HOW WE RUINED MY LIFE

7 MARCH, SUNDAY NIGHT, TIMELINE 2

~PROLOGUE~

I'm not exaggerating. We had completely and irrevocably ruined my life. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a tiny bit, but by the time you're reading this diary, its too late. We messed up, and now here I am, forced to use a shocking pink leather bound journal. SHOCKING PINK! But in this new life, most of my belongings are in various shade of pink, this is only the least of the horrors that had plagued me. I can explain, really, but I would have to begin way, way back to the day of INCIDENT 0 - the day that ruined my life even before I was even born. T.T

My story is not for the faint of heart. It is a cautionary tale to those who ever meet a talking cat - alas the truth is in the age old wisdom of the saying, "Do not follow cats into the woods."

And especially do not go messing with your past.

And yes, I'm feeling like the emo drama queen certain family members have dubbed me. Nobody would understand me, so I can only pour out my heart into this SHOCKING PINK journal. I swear even a blind man would see it. WHY? WHY my second-life self? Why would you choose a SHOCKING PINK journal to write your secrets within? Did you want someone to find it and read it? WHY?

Are you not curious? What is this INCIDENT 0? What is this second-life? Would you believe me if I told you that it wasn't supposed to be like this? Would you believe if I told you that this time in my original life, I was the Alpha Princess?

Why do you look so shocked? If there is a color to describe your shock, maybe it would be the color of my diary in this otherwise unbelievably ordinary second life of mine.

~INCIDENT 0~

"Yesterday" (AKA only the LAST DAY of life as I had known it), my Dad, Beta Lucas, my three betas, Fluffy, Wolfgang and two talking time-traveling cats returned to the past - like more than 20 years in the past, to prevent the traitor named Jude from ever darkening our packlands with his shadow.

It started off well. Dad had a solid sounding plan for a systematic and progressive method of altering the timeline. Despite my misgivings in this plan, it turned out that my trust in Dad and the wolves around me was greater. Also I had always been incredibly lucky, so what could possibly go wrong?

We made our way directly from Dad's office and arrived at our destination time with hours to spare. I personally would have traveled from a more isolated space to avoid meeting anyone, but I realized when we arrived why Dad hadn't even bothered with that - at this time, 20 years back, our packhouse wasn't built yet, and we found ourselves deep in the forest, way before the packhouse or even roads had been constructed.

It was a good thing Dad and Beta Lucas were around, without the roads, buildings, or even the forest paths that our patrol routes would one day run, I was completely lost. It was so much wild jungle that I regretted not bringing Barry to be our guide.

Whenever Barry was our guide, be it the warlocks tropical jungle or just through the woods behind the Packhouse, the forest would suddenly transform into nature's larder.

Right now, it just looked like a very strange forest, which was weird, because we were literally standing where our Packhouse would one day stand - this should be the heart of our Packlands.

It was still day, so we could take our time, but Dad and Lucas were literally just standing around.

"What are we waiting for?" I felt uneasy here. I didn't recognize any of these trees or the smells. It didn't smell like Night Leaf at all. It didn't sound like Night Leaf. Everything about it screamed "wilderness".

Like a real forest, not the kind with patrol trails or markers carved into the wood or the scent of fire or hearth.

"17 more minutes Sam. Just wait a bit more." Beta Lucas said.

Oh right. Before doing anything we had to create the 20 minutes "undo point."

I looked about, I brought good wolves. Even Ben who was standing next to me. His usual bad attitude was replaced by a quiet alertness. Harvey, Ki, Fluffy, and Wolfgang also stood around, spread out a little in a proper guard formation. No one touched anything or messed around.

The way everyone was acting! It was as if plucking a leaf would end up as a tornado in the future. We just stand here and making as little impact as possible for 20 minutes.

I took a deep breath and watched the cats winding around Wolfgang's legs. For some reason, they liked him best... Maybe it was because Wolfgang was smart. The cats in general were quite aloof and seemed to disdain stupidity.

They also didn't hide the fact that they liked Fluffy least, but the reason for that was pretty obvious to me. It wasn't that our scribe-assassin was stupid, but that neither Perri or Peony understood Fluffy's love language. Hahaha.

I hadn't been sure if bringing Wolfgang was a good idea, but I remembered that he was the only one Perri (the cat who could actually time travel accurately) would tolerate conversation with, and also that he was the only one who thought to take our pulse when we switched to ghost mode. He just seemed reliable given the uncertainty we might face.

Maybe one day, when he returns to Snow Moon, he would be one of those "lose strings" that my good beta hated leaving around. Surely, he already knew too many secrets!

But I trust him as a person. And when we asked him to join our super black out mission he was very hesitant. Ki said it was because the Fire Wolf knew the consequences of what he eventually agreed to.

"Don't worry, Sam." Ben had told me, "Cooking isn't hard."

I would like to see him tell Mrs Beta that!

Dad had looked surprised when Wolfgang joined us, "Even Sir Wolfgang? Then you have already decided?"

Eh? I nodded, but wondered if my Dad was talking about some other decision other than who to bring on this mission.

And why were we worrying so much about Wolfgang's presence when Fluffy was also going to return home? Did no one believe he would ever leave us? Maybe his status as Young Prince would mean he could protect our secrets. Or did they feel the Colored Mountain would not care about the secrets of a little pack in the corner of the plains?

I didn't understand it, just like I didn't understand why we had to do this. Everything was going great - I saw it in our future with my very own eyes.

But maybe this was the only way for Dad to get rid of the knot in his heart, so I should be supportive.

"Last 5 minutes." Beta Lucas announced, "Switch to your mindlinks, Sam."

It wasn't like there was anyone to hear us, but okay. I opened my mindlinks. As usual, I was probably the only one who needed a verbal reminder to unblock my mindlinks, everyone else was already linked up.

{4 minutes.} Beta Lucas said.

{You don't have to announce every minute Dad.} Ben told him.

{3.5 minutes.} Beta Lucas said in response.

Ben growled a little but shut up.

{3 minutes.} Beta Lucas chimed happily. It was almost as if he was purposely annoying his son.

Ben crossed his arms and bit down a growl. He was that p***ed, but at least whatever bad mood he was nursing had passed. Either this mission was that fun to him, or whatever deadlines that was stressing him out was absolved in some way.

I guess Harvey was right, Ben was just young. He just needed time to get used to the beta life. Hahaha.

{2 minutes.} Beta Lucas announced.

It was almost like we were waiting for something to happen.

{1 minute.} Beta Lucas said.

Was it my imagination, but were the wolves around me holding their breaths? I subconsciously followed suit, in case they had sensed something I had not.

{Okay! Time!} Beta Lucas announced.

Dad looked to his left and right, {Alright, looks like we're in the clear. That's a good sign.}

{Yah man,} Beta Lucas only sounded too relieved, {Since we didn't pop out to stop us, it probably means this mission will have no problems.}

{Be on alert.} Dad reminded us, {Proceed with caution.}

{Understood, Alpha!} The wolves around me answered in unison.

Do you remember the misgiving I felt? Despite the relief and confidence I felt from the wolves surrounding me, it was still there.

{Sam, are you alright?} Ben asked.

{I'm fine.} I said, {Just follow my Dad's lead.}

At any rate, my lucky sense of direction wasn't kicking in, so I would be useless in this unfamiliar layout of what used to be our Packlands.

Should I be worried that my lucky sense of direction was non-existent here? It had never failed me before.

I squelched the growing sense of misgiving. My dad was the Alpha, how could I doubt him?

All I had to do was follow him and I'll be fine.