Under the muted evening light, the Olympic forest was eerily quiet. It had been a good hour since she last heard the trees shift in the wind, and even longer since the animals had run somewhere safe.

Deep in the pine trees, Lydia stood with her family in a statuesque stillness. The clearing was small, and Alice stood in front of them all, golden eyes shut. To her right Emmett and Rosalie were exchanging looks that Lydia knew were part of a conversation only the two could understand. Carlisle and Esme were just a few feet over from them, holding hands in silence.

Jasper stood beside Alice, watching his mate closely. They all worried about her, but Jasper was a mother hen. Lydia stood to the left of him, her hands stuffed in the folds of her soft dress. It ended to her knees and the dainty floral pattern was faded and covered in stains from grass and dirt, which bothered Rosalie to no end. Most of what Lydia did was intended to bother her siblings, if she were being perfectly honest.

As much as she appreciated Carlisle and Esme bringing her into their home, their family, she would never truly be a part of it. Whether it was because she refused to or just didn't want to she refused to examine.

Her own family had been enough for her existence.

Standing in the forest spaced out the way they were, it was easy to imagine she was alone. That the other figures around her were merely trees waiting on the wind. She much preferred it that way. Being alone was easier than incorporating herself into a new home.

They were a family in last name alone, and even that was for appearances.

Dusk had fallen on them quickly, but perhaps that was due to their waiting the course of days for this moment. For three days, her family had been preparing themselves for a hunt.

After school ended and he had spent his allotted time with Bella, Edward came home with a grimace. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary as he was constantly at odds with himself and the damnation he felt Bella was enduring at his hands, but this was different. Him and Alice wordlessly gathered everyone in the kitchen where they explained what was going to happen.

During lunch that day, Alice had seen a vision of a vampire with red hair tearing through the forest of their small town. No explanation was needed. They all knew who they were facing.

Victoria.

One of three nomads that had killed their way through Seattle and over to Forks. The other two were Laurent and her mate, James; both were now dead. Out of revenge Victoria had been looking for ways to hurt her brother the way she was hurting, and had apparently decided on something. A mate for a mate.

Thanks to the Wolfpack living down on the Reservation her attempts to kill Bella had been thwarted while Edward and their family had been gone. In the process they had lost a key member of their close-knit group, Harry Clearwater. His children both shifted to their wolf forms for the first time in response.

But the Cullens were back now, and that meant the entire family was going to be protecting her brothers human from all threats. Lydia was indifferent about the whole thing, as she honestly didn't care what happened to Bella Swan. But keeping her alive meant they got to stay in Forks.

So there she stood, with some of the few people who couldn't possibly understand her genuine distaste for the familial bond they held for each other. For her. No body understood it, but that wasn't her problem.

"Are you sure this is where you saw her?" Carlisle asked softly.

Alice was staring off into nothing as she nodded. "She's almost here." She said absently.

Lydia smoothed her hands over the front of her dirty dress and stared up at the darkening sky. She closed her eyes and breathed in the wild scent around her.

"On your left!" Alice cried out, and they were off.

The speed she set for herself was faster than usual, but it wasn't often she was allowed to hunt. Because she felt no temperature on her icy skin she was perfectly comfortable in her dress. If she had been human, however, her body would have numbed uncomfortably in the cold. Mist and raindrops splattered on her skin, and flew off as quickly as they landed there. She was moving too fast for them to stay.

Lydia hurtled over a series of fallen trees and landed with perfect grace ten feet further from where she started.

It had been second nature before she died, to sprint through the woods and climb tree. She hadn't been allowed to, but Lydia often followed her brothers and father deep into the thickets when they went hunting. It hadn't taken her long to learn the silence she now moved with, and for the last two years of her human life they hadn't caught her once.

But Lydia no longer had to worry about the limitations of that human body; not dehydration, starvation, or even exhaustion. Now, her body was meant for hunting. Meant for this.

A glimpse of a massive figure few feet away from her and flashes of red beyond that told her she was running at the front of their pack with Emmett. She grinned at him, and he grinned back.

She surged forward with him and watched as he nearly grabbed Victoria's shoulder, and was then thrown into a sturdy trunk. The tree didn't even teeter.

Now being at the front Lydia focused on the flickering scorched red ahead and prepared herself to take the chance of grabbing her. But that drastic shade of red flew through the air and land on the other side of the river. The territory divider.

She caught herself and continued on their side as the thundering of paws and snarling broke through the eerie silence. The Quileute shape shifter wolves. When Carlisle first told her about them upon the decision to move their coven back to Forks, she thought he was full of shit. Lydia learned quickly that he wasn't.

The wolves were a sight to behold. All of them were massive creatures, standing with their shoulders reaching well over her head. There was roughly eight of them now, as opposed to the three there when they left. Each had various shades of fur — browns and greys and silvers — and each followed the largest of the pack, the alpha. Sam Uley was relatively fair as far as she had seen.

Just as two of the wolves were closing in on her, Victoria leapt back over to their side.

Lydia grinned to herself.

This was something like a game she would play with Thomas when they were young. And she had never liked losing.

When Victoria climbed up trees and Jasper went after her, Lydia didn't stop running. Jasper missed her by inches, and she was then back sprinting on their side of the river.

The wind tore through her hair as Lydia ran, slicking it out of her face from the sheer speed. Emmett was close beside her, so focused on the task at hand he didn't realize he was jumping until it was too late.

Victoria jumped over the boundary again and Lydia barely had the chance to duck as Emmett leapt over her. He nearly had her, and Lydia jumped after him while realizing they could catch her. Edwards human wouldn't be in danger anymore, they wouldn't have to be as careful, and she could have fun.

The wolves wanted Victoria caught as well.

Surely they'd make an exception.

But they didn't.

A snarl and flash of silver leapt from the opposite ledge and knocked Emmett off his path into a completely new trajectory. The massive wolf, in its fall to the ground, was positioned with its body hovering over Lydia completely. The smell of him was awful.

Unfortunately not the worst, but it definitely wasn't good.

Then she was on her back, a loud crack! resonating from her body as she hit the riverbed. The water swallowed her, and the wolf remained on top of her, pinning her down.

Briefly, Lydia was offended. Do they really think this would stop me? The main thought on her mind was what she felt. The massive paws, pinning her upper body into the rock. Her legs stuck beneath the rest of his bulk. The breath that wafted into her face.

He's too close, she thought, a hitch forming in her useless lungs.

Too close.

An involuntary spasm in her chest.

Too close. Nails digging into porcelain palms.

Too close too close too close too close too close too close too close too close too close too close too close too close too close too close—

She maneuvered her foot between them and kicked the wolf square in the chest before Emmett could interfere.

The sound of impact with the ground was like a tree falling. But he regained his balance quickly, and was glowering down at them from a ledge with a muted snarl.

With a growl rumbling in his chest, Emmett moved to stand beside her. He had also gotten soaked in the fall, and rivers of water rolled down his body. Now standing up, Lydia found the water nearly reached her waist. On Emmett, it was at his lower thigh.

She often found that out of all of her 'family', Emmett would be the easiest to love. He never took offence to her lack of familial connection. Never minded when she would refer to him as her roommate or something of the sorts; Carlisle and Esme often looked saddened. He didn't mind her snarking at him, or helping her clean up a mess she made when she was angry.

No, she didn't love her newfound family. Not even Emmett. But when thinking of Emmett, she sometimes found herself wishing her brothers had been a lot more like him.

So standing there, with that mouth of dripping teeth and narrowed black eyes focused on her, Lydia wasn't afraid. The wolves wouldn't be the ones to break the treaty, that was obvious. Sam Uley, the alpha, wouldn't allow it. This wolf was eager, but he wouldn't act without expressed permission from his alpha. Even if it did, Lydia knew she wouldn't be fighting alone.

At least Emmett would stand with her.

But a fight wouldn't get them anywhere.

So Lydia waved a hand in front of Emmett, snapping him out of whatever challenge he'd been ready to issue. "Go," she told him quietly. "It's not worth it."

It truly wasn't. In the seconds the territorial spat had taken, Victoria had gotten away. There was no hope of catching her when she had a head start.

Emmett and the wolf — still wheezing from her kick to its chest — stared at each other for a long moment before he finally listened and turned away. He jumped up onto the ledge with ease, and then turned to her.

Before she jumped up after him, Lydia lifted her golden eyes to look into the black-brown ones of the wolf. "I understand that this wasn't discussed, and that you were protecting your territory," she told him calmly, then looking to the black wolf that stood taller than the rest. The alpha.

When she glanced over again as movement caught her attention, the massive silver wolf she had faced was stumbling backwards over its own feet. His eyes were still wide, and he continued to stare at her. The mouth filled with all those sharp teeth was opened in shock. His hackles had fallen, and he was no longer defensive.

The others had gone silent as well.

They all stared at him, a conversation clearly being had within their pack mind link.

Lydia gave them a moment before she spoke to the alpha again. Her voice was steel; sharp and unwavering as she met the wordless challenge in his eyes. "But I need you to understand that the next time any of you lay a paw or hand on me, I will rip your tongue out of your fucking throat; are we clear?"

She didn't bother to wait for a response. The others had already started the run home, and a series of snarls followed her as she joined them.