MY THINKING PLACE

29 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, 4AM

I followed Ki wordlessly back into my room to replace the fully charged phone and wallet on their rightful place on my dresser.

I looked at how everything was exactly perfect like it was every morning, then I looked at Ki.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, goddess?" Ki asked, with his usual professional smile back on.

I shook my head. Ki bowed and took his leave.

I took a moment to crack open the nearest curtain and looked out at the moon. It hung too low, and was almost round except of that tiny silver slice less.

Almost dawn.

And the snow was still falling. Looks like our Snow Wolf friends were still around.

Turning from the window, I let the heavy drapes fall back. Bathtime!

At first, I had meant to just stew in the tub and sulk at how everyone was running ahead of me. But I changed my mind when I remembered how I had felt so on top of everything that one time I finished reading the reports.

So I figured out how to undo the buckle on my new and more grown up backpack satchel and retrieved my screen. This used to be a kindle, but now was a surface pro with a cover that converted into a keyboard. Even my devices were running ahead of me!

It's okay, Sam. Stay calm and focus. I won't lose to my Luna, and goddess forbid lose to Ben! I'm the Alpha! I will run faster than anyone else!

Balancing the screen carefully by the dry edge of a the tub, I turned on the timer on my screen and started speed reading. I mean, there were hundreds of documents - most of them by Harvey over the weekend, but there were also a few by Ki, and one by Ben.

I clicked on Ben's report because it's title was "SAM: FYEO. READ AND DELETE."

I didn't know what FYEO meant, but the "read and delete" bit piqued my interest and I tapped to open the document without a second hesitation. If this were a virus, I'd be had. But it was just Ben, who liked to mess around with geeky stuff like computer viruses, yes... Yeah. It was dumb of me to open it.

Anyway, it wasn't a virus. It was a copy of the email Ki had sent to Harvey confessing his love for Harvey's truck. I scrolled down, and then I realized Ben was sending me Harvey's reply too. Hahaha.

Harvey had cc-ed Ki and forwarded the email to Ben with the words:

--

Ben. Stop messing around.

Regards,

Beta Harvey Langston

Night Leaf FAO representing Morning Light

Night Leaf, Green Packlands

--

Hahahaha. Was it just me who found it funny that the signature at the bottom of the email was longer than the actual message?

It looked like Ben took the rap for it! But I guess Ben must've known the prank was my doing. Was this his report on the outcome of the prank? I scrolled down further. Ben had replied both Ki and Harvey:

--

Next time screenlock, dog. What the hell are the security functions for?

Yours Sincerely,

Beta Ben Kane

Night Leaf FAO Head Beta

Night Leaf, Green Packlands

--

Oooh... Someone was head beta, but "Yours Sincerely"? I had read that in my head with Ben's offhanded monotone and found it very funny. I mean, if the recipient didn't know any better, he might think Ben really meant it!

Ki's reply to Ben's email was apologetic, even though it wasn't really his fault:

--

Apologies, beta. I will take more care in the future.

Best,

Beta Killion Oran

Night Leaf FAO representing the Glorious Lorent

Night Leaf, Green Packlands.

--

Because Ki was the "best". Lol.

Yes, "the Glorious Lorent" made me take pause too. Was that like their official pack name? I googled, and yes, yes it was. The Lorent Pack next door was short for "The Glorious Lorent Pack, Green Packlands". Omo. Well, that's the Lorents for you.

I wonder what kind of signature would suit me? I opened up my inbox and found that it had long been decided for me. I signed off with "yours truly".

Which was kind of standard issue, but wasn't bad either. I mean, while some of the email was for school, there was a second address for work. They were both on my inbox.

And while the AlphaPrincess account used for school was just "Yours truly, Sam", the AlphaSam account was very grown up and complicated sounding:

Yours truly,

Beta Harvey Langston

on behalf of Alpha Sam

Night Leaf FAO

Night Leaf, Green Packlands

Occasionally, Harvey's name was replaced with Ki's name. I guess it depended on who was answering my emails. But I had to at least give them props for not signing off as "the Alpha Princess." I mean, I did half expect them to, what with the, "Yo, princess" and all.

And then I got distracted because I noticed Bell's name in one of the emails and HAD TO see his signature.

{Mate! ~❤️ }

My mate signed off as:

Rgds, JL3

Y. Alpha James Lorent III

Lorent Alpha Office

The Glorious Lorent, Green Packlands

I couldn't tell if it were on purpose, but he successfully made all his emails sound cold and bossy.

{Mate! ~❤️ }

Boo didn't care in the least.

Dad had an email signature too! Actually, I knew this one - it had been unchanged since I first saw it as a pup:

Yours faithfully,

Alpha Kingsley

Alpha Office

Night Leaf, Green Packlands

It was like he just copied whatever he used in printed letters and pasted it as his email signature.

Beta Gerald signed off with "kind regards". Beta Lucas signed off quite differently from everyone else with, "No regrets".

Which, depending on whetever the context of the email, could be a good thing to say... or not. But it made me consider writing my own unique signature someday.

I mean, I could just copy Dad and become

Yours Faithfully,

Alpha Sam

Alpha Office

Moon Bell, Green Packlands

But that kinda sounded old fashioned compared to the cool girls who signed off with "XOXO" (Krystal) and "Thanks :)" (Jasmine) and "best friends forever" (Zara). Leia signed off differently in each email, sometimes it was "TGIF" (presumably on a Friday), other times it was "Sent from my iPhone."

I decided that of all the signatures I've perused, I quite like the smiley face, so after a bit of messing with the settings of my inbox, I found my auto signature box and added that to my email signature.

Now my betas would be answering my emails

"on behalf of Alpha Sam :)

Night Leaf FAO

Night Leaf, Green Packlands"

Yeah, I quite liked that.

Thus feeling quite pleased with myself for putting a personal touch to my own email signature, I remembered I was supposed to be reading reports, not email signatures.

Arughhh!!! What was I doing? Alphas were supposed to be busy making big decisions and answering important emails, not studying other people's email signatures!

I pulled out the tab for my reports list again... So many reports. Then I shut off the screen and pulled up my knees in the bubble bath. They poked out from the bubbles like the top of mountains through the clouds.

I poked at the bubbles and studied my knees. This was always interesting when I was a pup because it always had some new marking, sometimes a bruise, other times a scrap. It was like scar over scar, but now, the marks had all disappeared.

Even the purple scar I got when I got pushed out of the crowded tram. I thought that would definitely be a keeper. It was gone without a trace. I frowned, weird. I didn't notice it disappearing.

I can't explain why, but it troubled me. I mean, I never liked them. I've ever been told that my legs looked like a boy's when I was in middle school.

"No, it's worse." Jake had considered them and answered.

I felt so conscious of my legs that I wore long socks and long gym pants for a full year. And then I realised it just made me stand out more, so I reverted to normal socks and weather appropriate gym clothes after that.

I should be happy they were gone! But now that I was looking for the patches and lines in my bath, I couldn't find them. And to my horror, I couldn't even remember which knee I should be looking for them on.

The past was gone. The being pushed off a crowded tram, skidding a metre across a brick paved road, falling out of a tree... I looked at the faint blue stain on my tub. One day, this too would fade away... Or else the whole tub would be changed out. I felt quite sure now that I've witnessed the inner workings of Ki magic that the blue stain would "magically" disappear one way or the other.

But there were some things I didn't want to forget. It wasn't that I was proud of being push out of a moving tram, but I survived that. And... I frowned at the blue stained tub peeking out from behind the bubbles. It's not that I wanted to remember my warrior's deaths, but I wanted to remember THEM. That they once ran with us, and that we survived all that together.

I wanted so many things so bad for my wolves at this point but I had no idea what to do. Because I was just a dumb pup. I dried my hands on the face towel left by my tub and turned my screen back on. You know what they say, "Knowledge is power." Or at least that what Mrs Beta liked to say.

Now where were the annotation tools? I used to make notes at the beginning, but ever since my betas started doing everything for me, I've been kind of lazy about making my own notes and stuff like that.

I didn't even make my own bed now... But a made bed wasn't going to help my pack run towards a future they could look forward to.

Our future is a pack strong enough to protect what was important to us, to keep being kind and true, and fun too. Kind of like the way my dad had led us all these years, but expressed in all the ways of the years to come - a pack for the wolves who run in it, with space for everyone to grow and become all that they can be, whether male or female, glorious or barbarian, alpha or omega.

But first things first, this dumb pup's gotta grow up!