Silver Moon - How much do we have to loose?

Chapter 8 - The Darkness

~~~ Maric and Nara

As with the others Maric was waiting for the winter solstice to come. Even though it had been years he was still getting used to the new pack house and location. Years ago, he'd decided they needed to change locations of his main pack and pack house. His former house wasn't far from Dan's territory and it made it difficult to manage his packs. After a great deal of negotiations, he'd swapped pack houses with one which was more central to the country.

He could have ordered them to move but it wouldn't have been right. This had been their pack house, where many of them had been born and raised. Before they'd changed houses, he'd ensured his old one was in the best shape possible. This one had needed some work, but it was mostly cosmetic which he could understand. The world was recovering, but a number of things had slipped when it came to maintaining houses. Which was more important? Putting food on the table or painting a house? Most people would say putting food on the table.

About the only people who could afford to maintain their houses and keep the small fixes done were the rich. If there was one thing he approved of was how Dan had handled it. He'd politely told the leaders of his country if they wasted the money he'd take over and run things. Considering he was fondling the grip of his sword they gotten the point. Considering he was playing with the hilt of his massive sword it definitely got their attention. It wasn't even mentioning the Katana and Wakizashi in the belt of his formal robes. Everyone had been hurting including the government. Money had been tight as had been food. Thankfully with their contacts the endless herds of buffalo had helped keep the people going. They had been well managed to keep from decimating them. Their wolves had worked with the natives to keep the herds from being destroyed by people from the East. If they were destroyed many more people would starve. As it was they lost a good portion of the population.

Most had been the very young and the very old. Between the loss of the young men, and even some women during the wars and then the resulting loss it had been hard. In some cases, the various people had to pick someone way younger or way older if they wanted a family. Thankfully the last few years things had started to even out. Births had started to increase, and the age disparity was leveling out.

He finally stood and walked over to the window where Nara was and had to smile, "I think our pups are driving the pup supervisor crazy." They were very active nine-year old's. They had one other pup not including Dan's. They'd moved on and started their own packs. After the end of the war most countries had expanded towards the east so there was room for more wolves. It had been a defensive reaction since after the war the bandits had easily tripled in numbers if not more so. It didn't help many were deserters from the various militaries. They had the training to fight well.

They hadn't helped either since they had a tendency to decimate villages depending on the size and how much they fought. His wolves had been on the frontline tracking those fuckers down. It had been a very messy number of fights. By the time they were done the troops had fallen on a number of bands of bandits leaving nothing left alive. At least they were able to get a good portion of the supplies back.

She laughed, "I remember Gianni and her future Beta's driving even Dan nuts at times. Ours are nothing compared to those three and Amarish and Amariah." The two little Kitsunes weren't quite as little any longer. They looked about the age of their pups and were as mischievous as they were when Dan received them.

He started to laugh at her reply, "Very true. I think it was good for her to have those two mellowing her out. Once the mousy squad was started it helped control her. The other two weren't nearly as bad." He wrapped an arm around Nara and gave her a good kiss. It had taken time to accept her as his mate. She'd given him the time which he greatly appreciated, "Love you Nara."