THE NEW ALPHA HOUSE

5 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, HOME FROM SCHOOL

We went up the driveway and pulled up along the veranda. Our previous driveway was straight up into the garage, but this new one curved across the front lawn and ran parallel to the porch. There was a round-about with a fountain in the middle, although it wasn't turned on in winter. Behind the fountain was a long garage. The shutters were transparent, and with the lights on inside, it was like a car display box.

The house itself was glassy and modern. The wooden beams were outlined in black. The walls were mostly in dark grey or whites, and the roof was flat.

Flynn stopped the car along the veranda and we both hopped off at the same time. Then Flynn went over to the connected front porch and rang the doorbell, leaving me to gape on the veranda.

There was some signs of landscaping going on so it wasn't just an empty lawn anymore. But all that I could see was snow and rockery. I guess that was to be expected given that it was winter.

I did notice a glass room on the far end of the house. It was full of green leafy things and was connected to a three storey tower of sorts. It was mostly glass on the first floor and something that looked like a swimming pool? Was that a indoor swimming pool? The rest of the tower matched the house.

Then I heard a pattering of feet and watched as Sabre squirm her way between the thick curtains and the sliding doors that separated me from the house inside. She banged on the glass yelling... But it was too muffled to make out the words.

I heard the front door opened by Ki, "Apologies for the wait. I had to turn the roast."

There was the smell of roast pork, buttered potatoes, and steamed broccoli wafting out into the cold outside.

Savy pulled open one of the heavy curtains and waved. I could see a sitting room just inside. It looked warm and inviting. I could see the black rectangular glass where the gas fire burned. I briefly thought of the story of the little match girl.

"Sam, better come in." Flynn called me from the front door.

I nodded, with one last look at Savy and Sabre and the picture perfect set up around the gas fireplace. Was this what others would see when they looked at our family? It reminded me of a Christmas scene from one of those cheesy hallmark movies.

And then I turned to enter the house. Savy dropped the curtains back at my departure.

Our new home was... very nice, but it was very different from our old home. I stepped through the front door.

"Welcome home, goddess." Ki greeted. He was in his usual smile and white kitchen apron. He took a second look at my hair, and smile unwavering, turned to Flynn, "Was there any trouble, Flynn?"

Flynn shook his head, "No, no trouble, Beta. Even the traffic was smooth today."

Ki nodded, "I see."

A pattering of feet brought Sabre over, "Sam! You're late! I was waiting ALL DAY for you!"

I grinned at the little human as Ki helped me out of my school bag and winter wear, "I'm never late, Sabre. Everyone else is just early."

Sabre ignored my wit and rattled off her report, "I shared my cookies today and made a lot of friends. Taylor is my best friend now because she pushed me in the playground again so I pushed her back. She fell off the slides and cried. I gave her a plaster. She says I'm the kindest girl in the class."

She did mention that she was the one who pushed Taylor off the slides right?

Mum appeared at the hallway. She gasped the moment she clapped eyes on me, "Sam! What happened to your hair?"

Savy appeared at this moment too. She put a hand over her mouth, although for Savy it wasn't so much from shock than to mask her cackling from Flynn.

Flynn, who whipped his head around to look at me. I guess Jasmine did such a good job fixing my hair that Flynn thought it was my actual hair style.

"Fencing accident." I said at first, and then promptly regretted it when Mum's expression took a turn for the worse, "I mean a fight scene..."

"Did you get into another fight?" Mum asked.

"No! No! Like theatre fight, as in Shakespeare! It was scripted! Urm... I do protest, I never injured thee, But love thee better than thou canst devise!" I quoted in desperation.

Wow. It seemed that I had a hidden ability to remember the script after all - which seemed to be triggered whenever my life was on the line.

I bounded up a few steps in the hallway and ended my impromptu acting with jazz hands.

Mum pressed her lips together to keep from laughing, "Really now, Sam!"

To Flynn she said, "Thank you for fetching her home today. I hope she didn't cause you any trouble."

"No trouble at all, Luna." Flynn quickly recovered with a polite bow, "If there isn't anything else, I'll go park the car and take my leave."

"Oh yes, Macy must be waiting for you." Mum realized, "We better not keep you any longer. Thank you again."

Flynn nodded another bow at mum and then nodded briefly at Ki who clapped Flynn on the shoulder in a friendly way.

Flynn smiled back and the two men stepped out together. Ki shut the front door behind him.

"Come see the house, Sam!" Savy said the moment we were left alone, "IT'S THE MOST AMAZING PLACE YOU'VE EVER SEEN!"

Mum, Savy, and Sabre were looking at me with those saucer shaped eyes. It was the same expression they wore when they couldn't wait to show me something they bought at the store.

I don't know... I've been to the Lorent's and to Henry's. I mean, I'm sure our new home is great, but how amazing can a home built in two weeks with prefabricated parts be?

Plus I had some kind of Candance Meeting that I had no clue about to prepare for, which Mate would be attending and I needed to fix my hair before he saw me because Henry seemed so sure that Mate would take issue to my hair being cut.

Now that I thought about it, Henry was probably over-reacting. Must be too much Shakespeare in his system.

"I really need a bath first." I picked up my school bag, "And I have a meeting later..."

I hadn't had to worry about being a wet blanket about saying this because it apparently only excited everyone more.

"Then we'll show you your room!" Savy said.

"Your room is like a underwater world locked at the top of a magic tower!" Sabre announced.

Mum laughed, "We made some changes. I think you'd like it."

I followed Mum, Savy, and the little human through the hallway, past the Hallmark Christmas sitting room, and into the glass room.

"We have a small conservatory now." Mum beamed, "Now we have a room for our plants to winter. I was really excited about this room. In the morning, the sunlight falls in beautifully."

"It's like in heaven." Sabre told me, "And if you're good like me, the light makes you look like a little angel."

"It also acts as a connect bridge to the new wing." Mum told me, "This was originally meant to be your dad's office. He had planned to vacate the office at the packhouse for you, but..."

"But what?" I asked.

"Well, it turns out that Sabbie isn't fond of male wolves. She's okay with your dad and Ki but..." Mum trailed off.

"Like whenever there are more than two or three guys around, Sabbie freaks out." Savy said, "And she really hates Ben."

"Why don't you take Sabbie to see the pool again?" Mum smiled at Savy.

"Fine. I know when I'm not wanted" Savy pouted but she turned to Sabre with a grin, "Let's go check the magic pool again."

"Okay!" Sabre brightened up. And the two left Mum and I alone in the conservatory.

"Delta Simon has diagnosed Sabbie with PTSD, she has been severely traumatized in her past and there are certain things that she finds hard to cope with, like fires and unfamiliar men." Mum explained.

Okay... I looked at the plant in front of me. I wasn't sure how to react to that.

"She's young, but even though she can't express some things in words, she can understand quite a lot, so we need to be sensitive about what we say in front of her."

Okay again... I picked off a few dead leaves from the bottom of the plant.

"You have a lot of men around you." Mum told me.

Now that just sounded wrong. I had a lot of Betas, not men. They were completely different things.

"Well, just come and see the new arrangements." Mum took my arm and led me to the connecting door that Savy and Sabre had just entered.

Once inside, I suddenly understood what Savy meant by magical pool. It was a heated pool encased in a glittering turquoise tiled room. There were flakes of gold in some of the mosaic glass tiles on the wall, and pots of water lilies, and to one side, white cane furniture.

"This is the pool. It can also be used for entertaining." Mum told me.

I followed Mum up the stairs, "The second floor are your Beta's quarters, laundry room, a gym, and a kitchenette. The two new fight dogs you've adopted would be staying here too."

I nodded and took a quick look while heading up. Most of the doors were shut so it wasn't like there was anything to see. Smells like cardboard boxes and faint traces of warrior wolves... Ever since Ben took over the detailing, warrior wolves were used for doormen, valet, house movers... What next?

Mum stopped on the third floor, "This would be your room."

We were on a small landing, there was a sitting area next to a large wooden paneled wall. The room smelled nice. Like wood and polish and lemon.

Totally unlike the second floor, my floor didn't smell like cardboard boxes. Somebody (definitely Ki) had taken great pains to remove and mask the odors of a new home - at least on my floor.

Then my Mum opened the door of the room at the top of the tower like the evil stepmother from Cinderella.

Well no, but Mum did pause at the door to take out her phone to film my reaction at the unveiling of my room. She was seriously excited.

She threw the door open... My room! My own room! It looked like...like... I was lost for words.

"Underwater world locked at the top of a magic tower!" Sabre yelled.

Savy and Sabre popped in at this point. Sabre piggy backed on Savy who dropped her down on the soft light pink carpet.

"This girl was too scared to walk through the second floor!" Savy complained.

But now on the third floor, the little human seemed completely recovered. She raced around the golden clamshell bed that was smacked right in the center of the room, grabbed Sir Sparkalot and threw him at the crystal chandelier hung from the high ceilings, and put her handprints on every mirror on the wall behind the clamshell.

"How'd you open this?" She asked as she pushed against one of the floor to ceiling glass panels.

"It's magic, remember?" Savy said. She flipped a switch by the side of the room and the mirrors made a soft whirring sound and settled with a click. Then she gently pushed one of them aside, "Wardrobe and bathroom. They're linked inside too."

Well that would explain why my room which took up most of the entire floor looked much smaller when I stepped in.

But it was cool. The wardrobe was huge, even bigger than the one Savy and I used to share. It only had one outfit hung up. The rest of the hangers were bare. Four large luggage bags were lined up neatly on the side, and a small stack of hard case boxes with number locks on them.

"Ben had the idea to set up your future alpha office in the alpha apartment." Mum explained, "So now your dad can continue to use the main Alpha Office."

"This way, your betas can come in and out from your work space to your living space without having to pass through our family space." Mum pointed out.

I nodded. Okay.

But mostly I was suddenly staring at a very large bathtub.