DO YOU STILL HATE HER?

Dad was still looking around the apartment, "It's like when Sam was a pup all over again."

Killion was smiling at the mess like a flower to the sun. So I knew he was trying hard to hide his true feelings about it. Opps... Poor Ki! It's not even his fault.

"On the bright side, Sabbie is still in one piece." Savy pointed out, but no one else found it funny.

"Mama, Alpha Sam needs help!" The little human said, "She can't do anything right!"

Then she noticed me and quickly added, "I mean, I'm sure there is something you can do right... We just haven't found it yet."

I chuckled, "Yeah. Looks like I'm bad at babysitting too."

"Weren't you supposed to be resting, Sam?" Dad asked.

"We thought Sam might benefit from some one to one time with her new sister." Mum explained, a little guiltily.

Dad frowned.

"I'm helping Alpha Sam." The little girl explained, "I'm trying to help her find something she isn't bad at."

"Well, maybe she won't be bad at cleaning up the mess, starting from my room." Mum said testily.

"No! Mama, she would just make it worse." The little girl considered the mess around her, "I'll clean it up."

Then the little girl worried, "Are you angry Mama, we made a mess..."

"I could never be angry at you baby." Mum said, and then she narrowed her eyes at me, "Sam is a different matter though."

I just laughed at that, but the little human said, "No Mama, it's not Alpha's Sam's fault. Maybe I'm just a bad teacher. Maybe if Mama and Savy teaches her, she will get better at doing things."

"I'm sure it's nothing like that, baby." Mum told the little human, "I'm sure you were a very good teacher."

Killion cleaned up the pile of random items on the dining room table. Mum and Savy had brought up a portion of food from the pack house kitchen for the family.

We all sat down for dinner. The mood was easy. Dad talked a bit about what happened today.

We had officially withdrawn our warriors from the Red Packlands, although Flynn and a couple of elite warriors had infiltrated and successfully delivered the supplies to the Rebel's underground base. They would stay with Rebel to help train the warriors. Not all of the fight dogs knew the basic disciplines of a warrior wolf, or the basic pack life skills like running in a pack etc.

Alpha Lorent had also successfully managed to smuggle medical help and supplies over to the underground base.

On Lycan News, it would seem that the hundred rogue fight dogs had disappeared without a trace. Rebel had warned us not to give away our connection to his army. It would be bad if the media chaos spread to the Green Packlands.

The real most immediate threat were the rogues who were out in full force. The Rogue King was hoping to recruit these dogs into his army, while the other rogues were hoping to recapture a fight dog for some quick money.

It seemed that rogues were not all loyal to the Rogue King. Many ran on their own personal agendas. Most of them were in it for the coin.

"Oh Alpha Sam! You are good at something!" The little human interrupted, "You're good at eating! You hardly dropped any food on the table."

I laughed at that, "Yes, you are right. And I'm extra good at eating ice-cream."

"And I thought of one more thing you're good at." The little human informed me seriously, "You're good at having fun. I had a lot of fun today."

"Yeah. Me too." I admitted, "Maybe we can do this again sometime."

"Never again." Mum said.

Killion seemed relieved to hear that.

"You're also good at making messes." The little human was on a roll now, "You're even better than me."

That was true. The mess at the Red Packlands was at least partially my fault too.

After dinner, Dad had to leave for his office to continue monitoring the situation at the Red Packlands. Even though we had pulled out. It seemed that Alpha Solomon and his Black Forest Pack, along with his allies, which included my Uncle Louis' pack were still at the standoff.

"Why don't they just pull back?" I asked.

"Pride can be stubborn like that." Dad said.

I guess... Killion passed me his tablet with a series of reports to read on my bed while everyone else cleaned up the mess in the house.

Savy grumbled as she remade the little human's bed, "You did this on purpose didn't you? Because Mum and I forced you to babysit Sabbie."

I shrugged, "Not really. I didn't mind babysitting that girl."

"Do you still hate her?" Savy asked.

"Since when did I hate her?" I asked.

"You totally hated her." Savy insisted.

Did I? I tried to remember the feeling, but couldn't. Maybe I did vaguely think I hated her, but having a little human around turned out to be very amusing.

{So fun!}

And would you look at that? Wolfie came back.

"So you don't hate her?" Savy tried to be sure.

I smiled easily, "She's just a human."

"But she also your sister now!" Savy said.

I thought about it. A human for my sister, but what if her brother comes looking for her?

Savy sighed, "Well, at least you don't hate her anymore. I guess that's progress."

That night when everyone had gone to bed, I was awoken by a quiet sound at our sliding doors. Oh! I forgot about the bigger human outside our penthouse! I got up from my bed, but the moment I sat up, he turned and fled. No wait! Come back and get the little human!

I shot out of my bed, jumping over the little human and throwing open the sliding doors to give chase.

"Sam?" I heard Savy stirring, and then she must have realised I had bolted, "Sam! Mum!"

"Mama!" The little human sat up and started crying.

I didn't turn back, I chased the dark figure of the man all the way to the end of the building, he dropped down on the fire escape at the back of the packhouse. I gave chase.

Of course I was super fast and caught him. No matter how stealthy and nimble he was, he was still just a human. I barreled into him, slamming him into the nearest large tree. There was a cracking sound. But it was just the tree. The man had lightweight armor under his clothes. I could feel it on my shoulder on impact.

"Hey, don't run off without taking the little human with you!" I scolded.

"What?" The man sounded shocked. Or maybe it was because I had just knocked the breath out of him.

"Weren't you here to get her?" I asked. Okay, I had totally assumed he was here to recapture the human slave. Now that I thought about it, he could have been here for anything else.

"Ah, no. I'm sorry. I mean I was..." The man spoked politely. He held his hands above his head, and had not moved from the tree.

I looked at him carefully. He looked familiar. Ah! The other human who Alpha Gunter brought to Grandpa Silas' funeral.

"My name is Willheim. I'm Greta's brother. I did come to steal her back, but I'm just a soldier now. I have no real home for her. I watched her play with you today. I think... It would be selfish for me to take her away." The man told me, "I'm sorry, I just wanted to see her again before I go."

"Idiot." I said, "Next time just knock on the front door like a normal person."

The howling started. Our patrols are on the hunt. That could only mean that Willheim's cover was blown.

"I should go." Willheim said.

Why? He was far safer next to me than on his own, our wolves would hunt him down... Hahaha. I wondered if he could escape?

"Okay, run!" I said, "If they catch you, say you are running an errand for Alpha Sam."

That should keep him out of our godforsaken dungeons.

I turned back to go home.

"Thank you." I heard Willheim whisper. I turned around, the wind blew. Did I imagine it?

Whatever. I yawned.

{Warriors approaching}

But this was my turf, I took the fire escape back up to my room, two and three steps at a time. I couldn't have been gone for more than 5 minutes, but I thought it would be better to calm my family.

There was no one in the bedroom. In fact, the sliding door had been shut and locked. Grrr...

I walked around the penthouse to the living area where it was lit and everyone was awake. I knocked on the sliding door and Ki let me in, "Alpha Sam is here."

"Sam!" Mum got up from the sofa where she was seated with Sabbie and threw her arms around me, "Thank goddess you came back, there's an intruder outside."

"Human, male, young warrior, brown short hair, by the name of Willheim?" I asked.

The little human gasped.

"I killed him." I smiled.

"No!" The girl burst into tears, "No, no, no!"

"You know him?" I asked.

"I hate you! I hate you!" The girl screamed at me, "How could you?" And then she broke down into sobs.

Dad gave me a stern look, "Sam, don't tease your sister. Our wolves are closing in on him now."

"Let him go." I said. Then I laughed, "He just wanted to see Greta. I told him to use the front door next time."

"You should've told him to come in the daytime too." Savy yawned and got up from the sofa, "Come on Sabbie, let's go back to bed."

Sabbie's face was covered with mucus and tears and she was making the kind of face that made me think of an angry pug, you know, like an ugly bull dog, but smaller and far less intimidating. Hahahaha.

"You lied!" Sabbie pointed accusingly at me. Then she started crying, "I thought you really killed him!"

"You're the one who lied. Your brother had been searching for you all this while. If you were honest and told us what you knew, he wouldn't have to risk his life sneaking into the Green Packlands like that." I said back.

"I... I'm n...no..not a...aaalloud to say... or..or... m...my master will k..kill him..." Sabbie cried, now her tears also came with shuddering gasps.

"Yeah, if you did, someone might try to help you and your master would have lost a slave." Killion explained.

"But I told you, you weren't a slave anymore." I said.

"Oh Sam, she's too young to understand all that." Mum said.

Sabbie, now comforted on Mum's lap managed to laugh a little bit, "I should have known you were lying. My brother is a very good swordsman. There is no way someone like you could've killed him."

Someone like me? I'm the Alpha!

"Maybe that's the thing I'm good at!" I suggested, "Maybe I'm good at fighting!"

Sabbie laughed, her courage recovered. She shook her head at me, "You're a really bad liar too."

Savy cackled, "Looks like all you've got is your good looks, Sam."

I found myself laughing too.

Mum smiled and shook her head ruefully, "Now let's go back to bed baby... all my babies."

And we all went to bed. Mum tucked Sabbie in, and then she tucked me and Savy in too. Okay... We weren't in elementary school anymore, but oh well.

"Sing us a lullaby." I said, tongue in cheek.

"Goodnight!" Mum laughed and left.

"Awwww..." I whined. Savy cackled.

Sabbie felt bad for me and decided to sing:

"Sleep in the Red Lands, that's where the blood lies.

Sleep in the Black Lands, that's where the dark dies.

Sleep in the Green Lands and you'd never come back.

Sleep in the White Lands with a whip on your back.

Sleep in the Blue Lands, it's peaceful like the snow.

Sleep baby sleep and rest your weary brow."

Seriously? What kind of song was that? Who sang something like that to a baby at bedtime? Must be a human thing. Specifically, a blue packland human thing.

I could hear from Savy and Sabbie's breathing that they were both sleeping though. I guess it worked... and then I fell asleep.

When my alarm rang, felt quite surprised. I would have thought I only just shut my eyes. Did I sleep that deeply?

I got out of bed, careful to step over the little human sleeping on the mattress.

I took my shower, changed into the uniform that Ki had already prepared and hung behind the bathroom door.

Someone had put Sabbie's purple cup and toothbrush back on the counter again, but I had decided to leave it. That's not to say she had won, I was just ignoring it like I was ignoring her. Yeah, that was it.

Maybe I should had forced Willheim to take his sister back. This arrangement...it was like long term babysitting right?