TWICE THE TROUBLE

Bell crossed his arms, as he did, the black rectangular portal reopened behind him,

"Since you are clearly well and unharmed, I will bid you goodnight." He nodded a stiff bow towards Dad and then when he realized Dad 2 was on the other side of the room, he nodded an even stiffer second bow.

I wasn't ready to let him go quite so quickly though, I mean, I had been wanting to see him all night - urm… not because I missed him or anything. I wanted to get him to fix Stephan's curse. Yeah. It was purely for functional reasons. Yeah.

{Lie.}

Shut up Boo.

Anyway, I felt my smile widen at his observation, "Were you worried about me?"

"Mine." Sam2 growled at me.

I sighed, I was so childish two days ago!

"Sam2, what's yours is mine… or will be eventually." Specifically, in two days.

But Sam2 caught on a completely unrelated point. She flared, "Why am I Sam2? YOU are the one who's Sam2."

Wait, what?

I flared back, "Because I'm older. I've been around longer than you. (Like 2 whole days longer.) So I'm the original Sam. You're Sam2."

Sam2 looked like she completely disagreed. Wow, whoever said my face was like an open book was right, "No way! You're the one from the future, so you come later than me, so YOU are Sam2!"

Like WTH! I wanted to argue but couldn't think of anything to say back. I hate it when I'm right!

Bell smirked.

I bet he thought we were so cute.

"Wait, don't go!" Sam2 called when she noticed Bell shift his footing. He was leaving, but unlike in our original timeline, he wasn't going to come close, or kiss our hair. My wolf felt desolate - I had everything good in my life (where everything was Bell) and I had to irresponsibly mess with our timeline.

Arugghhh… Why didn't anyone stop me?

"What is it?" Bell stopped his step. His voice was cold and clipped, but that was how he usually spoke to me in this life.

(My wolf mourned. My wolf was melodramatic like that.)

I crossed my arms and waited for Sam2 to explain why she called Bell back. And as expected, she was hopeless at it.

"I…" Sam2 started. I honestly didn't think she had any good excuse.

I was right.

"I've got nothing." Sam2 admitted and then she got angry all on her own, "Forget it, just go."

Bell turned with a shrugged. He was really going to go now.

"Three weeks." Sam2 called to Bell's departing back, "Three weeks Bell, and you'd fall head over heels for me!"

Wait, what?

Bell turned to say something, but he was already in the portal and the black fumes closed in around him, obscuring his handsome smirking arrogant face from our sight.

We both sighed at the same time, Sam2 and I.

Sam2 pointed at me, "You better do whatever you're going to do properly. Make sure Bell is so in love with you that he can't even look away when you're in the same room!"

This girl! I really don't understand what she was thinking…

{Lie.} Boo said.

I shrugged and gave myself a smug smile, "First of all, you're Sam2. Second of all, you don't have to tell me something like that. I will make him fall so hard, he won't know what hit him."

No, I had no idea what I was going to do. And from the faces around the room, none of our wolves had any idea what we were talking about. But Sam2 smiled at me knowingly, "No, you're Sam2. And don't just make him fall in love, make him crush so hard his stoooopid arrogant face gets shattered."

I nodded, "Yeah. That's teach him to break up with us."

Him and his stoooopid arrogant handsome face.

"Yeah." Sam2 nodded, "Show him who's the Alpha."

Our wolves exchanged glances and then Ben shrugged (my Ben, not Ben2), "Whatever Sams. Let's just go back to our own time."

"Yah man." Beta Lucas agreed, and then he thought of something good, "Back to the future!"

Ben groaned, "Just stop, Dad."

"That's a movie right?" Sam2 asked.

I thought so too!

Beta Lucas looked pleased, "I've always wanted to say that."

Ben looked like he was suffering inwardly. Outwardly, he was already getting the door, "Whatever. The sooner we get back, the sooner we can get on with our lives."

Which was just the kind of impatience Ben always spoke with.

"Oh yeah." I remembered while Fluffy was rounding up the cats, "Ben… when we grow up, and you meet a guy named Dan Lion - he's a human… and I think he wrote some book… can you get it and send it back to me?"

Ben raised a brow, "Dan Lion?"

"Yeah." I nodded. I asked Ben because I was sure Ben would remember. Ben was someone who never forgot.

My memory wasn't too bad either. Grandpa Bell did say some of the stories he told me were based on Dan Lion's book. Ha, take that Grandpa Bell! Did you think you could leave me on a cliffhanger like you did? I had my ways…

"I got our ride home." Fluffy returned to us triumphantly, both Peony and Perri in his arms. The two cats looked most reluctant, but that could just be their usual cat faces.

"We need rest…" Peony grumbled, "We've been opening time gates all day!"

Wait what?

Dad explained to Dad2, "We were doing a bit of tidying up too."

"OH!" Beta Lucas2 realized, "No wonder some of it just cleaned up on its own!"

Dad2 nodded, "Two heads are better than one."

I really didn't think it worked that way - or at least I'm quite sure it shouldn't… and then suddenly it all clicked, "The mysterious masked wolves… it was YOU?"

Both Dads shrugged their dapper dad mode equally in force.

"Well, sometimes them too." Dad2 admitted.

I turned to look at my own betas and agents who had the decency to look guilty.

"You were sleeping for a long time." Ben said as if that explained anything.

I heard a sigh escape my lips. I hated it when I was "slow" like this, "Alright, let's just go home."

I think… I think I needed a long soak in a warm bubble bath to mentally sort though what happened. No wonder the timeline was so ripped up… It wasn't me though. It was my very own Dad.

WTH.

The time gates pooled open.

"Sam, you gotta go first." Ben said, "I don't trust the cats."

Ben had a way of offending the cats without even trying.

"Hoo boy!" Beta Lucas was also concerned, "Better make sure we take the right wolves!"

He chuffed at his own joke.

Everyone else politely smiled and stepped through. Only Ben groaned as he pushed me through the gate.

We were going home. I felt suddenly relieved at the thought of returning to normalcy… and then I realized that normal now wasn't exactly the same as it was this morning.

Allow me to quote, "The world is changing everyday and what it is today isn't what it was yesterday. And what it will be tomorrow wouldn't be what it is today."

Which was something Harvey had credited to the Alpha Princess in our Original Timeline in his speech at our Ceremony of the Departed.

In truth, this was something my Dad had said first.

Was it just me, but now that I've seen Dad time-traveling like a pro maxing out his frequent flyer miles benefits, the words took quite a different meaning. Like a lycan legend, the words were hiding the secret of the goddess' cats and the Kingsley's bloodline. Grandma Luna wasn't just a rare female alpha with the gift of insight… she was the descendent of the Moon Goddess and the wolf named Jin.

With such power backing them, of course they were able to carry Night Forest through the Great War, retained almost all of their ancestral land when the continent was redistributed, and despite their flimsy economical structure, remain the richest and oldest pack in our continent.

It was only recently that the cracks began to show… recently because the cats had gotten lost. But now they were found again - at least 2 out of 4 of them… I wondered how or when we would meet the other two cats. If I remembered Dan's story right, it should be a white one named Edel and a Black one named Ori.

Just as I thought this, we stepped out into Dad's office into our own time.

Two seconds after we did, another time gate opened, and a large white cat stepped out, "I think it's this one…"

A large black panther popped its massive head out of the watery gate. We all took a step back - even Dad, although Dad had raised his arm to put me behind him.

"Who are you looking for?" I asked.

"It's about some books." The white cat informed me, "Beta Ben said to deliver it now… if this is indeed the now that we should deliver it to."

The black panther stepped through and looked about, "Peri is here. He can help."

"I am here too." Peony said.

But the black and white cat didn't look like they thought Peony would be much help. Poor Peony. I picked him up and out of Fluffy's arms.

"Finally, all my cats are here." I was quite pleased. In Dan's story, they were Alpha Sam's cats right? Mine.

I gave the two new cats my wide smile, "Isn't that right, Sir Edelweiss Whittington and Sir Orchid Walworth?"

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