WHAT IT TAKES TO RUN AN ARMY

16 FEBRUARY, TUESDAY, WEE HOURS

I woke up in yet another dream travel. Just great! I knew from the moment I opened my eyes in a dark and cold room, but wrapped with something warm and strong around me.

{Mate!}

This time, I was in my usual oversized t-shirt and super short shorts. So my bare legs could feel his bare legs. Naturally I flared and backed off the bed, landing in a heap with his scratchy blanket on the cold concrete floor.

What would I give to be able to smell his scent! Wait what? No! That was like the last thing I needed right now.

I got up to my bare feet. Cold concrete floor, sandy... I shook out the blanket and carefully dropped it over Mate without looking, because by now I had come to realize that Mate slept in the buff.

Come to think of it, so did Ki. I wondered if it were a Lorent thing. Which was ironic because they spend so much on tailored suits, but don't have a shred of cloth for PJs. Hahahaha. Lorents are really one of a kind.

Anyway, I knew this little room. I went to check Mate's desk. The words "Sam was here" was still here. His phone with the broken screen was still charging. There was a laptop, but it's screen was dark.

{Mine}

Boo was more interested in the sleeping form of Mate. I returned to his side and crouched in front of his bed to look at his sleeping face.

It was so weird, I was sleeping back home and dream travelling to the Underground, where Mate was sleeping while dream travelling to Night Leaf.

We each travelled across half a continent and still couldn't hang out. Mate liked to use the time to settle Lorent affairs, hound my betas for updates and boss everyone around. At least this was as far as I knew. I had no idea what Mate actually did when I wasn't around.

I couldn't even say for sure what I was doing when he "wasn't around." For example, right now I was squatting next to his bed, bare feet on cold concrete, staring at his face in the dark.

If anyone asked me, "What did you do over there?" I would definitely answer, "Nothing."

Because it was true, and any truer would be just embaressing to say aloud.

I stood up. It was cold. I padded over to the cupboard on the side to help myself to a pair of dark sweatpants. I couldn't make out the color, but I felt quite sure I got it on facing the right way. And then I found socks.

Mate's sneakers were way to big for me. But then I noticed a black bag at the bottom of the cupboard with a label made out of masking tape wrapped around one of the handles, "SAM".

Ooooohhhh... Did he keep my dress and stuff here? I unzipped it to look. Nope, but I did find training gear, t-shirt, cameo pants, hoodie jacket ... And even shoes!

So I used the shoes. They were cross trainers maybe? And then decided to don on the dark colored hoodie jacket too. Just because I might as well keep warm and comfortable.

The floors were so cold, I could feel the cold seep through the soles of my shoes. I looked at Mate's sleeping form, how did he not freeze in his sleep?

Anyway, now that I was properly dressed, I began to feel a little more adventurous. I pulled up the hoodie for the extra sense of security, and then carefully pushed the door open.

I was half expecting to meet guards at the door, but the hallway outside was empty. Either they've decided that my Luna was the most dangerous thing in the underground, or the threat to my Luna was gone.

For some reason, I suddenly had to think of Ruby. Ruby was gone. No more threat. No more guards.

This Underground was loyal to me. I knew this from deep in my wolf. I could feel their bonds to me, just as they could probably feel mine... Oh.

Footsteps fell quickly and soon I caught sight of Stephan and Theo rushing around the bend and into the hallway. They stopped in front of me and bowed, "Welcome Alpha. Apologies for the delayed reception." Theo intoned emotionlessly.

"I felt your wolf's presence." Stephan informed me. One line. He didn't elaborate. I told you it was an alpha thing.

"Thanks." I said. One word. Did that make me more alpha?

Actually, I wanted to say, "Thanks for coming out to meet me."

This was what my Dad would say, but technically they didn't COME OUT to meet me... More like came inner to Mate's bunker?

So I stopped at "Thanks" and didn't know how to continue.

"We are at the ready, Alpha. Just give us your order." Stephan told me.

WHAT? I flared. That was just another way of saying, "Alpha, what do you want to do?"

Maybe I was being a little oversensitive about this, but WHY WAS EVERYONE ASKING ME?

{Because you're the alpha?}

If wolves could snicker, I was sure Boo would be a real snicker bar fun pack all on her own.

The two men stood there waiting politely for my order. On any given day, I would have said, "A hamburger and fries please. With Ketchup on the side."

BUT I was talking to Stephan and Theo, neither of them looked like their face had the flexibility to laugh. Worse, they might really go through all the trouble to get it for me.

I imagined running an army of fight dogs underground with limited resources away from packlands would be challenging enough without your alpha popping up out of nowhere in the middle of the night and asking for hamburger and fries. 

"What were you guys doing before I got here?" I asked.

"I was sleeping, Alpha." Stephan informed me. Opps.

"I was on night shift." Theo explained, least I thought all of them slept at night. 

But their answers made it easy for me to decide what I wanted to do, "Stephan, go back to bed. You need rest. I'll follow Theo around for the rest of his shift. Don't mind me, I'm just going to explore the place."

I imagined that would be the least troublesome and safest fun I could indulge in while I was here. I'm not sure what Stephan or Theo were imagining though. Stephan's face showed no change. Theo's actually froze even more. 

"Understood, Alpha." Stephan said at length, "'Theo would accompany you on your inspection. I await your guidance."

Wait, what now?

Both men bowed and Stephan immediately removed himself from my presence. Oh pop. Was he mad? Hurt? It's very hard to tell when a man expresses himself like a granite rock. 

"Alpha, is there anywhere you'd like to cover during this inspection?" Theo inquired in his usual quiet monotone.

"It's not an inspection. I'm just exploring." I tried to explain, "How about you do your usual night shift and I'll just follow you?"

Theo considered this, and then nodded, "Understood, Alpha."

Did he? Really?

"This way, please." Theo politely indicated towards the exit of the hallway we were in. I nodded, "Okay, go ahead, I'll follow you."

Theo nodded a bow and walked briskly two steps ahead of me. I followed, my legs were shorter, but I was a fast walker by nature. I never had the patience to walk slowly anyway.

We moved from the concrete hallway out to the stone flooring of the older passageways. And then back into more concrete tunnels... Yes tunnels. I felt like an ant in an underground colony.

Theo made his first stop when he reached another concrete tunnel. It was terrible. They all looked the same, but I'm assuming Theo knew what he was doing. He whipped out a tablet, checked it and then went to the first door, "These are the bunkers. Each bunker sleeps a 6 man squad. They sign in with their thumbprint to unlock the door, and there are strict lights out times according to their schedules."

One of the doors still had a light seeping out from underneath, "Please excuse me, Alpha."

Theo touched his thumb on the sensor at the door. It unlocked with a buzzing sound. Inside the bunker, I heard the wolves jump.

"Sir!" The wolves stood by their beds in various levels of undress, although none as undressed as my Luna. I waited outside.

"Your lights out was fifteen minutes ago." Theo informed them, "Fifteen laps around the camp first thing tomorrow morning."

"Yes, sir!" The wolves answered in unison.

Theo stepped back out and shut the door, but not before I heard bickering, "I told you to turn out the light!"

"And I told you I'll turn it off when I find my sock! Who took it? Own up!"

Theo knocked on the door. There was silence. And then Theo said, "30 laps."

"YES SIR!" Came the immediate response.

I heard a thumping sound. Either of someone falling from his bed or being thrown on the floor. The lights went out and then silence. Theo carried on walking and I followed.

The rest of the walk down the tunnel was uneventful. Almost boring really, but Theo was checking his tablet at each door.

Next we went to the office. There were two other wolves at the office. They stood up immediately at our entrance, "Sir!"

"Alpha Sam is here." Theo intoned.

"Yo Princess!" The two wolves greeted.

I really should talk to my betas about that - was that supposed to be my formal greeting now?

Theo had to sign some stuff, but before that, he instructed one of the office personnel to show me the files.

I tried to politely decline but the files were quickly pulled out and put on a table, "Ready for inspection, Alpha!"

And the wolf standing behind it looked so proud and pleased at the stacks of files that I felt it would be terribly rude not to look at it.

I tentatively flipped through the first file, which was just pages and pages of charts.

"As you can see, Alpha. All our activities are recorded in detail. Our Captain employs strict reporting standards." The office wolf informed me. He opened another one and yet another.

I obligingly looked at them and nodded as if I understood what I was looking at. Okay, before you imagine me blinking like an airhead at the files, I would like to clarify that I wasn't all that bad at it! I've been getting lots of practice at looking at this kind of thing whenever I read reports in my kindle.

I didn't understand EVERYTHING, but I did understand something.

Like I realized when one of the files showed invoices... and not just because the file was labelled "invoices". For an underground army which just opened for business, we had already collected a neat stack of invoices.

It wasn't just Henry's rogue hunt, which listed five pages of charges and ended with a staggering grand total that was marked "PAID" with a red stamp. It seems like our Underground Army was moonlighting quite actively, hiring out bodyguards and other services to various packs around the continent.

Nevermind the Moon Bell Pack. I should have named us the Moon Light Pack.

The other invoices recorded much smaller amounts compared to Henry's bill, but I had to say, a pair of bodyguards to accompany you for three day journey would roughly set you back about the same as staying at the Alpha Suite at the Langston.

I thought of Mate's cold dark bunker and scratchy blanket. I looked around the office, it was also in a cold concrete room with second hand, old fashioned, worn out desks and chairs... Where was all the money going? All that money, and we couldn't afford central heating?

"Budget report." I managed to say.

"Sir, Alpha has requested the budget report." The office wolf told Theo.

Theo looked up from the papers he was signing off, "Understood. Please follow me, Alpha."

The budget reports and other higher level documents were kept in another tunnel. I followed Theo back to Mate's tunnel. To be honest I only recognized it because I could sense Mate. They had since replaced the broken door, so it looked exactly like any of the other tunnels I've been following Theo around in.

Maybe this was a security feature - any intruder would be hopeless lost in this concrete tunnel maze.

We passed the meeting room, and Theo let me into another room that was furnished just as shabbily and mismatched as the earlier office room. BUT this one had large computer screens, a projector and meeting table on one side, and matching black printer copiers and whatever else - it totally didn't match up, but I was getting a whiff of where the money was spent even before looking at the report.

Theo found the files for the budget reports... In a safe, no less.

I opened the file. The last document was signed off just last week. Most of the money went into "Equipment" which was the lay word for "weapons".

I didn't know how much a gun cost, but wth was Mate buying? Maybe he should just take that total budget and buy an atomic bomb.

The second largest piece of the budget pie went to "salaries". Oh, so my army was getting paid. That was nice to know. And from a cursory look, warriors from the underground also enjoyed work benefits.

And then there were all the other categories like medical, relocation, transport, maintenance, supplies, training, recruitment... which really made me think - What kind of "recruitment" did an underground army do anyway?

I imagined their ad on the classifieds:

Help wanted!

Underground Army Warrior

Fight dog experience preferred.

Room, board, and uniforms provided.

Please send your resume to HR@undergroundarmy.com.

Would I send my resume to something like that? Maybe they should use the more inspiring kind of ad, to attract the talented warriors. Something like:

Fight the rogues and see the world! Join the warriors in blue!

At the Underground Army we provide training of the highest quality so that every wolf would be his best fighter.

Send your resume to HR@undergroundarmy.com. today!

Yeah. I might sign up for something like that.

"Alpha?" It was Theo, "Alpha? Is there a problem?"

Wha- I quickly shook my head and returned the file to him, "No problem at all." (Of course this was just a guess on my part.)

"What will you be doing next?" I quickly changed the subject. Theo put the file away and secured the safe, "I will be checking the armory. Shift change."

Oh. What was shift change?

"Lead the way." I gave Theo my wide smile, but Theo only nodded stiffly, "This way, Alpha."