AN: Thank y'all for the reviews! (I don't really say y'all, but I should, considering). So, I've been inspired by my beta reader, and a certain other author who also has a fantastic Gabriel and Vivian fanfic, to really put forth lots of effort on this chapter. So I hope y'all like it, and thanks for being patient. (Alright, I'm done saying y'all. Promise).

Chapter 7:

"Vivian?! Come on baby, wake up." He rubbed circles into her back with his knuckles, but she wouldn't wake. At the same time, Aunt Persia walked in, as if she knew this was going to happen. She took note of the sky painted ceiling, and gorgeous mural that adorned the back walls of the giant bedroom, and nodded once to herself in approval, before going back to focusing.

"Set her on the bed, and close the windows. But don't turn on the fan. Alright, good. I'm going to need my bag, I left it outside my door, and you're going to need to stay out of here." He did exactly as he was told, fervently wondering if the possibility of their having a child would really be this bad for Vivian. Maybe they really weren't ready for it yet. No, it's not my choice, he reminded himself.

The old woman started pouring out different liquids from little vials into the earthenware bowl, and heavy scents filled the room. Alright now, girlie. Its time for you to make your choice. What's it going to be? Exotic scents like myrrh and cinnamon floated around Vivian as she struggled in her sleep. Then Aunt Persia sat back in the sofa chair by the bed, looked up at the very realistic sky mural on the ceiling, and settled in for a long wait.

Gabriel was pacing in front of the door, and was a little startled by the scents coming out of the room through the barely opened door. If he could smell this, it would only be a moment before the pack could smell it. So, he shut the door and went downstairs, acting as if nothing was the matter. I've grown soft, he thought, closing the door gently. He was startled when his cell phone rang, and cursed as he flipped it open. "Hello?"

"Hey, you. How's my baby doing?" He wished Esmé could stop talking in that particular tone of voice. It made him feel strange, and not in a good way. He was glad he had never done anything too serious with Esmé, thanks to the age difference, and because he had just never felt right about her for some reason. How wrong he had been, thinking Esmé was going to fill that void left behind when his first home had burned to the ground. Vivian was the only person who could care enough to do that. No one else in the world could take her place.

"She's… doing alright… Why are you calling?"

"Temper, temper. I just wanted to call and let you know you're invited to my wedding. And that we won't be back at the inn for another week or so. You know, we have to have all the fun we can before we settle down, right?" Actually, he didn't know. The most fun he'd ever had was with his bunny, erm, Vivian.

"Right… but what do you mean you're getting married? You know we don't…"

"Yeah, I know. But I didn't do it the first time, so why not? Alright… tell Vivie the good news, won't you? And tell your darling sisters I said hello. Kiss, kiss!" She hung up the phone, and Gabriel exhaled heavily through his nose. At least with her mom out of the picture, Vivian would have one less thing to worry about, and Gabriel would be rid of the strange feelings he had around Esmé for good.

And as for his sisters, the triplets, he hadn't heard too much from them recently. They decided to go off to boarding school for a while, but came back every holiday. He smiled as he remembered Vivian's concern when they started dating. What if they don't like me? It was so unlike her to be worried about what others thought, because she had always been so headstrong. But luckily, they loved her almost as much as he did.

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Gabriel was about to go back into Vivian's room, when he remembered he was not allowed in there for probably the rest of the day. He exhaled again, and hoped everything would turn out right.

"Hey, Gabriel! Where's Vivie? She still upstairs?" Gabriel looked at Willem, with his childish face, and big eyes, and remembered he wasn't going to make anyone worry, least of all Vivian's best friend.

"She's still got a major hangover. And I mean major. It's a good thing Aunt Persia's here, huh?"

"Yeah! You know this one time, I had a hangover, and she made some-"

"Hold all calls for us today, will you? I'm going back out to get some more stuff."

"Yeah, no problem." Willem watched Gabriel put his brown leather jacket on and leave the inn. He was jealous of Gabriel once, jealous that he could go so easily from Esmé to Vivian, but now he knew Gabriel never loved Esmé. And Vivian was in good hands. He went back to the computer and typed some more numbers in, writing himself a sticky-note to hold all calls and sticking it to the phone receiver.

What do I do? Gabriel thought as he revved the bike to life. So far, all his plan consisted of was getting out of the inn. He looked at the blue gray Vermont sky and wondered how long it would be until the end of the summer. I need to go find whatever is in the forest. He revved his bike again, and set off towards the edge of the Green Mountain National Forest, which was basically his backyard. What luck.

He parked the bike a little ways inside the forest, the roar of the bike mixing with the crunch of random fallen leaves, and left it inside the forest just enough that no one could see it, but also that it was nearby enough if he needed it. Then he peeled his shirt and pants off, threw them onto the grass, and changed into a loup-garou, ready for the hunt that was to come.

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Nathan picked up a pinecone from an earthenware bowl full of the little prickly things, set on top of the dresser. The hard shell was covered in individual bits, which dug into his hand as he crushed the pinecone and strew the crumbs over the entire dresser. As he picked the bits out that had buried into his palm, he sighed and wondered why he did that in the first place. It wasn't uncommon for him to be doing some kind of bodily harm to himself, but it worried him that he'd been doing it more often now that he was here. He hated it here.

The room was painted beige, and the bed was big and comfortable. The bed frame was made of carved pine wood, and dyed light beige to coordinate with the walls. The window curtains were thick muslin, and white, and the sheets were cotton. There were very few decorations in the room, to add to its minimalist theme. Just the basket of pinecones and a couple of simple pictures of the reserve hung on the wall with no frames.

Everything in this room was so well picked, so perfect. He hated it. He hated the feeling of comfort and belonging bouncing off the walls in this room, and this inn. Everything about the room drew him in, made him feel at home, made him want to stay and forget about everything else, about all of his problems. He'd thought about it more lately, since he'd arrived. But he couldn't. He wouldn't. More important things had to be done.

Nathan walked back down to the lobby, and then to the living room area, to escape the allure of the room. The entire inn was decorated with a good mix of beauty and function. The tables were carved to also look like they could have been in an exhibit, but still retain a sort of quaint appeal. As were the cabinets, chairs, and shelves. He walked over to one of these shelves in the giant living room area, and touched the carefully chosen items on display.

Books such as War and Peace, and Robinson Crusoe, were leather bound with gold leaf on the titles, and aligned in neat rows like a sort of tiny library guests could look through. But above the seven or eight shelves reserved for library use, picture frames carefully cluttered the cubby. He picked up a simple gold frame, and sneered. What makes them think they are allowed to be so happy? He thought, looking at Gabriel's grin as he put his head on her left shoulder and wrapped his arms around her frame. Vivian had her hands on his arms, and her head leaned over slightly to the right, obviously enjoying all of the attention.

She was wearing a white dress in the picture, but this couldn't have been their wedding. Nathan just about dropped the frame onto the floor when he realized there was a graduation cap being tossed in the air behind them, instead, he pinged himself hard with a rubber band that had someone gotten attached onto his wrist. He wasn't masochist or anything; he just did it more and more often lately. He gagged when he glanced at the rest of the pictures, and had to walk outside for some fresh air.

When the breeze finally caught him, he was glad it did. Traitors, He thought. They shouldn't be allowed to live in this kind of peace. No one deserves peace. Not even me. He pinged himself and kept walking forwards.

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Meanwhile, in the forest, a dark shadow lingered behind the trees. It would slink this way and that, carefully making its way towards the best areas of the forest, where no sunlight crept in. It possessed a scary gracefulness in the dark. All the while, the dark creature kept watch on a certain loup-garou that was working intently to track something or possibly someone. The shadow was fluid in its movement, stopping every few feet to let its bright yellow eyes examine its target with a sort of curious aspect.

The loup-garou was careful. But not careful enough. It was focused on tracking something down, and didn't move in a set pattern, in case something was tracking him, but the creature slinked onwards towards him in amusement. It hadn't gotten a good hunt in a long time. It licked its lips and quickened the pace, before Nathan showed up. If anyone had been looking deep into the forest, they might have seen what looked like a blur of a huge black wolf, and a much, much larger shadow following it. But then the person would have seen the wolf creature moving along just fine, and the shadow falling into twitches and convulsions when the sunlight hit it, but it kept walking.

Nathan had just gotten to the edge of the forest, when he noticed Gabriel's motorcycle. If he hadn't flinched from pinging himself too hard with the rubber band, he might not have seen the small glare coming off of the bike's engine. It was very well hidden. But the sight of the bike made the adrenaline start pumping, and he took off his shirt and got ready for the hunt. But then another fateful breeze blew in his general direction. And he could smell it. It was on the hunt too. "Shit!" He ran into the forest, hoping to track both of them down before anything else could go terribly wrong.

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Aunt Persia got up and took another wet cloth to Vivian's forehead. Vivian flinched a little bit, at the icy cloth, but kept sleeping. The heady scents of cinnamon and ginger were now quickly becoming stifling. But Aunt Persia had been through this many times before. And she felt honored to help her queen on such a quest. She went back to her seat, and wiped the drops of sweat that were forming on her forehead. Vivian would be making her decision soon.

Gabriel ran as fast as he could. He had caught the scent, and it was very close. The leathery pads on his paws sank into the grass and mud. The wind was getting colder, and the end of the season would soon arrive.He had gotten soft, as a human, but fiercer as a loup-garou, from being with Vivian. He thought he was at his peak before he met her, but after years of being with her, his stamina, speed, agility, and strength were almost at their max now. And still Vivian managed to beat him. His jaw slackened a little as he thought about her. He needed to find whatever was out here, soon.

The creature shivered with the shocks of electric energy running through it. It had been a long time since it had been let out for a good hunt, and he was going to make this one worth its time.

Get back. NOW.

The creature snarled. Of course he wanted to come and spoil the fun.

I mean it. Get back, Adam. Get back, NOW.

The dark shadow shuddered and let out a war cry. If Nathan wanted to stop him, he'd have to catch him first. Gabriel heard the cry and jerked to a stop. It had been right behind him all along. He bared his razor sharp fangs and ran towards the creature.

"Ugh!" Vivian groaned and rolled over onto her left side. She was heavily asleep, but having the strangest dream ever. In her dream, Gabriel was being chased by a much larger form of his shadow, and a baby boy with dark hair was walking around next to him, surrounded by a pool of light. What is this?! She looked down, and noticed she was wearing her white nightgown still. This is only a dream. It's just a dream. That's all. She called out to Gabriel, but he kept walking around in circles, trying to catch his own shadow. "Gabriel! That's not possible, babe! Gabriel! Come here!" The little boy heard her cry out, and sat down. She noticed his eyes were golden and his hair a jet black. This baby boy looked very familiar. A cousin, maybe? She felt torn in half for some strange reason. Part of her wanted to go walk over to Gabriel, and show him there's nothing wrong with his shadow, and the other part of her wanted to cradle the child in her arms. She exhaled and took a step forwards.