BACK TO SAM AGAIN

4 MARCH, THURSDAY, DINNER

Wow, hahaha. Okay, you got me, I had NO IDEA what Dad and Alpha Gunter talked about while waiting for dinner. I made everything up with the power of my imagination, but let's get back to my POV which really happened:

In my POV, I had no idea what anyone around me was talking about most of dinner. I was way too frustrated.

{And tired}, Boo thought to point out.

Yes, and tired, but mostly frustrated.

Apparently, when receiving guests from the Blue Packlands, you had to let them sit down in your receiving room first and serve drinks and finger food over light conversation, BEFORE you let them sit down at your dining table where the real food was!

Dinning with fancy guests was a long drawn affair. At the dining table, the food was served one course at a time, and the next course was served only after EVERYONE at the table was done with the current one.

This wouldn't be so bad if everyone ate at a moderately fast pace, but nooo... They had to eat in slow-mo.

Arughhhh.... Why was I being tortured?

Nobody paid any heed to my protesting hair - except Bell who would look at me and then smirk, {Cute.}

{Mate! ~❤️ }

I mean, I was NOT CUTE! Grrrrr....

Stoopid bell.

But he wasn't the stupidest. Everyone was being stupid! Everyone was eating SO slowly and talking SO much!

Even Savy and River - for some reason...

{Mating bond}

Maybe that, but FOR SOME REASON, they could mindlink - even though River wasn't a wolf.

So they were not just mooning at each other like lovesick calves, they were also really TALKING NONSTOP!

And I had the misfortune to be seated next to Savy where I kept accidentally overhearing them.

It was a lucky thing Savy didn't notice. Then again, it seemed like with River around, Savy was suddenly blind to everyone else anyway.

Bell smiled at me.

{Mate! ~❤️ }

It was a blindingly beautiful sight.

GAH! That was NOT ALLOWED! Smiling like that had to be illegal!

I flared at him proper, but I was sitting between Sabre and Savy and both sisters only calmly used their arms to shield their food.

Which they were taking their own sweet time to eat!

Sabre did blow up her cheeks and gave me a proper hairy eyeball, but then she went back to eating her meal. She was on her best behavior tonight - which was evidently besting mine.

{I wish we could just stay like this forever.} River said, I mean, mindlinked.

Did you know that if you could hear the thoughts of two people lost in each other's eyes, the things you heard would not be particularly intellectually stimulating. In fact, it would be the opposite of intellectually stimulating.

Instead of telling him what a dumb idea that was, Savy smiled shyly and mindlinked back, {Me too.}

After soup came steak! Don't stay at soup forever!

You'd never catch me getting mushy brained like that.

Bell smiled again.

{Mate! ~❤️ }

Arughhhh...kill me! Just kill me now!

"Oh Sam!" Mum sighed and then decided an apology was in order, "I'm so sorry, Alpha Gunter. Sam does get like this when she's tired."

What? It's not like my hair was bothering any of them! I was keeping well on my side of the table! Grrrr...

"Better sleep early tonight, Princess." Bell told me.

"Don't tell me what to do!" I told him - or at least it would be what I would've said if I hadn't looked up and noticed how his hair was swept back just so that it was asymmetrical, and how that totally accentuated the shape of his profile. You know how all the time Maria sighed at Dino's side profile? I suddenly understood the feeling.

So what came out from my mouth was, "Don...Dun wanna."

Bell smirked and immediately I was ripped apart by the desire to smack his stooopid handsome face and the equally compelling urge to kiss him. I flared again, more in horror at myself than anything else.

"Don't tell me what to do!" I managed belated so it came out kind of flat.

"I would never, Princess." The stoopid prince answered in all the guise of a charming luna.

GAH! Wait! I know this... He was flirting with me. Right? This was flirting right?

Well, not the words exactly, but the eyes and the way he tilted his head and smiled as he waited for my response.

What was I suppose to answer to that?

I decided right there and then I far preferred the dark Bell who stormed about like an angry rain cloud.

I was hopeless. Keeping up with the conversation was like trying to scrape a melting scoop of ice cream on the pavement back into my cone. Like seriously, the ice cream had fallen out of the come the moment he appeared.

Thankfully, Dad spoke, "Right. I have good news. Alpha Gunter informs me that it is perfectly safe to wear the diadem if it's only during your sleeping hours."

"Quite right. It is quite rare that such a thing might happen, but it would still be safe to use if only for limited hours." Alpha Gunter affirmed.

Which funnily enough was exactly what I imagined about it too.

"Oh! That is a relief!" Mum rejoiced at once, "Isn't that wonderful, Sam?"

"I guess." I mumbled, still frowning at the coincidence.

My mum interpreted my lack of immediate enthusiasm differently though, "Oh, Sam! Its not that we want to keep you from dream travelling, we just want to help you keep it under control."

"Because I can't control it on my own. I'll need it like a crutch." I said, "Until I can get a grip on my own powers. I get it."

"Good." Dad nodded satisfied, but Mum was more concerned about things like my feelings and self esteem or something, "It's not that we don't think you've got it under control..."

"Although you don't." Dad said because he didn't read the same books Mum did.

"But you're still young and growing into your powers, Sam." Mum continued, "You don't have to put so much pressure on yourself."

She cast Dad a side glance and he too pause before quickly taking his mate's side, "Yes. No pressure."

"Yeah, all I have to do is master magic manipulation or something..." I decided to just test how accurate my imagination was.

"What?" Dad looked completely nonplussed.

"Yes." Alpha Gunter nodded calmly, "When you have mastered your innate abilities, controlling your supernatural wolf powers would be like child's play."

Which would sound perfectly logical IF YOU WERE IN A LYCAN LEGEND, so naturally everyone around the table paused in the middle of steak.

"What you just said..." Dad put down his fork and knife (in the middle of steak!), "Can you explain it for me?"

"Of course, Alpha Kingsley." Alpha Gunter nodded, "It would be my pleasure."

Bell put his meal aside too, "What is going on?"

Steak! Don't stop eating in the middle of steak! Come on people! We've got to finish each course as a table, or the next course won't come and we'd be here forever! Don't leave me hanging! Desert came after steak! We're nearly through!

Thank goddess for Mum at the table. She smiled at Dad, "Perhaps we might continue this after dinner, dear."

"Alright." Dad nodded and picked up his fork and knife again, "Quite right. It would be better to discuss this later in my study."

Bell nodded, "I am interested to hear too."

Alpha Gunter nodded reluctantly, "Very well. Since your are her soul mate. As Alpha Kingsley and I had discussed earlier, it would be best to focus on ensuring her safety until she is powerful enough to protect herself."

"Oh..." Mum was immediately assailed with new worries. She looked at Dad, but he was too busy replaying his earlier conversation with Alpha Gunter as if trying to remember when the topic of magic manipulation came up. It didn't, Dad. At least I IMAGINED it didn't, but I was just letting my imagination go. It's not like what I imagined actually happened right?

"Don't worry, Princess." Bell told me gently, "Finish your dinner. Your Dad and I will take care of it."

"Don't tell me what to do! I can take care of myself! Hurry up and finish your own dinner!" Was what I wanted to say - all at the same time.

So what came out was, "Don't my dinner."

The ice cream was now officially a puddle on the pavement.

Bell smirked and raised a brow at me.

I shook my head and tried again, "I can eat."

Oh wow.

The rest of the table looked at me like I've lost my mind (and they wouldn't be far wrong.) And then Sabre piped up, "Me too. I can eat neatly and the food doesn't fall off my plate."

Yeah. It'll be nice if my brain would stop falling out of my head too. Bell smiled at me again and I felt my face burn. I looked down at my steak. Maybe if I didn't look at him, it would be like he wasn't here.

Anyway, the rest of the adults smiled and Mum praised Sabre for her eating skills. Alpha Gunter praised Mum and Dad's parenting skills for how well Sabre behaved at a grown up dinner. Sabre beamed like he was praising her.

{Do you know what your Dad's saying about my sister?} Savy asked her mate.

{This is the first time I'm hearing about it too.} River admitted, {But I do know a bit about magic manipulation.}

Wait, that's right! River's a warlock/formling. He manipulated magic all the time, right?

{Magic is a bit like bubbles, right?} River explained, {So magic users can use the bubbles to do things. But those who can manipulate magic can use soap to make bubbles.}

On a scale of 1-10, River was number 1 where 1 was the lowest score possible for his explanations.

{Oh wow.} Savy sighed, {You make it sound so simple. But I'm sure its more complicated than that.}

{Yeah...} River admitted, {It's really complicated.}

Savy nodded, {You know so much.}

No! Make it stop! I wished the adults thought to warn us that mating bonds came with side effects - like instant stupidity and sappiness and I'm sure there was more, but my brain was currently of equal function as the mash on my plate. Seriously, if you exchanged my white matter with mash, there would be ZERO difference.

But at least dinner was moving on. I guess the adults now had the motivation to finish their dinner.

Desert was chocolate mousse and it was GOOD. Like I don't even have the vocabulary to describe it - it was like eating a mildly chocolate cloud. And you know how Bell didn't like sweets right? He finished the mousse.

I was very careful not to look at him while he ate the desert. But I imagined it... and that only made me more determined than ever to NOT look up.

So I stayed focused on my own desert and ate the whole thing without dripping any.

After dinner, the alpha males retreated to Dad's study on the second floor. Yes... go discuss me without me. Don't worry, I'm sure I can simply imagine your discussion later. But seriously! That's not cool.

But Ki had excused me so I could go change out of my dress for the tournament later, that is, fire wolf fight! Which was cool. I was so excited that I forgot about being miffed.

Poor Mum was left with Sabre and River and Savy - but the two teens were lost in their own world, so it was like they weren't even there.

Still Mum seemed quite pleased, "You too, Sabre. It's past your bedtime."

"No!" Sabre yelled. Because even good girls at their best behaviour drew the line at bedtime.

I yawned widely as I let Ki lead me through the glass room to my side of the house. Yeah... I kinda missed being a pup again. I hated it then... but now I kind of missed that simpler life with fixed bedtimes and someone to tell me stories... and for the crazy things that happened on those stories to just stay there.

Just a little. But of course if that were the case, I wouldn't be about to kick FIRE WOLF butt, would I?