THE SPECIAL TEAM AT YOUR SERVICE!

22 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, 4.15PM

"Let's go." I stepped out of my room, pass the smiling Ki. Harvey was waiting at the stairway. He made a short bow.

"I will be accompanying you, Alpha." Harvey informed me, "The Captain's reports just came in. I've forwarded it to your email."

Ki disappeared and reappeared from my room with my new surface pro at hand. I took it from him. Email. Right. I really should be checking it more often, and when I say "more often" I meant more than once a year.

The moment I looked at my screen, it literally lit up when it recognized my face. Hahaha. (Get it? It had face recognition... and it lit up? Okay, never mind. If I had to explain it, it wasn't funny.)

I tapped on the email app to open the inbox and regretted it immediately because it immediately presented me with like a thousand emails I had never seen in my life. I swiped and how most of them were "Forwarded" or "CC-ed" mails. The few that weren't had all been read and replied to properly. I found the email Harvey was talking about right at the top and opened it. Stephan's email was short:

"Beta, Alpha's instructions noted with thanks. The Special Team will report immediately after their shift. ETA NL FAO 16:30. Attached is D.Ink's report of the incident and my own notes. Captain."

I looked up at Harvey and Ki, "The Special Team are here?"

"They are waiting in the conference room." Harvey reiterated.

"Like right now?" I asked. That wouldn't give me any time to read all this!

"Yes, Alpha." Harvey nodded.

"Okay." I nodded, "I guess we should go anyway."

My sudden loss of enthusiasm didn't go unnoticed.

"Is something the matter, Alpha?" Harvey's forehead creased again. It's been doing that a lot lately. My poor beta was cultivating his wisdom lines. Hahaha.

I didn't feel ready. I mean, I had ordered for them to be sent to me at the spur of the moment. I just didn't want my special wolves to be sent to the detention barracks. Torque had sounded genuinely distressed at the thought. At the time, I didn't think much of it. I don't know, maybe I would just pretend to punish them a la how I punished Oscar and Oprah at Night Forest - with a lot of sound effects and dramatics.

Yeah, I probably would have done something of that effect too. Except the wolf I was today wasn't the same as the one a month ago. I've changed.

AND now that I've read Stephan's email, I remembered that Stephan was running a serious army over there, and I just poked my head into what I shouldn't have. I mean, the poor guy had been working tirelessly ever since my Luna made him the Captain. I've seen the detailed reports, the careful management, the strict discipline. It couldn't have been easy - fight dogs were not the most tame wolves to begin with. And here I was - I wasn't thinking at all - just fooling around. Did I think the Special Team were there for fun?

{Fun.}

Wrong! They were there because no one knew what to do with them. No, that didn't come out right. I mean, yes, but they weren't there for fun, and definitely not for my personal fun. We were wolves and all wolves had a destiny... As much as it was waste to just group these unstably powerful wolves together, it was also a waste to use them solely to entertain the Alpha. They weren't my playmates. They were wolves - just like Ki and Fluffy... I'm sure they had a life they were supposed to live. They just got sidetracked from living to their full potential.

Even as I was thinking about this, my feet walked on its own accord. Harvey followed behind. He didn't put his hand on the small of my back. He simply followed. I was blindly following my lucky sense of direction, and because I was contemplating the Special Team, I wasn't surprised when I stopped in front of the Conference Room door.

Harvey opened the door for me without knocking - there was no Alpha nor elder inside, so I guess he didn't see the need to, but it surprised me anyway, because I had thought my beta ALWAYS knocked.

"Alpha is here." Harvey intoned in his usual calm.

The wolves in the room looked grim. They stood up immediately and bowed, "Yo, Alpha."

What happened to princess? I blinked, momentarily taken aback by my "promotion."

But I didn't have time to celebrate just yet. Yes, I was their Alpha - and that gave me a whole lot of responsibility - which was a whole lot more than I had expected.

Did I think I would be able to just fool around for the rest of my life?

That was the problem, I wasn't thinking at all. My whole life I wanted to be the Alpha. I didn't even know half of what Alphas were supposed to do. I don't even think I know half of it yet!

I should have just left them to Stephan to deal with.

I sat down in the chair Harvey pulled out for me wordlessly. The six guys just stood there... wordlessly. Even EJ was silent, which only made it harder for me to figure out what was going on. What should I do? I tried to read the reports in the email for a clue.

Ink's report was a very brief but proper report about what happened in the morning, and listed the several breeches of protocol.

Stephan's notes included the six deltas' records, their notable missions which mostly ended in spectacular failure as individual deltas with their own teams of warriors. They were now the Special Team operating directly under Theo's leadership. They had quite many demerits accorded to them for everything from going MIA while on patrol to "illegal drug production."

It ended with a personal note of apology from Stephan for posting this particular team on guard duty. He explained that they had been shorthanded at the Underground (exactly what were they doing now?). On hindsight, it was reckless to put such wolves in the position to safeguard the Alpha's personal safety and he would take responsibility for his mistake.

If I had to find fault with Stephan, it would have to be that he was way too serious.

I sighed.

{It's bad, isn't it?} EJ was the first to break the silence. I looked up and realized they had just been standing there in the silence. In fact, they still were. EJ was only speaking through the mindlink.

{Shhh... EJ. Don't get us into even more trouble.} Barry replied.

{There is a 87.5% chance we are going to get demoted.} Ink predicted.

{Oh great! First our teams get reassigned, now we get demoted.} Barry sighed, {We're really the Failure Team, aren't we?}

{As long as we don't have to go to detention.} Torque said.

{Yah} EJ agreed, {Woooo uuuu... it was so depressing there.}

{I thought it was quite relaxing.} Fluffy smiled.

{Shut up, Fluffy!} Barry scolded immediately, {And wipe that smile off your face! Alpha would think you are trying to be funny.}

{Yeah, you're going to get all of us in trouble!} Torque said.

{Again.} Ink said, {For the 76th time since our team came together.}

{Don't worry.} Fluffy smiled, {I told you. Alpha is very kind.}

"You're all demoted." I told them.

{So fun!}

The men all groaned into the mindlink.

{I told you.} Ink had to add.

"I don't think you guys are suited for the Underground army." I explained.

"Wait, wait, wait!" EJ jumped up wide eyed, "That sounds more like you're firing us!"

"Right. Okay." I nodded. EJ had a point there, "Then you're fired."

"Wha-" Torque was upset enough to say this aloud. Or maybe EJ had already broken the ice.

"Please Alpha, if you'd just give us another chance..." Barry tried.

"Silence." Harvey commanded, "Attention."

The six wolves stopped themselves and squared their shoulders at attention. It was no doubt they were really well trained warriors... but I wondered if they realized their own potential.

"Let me finish." I said, "I don't think you guys are the kind of wolves who run well with rules and protocols."

The six wolves nodded reluctantly. I think they were more aware than anyone how they had failed repeatedly in this aspect.

"You're wolves who need to run with your heart." I told them, "So this is what I'm going to do. You're fired from the Underground Army. You have a choice now. Either you choose to run with me, or you leave and find another pack."

"Noooo!!!!" EJ threw himself on the stone table, "Noooo... pretty alpha! EJ doesn't want to go."

Fluffy hoisted him back up on his feet. His smiling mask firmly in place, "Even me, Alpha? But I am your dog. It would be better you shoot me. I wan't to live and die as your dog."

I narrowed my eyes at him. That guy had been spending too much time with Ki.

"I want to be your dog too!" EJ declared.

And then suddenly Barry dropped to his knees, "Please accept me as your dog. I'm not good at anything except fighting, but I will always fight for you!"

I stood up and flared in alarm. This was not the way I wanted things to turn out.

Cobra, Torque, and Ink all dropped to their knees too, "Please accept us as your dog!"

"Stop it!" I flared! Why can't anyone just LISTEN to me first before jumping into weird conclusions?

By now, EJ and Fluffy were also on their knees.

I sighed and touched my temple, I was getting a headache... and then I stopped, why was I getting a headache? I shook my head to clear it... I had super healing powers, I NEVER got headaches.

And then I realized it was something pushing on my mind - like mindlinks trying to come in. I tentatively release my mental shield, the headache cleared and all six wolves - including Fluffy pretty much forced their allegiance to me.

They were really very powerful wolves. If they could force their allegiance to bond with me, I can't imagine how Stephan or Bell could've held up against them.

"Will you guys just hear me out first?" I yelled at them exasperated, and then I gestured to the empty chairs around the table and alpha commanded, "SIT."

So naturally they sat. What with the terribly strong allegiance bond they just forced with my Alpha wolf, they couldn't do anything else. Dummies. It wasn't supposed to be like this!

"Okay, I said you had a choice. I wasn't going to boot you out." I clarified.

"Oooooohhhh...." EJ realized.

"Ah, I panicked." Ink pushed his glasses up higher.

You think?

"Anyway, since you choose to run with me, you need to be able to keep up with me." I told them, "My wolf isn't one to run on rules and protocols either - although," I quickly added lest anyone misunderstood something weird again, "There's a place for that, and its an important part of warrior life."

"The point is, we are wolves who need to run with our hearts. And you can't run together with your pack unless your heart is in the pack." This was my own theory entirely. I was literally making it up as I spoke, trying to describe how I've always run, "So I need you to learn to run with me."

"Yes Alpha!" The six wolves stood up and answered in unison.

I winced at their loudness, "So for now, the rest of you will move into the Alpha house, like Fluffy and EJ, until you learn to run like pack wolves again, you will run with me."

"Yes Alpha!" The six wolves shouted.

Why did they do that?

And then Barry admitted, "I know this is supposed to be a punishment, Alpha, but somehow I feel like I'm getting a promotion."

"Who said I was punishing you?" I grinned at them, "I never had any intention to punish you. I just want to run with you."

"Hoi hoi, alpha! I'm good at running! I'm really fast!" EJ broke out of warrior mode first to boast.

"Sssss...." Cobra hissed.

"If you want to run with me. You need to run with all your heart." I warned them.

"Don't worry, Alpha!" Barry assured me, "The Special Team is at your service!"