The moon was high in the sky by the time we all assembled by the border. Edward had been right in saying that I would have smelled the line. Even though his description of the scent was too favorable. It was not like a wet dog. It was way worse. So much more intense. I let Edward enfold me in his arms and took comfort from his magnificent smell of honey, lavender and sunshine.

"Are they there yet?" Dr. Cullen asked Edward.

He shook his head. "No, I am not hearing them."

Dr. Cullen nodded. "Maybe we should build a fire for the Elders? Summer is gone now. I am sure they would appreciate the added warmth."

It did not take long for us to collect wood and start a small kindling. Alice was diligently feeding the flames.

Jasper sighed as he checked the time. "I hate those power plays."

I turned and raised my eyebrow. He must have felt my curiosity.

"They are late." he said. "It's a way to establish dominance. A small disrespect to show the other party that you are the one in control."

I nodded and snuggled back into Edwards embrace to wait. It did not feel like much later when Edwards head snapped up from my neck. "They are on their way."

"How many?" Jasper asked.

"All the Elders and five wolves."

"They obviously did not feel the need to inform us about that development." Rosalie commented bitterly.

"Hm." Edward agreed. "Sam is the oldest. I think he started patrolling the border again. Jared, Paul, Embry and Jacob have joined him later."

"Why are we even here when they don't communicate with us?" she asked hissing.

"Rosalie," Dr. Cullen chastised her. "We were the ones who created the treaty. Just because the newer tribal members no longer honor it the same way Ephraim Black's pack did does not mean that we have to sink to their level. It is the right thing to inform them that Isabella has joined our family. They would have found out about her regardless. It is better we inform them ourselves and prevent any possible misunderstandings."

Edward warned us when the wolves came into hearing range so that we spoke nothing we would not want them to know. Only moments later I registered the soft footsteps of heavy animals on the forest floor. The loud rattling of an old car that Edward informed us held the Elders entered my hearing soon after.

I left the comfort of Edwards arms and stood beside him. Only his hand entwined with mine.

Finally, four wolves, one tall and muscular man with the characteristic copper skin and short black hair. He pushed one of the elders in a wheelchair. The others followed behind. Slowly and cautiously finding their way through the forest.

I could feel Edward stiffen at some of their thoughts and slowly stroked the back of his hand. Calming him as well as I could.

All the while I was certain to feel the brown eyes of the Quileute representatives. I had no intention to let them see how uneasy their stares made me feel. Instead I kept looking at Dr. Cullen.

"We are here." The young man spoke up, crossing his bare arms. "What is it you want, Cold Ones?"

There was a tension in the air but Dr. Cullen did not let himself be unsettled. "There have been some new developments we wanted to inform you about. But first, I want to thank you all for coming on such short notice. We have no intention to keep you for long. We would only request that you give us your attention for a few moments."

Jasper and Emmett grinned at each other and a banknote changed hands. I could feel Edward chuckle next to me and threw him a questioning glance. He shook his head. Later.

"What is there to talk about?" The muscles in the man's jaw were clutched. He was obviously uneasy.

"Sam, you and the other wolves have not yet been phased when we last spoke to the representatives of your tribe. But I am sure you remember the old legends you have been told. Do you remember the size of our family back then?" Edward asked him.

"There were five."

"Exactly." He smiled and nodded. "There were Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, Emmett and I." He agreed and pointed out each family member. "Alice and Jasper joined us in 1950 and we informed your Elders of their inclusion in the treaty when we first came back to the area."

"And what about her?" he accusingly pointed to me. "She is not part of the treaty."

"No, Bella is not yet part of the treaty. But we would like to include her." Edward said calmly. "That is why we asked you to come here today."

There was a collective grown running through the wolves and I threw Edward a questioning glance.

"They believe we changed you." he shook his head in disbelief and turned back to Sam. "Sam, I can assure you Bella has not been changed by any of us."

The Elder in the wheelchair cleared his throat. "Who turned her then?"

"A male vampire named Laurent." I lied instinctively. Any talk of a mysterious golden eyed vampire would only lead to questions I could not answer. The purified version would have to do for them. "He was a human blood drinker and wanted me to be his mate. I wanted neither of those things and fled from him."

I could tell all of them kept their faces carefully neutral but a small shudder ran through their bodies at the mention of a red eyed vampire.

Sam's eyebrow rose. Faint tremors ran through his body. "You want us to believe another vampire changed her to be his mate, she fled from him and then chose to be the mate of the next best?" He pointedly stared at Edward and my joined hands.

"No." I said calmly. "Edward is in no way the next best vampire to take as a mate."

"Isabella, I would suggest you tell them a little of your story." Dr. Cullen recommended. "I am sure that would help them understand better."

I nodded reluctantly. "I was born in the year 1900, in Chicago. As you might remember Edward was born as Edward Masen in 1901, also in Chicago."

Murmurs went through their ranks.

"In 1917 Edward and I married and he fell ill of the Spanish flu in 1918. One Dr. Carlisle Cullen treated him alongside his mother. But there was little he could do for him, so he decided to save him by giving him his venom." I sighed heavily and tightened my grip on Edwards hand to give me strength. "Dr. Cullen left me under the impression that my husband had died and I tried to live on despite the agonizing pain I was in over his death. It may be that I would have healed from it after some time if there had been other loved ones around me to help or it could have been that the vampire mating bond was even then leading me to end my life, I will never know. I did try to kill myself. But Laurent took my death from me."

Edward growled at the dark silver furred wolf.

"What did he think?" I asked him.

He shook his head.

"Edward?" I demanded.

"He thought ´too bad´" Edwards voice was cold as ice. But I could see the hate burn in his eyes. I lifted my free hand and stroked his cheek. Then I turned back.

"At the time I thought the same." I told everyone. "I had no reason to go on and I cursed God for keeping me from Edward. Now that I have found him again I am grateful and I would gladly take another hundred years of separation if Edward waited for me on the other side."

Edward leaned over and pressed a soft kiss against my temple.

Sam exchanged glances with the Elders, his expression inscrutable. "This is a convenient story, but we have no way to verify it."

"Come on!" Emmett voiced his frustration. "We've been playing nice. There was no need for us to inform you of Alice and Jasper. We did anyway. And there was no reason to inform you about Bella but we did. Cut us some slack!"

"It's not that simple, Emmett." Esme said. "We should listen to the tribe's concerns and alleviate them. We should not have expected them to trust our word only. I understand their skepticism."

"We've come a long way, but we need to remember that this peace is delicate. We must continue to work together to preserve it." Dr. Cullen reminded everyone.

I furrowed my brows and leaned closer to Edward. If I had it my way I would be encased in the safe cocoon of his arms. I did not like to know that my presence alone had brought up this conflict. I wanted Edward to be safe and happy. I just wanted to be with him.

He dropped my hand and instead wrapped his arm around my waist, squeezing tenderly and leaned in to tell me that he loved me.

"We cannot make a decision based solely on a story. We need evidence." One of the Elder said.

"We have no reason to deceive you." Edward said firmly.

"Oh, but you do." Sam said. "The treaty stands only so long as you do not bite a human. If you changed her to be your mate there will be war between us. A war that you would obviously try to prevent to keep your mate safe."

"Let's be real here." Emmett's voice boomed. "The treaty only ever protected you. We did not want to kill needlessly when we came across Ephraim Black and his pack. The conditions did not inconvenience us so we agreed to them. To keep those three wolves safe against five vampires. Now you have five young and sheltered wolves against eight experienced vampires with centuries under our belt. Not to mention the gifts. Who do you think would win if it came to a fight?"

The only answer was the loud snarling of the wolves. Sam and the Elder scowled. Hate evident in their eyes.

"I'm not lying." I desperately wanted them to understand. "None of the Cullens changed me and I just want to live in peace with Edward."

Sam was resolute in his answer. "We need more than words. This situation requires a deeper investigation."

I nodded eagerly. "I am sure there were photos of both Edward and I in the newspapers. Would you like to conduct your own inquiries and gather evidence or would you like for us to do it for you?"

"We will do it ourselves." One of the Elders decided.

"Very well." I agreed. "My maiden name was Isabella Marie Swan. I hope it will be easier to find me under that name."

"And I was Edward Anthony Masen."

I smiled up at my husband. "We were married on the 13th of December 1917."

"And I ´died´ on the 20th of October 1918." Edwards' eyes were full of pain.

I cringed at the reminder of our separation. "On the 31th of December 1918 I followed him."

"I love you." Edward whispered into my hair.

I answered him just as silently.

"Obviously the announcement in all three cases would have been made a few days after. You will have to be on the lookout." Edward explained as he turned back to the members of the tribe.

"It is getting late." Dr. Cullen said. "I think we have covered all we could for the night. And I am sure you would like to get to bed. You can contact us if you have any following questions and when you find the evidence you need. Isabella has lived by the rules of the treaty regardless but we will add her once your curiosity has been sated."

A few nods came from their side.

"Once again, I thank you for taking the time to speak with us. I hope your research will be easy and fruitful. We will speak again." Dr. Cullen smiled. "Good evening."

With that Edward once again took my hand and we sped into the forest. Away from the sickening scent of the wolves.

And once again he led us to the beautiful meadow. Surrounded by the serene beauty of nature and my Edward I was at ease.

The meadow was a place of safety and warmth.

It was almost as if I had stepped into a comfortable dream after a lost day.

I leaned back into the bed of grass and closed my eyes. Enjoying the silence of the night. I could feel Edwards' eyes on me. And I couldn't help but smile. His glances had always felt as though he was running his hands over my skin. "Come here." I patted the grass next to me without opening my eyes.

I could hear his clothes shuffle as he came to me. He lifted my head, scooted under and placed it in his lap.

"It's nice to get away." I sighed as Edward brushed through my hair, his fingertips tickling the sensitive skin on my scalp. "You were absolutely right. The scent was repulsive."

He chuckled softly.

A comfortable silence fell over us as Edward wound strands of my hair onto his finger and then let them fall free again.

"You know, I can't help but wonder what the wolves are thinking right now." I said quietly.

"Do you truly want to know?" he asked me. "You would not have liked what was in their heads when we met them."

I contemplated his words for a moment but shook my head. "Tell me, what were they thinking?"

"Well," Edward lowered his voice conspiratorially. "They did not believe your story. None of them thought it likely that a couple would be changed individually and even if that were the case they could not believe that we would have found each other again in a town like Forks. But that much was obvious even without looking into their minds."

"Mh-hm."

"I thought it was quite interesting that all of the wolves have a particular hatred of me."

I tensed and opened my eyes, staring into his golden ones. "What? Why would they hate you in particular?"

"There are one and a half reasons," he said calmly. "For one, they do not like the invasiveness of my talent. I can understand that. All of our family members have voiced their displeasure with my talent multiple times. It is the greatest invasion of privacy. And because of my talent they see me as the most dangerous out of all of us. All of them would love to kill me because of it."

"And are you?" I asked.

"Am I what?"

"The most dangerous?"

He pursed his lips but nodded. "I have not seen you fight, love, but when it comes to the wolves I would be the most deadly. Jasper is a great fighter. He had to be. He actually fought in the southern wars for years."

"Is that where all his scars came from?"

"Yes, it was." Edward nodded. "And Emmett is the strongest out of all of us, so they would have a hard time fighting him. But I do have the advantage because of my gift. Every move they intend to do appears in their mind beforehand. I am always warned in advance."

He paused thoughtfully. "Otherwise Alice is the most deadly. But just as I depend on my mind reading, so does she need her visions to fight effectively. And she is blinded by the wolves. She couldn't see them. Our meeting with them was a blank spot for her. She was actually terrified by it. It was as if all of us had died for a while. There was nothing."

I nodded. A sense of pride for Edward rose in me and I could not help but smile at him. But his eyes stayed troubled. I raised my eyebrow in question.

Edward hesitated for a moment before he shared more. "And there's something else. The youngest wolf, Jacob, well…" he struggled for a moment. "He liked your appearance a lot."

"Does he now?" I asked him playfully but the trouble did not leave his eyes.

"Edward, you must know that there is nothing he could ever do that would be of any danger to us." I reached up and grazed his cheek. "There is no need to worry. You know there could never be anyone but you. You know I only have eyes for you. Noone could come between us in the past hundred years while we mourned each other and no one will come between us now that we are back together. Not even a juvenile wolf."

Edward's expression softened, and he leaned closer. "May I kiss you, love?"

I reached up to kiss him gently. Breathing him in.