A/N- I was going to push for a few more chapters of progressive storyline, but I think it would probably be best to wrap it up like this. Sorry there wasn't much notice. This has been an awsome fun to work with, but unfortunately, the White Wolf series ends here. Abbey and Rom will probably make a ship return among the few other stories I have going/will do. Thank you guys so much for this.

Chapter 25

Four months later

It was four AM and it was pouring. The moon was peeking out between the combating clouds, and while they swirled and made their mess, we ran. We were soaked to the skin, dashing for cover between trees and completely without need of the river. It was freezing. The autumn breeze blew dying leaves in my face as they whipped off the trees, and the occasional clash of clouds created a low, tender rumble above us. It was beautiful.

I ran up to the soggy banks and watched the water slammed with harsh raindrops, splashing and rippling like a moving painting. With the occasional wind gust, the river would churn around its rocks like rapids. I waited only a moment until my pack came back into earshot to take off again.

School was insane in the best possible way, and although my parents had a difficult time understanding how this entire situation with my gifts had developed, I had joined the ranks of students taking one full moon day off a month.

I broke across the sopping wet field of high grass and ran around the manor house. I leapt onto the step against the door and rang the bell. The thought of having woken the people inside only flicked across my mind, gone as quickly as it had come since the whisper sound of the lock releasing drove it away. Bram, pajama clad and leaning on the door of the toasty house, looked at me with openly raised eyes. "No. You're soaking wet, Abbey. We just finished cleaning."

"Let her in," I heard Gory call, "Just get her a towel."

"She's not even wearing shoes!" he called over his shoulder. I wasn't wearing my crystal either. Something had balanced in my metabolism, coupled with the slowly descending temperatures of the end of the year. Halloween was any day now, and it was the farthest cry from the previous year as possible.

"If I have to get up again," she called over to him. He relented with a sigh and moved aside to let me in. I knew I'd take my time catching up to them later.

Gory and Bram's house, after the renovation, was still spectacular. The walls were freshly painted, some trim redone, furnature moved and the like. It wasn't a complete upheaval, just a change. Just like the sight of my now-friend wrapped in a blanket on her sofa with The Devil's Carnival on her screen. She was curled up tightly even despite the warmth. Before my feet touched the hardwood, though, her husband had returned and tossed a towel at me. I laughed and dried off like a human before heading over to take up the floor near them. "Is it scary?"

"No, I'm just freezing. The temperature plunged twenty degrees in an hour. I don't know how you stand it."

I was going to point out that she was anemic, but her other half curled up to her in much the same way. It must've just been a vampire thing. I glanced up at her expectantly, and wrapped in her husband's arms with her eyes completely fixated on the screen, she felt my gaze and broke into a smile. "Yes, they fixed it. Yes, I'm now permitted to go about my life as normal. And you can tell Romulus to stop counting the days, it's none of his business."

"So yes?" I teased.

She actually looked away from the TV to address me, "No. Try again after Christmas. We tend to spend the cold in bed together."

Bram rolled his eyes as if knowledge of their romantic life wasn't supposed to be known by the general populace, but I smiled. "So do we."

"Oh god," he said. "A mental image I could've died happily without."

"Oh hush, it's romantic," she replied.

We all heard the garage door open and Bram sighed sharply. Valentine regularly did us the favor of housing us when it poured on runs, as the fall made it prone to doing. I guessed it might've still been a work in progress for them to live together, but from what I understood, they were close enough as family. Valentine had sired Gory and his mother, and even though she ran with Bram and carried a completely different name, they must've at the very least seen each other as family. That was the only reasoning I could see behind the two of them letting him move in, even when he took possessive interest of us sometimes.

Rom wandered in eventually, drying off on a car towel and looking at the three of us. "So you just left me to go get soaked, huh?"

I shrugged. "I was getting cold."

He shook his head and sunk to the floor beside me. The heat radiating from his body was nice. I sunk more than happily into his side.

"We're having another Halloween party," Gory said lightly. "If you two come, I promise no one will poison you."

Romulus looked at me as if my word were law. I leaned into his side and smiled, "We would love to."

Instead of listening to the most macabre of musicals, I sunk into Romulus's side and reveled in his claws sweeping softly through my soaking hair. His touch, so tender and warm, made my skin sing. He pressed a tiny, tender kiss to my forehead and allowed me to close my eyes lazily. Sunny, however, had other plans. Now aware of our presence, the too-large puppy leapt onto both of us and immediately showered us in fresh saliva. I laughed and pushed him back, scratching tenderly behind his ear until his foot began to thump.

"He's just like you," I teased. Romulus rolled his eyes and nose-bumped the pup, getting the large kiss he was owed before we were abandoned in favor of his owners.

The rain didn't take long to subside, and when it had I looked up to our friends. It was hard to believe that months ago, just the thought of a vampire being kind to one of ours made the both of us suspicious. "You might want to run back home," she said softly, so not to disturb her dozing other half, "Just leave the towels in the garage. We'll get them in the morning."

"Need anything?" Romulus asked as he rose. He offered his hand, which I denied in favor of pushing myself up on my own.

Gory smiled and slowly shook her head. Her fingers slipped into his hair and guided Bram's head comfortably onto her shoulder. "Go, have fun. We'll see you at school Monday."

Romulus's fingers slipped through mine. I released my nostalgia in a breath and smiled to them. We did as told and left through their garage, our soaking wet friends in tow.

"I could make love to that car," Luken said in passing as he wandered ahead of us.

"I'm sure Valentine would be really happy to hear you say that," Romulus replied jokingly.

The clouds had parted, leaving the silver moonlight to beam down on us. My arm slipped through his and gave a tender squeeze. The pavement glittered with lingering wetness and made everything shine like snow. We split off eventually as we wandered back into town. Each step we took we tried to make slower. We tried not to reach home before the moon had fallen, but it hadn't budged when we reached the end of our block. His entire family seemed still awake while my house was entirely dark. I couldn't help but smile.

"You're staying, right?" he murmured, brushing my hair back and catching my cheek. He drew my attention back and I kissed him gently. "We are. Only so much we can do back in yeti homeland, and sometimes I think Papa just as opposed to going home as me."

He grinned and stole another kiss, "I'm glad."

We weren't promised more than the rest of the year before he graduated, but I knew he would stay. There was a promise of a future in Salem that I didn't have back home. My father wanted me to go to college, to have the opportunities my mother had taken. I didn't know what I wanted yet, but I had the nagging suspicion that it would be spent with the pack.

"Heath and I are going out tomorrow afternoon," I murmured to him. "He wants to see movie Jin does not want to see, and I'm the back up date."

He laughed, but laced his fingers through my own. He stepped off the curb and led me out into the silent streets. "He does know we're exclusive, right?"

I nodded. Each step we took with deliberate slowness. He to his world of late-night fun, and I to my world of attempting to sleep late into the night. I clasped my hands through his even tighter and tugged him close, "If you can promise to be quiet, you can come home with me."

"Aren't you worried about protecting your ladylike image?" he teased.

I motioned him close until he took up my line of vision. My claws caressed his jaw gently. "Do I look like a vampire to you?"

He broke into a wild grin, his eyes glinting like a man possessed. I let my hand drop, meeting his vibrant emerald eyes for only a moment. My bare feet lurched free from the ground as I turned and sprinted toward the house. He laughed and gave chase instantly. I leapt up on the railings, grabbing the gutter and hauling myself onto the perch of roof before launching myself into my room. I clamored over the edge of the window and tumbled onto the floor, laughing wildly as I grabbed the bed. He slid through with more practiced grace and tugged the window shut behind us. My pulse was thumping with absolute glee.

We stood in the darkness with our chests heaving for a moment. The moon hardly pierced the darkness of my bedroom, but he knew the way to me regardless. His hand rested at my hip and he tugged me closer, gently nuzzling into my neck. I slid my arms around his neck. Our noses brushed in welcome contact, darkened eyes meeting darkened eyes. I slid my fingers into his beautiful curls and kissed his lips.

"I love you," he murmured against my lips.

I tugged him down onto my bed with me. The both of us crumpled in our semi-dry clothes, tangled in the sheets and each other's grip. I laughed into his neck and gave his skin a gentle nip. Something cool was slipped onto my finger and I dropped my gaze to meet the sparkling gems.

"I know it won't be the first or the last time you of all people wears white, but...I told you I was gonna do it before graduation, didn't I?"

My breath caught. It wasn't an ordinary ring, I knew that right away. It spread a measure of coolness over my skin to the point where I had to release myself from his grip to stare at it under the slight moonlight.
It was made of the same crystals as my crystal. The crystals only found in our homeland.

I glanced to him with a lump in my throat. He smiled, taking my hand gently between his, "Your dad helped."

"He knows?" I whispered.

He nodded. I swallowed the thickness of emotion and linked my fingers very gently through his, "Then there is only one thing to do." He waited for a moment before realizing he hadn't even asked. He scrambled off the bed and dropped to his knee before me, "Abbey Bominable, you put up with me this long. Would you do me the honor of putting up with me for a very long time to come?"

I admired the delicate little ring on my finger and met his eyes. He waited expectantly, fearing even though he knew what my answer would be. I shrugged, "Eh, I could do worse."

"Thanks," he said sarcastically, "Because there's really any better around here?"

I laughed and tugged him up to me by the collar of his shirt, "Not really, no. Is why I am choosing you."

He rolled his eyes in silent understanding and kissed me grudgingly. We could tease each others' egos as much as we like, but he knew at the end of the day I didn't choose him because he was the best in Salem. I chose him because I loved him. Wolf or yeti, huge family or tiny one, his pack of mine, I loved Romulus Moon and I trusted him enough to bring me happiness. At the very least, I trusted him enough to keep me out of any more little wars.

Instead of dashing off to wake up my parents, I shifted to make sure that Shiver was fast asleep before releasing him. "Shut the curtain," I whispered.

He grinned, "You're gonna make every night my wedding night, aren't you?"

I pretended to be exasperated. "I wanted to sleep in, but no. Boy always think with brain that is not in his head."

He pulled shut the curtain and I watched his eyes take on their nightshine glow. "Abbey, you're a really crappy liar. Let's get that out of the way before we worry about other wedding revelations."

I flashed him a pearly smile; of course I knew. I hadn't tried. He met my eyes and crossed the room in silence. His warm skin touched mine. If it was possible, I fell a little more in love with him.

It was a very silly thing in my old village to be so sentimental. Now I understood why they tried to be so tough. Words were not enough to express real love; there was no language with a great enough vocabulary to describe how I felt about Romulus Moon. Except maybe werewolf. I could howl quite a bit in werewolf.

The End