PLAN A TO C

I hope you're all excited to hear my plans to break Rebel out of the fight cage. I'm pretty excited about it myself. It feels like being part of an espionage movie, which I don't watch a lot of, but I imagined it could be something like that.

PLAN A

Since cage fighters can be sold and bought or bartered from coven to coven or even to private ownership, Alpha Lorent could potentially try to buy his son back from Ven's. And if the rogues are still alive... They could be bartered. There were more then 10 of them, so give and take a few losses, it's still a good deal right?

I think there should be a new rule for wolves who sell other wolves to slavery to be turned to slavery themselves. Eye for and eye, tooth for tooth. I am borrowing this from the Black Forest Pack. We could probably table that for the Green Packland Council. We need to take a tougher stand towards the wolves who would sell their own kind to a life of unspeakable cruelty for a few more coins for their pockets. Or even for a lot of coins. You get what I mean.

PLAN B

If Plan A doesn't work, we will have to sneak Rebel out. First we will need to hire humans who are trustworthy for the job.

The human will have to go into the vampire towns and purchase the fight listings. We will have to figure out which one is Rebel's stage name. Then the humans (I think we might need a few of them to pull it off) will bid for Rebel for the night. I don't know how much a night with Rebel will cost right now, but I'm assuming bidding for a night is cheaper than buying him upfront as in Plan A. Then again, I don't know how much the humans will charge for their fees either. It might end up costing more.

Anyway, once they get Rebel for the night, they can like sneak him out and back home to safety or to a temporary hideout until the vampires give up searching for him. Rebel is just another fight dog. They won't look forever.

PLAN C

This one is based on Maria's information. If Rebel does well, they will enter him to fight at other covens, or he'd be bought over and transferred to other covens. We would need to keep an eye out for news of fight dogs leaving Ven's and intercept them at the transport route.

For example, Central Coven which was the fight cage to be at, buys a lot of their dogs, and was quite a distance from Ven's. To get Rebel transferred there, they'd have to either fly him, or drive him quite a distance, the shortest route being through Black Forest Pack, which we were friendly with.

Dad's former pack, Night Forest Pack is also quite close to the Central Coven. Maybe Uncle Louis would help us?

We would do this dress like rogues. The plan is to pin it on rogues so nothing bad comes back to our pack land.

At the end of my explanations, the adults were all wearing frowns and pursed lips that meant that they were holding back rather pressing questions.

"Sam..." Beta Lucas managed to speak first, "I want to ask you, how you have come to know about these inner workings of fight cages, but I won't. I will only point out that there are many details missing in these plans."

"Plan A is the fastest." Gamma Harry decided, "I think Plan A is good. We tell Alpha Lorent to go settle it."

"We can't barter the rogues though." Beta Lucas cautioned, "Right now, it's against the law to trade slaves. It would have to be brought up to the Green Packland Council. That might take months to pass."

"They can trade their cars!" Gamma Harry was quick to suggest. "They have too many cars. Why do you need five Mercedes to transport 20 warriors? Just use a bus! Much more efficient. Or a truck! Even better. They are warriors, not princes!"

Laura patted Gamma Harry's arm to calm him down. We were digressing.

"We still need a lot of information." Beta Lucas said, "The plans aren't impossible, but would require a lot of preparation."

"We can do it." Jonah surprised me.

"Yeah." Ben agreed.

"You're kids." Beta Lucas shook his head, "No. Leave it to the adults."

It's true, I laughed out loud, "True that guys, we won't even be allowed to buy the magazines, it's got age restrictions."

My dad nodded, "We will invite Alpha Lorent for a meeting to discuss these plans further. Then we will see how we can help them."

"They can afford it!" Gamma Harry said, "Just sell some of the cars!"

I got the feeling Gamma Harry will not be letting go of this line of thought anytime soon.

"They certainly would also have better contacts than we do." Beta Lucas muttered, "I won't be surprised if they haven't tried something already."

Dad concluded the meeting: Beta Lucas will invite Alpha James to discuss the ideas and how we might help, he would consider and prepare to propose the new tougher deterrents against kidnapping for slave trade to the Green Packland Council, and finally, us kids will stay out of it. He looked directly at me, "Do not venture to obtain any more information on this."

I'm wondering why, but I nodded. And then I asked, "Can I sit in the meeting?"

My dad paused as if considering it. I can tell mind linking of various opinions were sent to him. He frowned, "Just drop by my office casually like before. Although you might not be able to stay the whole meeting."

It was a compromise. I can tell from the looks on Beta Lucas and my mum that they would have preferred he just said no.

I nodded, "Okay. Thanks."

I briefly wondered if it would have been different if I were a boy. If they would have been so uncomfortable about me learning about fight cages or getting involved in Rebel's rescue.

But I'm not a boy. I'm a girl, and I plan to work with what I've got.

I went straight back to my room after the meeting and checked out the new clothes mum left on my bed. I planned to use them as my costume for the next meeting with Alpha James.

The clothing were in scented paper bags, wrapped individually in snow white tissues and gold tape. I opened the first one, a very small white brocade dress. A Lorent ceremonial dress. Short with a high slit up one leg, and a very fitting top with a row of embroidered buttons over the slit above the neck and shoulder on one side. I guess that's how to fit your head through.

There was a second one, almost just like it, but it was a double layered silk dress, with a layer of white lace wrapped over it. All white.

I think Jessica did say, the girls start wearing these dresses when they are 12, and maidens always wore white to signal their purity. OMG. I don't think that's something I feel comfortable "signaling". But I think it would be even more uncomfortable to not be signaling it right now?

Anyway, the other paper bag had a shoe box in it. And a pair of very high white heels. They were completely white. I don't think they could be worn outdoors. I don't even dare to walk indoors with them. Even their bottoms were white.

What, Lorent girls don't walk? Maybe their floors are spotless.

And another smaller box, a simple white textured cardboard box. I opened it and my mouth dropped open in surprise. A perfect gold bracelet with a single golden heart charm. There was a card in the box, "For a brave girl with a heart of gold."

Awwww....

"Mom!" I pretty much screamed, "Savy!"

Both of them popped into my room, "What happened?"

I showed them the card and the bracelet, "Is it real? Like real gold?" I asked mum.

Savy picked up my heels and put them on. She wobbled a bit and took them off, "Maybe they hope you will be their son's mate one day. You better start practicing how to walk."

I shook my head, "Their son isn't going to take a Luna mate remember?"

"They have two sons remember?" Savy grinned at me.

Oh. That's true. But I remembered my dream, Dumbbell said he was coming to the Green Packland to get me. He can't come if he was already living here, right? I shook my head, "Still no, I believe Jessica has reserved him."

Savy cackled loudly, "Jessica has reserved half the male wolf population!"

My mum was looking at the bracelet. She handed it back to me, "Keep it in a safe place."

I nodded. Wow, my first real jewelry. I'm probably going to lose it.

Mum spoke again, "It seems they have taken a special liking to you."

Dad was standing at the doorway by now, he surveyed the gifts, "The Lorents are usually very generous with gifts."

But the card... Those words filled my heart with a fuzzy warm feeling. I tried to put on the bracelet, but I couldn't clip it on myself. Savy helped me.

Yay! It's so golden and pretty. For some reason, wearing it made me feel special. And that feeling made me feel stupid. How can I let a piece of metal make me feel special?

"Now take it off!" I ordered Savy. She cackled and did.

I still think the Lorent Pack is full of impractical traditions, but writing cards with kind words and giving special gifts felt like a nice practice.

My family left my room after a while. I put everything away carefully. Urghhh... the shoes already had a light grey scuff on its side, just from lying around in my room! I got a wet wipe to rub it off.

It's late. I need to pack my bag and get ready for school tomorrow.