WHAT WE DO FOR LOVE

3 MARCH, WEDNESDAY, 9:00 PM

Whoever said love was hard work wasn't kidding. I didn't know how to use the screen in the shower - even if I managed to prop the device on the shelf at the far end of the shower space, how should I scroll up if my hands were wet? And wouldn't the steam fog it up? Suddenly, I understood why betas sometimes followed their alphas into the bathrooms... okay, no. Beta Lucas had never done that. But Ki was in the bathroom when Bell showered. Maybe I should ask Ki to come inside to read the reports to me. NOT!

Anyway, I had to work around it. I took a really quick shower, dried up and read my screen while on the toilet instead, because you know... when an alpha had to go, an alpha had to go. I know, TMI, anyway, in between toileting and getting dressed, I managed to read the agenda and scan through the various reports attached to it. Tonight was a serious meeting, the kind that had a lot to cover in depth, the kind that was long drawn and soul draining, and based on the agenda, there were quite a number of people expected to be in attendance - everyone from Delta Felicity and her team of experts, Dad and Beta Lucas, Mrs Beta, and Roy, Beta Gerald, Edna, and Lola... Apparently Bell, Harvey, and Ben were representing for me. I was marked as "Absent with apologies" - which meant that this was one long and difficult meeting that I had already been excused from ahead of time.

So why was I even doing this? One word.

{Mate! ~❤️}

Yes, that's the one. What I did for love!

If I were thinking logically, I wouldn't have gone for the meeting. Bell was already sitting in on my behalf - there was no reason for both of us to suffer. And now that I am writing this, I realize I could've simply stayed in my room, practice my part for the band, and then go over AFTER the meeting was concluded. But love was stoooopid like that, and I ended up burning wolf power to speed read 8 reports (I skipped all the annexes though), and then got dressed in a long navy A-line skirt and grey turtleneck tshirt. I topped this with a cream colored cardigan with two large buttons and batwing sleeves, and slipped into sneakers.

I would never mix my clothes this way, but the result was really nice - casual enough to look like I was at home, but very chic enough to attend a meeting. Ki was really getting good at picking my clothes. He was getting daring too. He used to only put stuff he was sure I would like wearing. Just like he used to only cook food that he was sure I would like eating. I felt quite sure he would never had put rocket leaves in my salad before.

Okay! I picked up my surface pro and headed to the door. Ki was waiting outside for me with his usual smile. I smiled back.

Yeah, okay. I'll eat the rocket salad or whatever else you cook. I'll smile whenever you smile. I was the alpha. I can't heal you, but I'll be damn if anyone ever hurt you again.

We had to take the long way round to the packhouse, that is, the pavements and driveway, because the grass was still muddy. Ki entertained me with the latest news of the former rogue kings rehabilitation program. Basically, Dad wanted to grant his old friend, Roy, full pardon. BUT he was the alpha and he had to fair, blah blah blah... so now, Roy was the pilot for a new Rogue Rehabilitation Program (RRP).

"It was inspired by the Fightdog Rehabilitation Program (FRP) that you pioneered, goddess." Ki informed me proudly.

I didn't remember pioneering anything remotely like that. Ki tried to explain how the RRP and FRP were of the same mold. Just like the FRP, rogues who were accepted into the RRP would be adopted into a family and given a second chance to integrate into the pack. They would be assigned mentors to shadow and mandatory hours in pack service, whether it be warrior or administrative duties. On a case by case basis, counselling and healing/medical services would also be provided. The program aimed to identify, rehabilitate, and integrate ex fightdogs/rogues into the pack as full members who would in turn contribute to the pack community.

Successfully candidates of the FRP included Ki, and my Special Team wolves. It also included Stephan - who, I had thought rehabilitated himself, but apparently, I had adopted him, and Bell, Titanium, Flynn, Hank, Gamma Harry, and Gamma Endo all had a hand in mentoring him. Poor Stephan. No wonder he was like a rock, unlike my clowns.

But my clowns could make a million sound effects, forage delicious food, process data, move as covertly as a shadow, and play the violin... oh yes, and the violinist might just be the strategist that could help us position ourselves advantageously against fate. More and more, I was beginning to think fate wasn't something we should blindly resign ourselves to. Yes, wolves were bound to their fate, but every bond had a leeway.

Sorry, Goddess, you should know by now, I'm not someone who would simply run along the cliche paths you've drawn out. I wanted to choose something crazy or even all of the above. And as Ki and I walked along the quiet street, our breaths white in the cold Spring air, I felt all of the above was okay too.

Anyway, Ki was sure I'd never guess which family adopted old Roy, and he was right.

"Alpha James did?" I was quite sure there was a misunderstanding. Did someone trick him?

Ki smiled, "He wanted to atone for his wrongs."

"Who, Roy?" I asked.

"Yes, Roy too." Ki answered with his killion dollar smile, "But it was Alpha Lorent who said he too had a part to play in ruining his sister's happiness and would like to make amends."

Wow.

"The world is changing, just as goddess said it would." Ki concluded, "Even alpas change."

Yeah... what could I say? That was just... wow.

They say you can't teach old dogs new tricks, and there were a lot of things I didn't understand about Alpha James - Bell's difficult relationship with him, his cruelty towards the betas loyal to him, his stubbornness and pride in upholding his pack's position and the not so Glorious Lorent name.. but wow. To think even an old and powerful alpha could change.

Today, I experienced how a worm could transform into a butterfly, I discovered the yellow brick road to something bigger and better than the narrow minded goals I once held, but if there was anything today that filled me with hope for our future, it would be this:

Anyone can change. It's not impossible.

{Little by little, one step at a time.}

Yeah. I guess it wasn't just finding the right way to go, leading a pack also required changing minds and hearts so we could all run together into the bright and shining future waiting ahead of us.

Ki stopped at the conference room door. Oh, were we here already? I blinked at the door and Ki knocked, my betas' usual two smart raps before opening the door for me. The moment I stepped in, everyone except for Dad stood up. My coolly froze on the spot.

"Alpha Princess is here." Ki announced in his professional smile, and everyone standing nodded polite bows. Bell smiled at me, he was still in full Lorent Prince mode, pressed suit over white sling and dark hair swept back. He held out a hand to me, "I'm told you wanted to join us, princess."

I don't think I would ever get used to this.

{Mate! ❤️} Boo was over the moon.

When Harvey pulled out a chair for me to sit next to my luna, Boo pretty much exploded into a million fireworks. Luckily I was made of sterner stuff, I pasted on my wide smile and nodded, "It was just next door."

YOU were just next door.

I sat down, and the rest of the room seated themselves.

"Sam! Its good you can join us." Dad decided - even though I was half an hour late into the meeting.

I nodded, my wide smile still in place, "Don't mind me, I'm just sitting in."

I'm just sitting in where I could smell the gorgeous scent of salted caramel that was Mate.

{Mate! ❤️}

I'm so glad that no one else had the gift of insight here. The embarrassment would instantly kill me if anyone should hear Boo.

Thus the meeting continued. Apparently, I hadn't missed anything at all. They had only just made amendments and passed the previous minutes, so we were now going to start our meeting proper.

Kill me now.

{Mate! ❤️}

Why did I even come here?

{Mate! ❤️}

What's wrong with me?

{Mate! ❤️}

Yeah, anyway thanks to this, I was at the meeting regarding the reformation of Night Forest's economy and had the misery, I mean, privilege of hearing the many updates and issues raised first hand.

Now that Roy was around, we suddenly had a surplus of secretaries. Beta Lucas could attend the meeting with his hands behind his head the whole time now, and Mrs Beta was there purely on an advisory level (and didn't have to help Beta Lucas take notes anymore). She still took notes though.

It was very boring. I nearly died twice, once during the discussion about the data infrastructure contract Uncle Louis had signed. He pretty much sold his soul - or rather his pack's entire year's budget for that. Even his soul wouldn't be able to sustain his pack after paying it off. And the contract termination fees was atrocious. The problem was that he had already signed it - and despite advice from Beta Gerald's lawyers (aka Priscilla and Sean) NOT to pay the deposit, that had been done too. So now, it was about trying to salvage the situation and Delta Felicity was delegated to negotiate better termination terms, including the return of the deposit money, whether in part of in whole.

Beta Gerald, our resident hotel tycoon, was wearing his worried frown, "In my experience, it'll be very unlikely to recoup the whole deposit."

Arguably, none of the work on the infrastructure had begun yet, so our hope would be that this company hadn't "expensed anything" on this project yet. I will skip all the details on legal case studies and debate over how strongly Night Leaf should press the contracted company on Uncle Louis' behalf.

In the overall picture, the contract termination fee was like a drop in the bucket of problems Uncle Louis had been festering in his pack, BUT it was arguably the most urgent because Uncle Louis was now running his pack with half the budget. It wasn't like any of the changes the expert team recommended could be implemented with immediate effect either.

In fact, based on previous correspondence with the administration in Uncle Louis' Alpha Office, it took about three to five business days to receive a response on anything.

"I usually just pick up the phone and call him." Dad said with a shrug.

But it's not like the rest of us could do that, Dad!

"First department on the firing line would be them." Ben decided.

Beta Lucas raised his hand, "Wait... before you fire, you need to ask yourself, who will put out the fire when you're done?"

Which didn't make sense at all, so he had to explain himself, "If you fire everyone in the office, there would be no one left to do the work."

Beta Gerald advised, "Its not easy replacing one staff, not to mention an entire department."

Basically, everything was a chicken and egg issue - yes, this was a term bandied about the meeting like it was the answer to every problem we were facing. It was a chicken and egg issue. Which should come first? The chicken or the egg? What a dilemma! But the adults furloughed on, despite the many chickens and eggs encountered along the way, we explored options, brainstormed ideas, argued cases...

The second time I nearly died at the meeting was when they started going through this spreadsheet documenting Night Forest's expenses over the last decade in detail. WHO MADE THIS SPREADSHEET? And did it suck up 10 years of his life to create it? Why was it even in a spreadsheet? Did Night Forest not buy an accounting software? No, they did not. Yeah... that figured.

I was very impressed at the way Ben was able to spot mistakes in that ginormous spreadsheet though. He did it like we were playing spot the difference or word search, raising his hand and pointing them out while the adults were having serious discussions on rigorous systems for budget approvals, allocation, expense audits and accounting processes.

"Formula mistake. OA, 1345." Ben would say.

"They missed a sub-total. OG, 1241. It's about $800K short... make that $900K." He would say a minute later.

(The strange alphabet and number references were the spreadsheet box coordinates.)

This was more irritating than impressive, but all the other wolves were too polite to tell the young genius to shut up. Bell only looked amused, "How about you take the spreadsheet back and correct it, beta?"

Ben visibly blanched.

The other irritating thing was how the spreadsheet would freeze every few moments when Edna tried to scroll to the next section.

Edna kept apologizing even though it wasn't her fault. Eventually even Beta Gerald had enough, "I don't know why they have to put everything on a single sheet."

Here's an idea. Maybe someone in the office thought it would be a wonderful prank to do this. Unfortunately, this wasn't a joke and we passed a good hour squinting at the boggling array of numbers.

{Can we give this to Ink?} Harvey sounded almost pleading.

{Heh, sure.} Ben shrugged and raised his hand.

The adults paused as if waiting for the youth to point out another typo or calculation error but Ben said, "I'll get someone at the FAO to process this and churn out the reports."

The collective relief and gratitude was like Ben had just offered them the elixir of life.

We suffered so much tonight!