THEN MY ALPHA DAD BLEW UP

SATURDAY, 13 FEBRUARY, CONTINUED

"Before you leave, I just want to make something clear." Dad announced with a gravity that kept us all rooted on the spot, "If any of you boys cross the line with ANY of my daughters before they are 18, I will kill you."

Dad gave me a pointed look and added, "That includes your Luna, Sam."

Back to the rest of the guys, he boomed, "And if any wolf dares to toy with their hearts, I will make his life a living hell."

There was a silence. The kind that just happens after a sonic boom kind of shock. And just to make sure he covered all grounds, Dad just had to add, "These rules apply to soulmates too. Nobody makes my baby girls cry."

Dad's alpha presence was now like an invisible suffocating fog in the room, "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Alpha." They guys were very quick and unified in their response.

Oh man... I never would have imagined my Alpha Dad would one day blow up in an Alpha-level proportion of embarrassing, over-protective-dad craziness in front of all my friends. But tada. It happened.

Dad nodded, his alpha dominance receding like the tide, "Good. I'll leave the rest to my beta."

And then he left the room.

How irresponsible! To alpha bomb and announce such an embarrassing thing, and then escape before anyone could react properly.

"See, I told you, Lucas." Gamma Harry looked very pleased, "Like father, like daughter."

WTH did he mean by that? I was nothing like that!

"Geesh, I'm getting too old for this." Beta Lucas massaged his forehead, "Ben, wrap this up and dismiss everyone."

Say what? Now Beta Lucas was being irresponsible too. I mean, wasn't he supposed to carry out strict disciplinary action on us? Was Ben supposed to punish himself?

"Everyone outside the fight circle this afternoon, write your reflections and email my mum by tomorrow night." Ben had suddenly gone into the cold beta persona that I had last seen him wear in school, "Include why you were chanting 'fight' if you were one of the idiots shouting it. Those who were involved in the wedgie incident, you're idiots. If you do something dumb again, I will assign you to Nix's roster the moment you're shifted to patrol Morning Light under his command. See how much you like patrolling in wedgies and getting shot at by rogues. If you were one of the guys in the circle, meet me in front of the Alpha House later today with your snow shovels. You're down for snow duty. Don't forget the media blackout order on this incident. Any leakage traced to you will result in further disciplinary measure. That's all. Dismiss."

"Yes, beta!" The older wolves immediately recognized their true beta. They bowed and left quickly. The younger ones who hadn't shifted took dressing from the older ones and did the same. It was all suddenly instinctive and natural.

Even Mrs Beta bowed to her own son on departure, but not without first adding, "I'll need you and Lizzy to come down to the packhouse kitchen with me and help me sort and deliver the prizes tonight."

"Yeah okay, Mum." Ben shrugged.

Hank and Flynn made sure to slap Ben on the back on their way out and compliment him, "Well done, young Beta."

When everyone had left, Ben put his hand on the small of my back, "Come on, Sam. You've got homework and paperwork."

Ben sounded tired, resigned even. Hey, Ben! You're to young to sound like an old man! It's one thing for Beta Lucas to decide he was too old for this, but Ben just started being a beta this year.

As we left, we passed the other wolves. They nodded bows. And I noticed that they all looked washed out. It's like their wolves had endured a spiritual lambaste and needed time to regenerate. It was the after effects of Dad's alpha dominance.

Okay, and mine too, but mostly Dad's. I was still holding back somewhat, Dad was not holding back at all. Even the open windows did nothing for the poor wolves in the room.

I can't believe my dad just did that! I looked around briefly for Savy, but of course she wouldn't be hanging around after our Dad did something mortifying like that.

I decided to act like nothing happened. What else could I have done? As we passed the other wolves along the hallways, as we waited for the lift up to the Alpha Penthouse, that was now the FAO (Future Alpha Office).

Ben led me in through the now the fully functioning FAO. We even have staff. It was Saturday, so there was no one else there, but I could smell the scent of other wolves around the cubicles and spaces they occupied. Besides, there were computers and things on the tables now, personalizing each space.

Anyway, alone in 'my office' (I don't think I could ever get used to the idea of having my own office), I faced two piles of papers, books, and files. One of them was called Mount Homework. The other was called Mount Alphawork.

I put my head down on the table to just look at the two stacks side by side. I don't want to! I didn't want to so badly, but there was a clock hanging across from my table and I could see I didn't have much time left till dinner. No use dragging my feet. It's time to take down the mountains... I picked up the first piece of homework. Urgh... Maths.

So let's just skip all that, like how they do on TV. It's not like I want to detail my amazingly boring homework and paperwork in my diaries. Or else one day in the far future, maybe archeologist would find my diary and be like, "Alphas in the past did a lot of homework..."

Also let's skip the paperwork part too, because I was actually really fast with homework today. I almost thought the clock had stopped while I was working, but it was just crawling at the speed of snail cos time flies when you're having fun (and I wasn't.)

The paperwork was actually important stuff - most of them finalized budgets for the next quarter, which surprised me. I can't believe our FAO was in charge of so many things as it was. I had to sign off several reports - this was pretty fast work since Harvey had all key points written on a post it on the first page, highlights over details I needed to note, and sticky tabs next to where my signature was required. The dates were even stamped on for me. I just had to scrawl my name in the blank.

I found a piece of rough paper to figure out what my signature should be. The last time, I had simply scribbled my name as "Sam Kingsley". Since it was on an important contract with the Ciara Coven, I think minimally I needed to keep all my following signatures consistent.

So it can't be Samantha Kingsley, or Samantha Kingsley Lorent, or Sam K Lorent... Sorry Lorents, I know I carry your name now, but I have to leave it out of my signature for the sake of consistency.

Who knew scribbling my name on top of my worksheets in a rush would turn out to be practice at signing my name? Sam Kingsley turned out to be a good choice because it was short and in my least effort handwriting - which was barely legible except for the 'S', 'K', and cursive 'G' 'L' and 'Y'.

If I had been aware that as Alpha, I would have to put my signature on so many things, I would have put more thought and practice into it. Right now, my signature read "SannKiugeley".

Luckily my full name was printed in the space below each signature, so you could tell the messy scrawl belonged to me.

Okay, now that I had settled on my signature, and the practice on the blank sheet looked consistent enough, I got to work signing off. It wasn't all that easy, and my signature didn't always sit on the line properly, but wth, let's just say my signature, like my art in school, was very "laissez faire".

Looks like everything was going well. The FAO budget report to the Alpha Office was highlighted to show increase this month to cover the pack house activities, the youth training work, and pack social events that they have handed over to us.

Okay. Sign.

If I thought that was already a decent number of zeroes to work with, but the next document showed it was just a fraction of our total FAO budget.

The Princess Town budget was huge. How huge? Let's just say everything was rounded off to the nearest 10 thousand dollars. How did that even work? But we were building a town afterall... Harvey's post it note said that it had been checked by Ki and himself. Details can be found in the FAO hard drive located blah blah blah...

Okay, sign.

Communications and Media budget was another huge chunk... Wait, where are we getting the money from? Okay, Beta Office was giving us a bit, and the rest was funded by the FAO as a new initiative.

This continued with the next budget, and the next budget... I back tracked to the Princess Town Budget and noticed that the FAO was also contributing a few million in the form of an interest free loan? I counted the zeroes to make sure.

I had no idea the FAO was so rich. I didn't even have a hundred dollars to my name, but my FAO was happily lending millions to speed up the construction of the Princess Town.

Yes, admittedly, I was the one who "initiated the directive to speed up the construction" as Harvey's post-it had kindly reminded me. Also, that futher monies was ready for transfer at later stages of the town's development.

Technically, I was just talking in the car, but I'm glad it was really happening too. Beta magic.

Did beta magic also pay for all of this?

I signed a few other things on the Underground Army - the FAO was supporting the underground too? I took a double take... Okay, not all of it. Night Leaf was contributing uniforms, food, and supplies, but armory, vehicle, and security costs were covered by the FAO. There was a note that the Lorent Pack was supplying medical supplies and services too, and the army was earning its own income - basically, Bell had started to take on "paid security projects". AKA we were running an underground mercenary army. My Luna's request for 30 more motorbikes, 8 pick up trucks, and 6 bullet proof land rovers was approved. Wow.

Amazing. Our FAO was like the fairy godmother who could make money appear out of thin air.

And then the last document explained everything. The FAO Expense Report. I paused before I dared to read the post it.

Harvey's calmly written points were that we were "pacing well", all the "indicators are healthy", and this report had been checked by Ki, Ben, and himself, and sent for financially audit, although the audited

statements would not be ready till April.

Okay... I stared at the report for a long time. Some things were highlighted. I took a while to figure it out the gist of it.

The gist of it was that the FAO was rich because of the tribute we will be receiving annually from the Ciara Coven for the next hundred years.

Besides the Princess Town and Underground Army, we were also investing in various other enterprises and initiatives including a number of Lorent R&D facilities, Gate City's Tourism and Hospitality sector, and some joint venture with Henry's pack. We will be looking to partner our Alpha's Office towards the planned work to redevelop Night Forest Pack too, just to "broaden our investment portfolio."

Okay, whatever. Sign.

It's not like they were asking me to decide anything. Everything was already discussed in detail, agreed upon, and in most cases paid for. My signature was just the official seal - the cherry on top of the Sundae that had already been made.

They didn't really need an alpha, what they needed was an official chop. Lol.

But I guess it was good to read up on what my Betas had been busy with. Harvey's careful notes seemed to indicate that I should at least know that much.

But I was 15! It was a miracle I could understand this much of the budget reports as it was! I credit it to the days of sitting in at Dad's meetings and listening to the adults talk. Budgets liked to use their own set of lingo.

It's like theatre talk, but with a whole different view of the world, where everything was expressed in a number preceded by a dollar sign, and credit, debit, depreciation, and net worth were all measurable with a very numerical way.

In theatre, a possibility is a vision birthed through logistics, inspiration, and clever stage design. In finance, a possibility was accompanied by cost benefit tables and interest rate comparisons, and cash flows.

Theatre talk, finance talk, girl talk, computer talk... How was it that the world had so many facets? Even though it's all in English, I'm still struggling to understand what was being said. And everytime a new facet opened up to me, it's like meeting one of those old Lycan poems.

Like this one. I never quite understood this one. Not even the English translation.

The sea is wide as it is deep,

But we cannot see it's depth.

The sky is high as it is near,

Yet we thoughtlessly draw each breath.

As wolves,

We fail to understand

The mountains

On which we stand.

Ah, I got distracted again. Back to work...sign, sign, sign. Does anyone know what's a ROI? Whatever, sign.

NEXT CHAPTER: BEHIND MY BACK