Aliens and Vampires

It was by instinct -really it was- that I shifted into my other form and pushed the wolf off of me. I didn't want to hurt the poor thing, but when it turned toward me from the location it had landed and growled, I was prepared to do whatever I needed to in order to survive. Thankfully, it didn't come to that; a young blonde haired woman ran out of the forest to my right, yelling at the canine, calling it an "idiot" and several other words that I didn't quite understand. Her shouts didn't seem to have any effect on the animal and once she realized this, she grabbed its ear and turned it forcefully until the wolf transformed into a dark haired male that looked anything but happy.

"What the hell, Alai!" He screamed but his.... mate.... didn't pay him any mind, walking away from him and heading in my direction.

"Hey, my name's Alaivera." She kneeled down in front of me and for the first time I got a good look at her features. Xanienian all the way through, from her nose to her cheek bones and I didn't know whether I should turn and run in the opposite direction or hug her in relief. Fortunately, that decision was made for me with the next sentence out of the woman's mouth. "I'm not going to hurt you, I'm a cougar shifter too."

Cougar shifter, it was a term I had heard countless times in my life, many civilizations used it to classify my people due to the fact Xanienian was often difficult for beings not of our galaxy to pronounce. As common as it was, we never used it in regard to ourselves. This.... Alaivera had no idea what she was.

Hesitantly, I shifted back into the uncomfortable skin I was forced to use in polite -and not so polite- company. "Hello, it is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance." My English was a tad rusty, but the two.... humans didn't seem to notice. "My name is Echoxia." I rose along with the other female and held out my hand for her to take, hoping that this custom was still practiced here. It was and she took it with a smile on her face.

"I'm going to call you Echo." Alaivera said simply. It wasn't a question; she wasn't asking for permission to give me a nickname, she was telling me what she was going to do without caring what my thoughts were. I liked her already.

"The idiot over there," the blonde turned me slightly so that I could see the man standing by a tall pine tree," is named Jacob, call him Jake." I was given a large dazzling smile that lasted only a moment before a loud crash sounded from my right and three small blonde boys rolled out from below a bush.

"What did I tell you?!" The woman screamed, removing her hand from my arm and storming over to the children. "I told you to stay behind the trees! What if she was a creature hunter?! I don't tell you things to hear myself scream!" It certainly seemed that way to me; she was after all...screaming.

"Sorry mother." The triplets whispered in unison, their gazes locked onto the woman but giving me quick glances out of the corners of their eyes.

"Who's the giant?" The boy in the middle asked and gave me a look that sent a shiver down my spine.

"She's not a giant and her n-" Alaivera started only to be cut off by the child on the right.

"She's taller than father. She's. A. Giant." As if the woman had just realized that, she turned to me and looked me up and down before turning to her mate, turning back to me, and then turning back to him.

"That doesn't make her a giant. She's a cougar, like us, and her name is Echo." I waved slightly and was rewarded with three identical looks of distrust. They would have been cute on any other children, but on these, it was creepy.

"And Echo, these are my Demon Spawn. Jared, Keion, and Alastair." Alaivera pointed to each boy in turn but I knew that trying to tell the kids apart was a fruitless task.

"Don't give her their names." For the first time since becoming human, Jake spoke up and if my intuition was correct, he wasn't happy. "We don't know anything about her." The man moved from his spot near the tree and marched over to his mate who immediately pushed the children behind her and took a stance that obviously meant she was willing to fight him if need be. A strange relationship in my opinion, but I wasn't one to judge.

"I don't need to know anything, I can read people and I think we can trust her." I could practically feel the anger coming off the wolf man in waves and automatically took a step back, along with the three boys who had a look that I knew was similar to mine, on their faces.

"We don't know any- Where are you from?" The question was directed toward me and I immediately started trying to remember an Earth City, any city. Come on Echoxia.... damn.... "Chicago." I answered and let out a sigh of relief when he seemed to buy that.

"Now we know something. Echo, we're going to take you back to house, you can change and we can talk." Alaivera looked up at her mate with fire in her eyes and I pitied the man that dared stand against her. Sadly, Jake had a death wish.

"I'm not letting her in the house." He snarled and to my amazement Alaivera merely smiled and wrinkled her nose in a cute gesture that completely threw the wolf for a loop.

"I'll just call Edward; he'll make sure nothing.... scary is going on." Nothing was said for several seconds and then the man turned and started walking back through the forest, grumbling something under his breath that was far too soft for me to understand.

"Go with your father; make sure he doesn't hurt himself." Alaivera ordered the boys and they immediately ran after the older man, giving me looks over their shoulders until they were out of sight. "Sorry about him, he gets really moody, really fast. It's getting better though, you should have seen him a decade ago, he probably would have attacked- never mind." My hand was taken by the woman and she led me down the same trail the males had taken.

After a few moments of walking, Alaivera took out a small, metal device and punched a few buttons before holding it to her ear. It's a phone, I told myself and you have no idea how hard it was to act like seeing one in person was no big deal.

"Hey Brandon." She said and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Smooth, Echoxia. "Yeah, I was wondering if your wonderful imprint was around."

"No, the other one."

"Do you think you could convince him to come over to the compound? Jake's paranoid and wants him to check out this girl we met in the woods."

"She's a cougar shifter."

"I know. Now-"

"Thanks, I owe you one, B." She closed the phone and placed it in her pocket before turning her attention back to me.

"Edward's a... friend of mine, he won't hurt you, and Jake just wants him to talk to you. He's pretty good at knowing what people are thinking." The sentence was vague but I knew from the tone she used that I wasn't getting anymore information. "So, you're from Chicago. I heard it's windy there."

"Yes, very." I answered and that effectively ended any attempt at conversation between the two of us.

It was a fairly short walk to the large white building that I guessed was Alaivera's home and I marveled slightly at the first piece of Earth Architecture I had seen in person as I obediently followed the shorter woman to the front of the building.

"Just, relax." Alaivera told me before she opened the door and waited for me to go in. The moment I was inside, with the door shut behind me, I realized how big a mistake this was. On the other side of the room was the man I had run away from. Maddox Reynolds.