THE THING I WON'T SAY ABOUT BEING THE ALPHA'S DAUGHTER

I watched as the car pass the familiar scenery. We were home in good time and I probably could soak quite a bit in a nice hot bath if I read my reports and prepared for the Cadence in it. I mean, I'd rather not have to read reports in the tub, but I was the alpha. And also because I didn't want to step into the Cadence and say something stupid in front of all my elders and my wolves. My last Candence had gone stellar and I didn't want to be seen as INCONSISTENT. I would be the drip that consistently held stellar meetings!

Also, at least half the adults attending held me in legendary esteem right now and I was just a teeny bit reluctant to disappoint them.

Yes, I was motivated by the pressure of high expectations here, but that's okay too. I was used to it. Even as a dumb pup, I had always been very aware that I was the Alpha's daughter.

Once, when in Middle School, my friend Una, the human boasted, "My mum is very good. She doesn't put any pressure on me. She says she has no expectations from me. I can do anything I want. If I want to stop school, I can too. If I fail everything, it's okay. I don't have to do anything. She just wants me to be happy. I can eat anything I want. She buys a lot of snacks. If you come to my house, there's this kitchen cupboard. If you open it, it's full of snacks. Really, really! It's very nice. Maybe one day you can come and see it."

I felt kind of sad for Una. Okay, the kitchen cupboard full the snacks sounded very nice, but I thought it was sad that no one expected anything from you. I mean, yeah... this conversation started because I was complaining about how my Mum expected so much from me. My mum had stopped buying sodas and chips and I wasn't allowed to do a lot of things my friends could get away with. I had to spend my weekends at lycan study group - and I had to be a good example and finish my study group homework. I had to get the answers mostly right too. I was stressed about not placing first at the upcoming training camp. But I didn't have time to train because I had to make sandwiches for the destitute home this Sunday.

Looking back, I'm not even sure why I was stressing over dumb stuff like that.

But yeah, my parents always had pretty high expectations of me. Most of the other adults in my pack too. If I knew the answer at lycan study group, the teachers or my friends would just nod, "She's the Alpha's daughter after all. Of course, she'd know the history of our pack by heart."

No, it was because I stayed up last night copying the paragraphs into tabulated notes and memorizing it!

Once, when I was in a bad mood or something, I didn't bother to check the reference books or notes when I did my lycan study homework. I decided to just make up my own answers. I think it was for Teacher Rose's lesson. She took one look at my answers, returned ALL the worksheets AND THEN SHE APOLOGIZED!

"I'm sorry. I think I must have not explained last week's lesson well. Let's go through it again."

We all groaned, and I never wrote crap in my lycan study homework ever again.

I mean, we had to stay back for Teacher Rose to teach two lessons that week!

Also, I had to admit, I felt a little guilty that Teacher Rose was blaming herself for my bad attitude.

AND there was this little part of me that feared that one day everyone would realize what an idiot I was. I mean, I was the only pup I knew who used reference books to do my lycan study homework. I'm not even sure how Savy or the others did theirs. Dean said they had lycan studies in school at New Leaf Academy so our lycan homework was easy peasy.

Meanwhile, I regularly spent Friday evenings in the packhouse library with Mrs Beta to "wait to go home together with Dad" (and double-check my answers). Sometimes Mrs Beta would introduce a helpful book to me. Mrs Beta knew the packhouse library like the back of her hand. She was the one who taught me how the books were arranged by their author's names and not their topic or titles or any way I could find what I was looking for. But I digress...

I was the Alpha's daughter. My dad's the father of lycan public education. My mum's the wise and lovely luna by his side. The rest of the pack was looking up to us. Martha our cleaning lady was reporting on us. Everyone was always watching and saying, "Oh, so they are the Alpha's daughters. How lovely!"

"Of course, she'd know the answers. She's Alpha Kingsley's daughter after all."

"She has Alpha's solid fighting form. I heard he trains her personally."

Anyway, I was used to it by now. I was the Alpha's daughter. It wasn't all bad. I mean, it wasn't like I didn't get into a lot of trouble, but you know, there was a kind of trouble I could get into where the adults would laugh and say, "Oh, pups will be pups! It was quite ingenious really."

Or the usual consoling line, "Strong wolves often get into the most mischief as pups."

With that line of logic, I guess I was also just living up to expectations when I got into trouble. Hahaha.

And there was a kind of trouble that wouldn't have gone down quite so well. No one ever talked about it, but I guess I've always known. For the most part, I think I did okay.

"She grows prettier every year. One day, she would make a lovely luna like her mama." The ladies liked to say this in front of my mum when I was accompanying her.

"She's so good with the other pups. She's a natural leader like her father." They would say when I'm just messing around with my gang around the packhouse.

I was the Alpha's daughter. That's just what everyone expected from me.

Okay, if I had to be very honest, it's not always okay. Like sometimes, I did look at girls like Carlie and Delilah and wonder how my life would be different if my family were normal wolves.

Sometimes, I really didn't feel like wearing a dress and following Mum and Dad to another boring ribbon-cutting ceremony or whatever.

Sometimes, I wished I could spend more of my weekend mornings watching cartoons. (This was back when the TV shows ran on a schedule.) I felt like we always missed the good ones because we had to be at the packhouse.

And more than once, I wished I had a guide to just tell me exactly what I was expected to do - maybe like Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio! Why didn't Pinocchio listen to Jiminy Cricket? I was always upset with Pinocchio. I swear, if I ever had someone wiser by my ear, I'd totally listen to him!

I can't tell you how many times I found myself in a situation where I wished I knew what to do! I don't know how the other young alphas like Henry or Bell did it. I always ended up just winging it. I guess I've been lucky so far.

And I was a girl. Admittedly, the expectations were different, and it was perfectly okay for me to just stand next to my parents/mate/beta and smile.

Being a girl was a pretty sweet deal after all. Even though I've always thought maybe it would have been better if I were born a boy - then I would've been alpha properly and no one would say, "Alpha and luna have such lovely girls. It's too bad they don't have a son."

But today, I realized that the boy's washroom was disgusting. That alone was enough to convince me that being a girl was the better deal. Also, I realized I quite enjoy looking cute and then krackening and scaring the s*** out of everyone. Hahaha. I probably shouldn't do it too much so that it wouldn't lose its dramatic effect.

Anyway, high expectations or whatever. I was the Alpha. I could take this. I could take a lot of things. And I was home! Yay!

Our car pulled up and stopped in front of the porch - the entire convoy, bikes, and all. I waited a while for the security detail to move to position so that Harvey could get out of the car and open the door for me. Yes, this had also become part of my daily life of late.

I can't believe my last day at Winderhill High was over. Just like that. I didn't even get to say goodbye properly. It's okay. At least nobody cried. (Zara's crocodile tears were no count.) And I'll see my friends later at Abigail's party anyway.

Home sweet home! Home where I could go relax and soak in my tub till everything that happened today got sorted in my head. Home where I could plan the cadence MY way and count on my wolves to run with me. Home where everything was normal and no matter what happened outside, everything would be okay.

Like clockwork, the engines cut off. Harvey excused himself. I unbuckled my seat belt and slung on my school bag and waited patiently to be let out. When the car boot was opened, I could hear the warriors' heavy boots clomping up the porch and crunching on the gravel when they moved around unloading the boot and returning their bikes and stuff.

I watched vaguely as my wolves busied themselves with their allocated tasks.

Harvey opened the car door for me, "Welcome home, Alpha."

I stepped onto the porch and felt my smile slip out, "You too, Harvey."

What's with the sudden formality? Hahaha. This was when I realized SOMETHING WAS DIFFERENT TODAY.

It wasn't a very big difference. Just that the sliding doors all along the porch were opened. The living room, glassroom, and pool room on my side tower too. The only thing separating the indoors and outdoors was just the white day curtains. It was a very beautiful Spring afternoon so it's not unreasonable to leave the sliding doors around the house open.

Instead of opening the front door for me, Ki was standing by the opened sliding door of the living room waiting for me. He bowed as Harvey and I approached him. There was movement from behind the sheer curtains behind Ki.

{Mate! ~❤️ }

My heart skipped a beat. It's embarrassing how just knowing he was near made my wolf so happy.

I pressed my lips together, get it together Sam. It's just a mating bond. Chill.

Also, he wasn't alone. There were quite a few of my wolves with him, but why?

Still, Ki's usual smile was in place, and I wasn't an old vampire! I could be flexible about changes in my living arrangements like which door to enter my home through. I mean, if all the sliding doors around the house were opened, it didn't make any sense to have to open the front door to let me in, right?

Right. It wasn't a very big difference at all.

"Welcome home, goddess." Ki said.

See. Everything was normal.

"It's good to be home." I smiled, but my smile dropped in shock the moment Ki parted the day curtain for me.

"WELCOME HOME, PRINCESS!"

I completely forgot to step inside. Harvey had to nudge me on the back before my foot would take its first reluctant step into the house, and then I had to take a few more just so Harvey and Ki could come inside too.

The house itself was normal. It was my wolves that had Gone With the Wind bonkers.