PARTY WITH THE PRINCESS: QUICK, AFTER HER!

If this was a drama of some sort, we'd all go out into the cold dark night, stand around the rooftop pool deck in all our beautiful white dresses, our hair windswept with a blow dryer, and our hearts on our sleeves.

"Why? Why is this happening?" Abigail would cry in anguish. And she did, but this wasn't a drama. We were all bundled up in our coats - which we had to wait our turn to collect from the coat counter in an opened gazebo. Now that I've been in the dining hall, I could see how a coat counter would never fit inside the open-concept glass hall. There wasn't even a kitchen. All the food was delivered from the club restaurant. But a coat counter at an open gazebo was like stupid. We froze while waiting for our coats, and when we got them, it was like putting on a coat that you decided to keep in your freezer. My black fur coat felt like a dead thing found out in the snow.

But let's skip all the reality checks and get down to the drama proper. The drama all happened like on TV, but unlike a glamourous pool party scene, we looked more like a discovery channel scene. From afar, we were just standing around the pool in our dark coats wrapped tightly around our white dresses, like cold penguins just standing around in the arctic cold.

Once upon a time, there was a human girl who dreamed of greater things in life. She was an overachiever by nature and could not be content with just her father's deep pockets, or her mother's doting generosity. Abigail had always been a beautiful child. When she was four, she starred in the soy milk commercial - the one where an angelic little girl drank soy milk while the music in the background sang about how "You must have been a beautiful baby..."

"That was you?" Zara gasped, "But... but... that girl was so sweet and innocent!"

"It just goes to show," Leia smirked, "You can't believe anything you see on TV."

I wasn't sure if the cool girls were still in attack mode, or if they were just being their usual selves. Let's just ignore that. At any rate, Abigail was standing there looking superior and unaffected by their barbed comments.

"Wow, does that mean my classmate is someone famous?" Zara asked.

Henry smirked, "You mean besides Sam and me?"

"Stupid Henry." Zara scolded, "All you're famous for is being a player."

Ouch.

Anyway, the human girl met her Lycan Prince in high school. It was love at first sight.

"More like she loved his money." Zara sniggered.

"No, her family already has money." Krystal correctly, "She's in it for his status. Henry is her ticket to becoming royalty."

Which was ridiculous because Alphas were not royalty. Alphas were leaders of wolves. In human terms, "Werewolves".

"I bet that Henry being dirt rich didn't hurt." Leia pointed out, "The one thing rich people always want is more money."

One day, the human girl was walking on the arm of her Lycan Prince. Abigail remembered it most vividly, "It was a bright clear winter afternoon."

They were on their valentine's day date (the one they had on Friday after school because Henry was meeting me and my betas to ride motorbikes on Saturday, and then taking Charbear on their valentine's date on Sunday.) While taking a romantic stroll by Gold City's boulevard, they passed by Roulette. The human girl stopped to admire the beautiful trinkets in the display window - particularly the new charm bracelets to "immortalize life's golden moments in a treasure." Naturally, the charm bracelets were made of 24 karat gold.

The human girl shyly told her Lycan Prince that she wasn't the kind of girl who cared about diamond rings, "Everyone makes such a big deal about getting a diamond ring. What about you? What do you think?"

Her Lycan Prince looked up from his phone and squinted at the display, "Although diamonds are forever, gold has more power in terms of inflation and general worth."

"You said, WHAT?" Zara asked.

Ivan had his hand smacked on his forehead, "Henry, even I know that wasn't the right answer. For a playboy, you can be pretty slow, huh?"

"What?" Henry only looked bewildered.

This was when Ki realized that a cultural misunderstanding might be the root of this saga. (Until the fire wolf incident, I had never heard of it, but now cultural misunderstanding is popping up left, right, and center.)

Some time was taken to explain to the wolves that humans had a tradition where the male would give a female a diamond ring to ask for her hand in marriage.

"Oh." This was news to Henry, "But that wasn't a ring."

No, it was just the exact same charm bracelet accessories with an "A for Abigail" charm and a single diamond in the middle of the golden heart charm in place of the diamond ring.

Congratulations, Henry. You nailed it.

Now it was Beta Peter's turn to explain. He apologized and regretted deeply the cultural misunderstanding that he had caused. Yes, it was his fault because he was the beta. Haha, no, he didn't say that. Actually, he explained that he was the one who picked Abigail's birthday gift, not Henry. Beta Peter was not privy to their earlier conversation at Roulette's shop window. He had simply asked his Young Alpha if he wished to gift a "bag or bling". Henry had answered "bling" and Beta Pete made a call to Roulette for a suitable gift. The gift was delivered to them this morning, and to be perfectly honest, neither he nor his young alpha was aware of what was in it.

"But... but... but..." Abigail protested. She looked desperately to Henry who only shrugged, "That's how it is. It's not like I'd have the time to deal with this kind of thing, right Sam?"

What? Don't drag me down with you! Can't you see that Abigail was seriously about to cry?

"So..." Zara said, just to make sure we were all clear on the matter, "Stupid Henry didn't propose to Abigail while on a date with Zammi?"

No. And NO! Henry and I were NOT on a date. We were just... we just stepped into the party at the same time, okay?

"Why? Why is this happening?" Abigail's anguished cry dragged into a whine.

I looked at Henry. If I could mindlink, I would have told him, "Do something!"

He looked at me. I'm guessing if he could mindlink, he would be saying, "What the hell!"

This was when Abigail turned crazy. I mean, she was acting crazy earlier too, but it was a "cultural misunderstanding." That stuff happened to the best of us. (Ahem.)

But now, she was glaring at me as if this was my fault. If she had fangs, they would be out, "It's you!"

I froze when her finger pointed at me as if it were a gun, "You set me up!"

I what?

"You set me up! Pearl was right, your nice girl act is world-class. I almost believed you - ALMOST, but it's out of the bag now." Abigail raged. If we were in a TV drama, and not the discovery channel, Abigail would have moved forward to attack me, arms raised and bling glittering under the spotlight. BUT we were more of a documentary, so she hobbled over, her feet frozen in her strappy heels and a dark grey woolen coat like a lampshade over her beautiful dress.

My guards stepped up at this point. Abigail's mum quickly pulled her daughter back in case she should throw herself into a fight against those four - two of which were built like the mountain, one inked like the devil's totem, and Jax. In comparison to the other three, Jax looked like the safest guy to tackle.

"It wasn't me." I said. Well, at the moment, it was all that came to my mind.

Abigail was giving me WAY too much credit. Did she think I spied on them during their date, bought the gift, switched it with the gift Beta Pete ordered, and then made Henry accidentally propose to her in front of all her guests at her birthday party?

Abigail was foaming mad now. Her mum had to forcibly hold her back by her arm. My guards were on alert, ready to intercept the moment Abigail broke free and rushed towards me. As far as I could tell, she was unarmed. It's not like she could actually hurt me... but that wasn't the issue right now.

I know it was a cultural misunderstanding, but being told so wasn't going to unbreak her heart.

She thought Henry was proposing to her. I mean, I wasn't a human cultural expert or anything, but I had watched enough TV to know that this was IMPORTANT to human girls.

"You're always taking what's mine." Abigail accused, "I should have been the girl the guys in the class fight over. I should have been one of the cool girls. I should've been sitting and laughing with the pops. I should've been Juliet. 8 I should have been the one with Henry tonight."

"And even on my birthday." Abigail became tearful all over again, "You couldn't even just let me be the princess for one night!"

"How far the morning star has fallen." Fluffy commented, and I couldn't tell if he was referring to Abigail or me.

I had never been the princessy type, so I hadn't thought of it, but I guess if I had been the princessy type, and if I had wanted to be the princess on my birthday, having the Alpha Princess crash my party and then everyone compare our dresses and conclude that I was a fake would have bummed me out. I immediately felt bad, "Look, this dress... I didn't know..."

"A hundred apologies, the dress was my fault." Ki stepped up now, "I was the one who hand-selected the Alpha Princess' outfit. As with the gifts, our jobs often also encompass managing our alpha's wardrobes for their many social obligations."

Beta Pete nodded his affirmation.

This was why Betas were always apologizing. It was because they were always doing everything.

Abigail didn't buy it though, "You're lying! You're all just siding with her because she's the Alpha Princess!"

She turned to glare vehemently at me, "Do you know what karma is, Alpha Princess? It's something we humans believe in, and Alpha Princess, mark my words. Karma will get you."

I couldn't really respond to that one because I wasn't entirely sure what Karma was. The cool girls talked about it a lot. I think it was something about the bad deeds I do coming back to bite me.

"If it's karma, you should be the one who needs to watch out." Krystal said.

"Yeah, b****." Zara agreed, "Karma loves b****es like you best."

Abigail bit her lips, "I didn't want to do this..."

Uh oh.

Abigail pulled out of her mum's grasp, but instead of running at me, she ran the other way, "Whatever happens, you only have yourself to blame, Sam!"

"Quick, after her!" Krystal ordered.

And for some reason, we all chased her down. I overheard Harvey and Ki briefing warriors over the mindlink to seal all high-floor exits and be ready to intervene in case of potential self-harm. This alarmed me very much. I could hear my heart pounding as we ran - there were only two lifts, Abigail had taken one, her parents and the other humans packed into the other, so the rest of us had to run down the stairs.

Henry was furious. The words that he used! The ladies back home would say he needed to wash his mouth with soap. (I think this saying was from back in Beta Lucas' time when they used soap for everything.)

Every now and then, EJ (he was really fast) or someone (did my wolves think this was a race?) would pop out to the lift lobby to see if Abigail's lift had stopped. They took great pleasure in being the one to yell, "Clear!"

Not that it was a competition, but if it were, we'd have left Henry's red ants to eat our dust.

Abigail's lift stopped on the ground floor.

We landed two seconds after the other lift opened. All of us spilled out into the fancy lobby to the surprise and later on alarm of the other club members. I mean, we were as far as they could tell, a pack of really worked-up wolves.

"She's heading out!" Jax called warning.

"Stop." Henry gasped from behind us. He had to catch his breath, "Press."

Press what.

{Halt.} Harvey ordered, stopping all my wolves in their tracks, {She's going to the press.}

Oh... that press. Right... There were quite a lot of them outside too.

"What the hell, Sam." Henry said. I guess he caught his breath.

"It wasn't me!" I flared. More from the panic of what Abigail was going to tell the nice reporters outside.

"I mean, what the hell... how do you even run in that?" Henry asked.

I looked down at my dress and boots. Oh.

"I panicked." I admitted. I totally forgot everything else. On the bright side, I was quite warm now.

"You guys..." Marcus who took a little longer to steady his breath was now shaking his head at me, "You're monsters... no, more like demons..."

I looked at my wolves, and then at the red ants and my friends. Lol. My wolves looked like they just ran for the bus, these guys looked like they did a half marathon. I beamed, "We just like to run fast."