THE FIRE ANTS AT SILVER MOUNTAIN

20 FEBRUARY, SATURDAY, CONTINUED

So yes, my third reason for coming... It occurred to me as I watched the fire ants and VIPs ply the city streets. Gold City! We were here!

This was super, super, exciting. My wolf was all hyped up. So many powerful wolves, so many new things, and so much fun. My wolf always knew where the fun was, and we were right smack in the middle of it.

"Sam, please try to stay out of trouble." Mum reminded me again.

"I wasn't thinking of getting into any trouble." I told her. I gave her my puppy dog eyes, you know, just to reassure her, but it backfired.

Mum sighed, "Sam, I've known you all your life. You are definitely going to get in trouble the moment I look away."

"Nuh-uh." I shook my head, "You're being paranoid. Like when was the last time I got in trouble?"

Which was probably a dumb thing to say, because it just triggered a motherload of bad memories for Mum, "Okay, Sam. Let's leave the past alone. Just don't get into another fight, especially not with an alpha, or hand over a gun to anyone to shoot at you, or chase rogues into the woods by yourself, or..."

"I thought you said to leave the past alone?" I grumbled.

"Yes, well." Mum pursed her lips primly and dusted her dress, "Just don't do that again... Or anything like that, or anything unlike that but just as dangerous."

"Like what?" Seriously? Wth. I mean, exactly what did Mum imagine me doing?

"I don't know! But your wolf seems to always find some new danger..." Mum fretted.

"My wolf just likes to have fun." I tried to explain.

"Your wolf..." Mum sighed, "Oh Sam, whatever should I do with you?"

Dad, who had been silently reading stuff off his screen, put it down to rub Mum's back, "Don't worry darling. I'm sure Sam would know how to behave herself."

He looked at me with that, "You better not prove me wrong" look.

I shrugged, "Yeah, come on, Mum. I know how to behave myself."

"And please be alert." Mum cautioned, "There are a lot of cameras here. Try not to give rise to another scandal."

"What scandal?" I asked.

Apparently, Mum felt my thing with LuvMuunMuun's what's-her-name was a scandal.

"I'm glad that Yunnie had stopped posting about you in such a negative light now." Mum said, "How did you offend her in the first place?"

"It wasn't me, Mum. I've never even met her." I protested.

"And now this thing with Henry." Mum despaired, "It was a good thing the Lorents were so understanding."

"What thing with Henry?" I asked, and then I remembered the thing with Henry. Right, someone had leaked a photo, and the news just ran out with that.

"That photo was for the poster of our Romeo and Juliet play. Someone leaked it. There is nothing between Henry and me." I tried to make it clear, at least to my own parents. I wasn't the kind of girl who would flirt behind my soul mate's back.

"The two of you did look very good together..." Mum said.

"Mum!" I was seriously horrified, "Not Henry! Anyway, I have a soul mate. Are you forgetting my 'very capable and well mannered' Luna?"

Hahaha, I won't lie. It was quite gratifying to rub my mum's own words right back at her.

Mum looked like she was fighting a smile, "Then what about Alaric or Marcus? My daughter has so many boyfriends, its hard or keep track."

"Mum!" I flared now. I can't believe my own mother sometimes.

Dad chuckled, "Don't tease her, darling."

Mum just laughed a little, "But she's so cute when she gets flustered."

I was NOT flustered. How could any respectable parent find this situation funny?

Dad smiled fondly, but he only had eyes on Mum now, "She's a lot like her mother that way."

"Ew! No! Don't flirt in front of me! Use your mindlink!" I flared even more. I can't believe how inconsiderate my parents could be sometimes.

Mum just leaned her head on Dad's shoulder. The both of them looked perfectly happy.

I glared out of the window. Parental PDA should be outlawed. I bet every young alpha thought so, and then they become the alpha and got mated... and conveniently forgot. But my lovey dovey parents aside, now that I remembered the paparazzi, it was like there was a single cloud over my bright and fun possibilities here. I wondered if they were going to claim I was dating every single guy I talked to. At this rate, I was going to be the Alpha with the most boyfriends ever - soon I was sure to have a list that would rival Henry's, or maybe even Ki's Page Six exploits. Omo.

I really didn't want that kind of rep. What if I proceeded more mindfully, to keep a two foot distance from any male, and to refrain from physical contact or even smiling too much with anyone. Well except my Betas. Betas didn't count, right?

Maybe the paparazzi would be busy with all the other Alphas around. Maybe someone else would commit a faux pas which the entire media would would feel they had to zoom in on. I mean, every major alpha, young and old, in the continent had to be here, not to mention the ones from abroad. So many alphas squeezed into one city... something had to happen.

Even if nothing happened, I was just a future alpha... I wasn't even inaugurated yet - which made me what? Alpha Kingsley daughter? Some backwater far away Green Packland future Alpha? Nothing of significance compared to the fancy purebred alpha wolves from all the other colored packlands. As long as I stayed away from Henry where the spotlight would hover, I should be alright...which was ironic since I was here for his inauguration.

Our convoy pulled up the very familiar road to Henry's house, but instead of going straight to the end where his guard house was, we followed the other convoys and turned right past a pair of wide black iron gates and toward a long, red brick, guard stop with white arches. It looked like a fancy tram station, but instead of trams, it was receiving guest convoys for security procedures.

Our cars patiently waited in line behind the green cars in front. Even though there were like three cars, they were identical so I felt it safe to assume they were from the same convoy. We would be next in line. I had NEVER been to Henry's Packhouse. I looked around through the windows of our car. The place was pretty similar to Henry's mansion, but impossibly larger. We were supposedly in their "packhouse", if the gold plague signboard in front of the wide gates we passed was to be believed, but it was more of a pack estate than a house. A very wide and sprawling estate.

"Hooo man!" Beta Lucas said as he looked out of the window at the long stretches of land, "I forgot about the golf course here."

"No point bringing your golf clubs, old friend. It's still winter." Dad said.

"But they have an indoor putting range." Beta Lucas protested. Dad only laughed, "I'm sure you would find your way to the green, anyway."

Once I heard Mrs Beta tell mum about Beta Lucas golfing in a thunderstorm.

"Isn't that dangerous?" Mum asked.

Which was exactly the point Mrs Beta wished her mate hadn't brushed off, "One day, my mate is going to be struck by lighting."

I had imagined Beta Lucas, metal golf club in hand, poised to strike the ball when lighting struck him instead. Hahahahaha. But luckily it never happened in real life - that would not be so funny.

For some reason, my Porsche had disappeared from our convoy. I looked back more carefully, maybe since it was such a low roofed car, it was blocked by one of our MPVs.

This was when I noticed another convoy behind ours. This one had a train of black cars... Hahaha, I guess they never saw how vamps went to school. But these were MPVs not those long ancient cars the vamps favored, so maybe that made it okay. I couldn't not hear Alpha Jame's voice in my head though, "The design is different but the colors are the same."

The green convoy began to move forward, and our convoy pulled in, our motorbikes still on each side.

"Security check!" One of the red fire ants barked at our warriors, "Please stand down. You! Which is your beta's car?"

Unfortunately, he picked on the wrong Night Leaf warrior.

Jax pulled up his visor and gave the red fire ant his sauciest grin, "That depends - which beta are you looking for?"

And then our warriors laughed.

"Who put them in charge?" Beta Lucas grumbled.

"The one with the papers." The fire ant shot back annoyed, "If you do not cooperate, don't blame me if you are detained here longer than necessary."

I looked back at the black convoy behind us. Who knew how many convoys were waiting in line? There was NO WAY they could detain us.

"Come on, it's just a joke." Neil pulled off his helmet, "Silver fancy car in the middle. Driver's seat."

For some reason, I could hear them perfectly.

"See the Beta's already got his window down." Jax pointed, "Go straight and take a left. You can't miss it."

Hahahahaha.

But the fire ant wasn't the type who liked jokes, "Security is not laughing matter. We take it very seriously here at Silver Mountain."

"Yeah, yeah." Jax shrugged, I think he gave up being friendly, "Just seriously go do your job."

The red fire ant decided to ignore Jax. He came over to our car.

"Good morning, beta. May I see your invite?" The red fire ant was the sensible sort so he was more polite now that he was talking an elder beta.

Beta Lucas handed him three invites, "We're from the Night Leaf and Morning Light Packs."

Next he handed the red fire ant a neat stack of papers, "These are all our security clearances. We need parking for three cars and six bikes at all venues."

The red fire ant who was still checking the invites to the guest list on his clipboard, looked up and down our convoy, "Apologies Beta, we only provide up to two cars and four bikes per pack."

"We have 2 packs and three invites." Beta Lucas tried to reason with the red ant.

"I'm sorry, beta. I have to follow the procedure." The red ant said.

"Then give us four cars and eight bikes per venue." Beta Lucas negotiated.

"The Night Leaf and Morning Light Pack is listed as a single pack in our guest list." The red ant said.

"I want to talk to your officer." Beta Lucas said.

"I am the officer." The red ant said.

"Hoo boy." Beta Lucas said in his face, "I'm afraid that will be a problem, since I don't really want to talk to you."

Eh? Excuse me, but wth?

Omo... What Mum and the other ladies say was true... Ben was just like his dad!

Beta Lucas remained straight faced, "Take these papers and go down to the first car and talk to the beta there. Tell him you're the genius who merged our packs for us."

I laughed. It came out as a snicker. Mum patted my knee and gave me a censoring look. I pressed my lips together.

But hahahahaha. I've always felt Neil and Jax fit in here with us at Night Leaf - this proved it. Beta Lucas could be just as bad, if not worse, than Jax.

The red ant took the papers, but more because Beta Lucas simply slotted them on top of his clipboard. And then Beta Lucas wound up the window so the red ant had no choice but to head up to the dark silver MPV and knock on the tinted window. I'm not sure if Beta Gerald did it on purpose, or if he was held back by Beta Lucas' mindlink to him, but the red ant had to knock again before the dark window slid down.

We couldn't hear what the fire ant said to Beta Gerald, or what Beta Gerald said to the fire ant, but eventually, the fire ant came back to Beta Lucas' window with the papers. He was really reluctant to come back. I could tell because he was dragging his feet, and he stopped and hesitated a few feet away.

"Don't be shy!" Jax shouted so loudly that we could hear him through the sound proof glass. Wow. Jax could be pretty loud, oh wait, no. Beta Lucas had lowered the glass just a tiny bit so we could hear. But Jax didn't know this, "Our beta won't bite."

"Just don't put your fingers through the window!" Another one of our guys, Dave, I think, chipped in. They all thought we were in our sound proof car - so our warriors had a good laugh. By now, they were plucking off their helmets and resting on their bikes as if they were off duty.

"I dare you to stick head into that car." Jax yelled.

"He'd need the guts to knock first." Neil smirked.

And then our warriors started chanting, "Knock. Knock. Knock!"

By now the green convoy in front of us had long left. The other red fire ants came over to see what's going on.

"Hey, you!" One of the red ants shouted from the platform of the red brick guard house, "What's going on?"

Unfortunately he picked on Jax, again.

"Your guy there is too scared to knock on our beta's window." Jax explained.

"I'm not." The red ant with the clipboard said, "I'm just sorting the papers. One of you, come take these in to verify."

"But sir..." Another one of the red ants said, "This is the Night Leaf Pack - they fall under VIP auto clearance."

Awww... did we? That was so thoughtful of Henry.

"But they have the Morning Light Pack with them." The Captain argued.

"He's just trying to detain us longer." Beta Lucas huffed a little, "He thinks this would put pressure on me because my Alpha would be kept waiting."

One of the red ants had taken our papers from their red ant officer to get them verified inside the guard house.

Beta Lucas crossed his arms and settled back in his seat looking smug, "Well I'm not afraid to keep my Alpha waiting."

"Lucas, let's not cause trouble, please." Mum said, "These warriors are just trying to do their job."

Dad crossed his arms and leaned back too, "They started it."

Wait what? Hahaha. My Dad was crazy. Did you see that Mum? I wasn't the one who was getting into trouble here.