Chương 101: A HERO'S WELCOME

"I was very impressed last night!" Gamma Harry was saying at the table. I sat down next to Savy.

"Indeed, hearing this, I feel I can put my heart at rest," Beta Lucas said.

"But we must not rest on our laurels; we must always ask how we can continue to empower our young people." I guess they were getting on with their old-man talk, so I ignored it and focused on my food.

"But last night," Gamma Harry was still going on about it, "I was very impressed, very impressed. I feel this is good, very good. A good start! At first I was not so sure about sending them on a mission; they are so young. But last night I saw for myself—they are ready." I ate my food, deciding to mind my own business and let the Gamma ramble.

"The alpha control—it was impressive. When she broke that table, I knew she was strong, but the control on her strength was so impressive! I cannot believe it. I thought he was going to die. Usually, if they take so long, they die." The table went uncomfortably quiet.

"I mean, it's true! What I'm saying is true," Gamma Harry said in his defense.

"Sam, I want to ask you..." Gamma Harry suddenly turned the spotlight of his bizarre conversation to me.

"How did you know how much force to use?" What? I put my fork down. What was he talking about? I gave Savy a side glance; she cued me in very quietly, "You used your alpha command to force-shift Dean last night." I did? That was weird. How did they know about my dream last night?

"Yes, Sam. I am hearing impressive things. Gamma Harry could not stop praising you all morning," Beta Lucas said.

"You know how dangerous it was to force-shift Dean, yet you did it just in the nick of time too. Delta Simon said after that if it was any later, Dean would not have survived it."

"Very impressive. Very impressive." Gamma Harry was still shaking his head in disbelief. Laura clapped her hands silently toward me.

"That can't be true," I said. It was just a dream.

"This control is truly amazing. Imagine if you had forced the shift too fast or too hard! He would also have died!" Gamma Harry spoke again.

"Impressive! It is impressive, is it not?" Gamma Harry seemed to feel it was his duty to make the whole table agree fully with him on this point. I would have laughed—except I just heard that I could have killed Dean. {Omega would have died on his own anyway.} But it was just a dream. {You were not dreaming.} You could have warned me, Wolfie. {I did.} Oh. Right. You did. I sighed.

"And she did it all by herself. No one needed to guide her. She just went in and took care of it," Gamma Harry continued. Technically, Darlyn had asked me to. And the guys were always behind me... I shook my head.

"I had everyone..." I managed. The elders nodded their approval. Wait—no, I wasn't being humble or anything!

"I was really lucky..." I tried again. {Omega approaches.} As if to prove it, my good luck came to my aid again. A moment later, Dean and his family appeared at the entrance of the dining hall. Everyone stood up and applauded.

"A miracle!" I heard Laura sigh as she stood to clap too. We all did. Dean walked in smiling, his face red, but he tilted his head high and looked proud. He had shifted. He was a real wolf now. And I bet he was stronger now too. If he worked hard, he could be a warrior yet, and no one in our pack could call him an omega again. Their family sat down, the rest of us took our seats too, and my dad, in honor of the occasion, stood up and congratulated the family. Applause around the house again.

Some of the guys at the other table started chanting, "Speech, speech, speech!" Dean's face was red, but he stood up and talked about how glad he was that he managed his first shift. He got teary and said how thankful he was to his family and his friends who supported him. Then he made a small joke about being extra hungry this morning. There was general laughter, and I couldn't have been prouder of him. He did it.

I know Gamma Harry might think I had alpha-commanded and forced him to shift, but I think at most I just gave him a nudge—he did it. Against all odds, he survived it. That was great. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. Gamma Harry smiled broadly at me.

"Your shift would be next."

"Soon," Dad told me.

"Very soon." Yeah, no pressure, guys. So it wasn't a dream. Dean had shifted. And I could have killed Dean—but nobody thought to stop me, or ask me what I was doing? OMG. What was happening? {I am the alpha. They will follow me.} Never had these words frightened and humbled me more than today. I looked back at my half-eaten breakfast and started eating again. If only they knew! I had no plan, no idea what I was doing, reacting instinctively each time at each instance.

Using my alpha powers without any long-term considerations. I'm just winging it. I'm just a girl. What made me different from Carlie or Delilah or Dean? I thought about Dean—we were born just a month apart. What made us different? We had different wolves, but who was to say what it would be like if he was born with my wolf and I was born with his? I thought about Savy... She surely knew what she was doing.

She had a plan—a plan to train and protect her future human mate, a plan for which club to join when she started high school, a plan for her room's upcoming renovation... She probably even had a plan for her career. Maybe that's why the Goddess let her shift first. She was more ready than I was. I just lived day by day, barely meeting all my commitments: homework, Lycan studies, training, meetings, friends... just stumbling through. Who was I kidding? I can't believe I nearly killed Dean. I can't be the alpha.

I put my fork down again.

"I'm going to the kitchen." No one said anything, but Dad nodded. I excused myself and went to work setting up the sandwich stations. Savy and Lizzy joined me a moment later. They got to work, helping me take down the stuff from the cabinets. We had done this so many times together, it was almost clockwork. Every time we were short-handed, our mums would send us over to help.

"Are you okay?" Savy asked as she put the butter knives on the spread table.

"Yeah," I said.

"Don't worry, you'll shift soon too," Savy said.

"I know," I told her.

"I'm not worried."

"I told you it was Dean," Lizzy said then.

"But she never gets mad at Dean," Savy argued back.

"I was mad," Lizzy said.

"He never thanked Sam once for saving his life."

"I didn't," I said. Lizzy sighed.

"I told you," Savy said.

"I can't believe everyone made such a big deal over Dean's shift," Lizzy said.

"A first shift is a big deal," I said.

"No one gave a standing ovation for Savy's shift," Lizzy pointed out. Savy nodded.

"Oh, girls," Mum said. She sounded disappointed with us. Mrs. Beta looked at Lizzy sharply.

"Well, it's true," Lizzy crossed her arms but spoke more quietly now.

"On the bright side, Savy, you can get your own handphone now!" I told her. Savy put her hand on her mouth in a gasp. Mum nodded but opened her arms to gather us close—Savy, Lizzy, and me—and then she said very quietly, "Sometimes we need to understand, the weakest link needs the most encouragement."

"Do you understand what Luna is saying, girls?" Mrs. Beta asked us. Lizzy and Savy looked down and nodded. I blinked away the tears.

"But it isn't Sam," Lizzy quickly said.

"She wasn't mad about Dean."

"No, it's me," I explained to Lizzy.

"I'm the weakest link. I... I... can't do any... anything..." Lizzy and Savy looked at me like I had grown another head. Mrs. Beta's mouth dropped open. Oops, I'm crying in front of them. And I exposed my weakness... My weakness was that I was weak.

"I know... I always need everyone to help me..." My tears wouldn't stop. Mum rubbed my back. Mrs. Beta gave me tissue.

"I'm quite sure we were talking about Dean," Lizzy informed me.

"Yeah," Savy agreed. She was rubbing my back too. The tears dried up quickly. Mum said with a sigh, "Sam, you are being too hard on yourself." Dad came into the kitchen. Now that was new. Alpha in the kitchen.

"What's wrong?" He asked Mum. Did she mind-link him?

"I don't know," Mum said.

"She started crying so I panicked." Dad frowned.

"What happened, Sam?" I can't be the alpha because I don't know what I'm doing, and I realize how clueless I am, and I want to quit before I get someone killed—but how do I tell you that without sounding like I'm quitting on you guys? And if I quit… that would make me a failure. How can I face any one of you as a failure? I would need to run away, far away, and hide—but I can't bear the thought of leaving any of you because I'm really so weak, I can't survive on my own. I'm so weak. I've always had everyone…

everything I did well was because of someone else or with someone else. I am really stupid and weak because I always thought I was strong, but now I know I'm not... I've just been really lucky... but I won't be lucky forever, and I'm going to let you down in the end. But I couldn't say something like that aloud, could I? Dad sighed and cupped my face.

"Sam, I love you. You and Savy mean the world to me. And for what it's worth, I'm proud of you." I mind-linked again, didn't I? Dad nodded. I wiped my face with my sleeve.

"It's nothing. I was just being dumb." Mum rubbed my back and looked at my dad.

"She's fine," Dad told her.

"Alphas are always under a lot of pressure. She'll get used to it." Wait, I was stressed? He thought I was stressed? I'm talking about being too weak and stupid and probably getting everyone killed because I didn't know what I was doing, and he chalked it up as stress? I growled, "I'm not stressed." Now Mrs. Beta is giving me an understanding smile. No, seriously. The others start coming in to help. I go out back to dry off my face for a minute. Savy and Lizzy came with me.

"I'm okay," I said.

"Go back and help the others." Savy sat down next to me. Lizzy hesitated and then followed suit. After an awkward moment of silence, they decided to just talk like I wasn't there.

"I'm so jealous you're going to get a new phone," Lizzy told Savy.

"I want that red one," Savy told her. Of course Savy would know what she wanted.

"Ohhh..." Lizzy said.

"Yes, that's a nice one. I'll ask my dad too."

"Can you?" Savy asked.

"We can be matchy!" The two girls squealed. It made me smile.

"Yeah, I was going to ask Dad anyway, 'cause Ben is getting one," Lizzy said.

"For beta work."

"Me too," I said softly.

"They're getting me one too."

"Let's get matching phone straps, okay?" Savy asked.

"Yeah, okay." I said.

"Just the three of us?" Lizzy asked.

"Yeah." I said.

"Yeah," Savy said.

"It will be our thing."

"Now I must definitely make Dad buy that phone!" Lizzy vowed with renewed vigor. And I felt remarkably better.

"We better go in and help now," I said. We did. Shannon was there today. He was the only guy, but he was accompanying his mum who was on duty. Shannon charmed every female heart in the room, helping to fetch things and then carry the boxes of packed lunches out to the boot. It was fun. Lizzy called Shannon the "Aunty killer." We dared Shannon to flirt with the other ladies in the kitchen. It got a lot of laughs, and Shannon got a kiss on the cheek and an extra blueberry muffin.

His mum also gave him a playful smack on his bum to make him stop.

"Worse than your father!" she scolded. Everyone laughed. When we were done, we sat in a row by the now clean and quiet counter.

"What can I say?" Shannon boasted while snacking on the blueberry muffin.

"My charm has no age limits."

"You can say that now," Esther warned from behind the baking counter.

"But when you grow old, that's just going to sound creepy." Shannon smiled at Esther.

"I make it a point to never argue with beautiful women." This actually made Esther smile. She turned away and busied herself with the mixer.

"It's a good thing Hank's not here," Lizzy said. Shannon laughed. I looked at Shannon with newfound respect. Then I started to wonder—between Shannon, Liam, and Nix, who would win?