Chương 283: LUNA JADE STEPS UP

1 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, ALMOST MIDNIGHT Ben knocked twice on the door and pushed it open.

"Alpha Sam is here." Nobody made a move to stand up because everyone was already standing. I felt the smile wipe off my face. What the heck just happened here? There was a very broken table in the middle of the conference room, chairs strewn in every direction. Uncle Louis and Dad were facing off on either end of the room. Everyone else was shielding Mum and Aunt Jade. Oh boy. It made my little scuffle with Jude and Ben's indiscretion with Calista look suddenly like a rather minor misconduct.

Plus, you've gotta take into consideration that we were young, and young people make mistakes. I wonder what it's called when grown-ups do it. And it proved that our new conference room door was very soundproof. And also that they really didn't make tables like they used to. The table I had broken, I mean Harv had broken (since he wanted to take the rap for it), held up for 20 years. This one had already been repaired once since we bought it at the beginning of the month. I doubt it could be repaired this time.

"Who broke the table?" I had to know. Both Dad and Uncle Louis pointed to each other.

"He did!" They did it a lot like the way Henry and I would fight, so I guess it was okay. I nodded and sat down on one of the chairs that had rolled to the side of the room. Ben stood next to me, positioning himself to not block my view and yet be able to jump in like a human shield if needed. I didn't understand back then, but now I was beginning to see how Ben got bullets in his stomach in his prophetic dream.

In fact, given the way Ben had a propensity to jump into any line of fire directed at me, I no longer find that part of the dream particularly strange. Uncle Louis was the first to speak. Well, technically, he growled at me. But to wolves, that spoke volumes. Enough for every other man in the room to start growling too. Could someone explain what just happened? Nobody thought to, so I had to ask, "What happened?"

"What happened was that somebody stole my mother's sapphire ring." Uncle Louis growled, looking at me pointedly so that even the most casual observer would have known the somebody was me.

"I meant about the break-in to my room," I said. Uncle Louis growled lowly.

"I was only retrieving stolen property." Nix held up Bell's Mating band.

"You mean this? It's a pretty huge ring."

"That's my mate's," I informed Uncle Louis.

"I'm safekeeping it for him. Just safekeeping for the time being. I'll return it when he gets back." Suddenly the room got quiet.

"Safekeeping?" Uncle Louis blinked.

"Yes, safekeeping," I said, meeting Uncle Louis squarely in the eyes.

"Not stolen for yourself?" Uncle Louis asked, narrowing his eyes at me.

"Why would I steal my own mate's bangle?"

"I'm not talking about the bangle!" Uncle Louis exploded.

"Then why did you steal it?" I exploded back. I can't believe it was actually taken. Come to think of it, I shouldn't have used it as bait. It was the only magic item I could spare, yes, but if Nix had failed to catch the intruder or retrieve the bangle... I would surely be in deep s***. Soup. You know what I mean. I held up my hand and Nix tossed it over. Ben intercepted it, checked it, and handed it to me. Overkill, Ben. Uncle Louis looked a little uncomfortable about having to admit it.

"The idiot thought it was a large ring." Aunt Jade seemed to have felt Uncle Louis was overkill too.

"Louis, that's enough! That boy got shot in both legs to get it for you!" Everyone spun round to look at Aunt Jade. I was somewhat surprised. I think we all were, given Aunt Jade's passiveness as long as I had known her. I had never once heard her contradict Uncle Louis, much less oppose him. Mum had once said that Aunt Jade never said no to Uncle Louis.

"She admires and respects him very much." The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Louis, can't we all talk about this calmly?" she pleaded.

"Don't start a fight with your brother over it. We are all family..."

"Family wouldn't steal Mother's ring! Or shoot my man!" Uncle Louis snarled.

"We only shot them a little," I protested.

"Right?" I looked to Nix to make sure.

"Right," Nix agreed, and then he winked. Oh. Sigh.

"Your daughter will bring our Night Forest Pack to ruin!" Uncle Louis accused.

"Why would the Night Forest Pack come anywhere near to ruin?" Dad suddenly asked, and then he growled, "Louis, what did you do now?"

"I didn't do anything!" Uncle Louis exclaimed.

"He signed an agreement for the reconstruction of our pack's infrastructure just before Mother left," Aunt Jade supplied.

"That's good," Dad approved.

"I've always said it was a necessary investment, but Mother never approved... Mother didn't approve, did she?"

"Do you know how much something like that costs?" Uncle Louis bemoaned.

"A whole year's pack budget wouldn't cover the deposit payment." A whole year's budget, which was all Uncle Louis had at his disposal. And then Aunt Jade stepped forward.

"I'm sorry for Louis' behavior, but if you truly consider us family, please help us."

"I was quite sure Mother would have left the ring in her safe," Uncle Louis said.

"She always had before when she had to leave the packlands."

"You've done this before, haven't you?" Dad said.

"And you think Mother wouldn't have known? Her gift of sight far surpasses yours!"

"Only if she wondered, but our treasures are vast like the sea and it's not like anyone would miss it," Uncle Louis said.

"I can't believe you," Dad spat out. He was furious.

"Why are you stealing from your own Mother?"

"I'm doing it for the pack!" Uncle Louis growled back.

"I've never taken anything for myself. You won't understand. You are free here, to do as you please. Back home, Mother has to sign off every item. Do you think I didn't want to increase our bandwidth or deal with our financial system's security lapses, automate our administration, or upgrade our factories? I can't even fire the fat old useless deltas off the payroll because they flatter Mother so. They are like leeches."

"So you shipped her off with Pierre and Andre, thinking that it would free you to restructure," Dad cut in. Uncle Louis hung his head and said nothing.

"It's a good idea," Dad said finally.

"Mother would be furious when she gets back, but if you got the pack's interest secured before she returns, there would be very little she could do about it. She might even approve it, grudgingly, of course."

"Well, a fat load of good that any reform would do now that I'm completely broke," Uncle Louis grumbled.

"Maybe, now that you're broke, reform would be a good idea," Dad suggested, and then he looked sternly at his younger brother.

"I mean, you earn it, with your own ability." Uncle Louis sulked.

"Just return the ring to me. What use do you have for it? It's not like you would steal anything from Mother." Uncle Louis sounded very sore about it. But it was cool because he was all but admitting that he knew my Dad's character and trusted him. Since, as Aunt Jade said, we were all family, I spoke then.

"I didn't steal the ring. Grandma gave it to me for safekeeping. I'll bring it back in the summer when she returns."

"I KNEW YOU HAD THE RING! WHERE IS IT?" Uncle Louis charged toward me. But Ben was quicker, shifting into his large black wolf and smashing Uncle Louis into the ground. His wolf gnashed his teeth and snarled. Uncle Louis shifted then. His wolf was also large and black. I felt quite surprised that it wasn't larger than Ben's wolf. But it was large enough, and now our conference room felt even more crowded and somewhat dangerous. My wolf stirred.

"STOP!" Aunt Jade was suddenly between the two black wolves. Her human form a wisp between the two large snarling creatures. I had never seen a human so courageous.

"Louis, this is not the way to ask for help," Aunt Jade said. Her voice wobbled, but she was doing her best to be firm. Neither wolf stood down. But neither did Aunt Jade. Okay, now this was a little further than how my fights with Henry would go. It's actually worse than my fight with Jude just now. We were officially out of the safe zone. Sooner or later, either Dad or I would have to step in, or things were going to get in a bad way. And then Aunt Jade did something I would never believe a mere woman would do.

She raised her hand and smacked Uncle Louis' wolf right across his snout. Naturally, Uncle Louis snarled and snapped his jaws at her, and I thought it was the end of Aunt Jade. I thought so enough to stand up. But Dad simply said, "Sam, tell your beta to stand down." I looked at Ben, who ducked his large wolf head and retreated two steps back to position his big black mountain of fur next to me. I stroked the fur on his side. I did it without noticing, my attention on Aunt Jade, who looked perfectly unscathed.

She had fallen back onto the ground, though. Mum made a move forward. I think she wanted to snatch Aunt Jade out of Uncle Louis' snapping range, but Dad raised an arm to block her from entering Uncle Louis' immediate attack range herself. We watched as Uncle Louis' large wolf breathed heavily, growling... which was a good sign. His wolf was calming down, just a notch. Aunt Jade seemed to realize this.

She was his mate, so I knew in theory she would have a mating bond with Uncle Louis, which would allow her to mindlink him and his pack, and feel his feelings. I had no idea the extent of the mating bond on a human, though. I'm told its effect is milder but different for everyone. And we all know I'm no expert with mating bonds. I didn't even know the extent of my own mating bond. Then Aunt Jade got back to her feet again. She patted down her skirt and then she said, "I'm tired.

I want to go back home to the girls and Eddy. Our pack is in enough trouble as it is. Can we just stop this nonsense?" Uncle Louis' wolf took extreme offense at being spoken to that way by his own Luna. He reared his large wolf head back and let a snarl rip through our conference room, which was really too small for large wolves to confer in. And then he turned and crashed through the windows to the snowy ground a floor down. At this point, Beta Lucas shifted too, using his body to shield Mum from the glass shards.

Ben stood in front of me protectively. Dad pulled Aunt Jade off the ground and behind Beta Lucas, where Mum was. When Ben moved away, there were glass shards all over the floor, and the smell of blood. Dad's face was cut across his upper cheek. Gammy Harry, Nix, Flynn, and Hank looked somewhat stunned. They were further away from the window to begin with, but evidently not far enough. Nix had ducked behind Beta Lucas too. Gamma Harry put down the chair he had used as his shield. Flynn looked alright.

Hank had a large shard in his shoulder. I guess he was the least lucky. He winced a little, and then plucked it out so that the wound would seal. It was a clean cut, and should be fine. It was really the very tiny shards that were dangerous.

"Flynn, take Hank down to a medic, then check on the prisoners. Harry, follow my brother from a safe distance. Nix, mindlink your parents to let them know where you are. We will continue our meeting in my office."