Chapter Twenty Nine

Peter

I tried reaching The Major on Isle Esme but of course there was no reception, I was sure they did it just to piss me off and when I rang Garrett to see if he'd heard anything that might account for my strange feeling his phone went straight to voice mail too. Charlotte who had been hovering at my shoulder sighed,

"Why is it you can never get hold of people when you really want to?"

"No idea my little kitten. Hey! I've got it I know why I've got this feeling."

She grasped my shoulder almost hard enough to dislocate it,

"You do? What? Is it serious? Do we need to fly to Rio?"

I was tempted to answer yes to the last question but my wife had a terrible temper on her and I decided not to go out that far on a limb,

"Aliens are abducting all the vampires, the Cullens are gone, well that's fine I have no argument with that, Garrett's gone, a little more serious but I can probably live without him, and next on the little green men's hit list is The Major. Problem solved, I'll just ring Area 51 and let them deal with it."

I guess I asked for the beating I got but even so, anyone would think she was really mad at me!

It did give me more than a week of blessed silence, she didn't even look at me but it had the downside that I couldn't take her to bed and ravish her and after ten days I was ready to explode so I was forced to grovel.

"Charlotte please, I'm sorry. I didn't think it was that bad, that you were so concerned. Let me make it up to you baby please."

The little boy hurt look usually worked on her and I could see she was weakening but I hadn't won the battle yet.

"Do you still have that feeling?"

I opened my mouth to lie but I just couldn't do it so I nodded instead,

"Yeah, it's still there between my shoulder blades but it hasn't gotten any worse, not really."

"Meaning it has Peter. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you weren't talking to me for fuck sake."

"Well I am now."

"And I'm telling you. Look I'll fly to Rio if you like, I'll even brave sharks and swim out to Isle Esme and check on him. How about that?"

She thought for a few seconds and I was just beginning to wish I'd kept my mouth shut when thankfully she shook her head.

"No, I don't think its The Major we should be concentrating on."

"OK, I'll buy it, who should we be concentrating on?"

"His mate Bella. If you've got a strange feeling chances are its about her not him."

"Right, I'm getting weird feelings about The Major's mate that I didn't know existed until I rang him to see if the weird feeling was about him. Now that's pretty fucking clever, even for me."

"PETER!"

She snapped my name and I tried to look contrite.

Charlotte

My husband could be so infuriating at times, especially when it came to the Cullens. He hated them, or at least he looked down on them as weirdo's and hated that The Major was now tied up with them even though it made his life so much easier. It was true he'd had bad feelings before and I had pushed them aside as stupid, his tingle down the spine meant real trouble and had saved both of us and The Major in the past but his usual half ones often meant no more than a lightening strike or a horse in danger but he'd felt it necessary this time to ring The Major although he couldn't explain why.

That's what concerned me, especially as Bella was a weak vulnerable human being tied up with a vampire warlord. If any of his enemies found out they might just use her to hurt him but with her away on some camping trip with her mother and stepfather and out of communication and The Major unavailable in the Amazon I wasn't sure what we could do, tracing either would be difficult if not impossible in Bella's case, we didn't even know her.

I wished we'd been able to contact Garrett, he might have gone along with Peter to check on things but one of us had to be here for the imminent birth of a foal. Maybe I was being over dramatic, I knew Peter thought I was but I couldn't help it. I loved The Major like a brother and wouldn't see him hurt for the world. There was only one thing for it, if the feeling hadn't gone by the time the foal was born we would take a chance and turn up at his apartment, he would be there sooner or later and at least I could put my own mind at rest that he was well. I wanted to meet Bella too and this would be a good excuse. I told Peter my plan and he grudgingly agreed, he was just worried The Major wouldn't be alone when he returned, that there might be a dreaded Cullen with him.

"Its about time you made your peace with The Cullens Peter, It would make The Major's life so much easier."

From the look he shot me I didn't think there was much chance of that happening, Hell would probably freeze over first, Peter was nothing if not stubborn.

The foal arrived almost three weeks later, so overdue we were both worried something was wrong but it was strong and healthy, a colt which Peter named tongue in cheek Dr Doom. I just shook my head at him but there was no changing his mind,

"I like it, DD for short, a constant reminder of the Cullens."

We called in the guy who usually watched the ranch while we were away and drove north to Seattle,

"I don't know why he insists on living up here, its so fucking depressing, besides its almost in Canada and that's full of snow. You can't raise horses there."

"Of course they do, its not all snow Peter and you know that."

He grinned,

"Yeah but I got you going. Anyway its so fucking wet, I feel like I'm growing webbed feet."

We called at The Major's address but he wasn't back yet and I refused to let Peter break in.

"I know, lets drive up to the Olympic range, the scenery is fantastic according to The Major."

"Sight seeing? Just fucking great. He also said the hunting was good if I remember correctly but if you think I'm chowing down on elk or fucking grizzlies you are very much mistaken, I like my blood from a warm squirming human every time."

"I should be careful Peter, don't forget The Major's mate is one of those warm squirming humans."

"Yeah well I'll give her a bye, besides I'm a reformed character these days, I only hunt in the roughest parts of town, I enjoy scaring the crap outta muggers and druggies. Never touch a street walker though, got a thing about killing ladies."

I rolled my eyes but he had been very good recently, we both wanted to improve ourselves by leaving innocents alone and taking only the criminals, besides there were plenty of those around and not all haunted the alleys and back streets of town. There were a few politicians I wouldn't mind snacking on but they were just too high profile and neither Peter nor I wanted the Volturi on our backs, they scared us both despite Peters bluster.

We steered clear of the Quileute reservation remembering the treaty Carlisle had forged with the elders. The mountains were beautiful and there were plenty of streams and rivers to swim in. We hunted the wildlife but only as far as the opportunity, we never actually killed anything. It didn't seem right to me to hunt and kill the gorgeous creatures who were just trying to live their lives like us, not unless for food and Peter flatly refused to even try animal blood although I was curious to taste the differences. We spent a couple of weeks there, only slipping into town when necessary to hunt and then went back to see if The Major had returned.