Chương 129: THIS ISN'T ENOUGH
We had to carry Killion into the house, actually Harvey carried him. I just helped push him out of the truck into Harvey's arms. Killion was heavy though. Muscular, fight dog, heavy. Harvey had to fireman lift him over his shoulders.
When we first stepped into the house, Mum thought we somehow got into another fight. She eyeballed us carefully when we said Killion just fell asleep in the car. She didn't look like she believed us.
Did grown men just fall asleep in cars and need to be carried back? We had promised not to speak of what he did at the hospital to anyone. Maybe I should had reminded Mum that Killion had Wolfbane injected into his bloodstream during his transportation last night.
Harvey helped put Killion in bed and then came down to join us for dinner at Mum's invite. Harvey needed to eat. We had a meeting later after this. So I'm glad mum was the kind of cook who could easily whip up extras to happily welcome an impromptu dinner guest.
Mum made pasta and some chickpea salad which I quite liked...alright, you got me, I pretty much like anything that's food. But I just made quick work of the meal, I cleared the pile up on my plate in five minutes.
Harvey looked surprised at that.
"Tada! Magic." I joked, showing off my clean plate and excused myself to do my homework.
I worked in the living room, a short while later, Harvey came to join me. Neither of us spoke, just seated in our own spaces in the living room. I was seated on the floor in front of the coffee table which I was using as a desk. Harvey sat casually, cross-legged adjacent to me. Somehow along the way, we had grown close enough to be comfortable with ignoring each other to focus on what we had to do.
How strange it was that before the year had started, Harvey was as good as a stranger to me.
I finished my homework and packed everything properly into my bag and brought it to my room. Collecting my file with the printed notes for tonight's meeting, I clipped on a pen. Oh yeah, my phone. I put it in my pocket. Oh yeah, Harvey's power bank. I dug it out from my backpack and tried to put that in my pocket too. That was when I realized, I was still in my school uniform!
Very quickly, I stripped and turned on the shower. I needed to have a bathtub installed one day, especially since my mate might have to make like a merman and soak in a tub to heal at full speed.
I was pretty pleased at myself for getting in and out so quick, it's no mean feat to wash this much hair! At this point I also realized that my wet hair will take forever to dry. At this rate, I'll have to attend the meeting with a towel in my hair!
It was a cold night. The snow was falling outside. My wet hair wasn't helping. I picked out a pair of dark wash jeans, and black long sleeve t-shirt, and topped it with a wide boat necked sweater.
I'm dressed up, yes, but I'm about to attend a meeting with the elders from both Night Leaf and Morning Light. And oh so cool Harvey was in his usual jeans, dark colored t-shirt and leather jacket, so I can assure you, what I was wearing was most appropriate.
Except for my damp hair, I was ready. Oh, idea! I twisted up my hair and wore it in a large messy bun. You couldn't even tell it hadn't dried like this!
I headed downstairs fully convinced that I was a genius. I even had everything balanced on top of the file. Even my phone.
Harvey was already at the door. Haha, finally someone who had beaten my dad to waiting at the front door. He held my white jacket in on hand and was one hand typing on his phone with the other.
As I approached him, he returned his phone into an inner pocket of his jacket and held up my coat for me. It was something I had seen Dad do for mum every time we go out. It was something I had seen Jonah do for his mum when Gamma Harry was not around. It was something I saw quite often, but this was the first time it was done for me.
What in the world made him think I needed a coat to walk across the lawn anyway?
I ignored the outstretched jacket and passed Harvey his power bank. Harvey had to release one of his hands from my jacket to receive it.
Left with just my file and phone, I slipped my phone into the back pocket of my jeans
Dad came out of the kitchen, his large frame filling the kitchen doorway for a moment before he stepped through with mum just behind him. He dropped a kiss on mum's cheek. Thankfully, that was it. And then he walked over.
I took my jacket from Harvey to move out of the way quicker, "We win Dad."
Dad grunted. Harvey was quick to retrieve Dad's jacket from the closet and hold it out for him too. It was what I had seen Beta Lucas do for Dad a lot too. But I had never noticed the gesture till now. Was Harvey holding out the jacket for me as his alpha?
I opened the door, my jacket and file still in hand, and started towards the pack house. I heard Harvey mutter under his breath, "Should've used the umbrella."
It was snowing but not too heavily, and the packhouse was seriously just next door.
Dad patted Harvey on the shoulder, "At least she's wearing shoes today."
I refused to turn back and dignify that comment with a response. I'm not a kid!
We got to the packhouse safely. Oh look, the snow didn't kill us. I stopped at the door, arms folded, impatiently waiting for Dad to take off his jacket and Harvey to put it away.
Harvey took my jacket to put away too. Oh yeah, I forgot I was holding it. I remained stoic.
I'm not a kid!
After that we made our way to the conference room. Harvey stepped up to the closed door, he paused just a moment to throw back a glance at us, and then he knocked twice and opened the door, "Alpha Kingsley is here."
Everyone stood up and made a quick bow.
Dad went to the head of the table, Beta Lucas held out the chair for him. There were two seats next to Dad's. I walked over but Harvey got there first, he pulled out the chair closest to Dad and held it out for me. Good beta.
But if Harvey was the good beta, doing everything for me the way a good beta should, was I being a bad alpha if I refused to let him? Wait, how was this supposed to work anyway? If I were the alpha, why should I have to play along with my beta's terribly commendable upbringing?
The meeting begin almost immediately. The agenda had been confirmed earlier, so we got right into the discussions. Tonight was more focused that usual.
I looked around and saw Lola, she smiled at me, but was busy writing out the notes. The minutes were all on her this evening. Lola's mum, Secretary Edna was standing on the side of the room where there was a glass board stretched across the wall. She was using it to write out the main points being discussed so everyone had a visual. But I found it frustrating. She wrote the points neatly, as if it were the outline of the minutes, but our discussion jumped and linked the various points and none of that showed.
Every now and then one of the men would take over to try to explain their point either through a badly drawn diagram, or chart... At one point Gamma Harry was drawing stick men... But I forgot his point. Oh wait, I did remember his point. It was something to do with the number of passengers a driver could fetch with a car, what I could not remember was how that related to anything.
"So what are you trying to say?" I guess Gamma Endo couldn't see the relation of the stick men and cars scribbled on the board to the redraft of our pack merger proposition either.
"Don't you see?" Gamma Harry asked.
Actually, I doubt anyone could.
Gamma Harry looked mildly frustrated, but attempted to explain, "You see, one driver can only drive so many people safely in his car. One warrior can only protect so many people. We need to make sure we have enough trained drivers for everyone."
"You are talking about the ratio of warriors to pack members, Harry." Beta Lucas said then, "But we are talking about the proposal for merger."
"Yes, but when we merge, we will have more members to protect. Do we have enough drivers?" Gamma Harry asked.
"That is beside the point now," Beta Lucas tried to steer Gamma Harry back to the main discussion, "Unless you are saying you do not want this merger. In that case, we don't have to sit here talking about the terms and conditions."
"I want the merger. Of course I want it. But we must be responsible." Gamma Harry said.
"Then we can discuss this at a separate meeting." Beta Lucas said.
"But this is important. We need to sort out the internal pack things before promising the external packs this or that security on the boarders." Gamma Harry pointed out.
"Fine, fine," Gamma Endo leaned back, "So you are saying Morning Light doesn't have the warrior to civvy ratio that meets the high standards at Night Leaf, I get it."
"No, I'm not saying that." Gamma Harry tried to clarify, "Although it's true."
That last part didn't help. Gamma Endo growled lowly. Oh boy.
My dad and Beta Lucas leaned back in their chairs. They were just going to sit back and let the two Gammas duke it out? Oh boy. We might be here all night.
If Gamma Harry wasn't a wolf, he would be a bull. The kind that would throw off any rider no matter how long drawn the battle. And I had the feeling Gamma Endo was the bull type too. If they locked horns they would be stuck like that all night.
"It's fine." I said, "If we don't have enough drivers, we will use buses instead of cars."
"Sam... What do you mean?" Beta Lucas asked.
"We aren't really talking about real cars and drivers, princess." Gamma Endo smirked at me, but because he was still riled up by Gamma Harry, it came out a bit more of a sneer.
I heard Harvey start to rumble a very quiet growling. It was very quiet though. Harvey always erred on the cautious side when dealing with his elders.
"I meant that regarding boarder security, there are different ways we can deal with it, and as Beta Lucas said, we can deal with it later. Not that it isn't important. As Gamma Harry said, it is of top priority to secure the boarders. We all want this to work. But for now, we need to deal with the draft of the merger proposal."
Gamma Endo huffed, "Easier said than done, Princess. What different ways do you know? Sending pups out on patrol the moment they shift? We've done that. Or sending women out to patrol?"
"Women can drive." I remembered my last attempt with Rebel and the transport truck, "But no, driving and fighting rogues are different things."
Because if they were the same, I'd be kicking butt behind the wheel too, not crashing trees.
"Weapons, training, varying the patrol routes now that our lands are merged, setting traps, security cameras..." I listed whatever that came to mind, from everything I've seen in my adventures this year.
"And who will be paying for all this, Princess?" Gamma Endo said.
"We will work with what we have." Dad spoke then, "Let us continue on the draft, please." When Dad said 'please' it's effect was more like, 'now."
Everyone got back to the discussion. We ploughed through everything under the sun and then some. The board was covered. Even Gamma Harry's artwork of stickmen and cars had to be wiped off to make space.
And then I noticed, it was exactly the same things as everything they had been discussing before. Everything I had noted in the printouts Harvey had collated was on the board.
In the end, our third draft of the proposal, was everything in the first and second one. Even the offering of land. (No way!)
My heart started thumping the moment I thought I had to speak up to the elders. I did not care to be in their scrutiny, or face off Gamma Endo. I shall award him the most sarcastic and stubborn old wolf award!
Harvey growled low and leaned forward.
- What is it princess?
I took a deep breath. The men looked like they were going to call it a night.
"Is there anything else anyone would like to add?" Dad asked.
I took another deep breath, "This isn't enough."
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