GREEN PACKLAND'S SECURITY CHECKPOINT

8 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, 10AM

I had never ever ever actually passed a security checkpoint before. I mean, I passed this road everyday but I'd never actually seen any physical checkpoint before.

I understood why when a few wolves ran next to our car. One of them ran slightly ahead and turned up an off-road. Bert complied and followed.

"Are these your wolves?" Principal Laura asked, she laughed nervously.

"Nope." I answered. I didn't recognize any of them.

Hidden at the end of the off-road was a hidden bunker built into the slope.

A warrior came out. Lorent. I recognized the uniform, "May I see your papers?"

"We were told they would be passed to us at the checkpoint." Principal Laura said.

"Please step out of the car." The Lorent warrior instructed.

"Oh great." Bert grumbled. Poor Bert. I think his leg was hurting him.

We got out of the car. Bert last, with some difficulty. The Lorent warrior had signaled for a few more men to come over. They took note of our car number and asked for our ID...which I didn't have.

"I left my bag in school." I said. Opps. Hahaha.

The three adults seriously looked freaked out now. The warriors also took their phones.

"But I'm a Night Leaf wolf so it should be fine." I reasoned.

"Do you have your visa?" The Lorent Warrior asked then. Oh right. That was in school too. Opps.

Wait, how was it I had never came upon this check point before?

"Come with us." The Lorent warrior said.

His companions had guns on the ready.

"These aren't your wolves, Samantha?" Principal Laura asked again, there was an urgency in her tone, but I couldn't figure out what she wanted me to do about it.

"No, they're Lorents." I pointed to the light grey uniform closest to me, "Night Leaf and Morning Light wear Navy now."

"So you can't talk to them?" Principal Laura asked.

What did she mean by 'talk to them'?

"Like mindlink? No. Not yet." I answered.

I followed the Lorent warrior.

"Please sir," Principal Laura said, "May I just get back my phone to contact Beta Lucas?"

The warrior ignored us and kept walking. We entered a dark large room. Cool. Underground bunker.

"Your mate!" Principal Laura brightened. "Can you mindlink him? Tell him we have been held at checkpoint."

I stopped so that everyone else stopped, "But it's just a check point..."

A warrior shoved Bert hard, "Keep walking."

"Don't push him." I alpha commanded. At this point, a few guns were raised.

I flared, "Put down the guns."

"It's the young alpha's mate!" One of the Lorent warriors recognized. The guns were lowered.

I was fuming, "Someone call Beta Lucas and ask him where are the papers and visas."

I looked around and saw a wooden table with two benches on either side. I think Bert needed to sit down, but I didn't want to say it like that because I could see how hard he was holding it in to not show any more weakness than he had to.

"I want to sit." I said.

The Lorent warrior stepped aside and gestured to the benches.

"Thank you." I turned to grin at my guests, "Come sit. We'll wait here for the papers to come."

The adults looked quite horrified. I wasn't sure why though, since I felt perfectly safe.

"I've never been here before." I said amiably while the Lorent warriors stood guard. They seemed to be waiting for orders.

Bert decided to sit himself on the outer bench with a grunt, "This is where they take the trespassers for interrogation."

"Oh, like a dungeon?" I asked. I sniffed around, "It smells better than ours. Wait, is this the Lorent Dungeon? The mysterious one where rogues go in and come out with only broken necks?"

"Samantha, dear." Principal Laura's tone had taken forced friendly tone with a pressing undertone, "Have you mindlinked your mate, or your dad yet?"

"No, why?" I asked.

"Please mindlink your dad and let him know where we are." Principal Laura said.

"But Beta Lucas said our papers would be here within the hour right? Don't worry, if he said it'll be here, it'll be here." Probably. Hahaha.

"If we last till the end of the hour here, gal." Bert said, and then he sang, "I'm not afraid of those who can't destroy my soul..."

Seriously, it was as if they thought we were going to die.

"Shut up, old timer." A rude Lorent warrior called to us. Bert shut up.

"Would you and your guests like something to drink, Princess?" The warrior who had recognized me offered then.

"Don't. This is bad enough. We're going to be so f***ed for breaking protocol as it is." The rude warrior said.

"You'll be even more f***ed if you followed the f***ing protocol." A familiar voice interjected from the doorway.

A warrior called out hurriedly from the doorway, "Beta Ki is here."

The warriors around stomped into attention.

"Oh hi, Ki. Don't cuss. Do you have our papers?" I propped myself onto my knees to get higher up on my bench, "Is this the Lorent dungeons? The mysterious one where rogues get taken to and leave with only their necks broken?"

Ki smiled, his Killion dollar smile, "A hundred apologies goddess. Yes, I have the authorization papers."

He threw the file he was holding at the nearest warrior who quickly caught it.

"And no goddess, this is the check point bunker. It's a little cruder than the Lorent's main dungeons." Ki explained.

Then he turned to the Lorent warriors, "Fall in."

The warriors did without question.

"Step up if you were the bloody popper who took the message from the Night Leaf Beta Office just now." Ki said.

At this point, I was just realizing that you could cuss with any word. Even 'pop'.

The patrol leader stepped up, "I did, beta."

"Then you should have known to expect their papers within the hour." Ki said, "Has it been an hour?"

"No, Beta. It has not." The patrol leader answered. He swallowed hard.

"So what's your excuse?" Ki asked.

"We traditionally disregard messages from the other packs." The patrol leader answered.

They what?

Ki held up his hand. The patrol leader wordlessly handed his rifle over. And then Ki jammed the butt of the rifle into the guys ribs. There was a cracking sound. But the team leader made no move to retaliate, block, or anything. He just staggered a little on impact and gripped his ribs tightly with one hand, while receiving his rifle back with the other.

"See that this tradition ends here." Ki ordered.

"Yes, Beta!" The warriors answered in unison.

Ki returned his attention to us.

"Good morning, Madam Principal and Mrs Henderson. I'm Beta Killion. Please allow me to apologize for our lack of hospitality." Ki smiled and made a polite bow. It was as if the earlier thing didn't just happen, or he thought we didn't witness it even though it happened right in front of us?

I shrugged it off and decided to just go with the flow, pointing out my new friend to Ki, "That's Bert! He knows the song my Grandpa Alpha used to sing."

"It's an honor to meet you sir." Ki made a polite bow. For some reason, Bert had look like this was the last thing he expected.

"Thank you for coming out to meet us, Beta." Principal Laura said.

"Bert acted like he was living his final hour." I laughed.

Killion smiled his usual beautiful smile, "Well, he would know."

Eh? I blinked.

Without further ado, Ki turned to the three adults, his smiling mask never wavering, "Please follow me."

He put a hand on the small of my back and led me out. The warriors stepped back to let us pass.

There was another warrior standing at the door. As we passed, Ki told him, "I want a full detailed report of the last 20 minutes, and every man's name."

"They were just doing their job." I told Ki, "And for most part they were nice and polite to us."

"Is that so, goddess?" Ki continued smiling.

He led us to a dark blue Merc. He opened the door for me. To the adults he instructed, "Please follow my car."

A Lorent warrior ran out with a windshield sticker for Principal Laura's car and some papers which he handed to Ki. He checked them and handed them out to the adults, "I apologize again for the earlier episode."

Then he opened he driver's door for the old warrior as he limped over. And I saw Ki go just a little glowly for just a few seconds, so quick it could've just been the morning sun flittering between the trees.

I shut the back door that Ki had opened for me and got into the front passenger seat.

Ki smiled as he got in next to me, "Is everything okay goddess?"

I nodded. Ki started the car.

I looked out of the window at the now familiar sight of the road home, "A real bunker! It's too bad I didn't get to see the inside."

Ki smiled gently, "I'm relieved you enjoyed the detour, goddess."

"Why wouldn't I enjoy it?" I asked.

"Let's just say that when I arrived and saw the empty car already at the checkpoint, I might have panicked." Ki admitted.

"Like what kind of panic? 'Oh no!' panic or "I'm dead!" panic?" I asked cheekily.

"I nearly shifted in my pants panic." Ki answered with his usual smile.

He made a pun. Get it? Shifted and s***ed?

I laughed at that, "I was perfectly safe, Ki. When they did anything I didn't like, I just alpha commanded them."

Ki didn't looked entirely convinced.

"I could've also mindlinked Dad or Bell." I said.

"Why didn't you, goddess?" Ki asked.

"You know how they are, they'd have charged over and make a big deal out of it." Not that Ki hadn't done exactly the same, but I just got the feeling Dad or Bell would've been worse.

"At the very worst, I'd have beaten them up." I told Ki.

"They had guns, goddess." Ki reminded me, "The Lorent warriors might be physically weaker than Morning Light and Night Leaf's, but they are much quicker to shoot."

Oh. Well, I hadn't factored that in. I remembered the vampire lord and wondered how many bullets I could've survived at point blank.

Vampires were unnatural like that.

"Forgive me, goddess. It was my fault for not arriving sooner." Ki concluded.

I shook my head. It wasn't Ki's fault at all. I mean, if he wanted to blame anyone, then it would be Principal Laura's idea to bring me along.

I decided to change to subject, "Tell me the story about the checkpoint."

Yeah, I was trying the spell again.

Ki answered, and for the moment, I thought it worked, and then I realized he was just answering as my beta.

So I learned that the checkpoint was real and and not just a bunch of fake signs put there to scare visitors.

It was a collaborative effort among the three major packs of the Green Packlands even before Gate City was built meant to keep out vampires, hunters, and rogues. Later on, as the Green Packlands became more successful, it came it handy in keeping the occasional nosy reporter off too.

The only reason why I never met it was because I've always only traveled on the Alpha's cars, or the local feeder bus - which was the only thing that went in and out without checks.

Any other car would have had to stop. Even our local cars which were registered in the database, although all they had to do was slow down. The warrior wolves would run out, just to make sure the passengers were all legit Green Packland members. And then fall back again.

There were 16 guards in total stationed at the checkpoint bunker. This was our nearest outpost. They patrolled the area 24/7 under the command of the patrol leader. The shift changed every 5 days, alternating among the three packs. Tim and Angela's dad was a Patrol Leader for Night Leaf. Morning Light had been having trouble with manpower and Gamma Endo is the Patrol Leader. Their shift runs with only 10 men.

Okay, I knew Tim and Angela was always on outpost duty and Gamma Endo had mentioned being outpost - but I always had the impression that it was somewhere far far away.

Not 15 minutes from Night Leaf.

But because we were only 15 minutes away from Night Leaf, we drove into civilization pretty quickly, the town buildings and streets looking clean and rather inviting under the late morning sun.

Our alpha house too, starkly grey and black in an open field of snow with only a dark strip of asphalt running out from the main road and then up to the long veranda, then stretching out in a wide rectangle in front of the garage.

It could pass for a picture in an interior design magazine. Maybe one called, "Modern natural living" or something to the effect of living in the open countryside and still being modern and cool.

It was really a very nice house. I guess Chloe, our human home designer turned out to be a wildcard greatly in our favor.

Ki stopped the car in front of the alpha house. I didn't wait for him to come out, hoping off the car and stepping onto the wooden veranda.

Two Night Leaf warriors were waiting on our porch. Poor guys. They looked a little cold.

I recognized them from Sunday Breakfasts so I gave them a big smile and waved, "Hi!"

They returned the smile with smiles of their own, "Yo, Alpha Princess."

Coolness.

Ki had opened the door for Bert and the ladies sitting at the back of the other car. Then he collected the keys from Bert and tossed it to the warriors.

"Clean the tires and park them in the garage."

The off-road the the bunker had soiled the rims with muddy slush.

"Ok. Beta." The warriors took the keys and hurried around the back.

To the guests, he was all smiles, "Come inside. Our Alpha and Luna are expecting you."