INSIDE OF ALPHA GUNTER'S HEAD PART 2

4 MARCH, THURSDAY, CONTINUED

I would be the first to admit that my son can sometimes be clumsy, almost maladroit, with Lycan customary greetings (among other things), but at least my son was lovable and cute. One might even go as far as to say that it added to his charm.

He had charged through my office doors the moment he returned from school, "Is it true? We're going to see Savannah?"

Beta Glenn, who was updating me on the situation at Black Forest, stopped in mid-sentence. I put down the document in my hand, "Please knock before entering, son." And then I noticed he had entered alone, "Where are your minders?"

No sooner had the words left my mouth when Wilhelm and Keanu appeared to have chased up to us. They bowed apologetically at the doorway my son had flung asunder.

"His highness, Prince River seeks an audience with your majesty, Alpha Gunter." Wilhelm informed me belatedly as he shut the tall white gold gilded doors neatly back in place.

My son swept off the formalities with an impatient hand, "Dad, nevermind all that for now!" (All that being every Lycan custom of respect.)

"This is important! We're having dinner with Savannah?" Whenever my son was excited, he would exclaim his questions.

I met my son's bright eyes and managed a wry, "Along with the rest of her family, yes."

My son wasted no time in searching his pockets. After emptying two pockets he managed to unearth his phone from somewhere on his person, "I need to reply her text!"

I briefly glanced at the half box of tix tac, random coins, and the used piece of tissue now sitting on my document.

"What should I reply?" My son pursed his lips at his screen.

"Perhaps, you might like to consider this over a spot of tea with me, son?" I suggested mildly, "I believe Sir Wolfgang wishes to personally ready you for tonight's engagement..."

"But Dad!" My son protested, "I'm already engaged."

"I meant tonight's dinner engagement...no, it's alright, son." I shook my head.

"Oh, no... I get it Dad." River shook his head back at me, "You mean like an appointment, but you call appointments engagements because that's how old people say it."

Yes...and no, my son. I am not old.

"Why does it have to be Sir Wolfgang?" My son asked, almost beggingly.

"It is only appropriate. He is your mentor after all." I picked up my document, scooping the offending piece of tissue into the bin next to my desk.

"Why?" My son wailed.

"Sir Wolfgang is here." Wilhelm announced.

My son froze and then continued, "Sir Wolfgang must be busy with far more important things than to deal with me!"

"Your majesty. Wolfgang at your service." Sir Wolfgang bowed in greeting.

To my son, the fire wolf said, "And as much as I personally agree with you, Prince River, since this is an appointment graced upon me by Alpha Gunter himself, I will undertake it with all my heart!"

"You don't have to go that far, really!" My son bowed his head meekly.

Wolfgang huffed, "Don't bow your head! You're the Young Prince!"

"Ah, yes. Sorry." My son bowed again.

"I told you not to bow!" Wolfgang growled. My son hid behind my arm. It was a long day to this moment, my son filtered in and out of my office, alternating between being heady with excitement to being sick from worry.

I'm certain he barely heard a word of Sir Wolfgang's stern lecture over afternoon tea.

To be perfectly frank, I did feel a little sorry for tasking Sir Wolfgang to mentoring him, but I knew my son best, and despite River's many weaknesses, he had a heart of gold good wolves cannot turn away from.

Even Sir Wolfgang had come to grudgingly recognize my son as the future king of Snow Moon Kingdom. He had been the most vocal of my inner circle to object when I first proposed the reformation of our pack governance.

"This child... We cannot even ascertain who his father is!" Fire Wolves were not ones to mince their words, particularly when it was regarding something they were passionate about, and ever since I rescued Sir Wolfgang...

When I had first met the fire wolf, he was nothing but stinged fur and bones. He couldn't have been more than 12 then, but already shifted, forced by the perilous circumstance he escaped from. He used to be such a quiet pup too. I remembered inviting healers to come see him, thinking that he might be born mute. Was it so long ago that the silent pup had become a grown wolf and a Pillar of my pack? The years seem to slip by me, and every season like a breath gone by...

The day my love passed on, my heart froze in its own despair and my Packlands dwelled in what seemed to be an eternal winter.

And then, one bright winter morning, Mandy's son tottered over and grabbed my legs. He looked up at me with the purest and brightest black eyes and called me "Papa". And I? I suddenly wanted to always see his face that way, looking up at me expectantly, trustingly, and perfectly happy.

And just as I had this wish, time started moving on its own. The first spring broke through our snow fields that year. The seasons turned to years and all too soon, that small child was gone, and now this youth answers whenever I call his name.

This youth before me, who was rendered happy besides himself the moment he set his sight on his soul mate. I cleared my throat and he remembered quickly enough to greet the elders present.

If I had said this once, I must have thought it a hundred times. My son was truly blessed that his soul mate was Alpha Kingsley's daughter. Although the radical alpha of the barbarian pack in the Green Packlands and I were never close, I had studied his leadership and governance model - which were as idealistic as it was riddled with many practical points of contention, but I had always admired the black alpha wolf's daring. He proved us wrong before and as far a more recent events went, he had every intention of proving the world wrong all over again.

In another world - perhaps one atop a colored mountain, this young wolf would have blazed his own path and become a legend. Unfortunately, secluded in the dark corners of the continent, his influence had been limited to his land, as mine was limited to the white stone boundaries of my land.

What Alpha Kingsley said was true, the world was changing everyday. It certainly had become recognizably so out here in the Green Packlands... Once upon a time, the Great Teacher left the Colored Mountains to experience the rest of the world, it was so long ago, the plains were not divided into its different colors yet, nor was the warlock in residence. It was untouched forest and glades.

In the Colored Mountains, it wasn't uncommon for buildings to stand for centuries. Here, they rise and fall like the tide. A decade for an entire Gate City to rise, one even larger than the Gate City of the Colored Mountains that it was named after.

It almost gave me hope, that even while the former things of Snow Moon Pack crumbled, the new Snow Moon Kingdom might rise up from the ashes and become a beacon of change too. I believe in my son's vision, my son's potential, my son's heart. It is obvious that he would be a ruler quite different from me, but lately I've been thinking that might not be entirely a bad thing in itself.

I had been keeping my son hidden from the world with the belief that it was the only way to keep him safe until he was fully grown and ready to stand his own ground with the Four Pillars standing behind him. He will need all the Pillars of Snow Moon to stand by him for the wolves in our newly established kingdom to run with him.

I had never worked so hard before in my life - all to change the world for him.

And then one miserable night while attending Alpha Silas' wake, I met Kingsley's firstborn, and heir to Night Leaf. A blue wolf! She reminded me too much of my own love. Even though my love had left me a long time ago, even though I burned out mating bands the day after we sent off her body, even though I could still not bear to hear her name...

Before River, before Mandy, before the dark years, there was her. And while she was here, I had thought we would have forever together.

My love was a pale blue wolf the color of the early morning sky or the lightest seas. But Kingsley's child had hair that was as dark as the night sky, and her exuberance so puppy-like, my wolf immediately felt protective. This puppy was the Moon Goddess' key to change the world?

A real blue wolf - a dream traveling wolf - the goddess' angel, just like HER. I did not expect to meet another one so soon - and definitely not in the plains.

And why another blue wolf in the plains? The goddess was too cruel.

But unaware of her tragic fate, this young blue wolf looked straight at mine whenever she spoke to me. Curiously, she owned the same unclouded expression that I had come to associate with my son.

But unlike my son, this girl had a breathtaking bravado, convincing a table to the most powerful alpha wolves in the continent to building a new town for her packlands.

And her father, Alpha Kingsley, did nothing but sit back and watched her.

"Ah, to be young and ambitious again!" Solo thought she was hilarious, he came over to tell me the next night, "Just a puppy. Put some money into it and play along. I wonder if I was so cute back then too."

"Not at all." I answered wryly at my glass. We were drinking my best bourban again.

"She wants to build a town and rescue Lycan slaves from the covens!" Solo scoffed, "I don't know what Kingsley is thinking."

"Kingsley?" I raised a brow.

"As I see it, either Kingsley's using his pretty puppy to solicit donations for another crazy scheme, or the puppy's going to run out there, realize how scary the world is, and the project will blow off." Solo sounded confident, "Either way, investing a bit won't hurt us, and it'll buy us a space in Kingsley's good books."

"So more as an investment towards good relations with Night Leaf?" I tried to clarify.

"Yes, yes." Solo swirled his drink, "In fact, I'm cashing in early on this investment and trading them some specialized gear - at profit, of course."

Solo's pack had been running in deficit for a while now.

"Hn. Petty profits will gain you nothing in the long run, Solo." I told him, but as usual I was wasting my breath.

If it wasn't for HER, I would never be associating with Solo. The only other man who had loved HER too.

"What a cold reaction. Even though I came all the way to tip you off! I don't know what Miranda ever saw in you."

"Do NOT say her name." I growled lowly.

She was a wound on my heart that had never healed.

The sound of vehicles brought me back to present company. I knew before the beta announced it.

Ah... Here comes someone I didn't want to see. This was why I hated going out. There were troublesome people everywhere.

"Luna Bell is here." Beta Ki informed the rest of us.

I somewhat regretted ever bringing the young Tyger into the mountains. If I had known he would do something as foolhardy as what he did, I would not have done it. If I had known he would have succeeded in his foolhardiness, I would definitely had hidden the existence of the other Tygers from him. He was not only arrogant and difficult - the young lorent prince was like the reincarnation of the tygers of the dark ages.

Our circle had since eradicated these monsters - but it seems as if we had just enthroned another.

Solo was right. I must be going daft.

"Good evening, Young Alpha Lorent." I schooled my features and checked in my displeasure, but couldn't help but inquire of him, "Did you enjoy a smooth drive here?"

The young Tyger smirked and answered, "It was as smooth as ice, thank you very much."

I refused to rise to the bait. There was very little point batting over dinner with this vexing young man. The greater man would turn the other cheek...so I turned my face away. I shall ignore him from here on.

Alpha Kingsley welcomed both young princes equally, "Great! Both my sons are here to eat dinner with me!"

He was indeed a magnanimous alpha who played no favourites. Thus we adjuorned to the living room and I found myself actually having a pleasant time. Alpha Kingsley and I discussed many things - at first just bantering various governing policies as if they were compliments, and then Alpha Kingsley brought up the new diadem I had gifted his blue wolf daughter as a disciple gift.

"I had been meaning to ask you..." He started.

And then he described quite an astonishing thing my new disciple did with the diadem - by powering the circlet herself, she had turned the diadem into a conductor of sorts and revived a faded wolf. I had never heard of a cure for a faded wolf.

One can revive a body, but who can revive a soul?

I had known from the beginning that my new student was a special kind of genius, but to think she could manipulate magical artifacts to such a degree - and with such an unexpected application!

We discussed it at length before Alpha Kingsley concluded, "So can I conclude that the reason for the overload was because Sam wore the diadem for too long and if she only wears it during sleeping hours, it should be safe to use?"

I had to take pause, "Well, yes..."

But how could that be your conclusion from this? Your heir was a genius and had the potential to become a master of magic manipulation. Did Alpha Kingsley not realize that?

Of course he must have known! Alpha Kingsley was many things, but he was no fool.

"Alright. Good." Alpha Kingsley nodded, "My Luna and I would certainly sleep more soundly knowing that our daughter will sleep safely too."

I nodded, discerning at once that Alpha Kingsley was indirectly telling me to protect his daughter's secret, "I understand. As her mentor, I will spare no effort to guide her to her full potential. One day she will be able to master her abilities. Until then, her safety will also be my priority and I will ensure it even if it cost my very life."

Alpha Kingsley looked confused for a moment and then he nodded, "Thank you. It is the goddess' blessing that she has your guidance."