Chương 284: MY FIRST ALPHA ASSIGNMENT

1 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, MIDNIGHT The conference room was now officially wrecked. Broken window glass and broken pieces of conference table, chairs strewn in all directions. This was going to take another bite out of our maintenance budget. Dad sighed, "Louis never outgrew throwing tantrums." Ben immediately shifted back into his human form.

"I'll get us a change of clothes." Because real life was like that. Shifting into your wolf at the spur of the moment was cool and all that, but once back in human form and finding yourself butt naked in the middle of a conference room was quite a different story. I looked at the shredded clothes on the floor and realized, "Ben! You ripped Patrick Starfish." Nix was on it like a flash.

"Don't think that gets you off the hook, Beta." Ben facepalmed.

"Oh s***." Beta Lucas growled a little.

"Right, I'm going to get clothes," Ben remembered and left the room.

"I wonder what your forfeit should be now," Nix smirked.

"Whatever," Ben shot back in parting. I laughed. Mum sighed.

"Sam... This is serious."

"It's just a forfeit, Mum... Oh, you mean Night Forest?" I looked at Aunt Jade.

"Don't worry. It'll be fine."

"Sam... We just shot their Gamma's son and a warrior in both legs. They may never walk again. We also shot a young human girl. And two Deltas. AND we have the other ten warriors in our dungeon." I looked at Nix. Really? He shot at a young female? He shrugged.

"You said to shoot whatever that wasn't ours. But I only shot her once in the shoulder, since she was a girl." Fair enough. Now I shrugged too.

"They came to our packlands in guise of mourning Grandpa Alpha, broke into my bedroom, and stole my mate's bangle." I was the Alpha. I will protect what was mine. But they were also my family.

"So I guess that makes us even." Ben returned fully clothed. There was a cut across his nose bridge. He put some clothes in the corner of the room for his Dad.

"Let's talk in my office." Dad walked out, and the rest of us followed. I mindlinked Ki over the Beta channel. {Ki, can you come back a bit? Uncle Louis threw a tantrum, we shot up their Gamma and a warrior in the legs, and Ben's face might be scarred for life.} {It would not,} Ben clarified. {Just a scratch.} {I'll be over in 30 minutes,} Ki promised. Right now would be nice if Mate were around too. He just needed to stay hydrated after using his healing.

Ki might have to take a day or two to sleep off a healing of this scale. We entered Dad's office and took our seats. And then, of course, we were all quiet. I wondered what we were waiting for, and then Beta Lucas knocked and entered. He had light scratches on one side of his face. It would fade, I know. It was fading even now. But the thing was, both Beta Lucas and Ben didn't use their faces to shield us. They had used their bodies. Beta Lucas more so than Ben since he was closest to the window.

You couldn't see it under the black sweatshirt he now wore. I guess it was Ben's.

"You should wear Ben's clothes more, Beta Lucas," I said.

"They make you look hip."

"I make them look hip," Beta Lucas boasted. Ben rolled his eyes.

"Sam..." Mum sighed.

"Please try to focus." Oh right. For some reason, maybe it was Aunt Jade's deep-set frown, Mum seemed to feel this was a really serious issue. But how bad could it be? Plus, Dad was here. I felt sure it would be fine. Now that we were all here, Dad asked, "Jade, please tell me how I might help." So Aunt Jade explained that Uncle Louis had been increasingly frustrated in his attempts to revive their pack's economy.

If it wasn't Grandma Luna, it was one of the 'old dogs,' AKA the fat old deltas that Uncle Louis called leeches just now. That's not the worst of it, though. The worst part was Uncle Louis' temper, which he had vented on those loyal to him, or generally whoever happened to be near enough. Uncle Louis had all but given up on his pack.

"If they want to be that way, fine! Let the whole pack rot in hell with them!" And then Grandpa Alpha suddenly died. And Uncle Pierre and Uncle Andre suggested that Grandma Luna might benefit from a vacation away from the pack. Uncle Louis thought it was his chance. He pulled out all his plans and rushed several meetings in between playing the funeral host, where he signed off for several construction and upgrading contracts... all without Grandma Luna's knowledge.

There were so many guests, it would have been impossible to track all of them. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Grandma Luna had always said her ring must never leave the Night Forest Packlands. Even when they were still pups, if she had to accompany Grandpa Alpha out, even if it were just for an afternoon, she would have it securely locked in her safe.

Aunt Jade said that Uncle Louis had planned to get one of their Gammas to use their lock-picking skills to retrieve the ring. He would then make the journey to the vault and collect the money to finance the projects. When Grandma Luna's ring disappeared, Uncle Louis panicked. He felt sure that the ring was with me, and equally sure that Grandma Luna would never have willingly allowed it to leave the packlands. After we left, Uncle Louis became obsessed.

He bought a human girl slave who was supposed to be gifted at seeking magical treasures only yesterday morning. And as if things weren't crazy enough, little Eddy met the human girl and by dinner time last night declared that the girl was his mate. Eddy was like what, 5? Maybe 6, tops. But it was not impossible. Aunt Jade thinks maybe it's because she was the first human child Eddy had met in his life.

"Maybe his father mated a human, so he has mistakenly assumed his mate would be human too," Aunt Jade theorized. I don't think it's that simple. Eddy was young, so while he might not understand things like mating, his wolf instincts were still untampered by the complexities of social norms. I'm not a betting person, but if I were, I'd bet we just shot Eddy's Luna.

Anyway, back to Aunt Jade's recount: Because Eddy had taken to sticking to his new human mate like glue, his sisters had to help trick him for them to bring the girl over to track down Grandma Luna's ring. So that was it. I waited for Dad to say something to magically fix everything, but Dad only nodded.

"I understand now. Sam, I will leave this to you." Wait what? Uncle Louis is your brother! That makes him your problem! Dad!!! You're the Alpha. You were supposed to fix this! I flared. I might also have mindlinked my panicked complaint to Dad. Dad chuckled.

"Don't worry, I'll help you if you get stuck." So this was a test? A training exercise? WTH.

"But dear..." Mum started. Thank Goddess for her voice of reason. Dad just smiled at her.

"A wolf will only learn to hunt if he gets a chance to hunt. Give Sam a chance." Mum nodded. It's okay, Mum! Don't give in. I didn't really want this chance. Gah! I mean, I'm kind of busy with normal teenager things, you know, like school and club and exterminating vampire threats... All the usual teenager stuff. I didn't want to deal with a tiny alpha's little human slave mate with magic treasure-hunting abilities or worse, an old traditional pack's financial reform... Or bankruptcy, whichever came first.

I also didn't want to deal with the old dogs. Unless I'm allowed to punch them, I really didn't know any other way to reason with stubborn people. What I really needed was a long drink of water and a long shower and 8 hours of sleep.

"Take this as your first Alpha Assignment," Dad decided.

"Adverting the Night Forest Crisis." I noted that Dad said "adverting" as opposed to "solving." What? He didn't think I could solve it? Well, no, I didn't think I could solve it either, but surely I couldn't make things worse, right? Maybe Dad thought my first assignment should be fail-safe? Or more likely, this was going to be trickier than it looked. I sighed, letting my full reluctance show.

"Yeah, okay." Aunt Jade was the only one in the room who didn't find that reassuring at all. I don't know what the wolves around me were thinking. Maybe they were just trying to be supportive.

"So, Alpha Sam," Beta Lucas stressed my Alpha title, "What should we do now?" How would I know? When in doubt, always consult your wolf, not that mine would be much help in this kind of situation. I checked on Wolfie. She was on the prowl. I'm not sure what for, but she didn't seem fazed by Dad's little assignment at all. I guess it's going to be okay. {Little by little, one step at a time.} Dad was right. Tonight's going to be a very long night. Especially if we were going to take it one little step at a time.

I looked at my Beta.

"Ben, I'm still thirsty." Ben bowed wordlessly and left.

"I just want water, please!" I called after him.

"I get super thirsty after a fight!" In hindsight, I should've used the mindlink.

"Sam!" Mum face-palmed.

"Please tell me you didn't beat up Alpha Cedric's daughter!" Who? Oh right, Ben's babe. I forgot her name...

"I didn't beat her up," I assured Mum.

"She fought Alpha Jude," Beta Lucas said under his breath, presumably to Dad, but Mum heard.

"Sam!" Mum gasped.

"Don't worry, I won." When Mum didn't look less alarmed, I added, "He's fine? Harvey said it was just a flesh wound..." Yes, I was desperate enough to use Harvey's name. I mean, since Mum couldn't seem to take my word for it.

"Sam! Alpha Jude is a very strong fighter. You could've been hurt," Mum started.

"Don't worry, Luna. Delta Charlie reported that the fight was one-sided, just a quick display of dominance among young Alphas. Our Alpha Sam put Alpha Jude in his place like it was child's play." If Beta Lucas thought that would placate my mum, he would be terribly mistaken. But Mum simply folded her arms and said huffily, "Of course it was child's play. To Sam, everything is child's play." Beta Lucas beamed at that. I bet he thought Mum was complimenting me. I mean, Dad, yes. Mum was more complicated.

Women are more complicated like that. Mum sighed.

"Sam, you aren't a puppy anymore. Please try to apply some restraint." Restraint... I had to admit I was never fond of the word.

"Mum, I have a lot of restraint. Any more and you might as well put a leash on me." Okay, that was just stupid, talking back to my Mum. In my defense, it really was way past my bedtime, so my, ah, restraint might have been sleeping. But maybe Mum was tired. Or maybe it was because Aunt Jade was there watching our exchange wide-eyed. Mum just sighed and muttered under her breath, "Don't tempt me." At this point, I felt it wise to retreat. Far be it from me to pick a fight with Mum. I had good instincts like that.

So I stood up with a wide smile.

"Let's go meet Night Forest's future Luna, shall we?" As I walked out, I heard Mum say, "Sam, this is not over." But Dad stopped her.

"We need to give her room to grow."

"I don't want her to grow anymore!" Mum whimpered.

"It's way too dangerous. Better that she remains our puppy forever." Dad sighed.

"I know, my darling. I've always thought so too." I could hear him growling lowly. I pretended I did not hear them and kept walking. They walked behind, keeping a distance and speaking at a volume they thought I wouldn't hear. Beta Lucas apparently felt it was his duty to give his two cents' worth on the issue.

"Alpha, Luna, with all due respect, our young Alpha is doing very well. Young wolves are that way. Meet their match and they fight, meet their mate and they..." Mum gasped at that.

"Beta Lucas! Sam is too young for that!" Beta Lucas tried desperately to recover his slip.

"Ah, yes, of course... Well, yes, both our future Alpha and Luna have shown admirable restraint on their part." See, Mum, I could do restraint. Mum sounded even more upset now. She shook her head.

"It's just a matter of time. My poor baby... Why is everything moving so fast? She isn't even 18 yet." Beta Lucas decided to just shut up at this point. Dad was the one who said, "Their bangles, it should help suppress their instinctive urge somewhat for now... even though his scent did trigger her to try to mark him in the car..." If possible, Dad was even worse than Beta Lucas at talking to Mum. Seriously.

"Like I was saying, young wolves are that way." Beta Lucas nodded at his own assessment. I take that back. Both men were just as bad. Mum groaned, and then she said wistfully, "Maybe we could lock her up in a far-away tower where he won't be able to find her." My own mother! Would you believe that! Did she think we were going to do a Rapunzel? Well, I did have the hair for it. I'm sure I could cut and grow it out magically a few times and weave a rope... Wait, no. That's not the point!

Anyway, I don't think my mum was serious... Right? And then Dad went all Zen and said, "Birds are meant to fly, and wolves are meant to run. If we let her go, her wolf will bring her home."