The Lost Son.

Chapter 3

Emera ran to up the front steps of the pack house and was met by Ryan at the front door.

"All packs have been notified and will start sending unmated males after the full moon," he tried to make it sound better than it really was. Emera growled at the thought.

"That was fast. Anything else?"

"Yea, we called a full pack meeting for after dinner." She took a deep breath.

"Sounds good, I’m going to get in a quick shower." She sighed and headed through the house toward her room.

Twenty minutes later she was washed, dressed and ready to take on the world. She decided instead of dinner she would just grab something quick and go set in her office and do some research about the property next to hers.

She was so busy reading different articles and looking at things on the computer she didn't even notice the door open until Amy rasped on the desk in front of her. She growled with a startle and looked up before relaxing a bit.

"Sorry Amy,” She apologized.

"No worries, everyone is assembled in the meeting hall." She nodded her understanding.

"Let them know I’ll be right there." Amy gave a stiff nod and walked out. She was one of the Elites. She was an interesting wolf, but Emera liked her anyway. Always straight forward and very professional. When she was younger she idolized Amy, and was even a little afraid of her. Her long black hair never seemed to get any knots in it and was never messed up, unlike her own that was always a knotted mess when she was little. She had been a total ugly duckling as she put it when she thought of herself.

'Back to reality ,' she thought to herself and grabbed a few papers from her desk before running down the hall to the meeting room.

Every member of the pack was waiting patiently for her to show up and explain what the days excitement had been about and why the counsel had come and then left so abruptly. Emera walked into the room and paused for a minute before taking the stand in front of the group. Her palms were sweating, but as much as she hated talking in front of a group she couldn't let her pack know she was nervous. She wasn't the typical alpha, that was for sure. She wasn't a testosterone driven male alpha that would bite your head off if you looked at them wrong. She chose a more subtle approach to being an alpha and appreciated other pack member’s opinions and feedback. For 10 years now she had run her pack on mutual respect and trust, she hardly ever needed to use violence to make a point or to get her members to submit to her. She had quickly and effectively built one of the strongest werewolf packs in history and as a female alpha no less. It had been completely unheard of until now and it had come back to bite her in the ass.

She glanced around the room at her pack, there was a good solid number of pack mates. Of course quite a few had chosen to leave when she became alpha. They were to 'old school' as Ryan put it, but there had been a few that had decided to stay and see what changes the new female alpha would bring. She was glad to see that so many now accepted her and chose to stand by her side.

"I know you are all very interested to find out why the counsel came today and why they left so quickly again," she started "and probably why I was in such a bad mood all day?" A few people chuckled as she said it and it made her smile. " The counsel had decided that they are not ready for an unmated female alpha to hold as much power as I do and lead such a strong pack." Looking around the room she registered the looks of confusion on their faces, “they have decided that I must find a mate and complete the mating ceremony." There were a few whispers but they died down so she could continue. "The counsel has given me a very strict time line in which to achieve this goal, they have decided that I must mate by the next 'Blood Moon'," she took a deep breath, even after her run and coming to terms with what she was going to be forced to do, it still made her blood boil. "Now for the bad news, as if that wasn't enough, the 'Blood Moon' is in three months..." Now her pack started making more noise, some growled at the thought of their alpha being forced to do anything. She decided to let them vent their displeasure for a few moments before starting again. "If I am unable to find a mate and complete the ceremony by the 'Blood Moon', I will be forced by the counsel to give up my role as alpha of the pack."

Angry growls and snarls erupted from all around the meeting hall, including from her Elites and second. After trying peacefully to get everyone to calm down again to no prevail she pulled on her power.

"QUIET!" she growled and the power she released with it instantly caused the room to grow quiet again. " Please let me finish, then you all can ask questions, kick, scream, yell or whatever it is you need to do." She pulled back the blanket of power she had cast out and her pack sat patiently waiting for her to finish. "Because I have absolutely no plans to give up my pack, we will be entertaining the counsel and attempting to find me a mate." There were a few chuckles from the pack, "With that being said, we have the unfortunate privilege of hosting a very large group of unmated male werewolf’s, and their alphas, from around the world, all traveling here to 'win my hand' within the next three months." The males of her pack broke out into a snarling mass at the idea of having so many male wolfs around the females of their pack. The alpha snarled back and quieted the group down once more.’Geeze male werewolf’s were a touchy bunch,' she thought. "So, we have a lot to do before 'our guests' get here after the next full moon. First things first, for the duration of the other packs stay, all unmated females over 10 are to sleep in the pack house left wing rooms between Ryan and my own." The males cheered at the idea, "That means ladies we are bunking up for a couple months. We are also going to be holding a few mandatory training sessions to brush up on personal self-defense." A few of the females groaned but knew that there was not changing the alphas mind when it came to training. " The males that are currently in the barracks will all be moving to the east barracks." This time the groans and snarls came from the males, and the females started giggling. She took a deep breath before continuing. "The east barracks is the largest and most comfortable, plus it smells nice as it is usually the one that the girls are in." The males stopped snarling and finally shook their heads in acceptance, she was right after all. “Finally for the next three days all mandatory training will be cancelled, we will keep a few times open for anyone who needing to burn of some extra energy. There is a lot to do before everyone gets here and not a lot of time to do it in. COOKIE!" A tall grey haired man wearing a white chefs coat marked with grease stood up, "We're going to have lots of hungry mouths to feed so put together a list of items you’re going to need by the morning, we will be making a trip into town tomorrow for a supply run. Also enlist some help from the young ins for the time being," he nodded, "Amy," she looked toward the woman, " you and Anne are in charge of setting up beds and bathrooms for our guest. Get as much help as you need, also make sure our nicer rooms in the pack house are set up for the visiting alphas. We want to show our guests how well maintained and exceptional our pack is." Everyone cheered at her last comment, she was right. The pack was strong, and working like a well-oiled machine due to all of the alphas hard work and her rigorous training regime and her no nonsense policies she had put into place. "One more thing,” she huffed " we will have another full pack meeting, the afternoon of the full moon." The whole pack sat there quietly when she finished. There was a lot to think about and they were letting it all soak in. When no one raised their hands for a question Emera took the opportunity to close the meeting. "Okay everyone, it’s getting late so let’s break for the night and get some sleep we are all going to be busy tomorrow. If anyone has any questions or comment before the next meeting come and find myself or Ryan, there is also the comment box by the office you are free to use, we will be more than willing to answer any of them for you."

The pack started to disperse after she turned from the stand. She pulled Ryan and Travon to the side, both members of the Elites. "I have a mission for you two to help me with, I’ll explain more on the way." They were just about to walk out of the meeting hall when there was a tug on her sleeve. She looked down into a big set of dark green eyes. The little girl stood quietly waiting for the alpha to acknowledge her.

“Yes Zelda, what’s up kiddo?" Zelda looked down at her feet and stuck her hands into the pockets of her little white sundress. She waited patiently for the little girl to talk.

"Umm... I was wondering Miss 'Mera if... maybe... I... could stay in the big house too?" It made her smile, the girl had just turned nine last month.

"You know Zelda," the girl looked at her patiently waiting for the alphas answer. "I think that would be a wonderful idea." The girl gave her a wide toothless grin and squealed with delight.

"Thanks Miss 'Mera," she screeched as she ran out of the room to catch up with her parents. Emera grinned to herself and turned as she heard Ryan and Travon walking up to her.

"Where to boss?" Ryan laughed.

"I'll tell you on the way,” She sighed and took off running down the hall, Ryan and Travon close behind. When they were away from everyone she stopped, "earlier today when I was out on my run I noticed a truck pulling into the old Cartwright property. We need to go check it out and see if they left or not. Tomorrow when we go to town we can ask Will about it." Travon let out a quiet snarl. "No attacking," she snapped, "We are just going to look around." She headed out of the door and jumped the steps, when she landed a large white wolf with bright green eyes was in her place. She waited for the others and shook her head when Ryan jumped from the porch doing a flip and landed as a sandy yellow wolf with dark brown eyes. 'Show off!' Travon decided to just turn mid run rather than do some elaborate jump. When the final wolf, a dark brown one with black and light brown splotches and dark blue eyes joined them they set out on a sprint to the far side of the property.

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Alexander had spent the last few hours of day light collecting firewood. The pile he had started had been growing steadily. He tossed the last few dry sticks on the pile and chuckled.

" That should be enough for a while." He brushed his hands on the back of his jeans and his stomach rumbled. " Now it’s time to build a fire and roast some dogs,” he sighed to himself as he went on a hunt for the ice chest he had somewhere in the truck. It was getting dark fast and the crickets were starting their song. He loved being outside, in nature but right now in the last fading remnants of the day he needed to get his fire going.

Just as the flames took hold of the small teepee of kindling and the small sheet of orange and yellow flame danced around his eyes caught sight of something quickly moving through the tall grass and bushes on the other side of the drive way. Startled he fell back landing on his butt and almost knocking down his tent. " Sh*t!" he yelped and quickly stood back up. He looked around for his flashlight and couldn't find it, 'must be in the truck,' he thought to himself and headed toward the large black truck. " Great, just leave your flashlight in your truck." he scolded himself as he opened the door.

"Found it!" He exclaimed as he pulled out a small back pack. He had also found a lantern and noticed a folding table. "I'll have to look through everything else tomorrow and see what all Irwin has packed in here," he grinned to himself and closed the door of the truck. He looked toward his tent and thought he saw something move again. "Felling a bit jumpy today aren't we?" he scolded himself. 'I really need to go for a run.' He hadn't gone for a run or even that much of a walk since he got into the truck and started driving two days ago. He decided he would make a point of going for a run tomorrow morning, 'That should help.' he chuckled to himself and headed back to his tent.

The wolfs had decided to take a closer look around the human’s campsite well he was busy. They all went in different directions and were almost caught when the human closed the door of the truck. They froze in place and held their breath. Emera had still not seen the humans face and was getting kind of impatient about it all. When he turned around to head to the tent she was standing in the wrong place and only caught the back of his head as he turned around. 'Looks like he plans on staying awhile,' she thought and decided to go find Ryan and Travon before they got caught and get back to the house. She snuck around the edge of the tent and nodded at them. They all took off back toward the pack house not slowing down until they were out of sight.

Alexander walked back out of the tent and grabbed a long thin stick, "This will do," he said and pulled a pack of hotdogs out of his pocket. He looked around and found a larger round of wood that he had collected for firewood, setting it up he sat down on it. He skewered a hotdog on the end and stuck it in the fire. The darkness was engulfing his surroundings leaving just the flame of the fire in its brilliant glory, and the almost full moon to light the surrounding areas. It was quiet accept for the chorus of frogs and crickets singing the night away. He quickly ate his hotdog and decided on a few more before he headed into the tent to get some sleep. Less than fifteen minutes later he was sleeping soundly with the fire burning lowly in the pit outside of the tent door.

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The three wolfs ran back to the house and met up back in the office. Only the quiet noises of the last few pack members walking around the house could be heard.

"So what do you think?" Emera asked Ryan and Travon. "Hunter? Camper?"

"I don't think he's a hunter, " Travon stated, " I couldn't smell any guns on him."

"Okay, so maybe he is just a camper that decided it was the perfect place to pitch a tent for the night?"

"I doubt it," exclaimed Ryan, "by the amount of gear he had in that truck I’m pretty sure he plans on staying for a while."

"Great!" growled the alpha, "that's all we need, a human around here prancing through the woods with a bunch of testosterone driven werewolf’s due to arrive any day!" She snarled at the idea. "Okay, let’s call it a night and get some sleep, we all have a long day tomorrow. I'll ask Will if he has heard anything when we get to town." The three wolfs headed off to their rooms for the night and quickly fell asleep.