I've got another little birthday surprise for meliz875! (Have you checked out her Embry/Leah fic, "Hardest of Hearts", yet?)

This one is a two-shot, so it's got it's own group on Tricky Raven and will be a stand-alone fic here on FFn, but as a shorty, it falls under my omnibus, too, so I thought I'd post a preview here as a teaser for what's coming up this weekend. First update should be posted March 1st or 2nd, (this weekend!). It's rated M. You know why. ;)

Preview:

One would think with all the available shapeshifter manpower that someone other than Bella would have been a better choice for the delicate and stealthy job of swiping Old Quil's 'shine. The problem was that Bella was the only one who knew where he hid his stash in the shed. The others may have been able to sniff it out, but Bella was the only one who knew how to open the hidden compartment without destroying the door and giving away that it had been breached by the world's unstealthiest group of shapeshifting burglars and their crafty human ring-leader.

The one time, weeks earlier, that Bella had 'accidentally stumbled' across Old Quil bottling his secret recipe in the shed, he had mistakenly assumed that she was the good girl he'd never have to worry about and so, hadn't bothered to hide what he was doing while he answered her innocuous questions about some lesser known tribal legends.

Little did he know, she was merely a trojan horse—the pack's unassuming and unlikely advance scout.

As it turned out, Old Quil didn't know his great-niece quite as well as he thought. She was more like Quil the Younger than anyone suspected.

Because, when it came right down to it, Bella could lie. She'd learned all kinds of new skills while she was away at school.

Hell, thieving the moonshine had been her idea in the first place.

If this preview caught your interest, I hope you'll keep an eye out for the two-shot on my profile this weekend and check out my upcoming interview with Dontcallmeleelee on her blog, Dontcallmeleelee's Mess: .com this Sunday! She makes quite a few of my fic and chapter banners these days and they're all gorgeous!

Enjoy!

~ChrissiHR