With open eyes

Promotion

It was pouring down from the dark sky, the daylight was barely coming through the ominous clouds. Now and then a flash of light went by followed by a loud rumble in the background. On a field stood roughly three hundred men, intermittent a few women. They ranged from early teenagers to middle-aged, all the kids were inside with the elderly, and upfront stood a small group of men. Everyone was soaked, hair clinging to their faces and clothes hanging on their bodies like it was painted on. The men up front were larger built and taller than the rest. In the center of the smaller group stood alpha Joseph, next to him stood James, and on the other side stood the beta. Then there were the lead warrior and other high-ranking werewolves like the delta, pack doctor, pack lawyer, and accountant.

Alpha Joseph boomed as he addressed the large crowd “You all might wonder why I didn’t postpone this meeting, but as we have not been able to have a pack meeting for three months I thought it was best to do it no matter the weather.”

Small groans came from the crowd.

“I have some small announcements and a few requests.” Alpha Joseph paused for a bit. “First I want to officially welcome James back, our little jailbird was finally let loose. Another proof of our failing correctional system.”

The crowd laughed, some whistled and a few made a holler at James. James had a grin as his brother welcomed him. “Luckily he acquired some better sense of style while being away, you should have seen his hair before he left.”

The crowd was now chuckling and grinning. James ran his hand over his long hair which was pulled back in a ponytail showing his shaved sides. His tattoo on the side of his head was visible to the crowd, James had changed a lot with his appearance since he left.

“A lot of you might be wondering if James will take over his former duties, and he has agreed to do so.”

The crowd got wild and was hollering and cheering at James. In the crowd stood Lola and looked confused, she waited in anticipation to learn more. “But he agreed to do so after a gracing period where he gets to adjust a bit.”

The crowd's mood dampened at that. “Moving on to the next topic, we have gotten ourselves a new member of the pack, the ceremony will be held at the next full moon. That increases our count of females a hundred percent.”

The crowd laughed again, the mood a bit lighter. “The few requests we have will be addressed by James, as he is the one who has pointed out all of our shortcomings in his absence.”

James smiled and shook his head at that. He stepped forward standing next to alpha Joseph, he was both taller and broader than his brother. His appearance stood in stark contrast to his brother. Even though they were roughly the same age, James was toned and rough like a man that did hard work with his hands. Alpha Joseph was a bit leaner and looked like he had led a life at the gym instead of doing hard labor. James addressed the crowd, right away they all got dead quiet and everyone straightened up standing tall and proud.

“As my brother told you guys, we did increase our female population, but I think we need to revisit his math skills.”

The crowd stifled some sniggers. “Alpha Joseph didn’t tell the whole story about why you are standing here in the pouring rain. I thought it would be a good time to have our pack meeting to show you all how badly we need to put up a town hall.”

The crowd was silent, still standing tall. “I went through the finances with our accountant, and we have enough for all the supplies, so I expect plenty of volunteers to help to build the hall. I will be working on the construction every day, I hope to see all of you at some point.”

Some in the crowd were nodding, some humming in agreement. “We also need a new volunteer to help the elder ladies Thursday and Saturday as Ron was a bit too rough around the edges for them.”

The crowd was now sniggering as they all knew why he was put on that task, and that he was behaving badly so he could get out of the punishment. A single hand rose from the crowd, almost from the middle a slender hand emerged. It barely was visible as it drowned in the masses of tall and burly men, the hand was waving a bit to get the attention.

James lifted an eyebrow and addressed the person, “Yes? Is there a question?”

From the crowd came a feminine voice, “no! No questions! I’m volunteering for the elder ladies.”

James tried to look but the person was hidden behind all the large men. “Lola?” James was a bit confused as to who it might be.

From the crowd, the feminine voice squealed, “yes! It’s Lola. I swear, I’m here. It’s not just in your head.” The crowd stifled a laugh at Lola's joke.

James nodded, “very well, we have a volunteer for the elder ladies. The next task is to help out in the pup daycare since as many as four females left their job a while ago. Congratulations on them finding their fated mate, but we are desperately short on daycare workers and the females in our pack need to get back to work. We all would appreciate that since most of them are nurses unless you guys want me to fix your broken bones then I suggest you all take turns to babysit the pups.”

The crowd groaned. “I already took the liberty to put up a rooster since all of you would love to help. Let me just strike out Lola’s name since she already volunteered to help the elder ladies.”

The crowd groaned some more as they realized that the golden opportunity to get out of pup daycare was already taken. “The first one out to spend a whole week at daycare will be Ron, congratulations on your promotion Ron!”

Now the crowd was grinning, some laughing out loud. “Ok guys, if there are no questions then you are all dismissed.”

Everyone started to walk from the field to their destination, everyone very eager to get out of the rain.

James took a quick look around the crowd and found Lola, he jogged over to her. “Hey, Lola, how did you know I would assign pup care?”

Lola looked up at him as he was much taller and smiled, “I didn’t.”

James tilted his head and started to ask the next question, but then he stopped. He lifted his eyebrow then started again, “so you’re saying you volunteered for the elder ladies?”

Lola was now smiling even bigger and winked at James, “that’s what I’m saying, James.” Then she gave him a small wave before she ran off to the packhouse.