THE GIFT OF INSIGHT

The moment Bell touched the my hair, the blades turned languid again, and fell back as hair. Hair that was still moving with a mind of its own, trying to wrap around him, but hair nevertheless.

Mate pulled everything together, his fist held my hair back, gripping it together in some kind of pony tail. Ki produced my cap and I managed to clip everything into the back of my cap.

Mate let go of my hair, untangling the stubborn lock that had wound around his arm, leaned forward towards me, as if to smell me, but of course he could not smell anything when dream travelling, just as I could not smell him. But it was an intimate gesture and for the moment, I forgot about everyone else in the hall.

Dad cleared his throat, "How is the rogue hunt, son?"

"It's going well. You don't have to bother with it." Bell answered lightly as he pulled away from me.

If Bell's response sounded arrogant or disrespectful to his elder, Dad didn't notice. He nodded, rather pleased "Good work. And the new warriors? How are they?"

What new warriors? Oh, like the fightdogs? Were they all in Night Leaf Warrior jackets now? I suppose that made sense since they were hunting down rogues in our name.

"We have a bone to pick with the rogues. Especially since many of us were kidnapped by them in the first place." Bell answered, "So the hunt had been fiercely pursued on all fronts."

Dad nodded again, "Harvey will be delivering fresh ammunition and other supplies later tonight. Be sure you pick them up from Silver Mountain."

Bell nodded. He narrowed his eyes at Harvey and then gave our matchy camo outfits a second look.

Aloud, he continued speaking to Dad, "Thank you Alpha, for your unwavering support."

Dad laughed, "I told you to call me Dad."

"Then, Dad." Bell shrugged, his eyes returned to me and my betas, all in matching camouflage outfits, "As I've reported, the new warriors are loyal to my princess. The night my princess met them, they all swore their allegiance to her, all but a she-wolf named Ruby. Ruby had waited outside the Hall of Honor to confront and challenge my princess directly after the event. As luck would have it, my princess was spared the fight when she woke up from the dream travel prematurely. I would have taken Ruby's life on the spot, except I was reminded that we had given the wolves a choice that night, to give their allegiance or leave unharmed. I was forced to grant Ruby her exile. Ruby is dangerous, but at the moment, just a lone rogue in the Red Packlands. It would be best to keep my princess safely away."

"Do not worry." Dad was only too happy to assure his 'son', "We will keep Sam off the Red Packlands. Due to unexpected media attention, she had also been thrust into the public eye recently, and we also intend to increase her personal guards until she has been safely extracted from public scrutiny for now."

Rebel raised a brow, "She is the Alpha Princess of the entire Green Packlands, I would think media attention would be part and parcel of the position."

Okay, Mr Know It All, you got any better ideas?

"Why not have Ki draft a campaign and maximize it? We can use her public profile to further much of our cause." Rebel said. He looked around at the somewhat stunned faces, "Someone once told me, if you can't fight it, ride it."

He patted my head with a smirk, but turned stoney again at my betas in camo, "If you expose her to any harm though, I will make it so you would neither fight nor ride anything ever again."

And then he let his hand slip down a lock of dark blue hair, and I knew he was leaving when he lifted the lock to his lips.

"Wait!"

But he was gone. Disappeared. He didn't even kiss my hair. I flared. Stoopid!

And then I crossed my arms and sulked.

Back to the circle of what I can only describe as the most overprotective males in my life, there was low growling all around. Something was definitely up, more than one somethings, and as usual, I was "slow" and have no idea what was going on. Especially since I was being left out of the mindlinked discussions. Rood!

What would I give for my Grandma Luna's gift of insight!

Wait, theoretically, I should have it. Maybe I just need to activate it or something.

Hey Boo! Can you turn it on?

{I can turn many things on.}

WTH. Stoopid Boo, don't make everything sound scandalous! What's wrong with my wolf? Tell me! Which bloodline was stoopid scandalous like that? I'll go back in time and slap my ancestor.

Oh s***. What was I saying? Boo was a bad influence on me.

"Sam, try to calm down." Mum told me when she noticed my flaring hair, "It's going to be okay. Your dad will take care of it."

But how was I supposed to stay calm with that kind of wolf? And it certainly wasn't helping that all the mindlinks were blearing again.

My betas were squabbling but the greatest number of mindlinks were being shot at Beta Lucas.

A great number of mindlinks were from Mrs Beta with more information about the Blue Wolf Bloodline. She was saying that it might not be something that could be inherited, and no, there was not one single record of a blue wolf living long enough to have progeny. According to her research, they all died tragically young.

Meanwhile Dad and Gamma Harry were also shooting mindlinks at him.

Dad: Perhaps it is time to change our tactic with the media.

Beta Lucas: I've thought that there had to be a better way than how we have been handling it so far.

Dad: Yes... You've mentioned. If not for your urging I would not have given those interviews for Gate City's economy...

Gamma Harry: Lucas! I didn't know Luna Bell had the Midas Bloodline.

Beta Lucas: No one knew. Except Ki.

Gamma Harry: I think we should interview Ki and ask him more things.

Beta Lucas: It will be a waste of time. Even if you manage to get him alone to question him, what do you want to know from him?

Gamma Harry: What I want to know is what do fight dogs eat? That kind of body requires a lot of protein to upkeep! Do they eat better than our warriors?

Mrs Beta: I think it is interesting that not all blue wolves were Alphas.

Beta Lucas: I don't care!

Mrs Beta: What?

Beta Lucas: What? Oh no. Baby, no... I wasn't talking to you.

Mrs Beta: Sorry, you must be busy, I got excited. Maybe we can talk more tonight.

Dad: I have to admit, we had slipped behind the times again, the media had evolved over the recent years. We have Ki with us too... He might just be the guide we need so as not to stumble in naively. Let's talk more in my office after this.

Beta Lucas: I don't just want to be talking later, baby.

Dad: Lucas, are you flirting with Willow again?

Beta Lucas: No! I mean yes. Sorry, Alpha.

Gamma Harry: Maybe we can use the fight dog menu to make all our warriors fight dog builds!

Beta Lucas: Yes, I mean no. Not now Harry!

Beta Lucas: Ki. When can I speak with you earliest?

Ki: Tomorrow morning, before 6.

Beta Lucas: That's too early.

Ki: After 11am.

Dad: Lucas, we need to meet Ki. And perhaps also the rest of my inner circle. Has Sam's inner circle formed yet, do you know?

Beta Lucas: Ben, who is Sam's inner circle?

Dad: Lucas?

Betas Lucas: I think the earliest call for next meeting would be at 11am tomorrow.

Beta Lucas: Ben?

But Ben didn't get a chance to response. Dad had decided aloud, "Let's have everything discussed here tonight ascertained for its accuracy before moving forward. Ki, I need to know my options with regards to Sam's public profile, both the short and long term. We will meet after Sunday's breakfast."

"Yes Alpha." Everyone bowed respectfully.

For a while, the mindlinks stilled.

Dad and Mum left with Beta Lucas and Gamma Harry at heel.

And then it was on again:

BEN: So is tonight still on?

Ki: Luna Bell said to keep her away from Ruby and I have to stay up to work on the media strategy now.

BEN: Harvey?

HARVEY: We could go without her...

At this point I knew who HER was.

"I wanna go!" I quickly jumped in, but aloud. Opps.

"Where to?" Asked Flynn looking confused.

My three betas blinked.

But there were wolves at the door and Flynn's attention shot up immediately to them, "Welcome back! Get to your positions! We'll be working on our control techniques next."

"Oh s***. I thought we could get out early." Ben mindlinked the other betas as they moved to their positions.

"F***. I thought we agreed it was going to be a surprise?" Ki mindlinked the other two.

Harvey's wolf seemed more pensive, "Insight? How much does she know, Ben?"

Ben shrugged in the mindlink, "Could be everything."

He placed a hand on my back and pushed - I mean led, me to stand a few steps away. My betas filed in next to me. It took me a moment to realize we were all returned to our semi circle to continue our training.

Hahaha, this wasn't the gift of insight, this was just being able to listen into random mindlinks around me... Ohhhhh....

This would explain how Grandma Luna's insight worked so well sometimes, and not at all other times...she only knew what she overheard on other people's mindlinks.

And Uncle Louis' half baked one - he just didn't listen for long enough. Hahahaha. Gift of insight my foot! More like the Gift of Eavesdropping.

Back to the semi circle of training, Flynn was observing aloud that some of us didn't look like we had been practicing our control technique on our own. This was a basic warrior wolf responsibility. With great power came great responsibility...

So now we would focus on our individual control. While all of us stood in our places concentrating our focus within us, Flynn thought it would help to pace up and down the hall, shouting motivational lines.

It would've been infuriating, except that it was ridiculously funny, because every time he started on one, I could sense the wolves closest to him want to murder him. We were trying to concentrate here sir!

"The best fighters don't get mad, they get even!" Flynn snapped his fingers in front of one of the guys, "Are you listening?"

The guy's wolf goes ballistic and his eyes glowed, but he held it in check and managed to half growl, "Yes, sir."

"If you conquer yourself, then you conquer the world!" Flynn announced.

To which I had to bite my lips together to not laugh out loud. Where did he get these lines from?

"Alpha, focus!" Flynn barked in my direction.

"Yes, sir." I answered. And tried. But it was impossible. There was a reason why control techniques were best practiced alone.

{He's goading us on purpose.}

Boo was watching, with interest, like a cat lounging, her tail flicking, but she was otherwise unperturbed and I didn't have much trouble controlling her, because she wasn't exactly rearing to go.

Unlike the wolves around me, who were increasingly struggling to keep their wolves from surfacing. Because they were actually trying to concentrate on their control practice. I was...

"A man without self control is like a city, broken into and left." Flynn recited.

Distracted.

I had to give Flynn points for his memory work... And his absolute disregard for his own safety as he walked in front of each trainee, breaking our focus, annoying us, and then reprimanding us for being distracted or annoyed.

It was very interesting. You could probably predict a warrior's success on the field by his success in this particular exercise.

There were guys who were seriously training. There were guys complaining and chatting on the mindlinks. There were guys who were just too angry and frustrated to think straight anymore.

Ironically, the guys who were seriously training were probably not the ones who skipped their personal home practices either. My betas were actually all silent. Ben was having the hardest time not losing his control over his wolf.

Naturally, Flynn had to come over and grin at him, "Don't mind me, Beta. I'm just wondering when you'd like to schedule your next ranking match, since you lost the last one, your ranking is DEAD LAST in Tier 1."

Lol. Dead last. But dead last in Tier 1 was actually 5th place.

Ben's wolf growled warningly. I don't think he liked the sound of dead last.

"Focus Ben." Flynn admonished.

"Sir... Go away." Ben growled.

Flynn laughed but he moved away before he called back, "If you can't even do a simple control exercise, how can you beat those two?"

Which switched Ben's attention immediately to the other two betas who were until now fully focused and silent. But the young beta's aggro wolf's low snarl sort of snapped them out of it.

Now they were growling too. A low warning to Ben not to try anything.

And then Ki decided that he had Harvey to shield him. And Harvey decided to simply ignore Ben, but not without a quick mindlink, "Get a grip, Ben. Steady for the win."

And that was all it took.

Ben magically got a grip on his highly irate wolf and there was silence. The only noise in the hall was Flynn shaking his hips in front of some of the guys and threatening extra practice sessions on Sunday for anyone who broke concentration.

For a trusted trainer and friend, Flynn took an inordinate amount of delight in messing with our wolves.

But a good warrior is not only a fierce fighter, he had to be in control of his wolf enough to hold back till the call for attack, and to withdraw on command, no matter how aggravating the situation.

And after Monday's session on vampire slaying, we now knew that this control training was also the only chance for a warrior to mindblock enough for any chance to survive meeting a vampire.

Actually, I was the one who needed to get a grip, not so much of my wolf but of my own wandering mind.

I wonder what that meant on the battlefield?