THE CONTINUED DRAMA

9 FEBRUARY, TUESDAY, CON'T

Cynthia looked up tearfully from her untouched food, "Oh daddy, please don't! It wasn't your fault at all!"

Mrs Emerson teared up, "That's right, if it was anyone's fault, it was mine! It was because Mama made that careless comment. It was because I said how nice it would be if you could find a mate like our young alpha whom you used to date!"

She looked at me and dabbed her eyes with the corner of her napkin.

Did she think I would not know about their past? Did she worry that the fact would upset my wolf? Did she want to upset my wolf? Nah, no one was that dumb. Maybe she just spoke it out of turn. I pretended I hadn't heard it.

"No mama!" Cynthia cried. She was very good at crying. It was as pitiful as Oprah's tears the time we pretended to punish her and her brother at Night Forest.

I felt rather sorry for Cynthia.

"This was my mistake to bear. My mistake alone." Cynthia declared.

"Everyone makes mistakes." I said.

{Trap}

Dammit. You know you could warn me BEFORE I stepped into it!

{What fun would that be?}

I hate my wolf.

Cynthia's tears dried up immediately, "Even you, Alpha Princess?"

I was not too proud to admit my mistakes. I nodded, "I make mistakes all the time."

Like I just did. Trapping myself in my own words.

"Even mistakes... with guys? I can't believe the Alpha Princess can make mistakes." Cynthia said, "Perhaps you say this only to comfort me."

"My worst mistakes were probably with guys." I told her honestly.

"Oh really?" Cynthia asked.

Yeah, I mean, I was always running with the guys.

"How so, child?" Mrs Emerson exclaimed kindly, "I cannot imagine it!"

Where should I start?

"I made lots. I got my beta shot at a routine patrol. I accidentally broke his arm last year too." Yeah, Ben would be the one who took the fall for my mistakes. Poor guy.

"Oh, and there was the water bombing incident where we bombed our own patrols. And just the other week I went on patrol with another beta and gamma and we accidently set up a trap that caught our own warriors..." I shut up then, remembering Gamma Harry declaring how shameful that was and how we had become the laughingstock. Maybe I it was a mistake to have said that mistake.

I shrugged, "It's not easy since I shifted. There are rogues and traps in the warlock lands, the packs are merging and I'm meeting many new wolves. And the vampires..."

Mrs Emerson gasped.

Maybe I shouldn't mention vampires too.

"Don't worry. We took care of it." I assured her, "Outside packlands. They won't come here."

Alpha James raised a brow.

I looked at Ki for PR help.

"The Alpha Princess was instrumental in my rescue from the fight cage." Ki explained smoothly.

"Oh." Alpha James nodded, "For which the Lorent Pack is indebted to you."

"But goddess, I don't think the Emersons were asking for your learning points from battle experience or in ascending your leadership role." Ki interjected succinctly, "They wanted to know if you had any past scandals, particularly with regards to regrettable sexual intimacy or relations." Ki was what? I'm not sure. Pointing out exactly what the trap was?

"Oh. Then no. I'm only 15. I'm not old enough to make that kind of mistakes." I answered. Wasn't that pretty obvious?

"Plus Mum and Dad monitors me 24/7. They've got my betas reporting to them behind my back. My phone has a tracking device. I can't even turn on my bedroom lights without them knowing. My homework, text messages, social accounts, calendar, emails... Everything is monitored almost in real time. It's like living with a team of professional stalkers." I joked.

But nobody laughed.

"So you knew that much." Mate said. Why, was there more? Do tell. Hahaha. But of course he didn't.

I grinned at Mate, "I'm innocent, not stupid. There is a difference."

Mate shrugged, "Finish your breakfast. We've dallied enough."

Alpha James laughed a little then, "Maybe that's what I should do too. Monitor you too."

"I'm sure Alpha Kingsley would not mind sharing the data." Bell told his father, "My bangle is checked daily for any color change, whether to gold or black. My phone's text messages are also monitored. My calendar is shared to the general system. So I am afforded only a little more privacy than my princess."

"And you allow it?" Alpha James asked.

"Because in return he allows me a great deal of autonomy with regards to his daughter and his pack." Rebel answered.

"Of course he can. He has you in the palm of his hand." Alpha James slammed the breakfast table, causing the porclein to chatter in response.

Then Alpha James calmed down again. He rubbed his temple, "It looks like this is the sunset of the Lorent Pack. Alpha Kingsley played his hand well. First Morning Light, now the Lorent, he is dominating the entire Green Packlands with a single pawn. It looks like it's check mate for us."

Delta Emerson became thoughtful, "Most men with daughters would hope simply for a generous dowry. Alpha Kingsley had the audacity to use his to bring about the unification of the Green Packlands under his administration."

"I think we are in agreement that Alpha Kingsley is not most men." Ki smiled, guilessly reinfocing the notion.

"Alpha Kingsley is a formidable foe indeed." Delta Emerson agreed, "Our Alpha Lorent was wise to position our pack into the merger."

"You now see we would have lost either way." Alpha James said.

"Old Man, don't say we have lost. Don't forget. I will be Luna when my princess is of age." Mate reminded him.

"Alpha Kingsley is not a fool. Do you think he would simply hand over the entire Green Packland to you?" Alpha James asked.

"No, but he would hand it over to her." Mate said.

Seriously? Were they plotting? In front of me?

"It's true." Ki smiled affirming it, "Alpha Kingsley is very indulgent towards our young Alpha's princess. But then again, this is natural, it's not every day that you are blessed with a daughter who looks like the moon goddess herself! She is known to be very lucky."

I was just a lucky charm. Great.

Wth was that, Ki? What kind of weird tea were you brewing? Stop leading them on!

The three men looked at me and then Delta Emerson decided, "Wouldn't that would be as good as handing it to the Young Alpha?"

"It would not be that easy. I've worked with Alpha Kingsley for many years. I've seen how his plans, no matter how seemingly haphazard or coincidental would produce unbelievable payoffs in his favor over and over again." Alpha James warned, "He would not so easily hand over his reigns to you, son."

Because he was handing it to me? Was no one listening to the words coming out of their mouths?

"He trusts me." Mate answered, but of course he had to add a bitter jab at his father,"Unlike you, Old Man, he knows who he can trust."

Alpha James growled. And then he looked contemplative. At length, he nodded, "It seems you are our pack's only hope. The survival of our pack, our customs and way of life, and the Lorent name are all in your hands."

Bell smiled at me and touched my hair, it was a tender gesture and his expression softened, just a little. Still his words sounded calculated, "In time, Old Man. Alpha Kingsley did not overtake the Green Packlands in a day, neither can we, but by the next generation, the Alpha of Moon Bell would be a Lorent wolf."

A Lorent wolf? Bell meant our pups right? I guess that made sense. Our children would all be Lorents. That was in the betrothal agreement.

Wait, but why were they narrating the plan like it was some kind of plot?

Delta Emerson nodded, his head bobbing up and down like a pigeon in a hurry, "Yes, yes, our young alpha is wise."

"But there is no point in counting our chicks before they hatch. For now it is imperative for my son's relationship with his princess to be solidified." Alpha James concluded, "The future glory of the Lorent name rest solely on this. There must be no scandal on them, do you see what I mean, Delta? This is not merely a matter of personal reputation, our entire future, yours and mine as well as every wolf under the Lorent banner need this relationship to be indisputable."

"I understand." Delta Emerson bowed his head.

Wait, so all that dramatic narrative was for Delta Em to understand? And what did he understand?

Because I didn't understand.

The Delta and his family stood up, "We have overstayed. Begging your pardon, I will take my family home and have my daughter relocated at the earliest possibility."

Cynthia burst into tears while her mother held her, "There, there Cynthia, be a good girl, don't cry."

Why was she a bad girl for crying? I think I would have cried in her shoes too.

"Thank you for understanding, Delta." Alpha James said.

And then the Emersons were gone.

The food in the Lorent household was delicious, but I could barely taste it, and the tea was more bitter than back home.

"Sometimes it takes drama to fight drama." Alpha James commented resignedly.

And they said black wolves were insane? White wolves were even crazier.

And then Alpha James said to Rebel, "You've changed. I've never seen you wait for anything in your life."

Rebel met my eyes for a moment and then told his father, "Some things are worth waiting for."

Wait, so he was waiting for me to turn 18 so that he could take over Moon Bell in my proxy and use me to make Lorent puppies for the glory of the Lorent name and the future of all the wolves who ran under it?

I stared at Rebel, studying his chiseled features, his firm mouth, his golden eyes and default p***ed off expression.

I pretty much stared at him all the way to his car. I remembered trying to bite him in this car once, but for some reason, his scent was more calming now. The mating bands, now that they were both active, was fully functioning in protecting us from the mating bond's early pull. So as long as we didn't trigger it by marking each other or anything crazy, the bands seemed to be enough to keep our wolves secure in the knowledge that we belonged to each other.

I've read these bands were commonplace in the colored mountains. And courtship between wolves lasted anywhere from one to four years, not like here on the plains.

Here on the plains, without magical items like argon mating bands, the mating pull was incessant and unquenchable for shifted wolves. Females would go in heat by the first full moon. It was really a losing battle and most wolves find their mate and settle down before they reach the age of 20.

Dad was convinced that this was the key reason why many wolves didn't pursue further education, particularly among females if they had pups early. Males, if they had to work to provide for their family. Warriors, if their pack was facing threat. Our young people needed more support to continue their education.

Our Gate City Business College provided dorms for mated couples, is near the Gate City Hospital which host the largest maternity ward in the Green Packlands, and has a subsidized childcare centre so young mothers and fathers could continue studying. There were also a slew of scholarships, tied down to the various businesses sponsoring them. The Green Packland Council also provided scholarship and bursaries to keep our young talents in schools just a little longer.

Wolves needed education for as far as they were capable of it. The world was changing and wolves needed to make progress to keep up and go further, or else be left behind.

Of course this could be just another "insane" plan by the "mad genius" also known as my Dad.

I glared at Mate - for being a Lorent, and dragging me down into the muddy banks of Lorent conspiracy and intrigue. BS.

"What?" He asked, he didn't look away from the road.

"What were you plotting with your dad just now?" I blurted out.

Now that I wrote this down, I realised how stupid it was to ask him directly like that. If Mate was truly evil and scheming, wouldn't he tell me it was nothing?

"It was nothing." Mate answered.

I rest my case.

I decided not to pursue it. What could I have done? Report it to my dad - who was the mad genius that had schemed for years to unify the entire Green Packlands under his reign - using me as his pawn?

Do not forget world, my dad has not one, but two daughters, three if you counted Sabre. By the time he was through, he might have captured not just one, but three Packlands.

Hahaha. I pictured my dad as the mad genius, I mean Maverick of the Green Packlands, brooding in contemplation over which colored packland he should conquer with his next daughter.

The problem with games like these was that after a while, it became hard to tell which part was the water and which part was the tea.

I glared at Mate some more.

"I hated being a Lorent." Mate said after a while, "I hated playing their social games and listening to their drivel. I hated that the person I was had to be dictated by a general consensus, construed in the most mind numbing stereotypical narratives. But that is the world of the Lorents, short of bursting their bubble and leaving them to gasp their final breaths...what else could we do?"

"I've thought about it those days alone in the fight cage, how I've tried to rebel, how it was fruitless, and what I would do if I went back." Mate was all emo again.

"What would you do?" I asked.

Mate smirked, "I wanted to burst their bubble and watch them gasp and die like goldfish from a fallen bowl. Let them take all their melodrama to hell with them."

Said the Lorent prince - because face it, he was just as melodramatic as the next Lorent. But I kept quiet. Some things, even I would know to shut up.

"But after I met you, my old man was right, I've changed." Mate sighed at the windscreen in front of him and the empty roads ahead, "I'm no longer trapped as the white prince or the black hearted rebel. I'm not doomed to watch the rest of the world from inside their insipid glass bubble."

So now instead of breaking their bubble and destroying them, you want to smash the whole world into pieces?

"I'm free." Mate said. I feel a lightness through the mating bond.

Yeah, we had just released a terrible evil that was my mate into the world.

Well, at least he was a very good looking evil.

Whatever. I had school today and I needed to get through it, plus archery training, all with about one full hour of sleep last night. I'll deal with my evil mate another time.