The White Wolf

Chapter Twenty

  ~Jake~ 

I start to wake up, stretching and turning over to face Payton, who is already up and watching TV. I drape my arm over her legs and cuddle into her, she smiles down to me and starts playing with my hair. she whispers into my ear, “Elizabeth will be here soon; you might want to get dressed.” She smiles at me, still playing with my hair. I pull in tighter to her. I lay there for a few more heartbeats, then I get up and head to the shower. I allow the warm water to run down me, letting my thought wander. Once I was done, I dry off, brushing my teeth and styling my hair while I air-dried then I head to the wardrobe to get dressed. 

“So, what happened yesterday?” Payton asks as she continues to watch the TV and play with the ends of her hair. 

“Erm, you were with me most of the day,” I say, it’s not that I don’t want to tell her, I just don’t want her to stress. 

“And…?” she continues to press, turning towards me, looking at me with her piercing blue eyes. 

“and…. Elizabeth and I organised the office, when we went through the paperwork, I came up with a plan for the getting organised and settled here.” I shrug, “Sebastian left quite the mess, and I think we need to make up for it.” 

“Mess?” she frowns looking at me, while I get dressed. 

“Yeah, he kept files on all of the pack, like intimated details of peoples lives. We didn’t read them just shredded them. We organised all of their invoices, bills and receipts, which were a mess.” 

“Yeah, I bet. He wasn’t one for running the pack, his father set everything up and Sebastian just carried on, ruling with fear. Valerie and the others would normally do it, but as he took more of a step back, they had more to do, so I guess it just got left.” She looks sad, and I walk over and climb onto the bed giving her a massive cuddle. 

“It’s not your fault Payton, you had to look after you, and I am for one, glad you did. Plus, Elizabeth will keep it tidy,” I smile at her. 

“Poor girl, she has no idea what’s coming for her” she gives a small laugh, cuddling deeper into me. 

“Tomorrow, I will show you how we have organised it.” I smile at her, 

“No need, I trust you, and if Elizabeth is now the filing queen,” she smiles. 

After we watch an episode of whatever was on TV, Elizabeth turns up in her pyjama’s. Her blonde hair in plaits, fluffy slippers on, and big baggy pyjama’s. She climbs onto the bed Payton’s side, Payton sits up, and I jump off the bed. 

“Ok, I am off,” I kiss the top of Payton’s head, “Rest up, and please Elizabeth look after her.” I plead with her, 

“Will do” is all she says as she shoo’s me out of my room. 

I head down to the dining room for breakfast. As I arrive pack members, both the moon and shadow, come and give me well wishes for Payton. Asking how I was and offering any help they can. I thank all of them and tell them their Luna will be back to her old self soon. Once breakfast is finished, and everything is put away the packs headed out to their shifts. I head to the office with Bree to start learning the computer stuff. Bree has a bounder with everything in it, she happily shows me, everything, allows me to complete stuff on my own using her binder. Once Sebastian was declared dead, everything was transferred into Payton’s name, which made me feel better about doing this. Bree also gave me the login’s that I committed to memory, as we couldn’t just write them down. I set up the moon pack information, so they get paid, I check out the invoices, receipts, and bills to ensure they have all been paid. Like the Moon pack account, there are billions of monies in there. Which is good.  

Bree also showed me how we complete food orders, uniform orders, and household and medical items we need. She told me that if a pack member wanted something like furniture, we would order that for them and they pay us, either out of their wages or they transfer the money. They usually just tell Bree, so we made order forms for each ordering section, which Bree will hand out. she also showed me how to put stuff like that on the shared system. We complete our day, heading towards the dining room for dinner. I checked on Payton through the mind link and she was happy and having fun with Elizabeth which made me happy. 

After dinner, as we are stood around taking with both packs, the horn sounds to let us know there is someone is outside the wall of the castle. I tell everyone except those who are comfortable and competent in a fight to get to the bunker. Valerie and I head to the gatehouse. Once there we run up the stairs and look out to 100’s or 1000’s of rogues was setting up camp outside our wall. Weird. Payton came out, 

“Where’s Elizabeth?” I grumble at her, 

“Helping Zoey and Steph to the Bunker with Jamie, he needed help.” she looks at me, “I am fine, we aren’t fighting.” She smiles at me. 

“Humm.” I roll my eyes at her, “Well no, doesn’t look like they want to harm us, more like intimidate us. how are there so many rogues though?” 

“Not all rogues, some are vampires, so make sure the archers are rotated frequently if they get tired, the vampires can surprise us,” Nick says. 

“They aren’t going to attack us, if they were, they wouldn’t make camp, they don’t want us to leave the compound, they want us to run out of food, and be weak.” Payton looks at me, worried. 

“It’s ok, I’ve got an idea, why don’t you join the rest of our packs, make sure they are ok and got what they need?” I say smiling down to her. 

I call for Thea, Max and Bree to the office, “Nick and Valerie can you sort out the guard, please? I will ensure everything else is seen too.” I smile at them and head towards the office, walking with Payton, she heads into the library, after giving me a kiss and cuddle. 

“Hey,” I say as I enter the room, they had all gotten here before me. “Can you guys enlighten me on how our supplies are, medical, food, household and fighting, arrows e.c.t?” I say as I take the seat in the office chair. 

“well, we’ve been equipped for something like this for years, I’ve been ordering as much food as I can to store, using up my budget each time. We have about a year worth of supplies in food, I halved it when the moon pack came. Thinking that was wise.” Max speaks first, 

“I too, have been doing the same, medical wise, it will last depending on the number of injuries. We have everything we need for two big fights, with over half of our two packs being injured, however, if we can get more in that would be helpful.” Thea smiles. 

“Household stuff, we have enough for a year. That includes Loo roll, cleaning supplies, towel, bed lining, washing of clothes, and whatnot. Again, if we can source more that would be great.” Bree adds. 

“Ok, I am going to call a meeting, Bree can you jump on the computer and print the order forms we made.” I mind link, Valerie, Nick, and Owen to join us. 

Once they appear Bree hands out the ordering forms, “So I have an idea, the pack carries on normally, to ensure safety, school and sleeping will happen in the bunker. We will keep the pretence that we don’t care, then a member of the moon pack, because a shadow pack member wouldn’t gossip, will tell another member that is running low on supplies, they will be listening in, so hopefully, they take the bait, we then arrange for locals to attempt to bring us food, they shouldn’t allow it through, but I know some people who will drop it in, to ensure their safety we will have Payton create a wind tunnel around us. What do you think Owen?” 

“Yeah, should solid. To me, they want us weak to attack, that is what I would do if there was an opposing force greater than mine. Make them weak. Also with Payton making like a tornado around is would stop them shooting at the plane/helicopter you plan on using. They would need to be pretty close, so maybe a helicopter would be best. Keeping the Pack being normal will unnerve them, make them panic about what we know that they don’t.” Owen says. 

“Ok, we need to get the war council done soon so everyone has a job, how quick can you assess them?” 

“Well, Valerie and I can do them together so a day and a half.” 

“Ok, I will be keeping Payton down in the bunker until she is needed, I want her as safe as possible.” 

“Payton should also have a group protecting her at all times, She is the only white wolf we need to protect, and yes I know she is an amazing fighter, but she weak at the moment and if they train as a group then they can be an amazing fighting team,” Owen says. “Valerie, we need to plan our assessment, Bree can you get any equipment needed for me, there is a list in the weapons room.” Owen nods as he leaves, Valerie leaves, and I hear the next door shutting. 

“Brilliant, Bree can you get everyone lists together and bring them to me so I can order.” 

She nods and heads out the room, the others leave too, except Nick. 

“We need the moon pack to step up fast, do you think they can do it?” Nick worries. 

“I think they can, this is what Payton was training them for, and they can’t expect the Shadow pack to do all the work for them,” I reply. Worried they might not want to step up now that they are here. 

“True, they can’t. Let's call a meeting.” Nick says, as we head out to the dining room, I call Payton up to us first, her and Elizabeth turn up, I catch them up on what our plan is, Payton looks annoyed, then the others appear, Max and Claire, Thea who promptly starts looking over Payton’s wound, which says it is healing nicely. Payton puts up a wall of air as I call everyone too us. Once everyone appears, I stand while Payton sits on the table. 

“Welcome everyone, thank you for coming. All of you are now aware of the treat outside of our walls. I have formulated a plan to keep us safe, I want to start by saying that we have plenty of supplies, we will not run out, however, we are going to try and get more inside the wall, I know some people who will airlift them in. We are going to give them the idea we are running out. Owen and Valerie will be assessing all of our fighting skills, mine included, to get a better assessment of where people should be located during our war planning meeting. From tonight until further notice, everyone sleeps in the bunker, school is to take part in the bunker, I want to keep everyone safe, however, we will be keeping the idea of normality so pack life continues as normal, please. Bree and her team will be readying the bunker, so when she is ready, she will call for individual families or groups of people to come down so she can show them around and house them. Please pack your valuable to keep down there, please. Please keep an ear open in case they attack, we believe that they are here to make us weak. Which will not happen. Any questions?” 

No-one comes forward, “Ok then, please see Valerie and Owen regarding their assessment. Thank you again for your patience, your support and continue what you are doing.”  

People start forming a line in front of them, where they hand out post-it notes to people, the shadow pack also line up. Which I believe is a good thing least then we will have up to date assessment of everything, and the pack go back to their original plans. I go and grab a post-it notes with a time of it, thankfully it was this evening. So, the pack had their dinner and then Bree places everyone in the bunker, those that were being assessed at the same time I was turned up and we stood above the hospital on the training section of the castle. Let me tell you, it was hard, by the time we had finished, a mix of moon pack and shadow pack we were all on the floor catching our breath, I head up to my room for a shower where I meet Payton and Elizabeth who were packing some things. I shower and get changed in the bathroom come out and Elizabeth had gone and Payton was watching tv. I cuddled up with her for a while before we head down to the Bunker to sleep for the night. Bree gave me the lists once I was in the bunker, where I phoned it through to my friends, who will drop it off tomorrow after the meeting. Bree apologises for the room we are in but after all, we are just happy to have a room. The single wolves all share a room and so do the families. Payton and I have our room, which is nice. I cuddle up to her. she tosses and turns all night, keeping me up. I sit at watch her as she dreams or has nightmares until I eventually fall asleep. 

The next day, I show Payton where the Packs are at, she smiles and nods. She then heads down to the bunker to help Elizabeth make the cards and the map. At two in the afternoon, Payton and Elizabeth came up and set up the dining room. There was a whiteboard, with sections on it, then there was a board with a sketch of the castle on it. Payton moaned about wanting one of those strategy tables you see in the movies. Just after two the others turn up and take their seats, Payton and I sit opposite the boards, Elizabeth stood by the boards and to our left, Thea, Bree, and Valerie, and to our right, Owen, Nick and Max. Claire brought out snacks for us to nibble on. Setting down on sausage looking thing in front of Payton, who slapped my hand every time I tried to try one, giving me a small smile and eventually allowing me to try one, it was sausage in a honey glaze with something else added in. First, we went through the packs, Payton would hold up the picture side of the card, read the name, age and occupation they are in. Bree also gave us information about relationships, we did not know about, who had families and other information we didn’t think off. Then we ask for how they are performing in their job, which for the moon pack was short, more so as some have not have started yet, so Nick would fill in how they were in our previous home. Then Valerie and Owen gave us a detailed version of their weaknesses and their strengths. We went through the whole two packs, which was interesting. Then we went and started putting them into groups picking out leaders for each group, we even decided to put some moon pack in charge, hoping that it will make it easier for the moon pack to feel valued as fighters. We also had a group of fighters dedicated to protecting Payton, she didn’t argue too much about it, we didn’t allow Payton to decide on anyone although she was happy with who we chose, we had Jamie, Noah, and then two from the shadow pack, which were Matilda and Angus. 

Claire gives us an hour warning of dinner, so we start to wrap and put the tables back just in time for the pack to enter. We take our seats and so do they before Clare and Max start serving Payton and I stand, this time Payton speaks out to them, 

“Packs, I know this move has been hard on everyone, having to leave your ancestral home to be accepting another pack into your ancestral home, while us wolves are social creatures, we are still territorial. So, I would like to thank you for making this move easier. I know I have had a rocky start to this move and my beloved mate has stepped up to help you. Today we have been discussing the upcoming war so that everyone knows their job role, every job is important. Please see the boards and where you have been placed, this has been done with detailed talking, the moon pack may feel that they are at a disadvantage, well in some respects you are, but, this is just the first of many councils, this is flexible there is room for change, and we will be reviewing this often. We made these decisions to keep us as safe as possible, please if you are put in charge of people please see Nick and Valerie, then those who are in job roles please see your attending person. We are massively grateful for all the training, which I will be taking once again and those that are deemed to protect me, while be doing extra training with Valerie and I. I want to take this chance to thank everyone for your good wishes through either the link or through Jake. Thank you for your continued support within these troubling times. Now it is time to eat. Let’s give thanks to Claire and the team in making this wonderful meal.”

Everyone digs into their dinner that Claire and the others have now served up. Dinner was lovely, the pack have a look at the board and talk to their person in charge. Then those in charge see Nick and Valerie who talk to them. Payton and I spend the evening in our room, watching tv, showering and having some fun alone time. Once we are sleeping enough, we do a check around the outer wall and then we head into the bunker for a nights sleep. As I cuddled into Payton I knew then, that we would be alright, that we will win, and while we will have heavy cost to our side, Payton’s light, her goodness, will keep us strong, will keep us going and fighting, because we may defeat one evil like Sebastian another will appear in its place. There must always be darkness for the light to shine through.