THE OFFICIAL PROCEDURE

24 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, DAWN

I woke up with a start, grabbing my sheets and sitting up suddenly. Wth. For a moment, I thought I fell off the back of Owen's bike. It wouldn't be the first time falling off the back of a bike, but still.

Luckily, I only got kicked out of my dream. A few minutes later, my alarm rang. Time to start the day.

But today was different, I've learned my lesson. Today I promptly follow-uped on my dream. I didn't just leave it to sort itself out, I mindlinked Owen, {Owen?}

{Yes, alpha!} Owen sounded totally shocked to receive my mindlink. And then he asked, {Are you safely home, Alpha?}

{Yes, I woke up okay.} I assured him, and then I decided to say my piece quickly before things got awkward, {I just wanted to say thanks for telling me. I appreciate your courage.}

And then I added, {About what we talked about, you don't have to tell anyone.}

Especially my Luna, because who knows what would happen to you.

{Yes, Alpha!} Owen answered, {Thank you, Alpha!}

I got off the mindlink and looked around my room. It was quiet. I wondered if Dad and Savy were home yet.

I could sense for them, but if I didn't sense them home, what would I do then? I hesitated, and then checked my wolf radar. Nope, they were still outside our Packlands. Sigh. They were close - but heck, the entire warlock forest was close. Wth.

Therefore, I started the day in the bad mood. I mean, Dad said he'd be home with Savy in the morning! He lied!

I stormed into the bathroom, but not before noticing that Ki hadn't put out my uniform still. Ki was still down, huh?

That was strike two to my bad mood! Gah! Why wasn't Ki well yet? I felt myself get angry at Alpha James all over again. Why did he have to be so harsh? Wasn't it obvious to him how loyal Ki was? Ki hadn't even fought back at being brought to the dungeons. Stooopid Ki. Even if he got himself shot, he would be up and about sooner than this.

Then again, Ki had no doubt spent a lot of healing on Bell, who was also the one who called a blackout on the entire fiasco, and then said nothing in Ki's defence. If I had to get angry at anyone, it should be at Bell. Bell was an even bigger stoopid than his father.

I mean, I really should be mad at Bell, but for some reason, I couldn't really summon the angry feelings. Everytime I thought of Bell, I was all like mate!~❤️

I'm doomed. No, the whole continent was doomed. What should I do?

Maybe I was the biggest stoopid. My mate was public enemy #1 and all I could do was turn to mush at his smile. His very handsome and gorgeous smile. I don't even think I understood the meaning of gorgeous until I met Bell.

Omo. I'm hopeless. Poor world.

I took my usual morning shower, washed up, and found my uniforms hanging neatly in a row in my wardrobe. Then I simply reused the same ribbon, and school badge, and hair tie. There. It wasn't that bad. I could survive without Ki.

My phone was on half life, but I didn't think I'd need it much anyway. I stuck it in my bag. It's the last exam day, so I didn't really need to look for the rest of my books or whatever that was usually packed for me.

Oh right! Lunch! I would have to pack my own lunch again. And breakfast! I better go down quick. Nutella wasn't going to spread itself.

Downstairs was quiet. Mum and Sabre were up. Sabre ate her usual colorful looped cereal in cold milk.

"Why is your milk so pink?" I asked. I smelled the distinct scent of strawberry.

"Because I'm a pink Princess today." Sabre explained, "I only eat pink things."

"But your cereal..." I started.

Mum cleared her throat and put an empty plate in front of me.

"But your cereal looks cute in pink milk." I managed to salvage.

"Want some? Why don't you ever eat cereal?" Sabre asked.

"It takes too long." I explained, "So I only eat cereal on weekends."

Not that I've eaten cereal since Ki was always making better stuff.

Mum placed my lunch bag in front of me. It wasn't the usual brown paper bag we had before Ki. It was the Ki-styled cloth bag. This one was styled like an origami box, but hat velcro to hold it close.

"It's just a sandwich." Mum said in case I should think having a fancy lunch bag and matching lunchbox meant that it would be just as fancy inside, "I cut an apple too."

"Thanks, Mum." I said gratefully. The apple would probably be browned by lunchtime, but yeah, we can survive without Ki.

"I can eat cereal super fast." Sabre told me. She proceeded to demonstrate.

I helped myself to some bread, "That's nice."

And then I slathered on the Nutella. Mum gave me a cup of hot chocolate and re-sat herself at the table.

It's was just the three of us.

"How has school been?" Mum asked. Sabre made little slurping sounds on her spoon. I think she was pretending to be a vacuum cleaner.

"It's okay." I answered automatically.

So naturally Mum had to press on, "Maybe after your exams, you could invite those nice girls over to play again."

I think Mum was trying to cheer me up or something, but hahaha... She had no idea.

"I don't think we're friends anymore." I admitted.

"What?" Mum frowned a little, "Oh, Sam! What happened?"

And that was all that was needed for me to blabber everything to my mum. I told her about Krystal selling my photo and then info about me to the reporters, how my other friends knew but didn't tell me about it. And how the next day, none of them came to my table.

"You can only trust a human to betray you." I said darkly to my Nutella sandwich.

Sabre stopped slurping and looked up.

Mum sighed, "Oh, Sam. You're young, and so are your friends. We all make mistakes growing up."

I flared, "I wished they'd make their mistakes on someone else!"

Mum patted Sabre on her red curls. Sabre's red curls were springy. I reached out to play with it too, but Sabre flinched away from my hand.

And then she started to cry.

Why? Was it something I said?

Mum guided Sabre to climb into her embrace, "Oh baby, what's wrong?"

Sabre cried for a short while more before blurting out in little gaspy breaths, "Sam still hates me."

"Now, why would you think that?" Mum soothed the small child.

"Because she hates humans." Sabre whispered to Mum.

Oh right, I forgot Sabre was human.

"I wasn't talking about you, Sabre." I said.

Sabre startled. What? Did she think I couldn't hear her just because she whispered? Nevermind my alpha wolf hearing, she was whispering very loudly.

"My friends betrayed me." I reiterated, "Not you."

{Not yet anyway.}

Shut up, Boo.

"What's be-tray?" Sabre asked.

"It's when you become a tray." I said because I thought it was funny.

"Sam!" Mum didn't think it was the time to joke.

"I won't be a tray." Sabre told me, and then she looked to Mum to make sure, "Right, mama?"

"It's betray, baby. It means to hurt someone who trusts you. And of course you won't." Mum assured her, "Sabbie, you're a brave, kind, and good girl."

"Isn't that like giving her too much pressure?" I wondered aloud.

Mum gave me a sharp look.

"What?" I argued, "She's just a human."

And then I told my little sister, "Do what you need to survive. Then come home and apologize."

I mean look what being loyal did to Ki. Sabre was just a human, she would never survive that.

Sabre blinked.

"And I don't hate you." I said, just to be clear.

"See, baby, we all love you very much." Mum reaffirmed. She hugged Sabre protectively and promised her, "You will always be safe here."

Mum pressed a kiss on her red hair.

Yeah, but Sabre won't always be here. One day she'll grow up and become the Luna of Night Forest, right?

And then Sabre looked up to me with wet puppy dog eyes, "So I can stay?"

Mum hugged the little girl close. She looked so pitiful, it hurt to watch.

"Of course you can stay. This is your home now." Mum looked to me so I knew she wanted me to say something.

Wth did she want me to say?

{Sam, say something!} Mum pretty much growled at me through the mindlink.

But what was I suppose to say?

"Yeah. What mum said." I managed weakly.

I repressed a sigh. I really wasn't cut out to counsel distressed preschoolers. But Sabre had stopped crying so I felt a little more daring.

"Look, Sabre." I decided it was time to give her some good advice, "If you want to stay anywhere, you need to be strong."

"Sam..." Mum warned, but I held up my hand, I knew what I was doing. Someday, Sabre would thank me for this.

Sabre looked up at me.

"If you're strong, you can stay at any pack you like. All the packs will welcome you and even if they didn't, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it." I explained for the sake of her future Luna fate at Night Forest.

Savy shook her head, "But I just want to stay here."

Oh. Well, that would be a bummer for little Eddy.

"Then stay." I reached out again and this time, Sabre let me pat her head. I touched the springy copper locks and grinned at her, "You can stay as long as you like, do you know why?"

At this point, I had expected Sabre to answer, "Because I'm strong."

And I imagined I would say, "No, but I'm strong, and I'd protect you."

And be impressively cool like that.

But Sabre's answer stole my thunder, "Because everyone loves me here."

And Mum immediately lit up and clapped, "Yes! Daddy, Mummy, Sam, Savy, and Ki all loves Savy."

Apparently, Mum had also adopted Ki into our immediate family.

Mum gave Sabre another tight hug.

Sabre smiled. Oh well, at least that was cleared up.

And then it was Sabre's turn to advise me, "Sometimes I fight with Taylor, but we still sit together when we go to school because we're best friends."

Eh?

"And also because she's my desk buddy, so we don't have a choice." Sabre explained with all the honesty of a five year old.

Then she sighed, "It's easier to sit with someone if you don't hate her."

True that.

But I didn't hate Krystal. I just hated being betrayed by someone I had considered my friend.

"I'm not telling her who my boyfriend is anymore." Sabre said in retrospect, "Taylor isn't good at keeping secrets."

"Boyfriend?" I flared, "Sabre, you're 5!"

"I'm six." Sabre informed me.

That was still too young for boyfriends. I looked at Mum - do something! Your daughter was going wayward!

But Mum only smiled, "Oh, did you change boyfriends again?"

WTH? Mum!!!!

Sabre shook her red curls, "No. Mitch wanted to be my boyfriend, but he couldn't beat Kendrake."

Kendrake? What kind of name was Kendrake? And what happened to Derek?

I looked speechlessly at Mum who smiled, {It's cute.}

No way! Looks like it was all on me now.

"You tell Kendrake that from now on, the only boyfriend you're allowed to have is one who is stronger than me!" I declared.

"So they have to fight you first?" Sabre asked.

"Yes." I said, but the image of half a dozen pups challenging me for a duel made me change my mind, "No. If they want to challenge me, they need to challenge Gamma Endo and win first."

"Sam!" Mum gasped.

"But that's the official procedure." I insisted.

Let's see how those brats dealt with Gamma Endo. Hahaha. Or how Gamma Endo dealt with those brats. Either way, it was going to be highly entertaining.