CHAPTER 7

Vivian’s POV

After the ordeal with her father and seeing him in such a defeated state, the urgency of the whole situation dawned on her heavily. They both knew she had limited time together, and the battle at Shadow Rock had heavily affected her father’s timeline. It was now more important than ever to start preparing for a new Alpha so the clan would not be exposed and left leaderless after her father’s passing.

She wished they could just give it to Ty and move on, but laws are laws, and they had to undertake the trials. She had just left the hospital as her father was still recuperating. She had not had a good rest in a while, and with what just happened this morning, she doubted she would be able to fall asleep. Sarah was waiting for her outside.

“How is he holding up?” Sarah asked.

“He is strong. He will recover from this, but his time is really limited, and this stunt he pulled off to display strength definitely did no favors to his health,” Vivian responded.

“Yeah, but you have to admit that it was efficient. He bought us time. Valentine and his crew would not try anything again for a while now, and if we are able to run the trials without interruptions, then they would not be able to say anything about the new Alpha either.”

She paused as if to consider her next words carefully. “I hate to say it, but this little stunt, as you have so thoughtfully called it, was kind of necessary. He needed to show the pack that he was still strong and a capable leader. Anything short of that, including having Ty fight on his behalf, and the pack would have forever lost their respect for him,” she completed.

“I know, I know. I already got a lecture from him. I definitely do not require one from you as well,” Vivian retorted. She was trying to be strong for her dad, herself, and everyone around her, but she could not help but feel sad knowing that her father’s time was just about up.

“Oh, come on, cheer up. He is still alive. We need to cheer you up, and I have got just the thing.” She paused for dramatic effect. “Let’s go get some ice cream from the new place that just opened around the corner. I have heard nothing but good reviews from the place,” she finished.

“It’s like 10 a.m. in the morning,” Vivian challenged.

“Is that meant to count for something?” Sarah countered.

“I am definitely not doing this with you. I will settle for pancakes like a normal person. You can go ahead to get your ice cream,” Vivian finalized.

“Ugh, you are no fun, you know that, right?” Sarah stated with a playful scowl on her face.

“I love you too, boo. Come on, let us get going. I feel better already,” she chuckled. Somehow, Sarah always knew the exact way to make her happy. It was part of why they worked so well as friends.

It was a short stroll from the hospital to the store. It was an ice cream store mainly, but they served breakfast items as well, luckily for Vivian because she really had no intention to eat ice cream for breakfast.

Sarah always tried the strangest things; it was one of the things Vivian loved about her. There was hardly ever a boring moment around her. She was confident about herself and everything she did. Things like that tend to be contagious, and Vivian had benefitted a lot from it since their first meeting.

She remembered the first time they met. Sarah was so quiet and seemingly shy. She had Sarah pegged completely wrong. She had found out later that her hesitation to make friends was due to the death of her former pack. She would hardly ever interact with kids when they were playing around the campfire during pre-lunar events which the pack sometimes celebrated.

She did not participate much in training when they were undergoing basic werewolf training as kids. During shared meals in events, she was almost always alone or with her family. This all changed when they had a special educatory class about the biology of werewolves and the main differences between their systems and that of a normal human.

It was Mrs. Liz who took that particular class. She remembered because Mrs. Liz always had the weirdest analogies and jokes to try and make the kids remember some of these details. Most kids did not pay attention in her class because these were details deemed unnecessary by most kids. I mean, why should I know how exactly my body functions, enabling me to smell objects almost two times the distance away that a normal human could when I can just enjoy these abilities? But because of their yet-to-be-exposed love for medicine, Sarah and Vivian always paid special attention in these classes.

One day, they got paired together for an experiment they were supposed to run. They were meant to get the flowers required to make a substance that was capable of reducing the potency of a werewolf’s senses. It basically had an infinitely diluted effect of wolfsbane without any of the fatal repercussions it came with. Vivian always suspected that Mrs. Liz paired them together on purpose in an effort to get Sarah to interact with more people, and she probably chose Vivian because of their shared interests in her classes. Mrs. Liz never admitted to it, but Vivian had always been grateful to her for pairing them together.

“You seem distracted,” Sarah interrupted Vivian’s train of thoughts. “Penny for your thoughts?”

“Oh, I was just thinking about how I saved you from a world of boredom by gracing you with the joy of being my friend,” Vivian joked.

“Oh, please. I am me. I am charming. I am lovely. I would have had no problem making friends on my own,” Sarah assured.

“Of course. I am just messing with you. You know I appreciate you,” Vivian said with a slightly sad smile.

“Awwww, you know I am always here for you. Let’s head in before you get all teary-eyed on me,” Sarah said as she proceeded to open the double doors. Vivian was right behind her.

The place was a bit larger than she would have expected for a breakfast/ice cream joint. “I guess it is this large because of the unholy merger of breakfast meals and ice cream,” Vivian thought to herself.

She took in the scenery all around her. The place had a relatively simplistic design, but it worked well for it. It had a white and blue theme all around; the walls were mainly white, but about halfway through at the bottom, the white slowly faded into blue with a myriad of different gradients of blue increasing in hue until it reached Azure Blue.

This helped capture both aspects of the store perfectly. The setup for the chairs and tables included about five to six rows of two sofas facing each other with a table that reached slightly above the seat of the sofas, which was basically the perfect height. The sofas were brown and were probably the only things that were not in line with the white and blue theme of the ice cream parlor, but the tables were white, so that fit right in.

The checkout register was directly in front of the door with enough space for a mini-queue, the sofas extending out both ways from both sides of the entrance, placed right beside the window to offer a great view of the increasingly busy streets.

Sarah led the way to the checkout counter. There was a guy behind the counter wearing a blue and white striped shirt paired with black trousers and a white cap with the company logo on it, an outfit that Vivian would never allow herself to be caught dead in.

“Hi…” Sarah took a pause as she took a look at the name lapel that the employees had on, “… Steve, we would like two servings of pancakes, a cup of coffee, and a bowl of ice cream,” she listed out.

The employee, apparently named Steve, chuckled slightly at first. His laughter received confused looks, and he realized he might have actually misunderstood her intentions.

“Wait, you actually mean that, don’t you?” Steve inquired. “You actually want a bowl of ice cream at 10:20 a.m.?” he said with a glance at the clock.

Vivian could not help herself; she burst out laughing. “I told you so,” she said to Sarah in between fits of laughter.

“She is weird like that,” Vivian offered to Steve. “Just give her what she wants. We will be at that table,” Vivian said as she pointed to the last table towards the right of the entrance.

“Two servings of pancakes, one cup of coffee, and one bowl of ice cream coming up,” Steve confirmed.

“Thanks, Steve!” Both girls called out as they headed over to their table.

“So, what is the plan with your dad?” Sarah asked.

“He has always been there for me throughout my life. He never left. He always made sure he was available at home despite the responsibilities he shouldered as an Alpha. I never felt alone or ignored, which is a very huge task for a leader of a pack to accomplish,” Vivian paused, deep in thoughts and memories.

“But he did,” she finished.

“So for now, my plan remains a simple one: be there for him,” Vivian said.

“You know, your pack was not the first we encountered after the destruction of my old pack,” Sarah said. “We came across a few as we made our way over to this part of town, but none of them were willing to take in a couple of strays. They kept refusing us, like me and my parents would have been enough to take down a fully-fledged pack like theirs.” Sarah exhaled, clearly getting annoyed all over again recounting her experiences. “We had seriously considered just trying to live a normal life after that, but it never works out for a lone wolf.”

“Nature is a carefree place with almost no rules, but one stands above the rest as the most important to werewolves because of our shared connections to the subject,” Sarah stated. “You will be extremely familiar with it because it is something that is taught and preached in every pack and instilled in the mind of every youngling. For this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky, and the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die,” Sarah started.

“As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back. For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack,” Vivian finished.

“Exactly,” Sarah stated. “A lone wolf or a small pack of wolves is very unlikely to survive on their own. It is an unwritten law of nature.” She continued, “We had all but given up when we came across your pack. Your dad was more than happy to take us in. He got my parents jobs to sustain our family and made sure we were well treated by the others in the pack.”

At this point in time, her eyes were glistening as tears began to ebb out from all the emotions she had welled in. “I know you do not need me to tell you this, but your father is a great leader and an even greater man. Anything you need from me or my family, you have it,” she finished, wiping the building tears from her eyes and replacing them with an honest smile.

“Thanks, Sarah. I really appreciate it,” Vivian offered. “I will be alright. He was an honest man. He lived his life with no regrets, and he will die with none. He lived to the fullest of his abilities, enjoying and experiencing everything the world had to offer on the way. I have come to terms with the current situation, and so has he. I intend to enjoy the rest of the time I have with him, and I have you, Ty, your folks, and the rest of the pack.

His spirit and influence will live amongst us even after he is gone,” she said with a beaming, contagious smile.

The moment was interrupted by Steve coming up with a tray containing their order. “Enjoy!” he said as he left with the tray.

“Thanks,” Vivian grinned. “Eat up, Sarah, before your pancake gets cold or your ice cream gets hot,” she joked.