THE CRACKS START TO SHOW

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, CONTINUED

We weren't being unreasonable asking Jude to sit on his hands till everything blew over.

This war, it was just about over anyway. Thank goddess, it turned out to be just a quick one. I'm not even sure if it'll count as a war anymore. In Lycan studies, I think for an attack to be counted as a war, it had to meet some criteria.

I mean, they started strong. There had to be hundreds of them! But we were already beating them back, and the battle was pretty much contained to our borders. This would probably be chalked up as just another border conflict on the news.

Wow, if they had meant to start a war, I would say this was a pretty epic fail on their end.

But I had to give credit where it was due too. We were winning because of Dad and Beta Gerald, Gamma Harry and Gamma Endo... We had experienced wolves leading us. This wasn't their first war, I mean, "border conflict". If it were left to me... I wouldn't have left an escape route for the rogues to run for. I wouldn't have had separated zones or perimeters either. I'd just run in headfirst with anyone who'd follow me, and I'd still be chasing them all over the place, fighting tooth and nail to eradicate the enemy warriors in my territory.

The Alpha Channel had still been playing at the back of my head since we can't even switch it off till Dad closes it. Cutting off completely from the Alpha Channel before the Alpha left was like slapping the Alpha in the face - and in our particular case, it was slapping three alphas in one go, since Dad, Alpha James, and I were all on it.

Speaking of which, on the Alpha Channel, I heard Beta Gerald (the "admin beta") give the instructions, {Clean up on frontlines. Good work men.}

Right, I probably wouldn't have set aside a clean up crew either. I wasn't someone who'd think that far ahead.

{Clean up crew, get your ********* butts here.} Gamma Endo ordered.

{Quick, quick. Then we can all have lunch.} Gamma Harry added.

Clean up was when our main fight force finishes up and picks up any of our survivors to go back. The clean up crew would be supervised by the Gammas. Their job would be to count and dispose of the dead bodies, make investigations, sometimes they might pick up a few more survivors... that sort of thing.

After this, the sentry patrol would be sent to secure the perimeters.

We've got this one in the bag.

Neil leaned back and drank his coffee, "War's cleaning up for the day."

Hey! Don't leak information like that!

"Yeah?" Jude raised a brow.

"Jude!" Mimi resumed her scolding tone immediately, "Don't you dare step a foot out of the packhouse!"

"But Mama!" Jude also resumed his beseeching mode, "Shouldn't I at least send my Princess home?"

"That's okay." I said quickly. Sorry, buddy. I got the feeling it was safer to keep you grounded too, "Neil and Jax will see me back. Thanks for the coffee break."

"Oh, you're leaving already?" Mimi asked.

I smiled at her, "I should go. I've dallied enough as it is."

I was supposed to find the "Alpha" behind the war. Now the war looked over and all I did was sit around and sipped on water and listened to Jude's life story. The only thing that did was make me hate Jude less. A lot less. I guess you shouldn't always judge a book by its cover, or an alpha by his slappable expressions.

I hopped off the bench, "Thanks for helping Neil and Jax out just now, Jude."

Jude touched his heart and made a small bow, "I only did what was necessary, my princess."

But now I could let the slappability of his demeanor slide.

Neil and Jax put down their mugs to follow, "Bye Jude. Bye Mimi."

"Don't be a stranger now." Mimi hugged both men before releasing them. To me, Mimi smiled, "Maybe the Alpha Princess would like to come by for some proper tea when our packlands returns to Code Green."

I nodded, "Yeah, I'd like that Mimi. Thanks."

"Are you sure I should not see you home, my princess?" Jude asked.

"Yes!" Mimi and I said at the same time.

And we all laughed.

I grinned at Jude, "Listen to your Mama, and stay out of trouble."

No sooner than those words left my lips when the front door was thrown open. We froze and watched as a bunch of burly dudes bumbled in with a lot of shouting and swearing, so it was obvious that something was wrong.

"**** Jude, where the hell were you?" One of the wolves growled.

"What happened?" Jude looked properly alarmed.

"Arguhhhh..." They were dragging in a younger wolf. A boy - he couldn't have been much older than I was, "My leg!"

One of the bigger guys dropped the boy on the sofa.

"Where the **** is Ron?" Jude asked.

"He's checking on the others." Another wolf said.

Okay, now that they've untangled themselves and put the boy down, there were four of them, excluding the boy on the couch.

"S***." Jude said, "Is it bad?"

"Oh no, Max! What happened?" Mimi had rushed to the sofa. The boy started crying. Mimi pulled off her scarf to press on the wound.

"He got shot." One of the wolves answered, and then he abruptly shut up when the other guys glared at him.

Mimi didn't seem to notice the silent censor in the group though, "Trent, go get the first aid box. Coby, don't just stand there, call a doctor. Why are you boys just standing around?"

"All the doctors are at the field hospital or emergency centers right now, Mimi." The one named Coby who had come in cussing like a sailor suddenly turned civil.

"Then just take him to any one of those." I said.

At this point, all the guys standing around the sofa just stopped and stared.

"Hi." Neil said wryly, "Long time no see."

Another silent pause. They were obviously mindlinking to each other, well mostly Jude to his guys. How rood!

Jax decided at this point to announce, "Alpha Princess is here."

"Shut up." I said. Seriously. Jax was not the most circumspect wolf in the world.

I approached the sofa and looked at the boy. His shin was bleeding, I could see the back of the bullet in his wound, and the pain written on his face. Suddenly I flashbacked to Ben's grimace back in the warlock's dungeon. This time, I could see the bullet.

"Get water, and bandages." I said, "And some kind of disinfectant."

The guys started moving.

"Neil, report back. Field clinics are probably busy now. Find the nearest emergency center with a healer that can take him."

"No!" Jude quickly stepped in at this point, "No, Neil. Don't. We've got this."

What the hell did he mean by that? It's not like there was a healer here.

"He's just a kid, Jude!" I flared. What if he never walked properly again?

"We have Lorent healers at the medical centers. He'll heal as good as new." I told him.

Jude looked stricken, but he shook his head.

"The bullet hit bone, Jude. A doctor can only do so much." Trent spoke now.

"That's if we can get one at this s***ty time." Coby added.

"P...p..please Jude..." The boy was in tears, "I don't want to lose my leg."

"You're not going to lose a leg either way, Max." Mimi promised, but she obviously felt a healer would be the better way to go, "Since Sam has kindly offered, we should get Max to a healer."

"No, Mama. We can't." Jude said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Ah, princess?" Neil said, his lined faced crumpled to look grimmer than usual, "We gotta go."

"That's why." Jude shrugged. His hooded eyes drooped a little more. His mouth pressed downwards.

"What? Why?" Mimi asked. Yeah, I had no idea either.

"What about Max?" I felt more upset than I could explain. I know he wasn't Ben, I know he wasn't even my wolf. But he was so young! He couldn't have shifted more than a year ago! Maybe it was the green eyes - they weren't the same shade, but I kept thinking of Ben.

Without a healer, Max would probably limp for the rest of his life.

"Gamma Harry is coming. He'll bring a healer for Max." Neil said, and then he muttered under his breath, "Along with warriors."

"You guys are so popped." Jax informed them.

Jude ran both hands through his hair again. Oh boy.

"What happened?" Mimi asked, almost in a whisper, "Neil, please. What's happening?"

Neil winced, "I'll tell you, Mimi."

Hey, don't leak information! But I wanted to know too.

Neil sighed, "There were a few rats out there, pack wolves that shot at Morning Light warriors."

Mimi's eyes flashed in horror, "No..."

She looked at Jude. It was a "What did you do?" kind of look. The kind my own mum would use whenever a loud noise happened in my vicinity.

Normally, my automatic response to Mum was, "It wasn't me!"

But Jude's expression got dark and he looked down quietly.

"Now, no one's saying it was you guys - yet, but they want to check it out." Neil quickly said.

"F*** it." Jude gritted from the side.

"There will be a healer. No matter what, Max'll keep his leg." Neil continued.

A very black-haired guy bursts in suddenly and bellowed, "Jude! Night Leaf army is requesting entry!"

Wow, we were so polite even during a war.

Then he stopped when he saw me, "Oh, f***. Jude you didn't. ARE YOU F***ING MAD?"

Meanwhile, Trent returned with a large plastic box full of first aid stuff.

"Okay, you're the beta right? Take a bike to meet them and rush the healer here." I said.

"But..." Jude said.

"Shut up Jude." I decided then, "We save Max's leg first, and then deal with your treachery later."

"But..." Jude said.

"There has to be some kind of misunderstanding." Mimi said, almost desperately.

"Maybe." I allowed, "But that bullet. It's got ML engraved in its backside, so you guys will need to have a very good reason for sneaking to the frontline."

"*** *** *********" Coby said, which wasn't much of a reason at all.

"We were just checking it out and accidentally got caught in the cross fire." Trent lied.

Jude winced at me so that I KNEW that HE KNEW that I KNEW Trent was lying. I decided to see if I could ply some information from them anyway.

"Oh yeah? And which of my wolves would dare shoot an ally by accident?" I challenged. Actually, I could think of a few off the top of my head.

"The Morning Light's gamma boy." Max gritted, "Shot me straight off a tree."

"Yeah, we barely got Max away in time." Trent said.

"I hate that ***** **** gamma boy." Coby growled.

I'm guessing gamma boy was Nix. Their description sounded about right too. Nix wasn't the most likable guy, but Nix was one of the very few guys I would not had expected a misfire from.

"Nix?" I asked, "Are you sure it was Nix? So you guys were running with Nix and he shot you?"

"Well, not exactly..." Trent said.

It was the black hair beta that quickly stepped in before Trent put his foot in his mouth again, "Princess, I'll go escort your army in."

He sauntered to the door in his too tight jeans and then threw back over his shoulder, "And the name's Ron."

Right. Ron. I was starting to notice how all of the wolves at Asphalt Moon went by their first names.

"No... Ron, wait." Jude called out after his beta.

"Shut the f*** up, alpha." Ron snarled and left, slamming the front door behind him.

"We need to go, Princess." Neil told me, "Your Dad wants you back asap. And just between you and me, the only times Ron calls Jude Alpha, are the times when Jude f***s up big time."

Mimi had taken out a strap thing, "The bleeding won't stop. Trent, press down on the wound. I'm going to apply the tourniquet."

"No!" The boy screamed red faced, "It hurts! It hurts!"

"Just lie there and shut up." Jude snapped.

The boy started sobbing.

I could feel my own wolves enter Asphalt turf, I went to the sink and washed my hands with water.

"Princess?" Neil followed me back to the bar, "Princess, we need to go."

"The healer should be here soon. Let's hope he's a good one." I went back over to the boy on the sofa.

"I'm going to take the bullet out." I said with a calm I didn't know I had.

"You can't take the bullet out!" Mimi exclaimed, "He's already bleeding too much. It might kill him."

"It won't heal back the same if you keep pushing it in." I told her, "The healer's nearly here, it should be fine."

"Do you know what you're doing Princess?" Jax asked from behind my shoulder.

"I've done it before. Jax get the healer in quicker. Ron's taking too long. Trent and Coby hold down the kid. Mimi stem the bleeding." I decided. I used the rubbing alcohol to sanitize my hands. I've already washed my hands, but you know, better safe than sorry.

Jax burst out the house, I could hear him yelling to whoever was outside, "We need the healer! You, give me your bike!"

I removed Mimi's blood soaked scarf. I could still see the bullet with the letter ML on its flat side. It got pushed in more, but it was still sticking out - much easier than with Ben's case. I plucked it out with my thumb and index finger. It came out whole. That was lucky. Then I grabbed the wad of gauze Mimi was holding up towards me and pressed it in.

Max was pretty quiet now, "It's cold." He murmured. Someone whipped a throw blanket over him.

Mimi checked the tourinquet.

"Max. Stay. Breathe." I took his clamy, cold, trembling hand and alpha commanded, "You're going to be okay."

All in alpha command because I needed his wolf to not give up staying alive.

"Nice and easy. That's right. Keep breathing." I coaxed.

The front door burst opened again.

"Healer is here!" Jax announced triumphantly.

"Delta Oran." I smiled my relief, "I'm glad it's you. Please come and fix this."

Especially since I've just unplugged the bullet from the wound. Seriously, if it were a lesser healer, it would've been more troublesome.

Ron pretty much bulldozed the Lorent healer right up to Max. I was still holding his hand, "Max, get well soon."

I let go of his hand and his eyes fell shut. Then I moved away so that Delta Oran could fix my mess.

"I need my...ah..." Delta Oran said holding out his hand in the air.

His doctors bag was hastily thrown onto the coffee table. Ron rummaged through it and produced a smaller case for him, "You need your knives? Gloves? Gas? What? Tell me what you need, man!"

"Ah..." Delta Oran said, and shook his head, "Does anyone know how to insert an IV?"

"I can do it." Mimi said.

Okay. It's going to be okay. I moved further away. Max was going to be okay.