"If two past lovers can remain friends, either they never were in love or they still are."
~Unknown

Elsa

Two weeks passed, and despite still being upset over my breakup with Spencer, I had something to look forward to: graduation.

My parents, Josilyn's, and Oliver's were getting ready to throw a graduation party for the four of us, but everyone was chipping in to help. It was being held at our hotel, but since the adults were busy getting that setup, the rest of us had other chores around the compound. I offered to do the grocery shopping because I was anxious to get away from the house and the pack. Finn joined me, although I didn't mind his company.

The two of us headed down to the store, where we split up to be more efficient. My trip started down the cosmetics aisle because I needed to pick up some eyeliner and mascara. Then it was to the hardware section because both mine, Anna's, and Ember's bathroom lights all decided to go out at the same time.

Next was the clothing section, although that was more because I wanted to get a gag gift for Riley, who was turning 20. I had another, more appropriate birthday gift for him, but he was one of the biggest clowns in our pack, so Anna and I decided to get him a funny gift as well. When I didn't see anything he would like, I made my way over to the ice cream section. It was, by far, my favorite area in the entire store. One of the highlights of being half wolf is that our metabolism works extremely fast, and we burn a lot more calories than normal humans do. It means we can basically eat whatever we want without having to worry about becoming overweight.

A great thing to have when you're stress-eating.

I'd only been staring at the ice cream selection for about two minutes when a familiar cologne wafted over to me. It took me no time to recognize its owner. The person casually stood next to me, prompting me to ask, "How've you been?"

"Okay. And you?" Spencer replied.

"Not bad. What are you doing here?"

"Shopping for food for dinner tonight while my parents deal with the graduation party. You?"

"Ironically, the same thing. It's amusing how similar our packs think when they dislike each other so much."

"If only they saw how similar. You here with anyone else?"

"Finn came with me. Anna wasn't feeling well, so she stayed home. Did you come here with your pack?"

"No, just Rey. She's become my closest confidante the past couple of weeks since she knows about everything..." Spencer paused momentarily. "Does anyone in your pack know?"

"Not that I know of, but I think Finn suspects it."

"Probably wondering if it's over between us so he can make a move," Spencer joked.

"No," I laughed. "It's nothing like that. He would've made a move sooner if he was at all thinking about that. How are things between you and Callie?"

"Same. She still wants to date me. I'm still not wanting to date her. Parents aren't too happy about it, but for the time being, they're not forcing us together or anything."

"Good. Maybe it'll stay that way." The two of us fell silent, and for the first time in our history together, it was unbearably awkward. Both of us wanted to say something, but neither of us knew what. It seemed to be a popular trend in our relationship recently.

"You were right," Spencer whispered, breaking the tension.

"About what?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"About what would happen if we started dating. How the longer we dated, the harder it would be for us to break up."

My shoulders sagged. "I didn't want to be right. Not about this."

"It's been hell not talking to you the past couple of weeks."

"Physiology has been dreadful without your terrible puns."

"Those terrible puns always make you laugh, though," he said, giving me a playful nudge.

"What do you say we at least continue being friends? Because I miss talking to you, and after a few weeks, we're not going to get to see each other every other day."

"The only reason I want high school to last longer is so I can see you without having to sneak out to do it," he said.

"We'll make it work. We'll find ways to see each other again. As much as I would love to continue talking, I should probably find Finn before he finds me and sees us talking. While I'm pretty sure he'd keep it a secret for us, I'd rather not find out the hard way. See you on Tuesday?"

"See you then." Spencer kissed me on the forehead before walking off. I watched him leave, silently wishing we'd run into each other in a much less public place because instead of a kiss on the head, I would've given him a proper kiss, dating or not.

Letting out a big sigh, I took a massive container of fudge-swirled ice cream and went in search of my friend. I found him a few aisles down but stopped short when I saw who he was talking to. I never thought I'd ever see anyone in my pack other than me getting along with a Stark, and I never thought I'd ever see anyone in Spencer's pack talking to someone from mine.

But here they were, Finn and Rey, amiably chatting with each other. The latter's eyes rested on me, which caused Finn to turn around.

"Hey," I said casually, but I could still hear the cautiousness in my voice.

"Hey, you find everything?" Finn replied.

"Yeah."

"Oh, uh, Elsa, this is Rey. Rey, this is-"

"Elsa Laroche," Rey finished.

Finn frowned. "Wait, you two know each other?"

"We have a mutual friend," I explained with a dismissive wave of my hand. "I hope I wasn't interrupting anything?"

"We were just chatting," Rey replied. Her entire demeanor changed when I'd walked up, but it wasn't aggressive, it was more... on guard.

I nodded. "Do you need to get anything else, Finn? If so, I can go get it for you while you talk to Rey."

"Oh, it's okay. I should get back to my friend. My sister just texted me, and she doesn't like to be kept waiting. Finn, it was nice to meet you," Rey said, a small smile gracing her face as she looked up at him. She smiled at me but not quite like the one she gave to my packmate. "Elsa, nice to see you again."

"You too," I responded kindly. Rey started to leave, but I blurted out her name, causing her to stop and turn around. She gave me a questioning glance, and I simply told her, "Thank you."

Thankfully, Rey knew what I was referring to. Her features softened for a brief moment as she gave me a head nod, telling me she acknowledged and accepted my gratefulness. Then she left.

Finn and I went the opposite way to grab some meat for dinner before going to the checkout lane. It was only in the car when I was pulling out of the parking spot that my friend asked, "Rey's part of Spencer's pack, isn't she?"

"Yeah. She's his Beta," I replied.

"Is that your mutual friend?" I didn't respond, but that seemed to give him the answer he needed. "How long?"

"Finn-"

"I'm not mad. I don't understand the reason your packs are feuding. I'm honestly just curious," he insisted. "Does Anna know?"

"No. No one does except for Rey and now you. I haven't told Anna. God forbid someone discovered Spencer and I snuck out to see each other... if she knew, I wouldn't want her having the repercussions of having that knowledge. I wouldn't want anyone getting punished because of something I did, including you."

"How long has this been going on?"

"We started talking in January, started dating in February, and everything was good until a couple of weeks ago, and then we had our first big fight, and then two weeks ago, we broke up."

"That's why you've been down?"

"I didn't want to. He didn't either. But we knew it was the best thing to do."

"Didn't you two think about that before you started dating?"

"Yes. We convinced ourselves that our packs would put us over this feud, but the longer we dated, the more we realized that wouldn't happen. Rey figured it out and respects Spencer enough that she'll keep it a secret. You figured it out too because of what just happened in the store. I'm sure Anna would understand, but like I said earlier, if my pack found out, I wouldn't want her to suffer because of something I did. Look, if my parents and pack somehow do find out about Spencer and me, and if they ask if anyone knew about this, stay quiet. Don't be punished for my actions."

"Okay," he said. There was a brief moment of silence before he chuckled and added, "It explains so much."

"What does?"

"You seeing Spencer. It explains why he always stared at you whenever he saw you, and why he's always taking your side in arguments with his pack. It explains why you never liked people using your phone. You were worried they'd see the texts or that he'd text you when someone else had your phone."

"Exactly. If my pack ever found out, they'd oust me and kill him. I don't care what they do to me, but I don't want them touching him. If they killed him, the Starks would come after my family and try and kill them, and then it'd be an all-out war."

"If your family kicked you out, I'd go with you."

His declaration took me aback. "Finn-"

"I don't want you out there by yourself, with or without Spencer, and neither would Anna. You know she'd leave the pack with you if they kicked you out."

"I do. I also know I'd tell her to stay behind. It would be better for me to have someone on my side in the pack while I'm out so I could be updated on everything that goes on in the case, for some reason, I needed to return. She would be the only one that would help me. And Finn, you've already lost one pack. I can't ask you to leave your new one because of shit I've caused."

"You're not asking. I'm offering. If you get kicked out, I'm going with you."

"And who gives you the authority to do that?"

"Well, I technically have authority over you because you're the Omega, so this is the one time I'm going to use my superiority. When and if we leave, I'll let you become alpha."

"Thanks," I said, giving him an amused yet slightly confused smile.

He threw his hands up and said, "Hey, I don't want to be responsible for our well-being. You get us into the problem, you get us out of it too."

I nodded. "Fair enough."