Chương 260: ABOUT FOUNT THE WARLOCK

The first part of the meeting, Dad requested an elder from each pack to report on our performance at our first patrol. It was just a patrol... What was there to report on? Plus, it seemed that Flynn and Hank had both emailed written reports earlier. They were absent with apologies. Flynn was spending the weekend with Macy's parents in another packland (was it Gold or something?) Hank was on patrol. Killion would take the minutes and attach their reports to it. It did make me wonder what we used to do before Ki.

But now that the admin details were settled, we could get down to the meeting. BETA LUCAS' REPORT Harvey, Nix, and I, accompanied by Flynn, took the route nearest to town last Sunday. Beta Lucas had assigned the route to us because it was one of the safest and shortest. It was also the first route assigned to most, if not all, newbies. Beta Lucas had to commend Nix for his impressive skills with trap checking and setting. Nix had shown skills beyond even the regular warriors.

He also commended us for fixing two of the traps, the first one so well that it caught our own warriors. (He was joking here; apparently, catching our own warriors in a trap wasn't recommended.) Our overall time had overshot the standard 30–45-minute route. But given the delays with the unkempt traps, it was an acceptable timing. In the future, he would advise us to report back to base about trap faults rather than try to fix them ourselves.

Beta Lucas concluded that it was a good patrol run, and considering that Harvey and Nix were both experienced in patrolling, it was also the expected result. Gamma Harry felt at this point that Beta Lucas had left out a very important point—that about letting the Alpha pull weeds. Yes, he was on about the bramble I pulled out again. He wanted to remind Harvey and Nix that last Sunday was not a normal patrol; they were patrolling with their Alpha.

The Alpha Duties was not just to expose us to the daily duties of various adult wolves, it was also to give us a chance to work on our leadership and team dynamics. The Alpha was the head, and must be treated with special respect. I'm not sure how he could sound so confident about this, since the head he was currently referring to had a pink unicorn on her lap. But if anyone felt that this was an issue, no one said it.

Harvey, being the good and polite beta that he was, bowed and thanked both Beta Lucas and Gamma Harry for their guidance and promised to keep their comments in mind and improve. GAMMA ENDO'S REPORT Now it was Gamma Endo's turn to review our performance at Morning Light today. He smirked.

"I only have a short review since only half the route was completed." I suppose it was too much to ask for him not to raise hackles with the way he spoke. The main challenge listening to him was usually not to take offense and start growling too loudly to hear what he was actually trying to say. According to Gamma Endo, he was honestly surprised that our boys had the basic trap check and set skills. They did "well enough for beginners, but could do with more practice, definitely more practice."

They acted like it was the first time they had ever worked with a trap. Beta Lucas looked surprised as well.

"Who taught you boys how to work the traps?" This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. He looked at Gamma Harry, who simply chuckled and shook his head.

"YouTube," Ben answered. Beta Gerald tutted in amazement.

"Our young generation never fails to impress me."

"We used to have to put in actual hard work to learn and teach," Gamma Endo smirked.

"Now these youngsters just watch videos." But if Ben learned how to work the traps the same way as he learned to play in a band, it would mean he had stayed up all night searching and watching and re-watching, and writing down notes and memorizing and going through each motion in his head to the very last detail, and then analyzing how to simplify and divide the parts between Jonah and himself so they wouldn't mess up. Ben simply leaned back on his chair, crossing his leg with a heel on his knee.

Gamma Endo continued his report.

"Well, as you probably already read in the report I emailed earlier, the patrol was interrupted by the appearance of Free Wolf pups and then subsequently cut short when Ben got shot and shifted." Ben looked a little more contrite about that.

"I found out more about the Free Wolves!" I said as Sir Sparklalot shot up in the air with my hand.

"Free Wolf pup today, rogue wolf tomorrow," Gamma Endo pointed out.

"They are in trouble." I told Dad, "I don't think they want to turn rogue. I get the feeling they are suffering from rogues even more than we are." I told Dad about the pups and the Lullaby they sang and their Fount's bright blue stone.

"Fount's stone is missing?" Dad asked. What? Why did that name sound familiar?

"Of course... that would explain it! Sam... Are you certain of the description of the stone?" Beta Lucas asked. I nodded.

"That's what the pups told me. Who is Fount?" Dad growled low.

"What should we do?" Fount was the warlock who gave Rebel's prophecy and was chased back to his home in the warlock lands by Alpha James. They used to be good friends. Fount enjoyed dropping by the Green Packlands to meet with Dad and the other Alphas. He particularly enjoyed intellectual debate. Fount was the warlock and master of the warlock lands. The rest of the land had a few human and wolf villages.

The wolf villages in Fount's land had no Alpha; they were free wolves—almost rogue except that they did have a master, Fount. Actually, didn't that make them the opposite of free? More like pet wolves? Anyway, Fount had an agreement with the wolves and humans on his land. He was the master. He lent them his land and protection; they provided his physical needs in the form of cooked food, clothing, house cleaning, errand running... Fount was actually a rather easygoing Master.

As long as his home was kept and he was free to pursue his love for knowledge and magic, the wolves and humans were indeed rather free to do as they thought best. At least this was what Dad understood based on their interactions in the past. Fount, like all warlocks, kept their powers in crystals. Warlocks had many stones, but only two stones which they would die for. Every warlock had a unique stone color. Fount's was light, bright blue, like a sunlit ocean.

The first stone was usually worn on their ear as an earring. This was a keystone that could control all the other stones. It also held some of the warlocks' personal power. The other stone would be a matching set to the keystone on their ear. It was called the heartstone, and its size was dependent on the warlock's inherited power. It contained the warlock's life force and was often worn around the warlock's neck if he were unmated. Fount had always been wearing his heartstone when he was in contact with my Dad.

Mated warlocks, however, wore their heartstone around their mates' necks. This kept their usually human female mates alive to match their own impossibly long life. It also marked her as his mate. As far as records in the plains showed, Warlocks were always male, and their only compatible mate species in this world were humans. Humans, the wildcards that could produce heirs with Warlocks, Vampires, or Lycan.

And as long as their mate wore the stone, the warlock could access the heartstone's power through the keystone. This was what Fount had explained to Dad long ago when my Dad had asked him. Dad had found Fount rather fascinating, his magic so different from our own Lycan type of magic. And Fount had given the info as thanks for what Dad advised him on dealing with the free wolves on his land. Fount had been worrying if the free wolves might one day rebel against him.

Dad had advised him to play his master role akin to the Alpha role. Of course, the free wolves were not bound to Fount naturally the way a pack wolf was bound to his Alpha, and Fount did not have Alpha command, or dominance, etc. But the free wolves had chosen to live on Fount's land and accepted him as master. Dad had met some of them before. It seemed that these wolves genuinely were happy to serve Fount in exchange for a peaceful and quiet life.

"Nothing but domesticated dogs," Gamma Endo said derisively. So the fact that rogues were getting to them and that they were looking for Fount's stone... Who knew what had happened? It had been more than a decade since Dad had met Fount or any of his free wolves... Well, aside from the ones who were caught running with the rogues. Dad frowned.

"It seems my old friend Fount is in some kind of trouble."