Disclaimer: I do not own The Mediator series by Meg Cabot or the novel Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause. I'm just temporarily commandeering their characters.

AN: Hello again, with the third chapter completed earlier than usual. I apologize for being such a slow writer but I have such a hard time with Suze's voice, which is probably why this chapter was easier seeing as it's from Vivian's point of view. Thanks to everyone who reads and/or reviews this story. Please enjoy.

Wood and metal screamed for mercy, as Vivian slammed the door, not bothering to hold back her supernatural strength. It was bad enough that they had to flee this far westward. The residing pack had offered their assistance, so why were both packs snipping and snarling at each other's throats?

Oh yeah, Vivian sighed, her hands ruffling her hair, pissing contests, how could I forget?

The old Victorian manor housed everyone, so as to not separate the pack like last time. The better to keep everyone from being targets of divide and conquer. For the first time in weeks, however, their temporary den was empty and devoid of life. Everyone else was either at work or at school. She had needed some time alone.

If she could have seen herself a year ago, she wouldn't know whether to be sympathetic or disgusted with herself now. Who would have thought she would be Queen Bitch before getting her driver's license? They had ran this far but how much more running could they do?

Her ancestors fled around New England to throw off attention; it was Gabriel's idea to throw off anyone else even more by coming here. What her mate didn't know that she knew was the fact that he had them run to the west to avoid attracting attention on the neighboring packs after last year's fiasco.

No pack worth their hide wanted them near by. They were marked, poisoned, cursed, damned, unwanted, almost abandoned by their own kind. Aunt Persia suspected hunters but they didn't exist, did they? No, back before the fire two years ago, before their first move, those humans had only suspected that they weren't human but they did know they were loups-garoux. Could they?

Warmth whispered into Vivian's ear and her instincts took over. The aforementioned instincts would have been a lot more useful had she not landed on her back.

"You should be at work." She murmured testily to her "attacker".

Gabriel grinned down at her. "And you should be at school."

"Last period was for the Catholics. Nothing about the Moon or the Forest God. Guess it was the wrong religion class for me."

He nuzzled her cheek. " I find it hard to believe that's the only reason."

"Get off me." Vivian bristled.

"As you wish." He murmured as he rolled off her to her side. They remained like that in silence with only the sound of breaths and heartbeats filling the air. Gabriel broke the stillness. "Did something happen at school?"

She twisted her head to him. "Why do you ask?"

"It's not another…?"

His mate sprang to her feet with a snarl. "Is that what you think is wrong? That I would side with them while we're being hunted by them?"

He pulled her back down into his arms. "I never said nor assumed that. Despite what has happened, humans do have their good points."

Vivian just stared at him.

"Don't give me that look, Viv. After what had happened with Aiden, you've only let yourself see the worst side of humans."

"Considering they're hunting us, do you blame me?"

"Hunters are after us. Humans are not."

"The hunters are humans."

"But not all humans are hunters."

"Why are you defending them?"

"You're letting your prejudices cloud your judgement." Gabriel laid the barest of kisses on her forehead. "You're still healing the hurt."

She curled up closer, burying her head in his chest. Warmth and wood smoke filled her nose from his latest job. "I don't want to be tempted again."

"There is nothing wrong with befriending humans. They look like us in one of our forms. They are around and outnumber us. But they act like us sometimes…sometimes it's like they understand us.

"When you think about it, humans and wolf-kind aren't so different. A majority of us run in packs; rarely do either run solitary unless we can't help it. Perhaps it is that need, to be with someone else, is why neither side can distinguish the line that divides us, sometimes."

"I remember," she began pulling herself up slightly, supported by her elbows, "that during the year in Maryland, I craved for other friends not just age-mates. It wasn't just Aiden who drew me in, it was his friends. They had called themselves the Amoeba, their pack. I felt like I belonged in their pack. They laughed with me and defended me against this little bitch. I felt that with time…maybe I could actually be one of them."

Gabriel ran hand through her hair. "That's all part of the spell that completes the illusion that we're the same. But illusion or not, there's nothing wrong with being friends with humans. You can't just avoid them forever because of the actions of one."

She shook her head. "But after Aiden, they all turned on me."

"And wouldn't our kind have done the same had the positions been reversed?"

Why was he pushing her back towards them? It wasn't as if she couldn't function in every day society. In fact, for this school year, she thought she had been doing a pretty good job of intermingling with humans without getting too close. She was civil, polite, and discreet. She never gave more in than she had to. She hadn't even made any enemies, well except for a few females who couldn't help but dislike her attractiveness to their males. They didn't have much to worry about in that area; she would never fall for another human again, not if she could help it. Besides, she had a loving mate right now, so why would she even bother with meat-boys?

She was glad that because her mate was distracted enough by her dislike for humans that he didn't suspect what was really bothering her. Most teenagers, even wolf-kind ones, worried about acne, parent problems, and school. And here she was, ruling a pack, trying to calm down the fearful protests, and protect her people. Unfortunately some of her people weren't quite so receptive to her help. If the age to fight for the position of queen was sixteen, then why were they snarling so much?

But maybe it was because some of them still didn't trust her after some of the things that she did last summer. Maybe they were right, maybe she didn't have the experience to be the queen but she did have their best interests at heart. Ideally, they, all of the pack down to the last pup, were supposed to go back to running a country inn, still connected to the human world but apart from it. That would have been the case had there not been another fire in what would have been their new home in Vermont. Persia Devereux had foretold of a bad omen when the blood red full moon had arisen before the fire…but that was only superstition wasn't it? Sure a good number of human lore on their kind had a ring of truth to them but perhaps this time it was rather their fear more than an actual message from the Moon that had led them to this fear.

Vivian, had no idea how wrong she was until the door swept open with her mother Esme and William shouldering Finn, William's twin brother, inside. Sweet Moon, she thought as she pulled herself away from Gabriel to go get the first-aid kit.

"What happened?" she heard her mate's cool and calm voice from the living room.

"Finn and I were leaving school, but I had forgotten something in my locker. After I went back to get it, Finn was like…" William was sputtering, close to tears.

Willi…Vivian's heart went out to the gentler of the twins. In fact the gentlest of her age-mates, her best friends.

"What are we going to do? They've found us." Esme's voice cracked between terror and anger.

"Let's not jump to conclusions. Carmel might be a small town but it does have its gangs."

"No stinking little meat-boys did this to me," Finn growled as Vivian returned back with the kit and started swabbing antiseptic on to the wound on his neck.

Although he was bleeding heavily, once most of the blood had been cleaned off, his injuries didn't appear as fatal. At least for wolf-kind. His left eye was black and bloodied. What was left of his shirt had to be cut off with Gabe's switchblade in order to prevent their kind's quick healing from absorbing the fabric into the wounds. Vivian hadn't seen Finn this injured since the original Five had been sentenced to the Trial by Fang. The pair of tweezers she had been using to dig out the couple of bullets from his leg had just pulled out a silver bullet.

Esme's breath caught. Vivian felt faint. Gabe's look of reassurance turned to shock. William gulped what could have sounded like his last breath.

"Well that explains why it had hurt so much." Finn grinned but the playful mood was disturbed when he winced from Vivian pulling out another silver bullet.

"Where's Persia?" Esme demanded.

"Right here." The elder appeared in the doorway as if by magic. "You were lucky, boy, that they didn't hit anything vital." She said as she examined his wounds. "You'll live."

"Why can't they just leave us alone?" William fumed.

"I told you the hunters were coming. Our pack has been too foolish." Persia voiced her opinion calmly as she applied salve to the younger wolf's skin. "They're trying to smoke us out. They don't know for sure or else we wouldn't be having this conversation right now…I need some more hot water."

Vivian complied as she wrestled her worry down. Will had a point; why couldn't these humans just leave them alone? Her pack had righted the wrongs of both Axel and Astrid. And how did thee humans keep on their trail? Each time it was under a year before they would lose a home. Or future home. She mentally commented grimly, wringing out the water from a fresh clean cloth. They had been discreet in finding the property in Vermont just as they had to their tentative, new, home in California. But for now, they needed to lie low in this small town to catch their bearings. Could it have been someone within their insurance company? That would certainly explain why these disasters seem to be following them. But why wait?

Think Vivian, you are a hunter but now you're also the prey. To snuff out the rest of them, just as Aunt Persia had said. Or was it to pick them off one by one as Gabriel had foreseen the possibility.

She threw the last rag in frustration. All she had right now was questions. No answers say for some half-hearted theories. Why were these things happening now? Out in the living room, she heard Gabriel continue to discuss the frightening matter calmly with Persia.

How was her mate so nonchalant? Why wasn't he worried? Well he is eight years older than you. That's almost a decade. You're still a baby compared to him. Now that she thought about it, she didn't know that much about Gabe's hidden past, the past that not even his own family knew about.

What she did know was that he wasn't as worried as her…or was he? "So this is where you've been hiding?"

Vivian dropped her instinctual guard when she saw her mother. She gave a small smile, "I wasn't hiding Mom."

"That doesn't mean you aren't scared."

"Am I that obvious?"

Esme didn't answer while she hugged her daughter. Vivian felt as safe as she did as a pup. But the reality was that mentally she stopped being a child after her father's death and by pack law when she became queen. "It gets easier Vivie. You're more like your father every day. I know you'll, you and Gabriel, will find a way and make the right choice for all of us."

"Mom, I'm still in high school. How can I?"

"You proved your worth by saving me and your willingness by willing to sacrifice yourself. I have faith in you. You're my kid after all…mine and Ian's. You were born to do this."

Somehow, despite all of her mother's encouragement, Vivian was not so reassured.