to hold down the fort," he smiles as Lewis tries to grab his spiked, silver hair that has black tips.
Shadow's right eye is a storm-cloud grey, but his left is covered by his bangs. He gently catches Lewis' hand before the boy can move away the bangs and reveal the scars left from when he was attacked at the age of six.
"Where is everyone?" Bree asks as she appears in front of us.
"Anthony, Kida, Elena, and Cain are gathering food while Khalin, Benjamin, and Tia are hunting, and Lin is reading in her cabin; the rest of us are out here," Shadow answers.
"How long until they'll be back?" she asks.
"Now," a voice answers, and we turn as three vampires enter the clearing.
"Hey, welcome back," Bree smiles at the three as they walk over with a couple deer each.
Each of the vampire's eyes are a dark-coral in color, for each usually drink human blood, but are surviving on animal for now. The first vampire is Khalin, the overall leader of our group. He's only twenty-three, but his hair is white and close-cut. The next one is Benjamin who is fifteen with black hair, and he has a gift of manipulating the elements. The last one is Tia, Benjamin's mate, who is seventeen with black hair and has no gift.
"Benji," Lewis calls as Benjamin walks over.
"Alright, Lewis, hold out your hand for me, ok?" Benjamin commands and Lewis does as he's told.
Benjamin then pulls out a small container of water before pouring some onto Lewis' hand. Before the water falls, Benjamin uses his gift to make the water move around on Lewis' hand and into shapes. Lewis cheers at this and claps his hands while Benjamin places the water back in the container.
"Again, again," Lewis cheers.
"Maybe later," Benjamin chuckles as the rest of our group enters the clearing.
Anthony is leading them with Kida, Elena, and Cain right behind him.
"Daddy," Lewis calls as he jumps from my lap and runs towards Anthony.
"Hey, Lewis," Anthony smiles as he pats the boy's head with his free hand for his other is currently balancing a large buck on his shoulder.
"What; no hug for me?" Kida fake pouts and Lewis runs to give her and the others a hug.
Kida is sixteen with pitch-black hair that reaches her lower back and midnight-blue eye; she's' also Roger's and Sabrina's alpha. Elena is a Latina woman of twenty-one with long, wavy, brown hair and brown, almost black, eyes. That just leaves Cain who is an Irish woman of twenty with short, pure-black hair and bright-blue eyes. Each of the girls are carrying a deer as well, before they toss them towards the fire pit in the middle of the clearing.
"So, who's cooking tonight?" Sabrina asks as she walks over with Roger.
"Decide amongst yourselves, but I need to speak with Shadow, Bella, and Bree in my cabin," Khalin says and I exchange confused looks with the others before we follow Khalin into one of the cabins.
Like the rest of the cabins, it only has one room, two sleeping-mats, and a few trunks containing clothes and other things.
"What's going on?" I ask once the door is closed.
"I've been requested to attend a meeting tomorrow, and I would like for you three, as well as Lin, to come," he answers.
"Who will be there?" Shadow asks.
"I'm not positive, but I believe we will be meeting with one of the Ravenwood shifters along with a few other people," he answers, and I blink.
'Ravenwood? As in Natalie Ravenwood?' I wonder to myself.
Yes, I do remember snippets of Natalie from my past, but not much. I've also seen her a few times after the accident, but not often.
"How long will we be gone?" Bree asks.
"I don't plan on us being gone for long," Khalin answers. "We should be back by tomorrow evening or the next day."
"I'll go with you," Shadow says.
"Me too," Bree agrees, and Khalin turns to me.
"What about you, Bella?" he asks.
"I'll go," I answer, and he nods.
"Good, then get your things ready," he commands. "We leave before sunrise."
With that said, we leave the cabin to pack some things for the next day, completely unaware of the future ahead of us.
Next chapter will be up in a few minutes.