To Be

CHAPTER ONE

My parents weren't the first of their kind, but they sure were close. My name is Zemati, and I am a vampire human half breed. I live in Forks, Washington with my family. My father's name is Sanjiv, and my mother's name is Amari. While my mother was still human, and my father a vampire, they fell in love, and had me. They had to seek out the help of the Cullens when my mother was pregnant, because everyone they asked said they were the only ones who could help her possibly survive. Originally we are from Dapoli, India. Though, after my birth, we had come to America. My grandfather Jai, and my grandmother Selena, as well as my Aunt Kahini and Uncle Mayur had all braved an airplane ride to Washington.

Perhaps I should start at the beginning. Several years before my birth, and about five after the birth of Renesmee, the Volturi had called all of the vampires of the world to Volterra. It had been a gathering, and over two thousand vampires had been there. Aro had insisted on every vampire there introducing themselves in front of the others. It was in that way that my family had first heard about the Cullens. They had decided to try the vegetarian lifestyle, and after a few years of struggling, they had begun to master it. It wasn't long before my father had met my mother, a young Indian girl, while working at a new job he had just decided to take. She was his assistant. He at that time had been pretending to be around age twenty-five, even though he had been bitten when he was twenty. The attraction between my mother and my father was instant. She was a smart girl, and had almost immediately detected that there was something strange about my father. It took her a few weeks to figure it out, but she eventually confronted him about his strange eye color and pale skin. They had fallen in love rapidly, and about two years after first meeting, I had been born.

On my first fateful trip to America, my life had changed forever.

First though, it is important to note the changes that had happened to the supernatural world in La Push and Forks Washington.

The Cullens had moved away several years ago. They had stayed far too long, and were now living in Cleveland, Ohio. They had expanded their numbers. Just about a year after Nessie had been born, they had found a boy have beaten to death in the middle of the woods. His name was Connor. A year after his transformation, he had started attending Forks High School, with Renesmee. There he had met a girl named Julia Bird. Much like Edward and Bella, and my parents for that matter, they had fallen in love. The Volturi had found out about Julia, and had given them an ultimatum to change her, or kill her. Before they did either, the Volturi attacked Julia, Connor, and finally Renesmee. After being married, the Cullens changed Julia. While Connor and Julia were on their honeymoon, the Cullens had been attacked by an army of newborns while they were on a hunting trip. No one had been hurt, but every one of the newborns had been slaughtered. Two vampires, Zach and Andrea, had refused to fight, and they had been spared. After a few months with the Denali's Zach and Andrea had joined the Cullens for good. They were now a very large family, but a very strong one as well.

Sam and Emily had been married. They had four children together. Their names were Jennifer, Brandon, Allison, and Ryan. Sam had stopped shifting about six years ago, and his daughter Jennifer, had started shifting about four years ago. At the same time that she had started shifting, so had a boy named Liam Kite. Liam was her age. Jennifer and Liam had imprinted on each other. Liam's mother was named Jackie, and his father had been a secret for a long time. Just a few months after he first started shifting though, Jackie told the family that his father was Harry Clearwater. Harry had had an affair with Jackie when she was only in High School. He had been with her only three days before his death. Though the news had come as a shock to the family, Sue had known about the affair. She knew even before Harry died. Jackie was ashamed, but as a family, we moved on. Liam and Jenny were not engaged as of current. They were waiting until they were a little older, and just enjoying being together right now.

Leah had finally found love. A short while after Nessie had been born, a new, very strange wolf had shifted. His name was Joel, and he was Jacob's cousin. He was about five years older than Jacob. He had shifted so late because his father was Billy's younger brother. Billy's younger brother had died before Jacob's sisters had even been born, and Jacob had never met him. No one knew that he had impregnated a girl from outside the reservation before his death. He may not have even known. Leah and Joel had been married, and had four children named Nick, Alexis, Cole, and Paige. Nick had become a wolf a few months before Jenny did, and right before his parents had stopped shifting. On my first trip to America, Nick had imprinted on me. I had never known life without Nick. I couldn't remember him not being there. Though I was only really eight years old, I was about the size of a sixteen year old. My growth rate had slowed, and Nick had been there through all of it. He was the one thing I was sure about. I loved that boy, with all of my heart.

Jared and Kim had been married, and had two children named David and Kelsey. Paul and Rachel had also been married and had children named Kristin and Joshua. Shortly after Joel changed, another female, named Brooke had changed. She was Jared's little sister, and she and Embry had imprinted on each other. They had twins named Madison and Marcus. They also had a younger daughter named Bridgette. Seth Clearwater had imprinted on a girl named Abbey nine years ago. They were now happily married with twins whose names were Elizabeth Grace and Evan Mitchell. At the same time Bridgette was born, Seth and Abbey also had another daughter named Aubrey. A few months after Brooke had changed, twin girls named Lauren and Kaylie had also changed into wolves. Collin and Brady, the ones who used to be the 'kids' of the pack, had imprinted on these girls. And you guessed it, at the same time that they imprinted on them. Collin and Kaylie had a little girl named Anna Nicole, and Lauren and Brady had a little boy named Tyler Jonathon. Lauren and Brady had also had a child a few months ago, named Sydney. Collin and Kaylie also had a child during that baby spurt, and his name was Mitchell. Quil and Claire were married, and now have twins named Jason and Jayna.

Lauren and Kaylie also have a younger brother whose name is Bryce. Bryce had imprinted on Jacob and Nessie's daughter, Eila. Eila and her brother Cade grew more quickly than human children, but not as quickly as me or Nessie had. I had outgrown both Eila and Cade by my second birthday. I was intellectually ahead of them before I was even one, and they were intellectually ahead of the other kids that were their size. My brain was always racing ahead of my body.

When the Volturi had first come to Washington, back when Nessie was just a little girl, there had been a major spurt of young boys turning into wolves. Their names were Caleb, Jeremy, Matt, Lucas, Nathan, Kyle, and Wyatt. They were all a few years older than Bryce.

If this wasn't enough, there was still more to come. Just a few months after the Cullens left Forks; the wolf world in La Push had been shaken up and almost destroyed. One night, Sam had found something mysterious in the woods. It had been a pair of bare human footprints just suddenly disappearing. Sam hadn't recognized the scent of these footprints, and had immediately called the rest of the wolves. They were gone for several hours, and Nessie eventually got worried and called Julia. You see, Julia has the talent of being able to find people. They work sort of like Alice's visions, only she can see all types of people, including werewolves. Julia searched for the wolves, and found them.

What she saw was horrendous. They had all been viciously attacked, and were left broken, bruised, and bleeding. We hadn't known much then, but in the months that had followed that, we soon discovered more about these disappearing footprints. You see, the things that had attacked the wolves had been large, super natural eagles. This was all that the wolves had been able to capture about these things while they had been being attacked. But with this bit of information, we had set to work.

It had taken several weeks and almost nonstop work to finally reach a conclusion about these things, but the Cullens had found a legend concerning people that turned into eagles. The Achomawi Indians of Southern Oregon were the only culture that we could find that had a legend remotely relating to humans shape-shifting.

After a series of certain events, the leader of these eagles had come into our presence. He had explained to us about how he had been excluded from his family, and practically exiled from his community. The only reservation for Achomawi Indians was called Alturas, and was located near the Oregon state border in Northeastern California. Their leader's name was Dan, and he had told all the wolves about how he had ordered the others to attack out of pure fear, and intimidation; I had been inside with all of the wolves' kids. He was afraid of the wolves. He had apologized, and begged for their forgiveness.

Being the people that they were, not only had the wolves forgiven the eagles almost immediately, they had asked Dan to tell them about the rest of the eagles. Dan explained to them about how some of the eagles were very close to losing themselves. When you stayed eagles for as long as they did, he told us, it was sometimes hard to remember that somewhere inside of you was a real person. He told the wolves that there were about eight girls, and ten guys. After about an hour of talking with Dan, Sam had asked him to bring the rest of the eagles back to meet them. Sam had known that these people had nowhere to go, and Sam wasn't the type of guy who just let someone who needed help walk away.

After much arguing, Dan had agreed to bring the others back. Dan was feeling pretty guilty at that time, and I had known that he must feel very undeserving of this act of generosity. No matter what he felt though, about an hour later, there were eighteen young men and woman standing in front of us.

That's when all hell broke loose. The weirdest of the weird things had happened. Caleb, Jeremy, Matt, Lucas, Nathan, Kyle, and Wyatt had imprinted on Mikayla, Natalie, Jocelyn, Amber, Kaitlyn, Nicole, and Ashley, the eagle girls. I almost couldn't believe it. But that wasn't the end of all of the craziness. The very next day, the oldest eagle girl, Lyssie, had imprinted on a brand new eagle named Michael. Michael was much like Joel in his genes at least, seeing as he was Dan's younger cousin. Just like Joel was Jacob's older cousin.

Also, some of the wolves and eagles who had imprinted on each other had had children about three years ago. Caleb and Mikayla had a son named Derek James. Jeremy and Natalie had a beautiful daughter named Alaina May. Matt and Jocelyn had a son named Christopher Phillip, and Lucas and Amber had a daughter named Miley Anne. Lyssie and Michael also had twins named Jon Kevin and Jayde Christine, and just recently, a son named Noah. The youngest of the wolf/eagle imprints had been married about a year ago. Nathan and Kaitlyn had a son named Andrew, Kyle and Nicole had a son named Logan, and Wyatt and Ashley had a daughter named Mackenzie.

So all together, the eagles were Dan, Adam, Ricky, Landon, Scott, Alex, Brian, Robert, Corey, Justin, Michael, Lyssie, Mikayla, Natalie, Jocelyn, Amber, Kaitlyn, Nicole, and Ashley.

While it all seemed complicated, it was the only life I had ever known. I had heard all of the stories so many times, I felt like I had been there myself. Today was my last day of high school. I had started attending high school as a freshman, right when my aging had slowed down enough to be undetectable. I had never really had many close friends while in High School, it was too dangerous. I had to protect our secret. After last bell, I walked outside into the drizzle and hopped into the blue Jeep Liberty I had bought myself a few years ago. It was fast enough for me, but my parents both thought it was very slow.

My father was currently working as a nurse at the Forks Hospital. He worked in the nursery, and loved it. He really enjoyed babies. He was considering going to med school and becoming a doctor. While Nessie was growing up, Edward had become a doctor, and Bella a fantastic nurse. When they had moved away, the hospital had replaced them with only one doctor, but they were being run thin pretty quickly. Carlisle was hard to replace. They really needed someone who specialized in newborns and children. My dad had decided to wait until I finished school to decide if he wanted to go to med school or not though. My mother was currently working as an interior designer. She and Kahini had actually started a business. Kahini had a crazy weird obsession with construction, and was fantastic at it. She had an eye for architecture. The two of them were currently flipping houses on the suburbs of Seattle, and were making a ton of money out of it.

Either way, both of my parents were working today. Naturally, all I wanted to do was go see Nick. But of course, I knew he had patrol right now. I decided to drive over to La Push and see who was around to hang out with. I saw the long line of wolf families walking home together as I began winding through the streets. This year, Brandon, Alexis, Kristin, and David had been in eleventh grade; Allison, Joshua, Kelsey, Madison, Marcus, and Cole had been in ninth; Eila had been in eighth; Ryan and Paige had been in seventh; Elizabeth, Evan, Anna, and Tyler (born just after the cutoff date), had been in sixth; Cade had been in fifth; Derek, Alaina, Christopher, Miley, Jon, and Jayde had been in fourth; and Andrew, Logan, Mackenzie, Jayna, Jason, Aubrey, Noah, Sydney, Mitchell, and Bridgette had just finished kindergarten.

Though I was actually about eleven years younger than Brandon, Alexis, Kristen, and David, I had started school a year ahead of them. I had been home schooled, and kept hidden from the world until I had been about four, at which point I had appeared in my early teens. The story had been put out around town that I was being adopted by my parents. At this point, they were well known around the town, and both had stable jobs. Everyone told them that they were very brave to be adopting a teenager. We had stuck to the story that I had recently been orphaned by some of my father's extended family in India, and he was the only living relative I had left. I had started high school when my growth rate had slowed to just above that of a human. And here I stood, four years later, a soon to be graduate of Forks High School. Nick, Jenny, and Liam had just graduated a year ago. I was grateful for the fact that even though fourteen years separated me and Nick, my exponential growth rate had allowed me to start high school just a year after him. It had made the whole 'dating' experience seem much more normal than it really was.

I pulled my car up outside of the Uley home, hoping Jenny was in. She had been taking online classes through a public university this past year, along with Liam and Nick. She was also currently working as a lifeguard on the beach, but her hours would really pick up now that summer was coming. I could smell her as soon as I was out of the car, and waved to Brandon, Allison, and Ryan as they were walking up. "Hey guys," I said. "Happy summer."

"Happy summer," Brandon said. "That was the longest year of my life."

I laughed. "Junior year is rough," I said. "But don't worry, it's over now."

"Amen to that," he said. As I followed them into the house, I noticed that Liam was there too. I walked into their entryway and waved.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey," Jenny and Liam said. They were both sitting on the couch, reading separate books.

"Slow day?" I asked.

"Oh yes," Jenny said. "We finished classes a week ago and now we don't know what to do with our lives."

"Get married," Brandon said abruptly. "And get out of my house."

"Eventually," Jenny said.

While Brandon was already seventeen, he hadn't shifted yet. We were all kind of waiting for it to happen, but it might not. There just weren't the threats that there used to be. We thought that my family had likely triggered Jenny and Liam to shift, but it really could have been any kind of vampire passing through. Nick had told me that if enough of the kids started shifting, it was likely that Caleb, Jeremy, Matt, Lucas, Nathan, Kyle, and Wyatt would stop shifting. If that was the case, then Michael, Lyssie, Mikayla, Natalie, Jocelyn, Amber, Kaitlyn, Nicole, and Ashley would all likely stop shifting as well. They all wanted to grow old for their children. It was difficult to watch their kids growing up while they were frozen at the age they had shifted.

As the younger three Uley's spread out through their small house, I took a seat next to Jenny on the couch. "Are you guys thinking about getting married?" I asked.

"Actually," Liam said. "Yes."

"That's really awesome," I said. "Have you guys looked at your finances and stuff?"

"Well," Jenny said. "We both have a bit of money saved up. The reservation is willing to give us a house if we apply for it. There are some way back in the woods by the beach that aren't being used, and if we could fix a house up, it would be ours. Liam just got the job working for the reservation's historical society. He's in charge of the website. That'll be a solid paycheck every two weeks. We aren't spending that much for our college degrees, and neither of us are pursuing a bachelors. We'll be done with school next year at this time."

"It'll be a little rough," Liam said. "But I think we could do it."

"You wouldn't be the first," I said. "Leah and Joel did it while they were both shifting, and so did Brooke and Embry. The reservation can help you guys a lot."

"It sure helps that the Elders know the secret," Liam said.

Jenny paused for a moment. "How about you?" she asked. "Have you guys talked about getting married?"

I laughed. "You know," I said. "I was born eight years ago."

"You're point?" she asked immediately.

I shrugged. "We've talked about it," I said. "But not seriously. The properties my dad and I purchased when I was two have gotten me a lot of money. I have to make sure they are kept up, but it's not that much work. My mom would love to fix us up a house, no matter how small it is. And Nick has been working for the general store since he was a sophomore. It's a minimum wage job, but it'll only be about two or three years until I'm out of college."

"What are you going for again?" I asked.

"Interpretation and Translation," I said. "I already speak English, Hindi, Spanish, French, and I'm working on Quileute, Mandarin, and German. They could really use a French speaker in Port Angeles. Their lumber company just started doing a ton of business with a big lumber company in Canada, and there's apparently more of a language barrier than they expected. I've already been communicating with them, and they are very interested in me. I'm actually doing a paid internship this summer. I'm really only going to school to get certified so I have a backup plan if this job ever doesn't work. They have a lot of Spanish speaking customers as well, and I could be helpful with that. Also, I can translate books and stuff with a separate business, or even for the reservation. Plus, if that ever falls through, I can freelance if I have to."

"You're going to be really good at interpreting," Liam said. "Cause girl, you can talk."

I laughed. "It's in my nature."

Jenny chuckled. "I can't believe we're old enough to be talking about marriage."

I smiled. "Imagine how I feel." We left it at that. "Can I cook for you guys?" I asked.

"I told you," Liam said. "Anytime you want to cook for me, you can."

I smiled. "Alright," I said. Cooking was one of my favorite hobbies. It was strange, considering I had no desire to eat any food. I went into the kitchen and started digging out ingredients for homemade lasagna. I kept checking my watch, and made plenty of food so that anyone who stopped by would have something to eat. Also, I liked to leave leftovers at the houses I cooked at. Nick should be done running patrol just in time…

Sure enough, as my final timer dinged for the lasagna to be done, and my garlic rolls cooled, I smelled Nick coming up the lawn. "Foods ready," I said. I walked out of the kitchen as Nick was walking through the door, and jumped into his arms.

"Hey there pretty girl," he said. "How does it feel to be done with High School?"

"Good," I said. "Glad I did it though."

"Yeah?" Nick said.

"Uh-huh," I told him. "You want some food? I made a ton."

"Sure," he said.

Ryan was sitting on the couch. "There's plenty for you Ryan," I told him. I knocked on the bedroom doors of the other Uley children and gave them the same message. I saw Sam coming up the driveway just as everyone was sitting down to eat.

"Hello," he said as he came in. "Just came home for lunch."

"You picked a good day for that," Liam said. "Zemati cooked."

"Awesome," he said. He sat down next to Brandon. "How were finals?" he asked his older children.

"Physics was rough," Brandon said. "But I think I managed a B."

"That's awesome," Sam said. "And you Al?"

"Band was kind of tricky, but Ness grades easy. English was crazy easy," she told him. Nessie had been teaching music at the school for about ten years now.

"Glad to hear it," he said. "Anything exciting happen today Ryan?"

"Not particularly," he said. "Paige tripped and fell on the stairs and I just about went down with her though."

Sam laughed, hearing about Leah's youngest. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah," Ryan said. "I was the only one who saw."

"Well that's good." He shook his head. "I can't believe you're going to be in eighth grade next year. We're going to have two graduations to be celebrating."

"His will be on Thursday and mine will be on Friday," Brandon said.

"That'll work out nicely," Sam said. "When do you graduate Z?" Sam asked me.

"Next Friday," I said. "The eighth graders are the night before us, just like in La Push."

He finally took a bite of his lasagna. "This is amazing," he said. "I have no idea how you cook without eating some of it."

"I have a great nose," I told him. "Edward actually taught me how to do a lot of it," I said.

"How are they doing?" Liam asked, getting a second helping of the lasagna.

"Good," I told him. "They are actually looking into moving again though. Maybe even into Canada actually. They want more seclusion I guess. Plus, that would put them even closer to Forks. They miss everyone like crazy."

"How often do you talk to them?" Jenny asked.

"Just about every week somebody will call to check up. I've actually heard a lot of this secondhand from my family. I talk to Nessie all the time though. She calls or video chats them just about every night."

"Do you guys hunt together?" Brandon said, swallowing his lasagna.

"Usually," I said. "We matched up our feeding schedules. The kids come with about every other time. My family is almost always out there with us though."

"Do the kids still need help?" Sam asked.

"Not so much," I said. "They've adapted their hunting technique to their needs. Sometimes they crave a certain animal though, and they might need help with that. Cade took a pretty nasty smack from a mountain lion a few months ago, but he bounced right back up. It scared Nessie to death though."

"I suppose they're stilling growing," Sam said.

"Yes," I said. "Hopefully it'll only get easier for them."

"For some reason," Liam said. "I struggle to picture a four-foot-nothing Cade wrestling with a mountain lion."

I laughed. "It's quite a sight. He fights like Bella though," I told him.

"Does Eila?" Nick asked.

"Not at all," I told him. "She's like Nessie and Edward. Way more controlled. Bella and Cade both just go nuts. It's really funny."

"Who do you hunt like?" Nick asked me.

"My dad," I said immediately. "My mom is like a sniper out there: silent but totally lethal. My father and I have not yet mastered the art of being classy while hunting. It's extremely unladylike. "

"I'd like to see it sometime," Liam said.

"No," I said immediately, shocked that he would want to see something like that. "It would be really dangerous for you. We don't pay attention at all when we're out there. You could be dead before we even realized what was happening."

I saw Jenny flinch slightly as I mentioned Liam dead. "I didn't realize you ever lost control," Jenny said.

"It's an important part of keeping it when we need to," I said. "But if it makes you feel any better, it's my family you'd really have to watch out for. They haven't been doing this as long as the Cullens. They crave it so much more than Nessie or I."

"Well," Allison said, bringing her plate to the dishwasher. "This was a very informative lunch."

I laughed. "Did you enjoy it?" I asked.

"Of course," she said. "I think I'm going to go see what Kelsey's doing, or maybe Madison," she said. "If that's okay."

"It's not going to bother me," Sam said. "But let us know if you won't be home for dinner."

"Okay," she said, already putting her light jacket on as she walked out the door.

"You want to go for a walk?" Nick asked me.

"Sure," I said. "But I have to clean up first."

"No you don't," Jenny said. "You cook, I clean."

"Oh come on," I said. "I can do it."

"No seriously," she said. "I'm cleaning."

I gave her a look, but finally agreed.

"Alright then," Nick said. We headed out the door, and the air felt warmer than usual. I loved summer. Even in Forks, it got mercifully warmer.

We headed down the streets of La Push, heading toward the general direction of Forks. "So," Nick said. "You're graduating in a week."

"Yup," I said. "I'm starting my online summer school in just a few weeks."

"How many classes are you taking online once the school year starts?"

"All except one," I told him. "I have to do Chemistry at the school because of the labs. I only have to go up there once every month though." I was going to be attending a small college in Seattle next year. It would be a long drive, but it would work for the short amount of times I had to go up there. Plus, I was a fast driver, no matter what my parents said.

"That'll be nice," he said. "Though I know you don't like science that much."

"No," I said. "But hey, having a super-fast mind can really help sometimes."

He chuckled. "I'm sure it does." We walked quietly for a while, and at some point he grabbed my hand. My palm in his felt so natural at this point that I hardly noticed. "So what about us?" Nick asked me. "What are we doing?"

I thought about what he was saying. "Well," I said. "I suppose we keep doing what we're doing right?"

"And what is that?" Nick asked me with a smile.

"Oh you know," I said. "Being in love and all."

"And all…" he said, trailing off. He took in a deep breath. "Are we going to get married Z?" he asked me.

Having heard the question from Jenny just about an hour ago, you'd think that I wouldn't be as shocked. Yet, there I was, my mouth just about hanging open. "Do you want to?" I asked him.

He squeezed my hand. "I do," he said. "No cliché intended."

I chuckled. "Well," I said. "I suppose we could. We'd have to get a house and things though."

"I've looked into it," he told me. "I think we could do it."

I nodded. "You might have to look for a better job at some point," I said.

"I've been thinking about that," he said. "Quil got trained as a 911 operator when he was about my age, and he said they could use about two more people. I could apply. That would be a paycheck."

"That's not a bad idea," I told him. "And it'll only be a few years before I've got a full time job. My parents are picking up the tab on whatever my scholarships don't cover for school. We could do it."