7 FEBRUARY, SUNDAY, LAST STOP
Back to Priscilla who sprung back to life at her mate's departure.
I was beginning to think she must be the sole reason why Sean had the impression that women talked non stop, because Priscilla talked non stop.
Beta Gerald barely managed to get a word in so the poor man just nodded politely.
Priscilla talked about how she had a car accident on the way to the packhouse just yesterday. She was just going over to advise on the routine paperwork, but was very upset by Sean who was upset with her.
They used to have a son, and they poured all their love into their son.
"You remember Spencer, right?" Priscilla paused to ask Harvey, "The two of you used to play together."
Harvey managed to nod. It was a very brief nod. I shall interpret it as Harvey remembered, but they were not close.
Anyway, Priscilla didn't wait to infer or ask further, she continued to tell us how as Spencer grew up, he often fought with his father. After one particularly bad fight, Spencer ran away to her mother's home in the Gold Packlands. Now to make things worse, he has found a human mate.
"He wants to marry her!" Priscilla exclaimed, "She doesn't even know he is a wolf! I told him there is no way he can keep this from her forever, but he is headstrong like his dad. He is planning on going rogue to marry her."
When Sean found out about it, he disowned him.
"Sean feels very betrayed." Priscilla explained, "For our son to mate a human! Let me ask you something Gerald, how would you feel if your son mates a human?"
"Well, I'm sure no matter who he mates, as long as she is his soul mate..." Beta Gerald started.
"Exactly! How can a human be his soulmate?" Priscilla nodded, "You make a good point, Gerald."
"Oh, if I knew Spencer was going to end up doing something like this, I should have sent gifts to Endo or Alpha Kingsley's home!" She looked at Lola and than at me, "What beautiful nice girls! I should have betrothed Spencer to one of you."
Then she said to me, as if confiding a huge secret, but still speaking loudly enough for the rest of us to hear, "You know, Samantha, I actually did ask your dad when you were born, I asked half jokingly, and he had only laughed. I should have pressed it further. I regret now."
I flared a little and shook my head, "I..."
Why did I feel so relieved?
But Priscilla laughed then, "I would love to have such a cute girl like you as my son's mate. And wouldn't that make my Spencer the next Alpha? I really regret!"
But it didn't work that way. Gah! But Priscilla was off again, talking about how Sean disowning Spencer had upsetted her so much she had not noticed the red light.
Apparently, she had driven straight into the red light - as in yes, she crashed her car into the very stationary traffic light on an empty street.
It was a good thing the street was empty.
Sean got angry at the damaged car. (He's been easily enraged ever since Spencer left home so we should never ever mention Spencer in front of him. )
"He didn't even ask if I was hurt!" Priscilla complained, but she was laughing, "That guy only loves his cars and dog. He used to love Spencer too. Why did this have to happen?"
"The situation has become desperate." Priscilla declared, "I fear my son will go rogue for the sake of a human girl if I do nothing."
So here's her plan. Sean would be going away next week for a business trip.
"When the cat's away the mice will play!" Priscilla laughed again, but the laughter was somewhat hollow.
Priscilla's desperate plan to save her only son from turning rogue was to throw a party and invite Spencer and his human girlfriend on the pretext of wanting to get to know her. She would need Beta Gerald to approve the papers for the human to enter our packland, of course.
She would also invite all the unmated female wolves in the Green Packlands, "I have quite a few connections in the Lorent Pack who had expressed interest in matching their daughters to Spencer before, but I had written them off as gold diggers... You know there are such a lot of them these days, but now I think I was too hasty. Better a sweet Lorent princess than a human! Of course all the young ladies in Morning Light must come! And Samantha too of course! And my Night Leaf contacts too."
"I'm very sure the moment Spencer meets all you beautiful, lovely ladies, he would realize his mistake." Priscilla said confidently, "You girls must come. Samantha, please say you'd come."
I already had a mate! I managed to shake my head with a weak laugh, I hoped Priscilla would not pursue it.
"So you want to use the pretty girls here to show up your son's human girlfriend?" Fluffy asked then.
"Yes, well, I think he would realize how marrying a human is beneath him the moment he meets the likes of Samantha here. Lola too of course, you're both so beautiful, but Samantha..."
"Is the alpha princess? Is the cutest? Has blue eyes and hair like the goddess herself?' Fluffy asked sharply.
"Alaric." Harvey warned.
"Madam is as perspective as she is beautiful." Fluffy immediately swerved his words with a stunning smile.
"Oh my." Breathed Priscilla.
"If I may, Priscilla." Beta Gerald immediate took the opportunity to finally speak.
Yes! Finally the voice of reason!
"It's tough being a parent." Was all Beta Gerald said.
"Yes. What you say is true." Priscilla suddenly started crying. She reached out her hand hand made weak grasping motions in the air. One of the maids brought over a box of tissues for her grasping hand to pluck out, "I've never done anything so hard before. I still don't know what I did wrong. Sean and I decided to stop at one and concentrate all our resources on him. I read Lycan literature to him since he was a small pup. We made sure to send him to be best school - even if it was all the way at Black Forest. Did you know how much they charged outside wolves to study there? It was daylight robbery! And when they refused to instruct Spencer on the Ancient Lycan language because he wasn't from an Alpha or Beta family (Sean was furious), we hired tutors to instruct him personally. We paid for anything and everything that would nurture a strong Lycan, yet when he shifted, he was just a normal wolf. And now he wants to go rogue...for a human girl... Can you tell me what I did wrong? Beta Gerald, how is it that your son has grown to become the future beta of Morning Light, and mine is going rogue?"
Priscilla blinked, the tears staining her face, "Beta Gerald, tell me your secret. How did you make your son such a fine young wolf?"
"I...I didn't make him..." Beta Gerald started.
"It's because you sent him to New Leaf Academy isn't it? Because he studied and grew up here, he is more loyal to his packland. Maybe I shouldn't have sent Spencer away to study. Maybe if Spencer studied in New Leaf, he would have become a fine strong wolf too. It's the air here in our land. Spencer spent too much of his time growing up outside, so he didn't have a warrior wolf as he should!"
Priscilla looked at us and said, "Maybe you younger ones don't know this, but my father was the Captain of the warriors in his pack back in the Gold Packlands. So I don't understand it, why the goddess didn't give Spencer a warrior wolf too."
"Usually the eldest son would inherit the wolf from the father." Beta Gerald gently tried to explain.
"Oh, so it's because Sean was an Omega?" Priscilla asked, "My dad did warn me about mating Sean, but I was young and headstrong and in love. I was convinced he was my soulmate."
Priscilla sighed and then smiled at Beta Gerald, "I wonder what would have happened if I had met you instead."
Beta Gerald schooled his features so he didn't balk visibly, "I'm sure it's no use regretting the past. Alpha Kingsley often reminds us to look forward to the future, but keep our eyes on the road."
Yeah... And not crash randomly into stop lights. Hahaha.
By now, I've given up talking sense to this lady. I don't know why Beta Gerald or someone didn't tell her to snap out of it.
"You have to help me, Gerald." Priscilla begged dramatically like a damsel in distress, "Sean would never understand, he is too proud to take back his words. And Spencer is just as bad. Sometimes I think he is purposely dating the human to spite his father. I can't let Spencer go rogue and throw his life away for a human! He wouldn't even be able to set foot on our packlands again or bring his pups to visit!"
Oh yeah, we did practice shooting rogues on sight quite regularly.
And then I remembered my dad's words, "A mother's love is a powerful emotion."
I wondered if it made this mother go mad.
Beta Gerald promised to help with the visa approval for the human girl and excused us.
The uniformed maids hurried to clear up all the untouched food and cutlery. I guess I wasn't the only one who lost my appetite.
We left quickly, not speaking till we got back into the safety of Beta Gerald's old tin can truck.
"Wow, that was intense." Lola breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
I liked the way Lola always did things a little quietly, it was very feminine. I wished I could do that naturally too.
Instead I leaned back in my seat and agreed loudly, "That was crazy!"
Lola giggled, "She really wanted you to be her son's mate."
"No way!" I flared, "I already have one."
"But if you didn't, would you consider it?" Lola asked.
"No way!" I crossed my arms and sulked. Never.
"Because he's just a normal wolf?" Lola asked.
"No, because his mum's scary." I answered honestly.
The guys behind us laughed.
Flynn decided to ask then, "That was Priscilla Curtis wasn't it? From Curtis and Sawyer."
"Yes." Beta Gerald spoke then, "That's the law firm they own. They are known to be a little eccentric."
Really? So was I.
"Dad, why did you agree to help her with that party?" Harvey asked.
"It's a harmless party, and it would be good for the boy to come home." Beta Gerald said, "It's been more than a year since he's been home."
"It won't be harmless when Luna Bell finds out about his princess attending a match making party." Harvey pointed out, "His alpha wolf is very possessive."
Yeah, tell me about it.
But Beta Gerald was unpreturbed, "Just make a polite excuse when you receive the formal invite."
Beta Gerald was truly a master of etiquette.
"It's not really a match making party." Flynn decided to add, but he was wearing his mischievous grin again, "More like a match breaking party."
And then Beta Gerald spoke, "Whether human or wolf, you only have one soulmate. But you must remember, Morning Light only has one Beta."
"I got it, Dad." Harvey interupted his dad in a rare show of impatience, "You don't have to keep repeating yourself. I won't go rogue. I know my responsibility."
"That's good." Beta Gerald answered, "Everyone we know and love in Morning Light would one day come to depend on you, son."
And then he said with a wry smile - one that was the first time I had seen on Beta Gerald, the one that Harvey usually sported, "Having said that, you can mate your soulmate here. I quite liked being called Grandpa."
Harvey's mouth flattened into a thin line, "I won't take a mate. I'm already mated to my job."
Stoopid.
My good beta was stoopid. A job was not a mate.