Page 24 of Eclipse Pack

“Thanks, Pops. I’ve been giving myself a hard time about my reaction and lack of thought. I feel better having talked to you. I do miss you and momma, though I don’t have a lot of spare time to think of anything but Luna stuff.” I smile as I hear him laugh.

“As I said, welcome to the world of leadership. You do, however, need to make time for yourself, occasionally. I’m sure Bronze will encourage you to take time out when you can, and do something just for yourself.” Listening to his voice, I get a lump in my throat as I realize just how much I miss him. We haven’t been Pops and Sweetpea that long, yet he seems to have been in my life as long as I can remember. How someone can become so important in such a short time is just amazing to me.

“Unfortunately, I have to go do some leadership stuff, but I’ll call again when I can. Don’t forget we’re behind you one hundred and ten percent in everything you do, Sweetpea. You’re making us all very proud. Bye for now.”

“Okay Pops. Now you need to go before you make me cry! Love to you and Momma. To Raina too. Bye.”

The call ends and I feel a tear run down my cheek. Now I have spare time for myself, what the hell am I going to do with it?

We need to run and chase rabbits!

‘Oh, my Goddess, Maya. You and rabbits. I couldn’t eat another thing after all that sweet stuff, and I doubt you could either.’

Nobody mentioned catching them, but we need to run off some of that sugar.

‘Ugh. Just the thought of running right now makes my tummy roll over. You can be so mean at times.’

I know. It’s a gift.

Chapter 13

BRONZE

Standing in front of Lincoln and Madison, our two schoolteachers that look after the pup’s educational needs, and Eve, I’m desperately trying to remain straight faced. The schoolteachers asked for my presence to discuss a serious disciplinary matter, and when I got here, they were struggling to remove what appeared to be paper towels from their hands. Eve stands there, wringing her hands in despair.

“Alpha Heir Bronze. Honestly…this can’t be allowed to continue. We insist that you take action immediately. He’s a monster! The spawn of everything evil!” They both look at me with such conviction that I know they believe what they are saying.

Eve can’t contain herself. “He is no such thing. He’s… high spirited and has an active imagination.”

Turning to look at the object of their outburst, it looks like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. The huge, wide, innocent eyes look back at me and I’m almost taken in.

“Coal, did you replace the soap in the dispensers with glue?”

Slapping his hand to his forehead so fast that it’s a wonder he doesn’t knock himself out, “No, sir. Wasn’t me, sir.”

I have to place my hand over my mouth and look as though I’m thinking hard as I force back the laughter that is trying to burst forth.

“Let’s try this again, Coal, without covering your forehead. Did you swap the soap for glue?” I look at him as he desperately wants to raise his hand to his head.

“Yes, sir. I done it. But it was just a joke. I didn’t mean for no one to get hurt or anything.” His enormous, now guilty eyes seem to get even bigger as he admits to his prank.

“Okay. That’s better. No one got hurt, but you mustn’t play pranks on the teachers. They are here to help you learn, and you need to respect that. And you should never lie. You know that you will get harsher punishment if you’re caught telling lies.”

“I do respect them, sir, but school is so boring. Maybe if it was more interesting to learn stuff, I wouldn’t want to get into so much trouble.”

He sounds so genuine and honest that I can’t help but turn to both schoolteachers. “And there from the mouths of babes, as they say. Perhaps the pup has a point that we all need to take on board. Learning should be fun. Look at the lessons and see what you need to bring some fun into their learning. I’ll authorize whatever we need to get them motivated to learn.” Turning to Eve, “Take Coal home for the rest of the day and see if you canthink of anything that will help Lincoln and Madison with the pups’ learning.”

“Not calling them names might be a step in the right direction,” she mutters as she reaches out for Coal’s hand and gives both teachers her best stink-eyed sideways glance. You can see Coal doesn’t want to hold his momma’s hand, but when she turns to look down at him, he grabs it quick and gives her a nervous smile.

As Eve walks away with Coal, I turn to Lincoln and Madison. “I’m available at any hour, any day or any night, for the benefit of the pack. However, I don’t expect to be called to deal with something so trivial ever again, or that you insiston me taking action. If you cannot handle one strong-willed pup with an overactive and healthy mind, I’ll find someone who can, and you pair will be training fodder for the warriors. Am I perfectly clear?”

They look at me in horror. “Yes sir,” they both echo, imitating Coal’s reactions to my questions.

As I walk away, I just want to laugh loud and long. That pup gets into so much mischief you could write a book on it. He must drive Eve to distraction, but you can’t deny the love she has for him. I would not want to be the one that hurts him or tried to keep her from him.

Heading back to the office, I detour to the training area as I remember I need to arrange a meeting with Adaline. Arriving at the end of a female training session, I grin as I watch all the females picking up their backpacks and toy pups before heading off.

Adaline smiles as she sees me grinning. “You may well grin, but it worked better than either of us would ever have imagined.You know they’ve all given the toy pups names now, too? One of them happened to mention Pedro, and when they realized that she had named her toy, they all went mad at the idea. We had to hold a contest between two females because they wanted the same name and neither would yield. We had to do a ‘winner takes the name’ fight to settle it.”

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