A/N: Wow, is it Sunday already? Time really does fly. Quick reminder that from now on, I'll only be updating on Sundays so I can stay ahead, have more room to work on other stories, etc. Love you guys, and I always love reading your reviews and seeing your reactions. If any of you ever want to go into a rant or just talk about any of my fics, feel free to PM me or join my discord (link in my bio, just have to put the . g g in the right place with no spaces because ffnet hates links). Now, hope you guys enjoy.

Chapter 17

Hours later, Riley left the Cullen house, torn between happy and suspicious as fuck. She had tons of fun hanging with Bella, Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie, and even if Rosalie refused to admit it, Riley caught Rosalie almost smiling way too many times. The blonde ice queen had totally enjoyed herself too.

The suspicion came from Alice. It was hard enough not being able to hear ninety eight percent of the second conversation Alice had on the phone with the Denalis, but somehow, the shorty had managed to convince them. And for some reason, said shortstack was way too interested in having Riley over again tomorrow. Before, Alice had been all about not talking to Riley and struggling to figure out what to do with the extra human. Ever since that call, the way the flip in Alice switched freaked Riley the fuck out. The bitch had been relentless in insisting Riley come over tomorrow, to the point Riley had given up and agreed to come over.

Not that Riley actually intended on actually coming over. In fact, she planned on staying far away from Cullen territory until the pixie stick calmed down. Still, it agitated her to know she had given in and said she would come in the first place.

Now, here Riley was, humming to herself as she made her way to the wolf side of the border, pretending that she had no idea Emmett and Rosalie were following her to insure she didn't randomly die on the way. It was so hard not to point them out and tease Rosalie for clearly caring, but no normal human was supposed to be able to sense them, and therefore, Riley had to keep her mouth shut. Who knew it would be so hard being so naturally fucking awesome?

As Riley neared the border, her thoughts turned to where she would sleep tonight. She knew she was still welcome at the Clearwater residence, although Sue was still nervous about having Riley over after witnessing the whole threesome looking accident. It didn't help that she had caught Riley on top of Leah's bed waking her up that morning in the most teasing way possible, either. Leah had been a dark red, cursing Riley lowly and creatively under her breath by the time Sue had entered to find Riley on top of Leah in nothing but a bra and underwear. She had made sure to have a talk with Riley and Leah afterwards about how impressionable Seth was and reminding Leah that she still has an imprint out there, and even going into detail about how two girls need to practice safe sex too. Riley had found the entire thing hilarious, but both Sue and Leah looked like they wanted to die. In the end, Riley had felt it would be best to give them a break from her and sleep somewhere else. While Riley would prefer sleeping outside so she wouldn't bother anyone, she knew if any of the wolves found out they'd throw a shit fit and drag Riley into their home immediately. In the end, she'd just make more people uncomfortable, most likely people she didn't even know, and she'd increase her debt even further.

Which led Riley to her other problem; her debt. Between Riley's stint avoiding the wolves, the Cullens' return, and the whole Victoria thing, Riley had gotten far behind on paying off her debt, and was now increasing her debt to La Push more than ever. While the shifters and everyone else she met who knew what the shifters had done for her insisted that what she was doing wasn't necessary, it was necessary to Riley. Which meant she wasn't stopping until her debt was paid, with interest.

At least with that Riley could work tomorrow and use her debt as a reason to avoid the Cullen house, or the Cullen territory in general. Now, all she had to do was figure out where she would sleep for the night.

As if conjured by her thoughts, Riley caught sight of Paul waiting on the La Push side of the border.

"The hell are you doing here, Lahote?" Riley asked. She stopped on the Cullen's side of the border, just to irritate him a little.

"The head lee-vamp called Sam and told him you insisted on walking back by yourself. All of us agreed you'd end up in some kind of shit and probably fuck up your arm again if we let you come back alone, so I volunteered to be the one to pick you up. Now stop being a brat and get your ass where I can grab it, Riley."

Riley knew better than to argue with him about potentially getting herself hurt. Currently there was just too much evidence against her."You couldn't sound like more of a pervert if you tried, you know that?" Riley realized that Paul hadn't noticed Rosalie and Emmett yet as they were hanging far back, which meant he corrected himself for Riley's sake. Either to try and be more friendly toward the vampires because he actually wanted to change, because he was still scared of Riley going after him if he didn't behave, or both. Regardless, it was a good place to start if Riley thought about how shit the relations between the shifters and vampires were in the book.

"You know you like it," Paul teased, but didn't relax in the slightest. He scowled when Riley still didn't cross the border. "Get over here already, you're spending the night at my place and I don't want to make my mom wait."

"Damn you, you know that mentioning your mom is blackmail!" When Paul laughed, Riley moved to punch Paul in revenge. Suddenly, there were strong, cold arms around her middle, pulling her backward before she could cross the border.

"Shit!" Paul snapped, jumping in surprise at the vampire's sudden appearance. While Riley had known they were there, she was just as surprised for a particular vampire to actually come out and reveal herself.

"You were about to use your bad arm," Rosalie said with a roll of her eyes when she caught Riley staring up at her in shock. "While I understand your desire to punch the dog, you should know you'll only break your hand on him and possibly make your present injury worse as well."

Riley took a few minutes to just continue to stare at the beautiful Cullen. "Holy shit...you just saved me."

"Yes, clearly." Rosalie nearly added something a tad more scathing in reply, but held herself back. She would immediately regret the decision.

"But, like...you did it out of your own violation." At Riley's word's, Rosalie's eyes widened. "You actually went out of your way to grab me and stop me from hurting myself on Paul. You can't pretend you don't like me now, Hale!" Riley started to bounce in excitement, laughing maniacally as Paul eyed them with wariness and concern. Instinctively, he wanted nothing more than to shield his friend from the vampire even as he realized the blonde had actually tried to protect Riley. If he wasn't so busy struggling with his own protective desires, he would have been laughing as Rosalie tried to save her reputation.

"I simply didn't want you to dirty the forest with your blood," Rosalie sniffed as she released the excitable teen and took a step away. "Don't make this into a big deal."

"I totally need to be stupid more often," Riley exclaimed with a grin. "Then I get to see your soft side even more!"

Rosalie tried not to stiffen at Riley's words as all the scars she had seen on Riley's small body flashed through her head. "You do that and you'll end up killing yourself. Instead, why don't you try not to injure yourself?"

Why did Riley feel like someone had just thought something insulting about her size? She hadn't even heard anyone say anything. Shaking off the weird feeling, she said, "But how else am I going to get you to sweep me off my feet?"

"That is never going to happen. Ever." Her tone, her glare, the way she bared her teeth-none of it had any effect on Riley and it only infuriated Rosalie further. "Go. Your guard dog is getting jumpy, and I'm done dealing with you."

Emmett's chuckle came from a nearby tree. "You totally love her," he teased his wife at a vampire volume. Rosalie's glare shot to where he was still hiding, and Riley decided it was the best time to get out and back to a definitely anxious Paul. He was doing his absolute best not to say anything, and it was clear he was trembling; not from anger, but from pure nerves.

Riley skipped across the border. "What can I say, a girl can dream," Riley just had to say one last time as she stopped at Paul's side. She turned back to a grumpy Rosalie. "Well, I've been safely delivered, so you're free to go now. Not that you had to follow me here in the first place, you insanely beautiful bitch." The words were said with such affection Rosalie had no idea what to say in reply. Seeing his wife so flustered made Emmett laugh so hard he fell out of the tree, making Paul jump and curse once more in surprise.

"Come on, let's go, before she recovers," Riley whispered in a conspiratorial tone, knowing Rosalie and Emmett could hear every word. She took off with Paul hot on her heels, letting out a laugh at the fact that the vampires were left in such a state. They were well away from the border by the time they slowed down.

"I know you love Leah and all, but you're such a slut for blondes," Paul said, letting out a low chuckle as he remembered the way Riley had looked at Rosalie. "If she had told you to lick her shoes at any point, you would've done it."

"Shut up," Riley said, slugging Paul hard in the arm. He grunted and stumbled a few steps, but he wasn't the only casualty. Riley bit her tongue to stop any exclamation of pain from escaping her throat as a burning ache raced up her arm.

"You just used your bad arm again, didn't you?" Paul didn't know whether to be concerned or laugh at his friend's mistake, so he eyed Riley's arm, hoping no blood would start to seep out of the glove.

"...Shut up."

"Maybe we could stall a little longer. Not by a day of course, just a few minutes," Irina said, slowing her run further. "We did say we'd get here tonight, but we didn't specify when...and at this rate, we'll be arriving by six. That might be too early."

It was the day after the call with the Cullens, and they had already started to run to the Cullen house from Alaska. Tanya had been too eager to get there, and had pushed for them to get there as soon as possible. All of them had been on board at the time, but now that they were getting closer to the Cullen house, Irina's anxieties were starting to kick in. She was still so guilty about how she had been acting because of Laurent, and now she was letting her worries get to her. What if the Cullens didn't want her there? What if they hated her? They had every right to, of course, after how Irina had been acting, but it would still hurt. In fact, it would be completely understandable if they never forgave her...but she still wanted to make things right. She wanted to try.

Her own desires to make things right still didn't make the soon to be confrontation any less terrifying.

"Irina, you can't let your fears rule you," Carmen said. She slowed down to match her pace to Irina's, placing her hand on Irina's back comfortingly. "You know how the Cullens are. They aren't the type to hold a grudge, especially over something like this. I'm sure they even understand where you're coming from."

Eleazar fell back to run on Irina's other side so he could help as well. "The longer you put it off, the more time the divide has to grow. Do you want that?"

"No, I don't," Irina said softly. She was still nervous, but the mated pair's words helped steal her nerves. She could take whatever they threw at her, so long as Irina had a chance to try and make things up to them.

"I texted the Cullens our arrival time and they said they couldn't wait. There's no escape, Irina!" Kate crowed with a laugh.

"Damn it Kate!" Irina hissed, making Kate laugh even more.

"What? You can't tell me you aren't eager to see what the surprise is as well. I'm almost as excited to see what they have waiting for us than I am for the upcoming fight!" Irina couldn't help but agree with Kate; the time she hadn't spent worrying about her meeting with the Cullens was time she had spent wondering what exactly Alice had seen. Kate eyed Irina knowingly, but instead of teasing her about her silence, she turned to their other sister, speeding up to match their oldest sister's pace. "You agree with me, right Tanya? With how eager you were to leave, you must be as invested in this surprise as I am!" Tanya didn't reply right away, making Kate frown. She glanced back at Irina to see if she had any idea what was going on with Tanya, but Irina was just as clueless.

"Tanya?" Irina called as she sped up, touching the other blonde's shoulder to try and get her attention. Still, nothing. Another glance was traded between Irina and Kate, more worried than before.

Thankfully, Kate was more than happy to resort to extreme measures. Electricity crackled along her skin. Before any vampire could shout at her not to, she slammed her hand right between Tanya's shoulder blades in the most extreme back pat anyone had ever seen.

The coven leader screamed in surprise at the shock, and in that second where her body stiffened, she couldn't control her body. It made her unable to react or right herself, which was why she went flying through the air and into several trees, landing on her face.

The coven leader jumped up sputtering and spitting mud and dirt out of her mouth. "What the hell?" she snarled, ready to lunge at Kate and start tussling with her sister right there in the forest just like the sisters often did. The fact that Kate only smirked and didn't burst out into laughter was the one thing that stopped the coven leader. Whenever Kate used her power on anyone in the coven, it was usually done as a prank by the mischievous warrior and she always had a tendency to crack up after.

Carmen frowned at Kate disapprovingly. "You know I don't like it when you do that."

Kate shrugged, unrepentant of the wake up call as her body continued to crackle with electricity. "Tanya wasn't answering. What else was I supposed to do?"

"You didn't have to shock her!" Irina exclaimed before Carmen could say anything. "I swear Kate, you always look for an excuse."

The middle sister's mouth opened to defend herself, but a look from Carmen stopped her. She turned to Tanya, who was walking out of a bush as she dusted the dirt and leaves off of her clothes and tried to fix her hair. "I'm sorry for shocking you, next time you disappear inside of your head I'll just throw you instead. Maybe hit you with a rock."

"Kate, that isn't a real apology," Carmen scolded, fighting a smile despite herself. Kate let out a grumble about semantics as she let the electricity around her die.

Tanya frowned, looking to Irina for a hopefully much less dramatic explanation then Kate would give. "I wasn't answering?"

"No. We tried calling you a few times, but nothing worked. You didn't respond to my touch either, and that's when Kate decided to try a less gentle approach." Irina gave Kate a disapproving frown, although she couldn't do it for long. Kate had managed to get their sister out of that strange state she was in, after all. Her gaze turned back to Tanya. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I was just deep in thought." Tanya's assurances didn't do much to quell her sisters' worries, especially when she didn't elaborate.

"What were you thinking about, exactly?" Irina asked.

Tanya only shook her head. Despite her and her sisters' reaction to that laughter on the call, she couldn't help but have her doubts. If she was wrong, and the human, or the "surprise" wasn't what she hoped it was, it would only serve to break her sisters' hearts and get their hopes up for nothing. She didn't want to cause them that kind of pain, especially after everything that happened with Laurent. If Irina and Kate had their own suspicions that would be one thing, but both of them appeared completely oblivious to how they had reacted, let alone why.

Kate frowned at her older sister's silence. "What aren't you telling us, Tanya?"

"I have my reasons, Kate. I don't want to go into any further detail than that." The pain and confusion that flashed in Kate's and Irina's eyes at Tanya's words only made Tanya feel worse. "Please. I have my reasons for not telling you and I promise I won't keep my silence for long."

Thankfully Irina and Kate didn't say anything further as Eleazar intervened. "We all know Tanya isn't the type to keep things from us. She certainly has a very good reason for doing so." Eleazar glanced at the quickly darkening sky. "For now, why don't we hurry to the Cullens? We wouldn't want to be late after confirming the time of our arrival."

Kate reluctantly nodded, clearly a little grumpy from Tanya's chosen silence but trusting Tanya anyway, although she did mutter something about payback. Irina nodded as well, but not before giving one last look of concern and trust toward Tanya. It helped confirm that Tanya was doing the right thing. After all, she was not just a coven leader, but their eldest sister, and she loved them as much as they loved her. She had to keep them safe, not just from physical threats but from emotional ones as well.

"Thank you, Eleazar," Tanya said softly. He gave her an understanding smile and a nod as he took his mate's hand. Both he and Carmen silently showing their support for Tanya's decision, trusting her as much as her sisters did. "Let's focus on getting to the Cullen house. The sooner we get there, the better."

Kate perked up and grinned. "Right, the surprise! Let's go, fun awaits!" She grabbed Irina's and Tanya's hands, taking off and dragging them along. Tanya rolled her eyes at Kate's excitement, and while Irina tried to appear exasperated as well, she couldn't stop a laugh from escaping from her lips. The sound had been so scarce since Laurent's death, and it filled the rest of the coven with happiness as well.

Just a few more minutes. That was all it would take until they saw the human Tanya had heard, and then everything would be clear. Or so Tanya thought, but when they arrived at the Cullen house fifteen minutes later, Alice was pacing back and forth on the lawn, snarling to herself.

"That little rat! She escaped!" Alice growled, running her hands through her spiked hair. "What does she mean, she has to work? I don't need to see the future to know that she didn't have to work yesterday! I put all of this effort in, and she just ruins it? Why?" Alice turned to a brunette human, who had been sitting on the porch, watching the spectacle while sipping from a cup of water. "Why would she do this to us, Bella? Surely you have to know! You're the one who's closest to that evil little-"

The human let out a laugh. "I'll ask her." She shot off a text, and the reply was almost immediate. Bella bit her lip to stop herself from snickering before texting again, and soon she was locked in a quick message exchange.

"Bella! What's going on?" Alice huffed, blurring over to try and look at the phone. Bella let her, and Alice let out an offended gasp. "The audacity! How dare she say such a thing about my shoes? And I'm not planning anything! Okay, I am, but I'm not doing anything that isn't in her best interest too!"

Bella snorted as she shot off another text. "Good luck convincing her of that. She's pretty sure your plan involves tying her up and feeding her to a rabbit."

"Rabbits don't even eat humans!"

"Try telling her that. She's pretty sure you'd make it happen. Sorry Alice, but she's not coming."

Alice let out a frustrated groan and stamped her foot. It was only when Tanya cleared her throat that the pixie realized the Denalis had arrived. She looked over at them, torn between excitement at their arrival and frustration at whatever was going on over the phone. "You made it! I'm so happy you're here!"

"You didn't see us coming?" Tanya asked, a little perplexed at how off kilter the seer appeared.

"No, I've been a little...distracted," Alice said with a grimace.

"So we noticed." Kate's eyes glimmered with amusement, and had Irina and Carmen not both given her warning looks, she would have teased the poor pixie.

"Is everything alright? You appear a little...stressed." Tanya glanced from Alice to the human girl who was currently staring at them all with wide eyes, temporarily dazzled by her glamor. The girl was beautiful, even for a human, but she definitely didn't evoke any special feelings from the coven leader. Disappointment almost choked the vampire; had she been wrong after all?

"Oh, I'm more than stressed," Alice grumbled, but quickly turned apologetic. "About that surprise...it might be a little harder getting h-it here after all."

Kate grumbled and crossed her arms over her chest, on the verge of pouting, while Irina seemed torn between murmuring that it was alright or simply jumping right into apologizing. Tanya, on the other hand, had the exact opposite reaction. All of her disappointment dissipated, and her heart almost soared. The vampire could still be right. If this wasn't the human she had heard on the phone, there might still be hope after all.

"Perhaps we can help you obtain this surprise in some way? It's the least we can do after everything." Tanya managed to keep her voice calm and level as she suggested helping. She still didn't want to give away how eager she was to lay eyes on the human that Tanya was certain was their surprise.

Alice only deflated further. "About that...I didn't really want to mention this, but the surprise...well, it's currently in shifter territory."

Irina couldn't stop herself from stiffening at the mention of the shifters, and that made Kate snarl protectively. For a moment, electricity danced along her skin. Their reaction made Alice eye them nervously, and the other Cullens who had appeared outside to greet them seemed to become just as concerned by their reaction. Tanya was certain that her sisters' reactions made the Cullens a lot more apprehensive about letting the Denalis meet the wolves, and she was quickly proven right.

"You have no idea how happy we are to have you here. But perhaps it would be best to keep the pack away from you until we're all more comfortable." Carlisle suggested, unable to hide his nervousness.

Tanya wanted nothing more than to snarl and demand to see the wolves, and the "surprise" they had that very second. But she couldn't. Not without possibly making everything worse. "Of course, Carlisle. I understand your concerns."

Damn everything to hell.

A/N: I know, I'm a cruel, cruel bitch. Even to myself. I am so sorry for stretching this out so much, but Riley is a suspicious bitch by nature and all that.