THE ALPHAS WHO TALKED TO CATS

I was not the first alpha in my family who talked to cats. Dad had met a white cat in his youth and had time travelled for an extended period, "The future is the best place to learn from your mistakes."

"Yah man," Beta Lucas boasted, "The smart man learns from his mistake, the wise man learns from the mistakes of others, but your Dad can learn from the future."

In fact, seeing the future of Night Forest was one reason that sparked Dad's desire to leave it, "There was no future there. Eventually, I realized that the only way I could save Night Forest was if I were to step out from it's rules and trappings. Only then, would I gain the ability to stop the decline."

These cats had weaved in and out of Grandma Luna's family line for ages.

"Your grandmother's lineage is not simple." Beta Lucas told me.

Besides her bloodline being the rare female alpha, her gift of insight, and the ring of idonia. There were these cats. These cats that were said to have originated from the stars - the goddess' servants.

"You probably have read stories about such cats." Beta Lucas guessed correctly. They were a popular lycan folklore, and appeared in some of our lycan legends like in the one about this guy who followed a cat into the woods and only returned to his pack a hundred years later.

Don't follow cats into the woods. This old lycan superstition probably came from these stories.

But it wasn't like these cats would randomly appear in front of just anyone.

"They are loyal to your grandmother's bloodline." Beta Lucas told me, "And they will only help the Alpha or her Luna."

Dad agreed, "That is my father's true secret of running with no regrets. I didn't expect the cats to find their way to the Green Packlands though."

Dad himself had not met any talking cats outside Night Forest.

"Wait, wait, wait." I had to stop them, "You mean Grandpa Alpha has been time travelling? That's CHEATING!"

"No, no, Sam. There are rules." Beta Lucas informed me.

Basically, we should only time travel into the future, and "learn from our mistakes." Not all changes applied to the present time would necessarily make the future a better place. Every decision still came with all its usual risks.

"No man is an island." Dad elaborated sagely, "Sustainability and stability are key to long term success."

Also, it was ill-advised to travel back in time, because even the smallest change could bring disaster to the present. For example, if Dad happened to be engaged to a lady, but realized that he would meet his real soul mate in the future, going back in time to prevent the engagement might lead to a devastating war and tragic death of said soul mate after all. It would be better to bite the bullet and break off the engagement, and also for his beta to start dating this girl he met from his future luna's family. Only by making changes to our today can we move towards the future we desire.

"So Mum's blind date with you was planned?" I gasped.

"Preferably before her village was attacked and she turned rogue." Beta Lucas added, "Luckily, her cousin agreed to help me ask her."

And because Mum became the future luna of Night Forest, her village was spared from the rogue attack - maybe the rogues didn't think it was worth risking possible retaliation from an established pack like Night Forest.

"So you see, even a very small personal change has a large ripple effect." Beta Lucas pointed out, "It could've gone both ways, and it's not like you can keep going back and forth to fix things. Every time you do, it gets messier."

Dad growled.

"I mean, its just an example." Beta Lucas said, "Not that any of it necessarily happened."

Okay… I decided to just pretend I believed him.

"So why are we going back in time now?" I asked, "Aren't we supposed to bite the bullet and only make changes to today?"

"We didn't have the cats when we came to the Green Packlands." Dad said, "It's fair to go back to straighten things out."

"But Dad…" I just had a bad feeling about this, "Things are going really well now… I mean, everything besides Jude being a traitor. What if something bad happens?"

"Sam has a point, Alpha." Beta Lucas said, "Without the traitor at the border, our conflict might not have resolved so cleanly."

"I have a plan." Dad said confidently.

"That must be some plan." Beta Lucas said.

It's not like there was an undo button if we didn't like how things turned out. Wouldn't it be ironic if we regretted fixing our regret?

"I don't know Dad... Are you sure it's a good idea?"

"There is great gain in taking risks." Dad answered in zen, but since I've already heard this from my annoying future self, it didn't impress me at all.

"Trust me, Sam." Dad said, "I will make it right this time. I owe it, at least to you and your Mum."

Wait, what had this got to do with Mum? Wth.

"Okay, fine." If it were anyone else other than my Dad, I don't think I would have agreed at all, "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Alright. We'll leave it at this. Sam, assemble a small team of your choice and the two cats and meet me and Lucas back in my office in an hour." Dad said, "Make sure your team is trustworthy and useful. An assassin wouldn't hurt."

When Dad put it like that, it sounded oh-so-exciting.

"Wait, why do I need a team when you just have Beta Lucas?" I demanded. I was strong too! If Dad could travel with just his Beta, so could I!

"Because you know how to pick your team." Dad said, "I can only trust my beta."

This entire cat traveling thing was super blackout.

"Yah man," Beta Lucas said, "Imagine the catastrophe if the power should fall into the wrong hands."

I think it was too late for that as it was.

"There are two ways to decide who you can trust." Dad told me, "The first is to find those who have proven themselves trustworthy, but people change, even wolves. The second is to choose those who you are so loyal to that you are willing to lay down your life for them. This way, even if they betrayed you, you would gladly bear the cost of their betrayal."

"They both sound stoopid." I told Dad sulkily. Stoopid and morbid. I hated this kind of thing.

"Well, not everyone has the gift of insight." Dad shrugged.

Oh.

"My mother had this gift. She had never made a mistake." Dad told me.

I could not feel Dad was 100% right, "How can you be sure?"

Dad leaned forward against his desk again, "She gave her ring to you, didn't she?"

Oh.

Wait, no! That didn't prove anything! That ring was nothing but trouble for me!

But Dad continued, "I wondered why she chose you, but over time I had come to realize that none of her own children were trustworthy."

"Louis did not hesitate to steal it, and turned out to be pilfering from the vault whenever he could. But at least he was only stealing to fuel his ambition for the pack. My other two brothers had already sent me individual reminders to set aside their share of the inheritance because they believe the ring is in my hands. Andre specifically hopes for enough to pay off his mortgage and Pierre wants a new investment portfolio and a hopes there's leftover for a Porsche."

"Even I...although I never would have expected it..." Dad confessed, "When I thought Savy would be in danger, I had no qualms about using the ring to 'borrow' a pair of mating bands from the vault."

"It seems like I was no better than my brothers." Dad shrugged, "I was only in a less desperate situation."

I didn't really know how to answer Dad at this point. I didn't really think trying to save Savy was wrong. I didn't really know what I would do if I were in Dad's shoes. I would probably have done it too - I just didn't know it contained a spare pair of mating bands.

Anyway, that was the end of our meeting. Dad actually meant to discuss other things with me, but given that we were going to time travel into the past, he decided there was no reason to waste time discussing something that might not happen after today.

Today we were going to rewrite history.