Alpha Troy, First Beta Lucas, his wife Jules, the pack house administrator Fancy, the Master at Arms Anex, his direct subordinates -  Raine, Jenna and Drummond, the pack doctor Reagan and her faithful assistant Ravan, as well as, every member of the tribe who stayed to protect the village were gathered in the town square the evening after Penn had lead half the pack and the elders up into the northern mountain. They gathered to hear and share information about the threat Codax posed, after several wolves had gone on a reconnaissance mission, and to brainstorm together how they might protect their territory and the pack as a whole. The only wolves who did not attend the meeting were those who were currently on patrol keeping their ears tuned and their eyes open for Codax's forces should they come that night.

Though not everyone had been present the night before to hear first hand about Penn's impending vision of the town burning to the ground at Codax's hand, they did not doubt for a minute the seriousness of the claim. Especially, when half the pack and all the elders volunteered to follow this virtually unknown alpha she-wolf into the wilds. The fact that Alpha Troy permitted it, and one might say even promoted this collective action, spoke volumes to all those who remained behind. Clearly, he unequivocally trusted her with his pack.

But, while no one disputed that the silver she-wolf with visions from the Moon goddess was the right person to protect the most vulnerable, no one could come to any agreement on how to prevent Codax from burning the village to the ground. Pack leadership was currently having a heated argument about whether to focus on fire prevention or on preventing Codax's pack from entering Orthos territory altogether.

"We need to beef up patrols, and set up blockades on the roads in and out of the village. We've got to keep Codax out of the village altogether," Anex was arguing with Lucas.

"You are talking like he's going to drive in here and take over the place, but Penn said they were going to burn it to the ground," Lucas shot back irritably. "We need to focus on keeping the village from burning." 

"Well, turning on everyone's sprinklers just isn't going to cut it," Anex retorted. "We don't have that kind of water supply. What if we dry up every well in the village and then Codax attacks? Where will you find water to put out the fires then?" he taunted.

Troy, seeing that this particular discussion was going nowhere, cut in and asked Raine, the tracker, "Are we any closer to knowing Codax's current location and his movements? How likely is he to attack and when? Can you say?"

She had been sent, in the wee hours of the morning, to find Codax's camp and assess his numbers, capabilities and intent. Was he gearing up to invade the territory or was he amassing fuel so he could burn the valley to the ground? These were the sort of details everyone hoped Raine would find out. 

"He's camped on the eastern road about a half mile outside our territory," she confirmed for them. "He's amassed an enormous following - a few hundred wolves. And they are all in their furs just waiting for word from him to attack." She looked over at Anex and elaborated further saying, "they aren't going to drive in here when they come. They are going to attack the village in their furs."

Anex offered her a subtle nod of understanding. But, this news didn't change the fact that he thought dousing the houses with garden hoses was a useless endeavour.

"He's been in that position since the melt, hasn't he?" Troy inquired with some confusion.

"Seems that way," Raine replied.

She'd sniffed out the entire camp. They'd been sitting in that one spot for a couple of weeks, maybe more.

"Why wait so long when the road and the hillsides are clear of snow now?" Troy asked. 

"If he were a religious wolf," Drummond, one of Anex's right hand wolves piped up suddenly from near Raine, "I'd say he was waiting for a full moon. But, since he's a military wolf, I'm guessing he's waiting for the new moon."

"Why not just wait for a cloudy night?" Lucas scoffed.

It's not that he didn't like Drummond. It's just that, in this day and age, with street lights everywhere in the village, the night was never going to be totally dark. He and his little army would never be under the cover of real darkness. Waiting for a moonless night just didn't make sense.

Jules, ever the voice of wisdom and insight, interrupted the discussion saying, "Well, I don't know if he's a religious man or a military man, but I do think he's a crazy man and I don't think you can know what he's thinking or why." She looked at her alpha, her husband and then at Anex. "All we really know is that he's coming for the children and he'll burn the village to the ground to get them. So, what do we do? The children are safe with Penn. So, how do we protect the village?"

"We strike first," Raine replied. "We take out Codax and maybe a few of his top dogs. And then we watch his makeshift revenge pack fall apart and disappear into the mountains."

Her suggestion was followed by deep silence. It sounded like a reasonable plan. However, who would volunteer for such a dangerous task. And who among them even had the skill, let alone the courage, to strike first? Killing someone in cold blood did not come naturally to any of them. One had to be trained to do that.

"Do we have an assassin among us?" Troy asked Anex after a long pause. "Have you ever trained someone for that kind of work?"

If he had, it would have been the first Troy had heard of it. There was a time, more than half a century ago, when special forces within the pack's guard might have been trained in that way. But, those days were long over. Conflicts within and without packs these days were very tame affairs. Alphas didn't even challenge other alphas to a death match for dominance over packs and territories  anymore. At least, that was the case until this nut job called Codax started eradicating whole packs just to satisfy some crazed vendetta he had.

"No," Anex said gruffly. "We have no such training. I train my guards to fight with honour, to fight with skill and strength. I do not teach them to sneak up on their opponents and kill them when they are sleeping," he growled out with indignation.

"Alpha Penn could do it," Raine offered up logically. "She's trained herself. Living wild has made her a killer." Everyone knew this to be true. She had killed Second Beta Arn after all. "She's killed to survive and I bet she wouldn't hesitate to do it for the pups."

Not a soul had a chance to even consider this bit of information though because the night air was suddenly ripped open by a piercing and formidable roar. Instantly, there was confusion among those gathered. Had Codax come? Was he attacking them all now?

The mystery was solved a moment later though when they saw their own alpha tare off his clothes and transition from his skin to his battleform. He was the one who roared. And he was the one leaping through the crowd to attack one of his own.

Everyone watched in horror as he caught Raine by the throat and thrust her up into the air pulling her feet clear off the ground. The pressure on her throat caused her to begin to choke and in that moment the entire crowd fell to its knees and remained in a submissive position before their furious alpha. They had never seen Troy attack one of their own.

In truth, they weren't even aware that the even tempered and ever rational Troy could transform himself into battleform. While it was common knowledge that both big 'A' alphas and little 'a' alphas in the pack had a third form they could shift into besides their skin and their fur, seeing a wolf in battleform was very rare these days. Few alphas resorted to it.

An alpha would have to be severely provoked or emotionally out of control to transform into this grotesquely shaped but ferociously powerful wolf-man who walked on two legs. In this state, these alphas were stronger and more powerful than they were in either their skin or their fur. But, there was no need for these kind of radical shifts once wolves stopped brutalizing each other for mates, packs and territories.

Bravely, Lucas stepped forward and quietly but firmly called out to Troy, "Alpha, you are choking her to death. Please, let Raine go."

Troy didn't acknowledge his First Beta. Instead, with venom in his voice, he spoke to the tracker in his death grip.

"Penn is no killer. She's a survivor. And no matter how skilled and powerful she is at taking down large prey, she is not a weapon or tool at the pack's disposal," Troy seethed. "If you ever make a suggestion like that again," Troy growled with a voice that grated over Raine and made her whimper in submission, "I will crush your larynx and you'll never speak again."

Before she could comply in any way he tossed her to the ground. Everyone scrambled out of the way while Raine lay there gulping in air and coughing on it. She'd never faced death before. It was the most frightening experience of her life.  But, instead of hating Alpha Troy, she felt she was seeing the pack's real alpha for the first time and that was exhilarating. In battleform he looked like more than a match for Codax, which Raine found reassuring despite having been nearly choked to death a moment ago.

"She's not a weapon or a tool for the pack to use as it sees fit," Troy repeated as his firey gaze swept over the frightened pack.

Lucas continued to approach Troy and he answered for the crowd. "We understand," he said soberly. "She's pack."

"She's more than that," Troy conceded publicly and for the first time. Looking out at everyone he declared what only the closest to him had guessed, "She my mate."

That's all that needed to be said. The pack understood him now. They understood his rage and his transformation. Alphas always went berserk over their mates, even gentle, reasonable alphas like Troy were expected to lose it a little if their life partners were disparaged or in trouble. And, like Raine, instead of fearing him for it, the villagers felt invigorated by the knowledge that they were seeing their alpha - their war-ready alpha - for the very first time.

The diplomatic and well spoken Troy they knew and loved couldn't possibly be a match for some crazed killer. However, this testosterone filled battleform alpha, who they didn't know and had never seen, was just the kind of alpha they needed to defend the pack from a killer like Codax. The pack felt a little stronger and a little wilder just looking at him.

Lucas cleared his throat before address everyone. "This is the end of the meeting. Go home. Get some rest. We'll meet up first thing in the morning and make some kind of plan from there."

With heads bowed and eyes downcast, since no one was willing to upset Troy a second time that night, they slunk away from the town square and quietly walked back to their respective homes. However, their fear of angering him did not prevent every wolf left in the village from buzzing about the biggest revelation of the night. Penn was now, at least unofficially, their Luna.

The pack hadn't had a Luna since the former alpha's mate had died in a hunting accident decades ago. It had been so long, in fact, that they collectively found it hard to remember what life was like in a pack with a Luna. What they did know, instinctively, was that having a Luna made the pack whole. It made them stronger too. And that's just what they needed to be in order to face a threat like Codax - whole and strong.