Looking at his parent’s shocked faces Tyler wished again that he could have been the son they wanted, the son they should have had.  He struggled to find his composure, he was feeling very emotional at the moment, and on top of that he could feel theirs as well.  And they were not shocked or angry or sad.  Instead they were worried again about him being bitten by the rabid wolf.

“I am fine, honest.  Please believe me.  I am not suddenly going to go all crazy and weird on you.”

Cassy snorted.  “That’s what you say.”  The look she sent his way telling him more clearly than words could that she already thought he was acting weird.

“I don’t understand.”  Alex hesitated before taking a seat on the wrong side of his desk.  He just didn’t feel up to sitting in his own chair right now, the chair that should have been Tyler’s one day.  “Then what is it?  Why won’t you be alpha?  If it is because of the pack, you should not worry about it.  They will be fine when you have taken over, you will see.”

Sighing heavily Tyler sat down across from his parents.  “I am going to go away.”  He blurted out, and then winced when he saw the devastated look on Cassy’s face.  “Not permanently!  I will be coming back here often for a while.”

Alex’s face was puzzled.  “Then why can’t you be alpha later?”

“Because Sean is going to be the alpha in stead of me.”  Tyler swept a hand through his mop of hair as he tried to find the right words to say.  “It will be a lot better for everybody if he takes over.  The pack will accept him without a problem and he will make a great alpha.  Even the other packs will be happier with him than they would be with me taking over one day.”

Cassy was too shocked to speak.  Luckily Alex did not have that problem.

“If the pack has an issue with you taking over they can darn well get over it!  And so can the rest.  You are the rightful heir and you will be alpha!”  He spoke the words with conviction and authority.

Tyler frowned at his father.  “Dad, don’t try that on me, it won’t work.”

“Are you sure about that?”  Alex challenged his son.

Without saying a word Tyler just stared at his father as they battled it out silently.  While he was staring his father down, Tyler wondered if it was worth it.  If his dad felt that his authority had been trumped by his own son, would that not do irreparable damage to their relationship?  The last thing on earth he wanted was to alienate his own parents.

As he debated internally the battle of wills continued and power built up in the spacious study.  It started slowly, just a trickle of static in the air, but as the seconds grew into minutes the air became heavy with charged static.  After a while Cassy started having some difficulty breathing but she kept quiet, too much under the spell of the tense scene to interfere with what was going to have an important impact on all of their lives.

Alex felt a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead and he stood up from his seat.  He had never thought that he would ever perceive one of his own children as a threat, but this situation was cutting it close and the wolf within disliked very much being forced into a submissive role, especially by his own offspring.  Tyler was still refusing to concede and submit to his authority.  It scared him so much that he pushed even harder at Tyler, willing him to back off.  Standing up he thrust out all of his authority to Tyler in a wave in the hope that he could get Tyler to stand down.

Tyler narrowed his eyes when he saw his dad stand up and he could feel that he was preparing to send out everything he had.  Imagining himself as a black hole, he absorbed every single ounce of power that was sent his way, and when Alex prepared himself for another round, he decided that he had played nicely for long enough.  In a controlled burst, he sent his power out in a short but powerful wave that would not go beyond the study, causing Alex to stumble back onto his chair at the sheer force of the wave that made him feel like he was cut out of nothing more than paper.

The second his dad started his decent onto the chair, Tyler stopped throwing his little tantrum.  He had effectively outclassed his own father and it left him with a bitter taste in the mouth.  Why couldn’t his dad just accept it that he did not belong here the same way the others did?

Cassy could do nothing but stare mutely as two of the most important men in her life had the ‘argument’ of a lifetime.  Was there any chance that any good could come out of this?  She doubted that very much.  Their second natures did not like playing second fiddle to anybody and now that Tyler had outmaneuvered his father, would Alex and Tyler be able to still hold onto that special closeness that had sometimes driven her crazy and made her feel excluded?

Alex squared his shoulders and started to bow his head at his son, prepared to display his recognition of the fact that Tyler was the more powerfull of the two.

“Don’t!”  Tyler’s harsh voice full of command stopped him, froze him in mid-action.

Tyler swallowed down an uncomfortable lump in his throat, his fists balled at his side as he tried to gain control over the beast that only wanted to dominate.  “Please Dad,” he whispered, his tone strangled with emotion.  “Don’t ever do that to me.”  His pleaded with his father to understand, to know that he had not wanted to do this.  To know that he would not be able to face himself if his father ever felt the need to submit to him.  “Please don’t do that?”

For an endless time father and son stared at each other, coming to grip with the change in their relationship and how they saw the other.  Alex could see that Tyler was shaking in his effort to keep control of his overwhelming emotions and to keep tears from falling.  Without conscious thought he opened his arms and in a moment his not so little boy was in his embrace, holding onto him tightly as he sobbed out his frustrations and relief.

Alex held onto Tyler for the few short moments it took him to regain his composure.  As soon as Tyler started squirming, he let his arms drop to his sides and Tyler stepped back; wiping his hands over his eyes.

“Sorry ‘bout that.”  He mumbled in a half embarrassed way as he took his seat.

“Hmm.”  Was all Alex said as he seated himself next to Cassy and snaked his arm around her.  He could sense that she was still pretty choked up.

Alex gave them all a few moments to clear their heads before he turned to Tyler.  “So, how do you see things happening for yourself now?”

“To tell you the truth, I am not too certain about that, I only know that I cannot carry on here.”  He looked at his parents alternatively.  “Surely you realized that by now?”

Cassy opened her mouth to protest and Tyler lifted his eyebrow at her, waiting for her to speak.  When she did not say anything he carried on.  “I am not good for the pack, and they are not good for me either.  And now that I have shifted it is only going to get worse.  They have all been dreading this day and now that I have let it happened at last, things are going to get rather uncomfortable.  And to be honest, I think that I could do with some time away to sort things out for myself.”

“They will just have to deal!”  Alex knew his protest was in fain, but he had to try.

“No.  Sean is a much better choice than me.  The pack already look up at him, he has shifted and he already found his mate here.  They think he is the next best thing to full moon.”  Tyler rolled his eyes when he spoke and his parents laughed a little at that.  ‘Full moon’ being their family’s code word for the best of absolutely anything.

“But what are you going to do?”  Cassy joined in the discussion at last.

Tyler did not really want to answer that question.  His parents were not going to like it at all.  “I think now that we know that a rabid wolf’s bite does not affect me, I could help other packs out there.  I know that you have been getting reports from the council about the sudden increase in the occurrence of rabid wolves.  And I agree with you when you said that it is too much to be a coincidence.  There must be a way that we can track what is happening.”

“But what if you are not as immune as you think you are?”  Alex worried as he frowned at Tyler.

Tyler smiled reassuringly at both his parents.  “I think I will be quite alright.  And that qualifies me as the best candidate to look into this.”

“I don’t like this.”  Cassy muttered unhappily as she scooted closer to Alex for reassurance.

“When do you plan on leaving?”  Alex asked as he tried to figure out how he was going to handle things now.  He knew that Sean would not like just taking over like that.

“As soon as possible.”

Tyler’s reply shocked them.

“But you can’t!  It is your birthday in two days!  You can’t leave before then.”

“Oh!  Not that soon.”  Tyler reassured his mother quickly.  “I don’t to just want to take off into a random direction.  We should perhaps contact Stan and see if he can give us any additional information first.  Then we can make a decision on what would be the best plan of action.”

When Tyler finished speaking Alex immediately felt a whole lot better about everything.  Tyler would not be rushing into anything, and what he really liked, was that Tyler had said ‘we’.  He was not going to insist on doing this all by himself.

They sat up discussing this for a long time before going to bed.  Alex and Tyler were going to chat to Sean first thing in the morning, then get Rudi to sit in on the meeting.  What they had also decided was to call a pack meeting for the evening tomorrow to let the pack know about the changes as well as to warn all of them to take more care.  Now that a rabid wolf has come into their territory they would all have to be more careful and observant.

The meeting with Sean the next morning did not go as bad as they had expected.  It was worse.  Sean was livid that they would expect him to be willing to step up and take what was rightfully his brother’s.  To put it plainly, he was as obstinate as a mule; he would not budge until Tyler asked to speak to his brother in private.

“Seany,” he said as he stopped pacing, making use of his nickname for his brother.  “You know that I have not been happy about this.  It has taken me a long time to figure out a way for the pack to be satisfied.  And now I can be happy too.  And the family honor remains intact with you to take over.  I know that you feel like you will be taking something away from me; and you are right.”  Tyler stepped closer to Sean and put both his hands on his shoulders.  “You will be taking a load off of my shoulders.”

“But …” Sean was lost for words.  “I am not sure I will be ready for that.”

Tyler smirked at his brother.  “Believe me; you have been ready for a long time already.  And you will be a lot better at it than I will ever be.  I would have to order them, while they will obey you without a doubt.  Trust me when I say that you are the right one to take over from dad.”

Later when Rudi joined them he was just as difficult to convince.  Not because he thought Sean wasn’t right for the job, but because Tyler would be leaving his daughter!  Frustrated Tyler wondered whether he would be so impossible when he was a father.  First Rudi did not like the idea of Tyler being his daughter’s mate; now he was upset because Tyler would be leaving her; even if she was only ten; they still shared a close relationship.  She has always been the one person who did not expect him to be anything else than he was.  How on earth was he ever going to be able to do the right thing for everybody?

Halfway through the discussion Tyler left them to go to Rudi’s home.  He had made it part of his morning routine to see Mandy off for school every day and he did not plan giving up on that during his last few days here.

When he stepped into the kitchen, same as he did every morning for the past four years that she has been going to school in town; the whole room went quiet.

Carmen and Shelly had already heard the news through the grapevine that he had shifted, but they did not know that he had suddenly grown bigger as a result.

“Freaking hell man!  What have you been eating dude?”  Wade asked as the rest of his family stared at Tyler.

Shifting nervously, Tyler hoped that Mandy would not be too freaked out.  The other’s reaction did not really bother him much; but Mandy’s did.  Very much.

“Holey-crack-a-moley Ty!”  Mandy’s voice sounded suspiciously like she was holding back her laughter.  “Can you leap over tall buildings now?”

“I haven’t tried yet, no tall buildings around you know.”  He teased her right back.

Mandy snorted in a very childish way that would have made her mother frown at her.  “You should not let that stop you.”  For being a ten year old she has always been pretty sensitive when it came to her best friend.  She knew her other friends in the pack thought she was crazy for hanging around with Tyler, but they did not know him the way she did.  For all this time he kept on holding himself back because he was careful about the others.  Shaking her head she snorted again to let him know that she thought he was being stupid.

He only smiled crookedly at her.  “Come on squirt; finish your breakfast so I can walk you to the van.”

Their usual morning routine consisted of him hanging around while she had breakfast with her family, and then he would carry her schoolbag for her while they walked to the assembly point  where all the younger kids met up to be taken to school in the van.  The older children had their own transport so he had this time with her all to himself.  Heavens he was going to miss his mornings with her, even if they were short.  It has always been the highlight of his day.  That, and the few minutes they got to spend in the afternoons if her ‘free time’ coincided with his time off between duties.

Mandy finished her breakfast so fast it looked like she was inhaling her cereal and Tyler chuckled at her the whole time.

Jumping up from her seat she grabbed her bag on the floor and threw it in his direction.  As usual, he caught it and hung it over his shoulder.  He always imagined that he looked a little bit silly carrying the frayed Power Puff Girls backpack as he escorted her to her ride.

“Now that you are bigger, you can give me a lift as well.”  She took in her usual position in front of him with her hands on her hips, waiting for him to pick her up and put her on his shoulders.

Obliging the girl, he bent, put his hands over her hands on her tiny hips and lifted her up onto his shoulders.  Mandy giggled with glee and he smiled at her enthusiasm, she always found so much joy in the small things in life.  That was one of the things that had managed to keep him grounded when he had felt alone and cut off; her ability to find something to be happy about.

Mandy merrily chatted away as she was carried along, telling Tyler all about her English assignment and how much Miss Webber was going to love it.  Then she gave him a commentary of what she thought the other kids would be doing in their show-and-tell.  “Brad is probably going to do something gross like the last time, he is such a doofus!”

Tyler pretended to be shocked.  “That is not a nice word to use!  A little lady like you shouldn’t say words like that!”

Mandy laughed out loud and wriggled on his shoulders until she fell backwards, her head hitting his butt.  “I can, ‘cause I am not a lady yet!”  She yelled the words out in mirth.

“Oh really?”  He asked as he carried on walking, if she wanted help getting up again, she would say so.

Mandy was still snickering behind him as he carried on walking with her head hitting against him with every stride he took, until she laughed again.  “Ouch!  Stop walking!  Your bums are hitting my head!”

He swung around to get a look at her, but of course she was on the other side, so he swung around again; and again and again; until Mandy caught on to what he was trying to do.  By then she was laughing so hard Tyler had to make sure he had a firm grip on her legs so that she did not fall off.  Tyler stopped when she became too breathless to laugh anymore.  He grabbed hold of an arm and swung her around and lowered her until her feet were on the ground, making sure she could stand on her own before he let her go.

When she had calmed down enough, she wrapped her arms around him, burying her face into his stomach.

“Oh Ty, you make me laugh so much.”

“I know.”  He said cockily, receiving a small slap in reward when she stepped away and took the bag from him.

“See you later at the tree?”  She said as she got into the van with the others that were staring at them.

“Sure, why not.”  Tyler said.  He had wanted to tell her about him leaving before she heard it at the meeting with the others.

Tyler waved at her until the van went around a bend and he could no longer see them.  Feeling more content and happy than he did in a long time, he walked back home.  If he wanted to find out what was going on, he had a lot of work to do before he was ready to leave.

Clinging to his happy moment, he walked up the stairs to his home; one part of his mind ‘listening’ out for Mandy while the other part was putting a plan together of how it would be best to get started.