Tanya had decided where she would take the girl ahead of time; not far from Forks was the Olympic National Forest which the current iteration of the Olympic coven had named itself after. It was an absolutely massive national park that encompassed more than half of the Olympic Peninsula. Plenty of isolated roads and out-of-the-way places were to be found, especially in this time of year. It would give them all the privacy they would need no matter what happened next.

Tanya noticed young Miss Swan getting increasingly anxious as they left the town limits of Forks and drove further down rural country roads, though the girl said nothing even as she gripped the armrest and held her body tense with fear and uncertainty as the miles rolled by. The various scents the girl was putting off in the confined space of the cab were becoming so strong and so very tempting that Tanya had to stop breathing all together. There was… something about this girl. Though Tanya was confident she wouldn't lose control it should not have taken this much effort to keep herself in check. More than once Tanya had to stop herself when she started fantasizing about sex or violence… and often both at the same time. More than once Tanya feared her cock was about to start to grow and harden. How embarrassing would that be, growing long and hard simply off the scent of an Omega who was not even in heat? She was many, many centuries removed from her time as a hormonal teenager or as an insatiably horny newborn vampire.

I should have definitely fed before coming here.

"Where are we going?" Isabella asked quietly after they were almost thirty minutes out of Forks. Tanya was frankly surprised it had taken her this long to ask. Though she was clearly very nervous the girl didn't seem to be overly alarmed or in fear for her life. Didn't she have any self-preservation instincts? That must have been it because the young Miss Swan didn't strike Tanya as unintelligent. Dangerously naïve and trusting perhaps but not stupid.

The vampire cracked open one of the windows before breathing so she could speak. "A rest stop off the Calawah River," said Tanya in a neutral voice that very nearly gave the impression of being bored. "It's the most private spot I found within reasonable driving distance of Forks." She didn't add that it had been chosen because if Isabella decided she wanted to rant and yell and scream, there was an almost zero chance there would be another human soul anywhere nearby to hear her. Tanya didn't see this going smoothly and she didn't want to have to silence the girl if she started yelling about things she shouldn't at an inappropriate time.

It would also be a good place for young Miss Swan to meet her end if it came to that. Though the idea had started to seem increasingly distasteful Tanya would still do it. She had always been the one to make the hard decision for the Coven and the one to bear the burden of those decisions for the sake of her family. This time would be no different.

"Do we really have to go this far just to talk?" Isabella asked with a little break in her voice, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. No, not stupid at all. But you are most definitely foolish Miss Swan.

"You're not backing out, are you Miss Swan?" Tanya said, her voice teasing and with a hint of challenge. "I thought you said there were some questions you wanted answers to."

Isabella made an unhappy face at that, but in the end just crossed her arms and looked out the window without saying anything. The girl wanted answers so badly she was willing to take a nearly suicidal risk to get them, with no guarantee that she would learn whatever it was she sought so desperately. The Swan girl must have had a great deal of attachment and devotion to Edward and the Olympic Coven in general. For a brief moment Tanya felt an unexpected spark of envy flare up in her chest before she quickly smothered it out with the ease of long practice. The Alpha female bit the inside of her lip and frowned. It was disconcerting, all the emotions this little Omega seemed to be pulling out of her with no conscious effort on her part.

The more quickly this matter is resolved the better.

Tanya drove deep into the national park, taking small unmarked service roads that she had memorized after glancing once at a detailed map. It wasn't too long until they came to a heavily wooded spot overlooking a fair sized river. Tanya stopped and turned off the truck off the side of the dirt road under the shade of trees a hundred feet tall. Rolling down her window all the way Tanya scented the air and listened. There were no signs of humans nearby, just the sounds of nature and the scents of animals, plants and water in the air. In fact it seemed that no humans had even passed this way in some time. They were completely alone. Exactly as she had wanted.

"I'm sorry," Isabella suddenly spoke up. Tanya turned to her with a questioning look. "Uh, I just realized I never asked your name," the girl said sounding genuinely contrite. "That was rude of me. I just, um had a lot on my mind," she finished lamely with a small hesitant smile on her lips.

Tanya unbuckled her seatbelt and turned her body in her seat to more fully face the young woman, leaning casually against the driver side door. "That's quite all right Miss Swan. In fact the onus was partly on me to introduce myself." Seeing no further need for them Tanya removed her sunglasses and slipped them into one of the pockets of the jacket she was wearing. When she looked at Isabella she knew her eyes were a few shades darker than they should have been. "You may call me Tanya. I am from a Coven… friendly to the Cullens, based out of Alaska. We call ourselves the Denali."

Isabella met her intense golden eyes for a second before ducking her head shyly and partly covering her face with a curtain of her dark hair. "Oh," said Isabella, for some reason sounding a bit more at ease than just moments before. "It's… it's nice to meet you Tanya. I'm Bella Swan. As you already know of course."

"Indeed," said Tanya, not bothering to hide a slightly amused and indulgent smile. The girl was still nervous around her, though if that was because she was alone with a vampire, an Alpha, or both was difficult to tell. However the lingering aroma of anxiety and fear had almost completely disappeared. Curious despite herself, Tanya decided to allow herself this indulgence and simply ask.

"Why are you not more frightened of me?" the vampire said tilting her head with genuine curiosity. "I dangled information and half bullied you into coming with me to an abandoned place in the middle of nowhere. I'm a stranger. I'm a vampire. I am an Alpha and you're very clearly an inexperienced Omega. All very good reasons why you should be exceedingly worried about finding yourself alone with me Miss Swan."

Isabella flushed in embarrassment and Tanya's eyes darkened another fraction with how that brought the girl's sinful scent even more to the surface. "Well when you put it that way it does sound really bad," the girl admitted self-consciously before looking up and giving Tanya a small, hesitant but genuine smile. "But you've been really nice to me so far all things considered. You could have just kidnapped me or something and there's nothing I could have done about it. Besides your eyes are golden," Isabella said shrugging a little. "I know what that means. It means you're one of the good vampires and that you probably won't hurt me on purpose."

I'm one of the 'good' vampires because I have golden eyes? Dios Mío, young one. If you do end up in my Coven we're going to have to work on those self-preservation instincts of yours.

Still it was strangely… touching to be given that much trust by a human, especially one that knew perfectly well what she was. Then again maybe her knowledge was full of holes and misconceptions. How else could you explain her cavalier attitude about finding herself alone with a vampire? With a being who had to restrain herself every second from leaping across the cab of the truck to either fuck her, or drain her dry, or more likely both?

"You flatter me Miss Swan, though you may not think so highly of me after you hear what I have to say," Tanya said mysteriously. Isabella's hesitant small smile faltered into a look of dread. For a moment Tanya felt regret before pushing the feeling away with the ease of long practice. Before the girl had a chance to answer or think up horrible scenarios in her mind Tanya spoke again. "However we did have a deal. You said you had some questions you wanted answers to, yes? Go ahead and ask. I'll do my best to answer so long as I'm not violating anyone else's trust."

The young Miss Swan closed her eyes and her whole body shook briefly as if suddenly assaulted with a sharp bout of unexpected pain. Tanya saw her whole demeanor shift to what she had seen earlier when the Cullens had been brought up, every movement and her very posture screaming out her pain, her confusion, her defeat. Once again Tanya found herself surprised by how deeply this girl had been hurt. Was it foolishness on her part? Simple overblown teenage melodrama? Or had this human girl really given her heart to a family of vampires to such a profound extent?

Seeing the girl in such pain made the vampire inexplicably uncomfortable… and it made her want to find and ask the Cullens just what the hell they had been thinking. Carlisle and Esme at least should have really known better.

"Do you know…" the girl began haltingly as she looked up to meet Tanya's eyes. "Do you know why they left? Did they tell you why they left?"

Tanya crossed her legs and leaned back against the door with all the grace and haughtiness of a queen sitting on her throne. "I have not spoken to them since their disappearance. They neglected to inform my Coven of their sudden decision to relocate and did not even bother to leave any lines of communication open to us. That's how we first learned that something was wrong. We were unable to get in contact with them by any of our usual means."

Isabella's expression crumpled and her eyes fell to her lap. "Oh," she said, sounding lost and broken. "So you don't know anything then," she muttered, more to herself than to the vampire.

"I wouldn't say that," said Tanya with the smallest hint of a smile, "I've known Carlisle for almost two centuries now. I know how he thinks, and I know that family almost as well as my own. To you they may have seemed a group of mysterious and wonderful vampires but to me they are simply a Coven of young vampires that is not without its flaws. Tell me, would I be correct in assuming that their departure had to do with you? And that Edward was the instigator of the whole move?"

At the sound of the name 'Edward' the girl seemed to pale and shrink in on herself further, the scent of despair rising into the air like pungent perfume. Young Isabella nodded shakily, having to try a few times before she could get the words out. "He said he wanted me to have a human life. He said… he said a lot of things to me."

"Edward hates being a vampire. Did you know that?" asked Tanya. By the shocked look Swan sent her Tanya knew the answer to her question. "I won't go into much detail but he thinks we are cursed creatures, doomed to go to hell. Foolishness really," said Tanya dismissively. "If I had to guess I'd say that is ultimately what caused him to push you away and run. Carlisle always did spoil him too much, giving in to his sometimes ridiculous whims far too often. As to the others," Tanya said with a shrug, "I don't know how close you were to any of them but if Carlisle ordered them to keep their distance they would have no choice but to obey. That is how a Coven works. Again this is all conjecture, but knowing that Coven as well as I do I am almost certain that is how events must have played out."

Tanya paused, taking a brief moment to examine the attractive young woman sitting across from her. She was now frowning slightly, struggling to process everything that Tanya had just casually laid out at her feet. After a few long moments of intense concentration the young Miss Swan shook her head slightly, though her words told another story. "They never did tell me very much about vampires or how it all works but… it fits. Wh-what you said. I can very easily see Edward hating himself and pushing his family to stay away from me," the girl said, her voice broken, angry and bitter. "I would have still loved him. Would still love him. He didn't have the right. He just… didn't."

They sat in silence for several long moments, Isabella lost in her own thoughts and pain and Tanya looking at the girl, trying to figure out what it was about her that seemed to give her the power to turn vampires into knots around themselves. Even Tanya herself was not immune. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had such a strong reaction to a human as she did to this one little Omega that went by the name Isabella Marie Swan.

"Is there anything else you would like to ask me Miss Swan?" Tanya asked her gently.

The girl wiped her face and nose with her sleeve before making a visible effort to put herself together, even if she still kept her head down. Shaking her head slightly she said, "No. I… I can't really think of anything else right now."

"Well then," said Tanya, suddenly using the grave and no-nonsense voice she used as Coven Leader, "Allow me to explain to you why I'm here."

000

A/N: A longer chapter this time. Not super long but longer for sure. How do you think the story is going? Anything specific you might like to see? Let me know what you think.