The break was too short.
Everyone had escaped the room for the restroom and to grab coffee from the kitchen downstairs.
I didn't even have a chance to leave the conference room.
Beta Lucas had come over to me to talk. "Well, Sam..." he said, trailing off. I waited for him to verbalize his train of thought. "It looks like you did it. I look forward to hearing your plans."
And then he left to get coffee, and I did a quick check of the agenda Lola left on the table and saw that the next item on the agenda was "War Preparation Planning."
Was I supposed to present any plans here?
Or was it the other item there, "Shared Facilities Reporting"?
What was I supposed to prepare if I had no idea what those items actually entailed? And how long was this meeting supposed to be? We were on item two... of eight, excluding something called AOB at the end.
Lola returned with two bottles of water and some candy. She handed me a bottle and put the candies between us to share.
Harvey had returned too. He winked from across the table but, other than that, was kept busy typing on his phone.
"Is he texting his girlfriend?" I whispered to Lola.
Lola watched him a moment, considering it.
"Umm, I don't think so. Looks like work," she told me.
Hahaha. I was just joking, but Lola seriously considered it. So cute!
"Actually, Harvey always says he hopes he never meets his mate," Lola told me.
"Really? Why wouldn't he want a mate?" I asked.
"He says that a Beta is mated to his job."
At that, I laughed so hard I tilted my chair back too far and fell over.
Lola watched, stunned. I don't think that was the reaction she had expected.
My Beta was an idiot!
To choose his job over the best gift the Goddess ever gave to us wolves! For all his perfect Beta ways, he was an idiot after all.
The idiot in question looked up momentarily from his screen and lifted a brow at us. Lola shrugged her ignorance at him. He shook his head and returned to his work.
The adults were not back yet to witness their future Alpha spilled onto the floor unceremoniously.
I finished laughing and got back into my seat. "I feel like I'd better treat her extra well when I meet her, just for taking the trouble to deal with that."
Lola thought about it, and then she smiled. "Yes. I will be extra nice to her too."
And then she added, "My mum says that no matter how much a wolf doesn't want a mate, the moment they meet, they will have a change of heart."
That was a nice thought. I didn't believe it, though. It seemed way too convenient.
I still had the unopened bottle of water in my hand when my usual gang came back with Haylee in tow. Haylee looked happy enough.
They had cookies and Coke.
"Oh, thanks, water." Jonah took the bottle from me. He cracked open a can of Coke and put it in my hand.
Then he turned the bottle cap and took a swig. "The kitchen's all out of bottled water."
"Jonah, you nincompoop! How could you treat your future Alpha like that?" Lizzy scolded, her hands on her hips.
"What? It was a win-win!" Jonah protested, but he gave me a sheepish grin and shrugged.
"I don't need to be treated differently," I said.
Lizzy was still not done. "No, I can't let those dummies take advantage of you just because you're nice."
"Sam? Nice?" Ben asked, and then the two boys threw their heads back and laughed until the adults came in.
I sulked in my seat while Ben piled a few cookies onto a napkin in front of me as a silent peace offering.
I pulled them over to share with Lola.
"Thanks," Lola said, taking one. "Sam, you really are nice. I thought... I thought... I wasn't sure what to expect when I first met you. But you're really nice."
Just because I shared my cookies?
The boys blinked at that.
"Wha—?" Jonah made a face.
Harvey gave them a smug look. "Didn't you know? Our Alpha is always nice to the pretty girls."
I glared at him. Why did he have to say it like that? Because my Beta got a kick out of baiting me. Right.
The guys chuckled and agreed. "True that."
Grrr... Harvey was proving to be a bad influence on those two.
One day, I should really give those guys a literal kick that'll make them unable to sit down for days. Hahahaha.
That would be the most interesting part of the rest of the meeting, which promptly resumed.
Please keep your groans in silent mode, because I'm sure all of us, young and old, were suffering internally. Maybe that's the true battle at meetings. The one who can endure the longest wins.
Gammy Harry was already snoozing in his chair. This amused us kids to varying degrees, but the rest of the adults respectfully acted as if they hadn't noticed.
To finish up item two of the agenda, because there were still loose ends to tie up, they discussed my ascension timeline as if I weren't present. If I understood correctly, after I had my first shift, they would officially declare me the future Alpha of the pack. And on my 18th birthday, I would officially take my place as Alpha. If I had met my mate, he would be Alpha if he were the stronger Alpha wolf; otherwise, he would be Luna.
To which some of the men snickered at the idea of a male Luna. I would not name any names, but you can probably guess who they were.
I would have snarled at them for their disrespect, but I imagined them daring to snicker at Rebel and found myself smiling at the thought of it. I don't think Rebel was someone who would let disrespect slide with just a snarl.
However, it seemed that as Alpha, my dreams of one day ranking as an elite warrior were dashed.
I would be expected to compete at least once, and for the year I competed, I would be expected to place first to prove my strength as Alpha and earn the warriors' respect.
It would just be to earn respect. Once I was an Alpha, titles like elite warrior were irrelevant.
Some of the adults actually preferred I not compete on the grounds that I was a girl.
Ranking first would be impossible for a girl, so it wouldn't be exactly humiliating for me to miss the mark. Just pointless.
My wolf stirred irritably, but I remained silent. I could only train hard and do my best. Usually, this gave me a good chance at winning among my peers.
But the elite warrior rankings were held across the entire pack. And I would also be competing with the best of the pack, including the likes of Harvey and Flynn.
Even if I could win, I think it would probably cause strain damage to force my body through it. It would have to be a once-off. No alpha amount of healing would be able to bear the repeated damage.
I gritted my teeth to keep myself from growling. If I were a boy, none of this would have been an issue.
I continued listening, alert in case I was suddenly put on the spot with a question, but my fears were unfounded. The adults discussed everything as if we were not there.
The only time any of us spoke was when Jonah asked what AOB was.
It was short for Any Other Business... and this item took forever to go through. There were a lot of other businesses. It should have been MOB. Many Other Business.
From the new visa print vendors to the updates on the purchase of property for a new cafe in Gate City.
There was substantial time spent discussing the situation at the hospital too.
Our cramped women and children's wing was always overcrowded. The surgical wing was underutilized, but because the head surgeon refused to relocate, the only option was to locate the other half of the children's wing expansion on the other side of the building.
This would mean that the staff and patients might have to cross the building depending on which service or doctor they were scheduled to see.
But it was a solution the children's center director was happy enough with. So we were just going with that, since everyone was happy and it worked.
The decision didn't sit well with me, but I guess the adults knew what they were doing.
Other than Jonah's question, none of us youths needed to speak at all. Edna was also quiet for the rest of the meeting except to clarify any points she was minuting.
And none of the other women spoke. The Betas' mates, Mrs. Beta and Freya, took notes, presumably reminders for their men to refer to after the meeting. Other than that, I'm not sure why they had to attend.
Well, my mum did rub Dad's back and lean on his arm. I think it soothed him whenever the meeting got prickly. I wished I had a beautiful mate to soothe me at meetings.
Right now, I had Lola, cookies, assorted gummies, and Coke, which wasn't a bad deal.
I thought of Rebel on that poster. I don't think my mate was the beautiful and soothing type.
By the end of the meeting, it was nearly midnight.
That was my first important leaders' meeting at my pack.
Actually, now that I thought about it, when I was a small pup, I've attended quite a few such meetings. But only because my dad had to babysit.
I remembered coloring and playing with a stack of paper on this very table... which was now cracked and broken off in several places. I remembered one of the men folding me a paper airplane and throwing it. I had thought it was magic.
I now conclude that as an Alpha, there were only two things that would kill me prematurely—a fight on the battlefield, or long exposure to extremely boring meetings.