HENCEFORTH

3 MARCH, WEDNESDAY, ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL

"I think..." I started, "I think I'll need to read up."

"Understood, Alpha." Harvey intoned calmly, but just in case he thought I was shutting him out, I quickly added, "I'd like to discuss it with you sometime though."

"Yes, Alpha." Harvey seemed to brighten up, "I'll send you more notes and references, and arrange for a discussion prior to the coming New Town Committee Meeting - besides Ben and Ki, would there be anyone else you'd like to discuss the issues with?"

I don't know. I haven't read the report. Why don't you tell me?

I squeltched the bad attitude and inquired politely instead, "Do you have someone in mind?"

"Stephan and his advisor Cornelius might have valuable insight." Harvey suggested now, "They've made very insightful comments in the report, and Stephan will be a key leader in the running and development of the town henceforth."

HENCEFORTH. Hahahaha. I don't know why, I just think the word was funny.

"Alright, let's go with that." I agreed.

I had liked Stephan from the moment we met and I've always wanted to meet Cornelius - he was the old guy who I assumed was like Flynn to me. He was the teacher and mentor who had hidden the remnant of Stephan's Red Cloud Pack underground, in faithful waiting for their young Alpha to return to them. He was the adviser who conducted open classes in a section of the Underground's cafeteria to teach the ex-fightdogs how to read and write.

"Understood, Alpha. I will arrange for the meeting." Harvey promised.

Wait, did I just call a meeting? Wow, I was doing a lot of things by accident. I mean, kissing Bell was one thing, but calling extra meetings? I really gotta get a grip.

HENCEFORTH, I will be far more careful with what I say. After all, I already knew Ki and Harvey had weird hugely inflated opinions about me. One day it was going to blow up in my face. I felt quite sure of that. But it was just one of those things that I had no idea how to deal with. If I left it alone, fingers crossed, maybe it'll sizzle out on its own. Like they'd see me trip and fall on my face and realize, "Oh, my alpha is just a fallible wolf after all." Or maybe someone like Ben would burst their bubble for me. Good ol' Ben. At least I've got one beta who knew I was just Sam. I think.

"I also have good news to report, Alpha." Harvey informed me.

Oh? That sounded promising.

"Your Luna Mother had given permission for you to attend band rehearsals with Alpha Henry after school today, and tomorrow as well." Harvey told me, "Congratulations on The Last Hurrah passing the auditions."

Wait, what? I never agreed... oh, but...

"I'm just standing around most of the time." I told Harvey. And playing the tambourine as little and as quietly as possible so it wouldn't ruin the song. But of course I didn't say that aloud. I mean, I was talking to the lead guitarist of the Main Set of New Leaf Academy right?

"Our band's bad." I told Harvey honestly, "We are the most awful band I've ever heard."

Harvey shook his head and reasoned, "It can't be that bad if you passed the auditions."

Yeah, but that's only because Henry bribed... I mean donated to the talent fund the teachers were trying to raise.

I know I said I was hoping for a chance for Harvey and Ki to realize I wasn't that great and perfect, but now that the perfect opportunity had presented itself I could only proactively feel ashamed. I wasn't even a member of this sad band till yesterday, I wasn't even part of the auditions - so it wasn't my fault that it was so bad - but in all fairness, my addition had only made them sound worse, not better. What were the guys thinking when they roped me in?

And how dare Henry arrange for my betas to schedule the rehearsals without my consent? I bet he did it on purpose! We've been staying back everyday for theater rehearsals this week - and now Henry wanted band rehearsals for the next two days? Two years wouldn't be enough to save us.

"Do you have any tips, Harvey?" I decided to ask the pro.

Harvey looked honestly surprised that I was asking him, "What do you mean, alpha?"

"Is there a secret to not sucking?" I asked.

But Harvey thought I was joking, he chuckled.

"I'm serious, Harvey! Like just say something - anything!" I was pretty desperate - but you would be too, if you were in my band.

Harvey turned thoughtful, and then he offered, "Every year when we recruit new members its customary for the lead of the champion band to tell them that the harder you practice off stage, the more fun you'd have out there."

That's good advice, but in my case, it would reason that the Talent Time was going to a miserable experience for me. But even if I were going to go all out - how was one supposed to practice playing the tambourine? Like seriously. It's so lame, I didn't even want to talk about it.

"I will be accompanying you in the afternoon." Harvey said, and then he modestly offered, "If alpha wants more specific or technical advice, or if your band would like an outside ear to lend some critique for the final adjustments, I have some experience in that and would be honored to assit."

Ah... it looks like my big fall on my face to rid my good beta of his lofty esteem of me was going to happen a lot sooner than I expected. By the end of the day, my reputation was going to be crushed.

"To be honest, when Alpha Henry informed me of your participation, I was at first surprised." Harvey admitted.

Ikr. I was surprised too.

"But after thinking about it, it wasn't so strange." Harvey laughed wryly at himself, "You stepped in for Lola at the V-day concert spontaneously. You hadn't even had a single rehearsal with either Ben or myself, yet you performed brilliantly. Till today, the kids in school still talked about it."

I'm not sure they were saying good things though...

"It was an eye-opener for me." Harvey told me, "I realized live performance was more than just mastering the set. The moment I watched the video of our performance, my weakness became apparent when I performed next to you."

No way. Harvey, you were perfect. Your only weakness was probably the fact that you were too perfect.

"I was performing, but you were performing for the audience." Harvey told me, "Ever since, I've been working on putting aside myself, I'm not performing for ME, I'm entertaining THEM."

Ooofff... I guess that applied to acting too.

When Harvey talked about music, there was an undeniable earnestness. This guy loved his rock and roll.

"Thanks Harvey." I liked this earnest side of Harvey too, "That's a good reminder. Even for today's play."

When I got on stage later, I was going to go all out for the audience. They were going to have a good time.

{Whether they want to or not.}

Let's just ignore Boo. I know she was my wolf, and I loved her to bits, but sometimes she was a bit much. Mum always said our wolves was one with us, but seriously... she couldn't mean I was evil right?

Harvey had moved on to update me on whatever reports and appointments in my calendar that he felt it was his duty to highlight. This was a mixed bag following up with previous updates. Some of the more interesting news included an update about the bombing incidents. I hadn't been following the news because if I did, I would've seen how our Luna Bell's plan played out beautifully on Monday. As it turned out, having the perpetrators chained outside the school to suffer the humiliation from the public was just the bait to draw out the big fish from the underground gang. By dawn on Tuesday morning, when the rogues were being deported, the transportation team of Winderhill's detention center was attacked en route along the outskirts of Winderhill. Of course my beautiful Luna being the brilliant tactician that he was, had already stationed our blue demon warriors to ambush the attackers.

"It was very similar to your strategy the night we attempted to rescue Luna Bell." Harvey noted.

I'm sure most attacks on moving trucks would have some similarities though.

Anyway, the second group of rogues caught included quite an infamous cell leader, and based on the scents found on his clothes alone, led our warriors to their base in Winderhill and now 3 of their ring leaders were in Winderhill custody.

What LNC didn't report though was that our Luna Bell was not pleased about Crystal Wind Pack insisting on keeping the captured rogues in Winderhill, but breaking inter-pack laws and forcefully taking the rogues back to the Green Packlands would raise hell at the High Council. For the sake of Night Leaf's elders, Bell had stood down.

Bell was so considerate. No, actually, I bet he was p***ed as hell. Hahaha. Which was really a worse hell to raise than the kind at the High Council, but Dad had enough on his plate, so I was quite glad Bell didn't add another item to the Emergency Meeting they were calling.

The meeting was confirmed btw, and would be held from next Thursday night all through to Friday night.

Ki was right, I was booked through my term break week - the first half at Night Forest with the GAP analysis team to advise my Uncle Louis on the financial restructuring needed to turn their economy around, which, might I point out, I had no clue about, but Delta Felicity would be leading the expert team. I was there as their guarantee, like just to make sure Uncle Louis didn't bully them or something. I also had a side quest to take Bell to the healer there. Apparently, Bell's wolf was still three-legged. He had been maneuvering his curse arm by his curse all this while. Poor Bell.

He was always so strong, and arrogant, and bossy, I would forget his injury. Flashback to kiss.

NO! Don't flashback to kiss! WTH?

Luckily Harvey was concentrating on the early morning traffic in Winderhill. It was the usual re-routing around the school again. No parade though, we were back to good old paparazzi. News of Winderhill's singular high profile theater production and the visiting VIPs had gone out.

I stared back down at the report on Princess Town and tried to read the words, but nothing registered. Harvey made a right, our escorts turning alongside us.

We were driving up the road to Winderhill high. The density of warriors here was doubled that of earlier. I couldn't see them, but could sense them in the woods around the school. At this point, Harvey decided to remind me that there had been Vampire hunting activities in Winderhill and to be careful. Although it was unlikely that I would be caught in the crossfire. I was a rather notable person right now, so it would be more likely that a hunter would recognize me and withdraw than attack.

"Why?"

"I'm told that hunters usually prefer to lie low, and Vampire hunters usually prefer to keep friendly relations with the wolf community." Harvey explained, "Historically, hunting was nearly banned in the continent after the Great War due to the violence and cruelty of the vocation. But due to various political lobbies and other legislative considerations, the current legal status on hunting limits it to a licensed profession. As I understand it, Alpha, pack wolf hunting is illegal, but rogue wolf and vampire hunting is still considered a heroic profession in human communities."

Well, that made sense. I'm sure the vampire slaying unit of the Blackforest Pack's army were looked up to as heroes too.

It also explained why I grew up with the impression that all hunters in our packlands were criminals. Technically, since the Green Packlands had no vampires or rogues, those hunters were illegally hunting pack wolves - specifically, they were hunting white wolves. The Green Packlands was famous for our white healing wolves... who, except for Mum and Savy, were all Lorent wolves really. White wolf fur was very sought after. Some humans believed that if you wore a white wolf's coat, it would grant you longevity.

Dad said it was rubbish.

"When I die, you can take my coat Willow." Beta Lucas said, "Make it into a nice winter coat... or better still, make it into gloves. Maybe it will give you power punches!"

"Well, I..." Mrs Beta had shook her head, but I think the idea just left her speechless.

"Actually, you don't have to die to test it." I suggested, "If we just shave off your fur, maybe we can spin yarn and knit gloves from that."

If we did it that summer, it would've all grown out again by winter. But Beta Lucas would rather die than shave his wolf, so that idea didn't take off.

So there were also hunters who were heroes? That was a new paradigm shift for me.

Anyway, we got to school in one piece. The barriers and gates opened as they were supposed to, and our warriors waved us in.

"Break a leg, alpha." Harvey said politely in parting.

This was quickly becoming the most cliche theater line I've ever heard, but because it was my good beta saying it with all good intentions, I smiled, "Thanks Harvey. See you later."

I suppose after today's performance, I wouldn't have to ever hear it again anyway.

HENCEFORTH, I would graciously put up with it for a few more hours.