Quinn
I felt a sense of deja Vu as I stood before the men with Tyrex. We had had our meeting and had both worked out a plan for how we were going to run the pack and any war that we were to have. I was elated that Fredo wouldn’t come in between us. He seemed like a man that had a mind of his own and I was glad that he hadn’t disappointed me.
He was truly meant to have dueled for the position of an alpha. He was meant to be the general of the pack.
Standing before the men and looking at them reminded me of when I had stood before the soldiers of the vampire clan and was preparing them for war. That was what I was doing here as well. We were preparing for war, finally going against those who had dared to come after the men in our pack. Those were the men who had been the reason the elders had come to dad, why he had to confess to them that he wasn’t strong and why we had had to have dueling ceremony faster than it was planned.
I hoped that we wouldn’t be having a war though. Not that I couldn’t fight but I didn’t want to start the beginning of my rule with bloodshed and hatred among packs. I hoped that we would be able to resolve this as calmly as we could.
The men bowed to me and Tyrex and stood, waiting for our instructions. I allowed Tyrex to brief them, standing silently beside him and watching the faces of the men for who was going to have an issue with our instructions.
I didn’t anyone was going to. No one looked disgruntled like they would rather gag than do things the way we wanted instead of how they had been doing it all along. I was glad that Tyrex was also a man who thought the way I did and in a progressive manner or this wouldn’t have been possible without him.
I would have had a long and rough time convincing the pack to act in a different and softer way than the approach we had been used to if the general of the army was a traditional thinker who preferred war and bloodshed first to peaceful negotiations and fighting only when it was necessary.
If the men in the pack were convinced of a better way to approach situations, it would be easy to convince the women and it wouldn’t be hard to have the wolves change in their thinking in a matter of time.
We took our leave, going off to where some of our wolves had been taking captives on their land by other wolves. Tyrex and I took the lead with ten other men with us. I hoped that I would be able to reach a negotiation with the men and didn’t want it to be like we had come to declare war which was why I had just ten men with us.
I wasn’t a fool and had assumed that the negotiation would be accepted though by the other pack staying on our territory where they didn’t belong. I knew we might have to fight back for our territory and also to get back our men which was why I had sent more than half of the pack army to go there already and wait for us in hiding. They were already trained on how to hide well and I was confident that they wouldn’t be sniffed out no matter how strong the nose of the alpha of the pack was.
We got to the land and everywhere was silent that I wondered where everyone was.
I hoped that they hadn’t taken our people captive and relocated to another land with them while we had been having the duelling ceremony and celebration. That would be a disaster that I didn’t even want to think of.
The elders were expecting a report and I didn’t want to go back to tell them that I failed in my first assignment as the alpha of the pack. That was embarrassing. I was sure that Tyrex wouldn’t like that as well.
I knew without a doubt that if Tyrex hadn’t been with me, Fedro would have been eagerly waiting for my downfall and failure with this mission. Tyrex was with me and so Fedro wouldn’t want that. Even my enemy wanted the success of this operation and I couldn’t allow that to be a failure. I couldn’t afford to disappoint anyone of them.
I thought I remembered a name from those who were staying there and decided to call it, in hopes that they would still be around and hear that their names were being called. I had my men spread out as well looking for them.
If not that they had been angry with the pack and decided to live apart from them, they wouldn’t be here, living on the borders and risking their lives in a way as ridiculous as this.
“Sean!”
I heard someone grumble in response and paused, listening well. It seemed like the person trying to answer had a clamp on his mouth and I realized that the other pack had sensed us as we were coming in despite how silent and careful we had been. They had quickly rounded up our men as hostages and I was annoyed at that. They shouldn’t have done that. They had totally crossed the boundaries with that.
It was obvious already that there wouldn’t be any negotiation. I had been trying to give them the honor they didn’t deserve by wanting a negotiation with them.
I was silly for giving them second chances. I should have known that they weren’t the respectable kind if they could barge into the territory of another clan and take the wolves there captive because they weren’t strong or many.
One of the many rules of being a wolf was that the claimed territory of another pack mustn’t be invaded.
A pack that was as brazen as that to do what no one else would do didn’t deserve any mercy. I blew the whistle and nodded with satisfaction as the men that were already in hiding burst out and stood before me.
I gave them their instructions to comb everywhere and find the men, both the captives and the captors. There wasn’t going to be any beating around the bush and driving home one unnecessary peaceful negotiation.
It was going to be war. The uncultured wolves were going to be chased out of our land today and our men were going to be rescued.