Margie approached the old ship's bell in front of the community hall. With a huge smile plastered across her face, she grabbed the clapper in her hand and started ringing the bell as if her life depended on it-- repeatedly banging it as if to wake the very dead. She knew that the best party in the pack's long history would take place tonight. It was clear to every wolf in the pack that this mating would signal the end of the mating drought. Word always spread like a summer wildfire in a wolf pack, and everyone was sending to one another.
They finally had a shaman, their shaman had spoken with the Lady, and soon many of them would have mates...and more importantly, children.
John watched his pack from the sidelines, and as he saw everyone buzzing around like excited hornets, he knew that if Ja-mul's predictions did not come to pass, then the pack would quite cheerfully tar and feather the old man for giving them hope once again. John was torn; he wasn't positive which way he should be leaning. Sure, he desperately wanted to find his mate, and maybe even finally have some children of his own, but the vision of the old bastard being covered with boiling tar and then being rolled in filthy chicken feathers...well, that had some appeal too.
So John chuckled to himself and wondered how much a cauldron worth of tar would set him back. It wasn't that he really cared a great deal; he knew that it sounded like a worthwhile expenditure.
Hell, it might even be tax deductable.
Maybe I could find a suitable excuse to tar and feather the old bastard even if his predictions do come true!
All of this meant that John was smiling quite broadly as he entered the hall, but then his life took a turn for the worse. Beth and Carol were whispering to one another in the far corner of building. This caused his smile to dissipate as he got that sinking feeling that always accompanied the sight of these two bitches together.
"Caught sight of them plotting, did you?" Jefferson asked with a sardonic grin on his face.
"Any clue what they are up to this time?" John asked his ex-Beta without even bothering to say, 'hello'.
"If I did, I'd be smart enough to deny it, my old friend."
"Jeff, she's your mate. Can't you control her?"
"Not a chance, she knows where I sleep. And John...some words to the wise, they get even worse after you mate them."
John winced at this, but he remembered that he hadn't yet bothered to greet his old friend. His worry evaporated as he grasped Jefferson in a bear-hug and thanked his old friend for coming so quickly.
"Any time John," Jefferson said, "You do know this...right? You act so surprised that we'd leap at a chance to come help you!"
"I'm not used to having to ask for help, Jeff. It feels weird."
"John, every pack in the Americas is in your debt, and the best part is that we are all
eager
to help you! You are doing me a favour by giving my pack an opportunity to be part of this, and before you say anything else... Yes, Carol is plotting something evil; so just think of her deviltry as an offset for whatever help we provide. Fair enough?"
John chuckled and said, "You've been spending waaay too much time with your lawyers. They are corrupting you!"
"No, that isn't it at all. It's all Carol, even the corporate guys are afraid of her. I caught a couple of them calling her Judge Carol."
"More like Judge Dred," John shot back morosely. "The second nastiest bitch on the planet!"
"...and she's all mine, buddy." Jeff laughed, "She's like a thrill ride that runs twenty four hours a day."
"Physically...or emotionally?" John asked with a knowing grin.
"Both, thank the Goddess!" Jefferson leered back at John-- his face alit with a manic sort of glee.
This caused John to roar with laughter, which unfortunately for the Alphas, clued the two Alpha bitches that the hunters were scouting them.
"Now, you've done it," Jeff hissed, "You've alerted the herd. Now we'll never manage to sneak off for ale."
"Nope, I have it covered today my friend. Watch this..." Then John yelled, "Oliver!"
The overweight wolf waddled up to the two men. "Yes Alpha?"
"Jefferson, this is the most important wolf in our entire Resort. His name is Oliver, and I am putting him at your complete disposal. I was recently informed that no other wolf knows the Resort nearly as well as he does; I'm also told that he knows every square centimeter of the place. If you or any of your men need anything, absolutely anything at all, you just tell Oliver or his man Stan, and they will take care of it. He will also be heading up our Fresno baby-sitting operation, so these two can be tasked with almost anything."
John paused for a moment to let Jefferson examine Oliver at his leisure, and then sending a private message to his old friend, he said, "
Here, watch this
."
"Oliver, number two."
Oliver heard this and then put two fingers to his mouth and whistled. Moments later, Stan appeared, carrying two large tankards filled with foaming brown ale. Stan nodded respectfully to the two Alphas and then handed each of them a dripping tankard, before moving back and standing at an approximate posture of attention immediately beside Oliver.
That wolf can't weigh more than one twenty five,
Jefferson sent back tightly.
...and the other one, he's gotta go 350.
"Thank you men, you've done a great job!" John said aloud to the two mismatched wolves.
"It's an h-h-h-honor sir," Oliver managed to squeak out, "w-w-we'll do a good job for Alpha Jefferson sir."
"Well Jeff," John said, taking a long draught from his tankard. "We've put this off long enough... shall we go see what sort of mischief that Judge Dred and the tornado are causing?"
Jeff also took a long draught, finally saying, "This ale is superb, and that should help us both survive this. You go ahead and lead the way Alpha, that way, those two will prosecute you first."
Seeing the men eyeing them while fortifying themselves with ale, Carol asked Beth, "Do you think those two are up to something?"
"Not a chance; they have beer. They've found someone to bring them more when they run out, and dinner is almost ready. What more could they possibly want?"
"Sex?" Carol shot back, giggling.
"Like they won't get that after the party of the century," responded Beth dryly. "They are wolves, there's nothing else that they could they possibly desire. Of course they are not up to anything; they've already got everything that they want."
"Okay then, our two are here. Where are the other two idiots and our guests of honor?"
"I don't know how they did it, but somehow Sam and Tom convinced the cook to feed them early. It must have taken a Hell of a bribe; she even snaps at John when he tries to go into her kitchen. And then after they ate, they grabbed Ja-mul and headed over to the Clubhouse, and that has me a little worried. Ja-mul has been hanging out with those two since he got here, and all three of them are completely feral... You know, undomesticated. I'm not sure that even the Goddess knows what those three are doing."
Carol laughed at this and said, "...and our loving couple?"
Beth rolled her eyes and said, "Our loving couple is... loving each other I think. I tried to contact her earlier and all I got back was a wave of lust. I suspect that they'll come dragging in here about five minutes late.
Further conversation was interrupted when Pamela, the long-time head cook, shouted everyone in the room into silence, announcing, "Tonight, there is going to be a pack party, and here's the deal; we aint gonna be workin' while y'all are having fun. The kitchen staff has worked all day, and now, we are takin' the night off...starting right now. So everyone, tonight you get to serve yourselves, and when you get done, you can join us down at the Clubhouse. We've already eaten, so we are outta here! Oh, and before I forget, y'all might want to let the visiting Alpha fetch his own food first!" Pamela then tossed her chef's hat into the corner and arrogantly walked her staff out of the building.
"I think I just saw the bribe," laughed Carol.
"Oh no, she's like that all the time. Although," she said thoughtfully, "I'll bet that Sam gave her the idea."
"...and then she reciprocated by feeding them," grinned Carol.
"...and then he chivalrously escorted the entire staff to the Clubhouse?" laughed Beth.
"Yes, completely feral," replied Carol.
As Pamela was storming out of the Community Hall, she saw William and Florence rushing into the building and stopped them on their way inside. "I made sure that the two of you got a special table. Up there on the riser, can you see where we set up that rolling partition? We've set up a table for the two of you. Go push the partition aside and start eating. Make sure that you grin at everyone as the rest of them are looking for tableware and waiting in long lines."
Florence thanked Pamela, and then dragged her mate to the indicated spot. Pushing the partition aside, she found that the cook was as good as her word. There was a table set for two, set with silver platters, elegant china, and food for at least six. There were five differently seasoned mixes of pork, at least a dozen different sauces for the pork, four different kinds of freshly baked bread, and six different side dishes.
William and Florence smiled hungry smiles and dug right in. Looking down from the riser, they made sure to make a show out of feeding one another savory bites while the rest of the pack struggled to find their own food and serving utensils. Florence even made a point of winking at her father as he was somewhat ineffectually overseeing the set up of a serving line.
Carol sidled up to John as he was working and said, "Are you sure that you wouldn't want to eject Sam from your pack? You realize that this has his fingerprints all over it."
"No way," said John with a grin. "What with mating set to begin again, and with his beliefs about having a mate, I'm going to have to keep him around just so I can watch him suffer when his number comes up. You know, like it did with that poor bastard Jefferson. Watching him flail around as his life was ending...that was pretty funny."
"Not nice, John," Jeff harrumphed.
"But you got the cutest puppy doggie eyes, Jeffie," John needled.
"Hey! Why are you picking on me, she started it!" Jeff replied, pointing at his mate.
"You chose to bring Judge Dred with you; that makes everything that she does entirely your responsibility."
