A REAL CINDERELLA MOMENT (thankfully not for me)

22 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, AFTER SCHOOL

Harvey was waiting by the porch of the student foyer just as EJ had said. He was standing by our blue Porsche, in the usual navy blue suit my betas had taken to wearing. I don't remember the last time I saw Harvey in his leather jacket and jeans. I watched him chatting leisurely with Henry and Marcus. I had to walk the long way around because there were a lot of students, mostly girls, crowding around the exit to take photos. Seriously, Harvey didn't even attend this school, and he had fan girls.

Further up the porch, Henry's red car was parked and waiting, his red ant motorbike escort standing at the ready. In contrast, Neil and Jax had taken to posing on their bikes with their leg up. Neil faked a punch at Jax's direction. Jax laughed and waved his hand as if to brush it off. They were fooling around.

The moment I stepped into sight though, Harvey pursed his lips and made a short sharp sound. The action looked like a whistle, but it came out sounding more like a piece of paper being ripped, or the wind whipping a branch, like a short "fwip" sound and Neil and Jax stood immediately at attention. Then he turned to my approach and offered his usual calm smile, "Alpha Sam is here."

It was like he had no idea how cool he just was.

EJ bounced over to his ride, "Hoi, hoi! Let's go!"

Fluffy pulled his bike over and hopped on.

All four of them adjusted their helmets over their heads and pulled down the visor - and suddenly they turned into the standard motorbike escort. I looked at the four of them mounted on their stationary bikes at the ready, and then at the red ants next door. Not bad. It's like Harvey was the fairy godmother in Cinderella, "Bibity boobity boo!" And the barbarian wolves turned into smart coachmen. But no amount of Cinderella prepared me for what happened next.

Just as Harvey bowed and excuse us from the Young Alpha Henry's most excellent presence (Haha), just as Henry raised a hand to say bye, just as Harvey reached for the car door, just as the motorbikes sputtered to life... I mean, it was all a series of simultaneous actions, and then everything stopped because...

A strange sound like the clipping of heels and wheels followed by the sight of Alpha Gunter, in a white winter cloak, his silver hair in the wind, as he rode into the school, right up to the student porch on a silver white stallion, his Beta wolf and Wilhelm each on glossy brown horses behind him, and behind that, a horse drawn carriage. The horses were all grey or white, and the carriage - at first sight, I thought it was made of glass, like Cinderella's glass slipper, but as it drew closer, under the gently falling snow, I realized it was made of ice.

I felt my jaw drop. That had to be literally riding in an ice box - That was my first thought. My second was, "How did I never notice how River got to school?"

It's like the song we used to sing as pups, "How do you go to school? I go to school by ___" And you filled in the blank with the standard answers like car, bike, bus... Every now and then, one of the pups would try to be funny and sing, "plane" or "boat." One day, one of the boys sang "fart" and I thought it was hilarious. My teacher didn't though.

Never in my life, not even in my wildest imagination, would I have filled in the blank with "horse drawn carriage." Hahahaha

I guess I wasn't the princessy type.

I realized this wasn't a daily occurrence when Principal Laura rushed out from the office in the next building, her PR smile plastered firmly on her face and Matt at her heel, "Alpha Gunter! To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Harvey shifted closer to me, {Should we leave, Alpha?}

I shook my head, just a little. Heh heh heh, just let me watch the show a little.

Henry apparently decided the same and made a U-turn back over to our car to watch with us. Marcus sighed a long suffering sigh and followed him over.

We were rewarded for our viewership when Principal Laura offered her hand to welcome Alpha Gunter, and Alpha Gunter lifted it to his lips and kissed her hand, "The pleasure is all mine, luna."

Wow. It looked like the ancient icy snow alpha was really also quite the smooth operator. Lol... if you were into the old fashioned gentleman type.

Principal Laura giggled, "Oh my, Alpha Gunter, you old charmer."

Gah! What did I just see? Old people flirting?

Luckily, Alpha Gunter was quite experienced at not crossing the line when flirting with someone else's luna in public, "How is your mate, Luna?"

"Oh, same old, same old." Principal Laura waved her hand languidly, "You know how he is."

No, I had no idea really, but Alpha Gunter nodded knowingly, "Please send him my regards."

"Of course, I will." Principal Laura assured him, "Now, I'm sure you didn't just come all the way here to chit chat, Alpha Gunter."

Alpha Gunter's smile was gentle, "Do not worry dear Luna, I only happened to be in the Packlands, and decided to drop by to pick up my son."

"Oh, your son!" Despite Alpha Gunter telling her not to worry, Principal Laura was definitely worried now. I wondered if she knew River was Alpha Gunter's son. I mean, of course she would know... right?

She looked at Matt, "Do you know... er... where Alpha Gunter's son might be? Please tell him that his father is here."

Matt looked put on the spot, but he managed to nod a bow, "Yes, Luna."

Now all he would have to do is figure out who this Alpha Gunter's son was. Matt looked a little desperately at Henry, who smiled and rubbed his thumb over the tip of the index finger and middle finger.

This didn't mean the finger heart that LuvMuunMuun used to convey their love for their fans. When Henry did it, it meant, "It's gonna cost you."

Henry took out his phone and started typing into it. Matt sighed, looking kind of deflated and then he retreated into the crowd to check his phone.

Meanwhile, Principal Laura did her best to keep her super VIP entertained.

"How has your son enjoyed school so far?" She inquired pleasantly.

Alpha Gunter sighed a wintry sigh, "He doesn't say much, even to his own father, but he seems to look forward to it everyday."

"I'm so glad to hear it." Principal Laura answered with all honesty, emboldened, she decided to press on, "Tell me, I'm just curious, but what made you decide on Winderhill?"

"I didn't." Alpha Gunter answered.

Yeah, River accidentally enrolled in the wrong school on his own.

"My son had enrolled in your school on his own accord." Alpha Gunter's phrased it more delicately and was rewarded by Principal Laura's pleased laughter, "Your son made a good choice. I don't mean to brag, but over the years, Winderhill has become a place of some of the brightest leaders of tomorrow. Why, even Alpha Kingsley has enrolled his daughter here!"

Principal Laura looked up and caught sight of me, "Why there she is right now!"

Opps. I guess it was too late to run now.

"Oh, and the Young Alpha Henry too! Come, come, my dears. Come say hello to Alpha Gunter."

Henry and I gave each other a look and then we stepped forward to "say hello."

I took it quite literally, "Hello Alpha Gunter."

Henry just nodded a very quick bow to the senior Alpha wolf.

Principal Laura immediately continued her monologue, least anyone should detract from her PR speech, "In the educational circles, Alpha Kingsley is known as the Father of Modern Lycan Education. Even Alpha George had his son placed here when he heard of Alpha Kingsley decision. It was indeed an honor and pleasure that Winderhill's distinctive program had gotten the attention of such notable alphas around the continent."

I'm not sure what distinctive program Principal Laura could mean, we were a rather ordinary school, and then I remembered the vampires. Right. Studying with a vampire in each class was distinctive alright. No school in its right mind would have allowed it.

But I had to hand it to Principal Laura. I've been here nearly a full term and nobody had gone missing or died yet. Sure, some of the male vamps like to take the occasional snack on their girlfriends, and there was that sinkhole incident, but considering that there were vampires studying here, I think we coexisted pretty well.

I mean, I would NEVER recommend putting your kid in the only school with the chance of your kid being sucked dry and mind manipulated by adolescent vampires. BUT considering that this was such a school, it was surprisingly safe.

But never mind the wonders of our school's distinctive programs, Alpha Gunter's horse was staring at me. I've always thought horses were like cars, and except for the colors I wouldn't be able to tell them apart, but now that I was standing up close to Alpha Gunter and the horse next to him, I was suddenly aware that the horse's head was huge. But more significantly, that either I was right and horses were impossible to tell apart OR I've met this particular horse before. Because for some inexplicable reason, Alpha Gunter's horse looked exactly like the horse I met in Heller's stable when I was in the Colored Mountains.

{Silver Lining?} My wolf felt sure enough to ask.

Alpha Gunter's horse snorted and shook his massive head. I took a step back.

Alpha Gunter took the reins by a firm hand, "There, there, now."

To me he smiled, "Don't worry, Princess. I know wolves are not accustomed to horses, but I assure you that this old friend of mine would do you no harm."

Well, were you aware that this old friend of yours had a doppelganger in the Colored Mountain?

I narrowed my eyes at the horse. He shook his head dumbly at me. I couldn't tell if it meant that Silver Lining wanted me to not blurt out his secret, or if it were really another horse altogether.

The PA system overhead chimed and the office lady announced, "Will Student River Greene from Class 1-5 please report to the porch by the student foyer? Your father is here for you."

I blinked at that.

So did Principal Laura. I guess Greene was definitely not a Snow Wolf family name.

"He used his mother's maiden name." Alpha Gunter smiled thinly, "We had thought it would shield him from unwanted attention."

Said the guy who came to pick his son up on horses and an ice carriage.

And Greene wasn't her maiden name... it was her mate's. I guess River's mum never quite forgot about her soul mate, even after all that.

"Dad?" River popped out from the crowd of students crowded along the student foyer. Keanu squeezed out to join him. The both of them looked like they had to wrestle their way through.

"Oh Dad!" River bemoaned the moment he saw the horses and carriage, "I told you not to bring the horses!"

River lowered his voice, "They don't do things like that out here!"

Some of the students started snapping photos. They were pretty obvious about it too.

"It's Prince River." Someone said.

"No way!" Someone else said.

"The human wolf prince, right?"

"Prince River, marry me!"

River used a hand to shield his face, "Why did you come here Dad?"

River sounded miserably embarrassed. Yeah, I totally got that. I mean, alpha dads could sometimes be alpha embarrassing.

"Let's just go," Keanu whispered into River's ear, "The faster we get in, the faster we get out of here."

River decided that was probably a better plan than trashing it out in front of half the school. He took a step toward the ice carriage and shivered, "It's always so cold though."

Poor River. The rest of us watched as he and Keanu boarded the carriage and then Alpha Gunter swung his leg over Silver Lining's twin.

With a flick of the reins Alpha Gunter and his horse left the scene. But because our cars and bikes were in the way, and there really wasn't all that much space to maneuver the horses and carriage (Quick fact: horse drawn carriages can't move backwards!), Alpha Gunter waved his hand and formed an ice road over our cars and around the school building - if he did it with flavored ice, it would've formed a delicious rainbow.

The rest of us just watched as Cinde-river was swept away, ice carriage and all, by his shiningly bright dad on a white horse.

"Now that's a sight you don't see everyday." Henry grinned when they were gone.

Harvey and Beta Peter were examining the ice structure.

"I'll back my car up first. See if you can do a three point turn around there." Harvey was saying.

Beta Peter nodded grimly.

I guess the ice flyover left very little room for our cars to maneuver out of the driveway now. How inconsiderate these mighty Alphas were! They just did whatever they pleased without a thought for how everyone else would have to work around the changes.

What me? Not me! I'm a very considerate type of Alpha.

"It's cold." Harvey remarked at the chilly weather. The snow wolves tend to do that to places.

"Let's get our alphas out of the cold first." Harvey decided.

Beta Peter nodded again, "Yeah."

He blew at his ungloved hands, "My fingers are frozen blue."

Reality bit like that.

Harvey reached a hand over to the small of my back and led me to the car.

Principal Laura waved us off from the porch, "Goodbye my dears!"

I turned and waved back, "Bye bye!"

Yeah, because if my school principal called me her "dear", who was I to deny her? Hahahahaha.

The car was warm, and I settled down comfortably. Harvey and Beta Pete started the cars and we tangoed for a bit before both cars and our side riders worked their way out to face the right way.

Harvey waved Henry's car to go first. We followed straight after and soon we were out of the school gates and on our way home.