I do not own Twilight. No disrespect is intended.

First, I would like to thank all of my reviewers, you mean a lot to me and I always reward my reviewers with sneak peeks or I ask them for help sometimes too. Secondly, I don't know how many reviewers have noticed, but I personally check out all of my reviewers profiles to see what kind of stories you guys write or just like to read. I have had a couple people catch me adding their own stories to my own fav list. Also you can always recommend some stories for me to read too, if you have a friend writing. Thanks all i hope you like this chapter!

Irena's POV

When Laurent left all those months ago he said he would return quickly. However, this one favor that he owed took far longer than he had anticipated. The last time I spoke to Laurent he told me I needed to trust him, but as each month goes by I feel like I trust him less. Why can't he explain to me what he is doing? Why is it taking so long? And Tanya, my dear sister isn't helping me cope by constantly saying he has probably found someone new. I was on my last straw with his cryptic messages and he seems to call when he knows I am not home so he can dodge more of my questions. I have had enough, the next time he calls me I am going to get answers or else. Until then, all I can do is keep up with distractions.

I went into the main room downstairs and joined Carmen and Eleazer's conversation about the Cullen's. Eleazer had spoken to Carlisle recently who reported they were currently staying in Maine, while Emmet and Rosalie were vacationing in Vermont and Edward's whereabouts were unknown.

"Well, I don't see why Edward was so hung up on that human, when he knew he couldn't have her. It's ridiculous that he let it go on that long, poor Edward, he should really let me cheer him up" Tanya said with a laugh.

"What I don't understand is why he didn't just change her" Kate said.

"Speaking of lost loves, Irena have you heard from Laurent yet?" Tanya cooed at me.

With that comment I left the room, went to my room and tired to call him again. I just couldn't sit back here and listen to Tanya say he probably ran off with someone else one more time or I would have exploded. He still didn't answer so I quickly changed, packed a spare change of clothes and booked the first flight I could find to France.

An hour after landing in France, I had called Laurent four times, but got nothing. I had been milling around the airport for looking for some kind of sign where to start, but I couldn't find anything helpful. In the gift shop I looked at a map of the country and memorized all of the major cities and major geographical changes in the landscape. Briefly, I debated on whether to rent a car, but decided against it. I would probably be trekking all across the country side trying to pick up his scent in order to start my search and I could not do that properly while inside a car. Suddenly, my phone started ringing and my heart leapt for joy, but quickly sank when I saw who it was. It was Tanya, great.

"Hello."

"Irena, where have you run off to? Your phone was off for hours and we were about to go look for you!"

"Relax Tanya, I am perfectly fine. I have finally decided to get some answers from Laurent; I will call when I have an update." I promptly hung up and thrust the phone back into my bag. Okay, I just had to go about this logically. France is not that large of a country and if Laurent has been here for months how hard could it be to pick up his scent somewhere. I decided that I might have the best luck finding his trail if I did a loop around the borders of France and then traveling inward like spokes on a wheel. I left the airport and headed west towards Spain, when I reached the border an hour later I had to decide whether to head south following the border, in the hopes that Laurent would have past near the border in the months he had been there. I ran day and night staying away from towns as much as possible as I continued on my journey. I had started running almost 3 days ago and I was still coming up empty handed. It was daytime again and there were too many towns close by to continue until dark again. I had had a close run in with some travelers in the woods, but managed to remain undetected even though I had come within a mile of the humans.

The further south I got along the border the trees started to disappear. This part of the country was more marshland than anything else, so I had to hang back in the shadows until nightfall again before I would be able to continue, but that left me to my thoughts. I hadn't been so hung up on finding distractions for no reason, so now I knelt in the soggy earth, letting all of his phone calls run through my head. I wish there would have been something he said or maybe something in the background that would give me a clue as to where to search. After three days I was already feeling disappointed and I was losing steam. I knew I had to stay focused, but I just couldn't help but feel like I was going to be upset whether I did or didn't find him. Whatever secret he held could not be good if he was going to such great lengths to hide it.

After almost a week of searching, I caught his familiar scent. His scent always smelled like cedar and almonds to me and reveled in it. For a while there I thought that I may never smell his sweet scent again, but wait a second there was another scent with his. It was all around his scent and as I followed his trail the scent of freesias was prominent. I mentally screamed in my head, knowing that freesias could be nothing less than another female vampire. Could Tanya have been right? I had been fighting it for so long, because we were mates. You mate for life, how could he have gone on with another?! Theirs scent led me right to a huge house settled far back in the marsh. It would have been rather difficult for humans to know there was anything even back this far in the marsh. "Oh great, a perfectly nestled vampire love shack, that humans would never happen upon" I fumed inside. The scent of freesias burned in my nostrils as I stalked closer.

In a blind fury I practically flew into the house scouring the rooms for her. Then I heard someone on the lower level; in a flash I was standing in the doorway. There she was, she had long chestnut hair streaked with red highlights flowing down her back. Suddenly, she turned and looked at me, confusion clear on her face. She was beautiful and younger than I, but she wouldn't be that way when I was done with her. Abruptly, I crouched and sprung at her. I growled viciously and smiled when she didn't even move, but then there was a flash of silver in her eyes and I was thrown away from her. I gasped as I crashed into the furniture and through a wall, seeing her eyes flash through my mind; they were brownish and grey not red or even gold! In the moment it took me to contemplate her eye color as I skidded to a halt, she was standing over me. Her eyes were black as she reached down, her fingers gripping my neck and raised me into the air. I growled furiously as I clawed at her hands and arms while she held me. I heard another vampire approaching and I prayed that it was Laurent, but I also heard something else; almost like a faint thrumming…

"Irena!?" Laurent screamed his eyes fearful.

"She attacked me" the brunette said venom coating every syllable.

"I'm sure she didn't mean to. Please put her down so I can speak to her, I haven't actually explained you to her yet" Laurent whispered the last part. Slowly, my opponent lowered me to the ground, picked up a book lying on the floor and gave Laurent a suspicious look before I watched her leave the room.

"What are you doing here? Why would you just attack her?" Laurent asked angrily.

"Who is she?! You left me in Alaska telling me you would only be gone a week or two and it has turned into 9 months. What do you think I am doing here…I'm here to take back my mate from whoever is distracting him!" I screamed at him. Laurent's eyes looked sad as he approached me and roughly took me in his arms. His eyes bore into my soul as he held me, not speaking.

"No one could ever take me from you. You are the only one I want to spend eternity with" he purred.

"Why is she here with you then?" I asked while I tried to push him away. I only managed to put a few inches between us, before he grabbed me tighter.

"Irena" he said as his eyes pleaded with me. "I am responsible for her…"

"What do you mean, you are responsible for her? Did…did you create her? And what was with her eyes they weren't red or gold when I first saw her? And what was that thrumming sound…"

"Let me start at the beginning. When I left I had only intended to be gone for a very short time, but the thirst was too hard to deny. I couldn't prevent myself from attacking her, but then I was able to stop when I thought about how upset you would be with me if you found out. The problem was that I had already bitten her and the change was happening. I remembered the story you told me about one of the Cullen's being able to suck the venom out, so I tried. I thought I had done it, when she stopped screaming, but then I was afraid I had drank too much of her, so I waited for her to wake."

"A few hours later she smelled strange. She smelled faintly of us and I didn't know what to do. She hadn't really seen me when I attacked, but I was afraid I may have exposed myself enough that she would know something. So I took her and when she woke she growled at me. She had only been unconscious for half a day; not enough for her to transform into a vampire, so I didn't know what to do. Her heart still beats, but she has developed a number of vampire traits. I must not have removed all of the venom, but because there was so little venom in her system, she is changing at a much slower rate. Each passing week she gets more like us."

"I have been so afraid to tell you I failed, that I have been hiding here trying to get up the courage to tell you the truth. I could never find anyone else that compares to you" he said while holding my cheeks in his hands and kissing me softly. All of the anger that was pent up inside of me, melted as Laurent's lips moved with mine. He still loved me and I was overjoyed.

"Come home with me, Laurent" I said as I grabbed his hand.

"There is something else, we should discuss. Sophie is but a newborn so we will have to take her with us. I have tried to prepare her for meeting you but today did not go as I had wanted it to" he said.

"You prepared her to meet me? What are you getting at?" I asked.

"Well I was hoping that after you spend some time with her, I might be able to convince you to make her part of our family, like the Cullen's have done and you have already seen what an asset she would be because of her gift" Laurent said sweetly. I was so stunned by what Laurent was proposing that I didn't know what I thought. I had always been so content with my sisters and then Carmen and Eleazer joined us.

"You don't have to make any decisions now my dear, just spend some time with her" Laurent said. I was quite taken back with the idea of being a mother of sorts. I had never seen myself as the Esme type, but when I thought of my own mother, I couldn't help but think of how proud she would be of me. This whole time I had been thinking I had been losing Laurent, but now I knew he wanted me forever and wanted us to have a family. He said her name was Sophie, I liked it and she was quite beautiful, but what I didn't know was how she would react to me after my little outburst with her this morning. A family… I mentally laughed at the whole idea of it swirl in my head and made me ridiculously happy. My family with Laurent, just like the Cullen's and our first daughter would rival one of the Cullen's gifted children. As long as Sophie was on the same page as Laurent I was happy to be her mother.

Sophie's POV

I gave Laurent a cold look as I left the room. His whole idea of being a family seemed pretty grim when my own supposed mother was trying to kill me. I hadn't even done anything to provoke her, but stand there and watch the hate in her eyes when she saw me. I left Laurent alone to talk to Irena and went to the library, but couldn't seem to tone out their conversation. I almost laughed out loud when I heard Laurent speak of how he came to acquire me. Apparently he had liked my new cuffs as well and was going to use them to his advantage so we could play perfect family. I was surprised when she revealed that she thought I had stolen her mate. Irena was inhumanly beautiful as all vampires are and I was still partly human and looked human too. There was nothing about me yet that was inhumanly beautiful; just plain old me. It hadn't taken long for Laurent to work his magic on her and then she seemed genuinely happy to start a family with Laurent. After declaring she would love to be my mother, I started to hear things I could have lived without hearing. Quickly, I took to the marsh before I could hear anymore of my new found parent's joy in their first child.

I wondered aimlessly, in no particular hurry, knowing they could be at it for a while and came upon a lone tree out in the marsh surround by tall grass. This tree had become one of my favorite spots since I started exploring the marsh. Immediately, I took to its branches and let my hand graze across the parts that I had worn in. This tree was my safe haven away from the house and was not far from the Italian border. I opened my book up and continued to read East of Eden which I had been so rudely interrupted in doing so back at the house. A few hours past by before I sensed someone moving through the marsh too quickly to be human. I closed my book and watched for the visitor to make their self known, but they stopped suddenly. I remain as still as possible and even held my breath for a few minutes before I needed to take another breathe. Silently, my intruder moved again but I almost couldn't hear them and then they stopped again. I was in no mood for games and jumped down from me tree prepared to deal with whoever it was head on. On the ground, I breathed in their scent and scanned the grass. It was not a vampire I knew, but then again I didn't really know many vampires. After I few minutes more moments of silence, I became impatient.

"Show yourself, coward!" I growled. Not a second later, a tall dark cloaked man stepped out of the grass and stood before me. "What do you want?" I hissed. The dark haired man had red eyes and the cloak was quite out of style, but it made me think of royalty. I wondered if this man was a member of the Voltri guard that Laurent had warned me about.

"I was only curious as to who was out here. I had been hunting nearby and caught wind of your scent. What is that fast thrumming sound?" he asked.

"My aren't you nosy" I snickered at him and he laughed.

"Is that a heartbeat? What are you, yours eyes they have some brown and silver in them?" he asked.

"Who are you?" I asked the stranger as I ducked under one of the branches to get a better look at him.

"I asked you a question first and you still haven't answered me" he said with a smirk.

"I am like you, I guess; more vampire then human, but my heart still beats for now. The one who tried to change me was interrupted I guess, it seems I am changing very slowly. Now it is your turn."

"My name is Felix" he said.

"I'm Sophie" I told him as I jumped back up into my tree and sat back on my branch to continue reading. Felix watched me for a few seconds before jumping onto my branch and set right beside me. I glared at him as he peered over my shoulder to see what I was reading. "I didn't invite you to join me" I hissed at him.

"You know you still smell almost human too" Felix said.

"You want a bite, to see if I still taste like a human a little too" sarcasm lacing every word I spat at him. He laughed and looked at me apologetically.

"I'm sorry; I just haven't ever met anyone who changed slowly. You are pretty calm for a newborn. Who are you hiding from out here?" he asked.

"Who said I was hiding?"

"Well you have been here a few hours, your scent has saturated this tree" Felix explained.

"I am not hiding. I was just trying to give my new parents some time alone."

"Ah yes, it is hard to be in a coven if the others have already found their mates. You called them your parents?"

"Yes, that is what they think of themselves as and as of now I have no reason to go against it."

"You have got to be the most peculiar half vampire I know, Sophie."

"Thank you, I think? I should be going though, I have been here a while and I wouldn't want them to find this spot. Goodbye, Felix" I said as I jumped down from the tree. Just as I broke into a sprint I heard Felix whispered goodbye, back. I ran back to the house quickly and was glad to find the house silent of the previous sounds I heard. I raced through the back door, went in my room and shut the door. Just as I had lain down on the bed, there was knock at my door. I groaned faintly, wondering what would be worse, Laurent at the door or Irena. I got up off the bed slowly, walked over to the door at a humans pace and opened it.

"May I speak to you, Sophie?" Irena spoke as innocently as possible. In my head I noted it was worse that it was Irena at the door instead of Laurent and giggled.

"If you must" I said as I retreated back to my bed with her following in tow. I sat down and lay back closing my eyes. Irena stood over me, considering her approach. Finally, she sat on the bed next to me and lay back as well. I was startled by her closeness, but she didn't hesitate.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot, Sophie. I'm sure you must have heard part of my conversation with Laurent. I honestly didn't know about you and if I had I most certainly would not have reacted the way I did. I kind of lost my head without Laurent around and I hope that I can make it up to you. I really do want to be a family with you and Laurent, if you let me."

There were a lot of things, I was thinking about while she was making her speech, but I decided not to be difficult today and just go with it. "I would like that too, Irena." Irena leapt from the bed and came around the side I was laying on to hug me. I couldn't help but think of Alice when she did that and I had to smile.

"Oh Sophie, I am glad you said that. Tomorrow Laurent and I are planning to take you back to the US and I can't wait for you to meet the rest of my family, who will be your family too!" Irena said with glee.

Okay, so I hope you are all excited to see how the rest of the Denali's react to Sophie! Please Review and let me know who will get closest to Sophie when she gets to Alaska. Oh and I forgot to mention that yes the Cullen's will be appearing in the story and Jake will even make a come back too. Thanks all and happy writing!!