Harry sat at the monitors, playing cat's-cradle, it was tricky with claws and fury. There wasn't really any major issues with the park as of late. They had to keep a close eye on the few ferals in the park of course, but it was to make sure they didn't make trouble or suddenly try to build a house. Harry's contract strictly forbid Harry or any member of the pack from helping them or they were injured or starving, the ferals were going to be in the park now until they died, however long that was, they had signed the waver.
There was however the unexpected loophole of OTHER GUESTS showing their charity and generosity, creating their OWN support web for these people who had chosen to leave civilization behind and become as much a fixture of the park as the trees and game animals the guests fed on. It was their vacation, the park couldn't exactly tell the guests NOT to help them.
It hadn't happened yet, but there was some chatting among the huskies if they could really hold by what their contract said if say one of the ferals became pregnant!
Harry wondered if he should take a vacation and become human for a while to visit Katie. While she had made it crystal clear that she grow old and be put in her family's mausoleum as a human being, she had stayed friends with Harry. While Harry entertained the idea of them becoming something more, they simply had some opposing views. That being said, Harry loved her company and missed her in his own way more than Naomi did.
One of the fun perks of this job was that he got to be naked on the job, and got to be surrounded by naked ladies all with figures that were anything but unattractive (the company had made sure of that as part of their honey jar to entice people to stay naked animal people in their real lives outside the park). Not to say Harry was about to put the moves on any female Husky he saw, he just found his work situation liberating.
On an entertaining note, there was a persistent rumor that the European branch of TF-Park had through the company's more shady connections secured unicorn and/or dragon DNA and was putting it through the various lab tests to figure how to make a anthro out of it. Heh, as if they didn't have enough debate on the gene splicer being able to create an 'immortal upper class.' Harry wondered if they had just dug up the skeleton of a horse with a narwhal horn placed next to it when it died and the bones of a lizard with batwings sewn on. Then again, he doubted the company would be spending their precious time if the skeletons turned out be frauds. But on the other paw, it would be all over the news if any of this was true, right? (Being a Husky meant he had more connections to the outside world than the guests did).
It was actually entertaining to see the iron bitch (not a slur, it's what she is), acting feminine, nice, friendly, and all around warm and fuzzy like a plush husky. And she had stopped trying to pressure Harry and Zack into becoming her bitches (literally).
But with Charlotte leaving, and become what Naomi hated more than anything, Harry, Zack, and the rest of the huskies dreaded the return (with a vengeance) of the man-hating alpha who would take her grief out on her nearest available outlet that couldn't hurt her back. Maybe it was paranoid, but if Harry had learned anything during his time at the park, was that those overwhelmed by grief or loss were capable of anything.
"Harry," Naomi spoke. Speak of the alpha queen.
Harry stood at attention at once. "Yes Naomi."
"I wish to inform you, that I'll be taking a six month v-vacation, starting tomorrow when Charlotte leaves the park, <i>as</i> Charlotte. Until that time, you're to function as park alpha with all responsibilities and privledges that entails."
'Oh @*#(,' Harry thought.
Naomi's word was law, Harry wasn't about to betray his Y chromosome for her, but what she said concerning the pack was reality the moment she spoke it. End of story. Looks like he could kiss that vacation to visit Katie in the outside world good-bye for a good long while. Oh crude, what if Naomi,
"Uh, Naomi, uh, you do know that alphas can be male right?"
Naomi sighed, "I am not asking you to improve yourself Harry."
Naomi was still Naomi. "So, uh, I'm Acting Alpha until you come back? Does that include the pay raise?"
" . . . Yes."
At least he wouldn't be stuck doing 'pro bono' work. Wait. Naomi giving up being alpha?! Naomi LEAVING THE PARK?! Harry felt a instinctual rise in panic in him, it was like the sun and the moon leaving the sky together! It just didn't happen! And sudden HE was to replace the sun? . . . Harry felt dizzy.
Naomi had her GREAT GREAT misgivings of giving alpha position, HER alpha position away to a husky with less experience than her, and giving it to a MALE was even more uncomfortable. While Naomi didn't want to give up Charlotte, and she knew Charlotte didn't want to give her up, it was still sickening to hand over the reigns. But . . . it would be just for six months, six months in that outside world without a clear cut chain of authority and without the sense of order that had become a part of her. . . .
Naomi resist the urge to shiver in disgust. She could handle it. She hoped.
One thing this would mean for Harry though was that as pack alpha, he'd be privy to knowing just how far and complexly the management had gone to tailor making the park so guests would feel more at home in their new bodies than their old ones (it wasn't anything to do with the gene splicer, you didn't need mind control or brainwashing to manipulate someone), and pave the way for the management to able to become furries without having to face the initial social sigma themselves. There was no telling how Harry would react to learning that the park guests had been used.