Hey hope you guys enjoy this chapter! The ball is finally rolling!

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.

It was a little more than a week after the patrol that trouble parked itself on their doorstep. It was a Saturday morning and the pack was in the backyard training with each other. Elliot was the only one missing because he had a morning shift on the radio but they had the radio on so they could hear his voice whenever he commented between songs. He also often played songs that were upbeat because he knew the pack were training and appreciated it.

Talia had just stepped into the sparring ring with Viva however, when she stiffened and stopped. After a moment she sort of shook herself and said, "An alpha and escort just crossed into our territory from the northern boundary. It's Galien and some of his pack. It's not an attack, I don't think, he is not hiding from me and he is letting me know his pack is here. Just…saying hello."

"What do you want us to do?" asked Allie.

"For now," said Talia, "Just train."

The others just nodded and continued but they were all on edge now, preparing themselves for the confrontation to come.

Forty-five minutes later Talia called a halt. The pack stopped, drank some water and cooled off for a bit then Talia led them around to the front of the house and then critically studied the porch.

"Alright," she said after a moment, "we want to stage this right. So all the humans I want you armed and to the back of the porch but keep your weapons out of sight. Laina you take Peter and keep him back from the front but not out of sight. We are not afraid of them. The rest of you all…" Ten minutes later, after much prodding and shifting the stage was set. Talia took her place and just bare minutes after that several vehicles rolled up into their front yard.

The doors opened and people got out, seven in all. One of them was a man about 38, dressed in jeans and black shirt and shades which he took off as he surveyed the scene before him.

Sitting on the steps leading to the porch was Talia. On either side on her, sitting on the railings were Allie and Viva. Standing at the top of the stairs, lounging on either side were Kerin and George. The rest of the werewolves were leaning on the banister of the porch spread out along it while the humans lounged behind them, leaning on the walls of the house. Liana stood behind and a little off to the side of Kerin with Peter in her arms.

"Talia," said the man, the alpha.

"Markus," she replied coolly, "What a surprise, to see you here."

Markus once more surveyed the scene and said, "I didn't mean to drop by so unexpectedly but I thought I'd come over and see you. I didn't get to come to pay my respects myself but I did send a representative."

"Yes," said Talia, "I know. He was most kind." The representative had come on the night her parents died with a message to say that they were sorry for her loss. They had failed, as customary, to say that they recognized her as the new alpha of the territory. It hadn't been a cause for alarm as some packs did that at a later date. There hadn't been any other alphas who had come to do that personally but she had gotten four letters carried by representatives, which stated that their packs recognized her as the alpha for that territory.

"I'm glad you think so. I'd hate for you to think me unkind," he said in reply.

"I'd hate for you to do anything that would prove that you were," she said smoothly in return.

He gave a short laugh. "Come now," he said, "I only want to be friends. I know dealing with becoming alpha can be quite a traumatic experience in itself not counting the pain related to why you are the alpha. I can help you adjust, teach you what you need to know."

Talia smiled. "That's very generous of you," she said, "however I have a good support group here in the form of my pack and they are helping me to adjust quite nicely. As for everything else I seem to be picking it up fine."

"Well I'm glad of that," he said, "Do let me know if you are running into any problems though or if the territory is too much for you to handle because I can sense you are not the equal of your previous alpha. And some of our world, well," he gave a smile. It wasn't a very nice smile. "when they sense weakness they seek to devour what they can."

Talia could feel the tension and anger zapping through her pack at his words but she forced herself to remain pleasant and said, "I'm aware. However those that attempt to do so should make sure that there is a weakness to exploit. Or else, they might just find themselves being devoured instead." She smiled at him and it was all wolf, all alpha.

"Well," he said, his eyes flicking over her pack, "I see you have it well in hand. I hope you have it as well in claw also."

"I'm sure," said Talia.

"I'm not," he replied simply, his manner shifting abruptly. "This territory needs a stronger alpha than you are Ms. Hale. And I think, looking at what you call a pack there, that you don't have enough claws to defend it."

Talia, tilted her head, "Oh?" She smiled and her smiled became a laugh. "Claws and fangs aren't the only dangerous things out there, Markus." At that every human member of the pack removed their guns from hiding and aimed them in shocking crack of weaponry.

Markus' eyes narrowed and glowed and his jaw tightened. "Consider this a declaration of war, Hale," he said, "Prepare to lose your territory."

Talia gave him her sweetest smile and said, "Considered and accepted. But this territory will remain mine long after you've lost yours."

"Okay," said Talia, as they hastily gathered around the kitchen table, "We have a problem."

"The Galien Pack Problem," said, Allie promptly labeling it.

"Right," said Talia. She tuned to Kerin, "Markus has a grudge with this pack because of that incident with the betas right?"

"Yes," said Kerin.

"What incident with what betas?" asked Jara.

"Quite a few years back, some of Markus' betas wanted to leave his pack but he didn't want them too," said George.

"But Jared made him let them go," said Luke. "It was quite the confrontation," he added, "No blood but a lot of staring and heated words."

"From what I heard," said Talia, because she was very young at the time and hadn't been allowed to go out with the rest of the pack, "The betas got away from Markus and ran to my father for protection. They said he was treating them harshly because they didn't agree with some of his decisions. I think it came to a head when one of them wouldn't kill another preternatural when Markus ordered him to but incapacitated him instead."

"A wendigo," said George, "He wouldn't kill a wendigo. It was a group of teenage wendigos, oldest was fifteen. Lost their caretakers somehow and were running across territories feeding when they wanted. They were killing but you know how the younger ones get when there is no one older to tamper down their hunger. The beta didn't want to kill him, it was the oldest, a boy, because he figured that they'd be alright if they got caretakers again. Markus just wanted them dead though."

"Did Markus kill the wendigos?" asked Jara.

"Yes," said Kerrin. "It was also another reason why Jared was mad, though he couldn't do anything about it because it was Markus' territory."

"However when his pack members came to us and appealed to us, my father as another alpha, was within his rights to tell Markus to let the betas go," Talia said. "As you can gather his pack is pretty ruthless. There are a lot of blue eyes in that pack."

"I'm actually hard-pressed to think of one that's not," said Luke.

"Great," muttered Allie.

Talia agreed. Their world was violent it was true but it didn't have to cross the line into deadly if handled correctly. Out of their pack of fifteen there were only three set of blue eyes among the wolves, Kerin, George and Viva. Luke was the only human with kills under his belt as well. And they all had only killed if absolutely necessary.

Markus' pack, she knew numbered twenty four gown wolves, most, if not all of whom were killers. Her pack were outnumbered by nine wolves and out of their fifteen, three were children, Terrin was barely an adult, there were three humans who, no matter what she said to Markus were still more vulnerable than the wolves because one well placed blow to them and they'd be dead.

Her pack was a strong one though. She knew this. She had seen them take on groups larger than them and sometimes more powerful and take them down. She had participated in that quite often. Her parents had often stressed the need to be the smarter opponent.

"Fight smarter," her mother had often said, "especially when your opponent is stronger than you and doubly smart when they're not," and another one of her sayings was, "Cunning is using an opponent's strength against them, intelligence is using both your strength and their strength against them so long as one your strengths is intelligence," then she used to add with a crooked smile, "Don't try that if you're stupid."

But besides being a smart pack, her pack was a well trained one and they were tightly knit. They knew how to share strength among each other and how to play off on each other's individual strengths. Talia let out a breath. They could do this. They could. And they could do it without loss of members. That they would do.

"Okay," she said, "Anyone who has to leave the territory for some reason or another, goes with two others. Within the territory we go in pairs. I won't be able to give warning if his pack crosses over because they aren't beholden to me so I can't sense them, the most I might get is a flash and Markus can probably hide that. So be on guard and get to the nearest pack member if I alert you. Alphas can hide from each other so Markus can get onto our territory without me knowing so again, watch yourselves. I think that's all we can do for now."

The others nodded and voiced their agreement and instantly began to work out the semantics of the plan. When everyone's schedule had been arranged they presented it to her. She looked it over and said:

"Okay, I think that'll work."

"What'll work?" asked Elliot as he came through the front door, having gotten off his shift. He looked around at his fellow pack mates. "What did I miss?"

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