AN AFTERNOON WITH HENRY

4 FEBRUARY, THURSDAY, AFTERNOON

Beta Peter had prepared the fencing hall for us to use for our rehearsal. It was largish with polished wood floors and walls. On one side there was a floor to ceiling mirror, there were a couple of long white mats laid out in the centre right under a wall of gleaming swords.

Half the wall was covered with swords, some were obviously not meant to be used. You could tell by the way they were stored in an acrylic box next to some fancy other old looking thing. A mask? A pistol? A medal? It was not all the same, and sometimes unidentifiable to me. I'm assuming they were displayed like this because there was some kind of history or relation between the two objects.

Overhead there was a huge crest. Henry's family crest, it was a shield with a chess piece knight on one half, and a sword on the other. There were words... Like all proper lineage old crests, of course these words had to be in ancient lycan. I stared hard at them... I can read ancient lycan, it just takes me a awhile to sound the words and put them together to guess their meaning. I'm actually quite good at it as a guessing game, although Savy had informed me that reading and playing a guessing game were two different activities.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure these words read: "True and Wise, Pure and Kind." I tried to picture Henry in that light and made a rude snorting sound. Luckily no one else seemed to be paying attention to me at the moment.

The betas had disappeared, there was only Henry and Bell who stepped into the hall with me.

"Nice collection." Bell said.

Henry smirked, "Which sword do you favor?"

"Epee." Bell answered simply.

Henry picked one out and passed it to Bell to appreciate, "This is good."

Bell tested it in his hand, "Yeah, I like the weight."

The betas reappeared with white armour.

"Let's duel a little." Henry invited Bell.

"Sure, but I haven't practiced for a bit." Bell turned to Ki, "Do you remember the rules?"

"Which sword?" Asked Ki, he looked at the epee in Bell's hand, "Of course, the epee."

Ki took out his phone to search the rules.

"It's fine. Just stop at the halt." Henry waved it off.

"Like I'd give you an inch, much as a f***ing penalty." Bell retorted.

Henry laughed, rather pleased at the exchange.

Mate smirked but I could tell he was enjoying himself.

What can I say? Birds of the feather, flocked together.

After gearing up, the two guys took their position along the mat. Peter and Marcus had to referee. Ki had excused himself from the duty saying he hadn't been fencing for quite a while. He needed some time to read the rules and refresh his memory.

"Forget it, Ki. Just keep an eye on Sam." Henry said.

"I don't need keeping an eye on." I answered.

"He's no use." Bell told Henry, "He'll sooner be her accomplice."

"If you spoil her this much now, she'll be impossible later." Henry warned.

"Well, I can afford it." Bell shrugged.

Henry paused, and then he nodded with a wry smile, "That's a good way to look at it."

"Ready?" Beta Peter called out, but it sounded more like a question.

Henry and Bell both took mirror image positions. Oh, was the fight about to start?

Three seconds in and Marcus shouted, "Halt!"

"F***." Henry drew back. So did mate. They watched Marcus give some hand signs and then they took their positions and started again. This time, maybe they had 10 seconds before Peter shouted, "Halt!"

Both guys stopped. This surprised me, because Bell and Henry had patiently lowered his epee to hear out Peter's explaination (something about a touch), both of them nodded after that and then took their positions again under Marcus' direction.

I mean, we were talking about Bell who all but ignored Hank's shrill whistling on the training mat the other Thursday night right? And I would never had seen Henry as the kind of guy who would stop at mid lunge just because someone said "halt". Must be a magic word.

And what kind of fighting was this? The attack and defense was tight and fiercely concentrated BUT it was continuously interuppted throughout and then a break is called like in the third minute - although it felt like much longer because it was that boring. I groaned when I heard there would be a second bout.

"Alpha Henry is a very skilled fencer at his age." Ki informed me.

Oh yeah, now that Ki mentioned it, Henry was my age, but he looked like he was holding out pretty well against Bell.

"He might even be better than our Luna. His form is solid, his reaction is sure, and his discipline is admirable." Ki continued appreciatively.

"Bell is losing?" I asked, since I couldn't follow the game at all.

Ki smiled, "He's definitely not at his peak and obviously rusty, but as long as you're watching, the Luna would win or die trying."

Really? That's actually kinda extreme.

I decided to exercise my own patience and wait out the match. It was just for a few more minutes of disjointed fighting.

At the end, Marcus flipped a coin.

"Sudden death, goddess." Ki said in explanation to me.

I thought Mate might seriously die trying but sudden death just meant the first one to hit the other. They were done in a blink of an eye, as in literally so.

The two guys pulled off their head gear. Henry smiled, a smile that had no trace of his usual smirk, "Good game."

"That was a lucky shot." Bell returned the smile.

Who won? I had no idea.

I had never imagined a sport with swords to be this boring. T.T

Suddenly, the training door opened and a girl around my age stepped in.

"Henry!" The girl was very beautiful when she smiled. It made me suddenly understand the expression about a face lighting up with a smile.

She had on the Lorent Girls' Academy uniform. Henry wasn't bluffing about the length of their skirts, or should I say the lack of length... Hahahaha.

"Charbear, what are you doing here?" Peter didn't sound pleased.

"It's fine Pete. I just wanted to meet Henry's friends." Charbear smiled. She wrapped her arms around Henry and then she kissed him, right there in front of us.

I mean like she really kissed him in the end of the movie kissing scene kind of kiss, you know, the kind that went on a tad longer than it should so that everyone else watching would feel just a tad more uncomfortable than necessary.

And then while holding Henry's hand, she smiled at me, "Hi! You must be Abigail. I'm Charlene. It's nice to meet you."

I blanched at that.

"Oh boy." Marcus muttered.

Peter sighed.

I shook my head, "I'm Sam."

Actually, I should've said I was Abigail. Hahaha. That might have been funny.

Charbear frowned a little, "Sam? As in Alpha Sam?" Then she laughed, "The way Henry talked about you, I thought you were a boy!"

I shrugged. I'm glad that Henry's got the right idea about me, but why did Charbear sound like that was meant as an insult?

"Don't make trouble, Charbear. Sam's a friend." Henry introduced, "James, her mate. Ki, her beta. You've met Marcus before."

Marcus actually fumbled, "Uh, yeah, hi."

"Are you Henry's mate?" I asked.

"Do I seem like it?" Charbear beamed.

"No." Said Henry, "Charbear is just a friend."

Yeah, no... I might be slow, but that wasn't the kind of kiss "just a friend" would give you, Henry.

"How can you be so sure?" I challenged, "She might turn out to be your mate."

"No." Henry answered quietly, "My mate is a human."

"Abigail is your mate?" I pretty much blurted it out in shock.

"No!" Henry growled, and then more quietly he admitted, "It's someone else. I see her in my dreams sometimes."

There was a split second silence. Charbear's face froze. It didn't look like it was news to her but more like she definitely didn't expect Henry to say it out loud.

I totally hadn't expected Henry to admit to something like this.

"Just stupid dreams." Henry shrugged it off. His hand tightened around Charbear's waist briefly.

I nodded but didn't answer.

"Alpha, bad news. Your parents are back. They will be arriving in fifteen minutes." Peter suddenly said.

"F***." Henry dropped his hand from Charbear and ran his hand through his hair.

"In trouble, Alpha?" Ki asked lightly.

"No, not in trouble. More like parents are f***ing troublesome." Henry grumbled, "Let's go back to my suite."

Ah, there, finally the grouchy bossy Henry I knew had returned. I followed the guys back up to Henry's suite. Peter sent Charbear down to get coke and snacks.

I dropped down on the fluffy carpet next to the fireplace and in front of the coffee table where I knew all the food would be arranged and waited, because I was patient like that.

Henry sat opposite me, Peter took out his laptop and sat next to him. Bell sat behind me, Ki on his side. And the next thing I knew, they started discussing the stock market situation with the Red Packland mess happening. Marcus dropped down on the sofa facing the fireplace but out of the conversational crossfire and started tappity tapping on his phone.

I thought we were supposed to be rehearsing Romeo and Juliet? I felt myself become sulky.

Charbear returned with a large tray of tea and snacks. She put it all out on the coffee table. They were just ordinary snacks like pokey sticks, but she had them arranged out like an Instagram photo on the coffee table. The tea she made smelled like oranges. I watched with interest as she poured it out.

"There's coke in the fridge behind the bar. Charbear, get the coke." Peter quickly said.

"Why? I made Earl Grey tea for everyone." Charbear protested.

"Earl Grey is fine." Bell brushed it off.

Charbear served the tea. Ki helped, adding sugar and milk into my cup, but leaving Bell and his own tea unaltered.

Charbear put sugar in Henry's, and milk in Peter's cups.

"So regarding the alliance between our two packs..." I heard Henry broach.

"What alliance?" Bell asked sharply.

Henry paused and then as if realising, he groaned, "Sam didn't tell you, did she?"

Bell looked at Ki who looked at me, "Was there an alliance, goddess?"

I tried to remember.

"On the stairway in school, I told you my family secret so you could deal with the Ciara Lord!" Henry prompted impatiently.

"Halt!" I tried my new magic word, "Lemme think."

"Ah, please don't say anything in front of me if it's a secret." Marcus said, "I'm not really your beta, you know."

"Tell your alpha that he still owes me money, and if he doesn't pay, I'll take you as my collateral." Henry shot back.

"Oh yeah. We swore an alliance." I remembered.

"What kind of alliance, goddess?" Ki smiled gently.

"A friendship alliance?" I hazzarded. I looked at Henry.

Henry just smirked, "There were no details. The help I lent was in good faith on the promise of some sort of alliance between us because we were friends. We can work out the details in time."

"Was there any timeframe or caveats discussed?" Ki asked.

Marcus stood up, "I'm just going to excuse myself. Pete, lend me your office for a bit."

"Yeah, sure Marc. Charbear can assist you if you need anything." Peter offered.

"Ah, no. Uh, it's fine." Marcus quickly disappeared.

"Back to the alliance." Ki smiled when Marc and Charbear left.

"It was a life-long alliance. Your alphas life and mine." Henry answered, "But other than that, the terms and conditions are open. You must understand, we are merely formalizing our friendship and partnership through this. It is meant to be advantageous for both our packs."

Bell considered this and then nodded. He turned to me, "Princess, have you discussed this with anyone else yet?"

"It was a spur of the moment thing." I admitted. To be honest, I pretty much expected Bell to explode on me for promising alliances irresponsibly, but he didn't. Or Henry to say "I told you so. Were you even paying attention the other time?" But Henry didn't either.

Both guys only considered my answer silently, then Bell asked, his deep voice a soothing rumble, "Do you still wish for this alliance, Princess?"

I thought about it with my Wolfie, "Yes. Henry's my friend."

Once again I was quite sure that Bell would explode on me for that kind of flippitant answer, but he didn't. Or Henry would definitely be growling at me to be more serious. But again nothing.

Bell nodded, "Let's give Ki time to table it into discussion with the elders of the pack. Henry, can you send us some terms you have in mind?"

Henry smiled, "Sure thing. There's no hurry."

"So nobody's going to yell at me for this?" I asked.

"Did you want to be yelled at, Princess?" Bell asked somewhat evilly.

I shook my head.

Bell's large warm hand was suddenly on my head, "You did well, Princess. This alliance would be good for our pack."

"As for mine." Henry reached over for a shake.

Mate's hand left my head to take Henry's hand. Boo...

{Who me?}

Eh? Oh no, not you again!