Better Than Revenge

Five-thirty in the morning my day started. The first thing I did was go for my usual run. It’s not like I threw on a pair of sweats and a Tee and plugged in my iPod headphones. Instead I rolled out of bed and crept out to the woods surrounding out house. I stripped down and quickly phased into my second form- a gigantic honey-colored wolf. In my wolf skin, all of my senses became enhanced and I easily raced through the thick forest. I loved the feel of the wind through my fur and the ground under my paws.
*Hey, Drea, what’s up?* Leah Clearwater’s voice giggled in my head.
I smiled *Hey, Leah. Just patrolling before school. How are you?*
*Good. Your mom told me that you and Ness have some big thing coming up at school. Tony and I are so there.*
I winced slightly. My mom had a habit of inviting the entire Quileute tribe to every little event. *Well you really don’t have to.*
She laughed slightly. Leah had been friends with my mom since before I was born. She’d lived in La Push her whole life and I was pretty sure that she was going to live there for the rest of eternity. See, as a wolf, Leah wouldn’t age as long as she kept shifting regularly and since her boyfriend is an immortal half-vampire just like my cousin Renesmee I highly doubted that she wanted to get any older.
I was thankful when she dropped the subject and we just ran keeping an eye out for trouble. Quileute shifters guard the tribe against vampires, with the exception of the Cullens, Renesmee and my aunt Bella’s family. Nessie was technically three years older than me but she looked about my age and she was going to stay that way forever. She lived with my parents and me since she didn’t want to go with hers while they were on their, like, second honeymoon in Madagascar or some other remote place like that.
*Crap, Drea. It’s already gonna be seven. You’d better get a move on before Lizzy kills us both.*
I laughed as I quickly ran back home and phased back out of my wolf skin. My mom, Elizabeth Black, would be pretty scary when she wanted to be. She was Bella Cullen’s twin and even though she was totally human, she was still the one that you didn’t want to make mad. I slipped on my oversized t-shirt and ran into my house and up the stairs for a quick shower. Everyone was crowded around the table by the time I was done and down for breakfast.
“You’re late again, Drea,” my dad said as he piled on more eggs onto his plate.
“I know. I’m really sorry, Daddy. I lost track of time.”
“It’s fine, Jake, as long as she’s not late for school,” my mom defended. I personally thought that my mom was super pretty with dark hair that fell in waves to her mid-back, chocolaty eyes, naturally light complexion, and a pretty good figure. The only thing was that she had an intricate web of scars on both her arms from her rebellious teenage years when she used to cut herself. I could see those scars on her translucent skin as she passed me a plate filled with delicious food. “So what do you girls have planned for today?”
“School,” I sighed. “Then afterwards we have cheer practice.”
“Then we’re gonna go hunting,” Nessie added. Renesmee was gorgeous. Her hair was an unusual bronze color and cascaded gently down her slender back. Her brown eyes were the exact shade as her mother’s and our Grandpa Charlie’s. She was thin and graceful and everything about her screamed perfection.
My mom winced slightly. “My daughter is a cheerleader,” she groaned. Yeah, Mom could handle us hunting a few deer but she hated the idea that I loved to twirl around in a mini-skirt in my free time. “I can’t believe that my daughter is a cheerleader. I used to beat up the cheerleaders in high school.”
“Lizzy, you beat up everyone in high school,” Dad teased.
She stuck her tongue out at him like a five-year-old. My dad was super tall and buff. He was dark, like me, with warm brown eyes, pitch black hair, and a cocky smile. He was two years younger than my mom but it was love at first sight for him so that never bothered him. Well, actually, it wasn’t exactly as simple as love at first sight. Dad had imprinted on Mom when she first moved to Forks. Imprinting is an extremely complex phenomenon that happens to some of us wolves where we meet our other half and the connection is instant, powerful, and unbreakable. Not that you’d ever want to break that connection. They’d both experienced what it was like to be without the other and it was for that reason, the pain they’d gone through, that I was sort of hoping I never had an imprint.
The clock in the hallway chimed and Mom’s head snapped up to it. “Shit. I’m going to be late. I’ll see you all later. Have fun, be good, and I love you.” She kissed both Nessie and me on our foreheads as she marked her standard order. Then she turned to Dad and they had some serious PDA going on for a second. “The be good part goes double for you- I don’t want to get a call from my dad saying that you did something stupid. And don’t forget that we’re meeting for lunch at noon.”
Dad left shortly after Mom and then Nessie and I climbed into the Jeep Wrangler my dad had rebuilt for me for my sweet sixteen. Dad was a mechanic and awesome with cars and even owned his own garage right here in La Push. Mom knew a ton about cars, including how to hotwire them, but she was an artist and owned a gallery in Port Angeles.
I pulled into the school parking lot and we quickly climbed out. One of our friends was waiting just inside the front entrance to avoid the constant rain, as usual. Dylan Uley was a wolf, like me, but he didn’t know it quite yet. His dad, Sam, had been in a pack with my dad years ago so it was only a matter of time before our pack grew to be more than just Leah and me. Although, with no vampires other than Nessie in Forks or La Push, it would be a long time.
For now, I was resigned to patrolling with Leah and hoping that any red-eyed vampires stayed away from my home.