FINANCIAL CRISIS AND KINDERGARTEN BULLIES

4 FEBRUARY, THURSDAY, AFTER DINNER

"No, that's too much." Dad said, "You still have school on Monday. I'll meet Louis alone."

Mum sighed, "He will probably ask you to bail him out."

Dad shook his head, "That's not possible now. We can't afford to foot his billion dollar contract right now. I'll just have to tell him no."

"What if he starts attacking Sam for your mother's ring again?" Mum worried.

"I know he will. That's the problem." Dad sighed, "Don't worry, darling. I'll just hear him out on Sunday and then I'll think about it. Lucas, can I get a ballpark of how much we can afford to lend at this point?"

"Yeah, Gerald and I can work it out, no problem." Beta Lucas nodded. He noted it down in his phone.

"But that won't work." I said.

Everyone stopped and looked at me.

"I'm just saying." I tried to shrug it off.

"Think aloud, Sam." Ben prompted.

Ah... Yeah... But I'm stupid now.

"There's still fifteen minutes before Thursday Training." Beta Lucas pushed his finished plate away and rested his hands behind his head, "Excellent meal, by the way. Kudos to the chef."

"Thank you." Chef Ki answered with his Killion dollar smile.

"I, for one, am very interested to hear Alpha Sam's thought process." Beta Gerald intoned.

Urm... No, I'd rather not disappoint you that way, Beta Gerald. I looked down at the cleared table.

"Sam, talk to us." Ben prodded.

I can't talk if I had nothing to say, could I? My mind was blankity blank blank.

"Why did you say it wouldn't work?" Dad asked. Okay, this I knew.

"Because it sounds like their's is an inside problem, so outside help won't solve it." I answered.

"That's true." Dad mused. He looked thoughtful.

"Sam..." Beta Lucas raised his hand, "If I might ask, how would you solve the problem?"

Cancel the contract, pay the penalty, change the leadership, focus on developing the future generation, and wait for the current generation to pass. But that was Henry's answer.

Beta Lucas was asking what I would do and I'm the kind of alpha who didn't like to sacrifice anyone on the board, not even the pawns. I wanted to save everyone.

"I'll probably cancel the contract and pay the penalty. I mean, high speed internet gaming and uninteruppted Netflix streaming is nice, but I don't think it's going to do much for a wolf who... What do Night Forest wolves do? Stone, wood, crops? Something to do with leather? Grow grapes?" I frowned, trying to remember from the stories Grandpa Alpha used to tell me.

"They are mostly gatherers or farmers. Most of them still work with traditional tools, including wood fire furnaces. There is a mine which produces iron ore and a factory that refines it. There are also farms. Notable produce from Night Forest includes stone ornaments, raw steel, leather, diary products, and wine." Harvey informed me. A good beta's brain must have a section carved out just for encyclopedic information.

I nodded. "Then let's start there... We need to figure out what the wolves there can do, and then how to urm... Like if they make good wine, what do they need to make it better?"

"Trading opportunity." Ben decided.

"Upgrading in skills and equipment." Harvey thought.

"Marketing strategy." Ki offered.

Uh... yeah. Or something.

"But that's only if they are good at making wine." I added, "We need to find out first."

"Are you suggesting a competency audit?" Beta Gerald asked.

Uh... Yeah. Audit. I nodded. And while we are on the subject of audit, "The fat old deltas too, they need to pull their own weight... And we need to check what the rules are and if they need to be changed."

"Audit administration. Review the policies." Beta Gerald was writing it down.

"Not big changes. And it doesn't have to become like Night Leaf or Morning Light... Just small changes to make them work better. They have to be in small steps so that everyone in the pack can move with it." I said.

I'm struggling with the terms here, trying to remember from the various reports I've been reading this year. It's almost as bad as ancient lycan. Almost.

"Do you mean incremental policy updates in phases?" Beta Gerald asked.

Ben had just connected his phone to our flat screen TV, and was using his phone on camera mode to project Beta Gerald's notes up onto a larger screen.

Beta Gerald looked up surprised.

Dad looked pleased at the impromptu projector/whiteboard.

"Five minutes to Thursday's training." Harvey reminded us.

Oh crap. Running out of time. I need to get this together. I looked at the notes Beta Gerald had put together. It was much easier now that there was some visual.

"I think we have plenty to work with from here." Beta Lucas looked both surprised and satisfied.

We did? I looked at the notes.

"So we drop the contract, pay the penalty, audit the pack from ground up, review and update their rules and policies incrementally, then what, Sam?" Ben asked.

I blinked at Beta Gerald's notes, wasn't it obvious? Why was Ben asking me?

"Then we see what we have left and what we can do to build on that..." I said. The men looked at me somewhat lost. Perhaps I wasn't explaining it right, "I mean like Grandpa Silas' vineyard... There was this time he was busy and didn't take care of it and the rabbits and bugs got into them and the vines were muddy from the rain... So he washed out all the vines, and cut off all the parts that went bad. And then he fixed what he could of the walls and stakes, hunted down the rabbits, and planted roses all around it."

"So we need to work it out from the inside, cut off the bad parts, see what can be salvaged, and then rebuild the pack." I concluded, "After that, we can consider building IT infrastructure or whatever to make it better."

"That's going to restructure their entire administration." Beta Lucas said.

Dad looked serious, "I'm not sure how Louis is going to take that."

"We also need to make sure Eddy gets trained to lead Night Forest forward. And his Luna too." I inserted, I gave the little human a pointed look.

"Hn." Dad nodded.

Beta Gerald wrote those down at the bottom under the header, "Long Term Vision".

"Yeah, long term!" I agreed with Beta Gerald's header, "In the long term, they need to run forward on their own."

Beta Gerald wrote that down too, translating "run forward on their own" as "achieve independent development and progress". He stopped to examine his notes, even though it was less than 50 words on one sheet of paper.

"There are a lot of blanks." I admitted.

"That part is our job, Sam." Ben told me.

"This is good enough." Dad said finally. He looked serious, "I'll talk to your uncle. Lucas, keep Sam in the loop."

"Understood, Alpha." Beta Lucas was typing on his phone, "Ben... You said it was your job. Think you can flesh out your Alpha's plan?"

Ben took a photo of Beta Gerald's notes, and then made crude circles on parts of it in red with his phone's notation app, "Here's the entry, here's the exit. Checkpoints are here and here. Maybe one or two more later depending."

Harvey was typing quickly into his phone, "I can supply the supporting data details. Ki, can you cover the research and back ground checks?"

"Consider it done." Killion smiled and made note in his phone.

"Our young people are amazing." Beta Gerald marveled.

"That's why I'm saying we can retire early." Beta Lucas said smugly, "Okay. Good work, Ben. Have the report in my inbox by tomorrow evening."

"Yeah, whatever." Ben shrugged.

Beta Lucas smacked him over the head with the flat of his hand, "I told you to show respect at work, Ben."

I wondered if Ben was entering his rebellious teenage phase.

"You're not my Alpha." Ben grumbled at his dad.

Hahaha.

Beta Lucas gestured roughly toward his son, "See what I have to put up with, Gerald?"

"Harvey was like that too." Beta Gerald paused, as if remembering, "Maybe worse."

"So much for early retirement, huh?" I joked.

"No, no, we're still retiring early." Beta Lucas insisted, "Throw them out in the deep end and see how they float."

"Apologies, we should head down for Thursday Night Training now." Harvey said.

Oh, right.

"I need to change!" I ran for my room. The door opened and Savy came out in training gear, "I pulled out your set. It's on the bed."

"Luna's not here yet?" Harvey asked Ki.

I shut the door and grabbed my clothes from the bed. Where was my hair tie? In the bathroom. I half changed and half hopped into the bathroom. Savy had pulled out a matching set of training gear to her's. Just that mine was in dark blue.

Switching to the dark blue gym bra, I sighed a bit. It's not like I really needed all that much support.

"Grrr..."

I gasped at the sight of mate at the opened bathroom door.

He stepped in, shirtless. I quickly stepped aside and pulled on my loose grey t-shirt over the gym bra and yoga pants I had on. When did Mate get here? Was it before or after I got into my bra?

He said nothing, only turned on the tap and splashed water on his face. He looked tired. I handed him a towel.

"Thanks."

He wiped his face and then looked back at me, "What?"

I shook my head.

He put the towel on the counter and left. I followed him out and watch him pull out a clean t-shirt from his drawer in my dresser.

He smirked at me, "Whatcha staring at, Princess?"

Mate was back. He really came back. He was shirtless, but back. And wearing our bangle!

There was a rap on the door, "We're late for training, Sam."

Mate pulled on the t-shirt and opened the door on Ben, "The Alpha is never late."

Ben smirked back, "My bad, we are just in time for training, Luna."

Hahahaha. One day, Ben's attitude was going to land him in hospital.

But it's Thursday night! And our wolves were going to run! And Mate was here! And bangled! Happy! Because I'm stupid like that.

"Who's our trainer tonight?" I asked because I knew Flynn was at the Underground Army in the Red Packlands. And last I heard, Hank had been clocking overtime three days straight.

"Me." Mate answered, "Hank's full up. I swapped with Flynn. He trains the guys in the Underground tonight. I'll train you guys Aboveground."

"Come on, Sabbie. Time for bed." Mum said.

"But I want to go train too!" The little human protested.

"You're too young to come with us." Savy said.

She was also too human. Did no one else notice?

"But I must!" The little human's eyes suddenly filled with tears, "I must train and get stronger by tomorrow!"

Ben opened the front door and the guys filed out.

"Oh, baby, what's wrong?" Mum asked.

"Sam's right. The kids in school say I'm weak and call me Omega. Taylor kept pushing me at the playground because I'm the omega." And then the little human was crying.

Mum scooped her up and rubbed her back, "Oh baby... I'm so sorry."

I sighed, this is no way a future Luna should behave!

"Look, if Taylor pushes you down, you need to get up and push him back!" I told the little human.

"But-"

"No buts unless it's a headbutt! Do you want to be the omega forever?" I scolded.

The little human shook her head miserably.

"Then you need to take out Taylor tomorrow." I told her, "No mercy."

"Sam..." Mum face palmed, "I don't think violence is the answer."

Oh, now that Mum mentioned it... I guess that was true.

I heard the lift go down outside. Ben was the only one who returned to the apartment, presumably to accompany Savy and me.

"Okay, violence is never the answer..." No wait, that wasn't right, "No, violence is only the last resort."

I nodded. Yeah. That was probably right.

Mum shook her head and tried to wave me off, "It's fine Sam. I'll talk to Sabbie's teacher tomorrow."

"No, no, please. I don't want Mrs Mchoney to know I'm the omega!" The little human worried.

They were just pups, so they couldn't be that much stronger or faster than a human yet, right? Well, it's not like I knew how fast or strong human pups were. Okay, just in case humans turned out to be exceptionally weak when they were young, violence was definitely better as a last resort.

"Mum, trust me. I know what I'm doing." I said.

Savy had sat down on the sofa to watch. She patted the seat next to her, "Just let Sam have a go, Mum."

Mum sighed and sat down.