Chapter 108
After what happened in the first war, everyone was terrified to go to the next. Lucien understood as much.
So what was the point of forcing anyone to join the war? None. Even if he were to drag all those who were healthy and able to join the war, they would only serve as wolf shields at most. They had to be willing to fight for their pack.
“Those who are willing to join the war, please stay. The others, you can leave,” Lucien instructed.
The pack members were not willing to step forward to openly declare their willingness, but they were also not willing to be the first to go. No one wanted to be branded as the first coward to flee. They merely looked around and hoped that someone would make the first step so the others could follow.
Someone did make a step, but it was not to flee. It was to join the war.
Kendra Firemoon, Deacon’s Luna, stepped forward.
“I am willing to join the war.”
“Kendra, are you crazy???” Catherine Clearwater clawed at her daughter-in-law’s arm. “Do you want to lose your life???”
.....
Kendra shot Catherine a look.
“Until a new Alpha and a new Luna are appointed, I am still the Luna of this pack. I am not going to sit around while others do the job.”
Kendra turned to look at Lucien. “I should have been there to take charge over the pack after Deacon’s passing. Lucien had been kind enough to shoulder all the burden until now. Joining the war is the least I can do.”
It was only one person, but the one who spoke was the Luna. It meant a lot for the Clearwaters to have Kendra speak on their behalf.
“Thank you, Kendra,” Lucien said sincerely.
Alice Clearwater did not interact much with Kendra before, but this woman quickly won her heart just by joining the war. What a Luna! What a Queen!
Despite having barely recovered from losing a husband and suffering from miscarriage, Kendra was there to support Lucien. The pack members who still had one ounce of pride and shame in their blood naturally felt the urge to participate in the war.
The spirit of younger men and women was especially easy to rouse.
“I will join the war!”
“I will also join!”
“And me!”
“Me as well!”
Relief flooded Lucien’s heart as more and more werewolves agreed to join. He saw Catherine shake her head in disgust and leave the crowd. Some pack members followed her lead, but only those who were physically unable to participate. It was good enough.
“Lulu, we are going to a war!” Annalynne whispered to Lucien in excitement.
Lucien cracked a smile. “What is there to be happy about? Silly girl.”
After the initial hurrah, it was time to talk about group division and training.
The war participants were split into five groups altogether, led by the Luna Kendra, Beta Desmond, Gamma Acatha, Annalynne Clearwater, and Lucien himself. Each group would have one lead warrior to coordinate the warriors.
Gamma Acatha was in charge of pack members’ training. Lucien was pleased to hear that she had made sure that able pack members went through regular training to keep fit and prepare for an unwanted confrontation with other packs. Deacon never cared for all of that, unfortunately.
“This is the data containing the fitness level of each pack member,” Gamma Acatha said while showing Lucien the record that she kept updating for the past five years.
“Very good,” Lucien commented as he went through Gamma Acatha’s report. It was fairly detailed. Every pack member, minus Lucien, was recorded with their family background, their strengths and weaknesses, down to their battle preferences.
“Please handle the warrior distribution in each group with the Lead Warriors,” he then said, returning the report to Gamma Acatha. “Then we can determine which group goes under whose command.”
Gamma Acatha bowed deeply. “Yes, Alpha!”
Lucien was speechless but Gamma Acatha left as if she did not make any mistake in addressing him that way.
He turned to look at Kendra, who did not look as if she minded at all.
“It’s fine,” she said when she took note of the strange expression on Lucien’s face. “You are after all Gordon Clearwater’s son. You were also an Alpha candidate.”
“I lost that privilege,” Lucien reminded her.
“Now you have it again,” Kendra pointed out. She naturally referred to Landon’s return.
“We do need an Alpha for the war,” Beta Desmond agreed. “The official posts will be decided once we are done with the war.” Whatever the outcome was.
“Alright,” Lucien nodded. “Thank you all for your trust.”
Desmond and Kendra exchanged smiles before they looked at Lucien.
“Thank you too for leading the war.”
After the warrior distribution was done, the training began.
The war was to be conducted in their wolf form, so everyone was required to transform to participate in the training regime.
The first part was running, dashing, and jumping. All werewolves did it as soon as they reached the age of eighteen and were able to morph into their wolf form.
The second part was fighting. For this one, Gamma Acatha put the werewolves into various battle scenarios. One-on-one, two-on-one, and group-on-one. Those who were able to take on many wolves alone were the alpha wolves, but even they get overwhelmed when some of their opponents were also alpha wolves.
The third and last part was picking up tracks and sharpening senses. This was by far the most difficult part of the training because only alpha wolves were born with keen senses and sharp observation skills.
After joining the first and second parts for the whole morning and afternoon, the alpha wolves gathered after dinner to partake in the third part.