Chương 847: FOR THE FIRE WOLF'S HONOR
4 MARCH, THURSDAY, 2 HOURS LATER
I showered and then I soaked and then I showered again, just to make sure I got all the mud off.
I'd like to change the answer to my riddle earlier. It was the wolf with a good hot soapy bath who'd win. Like seriously, for all the Lycan quotes about dragging one's reputation through the mud and flinging mud at others... For all the wonders of the legendary lycan world, did the Lycans of old not take baths? Come to think of it, none of the stories I had read mentioned the hero's personal hygiene routines.
Okay, the mud didn't take that long to wash off. I was taking my time because there was also a part of me stalling. Maybe Dad and Alpha Gunter would've sorted everything out by the time I got back to them.
One was the Genius Maverick of the Green Packlands. The other was the Great Teacher of the Colored Mountains. Surely they would have come up with an "equitable outcome" given that I was in the bath for at least a full hour! But no. Apparently equitable outcomes weren't concluded in an hour. I felt a little let down when Ki announced me and I stepped into a meeting that looked more like it was about to start than end.
By now, everyone had moved up to the second-floor conference room and Wolfgang was alive and clean. His pale face was extra white with a pallor - strikingly similar to Bell's when he was at the verge of death. In contrast, his blond curls, now no longer severely pulled back in the traditional Snow Moon ponytail, looked like flaxen gold draped over his shoulders.
He was also no longer dressed in the traditional Snow Moon warrior uniform but in a familiar slate grey sweatsuit. (Was that Ki's?)
I had barely recognized him, and when I did, I was quite surprised because Wolfgang didn't look much older than Ki - which was still old, I know, but you must understand, all along, I had thought he was like Teacher SO level of old!
If someone said that when they resurrected him, they accidentally reversed his age, I'd believed it.
What can't a bit of magic do? Okay, let's just say I was having serious second thoughts about it. Magic - just like the way I had experienced in the Warlock lands, wasn't all that it was cracked to be.
In fact, all this magic was seriously messing with my own sense of reality. I mean, Wolfgang DIED. But the entire time, I couldn't believe his death would be fatal.
Yeah, magic made everything messed up like that. It was one thing to read Lycan legends and daydream about living in such an adventure. It was quite different when they start invading my daily life and messing with my reality.
Like I'm glad Wolfgang was alive and all, but if Bell didn't cast anything, Wolfgang wouldn't have died in the first place! I was becoming annoyed. Real life wasn't made for legendary and magical idiocracies.
Real life happened when magic didn't. And usually, I'd read such a sentence with a wistfulness that I no longer own for such a notion.
"Goddess is here." Ki announced. I narrowed my eyes at him for using that nickname flippantly in front of everyone like that. Why? Did he "forget himself" again?
But Ki only smiled like a flower to the sun and for some reason, I felt reassured that all was good between us.
Yeah, next time my boots get muddy, I know who to step on. JK! I'm just joking! If Mum ever saw me treat my betas (or anyone) that way, I would never hear the end of it.
Anyway, it was probably alright. We were on home ground, and everyone here was mostly my wolves. If we called for a vote on anything, Alpha Gunter would be sorely outnumbered, so I guess it was a good thing wolves didn't vote on everything the way humans did. I looked around the table, why were there so many of us?
So Wolfgang was here. Adele was seated next to him. She was loosely holding Wolfgang's wrist resting on the table. I think that was the way her healing worked.
She had also cleaned up and I could see she was wearing Mum's nice dress. The turquoise blue one had a nice elegant length. Mum always looked pretty like she was going for a tea party in it but on Adele, it was very pretty like she was dressed to get her portrait painted. Maybe it was the silver white long hair... She had it up and plaited. She also had a gold circlet around her forehead - I only noticed belatedly. Maybe I should try to do my hair like that one day too. If I did that and wore a white toga dress, it would make a great Halloween costume.
I'd make Ki come trick or treating with me. He'd glow like my pet moon and announce at every door, "Goddess is here."
I bet we'd get lots of candy.
Alpha Gunter was seated on Wolfgang's other side. Beta Glenn stood imposingly behind him because betas did not sit at their Alpha's table.
If Alpha Gunter got mud on his boots, would he step on Beta Glenn to get it cleaned too?
River was here too. I guess because Alpha Gunter was here? Maybe he was waiting for his Dad to finish up work. Wilhelm stood behind River in guard position. But River wasn't even sitting at our table. He was sitting with Savy near the window. HOLDING HANDS. Omo.
Did NO ONE see that? I looked at Mum. Savy's holding hands WITH A BOY, Mum! Did you see that? But Mum was talking to Mrs Beta and Lizzy. They were sitting by the window a little behind the table, so no. Savy's hand holding WITH A BOY wasn't in Mum's line of sight.
Anyway, I guess Mrs Beta and Lizzy were here because maybe Dad wanted Mrs Beta's input on how to fix Wolfgang's fire. Mrs Beta was from a scholar wolf family so she knew a lot about Lycan stuff - even the very old stuff like Fire Wolves. Maybe Lizzy was understudying her the way Mum had been trying to guide Savy recently.
Or maybe Lizzy was just waiting for her family cos Ben was here too, but he was seated next to his Dad.
Beta Lucas was seated next to Dad, who sat between two betas, because in Night Leaf, betas usually sat next to their alpha. Beta Gerald was on his other side, Harvey next to him. Both Ben and Harvey were on their laptops, but it was Harvey's laptop that was being projected on the screen as what looked like the beginning of a meeting's minutes were being typed out. Ben was probably doing his own thing.
So okay, and then I turned to the only other bright blond wolf in the room, "Fluffy, what are you doing here?"
Fluffy's smile widened into a bright smile, "Big Brother Beta invited me."
I looked at Harvey who leaned back in his chair with a wry smile, "I thought to give the yellow brick road a test run."
Oh right. But I couldn't stop the look of misgiving from showing. Fluffy could be...frustrating.
"Please feel free to use me as you please, pretty alpha." Fluffy smiled again.
See. Exactly like this. The worse part was, I never knew if Fluffy was being weird on purpose or if he was just culturally misunderstood. Yeah, I think the concept of cultural misunderstanding was going to be my new favorite scapegoat.
"You're Heller's heir." Alpha Gunter realized suddenly, he put his hand over his mouth, "I should have noticed sooner. The resemblance is uncanny."
Yeah, I thought so too.
Fluffy stopped smiling abruptly, his alpha wolf suddenly becoming quite pronounced, "I do not know any Heller."
"Heller's your Dad, Fluffy." I tried to remind him.
Fluffy shook his head, "I don't have a 'dad', pretty alpha. My family is here."
Oh. So he did remember Heller's name. He was just being a stubborn alpha wolf.
"Fine. Whatever. Stay as long as you like." I shrugged, "If Heller wants you home, he can come drag you back himself."
"He can try." Fluffy allowed, his wolf suddenly receded like a wave pulled back by the tide. He had his smiling mask back on again, "But it'll take a coffin to bring me back."
Alpha Gunter looked amused, "I will be sure to relay the message."
Ah, right. I forgot how much old tygers liked to mess with each other.
"On second thoughts, Fluffy. It's probably better for you to stay here." I decided. Fluffy had probably suffered enough insanity growing up with vampires. He didn't need to deal with crazy old tygers on top of it.
"Thank you, Pretty Alpha." Fluffy smiled, "I promise to make every moment together worth your while."
Harvey hit the back of Fluffy's chair, "Cut it out, Fluff."
Ben scoffed, "Yeah, dog. Know your place."
And then all my betas looked very pleased with themselves, like three big bad wolves. Fluffy smiled looking quite satisfied too. OMO. How did I not notice? My wolves were crazy too!
At this moment, Bell stormed into the conference room.
{Mate!❤️ }
Yes, because it would help everyone in this meeting if the death god joined us.
"Luna Bell is here." Ki intoned politely while pulling out the chair next to mine.
Bell ran a hand through his dark hair and leisurely sat back in his chair. He was finally out of his Lorent Prince costume and back in casual mode - which I realized the moment my heart leaped out to greet him with a smile, had to be my favorite mode. His hair windswept and tousled, in his usual sweats and NO SLING, and the general air of impatience, this was Bell relaxed at home.
I took a double take when I realized that except that his sweat suit was black, it was identical to Wolfgang's. Bell seemed to have noticed too. He lifted a brow at the Fire Wolf. (Was he still a Fire Wolf if his flame was extinguished?)
Wolfgang growled lowly at him but Bell only smirked back, and then he leaned over my chair and lifted a lock of blue hair to his lips.
Wolfgang tensed in his seat. Alpha Gunter held up a hand to signal for him to remain seated, so the Fire Wolf only tossed his head and muttered, "Incongruous."
Bell let my hair slip past his fingers languidly and smirked some more.
I looked to my mate and then to the Fire Wolf and then to my mate again.
Why did I get the feeling that this was going to be a long meeting?
At the corner of my eye, the ladies were tittering at the scene my luna and the Fire Wolf were making. Should we pass out the popcorn? WTH! This wasn't a lycan drama series! Suddenly, it occurred to me that maybe everyone else in this room was starring in some kind of lycan drama. The worst part of it all was that they were probably acting in completely different genres.
"I need jelly beans." I decided. This was going to be an eternally long meeting.
Ben magicked out a tube from his jacket and rolled it across the table to me. Ki caught the tube and opened it for me because besides cleaning my weapons and boots, betas opened candy tubes for their Alpha.
Dad sighed heavily. He looked tired, and as far as I could tell, he was the only one who looked like he was here for the meeting (and not partaking in any internal drama), "Alright, thank you all for coming. Now that we're all here, let's start the discussion. Alpha Gunter, if you'd kindly explain for us again the issues on the table tonight."
"Of course." Alpha Gunter nodded in acknowledgment, "Thank you Alpha Kingsley for this opportunity for open conversation. I appreciate your understanding."
Alpha Gunter was a gifted teacher and took only half an eternity to explain the situation to us. I shall skip the copious and tediously referenced historical written records and lycan texts which he easily quoted off the top of his head. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was showing off.
The only person he was impressing was Mrs Beta. I think she managed to note down all of them on her notepad. Mrs Beta still liked to write with paper and pen - even though we had digital minutes for every meeting now.
Anyway, just know that Alpha Gunter explained the entire thing like an in-depth study of a lycan legend. I'll be paraphrasing it like a gossip column...
Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực