“I’m sorry to disturb you Alpha, but unfortunately, this can’t wait.” Justice lifted his head when his brother and first beta, Alek, came through the door and went straight for the remote control to turn on the television in the den of cabin where he was staying.

If you look behind me, you can see all the mayhem and chaos. It’s a nightmare. Shifters and vampires fighting in the middle of the street. Pedestrians are afraid to walk through here to get to their residences. Businesses are closing early out of fear.

Justice rubbed his hand across his forehead while he listened to the news anchorwoman over-dramatize the events. The recording was on a loop. There were five wolves and three vampires posturing behind her. Between the way the vampires moved with lightning fast speed and the intimidating growls of the wolves, it was understandable humans would be frightened.

“When was this?” Justice asked.

“Last night. The wolves are still in holding cells in Carson City.”

“Send a few pack leaders to get them, please.” Justice kept his anger to himself. It was a rancid odor no shifter liked to smell. When his brother didn’t respond, Justice looked up from his desk. His brother was almost as tall as him at six feet two. Justice’s hair wasn’t as curly as his brother’s and his eyes were an astonishing shade of arctic blue, while Alek’s eyes were a shade paler. A trait passed down from the original pack of Siberian wolves they were descended from. His brother looked uncomfortable. “Spit it out, Alek.”

“The governor of Nevada is requesting to see you personally. He won’t release the shifters to anyone else.” Alek rolled his eyes. “I tried to reason with the man, but he’s being a bit difficult. I told him you were extremely busy, Alpha.”

“This is crazy. I can’t go to Nevada right now. I’m still working with the Secretary of State on getting them to approve our new registration system.”

“It looks like we have no choice. The mayor is threatening to get the National Guard involved.” Alek shook his head sadly when Justice’s head shot up in surprise.

“The National Guard? Alek?” Justice lifted his nose and scented. His brother wasn’t being dishonest, but he wasn’t telling him the whole truth, either.

Alek sighed, knowing he was busted, and opened a thick manila envelope that Justice had paid little attention to. “This is the print-out of attacks and incidents involving shifters and vampires reported in Nevada in just the last eight months.”

Justice growled, making his brother struggle against his energy. His brothers Alek, Macauley, and Taleb were all very strong alphas, but none held an ounce of the power that Justice had. He was careful to lock down his strength when he was around other shifters. Especially alphas. It could make their wolves anxious to feel pushed. Justice took a calming breath.

“All of that happened in only eight months? Why didn’t I know about this?” Justice stood to his full height.

“I put one of the pack leaders in charge of Nevada and—”

Justice cut his brother off. “Never mind, I just called a meeting.” Justice was able to communicate with all the shifters telepathically. Some were a bit rebellious and would put up blockers or have witches cast spells to protect their thoughts, but if Justice really wanted to exert his full power, none of those things would keep him out. “We need to get this resolved. If it gets reported to the National Guard that I have lost control of the shifters, then the government will try to take them from me. Lock them in cages for years for even the slightest infraction.”

“This could start a war, Alpha,” his brother said seriously.

There was no way they could face another war. It’d been over two hundred years since the last one. It was still used as a teaching tool on what not to do. Whether between shifters, vampires or humans, if they fought, the casualties would be too great on all sides for any species to call it a victory.

“But you want to meet now, when we’re here visiting on another pack’s land? We should not talk politics here, Justice.” His brother continued to voice his concerns as a couple members of his pack came into the room.

“They’re far enough away and enjoying the celebration too much to hear us. Justice raised his nose and took a couple deep inhales. He smelled no one around except the ones he’d summoned – his immediate circle.

Justice pointed to the long conference table next to the patio door and gestured for his pack to take a seat. Justice sat at the head, letting his large frame sink down in the chair. The accommodations while he was visiting the Black Mountain Pack had been top of the line. He was used to packs going out of their way to receive him when he visited. Either for business or pleasure. He refused to stay in hotels. There was no way that his wolf would handle that. He had to be free to shift and roam. He also couldn’t connect with his wolves if he was in the city, twelve stories up.

He and his pack were staying in a newly renovated building their hosts used for guests and as a recreation center for the pups. It smelled like a good pack. That’s why Justice was there. To congratulate the Black Mountain alpha on obtaining an associate’s degree in architecture from the College of the Sequoias.

It was a major accomplishment for a shifter to even attend and complete public grade school, let alone graduate from a college. Justice was one of very few wolves that had a master’s degree. He and his pack had implemented education programs and scholarships all over the country for shifters who wanted to continue with schooling. Many of the older wolves and those on the shifter council didn’t like this kind of change; they still preferred the pups to be homeschooled or taught only by shifters until maturity and then taught a trade to strengthen the pack.

The fact of the matter was, times were changing and packs had to keep up or they were going to get run over or run off. Educating shifters gave them the tools they needed to bring back and help bolster the pack. Shifters still lived off the land. There were a few wolves that chose to live in the city or burbs surrounded by finery and things that operated at the touch of a button. They were called lazy wolves.

“Is everything okay, Alpha?” his sister, Farica, asked him. She eyed him cautiously and quickly pushed positive emotions in his direction. Justice released a soothing breath. His sister was an enigma to most. She was an alpha, but her name meant tranquil leader so she didn’t flex her position. She sat down fourth, before all the pack leaders. His three brothers, his betas, sat before her. Justice’s security taking up position around the room.

“I know this was supposed to be a pleasure trip, the kind that are few and far between for us, but I’m afraid we will have to cut this one short.” Justice ran his hand over his jet-black, wavy hair. “I’ve just got word that there was a damaging disturbance in Nevada. While it wasn’t catastrophic, this is the one that broke the camel’s back. The governor has had it with wild shifters and temperamental vampires.”

“Josiah was on Nevada’s case?” The third oldest brother, Mac, said, his deep voice resounding around the huge room. “Speak up.”

A man standing close to the door with a yellow legal pad in his hand slowly stepped forward. The stench of fear rolled off him. Justice needed a few of the members allowed in his personal pack to be a functional administrative pack as well as wolf warriors. As the leader of all the shifters in the United States, Alpha of the Alphas, he had to have capable wolves to help him keep track of and control over one hundred and fifty thousand shifters.

Justice was one of the youngest Alpha Zeniths in history. When his mother was killed by hunters, his father had resigned early to live his days alone without his mate. Justice had no choice as oldest male in the original pack – descendant of the first Dawn-wolf – to take his official title.

“Alpha.” Josiah addressed Justice’s brother by his birth-earned title. “I’ve been there and disciplined several wolves myself. Carson City has one of the heaviest populations of shifters and vampires. I tried to—”

“Why do you have to get involved personally?” Their sister leaned forward, her body language showing her concern but her face as beautiful and serene as always. “You don’t handle infractions. They wouldn’t ask the President of the United States to come handle a few rowdy criminals.”

Justice crossed his arms over his chest as he walked around the large conference table, lightly touching each of them as he passed. His touch was an extreme comfort to any wolf. “True. But this governor is well aware of shifter/human politics. He knows I’m working hard to keep the government from demanding national shifter registries or regulating our population. We can’t let the humans build shifter prisons. But I can’t battle the laws of their land when our shifters keep breaking them with no consequence.”

“You’ve done your best to negotiate and compromise, Justice.” Another one of his pack leaders spoke up. “You’ve built five shifter prisons with shifter funds. Funds that were taken away from schools and the building program Farica worked on for months.”

“I know you made a tough decision, Justice, to delay that program. You had no choice. If you hadn’t built the prisons, then the humans would’ve. No wolf should be confined to a cage the size of a kennel. They shouldn’t be allowed to shift and run only on the full moon like we live in some sort of Werewolf in Paris movie. Shifters need to shift and run regularly, some even daily.”

His sister’s words were emotive and full of truth. Justice did hate postponing her program, which would’ve provided shelter for lone wolves that were kicked out of their pack or had run away from abusive alphas. That had not left Justice with any positive points remaining with the shifter council or packs across the country. He wished his shifters would understand that everything he did, he did for them. It wasn’t easy battling those crooked officials in the state’s capitol. They felt they ruled the world. But Justice knew the law. His master’s in constitutional law from William and Mary had served him and his packs well.

He filed all the necessary injunctions, motions, affidavits, petitions and every other legal document he could think of to stop the government from railroading them. The world had known about shifters and vampires for almost ten years now. Things started off rather amicably. Not too many protests from the humans, and law enforcement was content that crime levels didn’t spike due to prejudices. They didn’t become hunted. Shifters were already used to staying hidden and keeping to themselves, and vampires were the usual elusive bastards they always were. Kind of an out of sight, out of mind thing for the humans. 

Like all things. Life evolved. Shifters got brave – especially the teenagers – and ventured out into the cities and clubs. Flexing their muscles and showing off their advanced abilities. For the most part, as long as the shifters weren’t aggressive and didn’t freak humans out by shifting in public, then humans relaxed and everyone got along. There were even a few reported instances of shifters making rescues and saving lives. Of course, the wolves could do nothing without the vampires rising up and trying to outshine them. Hence their bite. The humans discovered it and the nation went insane. Not only did a vampire’s bite – the elixir in their fangs – feel so good it could make an impotent man orgasm on the spot, but some could even heal an illness with their bite, so Justice had heard.

Life was good back then, and Justice’s father’s job was not difficult. Packs thrived and were happy. His father would show up to functions, ceremonial celebrations, and visit packs for support. There wasn’t the constant problem-solving Justice had to deal with. His mother said it’s why she named him truthful and powerful ruler. That he’d one day have great tasks to complete and thousands would lean on him. “Fate has a way of working things out,” she’d always say.

As more years passed and more vampires came from overseas, the natural rivalry between shifter and vampire flared like dying embers catching a gust of oxygen and raging back to existence. No matter how often he’d sent his enforcers and pack leaders out to police the rowdy bunches that disturbed the streets, it still seemed to be getting out of hand. There’d been incidents of innocents getting caught in the crossfire, businesses suffering or being targeted for refusing to serve customers they thought were shifter or vampire. Once the hate and bigotry start, history indicates, an uprising usually follows. Justice couldn’t allow that. The shifters that were causing trouble needed to be dealt with swiftly, so more didn’t follow their pattern of behavior.

“We’re going to go to Nevada and have sit-downs with their officials. Let’s see if we can cool their tempers. We don’t want the Guard involved, which is completely unnecessary.”

“AZ.” Using Justice’s nickname, the pack leader responsible for Nevada spoke up, but the look on his face said he really didn’t want to have to say this. “The shifters that were arrested… two of them tried to resist arrest.”

“What?” Justice gasped. This couldn’t be good. He looked at the faces in the shifters’ mugshots spread across the gleaming mahogany table in front of his seat. They looked young and afraid.

“Yes. And an officer was killed when the wolf shifted to get out of the handcuffs.”

“Oh no.” Justice dropped back down in his chair. This was terrible. A weaker, less powerful human. Vulnerable to their strengths. An officer of the law, killed in the line of duty… by a shifter. Because of a frivolous feud with vampires. No wonder the Governor was requesting him personally. The people wanted answers… they wanted justice.

“This wasn’t in the report I got,” Alek growled, sitting next to Justice. “We were not informed of any deaths.”

“It just came in. The officer died of his injuries two hours ago. The state has charged all six shifters with first-degree murder, malicious wounding, assault with intent and about five other charges against an officer of the law.” The man closed his folder. “I understand if I’m removed from this case, Alpha.”

Justice didn’t want to get back up; his heart was heavy for the cop who’d died. Had he had a family? Oh, dear Mother? What’s happening? Justice’s emotions were jumbled and he felt empathy like no one else because of who he was. His chest hurt for the dead cop and his wolf wanted to console its pack. Justice could sense the discord in his reprimanded pack member. Could feel the young man’s genuine sorrow and disappointment in himself for dropping the ball and directly affecting his alphas. His wolf was cowering inside him. Justice walked up to the young man and crowded in close to him. He didn’t scent him with his face – that was too intimate – instead he used the back of his hand and brushed it gently across the man’s scruffy cheek, causing him to cast his eyes down and tilt his neck for more. Justice comforted the man’s wolf until it was satisfied his alpha wasn’t upset with him.

“Brother. I don’t think they are going to release the wolves to you. This is the first time any law enforcement agency has officially charged one of our kind. Our shifters have never been in their penal systems. How are they even processing them? Will they have official criminal records? They sent us mugshots. What do you think this means?” Alek asked Justice.

Justice’s youngest, but not smallest brother, Taleb, finally gave his input after listening carefully. He was named after a seeker. He was an intellectual with a bachelor’s in philosophy. “This is new territory we have to explore expeditiously. We’ll have to get there and get our answers. We’re learning nothing sitting here asking each other questions.” He looked back at a couple of Justice’s assistants standing a few feet from his chair. “Make the arrangements immediately. See if there are any packs that can house us. Check with Mikel, the Humboldt pack alpha first.”

“Yes, sir.” One of them nodded in answer.

“I’ll need to have a conference call with the council as well. I’d like to get their advice on this.” Justice looked around at his small pack.

“They hardly agree with your suggestions, Justice. Their ways are so archaic. If we keep it up, the humans will have control over us in no time. Everyone will blame you, Justice, even though the council keeps trying to tie your hands,” Alek said sternly. Talking about the council was dangerous. Nosy ears and gossipers would love to have that piece of juiciness to report.

“I’m not going to let them take us over. I’ll file motions to have the shifters released to my custody. I’ll escort them to the shifter restraint facilities personally,” Justice declared.

“They think our jails are a joke, Justice,” Alek said.

“Why, because there are no metal cells, or because the shifter isn’t in a six by eight concrete room? They hate our correctional system because our offenders don’t have to stay in isolation for 20 years to life. That’s torture to a shifter. The humans don’t torture their prisoners, why should we torture ours? A human can stay behind bars for fifty years and not go insane… or so they think,” Farica said gently, but her words were true and influential.

“They want you to keep rogue wolves incarcerated longer, Justice. Six months is a slap on the wrist in the human correctional system,” Taleb said, as he steepled his fingers while in thought. “You’ve already explained in your petition to the Supreme Court that shifters are too tactile to be kept away from companionship for years. It increases the risk of them turning feral. We don’t even want to think about feral wolves coming back into existence. Fact of the matter is, Justice, you’re going to have to set a hard example now. You are one of the most compassionate and understanding Alpha Zeniths ever to lead, but you’ll have to exert your power sometime, brother.”

Justice nodded. His brother was right. All the demanding work he and his pack had done to protect the wolves of this country; he would not let a few disobedient ones condemn their entire population.

“Brother, what if the shifters that are in police custody cause more problems? What if they try to escape and hurt more people?” Farica asked, her baby blue eyes scanning all her brothers for answers.

Justice raised one hand and closed his eyes. No one spoke. He could feel the room around him shrink from his mind while he concentrated on six particular shifters. He was connected to all of them, but hopefully they weren’t trying to block him. He gave his shifters free reign over their thoughts. If they didn’t want Justice in, he wasn’t a tyrant, he didn’t force his way in. Justice finally reached their minds. They were so afraid, all of them. They needed structure, regulation and guidance. They needed an Alpha. Justice reached out to his wolves.

“I’m coming. Behave until I arrive.”

He could feel more than hear their surprised gasps and fearful reactions. Justice released a breath and opened his eyes. “They’ll behave. Alek, please request the Black Mountain Alpha’s presence. I’ll let him know myself that we have to leave due to unforeseen circumstances.”

“This pack has been nothing but hospitable these past two days; perhaps we can have a short run with them before we get on the road. I’m sure the pack would appreciate a run with you. We came to congratulate them, not put a damper on their celebration.” Alek was already walking towards the door. “While your pack is preparing the vehicles for transport you can stretch your wolf.”

“Agreed,” Justice rumbled and stood to see everyone out of the large room. His pack was thirty strong now. Only his most trusted family and confidants could join. It was a hardworking pack and they all had important jobs to do. His three brothers and his sister were his councilors. The rest were pack leaders, enforcers, and support staff. He didn’t always travel with his entire pack, but he concentrated better when he had them close.