HAPPINESS COMES IN THE MORNING

SATURDAY, 13 FEBRUARY, WEE HOURS OF THE MORN

We got back home uneventfully. I kept nodding off in the truck, but I woke up when we pulled up the driveway. The side tower proved itself truly invaluable to adventuring out at night on our own. We entered through the sliding door at the pool room, and then went up the stairs. Ki walked me up to the third floor, only bowing himself out after he was sure I had everything I needed on hand.

I didn't need all that much, a shower, clean clothes, and my clean lemony golden clamshell bed.

Harvey and Ben had both opted to spend whatever was left of the night in their beta rooms on the second floor. I guess Harvey's home at Morning Light was too far, and Ben wouldn't risk creeping back into the house at this hour.

It was much easier to say they had to work late at the Alpha's house.

And we did work. We delivered the supplies to the Underground, and we dealt with Ruby...

Everytime I thought of Ruby, my heart clenched. And even though I kept dozing off all the way home, I suddenly couldn't sleep. I looked out of the window at the stars twinkling in the night sky. It would be morning in a couple of hours.

{You aren't her.}

Who?

{You're the Alpha, not the rogue.}

But I could've been the rogue! I could've been Sapphire! I could've been the one covered in scars and running for my life. It could've been me.

Boo growled as if insulted.

{Do not underestimate the power of your wolf.}

In which she meant herself, of course.

But I was not convinced. No matter how powerful one's wolf, there had to be a limit to what one can do alone against the world.

{We were never alone or you would have known better than to belittle my power.}

Alright fine, you are the all powerful and almighty wolf! But my exasperated declaration did nothing to soothe Boo's great ego.

{Nevermind, the power to be lovable and protected is also surprisingly effective.}

Which did nothing to improve my understanding of the situation. I was never one to understand stuff like that anyway, so I promptly gave up arguing with my stoooopid wolf.

I crawled into my clean lemony scented bed and took a deep breath. Sir Sparkalot was gone, and in his place sat the pink Vday unidentified monster I brought home today.

This troubled me a great deal, a little because I had to wonder where Grandma Luna's ring was now. But mostly, I was remembering Sir Sparkalot cut open and tail dismembered. I wondered if it could be fixed. Maybe Ki was going to sew him back together again when he had time.

I was just about to fall asleep when I heard the sound of something driving away. I hopped out of bed to take a look in time to see Harvey drive his dad's old truck out.

I guess he was heading home to return the truck before dawn. Which probably meant that dawn was closer than I would have liked. How long had I wasted not sleeping? I quickly crawled back into bed but was woken up by my alarm clock in what I could've sworn was just a blink of the eyes. I groaned into my pillow. Noooo...

But I had to get up and go downstairs, package my fudge and write personal notes. I was going to do this Valentines Day right!

I crept down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Good morning, goddess!"

Unsurprisingly, Ki was already there cutting the large trays of fudge squares.

What was surprising though was Lizzy and Savy being up and about as well. They were icing and dusting and from the mess in their vicinity, they had been busy for a long time.

"Whew! I can't believe it took us all night!" Lizzy said.

All night? I went over to check out what came out from their all nighter and it was beautiful! Macaroons in varying flavors and colors! The sweet sweet smell of processed sugar and fruits and flowers...

I watched Savy dip a white one into gold dust. Now that's a true Lorent design. There were also pink ones with little red bits, blue ones in gradated blue shades... Lizzy lined them in large paper boxes to transport to the bake sale.

"I'm totally gonna buy those!" I decided.

The girls laughed.

"Then it'll be our treat! Ben will pay." Lizzy volunteered.

Eh?

"Ben promised to pay for everything we buy at the bake sale today." Savy informed me more calmly than I thought she should be.

"But he already gave us Vday gifts..." I spluttered. This was totally out of character for Ben.

"Not Vday, it's for covering for you guys last night." Savy grinned.

Oh. Right. Then that was totally something Ben would do.

And then we heard a quiet creaking of a door somewhere on the second floor and fell quiet. Mum, Sabre, or Dad was up - in order of probability. When we didn't hear pattering little footsteps, I felt quite sure it was Mum.

Lizzy and Savy giggled a bit. I smiled at them. Best not to talk about last night now.

I decided I didn't have time to chat anyway. I found my silicon molds and took them to the breakfast nook. Okay, they looked brown and sticky in the molds. I'm glad I didn't use the gum drop molds.

Now I began to worry - what if they didn't pop out? What if they stuck on the sides? Then even without the gum drop molds, they'd look like lumps of you know what.

Oh poo.

Ki had already packed his squares neatly into large boxes for the bake sale. He brought over one of the trays for me to pop my fudge out on before apologizing and excusing himself to make breakfast for the rest of the family.

"Do you need help?" Savy offered.

I shook my head. They were busy with their super ambitious over night fancy macarons, I couldn't trouble them.

I turned over the first mold and plopped out an actual heart, and then another and another. Wow! It worked!

Then I plopped out the fish which came out complete with scale detailing.

Now I was pretty excited, "It worked!"

"Maybe we should've just done something like that too." Lizzy sighed, "I guess sometimes simple works just as well."

No way! How could you think your perfectly piped and carefully dusted macarons was just as well as my no bake three ingredient fudge?

But I was really happy with my fudge. I can't believe it worked out so perfectly. I plopped everything out and took the entire tray up to my room so I could pack them and write the personal messages without anyone popping up over my shoulder - particularly Ki.

Okay, so the personal messages turned out to be "Happy Vday!" again. But this time I put names on the packages, since they were different things.

I wrapped Savy's, Lizzy's, and Sabre's nail stickers first. I decided to give Sabre the nail stickers I originally bought for myself, since I remembered she liked getting her nails done with the girls.

Then I picked out the heart shaped fudges for Bell, and then I made up three bags for my betas, taking care to give Ben an extra car shaped one.

And then I made a bag for mum and dad, and split the rest among my friends, so they ended up with only two or three pieces each, depending on the size of those pieces.

I should've made more.

Oh well. When I was done, I stuffed everything carefully into a large backpack which I decided to carry around all weekend until I give out all the Vday gifts. Hohoho! I wonder if this was how Santa Claus started out.

"Sam!" Savy crashed through my door, she still had white powdery stuff on her nose, "What are you doing? Come down of breakfast... oh!"

I pulled out her Vday gift from my bag and pushed it into her hands, "Happy Vday Savy!"

"Thanks, but you probably should change and come down for breakfast." Savy said.

"Me? Have you seen yourself?" I pointed back at her all-nighter look.

Savy growled a little at me, "Don't remind me! Anyway, Mum wanted me to call you down - next time keep your mindlink open!"

I can't, or else I'd end up with "insight" to everyone else's mindlinks!

But the door slammed shut and Savy was gone. I didn't need the gift of insight to know she really wanted to get out of her all-nighter outfit.

I took a quick shower. Today, my outfit was a long sleeved grey turtle neck and a faded blue t-shirt with cookie monster on it and the words, "Me just here for the cookies". Black jeans, short boots, and a thick cream colored knitted scarf that came with a hood and pompom. Wow. Ki did not pick my outfit today. Either that, or Ki had a drastic change of fashion sense.

Savy! I got downstairs and found Savy in a similar get up. The only difference was that her tshirt was faded grey. It also had cookie monster on it in a faded print and she didn't have any hooded scarf, she had a bomber jacket. Totes unfair!

"Why do you get the bomber jacket?" I asked the moment I stepped into the dining room. As usual, my whole family was there.

"That was mum's idea." Savy cackled.

"Me too!" Sabre declared happily. I belatedly noticed the lavender colored hooded scarf draped behind her chair. Sabre had a pink Tshirt with cookie monster printed on it too. So I guess the Alpha's daughters were all going to attend the Vday bake sale in cookie monster tshirts. How apt.

"Okay!" I decided WTH, "Today we are the cookie monster squad!"

"Cookie Monster!" Sabre yelled in echo.

Savy cackled.

Mum seemed happy, so happy that she promised, "Mama will buy all my cookie monsters a giant cookie each!"

Oh boy, oh boy. Giant cookie. Me be good today. Please give me giant cookie.

Hahaha, and I realized I was happy too.

Funny how the moment breakfast with my family started, all the residue from the darkness last night night disappeared and my heart was bright again.

I dug out Sabre's Vday gift from my giant backpack, "Ho ho ho, happy vday, Sabre."

Then I dug deeper in my bag and found the bag of fudge for my parents, "You two have to share."

"Sam made those herself." Savy felt she had to inform my parents.

"Are they safe to eat?" Dad asked.

Hahaha. How dare he! I flared.

Sabre laughed, "Sam's hair is happy."

In what way did my hair look happy? Sigh, even small human kids didn't find me scary.

But Ki had just placed bacon and eggs in front of me so there was no way I could feel anything but happiness.

Oh right! I dug in my magical back pack and pulled out Ki's bag of fudge, "Happy Vday, Ki! Thanks for always taking care of me."

"Thank you, goddess. It has always been my pleasure." Ki graciously accepted my chocolate fudge.

I grinned. Yeah, I'm happy. Today was just a happy day for m