THE MONSTER INSIDE OF ME

THURSDAY, 11 FEBRUARY, CONT'

"Who why what?" Jonah asked.

Which I thought to mean Jonah wanted to know what they were asking about. But Ki took to mean as a correction, "Yes, you're right Jonah. Who would do this? Why would they do this? And what are they planning?"

"So you guys think someone gave this video to the press? Who? And Why?" Ben demanded.

"That's exactly what we're saying, Beta." Ki smiled condenscendingly just to annoy Ben. He was rewarded with an annoyed growl.

"I'm not following this..." Jonah informed us.

The adults were frowning, then Beta Lucas said, "Just off the top of your heads, who are the three of you thinking of?"

"Someone who wants to prank our pack by sending in unwanted media attention." Ben guessed immediately. So petty mischief or revenge?

"Someone influential enough to get this up onto the news." Ki suggested.

"Someone who wants to jam our phonelines." Beta Lucas grumbled as the phones restarted ringing from the nearby offices.

"In the middle of the biggest storm of the year. It's very inconsiderate!" Gamma Harry declared.

Dad was still silently thinking about it.

"So what should we do, Alpha?" Beta Lucas asked Dad.

Everyone looked at Dad, except Harvey, who was still wearing his thinking frown.

"What are you thinking about Harvey?" Dad asked.

"It could potentially be anyone." Harvey answered, "From impatient allies who think this additional spotlight would give us a push in their "right direction", to dangerous enemies who could use this to jam our communications and attempt to endanger our lives."

"Even allies? You don't think Henry?" Ben asked.

"It's unlikely." Harvey allowed.

"But not entirely improbable. For Alpha Henry, I believe it would depend on the tradeoff." Ki added.

"That sounds like it could be anybody! How can we find out who? You guys have kind of made at least one new enemy a week!" Lizzy informed us.

She exaggerated. I didn't have any enemies.

"What do you have on it, Lizzy?" Ben asked.

Lizzy checked her phone. What, she kept a list?

"Well, there's the rogue king. Since Sam had been quite vocal about kicking his butt." Liz typed as she spoke. Oh, she didn't have a list, but she was making one now.

"And she pretty much beat up Alpha Jude the other night - everyone was talking about it for a while. Alpha Jude didn't have anywhere to hide his face after that." Lizzy said, but that wasn't all, "Alpha Louis is probably mad at us as long as Sam is holding on to her grandmother's ring too."

"Don't forget the Vamp Lord Edward Ciara." Ben reminded her, "We did kill his dad and subjugate his coven to a century of tribute."

"You did?" Lizzy looked up from her list.

"It's classified." Ben realized belatedly. Look who was slipping up now.

"Well, since we're doing classifieds, you might as well include Delta Emerson and/or his daughter Cynthia." Ki added. But he did not explain about how we ruined Cynthia's plan to seduce Mate and got her kind of exiled from the pack.

"And Beta Anthony, the Elder Delta Williams, and Delta Holden." Ben chipped in... Yeah, the other two men plotting in the secret room that Ben and I walked into.

Nevermind classified information. The list was beginning to sound like the classified ads of the newspaper. Let's just name everybody I've met at the Lorent's, shall we?

"What did you do to the Lorents, Sam?" Mum asked me.

"It wasn't me!" I sulked.

Mum sighed and faced palmed, "What would I ever do with you, Sam?"

Dad rubbed her back.

"Do not worry. The Luna Bell and I have the Lorents under control." Ki reasured my parents, "My goddess also has Alpha Lorent's unwavering support. And after her impressive display of power at the introductory meeting, I doubt anyone would dare to directly oppose our alpha princess."

"When have Lorents ever done anything directly?" Ben asked.

"Which makes them high suspects." Harvey pointed out.

"I wouldn't be surprised." Ki smiled, "Any of them would have to connections and motivation to pull a fast one like this on us."

"Any other new enemies this year?" Lizzy asked.

Well, since we're at it, "I had an unfinished fight with this lady named Ruby at the Underground."

"Ruby?" Ki closed his eyes, "Why Ruby?"

"She started it!" I clarified.

"Do you know this Ruby, Ki?" Harvey asked.

"She is bad news. Leader of the Jewels of Ciara, they were a collection of she-wolves with rare coloring belonging to the late Lord Ciara. They were used for vampire entertainment, privately for their Ciara Lord master as well as for private parties." Ki's mouth had turned downwards as he spoke about it, "Ruby is one of the strongest she-wolves I've ever met, she has helped many wolves survive in the vamp keep with the help of Jade, another member of the Jewels of Ciara who is a healing wolf. Ruby is skilled at seduction, and throwing knives. Her nails, as with all the other Jewels of Ciara, are tipped in a silver-laced poison. I'm not sure what else is in it, but it would cause white lined scarring, even in healing wolves."

Oh.

"Princess, what happened between you and Ruby?" Harvey asked. He was frowning too. I think his brain was scruching up from the lack of encyclopedic information on the subjects of this incident.

"She was angry at Bell, because Bell hadn't exposed me to the old Ciara Lord we killed. I think he wanted to add me to his collection. I was supposed to be Sapphire." At this, the overprotective wolves around me started growling, but I pressed on to finish telling them, "But he couldn't find me, and Bell wouldn't tell him where I was. I think the Vampire Lord did something really bad to Ruby's friends because of it. Ruby said it Bell's fault. Owen said we shouldn't hold a fightdog accountable for what happened while they were in the fight cage, but..."

"Apologies goddess, but Owen was present?" Ki interuppted.

I nodded, "Yes, and Stephan and Theo and EJ."

"Alright, I'll should be able to get the details from them later." Ki nodded, "Don't worry, goddess. Ruby will not be able to make a single scratch on you."

I honestly wasn't worried about that. A white scar wasn't like a life and death issue for me. I just didn't like to have left a fight hanging. I shook my head, "I would've won the fight, but Bell Chi-Ka-Boomed and everyone was evacuated."

"What is Chi-Ka-Boom?" Harvey asked, raising his hand the way Beta Gerald or Beta Lucas did at a meeting. He was still trying to get all the facts.

"It's a term some of the men who are close to Luna Bell use when his wolf takes over." Ki explained, "Luna Bell's wolf was savage and agressive since he was a youth, thus our Luna Bell had to suffer many things until he learned to keep his wolf in check. However, should his wolf be provoked excessively, or should the Luna Bell lose conscious and his wolf surface, it results in a temporary outbreak of violence and chaos, at least until the Luna Bell is restrained and he is able to regain control of his wolf again. His uncle, the late Beta Lorent used to tell him, if he wanted the chains removed from his body, then he had to chain up the wolf inside of him."

Wait, what?

"Of course, now that we know Beta Lorent as a traitor, I begin to doubt that was the best way to handle the young alpha's wolf." Ki admitted.

I flared then. Mine. My mate. How dare they restrained my mate in chains or force him to oppress his wolf! I've met his wolf, he was not violent or cruel or whatever Ki said.

Grrrr....

When I get my hands on the Lorents, I'm going to completely flatten the pack to the ground for what they did to my Luna! I'm going to... Oh. Suddenly, I understood Mate a little more. I quietened at that. There were a lot of things I didn't know about my own mate.

"What should we do, Alpha?" Beta Lucas asked again.

We all looked at Dad. This was one of the times I was glad I wasn't the Alpha.

But Dad was in full zen, "If someone kicks up the dust, there is little gain in raising more dust around it."

Okay, that was what not to do. But what do we do?

Then Dad looked at me, "Sam, your wolf is out tonight. Why don't we give her a test run? What do you want to do?"

Me? Now everyone looked at me.

Okay... Boo, against my better judgement, do your worst.

{You're just as bad, you repress me too.}

You deserve it. You're evil.

{I'm powerful. There is a difference.}

Fine, you heard my dad. Go! Run free.

I handed control over to my wolf - not Wolfie, I gave it to Boo. Part of me felt like this was a super bad idea, but the other part of me wanted to know what would happen.

What if I just totally let it go? I'm feeling quite tired... Blocking out the evolved mindlink ability was exhausting, and my wolf had been growing stronger, because the mental restraints I had placed on her kept breaking, even though I kept increasing them.

I was a black wolf. Black wolves were territorial and agressive. Have you met Ben's wolf?

How could I protect the happiness of my pack if I was probably going to be the terror of the pack?

{Nevermind the bubbles. Get the soap.}

What?

{Don't talk to me again until you're not stupid.}

Grrrr... Did I tell you I hated my wolf?

And then Boo surfaced. My hair calmed immediately, and the room became quiet. Everyone's wolf could sense the change.

Boo's release was surprisingly calming for me. It was like all the years of straining at invisible chains suddenly fell off and while I was expecting chaos to ensue, like a tsunami of some sort, nothing shook. Even the new conference table sitting pretty in the middle of our group continued just sitting there.

And what threatened to be a tsunami, simply washed up like the high tide along a quiet beach. I felt the power I've been holding back roll out in waves, it was very soothing for me, I nearly fell asleep.

Not for the others though. They watched me wide eyed like there was something definitely big happening behind me, so I knew they must have sensed the monster that was my wolf. I bet Dad was regretting it now.

"Oh my goddess." Lizzy mindlinked Savy.

"Sam's evolving again, dear." Mum mindlinked Dad.

Dad was tensed, but he mindlinked the betas, "Stay calm. Steady."

And then I laughed, "You guys are seriously overreacting, you know?"

"Sam?" Savy asked.

"Yeah, snowball. It's me." I grinned. Or Boo grinned. Oh no, we are so merged, I couldn't tell. All I could think was that this release was probably the best thing I've ever done for me.

Savy cocked her head on one side and regarded me silently.

"Oh s***." Harvey mindlinked Ben and Ki, "What the hell just happened?"

"Her wolf just happened." Ben said.

"We're all f***ed aren't we?" Ki asked.

Yup. I wanted to protect all your happiness. I wanted to never show my true wolf ever. And now that Boo was out, I realized that the change was in many ways irreversible.

I was the Alpha and I was done protecting the happiness of my pack. That was silly. Protecting happiness was like running around trying to keep bubbles from popping.

What we needed was soap - the good kind, and water, the fresh kind, and a lot of jacuzzi motion - the kind that required wolves to run fast and hard and together so that the whole forest would be stirred to life. What we needed was to create our own happiness.

Let's start by an online run to mark my territory on social media. If my wolves like to run on social media, then they will have a pack to run with on social media.

"Ki, I want you to set up a team to run the PR for me regarding Moon Bell and the FAO. Prepare a plan to stake our territory. We're going in." I said.

"Sam, this is social media, not a war." Savy thought to point out.

I'm a black wolf. Everything is a war." I brushed it off.

Ben smirked at that, "What about your growing list of enemies?"

"I'll deal with them as they come, or else give it to Bell and keep it updated." Boo was merciless, like that.

Speaking of Bell, "Where's Bell?"

"Your Luna Bell is in the Gold Packlands with about 40 of the underground warriors. Now that the storm had subsided, the rogue hunt begins tonight. Your Luna Bell intends to strike before they recover fully from the snowstorm." Ki updated us, "They will be running the hunt with the Luna leading 40 men, and Stephan leading another 40 men, on 12 hour shifts for the next 3 days."

I nodded. My mate was a natural born general like that. Those rogues didn't stand a chance.

But just to make sure.

"Let him know we will be there to check it out on Sunday Night." I told Ki, "Since he took this hunt out of my hands on his own accord, tell him he better not fail me, or else."

Oh man, I'm starting to sound like a villian.

It was like a line straight out of Megatron's mouth in a transformer cartoon. Had you ever tried to be Optimus Prime all your life, only to find that you were a natural Magatron?

Yeah. It was like that right now. And for some reason, I couldn't care less.

"Sam, stop." Mum decided that was enough, "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm just doing what I should have done long ago." Boo smiled at my Mum, "I'm the Alpha, and I will destroy everything that stands in my way."

And this would be the point that unhinges the powerful bad guys. It was not possible to destroy everything that stands in your way. Eventually, you're going to meet someone or something that you can't destroy, and that would be your downfall.

Nope. I've watched too many episodes of transformers to go down that path.

I can't. I can't let Boo run unchecked. That's like letting Ben code an army of worms without a failsafe.

"Just kidding!" I grinned, "I'm just messing with Bell. Don't worry, I'm the Alpha. I will protect everyone's happiness."

Yeah, Boo. I know it's frivolous to be chasing bubbles, and I get it, if we can secure the soap and water, we would be able to make all the bubbles we want.

But Mum was giving me a warning look, "Sam..."

Nothing helps me keep my wolf on check faster than one of mum's look.

Or Dad's frown. Or Savy's downturned mouth. Or Ki's gentle smile...or... whatever look of everyone else in the room was wearing.

This was when it occured to me what my happiness was. No matter how powerful my wolf, as long as I had these wolves beside me, my happiness was to keep their happiness safe.

{Because you love them.} Boo sounded accusing.

Yes. I smiled inwardly at my wolf. And so do you.

Boo fell silent. We were merged like that, her power, and all the love that had been poured into me since the day I was born. No matter how crazy her power got, the love in me was greater. Epiphany.

I shook my hair out, it waved and shimmered a little before settling down, "Right, urm... I just had a power surge."

"Are you okay, Sam?" Savy asked.

"Yeah, thanks to all of you."