The Barbeque

My mom was in the kitchen getting things prepared for dinner while dad was making his way out to the backyard to get the grill ready for cooking. I sat at the table and asked my mom if there was anything that she would like me to do to help with getting dinner ready. She handed me a bowl full of green beans that needed to be snapped before they could be cooked for dinner. My mom had already made potato salad, biscuits, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and had even started making desserts. She told me that I could make brownies and possibly make up some cookies if I would like to. So I had April help me get the rest of the desserts ready. Just as we were finishing with the last of the cookies there was a knock on the door. April's parents had just arrived here for dinner.

Usually when we had a group of families come to the house it meant that there would be some kind of meeting in the mix. I never realized this morning that when my parents said they needed to have a discussion with me later that there would be a meeting tonight. Now the growing pit in my stomach was getting a lot worse. Something big has got to be going on with everything that is going on tonight with everyone coming over. I even expressed my concern with April and she agreed with me about something bigger was happening than we thought about earlier today.

Rhonda, April's mom, went straight into the kitchen to see my mom. "Caroline is there anything that I can do to help you get ready for dinner?" asked Rhonda. She was wandering around the kitchen looking to see if anything else needed to be done or if there was something she could do to help her dear friend. "Well I already had Alexis and April help with a few things that pretty much finished what needed to be done on my part for dinner." Caroline responded. They were flittering around in the kitchen talking about everything they had been doing lately. April's dad came into the kitchen asking where my dad was and what he could do to help dad. My mom responded, "he's out in the back yard getting things ready to barbeque but, he should be back inside in a few minutes because he forgot to take out his homemade rib rub for the meat." Before April's dad went to the back yard he went into the kitchen and grabbed the bowl of rib rub my dad already had made up and continued to the back yard to meet up with my dad.

My dad asked, "when did you get here Roger and is that the rib rub that I left inside?". "Malcolm I came out to help you with whatever you might need help with.". As our dads were out preparing the barbeque for dinner my mom asked us to get plates, napkins, and silverware out for everyone before the rest of the guests showed up. We had barely gotten everything ready when there started to be knocking on the door. By the time everyone showed up the house was full. A lot of the men went out to the backyard to hang out with dad.

Malcolm stood up and continued to ask, "Is everyone ready for this meeting to start since we have finally gotten done eating?" Much to my dismay I was not excused from this meeting like usually am and I'm not to happy about it. "We have had small scouting troops scouting out the different packs around us and to see what laws they have in their different packs. We have found one that does not go by the old ways when it comes to pack laws."

"Axel, Richard, Nico, Roman, and Leo have just gotten back from one of their scouts just a few days ago and read me in on the laws of this pack." "Alexis this is one of the reasons we had you sit in on this meeting." I started to object, "But dad this really has nothing to do with me since I'm happy here and want to stay right where I am and don't want to go anywhere.".

"We saw that couples were being treated like they were actual couples, they didn't treat the other she-wolves different than we do," Axel said. "We observed the younger she-wolves being trained as we train our young and they were never pushed to go to the different men's places as we've seen in other packs. They do not treat the unmarked females as slaves or for breeding purposes for pups," Ricard said after we had a slight pause.

Roman, Nico, and Leo thought we should send out more men and perhaps a few women to see if they were right about the pack. Even my father agreed with them and thought that it should happen sooner than later. I don't think we should try to change things since we've been able to live here for a long period of time and live happily here too. My father had obviously made a decision and I knew I wouldn't like it. I know he had taken his time to think about what to do next and finally decided what to do.

"Tonight we will be sending out another scouting party to this pack. This time my wife and myself will be going and a few of the other couples will be joining us," my dad directed. "Dad how could you do that without even telling me, what would I do without you and mom? My whole world feels like it is changing and I can't do anything about it, I can hardly breathe," I said as I was sobbing so hard that I doubt they can make out all of the words coming out of my mouth. My dad said that this wasn't the time to talk about this and I needed to take a break and catch my breath. He continued with the business of the rest of the meeting and they had all agreed to the scouting troops out to find out more about the pack in the morning. The name of the pack was the Mountain of the Moon pack. I really wish we could find a good pack but, with all the things that I had heard about packs it really does scare me that both my parents were going on the scouting trip.

As everyone left the house with their instructions on what was going on in the morning and who was going and what time they were all leaving the house quieted down. My parents decided it was time to have that discussion with me now that the barbeque and meeting was over. Now it was just the three of us the perfect time for their discussion they wanted to have with me.

Malcolm started on, "Alexis it is time that we try to find a pack for all of us. It is safer being in a pack then being on our own. This is going to be the only way that we can make sure that a bad pack doesn't get a hold of our she-wolves in our community and to keep you safe."

"Dad why can't someone else go to talk to the alpha instead of you? You and mom are all o have and I don't know what I will do if I lose the two of you. You two have been here for me my entire life and I can't think of any other way of living," Alexis said.

"Honey all the other families here look up to us to try and find a safe place for all of us to be able to live out our days in happiness. Our people feel like your dad is like the alpha of this group because he takes care of everyone and also makes sure that he keeps everyone safe." My mom, Caroline, said.

I cried out, "Why does it have to be both of you going and not just dad? At least I wouldn't be alone if something were to happen. I don't know how to be alone and don't want to learn to be alone." Alexis cried.

"Honey this is something that really needs to be done since this is the first time we have found a possibility of a good pack. We need to do what we can to try and make sure you guys have a great future and a good home. You need somewhere that will treat you she-wolves the way you need and should be treated. I've made this decision for you my dear daughter." my dad told me.

My mom looked at us and said it was time to go to bed cause we have an early morning coming up.