The Lazy Life Of Raine

Survivor (8)

Echo could only shake her head from side to side as she gave into their jealous ways.  One Valentin was enough for her to handle, but two? She didn’t have the energy to argue back.  

“How am I supposed to eat with the two of you holding my hands?”  

“Easy.”  Kaiya said as she scooped up her own food, from her plate and brought it close to Echo’s mouth.  “Say, ‘Ahhhhh.’ "

Even though Echo wanted to say no and tell them that she could feed herself, with Hiro and Kaiya’s strong hands holding her hands, she could only open her mouth and let Hiro and Kaiya feed her like a baby. Not only that, but Echo couldn’t disrespect Hiro and Kaiya in front of their pack.  

As dinner went on, Echo was introduced to the Elders of the pack, one by one.  Then she and the Alphas went from table to table and introduced her to everyone else.  By the end of dinner, it was already 10pm and the families have already retired for the night with their young.  While the ruly teenagers hanged around each other chatting, joking and fooling around, waiting to be dismissed so they could go play in the game room.  

The single adults sat around each other and they too spoke to each other about work, relationships, and training.  While the couples sat beside each others and talked about their future plans, work and meetups.

Kaiya and Hiro quickly dismissed everyone and they left the dining hall, one after another, with little Gi waiting and waiting to be one of the last ones to leave.  He had wanted to get permission from the Alphas to speak to their Luna, so he waited silently, while looking down at his feet.

“Can I go speak to little Gi?”  Echo asked as she felt Hiro and Kaiya’s hand tighten around her hand.  “It looks like he has something to say to me.”

“Fine.  Go.” Kaiya said as she let go of Echo’s hand.  “But don’t talk for too long, it’s late and we have to go to bed early.  Our days start early and you can still see him tomorrow.”

“Okay.”  Echo said as she walked towards Gi.  Her body was suddenly pulled back as her left hand was still being held by Hiro.  

Echo looked back at Hiro and her left eyebrow rose up to question him.  

“5 minutes, max.”  Hiro said softly as he finally let Echo go.  “Quickly come back.”

“I will.”  Echo told them.  “I’m just going right there.”  

Echo pointed to Gi who stood 10 feet away from them.  

“You guys can still see me.”  Echo reminded them as she turned around and walked towards Gi.  

“Luna!”  Gi called out with happiness as he formally bowed to her.  

“My name is Echo.  Just call me Echo.”  Echo told him as she stopped in front of him.  “And don’t bow to me. Stand up. Look at me.”

Gi’s mopy black hair quickly looked up and his copper eyes quickly caught her gaze before looking away.  

“Ah… I just wanted to thank Lun--Echo for saving me.”  Gi quickly said as his cheeks flushed pink. “And my friends.  If not for you, we would have been more in trouble and some of us or all of us would have died.”  

“I was just trying to do the right thing.”  Echo told him truthfully.

“But still...thank you.”  Gi said as he bit his lip in nervousness.  He could feel the glare from the Alphas on him, as if to warn him to hurry up.  

“Then you’re welcome.  How is your injury? Did it heal already?”  

“Yes, it healed very well.  Us werewolves heal fast, so there shouldn’t be any trouble from it.”  

“Don’t be foolish in the future and go out on your own.”  Echo warned him. “If I hear about you and the others going out on your own, for fun, because of a dare, or because you want to prove yourself.  See how I don’t just punish you guys with fire! I’ll burn your beautiful coats and make you guys into Chihuahuas.”

Gi couldn’t help himself and snickered at Echo’s warning.  The image of their werewolves with no fur made him smile and he found it funny.  

Echo immediately knocked his head for her knuckles and Gi quickly stopped smiling and rubbed his head.  Her hit actually kind of hurt.

“Think I’m playing? Think my words are just empty promises?”  

“No!  No!” Gi said as he took a few steps back as he kept rubbing his forehead.  “We’ll do as you say. We don’t want to be Chihuahuas.”

“Good.  Now go to your parents and listen to them.  If I hear you misbehaving, I’ll make sure you’ll regret it.”  

“Okay! Lu--Echo.  I won’t make trouble for my parents!  I’m glad you’re our Luna. “ Gi said as he smiled and waved goodbye to her.  “Goodnight!”

“Goodnight.”  Echo said back as Gi quickly ran to his group of friends who waited for him.  

The room emptied out and the three of them left last as the kitchen helpers came to clean the dining room.  Echo turned to look at the helpers and wanted to help, but she was quickly pulled out of the room and up to their personal quarters.  

“It’s their job to clean up.”  Kaiya told Echo. “Remember what I said about none of our packs have idle hands.  We all have assigned tasks and change theses tasks every three months so everyone knows how to work every position.  From cooking, cleaning, training, security, farming, gardening...etc. Every pack member has experienced each working task so they can understand how hard and important each job is for the prosperity and survival of our pack.  If we lose someone in an attack from a zombie or a pack dispute, there are others who can easily step up and do the job.”

“Pack dispute?”  Echo asked. “There are other packs?”  

“Yes.”  Hiro told Echo.  “There is a pack 100 miles to our west, called the Avilla Pack, we have a rocky peace treaty with them that only came up due to the zombie apocalypse, before we were enemies.  To our East, is the Jocara Pack, we have be alliances for over 300 years. And to our North, is the Zilock Pack, who are also our ally, but only for 50 years.”

“The Avilla Pack has over 500 pack members, however they are not as strong and disciplined as our pack.  Most of them are young and inexperienced. Alpha Miller also has Rouges living within his pack, as long as they protect the Avilla Pack borders, Rouges can live and run freely on his land.  

Alpha Nisaid is the alpha for Jocara Pack. It has about 100 pack members, but they are strongly disciplined and trained.  All of their pack members train about 10-12 hours a day. Although their pack is the smallest out of all of us, they are the fiercest and deadly.   

Alpha Blu is the alpha for Zilock Pack.  It has about 300 pack members, and they are really old fashion.  They hold onto old beliefs that the strong dominates and the weak submits.  Although there isn’t any mistreatments that I know of, the Omegas have a hard life of manual labor.  The social caste of Zilock Pack can easily be seen. The only way Omegas can roughly survive the pack, is to quickly find their mate.  Mates are highly revered in Zilock Pack, for it is considered a blessing from the Moon Goddess.”

“Has any Omegas ran away from Zilock Pack before?”  Echo asked.

“Yes. Omegas and even some Betas have.”  Kaiya said as they lead Echo to sit between them in their private living room.  “If they make it to our land, we grant them asylum. Although Alpha Blu isn’t happy about it, what can he do when we have already granted the runaway asylum?  Even though the defector does not say much about the social caste system there, they could not stand living under such oppression and submission.”

“Oh.”  Echo said as she let Hiro and Kaiya snuggle on her.  “Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Teen training schedule starts early.  5 A.M. wake up, 6 A.M. - 9 A.M. is dedicated to training, 9 A.M-10 A.M is breakfast and break, 10 A.M. - Noon, more training.”  Kaiya told Echo. “Noon to 1 P.M. is lunch. 1 P.M. - 5 P.M. is school. 5 P.M.- 7 P.M. is on the job training in security detail, this on the job training that changes every three months.  7 P.M. is dinner and they have the rest of the night to do as they wish. Lights out at 10:30 P.M.”

“We should get ready for bed too.”  Hiro told her as he grabbed her hand and lead her to the bathroom.