Foster shook hands and returned smiles to all the people leaving his house. Then, he shut the door and let the ‘Alpha smile’ leave his face. Had he known that being a werewolf Alpha consisted of so much politicking… Well, to be honest, he would have probably still gone for it. He would have just been much more careful with the amount of optimism he had looked at the position with. He had expected moon-lit pack runs, family-like dynamics and a ton of being out in the nature. These still happened, of course, but that was in addition to trying to play a peacemaker between different pack members, a family counselor, a psychotherapist or a priest when it came to giving out advice on various life-issues or consoling people, a politician navigating the dangerous waters of inter-supernatural politics, the actual mayor of a small town…

“You okay there, Boss?” Carl’s deep voice was a welcome distraction. His ‘pack-enforcer slash town policeman’ friend was always there to have his back.

“I will be,” he answered gathering himself and walking back to where Carl still sat in Foster’s living room. Carl’s wife, Nina, was there with him, always willing to give a sympathetic female ear for Foster to vent about his troubles.

“That went fairly well, don’t you think, Alpha?” Nina smiled at Foster with her eyebrows raised. Foster growled.

“Nina!” his voice held a warning. The woman laughed.

“Come on, don’t be so uptight, Alpha!” Her face was dimpled with amusement. Foster decided to fight fire with fire.

“I shall listen to your sage advice, First Bitch.” He nodded, his face schooled in a respectful frown. Nina grimaced, her dimples disappearing with the official title. She hated being called by her position about as much as Foster did.

“Touché!” she turned serious once more. “But I meant what I said. You managed to placate them in the end.” Foster sighed before answering.

“I don’t like that they’re forcing this on me. It doesn’t seem right. He’s just a kid, barely eleven. How can they push me to bite him? Surely they realise he’s not a threat?” Foster really did not understand his pack council’s standpoint. Why were they so adamant he turn his nephew before allowing him to join the town? It was, once again, Nina who explained it to him. Even with as long as Foster had been a supernatural, and as much as he had learned, there were still some cultural intricacies which escaped him. Nina, the matriarch of the pack, was always there to support him. He had truly lucked out that Mr. Crowhurst’s daughter was so willing to support a newcomer, a recent turned at that, as the next Alpha.

“I think…” she started, her blue eyes turning thoughtful. “It’s hard to explain to someone who did not grow up in supe community. I think it’s like trying to explain Irish Trouble to someone from outside the country. It is a complex matter and so deeply ingrained in us…” She thought for a bit more. Foster and Carl both knew it was best to give her time. Finally she looked up at Foster again. “Do you know how the so called supe blood is something more than a genetic trait? That sometimes even adopted children will start exhibiting symptoms of becoming the same type of supe creature as their adoptive parents? And then, sometimes a child that for all intents and purposes should have been a supernatural as one of their parents was, but they grew up among their human family and turned out to be entirely human?” Foster nodded and Nina continued. “There are some rare cases where a supernatural meets a human with grown up children. Research shows that children over fifteen years of age will not become supernatural in this process.” She paused and took a deep breath as if steeling herself for something. “There have been cases, where these children turned against their parent and step-parent. In quite a few of these instances, things turned violent. The human children attacked their supernatural families. Patricide, matricide, familicide… After quite a few of these cases becoming known supernatural communities countrywide, and often also world-wide began introducing the rule that human children over fifteen as well as adult human family-members are not allowed to live within the community unless they undergo a transformation. Not every community has that rule, but… There were a few families which moved to Fulsham after having survived such a tragedy. They advocated strongly for this change and convinced the then councils of all major supe groups. The last few generations grew up learning all about their stories. It is still a very real fear in many of our community members’ hearts.”

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“I get that.” Foster sighed. “But Robbie is eleven. Eleven! He has plenty of time to transform without a bite. So why are they forcing my hand in this?” This time it was Carl who delivered the uncomfortable truth.

“You’re right, Boss, he is still young. He also comes from a very rich and powerful family. He will inherit a massive business and a lot of money. And you do not know how the paternal side of his family will react to your brother-in-law’s will. There is a possibility of conflict in this situation. The pack council members are looking out for both their own as well as your benefit. If Robbie is a wolf, then everyone in the pack will feel safe and the whole town will back you up if a conflict arises. You will have the support of vampire lawyers and politicians, the Selkies in child protection services, and many others.”

“But it’s such a horrible, horrible experience, I wouldn’t wish it on a child.” Foster was still apprehensive.

“Look, I get it, okay?” Nina leaned forward and patted his shoulder comfortingly. “My auntie married a guy who had a fifteen-year old son. The kid’s mother had died when he was young, and the man wasn’t willing to leave him with any family member. My Auntie hated that the kid had to go through the transformation even though the kid himself was super excited about it. It was rough, true, we were all waiting on pins and needles, but once he had transformed he was back back no normal in a blink, strong and healthy as anything. Trust me, kids bounce back from a bite much easier than adults.”

“Really?” That was a new information to Foster. His own transformation had been a nightmare of pain, fever and delirious dreams. It did not help that he didn’t understand what was happening to him. He had though he’d caught rabies from the wolf and hallucinated it turning into human. On top of that the alpha who bit him didn’t really speak much English and Foster hadn’t understood his explanations.

“Mhm, kids’ systems are much more robust and they recover much quicker than adults.” Nina smiled reassuringly. Foster sighed again but then gave up. There was nothing to it. He would either bite Rob, or the kid would have to live a very lonely existence possibly being bullied and ostracised. He didn’t wish it on the kid.

He thought back to their first meeting, a few days ago. It was very awkward. Foster didn’t really deal with children all that much, other than his visits too school every now and then for ‘ask the alpha’ sessions. The kids would ask him all kinds of questions and he’d do his best to answer them. But even after the short time he had had with Robbie, he was already feeling the connection. Rob was such a cute kid. He was slim but reasonably tall for his age, with dark hair and hazel eyes. He was very well read and spoke in quite a mature manner. Still, he was very polite and, once Foster found a topic the kid was interested in, a real chatterbox. He was also a proper bookworm. Foster had been amazed by how much his nephew loved to read. And he loved learning! Rob seemed to soak any kind of knowledge like a sponge. Foster could just imagine him, years from now, as a well educated, charming and powerful Alpha wolf, leading the future generations of Fulsham in Foster’s stead. Foster felt a stupid smile spread over his face. Carl snorted then slapped his knees.

“Well then, we’re off. Let us know when your meeting with the town council is, eh? We wanna be there to support you, yeah?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, that’s fine. I’ll let you guys know.” Foster let the thoughts of his cute nephew disperse as he focused on the here and now. He walked his friends to the front door then went to grab something to eat. He still had a lot of admin work that he needed to accomplish today, some more documents that he needed to collect for Robin’s lawyers’ and some more planning to do before he spoke to the representatives of the other supe races in the town council meeting. The work of an Alpha werewolf never ended.