WHEN DAD'S IN CHARGE

"Thank you for coming all this way." Dad said at the end of the lengthy introduction, "Let's continue talking inside."

Grand Elder Horio looked relieved, "Thank you, Alpha."

"You too, Sam." Dad added before turning to lead the way back into the Packhouse, {Lucas, wrap up here.}

{Alright, you heard the alpha!} Beta Lucas sprang into action across the pack's public mindlink, {Move it! All the gifts down into the basement training hall. Harry, have the street cleaned up. Ben, you'll have to deal with them. I want a log list of all the items reported at the end of the day.}

{Yeah, ok.} Ben at least knew to mask his bad attitude on the public mindlink.

{Ok, ok. No problem beta.} Gamma Harry sounded chipper, {Ok, men. No, don't move the roadblock! Get the things of the roads. Don't break anything! Jonah, Jonah! Go downstairs to the hall and mark the floor.}

Jonah's first question was, {Uh... What do we do with the horses?}

Nobody knew what to do with the horses. It's not like we could put them in the basement. Actually, it wasn't like they were giving us any heed. These horses didn't treat wolves as their masters.

The captain horse was like, {We're done here. Your highness, open the way home for us.}

Gareth opened the portals to send back the servants, warriors, horses, carriages.

{Thanks. Take care of yourself.} The captain horse said as he left, {I'll leave Panchas here with you for now. He'll find his own way back when he's sure you've settled in.}

Was Gareth's horse worried about him?

"Come on, Sam. Don't space out now." Ben pushed me towards the Packhouse.

Beta Lucas was still blaring into the mindlink, even as he hurried behind my Dad, {Okay, everyone! This is important. The incident is to be kept OFFLINE. If anyone leaks pictures to the LNC, you'll be answering to me.}

Which didn't sound like much of a threat to me, but the other wolves tittered into their personal mindlinks straightaway so that everyone would know about our newest pack secret. Just in case anyone didn't know exactly what should not be leaked, it should be clearly and fully described in every detail. Haha.

{Did you hear? Our Alpha Princess has boys chasing her here all the way from the Colored Mountains!}

I tuned out immediately. There was not point arguing with gossip.

As I stepped into the Packhouse, I worried about leaving the wild horses on our lawn, I worried about Gaara and Anna not being able to find their rooms. I worried about leaving Hayao alone with Fluffy...

But by the time we were on the third floor, I glanced out a passing window and had to stop to look again because it was all gone. The horses and carriages, Hellers soldiers and the uniformed servants, the gifts and crates... Everything was gone.

I blinked at the sight of the normalcy of everyday. The pack feeder bus was chugging up towards us, there were a couple of pups and their mum pushing a pram down the other side of the street. One pup was running circles around the other. On our side of the street, 3 or 4 warriors wandered around. One of them was holding an outdoor broom, another one a trash bag...

"Come on, Sam." Ben said, "We're gonna be the last in."

He popped his head closer to the window to see what made me stop.

Of course, there was nothing there of note. It was just another normal day outside.

This had to be Dad and Beta Lucas' "wrap up", which was also a kind of power I guess - the ability to revert anything, even the appearance of an untouchable and legendary world, back to normal again.

So in my mind, my dad was really the ultimate power. What I thought was two worlds colliding had become nothing more than the newest gossip on the pack links about the Alpha Princess' fancy new suitor.

Seeing nothing out of the ordinary outside, Ben pushed, I mean GUIDED me by the small of my back towards the conference room, "Come on, Sam. My Dad's gonna pick on me again if you keep them waiting."

"What were you looking at anyway?" Ben asked after a moment of walking. It was just the two of us... So much for my morning entourage.

"Hm? Oh, nothing." I shrugged.

I guess "nothing" was good. It meant that our everyday life of our everyday wolves would continue happily. Someone would be going to the park to feed the ducks. Someone would be bringing the kids to visit grandparents in Morning Light. Someone was packing lunch for the Destitute House.

"Yeah... Okay." Ben didn't sound completely convinced that "nothing" would have kept my attention, but he shrugged it off, "Then just keep your mindlinks open, we're going in."

Ben knocked on the door, the usual two raps and opened it to let me in, "Alpha Princess is here."

As usual, most of the room rose to their feet at my entry. This was normal now too. Maybe the trick to keeping everything normal isn't keeping everything unchanging, but making little changes so subtly that no one quite notices until it's too late.

I settled into the chair that Ben pulled out and everyone else resumed their seat. It looked like they had waited, because everyone had already been furnished with coffee/tea/bottled water. There were sandwiches and cookies on the conference room table.

Ben produced a small bag of M&Ms and a bottle of water and sat next to me.

This could just be another normal meeting, except for the Colored Mountain wolves. I didn't touch the packet of M&Ms. It didn't seem respectful since they were not eating either.

"Good, we're all here." Dad nodded.

Mum smiled at our guests from his side, "Please make yourselves at home and have something to eat. Our pack is very informal so there is no need to stand on ceremony."

I think Mum was getting used to hanging out with stuffy formal wolves (e.g. Wolfgang).

Grand Elder Horio looked to Gareth to say something. Apparently, Grand Elder Horio seemed to feel that Gareth was the big shot and should speak first.

Gareth looked at Grand Elder Horio to say something because Grand Elder Horio was old so he was the senior who should speak first.

Anna was the one who decided she had better say something before the lag got awkward, "Thank you, Luna. Please excuse our manners in advance, we are unused to the customs here."

I tried to be helpful, "Oh, well you don't have to be worried about that. Just be normal..."

Of course I realized as I spoke that my normal wasn't the same as their normal.

"I mean, just do whatever." I tried to explain. Yes, I was aware that my explanation left a lot to be desired.

Anna smiled warmly, "Thank you for your kindness, Princess."

Eh? I thought I was the Alpha? But then I realized that Dad was sitting at the head of the table and from my seat on his right, I guess the Colored Mountain wolves understood - their Blue Alpha was only next in line.

Two raps on the door.

"Come in." Dad answered.

Ki entered with a platter of cut fruit and his usual Killion dollar smile and pretty bow, "Pardon, Alpha."

He was followed by another three wolves, Wolfgang, Torque and Ink. I guess I had only lost my Morning Entourage because it was time for my Afternoon Entourage?

Wolfgang bowed, an arm folded in front of him, "Greetings to Alpha, Luna, and Alpha Princess."

So much for not standing on ceremony.

And then Torque and Ink bowed, "Torque and Ink reporting for duty."

"You're late." Ben waved them off, "Collect your punishment from my office after this."

"Yes, Beta." Torque and Ink bowed again, because Ben's office is now the "Principal's office." Was it only just me who found all this amusing? That Ben - who had always been the regular visitor of Principal's Charlie's office was now implementing this, along with pretty much every other child discipline technique ever published in his mother's personal library?

I guess the guy who had to experience the most types of disciplinary actions (all with good reason), would now be able to execute them based on personal experience? Except that I doubt Ben's idea of punishment was as mild as leaf raking or being grounded.

Ki served the sandwiches and cookies and fruit to our guests and poured coffee. Wolfgang sat himself next to Ben. He flicked his hair and I opened up my mindlink. Thus without further ado, the meeting began. It wasn't a real meeting, Dad and Grand Elder Horio just talked about adult things. Grand Elder Horio was very curious about the pack social structures out here in the plains. Dad had always been generally interested about anything regarding the Colored Mountains. In other words, they hit off immediately. Even Wolfgang proved to be quite knowledgeable, and was able to provide some insightful comments about the development of the Colored Packlands could be likened to the early growth of Black Mountain.

I will not bore you with the historical rise and subsequent development of the Colored Mountains or the similarities and differences between how the civilizations of Wolves in the Plains and the Wolves in the Mountains were established. Let's just say, it was a very educational meeting, but at least it was less boring than some of those tea parties Mum hosts where the ladies spend it discussing the weather and how it had affected their daily routines.

I just listened, mostly because Wolfgang was there, and based on my experience of lycan teachers, I felt very sure this was going to lead to homework in some way. Lycan teachers really, really liked their students to learn from real life discussions and events, so something as amazing as this would require a report at the very least.

If I were a lycan teacher, I'd be telling my stoopid student, "How can you not be in awe? Don't you know that you are right now in the crux of a pivotal moment of lycan history? When was the last time a representative of the Colored Mountain came to visit a Wolf Pack in the plains?"

"Never?" Stoopid student would guess because stoopid student wouldn't have lived long enough to know.

Lycan teachers spend all their lives surrounded by walls. They always feel like they were talking to a wall, or get driven up walls, and every now and then they would want to bang their head against a wall. (It's true, they often told us so.)

But the meeting ended with Grand Elder Horio gratefully accepting Dad's hospitality and agreeing to be our guest for the next few days. He was very curious about our pack anyway - how was it that such a place would attract the fealty of His Highness, Prince Gareth to retire to? Or cause Prince Heller and Prince Haku to tie the future of their own Packs to so irrevocably. There was no denying that the Young Princes were the heirs to their fathers' Houses and Packlands. Haku was known to be a very cautious Prince, and Heller was known for his overt strategies, so for them to so boldly make a concerted push in one direction could only mean that they were very confident in their interpretation of the Blue Rose prophesy.

"And you, Alpha?" Grand Elder Horio had asked Dad, "What does Alpha Kingsley think?"

I felt quite sure Dad had not heard of this prophesy until today, but don't worry, my Dad answered in his usual zen, "Even if we can tell the future, we seldom understand it."

"True, true." Grand Elder Horio nodded with his hand on his chin, "Alpha Kingsley speaks wisely."