THEN WE SORTA BROKE UP

(TIMELINE 3, WHEN I WAS 9 to 10, CONTINUED)

When I next opened my eyes, I was on the sofa of the Lorent's living room. There was a lot of blood on it - now that was going to leave a stain. Beta Oran was glowing next to me while Mum was crying.

"The young princess is awake." Beta Oran informed the other adults in the room.

Who me? I sat up and blinked at Beta Oran. I recognized him, of course. He was Alpha James' beta, but this was the first time I saw him glowing like the full moon on a dark night.

Looking back, I must say, Ki looked a lot like his Dad, except Beta Oran's default expression was often severe and solemn. In my memory, he was someone who was softspoken, and light-footed like a shadow. His mouth was often pulled down at the edges and he didn't have Ki's bi-colored eyes. Beta Oran's eyes were very ordinary same-colored dark eyes… maybe brown. Honestly, it wasn't his most outstanding feature. Whenever he was around, he would stand behind Alpha James like a silent guard. Beta Oran wasn't the most outstanding wolf… until he glowed.

I blinked and rubbed my puppy eyes. At first I thought I was seeing things, and then I thought I was dreaming.

"Oh, Sam!" Mum sighed as she pulled out of Dad's arms to embrace me, "How are you feeling?"

"Mama?" I reverted to calling Mum the way I did as a puppy.

"Yes, Mama is here." Mum hugged me and started crying all over again, "My poor puppy."

Bell was dragged forwards and pushed to my bedside to apologize.

Of course, he saw no reason to, "I didn't do anything wrong."

I guess not. When I looked at it from his POV, it wasn't his fault this happened.

"It was an accident." I agreed. He wasn't aiming for my head in the first place. It was because I ducked, meaning to roll away… but no one else looked entirely convinced.

I noticed at that moment that my hand was also bandaged. It didn't hurt though. Nothing hurt.

I patted Mum with my other hand, "I'm okay."

At the moment, it wasn't so much my injuries (especially with Beta Oran glowing next to me) that bothered me. No, I had far more grievous consequences to deal with. I took a deep breath and told Bell, "You win. You can be the alpha. I'll be the luna."

Those were the hardest words I ever had to say. I mean the first two words. The rest of it was as I understood at 9 years old to be the logical consequences of our wager. Our packs were merging and the merger was on the condition that we would be mated so that one of us would be alpha, and the other would be luna.

"That's should be obvious." Bell crossed his arms, but because he must have been at least a little sorry because he shrugged, "But I suppose better you realize it sooner than later."

I nodded, a little surprised because I was still a dumb pup and had misunderstood Bell's condescending sarcasm as positive thinking. I remembered my teachers saying that it was always better to look on the bright side of things… and I suddenly saw another silver lining, "And you can't be rude to your Dad anymore either."

"What has my old man got to do with anything?" Bell grumbled. His arms were still crossed and he shifted his feet and started to look annoyed again.

"I don't think you can blame him for what happened to your mum anymore." I explained anyway. I wasn't sure of the specifics because Bell never told me, but the topic often surfaced whenever things got heated between them. I grinned at him, "Because no matter what happened to your mum, at least your Dad hadn't smashed her head in with a stick."

Someone in the room audibly gasped.

I was very proud of myself. Now Bell would realize that accidents happened and stop blaming his Dad. I mean, pride comes before a fall, but after the fall, you become more understanding toward your fellow fallers right?

"It doesn't count." Bell decided.

"What, why not?" I demanded.

"Because I've decided that you won't be my luna." Bell told me, "I'm breaking up with you."

I should have known, Bell wasn't the kind who could graciously admit defeat.

"You're what?" I gasped. I was shocked. If I had known it was possible to break up, I would have done it years ago!

"You foolish son!" Alpha James roared and chi-ka-boomed right there and then, alpha-bombing dominance in all directions.

I instinctively shrank back and Mum who was still on the sofa pulled me back into her arms.

And that was how we broke up. At least I felt very certain we broke up. The adults interpreted the events quite differently.

My own parents seemed divided in their opinions. My mum felt that this was the best time to break off the engagement. 

"The Lorent family is a good match and they love Sam. The ladies are lovely people too - you know they are some of my closest friends, but I really can't see our Sam with young James... I know they get along, but he seems reckless." Mum had fretted. 

"He's growing up..." Dad was wearing his thinking frown, "I know you're worried darling, but it's complicated..." 

"What's so complicated about it?" Mum argued (because she didn't know I could hear them in the hallway), "The boy had already rejected our puppy. Just take it and call off their engagement." 

"They might be soul mates." Dad mumbled. 

"They're puppies!" Mum pointed out sensibly "We won't know till they're older... what if they're not?  How can you be so sure? And that awful curse. What if our Sam really dies from being his Luna?"

"That's why Sam is going to be the alpha." Dad said. I'm not sure how, but Dad had even convinced Alpha Lorent to leave this an option in our future merger.

"But she's a girl!" Mum cried out in exasperation, "You can't push her to be what she is not."

Dad didn't answer immediately, but after a pause he said, "She will grow into it."

"But..." Mum pressed.

"Shhh..." Dad growled, and then I heard kissy sounds. Bleh. Luckily it was only for a little while or I would have to take my homework and leave.

"Trust me, darling. Everything will work out." Dad promised in his growly morning voice (even though it was well into the afternoon). 

Haha, as if Mum was going to fall for that! Omo

Mum nodded, "Okay, I trust you. I just..."

They stepped into the kitchen where I was trying to do homework on the kitchen counter (I was hungry).

Mum was so surprised to see me that she physically stepped back into Dad. He grasped her shoulders and steered her forward, "What are you doing here Sam?"

I could've pretended to be engrossed in homework and surprised to see them too, but I was just a dumb pup so I said, "I want to break up too, Dad."

"How much did you hear, Sam?" Dad asked, his thinking frown making a reappearance.

"Oh, Sam! I thought you liked James?" Mum asked.

"I dunno." I shook my head, "I guess I was just making the best of it because I didn't know I had a choice."

It's not like anyone ran through the terms and conditions of our betrothal agreement with me. We were the Alpha's firstborn, we had to represent our packs in this merger. James was a good match. I was very blessed to be his fiancée. I would surely be happy! It was our "birthright" or something. As far as I could remember, our betrothal made a lot of adults around me happy.

"Oh Sam!" Mum gasped and came to hug me, "Why didn't you say anything?"

She looked up beseeching at Dad, "You have to call off this engagement dear! For our daughter's happiness, please!"

So against his better judgment, Dad started to retract the merger and press for our engagement to be annulled - in the most civil way of course. 

The Lorents' response was to immediately dig their heels into the ground (also in the most civil way). Alpha James blamed Bell thoroughly. And even after many meals and meetings, they refused to acknowledge Bell breaking up with me.

"He's just going through a rebellious phase."

"They are just pups, give them time."

"My son is a fool, don't mind him."

"Look, they're fine."

Bell and I exchange glances over the dinner table. It had been more than a year since our "break up", but we were still coming to the Lorents for dinner. By now, I had found a new game to play after dinner with Bell and Charles.

Ah, but I didn't call them games. I called them challenges. Because of these "challenges" (and also my consistent merger technique practices showing results), I got quite good at sports like fencing and shooting in this timeline. Alpha Lorent installed an underground shooting gallery in his basement - this was on the other side of the fencing hall he had installed previously.

With Bell, as long as the activity had a grown-up ring to it, he wouldn't reject the idea immediately.

Charles was much easier than his brother to get along with. Despite his Ben-attitude towards his parents, he was very nice to me... and as far as I could tell, most other people.

He seemed very popular among the Lorent kids. Okay, both alpha brothers were popular among the Lorent kids, but while Bell was well respected and feared, Charles was well-liked.

He was particularly keen to please Bell and was also adverse to boredom, so he was quite obliging whenever I had a good idea, and the moment Bell agreed to any challenge, we would both cheer.

Bell always required a great effort to convince so just getting him to agree to a challenge was a great triumph for Charles and me.

"What about Charles?" Alpha James asked while the adults watched Charles teach me how to load the new rifles, "He's only two years older than Sam. Maybe a closer age gap would work better?"

"No." Dad immediately put his foot down on it, "It has to be James or not at all."

Alpha James nodded his understanding, "Yes, James is my heir after all. Forget I mentioned it."

Dad frowned his thinking frown because that was not the reason why, but he said nothing more of it so I never knew why Dad was insistent on Bell. (I thought we had broken up?)

And Alpha James was left to believe he understood correctly and never brought Charles up again.