A/N: You guys are lucky, I was my mother's chauffeur today, so I had to sit in two different doctors offices for about an hour and a half each. So I had plenty of time to write since I had internet.
Anyway, a few of you seemed a bit disappointed with how the Edward thing was handled. But keep this in mind: Bella said a voice in her head told her to believe him. That voice is her panther, which kind of acts as her conscience. And the panther will do anything to keep its mate happy, including forgiving Eddie so that Alice's family is whole again. Because that would make Alice happy. Because happy Alice equals happy Bella.
The rest of the week passed in what seemed like a flash. We had our last few training sessions, talked a bit more strategy, and I even managed to spend some time with my dad, just in case anything were to happen to me. Of course, I made sure that he didn't know anything was up, but I think he could tell something was wrong.
Of course, the afternoons with the Cullens continued, and during the time spent at the Cullen house, Edward tried to be involved in the "bonding". Now, it wasn't completely comfortable, I was still angry with him after all, but you had to give the guy credit for trying. I could tell the rest of the pride was still pissed at him as well, and they had the right to be, but no one wanted to cause any family problems at the moment, so they just let it go.
Eventually, our last week was up, and we were all standing in the clearing from Alice's vision, mentally preparing ourselves for the fight. Blood coated the trees and ground, just like I had suggested, and I could only hope that it helped. The wolves were hidden in the trees for an element of surprise, along with Rikki and Danni. The people from The Pit knew about Kat, so there was no point in her hiding, and since Victoria was coming for me I also got to stand front and center.
While everyone hidden was shifted and waiting, I was standing as a human, again, hoping that any surprise could act as an advantage for us. We didn't think Victoria knew I was a shifter, but we were just hoping at this point. Kat was also human, as she was hoping to talk to the shifters from The Pit if at all possible. She wanted to try to get them to fight the vampires, but she told us that is was very unlikely, and she didn't hold much hope for that idea.
I was fidgeting with the thick black band wrapped around my wrist as I stood there, my nerves starting to really take hold. Obviously noticing the fidgeting, Alice took one of my hands, and Kat took the other, effectively stopping my movements. I was glad that neither of them offered any false hope, or told me that it was going to be okay. I don't think I would have been able to handle that at this point. But the physical contact was enough comfort to keep the nerves at bay, for the time being at least.
Just when I thought I couldn't wait any longer, I picked up the faint noises of movement in the trees in front of us. So it wasn't much longer until Victoria was stepping into the clearing with only one other vampire at her side and a rather evil smirk on her face.
"It's nice to see you again Cullen coven." Victoria greeted.
"I'm sorry to say that we don't share your sentiment." Carlisle answered. "In fact, I think it would be best if you left now, and we avoided this entire confrontation."
Leave it to Carlisle to try to avoid any fighting, and to give the opponent a chance to back down. But this just made Victoria laugh and shake her head.
"Oh, I'd be glad to leave." Victoria announced. "All you have to do is hand over your little human pet. After all, you had the foresight to bring her. Do that, and I'll leave you in peace. And I'm going to need the blonde shifter girl as well."
"You know that's not an option." Carlisle frowned and informed her.
"Then I guess we're done talking."
At her statement, ten vampires walked out of the trees, all snarling and baring their teeth at our small group. Five of the vampires were holding thick silver chains, and when they were pulled, eleven sifters emerged from the trees. I guess one was lost on the journey here, but I didn't even want to consider how. A few seemed to be resisting the pulling, but a harsh command from the handlers had them walking forward to stand next to the vampires, and a moment later their snarling and growling joined the vampires'.
"You don't have to fight for them." Kat spoke up as soon as the shifters were visible. "You don't owe them anything."
"Oh, but Kitten, we're the reason they're not dead." A man spoke up, prompting two of the shifters to shuffle out of the way to let him through. "And if you'd come with me, I can guarantee that you won't die today with these vampires."
Looking at the man, he didn't seem to be anything special. Yes, he was attractive, but nothing too extreme. He was tall, and seemed to be well muscled. Shaggy dark hair framed his face, and two bright green eyes watched the now shuddering Alpha next to me. I figured that this was Jax, her old trainer, considering that he definitely wasn't a vampire, and he wasn't bound in any way.
Instead of answering him Kat just snarled in his direction, letting him know exactly what she thought of his offer.
"Fine, fine. I figured as much, but I thought I'd offer. You were the best after all." He shrugged and took a step back. "Have fun then."
"Last chance to give us what we want." Victoria spoke, pulling attention back to herself.
"Still no chance." Carlisle reiterated.
"Then it's time for you all to die."
And with that all hell seemed to break loose. The vampires rushed forward and the shifters were released. With a deafening roar, the shifters behind us revealed themselves, rushing forward with the Cullens. Kat leapt forward, shifting mid-air, and I was right behind her, landing on the ground on four paws.
The first body I hit was a shifter, a golden tiger who tried to rake its claws down my face. I quickly ducked under the claws and tackled the tiger, attempting to wrap my jaws around its neck. I managed to get a bit of a hold, but the beast reared back, causing my fangs to tear into the flesh as it moved, and making blood spurt from the bites. With a loud growl the enemy shifter was attacking me again, trying to get its own fangs into my pelt. It seemed like we were evenly matched though, so I managed to dodge the attack, only to have mine avoided a moment later.
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a vampire rushing the two of us, and I could only hope it was a Cullen. Not really wanting to risk it, I leapt back, only to see a newborn go crashing into the side of the tiger a moment later. I don't know if the newborn was aiming for me, if its instincts were too much to ignore, or if someone threw the vampire into us, but all I know is, I got really lucky. As the vampire's body collided with the shifters, I heard a multitude of cracks as the bones in the shifter crumpled under the force. Once the shifter hit the floor it just stopped moving, and I could only hope it was dead.
Sadly, I could not say as much for the vampire, as it got up only a moment later and was charging me. It seemed that the female was right in regards to who she was supposed to be fighting this time. But the newborn probably wasn't counting on fighting a trained opponent, as her tactic was to simply leap into the air, aiming at my back. As her body sailed through the air, I reared up and slammed a paw into her, forcing her back onto the ground with a loud thump.
Before she could get back up, I pounced on her and began tearing at any skin I could get my teeth into. And in the process, I found out that vampires taste even worse than they smell, which is really saying something. Ignoring the foul taste, I managed to rip her head from her body, along with both her arms before I decided that I could move onto someone else.
However, before I could, I felt a solid weight crash into my haunch, and I was forced onto the ground on my back, exposing my vulnerable belly. Searching for my attacker, I saw it was a wolf shifter, and a very scrawny one at that. Its dark gray fur was almost all matted, and missing in places, exposing a multitude of scars.
It didn't seem to matter how gaunt it looked though, as it sunk its teeth into my back leg in a flash. I managed to kick it in the face with my other back leg, causing it to let go and allowing me to flip back over. But as I was trying to get back up it was jumping at me again, but a flash of russet slammed into it and saved me from having fangs embedded into my neck.
Sparing a quick glance, I saw that Jacob seemed to be taking care of the enemy shifter just fine and even had some back-up in Seth, so I looked around to see if anyone else needed help. A quick sweep revealed that everyone seemed to be holding their own.
The wolves were confusing their opponents by working together, any time one was in trouble another had its back, and they could attack as one force. The Cullens also seemed to be doing fine; each one able to outsmart any newborn they were facing. All in all, the worst injury in our ranks was a crack down Emmett's face and the bite wound on my leg.
However, as I was scanning the clearing, I didn't see Alice, and that had my panther in a state of panic. She definitely didn't like her mate missing in the middle of a huge fight, especially with the multitude of body parts on the ground. Before it became too much a problem, Alice just about popped up right in front of me, a big grin on her face.
She shot me a wink before jumping right back into the fray, and I followed her as quickly as I could. It proved unnecessary as she was basically playing with a particularly aggravated newborn who couldn't even land a single hit on her.
Dragging my attention from her, I focused on a newborn male who had been knocked back by one of my pride's back paws and almost into me. Wasting no time, I wrapped my jaws around the area where his shoulder met his neck and pulled back, taking a large chunk of flesh with me. In his agony he was an easy target to pull apart and was quickly eliminated.
Allowing myself a moment of grim satisfaction, I was pleasantly surprised at how well this whole fight was going. None of our own had sustained any major injuries, and I saw that the enemy numbers seemed to be dwindling rather rapidly now.
I was pulled out of that satisfaction a moment later when a flash of pain shot through the mental link. Looking up, I saw Rikki and Danni both fighting a rather large shifter that I think was a bear, but it was hard to tell through the mass of bodies in front of them. But I could see enough to tell that neither of them was hurt, meaning that the pain had to belong to Kat.
Searching the entire clearing, I found that I couldn't even find the dark-furred snow leopard, and that had me very concerned. Another flash of pain shot through the bond, which caused me to back out of the fight. I needed to find Kat, and I needed to find her fast.
Figuring the only place she could have gone was into the trees, that's where I headed. Once out of the massive group of bodies I could use my nose, and after a large sniff, I could smell a faint trace of shifter, along with the scent of vampire. If anything, now I was panicking even more. Allowing my anxiety to drive me, I ran as quickly as I could while tracking the scent of my missing Alpha. The trail led me towards the mountains that shadowed the clearing, and eventually I made it to the base of one of the peaks and that's when I found my Alpha.
Kat was clearly favoring one of her front paws, had one of her back legs completely off of the ground with blood dripping steadily from it. She also had blood coating a good portion of her fur, which I could only pray didn't all belong to her. But what had me even more concerned was the fact that Jax was standing there with her, pointing a rather large and strange looking gun straight at her.
I let loose a roar, trying to pry his attention off of her and onto me, but I was only met with a laugh. Sadly, that laugh didn't come from Jax, but from a much higher and more feminine voice to my left. Glancing over, I saw Victoria, pushing a now bound Alice in front of her. Sure, Alice was putting up a fight, but with her hands bound in a material she apparently couldn't break, she didn't have much of a chance.
I had no idea how that bitch had gotten to Alice, considering she was fine just a minute ago, but I had a horrible feeling in my gut that I knew where this was going.
"Well, isn't this quite the dilemma?" Victoria chuckled, the noise filling me with a deep hatred for this creature. She didn't even register as a person to my mind, which was slowly being taken over by the panther.
"Choosing between your Alpha and your mate. Quite a shame you can't save them both." Jax called out, never taking his eyes off of Kat. She tensed up slightly, no doubt to leap at him, but he snapped at her before she could. "I wouldn't Kitten. See the shells in this gun are filled with concentrated Wolfsbane, and a good amount of silver shavings. Not a good combination for a shifter, huh? Not to mention the large bullet hole it leaves in your worthless pelt, as you would know from that back leg of yours. One move and I pull the trigger. And this time I hit something much more important."
A gasp from Alice pulled my attention from my growling Alpha to the vampire holding my mate hostage. She had both of her hands wrapped around Alice's neck and was squeezing hard enough to cause cracks to form in the flawless skin.
"See, while I was away, I had time to think about this whole situation. I realized that maybe I was being a bit too hard on Edward. He was just trying to keep his little human safe. And James did get a bit obsessive sometimes. But you needed to be punished. You need to be shown what happens when a human dabbles in the world of the supernatural, even if you're a shifter now.
"So this is how I punish you. By taking away something you love. Just like you took away something I loved. See, I knew that the attack on all of you would fail, but I also knew that I could get at least one person you care about before everything was over. I don't really care which one it is, but it will be one of them.
"So who's it going to be Bella?" Victoria asked, cocking her head to the side and allowing a victorious grin to spread across her face.
"If you don't save your mate, I will personally kill you." Kat's voice rang clear in my head, though the pain in it was obvious.
Then you die. I almost whimpered at the thought. But even the brief thought that Alice could die had me basically dying inside.
"Then so be it, I'm living on borrowed time anyway." It was nice having you as my Beta, and as my friend."
Steeling myself for the inevitable, I leapt at Victoria, but not before Kat jumped at Jax. Her snarl, and the resulting shot had Victoria distracted for a brief second, which allowed Alice to slam her foot into the redhead's shin. This caused Victoria to let Alice go, and the tiny pixie dropped to the floor just in time for me to slam into Victoria and start ripping into her with a ferocity that she wasn't expecting. In fact, Victoria was nothing but a pile of scraps in under a minute, and I was able to turn my attention solely on Kat.
Looking over, I was devastated to see that Kat wasn't moving; however, she'd be proud to know that she had managed to crush Jax under her massive form, and even managed to get her claws into him.
Walking up to her slowly, I nudged her form with my nose, trying to rouse her. Not getting a response, I tried pushing her harder and chirping at her as well. Still getting no response, and not seeing the rise and fall of her chest, I buried my snout in her fur and allowed the sorrow I was feeling to grip me completely. Alice, still with her hands bound behind her back, simply kneeled at the side of Kat's form and leaned into my front leg.
"Bella? What's going on?" Danni asked me through the bond, probably in response to the depression flowing though my head.
"Dear Goddess, what happened? Where are you? And what were you and Kat talking about?" Rikki asked a moment later. It was obvious that the two were panicking at this point.
I'm at the base of a mountain. Kat… she's… I couldn't even tell them what happened; instead I just waited for them to inevitably find us.
A moment later I heard the footfalls of my pride mates, and heard the yowls of surprise and grief that quickly followed. I didn't even look up, but I was sure the two other big cats were mirroring my actions as soon as they approached the form of our fallen Alpha.
"She's really gone…" Danni murmured.
"It's stupid, but I really thought nothing would ever take her from us." Rikki said a moment later.
I couldn't help but agree with the two. Kat always seemed so strong, it always seemed like nothing could ever hurt her. I mean, she leapt at a werewolf like it was nothing. Her whole life she proved she was a fighter, that she would never let anything stop her. But now…
"You're all… smothering... me." A very faint voice, that sounded just like Kat's, flittered through my head.
Rearing back in surprise, I looked down to see Kat's eyes open and staring right at me. I even noticed that her chest was rising, though it seemed to be quite the task for her. And somehow, that fuzzy snow leopard face was smirking at me once again.