Huo Lohse spent the next week in nearly constant meditation, stopping only to eat and sleep. She didn’t have the energy for combat training, and she couldn’t produce her ultimate anymore anyway. But she didn’t complain. In fact, Lolo seemed quite happy to meditate. It served as a reminder that Philige was safe, that somehow, she’d found a way to both protect him and marry him, and that was enough.

Zhongyan’s coronation date was six days away, and the team packed up to visit the Wolf Tribe. Lolo was excited to go home, but Fortus somehow seemed even more excited.

“Are you looking forward to bringing your fiancé home? Is he prepared to be attacked by your brothers?” he asked casually as they saddled up their horses.

Lolo laughed. “Actually, my brothers are relatively appeased knowing that you approve of him, Fortus. And Qingchi was sparring partners with Philige during the exchange for four years. I think Philige has a pretty decent shot of getting through the next week alive.”

Fortus chuckled. “Do you know what the plan is for the next few days, apart from the coronation and all the prep-work for it?”

“Not specifically,” Lolo grinned hearing the deliberately controlled enthusiasm in his voice. “Is there anything in particular that you want to do while we are home?”

Fortus grinned. She’d said “while we are home”, and it was true. Without his father to return home to, Pack Hall felt more like home to Fortus than the Lion Tribe, especially after spending seven months living there after his father had been killed. “Nothing specific.”

Lolo smiled. “I know Lingdao and Zizai are especially excited to see you again. Zizai wrote me last week to ask me if you were planning on coming. I think he’s missed you.”

Fortus surprised himself by saying, “I’ve missed him too.”

“Really?” she looked at him slyly.

He cleared his throat from embarrassment.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, you know.”

“What is?”

“Looking forward to seeing someone.”

There wasn’t much point in denying it to her. She could see right through him anyway. “We’ve never really talked about it.”

“Talked about what exactly?”

“The months I lived with your family.”

Lolo nodded. “You haven’t brought it up. I’ve felt like maybe that was part of your grieving process, so I didn’t want to bring it up in case you didn’t want to talk about it.”

“I know. And it’s true. Those were a really rough few months. But looking back on it now, I kind of miss it.”

“Miss what exactly?”

“Having a family,” Fortus said without thinking.

Lolo looked up at him as he blushed bright pink. Without a word, Lolo stopped what she was doing to give him a hug. “Then let’s go home.”

***

Her brothers were all camped out by the front gate playing cards to pass the time while they waited. They looked up to the sound of horse hooves.

“Lolo!” The Lang brothers all stood up to rush her, making Choloo a little nervous. Apart from the Wolf Tribe battle, which hardly counted in their minds, they hadn’t seen their little sister in nearly a year. That was easily the longest time they’d been apart.

“At least give me a chance to get off my horse!” she laughed as Qingchi found her waist to pull her down for a hug. “Choloo spooks easily.”

The boys started peppering her with questions that she didn’t have a prayer of being able to answer quickly enough.

“You’re getting married?!”

“How’s training been going?”

“Zhongyan said you’re the Silver Wolf. What does that even mean?!”

“Is it true that you held the gate all by yourself?”

“How are you even still alive?”

“Why haven’t you come home to visit?”

Lolo just laughed as she got passed around the circle for hugs.

Behind her, Philige and her team dismounted their horses to greet the wolf princes but got more than they bargained for as they each got similarly passed around for hugs. While Fortus and Philige took it in stride, Lolo grinned watching Standig, Ulana and Jadu struggle with the bombardment.

“So,” Qingchi said, slinging his arm around Philige’s shoulders, “you think you want to become a part of this family, huh?”

“Yeah,” Rensui added, pretending to be offended, “who thought that was a good idea?”

“You know,” Haowan grinned mischievously, looking up at Standig, “that kind of makes you a brother too.”

“How do you feel about that?” Lingdao continued the tease.

Standig shrugged, but the smile playing at the corners of his mouth betrayed him.

“First Fortus, and now the Tragens,” Zizai shook his head with a grin and nudged Fortus playfully. “Lolo keeps bringing home strays. I think we’d better accept the inevitable right now and adopt Ulana and Jadu while we’re at it.”

“We’ve still got our own families, thanks,” Ulana chirped. “We can be the awkward cousins that you only see at big family reunions and stuff.”

“That’s fair enough,” Zizai agreed.

Zhongyan found Lolo for another hug. “Dad wants to see you. He asked me to bring you to him as soon as you got settled.”

“Why don’t you just go now? I’ll take care of Choloo for you,” Ulana offered.

“And I’ll take your things to your room,” Fortus added.

“Thanks guys,” Lolo smiled and followed Zhongyan through the front gate.

“You look tired, Lolo,” Zhongyan observed.

“So do you,” she said, catching him around his waist as they walked. “Zhongyan, are you ready to be the Alpha?”

He stopped abruptly to look at her. “You know, Lolo, I don’t know that I will ever be ready. Dad told you about the reprieve on the marriage rule, right?”

She nodded, concern lining her forehead.

“That helped with the logistics a little, and I’m assuming that dad also told you that Haowan is going to be my Beta for the foreseeable future. Lolo, don’t tell dad this, but the more I’ve thought about it, the more I don’t really want to be the Alpha without a proper Beta. Actually, I’m kind of jealous that you’re getting married.”

“I’m sorry, Zhongyan,” Lolo said, wrapping him in a hug. “Dad said you’re still interested in Et’zana?”

Zhongyan smiled at the mention of her name. “Yeah. But it’s hard to pursue a relationship with her when she lives on the other side of the world.”

“Have you stayed in touch with her?”

“Of course! We’ve been pen pals since our Wolf Tribe exchange.”

“Have you two talked about dating recently?”

Zhongyan sighed. “Yes.”

“That doesn’t sound very encouraging.”

“Et’zana doesn’t like the idea of a long-distance relationship. I can’t say that I blame her. I’ve been trying to persuade her to come visit. I’m not sure what the hang-up is for her, but she’s been resisting.”

“It’s kind of a lot of pressure, Zhongyan,” Lolo tread carefully. “I mean, you’re basically asking her to come here as your girlfriend while hoping for more than that.”

His shoulders slumped a little. “I know. But once I’m the Alpha, I don’t know how I’m going to fit dating in. If Et’zana isn’t interested, well, I’m not going to lie, that would really suck, but the question then becomes, how do I meet girls to date? Being the Alpha makes things complicated, you know?”

Lolo nodded. “Yeah, actually. You’re talking to the girl that’s marrying the Bear Tribe leader in a couple of weeks. I don’t think that would have ever happened if I hadn’t already been training in the Bear Tribe and staying as a guest in the Leader’s Lodge.”

Zhongyan groaned. “See, that’s exactly my point!”

“I have an idea, though,” Lolo said with a grin.

“Yeah? What’s that?” Zhongyan was feeling less than optimistic.

“Did you know that Et’zana really loves books?”

“I mean, yeah. She’ll occasionally mention that she’s been reading a good book.”

“We have a pretty good library, Zhongyan….”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Are you suggesting that I should tempt her to come visit by mentioning the library?”

Lolo raised her eyebrows and shrugged. “I was thinking that you might try becoming a reader yourself, find a really good book in the library to tell her about… and then, yes, mention the library.”

Lolo watched the gears grind in Zhongyan’s head until he broke into a chuckle. “That’s pretty sneaky, sis. I’ll have to give it a try.”

She grinned. “You’ll have to let me know how it goes.”

“Princess!” Ming Lang stood up from his desk to give his daughter a hug.

“Hi, dad,” Lolo smiled.

“How was your journey?”

“Oh, not bad. Short. The Bear Tribe isn’t that far away.”

“Did the Bear Tribe leader come with you?”

“I didn’t leave him behind, if that’s what you’re asking,” Lolo said with a grin.

“No. Of course not,” the Alpha smiled. “I just wanted to talk to my future son-in-law at some point.”

“There will be time. Are you excited to retire?”

"Oh, it will be nice to not be in charge, but I'll be keeping busy. Zhongyan has it in his head that I'll be the lead advisor over all domestic affairs, so it's going to be less of a retirement and more of a demotion." Ming Lang chuckled a little at this observation.

"Keeping busy isn't a bad thing, I guess," Lolo grinned, "and you've always liked domestic affairs more than the inter-tribe relations stuff and military affairs anyway. This way, you get to keep doing your favorite things without having to worry about the rest of it."

"I think that was Zhongyan's rationale too, and keeping me involved has the added benefit of keeping me out of trouble, I suppose."

"You trouble-maker, you!" Lolo snorted.

“Come talk to me, Lolo,” the Alpha guided her to a chair. “Come tell me about what it is that you’ve been doing for all this time in the Bear Tribe, and try to explain all these rumors to me.”

“Alright. Where would you like me to start?”

“Let’s start with what the Great Owl told you… the primordial stuff.”

Lolo laughed. “It’s kind of all primordial stuff.”

“How do you mean?”

Lolo spent the next hour explaining everything to her dad. Everything about what being a primordial meant, what her training had involved, how that had affected her ability to fight during the Wolf Tribe battle, discovering her ultimate with the rest of her team, and describing what that felt like. When she’d finished, Ming Lang looked like his head was going to explode.

“So, it’s true?!”

“What’s true?”

“You are a host to the primordial Silver Wolf spirit?”

“Yes.”

“And the reports of you holding the front gate on your own for four or five hours, that wasn’t exaggerated?”

“Actually, I held the gate for six hours,” Lolo nodded. “I only wish that I could have done more. At that time, I hadn’t discovered my ultimate yet.”

“So, it was actually under-reported?!” the Alpha couldn’t believe it. “What proof do you have?”

“Right now, not much,” Lolo confessed. “I recently had a set-back, but my team can vouch for me, and they can show you their ultimates if you need proof.”

“A set-back? What kind of set-back?” her dad fussed.

“It’s nothing that I can’t handle. Don’t worry about it. I just need to spend a lot of extra time in meditation to make up for it.”

He reclined into his seat to process everything. “Wow.”

Lolo laughed. “Yeah. It’s a lot.”

“You said that you were going to declare yourselves soon. When?”

“Once I recover from my set-back, we should be ready to go, so maybe the end of summer or beginning of fall? You’ll hear about it. We will likely need to visit each of the main tribes, or call a tribe leader’s meeting at the tournament grounds for expediency.”

“Wow," Ming Lang repeated, and Lolo giggled.