章節 564: MY FIRST CRUSH

21 FEBRUARY, SUNDAY, BEFORE THE PRESS CONFERENCE

"It's about time." Harvey checked his watch.

"Alright Sam. It's show time." Ben hustled me out of my chair at the breakfast table and towards the door. Harvey grabbed the laptops. Ki held my shawl.

"Keep your mindlink open, Sam, and leave the talking to us." Ben instructed as we left the hotel room.

Harvey got the lift.

We stepped out at level 3 where the business conference facilities were located. The Langston staff busied themselves with trays and things. They bowed politely at our appearance.

Delta Sebastian looked immensely relieved to see us. It was like he was half expecting us not to show up. Maybe his experience with us last night made him think we would be drinking boba and eating cookies at a pony store instead. This was pretty tempting, I'd admit, but I wasn't that much of a pony fan. I mean, I only loved Sir Sparklalot cos Dad picked it, but somehow now my parents think I liked ponies or something...

We had to surrender all firearms and weapons to the red ants at the reception. They had lockable metal cases with our pack names labelled on them. I waited with Delta Sebastian for my betas to duly handover their guns. Nobody asked if I was carrying any. Maybe it was obvious given the short tight ceremonial dress that I was not even carrying keys, never mind a gun. But then again, no one questioned if my betas if they had anything else on them. The large metal case allocated to us contained three different pistols, a lighter, and a small swiss army knife. Seriously? Was no one going to double check?

Delta Sebastian led us around to the front entrance tucked behind some large plants. They looked very real, the plants, but they smelled like plastic. In a way, that was also a science of wonder.

Anyway, he opened the door for us, with all the flair of a fussy butler, "Please walk this way."

Inside, the reporters were already seated and a lot of cameras flashed. I was kind of relieved that my betas were going to be talking now though. I hadn't factored in the cameras. I really didn't like them.

And I hadn't read documents 2-4... Sigh. So much for being at the top of my game.

We were seated at our own table. I realized we were on a raised platforms. There were tables, each covered with white tablecloth and equipped with microphones and bottled water on the platform, one table for every pack.

The problem was there were so many tables that we were all crammed together. Who knew Silver Mountain had so many partnerships? Okay, so they presented it yesterday, but still...

Our table was sandwiched between Silver Mountain and the Lorents.

{Mate! ❤️ }

Oh Bell ~

Hahaha. On first sight I turned to mush. I couldn't help it. Probably side effects of the mating bond or something. So that was another reason why I was glad my betas would be playing center field. Mate was just too distracting.

I made doubly sure that our mating bond was sealed. There was no way I would let him know the stupid feelings I had for him. That would just be utter humiliation. But once I was sure he was unable to sense me clearly, since he had also blocked up his side of our bond, I snuck a peek at his direction.

Bell was in his usual black mood, but his hair was swept back and his pale grey suit was pressed. He had a navy blue shirt under it and a matching grey tie. Alpha James was seated on his other side. He was speaking seriously to his Gamma, and only stopped to look up and give us a cursory nod.

I smiled and waved back (Luna style), my betas bowed. Ki joined their table with his usual unreadable smile which I've come to learn as his PR mask. Bell leaned back in his seat coolly. Ki lifted open his laptop, and powered it on. He said something to get Bell's attention, and then Bell leaned over to share his screen and discuss whatever was on it.

Harvey sat closest to Ki, but at my table. Ben was on my other side.

While Harvey worked at his laptop, Ben left his laptop shut and chilled. Leaning over to Silver Mountain's table, he made some comment to Beta Peter and Henry. Beta Peter coughed. Henry smirked widely.

If Ben kept that up, I was sure Henry would be offering to double his salary too. Grrr... Mine.

The most annoying thing about their exchange was how I couldn't hear it, but Henry could, even from the next table. I looked away. Stupids. We were at a press conference. This wasn't time to be messing around.

But with my betas in uniform and Bell {Mate! ❤️} in a navy shirt under his suit, my pack color sort of spilled over to a larger proportion of table than the other packs. More territory for me.

I'm a black wolf at heart. Expanding my territory, even among press conference tables, was programmed in my DNA.

But I had a pretty good view of the entire place from here. Yup. This was a good spot. We were just next to the central host's table, so every one else was spread out around and in front of us.

I didn't have anything to do, so I just sat there and attempted not to look too bored or worse, be caught wearing a goody expression on my face.

Every time, an alpha and his beta came in, the cameras would start their rapid firing, and then it would stop, only to snap every few seconds - you know, just in case they missed anything. And of course, the video cameras were always rolling. It's hard to tell which ones were which, since now all the cameras they used looked similar. There were only a few obviously video cameras. But if a camera was on tripod and had no flash or shutter sounds, it was filming.

No camera was there just for show. In fact, the only thing here that was just for show was probably me.

Trevor and his beta were representing Black Forest. I guess we weren't the only one without our alpha.

Alpha Gunter and his snow beta were on the table next to them. And there were another two or three other packs I only vaguely recognized. All the packs had their young alphas with them, except for Snow Moon. Why didn't Alpha Gunter bring River? Was it because River was human?

Just then, I noticed that the old alpha with the stick was here too. This was just like the kind of conferences on TV! I was excited for a moment, and then I remembered Mum said not to fight.

I know it was selfish of me, but I hoped the old alpha didn't start another fight. I would be so sorry to have to turn my back on it and walk away!

Sigh. Would I really be just sitting pretty here the entire hour? Was this going to take longer than that? O.o

Okay, I can do this. Just sit here and not get into a fight. Not exactly the most demanding alpha task I ever had to do.

Actually, Ben's plan made me out to be quite dumb. Who knew all the dumb bimbo impersonations would come in handy in my Alpha role? Oh wait, what kind of Alpha was I if I just sat here and looked pretty?

"Sam, mindlink." Ben turned from Henry's table and leaned over to me. He flipped open his laptop and powered on.

I was this close to crossing my arms and sulking, but I resisted. I didn't want to be the sulky spoilt alpha either.

I opened my mindlink and idly watched the other alphas confer with their betas.

My betas were all on mindlink, but it was pretty silent since they were either frowning at their laptop or chatting with someone.

It wasn't just my betas. Everyone looked like they were discussing serious stuff in preparation for the press conference. Or if they smiled, or spoke and then laughed quietly, then it looked like they were just making friendly small talk with the neighboring tables.

Oh. So that's what my betas were doing! Even though all Ben had said to me was, "Sam, mindlink." Unless you were a lip-reader, he could be reporting affirmative to his alpha about anything.

And with Ki smiling and sitting with the Lorents, and Ben sitting relaxed and joking with Beta Peter, it did make our table look very much at home in its place.

Now Alpha James was talking to Bell... Or talking at Bell. {Mate! ❤️}

Bell was not as good at smiling as Ki was. He glared stonily at his father, and answered in clipped sentences. Luckily, Ki was at their table and intervened. Alpha James nodded at whatever Ki was suggesting. Bell continued to glare.

I liked that Bell was so stony in his expression. It's cute.❤️

Omg. Just kill me. What was I thinking? It's really the mating bond. I was NOT the kind of girl that went gaga over her mate just because he was a little {or a lot} cute, and cool, and hot, and handsome, and...

Noooo!!!! I was beginning to sound worse than Maria's crush on Dino. Omo Could it be? I was having a crush on Mate? {Mate! ❤️}

No, don't answer.

I suppose, on the bright side, at least my crush was on my own mate. It couldn't been much worse.

But why? Why did I have to crush like a teenage girl? Omo! So uncool.

No one must ever know about this crush. No one. I had no idea love was so embarrassing. I've always thought I was immune to these things, but it looked like I was just slow.

My first crush. {Mate!❤️}

All the way at the next table! With two betas between us! Oh, the torture! Oh, what was I thinking? I've become an idiot!

At this point, I began to notice the other wolves in the room looking uneasily at my direction. Why? Was there something behind me? Oh wait, no. It was ME, specifically, it was my hair. While I was crushing on mate, my hair was floating on cloud nine.

To my betas credit, they were doing everything as usual. It was like they hadn't noticed the locks of blue hair wasn't making waves behind them. I checked Bell's table again and accidentally met eyes with Alpha James. He smiled at me and remarked, "Your Alpha Princess is full of energy today."

Bell looked over to me then. {Mate! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ }

Goddess help me, he was so handsome!

This wasn't my fault! He smiled! Bell's stony expression breaking into a smile was like the sunrise and the sunset all at the same time.

Okay, you really have to bear with me here. I'm sure one day I would read this diary entry and cringe till I crumple into a raisin, but I really couldn't help myself right now.

"Isn't that dangerous?" Trevor remarked then, "Her hair is also a weapon, you know."

"So is your elder's stick. We all know there is a sword embedded inside." Alpha Gunter smiled gently.

The old alpha with the stick huffed, but didn't deny it.

"Yeah?" Trevor paused. Why was Gunter siding me?

"If you don't like it, you're welcomed to cut it." I didn't like the idea of needing River's dad to stand up for me. I was the alpha!

The moment those words left my mouth I realized, opps, I was supposed to leave the talking to my betas or something right?

But my wolf smelt something fun in the air. Which, in hindsight, should have been a clear signal that something was going to off tangent.

"Do you think I won't dare?" Trevor shot back.

Ben's wolf took offence immediately and growled.

"I was just joking!" Trevor quickly said, "Not that you can shoot me now, can you?"

Even if my beta had smuggled a gun into the press conference, did Trevor think he'd be so stupid as to take it out?

"Why? Are you afraid of guns?" I teased.

{Sam. Wide eyed innocence, please.} Ben reminded me over the mindlink.

So I quickly added in my most innocent expression, "Me too. Guns are so loud. It's scary."

Wow, I was trying for innocent, but it came out more like bimbotic. Hahaha.

Ben groaned next to me, he had a different interpretation, {I said innocent, not sarcastic.}

{Who me? Sarcastic?} I shot back, {I don't know the meaning of that word.}

So fun.

"Ha!" Henry's laughter came from the host's table, "What the hell, Sam. Stop terrorizing my guests."

What? How could Henry think a cute wolf like me could terrorize anyone? Hahaha. But Henry saying that made me so happy. I couldn't help myself. I've always wanted to be a big scary wolf. Finally! I was no longer cute!

"I don't know how James manages you." Henry shook his head, chuffing a half laugh.

I flared at that. Nobody manages me! I can manage myself just fine.

But for some reason, Bell decided a demonstration was in order. He came over to my table. Harvey quickly moved himself and his things over to sit with Ki at the next table. Bell sat next to me. {Mate! ❤️}

And the moment he touched my hair, everything fell back in place. Gah! Even my hair was crushing on this guy!

Bell turn to smirk at Henry, "Now you know."

Of all the arrogance! If I didn't have such a huge crush on him, I would surely have bitten off his handsome face.

Henry was smirking right back, "Your mate is a monster, you know."

Henry called me a monster. It made me so happy. I was getting so many compliments today, and I hadn't even shown my wolf form!

"Not at all." Bell answered nonchalantly, "My mate is a very cute princess."

Eh! No! I'm a monster! I'm scary! I'm a terror! You're ruining my alpha cool image!

"Only to you James." Henry shrugged good naturedly, "Only to you."

Henry turned to lean back in his seat. Conversation over. But Bell was still next to me. {Mate!❤️}

We had totally messed up the seating arrangement at our two tables, but I liked it. We were merging... little by little, just like this, our packs were getting mixed together. And I liked sitting next to Mate too ❤️... oh, I'm crushing again. I'm doomed. I hope this crush thing stops before the press conference started. It was really distracting in the sappiest of ways.