SCHEDULES, PLANS, AND DREAMS

FRIDAY, 12 FEBRUARY, CONT'

"Is there anything the matter, Princess?" Harvey asked.

I realised I was frowning very hard at the glove compartment, and then I had a lightbulb moment, "Urm, I'm just wondering about my schedule. Can you run through it with me?"

Harvey raised a brow at me, his eyes darted to the phone still in my hands (where my calendar was kept updated real-time by three betas.) Dope!

I'm an idiot. Hahaha.

So much for not making a fool of myself.

But Harvey was perfectly professional and began to recite my schedule by memory, "We are returning to the Alpha House for you to rest, shower, and change. Ben would drive you to Gate City to meet Luna, Willow, Savy and Lizzy for your shopping trip. Dinner would be back home at the Alpha House. Since the snow has been cleared, our Thursday Training session that had been rescheduled to Friday would take place as planned. That would be your schedule for today."

Oh right, there would be Thursday Night Training tonight, "Cool, but I need to use the kitchen tonight, urm... to make stuff for tomorrow."

Harvey paused, "Apologies, princess. I've forgotten to allocate time for you to prepare for the Lycan Study Groups Vday Program on Saturday."

Uh yeah. That's exactly why, and not because I needed to make Vday gifts for you and all my betas and friends. Oh wait, what Vday program? I hadn't read the details Harvey sent me yet. Something tells me I'm not going to get much sleep tonight.

"I've just arranged your usage of the kitchen with Ki." Harvey informed me, "He says Savy and Lizzy would be doing some last minute baking too."

"Great! Then we can have a bake off!" I grinned. Even though my item was technically no bake, but it sounded like fun.

"Should I proceed to Saturday's agenda?" Harvey offered.

I nodded. Might as well. It'll be too suspicious if I asked him to skip to Sunday night, at any rate.

Saturday was breakfast with my gang, followed by the Lycan study group special Vday program, lunch, and then the afternoon free for homework and alpha paperwork in the office.

In what way was that "free"?

My parents were hosting a large housewarming dinner party at home and I was expected to attend. This would be followed by my pool party, which was co-hosted by Savy.

"That would be Saturday's schedule, princess. Would this work for you?" Harvey asked.

I wasn't keen on the pool party, but we were quickly reaching home and I had to push through till I heard the plans for Sunday Night.

"Okay, how about Sunday's schedule?" I asked, trying my best to play it cool so it didn't become obvious that I only wanted to know if he was taking me to the dance.

Omo. I was becoming like one of those girls that write to teenage magazines asking stuff like how to ask their boyfriends/crushes something without asking them. Which had always been ridiculous to me - just ask them. But now, I was in an even more ridiculous position since Harvey wasn't even my boyfriend. He was my beta. Why the hell couldn't I just ask him point blank?

Because Savy threatened great awkwardness and... Come to think of it, I should just ask him upfront. I was just wasting both our time.

"Sunday starts with Breakfast with the Alpha at the packhouse dining hall, followed by a visit to the opening of a new local boarding house for New Leaf students. Alpha duties require your input, Princess. Beta Lucas had asked if there was anything you would like to do as future alpha. Finally, the New Leaf Academy Vday Dance is in the evening. The rogue hunt would be concluded by then."

Grrrr.... End the rogue hunt without me? I don't think so.

"The Alpha duties. I want to meet the underground army at the Gold Packlands." And since we're there, I added on a whim, "With supplies and care packages for the Underground, just whatever we can come up with on short notice. It's cold, they have no heating. It's Vday. They would have been fighting for 3 days, I'll be damn if they went home empty handed." As I spoke, the thoughts just came. My wolf's intentions? Or mine? I couldn't tell, but suddenly who I went with for the Vday dance wasn't quite a big deal anymore.

These things that had been quietly brewing in my heart just bubbled out at the memory of my last visit there. And once I got started "as future alpha", it was like an online sale with Mum and Savy where we might as well buy this or that too.

"And the pups along Lullaby Route... I need candy, you know, the mint one that looks like a piece of blue ice? Have them scattered by our patrols every time the kids sing. Sing with them, and teach them new songs - like the one the old soldiers always sang about losing and finding life... You know?" I really hoped Harvey knew what I was talking about, "Our patrols are the frontline. We've lost men on both sides. We can't call the pups future rogues, they're free wolves and there'll be a day when we won't be fighting along that border anymore."

Because I was going to give the Rogue King such a big kicking in his hiney, he wouldn't ever step near the Green Packlands again!

"And the Princess Town, had work stopped because of the storm?" I asked. Might as well deal with this too.

Harvey nodded, "It was delayed by a day, but the surveyors came in shortly after lunch today and are setting up their posts and equipment. They'd be analysing the hill's composition over the next week."

I shook my head, "That's too slow. Nevermind, let them be. Henry's footing the bill, right? So no loss to us. We'll build the town topside with modifications to the original plans. Let's move the Underground over asap, they've suffered enough."

"If the surveyors find a way to build under the town from the foot of the hill, then we'll do that later on too. If not, I'm not going to dig a crater into the top of it anyway, so we'll have to give up the underground city idea."

Harvey had pulled over the car and taken out his phone to type, "Yes, Alpha."

Right, because I'm the Alpha. I will protect everyone's happiness.

{They better be happy, or else.}

Hahaha. Silly Boo, you can't threaten people into being happy.

{Wanna bet?}

I shook my head at my wolf, but it was just one of those moments, you know? That I couldn't really explain, but it was so clear what the Princess Town would be that I could see it in my mind's eye.

"One day, Harvey, the Princess Town would be home not for refugees and charity cases. Because they won't always be refugees or ex-fightdogs or slaves or whatever. There would be apartments for rental, but also for sale. Some way for wolves to buy property with a loan. And jobs and education. And businesses, parks, shops, entertainment. At night the city would be lit like an amusement park. In the springtime, the trees would be covered with red flowers. We'll keep the river running through the town, and let small paddle boats run in it. It would be the trendiest and most romantic place to live in the Green Packlands." I told my good Beta.

"Everything is changing. Why not keep it changing for the better?" I decided, "We will build a pack where all wolves who run in it, whether young or old, would be able to dream, fall in love, build a family, and run together and change the world."

I nodded. Yup, that's exactly how it would go. Because I was the Alpha.

Harvey nodded and finished typing on his phone, "Understood, Alpha. I'll arrange for everything accordingly."

We started the car and finished the journey home. Harvey walked me to the front door and handed me over to Ki before excusing himself with a "Is there anything else I can do for you, princess?"

I shook my head, but it was only when he was long gone, and I was in the shower when I realised, "I still don't know if he's taking me to the dance on Sunday!"

And now that I finally got my quiet moment in the shower, I was starting to wonder if that was the right way to go. A place to "dream, fall in love, build a family, and run together and change the world."

WTH was I talking about? But one day... I want to look out of the Alpha's office window, just like how Dad said, and see something beautiful when I look at the Princess Town.

There's nothing there now... Little by little, one step at a time.

And my first step was to get out of the shower and get dressed into whatever outfit was hanging in the golden bird cage clothes rack. Little baby steps.

I reluctantly turned off the shower, wrapped a towel around me and plodded out to my room.

At first, I unlocked and slid open the sliding door and stood back into my room, intending to drop my towel, shift, and go out to shake dry on the rooftop. But I had a sudden idea. I stepped out, with my towel in my human form and let my hair flare out into the cold air.

Normally I had no control of my hair. It did whatever it liked on instinct. But it seemed that after all the times I've been shifting to shake dry, my hair learned to do the same even in my human form.

It flared out and then there was a zing sound as it's strands decided to suddenly lash forward as wire blades. That was new, and completely unexpected. There was a flash of white, a shine that looked almost metallic before the hair fell back, mildly damp but otherwise just very long blue hair.

I used a hand to pull back my fringe and walk back into my bedroom. Mental note: that would have been dangerous if someone was standing in front of me.

My initial reaction was to bemoan how stupid my hair was and how I hated having double edged blades on my head, or how I would probably end up killing someone one day.

And then I just gave up. I'm tired of complaining every time something weird like that happened. No matter how much I hated it, my wolf was evolving beyond my control. Hating it everytime something changed wasn't helping anyone.

This wasn't like a breakthrough moment where I felt like I was finally able to love and accept myself. It was more of a "whatever" moment, where I was done with this s***. And I knew there was going to be more s*** up ahead, so I wasn't going to throw a fuss everytime it happened anymore.

It seems like the moon goddess was determined to turn me into a monster. So be it. Maybe I'll evolve till I took on Uncle Andre's fight form permanently and stomp around like the Hulk with smurf fur. I might even get a couple of tusks.

If I did, I'd invest in an electric toothbrush. Yeah. Whatever.

Do your worst goddess!

Which was probably a stupid thing to say to the goddess. But wth. I was feeling dangerous.

I got dressed. Apparently, Ki believed that people who went to high class boutiques should dress in high class boutique stuff. This totally didn't make sense. If I already had this stuff, why was I shopping for more - oh wait, I probably already had a perfectly good dress for the dance somewhere in my extensive wardrobe.

Okay, pause the internal rant for a moment. I looked at the pieces of clothes hung out for me. I had to figure out how to put them on like a puzzle:

Okay, underwear, and then camisole and stockings. I'm quite sure those went on first.

Then there was this white turtleneck knit dress? Yeah, it was pretty long for a sweater. Anyway, I was quite sure it was a dress, not because it was that long, it wasn't, but there were no pants.

And I don't think Ki would forget a detail like that.

Okay, so the knit dress goes over the camisole. Why did I need a camisole? It's not like I could take off the dress if it got warm. Maybe Ki didn't want my perspiration to get on the inside of the dress?

And a white knit dress? It was impossible for real life. I think I would probably spill something on it, or sit on something sticky, or shift in it. Hahaha. Maybe it would stretch to accommodate my wolf form. I imagined my dark blue wolf encased in the little knit dress - like one of those white netted foam sleeves that fancy fruit wore. Hahahaha. So not cool.

Okay, anyway, after the dress, I think there was this long sleeveless trench vest thing in very light grey. That should go over the dress.

And then there were these really long grey boots, they looked like they'd go over my knees. I've never had such long boots before. Okay, let's give it a go.

It was harder to put on than I thought. You'd think the zipper should be at least the length of the boot (it wasn't). Anyway, it was on, and I wasn't going to take it off, even though I realized belatedly that it was heeled. Not too much that I had noticed at first. Maybe about two inches.

It's okay. I got this. I was almost done piecing together the puzzle that was my outfit to go buy more outfits.

Honestly, after all this trouble, there was no way I was going to change in and out of it repeatedly to try anything on. I'm going to window shop and lend moral support. Like if I had all this stuff in my wardrobe, I definitely had a dress fit for a vday highshool dance.

Last piece was a winter coat. It was a pale pink. Why? Was this punishment for getting the white coat torn up? But that was Ruby's fault, not mine... And I left it at the Underground so Ki wouldn't have known. Except that the entire outfit and a bunch of jewellery had just been left there in my previous dream travel. This dream travel thing had some logistical kinks to iron out.

I put on the dusky pink coat. It was long, about the length of my dress. And loose and came with a hood. Little pink riding hood.

Then accessories, which I cheated and skipped on. And small handbags which I also decided to skip. Gloves, scarves, hats... Skip skip skip!

I'm done!

I skipped out of my room and down the stairs. Ben was already at the front door, his jacket was opened and he was on his screen in the usual Beta position.

I felt happy immediately because everything looked so normal, just the way it should be, until I walked over to Ben and caught sight of our reflection on the large mirror by the front door... and I had to take a second look...