Chương 250: WHAT WAS IN THE SOAP BOX

Beta Lucas was at our apartment with Beta Larson to escort us down. I wondered what was up with the double Beta escort. Dad growled lowly but followed. My betas met us along the corridor. Harvey looked grimmer than usual, but he gave me his usual closed-mouth smile. Beta Larson led us to the same conference room as we used last night, but this time, it was heavily guarded. We entered to find Uncle Louis, Uncle Pierre, and Uncle Andre waiting for us.

"Alpha Kingsley and Alpha Sam are here," Beta Lucas announced.

"It took you long enough," Uncle Andre laughed good-naturedly.

"Now is not the time to joke, Andre," Uncle Pierre said quietly.

"But you guys are barking up the wrong tree."

"We have finished packing and would like to take our leave now," Dad said.

"Now why the hurry?" Uncle Louis said.

"You know I am meeting my pack today," Dad growled.

"We have been delayed enough with the break-in."

"Was anything missing?" Uncle Louis asked.

"No," Dad said.

"How about your apartment, Louis?"

"My apartment was untouched," Uncle Louis answered calmly.

"Mother's ring is missing," Uncle Andre said.

"Mindy reported that nothing was missing," Dad said.

"Except that Mother's ring was nowhere to be found," Uncle Louis said with a deadly calm.

"Brother, you and I both know the value of that ring. We cannot afford to let it leave Black Forest."

"What are you implying?" Dad asked. Uncle Pierre spoke then.

"We don't think it's you, Brother, but someone with you might have it."

"Actually, Louis seems quite sure Brother has it," Andre said quite genially. The louse was looking for a fight!

"That's enough, Andre," Uncle Pierre said.

"I didn't take it," Dad said.

"And those with me are trustworthy. They would not steal anything from my mother."

"Perhaps you think so, but you are forgetting I have a gift of insight," Uncle Louis said.

"I would say it's pretty half-baked compared to Mother's," Uncle Andre allowed cheerfully.

"Shut up, Andre!" Uncle Louis growled.

"Don't talk to your big brother like that, Lou!" Uncle Andre growled back. His wolf was on the edge.

"I don't want to fight." Uncle Louis decided to ignore Uncle Andre and turned back to Dad.

"And I know you had no part in taking Mother's ring. But I would ask you to search your wolves now and return it. Then you may go on your way."

"My wolves would never take something that does not belong to them! I can stake my life on it!" Dad snarled. Oh, please don't, Dad. (Especially since the ring was with me.) Uncle Louis smirked.

"Then I will pick someone to search. If we do not find the ring, you may leave with my apologies, but if we do find the ring... what should happen?"

"I will kill the wolf myself," Dad promised. Gulp. Seriously? Dad... Uncle Louis wasted no time. He pointed at me.

"Sam, please empty your pockets. Your bag too." Killion was behind me in an instant. He helped me remove my bag. Dad was growling lowly. I heard Mum soothing him.

"Don't worry. Sam would never." Dad folded his arms, looking furious. I emptied out my pockets to buy time. Actually, there was nothing inside. I only found a clean handkerchief. I didn't even know I had one. So much for buying time.

"The bag." Uncle Louis' eyes gleamed. Stupid gift of insight. Why didn't anyone in my family ever tell me about it? Was that how Grandma Luna knew what she did? Well, if she knew so much, why wasn't she here to vindicate me? Stupid, stupid, stupid. I opened up my front pouch, expecting to find candy wrappers, but it was empty. I guess Ki had cleaned it out. Then I unzipped the main bag and poured out the contents onto the table.

I had a file with last night's notes in it, a sheaf of highlighters, a couple of pens, and, of course, the Ziploc bag. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Open the plastic bag," Uncle Louis said. Savy's eyes widened. She obviously knew I wouldn't carry hand creams or sugarless mints. Uncle Louis smirked. His wolf was stirring. If nothing else, he could sense it was close.

"What's in the box, Sam? Show us." Uncle Louis looked so close to jumping up at me. And then Killion suddenly spoke in a low but clear voice, "Those are mine, Alpha Louis."

"Oh? Why is your Alpha carrying your things?" Uncle Louis questioned.

"Very suspicious." Uncle Andre smiled broadly. Yeah, why am I carrying your things, fool? Was Ki planning to be killed in my place? Idiot. My Dad would never hurt me. He would sooner kill himself... Oh. Was this a Beta's self-sacrifice?

"My Alpha randomly confiscates little treasures from me when I piss her off," Killion answered lightly.

"Sam, don't bully Ki like that!" Mum scolded.

"I didn't!" I flared up. And I really didn't think it was the right time for Mum to scold me for that if Ki was going to die for worse. Wait, no. There was no way I would let Ki die for a stupid ring.

"What's in the soap box?" Uncle Louis asked again. Ki reached over, opened the soap box, and emptied the contents. A few pieces of little square foils fell out. Eh? What's that? Where's the ring? I puzzled at the contents now on the table. Then I realized this soap box didn't have my name on it. The funny thing was that everyone looked just as baffled at the contents. Were they all expecting a piece of soap? But what the hell was that?

"It seemed like a discreet way to keep my personal life out of sight," Killion smiled lightly. For some reason, the adults simply nodded.

"Empty your pockets, Beta," Uncle Louis decided.

"You said you would pick one person, Louis," Dad reminded him.

"Her betas are her pockets!" Uncle Louis argued. He looked pretty ticked off.

"Ah, same old, same old," Uncle Andre remarked.

"Little Lou the Lousy Loser."

"You've lost again, Lou," Uncle Pierre said.

"Just empty the Beta's pockets!" Uncle Louis snarled. Killion sighed, but he remained smiling as he emptied his pockets next to my pile. A few pens, two white handkerchiefs, a comb, a small packet of wet wipes, a packet of tissues, a phone, a couple of hair ties, a very flat wallet, a car key, another car key, a lanyard with a key card, a small bag of fruit gummies, another tin of mints, and a Swiss Army pocket knife. Ben's turn.

He emptied out his phone, a wallet, a key card, two tubes of jelly beans even though he didn't even like jelly beans, two granola bars, an opened wad of sugarless gum, a black pen, a small pocket knife, a few guitar picks, a black permanent marker, wet wipes, lip balm, and a soap box.

"Open the soap box," Uncle Louis instructed. Ben hesitated before emptying out two square foils. Unlike Killion's set of dull gold foil, though, Ben's square foils were neon-colored. There was silence. And then Ki spoke.

"I never imagined you'd use that type." Ben shrugged but didn't answer.

"How old are you, boy?" Uncle Andre asked. Ben shrugged again.

"Better safe than sorry." He looked uneasily at Beta Lucas, who looked like he had quite a bit to say on the matter. Seeing that it was his turn, Harvey emptied his pockets without a word. Another Swiss Army knife, a navy blue handkerchief, a packet of tissues, a packet of wet wipes, a phone (mine), a normal-looking plastic pen, a fancy metal pen, a matching business card case, his phone, a power bank, a thumb drive, sunglasses, a car key, a wallet, two key cards, a large paper clip, and two soap boxes.

One of the soap boxes had my name on it. Uncle Louis lifted a brow. Harvey opened the unmarked box. It was empty. Then he opened the one with my name on it and dropped out three pieces of individually wrapped hard candy. Suddenly the dots connected for me! The hard candy, tubes of jelly beans, and packet of gummies were meant for me! Hahaha, good Betas. Wait, or were they meant to bribe me? Hmmm… How should I feel about that?

Oh well, I decided not to overthink it and happily confiscated all the candy into the empty Ziploc bag. Then I pushed Killion's hand cream, mints, soap box, and gold-foiled squares to his side of the table. No one made any move to stop me. Not even Mum. Uncle Louis was frowning.

"Have the betas searched." Now Dad was growling.

"Louis..."

"Just the betas," promised Uncle Louis.

"You're going too far, Lou," Uncle Pierre said. Beta Larson stepped up and patted down each beta. They all came out clean.

"All right, enough is enough," Dad said. He was at the end of his patience. And then Grandma Luna and Mindy came into the room.

"Luna is here," announced Beta Larson quickly.

"What's going on here?" Grandma looked at us.

"Why are you still here?"

"Louis thinks we have your lost ring, Mother," Dad growled out.

"I didn't lose my ring," Grandma Luna said.

"That ring is the seal to unlock the vault to generations of accumulated wealth. Of course I would not keep it with my usual jewelry." My betas repocketed their items. Ki helped me repack my bag. I held on to the bag of candy. Mine! Wait, what? What vault of accumulated wealth?

"I've left the ring in a safe place. There should be enough in your accounts to run the pack for a full year. What is a few months while I am away?" Grandma Luna turned to berate Uncle Louis.

"Your brother left with only the money your father and I gave him on his mating day, and he has built a huge and thriving city and packland out of it. Can you not maintain the pack for a few months with twice that amount?"

"That was so long ago. The prices of things now are different, and there is inflation to contend with," Uncle Louis argued.

"Louis, do not assume that you would inherit this ring," Grandma Luna said.

"It would be best if you found a way to live without it."

"I heard your apartment was robbed too, son," Grandma Luna said to Dad. Dad nodded.

"Yes, Mother. But nothing was taken."

"Really?" But Grandma Luna was looking at me.

"Yes, Mother," Dad answered. I nodded too, although to be honest I had no idea where the ring was at the moment. Why didn't Grandma Luna just use her gift of insight to find out? Uncle Louis growled at me.

"Then it's fine," Grandma Luna said.

"Since no one lost anything, let's overlook the matter."

"Yes, Mother," Uncle Louis growled.

"Then we will take our leave," Dad said.

"It is late. I will not be leaving any of my betas or cars here as planned, so you will have to arrange transport for Mother to the ship on your own, Louis."

"But I wanted to test-drive the Porsche!" Uncle Pierre protested.

"Some other time, Pierre," Dad said.

"I do not trust Louis to leave them here alone."

"True that. Lou might just take out his frustration on them," Uncle Andre laughed.

"Little Lou the Lousy Loser. Ha! Brings back memories..." Uncle Louis growled, but we didn't wait to find out what he was about to say. Dad had stormed out and we had to all quickly follow the angry alpha storm. The moment we got in the car, Dad sent an alpha mindlink that even I could not block out. (I should learn that trick too!) {Report immediately to the conference room once at the packhouse.} {Understood, Alpha,} the betas responded. {You too, Sam,} Dad added. {Yes, Dad,} I replied.

Dad's internal fury was clearly felt through the link. I looked at my Ziploc bag of candy in my hands. Savy, who was sitting next to me in the car, dropped me a mindlink without looking up from her manga, {Are you in trouble, Sam?} What? Did Savy have the gift of insight too? Was that how it worked? Everyone had the gift of insight except me? {I don't know,} I mindlinked back. Was I? {Yes} (This was Wolfie's guess) But not from Dad... I remembered the way Uncle Louis had growled at me.

He knew I had the ring, or at least, he believed it very much.