NOW THAT I WAS HOME

29 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, CONTINUED

"Why is your gate opened, EJ?" Harvey asked. He eyed the wide-opened gate at EJ's cell skeptically.

"Scary beta said it was okay as long as I stay inside till they let us out." EJ answered.

EJ looked quite set to stay too. He was lounging on a large shocking pink beanbag dressed only in Winderhill's gym t-shirt and a pair of orange sports shorts. He also had a hairband to pull up his fringe, and a small mountain of snacks, earphones hung around his neck, and a laptop that was playing dance tracks - out loud on a bright blue portable speaker in the shape of a bear.

"He's got a condition, big brother beta." Fluffy looked up from his screen to explain, "He doesn't do well in small spaces."

Harvey's forehead crinkled as he tried to make sense of the opened door. Or mindlink Scary Beta for an explanation.

I looked at the disparity between the left and right cells. Jude's cell was bare, except for the thin pad, and a metal pan that smelled like toilet...and stale pizza. Actually, it wasn't just smells. Jude and Ron looked unbathed, disheveled, and well, pretty much like they were going through hell.

On the other hand, Fluffy and EJ looked like they were having a pajama party with every gift they've ever received from the high school girls at Winderhill.

"Why did you bring all this stuff down here?" I asked. Fluffy offered me a strawberry pokey stick through the bars. I took it by reflex.

"Beta Lucas told us to better get comfortable in the dungeons, so we did." Fluffy informed me while I ate the pokey stick. These two were warriors with initiative. They even took the initiative to ask the nice ladies at the packhouse kitchen to reserve their portion of dinner for them before and checking themselves in.

"I heard they only serve stale pizza here." EJ informed me.

"I heard the pizza was picked up from the dinning hall after the pizza fight last week." Fluffy added with his usual masked smile.

"This isn't a hotel you know." I grumbled. Fluffy and EJ laughed happily. But I had to say, I felt even less guilty about ditching them and running off now.

"My princess!" Jude rasped from his cell. I turned and took a step back even as he staggered over, "I knew you wouldn't have forgotten me."

Actually, I did.

"Jude, get a grip." Ron growled from the other side of the wall, "Why are you here, princess?"

"Of course she's here to see us." Fluffy smiled, "She must have heard of our suffering and immediately rushed to our side."

What suffering? I gave Fluffy a censuring look. As glad as I was that they were okay, it didn't seem nice to rub it in Jude and Ron's face.

"Oh, Pretty Alpha!" EJ came to the bars of his opened cell and clung on to them as if his life depended on it, "You have to help me! I've run out of potato chips!"

I looked at him with his cheeks squashed between two bars, and then at the open gate next to him, and felt my lips twitched upwards against my better judgement.

Immediately, EJ was encouraged, "Mou! Pretty Alpha! It's horrible in here! Our neighbors are too noisy (even though he was the one playing the dance track on repeat), and smelly (okay, but they were here for much longer than you), and my legs are cold!"

"That's because you're wearing orange." Fluffy explained with his usual smile.

"Dang it!" EJ exclaimed, "I knew I should've worn my green shorts!"

"The one that is the colour of barf?" Fluffy asked.

"The colour of luminous barf!" EJ argued back.

Clowns will always be clowns.

"Shut up you b******!" Ron growled across the passageway. Ron was understandably in a dark mood.

"You know, you two troublemakers could at least look more remorseful." Harvey reprimanded, his wry smile reappearing. I guess the open gate was an okay after all.

"My princess..." Jude leaned his forehead against the metal bars. I looked back at his unwashed dirty blond hair and the glint of light colored stubble across his face. It was somewhat disconcerting, like standing in the gap between a frivolous party and a dark squalor - even though both sides were equally lit.

"My princess, please. Tell me, how is my mother?"

I had no idea.

"I'm not your princess, Jude." I said.

Jude looked at me with stricken eyes.

"Don't talk to him, pretty alpha." EJ called from the opposite cell, "That guy's mental. He asked Neil and Jax the same thing just now. His mum is fine."

"I told you from the start." I tried to explain to Jude anyway, "I'm not your princess."

"Give it up Jude." Ron snarled from next door with unhidden vehemence, "Beautiful young spoilt princess like her, of course she would choose the Lorent Prince."

I felt a bit upset. Ron didn't seem to like me from the beginning, but I had thought he was warming up. Now, I didn't even dare to look in his cell.

"This one's mental too, Pretty Alpha." Fluffy assured me, "Trust me. It takes one to know one."

Don't sound proud about something like that!

"Okay, that's enough guys." Harvey decided enough was enough, "This is a detention center, not an asylum. Here, I got you drinks, not that I think you need it."

He tossed a can of coffee to Fluffy and a handed the can of coke to EJ, "Don't shake it, EJ. If it spills, I'll put you on clean up duties in the dungeon for the rest of the year."

EJ had lifted his hand to do just that, but he stopped and opened it to drink instead.

I looked at the can in my hand, and then at Jude, but Harvey's hand took my coke from me.

He opened it for me, "We should go, alpha. Your Luna Mother is asking for you."

If I were honest, I felt very relieved Harvey was here.

EJ carefully placed his open can of coke on one side before falling to the ground to throw a tantrum, "Noooo.... Don't leave us pretty alpha! Beautiful alpha! Gorgeous alpha!"

He was so loud that if Jude or Ron had said anything more, I couldn't hear it.

And Harvey did not hesitate either. With his hand firmly planted on the small of my back, my good beta quickly whisked me off, out of the section, through the grey passage, past the guard room, and out of the dungeons.

Harvey only slowed when we had walked a distance away from the dungeons.

"Are you alright, alpha?"

I nodded and looked at the can of coke that had somehow been put back in my hand. It was opened so I took a sip, "Yeah."

Harvey studied my expression carefully, and then he nodded, "We should head back to the Alpha House."

I nodded again.

"Harvey?" I asked when we had left the packhouse. I had simply walked towards the alpha house, so Harvey had to refuse the car key and the Peugeot waiting on the packhouse driveway to follow after me.

"Yes, Alpha?"

"Do you know what's going to happen to Jude?"

Harvey pressed his lips together for a moment, "What do you mean, alpha?"

"Are we really going to put him on trial?" I asked.

Harvey didn't ask how I knew. He nodded, "The elders have not made details known to me. I believe they mean to shield our generation from unnecessary unpleasantness, but I do know my father had been busy preparing for the tribunal to take place."

"Does Mimi know?" I asked again.

"Only Neil and Jax has contact with the Asphalt Moon Pack now." Harvey said, "Your father did not override your last order to them and the rest of us have been careful not to put them in a difficult position by burdening them with internal updates."

Because if they leaked anything that might betray our pack, they would become traitors too. I understood that much.

We walked the rest of the way back in silence. Harvey stopped before ringing the doorbell, "Is there anything else I can do for you Alpha?"

Was he giving me a chance to ask him to do something we shouldn't be doing? I shook my head. I didn't like how things were going, but that was just my gut feeling talking. I didn't actually know enough to decide anything on my own.

"No. Thank you, Harvey." I shook my head, "I'll talk directly with my Dad."

Maybe Dad would give me a clue, or at least some zen advice.

Harvey smiled, his usual calm beta smile, "I believe that would be for the best, Alpha."

And then he rung the doorbell and let me into the house announcing, "Alpha is here."

"Oh, Sam!" Mum ran out to the door and grabbed me in a bear's hug, "You're okay!"

And then my Mum started crying.

"Oh, Sam!" Mum kept hugging me, then pulling back to hold my face for a good look, and then hugging me again, "My poor brave girl!"

"But Mum..." I tried to explain.

"Shhh... It's okay." Mum said, "Everything's okay now."

What? Like really? You're not mad I ran off by myself, ditched Harvey at school, and came home on my own?

"I can explain..." I tried again.

"You're safe, and that's all that matters." Mum said.

Wait, so I'm not in trouble? I couldn't for the life of me figure out wth was happening.

Thankfully, Sabre popped out from the dining room, "I'm done setting the table!"

Mum quickly dried her tears on her sleeve, "Thank you baby. You're such a big help."

Harvey produced a clean tissue for Mum, "Thank you, Harvey."

"Yes Harvey, you're such a big help." I mimicked my mum, tongue in cheek.

I was rewarded by a reluctant smile from Mum.

"I'm happy to be of service." Harvey replied wryly.

Sabre was bouncing from one foot to the other since she saw me, like she was deciding something, and then she bounced again when she decided, "Oh hi, Sam. Bye Sam."

And then she ran up the stairs to her room.

"Baby! It's dinner time!" Mum called up.

"I know, Mum!" Sabre yelled back, but she didn't come back down.

Mum smiled at me, "She's happy to see you, Sam. Really."

Mum was still hugging me, but she managed to pull away for a moment to take a deep steadying breath, "Yes, come have dinner. Your dad and Savy are attending the school memorial tonight. Ki's swamped at the FAO. Bell is dining with his parents, so it'll just be the three of us tonight."

And then Mum added, "We're having something exciting for dinner. Barry caught crayfish."

I knew I smelled something good. Spicy and tangy and sweet. Wait, did she say Barry CAUGHT them? Like did he catch them from the wild, or from the fresh seafood tank at the supermarket in Gate City?

"Is there anything else I can do for you, Luna?" Harvey asked politely, a clear indication that he was about to excuse himself.

"No, thank you Harvey. Would you like to join us for dinner though?" Mum smiled.

Harvey shook his head, "Thank you Luna, but I should be at the school memorial now."

"Then we won't keep you." Mum smiled graciously.

"Thank you, Luna." Harvey nodded a polite bow, and then he asked me again, "Is there anything else I can do for you, alpha?"

If I said yes, Mum would probably scold me for interfering with my beta's work. But I shook my head, no. I really didn't have anything I needed, "Thanks Harvey, but I'm good."

So now Harvey the good beta could excuse himself and show up in school as the Student President and give a speech and all the other important things he was supposed to be doing.

It didn't seem fair, and I immediately felt guilty about running away and making him take the long drive up and down. He sent Bell back home earlier today too. Surely my good beta had better things to do than drive up and down expressways...like sit down and eat dinner.

"Mum, you can let go now." I told my mum when Harvey had left, "I can't really breathe."

Mum was still hugging me.

"Oh, but..." Mum protested, but she let go.

Sabre came clomping back down the stairs, stamping her little feet hard on the carpeted steps. Our carpets were plush now too, so it was quite an exertion.

But one look and I totally understood why - she had a purple pony in hand, and because it was galloping down the banister, it needed the sound effects.

She also had a permanent marker in the other hand.

"Sabre! Where did you get that?" Mum gasped. Mum had always been deathly afraid of pups left unsupervised with a permanent marker for as long as I could remember. I'm not sure why, but it was obvious that she had not gotten over it.

"In Savy's room." Sabre answered. She held up the pony and marker up to me, "Can you draw on my pony too?"

What? You want me to draw on your favourite stuffed pony toy with black permanent marker? Are you trying to get me grounded?

"Oh." Mum seemed to understand though, "She wants your autograph, Sam."

What? That made even less sense. Why would she want me to write my name on her pony?

"I'll explain over dinner." Mum promised. To Sabre she gently said, "Sam's really hungry. How about we eat dinner first?"

"Yeah." I quickly backed Mum up, "If I'm too hungry, I might accidentally eat the marker."

I grinned at my own joke, but Sabre shook her head, "You can't eat markers, Sam. Not even the kind that smell like fruit. Taylor told me."

As in the little blond with the pink beanie? Yeah, because Taylor knew everything.

"How does she know?" I challenged, "Did Taylor try?"

"No, of course not!" Sabre took offense, "Taylor has a little brother, so she doesn't have to taste weird things herself."

Urm... yeah. Was it just me or were pups nowadays getting scarier?

"I wish I had a little brother." Sabre said, "They seem very useful."