With Beta Lucas and his team in the lead and Anex and his subordinates in the rear, Penn and the pups followed a well used path down the mountain from the rendezvous point. At some point, along the winding trail, Penn and the pups got their first glimpse of the children's new home.

The pack was so enormous that several decades back they built a town in the valley below to accommodate the steadily growing pack. Penn could see little subdivisions, a main drag with businesses, and a few large buildings that were likely a school, a community recreational facility of some kind, and the town hall.

The 14 year old twins, Ace and Archer, came up beside Penn and both let out a low whistle of approval.

"This place is so much bigger than home!" Ace said with awe.

Their pack had only consisted of about 40 houses built along an old logging road that ran parallel to the river the cut through Griffin territory. There was no school, no grocery store, no coffee shop, or really anything at all in the Griffin pack village. The families had to travel nearly three hours on bad roads to get to the nearest human town with a grocery store. Comparatively speaking, the sprawling village below, with its 400 plus houses, was like a mini-city. All the children were as equally impressed as the twins.

Penn smiled to herself over their enthusiasm because chances were, when they reached their late teens and early twenties, they would probably come to think of this place as very small - too small for them to stretch their paws and run.

"Do you think they have a skate park?" Archer wondered aloud.

Penn just gave a shrug of her shoulder. She couldn't say. They were too far up still to be able to make out those kind of details.

But Archer didn't seem to mind her lack of response. Instead, he pointed with an eager finger and asked, "Do you think that is a public pool?"

Again, Penn had no reply, but a small buzz began among the children. They were all excited about the prospect of a pool. Penn gathered from the subsequent chatter that no one in the Griffin pack had even a small backyard pool. However, it wasn't like the kids were deprived. A huge, lazy river flowed right by their little pack and would have been perfect for swimming in every summer.

"Will we have to go to a public school?" twelve year old Olivia suddenly asked when Jackson pointed out what looked like a school building down below.

The children had been home-schooled all their lives. Griffin ack was too small to build a school and too isolated to be busing the kids anywhere. So, like many other small, isolated packs, the children were home-schooled.

"I want to go to school," Zoe, one of the two ten year olds in the group, exclaimed with a squeal.

Her enthusiasm was catchy and the kids who were 12 and under, minus the youngest pups who didn't know much about public school, all piped up saying they wanted to go as well. Penn noticed that the older kids didn't seem so keen. She didn't blame them.

Penn had mixed feelings about school herself. She had enjoyed the early years but not high school. It was in high school when she really learned just what a misfit and an oddity she was in the pack.

While all the others, boys and girls alike, were conforming to the social norms and pressures of high school life, Penn was still in her own little world doing her own thing. It wasn't long before her peers began to harass her and then isolate her when she simply would not bend to their corporate will. Pack-teens were nasty when they wanted to be.

Penn sighed heavily at the unhappy memory. She could certainly sympathize with Cassidy, Jackson, Noah, the twins, and Emma, whose eyes were either filled with uncertainty or disgust at the mention of public school.

"What will it be like being the new kids?" thirteen year old Emma asked quietly.

All the kids looked to Penn for a reply. She frowned. The truth was, she couldn't say. She couldn't know how the Orthos pups would react to the introduction of so many new faces into their pack. 

After a moment's thought she answered, "Well, you'll all be new together. So, no matter what, you'll have each other to rely on."

She waited and watched. It wasn't much of a pep talk, she knew, but it was the truth. She wasn't about to promise them things would be perfect or rosy. Chances were some, or all of them, would struggle in the beginning. It was only natural. They would just need to hold on to each other until they found their place or made a place for themselves in the new pack. That was the way of things - of social interaction.

The kids quieted down a little after that. They were still interested in seeing and exploring the town below but they weren't too keen to talk about school anymore. Penn felt a little pang of guilt. She cursed herself mentally for not knowing what to tell them. She wished Lara was there to give the proper motherly advice. She just wasn't any good at it.

As they continued on down the mountainside, Penn wondered if she'd ever be able to readjust to the kind of pack life and town-living that awaited the children. It was one thing to form a temporary pack with these pups who were desperate for protection, but it was another thing all together to integrate back into a full-fledged pack with all its rules, regulations, expectations and commitments.

Penn did have a strong longing to be part of a pack again. Especially, after spending the last six weeks with the pups. But, now that she saw the thriving village below, she wasn't sure she could handle this much pack-life. It seemed overwhelming.

She wondered though, briefly, if the Orthos pack's Alpha might consider letting her live on the periphery of the pack's territory. She couldn't believe she was even thinking along those lines, but a part of her secretly wanted to remain near the pups. After all, they were the closest thing to family she'd had in a very long time.

It was a foolish hope though. Lara had made an exception for Penn because Penn had saved her life. Otherwise, even the Griffin pack would have tried to hunt her down and kill her once they discovered a rogue wolf living on the edge of their territory. It was only natural. That's just what pack-wolves were trained almost from birth to do - kill rogues.

Penn had to just accept that she was going to have to move on to new territory as soon as the pups were settled. There was no way around it. It was one thing for Orthos to adopt the pups, but it was quite another thing for them to break their long-standing rules and accept a rogue in their territory long-term.

Truth was, Penn knew she was lucky Beta Lucas even invited her to stay until the kids got placed in their new homes.  That was really more than she initially hoped for anyway. No need to go pressing her luck, she thought with a dissatisfied sigh.

Beta Lucas caught her eye just then and signalled that it was time to stop and let the pups have a rest. Penn wanted to laugh. She drove the children far harder than this leisurely pace he was moving everyone at, and knew they wouldn't need a break for a long while yet. But, she didn't bother to say so. The kids seemed content to stop. She imagined the children were really going to enjoy going back to civilized living instead of all the wild living they'd been doing with her.

During this small break Lucas took the time to explain a few things to the children, who all seemed in very good spirits to him despite their ordeal of the past six weeks.

"Today you'll meet Alpha Troy. You'll like him," he assured them all. "He's a great guy. I've known him all my life. We grew up together," he explained.

"You'll find he's pretty quiet though. Doesn't say much at all," he said with a little laugh. His wife, Jules, and Doctor Reagan laughed right along with him while they exchanged knowing looks.

The children all looked at Penn and gave her grins. She supposed, if they could get use to her, who rarely talked, then they could probably handle this quiet Alpha too. She stuck out her tongue at the older teens and glared at the younger ones, but they only snickered and giggled.

"We're use to quiet, Uncle," Jackson said with confidence and a mischievous glint in his eyes. He discreetly tossed his head in Penn's direction and all the kids laughed.

Lucas, Jules and Reagan  were so pleased to see that the children and their guardian were just as close as Anex had claimed. Jules and Reagan smiled openly at Penn and she acknowledge their smiles with a little smirk, but nothing so big that the kids would notice.

It was so strange, Penn thought, to be interacting with the adults as if she were a regular wolf.  And yet, it all felt pretty natural, which seemed even more inexplicable.

When the kids settled back down after all the giggling and teeheeing, Lucas picked up a bit where he left off. "I know you are looking forward to checking out the town right now, but that will have to wait a few days. First, we'll get you all settled in at the pack house." He gave them all an encouraging smile but the children seemed puzzled and whispered among themselves.

Ace gave Lucas a queer look and asked "Will we all fit?"

Penn looked over at Lucas, who seemed confused and offered a little fact he seemed to have forgotten or overlooked, "The Griffin pack house was their Luna's home."

Lucas gave Penn a grateful smile. He understood the dilemma in their eyes and explained straight away, "Not to worry, the Orthos pack house isn't so much a house as it is a kind of hotel with multiple bedrooms on the second floor, offices and a couple of conference rooms on the first floor, and a fully finished basement with a huge rec room." He smiled brightly at them when he saw the concern leave their faces.

"You will all be housed in the newly renovated basement, which has several bedrooms, a common room with all kinds of fun stuff, and a staffed cafeteria. Usually the young warriors in training stay there but they've gone home for the time being. So, you'll have the basement all to  yourselves." Lucas grinned at the kids. He was sure they would like the sound of that.

But, Emma asked with some concern, "Where does Alpha Troy and his Luna live?" She hated the thought of putting the Alpha out of his home.

Lucas smiled at the girl while answering, "He lives on the second floor. He's got half of the floor all to himself. So, you wont be in his way and he wont be in yours either." As an after thought he added, "Oh, and our Alpha doesn't have a Luna." 

"Was she killed?" Emma asked soberly and timidly.

"Who, darling?" Lucas asked with alarm.

"His Luna," she said as if it were the most rational thing to think.

Lucas cringed inwardly. Only children who had lost their pack and their Luna to a violent lunatic would have made that leap. Lucas was reminded then that, even though the children did appear well adjusted on the surface, they hadn't really had a proper chance to mourn their losses. It would take them a long while to recover yet.

"No sweetheart," he said with a gentle look. "He simply hasn't met his Luna yet."

A heavy sort of hush fell over all the children. Their minds were turned to thoughts of their Luna and everyone else who was dead and gone in their old home territory. Lucas looked to Jules to see if she had any idea what he should do. He felt so miserable for the children and wasn't sure whether he should leave them to their morbid thoughts or change the subject. Jules, though, was as lost as he was and could only squeeze his hand and shrug a single shoulder in response.

Penn got up from her spot on the ground, where she'd been sitting comfortably with the littlest ones hanging on her, and brushed her pants off with her hands. Emma got up and came over to her, silently wrapping her arms around Penn's waist. Penn gave the quiet and sensitive child a tight but brief squeeze and then said to her in her usual, gruff voice, "Which of the little brats do you want to be responsible for the rest of the way?"

Emma didn't let her go right away. She lingered a moment as she looked down at the youngest ones, who were still sitting on the ground around Penn's feet. Penn let her linger and kept a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder.

After a moment Emma said, "I'll take care of Oliver this time."

Penn gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze and said, "Good choice." She then looked over at Beta Lucas' anxious face and gave him a soft smile to indicate that all was well.

Lucas returned that smile with a grateful nod. He then looked at Jules and the two of them shared the same relieved look between them.

"Well," Penn said aloud in her commanding voice, "Who is going to volunteer to look after Mason, Lily, Mia and Aiden?"

Aiden, who was the only five-year-old in the group, jumped up and declared with a little growl, "I can take care of myself!"

All the older children burst out laughing at the very bold but very inaccurate declaration. Aiden was absent minded, easily distracted and had a tendency to trip over his own toes. Of all the pups, including the littlest, he needed the most supervision, watching and care. So, the pups laughed with good reason and just like that the sad atmosphere dissipated. The children were back to their usual selves.

Aiden continued to protest until he managed to fall flat on his face and get a mouth full of dirt. The children didn't laugh then though. The older ones helped him back up, brushed him off and made sure he was okay.  He was quick to slip his hand into the first hand offered to him.

It was Jackson who stepped up to the plate and offered Aiden his hand. Penn smiled approvingly at Jackson and he grinned back at her.

Penn knew the children felt the most in control and the least lost when they had a mission - something to do for the good of the pack. Right now, it was looking after the littlest ones. And, as soon as everyone had someone to care for, the children were all smiles again.

There were no more questions about the Alpha, the pack house or the village the rest of the way, but there were also no more sad faces either.