POST HASTE & ETC ONLY

24 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, AFTERNOON

So post haste we were headed to my dad's office - it was so post haste that Ki had driven directly to the Pack House and left the car to the free valet service, courtesy of the warrior on duty. Today it was Dave.

"Beta Ki!" Dave's face broke into a smile when he saw Ki, "You're okay!"

"Naturally." Ki smiled back easily enough. I held the door for me to step out.

"Yo Princess." Dave bowed and then to Ki continued in friendly banter, "You came home such a wreck last night."

There was a pause and then Dave remembered the Black Out Order on Ki's injuries, "I mean... we all did. I was a train wreck this morning. My mate had to send the pups to school."

Nice save, Dave.

Ki's smile didn't falter. He handed Dave the keys to his car, "I heard you guys lived it up all night."

"We might have overdone it." Dave admitted, "The Special Team guys were like crazy. We ran together and a couple of those guys rammed down trees like...like..."

"Like pokey sticks?" I supplied helpfully.

Now Dave remembered the Alpha Order about not breaking anything they couldn't fix, he quickly informed me, "Flynn is going to order some saplings to replace them."

Last night, we gave these guys two orders. A Black Out Order on Bell and Ki's injuries, and an Alpha Order not to destroy anything. For some reason Dave just had to stumble over both of them in a half-minute conversation.

The next time I suspected my wolves were up to no good, the first person I would question would be Dave.

"Next time, I'm coming with." Ki said in parting.

"Sure thing, Beta." Dave nodded with his genuine good nature, "The more the merrier."

"Please help me deliver the contents of the ice box in my boot to the freezer of the Alpha's House too." Ki added as an afterthought.

"No problem!" Dave was quick to oblige.

Ki handed him a key card, "I'll be in the Alpha's office. Return the card to me when you're done."

Now Dave paused, and then he accepted the card with both hands and a bow, "Yes, beta. Right away. You can leave it to me!"

Because he realized Ki had passed him his personal key card. It even had Ki's name embossed on it. Wow, we were getting fancy now with personalized key cards too. Did that make Ki's card a Ki card? Get it? Key card - Ki card? No?

I don't care. I'm laughing anyway. Hahahaha.

Anyway, post haste! Two minutes later, we were outside my Dad's office. Dad and Beta Lucas were talking inside - and because Dad still hadn't changed his office door, we could clearly hear him when we stood outside.

"That boy! Sometimes I think he's getting into trouble on purpose!" Beta Lucas was loudly complaining.

Ki knocked twice on the door.

There was a pause, and then Dad said, "Enter."

Ki pushed open the door and bowed, "Alpha Sam is here."

Which surprised me, but I guess it would have been weirder if Ki had announced me as goddess. But what happened to Alpha Princess?

And for some reason, neither my Dad nor Beta Lucas seemed to notice anything amiss.

"Sam, you're here." Dad nodded.

"Is Ben in trouble?" I asked.

"Hoo boy. He's in so much trouble." Beta Lucas shook his head.

"Is it because he went out drinking with the warriors all night?" I asked, "Flynn and Hank were there too, so I don't think they let him actually drink."

Beta Lucas and my Dad paused. Beta Lucas blinked, "He what?"

Wait! He didn't know? Oh... oh...s***. I was worse than Dave.

I looked to Ki to help me salvage the situation. I wasn't Nice-Save-Dave. It's not like I could just smile and say, "Just kidding!"

But Ki only smiled, rather beautifully. Nope, Ki was not going to help Ben.

Looks like its all up to me (which was bad news for Ben), "Urm... yeah, what did Ben do now?"

In case it wasn't obvious to you, I was trying to change the subject, but due to my much lower level skill in steering conversations, this turned out to be like trying not to drive into a ditch by driving off the side of a cliff.

"Hoo man! Where should I start?" Beta Lucas shook his head again, "Never mind the boy. We have more urgent things to talk about. That boy is digging me an early grave."

Whoa, hold up, Beta Lucas. You haven't even retired yet (even though you talked about it a lot). What exactly did Ben do now?

Luckily Beta Lucas just had to get it off his chest, so he related the entire incident from the beginning, and Dad was understanding enough of his old friend to let him.

The most important part of this entire retelling according to Beta Lucas was how Mrs Beta had received a call from Ben's form teacher this morning. She had to drive all the way down to the school to meet the teacher. Basically, Ben had been caught for plagiarism.

I shook my head, "He didn't do it."

"How can you be so sure?" Beta Lucas paused midway in his recount to ask.

"He's too smart to need to copy, and if he did, he's too smart to get caught for it." I answered confidently.

Beta Lucas nodded his head, "Yes, but the boy got ahead of himself."

Yeah, that would also be what Ben would do. Get ahead of himself.

So, do you remember the paper Ben wrote while at Henry's press conference? He had submitted it as his homework, and also for some high school research competition under Dean's name.

Dean won. This came as a shock to all who knew him. Dean had never been much of a science or computer guy. The judges praised the paper as one of the finest high school entry they had ever read and came to the school to meet him personally for Reid Inc's COT (Chief of Tech) to hand him the prize money and invitation to a tour of Reid Inc.

This appeared in the newspapers and everything today. I hadn't seen it, but okay.

Ben's world affairs teacher was very impressed and asked Dean for a copy of the paper at lunchtime, and was quite shocked to find that it was the exact replicate of the paper Ben had submitted for his World Affairs homework on his desk.

Troubled, he showed it to the teacher sitting next to him - who just happened to be Ben's Science Teacher - who had the exact paper on his desk too.

Ah, the best laid plans for mice and Ben.

Ben was called to Principal Charlie's office. Now Ben was known to be a smart kid, but he just hadn't handed in his homework this term. Both the World Affairs and Science Papers were late work, so could it be that the young beta submitted Dean's competition winning paper as his own just to save time?

And Ben said, "Yes."

"But Ben wrote that paper last weekend." I blurted out, "I saw him write it."

"Yes. Even so..." Beta Lucas started before he realized what I just said, "Wait, what? Then why did he admit to plagiarism?"

"Maybe he didn't want to get Dean into trouble?" I guessed.

"Maybe beta wanted to tour Reid Inc?" Ki prompted gently, "I remembered he had a particular interest in their cyber security system."

Oh, right. I'm guessing Ben would rather suffer whatever plagiarism would do to him than losing his ticket into Reid Inc.

"When I get my hands on that boy..." Beta Lucas promised, "I'm going to... I'm going to teach him a lesson."

Yes, I know that threat really fell flat, but I knew better than to underestimate Beta Lucas' idea of discipline.

I hope that tour of Reid Inc would be worth all the snow shoveling, leaf raking, and lawn mowing Ben would be doing until he learned his lesson.

And then Dad spoke, "Why doesn't he just ask Captain Stephan for a tour?"

Who?

"Stephan Reid." Dad repeated, "Your army captain."

And then Ki was good enough to remind me, "Stephan's grandfather is the owner of Reid Inc."

Right.

How did Beta Lucas put it? Ben really had a way of getting ahead of himself.