The Wolf Folk Series: The Rebuilding Of A World

Lord Jeremiah was referring to James as Warrior Commander James Edgar Meese and every time either father OR son heard that, their buttons became more endangered! The wedding was a grand affair that even made notice in the human newspapers. Lord Warrior Master Jonal confirmed James' promotion to Warrior Commander publically at the wedding reception and assigned him command of all Wolf Warriors in North America. Vivian was walking on air and every time she looked at her handsome new mate, she had to pinch herself to make sure she was not just dreaming. His kilts were sharply pleated and the silver buttons shone like diamonds. Two young wolves carried his Great Sword and the Pipers piped the couple in and out of the room.

With the gangsters out of the White House, James felt it was time to start cleaning up the rest of the country. For far too long, the criminals have run amok in the country, even down to town and village levels.

He appointed Warrior Leaders in every clan and gave them authority to clean up the mess.

Almost all of those he appointed were young, energetic wolves and they had no trouble gathering eager young warriors to their cause.

It was in Seattle that the gangsters decided to dig their heels in.

The first word of trouble came from the Lord Alpha of the Northwest Clan. As a boy, he had been helped by Lord Jeremiah many years earlier and his own son was about to obtain his majority and rise to Prince Alpha of the clan.

The Regent that Lord Jeremiah had placed over him and his folk was now a valued counselor and friend to the Lord Alpha and his son. The Wolf Counselor urged the Lord Alpha to seek the assistance of Warrior Master James Edward Meese Tate in cleaning up their city.

Lord Alpha Bekker was a powerful mind-speaker and he called for the Warrior Master, Prince James Meese Tate. James responded immediately and the Lord Alpha Wolf gave him a complete rundown on the problems in Seattle.

James replied, "My Adopted Sire, Lord High Alpha Jeremiah has loaned me his plane, The Red Wolf, for this purpose, we will load out immediately and come to your aid."

Lord Alpha Bekker replied, "We?"

James sent, "Yes Lord Alpha, we. I will bring forty Warriors with me and we will clean the gangsters' clocks for them!" The Lord Alpha sat down hard as he could only gather ten reluctant warriors from among his own folk!

James asked permission from his Lord to use the Red Wolf, just in case the High Alpha wanted to use it, and permission was given immediately.

When James called for Warriors, he was mobbed, his White House Warriors looked on with envy as James selected his Warriors. They knew what kind of Warrior their former leader was, and they would have been willing to give up body parts to be able to join him.

James decided to make the event a show, so he also chose four pipers and the two youngsters to carry his Great Wolf Sword. That sword was famous throughout Wolfdom, it had been given to him by the High Lord Franklin Jeremiah Tate and was a relic brought with them on the Great Migration, ten thousand and more years ago. He would discover later that it was the GREAT SWORD OF ALL WOLFDOM.

The Sword was a sacred relic of their past and whoever carried the Great Sword, without being struck down, was indeed a Mighty Wolf Warrior! Even for one unworthy to touch the sword was instant death.

The two young wolf cadets, into whose keeping the Great Wolf Sword, had been given, polished it every day and would have laid down their own lives in order to keep it safe. It was longer than the youngsters were tall, but, when they carried it behind their Prince Warrior they felt as if they, themselves, were ten feet tall!

In effect, they were, there was not a Wolf on the planet, young or old, man or woman who would not willingly lay down their lives to protect that sword, it was the very heart of their combined heritage! The CROWN of Wolfdom had been lost long ago, only The Great Sword remained of their Royal Heritage. It had been carried by Jeremiah The Great, the last King of the Wolves as he led the Great Migration to the New World.!

Even among the adult wolves, there were only a select few who could manage to wield that sword, that James could swing it single-handed, gave testimony to just how powerful a wolf James Edgar Meese Tate was!

He loaded up the Red Wolf and they took off from Charlotte Airport, headed for Seattle. It was a four-hour flight and the warriors, knowing they were going to be tested, spent the flight snoozing in their seats.

With the senses built into their kind, when Chief Wolf Pilot Prince Paul Tate began easing back on the throttles, the warriors were instantly alert. They stood and straightened their kilts and the pipers readied their bagpipes, everyone stood and stretched the kinks out of their muscles and made ready to put on their show.

The Red Wolf was becoming known around the country and, when Paul had called for landing instructions, word spread rapidly and, by the time the plane had rolled up to the Jetway, an audience had gathered.

The Warriors marched off the plane and up the Jetway, the four pipers were sounding WOLF CALL as they began to assemble on the rotunda.

The two sword bearers stood at attention as James marched in and lifted the Great Sword from the arms of his bearers, then he swung his Great Wolf Sword over his back and into its harness and scabbard and the Pipers sounded Wolf Master Warrior's Call!

James led his warriors into the airport proper. There were ten ranks of four warriors following Prince Warrior Master Commander James Meese Tate.

The two Sword Bearers marched immediately behind James, holding upright, their silver-handled dirks he had given them during his wedding ceremony. They were officially his Cadets and those dirks would become family heirlooms!

The group made a colorful entrance to Seattle and news reporters were frantically racing to the telephones to post their stories of the first public arrival of a Wolf Warrior Prince and his troops in more than ten thousand years! Not since The Great Migration had Wolf Warriors marched across their state of Washington!

While the wolves were arriving, the criminals were banding together in a meeting to plan a war. They could not know that James already had his spies listening to every word, every thought, that went on in their meeting room!

The evening papers all ran a special edition in color, showing Royal Prince Warrior Master Commander James Meese Tate and his troops march out of the airport.

People wondered why they were called wolves, they looked like young men, Marines perhaps and the local girls were drooling over the pictures of their leader. They could not know that the Warrior Wolf was over a hundred years old. James had outfitted his Warriors in Kilts and white shirts, their Black Bear Fur Shakos added another three feet to their already tall appearance!

Their Swords gleamed in the lighting and the spectators saw they were armed also, with modern weapons. Each Warrior was a walking fortress!

The criminals saw them as their worst nightmare! They struck as the buses were traveling to the Grand Marriott Hotel, the tires were shot out and explosives were tossed on the roofs of the buses.

The Warriors streamed out of the buses, shedding their fancy kilts and calling up their Wolf!

James kept his Human and his Great Sword went through the assembled criminals like a giant mowing machine as if he were the Grim Reaper! To those who knew their Wolf History knew that this warrior wolf would be the Master Commander of all wolf warriors, worldwide!

In less time than the telling, there were sixty headless bodies lying on the street and blood was running down the gutter!

The warriors piled up the bodies in the middle of the street and James pinned a note to the top body, "WOLVES = 1, GANGSTERS = 0." The Cadets rolled the heads into a circle around the pile of bodies, the eyes facing outwards.

To a Wolf, that meant that those gangsters were already in Hell!

That grim picture made headlines all around the country, many of the criminals throughout the country were frantically selling all their assets and purchasing airline tickets out of the United States, they didn't care where, just so long as it was away from those terrible Wolf Warriors!

James continued their trip to the hotel, where they were to spend the night. The warriors got cleaned up and the two cadets were busy cleaning and polishing James' Great Wolf Sword.

Later, they would swear by the Great Lord of Wolves, Above Them All, that the sword was "singing" to them! They were correct, the Great Sword of Wolfdom had accepted them as its Keepers! They would learn more about their new status over the next few years.

It was strange, nobody's clothing got splattered with blood and even the creases of the pleats of their kilts remained fresh and tight!

Lord Alpha Bekker warmly welcomed Prince James and the two young men sat, talking about the problems in Seattle.

He explained that years earlier, then Prince Alpha Jeremiah had come to help clean up problems within the local clan. The clan was now strong and healthy, but they just could not finish off the criminals who had been in control of the city for generations and he had a warrior problem, those that he had were not worth a pile of owl's snot!

He and James planned out a campaign. As they were making their lists, James' Cadet, Lewis Coulter, came and bowed low to his Prince and said, "My Lord, Prince Warrior Master, there is a man here to speak with you, he says he is the City Police Chief, shall I admit him, My Lord Prince?"

James smiled to the youngster and replied, "Yes, admit him Warrior Cadet Lewis and guide him to me."

The young wolf then bowed deeply again, pride showing in his every move, and he went back to retrieve the Policeman.

Warrior Cadet Lewis and his partner cadet, Warrior Cadet John Lee, returned with the Police Chief and, again they both bowed low to James before presenting the Policeman to him.

The two Cadets then stood behind James at parade rest, their shining dirks prominently displayed on their waists.

The police chief shivered and said, "eer ah aar Sir, I have bbeen ooordered to aaaasist yyou in aany way I can, SsSir!"

The man was thoroughly frightened, two enormous wolves were standing behind this strange man who called himself Prince James Meese Tate.

James laughed and replied, "Come, join us in a cup of coffee and perhaps a sweet roll. We have much planning to do to clean this city up."

He took the frightened man by the arm and led him to where a coffee urn had been set up. He poured the shaking man a cup of coffee and asked, "Cream and sugar?"

The Police Chief was still shaking as he stuttered, "YYyYeess, bboth ppppleaseee."

He looked at the two young appearing men following this Wolf Warrior and he could see wolves still shimmering in and out of their faces and he prayed to God they would not kill him or eat him. They both appeared to him to be as big as young mountains.

Warrior Cadet Lewis whispered to the frightened man, "Sir, you are more safe here than in your own bed at home. There is not a wolf in this room who would hesitate to lay down his life to protect you. We cannot hurt, nor allow to be hurt, an honorable, upright human, we are commanded by The Great Lord of All Wolves, Above us all, to protect all of you, even if it means our own lives should be forfeit!"

The Chief looked at the young appearing man in wonder and started to ask how did this young Cadet know what he was thinking, his thoughts were interrupted by a laugh he heard in his own mind, "Sir, we are telepaths as are many humans, although they have never been trained. The fact that you can hear me tells us that, you also, are a telepath. You are a good man, sir and I know my Commander, Prince Warrior Master Commander James Meese Tate looks forward to working with you."

The man thought back, "He is a REAL Prince?"

Lewis sent back, "Yes sir, he is the adopted son of our Lord High Alpha Wolf, the leader of all our kind. He is also the true son of Vice President Edgar Meese, sir."

The Police Chief had to sit down, he had never met royalty of any kind before and to have the son of the Vice President of their country sitting right beside him was scary as all hell!

Lewis laughed and replied, "Sir, we do not believe in such a place as hell, for our kind, to have our head severed from our body and buried separately would be about the same punishment as your hell, as our bodies would be incomplete and we could not make obeisance to The Lord of Wolves, above us all, asking permission to enter Heaven."

The majority of the criminals got the Hell OUTTA town as fast as they could, but the hard-core criminals, those who were in it as an enjoyable "profession" knuckled down and got ready to fight! Seattle had been too lucrative for them for too many years to just pull up stakes and leave because some young punks, who called themselves Wolves, had come to town.

They figured the young punks were just looking for a piece of the action!

Wolf Warrior Carmen Green was eavesdropping on the criminal leaders' minds, she could not help but snort, she forwarded their thoughts to Prince James, who proceeded to laugh out loud!

He was sitting with Lord Alpha Bekker as they were enjoying a light lunch, James asked, "Well, are you ready to have some excitement now?"

The local Lord Alpha grinned and replied, "Prince Warrior Master, many years ago, Lord Jeremiah, then a young Prince Alpha himself, rescued me from some of these same criminals. I swore then that I would never be a victim again and that vow remains valid today. HELL, Yes, let's go kick butts and take names!"

His cadets handed James his Great Wolf Sword and Lord Alpha Bekker's eyes got huge, "Is that sword what I think it is", he asked.

Prince James grinned and replied, "Yep, it IS the Great Wolf Sword of our kind, it is the sword of our Forefathers!"

They heard two Cadets hitting the floor, they had fainted! Neither had realized the treasure they cared for, that it was the second most precious thing in all their history, after the Great Crown of Kingship that had disappeared just before the Great migration.

They roused the two youngsters and then they all headed for the marshaling field where James' troops were getting ready to assault the old building where the criminals were holed up.

It wasn't much of a fight, James was a bit disappointed. They had hardly gotten started when they ran out of criminals.

To make a point, James ordered that all the criminals' heads be chopped off and carried to the local waste disposal system to be processed.

He then ordered the old building to be caved in and the hole filled with dirt, burying the bodies forever, separate from their heads.

More than one Wolf Warrior shivered and swore to himself that he would never cross Prince James Edward Meese Tate!

It was a deed so terrible that wolf parents would tell their offspring in generations to come that was what would happen to them if they didn't behave!

The surviving criminals on the entire west coast of North America headed for Mexico, many didn't even stop there. They barricaded themselves in caves as far south as Tierra del Fuego, down on the tip of Chile!

They thought of Prince James Meese Tate as a wild man, chopping off heads and burying them without their bodies! They did not know just how accurate their thoughts were!

Suddenly, streets that had been unsafe for the last one hundred years were safe again! Seattle's Finest were growing fat and bored because they were too frightened of the criminals to make war against them. Now, there was little or no crime at all!

James set Lord Alpha Bekker up with the framework of his own Warrior Force and set to training them as Wolf Warriors should be trained!

He stuck around when the Lord Alpha told him it was time for the Prince Alpha to attain his majority. He was the first Wolf Prince to congratulate Lord Alpha Alfred Bekker on his son's rise to Adult Wolf and be named the Prince Alpha of the Northwestern Clan of Wolves.

James was getting ready to depart when he heard a call, "Help us, help us, we are trapped and they mean to kill us!" He immediately sent, "Who are you and where are you?" He knew they had to be Wolf Folk, from the strength of their sending.

Their reply came back, "We are in Lewiston, Idaho and the local bigots have us cornered in an old theater. They mean to kill us and all our children!"

James put out a call to his troops to assemble, NOW! He then mind-sent to the frightened wolves, "Who are you? Are you of the wolf-folk?"

The reply came back, "Yes, we are, our folk stayed hidden in Manitoba for many years, but we were forced to leave by lumber interests who bought up our lands for the back taxes. I am the Prince Alpha Randolph, my father was murdered yesterday and I am protecting twenty younglings not yet making their first change. There are also ten pregnant female wolves and ten younglings just past the first change, Can you help us?"

James mind-sent with a roar, "YES, I am Prince Warrior Master James Meese Tate, son of Lord Jeremiah, Lord High Alpha of the Americas. I have an airplane and we can be there in a few hours, can you hold out?"

The young Prince Alpha sent, "Now that I KNOW help is coming, we WILL hold out, somehow. Please hurry!"

The wolf warriors came running from all directions and Prince Bekker sent ten of his own warriors, they were none too bright and were slovenly, but James figured he would get them shaped up or they would be dead, whichever, it didn't make him concerned either way!

His Police Chief Friend ordered up an escort to the airport and they began racing across the huge city to the airport, where he had mind called Prince Paul Tate and warned him to be ready to take off as soon as they got here.

The Police Chief was as good as his word and the local clan's SUVs were doing eighty and ninety miles an hour across town! When they got to the airport, the pilots had the engines rolling on the Red Wolf, warming them up.

The instant the pilots got a closed door signal that the passenger door was closed and locked down, the Red Wolf was rolling towards the runway. The airport had been cleared of all traffic until the emergency was lifted.

The plane launched into the air and Paul's co-pilot was frantically radioing flight plans to Lewiston, Idaho.

The Red Wolf literally leaped into the air and went nearly vertical, clawing for altitude to get over the Cascade Mountains!

They were pushing a terrible amount of fuel through the engines, the exhaust pyrometers were maxed out and Paul had diverted the maximum amount of air he could to keep the lube oil from overheating.

At that point, the Red Wolf was more a rocket than an airplane!

As they approached Lewiston Airport, they were told they could not land. Paul suspected a rat, he was pretty sure the fundamentalists were manning the tower, so he put a call into SAC and asked for assistance, they were on a mercy run!

General Hageland, The Commander of SAC, ordered the tower to let the Red Wolf land, the tower said no and turned off their receiver!

The General scrambled a fighter squadron and sent them to Lewiston. The Squadron TACs (Tactical Air Controllers) invaded the tower and arrested the people manning the screens. The General was fully aware of who and what the Wolf Folk were and what they did!

With SAC air controllers, the Red Wolf landed with hardly any delay. As soon as the plane had stopped rolling, Wolf Warriors were forming up on the tarmac, they had not bothered with the rolling stairs, they merely leaped from the open door.

The Wolf-folk had located the old theater on their GPS and before the plane had stopped rolling, Wolf Warriors, led personally by Prince James Meese Tate, were running towards the town as soon as their feet hit solid ground. Their anger shone in their blood-red eyes and dripping fangs.

A ten-mile run is not even noteworthy to a wolf in his or her prime, they weren't even breathing heavy by the time they got there, except for the warriors loaned to them by the Northwest Clan. They had collapsed along the way!

James pulled out his Great Wolf Sword and began twirling it over his head looking like the Grim Reaper as he ran toward the wall of fundies trying to block their way. The fundies were not brave enough in their beliefs to face that ten foot sword as it whistled over their heads and they broke, running like frightened rabbits.

James mind called for his young contact, Prince Alpha Randy and got a replied, "I am here my Lord Prince Wolf Warrior Master but I am too frightened to be very Randy!"

James heard a gentle giggle as he crashed into the barricade the fundamentalists had placed at the doors to the old theater.

The boards and old tires flew in all directions as the wolf force breached the barricades intended to burn out the children hiding in the old theater!

James found the young wolf Princeling guarding a group of obviously gravid females and a large number of youngsters. He could tell some of them had already made first change, he could see their wolves phasing in and out.

He shouted, "I am Prince Warrior Master Commander James Edward Meese Tate, we must get you out of here, the danger is not over. They could still strike a match to this old tinderbox!"

A couple of the older younglings looked at their rescuer and began to drool, they WERE going to become some of his warriors! They all felt to follow a wolf like that into battle was the ultimate glory for their kind!

A couple of the excited teens could not control their wolves and they came racing out of the old theater and mixed in with James' Warriors. The fundies scattered like wheat chaff, some even diving into trash bins to escape the angry wolves. Their blood-red eyes and dripping fangs were more than their own minds could handle!

The Warriors led the rescued wolves back to the airport, where they saw to it they were all fed before they got them all onboard the Red Wolf. It was a little crowded, but the adult wolf warriors invited the small children to sit on their laps and, very soon, exhausted children were dreaming of huge Wolf Warriors!

James had Prince Alpha Randolph with him, he was a tall, good-looking young wolf and it was evident he cared very much for his folk, with death of his father, Randy had been thrust into a leadership position before he was ready, but he took it seriously.

Prince Randolph checked each of the pregnant females to make none were in distress and he led all the children to the back of the plane where he told them stories to distract their fears.

As soon as they had quieted down, he returned and sat with the younglings who had not yet made the first change, he had an emergency to handle, the emotions of their ordeal had triggered two teens to begin their change, he called for assistance and James came to help a boy go through his first change, while Randy assisted his own twin sister!

Both young wolves were able to call back their humans and they quickly fell asleep, exhausted from their efforts. It was a happy and proud brother who held his sister as she slept, wearied from her ordeal of the first emergence.

Fortunately, the remainder of their flight was quiet and most of the wolf-folk were asleep as Paul put the Red Wolf down at Charlotte Airport.

Lord Tosco had sent buses to bring the rescued Wolves home to Cashiers and wolf mothers were standing by to take the younglings into their own homes to care for them.

James assured the young Prince Alpha that his people would be cared for and that no one would try to take his Clan from him, he would be clan leader and, eventually the Clan Lord Alpha Wolf!

Randy was trying desperately not to cry, James wound his arms around the struggling young wolf and held him while he let go, flooding James' front with his tears, mostly of relief.

Eventually, Lord High Alpha Jeremiah would relocate the small clan with others like it, on the Outer Banks and young Randy would go to the University and join with wolf scientists in hybridizing plants and food crops to produce more food for the world's growing population.

He would never forget how he and his folk had been cared for, and his small clan would be notorious for taking in strays and young wolves, who for unknown reasons, were out on their own.

His own house always had ready-made meals kept in the freezer that needed only to be heated and served to anyone who showed up hungry!

They never went back to their homeland in Manitoba, they felt they were better off among friends who cared about them.

In time, Lord Alpha Randy's house became synonymous for Refuge, there were always youngling wolves staying there to get another start, a little assistance or to recover from an experience gone bad. He never asked questions nor did he judge, he merely helped anyone in need, including quite a few humans who had come his way.

Even Prince Peter showed up one day with a briar in his paw. Randy knew, by then, who Peter was and he gently worked the thorn out of Peter's paw and daubed a little pain killer on it and the wolf prince was as good as new.

After that, whenever Peter was in the area, he made it a point to come to Randy's house and play with the small wolflings who were always around.

They loved to see the old wolf show up, he was always good for a romp and then a good story to fall asleep by.

Several generations of wolves would call Peter, Uncle!

Wolf Society is maturing and becoming partners with their human cousins. No longer did they need to hide and most humans had no fear of being around the wolf kind. The only enemies of both folk were the fundamental religionists and they were unlikely to go away any time soon. The few criminals that remained were so deep in hiding, they were no longer a threat to anyone other than themselves.