HENRY'S PARENTS

4 FEBRUARY, THURSDAY, AFTERNOON

Peter suddenly got up and got the door, "Alpha and Luna are here."

Alpha George and a beautiful woman stepped into the room. Was she Henry's mum? She was made with all the prettiest shades of browns, from her hair, to her skin and eyes. I couldn't help but stare, because she looked different from what I expected, but in a way that was exotic and beautiful. Then I realised she was a wolf from the other continent.

I wondered what part Henry got from her, maybe it's the eyes. Yes, definitely the eyes, but that's about all. Hmm... I just noticed that Henry was really a copy of his dad. Extremely unexotic.

"Hello!" Henry's exotic mother said to us, "A girl that our Charbear hasn't chased out yet?" Henry's mother laughed. You could tell immediately that she was a person who laughed on a daily basis - yet another thing Henry apparently didn't inherit from his beautiful mother.

"I'm not really a girl." I tried to explain, "More like a monster."

In my defense, Boo was surfaced and it wasn't easy to restrain her so I wasn't really paying attention to what I was saying.

Henry's mother laughed again.

Henry growled and did the introductions, "This is Alpha Sam, Green Packland's Night Leaf Pack's future Alpha. Her Luna, Alpha James Lorent the Third of the Lorent Pack. That's their beta, Ki."

"Nice to meet you." I smiled.

Henry's mother looked surprised, "An Alpha? But you're a girl... A very beautiful girl at that! My! You could be the moon goddess incarnate, child."

Now it was my turn to look surprise. No way.

Not wanting to be left out of the happy conversation, Alpha George barked out at Bell, "The mess in the Red Packlands now, was it you boy?"

"Not all of it, I doubt it could have been so spectacular without Alpha Solomon's interference." Bell answered with a smirk.

"Ho! That's true!" Alpha George barked out in laughter, "That old dog really messed up. I wonder how he's going to get out of this one."

"He'll be out." Henry informed his dad. "It should all blow over by the end of the day."

"Eh, you helped him?" Alpha George asked accusingly, "I hope you gained a pretty penny for your trouble."

"It was pro-bono." Henry said with a slight shrug.

"WHAT?!?" Alpha George hollared.

"Yes, since I will be studying in the top class at Night Forest Academy, I decided to help out the school's Alpha. It was purely out of goodwill."

"I thought you needed to get a perfect GPA to get into the top class?" I asked.

"Not anymore." Henry smiled smugly.

Suddenly it explained why we hadn't spent a single moment rehearsing the stupid play.

"You didn't charge him anything?" Alpha George asked again, "We could be extorting an arm and a leg right now and you didn't take a cent?"

"Money isn't everything." Henry said.

This gave the whole room pause, because if anyone knew anything about Henry's pack or family, is that making money was their sole modus operandi.

Their family crest could have read, "show me the money" and no one would have blinked an eye.

Henry took the momentary silence to explain himself, I could see his wolf shine in his eyes as he spoke, "Money isn't enough anymore. What we need is strong alliances and progress. If we stop moving forward, we will lose everything. If we keep moving up, the profit would be the natural by product."

"Look at Sam's pack, it's the fastest growing pack on the continent at the moment. Gate City's rate of technological adoption is growing exponentially every year. The Green Packland Council reviews and updates more policies annually than any other colored packlands. It's not just about the money, Dad. Look at Night Forest Pack... the grand old pack of our continent and arguably the only pack on this continent richer than our's. It's been bleeding itself out for over a decade! The most amazing thing about it is the way it keeps bleeding out each year without stop. But even their deep coffers cannot last forever. If they don't catch up with the rest of the world, they'll run out. Now that Alpha Silas is gone, their end might be even more imminent. As you predicted he would, Alpha Louis just signed off a billion dollar contract that's a gamble he is about to lose."

Eh, wait. What?

"Are you saying he's being cheated?" I asked.

Henry shook his head, and then he realised, "Alpha Louis, he's your uncle right? Well, he just signed on a huge network infrastructure contract. It's the best that money could buy with all the bells and whistles thrown in. After this, Night Forest would boast IT infrastructure capabilities of Gate City."

"So what's the catch?" I narrowed my eyes at Henry.

"They don't have a workforce or economy to utilize it. Most of the pack work traditional stone and leather crafts, farming, and small trading. Why would they need a super charged network infrastructure? Unless you know something I don't." Henry lifted a brow at me.

I shook my head and dispaired aloud, "I dont know anything."

Why did Dad put me in charge of "alleviating the Night Forest financial crisis?"

Wth, I can't believe this was the cause of the whole fiasco! An overpowered fancy network infrastructure? Gah! What was Uncle Louis thinking?

"He probably just wanted it because all the biggest packs had it." Alpha George smirked.

"So... Theoretically, how would you guys fix this problem?" I asked cautiously.

"It's impossible, but theoretically?" Henry smirked, "I'll cancel the network project, pay the penalty for the broken contract, and use the rest to tide the pack through till his heir is old enough to take over."

"His heir is so young too. It would take a while before their situation improves." Alpha George nodded.

"That's if Alpha Louis doesn't burn through their entire pack's reserve first." Henry added.

"I don't understand." I said miserably. I thought the issue was overspending on a useless network contract.

"He's your uncle and you don't know?" Henry asked, "Alpha Louis is a loose cannon and his Luna's presence is negligible at best. It's largely known that the rest of the leadership ranks are falling apart. The whole pack hierachy is degenerating. Surely you noticed!"

I shrugged, suddenly remembering Ben saying my Uncle was crazy. Beta Larson must have known, Oscar must have known, they put Oprah as far away from their pack as possible. Otherwise, they were prepared to go down with the ship.

Ki lifted a brow at me. I dropped my head on the table, "Ki, tell me you understood what they just said... Because I can't."

Henry sighed, "Sam, let me spell it out for you. Night Forest's problem is a leadership one. The only way to save the pack is to change the leadership."

"Oh, so all they have to do is to survive a dozen more years while training Eddy right, and then everything will get better once Eddy takes over?" I asked hopefully.

"Technically, that would require 20 years reserves including the rising cost of living and inflation." Henry corrected, "And we are assuming Eddy and his Luna has the ability to turn the situation around."

Oh. Okay, We'll need to train the little human too. No problem, with Mum around, she'll be the perfect Luna by the time she is 18.

"No problem." I nodded.

"Sam, it's impossible." Henry told me, "No pack can possibly contain that much reserve, especially not one that has been bleeding in the red for over a decade."

I thought about Grandma's vault. I hope it's as never-ending as Grandpa Alpha said it was. Then again, Grandpa Alpha's stories hadn't been measuring up to the facts lately.

No, I can't give up!

"Where there's a will, there's a way." I told Henry.

"It's impossible, Sam... short of you taking over Night Forest." Henry suddenly stopped, and then he added as an afterthought, "It's technically your birthright."

"That's crazy!" I exclaimed.

"I doubt they have allies who would side them over you either." Henry added.

Someone had been studying intel on my pack very diligently... a little too diligently.

I looked at Bell and Ki. They looked disturbingly thoughtful.

"No way. I don't want to deal with all that. Nuh-uh." I crossed my arms and flared to make my point.

"So theoretically, I'd remove the current leadership and replace it with Night Leaf's Alpha." Henry decided. I thought for a moment that he was going to just ignore my earlier outburst, but then he said, "Just theoretically, Sam. I'm not actually saying you should do it. In fact, I would advise you to look the other way. Because that place is one hot mess, and who knows what kind of debt they have run up to date."

Alpha George who had been unusually quiet all this while finally spoke, "I see you point, Henry. Progress and strong alliances."

"That's where the money is now Dad." Henry concluded.

"You know what I always say, where the money goes, we go." Alpha George decided.

What did I tell you? With Henry's family, it's not "True and Wise, Pure and Kind" unless that's where the money is.

Marcus returned to the room, "Hi Hen, if we aren't rehearsing, I'm heading back, my ride's here."

Then he stopped and bowed politely to Henry's parents, "Excuse the interuption Alpha and Luna."

"Hello Marcus, so lovely to see you again." Henry's mum greeted warmly.

"We should probably go too." Bell decided then, "Thanks for having us."

Ki rose with him and bowed politely, excusing himself to fetch the car.

I got up to my feet, and Bell took my hand in his.

"Congratulations, on finding each other." Henry's mum smiled at us, "A soulmate is a beautiful thing."

Yeah, I guess, if you looked like Mate. Hahaha.

Bell nodded and answered seriously, "Yes, she is. Thank you."

Henry's mum laughed.

"I'll email you the draft discussion terms for our packs' alliance sometime today." Henry promised.

"Cc Ki and Harv too." Bell told him.

"Of course." Henry smiled.

"Ho!" Alpha George beamed after overhearing this, "Your mother and I go abroad for a week and you established an alliance with Night Leaf? We should go away more."

Henry smiled again, "So how about releasing that trust fund to me?"

In the end, it's all about the money, it's all about the dum dum diddy dum dum.

But where did that leave someone like me?

At this point in time, I wished Harvey had come too. I'm sure my good beta would have automatically summized the afternoon's gains and losses for me.

But since he wasn't here, I guess I'll just tally what I understood.

Our Romeo and Juliet fight scene was due tomorrow and I still have no idea how to fence, nor had I finish memorising the lines. Now that my life wasn't on the line, I found myself without the motivation to continue.

Apparently, the financial crisis I've been assigned to alleviate was "impossible" and a "hot mess" that I should "look the other way" from. But okay, I did get some advice that I did understand, like drop the billion dollar contract. Why didn't Dad assign me a problem that could be solved by a nice straightforward punch in the face?

And the alliance between our packs was going to be official and everyone seemed happy about it. Even Mate praised me.

Overall, I guess this afternoon didn't turn out the way I had expected it to, but that's okay too. I just have a lot to think about now.