Chapter 3
brONZE
Looking around the office, I have to admit to myself that two weeks in here has driven me a little stir crazy. Titan, my wolf, is whining and pacing for his mate, and I know he understands why Taria and her wolf, Maya, are not mated with us yet, but he could give it a rest. My head is constantly aching with the pity-party he has going on.
I want mate!
‘I know you do, Titan, but we are doing what is right for us and the pack. I want my mate too, and we’ll get Taria and Maya. We just have to be patient.’
In the back of my mind Titan huffs, circles a few times then lays down with his back to me. Sulking! Boy, I hope these next few weeks pass quickly.
Placing the last of the folders on my desk back into the filing cabinet, I let out a relieved breath. I hope I’m going to remember all the information, but I'm sure my father will remind me if I forget.
The door to the office opens and my mother walks inside. “Are you all finished, Bronze?”
“I am, and I’m hoping I remember everyone’s information because there are a lot of members.” I give her a kiss on her cheek when she lifts her face. I know what she expects and as her only pup, she was always very affectionate towards me.
“You will remember more when you get to know everyone in the pack personally. You have to make the effort to go to the garden, kitchen, training sessions, etc., etc. There is a lot to cover, but if your father and I can do it, so can you. You know the younger pack members, so that is not going to be an issue.”
“I did as father asked and kept myself away from the she-wolves, and kept myself apart from the males. I only had a friendship with Xander and Wesley. They kept in touch with me while I was at Alpha camp, and I know they’ll help me reach out to everyone.” I know mother has more to say as she’s settled herself into one of the easy chairs.
“I want to discuss Taria, and what I will need to teach her regarding our pack. She is learning from the other Lunas, as you well know, but all packs have their own way of doing things, and it’s here that Taria will be the Luna. I want her to feel she can make any changes she sees fit, and doesn’t feel she has to be answerable to me or your father. You, as her mate and the Alpha of the pack, will need to be aware that Taria doesn’t become overwhelmed.”
Taking a perch on the edge of the desk, I look at mother, and give her a slight smile. “I will be careful with Taria, but she is strong. She will be a great Luna. She has to learn to fight because of the war that is coming, and before you say more, mother, there will be a war because the rogue Alpha is not going to sit back for years to come. He has an agenda, and we know this from what developed with Luna Aurora, and the information she procured.”
“I have been telling your father that we need to ensure more females in the pack can fight. Maybe not as warriors, but be able to do something, even if it’s throwing pans and dishes accurately.”
Now, I can’t help the smirk that crosses my face thinking about the kitchen females throwing everything they can lay their hands on at a rogue enemy.
“Stop smirking, I know what you are imagining...” the giggle that my mother gives shows me she’s imagining the same thing and also finding it highly amusing. Ash, our chief cook, is handy when she flicks her tea towel so I can just imagine how accurate she would be with a skillet.
“I’ll speak to father about training, but as for Taria, let’s see how she gets along at Blackshadow and Wolfsfoot Packs before we think of what she will need when she arrives here. I have no intention of not claiming her, mother. I just didn’t want the bond to start before she was ready to show how capable she is. You and I both know the pack would jump on her if she wasn’t confident and able. I have an appointment with the Elders, and I can tell you now that I will not take any idiocy from them.”
Mother pats my shoulder while giving me a look that says she knows exactly what I mean. Then, after kissing my cheek, she walks out of the office, closing the door quietly behind her. I know she’ll help Taria as much as she can, and if I’m totally honest, I can’t wait to have my mate here alongside me.
Looking around the office, I know that I can do no more than I have at this time. Next on my list of things to look at and organize is the warrior training schedules. I’ll need to watch a few sessions on the training field and speak with Chief Warrior Dixon. Now he has a massive wolf and his name ‘Beast’ portrays him perfectly. He is the best fighter and trainer I’ve encountered or even heard of, and I know that the Shifter Council have tried to lure him away with no luck.
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 more helpers , thank you very much. Maybe you could send them to warrior training or gardening 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 peeing their 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.
“I do not need anyone’s permission to enter my own office and you, sir, need to remember that it is neither your office nor your place to speak to the Alpha Heir in such a manner. Address the pack's Alpha Heir, my son, in that way again and I will meet you in the training ring as is my right. Are we clear on that point?” It is obvious that my father is in Alpha Chet mode.
When there is no answer forthcoming, my father steps further into the room and addresses all the elders. “You will answer my question. Is that clear, or I will take it you as the elders, as a whole, wish to challenge my authority in the ring. What is it to be?”
Three of the members look at the fourth and he shifts uncomfortably in his seat. “We are clear, Alpha Chet.”
“In formal proceedings such as these, you will address me as Alpha Blueblood.”
“We are clear on both points, Alpha Blueblood. My apologies.”
My father turns to me, gives me an outrageous wink that almost has me bursting out laughing, and then leaves the room whispering, “Give them hell, son.”
Entering the room fully, I sit in my father’s chair at his desk, and not in the seat at the table that has obviously been left in front of the four of them to be intimidating.
After formal introductions have been made, as if I didn’t already know who they were, they begin making suggestions as to how I should proceed when my father steps down in a week's time. This surprises me, as there have been no discussions as to when I will formally take over the pack.
“Where did the timeframe come from, may I ask?”
“What timeframe?” Elder Francis asks.
“The one that you’ve just quoted. The one where my father steps down next week!” I try to sound confused, as if I’d missed something.
“We would expect you to take over as soon as possible. You want to get in the big chair , don’t you?” Michael is the one that my father faced down. I’ve taken a very strong dislike to him and I foresee us having problems.
“Oh, I see. I’m expected to give him the date of his stepping down. Very well, continue.”
Noting down their suggestions on my pad from my father's desk, I see a pattern emerging. Giving them a little more rope to hang themselves with, I sit quietly as though agreeing to all their ideas. When they suggest that I look for a mate from no-man's-land as a way to keep us out of the coming war, this is the last straw.
“Elder members of the pack...” I begin but am soon spoken over.
“We are the elder council, if you please.” Michael again.
“Elder members of the pack, and if you interrupt me again, Michael, you will meet me in the ring, not my father. IS THAT CLEAR? You are only a council by your own choosing. There has never been an elder council and unless you cease this nonsense that you have made yourselves into, there won’t even be any ‘Elder members’ meetings. That is what this is, after all, a meeting granted to you by the Alpha of the pack.”
“There has been an elder council since time immemorial, Alpha Heir Bronze. There will always be an elder council and you will respect it.” This elder has been quiet so far and appears to be the youngest of the elders.
“Jude, isn’t it? History tells us that Saint Jude was the patron saint of lost causes, I believe, and you are certainly that gentlemen. I have heard enough of your self-righteous bullshit, and your demands that only benefit yourselves and your families since we sat down. I have scoured the archives and there is no elder council, nor has there ever been one. Elders' meetings were set up to stop a corrupt Alpha and prevent a recurrence. That was all there was, or ever has been. Over time, your predecessors have tried to become more powerful and wealthier by insinuating themselves into being more than they are.” Taking the copy of the Alpha diary from my pocket, I pass it to Jude.
“Currently, none of you give to the pack. You have a wage, a substantial one at that, free food, free housing, free clothing. In fact, you pay for nothing. You gentlemen, are parasites, and are no longer to be tolerated as such. I will be drawing up an elder members' charter in the future that will determine what is required of you and what remuneration you will receive, if any. Living for free will cease on the day I take over the pack. That is a certainty.”
Watching their faces go ashen as they realize that their days of lording it over the pack have ended with the paper they have been handed.
“You will not dictate to me who my mate will be. You are all well aware that my mate is currently preparing herself to become an outstanding Luna, and yet you have the audacity to suggest that I abandon her and my moral responsibilities to our allied packs by taking a mate from no-man’s-land to save your wealth and future. That diary entry states that after five alphas have succeeded the corrupt one, the elders may be disbanded by any alpha that sees fit to do so.
“Gentlemen. If one word of this meeting leaves these four walls, you will find that I will be that alpha. Now get out of my office and prepare yourselves to once more be of some use to this pack.”