Characters: Bella/Wolf/Wolf

Rating: M

Genre: Suspense…?

Word Count: 619 - Yeah, I know, it's another flashfic, not a drabble. Oops! ;)

Prompt: (Quote) "She had a feeling they weren't finished with her yet."

Origin: Tricky Raven's Weekly Fan Fic Drabble Contest, Prompt #6, 2014

If You Can't Beat 'em, Join 'em

The pounding beat of her heart pulsed loudly in her ears as Bella leaned just slightly to the left to peek around the cover of a large sitka spruce.

She dived back behind the tree just in time to avoid the two projectiles that whipped past her head.

Hefting her pack full of ammo and lifting her weapon to her shoulder, she risked taking a step out just after the near miss, pulling the trigger twice in rapid succession.

Two loud and very clear kill shots rang out and she grinned in satisfaction as she felt the shimmer that indicated someone had phased.

Cheaters, she sneered, but she had a feeling they weren't finished screwing with her yet. Risking another step out, she looked for other enemy encroachers.

Seeing the flash of another muzzle, she darted behind a boulder, propping her weapon on top for stability as she sought her next target.

Another flash to her left caught her eye, making her turn to intercept, forgetting herself and everything her husband had taught her as she took enemy fire to the side of her head, the latex of the water balloon snapping against her skin as the ice cold water made her shriek and give away her position.

Fucking Quil Ateara and his fucking water balloon laser tag pack bonding weekends.

Her boys loved it, though.

Jake, too, so what was a boy-mom to do?

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Just then, she saw two nearly identical copper and cream blurs dash into the clearing, carrying laser tag vests in their mouths, technically still in keeping with the agreed upon guidelines for the game.

She shook her head, tsk-tsking her boys for playing fast and loose with the rules.

Again.

She rolled her eyes. They were so much like their father.

Rolling from her hip up to her knees, she broke cover for the briefest of seconds as they closed in on her, phasing human—one pummeling her with a barrage of water balloons like machine gun fire while the other marked her with his laser gun.

Her vest vibrated, indicating a kill shot. Her shoulders drooped in resignation as water sluiced down her small frame.

She chuckled to herself at their ingenuity, teaming up the way they did would make them a stronger Alpha and Beta for the pack when they were older.

Her heart swelled with pride.

This was the closest she'd come to getting the drop on her boys since they were toddlers and Quil invented this stupid game.

Dropping her gun to swing around her back on its strap, she raised her arms in surrender, "Okay, okay, you got me, though, I still think phasing is an unfair advantage." She shook her head in defeat. "You should take it easy on your mother," she said with a smile as Eli and Ezra each stepped forward to give her a kiss in apology.

"Sorry, Mom," they chorused, smiling, not the least bit repentant.

"Oh, hush. You are not. Besides," she said quietly, keeping her gaze trained on the ground to hide her expression, "it's not like I am, either."

They pinned their mother with twin looks of shock as she lifted her head and an evil grin spread across her face just before she ducked.

Two kill shots rang out as Eli and Ezra each took two ice cold water balloons to the face.

Bella laughed at the sound of Emily, Kim, and Rachel celebrating and high-fiving each other echoing through the forest.

"Don't try to pull one over on your mother, boys," she cocked her finger like a pistol firing and blew off the smoke before sauntering away with a cocky sway of hips.

A/N: Just a long note for my regular readers since I haven't been posting very much lately due to my schedule. The voting ballot is still open for another two days, I think, for The Non-Canon Awards. (Voting ends April 9th, according to the blog.) I'm nominated for Non-Canon Author, Best Lemon for Snowed In, Best Poly for Snowed In, Best Quote for Embry from Snowed In, and Best One-Shot for my Jacob/Bella teacher/student fic, Chemistry.

The incredibly talented Dontcallmelee-lee is also nominated for a banner she did for me for Snowed In and my awesomely gifted pre-reader, meliz875, is nominated in a number of categories as well. She's up against me in the Non-Canon Author category, too! How cool is that?

If you haven't yet and you're so inclined, you could head on over to the The Non-Canon Awards blog and vote for your favorite authors and artists.

. - just click the 'vote' link in the little blue bar at the top and it'll take you right to the voting ballot. Thanks to everyone for reading and voting! You guys rock!

The Tricky Raven Silent Author and Artist Auction ended recently and it was a huge success. Thanks to everyone who donated and bid on me and the other participating authors and artists to help keep Tricky Raven up and running for our community of wolf girls (and guy ;) ) for another year. My donated one-shots for my winning bidders, Afke Deen and bkhchica, for that should be up sometime in the next few weeks on Tricky Raven, so, if you haven't yet, you might want to sign up over there so you can check those out when the time comes. They will likely be exclusive to Tricky Raven.