I didn’t have long to reflect today. Everyone is due back and my unit, and I will meet up in less than an hour to go over our plan. We have to present a full plan for the assembly tomorrow. The Gamma gave us today to put the final touches on our plan, so we can do a full presentation tomorrow. We are going to be presenting it in a war room type setting. They way we would if we were planning a war or defense at our packs.
It’s time to meet with my unit, so I get up from my quiet spot in my room and head out to the common area to meet with everyone. As we all trickle in, I can tell that the visit home was good for everyone. We all look well rested and ready to remain on top of the leaderboard.
This week, Beta Casion will lead the unit. He calls our meeting to order.
“Ok Alphas and Betas, we’ve had a couple of days to relax and put our thoughts together. Are we ready to put the final touches on our presentation?”
We all said that we were ready. Everyone pulled out our tablets and ready to get down to business.
“I uploaded a current map of the kingdom, then broke it down into regions. I’ll display the satellite image and the topographical images. I figure since we are planning to strengthen the smaller packs and securing the perimeter of the kingdom, we need to know the lay of the land.” Beta Jona stated,
“That’s an awesome idea, Jona. I wish I had thought of that,” I said.
Jona connected his tablet to the projector so we all could view the maps as we discuss our plan.
“First, I will display the map with the regions.”
Jona pulls up the map and projected it on the big screen for us all to see.
“So this is how I broke the regions down. I kept it simply with North, South, East, West and Central. Since the Royal Pack is literally in the center of the kingdom, it and the surrounding packs can be the central region.”
“I like the way you did this breakdown. I don’t think we need to change anything. Looks like all the packs in the regions are only a few hours away from each other. The packs can all respond to distress calls within a couple hours or a day at the most.” Beta Casion said.
We all agreed to the breakdown that Beta Jona developed. There is even room for a little overlapping of the regions. All the packs on the borders are the larger packs and can respond to calls for help from the other region if needed.
The next thing we need to do is set up a plan for offering relief to packs if they are attacked. This is my area.
“I thought about our plan for offering relief to the packs. As I look at the map and breakdown of the packs, there are at least one or two peaceful packs in every region. These packs are heavily defended, but rarely take part in wars. I propose we engage them as our stage for getting relief to the impacted packs. They can offer medical aid, temporary shelter and comfort to the pack. That way, they are contributing to the efforts without going against their stance on peace. The other packs would also be more likely to assist and protect these packs because of the important role they will play in helping us all get back to normal after a battle or after a war. All the packs in the region will need to provide some supplies to be kept and stored with these packs to make sure that we don’t overtax them.”
I pause for a moment to let everyone take in my ideas for the alliance with all the wolf packs. Now I just have to show them the benefit of reaching out to the other supernaturals. We are all in this together.
“The other part of building the alliance includes reaching out to the other spices and shifters, since we know the rebels are recruiting from the other groups and are trying to seize. Ultimate power over all supernaturals. For this, we will start with royals of all the spices and then connect with the other shifters in our regions. We can serve as ambassadors to the shifters in our regions, since we represent most of the regions. I know for the Central region, there are a couple of bear dens and dragon clans. The high priestess for the witches is also centrally located near the Roya Pack and already has an alliance with the king. The Vampire Royals are in the Western Region and the Grand Wizard is in the Northern Region. I think if we put together a team composed of a couple of representatives from the packs within the region to reach out to the supernaturals in the region. Many packs already have alliances or at least a working relationship with the shifters near their packs, so that should make the process easier if we use representatives they are already familiar with or already have a connection with.”
I finish my spill and sit back down, waiting for feedback. Looks like everyone likes my idea for including the peaceful packs and giving them a major role in the alliance.
Alpha Burton is up next. He and Alpha Brennan will discuss our training plan and our defensive structure. They asked Beta Casion to display the topography map to show the terrain of the different regions. There is a lot to consider as the kingdom has a widely diverse topography. We have mountains, valleys, and different bodies of water to consider, not to mention the plains and flatlands out west.
“So here is what I am thinking. In order for us to have a highly defensible kingdom, we need to make sure that all units are trained to a higher standard. From talking with you all, I see that we all have different styles of training. My suggestion is to form an elite team of trainers from all the packs, to go to the largest pack in the region and train all the packs.” Alpha Burton says.
“Each pack can send their top warriors or trainers to the regional training and they can go back and train the rest of the pack on the techniques learned. We should also have a more stringent training for the Elite warriors from every pack. We can rotate warriors in for the trainings so that no pack is left defenseless while the training is occurring and the packs will be able to get the specialized training faster and get updates as the warriors rotate.”
“Yes. We will eave it up to the alphas to determine which warriors to send to the training first, but we will make a mandate that all wolves in the packs be trained on the basics, including the women and pups.” Alpha Brennan adds. “The reason I added the mandate part is that, although all of our packs are forward thinking and have female warriors, there are still some packs that do not allow the females to become warriors. For us to truly be able to defend our packs and kingdom, we need all available wolves to be able to at least protect themselves.”
“I agree completely.” I said. “It’s sad that we have to mandate that any wolf learn to protect themselves, but it is the society we live in and some wolves hate change.”
“Now, as far as defending the perimeter of the kingdom,” Alpha Brennan says, “Let’s use the land to our advantage where we can and use wolf power and electronics in the open areas. I have a close friend that is part of the Viper’s Den of bears. He and I have discussed how we can use electronics to set traps and an alarm systems so that no one could sneak up on us. We also discussed how we can combine magic and electronics to ensure that we are keeping out the right people and that none of our allies get hurt by the traps we set.”
“How is that possible?” Alpha Justin asked.
“The witches and wizards can spell the traps to recognize ill intent. Anyone crossing the traps intending to harm anyone will set off the traps. That’s the simple way to explain it. The witches and wizards could explain the more intricate parts of how it works.” Alpha Brenna says.
“So how do you propose we use the land as a defense?” Alpha Justin asked. I can tell that he is really getting in to this part of it. His pack is near the mountains.
“That’s a good question, Alpha Justin. I’m glad you asked. We all know the terrain around our own packs and how to defend them. Correct?”
We all answered yes.
“What we don’t know is how to survive in order parts of the kingdom, so let’s play that up to our benefit. Let’s make the rough areas rougher with traps and snares. For instance, there are areas in the mountains that are hard to get to and hard to keep a patrol routine for them, so I suggest we again use magic and make those areas look easily accessible until the enemy gets lost in there. We will have cameras and alarms, so we will be able to monitor their movement once they enter the illusions. For the swamp areas down south, we do the same thing. We make the swamp areas look like either dry land or clear water. Once they get trapped there, the wild animals there will take care of them, and our allies will handle the survivors. We will have cameras in strategic places all over the kingdom with an alarm system that will be monitored at the Royal pack and all the largest packs in the regions since that is where the trainings will take place.”
“I like your ideas.” I say, “but how are we going to pay for all the equipment we will need to make this successful and how will the equipment be maintained.”
“That’s my area.” Alpha Justin says. “We will need to pool our resources. Currently, every pack pays a tax to the Royal Pack. Part of that tax is for war efforts, so some of the funds are already there. We will need to raise additional funds. We can do this by asking the packs to pay a small percentage more on their yearly taxes. It is actually time for an increase in taxes, anyway. Since we have been at peace for so long, we have not had to raise taxes in over 40 years. This would be the right time to ask for an increase since war is imminent.”
“Okay, that takes care of the financial part, but what about the maintenance?” I ask.
‘For that part, we use man or male power for. We will have an elite team of supernaturals from the different regions that will be assigned solely to the monitoring and maintaining the equipment regularly. There will also be magical individuals assigned to each team, so they can make sure the snares and illusions are still working properly. They will also be able to tell if anything has been tampered with magically.”
“I think we have an amazing plan.” Beta Casion said. “Now let’s plan out how we will present this to the assembly.”
“I think we should lay it out for the assembly the same way we laid it out for the team. We each present out parts using the projector with graphics.” Alpha Burton says. “So let’s spend the rest of our meeting putting together a visual presentation to take to the assembly. Beta Jona, since you are our computer whiz, we will let you take the lead in putting the final touches on the visual aid.”
We finish putting the final touches on our presentation and spend the rest of the day relaxing and having fun in our unit. I took a walk around in the evening just to get some fresh air. I was surprised to see that most units were inside. I guess everyone is taking this assignment seriously. I wonder how many wolves have realized that this could be an actual situation that is happening now. I know I have the advantage of knowing about the unrest going on now because of the missions that some of my friends are currently on and the training Seleste is undergoing right now. My father is still being briefed on everything and he discusses it with me during our regular calls.
After my walk, I decide to make it an early night. Tomorrow could turn out to be a long day. We will have over 40 future alphas and betas all in one room. Although we will be presenting as a group and going one at a time, there will be a lot of discussions, especially when there are differences of opinions. Ranked wolves, especially alphas, have strong opinions.
Bright and early the next morning, my unit met in the common area to travel to the meeting spot together. All units will sit together around the table. All the equipment we will need will be set up and waiting for us.
We enter what appears to be a large war room. There are large screens and other types of projection equipment. I see large maps similar to what we have for our presentation. We walk up to this large table. It’s a big rectangle with a glass covering. I can tell that the middle of the table is a screen, so we will be able to see what is projected in the middle of the table and the wall of screens.
We find our area and sit down as all the other units come in and do the same. At the head of the table is the Alpha King, The Royal Beta and Gamma and a couple more ranked wolves from the Royal pack. I think they are part of the king’s council. They will be the ones who will judge our presentations.
We elected to go to the middle of the groups. Just to get a feel for what others are doing. Not that we will change anything about our presentation, we just want to see how the project was interpreted by the others.
The first two units both started with peace talks. The first group decided they would send a peace convoy of about ten elite warriors with a negotiator to try to broker a peaceful resolution. They had a list of concessions they would be willing to make, including giving the rebel a parcel of land with buildings for him and his following to live and form their own pack that would be recognized as a pack within the kingdom. This will give them legitimacy. This was a good idea, but they were not able to fully answer questions about what they would do if the rebel became hostile doing the peace talks and what security plan they had in place for safely getting them out of the rebel territory. One of units made the point that you can’t expect the rebels to follow the rules of engagement. They are rebels because they do not want to submit themselves to governing rules.
Their plan for defense was more of going straight to war. They proposed having the Royal pack recruit warriors from all packs in the kingdom to build a super army. They had a plan for the special wolves in the kingdom and the roles they would play. There are some packs that can use magic or manipulate the elements. There are also packs that can use telekinesis. We did not point them out in our plan. That actually is a good idea to use their special talents in specific ways. That will give us an advantage.
The second group’s presentation was similar to the first, with the exception of them having a small army surrounding the rebel hideout while the peace representatives meet with rebels. The representatives would keep an open link with a member of the army so that the leaders outside will know if things take a turn for the worst. They would be ready to go in and bring the team out. The second team also sent a team ahead to scout the area before the peace team entered the area. They wanted to get the lay of the land, know the rotation of the guards and the number of combatants in the rebel camp. Their defense plan was like ours in that they proposed building an alliance with the other packs in the kingdom to form a strong border defense. They also did not consider aligning with the other species.
My group went third. Alpha Burton was our spokesperson. We were the first group to skip peace talks. Alpha Burton explained our rationale about foregoing peace talks. We decided that this rebel wants world dominion, he or she will not settle for bits and pieces of power. They have gathered their followers by offering them power when they come into power. If the leader accepts a compromise, they will lose most of their followers.
Our plans break down our defense in three different areas: forming alliances within the kingdom and with other shifters and species; setting up surveillance and traps and training are warriors and pack members. After Alpha Burton gave the introduction, we each got up and presented our areas using the visual aid we created. We were able to point out the areas we would set traps in and describe how they would work in that area and also show how we divided the regions. We were also able to use the maps to show the peaceful packs and how they are centrally located to get relief to all areas in less than 24 hours.
Finally, Alpha Justin presented the plan for funding our plan and our long-term maintenance plan. So far, we were the only unit that considered how we would gather, store, distribute and maintain our resources without putting all the responsibility on the Royal pack. Our plan literally involves all packs, at least the ones who will remain aligned with the Royal pack. We acknowledged that there may be some alphas who align with the rebels, and we will treat them like an enemy. We also addressed the packs that may want to remain neutral. At some point, they will have to make a decision. Even if they choose not to actively fight, they can work with the other packs that will offer relief. If they remained neutral through it all and get attacked by the rebels, we are under no obligation to help them.
Since we explained everything and used visual aids, we did not get a lot of questions. There were a couple who felt that we probably should have still added peace talks even though we did not feel they would be successful. We ended the discussion by saying that we did not feel that using resources and possibly placing our warriors’ lives in danger was worth it when we could use those same resources and efforts to strengthen our packs and training our warriors. We pointed out that some packs needed more training than others, since this would be the first time the shewolves in those packs would be officially trained.
The last two unit presentations were a combination of token peace talks and war strategy. The last two acknowledged the benefit of aligning with the other shifters and species, but admitted that they did not think of it when putting their plan together. There were no new ideas added after our presentation, just variations of the prior presentations. You could tell that everyone put a lot of time into studying war tactics and planning.
After the last presentation, the Alpha King let us know that he and his committee would convene to discuss our presentations and give us feedback after we have a late lunch. We will meet back in this room around 6pm and have a working dinner while they go over our presentations with us and let us know which team will take the leader's spot.
We have 4 hours to eat lunch and do our own thing until we meet back up again. The king said that we’re eat dinner there, so we don’t have to worry about dinner tonight. I’m so hyped right now. I tell the others that I’m too wired to head back to the unit for now. They all feel the same way, so we all shift and go for a unit run to get some of this energy out. Today was one of the rare days that we did not have physical training before meeting. Some of the other units are out for runs as well.
After about an hour or so of running, we all head back in, take showers, and go to the cafeteria for a late lunch. Since they knew the academy would be in session until late, the kitchen staff put food out a little later for us. I was so glad to see all the hot protein dishes on the buffet for us. We had beef in almost every way imaginable. I kept is simple and got a steak with mashed potatoes. I need to replenish all the calories I just ran out.
After eating, we chill with some of the other units. A couple of the alphas in the other units are from packs close to my own. It is nice that way they put us in units with packs from other areas instead of putting us with the ones we live near and probably already interact with. We all had to get to know each other and build working and living relationships with. Our unit was the start of learning how to build alliance. We all are from different regions in the kingdom and have different perspectives. We make it work for us. We cater to our individual strengths.
We head back into the war room and reconvene. The Alpha King and his team are all standing now as we remain seated. The Alpha King addresses all of us about the presentations.
“Good even young alphas and young betas.”
We all return the king’s greeting.
“I was well pleased with all the presentations. I can tell that a lot of time and thought went into this. You all did excellent. With that being said, one team stood out as having the most comprehensive plan. Alpha Burton, can you and your team stand up, please?”
We all stood up and faced the front.
“You all had the most comprehensive plan I have heard in a long time. You all considered all angles and explained the choices you made and why you rule out other choices. That is exactly what needs to be done in a real-world situation. We were very impressed with your attention to details. Including your plan for raising taxes to cover the cost of a major war. You were correct in your analysis of how taxes are used and the fact that we have not had to raise taxes in over 40 years since we have had a long-lasting peace.”
We all said thank you and took our seats.
“Now, I have to let you all in on something. What I am about to say does not leave this academy. I am only sharing this with you now because you will in a sense be the leaders that this will impact.”
The king pauses for a moment to let us all gather our thoughts.
“The activity you just completed is based on reality. There is currently some unrest in the supernatural world. There is a lone wolf who is gathering an army of rogues from all species to overthrow the current leadership and royals. The supernatural council has been working with hunters and trackers from all the packs to keep an eye on things. The activities have escalated in the last month. Can any of you guess why that is?” The king asked,
“because we all felt the power shift of the future protector. I believe they are trying to gain power before the protector comes of age and gains full power. Maybe they think they can find the baby and possibly get rid of it before they come of age.” One of the alpha on another unit says.
“That is correct, but what no one outside of us and the council knows is that the shift we felt was the protector coming into its power. The protector is already of age and is currently training to take their rightful place. The protector team has been working with the vampires and the bears to get a well-rounded training. We will not disclose the protector’s identity until they are ready to come forward.”
Everyone is shocked at this revelation. I notice that a couple of us did not show surprise. I guess the other are part of the packs that are training the protector now.
“Because of the latest intel we recently received, we will be changing a few things at the academy. You all will now become part of the war efforts. As many of you have noted, we are past the point of a peaceful resolution, so we have to now prepare for a major was. We will implement most of the plans submitted by Alpha Burton’s unit. The members of this unit will be team leaders in several areas. Alpha Justin will be lead over finances and resources; Alpha Brennan and Beta Jona will be a lead for defense; Alpha Burton and Beta Casion will be the lead for the training. Alpha Trevor, we have a special project for you. We will discuss it with you later. For the rest of you alphas and betas, see my beta and gamma for your team assignments. You all will go on specific missions and rotating from the active field to the classroom. You all will work as full-time alphas and beta under the council. You will still be under the academy and still get your breaks as scheduled. The only difference now is that the project you will work on will be real.”
The king finishes speaking and everyone gets up and goes to the where the beta and gamma have set up a table. My unit stay sitting at our table since we already know what we will do somewhat. We wait until everyone has gotten assigned to a team, then the leader from my unit met briefly with their team members just to get to know them. I bounce from team to team just saying hi. Since I don’t know what my special mission will be,
After everyone finishes meeting in their groups, and we finish eating our dinner, the Alpha King dismisses us but asks me to stay behind.
“Young alpha Trevor, I guess you are wondering what your mission will be.” Alpha King says.
“Yes sir, I am.” I answer
“Since you are already aware of the identity of the protector, you will be the liaison to her team. You will travel to meet up with her after the holiday officially, but I know you will see her over the holidays at your pack. You and her can plan when you will meet up with her team and the intervals you will meet until things progress again. In the meantime, you will be floating between the times and assisting them as we mover forward. You will work closely with my gamma. Do you think you can handle that?”
“Yes sir. I can. I am ready to do whatever I can for the kingdom.”
“Good, keep that attitude and you will go far in this kingdom and build stronger alliances for your pack. That’s all I have for you tonight. My gamma will get with you tomorrow and you all can go from there.”
“Thank you, sir. Good night.”
We exit the war room and head to our own spaces. My unit is waiting u for me. They are curious about my special mission. I tell them that I will assist the gamma and floating between the units. I also tell them that I will be assigned as a liaison to the protector team once the protector is revealed. I am not allowed to give any information about knowing her identity or that I will meet with her directly. My team is excited about us once again taking the lead.