"You think you're an alpha? I'll kill you where you stand, trying to be on my level." Percral got up in my face as he began to scream.

"Heh, you all are exhausted from the hunt, and, looking how you've got nothing to bring back, looks like you exhausted yourselves for nothing. I'm the only one here who's killed a keelish before." I didn't back down, but looked firmly in his eyes. "You want to be my second casualty?"

Percral laughed, getting more in my face. "You think you can reason your way out of this? Exhausted and hungry, I'll need only 30 seconds to rip your throat out. Try me. You're no Tieran."

The two packs began raising hackles and an all-out war seemed imminent.

"Percral, would you do me a favor?" Suddenly, Shemira's voice interjected. "He's a prideful one, but I plan on breaking him, not killing him. For me, would you show him mercy?" She sidled up to him, close enough to gently run her tail up his ribs. He shivered, eyes rolling. Then, remembering himself, he turned to her. "Well, if you say so. I still think he's better breathing his last in a pool of his own blood." He glared at me, then went to his abandoned hovel, where he screeched at his followers in general, and settled down, commanding one of the females to lick his wounds. I guess he was trying to take a page out of Tieran's book.

I turned to Shemira.

"Thanks. There are enough of them that casualties were sure if something had really started." I was already short followers, I wasn't about to start getting into unnecessary fights and get them killed. Once I evolved, however... Percral would get what was coming to him.

"I wasn't lying, neither this morning nor now. I will make you follow me. You have potential, and I admit that I was wrong about your leadership ability. But you will be more than you are now if you decide to follow me." Just as she did to Percral, she went to run her tail lazily up my side, but I stepped aside.

"Again, thank you. But no, I am doing quite well on my own." Looking past her at her followers, it would seem that they'd had another successful day's hunt, with three frogs of their own in their jaws. There were no deaths in her pack, but there were two sporting nasty bite wounds from Toothy Bullfrogs.

Shemira licked her teeth in what surely was meant to be a comely fashion, but I merely rolled my eyes and turned back to my pack.

"Alright. From now, never be alone. Ever. We will deal with Percral, but that day is not today. Until then, be with a companion at all times. And, if they start it," I bared my teeth, "finish it."

My core four grinned wolfishly at my words, but Vefir and Silf seemed taken aback at my severe reaction.

"You don't seem to understand. You are part of the pack, and those who offend you shall pay back the price of their foolishness in blood."

When they still stayed silent, Oncli chimed in. "Boss will retreat, but he never loses, you'll see. We're gonna get those things that hit me yesterday. I know we will."

I rolled my eyes and allowed him to keep on running his mouth as he always did. I don't much care about it right now, since we're just settling into our personal den at this point.

It just had one communal space at this point, probably about 7m by 5m, which is more than large enough for us all to have our own spaces, leave a space for the food storage, and still have space for whichever others I can convince to join us. And, one more thing, that I was going to do right now.

"Took, Treel. C'mere."

The two females looked confused and approached me.

"You both want to be beta, don't you?"

Took immediately nodded, while Treel thought for a moment, then responded. "M'lord, aye c'nt tell yeh what aye th'nk yeh shood do."

"First, don't call me 'lord'. Second, I'm asking if you want to be beta. You do, don't you?"

She cautiously nodded.

"Good. We're making progress. Do any of you," I asked this while turning to the other four, "want to enter the running as well?"

Foire, Vefir and Silf simply shook their heads no, but Oncli couldn't help but open his mouth. "Boss, I would enter, but I think that the responsibility would be too much for me. But I would definitely win if I did enter."

"Well, keep in mind that everyone here heard you and I won't tell them how they should or shouldn't discipline you when beta has been decided. Good luck."

Oncli began sputtering excuses as I ignored him and turned back to the two females.

"I believe you both to be equally capable in the position, and I don't want you two to get the rest of us into trouble because you're having some competition again, like you were today." They both slightly hung their heads in shame. "Therefore, the results today are final, and I don't wanna hear about it again later. Aiight?"

They both nodded.

"Great. Then, here's what we're doing. Frankly, the position of beta will primarily matter during the hunt, so I want to see which of you is more qualified in battle." The two began to ready themselves for a fight before I finished speaking. "WAIT!" I shouted. "I still need both of you in my pack, and I think it stupid for you to injure each other in a bid for leadership. So, here's the rules. You will have this space over here," I gestured at the deepest part of our den, "to determine who is the winner. Whoever can put their opponent in a sufficiently dangerous situation without doing significant injury will be invited to be my beta. If you seriously injure your opponent you will be deemed the loser, putting pride before success. Am I clear?"

The females nodded, and retreated to two corners of what I was currently deeming the fight pit. Took had a bit of a size advantage, but I had seen Treel moving, and she was quicker, so I figured this would be a close match. I was right.

As I called for them to begin, both rushed at each other, with Treel attempting to dodge to the side at the last moment. Took had seen this coming, however, and smashed her head into Treel's flank, knocking her back and nearly to the ground. Treel was able to make a quick recovery though, and swiftly circled around. Unfortunately for her, she lost her mobility advantage at that point, as her left leg was a little hurt, and she needed to be slightly careful with it. Took pressed her advantage, but was unable to pin Treel down, and seemed frustrated that she couldn't just rip into her opponent with her fangs, yet she still adhered to the rules of the duel. In the end, Took was able to close the distance and, while feinting right, got Treel to dodge... right into her swinging tail. After being clobbered, Treel needed a moment's rest, but she got none. Took broadsided her stunned competition and pinned her down, and almost gently took her neck in her mouth. Feeling the threat of death, Treel immediately calmed down, and knew she was beaten.

Took stood proud and screeched her victory into the cave, which reverberated almost deafeningly off the walls as she approached me.

"Took," I nodded gravely at her, "will you be my beta, to lead the pack by fang and blood, to victory?"

"VICTORY!" She yelled, and it was quickly echoed by the rest of the pack.

I swore I could hear the screeching calls for "victory" in the walls until I fell asleep that night.