"Hello Gabriel!" The Beta female greeted him as they walked through the front door of James's house.

"Hello Beta Kassandra," Gabriel slightly bowed as a sign of formality.

"Come on Gabe let's go up to my room," James pulled on his sleeve, signaling for him to follow along.

Gabriel followed James upstairs to his room and sat down on the floor in front of his large television. His room was painted a dark blue with a grey soft carpet and the walls consisted of hanging posters of human fighters and posters of random wolves all over.

"I can't believe your authoritative class is so early, that sucks man," James said as he flipped through a comic book and flopped onto this bed.

"Toss me one," Gabriel said. James tossed him a comic book and Gabriel laid down on the floor in front of his bed. As he laid down he noticed a picture frame pushed deep under James's bed as if he were trying to hide it away.

He couldn't fight the temptation to peek, so he reached under the bed and grabbed the broken picture frame. He noticed James sitting with a slightly older girl in the picture that looked like him but...pretty.

She had light brown eyes with jet black hair hair and dimples in each side of her smile, she had a smiled that made Gabriel want to smile for some reason.

"James who is this girl in the picture with you?" Gabriel asked as he sat up. James quickly scrambled over to the edge of the bed and snatched the frame out of his hands with a furious expression on his face.

"Mind your damn business Gabriel!" James shouted and stuffed the picture under his pillow angrily.

"But who is that? She looks just like you," Gabriel asked again.

"It's my older sister okay?!" James yelled and balled his fist up as he sat on his bed with such a hurt expression on his face..

"I didn't know you had a sister," Gabriel said quietly.

"No one is supposed to know about her, the Beta gave her away to a lower ranking family because..." James looked away and sighed.

"Because she's broken," Was all James could muster up the courage to say.

Gabriel didn't want to press on and pressure James into saying anything he didn't feel comfortable saying so he let it go for tonight but he couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with her. Who would look at their child, their only daughter and oldest, and decide they are too broken to keep themselves? No wonder James seemed so angry, he had an older sister in the pack that he probably knew nothing about because his parents deemed her broken.

"James, your father is home and dinner is ready," The Beta female poked her head in the doorway of the room and smiled.

"Coming mom," James called out.

"Beta Kassandra," She corrected him before heading back downstairs.

"Whatever, let's just go and eat Gabe," James rolled his eyes and beckoned for Gabriel to follow him down the stairs.

"Hello Gabriel, nice of you to join us this evening," The Beta raised his glass towards Gabriel as the boys sat down at the table.

"Hello Beta Baine," Gabriel answered politely.

"So how is your combative class James?" His mother asked.

"We are learning how to throw our opponents off balance in hand to hand combat," James said as he began stuffing steak in his mouth.

"How about your authoritative class? Your mentor was telling how you don't sound confident in your commands," The Beta explained.

"Honey let's not talk about this right now in front of the Alpha's son," Beta Kassandra quickly said as she glanced over at Gabriel.

"Should I not be listening?" Gabriel asked confused.

"It's nothing personal Gabriel we aren't supposed to discuss class progress in front of the children unless it's our child, only with the Alpha himself," Beta Kassandra smiled apologetically.

"You're the one that brought it up, maybe you shouldn't have done that," James muttered as he rolled his eyes.

"Be respectful to your Beta James," Beta Baine growled and motioned for James to apologize.

"Sorry Beta Kassandra," James shortly bowed and returned his attention towards his food.

There were so many things in this pack that Gabriel didn't understand. Children were no longer allowed to call their parents mother and father once they got to a certain age, they were to be recognized as their titles. Class progress wasn't to be shared with anyone else, even if it meant it would encourage other children to do better in their classes. Everything was looked at as competition and all children looked at each other as threats. One bad day and they would be de ranked to dishonor their families. Gabriel didn't agree with it but he wanted to make his father proud, he wanted him to recognize him as the future Alpha so that he can become the new Alpha and change this pack around for the better.

~~~~~

"My parents are so annoying, I can't wait to be the official Beta so I don't have to listen to them anymore," James groaned as he collapsed on the bed.

"Right," Was all Gabriel said as he laid down on the floor.

He grabbed a pillow and a blanket out of the closet and made it comfy for himself on the ground. He laid down on the floor and stared up at the ceiling getting lost deep in his thoughts.

"Do you think we are still going to be friends when we are Beta and Alpha?" James asked.

"Of course, you're going to be my right hand man," Gabriel explained with a goofy smile.

"Okay good, I just don't want us to hate each other once we get older that's all," James said.

"James what's your sister like?" Gabriel questioned.

He heard James sigh. "She's really sweet and kind, always thinking about others, she is a little weird and a little disturbed in the head but who wouldn't be after their parents gave them up to an omega family, but she's still my sister and I still love her,"

"That's nice," Gabriel smiled.

"Yeah but I'm never allowed to visit her, I'm not suppose to know she exist but she does exist and I won't forget her, that's the problem," James continued to say.

"You shouldn't separate children just because you think they are broken or different, that's just cruel," Gabriel said.

"We can change the rules Gabriel, when we get older we could change things. For the better." James smiled up at the ceiling from his bed.

"Yeah we could be nicer to all the pups and have better rules," Gabriel grinned.

"Pupa don't have to train, everyone has the weekends off," James said excitedly.

"No one has to worry about being de ranked," Gabriel sat up and looked at James.

"We could have like field days where everyone participates in games outside and that could be the new training system," James looked at Gabriel excitedly.

They continued talking excitedly about all the improvements they wanted to make when they become the Alpha and Beta of the pack, obviously not realizing that things weren't that easy.

The moment they become Alpha and Beta didn't mean they could change all the rules. To the pack, it was perfect the way it was, orderly and plucked out the weakest wolves from the group. Becoming Alpha didn't mean changing the entire system, it meant maintaining the current system and strengthening what they already had, but the child's imagination was something wild and free. Something so fragile that it was best not to break something so delicate.