PLAN B BY BEN

"I think we are taking an unnecessary risk." Ben's levelled voice spoke finally. I guess he had finished thinking. And from the sound of it, he had figured something out.

He stood up from his seat on the sofa next to me. With his hands still in his jeans pockets he approached Killion and lifted his sneakered foot to step roughly on his shoulder, "Hey, dog, wake up."

Killion reacted immediately, waking up with low growling, he kicked off the sofa and sprang into a fighting stance. Ben faced him, hands still in his pockets, "Stop sleeping if you want your revenge."

At the mention of his revenge, Killion put down his fists, "What is it, Beta?"

Ben looked him in the eye, "We need a plan."

"We already had a plan, Ben." I reminded him.

"I think we are taking an unnecessary risk, several in fact." Ben said, "We are allowing rogues to not just enter our packlands, but the alpha's home, where both the alpha and the future alpha wait as bait. There would definitely be property damages."

"We are going to renovate anyway." I argued. Ben was talking again and sounding more like the Ben I know, so deep inside I was more relieved than annoyed.

"But it is unnecessary." Ben said, "What the alphas want is to find out what the rogues are up to and who is behind them. Revenge is what this dog wants."

Killion low growling ceased, but he somehow managed to seem more deadly quiet than growling, "What do you suggest then, Beta?"

Ben pressed his lips together, "I suggest we sneak everyone over to my place, and increase manpower. When the rogues break in, we surround the house and capture them."

"What if they refuse to come out?" Beta Lucas asked.

"Then we take the dart guns and we climb up the tree, enter by the balcony, and hunt them down." Ben answered. As if expecting the next question, he continued, "We can test the new surveillance cameras Dad bought if you want to see what is happening in the house and monitor them from a safe distance."

"We take them alive, keep Killion hidden from sight. They would expect the usual interrogation at the dungeon, and hope to bargain an exchange of information for their release." Ben continued, "When we get to the dungeons, and when we have gotten the information we want, and when we have ascertained they were guilty of the murder of Killion's parents, and if it pleases the alpha, Killion may take his revenge."

"That's a lot of ands" Killion pointed out.

"You're not my priority, dog." Ben growled back.

Ben had always been one of the most chill friends I had, but his wolf was emerging, and it's a lot different from mine. For one thing, it thought a lot more. For another, it was bloodthirsty. My wolf particularly liked the bloodthirsty part of his wolf. Must be a wolf thing.

But as I got to know the wolves of my friends, I was beginning to wonder at my own Wolfie.

My Wolfie that didn't see the need to use names or numbers. My Wolfie that didn't seem to care for time or space. My Wolfie that only registered the presence of others selectively and only when it felt like it. My Wolfie that was playful and always up for a game. My Wolfie with all her lucky sense of direction and great intuition... But has the attention span of a goldfish.

I had thought at first that my Wolfie was young, just shifted... But she's not showing any signs of growing up anytime soon. Meanwhile, no one else's wolf was acting like a pup. No one.

Harvey's wolf was calm and unyielding. But his wolf was much older.

Jessica's wolf was gentle and sly.

Savy's wolf was surprisingly determined and territorial. Since her shift, she was almost as bad a me about her personal space and stuff. (But not towards me, Mum got the brunt of it though.)

None of the wolves in my school messed around or were "unstable" as Henry called mine. Henry's wolf made him more aggressive. I barely sensed a change in Marcus' wolf. Liam's wolf lent Liam even more confidence and charisma. None of their wolves wandered around the empty parts of school or messed around with humans. Even Jules and the guys who made it look like they were always fooling around... obviously weren't.

Was it only mine that thought everything was more fun as a game?

I looked at Killion. Killion's wolf was loyal and mischievous, but that wasn't all. Killion's wolf was... I couldn't quite figure his wolf out.

{He's broken} Wolfie informed me.

Oh. Yeah, I thought so the night we met too.

Meanwhile, Ben was still talking. Were all my betas going to be long winded?

"I'm thinking Sam's hunch is right. Alpha Lorent isn't the man behind this. For some reason, he is taking the rap for it, but if all the facts we have heard is true, we need to ask who would want to get rid of Alpha Lorent's loyal Beta family? And who would want to get rid of Alpha Lorent's own heir?"

"Plus, since they don't know their future beta is taking refuge with us, it might be to our advantage to keep that secret from them for now."

"I'm not their future beta. That wolf died." Killion told him, "I'm just a dog now."

"He's my future beta." I said, "Killion, don't worry, one day you'll remember you are a wolf again."

"No, thank you. I'm happy as your dog. I want to die as your dog." Killion answered.

Ben nodded, "I thought as much."

"Wait, I just have to ask," Beta Lucas spoke then, "Sam...How many Betas does an Alpha need?"

Oh, yeah... Usually, a pack our size would have one beta and one gamma. Very large packs like the Black Forest Pack had two Betas. And arguably with our merger to Morning Light, we could have need two betas and gammas, at least in our generation to facilitate the transition. But I had just pretty much announced that I was going to take three Betas.

How should I put this? I'm going to probably start a war by rescuing (read stealing) Lycan slaves and protecting them in a safe town on our packlands, so I need a third beta to run my safe town and special unit of warriors trained for rescue missions. I just thought of the last point.

"Sam?" Dad prompted.

I tried to stall with the expected part of the answer, "Ben will be Beta of the Night Leaf side. Harvey will be Beta of the Morning Light side..."

Of course they expected this answer. That wasn't what they were asking me. What was Killion's role?

"Killion will be my Beta to run my personal projects." I said finally.

"What kind of personal project?" Dad wanted to know. Mum's face looked like she had a bad feeling about what I was going to say. A mother's intuition was truly amazing. I was sure she was not going to like it one bit.

"I'll tell you later. Maybe we should focus on capturing the rogues for now." In the spirit of not upsetting my mother, I decided to postpone the inevitable.

Dad glanced at Mum, and agreed with a nod. He turned the discussion back to our mission at hand.

"We'll go with Ben's plan." Dad decided because he knew a good thing when he saw it.

"Don't worry, dog." Ben told Killion, "As long as you are loyal to my alpha, I will treat you well."

Killion grinned at Ben, "You are mean, but I like you."

Ben smirked and answered coldly, "I don't care how you feel."

Ben's wolf was so out on the surface tonight. I didn't think he was holding back at all. This only spurred my Wolfie to surface too.

"Okay! Let's go!" I said. The fun was about to start.

"Maybe we should pack our things to stay over first." Savy suggested.

"Yay! Stayover!" It would be the first for me.

{Rouges are near}

"Rouge activity at border." Beta Lucas reported after receiving a mindlink.

"Investigate, but do it badly enough not to actually discover them." I decided, "Let's let them think they successfully snuck in."

"See if they can get an estimate of their numbers too." Ben said.

"Yeah." I fist bumped Ben, we were on a roll. I was excited, my Wolfie recognized that Ben and I were playing together again, and that was always fun.

"Whoever wants to be on the dartgun team, wear dark colors for night cover." I announced, "Quick, Ben go get the cameras. Savy and mum, go make the beds look like someone's sleeping in them. Harvey and Killion, secure the windows and doors. Make sure they are sealed shut from outside."

What else were we missing?

"Maybe we should keep away the valuables too." Beta Lucas suggested.

"Right. You and I will do that." Dad decided.

So fun! It's like setting up one of our big pranks, but now our parents were in on it too! Those rogues were not going to know what hit them.

{Rogues trespassing}

Wolfie was on the alert. But she was overall still calm. Wolfie liked playing pranks and this rogue trap was rather to her liking. I knew I shouldn't, but I did hope the rogues wouldn't surrender too easily so we can hunt them with dart guns.

I went to my room to change and pack and make up some kind of lump on my bed so it would look like I was sleeping in it.

Oh, there was already a human shaped lump sleeping in my bed? I frowned, that's not right. No one had come up to my room yet. And then I saw it, just outside my window. A full moon... That's really not right.

I looked at my bed and then I looked at the unnaturally full moon. OMG, was I dreaming? Did I fall asleep?

{You not dreaming}

The last time Wolfie told me that, she was right and Dean had really shifted.

The quilt moved. I froze.

I knew who it was even though I couldn't smell him. Dreams had no smell.

Everything else in my room still had the familiar smell of my room. Everything except Rebel.

But how did Rebel get here?

{I called mate} Wolfie answered, rather proud of herself. He was dreaming.

Wait, so my mate was sleeping and you pulled him out of his dream and into a rogue ambush? Talk about bad timing.

Put him back!

Wolfie?

Stupid stubborn crazy wolf!

But I couldn't leave Rebel here. I pulled down the quilt, Rebel's eyes were closed.

You know how some love stories talked about how the sleeping face of a person would look younger, or more innocent? I'm not seeing any of that. Rebel actually just looked like himself sleeping.

His lashes were really dark and long though. They fluttered open and he shifted himself to sit up, "Princess? Where are we?"

"My room." I answered. I moved away from the bed. My mate was in my bed...

Something told me we might need a PLAN C.