It was the day of my meeting with my father, and the day of my impending doom—and Celine and Max were ten times more nervous than I was.

The two of them paced about in front of me, walking alongside each other like two opposing pendulums. By the office door, a row of betas stood in awkward silence while staring at the frantic mess that was Celine and Max.

I flipped to the next page of the folder and let out a sigh. "Could you two relax a little? I can't think properly with you guys hovering around like that."

"Can you blame us?" Celine snapped. "What you're about to do is terrifying."

Behind her, Max was muttering under his breath, "He's gonna be so mad, he's gonna be so mad, he's gonna be so mad..."

I sighed again. Celine was right; I could not blame them. Making plans to go against the Alpha's orders was not only unheard of, it was almost treason.

But it was for a good cause. As I flipped through the notes Celine and Max had compiled for me, I knew in my heart that this was the right thing to do.

For the past week, the three of us had been visiting Auri and the other territories to talk about the underground structure. We managed to get enthusiastic responses from the weremoles and werefoxes about the project, and even some support for the funding of the birth control department from the were-elephants and weretigers. The weremoles had also given Auri some tips on burrowing techniques that would not disturb the trees on the surface, which Auri had been grateful for.

My heart fluttered as I recalled how hard Celine and Max had worked for this, how amicable the territories had been, how happy Auri had been... Everyone had worked so hard together, and I was sure that this new plan was foolproof.

That did not stop Celine and Max from losing their minds, however.

"I'm scared, I'm so scared, I've never been this scared in my life," Max mumbled as he practically chewed his fingernails away.

Celine, on the other hand, had gone into full-blown nagging mode. "Bodie, if he asks about the names of the people in the report, just remember, the weretiger representatives are his friends. Just say, 'Pi and Bob', and he should know—"

"I've never done this before." Max's voice became louder over time. "No one has done this before. I've only ever proposed an idea when he asks me to, but not when he already has a plan—"

"Alright, that's enough," I said, slamming the folder shut in my hands. "Calm down, both of you."

They nodded in response, but their feet could not stop pacing about.

"Please stop walking around."

They stopped in their tracks.

"And don't wring your hands like that."

Their hands parted and fell to their side.

"Good." I glanced at the clock. "I'm going to go in now. The two of you stay here and wait for me. If anything bad happens, I don't want you two to be affected. And if anybody asks, just remember, I'm the only one responsible for this, okay?"

Celine and Max exchanged a worried look.

"Bodie..." Celine started, but she pursed her lips when I shook my head.

"Stay here," I emphasized before heaving myself up and entering the office alone.

My father was sitting in his usual swivel chair and writing on his desk. Our family portrait loomed behind him, his clean-shaven and wrinkle-free past self reminded me of time's cruelty. He noticed me but did not bother looking up from his work.

"Took you long enough," he said, dabbing his quill into the inkwell. "I did give you a week to complete the task, but I did not expect you to actually take the whole week to do it."

"I apologize, Father."

There was a short pause as my father finished the sentence he was writing. Then, he capped the pen and leaned back. His golden eyes blazed above his grey beard like a fire under the moonlight. "So, it's done, I assume?"

I gulped. "Um... Sort of."

His eyebrows twitched upwards. "Sort of?"

"I... came up with an alternate plan."

"You did, now?" He clasped his hands together and tilted his head. "But that was not your task."

"I know, but... I had to. The task wasn't fair to the wererabbits, Father. I can't tell them to stop burrowing when they desperately need more space. So, I talked to people from the other territories and I believe there's an alternate solution we can pursue."

I placed the folder in front of my father, right above the paper he was writing on. "I have all the information here. There's a way to solve all the issues the other wereanimals were having with the burrowing, without forcing the wererabbits to stop completely."

My father's solemn, golden eyes remained on me. He did not pick up the file; he did not even bother glancing at it.

"I gave you a task," he said with a whisper that sent shivers down my spine, "a really simple one. I said, go to the wererabbits' territory in the southern forest area and tell them to stop burrowing. And you come back with... this?" He flicked his fingers down at the folder, finally acknowledging its presence.

"I tried to, Father, but it wasn't—"

"I was not testing your ability to make decisions, Bodie. I'm the Alpha, I'm the decision-maker. This was a mere test of your capabilities as a werewolf, and you failed." He leaned forward and my head lowered in response. "This was a level-zero task, the most basic thing you should be able to do, and you couldn't even do it?"