Ever since Jessica had left, Naomi had felt herself drowning in a lake of testosterone. With Katie gone as well, all the senior huskies were male, and Zack and Harry didn't seem to be getting her subtle hints about the possibility of moving to the higher gender. The structure of the pack usually kept Naomi from direct contact with the female lower-rank huskies, and since Juanita was gone Naomi didn't deal with the the much management either. What contact she did have, since the "Jessica incident," tended to be icily formal, not the warm friendliness that she had shared with "Pack Leader Juanita."
The husky pack itself was by this point a smooth-running machine, and Naomi did not have to closely supervise its day-to-day running. She was increasingly occupying her days with what she called "long-range solo patroling" and what a human would call "taking a long walk to get her head together."
Naomi's favorite destination for these walks was the quadrant of the park dominated by the wolf-pack. The beauty of her fellow-canines, the anthro she-wolves, drew her like a magnet. Naomi felt a little creepy viewing them from concealment, but lately it felt like the only thing keeping her from going crazy.
"Well hello there, husky girl." came from a sleek she-wolf. Naomi panicked. "But, but." she wasn't supposed to be seen!
The she-wolf laughed. "Don't worry. Special forces training. You're still invisible to the rest of the pack. But why don't you come out and play?"
Tentatively, Naomi came out from hiding, only to receive a hundred and fifty pounds of anthro she-wolf in the chest, knocking her down and licking her face. The two wrestled, chased each other and played fetch games. Naomi felt an unfamiliar emotion. She was actually having fun!
++++++++++
"Zack." said Harry. "Come to the monitors. You have got to see this."
+++++++++
The two canines curled up on the ground together, exhausted. "What's your name, husky-girl?"
"Naomi. What's yours?"
"Charlotte."
"Um, Charlotte, I've been in the park for a while, but last I heard Special Forces were all guys--you um. . .?"
"You betcha. My boyfriend dumped me hard, and I decided to get away from the whole guy side of things for a while. Let's just say I have a whole new appreciation for the female form, cutie."
"I have to get back to work now, but can I see you again tomorrow?"
"You mean like a date, husky-girl?" There was no mistaking the look in Charlotte's eyes.
Naomi swallowed hard. There were rules against fraternization. "Yeah, I mean like a date."
"Alright, a little past noon OK?"
"That would be good."
+++++++
Naomi arrived back at the husky HQ full of misgivings. She could lose her job over this, and there was no reason to believe that she and Charlotte hadn't been picked up by one of the monitors. She was confronted as she entered by Harry, Zack and Megan. This was it, she thought. To lose my job, to lose my form, to be tossed out of the park, never to see Charlotte again.
"Pack leader Naomi!" Harry began.
"Yes?" Naomi responded. She wouldn't break down, she wouldn't!
"Camera number 151 is down! A software issue that caused all records of today to be deleted! We're not sure when it can be repaired."
"It could take days." Megan joined in. "Maybe weeks."
"151. That's over in the wolf-pack area, right? The wolves pretty much keep things under control, so treat it as low priority."
"Yes, Pack Leader Naomi!" Harry was unsuccessfully attempting to keep a grin from spreading over his face.
Naomi found that Harry's grin was catching. She addressed the two male huskies and the female human. "Don't ever change, guys." said the pack leader.