Lauchlan The Betrayed (book 2 of Hell in the Realm series)

CH 10

Lauchlan

He was off to his first Annual Alpha Meeting with his father, held in Rochester. It was interesting to see all the Pack Alphas from more than a dozen states all standing around and then sitting around in that conference room. There were, from his understanding, a few enemy wolfen packs in the room, but over the course of the five days that they were there.

Everyone seemed to be well-behaved. There were a few yelling matches across the room, but his father told him that was pretty normal. There was hardly ever a meeting that went by without one pack yelling at another. That he was just glad it didn’t turn into a fight within the room.

Lauchlan had just sighed at him, and it seemed there was no difference to the Wolfen Realm when more than allies got together. There was nothing he could do about it, even though he’d been a peacekeeper in the royal military, and this what he was seeing would have been his job to help deal with. The Alpha Council he knew had their own warriors to handle things like this. They all lived within the council grounds.

It was a long five days for him. Due to this being his first annual meeting, he wasn’t allowed to participate, not until his fourth year of coming here, just once this year and then two next year and so on. Increasing his attendance once a year until he attended all four of them. Though his father had told him he wouldn’t take him to the kingdom for the Kings' annual meeting.

He’d leave Lauchlan here in the Human Realm to manage the pack, while he and his unit went and attended to it. He didn’t expect Lauchlan to do that until he actually took over. He could if he wanted to attend the one the year prior to his ascension if he so chose to, but there was no need. It was no different to the meetings here, just on a grander scale was all and everyone had to be checked by the king’s seers on arrival.

Though he also got to see a few of the heirs to his allied packs, some were already allowed to sit at their father or mother’s table, due to never having to go off to war in the kingdom, so they had been attending these meetings since right out of Alpha College. He also got to smile and greet a few of those he knew from Alpha College as well.

Not all had been direct heirs when he’d attended, so there were fewer than he expected to be in this room. Though his father did tell him that once he’d attended and was allowed to sit at the table, he didn’t have to come to all of them. Only once a year again, but was allowed to sit and bring up pack-related issues, that he and his unit could attend this meeting in his steed if he was off at allied assistance and couldn’t make it once he'd done the four-year requirement.

The Alpha Council also tried to be considerate, and organise the meetings around university breaks. So that there were no interruptions to heirs attending their degrees, because all heirs were required to come to these meetings during the first four years right out of Alpha College. That was their own rule; they understood all heirs were attending university degrees.

He was able to hang out at dinner or after dinner with other heirs that he knew, have a beer and a chat and a few asked him about where he’d been, and he’d told them in the kingdom serving as per his pack law for the heir. They’d just nodded; he’d also noted that he was quite a bit larger in build than a fair few of them, and he knew that even his own unit would be as well.

He put that down to it was nonstop training and fighting in the kingdom, and that training was done kitted out in the armour he’d been provided, which was, in fact, quite heavy to wear; so considered to be weighted training which built more muscle. Where here in the human realm packs it was regular training, without armour and with the occasional fighting of rogues or enemies. So more muscle was built when in the realm was all.

He was glad to head home after those five days. It was a bit on the boring side for him, due to having to sit up against the wall and not participate for hours upon hours for five days. His father chuckled softly at him when he stated it was boring.

“It might be son, but it’s mandatory, and those six Alphas you saw arguing and getting heated. It wasn’t boring for them, one day that could be you in the future. Fighting does happen and meetings do get shut down and everyone sent home if things escalate out of control. You see it about once a year. Life is just easier for some than others is all. We’ve had an easy year, so we didn’t need to get into anything, just relay numbers when requested.”

“Why can’t it be done via email? Why in person?” Lauchlan asked right back. He couldn’t see a need for all of them to be in a room like that, especially if one's enemies were there as well.

“Because that’s how it’s done in the city of Nightingale. No one can email the king, and he sits with all of us for that once-a-year annual meeting. He also expects you to behave yourself and not have a go at your enemies. So, son, take these meetings as prep for that Annual Alpha Kingdom meeting when it comes along.

"How pack Alphas and their units behave in these meetings are recorded and reported. So, there is warning and prepping in advance for the annual kingdom meeting, so they can be managed. Some packs just can’t contain themselves at all, no matter what,” his father stated.

He was glad to be home inside the pack, and getting back to training every day. Although he had hit the gym in the hotel they were staying in while there before the meeting started and took a swim in the evening to do a few laps in the pool, to keep his fitness level up, he didn’t want to decondition by doing nothing for five solid days, seven if you counted the travel to and from Rochester, it was a half day drive out there.

He and the boys headed out to do a run, headed off west into the forest along the elk lake – marcy trail until they could cut down to the Casey Brook and run along it until they reached the valley that would lead them down to the Boreas Ponds, then back along the Snyder Brook and over Boreas Mountain onto the trail that lead all the way back to the elk lake Marcy trail and to the pack.

It was a good run for the higher-ranked members and a standard pack route to be taken by their wolves or in their human form, at full wolfen speed with lots of different terrain to cover, helped with endurance and agility.

His days were normal after that, back to morning training, and he was starting to learn about the pack's businesses and what he was going to need to study in order to manage them. He and the boys were all required to have a business degree. One of them had to attend an accounting degree to manage taxation; from not only here, but from the kingdom as well.

His father wanted one of them to study law. He wasn’t overly fussed about which one, just thought it would be wise and Lauchlan had mentioned to him that Alexander wanted to do that; his father had just kind of stared at him. All of them had picked up some wolfen language and Marshell wanted to study that and learn it properly; he thought it would come in handy at some point.

His father had frowned at Marshell for a long time, but then declined to say whatever he was thinking about that, and just nodded slowly in the end and finally stated "I don’t see a need for that here in the human realm, but if you want to, you may."

Nothing was really denied to them, and he’d opted to do the accounting degree, seeing as neither Caleb nor Dawson wanted to do that. He was pretty good at math, so it didn’t really bother him. Dawson opted for law school. They were all going to study in Syracuse and his father bought them a four-bedroom apartment to live in Monday to Friday, and they could come home on weekends or for mating balls.

Though occasionally they would have to miss that due to study requirements, full moons didn’t always fall on a weekend. They were all only young, and being out there away from the pack in another part of the state, they'd found there were several packs here attending the same university as they were, some of them affiliated with their own.

Those that were closer to Syracuse than their own pack, and they could get permission to attend those mating balls, if they wanted to. Or they could just stay at the university. He did note that not all wolves went home for full moons in other packs either. He’d asked one girl from the Blood Moon Pack why she didn’t head back, and she’d shrugged it off.

“If I get a Mate before my degree is completed, it’ll be interrupted, or I might have to change university, I could get pregnant during my first heat and then the degree gets delayed, or put off for who knows how long. I’d rather find a Mate later in life, after I’ve got my degree and career up and running.” She’d told him simply. "The Luna is in agreement with that and allows it."

Lauchlan had just nodded, and thought that perhaps she was right, that maybe it was actually better for them all to wait until after they got their education all sorted out, before they got a Mate. That way, they didn’t have to be away from them or start a family while still studying. All things that could see it be disrupted.