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I went to go lie down in the shade under the canopy over the fountain. Several dogs lay nearby, eager to lick the wounds covering my body. They were already trying to worm their way to better positions in the hierarchy by subservience to the new Alpha. I let them, I owed nothing to them for the service and also their tongues felt good against my skin as they cleaned the many scratches all over me. I drank, but not to bursting, just to wet my thirst and make myself comfortable. It'd been a while since I'd done that and the shock of it hit me as I settled down. Another thing shocked me. For the first time in my life, I had no idea what to do.

I lifted my head on my thick neck and looked over my shoulder to see the shepherd-lab, former Alpha, still lying where I'd put him. I'd plowed into him with everything I'd had and he must be hurting. But the old viciousness and hate was gone from me, shed like the past that was so easy to roll off my back if I let it. He'd lost his power and so couldn't hurt me anymore. I found myself only hoping that the humans would arrive to see to him as I didn't think that this was going to be something he could just walk off.

And indeed, the scientists had seen our fight on the cameras and came rushing out of the building and around the corner. All told, the fight had taken nearly ten minutes. The scientists and the lab techs showed up. They had stethoscopes and first aid bags and... tools. All of their instruments remained as mysterious to me as the reason the sky was blue or the sun rose in the east. It was just a human thing. An older female scientist I hadn't seen before stooped over the prone Shepherd-Lab and examined him briefly. Then two male humans stepped over and carefully loaded his heavy body onto a wide canvas with handholds. They used this to cart the mass of shepherd-lab away. They stood and talked for a bit and I thought that they might simply ignore me.

But they knew very well who had beaten up the old Alpha. They spotted me without effort and came to kneel over me as well. They looked at my scratches and listened to my heart and breathing. Then someone slipped a nylon loop over my head and I knew it was time to get up. They led me out the gate and into the research building.

The inside corridors and rooms were identical to what I remembered and the time I spent inside was hardly memorable. They kept me over night and on drugs that made me sleepy, so that was new. At some point in time, they must have gone over me and stitched up the worst scratches, but I don't remember exactly when. My tail was still bothering me the next day as I sat in a large metal kennel, starving for lack of dinner. However, the humans didn't do anything with it.

Although it hurt, I felt comforted by the lack of treatment because surely it meant that it was nothing serious. If nothing else, I'd learned by now that the people in the lab valued and were invested in my health. The whole time I was in the blissfully cool, air-conditioned confines of the lab, I kept hoping that I would see the black lab. But I didn't catch so much as a whiff of him. Aside from the stitches, I required very little care, actually. I still felt sore, but I wasn't limping as they led me back to the yard.

I was slightly fearful that they had returned the shepherd-lab and that he had reasserted himself as Alpha in my absence, but my fears were unfounded. As it would turn out, it would be almost two weeks before the shepherd-lab returned to the yard. Thankfully, they got me back in time for breakfast.

The day after the fight, I slept most of the time. I still had drugs in my system and couldn't be motivated to move much except for food and essential needs. Still dogs hovered around me constantly. It was a new feeling, being popular, as before I'd mostly been a loner and the other dogs had ignored me. That, of course, couldn't be the case any longer. Certainly if I wanted to keep being Alpha. So I rubbed noses with the dogs and sniffed them as they all came at one time or another to introduce themselves.

Of course, I pretty much knew them all already. It wasn't a big yard, but the status shift had been so extreme, everyone felt a little out of sorts. All day as I napped on and off, scuffles broke out across the yard. The hierarchy was reforming itself around me. I had to assert myself once to break up a bad fight and twice more the second day. The dogs cowered and accepted my judgement in all cases I rose. No one was questioning my authority.

The old betas, Terrier-face and Fatty - as I thought of him, even though the shepherd-lab was much fatter than him - hounded my steps more than most of the other dogs. They wanted to be betas again, that much was clear, but I wasn't sure if I wanted the shepherd-lab's old seconds. We might have been dogs, and all old allegiances should have been dissolved with a new Alpha, but I was concerned that some of their old loyalty might still linger on.

As for the duties of my new job, there wasn't a whole lot more to it other than being the Alpha male. Still, I was inquisitive and when the drugs ran their course and I was feeling more alert and less sore for two days rest, I began to make my rounds, finally free to move about he yard as I liked.

I wasn't kidding when I said that most of the dogs here were very fat and getting fatter. The last batch of ten-week olds we got had been a month ago and most of us who had been infants in spring made up the larger dog population now that summer was passing. Again, all of us were mixed bred, with shepherd, labrador and collie being the most prominent in our bloodlines with some terrier thrown in now and again. Not a lot of the dogs stick out much in my memory now, but there were a few.

Fatty and Terrier-face, I already mentioned, but there was another dog who'd been high up in the ranks, just under the betas. Perhaps I gravitated to him because he reminded me of the black lab. At any rate, he was a dog displaying a great amount of waistline with substantial pride. He was nearly as fat as the black lab had been before he'd been taken. He was also strongly labrador in characteristics, but his coat was chocolate. I l sat down near chocolate-lab as he was lying in the shade of the concrete house, his nose inches away from the music toy.

For a lark, I pressed the Sun button to start up a tune. It had been months since I'd last played with the device, but it came rushing back to me as if I'd never stopped. Chocolate-lab lifted his head and sat heavily up, his large tummy bulging from between his forepaws. Technically, he was fatter than I was. He, along with fatty and the shepherd-lab and about three other dogs still were. He was calm and submissive in his demeanor towards me regardless and his face brightened when I started with the music.

I scooted over to allow him some space. He eagerly pressed the buttons, but soon made a mess of the harmony I'd been creating. He liked the sounds, but the device was a toy to him, not a thing for creating art. Immediately, my spirits deflated. And I let my forepaws sit on the ground, feeling my own tummy press against the backs of them. The music died when I stopped interacting with it. I don't know why I'd expected him to be the same as the black lab, but it was harsh disappointment regardless.

And then I felt a cold nose touch my shoulder. It was the chocolate lab. He put his paw on the toy and started the music again. He surprised me greatly by pressing the Sun button which I usually liked to start with. I allowed myself a small grin and began to form the harmony again. This time, I began to correct the chocolate lab when he would inadvertently start throwing off the sounds. He surprised me again by learning.

On the fifth day after I became Alpha, Fatty and Terrier-face got into a fight. It was a bad one because they both knew how from sparing together with the shepherd-lab. I should have realized something was wrong when they were hovering around me. As it was, I had to jog across the whole distance of the yard to reach them.

It was not an epic battle such as between the shepherd-lab and I. Their beta status revoked, this was just another brawl between two dogs of nebulous hierarchal position. There was a younger collie watching them go, he was about three months old and curious, but that was all. As I got closer jogging towards them - I hadn't run in a long time and I didn't plan to start again, even for these two - the realization that I really didn't like seeing the two formerly inseparable friends fighting hit me hard.

Fatty was predominating the fight... or at least he clearly thought he was judging by his stiff legged, cocky movements. Terrier-face was intimidated for sure, but since there was no defined fighting arena, he was free to use more mobility on his much heavier opponent. Judging on my experiences alone, I thought that Fatty might be in for a series of hard lessons, but then again, he was not so hindered by his weight as the shepherd-lab had gotten for our fight. Nevertheless, I wanted to put a stop to it as quickly as possible.

I jogged closer, again feeling the slowness of my body as an irritating hindrance. I watched Terrier-face close in rapidly from the side, tackling and biting Fatty's shoulder region. There was only small effect due to the depth of padding, and Fatty countered, pushing Terrier-face back, and back. Unfortunately getting farther away from me. Fatty kept pushing and trying to get at Terrier-face with his teeth, but the slimmer dog stayed out of range and kept his mouth clamped on Fatty's shoulder.

Fatty made a bold move, rearing partially despite his great bulk to body slam Terrier-face. Terrier-face's teeth twisted in Fatty's blubber, but he let go in favor of getting out of the way... partially. Fatty landed across Terrier-face in a hurtful way, but they were at it again as soon as they hit the ground. They were rolling and grappling each other. Fatty clearly had the advantage, but Terrier-face didn't seem to care and he was biting with such extreme force that blood was beginning to appear on Fatty's thick chest and abdomen despite this.

Finally I reached them. They ignored me at first, the battle-rage infiltrating their eyes. I had to force them to acknowledge me. I steamrolled the grappling canines, plowing into their fray. I wasn't angry, but I was assertive as I mounted on top of Fatty and terrier-face beside him. We tussled for a few moments and there was some growling and snapping of teeth, especially when I inserted myself in between them, sliding over Fatty's rotund body. We were a big furry mass of wavering limbs and soft bulk, but the two ex-betas came to their senses rapidly and realized who it was on top of them.

Terrier-face scrambled out from under my chest and then fatty had more trouble extricating himself from under me. I stepped over him gingerly, though I was not able to fully clear my foot over his considerable girth, so I ended up stepping on him with a knee. The second fattest dog - although with the shepherd-lab still absent, he was actually the fattest right now - rolled over slowly and got to his feet before standing placidly beside terrier-face in front of me. They didn't look at each other, instead they both looked humbly at my feet, tongues hanging from their mouths and panting lightly. Terrier-face was bleeding a little from his neck but I doubted it would bring the humans.

The reason why they were fighting hardly required answering. Tensions in the community were high. If a beta had taken the spot of Alpha, the hierarchy would have hardly hiccuped, but I had been very nearly the bottom and now was the top dog. Everyone felt like they could either get a higher place if they pushed a little or they had to defend their position and assert themselves. Something trivial likely set these two off, like a spark to the powder keg of pent up emotions. The worst part was that since I'd intervened, the brief fight had resolved nothing.

Looking at their apologetic faces, sincere as dogs can be, I felt a twinge of guilt. So far, my ascension to Alpha had brought only conflict to what used to be an orderly and peaceful pack. I told them not to fight again in the future, but from the blank looks on their faces, I could tell that they'd only got the barest drift of what I was saying. Of course, the way the black lab and I had learned to communicate over time had been unique. None of the other dogs could "speak" as we used to. I growled softly in frustration and the two smaller dogs cringed.

Again, I felt that pang of guilt. They wouldn't be fighting except for me. I began to pace away from them and a swish of my tail invited them to follow if they wished. They both got up at their respective speeds. The yard was not an exceptionally large place, but I walked around it, trying to gather my thoughts. There didn't seem to be a way to guarantee their non-fighting except by making them betas again. But did I really want to do that? Could I really trust them when - I never once thought "if" - the shepherd-lab returned? Their affectionate grins told me yes, but I could simply not predict what their behavior might be like when the dethroned Alpha returned. Their behavior might change. The conflict tore at me.

And even if I did solve these two dogs' problems, there was still the snapping and posturing going on in the rest of the pack. They rarely devolved into outright fighting like the two aggressive betas, but still, there was strife. I wanted so badly to be a good Alpha, but of course, there was no one there to tell me how...

Well, actually, I supposed that there were at least two canines here with a lot of personal experience with a good Alpha... I pondered for a bit more, and decided that there was nothing to it but to put my trust in the two dogs obediently following me around the yard. I just hoped that I would not come to regret it.