𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐨𝐥𝐟. Derek Hale (on long hold)

𝟎𝟐𝟏; 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝

𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒐𝒍𝒇.
𝘹𝘹𝘹. 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥

Chris grabbed the cotton dabbing it against Victoria's werewolf bite wound. "It's not that deep, okay?" He applied more alcohol to the cotton, dabbing the blood up.

Gerard looked at the two from the stairs, the redhead placed her hand over her husband. "It's all right. I'll clean it myself."

"It's not that bad." Chris told Gerard. The older argent face was motionless, not any joy or sadness, as if just waiting for her death to arrive in a matter of hours. "We don't know. We can't know. Not for sure."

"It's a bite from an Alpha." Chris' eyes gilded downward in despair.

He looked up, his eyes crescent with a glow of sadness. "She's my wife. Allison's mother."

"And I'm the cold-hearted patriarch holding his family to its commitments." The girl's grandfather raised his eyebrows. "We all have our roles. Just don't expect me to play poisoned king to your Hamlet of a son." His words laced with disgust as each one came out taking a stab at Chris. "Not with a full moon coming."

"What about Allison? Athena?" He waited expecting an answer despite Gerard not pitching in. "How am I supposed to get them through this? We just buried Kate."

"Then tell me, how long is long enough? When exactly do you think Allison, and Athena will be emotionally prepared enough to handle the death of her mother?" His words spoke truth, a death like that would stun the girls into recklessness. "Who even knows if Athena's on our side? She needs to learn if she not gonna act like a argent than she not one.

The two turned to look at Victoria who was still cleaning the wound. "They can't lose her too."

"Ah, you're getting your tenses mixed up. Your wife is already dead, ( Gerard softly smiled ) and that thing over there is just a cocoon waiting to hatch."

—

Lydia walked into the bedroom, the twins spread out at the desk and bed.

Her books rested on her leggings, while her pens laid on the oversized hoodie she was wearing.

Lydia held the two Macy's bags up. "Clear your schedule. This could take a while."

By the planning, prepping, and shopping Athena could tell Lydia was looking forward to this.

This party would hopefully be a turnaround as strangers believed she had gone crazy when she went missing.

"God Lydia, how much clothes do you need?" Athena chuckled, Lydia walked over sprouting the bag on the bed. "Wow with how much room is in there you could probably fit a dead person."

Allison got up, looking at the bags Lydia had out. "How many outfits do you plan on wearing tonight?"

She pulled out a dress, lines ran in patterns across of black, grey, and white. "It's my birthday party. I'm thinking host dress, (she held up the pattern dress) evening dress, then, mm, after-hours casual." Lydia pointed her finger around waving it around.

Allison and Athena made eye contact, nervous looks on their faces. "You know Lydia you didn't send out invites... So how are they gonna know to go?

Lydia didn't even bother looking over at her, instead focusing on her dresses. "It's the biggest party of the year, Athena. Everyone knows."

"I was wondering if maybe ( a moment of silence peeked through as Allison tried to find the right way to word what she wanted to say ) this year things, you know, might be different."