FUDGE MY BETAS!

After training, Savy and I returned home together with my betas at heel... All three of them. I felt pretty sure that something was definitely up, especially since Beta Gerald was waiting for us with his old tin can truck, loaded with crates, I smelled ammo, and other stuff - including four motorbikes that gleamed quietly in front of our lit porch.

Harvey jogged ahead and exchanged keys with his dad, "My truck's in the packhouse garage, usual lot."

"Are you leaving now?" Beta Gerald asked.

Harvey took a side glance at us, "I still have some things to do first."

Beta Gerald frowned at his son's vagueness, "Just make sure you send it and get yourself home before dawn."

"Yes, Dad." Harvey sighed, "You've said."

Beta Gerald nodded and then made a quick bow at my approach, "Good evening, Alpha Sam."

I forced a smile and bowed back politely , "Good evening, Beta Gerald. Thanks for the hard work!"

Beta Gerald bowed again, "Just doing my job, Alpha."

But his expression tightened while shooting a mindlink to Harvey, "Make sure the underground receives this."

"Yes, Dad." Harvey didn't bother to mask his impatience over the mindlink, "I KNOW HOW TO DO MY JOB."

Beta Gerald had a wry smile when he turned to go. It was the same smile Harvey wore a lot. The two were cut from the same cloth, but I don't think Harvey realised that yet. Hahaha.

But I had far more important "insights" to deal with - namely, Harvey was going to meet the Underground tonight. This would be my ride out to the rogue hunt, and no one was going to stop me!

But I couldn't ask more about it. Lizzy was waiting for us with Mum and Sabre in the kitchen.

"Great, you're here!" Lizzy said, "We can start baking for tomorrow's event."

Right. Tomorrow, for the Valentine's Day event organized by the Lycan Study Group teachers which I had not yet read the details of.

"Good evening Luna." Harvey greeted politely. My betas made contrite little bows. If there was anything afoot, my Mum didn't seem to notice. But she did look surprised, "Good evening, boys. Are you baking too?"

"It's for a good cause, Luna." Ki smiled.

"Harvey and I are just using the space to work." Ben said. They miraculously produced laptops from their gym bags to set up at the kitchen nook.

"Ben! You need to bake too!" Lizzy said, "There is no way you're free-riding on us!"

"I'm free-riding on Sam." Ben smirked.

"Not a chance!" Lizzy scolded, "Get off your lazy bum and help!"

Hahaha. I guess only Lizzy would get away with that. Ben looked annoyed but he got up.

"It's alright, Beta." Ki smiled, "I will help in your stead."

To Lizzy he continued with a brilliant smile, "Please allow this beta to assist. That beta would probably be more of a liability."

Lizzy actually laughed in agreement.

"I would be more help than Sam." Ben argued.

"No way!" I shot back, "I'm at least a hundred times more helpful to have around." I really was. I mean I'm good at cutting and stirring.

Ben went back to his seat and reluctantly conceeded to not bake, "Fine then. Ki is making my share. Better make it good, dog."

This attitude, even though Ki just help him get his way!

"Don't call him that! Why are you always so mean to Ki?" Lizzy scolded.

"If everyone was nice to him, he'd forget his place." Ben answered.

Ki just smiled, "Thank you for your consideration, beta."

Idiots. But I was busy looking for my recipe in my phone, and while I was at it, I snuck open my email inbox to look for that email Harvey said the Lycan Study Group sent.

Wow. My mailbox had been busy! I had no idea so many people had emailed me. Urm... Let's see... I scrolled down the list. A lot of the emails looked like paraphernalia to the various meetings, minutes, agendas, follow up reports and discussions. There were some things from school too! But I needn't panic, someone has been dutifully replying all my email on my behalf, and all actionables where forwarded to someone else, usually one of the my betas, to deal with it.

For some reason, my random lucky sense of direction helped me scroll down and click on the right email after a few tries. Our Lycan Study Group was having a bake sale for our Vday celebrations. Everyone had to bring home-baked Vday treats to sell in the training hall. Proceeds would go into blah blah blah... I didn't read, I'm sure it was a good cause.

So okay. I needed to bake stuff for the bake sale AND Vday gifts for my betas and friends. Wait... Ben said he was free-riding on me? How many squares of fudge did I have to make? Omo.

By the time I found the recipe, Ki had already started. He did it really quickly, everything into the mixer and then poured out neatly into the metal trays.

Savy and Lizzy were using a second mixer and were more carefully measuring and adding in the ingredients.

Ki slotted the trays of fudge into the fridge.

Hmmm... I picked up a large bowl. Okay, I can do this! Probably.

"Goddess, may I help you?" Ki came over the moment I picked up the bowl.

I shook my head, "I'm going to make this batch all by myself."

"Oooohhhh... Is it for Luna Bell?" Lizzy's eyes lit up.

"Uh, yeah." I guess it was also for Bell.

"Isn't a full batch a lot of one person?" Savy asked.

"Uh... No?" I managed. Oh man... Don't ask anymore!

"Understood, goddess." Ki smiled as he measured out the ingredients for me and pulled open the cupboards for another baking tray.

I'm not sure which part of "all by myself" he didn't understand.

But in the end, due to the shortage of baking trays, I settled for some of the random silicon trays. For some reason, we had a whole bunch of them, but they were all in random designs - flower, butterfly, seashell, rabbit, star, fish, dog bone, heart, car? Well, beggers can't be choosers. I needed a lot cos they were in different sizes and the small ones were really tiny. I ended up using everything except the Christmas Tree molds and the gumdrop mold (because I imagined it would look like s***. Literally.)

Ki helped me melt everything in the microwave, I stirred and spooned the chocolate mixture into the various molds. There was too much mixture and I ended up using a couple of regular ice trays too.

Ki helped me put them into the freezer and cleaned everything up. So that's how I did it "all by myself."

"Alright. It's done. Let's go." Ben shut his laptop and stood up the moment Ki turned off the tap and wiped his hands.

"Last email." Harvey said to his screen.

Ben slammed close Harvey's laptop, "I said, let's go."

"Ben!" I said, because that was really too rude, even for Ben.

Harvey stood up, "That's okay. Our head beta can respond to the monthly budget update himself."

"What, why?" Ben demanded.

"I was going to respond on your behalf since I've already checked the figures last night, but as you said, let's go." Harvey shrugged as he packed up his laptop.

"Serves you right." Lizzy smirked at her twin. The girls were still working on... Whatever they were making. I'm not exactly sure, all I could see were lots of small bowls of different pastel colored mixtures.

"You guys better go quick. Mum will probably come down to check on us once Sabre falls asleep." Savy waved us off.

"Yeah, we'll cover for you." Lizzy agreed, "But Ben, don't forget what you promised us."

"Thank you, kind ladies." Ki beamed, "Rest assured, our head beta always keeps his word."

Ben just growled and pushed me out to the front porch to Beta Gerald's old beat up truck.

Hahaha. Head beta... I'd say Ben was over his head on this one.

Harvey unlocked the doors and opened it for me to get in.

"Are we really going to the underground?" I asked the moment my betas got into the truck. Harvey in the driver's seat next to me, while Ki and Ben sat in the second row of the cab.

"Close enough." Harvey winced.

"Might I remind you that Luna Bell had just warned us not to expose our goddess to danger, particularly the she-wolf named Ruby, and Alpha Kingsley had given his word that you would not step foot on the Red Packlands." Ki felt obligated to remind everyone.

"But Dad said we can't go to the underground during Alpha Duties on Sunday." Ben grumbled, "So this would be our only chance to get close to the rogue hunt."

"Don't worry. I've got everything under control." Harvey promised.

"So where are we going?" I wanted to know. Something in my tummy fluttered, I barely dared to hope - could it be? Would we really get to hunt rogues?

"The Gold Packlands, we are dropping off the supplies for the Underground there. Our guys. can pick it up when they deposit the captured rogues with Alpha Henry." Harvey proposed.

Ki nodded his understanding, "This would satisfy all the limitations set by Alpha Kingsley and Luna Bell."

"And give us a chance to test the new bikes." Ben decided.

Harvey was grinning now, "I don't mind testing the new bikes before handing them over."

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

"Hopefully, we won't meet any rogues." Ki added innocently, "Best be armed, just in case."

Harvey was grinning ahead while he drove, "Let's not get our hopes up."

By this he must have meant, let's not get MY hopes up, because you know the flutter that was in my stomach? It had all but flown upwards in anticipation. I'm so excited!

I wasn't the only one, Ben leaned forwards, hitting the back of our seats suddenly, "Happy Vday, Sam!"

What? I turned to see him grinning, "This is your Vday gift from the three of us!"

Oh. And all I made them was no-bake fudge.

Late in the dark of night, along the long empty expressway, an old beat up, tin can, pick-up truck coasted across the wide shadowy lands. In it sat my three betas and me, all of us grinning from ear to ear. It was hard not to.

The radio played, but with less banging and screeching than Harvey's usual mix. Was this Beta Gerald's default channel? But Harvey was tapping on the steering wheel anyway.

"We were young, we were wrong, we were free... If there's somebody, calling me on...she's the one."

{That's me.}

Boo was also grinning.

Our tin can truck turned into the Gold Packlands, the brightly lit sign the first beacon we passed, "Welcome to the Gold Packlands."

We had to stop a moment at checkpoint because this wasn't an Alpha's car, but Harvey had produced the necessary papers to the guards and we were let through without further ado.

Driving deeper in, we passed houses and apartments, and then what seemed to be nothingness for a while before we entered the Henry's pack town. Here the streets were lit from end to end, the shophouses shuttered for the night, but the signboards and other lights quietly stood guard.

It looked rather different in the night from how I remembered it the last time I visited and I only recognized the road to Henry's packhouse after driving down the street neatly lined with brick walls.

By then, we were once again stopped, this time by patrolling warriors. Once again, Harvey produced the right papers. The warriors escorted us right up to the packhouse, riding their motorbikes alongside us.

It was weird, there was no danger along this highly guarded street that led to the Alpha's mansion and the main packhouse, and then I realised they were not protecting us from anything. They were protecting everything else from us. Just in case.

At the packhouse gate, we had to stop again and Harvey produced the same papers. We were told to pull up just inside. They would require us to fill in papers and allow for the inspection for the items we were transporting.

I heard Ben sigh deeply behind me.

"Patience Beta." Ki smiled.

Ben did not respond.

We had to all get out of the truck and surrender contrabands, which included projectile weapons, and any items made with silver or wolfbane.

The guards produced four plastic boxes for us to put our stuff into.

I watched as my betas produce various items from their persons, it turned out all three of them were carrying small shotguns of varying sizes and design. Harvey's gun included a muffler. Besides this, Harvey had the standard warrior utility knife, Ben had his usual flip knife, Ki surrendered his utility knife...and then six throwing knives.

By now, the guards had decided a body search was also in order. They would also have to search our truck. Actually, we were carrying enough ammo for me to smell it, and I was quite sure Beta Gerald's truck would be well armed to survive so many years in Morning Light.

"Is it possible for us to just leave our truck here and walk in? I can leave instructions for the Night Leaf warriors from the rogue hunt to pick up their supplies directly from here." Harvey offered, "It would save everyone the hassle."

"I'll have to ask my officer first." One of the guards said, "Hang on."

Harvey nodded, "Thanks."

The other guard took a glance at my empty box and then at me, and then at the contents of the other three boxes, "Miss, you need to surrender any weapons..."

I pulled out my pockets, "I've got nothing."

I smiled and tried to look innocent. I'm just a girl, so naturally, I've got not weapons? But I wasn't convincing enough because the second guard looked at me with unhidden suspicion, "I'll need to search you."

The moment he said that, my betas started growling, which only fuelled the guard's suspicions.

"Perhaps we might wait for your officer's orders." Harvey suggested.

I'm not sure if the guard really thought that was a good idea, or if he just felt my three betas were a tad intimidating, but he conceeded to wait.

Personally, I'm still surprised that none of the guards seemed to realize that we weren't normal wolves. Three true betas and an alpha shouldn't have been that hard to sense, right? But apparently, whether due to our young age, or our get up, or our task to deliver supplies in a beat up tin truck, no one noticed the power of our wolves tonight.

So we all waited another moment, standing in the cold night, for the first guard to finish mindlinking his superior.

Finally, a burry man barrelled out of the guard house, "What the hell is going on here?"

He was rather loud and I noticed immediately that the collar of his uniform was left hanging open. I tried very hard not to let first impressions cause me to dislike him immediately. Maybe we had interuppted him during his break, explaining his irate and undone uniform. I made sure to keep my expression friendly.

The officer grabbed the papers from the guard, "What do we have here, eh? Night Leaf supply truck..."

He lifted his head sharply and narrowed his eyes at our truck, slapping the side of the old truck with the papers in his hand he decided, "This is obviously not a Night Leaf truck!"

Turning his head to the guards, the officer decided to slap them with the papers in his hand as well, "What's the use of your eyes eh? They aren't in warrior jackets, this old truck isn't a Night Leaf truck, why the hell did you even need to call me out?"

"It's a Morning Light truck. Our packs had been merged for a while now." Harvey tried to explain, "We're here with permission to deliver supplies for the rogue hunt."

"I don't think so." The officer answered, rather smugly too, "The papers say Night Leaf, I can't let you in."

"This same truck had made the delivey yesterday night." Harvey tried again.

"Huh! You think I've never seen a Night Leaf truck before?" The officer shot back rather haughtily. I'm not sure where he got his confidence from.

"Look sir, even so, our supplies are clearly marked and labelled. The new bikes are obviously Night Leaf bikes. You can't expect to use the official Night Leaf warrior truck just to make deliveries every time, but you can check the license plate to your records. This truck had properly delivered supplies here last night." Ki tried his hand at reasoning now.

"Ha! Who knows how you got your hands on this stuff! Do you think I was born yesterday?" The officer sneered, "You kids better get ready to call your parents, cause you're in deep s***."

Ben had been silent all this while, but that was the last straw. He took out his phone and turned on the speaker, "That's it. I'm calling your Alpha."

Now let's see who's the one in deep s***.