HOW DIPLOMATS DO IT

Delta Felicity laughed off her own comment, "Ah, young love!"

For some reason, now that Bell was involved, I suddenly felt the heat crawl up my face and couldn't quite answer her. And once I started thinking of Bell, I couldn't stop remembering everything - all the things that happened in this life, and in our Original Timeline, and even though I was surrounded by my wolves and stepping out to represent my pack on my Dad's behalf… I wasn't in that empty space anymore. My life was very full, but I suddenly started to miss Bell again.

I can't even explain why. It wasn't like his presence was going to help anything. Quite the opposite really. Bell in this life was really dangerous.

{Fun.} Boo corrected.

Yeah. But we all knew that should be taken more as a warning than anything else.

I accidentally let out a small sigh. It was a very accidental and small one.

It did not escape anyone's notice. I mentally kicked myself for the slip.

I forced a wide smile, "So, what's the plan for this trip?"

"I'm so glad you asked, Princess." Delta Felicity approved.

"I did read some of the reports." I added, in case she should think I was the type of alpha who'd show up at some economic reformation meeting without notes. (I had Harv's notes.)

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I hadn't actually seen any real task assigned to me in any of the plans. Actually, now that I did think about it, it seemed like my job was really just to show up.

"That the Alpha Princess has personally come is more than enough." Delta Felicity assured me.

So I was the team mascot?

"Oh, there is one thing though." Delta Felicity suddenly remembered. She looked thoughtful, "I wonder if it would be appropriate to say it."

I never thought Delta Felicity was someone who ever wondered what was appropriate to say.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Well, you are the Alpha Princess after all." Delta Felicity said.

I nodded. It seemed this was my default conversational response when with Delta Felicity, just shut up and nod.

"And you are here on behalf of your father, Alpha Kingsley." She continued. I nodded again wondering where this was headed.

"Our team is here to study the situation at Night Forest. Our mission objective is to initiate cooperation with the Night Forest leadership and collate enough information to present a GAP analysis with our initial findings." Delta Felicity continued.

Uh huh. I nodded again, still wondering where this was going. I even knew what a GAP Analysis was because I studied for this mission.

"There is no hurry and it would be best if we entered this partnership slowly." Delta Felicity leaned forward now, "If I may be so bold to advise, princess…"

I nodded again.

"There is no need to agree to anything Alpha Louis asks for." Delta Felicity said in a rare show of seriousness, "In fact, don't even discuss the economic reforms with him."

Why would I do that?

"You don't have to worry, Delta." Harvey decided to answer on my behalf, "The Princess knows what she is doing."

No I didn't.

Delta Felicity smiled, but it was a tight smile, "Of course."

She was worried.

"Why are you worried?" I asked.

"Well, Alpha Louis is well known to be a wily old fox." Delta Felicity shrugged. She rested her chin on the back of her hands, "The alpha's word is law, and of course we will fulfil whatever our Alpha Princess promises, even if made privately, but it would be in our interest not to exacerbate the cost on our side."

Uh huh. I nodded again because realizing what she meant. She felt Uncle Louis might talk to me privately and get me to agree to something that was going to be costly to us.

Well, yes. I wouldn't put it past Uncle Louis to try to reason with me privately, and yes, I wouldn't have thought about it if Delta Felicity didn't bring it up. He was just Uncle Louis to me, but right now, I was visiting as the Alpha Princess, on behalf of my Alpha Father.

What did Wolfgang say about stuff like this?

Was it a testament to Wolfgang's tutelage that the things he said in the short time since becoming my tutor had inevitably lent me wisdom in my moments of need?

I smiled my wide smile, "Don't worry, Delta Felicity. I understand."

And then I quoted, "The Alpha does not cease being the Alpha whether at home or abroad."

I was rewarded by Delta Felicity's raised brows. She was suitably impressed, "I see your father has taught you well."

Actually it was Boyfriend #9, her current favorite, but of course I wasn't going to say anything like that.

I shrugged, "Thank you for looking out for me."

Delta Felicity matched my smile with her own, "Thank you for your understanding, Princess."

"Sure. Anytime." I was the alpha after all, "Thank you for the good advice."

"Thank you for your guidance, Princess." Delta Felicity beamed back.

After that, to the relief of all my betas, Delta Felicity decided that she was quite tired and would like to take a nap at her own seat at the back of the bus.

If I hadn't read Dan Lion's autobiography, I would have chalked it to Delta Felicity being eccentric again, but now I knew better. Delta Felicity was ensuring my cooperation, she had a mission and it needed time to be set up for success.

Dan Lion often did this too. Approach lightly, establish slow but sure trust and clear boundaries… that was why he was such a successful diplomat.

I guess our pack didn't send Delta Felicity out on diplomatic missions because we wanted her far away, or because we wanted to scare the other packs, or anything I had ever overheard the other wolves joke about.

Delta Felicity was a diplomat, and she was a damn good one too.

I know I've been told this, but it only just occurred to me that this was a great learning opportunity. Dan Lion wasn't born yet, but here right in front of me was someone I could learn a lot from.

But maybe I could learn from a safe distance. Hahaha. Delta Felicity was still a little hard to deal with - unless you were the type who liked nodding wordlessly a lot.