Bree POV

I found myself looking at a tall dark individual. He was not as tall as Emmett, and not as broad in the shoulders, but his muscles were definitely well defined, and hard not to notice as he had nothing on but a pair of cut off pants. His dark eyes and hair complemented his light brown skin.

"Hi, I'm Seth," he said hesitantly. I stood staring at him, but made no response. He eventually gave up waiting for a reply and continued. "We've met before, but you probably wouldn't recognize me."

My mouth hung open as my brain tried to catch up again. I finally managed to regain some motor function and stepping forward, I replied. "I'm Bree."

"Hey, not so close," he protested, backing up. "I know who you are."

"I'm not going to attack or anything," I mumbled, lowering my head to appear less threatening. To be honest, the evil smell wasn't as strong on his human form, but I'd have to be raging with thirst to even consider draining him. Quite frankly that rancid deer had more appeal.

"Well, I had hoped as much, but the stink is a bit much up close."

Me, stink? I slowly raised my arm to my nose and sniffed my clothes. They smelled fine to me. He smelled like a wet dog, how could he think that I stink?

"It's not you personally; all you vamps stink. It's kinda strong, and gets up our sensitive noses." He laughed and I took in his features fully for the first time. He was kinda cute and so much younger than I imagined he would be. If it weren't for his size, I'd say he was about my age.

"Oh, sorry." I didn't know why I was apologizing.

"Don't sweat it. I know I don't smell so good to you either." He waved away my apology.

 "You're not how I imagined you would be." Why did I blurt that out? Was my brain still catching up?

"What do you mean?" he asked creasing his brow in confusion.

"You did just transform from a wolf, didn't you?" I queried, and he nodded in response.

"I thought you would be hairier." I was mumbling again, thoroughly embarrassed. "When Carlisle said you turned into humans, I thought you would be hairier, or at least have a beard or something." I cringed mentally at how rude my comments probably sounded. But he didn't seem to be offended as he threw his head back and laughed.

"Well that's better than a talking wolf." Damn, he remembered the comment I'd made weeks ago and he was laughing at me - again.

 "We're just regular humans most of the time actually," he explained.

 "Oh." I couldn't think of an appropriate response. It made more sense I guess, but I'd only seen them as wolves.

 I was sure I wasn't anywhere near their border, so I asked. "Why are you here?"

 "I could ask you the same question," he countered as his face broke into another grin. "Just kidding; I'm on patrol. Sam has us extending our round as you're here. He says you have another newborn with you."

 "Yeah, Fred. He's up at the house now." I had a moment of doubt. He seemed nice enough, but maybe I shouldn't have let him know I was alone.

 "So how come you're out here on your own? Sam said Carlisle promised to keep an eye on both of you while you were here." He squatted down on a tree stump as he spoke. Well that explained why Fred and I were only alone while hunting.

 I quickly looked around for another makeshift seat. Carlisle had mentioned that humans were more comfortable if you mirrored their behavior. I didn't know if it was the same for werewolves, but I decided to give it a try. There wasn't anything nearby I could use, so I sat on the ground, and told him. "I came down to the cottage to get a book, but decided to go for a walk."

 "The cottage?" His face held a quizzical expression. "Oh, you mean that run down house on their land?"

 "You've seen it then," I giggled at his comment.

 "Not personally; I'm not allowed to go that close." He rolled his eyes and sounded slightly miffed as he said it. "Sam and Paul have though. We're not supposed to go onto Cullen land but your scent was all around the area and they went to check it out. I saw it when we were phased."

 "What do you mean? How did you see it?" It was my turn to hold the quizzical expression.

 "They haven't told you much about us have they?" His eyebrows raised in surprise. "Sam's convinced that they're all spilling the beans, and giving away all of our secrets."

 "You've got secrets too," I groaned. "That figures. I've been a vampire for four months, and I've never known so many people keep so many secrets."

 "Well I'll let you in on one." he offered, while acting out looking over both shoulders as though he were checking there was no one about.

"What?" I didn't mean to sound so eager, but I sat up a little and leaned forward, giving myself away.

 "Well, we can't talk in wolf form." Another grin. "We communicate through our thoughts."

 "No way! You mean you can hear thoughts like Edward!" I jumped up, astounded at hearing this latest piece information. Unfortunately, he misinterpreted my actions and leapt up from the stump, backing towards the trees.

 "No, wait." I immediately sat back down. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I wasn't going to attack, I promise." The words came out so fast, I wasn't sure if he could decipher them.

 He edged forward again slowly. He was still tense, and didn't sit back down. I looked at him expectantly, hoping he wouldn't clam up, as I wanted to know more. I tried to think reassuring thoughts. "Are you reading my thoughts now?"

 "What? Oh no, it doesn't work like that." The grin was back and he relaxed a bit. "The pack can only hear each other's thoughts, and only when we're phased."

 "Still, it's kinda cool." I couldn't do anything special. I was beginning to feel a bit short changed with this whole supernatural deal.

 "Yeah, it freaks you out at first, but you soon get used to it. Of course, there are some thoughts you don't want to hear, if you know what I mean." He ended the reply with a wink and I knew exactly what he meant. There are some things as a vampire I'd rather not hear.

 There was an awkward silence for a few moments before he asked his next question. "So what brings you back here? I thought you were heading to Canada."

 "I'd arranged to meet Fred in Vancouver after -" I hesitated. Should I mention the fight that brought the army here? He might remember he was supposed to be my enemy. He was looking at me expectantly, so I continued. "The fight. We didn't want to fight anyone. We were going to take off on our own, but I wanted to find my other friend first." I rushed the words out, hoping he wouldn't see me as the dangerous monster he'd no doubt been led to believe I was.

 "At least you had a choice. Sam wouldn't let me fight." He sounded quite annoyed about that. "I still managed to get in on the action though," he added proudly. Well that wasn't the reaction I expected.

 "Really, what did you do?" I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

 He sat back down on the stump before he began his tale. "Edward wanted to keep Bella out of town, 'cause he knew the red-head was really after her. The plan was to camp out in the mountains 'til it was all over. I was just supposed to protect Bella and keep tabs on the fight while phased."  He started to become animated as he got into his account. "Course she was smarter than he figured. She tracked his scent and found us up in the mountains. That chick was something else. She had that Riley guy wrapped right around her little finger. He was convinced he was the love of her life, but she didn't even bat an eyelid when I tore him apart."

 "Wait." I forced myself to remain seated. "You destroyed Riley?" I was almost too shocked to form the words.

 "Hell yeah. He thought he had wounded me, but I- " He stopped, his voice became a little more subdued. "Oh, was he a friend or something?" He must have misread my expression.

 "No, no I didn't even like him much." Then I felt I needed to ask. "Did you kill Victoria too?" I was starting to get a bit worried. If he had killed them, he was a lot more deadly than he looked right now.

 "Nah, Edward was happy to deal with her personally," he responded, oblivious to the change in my mental state.  I was alone with a person, well creature that had destroyed a vampire. He was as dangerous as Carlisle had said. Surely, I should feel more afraid.

 "I hope you don't mind me asking." His voice broke into my inner analysis of my situation. "How do you cope with having Bella around?"

 "I haven't met her yet," I confessed. "That's what the cottage is for. I and Fred go there when she visits."

 "You'd like her. She cool; she doesn't get freaked out by all this supernatural crap." He brought his hands up, wriggling his fingers in a spooky gesture. It made me smile, any possible danger I might be in was pushed to the back of my mind.

 "I don't think Edward wants us near her." He'd never actually said it out loud, but he always made a point of informing us of a visit and establishing that we would be at the cottage.

 "Makes sense I guess." Seth delivered his observation with a slight shrug.

 "Yeah, Fred's a bit older than me, his control is better. I'd probably just go for her-"

 I stopped mid sentence as familiar scents, growls and snarls erupted around us.

 Jasper and Fred were behind me, both crouched, both growling; ferocious masks distorting their features.

 Behind Seth were two wolves, the huge black one and the brown one I'd seen with Seth before. They were snarling, their postures tense, and their razor sharp teeth bared.

 We both turned to our protectors at the same time. "It's okay, we're just talking," I cried, wanting to calm everything down.

"Cool it, Sam. Nothing happened. She didn't attack me or anything." Seth was doing his best to calm it down on his side.

 The growls got lower, but didn't stop altogether. That's because they were only coming from Jasper. Fred was staring, clearly dumbfounded at the sight of the giant wolves in front of him.

 "Who's this?" he asked eventually, jerking his head at Seth.

 "That's Seth. He's the wolf that found me when I ran from the clearing. He says he destroyed Riley." Fred cast a quick glance towards Jasper and when he nodded in confirmation, Fred immediately pulled me behind him.

 "Sam, could I have a word?" Jasper asked. Sam appeared to hesitate, before he gave a short nod and nudged Seth back towards the trees.

 The air shifted and the sound made me cringe again, then Seth reappeared in his wolf form. Sam and Seth looked at each other for a bit, then lowering his head, Seth went to stand next to the other wolf while Sam withdrew into the trees. After another shift in the air, I found myself looking at the tallest individual I'd ever seen. He was easily taller than Emmett. His colouring was similar to Seth's, perhaps a shade darker, but this guy looked far from friendly. He was also dressed in only a pair of cut off pants and was clearly bulkier than Seth. He looked a lot older too.

 "This is Cullen land. Why are you here?" Jasper got straight to the point.

 "We came to look for Seth. He phased out, and we couldn't contact him." Sam's gaze fixed on Fred and me. "We have widened our patrols since the others have been here."

 "I don't think it's necessary for you to come so far onto our property," Jasper replied.

 "I don't think it's necessary for you to increase the size of your coven with killers," Sam countered.

 "The treaty has an agreed boundary line," Jasper continued, unfazed by Sam's comment.

 "The original treaty allowed for five of you to reside here. We agreed to abide by it and extend it to include yourself and your mate, because of your diet." Sam tilted his head at Fred and me. "They do not share your diet."

 "Carlisle has discussed this with you. Your reasonable attitude has been much appreciated." Jasper had changed tactics and was turning on the accent, bringing forth the southern charm. "You very kindly agreed they would also be covered by the treaty." Knowing how Jasper felt about the wolves, I'm surprised the words didn't stick in his throat.

 "The good doctor also agreed they would be properly supervised." Sam also modified his tone, but he wasn't being swayed.

 "There has been adequate supervision," Jasper insisted.

 "And yet Seth found her here alone," Sam parried, as the verbal sparring continued.

 "It won't happen again," Jasper snapped, giving me a hard stare. "We will uphold our end of the agreement; just be sure to keep that pup of yours on a shorter leash." With the final barb delivered, he gripped me by the arm and practically dragged me away. For once Fred didn't react to his handling of me.

 "What were you thinking? If you had broken the treaty we would all have been in danger." Jasper spat the words out through clenched teeth.

 "I didn't do anything; we were just talking," I protested. "Why were you following me anyway?"

 "I was not following you," he ground out. "Alice called in a panic when you disappeared. Rosalie was practically hysterical," he explained. Not that it made sense to me. Why was she so upset? I hoped she wouldn't be too mad at me for putting them all in danger? I'd seen Rosalie angry, and I was not looking forward to her ire being directed at me.

Fred hadn't said a word. He followed us but his focus seemed to be somewhere else.

We travelled back to the house in silence. Jasper didn't let go of my arm. I tried to wriggle free a couple of times, but his grip just tightened, and when I glanced up at him his jaw was set and his eyes were hard flints. I was probably still stronger than him, but given his mood, I decided not to risk losing my arm again. I resigned myself to facing the wrath of Rosalie.