BACK TO THE PARTY

For some reason, between Ki and Lola, I ended up wearing a white hooded v neck t-shirt with a white pair of chinos. Lola folded them up so they were part capri.

I learned all these new ways of saying pants while Ki and Lola discussed them. According to Lola, because my hair and eyes were so striking, putting me in white and neutrals and more classic basic cuts would create a naturally balanced look.

I had no idea what that meant, but it explained why the moon goddess was often pictured wearing white.

About half my clothes were matchy with Savy which was whatever was trending. According to Ki, Savy was quite the trendsetter.

"I've noticed." Lola had smiled.

Really?

Ki himself prefered a more modern look for the future alpha. He also mentioned how it was important to my mum that my clothes were "age appropriate".

Lola nodded her understanding. I simply let them match my accessories. Lola loved the "pretty selection".

Ki took out my white diamond watch. I could actually see what they were going for. Ki called it a classic chic look with a youthful vibe. BUT I WAS NOT GOING TO WEAR A DIAMOND STUDDED WATCH IN FRONT OF MY SCHOOL FRIENDS.

I'm sure Krystal or Pearl or Abigail would notice and comment.

I pulled my mane to the side and pulled up my hoodie, which I'm going to assume was the youthful vibe of my clothes and sulked till they were done.

Since I wouldn't wear accessories, they chose white sneakers which I was happy to wear, a few thin bangles, a black metal one, a blue knotted leather one, and a white one made of tiny plastic beads. Okay...

"What about a purse?" Lola asked.

I NEVER carried a purse.

"How do you carry your stuff? Like tissues, or lipbalm, money, keys, your phone..." Lola asked.

"Pockets?" I asked back, even though my pockets of late had been usually empty, just as they were now.

Ki reached into his coat and pulled out the said items with a brilliant smile. He was such a showoff, and then he informed me, "Your phone is with Ben."

Oh.

"Hm." Lola hummed.

Ki returned into the wardrobe and produced a few small purses.

"Nice." Lola approved. She picked a white furry one, "This is so cute!"

"You can use it." I offered immediately. It's not like I'll ever use it!

Lola considered it and then she sighed, "It's tempting, but it doesn't suit me. I can't really pull off the cute look."

"Once I tried." She confided, "I just ended up looking silly."

Then wouldn't I look silly too? But Ki and Lola seemed to think it was a good idea to give me an empty furry cross body purse.

I certainly felt silly! But Lola looked very pleased and I figured, we would just show up for a short while. I'll just make sure my friends were having fun and remembered where their rooms were, and then I'll sneak back to my room and call it a night.

Ki flung open the training hall's door for us to enter. I let Lola go first, but the moment I stepped in, Ki announced, "Princess is here."

The party stopped. As in the dancing, the talking, the music. Everything and everyone stopped, "Yo, Princess!"

For a split second, I thought some social disaster would befall me. And then Henry called out, "Over here, Sam."

The music and dancing resumed. There was some laughter from the other side of the hall. Ethan's distinct hyena laugh was among them.

And Ki put his hand on the small of my back and pushed me to where Henry was eating pizza with Harvey and Mate.

They were posed around one of the round bar tables that had been scattered around the fringes of the hall.

"Where the others?" I asked over the music. Ki passed me to mate. There was literally an exchange of hands on the small of my back. I bit back a growl.

Henry indicated to the crowd in the hall, "Marcus is on the drums...the others are around somewhere."

I looked towards the live band. Marcus was playing?

"I'm up next, please excuse me Alphas, Luna." Harvey got up to go.

A moment later, a strong guitar lead took over the music, the rest of the band blended into the melody. And then I heard Lola's voice, warm and sultry and really, really, beautiful.

I caught the look on Henry's face, "Out of bounds, Henry. Lola is out of bounds."

Then I quickly checked Mate's expression. Mate didn't seem to notice Lola's singing, he and Ki were tap tapping on their phones and I felt sure mindlinking at the same time.

And then Mate said to Henry, "You have Reid Inc on your portfolio too right?"

Henry whipped out his phone, "Why, what's happening?"

The three guys huddled, heads nearly touching so they could discuss whatever red ink they wanted.

"Sam!" Lizzy waved to me from the bleeches near us. I smiled. Savy and Jessica, were with her. I wriggled out of Mate's light grasp to go join them.

"What's up?" I grinned.

"We're just people watching." Jessica told me.

From their vantage point on the bleeches, we had a good view of everything, including the band.

"Today was the best party ever!" Lizzy informed me, "It's probably the party of the year!"

"It's only February." I reminded her.

"But it's true. There's no way any party is going to beat this one." Lizzy said, "Free flow pizza and ice cream, live band, and hunting games... The guys, OMG, the guys want to have hunting games at every party now."

"It was pretty exciting." Jessica said, "Like going to the dungeons to hunt with real weapons and then evacuating as if a real monster showed up."

"Carlie screamed my ears off though." Lizzy complained, "My ears are still ringing."

They laughed. Savy was smiling too.

So urm... There was no real monster in the dungeons?

"I heard all the commotion we made scared out the rats and now our pack will be infested with them." Jessica said in a staged whisper.

"It can't be that bad." Lizzy opined. "I didn't actually see that many rats. We probably caught most of them anyway."

Jessica made a face, "My team found a nest of them. That was so gross, I'm going to be truamatized for life."

Wait what? Did they not see the sea of rats or the Rat King?

"Those special effects at the end was pretty realistic." Lizzy said, "I actually thought we were going to die."

The girls laughed again. Savy had stopped smiling when she noticed my expression, but she smiled at me when she caught my eye and shrugged it off... For now. I guess she'll question me later.

At this point, someone's parents had come. It was Tim and Angela's mum, Delta Felicity and another couple, Sue's mum and dad. And well, it seemed like a bunch of parents just showed up. Maybe they thought it was time for their kids to go home.

But no... It was far worse than that. Apparently, they just had a dinner party at Delta Felicity's place and decided to drop by to check out ours.

These parents had come in the pretense of being nice parents and brought doughnuts. We let them in because we liked doughnuts. Maybe they would be respectable parents, check on their kids and go back upstairs to wait, maybe grab a coffee at the pack house kitchen and hang out in the dining hall.

Maybe some of the parents had that plan, but not Delta Felicity.

It started innocently enough, she went and checked on her precious angel, and then did a spot check on Tim... Like she made him empty his pockets right there in the middle of the party.

Everyone laughed good naturedly. Tim's cheeks flushed, but he indulged his mother's whim.

"Did you bring a condom?" Delta Felicity asked her son loudly.

"No, of course I didn't, I -" Tim was immediately flustered.

Delta Felicity slipped a silver square into his pocket, "No, Mum! Are you drunk?"

"I'm not ready to be a grandmother yet." Delta Felicity announced happily.

There was a bit of uncomfortable laughter. I saw Sue's dad put her behind him.

"Mum!" Tim was done playing to his mother's crazy tune now, "I told you, I'm going to come home with Angela straight after the party!"

And then he said, "You know, there is a reason why the pack keeps sending you out on mission - it's because you're insufferable to have around!"

I would think a mother would cry at that, but Delta Felicity was made of sterner stuff. She just laughed it off and went to get a drink of punch.

Dad had ever said Delta Felicity was a force to reckon with. I had always supposed she had to be something amazing to be the only female in our pack holding a Delta title.

Tonight she was amazingly crazy.

Not two minutes after the scene with Tim, there was another scene at the punch table. Delta Felicity had topped up the punch bowl with a bottle of vodka.

"Mum!" This time it was Angela, "What are you doing?"

"The punch was flat." Delta Felicity explained.

"Then add 7-up!" Angela whined, "Most of us at still minors you know!"

"Nonsense, a little bit never hurt us." Delta Felicity said, "Kids these days don't know how to have fun."

Delta Felicity tasted the punch, "Much better."

Then she continued complaining about the younger generation, "All you kids do is sit in front of the screen playing computer games and drinking soda - you need to get out there, explore the world, try new things!"

"Mum, where's Dad? Why isn't he here?" Angela's tone had taken a no-nonsense edge now.

"Your dad's exhausted. He just got back from the outpost this afternoon." Delta Felicity said.

"And you just had to throw a fancy dinner party tonight." Angela scolded, "Tim, call Dad."

"No, don't disturb your dad!" Delta Felicity said.

"Sorry, Mum. You're out of control." Tim had his phone on his ear.

"You realise, you just crashed your kids' party and spiked their punch didn't you?" Angela chided.

"Who let her in? Next time you can't let my mum in ever. The other parents are fine. My Dad's okay too. But not this woman." Angela yelled at the door.

"Yeah okay, sorry." Jonah called back, "But she brought doughnuts! The good kind from Krispy Kreme."

You know how the adults liked to look at us kids and say, so and so is just like her mum, or he's just a chip of the old block right? I never saw the resemblance...until now.

I mean I would stare after the adult said it and tried to match them. Sometimes I would even think I saw something there.

Growing up they liked to say Savy took after Mum while I took after Dad. But then they would mistake us for each other and say we looked like twins.

So did they mean Mum and Dad look that alike? Then if so, how could they tell who we took after? It was one of those adult logic things. It made absolutely no sense, but was consistent enough across so many adults that there had to be some truth in those words.

A logic I never saw until tonight. Tonight I was seeing it all too clearly.

Especially when more parents joined in. Apparently, Dad's meeting just ended in the conference room upstairs so they decided to come down to see if their kids wanted a ride home. This included Beta Lucas who lived next door.

They didn't bring any food offering, but Dad was with them, so our doors were thrown open with a "Alpha is here."

Naturally, the entire party stopped and bowed. And then Carlie shouted, "Yo, Alpha!"

Delilah hit her, "Yo is for Sam, stupid. You can't yo her dad! Show some respect."

"I'm yo-ing very respectfully!" Carlie argued back.

"Because you're a yo-yo head!" Delilah told her.

"That's mean! You take that back or I'm going to stay over with Angela instead of you!"

And then some of the dads hijacked the band. Suddenly the music changed to something retro, "Now this next song is for my son Nolan. I don't know if you remembered this, but I used to sing it to you to sleep."

OMG.

The other kids roared and clapped. And the dad band played on.

I got some punch and found my school friends gathered on the side now. I went over.

"Are all the wolves in the Green Packlands so crazy, or is it just your pack?" Henry asked.

"No, we're very normal." I said because aside from Delta Felicity, this was pretty normal. And then again, I shook my head, "It's probably just my pack."

I mean, I couldn't imagine Beta Gerald crashing his kids' party in the basement or dedicating a song on stage to Harvey.

But Night Leaf had always been a family party kind of pack. We had backyard potlucks and BBQ parties almost weekly on our packhouse lawn from Spring to Autumn. Sometimes there was karaoke too.

On Mother's Day and Father's Day, the pups would hold a small concert with songs and skits for our parents too. This was usually on a Saturday morning because it was organized by our Lycan Study Groups.

And when there was a mating celebration, the dancing would go on all night so after the official live band exhausted their repertoire, anyone else who could play would play.

I've always thought it was normal...until now.