Marnie lets out a little squeak interrupting him. “You got to talk to the Alpha King?” Eyes wide at the thought.
“Uh, yeah. He stayed at the pack house so we had a couple interactions I kept my information brief and Gamma Brett looked at me with an eyebrow
raised. I usually like to talk about strategy, what he doesn’t understand is I like talking with people who understand what I ‘m talking about. Marnie is not one of those people.
I can at least say she shows up to training and does parts of the workouts, mostly stretching to get attention from the guys when she’s bent over suggestively, but there is no reason for her to be out here with us, she doesn’t like training, she doesn’t like to get dirty and she can’t shift yet.
Maybe that’s why she is with Gamma Brett and I. If something happens we can protect her and defend together, rather than her being a liability that would get everyone killed.
“Like I was saying, we will run one of seven different patterns that surround and cross the territory. It keeps the patrol schedules less predictable and we focus on the pack territory as a whole, not just the perimeter.”
We start jogging our portion of the perimeter, passing other teams on the way. Gamma Brett is keeping up a hushed commentary of what to look for without stopping our movement, giving us insights to basic tracking. Things I’ve studied in strategy and battle classes, but it is nice to put it to practice use.
“We are accomplishing a few things by patrolling. One is to scent the area so outside wolves know where the territory begins. Our situation is unique
because we are surrounded by water on three sides. Land based packs define their territory by scenting. There are several small islands between us
and the mainland and the mountains that run through the center of our area give us a good vantage point, but you can never be too careful. The mainland is only about a thirty to forty minute boat ride away on this side of our territory and not all the islands from here to there are inhabited,
several are considered part of the National park our territory is on and can’t be built on. That doesn’t stop people from using them as pit stops on the
way to us. The second reason is having teams overlap doesn’t give intruders much opportunity to pass through our patrol lines undetected. We are
also looking for any disturbance in the foliage. There aren’t many small animals that stay here since wolves are predators and they naturally steer
clear, so broken branches and leaves could mean a wolf passed through. Pups also can smell the stronger scent here and know that this is the end the territory and their boundary, it helps keep them safe if they wander off.”
We made it a whole 45 minutes before Marnie started asking when we are done and whining about leg cramps and being hungry and thirsty. It’s not
even five in the morning yet and we all run a five hour shift. We have four hours to go. I will strangle her myself if she whines the rest of the time.
“I didn’t thinkwe would be running the whole time or I would never have signed up to do this. And when I was told the Gamma would be my partner, I thought they meant Oliver.” She pouted with her lip out, not looking at Gamma Brett, knowing she probably offended him.
“What exactly did you think was? What did you think you were going to be doing Out here with Oliver? We’re here to protect our pack from unwanted
intruders, what did you expect?” I couldn’t help asking. Gamma Brett had to stifle a laugh.
“For sure not this. I thought we would be cuddled up monitoring some screens attached to security cameras or something. Kaley’s dad said Jeanie
and I would be safer with Mateo or Oliver and he would make sure we were all paired up with the best and the men would do the real work, we were just here to observe.”
Then I turned to Gamma Brett, “I didn’t realize we signed up for this, I thought everyone had to run patrols. And since when can we make requests or assignments?” I look back at Marnie. “And what is this crap about the men doing the real work? You just weren’t planning to be helpful at all?” She winced a little and I looked back at Gamma Brett.
