After dropping the car off at home, she went for a hike. She could've easily sprinted through the trees and crossed over the mountain in less than twenty minutes, but hiking was better. She brought a backpack filled with books and a spare change of clothes and stalked her way along the trails. Her goal was the top of the mountain nearest her home.

It had been a long time since she was human, but she still remembered how much better her life was when her body had limits.

When she would have to sit down on the side of a trail to catch her breath or rest her legs. When her heart would pump so viciously she'd get dizzy. The ache of her back and feet. The sweat rolling off her neck.

Her body was no longer human, but it remembered her set pace and stuck to it. Lydia stopped twice and pretended she needed to catch her breath for the sake of normality and took the time to observe the scenery.

She was debating on hiking out to Seattle and then swimming up to Canada for the rest of the week when her phone buzzed in her bag. "Fuckin' leave me alone," she muttered under her breath as she pulled it out.

EDWARD
emergency. come to the
house now.

Lydia rolled her eyes. The emergency likely had to do with his human. It always did.

LYDIA
no.

EDWARD
Lydia please.

LYDIA
no.

EDWARD
Lydia.

LYDIA
fine.

dickhead.

She swore under her breath the entire trek down the mountain. Fucking Edward. Him and Bella were going to get their whole coven killed if the two weren't careful.

Her boots splashed in puddles and crunched on gravel as she made her way down the mountain. Slowly. Incredibly slowly. So slowly, Edward would regret asking for her at all.

Birds chirped around her in the trees, flitting about in a way they never did with the others. She'd spend countless of her sleepless nights befriending them. She could see the trees thin up ahead and frowned. This clearing was a twenty minute human walk away from the treaty line. She was almost home.

Two birds soared in a great arch above the clearing ahead of her before stopping on the branches above her, waiting.

Grinning to herself, Lydia dug into the stash of bird feed she kept in her hiking bag and held two handfuls of it in the air for them. Most stayed on branches or swept in to grab their share and then leave. A familiar, friendly chickadee she'd come to call Twig landed on her pinky finger and ate away.

She'd always loved animals, even as a human in Mississippi.

The birds, the gators; hell, she had even liked the snakes. But they had all been afraid of her, and rightfully so. Most of the people they met were monsters. Unfortunately, not the supernatural kind. The one and only time Lydia went hunting with her father and brothers, she witnessed it.

They had separated into different positions, and she had been put with Lyle and George.

They had found a three point buck that they would be bringing home for dinner that night. Though she knew this was to feed her family, she couldn't shake the sadness she felt knowing that they would be killing one of the creatures she loved so much. George wasn't the best shot, so Lyle took charge.

He was quick, but each shot he took hit home in places that would prolong its death. Make it more painful.

Lyle seemed to enjoy its agony and drew it out as long as he could. Lydia remembered the horror she felt, the disgust as she caught a glimpse of the young man her brother was.

But in the end, he got what was coming to him.

She'd refused to speak to Lyle for weeks after that, though her brother hadn't cared in the slightest. Even now, fifty some odd years later, when her memories were faded from time and trauma and pain, she wished she had been born to a different family.

When Twig was finished eating and flew off, she continued on her way. Lydia made sure to use more of her speed. She didn't want to deal with Edward anymore than she had to.

Exhaustion draining her, Lydia pushed her front door open and was met with Edward's furious face waiting in the foyer. Bella was tucked under his arm as she always was now, as if he couldn't bear to separate from her for even a few minutes. "Could you have taken any longer?" He demanded irritably.

"Edward," Bella said softly, warning him.

Lydia didn't acknowledge her as she stared at him. "Yes," she answered simply.

She toed off her hiking boots and wandered into their living room, where the rest of her family was waiting silently, minus Emmett and Jasper. That had her on edge. Edward had clearly sent them somewhere for some important task.

She was right; this definitely was about his human.

"Someone was in Bella's room," Edward told her quietly.

As she leaned against the wall, Lydia arched a brow. "Who?"

"We don't know," Alice answered her softly. "Emmett and Jas are looking into it, but Edward didn't recognize the scent."

From across the room, Rosalie stared out the window and rolled her eyes. She was waiting for her mate to return.

"Then what am I meant to do about it?" Lydia asked plainly.

She didn't have the mental capacity to be doing this. She just wanted her paints, and to stare at her favourite painting and wish things had ended differently. Lydia didn't bother to hide her thoughts from Edward; maybe he would leave her alone if he realized just how badly she needed space.

He didn't.

She heard Emmett and Jasper running before she saw them. Rosalie and Alice met them both at the front door as they always did. "Long gone, hours ago," Emmett announced, clearly disappointed. "The trail went east, south, and disappeared on a side road. Had a car waiting."

"That's bad luck," Edward muttered loud enough for them all to hear. "If he'd gone west...well, it would be nice for those dogs to make themselves useful."

Lydia rolled her eyes as Bella winced. She looked away as Esme rubbed Bella's shoulder.

Despite years of detachment, Esme still cared for her as if she were her own child. Lydia hated it. Things would be much easier if she were on her own, and she had been considering leaving for a while. She was just grateful that Alice hadn't said anything.

She was fairly certain that the next time they moved, Lydia would separate from the Cullen's and live out the rest of her immortal days in forests and national parks. Perhaps she would go back to her intended diet.

Perhaps she would hunt people like her brother.

Jasper handed a broken branch off of a fern to Carlisle and said," neither of us recognized him, but here. Maybe you know the scent."

"No, not familiar. No one I've ever met."

"Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way," Esme interjected softly, "maybe it's a coincidence..." she stopped upon seeing everyone's incredulous expressions. Even Lydia herself couldn't keep the disbelief off her face. Coincidence? "I don't mean a coincidence that a stranger picked Bella's house to visit at random. I mean that maybe someone was just curious. Our scent is all around her. Was he wondering what draws us there?"

"Why wouldn't he just come here then? If he was curious," Emmett demanded.

Lydia had to roll her eyes. Sometimes Emmett forgot that not everyone was as bold as he was.

But Esme smiled fondly at him. "You would. The rest of us aren't always so direct. Our family is very large. He or she might be frightened. But Charlie wasn't harmed. This doesn't have to be an enemy."

The likelihood of this visitor being curious enough to go inside a humans house let leave the residents alive were slim to none.

One shared look with Edward told her he believed the same thing.

"I don't think so," Alice shook her head softly. "The timing was too perfect. This visitor was so careful to make no contact. Almost like he or she knew I would see..."

"He could have other reasons for not making contact," Esme reminded her.

"Does it matter who it was?" Bella asked, sounding as if she were trying to keep her voice from shaking. "Just the chance that someone was looking for me...isn't that reason enough? We shouldn't wait for graduation."

Ah, yes.

Graduation.

Ever since the incident with James last spring, Bella had been pushing to have herself turned into a vampire. She had been trying to persuade Edward to change her for weeks to no avail, so when they had gotten back from Volterra all those months ago, when Edward had gone there to die, Bella held the family to a vote.

Lydia said yes, as did the majority of the family. Only Rosalie and Edward voted against it. She just wanted to stop having to defend this human.

The agreement had been made that after graduation, Carlisle would change her.

"No, Bella," Edward told her quickly. "It's not that bad. If you're really in danger, we'd know."

"Think of Charlie," Carlisle then spoke gently. "Think of how it would hurt him if you disappeared."

"I am thinking of Charlie!" Bella groaned. "He's the one I'm worried about! What if my little guest had happened to be thirsty last night? As long as I'm around Charlie, he's a target too. If anything happened to him it would be all my fault."

"Hardly, Bella," Esme shook her head gently. She patted Bella's hair. "And nothing will happen to Charlie. We're just going to have to be more careful."

"More careful?" Bella scoffed in disbelief.

"It's all going to be fine, Bella," Alice promised her.

Lydia just rolled her eyes.

It was clear now that the conversation was over, so without a word she went upstairs to her room. She closed her bedroom door softly and immediately pulled out her painting supplies.

When everything was set up she put a CD into her radio and turned the volume on loudly enough to drown out any and all conversation down stairs. She didn't care for Bella Swan. She didn't care that her so called family was keeping secrets from her, either.

It had started that night at the treaty line, when she and Emmett had gotten into the fight with the massive grey wolf. Edward's look of horror when it had stumbled as he heard whatever they were all thinking.

It was in that moment that they had all collectively decided to lie to her.

She twisted the volume louder so it was more difficult for Edward to pay attention to her thoughts. Not that he would; she had heard that Bella would be going down on the reservation to hear their legends so he would be relatively useless tonight. It was a good thing.

She was free to think without intrusion.

It had something to do with those god damn wolves.

Lydia thought over the events of that night at the border over and over enough time that she became sick of it. Irritably, with her painting supplies ready to be used, she stalked out of her room and slammed the door behind her.

"Lydia?" Carlisle said softly as she passed his study.

She ignored him.

As their patriarch, he was likely in on whatever was going on. She didn't like to be lied to.

Her family — her real family — had been enough lie and deceit to last her the rest of her existence. It was the reason she refused to partake in this new family she had been welcomed into.

Very few people knew what happened to her before she was bitten. What had nearly killed her.

But they knew of what she did.

Edward had told Carlisle when he had seen bits and pieces of her life, as he felt he had a right to know. There was nothing she could to about that, and part of her was grateful for Carlisle had only offered to talk about it with her once. She had declined, and that was that.

Carlisle had never judged her, but she knew Edward did.

She stuffed her feet back into her hiking boots and shut the front door behind her. Her thoughts brought her through the forest, the forty-five minute hike it took on barely there trails until she was standing at the boundary line and looking down into the river.

Its current was swift, pulling natural debris downstream and out of sight.

It had started here, the lies.

Lydia sat down on a bed of moss and allowed her legs to dangle over the edge. It wasn't a far drop, a human could survive it with likely a sprained or broken ankle.

As she stared into the flowing water, she heard a rustling of vegetation on the other side of the river. Her yellow topaz eyes focused on that spot and from the shadows emerged two shapes.

The first was the great black wolf, the one that stood taller than the rest. She knew that was the alpha, Sam Uley.

The other, she recognized as the wolf she had kicked off of her. Its silver fur was littered with small leaves and twigs from its run through the forest, and those black-brown eyes focused on her. There was no rage in them like there had been that night, only resentment and something else she couldn't name.

"I have no plans to break the treaty," she told them blandly, knowing they wouldn't leave regardless.

She was right.

While the alpha stood and stared at her blankly, Lydia met those hateful eyes head on. Neither of them broke the stare; for her it was much easier as she had no need to blink. She wouldn't let this — this dog intimidate her. Not in her existence.

Eventually the alpha grumbled once and it forced the silver wolf to look away.

Now free, Lydia looked away and focused on the motion of the river.

What could this animal have done that would make the others lie to her?

Knowing she wouldn't get an answer here, Lydia rose to her feet and walked away without acknowledging either of them.

Her feet carried her home, and she spoke to no one as she went upstairs to paint.

AUTHORS NOTE:
so I'm backkkkkk.   I'm sorry it took so long but I lost interest in writing fanfiction for a while but I just reread twilight so ya bitch is back.

also I feel like this is horrible