THE GUARDIAN OF GRANDMA LUNA'S RING

Savy and Lizzy were in the office sitting at the usual window seat together. From the window, they had a good view of the lawn downstairs.

Beta Lucas, Mrs Beta, and Mum were also there. Mrs Beta was showing Mum the video of Ben's wolf and mine playing in the snow at Morning Light.

Dad and Beta Lucas were talking in low voices. It sounded work related, something to do with scheduling a meeting tonight.

Savy and Lizzy grinned at us when we entered.

"Alpha Sam is here." Killion announced. I would've given him a second take for the sudden formality, but Lizzy distracted me.

"Ki, your white wolf was like the male protagonist of a wolf romance novel!" Lizzy told him.

What? Everyone looked at her.

"What? It's the wolf equivalent of a prince on a white horse right?" Lizzy said.

The adults chuckled and shook their heads at Lizzy's whimsy.

"I want to play with the big wolves next time too." Savy said.

"You can't!" I answered in alarm, "You'd get squished for sure!"

I pictured Savy's little white wolf being trampled by me and my betas, "No way! It's too dangerous."

Savy pouted and crossed her arms, "My wolf has gotten bigger."

Eh? Really? Wait, could wolves grow bigger after the first shift?

"How much bigger?" I asked.

"Just a little, but it's noticeable, and Mrs Beta thinks my wolf would keep growing for at least another year." Savy boasted.

"Wait, why?" I asked.

"Savy's wolf shifted prematurely, so she'll continue growing for about another year." Mum smiled.

"Since wolves tend to grow the most during its last year before the first shift, Savy is likely to grow quite a bit more." Mrs Beta added.

Savy beamed, looking rather pleased at that.

No way! I mean, it's all good for Savy. She was really quite tiny and I'm glad my little sister would get a stronger wolf but..."Then is Ben's wolf going to grow too?"

Ben's wolf was already the same size as Killion's and Harvey's! If he grew another year, he might be even bigger than me!

Mrs Beta frowned, "Probably not. Based on the reports, Ben's first shift was quite a fast and smooth one, so it's more likely his wolf was ready to shift when it happened."

{Beta arriving}

There was two raps on the door and Ben let himself in. He bowed his greeting wordlessly.

Why was Ben's wolf so grown up? ARUGGHHH it was exasperating!

"Did you want to see me, Alpha?" Ben inquired politely.

Okay this was infuriating. So far everyone who shifted also suddenly matured. (Everyone except me.)

Dad looked at Beta Lucas.

Beta Lucas cleared his throat uncomfortably, "Actually, I was the one who wanted to talk to you."

"What is it Dad?" Ben asked without moving from his place next to Ki, who was next to me... Because gah! I hadn't sat down yet, so they would remain standing.

Arugh! All these stupid rules. They won't start eating till I eat. They won't sit down till I sit. I stomped over to an empty seat opposite my Dad's desk and sat down.

But none of the Betas sat down still. Oh, I guess it wasn't anything to do with me then. But I was still crossed. I pulled up my legs onto the chair and sat criss cross applesauce. Grrr... I did it again! I did something childish. I was doomed to be a preschooler forever!

Beta Lucas cleared his throat, and then decided, "About that, let's go to my office to talk."

"It's about the condoms, isn't it?" Ben guessed.

"Please excuse us, Alpha, Luna." Beta Lucas bowed and walked quickly to the door. He grabbed Ben's arm and dragged him out.

"We will take our leave too, Alpha." Mrs Beta said, "I'll send you the videos and photos in a while, Luna."

"Thank you." Mum smiled.

"Come, Lizzy." Mrs Beta had her firm no-nonsense look, and Lizzy reluctantly followed her out.

If I had to hazzard a guess, Beta Lucas and Mrs Beta were still upset about Ben having condoms on his person during Uncle Louis' pocket search this morning, and were probably blaming themselves for not being better parents than they already were, and had decided to go on an unsustainably strict regime on both their kids for a while until things cooled off.

This kind of thing happened occasionally in the Beta household. Mrs Beta read a lot of parenting books in her lifetime, so she always had a wealth of information on bringing up unrealistically perfect kids. The only problem with these techniques was that it required constant parental implementation.

Ben and Lizzy would have to suffer it for a while, usually about a week or two, and then other more pressing issues would pop up and their parents would not be able to implement all the strategies perfectly and completely, and then little by little, everyone would return back to normal again... Until another breach in social or behaviourial protocol occurred. Mrs Beta had a list of warning signs or red flags that every parent should know.

Maybe it worked since neither Ben nor Lizzy did drugs or had been jailed in all their 14 years of living. Hahahaha.

Dad motioned to two large paper bags on his desk, "One for each of you."

The paper bags were marked "Build a Pony".

Eh? We got presents? Why did we get presents?

Savy opened them and cackled, she pulled out a toy zebra, and then she pulled out a pink unicorn. They were both quite big, about the size of a small dog. But I wouldn't have thought either of them to be ponies.

Savy grinned at me and hugged the zebra to herself with one arm, while holding the pink unicorn with the other out to me, "Which one do you want, Sam?"

"Savy!" Mum scolded, "Think of the poor Betas who might have to carry it!"

"But my new room is going to be Savannah themed. Sam's room is the unicorn mermaid princess one." Savy argued.

"It is?" Dad looked surprised, "Well, I guess that works out nicely."

Dad looked way more relieved than I would have thought. I realised my alpha dad had really been worried about his choice of ponies for his daughters.

I took Sir Sparklalot from Savy. It was light pink with darker pink heart shaped patches of fur, a pink shiny horn, and a pink mane and tail with sparkling pink strands infused it it. It was a very fancy pink unicorn.

Then Savy pulled out the best thing about our new ponies from the bags, shoes!

"It was on promotion, the sales lady said they were very necessary." Dad explained. Hahaha. Alpha Dad got duped by a sales lady.

There were four red shiny dress shoes, and four white sneakers. Savy decided on the red shoes, so I got the sneakers.

It took a while to get them all onto Sir Sparklalot. Savy helped me with the last two after she was done dressing her Zebra.

"What are you naming your zebra?" I asked.

"Chiron." Savy said. I was sure there was some Greek mythology going on there, but I couldn't place the name.

"He was the wisest and justest of all centaurs." Savy explained.

Ah. Last I looked, the animal in her hand was a zebra though. Ah well.

"What's your unicorn's name?" Savy asked.

"Sir Sparklalot." I answered.

Savy blinked, "I'll call him Apollo."

"Like the spacecraft?" I asked.

"No, the Greek god." Savy sighed.

"Oh." I looked at Sir Apollo Sparklalot, the spacecraft Greek god unicorn, "Okay."

Then I made him talk to Killion in my best puppet voice, "Hello, Beta! I am Sir Apollo Sparklalot, the spacecraft Greek god unicorn and I will guard Grandma Luna's ring with my life!"

Killion chuckled.

And then I realised...

"I left the ring in the conference room!"

Everyone paused. Killion was the first to snap out of it and compose himself to say usual gentle smile, "On the contrary, goddess, didn't we agree for your dad to keep it in his safe till we procured the toy to hide it it?"

Oh. That's right, we did. Whew.

"Don't worry." Savy cackled, "Sam has never lost anything fluffy before."

Sir Sparklalot hit her on my behalf.

Chiron the zebra who believed himself to be a centuar hit me back - with his red princess dress shoes.

Dad opened the office safe hidden in the side cupboard of the room. He retrieved the ring.

Killion produced a sewing kit from somewhere. I had to withdraw Sir Sparklalot from his death defying fight with his striped brother, and put him down on the operating table.

Killion carefully made an insertion near the mane, and then pushed the ring into the unicorn's body. He showed Dad and Mum and me the ring in pushed within the white fluff. Then he sewed him back. Killion sewed very well, I couldn't even find the insertion once it was done.

"You could've have been a plastic surgeon." I told him, "You would be in high demand in the world of fluffy toys everywhere!"

I felt around Sir Sparklalot's tummy. I could barely feel the metal ring or the jagged hardness of the many diamonds under all the fluff and stuff. He was so fluffy and soft! And he had the friendliest face. I stared hard at Sir Sparklalot, my fingers smushed into his soft sides. I shook him hard and watched him flop about. Ahhh... he was perfect!

I nodded at my assessment, "Thanks Dad. Sir Sparklalot is my favourite toy now."

"It's your only toy now." Savy reminded me.

Oh my poor fluffy friends who perished in the fire!

Sir Sparklalot fitted just under my arm, like a football with four legs and a fluffy head. And he was mine. I sniffed him, he smelled new, like plastic actually... so I knew he was made from synthetic materials without even looking at the label. He's also got the scent of Dad so I knew Dad had at least once carried Sir Sparklalot. I could also smell Savy, a bit of Ki's expensive smelling cologne, some woman's scent... a little sour... did the sales girl have sweaty palms?

I shook Sir Sparklalot again, but of course the scent wouldn't just fall off. So I stuffed him into my sweater so that my own scent will envelope him. Mine.

Killion raise a brow, but said nothing. I think my family was used to my preoccupation with scents on my bedding and stuff like that.

But Mum did seem to be aware that it wasn't exactly civilized behaviour, she tried to explain for me, "She's quite sensitive about the scent on her things."

And that was exactly right! I didn't like the smell of strangers in personal stuff. If it lives on my bed, it's personal.

Heck, I didn't even like the smell of strangers in my room. Although most of it was transient, but did you know that scents on fabric and fluffy things could stick forever? Okay, maybe not forever, but at least a very long time.

"Sam, could you not do that though?" Mum asked.

"Yeah, you look like you're pregnant." Savy cackled.

I pushed Sir Sparklalot up higher and posed, "How about now?"

Savy cackled. Mum face palmed.

There was a knock on the door. I pulled out Sir Sparklalot from under my sweater.

"Come in." Dad said.

"Alpha," Beta Lucas popped his head in, "the Alpha Duties debrief is on for tonight."

"Thanks." Dad said.

Beta Lucas popped out again. He didn't seem to notice the future alpha carrying a pink unicorn under her arm.

I looked at Killion who took out his phone to check, "8pm, goddess. Conference room here at Night Leaf. May I arrange for Ben and Harv to meet us slightly earlier to meet Sir Apollo Sparklalot?"

I grinned at that, "Okay."

I guess they should all meet the guardian of Grandma Luna's ring.