A Collection, and How to do Laundry

"You are such a disappointment, Silas" Harbinger growled as he watched his charge kneel before him with shame.

"Please, father - I wasn-" Silas was cut off.

"Father? What kind of moron would I be to allow you to call me father? You are a disgrace. I've given you a nice place to live, food to eat, and I've gifted you with education and training you would have never had access to as the orphan you are - and failure is all you have ever repaid me with," Harbinger returned coldly as he stood from his nice full-backed leather chair.

Unlike other homes that were hollowed out compartments, Harbinger liked having a nice, wooden square framing for his walls. It was the only way he felt comfortable. It felt so 'human', and unnatural. Most felt uneasy when they had to sit across from the General when he had bad news, which only made him love his personal office that much more.

The space was beautiful, and had been decorated in lovely golds, greens, and black. Accolades lined the wall with trophies, medals, awards, and mounted gemstones. The General took deep pride in his image as well as his successes. The green leather he stood from was still shiny and well-kept. Everything was in order.

The framed decrees, titles, and letters of authority lined the walls with perfect precision. All of the sizes were grouped together in different clusters around the room, and each one had been placed on the green wallpaper that had gold leaves etched into the fine paper exactly one inch apart.

It looks so sterile thanks to the arrangement, but it had order. A place for everything, and for everything a place. Harbinger detested art and abstract things. There was no place for that. One wrench in the system would lead to catastrophe.

"It seems I will have to do your job for you, as always. At leas you gathered information," the General asked with sarcasm layered deeply in each word.

"Oh. Wait. You didn't do that either." Harbinger followed up with heavy iron in his tone.

The only half-shifter in the colony, his stature was tall, and as he walked towards Silas on two hind legs with massive white paws, the young charge wore he could hear the thud of each step beat on time with his pounding heart.

Once the old male reached Silas, he wound his hand back and slapped the unsuspecting young wolf in the face so hard, it knocked him onto his side against the plush golden-rod colored carpet.

"Get up, you pathetic little weakling," the intimidating lycan barked and pushed Silas back onto the floor as the blonde male started to pick himself up from the ground.

"I said. Get up." Harbinger growled once again, and waited as he watched Silas pause.

After a few moments, Silas went to push himself up again, but Harbinger just kicked him in the chest, causing the blonde male to lose balance and fall back down again. Instead of trying to get back up immediately, he just sat on his rump gasping for air.

"You can't even steel yourself. You're nothing but a deep disappointment to me - in fact you are a total disgrace of an alpha. Without me, you'd have no respect - did you know that?" the cruel white-furred lycan asked with a little sadistic smile growing out of the side of his mouth.

Silas said nothing as his glassy emerald eyes looked to his father figure for any kind of sympathy or love.

He received nothing more than a cold stare, and a leg that was readying itself to land another blow to Silas' chest.

"Why did you even take me in, then? What was the point?" the defenseless male asked as he tilted his head up to Harbinger's darkened expression.

"Isn't it obvious, Silas? Look around you. You fit. You match my collection. I was hoping you would surprise me and be a strong, competent wolf, but instead you've turned out to be a little boy who never grew up. A vain, obnoxious, stupid little child."

Green...and gold.... Seriously? No. He had to be lying, right? He was just trying to upset Silas again. The truth was too hard to bare, and also not one he was ready to admit to. What a silly reason to adopt a child. No one would do that.

The General sighed hard and put his clawed fingertips to the bridge of his nose where he pinched it and drooped his head as he started to calm himself down. He knew that pushing Silas too far would send him into some kind of rage, or start to make plans to kill Harbinger in his sleep. He had to reel it back in.

"I'm sorry, Silas" he lied and then offered to help him up when he was done doing his dramatic motion of disappointment. "I'm just upset about the whispers. It upsets me when things don't go according to plan, you know this, I am sure."

"O-Of course..." Silas replied sheepishly and hesitated, but ultimately accepted the hand offered to him which pulled him up with ease.

The General started to remove the little hairs of white fur, dirt, and lint he had picked up from the floor by wiping off the young wolf's shoulders and back with a feigned warmth he summoned up to trick Silas into believing he had some form of affection for him.

"Let me make it up to you. Would you like to go to lunch? We can have a non-business conversation over a nice roast and some tea, what do you think about that?" he offered with a sly expression that Silas did not see as suspicious thanks to the 'wool' covering his eyes.

"How is your relationship going with Cassandra? Is she helping you, and furthermore - how is the duty of having an heir going?" the General asked as though he truly cared. The sly grin he had melted into a well-falsified warm smile as he pulled the stiff and shaken Silas to his side and started to walk with him out of the office and down the hallway filled with artifacts and weapons that had been displayed on the wall.

******

Once nightfall came, the pack in the cave began to wake up - even Myranda, who had slipped off to sleep once she was sure everything was fine. Besides, it was irresistible to cuddle next to Metas who was sleeping so soundly.

As the Alpha stretched, she smiled and inhaled his scent through her nose. She wished they were alone so badly, so that she could have just a little more time in bed with him like they used to be able to do when she first came to live with him.

The best mornings were the ones where she felt his skin against hers, and his lips traveled freely about her form. It was so delightful to be so close to the one she adored as soon as they woke up, something about it made the day much better for both of them. Or she supposed at this point, it made the night much better.

As they all sat up and looked around at each other with groggy, tired, and clueless expressions as their minds started to try to function fully.

"Thank you for watching us, my beautiful Luna," Metas whispered into her ear and followed up with a kiss to her earlobe.

Myranda smiled and nuzzled her head against Metas' face and then planted a sweet kiss on his cheek.

"What's on the agenda today, guys?" Jyriah asked with a yawn and stretch.

"We ate all that we caught yesterday, so we need to hunt," Joss suggested as he rubbed his left eye sleepily.

"We need to hide more supplies around the woods," Lara piped in as she ran her fingers through her pretty white hair.

"Clothes and blankets need to be washed. It's starting to amass a smell. I think we should also slather the entrance with fresh clay again," Ajax added with a much more helpful and kind voice than the one he had a few hours ago.

"We need to move the remnants of the campfire to another location, and then build a new one for tonight," Jyriah informed the group.

"I need to go find more herbal supplies," Veltar added as he moved his hair back behind his ears. It looked much better since Jess and Lara washed, trimmed, and combed it for him. His deep wood-colored hair was now a medium length that he could easily sweep back and tie into a short pony tale that left a some straggling, wavy hair to frame his face.

"If I go with him, I can hunt while he finds what he needs. If we use the big pouch, and I find some good stuff, we can bring a much larger haul," Jess offered next to him, although they had made sure to be far enough away to not rise suspicions. Myranda hadn't even talked to them yet about how she felt, but Jyriah was the one they were worried about.

Apparently Joss was worried too as he followed quickly, nearly cutting his twin off as he offered, "-oh, how about I do that instead? You can sit here and show them how to do laundry the right way."

It came off so much worse than he meant.

"...Females can do more than do laundry... I like Jessie's idea better. You can sit here and teach /us/ how to do laundry" she pulled her fingers up to make air quotes as she mockingly added, "'the right way'."

"I didn't mean it like that.." Joss tried to defend himself, but it started to dawn on him what he had said.

"Babe, you need to calm down. You've been on edge for a while, how about you sit and plan some logistics for the barracks we'd like to build. You're a great planner," Jyriah said tenderly as he came to his mate's aid. The fiery red wolf took the hand of his silvery blue mate and squeezed it softly.

"He didn't mean any harm, so calm down..." Jyriah added as he looked around the room at quite a few displeased faces while Joss buried his head in his hands.

The silence that lingered was awkward and tense, but no one could think of anything to say to actually break it without it putting more strain on the situation.