THE BOILING POINT

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, CONTINUED

Ben was the first who got over the shock, "Sam, I thought the point of the word "secret" was that it was a secret?"

He gave a meaningful look towards our parents and Bell.

Oh, opps. Oh well, it was too late to unsay anything now, I grinned, "Why should there be secrets among family?"

Hahaha... but none of the adults looked amused.

"Okay, wait, just let me explain everything first." I decided, "After this you can ground me again - but not today, I promised to help River return his stone - or this weekend either, I need to go down the Night Forest to fix Bell's arm. So you can ground me again from Monday."

"Oh, Sam!" Mum sighed, "We just want to keep you safe..."

"Explain." Dad ordered, "And we'll see how many lifetimes you'd be grounded for."

Hahaha, surely you jest, Dad! Even if you weren't smiling at all... uh oh. I looked over to Bell. Was my powerful mate going to save me from eternal grounding? It didn't look like it.

Bell had his arms crossed, wasn't he afraid the curse would spread to his body? Or did it only grow inside him through the network of black veins?

For some reason, I liked my cursed mate even more than my uncursed mate. Hahaha. He was so... I don't know...

{Sexy. ~ ❤️} Boo had a strange affection to dark powers.

"Don't look at me, Princess." Bell smirked, "If it were up to me, I would have grounded you from Day 1."

Stooopid dumbbell!

Sigh, okay. I guess it'll all boil down to what I had to say now.

So I tried my best to explain what happened. I told them about Roy and Beta Lorent and Ruby.

"You dream traveled?" Dad asked at the end of my explanation. Dad! That wasn't the point. But apparently after hearing about the shocking news that Roy was alive, Roy was the rogue king, Roy was Lady Amber's estranged mate, Roy was living with the worst zombie housemates, aka Beta Lorent and Ruby in undead form, my parents' focus were on this one thing.

"Sam!" Mum scolded, "You were grounded! How could you sneak out like that?"

"Mum! I can't control it!" I hastily produced puppy dog eyes to plead my case, "I just opened my eyes and woke up there!"

Mum gave me a look.

"It's true!" Now I turned to Dad, "I'm not lying. See, Dad, I'm not lying, right? Use your alpha discernment and see for yourself. I'm telling the truth."

Never in the whole of Lycan history had an alpha had to plead her innocence so cutely. But I was desperate. If my parents grounded me another day, all my plans would be ruined.

"It's not that we don't trust you, Sam, but what you did was dangerous." Dad informed me.

"Did you think I wanted to go there?" I shot back. I crossed my arms again, my hair flaring with indignation.

Dad growled a low warning so I reined in. Opps, my tone had provoked him.

Oh, I know! At such times, I should change the subject! My hands found the map on my bed. I unrolled it with a flourish, "Tada! Look, Dad! Roy drew this for you! It's a map of the Warlock lands and the entrance of Gate City - the real one to enter the Colored Mountains!"

I felt like I was a door to door salesman, a rather desperate one at that. But it worked.

"Roy... Is alive..." Dad mumbled.

Yeah. That's what I said right? Keep with the program, Dad! I'm talking about THE GATE to your dream retirement destination now!

"Roy boy... It's really Roy boy." Beta Lucas was starting to sound excited.

Roy boy? Hahaha.

But ahem, weren't any of them paying attention when I was explaining? I was pretty sure I said the name Roy multiple times by now.

"Where's Roy now?" Dad demanded.

"I left him at his house." Seriously? Was no one paying attention to what I was explaining earlier? I looked at the map and found it, "Over here."

Bell peered over my shoulder to look at the map, "Hm..."

What was he up to?

But I was busy with my own plans too.

"We need to go save him." I declared.

"You, young lady, you are going to school." Mum said.

"Lucas and I will go get Roy." Dad agreed, but he was studying the map.

I took a deep breath. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

"You can't go without me." I held up, my bargaining chip, the crystal key, "I have the key into the forest."

"Sam..." Dad warned.

"Roy said the map was for you, but he gave the key to ME." I argued. Mine!

"Alpha, you have a breakfast meeting with the Snow Wolves in fifteen minutes." Harvey informed me, "Would you like me to cancel?"

"You what?" Mum asked.

"No need." I shook my head, "I'll meet them. We'll go as planned. Someone make a copy of my Dad's map. Dad and Beta Lucas can go get Roy back..."

Ben used his phone to scan a picture of the map.

"Leave my uncle to me." Bell decided.

"But your..." I protested.

Bell raised his arm and flexed his fingers, "My arm is fine, princess."

Well yes, if you ignored the fact that the curse was eating into your shoulder even as you showed off. Also, the black fumes seemed to be leaking out of his raised arm.

"If you leave your curse on anything in my room, you'll have to uncurse it!" I warned.

Bell smirked, "The only way to get rid of the curse is to burn it with the warlock's blue fire, princess. I'm afraid it's beyond my power right now."

"What are you up to?" I had a bad feeling about this.

Bell's response was to raise both hands in mock surrender, "What can I do? My army is on lockdown, my beta is following you. I'm just one wolf."

Liar.

{Cute.} Bell's wolf was certainly not helping.

"Shut up!" I flared at my Luna.

Since Bell obviously only mindlinked me, I pretty much looked like I had lost it. Grrr... How dare he made me look like I was crazy!

Bell didn't stop smirking.

He was soooo infuriating!

"Dumbbell!" I yelled.

"Sam, give your Dad the crystal." Mum said firmly, "Any please, stop shouting at your Luna."

But he... I shook my head, I refused to let Mum sidetrack me, not today, "I'm suffering from a sudden anemia attack so I can't go to school today. I'm going for breakfast to rope in the snow wolves. We'll meet here." I pointed to Dad's map where the closest path to the Rogue house started.

"With this key, we can all go in without fear of enchantments or traps. I know how to follow the magic path. You need me to lead the way." I argued my case, "Once at the rogue house we can get Roy, and stop Beta Lorent and Ruby once and for all."

"Then we can leave Dad and Beta Lucas to deal with the rogues there, and all we need to do is help River get to the warlock house by following this path up, return the stone, and get back home by lunchtime." I said.

"By lunchtime?" Beta Lucas exclaimed, "Hoo man! Do you want us old wolves to run till our last breath?"

Beta Lucas liked to claim elderly status according to his convenience, but I wasn't letting him squirm out of this one.

"No, no, you just need to deal with the Rogue King, I mean Roy." I said, "Anyway, the magic paths are very quick. It won't take long to travel through it. Don't worry, with me leading the way, it won't be a problem."

"Didn't Roy say there was something not right with Fount?" Dad frowned, "It could be dangerous."

Which meant Dad was seriously considering letting me lead the party. Yes! Yes! Yes!

"Dear..." Mum tugged at Dad's arm.

"I'm going with Ki, and Harv, and Ben. Plus I'll ask Beta Glenn, and his strong wolves. We should be quite safe." I cast a side glance at my Mate. He looked away.

"A warlock's power is not to be underestimated, Sam." Dad frowned, it was his thinking frown.

"We can mobilize the special team too." Harvey suggested.

Dad was starting to nod, "Luc and I would head over once the rogue situation is stabalized."

"Alpha - Dad," Bell spoke up now , "Please include me with your party. I will relinquish my grudge with the Rogue King, since he is your friend, but I must end my uncle with my own hands."

Eh? Bell wasn't coming with me?

Dad paused and then nodded, "I understand, son. I will leave Beta Lorent to you."

Oh well, I guess that's my Luna, revenge was always first on his mind.

I didn't want him to come with me anyway! The warlock fire. He must never get his hand on it, or the prophecy would really be fulfilled.

Beta Lucas was already on the mindlinks. I guess he was getting a head start on the preparations.

My beta's mindlink channels were actively working.

"Okay, go, go!" I shooed everyone out before Mum could protest further about my participation in today's hunt, "I need to be princessy to meet River and his wolves for breakfast!"

"We'll meet at the rendezvous point in an hour." Dad ordered.

"Yes Alpha!" The betas chimed together.

The moment Dad left, everyone else left with him. Usually, Mum would leave at Dad's side, but today she stepped back to stay behind. She managed to give me a quick hug behind their backs, "Oh, Sam. Please be safe."

"Don't worry, Mum." I assured her, "I'll be careful."

Mum pressed a kiss on the top of my head suddenly and fled my room.

Sigh. I think I made my mum cry. Again.

But I was growing up. I was the Alpha. And this was written in my destiny! The pieces of prophecies were finally coming together, how could I miss this opportunity to clean the nest in one fell swoop?

If all went as planned, then by the end of today, Roy would be safely home thus ending the Rogue King, Beta Lorent and Ruby would be eliminated for good, River would have returned that blasted stone to Fount, the warlock situation would be settled, the snow wolves would go home, and everything would return to the way it was supposed to be.

And they all lived happily ever after, the end.

Okay... I know, I know, I had left out some extra parts - like the last three lines of Bell's prophecy, and I completely ignored the Blue Rose prophecy in the Colored Mountains - I'm pretty much going to pretend I didn't hear it in the first place.

Right, and there was that war that was supposed to happen, and Ben would end up in the dungeons, and Jonah and my parents would be taking their last stand surrounded by rogue wolves...

And I still had to clean up my Luna's mess in the Black and Red Packlands. I'm not sure how, but since it was my Luna's handiwork, enabled by MY army, I kinda just felt partially responsible.

So there were a number of loose ends, but did I look like my good beta to you?

Whatever, if I could rid the world of the Rogue King, and scum like Beta Lorent, and return the Warlock stone... That would be a good half of all the problems in my life (and the entire continent) solved.

I'll deal with the loose ends later. Right now was dangerous, but it was also too good an opportunity for me to look the other way.

I quickly showered and got out. I wouldn't need to wear my uniform, so I just re-wore the training gear I had slept in.

Once outside, I immediately changed my mind because my golden birdcage clothes rack was cleared, and now it was proffering out the coolest outfit in the world, complete with our warrior's navy blue jacket IN MY SIZE.