THE ALPHA'S TABLE

Once back in the Packhouse dining room, everything suddenly became normal again - the warmth of central heating, the smells of breakfast pancakes, maple syrup, scrambled eggs, bacon, ham, and sausages, the bustling of wolves as they ate and mingled, and the background drone of chatter punctuated by occasional laughter. Welcome to Breakfast with the Alpha. We had fewer wolves around today, but that was also expected. It was the beginning of our school break for 99.9% of the student population and a popular time for families to go on a short vacation.

In Spring, I heard Gold City was beautiful. The trees lining the streets would bloom, and al fresco, high street fashion, and farmer's market were lined up as a shopper's paradise. Strolling the Marina was the single most classic romantic scene of any modern lycan drama, followed closely by their Angel's Garden, an historical flower garden, and lets never forget the Gold City Amusement Park. Top three most romantic locations in our continent - and they were all found in Gold City.

Since many of our wolves were once from Night Forest, this was also the time for a weekend trip to visit grandparents. My family usually visited Grandpa Alpha and Grandma Luna late in the Summer though, and our visits were usually confined to wherever Grandpa Alpha and Grandma Luna wanted to go, but I heard of things like fields like wild flowers, running streams, and if you had the "luxury" of a farm stay, it was the best time to see baby animals.

Dean said the farm stay was only luxurious if you were there as a paying guest. His grandparents on his Mum's side were farm hands and whenever he visited them, there were a lot of chores.

"I had to work like a slave, okay?" Dean had told me, "Do you know how tiring farm work is?"

My entire experience of farm like was an assortment of Mother Goose, my favorite childhood song, "Old McDonalds had a farm, ei-ya-ei-ya-oh!" , so literature like Charlotte's Web, Animal Farm, and Fantastic Mr Fox. Oh, and the cartoon… Benjamin Rabbit. Anyway, my idea of farms were formed solely on such educational material. So no, until Dean had complained about his "holiday" to me, the idea of farm work did not present itself to me. I had mostly imagined it to be making friends with animals, but now that I thought about it, none of the animals in real life would actually talk either.

Later on in my educational life, I read that farmers had to work very hard and keep long hours to be successful. (I guess Little Boy Blue was supposed to be the negative example.)

If you didn't have family in Night Forest, or the cash to live it up in Gold City, the other popular place to take a family staycation was right at our doorstep - Gate City! There were a few small Bed and Breakfasts in the City which I heard good things about. We had shops, exhibitions at the Lorent Exhibition Hall, sometimes performances at our Town Hall and a beautiful hiking trail that ran around the side of the city... Some visitors had praised our architecture, how the historical and modern structures stood side by side, but if you grew up and schooled in the Green Packlands, you'd probably have so many school outings to Gate City to appreciate history/architecture/geography/exhibitions/urban orienteering/ etc that you'd be sick of it by the time you finished Middle School.

But remembering my stayover during the snow storm at the Langston, I realized a staycation wasn't a bad deal, even if it were only at Gate City. Maybe I could ask Dad some time. Everyone else went out of Packlands sometimes... It was high time we got to do something fun too.

My betas had deposited me at my family's table. A single large round table on one side of the Packhouse dining hall. I watched my other guards move to a nearby table and felt rather relieved that somebody figured out that having four wolves standing at attention behind me while I had breakfast with the pack was sticking out like four ramrod straight sore thumbs.

True to Beta Lucas' word, he was working hard to talk Dad out of his bad mood. Beta Lucas' technique was tried and tested - he would just talk about anything and everything else. There was always a hundred and one things that required the Alpha's attention, so all he had to do was pick something that was least likely to provoke his alpha and keep yammering off. If he could successfully hook my Dad's attention to solving something else, he would be able to push anything prickly for another time when Dad was calmer.

I'm still not entirely sure what set my Dad off like that. My Dad was known for his calm level headedness, so this chi-ka-boom was kind of out of the blue. I've always suspected that this was wholly because nobody in their right mind would provoke my Dad. I mean, our wolves didn't even step on the Alpha's lawn out of respect!

I guess I was the only dumdum who'd go and provoke Dad? At least Beta Lucas had seemed to feel it was because of me. I don't even know exactly what triggered Dad.

If I had to put my finger on it, I guess it'll have to be because I kissed Bell. I mean, I wasn't anywhere near 45 yet. Haha. But still, I don't think it warranted his reaction though. It was only a peck on the jaw (because I missed his cheek).

Ki set breakfast in front of me with a large mug of warm sweet milky tea. This surprised me because it was a buffet and I always got my own food… at least I used to. Suddenly, I'm remembering all the times food had just appeared for my eating pleasure. I totally hadn't any trouble adjusting that that! Hahaha.

"Thanks, Ki." I gave my charming beta a wide smile and proceeded to concentrate on stuffing my face because I was honestly hungry, and also because Beta Lucas was working so hard at talking to my Dad about the size of our Alpha table that I didn't want to accidentally undo his efforts by "provoking" my dad by accident.

The Alpha's table was a large round wooden table that had always sat the Alpha's family, the Beta's family, and the Gamma's family... I heard that the original idea for our packhouse dining room was to have lots of such round family tables but we didn't have enough budget.

Dad and Beta Lucas decided to make do with whatever we could collect...which were a few rectangular tables. And little by little our wolves contributed too, dragging in second hand rectangular dining tables and old dining chairs. I heard someone repurposed old doors to make some of the tables too.

Not wanting to discard our wolves' sincere contributions, Dad and Beta Lucas thought they'd just use the donated furniture for the while. Some of them were rather rickety, so it wouldn't be long before they had to be replaced.

But every year, even as some tables and chairs fail the safety inspection, new tables and chairs would magically appear.

Eventually, our dining hall ended up configured like a cafeteria of mismatched tables accessorized by an eclectic assortment of chairs.

On the bright side, our wolves were definitely getting wealthier if the donated tables and chairs were any indication. I liked how it also told our collective history. Like how Shannon would point out to an old simple pinewood table and say, "That's from my grandparent's kitchen. Now that Mum and I moved in, they needed a new one, but Grandma says that my Granddad made that table himself when they got mated. It was their first piece of furniture."

Or how there was a story about a girl who found out that one of the chairs was the exact chair her crush used to sit on at home. She would always sit on that chair when possible. When her crush found his soul mate (and it wasn't her), she sat on that chair crying for a whole year. No one knew who this mysterious girl was though, so I can't vouch for this story. I just remembered that Jessica had thought this story was very romantic. I was quite fascinated myself, "How did she know that was the exact chair? Did she smell his butt on it?"

I imagined it had to be a padded chair for the scent to linger. Jessica said I had ruined the story for her.

Anyway, I think Dad and Beta Lucas had long given up on their original vision for the Packhouse Dining Hall and the all important issue that Beta Lucas needed Dad to forget whatever happened just now to deal with was not so much the shape of the Alpha Table, but its size.

We might need a wider table soon.

Beta Gerald had started joining us for breakfast, but without his family. Sometimes Ki or Harvey might join us too, but basically, Beta Lucas' point was that Dad and I had picked up too many Betas and Gammas. For example, even though Ben wasn't here today, our table was rather full. Ki and Harvey had taken their breakfast over to sit with Wolfgang, Fluffy, Neil, and Jax at the next table.

We needed a larger table, or more tables, or more breakfasts - because now Beta Gerald was suggesting that perhaps Alpha Kingsley might like to consider the possibility of having Breakfast with the Pack at Morning Light too.

"Then we have to have breakfast with the Underground Wolves too." Beta Lucas pointed out, "Our Alpha cannot show favoritism."

"THE PRINCESS TOWN wolves would certainly, ah, be very appreciative of the opportunity." Beta Gerald agree.

"Too appreciative. They may spend all breakfast crying." Beta Lucas quipped. Mrs Beta slapped him lightly on his arm, "Luc, please!"

"I heard they couldn't stop crying." Gamma Harry chuffed, "Maybe they're still crying now."

Laura tsked at her mate, "It is a very emotional time for them. We must be understanding."

Gamma Harry grinned, it was like he was enjoying Laura's reprimand, "Yes, yes. You are very understanding."

So now we could either eat three breakfasts every Sunday, or eat Sunday's breakfast with a different pack every week. I personally liked the idea of Option 1, but the adults felt three breakfasts in a row was too much.

After further discussion, it was decided that Dad's betas and their families would anchor Breakfast with the Pack every Sunday, Beta Gerald would discuss the arrangements with Captain Stephan for them to host the Alpha's family once every three weeks too. The three of them would take turns to host the Alpha family.

And what did you know? Dad was in a good mood again. He nodded, "That's a good idea. I'll be relying on you then."

Now that I saw my chance, I pipped up, "Let's go on a family vacation one day too."