THE STARTING LINE

22 February, Monday, CONTINUED

It took a while before I finally figured out what my betas were doing. They were literally making a game plan.

{So fun!}

Ben admitted that he actually got this idea from Jonah. He had been mulling over the fact that his alpha (that's me!) was so bad at planning (well, excuse me!), when he noticed Jonah hanging out in his room studying some diagrams.

"They ah, are from my coach." Jonah had explained. There were different game plays for different situations, and Jonah had to memorize the code name for each and the starting position and actions to followup.

"Because in a game, it's fluid like that." Jonah explained, "When coach calls the play, we would know where we need to be to get the ball."

"So that's what we need too." Ben explained to us, but mostly to me because he obviously went through this with the other two betas already, "We can't keep winging it - not with so many other wolves running with us. This isn't running out randomly to play after Lycan Study Group, it's the big league, Sam."

The other two nodded.

"It would certainly be more efficient." Harvey nodded... And then his lips pressed together at the sound of a notification on his phone, "Apologies. It's from the Captain. Excuse me."

The main screen turned black. The other two betas checked their phones too.

"Oh wow." Ben said.

Ki was beaming with forced lightness.

Harvey frowned.

"What?" I asked, "What? What? What?"

"Those new wolves..." Harvey said.

"You really know how to pick your team, Sam." Ben said, but I was quite sure I detected sacarsm.

Ki smiled, "I'm sure the goddess knows what she is doing."

I wasn't sure if he meant me or the goddess, but let me assure you, neither of us know what we were doing.

"What? What? What?" I demanded, and then I remembered the code word, "Someone report!"

"Apologies, Alpha." Harvey reported immediately because he was a good beta like that, "The Captain has completed the paperwork for the Special Team to be transferred to the FAO. He also attached their personal files."

Ben produced my surface pro with the documents opened. I flicked through it. Oooohhh... It was like a character bio for each warrior, with a mug shot of each wolf, and their name and other data, "Like Pokémon cards!"

"Sam, be serious." Ben growled.

According to the files, the special team were made out of very strong wolves. Lucky! I didn't know why my betas sounded so dismayed... until I scrolled down and in the section under special abilities and notable contributions, there was a section for disciplinary cases, followed by quite a long list of demerits.

But I think it was the "Reason for Demotion" added as a footnote that my betas were frowning at - every one of them had been demoted from team leader for one reason or the other.

REASONS WHY THE SPECIAL TEAM CAN'T BE TEAM LEADERS:

BARRY: Mutiny. Refused to obey repeated direct orders to open fire in battle.

"I'm sure he had a good reason!" I argued.

To my surprise, Harvey agreed, "If there wasn't, he would have been shot. The fact that it was only a demotion proved that there was a good reason to withhold fire despite the direct order."

"Then why was he demoted?" I demanded. It hardly seemed fair.

"Because warriors who don't follow orders in battle risk the lives of all the others and sometimes even the entire pack." Ki explained mildly, "A warrior is trained first and foremost to obey his superior."

"What if his superior was stupid?" I asked, "Or worse - evil?" Like Bell, but I didn't say that part out loud.

Ben shrugged, "Too bad."

INK: Conducted unauthorised experiments and training methods on his team members.

I remembered his "high quality enchancement elixer" and gulped. Yeah, maybe I shouldn't have given Ben those protein bars...

COBRA: Inability to communicate.

Not that I felt Stephan was one to criticize someone for this, but point taken. Delta team leaders needed to communicate instructions, build team rapport and discipline, lead training exercises... I couldn't imagine how cobra did all this going "Ssssss...."

Maybe it would work... If we were snakes.

Anyway, let's move on.

FLUFFY: Immoral conduct.

Omo.

My betas scrolled back up to his list of demerits and then Ben reached over from behind me and closed his file, "That's not important."

Okay...

Ki smiled, "Not to worry, goddess. I've already explained his misconduct in detail. It would not happen again."

Okay...

I decided I didn't need to know. Fluffy had a really messed up past. I imagine growing up as a Vampire's pet would do that to anyone.

Next!

TORQUE: Indiscriminate destruction.

Again, my betas scrolled back up to scan his list of demerits. I did too. I mean, before Ben decide to lean over and close the file for me again. I would've considered Torque to be a rather nice wolf.

His list of demerits looked like a shopping list - if you were buying supplies to build your own underground army. Maybe Torque just didn't know his own strength.

"How did one guy cave in an entire bunker?" Ben wanted to know, "Item 65."

I scrolled down to the said item of the demerit list and shrugged, "I'm sure it was an accident."

None of my betas looked convinced, but wth, so the guy was a little on the clumsy side. You can't hold it against him.

EJ: Unfit for leadership.

That was harsh. Wth did that even mean? Okay, so he was bouncy, and made a wide range of annoying sounds, and easily distracted, and needed constant reminders of basic instructions... Hmm... I guess I wouldn't put a team of warriors under him. Depending on the situation, it could be suicide to follow EJ into battle.

"What exactly were you thinking when you picked them?" Ben asked.

"I just thought they'd be happier here... You know... Barry might enjoy helping in the kitchen. Cobra is good at recon work. And Ink liked statistics... Maybe Ben would have fun doing stuff with them. They're strong and really fun to run with... I'm sure you guys can help them learn to run with our pack and find something they could do and be happy doing..."

Even as I said it, I knew it sounded lame. It wasn't like I actually had anything for them to do for me. I just wanted... I guess I wanted them to find their happiness here. Sorry to disappoint, but this Alpha didn't have any grand strategy.

"Sam..." Ben growled his disapproval, "Name any wolf who won't be happier living in the Alpha House?"

Eh?

"Basically, they were handpicked by the alpha and given positions and living quarters in the alpha house because they were big failures in the army." Ben reiterated, "You're rewarding the wrong wolves."

"No, Ben. She demoted them, yet again. Alpha is doing the right thing. An empty delta rank is dead weight in a pack." Harvey corrected, "But Alpha is also seeing their potential and wants to rehabilitate them."

Wow, Harvey was giving waaaay more credit than I deserve.

Ki smiled in agreement, "Goddess' kindness shines like the full moon in the night sky."

"You would know, dog." Ben rolled his eyes.

"Yes." Ki nodded. To me he promised, "I will personally see to it that these new dogs will learn to serve you perfectly."

Harvey nodded too, "I understand too, Alpha. I will do my best to train them well."

Ben was still unconvinced, "Dogs will be dogs, Sam."

And then he spared a glance at Ki, "But I suppose even dogs can be useful."

Ki beamed at Ben, "Thank you, Beta."

"I wasn't refering to you, dog." Ben shot back.

But he was lying.

I smiled my wide smile at my betas, "Good. If anyone can help these wolves, I'm sure it would be the three of you."

After all, my betas could pretty much do anything if they put their minds to it.

"These wolves though..." Ben was still flicking through their files, "They look like nothing but trouble."

Which was probably why my wolf found them so fun to hang out with.

Harvey flicked his own screen to put it back on the main projector. Oh right, we were supposed to be working on a gameplan.

Back to the drawing board, in our case it was a game plan. We silently stared at the screen. After a moment, Harvey decided to draw a green line between our goal and us. That's the borderline where the warlock forest was, since it seems that to reach our goal, either the warlock has to come over (with his blue flame), or we had to go over to him.

"Basically, if everyone stayed on their own side of the line, nothing would happen." I decided, looking at the screen. How about that for a game plan? I'll call it the "Nothing Happens Game Plan"

"Except that River is holding on to the blasted stone." Ben pointed out.

"It's not his fault." I tried to defend River, "Be nice, Ben. He's Savy's mate."

"I am being nice." Ben said.

I guess for Ben, yeah, he was being nice.

Okay, since it was unlikely that the Nothing Happens Game Plan would be needed, we started with a game plan for if the warlock crosses the borderline. We already had this, and I was right, my betas had discussed these game plans previously because Harvey pulled out the screen capture for one of their previous plans to refer to. In it though, the goal was simply, "Return the stone. Keep Alpha alive." There wasn't any green line either. Just a red box with "Warlock" written in it. Dad, Beta Lucas were upfront, along with River and Alpha Gunter and his snow beta. They had called this game plan, "Peaceful mode."

We were positioned to jump in should peaceful mode turn out to be not so peaceful. My betas had thought of it all - where to position me and Ben, Bell and Ki... now they just had to add in the Special Team.

Anyway, they had a lot of other game plans and if I could get a headache, I would. I got the feeling explaining everything to me was just slowing down the whole process too. So I wisely said, "Let's just skip to the conclusion."

At least, it seemed wise to me. My tummy indicated that it was nearly dinner time anyway.

Harvey concluded 2 starting lines. One for on our Packlands (warlock comes over), one for in warlock lands (we go over.)

After that, there were a few more game plays depending on how the situation developed.

My role was the easiest.

"And then Sam would step in and take it from there." Ben said.

Yup, all I had to do was "take it from there." Whatever that meant.

No problem. I was going to wing it anyway.

No matter what the situation, eventually, I would step in and take it from there. For some reason, my betas all seemed to feel that would resolve it. I don't know where they got that confidence from.

But despite their seemingly illogical belief that I could step into any situation and resolve it, they were persistent in lining me up as the last resort. On top of that, I was probably the most over-guarded player in the entire game.

The Special Team + Neil and Jax were now my personal security detail.

"Isn't that kind of OP?" I complained.

Ki smiled, "It's can't be helped. Your Luna has been quite insistent that Neil and Jax be included in your detail."

"But I can't go around with eight warriors." I pointed out. Four was plenty as it was. Surely the Special Team could be better deployed elsewhere."

"Don't worry, Sam." Ben brushed it off, "You won't even notice them there."

Right... Even if I were blind, that would be impossible! How would I not notice I was being followed around by eight wolves - specifically eight wolves who looked like Neil, Jax, Barry, Torque, Cobra, Ink, Fluffy, and EJ?

"Rest assured, Alpha. We'll train them well." Harvey said.

I narrowed my eyes at that, "They better not slow me down."

Because last I needed was to be body-piled by eight full sized warriors every time a random object came flying my way.

"Then that's settled." Ben decided, "Anything else you wanted to see us for, Harv?"

"No. Thanks." Harvey looked satisfied, "It's all good now."

I wished I could feel just as confident. Even as we left for dinner, I wondered if its really "all good". I mean, if everything could really be resolved when I "step in and take it from there," why couldn't I just step in right from the beginning?

{Because if you don't resolve everything after stepping in, its game over.}

Oh. Ouch. So my betas weren't unrealistically confident in me after all. They were always aware that there was a chance that I wouldn't be able to make it. They just hadn't said it aloud.