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"Would you like to live in a fairytale my little tribrid?"

2028

The first night in the new house was exciting for both the vampire and tribrid. The second night was just as exciting for them as they were getting used to the idea of living together. The only thing that made Hope think twice about moving in with Hayden so soon was the fact that his sex drive was rising.

Now that the two could not be heard, Hayden was making it less and less possible for Hope to stay silent. Not entirely silent, but quiet, and now that there was no one around to hear the two, there was nothing to stop her from being loud. Which was both a good thing, and a bad thing.

It was now their third week in the house and Hope was just waking up in the king-sized bed she shared with her boyfriend. Hayden was still asleep beside her and as the tribrid moved to get up and take her shower she felt the vampire in bed shift in his sleep. He unconsciously wrapped his arms around the tribrid's waist pulling her closer to him.

His face was stuffed in the crook of her neck and she let out a single huff as she found herself trapped in his arms. A breathless laugh escaped her chest as she wrapped her own arms around him. She loved waking up to him, the feeling of his breath on her back most days under the rays of the sun through the windows.

Moving in together made their relationship that much stronger, and although at times she wished she was still living on campus, she felt in her heart that she would rather be there in the house with him than anywhere else. Their house became like a safe place for them, somewhere where they could always be together without any interruption.

Most days Hope would be able to get in a run in before class from the house to the school. She would often let her wolf out at night near the house, which was a lot better than her arrangement before. Now she was free to run wild in her part of the woods. Even her wolf was getting used to the surrounding areas.

Hope slowed from her run to a walk as she neared the Salvatore School. She could see it from her view beyond the treeline, and as she walked along the path toward the school she heard soft moans coming from the side of her. Her enhanced hearing had picked up on it, and as much as she wanted to ignore it, she felt like the voices were familiar to her.

As softly as she could she tip-toed down the gravel pathway until she could see who it was through the trees. A small gasp escaped her mouth as she saw her best friend pressed against a tree and a certain werewolf nearly hiding her entire body. The tribrid laughed softly as she shook her head and kept walking.

She would be sure to ask her about it later.

The auburn-haired tribrid kept walking, eyes straight forward and chest out in an aura of confidence. She knew that Hayden would soon be at the school himself and that most of the witches would still be fawning over him like he was the hottest one there. But come to think of it, he was. With another smile set on her face, she walked past the gym where the werewolves were currently playing a game of dodge ball without their alpha.

"Where even is he?"

Hope smirked as she knew exactly where the alpha werewolf was. She heard Jed sigh from inside the gym, the former alpha that was de-throned by Rafael earlier in the year, and tell the other werewolves that the alpha had important business to take care of. Hope knew that Jed was still trying to get back into some of the wolves' good graces and that he was still considered an alpha to some of the wolves as it was. She was happy to hear that the werewolf was being so helpful when the current alpha wasn't even there.

She kept walking until she was standing outside of Alaric's office. She could see through the open door that Emma and Josie were already inside the office looking strangely distraught. Hope was quick to power walk into the office and over to Josie, who she was already beginning to warm up to again. She placed a hand on the Gemini witch's forearm and asked with her eyes if she was okay. Before Josie could even say anything her father hit a button on his school phone and the voice of the newly found phoenix sounded throughout the air.

"Hey, Ric. Sorry to take off like that, but I just need a little time. Between fighting with Josette to feeling spiteful toward Hope... So I'm going camping for a while. Hopefully, I can catch up on classwork later. Tell Raf and Jed hi for me."

Hope looked down at the voice machine with concerned eyes. She had thought that Landon had forgiven her for what she had done to him. Keeping a secret that none other than Penelope had told him about. She wished it were her that told him, or that she had decided to tell him when it first happened. And not only did Landon say how he despised Hope, but he called Josie by her full first name. Everyone in the room knew that he never called Josie by her full name, they didn't even know if he knew her full name.

"Why would he say hi to Jed?" Josie's voice was fragile as she spoke in a whisper beside Hope. The tribrid squeezed the witch's arm in reassurance as a small gust of wind blew past her, and when she looked beside her she saw her boyfriend.

Hayden smiled down at her before looking back up at Alaric who held hesitance in his eyes and suspicion on his face. His own cheery eyes soon turned dark as Emma spoke up in the direction of Josie and Hope, "Maybe you should go after him."

Josie's head shook with what looked to be panic written on her face, "Something doesn't make sense."

Hope nodded along with the witch, looking at Hayden beside her with a look of indifference. It didn't make sense for Landon to suddenly decide to up and go camping, and it was even more suspicious with him telling Alaric to say hi to Jed. Landon and Jed didn't get along as it was.

"Josie is right. He forgave me already. For him to say that he was still spiteful toward me? I don't buy it." Hayden hated to admit it, but his girlfriend had a point. He remembered when Landon forgave the tribrid and the way that his heart was steady as he did.

"Triad tried to come for him once, didn't they? What if they got him this time?"

Everyone in the room looked at Hayden with uncertain looks. It was completely possible for that to have happened. The only one who was in denial that it could've happened was none other than his girlfriend, Josie Saltzman.

"No. They couldn't have! And knowing that they haven't- It's not safe for him out there alone! We have to go find him and bring him back."

Alaric shook his head as he looked at his devastated daughter, "We kept a massive secret from him Josie, and I think he just needs some time to process that. I think we should respect his privacy and just wait."

Hope knew how Josie was feeling at that moment. The state of not knowing if the one she loved was okay. The tribrid had felt that way too many times in her short life. With her father, uncle, and aunts. It was just a normalized feeling inside of her now. And she really didn't know how to help Josie as it was a numbing feeling for her, and such a massive and new feeling to her.

"But that was weeks ago!"

Josie scoffed at her father, turning and leaving out of the office before anyone else could get another word out. Both Hope and Hayden wished they could help the witch in getting through her feelings, but they also knew that the witch needed time to herself right now.

She was just told she couldn't go find her missing boyfriend, and now she was angry at herself because over the past few weeks she hadn't been entirely there for him. With the fresh loss of Penelope from her life, and being asked to choose between her and Landon, she didn't even know about the big secret until two weeks later.

Josie realized as she slowly walked back to her shared room with her sister that she was indeed a bad girlfriend.

And she wanted the chance to make it better. The chance to be able to make it up to him. But at that moment in time, she didn't know if she would get that chance. She was slowly succumbing to the feeling at the bottom of her stomach that told her something was wrong. She wanted to listen to her dad and think that he simply needed time to repair himself, but she couldn't let the nagging feeling in the back of her mind go. Josie sighed as she let herself into her room and flopped down onto her bed.

"Hello to you too. What's wrong Jo?"

Hope, Hayden, Alaric, and Emma all stood in the office after Josie stormed out. Hayden listened to her walk all the way back to her room before he let out a sigh and turned back to the headmaster with a nod. Alaric nodded back curtly before he noticed the distant look on Emma's face. "What's wrong?"

The tribrid and vampire looked over at the older witch who sighed heavily, "It's just that... These kids have been through so much lately. I've done all I can for Rafel, but the side effects of Hope's elixir are getting worse."

Hope gasped, "What do you mean?"

Emma had completely forgotten that Hope was in the room as well and have her a sideglance before continuing. "He's losing time, having flashes of aggression. I think he's still sliding between his wolf mind and his human mind."

Hayden made eye contact with Hope for a few split seconds as Alaric assured Emma he would be keeping a close eye on the alpha werewolf. Hayden still couldn't believe that he was the alpha of the Salvatore School pack. He hadn't expected to hear it when he was told about it, and it was quite surprising for him as he didn't see Rafael as alpha material.

"You've been running on fumes for the past few weeks. It wouldn't hurt to bring in someone else to help, maybe even assist in researching Rafael's condition."

It was then Alaric's turn to scoff, "Dorian to too proud. You know that."

Again, the tribrid and vampire gave each other a look. Hayden had filled in Hope on the situation between the three and the reason Dorian had left the school. She was shocked that Emma and Dorian were dating since she had never seen the two with each other outside of class. She never assumed anything about the two and for Dorian to even blame him for not knowing when they hadn't publicized it kind of made it seem unfair to Hope.

"And you know how much I respect you. But are you sure it's his pride that's the problem?"

Alaric seemed to look off into the distance in front of him before he sighed once again and sat down in his chair behind his desk. Hayden sighed, knowing that relationships were complicated no matter what's happened in the past.

He was suddenly behind Alaric with his arm resting on the back of his chair and leaning forward slightly with a glint in his eye. He winked at Emma, who stammered in excusing herself from the office, leaving the three of them in the office.

"Wel both know it's your pride my dearest friend, Alaric."

Alaric sighed, groaning, and hitting his head on the back of his chair. Hope watched with amusement as the two men spoke as lowly as they could, even though Hayden knew she could still hear them.

"You both know I can still hear you, right?"

Alaric groaned again, "Why don't you two just stay out of my business and get to class, yeah?"

Hayden smirked at his friend, who was closer to an older brother now more than anything.

"I will get out of your hair when you agree to speak to Dorian."

Alaric glared at the vampire who seemed younger and older than him in more ways than one. He rolled his eyes but promised to think about it ultimately. And then something popped into his mind.

"Wait- Hope... You know what's going on?"

Hand-in-hand at the door, Hope and Hayden turned back to look at the headmaster with an eager glint in their eyes, "He can't hide anything from me, Ric. Whatever you tell him, will come to me. It's how it works."

And then the older brother status of Alaric came out, "Happy wife, happy life, right?"

Hope's eyes widened at her headmaster's statement, a strong blush forming across her cheeks. In response to him, Hayden wrapped his arms around Hope and pulled her into him until she was flush against his body. With his chin now resting on her shoulder, he grinned like a mad-man toward his newly instated best friend.

"Already know."

Hope giggled as she forced his arms from around her waist and shook her head. She playfully stomped off from her boyfriend and headmaster, wondering when in the hell they two became such good friends. Hayden stayed in the doorway to wink at Alaric before speeding away to do whatever it is he usually did during the day. All the while Hope was shaking her head and blushing like crazy, walking until she was bumped into by none other than her own best friend.

"Hope! Bestie, I've been looking for you!"

Hope raised a brow at Dahlia, arms crossing over her chest and hip popping out, "Me too. Do tell me about your morning endeavors with the alpha."

Dahlia blushed, "Off to my room, then!" Hope laughed as her best friend grabbed her wrist and pulled her up the stairs toward her dorm room where the two sat and take about their morning. Mostly, the fact that Dahlia was in the woods with Rafael for most of the morning.