WHY DID THE ALPHA CROSS THE ROAD?

SATURDAY, 5 MARCH, LUNCHTIME

"I don't have to hear it to know it's going to be troublesome." Ben told me.

I decided I was going to ignore his attitude, "What if I said I wanted that side of the road to join our picnic?"

"There isn't enough space." Ben said.

"I mean like for everyone to mix more." I said.

"Oh. That's easy." Ben said, "Just give the order and we'll have half the mats here swap spaces to the other side."

"I don't know Ben…" Lizzy gave the other side a look of misgiving, "I'd say good luck to whoever has to swap."

Well, that was probably the natural response, but it wasn't what I wanted.

I shook my head, "I need another idea. Something fun."

"We could play Blow Wind Blow." Jonah suggested.

I shook my head again. That actually sounded worse. Like what if we blew pups away from their parents?

"Jonah! What are you? A big bad wolf?" Lizzy scolded.

You know, cos Jonah was going to play Blow Wind Blow? Never mind, it was a inside joke.

A long time ago, when we were small pups, my friends had some literacy-human cultural study- drama thing in school. Like they had to read (literacy) some human storybook (human cultural study) and then act out a play about it (drama.)

New Leaf Academy lessons sometimes sounded too fun to be a real school thing. Anyway, they were only in first or second grade - I don't remember, but they read something called The Three Little Pigs.

We thought it was hilarious that the wolf went around huffing and puffing houses down. Like really, it's not even like strong lungs were a wolf thing.

Anyway, after that it came out as a joke when we had to play Blow Wind Blow one day, and now every time that game came up, we could call the "blower" the Big Bad Wolf.

And then we would laugh. Now that I've explained it, I guess it was not really funny at all.

But I was thinking of something less forced and mandatory than Blow Wind Blow. I mean, I'd hate being blown away from my family and friends and forced to "mingle" with strangers. It would very likely end up as an awkward and uncomfortable experience.

But I also wanted to get rid of the great divide.

I turned to Wolfgang, "Does Teacher Hotstuff have any advice?"

I might as well, since he was here.

"It is natural for division to occur within the societal structure of the pack." Wolfgang obliged with a mini-lecture, "Many factors contribute to such divisions, differing cultural and educational backgrounds, life stages, income brackets, and positions within pack hierarchy all contribute to the cracks in a pack's unity."

"Please get to the point, Hotstuff." Ben said, "We don't have all picnic."

Wolfgang raised his brow at Ben, and then decided to just ignore the young head beta to continue, "It is indeed in the best interest of the pack for the leadership to continuously cultivate a sense of belonging and unity within its pack."

"However, this is an ongoing task, often seen as a shore one rows towards but never reach." Of course Teacher Hotstuff would have to insert some good ol' Lycan imagery, "Such cracks in the social fabric of wolf packs become more pronounced as the pack grows. Within small packs, hierarchy is relatively flat and the wolves are aware that every contribution and cooperation would increase their chances of survival."

"Whilst in a larger pack with many strong wolves, hierarchy and inner circles often define a wolf's social circles."

Sometimes asking Wolfgang a question was like opening a textbook... which wouldn't stop reading aloud to you.

Ben chuffed impatiently, but Wolfgang pointedly ignored him, "If princess wants to foster a more harmonious society, there are several strategies pack leadership commonly employs towards this goal."

"In situations where a pack might have an influx of new wolves, whether this be post-war restorations or some political absorption of another pack, the most successful integration of new wolves were when inter-mating occurs among the native wolves and the newcomers."

Urm... So we turn this picnic into a speed dating event?

"There have also been records of Alphas who have either forced an exodus of his own wolves into the new territories, or brought in new wolves to live among the native wolves." Wolfgang continued, "Case in point, the Black Forest Pack..."

During the 30 year war to unite the pack, their Alpha Aaron (before Alpha Solomon's reign) had done things like uproot entire towns just to force its residents to physically move into established pack towns. Today, history had painted such a practice as unsustainable and rather extreme.

The mating of a Young Alpha of one pack to the Alpha's daughter of another pack would be considered the most amiable of mergers.

That was like Bell and me? But look at the Lorents and us today - they weren't even invited to our picnic.

Because the world was seldom an ideal nor amiable place, it was not unheard of for Alphas to exert dominance over other packs by taking concubines.

This ancient practice had a resurgence during the Great War when many packs were forced to merge either willingly or under duress to secure enough manpower and resources for their packs to survive the harsh circumstances.

For this to be effective, the Alpha must take a female from the other Alpha's family (for example, a sister or daughter. It would be even more effective if he took in the established Luna - but this would require her to be widowed first.

There were also alphas who took concubines from nighbouring and allied packs to ensure their fealty after establishing their dominance.

This could be any high ranking beautiful unmated she-wolf. Although not necessarily of the other Alpha's bloodline, it was usually a she-wolf of some significance. E.g. a daughter from the beta or gamma family, or a she-wolf of unparalleled beauty or significant lineage who could represent her pack in someway to the foreign Alpha.

"But I'm sure the princess is well aquainted with political unions and I will not delve into details." Wolfgang said.

Wait, like what made Wolfgang so sure?

"Okay, Sam." Ben smirked, "Go take the entire underground into your Special Team."

Eh? What? I know Ben was just joking, but that was NOT funny.

"That would not be necessary." Wolfgang corrected firmly, "Just Stephan is more than sufficient to ensure their loyalty."

Wait, no. My army wasn't loyal to me because they were loyal to Stephan, they were loyal to me because I was their Alpha!

But Wolfgang continued, "Another proven method of inducing pack cohesiveness are identifying a common enemy."

Because there was nothing like hating on a common enemy to bring wolves together.

Although the enemy didn't have to be a person per say. Many packs in the modern times enjoyed picking on a conceptual enemy. E.g. injustice or inefficiency.

But putting a face to the enemy often helped make it more tangible.

"Like Alpha Lorent. The Morning Light guys already hate them." Ben told me.

It wasn't that they hated the Lorents, it was just what the Lorents represented (i.e. stuck up snobs) that they hated.

But Dad had never taken advantage of this, and his neutrality towards the Lorents had kept our wolves in check.

Wolfgang felt it would be appropriate to discuss my Dad's strategy to keeping the pack united since it was "quite obvious" to him that my leadership style was very close to my Dad's.

By focusing on hugely impossible goals, my Dad drove his wolves to run against the odds. This was inbuilt in every wolf, the innate desire to overcome obstacles and prove themselves victorious.

So by taking his wolves out from the comfort and security of Night Forest, he forced them to contend against the wilderness and build a pack from ground up. Night Leaf grew cohesive because it was a necessity for its survival.

We needed all hands on deck at every emergency. For example, in the early days, everyone from Alpha to Omega had to pitch in for the pack to survive the winters.

Well, yes. I know. I've been packing the care boxes every year, BUT I didn't think Dad set up the snow storms to give us a team building exercise.

Surviving winter was a serious challenge in the early days. More so for Morning Light than Night Leaf – everything always sounded like it was worse for the wolves at Morning Light.

But that was a thing of the past. Over the years, for us at Night Leaf, winter was at worst a nuisance. You know, with all the snow shoveling and iced vehicles... Sometimes the snow storms activated the entire packhouse. But there were also snow days and stayovers at the Packhouse as a pup was super fun. Like the best of camp nights and pajama parties.

Anyway, if I wanted to continue my Dad's legacy, I would need an even bigger and more impossible goal to rally my wolves towards.

It'll have to be HUGE.

Like maybe even the merger of our entire Packlands huge. Oh, wait. That was exactly what we were doing!

Wolfgang had been studying the recent events surrounding our pack and was very impressed by our leadership's clear strategic direction. Lol. Wolfgang was still new here. Give him a few meetings (especially with Gamma Harry and Gamma Endo) and I felt sure he would revise his high esteem of our pack's leadership.

Eventually, our packs would merge, and after inter-mating, central governance, and a unified educational system, we may expect the pack to be truly integrated within the next one or two generations.

It would be helpful to celebrate our victories and mark the significant milestones in our history such as we had through the Ceremony of the Departed. Such events would root the younger generation in our history and unite our wolves in shared grief and victory.

Bell's upcoming investiture and my own inauguration, followed by our mating ceremony would also be key events that had the potential to establish our combined packs and reinforce our pack's unity.

Wolfgang also believed that Dad's PR strategy to lift me up as the face of the next generation was genius. With my goddess coloring, I was the perfect mascot.

Well, no, Wolfgang didn't use the word mascot, but whatever he said pretty much meant the Alpha Princess being the symbol for hope, peace, and prosperity. He pretty much made it sound like everything that had happened was because of our pack's leadership under Dad's direction.

By lifting up a young beautiful and kind princess who looked like our Moon Goddess incarnate, Dad had successfully shifted prevailing sentiments away from the dark wild barbaric backlands of the continent, to a bright and shining future.

According to Wolfgang, my Dad was truly a wonderful Alpha Father, who saved the best for me and the next generation. Dad did not seek to gain popularity or honor for himself, instead, he had carefully and methodically arranged for me to step up into the limelight in the best light possible.

From aligning our new warrior's jacket color to the blue of my hair, to the new modern name our merged pack would boast – Moon Bell, which Wolfgang was certain invoked the my image as the princess blessed by the Moon Goddess, coupled with the heralding of blessings – this was the "Bell" part and had some ancient lycan literature reference that I'm just going to skip.

Wolfgang had totally over-thought our new pack name, but I took note to let him author our future history books. Sorry future pups, there will be a very complicated and historically rooted meaning for our pack name and pack colors when you have to learn it in school one day.

Anyway, Wolfgang had also over-thought my question. All I was asking for was a way to bridge the gap between the Underground Wolves and the Night Leaf and Morning Light wolves. And since there were no helpful answers forthcoming, I had to go back to the one thing I knew that worked. The one sure way of making friends - giving cookies.

"Okay, I got an idea." I said.

"Oh no." Ben said.

But I wasn't worried. I was sure he would come around.

I smiled my widest smile at my beta and declared, "We are going to fill up that great divide with pizza."