ACT NATURAL

"Act natural." Ben told us, "The guys in the watch room here take their jobs seriously."

Which I guess was reassuring to know. I mean, I've lost count of the TV plots when someone gets by security because some security guard was were eating doughnuts or snoozing in front of the screens.

Ben made a face, "We might have to kick back a bit, Alpha Kingsley has brought Mimi and Alpha Mike to Jude's cell."

Ben suddenly decided to change his shoes out for a pair of crocs, "You too, Sam. Make it look like we are just coming in - NATURALLY. We need to buy some time so we can go in when your dad leaves. Minimally, we'll be collecting the harddisk from the close circuit to back up."

"Yuh." Jonah nodded quickly, and then he made air quotes with his fingers, "Back up. "

Ben rolled his eyes, "I'm doing it on schedule alright? It's due for back up."

"Yuh." Jonah nodded and air quoted again, "It's due."

I laughed and Ben gave up trying to convince his buddy that the backup wasn't entirely a cover up. Instead, he decided to frown at my feet.

I had taken off my sneakers and put on a pair of crocs too. I even picked the smallest pair… not that there was all that much in terms of size selection.

"Your feet are too small." Ben said, like it was MY FAULT that the shoes didn't fit.

"My feet are normal size." I felt I had to correct him, "They're like the most average sized feet at the shoe store."

Which in my opinion was the best size to be because I could walk into any shoe store and the display size would usually fit. It made shoe shopping very easy for me.

Savy, whose shoe size was one smaller disagreed.

"It may be a little convenient when you're trying them on," She had nodded when I told her about how amazing being the average foot size was, "But if you're a size smaller like me, you can pick any shoe, AND they'd take a new one out for you to test. And during the really big sales, they almost never have your size in stock."

Yeah, I guess the downside of having the most average shoe size was that it was also the size that sold out before all the others. Savy was the one who could get really pretty shoes on clearance because she was an "off-size."

I took a few steps in the rubber shoes. It was a little clumsy to walk in because it was really quite big, "How did you fit in this?"

I looked to Ben's feet. I don't know why I was surprised to see that his shoes were proportionate to his new height - very grown up man's size. I shuffled a little more. It wasn't easy. The rubber squeaked on the resin floor.

"Don't trip yourself." Ben worried.

"That's why it's easier to just always wear boots." Jonah decided.

"Let's see…" Ben looked around before deciding, "Jonah, check the stocks a bit."

"Uh. I think it's Dad's turn to do the inspections this week." Jonah said.

"Can you just take the initiative and be helpful here?" Ben snapped, "We need to buy more time."

"Oh, right, right, yuh." Jonah nodded quickly, "I'll get checking, beta."

"I can help." I volunteered.

"No." Ben folded his arms and waited by the wall, "If they saw us mucking with the rack, they'd think we couldn't find something and send someone over to help."

Oh.

"Yuh." Jonah popped his head from out of one of the boxes, "You don't have to touch this stuff. It's the men's job to upkeep it."

I was about to be offended about the sexist statement when I noticed Ben arm's crossed and kicking back to wait. Ben obviously didn't consider himself as one of "the men" either.

I guess Jonah meant "the men" as in "the warriors". It was the way Beta Gerald referred to our warriors as "men" too. So it wasn't sexist, more like rankist. Hahahaha.

I think it was like the way we called Dawn "Sir" when she's training us? I'm quite sure we were supposed to say "ma'am" or something, but no one ever corrected us.

"Uh." Jonah dusted off his hands, "It's all good."

He picked up the clipboard hanging from the side of the rack and signed it off.

And then we all looked at each other for something else to do.

"Uh... They're still inside?" Jonah hazarded a guess.

Ben sighed, "I don't know why they didn't just meet them in the interrogation room."

Which had been why Ben was rushing to get here from the start. He was assuming they'd follow protocol and meet the detainees in the interrogation room. (Since when did Night Leaf wolves follow protocol?) But if they had, we would have been able to watch from the other side of the interrogation room.

"What's taking so long?" Ben's growled. His wolf was becoming testy. I kind of understood the feeling, it was like we were trapped in limbo. We can't move forward, and we can't move back. We just had to continue acting like everything was business as usual.

"Uh, Kev just mindlinked to ask me if everything's okay." Jonah prompted, "And that Alpha King and Luna Bell are in section B cells if the Alpha Princess is looking for them."

"F***." Ben said, "We're screwed."

Because now we know we've been spotted by security. They know the Alpha Princess was brought into the detention facilities. I think it was mostly because I was here. If it were just Ben and Jonah, they might have assumed they were here for whatever duties Betas and Gammas had. But now, they may or may not feel the need to announce/report my arrival to Dad.

This would depend on whether they thought I was here to my dad for official duties, or goddess forbid - realize I was not supposed to be here.

Ideally, we escape with them thinking I just dropped by for some insignificant task and was done and left without any need for them to report or record.

"Maybe just tell them we're just here to get the harddisks?" Jonah offered.

Yeah, but that wouldn't explain why they brought the Alpha Princess to the detention centre.

Ben frowned, "Yeah, tell them we are just dropped by to pick up the harddisk. We need to go cos Sam... she..."

I what? Oh, Ben was trying to use me as an excuse for us rushing in and out.

"We need to go cos I have to use the washroom!" I suggested. Both guys looked at the clearly labelled warrior shower room next to us. I guess they had toilets in there too.

Okay, so that was dumb.

The sound of a heavy door swinging open from inside made me feel quite sure it was time to run - whether we had a good reason to or not.

"Oh s***, they're out." Ben almost sounded panicky.

"Don't panic." Jonah turned out surprisingly calm under pressure, "Just run!"

I take that back.

"Going somewhere, princess?" The deep baritone made my heart leap for joy and sink to my guts at the same time.

{Mate! ❤️}

Ben, Jonah, and I were just about to take flight too.

I reluctantly stopped and turned around slowly.

"Hooboy." Beta Lucas shook his head, "You puppies have a lot of explaining to do."

"Sam." This was Dad, he looked graver than usual, "What are you doing here?"

Grrr... It was like the second time we got caught in the act. This time, I didn't think it would so easy to get away scot free.

"I came to get a word with Gamma Endo." Ben obviously didn't know how to back down, either that or he was stepping up to take the fall for it, "Jonah's here to collect harddisk from the Watch Room. And Sam said she needed the toilet."

Which was true. I did just say that.

I nodded quickly.

We were standing in a row, like we were puppies again. Bell smirked. He was obviously not buying it.

"Hurry up and go, Sam." Ben ordered.

I would have made my escape then, but I couldn't just leave Ben and Jonah behind to face the music. So instead of making my timely escape I decided to stand my ground.

In the moment of desperation, something struck me - Why did Dad NOT want me down here so badly?

"Why can't I be here?" I asked, "Are you hiding something Dad?"

"What?" Dad gave Beta Lucas a side glance.

"What? What could we be hiding Sam?" Beta Lucas was immediately defensive - and I wouldn't have caught this before, but thanks to hanging out with my sneaky betas, I've learned that answering with a question was a beta's first evasive maneuver when they couldn't answer in Yes or No.

Bingo. It was a shot in the dark, and I can't believe I hit the bullseye, but it looked like the tables had turned, "Is it another gyaara?"

"No!" Beta Lucas answered, "Of course not!"

"So you ARE hiding something!" I felt quite triumphant. I grinned, "I think YOU are the one with a lot of explaining to do!"

Bwahahaha.