WHAT WAS AS IT SHOULD BE

9 MARCH, TUESDAY, MORNING

TIMELINE 3 (which was the right one to be in)

The next morning, I woke up and to my utter surprise, found everything just as it should be. Normally, I would take such a thing for granted, but I had lived three variations of my life and this third one had been severely tempered with by masked wolf heroes who had travelled with irresponsible time-traveling cats.

Yes, now that I was back in my timeline, now that I had a good night's sleep, my memories had more or less merged and I realized it wasn't just Dad, I was one of the mysterious masked wolf heroes too.

While I was passed out in a failed shift, my wolves had advised our past selves not only on how to handle Incident 0 successfully, but also to carry out Dad's plan of multiple undo points and minor adjustments every few years to discretely fix whatever failed to happen. I can't believe Wolfgang went along with this. Granted, he was frowning silently for most of it, but he had followed us in our reckless (but systematic) tempering with our timeline.

My life today could have been quite different from anything I had ever known before, but I woke up in my golden clamshell bed, the room grey in the early winter morning. I had stayed up way to late writing in my diary last night (don't tell Mum) and I would've just turned over and gone back to sleep, snug in my cocoon of lightly lemon scented 1000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, enjoying the cosy warmth against the cool of the morning air. I had really meant to, but I sensed wolves outside my bedroom door.

I know this would probably not be categorized under normal for any regular teenager, that I used to consider myself as, or at least I had aspired to become, but the quiet presence of a whole bunch of powerful wolves waiting on the other side of my bedroom door was just as should be for the life I had now. I was the Alpha.

Specifically, I was the future Alpha of the Night Leaf Pack. Just Night Leaf. Morning Light still belonged to Alpha Daniel. It should have become Mac's pack sometime this year, but Mac was still missing. The Glorious Lorent had just transferred hands from Alpha James to Bell last month. It had been a very rocky start and although my family hadn't visited since, I've heard rumors of Bell's ex-rogue army terrorizing the pack as the new establishment, huge seemingly random staff layoffs, and Bell putting a curse on Beta Lorent (his uncle). Basically, Bell had been painted as a very temperamental despotic alpha - which surprised no one.

And if you were wondering, yes, we also gifted him a magic pen customed by the master craftsman Roulette. It was a pen that ran on magic stones. Dad didn't give Bell any property as he had planned to in our Original Timeline. I did see Dad pass Bell a large envelope and tell him, "Congratulations, Alpha."

Bell's official name was "Alpha James." (His dad was Alpha Lorent). This was really confusing for me because I've always called his dad Alpha James. O.o

I also called Bell James in this life, not Bell. No wonder he was kind of confused when I called him Bell last night.

But my point was, it was generally agreed that our Green Packlands was about to enter dark times. It wasn't even the rogues or Jude. The Glorious Lorents were under the terrifying hand of a emo tyger-powered alpha, the Morning Light had lost their future Alpha just a year from his ascension, and Night Leaf? Everyone knew that Alpha Kingsley had no sons. Once upon a time, it was hoped that his eldest would mate the Lorent's heir (aka Bell) and our packs would merge and live happily every after, but in that once upon a time, Bell was supposed to grow up to be a Lorent Prince Charming with a White Wolf and I was supposed to grow up to be Night Leaf's Princess… or something.

No one expected Bell to pick up dark curse powers and become a tyger king. No one expected me to shift into a blue alpha wolf (although Lady Amber and Lady Olivia both said that my Moon Goddess coloring was an auspicious sign.) Oh, and for some reason, no one expected Bell to actually rattle his own pack administration and cause such internal mayhem (I'm not sure why they didn't see that coming, maybe they were in denial.) In the same way, no one expected Bell to break up with me.

Officially, the adults were still maintaining that we were engaged.

But that's okay. I was going to win Bell back. I was going to treasure him this time around.

I washed up and got dressed. My clothes were hung on the golden bird cage rack, just as it should be. I did frown at the boots - were we going somewhere? And then I remembered, it was Tuesday morning and I was due to visit Dad's home pack - Night Forest. I would be going with the GAP expert team sent to help Uncle Louis with restructuring recommendations to turn their pack's economy around. See, everything was just as it should be. I checked my phone and found all my schedules laid out, all the reports and meeting notes for the day summarized into a single document, with an appendix neatly listed under it.

When I opened my bedroom door, Harvey was waiting by the door with the rest of my Morning Entourage in a neat row, "Good morning, Princess."

Harvey stepped forward with his usual wry smile to give me the run down of my day. The others filed in behind us as we made our way down the stairs for breakfast.

See, everything was just as it should be… right?

In the dining room, Ki's killion dollar smile lit up with his usual, "Good morning, goddess."

Breakfast was hot tea with an appropriate amount of milk and sugar, and a lovely smoked salmon toast, which wasn't like cold smoked fish slapped on a dry piece of toast. No, it was a warm thick lightly toasted slice of homemade sourdough (Savy was also in a sourdough backing phase in this timeline), covered in a generous helping of cream cheese and little green bits (Dill? Chives? Who knows?) and then layered with the brightest orangey pink slices of smoked salmon I had ever seen.

Barry (with some help from some of the other warriors) had set up an outdoor vertical smoker - the kind that used apple wood (because it gave the meat the best smell.)Mama Rosa had seen it and was so impressed that she planned to have Gyaara meat salted and smoked. Gyaara ham anyone?

Sabre was in a bad mood because she finished her favorite cereal yesterday afternoon during afternoon tea time, and Mum didn't let Ki send out a warrior to get more from the shop because she didn't want to spoil Sabre.

Since Sabre refused to touch the smoked salmon, "Yucks!"

So now Sabre was sulking at her cornflakes like Mum was forcing her to eat cardboard flakes.

See, everything was just as it should be… right?

Even the morning light was streaming into the dining room in the most becoming way. 

But if that's the case, why did I have this uneasy feeling?