Chasing Luna

Planning

I bounded up the stairs to Charlie’s office, wondering how much progress he had made on his promised treaties and notes. As I opened the doors, the printer caught my eye, it had 2 lights flashing, and with a second glance, I knew why. The output tray was overfilled with pages, and the primary and secondary paper trays were empty, thus the flashing lights. The tertiary tray at least wasn’t flashing, so I wouldn’t have to refill them all first to continue printing.

“Thank you Goddess for small miracles, any chance he managed to collate them, too?”

I stepped closer to check and sighed in relief. They were collated, and upon further inspection, it was done properly. A few minutes with a stapler was all I needed. I lifted the massive stack of paper and carefully took it to my desk, which sat perpendicular to Charlie’s and about 6 feet away. I centered the stack on my desk, sat down, and pulled my electric stapler closer. I gathered the first collation, double-checked its pages for accuracy, then stapled it in the corner. From there I only checked the first and last pages, knowing the collator sometimes erred and stapled every packet of notes. They weren’t too thick, I noticed, about 4 pages and nicely formatted; I had a feeling this would become a staple item in future meetings with foreign packs.

The treaties, however, were about 20 pages, shorter than usual and with a cover letter, but after a quick perusal of the contents, I understood and processed the document as I had the notes. I was only a few packets in when Charlie came through the doors.

:Charlie:

“Wonderful, you’re here,” even I could hear the relief in my voice. I cleared my throat and heard Kai chuckle under his breath. I chose to ignore it, “Stapling? Thank you, I hope the collation was right this time,” Kai nodded, still grinning, “I figured we would go to the clearing first. They shouldn’t take very long, and then they can be on their way and well out of what promises to be troublesome lands for a while,” Kai nodded his agreement, “We will need to discuss how to handle the rest. It is sure to be a very busy week. I want squads or platoons ready to depart within the next day or two, to gather the family members left behind. The farther they need to travel, the sooner I want them gone. We can prioritize dire needs if necessary, but I think we will find enough volunteers that it shouldn’t matter,” another nod, I began pacing, talking my way through my first actions, “Once we have finished in the Clearing, we will meet in the ballroom with the rest. I’m sure they will have questions too, but they’ll likely be different. Have Kara ready to meet us to take notes again, please. We will get each story in full from our individuals and families and make a priority list. I want a notice out for volunteers this evening. They should be ready to leave immediately and meet on the front lawn at dawn. I’ll worry about age restrictions after we see who volunteers. Be sure to leave that detail out of the notice,” Kai nodded with a knowing smile. I liked to test for leaders often and in unexpected ways. Kai recognized this as such a situation. “Well, that should take care of the basics today. Did you read the cover letter you’re stapling?”

Kai’s confused expression was answer enough, he stopped mid-staple and read the paragraph beneath our Pack information. I watched as his eyes widened, “Six weeks?! Are you insane? We don’t know anything about these other packs yet. How can you expect to keep your promise to the ones downstairs and arrange to meet with other packs around the country in just six weeks!?” I rolled my eyes, “You’re missing the point there, I said after the next equinox. This means most packs receiving that treaty will take the full 6 weeks to go over the damn thing, draw up their negotiations, discuss their powerplay plans, and so on. Only a few desperate ones will even attempt to contact us before that six-week mark. So relax, we should have a full 6 weeks to deal with the families and others downstairs. Any packs that won’t need me personally will get Jacob and Ezekiel or Jonathan and Raffi. You, of course, will be with me. The pack will be perfectly safe within our usual system, and we can start training many of our new members this week. More like than not, we will have doubled the size of our pack come the Equinox. You should really be stressing about that.” As I stared him down, I saw him come to understand my interpretation of the situation. Though I could see the doubts still there, and the stress now that I pointed out the likely growth we would experience. The families we brought in already totaled 19, and another 32 throughout the town and the ballroom were staying with the wish to bring their families if it could be made possible. With 51 wolves already inside our territory, another 150 would stretch our means and threaten our secrecy. I wasn’t prioritizing those issues yet, I had more pressing concerns, like their lives and health. Logistics could come later. Besides logistics is where Kai shined, worrying over it now would make his plans better later.

“Finish up the stapling and I’ll make the other arrangements,” I told him as I picked up my phone. I called Kara, asked her to gather the new ones in the ballroom after lunch and to ensure the children stayed in school. They would likely be bored anyway and needed to get used to our system. I told her to be prepared to take notes again and to try to organize the group by highest priority needs. She agreed and I made my next phone call to Xander. I wanted to update him on my plans and invite the elders to our meeting in the ballroom this afternoon. He accepted and said he would coordinate with Kara and the other elders. As I put the receiver back in its cradle, Kai put a final rubber band around our stacks of documents and stood. I nodded to him and we left my office.

As we reached the bottom of the steps, Frieda and two very large picnic baskets greeted us.

“You’ll take these with you, and bring back all my baskets nice and empty, yes?” I shook my head and laughed, Frieda, ever concerned with feeding everyone. “Of course, Frieda,” She scowled at me, as though for a moment she thought I might dare refuse. Kai eyed the baskets and the documents he was carrying already. Frieda rolled her eyes at him, huffed, and took the papers from him, shoving them inside the basket. “Now go on, those folks haven’t eaten since 7 this morning!” Knowing it was just after 11, I couldn’t help but laugh again as I took up my basket and headed out the door.

With Kai behind me, we walked out to the clearing. As we broke through the trees we could see the little camps were all packed up, and the fires had been put out. As we neared the first group, the others came toward us. Kai started passing out documents as I passed out sandwiches and bottles of water. This seemed to confuse some of the sentinel and beta types, I doubted their alphas ever fed them directly. Having me do such a menial task myself instead of having someone else do it was certainly a rare trait. Once everyone had their rations, I gave a set to Kai and took another for myself. Just to put them at ease, and to get some of them to start eating, I took a bite of the sandwich and a quick swig of water. With that task completed, the large group before me began eating with gusto. I suppressed an eye roll and waited a full two minutes before speaking.

“Good morning,” most of them nodded their greeting back, “Kai has given each of you a copy of the notes from our interview yesterday as well as a generalized treaty. When you get back to your packs, please keep in mind that these are very basic and general terms. Negotiations over the details must take place before signatures can be applied. As it says on the cover letter, I’ll start scheduling appointments to meet with Packs after the Equinox. You can explain if needed, the reason for the delay. Are there any further questions or concerns?”

After a moment of silence and a few glances around for shy speakers, I determined there were none. “Finish your meals, and share the remains among yourselves for your journeys home. Kai and I will hopefully see you all again in the coming months.” I nodded to Kai, our business finished, and we gathered the 4 empty baskets for Frieda. The other two were presumably from breakfast, and made our way back to the Pack House.

The whole journey and speech lasted a little over 40 minutes. As we returned to the house, the clock outside read 10 minutes to noon. It was rather superb timing, we could take a few minutes to ourselves before the meeting in the ballroom. Kai and I used the back entrance of the kitchens to return Frieda’s baskets, then agreed to meet up in the ballroom’s antechamber in 15 minutes. From the little side room, we could observe arrivals without notice, making our entrance once we knew everyone had arrived and Kara had finished her organizing.

I made my way back to my floor, using my bathroom to check my appearance, trying to decide if my current jeans and t-shirt were too informal or if I should be maybe just a little more intimidating. Meeting with families and others who wanted to bring their families here, I figured casual was a good look to stick with, but at the same time, I didn’t want any of these adoptees to think they could run me. A few more moments and I decided a slight change would serve well. I swapped my jeans for a pair in black, and my cotton T for a pressed long-sleeve button-down. Tucking that in and pleating the back for a smooth look, I reassessed my appearance. Business-minded and serious, but still approachable, should function well for this afternoon. I ran over a few key points of strategy as I made my way back downstairs. I made my way to the antechamber and started pacing again, waiting for Kai.

:Kai:

As I left Charlie at the stairs, I went in search of Sasha. I usually found her feeding infants around lunchtime. Today was no different, though I lucked into her feeding little Lia. I smiled, content and intensely attracted at the sight of them. Sasha smiled up at me as I entered her room, the infants all in various places around the room. Some in little penned-off areas, some in their cribs, others rolling around on blankets playing with whatever toy they could easily reach. Lia at Sasha’s breast, eating lazily with her eyes half-closed, ready for her afternoon nap. I gave them both a kiss on their heads and quietly asked Sasha about her day so far. She was flushed with excitement and energy, she had been coordinating with Frieda and Claire about the possibilities of more new arrivals over the next weeks. The expansion of the care center seemed imminent, and that meant new buildings and a mess of logistics for me to start running through. I tucked away my stress and worries for the moment. Sasha was not stressing about it yet, she was just excited for a new adventure. I let that excitement wash over me, as a tonic to my worries.

I walked with her to lay Lia down and kissed my mate again with a passion reminiscent of this morning. She barely suppressed a moan of desire and I broke away quickly. Keeping my eyes closed for an extra moment to gather myself, I didn’t have time to sate that particular appetite just now. Sasha pulled away knowingly, a grin at the edge of her mouth. “Curse you woman,” I stole a quick kiss as my farewell and turned sharply toward the door. I stepped rather forcefully down the hall, into the side passage that led to the ballroom’s antechamber access. Stepping across the threshold, I saw Charlie pacing again, lost in thought as usual. I took my place by the ballroom entrance, peering through the one-way mirror installed there. The gathering was still growing as people came from the dining hall, little groups forming as they talked. Everyone kept eyeing the main doors, waiting for Charlie to walk in. I shook my head, he would want to make a bit of an entrance I guess, a soft way of applying his authority without being overly intimidating. This window also gave us the ability to make a perfectly timed entrance, no tense silent waiting for ages, and no interruptions by late arrivals. Charlie was a natural leader in this aspect, he didn’t even think about those aspects consciously, they just were to him.

I watched as Kara arrived with Xander, heads together discussing something or other. Then Kara addressed the gathering, to many surprised faces. After a moment, they all organized themselves as she went around asking questions and taking notes. She started placing them in different positions, grouping and moving them around like a puzzle she was trying to solve. Without being able to hear her, I had no idea what she was doing, but I guessed it had to do with Charlie’s request this morning. Probably another of his tests, but then why wasn’t he watching her too? I dismissed the query, certain aspects of Charlie’s methods were best understood by him alone. As Kara was reaching the end of the gathering, two more entered the room. They were young, only adults had come so far. These two should have been in classes, getting acquainted with their new lives and routines. The girl was half-hidden behind her brother, and he was full of mock confidence. He stood straight and defiant, but his fists were clenched by his sides and his steps were careful. Kara ignored him at first, finishing up her current task. When she finally acknowledged them, the boy was rigid, but his expression was admirably controlled.

Kara’s demeanor was all authority and dominance as she addressed the boy. He spoke and Kara's demeanor softened for a moment, flashed through fear and disgust, then swam in confusion and indecision. She resumed her authoritative posture and placed the boy and his sister in front of the others. She arranged a few more behind, making an unbalanced platoon formation. She looked to Xander, who shrugged and nodded; taking that as affirmation enough, she stood to the left of the formation to wait. The group started talking again, in whispers to each other, and I thought perhaps they were discussing the children in front. I figured it was time to make our entrance. The numbers seemed right enough anyway. I signaled Charlie, and without a break in step, he pushed through the door and into the ballroom.