TO LANGUISH IN A BATH

5 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, AFTERNOON

"You're growing up, you've met your mate, and your dad and I agree you'll need your own space... I mean eventually you'll need your own space. Not now. Maybe in a few years. Not now. Definitely, not now." And then Mum suddenly hugged me, "Oh Sam! Why must you grow up so fast?"

"Isn't it good for me to grow up and help run pack? Then Dad could spend more time with you..." I tried to reason with mum.

"Well yes, but Sam..." Mum stroked my hair, "I guess I'm just having trouble letting my baby go."

"You can baby Sabre." I told her.

Mum shook her head, "None of you can ever be a replacement for the other." Then mum smiled, "I'm greedy that way. I want all three of my babies."

I shrugged. I couldn't help growing up. I needed to grow up. There was a war looming ahead. I had to protect my pack.

"Everything is just happening so fast these days." Mum said, "Even houses are built in a couple of weeks."

Mum marveled at the oyster white glass tiles on the bathroom wall, large glided mirrors, and the wide bath. She waved her hand around, "Ki really came through for us in the last minute when he found the prefabricated home parts. There was quite a bit of redesign due to the constraints in available units, but he managed to work with Chloe to make the amendments... Chloe said the new house was even better than she had originally planned. We even have a pool now."

Uh... Okay... But why was Mum telling me this?

"I asked him how he managed it, and he told me it was a team effort. Harvey was keeping the accounts and tracking the timeline. Ben was dealing with the Future Alpha Office set up and pack house schedules... That's another pup who's growing up too fast!" Mum commented, shaking her head. She should have tea with Mrs Beta and have a heart to heart talk.

But Mum was still talking to me, "But my point is that they worked together. Wolves were put in packs for a reason. Don't run out alone, Sam. You don't ever have to run alone."

I nodded. I was trying to process Mum's point. Did she feel I wasn't a team player? When had I ever ran alone?

I tried to think of an instance where I had been really left alone. I remembered Flynn's words to me in the car. He made it sound like I was always protected, and in many ways he was right.

But I wasn't a puppy anymore. I didn't need my dad or Beta Lucas to help run my meeting or Candance or whatever it was. I felt quite sure I could deal with this myself... Once I knew what the hell I was dealing with anyway.

But even if I got stuck, I had a lot of people at the meeting who wouldn't think twice about stepping up to help me.

But I was the Alpha! I don't need to have several minders around me at every moment the way Henry had insinuated at theatre class today.

"Well, you better take your shower. I'll see you at dinner." Mum decided to leave me alone with my thoughts, "Just remember, Ki, Harvey, and Ben are all just downstairs from you now."

"You worry too much." I told my mum.

"I can't help it. Sam, you're a beautiful girl. And while I know Bell will take care of you, he's also a male wolf. All your betas are male... And now you have new male fight dogs in your wing." Mum sighed, "As a mother, naturally I worry."

"There's nothing to worry about." I told her, "You need to trust me more."

"I do trust you. It's the others I don't trust." Mum muttered.

Even her precious Ki, or Harvey, or Ben? Hahaha..

Mum kissed the top of my head, and then she left.

Dad often said that women are full on contradictions, in which he meant Mum was full of contradictions.

If I was a puppy, then there was no need to worry about the male wolves right? I mean, growing up, most of my friends were boys to begin with. And I would say Mate made it clear that I was just a puppy in his eyes.

If she didn't trust the guys, then why was she taking comfort that they were just downstairs? Or telling me to work together with them?

If she wanted me to be her baby, why was she giving me my own space to run? I pretty much owned this side tower now. Okay, I know, this was my parent's home. But MINE.

Fine, the pool downstairs was shared. BUT THIS BATHTUB, IT WAS MINE.

I filled the bath with water, and found soap and shampoos in "Sakura Blossoms". Ah....bath... It was just as I sunk into the warm soapy comfort when I realized Candance!

So I pulled myself out slopping wet, wrapped a large towel, plodded out to the bedroom, dripping on the soft thick new pale pink carpets, to my school bag left at the foot of my clamshell.

It was ridiculous. No matter how many times I saw it, the giant golden clamshell was ridiculous.

Anyway, it was cold outside the bath. I rummaged in my bag a bit before producing my kindle. Okay, time to get down to grown up Alpha business!

Like figuring out what a Candance is.

I returned to the warmth of the bathroom. Carefully lowered myself into the tub without getting my hands or the kindle wet, and then started scrolling through the documents until I found the document labeled, "First Leadership Candance Agenda"

Bingo!

I went back to the document list and scrolled around. As expected, Harvey had also uploaded and lined up his notes along with the agenda, as well as all the relevant reports. There were now exactly 1248 documents in my kindle. I was current reading document number 5. The Candance Agenda was document 1132.

What the heck.

At this point it did occur to me that maybe I was taking it too easy at school. Maybe I should've been reading my kindle instead of that manga. Maybe.

Then I would be at least at document 8 by now.

Sigh. Hey, Boo, any chance you can use your Wolfie power to speed read through all this?

{Sure, why don't you sleep with that under your pillow tonight, and I'll download it into your brain?}

My wolf was evolving in the most unlikable way.

Back to the Candance which was, by the way, exactly what Flynn made it sound like. A leadership meeting to keep everyone updated.

And Flynn wasn't mistaken, according to the document, I was chairing.

Apparently, the Candance was called by the Future Alpha Office or FAO. There was even a logo, an "FA" inside the circle of an "O".

Wow, I took a moment to admire the logo of the office that I didn't know I had, printed on the agenda I didn't know was sent, about the meeting I didn't know I was going to chair.

Maybe there was another Sam living here, one who ran candances instead of meetings.

And then I realized, "Ben!"

I mean, since when did my betas ever do anything without consulting me first? Well, if they had, I wouldn't have known. But I was quite sure that neither Ki nor Harvey would have done this without first asking me.

Wait, but Candance was such a Ki kind of word. So was the FAO logo. It was a very Ki style, streamline, modern, with a flash of gold. And let's not forget it was Harvey's notes that were all lined up with the Agenda.

Then I remembered what mum said about teamwork. Gah! My betas were as thick as thieves... How dare they use my name to call a meeting? A very necessary and timely meeting with a fancy name and solid agenda, no less. Grrr... How dare they!

What made them think I would be okay with that?

One word: Ben.

And he was right. I flipped through the rest of Harvey's notes. I remembered Flynn saying how he had been in and out a lot lately. I could see how this meeting was needed to update everyone, and also to strengthen our relationships - this part I borrowed from Henry's impassioned speech about strong allies.

I'm not running alone, so I needed to "think aloud", or at least keep everyone running with me on the same page.

Actually, as I read the notes, I realized I was also updating myself. Even Bell's Underground work had been reported, by Stephan who had made concise and meticulous notes in his weekly reports.

Most of the trouble stemmed from the lack of discipline. "The difference between an army and a group of bandits is discipline and honor." Stephan had quoted in ancient lycan. He was 100% alpha wolf. Lycan Study Group often taught some ancient lycan, but it usually had smaller phonetics spelt out under it. So you just had to sound out the word with the phonetics and look at the pictographic text to guess what the words eluded to. Only beta and alpha wolves had to learn to write in Ancient Lycan. (Calligraphy had always been my pet peeve.)

Stephan's report was handwritten - in full ancient lycan. It would have killed me to read it, but Harvey had a translated copy attached, where only the quote was retained in ancient lycan because I was sure it had to be some well known ancient saying or something.

Traditionally, Alpha wolves only wrote in ancient lycan to other Alpha wolves. I checked Stephan's original report. It had been scanned, but I could see his stamp clearly, addressed to me, and my name was in Ancient Lycan.

In Ancient Lycan my name was written as a flower with a ear inside it. And because I was from the Night Leaf pack, usually the prefix would be a crescent shaped leaf.

I was surprised that Stephan had known my name. But Stephan had written another prefix to my name. It was a complicated one which did include a crescent, but also other symbols.

Boo knew what it was, it was the name for Moon Bell, and a mesh of Night Leaf, Morning Light, Lorent... And even Stephan's pack...

{Cloud Forest}

Because wolves could read these things, not by sounds, but by heart. It was the text of the ancient wolf language, before we spoke with human tongue.

Actually, even though most Lycan text was in black ink, real Lycan text was rather colorful in nature. For example, Stephan's pack name would be a white cloud hovering in a red forest. This indicated the color of his packland and the nature of his pack. Ancient lycan was both deep and poetic. That's why it was such a pain in the a****

I thought of the word for what I was doing, contemplating ancient lycan while draped in the bath. It was a very funny word. I quite liked it. I think the closest translation was "languishing."

Languishing (over) scrolls

The steam

The Sakura

Candance

Prepare

This would be how the Ancient Text would phrase itself. And then our Lycan Study Teacher would tell us to translate it to English.

Which would read something like this:

I'm feeling lazy and was supposed to be working, but I've turned to mush with all the comfortable steam and smells of Sakura that I have no energy to prepare for the Candance although that's what I should be doing.

I told you ancient lycan was a pain to read.

But I looked at Stephan's report again, and then I dunno, I just let Boo look, and suddenly the words imprinted in my mind, the situation at the underground, the initial tensions, the fight dogs needed an alpha.

What the hell was Stephan doing? Wasn't he a perfectly strong (and properly educated) alpha? And wasn't Bell there? He was an alpha wolf too right?

{I'm the alpha.}

So I needed to make the allegiance bond with the fight dogs?

I looked at the report again, Stephan had signed off with what I could only translate to as, "Your humble servant."

It was more the feeling than the words. He was submitting to my wolf.

Hm... Maybe this ancient lycan had more use than I thought. It was almost magical, I suddenly understood not just with my mind, or even my heart. My wolf got it.

Stephan was my wolf, and he could do with my help.

Yeah, I should write back in ancient lycan too. Wait no, who was I kidding? I'm an idiot when it came to Lycan calligraphy. I always got the ink on everything. Sigh.

There was a gentle knock on the bathroom glass, "Goddess, it is nearly time for dinner. There is a meeting later at 9pm with Moon Bell's leaders and elders. The Future Alpha Office is also ready for your inspection. Would you like to see it after dinner?"

"Uhm, okay." I answered, "I'll be out in a minute."

"Then I will wait outside your room, goddess." Ki informed me.

I waited another minute before reaching for the knob to let the water out of the tub. Then I got out and shifted, shook out, and shifted back.

I plodded into the wardrobe got dressed into the outfit set out for me. It was a long navy turtle neck matched with white skinny jeans. I checked my reflection. Ok! And you might like to know, my hair was back to the usual length on every side.

See if you can interpret this:

Ready

Set

Go!

(I) Win!