A New State of Living

Craig entered the dump of an office where Alrick waited for him. The place deserved to burn to the ground in his estimation. Who lived like this? What did this idiot do? Just party all the time? Craig had spent hours now just combing the region near the so-called

packhouse. What he found were derelict and abandoned buildings. This pack had been on life support long before their so-called Alpha died. Most of the pack members were dead or gone before the attack tonight.

“Al, what do you need?” 

Alrick is an

old-time Alpha. His temper burnt hot and he made his own decisions. It didn’t matter to him if those decisions weren’t popular with others. He was the Alpha.

His

word was the only word that mattered. He took his responsibilities as the Alpha of the Silver Ridge Pack seriously, and he based his decisions around what he believed was best for everyone. 

This was unlike the Iron Ridge Pack Alpha, it seemed. He enjoyed playing games at the expense of his people. Played favourites and punished people for petty things. If he didn’t outright banish them from the pack altogether.

Now it’s up to Alrick to sort this mess out. Report the incident to NARC. Or NARC would send people in to fix it. No one wanted them messing up the local dynamic.

Alrick threw himself into an overstuffed leather armchair

and glared at Craig. “What the hell? How did no one notice how bad it was? Why did no one come to us?”

“I’ve been watching those we have found.

I’ve found

they’re the old.

Whose living in their memories.

The other members find themselves trapped here.

They’re caring for the old. Alrick, this pack will die in no time without our help.

Daniel says the laptop you found has the banking on it and Hector had emptied the accounts. Filing and accounting are non-existent.”

“This is a nightmare. Can you make sure someone is watching that sister of his? I don’t want anyone fooled by her beauty. I don’t trust her. Have someone watch her interact with the others. I want to know if she’s benefitted off the backs of her pack, like her brother.”

“What is your plan for her?”

“Right now? Whatever I want to. Until I decide whether she stays or I banish her. How many members have you found? What about a member list?” Alrick rubbed his hands over his face as he sighed.

“Less than forty members and just like the accounting, we haven’t found the member list.” A pack maintained a book recording their membership, and it held an honoured position within the packhouse. A place open to everyone. Many packs like the Silver Ridge Pack kept their book on display under glass. The tome’s

only use was in ceremony. It was where a pack kept their membership and the ceremony was for adding or removing names from the log. “This is insane. We

can’t leave them here. I wouldn’t let a wild dog live here. Should I plan to move them?” We've not found the pack’s member tome yet.

“Yes. I can’t wait to leave here. Tomorrow we’ll start reporting this and making a claim on the land. They trapped the shifters in this dying pack. No pack will take them in.” The Silver Ridge was doing well. They could absorb this group with some adjustments.

“I’ll get on with it. Is there anything else?”

“That enforcer I interrogated. He’s not coming with us. Cut him loose. That’s his punishment.”

“Alright.

I’ll get it done for you. Oh, I know there are one mother and newborn in one of the outlying cabins. They’ll need medical attention. The pup was born a few hours ago. I’ve heard they’ve been living without a real healer for years now. The sister of the Alpha was subbing in as their medic and midwife.”

“Fine, do what you think is necessary to get everyone moved. I don’t care if we get everyone out of here. Some of them deserve this place. Take those trapped here. We’ll deal with things as they crop up.” 

Craig felt the same way as Alrick. This place was not healthy. The pack drained these people.

Now they needed to uproot everyone. He’d promise to bring them back a few at a time after they found acceptable permanent living

spaces for them. He was leaving the office when Alrick said. “She gets no benefits and has to earn what she gets.”

*

*  *

Alrick sat in the lumpy leather armchair and watched the sky lighten through a grungy window. The bones of the house were

good.

But the care of the house?

That appeared lacking for a long time. It’s a place where one could explore the lower vices. It would take a lot to return

the house back to its

potential. And he wondered whether it would be worth doing.

What had spurred Hector into wanting that land? He didn’t need it, and he couldn’t use it. He didn’t have the personnel to guard it, let alone use it for anything. They didn't have an overpopulation problem.

Jessica-Lyn, his sister, claimed partial ignorance of her own brother’s dealings. How much of that could he believe?

Alrick was too tired to contemplate his own response to her and her words. He was furious at her in a way he didn’t understand.

He brought his jacket up to his nose, and there were her scent and his mingling. Frustrated because he found it appealing. She was an offender in this fiasco. She needed to take responsibility for her inaction. Alrick didn’t understand why he was having such a reaction to her.

Alrick picked up a nearby copper vase and threw it across the room. He watched it bounce off the doors with a heavy thud.

Alrick couldn’t stand closed in this room with its trash. He had to get out of there.

* * *

Jessie had to wait in the front entrance of the packhouse for Craig to show her where to go in her own packhouse. Self-conscious of the surrounding strangers. Every instinct she had demanded that she run. Run far and run fast. This may have been her pack’s main house, but it wasn’t her home. She lived in a rundown cottage. The cottage was on the opposite side of the pack’s land. It was the farthest place she could go to avoid her brother. If she lived there, she was still part of the pack.

Craig left the office a few minutes later. The doors hadn’t closed for long before a loud thunk came from within. Inside the office, something hard bounced off the doors.

“Come on. I’ll take you to the others. Do nothing stupid. I have a lot to finish here. I don’t have time to hunt you down.”

“That’s normal. It’s fine. I won’t run. I have no place to go.” 

Jessie knew that once word got out into the shifter community about her brother’s actions. She’d

find herself tarred with the same brush as her brother, and no pack would want her. It was just one of the many reasons she hadn’t left.

“I was told if you want anything.

You need to work for it. Do you understand?”

Craig wasn’t sure about this.

But those were his specific orders.

If she wanted to eat. Then she needed to feed people. She wanted to sleep;

Jessica-Lyn would have to get chores done. She was lower than a pack’s omegas. Omegas were the lowest ranking members. The general membership of the pack. Omegas were the worker bee of the pack. Or the heartbeat. The humans often portrayed them as

downtrodden and reviled. But that was not the case. They had their place in the pack and respected for that. Omega didn’t

work in management, security, or other positions like that. Jessica-Lyn didn’t even have that status. None of them did.

Craig needed to move them to their lands and have their people settle them in. They needed to find living quarters and a place for them within the pack. Jessica-Lyn would not get that courtesy. It was Alrick’s decision what he wanted to do with her.

All Craig had to do was get onto pack land. She would

be Alrick’s problem after that. What he wanted to do with her was his problem. Craig just wanted to get this dealt with.

This attack had screwed up his plans to head out and do some prospecting. He had planned to leave in the morning. It’s now morning, and that would not happen.

“What do you want me to do?” 

Craig looked closer at Jessica-Lyn. She looked gaunt and exhausted. Yet she stood here asking what needed to be done. This woman didn’t fit the description given to Alrick and himself. This isn’t the

spoilt sister of the Alpha who’d attacked them. Not a loved one, that is. Now Craig wondered how much of that description was true? Who was lying to them? Why would they lie? Did someone have a grudge? Or were they lied to also?