WHAT WAS NOT WORK

25 FEBRUARY, THURSDAY, LATE AFTERNOON

I'll just give the executive summary and conclusion to Harvey's report. No sense in recording every annoying detail in my diary, but basically, I was resuming alpha duties from tomorrow onwards. (I.e. no longer grounded.)

There were a lot of things we needed to discuss, including Ben's plan to counter my Luna's attempt to restart the great war. Well, no, I was exaggerating, so far, Bell had only messed the the Red Packlands and Black Packlands, so it's not yet at Great War level... yet.

Oh, and the Lorents too. Harvey had reported that Ben's preliminary probe into Bell's personal data bases had produced information that might indicate unusual financial activities in Lorent owned company shares. Of course, without contextual evidence, it was hard to say for sure.

Bell was out for revenge. He was going to hit everyone who had ever hit the Lorents, and then he was going to hit the Lorents for hitting him. Vengeance was a very systematic process in my Luna's dark mind.

At this rate, I wasn't even sure Silver Mountain would be spared. I mean, Lorents could be very petty. Bell and Henry got on well enough - but Trevor was Bell's good childhood friend and look at what Bell did to the Black Packlands.

Black Packlands was now on Code Red and under lockdown. No one knows exactly what was going on in there. I guessed off the top of my head, "Black curse covering everything?"

Harvey told me, "Political analyst are speculating a coup. This year was supposed to be the handover year to Alpha Trevor, but Alpha Solomon had been pushing for an extension. Perhaps the internal strife within the leadership had ruptured"

Which would also be Bell's fault for playing the devil's advocate fo Trevor.

So Black Forest was in a state of emergency. I mean, I thought our warlock-rogue thing situation was bad, but I guess everyone had their own problems.

It wasn't just the Black Packlands, the Red Packlands was also on a Code Red situation. They had appealed to the High Council to adjourn and decide their case asap.

It would be categorised as a special emergency summit. Their case would be against the remnants of the Cloud Forest Pack, for conspiring with the One Armed Death God and his black ghosts of the Cloud Forest lands in an unprovoked attack on their packs.

They press their case to all the other packs in the continent to send aid for the fire (which was still burning), and also donate funds because they were going to hire the Moon Bell army to cut down the one armed death god and his ghost soldiers, and rescue the hostages.

The High Council Emergency Summit was expected to take place quite soon, although the date had yet to be announced. We needed to be prepared. Luna Bell had passed quite specific instructions and my presence would be required.

Meanwhile the human towns in the Red Packlands weren't taking well to the trouble caused by their Lycan counterparts yet again. Yes, in the eyes of these humans, the Lycan communities were rife with trouble and unrest. They expressed their disatisfaction through public protesting, employees of Lycan own companies went on strike, and in some towns, these gatherings became riots... Which the humans again blamed on the Lycan world in general. The human logic was amazing this way.

Overall, I was very impressed with my Luna. Bell's plans were actually working out. What a scary guy he was! Everyone, whether friend or foe, was like his chess piece, moving exactly as he wanted without even knowing it.

"Our Luna Bell isn't a conventional Luna." Harvey concluded with a wry smile.

I sighed and shook my head, we were already on the road home, and our alpha house had just come into view, "Not really, if this was a chessboard, I'd say my Luna was being a very good queen."

The queen was usually the most aggressive piece because of its range of movements. But this wasn't a chessboard. This was real life.

"Okay, I get it. Yeah, we will have a meeting while at Night Forest to settle everything. My Luna may be present if he chooses." I sighed. Or perhaps it was Boo. I couldn't tell anymore.

It's not like we had a choice. We'd be spending the weekend at Night Forest together, and it's not like I could meet all my betas and leave Bell unaccompanied. I wouldn't know what my uncle might do to my mate, nor what my mate might do to my uncle.

Harvey raised a brow, "Pardon, alpha. Do you mean we would be discussing how to curtail your Luna's plan in front of him?"

I smiled, it was a very Boo smile, "Yes. Don't worry, he won't cause trouble. In fact, he might even help us."

Harvey paused at that, his face a picture of consternation. I think he was having trouble coming round to that logic. Boo liked messing with my betas like that.

When our car pulled up in front of the Alpha House, there were five bikes instead of four. Barry's bike had followed us up our driveway. He got off with two bags of groceries in one arm, "Yo, alpha!"

I grinned at his usual cheer, "What's up, Barry?"

"I'm cooking dinner tonight!" Barry grinned back, and maybe because he said "dinner" but I followed him without a second thought into the house through the kitchen door around the porch instead of the usual front door.

Despite whatever we discussed in the car, Harvey managed to get over it and follow us easily enough. I told you, my good beta was getting apt at taking my wolf in his stride. Maybe I should do something really crazy one day - just to see him really panic. Haha.

"What's for dinner?" I asked as I plopped my coffee cup and lunch bag on the kitchen counter. I dropped my school bag next to the stool I hopped up on.

"Welcome home, goddess." Ki smiled from behind the counter.

"Keys! I mean beta! You're on your rest day!" Barry exclaimed while wrestling his two large bag of groceries onto the counter.

Ki finished up torching the crème brulé, "I am resting. Making dessert is my hobby."

I sniffed the air, "It smells nice."

"Lemon grass." Ki smiled, "Just a hint of it in the crème brulé to spice things up since Barry said he was making pineapple fried rice."

Ooohhh... Fancy. Wait, wth was pineapple fried rice?

"I got the extra ingredients I need." Barry pulled out the shopping from the bags.

Okay... Here's hoping Barry knew what he was doing, and not just randomly mixing canned fruit with rice.

"It's the number one best seller at my dad's restaurant." Barry boasted.

"Your sisters are at the Beta's House with Lizzy, goddess." Ki informed me, "They are making tiramisu in celebration of the end of term exams."

"Oh cool." I said, "Thanks Ki."

But it's more because Ki had heated up chocolate muffins and plated them for Harvey and me.

"Thanks Ki." Harvey nodded, his attention on his phone. Ki served milk (for me) and coffee (for Harvey) so I knew that all is well between them. Hahaha.

"Savy requests you drop by if you have the time, goddess." Ki continued reporting.

Barry finished putting away the groceries, "Uh beta? Which one is the rice?"

I looked over immediately to where Barry was holding up two large glass jars. This was the guy who was going to cook? He couldn't even tell which one was rice! I paused at the sight of the two jars he held up. Oh, hmmm... I would've thought this was obvious, but both jars looked like rice.

"Ah, I haven't opened the Jasmine rice. It's on the other side." Ki said.

So neither one was rice?

I thought Jasmine was named after a flower?

Barry took another look at the jars in his hand and put them back into the shelf. When he turned them, I caught sight of the labels, "Balsamic" and "Japonica."

Which would have made rather unique names. Jasmine would be the coolest girl in our group with either one of those names.

"No problem, beta. I've got it." Barry found the empty jar labelled "Jasmine" and opened the other cupboard for a new packet of rice. He managed to empty it into the jar without spilling any of it, so my confidence in Barry cooking our dinner increased a little.

Wait, so all those jars were rice? How many kinds of rice did a family need in their kitchen?

I finished my chocolate muffin, the chocolate pieces had melted into warm little chocolate lava chunks. So perfect! Then I downed it all with a cold glass of milk, ah, life was good.

"Thanks for the food, Ki. I'm going over to Lizzy's now."

Harvey tried to wolf down the rest of his muffin, but Ki stepped up with a smile, "Please allow me to accompany you goddess."

"I know how to cross a street by myself." I grumbled. I mean, despite what Henry believed, I didn't need a beta joined to my hip 24/7, you know.

"Of course, goddess." Ki smiled his brilliant smile, "But there's something I need to collect from Ben anyway."

"Ki, you're on your rest day. Just tell me what you need." Harvey said. He pushed away his unfinished plate, "I won't be a minute."

I wasn't quite sure if he were talking to Ki or the muffin.

"No need, Harv." Ki was still smiling like a pageant winner, "Getting a bit of fresh air would do me good. It's just across the road."

"I can go on my own AND fetch whatever you're supposed to get from Ben." I said, "Ki, if you're on your rest day, you should rest."

"I've been resting all day." Ki insisted.

"If you call training with the special team, working in the garage, and then working on your laptop and making crème brulé at the same time resting." Barry muttered.

"What?" Harvey raised a brow.

Ki stopped smiling.

Barry rubbed the back of his head and laughed, "Ah, nothing beta, don't mind me. I'm just talking to myself."

Hahaha...

Barry was really a nice guy, the kind who would stick his neck out for a friend, but at this moment, I highly doubt Ki was appreciating it.

"Come on, Ki." I decided to take Ki away. More for Barry's sake than Ki's. I mean, Ki was the nicest of my three betas, but he wasn't without his share of beta thorns, and I really didn't want Barry to suffer those thorns.

I smiled at Harvey and Barry, "A little fresh air won't hurt."

Ki nodded a bow and smiled, "Please excuse us."

I let him lead me to the door and open it for me to step out. The air outside was crisp and cool and magic, the kind that rang in my head like a clear bell.

We walked a short distance before I spoke up, "And I thought Harvey was a workaholic! Are you trying to compete with him?"

Since when was this even a competition?

"Not at all, goddess." Ki smiled gently at me, "Please do not worry about what Barry said. I was having quite a lovely day. I hung out with old friends at our gym, you must know I enjoy tinkering with cars. And then I updated my social media, shopped online, and tried a new crème brulé recipe."

Yeah, okay, so if anyone asked, Harvey and I weren't discussing work in the car ride home. We were just making small talk.

"You know, most people would just sit in front of the TV." I know I would.

Ki smiled, "I prefer to relax with my hobbies."

I guess when Ki put it like that, it's hard to fault him, "Just don't force yourself, okay?"

Ki smiled like a flower to the sun, "Understood, goddess."

Which meant nothing at all. My betas all liked to say they understood, but I never knew what they were understanding. Especially since I didn't even understand what I was saying sometimes.

"Exactly what do you understand?" I asked. Ha! Let's see what kind of Lorent tale you can possibly spin out of this one!