Chương 100: SOMETHING TO BE PASSIONATE ABOUT

It's Sunday morning, and I popped out of bed like a piece of toast at the sound of the alarm. My feet felt the warm heated flooring, and—oh—where did my socks go? I looked around, but they had disappeared. Outside, the snow had fallen, and my window had snow piled up against the ledges. If I looked carefully, I could see some of the snow, still fresh in its snowflake shape against the glass. I dug around for something warmer to wear. To my delight, I found my old kindergarten sweatsuit.

I pulled out a grey t-shirt and clean underwear and headed into the shower. Oh, happy day! It's Sunday, and there was snow in the garden. We hadn't had this type of gentle, happy snow this winter. The snow had been blizzards or hail, then melted into dirty, mucky roadside slush. But today, it was gorgeous. Just the type of snow I used to romp in as a pup. By the time I was showered and changed, there were pups outside the packhouse grounds, rolling around and building snowmen and snow forts.

I wanted to play too, before it all melted again. My kindergarten sweatsuit was warm and nice. The sleeves only came up to my elbows, and the pants were like capris. It had been really oversized for me when I got it, but now it was a slim-fit type of sweatsuit. I liked the pocket in front; it had slots for both hands, but it was joined in the middle.

"How do you still fit in that?" Savy wrinkled her nose at my outfit. I shrugged and plopped into my seat at the breakfast table.

"You had a note about a Marcus on the fridge," Mum reminded me. Tada! My reminder worked!

"Dad, do you know who Marcus' dad is?" I asked. Dad looked up from his emails and coffee.

"Who's Marcus?"

"Ah, I mean the Beta from Mountain Mist Pack," I said.

"Oh, yes." Dad remembered.

"I worked with him on a project some time back. How is he?" I had no idea.

"Fine, I guess? What do you remember about him?" I asked.

"Quiet guy. Hard worker," my dad said.

"He had a son who only wanted to play the drums. Poor guy. He didn't know what to do. Told me he gave up." Dad shook his head.

"Imagine that, giving up on his own son! I don't know how that must feel." I paused. Was he talking about Marcus?

"His son is in my class now, Marcus," I said.

"Oh? How is he?" Dad lifted a brow.

"He's a good Beta," I said in Marcus' defense.

"I didn't know he played the drums." Dad nodded.

"That's good. He grew up." I remembered that Marcus wanted to start a rock band in Winderhill. So he was a drummer. I hadn't noticed. Shouldn't drummers, like, carry sticks around wherever they went or tap incessantly on things? At least that's what they did on TV. I remembered how Dean used to carry his guitar around a lot when he first learned to play it. Actually, he still did it sometimes.

He got a lot of flak from some of the adults who felt he should be training more to be a warrior instead—especially his mum. When Henry had mentioned Marcus' school club plans, I didn't question it. It didn't seem significant. At most, I thought it was a cool card—like putting a little colorful umbrella on top of a fancy tall cocktail, not part of the drink at all, but a nice touch to top everything else off. But now I was starting to root for Marcus' band plans at Winderhill.

I've never had anything I was passionate about like that. All my life, I had known I would someday lead this pack. I've been busy training or playing with my pack or getting into mischief. I've never truly hated doing anything in particular—or loved doing anything special either. Maybe that's what I should find one day—something I'm passionate about.

"Are you really going to wear that to pack breakfast?" Savy asked. Mum stood up from the table.

"Let me pick something out for you."

"But Mum..." I wanted to protest. I followed her up to my room.

"Please choose something cool, okay?" Savy had followed us up.

"Don't worry, it won't be hard to be cooler than a kindergarten sweatsuit." I sulked and flopped on my bed.

"You're going to be the next Alpha," Savy said.

"Had you ever thought of that?" What? What was there to think about? Wait, was this about my lack of plans? Oh yeah, Henry had plans for our little school pack. Savy had plans for her bedroom. Beta Lucas did say something about looking forward to what I'm planning? Can I plan to just go with the flow? Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I mean, it's been flowing my way after all...

"What kind of Alpha wardrobe is this? Sam, you need an Alpha wardrobe," Savy said. What the hell was an "Alpha wardrobe"? Mum paused and returned whatever she was selecting back into the wardrobe.

"It's fine, Mum. Just make it something I can play in the snow with," I said. Savy rolled her eyes.

"Then you are perfectly dressed." I grinned.

"I knew it!" And then I realized Savy was being sarcastic. Then Mum asked the question that I would ask myself many times for the rest of my life: "But what would a female Alpha wear?" I couldn't handle that kind of thing, so I escaped downstairs still in my first-choice outfit. Dad was waiting at the door, Mum's coat in hand. I ran down the steps toward him two and three steps at a time. Once down, I reached into the coat cupboard for my blue snow jacket, mittens, and boots, putting them on as I pulled them out.

"Let's go!"

"You can't run from this forever!" Savy yelled as she chased me down the stairs. I pulled out her red snow gear. Mum came down shaking her head.

"I suppose she is an Alpha no matter what she wears." Dad raised a brow but draped her coat over her shoulders without a word, and we were out of the house. I shot out first, grabbing at the snow.

"No!" Savy gasped and ran for the packhouse. Some kids threw snowballs at us. Savy and I immediately teamed up against them, but they were well-stocked with ammo, and we were pummeled. Mum and Dad got through untouched. My only comfort was how one kid yelled, "Careful of the blue one! She throws hard." Yeah. And don't you forget it, kid. We stumbled into the packhouse, iced. There was snow caught in Savy's hair and clothes.

Quickly shaking off what we could on the porch and stomping the snow out of our boots at the door, we got inside, pulling off the snow gear. Beta Lucas and his family were just done putting their coats away.

"Oh my goddess!" Lizzy exclaimed.

"What happened to you?"

"A lot of fun!" I grinned back. Ben growled and looked out of the window. Oh, was my Beta marking the kids for payback?

"They're just kids," I said.

"They were monsters," Savy muttered under her breath, so only we could hear.

"It's 'cause you both were wearing snow gear," Lizzy informed us. We watched as Gamma Harry dropped Laura and Jonah off in front of the packhouse before driving around back to park. Jonah lent his mother his arm. They had totally un-waterproof woolen coats. The kids looked them over and returned to restocking their ammo.

"What good kids," I mumbled.

"Seriously?" Ben asked me. I liked the way Ben's voice had changed recently. It's grown more gravelly, and it made him sound very leveled. I grinned at him.

"Yeah, Ben, we got good kids."

"Oh my goddess! I can't believe you said that," Lizzy exclaimed.

"Sam and Ben had kids? When?" Jonah asked from behind us. He walked over to strip off his outerwear. I saw Beta Lucas helping Laura as she chatted animatedly with Mrs. Beta. No sign of Mum and Dad. I guess they were already in the dining hall. Meet the next-gen leaders of Night Leaf Pack. We were all grinning as we made our way into the dining hall together. We were later than usual today, and most of the others were already there.

"Yo, Sam's in the house," Tim drawled as he passed me with a plate of breakfast. He was in a good mood. The guys fist-bumped and grabbed hands and punched arms all around. The girls waved and giggled with other girls. I just walked, smile plastered on, lifting a hand in greeting now and then. Shannon was walking back to the tables with his mum, balancing two plates. One heaped with stuff I would love to eat (his), the other more moderately filled with healthy-looking options (hers).

"Hey, Princess," he said.

"Princess?" Tim asked.

"Sam?" I laughed.

"It's the Princess Plague. Unfortunately, fatal. Those who succumb die by being punched to death." Shannon only laughed; his mum tittered a little, and both returned to their seat.

"All the Morning Light guys call Sam their princess," Angela informed her brother.

"Even their future Beta, Harvey."

"No!" gasped Carlie, a girl sitting next to her.

"He wouldn't!" Tim just shook his head and smiled at his amusement.

"It's true. I heard it from Haylee herself," Angela insisted.

"What?" I asked. Oh yeah, they go to the same school. They all go to the same school. Our pack school is from K2 through 12th grade. Even in different buildings, the weekly assemblies were combined.

"Oooohhh, I'm so jealous. Harvey is a total hottie," Carlie said.

"Yeah, all the girls will cry when he graduates this year," Delilah quipped, and they laughed.

"I wanna record Harvey saying 'princess' and use it for my ringtone," Carlie declared. Harvey? I didn't know what kind of face to make at that. During pack breakfast, almost all of our pack wolf families join us. So yeah, meet Carlie and Delilah. They were born the same year as Angela's group, but they almost never attended Lycan studies on Saturdays. I've heard that Delilah was into soccer, floorball, basketball, and I don't know what else, so she never had time. And Carlie just never woke up in time.

Actually, a lot of the kids in our pack didn't attend Lycan studies or extra training sessions at our packhouse. Most of them just attended our pack school, where they could sign up for similar lessons. If they did their Lycan studies at school, they didn't have to come on Saturdays. And if they did their training sessions after school, they didn't have to train at the packhouse. So girls like Carlie and Delilah, I would only see them on Sunday mornings, and only if I walked around.

No one ever approached the Alpha's table.

"Never mind, there's still Nix around," Carlie said. It was weird to hear these girls talk about the Morning Light Goons. For me, they were another compartment of my life. For them... they were attractive guys from school?

"Oh yeah, and your Marlow," Delilah said. Carlie's eyes sparkled.

"Yeah, I love the bad-boy type. Angel can have Nix, and Del, you can have Ethan."

"What? Why me with Ethan?" Del asked, but she didn't sound completely unhappy about the arrangement.

"Because you said you liked guys who could make you laugh," Angela told her. For some reason, I couldn't quite place who they were talking about. They talking about the three hyenas, right? Those same three hyenas that trained with me on Wednesday, right? No way.

"I prefer Harvey," Delilah said.

"Who doesn't?" Angela said.

"But he's graduating, so we need to move on." Now I started laughing.

"You make graduating sound like his funeral."

"It's the funeral of our love," Carlie sighed loudly and dramatically. The girls laughed at that. I liked the sound of their laughter.

"Sam, who do you like?" Delilah asked.

"Isn't she with Dean?" Carlie said.

"What? No way." I blurted out.

"I'm not with anybody."

"She and Ben had kids," Jonah informed them. He handed me a warm, empty plate.

"Go get food, Sam."

"Oh my goddess, Sam." Carlie's eyes widened at that.

"Ben... and Jonah!"

"What's it got to do with me?" Jonah demanded.

"You are giving her a plate. Oh my goddess, Jonah is talking to me!" Carlie started flapping her hands. I looked at Jonah, who was pushing me toward the buffet tables.

"We better go, Sam. Those girls are crazy," he added under his breath.

"I love you, Jonah!" Carlie called out after us. I resisted the urge to burst out laughing. I suddenly remembered Jonah the Casanova.

"Marry me, Jonah," Carlie continued the assault.

"If you're so desperate, wake up on Saturdays and come for Lycan class," Angela scolded.

"I love my bed more..." Carlie was saying, but I couldn't hear anymore. I was out of earshot and placed in front of the buffet table. Jonah released the breath he was holding. Ben came over.

"You okay, bro?" Jonah nodded.

"Yeah. Those girls are scary." Now I laughed. So Jonah was afraid of cute girls.

"Lizzy and Savy are waiting for you," Ben told me, and the two guys returned to their table. I helped myself to the fresh bread. I was still smiling to myself. Sometimes I wondered, if I wasn't the Alpha, would I be a girl like Carlie or Delilah? It looked like a lot of fun.