Page 5 of Eclipse Pack
Leaving the office, I think of mother's advice and head to the kitchen. Seeing Ash scolding someone at one of the sinks, I wait for her to finish and try not to smirk when I see it’s Savannah that’s getting the negative attention. Noticing me standing across the kitchen, Ash gives me an eye-roll and walks over to me.
“Why? Why do you do this to me all the time? What have I ever done to you as pack leaders that warrants punishing me with all the half-wits in the pack? I hope she finds her mate and he’s from a pack far, far away.” Taking a deep breath, she calms herself, and then her usual pretty smile resurfaces. “Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”
“I just came to see if there was anything my favorite cook needs or desires?” Smiling at Ash, I see the cogs turning before she replies.
“You could find another way of punishing people other than sending them to me. That would be an excellent start. The kitchen is running well otherwise. The teams are good and working well together. I don’t need any morehelpers, thank you very much. Maybe you could send them to warrior training orgardening for a change. Anywhere but here would be good.” Ash laughs as she says this in an exasperated tone of voice.
“Cookies, Ash. That always works for me... Cookies,” I suggest, grinning as I make my way to the garden.
Our garden has come on well recently. A pack member emerged as a keen gardener and to say he has green fingers is an understatement. He has taken the small kitchen garden we had and turned it into a business in its own right. I have to admit to being one of the doubters when he asked for the position of head gardener. His name, Herb, was just too funny at the time, but he has made all his doubters become the laughingstock. He has extended the garden into what you could only describe as a hobby farm.
He has left the kitchen garden by the back door of the kitchen for herbs and suchlike. He persuaded my father to give him some land by the edge of the forest and he cleared it and had vegetables in there within months. He now has three full-time helpers, and they’ve fenced it and erected two small greenhouses for potting and a large one for some more exotic, hotter climate fruits. I don’t think there’s going to be any limits to what Herb will achieve. He has plans for it to become both fully organic and self-sustaining. He even pays Ash for her waste vegetable peelings and as long as she separates the meat products, he takes her leftovers that she can’t use.
I know his chicken coops paid dividends from day one and he has further plans for his goats, sheep and pigs. I haven’t heard about any cows yet, but I won’t be surprised to wake up one morning to the bawling of a few calves.
Hearing hammering and the sound of drills coming from the forest, I walk over and see Herb busily putting up a wooden building.
“Hi, Herb. Livestock pen?”
“Morning, Alpha Heir Bronze. No, not yet. Just a shed for all the tools we’re accumulating. We’ve too many to keep leaving them out everywhere now, and I want to keep them clean and in good repair. If we do decide to go down the organic road, I want any councilmen to see that we take pride in everything.”
“I think you should keep a log of all the improvements that you implement. A few photographs wouldn’t hurt, either. You could use that when the time came to show them how much work you’ve put into it.” I think that’s a great idea and even if it never got used for that purpose, it would serve as an inspiration for any pack members in the future that took on a similar improvement project that these things take time.
Herb looks at me a bit shyly. “I have kept a photo history of everything from when I started as a personal record. I could do some copies and make up a project folder.”
“You do that, and let me know if you need anything. I don’t expect you to finance that as well. I know that you use some of your personal finances already, and I want that to stop.” Wagging my finger at him has him blush and I know I’ve caught him out.
Leaving him to his construction, I finally make my way to the training area. As I approach, I hear Chief Warrior Dixon’s voice boom out. “You’re not in the schoolyard now! It’s time you realized exactly what warrior training is all about and started taking it seriously. Form a circle as wolves, all of you.”
In the training area, Dixon is now surrounded by his trainees, and he doesn’t look happy at all. Before I can ask why, he shouts again. “Attack me!” The trainees tentatively move forward and he roars again, scaring half of them to within an inch of peeingtheir pants, I’m sure. “Attack me!” Seeing him shift into Beast has me worried for all of them.
This time they all rush at him, and I can only say it is a massacre. Within seconds, all the trainees are down and appear to be bleeding from some part of their anatomy. One springs back up, and despite blood dripping from her shoulder, faces Beast again. As I see her muscles tense for her spring, Beast shifts to Dixon and he catches her by the throat in mid leap.
“Adaline! Stand down... You have been the star pupil in today's lesson. Please go and get your injury looked at. The rest of you need to take notice of Adaline’s commitment. I will not tolerate this kind of lazy attitude towards your training. From now on, anyone that does not give me one hundred percent of their effort will receive extra duties within the pack. Dismissed.”
“I’m sorry you had to witness that display, Alpha Heir Bronze. I assure you they will do better from now on.” Chief Warrior Dixon shakes his head as he watches how slowly some of his class shift back to human form, and limp dejectedly away from the training area.
“I came to discuss the warrior training schedules with you. Do you need more time?” I raise an eyebrow because if this is where we are at in our training, we are in a far worse position than I thought.
“The schedules are drawn up and awaiting your approval. This was my newest class that have just reached the age to start their warrior awareness training. They treated the entire lesson as though it were playtime in one of their nursery classes. They needed the short sharp shock treatment, I’m afraid. I’m sure they will be more focused next time.”
“I’m sure they will and if not, I trust that you will show them the error of their ways? Leave the prepared schedules in the Alpha office, and I’ll look them over when I’m done meeting with the elders. I’m sure that you will have them as complete and satisfactory as always.”
Receiving a head tilt from Chief Warrior Dixon, I head back to the packhouse and my meeting with the elders. The elders have had a place in the pack for as long as I can remember. History tells us that a pack Alpha was running the pack to further his personal wealth and not for any other reason. At that time, the elders came into being to prevent this ever happening again and to ensure that the pack was always the first concern of all those in positions of power.
My father considered disbanding this elder group several times, as he believes that they display the very traits that they were set up to prevent. When I heard this, I did some digging in our library archives and nothing states they are any form of legal body or that they are required at all. In one of the early Alpha diaries, I found the entry that describes their original purpose and it does not include anything that they have become over time. I had a certified copy of the entry made by the pack secretary, which I have in my pocket.
Entering the packhouse, I see my father waiting for me. “The elders are in the Alpha office. I’ll escort you in and then I’ll leave you to it. Don’t forget that you are the Alpha Heir. They answer to you and the pack, not the other way around. They have only the power to report or suggest, not command or make demands.”
Taking the certified copy from my pocket, I let him read it.
“Oh, brilliant, son. I wish I’d thought of that years ago. Damn, that’s a subtle move. I almost wish I could stay in there now.”
Pushing the office door open, my father ushers me in before him. I’m not fully in the office before one of the elders shouts at me.
“You need to knock before you enter an office, young man. Did your father teach you nothing?”
Sensing my father’s fury, I merely step into the office before he knocks me to the ground in his haste to confront the speaker.
