Chapter 1: Family

A/N: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. (In other words – I don't own it, I'm just playing). Please take the time to leave some words if you really loved it or really hated it! Thanks to my beta FE71SH for working the magic.

– Thirteen Months Earlier –

– EPOV –

I picked Bella up and twirled her in my arms. She giggled as we spun in a loose circle.

"I love you," I whispered against her hair as I slid her body back down along mine to place her feet on the ground.

She smiled widely at me. I know.

I stared at her and got lost in her butterscotch eyes, before bringing my fingers into her hair and guiding her face towards mine. My lips hit hers with an electric zing and my tongue crept forward, not bothering to wait for permission for entrance into her mouth – she was already ready and waiting to receive it. I closed my eyes as the kiss created a fire deep in the pit of my stomach. I kept Bella cradled off the ground against me; her body bent into mine so that we had maximum contact, her hands caressed my hair.

Oh, get a room! Jacobs's thoughts disrupted the perfect moment. I growled against Bella's mouth, upset at the interruption, but Bella just giggled – no doubt guessing what had caused my growl even if she wasn't sure who.

"Ew, Aunt Bewwa that's icky." Max screwed his nose up at us. I laughed and looked around at our extended family. Everyone was smiling and talking casually, helping Jacob and Harriett to pack up the car. We probably should have been sad – Jacob was taking his family home today, and Cain left with his a week ago, but it was hard to feel sad with so much love around.

I bent down and picked Max up. "One day – you'll find a girl that you'll want to do that to."

Max shook his head fervently. "No! Girls are yuck." He stuck his tongue out to demonstrate the point.

"Don't go telling your mother that," Bella whispered to him.

"Silly, Bewwa, Mommy isn't a girl!"

Bella and I laughed, but I felt a tinge of sadness wishing, not for the first time, that I could give Bella a family of her own. Every year we went through this same routine, holding onto the love and joy as long as possible, and every year their departure was followed by a melancholy month for my family.

I put Max down as soon as he started to squirm in my arms – at such a young age it was hard to ignore the natural aversion his kind had for my kind. Luckily, Sue had shown no indication that she was going to change – she never complained about Bella's smell – which was definitely a good thing. Bella was her favourite Aunt after all.

It was another half an hour before the melancholy mood finally settled over everyone. It was about the same time that Jacob and Harriett were strapping Max and Sue into their car seats.

One more round of hugs and they were gone for another year.

I held Bella's hand as we meandered through the forest. Technically, we were hunting but neither of us felt a strong compulsion to feed. We were here simply because we felt the need to be alone, to get away from the oppressive sadness that leeched into the family at this time of the year.

Bella suddenly perked up a little and I realised why shortly after. Two mountain lions were hunting nearby. I knew what that meant. She turned her body around in front of me, hooking her fingers into the waistband of my jeans and smiled at me. How do you feel about a little contest?

I smiled. "You should know I'm always up for a little friendly competition."

Good. She darted off – running at full speed. I counted the seconds as I watched her rush through the underbrush. I had just reached sixty-five when she returned with not a hair out of place. Her skin was flushed slightly from the fresh supply of blood and shimmered slightly in the low light. Her eyes were a meld of golds and browns and butterscotch. She was everything I had ever desired.

Sixty-five. She gloated, triumphantly. Beat that.

"Hardly a challenge," I whispered low and fast. Even if the remaining lion had been paying attention to us it wouldn't have been aware of my speech. "Go," I said, telling her to start counting – but counting for myself as well.

I turned away from Bella, stalking towards my pray.

You look so sexy doing that.

I waved my hand at her behind my back. She had her shield down so I was being inundated with every thought she was having – but the pictures that she was concentrating on were too much. I sank deeper into my crouch, then I launched towards the lion and took it down swiftly. I drained it as quickly as I could and turned back towards Bella. Sixty-seven seconds. But I had distractions to contend with.

I closed the distance between Bella and I, our despondency was erased by our little competition. Instead of sorrow, we felt need. I tucked a loose strand of Bella's hair behind her ear. "I'm calling that one mine, considering the distractions I had to contend with," I murmured to her.

"One comment is hardly distractions," she replied in her perfect, bell-like voice. It was a sound I could never get sick of, and a sound I would recognise anywhere. She put her mouth close to mine and licked a trail along the edge of my lip. I could smell the scent of blood mixed with her venom and it was overpowering.

"No, but the constant thoughts around that comment definitely were," I said as I ghosted my hands down her sides. I barely contacted her skin but she shivered beneath my touch and issued a small purr of contentment and desire.

I clasped at her waist, pressing my mouth forward against hers. She tasted like perfection. I loved the subtle changes that took place in her body after feeding. It made me desire her even more – if that were possible. My hands ran involuntarily along her back, my fingers slipping into the waistband of her jeans. I wanted to get her naked - and soon.

Uh-uh, not this time, she thought to me. You first.

I laughed, but complied. I dropped my hands off her body and took two steps back, unbuttoning my shirt as I went. Her eyes widened slightly as she took in my slowly revealed form. I pulled my shirt the rest of the way off before I reached for the button on my pants. I stopped. "Or did you want to do that?" I quirked my eyebrow at her.

Instantly she was on me, hands tugging at buttons and zippers. Her mouth met mine and we tasted each other greedily. My hands went into her hair as she grasped hold of my erection. I groaned into her mouth and she moaned back in response. My hands trailed along her back again and fumbled quickly with her jeans, pushing them off to gain access. We both had an animalistic desire to fulfil. As soon as she was free of her clothing she wrapped her legs around my waist and I pushed myself into her. I held her up with one arm under her bottom, while the other explored her body. It always felt new and exciting to touch her – the electricity between us hadn't died in all the years we'd been together.

I carried her a few steps until she was pressed hard against a tree. I used the resistance to grind harder into her, each thrust earning a new groan, each withdrawal a gasp. She raked her fingers through the bark of the tree, leaving deep gashes in the trunk. As her climax hit, she threw her arms around my neck and pulled my face into hers even harder, grunting her pleasure into my mouth in short staccato bursts.

I ground against her a few more times to find my own release before we slumped together, still pressed against the tree.

"You are mine, Bella," I whispered against her neck. "Forever."

She looked deep into my eyes. "Forever."

We pulled apart and then dressed each other slowly, reverently, before heading back to the house – completely forgetting the reason we had left in the first place. The slight flush that coloured our cheeks supported our 'hunting' excuse so no one questioned the disarrayed state of our clothes. Then again in our family, we could turn up with no clothes and barely an eyebrow would be batted. Except maybe from Emmett – we could always trust Emmett to raise the subject of sex. But the mood was still down when we entered the house. In fact, it was worse. Alice was blocking me, reciting all of Shakespeare's sonnets word for word repeatedly and Jasper was concerned about a vision Alice had had. Apparently it had stalled her in her tracks and she refused to share the details with him.

"What was it Alice? What happened?" I asked.

Bella looked to me and then to Alice.

"Just a vision I need to talk to Bella about. Alone."

I turned to Bella, a small nod from her and a confirmation in her thoughts told me we were one. "Anything you need to share with Bella can be shared with me."

Alice looked between Bella and I. Her thoughts, and Jasper's, indicated her desire to be alone with Bella. Apparently she was too anxious to talk to me. "Fine," I said. "If you must talk to Bella alone – do it."

Alice pulled Bella from the house, but I could tell something was wrong. There was no excitement in her movements. Whatever the vision was had sent Alice plummeting to the pits of despair. And in that second I guessed what it must have been. I was an idiot for not seeing it sooner. Renee had been sickly lately; maybe Alice had seen her death. I stood at the back door to the house, waiting for Bella to return – knowing she would need my support when she did.

// * \\ * // * \\ * // * \\

I was standing by the back door waiting for... something. I had been waiting for a while – a few hours maybe. I scanned through my memory, trying to find what was missing – my memories were patchy and strange, with great stretches of absent time. It concerned me greatly as I had never had a problem with my memory before, or at least I didn't think I had. I looked around the house and did a quick head count. Esme, Carlisle, Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper where all inside the house. That only left Alice missing. I took a step outside the door and was assaulted with the scent of an unknown vampire. My senses where on edge – it was the single-most pleasing scent I'd ever had the pleasure of smelling, but it was everywhere. I was concerned that a vampire could get that close to the house without any of us noticing. I worried for my family – foremost for Alice. Then I realised the scent wasn't just over the house. It was over me. My clothes were saturated in the scent of this unknown vampire. One by one, the minds of my family grew troubled by the scent too – and with Alice's absence. Everyone was tense and on edge as a growing unease swept across the house.

"Jasper," I whispered low and fast. "Where's Alice?"

His anxiety skyrocketed. Can't you hear her thoughts?

I shook my head. If I had been human, my heart would have been pounding – as it was venom pooled thickly in my mouth. I was glad I had hunted recently, meaning my strength would be at its peak - although the memory of my hunting trip was one of those that I had patchy recollection of. In fact every memory of the past thirty years seemed dulled and muted. If I thought hard I could find memories of my family, but there seemed to be something missing from them. Every muscle in my body was wound tight with tension as I tried to piece together what had happened. I decided whatever it was it had to do with Alice's absence.

"Emmett, Jasper – we're going hunting."

The three of us quickly picked up Alice's scent intermixed with the unknown vampire. I didn't care how good that scent was – if Alice was hurt in anyway, there would be hell to pay.

We had gone a mile out from the house when the scent of the unfamiliar vampire doubled back on itself and headed off in another direction. I glanced that way – debating whether or not to follow. I saw a flash of long brown hair and a feminine form leaning against a tree in the far distance. I wanted to chase her down, but in the end the call of Alice's scent, of family, was too strong to resist. I needed to know if she was alright before I decided what action to take against the strange female vampire who had been around our house.

Emmett, Jasper and I, found Alice leaning against a tree. Her face and thoughts were full of grief but for reasons unknown. Her thoughts were chaotic, shifting and changing. Almost as if they were a story that was being rewritten as I read.

"No, Bella!" Alice screamed, launching herself in the direction that the other vampire had fled. Jasper's arms came around Alice's waist, holding her in place.

"Who's Bella?" I asked. Something stirred deep inside me, some distant unconscious thought. But after running through every one of my memories I came up blank. The name Bella meant nothing to me.

"What?" Alice asked.

"You just screamed for Bella? Who's that?"

"I..." – her mind sung out in confusion – "I don't know."

"Are you hurt?" Jasper asked, pulling her body into his. She shook her head against him. I watched their shared love and envied their closeness. Sometimes, it was hard being the only unpaired one. It felt strange, the envy, it had never been something that affected me before. But now it felt like my lips burned in remembrance of passionate kisses, my arms longed to wrap around a familiar body and my body yearned for warm fingers launching long and detailed explorations. My body betrayed me with these memories – because none of those things ever happened to me.

The four of us walked back towards the house. As we passed the spot where the strange, but alluring, scent branched off I looked down there. I wondered whether we should investigate the mystery of the female vampire. But she'd obviously not harmed Alice, so maybe she had just been curious about our lifestyle. She wouldn't be the first, and she probably wouldn't be the last.

Just as we were about to re-enter the house Alice had a vision, and I watched it pass.

"What is it?" Jasper asked, readying himself to turn back for the hunt – assuming that the female was the problem. I shook my head.

"The Volturi are coming," Alice and I said in near perfect unison.

It's strange, Alice thought to herself. It's almost like I've had that vision before – but different.

"How was it different?" I asked, pulling her aside.

I don't know.

As the rest of them headed back inside, I stood on the back porch drinking deeply of the captivating scent of the female. I debated going after her. There was something calling me to her – like a siren song. I sighed before turning and heading back into the house. If the female was going to be a problem, Alice and I would know.

A/N:- So....*hides away waiting for the hate to begin*

Thank you for everyone that is sticking with this story despite the bust up. There is a reason & just a reminder... I am primarily a HEA girl :)