PLAYING WITH NEW FRIENDS

5 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, MIDNIGHT

So fun! The doorman barely had time to pull open the door before I crashed forward and out into the snow. Mate and my betas poured out moments later, but that had left me with enough time to make snowballs.

I threw one hard at Ben, hitting him in the face. That's for taking mate's side!

"S***! Luna get down!"

The next two balls missed because now alert of projectiles, the guys dodged swiftly. I grabbed the last few balls I had and ran further.

By now the other wolves have come out to the porch. Supposedly to take their leave.

"Hurry up! Stephan and Fluffy are on my team!" I called the moment I saw their shilloutes against the light from the packhouse.

The two men seemed a little stunned.

Mate called out to me as Stephan and Fluffy made their way across the snowy lawn, "One game, and bedtime, princess!"

"Only if you win!" I yelled back grinning at the cold night air.

And then it was a snowball war. Almost like when we were pups...

"Do you know how to play?" I asked my new friends. Stephan and Fluffy turned their heads to indicate no.

It's very easy. If you can fight you can play. You pelt the other side with snowballs till they surrender. You can't throw any other object or make bodily contact.

I made a snowball, "Pack it tight, and make as many as you can. This is the ammo. Then kill the other side with it."

Both men paused at mid breath at the word 'kill'. It was quite funny because the white clouds they breathed suddenly stopped. I laughed, "I mean pretend kill. Not really kill. It's not like you can actually kill someone with a snowball."

They nodded but neither looked convinced.

A cold white ball flew over. I bent over to dodge, but Stephan had used his back as a shield and taken the hit.

"You don't have to get hit! You can dodge and if you catch the snowball, you capture an extra ammo." I told them.

"Okay, now let's cream them!"

I tossed them a snowball each and turned to throw. Unfortunately, the guys on Mate's side were already well armed and we were outnumbered, so the tide was turned pretty quickly.

"Run!" I said.

We did, it turned out that despite his XL size Stephan was rather fast. Fluffy too.

And then Fluffy had a good idea, "Princess, would water be just melted snow?"

"Uh, I guess?" I followed Fluffy's line of view to the tap head for our sprinkler system.

Well, here's hoping it wasn't all frozen solid...

Fluffy's grabbed the metal tap head and his hands suddenly turned red, almost the colour of molten metal. I could hear the water bubbling.

"Now, Fluffy!" Stephan ordered when the guys got close enough.

Fluffy turned the tap, I heard the water move and the suddenly the lawn sprouted multiple geysers of hot steam and water.

"Hot!" Ben yelled, "The water's hot!"

It wasn't that much water, since it was just from the lawn sprinklers, but I guess it was pretty hot. Most of it rose into the night air in white clouds of steam.

The snow was melting across the lawn.

"You overdid it, Fluffy." Stephan told him.

"I guess I did." Fluffy smiled.

The warriors just returned from their training run. Their wolves panting clouds too. Naturally they came over to investigate the excessive steam in front of the packhouse.

So fun! So fun!

"This way!" I ran into the pack of wolves. Stephan and Fluffy on my heel. The guys gave chase. They were soaked and angry. I could feel it in the mating bond, I could hear it on the beta channel. It was so funny.

We ran back into the packhouse via the side entrance and without stopping, back out from the front porch again.

Alpha James was just about to take his leave.

I went over to stand next to Dad and gave a polite bow, "Thank you for coming."

Stephan and Fluffy seemed confused by the sudden change in mood, but echoed the bow.

Gamma Endo proudly told them, "You'd get used to it."

But this only befuddled them more.

And what made Gamma Endo think he was the expert?

Mate and my betas were no where in sight. Oh no. That was bad news for us.

"We're surrounded, Princess." Stephan informed me.

So he noticed.

{Mate approaches. Betas approaches.}

"They're closing in, Princess, what is your order?"

I could see why he would make a good second in command. His wolf was not just strong and fast, alert and intelligent, loyal and blah blah blah, you know all the qualities of a warrior wolf. He was also steady, recitent, and extremely restrained.

"What do you suggest?" I looked at Fluffy, "Any more bright ideas?"

"May I assume you do not intend to harm our opponents?" Stephan asked.

I nodded, "We're just play fighting. This isn't a real fight. They won't hurt us either."

The two men nodded, but again, neither looked entirely convinced.

"Okay, if it comes down to a scuffle, you should hit them back as hard as they hit you." I amended, and then I remembered the fight dog term for it, "It's just a show fight."

The two men nodded. They seemed to understand there was no real threat now.

"We can retreat to the higher floors." Stephan suggested, "Or Fluffy can run out as the diversion while we take them out from behind."

But by now I sensed my mate really close. Too close for us to run back into the packhouse.

"Fluffy go!" I decided.

Fluffy was out on the lawn immediately.

But no one took the bait.

Of course not. My highly intelligent and cunning Mate and Betas would never fall for something so obvious.

Fluffy spun around to take stock of the situation. He pointed up on our porch roof, "They're above you!"

Fluffy, despite his braides and bling was fast, light, and a good spotter. If we were playing ultimate dodgeball, or if we were hunting, he'd be an awesome scout.

Stephan frowned, "We should move."

So we did, using the rest of the adults as our cover.

And then suddenly Mate swung down from the roof, feet first. Stephan blocked. The two men tumbled. Gamma Endo and Harry shoved them off the porch and into the snow.

"No fighting in the packhouse!" Gamma Harry said. He dusted off his hands and looked pleased. I watched the two other men tumble down the steps.

"Young people have so much energy." I heard someone comment.

By now, Fluffy was fighting Ben out in the lawn too. It was a mixed fighting style of snowballs and a few kicks and punches when they got too close.

It seemed the both of them prefered to fight from a distance. Fluffy's aim did not lose out to Ben's either.

Mate and Stephan had rolled out center lawn and were still bodily wrestling the other party down. These two... Hahaha.

So that left Harvey and Ki. Hahaha. But I doubt they'd actually try anything. One was soft on girls. The other was loyal to death. Well, all my betas were, but Ki was loyal to a fault.

"You're pretty calm, princess." Harvey noted. Ki was next to him with his usual smile in place.

They had appeared just behind me. Their suits were still soaked. I bet they were freezing.

"Yeah. I think I want to go back and sleep now." I decided.

Harvey smiled wryly, "Understood, princess."

He sounded somewhat relieved.

"I'll take her home." Ki said.

Harvey nodded, "Leave the rest to me."

Ki laughed lightly at that, "You know we always do."

I waved goodnight, told Dad I was going to bed and let Ki lead me off the porch. Most of the adults were watching Ben and my Luna wrestle with Stephan and Fluffy in the lawn.

Since three out of four of them were fight dogs, and two of them were "show fighting", it was quite a spectacle.

Even the warrior wolves who had finished their training had shifted back and joined us on the porch to watch.

They would clap and wolf-whistle and cheer. Of course this only only egged the fight on.

Ben pulled out of the fight first. He used a hand to catch and crush an oncoming snowball, "Sam, you're not playing anymore?"

I shook my head and yelled back, "I'm going to bed! You guys go ahead."

A snowball caught Ben in the face.

And I heard Fluffy laugh. Like really laugh.

I couldn't help but smile at that, "Have fun!"

I guess I must have been really tired because I wanted to play too, but I wanted a hot shower and bed more. My first JOMO.

I must be growing old. Was this how the adults felt at the end of the day?

Ki walked me across the other side of the lawn back home. He used the keycard to unlock the sliding door in the pool room.

Suddenly I realised that my new room was such that I didn't even need to use the main door to go in and out! Wasn't this the 'base' I had wished for from the beginning? This way, Mum would never have to be upset if I should come home a mess. I could shower and change. I even had a healing wolf beta.

Not that I had needed external healing lately. My wolf could siphon mate's power which sped up my healing very quickly.

I just needed water - which there was a lot of in the pool I was currently passing. The landing on the second floor was the kitchenette with bottled water stocked in an opened shelf. And was that a first aid box? Wow, my betas were prepared.

And upstairs was my room, with a giant bathtub.

This was perfect. Too perfect. I couldn't see how it could get any more perfect.

Ki was still smiling as he flipped the switch to unlock the mirrored doors.

"May I show you a secret room, Princess?" He asked.

"Savy and Mum already showed me the bathroom and wardrobe." I was sorry to burst his bubble, but I already knew.

"I see, but I'm sure she hasn't shown you this room." Ki smiled. He used a keycard over the switches and then something clicked in the mirrors on the extreme right side. Those mirrors had been flushed against the wall, and I thought they were really just mirrors to create the symmetry in the room design.

Ki demonstrated where the latch was and then he pulled it open to reveal a secret room. The room was empty except for the open shelves lining the otherwise bare walls. It looked like an empty store room. There was also a built in safe on one side.

"Treasure room." Ki said by means of introduction.

"What treasure?" I laughed at the empty room. My laughter echoed a little.

Ki's smile only widened, "In time, goddess."

We returned to the wardrobe where Ki arranged my pajamas etc on a tray and then set up my outfits for tomorrow. He had to open up one of the luggages.

My jewellery, the white watch with many wishes and the gold bracelet with a heart charm, and the two sets of bangles would be stored in the inbuilt jewellery drawers that had a fingerprint lock.

Okay, so since even my "real" accessories were in the wardrobe, wth was going into the treasure room? Sir Sparkalot?

Anyway, I was too tired to deal with the 'logistical nightmare' of filling up a storeroom with treasure. I'm joking... I'm too tired to even joke properly.

Lol. If it were in Savy's room, it would be no doubt filled with manga.

Ki offered to set up a bath for me, but I shook my head, "Just a shower."

I was that tired. Wow.

After my shower, I got changed. Ki had already left the room. He had drawn the curtains and dimmed the lights. He even turned the bed. I only had to crawl into it and tuck myself in. My sheets smelled like lemons. I liked that.

I tried to think about what happened today. I wondered if the guys were still playing in the snow. I thought about Stephan and Fluffy. Oh yeah, Fluffy needed a new name.

I remembered his power to heat up the frozen water to boiling. Fluffy had magic! Did that make him an Alpha? I still could not sense his wolf properly at all, which was a mystery in itself. And what strange magic! I've never seen or heard of such a thing.

The other thing that surprised me was his laughter. It was just a very normal and happy sound that any of my guy friends in my pack could make. But I had been surprised that a fight dog could laugh like that too.

Mate very seldom laughed, and when he did it was very short and quiet. Ki had laughed quite a bit since coming here, but his laughter had always been not much more than a chuckle or two. Stephan... I wasn't sure if he knew how to laugh at all.

Now that we've "played" a little together, I could see Stephan wasn't just a trained fight dog. He was a trained soldier too. He was supposed to be the alpha heir to a minor pack right? But he had also mentioned rogue problems in his lands. I wondered if his pack was often at war because he certainly seemed at home with it.

Life could be so strange... So quickly everything has changed. I was sure my life was a normal one... Cocooned in my new bed, I breathed in the smells of lemon and new bedding. I tried to remember at which point my life stop being normal... And then I fell asleep.