Chương 256: BEN WAKES UP

We were still sitting around Morning Light' s main packhouse lobby. Every now and then, Morning Light warriors or staff would pass through. I actually vaguely recognized some of them. Killion and Ben continued sleeping on the sofa with us. {Beta approaches} {Delta approaches} Hank and Gamma Endo went out of the warm lobby and onto the porch to meet Ben's parents and Delta Simon. Once their car pulled up the driveway, the adults wasted no time in coming over, and I got up and moved away to let Mrs.

Beta sit next to Ben. Ben sat up with a start the moment I moved to get up." It' s okay, Ben. Just sit." I told him.

"His Beta wolf's instinct is very in sync with yours," Harvey observed aloud. I moved over to sit in the empty spot next to Harvey." I guess it' s because we ran together since we were small. Dad said that our ancestors left the Colored Mountains together, and Grandpa Alpha said that we were direct descendants of the original black wolf pack... But Grandpa Alpha liked to lie to me for fun, so even though I believed that as a kid, I highly doubt it now."

"I can't say I don't envy that," Harvey said quietly." To grow up and realize I had been fed lies every year by my Grandpa Alpha?" I asked.

"Ah, no, Princess... I meant, well... no matter." Harvey smiled, but his tone was determined.

"I will just have to work harder." What?

"Alpha. Alpha. Sam!" I turned and realized Ben had been calling to me." Oops, I thought you were calling my dad," I told him.

"Do you see your dad in the room?" Ben asked." Grrr... You don' t need to get all technical about it," I grumbled, earning one of Ben' s smiles." I' m running home with my Mum and Dad. Do you wanna come?"

"Can I?" I could literally feel my eyes light up. But then I realized I had Killion passed out on the sofa and Jonah, who was still unshifted.

"You're the Alpha." Ben smirked.

"You tell me." Ben's wolf had attitude. I laughed, and then I worried about Killion and Jonah again.

"Harvey can drive Ki and Jonah home," Ben decided. Ben's wolf was bossy. Harvey nodded.

"Leave them to me, Princess."

"Thanks, Harvey!" I got up. Beta Lucas and Mrs. Beta had gone to the door to wait. Beta Lucas was talking to Gamma Endo, or rather, he was talking at Gamma Endo. He looked stern. Mrs. Beta had a serious expression throughout. Gamma Endo actually looked contrite at whatever Beta Lucas was saying. I hesitated. Maybe now wasn't the best time to skip over and announce, "Let's go!" Ben put his hand on the small of my back and turned back to Harvey and the others.

"My Alpha." Ben's wolf was possessive. Then he pushed me gently forward.

"Sam's ready to leave. She's running with us," he announced to the adults. We left without waiting for them. Ben's wolf was a very proper black wolf. He hit full points for every description ever recorded about a typical black wolf. Ben was younger, and his wolf had just shifted, but he didn' t act like an oversized puppy. In fact, he seemed more mature, even more assertive and confident than before. So much for the hope that my Wolfie just needed time to grow up.

I had to admit, even as I changed out of my clothes and shifted, I wondered what the hell was wrong with my Wolfie. My Wolfie was playful, and now, next to Ben' s wolf, my Wolfie could even pass herself off as rather sweet. What kind of black wolf was that? I shifted and then wondered belatedly what to do with the clothes. How was I supposed to pick up my lucky vest without slobbering all over it? Sigh, just typical of me. {Harvey, pick up our clothes for us too. Thanks.} Ben mindlinked.

{I can' t believe it' s possible for you to get bossier than before, but you managed it,} Harvey noted. {Get used to it.} Ben smirked through the mindlink. How was it that Ben could force mindlinks through to me? Grrr... My large wolf shook her head as I stepped out into the clearing. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Ben was already waiting in his wolf form. So was Beta Lucas. The two of them looked like twins, but Ben was larger than his dad.

Of course my Wolfie had to go over to square up. {Who's bigger?} I wanted to know. Beta Lucas' wolf stood back to check. {Looks too close to tell.} Mrs. Beta appeared, still dressed and in her human form. She started taking photos of Ben and me together. {Willow, I thought you were shifting?} Beta Lucas's wolf turned to his mate. {Yes, but I couldn't miss the photo opportunity,} Mrs. Beta answered. Oh, I was accidentally picking up stray mindlinks again.

I decided to distract myself with the task of tackling Ben. Maybe he was all fluff. You never know. We rolled over in the snow. His wolf growled and tackled me back. Thus, I could confirm that I was the fluffier wolf. Ben's wolf had a shorter coat than mine. Mrs. Beta took a video of us romping in the snow. {Willow, maybe you should shift and join us now,} Beta Lucas suggested. {But Lucas, they're so cute playing together!} Mrs. Beta said. {I'm sure Luna would love to see this.} {Cute?} Beta Lucas sounded somewhat dumbfounded. Ben and I looked at each other, and then we pounced on Beta Lucas and knocked his wolf over, just because we could. Our wolves made chuffing sounds once we were triumphant. Beta Lucas' wolf growled a low warning. Ahhh!!! The three of us chased and tackled one another until Mrs. Beta returned to the scene in her proper gray wolf form. By now, Harvey, Killion, and Jonah were out on the porch. Jonah had run to hunt down everyone' s clothes.

Killion took out his phone to take photos. (Of us wolves, not Jonah scrambling around the trees.) Harvey popped open the trunk and wrapped each individual' s clothing that Jonah retrieved in their corresponding winter coat before putting it into the trunk.

"We're going first," Harvey called out to us. Jonah and Killion got in. I guess Killion was going to sleep through the journey home too. Ben and I started running toward home after Killion's car pulled out of the driveway. We started by running alongside the car and then chasing it, but quickly dropped off the hard tarmac road and into the woods, where the snow and dirt felt good on our large paws. Beta Lucas and Mrs. Beta were close behind us. Mrs.

Beta's wolf couldn't run as fast but Beta Lucas' wolf was very considerate of his mate throughout the run and never once left her alone. Ben and I were less considerate, but we would stop to play-fight when the adults dropped too far back. Ben's wolf was pretty fierce when he tackled. So far, it was my wolf that was usually the aggressor in these playfights, with the other wolves simply sidestepping or tolerating the assault. At most, the other wolf would take a defensive stance, but Ben's wolf didn't hold back.

He head-butted mine, actually forcing my wolf off her feet. I head-butted back. We tumbled and hit a tree. There was a cracking sound on impact. We broke the tree! Our wolves were very pleased. The game was on: who ran the fastest, who pushed the hardest, who jumped the farthest. We ran back a couple of times to agitate Beta Lucas' wolf, charging headfirst toward Mrs.

Beta's wolf and then changing course at the last minute, crashing into each other crazily while Beta Lucas' wolf worried about us crashing into his precious mate. Muahahaha. Of course we wouldn't, but in his eyes, we were two oversized puppies playing way too roughly. Tumbling around in the snow, the familiar smells of home greeted me. I dashed toward them, Ben close at my heels. We made it to the front lawn, with Harvey, Killion, and Jonah just getting out of the car.

Harvey opened the trunk and tossed our clothing bundles to Jonah, who placed them carefully behind the trees. Jonah looked unsure, checking each tree before putting a bundle behind each one. I remembered then that Jonah hadn't shifted yet, so all this choosing a tree to change behind was new to him. My wolf went over to sniff at Jonah. He was holding Beta Lucas' clothes.

"Ahhh!" Jonah yelled at something behind me. I didn' t even have to turn around to know. A large wolf was bounding over, the crunch of the snow beneath large paws. And then another. Jonah got out of the way quickly. By the time I heard a third large wolf, Hahaha. My betas freaked Jonah out. Killion' s white and Harvey' s red, Ben' s black and my blue. We were all over the snow, making snow angels, except they were not angel-shaped. TBH, they were not any shape.

It looked like a rampage had happened on our front lawn. From the corner of my eye, I saw Beta Lucas and Mrs. Beta dressed and on the porch like proper, respectable adults, but I was too busy wolfing around. So fun! We were huge, we were fast, and as far as I could tell, we were indestructible. At one point, we barged through the undergrowth and crashed into a tree. There was a cracking sound, and I think we splintered the thing through its trunk. I heard Mrs. Beta cry out in alarm.

Our four wolves fell apart into the nearby snow, shaking ourselves out. I think I took the brunt of the impact to the tree, but I was really fluffy, and the pieces of broken wood either broke off or simply stabbed through the fur. Killion' s wolf had come over to check on me while the other two suddenly stilled. I supposed it did look a bit like I was stabbed by some of the splintered pieces, but I really wasn' t. I shook out my fur. See! I' m fine!

It also had to be the same moment when Dad' s car pulled up along the driveway — where the largest part of the broken tree had fallen. Our wolves used our massive heads to push the tree to the side so that the town car could drive through. Dad got out of the car and walked over to survey the newest wolf. I had thought perhaps we could trick Dad into thinking that Ben was Beta Lucas, but he wasn' t fooled for a moment.

"Congratulations, Ben," Dad said to us. He looked at the tree.

"Sam, please have this cleaned up and come to my office." Grrr... It wasn't me! Well, okay, it was—but those three pushed me! But Dad didn't sound all that mad, and he had already disappeared with Beta Lucas, Mrs. Beta, and Jonah into the packhouse. {Go on in, Alpha,} Ben mindlinked. {I' ve already taken care of the tree.} I looked at the tree still lying by the side of the road... And then a few men showed up from the packhouse with ropes, a couple of axes, and a chainsaw.

They looked at the wolves and then at the tree. Then they started hacking away at the fallen tree by the roadside. I guess Ben' s idea of taking care of the tree was ordering someone else to clean it up. I headed behind the trees. I had to rely on my lucky sense of direction to find my clothes since I had no idea where Jonah had placed them. You know what the funny thing was? None of the adults who came out handed us the axes and told us to clean up our mess on our own.

Then again, I suppose it was one thing to hand a pail and a garbage bag to a group of puppies and tell them they had better clean up their own messes. It was a whole different story to do that to four super-sized wolves to their faces. I was quite sure my Betas, in their wolf form, could quite easily bite off a human head. I found my clothes and checked my surroundings because I didn't trust Jonah entirely to place me in a private enough space. But he did, so I changed and went back into the packhouse.

I checked on the progress of the fallen tree. The men had gotten most of the branches off. Only Ben's wolf was standing around. I wondered if I should be feeling sorrier for killing innocent trees. Ben was a bad influence on me. Hahaha. On the porch, Killion and Harvey stood dressed and in human form.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, Princess?" Harvey asked. Hm? Actually yes, but I couldn't think of it. There was something I wanted to ask... But what was it? I shook my head.

"Then I'll be taking my leave." Harvey made a slight bow and turned back to the car.

"Bye-bye! Thanks!" I called out. Killion smiled as he held the door open and reminded me," Your dad is waiting for you in his office."