I have been at the academy for a month now. We are getting ready to take a break and visit our families before the holiday break. I talk to my parents and my friends regularly. Ben has been taking on a lot of the Beta duties. We check in weekly. I am really happy to hear how well he is doing. I wish he could have attended the academy with me, but I would never think of separating him and his mate.
My last conversation with Ben was a little awkward. He was filling me in on the mating ball my parents held last week. A lot of our unmated found their mates, which is always a good thing. Rose did not have any luck. She was sad but had thrown herself into warrior training. She wants to make sure she is prepared for any challenge and Ben said she needs the distraction she gets from training hard. Ben did not want to tell me that Shana found her true mate at the ball. I truly am happy for her and glad that it worked out for her. She is a nice person who got caught up in my drama. Ben told me that Shana’s mate had a hard time accepting her when he heard about her almost becoming my chosen mate. He thought that she hadn’t waited on him. My parents and friends talked to him and let him know that Shana was not the guilty person. She trusted her future alpha to make the best decision for everyone. After Shana’s mate heard that it was all my plan and that I chose her and convinced her to go along, he was willing to give her a chance. Since he is a warrior of a different pack, Shana transferred to her mate’s pack.
I ended my conversation with Ben, telling him I will see him over the weekend. I have to prepare for a meeting with my unit. I really like our unit. We all have a very good work ethic. We are leading in almost every area of the training. Over this past month, we have participated in several competitions that focused on building teams and alliances, strategic planning, critical thinking/problem solving, intellect, physical strength, and logical reasoning. A good alpha needs all of these skills and more to lead a pack both in peaceful times and during the war.
Gamma True has been impressed with our unit’s level of dedication. We are meeting and planning while other teams are playing and socializing. Don’t get me wrong, our unit is not all work all of the time. We party as well, but we like to plan ahead and be prepared for every challenge. Gamma True said that he is impressed with how we approached the structure of our team. We share leadership and rotate the leader bi-weekly. We usually decide things democratically, with the leader for that period directing the flow of the work. Everyone gets a chance to present their ideas. We have also worked out our strengths. My strength is my ability to plan strategically. I know that is surprising considering the horrible plan that got me sent to the academy in the first place, but it's true. Our dedication and ability to work together help us to win almost every challenge.
During our first week here, the units participated in the common war game where teams try to collect the flags of the other teams. We collected almost every flag. The other teams relied on brute force, but we came up with an organized plan. We sent 2 out to gather flags while the rest of us defended our flag. We picked the fastest and the strongest to go after the flags. Alpha Bruton is the strongest and Beta Casion is the fastest.
When we started the competition and the other team saw us sending just two wolves out, they laughed and thought we would definitely come in last. What they did not realize is that two wolves made a lot less noise than a group. It was easier for our team to sneak up on the one person left behind and get the flag before they knew anyone was there. When they were caught sneaking in by the defending wolf, Alpha Bruton would engage them as Beta Casion quickly grabbed the flag. This worked perfectly every time. In the end, we kept our flag, since we had 4 people guarding it, and gathered the most flags. We didn't get all of them, but that’s only because a couple of teams beat us to one or two.
We have a new competition we need to complete on Monday when we return from our weekend visit with family. This time, we have to look at a potential threat of war and come up with a peaceful solution or a war strategy. We were all given a printout of the issue. All of the units will be problem-solving the same issues. The issue we will be discussing is a potential overthrow of our king. A rogue wolf is building an army to overthrow the king. He does not agree with the rules of the kingdom, mainly the law that supernaturals need to stay hidden in plain sight. He feels that supernaturals are gods compared to humans and we should not be hiding. The rogue believes that the supernaturals should come out of hiding and take our place as gods living amongst them. Little do most of the people here know, this is almost based on reality. There is some power-crazy group out there now trying to take advantage of The Protector not revealing herself yet to steal power for themselves. Everyone thinks the protector was just born because they did not feel the power shift when the past protector died. Everyone felt the power when Seleste turned 18 and came into her power. The rebels are consolidating their power right now to strike before the Protector matures. Little do they know; she is already on the job. I hope that we can provide the Royals and Protector team with some useful strategies.
All six of us meet in the common area of our unit. Alpha Justin is the leader of this meeting. We had all agreed that this meeting would not last long so we all could get packed and make our travel arrangements. Most of our unit has to fly out. I am the only one from our unit that lives within driving distance.
“Has everyone had an opportunity to read over the project details?” Justin asked.
We all stated that we have read it.
“Does anyone have any idea?”
“I think we can rule out peaceful talks,” I say.
“Why?” Beta Casion asked.
“I think this person is fixated on power. He or she has spent years building an army and followers. They are not likely to stand down without gaining some kind of power. I don’t know that we have anything to offer them for peace negotiations. I mean, they already have land and money.”
“I agree.” Beta Jona says. “The person that would start a rebellion to overcome a king, wants ultimate power. He or she uses the promise of power to get others to follow them. They are not likely to settle for anything less than total power or death.”
“So we can all agree that peace talks are off the table?” Justin asked.
We all answered in the affirmative.
“Since peace is out, how do we go about planning for war?”
“Having a medium-large pack,” Alpha Burton said, “my first thought would be building alliances and getting the majority of the packs in the kingdom fully involved. I know that we are all obligated to send a small number of warriors to fight with the Royal army, but as the printout said that the rebels target the small packs first and try to destroy the kingdom from the inside out, we need to strengthen the smaller packs and work together as a kingdom.”
“I think Alpha Burton makes a very good point. There are strengths in numbers. Even the larger pack such as mine would need help against an army of 1000 or more rogues. So I like the idea of building alliances.” I said.
Everyone talked for a minute or two about the advantage of working together and strengthening the packs. Beta Jona suggested cross-training of alliance packs because some of us have different fighting skills. He mentioned that my Gamma had trained in several different fighting styles. I agree with him and tell them that my gamma is currently training with other packs as we speak.
“So how do we go about building alliances in a way that we benefit the kingdom as a whole and not just make certain packs stronger to become a threat of their own later?” Justin asked
“Maybe we can build alliances based on regions/zones. That way, the packs will be close enough to respond in emergency cases. Since my pack is 12 hours away from Burton's pack, it would not make sense for my unit to be his emergency backup, but we could still make an alliance to train with each other and send warriors to assist if there is an advance notice or send aid after the fighting ends.” I say.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Alpha Burton said. “We can have levels of alliance that can be laid out as part of our agreement. The packs will support each other within their region or zone, but still, connect with packs outside of their region/zone for trade and aid if needed.”
“That sounds good to me.” Alpha Justin says, “So over our weekend break, we think of a plan for how we divide the kingdom into regions for our purpose of building partnerships and how we would lay out the alliance agreement. We also need to think about how we handle the packs that do not want to join an alliance and what happens if that pack gets attacked. Do we leave them to fend for themselves since they did not join an alliance?”
We all agreed to have ideas ready to discuss either Sunday night or before training Monday morning.
“If no one has anything else to add, we can close this meeting and get ourselves ready to go home,” Justin says.
We were all excited about getting to go home, even if it is for the weekend. Most classes don’t get this bonus break, but since our class has done so well, we are ahead in the training schedule, so we have room for an extra break. Although we have only been away from home for a month, it seems like it has been a lot longer.
I think I am finally ready to face my pack. I don’t think I was ready to face them before now. I think the fact that I have proven myself to be a good leader and continue to make my dad proud, I am ready to face everyone so they can see that I’ve grown up and matured. My parents and friends are excited to see me. Being the future alpha, I have not been away from home for an extended length of time. While I miss my pack, I am glad for the opportunity to learn to be a better alpha.