Consensus Is: Go Now...

When you get out into the sun the Pack is cooking supper, but you call the adults and near-adults, leaving the older girls to care for the cooking, off to the edge of the clearing to have your little planning session.

"Jean, would you call this pack meeting to order?" You ask once the adults are gathered behind the tent.

"We're not so formal about these things Sam, there's only nine of us, ten counting you, we don't need parliamentary procedures..." Jean explains wearily.

You decide to pick your battles and shrug, "Okay, as long as it works we'll do this your way love," you say with a shrug, and Jean nods in acknowledgement, "Right, there are two ways we can do things in the next few hours: either Jean and I can find some clothes we can make fit well enough to go into town: cancel my magazine subscriptions, put my apartment on Craigslist as a fully furnished sub-let, clean out my Post Office Box and cancel that too, empty my savings account, and write out Drop Forms for all my classes, then go to the camping store and buy everyone shirts, jackets, underwear and pants: I am Alpha Male of this pack and you all are going to wear clothes when we are not in the Pack's camp/den area or in canid form; especially come Winter. The other option is to break down this camp and relocate it all to your present Den area, set it back up, get some sleep, and THEN have me and Jean come back for the car and do all that stuff tomorrow," you explain at length, before making one final comment. "Also, if I am going to be Alpha Male of this pack I need to know everybody's names, ranks, and skills so I know who to assign to do what when situations call for people to be split into separate groups..." You finish, and the rest of the Pack nods.

Jean takes control here, introducing the rest of the adults. "Our Beta, Samantha, you have met when she helped you cook lunch, she's a good cook, has command skills, and is a good hunter, but doesn't think well in human terms anymore outside of cooking." Jean says gesturing to the heavily freckled woman with fur and hair the color of rust and leaf green eyes, eyes which are all but empty of human reason.

"Rayana, 'Ray' for short, is our Gamma, she's good with the plans, and can fight like a demon, but has trouble keeping up on a hunt, she's fast enough but lacks staying power for a long chase," Jean states waiving a paw at a Hispanic wolf-girl, who looks you over appraisingly, and you realize she is judging you, and if she finds you unworthy...

Jean continues, "Valeria here is Delta right now, she won that status from Becky here in a contest of athletics two months ago, running, swimming, and an impromptu obstacle course: Becky became Epsilon and seems to be OK with this. Both of them are strong hunters and can keep the kids in line, but think like wolves most of the time, and will stay in Canid Form as much as they can get away with," Jean says pointing out two light-haired brunettes with pale skin crouched on their haunches in the back.

"As for the rest, you can get to know them better after we relocate the camp and resolve your business in town, with one exception," Jean looks over the Pack and Her eyes settle on the youngest woman there...

Barely more than a girl, her breasts not even having reached the universally exceptional sizes of the other dog-girls in the Pack yet. If you had to guess her age you would peg it at or around Fourteen, but when SHE looks at you... Looking into her eyes is like looking into a mirror, in the others you see elements of their personality, but hers show nothing but a reflection... She also is the only wolf-girl there who is of African descent, and both skin and hair are coal black. "This is Keisha, our omega. Don't let her low status fool you, she gained a ranking among the adults of the Pack over a year ago when she was only twelve. I have every confidence that by the time she is twenty-one she will either have taken my place as alpha or taken some of the others to found a new pack. Keisha is a wunderkind, she killed an elk last year by herself, and can outpace ME in both canine and hybrid form," Jean declares with an obvious note of Pride.

"Now since you have been introduced to my new Mate and your new Alpha, everyone sound off by your ranks on which of the two plans he proposed you think is safer for the Pack," Jean says, and everyone thinks for a minute, then in rapid succession they all come to the same conclusion...

"Yea, like the others said, go into town right away, before anyone realizes you're late and sends the Rangers looking for you and finds us instead," Keisha says summing up the Pack's general opinion.