PICNIC WALKABOUT

So after the emotional walkabout among the Princess Town wolves. Beta Gerald felt the need to reiterate the politically correct way to address these wolves were no longer the Underground or the Red Cloud wolves or the Ex-Free Wolves or the Ex-Fightdogs. All of them ran as the wolves from Princess Town now.

Particularly since Beta Lucas had a bad habit of calling them such. I think it was like how we still called our newly renovated detention facilities the dungeon. It'll take a while to forget.

Anyway, we had Night Leaf Wolves, Morning Light Wolves, and Princess Town wolves, and these labels were now based on our town of residence. We were now one pack running under Alpha Kingsley and his Luna. Yes, even the Princess Town wolves, because I was still a minor and the Lycan High Council would only recognize fully adult alpha wolves (i.e. 18 years AND mated) as a full Alpha of a Major Pack.

Technicalities like that still mattered to older wolves and if you wanted official recognition with the Lycan High Council and the legal rights and responsibilities that came with it. Which we did because... I had no idea, but Dad was one of the founders of this High Council so it would be kind of ironic if we got kicked out.

Ideally, Dad wanted a council to uphold justice across the continent. Lycan history had some dark moments - particularly after the Great War. There were huge and gross injustices that went unchecked and Dad felt a High Council would keep Alphas accountable.

Coming together with a united front would also benefit trade talks and provide a platform to negotiate with the humans and vampires on a more macro scale.

Having some shared resources would help smaller packs develop and provide aid to packs in crisis.

Yeah, Dad had great ambition for the Lycan High Council.

In practice though, the Lycan High Council was like the continent's keeper of rules. They defined everything Lycan. From what was the right way for two neighboring packs to draw their boundary lines to what was a pack, what was an Alpha, what was a Luna... You wouldn't believe the kind of debates that could go on over really basic stuff like that.

But because of these debates and the documentations of these debates, my betas had found the common law for the rare (and usually really shady) circumstances when an Alpha might require a harem.

If wolves everywhere stuck to the basics, like being true to their pack, and loyal to their Alpha, and loving to their soulmates, and courageous to death, none of these technical details would ever be needed.

But it turned out that there were wolves who would rather not die, and wolves who would rather mate a political or business ally than a soul mate, and wolves who would betray their pack and rebel against their alpha (aka rogues).

We said rogues like it was bad thing, but how many respectable alpha families mated their heir on political grounds? Or warriors betray their brother to save their own hide? None of these were new stories.

We were more like the wildcard humans than I would like to admit, and because of this, our Lycan world had evolved into a political structure as complicated and technical as any of the human governments around us.

When I was younger, I had always been under the impression that this was because of the human influence out here in the plains, but now that I've met the wolves on the Colored Mountains, I can't really blame it on the humans around us.

If the Colored Mountains was perfect, why would they need so many heroes.

"Heroes were born from adversity."

Ooohhh... I was nailing it with the Lycan quotes today! Wolfgang would be proud of me.

Anyway, on to the next item of our itinerary - the walkabout among the Morning Light wolves. This went far more calmly than with the Princess Town wolves. Most of the wolves were respectful and reserved in front of Dad and Mum.

And despite Bell and Ki being Lorent Princes, they welcomed warmly.

Ki was a familiar face to many of the parents with young children. He had made friends with quite a number of the mothers while making school runs for Sabre. I guess that shouldn't have surprised me considering the number of playdates Sabre got invited to.

Bell's reception by the Morning Light wolves was more baffling. At some mats, he was politely greeted and congratulated more on his upcoming investiture. Even though Beta Gerald had selected the families with me in mind, it was Bell who the Morning Light wolves took notice of.

As the conversation went on, I gathered that in general, they've all seen Bell's good deeds on TV during the Winderhill bonding, heard high praise from Gamma Endo about his fighting prowess, heard more rumors from "inside sources", and watched him light the prye during the Ceremony of the Departed...

Bell was very different from the wild Young Lorent Alpha portrayed in the news a few years back.

Today, he had come with Alpha Kingsley calling him "Son", a hand firmly on his strong young shoulder. It was like they wanted to confirm it with their own eyes what kind of wolf the Young Lorent Alpha was.

At one point, we came to a large mat with only an elderly couple.

"Where's your family?" Beta Gerald frowned at the abandoned juice boxes and plastic plates scattered around the mat.

"They went to get the pups." The old man answered, "Should be back anytime now."

So we decided to just stay with them for a bit.

The old wolf stared at Bell for a long time while the rest of the adults tried to make small talk. Finally, he pointed to Bell, "Come here."

Was that a challenge?

Bell got up and went over to him with a smirk.

"We're expecting great things from you, Young Alpha Lorent." the old wolf told him, "We may not wear fancy suits, but the boys here - heart of gold."

"I know." Bell answered, "I've met them."

This answer pleased the old timer, and he laughed and slapped Bell roughly on his back, "That's right. That's exactly right!"

He then turned to his mate and said, "See what I told you? This one is a good apple. Not like the other lorries... Rotten to the core!"

His mate tried to hush him, but old wolves were not easy to quieten once they got worked up over something, "Driving around in whitewashed tombs all of them! Let me tell you about the time..."

After his rant I learned two things. The shooting incident earlier this year was not the first one in Morning Light history. It had been going on since this old man's time.

"I carried my buddy home. His blood drenched my back. He died that night." The old wolf growled, "I should've have run him straight to the hospital."

"Your leg had been shot." His mate reminded him, "It was a miracle as it was that you got back to us."

The two wolves were really old, but they still recounted the incident as if it only happened last week.

Their children returned from gathering their pups to meet the Alpha.

They bowed and apologized for being late. When they realized what their "gramps" was going on about, they starting apologizing again.

One of their pups was particularly outspoken. When I signed his water bottle, he told me, "Gramps say that Luna Bell is an a****** and you should mate Harvey instead."

The mum and dad gasped in horror.

"Silly pups!" Gramps scolded, "You can't judge a book by it's cover!"

And then to the mum and dad's mortification, Gramps reached over and casually flipped Bells jacket up, "A***** cover."

I think it had to be tough being the mum and dad on this picnic mat. Between their outspoken pup and Gramps, they were constantly apologizing.

And then Gramps stood up slow and creaky like. He used Bell's arm as a support and then patted Bell on his chest, right over his heart, "Heart of gold this one. I can tell these things."

Right...

I finished signing all three water bottles. Mum gave them bags of cookies that Savy and Sabre had baked. One of them got chocolate fudge on Mum's dress and then said it was poo.

Beta Gerald decided enough was enough and we were excused to the next mat.

At the next mat was a family who forgot to bring their mat. The dad there was a Morning Light Warrior.

"Sit on the grass with us, and you can kiss your fancy pants goodbye, Luna Bell." He said the moment he noticed Bell with us.

No one would dare talk like that to Mum. But this warrior called Bell Luna, not Young Alpha, so it seemed they had met before.

Bell only smirked, "Fool. I have more suits than days in the year. Why would I care about it?"

And the warrior clapped his hands and laughed loudly, "That's a Lorry Prince for you!"

This family was sitting near the other mats - other warrior dads and their families. They seemed close, so I think it was his inner circle. When the other warriors saw that Bell and Ki were with us, they came over with more beer.

"Come Luna Bell, drink with us. You too Ki!" One of them offered canned beer from his cooler.

"You know don't drink cheap beer." Bell told them.

The warriors jeered and laughed at the same time.

"Come on, Luna. This one's better than the garbage water from the other time." One of them coaxed.

So they had drunk together before?

"This one's good." The first warrior insisted, "Don't diss it till you it."

Bell did, "It tastes revolting."

He passed his can to Ki to finish for him.

The warriors laughed heartily at that. They offered more beer around. Dad refused it politely. Beta Lucas accepted on Dad's behalf, "It's good. Still cold."

"Like overnight vomit." Bell said.

And the warriors laughed again. Bell was apparently popular with the warriors here.

"I heard good things about your training sessions with the warriors, Son." Dad said as we left for the next mat.

Bell had been training with the warriors. This was news to me. So on top of striking disasters around the continent on his enemies, overseeing Stephan and the Underground, renovating the Tyger's Lair, healer training with Haku, and preparing to step up as the Lorent Alpha, Bell was also training with the warriors on from Night Leaf and Morning Light?

Wth. What was he up to?

What? Was I the only one suspicious here?