WELCOME TO THE FUTURE!

There was a pause. It was like the moment of collective realization that we could be anywhere. Like a boat cast out in an open ocean with no land in sight.

My good beta was the first to calmly pick up his phone, "That was quite accurate. We have moved exactly three years forwards."

Peony made a very surprised "murr?" sound.

"Are you sure, Harv?" I asked.

Everyone checked their phones too.

"Thank goddess for global clock standards, huh?" Future Ben grinned knowingly at us. He was acting all haughty because he had just a bit more experience than we did. (Like how was the single trip he made from his time to ours considered "more experience?")

For some technological reason, our phones picked up the satellite world time and auto refreshed. GPS showed our location was roughly where we left from too - in the woods just behind the Alpha House.

"It's weird though." Ben looked around, "I've never seen these trees before."

According to Ben, one month before my 18th birthday, Grandma Wanda should have passed on, and with no healer to shoulder the curse for the land, the trees nearest to the Alpha's backyard should be just trunks and bear branches.

The curse would spread very quickly and our entire forest would be the barren Stick Forest in two years.

I folded my arms, "Future Ben's a quack."

I was just teasing, but it didn't make sense. The apple trees were beautiful though, and I looked up at the low canopy and reached up to pick a flower. It was white and stained pink around its petals. How pretty!

The guys' were too busy checking their phones though.

I've spent two minutes in the future and already swung from feeling grateful for reliable world time technology to annoyed at the way technology was taking over our adventure. Why weren't we risking it all and sneaking to the the packhouse or alpha houst to investigate?

Imagine us, receiving this rare lycan legend level opportunity to time travel with a talking cat right from our backyard (and it wasn't pretend play like when we were pups). We got all the way into the future and were now standing around, phone in hand, checking the internet. Call me old fashioned, but this was NOT the stuff epic adventures.

"I can't believe charming beta is going out with HER." Fluffy who was checking the wrong section of the online news updated everyone.

Future Ben leaned over and recognized the lady in the photo, "Would you believe she went out with me and Harv too? She thought she could play us."

Naturally, everyone had to check out the lady who tried to play our three betas.

"She's not even that pretty." Jax protested, "You might as well get played by Fluff."

I guess, but very few wolves were prettier than Fluffy. This lady looked very glamourous. (Fluffy had kindly tilted his screen for me to check it out too.)

"It looks good, actually." Harvey commented as he scrolled up. He wasn't talking about their future love scandal though. He was talking about whatever was happening on the stock listings. I bet he would've been on our financial reports if we gave him the time to download them.

"It's good NOW." Ben said, "But it's all going to go down the toilet the moment Sam disappears."

"Am I disappearing today?" I asked.

Future Ben shook his head, "Not till next week."

Gah! So we were stuck here for a week? I really wasn't dressed for roughing it out in the woods.

"How about we go check out the alpha house a bit?" I asked. Maybe I could borrow some clothes... And a sleeping bag. Maybe Future me would kindly share her bathroom.

"We can't just waltz in, Sam." Ben argued.

"We could just find Future Me and explain it." I said, "I'd believe us."

"No way." Ben shook his head, "You wouldn't be a pup anymore. It's wouldn't be so easy to convince you. We'll all get thrown in the DC."

Our dungeons? That'll be fine too. We can at least have a nice warm space to chill till Future Sam disappeared.

Wait, but wouldn't we be too late to stop me if we were in the dungeons? By the time they realized Future Sam was gone and come down to let us out, we would have missed our chance to prevent disaster.

"Best to avoid the DC." Future Ben advised, "It's not place for a girl."

Excuse me? Didn't you just bring me there through the back door yesterday? You even brought me to the rogue graveyard! But what happened yesterday to me, was a long ago memory for this Future Ben.

"Fine! We'll go stealth mode." I decided not to waste any more time standing around. I didn't wait for my wolves to follow. I just ambled down the familiar paths to home. The Alpha House was still there. It looked a bit different though. Darker, but not in a bad way. Like the walls of our new Alpha house had always been a dark slate grey, but today… right, the porch had been stained a darker brown, the roof shingles were now a dark brick red, and the windows were tinted. Before, our Alpha House had looked modern and simple. Now, it looked modern plus shades.

Just as Ben said, our backyard crater was now a backyard pond. Except the pond had white and pink lotus flowers in bloom, each the size of a dinner plate.

I peeked into the pond... At first surprised because I thought there was gold moving inside the water. It turned out to be golden koi swimming against the dark backdrop of black stone.

The pond in Future Ben's memory was full of dead cattail by now and smelled like dead frogs.

"I feel like I'm dreaming." I said feeling a little daze to find something like this in my own backyard.

"Such a perfect dream." Fluffy smiled, "To be walking with Alpha in her gardens."

Someone thumped him hard on the back.

"Wake up!" Chided Neil.

"Dream on!" Scolded Jax at the same time.

"It'll turn into a nightmare the moment Rebel appears though." Future Ben shrugged in his usual naysayer deadpan. We all ignored him because we were used to it.

There were gardens on either side of the house too. This wasn't in Ben's memory either. On the right looked like a flourishing herb and vegetable garden, it looked newly planted and cleaned up. Most of the beds were filled with dark damp soil and some green thing starting up.

On our left was a low brick walled rose garden. Even though the roses were all white, they were arranged such that even from far, one could tell the different shades and textures of the roses. Lacy white ones grew in clusters like clouds, buttery cream ones the size of teacups. All in full bloom, even though it was only Spring. I took a deep breath hoping to catch it's scent, but we were still standing in the shade of the apple blossoms. The scent of apple blossoms were overpowering, but on the bright side, my nose was working and this wasn't a dream.

And in the open space that was just the grassy/muddy au natural spring backyard that I had just passed a while ago, was now a field of wildflowers.

I had never seen so many types in a single backyard, the colors from poppy reds and oranges, daffodil yellows, blue bells, purple irises, dotted with white little flowers swaying at the slightest breeze... All playing peekaboo from a curtain of tall grass. I had never seen so many different flowers growing wild in one space.

This wildflower scene looked very familiar… I tilted my head to regard it - Oh! Hayao's Fields of a Thousand Deaths was growing in my backyard!

Someone from inside the Alpha house came up to the backdoor.

{Quick, hide.} I scrambled up the nearest apple tree and left my wolves to find their own cover. The glass on the sliding doors now had some kind of dark film on them so I could only see a dark figure.

The dark sliding door was pulled open by a smiling Ki. He stepped out of the threshold, bowed and smiled his beautiful smile - even from all the way across our backyard, his tender expression was undeniable.

I wondered who he was talking to. Omo Was he letting his new hot movie star girlfriend out the back door?

Future Ben hit Ki, "Don't just let her sneak out whenever dog!"