UNTIL THE MORNING COMES

3 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, PRE-DAWN

"F***" The vampire cursed, "I told him you were trouble, but no... He had to have you."

Ki took out the contracts, "Are you the heir to the Ciara Coven?"

"I am... Or at least I was." Edward answered ruefully. He regarded my betas, his flame licking upwards. But unlike his predecessor, his flame wasn't anything too terrifying. I wondered briefly if Edward was a weak vampire?

"Here, you should read this." Ki gave a copy to the vampire and then a copy to Rebel, "You might want to know what's going on too, Luna."

Edward read the contract, "That's it?"

"You need to cover our tracks too." I informed him.

Edward looked up at me, "That is already in the contract, little blue wolf."

Unlike his master, when Edward called me that, it wasn't creepy, just flirty, so naturally someone shot him.

Ben. Of course it was Ben.

"F***. What the hell." Edward's flame flared. Edward's flame wasn't weak at all.

Ben, who's wolf didn't take well to feeling threatened immediately kicked the vampire.

Edward fell back. He made no move to retaliate.

"You will address her as Alpha." Ben growled.

"I see, little blue wolf is the Alpha in this contract then." Edward got up. His gunshot wound had closed, "Forgive my indiscretion. I had not expected such a beautiful young wolf to be the Alpha."

Heeheehee. I liked him. Edward was fun.

"It's because that old scary guy was hunting me. He forced my hand. But I have no grievances with you. You are not hunting me are you?" I asked.

Edward shook his head, "I would never dare, little blue alpha."

I giggled. Mate growled. Edward's red eyes twinkled.

"So we have a deal?" I asked, "Say yes, or I will leave you to the mercies of these guys with me."

Edward answered immediately, "Yes."

He took out a stamp, cut his own palm to ink it, and then pressed it on the paper. Then he signed his name above the blood seal.

He did this twice, so that both copies were signed. Killion gave me the pen, and I signed them too.

Actually, I've never signed anything before, so I just scribbled my name the way I did on top of my worksheets sometimes. "Sam Kingsley"

"A Kingsley Alpha." Edward smiled appreciatively at the signature.

Mate growled, "Mine."

Oh yeah, I was a Lorent now. Opps.

"Okay, you've got your ring. Now let's gather your army." I told Mate.

"Please don't discuss any plans in front of me." Edward interrupted. He pocketed his copy of the contract, "Remember, I am not obliged to keep your secrets."

Perhaps we had met a decent vampire?

"Wait." Mate gave Edward the fake ring, "Until the real one is yours, it might be easier to keep our agreement under wraps. In a century, it would be as if this contract never existed."

Edward smiled, "I have to say, you wolves are always interesting to play with."

He put on the ring.

"Vamps are coming." I warned. Great, now I was the irritating doorbell my Wolfie used to be.

"It's Dionysus and company." Edward said, "Leave them to me."

"What about this mess?" Ben asked.

"No worries, I will take full responsibility for it." Edward assured us with a charming smile, "As a gesture of goodwill, I will even release Rebel to you, little blue alpha. Do not forget my kindness and be kind to me, your servant too."

Edward fished out a keycard from his dead master's pocket and slid it into the front of Rebel's pants. It was a sensual move. I nearly hit him except Rebel punched Edward hard in the abdomen.

Edward only laughed though, "I'm going to have men come and collect you and put you back in your cell. This key card grants you access to most doors in the castle, including your cell. You may escape anytime you like."

"Why can't you just release him yourself?" I asked.

"What fun would that be little blue alpha?" Edward asked, and then he left. I could hear him meeting more footsteps.

"What's that smell of blood?" I heard a man's voice ask.

"My dead father." Edward answered.

There was laughter.

"Congratulations, Lord Edward Ciara." The voice said.

"Come congratulate me over drinks." Edward said. And the footsteps moved away from the door.

"That was his dad?" I asked, somewhat shocked.

"That's a vampire for you." Mate shrugged.

"I can't believe we did it." Harvey checked the contract and kept it in his jacket.

"That almost seemed too easy." Killion said, "What should we do now?"

"Take my princess back home." Rebel ordered, "I'll take care of the rest."

I looked at the other two fightdogs. They had not said anything at all.

I was running out of dream time, I could feel it.

But I couldn't just leave these two alone, "Hi. I'm Sam. I'm the next Alpha of Night Leaf in the Green Packland. I saw you in a dream. Please help my mate. If you bring him home safely, I promise you a place among my warriors and a pack to start a new life."

The two wolves just looked at me. No? Or perhaps they were wondering what the heck I was talking about.

And then the dark haired XL one surprised me by speaking first.

"I am Seven, but before I was a fight dog, I was Stephan Reid." The larger man answered in a quiet emotionless voice, "I was Alpha of a minor pack in the Red Packlands. Except for a few wolves who have not given up on my return, my pack has been pushed to the brink of extinction. In fact, at this point, I have no idea what had happened to my pack in my absence. I am not worthy to be the Alpha. I've failed my destiny. Alpha Sam, if you have room in your pack, will you take in the rest of my wolves? We have no where left to go. I have nothing but my life to offer. I swear my allegiance to you and will be your slave."

"Slavery is banned in the Green Packlands." Killion informed him, "You need to be her dog."

"Then I will be your dog." Stephan answered decisively.

"Seven, that's Keys." The blond man next to him prompted.

Stephan almost looked surprised, but he said nothing and his expression barely moved.

Killion smiled, "Hello, Fluffy, Seven."

"What are you doing here?" Fluffy asked.

"Enjoying my life as a dog." Killion answered, "You should join me, Fluffy."

Fluffy seemed to consider this for a moment, and then he nodded, "My name is Fluffy. I've always been Fluffy. I was given to a little vampire girl as a birthday present when I was a small pup. When I was older, I accidentally shifted and killed her, but because I was beautiful, they didn't kill me. Instead they sold me to the entertainment district. Later on, I was bought by a new master who trained me to be a fightdog. I don't really know anything about the world outside. I've only known how to be a dog."

"Okay, you can be my dog. Both of you. But only until you feel ready to run in the pack like a real wolf. I'll take care of you till then." I decided.

Vampires were coming. But only 'small' ones. I was beginning to sense them by the size of their flame. I guessed they were the clean up crew. "We will go now, please take care of Bell for me, and meet me safely in the Green Packlands soon."

I woke up, still on Ben's lap. We're back! I shook the guys on either side up.

"Oh s***" Ben said when he woke up purring again.

Ki picked me up from his lap and sat me on a nearby table. Harvey dropped a pillow on Ben's lap with a wry smile.

Ben just groaned and flopped back on the beanbags, "Just kill me."

"Need a hand, Beta?" Ki smiled.

"Shut up, dog." Ben groaned.

"What's wrong? Did your legs fall asleep on you?" I asked.

"Yeah." Ben lied.

"Pop!" Ki cursed at the computer screen. He was replaying the footages we collected. I joined him to watch the show, but the cameras had only filmed Ben's basement. No footages from our adventure. The GPS signal stayed in Ben's basement too.

So I could transport people but not technology? Goddess, you need to update your systems!

Harvey took out the contract to check that it was still properly signed and sealed. He breathed a sigh of relief, "This one's alright."

Then Harvey gave me a wry smile and started to sound a lot like his dad, "So princess... you dream travelled with three betas, we killed an old vampire lord, stole his ring..."

"Helped Bell complete his mission!" I inserted.

"And got contractual control over the Ciara Coven, and adopted two more fightdogs. That was unbelievable." Harvey concluded.

"Was it just me, or did everything happen just too easily?" Killion wondered, "It's like it was just waiting to happen."

"It's my destiny." I answered simply. And then I remembered Stephan's words. He didn't fail his destiny, he was right where he had to be, "All our destinies."

"Sam is like that." Ben shrugged, "She's very lucky that way."

"It's my destiny to be lucky." I piped in. Well, no... I just liked the sound of that.

"So what now, goddess?" Killion asked.

I scrunched my nose and looked down at the blood on my boots. It's not just the blood seal on the contract, we also brought back the blood we had stepped on, "Maybe we should clean up the mess."

And now that it was no longer in a dream, I could smell it quite vividly.

We took off our boots. Harvey and Ki wiped up the blood. They didn't let me help because Harvey was taking Gamma's exhortation about not using the head/alpha to pull weeds and clean up messes etc.

Ben called in pizza and then went to take a shower. He said he got blood on his clothes. I never knew something like that would bother him.

I found a clean beanbag and curled up on it to sleep. I felt happy to see Mate today. Even if only for a short while.

He was free now. I felt for his bangle under my sleeve. I was happy.

Yeah, I know Harvey listed a lot of great stuff we did, but the thing that made me the happiest was that Bell was coming home soon.

When I woke up again, I was in a bed. I sat up confused, "Bell?" But then I picked up Ben's scent. Ben's bed.

I looked around confused. Ben was sleeping on the floor, in wolf form. His room wasn't that large and he took most of the floor space.

My lucky jacket and beanie was still on. And my hair had disappeared! I pulled off the beanie, no wait, it was all there, just really short though. I pulled the beanie back over my head to keep it down.

Hey... I never had to learn to braid my hair, I could just pull on a beanie. This beanie, MINE.

Ben's wolf opened an eye at me, and he mindlinked, "Sam? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Where are the other two?" I asked through the mindlink. I could sense them nearby.

"Ki and Harv are bunking in Ki's room at your place." Ben mindlinked back.

Oh...

"We were going to just carry you home, but Ki says the human girl aggravates you." Ben informed me.

I thought about it, "I better go back. I shouldn't be sleeping in your bed."

Mum was saying something to that effect right? I was too upset to remember clearly.

"Sam?" Ben sounded uncertain, "Just now, when... It didn't mean anything, okay? I just woke up with a girl on my lap and...it was just a natural reaction. It didn't mean anything okay?"

Eh, what? Oh right. I laughed.

"Pins and needles, I know. I get them sometimes too." I said.

"No, Sam... Nevermind. Whatever." Ben gave up trying to explain it. But I could sense that it bothered him.

"Just forget it. It's just a natural body reaction. I was probably sitting on you in a bad position." I told him.

There was a pause, "Yeah. Probably."

"Next time, I'll sit more carefully." I said.

"Next time?" Ben worried.

"We could try other positions too." I said.

Ben's wolf made a chuffing sound.

I dropped down from the bed and used Ben's wolf as a pillow. I was just dozing off again too when there was a sudden flurry of noises in the hallway.

Ben's room door burst open. Mrs Beta burst in first "Ben! Your dad's running out for an emergency..."

She stopped, and then she screamed, "Lucas!"