"If our pack's ever going to stake out some territory of its own in the Stokerville area," Selena went on, "then we need to achieve at least equal strength relative to Mom and Dad's werewolf pack."
"You think they want a fight?" Kibibi asked, grinning with scrappy eagerness.
"They certainly will if we're weaker than them," Selena answered. "Like most werebeasts, they're pretty territorial, and Mom thinks I'm a pathetic failure of a daughter besides. Dad actually cares about me, he's still a werewolf alpha. I doubt he'd just give me permission to start a rival pack right in his territory on the strength of family ties alone."
"Will the vampires stand with us?" Kibibi asked warily. "They seem like they're your friends, but you never can tell with vamps."
"I think they will if we're equal in size to the werewolves," Selena said. "Matriarch Carmilla really supports our growing pack and enjoys being our patron of sorts (hence this place being our temporary pack meeting ground), but she doesn't want to actually end up provoking a werewolf-vampire war. She loves her daughters and sisters, and she knows that some of them would probably die in a conflict like that. Vampires may be overall more powerful than werebeasts, but the strength of a werewolf at war is nothing to be sneezed at. Carmilla won't tolerate a costly victory. She'll bolster our numbers if our combined strength was guaranteed to intimidate my old pack into backing down, but that's it."
"Makes sense," Taylor nodded. "There's no shame in prioritizing your family."
"So, how big is our pack?" Skyler asked. "What are our numbers?"
"There's the four of us, for starters," Selena answered.
"And Asanti and Asha," Kibibi added. "Not to mention those four Saudi Arabian werehyenas who hitched a ride with us, the al-Dabu family."
"They're not ghouls, right?" Skyler asked nervously.
"Not even close," Kibibi chuckled. "They're actually really nice. Nicer than me, that's for sure! They'd've come to Chloe's birthday orgy, but they're still tired and settling in. There's also this werecat named Kathy Gibson who tagged along with us, but she's obviously not joining our pack. She'd rather start her own pride in Port Angeles or Olympia or Tacoma or Seattle."
"Okay, that all totals to ten," Taylor said. "Who else do we have?"
"The entire girls' basketball team aside from Diana," Selena answered. "Once you subtract Di, that comes out to twelve more werehyenas: Abbie, Chloe, Layla, Naomi, Kadie, Hailey, Cassidy, Sofia, Riley, Jazmyn, Maddison, and Katelynn."
"That's 22," Skyler nodded. "Oh, and you can add my friends Ashlee and Zoey. That brings it up to 24."
"Right," said Selena. "And we have most of Ashlee's cheer squad: Summer, Micki, Olivia, Kaylee, Sarah, Julia, Pradha, Gabrielle, and Charlee. Not Jessica Tang, though. She's a vampire named Persephone von Karnstein these days."
"Why do vampire need to give their fledglings pretentious goth names when they initiate them?" Kibibi asked, shaking her head.
"The occult mysteries of Mother Night," Selena answered before smiling devilishly. "Also, vampire can be pretentious as fuck. Don't tell Tats I said that, though. Anyway, Samantha's not a werehyena either, but we'll be fixing that tomorrow. For now, we'll add nine werehyenas to the count. That's 33."
"I feel like we're missing some people," said Taylor.
"You're probably thinking about Hannah Dershowitz, Jenna McSweeney, and Lily Nichols," Selena answered. "That's 36 werehyenas. We should probably also count Beck Hamilton, Brianna Dixon, Ellie Rubenstein, and Harper Browning for completion's sake, but they're in Japan with Kristi and Joelle right now. Our pack would have forty members if they were here."
"Not bad for a young pack," Kibibi mused. "How many of them are breeders?"
"Not that many," Selena shrugged. "Jenna and Hannah are breeders, for starters. Oh, and Zoey's a breeder. Micki, Gabrielle, Olivia, Julia, Sarah, and Charlee are as well."
"And so is Basma al-Dabu," Kibibi chimed in.
"Also, Summer and Kaylee want me to change them into breeders once I learn how," Taylor added.
"That's ten breeders, going on twelve," Selena said. "Is that important? Are breeders forbidden from fighting?"
"Generally," Kibibi nodded, "though exceptions can be made during times of intense war. The breeders are usually temporarily transformed into warriors in these circumstances. Why do you even need to ask? Don't werewolves keep their females out of battle?"
"Not unless they're currently pregnant," Selena answered. "Female werewolves are equal to the males. My sister Luna's actually the frontrunner to succeed my dad as alpha."
"Just remember," Kibibi growled, "that's not how we do things. We don't bully our breeders, but leadership and fighting are for the warriors."
"Anyway, how big is the werewolf pack?" Taylor asked, eager to avert a fight.
"There's about sixty werewolves of fighting age in Dad's pack," Selena answered. "It used to be bigger, but all the lesbianism in the past few generations has cut their numbers down a bit."
"Then we need about twenty more," Skyler noted.
"Who do we have lined up?" Kibibi asked.
"Samantha, for starters," Selena responded. "And Marley Roberts wants to join. Also, Amber Mitchell-Erickson (that's our basketball coach) and her wife Brittany are considering joining. No official word yet, but Amber seems really intrigued from what I hear. Also, Zoey's expecting a cub named Bailey. Does that count?"
"Not really," Kibibi said, shaking her shaved head. "Bailey won't even be able to shift until puberty. She'll effectively be an ordinary human child until then. Who else is there? We need more."
"Di suggested I try the girls' soccer team," Selena answered. "I think she might be onto something. Beck's actually on the soccer team, and their friend Erin Masterson's the captain. I already have the girls' basketball team in the pack, so the girls' soccer team'll fit right in. And going by the basketball team's transformation, the girls' soccer team should reliably produce warriors rather than breeders."
"Sounds like a plan," Kibibi nodded.
"Now let's all go home," Skyler grumbled, glancing at the sky. "It's starting to rain."