 
The New Beginning

The Catalyst

By

Steve Wharton

SMASHWORDS EDITION

*****

Published by:

Steve Wharton on Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Steve Wharton

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this free eBook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed for any commercial or non-commercial use without permission from the author. Quotes used in reviews are the exception. No alteration of content is allowed. If you enjoyed this book, then encourage your friends to download their own free copy.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblances to persons, living or dead, or places events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are products of the author's imagination and used fictitiously.

CHAPTER ONE

The series of events that happened at the Asheville lodge could have not been foreseen. With the death of the East LA Alpha the Beta's at the pack started a fight to replace him. While Simon had been a lousy Alpha he did keep the pack under control. The Beta's all wanted control of the pack and each of the three laid claim to becoming the new Alpha. The pack was split just about even for all three of the Beta's, Tony Martinez, Brad Jackson and JR Juarez.

JR's following was mostly with the female were's in the pack, in his human JR stood six feet 4 inches and weighed two hundred thirty pounds. His jet black hair showed his Spanish decent. Tony had the boyish good looks that the females loved. His steel blue eyes would cut right thru you. JR's wolf was black with white boots on his paws and he had a terrible temper and was the sneakiest and most violent of the group. JR also chased all the single females in the pack. If it was a female he chased it, and if it was possible he would bed it down. JR had a terrible temper and was the sneakiest and most violent of the group.

Brad's following was with the older members of the pack. While in great physical shape his height of six feet even and two hundred pounds made him lack in size to JR. Brad was by far the smartest of the group in intelligence. Brad's mate Jennie and their four pups made him a family man. While never to back down to a challenge, he took his family responsibility very serious.

Tony was the odd ball of the group, When one looked at him being a Beta just was not seen. His five foot nine inch, one hundred seventy pound frame did not give off the appearance of power or authority. Most took Tony as just a little wolf, his light brown fur and white breast showed the muscular frame. Tony's mate Karen and one pup gave the appearance of a good family life.

The packs policy for replacing the Alpha was a choice of the were's going for the position. They had the option of a pack wide vote or combat. Brad was in favor of the vote while Tony wanted the combat. JR had not weighed in on his choice as of yet. They had a week to select a new Alpha. The three Beta's were scheduled to meet tonight to try and come to an agreement on which way the new Alpha would be selected. A few of the pack members from each Beta's followers would be in attendance to ensure that the three Beta's came to an agreement. The packs Council of Elders would oversee the meeting. The three Beta's were kept apart for the day so that one could not influence the other. Brad spent the day with his supporters at the packs beach front, Tony spent his day at the Gym with his followers and JR was at the park with his followers. The groups of followers were allowed into the packs meeting hall thirty minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start. Once the members were seated the three Beta's came onto the stage and took seats.

No one paid much attention to the six unknown were's that were seated in the front row of the crowd. They blended in as though they belonged with the pack. Tony would be the first to address the pack, followed by Brad and then JR. Tony stepped up to the podium and started to speak when the six unknown were's jumped up and started to attack the three Beta's on the stage. When the unknown were's jumped up they shifted to their wolf forms. Before Tony and Brad could react two each of the were's were on top of the Beta's. JR had spotted the shimmer that occurs when a person shifts to wolf form and JR had shifted to his wolf form before the two that were coming after him reached him.

The two were's that reached Tony made short work of him one of the were's grabbed Tony by his throat and sprayed blood all over the stage as he ripped the throat from Tony. Tony fell limp to the stage, floor staring into nothingness. Brad had managed to shift to his wolf form just as the two after him reached him. Brad managed to kill one of the attacking wolfs and was fighting the second when one of the wolfs that had attacked Tony arrived to help the other wolf. The two wolfs together continued the attack on Brad. One of the wolfs managed to get a grip on Brad's throat before several of the packs were's realized what was happening and jumped onto the stage to help their pack mates.

The first were to reach JR never saw the response from JR. JR's long claws ripped open the head of the attacking wolf. He continued his attack and found JR ready for him. JR bit down hard on the neck of the attacking wolf and his mouth filled with the sweet taste of blood fill his mouth. JR knew this wolf wouldn't last long and he turned his attention to the remaining two wolfs ready to attack him. His pack mates jumped onto the remaining two unknown were's. They were set to fight to the death and fought the pack members. When the fur had stopped flying around and the attacking wolfs lay dead on the floor, everyone checked on the Beta's JR, had minor wounds from scratches and one bite mark, Tony was dead and Brad was bleeding bad from his neck.

Brad was taken to the infirmary along with JR to get treatment for the wounds they suffered. By the time they reached the infirmary Brad had died and JR had almost completely stopped bleeding. JR asked about his fellow Beta's and he was informed that they had both passed away from the injuries they had received. JR left the infirmary after receiving his treatment and returned to his house. JR thought that was easier then I figured it would be.

No one in the pack knew that JR was the youngest of five brothers. JR's other brothers were Alpha's of packs up and down the west coast. They had provided the unknown wolfs that had attacked the Beta's of JR's pack. The six were's had orders to attack all of three of the Beta's and kill two and leave JR alive. That way he would become the Alpha of the East LA pack.

Morning arrived and by the time JR came out of his house he was the hero of the pack, his followers had spread the word that JR had killed three of the unknowns by himself. When JR made his way to the Alpha's house he heard cheers coming from the homes from the other members of the pack. The Council of Elders had already scheduled a meeting for this morning to go over the results from last night's meeting. When JR arrived the Council stood up and cheered and clapped for him. JR sat at the table where he always sat as a Beta. The Council called the meeting to order and Marco James, the Chairman of the Council made the nomination of JR as the new Alpha for the pack.

"I will accept the nomination but I believe we should allow any member of the pack that wishes to issue a challenge should be allowed to do so. Give them until noon tomorrow to issue it and if no one does then we move forward." JR said.

The Council of Elders were all in agreement with JR's proposal and issued the notice to the pack. The meeting broke up and JR figured he would make it an easy day and hang around his house and talk with his brothers.

JR picked up his telephone and placed a conference call to his brothers; the first one to connect was Juan followed by Miguel then Rafael and last was Alfredo. JR said, "My brothers everything went fine last night, both of the other two Beta's were killed and I suffered some small bites and a few scratches. The Council was ready to declare me the new Alpha this morning but I told them to open up a day and a half for anyone to issue a challenge. I know no one will do that., once I am named Alpha tomorrow we will wait 2 days and then announce our Alliance with a mutual protection and defense pact's."

"That sounds good JR; do you think we will meet much resistance?" Alfredo asked.

"No I don't think we will receive any at all."

"I hope your right JR; we will need more packs to join our Alliance if all of this is to succeed." Miguel said.

"Once our five packs are joined no one will refuse to join us, but if they do the Alpha will die and we will force the pack to join our Alliance, once we cross the Rocky Mountains we should be able to put our plan into motion." JR responded.

Juan added, "One thing to remember, if this is to work the five of us must stick together. We must keep resistance from our packs to a minimum."

The five of them agreed and they ended their call. JR was feeling good about the events that had taken place. Once he was named Alpha and the Alliance was put into place they would inform the High Council that they would go on their own. They wanted no part of the current Council. They seemed to do everything to assist the east coast packs and then do nothing for the west coast packs. JR ate his supper and decided to turn in early. He wanted to be fresh for tomorrow.

JR woke unusually late for him he looked at his clock and saw that the time was time was nine O'clock. He got up showered and went to the kitchen and made breakfast. Once his breakfast was finished he went to the empty Alpha's house, and got things ready for the Council of Elders to meet. The meeting was scheduled for noon and JR had set up a lunch and soft drinks for those that attended the meeting. He had contacted an catering company and they had delivered the food and drinks at ten AM. Once he had everything set up he stepped outside just as the members of the Council headed for the house. Following them was a large contingent of pack members.

The Council called the meeting to order at noon and everyone took a seat. The only item on the agenda was the naming of the new Alpha. Marco James the chairman of the Council said, "Since there have been no challenges to JR the Council hereby names JR Juarez as the Alpha of the East LA Pack. The crowd of members in attendance stood and started to clap. JR held up his hand and the group became silent. "Thank you everyone, I want you to know I accept the trust that the pack has placed in me. I am calling for our first pack business meeting the day after tomorrow. I hope to have a few major announcements to make. But for now I have to move into this house and start to become acquainted with our finances as well as more of our operations. Again thank you."

JR turned and left the room for a few minutes, his leaving the room was a signal that the ceremony was over. He reentered and joined in the party that was being held in his honor as being named the new Alpha. Marco pulled JR off to one side and said, "JR now that you're the Alpha you may want to think about finding a mate. It really isn't good for the Alpha to make the party arrangements or the meals or that sort of thing."

"Your right Marco, I will give it some thought but I need to take care of some pack business before I even think about a female."

"You mentioned you hoped to have some announcements in the next couple of days care to share with me what is going on."

"At this point no but I promise you will be the first one to know before I tell the pack."

"Thanks you for that JR."

"Well let's go join the party."

JR spent the rest of the afternoon and into the evening milling around the party before it was all finished and everyone had left. Most everyone he had spoken to wanted something from him, Little did they know they would all be giving to him soon.

He picked up his phone and called his brother Juan and told him, "It's done I'm the Alpha here let the others know."

JR hung up the phone and went back to his old house and got some of things together and took them to his new house. He would get some of the pack members to help out tomorrow and get him moved in.

When JR returned to his new house he sat down at the desk and started to make a list of things that he needed to do tomorrow, and the first item on the list was to name a couple of Beta's. He picked up the phone and called Dennis Silvia and Randy Kiln. Both were old friends and would make good Beta's, JR knew he could count on both of them.

When Dennis and Randy arrived they knocked and JR yelled at them to come in. Both men walked into the house and went to the office. JR was waiting for them and told them both to have a seat.

"Dennis, Randy I called the both of you here because I need to appoint some Beta's to the pack, I am offering both of you the jobs. I know that I can trust and count on both of you."

Dennis looked at JR and said, "JR thank you I will gladly accept the position. You can count on me."

Randy said, "It is an honor to be named as a Beta and I also gladly accept the position."

"I want you both to be the first to know, I am entering the pack in a Alliance to provide a joint protection and non aggression pact with five other packs." JR said.

"I think that is a good idea JR." Dennis said.

"Me too there have been enough turf wars around here, this should put a stop to all of that."

"Oh it will do that, maybe even more." JR said.

"What do you mean by that? What's going on?" Randy asked.

"Not a word of this to anyone, the Alliance has already been put together and we are trying to get more packs involved and join the Alliance. We are pulling away from the Lycan High Council. All they seem to care about is the east coast packs. We are going to start our own network of packs. I meant what I said not a word to anyone until I make the announcement tomorrow. That includes your mates, understand."

Both Beta's nodded their heads. They both knew that if they said anything to anyone then they would die. "How many packs do we have already?" Dennis asked.

"Right now we have six packs, by the end of the week we should have at least fifty."

"Wow, nice going." Randy said.

"It's going to take a lot of work but we want all of the packs west of the Mississippi river in our Alliance."

"If there is any thing we can do let us know JR we are more then willing to help." Dennis stated.

"Glad you asked Dennis you have had a pretty shady background and the job I need done requires some shady contacts"

"Just name it JR."

"Hit the streets I want to buy guns and lots of them, maybe even some stuff more powerful. All dealings will be in cash and no names."

"I think I can handle that I may know someone who is in that line of work, small time though but he may have contacts."

"Good keep me informed, see if you can have some information for me tomorrow if possible."

"I'll see what I can do."

Dennis got up and left JR and headed to his house he needed to get his contacts phone number. When he arrived home Dennis went to his workshop and pulled out a small metal box. Inside the box was a small black telephone book along with a handgun and some more papers. Dennis took out the phone book and thumbed thru some pages until he found the number he was looking for. Dennis dialed the number and it was answered on the second ring.

"Jimmy, Dennis here how is it going old friend?"

Jimmy answered, "Been doing pretty good since I got out, been out almost three years now."

"You still go to that place over in Long Beach down by the shipyard?"

"Yea I do something I can do for you?"

"I hope so but I don't want to talk about it on the phone. Can we meet there oh say seven tonight."

"Seven it is."

"Great Jimmy I'll see you then." And Dennis hung up the phone.

*****

Dennis arrived at the Bull Run bar and grill a little before seven, he spotted Jimmy sitting at a booth in the back of the place. When he spotted Dennis walk in he waved him over and offered a seat.

"Dennis it is good to see you again, been to many years."

"Yea it has been, been keeping my nose clean for a while. I have some business that you may be interested in."

The waitress came over to the booth and said, "What ya having sir."

"I'll have a whiskey and soda, and bring him another." Dennis answered.

The waitress nodded and turned and left. "They still keep their mouths shut in here?" Dennis asked.

"Yea we can talk about most anything in here."

"Good, let me start and get right down to business. You still have access to guns?"

"What ever you want?'

"Good and Jimmy I'm looking for large quantities of guns. Actual number I don't know yet but it's going to be a lot of them and we may be interested in some powerful other stuff."

"If I can't get what your looking for myself I know someone who can."

"That's good everything will be in cash."

The waitress came back to the table and brought the drinks for both of them, Dennis pulled out a twenty and told the girl to keep the rest. She smiled and said "Why thank you sir, I'm Mindy you just wave and I'll be right over to take care of you." Dennis just nodded at her and went back to Jimmy.

"I'm going to be looking for military grade if we can get it."

"Let me go make a phone call and see what I can do.

Jimmy got up from the booth and walked outside, he was gone only a couple of minutes and he came back to the booth, "I've got a friend of mine on his way over he wants to meet who he is dealing with, he can get you anything you want."

"Ok Jimmy but I don't want any games, if I think something is wrong I'm out of here. Remember they don't call you Jimmy the Snake for nothing."

"Dennis you have always been good to me and you have never shit on me so I'll take care of you."

"Good I really appreciate that."

Mindy came back over to the booth and brought the men another round and Dennis paid her again and told her to keep the change. She smiled and thanked him and left. Dennis and Jimmy waited almost thirty minutes when two big burly men walked in and looked around and then held the door for a third man. The man was of Italian decent and was about five feet ten inches tall and had a muscular frame. He spotted Jimmy and walked over to the booth.

"Tony good to see you again, I want you meet Dennis, he is the man I spoke to you on the phone."

Dennis held out his hand to shake and one of the two bigger men grabbed Dennis's arm. Before the bigger man knew what had happened he yelled out in pain as Dennis used his other hand and twisted the big mans wrist and broke the grip and Dennis said, "Mister I don't know who you are but if you ever try something like that again I'll rip your throat out."

Tony was surprised at how fast Dennis was. He had never seen anyone move so fast and with such strength to do what he had just done to his body guard.

"Jimmy slide over." Tonya said as he slid into the booth.

"Mister I'm impressed, I've seen a lot of bigger men than you go down to Willie. I've never seen anyone make him scream before."

"Just protecting myself and if this is the welcome I am going to get then I'll go else where with my business."

"I understand and no that was a test to see how you handle yourself."

"Did I pass?"

"With flying colors, now Jimmy tells me you are looking to purchase some weapons. How many and what kind are you looking for and how fast do you need them?"

"Actual numbers I don't know right now I'll have a better idea about that tomorrow but I would guess around two to three hundred military grade automatic weapons and ammo as well, maybe even some Higher powered stuff like grenades and such."

"Sounds like your going to start a war."

"Yea maybe something like that."

"I can get anything you want, large numbers like that I would need a few days to get it all together. What kind of terms?"

"Cash on delivery, but I get to inspect them before payment and they all must be working models."

"I think we can do business together."

Dennis handed Tony a piece of paper and said, "Here is my name and number, I can be reached there anytime. Feel free to have me checked out, but you won't find anything."

"Why is that been keeping your nose clean?"

"Nope just never got caught."

Tony handed Dennis a paper that had his number. "You can reach me there anytime you need something."

The two men shook hands and Tony took his two goons and left. "Jimmy thanks for the connection, I owe you."

"Don't worry I'll collect sometime." Jimmy got up from the booth and left the bar. Dennis followed him out and got into his car and made the drive back to his house. He went to JR's house and knocked on the door. JR opened the door and invited Dennis in. "What do you have for me?"

"I met with a arms dealer named Tony and he has promised to get anything we need."

"Do you know this guy."

"Personally no I don't but I know his reputation, They call him Tony the Tuna behind his back, He will take care of us."

JR and Dennis sat down on chairs out on the back deck and had a beer. They talked about the pack and how things we looking for them. "JR what is really going on, we don't need a lot of weapons if we are just breaking away from the High Council?"

"Keep your mouth shut about this but once we have enough packs in our Alliance we will be starting a war to get rid of a lot of the east coast packs."

"I kind of figured something like that was going on, but I was just guessing. I told my contact we would be looking for military grade weapons. If it's going to be a large quantity he will need some time to put it together."

"I understand that, let me talk to the other Alpha's and I'll get you a starting number and we can go from there."

"Sounds good to me."
CHAPTER TWO

City living does not sit well with most Lycans the open spaces that they want to run and hunt are not available to them. Calling the pack East LA is not really true anymore. The pack is one of the oldest in the nation. It was formed on land just to the east side of LA. As LA grew the pack was pushed out of their land and moved farther to the east. The pack was now located outside of LA in the low mountains of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The meeting hall for the pack was large enough to hold the entire pack which was one hundred fifty adult were's. The pack assembled at noon for the business meeting that JR had call for. JR entered the meeting hall right at noon. He took the podium and called the meeting to order. He started the meeting with the financial report of the pack and followed it with general business. He introduced Dennis and Randy as the new Beta's of the pack. JR told the pack he had one last item to cover.

"The last item I want to cover is that I have entered the pack into a mutual protection and defense pacts with the packs from San Diego, Alpine, San Francisco and Redmond, Oregon. The purpose of the pacts is to provide our pack with additional protection and to aide other pacts. We have named our Alliance the Western Pack Alliance. We are hoping to have more packs join the Alliance. The other reason is I intend for our pack to with draw from the Lycan High Council. The Council has done nothing for the west coast packs and provided support for the east coast packs. This is evident by no action being taken by them against the Reidsville north Carolina pack for the wanton murder of our old Alpha Simon Richards. I will not let his death go unpunished."

The pack members stood and applauded JR for the last part of his statement. They pack as a whole wanted revenge for Simon's death. JR called for a vote on the mutual protection and defense pacts and every Lycan there voted yes and JR passed and put the pact's in place.

"The last thing I want to address is the attack on the meeting that killed our old Beta's Tony and Brad; I believe that was also done by the Reidsville pack. I want them to pay for the as well. They kidnapped Holly Richards and her pup and they have Greg Jackson in their pack. As you all know Simon expelled Greg and I believe he is the one responsible for urging Reidsville in the attacks on our pack. My intent is to declare war on them and make them pay for the deaths of our pack mates."

The pack stood and chanted "DESTORY REIDSVILLE." JR looked at Dennis and Randy and smiled and nodded. He told them to come to his house after the meeting, he wanted to discuss the plans for the attack on Reidsville.

JR concluded the meeting and went to his house and grabbed a beer and waited for his two Beta's to arrive. Randy and Dennis arrived shortly after the meeting broke up and JR offered them a beer and had them take a seat. JR was in a good mood having gained the support of the pack for a war against Reidsville, little did they know that the war would be against more then that pack.

As soon as his Beta's arrived he placed a conference call to his brothers, as each of them joined the call and all four of his brothers were on the phone JR said, "My brothers I have good news my pack has agreed to the pact's and are in favor of a war against the Reidsville pack. The pack is also in agreement of withdrawing from the Council and increasing the number of packs in our Alliance."

"That is good news my brother." JR's brother Alfredo said.

JR asked, "I am going to arm every pack in our alliance with automatic weapons. This will reduce the death toll for our packs while making it easier to destroy any one who opposes us. I need to know how many weapons each of you will need, I have a supplier that will provide anything we will need. I have my Beta's here and Dennis is handling the contact and procurement of the weapons we will need. Once I have a number and what kind of weapons we need I will let you know how much money I will need from each of you. I also want each of you to start contacting additional packs and start to grow the Alliance."

Juan said, "I need one hundred each of assault rifles and pistols with five hundred rounds of ammo for each."

Miguel said, "Same for me."

Rafael said, "Two hundred of each for me."

Alfredo said, "Three hundred for me."

"We have the total, I want to triple the total order so as we get more packs joining our Alliance we have the weapons to arm each pack. If each of you will cover one fifth of the added cost we will have the additional weapons. We will sell them to each pack that joins the Alliance for the same price that we pay for them."

Each of the brothers agreed to cover the cost. And they decided that they needed a leader for the Alliance Alfredo said, "I think that JR should be the Alpha of the Western Alliance, he is the one that has done all the planning for all of it I also say that the Alpha of the Alliance can be replaced only by the death of the Alpha."

All of the brothers agreed to that and the Western Alliance was formed. It was agreed that the East LA pack would be the headquarters for the Alliance and that each pack would pay a one hundred thousand dollars fee to join the Alliance, and each new pack would pay the same fee. The fee would provide for travel costs to move their forces against any pack who refused to join the Alliance or to cover transportation to any area where the war was going on

Each pack Alpha would contact the High Council and inform them that they were with drawing from their control and that they were joining the Western Alliance.

The conference call was ended. JR told Dennis to arrange for the needed weapons. JR assigned Randy to contact packs in the areas to the east of their pack and urge them to join the Alliance.

Dennis made contact with Tony and set up a meeting for the next day at ten in the morning at the same place he had met with Jimmy and Tony before. Randy retrieved the list of packs and contact numbers from JR's office and headed for his house to start making contact with the other packs.

JR called Janet Tipton and asked her to come to his office. He wanted to make her the Western Alliance treasurer. While waiting for Janet to arrive JR walked out on his porch and just admired what a beautiful day it was he was very happy with the way things were going. He guessed that in less then a month there would be a war between the Lycans that was going to give him ultimate power.

Jane arrived a short time later and JR had her take a seat and said, "Janet I have a offer for you. Would you be interested in becoming the Western Alliance treasurer, I need someone I can trust in the position. You will be handling large amounts of money, you will need to set up the bank accounts, keep track of the books and keep me informed weekly of the Alliance finances."

"JR, yes I would love to do the job, and thank you for putting your trust in me." Janet had another motive for accepting the position, it would put her in close day to day contact with JR. She had already had her eyes on JR and she wanted very much to be his mate.

"Good I'm glad you are taking the position, tomorrow we can go to the bank and set up accounts for our funds, be back here at nine tomorrow and we can go to the bank" JR said.

"I'll be here bright and early."

Janet left JR and went back to her house on her way home she spotted Jennifer getting in her car. Janet hollered at Jennifer, "Hey girl where you headed?"

Jennifer replied, I'm headed into town, I need a few items for supper tonight."

"Want some company?"

"No not tonight I may stop at the Top End in town and see Luke while I'm there."

"Ok have a good time then."

Janet didn't like the idea of Jennifer seeing a human; she believed the blood line should stay pure. She would talk to Jennifer when sometime tomorrow about it. Jennifer headed out towards town and when she had completed the thirty minute drive she pulled into a parking place at the grocery store. She took out her cell phone and dialed the number for Holly Jackson. When Holly answered Jennifer said, "Holly it's me Jen, I need to tell you something that is really important. Can you talk?"

"Sure Jen, what's up?"

"Listen we just finished a pack business meeting and our pack and several others are pulling away from the Lycan High Council. They are starting what is called the Western Alliance. They are blaming you and Greg for the problems they have been having with the Council. The pack authorized war against your new pack. They are recruiting new packs to join them and have entered into an agreement to purchase weapons from someone. I want to get out of here, do you think your new pack may have room for another were?"

"I don't know but I would think so, I can check and get back to you."

"That would be great, I'm already heading your way, I'm not staying here."

"Ok Jen you can stay with me and Greg when you get here."

"Thanks Holly, I really appreciate it."

Jennifer hung up the phone and went into the store and bought some snacks to travel on she then went to the gas station and filled up her car with gas. Once she had her car full of gas she headed for the interstate and headed east.

*****

Holly hung up the phone with Jennifer and she called out to Greg, Greg came back inside the house and Holly told him about the conservation she had just had with Jennifer. Greg listened intently to Holly and said, "I think we need to let Jacob know what she told you. Let's head to his place.

"I agree it may be nothing but Jennifer is pretty level headed and she is most likely correct about what is happening back in LA."

Greg and Holly arrived at Jacob's house and knocked on the door. Dawn answered the door, "Hi guys come on in, what can I do for you."

"We need to see Jacob; we just got some very disturbing news from a friend of our back in LA."

Dawn walked to Jacob's office opened the door and said, "Jacob Greg and Holly are here and they need to speak with you."

"Ok get some tea or what ever they would like and I'll be right out."

Dawn offered Greg and Holly something and they both said tea and they had seats at the kitchen table, Jacob joined them as Dawn brought drinks and some snacks.

"Greg, Holly what can I do for you?"

Holly relayed the conservation she had with Jennifer and Jacob's face turned dead serious.

"This is not good. Are you sure she said she that they were blaming the two of you and our pack for all of this?"

"Yes Jacob, I'm positive that's what she said. She is on her way here and I told her she could stay with us."

"That works for me, I need to call the High Council and let them know, stay here incase they want to speak with you."

Jacob picked up the phone and dialed the emergency number for the High Council, he put the call on speaker so everyone could hear.

When the phone was answered Jacob said, "This is Jacob Matthews Alpha of the Reidsville North Carolina pack, I need to speak with one of the Council members, I have a major emergency."

"Yes sir Mr. Matthews just one moment please." The voice on the other end of the phone said.

A minute or so later a voice came on the line and said, "Jacob this is Councilman Moore what can I do for you tonight."

"Councilman, I have received some very disturbing news from a friend from the East LA pack, they have informed us that they are forming an Alliance and withdrawing from the Council and that they have declared war on my pack. I have also informed us that the LA pack is purchasing some kind of weapons"

"Jacob we are aware of the Alliance they are forming but we were not aware of them declaring war on your pack, or the purchase of weapons, this is indeed very disturbing news."

"I would like some advice from the Council as to what action I should take if any."

"I will call you back in the morning after I meet with the whole Council."

"I will wait for your call before I take any action then." Jacob hung up the phone and said "There you heard it. I'll wait to hear back from the Council."

"Thanks for taking this seriously Jacob; I'm worried about what they will do." Holly said.

"Try not to worry, I won't let anything happen to our pack or it's members. Let me get our Elders and Beta's over here I want you to pass along what your friend told you to them."

Jacob called all of his Beta's and the Council of Elders and Becky, and asked each of them to come over right away, he was convening an emergency business meeting. Jacob told Dawn to put together some snacks and to put out pitchers of tea Holly went into the kitchen to help Dawn. By the time that the Elders and Beta's arrived Dawn and Holly placed platters of sandwiches and pitchers around the table. Holly took a seat next to Greg and she received some strange looks as did Becky, Females were not normally allowed to sit in on business meetings.

"Gentleman I called you all here because we are facing a new threat to our pack. The East LA pack has formed an Alliance with some other Western packs and has declared war on our pack as a result of the events that took place in Asheville. I have also been informed that this Western Alliance has contracted to purchase weapons. I have contacted the High Council with this information and they will be back in touch with me in the morning. But I have learned not to sit and wait for others, I want recommendations on how to proceed. I do not plan on waiting on them to attack and not be prepared."

"Jacob how creditable is the information you have received? Can we trust the information?" Asked Scott.

"In my opinion the information is very creditable. In fact it was brought to me by Greg and Holly. Holly received a call from her friend back in LA and reported it to her and she came to me with it. As I said I called the High Council and they were aware of part of it but not all of it."

Mark said, "I have one question for you Holly, how well do you trust your friend?"

"Simply put I trust her with my life." She answered.

"I want to add I know Jennifer very well and if she says it I can tell you it's the truth." Greg said.

"That's good enough for me," Mark said.

"I think we should start setting up an Alliance of our own. I damn sure do not want to get caught flat footed." Jacob said.
CHAPTER THREE

JR and Janet went to the bank and opened a new saving and checking account. The savings account was a High yield account that had to maintain a balance of fifty thousand dollars or the interest rate would drop to the level of a regular savings account. Because it would be tied to the checking account there would be no service charges on the accounts. JR wrote a check from the packs regular account for one hundred thousand and split the deposit between the two new accounts. JR called his brothers and gave them the account information and they agreed to transfer their money into the accounts today.

JR and Janet left the bank and drove back to the packs territory. When they arrived they found Randy busy working the telephones speaking with other packs about joining the Alliance. He informed JR that he already had a yes answer from North LA.

Barstow, Needles, Hawthorne, Ridgewood and Lone Pine, California had told him no. They will be the first to feel the power of the Alliance, he was currently working Nevada and Las Vegas had said yes, Lake Tahoe, Austin, Reno and Hawthorne would let him know tomorrow because the Alpha's of the packs wanted a pack vote. In Arizona he had a yes from Grand Canyon, Phoenix, Tuscan and Kingman. Once he finished Nevada he would start on Utah and follow it up with Colorado.

Dennis left to go to the Bull Run to meet with Tony, he had left word the he would order one thousand guns with five hundred rounds for each gun. Tony was already seated at the same booth they were at yesterday. Dennis walked over to the booth and sat down across from Tony.

"Tony good to see you again, getting right down to business I need five hundred units of each type of gun and five hundred rounds of ammo."

"I can do that but may I recommend to you one thousand each of a Galil ACE model 52 assault rifle it shoots a 7.62 mm round it is what the Israeli commando's use and a Berretta nine millimeter semi automatic pistol. At five hundred each the rifle would cost four grand and each hand gun would cost seven fifty if you go with a thousand of each I can let you have all of it for forty-two thousand, that includes a thousand rounds of ammo for the rifles and five hundred rounds for each hand gun. I would need half now and the other half on delivery. I can deliver in five days."

"Tony you have a deal. That's a lot better then what I was figuring, I know we will have another order for you in a couple of weeks. I would expect it to be much larger that this one."

"Tell you what I'll do, if you double the next order I'll make it seventy grand and if you triple it I'll make it one hundred ten thousand."

"Sounds great to me," Dennis opened his brief case and took out two stacks of hundred dollar bills. He slid them to Tony who slid them into a bag he had with him. Dennis wrote down an address on a piece of paper and handed it to Tony.

"Call me when you are ready to deliver and then deliver the merchandise to this address."

"Glad to do business with you Dennis." Tony said.

Tony got up from the booth and left the Bull Run. Dennis followed ten minutes later. Dennis got into his car and drove back home. When he arrived he went right to JR's house and told him of the purchase.

"You did a god job Dennis, that is a lot less then I thought it would be and a week for deliver works out fine."

"Thank you JR If we buy more in the future and we double or triple the order he will give us a larger discount."

"That's great, with the number of packs that are joining the Alliance we will need them. But may I ask a question?"

"Ask away Dennis."

"Why use the guns, we should be able to defeat then just as lycans."

"I'm sure you know that in human form we can be killed just like any other human, using the guns we can surprise them and it will mean less casualties for our side."

"Ok that makes sense."

"I do think I will need to add an additional cost of Forty-two thousand per every one hundred assault rifles and hand guns to the Alliance fee. Now go help Randy and let's see if we can get more packs on board with the Alliance."

"How has Randy been doing with getting other packs joining?"

"I don't know how many have given us a yes as of yet and I don't know how many the other four packs have gotten to agree yet."

Dennis left JR's office and joined Randy, "How is it going?" Dennis asked.

"So far all of the Alpha's have said they want a pack vote before giving an answer. I'm just starting to work on Colorado."

"JR sent me over to help you so what would you like me to do?"

"He is what I am telling the packs about the Alliance use it as a guide and how about working on Texas."

"Will do."

Dennis picked up the pack lists; He had Texas and New Mexico on the same list so he would call all the packs on his list. Dennis had the same luck as Randy was having. The packs in Texas of Waco, El Paso, Amarillo all wanted pack votes but the other packs of Dallas, Ft. Worth. Houston, Denton said they wanted not part of such and Alliance. The sole pack in New Mexico of Albuquerque also said no.

JR walked over to the table where Dennis and Randy were calling the other packs and asked, "How is it going?"

Randy said, "Not very good actually all the packs I have contacted have all said the would put it to a pack vote and call back and I have had one pack say no out right."

Dennis spoke up, "I am getting the same this and I have had five packs say no as well."

"I want to know the packs that have said no! They won't get away with this. They will join or else." JR said letting his temper get the best of him.

Dennis and Randy provided a list of packs that said no and JR turned and stormed off to hid office. JR slammed the door to his office and went to his desk and picked up the phone. He placed a conference call to his brothers. Once all of JR's brothers were on the line JR said, "I hope you all have had better luck in getting packs to join the Alliance then we are having here."

Alfredo was the first to answer and he had good news he had a yes from Portland, and Seattle, as well as Helena and Boise. Then Rafael said, he had a yes from Oakland and a maybe from Big Sur. Juan said he had a no from the packs in Barstow, Needles, Ridgewood and Lone Pine. Miguel reported he had not contacted any packs yet.

"Miguel you need to get going and contact the packs in your area. Next item I would like to get twenty-five Lycans from each of you and have them meet me at the Hawthorne California exit off of the I-405 and the I-105 junction. I need them there by nine tomorrow night. I am going to make Hawthorne an example for saying no."

The others agreed to have twenty-five of their people to be at the meeting place, the plan was to attack the Hawthorne pack at one in the morning. They would leave maybe ten of their pack members including a Beta to tell the story about what happened if they refuse to join the Alliance.

*****

Jennifer made the trip to Reidsville in three days, she pulled into the spot where Holly told her to turn the gated community had a guard at the gate and she identified herself as a friend of Holly Jackson's. The guard called Holly's house and when she answered the guard told her that a female named Jennifer Jenkins was here and was it ok to let her in. Holly told the guard that it was ok.

The guard gave Jennifer directions to Holly's house and let her in the gate. When Holly pulled into Holly's house Holly ran outside to meet her the two females hugged and Holly helped her carry her bags into the house. Jennifer said "Wow you have a great place here. I was surprised at the guard at the gate, why is he there?"

"The guard at the gate was just started because of the war with our old pack. Jacob our Alpha wants to keep us safe. We are free to come and go as we like. It's more to just warn us if anyone is trying to get in that shouldn't."

"Wow sounds like he cares a lot about the pack."

"He really does, he started this pack a couple of years ago and it has grown to the largest pack in the states, he will do anything to protect us."

"A lot better than where I just left."

I really think you are going to love it here. The only thing that is making it a little hard is this stupid war that JR is waging.

Scott contact all the packs in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee packs, and see if they are open to an Alliance with us. Tim you contact the packs in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida and do the same. Ben shut down Asheville and then contact the Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio Packs. Mark you take Virginia, Mississippi and West Virginia."

"Do you really believe that a pack from LA is going to start a war with a pack on the other side of the country?" Mike asked.

"Mike I very much believe that it could and would happen. I also believe that we can not stand alone against the Western Alliance."

"Ok what else do you want us to do?" Asked Mike.

"I would like for you and Alan to set up self defense classes. I want every adult and every pup over the age of twelve to learn how to defend themselves. Becky I also asked you to attend tonight because I want you to put together a medical team that can handle most any type of emergency. From the looks of it I would suspect that gun shot wounds may very well be your most common type of injury."

"Alan I have one more thing for you and it may be very touchy, If Gail is willing can she put together a team of Shaman to help watch over the pack?"

"I'll ask her Jacob and I would bet it will be a touchy subject with her."

"Thanks Alan, we could sure use the Shaman's to watch over us. Let her know I don't want them to fight just to watch over us and to give us as much advance warning as possible."

"Ok I'll tell her."

"I want to thank you for coming and let's get to work on the jobs each of you have."

The meeting broke up and it was just past ten at night and Jacob sat back in his chair and let out a gasp of exasperation. Dawn walked up behind Jacob and started to massage his shoulders,

"Babe try to relax, I know you're worried but this pack will not let you down, they have been with you through thick and thin and I know they will stand behind you all the way."

"I know that hon, I just don't want to let them down, We have been through so much since I started this pack, a war with Charlotte and Asheville, the death of Linda, your kidnapping, then the mess that took place in Asheville. A lot has happened and I'm just wondering if they have had about enough."

"I doubt that they feel that way. You're a good Alpha and you take care of everyone in this pack. I truly believe that everyone in this pack would die for you.

"I just don't want to put that to a test."

*****

The combined forces of the five packs met at the designated meeting place. They went over the plan that JR had laid out. They would attack at one and they would come from four different directions. JR would lead the group attacking the Alpha's house, he would not be allowed to live. The instructions were that any single females would be taken prisoner and returned to East LA. They covered the attack area for each group. After making sure there were no questions the left for the Hawthorne pack territory.

When they arrived at the Packs territory they moved right in and made the attack on Hawthorne. JR picked the lock and opened the door before shifting to his wolf form. JR made his way straight to the Alpha's bedroom. JR shifted back to his human form and opened the door to the bedroom. As soon as the doors latch released JR shifted back to his wolf form. He rushed into the Alpha's room and before the Alpha could react JR had a hold on his throat. The Hawthorne Alpha tried to shake loose but JR had a strong hold and was tearing away flesh, the attack was over almost as quick as it had started. The Alpha lay dead in his bed. Along side him lay his mate also dead. JR and his group went back outside and met with the remaining attack force. One group was holding the packs Beta his mate and two pups. Another was holding two other males and females along with their pups. The remaining group was holding nineteen single females. The pack had an unusually High number of single females for its size.

JR spoke to the beta and remaining pack members, "You three families have been spared, you will be tied up in the Alpha's house the Beta's mate will be driven one mile away and released. She will come back here and untie you. The Beta will call the High Council and read to them what I have written for you. If you fail to do as I say we will return and kill those of you that are remaining. Is that clear?"

They all shook their heads agreeing with JR. The single females were loaded into the cars and driven back to the East LA Territory and taken to the JR's house where they were held until JR returned.
CHAPTER FOUR

The Beta's mate returned to the Alpha's house and went in; she found her mate and the two other families tied up. She went into the kitchen and got a sharp knife and first cut the bonds off of her mate. While she was cutting the other families free her mate went to the phone and dialed the emergency contact number for the High Council. When the call was connected he identified himself and said he needed to speak to one of the Council members. As luck would have it Councilman Moore was the on duty Councilman.

When he answered the Hawthorne Beta and said, "I am Richard Thomas the Beta of Hawthorne, California, I have a letter to read to you from the East LA pack sir."

"Go on read it."

"To the High Council, today was nothing more than a warning to you and all packs. The destruction of the Hawthorne pack was to let you know that the Western Alliance means business. The High Council failed to act following the murder of our Alpha at the Asheville Lodge owned and operated by the pack in Reidsville. The Alliance has declared war on Reidsville and all other packs that fail to freely join our Alliance. The destruction of this small pack was solely done by Lycans future attacks on packs will be done by what ever means necessary to accomplish the destruction of the packs that we are waging war against."

"Thank you now go take care of who ever you have left there."

The phone line went dead and Richard hung up the phone. He went back to the living room and found his mate and the two other families and asked, "How are you all doing?"

Jeffery spoke "I think we are all doing ok, no one has any injuries that I can find. We were just talking about what we do now."

"The way I see it we have a few options, we can stay here and rebuild the pack, we can go our separate ways and find new packs or we can stay together and find a new pack. What do you all think?"

Stan's mate Paula spoke up and said, "I'm not staying here, that pack will be back and kill the rest of us."

"I don't think they will be back they left us alive to report to the High Council and I just did that. I think we should stay together and find a new pack."

"Go where?" asked Stan.

"I think we should head east and get as far away from here as we can." Richard said.

All of them agreed to stay together and head east, where well they just didn't know for sure. Richard told them to pack their cars with as much as they could carry and meet back here at the Alpha's house. It took less than two hours and the three families headed east on Interstate ten.

*****

Councilman Moore contacted the rest of the High Council and told them of the events that had taken place in Hawthorne. He recommended that they send out notice to all packs about the threat from the East LA pack. He also recommended to give the go ahead to Reidsville to establish a Eastern Alliance and to prepare for a civil war. The remaining Council members agreed to the proposal and directed Councilman Moore to send out notices to all the packs. Councilman Moore had the night staff, send out the notices to the packs and then he picked up the phone and dialed the number for the Reidsville pack.
CHAPTER FIVE

The following morning the Beta's arrived at Jacob's house to start making the phone calls to the packs in the surrounding states and in North Carolina. Ben retrieved the list of packs with the contact information and separated them by states. He passed out the contact information to each Beta and the phone calls started. Scott made the first connection with the pack in the Raleigh area.

"Good morning, my name is Scott and I am calling from the Reidsville pack, may I please speak with the Alpha."

"This is Jason how can I help you?"

"Jason I'm calling on behalf of my Alpha Jacob, I don't know if you are aware of what is going on with the west coast packs?

"As a matter of fact I am we just received a message from the High Council informing us of what is happening. They have told us that they have declared war on you folks there and that they suspect that they are going to start a war against all of the east coast packs."

"That's our understanding as well; Jacob is trying to put together a Alliance forming a mutual protection pact and a non aggression pact among all the east coast packs. His proposal is that each pack put into a joint operating fund one hundred thousand dollars to provide for expenses in protecting each pack that joins."

"I will have to talk to my pack but I think that is a great idea. If we all band together we should be able to put off any attacks on each other. I'll call you back tomorrow and give you an answer."

"Jason thank you. I look forward to hearing from you."

Scott went through the same speech on the telephone with Fayetteville, Valley City, Elizabeth Town and Crawley in North Carolina the packs of Columbia, Myrtle Beach, Charleston in South Carolina and the Tennessee packs of Knoxville, Nashville, Warren County, Memphis. He received the same response from the Alpha of each pack.

Tim gave the same speech as Scott on the telephone with Atlanta, Bacon, Preston, Buckman in Georgia, Hartsville, Tuscaloosa, Chatom in Alabama, and Tampa, Daytona Beach, Orlando, Miami, Pensacola, Everglades in Florida.

Ben had the same results with Norfolk, Richmond, Taylorsville in Virginia, Charleston, Mason, Button in West Virginia, Akron, Russell, Sterling, Norway in Ohio.

Mark had the same answer from Hamilton, Freely, Coffee, Birmingham, Spree in Mississippi, in Pennsylvania the packs of Grove, Pittsburg, Dilworth, Coppertown, Derby all said yes and in New York the packs of Lake Placid, Pikesville, Lockton, New York all said no.

If all of the packs that they contacted today joined it would give them forty-five packs and a good start on defending the east coast.

*****

Councilman Moore returned Jacob's call as promised. "Jacob, I am calling you back as promised, as of yet we have been unable to confirm the declaration of war on your pack or that the East LA pack is buying weapons. We have confirmed that they are withdrawing from the Council, we are also aware of at least four other packs that have joined with East LA, as they have informed the Council that they are withdrawing also. We have received word from some packs that they have been contacted by East LA and have been asked to join their Alliance. The packs that have contacted us have declined to join their Alliance; they have not reported any threats made by the new Alliance."

"That sounds like some good news; I would still like a recommendation from the Council about the threat against my pack."

"We have received reports from some east coast packs that your pack has been contacting them about starting your own Alliance."

"That is true Councilman, I am looking at starting an Alliance but operating under the High Council."

"We are advising the east coast packs that if they feel threatened by the west coast then by all means join your Alliance, if they don't feel threatened then to use their own judgment about joining your Alliance."

"I understand and appreciate the Council's position on this matter."

"If we hear any thing more we will keep you informed."

"Thank you Councilman." And Jacob hung up the phone.

"What did they say babe?"

"Pretty much we are on our own, They haven't confirmed the threat of war or the purchasing of any kind of weapons."

"What do plan on doing then?"

"Just keep doing what I'm doing, there really isn't any thing else to do."

"If there is anything I can do to help, you know I will."

"I know babe, I know."
CHAPTER SIX

Jacob picked up the phone on the third ring, "Hello, this is Jacob."

"Jacob this is Councilman Moore, I wanted to contact you before you received the notice the High Council has just sent out. You were right about the East LA pack. We received a letter that was read by the Beta at the Hawthorne, California pack. In it he the Alpha of East LA said that they had declared war on your pack and they were going to wage war on any pack that would not join them. He indicated that he would use anything it took to destroy these packs. The notice we just sent out told all packs to prepare for a civil war. The High Council has recommended that you take charge and build an Alliance to stop the Western Alliance. The Council is transferring funds to your pack to get you started. Keep us informed of your progress."

"I will Councilman."

Jacob hung up the phone, he looked at the clock and it was four am, he would call the Beta's and Council of Elders together in a couple of hours.

Jacob went to the kitchen and made coffee and sat down in the large chair in his living room, he mind turned to the events that had led up to the call from the High Council. He wondered how the hatred that the East LA pack had for him and his pack could be leading to this possible civil war. He had lost his parents during the last war and the formation of the High Council was supposed to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.

The idea of the High Council putting him in charge of any type of Alliance bothered him. The High Council should be taking charge and building an Alliance to put a stop to the Western Alliance. The High Council was made up of Alpha's from packs throughout the Lycan community, why would they put him in charge. As Alpha's go Jacob was still young, when he started the Reidsville

le pack he was one of the youngest Alpha's that there was. The last year or so has aged Jacob more then he would care to admit. He has been through the war with the Charlotte and Asheville packs which ended up with his pack defeating both of the other two packs and integrating members from both packs into his when he disbanded both packs. Then the war with the small brood of vampires.

That was followed by the incident at the lodge in Asheville. Jacob was tired of all the fighting. The High Council should have stepped in and corrected the problems before they had escalated to the violence. What had happened to the High Council? How did they get so weak? What could he do about it and how did it get fixed.

The gong started to sound from Jacob's grandfather clock telling him it was seven in the morning. Jacob called his Beta's and the Council of Elders and asked them to be at his house at eight. Jacob went back upstairs and took a shower and dressed by the time he had finished and came back down stairs he could smell the breakfast cooking. His Beta's and the Council had started to arrive and some of them were sitting at the dining table drinking coffee. By the time the last Council member arrived Dawn was putting the food on the table. The mates of all the Beta's and some of the Council of Elders had come to help Dawn take care of the meal.

"Jacob said, "I want to thank you all for coming on such short notice, I've called you all here this morning because I received a call from the High Council at four this morning. This mess with the East LA pack has blown up, yesterday they attacked a pack in Hawthorne, California and destroyed the pack leaving just a few Lycans to inform the High Council what happened there. The leader of the Western Alliance who is also the Alpha of the East LA pack confirmed to the High Council that they had declared war on our pack as well as against any pack that refuses to join their Alliance. The High Council has given its ok for us to form an Alliance for the mutual protection of all packs that wish to remain free from the Western Alliance.

There was a knock on the door and Dawn answered the door. A delivery man had a letter addressed to Jacob. Dawn signed for the letter and handed it to Jacob. Jacob read the letter and then said, "I want to read you this letter."

" _Mr. Matthews,_

This letter is to confirm the telephone conservation between you and Councilman Moore. You are hereby authorized to assemble an Alliance of packs that wish to join in the defense of the Lycan way of living with the end result of defeating the Western Alliance that has declared war on your pack and any pack that refuses to join their Alliance.

The High has directed a sum of seven hundred fifty thousand dollars to your packs bank in order to assist you in developing the Alliance. All power of the High Council has been transferred to you. The intent of the High Council is to dissolve effective in three days so that the Councilmen can return to their packs and prepare for this civil war.

The Council wishes you all the luck in defending the Lycan community."

"This posses a new problem for us, it seems as the High Council has decided to leave it all up to us to put a stop to this war. Scott would you get Greg in here."

Alan looked at Jacob and said, "I know that look in your eyes you either have a plan or you are developing one."

"Actually I do Alan, I think I may just go ahead and plan an attack on East LA and put them out of business. I would rather do that then put any other pack in danger. If I can get ten or twenty volunteers from four or five packs I believe we can take out East LA, but I need to talk to Greg first."

There was a knock on the door and Greg walked in he said, "You wanted to see me Jacob?"

"I sure did Greg, have a seat."

"What can I do for you?"

"Greg, I need you to do us all a big favor, do you think you can draw out the East LA territory? I also need anything and everything you can remember about the pack and everything you know about JR Juarez, the Alpha of the pack."

"JR's the Alpha that's not good Jacob."

"Why is that Greg?"

"JR is bad news he would kill his own mother if he could benefit from it."

"Ok draw the compound out then we will talk about JR."

Greg sat down with a pad of paper and started drawing out the pack territory, It took almost two hours for him to complete the drawing. He told Jacob it was finished and when Jacob reviewed it. "Damn Greg you have a good memory this is extremely detailed."

"I tried to remember everything, I grew up there so I know the territory better than most do."

"Ok, let's talk about JR. Tell me everything you can about him."

Greg started telling the group everything he knew about JR, after almost three hours they took a break and ate lunch. Jacob walked out on the back deck and just looked out at his territory. He didn't like all the information he was getting about JR. But he was getting a good read about the man. He was absolutely ruthless and was probably responsible for several of the deaths in the pack that Greg had told them about. His four brothers all being Alpha's of their own packs and being close to his pack gave him a power base that would make taking him down hard.

Mike walked out with an envelope in his had and said, "Jacob this was just delivered for you."

Jacob took the envelope and opened it and read the letter in it. Jacob turned back to Mike and said, "Gather everyone back together."

Jacob was the last one back at the table and everyone's eyes were on him, he took the letter out and said, "We just received another letter from the High Council and I will say I am not very happy about it, but this is what it says:

To all Packs and Alpha's, this letter is to inform you that the East Los Angels California pack has declared war on the pack from Reidsville, NC. In addition they have said that they would declare war on any pack that refuses to join an Alliance that they are putting together.

It is the recommendation of the High Council that all packs should consider joining the Alliance that Reidsville, NC is putting together. This Alliance will be offering a mutual protection and aggression pacts. The High Council has deposited all of its operational funds into the Reidsville operation account and the High Council will be ceasing to function as of midnight tonight. All of the operations and security concerns should be directed to the Reidsville pack. Their number is listed in the national pack register. The Alpha in Reidsville is Jacob Matthews. All of the Councilmen will be returning to their respective packs to assist in preparations for the civil war.

I am not happy about this at all."

"Jacob it sounds like they have turned over the entire Lycan leadership to you."

"I know and I'm not very happy about it."

"Jacob may I interrupt for a moment?" Dawn said.

"Sure babe, what is it?"

"The phone has been ringing off the hook for the last half hour or so and everyone wants to know about your Alliance, I am going to need some help answering the phones. I can't keep up by myself."

"Get some of the other females to help you, we have 4 lines that all roll over get all the help you need from them."

"Ok we can do that."

"Get the pack name, the Alpha's name, and a good direct contact number. Tell them either myself or one of my Beta's or Council of Elders will contact them back."

"Will do babe."

"Based on what Greg has told us and what we know from the High Council I want you Ben and Greg to go out to LA and keep tabs on that pack I want to know everything they are doing. I want you out there tonight."

"I'll take care of it Jacob." Mark said.

Jacob went into his office and returned to the meeting with copies of the map that Greg had drew of the LA territory. He laid them on the table and told each of his people to take a copy and said, "Review the map, I want a opinion from each of you on the best way to attack them. I want it to be quiet and quick. I do not want them to know until its too late. I want it back here by six tonight."
CHAPTER SEVEN

JR's phone had been ringing off the hook, Alpha's were trying to get in contact with him about the letter that they had received from the High Council, they wanted to know about the threat to wage war if they declined to join his Alliance, they wanted answers. JR was making no excuses about it, If a pack was asked to join and they refused it would mean a declaration of war against that pack. A total of twenty packs had agreed to join the his Alliance and there were ten that had refused to join saying they wanted no part of any war against any Lycans but each of them said they would defend their packs to the death if necessary. JR told them that they better get prepared to do just that.

Eight of the ten packs that refused to join the Western Alliance called Reidsville and joined the Eastern Alliance. One group of packs in Texas consisting of the packs in Dallas, Ft. Worth. Houston, Denton decided to join their packs together until the Eastern Alliance could get more Lycans there to help in protecting their packs.

JR was furious that packs were turning him down and not joining his Alliance. He was making a list of packs that had said no and he would start planning his attacks. JR told the Grand Canyon pack that their territory would be the advanced point where he would launch his attacks on packs that had refused him. He told all the packs that joined that by the end of the week he would let them know how many were's he would need from each pack to start building the army.

JR phoned his brothers and informed them about the twenty new packs that joined the Alliance and about using the Grand Canyon packs territory as their advance staging area. He wanted all of the Alliance Alpha's to meet tomorrow to set the standard of were's from each pack he would need. They all agreed to meet tomorrow and that each of them would contact the other Alpha's and let them know about the meeting.

JR called Dennis and told him to get the guns here as soon as possible. He wanted them at the Grand Canyon by the end of the week he wanted to set things in motion then. Dennis told JR that he would take care of getting the guns there by the end of the week.

Dennis called Tony and said, "Tony this is Dennis how soon can you have the weapons here? I need them as soon as possible."

"How is tomorrow?"

"That works, I can get them where I need them and make my boss happy. I'll have the money when the weapons are delivered."

"That works for me Dennis."

"Call me when you are ready to deliver and what the final cost is."

"I should have them by noon and the cost will be forty two thousand also I am tossing in another fifty of the assault rifles as a token that makes it a total of five hundred fifty rifles and five hundred pistols with a thousand rounds of ammo for each one."

"Thanks Tony I am working on a second order now and I should be able to let you know in a couple of days on what we will need."

"Ok Dennis I be seeing you tomorrow." Tony hung up the phone.

*****

Ben had taken care of the plane reservations; he and Greg were leaving from Charlotte in three hours and would be arriving at LAX at six that night. The had already picked their surveillance spot out based in the information Greg had on the area. The spot was called lookout point and there were always people there it over looked the packs territory and would make it easy to keep an eye on them.

Ben and Greg landed at LAX and made the hour plus drive to the lookout point. Greg remembered that there was a motel close by and the checked in to the motel before heading out to the point. They decided to stay about a quarter mile apart so that they could have a better shot at seeing something. Based on the number of humans at the point the figured they would not get the same spot everyday.

The early evening didn't show much more then normal activity down at the pack, that was fine with Ben, it gave him time to match the map Greg had drawn to what was actually down there. Ben was amazed at how accurate the map was. When they first arrived at the lookout point Greg pointed out the Alpha's house and that was what Ben was using as his reference point.

Mark had provided them with voice activated radios that looked like a cell phone and the ear piece looked like a normal hands free ear bud. That would keep suspicion down, Ben spoke just like he was talking into a telephone, "Greg can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear Ben."

"Just wanted to check these things out and I wanted to tell you your map is amazing."

"Thanks Ben I tried."

"You did a great job and I'm going to make sure Jacob knows."

"Looks quite down there, you planning on spending the night out here tonight?"

"No but I want to be out here early in the morning, I'll call Jacob when we get back to the motel and let him know our plan."

"OK I'll meet you at the car."

The drive back to the motel took less then ten minutes. Once they went into the room Ben made a call to Jacob and told him about the accuracy of the map and what their plan was for the morning and Jacob was ok with it. He wanted constant update if anything was out of the ordinary. Ben and Greg turned in for the night knowing they would have a long day tomorrow.

Greg and Ben were at the lookout point just before sunrise and were surprised to find they were not the first ones there, Several tourist groups were already and they were talking excitedly about being there to see the sunrise. Ben and Greg were able to get the same spots they had the day before and at this early hour the was no movement down below.

It was nearing ten in the morning and Ben called Greg on the radio, "Greg, someone is here, I am picking up a odd scent here, it isn't a Lycan but I have smelled the scent before. I just don't remember it."

"I'm going to work my way towards your spot until I pick up the scent, I'll know as soon as I pass it."

"Ok but be careful I don't want to give ourselves away."

"Got you I'll be careful."

Greg started to make his way towards Ben, he was three quarters of the way when he passed a woman looking toward the LA area, He stopped to look around and the woman looked at him and said "Lycan, you're a Lycan." Ben heard the woman over the radio and starts to make his way to Greg. Greg stopped dead in his tracks and said, "excuse me are you talking to me?"

"You know good and well I am, are you a good Lycan or a bad one?"

"Look miss I don't know what you're talking about."

"My name is Tina and I'm a Shaman and my sister Gail told me you would be in the area. I didn't expect to find you so fast."

Greg let out a sigh and said, "is your sister in Reidsville, NC?"

"Yes she is do you know her?"

"Then I would guess to you I am a good one."

Ben walked up and said, "Greg do you know her?"

"No but she is Gail's sister and she is a shaman."

"And who are you Lycan?"

Ben gave her a stern look and said "I am Ben and I am one of the Beta's in Reidsville."

"My name is Tina and I come here from Oregon."

"Tina it is very nice to meet you but may I ask why are you here?"

"Gail has sent out a call to her sisters asking for help. Though the Pack I am with is joining his Alliance I must help my sister. I won't help you hurt anyone in my pack but the Lycan down there is evil, Pure evil."

"I hope it does not come to that, we are going to try to put a stop to all of this before it gets started." Ben said.

"That would be grand as the spirits say there will be many who die from both sides."

"Ben I hate to interrupt but a limo has just arrived down below."

"What do you make of it?"

"Looks like a group of people getting out, arriving in a limo I would guess some Alpha's."

"Lets move back to our vantage points and keep an eye on this."

"You got it Ben."

The two of them told the Shaman that they would be here all day and that she was welcome to stay with them or to check back in with them through out the day. Over the next hour several more limos arrived each carrying four to five more Alpha's. By count they had twenty two Alpha's had arrived. Waiting and watching they didn't see any more movement from the Alpha's house for the next two hours. Greg spotted a large box truck enter the packs territory and he called Ben on the radio

"Ben I don't know if you can see it but there is a large truck coming in to their compound."

"No I can't see it yet. Which way is it headed?"

"Looks to be headed your way."

"I'll keep my eyes open."

Ben kept his eyes on the street that came to his side of the compound. It took only a matter of minutes for the truck to come into view. He watched as it pulled up next to what was identified as the meeting hall. A man came from the hall and walked to the truck, he waited for the driver to come around to the back of the truck. The driver unlocked the back and rolled the door up He climbed into the truck and slid down a large wood box. The other man slid the box to the ground and picked up a crow bar and pried off the top, he reached into the box and lifted up what Ben had determined was a automatic rifle.

"Greg can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear Ben what's up?"

"We have big trouble that truck is loaded with automatic assault rifles."

"That's not a good thing."

"I need to let Jacob know about this right away."

"Roger that Ben."

Ben left his vantage point and walked to their car. He retrieved his cell phone and called Jacob. When Jacob answered Ben said, "Morning Jacob, we have some news for you, there are twenty two Alpha's meeting here and they just had a delivery of assault rifles." By the size of the truck my guess would be some where near a thousand guns."

"Are you sure they are assault rifles?"

"Oh yes I'm positive. I watched as he took one out of the box and looked it over."

"Damn, that's not good, he must be intent on destroying anyone that gets in his way."

"I don't know the answer to that but I think he is intent on waging war."

"Keep me informed Ben I want to know what he is up to."

"Will do Jacob."

Ben returned to his vantage point and Radioed Greg that he was back and he wanted to know if he had missed anything and Greg said that he had not. Ben settled in and watched and nothing happened for the next couple of hours , they watched as the Alpha's left. An hour after the Alpha's left the driver of the truck got into the truck and headed east on Interstate ten.

Ben called Jacob back and informed him about the Alpha's leaving and the truck heading east. Jacob told them to set up a staging area for an attack force he would be bringing two hundred were's to take out the East LA pack.

*****

Once the Alpha's were all present JR started the meeting. "I'm glad to see you all. The reason I called you all here is to let you know what is getting ready to start. With your packs part of the Western Alliance we will be first destroying all of the packs that refused to join the Alliance. I want each of you to send twenty five of you males to Grand Canyon. Once there they will be trained on the use of the Galil ACE model 52 assault rifle and issued one to use. Lycans can be killed like any human or wolf with bullets. We will stage raids on the Alpine, Lone Pine, Big Sur, Barstow and Needles, California packs at the same time. We will split the total force into four groups and then each group will be spilt into four groups. Which will allow us to attack each pack on all four sides at the same time."

JR told the Alpha's he wanted them there in twenty four hours, he wanted to be ready to attack in four days. JR departed for the Grand Canyon leaving his own pack with fifty were's to protect it. He wasn't worried about an attack on his pack as he figured that it would take the Eastern Alliance another two weeks to set up any resistance to his attacks. By then he would have destroyed eight or ten packs and all of the ones that refused to join his Alliance and the rest would either be gone or changed their mind and join the Alliance.

JR settled into his plane seat, he would arrive in Phoenix in just over a hour and a half and then a two hour drive to the Grand Canyon. He dozed off on the flight and the stewardess woke him when they were on their final approach. Once the plane taxied to the gate JR deplaned and went and got his luggage. The Grand Canyon Alpha met him in the baggage claim area. He escorted him to his car and they departed for the packs territory.

The two hour car ride was made talking about how the Alpha had his pack set up the training area that JR had instructed them to set up. Randy had been sent out to the Grand Canyon to oversee the training area set up. When JR arrived at the packs territory he wanted to inspect the training area himself. He wanted to make sure that it was correct before the were's started to arrive.

JR got out of the car and Randy spotted him right away, He walked to his Alpha and greeted him and said, "JR I think you will be pleased with what we have here."

"I am looking forward to see what you have done, I have the were's arriving from the other packs tomorrow and I want it ready to start training."

"We can start training today if you want we are that ready."

"Good show me what you have."

JR, Dennis and the Grand Canyon Alpha walked the training area and JR was pleased with the what had been done. I want to have the were's ready by the first of the week to make the first assault.
CHAPTER EIGHT

When Jacob arrived at the LA airport Ben was there to meet him. Jacob had brought fifty of his packs were's ten of his fifty were females that would help out as necessary when the attack takes place, Becky also was with the force and she had five medically trained were's in addition to the fifty were attack force. Ben had chartered buses to shuttle the arriving were's to the staging area he and Greg had set up. The pack members boarded the bus and it left for the staging area. There were five more buses waiting for the ten packs that were sending people to help. By seven that night all of the remaining packs that were coming had brought at least twenty were's and they all had at least two females with them. All but one of the packs sent a Beta with orders that they would follow whatever orders that Jacob or his Beta's gave. The one pack that didn't send a Beta the Alpha himself came.

Jacob met with his Beta, the Alpha and all of the other Beta's that came. Jacob thanked the twenty fine packs for sending their were's on such short notice.

"I expect to begin the attack on the East LA pack at one in the morning, I want to go in as quiet as possible. I want total surprise. We actually have a larger force then I expected to have. I would prefer not to harm any females or pups, but you will have to use your own judgment as you enter each house and see how much and who from any resistance you encounter."

While Jacob was speaking Ben and Greg were handing out maps of the territory, once all of them had a copy of the map Ben said, "The maps you have just received have an area marked that your group will secure. The only thing I do not have marked is the homes that are occupied. There was a force that left the territory this afternoon and they have not returned. I suspect they have moved to some staging area just as we have. As of yet we don't know where their area is except that it is east of here and not in California. I have Tina a Shaman from Oregon trailing them and she will let us know where they went. There is one more thing that each of you will need to do and that is you will need to go to the lookout point and identify which houses or buildings are occupied and I would suggest that you use the lights coming on and of to tell you this. We suspect that there are about fifty families and single were's remaining there."

"All right everyone you have until ten tonight to yourselves. I want everyone back here by then. We will leave here and move into position after that." Jacob said.

The meeting broke up and Jacob went to the lookout point with Ben and Greg. He survived the territory and knew they should have it pretty easy getting in quietly. ."Once inside that might be a different story.

Ben's phone rang and it was Tina the Shaman and she had news for Ben, "Ben we are not that far from LA but the roads we are taking can only lead to one place and that's the Grand Canyon."

Thanks Tina we owe you. Keep following them."

"Jacob, Tina the Shaman I have following the truck and crew that left here and she just called and said that they can only be headed to the Grand Canyon, I'm betting they are going to the pack there."

"Get a hold of Mark and have him take a crew and intercept that truck, I don't want any weapons getting to them."

"I'll take care of it Jacob."

Ben called Mark and told him what Jacob wanted and he hung up the phone and returned to Jacob. He then called Tina back and gave her Mark's phone number and asked her to tell Mark everything about the box truck she could.

Jacob stayed at the lookout point until darkness fell and he watched the Alpha's house and did not see any lights in there at all. He would be taking his group there as well as the medical group.

Ben would be staying behind at the lookout point to give the signal to attack. He would flash a light three times. That would be the signal to begin. Jacob returned to their staging are and met with his force at ten, He went over the attack plan again and sent everyone one their way.

Everyone was at their spots at twelve forty five. All of the lights were out in all of the buildings on the pack grounds. As they waited each Beta went over the orders once again. If the pack members did not put up any resistance they were to just take prisoners and they were to bring them to the Alpha's house. All of the females and pups were to be brought to the Alpha's house.

At one o'clock Ben gave the signal to attack. The Eastern Alliance moved in on the territory of East LA. The groups moved to their respective homes or buildings. They quietly entered the buildings and to their surprise they received little to no resistance from the LA pack members. By one thirty they had captured the pack and had suffered only one minor injury and that was from a female hitting one of the were's with a bottle. The total number of casualties from the LA pack was 10 dead five wounded. The remaining weres were brought to the Alpha's house and held there .

Greg had the meeting hall and when they entered they found a pen had been set up and there were twenty female were's being held there and twenty boxes of guns They were released and taken to the Alpha's house along with the guns and ammo. When they had everyone rounded up they had seventy prisoners. Jacob had Ben send in the buses to pick up the force and the prisoners. Jacob would ride the last bus with a twenty man team he was keeping behind he was going to torch every building, he wanted nothing left behind. Once he had everyone loaded on the buses he had them leave for the staging area. Once the last bus was ready to pull out he had his crew set fire to every building and house. Once Jacob was sure they were all ablaze he loaded his crew and they went to the staging area.

Greg was talking with the females that had been caged in the meeting hall and he wanted to know why they were there. He was told that they had been taken prisoner from the Hawthorne pack and they had been locked in the cage for almost a week.

When Jacob returned to the staging area he had found that Ben had taken the buses and made a corral for the prisoners and had were's staged so no one could crawl under the buses and escape. He told Ben he had done a good job on securing the prisoners. He also told both Ben and Greg that they had done a great job scouting the area, the information they provided was super. Greg pulled Jacob aside and said, "Jacob, we have twenty females in with the prisoners that were prisoners themselves the were taken from the Hawthorne pack when the Western Alliance attacked them."

"Get them out of there, I don't want them being taken advantage of, or hurt.."

Jacob's phone rang and he said to Greg, "Excuse me I have a call."

"Jacob answered and said, "This is Jacob Matthews, how can I help you?"

Jacob this is Tom Johnstone I am the Alpha at Alpine California, I have received information that we are going to be attacked by the Western Alliance within a week. I'm calling to see if we can get any help from your Alliance."

"Tom I believe we can help you, I'm going to give you to one of my Beta's and tell him all the specifics that you know and how to get to your pack."

Jacob handed the phone to Greg and told him to get all the Alpha's information, he then turned and went to the prisoner corral. Once he was inside he spoke to the prisoners.

"Let me have your attention, my name is Jacob Matthews, I am the Alpha of Reidsville North Carolina pack. I am going to feed you all a good breakfast and then you will be free to go. But you are going to have a couple of choices. The first is you can go anywhere you want, I will have you loaded on a bus and you will be taken to the east of here and dropped off with some water and food and from there you can go any where you want. The second option is you can join the Eastern Alliance and you will be sent to Reidsville where you will be set up with a house and you will be integrated as a member of my pack. I am not going to take any questions you have your options and you have a couple of hours to make up your minds. After you have made your decision let my Beta know what you chose and he will make your arrangements."

Jacob then walked to the area where the captured Hawthorne females were being held and Jacob gave them the same options that he had just given the remaining LA pack members. Greg walked over to Jacob and said, "I had more calls from Big Sur, Barstow, Needles, Ridgewood and Lone Pine they have received the same information and are requesting assistance from us."

"Call Scott back at home and see if they have gotten any more help from any of the other packs, if not have him call more packs and see if he can get more weres so we can get assistance to these other packs." Greg handed Jacob back his phone and Jacob gave Greg Scotts number.

Jacob found a place to sit and just slid down to the ground and was thinking to himself. "How did this all happen, how did I get put in charge of all of this? How would he protect these west coast packs that wanted his help?" He mind was just spinning with all of this.

"Jacob the prisoners have made their decisions on what they want to do." Ben said

"I'll be right over."

Jacob rose from the ground and brushed himself off and walked to the makeshift corral, The prisoners had split themselves into two groups one group had all but two were's in it. This group all wanted to follow the Eastern Alliance, they would be sent to Reidsville as Jacob had promised. The other group of two would be given a bag of food and some water and dropped off somewhere east of here.

Jacob instructed Ben to get the first group on a plane to Charlotte and call home and make arrangements to have them picked up and taken to Reidsville. Jacobs phone rang and it was Scott. "Yes Scott what's going on?"

"Jacob I have almost six hundred lycans here ready to do what is needed to defeat the Western Alliance."

"Split them into groups and get them on planes to LA or San Francisco and have other modes of transportation for them to take them to the Big Sur, Barstow, Needles, Ridgewood and Lone Pine, California packs. You have a copy of my defense and battle plans there go over it with them before the leave. Tell them once they are through at the pack that are assigned to they can come to Alpine."

*****

Mark got a five man crew together and flew out to the Grand Canyon, once on the ground they rented cars and headed for Highway sixty four. They would intercept the truck about thirty miles from the canyon entrance.

Once they arrived at rest stop they started to set things up to stop the truck. After being there for a couple of hours they watched the crew from LA pass by. The truck was not with them. Tina had informed Mark that the truck was having a hard time keeping up with the LA crew because of the mountains and was running about an hour behind she had also told Mark that they didn't leave any of the crew with the truck it was by itself.

Traffic was sparse on the Highway due to nightfall being almost on them. When the truck was about a mile from their location Mark had Frank move his car into the road and lift the hood.

As the box truck pulled up it slowed and followed the directions of a man with a flashlight directing the truck to drive thru the rest area. The driver of the truck thought it would be a good time to take a restroom stop and add some water to his truck.

When he pulled to a stop in the parking area, he got out of the truck and walked up to the building that held the restrooms and some vending machines. He walked into the restroom and was confronted by four men that were large and mean looking.

"One of the men said, "If you want to live give me the keys to your tuck."

"Like hell, if I give you my keys I'm a dead man anyway."

Two of the other men grabbed the driver and they started to beat him. It didn't take long and the driver of the truck lay unconscious on the floor. The men went thru his pockets and took his keys. They walked out or the restroom and walked over to Mark and told him they had the keys. They checked the cargo and found over a thousand guns and boxes of ammo.

Mark called Jacob and wanted to know where to take the truck, Jacob told them to bring it back to California and come to Alpine. Mark and the crew headed for Alpine to meet up with Jacob.

*****

Jacob had Ben load up his crew and they headed for Alpine, it is a mountain suburb of San Diego, while they are there he wants to scout out the San Diego pack. The are located north of the city of San Diego between Oceanside and Carlsbad. They are located on five hundred of wooded land that at one time belonged to the government. The had a population of one hundred lycans and if what they found in LA was the same there would only be about three quarters of them left.

They pulled into the Alpine pack two and a half hours after leaving LA. Tom Johnstone the Alpine Alpha greeted the buses as they drove in. Jacob got off the bus and greeted Tom.

"We are hear as promised Tom, I have a total of two hundred twenty five were's with me. We will need a place to set up and a map of your territory. I'll take any of your pack that wants to work with us and protect your pack. I also want your Beta. I understand that this is your pack but while we are here I'm in charge of protecting the pack, you still run all the day to day operations.. If you don't want that or can't have that tell me now and I'll leave."

"I have no problem with that as long as we can save my pack."

"I'm also going to ask you to join the Eastern Alliance. You will need to provide a fee that we determine based on your finances and you will need to provide ten percent or twenty five of your were's which is greater to help defend other packs as well as to help sustain our attacks on the Western Alliance packs."

"That's reasonable to me."

"Great Tom then where can we set up?"

I'll have my Beta show you were to go."

Once Jacob was shown the spot that they would set up at he got out the copies of the map of the territory. He called over the two Alpha's and the Beta's. He handed them a copy of the map and they set them out and went over the entire area. He wanted patrols set out starting tonight, but he wanted them outside the packs territory, he told them he did not want the patrols to engage anyone they found but rather to watch them and find out what the were mapping and return the information to Jacob.

Jacob had prepared for the event that any pack would not have housing to support his crews, he had tents and issued them to the Beta's and Alpha of his crew. The tents were set up and covered with branches and leaves to camouflage the tents in addition they were set back away from the packs living area.

The first night out the patrols spotted and scented were's that were watching and scouting out the Alpine pack, as they made notes the checked in with someone by phone every hour. One important thing that Jacobs's patrols were able to find out was that they had two days before the attack. The patrols that Jacob had set out went unnoticed by the Western Alliance scouts.

Jacob had sent Ben and Greg to scout the San Diego pack; he hopped that he would have time to take out that pack before the Western Alliance attacked the other packs. Ben and Greg returned to the staging area around eight the next morning. They went right to Jacob and reported in, "It appears that there are only around fifty were males at San Diego. It also appears that there are another twenty five or thirty females."

"I want everyone ready to move out in one hour. I want to take out San Diego while we can."

It took less then the hour but Jacobs crew was ready to go. The attack this time would be a little different then at LA, this time they were going to drive the buses right into the compound and everyone on them would already be in their wolf forms. The females would take care of the female and the males would take care of the males. Jacob made sure that everyone knew that no pup was to be killed.

When the buses pulled into the compound almost everyone in the San Diego pack came to see who it was. When the doors opened the wolfs of Jacobs piled out the buses using the front and back doors. Before any of the San Diego pack could react the wolfs from Jacob's crew had attacked everyone watching. Jacob was looking for the Alpha or the Beta of San Diego and he spotted him running to the Alpha's house. Jacob ran faster in wolf form then the Beta could run. Jacob leaped and tackled the Beta and bit down hard on his neck and blood flew everywhere. The Beta tried to punch Jacob's wolf but it had no effect on Jacob. Jacob's wolf bit again on the neck of the Beta and he fell limp at Jacob's feet. By the time the battle was over there were nineteen dead lycans from San Diego, The remainder were taken prisoner and loaded onto the buses and taken back to Alpine. There were eighteen males and one female that had died from the San Diego pack. One of Jacob's crew was killed and seven were had various minor wounds.

Once the prisoners were held at Alpine Jacob gave them the same option that he had given the LA pack. None of the San Diego pack took the offer to leave They would be taken back to Reidsville and integrated into the Reidsville pack.

Jacob went to his tent and got his phone out; he dialed the number that he had gotten from the Lycan list of packs Alpha's only copy. He looked down to find JR's phone number. He dialed the number and Jacob asked to speak with JR. The voice on the other end said one moment.

This is JR. Who is this?"

"JR, I have never had the opportunity to meet you but I have heard a lot about you."

"I said who is this don't play with me."

"I'm not playing with you at all JR. I'm Jacob Matthews."

"What the hell do you want?"

"Not much just want to know if you have heard from your pack recently?"

"Why what have you done?"

"Just asking a question, Have a good day." Jacob hung up his phone.
CHAPTER NINE

JR was insanely mad at the phone call, he immediately dialed Randy. The phone rang and rang and finally went to voice mail. JR slammed the phone shut and called Dennis. "Come to my quarters, right now Dennis."

Dennis dropped what he was doing when the crew from their pack arrived. He greeted them and told them to come with him he wanted them to check in with JR.

Dennis went into JR's quarters and said, "I'm here JR and I have the crew from back home with me."

"Good maybe they can answer some questions."

"How were things back home when you left?"

"Just fine JR we left with the guns and headed here. The guns are about an hour behind us, the truck couldn't keep up it kept overheating from the climb into the mountains."

"You did what?" JR screamed at the crew.

Dennis looked at the anger in JR's face and said, "What's the matter JR."

"I just got a call from Jacob Matthews the Alpha from Reidsville and he wanted to know if I had heard from home, I haven't been able to reach anyone back there. I want to know what the hell is going on back there. Dennis get on a plane and find out and hurry up about it."

I'm on my way."

Dennis called and made reservations for the flight to LA. He drove and flew out of Phoenix he could get out of there faster then out of the Grand Canyon airport.

Two hours had passed and JR was as mad as a nest of Yellow Jackets that had been disturbed. His weapons had not made it yet. He sent out his crew to find the truck and get it here as soon as possible.

*****

Mark and his crew had made it back to Interstate forty and rented a moving truck and transferred all of the crates of guns and ammo into the moving van and headed to Las Vegas. They left the box truck on the side of the interstate. Mark knew it would take several hours before anyone found the box truck. They would be past Las Vegas and on their way to Alpine.

The had been on the road for eight hours when the arrived on the outskirts of San Diego. Mark called Ben and got directions to the Alpine pack. From their current location it would take another two hours to get there.

*****

Dennis landed at the LA airport and got a rental car, his drive back to the packs territory took almost two hours, when he arrived he saw fire trucks and police cars all over the territory. He drove to where his house should have been and was stopped by a police officer.

"May I help you sir."

"This was my house? What in the hell happened?"

"We don't know right now, there was a massive fire and it burned everything to the ground. What is your name and where were you sir?"

"My name is Dennis Silvia and all of us that live here are at the Grand Canyon. We are having a group vacation."

"Please wait here sir one of our Detectives and the Fire Marshall will want to talk with you."

The officer walked away and Dennis called JR.

"JR everything is gone, every building has been burned to the ground. Nothing is left."

Dennis waited for a response but all he heard was a crash and the line went dead. He guessed that JR had thrown his phone. Dennis waited for the Detective and the Fire Marshall to come over. The two officials came over together and the Detective introduced himself and asked where everyone was.

"Like I told your officer we are all at the Grand Canyon, we are having a group vacation. There were twenty or so that stayed behind to look after things. We were planning on returning by the weeks end."

"That goes with the number of bodies we found."

"What? They are all dead?"

"Yes sir, we found twenty three bodies. They are burned beyond recognition. We need someone to identify them by where we found them. Do you think you could do that?"

"I can try I can make you a list of everyone that lived in what house. Will that help?"

"I think it will it looks like they were all adults. List all adults that lived in what house and that are not with your group and we can try to make identification."

"Yes sir and thank you."

Dennis spent about an hour writing the names of who lived in what house and provided it to the police. He then tried to call JR for instructions but got no answer.

JR threw his phone across the room, how could this have happened. His pack was gone, burned to the ground. That had to be what that damn Matthews wanted, he would pay for this.

JR called the Beta's and the Alpha's. When they had gathered JR said, "I have some bad news, the truck carrying our guns has disappeared. This won't stop the attacks we are still Lycans and out shear numbers should let us easily let us destroy the packs we had planned on for the end of the week. We are going to move up the attacks to tomorrow night. The packs you have been assigned have not changed. You all have over a hundred were's to defeat the packs it will just take a little longer and we will suffer more casualties. I'm sorry but that can not be helped."

"What about the guns?"

"I'll take care of that, I'll either find them or get new ones."

JR advised his brothers to check in with their packs and to be weary of leaving them undermanned and of his own packs destruction. As soon as they got off the phone with JR they called their own packs all got thru except for Juan, he could not get thru to his pack. He asked JR if his Beta could check in on his pack as he could not get thru to them.

JR used Juan's phone and called Dennis and told him to go to San Diego and check on the status of the pack and to call him back on this number.

JR then resumed the briefing on the attacks on the packs that refused to join their Alliance. Rafael and his crew of one hundred were's were going to attack Big Sur, Alfredo was going to lead the attack on Needles, Juan was leading the attack on Alpine and Miguel was leading the attack on Lone Pine while JR would lead the attack on Barstow. The remaining Alpha from Oakland would lead the attack on Ridgewood. Each of the attacking crews would have three Beta's with them to provide leadership because they were attacking from all four sides at the same time. He sent the attacking crews on their way and told them to be ready to move at midnight. The Alpha from each crew was provided with the contact number for the advance scouts that had been already sent ahead to each of the packs to be attacked. They would provide the Alpha's with pack strength and have a staging area already set up for them. Once contact was made the attack crews were to leave and prepare for the attack. Juan's phone rang and when he answered it, he spoke with Dennis who was checking on the status of his pack. He was informed that his pack was just like the East LA pack. It had been burned to the ground and there were no survivors.

*****

Scott got the defense packs sent on their way to the respective airport that was closest to their pack. All but the packs going to Barstow and Lone Pine wouldn't get to their pack until after one in the morning the remaining defense packs would get to their packs right around midnight.

Scott called Jacob and informed him of the arrival times for the crews he had sent out. Jacob told him he did a good job. The attacks wouldn't happen for two more days if their Intel was correct. Jacob settled back and watched the small fire he had build that he had hid carefully so it couldn't be seen by the scouts that were working the Alpine pack. He felt sure everything was on track and he still had a day to go before the Intel said the Western Alliance attacked. Jacob leaned back against and dozed off.

Ben had gone out to check on the patrols moving around the grounds when he spotted the three buses moving along the dirt road that was on the north side of the territory. He decided he would follow them as this was a strange place for buses to be. He trailed them for a mile when they emerged into a clearing. The two were's that had been scouting the Alpine territory were there to greet the buses. Ben turned and shifted to his wolf form and headed right for the staging area for his people. Ben's wolf slid to a stop in front of Jacob's tent and Ben shifted to his human form. He stuck his head into Jacob's tent but Jacob was not there, Ben pulled out and yelled for Jacob. Others started to stick their heads out of their tents trying to see what all the commotion was. Ben turned to one of them and he told them to wake everyone and assemble here at Jacob's tent.

Ben looked around and saw the dying embers of the fire he walked over and there he found Jacob asleep leaning against a tree. Ben walked up to Jacob and he called out his name. Jacob was already awake but had not opened his eyes. He had already scented the wolf coming up and he knew it was Ben.

Without opening his eyes Jacob said "What is going on?"

Ben said, "Jacob I followed three buses to a clearing and the two scouts I had seen before were welcoming a large force off the buses. I would guess a hundred or so."

Jacob sat up right and said, "Shit they are going to attack tonight. Get everyone up and into position."

"All ready being done Jacob."

Jacob called Scott and said, Get a hold of the Alpha's of the last groups he sent out and tell to them that the attacks were tonight not tomorrow tell them to get to their packs as soon as possible, then to call the Alpha's of the packs and tell them.

Scott told Jacob that he would take care of it.

"Ben could you tell which was the Alpha or Beta?"

"I think so. The Alpha looked like he was about six feet tall and was wearing Blue jeans and a black shirt. He had silver hair. One thing I did notice was there were no guns."

"That's good that means we intercepted all of their guns."

"What time do you think they will attack?"

"I would bet between eleven and one that's typical of Lycans"

"Let's make sure our people are in place and already in wolf form, I'm going down to talk to Tom."

When Jacob arrived at the Alpha's house he knocked on the door and Tom answered "What can I do for you Jacob?"

"Tom they are attacking tonight so get your pack ready."

"Are you sure I thought we had another day?"

"They pulled in an hour ago, I'm betting tonight."

"I'll have them ready."

Jacob turned and walked back to his tent. Just as he arrived his phone rang. It was the Alpha from Lone Pine said he was leaving and headed for Big Sur.

Mark pulled in shortly after Jacob hung up the phone. Jacob told him to hide the truck so no one could find it, and then to come back and join him. Jacob checked his watch and saw that it was eleven-thirty. He was expecting the attack to come at any time. Mark walked back over to Jacob and said, "From the number of boxes that we moved from their truck to this one I would say there are about a thousand guns and maybe a hundred thousand rounds of ammo."

"My god Mark they must have been planning a slaughter."

"My thoughts exactly."

"Well I want to head to my spot I want to be ready I expect them to attack any time."

All of Jacob's force knew that they were to allow them to pass and then they would attack All of his people were already in wolf form. He was going to specifically watch for the Alpha or Beta leading this force. At midnight the defense force watched as the wolfs from the attacking group passed them by, once the last wolf of each side passed Jacob's wolfs attacked.

Greg noticed the wolf leading the crew passing him had a Beta in charge. He jumped from his perch and landed on the Beta. Greg slashed with his claws and tore a long furrow along the Beta's side. The Beta turned and let out a howl from the pain. He jumped out of the way as Greg's wolf tried to bite the Beta on the neck. The beta used his jaw and bit down on Greg's front leg. When the Beta did that he exposed the back of his neck to Greg. He took the opportunity and bit down hard on the Beta's Neck. Blood filled Greg's mouth along with fur from the Beta. The beta rolled and Greg lost his grip on the Beta's neck. Another wolf jumped into the fight and bit on Greg's back. Just as the second wolf bit Greg two more wolfs from Greg's pack joined in the fight. The second wolf from the Beta's pack tried to fight off the other two wolfs but had no luck the wolfs from Greg's pack killed the second wolf in no time. Greg was free to put all of his efforts in the fight against the Beta. The Beta jumped at Greg and Greg rolled and the Beta landed on top of Greg. Greg bit hard into the Beta's bottom neck and blood again filled his mouth. The weight of the Beta caused him to roll past Greg but Greg did not let go and he ripped the throat out of the Beta. By the time the Beta hit the ground he was dead.

Juan had a good feeling about this attack he knew his force was larger than the total pack. His wolfs moved down the trail to the living area when out of nowhere wolfs were attacking his pack. He spotted at lone black wolf standing in his path. He was not about to let this stop him from destroying the Alpine pack. Juan jumped at the black wolf and when he hit the wolfs body it felt like he had hit a brick wall. The black wolf didn't move at all. The black wolf bit onto Juan's neck and drew blood that filled the black wolfs mouth he shook his head and blood and fur flew everywhere. The body of Juan's wolf went limp and the black wolf changed to its human form. Jacob looked down at Juan and said, "I want you to know that I am Jacob Matthews and you just lost your entire force. Change forms and tell me who are you?"

Juan changed forms knowing he was almost dead and said "My brother JR will kill you." And he convulsed and died. Over the next hour the attacking Lycans fought hard but they were no match for the crew Jacob had brought down to protect the Alpine pack.

*****

Mike had taken control of the pack of defenders that had made it to the Big Sur pack before the attack came. Mike met with the Big Sur Alpha, Sam Williams and was shown where to stage his pack members. Mike set up his camp and sent his defense force out to the spots that the Alpha had told him were the only places that an attacking force could come thru. Mike had all of his were's in place by eleven forty five. His were's didn't have to wait long before the attack came.

Rafael's force of Lycans never saw the defense force come into the Big Sur territory, His force of one hundred Lycans would make fast work of destroying Big Sur as they only had thirty were's in the pack. At midnight Rafael started the attack. He heard the sounds of a fight on both north and south sides of his position. He was attacking from the west. The sounds didn't last long as his force of twenty five found they were outnumbered two to one. His force was being decimated by superior numbers. He spotted Mike who was searching for someone and Rafael guessed that it was him. Three more wolfs joined Mike in the search.

Mike had received a report that there was no one in total charge of the attacking Lycans. Mike knew from that he had the Alpha in his area. Rafael was well hidden but he could still see his force being killed by the defending force. Rafael decided it was better to live to fight another and he pulled back from the attack and was not found by the defending forces. Rafael made his way back to their staging area and found his car. He got in and drove away from the massacre that had taken place by the defending forces against his forces.

*****

JR's crew had an easy time of defeating the Barstow pack; his forces began their attack right at midnight and found the resistance minimal. The total number of were's at the Barstow pack was fifty four. JR was attacking with a force of one hundred seventy. JR's pack of Lycans moved into the Barstow pack and they were killing every were they came across. When JR found the Alpha of the Barstow, JR attacked him. JR was a younger and stronger and the Alpha quickly yielded to JR. The Alpha changed his for back to human as did JR. JR had the Barstow Alpha tied up and hung by his arms and legs at the Alpha's house. JR then shifted back to his wolf form and started biting the Alpha in many different places. The bite would eventually kill the Alpha, JR had a message hung around the neck of the Alpha, and it was a message to Jacob Matthews warning him that this would be his fate as well.

Alfredo watched as the defense force pulled into Needles and notified his people to retreat. He was badly outnumbered and pulled back and returned to the Grand Canyon.
CHAPTER TEN

Alan and his defense pack arrived at Barstow close to two thirty. The carnage he found made him sick to his stomach. There were were's all laying all over the territory dead. Most were dismembered. As they searched the pack they brought the dead Lycans back to the living area when Alan found the Alpha hanging from his house. They cut down the Alpha and laid him softly on the ground. Alan had his medical person start to work on the Alpha. The nurse turned her head to Alan and shook it to say no the Alpha would die. The nurse handed the message to Alan and he read it. He called Jacob and passed the message to him. He told Jacob what he had found at the pack and Alan asked what he wanted him to do.

Jacob said, "Alan see if you can find a ceremonial spot there and if so place the bodies of the Lycans there, I'll see if I can get a Shaman there to perform the death ritual for them. I'll call you back shortly with any information I can get." Jacob hung up his phone. He then called Ben over to him and said to Ben, "see if you can get a hold of the Shaman Tina and see if she can get a Shaman or if she can go to the Barstow pack and perform the death ritual."

"I will take care of it."

Jacob's phone rang and it was Alan calling from Barstow He told Jacob what had happened and that JR had left him a message and it read "This is your fate Matthews, I will do to you what I did to this Lycan."

Jacob said "Thanks Alan I'll see you in a few hours." Jacob hung up the phone and looked around him and saw all the life in the Alpine pack and he wished he could have changed things at Barstow.

Ben contacted Tina and relayed the request from Jacob and Tina said she would take of it and either she or another Shaman would be there today.

Jacob called Mark over and said, "Mark I want you to have the truck of guns taken back to our pack and stored there. Mark I hate to put on the spot but do you know anyone who deals in weapons from your police connections?"

"Well to be honest yes I do. I use to buy guns for the old Asheville pack that they used for target practice." Mark answered.

"Good get a hold of him and let's see if he can provide us with some information about any large gun orders. Specifically going to the Grand Canyon, let him know he will be well compensated for the information."

Mark made reservations to fly to Charlotte, he would fly out later in the afternoon and he knew just who to contact.

Marks plane landed in Charlotte at four thirty and he went to the Old Town Tavern in the downtown area. He found who he was looking for in a man named Joey Larson. Mark walked over to the table that Joey was sitting at and said, "Joey it's been a long time."

"Hey Mark, I haven't done anything wrong, I've been keeping my nose clean."

"I'm not here as a cop Joey, I'm here as a customer if you will have me."

"Have a seat and I want your word you not here as a cop."

I promise you Joey I'm not here as a cop. I'm looking for information about anyone purchasing large amounts automatic weapons and I need a large quantity."

"How many is large?"

"I'm looking for anyone wanting to buy anywhere from five hundred to a thousand guns and a thousand rounds for each gun, and possibly going to the Grand Canyon

"I can get that for you, it will cost you. I'm going to need some protection and a large stash of cash."

"How long of a delivery time are you looking for?"

"Anywhere from today for the next couple of months."

"And you're not doing this as a cop?"

"No Joey, I'm not doing this in any official capacity at all."

"I want fifty thousand any time I give you information."

"I'll only pay if it is good information and I can verify the purchase."

"I can do that but I want half up front."

"Ok Joey I'll do that but if you screw me you can count on being a dead man."

"That works for me and Mark don't screw me."

"I promise I won't try to screw you and don't you screw me."

"I won't"

Mark got up and left the table and headed for his car. As he walked out the door he was followed outside by two other men. The two men grabbed Mark and one of them said, "Mister we know who you are and you're playing with fire if you try to screw Joey."

Listen guys I have no idea who you are but I really don't care either. I'm not looking for any trouble but you fuck with me you will regret it and cost Joey a lot of money. Now may I suggest you release me and we can all go about our business?"

"What you going to call your cop buddies?"

"No you won't have to even think about them it's my family you're going to have to worry about. I came here to do business with Joey; if this turns violent it will cost him any chance of doing business with my family. It will also cost you your lives."

The two men let go of Mark and they apologized for the problem they were just protecting their boss. Mark got into his car and left the bar and headed back to Reidsville. The two men went back into the bar and told Joey that he seemed legit and was not working as an undercover cop. But to be on the safe side they would check with their contacts and see if the cops were working anything undercover.

Mark drove back to his house and checked in with Scott to see if there was anything he needed.

Scott said, "Actually things have been going pretty smooth. I set up the old bunk houses as sleep areas for any incoming packs that wanted to help. I then called Jacob to see where he wanted them at. Then made the arrangement for travel and sent them on their way."

"Sounds like you have it all under control. Well if you need me for anything tonight let me know I am going to fly back to California tomorrow."

"Ok will do, you have a good night."

*****

Miguel started his attack at midnight and slowly entered Lone Pines territory, much to his surprise he found all of the Lycans gone. There was not a soul left, they had abandoned their territory. Miguel was puzzled at how they could have known that his attack was coming tonight. Miguel ordered his pack to torch the territory and leave nothing standing. Satisfied that they had burned Long Pine to the ground Miguel ordered his people back to the Grand Canyon territory.

The Alpha that was leading the attack into Ridgewood found the same this as Miguel had found the pack was empty. He ordered his pack to set fire to everything and then headed back to the Grand Canyon pack.

By noon the next day Miguel, Rafael, the other Alpha and JR had returned to the Grand Canyon pack territory.

JR was fit to be tied. Juan was missing, and no one could get in touch with him, Rafael had his entire force destroyed while his pack and the other Alpha's pack had not received any resistance because it seems that the pack evacuated and no one knew where they went. Jacob was beginning to think he had a spy in his ranks, and it would have to be someone that was here with him now. He couldn't believe one of his brothers would be working for the other side but maybe the Lycan Alpha. JR decided right then that he was going to put them to a test. If one of them was working against he would kill him right in front of everyone.

He would plan an attack on the Albuquerque pack and he would make sure that no one else but the four of them knew. He also wondered about his brother Juan. Nobody had heard from him yet. Did he defect to the other side, he had to wonder. He Dennis report to him and he said, "I want you to go back to San Diego and see what you can find out about my brother. We haven't heard from him I want to know what has happened."

"I'll take care of it JR, don't worry about a thing."

Dennis left and made arrangement s to fly back to San Diego, his flight out would be in the morning, he would check on the Alpine pack first then go back to the San Diego territory if he found nothing in Alpine.

Dennis was headed back to JR when a delivery truck pulled up and asked Dennis if knew a guy named JR and where he could find him.

"Just go straight ahead to the building at the end of this road, he is in that building."

"Thank you." The delivery driver said.

Dennis got to the building at the same time the delivery driver was leaving. He looked at him closely and he seemed familiar, like he knew him. He watched the driver go out of the territory and when he entered the building there was a box sitting just inside the door for JR. Dennis muttered "Dumb ass driver." He started to life the box and something shifted in the box. Dennis sat the box back down and went and got JR.

"JR some delivery guy just dropped a box off for you at the door."

"Let's go see what it is," JR said.

JR looked the box over and said "Lets open it up."

Dennis pulled a knife out of his pocket and handed it to JR; he took the knife and sliced open the tape holding the box closed. The box popped open and JR jumped back and yelled "get it the fuck out of here. "

Dennis walked to the box and looked down and saw the head and body of Juan, JR's brother. "Damn." He said.

Dennis pulled the box outside and grabbed two Lycans walking by and told them to take the box and body to the ceremonial grounds.

JR was mad as hell; he was screaming and yelling at everyone. Miguel tried to calm JR down and JR slapped him across the face and told him to shut up. Both Miguel and Rafael grabbed JR and dragged him out of the building and held him until he calmed down enough that they could talk to him.

"Listen JR, we know what happened. Somehow they knew we were coming. Juan most likely got caught up and was killed by whoever was assisting them. I almost got it myself. I held back and watched as a pack of wolfs much larger then my forces wiped us out. I was lucky and got away." Said Rafael.
CHAPTER ELEVEN

All of the packs that had been sent in were now with Jacob at the Alpine pack. There were almost a thousand Lycans here above and beyond what the pack held. Jacob called all of his Alpha's and Beta's together.

"I want to thank each and every one of you for bringing your people with you. I would have to say even though we lost three packs we were very successful at defending the packs out here. We really only lost one pack as far as Lycans go but we did lose two territories that were burned but the packs had evacuated and lost no lives. We did however we did lose the entire Barstow pack. A message was left for me by JR who is the Alpha of the Western Alliance. He basically said I would suffer the same fate that the Barstow Alpha did. I don't pay much attention to threats but I am taking this one seriously. I believe he will try to kill me, and that I am not worried about I just think he is crazy and may try."

"What's up for us, where do we go from here? Asked the Alpha from the Everglades pack.

"I'm going to have you all go back to Reidsville and once we are back there I would like to meet with all of you again on how to set up a better system for getting you where we need you a lot faster than sending you from Reidsville."

"That makes a lot of sense we may not have lost the packs we did." Alan said.

"I agree I don't want to lose another pack, ok then lets meet back in Reidsville and start putting a plan together."

The flights out of San Diego started at seven in the morning and the last flight out was at noon. The last group of Lycans arrived back at Reidsville at four in the afternoon. Jacob was one of the first ones back and had already made arrangements for the Alpha's to stay in the best hotels in both Asheville and Charlotte. They would meet at eight in the morning.

Jacob told Dawn to make sure there was plenty of coffee and that there would be breakfast for the Alpha's at the meeting. She should recruit all the help she needed to make sure everything was set up for in the morning.

Alan and Mike came over to Jacob's house that evening and they wanted to speak to him. Jacob invited them in and Jacob grabbed a few beers and they went out to the back deck..

"What's on your mind tonight?" Jacob asked.

"How are we going to keep paying for transporting all these Lycans to help out other packs. I was talking with Scott before I left for California and we had spent almost two fifty thousand sending and bringing everyone there and back. We can't keep spending like that." Alan said.

"I agree with you Alan right now we are spending what the High Council gave us. One of the topics on the meeting agenda is money. If we are going to keep doing this then packs are going to have to help. When we started talking about this Alliance we talked about each member pack put in one hundred thousand each year. If they don't want to do that then we can't keep this going much longer. I won't spend pack money keeping the Alliance running. I do the hundred thousand a year but nothing else."

"That's fair Jacob; we should pay our fair share and not support the Alliance." Mike said.

"I'm just worried that this may go farther than just putting an end to this war. I don't really understand why the High Council disbanded." Jacob said.

"Now that is a really good question, the Council has been losing a lot of support the last couple of years. They really seem like they don't care anymore." Mike said.

"Well I guess it is all just a moot point now. But someone is going to have to set up a new Council or governing body for Lycans." Jacob said.

"I wouldn't say that too loud Jacob it might end up being you," Alan said.

"Don't even go there." Jacob growled.

Both Mike and Alan broke out in laughter and Jacob didn't see what was so funny.

Alan could see the confusion in Jacob's face and said, "Boy someday you are going to learn when someone is joking and not."

"Boy I would show you who a boy is but you're my father- in- law."

Alan and Mike broke out into a hearty laugh at Jacob's last comment.

"What's so funny now?"

"Son it's not often that the Alpha is as confused as you are right now." Mike said.

"You really haven't figured it out have you?"

"I guess not."

"You are starting a new governing body right now, you my son have already been selected to do it and you are doing it by leading the Eastern Alliance." Alan said.

"Well I'll be damned I never ever thought about it like that."

"Don't worry about it I'll bet no one else would see it either."

"Well if it has been determined then we will do something about it."

"And what would that be." Mike asked

"I think first off we get rid of the name Eastern Alliance and call ourselves the United Lycan Federation." Jacob said laughing.

"Now that has a nice ring to it." Alan commented

"I think you two have had too much to drink already." Jacob laughed.

The three of them had a hearty laugh off of Jacob's comment. They decided it was time get things ready for tomorrow's meeting. Jacob got out a map of the United States and spread it out on the table. He placed a piece of wood under the map so they could put in push pins of different colors, green for the Western Alliance and blue for the new United Lycan Federation. Mike read off the list of packs that they knew had joined the Western Alliance. The Western Alliance had twenty red push pins on the map, the most Eastern pack that they knew of that joined the Western Alliance was Boise, Idaho.

They then started on the United Lycan Federation (ULF), there were forty two blue pins on the map with the farthest west being Alpine, California. The next colored pins would be red and that would represent the packs that have been destroyed by the Western Alliance. There were three pins for that. Next were yellow colored pins, they would represent the packs that the ULF had captured or destroyed.

They next set out making a list of packs that they would put a defensive force at. The only pack on the list for now was Alpine. Jacob wanted to put two hundred Lycans there to help protect it from an attack by the Western Alliance. The next problem to tackle was to try to figure out which packs would most likely be the next on the Western Alliance's list.

Jacob told Mike and Alan that it was time to call it a night as it was close to midnight. The meeting was to start at eight in the morning; he wanted everyone fresh and clear minded. Mike and Alan said good night and left. Jacob looked over what they had done and was satisfied so far. He looked for Dawn and figured she had already turned in for the night. Jacob went up stairs to take a shower and noticed that Dawn was not in bed. He walked into Chuck's room and Dawn was holding Chuck and sitting in the rocking chair, the two of them were sound asleep. Jacob picked up Chuck and placed him in bed and he woke Dawn and told her it was time to go to bed. Dawn looked up at Jacob and smiled.

Dawn got up from the chair and walked into the bed room she jumped into the shower and when she finished she pulled back the covers and slid between the sheets. Jacob came into the bedroom and he jumped into the shower as well, When he was finished he came back into the bedroom, He looked at Dawn and saw she was asleep already. She had a big day tomorrow and he knew she would be up early. He had been tied up with pack and Alliance business for the last few days and had not given Dawn the attention she deserved but he decided to let her sleep.

Jacob put on a pair of sweat pants and went back downstairs. He looked over the map and the list of things he would cover with the Alpha's later this morning. Jacob wanted to cover more on the change from an Alliance to maybe becoming a Federation. He got out his note pad and started to write down things he thought would make it become a reality.

First on the list a new High Council made up of seven Alpha's. To make it fair and equal there should be one seat reserved for small packs which would be a pack of fifty or less Lycans, a medium pack which would be for packs with between fifty one to one hundred, a large pack which would have between one hundred one to one hundred fifty and a mega pack with one hundred fifty one or more Lycans in it. The remaining three seats would be from any sized pack. The three at large seats would be picked from a Council of Elders made up of eleven retired Alphas. The High Council should select their own chairman. In the event there were not enough retired Alpha's then it could be any Lycan over the age of sixty.

They should have a fee of some type based on the number of Lycans in the pack and based on the finances of the pack. They should start a training academy to teach pups about the Lycan heritage, Lycan self defense. There should be the establishment of laws that all packs must obey. They should develop a group of enforcers that would go out and capture any rouge Lycans and a rehabilitation center to help the rouge wolfs return to a pack life. There should be a unit of some kind to provide a cover to any Lycan or pack that somehow let the existence of the Lycan world become known to humans.

Jacob yawned, and sat back in his chair, he closed his eyes for just a moment, the next thing he knew Dawn was waking him

*****

Dawn woke when her alarm went off and she reached over to touch Jacob and found he wasn't in bed. She tossed the covers off and dressed. She had a lot of work to do this morning getting breakfast for all the Alpha's that Jacob was hosting this morning. She went down stairs and found Jacob asleep in his chair. Looking at his note pad she guessed that Jacob had been up all night writing down this he planned on covering at the meeting. From the looks of his she figured that he had not been asleep long.

Dawn bent over Jacob and softly kissed him on his lips and Jacob stirred and opened his eyes. He saw Dawns face and he said, "I must have died and gone to heaven because I am seeing an Angel in front of me.:

"No you big oaf you're not dead, it just me."

Jacob pulled Dawn down to him and kissed her deeply; she looked at him and said "maybe later I have too much work to do for your meeting this morning. Sally, Sandy, Betty and Sue and mom coming over to help this morning and they should be here any time."

Just about then there was a knock on the door and the female were's all came into the house. Dawn headed into the kitchen followed by the other females. The sounds of pots and pans hitting each other told Jacob that breakfast would be ready when the Alpha's arrived.

"Can I get you anything?" Dawn called out to Jacob.

"Just some coffee.

"Moments later Dawn drought a steaming hot cup of coffee and said "Here you go Babe, I have a pot set aside for you this morning."

"Thanks Babe I think I'm going to need it."
CHAPTER TWELVE

The last of the Alpha's arrived just before eight and sat down to a breakfast made to order. Jacob called the meeting to order at nine. He said, "I have a proposal for all of you, I don't know why the old High Council disbanded but what I am proposing will replace them and set up a governing standard for all packs. Jacob laid out his plan for changing from the Eastern Alliance to the new United Lycan Federation. All of the Alpha's assembled liked the idea.

The Alpha from Everglades, Florida a super pack said "why don't we go ahead and take a vote and deal with the Federation before we do anything else and I have a nomination for the first Council member and that is Jacob Matthews."

Before Jacob could say anything the entire group of Alpha's agreed to Jacob being the first Councilman. Over the next half hour Alpha's were selected and the new High Council was in place. Alpha's from Button, West Virginia; Freely, Mississippi; Everglades Florida; Bacon Georgia; Richmond Virginia; Charleston, South Carolina and Jacob were all selected and agreed upon by all the Alpha's. The High Council then selected its chairman and the vote was six for Jacob and one for Miles Taylor the Alpha from Everglades. It was decided that the Council would meet at three that afternoon. It was decided that all packs would submit a fee of one hundred thousand dollars to support and maintain the Federation all of its activities. Any pack wishing to join the Federation would submit the same fee with their application. A continuing fee based on pack size would be due each year thereafter. The new High Council would decide additional elements and submit them to the entire group of Alpha's for approval.

The next order of business was to try to figure out where the Western Alliance would attack next. It was decided that Redmond, Oregon; Seattle, Washington: Alpine, California and Needles California were the most likely to be attacked next. It was decided to contact the four packs and see it they wanted protection from the Federation.

It was nearing the noon hour when the meeting broke for lunch, Jacob contacted Scott and Tim and had them report to his house. "I want the two of you to contact these packs and let them know that we are offering protection. Tell them we suspect that the Western Alliance may have them as their next places to attack. I want you to see if you can get answers from them before one."

They both got started right away at Jacob's request. They called the packs and explained what Jacob had told them to tell the packs. They all agreed to have protection from the Federation. They reported back to Jacob close to one o'clock. Jacob thanked them and sent them to get some lunch.

The Alpha's that made up the new High Council started their first meeting at one o'clock sharp.

"The first order of business is I had two of my Beta's contact the four packs that we spoke about this morning and all four of them have asked for protection against the Western Alliance, I recommend that we sent two hundred of our Lycans that we currently have in the compound right now. I also recommend we get four of the Alphas that we have here to lead the forces. At the same time I would like to send out advance scouts of maybe ten to twelve were's with one or two Alpha's or Beta's to the Grand Canyon. I want first hand reports on what the Western Alliance is doing. I also think that before we really start to establish this Federation as the ruling body for Lycans we need to stop the Western Alliance."

All were in agreement with Jacob and as a group they decided to send out the scouts and the forces to the four packs.

There was a knock on the conference room door and Jacob got up to answer the door. Mark stuck his head in and whispered to Jacob that the Western Alliance had ordered another thousand guns, this time they were to be delivered the day after tomorrow right to the Grand Canyon. Jacob thanked Mark and walked back to his seat at the Council. Jacob passed the information that Mark had just given him and that they needed to send out a group of Lycans to intercept the weapons.

"Who do you want to send?" asked the Councilman from Freely.

"I do I have already captured a stash of weapons from the Western Alliance, I am going to send my same people to do it again." No one on the Council objected to Jacob's plan

"I have one more item for the Council; we need to establish a home area for the Federation. It will need to be large enough that they do not interfere with a pack if we put it where a pack already exists or we will need to purchase territory for all the things that we want to do."

Councilman Ken Roberts from Bacon Georgia made the recommendation of placing the High Council temporally right here in Reidsville until the war was over. The High Council approved the motion and the Council would set up operations right here. Jacob asked to hire three were's, two secretary's and a book keeper, the council approved the hiring.

*****

The important part is that you are safe, Rafael; but any way you look at it I am still mad as hell at his death, when Dennis walked in and said, "JR I just remembered who that delivery driver was, it that bastard Greg Jackson, I knew he looked familiar I just couldn't place him until just now.

"Damn it, I want a bounty placed on his head and the heard of Jacob Matthews. Dead or alive, I want their heads make it fifty thousand on each."

"I'll take care of it JR and I'll get the word out."

"Now I have a plan to attack the following packs, Redmond, Oregon; Seattle, Washington: Alpine, and Needles California. It is going to move fast I don't want Matthews to get wind of this so I want to attack tonight, put together four Alpha's and or Beta's with enough were's to defeat the packs even if they have support from Matthews already so make it close to three hundred in each attacking pack. My brothers your rolls have changed, you will now be coordinating the efforts from right here. I am also tasking you to get more packs to join the Alliance."

"May I suggest that we go right to the packs that we are going to attack in person and make an offer them to join the Alliance or they would face destruction right then and there." Miguel said.

"I like that idea, tell the leaders of each attacking pack to make that offer, if they refuse kill the Alpha right away and destroy the pack. Take any single females prisoner and any pups under ten. Also take any were's that want to join the separate from the pack. Bring them here and we can sort it out now let's get our forces moving."

The attacks forced all departed the Grand Canyon and headed for their respective packs. They were all flying and would have rental buses waiting for them once they arrived.

The attack on Alpine

The attack force was led by an Alpha from Vail, Colorado and he had three Beta's with him, when they arrived at the Alpine pack they went right to the Alpha's house. The opened the door and walked right in.

"What the hell, get out of my house."

"Sorry to bother you but we are here from the Western Alliance and we have an offer for you."

"I have no interest in your Alliance."

"You might when you hear it."

"Get the hell out of my house."

The Alpha turned to his Beta's and said destroy the pack and remember your orders.

The Beta's went back outside and ordered their pack to begin the attack. They went from house to house and dragged the male out and three or four wolfs would offer him a chance to join the Alliance. If he refused then they would kill the male. The females and pups were taken to a holding area where the females would be questioned later, Tom Johnstone the Alpine Alpha tried to put up a fight but with the one Alpha and three other were's Tom didn't stand a chance. They all were now in wolf form and the wolfs for Western Alliance started biting and tearing off chunks of flesh and fur from Tom. Tom knew he wouldn't last long but he fought to save himself, his mate and the pack. When Tom finally laid down and died he had taken his share of flesh and fir from the were's. He had killed one of the wolfs from the Western Alliance but he had finally fallen to the other three.

The rest of the Western Alliance wolfs had taken fourteen single females thirty four pups and five other males that wanted to live and joined the Alliance. When they started questioning the females that had mates that were killed they were met with resistance from them. The first female spit in the face of one of the Beta's and he wasted no time he leaned over and ripped the throat out of her in front of the other females. Not one of the females moved or showed any fear at all. They would resist the Western Alliance even if it would mean that they would die.

The Beta ordered that all the female were's that they were holding here be raped and then killed. The males were all for doing this. They made the females watch as their sisters were rapped and then dismembered in front of them. The females held strong and refused to join the Alliance. One by one they were raped and then killed until none of them were left alive. The Beta recorded the entire event being careful not to let the faces of any of his were's.

The entire event was recorded and a DVD would be made and sent to every pack with the threat to join or have this done to their packs. The attack force departed for the Grand Canyon knowing this pack no longer existed and that they had made the video that JR wanted.

The Seattle Attack

The Alpha from Las Vegas went to the Alpha's house and walked right into the door. The Alpha was asked who he was and if he could help him. The Las Vegas Alpha made the offer to the Seattle Alpha and the Alpha thought about it for a moment and told the other Alpha he would gladly join the Western Alliance. The Las Vegas Alpha told him he would need to provide them with twenty five percent of the male members of the pack and one hundred thousand dollars by the day after tomorrow at the Grand Canyon pack or they would be back in three days to destroy the pack.

The Needles Attack

The attack force arrived at the Needles, California pack and three that afternoon, the Beta from Denver, Colorado was leading this attack, he had four additional Beta's with his unit. He went right to the Alpha's house and walked right into the house. The Alpha said, "What the hell?"

The Beta identified himself as a representative from the Western Alliance and he was there to offer membership or face destruction.

The Alpha looked at the Beta and said, "Look I don't want any trouble but I wish my pack to remain neutral and not a part of any Alliance."

"That is not one of the offers, join or be destroyed" the Beta said.

"We are prepared to fight to the death to remain neutral."

"Then fight you will have to do." The Beta said just before he changed forms. The Alpha was a little faster at changing forms and as soon as he did he attacked the Beta and sank his teeth into the Beta's neck. His fangs piercing the Beta's artery's killing the Beta almost instantly. The Alpha turned his attention to the next were but before he could do anything the three were's were on the Alpha. He inflicted wounds on his attackers but the three were's from the Alliance were more then he could handle. One of the were's grabbed the Alpha under the throat with his jaws and tore a large piece from the Alpha's neck. The Alpha hit the ground and passed out bleeding badly until he was dead. The Alpha fought as hard and as bravely as he could have.

The attacking pack went door to door offering the members of the pack the chance to join the Alliance. The ones that refused were killed instantly. All of the single females were rounded up and taken prisoner. The attacking force had lost six were's and the Needles pack was burning to the ground. The attacking pack departed and left for the Grand Canyon.

The Redmond Attack

The Beta in charge of the attack force walked right into the Alpha's house and before the Beta could say a word the Alpha attacked him. The Alpha tore a large hole in the Beta's neck and killed him instantly. The Alpha turned his attention to the remaining three attackers and he caught one of them in mid change and that was how he died, The third and forth attackers attacked the Alpha at the same time. The Alpha inflicted a serious injury to one of the attackers but the two of them were more than the Alpha could handle He died defending his pack.

The pack was rounded up but the attacking forces of the Western Alliance and they were given the choice to either join the Western Alliance or die right now. All but three of the were's joined the Alliance, the three that refused to join were killed in front of everyone. One of the Beta's from the Alliance remained behind and became the Alpha. He told his fellow Beta's he would send the required number of males and the money tomorrow.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Mark led the crew to try to get the truck hauling the weapons to the Grand Canyon, He was going to try the same trick that he used on the first truck. They were at the rest stop on highway 64. The traffic was light and they had not seen a truck pass them as of yet. Mark had posted Frank as a lookout a mile down the road to keep a look out for the truck. The truck was approaching Frank's position and it had a two car escort. Frank called Mark and told him about truck and the escort cars. Frank had noticed that the escort cars were armed to the gills. Frank also said that he thought the escorts were humans. Mark had the crashed cars ready and they pushed them out into the highway and blocked all of the lanes. The truck and escorts would have to pass thru the rest stop. Once in the rest stop they would be able to stop the truck and take the weapons. As the truck slowed and took the off ramp for the rest stop the escort cars all rolled down their windows and made their weapons ready. Mark had another car parked blocking the exit of the rest area. When the truck stopped due to the car the escort cars pulled alongside the truck and got out and took up stations so no one could walk up to the truck.

The last thing the guards were expecting was a pack of wolfs moving around the rest stop, the guards were very weary of the wolfs as they moved closer to the they moved away from their stations around the truck. The wolfs were moving all around the truck and the guards all were getting back in the cars. Four of the wolfs sat at the doors of the cars and were keeping the guards inside the cars and they would put their paws up on the doors causing them to close the windows. Two more of the wolfs went behind the truck and shifted to human form. They walked around the side of the truck and opened the door and dragged the driver out of the cab. They took him to the back of the truck and tied the driver up. They climbed back into the truck and moved the truck around the parked car. When the escort cars tried to do the same thing and the stalled car moved to block their path.

The cars stopped short and two more of the Lycans in human form took knifes and stabbed the tires. The escort cars finally made it around the blocking car but by the time they came up to speed the air in their rear tire was gone and the tires blew out. The truck made it to a point where they could make a u-turn. By that time Mark's crew was back on the road and quickly joined the truck. The headed nonstop to Interstate 40 headed east. Their next stop except for fuel would be Reidsville.

*****

By the time the defense forces reached the four packs that were the ones they had figured would be the ones that would be attacked by the Western Alliance they found that two of them had been destroyed and burned. The other two packs had decided to join the Alliance and no longer needed their help. They returned to Reidsville and reported in to Jacob, He was disappointed that they had lost all four packs. Now they needed to get down to business in dealing with JR and putting a stop to this war.

Jacob was set to interview six females for the three openings that he had been approved for. The first one would he was going to interview was going to be Martha Shuttle. She was interviewing for the position of Bookkeeper, Jacob knew that Martha was good with computers and all the books were kept on the computer here at the pack and the new bookkeeper would be setting up the books for the Federation. Martha was ten minutes for the interview and she was the only one interviewing for the position the interview was just a formality. When Jacob and Martha finished he told her to report tomorrow morning at eight.

Jacob was next interviewing for the secretary position, he did not know two of the of the females he just couldn't know everyone. Cindy Wilson was the first and after his questions he thanked Cindy and asked her to wait in the living room. Next to interview was June James. He finished the interview and he asked June to have a seat in the living room. Last was Sally and he called her into the office.

"Sally I have just one question for you and that is how does Ben feel about you working?"

"Honestly I was surprised at his reaction Jacob, he was the one that insisted on applying for this job."

"Really, why was that."

"He felt that we could use the money but more importantly he thought I was the best qualified for the job."

"Good enough for me. Be here tomorrow morning at eight,"

"Oh one more question do you know either of the females who were in here before you?"

"Yes I do, I know both of them."

"If you were doing the interviewing for the job and you only had one to pick which would it be?"

"That's easy I would pick Cindy. She is by far the most qualified. She was a secretary at her last job before she moved here."

"Thank you Sally."

Jacob called Cindy back in the office and told her to report at eight in the morning. Then he called June in and told her that he thanked her but she was not selected. After the females all left Jacob went out and took Dawn in his arms and said "I don't ever want to do that again." Dawn just hugged a Jacob and brought him his dinner.

Morning arrived and all three females arrived early and were all ready to go to work, Jacob showed them three rooms and said that they would be the offices for them. They could set them up anyway they wanted. Jacob handed Cindy a letter and he wanted it typed and sent to every pack on the list he handed her. He also told Cindy and Sally to pick one of the two of them to take charge of the office. The person they selected would be responsible to ensure all the work was done and done correctly. Sally looked at Cindy and said "the job is yours I don't want to be the one in charge."

With that settled Jacob went into his office and took a check off of his desk and told Martha to go to the bank and set up accounts for the Federation. Split the money into a checking and savings accounts.

Jacob contacted the rest of the new High Council and asked them to be at his office at one this afternoon. He then contacted Greg, Mike and Alan and asked them to be at his office at one as well.

Jacob got out a map of the United States and laid it out on the table; he took a marker and drew a line along the state of Texas right up to Canada. Then he went back and got his notes that he had written about the Federation. He placed them in a folder and laid it on the table. Then he went outside and walked to the wooded line of the property. Jacob shifted to his wolf form and started running on the path that led to the mountains.

Jacob had not run for more than a month and he felt good during the run. He ran to the water falls that were on the territory. Jacob ran full out for over four hours and ended back at his house. He went up stairs and took a shower and dressed he grabbed a quick bite to eat before the council arrived. Jacob sat at his chair and took out some paper and drew a map of the unused part of the territory.

The Councilmen showed up as asked along with Greg, Mike and Alan. Jacob welcomed them and had them sit down. "The reason I called you here is to start to set up the Federation. I have made the hiring of the three people for the office. I have them typing out a letter to be sent to all the packs, also working on getting the bank accounts set up. Also I have a map here on the table the black line I have drawn is where we have packs that have joined the Federation. West of that line all belong to the Western Alliance. Now the first thing we need to do is convince JR Juarez to end this war. If he does not want to do that then I want a plan to put it the Western Alliance out of business.

"How do we do that Jacob?" asked Aaron Smith.

"We have some options open to us; one would be to convince the packs that have joined his Alliance to join the Federation. Another would be to send in enough of our people to defeat him or we could just try talking, diplomacy. I have a feeling the only thing that is going to work with him is going to be sending in our people and defeating him and unfortunately that is going to mean a loss of some of our people."

"I think your right Jacob." Said Ron Marsh.

"I'll try to take care of this JR thing but I need you all to work on getting this Federation running smoothly. As the chairman of the High Council I intend to run it like I would run my pack. I run a loose pack so to speak, I take care of the day to day operations, but I assign tasks to my people and give them a deadline to finish it. If they don't finish it on time then they answer to me. I expect no less from you, and being that we are all Alpha's of our own packs I don't see this as a problem.

I think the first thing that we need to do is find a permanent home for the Federation. Thinking about everything we want to do we are going to need somewhere around twenty thousand acres to build all the buildings and training grounds. What is the opinion of the council?"

"My first question is where would we get the money to purchase that kind of acreage? How would we maintain all of that?" asked Simon Monroe

"As for the money to purchase the land I have an idea about that. The maintenance of the whole facility would come funds that would be paid for the Academy."

"How much would they pay for the Academy? Asked Simon Monroe.

That is still to be determined; it would have to be a fee that is affordable yet high enough to support the Federation grounds. Also the money that packs pay to join the Federation, some of that would go to maintenance, but we are getting ahead of ourselves, we need to find the location, do any of you have any ideas?"

'We need to look at packs that have that kind of land that would be willing to sell or donate it to the Federation." said John Richards.

Jacob, you said you had an idea about this, what is your idea." Asked Ken Roberts.

"My pack has the land and that would require permanent placement of the Federation here in Reidsville. I will sell the land to the Federation for the price of one dollar under the condition that should the Federation fail the land reverts back to Reidsville. Take fifteen minutes and discuss it among yourselves and then we will reconvene and take a vote."

The fifteen minutes passed quickly and the High Council reconvened, Jacob had expected more questions but none came and the Council approved the location of the permanent location of the Federation here at Reidsville. The building plans were approved by the council and the establishment of the Rouge retrieval unit, the rouge rehabilitation unit, the training academy.

With all of the business being taken care of over the next six hours the High Council felt good that they had a good start and handle on the start of the new United Lycan Federation. Before adjourning Jacob said he had one more item of business.

"I want to introduce three members of my pack that I believe the Council should appoint to paid positions in the Federation. Gentlemen as I call your name please stand. The first is Alan Smyth I am going to nominate him as Superintendent of the Academy, the next is Mike Russell, I would like to appoint him a Dean of Academics, and finally Greg Jackson I would like to appoint him as Head of the Lycan Enforcement Department."

Jacob was surprised that there was no discussion about the appointments, they were all approved. Jacob tasked the Council with picking three members from their packs or other packs of Lycans they were aware to fill the positions provided on the openings they would have. The meeting broke up and would reconvene after supper to solve the war issue.

Mike, Alan and Greg walked over to Jacob and thanked him for the appointments. "You may not be thanking me once I give you what you will be doing to set all of this up. I can promise you there will be a lot of travel for awhile."

"To be in on the bottom floor of all of this is just a fantastic opportunity." Greg said.

Jacob walked to his office and returned with large packages for the each of them, "Here you go this is what you will be doing over the next six month to a year. That's all I have for now so I'll see you later."

The three were's left Jacob's house and headed for their own houses to start doing some heavy reading."

*****

JR was getting madder and madder by the minute. The truck with the guns was five hours late again, no one knew what had happened to them. The escorts had not checked in. It was as though they had fallen off of the earth. The only good thing that has happened recently was the defeat of the two of the four packs and the other two packs joining the Alliance.

JR called his Beta and his brother's together. He was going to go on the offensive when his Beta and brothers arrived he said, "We are going on the move. Miguel I want you to take a force of equal to Waco, Texas has; Rafael you take another force to Amarillo, and Dennis you take a force to El Paso. I want you to make sure they see you coming in on the buses and make them think you have a much superior force then you actually have. Make sure you match what they have for members. Tell them they have forty eight hours to decide if it's a no then tell them you will attack if it's a yes tell them they have that long to provide you with twenty five percent of their members to the fighting forces and the money. I believe they will contact Jacob Matthews and he will sent forces. That will leave his pack shorthanded and I will take all the rest of our forces and attack and destroy his pack."

"But how will taking just enough to match what they have make Matthews send more of his forces? Asked Miguel.

"Idiots, you take more buses than you need if you only need one bus you take 5 buses. If you need two buses for your force you take seven, got it?"

"I understand now. Sorry wasn't thinking."

The meeting came to an end and the three of them went to round up their forces. One they had them on the needed number of buses they each added five more to the total number. The trips to their respective packs would take anywhere from two to two and a half days.

JR loaded his force onto the buses. He was taking 20 bus loads of wolfs with him a total of one thousand werewolf's. He knew there was no way that they could match his number in force, he would easily defeat Matthews. JR's phone rang and to his surprise it was Matthews on the line. "JR this is Jacob Matthews, I would really like to talk with you concerning this war."

"There is really nothing to say, you can surrender or I'll just kick your ass."

"Why does it have to be this way? Why don't we talk and try to settle our differences? I really don't see that we have to have any more loss of our People."

"You should have thought of that before you murdered my old Alpha. Then you came out and destroyed my pack, now you want to talk, forget it Matthews, the only way this is going to end is one of us is going to die and I fully intend that to be you." JR hung up the phone.

"What happened Babe?" Dawn asked.

"JR just wouldn't talk, he is hell bent on my death. I can see the only way to put an end to this war is to fight him."

"Where do you want to fight him?"

"I don't want to do it here."

"So do you think you will head back to California?"

"Damn, he is on his way here."

"How do you know that?"

"It just dawned on me, it sounded like he was in some type of car or something but I just recognized the sound, he is on a bus."

Jacob picked up the phone and called his Beta's together. Ben, Scott and Tim arrived in less than fifteen minutes, Jacob had sounded concerned to them.

When the three of them arrived Jacob had them come in and have a seat at the table. "Thanks for coming; I believe we are getting ready to have some visitors."

"What? Who?" asked Tim

"I believe that JR and the Western Alliance are on the way here."

"No you really don't think he would be that stupid? Do you?"

"It's just a gut feeling and yes I think he would be that stupid. I want patrols out starting tonight. I want to make sure we have all four sides of the territory covered. Get me a count of how many Lycans we have here. I want to be ready for him. Ben I want you to set all the trip wires, I want the logs and spikes set so they will take out his forces not ours, provide the Alpha's with a copy of the maps showing the traps. I want them to be on our side of the traps."

The rain started falling early that afternoon the temperature's had been falling all day and it was going to drop below freezing over overnight and remain cold for the next several days. Jacob would have the advantage if an attack occurred if there was ice covering the ground.

Tim watched as the buses pulled into the area that had been the old Vampire brood's home. The territory now belonged to the Reidsville pack. Bus after bus pulled and unloaded, Tim had counted twenty buses in all. Tim sent Billy Timmons back to Jacob with the information about the buses. He had estimated that there were a thousand wolfs in the force.

When Billy arrived at Jacob's house he knocked on the door and before he could turn the door knob, Dawn opened it. "Billy what can I do for you?"

"Tim sent me to report to Jacob, I have some really important information for him."

"Come on in, he is meeting with the High Council, go right to him."

Billy walked over to Jacob, seeing all the Alpha's as the High Council, Billy was very nervous. Jacob looked up from his notes to see Billy standing there and seeing he was nervous he said, "Yes Billy what is it?"

"Jacob, Tim sent me to report that twenty buses pulled into the old broods land and he is estimating there are close to a thousand Lycans."

"Damn it, thanks you Billy you can go now."

Jacob addressed the Council and told them that he needed to oversee the defense set up of his pack and asked the Council to continue to work on getting thins set up for the Federation. Jacob walked out of his house and shifted to his wolf form and headed for Tim's position. When he spotted Tim he shifted back to his human form and asked Tim for an update.

"It looks like there is a attack force here, I am estimating close to a thousand Lycans there, it appears to be several Beta's in the group. I have seen one that may be the Alpha. I've only seen him once though he is staying in the first bus to the right. They have sent out several groups of three and they have headed in all directions making notes about the territory. I have sent two of our people to track the scouts they have sent out. I have told them to stay out of sight of their scouts. I want to know what they are planning."

"Sounds like you have everything under control. I want a briefing if anything changes or when your patrols check back in."

"Will do Jacob."

"Try to stay dry and warm."

Jacob left Tim's vantage point and headed on his own tour of the territory boundaries. The route he was taken was not a trail but it let him see what his people were doing to set up the traps. Jacob was pleased at what he was seeing. He headed back to his house. Just as he reached the park area near his house he spotted Mark coming in with the guns he had taken. Mark was taking them to the same place he had stashed the first truck load.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN

JR didn't like the weather, the rain was cold and the temperatures were falling, the local weather was calling for the rain to change over to freezing rain tonight. That would make for a dangerous time for an attack. It would also make for a good time to attack as he doubted first that they knew he was here and the conditions would be the same for both sides that left his element of surprise. JR wanted his force to be ready to attack at two in the morning.

Most of his forces were sleeping in the buses to stay out of the weather; they were keeping the buses running so the heat would be on in the bus. JR wanted every advantage he could get.

The first of his patrols checked back in and they reported there was nothing out of order. Everything looked and seemed normal. The rest of his patrols checked in over the next hour and all reported the same. He had them switch out with other were's that were on the buses. Though there was some grumbling the were's changed and went out again.

JR looked at his watch and read that the time was six pm. All of his people had eaten and were catching naps so they would be wide awake for the attack tonight. JR had heard from his brothers and all the threats had been made and that they were planning their attacks tonight as well. JR told his brothers that he was going to attack at two in the morning. He was concerned about the weather, a large ice storm had moved into the area.

Midnight arrived and JR had his Beta's gather and the force split into one of the four groups they were assigned to. JR went over the plan one more time with the Beta's and said to them "Remember no one attacks before two."

The attacks on the three Texas packs started at eleven that night, they wanted the word to get to Jacob that they were under attack before JR attacked the Reidsville pack. He hoped that it would distract Jacob enough to force him to make mistakes, by having some of his attention on the Texas packs.

The Amarillo pack was keeping a eye out for anything strange and they noticed the buses that had rolled into the area, they sent out patrols and found that their territory was being scouted by other Lycans, The Amarillo took time to notify the other packs in Texas and they all were ready for the attacks.

Miguel led his attack on Amarillo; he was surprised to find strong resistance against his force. He lost almost a quarter of his crew in the initial attack. Miguel's force was finally making advances against the Amarillo pack but he had lost a lot of his force. When he reached the edge of the living area he ordered his forces to push forward and destroy the pack. They were surprised to find a line of Wolfs between them and the living area.

Because of the loses he had suffered the line of wolfs outnumbered his force almost two to one. Miguel ordered his force to attack and he made a dash for the Alpha's house, not one wolf tried to stop Miguel. Miguel burst into the Alpha's house and he found himself facing the Alpha. THE Alpha didn't waste anytime. He leaped at Miguel and slashed a long furrow in the left flank of Miguel. He tried to counter the Alpha's attack but couldn't get out of the way.

The Alpha went past Miguel but turned quickly and sank his fangs into Miguel's left hind leg. The pain made Miguel let out a howl of pain. The Alpha kept up the pressure on Miguel and finally sank his fangs into the side of Miguel's neck. The Alpha shook his head back and forth tearing a large gash from Miguel's neck. Miguel knew he was done for, he looked for a way to escape the Alpha but found no way out. The Alpha kept attacking Miguel. The Alpha grabbed Miguel by the underside of his neck and made a final bite on Miguel. Miguel finally laid down he had nothing left in him to fight. The Alpha sent for his medical personnel but before she could arrive Miguel had died.

The attacks on the two other Texas packs went about the same. Total destruction of the attacking forces happened with both Rafael and Dennis being killed.

Had JR known what had happened in Texas he might have not ordered his attack. At two AM JR ordered his forces to attack, as they advanced JR watched from an outcropping where he could see all of his forces. As the forces moved into Reidsville territory they started to hit the trip wires and the traps we being deployed. By the time they had moved a hundred yards into the territory the forces had lost almost half of their Lycans. The Alphas of each attacking pack made the decision to sit and surrender. JR was screaming at them to keep up the attack. The Alpha's in the forces couldn't hear JR but it would not have mattered they were thru with this war, to many of their kind had been destroyed.

Jacob had watched the lone man on the outcropping over looking his territory. He shifted to his wolf form and started to run to the spot where JR was standing. When he reached the outcropping JR was in his wolf form running to the buses. He ran right into one of the buses and slammed the door. Jacob tried to reach him before he go to the bus. The door slammed shut just as Jacob reached the bus. He shifted to his human form and yelled at JR, "Come on out you yellow bellied wolf, face me like a true Alpha."

JR shifted back to his human form and told the bus driver to get the bus moving. Jacob yelled to JR, "run if you want but you don't have anywhere to go. The Grand Canyon has closed their doors to you. Your own pack has been destroyed your brothers are all dead your last Beta is dead. It's over JR now come on out."

"Matthews I may have lost this time but I will never surrender and I will come back strong and kick your ass."

The bus started to move and Jacob shifted to his wolf form to follow the bus. When the bus hit the highway it picked up speed and Jacob could not keep up. He stopped and watched as the bus pulled away from him. Jacob turned and trotted back to his pack.

JR instructed the bus driver to head towards New York once we reach New York JR told the driver that he would let him know where to go.

Tim, Scott and Mark brought in all of the were's that surrendered and they were held in the packs park area. The Reidsville pack surrounded the park so no of them could escape. Mark started to go to Jacob's house and he spotted Jacob trotting back towards them. Jacob shifted back to human form as Mark approached him.

Mark said, "We have all the Lycans that surrendered and we want to know what you want to do with them

"Bring me any Alpha's and Beta's that are with the group, They may not want to let us know that they are an Alpha or a Beta but tell them I just want to talk with them. Bring them to my office.

Mark walked back to the park and in a few minutes he had four Alphas and twelve Beta's following him to Jacobs house.

When they arrived Jacob invited them into his house and offered them seats at his table, he offered them drinks, which they all refused.

"What do you want us for?" one of the Alpha's asked.

"Based upon you all surrendering I will take it to say you no longer want any part of this war."

The prisoners all looked at each other and the Alpha that asked the question spoke again and said "You could say that is correct."

"Look lets be straight about this, I didn't want any part of this war. It was thrust on me by JR Juarez. Do you still want it to go on?"

They all looked at each other and all said at the same time "NO."

"Ok here is my offer; you are all free to go. Take your people with you I am offering your packs membership in the new United Lycan Federation. If you accept I'll pay your way home if you don't you walk out the gate and you are one your own. Any of the Lycans out there that do not belong to your packs can stay here until I can get in contact with their packs. I'll have you escorted back to the park where you will have two hours to make up your minds or contact your packs and bring me back an answer for them. Mark take them back to the park."

Mark took the group of Alpha's and Beta's back to the park and they rejoined the rest of the prisoners. The Beta's started calling their packs almost the moment they returned to the park. The Alpha's joined together in a group and they began discussing their offer from Matthew's. It took the Alpha's less then fifteen minutes to accept the offer from Matthew's. One of the Alpha's found Mark and told him they had an answer for his Alpha. Mark took the Alpha's back to see Jacob and they gave him their answer that they would join the new Federation.. Between them they had two hundred fifty of the remaining four hundred Lycans that Jacob was holding.

"Provide my Beta with all the names of your pack members that you have here and I will have them get plane or bus tickets to get you and your yours back to your pack."

Mark took care of getting all the names and where their packs were, he then got with Martha, Sally and Cindy, together the three females made the reservations and paid for the travel back to the packs,

Jacob walked out to the park to see how the prisoners were nine of the twelve Beta's walked over to Jacob once he had entered the park. The nine Beta's all told Jacob they had contacted their Alpha's and they had all agreed to join the Federation. The nine Beta's had all but seventy five of the remaining Lycans being held. The remaining seventy five belonged to twenty different packs. Jacob gave the same speech to the remaining seventy five but gave them 3 days to talk with their Alpha's and give him an answer. Jacob had Tim get their information and make arrangements to go to their home packs.

Jacob went back to his office and called all of the other members of the High Council and asked them if they could be there at eight in the morning. When Jacob walked out of the office and headed to the kitchen to get a bite to eat when Cindy and Sally came out of their offices. "Hay Jacob you need to see this log."

"What's up."

"I don't know about Cindy but I have taken over one hundred calls from packs wanting to join the Federation."

"I've taken close to one hundred and I'm starting to get calls from Europe wanting to know more about the Federation.

There was a knock at the door. Jacob opened the door and there was a truck driver standing there and he said "I have a delivery for Jacob Matthew's."

"I'm Jacob what kind of delivery?"

"I don't know I was told to deliver a truck load to you."

Jacob walked outside and there was a large box truck and the driver opened the back and it was loaded with all the files and books from the previous High Council. Jacob called Tim and told him he needed some help and to bring twenty more with him. When Tim got to Jacobs house he had twenty were's with him. Jacob told Tim to have them unload the truck and to put everything in the basement storeroom.

Jacob went to the basement after the truck had been unloaded and he started opening boxes. After the first few boxes he called Dawn and had her get Sally, Cindy and Martha down stairs. The five of them spent until three in the morning going thru the boxes, Jacob took three boxes he had repacked and took them to the meeting room. He took each box and emptied it on the table. He placed the contents of each box where each of the members of the High Council would be able to reach it. It was close to five in the morning and Jacob saw no sense in trying to get any sleep before the meeting of the High Council.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The High Council meeting started at eight sharp. "I'm not going to keep you very long today I know you are all ready to get home to your packs. The items on the table before you are what the old High Council sent to me and arrived last night. In front of you are the laws the old High Council tried to implement, I reviewed them last night and some are good and some are bad. It is up to us to decide which one if any we want to implement for the Federation."

"I thought there would be a lot more." Said Keith Jenson.

"Jacob laughed and said, "The basement is packed full of boxes, but what I brought up is what I thought is the most important. At our meeting next month I want to be able to have the Federation fully in operation. As of last night we have had almost two hundred of the three hundred known packs in the United States wanting to become members. I want this to become a reality, when a pack joins they agree to follow all the laws of the Federation. I think the most important thing is that each pack continues to run as the Alpha wishes to run his pack. The only time the Federation interferes is if the pack has broken the laws of the Federation. I think all of the laws that the old High Council had should be adopted as our starting point. The one most important laws is the keeping of our existence a secret. Let's not forget that we were almost hunted to extinction before. Let's make that the only thing that can be punished by death is if any Lycan reveals our existence unnecessarily and intentionally."

All of the members of the High Council agreed to keep all of the laws that the old High Council had in effect. They approved the location of the headquarters of the Federation on the land that the Reidsville will sell to the Federation. They also agreed to this council holding their position on the council for two years. After that new elections will be held and each council member will hold the office for a period of four years. The High Council broke from it meeting for the day and would meet again in one month.

Jacob went outside to his back deck and looked over his territory. The whole picture was going to change over the next year. He was giving up a section of his territory to start the new United Lycan Federation. He had been named to the High Council and then made the Chairman. Jacob never wanted any of the things that had been coming his way over the last few years. But it happened and he would do the best he could. He would make the Federation the best thing he could make it.

Dawn walked out and looked at Jacob and said "Penny for your thoughts."

"Just thinking about all that has happened over the last couple of years. So much has happened and it has happened so fast. I don't want to let anyone down."

"Jacob Matthew's you listen to me! In my life time I have only met two Lycans that could handle everything that has come your way. My father is one and you're the other. Your are a wonderful mate, a great father and great Alpha, now you're going to be a great leader of the Federation. I am so proud of you and so proud to have you as my mate."

Jacob pulled Dawn to him and kissed her deeply, he hugged her and said, "Thank you babe, you're the best. Babe, I need to get together with your father, Mike and Greg. I have to get something going for the Federation and to do that I need to talk with the three of them."

"I'll' see you later babe and you better be ready." Dawn smiled as she walked away.

Jacob called Mike, Alan, Ben and Greg and asked them to come over to his house. The three of them arrived at Jacobs house with their mates. Jacob told them to have a seat on the back deck.

"There is a cooler of beer on the deck help yourself and I'll be right out." Jacob walked over to the females and said "You five and not going to sit around and have a tea party, I want the four of you to set up and plan a party for the pack. I want the party to be a bash to thank the pack for all the support they have given to me and for all they have sacrificed for the pack." Jacob turned and walked to the back deck to join the men.

"Thanks for coming, I need to talk about the Federation with you four. I want the academy set up and running as soon as possible. Ben I know you don't have a roll in the academy in its self but I want you to get Asheville back up and running before the High Council's meeting next month. Until the academy and the rest of the complex is finished, I am going to use Asheville as the headquarters for the Federation. Set Sally up with an office there that has a direct line back here. She is going to need to stay in direct contact with Cindy and Martha for all the administrative things she will be doing for the Federation"

"Jacob I'll take care of it, I'll make sure that all the rooms are ready and that there will be things for the High Council's families to do while they are here."

"That works for me Ben, thanks."

"Mike and Alan, I need for you two to put your heads together and come up with a set of plans for the buildings and the lay out you want for the academy. I need it on my desk by the end of the week, I want construction to start as soon as possible. I would like to have everything done by next summer."

"Tall order Jacob." Alan said

I know but that is why I picked all of you for the jobs, you all know how to get things done. This is really important to me, so do the best you can."

"You can count on us Jacob." Mike said.

"Now for you Greg, I want you to contact the packs that have already joined the Federation and ask for one Lycan from each pack. You tell them the he better be one bad ass. He will most likely be involved in a lot of fights in bringing in rouges and solving problems, so he better be pretty smart. He should be a single were due to the amount of travel that will be involved. Once the complex is completed I want them to relocate here until we can get satellite offices set up. I want you to start training next week. I want the first enforcers ready to go by the end of the month. I have a binder on the table inside that will give you some guidance on how to go about setting up the training them."

"I'll do the best I can Jacob."

"Mike I also want you to set up what I consider one of the most important jobs. I'll call it the liars club or the damage control section. I want Lycans who are basically liars and damn good ones. Anytime there is an incident that exposes our community they will come up with a story that covers what has happened and have a plausible story to keep the existence of the Lycan world a secret from humans."

"Damn Jacob is there anything you haven't thought about for the Federation?" Mike said laughing.

"I'm trying, but there will be a lot more as we move forward. Now that all of that is out of the way let's just sit back and enjoy our beer and spend our last days of peace and quiet."

Jacob's phone rang and when he answered it the caller identified himself as the Alpha of the pack in Ramapo, NY. Jacob asked him how he could help him and the Alpha responded, "I have a rouge that has showed up in this area and he is starting to cause a lot of problems, I have been able to determine his name is JR but I don't have a last name."

"Thanks for calling I know who he is and I will take care of it."

Jacob called Greg and had him come to his house right away. When Greg arrived Jacob said, " I have a job for you as the head of the rouge unit. I want you to take four members of our pack and go to Ramapo, NY., you are to bring JR Juarez back here, I want him alive."

"What if he refuses to come here quietly?"

"Do what it takes but bring him back alive."

"Anything you say Jacob, we will take care of it."

Greg left Jacob's house and called Mark and four other were's and told them of the job. He repeated what Jacob had said about bringing JR in alive. He was going to make the reservations and told them to be ready to leave on short notice. Greg called all the airlines and they would be flying out in three hours. Greg called his crew and passed the flight info to them and told them to meet at his house in half an hour. They flew into New York and rented to cars and headed for Ramapo, NY., The hour drive was made in relative silence. They checked into a motel and would go the pack in the morning.

*****

JR had the bus driver take Interstate eighty seven, they took the exit to Ramapo and once in the town of Ramapo, JR had the driver stop and he got off the bus. He directed the driver to take the bus to Canada and dump it. Once JR was sure the bus was gone he headed for the Ramapo pack to find his cousin.

Once JR reached the pack territory he found his cousin's house and went to the door and knocked. Roberto his cousin answered the door and was shocked to see JR standing there.

"JR what are you doing here?"

"Roberto I've come for a visit. I haven't seen you in a long time."

"JR you're not welcome here, I left you and that life I use to live a long time ago."

"Now is that anyway to great your cousin?"

Roberto closed the door in JR's face, Anger grew in JR and he opened the door and walked in. He went right to Roberto and spun him around and said, "You will welcome me to your house or you will die you worthless piece of shit."

"What do you want JR?"

"It's very simple I am going to take over this pack."

"I think my Alpha will have something to say about that."

"Believe me he won't have much to say at all."

"What are you planning?"

"Simple I am going to challenge your Alpha for the right to lead this pack."

Roberto was now worried that there would be nothing he could do to get rid of JR. He had to find some way to stop him, He knew in a fight he was no match for him, He decided he would warn his Alpha. JR spent the next two days going around the pack and tried to drum up support for himself and to discredit the Alpha. Roberto had warned his Alpha and his Alpha had put in a call to the new Federation. JR would call out the Alpha at least twice a day to fight him but Chad Brown the Alpha of Ramapo had ignored the challenges.

JR walked to the center of the packs territory at noon on the fourth day and challenged the Alpha again. Chad knew he would have to answer the challenge this time or be branded a coward and be forced to leave the pack in disgrace. Chad walked out of his house and headed to the center of pack territory. Just as he reached the center JR shifted to wolf form and leaped into the air, he covered almost half the distance between them when out of know where another wolf hit JR in the air and the two of them tumbled to the ground. The second wolf grabbed JR by the rear leg and bit down hard. JR heard the bone snap in his hind leg and felt the sharp pain of a broken bone.

JR got to his feet to see what had hit him and spotted the other wolf coming at him in a dead run. The charging wolf leaped into the air and before JR could do anything he was hit again and knocked to the ground by the powerful wolf. Before JR could react the second wolf bit down hard on the front leg of JR, again the leg broke. JR was now totally handicapped and unable to fight the wolf. JR rolled onto his back and submitted to the wolf. JR shifted to his human form and yelled out "who are you?"

The second wolf changed to his human form and JR yelled "no it can't be."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Greg, Mark and the three others from Reidsville arrived in Ramapo and went straight to the packs territory. They had just pulled in when Greg spotted JR and what appeared to be an older man walking up to meet him, Greg said "Ah hell no I'm not going to let that happen," and slammed on the brakes and threw the car into park Greg jumped out of the car and took off at a fast run when he spotted the shimmer of JR changing to a wolf. Greg shifted to his wolf form on the run and leaped just as JR leaped at the old man.

The two wolfs rolled over and Greg kept the pressure on JR, Greg's bit down hard on both JR's front leg and hind leg causing both legs to break. The loss of both legs would not allow JR to continue to fight and he rolled over and submitted to Greg. When both wolfs shifted back to their human forms JR was shocked to see Greg standing there. Mark and the three other were's from Reidsville tied up JR and put him in the back of Greg's rental car. JR howled at the pain from the two broken legs as he was being put into the car. Broken legs are not a big deal for the Lycan as with their healing powers the legs would be just fine by the time they reached Reidsville.

Greg walked over to the older Lycan and said, "I'm Greg Simpson from the Reidsville pack, I assume that you are the Alpha?"

"Yes sir I'm Chad Brown."

"Nice to meet you Chad. Sorry we cut it so close on getting here."

"Who sent you?"

"My Alpha Jacob Matthews sent us up here we are from the Federation and we are a rouge retrieval unit.. He said he received a call from you about JR and that he was causing trouble for you up here."

"Well it's nice to see this new Federation is working already."

"Jacob is trying to get everything running as soon as possible."

"What's going to happen to him?" pointing at JR.

"He will face the new High Council and be given the opportunity to try rehabilitation and join another pack or he may face death, I'm not sure how the new laws read yet."

"If I had my way I would kill him and be done and over with it."

"I understand where you are coming from. He has caused a lot of trouble the last few weeks. I think we are going to get going it's a long drive back to Reidsville."

"Can I offer you anything before you hit the road?"

"Thank you but no I want to get him back."

"You tell Mr. Matthews that I sent my heartfelt thanks to him and the Federation."

"I will do that and thanks for letting us know about JR and calling us."

Greg told Mark and the others to load up and hit the road for Reidsville. The trip back to Reidsville was uneventful. JR did not try to cause any trouble during the trip, he road either looking out the window or sleeping. When Greg pulled into the Reidsville territory he drove to Jacob's house, he pulled up to the parking spot and got out of the car. He opened the back door and the two were's that rode in the back seat with JR got out of the car. Greg reached in and roughly pulled JR out of the car just as Jacob walked out of the house.

"Here he is Jacob, what would you like for me to do with him?"

"Bring him into my office."

Greg and Mark escorted JR into Jacob's and Jacob noticed that JR was walking with a limp. "What happened to him?"

"Just as we drove into the Ramapo territory he attacked the Alpha up there. I intercepted him and during the fight I broke one of his hind legs and one of his front legs."

Jacob looked at JR and said, "What's your story about what happened?"

JR glared at Jacob and said, "Fuck you I don't have anything to say to you."

"Look JR, I brought you here to see if you could be rehabilitated and rejoin a pack as a productive member. I believe that can happen if you want it to. If you don't then we can look at punishment for attacking and killing the Lycans you did during the stupid war of yours."

"I don't want any part of you or your rehabilitation I did what I did and I will do it again."

"Greg lock him up where we held the vampire, and I want two guards around the clock. I'll need to talk to the rest of the High Council about him."

"Will do and I'll take care of setting up a rotation of guards."

Greg and Mark took JR and locked him in the room where Montgomery the vampire had been held. Greg had two of the were's that had made the trip take the first shift guarding and them made calls to other Lycans in the pack to inform them of the schedule for guarding JR.

JR looked around the room they had put him in. He was hoping. He knew that there had to be a better way.

to find a way to get out and escape to somewhere they couldn't find him. Everything in the room was either bolted down or built so there was no way to get out. There were no windows and only a metal door that served as the only way out. JR sat on the cot that would serve as his bed knowing he would never see freedom again.

Jacob started making calls to the members of the High Council and explained to each of them about what happened in New York and about his capture. He told them that he was holding JR at his pack. He received the same response from each member. They all wanted him put to death for his crimes against the Lycan community. Jacob was saddened by the response by the members of the High Council. He didn't want to put another Lycan to death.

Jacob walked to his kitchen and got a beer and walked out to his deck. He sat in one of the deck chairs and tried to think what he could do about JR without killing him. He really wanted to try the rehabilitation program he wanted to set up. JR was dead set against even trying it, Jacob looked out over his territory and wondered what would have happened had he attacked his pack. As he thought about that he became angry, he needed to decide what to do with JR.

"What's up babe?" Dawn asked as she walked over to Jacob and put her arms around his neck.

"Just thinking about what needs to be done with JR and thinking about everything that needs to be done to get this Federation running right."

"I kind of thought that you just seemed to be a little lost about everything. You really haven't had any time to yourself."

"No not lost just worried about it all."

"Well I want to relax you a little and make you happy and give you something else to think about."

"What's that babe?"

"You're going to be a daddy again I'm pregnant."

Jacob jumped up and shouted "What, are you kidding, That makes me so happy."

"I knew it would make you happy."

"When did you find out?"

"This morning, I haven't been feeling the best so I went to see Becky and she confirmed it this morning."

"Oh wow, I'll get someone to come in and take over preparing our meals and doing everything you do as the Alpha's mate, you can just supervise."

"No you won't, I can still do it for a while and I have enough help from the females in the pack, anyone else would just get in the way."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, also mom and dad are coming over for dinner tonight and I'm going to tell them then, until then I don't want anyone else to know."

"Ok I can keep my mouth shut until then."

Jacob knew right then what he needed to do with JR, he would offer him a chance at a honorable death in allowing him to fight for his freedom, a fight to the death. Jacob would offer JR his choice of fighting either himself, or Greg if Greg wanted to do it, if not then he would fight JR himself.

Alan, Helen Mike and Sandy all arrived at six for dinner, they all sat around the table and filled their plates with food. As they were eating Dawn told her mom and dad that she had some news and told them about her being pregnant. Helen dropped her fork onto the plate and jumped up and ran to Dawn and hugged her.

"I had a feeling you were pregnant. You just have that glow." Helen said.

"How do you feel about it Jacob?" Alan asked.

"I am totally excited about it, I have been dying to tell everyone but Dawn made me keep my mouth shut until she told you two."

"I'm so happy for the both of you." Alan said.

"I'm going to tell the pack tomorrow morning" Jacob said.

"That works for all of me." Dawn said.

The six of them retired to the back deck and chatted about the new pup, Chuck and the new Federation. Alan and Helen both told Jacob how proud they were of Jacob and how well he not only handled the pack but the adversity that had happened, as well as the formation of the of the new Federation. Mike told Jacob that what Alan and Helen said went for him and Sandy as well.

"Alan, Helen that means a lot to me, all I ever wanted to do was start a pack and settle down. Things have happened that have not only not let me settle down but have pushed me into a position that I never dreamed would happen, but it has happened and with the support of my family I will make it all happen and do the best job at it that I can."

"Babe you know that we all support you and I will be the best Alpha's mate that there ever was."

"I know babe, now let's enjoy the rest of the night and celebrate our new pup."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Jacob woke the next morning feeling elated over the thought that he was going to be a dad again, but at the same time he was not looking forward to dealing with JR. Jacob went into the kitchen to find that Dawn had already had coffee ready and was cooking his breakfast. After Jacob finished his breakfast he called Greg and had him come to his office. When Greg arrived Jacob had him take a seat.

"Greg I have something to ask you."

"What is it Jacob?"

"The High Council has decided that JR has to die, I have decided to at least allow him to die like a Lycan. You and JR have a history together and not a very good one. I want to know if you would want to fight JR in a fight to the death. When I say that I mean to his death."

"I would love a chance to get my hands on him, I wanted to finish him off in New York but you said you wanted him brought back alive."

"I'll give you that chance. I will be waiting in the wings if for some reason he kills you."

"Believe me Jacob that won't happen, we fought once before and if it wasn't for one of his brothers I would have killed him then."

"I wasn't aware of that. What happened?"

"He tried to rape Holly, I caught him trying and we fought but his brother blindsided me and JR got away."

"Ok then today at noon is when it will take place, out at the lake."

"I'll be there."

Greg left Jacob's and went home, he told Holly about the fight that was going to happen today. Holly was upset that he had agreed to fight JR, but Greg assured her that this time there would not be any interference from anyone this time.

Jacob called Mark and had him meet him at JR's room. Jacob also called Ben, Tim and Scott. When they all arrived Jacob opened the door and walked into JR's holding cell.

"JR I want you to know I tried to give you the chance to become a productive member of the Lycan community. You refused that chance, I spoke with the other members of the High Council and they all said to put you to death. I decided to allow you to at least let you die like a Lycan and fight to the death. That will happen today at noon."

"You can kiss my ass Matthews, I'll have no part of any circus trying to put me to death."

"No circus, just you and Greg in a fight to the death."

"No, no way is that going to happen."

"Don't make this harder than it needs to be, your other option is to fight me."

JR made up his mind right then and there, he shifted to his wolf and jumped at Jacob. Jacob spotted the start of the shimmer indicating that JR was going to shift and he shifted to his wolf form, as Jacob was changing he started to step to his right and when JR jumped he missed Jacob with his full force. He caught Jacob with his claws tearing a long gash along Jacob's left side. JR tried to stop and turn but the slippery floor caused JR to slide and he crashed into Mark. Jacob turned and saw JR sink his teeth into Mark's arm. Blood flowed from the wound on Mark's arm and JR shook his head and tore a strip of flesh from Mark.

Jacob leaped at JR and crashed into causing him to lose his grip on Mark's arm. Jacob sank his fangs into JR's back and tore a large chunk of flesh and fur from JR. Jacob kept on biting JR and fur was flying in all directions. JR managed to turn and gram Jacob's leg in his mouth and he clamped his jaw down hard on Jacob. Jacob felt JR's teeth hit the bone on his leg and he howled from the pain. Jacob was able to bite on the back of JR's neck and Jacob shook his head violently and tore a large chunk of flesh from the back of JR's neck. Blood spurted out the back of JR's neck and covered Jacob's face.

JR felt a sudden weakness come over him, the blood from his neck wound was pouring out. Jacob happened to bite into the main artery that fed the brain. JR knew he would not make it much longer. He tried to turn and bite JR but he could not move. JR let out a howl and laid down on the floor. The blood was pouring all over the floor. Jacob shifted to his human form and looked down at JR and stood there watching him as he closed his eyes and died.

Jacob looked at Mark and told him to go and see Becky and get medical attention for his arm. He instructed his remaining Beta's to take JR's body and burn it. Ben looked at Jacob and told him, "You have some pretty bad wounds yourself, you need to g see Becky yourself."

Jacob looked over his body and found several bad bites and deep furrows that JR had inflicted on Jacob. "Your right I'll head over there now."

Mark and Jacob walked into the infirmary and Becky looked at the two of them and said, "my lord what in the world happened to you two?"

"Just a small problem that needed to be taken care of."

"Jacob come over and sit here."

"Becky take care of Mark first, my wounds can wait."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure."

"Ok Mark take the seat."

Becky stitched up Marks arm and then took care of Jacob with several places that needed stitches. Both of them would be just fine in a few days. The two of them left the infirmary and returned to their homes.

When Jacob walked into his house Dawn spotted the bandages and asked, "What in the world happened to you?"

"Not much I had a small run in with JR."

"I hope he is in worse shape than you are."

"I would say he is as he is not longer with us, I was forced into a fight and I had to kill him."

Dawn and Jacob's phone started to ring with other members of the pack calling to see if Jacob was going to be all right. The word had spread throughout the pack about the fight and of Jacob killing JR. Dawn and Jacob assured every caller that he was just fine. They also told every caller to spread the word that there would be a meeting at the park at six PM that evening.

The pack assembled in the park and Jacob, Dawn, Mike, Alan, Helen and Sandy all walked up onto the stage. Jacob stepped up to the microphone and thanked everyone for coming.

"I have two announcements for the pack this evening the first one is the war with the western alliance is over. JR Juarez, the Alpha of the western alliance was captured and returned to Reidsville two days ago. This morning judgment was passed by the High Council. On him. I went to deliver the news to him and he attacked one of our Beta's and then me. I was forced to fight him and in turn I was forced to take his live.

The second item of news that I have for you is the we will soon have another addition to the pack. Dawn is pregnant and we will be having a pup soon."

The pack yelled and cheered at that announcement. Jacob thanked everyone for the congratulations and held up his hand to quiet the pack down.

"I really have one more item, as you all know the United Lycan Federation has become a reality and that its headquarters will be located adjacent to our packs territory. I have sold a large track of land to the Federation and construction will be starting tomorrow on all of their buildings. What many of you may not know is that I was selected to be on the High Council and then picked as the chairman of the council. I want you all to know that this in no way will affect my duties to each and every one of you as your Alpha."

The cheers went up again and Jacob was feeling a little embarrassed. He turned and looked at Dawn and smiled. He reached over and took Dawn and Chuck by their hands and walked them to the front of the stage. They all waved and left the stage and returned home. Jacob spent the remainder of the evening playing with Chuck and sitting and cuddling with Dawn.

The next morning Jacob met with Mike and Alan about the construction on the buildings for the Federation. Mike informed Jacob that he was ready to start the construction and Alan agreed that he too was ready. Jacob told them he would call the construction company and see how soon they could start. He also told them he want construction completed by spring. Alan and Mike both said they would make sure of the completion by then.

Mike and Alan left and Jacob called the construction company and asked them how soon they could start. They told Jacob that they had all the permits that were required and that they could start whenever they were ready. Jacob told them they could start any time. The owner of the construction company told Jacob that they would start first thing in the morning.

Jacob called the other members of the High Council and told them the news that construction was going to be started tomorrow and that he hoped to have everything completed by spring. The members all like the sound of that.

The next four months passed by quickly, Jacob would walk over to the Federation construction site, he would talk with Mike or Alan and he was pleased with the progress that was being made. Mike and Alan were pushing the foreman to complete the job ahead of schedule. The plan was to be ready by April and it would be a full month ahead of the date they had asked for. Mike and Alan got with Jacob and the foreman and they set the opening for the next week.

Jacob returned to his office and instructed Cindy and Sally to contact every Alpha of the packs that had joined the Federation and invite them and their families to the unveiling of the new headquarters of the Federation. Tell them they would be staying either in Asheville or at the dorm rooms at the Academy.

The day arrived for the opening of the new Federation Compound. The offices were already set up and Sally and Cindy had already moved their offices into the headquarters building and they made sure that the offices for the members of the High Council were all set up as well as Jacob's office. All of the boxes that had been stored at Jacob's house had been moved to the new building. The first classes would start the following week for the Academy. Everything was going smoothly for the opening.

All of the Alpha's that could attend were there along with most of their families and they had already been given tours of the complex. Jacob stepped up to the microphone and started to speak.

"Today is a great day for the Lycan community, After the first Lycan war the High Council was established to govern the way we ran our packs with a lot of leeway to run them as we all saw fit, yet to be a none interfering governing body. We saw that it didn't work very well but it did lay the foundation for the Federation. Today we open not only a central location for the High Council but we have an Academy to teach our younger members what it means to be a Lycan as well as other classes for educating our people to become enforcers for rouge retrieval to the many other positions that we will have within the Federation. As we move forward into the future of our community we welcome the new and bright beginning for the Federation. If anyone is interested in one of the openings that the Federation has there is a list of openings on the back wall and sitting on the table back there are applications for the openings. Please fill one out and turn it into one of the two females sitting in the back and your application will be reviewed and you will be contacted if you are picked to fill the opening. If you are not selected for the position you want you may be contacted for another position. Now please feel free to tour the complex or enjoy the food that has been provided for you by the Reidsville pack."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and grew up in Pinellas Park, Florida. I joined the Navy at 17 and retired after completing 20 years of active service. I served aboard 5 different ships, most of them home ported in San Diego, Ca., the last one being the USS Reid, which fired the first shots of the first Persian Gulf war. After my military career I move to Mt. Pulaski, Illinois where I worked for Bridgestone/Firestone Tires in one of their manufacturing plants, I retired from Firestone. I moved to Charlotte, NC and returned to the work force with Continental Tires, at one of their manufacturing plants. I'm retired today devoting my time to writing and traveling I have been married to my wonderful wife Angel for 10 years we have 3 daughters and 1 son and 8 grand children.

If you like this book please leave a review at the site you downloaded it from. Good reviews or bad I read them all (I hope it is a good one though), the reviews are a good way for me to make my writing better. I am in the process of building a web site where links can be found to my other books

