It was a good thing we finished early with the packaged lunches, because suddenly the kitchen exploded into a flurry of activity. My Mum looked up at us after receiving a mindlink. "Girls, you better go home. Alpha Lorent is on his way; his cars just crossed our borders."
Well, that explained the silver platters being stacked and carefully arranged with little pieces of yummy morsels. I hoped we would get to eat the leftovers for lunch. I made a mental note to visit my dad's office after our surprise guests left.
"Can Jessica come over?" I asked Mum as we gathered our stuff.
"If she wants." My Mum smiled warmly at Jessica. "Make sure you let your folks know, though."
"Yes, Luna," Jessica said with her good-girl voice.
My Mum smiled again and excused herself to go upstairs to join Dad.
"Don't hang around," she said in less friendly tones to me as we parted ways.
I opened the backdoor in the kitchen. She didn't have to tell me twice. Jessica, Savy, and I ambled over the paved walkway to our home.
I've never met Alpha Lorent in person, but I'd heard enough to know it would be better to avoid him.
When I became Alpha, I would be presented to the Green Packland Council, and I often imagined that this one man would be my single biggest obstacle to being accepted.
He got along well enough with my dad. The both of them had a level of mutual respect for each other's achievements in their respective fields. Even so, they didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things on the personal front.
Savy disappeared into her room the moment we got home.
I let Jessica into my room, and we immediately went to the window to wait. Since the Pack House was just next to the Alpha House, my room window had a good view to the main road where our Lorent guests would arrive.
"I wonder what's going on," I mumbled to the window while we waited.
"Yesterday, you know I was at my cousin's, right?" Jessica told me.
"Uh-huh, did you have a good time?" My eyes were still on the road outside.
"No! I mean, yes, but that's not what I was talking about." Jessica sometimes sounded like she had no idea why she even had to explain some things to me.
"Okay, so what—" The appearance of a line of white Mercedes-Benz pulling up in front of the pack house interrupted me.
"The Alpha's son, they've found him," Jessica hissed at me.
We were both watching the cars pull up now. My windows were shut, and the sounds outside was surprisingly muted. It was almost like watching a silent film.
I had to really concentrate to make out the sounds… but Jessica was now looking at me and I was quite aware that a response was required. I tried my best.
"Urm... did they lose their Alpha's son?" I had no idea. Was he particularly small or losable?
"He ran away," Jessica informed me.
"How did you know?" I asked her. Surely news like that would have hit our pack like wildfire.
"It's all hush-hush. My cousin told me yesterday," Jessica explained. "You can't tell anyone."
The cars stopped. And all the doors—and I mean ALL the doors of the cars except for the car in the middle—flung open, and warriors in dark suits stepped out and lined up in position.
Every car driver stood at attention in front of his car door. All the other men lined up in two rows in front of the middle car, forming a kind of path to the pack house. By this time, even Jessica forgot that we were in the middle of a conversation.
The man closest to the middle car stepped forward and opened the passenger door.
Alpha Lorent stepped out.
Now why didn't my Alpha Dad ever travel like that?
Alpha Lorent straightened his suit jacket and held a hand out to the car, helping a delicate and beautiful woman out of it.
She was beautiful, like something that stepped out of the NEW LORENT magazine. Shimmering in the sunlight, her jewelry glittered over her. Her dark hair was cropped fashionably short and bejeweled like the rest of her. Under all the jewelry, she wore a silk traditional dress in a bright scarlet hue.
Alpha Lorent put her on his arm, and they both walked through the two rows of men.
Beta Lucas and Gamma Harry were on the porch, ready to greet them.
Once they reached the porch, Beta Lucas extended his hand in greeting.
Alpha Lorent put his Luna in front of him, left arm encircling her to rest his hand on the curve of her right shoulder, where his mark was, and then right hand extended to shake Beta Lucas' hand.
With that one move, Alpha Lorent had exerted his claim and dominance over his mate, greeted the host and accepted his extended hand of welcome, and displayed his wealth and status through the many jeweled bangles on his Luna.
The beauty of a woman was the glory of her mate. I suddenly remembered reading this in one of the ancient books in our library. I blinked at the spectacle just outside my bedroom window.
It was fascinating to watch age-old customs that I'd only seen in the hand-painted old books in the library played out in real life. It was as if they had come straight out of the pages of the Colored Mountain legends. Can you believe their pack was just an hour's drive from ours?
Gamma Harry stepped forward, extending his hand too, but Alpha Lorent simply waved him off to settle his men. Hahaha. What a slight. Burn... Gamma Harry!
I know I was supposed to be on our Gamma's side, but it was really rare to see anything like that happen, so it was a little funny.
Beta Lucas hadn't changed his composure throughout the greeting, merely indicating for the esteemed Alpha guest and his Luna to enter the pack house with him.
Once they disappeared through the front door, I saw Gamma Harry yelling and pointing the cars to drive around back to park, and for the warriors to go to the dining hall for refreshments.
I was interested to watch how they filed out. They were not that orderly, and I was curious to know if it was because they could not understand Gamma Harry's instructions, or if there was something unfamiliar in their surroundings that disrupted their earlier uniformity of movement, or perhaps they just never choreographed what happened once their Alpha's back was turned.
Gamma Harry was yelling at the cars.
But Jessica had lost interest the moment the Luna had left.
I supposed that was normal. I was probably the only one still inspecting the men. How did they fight in suits? Why did they look so lost on our pavement?
They were like toy soldiers, abandoned by a child mid-game. Gamma Harry was barking at them, picking them up and herding them into the pack house. Perhaps they had not expected to be invited in. What were they planning to do? Wait in the car? Or stand somewhere like a row of tin soldiers till their Alpha was done?
Why did Alpha Lorent bring so many warriors?
"My cousin said he is really handsome," Jessica informed me.
"Who? Alpha Lorent?" I made a face. He was kind of old, and I'm not talking about Flynn-kind-of-old. More like my dad kind of old.
"No!" Jessica huffed. "Sam, sometimes I feel like I'm talking to..." She searched for the right words to use, "a really dense rock thing."
Okay. At least she didn't call me a boy.
"His son! Actually both sons are handsome, but the older one is really cool-looking!" Jessica gushed.
"Plus, he would be the future Alpha of the Lorent Pack."
"The one who ran away?" I asked.
"Yeah, well, I'm sure you've heard—he had a really rocky relationship with his dad from the start."
Actually, no, I had never heard it.
"You know, Alpha Lorent was really harsh with punishments, and he was the bad-boy type, so he got punished a lot. But after shifting, his wolf wouldn't back down, and he would fight back. It's like two alpha wolves fighting all the time. And last month..." Jessica dropped her voice to a staged whisper. "The son fought back so hard that he nearly killed his father."
"My cousin was there. It was the Alpha's birthday, and there was a big party. The son came late and made the old Alpha super angry. My cousin saw it with her own eyes. She said the fight was so fierce, she nearly had contractions and gave birth there!"
"It got so bad the whole pack thought the young Alpha would kill him, but then the Luna cried out, and then the young Alpha stopped himself, and then he walked away... never to be seen again."
So dramatic, these Lorent stories... like the modern retelling of those old Lycan lore.
"The whole pack was on lockdown until yesterday morning, since Alpha Lorent was unconscious and the future Alpha was gone. They couldn't risk anyone knowing."
For a lockdown-worthy secret, Jessica sure heard a lot of it.
"It was a good thing the old Alpha woke up, or else I wouldn't have been able to go see my cousin's new baby yesterday!"
Yes, of course. Babies were more important than gossip.
"I can't believe I'm an aunt now!" Jessica gushed.
I smiled, letting the rumors slide. They were probably grossly exaggerated anyway.
"You got pictures, Aunty Jessica?" I asked.
"Ewww... No!" Jessica squealed. "Don't call me that! You're making me sound old."
But she whipped out her phone to show me pictures of her carrying a little baby. She showed me a video of her carrying the baby and cooing to it, "You soooo cuuute..." The baby seemed to enjoy the praise. It was a very generic looking baby, so I guess it would be cute to anyone who thought babies were cute.
"You should hurry up and get a phone," Jessica told me, "then you can see all the stuff I upload."
"I know, right! But try telling my dad that!" I laughed.
"You know, I don't envy you," she said. "Having an Alpha dad isn't easy."
It's not that bad. I thought of the Lorent gossip she just poured out for me. It's not that bad for me anyway. I guess it depended on which Alpha you got for a dad.
"Here, I'll show you a picture of the Lorent brothers," Jessica offered. I think she must have been truly feeling sorry for me.
"No, it's okay," I shrugged.
"But they're nice eye candy. The older one is sort of a bad boy and scary strong. The younger one is training to be a doctor. Which one do you like better?"
"It's not like we could choose our mates." I couldn't see any real purpose in this exercise.
"Yes, but if you could choose, who would you pick?" Jessica tried to explain.
I knew the answer immediately. "I'd pick the Morning Light Pack future Beta. What's his name..."
"Harvey?" Jessica offered, sounding hopeful.
"Yes. Him. Then our pup would be the next Alpha of both packs. Most efficient way to fix their Alpha crisis, and merge our packs permanently. And then we could coordinate border patrol better. Increase security. Enjoy economies of scale more effectively..."
"Sam, no!" Jessica stopped me. "Never mind, Sam, I don't think you get it."
"Don't get what, Jessica?"
"Look, that isn't the point!" Jessica tried again. "The point is to choose someone romantic."
Urm... Okay. I thought of Dumbbell and remembered how unromantic it was. "Are you sure?"
Jessica nodded. "Yeah, think of how romantic it would be and choose someone."
I tried. I truly did try. "Sorry, I can't think of anyone I know who strikes me as romantic to be with."
"Then think of someone you don't know," Jessica guided me. Why were we doing this?
I thought of Dumbbell... He was someone I had never met.
"Okay. Got it. Now what?" I asked.
"Now tell me who he is," she instructed.
"He's my mate," I answered.
"No, Sam! That's cheating!"
"He's not very romantic either," I admitted.
Jessica shook her head. "Never mind, Sam. I don't think you know romantic if it was right in front of you."
I looked the phone she had pushed right in front of me. On screen was a photo of two guys in light suits and dark hair. They were facing away from the camera as if the photographer had snuck the picture from their blind spot.
"My cousin took this photo herself. It was from a party last year," Jessica told me.
I thought it was illegal to take pictures of the Alpha's sons in the Lorent Pack—just another stupid rule to add to their long list of rules. Although I understood the reason behind this one, as much as the Lorent would love to show themselves off in photos of their great wealth, the threat of kidnapping was very high, particularly for these two brothers. Better to keep their images away from outside eyes.
I was starting to think Jessica's cousin was not the law-abiding sort.
"Okay, look." Jessica tried again. I could tell Jessica was being patient with me. "Which brother would you want? I'll give you first pick."
I looked, but they both looked the same from their almost back profile. One of them was taller. But height wasn't everything.
"I pick whoever has the stronger wolf," I told her. That should ensure the strongest pups possible.
"Oh!" Jessica's eyes sparkled. "A fight for love! That is romantic!"
Well, I suppose fighting was a good way to determine their wolf strength.
I looked at the picture again. I thought of Dumbbell. He had dark curls too, but longer and unruly. And he didn't even wear a shirt, much less a nice suit. I wondered how Dumbbell would look in a suit and tie. Why was I thinking of him?
Ding! Jessica opened her text app and groaned. "Awww... Sam, I gotta go. My Mum wants me to clean my room again."
Jessica's Mum always made Jessica help around the home during the weekends.
"We were finally getting a breakthrough with you, though," she informed me.
Really? Because I still didn't get it.
I walked her down to the front door and waved her off. Then I went back to my room. Maybe I should be cleaning my room too. Or at least hanging my bag up. I picked up my bag, finding the uneaten apple from breakfast was like a grand reward for doing something good for my room.
I brought my treasure to the window to enjoy. Sitting on the cushions, I crunched into the apple happily. I could still see the white cars; there were too many to fit around back, so a couple of them protruded out on one side of the pack house.
The Lorents must be meeting Dad in his office now. I wondered what they could have wanted to meet so urgently. I remembered Jessica's pieces of gossip.
Alpha families tend to suffer the brunt of the pack's wagging tongues. It's best just to ignore it, especially if it was about you.
It didn't help that Alpha families also suffered quite a bit of drama at home. Alright, not my home—our home had always been rather happy, if not boring.
But look at my dad's family drama back at Night Forest Pack. It was actually still happening.
Every year, my family would return to dad's home pack to visit my grandparents.
And every year, my grandmother would criticize my uncle and his human mate loudly in front of us.
Maybe she thought it would convince my dad to come home.
It was always very stressful and uncomfortable. But we still went back because we were family.
I guessed the Lorent Alpha family drama was not entirely original either. You know: strong Alpha dad, rebel Alpha son. Bad fights. Runs away or kills dad and takes over the pack…
Okay, so this guy did both. He nearly killed his dad and then he ran away. But now he was found again, right?
So why would Alpha Lorent bring his mate and so many warriors to our pack... unless his son was hiding here?
Logically, his son wouldn't be able to leave Green Packland legally without paperwork. Hiding in warlock territory would surely lead to capture and/or death. Hiding in rogue territory would also lead to being kidnapped for ransom.
The only place he could run was to another friendly pack.
Was he here? I hoped not. If my dad knew about it, he would send the runaway home for sure. And since he hadn't, it meant my dad didn't know about it, which might get ugly if Alpha Lorent thought my dad was hiding his son.
I was starting to worry a bit. Maybe I should go over to check on things.
But Mum told me not to hang around in the pack house, right?
What should I do?
1: Go snoop around at the pack house
2: Wait at home till they leave
No prizes for guessing what I was about to do...