Chapter 2:

I felt the pain of the change ripple down my spine as I slowly turned to face him.

"Vivian….is that…you?" he said hesitantly.

"Leave." I snapped, the last thing I needed was to deal with this.

"I just wanted to know that you were alive that guy said I would know, I never heard anything -" he rambled on so I interrupted him.

"Actually I believe that guy, Gabriel, said you would know if I was DEAD. I'm very much alive no thanks to you." I could feel the change wanting to push through, but I held it back. He was pacing now, I could see the nervous sweat that started breaking out on his skin. "Get out of here Aiden. I'll be forced to kill you if you don't."

"You wouldn't actually do it," he said nervously "you're the only reason I'm alive now. You saved me. You still love me." He started to take a step forward.

"Don't. You're lucky you weren't killed that night. I don't love you Aiden, I never actually I loved you. I'm only saying this because you deserve to know the truth. It was an illusion. You could never love me, or appreciate me. The real me. I'm sorry, I really am, that it had to turn out this way but now I know. The only reason your life was sparred that night was because Gabriel loves me, and didn't want to hurt me. Gabriel is not here now. He left me in charge of my people. If they come out and see you, they will expect me to kill you. You are considered a danger to us, and I will have to carry out the duty of killing you as a leader. I don't want to kill you Aiden, but I will." My voice was shaky but firm, I had to make myself clear.

"I don't understand." He pleaded.

"Leave, forget about me, forget about this. Move on Aiden, I already have." I snarled. I turned and stormed through the front door of my house, slamming the door behind me. I had forgotten what was waiting for me inside.

"Vivian. Are you okay?" Esme asked hesitantly, gesturing for me to come stand by her side. As I walked across the living room, I looked at all the faces surrounding me. The whole pack, Jenny, Renata, Lucien, Orlando, all eyes on me.

"Yeah I'm fine." I said nodding my head, trying to get to a clear state of mind.

"Gabriel ended the last meeting telling us you would have instructions." Lucien said, his voice almost a growl.

"Yes." I took in a deep breath. I can do this. "The instructions are to start finishing business up here. Sell the houses. Get things packed and organized. Make sure everybody is ready to go. We obviously cannot just pack up and go at once or things will look suspicious, it will take a few weeks. But, as Gabriel already said, everybody should be moved in and settled at the Inn by the end of September. The Inn still needs some work done, nothing to major. After Gabriel is done finalizing everything financially in Vermont he will be back here to pick of a few things and a few people, including myself will be going up with him to Vermont to start working on the Inn. Any questions?" I stood perfectly still, hoping there would be no questions. As usual, I was wrong.

"If Gabriel and you are both in Vermont who is to run things here? Not that being under the supervision of a seventeen year old is doing us any good." Lucien complained.

"Excuse me," Esme snapped, "you heard Gabriel before, if anybody had any problems with Vivian being in charge were to address them then, not now."

"No one had anything to say, because everybody knows she is too young and naive to be leading a pack." He countered smugly. "She already put us in danger, revealing us to that meat-boy."

"And she was going to sacrifice herself for the safety of the pack!" Willem jumped out of his and made his way across the room to face Lucien. "He didn't know there was more of us, if it wasn't for Astrid and Rafe playing their sick little game nothing would of come it. Yes she made a mistake, but we all have, especially in this world where we have to come face to face with humans every day. Vivian was going to kill herself, for us. We were lucky we found her when we did. She was drenched in gasoline and trying to strike a match when we found her. If that doesn't show enough loyalty to the pack, and our kind, then I don't know what would." He growled. I was in shock.

"If she's so loyal, then why doesn't she just kill the boy? He is a threat to us." Lucien spat in Willem's face, making him back up. I could see him starring me down waiting for my response.

"Gabriel let him go." I said with a straight face. "You were there, you heard the words come out of his mouth. If he proves to be more of a threat, then actions will be taken and he will be killed. I would kill him myself if that would make you shut up." Now I was getting angry.

"Then do it now and get it over with." He challenged.

"The boy is no threat to us right now. There have already been enough human deaths caused by members of this pack. The last thing we need is another." I half growled. "That is the end of this discussion. Period. If you have anything more to say you can take it up with Gabriel. Although I doubt he will play nice with you after he hears of this. Anymore questions?" I pause for a few seconds. "Great, then we're done here." I held my head up as I walked out of the room and into the kitchen.

After I heard the front door finally shut, I re-entered the living room and collapsed into a chair. The five, my mother, Tomas, and Uncle Rudy still occupied the room. There was an awkward silence as they all looked at me.

"What?" I said nervously.

"Nothing, nothing." Esme said quickly. "We're just…impressed." She smiled.

"Impressed?" I half laughed.

"Yes, impressed. You handled that situation very well. Like a leader." Uncle Rudy gave me a pat on the back. "Gabriel will be proud."

"Thank you." I didn't know what else to say. I was shocked. "And thank you Will, for having my back."

"Always have and always will Vivie." He smiled.

The next two days went by in a rush, making sure everybody was on track, and getting all my things packed and ready to go.

"Well, that's the last of my boxes." I said starring at my boxes piled up in the living room.

"Are you ready to go?" Esme asked, she was sitting on the couch across from me.

"Yes, I'm ready to get out of here. Leave everything behind, and start over." I sighed.

"A new beginning." She said.

"Exactly. No more moving. I don't want any more problems."

"You and Gabriel are gonna make a great team. Two strong willed people, with no tolerance for bullshit, leading the pack. You're gonna do great things. Just like your father." She smiled.

"Thanks mom." The phone rang and I jumped out of my seat and ran for the phone. But it wasn't Gabriel like I expected. Just a telemarketer. I walked back into the living room and plopped onto the couch with a sigh.

"He'll call, he's probably just busy. I'm sure he wants to get back to you as fast as he can." Esme laughed.

"I'm going to go make something for dinner." I said walking to the kitchen. Something to distract my thoughts and kill some time.

"Making dinner for me? How'd you know I'd be back today?" I heard him laugh from the kitchen doorway.

"Gabriel!" I practically screamed, running over to him. "You're back early." I said as he wrapped his arms around me.

"I just couldn't stay away." He said, gently tugging my chin up to give me a kiss. "I missed you so much Vivie."

"I missed you too," I smiled, "way more than I'll ever admit." He picked me up and sat me on the counter, and finished making the grilled cheese sandwiches I had started.

"Any problems while I was gone?" he asked passing me a plate, and we started eating.

"Not really…" I hesitated, "but, there was an incident with Lucien." I looked up at him nervously.

"I already talked to him babe, everything's taken care of." He smiled.

"Who told you?" I asked shocked. I made a point of not telling him on the phone.

"Rudy called and told me right after the meeting had happened. Why didn't you tell me when I called that night?" I couldn't tell if he was upset or not and it was making me nervous.

"I didn't want to worry you. You were 8 hours away and trying to make sure that everything would be ready to go in Vermont. Are you upset?" I looked at the floor.

"I wish I would've heard it from you first Vivian, but no I'm not upset. I understand you didn't want to worry me and I heard you handled the situation very well. I'm proud of you." He said gently, kissing me on the forehead.

"Something else I happened too…" I sighed, I might as well tell him "right after you left Aiden showed up." I could see a fire start to light in his eyes. "Nothing happened. Nobody else saw him, it was just me. He came by to make sure I was alive, and then I told him to get lost otherwise I'd have to kill him." It all came out in one bug rush, and I was holding my breath waiting for his reply.

"Is that all?" he asked, his eyes searching for something else.

"No, I promise. I'm not going to lie to you Gabriel. Actually I don't think I could even if I tried." I gave a little laugh.

"And I will never lie to you Vivie." He gave me quick kiss and then slid me off the counter top. We cleaned up our dinner mess and then started carrying my boxes out to the car.

"When are leaving?" I asked.

"After we're done packing up your boxes. Bucky is picking up Willem, Gregory and Finn, and meeting us over here."

"You just back though, don't you need to sleep Gabe?" I was shocked that we were leaving so soon.

"Ulf slept the whole way here, and it's only nine hours. We'll trade off at the halfway point." He said lifting me up into the cab of the truck, I scooted over to the middle and Gabriel hopped in, just as Bucky was pulling up. After 3 hours in the car I was starting to drift off, Gabriel fell asleep an hour ago.

"Vivian, Vivian" I felt somebody shaking me.

"What" I groaned.

"Get up babe, we're here" Gabriel laughed, "not much of a morning person are you?" I gave me a nasty look, and stumbled out of the truck. "Whoa there, careful" he said reaching for me.

"I am fine" I snapped. I took a few wobbly steps and bumped into the truck, my eyes half open. I heard Gabriel laugh and then felt him swoop me up.

"I can walk" I mumbles, "put me down." The next thing I remember is waking up to light shining through a window, wrapped up in Gabriel's arms.

"Gabe, where are we?" I yawned, stretching to look up at him. He was still asleep. I stretched up and gave him a kiss. "Good morning" I smiled.

"I could get used to waking up like this" Gabriel smiled kissing me again.

"Where are we?" I said looking around. It was a pretty plain room. A big dresser sat against the wall across the room in front of the bed with a T.V. sitting on top, two matching nightstands on both sides of the bed, and the right side of the bed there was a huge window with a window seat facing the forest.

"Welcome home my queen."

"Home?" I asked, sitting up.

"Yes, our home." Gabriel said, getting out of bed.

"Our home. This is our house?" I said jumping out of bed. I have a house. A home. With Gabriel. I followed Gabriel into the bathroom. It was big and spacious. Black tile floor, a big bathtub in the corner with a shower right next to it and a big counter top with two sinks.

"Show me, show me, show me" I said hanging off of Gabriel's arm like a little girl.

"Slow down, can we at least put some real clothes on?" he laughed. We both changed into non-slept in clothes and Gabriel showed me the rest of the house. There were 2 other bedrooms in the house, one only held a dresser and a nightstand, the other was same but with a queen sized bed. The kitchen was fairly big. Equipped with an oven/stove, dishwasher, and refrigerator, and granite counter tops. The living room held one leather loveseat, one other individual leather seat, a wooden coffee table, and two matching wooden end tables.

"Gabriel it's amazing." I said hugging him.

"There are other cabins for the rest of the pack just across the street, and 4 more located by the inn for customers." I was shocked, I thought we would've started out small and moved up from there but this sounds like the real deal.

"How could we afford this?" I asked as we left our cabin, walking towards the actual Inn.

"Turns out your father had a lot of money saved up, incase anything happened. Your mother never told anyone about it when we moved to Maryland. She told me when I started searching places that Ivan had told her if anything was to happen that she keep the money a secret and only use it when she felt it was right."

"We have this…" I paused as we stepped into full view of the Inn. It was breathtaking. I was built from logs, looked as if it was supposed to be a part of the forest.

"It's five floors," Gabriel said unlocking the front doors, "the main floor is the lobby, dining area, ballroom, childcare room, kitchen, and 3 offices. The rest of the floors each hold 6 rooms."

"We could afford all of this?" I half chocked on my words.

"Paid in full." Gabriel smiled. "Everything is taken care of and the grand opening is in 3 weeks." Gabriel showed me around the rest of the Inn. It was stunning. All the rooms were big and spacious, with great window views of the forest. He told me that we would most likely host a lot of weddings, business gatherings, honeymooners, and of course the regular vacationist. We had lots of trails to hike, and a sledding hill for the winter. We even had an indoor spa and pool area. After the nice little tour Gabe had given me we walked back to our cabin, which wasn't far, but was also concealed by the forest. I stopped short just soaking it all in.

"It's ours." I breathed, barely a whisper but I knew Gabriel had heard me. He walked back to me and wrapped his arms around me, kissing me on the forehead. I never realized how gentle he could be. I've never knew there was a soft side to him.

"It's home." He said, I couldn't see it, but somehow I knew he was smiling.

"You're different." I said pulling back to look at him. "You're not what I thought."

"What do you mean?" He asked, a worried look appearing in his eyes.

"You're gentle, and sweet, and just not what I expected. I guess I've only seen the other side of you. The side the pack sees, all strict and tough and leader. Always taking control, always so serious."

"Is this side of me bad?" he asked hesitantly, I was making him nervous.

"No, no." I laughed. "It's good, it's very good. This is just nothing I have ever thought about. I'm only seventeen. Falling in love, leading a pack, having a house. Not just any house, a house with my mate. It's just so new." I sighed leaning my forehead against his chest.

"We're starting over. Together. You've been through so much Vivian. I watched you from a distance, struggling to find yourself, knowing you were the one I wanted. I had to prove to you that I was strong. Better than the rest. I had to be rude and forceful. But, now that I have you, now that you have chosen me, everything is different. You deserve to be spoiled and treated like a queen Vivian. I want nothing bad to come to you, and I promise you I will protect you. I will let nothing hurt you. I will let nothing come between us." He said looking at me, searching for something in my eyes. I felt a tear run down my cheek and smiled, embarrassed.

"I love you Gabriel. I believe you."

"I love you too Vivian." He kissed me deeply, "Now as much as I just want to spend the day lying around with you, doing whatever I want with you. There is work that needs to be done." He sighed as we entered our cabin. The 5 were there in the kitchen, making themselves lunch.

"Now you guys are going to get to work. The kitchen in the Inn needs to be cleaned. Top to bottom. The dining hall needs to be cleaned up a bit as well, and re-painted. Vivian I was hoping you could do that for us, there's a whole wall for you to do what you wish." Gabriel smiled. We divided up supplies and got to work. Ulf and Willem were working on cleaning the kitchen. Gregory and Finn were helping in the dining hall. And I was standing in front of a blank white wall, with cans of paint sitting on the table next to me ready to be opened.

"What used to be on this wall anyways?" I asked Gabriel as he walked by.

"The relator never said." he stood next to me and stared at it too.

"Hmm, well looks like a great spot for a mural." I smiled, an idea forming in my head. As the day went on I painted, and painted, and painted, and painted. Only stopping once for a small quick dinner. It had grown dark outside and the Inn was eerily quiet. I had no idea where the guys had went. I walking into the kitchen, threw away some of my paint supplies, and washed out my paintbrushes.

"Done for the day?" Gabe asked, I could feel him standing behind me.

"Yes," I turned around to face him. He had a devilish look in his eyes, "What?" I asked as he followed me out of the kitchen and into the lobby.

"Nothing, just waiting for you." He smiled and picked me up, carrying me over his shoulder.

"GABRIEL!" I screeched "Put me down, I am capable of walking." I pounded my fist on his back. He laughed and set me down, opening the door to our cabin. After taking a long hot shower and changing into one of Gabe's shirts I curled up into bed next to him. For once I felt at home, I felt safe, and I drifted off into sleep listening to the sound of his steady heartbeat.

I know that's not a very interesting ending but I wanted to get the next chapter out there for you guys, I got bombarded with TONS of homework, thank you professors, but didn't want to leave you guys hangin for too long. The next chapter should be up by the end of this weekend so keep reading and don't forget to review! I want to know what you guys are thinking – Thanks for reading

-Hailey