Unclaimed

Chapter Thirty- Sanctuary

Beau

I'm in my living room with Lewis the black smith, Cassie, and MaryAnne. All of them sitting with me in the living room as we talked pack affairs over a cup of coffee. Documents, admission papers, and every other file thrown out over my coffee table. This meeting was a mess.

MaryAnne had told me of a petition that's been going around the pack. A petition for an army that was being circulated by my own brother.

I'm going to have his head for this.

"Now I know what you're thinking!" Cassie says putting her cup down on the table in front of us. "It wasn't just your brothers idea. A few of the men down at the bar got rowdy when Harald Jefferson came up and started spreading the idea."

"It could be really amazing!" She says. "There's thousands of signatures already and they've even decided on a standard pack weapon."

"A what?" I ask bewildered, my face twisting in sheer confusion as I look to Cassie.

"A pack weapon is one weapon the entire packs uses. Of course there's variety amongst the soldiers but everyone is designated to learn on weapon we use together as a pack. The Aurial Pack uses swords, the Beureou pack is fond of axes. The Theroux pack uses Bo staffs,"

"I can't approve this, this is not-"

"Alpha," the black smith speaks up. Talking with a gravelly and tough British accent, you could tell this man had seen some shit. "This is a decision that's been made by the pack itself. They want to fight, they know the danger. They also know that you will try to stop them, which is why they're pushing so hard for it."

"He's right Beau." MaryAnne reaches over touching my knee. It's takes all my strength to not flinch away, I know she means well with the gesture.

"Alpha, everyday I'm getting more orders. Men coming into my shop asking for a scythe." Lewis says.

"Excuse me?"

"That's the weapon they chose." He hums. "Now I've got all these back orders. We've got more people coming every day looking for sanctuary, their homes being taken away by Harald's rogue attacks. There's more people every day that want to fight, that want blood."

"Ok this is ridiculous. I'm already dealing with a bunch of random admissions," I slap my hand on the fat pile of papers in front of me. "I still have a business to run, people need to get paid, mouths need to get fed-"

"Ok ok ok ok Beau relax." Cassie quickly moving to my side, rubbing my shoulders as I pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration.

It's not that I don't want to help these people, but I have no clear way of doing that.

"Lewis what exactly are you asking for?"

"It's the weapons being made, the people want them, but not in their homes. Many of my customers are parents, who don't want their tots looking at shiny sharp objects. We need a weapons barge." His tone is frank and I sigh in exasperation. Leaning back on the couch as my mind runs a mile a minute.

"The construction workers are already backed up and helping the new arrivals with their houses. They're pulling long hours, we can't over work them." MaryAnne says.

"We need to place restrictions on the people we let in." MaryAnne speaks up. "It's obvious the problem is that we are over capacity as a pack. We might need to start turning people away."

"This pack is miles away from any other pack on this continent and even the crown!" Lewis shouts angered at MaryAnne's proposal. "They are calling this the Haven pack, people are going out of their way, hundreds of miles out of their way to come here! For safety, for a home! Turning them away is just cruel!"