Alpha Rising: Her Revenge

3: Preparations

Kendria

"Okay, we have our legitimization plan for the Gathering. We know what information we need to gather for our paperwork and have selected the wolves that will be in our delegation. Let's do this!" I ended the meeting with a smile, looking around the table. My mom made a rare appearance, which further bolstered my attitude. Also in attendance were Naomi, Tamara, Shasta, and Harlie. My mother, Naomi, and Tamara served as my advisors, where Shasta and Harlie were my soon to be official Beta and Gamma.

The older she-wolves said their goodbyes and left, Tamara and Naomi striding out with purpose with my mom meandering aimlessly after them. Well, at least she tried.

Once they were gone, Harlie turned to me with a squeal. "Oh my Goddess! We have so much to do!"

"I know, but I think we can do it!" I responded excitedly. "I've got our historical trade numbers here—"

"Not that, silly!" Harlie talked over me. "I'm talking about shopping!"

Shasta and I groaned in unison. Harlie would be a great Gamma, but she had an unstoppable weakness for clothes that made you rue the day you accompanied her on a shopping trip. To be honest, I was more like Shasta, since I was a tomboy and all. We even looked a little similar, though his hair was dark brown instead of black and his eyes were blue compared to my green. Shasta was quietly hilarious with a quick wit though, where I was more serious. Together we balanced each other out well, which I felt was healthy for ranked members.

"How can you think about shopping with everything else we have to do to get ready for next month?" I asked, exasperated.

"Um, how can you not think about it?" Harlie challenged. "This is the first time you'll be walking among all the packs of the country as an adult. You have a very important request for our pack legitimization, the likes of which we know hasn't come before the Elders in over eighty years. You're asking to be named a female Alpha and be treated as an equal. How you look is everything!"

I paled. She went on, pacing the floor, not noticing my anxiety. "You have to look strong, but not masculine. Beautiful but not too girly. You have to look like a leader. This is crucial!" Harlie screeched, throwing her hands up.

I looked over at Shasta. I wondered if I looked as dazed and stunned as he did. "I...have no idea what I could possibly wear that fits that description," I finally said.

Harlie rolled her eyes at me. "Hence, the shopping. Not to worry, I'll pick out the perfect thing for you. We'll go now! You don't have patrol duty until this evening, and the rest of the paperwork will wait until you come back. We'll all go! Our entire delegation needs to look good."

Shasta balked. "Uh, why don't you girls just pick something out for me? I'm sure I don't need to be there."

I threw him a dirty look. "Way to throw me under the bus," I muttered.

Harlie pouted. "Aww, come on, guys, we really should do this all together. Pretty please?" She looked at us with hopeful puppy dog eyes.

I shrugged and looked at Shasta. He sighed and scrubbed his face with his hand. "Fiiiiine," he dragged out, giving in.

Harlie tossed her blond hair, something she often did when she got her way. "Great! We're going to have so much fun! Okay, meet me out front in fifteen minutes," she called over her shoulder as she left the room.

Shasta looked at me. "You do realize she's going to drag us all over the human town and repeatedly dress us up like dolls, right?"

"What, don't think you can deal with it, Ken?" I joked.

"You're on, Barbie," he deadpanned.

With that, we both left the meeting room laughing.

-----

"Hmmm."

"What?"

"Hmmmmmmm."

"Seriously, what?"

"Hm."

"Damn it Harlie, what's wrong with this one?" I shouted. I was standing in front of a trio of mirrors in the dressing area of the third shop we'd been to in the same number of hours. I was wearing a deep purple knee-length dress with silver accents. Like all the others, I didn't see a problem with it. Unfortunately, also like all the others, Harlie wasn't satisfied.

"It's too...feminine," she declared, unruffled by my outburst. "Try the next one."

I grunted and returned to the tiny dressing room, returning a few minutes later in a teal floor-length number that had a high slit up my thigh and was low cut between my breasts. To top it all off, it was backless. "I'm going to go ahead and say no to this one. I feel like I could pop out of both ends. Plus, the color makes me look sickly."

Harlie sighed. "I'm going to look through the racks again."

I groaned and turned back to my dressing room to take the gown off. As I did, I noticed Shasta laughing at me from a little armchair he'd managed to fold himself into. "Just because you got all your clothes at the first place we went to doesn't mean you have the right to laugh," I grumbled mutinously.

"And yet I'm still laughing," Shasta chuckled. "But hey, she found your other six outfits there, you're getting close."

I gave him the finger and slipped behind the dressing room door, narrowly avoiding the shopping bag he playfully whipped at me in response. "Rude," I called out as I struggled with the zipper. It was true, Harlie had picked out plenty of other clothes that she insisted we all buy, since the Gathering was a week-long event. However, the outfit I was to wear for the opening banquet was proving impossible to find.

"Hey, you were rude to me first!"

"Shut up, both of you, I've finally found it!" I heard Harlie exclaim from the other side of the door.

"Thank Goddess!" I exclaimed. I reached my hand over the top of the dressing room door. "Hand it over and I'll try it on so we can get out of here."

"Well, it's not 'it' so much as 'them,'" Harlie said with a giggle. She knocked lightly on the door. "I've assembled a few things that I think will work together. Can I come in and just show you how to put everything on?"

I sighed. "Sure, let's just get this over with."

Harlie came in and started helping me get into the different pieces of clothes. As soon as I was dressed, she threw the door open. "I think we have it! What do you think, Shasta?" Harlie asked, twirling me around.

Shasta wolf-whistled. "Looking good, Kendria."

I walked over to the mirror. I have to admit, I did look pretty good. The outfit was comfortable too, which was an unexpected bonus. Despite my general lack of interest in fashion, I loved what Harlie picked out for me, and I could hardly wait to wear it for the first time at the Gathering.

"Thanks Harlie, I don't know what I would have done without you," I said sincerely.

"You would have worn either sweatpants or full battle gear," she responded promptly, sending us both into a fit of giggles.

"Alright, alright, I'm going to change before I find a way to ruin this outfit," I said as we calmed down.

"Does this mean we can go home?" Shasta said hopefully. He struggled out of the chair, scraping its legs against the floor as he shimmied out of it. That set us off again, drawing curious looks from the human girl behind the counter. Shasta glowered at us and stomped over to the counter where our other clothes from this shop were waiting, scaring the girl a little. However, she instantly perked up when Shasta leaned over the counter and batted his baby blue eyes at her. I was sure the blatant flirting was pissing off his wolf Hunter enormously. As far as I knew, Shasta never went as far as sleeping with girls that weren't his mate, but came pretty close on several occasions. I would never go near any guys in that way that weren't my mate. Daria and I had a hope that we could share every first with our mate, and that he would save all of his firsts for us too.

I quickly changed and stepped back out of the dressing room with the clothes draped carefully over my arm. We walked over to Shasta and interrupted his conversation with the blushing girl, who screwed up three times ringing up our purchases since she was so preoccupied.

Finally, we left the shop and walked back down the street. "Finally," Shasta sighed dramatically. "That took forever."

"You just dragged it out longer, distracting that poor girl," I scolded. "It's your fault, really."

We arrived back at the SUV, parked on the curb at the end of the block. It was one of two that our pack owned, purchased only a couple years ago. We couldn't afford them before that. All trips to the nearby towns to trade things we trapped or made were done in wolf form with packs tied to our backs, which had to be painstakingly brought into town by hand to trade in human form so the locals would be none the wiser. With the vehicles, it was much easier to transport goods both ways and blend in.

We loaded the car with our bags and climbed in. Shasta drove, I took the passenger seat, and Harlie sat in the back, rummaging through all the bags to make sure we had everything.

After a few miles, Shasta spoke. "Have you decided who our Elder will be yet?"

I sighed and shook my head. "I mean, I'd like it to be my mother. But lately she's..."

"Not well," Shasta finished for me with a nod.

I hated that he was right, and that it was so obvious to everyone just how bad a shape my mom was in. Certainly not fit to be our pack's Elder. Each pack had their own Elder, who advised their own pack and, together with the others, sat on the council during the yearly Gathering. At rare times in the past, they all came together to try serious crimes. They never bothered with the Blue Hills m******e, though. Maybe because we didn't bring the issue before them ourselves. Still, I would have thought the other nearby packs would have been concerned enough to try to bring Silas to justice, lest he try the same thing with their own packs in the future. My mom, while wise, was becoming less and less fit for the public eye, and not up to the pressures of guiding our pack.

"I think I might ask Tamara or Naomi," I said. "They're already serving as advisors, were among the original wolves of our pack, and are coming with us next month anyway. I think either would be a good candidate."

"No offense to my mom, but I think maybe you should go with Naomi," Harlie piped up from the backseat.

I twisted around in the passenger seat to look her in the eye. "Are you serious? Why?"

"Well, for starters, she's my mother, which seems like a conflict of interest when it comes to giving advice to us as ranked members. You might be able to seek advice without any bias, but part of me would always see her as my mom, and she in turn may advise us to do things in favor of protecting our own lives instead of doing what's best for the pack."

"Huh," I said thoughtfully. I didn't realize Harlie had put so much thought into it.

"Also, Naomi travels all the time," Harlie continued. "She's been all over the country several times and visited all the packs. Her worldview makes her uniquely qualified to be our Elder."

"That was maybe the most pretentious thing I've ever heard you say," Shasta cut in with a chuckle. Harlie swatted his shoulder. "Hey, I'm driving here!" He shouted in mock panic.

"Okay, you two, let's settle down," I said.

"Okay, okay," Shasta gave in. "But no more smacking me, got it? I don't want to drive off the edge of a cliff," he warned.

Harlie crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue at Shasta. I stifled a giggle. I truly never felt lighter than when I was with them. We'd been through the ringer growing up, and were all stronger for it. Despite all the hard times, they still helped me find joy in the little things and discover peace in the life we had built for ourselves.

We grew quiet in the car for awhile, but it was a peaceful kind of quiet. I looked out the window. The snow from the morning had stopped, leaving a patchwork of snow among the fallen pine needles and towering trees. It was only the second snow we had, but more would come. I liked the snow, but at the same time it made me miss Blue Hills. Snow would not have fallen there yet. If we were there now, I probably would have been helping bring in vegetables from the pack gardens for the winter to help offset the cost of feeding dozens and dozens of hungry wolves. These days we had to buy almost all of our produce and have it shipped. Luckily, we were able to hunt our own meat, and as of last year we also had a stable of goats as well. When a door closes, a window opens, I suppose.

"Earth to Kendria? Hello?" Shasta waved his hand in front of my face.

"What? What's wrong?" I shrieked, momentarily panicking.

"Chill, girl, nothing's wrong, you were just completely spaced out," Harlie laughed from the back seat.

"We were just talking about what our pack name should be," Shasta added. "Personally, I think we should be called the Bad Asses."

"Let me get this straight," I said carefully. "You want us to have a pack name that includes the word 'Asses?'"

Harlie cracked up in the back. "That's what I said!"

"Fine, I give in, but your idea wasn't any better."

"Really, what was yours?" I asked.

"The Glittering Gems Pack!" Harlie exclaimed. "You know, like diamonds in the rough? Also, all the snow we have glitters and stuff."

I looked long and hard at her. "You guys can't be serious."

Harlie burst into laughter. "I told you we'd fool her, Shasta!" She said between gasps for breath.

I heaved a sigh of relief and sank back into my seat. "Wow, I thought you two had gone insane for a moment there."

"Nope!" Harlie replied cheerfully. "We do still have to come up with a name, though."

"I know, but nothing—and by that I mean nothing from the serious discussions we've had—sounds right," I replied. "We'll come up with something soon though. I can feel it."

With that we drove on, turning our attention to lighter topics as we talked and laughed the rest of the way home.