HOW TO RUIN SNOW DAY

Gamma Harry must have been talking to Beta Lucas and Dad because all of them had decided to make full use of the rest of snow day for us kids to sit in with them for this afternoon's Delta report meeting.

I had ever (only once) sat through such a meeting. It only happened once every quarter and ALL the Deltas are expected to be present to update on their portfolio of ministries.

Delta Simon was in charge of healthcare and things like the medical centre and training program.

Delta Charlie was the principal of the pack school and anything under education. (And the guy I shot ice at although he thinks Ben did it.)

Delta Felicity, Tim's mum, was in charge of interpack relations and trade.

Delta Bernard was in charge of investments and accounts.

Plus two more new Deltas

Delta Flynn who was in charge of youth and mentoring

Delta Hank who was the captain of the warriors.

So altogether, we would be sitting through six very lengthy reports.

After that, we would have to sit through the Gamma's report and the Beta's report which would take just as long as the six before that.

Finally we would end with the Alpha's instructions which would be an executive summary of everything reported in the meeting by Beta Lucas and then my Dad's response and further instructions to the Deltas.

It would be a long, long, long meeting.

My only comfort was the soundproofed conference room also kept out the construction noise.

Still no one looked terribly happy to be here. They all looked silently glum and there was coffee all around. On top of that, Beta Lucas had arranged for dinner to be delivered up to the conference room.

Which meant that no one expected to be home for dinner either.

Dad and Beta Lucas would have to endure another round of this at Morning Light tomorrow.

When I become the Alpha, I'll have to attend these meetings every quarter for Night Leaf and Morning Light... and Lorent and the Safe Town.... Omo.

Maybe Mate can do it instead. If my betas didn't mind him leading them out into a fight instead of me, surely they wouldn't mind Mate sitting in a meeting instead of me.

Wait, I just remembered, Mate might break up with me any moment... Noooo... That must never happen! I'll be left alone to attend all these meetings!

I must definitely not give Mate a chance to reject me. Never mind the Rogue King or the coming war or the merger of three packs! The meetings... the long and manifold meetings.

Goddess save me from the meetings!

But my cry fell on death ears, and I found myself sitting in the seat nearest to Dad's, Ben and Jonah beside me.

Papers were rustled and passed around. Every Delta had a two page printed executive report to distribute.

"Good! Now the three of you are here. You won't be able to start any more tunnel projects." Gamma Harry said.

Seriously? Was this what it was all about?

The other Deltas laughed politely. Flynn gave me a raised brow and a grin.

Terrible! We already did our time! We were all grounded for a whole week. Plus that was a whole year ago! We were just dumb pups then!

But the meeting officially began and Betas Lucas announced, "I am very happy that our next generation of leaders can join us for today's meeting. Handing over is not done in a ceremoney, but a process."

And after that, we were promptly ignored as the adults turned to more pressing issues like budgets, expenses, issues, task status, and a whole myraid of adult considerations regarding our pack and the packs we have been working with.

Let me just give you Sam's version of the executive summary and save everyone time:

Everything was up.

Medical cases was up this month, due to exceptional incidents like the rogue attacks on the morning light destitute home and our packhouse, vampires attack on Flynn and Hank, Gamma Endo challenging my alpha position, etc.

Travel and security costs between packlands were up due threat of rogues.

Warrior recall was also up due to rogue attacks and security measures needed to be stepped up.

Pretty much everyone was applying for more resources to cope with the new demands they faced this year.

Luckily, Delta Bernard reported that profits from our businesses and investments in Gate City was also up.

This left us none the richer, but also none the poorer. We fell nicely back at a comfortable net zero gain (that's what it sounded like anyway.) Dad always said a pack town was a non-profit endeavour. In the end, everything earned went back either directly to the pack members, the expansion and upgrade of our pack, or put in reserve for the future.

School focus this year is on inter-pack school interactions with a very good response from other schools for our outreach programs (like the promotional performances). The Spring Eq Concert will be attracting students from around the continent to Gate City's Concert Hall. Once again, this would be an opportunity to showcase Gate City to young humans and wolves, and attract future work talent with our Gate City's safe and vibrant environment.

This was probably the most optimistic report that didn't require more budget. Although, Delta Charles hoped that Alpha Kingsley would grace the occasion with his Luna. And perhaps the young Alpha Princess too?

My dad agreed... Which meant that I wouldn't need to buy my own ticket and that I wouldn't get to sit with my friends all at the same time.

And of course this meeting spent more time discussing more pressing (read boring) matters, and had to take all day.

So I really have nothing else particularly interesting to tell you.

Well except that Delta Felicity had the largest dangly earrings I had every seen. They would bounce and jingle whenever she moved her head. To top that off, she sported several ear cuffs too.

It was extremely distracting for me.

I don't know how everyone else at the table seemed to not even notice it.

Maybe it's because we were the only two who were not male wolves.

Maybe male wolves were blind.

And deaf too because the earrings were made of very thin metal and when they moved, there was a sound.

Sounded like very tiny metallic windchimes.

It was very distracting.

I wondered if I should get my ears pierced.

I wondered what mum would say.

I wondered if Savy would get pierced with me.

Unfortunately, I hardly registered a single point she made.

Luckily the men around were immune to such distractions. Right?

So... Let's just move on. Just because I had to spend the rest of snow day cooped up in a meeting room listening to a month's worth of extraordinary incidents and unresolved issues didn't mean that you had to suffer it.

Let's just skip to the part where something interesting happened. If only real life could be fast forwarded like that, huh?

{watch the grass and flowers grow

its slow its slow

but standing still you can see the things that go

And feel the winds that blow}

Eh? Wolfie was a poet?

Why did these words sound so familiar?

Oh right, I've read them before. An ancient Lycan nursery rhyme translated because it was so popular among puppies.