Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

The three pups didn’t seem to mind.

At the sound of the word ’Princess’, the quiet pup actually let out a tiny high-pitched yip of agreement.

”Scrappy, Bitey, and Princess,” Reina repeated with a warm smile on her face. ”It works and it’s very balanced.”

”Fine,” Brida grunted. ”What about the big guy?”

All eyes turned to the massive fluffy Alpha male resting in the center of the paddock.

The pack leader had his head resting on his massive front paws, his amber eyes watching Silas intently.

”He needs a heavy name,” Thora suggested, tapping her chin with a greasy finger. ”Something industrial. Call him Anvil or Sledge.”

”Too dwarven,” Morwenna shot down the idea instantly. ”Call him Kraken-Bane or Blood-Wake.”

Eluned scoffed. ”Call him Sylvanus. It demands respect.”

Silas looked at the Alpha.

He thought about how the beast had thrown itself at a twenty-foot bear to protect its family and he also thought about the broken ribs, the bleeding eye, and the unyielding stubbornness it took to survive in the Unknown Zone.

’Anvil is too blunt from what I can see...’ Silas thought. ’Sylvanus is too soft as well and it sounds like the name of the tree... He needs a name that commands authority without sounding like an edgy teenager invented it.’

”Titan,” Silas said softly.

The Alpha male’s ears twitched. He raised his massive head from his paws, looking directly at the Lord.

”His name is Titan,” Silas confirmed, nodding at the beast.

Titan let out a low satisfied huff of air.

He liked it.

The heavy two-syllable name carried weight. It fit his massive frame and his golden armored aura perfectly.

”Titan,” Brida grinned, slapping her knee. ”Yeah. That’s a raid commander’s mount right there... I call dibs on Titan for the next dungeon run.”

”You have to earn his respect first, Commander,” Reina reminded her gently, passing a canteen of juice down the line.

She looked at the younger brother wolf, who was currently sitting right next to the bench, leaning his head against Reina’s knee.

”I have a name for this one, if you don’t mind, My Lord,” Reina asked hesitantly, looking at Silas.

”He’s your project, Tamer,” Silas smiled. ”Go for it.”

Reina stroked the younger male’s soft golden ears.

”He’s fast. He protected the flank while Titan held the center. I want to call him Scout.”

Scout let out a happy, energetic bark with his tail thumping loudly against the warm stone tiles.

”Scout is a good boy,” Vala agreed, tossing a piece of dried venison to the wolf, which he snatched out of the air effortlessly.

That left the four massive females.

The junior girls quickly claimed naming rights for three of them, excitedly tossing out suggestions until they settled on Luna, Nova, and Ember.

The wolves accepted the names easily, eager for the food the girls were handing out as bribes but one wolf remained unnamed.

Standing quietly near the edge of the water fountain was the largest of the four females.

She was the one who had approached Silas in the swamp. She was the one who had offered her back, carried him smoothly through the mud, and let him pluck the parasite from her spine.

Silas stood up from the bench.

He didn’t ask the committee for suggestions. He didn’t wait for Morwenna or Eluned to argue over pirate or elven titles.

Silas walked slowly across the warm stone tiles, approaching the massive golden female.

The wolf watched him come.

She stood tall, her thick, fluffy golden coat shimmering in the ambient light of the thermal runes.

As he got close, she took a step forward to meet him halfway with her amber eyes locking onto his golden-ringed gaze with deep trust.

’I wonder why she trusts me like this...’ Silas thought.

He stopped right in front of her and reached his hand out, resting his palm flat against the side of her war strong neck.

’There are so many things to think about...’ Silas thought. ’All in all, she carried me from the battlefield so she’s a warrior’s mount.’

”Valkyrie,” Silas spoke the name clearly into the quiet evening air.

The wolf froze.

Her amber eyes widened slightly.

”Your name is Valkyrie,” Silas told her, a soft genuine smile touching his lips. ”You’re my personal mount and you ride with the Warlord.”

Valkyrie didn’t just huff or wag her tail.

The massive five-foot-tall apex predator let out a happy, high-pitched whine. She aggressively pushed her heavy head forward, practically knocking Silas off balance as she pressed her chest against his torso.

She stood up on her hind legs, placing her massive padded front paws directly onto his armored shoulders.

Before Silas could brace himself, Valkyrie lunged forward and dragged her wet and incredibly sloppy tongue directly up the center of his face, licking him from his chin all the way up to his hairline in one massive affectionate swipe.

”Ugh!” Silas sputtered, squeezing his eyes shut and turning his head away as the wolf happily licked the side of his cheek. ”Okay! Okay! I get it! You like the name! Down, girl!”

Valkyrie dropped back down to all fours with her tail wagging so hard her entire back half was shaking, looking incredibly pleased with herself.

The bench erupted into laughter.

Brida was howling, holding her stomach as she watched the stoic Lord desperately wiping wolf saliva off his forehead with his sleeve.

Vala and Elara were giggling uncontrollably, while even Morwenna let out a sharp bark of amusement at his misery.

”She claimed you, Captain!” Morwenna laughed, pointing at his wet face. ”That’s a permanent mark!”

’Wait, should I be jealous....?’

Eluned sighed dramatically, though a small smile played on her lips.

”I suppose I must tolerate the beast if she shows proper devotion to her Lord but I am not sitting behind you on that saddle if she drools.”

Reina sat on the bench, watching the entire scene play out.

She looked at the Warlord, wiping his face while laughing along with his troops.

She looked at the commanders, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with the junior infantry recruits, sharing dried meat and joking about giant fluffy dogs and she looked at the warm glowing stone of the Sanctuary he had built just because she dropped a messy note into a wooden box.

Reina took a slow deep breath of the lavender-scented air.

’I don’t care what the others are doing...’ Reina thought as her heart swelling with an overwhelming protective loyalty to the Blessed Land.

She looked at Silas, who was currently trying to stop the pup named Scrappy from chewing on his sword scabbard.

’This is my pack now,’ Reina vowed silently. ’And I will fight to the death to protect it but I also have to give thanks to my Lord...’

She looked up at the tall dark-haired man standing before her.

”Lord Silas,” Reina started with her voice soft but incredibly steady.

She didn’t bow since she knew he didn’t care for excessive formality but she dipped her head in a gesture of pure respect. ”I just... I want to thank you.”

Silas finished wringing out his shirt and looked down at her, raising a questioning eyebrow.

”For what? You did all the heavy lifting out there. You read the tracks, you recognized the bear ambush, and you negotiated the surrender without us having to draw blood. I just supplied the meat and the real estate.”

”No, you did so much more than that,” Reina insisted, stepping closer. Her eyes shone with genuine gratitude. ”You listened to me. I dropped a messy, charcoal-smudged piece of paper into a wooden box, and instead of ignoring it, you built me a sanctuary. You trusted me to lead the girls into the wild. This... all of this...” She gestured to the golden wolves resting on the warm tiles. ”...is possible because of you.”

Silas offered a warm easy smile which was the kind of genuine grin that made the junior infantry girls in the barracks whisper in the dark.

”You’re a specialist, Reina,” Silas told her, clapping a heavy, calloused hand gently onto her shoulder. ”A Lord is only as strong as the people he trusts to run his territory. You proved your worth today. Get some rest as tomorrow morning, I want you in this paddock bright and early... We’re going to start the saddle-breaking process. I want to take them on their first official perimeter run by noon.”

Reina’s face lit up with soaring excitement.

”Yes, My Lord! I will have their gear prepped before the sun rises!”

”Good,” Silas nodded, turning toward the open gates.

Before he could take a single step toward the exit, a massive golden shadow blocked his path.

Valkyrie had quietly padded across the warm stone tiles.

The massive female wolf, now completely dry and looking twice as wide due to her impossibly fluffy coat, stood directly in front of the Warlord.

”Well Valkyrie, I’m about to leave.”

She let out a soft happy huff of air, stepping forward until her broad chest pressed firmly against his thighs.

She tilted her heavy head upward, her amber eyes locking onto his face then, without any warning, once again, Valkyrie lunged her snout forward and dragged her massive, wet tongue directly up the side of Silas’s jaw, leaving a thick trail of dog saliva across his cheek.

”Hey!” Silas laughed, turning his face away and raising a hand to push her heavy snout back. ”We just gave you a bath! Stop trying to gross me out!”

Valkyrie didn’t care.

The commotion instantly attracted the rest of the pack.

The three tiny golden pups... Scrappy, Bitey, and Princess waddled aggressively across the yard as fast as their little paws could carry them.

They swarmed Silas’s heavy leather boots, yipping and whining for attention.

Scrappy immediately latched his tiny teeth onto the steel buckle of Silas’s greaves, while Princess stood on her hind legs and aggressively licked the mud off his kneepad.

”Alright, alright, I’m leaving,” Silas chuckled, gently nudging the fluffy pups aside with the side of his boot so he wouldn’t step on them.

He gave Valkyrie one last firm scratch behind the ears. ”I’ll see you later, girl.”

Silas stepped out of the Beast Pavilion, leaving Reina alone with her new pack.

The damp late afternoon air of the courtyard felt freezing against his soaked clothes.

He shivered slightly, rolling his wet shoulders as he walked across the black tiles toward the towering stone Keep.

Morwenna and Eluned were already waiting for him at the heavy ironwood double doors.

The two SSS-rank women had managed to dry their own clothes using a quick burst of Eluned’s atmospheric magic, but they were practically vibrating with intense poorly-concealed competitive energy.

They weren’t glaring at the wolves anymore... They were glaring fiercely at each other.

”There you are, Captain,” Morwenna rasped, stepping forward to block his path.

She crossed her thick muscular arms under her chest, her stormy gray eyes scanning his soaked filthy appearance. ”You look like a drowned rat and you smell like wet dog as well as soap but that is to be expected.”

”I am acutely aware of my hygiene, Morwenna,” Silas sighed, wiping a lingering streak of wolf saliva off his jawline with the back of his hand.

Eluned floated gracefully to his other side, her hands resting elegantly on her hips. ”Then you know exactly what you must do, My Lord. You need to go upstairs immediately... You are going to bathe.”

Silas tensed.

His survival instincts immediately flared to life. The last time they had told him to bathe, it had turned into a highly erotic and stressful tug-of-war in the cedar tub that ended with the pirate screaming the roof down.

”Are you two...” Silas asked cautiously, his eyes darting between them. ”...planning to join me?”

”Absolutely not,” Eluned rejected the idea instantly, waving her pristine hand through the air as if swatting away a fly. ”We do not have the time to pamper you right now... The pirate and I are in the middle of a highly critical engagement in the kitchen. We left Kaelia to watch the simmering pots but the final plating requires our undivided attention.”

”Yeah, we’re busy,” Morwenna agreed, a dangerous competitive smirk touching her lips. ”Go wash yourself, Boss. Scrub the mud out of your hair, put on some clean clothes, and get your ass down to the main dining hall. You have a massive decision to make in a bit.”