Fire And Ice

Chapter 63 - Commence Phase Two

Natalia's P. O. V

I was at a loss for what to do.

For the next few days, Timothy was a stoic mess, shuffling around the house with a pungent air of discontent.

Hailey had refused to return since that day and had practically taken up permanent residence in her Killdrain dorm room. Save for when she'd come to my neighbourhood to be picked up for her date with her crush, she'd stayed as far away from my place as possible.

As the days began to grow into a week, my worry for Hailey grew. While she seemed fine, every time I visited her, I could feel her grow harder and harder, like she was donning more and more armour around herself at every reminder of him.

And he wasn't faring any better.

Since most of the high level matters were left up to the two of us, I found myself having daily meetings with him to discuss our course of action, though Kaesha teleported over whenever she was free for them and Hailey occasionally joined in over the phone. Every time we met, he seemed to get more and more gloomy, the dark cloud hanging over him growing more melancholic and thunderous each day. Some days, he barely spoke, and others, it was all he could do to keep from snapping at everyone.

A week after their fallout, I called a meeting for the creation of our pack.

For this, I'd been forced to iterate that Hailey's physical presence was required. So, by three pm on the dot, she shuffled in with all the enthusiasm of someone who wanted to be on the other side of the world.

"Thanks for making it." I said as she took her seat.

She smiled at Kaesha and I in greeting, ignoring Timothy altogether, "So we're finally doing this, huh?"

"I know right." Kaesha exhaled, reclining back in her spot on the couch, "It's been what? Almost a year?"

"Yes, it's been nearly a year, and we're finally commencing phase two."

Hailey gave a little cheer, while Kaesha and Timothy offered proud smiles.

"So, are you finally gonna tell us what the name of our pack is gonna be? Or will you keep drawing out the suspense?"

The pack name was something I hadn't thought too much about. It had popped up in my mind, but I'd been too occupied to think of a fitting name. When Timothy had asked me one day, I'd jokingly told him that it was a surprise, so he seemed to be convinced that I had some heavily meaningful name in mind for our pack ready and I just wanted to keep them in the dark till our registration date.

"So," Hailey piped up after I didn't respond, "how exactly do we register our pack?"

"Well, according to the WolfNet, we need at least one Alpha or Beta born wolf, the signatures of at least ten wolves willing to join our pack, and proof of ownership of wooded land, or land close to the woods. Of those, the only thing we don't have is the list of signatures."

During our travels to find allies, many Werewolves from the packs we visited had expressed their interest in joining us outright. While I was glad they saw the value in joining us, very few of our allies were in position where they could afford to lose and more members.

So we needed new members entirely.

"We already have five people, but since Kaesha's a witch and not a werewolf, I'm not sure if adding her will count, cause it read exactly 'ten Werewolves' on the site. We'll need to find at least six Werewolves to join us, just in case."

"Okay..." Kaesha said evenly, "But where are we gonna find a bunch of Lone Wolves? I'm assuming we can't take members from the packs we've been to since they're already so small."