TALK TO THE DUMB PUP

2 MARCH, TUESDAY, CONTINUED

Ki opened the inquest directly at the ultimatum point, "Fluffy. Explain why I shouldn't have you expelled from my goddess' special team."

I froze at the question, that was just an empty threat right?

Fluffy's smile matched Ki's point for point, "Do you have the power to expel me?"

Harvey looked so calm, it had to be an empty threat.

Ki's reply was with his gentle smile, "Does it sound like I'm lying, Fluffy?"

No, not really. I'm sure Fluffy's alpha wolf would have picked up the lie as mine would. So no. There was no lie. So much for the empty threat.

But I didn't want Fluffy to be expelled!

Wait, no, calm down Sam. I looked to Harvey who was still overseeing the faceoff as cool as a cucumber, calm as if it were just another day on the job.

Anyway, I did say I wanted to hear what Fluffy had to say first. I was grown up now, not the puppy who'd jump in between every fight now, or goddess forbid, jump in to join every fight.

I was going to handle this matter with a calm and steady hand, just like my alpha dad would.

"You need me." Fluffy sounded way confident about this, "There are very few wolves who can keep up with Pretty Alpha like I can."

Ki didn't deny it, "Tell me what's the use of your protection if you're going to endanger her?"

"I was only entertaining Pretty Alpha." Fluffy was unrepentant, "And she was no way in danger, I was quite sure of it."

"Ah, so you admit you were in control of your wolf?" Ki asked.

"Yes." Fluffy admitted, "I was in full control."

Ki smiled like a flower to the sun, but for some reason, the effect was more like a man eating flower smiling than just a buttercup now, "I rest my case."

Ki looked to Harvey who sighed and pinched his brow. I guess the ball was in Harvey's court now, "Fluffy, this isn't the first time... We've been through this..."

"Yes." Fluffy remained smiling, "I remember it like it was yesterday."

"It was yesterday." Harvey was not amused.

Now that they mentioned it, I guess it WAS the second day in a row.

Harvey was good enough to recount how Fluffy got in trouble yesterday not just because I had run away on his watch. Fluffy had admitted that he knew I had left the building, but he had simply followed EJ's lead - who followed EJ's lead? Naturally, I would have been long gone before EJ noticed with his superb hearing that the washroom was suspiciously quiet.

"You mean you purposely let me go?" Was I the only one shocked by this revelation? Apparently, yes, since everyone else in the room had heard Fluffy's confession yesterday - everyone except me as usual.

"Didn't you know you'd get in trouble?" I scolded Fluffy - I'm not sure why I was mad at him, didn't he help me escape?

Fluffy smiled, completely unrepentant, "Even if I died, I would not betray you, Pretty Alpha."

I resisted the urge to facepalm. Every now and then, my perfectly intelligent wolves would reason like imbeciles.

"So if you knew I was running head first into danger, you'd just let me go?" I asked.

"No." Fluffy smiled, "In that case, I would've have followed you."

I knew he would say that! I've been told quite similar things by my betas before.

"You're wrong on two counts." Ki accused, which was ironic, since Ki was one of the wolves hell bent on running to his destruction, but then I realized Ki was referring back to today's incident, "First, even though our goddess was safe, the other wolves and humans might have been hurt. And if you can't even understand that to protect our goddess is also to protect what she cares about - even if they were only humans or external property, then you have no right to run with her into danger."

Wait... What kind of convoluted reasoning was that? I looked to Harvey. I'm glad my good beta was around to correct Ki.

"What Ki said is true." Harvey nodded gravely.

No it wasn't! If you saw me run into danger, you're supposed to say, "Stop! That's dangerous!"

"Fluffy, you will never be able to run as my alpha's dog until you learn to take her seriously." Harvey said instead, "Even though it is easy to mistake our Alpha for a precarious pup, for us who run closest to her, we all know her true nature, and if you want to stay by her side, you must run with her all the way."

"And so I did as she would want!" Fluffy smiled, "I went all the way according to her wishes."

Harvey sighed and pinched his nose bridge, "No Fluffy, you did not. You held back."

He didn't? Wait, so Fluffy wasn't in trouble for going too far? He was in trouble for not going far enough?

"Have you not realized, even after running for so long beside her?" Harvey asked.

No. Do tell, my good beta, what was it that wolves who ran closest to me should've realized by now?

"If you want to stay close to our Alpha, you need to run with all your mind - your own mind. Not what you think would please her, or you would never be able to hit the mark." Harvey explained.

Eh?

"If you had sensed her leaving the building, you should have alerted us as per protocol." Harvey elaborated, "You've underestimated our Alpha if you think she would not know you knew, or if you thought she would need you to give her that leeway to escape."

Wait, wait a minute! Actually, I think it was you who were overestimating me here!

"Furthermore," Ki added, his beautiful smile perfectly in place, "You have to run with all your heart, your whole heart. She cast that spell on you for a reason - there is nothing she does not do without reason."

Wait....hang on! That's all wrong!

"I understand now." Fluffy smiled, "Then I went about this all wrong."

I raised my hand to say something, anything, to amend my betas highly convoluted explanations.

But Fluffy shook his head at me, "I get it now. I was wondering why you lent me your power. I had thought you were just randomly triggering my powers. I had eyes but could not see, but now it all makes sense."

Fluffy's wolf emerged, he was not a fighting wolf, but his alpha presence was frightening. A purebred scholar wolf - a bloodline even rarer than the healers, so rare that they didn't even exist in their pure-blood form in the plains. These were the strategist in the Colored Mountains. It was once said that one such wolf on your side of the war was enough to overturn armies.

Fluffy smiled at me, "You were reviving my wolf to play with, weren't you Pretty Alpha?"

{So fun.} Boo grinned. Fluffy's wolf was going to make everything more fun.

"Wha..." Harvey looked surprised.

"I see... I had not known your wolf was such a rare one." Ki mummured.

Fluffy smiled suggestively, "Why, Charming Beta? Did you think my good looks were just for show? Or just to turn up the heat?"

"More like your bloodline power...doesn't quite match your wolf." Harvey pointed out.

"I don't quite understand it either." Fluffy shrugged.

I guess it was weird. Usually, a powerful wolf with a pure bloodline would also have a complimentary bloodline power. You know, like I was a black wolf - the most classic fighting type wolf, so my bloodline power was wait... my bloodline power was being a catalyst. My grandma was a black wolf, but her power was "insight"... I take that back. I don't know why I thought our wolf and power should co-relate. They didn't. They were totally random.

Maybe I had been giving our goddess too much credit all this while. Just like my betas were seriously overestimating me.

"I had thought it was strange. Even so long after the power surge, my wolf had not faded." Fluffy marveled, "I had not felt my wolf so alive before."

"Wolfbane shots across that many years would weaken your wolf like that." Ki nodded, suddenly sympathetic.

"First you saved me from the fight cages, then you show me a new world, now you've revived my wolf." Fluffy turned to me, in a rare unsmiling moment, "Alpha, even if I died a hundred times over for you, I would not be able to repay you."

Eh! No, I was just... I really didn't know what I was doing!

But it was Ki, who stepped up, also unsmiling, "If you truly want to repay her, then don't die. Live, so you can run with her."

Which, I can't say how glad I was to hear come out from this particular beta's mouth.

"Yes!" I gave the guys my wide smile, "Let's all run together now!"

So Fluffy didn't get expelled, and after leaving Ki's share of his pasta with him, I was walked back by my good beta. It was really late, but at the last moment, I thought I had better check on Ben and the situation at Bra's pack. Ben, who was still grounded in his basement, "Harvey, I need to talk to Ben for a bit."

So my good beta obligingly walked me over to the Beta's house across the road.

Beta Lucas was just leaving the house, "Oh, Sam! Aren't you at the wrong house?"

I laughed, "I'm here to see Ben about something."

Beta Lucas shook his head, "He's in the basement... I don't have a son anymore, I just have a troll in my basement."

I laughed again. The only kind of troll Ben could be would be an internet one.

When Harvey and I got to Ben's underground lair, I scrunched my nose at the smells, "What's that smell?"

Harvey frowned, "I thought I told you to clean up."

"Oh, hi, Sam." Ben said, "Yeah, I did, but Ink did another experiment today... and that kind of blew up."

I looked at the counters at the washing sink on the other side of the basement. The smell was the worst there - it had some kind of assortment of glass beakers and apparatus set up. The sink had some really bad stains, and part of the counter looked like it had been melted off.

"What kind of experiment?" I asked.

"Hm..." Ben was typing furiously, but he answered, "I think this one was one of the nano acid tests."

Yeah, sure... because that would make perfect sense. WTH were my wolves doing down here?

Harvey was pinching his nose bridge again. I think it must be hard being the only normal sensible wolf - I've been adopting too many weirdos into my pack.

"Is that pasta?" Ben asked, "Thanks."

I moved the pasta out of his reach, "Mine!"

Ben laughed, "Whatever Sam. So if you aren't here to give me food, then you must be here about the Red Crescent Pack."

The what pack? I swear, I had no idea what he was talking about either.

"The pack you planted my Trojan at?" Ben prompted.

I have NEVER planted anything successfully before - oh, Ben meant some computer thing. Oh! "Do you mean Bra's pack?"

"Who?" Ben squinted.

I couldn't for the life of me remember Bra's real name.

"Do you mean, the warrior in your school named Brandon, Alpha?" Harvey helpfully prompted.

Ah, yes. Probably. I had no idea. How was it that Harvey knew? Harvey didn't even go to my school!

"Wait, what do you mean YOUR trojan?" Now it was my turn to squint at my Ben, "Why is YOUR Trojan at my friend's pack?"

Ben shrugged, "You were the one who sent your phone there."

I DID NO SUCH THING! And then I remembered how my previous phone disappeared one day, and then suddenly appeared in my desk again.

"I didn't!" I decided I had better clarify before Ben came up with some far-fetched dumb theory that would give me way too much credit for knowing what I was doing.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Ben asked.

"What do you mean?" I was getting irritated now, "What do you think I want you to do?"

Wasn't it obvious I wanted him to help Bra and his pack?

"Can you fix it or not?" I demanded.

"I can fix it, or I can "fix" it." Ben shrugged in his usual monotone, "Its my virus. I can turn it off and on like that."

Ben snapped his fingers.

"But I need to know what you want me to do, Sam. I could charge them their annual GDP in one go and turn it off. I could turn it off, and then on again, and off again... and drag it out till I bleed them dry. I've been coding an attachment file that would also retrieve intel from their databases on a regular basis. You've really hit jackpot, Sam. I don't know how you do it, but this pack, they've got a payload of dirt in their database."

Harvey shrugged, "I'm not surprised. They are the only wolf pack in the Central Covens. There's shade everywhere there."

Wait, we were still talking about Bra's packlands right?

But Bra's pack WAS the only pack in the Central Covens. That was how Jules knew Pearl was from the same pack when she got off the station.

"So, whatcha wanna do, Sam?" Ben asked, beginning to sound impatient.

I would love to be able to answer, except I had no idea what he was talking about... as usual. WHY? Why were my betas all talking like I knew what I was doing? Can't they see I was just a dumb pup? Okay, I know, I wanted everyone to acknowledge I was grown up just a moment ago - but I've realized that was a mistake.

"Can you just say everything again?" I hated to admit it, but it couldn't be help, "But this time, say it like you were talking to a really dumb pup?"