THE SHADOW OF KI'S PAST

23 FEBRUARY, TUESDAY, CONTINUED

"You're all too noisy." Bell complained to his tea cup, " All of you are making a storm in a teacup. The important things are safe on one arm."

He held up his cup to show the vampire ring, but his eyes rested on his upper arm where I knew our mating band was."

"This other arm is just deadweight." Bell concluded sullenly, "You might as well just cut it off again."

Immediately, Alpha James was furious. It was like angry from the scale of zero to ten in one second. His face turned a livid red and his wolf growled audibly, "You ingrat! I don't know how I got such an ungrateful brat! Do you know how many healers it took to give you that deadweight arm?"

Luna Edith instinctively grabbed at her mate's arm before he could strike Bell, but she needn't worry. Bell was quite safe from striking distance in the middle of his wide bed, and at any rate, Alpha James would have had to get past me first.

But now with his luna stuck to his arm, Alpha James was limited waving only one arm while he aired his verbal insults, "I don't know what I did to deserve a son like you! You're a disgrace! Who knows where you went last night to come home in this state? You couldn't have been up to anything good. Useless ungrateful brat. The goddess curse the day you were born!"

"She already did." Bell reminded his dad in a low bitter voice.

"Why...you...grrrr" Alpha James got so worked up, he could barely contain his wolf. Luna Edith tugged on to his arm with all her might, "P...pl..ease, st..st..stop!"

Alpha James stopped and took a deep breath. Now, shaking his head in despair, he turned the conversation back to my Dad, "I wash my hands of this boy. I never know what he's up to. I can't even begin to guess the trouble he had gotten himself into to end up in such a state!"

I knew. But I kept quiet. I looked at my dad.

Dad paused. I was quite sure Dad knew that Bell was growing his blue demon underground army and riding around with them as the death god on a motorbike. I don't think Dad was privy to Bell's plan to mess with Black Forest though.

"Youth makes one reckless." Dad said. And that was it.

But Alpha James wasn't quite done with it, "He will be the death of me!"

Funny, that's what Bell liked to call me too.

"Ki was the one who brought him back, his life hanging by a thread." As Alpha James spoke, his expression grew dark, "Yet no matter what I do, Ki still refuses to say what had transpired or who it was who did this to my son. But don't worry, my men are interrogating him as we speak. I can at least do that much."

Wait, what?

What exactly did Alpha James mean by "interogating"?

I looked at Bell who merely took another sip of tea.

"Alpha Lorent, I'm sure Ki has his reasons..." Mum said tentatively. Yeah, like that Bell had ordered a black out on the incident.

But Alpha James shook his head, "No matter what his reason, I am his alpha. Ki's mutiny cannot go unpunished."

"But he saved Bell's life!" Mum tried to reason on Ki's behalf.

And you're not his alpha! Ki was mine!

"That was the only reason why I hadn't killed him on the spot." Alpha James turned away growling now, "You are very kind, Luna. I can see young Sam's kind heart can only have come from you, but there is no excuse for a wolf to disobey his alpha's order. I am not an unreasonable Alpha, nor do I delight in my wolves suffering, but one must not show weakness or favoritism."

"What did you do to Ki?" I don't know why I was so slow to realize that something was definitely wrong.

To my betas I said, {Get ready to save Ki!}

{Finally you understand, princess.} Bell smirked, but barely, and then he let down his cup with a clumsy clatter. Harvey, who was standing closest to the tea tray quickly straightened the cup on its saucer and removed the tea tray from the bed.

I turned to Bell only to see him slumping down. I caught his head in my hand. Harvey quickly set the tea tray on the side table and helped me lie Bell down.

I looked at my Luna's sleeping face resting in the palm of my hand. Was he holding out all this while for Ki? Was he waiting for me to realize Ki needed my help?

Stooopid Bell! If you wanted me to do something, why didn't you just say it directly? Was it so hard for your proud wolf to ask for my help?

I would have done anything for you. I would have agreed to your request in a heartbeat.

Now that I looked more closely, Bell's sleeping face was drawn with exhaustion. I felt the heart burn coming back. Breathe, Sam, breathe.

"Ah, medics!" Alpha James called outside, "Where are the medics?"

He shook his head, "Where is everyone?"

Two medics rolled in a rectangular machine the size of a with an IV drip and stand.

"He's sleeping. Quickly, hook him up before he dehydrates any further." Alpha James instructed. Then he frowned at Bell's sleeping form, "His vitals are dropping borderline. Have a healer sent up."

"Where's Ki?" I asked again, my heart burn seemed to act up at the most inconvenient times.

"Don't worry about Ki. He will be ready to travel to Night Forest by the weekend." Alpha James brushed it off, "You on the other hand... better just stay there."

I lifted the blanket to stand back on my own two feet. Slipping each foot into my shoes again, I moved away from Bell's bed so that the medics could attend to him.

I wouldn't have said I was angry, maybe it was just the heart burn, but I must have been because I released the worst thing I could think of on the Lorent household, "Ben, go fetch Ki."

"On it." And Ben shot out of the door, not a second too soon, Beta Lucas raised a hand to stop him, "Wai-"

But it was too late. Ben was outside, and from the sound of it, he was making quite a commotion.

"You! Tell me, where's Ki?" We could all hear him quite clearly. He had not shut any of the doors behind him.

The poor warrior he had caught didn't speak quite so clearly, but whatever he said couldn't have been what Ben wanted to hear.

Ben snarled and there was a sound of a body being forcefully slammed against the wall.

And then more warriors rushed over. "Stand down!" One of them threatened.

"Or you'll what?" Ben growled, "Put down the guns."

The medics moved away from the machines now that they were done fiddling with the buttons. It looked like they were trying to making the blipping sound to turn off, but everytime they readjusted the settings, it would restart blipping again.

"Call your beta off, Sam." Alpha James ordered.

"I'll call my betas off when Ki gets here." I insisted, but my heart burn was acting up in a bad way. Deep breaths Sam. I wasn't going to show any weakness either.

"Sam..." Mum tried, but Dad reached out a hand to stop her.

"Sam, your wolf. You need to restrain her." Dad informed me.

"I am being restrained." I answered matter of fact. Grrr... wth was with this heart burn?

Just at that moment, Delta Oran popped in cheerily, "Alpha requested for a healer? Apologies for the delay... It was surprisingly chaotic outside."

And then the constantly blipping machines caught his attention. He frowned and went straight over to Bell's bed.

I decided to ignore strange clenching sensations under my left rib cage. I was the alpha. Whatever that didn't kill me would just make me stronger, and it was just heartburn anyway...

To Alpha James I smiled, my wide smile, "Alpha James, I think there is a misunderstanding. Ki is my beta now. I lent him over to help stabilize the Lorent Pack, but you are not allowed to do as you please with him. He's mine. Return him now."

Outside, Ben had shifted. We all heard it happen. His wolf snarled and the Lorent warriors cried out in terror, and pain... Ben's wolf was definitely inflicting pain, but mostly terror. He was also breaking a lot of expensive things.

"Sam..." Mum tried again, "Sam, please take back your wolf, let's try to solve this with words."

"Didn't I already make myself quite clear with words?" I sat back on the bed and crossed my legs, "I want Ki back."

"We probably should calm her wolf." Dad frowned, "She's unstable."

"Lady Amber is in the house." Delta Oran suggested, I'm not sure what the connection was. His hand was glowing and placed on Bell.

Alpha James looked at Dad, "Alpha Kingsley, please call back your young beta."

And to my surprise, and Alpha James' shock, Dad shrugged, "Young wolves nowadays are full of energy. It's probably harmless."

"Alpha Kingsley," I could tell Alpha James was trying to remain calm, "How can you call this harmless?"

"Is anyone dead yet?" Dad asked.

Dad was crazy. At least I was quite sure that would be Alpha James' thought. He growled, protectively drawing his Luna closer to him, "What's the meaning of this, Kingsley?"

"I think..." Dad frowned his thinking frown, "Maybe you should just return Ki to my daughter."

"Do not force my hand, Kingsley! Are you trying to incite a war?" Alpha James growled.

"Why are you suddenly talking about war?" Now it was Dad's turn to growl too.

Just at that moment, Lady Amber glided in with a tall kettle, "Oh my goddess, what's happening?"

And then she saw the rest of us, Dad and Alpha James in a face off, their lunas looking anxious by their side, "Oh, Alpha Kingsley, Luna, good afternoon"

Lady Amber made an elegant bow. Every since I've become the Alpha Princess, lots of wolves had bowed to me, but how should I put this? I suddenly realized I've been bowing wrong all my life. My wolf noted the angle of her head as she tilted her chin just so, and the placement of her hands with interest.

"And Alpha Princess too." Lady Amber smiled kindly at me, "I heard you've make quite the magnificent public impression at Silver Mountain last weekend."

Eh? I blinked, completely thrown off by the change in topic.

"Who told you to call her up?" Alpha James did not seem to notice his sister's elegance at all. He was too busy glaring at his delta.

Delta Oran smiled gently, holding up one hand as if to ward of his Alpha's displeasure, "A hundred apologies, Alpha."

"Don't need to keep pretending. You're not sorry at all!" Alpha James snapped, and then he added more lowly to his sister, "It was completely unnecessary too."

"Don't mind me, brother, I only came to refill the tea." Lady Amber was unruffled.

"He's out like a light. Its not like he would be able to drink it!" Alpha James argued, gesturing roughly towards Bell. (My sleeping beauty ~ ❤️)

But Lady Amber simply shrugged it off - another elegant gesture I coveted, "I've already brewed it after all."

She went over to the side table by Bell's bed. Harvey stepped aside for her to access the tea tray.

"This is our family's secret tea. It works very well for Lorent Alphas because it helps replenish their inner pools of healing. Perhaps I should teach you how to brew it one day, princess?"

I nodded, "Okay."

Wait, why were we talking about tea?