After that day with Lil and Lib, through the week we would continue our old ways and ignore each other and if forced to talk we would scoff and say something rude. But on the weekends, either Saturday or Sunday, we would all hang out in Lil’s room order in food, and have a blast. We all joked about our packs and school, and we never told anyone else of our hangouts. Occasionally one of our pack mates or Ash would stop by to ask Lil a question, when that happened Lib and I would hide out in the hallway or in Lil’s closet. Whichever happened to be closer to the two of us. It was a lot of fun, but I always felt bad keeping this from the pack.

A couple months had past, it went by quicker then I had ever thought it would. But between classes, studying, training, the pack, and our secret hangouts I was booked, I don’t know how Lil and Lib go to the alpha meetings as well. Apparently this Saturday there is a big alpha meeting discussing this semesters end festivities, Lil asked me to go with her. But I’m so nervous. Lil’s never asked me to go with her to the meetings, I know a lot of alphas bring their betas, but Lil doesn’t. When Lib would bring it up, she would just shrug it off and say that she didn’t want to put to much pressure on me when it’s my first time being in a pack. I understood her concern. But why wait till its the biggest meeting? 

This whole week I have been stressed out, I want to be prepared, but I don’t know how to prepare for something like this. I tried to ask Lib, but he just told me not to stress out about it, and that I probably won’t get the chance to speak because it is a meeting of the top pack’s alpha in the entire school. That didn’t really help at all. Just made me more nervous. 

The day finally came. The meeting started at 10 and Lil and I were meeting up in the hallway at 9:30 so we could arrive together. I had gotten up, dressed, and eaten a breakfast bar. I looked at the time and I still had ten minutes, I ended up pacing in my room. I couldn’t calm my nerves, the top alphas, and I bet most of them really are alphas, I bet neither Lil nor I will speak much. Oh no, what if someone tries to jump Lil? I mean she is an omega and she says she has good control of her pheromone output, and she hasn’t had a accidental heat like she did a couple months ago. But what if it happens again? I can’t protect her from a ton of alphas, the best I could do is put a barrier shied spell up, but mine are still-

“Hey Jun, you up? We need to get going…” Lil called out to me as she gently knocked on my door, “You okay in there?”

I ran over to my door and opened it, Lil stood there wearing a pair of army green shorts and her maroon dragon tribe hoody, “Yeah yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go!” I quickly stepped out of my room and locked my door behind me. Lil followed me as I walked down the hallway and into the elevator. We walked beside each other as we made our way to the library. 

“Umm… Jun? Did someone say anything weird to you about today meeting? You seam a bit off.” Lil asked me, leaning forward and looking up at me a little.

I looked over at her and nervously smiled, “Oh no nothing like that, I’m just a little nervous because it is my first meeting and I am guessing that most of them really are alphas. And not just ‘alphas’ as in pack leaders but like alpha alphas, like they could try to jump you. I don’t think I can hole of hundreds of alphas. I can barely contain the two alphas in our pack.’ I rambled on before noticing her with a slight smile on her face. “What?”

“Oh, nothing. Just that there won’t be hundreds of alphas, only the top two ta three ranked packs from each year will be there. So there will only be at top 30 people at the meeting. With less then half of them as alphas I think I stand a pretty good chance alone, let alone with you, the 7 other betas, and Lib won’t make it easy for anyone to quote ‘jump me’.” She smiled a little as she spoke.

“I thought everyone came to these meetings?” I wasn’t nervous anymore, a little relieved actually. “And wait our pack is in the top two or three ranked in our year? HOW?”

“We break up the meetings into smaller groups so no meeting ends in a fight. And yeah, we are in the top 3 ranking wise. We don’t know actual placement, there reasoning is that it can change daily. But that's what you get when you only take in the top 500 new students each year. And what do you mean how? Why do you think we study as a pack together everyday, so we all can get a top score and do our very best.”

“Okay, I get it, but we are one of the top five packs… thats crazy.” I was smiling at the thought.

“You haven’t checked the pack rankings recently have you?” I shook my head no, “What about individual rankings?” I shook my head no again, “Really? No wonder you’ve been so calm and quiet. Our pack members individually are all ranked in the top 250. A few are ranked in the top 100. And a couple of us are in the top 50.”

“That’s crazy…” We continued talking until we arrived at the library. In the center on the room was a large spiral staircase. We walked in and up the the front desk, Lil talked to them and they led us back behind the front desk to the spiral staircase. We walked up the staircase, around and around until we got to a ceiling latch. She opened it up and jumped up into the room it led to. I followed her in. When I stood up and looked around, I realized we were some of the last to arrive. We were in a large bell tower room, with huge openings on three of the walls. There was a large circle table to one side and a circle of chairs on the other side. 

“Well, well, so the princess finally decided to come. You’re almost late you know? I thought you weren’t going to show.” Remarked a boy, he was about my height, had spiky red hair, and wore jeans and a sweat shirt. He stood there with his arms crossed, and a smirk on his face.

“Oh shut up Avalen, you knew I’d make it eventually. I never skip meetings. As a top 3 student I have a certain presence I must omit.” Lil said back to him, “Oh yeah… everyone this is my pack’s beta, Juniper. Juniper this is the top two ta three of every year.”

I looked around, there weren’t any girls other then Lil in the room, maybe thats why they, he, or Avalen called her princess. “Oh hi everyone.” I smiled and held my hand up in a wave gesture.

“Welcome, and thanks for coming, we’ve been wondering what little puppy the princess had under her. But I didn’t expect you, you’re not a puppy at all, you look more like a kitten.” Avalen said mockingly. 

“Avalen don’t come after Juniper. He may look sweet and innocent, but I’m sure he could rip your little puppy’s head off if he wished to.” Lil said motioning to a smaller boy standing behind Avalen peaking his head out. 

“Princess, my dear, beloved angle… I would never go after anyone unless I have something to gain from it. You know my rules.” Avalen spoke in an aggravated tone.

“I’m just setting the limits before you can break them… if I didn’t who would limit you?” Lil looked really intimidating as she spoke to him, but completely flipped when she spoke to the boy behind him, “On another matter, Cherry, sweetie, did you get that information I asked you to get last meeting?”

The small boy walked out from behind Avalen’s back and walked up to Lil, “The stuff about the old crows nest?” Lil nodded yes, “Yeah! It took some time and was a little difficult, but once I got a lead it was really easy to track and the deeper I went the more I got and it was so much fun. I did have to break a couple of school rule by hacking old files, but I did find a way for you to get there. Since you know, someone wouldn’t tell us aka you how to…” They both glance over to a student standing with his back towards all of us in one of the wall openings, “But, I got the information anyways, first-“