YOUR SOUL MATE IS WHO NOW? (a shocking reveal)

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, CONTINUED

I'm not sure how much time passed. It couldn't have been more than a few minutes, but for some reason, I just stood on the side watching the other wolves moving about around the sofa. Delta Oran's hand was glowing. Sometimes he would ask for something. Sometimes one of the other wolves would leave for something. It was like watching a movie where I didn't quite understand what was happening. Why was I even here? I don't remember...

"Princess... We really should go." Neil appeared at my side.

"Princess..." Mimi was on my other side.

"Just Sam is fine." I answered her automatically, my mind still frozen in the moment. Why did I come here? Now my army was surrounding the packhouse. Gamma Harry was in the front yard. I think Jude and Ron had gone back out to meet him.

Let's backtrack a little. I was running in the woods (sigh, it seemed that the cliche background for classic prophetic dreams did seem to reoccur in my real life quite a bit too.) Anyway, I was running in the woods following my lucky sense of direction to find the "Alpha" behind the enemy lines, but I ended up running into Jude.

Jude who's life story was a typical werewolf webnovel all on its own - come on, you must have noticed how he checked off every criteria - even his packhouse...now that I thought about it, even his packhouse, loving mama, and pack boasting an unnatural population of predominantly male young adult wolves fit the bill. Here was a young mateless alpha with a dark past... if the story continues properly, he should meet his soulmate, overcome some monster from his past (or hers), and then live happily ever after. Wait... wth was I talking about? This wasn't one of those sappy webnovels the girls in my class talked about, this was real life!

In real life, Jude was still totally mateless - and in trouble, not with his Uncle Mike, but with my Alpha Dad because I was quite, quite sure the "rats" that shot at our warriors on the front lines earlier had to be Jude's boys now.

I looked at the scene at the sofa. Delta Oran was still working over Max, but overall, it looked much calmer now.

It wasn't just Morning Light's bullet in Max's leg that gave them away, or even their proximity from the frontline incident or the timing in which it happened. It was because they told me in no uncertain terms that it was Nix who shot them.

Nix wasn't the kind of guy who'd misfire (at least with a gun). But he was definitely the kind of guy who'd return fire.

I put the bullet into Neil's hand, {I'll leave the reporting to you.}

He pocketed it with a grim nod.

Jude's pack was in hot soup. I looked at Mimi and worried. I just met the woman, and I had liked her immediately, but what could I do for her? Stooopid Jude! Why did you get yourself involved in the war? Why hadn't you just sat this one out like your Mama told you? As an alpha, there were only two people you should always listen to: the first is your beta (according to Dad), the second is your Mama (according to me).

"Sam..." I realized belatedly that Mimi was talking to me and blinked, "What?"

"Please Sam." Mimi put her hands together, "I'm not sure what Jude has gotten himself into now, but you know his heart is in a good place, and this pack is all our wolves have for home... If there is anything you can do..."

"Mimi, there's nothing she can do." It was Neil who refused Mimi firmly, "Sorry, I have to tell you upfront, our princess doesn't have the power to overrule Alpha King's orders. Even though she's the Alpha Princess, she is still just a highschooler."

"Yah, she's just a pup." Jax chirped in, "And the Alpha Princess is just the face of the merged Green Packlands anyways. Like... like a mascot!"

I'm the what now? Grrr....

"Yah, after all, the Alpha Princess is just a princess." Jax nodded vigorously at his own conclusion, "Everyone knows Alpha Kingsley is the real power behind Night Leaf and that..."

Neil hit Jax over the back of his head with the side of his palm, "Can you not just shut up?"

But Neil didn't say anything better either, "Sorry, Mimi. Tell Jude to cooperate with the investigations for now. Alpha Kingsley isn't a cruel Alpha. When Rebel gets back, I'll help you ask him to intervene."

"Do you think he would?" Mimi asked. Was no one going to doubt if he COULD?

"Not for Jude." Neil answered grimly, "But for you, Mimi? I don't think Rebel would turn a blind eye."

"Please, then." Mimi pleaded, "Please ask Rebel to come see me."

"When he's back on packlands. He's un-contactable now." Neil shrugged.

Mimi brightened a little, "What about Ki? I heard he has climbed up the rankings in Night Leaf now? Can Ki help?"

Neil thought about it, "Probably. But he's un-contactable now too. I'll let him know."

Mimi frowned.

Yeah, Mimi, I know. It's weird. Everyone's un-contactable. (Because we're all stuck in that goddess-forsaken warlock lands.) Dad and I weren't even supposed to be here either.

"Don't worry, Mimi." Jax crowed, "Neil and I are here."

Fat lot of good you guys would be. If not for my alpha wolf's link with your wolves, I wouldn't have known who's side you were on.

Jude and Ron returned after a while, both wearing matching grim expressions.

When our eyes met, Jude donned on his signature slap-me smirk and hooded eyes. Ron adverted his gaze, but he didn't look happy in the slightest.

"Hey, Mama." Jude came over and gave his mum a reassuring half hug, "Ron and I are going to head over to Night Leaf with Gamma Harry for a bit."

"What's going on, Jude?" Mimi asked, her voice just a little shaky.

"Don't worry, they just need us to help sort out a bit of misunderstanding." Jude forced a smile, "It may take a few days to clear up so I won't be coming home."

Cos you're going to jail. He was under arrest. Gamma Harry was reporting his peaceful capture on the Alpha Channel even as Jude was speaking. But it was nice of Gamma Harry to let him come back in to pretend everything was okay.

And Jude's ability to not lie without telling the truth was once again testament to his amazing ability to not ever give a straight answer.

"We should really go too." Neil prompted me again. To Mimi, he gave a half hug, "Don't worry. I'll make sure to check on Jude and Ron personally."

And then Neil looked at me. What? Aren't I just the princess-mascot? But this might be all I could do for Mimi, I gulped and nodded, "Yeah. Check on them daily. If anyone stops you, say its my order."

"Won't that p*** off your Alpha Dad?" Jax worried.

No, not really. Dad's just gonna frown a bit at most. Oh wait. I punched Jax in the shoulder, "Don't go overboard! If you two get me in trouble with my Dad, I'll kill you."

And the two guys threw back their heads and laughed because they took me that seriously. Geesh!

But it was the best I could do. Eventually, I'd wake up from this dream travel, and Neil and Jax would be the only two wolves left who'd be stupid enough to stick with my order no matter what my Alpha Dad decides.

Not bad for a mascot huh?

We said our goodbyes. Mostly the guys all gave Mimi hugs. I just waved, and gave Mimi my usual wide smile, "Thanks for having us!"

Then I headed towards the door to leave before I had to face any tearful goodbyes because Mimi's eyes were tearing up. She hadn't bought Jude's bluff at all. I guess it did look bad, this wasn't like one of those random fights or property damage cases Jude and his boys occasionally got into. This was Jude's boys, shooting at our warriors, while we were fighting off rogues. That's tantamount to treason.

So there we were, taking those few final steps towards the waiting front door, when Ron chose to lean over to Neil and tell him, "Your Alpha Princess is in grave danger, Neil. Jude..."

Jude growled.

Ron persisted though, "Jude's..."

Jude hit him. Like right in the nose. Delta Oran who had picked up his things to follow us out stopped in his tracks. He didn't have to worry. I wouldn't waste his heal on a buddy fight.

We had all stopped walking though. Jude and Ron were glaring silent daggers at each other. If looks could kill! But of course they were now on their mindlinks so I had no idea what they were saying.

Whatever it was, it was making Jude's wolf surface. When Jude's wolf surfaced, his face turned red, his fists shook at his sides, and his teeth clenched even as he growled so that he made this wild snarling expression. I thought he might just half-shift, but he didn't.

I've always thought when an alpha wolf surfaced, the other wolves took a step back in awe of the power that radiated from him. BUT when Jude did it, even I took a step back, not so much to give space in awe of his wolf... More like I wasn't sure if he would suddenly froth at the mouth and shift.

It was really an eye opener. All along, I thought I was awesome. I'm sure Jude thought he was awesome now, he smirked and I had the urge to punch his smirky face out. But what if I was like Jude when Boo surfaced? And everyone stepped back not because they were awed by a truly powerful alpha wolf, but because they saw a raccoon with distemper, and they'd rather not be bitten cos that'll just be nasty.

Neil decided enough was enough at this point, "Come on, Princess, the sooner we get you home the better. I'm not sure what's going on. But whenever Jude and Ron disagree, Ron's right."

"Shut up, Neil!" Jude snapped.

"It's true though." Jax was as unapologetic as he was thoughtless, as usual.

And that was the straw that broke the camel's back, Jude cracked. With a roar, he made a swing at Neil, but Neil simply sidestepped it. Jax took the punch in his stead, "Owwww... Hey!"

Jax grabbed his injured jaw and straightened after the hit, "Don't dodge when I'm right behind you!"

Really? He was going to put that one on Neil?

And then Boo was kind enough to inform me, {Rogues approaching.}

Eh, but why? My internal radar quickly picked them out, but there were only a dozen or so of them. Were these the stragglers? The die-hards that wouldn't stay down? Or just clueless dudes who hadn't notice a war just happened? They had to be clueless to NOT sense a small army of my wolves which was ATM surrounding Jude's packhouse? Wth was happening?

Neil grabbed my elbow, "Let's go, princess."

Wait, wait, wait! I can't leave yet. Wasn't this why I came out here for? My wolf surfaced at this point too.

Neil let go of my elbow and bowed a step back.

Either because I was the alpha or because I was a racoon with distemper. Whatever. I don't care.

{Stephan, let the rogues in.} I ordered over the alpha channel. And then I remembered how my dad tricked the rogues into the alpha house, {But pretend to be hunting them down. You may knock out a few small fries - do it loudly so the other rogues think they were lucky enough to make it in.}

{Sam. What are you doing?} Dad stepped in now.

{Don't worry, Dad. I've got it.} I grinned.

{Ruby has been sighted.} Stephan reported in monotone, {What's your order, Alpha?}

{Who's Ruby?} Gamma Endo asked because he obviously did not read reports.

{Please take this mission off the main Alpha Channel, Sam.} Dad sounded resigned to following my lead.

Oh right, in hindsight, announcing to let rogues into our packlands on the Alpha Channel was like not the most reassuring thing for any of my wolves to hear.

{Okay, all those involved in Mission "Flush Out the Rogue Mastermind" link up with me.} I invited.

{Good! Very Good!} Gamma Harry endorsed, {I like the Mission name. Like flushing the toilet.}

Which only made sense if you understood Gamma Harry's sense of humor.

{May I record it as Mission F.O.R.M in the documents?} Beta Gerald asked.

{Let's call it Mission Toilet.} Gamma Harry countered, {Mission FORM sounds like paperwork.}

At this point my dad actually laughed over the mindlink, just a very little bit. We all heard it. Our alpha laughed.

Meanwhile, Stephan had linked up with his men, {All present and accounted for, Alpha.}

{Thanks Stephan.} I linked back, and then on the main channel, just for the amusement of everyone, I announced, {Mission Flush is ready to go!}

So while I was grinning like an idiot, still in Jude's packhouse, Jude's phone buzzed. He checked it and went, "S*** Ron. Its her. What do I do?"

Now, he wants his beta's advice.

"Oh s***." Ron said. They both looked immediately at me. And then Ron decided, "It should be fine. They won't get past the Night Leaf army."

Wait, what? You're using my army as your shield now? That's actually pretty smart beta... except that my army was currently acting incompetent right now.

There were gun shots. Like three of them... and from the sound of it, from different angles.

{One down.} A warrior reported on the Flush channel.

We were so incompetent, we took three shots to get one rogue and completely gave away the position of an entire section so the other rogues could run away in the right direction. Yeah, I don't think my underground army warriors had ever been trained in the art of acting incompetent. They were being way too obvious. I took a quick glance around to see if our farce had been blown, but except for Neil who blinked and made a gorilla face to the ceiling, the other wolves only looked confused or panicked.

"They're getting closer." Jude said.

"Neil." Ron spoke now, "You really need to get your Alpha Princess out of here. If anything should happen to her, Jude's a dead man, you hear? Jude's zombie luna is f***ing crazy. She'll kill your princess. You need to get her away to safety."

"Don't call her my luna. She's not my f***ing luna!" Jude growled.

Ron looked Jude straight in the eye, and then said nothing - nothing aloud anyway, but whatever was mindlinked threw Jude's wolf into a real temper tantrum. There you go, a chi-ka-boom right there, Jude roared and punched his fist into the nearest object - a free standing side table and broke it right down the center. He pulled out his bloodied hand from the splintered mess and kicked the broken table across the floor, "She is NOT my soul mate!"

He even forgot to mindlink - he pretty much shouted it out!

{Lie!} Boo proudly called it.

Like the card game Bluff - had you ever played it? I was always good at that game. Finally, I had caught Jude's bluff!

{Can I punch him now?} Boo asked in mild jest.

And then a split second later, I put the two and two together, and then it was my turn to pretty much shout out, "YOUR SOUL MATE IS RUBY?!!!"