Thawing of the Ice

Chapter 4 - Demands

Eventually they arrived at the gate to Ice Lake. Adam poked his head out, "Alpha Adam and Brook." He said shortly. He was feeling a little cranky from the long drive. Brook had refused to let him take many Photo-Stops.

"Sir!" The guard said jumping to action, "You are expected! Straight up the road." He said as he opened the gate.

Closing the window, "Jess, I'm going to give you lists of members and of tasks to do, as we will need to have a bunch up here soon." Adam said.

"Yes, dad." She replied, switching her e-reader to being a notepad.

"First, from what I can see, we will need Chris, and full gear to survey and generate a sensor and surveillance network, Rudy to do up a design and to oversee the securing of the entry way. I could have driven right through that gate without stopping." Adam rattled off, before they had even made it to the packhouse, "Also, this road needs to be re-done." He commented, as they had to go slow over the washouts and potholes, and were bounced around lots. As the packhouse came into view, "Add Annie to do a full inspection, and will need Robin or Lea to pick a couple techs to get the tech ready." He could see several issues, including the roof looking like it needed to be redone.

Pulling to a stop at the front door, Alex was there to greet them. Parking the vehicle, Adam let Charlie, Apollo, and Athena out to work out their kinks, before stepping up to Alex, and looking him over, "I'm Adam, and this is my mate, Brook. Jess is one of our adopted children. Brook is holding our first daughter, Tala." He said their introduction.

Alex nodded, "Alpha, welcome to Ice Lake," He indicated to the pretty young woman beside him, "This is my mate Summer Song. If you'd like, we can go inside. I know it doesn't look like much, but this is how I found it when I got here. Zane did his best to get the central areas fixed but with all the other work there wasn't much time."

Adam smiled and him and Brook gave them both a good hug and locked their scent in their mind, "I am noticing it, and will have our building inspector come out, to make sure there isn't any major problems with the building, and make a list of everything that needs to be done."

The adults dodged back slightly as about a dozen, half-naked pups came hurtling out of the house, heading for the nearby lake.

Adam smiled as the pups ran out the door. "It's nice some are enjoying themselves." He commented. They hadn't even noticed who was there, or they would have stopped.

Alex laughed, "Those are only a few of the pups we have here, after taking a full census of our numbers... I don't know how this is going to work." He sighed and seem to relax as his mate hugged him warmly. "The only reason that I've managed to keep things here at least somewhat stable, is because of my mate."

Adam nodded as they entered the office, "How many wolves do you have?"

Alex picked up a piece of paper and looked at it, "As of my checks two weeks ago, we have five hundred and seventy-two wolves, what is worse is that of those we only have one Second, and no Alpha ranks. The second also doesn't want to work with me, so I am letting him step down to a Beta as soon as I have someone to relieve him, since with Alpha Zane not here, I am having to try to do his duties."

Adam and Brook's jaws dropped, "Five Hundred and seventy-two?" Adam echoed. At Alex's nod, Adam blinked and pulled off his pack. Pulling out his laptop, he noticed there was only a basic network, and there was a warning about it not being secure, he shook his head and pulled out his secure satellite uplink, and connected it.

Connecting back to his PC at Wild Valley, he mumbled to himself too quietly for others to understand, and quickly sent a priority message to Mark asking for permission for them to take over their old territory, as they had way too many wolves for one pack; more than four hundred, and you started having issues with control. That probably was part of why Zane's headache lasted so long.