"Hello?"

"Hey, sweetie," said Mom. "How are you doing?"

"Uh, I'm fine. Nothing horrible has happened yet, so I guess that's good." I said into the phone. I'd stepped outside to answer the call, relieving a bit of the tension in the room.

"Oh, that's good. Have you made any new friends?"

"Yeah. A bunch of guys that live on the reservation hang out at Sam and Emily's house all the time, so I've gotten to know them a bit."

"Who's Sam?"

"Emily's fiance."

"What?" she asked surprised. "I wonder why she never told us."

I shifted the phone to my other ear, staring off into the woods. "Yeah, I don't know, either."

Something moved in the trees, and I could have sworn it had fur. Two pairs of bright yellow eyes blinked at me, then vanished. I gasped, nearly dropping the phone.

"What? What is it?" asked Mom.

"I – I thought I saw a wolf. They have wolves here, too." I said, struggling to get my heart rate back to normal. "They were howling last night."

"Oh, honey, if you want to come back-"

"No, I can handle it." I said. "I mean, they haven't come near me or anything. I-I have to go. Love you."

"Love you, too, honey."

I hung up and walked back into the house, still a little shaky.

"Everything okay?" asked Seth, who was seated at a table with a black-haired girl. "You look pale."

"Wolves." I muttered, going over to him. "Can I sit?"

"Go for it." said the girl. "I'm Alice."

"I'm Nani." I said. "I just kinda got here yesterday."

"Where'd you come from?"

"Hawaii." I said. "My dad was born in La Push, but my mom is from Hawaii, so he moved there when they got engaged."

"That's sweet." said Alice. "Did you live on a beach?"

I snorted. "You can't go many places in Hawaii without seeing the beach. Our ranch was only fifteen minutes away from the coast by car. "

"You lived on a ranch?" Seth asked.

"Yeah, actually." I said. "My Grandpa Max owned a horse and cattle ranch, so my mom decided to do the same."

"So you must know a lot about animals and how they're raised." Alice inferred.

"For the most part, yeah." I said. "I mean, I have no idea what to do for, like, tigers and stuff, but I've got a pretty good idea of domestic animals."

"You know, there's a ranch up north a little." Seth said. "It's open to visitors."

My first thought was that I would love to go to this ranch and do something routine, but then I didn't want to go. It would remind me too much of what I probably wasn't going back to. "Maybe I'll check it out sometime." I said neutrally.

The conversation seemed to die a little, so I got up and wandered into the kitchen, where Jake, Bella, and Nessie were sitting at the table.

"Hey," said Jake as I came up.

"Hey." I responded. "What's going on?"

"Not much. Bella is just regaling us with tales of hunting." he said easily.

"You hunt?" I asked, taking a seat at the table.

She nodded. "It's a family hobby."

A grin tugged at my lips. "Even Nessie?"

Bella smiled. "Not quite yet." she said, patting the little girl, whom I assumed was her daughter.

Then, a devastatingly beautiful blond entered the room. She stood near the doorway, but said nothing.

"Do they hunt in Hawaii?" Jake asked.

I shrugged. "I guess you can hunt pretty much anywhere, if you try."

"Did you?"

I shook my head. "I'm no vegetarian or anything, but I could never see animals killed. When it was time to take some of the cattle to the slaughterhouse, I was always out. I didn't want to be around." I said.

"You know, the Quileute tribe in La Push almost worships werewolves." said the woman quietly. "Werewolves butcher animals mercilessly."

I narrowed my eyes. I didn't think I would like this girl. Her eyes were almost black, and it was like she had some sort of hatred for Jake.

"Someone yesterday brought up the topic of vampires." I said. "I heard they do the same thing. But then again, so do humans, right? Like elephants and tigers."

"Werewolves, vampires, and humans are entirely different things." she said, stepping forward.

I looked at her. "Oh, really? Think about it. Is any one of them really so great? I mean, some people worship werewolves, and I guess that's alright, if it works for them. Some cults worship vampires, and I suppose that's cool. But are humans really so different? We'll kill creatures for the hell of it, we'll do dangerous stuff at all hours of the night, and we can be total beasts when we get the chance." I told her.

She was gripping a chair. "They're not the same."

"Will you relax?" I said, standing. "You're proving my point right now." Suddenly, someone had a hold of my arm and was dragging me out of the house. I turned and saw it was Seth. "Hey, let go, what's the matter with you?" I said, yanking my arm away when we were outside.

"Rosalie is touchy." he said. "Don't mess with her"

"She started it." I said.

"Doesn't matter. She's not the kind of girl you should go mouthing off to." he said. "Just trust me on this one, alright? I've seen what she can do."

I rolled my eyes and turned away. "Fine. Whatever – Wolf!" I exclaimed, jumping back and slamming into Seth in the process. We both fell back on the gravel, me landing next to him, and I began scrambling to my feet to get away from the trees. Cuts were appearing up and down my arms, but I didn't care.

"Nani! Wait, get back here!" he held, running after me.

"Jake!" I yelled, getting to the porch.

He appeared in seconds, stopping me from entering. "What?" he asked, seeing the panicked look in my eyes.

"Wolf! Massive, big wolf!"

He blinked. "Where?"

"In the trees." I said breathlessly, pointing. "Like, the size of a bear, Jake, I'm not kidding."

"I believe you." he said, stepping onto the driveway to look. "There are wolves around here, you know."

"Yeah, Emily told me." I said, gripping the railing. I saw some bushes move and a shiver ran through me. "Be careful!" I yelled.

"What's going on?" asked another handsome man, this one with blond hair and kind, gold eyes like Bella's.

"Nani saw a wolf." Jake called from near the forest's edge. "But it's gone now."

He nodded. "They roam the area a lot." He looked down at me, slightly surprised. "What happened to your arms?"

"I fell." I muttered, looking at the cuts and scrapes. They stung a lot, and there were little trails of red blood oozing from them. "It's alright, though."

"Wait out here. I'll get my medical bag. Just don't go inside, alright?" he said gently.

I looked at him. "Why not?"

"My family is very sensitive to blood." he said honestly. "Especially Bella and Jasper. It would be best if you just stayed out here."

I nodded and stayed on the porch while the man went inside. Seth came up next to me, looking at my arms. "When you said you were afraid of wolves, I didn't think..." He trailed off.

"That it was that bad?" I asked, laughing a little as the adrenaline wore off. "When I was eight, I was on Grandpa Max's ranch, and I was watching the sheep. I wasn't herding them or anything, just sitting around killing time so I wouldn't have to do chores. There were three wolves who started attacking the sheep. I was eight. I had no idea what to do. I watched one of the sheep get killed before Dad ran out and chased them off."

I could feel the disappointment radiating off of him. "Well, that sucks." he said.

"Why?"

He shrugged. "Rose wasn't all that far off. Our tribe does have a lot to do with wolves. You're gonna have a hell of a time living in La Push."

I snorted. "I'm not afraid of images, Seth. I'm terrified of the actual thing. Pictures, writings, and stories don't scare me."

He still didn't look convinced, but the man walked back out, so our conversation was over for the time being.

"I'm Carlisle, by the way." he said, rubbing alcohol on my arms and making them burn like hell. "I work at the hospital."

"No kidding." I said, coughing from the fumes.

"You don't like the smell of alcohol?" he asked interestedly.

"Can't stand it." I say, leaning away from my arm.

"That's not unusual. A lot of people think the scent of pure alcohol burns their nose." he said understandingly.

"Buns like a bitch, too." I said.

He chuckled. "You're telling me in all that time on ranches you never had to use this stuff on an injury?"

"Oh, all the time." I said. I pulled up my shirt to show him a scar that traced my hip bone. "I had an accident with a bull a couple years ago. Had to get thirteen stitches."

"What happened?" Seth asked, staring at the scar.

I put my shirt back down. "I got too close to the heifer he'd chosen as a mate. Not a big deal, really, happens all the time. I just happened to get too close to his horns, is all."

"You're into some dangerous stuff, aren't you?" he asked.

"Dangerous stuff is into me." I corrected as Jake came to say it was time to go home.