Chapter 62: Council

*****EJ’s perspective*****

I had called an emergency council meeting. We needed to discuss pups going missing. This was the first I had heard of it but my dad said he heard the rumors last year. He meant to bring it up with Donnie but the whole Khenzu thing distracted him.

The meeting was held at Mom and Dad’s old place. I brought my father with us to the meeting so he could tell us everything he heard about what was going on. We discussed the possibility that female pups were being sold and or used as sex slaves and also for smuggling drugs. This needed to end.

I proposed an intervention of sorts. My father and Savannah, his great-aunt who sat on the council, would send some scouts to see what was going on. If they found female pups were indeed being kidnapped, then they would send guardians and warriors to the Moonrise Pack and any other packs that needed assistance in that area. We would put an end to this as quickly as possible and find the ones behind it.

Rose, Samiya, and Phoenix would put word out to their kind to keep an eye out for suspicious activity, namely female pups being taken against their will. We continued to discuss the situation and other things that we could do. Dad suggested notifying all packs that someone was kidnapping female pups. Savannah said that would be good, but could alert whoever is taking them. We weren’t sure if it was a lycan behind it, it was most likely a lycan but we weren’t sure. There was a history of vampires kidnapping lycans so we needed to first find out who was behind it. Then we could better figure out a plan of attack. I decided we would meet again on Saturday to discuss the results from the scouts. And if necessary, we would meet every Saturday until the situation was resolved.

After the meeting, I asked my dad why he hadn’t told me about these rumors before now. He said with everything going on, he hadn’t really thought about it.That he had forgotten about the rumors until now.

I might have been king, but my father was still the alpha of our pack. I let him decide who to send on the scouting mission. Moonrise Pack was about a day west of us. They would drive there so they didn’t arouse a lot of suspicion. Once they got there, scouts from other packs would join them. (None of the scouts would be from packs in that area.) Most of the packs scouting were allies with us. We needed to know that we weren’t tipping off the enemy in case they were lycan. I had a feeling it was one of the packs that didn’t want to bow to a teenager. There were a few of them, mostly in the midwest.

*****Artemus’s perspective*****

I told Shania about the missing girl. We felt bad for her and hoped she was okay. I didn’t tell her about Sebastian, though. He was mine. I would find a way to meet him, but for now I would just see him in my dreams.

Shania and I were preparing for the Thanksgiving Feast. We needed the perfect outfits. So we went shopping in the city. Boston had a lot of good clothing shops. We found a dress shop and went in. They had so many great dresses, it took us hours of trying them on to figure out the best ones to buy. When I tried on the glittery pink dress and looked in the mirror, I knew I had found the perfect one. I looked just like a princess. It was absolutely perfect. Shania found a similar dress in baby blue, it really made her eyes pop. We put our other clothes back on and went to the register to pay for the dresses.

When we got home, to Shania’s house, we hung our dresses in the closet. I had been staying with her since the twins were born. And even though they were growing just as fast as EJ did, the house was still very loud with all the boys.

Jacob and JD were good kids but they had a bad habit of yelling in the mornings and most of the day. They look about four years old now, hopefully as they age quickly it means they will grow out of this yelling phase quickly. I miss my bed and my room. But I also don’t want my ears to bleed being around the boys. Shawn and Strix were homeschooling them until their aging slows down, so I have about seven to eight months before that happens.

Shania wanted to go to the movies tonight. I didn’t think there was anything worth seeing at the theaters so I convinced her to have a Netflix night. I had recently seen the trailers for After. It looked really good. So after dinner we watched After and After We Collided. We planned to watch the other two movies tomorrow. We went to bed after watching them.

*****Layla’s perspective*****

The twins were growing so fast. After school, I would help Strix with the boys. I wanted to be a teacher someday. This was good practice for me. I usually had to wrangle them up cowboy style to get them to calmly sit and listen. They were into the cowboy stuff. I focused on teaching them the history of the United States. They loved it when I got to the cowboys part.

After lessons with the twins, I would go to Kat’s house for study group with Jane and Trevor. After that I went back home and helped Strix with Jacob and JD. Getting those boys ready for bed was a real chore. They were full of so much energy, I just wanted to bottle it up. After dinner, the boys would get their baths, brush their teeth, and then if they got in bed they got to pick their bedtime stories, otherwise, I picked the stories.

Artemus had moved out temporarily. She couldn’t handle the boys so well. I still saw her at school and we even ate lunch together three days out of the week. I did kind of miss her prissy and demanding attitude around the packhouse, though.

*****EJ’s perspective*****

At the council meeting the scouts reported that it was in fact lycans kidnapping female pups. They tracked them to the Dark Moon Pack. A pack my parents had run-ins with last year. This meant the Pale Moon Pack was probably also involved. We would send some guardians and warriors to Moonrise Pack lands for reinforcements. The guardians were there to keep an eye out and stop any further kidnappings. The warriors were there in case a fight broke out between the packs. They would also help train warriors for the Moonrise pack. After the scouts gave their report, we discussed a detailed plan of how to rescue those girls who had already been kidnapped. We decided we would show force and arrive with great numbers. The two packs we were dealing with had already lost a great number of warriors in their previous dealings with my parents.

After the meeting, I reported back to my father. He agreed it was a good plan. We got Gamma Jake, the guardians, and warriors ready to leave and notified Moonrise they’d be coming. Moonrise was grateful for the assistance. We had hoped that by intervening, we could put a stop to all of this.

I would be taking over the training for Gamma Jake while he was gone. I decided to train more often in case we needed to be prepared. I ordered everyone of age to train in the mornings before school and work and then after dinner as well. Former Gamma York still held a training session during school for those at school. The goal was to get everyone to the advanced class as quickly as possible.