Red Riding Hood

Chapter 8

Jerimiah thinks back to his sixteen-birthday when he shifted for the first time.  He knows the reason why all the houses are locked to this day. The houses are locked because all the families were at his party, this house. When he was cleaning during the night he found the basket that they use to refer to as the ‘cellphone jail,’ an inside joke as no one was allowed to have any devices when entering their family home. Alongside their mobiles, they had the habit of also putting their house keys with their vehicle keys who all belonged to Jerimiah’s family in anyways.

“How many teenagers shifted today for the first time?”  Jerimiah asks, wondering how it went.

“None,” the beta answers.

“Why not?”

“No clothing,” the beta responds scratching his head.

“How did all of you get clothing?”

“Elizebeth's house, she still has all her husband's clothing and the women took hers.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t any clothing that would fit the teenagers,”  the beta answers wondering how they going to dress so many teenagers and the rest of the adults.

Jerimiah leaves the living room making his way through the people all shaking his hand as he passes.  Jerimiah comes back with the ‘cellphone jail’, “these are the keys to the houses.  Right now there is not much we can do about the state they are in as it is already Sunday afternoon.  Tomorrow I want all of you; only the heads, to meet me here at six in the morning,”  Jerimiah says as he takes his mobile and searches for a restaurant number that he saw in town the other night.  Jerimiah ordered plenty of meat and had to call several other restaurants just to get enough food for all the pups.  Since they were all still accustomed to wildlife meat he asked the restaurants to cook it medium-rare.  When the food arrived one after another Jerimiah had to compel the delivery guys to think they saw fewer people than they really did and not a wolf in sight.

After everyone had their fill, they divided the pack into eight families per house with sixteen families staying behind at Jerimiah’s house as his house is the largest house.

“Pull out all the cars and make some makeshift beds for the pups, some people can sleep inside the cars and everyone should just find a spot. It's going to be a crowded night,”  Jerimiah says.

"No worries, there are some members that enjoy the wild side and prefer to stay in their wolf form," the Beta treasures Jerimiah that he does not have to feel bad about the situation. 

Once darkness set Jerimiah used his Vampire speed to visit all the houses and help the families settle in for the evening.  After he did his rounds he went back to his house and retrieve his father’s laptop to see if he can pre-order some building supplies in hope that they will be delivered by tomorrow.  He also searches for any of his father's old contacts so that he could arrange identities for his new pack.  By the time the first light hit Jerimiah had everything arranged. 

At six in the morning, all the family members are waiting for Jerimiah outside his house.  After greeting everyone he shared his plans with the pack. 

“How many experienced builders do we have?”  Jerimiah asked and is glad to see that they have quite a few.

“Here are the keys to the cars.  Send one person from each group to get the teenagers some clothing.  I have ordered some tents and a large conference tent so that we can have a party for the teenagers tonight.  We will also use the conference tent as a school for now; I have booked dozens of teachers from neighboring packs to come and teach the children.  Someone will also come by to take everyone's photos today for new identities. Here are the plans for all the houses, each family group should decide how they would like to extend.”

Jerimiah started to walk off as he had other plans for the day.

“Where are you going?”  the Beta asks.

“I am going to school.  You have been managing them for sixteen years, I am still just a kid.  You might have made me Alpha but you are still the head of this pack regardless of what Elizabeth made you believe.”

“How are you going to explain your absence for the past year?”  the Beta asks not understanding why he has to go to school.

“Elizebeth told them that day that I am with family in another country and will stay there.  So I will just say that I have decided to come back as I got homesick.  Make sure that the ground is cleared and ready for the foundation to be pored by tonight. Nine construction teams will arrive by nine with everything we will need to extend the houses.  I don't want to tamper with the woods so we will only extend the grounds where there are already houses,”  Jerimiah says as he gets onto his dirt-bike and speeds off.

Jerimiah missed riding his bikes the most and enjoyed the ride to school.  Before his incident, the schoolgoing kids had to travel daily to the neighboring town as it had the nearest schools for them to attend.  Jerimiah didn’t really know Blanchette as she was never at Neighboring pack meetings and at school, they were in diffent grades. Jerimiah decided he will pretend to repeat his grade, afterall, it is not as if he actually did his supposed grade the past year.  Jerimiah mainly wanted to repeat his grade so that he can be in the same grade and hopefully in the same classes as Blanchette.