Chapter 6

Kate

The deer positioned not far in front of me was unaware of my presence as he grazed on the leafy ferns on the ground. I poised myself to pounce, ready to sink my teeth into his tasty flesh. It was a large buck, his muscles were defined and his stomach plump. I licked my lips and smiled victoriously at my find.

"Kate!" Adam shouted through the trees just as my legs gave a lurch.

The deer's head snapped up and leapt away in seconds. I landed gracefully on the spot where the deer had been, muttering profanities to myself.

"Kate! You'll never believe what just happened to me."

"Why on earth can't you make sure I'm not hunting before you start shouting to the world and scaring off my prey?" I asked through my teeth.

"Oh… sorry, but guess!"

"You fell off a cliff and lived through it?" I guessed. "Unfortunately."

"Oh come on, you don't want to be rid of me. I'm so fun!" Adam laughed.

"Right… so what did you find?" I asked, only to humor him. He jumped into the tree above his head and sat on the branch.

"I saw wolves," he said, his eyes widening.

"Wow!" I said, my tone drenched in sarcasm.

"No, these wolves weren't like normal wolves. They were HUGE. And they seemed to be talking to me…"

He kept talking, but I had rooted to the spot, staring at a spot below him vacantly. Werewolves?

"Wait," I interrupted him, "were you in La Push?" I wasn't worried about running into any wolves out here—we were thirty minutes away from La Push running at a fairly high speed.

"Well, not in La Push. Around it."

My mouth dropped. "What did they do?" My voice had risen a few pitches in shock.

"They told me to leave," he said, shrugging.

"They didn't attack you?" I asked in confusion.

"No." He looked away for a moment in silence, and then turned back to me again. "It was really weird. There was a big group of them, and they looked like they were ready to kill. But one of them jumped in front of the others and looked at the other wolves. It was as if they were communicating or something. The one who stood apart seemed to tell them to relax or something."

I closed my eyes tightly, my hands trembling anxiously.

"What did the wolf look like?"

"Which one?" he asked dumbly.

"The one in front!" I nearly shrieked.

"Uh, he had brown hair. It kind of reminded me of chocolate, except a really dirty and unkempt chocolate. Seriously, this wolf looked like he hadn't touched a comb in forever." he said.

I slowly shook my head, my breathing getting deeper and deeper. I clenched my fists together, and I almost started crying, but it somehow didn't feel right with my vampire eyes.

"What's wrong?" Adam asked after a moment, his voice unsure. "Have you met that wolf before?"

I took a deep, steadying breath. "That was Luke."

"Luke?" he asked, perplexed. "As in boy toy Luke?"

I clenched my teeth. "Stop saying that."

Adam picked a leaf off of the branch he perched on and shot it at me. I reacted in a second, pushing it out of the air and to the ground beneath me.

"Wait, how do you know Luke is a werewolf?" Adam asked, pausing and looking carefully at me.

I played with the hem of my shirt. "I just knew."

"For a while?"

I carefully measured his expressions before answering. "A while."

"So you knew about him before you were a vampire?"

"Well, yeah, Adam. He was my boyfriend. It was deeper than a summer romance. Of course I knew about him."

Adam leaned back and sighed. "Wow. You must know a lot about this, then. Did you know about vampires?" he asked.

I nodded, holding his eyes.

"So how did you really get like this?" he asked.

I sighed and jumped up to the branch parallel to his and folded my legs. I balanced perfectly without so much as a wobble.

"It all starts with this basic principle: wolves and vampires are enemies. Period. And when vampires are on the wolves' territory, especially if they've hunted, they won't pause once before attacking to kill, which is why I was so surprised you are alive."

"Oh, come on. We're the strongest predators out there," Adam said.

I shook my head. "Not true."

"So wait, why didn't they kill me?" he asked.

"Adam, Luke knows you. You're my brother…" I trailed off. Why did Luke let Adam go? Adam was a vampire. The only other vampires they didn't kill were the first vegetarian ones they had come across, the ones who showed understanding and left without trouble. Did Luke stop to warn Adam because he saw the flecks of gold in his eyes, and understood he was transitioning to become a vegetarian? Or was it because he knew about me, and thought I was with Adam.

"So, I should be dead?" Adam asked, not sounding too convinced.

"Consider yourself lucky."

He shrugged. "Sure. Shall we go hunt? I think I let your dinner run away."

I chuckled and pushed him out of the tree and leapt after him. Both of us landed gracefully on our feet, and we gave into our senses in order to find a tasty animal.