{Power is delicious, even more delicious than gyaara.}
I had to be losing my mind. Or perhaps this was just how a wolf like Boo would think. Oh great, I released control to my wolf and instead of a cool and powerful wolf, I got a crazy one who got drunk on power.
Like OMG, the signs were all there. My wolf's instinctive attraction to "fun" = dangerous wolves. I mean, look at the wolves around me! Birds of a feather flock together, wolves of a color run together, and my wolves came in all shapes, sizes, colors, temperaments… I had thought I had picked them up randomly, but now I saw the common denominator - if there was a single label that could stick on any of them, it would be "dangerous."
I wasn't the only one benefiting from the power surge either. I knew my wolves were feeling it through the radio silence. The power was reverberating. MY PACK. I had one, and it wasn't Night Leaf.
This realization came with complicated feelings. I looked up at my Dad who was still frowning at me. It was his thinking frown, like he was trying to figure out what I was saying. Or perhaps he was on the mindlink and couldn't talk at the moment. Did Dad know? Had he known from the start, yet he never stopped me. He set up all the safety nets so that the hundreds of new wolves were absorbed, he'd be facing the High Council to justify the huge influx, dealt with the rogue army and Jude's trial (another headache for the High Council), the Warlock's death and the subsequent land transfer would also be on his plate (yet another thing to defend in front of the High Council), and all this while surrounded me with the luxury of "normalcy." Why was I so slow to understand?
I had always run out "winging it" to wherever my "lucky sense of direction" brought me. While I was the best at winging it, and my lucky sense of direction never failed me, there was no way I could have borne any of the consequences whether good or bad.
From the day I started taking in my own betas, my own wolves, my own army… I had pulled away from Night Leaf and begun Moon Bell. Or rather, from my first shift, my alpha wolf was born into this world, and a new Night Leaf along with it - and this was exactly how each pack was renewed, generation after generation.
Except I was never good at following the way things should be. No, I had to go instigate the merger of our entire Green Packlands, I literally picked up a fight dog along the road and brought him home… next thing I knew, I had an entire Blue Demon Army arose from the underground. Now I was standing here in front of the packhouse accepting Colored Mountain princes into the pack and pretending that scenes from historical lycan dramas regularly appeared on our driveway on a Sunday Morning.
To the credit of the rest of our wolves, they took the entire thing - cursed portals, horse-driven carriages, and long-winded Lycan theatrics rather well. I guess they had already seen their Luna Bell pop in and out, Alpha Gunter's horse-drawn ice carriage, and we all watch TV, but seriously, the wolves at Night Leaf knew very little fear.
They pretty much took to the streetside to point and wave like this was some kind of parade.
And because Dad was standing next to me, I still believed that once the parade left, our pack would go on and everything would settle back to normal, even if the legendary world of the Colored Mountains had just collided into the real world in the plains?
My Dad had always been a kind of rock for me, so steady and constant, so normal… I always forget my catalyst bloodline power, the very same one which made me the descendent of "the ones who left the mountains to chase what could have been, the ones who seek the changes that yet could not be seen" was because I was my Dad's daughter.
My Dad was the father of modern lycan education. He was the Mad Maverick of the Green Packlands. He was the runaway son of Night Forest, the highly respected alpha of Night Leaf. Recently, he had been disturbingly dapper, but that was only the tippy tip of the iceberg.
For all the 15 years I had known him, I just realized that there was a lot more about him that I didn't know under the surface of what my dumb puppy eyes could see.
Perhaps, without my gift of insight flaring from the power surge, I would never even have guessed my Dad's unseen depth. It was humbling.
{Just one more.} I promised myself. I was at my limit, which was a new sensation for me, but I could take it. I was the Alpha.
If I were ever going to be a real Alpha like my Dad (and not that weak TV drama knock off), I needed to take it.
{Sam, your wolf is super unstable now.} Ben warned.
{Oh really?} Boo grinned, {How unstable?}
{Like a Richter Scale of 9.5 unstable.} Ben retorted, {You're going to blow.}
So was I an earthquake or a volcano? Hahaha. So fun.
{Scared?} Boo couldn't resist it.
{Sam?} Dad prompted.
Oh right, {I'm fine, Dad. Let's continue.}
Dad raised a brow, but in the end he nodded his assent.
The Grand Elder Horio was a very polite and patient wolf. He waited without being told and only continued the First Introductions when Dad and I returned our attention to him.
"This is His Highness Prince Haku's tribute to the Blue Alpha, the Young Prince Hayao and successor of the Hami Clan and House of Haku."
Say what?
The Young Healer Prince stepped forward and made a regal bow, "Prince Hayao greets the Blue Alpha. I will be in your care."
{Oh, Sam.} Mum sighed, I think she was talking to Dad though, {Not another one.}
{Let's see what she wants to do first, Darling.} Was Dad hedging me from Mum?
{She's…oh, dear. I think she has lost control of her wolf! I'm worried she's going to bite off more than she can chew…} Mum worried.
{She wouldn't know unless she tries.} Dad told her, {Don't worry, darling. I'm here.}
I felt a little torn suddenly. On one hand, my Dad was going to let me try. On the other, Mum always knew best. I hesistated. Hayao was standing right in front of me, shrouded in his heavy dark green cloak.
"Hi, Hayao." I said. The moment the words came out, I was quite sure they weren't the right ones. I probably should try to explain that he didn't have to join my harem (because I didn't have one), but just as I was about to tell him to forget about my dumbbell soul mate and to be released from whatever vow Bell had put him under, a black rectangular doorway of pure nothingness opened up and a black curse ushered in its master.
{Mate! ~ ❤ }