THE HUMAN GIRL IN THE CAGE

1 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, PAST MIDNIGHT

One of the receiving rooms on the first floor had now been converted into a heavily guarded cell. This used to be the room where we played tea parties when we were younger. Now the overstuffed couches and polished oak coffee tables had been removed. The room was bare except for a few large cages on one end, and then a table and a plastic chairs on the other.

I didn't ask what happened here. I knew. Since the rogue attacks, we had stepped up security measures. Our Pack House didn't just invite the usual polite and friendly visitors anymore. But more than anything, this change was just a stark reminder that the times of peace my pack used to take for granted would never be quite as freely available as it used to be.

Peace now had to be protected. War was only for a while, I know... But every step closer we take made me feel on the edge.

"Alpha Kingsley and his Luna are here." Beta Lucas announced.

"Alpha Sam is here." Ben announced. He handed me a bottle of water.

There was a stark difference between the two announcements.

Beta Lucas' announcement was like "TADA! Be in awe of my great Alpha!" Ben's announcement was like "My alpha is here, whatcha gonna do about it now, huh?"

I laughed. And then I noticed that there was a little girl crying in one of the cages. She was very small, thin, but tall enough to be an elementary school kid. There was also a young man with her. Maybe Nix's age.

{Gamma} My Wolfie thought to prompt me.

"She says her arm hurts." The young gamma informed us. He was sitting, both legs bandaged and stretched out in front of him. The girl was crouched in a ball next to him.

The other injured captives were spread out in the other two cages.

Then they saw Aunt Jade come in.

"Luna! Are you hurt?" The Gamma asked immediately. He looked like he wanted to get up.

Beta Lucas kicked the cage roughly, "Stay down, boy."

The girl begged tearfully now, "Luna, I'm scared. My arm hurts. Please help me!"

But Aunt Jade only looked away. It was the gamma who put an arm around her frail shoulders protectively.

Okay, little Eddy's going to fly in a rage if he saw that. But I guess the Gamma was just trying to comfort and protect his young Luna.

"Lucas, why is that girl in the cage?" Mum asked. She was definitely displeased. My mum's heart was soft like that.

Beta Lucas explained, "When we caught them, the gamma wouldn't calm down or let us treat his wounds otherwise. The girl seemed to trust him too."

"Oh the poor girl. She's just a human too! She won't heal quickly like the others." Mum worried, "Open the cage, please Lucas. I'll take care of the girl."

I drank my water and watched.

The moment the cage door was opened, the girl clung tighter to the gamma. Beta Lucas stepped into the cage to pry her out.

"Be gentle!" Mum cautioned, "Her arm is hurt."

"It's just a flesh wound, Luna." Nix said, "I made sure it was very shallow."

"It's true," Beta Lucas said, "The bullet only grazed her."

But the moment he turned to speak, the gamma suddenly hand butted Beta Lucas. Beta Lucas roared and grabbed the boy, "Run girl!" The gamma yelled.

The girl didn't have to be told twice. She had already nimbly scooted out of the cage with an inhuman speed. What a human!

But of course Ben caught her before she even made it out of the door.

"It hurts! Please! You're hurting me." The girl cried and pleaded at my Beta.

Ben only shrugged and tightened his hold, "Now, I'm hurting you."

The girl paled and quietened.

"Let her go!" The gamma begged. Beta Lucas tied him down.

"I told you to stay down." Beta Lucas said, and then he added, "The doctor said your legs wouldn't heal evenly if you put weight on it."

"So that's Beta Lucas' tough love?" I joked.

"You can call it that." Beta Lucas answered smugly.

I finished the water, "Ben, let go of the girl, and go get more water."

Ben let go of the girl and produced a bottle of water from his back pocket. Seriously? Why do guys have such large backpockets? I'm jealous.

The girl ran to the door again. She opened it ran straight into the guards outside and then ran back in. Ben waved his hand for the guard to shut the door again.

Then the girl looked at Ben, and returned into her cage the moment Beta Lucas stepped out.

I watched her look pleadingly at Aunt Jade, and then Aunt Jade totally ignoring her. For some reason, I felt more sorry for her now than when Ben was holding her.

"You can leave the cage open." I told Beta Lucas.

And then there were two knocks on the door and Ki entered.

"You're late." I told him.

Ki smiled placidly and bowed, "A thousand apologies, goddess.

"She's overtired." Ben explained to him, "I think her wolf's escape her control."

And the moment Ben said those words I realized it was true. Wolfie had been, dare I say the word, "unstable"? Not to mention the freaking out on my way home, glitches in my mindlinks, my radar access... my wolf was malfunctioning! I knew she was defective!

And I'm not even talking about the oversized puppy that liked to play chase in the snow.

{That's just you.}

Oh.

Maybe it's just side effects, I mean, the merging technique that Dad invented had unpredictable side effects.

{Any idiot would've seen it coming.}

Suddenly, I began to feel I preferred the wolfie that didn't talk.

{But it's too late now. Forget it, just sit back and let me take care of this.}

Wait, what? Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.

I suddenly understood.

My Wolfie, the one inside me, was never the playful affectionate puppy... That was just the me that was merged into her. My Wolfie was a powerful black alpha wolf.

It was the part of me I had never wanted to face and I think I had instinctively been restraining her with years of control practice.

{You think?}

But the more we merged, the less restraint I had on her.

I watched as Wolfie sat me on the table. Cross legged, grinning at the wolves in the cages, letting my Alpha dominance leak carelessly.

Maybe I should let Wolfie drive more. It's so relaxing like this.

{Everyone else looked like they were about to s*** in their pants though.}

Bad Wolfie! No, Wolfie.

I'm the Alpha. I will protect everyone's happiness. Even if it was from my own stupid Wolfie.

I stopped the Alpha dominance, and hopped off the table. I needed to get a grip.

But because I didn't know how long more I could keep my grip, I decided to just jump to the conclusion for everyone.

"There is a misunderstanding. The treasure you're looking for isn't here. You shouldn't have broken into my room and stolen my mating bangle."

I pulled it off and showed the girl, "See, it's a bangle. Not a ring."

And then I put it back on and continued, pacing the floor, making eye contact with the cage occupants as I passed, "Uncle Louis has stormed off in a rage so I'm not sure what he wants to do now. I really should have all of you thrown in the dungeons for trespassing, breaking into the Alpha's home, and stealing heirloom treasures and whatnot... You do know you've broken some serious laws right? But we're family. So I guess you can stay the night until Uncle Louis is calm enough to talk. In the meantime, this is Ki. He will heal you. As for your other friends, we have to keep them in the dungeons. Sorry, I don't want any misunderstanding to start a war between our packs. You look smart, so I think you understand."

Then to Aunt Jade, I said, "When Uncle Louis comes back, tell him I'll help him if he wants. But I have school tomorrow and some vampire issues to deal with first. He will have to wait till Wednesday afternoon."

Then I turned to the girl, "My mum will take care of you if you go with her. Or else you can stay here."

"I want to stay here." The girl said. She was so frail and small, yet when she spoke, she was clear and brave.

"No," the gamma said then, "Beta Oscar had ever told me that Alpha Sam is a strong and kind alpha. Go with her. She will keep you safer than I can."

Ki who had already been glowing for a while, spoke then, "Little girl, please remove the bandages."

The gamma helped her. Her arm was scarred with various lines, there were the band's of a slave burned in on her forearm, but the bullet wound was healed. The patch on her shoulder perfectly unmarred.

"Oh you poor dear." Mum sighed at the sight, "Come upstairs with me."

The girl hesitated, and then came out of her cage.

"You aren't a slave here." I told her, "This is the Green Packlands. There are no slaves here."

The girl blinked at me.

"Excuse me, ah...Sam?" Aunt Jade said, "Urm... Louis is going to get really mad. He paid quite a lot for her."

I grinned, my wolf was back, "I'm just safekeeping her for you... What a fool my uncle is, to risk what would be the pack's treasure in the future for what was the pack's treasure in the past."

Because this human girl would one day be the pack's Luna wouldn't she? But then again, weren't we the same? My Luna was at this moment risking his life to steal a ring too.

The irony of it did not escape me.

Everyone looked at the frail looking girl standing before us. The cane marks on her now exposed arms were in different directions, in different shades. Ouch.

I patted her head and then I sniffed, "You need a bath."

"Sam!" Mum was the first to speak, and of course her first word had to be my name gasped in disapproval.

What? It's true! The girl needed a bath!

To the girl, Mum spoke gently, "Don't worry, Sam won't hurt you. Her bark is louder than her bite."

"Just because I don't bite you, doesn't mean I won't bite her." My Wolfie answered with a saccharine smile.

Mum blanched at that.

"Sam..." Dad growled warningly.

"Sam." The girl said as if learning my name, she pointed at me, "Sam is the prettiest."

Everyone froze.

"Is she really a girl?" Ben smirked.

The gamma quickly said, "The girl has a gift. She can locate or identify magic treasures. If you asked her, "Which is prettier?" She would be able to point out which treasure had more magic."

He was trying to tell us she was worth something. He wanted us to give us a reason to keep her.

I pointed to my dad, "Is he pretty?"

The girl shook her head, "That's a person."

"I'm a person too." I said.

The girl tilted her head to the side, "But you are very pretty."

"Do you mean my bangles?" I showed her my arm.

The girl touched my bangle, "This one is prettier."

Yes, because that's the one currently active. My mate's bangle wasn't on him.

"Sam is the prettiest." The girl said again.

I think her magic treasure ability had broken. Maybe we broke her.

"If she senses magic, then maybe she senses your blue wolf's magic." Ben suggested. Again, my beta had figured it out before I did. Normally, I would have expected that, Ben was always too smart for his own good. But him figuring me out before I did? That's just insulting.

But I supposed that made sense. The blue wolf dream traveled by magic. But healer wolves also had magic. I pointed at Ki, "What about him."

The girl nodded, "Pretty."

Ki smiled, he was still glowy. Now that I considered it, it was kind of obvious he was pretty, I mean magical.

"How old are you?" I asked.

"I don't know." She answered.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Girl." The girl answered.

"That isn't a name!" I scolded, "A name, like how everyone calls me Sam. What are you called?"

"I'm called Girl." She answered.

Oh boy.

I decided to leave it to Mum to sort out.

"I'm going to bed." And I left the room, "And Girl isn't a name!"

{Real mature.}

"Oh, don't mind her." Mum told the girl the moment I left. Mum sounded very protective towards this girl. I hope she didn't get too attached. Humans weren't allowed on Packlands, not without the paperwork, and even then, never for their whole life.

Grandpa Silas always said, "The human heart is deceitful even to the human who bears it."

I'm not saying a wolf couldn't betray it's pack, I'm just saying a human could do it and be convinced it was the right thing to do.

At any rate, I doubt Uncle Louis would just let the girl go, not if she had resale value. And even if he did, I doubt Little Eddy would accept being apart from his newly found mate... But he was still a small pup. The mating bond shouldn't be seriously kicking in. I mean, it hadn't been that bad for me either... Although technically, I've only met mate in dream form, proof being the bangles that didn't stick on Mate.

I suddenly remembered being in mate's car that day. That was pretty bad even then. My stupid wolf....

{I was only playing. I knew he wasn't real.}

Yeah, sure you were.