Alpha stepped inside the room, dressed in a military coat, accompanied by Blaze, Ron, and Svetlana. Blaze was dressed in a strict black shirt reaching all the way to her ankles, a white shirt, black tie; and a green vest without sleeves. She gestured with one paw to everyone within the room, stopping instantly the moment Alpha glanced at her. Ron was dressed in black pants, a white shirt, and a green vest. He simply smiled, holding Sveta back by the shoulder, away from the field of fear that crept from Alpha in a wide arc inside the room.

After becoming the wolf hag, Annie became privy to the personal biographies of all warlords and learned about their medical conditions and powers. Of course, there were some gaps, such as the absence of Valerye and Zero's faces from the records, but Annie learned a lot overall. Alpha’s personal power was the passive ability to cause unnatural horror in others. Even the bravest people died or became mad in the wake of the full release of Alpha’s power. The passive powers were usually the powers that a new breed could not control. Some new breeds with passive powers were constantly on fire, others could see for a few seconds into the future. Through incredible concentration, Alpha gained a modicum of control over her power, storing the fear within herself and only releasing a paltry part in the direction that she wished it to be released, using it like a whip to motivate her soldiers or to gain their attention. Sometimes, however, she did slip in her control over the power, causing people around her to feel uncomfortable. But Alpha claimed with pride that her control over her passive power was nearly absolute, in all the centuries that she was alive, the victims of her power became dead or mad only because she wished so.

In accordance with state law, the users of dangerous passive powers, like Alpha, were meant to take the power suppression drug, special pills produced by Iterna. The pharmacy companies in Iterna started to produce them after an unfortunate incident when a newborn set a whole hospital on fire with his passive power. Granted, it was an Iternian hospital, so even though people received serious burns, nobody died, and everyone recovered.

The newborn was placed in a special room, while scientists were busy trying to find a way to ensure that he will be able to live a normal life. Rho’s pharmacy company, Healthcare Universal, was the one that was able to produce a universal drug that could temporarily suppress powers. Surprisingly, many people around the world were ready to pay for having their personal powers reigned in and drug became widespread, even being included in the international treaty between three major countries. This drug was also used to ensure that criminals from the ranks of new breeds with powers wouldn’t escape confinement.

Alpha refused to take the pills, claiming that she joined the military before such a law existed and thus had never agreed to it. She refused to listen even to the Dynast, going so far as to be willing to leave the force and the state should this law be enforced on her. Her reason for her refusal was that she was losing all her hair after consuming a power suppressant pill. No one knew what was causing this side effect in her case, and Alpha herself refused to visit Iterna in order to be investigated. The Rho's pharmacy company claimed that no other abnormal had ever experienced such a side effect, and they were also baffled as to why this was happening. Argus Rho personally offered a large sum of tokens to Alpha if she would just arrive for the examination in Iterna, yet the warlord refused this offer as well. Finally, the Dynast agreed to allow Alpha to stay exempt from the law, provided that she never permanently harms civilians and non-hostiles with her power. The state’s scientists developed a special "bed" for Alpha, made in the form of a box, where she could sleep safely without being worried that her powers will harm her allies or civilians, instead of leaving her to sleep in the wastelands as she had to do before.

Alpha made two steps inside, glancing at Lucendra and the others who were sitting on the sidelines.

"Sit and relax," Alpha commanded to them, "Continue eating. You are good cubs. I am missing for several days due to the internal investigation, and discipline appears to be deteriorating." she said to everyone else.

"We were merely involved in the hand-to-hand training course, warlord." Virginia quickly said.

"Is that so?" When Alpha appeared in front of Virginia, she moved more like a teleporter. To Annie's eyes, the warlord simply vanished from one location and reappeared in another. The warlord looked at the wolfkins around her critically and said, "Admirable if that is so. No badly torn skin, no lacerated wounds, no serious damage overall, just bruises here and there…" Alpha looked mildly and pleasantly surprised, moving across the wolfkins, her large snout before them, sniffing the people in front of her. She returned to Virginia after walking the length of the hall in silence.

"It was all thanks to the wise command of the wolf hag Annie. Everybody was willing to give up, rather than hurt each other, ma’am." Virginia nodded at the fellow wolf hag.

"My command only worked because Virginia and Kayleen trained their packs exemplarily!" Annie quickly said, "I became the wolf hag not too long ago and barely had any paw in commanding my new pack, ma’am!"

"How curious," Eyes of the Alpha sized up Annie for a moment, before looking back on Virginia, "Usually at this part, I punish the degradants. However, it really looks like this was just a friendly sparring match," Alpha blinked, and the fear disappeared, like fog before a hurricane, "Svetlana, you were right to call me here. However, nothing serious happened. Virginia, Annie, the construction of a terminal network is happening near the village. Your packs are volunteered to aid in the construction. Am I understood?"

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"Yes, ma’am!" Annie and Virginia saluted at once.

"Additional rations to the ones who decided to sit out this "friendly brawl" aside. They are free to stay aside from this voluntary duty as well," Alpha silenced starting to talk Lucendra with a gesture, "Feel free to join if you wish, although I would rather have you spend time learning something useful."

"Uh, about that…" Svetlana said, and the gigantic being turned to her, "Can I speak with you for a moment, warlord?"

The warlord crossed the distance between her and the nurse in a flash, bending low and almost hiding Svetlana’s body with her bulk. The head of Alpha was as big as Svetlana’s torso, and now the warlord’s head was right next to Svetlana’s head: "Speak," The warlord commanded, and Annie looked with worry at how Svetlana was hushing something into the Alpha’s ear. The explosive temperament of Alpha was well known, the warlord had little tolerance when she felt that others were wasting her time. Alpha straightened up, turning toward the wolfkins, her eyes wide. Not in anger, however: "Raise a paw, all who never finished school," Alpha clicked her tongue, upon seeing a forest of arms. With a surprise, Annie noticed that Lucendra and others did not raise their paws, "You have a week to find a mentor, a person who will help you join and finish any online school in the state, and report to me. The cost of the mentor’s lessons will be paid by the state. If you can’t find a mentor or are too shy to find one, I will wait for you in my office later tonight or tomorrow. There will be no punishment for failure to find a mentor, I myself will ensure that you will learn enough to complete an education course. Volunteered help is hereby postponed but not cancelled. Dismissed, have your wounds treated by the medics at once."

"Dearest kin, Omega team is of course ready to help," Ron said, and Alpha glanced at him once, before leaving the room, "Please do not be shy, none of us bite. Wild Rabbit?"

"Suck it, Ron. Already found myself a teacher." Virginia wanted to slap Svetlana on her back, but instead just pointed at her with both index fingers.

"I for one, will gladly take this offer," Carty said, wiping out blood from the corner of her mouth. She bowed to Blaze, "Lady Blaze, are you willing to teach this dimwit?"

"Of course, lady Carty," Blaze said, gracefully bowing to the wolfkin in front of her, "it will be an honor. And maybe we will get our rematch out of the way as well, eh?"

"Sorry, but no. Claim a win if you want, but our fight ended two years ago," Carty said, shrugging her shoulders, "Fighting you now would be a bullying."

"Oh, how you tease me so, lady Carty." Blaze smiled wickedly. The wolfkin who kicked Annie also came to join the ones willing to ask Blaze for help.

Ron looked visibly hurt that no one was willing to ask him for help: "Come on, I'm not biting. Is this because I am a male?" He rolled his eyes, seeing the nods, "So what? This is not the battle, why do you care? Success is all what matters." Several warriors and several soldiers hesitantly moved towards him.

"If you want to, I can help you as well…" Svetka started to talk, but Annie glanced at the sister furiously.

"Didn’t ask to, didn’t need to," She stopped, feeling a pain in her guts. She forced an admission from her lips, "But I do need medical help."

"Yep, me too." Virginia wiped the blood from her lips.

After visiting the infirmary and allowing Svetlana to treat her wounds, Annie returned back to her own room, rummaging through her things. She found the golden pin, noticing with surprise that she somehow hadn’t lost it after all these years. She put it aside, deciding to send it to a museum for safeguarding. After rummaging some more, she found a metal card, gifted to her by Till Ingo. She took it into her paws, wondering if he would even remember her. Probably not, but a chance was a chance.

She left for the communication center and paid for a session, hastily inputting the numbers. To her surprise, instead of a typical connection, an encryption came back, taking control over all the cameras in the room. Something or someone was looking at her from all sides before patching her call to the Till. Finally, cameras came offline, a clear breach of protocol, and the display came to life, showing the face of Till Ingo, who was dressed in a jumpsuit:

"Annie, is that right?" He asked, his eyes moving and noticing her growth, "My, how you've grown. Ready to join the experiment by any chance? I came up with a new idea, injections of the nanomachines straight into the bloodstream. The test subjects showed an adequate increase in physical prowess and, aside from a few fashionably looking glowing bones…"

"No!" Annie almost shouted back, before bowing, "Greetings, mister Till. Sorry for the late call, but I am in need of your help," He prompted her to keep on speaking with his silver arm, "I need to finish school. It is probably bold of me to distract you from your work and…"

"Oh, please, I can concentrate on two things at once," Till frowned, and his forehead glowed a little. He pressed his hands together and nodded, "Yes, I do have a bit of free time. Prepare your daily schedule and send it to me," He frowned again, looking at something, "Are you seriously paying for this call right now?"

"Yes, but don’t worry!" Annie quickly responded, afraid that he might pull Camelia on her. While accepting tokens from the cousin was one thing, accepting tokens from an unknown person was beyond humiliating, "Warlord Alpha promised that the cost of the mentor’s lessons would be covered."

Till smiled, and his calm and assured smile caused worry in Annie. Something akin to happiness flashed in his eyes: "And here is my way in," He whispered softly and triumphally, before giving a quick nod, "I will contact Wyrm Lord myself. I am waiting for your working schedule pronto, we need to find out at which hours I can teach you. Also, please inform anyone else who is interested in learning that they are welcome to participate"

Contact Wyrm Lord? Annie’s felt how her thoughts started racing, trying to find the reason, any reason why this man would bother to contact her liege. Surely I didn’t do anything wrong, right?