THE CATALYST REACTION

3 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, DAWN

Beta Lucas half ran over, he was pulling on our pack's warrior jacket, "Ben, the fight dogs have revolted. I'm taking warriors out. Stay here. Cover my duties."

"Lucas, Sam is here." Mrs Beta sounded extremely concerned.

"Oh, yes, Good morning, Sam." Beta Lucas greeted.

"Morning." I said. I sat up.

"Ben!" Mrs Beta sounded very displeased with Ben. She was calling his name the way Mum liked to call mine a lot lately, "Why is Sam in your room?"

Ben got up and shifted behind me, "Nothing happened. I slept on the floor in my wolf form all night, alright?"

I wanted to turn around when he spoke, but he put a hand on top of my head to stop me. I froze. Oh right. Naked. Haha. Ben let go of my head and plodded into the bathroom.

I stood up when he shut the door, "I fell asleep after our mission last night. It's not his fault."

"I have to go." Beta Lucas gave Mrs Beta a sloppy kiss, "Good work last night, Sam."

"Lucas. Ben, he..." Mrs Beta protested.

"It's fine. He's not a pup anymore." Beta Lucas said.

"That's exactly why this isn't fine!" Mrs Beta exclaimed, "Lucas, this is inappropriate. If her father or Luna smells him on her..."

"He would notice my scent is on her clothes, and not under it." Ben stepped out of the bathroom in just his jeans. He picked up a t-shirt and pulled it over his head.

"Ben! It's still inappropriate. You could have put her in Lizzy's room or the guest room." Mrs Beta pointed out.

"We need to go, Mum." Ben brushed her off, "Alpha wants Sam home now."

He shrugged on a vest that looked part gun holster, part armor, and then pulled on a dark sweater over it. Then he pulled out a drawer, took out a gun and slipped it under his sweater, and then he slotted a black dagger into his boot.

Mrs Beta continued without batting an eye at her son's accessories, "Think of Sam's reputation when she walks into the packhouse covered in your scent!"

Beta Lucas had other things on his mind though, "Use my office today, Ben. The schedules are on my desk. Check my email and keep my calendar updated. Gamma Harry would be manning the phone lines. Don't divulge anything about our pack's involvement, especially not your mission last night to anyone. We are just sending warriors to aid the Lorent Pack to ensure the safe return of Alpha Lorent's son. Increase security to code orange. I've sent a press memo as well as the SOP. Go read it."

"Lucas!" Mrs Beta persisted, "Sam can't walk into the thick of it in Ben's scent. Everyone would think she spent the night with him."

"She did spend the night with me." Ben smirked.

I hit him with the back of my hand. Seriously? I don't think this is the time to upset Mrs Beta.

Beta Lucas made a face, "Well, he's her beta. Alpha Kingsley and I often slept together too. Especially after missions. They infiltrated the Royal Coven and slayed the Ciara vampire lord last night..."

"They what?" Mrs Beta asked sharply. I had to hand it to Mrs Beta. My mum would have screamed it.

Actually Mrs Beta was being very chill. I mean, my mum would flip if she saw me pocket a flip knife. Ben was like... Well, if I ever needed a knife (or a gun), I know where to look.

But I still felt that in the interest of Mrs Beta's sanity, I should explain something. "He was hunting me."

Too bad I wasn't very good at explaining things.

Mrs Beta paused and nodded. I'm not sure what she understood though.

"The report is in my email. You can read it if you want. Or Ben can fill you in. I have to go, sweetheart." Beta Lucas sounded apologetic, but he dropped another kiss on his mate before leaving.

"We need to leave too, Sam." Ben said, "Your Dad has asked for you again."

"Okay." I made my way to the door, Ben behind me. When we passed Mrs Beta, I said, "Please don't tell my mum about the vampire hunting."

Mrs Beta nodded wordlessly.

Ben and I got out of the house and ran towards the packhouse. The roads were lined with grey pick up trucks with dark windows. There were so many new smells intermingled with the familiar smells.

Once inside, Warriors were everywhere, rushing in and out of the packhouse. The training courtyard on the side had a full platoon of warriors. I could sense warriors in the basement too.

But you knew that we were going to a real war because for the first time in my life, the warriors were armed with guns.

The ones lined up in the courtyard had both guns and swords. I saw Hank, his expression serious, standing on the porch. The sliding glass doors were shut, so I couldn't make out what he was saying to the warriors.

Delta Felicity was running across the second floor corridor. She looked like a mad woman, throwing her hands in the air and talking to no one in particular. And then I realized that she was just answering a call on a Bluetooth headset.

Ben's hand was steady on my back, guiding me through the buzz of activity up to the third floor where we got into the lift and headed up to the Alpha's penthouse.

My wolf was surprisingly quiet, so I guess it was my dark side. Boo. Yes, that's what I will call my dark and unfun wolf - Boo. It's the feeling I get when she's there.

Wolfie would have been seriously overwhelmed with excitement by all this. I was pretty excited myself. I considered how I might convince Dad to let me skip school and go too.

When we got home, Ben knocked twice on the front door and let me in with his card key, "Alpha Sam is here."

I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. My family was perfectly normal. The whole packhouse was in a state of emergency - I had never seen so many warriors activated and fully armed before in my life. But Dad was sitting at the dining table with Mum, Savy, and Harvey. So it wasn't exactly perfectly normal, but Ki was cooking breakfast and it felt so very normal here.

I could still smell the human girl, but I could not see her. I tried to sense for her but I could not. It was annoying, my wolf did not seem to feel humans were worth her notice. Or perhaps I could only sense other wolves (and vampires) on my radar.

She was still here though. Maybe still sleeping.

The TV was also on. The Lycan News Network was reporting.

"Sam, you need to see this." Dad told me.

Oh, so he was asking for me so urgently because he wanted me to see the news. I looked, at first not quite understanding the images being flashed across the scene. It was dark, and the camera footage was grainy. And no werewolf eyesight can see through the dark of a screen. In real life, yes, but on a TV screen, if it's dark, it's just dark patches. I wondered if this was how the humans saw in the dark. Poor humans. They were half blind.

But after a while, it started to make sense. They were footages of the Fight Dogs Revolt. I understood more from reading the ticker that ran at the bottom of the screen.

"Fightdogs revolt at Vampire Queen's birthday. Nearly a hundred fightdogs on the lose. Fightdogs are dangerous and should not be approached by the general public." Vampires are on their tail, particularly the Vampire Queen's army. They were last seen entering the Red Packlands.

The Black Forest Alpha, oh, it's Alpha Solomon made a press statement that the Black Forest Pack would be sending their Lycan army to aid in the Fight Dog's escape. He encourages his Lycan brothers from packs of every colored packland to join him.

They will cut off the vampires to allow the Fightdogs a chance to find freedom.

"Our brother Lycans were made slaves for vampire sport. But they had bravely broken free from those chains. Surely we must protect their newly found freedom. Freedom is the right of all wolves."

Alpha Lorent also made a statement, "We would be sending our warriors. Some of our pack's captured sons might be among them. I just want them home safe."

There was a lot of criticism against Alpha Solomon after that. The news commentators think that by calling more Lycans to arms, we might be starting a new war with the vampires.

Alpha Gunter from the Blue Packlands also sent warriors due to their alliance with Alpha Solomon.

Actually it turned out that Alpha Solomon had many allies. Even my Uncle Louis was (no doubt reluctantly) sending warriors.

Was an inter-species war upon us? Would the vampires back off? The Red Packlands was a Lycan-Human territory. The humans were going to demonstrate against the Lycan. Fightdogs go home! They didn't want a Lycan Vampire war in their packlands.

"We just received a coded message from Luna Bell." Harvey reported, "He and the other fightdogs have successfully returned to the remnant of Alpha Stephan's pack in the Red Packlands. They will be going underground for a while. At least until the media attention and vampire search clears up. He has already requested healers and medical supplies from his father. He requests for other supplies for his warriors. He plans to grow his army there and will return officially with his army in Spring. He also request to start arranging for barracks and living accommodation for their arrival. They have rescued about 5 slave Lycan families, including women, children, and elderly en route. This makes about 46 civilians who are providing practical service in washing and cooking. In total, 67 fightdogs, all strong warrior wolves, have pledge their allegiance to Alpha Sam in exchange for a new life as a warrior in Moon Bell Pack. The others have chosen to return to their home packs. And Alpha Stephan and Fluffy have again pledge their lives to being Alpha Sam's dogs. Alpha Stephan's pack will also move to the Green Packlands as agreed. Altogether, there were 156 members from Alpha Stephan's pack. So by Spring we will be expecting a total of 268 new wolves into our pack, of which at least 150 are males of warrior age, inclusive of the 67 fightdogs. Also, he wants to tell his princess that he will continue to dream travel to see her for now. Wait for his return."

Dad's phone rang, he picked it up, "Good morning Alpha Lorent. No, I was awake. How could anyone sleep through this... Yes, I've received a request from your son. Yes. My elite warriors are leaving as we speak...."

At this point I had to go check outside the window. The long line of silver pick ups were being filled with warriors.

"I want to go too." I said.

Dad indicated me to be quiet because he was trying to hear what Alpha Lorent was saying.

"Yes, of course we can escort your healers. I'll let my Beta know."

This really was war!

And then the breaking news was announced on the Lycan News Network! The Vampire Queen had called back her army. She had heard Alpha Solomon's impassioned speech and was moved. Since these fightdogs had somehow escaped by their own hand, and since it was her birthday week and it pleased her, she has decided to release these dogs back into the wild. However, she did feel it was her duty to warn us: These fightdogs were violent and dangerous. "It would be interesting to see how Alpha Solomon would deal with nearly a hundred fightdog rogues."

"So the vamps want us to hunt down the fightdogs for them." Dad commented.

I guess there was no longer an inter-species war... At least not with the vampires. The humans were reacting pretty strongly though. The demonstrators were growing and were now calling for the capture of these fightdogs.

Riot police have been activated and are on standby.

The Red Packlands was in a state of emergency. Warriors from different Packlands were beginning to stream in. Alpha Solomon made another press statement about his warriors guarding the Red Packlands, and any vampire would be killed on sight.

The Alphas in the Red Packlands weren't at all pleased. Who was Alpha Solomon to bring Black Packland laws into the Red Packlands? They didn't need any help from the other colored packlands and kindly request for all of us to recall our warriors.

Ah, what a mess.

Alpha Lorent called Dad again. Now the plan was for him to take healers and personally enter the Red Packlands, saying that he was looking for his son. They were going to smuggle the healers and medical supplies over to the underground base.

I want to go! I want to go! I want to go!

The rebel army in an underground base!

Beta Lucas updated that our warriors had arrived in the Red Packlands, but there were barriers erected at all the entrances and now the entire fleet was stuck in a traffic jam.

Back to the news, all schools are closed due to security issues, children are advised to remain indoors and not open the doors to strangers.

Besides the fleets of pack warriors stuck in a massive traffic jam around the roads and expressways into the Red Packlands, and the demonstrators in the human towns, it seemed like there were rogues were scouting about for recruits. The Red Packlands was swarming with rogues because rogues were legalized. As long as you were a registered rogue, had not committed crimes in and against the Red Packlands, and was not on the High Council wanted list, it was okay to be rogue.

By now, the sun was rising. Ben and I were also at the table eating breakfast.

Beta Gerald knocked twice and Harvey opened the door for him.

"Good morning Alpha Kingsley. Good morning Alpha Sam." Beta Gerald bowed politely, his laptop under his arm.

"Good, you're here, Gerald. Have you seen the news?" Dad indicated to the TV.

"Yes, it's very messy out there" Beta Gerald said, "I've also read all the corresponding reports. Alpha Sam's report on her infiltration into the Royal Coven and success at hunting down the Ciara Lord was most impressive."

"Sam!" Mum was very quick to connect the dots. She pointed to the TV showing human protestors on the street, "You did that?"