PARTY WITH THE PRINCESS: STAKES AND STEAKS

I think I'm beginning to understand why Alphas were stereotypically stoic and impassive - just pick up any lycan legend (the hand-painted ones with pictures) and you'd always recognize who the alpha wolf was because he would be bigger and broader than the others in his wolf form, and in his human form, he would always wear a grumpy face.

It's not because they all went to a secret Alpha school that taught them not to smile.

It's because if you had a pack of wolves looking up to you, wolves who were creatures sensitive to even the slightest change in expression, wolves who were loyal to a fault and who would die to please you... you needed to be very careful your expression didn't betray you.

Just imagine if someone (let's not name any names) at the meeting said, "Let's just make Abigail disappear, capisce?"

And I brightened at the thought.

This entire PR saga would never see the light of day. It's not like there weren't already 2 assassins running loose in the club.

Being unreadable turned out to be advantageous when making deals with other Alphas too.

It was either this or the fact that long late meetings just made them grumpy. I know I was.

The other thing I learned at this meeting was that Wagyu was beef. We had a huge platter, half and half of rare and medium rare steaks that had been cut into cubes so that we could appreciate how evenly they had browned while keeping the center a perfect red (rare) or pink (medium rare) square.

But the real magic of Wagyu was the white marbling throughout the meat - like a fine web of melt-in-your-mouth buttery goodness which had the power to turn frowns upside down.

Wagyu was now officially my favorite meat. Just writing about it makes my mouth salivate.

I wished they served it with ketchup. I didn't dare ask. It was just a hunch, but I didn't think high-class club restaurants that served Wagyu up to the private soundproof room on the Platinum Floor would have ketchup.

It would've been perfect with ketchup and fries, but our platter was accompanied by asparagus and roasted baby potatoes. No sauces because the beef was sauce in itself.

The betas served Henry and me first, before distributing the plates around. Beta Pete looked astonished when Ki handed him a plate.

Because betas didn't sit with their alphas, much less sit around and eat with them.

"Take it." I told him, "My wolves don't run on empty, so you need to eat to keep up."

"Are you saying my wolves won't be able to keep up?" Henry raised his brow at me. He was smirking, so I grinned back, "No, I'm just saying my wolves are faster."

"Wanna bet?" Henry asked.

"Wanna race down the stairs again?" I asked.

Henry shook his head, "That didn't count."

Were our wolves really going to race? So fun!

"Wanna come over to Night Leaf for a little friendly competition?" You'd think I learned my lesson after the fire wolf incident - I had!

"Bring your warriors, let's have a few obstacle course races, some friendly fights, and maybe a dance party after." I invited. Don't worry. Wolfgang was THE LAST fire wolf. By definition, there was no way I could accidentally put out another fire wolf's fire and claim him. This would be completely safe.

"Is that a challenge?" Henry asked.

"Just a friendly one." I said.

Henry considered this, "Okay, what are the stakes?"

"Wagyu." I said.

"I said stakes, not steaks!" Henry sounded annoyed now.

I laughed because I only just realized the pun.

"What the hell, Sam." Henry grumbled, "Just when I thought you were finally being serious."

I shook my head, "But I seriously meant Wagyu! If we win, you send us Wagyu. If you win... What would you like?"

Now it was my turn to think. What would someone like Henry want?

"Tulips?" I offered.

Henry made a face so I guess not. My other guess was more money...

Luckily, Henry knew exactly what he wanted, "Give me exclusive access to some of your intel."

Eh, what?

"Not all of it, and not for free, of course." Henry quickly assured me, "We can do an exchange."

"Like what do you want to know (that you don't already know)?" Silver Mountain had spies everywhere.

"Like..." Henry paused, but his mouth pressed down in a way that made me feel like he knew what he wanted to know, he just didn't know if he wanted me to know what he was after.

"Just say it, Hen." I said, "We're friends, right?"

"Right." Henry nodded, "I want to know the secret behind your Blue Demon Warrior army."

"What secret?" I asked. I was quite sure he wasn't referring to their Blue Demon Code.

"Come off it, Sam." Henry said gruffly and gestured, "I mean, look at them - they're monsters. It's unnatural."

I looked behind me and tried to look at my four bodyguards from Henry's perspective. And then I looked at Henry's red ants to see how they were different.

My guys were in their usual dark navy blue warrior uniforms. His guys were in maroon warrior uniforms.

Our uniform was cooler, asymmetrical collar and mat zipper. Theirs were shinier with flat brass buttons on their cuffs. I think the more buttons, the stronger their wolf. Okay, probably the buttons were related to their rank, but I wouldn't know what kind of organizational hierarchy Henry's warriors had. Boo just felt that the guy with 6 buttons was the strongest. The other three only had 4 or 5 buttons. They weren't weak wolves. Like I'd definitely think twice before picking a fight with them. Don't misunderstand, I'd definitely win, I'd probably walk away unhurt too, BUT it would probably be really hard work to take them all down by myself. The thought made me quite excited.

"I just want to fight." I said, "Okay, just bring your warriors over for a friendly fight. If we win, you send wagyu. If you win..."

I tried to think of something I did have so I could give it to him, "If you win, I'd let you choose some warriors to run with us. Like a student exchange, but with warriors."

"Like seriously?" Henry definitely didn't expect that "You'd let my warriors run with yours, just like that?"

"Yeah, why not?" Now I was worried.

{If I'm doing something stupid, please tell me.} I mindlinked my wolves - Ki, Harvey, Fluffy, and even the four bodyguards. I'm not sure why I thought Jax might know anything, but based on Henry's reaction, I felt quite sure I had just offered him a blank cheque or something. I wouldn't say I knew anything either.

{I wouldn't say stupid...} Fluffy beamed, {Pretty Alpha's ways are higher than ours.}

That did not help.

{Goddess is daring as always.} Ki smiled. I tried very hard to think of all the less complimentary synonyms for "daring" on the spot since I was quite sure Ki could not say anything negative about me. DARING = risky? foolhardy? crazy?

{There is a 94% probability that Silver Mountain will take this opportunity to infiltrate our ranks, Alpha.} Ink informed me, {31% through buying intel from our men, 24% through recording devices, 18% through breaching our database...} Ink reported.

"Regretting much?" Henry smirked at me. Curse that my face was like an open book!

I shook my head and pressed my mouth together in a bid to look a little less readable.

{I'm sure our alpha has a plan.} Harvey told the other wolves, {Don't forget, this would be an exchange. For every warrior they send to us, we send one of ours into their ranks too.}

{Ah, right.} Ki's wolf brightened when he remembered, {Goddess did say it would be like a student exchange.}

{We can definitely send our own spies too.} Fluffy said.

{Beta Ben had wanted to test our pack's firewalls.} Ink remembered.

{This would also be a good opportunity to weed out the traitors.} Fluffy added gleefully.

{And the idiots.} Jax added.

{Then you better be careful.} Neil warned.

{What are you saying? You know me! I'm no traitor!} Jax protested.

Fluffy and my betas laughed into the mindlink.

{Oh.} Torque said, {Hahaha. I get it now. He means you're an idiot.}

More laughter. Even Jax laughed. My wolves were having a good time. I guess a stomach full of wagyu did that (at least for my wolves.)

And when my wolves laughed like that, I felt happy too.

We had to win the wagyu - and lots of it. I had a lot of wolves to feed.

{I see, our Alpha has once again created a major opportunity for us.} Harvey concluded.

I'm not sure exactly what my good beta was thinking, but I doubt he meant the free wagyu, and I also I felt quite sure this was going into Beta Gerald's collection of Amazing Sam tales. (Not to be confused with The Fish that Got Away Tales.)

"Why are you pouting? Wasn't it your own idea?" Henry smirked, "Having second thoughts?"

"No! I'm NOT pouting!" I flared.

"And, it's on, Hen." I decided. I believed in my wolves... from Ben's firewall to my warrior's loyalty to me. As long as they didn't pretend to be friendly and buy my wolves food and drink, our secrets were safe.

Did that make us idiots?

"You're too trusting, Sam." Henry smirked.

He might be right, but we wouldn't know until we tested it, would we?

"Says our future Wagyu supplier." I grinned back.

Anyway, this meeting was supposed to be about dealing with Abigail, but in the end, we spent it eating wagyu and setting up Night Leaf's next friendly tournament.

If we had an agenda for this meeting, "Dealing with Abigail" would have been under the "A.O.B." at the end.

"Just let her say what she wants." Henry shrugged it off, "You guys can just write it off as an angry ex. Pin it on me."

It was almost like he wanted it to be his fault.

"Why?" I asked. Why did Henry have to appear publicly with a different girl on his arm each time? Why did Henry have to throw dark parties when all he seemed to do was take photos with red-faced famous people? Why did Henry want us to pin the blame for whatever Abigail said on him?

"It's good publicity." Henry smirked. He looked like he was so sure he was getting a good deal out of this.

My betas were discussing this with Fluffy over the mindlink.

{Should we take him up on that?} My good beta wondered.

{We could, but I'd rather not own the young alpha a favor.} Ki smiled gently through the mindlink, {But let's keep the option open until we see the damage tomorrow.}

{Alpha King isn't going to like this.} Neil worried, {And if Rebel gets wind of this, it's gonna explode.}

{Maybe he'll drown Alpha Henry in the swimming pool.} Jax offered.

{Do you believe in Karma?} Fluffy asked.

{No} Neil said.

{Yes.} Jax answered.

While my wolves stood around mindlinking, Henry checked his watch - a signal that this meeting was over, "Good. We're done here. Where's James? Is he here yet?"

{Mate! ~❤️ }

And he was really here! I flared and ran to the nearest window. I couldn't see through the covered porch below from up here, but I felt very sure Mate was near.

"Our Luna has just arrived," Harvey answered.

"Please excuse me, Alpha, Goddess." Ki bowed to go meet Bell's car.

I would've followed Ki down to meet him, but I was distracted by Fluffy suddenly asking Henry, "I wonder if the birthday girl is still with the reporters on the porch?"

"Probably." Henry shrugged, "But so what?"

Yeah, so what? Stakes and steaks may breach my pack, but words could never hurt me.