Much like Billy's house, the front room was mostly a kitchen. Standing in it taking large muffins out of a tray was a beautiful woman who must have been Emily. She had satiny copper skin and beautiful raven black hair that swept down her back.

"You guys hungry?" She asked in a melodic voice as she turned to face them head on.

A smile graced only half her face. The right side had three long scars that ran from hairline to chin. They reminded Natalia a little of her own scar that ran from her eyebrow to the bottom of her cheek. One line pulled down the corner of her dark, almond-shaped right eye, another twisted the right side of her mouth into a permanent grimace.

"Oh," Emily said, surprised. "Who's this?"

"Bel-Nataila." Jared slipped over his words before shrugging.

Emily shot Jared a questioning look. No one knew where to begin with the explanations.

"So, you're the wolf girl." Natalia said with a small smirk.

Emily laughed with the rest of the pack and the tension dissolved with it. "I guess I am."

Sam took that moment to sweep Emily up into a kiss. It was a tender moment that spoke of peace and true love. Natalia felt like a voyer just being near them in their little love bubble.

"Come on Sam, we're eating over here."

"Then shut up and eat." Sam stole one last kiss before letting Emily go prepare a couple dozen eggs.

Sam quietly brought Emily up to speed as she cooked, whispering words of affection in between his explanations.

The pack bantered easily like a family and once again Natalia felt homesick. She decided to interject to stop the feeling from consuming her.

"The vampire in the meadow," everyone turned to look at her. "Has a friend. She has blazing red hair and is after Bella, have you dealt with her at all."

"She's after Bella?" Jacob sounded horrified.

"But she's just a girl." Embery protested.

There was a little uproar among the pack.

"Quiet." Sam ordered. "What do you mean she's after Bella?"

"The Cullens killed her mate last year, she believes it's more fair to kill Bella than to kill Edward. A mate for a mate is her logic."

"That's stupid." Paul quipped.

"I never said it was sound logic."

Excellent," Jared finally said, a smile beginning to pull up the corners of his mouth. "We've got bait."

Natalia raised an eyebrow.

"We'll change our patterns," Sam said, ignoring the staredown. "We'll try leaving a few holes and see if she falls for it. We'll have to split up, and I don't like that. But if she's really after Bella she probably won't try to take advantage of our divided numbers." Sam turned to Natalia. "It might be best for you to spend your time here so we can catch her with a home field advantage."

"What about Charlie? She might go to his house looking for me and find him."

"March Madness is still going." Jacob said. "I think Billy and Harry can manage to keep him here when he's not at work."

Natalia nodded. She'd spend the time training and scheming a plan to hunt Victoria herself. Something told her the pack wouldn't be able to handle her on their own.

"Foods ready." Emily announced dissolving all strategic conversation. The guys hurried to the table and almost immediately the eggs were history. Emily ate leaning against the counter away from the bedlam at the table, watching them with affectionate eyes. This was her family.

Natalia watched on with a bittersweet smile.

The days seemed to go faster now that Natalia had a focus. She took to training pack members that weren't out on patrol in various combat scenarios she had faced. She had never fought the type of vampire they were hunting now but any combat training was better than jumping in blind as they had been.

"Foods ready!" Emily called, halting their training in its tracks.

"Race you! Tiid Klo Ul!" Natalia shouted, laughing as she beat them to the door.

"No fair with that shouting thing," Embry said as he trotted in behind her.

"It's totally fair," Natalia plucked a muffin from the table. It reminded her of a snowberry sweetroll from home. "You can turn into a wolf and I can shout, that makes us even."

"It's not even that great," Paul said through a mouthful of muffin. "We have stealth, you announce your presence to the world." He finally swallowed after getting that out.

Any retort Natalia was going to make was cut off by a howl.

"Damn that's the third time this week that she's got away." Embry said as he and Paul got up to take their shift patrolling.

They scarfed down their muffins and jogged out the door, heading into the tree line to shed their clothes before shifting. Shortly after, Jared and Jacob jogged in looking miffed. They plopped down heavily into their chairs and each took a muffin, tension rolled off of them.

Natalia pondered. There had to be a better plan than the one they had going. Victoria was skilled enough to constantly evade the pack's attempts at trapping her but determined enough to frequently try to get past them over and over again. They were at a stalemate.

"It's a nice day out and she's never tried twice in one day, why don't you guys go diving and cool off." Emily suggested in an attempt to cut the tension.

"I'll race you guys there." Natalia chimed in. Nothing cheered the pack up like a bit of friendly competition.

"You're on," Jacob said.

Jared was already out the door, they could hear cloth ripping outside. Natalia and Jacob scrambled after him and they laughed all the way to the cliff edge. Feet pounding heavily on the ground, heart pounding heavily in her chest, she felt adrenaline rush through her as she left a trail of scrambling fauna in her wake. She beat Jared by less than usual thanks to his head start but she beat him all the same.

"That shouting is definitely cheating." Jared said, put out by his loss.

"What," Natalia was slightly out of breath. "Is with you guys and saying," another breath. "That I'm cheating."

"Because you totally are cheating." Jacob chimed in.

"Am not."

"Are too."

Natalia circled behind slowly as they went back and forth about whether she cheated. She lined herself up so Jared and Jake were between her and the cliff edge.

"Am not."

"Are-"

"Fus Ro Dah!" Natalia cut him off, launching them both over the edge and into the water below as she cackled.

She couldn't stop laughing at their faces of betrayal as they came back up the cliff. She was laughing so hard she couldn't stop them from throwing her over the edge fully clothed. She finally got her breath back as the water was rapidly approaching her.

"Mul Qah Diiv!" The ethereal essence of a dragon enveloped her as wings unfurled behind her. She was able to pull up just before the water and glide over to a nearby secluded piece of beach.

"Oh come on!" Jake and Jared both yelled as Natalia laughed some more. She felt so light and her mood was further improved by the plan beginning to form on how to end Victoria once and for all.

They didn't like the plan, but they couldn't think of anything better. And Natalia may have leveraged her seniority by pulling her beast as close to the front of her spirit as she could to get their wolves to recognize her alpha status. They only managed to practise once before it was show time. But she knew it was all they'd need.

"Tiid Klo Ul" Time bent around Natalia as she ran, Victoria far behind her. A furious look was frozen on her face. She was a slippery one but Natalia's hypothesis was right, she was driven enough by her rage that she'd ignore most of her gift of evasion to get what she wanted.

"Tiid Klo Ul" The wolves all stayed behind Victoria. They herded her subtly, never letting her get out of the path Natalia was drawing. She wasn't paying them much mind, she was too focused on catching her prize. She was so close and this time the mutts weren't going to get in the way. She didn't understand what powers Bella possessed to make her outrun her but Victoria didn't care. She could hear the human's heartbeat teasing her. She wasn't being outrun by much and the human would tire, then she'd be hers to torture the way the Cullens tortured her James.

"Tiid Klo Ul" The thrill of the hunt ran up Natalia's spine. It had been too long since she had a good hunt. This game she had set up where the hunter would become the hunted made it all so much sweeter. Her wolf was bubbling up closer and closer to the surface. If she had any beast blood in her body she wouldn't have been able to stop the transformation. The beast spirit brought her speed and increased the distance between her and her prey behind her.

The cliff was in her line of sight now. She made the call to forgo one last shout to slow time in favour of saving her stamina for the next part of the plan. She gathered all her strength, feet pounding the forest floor as her silent follower gained on her. She could feel her inching closer and closer. She was almost within grabbing distance now.

"Mul Qah Diiv" Natalia kept off the cliff edge as the ethereal essence of a dragon enveloped her form. Her wings unfurled and she glided out of reach of Victoria as they both descended the cliff.

Natalia turned to Victoria's falling body "I suppose you won't be getting me this time, just like your James couldn't." She lifted her sleeve, gliding closer to the small secluded sandbank. "He certainly got closer than you before Edward ripped him to shreds." Victoria looked absolutely lethal. "I watched him burn, you know. I wonder, would his last thoughts have been about you? Or was he too focused on killing me."

Victoria roared and swam as fast as she could towards the bank Natalia had landed on. Natalia summoned a bow and readied her shot for when Victoria pounced. Victoria leaped up out of the water, her red hair glistening as if her head was already on fire. Natalia loosed the arrow right into her throat and a fracture line then travelled all the way around her neck. Victoria was stunned, never anticipating any weapon able to penetrate her skin.

In her shock her guard was momentarily dropped for long enough that Natalia could loose another arrow into the same fracture line causing the connection between her head and her shoulders to weaken further. As soon as the second arrow left Natalia's bow one of the wolves jumped over her and grabbed Victoria by the head and tugged on it as it gave away from her body without force. Natalia blasted her body with a fireball immediately as Jacob tossed Victoria's head to her. She caught it by the hair.

"Such a shame you had to come after me. You would have had a much better chance at survival if you had just gone for Edward. Goodbye Victoria." And she tossed the head onto her already burning body.

The pack rushed to the tree line before rushing back out, glee on all their faces. Natalia was beaming.

"That. Was. Awesome! Holy shit!" Jacob rushed forward and scooped Natalia up into a huge bear hug, spinning her around as the rest of the pack rushed over to join them in a group hug.

"Did you see her face? She never knew what hit her!"

"Natalia's a beast!"

"That was fucking sick!"

The whole pack talked over each other excitedly. This was the most dramatic hunt they'd ever been on and after weeks of not being able to catch Victoria, Natalia just swooped in and took her down in one go.

A howl sounded in the distance, cutting their celebrations short. The pack and Natalia all looked at each other. Everyone was here. Which meant someone just phased.

"Embry, Quil, with me." Sam barked as he phased and rushed towards the howls, taking the two kindest pack members with him to help the newly turned.

Turns out there were two new wolves. Leah and Seth both turned after Leah had an argument with her father about Sam. The surprise at Leah phasing caused Seth to phase and Harry to end up in the hospital for cardiac arrest. The pack and Natalia all rushed to the hospital at the news.

The ride home was a sombre one. Harry Clearwater had passed in the hospital leaving everyone distraught. Natalia could only think of cooking to help everyone so she was driving home with Jacob to grab food to head back to Emily's with.

The following week was so very long. Filled with feeding grieving people and handling funeral preparations and Jacob had gotten a strange call from a stranger asking about Charlie but never mentioning their name. Jacob simply said he was handling the funeral but the mystery caller hung up before he could mention it was for Harry.

The day after the funeral Charlie went fishing to clear his head while Natalia and Jake tried to decide what to do. They sat at the kitchen table eating pancakes Natalia made while deliberating.

"We could go cliff diving."

"Sure sure, if you're into being thrown head first into the rocks. It's crap out there today."

"We could go on the bikes."

"Yeah maybe."

They were interrupted by a thump upstairs.