SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH STEPHAN

7 MARCH, SUNDAY, 8:45PM

All too soon, we came to the end of the tour, I mean inspection, of the Underground Base and new Military School. It wasn't my fault that the entire thing felt like a fun field trip.

"Good job, gentlemen." Dad praised.

"Yah man." Beta Lucas agreed, "That was impressive stuff."

Stephan, Cornelius and Theo bowed politely.

"Thank you, Alpha Kingsley, Beta Lucas. Our army couldn't have developed without the expertise you have lent to us." Cornelius said, "It is our honor to run with Night Leaf."

I would have thought that this was the conclusion, but Cornelius, Stephan, and Theo now turned to look at me as if expecting me to say something.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, if there was a script to follow in any conversation in this life time, I had never received it… Oh wait, I probably should've opened my mindlinks. I'm sure there would be someone on hand who would be happy to cue me in, but I didn't think of it then.

Instead, I opted to just tag along with Dad and Beta Lucas' response, "Yes, thanks for inviting us. I had a lot of fun."

Which apparently turned out not to be the expected response. Cornelius looked a little confused. Stephan and Theo's expressions were unchanging as always so I wasn't sure if the confusion was specific to the elder wolf or just in general.

There was a slight silence where we just looked at each other, me wondering what I could have said better, and them… I don't know what they were thinking. Maybe they felt they needed to give me another nudge. Stephan stepped forward and knelt down on one knee, "Please give your order, Alpha. Our army is fully operational and ready at your command."

Theo dropped down to one knee too, "Our hearts are unafraid and true. Give us the call to follow you."

It was a very dramatic nudge.

Cornelius elaborated with a bow, "To your order princess, there is not a warrior here who would not run out. You have gathered us in your fold while we were fugitives, and  given us a home and a hope.  We owe you our very lives. Send us out, Princess, we will obey your will."

If I did send them out, presumably to do warrior things like fight to the death, wouldn't that cost them their lives? Why would I save them to send them to die?

Then again, why would I (or anyone) gather an army and spend a fortune on them if there wasn't something I needed an army for? To be honest, I wasn't thinking that far ahead when we did it. I just wanted to give them a home, I thought we were going with fate's plan since I did dream of the army, and it did seem convenient that they would be able to help defend our land should the vamps decide to come for them. Over time, the army just seemed like a good way to provide structure and discipline to help these wolves reintegrate back into pack life. The pieces just fell this way.

In this timeline, Bell had left them after their escape and was now gathering a rogue army of his own, presumably to flatten the Lorent Pack as Fount's prophecy stated. Technically, it was more like an ex-rogue army since they stopped being rogue the moment they swore their allegiance to Bell's Alpha Wolf.

Yes, the Lawless and Wild Green Packlands had outdone themselves. The mysterious Night Leaf suddenly produced a full company of elite underground warriors. Most outside wolves believed they were created in underground labs.

Meanwhile, the young Lorent Alpha was amassing rogue wolves for his own personal army - almost as if to rival Night Leaf's. Rumor has it that the merger talks were on the rocks and war was imminent.

Either that or we were going to gang up against Morning Light. The Lorents never got along well with them, and Alpha Daniel had been going up against the territorial laws and it was no secret that he had been causing a ruckus at Night leaf on a regular basis these days.

Some of the Emergency High Council Meeting was going to take Alpha Daniel into account for the infringement of territorial rights. Packs were not allowed to attack other communities (including hidden rogue villages) outside their territories just because they woke up in a bad mood that morning.

The High Council Meeting in this timeline was going to be even messier than before.

The Red Packlands was still on fire. The Black Packlands was no longer cursed, but it was also on fire. Some of the other Alphas were unhappy that we had taken in the escaped fight dogs - they were sure it would start another Great War. I guess they hadn't heard the rumors about my vamp BOYFRIEND #8. I'm not sure if that would make things better or worse. And of course Bell was amassing an ex-rogue army - which was, at least according to Henry's Silver Mountain intel, double our Underground.

I'm guessing that if we combined both our armies, it would be what was the Blue Demon Warriors of the Original Timeline. Let's put that on my to-do list like it was an ordinary task like "Return library books."

On Night Leaf's end, we didn't have to deal with Jude's trial, but we had to explain the death of the Warlock (This was Bell's doing, and River started it just like in our Original Timeline, but we're trying to take the blame for it because we were also trying to take the new territory. We also took in the free wolves there. So we had to explain the population surge. With Stephan's Red Cloud Pack, the ex-fightdogs, and the Free Wolves joining us, we were now the largest pack in the Green Packlands.

Alpha James wasn't too happy about the Glorious Lorent Pack no longer being Number 1. Bell's investiture was within the month and he would be officially the Alpha of the Glorious Lorent Pack. If we could just get mated before I became Alpha of Night Leaf, AND before the new wolves in our pack were officially reflected in the reported population (the paperwork was no joke), our merger would still be the "Lorent-Night Leaf Merger."

If we got mated today, it wouldn't have been too soon for Alpha James.

Any later, and this would go down in history as the Night Leaf- Lorent Merger. No biggie, really, it was just a name, but it was seriously stressing Alpha James out. I offered to just leave it as Lorent-Night Leaf, but Alpha James could not accept that. Technicalities were very important to Lorent Wolves so we had to be technically very correct.

Dad and Mum had made it clear from the beginning that there would be no mating before I was 18 (or 35), but Bell had also more recently made it clear that he didn't want me to be his Luna at all. And now, with our population and military boost, Alpha James was feeling hard pressed. To give him due credit, he was far better behaved about the set back than Alpha Daniel.

At least he wasn't coming over randomly to throw tantrums and accusations at Dad. Alpha James pretty much blamed Bell for messing up everything. Maybe I should add "Fix my relationship with Bell" on my to-do list too.

I had a more pressing issue to deal with right now though. I looked helplessly at my Army Captain and his Vice Captain, both bowed on their knees waiting for my order.

I had only just realized that they probably believed that I had gathered them for some greater purpose which sounded like the coolest kind of lycan legendary storyline except for one little problem... I had NOTHING for them. No mission. No purpose. No great war to fight, no impending disaster to ward off, no vengeance to wrought.

Like seriously, I was a teenage highschooler. Whatever should I mobilize my army to do? Lay siege to my school?

Well they did guard Winderhill while I was there... but I suppose an elite Lycan army like this wouldn't consider guard duty around a highschool much of a mission.

I wondered what kept them so busy in our original timeline? Oh right. Bell.

In my life and heart, there was just this one Bell shaped piece missing.

It was at this point though, maybe because I was missing Bell and wondering what to do about Stephan that I remembered Stephan's black nails. He was still gloved and his expression the usual unreadable granite, but my lucky sense of direction had never steered me wrong.

"What happened to your hand?" I decided maybe a little poking around was in order.

I still had no idea what orders to give my new army so I was just winging it and hoping a good idea would pop up along the way. 

It's not like I could joke, "A hamburger and fries, please!"

At any rate, I doubt they'd get it. They'll just look confused again.

I didn't think something like  "You're free! Have fun, fall in love, be happy!" was going to cut it either.

I guess that's the difference between rescued wolves and or native born pack wolves. The rescues think they were saved for a reason. Our local wolves think the packhouse kitchen should introduce more variety to its weekly menu.

Anyway, my question was met with the same confused expressions and momentary silence as the Underground wolves tried to figure out what their Alpha meant.

And then Stephan confessed, "Apologies, Alpha. There has been something I have not told you."

Still on one knee, he removed one of his gloves to show me his hand. By now, it wasn't just his nails that had blackened, his veins were black under his skin too.

"The truth is, I am the firstborn descendent of the first Tyger King's Agent. Long ago, in the Colored Mountains, my forefather had pledged his allegiance to the Tyger King, and with it received a curse and a power." Stephan explained this as if reciting from memory some kind of lycan legend, "By pledging my allegiance to you and becoming your agent, I have broken my inherited allegiance to the Tyger King. Since then, the curse will continue to consume me until I am no more."

I carefully examined his hand, "Does it hurt?"

That looked painful.

Stephan answered stoically, "It is not beyond my threshold of tolerance."

That sounded painful too.

"Unfortunately, my time to live is limited as far as this curse allows, so please Alpha, give me your order. Use me! Let me be the first to run into the battle for you!"

Yeah… no, thank you. But I hesistated now. I mean, how could it be so coincidental? Because it sounded like Stephan was saying that he was the first born direct descendant of THE Agent Zane - yes, the King's Right Hand, who dealt swift royal retribution with a double sword. I thought about the Agent Zane who was bullet proof by his sheer loyalty and trust in King Ignatius (at least in the movie) and wondered if Stephan was bullet proof too. 

So the three agents were Leon Lazarus, Laru Inga, and Zane Reid. Mystery solved. I just found Bell his missing agent - or at least, I found his heir. He had been right under our noses all this while. All I had to do was jump two timelines to discover that.

I grinned, "Don't worry, Stephan. I think I know how to fix you."