I WAS COMMITTED

I'M COMMITTED

(In which Sam finds herself stuck at a very long meeting.)

"Alpha Princess' here." Ben announced in his regular deadpan so it sounded like he would personally rather be anywhere else.

Eek.

{Mate! ~ ❤️}

Boo (not me) had a way of sounding like a dizzy love struck teenage girl - which was ironic given the fact that Boo was the alpha wolf between the two of us.

Bell raised a brow at my entrance but didn't look surprise, "Why Princess? Does your dad not trust Ki to bring to his ear everything we discuss?"

For some reason, Bell had reverted to Lorent English. I suppose this was a Lorent meeting after all. I smiled like an idiot because Bell was the perfect Lorent Prince to a T right now. Don't misunderstand, I had as little patience with stuck up Lorent wolves as much as any other Night Leaf wolf, but Bell's light suit, his dark curls swept to the side, even his smirk was sigh-worthy.

I shook my head and sat in the seat Ki had pulled out for me. It put me right next to Bell. Bell was at the head of the table, where Dad usually sat, and I got Mum's usual seat. Tee hee. ~ ❤️

Gah! Scratch the "tee hee." Wth. I don't know where it came from. (It was Boo, really.)

Anyway, we still had to wait for Delta Oran. There was a good chance that I was still smiling like an idiot. I wouldn't know. I was too close to Bell now to even think coherently. I was just too happy to be breathing the salted caramel… heaven.

So even though Bell was definitely not pleased (presumably at Delta Oran's tardiness), I was in bliss.

Ben had sat himself where Beta Lucas usually sat. He pulled out a tablet from somewhere in his jacket and jerked his head towards Ki next to me who nodded and started tapping on his own laptop. They were working again. #betalife. But suddenly it occurred to me that one day, this might be exactly how we would be sitting in this exact same conference room. I felt butterflies flutter in my tummy at the thought.

No, wait, shouldn't I had been in the Alpha seat?

But you know, Bell was here.

{Mate! ~ ❤️}

And where mate was, my brain was evidently not.

Anyway, while I was envisioning my future in the wrong seat, no one else seemed to projecting any visions or even the remotest desire to be in this room. All the Lorent wolves were seated, equally spaced apart, and not making any eye contact or sound.

Wasn't this supposed to be the future core leadership of the Lorent Pack? They were at the cusp of their ascension too. By the end of the month, it will be their turn to step up to he helm. Shouldn't this group be brimming with optimism and excitement for their plans?

If they were, they wore those feelings so reservedly that I completely missed it.

This wasn't the first time that I felt that Lorents were very reserved wolves.

At first, I had thought Bell's displeasure was the reason for the quiet tension in the conference room, but it turned out that this was the way Lorent meetings were supposed to be.

Delta Oran knocked and let himself in after a few more minutes.

"Apologies, Young Alpha." Delta Oran did not automatically sit, he bowed and waited for his Young Alpha's forgiveness, "I was obligatorily detained on my way over."

Lorent English was funny like that. I felt quite sure what Delta O meant to say was, "Sorry I'm late. I had to stop at a picnic mat to chat with the guys because I didn't want them to think I'm a stuck up Lorent."

Apparently, Delta Oran had never made it back to his fellow Lorents. After surrendering the car keys to Neil's hands, he had been waylaid by some of our guys. Proof was the can of beer he had in his hand.

Please note, that my wolves did not simply hand out free beer to ANYONE. Delta O had definitely made some friends during his last stint here.

When Bell did not answer, Delta Oran explained further, "It was in the interest of our inter-pack relations that I did not refuse the local gestures of hospitality."

Whatever that meant.

The other Lorents seemed rather awed at the single can of beer. It was the revolting one our warriors drank too, but Delta Oran held it like a trophy. It was a symbol of a true survivor "the one Lorent who walked among barbarians and lived." He was like the scientist who had lived among the apes. Hahaha. Okay, I totally just made that up. How would I know what a Lorent would be thinking?

If I judged purely from Deta Oran's expression, he probably thought, as Bell did, that our local beer was revolting too, but he still took a painful sip of it and grimaced long and hard after swallowing it.

"I heard it's an acquired taste." The Young Lorent Gamma Dominic (Bell's talkative friend) informed Delta Oran helpfully.

"The local warriors here tell me it is the taste of brotherhood among real men." Ki informed his Lorent counterparts.

They were definitely reading too much into a can of beer, these Lorents.

"We've wasted enough time." Bell decided, "Let's get on with it."

"Yes, Alpha." Ki nodded curtly.

And the room suddenly went so quiet, you could drop a pin. That got serious fast. The mood had just lifted too, but now we were back to the silent tension.

"Proceeding from item 11 of our agenda." Ki directed.

Everyone immediately looked down to their papers and files. It amused me because it reminded me a lot of when a teacher asks, "Who knows the answer to question 11?"

Nobody looked up for fear of making eye contact.

The Lorent meeting culture was a very bewildering experience for me.

For example, I had thought it was pretty lucky that they were already on item 11 of the agenda. Putting aside that it was MAD of Bell to just drive the half and hour from the Lorent midway through a meeting (maybe he was hungry), the fact that they were now at item 11 meant that they had cleared 10 items already. Good job guys.

Usually, our meetings had about 10 to 12 items including the AOB. 14 if there had been things going on. Just a bit more.

And then Ben turned his screen towards me so I could see the agenda they were using. I'm not sure why he thought I'd need it, I wasn't really here for their meeting. I was here for… you know who, but I wasn't going to correct him.

As if I were going to admit to Ben that I had only come here to swoon at Bell!

I should just play along and pretend I was actually here for an actual work reason. I tried to look like I knew what I was doing and wipe off the sappy grin on my face.

{Mate! ~ ❤️}

Well, I tried.

I even graced the agenda a cursory swipe up on the screen Ben was sharing with me. Let's see how many more items they had left.

24

No. This wasn't a typo. Nor was there anything wrong with my math. They had 24 items MORE. The Lorent agenda was 35 items long.

Somebody kill me.

Ben had seen it too, {Which item are we here for, Sam?}

How about the item in the Armani, side parting, and wing tip leather shoes? I had never smelled a more gorgeous item.

{Sam?} Ben was immediately impatient, {Focus, Sam. What are we here for?}

Poor Ben. How should I break it to him?

We were going to stay for the whole meeting. I was committed to salted caramel like that.

{Mate! ~ ❤️}

I would gladly sit through eternal hell with him. There was no meeting, no matter how exacting, excruciating, or extended, that could keep me away from my mate!