I WASN'T A RABBIT

8 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, MORNING

Last night, I had a series of very weird dreams.

In the first dream, I woke up shifted, I could hear my wolves howling at hunt. I ran over to join them. To my horror, my shifted form was a rabbit! I ran while my betas and mate gnashed at me with their terrible teeth. I kept shouting, "Hey guys! It's me!" But either they didn't understand rabbit speak or they pretended not to.

In my second dream, I was back in my wolf form. I heard my wolves howling at hunt. After being very sure that I was now a wolf, I ran over to join them. We chased down a white wolf. After that, Mate shifted into human form and commanded the white wolf to shift, and it turned out to be Fluffy. BUT FLUFFY WAS A GIRL! He was just as beautiful, but a girl, and then all my betas started fighting over her which was funny until Mate decided to end the fight by mating Fluffy himself.

I flared and woke up on my bed in my old room in the old alpha house. The rogues were coming. My betas and I slipped out into the night and ducked behind the wall. They all had guns. I looked in my hand for my gun, and found it was a water pistol. WTH.

I woke up again and this time I was in my golden clamshell feeling a little too warm for comfort. Something heavy was wrapped around me, warm and large and safe...My wolf purred. I wriggled a little to untangle my legs before I realized, Mate! I flared. He woke up, shielding me with his body protectively, "What?"

He scanned the room for danger and found none.

And then I remembered that he dumped me for Fluffy and I shoved him off hard.

Mate landed with a musical string of Lycan.

"Princess, I swear, if you pushed me off the bed again, I'll..." Mate got up, and then he saw me and shut up.

What?

Mate started purring. He put his hand on his mouth and turned without another word. Sliding open the nearest door, he stepped out onto the roof top terrace.

What?

My alarm rang. I tapped it to turn it off.

Then I sat up.

Oh.

I was awake.

I looked at the opened sliding door and then I got out of bed. Walking over and slipping out between the gap, I saw Mate looking out at the other end of the roof terrace.

He turned around when I stepped out.

"Go back inside and put on some pants." He ordered.

Seriously? He was beginning to sound like my dad.

"I am wearing pants." I lifted the oversized t-shirt to show him my shorts. The morning air was cold on my skin.

"Don't do that!" Mate growled. He was in front of me in two clicks. With a swift motion, he picked me up and put me back into the warm room. Then he came inside, shut the sliding doors, drew the curtains tighter, stalked out through the bedroom door, and shut himself out.

I heard him stomp down the stairs.

Someone got off the wrong side of the bed today.

Maybe next time I'll shove him off the other side. Hahahahaha.

Anyway, I took a deep breath, just to be sure. The lemony scents, my own scent, the bit of cold crisp morning air that had snuck in through the gap in the sliding door that Mate had just sealed shut. All real.

The only thing I couldn't smell was mate. But that was normal for him I guess.

My uniform and bag etc were all hung out in the golden birdcage clothes rack since last night. It's Monday, and time to get ready for school.

All in all, it was a very normal morning.

I flipped the switches to turn on my lights and open the bathroom. The glass mirrors shifted and opened for me.

I had thought I'd never get used to this, but I got used to it. I also got used to having my very own bathroom and tub pretty quickly. Ah, the luxuries of living in an ivory tower!

That's what my school friends had called it. It had annoyed me then, but now I smiled at the thought of my school friends. We had parted at the station on a good note yesterday and I was looking forward to seeing them.

After my shower, I found my long lost phone. It had charged itself and sat prominently on my dressing table next to the ribbon for my school uniform and the packet of hair clips Ben had bought for me.

I checked my phone, it's been a while. Oh... It looked like Ben had been refusing to meet Dean over the weekend on my behalf. Also he had answered with a smiley face at my friends when they thanked me for the fun time.

But what really made me smile was my calendar because according to it, we're having our first of eight sessions with Alpha Solomon's warrior trainers tonight! YES!

Now we'd know what we were doing when facing vampires.

I was so excited that I couldn't stop the smile on my face. Even after getting downstairs to the breakfast table, I was all smiles.

"Somebody is happy this morning." Mum observed aloud.

"It couldn't be anything to do with a rather hot and bothered Luna just now, could it?" Savy asked.

"Savy!" My mother gasped.

"Your Luna just left for a run. He had route march last night that only ended predawn, so he would be at the Lorent's for meetings all morning." Ki reported.

I guess Mate was making use of the dream travelling to work around the clock. Mate was the type of guy who liked to be efficient.

And what have I been doing with my rare and great ability? I was the type of girl who liked to be urm... carefree.

"What's that?" Savy asked.

I held up the crumpled paper packet with white heart prints and announced, "Early Vday gifts from Ben!"

Savy raised a brow, "Seriously?"

I nodded, "Yes, this is a monumental year!"

I opened the package and gave out the hearts. Purple for Sabre, red and pink for Savy, "The pink one's for Lizzy."

"He can't give it to his own sister?" Savy asked, "Did Ben really buy this?"

"Yes." I said.

"Did you force him?" Savy asked.

"No. Wait, why would you say that?" I asked.

"Well, it's not like Ben to buy Vday gifts. Plus this looked like something you'd buy." Savy accused.

"Okay, so I kinda picked it out. But he did pay for them on his own." I said. Oh yeah, speaking of money, I took out $2, "Can you pass this to Lizzy to pass to Ben for me?"

"What's this for?" Savy asked. She was still suspicious.

"I bought one of them." I said.

"It's so nice of him to buy one for Sabbie too." Mum said as she put the purple heart in the little girl's hair, "See, Beta Ben doesn't hate you at all!"

Wait no, that's the one I bought for her!

"Oh, is this what you bought? Nice." Savy opened the package and took out the navy blue bow.

Mum clipped the blue heart into my hair and read the words aloud, "A blue heart is loyal."

"What's mine say?" Sabre asked.

Mum picked up her card, "A purple heart is brave."

Sabre smiled looking extra pleased, "We matchy!"

Awww... Sabre learned to say "We matchy!" So cute. I guess I could get something else for Sabre.

But back to the more pressing issue, "I found my phone!"

My mum made a face. Wait, no, that came out wrong.

"Are we really having our first specialist fight training tonight?" I tried again. Yeah. Just saying it felt cool. I can't wait!

"Yes, goddess." Ki confirmed.

{So fun!}

"Doesn't that mean you have extra training sessions now?" Savy asked.

"Yeah, but it's fun." I argued.

"Everything is fun to you." Savy grumbled, "What a carefree life you lead."

"Yups!" That's what I thought too. I'm a carefree kind of girl.

"And what terrible burden are you carrying today, Savy?" Mum smiled and asked.

"You wouldn't understand." Savy sighed.

"Try me." Mum challenged.

Sabre called out in alarm, she pointed out of the window, "A white wolf took our car!"

She had seen Bell enter the garage in wolf form after his run, and drive out in his car.

I looked up to see the tail light of the white mercedes pull out of our driveway. Mate was leaving.

Just then, Harvey's truck pulled into our driveway. He didn't stop at our porch. I quickly stuffed the last bits of quiche into my mouth and grabbed my stuff to go.

"Bye, my ride's here!" I said.

"Can't wait to go for your date with Harvey?" Savy teased.

I flared, "He's my beta! There is no date!"

"Savy, don't provoke your sister." Mum said calmly in between sipping her tea.

Ki had fetched my coat and boots. He unlocked and slid open the door for me to step directly from the dining room onto the front porch. Harvey pulled up in the Porsche.

He got out and opened the car door for me, "Good morning, princess."

"Good morning!" I grinned. I was so happy that Wolfie was ready to wag. Everything was so normal today.

"Have a good day, goddess." Ki bowed me off.

Harvey shut the car door after me. From inside, I could see his truck parked in the garage where Bell's white Merc usually was. I buckled up as my good beta exchanged a few words with Ki and then got into the driver's seat, his usual wry smile in place.

"You're in a good mood today, Princess." Harvey observed.

I nodded, "Alpha Solomon's trainers are coming tonight to teach us how to fight vampires."

Harvey nodded, "It would be useful. Our top warriors will attend."

"What about us?" I asked.

"We will attend too." Harvey said, "But more to take notes on how to train our own men in the future."

"Don't we have to learn first?" I asked.

Harvey paused, and then he nodded, "Yes. There is always something we can learn..."

"No, I mean we need to learn how to fight vampires." I said.

"As in the way we fought the two vampires guarding Ki, or the small squad of vampire guards guarding your Luna, or the Ciara Vampire Lord?" Harvey asked.

Oh. Right. I guess my betas and I had already been fighting vampires.

"But our strategy is ambush, shoot, and stab." I argued, "Maybe there's a better way to do it."

Like a cooler vampire slayer kind of way.

Harvey considered it, "You make a good point, princess. I overestimated our achievements."

Ah, no...that wasn't it. I shook my head and sulked a little at the window, "Not really, I guess I just think it's fun."

Harvey nodded, "Understood, princess."

What exactly did my good beta understand? Because I didn't quite understand it myself.

It was a brand new week and I just wanted to play with my friends at school and do something cool after school like go for vampire slayer class.

{So fun}

I stopped to check Boo. She was ...she was Wolfie again! Hahaha. How did that happen?

The rest of the ride, Harvey recited my schedule for the day and then we talked a bit about yesterday. Or rather, Harvey talked about yesterday.

According to Harvey, Beta Gerald was very impressed by the way I handled the various situations. He had originally worried about wasting my time when we had stopped to clear gutters and remove deadwood from the roads, but I was a patient and mild mannered alpha throughout.

It was not the first time he had visited the mum with six kids. Each time he had felt his visit was fruitless. He even contemplated about stopping the visits for fear that he was causing more trouble to the busy young mother than help. Yesterday's visit had been what he meant to be the last one. But I had somehow made a breakthrough for him. He plans to bring Haylee to help babysit during the visits now.

Yeah, so now the mum of six will be guaranteed at least a 15 minutes shower once a week. Lol.

The elderly couple in the second house were old friends. They came over last night with some of the apple firewood to share and stayed and chatted with Harvey's parents about the new generation of leaders. They had been worried since news of our packs' merger had been released, and had wondered what the future alpha would be like. Watching me work on their trees with the others gave them great hope. Apparently, you could tell a lot from watching someone clear broken branches. For example, that I wasn't a spoilt princess.

Harvey paused.

"What?" I asked.

"If I say this, I am only repeating what the elderly couple said. It does not represent my personal aspirations or thoughts in any way." Harvey said carefully.

"WHAT?" I asked because after preconditions like those, I really wanted to know now.

"You reminded them of their daughters when they were young...friendly and...cute." Harvey admitted.

"Oh, is that all?" I asked. Yeah, I was aware of what I looked like.

But Harvey didn't answer.

"What else?" I demanded, "Harvey, you are this close to being alpha commanded!"

Harvey sighed, "They suggested that I should mate you and run the pack. They believe that we need a strong male wolf to look up to and follow."

Then Harvey quickly added, "My dad has already informed them that you were betrothed to the Lorent's future alpha."

I laughed, "And what did they say?"

Harvey had a wry smile, "Nothing of significance but I think they now have even worse worries to contend with. The Lorent and the Morning Light were never fond of each other, and the Lorent future alpha had featured notoriously in local gossip."

"Even though my dad had tried to reassure them that you would be the alpha, he was unable to sway their belief that your alpha title would only be in name, and your black hearted Luna would rule us with an iron fist." Harvey said.

My black hearted Luna. If I had to buy Bell a heart shaped hair clip, I knew what color to get, "Why does everyone keep saying he has a black heart?"

"It appears that James Lorent the Third had accumulated quite a reputation." Harvey grimaced at the road.

I waited to hear Harvey say they were unfounded, but he only said, "Don't worry, Princess. He is your soulmate, he will not hurt you. And whatever happens Ben, Ki, and I will always be on your side."

I see.

So it was true. My soul mate was evil. Suddenly I remembered the dream where I was a rabbit.

I shook it off, "I know. But I can take on my own mate."

I wasn't a rabbit.

I was the Alpha. I can take it. I will protect everyone's happiness.