DAD'S STILL OVERPROTECTIVE

Dinner tonight somehow turned into a giant media prep meeting - not that we were meeting the media. We were meeting the Lorents who felt that last night's news required a full-scale media conference. So we were having a media prep meeting for a media prep meeting (with the Lorents)for THEIR actual media meeting.

It really had nothing to do with us, but Lorents were reserved and cautious wolves. (Tell me something new.)

They did not dare to overstep and tonight's meeting was to iron everything out so that both packs would be reading from the same page to the reporters.

All this in response to the photograph of Bell leaving the poshest country club in the Gold Packlands with his princess concussed in his arms.

Whilst Dad and his betas felt this was an internal security issue, the Lorents apparently felt that this was war - a PR war, that is. They were up in arms and would require Night Leaf's assistance to neutralize the scandal.

I think Ki did try to explain the Lorent POV to everyone at the dinner table, but I wasn't sure what went in and what just flew past our Night Leaf heads.

Alpha James would not be attending because he would not deign to grant any time of his day for frivolous gossip. He would be sending Delta Oran (yes, our Delta O), who was the Delta in charge of the Lorent's Public Relations, Delta Jack Emerson (Coach Em's brother) who was the Lorent's Secretary, Gamma Michaels who was the Lorent's Legal Counsel, and Lady Amber as Advisor.

It was a very important frivolous gossip.

Dad had meant to attend, but Ki was of the opinion that since Alpha James wasn't coming, Dad shouldn't show up for the meeting either. So we had to send representatives of equal ranks and numbers.

"So more than just Gerald and Harvey?" Dad wondered aloud.

Bell was supposed to attend, under his father's orders to "wipe his own butt" (hahaha, I can't believe those were Alpha James' words), but Bell had not responded. Dom (his talkative gamma acting beta) would be attending because that was Dom's job.

"To wipe Bell's butt?" I grinned because it was funny.

"More like the toilet seat warmer." Ki beamed like a flower to the sun.

Most of us laughed, but we all quietened when we noticed Mum narrowing her eyes at me. I pressed my lips together. I didn't have to be told that it wasn't ladylike to joke about my Luna's sexy butt at the dinner table.

Ki quickly corrected himself. Dom was to attend as a placeholder to every Lorent meeting Bell was supposed to be sitting at but didn't show up for.

Dad was surprised for the need of this position altogether. He was under the impression that Bell was very prompt at responding to meeting invitations.

"He is as you thought, Alpha." Harvey felt it was important to protect his Luna Bell's reputation.

Especially now that he had Leon and Laru. Apparently, they had access to his phone and email communications the way my betas had access to mine.

Why did everyone seem to know about Leon and Laru? Because everyone checked their emails and now, Bell's emails were sometimes signed off as:

Regards,

Leon Lazarus (or Laru Inga, depending on who replied the email.)

On behalf of Y. Alpha James Lorent III

The Glorious Lorent Pack

Green Packlands

So they even knew Leon and Laru's family names.

"I haven't met either of them personally though." Harvey admitted, "Although I've spoken to Leon over the phone a few times."

"Today was my first time meeting them." Beta Gerald admitted, "I was a little surprised."

Only Dad and Beta Lucas had the honor of a face to face introduction. Once. At a "private meeting." I decided not to pry.

"Maybe the Lorents just have too many meetings and our Luna Bell got fed up with them." Beta Lucas shrugged, "Lorent meetings are never ending."

I remembered the 35-item agenda and nodded.

Mum thought their names sounded really familiar.

"You mean like the Kings Agents in that movie?" Savy suggested.

"Oh." Mum realized, "Right."

And then she laughed in her hand, "No wonder their names sounded familiar."

Sabre laughed too, although I'm sure she hadn't a clue what we were talking about. Sabre just liked to laugh when everyone is laughing, but I felt glad to see that today's treasure picking episode didn't seem to have caused any permanent damage.

Mum laughed more at Sabre's laughter, "Oh, baby. You're so cute."

Even Savy seemed more relaxed than usual, even with Beta Gerald and Harvey around. She leaned over and joked to Mum, "Maybe Bell should hire a Zane to complete the set."

Mum laughed. Sabre laughed too, and then she asked, "Who's that, Mama?"

The men took pause before forcing smiles and a bit of polite laughter. Savy's little offhanded remark had hit too close to the truth.

I wondered what Mum and Savy would think if I had said that this Leon and Laru were really the RL king's agents.

They probably wouldn't believe me.

Leon Lazarus and Laru Inga, huh? So they had family names. That was never mentioned in the movie.

And then it struck me, "I think I know how to find Zane."

"How..." Beta Lucas held up a hand, "What do you have in mind, Sam?"

"We find out what his family name was, and then we check the registries." I answered.

Ask Leon or Laru what Zane's family name was. Then check the historical registries and census. If Zane had come to the plains, his family name would probably be somewhere...

But the moment the words came out of my mouth, it sounded so simple that I was sure Bell must've already done so. Maybe it had led to a dead end. Maybe Zane didn't use his real family name. Maybe...

"It's worth a shot, Alpha." Harvey nodded.

"Sometimes..." Beta Gerald marveled, "The most straightforward solution is the right one."

I grinned and quoted my favorite Movie-Version-Leon's one liner, the one he always said before swinging his sword and cutting a clean path through any obstacle in his way, "The shortest route is the straight one!"

Savy recognized it. This might be because I used to yell this a lot as a pup. She laughed a bit, "We aren't in the movie, Sam."

That was true.

If we were in the movie, we would only find Zane through some magical adventure, probably nearly losing our lives in the process. I know real life can sometimes feel mundane and boring, and I never imagined I'll ever say this, but good admin can be a kind of magic too.

The conversation dropped back to what Dad had meant to discuss about what happened last night in the first place. While the Lorents had been riled up by the scandal on the news last night, here in Night Leaf, Dad and our betas were more troubled at the security breech.

We had more than 20 security personnel on site, but a spiked drink managed to find it's way into my hand.

Investigation closed this afternoon, and it seemed that the drink was just a Vodka Lemonade. Nothing terribly sinister. They had searched the bars, questioned the bartenders and servers, scrutinized security tapes...

The report wouldn't be published, but it wasn't like the LyNCh would have missed it because the investigation results turned out to be very disappointing if you had followed the LyNCh's conspiracy theories so far.

Basically, I was mistakenly handed an alcoholic beverage, and I passed out on that. It's not really scandalous, unless you counted the fact that I was apparently usless at drinking.

And that wasn't even anything the club could be sued for. It was a private event, like a wedding - which also apparently served alcohol and had minors among the guest list. I wouldn't know since weddings were a human thing.

Beta Lucas wanted to take my betas to task, "How... how did that drink get in her hand?"

Based on security footages, a server had passed by on one of his rounds and offered Bell and Henry drinks. As the two guys picked their drinks off his tray, he smiled at me and offered me the lemonade. Apparently, I took it.

Of course the poor server was interrogated. The poor guy. But he was just doing his job. He knew the drink contained alcohol, but he was told to serve drinks to everyone, and it was standard practice not to question the guests' age - especially at the gold room private parties.

Anyway, how was he supposed to know the Alpha Princess couldn't hold her alcohol at all? It was just a vodka lemonade!

To be honest, that did make me sound really weak.

Dad was all growly about it, "My daughter's underage. She shouldn't be drinking!"

Harvey, being the good beta that he was apologized for the security lapse. They have since, under the guidance of Sir Wolfgang, reviewed the security protocol for accompanying the alpha so that such mishaps would not ever happen again.

By the end of the week, all food and drink consumed outside my home would not come to my hand except via a trained designated minder from my security team.

Talk about stirring up a storm in a teacup. I felt quite sure they were over-reacting. It's not like there was anyone out there to poison me.

I mean, I just accidentally consumed a bit of alcohol. It wasn't even in a large quantity. Because there were humans among the guests, the drink proportion was adjusted to safe human consumption. Yeah, that did make me sound kinda weak. I mean, I was an alpha wolf with healing capabilities, and I couldn't process a bit of alcohol?

If there was anything that this incident brought to light, it would be that I should probably not drink, ever. For some reason, I would probably survive being spiked by wolfbane but would pass out from a cup of vodka lemonade.

The medical investigations (because the investigations had been just super extensive), came back that although it was rare for a wolf to pass out from something so mild as alcohol, every body reacts differently to different drugs. Maybe I was just more sensitive to alcohol, or maybe I just drank on an empty stomach.

Ki pointed out that the quick effects of the alcohol could also be because of Bell's healer life link to my wolf. How the life link worked was that every time I was hurt or poisoned, the healing would kick in and quickly process the toxins and heal me back to optimal condition.

There was no slow or stop button. Maybe I had passed out more from the exhaustion from the instant heals and dehydration than the alcohol itself.

This gave rise to all kinds of complications. For example, my body might also mistaken medicine for toxin and purge that too. This would pretty much make me immune to all medication. The good news was that, with such levels of instant heals, it was unlikely that I would ever need medication.

But just a point to note (and additional worry for my parents), if I did need some kind of medical intervention... for example, if I had a headache, I would require a healer's magic, not pain killers.

Not that I would ever have a headache, since my body would always auto-heal to its optimal condition. On the very extremely improbable circumstances that I did have a headache (or any other symptom) that didn't self heal, it would be a very, very, complicated medical condition that would need an equally very, very complicated medical procedure to treat.

Nothing to worry about.

"Oh, Sam." Mum sighed, "My poor, poor, Sam."

"Don't worry, Mum." I brushed it off, "It's not going to happen."

"But what if..." Mum worried anyway.

"Luna Bell and I would always be by goddess' side." Ki reassured her, "And I was told to prepare for the arrival of new wolves - including two very powerful healer wolves from the Colored Mountain who have pledge allegiance to our Alpha Princess."

Beta Lucas raised his hand but before he could open his mouth to speak, Ki smoothly added, "Their applications to pack membership have already been filed with the Alpha Office."

Beta Luca put down his hand.

Dad, who had simply been frowning so far, nodded at last, "Alright. We will leave it at that. But if possible, I would prefer that the new security protocols take effect BEFORE Sam's visit to Night Forest."

"Understood, Alpha." Harvey nodded, "I will see to it personally."