P.o.V. NarratorPatrick could hardly contain himself as they pulled up to the High Valley pack house. He barely waited for the car to stop before jumping out and heading towards the trunk. He bounced impatiently shooting glares at the warrior who drove them who went to speak with a warrior from High Valley before opening the trunk. When the man finally turned around, he looked surprised to see Patrick waiting there and quickly fumbled in his pocket for the keys to unlock it.As the trunk popped upwards, Patrick quickly grabbed his backpack and portfolio. They had everything for his presentation from the painstakingly drawn map to the detailed presentation he had put together using an old laptop his mother found for him. He turned quickly towards the house and shouldered the bag as he hurried after his father through the front door. Luckily whoever was

P.o.V. Alpha Darren Leary/Tybris "We need to focus," I kept telling myself and Tybris, but it was useless. Between exhaustion from being up all night, the news we had to deal with, and the even greater urge to return to our pack to ensure everything was okay, we stood no chance of full mental control. It didn't help that Patrick, using us as his sounding board, had showcased this presentation probably a dozen times in varying formats. We made sure to hold our composure as best we could for his sake as he walked through the needed renovations in all of the towers and possible conversions for each. Possibly the only good thing about the horrible news Gerald gave us was that the tower recommissioning couldn’t have been more useful. “Rogues,” rumbled Tybris for what felt like the hundredth time. It took almost an hour for Gerald to get through the story

P.o.V. PatrickIn spite of the nerves that settled in my stomach after I got settled in the meeting room that morning, I managed to greet everyone in attendance for my presentation cordially and start smoothly. Aside from Alpha Gerald and father, I was proposing our joint work on the old towers to Ambassador Liam, Gerald's Beta Owen, and the High Valley Commander Rose. Father and Alpha Gerald looked tired and I could tell at least father’s focus was drifting in and out, but the others in the room were very attentive. The three guests perked up immensely as I discussed the original design and usage for these outposts as both watchtowers and troop housing as well as prisons. As I began discussing possible options for their rebuild, Commander Rose kept coming back to their original use.“A dungeon could just as easily be a store room in times

P.o.V. Liam/DelmontIt took every bit of self control I could muster not to storm out of the meeting when Patrick started talking about using our warriors to fill his outposts. Only my respect for the Alphas kept me from putting him in his place. Rumors I heard from the warriors and Alpha Gerald on Moira's situation all made more sense the longer I listened to him. Whether it was because of Moira and Trajan or his general inclination. He clearly looked down on the warriors.At least the Alphas were able to keep calm and come to a more reasonable proposal than sending large numbers of our warriors away from their safe town in the mountains to the middle of a forest to face rogues hours and hours away from everyone they know and love.I left as soon as I could. Delmont was not keeping his feelings to himself

Moira LearyStanding between father and mother during Commander Alexi's eulogy was the last place Trajan and I wanted to be. We had actually fought both of them to stay with Chris, during the funeral, but they were on the same side about us having to stand with them. At least dad's arguments made sense. Only thinking about how it could make Hamm's family feel if we seemed to be giving preference to Tess' kept us from joining our friend. Mother's demand that the Alpha and his family always stood behind the warriors in these funerals was the weakest argument we'd heard in a long time. We started to tell her that as a warrior that meant we should be out there with everyone else, but dad stepped in and stopped me. He and Trajan had faced off about this already so we knew we'd lost, but had to try everything we could for Chris.