74

74
Jackson's POV 

We were having dinner in the evening, and the entire family was gathered together. Honestly, I couldn't ask for anything else right now. To be alone with my family, with no problem around us, and no evil person trying to break us all apart, was about the best blessing I could have received. Maybe the moon goddess had given it to me as a gift for something I did in the past, maybe some good act. Anyhow, this was the best case scenario, and I was totally grateful. 

We ate contentedly, with small talk in between. There were a couple of other people with us who weren't family, but they were important people, and they weren't even at the table, they were standing by at the doors and windows, waiting on us, basically. And it was just as it should be. 

I looked at my son, my pride, knowing that he probably had something to tell me. I told him, which was basically something I said in every dinner that we had together. His death was something I always wanted to hear about, because it was sure to be interesting and insightful. I was very much interested in what was going on with his life, so that I could figure out if he needed any help or something like that. Anyway, I wanted to listen, and he was pretty used to telling me about it, so it was nice. 

He started narrating slowly in between bites of food in a casual manner. Obviously, he was very free and very happy about talking like this, and also very used to it. I listened, being the good listener I had turned out to be. It turned out that asking this question day after day was some kind of training for me to be able to listen to what others had to say. Before I made my decision, maybe that was the reason why the reign and my Rue was so successful, because in any of the judgments, I was top-notch, listening to everything, and being slow to make a decision until I had all my facts straight. 

It's only after then that I made a decision, and 90% of the time it was right, and everybody was happy. I didn't even remember the last time someone stole or something, because of the way I kept on handling it. I am pretty much the justice system here, but it's right this time around. And anybody who appeals to the highest court would have to come to the royal court and be judged by me, and finally get the fair trial that he deserved.

Finally, he seemed to be done talking, and didn't say anything more. I was about to give a couple of comments, but suddenly he frowned. What's wrong, Ru asked, looking a little surprised at the expression on his face. There's something more, he said slowly, looking at his food and picking at it like it disturbed him to the extent that he lost his appetite. 

I glanced at her, and saw that she was doing the same, before we both looked at him a little in apprehension. Whatever the matter was, it was strange, because usually he didn't have anything disturbing him at the back of his mind, but clearly right now he did, and it was something that we had to deal with right away. 

Tell me, I said, what happened? He frowned a little harder as he spoke. I got a note, an anonymous letter that some of the alliances that we have here and there were attacked. A couple of little packs, and those who are joined together with ours and under our protection were actually attacked by some rogues, and a couple of people were killed.

I glanced at Ru with a frown on my face, wondering about this and why I hadn't heard anything about it. She shook her head in response and indicated with that alone that she hadn't heard anything about this also. It's probably just a false alarm of some rumor, I said, not really thinking much about it at all. It couldn't do anything much, since it hadn't come to us and we were the number one people for anyone to alert about anything.  

It came by the hand of someone important, though. He said the frown healed on his face. I looked at him in question, wanting him to mention a name, but he shook his head. She's not even a messenger, he said. It's probably a prank from her to get me to feel a little uneasy, though I don't really see the joke in it. 

He finished her, I asked, raising an eyebrow because I didn't know why a lady would be delivering a message at all in this place. Nah, don't worry, don't worry about it at all, he said, shaking his head. I'll take it that it's nothing at all. If it was something of importance, you guys should have known about it already by now, but you don't. 

I nodded, deciding to let the matter slide, since he was dismissing it himself. It couldn't be all that important if he didn't think it was, and I honestly didn't want to think that anything was wrong with my steady, peaceful reign. The joining together of all the parks happened to be the best thing for all of them because there had been no wars since. And it's a very big mistake for me to, without the effectiveness of it, simply because of one little minor disruptive news that wasn't even confirmed to be true yet. 

It's best for me to think that everything was alright like it had been for a very long time now, since that would be the easier thing for me. Of course, if a problem actually arose, I would do my best to rise to the occasion and stop it before it could fester. This was very good going for us, and I wasn't about to watch it get destroyed because of some negligence and laziness to stand up to action.

As I was still thinking, he stood up and gave a polite smile. Can you excuse me? He asked. I think I'm done eating. I'd like to go to my room now. I raised an eyebrow, wondering where he wanted to go. It wasn't like him to leave his food when he hadn't finished it, and what the hell was he looking for in his room. 

But since he's already 18 and pretty much a grown-up, I didn't really want to be a pressuring force on him or some restraining kind of dad. I wanted him to be free like he had been ever since, and to do whatever he felt was right. To also follow his heart, despite everything that everybody said. So naturally, I wasn't about to stop him. Feel free, I told him. Passing my message across, clearly, he gave a polite bow before turning around and leaving the dining room entirely.

I'm left alone now with my mate and the couple of girls around. If it was just the two of us that had been together, then I wouldn't have made this the way that it was public. We would have just been in our room and had a good time together while we were at it. 

I felt a little loss of appetite right now and decided to leave. Also, I extended my hand to her and she took it, standing up as I did, obviously having the same intention in mind. It was funny how the both of us could be so single-minded when everybody else seemed to be so much out of sync. 

We left the room, but on our way to my room, I suddenly saw a man rushing up to me. He was the general that I put in charge of my information management. He was also the head of broadcast and everything that had to do with information in the entire unified pack of werewolves that everyone was living in due to our alliances.

I asked him what was the matter. I had seen that he was rather in a hurry. This wasn't really like him because as someone that had almost all the information that concerned everybody at his fingertips, he was pretty much calm and collected and didn't bother about anything because he knew pretty much what was about to happen.

If it was of national significance or any significance at all, there's been some attacks, he said, stuffing us. He found us looking a little relieved that he had pretty brutal ones also. It was totally unexpected. A couple of lives were lost and it was sporadic in three different locations in some of our allied packs. 

He said, shaking his head, I would have dismissed it as nothing, but I thought it's very strange considering that nothing like this had ever happened over the past 10 years. So I decided to come and report it to you. He said, we glanced at each other after he spoke, having the same thought in mind for the two of them to report it at such a close time interval. It couldn't be a coincidence. Something was really wrong.