A SNOW DAY MORNING

Wednesday was a snow day, which was a good thing too because after the pizza party and jam session, we got home so late, I would have probably just died in school from exhaustion. Savy and I woke up as usual, I was falling asleep in my relaxing warm shower when Savy banged on the bathroom door, "Sam! Mum says its a snow day!"

I got out of the bathroom and changed into whatever I randomly pulled out of the dresser - which turned out to be a navy sweat suit. T-shirt, T-shirt... "Don't call me princess" T-shirt. Okay, I'm good to go.

Then I climbed back into bed.

Blech. My bed smelled like overnight pizza and friends and yucky mixed scents of shared sofa. I wished I bathed before climbing into bed last night - or at least changed. I turned my pillow the other way and kicked my sheets on the floor.

Savy, didn't bat an eyelid at the mess I was making, "Why can't you keep your mindlink open?"

"There are vampires in school." I answered.

"You're at home now." Savy pointed out.

"It's noisy." I curled up to sleep, but I relaxed on the mindlink.

Savy gave up and went outside to have breakfast. For a dainty girl with a tiny wolf, she sure ate a lot. I mean, at meal times, we ate the same amounts, but I felt quite sure that Savy ate many more meals than I did.

I felt Savy tap on my mind, so I answered the mindlink.

"Lizzy is coming over to try out v-day bake recipes. And Dad wants you to get up and shovel snow."

"This is not encouraging me to keep my mindlink open." I informed her.

I heard her cackle over the mindlink and I shut her out again. I was going to sleep.

There was a knock on my door, and Killion said from the other side, "Goddess, Alpha would like to talk to you before he goes to the office."

I groaned and rolled out of my bed and onto the floor.

"Goddess?" Killion inquired.

"Yeah, okay." I answered. Lying on the floor like a slug.

It's not like I can say no to my Alpha Dad BUT it's not like I needed to have a good attitude about it either.

I stomped out of the room, hair flaring. Wordlessly, I sat down at the dining table. Killion put something that looked like a very thin sheet of egg wrapped around ham and cheese and sauce with chives.

I picked out the chives.

Dad naturally ignored my bad mood and started talking.

The snow storm was really bad but because Dad didn't want the construction delayed, he wants me to go out to our formerly burnt down home to help shovel the worksite.

The workman had built some kind of tarp over the house but the heavy snowfall had accumulated and the whole thing had collasped.

When I got to the worksite, I found Gamma Harry, Ben, and Jonah there. Ben and Jonah were digging while Gamma Harry yelled.

"Sam! You're here! Very good!" Gamma Harry handed me a shovel.

What happened to the Alpha not pulling the weeds, not throwing the trash, not taking the crap? Apparently, Alphas can shovel snow.

But it was okay. The air was cold and crisp, and my bad mood was quickly assuaged by the digging and chopping. It was quite frozen so certain icy parts did need chopping.

I didn't talk to Ben and Jonah, leaving them to their own devices. Jonah was trying to use a sled to shift the snow away.

What we needed was a large flame thrower.

Or a vortex of nothingness to shove the snow in.

Or just plain old sunshine.

But that none of those things were at hand, so we worked with the shovels. The workmen came at 8am and helped. We managed to unearth the building material and clear the road for their construction machines to enter.

By the time we cleared enough snow to pull out the tarp, the house was finally in view and I could see they got the worst pieces of blackened stone and wood removed over the last two days.

It occured to me that building a house might take a while.

After that Lizzy had mindlinked the two guys to come up to the penthouse for hot chocolate and sample the test chocolates the girls had made.

We went up together. The guys talked to each other and pretty much pretended I wasn't there.

When we got up to the penthouse the smell of salted caramel and chocolate assaulted my senses.

"Goddess, welcome back." Killion smiled.

I walked straight into my room without a word and locked myself in the shower. Then just to make it very clear that I wanted to be alone, I turned on the water.

I hadn't even undressed yet.

I plugged the bathtub, squeeze strawberry body wash into the water, undressed and got in.

The water was hot. The bathroom filled with steam. I turned off the water when the tub got full and bubbly.

I don't want to talk about it.

I let the hot water make my skin feel warm and comfortable.

I breathed in the water and strawberry and the faintest traces of chlorine.

I watched the white foam slowly disappear.

I don't think Mate and I could ever be happy together, not like this.

I am the Alpha, and I will protect the happiness of those around me. Even if I had to do so without Mate.

I stared at the water and made splashing sounds. I probably needed to cry, but the tears didn't come.

"Just forget about this." He had said before leaving. He was so mad, I felt sure he would probably break up with me the next time we meet. That was the fact of the matter.

The worst part of it was that our packs and fates were so entangled, what with the rogue army, the pack mergers, prophecy... There was no way we could ever have a clean break. I sighed miserably at the water.

It'll be okay. I'm strong. I can take a lot of things. Whatever happens after this, I can take it, and I wasn't even going to cry.

I played with the water, splashing it lightly, my fingers were like prunes. The strawberry scent had dissipated.

And then my wolf had a very cunning idea.

{Mate can't reject if he don't see us.}

Thus my plan. If Mate doesn't get a chance to talk to me, then he won't be able to reject me. I'll just have to avoid him for the rest of my life or until he forgot he meant to reject me.

What? If you have a better idea, let's hear it!

Did you think I was going to let him go so easily? Even if we can't stand the sight of each other, even if we fight every time we are alone, he's mine.

I'm the Alpha.

I'm not going to let a little thing like that get me down.

SAM'S PLAN TO DEAL WITH REBEL

Avoid Mate for as long as possible.

Should that fail, act like nothing has happened and distract him.

Make my escape.

Repeat step 1 to 3.

By the time I was out of the bath, I was back to my usual self.

Yeah, remembering his words and anger still hurt, but I'm an Alpha, I healed fast. Plus, I've got my game plan to deal with Mate.

He won't get rid of me that easily.

Meanwhile, I was through being a big grouch to everyone who didn't deserve it.

I got dressed into whatever someone had laid out on my bed for me. Grey t-shirt, long navy blue cardigan, tights, and my blue suede boots. There was even a blue butterfly necklace, which I loved at first sight.

I put it all on and went out into the haze of salted caramel and chocolate.

"Sam! Come over here and sample!" Lizzy said.

If choosing the right recipe was a science, then Lizzy and Savy needed guinea pigs.

They had laid out 5 morsals of chocolate on a single plate. Next to it was a white survey form where we had to give points to each item on the plate in terms of aesthetics, taste, and texture.

The top of my form wrote, "Guinea Pig #4"

I looked at forms #1-3 on the table. Jonah and Ben and Killion.

I ate all five one after the other, then I circled the chocolate #3 on the form.

"Sam, you're supposed to fill out numbers." Jonah told me.

Ben looked highly amused, "Look, so mine wasn't the worst form."

I looked at Ben's sheet, he had rated full points for everything. From anyone else, it would be every piece was equally perfect. From Ben it just felt sacarstic. Ben could never honestly give full points to anything.

Jonah's was actually answered properly, as if he put serious consideration into each piece.

Killion's had a conclusion written at the bottom, that it was all very good and hard to choose, but he would have to go with #3.

There you go! Chocolate #3 was the best.

The girls seemed to have arrive to that conclusion too.

"It's the only one without salted caramel though." Savy informed me.

Oh.

Opps.

On the bright side, Mate would never have to worry that I might accidentally eat him.

Hahahaha.

Lizzy, Ben, and Jonah had to go shortly after.

"It was good." Jonah decided, "We finished clearing the snow early, or we'd miss the chocolates."

Ben glanced at me, and then nodded, "Yeah, it's all good."

"Why?" I asked.

"Cos chocolates are yummy." Jonah told me.

"Cos you were moody this morning." Ben told me. He looked at Jonah, and then gave me a crooked smile, "I mean, the chocolates were good."

I flared up, "I was not moody."

"Ah yeah, sure." Jonah said hastily, "Not moody. Okay."

"Was she?" Lizzy asked.

Savy came over to check, touching my arm and using her white wolf power to sense me, but I was fine (now). So there.

"Nothing more than the usual. You know how Sam is." Ben shrugged it off, "But we didn't end up in a snowball war or anything extra is all."

I crossed my arms. Oh they thought they knew me so well, huh?

Jonah chuckled, "Yeah, remember the last time we had to shovel snow?"

Ben grinned like the devil might when recalling an evil deed, "That was epic."

"You guys were grounded for weeks!" Lizzy said.

"Just one." Ben corrected.

"Was worth it." Jonah said before the lift doors closed on them and I couldn't hear anymore.

"I'm curious, what did you do the last time you shoveled snow?" Killion asked lightly.

Savy cackled, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"We were just dumb kids." I said.

"It was only last year." Savy clarified.

"There was a lot of snow." I said.

"We had five snow days in a row." Savy explained.

"It was fun." I remembered...

The weird warlock weather had been going on for years now. Last year, it had blessed us with snow... So much snow. Overnight, the snow had piled up to our windows.

On the first snow day, Savy and I did what any respectable kid would do, we went out and mucked around in the snow. Dad, like any respectable Dad would, made us help clear the driveway, but you know how after that, I noticed the snow on either side of the driveway like a white wall right?

I started digging a tunnel. Nothing too big, just to Ben and Lizzy's next door. Once we were there, we figured we might as well call Ben and Lizzy out.

Ben and Lizzy were at home, but I think they were fighting about Ben's music being too loud or whatever. The twins fought about anything and nothing on any regular day. But I think Mrs Beta had enough and very gladly kicked them out of the house.

Savy and I showed them our tunnel. Ben showed me Beta Lucas' tool shed. Together we dug another tunnel all the way to the packhouse kitchen porch.

We stopped by for hot drinks and because Esther was on duty, we got fresh baked hot sticky cinnamon buns too.

Then we met Gamma Harry and Jonah. Gamma Harry had wanted to take the snow day to start Jonah's Gamma training. They were at the pack house for a meeting when they smelled the cinnamon buns and decided to drop by.

The moment Jonah saw us, he pretty much begged to be let off Gamma Training. In the end he negotiated one week of driveway snow clearing service for the rest of the day off. Gamma Harry, was never one to miss a good deal, so of course Jonah got off.

At the point, he thought he got off with a good deal too. He had no idea it would be snow day for the whole week.

Anyway, now with Jonah's brute strength and simple enthusiasm, we got our spades and started work expanding our underground express.

Our work was tireless. We made tunnels and ate hot snacks at each stop. As each day passed, more and more snow fell, and more and more kids joined us. By day 3 or 4, pretty much the entire pack's able-bodied child force was underground digging tunnels.

Nobody questioned where all the pups disappeared to for the entire day. I think the adults were just relieved we were out of their hair. Some of the women baked treats and gave them to us for visiting. The moment the smell of cookies left the oven, they'd find pups popping out of a hole in their lawn.

"So cute!" They had laughed, "Like having little rabbits/foxes/prairie dogs in our garden!"

When we smelled dinner cooking, we would end our work to go home.

Like Snow White's dwarves, "Hi-ho, Hi-ho!"

It was going very well, until on Day 5 when a couple of kids didn't get home for dinner. Their parents mindlinked the entire pack at nightfall.

There was an emergency meeting at the packhouse. It was all very exciting. For once the kids got to attend. We felt so grown up. We were given ginger bread cookies and asked who had seen the two kids. Of course we told them everything we knew.

Okay, tunnels, the adults said to one another, shouldn't be a problem. Where is the tunnel?

Just outside, the kids said, we'll show you.

The tunnel was pretty small for an adult to fit through.

"Where does this tunnel go?" Dad asked.

"Everywhere." I told him.

There was a pause, "Where is everywhere?"

And to their horror the adults soon learned we weren't talking about a tunnel to the alpha's house, or even the Beta's. We were talking about a maze of tunnels spanning the entire pack town.

The kids offered to go down and search but the adults feared more of us would get lost. So the entire warrior force was called up to excavate the tunnels where the two kids were last seen.

In the end they were found in their own backyard. They were just kids, so when they made it, they didn't make the exit wide enough or packed it very tightly, so the snow had caved in and they couldn't get out after visiting their friends next door. They totally didn't think of going out at their friend's side of tunnel and walking home, or digging upwards with their shovels. Like I said, they were just kids.

I think other casualties involved a warrior on patrol who fell into one of the tunnels and twisted his ankle that same weekend.

Also many shovels and gardening tools had been reported missing.

But spring soon came, the snow melted away, and all the digging equipment reappeared in various lawns and spaces... Just in time for spring gardening too.

All's well that ends well.