𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 ✧ 𝐬𝐚𝐦 𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐲

26

It was another day at breakfast with the Cullens and it was another day without Ivy there.

"Where's she gone this time?" Emmett asked. Bella was the only one eating human food. She slowly finished a piece of french toast on the table, accompanied by fresh berries in a bowl.

"Apparently, hiking. With Ace." Esme replied. She was watering her plants. Just looking at her orchids made her smile.

"Again?" Emmett said, "That's like the 4th time she's gone off somewhere with that guy. Don't you think that we should be worried?"

"They're just in the woods, I don't think there's much to worry about. If anything happens, we'll be able to get there quick." Alice commented, attending to a very pregnant Bella. She was trying to feed Bella some scrambled eggs, but it seemed that she had no appetite.

Bella started to look more frail, more bony and skinny. It was as if the baby inside her was sucking the life force out of her. She wasn't well.

Carlisle sat at the head of the table, newspaper in hand. He didn't look up once.

"Well, she always comes back unscathed. I don't have a problem with it."

Everyone went back to doing what they were doing. It wasn't strange without Ivy. Before, she had to pretend to be dead so she even missed Edward and Bella's wedding. It wasn't weird for them to be in her absence, even though it had been quite a while since she joined the Cullens. It was only strange to Edward.

He hated feeling like this, but the more Ivy stayed away from him, the more he began to feel worse. He started to wallow, sometimes, when it was getting particularly worse, he'd even completely forget about Bella.

Ivy. Ivy. Ivy. Ivy on his mind.

She was on the other side of the woods, miles away from the Quileute border with Ace. Ace's eyes had turned yellow since they had first met.

"How's the animal diet, so far?" Ivy asked as they walked together in the woods. Ace shrugged, "You're the Alpha. I listen to you. You know best."

Ivy clicked her tongue, "Hey – what did I say?" She poked her slender finger into his collarbone.

Ace nodded, "Right, right. Honesty. Well, I hate it. Nothing could ever beat human blood."

Just the thought of it was making him drool.

"Why do you prefer animals over humans?"

She laughed but quickly stopped when she realized he wasn't joking. It wasn't like Ace to joke around.

Ivy furrowed her brows, "Isn't it obvious? I don't want to hurt people."

Ace tilted his head to the side as they walked past the giant pines and greenery. The birds above chirped loudly and you could see the sun shining in from the branches, occasionally making both of their skin glitter.

They were 6 hours in on training Ivy to properly control her powers. At Ivy's request, they only went as far as making a deer walk to the pond to have a drink of water, or making a bird fly to another branch. At first, she was really surprised she could even control animals, but it made sense the more she thought about it. If she can do it to humans and vampires, of course she could use it on animals. She succeeded, but not without some difficulty.

Ivy could tell Ace was underwhelmed by her passive nature, but really it was all just a façade to cover up the fact that she wanted to go crazy. Most days she felt like ripping apart the whole of Forks.

Usually, most Alphas trained people to kill each other and then harvest their blood. During wars, bar fights, gun fights. There was no need for them to physically lift a finger.

"You're the Alpha. You can do whatever you want."

Ivy laughed.

"Just because I'm the Alpha doesn't mean I should hurt people. Just because I can do whatever I want doesn't mean that I will. I don't think I'd be able to live with it."

Ace was about to speak until his fangs grew on instinct and he whipped his head to the left, snarling. All the way across the river stood a black wolf towering over them on a rock. Accompanying it were six other wolves of varying colors, growling back at the two.

Ivy's face fell. "We should go. We got too close to the border." She forgot, she didn't even realize.

She offered her hand to Ace and he took it politely. With one last look over her shoulder, Ivy shook her head and the two disappeared deeper into the woods, away from the treaty line.

-

"Who. The hell. Was that?" Embry yipped, wolfing his sandwich down in seconds before grabbing another one. Jacob slapped him on the back of his head.

"Stop being so loud. And chew with your mouth closed for once in your life."

Embry made a face at him, before looking to the rest for answers. Paul shrugged. So did Quil and Jacob.

"One thing's for sure. It's a major bummer. Can't believe she got herself a vampire boyfriend."

They all sat at Sue Clearwater's dining table. Leah and Seth sat on the couch, playing Super Smash Bros. Leah smirked as she eavesdropped on their conversation. Sam was finally getting a taste of his own medicine.

"At least she's not eating people." Jacob replied. "Where is Sam? Or...how is he?"

Embry shook his head. "He hasn't said a word. Doesn't need to. It's written all over his face. The man is heart-broken! Period." He emphasized the word 'heartbroken'.

"Where is he, though?"