Chapter 5

Luke's POV

"Beta, Alpha will be back soon, please wait here." The head guard pushed open the door to his office, and I nodded to him, indicating that I knew, walked over to the coffee machine, and made myself a cup of coffee.

"Did you see that Malcolm? That was incredible." I said to my wolf.

"I'm surprised she even considered the Guard Group, I think her method could be tried." Malcolm was also quite shocked.

I remembered clearly the contents of her notebook.

"Assuming the city has 10 guard units, each with 20 people, and assuming each unit has 3 wounded veterans, there are 30 positions that need to be filled. 30 is not a lot of people, so you can start with the senior schools and send 3 to 4 people from each class in each grade to fill in on a rotating basis when there is no class. Not only does this solve all the vacant guard positions, but it also allows students to be honed for the same purpose as participating in military training. If students do not want to, it is recommended that this be made a mandatory course and directly equated with graduation."

"By allowing students to study while participating in daily training, the selection standards for soldiers as a whole have been raised." Indeed, it's time for those wounded veterans of the Guard to retire. Not to mention that soldiers are also the image of a city, the bottom line of the Wolf Pack. The last time the guests visited, they made a mockery of the wolf pack's image of soldiers. But where the wolf pack could draw manpower now, it wouldn't be so hard for them."

"Do you remember the training style?" Malcolm asked again.

"There's some basic physical training that's not too different from what you get in the military. And one interesting point, she wrote about a kind of energy jerky." I thought back carefully to the point I had just seen. "I think it was called compressed jerky, and only two slices can provide enough energy and overcome hunger. If they really had this, it would be much easier for the army to store food."

"That doesn't sound good." Malcolm shook his head with a disgusted look. "I'd like to know what she is more than the compressed jerky, by the way, she even knows about Eastern Formations."

"Malcolm what do you think would happen if she served in the army?" I started thinking about what it would be like if she became the commander of a wolf pack warrior.

"Bright Moon Pack was founded just nine years ago, and this battle has been fought for nine years, why do you think it's taken so long?" Malcolm asked me rhetorically.

"Compared to the other wolf packs, Bright Moon Pack is still too young, and it's hard for us to match them in terms of weapons or strategic command. The trickiest problem is the lack of an army commander." If those strategies she said could be realized, the army would be naturally powerful and the battle would soon be over.

Gabriel came back, he took off his jacket and sat in a chair and closed his eyes to rest, sighed and looked tired.

"How about that? Would you like a cup?" I raised the coffee in my hand.

He nodded and said faintly. "No sugar."

"Alright, Alpha, you look tired today." I said as I made coffee.

"There's so much going on, I can't wait to have an extra pair of hands right now. Luckily I had you to help me make the rounds at school today, how did it go?"

"I picked up a notebook today, and the contents are quite interesting."

"I'm listening."

"Some military views and strategies for students to replace wounded soldiers in the Guard so as to improve soldier selection standards. There are also enhanced gas masks and emergency compressed jerky for dealing with heart-eaten purple grape, as well as some Eastern Formations for laying out and unsettling." I handed him the coffee.

"Let me see." Gabriel opened his eyes.

"I gave it back to her. It's not nice to rob people, it's not the gentlemanly thing to do." I spread my hands, ignoring his complaining gaze, and continued to speak. "Gabriel, I think what she said can be tried, first strengthen the training of young wolf pack members and hold more pack runs. As for the rest, we can talk to her again." My intuition told me that this girl was not simple, and she might be able to bring hope to the wolf pack.

Gabriel's fingers tapped on the glass, which was a customary gesture I knew he was making to consider.

"Find a time to meet her." He said.

Autumn's POV

Through the small woods on the edge of the playground was the back slope of the school, and a short walk away was the garbage dump, where few people came. I picked a relatively secluded place to sit down, catching my breath and calmly recalling the scene that just happened.

Who was that teacher? How much did he really see? Would he take me as a spy for the other wolves?

I scratched my hair in annoyance, I should not be exposed to these things again.

If I was caught, what should my sister do? She had a hard time becoming the most prestigious doctor in the wolf pack. She was a strong person, how could I drag her down?

"Calm down, Autumn! You have to calm down!"

I took a few deep breaths and turned to the first page of the notebook, double-checking what was inside. It was just a suggestion from the students to replace the wounded veterans of the guard, in line with the cultivation spirit of the Wolf Pack army, an assignment assigned by the professor. The second page, the third page, the fourth page...I tore them all together, tore them up into pieces, and threw them into that brown trash can. That one was a special disposal trash can that was burned in a fire every day at 6pm.

As long as it's burned, no trace of anything would remain and no one would know about my experience abroad.

I stepped into the classroom at the last second of the bell, and it was a lab session.

Kaley knocked over my beaker. "Oops!" she said with no guilt at all, giving me a mocking look.

"Professor, Kaley said she could make a chemical reaction of cold air with these solutions." I didn't want to be an outcry anymore.

She froze, and before she could say a word, she was invited on stage by the professor. "Oh yeah, Kaley, you're welcome to come and give a demonstration."

I led her with applause and the class applauded together as she stood at the podium, somewhat nervously pouring some blue solution into the empty flask. She didn't move on to the next step and looked at me blankly.

"Yes that's right, the blue one first, then add 3 ml of the red solution and two drops of the green one." I automatically filtered out the hatred and doubt in her eyes, and with a sincere tone and professional attitude, pointed to the yellow solution and said. "That 1.8 ml, remember the order, don't mess it up."

She seemed a little hesitant and nervous, but quickly began to move, pouring the solution in order as I said. But after pouring the liquid just happened to mix the effect and turned white.

"Don't you forget, dear? There's 7.3 ml of lime water." I added.

She poured it in slowly and moved her feet back, looking as cautious as I did when I first started cooking for fear of getting burned. As all the liquid melted, the beaker exploded into a huge cloud of tiny ice cubes, and Kaley was so close that they landed on her face, clothes and hair, looking like flour from afar.

The students laughed and the professor expressed his appreciation. "Very impressive, Kaley."

She returned to her seat and looked at me without saying a word.

"You're great, Kaley," I said giving her a provocative smile.

The bell rang and I picked up my bag and headed out the door when Geri called out to me. "Together?"

"No, I'm going to Pine Street."

"Pine Street?"

"Yes, new store opening." I showed him the flyer I got in front of the school this morning. "Delicious almond croissants buy one get one free."

"Oh well, it's a little far from my house, so I won't be going." He said with slight regret.

I followed the directions on the flyer to Pine Street. There were not many people on this side, and there were no signs. There didn't seem to be any stores along the whole road, and there was no smell of bread in the air.

I took another look at the flyer to confirm the location. "Em... Turn right at the end of the road, near Oak Street, and it should be a three-minute walk."

"Autumn!"

It's Gabriel's voice!

I looked around and there was no one there.

"Autumn!"

My heart suddenly began to beat faster.

Here we go again. What's going on? Was he here? I looked to the end of the road, my feet moved forward uncontrollably, and my gut told me that he was there.

I drew my legs and ran forward. Before I reached the intersection, I heard the sound of crying, and I carefully pressed myself against the wall and hid in the corner.

At the end of the road, to the right, was a narrow path, and a girl was cornered. Two men surrounded her, both with ravens with wolf tails tattooed on their arms, a design I'd seen in a library geography book.

One of the men ripped open the girl's dress, the metal buttons fell apart in all directions, along with the bells of her bow tie fell together and rolled to my feet.

Jesus, what were these people up to?

I had to save her!

I looked around and there was no one there and I couldn't turn into a wolf to fight.

I became anxious and nervous.

Suddenly a guard team walked by, and I was as glad as if I had seen a lifeline, but I couldn't wave and shout for fear of alerting the two men.

I tiptoed around to prepare to go around to where the guards were patrolling, only this preparation was not thorough enough and I kicked the bell at my feet.

My heart stopped; it went on strike for a second, and then panicked and sped up again, the last time this experience was on an amusement park roller coaster.

The coarse words of the two men stopped and only the sound of the girls crying remained.

I must be screwed.

The next second, I was pulled into the alley by a brute force, two men with lewd looks and an unpleasant odor emanating from their entire bodies.

"Very good, this one is even prettier." A male spoke up and I almost died from his bad breath.

"Just one for each." The other guy finished and ran his hand up the girl's thigh.

"Stop it! We are from the palace." I tried to calm them down by forcing my composure and disguising myself as someone from the palace.

"So what if the people of the palace? This place is not your palace."

His dirty hands touched my breasts and I screamed out in terror. "Get your hands off me, you bastards!"

I struggled hard but to no avail. He tore off my clothes, a coolness poured into my body and my tears fell. I waved my hands wildly and scratched his face with a handful of nails.

"What a little wildcat." He spat on the floor and smiled even more obscenely, with evil in his eyes and face. He grabbed me by the hair and slammed it straight into the wall.

I felt a sudden wave of dizziness, my forehead felt like it was burning, warm liquid flowed to the corner of my mouth, and I tasted a fishy sweetness. My eyes went black, but the man did not stop, he continued to press my head against the wall, I gradually lost consciousness.

"Gabriel, save me..."