He felt lighter. His responsibility did not drag him down as much. The colours were brighter. Were things looking up?

We got settled on the king-sized bed in the room, facing the large TV that was plastered to the wall. While Vir tried to get the DVD player working, I took the liberty of simply looking at his... ehm... behind.

I couldn't help myself, it was a nice behind after all. And to think that it would one day be mine? Astonishing. Honestly, I could hardly believe it myself. I mean, even though his clothing style was not one to write home about, he was very handsome. There were certainly some werewolf genes in that body, even though I previously never thought I would be attracted to him. When we stood next to each other, he towered over me, but in terms of muscles, I probably had more. I used to think I would end up with a burly man that could bench press a something with the size of a full-grown horse. I doubted that Vir had muscles enough to lift more than five packs of sugar.

Unless you count the brain as a muscle, that is. Then Vir would win easily from all men in all packs. However, the lack of large biceps didn't mean that he didn't look strong. I supposed that Vir would be more of a runner, with his long limbs and a lean physique.

And, again, a very nice butt.

He interrupted my staring when he walked back to the bed, looking at me with questioning eyes. "Everything okay?" He asked, quickly going with his hand through his curly hair, causing the hem of his shirt to rise, and a small patch of abdomen to become visible.

Without even taking my eyes off of him, I answered cheekily. "Don't mind me, just checking out my soulmate."

I may or may not got the result I wanted. A flushed Vir who didn't know how fast he could get into the bed besides me. To hide himself from my view, not to do other things. "Sh-sh-shall w-we just p-put on-n the D-DVD?"

Nodding, I propped up the pillows behind my back to sit up a little straighter, and put my hair behind my ears to keep it from falling in front of my eyes. It seemed that Vir was right about the content of the DVD. A recorded episode of the Alpha Trials, and one of the later ones at that, considering there were only five contestants left. They started with a short recap of the earlier episodes, where following test after test, participants had to leave the competition. After almost three months of exams, tests and interviews, only the smartest of the smartest people were left in the game to become the new Alpha. They included two fierce looking women, a charismatic older man, the old Alpha of Intelligence, and of course my dear Vir.

"It doesn't hurt to sit on the bed Vir," I commented when I noticed that he was sitting so far on the edge he almost fell off. He shuffled a bit closer, but didn't say anything. I wanted to keep looking at him, when I heard that the voice over of the programme started telling about the 'Interpack wolf Vir Cervantes', and I gave the programme my full attention.

"After a tumultuous youth in the Commutatio Pack that involved a lot of travelling, parties and change, Interpack wolf Vir Cervantes found that he was a true Sapientiae Pack member in mind at the age of twelve." A typical male voice over spoke as the programme showed footage of the old Commutatio pack lands, which consisted mainly of desert, hot sand and dry lands. "The young man turned out to be highly intelligent, even for Sapientiae standards, and has proven himself time after time again in the various challenges during the competition. At the mere age of twenty, he managed to score 100% on the mathematics, physics and chemistry exams, kept a cool head during the medical crisis and performed outstandingly well in the physical tests for strength and speed."

I sputtered in disbelief and paused the video. "You performed outstandingly well in the physical tests? Damn, I did not expect that."

Vir laughed at me, his eyes twinkling softly. "Livia, you do know that in the Commutatio Pack, running is something that everyone does on a daily basis?" I nodded. In terms of stamina and endurance, Commutation Pack members were the best. They could run the marathon relatively easily, in a very short time. It was probably where Vir's typical lean physique came from.

"And you also know that Sapientiae Pack members don't even have obligatory physical education during schools?"

"They don't?" I'm sure my eyes almost fell out of my head at that knowledge. In the Fortis Pack, two hours of physical education per day was compulsory from the age of six. You can guess that obesity in my old pack was nearly non-existent.

"Do you now understand how I could perform outstandingly well?" Even though he was slightly mocking himself, I could see in his eyes that he was secretly very proud to tell me this. He was better than most Sapientiae Pack members were at sports, and he felt he could impress me with this. It was adorable.

"Okay that makes more sense," I reply lightly, winking at him. "Though I must say that it's still quite the accomplishment." Even though I didn't look at him directly, I could see in my peripheral vision – and practically feel it – that Vir was very pleased with himself after my answer, quietly smiling to himself. I started the video again, using the TV remote. As they showed Vir throughout the different challenges, the man started to speak in voice over again.

"All in all, this young Vir Cervantes is truly a man to look out for. He has a good chance of becoming the next Alpha of Intelligence. The current man on that position better watch out, because the competition is obviously harder this time compared to the last Alpha Trials four years ago. With only a few more tests to go – to test their diplomacy, social interactions, and connections with other packs, find out if they have the ability to lead the pack through a crisis and capability to detect and prevent manipulation, we are almost at the finish of this competition." They switched to a dark-haired interviewer, who was standing in front of the Headquarters building in the pouring rain, a dark blue umbrella over his head. "Hello, my name is Everett Vanderberg, and I'm outside of Sapientiae Headquarters, where the five remaining competitors are about to arrive for their first crisis simulation. Using advanced virtual reality techniques, each participant will be exposed to a national crisis, to see how they would respond if they were Alpha in a pack-threatening situation. Over a period of two weeks, the participants will have twenty-one eight-hour long VR sessions to solve the unknown disasters. Between sessions, they have time to investigate, work out their solutions, and meet with board members to discuss their plans. It will be a tough two weeks for the contestants, and we expect at least one participant to succumb to the stress, and one to fail the tests.

"What was your crisis?" I asked Vir with a sideward glance, as the interviewer Everett waited for the competitors to arrive, babbling on a bit about each of the potential new Alpha's.

Vir cleared his throat and sat up a bit straighter. "A continental pandemic of a highly contagious and deadly virus with a long incubation time."

"Sorry?"

"In the simulation," he started explaining, "there was a virus that was spreading throughout the entire continent, starting from some medical research facility at the Fidem Pack. The virus was completely unknown, highly contagious, but people did not know they had it until two weeks after they were infected. However, as soon as they had symptoms, they got very, very ill, and were likely to die within three weeks. At the start of the simulation, no one had any idea what was causing these sudden illnesses followed by death. It was my job to keep most of the Sapientiae Pack safe while not compromising our economical situation or causing an overworked healthcare system."

I nodded, now fully looking at Vir, who was telling me about his assignment quite animatedly. "It sounds quite impossible to solve, how did you do that?"

He shrugged. "To be honest, not that difficult. People got sick, so I quickly came up with the plan to limit social contacts, while I got research started on what was causing the disease by simply taking a blood sample from a sick person in the Fidem Pack. It didn't take long to figure out it was a virus. From then on it was just running computer simulations to investigate the theoretical spread of the virus, and ordering people around to look at making a vaccine against it. Some more rules about staying home as much as possible, washing hands, wearing face masks and keeping distance from others, and that was it. 98% of the Sapientiae Pack members survived."

I was quiet for a while, and listened to Everett Vanderberg talking to the old Alpha of Intelligence, an older man who had held the position for twelve years. "I was wondering," I said after a while.

"No that isn't it," said Vir immediately.

My head snapped his way, my hair flowing in a smooth motion through the air, to slam full into my face thereafter. "How did you know what I was going to say?"

"You wanted to know whether the current crisis could also be a virus, right?"

"Yes," I said sheepishly, my cheeks becoming a rosy pink colour.

"It was also the first thing I thought of. But there is no sign of a virus anywhere. Almost no people are actually getting sick, and besides that, viruses do not directly cause bankruptcy and violence. Also, the way of spreading of the incidents around the city over time does not make sense if it were a virus. Those things just don't add up. It is not a viral disease."

"Mr. Cervantes!" I heard Everett say on the television in a loud voice. "Are you willing to talk to us for a few minutes? We would like to discuss your strategy." A slightly younger Vir willingly walked over to the camera, looking confident. Contrary to now, back then he was still wearing his old glasses with the thick black frame. Wearing an expensive dark blue suit, he looked so professional you would expect him on the cover of some company magazine as the CEO. I wondered what had happened to the fancy suits. "Of course," he said. "What do you want to know?" He was oddly charismatic.

The current Vir was aware of my confusion, knowing I hadn't seen him this confident before. I paused the video again, and asked him about it. "As you may have noticed, Livia," he answered simply, "I don't do very well in unknown situations. When things are completely unexpected, when I can't predict beforehand what will happen, I tend to get nervous or stressed." He sighed deeply and bit his lip. "A result from my past, I presume."

I softly put my hand on his forearm, which was tense. I could feel the soft, blond hairs of his arm as I caressed the skin in comfort. Even though the pleasant tingles were calming to me, I was not sure Vir experienced them in the same way, but he didn't seem averse to it.

"The thing is," he continued, not moving away from my hand, "the Alpha Trials themselves were extremely predictable, so I was able to decipher how I had to act beforehand. I had expected, or at least considered the possibility, that he would ask me this, so I could prepare my answers. That is why I look so confident. Actually being the Alpha, although often still predictable, it is not nearly as easy as I thought it would be."