RIVER'S "BIG HELP"

23 FEBRUARY, TUESDAY, CONTINUED

Inside the house, Dad and Beta Lucas were standing absolutely still on one end of the hallway. Lizzy and Sabre stood facing them at the foot of the stairs, wide eyed and anxious.

"What happened?" I flared.

"Savy's gone!" Sabre announced.

"Savy hasn't come home yet." Lizzy said at the same time.

Eh? I looked around stupidly. Naturally, Savy wasn't here.

Lizzy must have realized she had to explain herself again, "Savy asked me to come over to play with Sabre for a while so she could meet River at the packhouse for a bit."

Lizzy shrugged haplessly, "But she's been gone for hours and she isn't back yet."

Lizzy sent both our dads a fretful glance, I didn't blame her, their expressions were ominous and I was sure she was already in a quicksand of trouble, minimally with Beta Lucas.

"Lizzy...." Beta Lucas said now, "I'm going to ask you one more time, are you sure Savy went to the packhouse?"

"She SAID she was going to the packhouse." Lizzy qualified.

"The guard on duty just reported that Savy had not passed through the packhouse door today." Beta Lucas informed his daughter.

Lizzy shrugged again, "I only know what she told me!"

I shrugged too, "She could've just gone through the backdoor."

The kitchen entrance was closer to the Alpha House anyway.

"She's not at the packhouse." Dad reiterated. He was frowning, "She's not in our packlands."

Oh. That's bad. I belatedly scanned our territory. Savy wasn't too far off though... I think. I mean, wolf radar was a feeling kind of thing, it wasn't like an actual GPS screen.

"She's not answering her mindlinks either!" Mum added wringing her hands besides me, "What should we do?"

Our doorbell rang.

Ben got the door almost immediately since he was still standing next to it. Keanu and Conrad rushed in, "Sam, we've got a problem!" Keanu exclaimed the moment he saw me, then he caught himself when he realized Dad and Mum were here too.

"Eh, heh, heh..." Keanu straightened quickly, he rubbed the back of his head and laughed weakly, "Excuse us Alphas and Luna, "I don't suppose River is here?"

Why did that not surprise me?

"No, he's not. Why?" I answered tersely. That River! If he wasn't already in trouble now, I was quite sure he was OTW.

"Oh dear." Keanu hesistated.

"What?" I demanded.

"Ah, nothing." Keanu tried to cover for his friend, "He was supposed to be grounded..."

"And?" I prompted. I knew Kneanu wasn't telling the whole truth. He was pretty obvious about it since he kept glancing at my parents.

"Well..." Keanu said.

And he was also dragging it out, so I knew he had to know something.

Suddenly, just for a split second there, I kinda understood why Alpha Lorent had Ki whipped. My hair flared and zinged metallic, "Keanu... If you know where River is, you better spit it out now."

Who knew what danger River - and very possibly Savy - had gotten into now? Gah! We should have double-guarded River! I was too naive to trust Alpha Gunter's men to watch that troublemaker!

"Well, I don't know for sure..." Keanu started. He was starting to sound like Lizzy. You know, the point where you know you need to get help for your friend, but you really don't want to get him in more trouble than necessary.

"Just say it already!" I spat out.

"Alright!" Keanu raised his hands, "Last night, River was talking to me about it being his responsibility to return the stone because he was feeling bad about causing trouble with the warlock for your pack."

And he thought the way to solve it was taking my sister along with him to his grave?

"I'm afraid he has ventured into the warlock forest on his own in a bid to return the stone himself." Keanu concluded.

I didn't bother to hide Boo at all, "Well I have good news and bad news for you."

I smiled, my wide smile, my hair shining a deep metallic blue, "The good news is, River isn't alone."

Keanu's mouth dropped opened in realization, "Oh crap."

Yes, that's right. Were you finally seeing how much trouble your River was in right now, human?

Keanu swallowed and braced his skinny frame just a little before asking, "What's the bad news?"

Fine, since you clearly wanted me to spell it out for you, "The bad news is that he is with Savy. And if anything bad... No, if he lets anything even mildly uncomfortable happen to Savy, I'm going to kill him."

By now, Boo was so on the surface, my ears had shifted... Not just my ears, my teeth too - just a little.

Keanu gulped.

"There's no time to lose, Keanu." Conrad said, "We have to go get them back before anything happens."

Conrad stepped forward and bowed, "Forgive us. We've blundered in preventing this mishap. This responsibility falls alone on me. Please allow me to go at once. I will have your sister returned safely returned by the end of the night. I will also accept any punishment you deem fit."

I narrowed my eyes at Conrad. He was going to shoulder the blame for the possible loss of the Alpha's daughter? He wasn't weak, but he was still just a human.

"Do you think you can?" I asked.

"I will or I will die trying, Alpha." Conrad promised me, "You have my word."

I laughed, "You know what's the funniest thing about River?"

No one answered me. They probably thought I had gone mad.

"In his bid to "help", he only ever causes more trouble for everyone around him." I answered my own question, "What a talented troublemaker he is!"

Conrad stiffened at what he had interpreted as criticism, but Keanu who was really a very intelligent human caught whiff of Boo's challenge.

"Well, it takes one to know one." Keanu smiled. He had decided to take a gamble and deal directly with Boo. I'm not sure where Keanu borrowed this new confidence from, but he straightened and looked me in my eyes, "After all, you've been good friends with River since we've met. One might even say, birds of a feather flock together."

Which was a human idiom by the way. So Keanu had misquoted, but I was willing to overlook it, since I quite liked that idiom myself.

"Are you calling me a troublemaker, Keanu?" Boo found it entirely amusing, partly because Conrad was now s***ting in his pants - idiomatically speaking of course.

Keanu actually smiled, the brazen human, "I would never dare."

Which was completely true too. Boo chuckled. Smart human.

"Fine. Conrad may attempt to retrieve my sister - and River too, while he's at it." Boo allowed, "Who knows? Maybe the enchantments were not made to target humans."

"Thank you alpha!" Conrad and Keanu bowed and left immediately.

It's nice being alpha.

I turned to my own family, "It's okay, Lizzy. We'd get Savy back. Thanks for telling us."

She could've hidden the fact from us longer. I knew for a fact that Lizzy was quite capable of hiding Savy's absence from my mum at least till bedtime.

Lizzy shrugged yet again, "I don't know... She has never taken this long to go out for a bit before."

"Don't worry about it." I assured Lizzy, "Ben and I will get her back. Come on, Ben. Let's go hunt-"

Unfortunately, an alpha was never quite as respected in her own home. Mum immediately interrupted me, "Samantha Kingsley! Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to get Savy." I answered matter of fact. What? Did she think I would seriously leave the safety of my own sister to a single wildcard of a human (aka Conrad)?

"Oh no you're not." Mum said firmly, "You're grounded, remember?"

"You let me go see Bell!" I flared.

"That was on compassionate grounds!" Mum had an answer for everything.

"Dad!" I gave my Dad the best puppy dog eyes I could make. It was so good Beta Lucas winced empathetically.

But Dad wasn't going to budge either, "Listen to your mother, Sam. Lucas and I will go."

"It's not fair!" Suddenly all the alpha coolness exhibited earlier melted away, "I'm lucky. I know the way in. Ben and I are the best and fastest when it comes down to a hunt!"

Ben swelled with pride at that, "We'd find Savy and that Prince River in record time."

"We could race. Whatdya say to that Dad? Beta Lucas?" I suggested. {So fun!}

Dad's resolve flickered just for a moment, but then Mum had to ask, "How would you know the way in?" And then she sigh because she imagined something all on her own, "Oh Sam! Don't tell me you've been crossing the borderline on your own!"

Ah, opps.

My mum had quite a good imagination. No matter what trouble I got into, she was quite able to imagine it happening - at times I suspected her imagination was worse than actuality.

"Go to your room, Sam." Dad decided I had upset his mate enough, "You're not allowed to leave it till morning - not even in a dream travel."

As if I was going to back down just like that, "Can I at least see Bell?"

"You're not allowed to leave your tower." Dad amended.

"You're locking me in a tower?" I gasped. I was actually only half joking, but Dad growled in all seriousness, "Don't tempt me, Sam."

I immediately reigned Boo in. Okay, unless I wanted to rename myself Rapunzel, it's time to back down.

Satisfied that he had handled me, Dad nodded to his beta, "Let's go Lucas."

"Yes, Alpha." Beta Lucas nodded, but he looked unusually grim.

"Come on, Ben." I said. There was nothing else for me to do but go sulk in my tower.

I guess if its Dad and Beta Lucas, of course they'd bring Savy back. I know I said Ben and I were the best hunters - but I meant, in our generation. In our whole pack, Dad and Beta Lucas were the best hunters. They'd been the best hunters all my life. In fall, when we have our annual hunting games, the second place would always win the top prize because Dad and Beta Lucas ALWAYS took first place.

Anyway, they'd probably hunt River and Savy down quickly enough. Even if its through the Warlock Forest. I knew my Dad and Beta Lucas enough by now to know they would have their own ways and means to deal with the enchantments.

Dad kissed Mum on the mouth, just very softly, "Don't worry darling. I'll be back with Savy by morning."

I walked away without turning back, Ben at heel. Boo was sulking, hunting sounded like more fun to her. Me too.

"So now what?" Ben asked.

"We leave it to our dads." I answered idly.

"Really?" Ben asked.

What? He thought I was going to sneak out too? Oh, tempting. But I shook my head, "Our pack is on code orange, Bell and Ki are down, the snow wolves and Delta Oran are with us, and our Dad's might be out all night."

I was the alpha. I would protect everyone.

"We need to stay, Ben." I was so responsible like that, "We're our pack's first and last line of defense now."

I stopped outside a door and sniffed just to double check. This should be Ki's door.

My wolf sensed Ki and Harvey on the other side. Ben knocked, the usual double tap and turned the knob to let me in.

I stopped short at the doorway of the small room and blinked. Why was Harvey on Ki's bed? Because my good beta was on his hands and knees over Ki in the narrow bed against the wall.