LET'S TAKE A MOMENT TO DO THE MATH

Did you see that? Just there. Just now. Me. Sam. Worrying about money.

Wow. Did that mean I was finally adulting?

But it didn't feel empowering at all, just very burdensome. The Sam in the past wouldn't have worried about how to afford a magic fountain pen that required magic stone refills, or how Dad was going to afford a second property to gift Bell. Did that mean a second mortgage? Did we even have a first one?

The Sam in the past would have been told there was no such things as magic fountain pens, or at least that they were rare magical treasures that some of the first wolves might have brought with them and could be seen at some museum somewhere not the Green Packlands because we were too far away for any really good collection to want to exhibit here.

What would the Sam in the past have given Bell? Maybe something I picked up from outside. Mum still had a jar of acorns I had collected as a birthday gift to her to feed the squirrels with. I think I had ever given Dad a bag of leaves - according to one of those Little Sam stories. What I was thinking, I had no idea. I was really just a dumb pup back then.

Now, I wasn't a pup anymore. I would also like to think that I was getting smarter too. I was learning things - like $200 wasn't enough to buy a fruit tree or even a bench for the Princess Town. Shocking, I know. I used to think $200 was a lot of money, but a fruit tree was anywhere from $850 to $89,000 depending on its age, rarity, and certifications. This excludes its transportation fees which in some cases more than doubled the cost of the tree. A park bench for the Princess Town cost $1,180. Not $200 either.

$200 was enough for an aluminum street sign.

Yes, I was shocked too. I had imagined $200 would be enough to do a lot - it certainly could buy a lot for me, but Beta Lucas was right to ban wolf fights within Gate City. These public property items were expensive stuff.

Maybe, just maybe, if I just lived off my parents for the rest of my life and never spent another cent, I might be able to pay off the invoice for that custom magic fountain pen before I die. I'm just guessing. I had no idea how much such a treasure would cost. I mean, it was probably as much as one of those fancy healer's robe. It was nice fantasizing about giving Bell such a robe, but I didn't have to worry about how to pay for it in a fantasy!

Usually, in lycan legends, if you were given a choice to between something and money - no matter how much money - the correct answer would be not-the-money. A true hero would never choose the money. I had vowed from puphood to be that kind of hero, BUT I could see why so many wolves never became heroes. They had real bills to pay.

I started wondering what Bell's credit card limit was, or if Roulette would accept gold coins from a Tyger's lair as payment. A true hero would never steal money! (Equipment, food, magical artifacts were debatable - especially if they were the key to saving the world.)

It's true. Many are called, but few are chosen. Being a hero in the real world was hard - especially if your soul mate turned out to be a Lorent Prince, and you were broke.

Maybe that's how the Great War was started. One day, an Alpha realized he didn't have enough money to buy his luna a present... Hey, you'd never know!

Maybe my betas and Alpha Dad would know very well how much was in the bank accounts. Dad's been paying the bills even before I was born. He should know what he was doing right? Right. Like I said, I was good at trust falls.

But maybe adulting also meant not just falling back and letting others catch me. Maybe adulting meant being the catcher for someone else - in this case, all my wolves. From the warrior who would one day grow too old to run, to everyone else.

It was often said back in the day, that if a wolf followed Alpha Kingsley, they'd always have three square meals and a roof over their heads. This was a big deal back in the day when the Green Packlands was nothing but wildlands. I wondered what would be said of following Alpha Sam.

"If you follow Alpha Sam, you'll always have fun and lots of interesting wolves to run together with."

That would be cool and all, but if I were a wolf, I would have followed Dad for practical reasons.

I guess I was really standing on the shoulder of giants. I saw now that the only reason my wolves could follow me for fun was that their meals and shelter here were always a given. Maybe the lycan experts were right - me becoming Alpha was just wistful thinking. Even if I were the beacon of a fun future, we needed a solid foundation to keep an army of Blue Demon Warriors fed and warm. We needed equipment, training and medical facilities, support staff, educational and vocational opportunities, and I can't remember what else was in the Underground budget, BUT it wasn't cheap.

Bell was the one who opened our army for business. You could criticize him for renting our army out as bodyguards and mercenaries, but they have also since become financially independent. I wasn't the one who had to figure out where I was going to get the money to pay the salaries for 512 full-time warriors who came back from the Underground. Don't ask, I know the math didn't add up. There were just under 100 ex-fightdogs. Add Stephan's remnant of the Red Cloud Pack, of which most of them were women, children, and eldery, so also less than a hundred fighting men... And viola! Equals to 512 warriors.

I told you the math didn't add up. According to our reports, the rest of the warriors joined the army voluntarily. Most of them were ex-rogues recruited around the time when the Underground was activitely rogue hunting... Which did make me wonder if they volunteered or they "volunteered."

I hadn't met any rogue warrior though. But if you add 512 to our own Morning Light and Night Leaf warriors, our Blue Demon Warrior count was close to 800 men. That was HUGE. 800 fighting wolves was like... I don't know. Just HUGE.

But about half of them were outfield working jobs like ad hoc rogue hunts, security, special missions etc for other packs. It keeps older warriors sharp and gives younger warriors experience. It also pays the army's bills.

So while I was messing around at theatre rehearsals, band practices, and whatever else I had been doing. Someone was assigning jobs and duties, paying the bills, and dealing with the logistics of moving the Underground into their new dorms at Princess Town.

I would like to credit this wholly on Stephan, but I think Bell had a hand in this too. I'm quite sure that if I checked the reports, somewhere I'd find some documentation on it.

Sigh. I couldn't even keep up with my report reading. Not that I planned to whip out my surface pro and start reading...

Maybe the experts were right. Maybe Bell was the real future Alpha here. He raised up an entire underground army and made it financially viable in one winter. I was...what was I even doing?

Not that this was a competition, but if it were:

TITLES

Bell - AKA Young Alpha Lorent Prince, Death God of the Blue Demon Warriors, Tyger King of the Colored Mountains.

Sam - AKA Future Alpha of Babarian Night Leaf Pack, Alpha Princess of the Green Packlands, Blue Rose of the Idonia Ring Prophecy.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Bell - Led a fight dog revolt to freedom at the Vampire Queen's birthday, raised an Underground Army, took control of the Ciara Coven, defeated the Warlock Fount, won his place among the Tygers in ther Underworld... (Of course, I helped.)

Sam - Helped Bell do all that stuff.

I also had my first shift, fought vamps, finished one term of highschool, starred in a play, sang at a talent time... I know, OFFICIALLY, I was also credited for merging the three major packs of the Green Packlands, founding Princess Town, initiating the outreach to the free wolves, ending the war along our borders... but let's be honest here, these things happened because of a lot of other wolves. At the very most, I helped speed things up and I was just very lucky that it worked out.

I didn't actually DO anything. I mean, half the construction of Princess Town was up, and I hadn't laid a single brick - or in this case, prefabricated block. My dad and our warriors were the ones who won the war. I didn't fight at all.

Like even though I was the one too took the bomb - the one who rounded up the criminals and lured out the ring leaders for capture - that was all Bell. All this while healing the casualties.

I mean, for my every accomplishments, it was largely a group effort. Even up to my recent "accomplishment" in theatre and music. I had a lot of friends around me. Plus those were probably just personal accompliments. Like the one who benefitted most from the experience was me. I learned a lot about myself. I faced my fears. I tried something new.

It was a good feeling, but I wasn't the one who defeated a Hami healer wolf in a healing duel or anything.

Wow, I was lagging so far behind Bell, I don't even know if we were in the same race anymore.

Now that I was doing the math, I had to admit, I totally saw where the "experts" were coming from. I definitely didn't like hearing it, and as much as I hated to admit it, they were not far wrong.