The office buzzed as several indistinct conversations were had amongst the standing representatives of the various families in the pack. There were eleven men in the room, counting the three men who were behind the desk once again ready to start this meeting. Clint's information was old, there weren't twelve families anymore, there were nine. Just nine families made up the Mond-Jaeger, the Moon Hunter pack. Levi's great-grandfather, that generation's Alpha, had brought the Germanic wolf pack to this section of Minnesota to start fresh outside of Germany. Germany had become too crowded with wolf packs and turmoil, so he had brought the fifteen families across the ocean to settle here. Two families didn't survive the trip across the ocean when their ship sank, two families were wiped out in a pack feud over territory when they arrived, and finally two more hadn't survived the Dakota war. True there were still remnants of those families, daughters had married into other families, a few sons had left to join their bond-mates packs located elsewhere, but among the Mond-Jaeger the last names had died out. 

Levi remembered his friend James Scheller getting the letter in the mail from his sister that their parents and brother had died, making him the last surviving heir of the Scheller name. A cannonball had killed him a week later, ending the bloodline.

Levi surveyed the room of Elders, some of the men not much older than him really. Nine families, between them there were some ninety-six members. How many are capable of fighting? He thought to himself, his mind doing the calculations in his head he had learned in the army when sizing up engagements. Maybe forty just counting the men, another thirty or so too old or too young, and then twenty-some-odd women who could fight if need be. Females doing too much fighting though marked the end of a pack, lose too many and your numbers become unsustainable naturally.

"Ok, enough chatter." The Alpha called from his seat in German. The other men quieted down and took seats on benches that were available for such meetings. "I have called you here to tell you what this messenger had to say to us." 

The men in the room shifted uncomfortably, both from the hard benches, and the apprehension they could smell in the air. There had been enough trouble of late for them to not want any more.

"This messenger came to us from the Plug Uglies." Levi spoke now taking a que from his father. "A city pack from Baltimore, they have had to leave their territory and are looking for a new place to call their own. Somewhere urban enough I am sure they can still run their racketeering schemes, but backwater enough to buy out the local law." The men in the room exchanged glances, knowing what was being implied.

"Yes, they have settled on New Ulm as a good spot to do this." Levi answered the unspoken question. "They also realize that we are the established dominant pack in the area. What they are proposing is assimilation into our pack through bond pairings and mutual kinship."

Karl Bekker raised a hand, "What sort of wolves are these to come and ask for such a thing? It is true we need fresh blood, but bondings are tricky things, who's to say that there are any bond mates among them that suit us? I have three sons and a daughter, only one son has found a mate, and the others wish to. I am not against having them join the bond hunt next spring, but what does that mean until then?" Several others voiced their agreements with Karl.

Levi shook his head, "Likely, these wolves would not assimilate well. Have any of you known or heard of two packs joining together permanently? Or peacefully for that matter? The bond hunt is a tradition that is not practiced anywhere else I am aware of, and I spoke with many wolves from around the country in my time in the army. Many agreed to the practicality of it and thought to try it when they got home in order to bolster their own pack numbers." 

The men looked at each other, none of them had heard of two packs joining without bloodshed before. The most they had heard was the opposite, a pack had split in two on the border with Canada after getting too large. That had happened peacefully with the border making an easy separation for the families involved, and the Alphas involved had been twin brothers. Many still considered them one pack from the older generations, but they were distinct packs, if held tight with familial bonds.

"Another thing to consider," The Alpha spoke again. "Is that these city packs are not so discerning in who they will consider a member. The messenger today, and his escort, were all turned from human, not natural born wolves. Likewise, one of their proposals is to force-bond mates." If the turning of humans hadn't already been grotesque to the men, the idea of forcing a bond was as anathema as murdering your own child.

"Surely you are not taking this proposal seriously Alpha?" Spoke up Otto Wagner, the oldest pack member living, he had been a boy when they crossed the Atlantic. "Force bondings were left back in the dark ages, before we could control ourselves! Surely, we would not go back to that barbaric practice?" 

The Alpha held up a hand to calm the men, "Nein. I would not go back to that. But I will tell you the other unspoken half of this message. There was heavy implication that if a peaceful joining could not be had, then a forceful takeover would be their next option." This declaration was met with growls and indignant outbursts.

"We can fight!"

"They will find that German Wolves are not so safe as soft city wolves!"

"Let them try!"

Levi noticed one of the men sitting in quiet, hand stroking his beard in contemplation.

"Johannes," Levi called above the din, bringing silence once more. "What do you have to say, Lehrer?" Using the title he had called him as a boy brought weight to the question, as well as showed respect for the older man.

Johannes looked up abruptly, finding all eyes on him. He smiled fondly at Levi before speaking. "You honor me Schuler," he started, calling Levi by the title of student he had used long ago in the classroom where he taught adolescent wolves pack history and what to expect for their first shifting. "I cannot think of any peaceful pack integrations, certainly not in our history, or anywhere else for that matter. There is one instance where a territory dispute was settled relatively peacefully by two Alphas fighting to the death and the loser pack joined the victor's." He waved a dismissive hand at that. "But there are always the cases of blood feuds between families within a pack, and that pack was decimated by in fighting and challenges for leadership for years after. No, assimilating is not a viable option. and how many members are there in this pack?"

"They claim 300." Levi stated flatly.

Johannes nodded and stroked his beard again. "So, the ones truly doing the assimilating would be us into them. And such would end the Mond-Jaeger pack." discontented rumblings went up quietly again before Johannes continued. "That begs the question, why tell us to begin with? One can maybe assume best intentions, they do want to quietly join our pack. I also do not know of any Alpha peacefully submitting to another that is not their chosen Erbe. No, I do not think that this proposal was brought forth with honest intent. I think the most likely is that they wish to lull us under false pretenses to let our guard down, maybe take some females under a forced bonding for themselves with promises of letting us do the same. Then when they have been able to establish themselves into the community, kill us in our sleep while they wrest control away. They will have the numbers and genetic ability to repopulate without the bond hunt we do with the other packs. Even if they don't, they clearly have no problems making wolves the old-fashioned way." 

Levi had been nodding along as Johannes spoke. He agreed with his old teacher completely and had been thinking along the same lines.

"However," Johannes continued. "We lack the numbers here to protect the territory we do have from so large an adversary, natural born or not. Can we afford to insult so large an opponent who has given their intention of taking this territory from us by force? This is where we must be canny as foxes my Alpha. We must either treat with them the same way or try to bluff our way out as stronger than we are."

The Alpha pondered the words before speaking. "I believe we must buy time and find out their intentions one way or the other. We are to either beat them at their own game, if need be, beat them with bloodshed. You all know I am not opposed to bloodshed, but I would also like to retire and play with my great grand-pups, and leave them a future to grow up in. I shall entreat with this messenger more before deciding if a war so soon after getting some of our wolves home from another is advisable." He stood, signaling an end to the meeting. "As it is, I don't think it is wise for any of our younglings to wander alone. All pups should be escorted by an adult, and all adults should travel in pairs at the least. I do not think they would just send one messenger and not scouts or even assassins. It would be too easy for them to kill one of us alone and blame it on a rogue band of Dakota warriors." The men voiced their agreement and wisdom of the Alpha, but they didn't have much choice in the matter.

After they left Levi's mother popped into the office with a lunch platter. "Wilhelm, boys, have something to eat. You have heavy thinking to do, and you can't do it on a hungry stomach."

Wilhelm waved at his wife annoyed, "I am not hungry woman, away with you."

She looked at him and tapped a finger to her temple, "You know we have been bonded too long for your lies to work on me Wilhem Gunther, now eat, I will leave you alone."

Levi and Emrys smiled behind their father's back. Their mother was the only one they knew who still got away with calling their father by his name, regardless of the situation. 

Wilhelm harrumphed loudly, "Well, go ahead, eat up."  The two boys grabbed from the platter hungrily, Wilhelm took from it slower, his thoughts trying to plan a way around the problem that had landed in his lap that morning.