AN: In the interest of time, I'm publishing this without editing it first, so I apologize for any typos. I'll go back and edit it later tonight. Thanks!

Chapter 27 - Hunting

Alaska (JasperPOV)

While Bella was busy with Esme, learning how to read, Peter quietly asked each of the rest of us to join him out back for a family meeting. After we all gathered, Carlisle asked why we were meeting without Esme and Bella.

"I just didn't want to risk scaring or upsetting Bella unnecessarily. I've been getting some really bad feelings and flashes of things, but nothing concrete. There's some potentially serious shit going on elsewhere in the world that may or may not be coming to bite us in the ass. The worst of it is there aint just one, but three enemies on our horizon. The first is the Volturi. I think Alice and Edward may have betrayed us to Aro."

"Oh, no," Carlisle informed the rest of us. "I spoke with Aro a few days ago. Apparently, Edward went to Volterra to ask the brothers to kill him. They refused, and he attempted to force their hand by threatening to expose himself to the humans there within their own city. Alice came to stop him. Aro and I discussed it, and he offered them a place in his Guard for the time being. He promised they would be allowed to maintain their diet and wouldn't be sent out on any missions, but would be trained in self-defense and given a structure and discipline that would help them to mature into respectable citizens."

Peter stared at Carlisle as if he were crazy. "You do know Aro can't be trusted, right?"

Carlisle shook his head. "I spent eight decades with the Volturi. Aro is my friend. I know the Volturi have a bad reputation, but they are doing the best they can for our kind."

Peter raised an eyebrow and just stared at Carlisle in disbelief for a few minutes before finally challenging him. "Do you really believe that? Are you really that naïve? Aro does what is best for Aro. If he offered Edward and Alice a place in the Guard, it's because he wants to make use of their gifts to suit his own purposes. My intuition is telling me he's using them to spy on all the vampire covens, including ours. You shouldn't believe a word Aro tells you. He always has his own hidden agenda."

Carlisle tightened his mouth, but chose not to speak. I could tell by his emotions he was offended by Peter's words and didn't believe that Aro was as bad as Peter was indication. I, on the other hand, knew Peter's 'intuition' was never wrong. Still, Aro spying on us wasn't a major concern, as long as Bella wasn't in danger from him.

"What does he want from us, Peter? Does he want Bella? Does he consider her a threat?" I asked, needing answers to decide on the best course of action.

"I don't think he wants anything from us right now. He's still basking in the joy of having acquired Alice and Edward. He is curious about Bella, but has no desire to do anything about her for the time being," Peter admitted.

"Then the Volturi can wait. What else is headed our way?" I had slipped into my Major persona, wanting a report from my Captain.

"There's something involving newborns and Maria. Someone is after this family and is consulting with Maria about making an army. I don't really know any more than that at the moment, like who or why. Does anybody have a grudge against your whole coven?"

A light bulb went off inside my head. Only one person had reason to hate all of us. Victoria. I knew I was right! I knew she would be a problem, but nobody would listen!

"It's Victoria," I growled. "It's gotta be. I warned you all her feelings for James were those of a mate. But no, you listened to Edward, the coward without any fighting experience. We killed her mate, and she's gonna want vengeance against all of us, even though he totally deserved to die for what he did. How soon will she become a problem?"

Peter thought for a few minutes. "She doesn't even know we moved yet, so we have a little while before she tracks us down. She's planning to set up shop just outside of Seattle, and she'll have a hard time trying to move a group of newborns all the way up here from there."

"Okay, so we need to start doing some physical training and making a list of allies to fight alongside us, just in case. It would be best if we could nip it in the bud before she gets up a decent number of newborns created and starts providing them with training," I strategized. "What else, Captain?"

"Something's brewing in Forks, with regards to baby girl. I think her human Daddy is searching for her. Didn't you guys fake her death? Why would he think she's still alive?" Peter questioned.

"Damn dogs!" I growled angrily. "They promised they'd take care of it! I knew we couldn't trust those mangy mutts."

"Mutts?" Peter asked in confusion.

"When I changed Bella, we were caught by the Quileute shape shifters, who were fixing to take a bite outta Bella, rather than let her become one of us. I got them to agree to let us have her, and they promised they would take care of arranging the scene to make it look like a wild animal had absconded with her body. Her father, Charlie, is the best friend of their tribal chief, William Black, so they promised to give him a sense of closure, so he wouldn't go searching for her body. If he's looking for her, that means they screwed up somehow," I explained bitterly. Chief Swan was a good man who loved his daughter dearly, even if he didn't know how to express it. He deserved the peace of mind the wolves apparently failed to provide. If we hadn't been so worried they might change their minds and try to harm Bella, we would have taken care of it ourselves.

"I don't see how he could be a problem for us though," Rose remarked. "He doesn't know where we are, and if he did get anywhere near us, we'd have plenty of time to disappear before he could discover us. I mean, we'd hear or smell him coming a mile away, so it's not like he could accidentally stumble across us or sneak up on us."

"That's true," Carlisle agreed, giving her a soft smile. I could feel the relief I his emotions.

"Unless the dogs have changed their minds and lead him right to us," I grumbled. "If they can't even cover up a missing body to make it look like an animal attack, especially when they themselves are giant animals, then I don't know why we think we could trust them to keep our secrets."

"But they can't expose us without exposing themselves too," Carlisle protested.

"Do you remember how perceptive Bella was?" I demanded. "Where do you think she learned it? Her father has been Chief of Police for a decade. Forks may be a podunk town, but you don't maintain a position like that if you're incompetent, no matter how small your population. I wouldn't put it past him to figure out their secret like Bella did ours. Once he knows their secret, it's not too hard to guess ours, or enough of ours to theorize Bella might not be truly dead, but might now be something 'other'. Who knows what William Black might be convinced to do if his best friend asked for his help tracking us down?"

"Crap!" Emmett exclaimed. "So what the fuck do we do now?"

"Captain?" I asked, wanting his 'feeling' about how urgent the problem was.

Peter shrugged uneasily. "I can't get a clear reading. I just know he wants to find her."

I growled in frustration. This was a situation where Alice's and Edward's gifts would come in handy. Alice could keep an eye on them and let us know if they were a threat to us, and Edward could have run down there and listened to Charlie's thoughts to see if he knew anything he shouldn't.

"Maybe we could call Alice?" Carlisle suggested. "We could ask her to check on the situation with Charlie, as a show of good faith."

"Couldn't hurt," Peter agreed with a shrug. "It could give us an idea as to how Aro's been treating them too. Make sure he's been above board like you think he has."

Carlisle nodded, certain he would be proven correct.

"I agree that would be a smart choice. In the mean time, logic dictates that it isn't a pressing concern. It should take them quite some time to track us down, since we didn't leave any kind of trail to follow," I decided. "It looks like our main concern should be training for self-defense against a newborn army."

xxxxxxx

I decided to take Bella out for her first real hunt while the couples all enjoyed a little intimate time with their mates. She had been doing well so far, and I felt confident I would be able to control her well enough by myself. She always responded to me better than anyone else, which was likely due to the sire bond and me being the first one she saw upon awakening.

We had gradually weaned Bella off of human blood by blending it with animal blood in the containers we had given her to drink from after her first feeding. She hadn't had pure human blood since then. Carlisle had instructed us to slowly add a higher percentage of animal blood for each feeding until she was able to tolerate pure animal blood.

For the past several feedings, we had worked in groups to herd animals into our backyard, where Bella waited with Charlotte and Peter to intercept them. She had thus been able to practice listening and smelling for her prey, pouncing, killing, and drinking directly from the animals in the safest possible environment.

It was hard for her at first, since she felt such compassion toward the animals. It upset her greatly to have to kill them. As long as she drank her blood out of containers, she didn't have to think about where it came from, like humans who could disassociate meat from animals by not considering past the package bought at the grocery store. As I ran with her through the forest, I remembered her initial attempt at capturing an animal and feeding herself.

zzzzzzz (memory)

Emmett, Rose, Carlisle, Esme, and I had circled around behind a herd of deer and strategically sent it stampeding back toward the house. As we ran, we kept them surrounded on three sides, so there was only one safe way for them to go. Over the miles, as they fled from us, straight toward our trap, their alarm triggered a panic through the forest. Many other species joined the frenzied escape attempt, racing in front of, beside, and behind the deer. Foxes, rabbits, raccoons, and other small animals scrambled madly, sometimes getting trampled by the stampede, sometimes escaping off to the side out of harm's way. Birds and squirrels took to the trees, screeching down at the chaos below, adding their own contribution to the general cacophony.

Putting on a burst of speed, eager to see young Bella in action, I was the first to break through the trees. To my surprise, Bella simply stood there frozen, watching in fascination as the woodland creatures raced by, giving her and the other two vampires a wide berth.

Pete and Char weren't helping at all. Instead of encouraging Bella to pounce on the running meals she was blithely allowing to escape, they were watching the hurried procession of animals through the yard with wrinkled noses and expressions of disgust. They had hunted criminals the day before in Anchorage and obviously didn't consider the furry forest dwellers even marginally edible.

Not willing to allow my Bella to starve, I took out a few deer myself, knocking them unconscious, but not killing them, just in case she came up empty-handed from this endeavor.

"Grab them!" I shouted to Bella, wanting her to snap out of her daze and realize she was missing her opportunity to attack. "Don't let them get away!"

Bella startled, my words shaking her free from her apparent trance, alerting her to the fleeting nature of the sudden influx of tasty prey. She tried to grab a fox, her emotions excited, but she was quickly devastated when her nails sliced through its fur and the tips of her fingers sank into its flesh. Blood and other bodily fluids began leaking out around her fingers and dripping down her hands. The fox screamed in pain and released its bowels, as it convulsed in shock and went into cardiac arrest. Bella gave a disgusted shriek as the contents of its bladder were unleashed and flung the dying fox far away from her.

The next animal she grabbed was a large grey timber wolf that had been stalking the same deer herd we found. Bella was much more gentle this time and was able to restrain it without harming it. Her emotions were overflowing with joy, pride, hope, and happiness as she crouched down with it, keeping it from escaping her grasp. She was smiling at it, seeming oblivious to its repeated attempts to bite her and the way its claws were shredding her clothes.

Noticing me watching her, she grinned up at me. "Look, Jasgrr, a puppy! I wanna keep him! Can we keep him, please, Jasgrr? Pretty please? I'll take really good care of him, I promise!"

I closed my eyes against the force of her pleading gaze, knowing I wouldn't be able to tell her no, but also knowing what she wanted was impossible. Ignoring the sinking feeling in my stomach and the ache in my heart, I did what needed to be done. Though I felt like a monster and knew I would be sharing her pain after the fact, I increased her thirst until her instincts took over, causing her to attack the jugular of the 'puppy' in her arms. I forced myself to watch the spectacle, knowing I would be the one holding her as she sobbed after she returned to herself and realized what she'd done. As much as I wanted to shelter her from this aspect of being a vampire, if she didn't learn to accept the necessity of killing, she'd never be able to function independently. She'd never be able to mature and accept responsibility for herself, if she couldn't even procure her own food.

I quickly brought the deer I'd captured over to her before she regained her senses. Her instincts still engaged, she snapped their necks and drank greedily from them, oblivious to their nature. I could feel the horror and sadness welling up within her as she finished up the last deer, her eyes locked on the carcass of the wolf she'd tossed aside upon draining it.

Sure enough, I'd held her as she sobbed for hours, consoling her and promising her she wasn't a monster just because she ate the 'puppy'. She was greatly saddened to learn that vampires weren't meant to have pets. After one more incident involving a mountain lion 'kitten' she had begged to keep, she decided to stick to feeding only from deer and bear, leaving the 'kittens' and 'puppies' alone.

zzzzzzz (memory over)

I hadn't been paying attention as we ran, letting Bella take the lead while I reminisced. Unfortunately, she was completely unfamiliar with the area, and by the time I started looking for landmarks to identify our current location, she had brought us dangerously close to the human campgrounds. Before I could initiate an alteration of our course, the wind changed direction, blowing an overpowering sickly sweet scent right into our faces.

In the amount of time it took to struggle within myself to control my own inner beast, Bella managed to slip from my grasp and was running full speed toward the source of the tempting aroma.

My own bloodlust quickly took a backseat to my concern for my charge. If I didn't stop her, all hell would break loose. Bella would decimate the campgrounds, viciously murdering any human unlucky enough to cross her path. With cell phones being what they were these days, it would be a great risk of exposure if any human lived long enough to record her attacking and feeding and sent the video to anybody not present at the site. If something like that hit Youtube, the Volturi would destroy us all.

I chased after her as if I had a raging forest fire lapping at my heels, for even if there were no risk of exposure, Bella would be utterly devastated if she succeeded in obtaining the sweet blood swarming her senses. Blood that sweet was only found in children, and the heaviness of the aroma in the air indicated a large number of them, possibly ten or twelve. Considering how hard Bella had taken her killing of the wolf and mountain lion for food, I couldn't imagine how she would be feeling if she actually drained a human child. I had my doubts she would ever recover, especially if she killed a whole group of them.

Needing to get ahead of her, I took to the trees, which enabled me to get a clear fix on the only occupied campground nearby. Seeing the uniforms, I realized we had inadvertently stumbled upon a group of girl scouts, looking to be between the ages of eight and ten, along with three female chaperones. They were unloading tents, sleeping bags, and other supplies from a large 15 passenger van.

Seeing the speed at which Bella was running, as well as the angle and speed at which I was traveling, hoping to intercept, I knew it would be extremely close. I sent as strong a burst of lethargy in her direction as I could manage on the sly. It slowed her slightly, but I couldn't maintain it and continue my own forward momentum. I could only hope those few seconds delay was enough to get me ahead of her.

Finally, without only a few hundred yards between a thirsty instinct-driven Bella and all those innocent women and children, I pounced, praying with all my heart she wouldn't dodge at the last minute . . .

xxxxxxx

AN: I know, I know, terrible cliffy. I tell you what - if you promise not to hate me for it, I promise to get the next chapter up tomorrow - Deal?