Mage And Wolf
Chapter 303

Chapter 303: Chapter 303

I manage to collect a half dozen brisket sandwiches and a sample of the side dishes on a plate and find a quiet spot to eat before the buffet tables get too busy, a life skill gained during my youth when I was the one serving at the buffet.

Nowhere in the pack is empty today though, not with members of two other packs here expecting to play the game. Halfway through dinner I’m joined by a bunch of the local pack’s children. They seem a bit hesitant about sitting with a stranger here on a big rock at the edge of the tree line, but a smile and a pat of the ground inviting them to join me is all it takes to change their mind.

"Hi lady. My name is Hyena and I’m five. A little boy introduced himself, with barbecue sauce on his hands and face.

"I’m Katrina. Are you all enjoying the barbecue?"

The boy called Hyena nods happily but the others shake their heads. I wonder what’s up, hopefully nobody is bullying the pups.

"The new Alpha is scary, and her pack members are huge. Like, way bigger than normal adults. They haven’t been mean yet, but they’re still scary." One of the other boys whispers to me.

"I’ll tell you a secret. They’re actually really nice. See that big guy over there flirting with the Omegas? That’s Steve. Everywhere he goes he gives one pup who is either really brave or really well behaved a special toy. He keeps a whole storage ring full of them. When he first came to visit my home he gave my friend a big stuffed wolf."

The pups giggle. "You’re silly, why would that scary warrior have a bag full of toys? But now he doesn’t look as scary. I just need to imagine him like our Gamma giving out presents on the solstice."

He points out a red haired guy standing near John. They’re both shirtless and amazingly toned, but side by side John is much bigger. I never really noticed, but even compared to other Lycans in the Divine Planes, the human forms of the Royal Pack are very large. I’m pretty certain that Leanne wouldn’t have taken Steve, much less John in a challenge fight, but she was a match for the Alpha here, and her rage put her over the top.

"Are you from a different place than they are? Will you be that huge when you’re an adult?" One of the little girls asks, genuinely curious.

"I’m from a very different place. I’m actually all grown, this is a big as I will get. I’ll never be huge and scary like them." I inform her with a smile.

"How grown? Have you met your mate?" She asks. It’s a strange criteria for adulthood, but honestly it is an effective litmus test.

"Yep, his name is Karl. He was busy and couldn’t come today. He’s big too, but not as tall as Steve and John."

Once we’re all done eating I take out a bowl from my storage and set it on the rock before filling it with water. Hyena promptly sticks his sauce covered face in and starts drinking, drawing laughter from the others.

"You’re supposed to wash with it, not drink it doofus." One of his friends teases.

"Yeah, I totally know that. I was, uh, washing my face." His buddies don’t even bother trying to believe his story, just laughing and rinsing their hands in the bowl.

Hyena and the boys run off to the training grounds to wrestle, leaving me with just a pair of female pups about six years old for company. They’re about to show me to an extra special hidden spot that they like when John comes over with Steve, a concerned look on both of their faces.

"We got a message from the Alpha, the Nephilim King has found your mate, but there’s a minor difficulty. He seems to be trapped in a five dimensional space. It’s something like a Tesseract Vault that’s used to imprison Immortals, but impossibly more complex. They think you should come see it for yourself."

A four dimensional space has a time dimension added to the usual three, but what on earth is the fifth dimension? In my head, Karl’s consciousness is still there through the mate bond, and I get the impression he’s cultivating, but if he’s locked somewhere strange, that impression might be false.

"Sorry little ones, we’ve got to borrow your new friend." Steve says with a smile, then pulls a small stuffed doll that looks suspiciously like me, mostly human with wolf ears and tail in my Strawberry Blonde color with black gem eyes.

"Have this as my apology." I know that smirk. He totally had that doll made to look like me, and he’s probably got more of them.

The look on the girls face when they realize I wasn’t joking about him giving away toys to the pups of the packs he visits is absolutely priceless. But I don’t have time to enjoy it, as John contacts someone and a portal opens under our feet, dropping us through to a familiar room in the Nephilim castle.

Is the King’s study and a great number of people are already here. Everyone has a look of concern on their face. This hasn’t a talk about Karl’s location, that I’m certain of.

At first I’m not sure why there is such a variety of people here until I see the six sets of blind eyes. There are Oracles from six different species here, waiting on my arrival. Song, Lelou, Hui’Jin and Lala have been assembled as well, looking incredibly uncomfortable.

Well, not Elder Song, but the others look pretty uncomfortable.

The Nephilim King clears his throat with a somber look. "That’s everyone. I might as well start the proceedings. At the request of the Human and Titan faction councils, an investigation into the formation of a new Pantheon has been conducted and concluded. It is the finding of this panel that the issue is a valid one, and the Oracles have been assembled to give their insights into the nature of this potential Pantheon."

That’s a lot to digest. And it could go a lot of different ways, depending what the Oracles see. I should have brought more brisket sandwiches with me.