I WASN'T SUPPOSED TO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY

Sighing, I dropped back on my bed. I wasn't sleepy, I just needed a think.

Or maybe I needed a distraction. I found my phone in its usual place on my dresser. Maybe I should check my social media for the picture Ki uploaded of Lucky. Let's see how cute Lucky was in that shot.

This turned out to be a terrible idea. I thought I was going online to check out my picture of Lucky. Since Ki posted it, I felt quite sure it was going to be cute. It might even be wallpaper material!

The problem was that Lucky's photo wasn't the only thing that was posted last night. I had forgotten about Abigail's impromptu smear campaign against me last night or Henry and Bell's attempt to "counter" it. My chat group with my school friends, since renamed, "Pops Forever," had a busy night too. But my top feed was a blurry photo of Bell leaving the posh country club, surrounded by blue demon warriors and my betas, and carrying my lifeless body to the waiting car convoy. It was a LyNCh headliner, "Alpha Princess collapses from spiked drink. Investigations continue."

Wow. Now that was sensational news. I clicked on it immediately to find out more. I mean, yes, I did want to know since it was pertaining to me, but it was really the busybody in me who clicked. I wanted to read all the juicy details. I quite meant to read it without taking it personally. And I had to say, the LyNCh didn't disappoint me. Halfway through the article, I had completely forgotten that the Alpha Princess and I were the same person. They had to be talking about some other Alpha Princess... who just happened to look a lot like me, just prettier, because no matter what they wrote, I looked like a million dollars in that crystal-encrusted bodice and white gown.

It was really quite scandalous (what they wrote, not the gown). I hoped whoever tried to spike the innocent princess' drink would be caught. I got all caught up in the conspiracy surrounding the princess' circumstances. My favorite was that it was an inside job. I seriously wondered who did it and what was his motive. Was it the charming Lorent Beta? Did he secretly have an axe to grind? Was he bribed by the Silver Mountain Young Alpha (Aka Henry)? Could it be the quiet and calm Morning Light Beta, always just standing off to the side of the photos? Was this his cry for attention, or something more sinister that went all the way back to an unresolved grudge held by the Morning Light wolves towards Night Leaf. It was all extremely exciting, and I felt for a moment that all I could do was wait for the investigation results, fingers crossed... I very nearly clicked to "Follow this thread" before realizing that it was probably nothing like that in real life.

Admittedly, I had NO IDEA how my lemonade got spiked - at least that was the only drink I actually had last night. But maybe whatever was in my lemonade made me super thirsty after.

In other news... because I ended up clicking on the next "related article": Young Silver Mountain Alpha's Blossoming Romance of Three Packlands. This was where Abigail appeared.

The headline itself was like a lycan legend spinoff all on its own. Who knew that LyNCh was so dedicated in preserving our lycan heritage and literature?

I had read the "Blossoming Romance of Three Packlands". The abridged version anyway. It was very boring. I was told it was about war, but most of it was about a playboy alpha who found himself caught between two she-wolves... one a princess of an allied pack, and the other the omega of an enemy pack.

Oh... so Henry was the playboy alpha. I nodded to myself. Okay, I had to give it to the LyNCh for this one.

One thing led to another, and I ended up speed-reading through pretty much every Page Six article that mentioned me. You got me. I wasn't just drinking a cup of tea, I was sucking it in by the potful.

I don't know why I did that. I certainly didn't mean to waste a good 25 minutes before the break of day filling up on what I knew were half-baked lies (instead of proper Alpha reports no doubt waiting in my Surface Pro).

BUT there was a part of me that just couldn't stop. I even came up with a good reason to justify this activity - I just wanted to know what other people were thinking about the Alpha Princess. I was just following the news for the sake of self-awareness.

Allow me to present to you some of the news and happenings surrounding the Alpha Princess (not to be confused with Sam... just Sam who was lying on her stomach in her golden clamshell bed idly surfing the news on her phone.) Oh no, the Alpha Princess was FAR more happening than I would ever be.

I mean, have you SEEN her? There were pinterest boards dedicated to the modern-day goddess, videos discussing how you can get the Alpha Princess Look too. I found an article explaining why everyone was so fixated on what the Alpha Princess was wearing (and it wasn't just what she wore, everything she was seen photographed holding counted too.)

It was for the same reason the tulip-filled Micheal Ark earthenware had become the season's signature decor, and according to the article, this fixation on the Alpha House had always been part and parcel of pack life. The humans had a similar fixation on their Royal Family - when some royal baby photo appeared, the teddy bear in the background was hunted down to extinction in the shops.

It just happened that the Alpha Princess popped out exactly to fill the gap where previously only male young alphas resided. Suddenly, there was a lycan princess who wore pretty dresses and sported hair like the moon goddess herself. And not only did this Alpha Princess rock in everything from tailored ceremonial traditional dresses to the occasional haute couture, she also looked great in everyday H&M.

EVERYTHING I had been photographed wearing would be snapped up at the stores within days. It was crazy, yes. But to the young girls queuing up outside the GAP before opening hours this morning, it was getting their hands on something tangible - very much like the build-your-own pony crazy that happened after the Alpha Princess' warriors were caught on camera stuffing the back of her car (it was Bell's car really), with boxes of ponies. The Pony Palace rode on this by creating an Alpha Princess Pony Collectible - it was right now one of the most expensive ponies in their stable this year, outpricing even the Valentine's Pony that came out in January.

But really, this Alpha Princess had become phenomenal, and very likely to be listed as one of the top influences of her generation. She did everything! She sang and danced, and most recently, proved herself on stage under the guidance of Madam Silvia. (There would be a special two-part series airing soon on LNC on this illustrious theatre giant, by the way.) She even kicked butt. Footages of her heroic deeds - leading a rampaging alpha wolf away from the crowds (aka Alpha Solomon at Henry's inauguration), shielding onlookers from a bomb (aka outside my school the other morning). She was from a military background - this was often proven by a single quote about me missing the Ceremony of the Departed because I was recovering from a special ops mission that took place during the war.

And let's not forget all the heartwarming moments, such as the time she stopped her car to give food to a poor lost rogue pup (aka Daisy... I think this was how they interpreted my giving Daisy my lunchbox outside school.) One could go as far as to say that the recent softening of the Blue Demon Warrior image was due to my influence. Whoever heard of Blue Demon Warriors handing candy to pups - but some ace reporter had dug deeper while covering the new medical outreach initiative Gate City Hospital opened for the minor packs and free wolves - a new clinic on wheels that would ply the deeper parts of our woods, including Lullaby Route. Anyway, the reporter noticed one of the patrolling blue demon warriors leaving candy for the free wolf pups in exchange for a hand-drawn picture.

They still left paper cranes along the borders now, but they also left small gifts of handmade cards, wildflower bouquets, and origami for their blue demon friends. This was how the reporter (who was supposed to be covering legit news like the new route this medical trailer would cover and the services it would provide so local wolves had more accessible healthcare) found out that the practice of leaving candy for the free wolf pups was begun by the Alpha Princess personally.

"Our Alpha Princess brought in an era of peace in so many practical tangible ways. She brings wolves together and has become our beacon of hope for a better and brighter world. I am very excited for our next generation, for what they would do, for what they would become, TOGETHER." - Beta Gerald, Morning Light. (AKA president of the Alpha Princess Fan Club. Hahaha.)

There were also a lot of romantic rumors surrounding this Alpha Princess. She was always surrounded by admirers (or so the LyNCh would like everyone to believe.) Among my list of "admirers," there were the usual expected ones like the Young Alpha Henry of Silver Mountain and for a time Prince River too because someone posted a photo of us at archery club together (and cropped out Keanu although you could still see Keanu's hand next to River. Poor Keanu.) I hoped Savy never saw this, or poor me too.

Also, there was the Langston heir, Young Beta Harvey Langston who often drove me around. And I danced with the Young Beta Ben Kane in that viral Shake Your Bon Bon video, and we seemed to be close. Of course, we were close. He was my beta!

I think the greatest irony was how NO ONE in my "harem" had been implicated at all - just everyone else I had ever been photographed standing next to.

All this even though, "practically everyone knew" that I was engaged to the Young Alpha James Lorent III, and that alone was also a whole News series on its own because it turned out that Bell was quite the attention hog when he was young. Wild parties, fast cars, public brawls... his public image had since cleaned up and from the time he was filmed healing the casualties at Winderhill, public opinion had been very much swayed.

Now that he had properly settled down, he was the new Alpha to watch according to lycan analysts. The Young Alpha Lorent had been making "all the right moves" towards his upcoming investiture. If the Alpha Princess was the beacon of change for the Green Packlands, the Young Alpha Lorent was the rock of stability - no, I had no idea who cooked this one up.

Bell, the rock of stability for the entire Green Packlands. OMG. We were all going to die.

Anyway, according to lycan analysts, Bell's new "silence" in the media only proved that he was getting serious about his role as the next Alpha of the Green Packlands.

There was also some discussion about Night Leaf's claims to their Alpha Princess becoming the next Alpha of the combined Moon Bell pack, but the experts disagree.

I clicked on the video to see who these "experts" were. I didn't recognize any of them, but I watched their discussion to hear them out anyway.

The Young Alpha James was the definition of a purebred alpha. Although arguably, the Alpha Princess was also born from an incredible lineage stretching back to the Kingsley Black Wolves in Night Forest, when it came down to it, I was still just a girl. That the Alpha Princess would one day steer the Moon Bell Pack, and the entire Green Packlands with it was probably just Alpha Kingsley's wistful thinking. He had always been radical. Night leaf had laws allowing female wolves to inherit property, own businesses, and be awarded scholarships which included childcare expenses for many years now, but these things (particularly the scholarship) were unique to Night Leaf.

There was a reason why none of these applied to the other packlands, at least not to this extent. No matter how forward-thinking, Alpha Kingsley was, he wouldn't always be here to back up his daughter. It would be impossible for the Alpha Princess to inherit the allegiance of the warriors from her father, never mind winning over the allegiance of the Glorious Lorent Pack and Morning Light.

We were talking about extremely powerful warrior wolves - those were notoriously difficult to control. (Yeah, tell me about it.) The fact that Alpha Kingsley controlled an entire army of Blue Demon Warriors was a testament to his strength.

One of the experts commented, "Imagine an army of Blue Demon warriors running behind a girl." They shared a good laugh over it. I stopped watching the video.

Let's see THEM try to keep up with my wolf! But oh well, no point getting upset with strangers {with weak wolves}.

But I think the fact that I (or Boo) had to point out they were just weak wolves meant that what they said affected me. They were strangers (and weak wolves). This wasn't even the first time I was told I was "just a girl."

I'd show you exactly what "just a girl"could do!

And then I realized I couldn't. I didn't know these people. I would probably never meet them ever.

I wasn't supposed to take this personally.