章 237: THE SECRET TO FINISHING WELL
The moment I blasted the SOS, I regretted it. Blasted mindlinks. It's so easy to let slip.
{Betas approaches}
{Mate!}
Okay quickly now, off the top of my head, I could think of two ways to handle the situation.
OPTION 1: GRIN AND BEAR IT
If I regressed to a five year old brat, my betas would never respect me and Bell will probably call me baby forever. They might even make me bubble baths. I mean, they were already shelling and deboning and cutting my foods in bite sized squares, the idiots.
I'm the Alpha. And if I wanted any respect around here, I would have to earn it.
OPTION 2: COME CLEAN AND FACE IT
The other option is to admit my weakness and get help from my team so I don't melt down in an alpha brat tantrum at the meeting. I mean, they aren't my mum but Ben's been running beside me for years, Harvey seemed to be experienced in dealing with spoilt little sisters and Killion was a natural at cajoling irate and spoilt alpha brats (I believed he had practiced for many years with Bell. Hahaha). Oh, and mate could be rather soothing - as long as he didn't open his stoopid mouth.
"Princess!" The guys arrived. Had they ran? Sped walked? They looked around sensing for danger with an urgency I had not expected.
"You summoned us, goddess?" Killion asked.
Mate reached out to calm my hair, I shook his hand away. Nuh huh. I didn't need preening service. My hair was half braided, which kept the top part down even if the rest of it decides to live it up.
And I was not a baby.
Humph.
"She's tired out. I think she reached her limit." Ben observed aloud.
Shut up. No one asked you.
"Princess, would you like to rest? You can leave the meeting to us." Harvey offered.
"I can sit in." Rebel said, "You go to bed."
Don't order me around.
"I'm presenting about the Princess Town later. So I would have to be present." Killion said.
"I'll take notes." Harvey decided, "Ben, accompany the princess back to her family's apartment, and then get rest yourself. You will take tomorrow's morning shift. Ki and I are assigned drivers, but we are only needed in the afternoon."
"I have to follow up on the Princess Town contribution with the Alphas we met tonight." Killion said.
"I'll take as many of other tasks and errands as possible then." Harvey decided, "Ben will be based with the Princess."
Ben nodded.
Don't decide everything by yourselves. Grrr...
Okay, I've got to get a grip. If I flared up now, I won't be any better than Eddy, who was right now probably fast asleep. It would only prove to everyone that I should be in bed too.
I shook my head and said in my best sensible tone, "Yeah, I'm tired. Sorry about just now, I just let slip. My file is upstairs. I will attend the meeting."
"Are you sure, goddess? It's been a long day for you." Killion said.
"It's been a long day for everyone." I said. (Yes! I'm so adulting right now. I gave myself a mental pat of the back.)
"You don't have to push yourself, princess." Mate said.
Ben just shrugged, "I'll get her notes and sit in the meeting. Harv can sit out."
Harvey nodded, "I'll settle paperwork. Do you need help with anything, Ki?"
Ki nodded, "I need all the Alphas' contacts and maybe email drafts to attach the documents for follow-up."
"Right." Harvey tapped it out on his phone, "What about Ben?"
"I'm good." Ben smirked.
"Luna, is there anything I can do for you?" Harvey asked Bell.
Bell shook his head, "Not now, but I want to be CC-ed on the emails for the Princess Town. And I'd like to look at the updated plans."
"Understood." Killion said, "I'll see to that."
They were all functioning. I needed to grow up and get my head in the game. This was the merger meeting. It was finally happening. I was the Alpha.
OPTION C: GROW UP
It's not about getting respect, it's about sticking it out and seeing it through. Therein lay my weakness. (But wow, I was beginning to sound like my mum.)
Yes, I regressed into a five year old when I was tired, but that wasn't so much the problem as my inability to complete what I've started.
I've always put it on my Alpha wolf for my lack of perseverance to see things through to the very end. You know, once the Alpha struck first blood, the beta would step in to finish the kill, and then of course someone else had to clean up the mess. (What, you thought we left dead carcasses lying around our woods? What did you see us as? Animals?)
Henry said my bloodline's had some sort of catalyst power - that's something that starts some kind of change or speeds up a reaction. I knew because I actually checked it up on the dictionary.
And when I thought about it, it was true, I could start things pretty fast. I get lucky and get a great start most of the time. But finishing wasn't really my thing.
Start a food fight? No problem. Clean up after? Oh... That was hard.
Get into archery club? Top scorer. Finish the beginner year? Unlikely, since I would be transferring schools next term.
Get the merger of Night Leaf and Morning Light going? We even got Lorent on board now, even before our second meeting... But I'm also about to have a meltdown and sit it out.
Start the new Princess Town Project? Tada! We've got resources and the Alphas from the top pack in the major colored packlands on board. But now what?
Now that I thought about it, I was always a great starter, but never much for finishing.
When I packed my school bag, I always left something outside and my bag unzipped. Mum would say, "Why not just finish it by putting it inside and zipping it up?" I would say, maybe I would remember something else to put in later.
When I read a book, I tend to read about two thirds of it, then I would read the last chapter and epilogue.
I've used countless notebooks in my life, and never finished any of them to the last page. I never used any pencil to the stub, nor any eraser more than halfway before getting a new one.
I've finished my can of coke, almost every single time. I could eat all my ice-cream too. I could put on a full outfit from start to end - oh wait, but I wouldn't have put away the used clothes into the laundry hamper. Or put away my brushes or anything.
I hated to admit it, but the truth was, I wasn't a good finisher.
I'm okay at short spurts, like studying for a test the night before, or sprinting for a bus, or interesting things like finishing a movie or a pack run, but...
Suddenly I understood why Mum and Dad was always on my case for not finishing things properly - it's not because they were being difficult. It's because I couldn't finish anything on my own.
Paradigm shifted.
I'm that pathetic huh?
Gah! Why was my pack following me? I'm a five year old with an Alpha wolf!
They might as well follow Little Alpha Eddy. At least Eddy will grow up to be a proper male Alpha.
I'm just me! T.T
I can't even stay in a fight for longer than 15 minutes without my body breaking down.
Next thing I knew, Ben was back with my file and we were heading to the conference room. Ben knew the way because he had helped Oscar set up earlier.
Ben was working all day too, but he wasn't degenerating into a five year old. In fact, he was pretty grown up all day. Even now, he was walking purposefully ahead still in his suit and being all bossy.
Why didn't I get cooler like that when I was tired?
My feet hurt in my boots. I had been wearing them all day and they were pinching me.
At least I got my puffy lucky hooded vest on. The air was chilly at nights. We were right next to the lake and it was winter.
Arughh... What the hell. I made a short and sudden stop to pull off the boots. Why wear shoes that were uncomfortable?
Killion reached out to take them from me but I refused.
Okay. I'm going to finish what I've started... Starting from now anyway.
Not that it had anything to do with who carried my boots. But I'm a grown up and grown ups didn't need someone else to hold their stinky boots for them!
I caught Bell and Ki exchanging a look and then shrugging. Ben turned in front of what I presumed to be the conference room door. He raised a brow at me grabbing onto my two boots and sighed.
"What?" I asked. If they've got something to say, then they should say it.
"It'll be fine." Ben said, "I came prepared."
"Prepared for what?" I asked.
"To take a five year old to work." Ben said. He took out a bright colored tube. Was that Jelly Beans?
"If you sit through this meeting successfully, it's yours." Ben told me.
What? If he thinks he could bribe me to behave for a tube for jellybeans...
"Deal." I said. I took the tube from him.
Ben smirked.
Bell looked faintly amused.
Ki smiled beautifully and announced the moment the door opened, "Alpha Sam is here."
Ben pulled out a chair closest to Dad.
Mate sat next to me. Ki sat next to mate. Ben sat across me, next to his Dad, who was on Dad's other side. We were lined up like a deck of cards ready for play.
But I had Jelly Beans and I was happy, not just because I had jelly beans, but because I had a strategy to become a strong finisher.
Would you look at that! I had a plan! That's proof that I've been levelling up already.
There was no point in wanting to be grown up or beating myself up about being a lousy finisher. I hated that, but there's nothing I could do to magically become what I was not.
I had to work with what I had and what I could do.
And what I could do, was eat a tube of jelly beans and sit through one last meeting.
Which technically was Ben's plan. But I was about to incorporate it into the larger scheme of my life.
So I was a bad at long distance because I was bad at things that dragged on for a long time. All I had to do was to break it all up into small and short sprints that I could (probably) complete properly on my own.
So instead of working on merging our three packs, which I would never see the finish line of from here, I would break it up into little steps that I could do. Like eat jelly beans and sit through a meeting tonight.
Little by little, one step at a time.
And just so I wouldn't accidentally forget, here is a list of big things to do.
SAM'S LIST OF BIG THINGS TO DO
- Merge packs
- Build Princess Town
- Free Lycan slaves
- Kick Rouge King's butt
- Protect everyone's happiness
It really made me wonder what I was doing before this... Oh right.
- Become the Alpha.
I thought that was my lifelong goal... Who knew it was just the beginning of a lot more goals?
And I wasn't even technically Alpha yet.
クリエイターの想い 
katisnow
katisnow And we're truly and properly into the brand new year! Do you have a list of big things to do this year too? I wrote my list at the end of last year... but I've since lost it. Hahahaha...
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