THE STORY CONTINUED

22 FEBRUARY, MONDAY,

The car was warm, the road was smooth, and we were on our way home. As Harvey drove he updated me on some of details of my schedule. I let his words drift in one ear and out the other while searching the horizon for signs of an ice carriage and icy flyovers. Surely something like that would be quite obvious in broad daylight - it would have been obvious in broad any-light really.

"Alpha?" My good beta noticed my distraction, "Is something the matter?"

I didn't look away from the treeline, I had almost thought I saw the glint of ice just behind it - or perhaps it was the lake freezing over.

"Alpha?"

"Urm... yeah." I answered, before belatedly turning my attention back to Harvey. And then I blurted it out without thinking, "I don't think Alpha Gunter's horse is an ordinary horse."

There was a silence and I watched Harvey worried his lip and frown at the road ahead, "I did not know you were interested in horses, Alpha."

Why? Was he worried that I'd suddenly decide to go equestrian and make him ride on one of those things?

"Only the very pretty ones." And when I said pretty, I meant it the way Sabre did. Silver Lining was a very magical beast.

Harvey blinked even as his indicator ticked. I think he was still struggling to figure out what his "eccentric" alpha was on to now. Poor beta. I tried to make it easy for him, "When I was in the Colored Mountains last night, I talked to a horse who looked EXACTLY like Alpha Gunter's."

Unfortunately this only made it harder for Harvey to wrap his mind around, "A horse, Alpha?"

I think it had to be hard to be smart beta. You spend all your life understanding everything exactly, and suddenly your alpha turns out to be a loony who talked to horses.

"And the horse talked back!" I tried to undo the looniness, but yes, I realized in hindsight that this only made me sound loonier.

"Well it didn't really talk aloud." I tried one more time, hoping to sound less crazy than I think I did, "It mindlinked."

"You met a horse on the colored mountains which mindlinked you?" The disbelief was evident in Harvey's tone. I think he was still trying to figure out if I were serious or just messing with him.

"Okay, admit it, you think I must be crazy." I gave up.

Harvey shook his head and answered very carefully, "If Alpha said the horse spoke, then the horse spoke."

"He mindlinked." I corrected him.

"Then the horse mindlinked." Harvey allowed.

"He said his name is Silver Lining." I informed Harvey.

Harvey managed to nod just a little bit, "Alright. Did Silver Lining tell you anything else?"

"Not anything significant, he was like a grumpy old wolf." I told Harvey - I mean, since he already thought I was loony, there was no reason to hold back now, "But he did tell me where to find the key that the stable master had hidden and where to find clothing so I could shift out of my wolf."

"I see..." Harvey said.

"He was a very helpful horse." I said, "The thing was Alpha Gunter's horse looked just like him."

"Could it be..." Harvey was wording himself very carefully. Considering that we were alone and discussing a talking horse, I didn't think he needed to be so cautious.

"Could it be that it was a very similar looking horse?" Harvey finally managed to put out his question.

I nodded, "Yeah, that's what I thought too. But now I'm wondering how many horses would look like that?"

Alpha Gunter's stallion was white with a slightly grey sheen - almost silver in color. And its mane was like every girls dream pony, silky and long - heck, never mind dream pony, girls would probably kill for hair like that! Except of course mine was longer, and bluer, and more deadly, so I wouldn't be one of those girls. I wasn't into braiding pony hair either, and Harvey wasn't the only wolf who worried about riding a horse - it was just unnatural - have you ever seen a wolf ride a horse? If I needed to get somewhere fast, I would run on my own four feet.

Horses were skittish among wolves too, so it wasn't like they would let us ride without bucking us off. There was this Alpha from the other continent who liked horses, he was thrown and broke his back and was paralyzed for years before his healers managed to align his discs back and rejoin the nerves successfully. It came out in the news because what the healers did was such a breakthrough.

I wondered how Alpha Gunter did it, or Heller - I mean, if he had a stable, I'm guessing he had horses, and that he rode them.

My deeply analytical thoughts were interrupted by a very rude growling noise. I turned to Harvey, who turned to me.

"Apologies, Alpha." Harvey nodded a quick bow before facing his attention back to the motorway, "I had not expected the delay to extend our journey over your lunchtime."

This was when I realized that the rude loud growling had originated from me - specifically, it was produced by my stomach. I felt my cheeks colored so it was lucky that Harvey's attention remained considerately fixed on the road.

Ki had packed me lunch for just such a pinch! I opened my bag and remembered belatedly that my lunchbox wasn't in my bag, I had given it to Daisy at the school gate this morning!

Harvey winced, obviously remembering the exact same incident, "Apologies Alpha, it did not occur to me to ask Ki for another lunch box to bring to you."

I shrugged and tried to play it cool, "No worries. I'm not that hungry."

And of course my stomach had to growl again. This time it felt even louder. I'm not sure the science behind the decibel level of hunger growls, but my stomach was not shy at all.

"Ah, the glove compartment, Alpha." Harvey remembered, "Ben keeps a stash of snack bars in most of your cars."

Eh? I opened the glove compartment automatically. It was like my stomach had decided to override my brain function. Those snack bars were mine now. (I hope they were chocolate.)

The glove compartment was surprisingly full. I had to flip around. There was a small plastic zip folder labelled "insurance and emergency". It even came with a pen inside it. How organized. Even the label was printed.

But I think the organization stopped there. A few opened and new packets of sugarless mints all mixed together with a power bank, it's cable was tucked away at the bottom where it was unlikely to be found, there was a magazine - again it was the type you inserted into a gun, not the kind you read. Where the gun was, was anybody's guess.

Oh, there was a magazine too (the kind you read.) Okay, correction, it was the kind that guys read. Some fitness men's health thing.

And then there were random name cards just tossed into the mix. It's like my betas were making some kind of miscellaneous salad.

I found a used ziplock bag too.

Harvey winced. He looked physically pain that I had to see all that.

"Apologies Alpha." He apologized again, "The men are instructed not to open the glove compartment when car cleaning."

Oh. Yeah, that was a good idea. You wouldn't want the men to realize that their three perfect betas were closet slobs. Or rather, glove compartment slobs. Hahaha.

I found the protein bars. There were two in different flavours. And Ben had labelled it himself with black permanent ink.

The red bar said "Property of Ben. Eat it and die."

The blue bar said, "F*** you. Don't touch."

I put the red one back. I mean, since it was a choice between death and whatever F was.

"Don't worry Alpha." Harvey assured me, "I'll have it replaced."

I opened the silver of foil and took a big bite and regretted it instantly. I should have used my nose before I used my mouth - this was the golden rule of all wolves, and I regretted breaking it immediately.

F tasted like peanut butter and almonds and dates and something else I had never eaten before. It's not that those ingredients were bad in itself, but the combination was like someone the opposite of Esther had decided to bake.

Blech.

"Is something the matter, Alpha?" Harvey worried.

"This thing tastes weird." I held it up for Harvey to inspect, "It's like something died in it."

Harvey, sniffed it gingerly, "It smells right to me."

I sniffed it too. Ginger. The mystery taste was ginger, but hadn't recognized it under all that peanut butter.

I shook my head, "I don't think I can eat this."

This took a lot for me to admit. I was very proud of the fact that I could eat just about anything. I was quite shocked at the quick defeat by a protein bar. I had never eaten one before, and I would never eat one again.

"Apologies, Alpha." Harvey said, "I'll have something more to your taste in the car next time."

Would it be cookies? But right now, I was so hungry, I wanted steak and potatoes. Or pizza. Could we always keep pizza in the car? Maybe we should sell the Porsche and buy a pizza delivery van... full of pizza.

Oh man, its bad when my stomach was doing the thinking.

I looked at the protein bar, "Such a waste though."

"If you don't mind, Alpha." Harvey opened his mouth. Was he going to eat this? Like its disgusting you know?

"It tastes really bad, you know." I warned him.

Harvey closed his mouth for his signature wry smile, "It's an acquired taste."

I held up the bar and Harvey ate it - all in one mouthful. I watched him chew, he didn't look like he was suffering in the lest.

He even thanked me after he chewed and swallowed it, "Thank you Alpha."

I shook my head, "I should be thanking you for finishing that. Do you guys eat this stuff a lot?"

"It's high in protein and low in calories, and its pretty handy to have around." Harvey answered.

My poor betas. I should feed you better.

Our car entered the Green Packlands, we were almost home. Harvey decided to quickly wrap up his schedule updates with just the key changes, "Your Luna Bell is in the Packlands. He's finishing some administrative work at the Lorent Pack with Ki and will be having dinner with your family tonight. Ben and myself will meet you at Ben's basement for the dream travel to Black Forest Pack. Our trainers would be expecting us by 8. Also, the Special Team will be reporting to your FAO meeting room at 4.30pm."

Oh right! I had said I wanted to deal with the Special Team myself. I grinned, suddenly remembering the night we ran together.

"Don't bother replacing Ben's bar." I told Harvey, "I'll return it to him myself."

Heh, heh, heh. I hope Ink had some of his homemade health bars with him. Muahahahaha...

What? You don't want to see Ben's face when he eats it?

Muahahahaha... I'm so evil.