THE DEAL WITH RIVER

29 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, CONTINUED

"Just tell them to f off." Henry shrugged, "Or get your guards to do it for you if you want to maintain your nice guy image."

"My what?" River looked bewildered.

Henry smirked, "You need to draw your boundaries prince, the girls need to know to only come when you call, or else to not come at all."

Since when was Henry on talking terms with the human prince? And now he was giving free advice? Free stupid advice, but stupid or not, advice was seldom free when it came from Henry.

But just in case River should be influenced negatively, I had to stop Henry, "He's Savy's mate! He can't call other girls over!"

Don't teach River weird stuff like that!

I looked to River for him to agree, but he just looked confused, so I tried to explain, "Don't learn from playboys like that guy. You need to be true to your mate, okay? You can't call other girls..."

And then I tried to clarify, "Unless it's like for homework or something. And I guess if she's a good friend, it's okay too."

I tried to think of my relationship with Bell. Actually, come to think of it, I was always surrounded by guys. Like right now, except for Jasmine, everyone else at the table was a guy. I wondered if Bell noticed... Or if he got jealous like Savy did... In my defense I wasn't laughing stupidly at whatever they said.

"Dont worry, Sam." River said, "I'm serious about Savy. I promise, I will love her my whole life."

"STOP!" I flared then, I mean, I did want River to say something to that effect, but not in that way!

"Say that to her!" I scolded, and just in case River should ever say anything mushy again, I added, "I don't wanna hear anything about your feelings for my sister."

Henry laughed then, "What the hell, Sam. Anyway, the prince is here. What did you want to tell him?"

I guess Henry was a busy alpha who had other things on his internal agenda to deal with. I should be honoured he was taking a pause to let me insert my own personal item into his schedule.

"Oh, did you have something to tell me?" River innocently asked.

I racked my brains desperately for something important enough to say and blurted, "I'm transferring school at the end of the term."

"Oh." River blinked, and then he answered, "Thanks for letting me know, Sam. But actually, Savy already told me."

Wait what?

"I'm transferring too." River smiled sheepishly, "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that."

"What about it?" Henry prompted. Hey! River was talking to ME! But Henry seemed to have taken it upon himself to facilitate this conversation.

"I uh... It's about which school I should transfer to." River answered.

"New Leaf, of course!" I said. I mean, that was pretty obvious right? Then River and Savy could go to school together and live happily ever after.

"Isn't New Leaf a lycan school?" Henry pointed out.

Oh right, no, wait, "It should be fine, since River is Savy's mate! Plus our little sister is human too, and she goes to kindergarten at New Leaf Academy." Well, actually, it was a separate compound but it was also under part of the New Leaf Academy... and River wasn't exactly human either.

"Well, your dad did suggest it." River said, "But I think it would be better to put some distance between us..."

"WHY?" I flared in response. Why wouldn't River want to be close to Savy? New Leaf had nice hostels, River could go to school with Savy and see her everyday. No one would dare to flirt with Savy's mate, and...and.. Marcus would be there too! They might even become room mates! It'll be great!

"I was thinking about it, but I'll be the only guy who isn't a wolf there... and the way I am now..." River looked down at his hands, "I'll just be a burden to Savy. I'm too weak."

"You got the control stone!" I argued. It's not like River was going to pass out and need Savy to rescue him anymore.

"Yes, but I'm not strong enough to harness the same level of power as before." River answered, "And I'm not physically strong enough to run with wolves, I'm not incredibly smart either... I'm just... I'm just me."

"I'm just me too." I argued. I just didn't like the direction of River's reasoning right now.

"Yes, but you're you!" River burst out at me.

I blinked. I'm what now? I wanted to continue arguing with River, but I had no idea how to refute that.

"But I'm just me." River continued, "I just need a few years. Wilhelm and I have started training as Delta Flynn taught us, my Dad will train me to use my magic when I get home. Maybe in a few years, I'll be strong enough to be the kind of mate who will be able to protect Savy and you know... be someone she can be proud of."

"I can still come over during the term break to see her. I've already asked permission from your parents, and they said its okay as long as I don't take her out of pack territory without letting them know first..."

Wow, River sounded like he actually put some real thought into this.

I frowned. I mean, I guess I could understand. In fact, I would do the exact same thing if I were him.

"Okay!" I decided to support my friend, "Go get strong and come back so I can punch you properly!"

"Eh!" Exclaimed River in alarm, and then he squared his shoulders at me and nodded seriously, "Okay! But don't expect me to just stand there like a punching bag. I'll definitely hit you back!"

"I wouldn't have it any other way!" I declared.

"Me neither!" River agreed.

"Is it just me, but I can't follow their conversation at all." Marcus half joked.

"It's not just you, beta." Keanu smiled, "But I suppose as long as they understand each other, it's fine."

"What the hell." Henry grumbled, "It's like listening to two idiots talking."

Hey! Who you calling an idiot?

"Two powerful idiots." Fluffy smiled, as if he made a distinguishing point.

But no, Fluffy! Just adding the adjective powerful in front doesn't make it a compliment.

"That makes it worse, doesn't it?" Marcus asked wryly.

By now, I kinda caught on that the guys were just teasing. (Because they were the real idiots.)

"I hate dealing with troublesome idiots most." Henry complained.

NOBODY asked him to deal with us - and fluffy said powerful, not troublesome!

AND WE WERE NOT IDIOTS!

Okay, maybe River was, but I was certainly above his category of starry eyed idealistic idiocy.

"Alright, fine. Then which school are you transferring to, Prince?" Henry asked.

It's okay Henry! No need to force yourself to deal with us! I'm sure you have far more important matters to attend.

But River held no qualms about politely answering someone who just called him a troublesome idiot.

"Right now, I'm still deciding between this a Lycan school called Black Forest Academy and a human one called the Royal School of Trianon."River divulged.

"Black Forest." I immediately answered, "They both sound like cake, but Black Forest would probably taste better."

"You think so?" River actually thought about it.

Henry shrugged, "That depends on your goals. They're both top tiered schools."

Henry would know since he was going to Black Forest I guess.

"Yeah, I've thought about that." River nodded, "That's why I needed to talk to Sam."

"Me?" I asked. I was still partial to black forest cake, even though Trianon sounded fancy.

"If I choose Black Forest, I'll be able to meet more wolves. Dad said a lot of Young Alphas read there, so there would be many opportunities to build relationships with packs all over our continent." River said.

Okay, I guess... If you were the type who'd discuss pack alliances and stuff at school, it'll definitely be convenient. But who did that?

"But the other possibility would be that River attends Trianon. This way he'd be rubbing shoulders with the future leaders of the human race, which might also be a valuable resource to your Moon Bell in the future Sam." Keanu chipped in.

"Since our kingdom and your pack already has an alliance, the benefits can work in all our favour if we cooperated." Keanu explained further, "If Night Leaf, and later on Moon Bell would work with the Snow Moon Kingdom, we might be able to be the bridge between human and Lycan economies."

Wait... Wait... Too fast. What now?

"We can build a world where Lycan and human communities can meet and trade and be friends." River explained.

Oh, that would be cool.

"Go to Trianon and you can count me in." Henry decided.

No one invited you!

River looked uncertain.

I sighed, "It's okay, River. Henry's a good ally. If he's on board, his contacts and intel can make things a lot easier."

"I'm not doing it for free. I want equal profit treatment, and the intel is on an exchange basis."

River looked unsure again, "I'm not sure what intel I can provide."

"Just whatever you find about the other human kingdoms." Henry said lightly, "I'll even pay you if you find something good."

"I'm not there to be a spy." River wrinkled his nose, "I want to make friends with everyone."

I nodded, "Yeah, don't put River in a difficult position, Henry!"

Henry laughed, "Okay, whatever. I'm just offering to trade."

"So, it's agreed then?" Keanu asked, "River will transfer to the Royal School of Trianon? And Night Leaf and Silver Mountain will back him and Snow Moon Kingdom on the Lycan front."

Henry paused, "Well, I expected as much. But I am also expecting a great deal of trade possibilities here."

I paused, wondering how I should answer. I didn't see a great deal of trade possibilities, although now that Henry said it, it made sense. But what I did see was a world where new friends and places would be opened up to Lycans.

And new ideas too.

And maybe, just maybe, River was right, and we could all live together, not just in our own spaces, but mixed communities, and leave things like the Great War behind in our history text books.

"Okay!" I decided then, "I'll agree in principle. We can work out the details when our betas are around to take notes."

"Ah, should I send what you just discussed to all your betas?" Marcus asked, "I took notes, more out of habit, but I don't mind passing it on."

"Yeah. Send it to Snow Moon's Beta too." Henry said.

"May I have your beta's contact?" Marcus asked River. River fumbled with his phone to get it, "I think I have his email somewhere here..."

"That was a profitable discussion." Henry look pleased, "With you at the Lorents, Prince River at Trianon, and me at Black Forest, I think we pretty much got this continent covered."

Eh? Why was my new school the only one which didn't sound like cake?

"Make sure you make lots of good friends when you start school." Henry told me, "65% of Lunas graduated from there."

And just in case I didn't understand the implications, Henry rephrased it for me, "The Lorent's Girls School is a Lycan princess school. Most of the girls there are fated to marry rich and powerful Lycan. If you make friends with the right girls, they will be great assets to you in the future."

I narrowed my eyes at Henry because what he said annoyed me, "Not really. I really don't care."

"If that's the case, pretty alpha IS the right girl the other students would want to make friends with." Fluffy commented which troubled me although I couldn't say why.

"At least you're starting to look the part." Henry smirked. He was referring to my outfit. I looked down at my uniform. It was the same as usual, I was wearing it the way the cool girls taught me. The only difference was that my shoes were the "grown up" pair to match my new bag... And Fluffy helped me with my hair just now.

"Pretty Alpha gets prettier everyday!" Fluffy praised.

"Pretty Alpha is the prettiest girl in school!" EJ chimed in.

"Hahaha, is that so?" River laughed awkwardly, just like he did with the girls around his table just now.

I face palmed, "You can ignore them, River. They're just poking fun at me."

I guess they got bored of the conversation.

"Nuhuh!" EJ protested, "We were being really sincere!"

He wasn't lying, but I can't believe him anyway because I know the that my Alpha ability to detect lies had two weaknesses - sharks and idiots.