SO WHERE IS THE PRINCESS?

6 FEBRUARY, SATURDAY, AFTERNOON

Savy and I said bye to the girls and went back home after lunch. Savy wanted to go collect her make up and accessories.

"Oooh! Bring your manicure set!" Lizzy said, "We might all have time to do our nails."

Savy smiled and nodded, "Okay."

So the other girls went over the Lizzy's family's white and grey slated house across the road while Savy and I took the usual walk across the icy lawns to a totally unfamiliar house.

I looked at the black, dark grey, and glass structure as we approached it. This was the New Alpha House. Walking towards it from the Packhouse, I could see my tower and the glass encased swimming pool. Now in the winter sun, the glass looked dark and you could barely see inside.

How did Carlie see anyone in the pool room? Could it be a different lighting?

There was no one home.

"I'm going to get my stuff. See you at the party later." Savy grinned at the stairs before hopping up.

I almost followed her up to "our room" or rooms but realized at the last minute that my room wasn't up there. Instead I nodded wordlessly, watching her disappear around the corner at the top of the stairs.

Then I looked around me. Okay, conservatory was that way. I wandered through the hall and glass room of green growing things. Mum seemed to be gathering quite a collection of houseplants. Was that a thing now among the mums?

Every now and then, something becomes a thing with the mums. It used to be Tupperware. Those were the good old days. Now there were a lot more different things that became a thing. Like crocheting, and flower arranging, or soap making, or one pot stews... Oh! There was a whole season where Mum made one pot everything!

I got to the pool, it was quiet and glowy. The warm water made the room a little misty. Outside I could see the snow, inside this room was actually quite warm. There were more than one potted palm sitting around making the pool room look like a little oasis in a glass jar.

I took off my sweater and trooped up the stairs to the second floor. It was silent. Nobody home.

It had been a little strange to come home to a completely different home. I mean, I'm not sure if I'd ever get used to this. But it's even weirder that no one was home.

I heard the front door and Savy leaving. I could see her from the second floor bay window by the stairway. Anyway, up I go, back to my room.

My room, which was not my room. It wasn't my comfortable old wooden framed bed which I had since I could sleep on a bed on my own. It wasn't the grey painted bunk bed at the alpha apartment. That had disappeared and the apartment was now the Future Alpha Office.

I stepped into the landing, passed the sofa set, and opened the bedroom door.

My room, with its gilded mirrors and giant golden clamshell bed and floor to ceiling windows which turned out not to be windows at all but sliding doors! Remembering my discovery this morning, I pulled open the sliding door to check out my outdoor space.

Just like this morning, it was an empty rooftop terrace. I could lean over and see the packhouse. I tried to check out the view from other angles. The best view faced the back of the house - I could see the forest spread out. And then... Was that the town? Gate city? Morning Light? The Lorents? Just the tops of some buildings peeking out from behind the branches at the end of the forest.

I squinted at it. It must be quite far away. I wouldn't have seen it at all if not for the bare trees. I was sure when spring came around the forest foliage would completely cover those buildings from my line of sight.

Something shiny slid across the skyline... I barely noticed except when I squinted at it. It was pretty far away. I made a guess - it was the train, running across the Gate City bridge! I could see all the way to Gate City from here!

It was getting cold. Opps, maybe because I was only in a t-shirt. I turned back to go into the room for my sweater. Maybe a bath... And then I saw something running down the road. A blue train - no, haha, a blue convoy. Weird. I thought blue was my color. Oh wait, it was my convoy. I watched, careful to keep myself out of sight. I wondered what was happening.

The convoy pulled up into our driveway and stopped along our long verenda.

I ran over to the other side of the roof to see what would happen. And then Ki and a couple of warriors got out of the drivers side and opened the doors for their passengers.

Henry stepped out first, then Marcus, Liam... Each guy from the front passenger seat, and then Jasmine and the cool girls and Abigail. Oh! The playdate was today? As in right now today?

I totally forgot.

Sometime between breakfast with the gang and the games and lunch... I forgot.

Ben was running over. I noticed he was running on the road. I guess he didn't want to risk falling over like a log in front of a bunch of highschool girls.

Did he forget about the playdate too?

Back on the verenda, I could hear the conversation quite clearly if I stood on the side of the roof closest to the house.

"Welcome to our Alpha's home." Ki said to our guests.

"Oh wow! Is that a heated pool?" Abigail asked.

"It's smaller than I expected." Pearl remarked.

"You can't always judge value by the size. This is refreshing. Very nice." Henry approved, "Thanks for having us."

"It's really modern." Jasmine said.

"Yeah, I guess it's true the Night Leaf Pack is always ahead of its time." Marcus said.

"So where's the princess?" Henry asked.

Ben reached them by then. Ki looked at Ben and smiled, "Where's our princess?"

Ben shrugged.

Ki kept smiling, "Please come in to warm up."

Henry raised a brow and then he chortled, "Did you guys just lose your princess?"

Neither Beta answered immediately.

Henry started laughing out loud, it was a nice sound.

"It can't be!" Marcus looked somewhat shocked.

Henry was still laughing, "It's Sam after all. Let's go in and wait for her to show up."

Hahahahaha.

I jumped up and down and waved from where I was, "Over here!"

And then, just because I could, I jumped over the railing, to the side ledge of the building, then made a jump over to the main building, and then scaled down the side with the help of window ledges and gutter pipes.

I did find a narrow ledge on the second floor to stand on, and then hopped over to the wooden verenda trellis.

Every now and then the girls would gasp, which only made me laugh.

"Oh Sam, be careful." Jasmine called out.

"It's fine, she probably does this all the time." Henry reasoned, "It's her home."

Ben sighed and called out, "Mind the gaps. Drop down here, I'll catch you."

I moved over to his side of the verenda, but Ki took his place, "I'll do it."

I guess Ki was large enough not to be knocked over on impact.

Ki reached up and caught me by my waist before putting me down lightly on my feet. I suddenly remembered Mate and missed him. No! Playdate! Don't think about dumbbells!

"Thanks!" I grinned.

Ben released a quiet frustrated sigh. I laughed.

"I see you're as troublesome at home as in school." Henry smirked.

My betas both raised a brow at that.

"Hey, you don't have to say it like that." I protested, "I'm very... untroublesome in school!"

"Yeah right." Marcus chuffed, "That's not even a word."

We followed Ki into the house and sat around the hallmark living room.

"This is fancy." Pearl commented with a smile.

"What did you expect from the Alpha of Night Leaf Pack?" Henry asked.

I wished I could show them my manga infested bunk bed plus roll out arrangement at the alpha apartment or even our old alpha house. I wondered if Henry would've expected that?

Ki started loading the coffee table with all kinds of yum. There was even coke. Coke!

"There's coke!" I exclaimed.

"Your mother said it was alright since you had friends over." Ki explained.

"You guys should come more often." I said popping one open with a grin.

Then I looked at the cool girls who were really quiet, "Hey, urm... Eat up. When you're done I can show you around. Or we can urm..."

Go to my room? Swim in the pool? Check out the packhouse? What was one supposed to do with friends when they came over?

I looked at Ki who smiled, "Excellent idea, princess. Once your friends are rested, we can tour the estate."

What estate? The cool girls were looking at me funny. Oh boy.

Ben took his bow, "Please excuse me, I need to pick up the Luna. Harvey will be here shortly."

The girls brightened at that. Ki smiled, "Is Fluffy with him?"

"Yeah." Ben answered.

"Please tell him to bring Fluffy too." Ki smiled.

"Whose Fluffy?" Zara asked.

"Sam's dog." Ben threw back over his shoulder as he left.

Grrr.... stupid Ben was in a bad mood.

I just sat there and sipped on my coke. Oh boy.

I never thought I'd say this, but luckily Abigail was here. She started talking and soon there was a lively discussion going about the other girls in our class. Who would make a good wife. Who was just girlfriend material.

Every now and then the girls would ask the guys to affirm their belief that so and so was the cute type, or that guys liked girls who ____(fill in the blank with something random).

If I thought girl talk was hard, this was on a whole new level. I shall call it "girl talk with special boy VIPs".

Abigail was good at it, she never said a single mean thing throughout, but she gave lots of examples, and asked lots of questions that led everyone else to conclude something mean about whoever they were talking about.

"Shameless! I didn't know she could be so shameless!" Zara would declare.

"No, no, I'm sure she didn't mean it that way." Abigail would quickly say.

"Abigail, you're too naïve. It's obvious she was just using you." Krystal would tell her knowingly.

"Maybe you girls are right." Abigail would say, "I never thought about it that way."

It seems like a lot of girls in our class liked to show their shameless side to Abigail while keeping it well hidden from the rest of us.

We were just going to go in depth into analysing the conversation she had with Arlene the other day, when Harvey knocked on the doorway and entered.

"Good afternoon." He bowed politely.

A blond man behind him echoed the bow.

Oh it was Fluffy. He had his long braides cut just above his shoulder, and a change of clothes. His navy blue blazer accentuated his broad shoulder and lean frame. It also made his eyes look very blue.

Ki went through a similar transformation on his first day.

But I had to remind myself that this transformation was only an outward appearance. I looked from Fluffy to Ki, no matter how much they looked like they had adjusted to their new life, I always got the feeling that they were always still locked in their past in some way. I couldn't explain it. It was just a feeling I got whenever I looked at them carefully.

"You all know Harvey." Ki smiled, "This is Alaric. He is currently training to be our princess' personal assistant and bodyguard."

Fluffy blinked, but otherwise didn't look surprise at his change of moniker. He broke into smile in a way that matched Ki's to a T, "A pleasure to meet everyone. I'm new, so allow me to apologize in advance for any inconvenience."

Woah...

The girls tittered. Liam smiled his usual lopsided smile, but sorry Liam, with Fluffy in the room you might as well have been invisible.

It's was like meeting another Ki!

Forget about Alaric! I should just call them Ki1 and Ki2.

Harvey excused himself shortly after. Looks like he would leave Ki1 and Ki2 with me. Maybe it was Ki's turn to train him. But hahaha... I'm not sure if it were such a good idea. All the girls were going googly eyes at the two Kis now standing side by side. Krystal was right, hot guys were hotter in groups or three or more.

Not that Ki1 and Ki2 made three, but the multiplying effect was already there. They just needed a Ki3 to seal the deal.