"You stopped thinking of him as a foetus."

"What?" Kiara asked, turning around to look at Edward. He flicked his eyes to the window where she had been gazing at Rosalie and Bella, her expression neutral as she watched her imprint take care of the girl like they'd always been best friends.

"The past few days... you started to think of him as a baby and not as a foetus," Edward replied, his tone factual as he stood beside Kiara, his line of sight refocusing on his adoptive sister and his wife laughing together. "I can hear him now."

Kiara's heart skipped a beat as she looked at Edward, realizing the gravity of his words. The baby had grown stronger, and its thoughts were now audible to the vampire standing beside her. A glimpse of what it might become once it leaves Bella's womb. She took a deep breath, trying to steady her racing mind. Did that change anything? Would it change everything?

It was a strange and eerie feeling, knowing that there was a tiny being growing inside Bella who could already communicate in some way. She swallowed and turned to face Edward fully, her eyes searching his for any sign of concern or worry.

"What is... he saying?" The word felt foreign on her lips as she referred to the baby. Edward was right - she'd slowly started to consider it less of a demon and more of a vampiric baby instead.

Edward closed his eyes briefly, recalling the memory of getting to experience a sound that only he could hear. When he opened them again, there was a small smile on his lips. His eyes were full of nothing but love, and Kiara felt her stomach turn a little.

"He's happy," Edward said. "He can feel how much Bella loves him, and it's making him happy."

Kiara felt a lump form in her throat, an unease rising in her stomach. Despite everything that had happened - the danger, the uncertainty, the risk to Bella and the baby's lives - there was nothing but pure love radiating from Bella. She had always been fiercely protective of those she loved, and that included the tiny creature growing inside of her.

"Is... is he...?" Kiara asked, her voice trembling slightly as she trailed off. How did you ask a father if their unborn child was already planning from the womb on how to kill her friends and family?

"He's more than okay," Edward replied, his smile growing a bit wider as he recalled the feeling he felt hours ago. "He's like Bella. He's good... he's pure."

Kiara would wait and see the final verdict on that, she thought.

"He's...getting bigger. And not physically, but mentally too."Kiara's eyes widened in alarm, knowing exactly what that meant. "He wants to come out."
"Yeah," Edward said, his smile dropping as Kiara's line of thought caught up with the gravity of Edward being able to hear his son. Kiara wasn't sure how they came to the conclusion that it was a boy, since they couldn't see anything from Carlisle's scans, but she figured Edward must have had some opinion after hearing the baby's thoughts. "And soon. Bella's body can't sustain him much longer, and he's getting stronger by the day."

Kiara felt a sense of urgency as she realized that time was running out. She'd been putting off the thought that Bella would give birth this quickly, but it had been right in front of her the entire time. The past week since she had separated from Sam's pack had felt like the longest yet shortest of her entire life.

Her eyes focused on Rosalie laughing as she placed her hand against Bella's stomach, presumably feeling the baby kick under the skin. Kiara wasn't sure what was right anymore.

"I know Jacob is going to kill him," Edward replied, his mouth now in a thin line as he turned to Kiara. "And I plan on having my entire attention on Bella. But Kiara, I am begging you as a father... please don't let him take my son from Bella."

Kiara's eyes were cold as she turned to look at Edward, nothing in her head for once as she looked at the man. He stared back, the most desperate that she had even seen Edward in the past years of knowing him. His cheeks were a little more hollow, the black in his eyes reminding her that none of the vampires in the house had fed in over a week. She hadn't even seen Jasper or Bree in at least a day, having holed themselves up elsewhere to avoid Bella and temptation.

"Kiara," Carlisle called out from the porch, interrupting the moment that looked tense between his son and the alpha. "A word, please."

Kiara had been cursing the world for a while now, but she thanked the clouds for whatever being had given Carlisle the gift of a perfectly timed entrance. She turned without another word to Edward, leaving the man to stare at her retreating form in defeat at her silence.

____

"So, that's the last of it?" Jacob asked as he stood beside Kiara, the twins looking at the final blood bags that Carlisle had placed on the table in front of them. Kiara felt a chill go down her body as she looked at them, knowing that Carlisle must have secretly been taking them from the hospital - something that almost changed how she looked at the doctor.

"Bella could deliver as early as tomorrow," Carlisle said, Esme standing beside him with nothing but panic and concern across her face. "If she's going to have any chance at all, she'll need more blood."

"And you need to feed," Esme said, her husband always being her priority. It was no secret that he had remarkable self-restraint from his hundreds of years as a doctor, but that had always been on a full stomach. "You have to be at your strongest for her. We need to go tonight."

Kiara bristled at the suggestion, Jacob mirroring her action. They'd heard the huffs and snarls of Sam's pack from the depth of the trees during their patrol - one step past the treeline and it was game over for the Cullens.

"Carlisle, you're the enemy now. Sam won't hesitate. You will be slaughtered!" Jacob spat, Kiara placing a hand on his forearm and stopping him from raising his voice too loud. She didn't want Bella to overhear this conversation and fall into another pit of guilt - because it would be Jacob who would fall to his knees to comfort her. Kiara didn't have the energy for their dramatics.

"Emmett will come with us."

"That won't be enough!"

"We have no choice, Jacob," Carlisle said, the exasperation evident in his voice. Kiara was sure that this was the most defeated that she had ever heard him in the short time that she had known him. "If there's anything we can do to save her, we have to try."

Kiara closed her eyes, turning and facing the window as she rubbed at her forehead. Her eyes snapped open, focusing in on where Seth and Leah were sat. Seth was working his way through his second sandwich from Esme, but that wasn't what caught her eye.

Leah had unwrapped hers, and had just taken a bite. That was the first time she'd even accepted food from Esme, let alone eat it. It was like something changed in that very moment, Kiara's annoyance at the situation becoming something else. Something she couldn't quite place.

"You'd risk your lives for her?" Jacob replied, Kiara almost wondering where the hell he had been if he hadn't already realised that the Cullens would risk their life for the pregnant human. They'd done it time and time again, just like the rest of them had.

"Of course we would. Bella's a part of our family now."

"Yeah. I can see that," Jacob muttered bitterly, but Kiara noted there was finally a slight hint of acceptance in his words. Maybe this was it - maybe her brother was finally realising that Bella would never pick him. Not now, not then. "This really is a family. As strong as the one I was born into."

Kiara turned around at that moment, understanding exactly what Jacob meant when he said that. Those wolves out there... they were her brothers. Her father was born in La Push, and his father before him. There wasn't anything she would have done for them... wasn't anything that would have prevented her from being by their side. Until now.

"You won't just have Emmett," Kiara replied, her arms crossed as she finally spoke up. Carlisle's eyes flickered to hers, and she didn't move her gaze even when Jacob turned to her in frustration as he caught on to what she was about to say. "I'll go with you. They won't hesitate to attack you, but I can give you some time."

"Kie," Jacob snarled, his voice low as a warning at the suggestion. Just because the wolves would hesitate when they saw her, didn't mean they wouldn't attack. "No, I won't allow..."

"You can't stop me, Jake," Kiara replied, grabbing his forearm as she stared into his eyes. There seemed to be a silent argument between them, almost like Jacob was praying that she would change her mind just by looking at his concern for her. "We both know that."

"Fine," Jacob replied, anger cursing through his veins before he looked back at the two older vampires in the room. "But I know what I need to do now, too."

____

"Why are you here?" Rosalie asked, watching as Kiara slid her shoes off and placed them at the door of the Cullens house. Kiara looked up, rolling her eyes at the hostility in her voice as she hung her hoodie up.

"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I've basically been living here for like a week now?"

"That is NOT what I mean," the blonde vampire snapped, standing up and walking to face Kiara. They were the only ones in the room - everyone else preparing to leave Bella and go for their first real feed in over a week. "You've made it very clear that you want the baby dead, you've barely spoken to Bella since you arrived, and you certainly aren't here for me or you'd have spoken to me too. So what are you really here for?"

"I'm not doing this right now," Kiara replied, going to push past Rose but being stopped in her place as a cold hand wrapped tightly around her wrist. Kiara paused, a flicker of annoyance spreading across her body with the touch. 

It wasn't the only thing that spread in her body - the touch ignited a spark in her that made her want to just turn around, wrap her arms around Rosalie and act like none of this had ever happened. Her body craved her touch, her mind craved her love.

"You just don't get it, do you?" Kiara snapped, her face inches away from Rosalie's now. Rosalie didn't back down, ignoring the burning of her skin against her icy palm. Kiara's temperature had never effected her before, and she wasn't about to start letting it do so now. "It's you, Rosalie. It's always fucking you! And it kills me every time, but no matter what you do, I love you. I can't stop loving you - so when you're willing to endanger everyone I know for a baby? Of course I'm going to be fucking pissed."

Rosalie stared at Kiara, her eyes softening slightly as she heard the words that spilled from her lips. She had always known that the girl had a fire inside of her, but she had never seen it like this. Kiara's words were laced with pain, and Rosalie knew deep down that it had little to do with the baby.

"This has been one of the worst weeks of my entire life," Kiara whispered, the pain seeping from her voice. "And you haven't even thought about how any of this has changed my life. I can't even go see my family because as soon as my foot crosses the tree line, everything changes. My pack brothers... I can't go back there and act like nothing has happened."

"I didn't realise," Rosalie said softly, her grip on Kiara's wrist loosening slightly. "I thought you were upset because of Bella and the baby and us not telling you... I didn't know..."

"You didn't know that this has literally ruined my life? Ruined the pack?" Kiara scoffed, her eyes on fire as she scowled at Rosalie. "For Jake, it's easy - he'd do anything for Bella. Me and Seth... you understand that we didn't have a choice? We couldn't sit there and watch as our brothers planned to kill our imprints - and Leah wouldn't have chosen this for herself at all if it wasn't for Seth."

Rosalie didn't respond, her eyes flickering over Kiara's face as if searching for something. Kiara held her breath, waiting for her to say something, anything. But Rosalie remained silent, her hand slipping from Kiara's wrist as she took a step back.

"I can't just turn it off, Rose. I can't pretend like the imprint isn't going to be festering in me forever, because it will," Kiara replied, seeing Rosalie's eyes flicker with pain at the suggestion that the only reason she was here was because of the imprint. "And the worst fucking part, Rosalie? I know for a fact that if I hadn't imprinted on you in the woods that night, that I'd still be standing here. Begging for you to just take a moment to look at the bigger picture, to look at the destruction this baby has caused before he's even been born. And that? That's pathetic."

Rosalie's eyes flickered with guilt, knowing that Kiara was right. She had always been selfish, and had never considered the consequences of her actions. Her and Beverly had just been so enthralled with the idea of Bella getting the one thing that they couldn't have - and the human had been so happy to let them into that experience. She had never expected those actions to hurt Kiara, the one person who had always seen past her exterior and into her soul.

"Hey, you ready?"

Kiara tore her gaze away from Rosalie as Emmett entered the room, hating to interrupt their argument but knowing that their timeframe was very limited and they literally didn't have the time to spare for it. 

"Not sure I ever will be," Kiara replied, smiling gently at him as she stepped back to put distance between herself and Rosalie. "But we need to go now."

"What? You're going?" Rosalie said, having known that Emmett, Carlisle and Esme were going hunting, but not knowing that Kiara was accompanying them. Kiara rolled her eyes, still irritated from their argument.

"Only until the river line," she replied, her voice cold. "Then I'm coming straight back here. Jake's distracting them just enough so that we only need to deal with one or two instead of six or seven."

Rosalie went to stop Kiara as she went to leave the room, realising now that she had been packing a bag of clothes for herself once she changed back on her return. Kiara shrugged her off, ignoring the look that Rosalie was sending her, begging her not to put herself into danger like this.

"Like I said, everything changes."

Kiara turned, tugging the band out of her ponytail as she headed towards the outdoors. Rosalie wanted to reach out, apologise, beg for her forgiveness. Hold her close and never let her go. Keep her all to herself and out of harms way forevermore. 

But Kiara was gone, and Rosalie was alone. 

In that moment, Rosalie wondered if it had all been worth it.

_____

"This isn't your territory anymore," Paul spat as Jacob stood in front of them, fury spreading across his body as he noticed how Seth and Leah were positioned behind him but no Kiara. She couldn't even face them. Typical. "How's the new family working out?"

"You coming home, Jake?" Quil asked, his tone much softer than Paul's snarl. Jacob shook his head, a longing for his best friend in his chest but knowing that he couldn't show that to them yet. He had to see this through, no matter what.

"Not until I finish this," Jacob replied, knowing in his heart that it was true. Once the baby was killed, he'd leave the Cullens and return to La Push. His eyes twitched towards the siblings behind him, knowing that it wasn't an option for one of them. Not really.

Paul glowered down at him, irritating still spreading across his face as he looked at the trio. Traitors, he thought.

"What do you mean?"

"I want Sam to take back Leah and Seth."

Leah and Seth immediately erupted into disagreement, fury coursing through them at the suggestion. Leah wanted to scream at him, throw him to the ground and punch him with everything she had. Jacob had NO right.

"Quiet!" Jacob roared back at them, taking both of them by surprise with the authoritative tone. 

It was like a bucket of water fell over the siblings - they immediately snapped their mouths shut, understanding what Jacob's play was here. They weren't silenced because he was their alpha (because he wasn't) but Paul and the others didn't know that. They didn't know that the mantle had been thrust upon Kiara naturally, Jacob not being automatically gifted the title like Leah was sure they had all assumed.

It made sense - if Jacob was the alpha then this was exactly where he would be, standing in a negotiation with his betas on his flank. Leah wanted to slap Kiara for not telling her the full plan, but she knew that her and Seth wouldn't have reacted so naturally to Jacob's request and then the others would have known something was up.

"I want them safe. And I want this over. I need Sam to wait until Bella's been separated from the problem."

"You mean till she's dead. Then what?"

"Tell Sam that when the moment comes, I'll be the one to destroy it."

Leah knew that had been Jacob's plan all along. Her and Kiara had talked about it on patrol, both uneasy about the suggestion. Leah wanted the baby dead - but she didn't believe Jacob had what it took to pull it off. Kiara was more concerned about the actual act of killing rather than who did it.

"Jake!" Seth yelled, having been purposefully left out of the loop by the other three.

"I'm the only one who can. They trust me."

_

Kiara's paws crunched at the dirt as she ran, close to Carlisle, Bree, Esme and Emmett as they ran towards the river. She had already explained the wolves wouldn't have the ability to jump across, and they weren't going to try and follow them into an unfair advantage.

She knew it wouldn't be long before the two wolves on patrol picked up on their passing - she just hoped it was Brady and Collin rather than Sam or Paul. And she was right - as they were moments away from the river bank, snarls sounded from their side. 

Esme was slammed into, the vampire tumbling down the forest floor as two mid-sized wolves rolled after her. Kiara snarled, spinning on her haunches and launching after them, her teeth bared as she slammed into the smaller of the two. She almost thanked God, glad that it had been Brady and Collin after all.

They went to move forward on Esme who was scrambling on the ground, but Kiara jumped in between with her heckles raised and a low warning growl in her throat that had even Emmett wincing a little. It was the first time they'd really seen Kiara in action like this, and it seemed that the alpha status that ran through her veins only made her more menacing.

Brady and Collin both shuffled backwards, taken by surprise at the wolf in front of them. Collin whimpered a little as he realised it was his older cousin, Brady brushing against his side at the noise that left his snout. Kiara turned her head back to look at Esme, barking loudly at the woman in what Carlisle would later recall probably translated to "MOVE".

Kiara snapped at the two wolves who finally snapped out of their shock to return the favour, not realising that by focusing on the Black twin that they had lost the trail of the four vampires they were pursuing. She snarled back at them, moving forward when they didn't back up any further. The wolves danced backwards, towards the river now, as their inner apparition screamed at them to run when faced with an Alpha of another pack. 

She moved in between them and the river, knowing that they wouldn't be able to swim across because of their size. She knew that they wouldn't fight her either - but she didn't want to chance that they would be so scared that they would rather risk drowning than facing her. She needed the vampires to survive - but that didn't mean she wanted the wolves to die in the process.

Three large smashes in the distance caught her ears - no doubt Emmett was behind the noise. That was their signal if they got separated that the four had made it across the river safely. Kiara backed down at the noise, watching as Brady and Collin darted back towards the river where the Cullens had disappeared to.

She slunked away, taking back off in the direction of the Cullen household.

Two piercing howls pierced the air, her ears fainting catching on to the tail end of Jacob's conversation with Sam's pack as she ran parallel to them in the forest. She heard their shouts as they heard the far-away howls compared to the returning thuds that they knew all too well.

"YOU PLAYED US!"

Her heart flickered at Paul's voice, wishing more than anything that they'd be able to be friends in the future. 

But there was no time to react - she needed to get to the Cullens and back to Edward and Bella. She didn't know how long they had left until the baby decided he wanted out, and she sure as hell wasn't going to waste any time wondering what could be.

She just didn't realise how quickly it would all go down.