THE STORY SO FAR

"Sam, before we proceed, it might be a good idea to bring everyone up to speed." Beta Lucas advised.

"Where should I start?" I wondered.

"Wherever you like." Beta Lucas shrugged it off.

"From the beginning." Dad decided.

"Yes, from the beginning." Beta Lucas shrugged again.

"So it all started when Bell was born..." I started.

"That far back?" Beta Lucas asked, "How long will this take? Because if I'm not mistaken, you were saying there was a angry warlock on his way here."

"What?" Bell immediately looked alarmed now.

"No, no, I said MAYBE angry, he might not be angry, and POSSIBLY coming, he might not come at all." I instinctively tried to calm mate, and then I added for the sake of the rest of my wolves, "And I'll tell it really quickly."

Cos some of my wolves were not particularly good at listening to long winded speeches.

"And we can have refreshments after this." I promised.

"Oh good." Gamma Harry was immediately relieved, "Refreshments are good."

I looked at my betas. Ki smiled and nodded so I knew he would have that arranged immediately.

Okay, now that the threat of impending danger and the promise of refreshments had secured everyone's attention, I took a deep breath, "As I was saying..."

Mum and Lizzy entered, with Savy tailing in behind them. I was quite surprised to see Savy return, but maybe that meant she was okay. Maybe meeting her mate like this was quite a shock to her. I remembered she said River was handsome. Urm... hmmm... I've never quite noticed River in that light, but looking at him again, I guess he wasn't bad looking... if you liked the cute and earnest puppy type.

"Luna is here." Beta Lucas announced without standing up. No one else would have stood up either, except that the humans immediately stood up to bow their respect (because they were well acquainted with proper lycan etiquette), and then the rest of us who were younger and/or not Alpha and Luna had to sheepishly get up and do the same.

Mum smiled with a graceful bow, "Sorry for interrupting."

"Don't worry, Luna, we haven't even started." Beta Lucas reassured her.

That's because I kept getting interrupted!

Mum, Lizzy, and Savy decided to seat themselves with Mrs Beta and Laura on one side of the conference table. It was like our training tiers again, where the she-wolves would be grouped together, but I would be at the head of the table with my betas and luna.

Even Dad had chosen the seat on my right - so this was MY meeting proper. My first emergency meeting and I was doing a really bad job steering it so far. Heck, I couldn't even get it to start.

When everyone was seated, I made another attempt to start the meeting, "Okay, I'm just going to run through everything from the beginning so that everyone will be on the same page. Then we're going to discuss what our action plan is."

"Stop." Bell interrupted, "What the hell is this big emergency? In one sentence, princess."

Eh! I flared. WTH is one sentence? "If you want to know, then be quiet and listen."

Bell pressed his lips together and narrowed his eyes at me, but he remained quiet. Oh great, now I've just cheesed him off. Grrrr... I've never worked with Bell before, but I was beginning to suspect it would be a very stressful experience.

I took a deep breath, "Okay, just listen and I'll explain everything. "

And that was how I ended up doing what turned out to be a recap of everything that happened since the year started.

"So you know about the prophecy that was given to Bell the day he was born, right?" I started, "The one that begins with, At the ring of the bell, his name will be Rebel?"

I decided not to recite the entire thing, especially since Alpha Gunter was present, and last I heard, Alpha James was trying to keep the whole thing shush shush - although it was a public event, AND Alpha Gunter nodded like he knew exactly which prophecy I was referring to.

Unfortunately some of my own wolves looked lost.

"Can't say I've heard of it." Gamma Endo said.

"It was given by Fount when Bell was born. And so far we've been fulfilling everything one after the other like a checklist..."

Bell growled and I quickly clarified, "Not on purpose of course. I just mean that it seemed to happen in sequence, and we're at the last step."

"Oh Sam!" Mum gasped, "Why didn't you say anything? We didn't even know it was bothering you!"

"It wasn't bothering me, Mum. And I am telling it to you now because the last step is 'Brother of the warlock's fire.'" I said, "Anyway, please just remember that line. It's all we have to work with, but it'll make more sense in the big picture."

"What do you mean, Sam?" Dad asked.

"I think I figured it out - where most of the pieces will fall. Just hear me out first." I was pretty exasperated now. I mean, I actually trying to say something important here. Its the first time I'm not going to run into trouble on my own anymore. Yup, I'm going to drag everyone down with me - so really! The least they can do is stop interrupting me!

"Alright. Go on." Dad allowed.

THANK YOU!

"So anyway, after the hoo-haa that prophecy caused, Fount ran back to his packlands, but after that, he met Mr Greene's mate in the Maple forest."

"Mandy?" Gamma Endo chipped in, "Nice girl. Tragic really, what happened."

"Eh? You knew my mother?" River asked.

"You're Greene's boy?" Gamma Endo asked, "But how? You're a human!"

"No, just listen Gamma Endo! I'm trying to explain it." I said.

"But does Greene know?" Gamma Endo protested.

"Just be quiet Endo." Beta Lucas scolded, "Let Sam talk."

Yeah, just let me talk!

But aloud I said, "Okay, whatever I say here stays here. You can't tell Mr Greene."

"Is Mr Greene Mum's mate?" River asked.

"Yes, but let me finish first." I said.

"Oh yes, sorry." River apologized at once.

"Okay, so Fount sent rogues to kidnap Mandy from Mr Greene, and made her his mate." I summarized.

"WHAT?" Endo exclaimed, "Of all the cowardly reckless evil..."

I held up my hand and he stopped talking.

"Right, right, sorry." Gamma Endo nodded a quick bow.

"And then Mandy realized she was pregnant. She thought it was Mr Greene's baby and was afraid of what Fount would do to it, so she ran away. Since she couldn't run back to Mr Greene because Fount had threatened to kill him if she did, she ran home to her human family in the Blue Packlands."

I pointed at Wilhelm, "Mandy's elder brother had a son, Wilhelm. Sabre is Wilhelm's step sister from Mandy's brother's remarriage after Wilhelm's mum was killed by rogues."

"Oh." Mum mouthed.

She smiled at Wilhelm, "It's very nice to meet you Wilhelm."

Wilhelm immediately stood up and bowed deeply, "It's my honor to meet you, Alpha Kingsley and Luna. Thank you for taking care of my sister. No words can express my gratitude."

These humans were so etiquettely correct, they even spoke lines out of ancient lycan legends. It really puts us real wolves to shame.

"You're most welcome, Wilhelm." Mum smiled, "Savy is attending a birthday party at her classmate's home right now, but I hope you would stay for dinner and meet her."

"Yes." Dad nodded, "But perhaps we should let Sam continue her story."

"Yes! Let me continue my story!" I said. I didn't even care what the right terms were for a real meeting anymore. If they wanted a story, then I'll tell them the story!

"So anyway, Mandy left during one of the rogue attacks because she thought Fount might be sending the rogues for her. Alpha Gunter found her and..."

"OMG, they fell in love." Lizzy said too loudly to Savy.

"No! I think they were just friends." I corrected her, "You see, Alpha Gunter's mate was a blue wolf who had fulfilled the moon goddess' purpose, and died. This left Alpha Gunter's heart to freeze, and he became a reclusive alpha wolf who kept himself in his ice tower."

I realized the said Alpha was also in the room with us when he politely cleared his throat, "Ah... at least that's what it says in the story book."

"Story book?" Alpha Gunter looked astonished. I guess he never imagined his tragic and private love life would be retold to children before they went to bed.

Well, actually, it started as one of Beta Lucas' bedtime stories. He had said they were stories he had collected during his adventures with Dad. Now I realized that more than one of these bedtime stories were actually rumors he picked up at Alpha conferences etc.

"There once was an snow alpha who lost his luna and locked himself in his ice tower, until he met a human girl on the road (so I guess he didn't lock himself in his ice tower 24/7, sometimes he went out for walks), and her beauty and courage melted his cold heart and they fell in love and got mated and lived happily ever after." I summarized for Alpha Gunter, and then I informed him, "It's a very popular bedtime story."

"Oh yeah, yeah." Jonah said, "I remembered that story. Mum used to read it to the pups at the library reading corner."

Alpha Gunter opened his mouth and then shut it again.

I didn't tell him that it was made popular because I had gotten my gang to act it out at one of our camp nights (I thought the snow alpha throwing pieces of ice around was funny), and then they had brought the skit to school and used it at one of the school assemblies at New Leaf academy, and then one of the teachers borrowed the idea to write an illustrated picture book for her pup, which won a local Green Packland children's book award called the Luna's Pick Prize, and got distributed to the local preschool pups for free that year.

I couldn't quite imagine Bell picking out award winning picture books. My Luna wasn't really the luna type. Hahaha, thinking about Bell always put a smile on my face. ~ ❤️

Gah! What was I thinking? It wasn't just the constant interruptions! I couldn't stay focused to save my life. At this rate, I was quite sure Fount would storm into our packlands and I would still be trying to tell my story.

"Anyway!" I decided it would be best to move on before any more interruptions happened, or Alpha Gunter recovered from his shock, "They didn't fall in love, but they were good friends?"

I looked at Alpha Gunter for confirmation. He was still in shock so I didn't quite get any real answer, but I took his non-objection as a positive.

"So Mandy gave birth to River, but they realized when he was born that River wasn't a wolf. And then Alpha Gunter decided to adopt River and Mandy became the pack's Luna - since their pack thought she was the new Luna in the first place." I guess Alpha Gunter wasn't the type to explain himself a lot.

"They also didn't live happily every after because Fount showed up, and fought with Alpha Gunter and Alpha Solomon. Mandy was hurt by his magic accidentally, but Fount was injured super badly and he ran back to his land. And then Mandy died."

Okay, I know lycan tales were all about the poetic drama and morals and imagery. I'm sure Ki would've done a better job, heck, Beta Lucas did a better job at telling bedtime stories. But I was just trying to get the key facts out before another interruption happened.

"She left River the stone. Meanwhile, I'm not sure why Fount hadn't gone back for her himself, but he set a lycan-like spell into the lullaby song the Free Wolf pups sing at the border." I said.

"They sing our songs now." Nix boasted, "And if you give them candy, they'll pledge their loyalty to our princess."

I personally didn't think that loyalty bought with candy was anything to boast about, but the Morning Light goons have really taken pains to make friends with the pups. That was somewhat heartwarming. I guess under their gruff and something exfoliating behavior (cos they rub me the wrong way, get it? Hahaha), these goons weren't all bad.

"ANYWAY!" I said again, pointedly to Nix for interrupting me, because I seriously need to finish helping everyone catch up - this was like the catch up segment just before the new episode of a tv show where the narrator goes, "Previously, in Sam's life..." But back to what I was saying, "Anyway, Fount's spell was like a lycan spell because it was set in a song, BUT it was prophetic in the lyrics."

I guess prophecy was his thing.

"And this prophecy, what does it have to do with mine?" Bell asked.

"This one sung by the wolf pups says to ask the moon goddess," I pointed at me, "And her pet moon..." I pointed at Ki and he obligingly glowed a little to show how he was the moon, "to bring back River's stone - which turned out not to be a place, but a person, River!" I pointed at River.

Oh! I was rocking it like Sherlock Holmes.

"So all we have to do to fulfill Bell's prophecy is for me and Ki to bring the stone back to Fount. I guess the fire will show itself then, and then job done!" I beamed. I was such a clever wolf! Everyone who thought I was slow would have to eat their own words now! Haha!