WE'RE GOING HOME!

23 FEBRUARY, TUESDAY, CONTINUED

The moment we stepped out of Bell's suite, everyone took pause.

"Oh my goddess." Lady Amber gasped.

Ben's earlier "redecorating efforts" in the Lorent's Alpha House deserved the pause, truly.

I stepped forward to get a better look.

It looked like a wrecking ball named Ben was here. The banister just in front of us was smashed into splintered bits. It was also broken through at the second floor landing across from us. As the adults made their way down the stairs, I peeked over the ledge. The marble flooring had been broken up in several places. I watched the servants futile efforts to cover one particularly large mound of broken marble tiles with a carpet. As we passed, I was quite sure more than one marble pillar was cracked. Let's just hope those were purely decorative in nature.

"Ah, Alpha Lorent," Dad cleared his throat, "Please allow us to compensate you for the damages."

Alpha James swallowed, but managed to recover quickly enough, "No, no. There's no need. This is only a little thing."

I waited to hear a story about young wolves like Anthony, or Ki, or Bell destroying their home in a similar way... no? Nothing? So their young alphas and betas only chewed on the couches? Hahaha, the image of Bell and Ki chewing out a sofa in their wolf forms was very cute in my mind.

Lady Amber only shook her head with a rueful smile, "The strength of Night Leaf wolves are as terrifying as rumored."

She made it sound like it was a good thing.

Beta Lucas actually puffed out with pride - even though he hadn't lifted a finger to contribute to the destruction.

"We have a rule at Night Leaf." He told Lady Amber, "Wolves are not allowed to shift indoors."

"That's very practical." Lady Amber approved.

I bit my lip not to laugh out loud.

"Not that my son is very good at keeping rules." Beta Lucas narrowed his eyes at Ben.

"It's my first year of shift." Ben shrugged, as usual, completely unrepentant, "I'm still stabilizing."

Yeah, right. {Let's see how long that excuse would last you.}

Ben smirked, {At least 11 more months.}

For all the times I was frustrated about my instability in this first year, now I felt like a fool. While I was beating myself up over my slip ups, Ben was using "a young wolf's first shift year was the most unstable year" as his free pass to mass destruction.

I don't think our stone conference table would last the entire year anymore. Even if it lived passed Ben's shifting year, Jonah's shift would come next. Oh wait, the last time the table broke - it was allegedly Dad's doing. What excuse did Dad have? He was the alpha. I guess he didn't need any excuses. Hahaha.

As we walked down the grand but now slightly disjointed stairway and across the wide marbled foyer... which was cracked up at several places, Alpha James continued to keep his stoic expression.

Every now and then, Dad and/or Mum would try to offer some kind of restitution, but Alpha James would wave it away gallently as "a small matter" and "nothing worth your trouble."

He would've totally convinced me too, except that the ladies with him were not trained in Alpha-stoicsm.

Luna Edith, for one, was quite expressive. Even though she didn't say anything, her silence was quite marked because she would just freeze on the spot at the passing of any random debris, open her mouth and shut it again before hurrying up to catch up with Alpha James, who kept marching on.

Lady Amber was more vocal about her shock. She would gasp every now and then. When we passed the centerpiece table where the large vase had broken and its contents spilled across the rug under it, she shook her head and tutted.

Then she waved to some servants and told them to clean up the broken pieces of pottery first, "Be careful not to leave any sharp shards around. It's dangerous."

Which made complete sense to me at first. I remembered breaking a glass when I was a pup and Mum and Dad said the same thing.

And then I noticed how the entire foyer had potholes full of marble pieces which looked rather similar to the broken pottery. The servants had just covered one of them. It looked like a weirdly placed lumpy carpet from where we were standing. Honestly, I didn't think putting a rug, no matter how plush or expensive or artistically woven was the right way to deal with this, but we were at the Lorents. I don't suppose Lorent wolves had all that much experience with dealing with this kind of wreckage.

We carefully stepped through the front door. One side of the large double door was broken.

Two warriors were trying to right the broken door. It didn't look too bad overall. The door, which I had first assumed was wood, turned out to be made of some kind of metal-resin compound and actually looked unscathed, but then as we approached it we realized that it had been torn off its hinges and the entire frame was now crooked.

I think this was when Alpha James' expression cracked.

Mum made another overture at this point, "Alpha Lorent, I know it's not about the money, and you are not an alpha who would be petty over a young wolf's mischief, but please allow us to make up for this mess."

But Alpha James stood his ground, "That's very kind of you Luna, but there is no need. If you would like to contribute funds, you can channel it to our children's future. This kind of thing is nothing to concern yourself over."

"Since my brother says so, just let it be." Lady Amber tried to assuage my parent's guilt, "What's a bit of money between family? My brother can well afford this."

Alpha James laughed now, "Well it's high time we renovated our home."

It's still winter though, but I never understood this kind of adult talk.

"I'm very interested in the idea of prefabricated homes." Alpha Lorent added, "Perhaps you might lend me your designer's contact?"

"...yes... Yes, of course." Mum sounded somewhat stunned.

I was stunned too. I mean, I'm no prefabricated construction engineer, BUT I was pretty sure they didn't have any models made of marble.

"Her name is Chloe. She has a studio in Gate City." Mum offered helpfully.

I think Chloe was definitely a better idea than prefabricated houses for the Lorents. They could all be proud owners of golden clamshell beds.

After that, we collected our coats and Lady Amber excused herself to help supervise the clean up. She was particularly dissatisfied at the way some of the servants were trying to tape up the cracks in the pillars with masking tape.

"How could they?" Lady Amber tsked, "It's so blindingly ugly."

shoved

I would have pointed out that using masking tape on a cracked pillar was about as effective as throwing a rug over the smashed floor, BUT I remembered I was at the Lorents and decided to let it go. There were some things that only made sense to a Lorent.

After saying an extended good night to Lady Amber and Luna Edith (who hugged me again before we parted), Alpha James saw us all the way to the porch where our cars were already waiting. Despite their Alpha family's warmth towards us, it looked like the rest of the Lorents couldn't wait for us leave. Hahaha.

Our cars stood there, engines running and hazard lights on.

Ben opened the front passenger door for me. I slipped in quickly, my beta had somehow trained me to get into my seat quickly. He shut the door just as quickly the moment I got in. Even my hair had learned to pull itself away from the door in time.

I glared out of the window at Ben's departing back. Dad and Alpha James were shaking hands again. A moment later, the back door of my car was opened and Delta Oran carefully Bell into the passenger seat and buckled him in. Then he bowed and shut the door. Was he bowing at me? Or at Bell - who was atm out like a light, but you know Lorents... I've given up trying to understand their weird practices. There was no end to them.

Like Bell right now. ~ ❤️ He was sleeping, but still picture perfect in the car seat. Someone must have fetched his jacket too because it was folded neatly and draped it over Bell's legs.

Bell's legs which were clad in the matching trousers for his jacket. WTH. He even had socks and shoes on. Either he was ready to be put directly into his coffin, or he had planned to come home with us... oh. Oh... did he want to come home with me? ~ ❤️

Awww... so cute, my Bell. But seriously! He should have just said so!

Thus, I've found the one weakness of cool guys - they can't say the things that really mattered to them. That must really suck huh?

A few moments later, Delta Oran entered the car from the other side and scooted to the center seat. Harvey passed him Ki's sleeping body and Delta Oran belted Ki in with a smile, {Stupid fool, since you've already found yourself such an alpha, why did you come back here?}

"Thanks, delta." Harvey's gravelly voice made me realize that Delta Oran had not spoken that thought aloud.

Delta Oran's smile never wavered, "You're most welcomed, Beta."

Harvey shut the door soundly and came over to the driver seat. Delta Oran buckled himself in like any proper law-abiding wolf.

Harvey nodded a quick bow towards me when he got in and switched off the hazard lights. Dad and Mum were again in the silver town car in front of us.Their hazard lights were off so we knew they were ready to leave. The moment Harvey switched off our hazard lights, Beta Lucas indicated right and pulled out of the driveway. Harvey followed behind.

Yes, we were following Beta Lucas' car again. But this time, Ben was next to him, so I had some confidence that we would be going directly home. Probably. I took one last glance behind me. Delta Oran sitting between Bell and Ki's sleeping forms and felt glad we had a healer on board.

The faster we got home, the better.