A/N: Sorry it's short, but I suck at filler. I wanted to add some fluff, but it I realize it's not great fluff. Anyway, I wanted to post this, because if I tried to lengthen it, it would have been another week.
Also, we've officially passed 100 pages in word, so yay!
And as always, I don't own this universe, I just like playing in it.
Once it was decided that Kat needed to tell us about her past we had to decide where the lengthy conversation was going to take place. Obviously stuffing everyone in Billy's small home wasn't going to work. That, and Kat had grudgingly admitted that the Cullens needed to hear the story. Leah wasn't leaving Kat anytime soon, so it was decided that the story would be told at the Cullen mansion, with Leah present to relay the necessary information back to the pack, who were staying to guard their healing Alpha.
Which is exactly why there were now seven vampires staring shocked at Kat, who was still trembling slightly with Leah holding her as tightly as she could in a protective and comforting manner. Rikki and Danni were giving the Alpha sympathetic looks, and I was trying not to lose my lunch at the story. It may have been the second time I had heard it, but that didn't change how horrible it was.
Carlisle was the first to break the uneasy silence, though it took him a few seconds to decide on his words.
"You're saying that the Volturi approve of supernatural dogfights, for lack of a better term?" His tone was gentle; however, this was the first time I had seen anger so close to the surface of the normally calm man.
"Not just approve. They run them." Kat looked up at the vampire sitting across from her. "They hire out the best trackers in the world to The Pit. That way, the trainers get a steady supply of fighters, and the Volturi get a cut of the profits. And they get to eliminate shifters. Money and a lack of opposition from other supernaturals, it's a win-win for them."
"That's horrible." Esme growled, looking as if she was ready to rip out all of the Volturi's throats.
Looking around the room, I saw that all the Cullens looked horrified and rather pissed off at the realization. Even Esme, who I could only think of as sweet and motherly, looked like the vampire I sometimes could forget she was. It seemed that the Cullens had taken the pride into their family seamlessly, and without any of us really realizing it. They were just as ready to fight for us as they were for one of their own.
"Wait." Emmett spoke up next, a look of deep concentration on his face. "If your old trainer is coming back for you, I'm guessing that his boss told him to."
"I'm assuming." Kat agreed. "Which means that the Volturi more than likely hinted to them that it was time to collect me." Leah growled slightly at the comment, somehow shifting closer to Kat.
"Which means they want this coven gone. Why else would they come after a fighter who's been gone for, what, 27 years now?" Rikki finished for her.
"We don't know that." Carlisle argued.
"They've wanted us gone for how long now? They think we're a threat, father, and this provided them an easy opportunity to eliminate us." Jasper reasoned.
"But if it fails we know it was them who sent the attack." Carlisle shot back. "And if word got out that the Volturi now attacks covens that have done no wrong…"
"I shouldn't have known so much about the Volturi." Kat spoke up; cutting off whatever Jasper was going to say next. "I only knew because of Skylar, and she only knew because she overheard a conversation she wasn't supposed to. In the minds of our trainers, all the shifters were completely clueless to any higher involvement. So in the mind of the Volturi, you shouldn't know a thing about their involvement either."
"Still think that they don't have a hand in this attack?" Jasper asked his father, who had nothing to say.
"We're going to have to prepare to fight." Kat told the Cullens, her eyes sweeping between each member of the family. "If they are coming, then we have to be ready to meet them head-on. They will find us wherever we go, and we can't leave the humans of this town defenseless."
"I agree. I have some experience fighting newborns, and added to your experience fighting shifters," Kat flinched at his words, and to his credit, Jasper did look remorseful, "we can get everyone ready to fight."
"Right. Alice," Kat looked over to the smallest vampire, who was currently holding onto me as if I was going to disappear, "how many vampires and shifters were there in your vision?"
"Victoria is up to seven newborns now. But I can't tell how many shifters."
"Why?" I asked, looking down at her.
"They're still fuzzy, or completely blacked out. It's hard to count when I don't know how many are in the black spots. If I had to guess, maybe ten at the least, maybe fifteen at the most." She told Kat with an apologetic look.
"Let's hope it's ten." Kat said and let her head fall back against the couch.
"We need to get a hold of Edward, let him know what's going on." Marina declared.
"I'll call him as soon as we're done here." Carlisle nodded at his newest daughter.
"We should start training as soon as we can. How long do we have to prepare, Alice?" Jasper asked.
"Two weeks and three days, but that could change. Victoria is trying to figure out how to best work with the shifters and not have her army kill them in the middle of the fight." Alice answered.
"Let's hope the shifters aren't too smart then." Kat grumbled.
"What?" Leah asked her, voicing everyone's confusion.
"If they're smart, then they fight exactly as the trainer tells them. If they aren't smart, if they listen to their heart and not their head, then they'll turn on the vampires. But we can't count on that. Knowing The Pit, they only let the experienced shifters out, and they know not to go against orders." Kat explained.
"You did." Emmett pointed out.
"I had two very good reasons. One, they were trying to kill me. And two, I had someone to keep living for." Kat told him. "Anyway, I suggest we start training tomorrow. Bella, Jacob, and I are healing from superficial wounds and are tired from fighting the werewolf. That, and Sam is still healing, so the pack won't want to leave him this early on."
"I agree." Jasper nodded. "So we'll meet up tomorrow night and start training and planning. Hopefully Edward will also be back by then."
"Right. Now that that's all figured out," she took a deep breath, "all I want right now is a comfortable bed, so I'm going to head home." Kat announced, prompting Leah to loosen her hold so the two could stand up.
"That's our cue." Rikki huffed. "'Bout time, too."
"You're kind of a bitch sometimes, you know that?" Danni laughed, pulling the taller girl out of the room.
"Bella?" Alice spoke softly, trying to get my attention, an obvious question in her eyes.
"Nope, I'm staying right here. If there's a fight coming then I'd prefer to spend as much time as possible with you." I told her, internally flinching at the though of leaving my mate. Especially in a time like this.
"Good. I was afraid I was going to have to blackmail you to stay. That or tie you up." She shrugged.
"Kinky!" Emmett boomed from the other couch.
"Oh, shut it." I groaned at him.
"Hey, it was your girlfriend who brought it up." He shrugged.
"Anyway," Kat spoke up to stop Emmett from saying anything else, "you can just tell Bella where we're meeting up tomorrow, and she'll let us know." Kat announced, and headed out with a small wave in my direction.
"Wait!" Alice called and jumped out of my arms to stand in front of Kat.
"Yes?" Kat asked, an apprehensive look on her face.
"I just wanted to thank you." Alice told her. "You saved Bella when we weren't here, and you protected her when we couldn't. I owe you so much for that."
"It's what I do, apparently. Save half-dead girls and bring them to their mates." Kat dismissed with a small smile.
"And I also want to say I'm sorry. Sorry for everything that you've had to go through. And I'm sorry for-"
"No." Kat cut her off, a hard look on her face.
"Excuse me?"
"Don't you dare be sorry for finding your mate." Kat gripped Alice's upper arms, staring straight into her eyes. "You two belong together. I can get over petty anger for having something taken from me, especially since she never truly belonged to me. So you should never be sorry for what happened in that clearing, okay? She's your true mate." Kat closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. "That's a rare thing to find in this world, even if my pride doesn't make it seem that way."
Alice looked completely shocked, but slowly collected herself and offered Kat a small smile. "Alright. But I am still sorry that your life was so hard. Is that okay?"
"Yeah, though I've heard that about fifty times now." Kat relented, letting go of Alice. Kat started to turn to leave, but Alice pulled her into a tight hug before she could go.
"Alright, alright. You proved your point. You can let me go now." Kat huffed, though I could see the smile trying to break through. Alice really had a gift when it came to getting people to like her.
"You really are just a big kitten underneath it all, aren't you?" Leah teased as the two turned to leave.
"Shut up…"
Once the pride left the other members of the Cullen family dispersed. Carlisle and Esme walked up the stairs, Marina pulled Jasper out to go hunting, and Emmett settled himself on a couch to play video games with Rosalie sitting close to him reading a magazine.
"So, I'm assuming you already have today completely planned out." I teased Alice once she rejoined me on the couch.
"Who, me?" She pointed at herself and gave me an innocent look.
"Yes you, you little control freak." I teased her.
"Well… You were supposed to be gone all day, so I was going to go shopping to distract myself." She admitted.
"I'm not spending my last stress-free day shopping." I told her, my tone relaying that there was no way in hell.
"Especially not with a face like that." Emmett chuckled from his position across the room.
"Is it really that bad?" I groaned, trying to look at my nose.
"No, you just have some bruising under your eyes." Alice assured me.
"Great." I grumbled.
"Well, I really don't want to sit here and listen to Emmett yell at the TV all day, so…"
"So?" I asked.
"What do you want to do?"
"Honestly? Just lie down somewhere and relax. I've had one hell of a day." I admitted with a laugh.
"Then it's decided." She declared, jumping off the couch. "Let's go."
"Go where?" I asked warily.
"Don't worry about it." She winked and gathered me into her arms, and before I had any idea what was going on we were running through the forest.
It was actually kind of relaxing having Alice carry me through the forest, though that probably had something to do with the fact it didn't give me motion sickness anymore. But I also just felt safe in her embrace, I knew that she would never drop me, never let go, and never let any harm come to me. So I nuzzled into her neck and enjoyed the ride, even though I still had no idea where we were going.
After a few minutes of running, Alice slowed down and eventually stopped, prompting me to raise my head and look at our surroundings. Looking around I realized it was the meadow where we had our first date just a few nights ago. Though at this point, that seemed like a lifetime ago.
"A nice place to just relax, that's what you wanted, right?" Alice asked as she put me down.
"You are a genius." I grinned and pulled her to the middle of the meadow.
"Of course I am." She stated matter-of-factly.
Rolling my eyes, I basically collapsed into the grass, pulling her smaller frame down with me, and pulled her into my side. She seemed perfectly okay with this, and wrapped her arms around my torso, nuzzling her face into my neck.
Of course, being Forks, it started to rain on us just as I was starting to fall asleep. It was only a light drizzle, but that didn't stop Alice from letting out a huff.
"It's raining." She muttered into my hair.
"Yes, it is. Why, are you worried about your hair? Is it going to frizz?" I teased, burring my nose into the object in question.
"Don't even joke about that." She grumbled.
I just chuckled quietly and pulled her closer to me.
"You are adorable, you know that, right?" I cooed at her.
She raised her head from its hiding place and shot me a glare, though on her it was not even a bit threatening, and just plain adorable.
Overcome with the sudden urge, I closed the small gap between us and pressed my lips to hers. She seemed to take this as an adequate apology, and returned the kiss, nipping on my bottom lip after a moment. The sudden graze of teeth on my skin had me gasping, and she took the opportunity to deepen the kiss and slip her tongue into my mouth.
Sadly, when she moved her face, she bumped into my nose, which had me hissing out in pain and caused her to pull away. I immediately missed the feeling of her kiss, but the stinging of my nose was also demanding my attention.
"Sorry." She chuckled, not sounding the least bit regretful.
"Not your fault." I said while rubbing my nose lightly. "Remind me next time I fight a werewolf to keep my face far away from its back feet."
"Will do." She giggled and placed a feather-light kiss to my nose, then cuddled up against my chest.
"I guess as a second option, this isn't too bad." I admitted after a moment, and she hummed in agreement.
And it was true. Lying there, with my mate snuggled up against me was just plain amazing. Even if it was raining, and a bit cold out, even though Alice herself was a bit chilly against me, despite my heightened body temperature, I was completely content. Probably more so than I had ever been in my life previously.
It was almost enough to make me forget about the upcoming battle looming over our heads. Almost.