I just have a quick note to make this time. My 101 Dalmatians/Alpha and Omega crossover "A Confluence of Hearts", staring Cadpig and Lilly, is out now. Some rather interesting things are going to happen in that story. You just might want to check it out.

Now back to your (not all that) regularly-scheduled story.

"It must be war!" shouted an elderly grey wolf, who seemed barely capable of fighting himself. But the announcement received cheers from his surrounding fellows.

"War? You all really want war?" Conn shouted back. "Don't you realize that we'd be spelling our own doom? Please, everyone, reconsider!"

"No!" shouted a beige wolf, the very one who had been the cause of Lilly's downfall. "If these curs are not stopped here, they will hound us to the ends of the earth until they exterminate us all! We must resist and hold them back!"

This statement, too, was met with cheers.

"But we can't resist," Conn countered.

"We have the numbers," said the beige wolf, Cormac. "Just like we had the numbers to put down those Jasper fools and take one of their own back here with us!"

"Numbers? You want to talk numbers?" Conn barked. "From what I hear, the call has already gone out throughout the Republic for three hundred-thousand more to join their army and come up here! You want to oppose something like that?"

"They'll never be able to produce numbers like that," Cormac countered. "You know it and I know it. It almost sounds to me, oh fearless leader, that you are afraid to fight them. Maybe it is that you are enjoying your new bride too much to be willing to die. This despite the fact that all of us have lost ours."

"You leave her out of this!" Conn shouted as he pounded his fist on the ground. "This isn't about her! And if you remember, I only took her because that was the purpose of our war in the first place!"

Cormac sneered. "You don't have to remind me! I lost my whole family to those Jasper monsters just so that you could get a new one! Now that was no fair trade! But when it comes to actually defending our territory, you balk!"

Conn shook his head in frustration as his whole council cheered Cormac. "It's not a question of what I want to do or not. It's a question of what we are able to do. We were able to defeat Jasper, we cannot defeat the Republic. Whether or not they manage to field the greater numbers, they have technology like we could never dream of! We'll be signing our own death-warrant."

Adeimantus now cautiously broke in. "If it please you, my chief, I do have a point to make. We did capture the Cur officer when we took out his little militia. Perhaps we could interrogate him and thereby gain an advantage over our enemies."

Conn shook his head against it, but the shouts from the council meant his objection went unnoticed. As Adeimantus cleared a way into the center of the circle, Glaucon escorted the prisoner. It was a strange-looking dog, appearing to be a corgi for the most part, but with scarlet fur quite uncharacteristic of the breed. This creature stood close to the ground on stubby legs, but his eyes burned with celestial fire.

Conn sighed and resigned himself to what was to happen. He did not like this, but he might as well try to keep some control. "And what is this prisoner's name?" he asked.

"Sinclair," Glaucon said as he pushed the prisoner into the center of the circle.

The small prisoner resented the action and pushed Glaucon's paws away. Then he looked at Conn defiantly and snarled. "That's Citizen Sinclair to you!"

Which was promptly rewarded by a fist to the face from Glaucon. The small dog toppled to the ground. But just as quickly, he was on his feet, smiling as the blood dripped from his mouth.

"So, is that the best you got, you fur-coat reject?" the corgi taunted.

This was rewarded with another fist from Glaucon.

Now, this might have been enough to silence another individual. It might have even broken a more sensitive one. But the Cascade Pack was not in luck. Whereas most people anguish over the costs of war, there is a certain type of individual who is never happier than when making great sacrifices for the cause. This individual never feels more alive than when facing deadly odds in the name of cause and country. Citizen Sinclair was this type of individual.

He got up, wiped the blood from his mouth, and spit in Glaucon's face. Glaucon grabbed him by the neck and began to strangle him. The corgi actually seemed to laugh as he endured it.

"Glaucon, stop!" Conn ordered. "If you kill him, we can't get any information from him! And then where would we be?"

Glaucon dropped the corgi, who landed on his feet and showed no signs of being any worse for wear.

"Now," Conn said, "what were you and your militia doing in our territory?"

"Your territory? Your territory?" Citizen Sinclair raged. "This is the sovereign territory of the Cur Republic! And as Republican military forces, my patrol and I will go anywhere we please!"

Conn shook his head sadly. "And I had hoped that after we were forced from California, you would leave us alone. I thought you had enough land then."

Citizen Sinclair spit on the ground and guffawed. "It's not a question of what we need or don't need. This land is ours, you live on it by our grace, and we will do whatever we like with it! But if you ask me, it would have been much better if all you wolves had drowned in the Pit River with the others! That's the only place I'd ever give you!"

A great angry howl collectively emanated from the wolves, all of whom had lost friends, family, mates, children in the great massacre of the Pit River. Sinclair smiled at the effect he had achieved. Glaucon quickly backhanded him.

"Everybody, everybody, be silent!" Conn ordered, though to little avail.

Citizen Sinclair got to his feet, the smile still on his face. "The only good wolf is a dead wolf, I always say!"

Just as things were getting back to order, this caused another round of howls. Conn expected that all of the other wolves in the assembly would soon rush down and tear Sinclair to pieces. From the look on Citizen Sinclair's face, this might have been just what he wanted to happen.

Conn put his face in his paw and massaged an eagle-shaped white spot just under his eye. He did this whenever he began to think his command would break him.

Seeing their leader in such shape, the wolves began to calm down, but it was still a few minutes before they had fallen silent completely. By the time they did, a new mood of gloom had fallen over the entire assembly. Which was fitting, because Conn had a gloomy question to ask.

"Will they send an army north?" he said without looking up.

Citizen Sinclair smiled in haughty pride. "I don't doubt it. They will send an army. They will send a giant army. And they will destroy you."

Conn finally lifted his head and nodded solemnly. "I feared as much. Now, tell us about this army, who shall com–"

"You know what I hope?" Citizen Sinclair continued, not caring one bit that he had just interrupted his captors' leader. "I hope that you run. I hope you run all the way to the Northwest Passage. That way, we can continue marching. We can continue marching up north after you and destroy every single wolf-pack from here to Alaska. And then there shall be an empire of liberty throughout the north where doghood and civilization can wipe out every trace of wolfkind, every single last one of you. Viva la République!"

A collective gasp went around the assembly, seeming to start at the spot nearest the corgi and moving outward in both directions like a wave until the two movements met at the exact opposite point of the circle. Even Conn was stunned to silence.

Glaucon was the first to react. He punched Citizen Sinclair in the gut. "Can I just kill him now?" he asked, though he did not seem likely to wait for the answer. Neither did the majority of the assembly, which cheered him on most heartily.

"No!" Conn shouted, standing up. "Don't kill him! He's the only bargaining chip we have with the Cur Republic! We need to keep him alive for now!"

Citizen Sinclair laughed as he recovered himself. "The Republic does not negotiate with savages!"

"Why do we need him?" Glaucon asked Conn, ignoring the corgi's newest outburst. "We kept Tony alive and it didn't make a lick of difference! Killing him was what scared the Jasper wolves into surrender!"

Conn sighed. "Jasper was small and could be pushed around by those methods. We cannot scare the curs because there are too many of them. We can only try to get them to leave us alone."

Glaucon growled at his wish being denied.

"Take him to the prison-cave," Conn said wearily. "Keep him alive there for now. This is serious; the fate of our pack relies on keeping him alive. Do you understand? Anyone who kills him will be killing our pack! Do you understand?"

Glaucon nodded hesitantly, "Yes, sir."

The crowd had been stunned into silence before, but now a few of them muttered disagreements. But Glaucon did as he was told. He lifted Citizen Sinclair up and pulled him along. The other wolves took this as a sign that it was time to disband.

As Citizen Sinclair was being dragged out of sight, he saw the opportunity to get one last dig in at the wolves. He shouted.

"Liberté! Égalité! Fraternité!"

War is coming. Shall the Cascade Pack survive?

Read on.