NOT MY BLOOD (THIS TIME)

We left the office after that. I accidentally brushed shoulder with Jonah and his white sleeved t-shirt was brushed with red.

Everyone stopped in their tracks and stared at me.

"Not my blood."

I grinned, I had always wanted to say that.

My dad gave a small resigned smile, "The sooner I return you to your mum, the better."

I groaned at that. Oh wait!

"Wait here!" I pretty much commanded everyone. I dashed toward the opened library, leap-jumping over the heavy chest in the way, and in a minute, I was back out again, grinning my triumph.

"Lucky!" I pumped my fists in the air, waving Harvey's jacket.

I was changed, back into my nice clean highlighter orange t-shirt.

I handed the bloody jacket to Harvey with a grin, "Thanks for being a good big brother!"

I see the older men nod their approval. Looks like that had put my beta in good standing with his elders.

Harvey received the jacket with a wry smile, "I didn't know babysitting was so hard."

"You're welcome to babysit me anytime." I offered cheekily. Take that Marlow. I was funny!

Dad started walking down the stairs and we followed behind.

There were warriors pretty much everywhere suddenly. They were piling up the bodies downstairs. All rogues.

Everytime Dad passed, everyone would bow in submission.

We got down the stairs and Dad dropped by at the made shift hospital first.

Delta Simon ran over immediately, "Is the bullet still lodge?"

Dad nodded.

Delta Simon ushered him to another section of the hall where there was a kind of plastic tent set up for field operations. It looked a bit like the kind in pandemic movies.

I waited on the side of the hall. Harvey waited with me. Neither of us spoke. I think he was dealing with a lot of mindlinking. I probably should go back to mum, but I didn't really want to.

So I'd just delay the inevitable and wait for dad here.

Gamma Harry and Jonah had rushed back out to deal with things. I guess Jonah was shadowing his dad tonight. It's good experience.

Gamma Harry had just returned. Jonah was not with him. I wondered for a moment if Gamma Harry noticed his son was no longer at his heel.

Delta Simon came out from the tent. Other medical staff in scrubs were entering and leaving too.

"Alpha is in stable condition. It's all good." Delta Simon announced.

Gamma Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

My dad walked out of the tent, a flurry of medical staff trailing behind him.

"Let's go back to your mum, Sam." Dad told me.

Delta Simon spun around, "Alpha, you should rest."

Dad waved his hand, "It's fine, just a shallow graze."

"I've never heard of a bullet lodged in a shallow graze." I told my dad.

"I heal very quickly, Sam." Dad told me.

"I wasn't worried." I retorted.

Dad laughed and patted my head. But I noticed he was leaning his weight on Gamma Harry who had moved to his side.

"Does anyone else need help?" Delta Simon asked. He looked to Harvey who shook his head, "I'm good."

"Can you ressurect me after my mum is done killing me?" I asked weakly.

Nobody laughed. Tough crowd. I heard Marlow in my head again, "You are not funny, Princess."

"I was saved by my own daughter." Dad announced proudly then.

"It wasn't me, Harvey did most of it." I blurted out.

Harvey shook his head, "I've never taken out rogues like this before. It was interesting."

"Who poured staplets all over the floor?" Gamma Harry wanted to know.

"Ah, that was me." I admitted.

Gamma Harry shook his head, "The poor rogue, everyone is wondering how he was killed."

"A hole puncher, staplets, and a cabinet bar." Harvey summized.

I nodded.

Gamma Harry laughed and laughed, "You used office equipment to kill a rogue?"

"I also used Harvey as a bullet shield, strong arm, gunner, and prop." I admitted.

"Just glad to be of service, Princess." Harvey smiled. He looked way to pleased.

Before I knew it, we were back in the main hall. Mum ran over, I actually hid behind Harvey (totally un-alpha, I know...but it was my mum we were dealing with here!) Mum beelined straight to Dad first though.

She was crying. He was soothing her. I let out a sigh of relief too soon,

"Sam!" My mum called my name sharply.

Dad was giving Savy a hug. They both froze and turned to me.

Mum tried to glare at me but Harvey was in her way, "Who are you?"

"Hello Luna, I'm Harvey, Beta Gerald's son." Harvey introduced himself.

"Flynn made him babysit me." I quipped.

My mum smiled a gracious smile at Harvey, "My, how you've grown! Thank you so much Harvey. I'm sorry for the trouble."

"It's no trouble Luna, you'll remember that I have a younger sister too." Harvey said.

My mum laughed, "I'm so relieved. Sam can be difficult to control sometimes."

What? And hello? I'm still here. Why are you talking about me like I'm not?

And what do you mean I'm difficult to control? "I'm not difficult to control!" I protested, "more like impossible!"

Flynn came over then, "Alpha, Luna, Gamma." He greeted.

"How are things?" Dad asked, "Good job holding fort."

Flynn nodded. He looked a bit relieved. Make that a lot relieved. I think he was coming to take the rap for me being outside.

"Dear, please tell Sam not to run out into danger next time!" Mum sounded close to exasperation.

"Her wolf is an Alpha wolf, it's in her blood to run out." Dad told her gently.

"Don't worry mum." I said. "My wolfie is strong. Plus as long as I have strong wolves like Harvey with me, I won't lose"

"Dad, let's combine Night Leaf and Morning Light." I pointed to Harvey, "This one is my beta now. He will one day run Morning Light like his dad did. Ben will be my beta at Night Leaf and will also run the pack in the same capacity. I'll increase Ben's authority here. It's time to combine packs."

"But the Green Packland Council..." Gamma Harry started.

"I know, but it's not fair. In times of peace, we could accommodate it, but like tonight showed, it didn't do us any favours. Just sharing our communications locked down two Betas. If Dad had Beta Lucas with him, he wouldn't have been injured! He wouldn't have had to run alone! Only Beta Lucas could keep up with him at full speed, you know."

"And with Harvey following me tonight, I realised how much a good beta could make or break a fight. No, we will combine packs."

"But Alpha Lorent was against it." Gamma Harry said.

"That was then. I think this might be better for the Lorents now. We can provide better security around our boarders if our pack was merged. This will benefit the Lorents too. Dad can talk to Alpha Lorent again. Because this is just stupid!" I was pretty much pissed off right now.

Savy had come to rub my back to calm me.

Harvey looked deep in thought.

"But - one last thing- please, what if Harvey's sister mates an Alpha..." Gamma Harry trailed off.

"Then Morning Light may break off again if it wants. I don't care. I'm sure Harvey can deal with the paperwork. This is for the right now, not the future possiblity. One day, my Alpha mate is coming too. But he's not here now. For now, they need an Alpha. And now we need a way to live together and keep everyone safe. There were so many instances where a mind link would have helped a great deal!" I remembered how Hank had to run out to get the Morning Light Teens out of the open. "We had to take so many unnecessary risks! And that's coming from me!" I exclaimed.

"You've put a lot of thought into this haven't you Princess?" Harvey said at last.

"No." I answered honestly, "I just decided on the spot."

"What?" Harvey looked like I just landed an invisible pie on the his face. His reaction was priceless.

"But what I said was right, wasn't it?" I challenged the Beta, "This would be good for both our pack and our packlands right?"

Harvey frowned but nodded, "How did you come up with that...like that..."

I grinned, "Get used to it Beta."

Dad nodded, "Harry, inform Lucas. We meet tomorrow night to discuss this further. Sam will join us." He turned to Harvey, "I hope you and your dad would join us tomorrow night too."

Harvey nodded, "Yes Alpha."

"Yay! Dad's the best!" I cheered.

"I can't promise anything Sam," Dad told me, "We had tried for years to get the merger approved. But let's try again. As you've pointed out, Sam, the situation is different now."

I nodded. And then I remembered something, "Oh yeah, Wolfie says to call dibs on Flynn and Hank as my Deltas. And I'm going to my human friend's home tomorrow to meet her hamsters so I'll be home late. And it's super late so I'm going to bed now."

And then I ran away. Again not very Alpha, but necessary.

"What?" I got Dad off guard.

"Sam wait!" Mum called, but I pretended I didn't hear her.

"Human friend? What if it's a trap Alpha?" I heard Gamma Harry ask.

"Sam!" Flynn might actually run over to drag me back.

"Let her go. She had a long night." My dad, my hero.

"It's not over, Sam." Mum shouted.

I sped up so their voices were too faint to hear anymore.

I ran into my house and up the stairs before I slowed down to breathe. Home sweet home.

Yeah, I probably shouldn't have forced the outing to Zara's home on them like that... But I really wanted to go.

I've never been to a human's home before. I wanted to see what was different and what was the same. And I wanted to meet her hamsters. Particularly the one who bit Krystal.

Hahaha...

I think part of me wanted to forget what happened tonight. Another rogue fight... which I didn't want to think about.

I got a new Beta and two new Deltas and we beat the rogues, my dad is safe, our packs are merging again...I should be enjoying the victories.

But I'm not. I'm just really tired suddenly.

I took my shower, let's wash away the bad feelings... lalala...but my thoughts kept whirring back to the rogue attack on an otherwise ordinary day, well not ordinary, the Lorents had visited and I even dressed up for it and I still had no idea what I had missed! And oh, wait a minute...

We've had two rogue attacks in a span of a week. Both attacks happened on the days Alpha James and Luna Edith were here.

The first attack happened while they were with us. The second after they had left, but the rogues were searching for information in my dad's office where they had their meeting. Coincidence?

I knew that the Lorent events were consistently rogue magnet for years. and that their son got stolen from them my rogues too.

Wow, I had to ask, what did Alpha James do to make the rogues hate him so much? Because, I'm starting to think that it's related to them.

Sigh. It seemed like nothing in my life was straightforward and simple.