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 mind link, "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 hope we get to eat the leftovers for lunch. I made a mental note to visit my dad's office after our surprise guests leave.
"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've heard enough to know it would be better to avoid him.
When I become Alpha, I would be presented to the Green Packland Council, and this one man would be my single biggest obstacle to being accepted.
He got along well enough with my dad. And the both of them had a level of respect for the 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 go to the window to wait.
"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 somethings 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 it at me.
We were both watching the cars pull up now. The windows were closed, so we can't hear what was happening. It was like watching a silent film.
"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, 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.
The man closest to the middle car stepped forward and opened the passenger door.
Alpha Lorent stepped out.
Now why didn't my 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 glittering over her, Her dark hair was pulled up in an intricate updo, as fashionable among those who had born pups. And she wore 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 readied 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 the 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 just 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've only seen in the hand-painted old books in the library played out in real life... It was as if they drove out of the pages of the Colored Mountain legends. It's hard to believe their pack lived like this just an hour's drive from ours.
Gamma Harry stepped forwards 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'm supposed to be like on our Gamma's side but it's 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 see Gamma Harry yelling and pointing the cars to drive round 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 at 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 into the pack house. 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 searches for the right words to us, "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've never heard it.
"You know, Alpha Lorent was really harsh with the punishments, and like he was the bad boy type so he got punished a lot. But after shifting, his wolf won'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 that 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 kind you hear in 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 are more important than gossip.
"I can't believe I'm an aunt now!" Jessica's 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 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 pretty 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 depends 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 be truly feeling sorry for me.
"No, it's okay." I shrugged.
"But they're nice eye candy. The older one is sort of 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 pack. Most efficient way fix their alpha crisis, and merge our packs permanently. And then we can coordinate border patrol better. Increase security. Enjoy economies of scale more effectively..."
"Sam, no!" Jessica stopped me, "Nevermind 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's someone I've 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 in front of me. She was holding out her phone screen with a photo of two guys in dark 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 think it was illegal to take pictures of the Alpha's sons in the Lorent Pact, just another stupid rule to add on the 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 them and their great wealth, the threat of kidnap is very high, particularly for these two brothers. Better to keep their images away from outside eyes.
I'm starting to think Jessica's cousin was not the law abiding sort.
"Okay, look." Jessica was being patient with me, I know. "Which brother would you want? I'll give you first pick."
I looked, but they both look the same from their almost back profile. One of them was taller. But height isn'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 supposed fighting was a good way to determine their wolf strength.
I looked at the picture again. I thought of the 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 suit and tie. Why was I thinking of him?
Ding! Jessica opened her text app and groaned, "Awww... Sam, I got to 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 round back, so a couple of them protruded out on one side of the pack house.
They were still there. I wondered what they could have wanted to meet my dad about so urgently. I remembered Jessica's pieces of gossip.
Alpha families tend to suffer the brunt of the packs wagging tongues. It's best just to ignore it, especially if it's about you.
It didn't help that Alpha families also suffer quite a bit of drama in the 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's actually still happening. Every few years, my grandparents would invite our family over and my grandmother would criticize my uncle and his human mate, maybe to convince my Dad to come home. It's always very stressful and uncomfortable. But we still go because we are family.
I guess the Lorent's 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?
I didn't think his son would be able to leave Green Packland legally without applying for the visa. 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'm starting to worry a bit. Maybe I should go over to check on things. But my mum told me to not 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'm about to do...