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"ELK?"
"It's the most common animal in these parts," Esme explained kindly to the newborn eyeing the unsuspecting herd of elk the vampires were hunting.
Aurora tried to not sound so disgusted at the prospect of drinking from animal blood instead of human, however, duty called and she had no choice but to answer, no matter how weird it would be. The hellish thirst was enough for Aurora to succumb to it and quietly ask for help. She was just grateful that only half the Cullen coven had volunteered to come along on Aurora's first hunt.
"Don't knock it til you try it," Alice whispered with a bubbly grin.
Emmett nodded in agreement. "I like grizzlies, but they're not in season. There's some mountain lions up the mountains if you'd like to sink your fangs into that, but elk will be the most available meals around here."
She felt eyes on her again and she looked over at Jasper who had also joined in the fray. They hadn't spoken since the night he apologized and confessed he was still very much in love with her. She supposed it wasn't hard for the others to notice the awkward tension between the two.
She was lucky Edward was at Bella's house again. Aurora assumed he tried to stay away from the Cullen house nowadays because of her. She wasn't blind to the way he stood closer to Bella every time she came within distance or subtly didn't allow Bella to ever speak to her for long despite the human trying to help her assimilate. It was clear Edward didn't trust her the most out of the entire coven.
If he had read her thoughts, if he had realized she was still with the Volturi—she would've been in deep shit. She was normally much better at compartmentalizing the confusion that was her life, tucking away puzzles such as Alec, the Volturi, and Jasper Hale and the Cullens into their own separate boxes. The newborn made a mental note to eradicate the potential problem of Edward's mind reading capabilities soon.
Aurora looked away from Jasper's piercing stare. She took the silence that lingered as her signal to pounce.
Literally.
She didn't have to exert any effort as she shot herself at the largest elk in the herd, the buck, like a bullet straight through the fifty feet of trees between them. She took the antlered animal down as she crashed on him like a meteor. The others, Jasper, Alice, Esme, and Emmett took down the other startled animals before they could run off.
For a few minutes, nothing seemed out of the ordinary (or as ordinary as five vampires feeding on a herd of elk could be.)
