THE FUTURE TAKE 3

I decided I had to take charge, "Okay Ben, tell it again. Do it better this time or I'll make you repeat yourself!"

As I guessed, Future Ben had the same pet peeves. Ben sighed like I was being troublesome, and then smirked again, "It's so f***ing good to be back."

"Shut up and talk!" I flared.

Which only made Ben laugh, when he laughed like that, despite the eye patch and extra 15 years, he suddenly looked very Ben, "Yeah, okay, okay!"

So, back to the future:

I was devastated by Grandma Wanda's passing and often slipped off into the woods on my own. It was well known that if I wasn't on Packlands, I would be found at Grandma Wanda's tower in the warlock lands.

It was a little inconvenient, especially since I would block my mindlinks and not check my phone. My betas would try to cover for me, and should they need me, they could always send one of the faster warriors out to fetch me.

Everyone tried to be understanding. Mum told my betas that it would be best to give me the space to mourn. Ben thought I was being weirder than usual, I hadn't even mourned this much for my Grandpa Alpha, but whatever.

Then one day, I came home with a grey Persian cat named Parry.

"Peri." Peony corrected.

"Parry, Peri, Pony, Peony... It's the same thing." Ben shrugged.

"I beg your pardon!" Peony was offended.

Anyway, Parry became my constant companion and seemed to have comforted me a great deal.

After I brought it home, I stopped slipping off to the warlock lands. I also seemed happier overall.

This could also be due to the invitation from Sir Wolfgang to visit him at his Countryside home after our upcoming official visit to the Snow Moon Kingdom.

It had been nearly a year since Wolfgang was returned to Snow Moon.

Allegedly, I told Ben while discussing the trip plans that Parry reminded me of Wolfgang, "But it would be good to see the real person again."

Wait, was it just me, but why did that make me sound like some sort of love lorn princess? O.o (I hoped no one hearing it thought so.)

"So Hotstuff was replaced by a cat?" Fluffy asked, smiling because his wolf was truly enjoying himself.

Wolfgang coughed into his hand, "Please continue the story beta."

My 18th birthday was approaching. After a tour around the continent (including Wolfgang's countryside home), there would be a grand investiture - Moon Bell Pack would be officially on the map.

But come Spring, I started disappearing.

It wasn't like dream traveling, which I also did very regularly. It was like I would slip off into the woods again, this time with Parry, and blink out of existence entirely.

It wouldn't be for very long, sometimes only for as little as a minute or two, and I would re-emerge from the woods like nothing happened. (Parry was evidently much more skilled at navigating the time traveling gates)

And every time I did that, Bell would fly off the handle. Like he would seriously flip.

Bell was going through some things in the Colored Mountains. Ben didn't have the patience to explain it all, but suffice to say Bell was extremely busy and had a lot on his plate.

But every time I blinked out, he would portal straight back home and go berserk.

It would take all 3 betas and sometimes a few Special Team members to contain the Tyger King meltdown. But it wasn't a big deal because it only lasted until I returned, which was on the average about 5 minutes.

Once, I had disappeared for nearly 15 minutes. Dad and Beta Lucas had to come help contain Bell's nuke, but again, I returned and as always, the moment Bell saw me, he would calm down and leave.

It was just a phase probably, like all my other phases.

Mum had reassured my betas that it was probably just cold feet. My investiture was only a month away.

According to Mum, my disappearing and Bell's meltdowns were just our wolves becoming more sensitive as we approach our mating ceremony.

Ben shrugged, he wouldn't know anything about mating, but he did know I had a lot going on. We just settled into our senior high school year (yes, the both of us because Ben skipped a year.) Being Student President was no joke(Wait, what? Who? Did Ben mean me or him? I couldn't decide which of us was the less likely candidate), the official continent tour was just around the corner, the Special Team was short-handed. Neil was dead, Jax got mated to some human chick in the red packlands, Fluffy had to return to his Dad, Wolfgang was also recalled by Alpha Gunter in advanced.

"I got a girl?" Jax was ecstatic.

"I died?" Neil was still coming to terms with it.

I probably should've been more empathetic about Neil's passing. In my defense, it hadn't quite hit me yet, so I was more like, "It's not fair! I thought we get to keep Wolfgang till Savy gets mated!"

Ben smirked, "That's what you said then too."

But it was a state emergency and Alpha Gunter promised we were only returning Wolfgang in advance. Especially since I had defeated the challenger Snow Moon had sent. Alpha Gunter had promised to honor our relationship and had given Wolfgang autonomous Lordship over the outer regions of Snow Moon. This way, Wolfgang would provide the Snow Moon Kingdom a hedge of protection from any outside threats while freely receiving guests (e.g. me) without the usual political considerations or administration procedures. It would afford us more privacy.

WTH! Why would we need privacy? And how could I have possibly won a cooking challenge?

The future sounded really complicated…

Anyway, these disappearances happened a few more times, and then one day, I disappeared and never came back.

At first, they just went with the usual drill. (There was a drill for this?) And then Dad and Beta Lucas stepped in to help, and then Bell chi-ka-boomed and went insane.

Convinced that it was the Higher Prince Jin who had stolen me, he summoned his army of darkness and invaded the Colored Mountains. The Colored Mountains were turned upside down and the princes all went to war.

Even the Old Tygers were not spared. The Tyger King demanded their aid. Alpha Gunter had refused to contribute an army and was immediately imprisoned.

River led a group of heroes to take down the Tyger King and save his father. If you ignored that it was his old dad he was saving and not the usual damsel in distress, it played out like all the other epic lycan legends.

They did everything, the traps, the mazes, the battles, and for a few minutes had Bell pinned down hanging from a cliff over the edge of his own doom.

And then River spared his life.

"He said that many years ago, he promised someone important to him, for the sake of their friendship, that he would not kill Bell if he could help it." Ben deadpanned. And then he narrowed his eyes at me because he knew full well it was me.

They did save Alpha Gunter though.

Bell's response was to invade the plains with the Blue Demon Army. He took control of every single colored packland, set overlords, and crowned himself the Great Overlord. The Snow Moon Kingdom proved to be hard to penetrate due to their strong defensive magic spells. Now most of the Resistance are headquartered there.

Dad took the remnants of our pack and escaped to the Colored Mountains. They took refuge with Gareth in the Blade Valley. Savy ran away to elope with River. She couldn't bear the thought of leaving her soul mate behind.

Lizzy couldn't let her best friend stay in the plains alone, so Lizzy ran away with her. Ben and Jonah went with the two girls because Ben felt I would have wanted them to protect Savy.

Moon Bell was totally broken up. Bell completely razed down the Lorent Pack, like he wanted to from the beginning. Most of the Princess Town chose to follow Bell because they were the Underground Army and recognized Bell as their Luna (since I was their alpha). Stephan included. So Bell was in full command of the Blue Demon Army.

Only a few of our Night Leaf warriors, mostly the retired ones, stayed by Dad's side.

Harvey, "the traitor", swore his allegiance to Bell in exchange for the rest of our pack's freedom. Whoever didn't or couldn't make the journey to follow my dad to the Colored Mountains went into hiding with the free wolves in the warlock lands with Beta Gerald.

Ki, "the biggest idiot" refused to leave the Alpha House. He lived there all by himself. Taking care of it and keeping everything exactly as I had left it in case I should ever return home just as suddenly as I had left.

But he was a fool. I had disappeared for more than a decade. Ben had tried multiple times, each time risking his life to contact Ki, pass him supplies, and every time attempt to convince him come with him to Snow Moon, but Ki would always answer the same thing. He would wait for me, or die there.

Fluffy on the other hand, betrayed Heller and ran away from home with his own group of hero friends to join the Resistance. It was like Lycan Legends - in the Plains Edition.

It was thanks to them that they were able to activate the spider spell Grandma Wanda left behind. This was the secret enchantment and all there was between the Old Alpha House (and Ki) and the rest of the world.

The truth was, it wasn't just Ki. Everyone was hoping that I would return one day.

The Resistance was able to protect their lands and put up a fight year after year. There were years where they felt they were making a breakthrough, there were years where they barely pulled through.

Yet all this while, Bell had bigger things in mind. Bell was not satisfied with ruling only the lycan and humans in the continent.

"I'll tell you, but don't freak out, okay Sam?" Ben said before dropping the bomb.