Chương 252: THE PERFECT FLUFFY FRIEND

Hiding Grandma Luna's blue sapphire ring in the belly of a fluffy toy?

"I read it in a manga," Savy admitted. I liked it immediately. The ring could be safely kept on my bed or moved without suspicion. There was only one problem... All my fluffy friends were lost in the fire.

"It shouldn't be a problem," Dad decided.

"I have a meeting at Gate City later. I'll pick something up on the way back." In the meantime, we decided to keep the ring in Dad's office safe.

"Please get something fluffy enough to hide the stitches, and not quite too soft, so it would not be easy to feel the ring inside the toy," Killion said.

"It would be best if it were a transportable size that isn't too large," Beta Lucas suggested.

"But not too small either," Ben said.

"Remember the time Lizzy lost Little Snowy?" Little Snowy was Lizzy's lucky white rabbit tail (don't ask). It was actually one of those keychains that looked like a ball of fur. She lost it at school one day and refused to go home till it was found. All the kids tried to help her find it. Even Ben. I think some of the teachers stayed back too. When Ben, Lizzy, and Savy didn't get home on the school bus, Mum called the school. Mrs. Beta drove down to pick them up. But Lizzy would not be moved.

In the end, Beta Lucas had to drive down himself and forcibly pick Lizzy up and put her into the truck. She screamed and cried like she was being kidnapped by rogues (her dad's words, not mine). I think Mrs. Beta grounded Lizzy for a week after that. Beta Lucas bought her a new lucky rabbit tail, in pink, because they didn't sell white ones anymore. And then Ben came home with it at the end of the week. It was grimy, its chain broken off, and wet from drain water.

It seemed that Ben and Jonah had spent every lunch hour searching for it and found it in the gutter outside the school gate. Beta Lucas' expression remembering it was priceless. I think kidnapping his own daughter from school had traumatized him more than he'd like to admit.

"Perhaps, if possible, something not terribly embarrassing for a guy to be seen holding," Harvey added. He too looked like he was remembering a less than pleasant experience.

"So... something medium-sized, firm, and fluffy, which you won't mind having to carry around, Dad," Savy summarized.

"That isn't too doll-like," Mum felt it was important to add. I don't think Dad was expecting it to be so complicated. He looked at Mum, but she shook her head.

"Sorry, dear. I have to visit the destitute house at Morning Light." Dad looked at me. I shook my head.

"I have Alpha duties." Dad looked at Savy. She shook her head.

"I have a group project with Lizzy and a few other girls." It's all on you, Dad. Dad growled a bit.

"Write it all down for me, Lucas." The perfect fluffy friend was like that: fluffy, easy to hold, tolerable by the men in your life, not scary, and picked out by someone who loves you. I grinned as we all headed down for breakfast with the rest of the pack. I guess Grandma Luna's ring was not all bad. We followed Dad into the dining hall. We were fashionably late, and most of the wolves were finishing their meal. Dad went in unannounced. Nobody stopped eating or stood up.

Some of the guys yelled my name, and I grinned and waved back, but I didn't head over. Today was the first time Ki and Harvey were joining us for Sunday Breakfast, and I wanted to make sure they didn't feel left out. Actually, I was particularly worried about Ki because he had no family. At least Harvey had Beta Gerald around. There were no servants to collect food for me, although it did seem for a moment that Ben was about to. He just handed me an empty plate, though.

As usual, we sat with our families, Harvey and Killion joining us at the table for the first time. It was only Dad who sat at one of the regular tables today. He had promised to meet Dean's dad to talk over breakfast. Dean's dad was going to retire from being a warrior. He had decided to help his mate, Florence, with a new business project.

They were planning on buying a very large house near the school and converting it into a hostel for young wolves who wanted to study at New Leaf but found the daily travel too far from their home pack. He wanted advice about the permissions and paperwork. Savy and Lizzy had automatically locked onto each other like two different poles of a magnet. They were doing some serious updating via mindlink.

Every now and then, Savy would gasp, or they would laugh, or Lizzy would slap Savy on the shoulder and say aloud, "OMG, no way!" We were only gone a couple of days, though, but I'm going to assume this was a girly best-friend thing and not question it. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Anyway, if it were anything interesting, I was quite sure Savy would tell me about it later. Mum, Mrs.

Beta, and Laura started catching up too, but over coffee and tea, with some fruit and pastries that each lady had collected from the buffet to make their little tea party. Gamma Harry was updating Beta Lucas and Beta Gerald, who listened with great interest. Beta Gerald was one of those guys whose life motto was probably something like, "You're never too old to learn," or "Make every moment an opportunity to learn." Dad said it was one of Beta Gerald's strengths.

"It's like stepping into a whole different world suddenly," Killion commented after we had sat down.

"Welcome home!" I sang. Then I realized none of the guys had started eating yet. I quickly picked up a slice of homemade bread topped messily with ham and omelet and took a big bite. The guys started eating. They must have been starved. I knew I was. We had been awake since predawn to bury Grandpa Alpha. The guys had to do the physical labor too. I know some human girls who could survive on a piece of chocolate and bottled water for the better part of the day, but werewolf metabolism didn't work that way.

Savy and I only survived by eating all the candy I had taken from them. Maybe my Betas survived on sugarless mints. What was with that? At least Ben had granola bars on him. Suddenly, Gamma Harry's voice boomed overhead.

"So are you ready to show the Morning Light boys the right way to patrol?" Yeah, never mind that Harvey or Beta Gerald were sitting with us. At least Jonah was more aware. He was actually really quiet the entire breakfast. I guess he wasn't used to the two older guys yet.

"Eh, son?" Gamma Harry jabbed Jonah in the ribs, hard.

"Show that Endo up!" Gamma Harry was really into it.

"Then I will be the one laughing. Hahahahaha!" Jonah looked uncomfortably at Harvey, who wore his usual wry smile.

"You know, since Nix is the one taking the forfeit, I don't mind losing." Harvey dropped a wink at the younger guy. Jonah brightened up visibly.

"What's the patrol route at Morning Light like?" Ben asked.

"Very similar to the one we took last week," Harvey said.

"Just check the traps. I doubt Gamma Endo would post you on a dangerous route. Just be careful not to go too near the Warlock Forest, keep the Princess on your left, and keep the safety catch of your gun on." That was the kind of advice that made Harvey sound like an experienced warrior who had dealt with young warriors more than once... which I supposed he was. Wait, guns? We needed guns? I didn't like guns. They were too loud. >. <"Do you know how to check a trap?" Harvey asked.

Both boys nodded, but they didn't look too confident. Harvey nodded.

"After the first one, the others will feel easier. Just remember to check your feet before you check the trap. Even the most seasoned warriors get caught if they get careless." The two guys nodded earnestly. For some reason, they didn't wisecrack or shrug off Harvey's basic-sounding tips. Harvey had a very undeniable big-brother quality. I knew Ben admired him a lot, but I was just beginning to understand why. Our guys grew up with lots of big brothers and were, in turn, big brothers later.

I looked at Killion, who was watching the interaction quietly. I wondered if Killion or Rebel grew up with big brothers too, or if Killion and Rebel grew up as brothers the way Ben and I did.

"What was it like in the Lorent Pack?" I asked Killion.

"Different," Killion said. There was a lot of pain in his eyes, and I regretted my question instantly. Talking about his past life in the Lorent... Wow, I was as insensitive as Gamma Harry. But I kind of wish I could understand better the world Killion and Rebel grew up in. I wondered what kind of pack we would be upon our merger. I wondered what a Lorent wolf might miss or expect. Well, it's not like I was anything my own pack or Morning Light would have expected from an Alpha anyway.

I looked around me at the busy noises in the dining hall as everyone started packing away the leftovers and cleaning up the dining hall. Women got ready to make sandwiches and prepare fruit and snacks to bring over to the destitute house in Morning Light. Pups were running around on the other side of the hall where they wouldn't get in the way of the adults sending the food trays back to the kitchen. This was the pack that my parents built and nurtured.

It's not perfect, and it might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I can't deny that I was damn proud of it. If our pack was a building, then Mum and Dad had set up a solid foundation. Our pack wasn't the strongest, or richest, or oldest, but we were really secure and one of the most progressive packs on the continent. It really made me wonder, what would Rebel and I, and my Betas, be building on top of it? Never mind how we might better it, I wasn't even sure we could maintain it.

And then I remembered another point of Zen-ness from Dad long ago: "The quickest way to put a pack on its decline is to try to maintain the status quo. The whole world is improving. Continuous improvement is the only way to keep up." All my life, I had thought that if I was strong enough, I would be the Alpha. Now I'm beginning to get that brute strength wouldn't be able to cut it. Most things in life could not be solved by a single punch. Actually, nothing in my life had been successfully solved that way.

I've just been very lucky. And also very blessed to have a lot of other people thinking through the issue with me. I mean, even the selection of a simple stuffed animal had a set of criteria listed from various deeply experienced and analytical minds. Hahaha. I was the Alpha. The kind who eats too much candy and hides heritage treasures, which doubled as keys to unspeakable wealth, in fluffy toys, and who managed to merge the three major packs in her packlands by sheer luck.

The kind whose Wolfie liked to fight and would get into trouble easily, who didn't like bones, shells, or bitter stuff in my food, the kind who couldn't always follow the conversation, didn't like to deal with difficult emotions, and often zoned out midway.

"Night Leaf is the kind of place that makes me think it would be nice to be a normal wolf and start my own family and raise my pups here," Killion said quietly to me.

"The leaders work the hardest, and everyone shares a comfortable and safe life, even the omegas. Because of this, you have talented wolves who decline leadership roles to enjoy a more relaxed life. No one is particularly power-hungry or ambitious, since even normal wolves enjoy plenty of privileges and respect, and in fact enjoy more freedom to do as they please. Very few of the second generation understand hardship or sacrifice or have had their resilience tested.

Most of them take their place in the pack for granted. It won't last, Goddess. The war is upon us. Every wolf will have to run hard to keep their place in this pack, or fall out and get killed." Killion sounded like an old man.

"We are wolves, Goddess. Only the fittest will survive." Correction, Killion sounded like an old wolf.