Joy came to an abrupt halt when Luna Mahira mind-linked him.

"Vivaan, are you awake?"

"It's Joy, Mom. We came out for a run," Joy answered.

"Joy, we received a call from Peaceful pack's Alpha. The girls of the Midnight pack have smelled rogues scent and hence we need to hurry."

"We haven't even informed the pack till now. What are we going to do?" Joy asked with worry.

"I am leaving with Beta and Gamma to fetch the girls. By that time, please arrange some rooms for them. Aarjav will inform the pack after two hours as everyone would be sleeping right now," Luna explained.

"Take Yara's help as we need to make rooms comfortable for girls." Luna added.

Joy answered in affirmative and closed the mind-link. He yelped when he saw Hritika sitting near him with a bored face.

Hritika too had paused when she saw Joy had stopped running. She shouted to ask about the sudden stop as she was at the other end of the ground. Not receiving an answer, she jogged towards him. She opened her mouth to ask again but closed it as she saw his glazed eyes. She waited patiently for a few minutes but then plopped down on the ground when she noticed that his conversation wasn't going to end anytime soon.

Joy let out a small growl as his ego was bruised upon being scared of a human but in his defense, he wasn't really expecting Hritika to be sitting there, waiting for him. He huffed upon seeing an amused smile on Hritika's face and left the area to shift back into his human form.

"I can't believe that I, who is scared of wolves, managed to frighten the hell out of an Alpha wolf." Hritika teased as soon as Vivaan came back.

"Yeah yeah, it was a big victory for you. Go ahead and mark this day as your biggest achievement," Vivaan said, annoyed at himself.

Hritika chuckled looking at his pouting face.

"Jokes aside, who wanted to talk with you at this hour?" Hritika questioned curiously.

"Thanks for reminding. We need to cut our training session today. I have some work." Vivaan spoke apologizing  as he turned to leave after he received Hritika's reassuring nod.

He stopped after taking a few steps as an idea came to his mind and returned back to Hritika.

"What? Did you forget something?" Hritika asked as he saw him return.

"No, I didn't forget anything," Vivaan replied with a slight shake of his head.

"Actually, I need to prepare rooms for the guests that are coming. Mom asked me to take Yara's help as the guests are girls but instead of waking her from sleep, I thought if you could help me...," Vivaan trailed off hopefully.

"Why will you prepare the room by yourself? Don't you have like hundreds of workers?" Hritika asked with a confused frown.

"We were going to ask the workers to prepare it in the afternoon but the timings got changed and the guests would be coming early. Everyone would have extra work on their hands today so instead of waking them up early for a mudane work seems a little cruel," Vivaan answered with a small shrug.

"Oh! Okay. I understand your point. You go first, I will join you after taking a shower," Hritika said, making a yuck face at her sweaty body.

Vivaan chuckled, before nodding at her.

"Meet me at your previous room on the first floor," Vivaan said before waving her bye.

Hritika soon came near her previous room where Vivaan was already present, looking at the floor with a confused frown.

"What has gotten you so confused?" Hritika asked, raising her eyebrows.

"There would be 7-8 girls. Should I give them eight individual rooms or make them share in three or four rooms?" Vivaan asked the question that was roaming in his head.

"Who are these girls? I mean for what reason are they coming here?" Hritika asked so that she could answer according to the situation.

"They are here to search for their mates." Vivaan lied, though he felt bad for doing that.

Hritika hummed thoughtfully before answering, "If they have set out on this journey together then they have to be friends. Sharing rooms won't be a problem. Infact, it would actually be comforting to have someone to speak with in a new place."

She was speaking with her own experience. When they had first entered this pack, the only thing that helped her sanity was that Nihal was with her. If she would have been alone then it would have been more frightening.

"Okay then, four rooms it is. Let's start." Vivaan agreed and started preparing the room.

The previous rooms of Hritika and Vivaan just needed some toiletries while the other two rooms needed cleaning too as they hadn't been used in a long time.

"Hritika, the girls...they aren't here to search for their mates. They are the only surviving pack members of Midnight Pack after the silver rain." Vivaan dropped the bomb, making Hritika's hand pause midway as she was cleaning the spiderwebs.

"What?!" Hritika asked in a shocked whisper.

Vivaan sighed as he sat down on the bed, patting the area beside him for Hritika to sit.

"They will be staying here until Peaceful Pack's Alpha finds a permanent solution or the Alpha's daughter of Midnight Pack finds her mate," Vivaan muttered, unloading his burden to the wisest girl he had met.

"If the Alpha's heir is alive then why wait for her mate? She can be the Alpha, right? Yes, the conditions of that pack right now would be bad. But they can receive help from other packs. What is the need to wait for her mate?" Hritika asked, not understanding the reason.

"Midnight pack was a traditional pack. The girls there didn't have much exposure. We cannot expect the Alpha's daughter to stand up and lead the pack when she has only been told to stand behind a man all her life." Vivaan spoke, rubbing his face tiredly.

"I understand what you are saying but what about the rule that a first born is the Alpha's heir. That rule created a major problem for you and Nihal. Then how does it not apply here?" Hritika asked.

"Unfortunately, the rules doesn't apply to the girls. The main problem here was that the first born can make a stronger command than the younger one. But if a girl is born, her mate takes over, making her the Luna. In this case, they both have equal command over the pack. Incase, the girl has a younger sibling who is a male then he takes over. Who has the stronger commanding ability doesn't matter here as the girl goes away to the another pack with her mate. If she isn't even in the pack then how would her ability cause havoc."

"That's utter bullshit." Hritika cursed at the biasness.

"I know. The female Alpha of the Northern pack was the first one to oppose it and hopefully many other girls would do the same in future, taking her as an inspiration," Vivaan said.

"Hope so. But I hope that the Alpha's daughter doesn't find her mate right away," Hritika muttered, making Vivaan frown.

"Why would you say that? Having a mate would help her," Vivaan said in disagreement.

"I don't think so. A new relationship comes with many responsibilities and efforts. Finding her mate now would put so much on her plate that she wouldn't be given enough time to grieve her loss. I don't think, she would be in a mind set to accept someone new in her life." Hritika explained her point.

"But a mate provides a huge comfort which may help her to heal her heart. The feeling of loneliness would go away as someone would be there by her side," Vivaan objected, explaining his side.

"Yes, that can happen," Hritika agreed before letting out a 'but',"—but only if her mate is considerate enough to not expect anything from her when she is grieving. If her mate is patient enough to wait for her and not force her while giving his all for the time being, then yes, it might be helpful. And by force, I am not saying physically, but also the emotional side of a relationship."

Vivaan stayed quiet, not having anything to say in return.

"Don't get upset now. Who knows, may be I am wrong and the girl wants something entirely different. We are not her and we cannot decide for her." Hritika nudged him lightly, bringing a smile on his face.

"By the way, why did you lie first about them? Why did you say that they were here to search for their mates?" Hritika asked as she stood up to resume her work.

"This is what we are going to tell the whole pack as they might get enraged upon helping others when we are still handling the aftereffects of silver rain. So don't tell anyone, not even Nihal," Vivaan answered.

"They why did you tell me the real story now?" Hritika asked curiously.

"It's a secret for a time being. I will tell you later," Vivaan answered cheekily before going to place the towels in the bathroom.

Hritika stood there open-mouthed, not believing his audacity. After having a full blown conversation, he just left her in hanging.