TO SACRIFICE THE ALPHA PRINCESS

"I'm not sure how to explain this to you." Dad's expression looked complicated. I frowned as I tried to decipher it - hesitation, regret, sorrow… Let me just say, if I knew that trying to fix that single knot Jude had left in Dad's heart would lead to Dad showing such an expression one day, I would not have done it. To hell with Jude.

"What has Kev done?" I demanded. In Lala's mind, I could not find anything to fault my heroic big brother. Sure, it could be brash and hot-heated and proud, but what young alpha wasn't? Kev had always been Lala's big brother in shining armor.

"It's not what he did." Dad admitted with yet another long sigh, "It's what he might possibly do."

"You did not!" Fluffy-Kai gasped.

"He definitely did." Ben nodded.

"We did." Dad confirmed it.

What? What did Dad do? What did Kev not do yet? WTH! I hated being the only normal IQ in the room.

Fluffy-Kai faced palmed, "Don't tell me. Let me guess… You went back into the past to investigate where Kev and I came from, and then you went into the future to see what would happen…"

"Yep." Ben was confident in his Young Alpha's guess.

Dad nodded wearily, "Yes."

But Fluffy-Kai wasn't done yet, "And in the future, a leopard would not change his spots?"

This made Dad sit up, "How - "

And then Dad laughed bitterly and covered his face with a hand, "Am I so blind not to see what seems obvious to even the both of you?"

"Not blind, just in denial." Ben said coolly.

"I merely made a guess based on previous moves and probabilities." Fluffy-Kai answered lightly, "I've always been good at chess."

Dad sighed a lot in this life, "Perhaps you are right, but if there is a chance your brother could be persuaded to choose differently, I cannot give up on him."

Neither Fluffy nor Ben looked particularly optimistic, but they kept their misgivings to themselves.

I tried to think about it objectively. Jude was a traitor, but Kev was my favorite big brother. Furthermore, he was now the Alpha of Morning Light and a hero among the warriors. He had Mum and Dad, grew up in Night Leaf as the Young Alpha. If he had not decided to move to Morning Light, he would be the Night Leaf Alpha now.

Morning Light had no Alpha. Alpha Daniel and his Luna were tragically killed at a rogue attack way back before I was born. At the time, Kevin was just a pup too. Dad often had to run over to assist Morning Light over the years, and when Kevin grew older, he ran the patrols and helped Dad manage the borders there. He was always the first to run out at every rogue attack, and was soon known as the Morning Light Hero.

When his 18th birthday approached, Kevin had magnanimously announced at the dinner table, "Dad, you have two sons. I'll move to Morning Light. Kai can have Night Leaf. I don't want to fight with my own brother."

"That's because he knows he'll lose." Fluffy interrupted, "And also because I had told him we were likely to be adopted, and there was a chance that neither of us would become the Night Leaf Alpha. Our Lala was very obviously a Luna wolf, and should she marry a second son alpha, wouldn't Dad rather hand over the Alpha position to his son in law? At least then the Alpha position would remain in his bloodline."

Dad shook his head, "I had always hoped to hand over Night Leaf to you, Kai."

"Yes, I know that now." Fluffy ducked his head, "I miscalculated your heart for us."

So not everything played out like a chess game in real life.

"Both Kev and you are my sons." Dad told Kai, "But for the sake of the pack, you had always been the better candidate for the Alpha position. The Morning Light Alpha position was the perfect way out... Perhaps I had been too eager to agree to it though."

It had seemed to be the perfect solution. Now his two alpha sons would be able to run in two separate friendly neighboring packs.

"Plus, Sam's the Lorent's Luna." Ben pointed out, "Alpha, your children would control the whole of the Green Packlands."

"Unfortunately, when my children fight, they would start a civil war." Dad sighed again, because this was the future he saw.

The thing was, Jude had always been sympathetic to the rogues. They had no pack, no alpha, no territory. Many of them had no proper identification papers, visas, or anyway to access education, medical care, or legal employment.

Most of the rogue population lived in the Warlock lands or the Hidden Rogue Village. They didn't have running water or electricity. Most of them lived foraging the lands, or pillaging the Free Wolf community in the Warlock lands, or kidnapping and robbing the Warring Packs on the outskirts of the Green Packlands. Only the most desperate and savage rogues would think to trespass into the Green Packlands, but if they do, the Lorent Pack was a prime target, and white wolves were popular kidnapping victims. The minor packs often fell prey too.

This much was similar with the original timeline, except that with Kev managing the borders, rogue attacks that did cross over to our packlands were few and far between. Morning Light, in particular, was much safer than before. Unlike in our original timeline, the Morning Light pack still had a healthy warrior count to protect the pack, their population was also growing well and the Destitute House had far fewer widows and orphans pass through its doors.

Since Morning Light had been defending a large section of our borders, the wolves in Night Leaf and Lorent Pack also benefited. The rampant rogue attacks on the Lorent Pack was unheard of in this timeline. Ki's Dad and stepmother were well and he never got captured and sold to the Vampire fight cages. Many of the healer families were still thriving. And while Beta Lorent was still alive, he had not turned Jafar-Crazy or made friends with the rogue king…

Actually, the Rogue King didn't exist because he was still Roy, good old nice omega Roy who was still the Alpha Office's Chief Secretary. Thanks to him, our Night Leaf admin was very neatly and properly documented to this day.

Fluffy-Kai also made many contributions. He was just a year shy of stepping up to be Alpha and was very close to the Lorent Alpha sons. He was sworn brothers with Rebel, and got along with Charles well enough to be invited to their private parties. Recently, he had become bosom buddies with the Silver Mountain Young Alpha Henry too. Henry's inauguration had just passed and he had been all over the news. In this life, I had never met Henry in person. I had only seen photos of Kai, Rebel, and Henry at what the LNC labeled as another wild party. (Kaius told Mum it was grossly exaggerated though, but he also said that the drink in his hand was ginger ale, so who knows?)

Wolves of the same color, ran together. Kai was the type of wolf who got along with filthy rich, spoiled, and manipulative young alphas. Kev could never stand them. He had always hated Rebel's guts, and he hated Rebel's brother, Charles even more. I don't know why. Kev told me I wouldn't understand because I wasn't a guy.

In this way, Kai's diplomatic strength and tactical understanding shone. Dad was convinced that of all his children, it was Kaius who would be able to lead Night Leaf into a better future.

What about me? I was now the middle child. When I was born, after two boys, Mum furnished the nursery and my wardrobe with an onslaught of pretty pinks and florals. We all still had a color assigned to us, but Kev was red (because he liked Red Ranger as a pup), Kai was blue (because of the cape that came with him), I got pink (because I was a girl), and Kenna got purple, which she rejected by the time she reached elementary school. Now that she was in middle school, she only accepted dark colors like black and grey, but that was Mum's problem.

I had defended Kenna's choice of wardrobe by telling Mum that if the only problem she had with her pup was getting her not to wear black everyday, she should be thanking the goddess. I mean, Kenna's grades are always good without her even trying, she was quiet, had good friends like Lizzy, and didn't mess around with drugs, cigarettes, or alcohol. Its not like she was wearing skimpy outfits. She didn't go to wild parties. She didn't sneak out with boys (Ben and Jonah didn't count). By the time I was done, Mum would also agree that it was just a color choice and no big deal.

I'm not sure why Mum was so worried about Kenna and me. Kaius was obviously the black sheep here. But Kai was a boy, so it was different.

I think that had to be the biggest impact of having two older brothers. In this life, I was just a girl.

"It sounds like you're saying that maybe this timeline could be better than our original one." Ben deadpan.

Dad didn't answer immediately. He had his thinking frown on.

"But I want to be the Alpha!" I protested. I immediately felt guilty for being selfish. It's not fair! Everything was MINE.

"What about the civil war?" Ben asked, "Can it be prevented?"

Dad shrugged, "Every generation will fight a war, but there's still time to deal with it."

Oh right, we didn't have a rogue war in this timeline, so now we should be expecting some kind of war to test our generation.

"There is no game of chess that you can win without sacrificing some of the pieces." Kai added.

Kai was apparently also fluent in zen-speak. Unfortunately, I suck at it, but did that mean that if we sacrificed the alpha princess, life would be better for everyone else around me? It wasn't like I was unhappy in this timeline either. Even though my memories were different, and I was silly and weak, I was a well loved puppy here too.

"So all we have to do is stay and minimize the war damage, keep Kev on the straight an narrow, and everyone would live happily ever after?" I asked.

"Kai and I would take care of this. And only if we choose to stay. We might not." Dad said, "Sam, I'm afraid if we were to take this route, it would be you who would have to swallow the biggest losses."

Eh? Well yeah, I wouldn't be the Alpha. I wouldn't have my betas. (Gasp! A life without Ki! T.T) There's no Princess Town here…

"What about Sabre?" I ignored them.

"Lucas and I slipped into the Blue Packlands and managed to rescue her, but we also had to return her to her brother." Dad answered, "Last we checked, she is the adopted daughter of Prince River."

Wait, how could a 15 year old boy adopt a 5 year old girl? O.o But this kind of bizarre thing sounded exactly like what River would do.

"When Lucas gets back, I'll ask him to arrange for a meeting with the original team." Dad promised, "We will go again into the future for an updated report before making a decision."

"But it sounds like you already decided." I told Dad a little accusingly.

"Sounds like we're sacrificing our Alpha Princess for a traitor." Ben said with all his usual bad attitude.

"No, its not just for a traitor. It's also for a lot of cannon folder." Fluffy smiled, "Personally, I'd rather keep my queen than all of my pawns."

Dad shook his head, "I have my reasons. As much as I love my all children, you need to know, I refuse to sacrifice the happiness of one for the other. Sam, your future happiness is also my non-negotiable."

"No Dad," I know I was just a puppy, but I had already learned this lesson in my other life, "My happiness, I will secure with my own hands. You don't have to worry about it."