Part of the Promise (Book 3 in the 'Part of' Series)

Chapter 22 Pack Meeting

Chapter 22 Pack meeting

Karim's POV

The little creatures were being more annoying than they usually were. I've got a little soft spot for kids, people don't usually expect that of me, but this morning has been chaotic. Everyone, being myself, Emi and Harlow, were all woken up by some sort of make-shift air horn or something. I didn't know what it was but the result annoyed me too much to care.

"Come on Karim," Emi said to me. "It's just a little bit of fun," I shook my head and groaned. I liked my sleep. "You'll make the children sad." I looked up from where my head was resting on my arms and looked towards the children, who were poorly hiding grins behind sad faces and fake tears.

"You know what I think's fun?" I asked as I leaned forward in my seat. "Turning into a wolf and chasing rabbits in the forest for my tea." The children looked at each other in confusion. "I don't think I'll be going into the forest anytime soon, and the children are the smallest things for me to chase." The pups squealed and ran off. I grinned to myself.

"That wasn't mean at all," Emi said sarcastically. I rolled my eyes and put my head back onto my arms. "Don't be so grumpy." She groaned lightly and prodded my cheek. She was the next to be at the receiving end of my glare. "What're we going to do?"

"You know," I paused for a moment. "I feel like that's all we do. Talk about what's going to happen." Our moment was interrupted as Randall popped his head around the corner.

"We think we have an answer to that," he had a cheeky grin on his face. "Ralph's going to be telling us about something soon," he came further into the room. "It's got something to do with the packs that we reached out to." He sat down next to Emi.

"The kids scare you off?" She asked with a knowing smile. Randall widened his eyes and shook his head.

"Whatever would make you- yes." He sighed and his shoulders slumped. The two of them shared a laugh. "They're not going to stop the entire day, we've got to be careful." I shook my head and turned away from the two of them as they went into small talk that I couldn't stand.

Harlow and Aiden went back to their house. I didn't blame Harlow for wanting to spend every moment he could with his family, I felt like we had stolen him or something similar. When Randall left the room, I raised my eyebrow at Emi. "What?"

My eyebrow got even higher, it was starting to hurt a little bit and twitch so I had to rub it back to normal again. "You sure are getting close to him." Emi opened her mouth wide and nudged me harshly.

"You know I don't swing that way." I shook my head and chuckled.

"I never said that you did." I then pointed towards her. "You thinking that suggests you might be a pendulum." She gasped at me again before whacking me softly on the top of the head.

"Wh-this is a conversation for another time." She spoke loudly and stood up. "We're heading to the office. Come on." She grabbed my arm and yanked me behind her as we walked to Ralph's office again.

"We're here too often," a few chuckles came from the room as I spoke. I didn't know why the office was so big, all of the pack could fit in there a little uncomfortably. My expression quickly turned neutral as I looked towards Ralph.

"We got a response," he said slowly. Everyone seemed a little bit happier at those words. I tilted my head with confusion, Ralph didn't seem happy about it. "They're asking for our help." The smiles quickly vanished from everybody's faces.

"Our help?" Tempest gestured to the room with confusion. "Did they read our letter?" She had disbelief in ehr expression and her eyes were slightly wide.

"We don't have resources to spare," Beaumont nodded. "We can't spread ourselves too thin. What would the pups do? Where'd they go if we helped anyone else?" The questions then started to come from other parts of the room.

"What's going on over there?"

"Who wrote back?"

"Do we have to go somewhere?"

"Is it Travis?"

"How can we help if we can't help ourselves?"

I shut my eyes tightly as the noise became overwhelming, I took a deep breath in and let it out through my mouth. I looked around the room again, Hollis and Elowen had taken Aiden and Harlow home. It was becoming clear to me that everyone had their part of the pack, it was clear as day that some were missing. Elowen was a light hearted and sweet person, she would calm the room just by being in it. Hollis' humour would ease the tension. Emi and I were outsiders. I wasn't sure what she was feeling, but I felt like I didn't belong there. At least the pups didn't make me feel so outcasted.

"Listen," Ralph demanded. The noise immediately quietened. "They have the same issue as us, except they had no way of preparing for it." Silence still filled the room. "I don't know how we could help, How do you stop a human organisation which is planning to tear down the forest?"

The room remained silent. I gave a heavy sigh once again. "Show them there's people there," everyone's heads snapped towards me. "Not wolves, some people won't care for that. You can make it heartfelt. Even the company which Travis is a part of, they don't bow to Travis. He's just another worker who pointed out a plot of seemingly wild land."

"Why didn't we do that before?" Rhodes asked the room quietly.

"We've lived in the mansion for quite a few years." Emi nodded. "We know how the business works by now. Even when the petitions were working, people can relate more to people then they can wolves. So they had more sympathy."

"Somehow, I find that statement hard to believe for some people '' Randall commented as a bang came from the other side of the door. The room was once again met with silence.

"Not it." Chorused around the room, a few chuckles could be heard from outside.

"Think I'd rather go out the window." Moss groaned lightly.