Burden by Lila Felix

that , in fact, there were two cubs just breaking through the tree line when they should be in school.
    “I’ll get them, Alpha.” Chloe barked, snapping to order.
    I smiled at Echo. There were six of us sitting in a meeting and she, in five minutes acting as Alpha, had pinpointed a flaw in our system and made a dent in one of our main problems. We saw the forest and she saw the individual trees. That was why we needed her Coeur, her heart. She saw what I couldn’t.
    Chloe came in minutes later with the two cubs, both males in tow.
    “Evan, Elliot, why aren’t you in school,” River asked them.
    They both shrugged.
    “Where are your father and mother?”
    “Working,” Elliot grunted back at the beta.
    “And your job is to be in school. What happened?”
    “We missed the bus. It comes too early.”
    My turn, “What time does it come?”
    “Five in the morning, Alpha. We miss it a lot, that’s why we don’t go. By the time we walk all the way back from the bus stop, Mom and Dad are already gone.”
    “So why not come to another clan member and ask them to take you?”
    They both looked to the floor, “We hate school.”
    I blew out a frustrated puff of air and not so gently ran my hands through my hair.
    “Look, why don’t we postpone this meeting until Saturday morning. It looks like I have two cubs to take to school. And I need to speak to Principal Landry anyway.”
    “Yes, Alpha,” they answered and filed out.
    River dropped the cubs on the living room couch on his way out, and I went to retrieve my keys and wallet from my bedroom.
    When I came back, both cubs were completely entranced in what Echo was saying to them in hushed whispers. I’d never seen young ones so involved in a conversation which had nothing to do with candy or toys. She spoke to them with a cloud of seriousness but her tone was loving and motherly.
    “Do you think you can do better next time?”
    “Yes, Coeur. We promise.”
    “Good boys. I will fulfill my part of the deal when I see those grades and that attendance record.”
    They nodded and ran from the house. “They’re going to get their back packs. They will be back shortly. We struck a deal.”
    “What kind of deal?”
    “The secret kind. You will see in a few weeks.”
    “I’m going to take them to school. Aren’t you coming?”
    She looked towards the kitchen, “Actually, It thought I’d stay here and clean up. Besides, there are only three seatbelts in your truck. You wouldn’t want to give a bad impression to this principal right off the bat.”
    I sighed, “You’ re a natural. I didn’t even think that far ahead.”
    She blushed and buried her face in my chest, “No, I’m just an outsider. Sometimes a stranger can see the real story before anyone else. It’s no big deal.”
    “It is to me.”
    I kissed her forehead on my way out. Next would be the cheek, inch by inch, closer and closer, I would get to her mouth eventually. I had to—it called to me.
    Halfway to the school, I couldn’t stand it anymore, I had to pry the information from the cubs. “What did the Coeur say to you?”
    “She said,” Evan started, “that if we want to grow up to be smart and strong like the Alpha, then we had to go to school. She said that we’d never make good strong males without school.”
    “And,” Elliot’s turn, “she said if we didn’t miss one day of school for six weeks straight and tried our best then she’d teach us how to make fire without matches.”
    “Really?”
    They nodded enthusiastically.
    Fire—a ll it took was the promise of fire and she’d convinced two strays to straighten up. She was brilliant.
    We parked outside of the school and I signed them in. The secretary waved me into the Principal’s office while she escorted the boys to their classes.
    “Mrs. Landry,” I greeted her.
    “Mr. Turnclaw. Just who I wanted to see.”
    “I caught Elliot and Evan this morning. I don’t think they’ll be missing any more school.”
    “And