23 FEBRUARY, TUESDAY, CONTINUED
The late afternoon sun slanted down making long shadows across the ground as we drove away from the Lorents. Harvey checked the storage compartment in the center console at the first stop light for a pair of shades, but the Oakley Case came up empty. He put it back without a word, but his mouth was pressed in a thin line when he shut the compartment so I knew he was displeased. The light changed and we continued our journey, with Harvey squinting at the road - which would be funny, except that Delta Oran was seated between-behind us.
Would it be weird to have our usual conversation in the car with Delta Oran literally looking over the back of our shoulders? I pretended to look back at Bell. To his credit, Delta Oran was busying himself on his phone. He was attentive at once, "May I help you, Alpha Princess?"
I quickly shook my head, it wasn't like I could say, "I'm just pretending to check on Bell to check on you."
So I just turned back front to the blinding sun, because that was more comfortable that dealing with the Lorent delta. I already knew Delta Oran wasn't a simple wolf. I kept wondering about the words he mindlinked Ki when he buckled his nephew in. Ki had not replied, I guess Ki was out cold, but I still kept wondering about it - who was Delta Oran to call Ki a stupid fool?
But it wasn't like I could say, "I can hear mindlinks. Why did you call Ki a stupid fool?"
Still I had to start somewhere. I hesitated. At the risk of sounding like Ink, there would be a 50% chance that whatever I said would be taken in the wrong way. There's also a very good likelihood I was going to say something dumb and reveal my dumbness to this Lorent Delta, don't ask me for the numbers. I'm not Ink, but lets just say it happened more often than I'd like. Oh right, and it could also get really awkward.
I looked out of the window - mostly so that the sun would stop glaring in my eyes. Harvey reached over, "Pardon me, Alpha." And he flipped down the shades on my side - which helped very minimally.
Luckily the road soon turned and I could face front again, but this didn't reduce the awkward silence permeating the air. It was like everyone was wondering things, but no one could say any of it. End of hesitation. I decided to go with how I usually started the conversation with Harvey, "How was your day?"
I realized I hadn't asked him today. Usually, I would when he picked me up after school, but today everything was kind of thrown off by Bell's missing arm.
Harvey immediately responded with his usual wry smile. He did check the passengers in the rear view mirror - which I realized now was a much smarter way to check than turning around like I did, but in the end, he answered like he usually did, "It was busy, Alpha, but that is to be expected given the circumstances."
I grinned and nodded, that's my good beta for you - always given model answers. Where did he get templates for these things. The first time I asked him "How was your day?" He had been surprised. But day by day, he got used to it too, and now instead of answering the standard, "Fine, thank you," he was giving me different answers each day, and every one of them would be a single sentence summarizing his work and situation without listing anything specific.
Okay, now this was my chance. I opened the conversation to Delta Oran, "How about you Delta Oran? How was your day?"
"My day?" Delta Oran smiled as if buying time. When he had considered his options, he answered, "My day was unexpectedly perplexing, but given our young alpha's condition, it cannot be avoided."
Okay, either Delta Oran had access to the same templates that Harvey was using, or he had just modeled his answer to echo my good betas. So just in case Delta Oran might be fooled by Harvey to think everyone spoke like well mannered betas at their finest here at Night Leaf, I decided to answer my own question too, "I had a really bad day. It was honestly the worst day of my life. Usually, I have okay days, but today was not okay at all."
See, I told you I was very likely going to say something dumb and reveal my dumbness. And now that I started worrying about how dumb I sounded, I didn't know how to continue.
Neither Delta Oran or Harvey seemed to know how to continue the conversation either. Enter my old friend, Awkwardness - which I also predicted the appearance of. Now it was even more awkward than the awkwardness when we were silent. Me and my big mouth.
And then suddenly Ki opened his eyes and said three words, three perfect words that rescued me in my time of need, "Me too, Alpha."
"Ki!" Actually, Ki could've said anything, and I would have yelled anyway, "You're awake!"
Ki smiled, a very weak smile.
"Go back to sleep!" I ordered immediately.
"As you wish, Alpha." And then Ki leaned back against the headrest and shut his eyes.
I looked at him very carefully, "Ki? Are you sleeping?"
Which in hindsight was also a dumb thing to say. I think I needed Harvey's templates to teach me the right things to say too - okay, I had no proof such templates existed, its just that Harvey always said things so properly.
Why was I always blurting out dumb stuff? You know, like the show, "Kids say the darndest things?" Dad and Beta Lucas liked to joke about why I wasn't selected as one of the kids on the show. I guess its cute when you're a pup, but I'm the Alpha! Shouldn't I be saying something smart?
But its not like I could say, "Something smart."
Hahahaha, just joking.
But seriously, its not like I could say, "I know I'm the Alpha, but I tend to say the darndest thing, so do me a favor and try to look like I'm saying something smart."
I blamed Delta Oran. For some reason having him in the car made me feel like there were a lot of things I couldn't say. It was just a matter of security - which I think would be the reason for Harvey's reticence at prodding me to explain myself, or run through my schedules, or update me the details of the warlock situation, the snow wolves since Alpha Gunter's departure for the Colored Mountains, or whatever else for whatever reason my good beta felt better not to talk about in front of the Lorent Delta.
Actually, Delta Oran was the same way. He had been smiling and generally helpful and friendly, but he had carefully only spoken in very general terms too.
I regretted telling Ki to go back to sleep. I really wished Ki was well and awake right now. Should I feel guilty for thinking this way? Even though both Bell and Ki were down, I kinda needed Ki a lot more right now. It's nothing personal, I just didn't feel like Bell would be helping the situation right now.
Wait, what was I thinking? I was the alpha! I didn't need to hide behind my Luna or Beta! At any rate, Delta Oran probably figured that I was basically the dumbest alpha in the world by now, so there's no need to hide it. I guess I could just talk normally now.
"Thank you for coming back with us." I told Delta Oran directly, "We don't have another healer around. I don't think we'd be able to take Bell and Ki home without you."
"It is my duty and privilege, Alpha Princess. Please don't worry about it." Delta Oran assured me.
He was still being excessively polite, but I decided to just ignore the formalities. If I keep speaking normally, maybe he would do the same... Okay, here I'm assuming Delta Oran had a work mode and a normal mode - much like my betas.
Like maybe he would be mindlinking Ki, {Why is your alpha a stupid fool?}
Okay, I was still wondering why he would call Ki a stupid fool. It wasn't really the words he said though, it was the gentleness in his tone when he said it, tinged with bitterness, which was confusing for me, but then again, Lorents drank a lot of tea and their tea was always seeped so that it was slightly bitter.
And then Delta Oran spoke, "I see, no wonder you were angry. Ki is your pack's precious sole healer after all."
"No." I replied without thinking (since that was how I talked normally), "I was angry because Ki was hurt for nothing he did wrong. And Ki is precious because he is family."
Because betas were family too.
"Ki's healing power is enviable." Delta Oran said, "As an Oran, he is able to heal by the light of the moon. To heal in the daytime, we require latent periods to absorb the moon light. But Ki has also inherited his mother's healing power so he is able to continue healing even after the power of the moonlight has been depleted. He only has to sleep to recover from using this healing power."
The me before Ki would be completely baffled at why Delta Oran was suddenly revealing the source and weaknesses of Ki's healing powers. Weren't these things supposed to be top secret? What if someone evil or mean found out?
But Ki had also trained me to recognize when someone was pouring me "tea". Even without the elaborate tea sets, I could tell Delta Oran was trying to say something. Now I just needed to navigate through the Lorent narrative to figure it out.
It was like trying to find the morale of the story in a vampire drama.