"That is all I'm going to say on this matter, Zachariah. You need to find at least one of the mollies here and begin to produce some children." The melodious voice that floated from the large chair in front of him, he could have recognized anywhere.
He was glad that he'd decided to show his respect from behind her receiving chair. That way his mother couldn't see the broad smile spread across his narrow, yet chiselled face.
"I'm sure Nathaniel or Phillip would be more than happy to do their part to increase our numbers."
"That is not the point, my son. You have not added your genetics to our gene pool." She stood from her chair and spun around to face him. "With only six males of our race left, this is something not to be taken lightly."
"And I don't, oh fearless leader." He rose from kneeling. "But I will not be used as a stud service for a bunch of horny mollies who just want their jollies and to get a kid out of it."
"Grrrrrrrr! Why do you have to be such a brat all, the time!"
He rose, stepped forward and embraced his mother. "Oh, I do love our little chats these days, and gee, you didn't even wait until I was five minutes in side. I feel so welcome."
"Zachariah, you know full well why I talk to you, thusly. I am feeling more and more pressure from the other mollies to get you to pick one of the young ones and produce offspring. I can only keep them away from you for so long."
"You're the queen of this house, your word is law." He dropped his voice so none of the guards would hear his next words. "And don't threaten me with those cats. You and they both know that none of them are a match for me. So you tell them that if any of them tries, she might not like how it ends." With a heavy sigh, Zach's mother pushed away from her son and walked towards the broad opening that served for a doorway inside the house.
"Onto business then, shall we?" She asked.
"Please do, anything is preferable to this."
"How did your mission go? Did you find the mutt in question?"
"Absolutely, and he sang like a canary once enough pressure was applied." They talked as they strolled through the huge house, passed room after room of different functions.
"Was it able to give you any useful information?"
"Information, yes, useful, doubtful. It's all on the flash drive."
"I'll take a look at it later, right now I have another assignment for you, as much as I'd like to keep you here."
"What is it, mother?" Zach asked, not wanting to be draw back into another one of those conversations.
"Fine." She shook her head in frustration. "We have reports of a mutt making noise up over near the Keweenaw peninsula. We just received this report two days ago, and it was made by one of our human contacts, so it might be nothing. But I believe it's worth investigating..."
"And since you know I can't stand it here, you decided to tell me about it." Zach leaned in to kiss his mother on the cheek. "Thanks mom." He was gone before she could say another word.
"What is wrong with that boy? His father wasn't nearly so picky."
* * * * *
Four days earlier
"Your father has need of you, my daughter." Why did her mother always speak to her in such formal terms?
"Mom, why do you always take to me like I'm one of the servants when we're around other pack members?" Zenah asked from across the table.
They both sat across from one another at one of the many tables within the communal dining facilities within the den.
"Because you are the daughter of our alpha. As such, I want to set the example for all of our wolves to follow."
"But mother, you're the alpha as well. If anything, I should be showing you the deference your station is due."
"That may be true, but like it or not, many of the males in our pack don't see it that way. If not for your father and the reforms he's pushed through you and I would still be in our rooms mending cloths and birthing pups."
Zanah shuddered, it was hard enough being the only daughter of one of the greatest alphas her pack had ever had. But to be the target of every hard up male in her pack, for well over a hundred years was beginning to get intolerable. Even her mother and father were starting to ask her when she would select a mate.
"Do you have any idea what he has need of that he would ask me into an audience?" She asked, wanting to change the subject.
"I have no idea. You know your father, he always plays things close to his marvelously hairy chest."
"Mom, please, I just finished eating." Zenah always teased her mother when she talked like that about her dad, but deep inside she was pleased that the two of them were still so happy with one another.
"Hey," her mother swatted her hand. "I'm only four hundred years old. I'm still young enough to admire your father's body and do a lot more than that." Her mother gave her a wink, pushed her chair back and stood.
Zenah grabbed her stomach. "Oh man, I think it's coming back up. Yep, I can feel it." She gave her mother a broad smile and stood with her.
"You'd better get going. It's a bad thing to keep your father waiting. I told him you'd be there after we were finished eating."
"Thanks mom." Zenah embraced her, planted a kiss on her cheek then strode for the door.
Minutes later she was bowing before her father, who was facing away from her, looking out the huge picture window in his study.
"I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you of all people here?" His deep baso rumbled through the room.
"It had crossed my mind, father." With her head bowed low her long straight black hair fell all around her head making it so she didn't see her father turn to face her.
"Rise my child, I have heard rumors of a new wolf prowling in the area near the base of the Keweenaw peninsula. These may just be rumors, we have no way to substantiate them. But if they are true, I need to know if they're there, and why they're there. The closest pack to us is all the way out in western north Dakota. If they've sent a scout into our territory, we need to know why."
"And you wanted me, why? To take this message to one of our warriors?" She kicked her toe into his desk, dropping her face back to the floor before he could see the anger there.
"Oh Zen, you sell yourself far too short. You are going to fulfill this for me. I have been watching you your entire life. There is no one in this den that matches you in stealth, no one." He walked to her, lifted her chin and continued. "I need you to do this for me. Stay out of sight, gather information and return to me safely that is all I ask."
"It will be done, father." Her face brightened. At last she'd been given an assignment. She could call herself a true warrior of the den.
"You must leave under cover of darkness, Zen. If the elders of this den were to know where you were going and why you were going there, there is a very good possibility they could revolt."
"But father, I am as powerful and fierce as any male here. I can hold my own against any of them. So why am I made to slink away in the night?" Her hands balled into fists and against she dropped her gaze.
"No daughter, you are not. Any of the males here could tear you in two in open combat. You simply do not have the strength they have." Her father could see his daughter begin to shake, her rage given physical form.
"That is why I am sending you on this mission. Most of our wolves are not, let's just say, subtle. Where you can move through the night like a shadow, they move through it like a bulldozer. I need answers, not more questions."
"But my skills are superior to any of them. I know I could hold my own if you would just let me spare them father."
"NO! I will not have my only daughter dying at the hand of one of her pack mates. What, you weigh maybe one hundred and ten pounds. Those men carry more weight than that on their frames in just muscle. If you do not want this task I'm sure someone else would love to take it from you."
"No father, I will not disappoint you." Zenah answered before turning and stormed out the door.
"See that you don't my daughter." He whispered as the door swung closed after her.
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