 
THE FROZEN WORLD

SCOTT MCCRORY

Copyright 2013 by Scott McCrory

Published at Smashwords
00

The blizzard rampaged through the forest.

The powerful wind engulfed the entire valley in a swirl of chaos. Snow-covered trees were being permanently blown to one side against the ferocious storm dropping heavily all over the horseshoe-shaped plain cordoned off by wooden farm fences and trees surrounding it. The wooden fences were short and in more peaceful climates some of the farm's wild stock would be adventurous and see the world outside of their threshold.

The farmer promised himself after the cold season was over he would put up a more powerful fence. Almost every time he had managed to stop the animals from escaping either by leading them back to the ranch or by shooting the animal dead.

The two animals; a grey wolf and his own white Siberian husky wolf hybrid were running as fast as they could through the bellowing wind and snow. The wolf had already attacked him leaving very noticeable scars along the side of his face.

He got to his feet with a powerful Winchester rifle in his hands, dropping two bullets into the gun.

The two animals ran very quickly but the blizzard would be against them slowing them down through the wind and deepening snow, slow enough to get a clear shot.

Earlier, he had walked off into the forest with his other husky. The excitement of walking around exploring the vast woodland made the animal oblivious to the gunshot. He checked to make sure it was deserted, took out his rusted iron shovel and dug a deep hole. When the hole was deep enough he carried the husky and was careful not to get any blood on his jacket, the gloves would have to be destroyed. Lying with his back against an old oak tree he contemplated telling the wife about the farm haemorrhaging money. The kids would be different of course but then again they were teenagers so they already resented him. He took out the hip flask he'd kept hidden from his wife and took a quick swig before going back to the farm.

He looked down the sight of his rifle aiming at the grey wolf first. All the while he was thinking why the wolf had gotten involved in the first place.

Just then the husky fell over in the thickening snow and quickly tried to regain her balance. The wolf then turned and helped her using its long head to dig her out.

He placed his finger in front of the trigger

The farmer took a deep breath.

He pulled on the hard curved rusted metal.

Despite the wild blizzard, the shot rang throughout the entire valley.

01

These are unusual yet familiar times.

The sun was setting across the valley hiding behind the two large mountain peaks in the far distance, both of them covered in white. In brighter climates the two peaks only had a small smudge of snow on the top while the lower mountain was charcoal coloured.

The two mountains overlooked a vast forest full of white covered trees stretching out all across the valley on both sides. From the hill it was impossible to see where the seemingly endless forest finished. The trees added to the fading glow of the sunlight as the trees slowly darkened their colour making it look as if they had come alive to celebrate the end of the day.

The sun would ignite the sky one last time.

The three year old grey wolf watched the sunset over the mountainside.

He was a couple of months old when he first arrived with his father. He remembered the first time he felt the cool air brush by his coat as he stood watching the endless sea of trees bristle and sway in hypnotic movements. He could remember his father standing like he was made of stone with a straight, tall figure and cold, hard eyes observing the world below as if it were no more than a clump of snow beneath the great paws of an alpha wolf.

The young wolf stood, observing the view of the enormous world surrounding him. He wagged his bushy tail. The wind occasionally brushed by blowing his grey fur to one side, the soft snow crunching underneath his paws.

He scratched his neck with his hind leg. Suddenly, he felt a presence. He twitched his pointed ears.

A scent.

A scent he had known all his life.

A soft pattering of paws in snow.

"Visiting old places, eh?"

He turned around and saw her staring at the valley with her clear yellow eyes. She was a well-built white wolf. Her fur was clear white with no other colours within it to ruin its purity. She was still such a young and vibrant wolf despite being over six years old.

"You won't mind if I join you?"

His mother approached him and sat where the wind blew in.

They both sat in silence. A few birds flew out of the vast sea of white spires. Each bird flew off and scattered from the fading glow of the sun into the incoming darkness.

"You used to come out here a lot when you were younger, you were really cute when you kept going on at your father "Can we go up the hill dad? Can we go up the hill dad?" " She imitated a small child's voice.

The two wolves wagged their tails.

"I know you'll do fine tomorrow, son."

He glanced at his mother. Her eyes fixated on the vast woodland below.

"This will have to be your time to show what you are made of. That is something that your father can only give you pointers on. You have to do it for yourself."

He nodded in agreement.

"I was nervous about it too, even your dad was nervous about it when he first did it. It's completely natural."

She turned to face him, analysing his gaze.

It was an instinct only she could possess.

An instinct only a caring mother, worried sick for two years could possess.

She wasn't wagging her tail anymore.

"Dane, I look around the valley at the other wolves your age and all they want to do is kill their way to the top of their pack and follow in their father's paw prints. They're walking with blood on their paws trying to prove something. The difference is we know where the blood came from. I know what a killer is. You're not a killer."

"What am I, then?"

"Whatever you want to be."

The two wolves sat in silence for a long time. The wind wrapped around them as the last of the sun's rays died away.

"I know you'll do fine."

The young wolf looked out at the valley. The stars had already started to appear in the night sky decorating the whole valley with thousands of shining lights.

"Come on lets go on back to the cave. Your father will be in soon."

She began to turn away.

"Do you think there were more trees down there when you were last here?"

She turned and briefly stared at the valley.

"Really? I don't see that."

"I don't know. Maybe it's just me."

She walked up and playfully nudged into his side. Her tail wagged.

He spoke "You know if I-"

"No if, when."

"What?"

"I said not if, but when you pass-"

"I was going to say if I came back here in a few years I wonder what it'll be like..."

She looked to the ground for a moment and then raised her head.

The two wolves stared at each other.

Dane spoke "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

She brightened up. Her tail started wagging again.

Darkness had fallen over the frozen valley.

Beneath the beauty of the landscape lay the entity of foreboding within the forest, a fear of the unexpected. The ferocious creatures waiting to trap their unsuspecting prey, the slippery, dangerous hilltops and lakes ready to catch someone out on the fragile landscape. Regularly if caught out by the ravenous creatures of the forest the last thing one would see would be the surrounding tall trees gazing over them resembling ashen, mysterious, hooded silhouettes watching the murder unfold.

All creatures had to fight to survive.

Only those in the right place at the right time would live on.

The cave lay well underneath the large hill overlooking the valley. Several paths lay in front of it, one path led towards a steep hill covered by tall trees. The other path entrenched in thick snow went to the top of a waterfall where members of the pack went to drink or on rare occasions catch some of the wild fish. The cave itself would have given the impression that it was subterranean compared to the rest of the landscape with the large hills that surrounded it. All that was seen through the front of the cave was the surrounding brimstone coloured rock that hadn't been covered by the snow.

Ray had told the pack that they would only be staying for a short while and then they would leave again.

The pack itself consisted of nine wolves. In this particular pack there were three families that consisted of a father, a mother and a child. In a wolf pack, there was always a hierarchical power structure to the way in which a pack operated. The strongest breeding pair would become the overruling family or the alpha pair. The strong wolves in the pack below the alpha wolves would become the beta wolves, second in command to the alpha. Then the low ranking omega wolves would be the weaker ones of the pack, usually the weaker older wolves or other very weak wolves but no one in Ray's eyes would be considered that. Ray hated degrading members of his pack.

Ray was always at the head of any large hunt the pack went on. The wolves participated in these hunts around a few times a week where they would usually gather together and go after a large herd of moose, elk or oxen. When they weren't on large hunts the pack would hunt small animals such as rabbits, foxes or racoons.

Dane and his mother walked towards the entrance of the cave.

They saw the all too familiar sight of two male adult grey wolves arguing, one average size, the other very muscular and wide. An elk corpse and many rabbit corpses lay between them.

"You don't know anything, Noel. I had that moose in my claws. I was going to pull that thing down before you got involved." Henry growled.

"I do know when a furious moose is about to ram someone to death, but you don't think about these things don't you?" Noel replied.

Henry growled "Bloody dog."

"Watch it."

Henry walked away from Noel.

"When you're beating the life out of those animals out there try to bring them back here they'll be a great meal for us."

Henry grunted. He did not look back at Noel.

"I'll give them the prey, but I won't get that for you. A rat would be more appropriate, don't you think?"

He walked away up the hill leading up to the river.

Noel sighed and turned towards Dane and his mother on the other side.

"Sorry, Lisa. What a great appreciation for someone who just saved someone else's life." Noel sighed "Francis' wolf."

"I don't think it was a good idea to provoke him like that though. You know how Henry is." Lisa replied.

"He'll just do what he usually does. Go on the warpath and come back with a calmed mind. That old wolf told me once 'always try to anticipate a pack wolf's path. You never know what blood is on their paws.'"

He started to push the prey towards the jagged archway of the cave and Dane helped him carry them.

"Where were you two, then?"

"We were just up that cliff. You know the one that Dane always used to go up?"

"The one that looks over the entire valley?" Noel asked.

Lisa nodded. Noel turned to her son.

"Had a little nostalgia trip did we?"

"It's been a long time since we last came here. I thought I'd go see it again."

Noel's tail started wagging "I know what you mean. I used to have those kinds of spots as well. In that place beside that hilltop we stayed with the waterfall, remember? I used to swim through the waterfall and stay under it and pass through it for a while. My parents didn't know what to do with me."

His tail dropped to the ground as he walked into the cave.

Dane and Lisa walked into the cave just as Henry's son, Lundin, walked in from the other side of the cave entrance with a large swan in his mouth. He nodded at the two of them and dropped the swan with the other dead animals at the side of the cave.

"Lisa. Dane."

"Hello."

"Hi Lundin."

He turned to Lisa. "I just caught myself this big swan. Hard to catch though, kept flailing around the place I could hardly keep my paws on it."

"Very nice catch. Well done. Just so you know, your father was arguing with Noel again-"

"And he's walked out."

"Aye."

Lundin sighed and hung his head "He'll get tired and calm himself down eventually. You know what he's like."

"Unfortunately, I do."

"He can't keep doing this. He's putting everyone on edge. I've lost count of how many times he's walked out of pack meetings."

Lisa approached him and said quietly "Look, Lundin. I can talk to him about this if you want."

"Lisa, thank you for your concern but you really don't have to. He won't listen to anyone."

"He'll listen to me."

"Why?"

"I'm an alpha wolf and that means I'm responsible for keeping this pack running."

Lundin turned to Dane who nodded in agreement.

"If you think that'll help."

Her tail flung from side to side "Ah, don't worry about it. In the meantime why don't you and Linda try to talk some sense into him? Maybe when the three of you are out hunting together? I'll talk to Linda as well and see what she thinks."

Lundin perked up "I appreciate it."

Lisa nodded.

He then turned to her son.

"Dane, can I show you something down at the lake?"

The young wolf nodded.

"Don't be too long though. Someone has to eat this food." She turned and walked further into the cave.

The two young wolves were now alone at the front of the cave.

"Come on. Let's walk."

The forest had become very dark. It seemed as if the erect spires covered almost every square inch of the land. There were hardly any clear paths through the forest except from small islands within the endless sea of trees that contained small hills or very large rocks.

No one in the pack dared to venture far into the forest. Ray had warned them of the dangers of the forest.

We need to keep close. I'm sure you wouldn't want anyone going missing or running into humans or another wolf pack. All of you promise me you will not try to be adventurous and go in there when it's dark, under any circumstances.

Ray put emphasis on his last few words for effect and to make sure he drove his point home to the rest of the pack.

Henry walked along the outskirts of the forest. His head hung low and he stumbled and staggered through the trees growling and shaking his head in frustration. The forest seemed as if it stretched out to eternity in the darkness. Henry kept on staggering between the trees.

Several crows perched in their high trees cawed and cackled to each other.

A fluttering of wings burst from a branch. One crow jumped and raised their claws at another screeching and cawing into its side. The other crow tossed itself off the branch and glided through the air leaving its attacker to screech in fury.

All Henry could do was to keep walking until he could find something that made sense.

He snarled as he spotted a small red fox walking past a nearby tree. He positioned himself at the side of a nearby tree, sidestepping into the shadows. The fox walked towards a set of trees close to him.

Lucky day.

The fox was taken by surprise and tried to jump out of the way of the large grey wolf flying towards him but the small animal was already in his claws. Tearing away at the fox with his claws, he bit into its neck. With his jaws still clamped onto the animal's neck he picked it up and slammed it on the snowy ground. The blood sprayed over the snowy ground. The fox kept squirming to get free and yelped. He continually lifted the fox by the neck and slammed it to the ground. It was a technique his father had taught him.

Keep slamming it until it stops moving.

He kept slamming the fox until he could no longer feel it moving or making any sound. The ominous figure stood behind him judging his every move. Henry dropped his prey, the fox blood dripping from his jaw and teeth, eyes half closed with a large, fleshy, red wound on its neck. The figure grunted in a very unappreciative form of praise. He picked up the fox and started to go back to the cave. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small creature scuttle around on the snowy ground. The creature looked up at him with small black beady eyes.

He suddenly thought for a moment about his spat with Noel.

The two young wolves sat close to the lake with the eternal darkness of the forest in front of them with only the lake and the glittering snow separating it.

The sky darkened and the bright moonlight flickered between the passing clouds. The water shimmered in the darkness with a faint moonlit glow. In the distance, a strip of dark blue led over a waterfall. Surrounding the lake was a seemingly infinite number of trees. They were sitting on the edge of the world where their territory ended.

Dane looked down and stared into the clear water and saw his and Lundin's reflection in it. Lundin was staring into the distance away from the water.

The water was still and serene. He curiously observed his own reflection.

The lake had been frozen solid for a while but the sunlight had thawed it out. He watched the fish flow in their frozen world. He observed their small movements, the way they stopped, started, jolted, turned and explored the water in order to survive. He watched himself tilt his head from one side to the other in curiosity under the backdrop of the endless sky above him. Tiny bright lights dotted around the dark blue sky with the curving dusky clouds wisping through the sky. It made the young wolf wonder and think beyond the cautious eyes of his pack. That curiosity always wanted to break free, seeking answers to the greatest of questions.

He took a drink and looked into the reflection of Lundin, his body tall and straight, fixed on the pitch-black depths of the forest.

"Looking for something?"

"No just, nothing."

Dane lifted his head and glanced towards the darkened forest.

"I've always liked coming here. It's really quiet, a great place to be alone and think. Better to enjoy this peace and quiet while it lasts. We'll be leaving soon."

Dane nodded.

"How you feeling about tomorrow, then?"

"Feel better about it. Just have to go do it now. Get it off my mind."

"You were good this afternoon helping me with those rabbits. You've always been quick on your paws."

Dane stared up at the starry night sky.

"I took too long with that elk again."

"Don't think about that too much."

"Happens every time I'm close. I'm running right alongside the damn thing-"

He stopped. Lundin turned to face him.

"Why don't you?"

"Why don't I what?"

"Go over to it and give it a nice lick on the cheek. What do you think?"

Dane chuckled "I don't know. I don't know, really."

They sat in silence as a thin cold breeze brushed in.

"I'm sure you'll do better without the rest of us barging in, taking the kill."

Dane remained silent. He bent over to take another drink. Lundin watched him dip his long black snout in the frozen pool. The young wolf lifted his head out of the water, the wet fur hanging off the underside of his mouth like a vast array of jagged, sharp stalactites.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"It was just something my father said to me today."

"What?"

Lundin stood up and walked off. Circling the edge of the lake, staring down at his own pawprints he sniffed the air.

He sighed and spoke "No wolf would ever hesitate to kill to survive, even if it is another wolf."

"Really?"

"Those exact words. Just told me that completely out of the blue."

Dane thought for a moment.

"When did he say that?"

"Me, Noel, Chloe and my dad were chasing this moose."

"This was the same moose that charged at him?"

"It was just after it ran off. Noel and my dad had an argument. He walked off and I went with him. Kept saying he was a coward and that's when he said that to me."

Dane nodded.

"Afterwards he told me to leave him alone for a while."

As he spoke Lundin slowly walked around the edge of the lake staring out into the darkness surrounding them. His bushy thin tail dragged along the deep snowy ground.

"What are you thinking?"

Lundin hesitated "I don't like where this is heading. And Noel, Francis' wolf, Noel needs to stop antagonising him. This is happening every few days now. I know we could have chased after that moose and killed it but Noel forbade us from doing so."

"I'm sure he has his reasons. Like your father he's a beta wolf. My father trusts them enough to make those decisions."

The young wolf walked back to his friend, dry and gloomy "Yeah well, I guess so."

"Look at me."

Lundin looked into Dane's clear sincere gold eyes and saw no reason to distrust him but rather take comfort in his words.

"Don't worry about this. My dad trusts these wolves. He's the alpha wolf and he never attained that position by making bad decisions."

The tree branches arched and swayed in the breeze, large clumps of snow sliding off the edge. Leaves half buried in the snow rustled and fluttered violently while those recently fallen drifted and twisted, performing circular motions through the air.

After a long silence, Lundin spoke.

"You know I had this dream last night. I was first running through this forest. There was no way out, it was just dark trees everywhere. There was something chasing me, I don't know what it was but I knew it was there. After running for a long time I suddenly felt the ground beneath me fall apart and I fell into some water. It wasn't just ordinary water like this." He nodded to the lake. "The water was red. I didn't know what was happening. I saw bodies of wolves float past me. They were the bodies of everyone in the pack."

He glanced at Dane.

"Even you."

Dane stared at him. No reaction, only silence. The silence and timidity he was used to for most of his life. The silence that made him a puzzle to those around him trying to put the pieces back together or at least make a picture of anything that made any kind of sense. The silence ran with him when he ran. The silence hunted with him when he hunted. The silence walked with him when he walked. The silence that killed when he-

"I couldn't swim out of the water. Every time I tried to swim up I was just getting nowhere and I couldn't breathe. I could even feel that I was suffocating. I woke up at that point. I don't know why I even thought about that. I don't know why I dream about these things, messed up things."

The cave itself was wide enough for around five or six wolves walking side by side to enter the cave at the same time. Not too deep but deep enough for all the wolves to have their own space to sleep. The wolves would sleep next to their partners and the young wolves would sleep near them but not too close, sleeping in a half ring near the entrance. The alpha wolves positioned themselves in the centre with the two other families at opposite sides.

The pack would always devour the prey before the day ended and would throw the remains well away from the vicinity of the cave. They did this mainly because they didn't want other predators locating the carcasses so that they would potentially attack the pack and battle them for the possession of the meat.

At the side of the cave was a small mound of animal carcasses. Burrowed inside was an elk corpse and several rabbit and raccoon corpses. At the top lay the enormous adult swan Lundin had caught earlier. Its pale feathers tainted with faint lines of dirt and faded spots of darkened blood. Vacant black beaded eyes smooth and crystalline that still shined even in the dying light outside the cave. The meal was just the right amount for all the wolves to tear into.

Most of the members of the pack were already settled waiting for the others to arrive. Only Henry and Ray were missing. The wolves in the pack would wait for all the members to return before they would eat especially if an alpha wolf was not present.

"I take it my dad hasn't come back yet."

Linda spoke "No but he'll be back soon. I'm going to have a nice long chat with him. Don't worry about a thing."

"Doesn't help I'm starving."

Linda glanced at Lundin and in a calm but slightly irritated voice "Son, be patient. So are the rest of us."

"I'm sorry."

Noel changed the subject.

"I'm really impressed with that enormous swan you brought back. Killing that thing must have taken a lot of skill."

"Thanks. Yes, it did."

"How'd you kill it?"

"I just kept trying to corner it. I swam around so I could cut it off from swimming down river. Thankfully, it had an injured wing so it didn't have a chance to fly away before I coaxed it onto the shore and killed it."

"Did you injure its wing?"

"No."

Noel's tail started wagging.

"Your dad will be really impressed when he comes back. Well done."

Chloe turned to Lisa.

"Lisa, I was just wondering when are we going to leave this place? Has Ray said anything to you about leaving here? I've just been thinking that it's a bit too cramped for all of us here. My mother feels the same way I do."

Sandy hesitantly nodded "Er, yes Lisa I do have a slight problem with the cave. Like she said it's really cramped and I don't know about you but the cave just looks really unstable to me. I feel as if at any moment it will all collapse on us."

Lisa took in all the information and looked at the three wolves who were mentioned with a concerning look on her face. Noel scowled at Chloe due to her outright discourtesy to one of the alpha wolves.

"I'll talk to Ray and if you really feel that way about this place then we can't stay here. It's as simple as that."

Sandy spoke up.

"Sorry Lisa, I was going to tell Ray about it when he came in but-"

She glared at Chloe.

"No, Sandy. I think Chloe was right to have spoken out this time. This is a very serious matter. If you lot feel that way about this place then we cannot run this pack efficiently. I definitely have the same concerns about this place as you do. I see small parts of rock breaking off the walls but not enough to make a fuss out of. Now that I know you have a real problem with this place we will all leave as soon as possible when we talk to Ray about it. We can't have you worrying every night that this place is going to fall on your heads. That is not acceptable. A pack cannot run properly if the majority of members are worrying they will not live to see the morning and fear they will wake up with a huge rock bonking off their head."

"Alright. Thank you Lisa." Linda nodded.

Noel spoke "I definitely agree with you, Lisa. A pack like ours has to be kept on their toes. We cannot maintain our efficiency if we stay here."

Lisa nodded at him and all the wolves agreed with him.

Just then, the group of wolves turned their heads to see a large hulk of a grey wolf standing with a red fox in his mouth.

They greeted Henry but Noel remained silent. Henry dropped the fox over on the pile of dead animals. Linda then walked over to Henry and licked him on the cheek.

"Hey, big guy. How are you doing?"

Henry cleaned his lips of the fox's blood and licked her on her cheek.

"Not bad, darling. I just had to sort some things out, that's all."

He looked to Noel, who was sitting in silence and staring at him.

"Hey Noel, thought you might like this."

He laid a dead, grey rat at Noel's paws.

"What? I did tell you I would do that for you. I keep my word."

"I'm genuinely impressed you caught that."

"Oh, really?"

"You're really trying to carry this on aren't you?"

"Ha, you bet I am. Don't worry about it though. We're going to be fine, you arse."

"I wonder how long that's going to last."

"As long as you want it to, pal."

They both sat down at either side of the cave beside their families.

Henry caught a glimpse of the large swan in the pile.

"That's a pretty damn big swan. Who caught that thing?"

Lundin cleared his throat.

"I caught that, dad."

Henry looked at his son with a proud expression spread across his face.

"Ha, that's my boy! That's how it's done! Nice catch son!"

Lundin sat with his tail swaying back and forth. Henry walked over to the pile and pulled out the huge swan. Henry himself couldn't have killed a swan like this even when he was Lundin's age.

Henry looked up from the swan's large body and looked directly at Noel. Noel leered back at him. Henry turned around and decided to play along.

"Well done, son. I'm very proud of you. You're one talented hunter."

Henry chose to ignore Noel's cold stare.

Lisa turned to Henry.

"It is a very good catch indeed. We'll dig in to it when Ray gets here. Did you happen to see Ray when you were out at all, Henry?"

Henry now looked at the white wolf and his tail slowed down.

"No, I didn't see him. I think he may be off scouting paths like he usually is."

Lisa nodded at him and asked Henry "Did you know that Linda and the others have a problem with this cave? Do you have a problem with it?"

"Not really, I've never noticed anything."

"Well, I'm going to talk to Ray about it and hopefully we'll leave here soon."

"I'm sorry Lisa but why should we move?"

Lisa's tail stopped.

"There are many here who think this cave is dangerous and are afraid the whole place will collapse on them in the middle of the night."

"There is nothing wrong with this place. There are much more important things to worry about than such paranoia over whether a cave is safe or not. Where would you rather move? The cold forest ground? We have a good thing going here, why change it?"

"Henry, this is not up for negotiation. If we stay here the pack cannot function properly because they are too busy thinking this place will collapse. They think they're sleeping under a large unstable rock."

Before Henry could make another comment and start yet another argument Linda intervened "I think I can prove my theory, Lisa. I can just get Henry to bang his head off the wall and that would prove if this cave was stable or not."

Henry ignored her but the rest of the wolves sniggered.

Henry rested his head down on his front legs.

"Well, let's just see what Ray has to say about all of this. Hopefully he will have a bigger spine than the rest of you."

Linda playfully nudged him "Oh shut up you big lump."

Just then, there was a sound of movement outside. All the wolves turned towards the entrance of the cave to see a well-built, tall grey wolf.

Ray looked at his pack.

"Good evening everyone."

Dane's father walked in and everyone greeted him. He walked up to his son.

"Alright, son?"

"I'm alright dad. What about you?"

"Never better, lad."

He walked over to Lisa and nuzzled her. Lisa asked him "Where have you been, handsome?"

He sat down by her side.

"I was just out looking around the area and explored places I had never been before."

Noel spoke up "What did you find out, then?"

Ray looked at Noel "I found out many paths towards other valleys." He paused. "I also met up with another pack."

Suddenly the mood within the cave changed as the pack wolves perked up their heads alerted. Even Henry's head shot up. Ray reassured his pack.

"They were just passing through, seemed friendly enough. They warned me that humans might be heading towards this end of the valley."

At the mention of humans most of the pack growled and clenched their teeth. Ray barked to calm them down. The short, sharp sound boomed around the cave. Every wolf in the cave instinctively stopped and turned towards their leader.

"As I was saying, the pack leader was quite old, probably about eight years old with at least five other young adult wolves. I think we should leave this place as soon as possible."

Lisa added, "It's good that you brought that up. The others were just saying the cave itself was a bit unstable and they would prefer a different place to stay."

Henry grunted but everyone ignored him.

"In that case we should definitely leave this place as soon as we're ready." He turned towards Dane. "We will leave as soon as Dane's hunting lesson is finished."

Noel argued "Ray why are we staying here if you yourself think that either the cave or the humans will kill us first? Why would we have to spend another night here?"

Ray turned to Noel with a hint of anger in his voice "His lesson will not be too long and I'm sure that the cave will still be standing another night. From what I've heard the humans are still far from where we are now. I'm sure you know that hunting lessons must be carried out in an environment where the wolf in training has stayed and has been used to for some time. A training wolf would have to be in the environment for at least a few months. We have stayed here for a few months at least. Dane knows this place. For his sake and mine I can't afford to wait any longer for this to happen. The lesson will be tomorrow and as soon as it ends, we leave."

The wolves stood in silence. Dane stared into his father's eyes, cold and irritated. Guilt slithered down his spine as if he was lying with his back against a long, thin, sharp piece of hanging ice.

After a short silence, Ray perked up, "Anyway, enough talking and worrying for now. Lets have some food and then once we're fed we will be able to think a little clearer."

All of the wolves agreed and bit into several random animals from the pile. Apart from Henry who took out the large swan and gave it to Lundin. Ray looked at the large swan.

"That's one big swan. Did you catch that Henry? I thought you didn't hunt swans?"

Henry proudly exclaimed, "Oh this isn't my kill. This is all Lundin's."

Ray looked at Lundin.

"Very impressive stuff, Lundin."

Lundin beamed and nodded his head in appreciation.

He turned to Henry and joked, "You had better watch out Henry, I think you might have some competition."

The snow had begun to pick up. It was now snowing more heavily across the valley and in front of the cave. This wasn't unusual for the colder season, the wolves were just thankful it was not a blizzard. When a blizzard showed up the pack knew they were in danger as the cold and ferocious winds would cause them all sorts of problems. It was near impossible to catch prey in a blizzard and despite their fur the cold would drain the pack's strength.

Thankfully Ray had always found places that would protect the pack from any such occurrence. He had told the pack to catch as much prey as they could and bring it back to their resting place so that they could hold up in the camp for as long as the blizzard lasted.

Once the wolves had finished their meals they moved the remains to around the side of the cave, away from the entrance. Ray had always told them that as long as the remains were not near the front of the cave, other predators would not challenge them for it. The wolves thus scattered the remains far away from the cave. Henry and Noel both agreed to take the remains but then, as if almost in unison, they turned to their offspring and told them to help. Lundin agreed but Chloe sighed and pushed past her father to the remains. Ray turned to Dane to see if he could help but the four wolves had already gathered the remains and left.

The blizzard rocked the frozen landscape.

Henry and Noel had split off from each other searching for a place to bury the remains of their prey. Henry motioned to Lundin to follow him at one side while Noel and Chloe walked in another direction without looking at each other.

Noel and his daughter trod through the deepening snow and the ferocious winter wind. All the while their vision distorted, their bodies pushing through fighting against the strong current of air. The two wolves hardly even noticed each other's presence until they'd reached their destination.

"Right, this'll do."

Chloe stopped and dug her paws into the snow.

Noel looked over to her "There's really no point in doing that. The snow will cover that up."

Chloe kept digging, pretending she hadn't heard him.

Noel shook his head and placed the remains at the large roots of a nearby tree. The roots jutted out of the ground, covered in fresh snow.

As soon as he had finished, he returned to Chloe who was still filling in the hole in the snow. He watched his daughter, waiting for her to look at him.

She never did. After the hole was filled to her liking she turned away from him.

"Chloe."

She stopped and sighed, making sure he saw her doing so.

"Chloe, we need to talk about a few things."

She responded coldly, "About what? As if I have to guess."

"You talked out of line again-"

Chloe flared, "No, no I was in the right. Lisa said I was."

"Maybe you were. However, what about the times you complained about the other wolves in the pack? That time you complained Linda was deliberately preventing you from catching prey? Or that time you complained about Ray's tactics for large hunts? Francis' wolf, you practically raised your voice to the alpha wolf of the pack! You are going to get yourself killed one day if you continue to act like you think you know everything. You are young Chloe, you will have to learn to obey the rules and stop criticising everyone. If you don't, everyone will eventually hate you and you will end up with no one you can trust."

"At least I'm not spineless like you or my mother."

Noel hung his head "Chloe..."

Chloe mimicked him "Chloe..."

"Why is it so hard to have a simple conversation with you?"

"Why is it so hard to have a conversation with someone who beat me?"

Noel's shook his head. He turned away from his daughter.

She jumped when he shouted. "I am never going to hear the end of that, will I?! It was one time!"

He turned to face her.

"All you ever do is keep pushing and pushing. Francis' wolf knows what this pack will become when you and Lundin take over."

"What about Dane?"

"Dane won't pass that lesson tomorrow everyone can see what he's like with large animals. He's silent and ineffective. He's not leadership material."

"What if I don't want to be alpha wolf? What if I don't want what you want?"

Noel laughed "You would only do that to spite me. You'll be an alpha wolf no matter what."

"No, I'll be an alpha wolf if I can have what I want. So I'll tell you this. If by some chance Dane passes this lesson he'll become a certainty for the alpha wolf position and I won't do it. I'll leave. I'm not spending the rest of my life with that silent fool."

"You will take the position and that's final. If you think you're going to shame your mother and I with this, you're mistaken. You're just being naive."

Chloe growled "I'm not! I'll do it."

"Chloe, grow up!"

"Do you think I should follow your example of someone who constantly trails behind the alpha wolves their whole life?"

"You have no idea what I gave up for you. I was in a pack before this with your mother and we were demoted to omega wolves along with anyone else that failed the pack for even doing so much as look the wrong way. There were a group of around ten of us, including that wise old wolf. It was that old wolf who came to your mother and me and told us we would be much better off in a pack that actually cared about us. We both abandoned the omega wolves and were left to fend for ourselves for a long while before we met up with Ray. Your mother almost died trying to protect you and you weren't even born yet. I don't expect you to follow my example but the least you could do is show me and your mother some respect!"

Chloe gave him a cold stare. A small tear rolled off her cheek and was immediately blown away by the thunderous wind. She turned and ran off, leaving Noel seething under the large tree, the roots now completely submerged under the falling snow.

After a while, the four wolves returned and sat in their original places.

Henry and Lundin returned first, followed by Chloe. She looked visibly shaken. Sandy stared at her daughter.

"Chloe, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Doesn't look like it."

"Please...drop it."

"What's wrong? Tell me."

"Nothing."

"You might as well tell me."

Chloe gave her mother a cold look

"Drop. It."

Sandy turned away from her, hurt.

"If that's the way you want it."

Noel returned as soon as Chloe laid herself down with her head low and stared into the vacant blackness of the cave.

Ray turned to his pack.

"Well, you all know that my son is going to be having his hunting lesson tomorrow."

Dane immediately perked up and straightened his neck.

"You're not nervous about tomorrow, are you?"

"Oh no, not at all dad."

A couple of wolves spoke up.

"You'll do fine, son."

"We've all had to do it."

Chloe remained unresponsive. Noel and Henry did not react at all.

Sandy asked, "When are you taking him out tomorrow?"

"Well, we'll go out in the early morning. That way we will have plenty of time before we go find a moose."

Noel added, "I take it we'll have to get an early night sleep."

"We'll have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow and I want all of you to be rested enough for it."

Henry spoke up, "Where are we going to go?"

"Don't worry, I'll find us another place. That won't be a problem."

Lisa spoke "I'm amazed you were able to approach that pack without them retaliating. What happened, did you just astound them with your charming personality?"

"They were just a small pack with a lot of younger wolves roughly about four years old from what I could tell. Their leader was a lot older than me, around eight years old. At first it was tense, I approached the pack then several of the younger wolves got a little anxious but the older one managed to calm them down before they would attack. The older one was a great leader, especially having to deal with all of those vicious younger wolves. I said to him that I was a pack leader as well. I don't know if he believed me or not."

Linda said, "Yeah, hardly any lone wolf would be accepted to talk to the main alpha wolf directly like that."

Sandy added, "You were lucky they didn't hurt you. It could have been a whole lot worse."

Lundin then spoke out, "Ray?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure that this wolf was telling the whole truth? I'm sure that if there was another pack in the area they would plan on taking the prey around here for themselves and want us out of the way to eliminate the competition."

Henry turned to Lundin admiring his son's contribution.

"Good point, Lundin. But I don't think the old wolf was lying to me. If he had any sort of confrontation with me then he would have let the younger wolves kill me as soon as he saw me. I'm sure none of you would have even thought about approaching that sort of pack, would you?"

All of the pack members shook their heads apart from Dane.

"Well, I would."

The pack members looked at Dane in astonishment. Even Chloe perked her head up. It was rare that Dane would contribute anything to these discussions.

"Why would you do that, son?"

"Every wolf is in the exact same position we're in. They want to survive just like us. Maybe this alpha wolf understood this and gave us this warning to help us. If that older wolf did not even attempt to attack you then he would surely have a reason for it. They are wolves just like us, they can be reasoned with. But that's just what I think."

The wolves stood in silence. Several of the wolves hesitantly nodded their heads in agreement.

Ray broke the silence "Well, thanks for that, son. And you're right. That pack is trying to survive just like us. That's what I've said all the time. Any wolf can be reasoned with. Francis' wolf, it's got all of us this far. It's what has kept this pack going. That's a very mature way of looking at things, Dane."

All of the wolves agreed. Henry and Noel glanced over at the son of the alpha wolf, slightly irritated and anxious.

The pack wolves lay themselves down on the cold, hard cave floor.

Before Ray closed his eyes he glanced over to his son, his eyes already closed.

Ray felt a lot more comfortable about tomorrow.

The sun had begun to rise over the valley.

The sky was slowly illuminating the entire valley and the sunlight began to spread across the ice covered wooden spires. By now some of the small woodland creatures would be waking up and scouring the valley for food and other items necessary for survival before the larger predators woke up and made it more difficult for them. The large mountains blocked some of the sunlight getting through, but as the day would go on those trees would receive plenty of sunlight and the larger creatures would wake and go out trying to track and kill their weak, unsuspecting prey.

Ray and Dane had been walking for a short while. They were quite far from the cave. The two wolves hardly said a word to each other apart from Ray waking him and telling him the rules of how the hunting lesson was going to work and what would be involved.

The hunting lesson was seen as a passage into adulthood. It was the moment a young wolf must prove they can be useful to their pack. A young wolf must be able to prove to the pack they are able to hunt effectively. No one apart from a parent, preferably the father and an alpha wolf could take the young wolf out. Since Dane's father was the alpha wolf, he would be the only one going with him for the lesson.

Ray never told Dane what would happen if he failed. Dane knew he was better off not knowing. He couldn't help but think about the future. He knew that whatever happened today would determine his place in life. Fear pierced his mind like a porcupine catching sight of an oncoming threat.

He looked at his father, more alert than he ever was. Dane thought for a second his father was just as nervous as he was, but he couldn't imagine him being nervous at all.

The two wolves approached the plain where the moose grazed.

The sunlight shone on the snowy ground with only a couple of trees and the large, majestic mountain range in the background. A forest lay to the side and a large trough that was so deep anyone could walk through it encircling the outskirts of the forest with several large boulders dug into the hard frozen dirt.

The plain was large and desolate. There was no sound apart from the soft bristle of the countless trees on either end. A few birds flew off in the distance, tiny specks drifting in the vast mountain range.

Apart from a few small twigs, partly buried rocks and a few thin hollow bushes only one pine tree stood in the centre. It stood with heavy snow and ice hanging off its roots and its rock solid bark bearing the brunt of many blizzards and high winds. It stood alone retaining its dark green leaves giving it the appearance of every other tree in the forest.

When the young wolf was ready, he would run up the hill and go for the moose, doing whatever he could to bring it down and kill it.

Before he could get ready, Ray remembered the promise he made to his son a long time ago.

"Dane."

The young wolf nodded.

"You wanted to know about how I became an alpha wolf? You've always asked me how it happened."

He stood silent.

His father sighed, "I had to earn my place as alpha wolf in the pack. When the old leader died, do you remember I told you about him?"

Dane nodded vaguely, he remembered Ray talking about him once or twice.

"When the leader died there wasn't a real successor to his position. Three other wolves, including myself, were the candidates. You don't need to know who those wolves were."

"Why?"

"It's best you don't know."

The young wolf nodded.

"What you have to understand is that each of us wanted that position and we wanted it badly. It became obvious we couldn't settle the dispute peacefully so we-" Ray hesitated for a long moment.

Dane curiously glared at him, a youthful excitement rose in him.

"So you what?"

"We decided we would fight each other to see who would become leader. The last one alive would be leader."

Dane froze as he took in his father's words.

"One day we went to a quiet plain. I told your mother I was going to be alright and she believed me. I went up with the other wolves. Francis' wolf, you would not believe the tension between us as we walked to that spot. Anyway when we got there, the three wolves were ready and eager to tear each other to shreds, me included. However, I was not so willing to go through with it, but I knew it had to be done. I would never have called any of those wolves my friends, not even before that day."

He paused for a moment and then continued.

"I won the fight, barely. I went back to your mother and we became alpha pair of the pack, which now only contained your mother and me. The mates of the other three wolves ran off and I never saw them again."

Confusion and disappointment clouded the young wolf's mind.

"Your mother and I were alone for a while. We travelled and hunted for ourselves for a while."

"What about the pack?"

"What do you mean?"

"Were you still in a pack? Just the two of you?"

"Depends on what you think a pack is. A pack is just a group of wolves looking to survive. They stay and hunt together. Other wolves join and families grow. They're responsible for each other. When the other wolves left I took control. I was naive and inexperienced, every wolf who went out to the plain that day was. Your mother and I were inexperienced. The old leader was a bad leader and he left us in a state none of us recovered from."

"Look at what you did with the remains. Three families have stayed with you this long because they trust you."

"I appreciate that, son. I'll tell you something. This was something that happened long ago. There was a blizzard and your mother was weak. After the other wolves left, we were very unsure of everything. We started to take the frustration out on each other. One night I walked out looking for prey. Prey had become very difficult to find lately and your mother was frustrated. We quarrelled and then she finally told me that I was to either find prey or leave and never come back."

"I just can't imagine my mother ever being like that."

"As I said, we were both young and inexperienced. There was something about your mother after the other wolves left. All that mattered to her was you and I. Our family. She knew her ultimatum would force me to take responsibility for you two."

"That sounds more like her. What did you do?"

"I spent the entire day looking for prey. I didn't even eat that entire day."

"That's amazing. All because you wanted to provide for us."

"No, because your mother had put the fear of Francis' wolf in me."

The two wolves laughed.

Ray joked "I swear the rabbit population was never the same again after that. In the evening I came back with about four rabbits."

"Oh, right."

"And then I had to go back and get three more rabbits I'd buried."

They both chuckled.

"Oh, but that's just the things you have to do I suppose. Even your mother thought I was overdoing it. Anyway, I came up to her and there was this tiny pup. That was you. When I first saw you I don't know what came over me. Nothing mattered apart from you and your mother, not the pack, nothing else. I was responsible for you and your mother. It was almost as if the disintegration of the pack hadn't even happened. Everything changed when you were born."

The two wolves stood in silence. Ray glanced into his son's eyes. The large golden orbs were fixated on him. They then shied away from his gaze. He stood on his haunches waiting patiently for his word like a sign of respect.

"I waited for this day in particular to tell you this. That's the point of this lesson, for a wolf to enter adulthood. I wanted you to become a strong, intelligent wolf that would provide for this pack. You've had a couple of years to live with what happened to you in that pit-"

Dane flinched and turned away from him. Ray's tail stopped wagging.

"On the other hand, think about what I just told you about those wolves I fought. These things happen, you can't change it. You can only live with them. You were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Francis' wolf, we thought we had lost you forever. And when me and your mother finally found you and got you out-"

The young wolf turned back, he hung his head.

"I never should have brought that up. I'm sorry. You didn't need that. Not today of all days."

"No, its fine."

A cold wind had begun to pick up.

There was a moment of silence between the two wolves. Dane wanted to break the silence. He wanted to look his father in his warm, golden eyes without any apprehension. Regret had sunk into his system, constraining his every action. The young wolf thought carefully over what he should say next.

Dane looked out at the valley.

"I'm not going to disappoint you anymore."

As soon as Dane had finished speaking he suddenly jolted over the hill, leaving Ray standing alone below the hill, silent and now more optimistic than ever.

The trough was very low; no animal in the plain would be able to see a predator come at them, it was the perfect hiding spot. Lisa knew that Ray had picked the best possible place for Dane's lesson.

Today was an important day for Lisa. Today she would see her son take his first real steps towards adulthood. She would be proud of him no matter what happened.

She could feel that tension. That uneasy tension that she had only experienced once when Ray fought and killed his way to the position of alpha wolf in the fight that took the lives of three wolves. Shortly after he won the fight, Lisa refused to call him or herself an alpha wolf. There was nothing honourable about wolves fighting to the death or putting the entire pack in jeopardy for leadership. She never wanted to see anything like that ever again.

However, this was different. This was the start of Dane finally being able to prove himself.

Suddenly Lisa heard the sound of crunching snow beside her. She turned and saw the other wolves assemble beside her. Lisa was surprised. All six wolves in the pack came to watch her son with interest. Her tail wagged in excitement.

Lundin asked, "Has anything happened so far, then?"

Lisa replied "No he hasn't gone out yet. The two of them have stopped at the side of the hill there." She motioned her head to the small hill that hid the two wolves from view.

Both Noel and Henry asked, "When is he going to start?" They both looked at each other as they said the words almost simultaneously.

"He should just be starting any time now."

She turned around and saw that all the wolves were looking over the trough, far enough so that neither Dane nor Ray, especially Dane, would see them.

Chloe stared at Noel, a low, cold stare both threatening and confident. Noel forced himself away from her gaze. He and Henry looked with intense curiosity and interest at what Dane would do, evaluating his every move.

Suddenly Lisa spotted a grey wolf move at amazing speed towards a moose in the middle of the plain.

Her heart was in overdrive.

Dane ran forward as fast as he could, in front of him he saw a large figure coming into view. Standing beside the solitary tree stood a large brown moose with curved bone-like antlers on its head. From his position the moose would not be able to see him until he was very close. The young wolf slowed down as he saw the brown animal up close; it was almost twice his own height with a sturdy build and an enormous set of hard antlers.

The young wolf began to circle it.

The moose hadn't noticed his arrival yet, so there was still time to think about how he was going to do it. He looked at the animal peacefully grazing on the plain without a care in the world blissfully unaware of what role it will have to play in the world today.

As Dane stepped a little closer the thoughts started coming back to him of isolation and fear.

The young wolf felt uneasy.

He wanted to hit himself, clear up his vision. He froze on the spot and he couldn't think straight. Suddenly, everything became a blur. He felt like his mind was being poisoned by something that was slowly taking him over and causing him not to function.

He couldn't breathe, thinking he was going to collapse.

He was now surrounded in darkness with only a small narrow light out in front of him, a small entrance where the moose stood still grazing off the land. There was a figure lying beside him, a smaller grey wolf than himself but he looked oddly familiar. He soon realised the small wolf was covered in blood across his coat, around his face and on his paws. The pup looked up at the tall three-year old wolf and he knew that he was now looking at his younger self. The two of them said nothing to each other but the younger Dane crawled up to his older self and laid his head on his leg. He quickly lifted his leg away. The young Dane looked up at him as if he was questioning him as to why he pulled himself away from him, away from someone who needed his help.

You don't need my help.

The older Dane turned away from him, instantly forgetting him and ran into the light where the moose still stood. Slowly the darkness melted away and he was back in the environment he was in before, still running as the moose finally sensed his presence and looked as if it were about to turn and run. He ran straight towards the moose with his teeth clenched and his claws like razors, ready to strike.

The moose began to run, but he was already leaping towards it with all of his strength. He lifted his paws and slashed the moose's face and its side. He landed in front of the moose blocking its original path. The moose started to turn but the young wolf was far too quick, he rammed the moose to the side with such force the moose howled in pain as it fell in the snow. He now noticed the heavy amount of blood streaming down the moose's forehead, staggering, tired and extremely irritated.

He steeled himself and moved towards the tree. The young wolf growled and barked at the moose trying to get its attention. The moose now stood up with wild, burning rage in its eyes and with all its strength charged at him.

He backed up to the hard bark of the tree.

The moose now unstoppable as it rushed at him with an incredible pace.

Closer and closer the thundering hooves came.

Dane bent the knees in his hind legs.

The moose was now inches close.

He jumped high into the air, overshooting the moose as it rammed straight into the large tree and collapsed onto the snowy ground with a great thud as the antlers smashed into the now-broken tree bark.

He looked at the helpless creature, now lying semiconscious on the ground. He wasn't finished yet.

Dane leapt onto the moose, he started to tear and bite into it. The moose tried to struggle but was far too weak to do anything other than lie down and take the punishment. He kept slashing and biting away at the moose and was sprayed with the moose's blood in the process which he felt in his mouth and through his paws. The moose tried to struggle one last time but Dane locked his jaw and pierced his sharp teeth straight into the moose's neck. He then lifted the moose by the neck and with all his strength, threw the moose's entire body and bashed it against the tree, ending the creature's existence.

He let go of the moose's neck with its blood still dripping from his jaw and his snout. He stood in the clearing with the lifeless moose carcass in front of him. He stared at it for a moment, breathing heavily.

He looked at the single tree in the middle of the open clearing. Despite the devastating impact from the moose's antlers it still stood. It still stood in its unusual place, split off from the rest of the forest. It still stood and bared the brunt of everything that had been thrown at it. It still stood.

He now saw a figure emerge from the side of him. His father stood there looking at him, a look of both disbelief and overwhelming joy. Dane had passed the test. He felt it more inside.

It was over.

All across the trough, there was stone dead silence. The wolves all stared out on the plain in astonishment at the spectacle that had just taken place in front of their very eyes.

Lisa had never felt so amazed in her entire life. Her son was incredible.

Chloe's jaw had dropped wide open in astonishment. She watched Dane outwit and outmatch the moose with such ferocity and confidence. This was the Dane she never knew about, the one that was afraid to show itself. She stared out at the young wolf, almost dancing around the prey, mocking it. A warm sense of adoration blossomed inside her. Never in her life was she so happy she was so wrong.

Noel never noticed this. He never looked at his daughter once throughout the entire lesson, avoiding her gaze.

As Lisa turned to look at Noel and Henry she got the feeling that for a moment their reactions were not out of sheer astonishment at Dane's skill, but of fear and horror.

Lisa ignored the assumption, thinking she was foolish.

Dane had never seen his father so proud before.

His father stammered "D-Dane that was incredible. I just don't believe it. Francis' wolf, how did you do that?"

Dane spat some of the blood out of his mouth.

"I take it I passed, then?"

Ray laughed.

"Passed?! Son, you've just proved yourself to be the most skilled hunter in the pack. Francis' wolf, even the most skilled hunter I've ever seen. Of course you passed."

The two wolves both approached each other and leaned their faces against each other, a traditional wolf ritual signifying the end of the hunting lesson.

"I'm proud of you."

Ray and Dane walked out from the plain, neither he nor his father could stop wagging their tails.

Ray was amazed at the way he had exceeded all expectations. The way he bolted toward the creature. The way he ran rings around it. The way he practically flew through the air to avoid the antlers just mystified him. In that moment, he had proved he was a better hunter than Noel, Henry and even himself. Despite his young age, no-one Ray had ever met had ever been able to dodge an attack as skilfully as his son. In addition he didn't have a single scratch on him. Most other wolves around his age would have at least taken a few cuts or injuries.

He looked over at his son who was calmly walking along quietly beside him trying to hide his ecstasy. He thought about his son's now prosperous future within the pack. Dane was something so much more than a shy, intelligent wolf now. He could rise to the occasion and seize every opportunity presented to him and he could hunt more skilfully than any wolf Ray had ever seen.

An old feeling set in the pit of his stomach, one that had lain dormant for more than three years. It was a strong feeling of pride and a real sense of achievement, a feeling that was visceral and feral and yet still altogether natural. The young wolf could prove that he was strong enough to become someone truly great. He could carry on his family's leadership.

He could become a leader.

It was entirely possible, maybe even inevitable.

They both reached the outskirts of the plain and could make out the images of several grey wolves waiting for them.

Dane and Ray approached the pack, which was still in a state of bewilderment and happiness.

Lisa approached Dane and she was radiant. She nuzzled Dane in her happiness and was silent as if she didn't know what to say to him.

The other wolves cautiously came up to Dane and congratulated him, each of them both amazed and overjoyed at the same time.

Chloe came up to him, wide-eyed and vibrant. She looked at Dane almost with a sense of worship in her eyes as she stared dreamily into his. It was as if she was meeting him for the first time. He had never received this much attention from Chloe ever since he first met her.

Only Noel and Henry were missing. Dane assumed they were both at the cave.

He turned to his mother.

"Were you and the others watching the lesson? I thought you weren't supposed to do that."

Lisa replied, "Well, other wolves can actually watch the lessons. We're just not allowed to let the training wolf see us so there's no extra pressure on them."

"Alright, fair enough."

Ray spoke out, "I just want to thank all of you for coming out to support Dane. I really appreciate it. It's a shame Henry and Noel weren't here to see it. I'm sure even they would have been impressed."

Just then the other wolves looked a little confused.

"That's strange, they were both with us when we were watching Dane. They must have gone back to the cave."

The wolves started heading back.

As the wolves walked back towards the cave Dane and the other two young wolves were walking at the front and the four adult wolves walked along at the back. The older wolves were making idle chat and talking about the lesson. Linda and Sandy were carrying the dead moose between them so they could eat it later. The three younger wolves talked to each other, Dane walked between them.

"Do you think the others are going to expect you to do all the hunting now?" Lundin joked.

Dane laughed and was about to speak but Chloe spoke first.

"Ha, I wouldn't be surprised. He just tore that moose apart. The way you flung that thing around, I didn't know you were that strong."

Almost every time Dane turned to look at Chloe since they started making their way back to the cave she would quickly turn her head forward away from him. Her tail spun.

Lundin spoke, "Didn't I tell you yesterday, Dane? I knew you were going to do it."

"You did, yes."

"I knew you were going to do it but Francis' wolf I think you may have overdone it. The packs going to be expect everyone to step up after this."

"What do you mean everyone's got to step up?"

"Well, you've set the standard now. You could even be at the front of every major hunt from now on."

"Really?"

Chloe spoke up, "Ah, he can handle it, easily."

"Well, can you?"

"Of course he can."

"Dane?"

"I think I can. Don't know how that would work though."

They crossed over a steep hill. Snow dug through their paws as they descended.

"Where do you think Noel and Henry are?"

Lundin spoke, "My dad's just at the cave. He should be. He was quite anxious to see your hunting lesson today though. I suppose that's just the kind of wolf my father is, tough and grouchy but loyal. You know last night when we were taking those remains out? He said to me he was very proud for catching that swan and that today my efforts would be rewarded."

"What did he mean by that?"

"I don't know. Just have to wait and see I suppose."

Dane turned to Chloe "So, where do you think Noel is?"

She walked in silence.

Dane repeated himself "Chloe."

She turned.

"Yes?"

"Where do you think he is?"

"Who?"

"Your father."

"Oh, no idea."

Chloe turned back forward. Her joy faded slightly.

Suddenly, she quickly glanced up. The two young wolves looked at her, alert.

"What is it?"

"Just caught a scent of something, a rabbit maybe."

"Really? I don't sense anything."

"Me neither."

"I think it's just inside that forest there." She pointed her snout to a large cluster of snow-covered trees.

Lundin spoke "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm going after it."

"Do you want us to come with you?"

She looked at Dane, her tail started to brush from side to side.

"I think I want the best hunter in this pack to come with me."

Dane nodded "OK, fair enough. Lundin, can you stay here in case the others wonder where we are?"

"Sure."

Dane and Chloe ran through the cluster of trees and scattered in between them, trying to find the rabbit.

It was useless. Dane still couldn't pick up anything. Whatever she had picked up just didn't register with him.

He called to her "There's nothing here."

"I swear I thought...never mind."

She returned to him. Her tail spun and her face lit up.

"You must have a great nose."

"Why, thank you."

"Your coyness is quite good as well."

She glanced at him, giggled awkwardly and turned away from him embarrassed.

"There was no rabbit."

Still giggling with her back turned to him she answered "Nope."

"OK."

She turned back to him and her head hung low like a sign of defeat "I was just wondering whether, if you want to of course, you would maybe spend some time with me? I would really like to get to know you better. Maybe when we leave here with the pack and set up in a new place we could hunt together more. What do you think?"

"Sure."

The young she-wolf brightened up, her tail was spinning.

"That's great. You're very sweet."

Unsure of what to say, Dane replied, "Let's go to the pack."

She nodded and followed the young wolf.

The wind had now begun to pick up and grey clouds had started to appear across the once-clear sky. The bright blue sky had slowly disappeared beneath the dull greyness producing a light downfall of snow. It had been continually snowing for a few months with occasional moments of clear blue skies. The animals made good use of the clear skies while they still could.

The pack returned to the cave, ready to leave.

There was still no sign of Henry or Noel.

Lisa and Ray looked around inside the cave and came back out shaking their heads.

Ray was irritated.

"Where are they? Both of them know what's happening today."

The alpha wolf then echoed the thought of the entire pack.

"I don't understand."

Linda added, "They can't be out hunting, Henry knows we're leaving today and there's no point."

Sandy kept quiet. Her head hung low.

Ray turned to his pack and said "I guess the only thing we can do is stay until those two turn up." He turned to Sandy and Chloe "Sandy and Chloe can take the moose up to the lake, we can have a quick meal just before we go when we're all back together." He turned to Lisa "You should go with them, dear." Lisa nodded.

"As for the rest of us we will search around the surrounding area for them. We won't go too far."

After the wolves had been assigned their duties they split into groups. Before they went their separate ways Dane caught a glimpse of Chloe as she glanced over at him, her blue eyes glimmered as she walked away.

Chloe, Sandy and Lisa headed up towards the lake while Linda, Ray, Dane and Lundin searched the surrounding area.

The four wolves started heading up the hill where they first came from and tried to pick up the scent of the two missing wolves. Dane looked at Lundin and Linda, both worried about the father of their family, he then turned to Ray who was worried about his two strong pack members. He said that after all, the two of them knew what was going on today and they both knew what they were doing. Dane wasn't sure he believed the last part.

As they reached the very top of the hill the wolves picked up the scent, Dane did as well and sure enough on the side of the hill a large grey wolf appeared and out in the clearing in front of them came another grey wolf the same size as Ray. The wolves were relieved and glad to see Noel and Henry. However, both of them were not exactly thrilled to see them, almost as if they didn't recognise them.

Ray spoke first. His relief had evaporated.

"Where have you two been?"

Neither wolf replied to the alpha wolf's question. They both looked down with gloomy expressions on their faces. Ray just let the question pass.

"Have it your way, then. Let's get going."

The six wolves made their way down towards the bottom of the hill, neither of them said a word apart from Linda who greeted her mate but Henry remained unresponsive. He ignored Lundin completely. Sandy comfortingly smiled at her mate but he walked past her. Both wolves looked depressed, irritated and angry and their heads hung low like a sign of defeat.

When the six of them returned to the bottom of the hill, suddenly Ray jerked his head upwards and sniffed the air. The other wolves, including Dane, sniffed the air as well but didn't pick up anything.

"All of you wait here. I'll be back in a moment."

Ray then made his way back up the hill. The other wolves stayed put, confused by their leader's actions.

Ray quickly made his way up the hill with an alarming sense of danger tingling through his body. He had caught a scent that he just hoped was not what he thought it was. He had caught this scent many times before and each time he found the source it was different every time. It was a similar scent he had picked up yesterday as he ventured around the valley.

Ray then finally made it to the top of the hill.

He lay low on the snowy ground. To the side of the hill lay the carcass of a dead animal, from Ray's view it was some sort of fox. Surrounding the fox were four grey wolves with a dozen more behind them in the dark forest. Some of the wolves in the background were barely recognisable, with ears cut off, red or pink skin patches where fur used to be, eyes and teeth missing. Scars etched on most of their bodies. Some of the wolves were so torn up it would have been hard to make out if they were wolves at all. He saw two wolves deep in the dark forest without ears who looked like hooded figures with their smooth unreal heads staring ahead. These were wolves who wanted to show off their battle scars to the others just for a brief moment of meaningless recognition. These were wolves who wanted to ruin other wolves' lives for no reason but for that same vain recognition.

Two of them had blood dripping from their teeth but the blood was not from the fox, but from something else. The two other wolves had gritted teeth as they pawed at the fox corpse.

Ray's heart sank.

Dane and the others were waiting below. When they caught sight of their leader they saw that his eyes were wide open and staring constantly at the ground. The alpha wolf walked with a gloomy posture, a look of devastation. He walked down and no one said a word as he slowly approached Noel and Henry.

He looked up at Noel and then to Henry. Linda, Lundin and Sandy backed away from the father of their families. The alpha wolf spoke as calmly as he could.

"I know no-one could have followed us through the route to that plain, I checked it myself over and over again before today. There is a dead fox up there that no one who walked back with us after the lesson would have put there. I never saw that fox when we walked down the hill when we came back. It must have been there when we came back up looking for you two though. I never noticed it there. There are now currently several, angry wolves up there ripping it apart." At that moment Dane could feel a shiver down his spine and turned to see that Lundin and Linda were frozen in place. "Now, I try not to be a wolf who judges others but I have to ask."

He walked up closer to the two wolves and enquired in a calm but menacing tone.

"Who put that fucking thing there?"

The two wolves remained unresponsive. They both gave Ray stone cold stares that lacked any sort of emotion at all.

After a long silence, Noel finally spoke.

"Why would I admit to something I never did? It was Henry who did it."

Suddenly Henry snapped at Noel "You lying little shit! You're just covering up your own guilt by blaming it on me!"

Noel snapped back "Are you calling me a liar? I saw you do it! I saw it with my own eyes."

"You don't know anything, Noel! Fucking dog!"

"Ray, you cannot take whatever this oaf says truthfully. Remember all the times he has walked out of the pack and now he has finally achieved what he wants to do. You know it's exactly as that old wolf had told me before-"

"Oh, for the love of-, I swear if you mention that fucking old wolf again I'll tear your heart out."

"Don't you dare pin this on me! I'm not the liar here, own up to what you've done, now!"

"I cannot believe you, you heartless fuck! I didn't do it! Ray, he is lying to you! I saw him do it! I'm telling you!"

"Heartless? Ha! Who's the wolf lying right in front of the pack leader and their own family?! You know you did it, admit it!"

"I swear I'm going to fucking kill you."

"I know what I saw, Henry! I know what I fucking saw!"

The two wolves yelled violently at each other. The future of the pack hung in their quarrelling, unreliable accusations.

As they argued Henry looked to be on the verge of attacking Noel. Ray sensed this and backed him off growling at them.

"Shut up! Both of you!"

The two wolves stopped arguing but were still growling at each other.

"We will sort this out later and believe me we will sort this out. Right now we have to concentrate on protecting our territory as much as we can so Henry, you will go to the lake and warn the others of what's going on. Noel you are going to stay here. That is if either of you is willing to listen to me anymore."

Neither Henry nor Noel made a comment but the two of them did what they were told. Henry walked off towards the lake and Noel came back to the group of wolves.

Dane looked at Lundin and Linda. Lundin was horrified and Linda looked infuriated with a small tear falling from the side of her cheek.

Ray calmed down and stepped forward.

"Right, now what we have to do is-"

He was cut off by appearance of four wolves moving down the side of the mountain. The other group of wolves had caught the pack's scent and were now looking straight at them. The four wolves growled and sneered at the pack. They were backed up by another larger group of wolves behind them. The group was in disarray as many of the wolves were gnawing at each other uninterested or not bothering to take part in what was going on. About half of them were snarling at the pack. The five wolves of the pack backed away slowly from the approaching young wolves.

Ray threatened them, defending the pack's territory.

"You better stop that snarling right now."

Some of the young wolves barked at Ray. Some of them even laughed off his threat.

"Fine."

A couple of the young wolves now charged at the pack. The wolves of the pack growled as the attackers ran. Ray dodged the attack by the first wolf and slammed into the wolf's side smashing the wolf against the brimstone wall. The other wolf charged at Linda who ran and tackled the creature to the floor and began ruthlessly biting and gnawing in her fury. The other wolves did not tolerate Linda's actions and a large group of ten or more wolves came charging towards the pack wolves. The pack wolves were all fighting against the other wolves with Ray, Lundin and Dane fending off two wolves at a time.

When two wolves attacked Dane, he managed to miss the attack and clamped his teeth hard into the side of the attacking wolf who growled in agony. A second wolf bit into his neck and started clawing at the side of his body. He yelped in pain but was able to let go of the first wolf, swing his head and slam the other wolf to the ground. He felt the searing pain shoot up through his head as the second wolf fell to the hard ground.

The first wolf started attacking again and tried to jump on him but he expected this and went out of the way of the wolf's attack. He then tried to bite the wolf again but this time the wolf learned from his mistakes and dodged his attack. The wolf then used all of his strength to tackle him to the floor. The attacker tried to bite into his neck but he held him back with his upper body. He was trying to find his moment to get out of the wolf's hold. Just then he heard both Ray and Lundin yelling out.

"Noel!"

"What are you doing, Noel!"

Dane looked out at the other wolves who were all caught up in fighting the young, violent wolves off. Linda was in a furious rage and he could already make out a dead wolf lying beside her with another wolf's neck bitten into. Both Lundin and Ray were caught up with a few wolves trying to ruthlessly claw their way into them but they were still holding strong with only a few cuts and slashes.

Dane then noticed Noel.

Noel stood out immediately from the fighting wolves. He was walking with his head hanging down straight into the path of the rampaging young wolves. He wasn't bothering to fight off or even defend himself against the onslaught. Several wolves then jumped on him and tore into him violently. His blood sprayed all over the mouths of the young wolves and soon enough Noel's body stopped moving and his eyes were open wide, a single tear trickled down the side of his lifeless face.

Dane was still trying to find the moment where he could fight back against the wolf that lay on top of him trying to bite into him. He tried to shift his body so that he could throw the wolf off him. Finally, he kicked out with his hind legs and threw the wolf against the wall and bit into the wolf's neck so hard that the wolf went limp and fell.

Just then, he saw four young wolves run past himself and the others towards the lake.

Ray had just slammed a wolf into the side of a wall when he yelled out.

"Dane! Lundin! Go to the lake and help out the others! We'll hold these bastards here!"

Dane hated leaving his father and Linda to deal with the rest of the younger wolves themselves but he could see from the four wolves they had killed between them that they were more than capable of handling the attackers on their own. The young wolf could see Lundin was hesitant to leave his mother to fight the wolves, but she was so infuriated nothing could stop her.

The two young wolves ran towards the lake. Dane could see the deep distress in Lundin's face. The two remained silent as they ran.

The image of Noel's lifeless, blood-soaked face kept creeping into Dane's mind. He wanted to get rid of it but the horrific figure remained in his mind, haunting him.

Finally the two wolves reached the lake and they stood horrified at what they saw.

The four young wolves lay dead on the snowy ground, they had all been beaten, slashed and a couple of them had large cuts across their necks.

Sandy lay to the side of the lake with cuts and slashes all across her body and her mouth wide open. She wasn't breathing.

He then saw Chloe.

Like her mother she was covered in slashes and cuts. Like her mother she wasn't breathing. Her eyes were half open staring out into nothing. The lower lip of her eye glimmered.

He then saw his mother standing in the centre of the massacre with her head bowed down and her pure white coat covered in red. Tears were streaming down her eyes.

There was no sign of Henry.

Lundin didn't look around for him.

Dane approached his mother. The young wolf was unsure of what to say to her.

Lisa lifted her head slowly. Her eyes were filled with tears. She had blood all over her mouth.

He approached her and comfortingly nuzzled the side of her face. Lisa edged her head into him, embracing her son.

"T-Thank F-Francis wolf you're alright."

Dane was almost too afraid to ask.

"What happened here?"

She shook her head and forced herself to speak "I-I don't know. I-I don't know where they came from. They just attacked us."

Dane was confused. An infuriated Lundin asked his question for him.

"Did Henry warn you about those wolves? Where is he?"

Lisa went silent.

Lundin angrily repeated, "Lisa, where is he?"

Dane stared daggers at him "Lundin. Give her a moment."

Lisa spoke up, "H-Henry was supposed to warn us? He didn't warn us, he just greeted us and the strange thing was, he went up and ate into the moose. When the wolves started attacking, he looked really c-confused, as if he didn't know what he was doing. He then ran a-and jumped over the rocks there. He ran off." Lisa nodded to the rocks just behind Dane.

Just then, Lundin let out a roar, flailed his head in frustration and swore to the skies. He then lowered his head and stood still, frozen in place.

"The three of us tried to fight off those monsters by ourselves. One of them went straight for me and two of them went straight for Sandy. She killed one but the other...it was...it was...too much for her to handle. I managed to k-kill the one attacking me. This powerful one then attacked me. He pinned me down and tried to bite into me. I looked at Chloe-"

She sighed and bowed her head.

"The one attacking Chloe cut and slashed into her. When she was really weak, that monster, he got behind Chloe, pinned her down on the ground and Francis wolf...he ravaged her. The monster then c-clawed her to death afterwards."

Dane stood still in silence as the horrifying pictures came together in his head.

"Where are your father and the others?"

"Dad and Linda are fighting off the rest of those wolves-"

Lisa snapped "They are not wolves, Dane! They are murderers, nothing more."

The young wolf stared at his grief-stricken mother. He could see the dark glint in her eyes, a burning hatred growing inside her. He did not need to know what happened next, the proof was in the two destroyed wolf corpses lying on both sides of where she was standing.

Just then, two wolves came thundering up the path towards the lake. The three wolves turned to look at a blood-soaked Ray helping an injured Linda walk up to them. Like Dane and Lundin they were shocked at the massacre that lay before them. Lundin walked up to his mother and helped her over to where Lisa was standing.

Ray quickly went up to Lisa and spoke while trying to keep his breath.

"Are you OK?"

Lisa bowed her head and whimpered something inaudible.

She glanced at him with a hateful, almost accusatory look. She growled at her mate. It looked as if she wanted to attack him.

The alpha wolf did not look away from his mate.

He expected her to jump at him.

The growling subsided when he moved his head close to her side in an embrace.

His head brushed along the side of her body and it shivered erratically.

He closed his eyes as he felt the warmth of her once pure white fur waiting for the moment he could open them again. Most times the moment never came. He would wait for that moment for a long time. He would become a father, an alpha wolf, a protector, just for that moment.

Then he could open his eyes and be forgiven.

Ten young wolves appeared at the path where Dane and Lundin first came from.

The pack wolves growled and barked at the attackers who then returned the expression.

Dane and Lisa backed away from five approaching young wolves to the edge of the waterfall. Lundin, Linda and Ray were backed towards the lake staring the young attackers down. Lisa and Dane were doing the same.

Dane saw the young wolves start to retract as if they were about to strike. The young wolf retracted as well, ready to fight.

Just then, he heard a soft feminine voice.

"You're getting out of here."

The young wolf stood confused but before he could think of anything else he felt the crushing pain of his mother's jaw clamped down on his back. The teeth dug into him, making him cry out in agony. Then his mother used all of her strength to throw him off the hill and down the waterfall.

He felt the ground beneath him disappear. His body was in freefall smashing into several sharp rocks. Pain shot up through many parts of his body. He fell into unconsciousness when he hit the water on his back.

As he sank under the water, he found himself in so much pain he could not use his body to bring himself back up. Gradually he could feel the air escape his injured body.

He felt like closing his eyes.

Lundin's dream came to his mind.

Everything went black.
02

Underneath the waterfall laid a stream stretching across the entire valley with a very rapid current. Many of the animals in the valley were careful when drinking from the stream. The animals knew that the stream would be crucial to their survival. All across the stream stood layers of tall trees bearing down on them, observing their lives.

The stream was regularly clear except for the fish and in windier climates when there would be pieces of broken trees and tree bark. Dead trees drifted amongst the sharp submerged rocks and dark earth.

Today if the animals were drinking from the stream it would have been a very different day.

They would never have seen a grey wolf floating past them in the water.

After a few moments under the water, Dane slowly opened his eyes and realised he had to come up for air. He felt tired and dazed. He had lost all track of time. The coldness of the icy water gripped his body tight and he could barely move his limbs.

He tried to stretch his neck up to the surface but he couldn't reach.

Drifting through the stream he could see the stream was relatively narrow and straight. He used his front legs to paddle and put power behind his hind legs but when he tried to kick out a searing pain shot up through his left leg. He yelled out in agony but was muffled out by the water. All he could see were the bubbles of air escaping his jaw.

He then tried to use only his uninjured leg to push him forward. Slowly but surely he reached the surface and lifted his head above the cold water. He took in a huge mouthful of air and tried to keep himself afloat. Several red clouds formed around his body.

He looked along the stream. He glanced towards the riverbank but the current was too strong and with his severely injured leg he doubted this would be a possibility. He tried to look ahead down the stream to see if there were any branches he could grab onto to pull himself out. He could see a sharp bend coming up and growled in frustration as he steeled himself.

The current pulled him into the tight bend. He turned trying to protect his injured leg from further damage and he bashed into the side of hard rock wall. He yelled out again in pain and swore out loud.

As the current began to straighten and narrow out the young wolf arched his body and flinched in pain. As he turned a corner, relief rushed over him.

A large branch was imbedded into the snowy ground right beside several wide, gigantic snow covered trees. The branch looked strong enough and large enough to take Dane's weight. He turned his body and opened his jaw waiting to catch the branch. He bit into the tree branch with all the strength he could muster. He then frantically reached out to the bark with his front paws. The sharp claws gripped onto the branch. The current pulled his lower body onwards. He slowly retracted his body. He leaped up onto the branch in a fast, sweeping motion. He lay his body down on the branch trying to turn his body towards the bank. His uninjured leg dug into the side of the branch with his other leg dangling off the edge. His body was so used to the icy water that it did not agree with the open land. He started to crawl down the branch onto the shore.

When he reached the shore, he attempted to stand up but the pain in his injured leg dug into his body, he flinched, growled and swore out loud. The young wolf then limped over to the centre one of the enormous trees. He decided to rest and at the very least think things through. He sat down under the large tree, which was big enough to shelter him and many other wolves. As he sat down he was careful not to make any movements that would damage his injured leg any more than it already had been. He carefully laid himself on the side away from his injured leg.

He laid down on the snowy ground a tired, cold, soaked and incredibly confused young wolf.

As he looked out at the forest on the other side of the stream, he could see nothing but the tall trees limiting his vision. There were no other animals in sight from what he was aware of. He then looked down at the cascading blue water and sighed. He wondered how far he was from the lake. He had lost consciousness when he fell and when he came around he was lying underneath the water. He couldn't have been drifting for long. Dane had been a good swimmer when he was young. He discovered this when a dead fox corpse fell into a lake by mistake and he swam in to get it. Ray was impressed by his ability.

He lowered his head onto the snowy ground scanning the area around him. He watched the trees in anticipation. The forest followed him. Beyond the empty spaces between the tall snow-covered spires anything could appear. He had to keep himself alert and aware of whatever came out of the forest.

He would have dreams of the forest. His imagination conjured images, figures, eyes that constantly watched his every move. But as a member of a pack he felt strong and the abstractions of the forest never bothered him. A sense of control had corrupted the fear and apprehension.

He wasn't in control anymore. A natural fear had settled itself in his mind.

As he looked into the forest an urge consumed him. It wanted to see everything the forest held within its dark depths. It wanted to seek out the dangers and abstractions and give them a figure, a face.

Dane kept on looking to the other side of the stream. There was still nothing there. He moved his injured hind leg and flinched as pain shot up. He turned his head down and saw dark red steaks down the side of his leg. The young wolf fought the irritable urge to touch the wound.

He turned back to the forest and continued scanning it.

His eyes doubled back to something in the middle of his line of sight.

It stood, a black figure that didn't belong with the empty spaces between the trees. The shape resembled that of a young wolf sitting on its hind legs, as if it was mocking him.

As the image became clearer he saw the darkness erode to a congealed colour of dark red. A blood-soaked figure of a young grey wolf who looked just like him.

Dane stared at the younger version of himself who was staring back with his eyes wide open and a sly smile formed at his mouth. The younger wolf leaned on a nearby tree and started laughing uncontrollably. Its black beaded eyes peeled wide open.

It was in control.

The young wolf closed his eyes in defiance. When he opened them the figure had vanished into thin air.

After a while, Dane could see that the sun was about to set and his stomach growled. With his injured leg running after prey would be difficult, maybe impossible. He then looked to the stream and decided he should get a drink instead. Before that though, he would walk around for a moment to try to get his legs working again. He didn't want his body fatiguing especially here. Fatigue meant he wouldn't be able to move and he wouldn't be able to provide for himself. It meant he wouldn't be able to survive.

Dane now tried to stand up. The pain shot up through his hind legs as soon as he moved his injured leg. He tried to ignore it and lifted his body so that he stood up straight. The pain in his leg had calmed but he knew that if he moved around the pain would still be there. Ignoring it was the better option for the time being at least. He started walking slowly towards the stream, the pain continually gripping his body each time he put weight on the injured leg.

Walking back and forth from the stream to the centre of the tree, he hoped that over time his leg would heal. It was the only thing he could do. He couldn't go out to look for the other pack members in his state. The young wolf was fearful of returning to the cave while the murderous young wolves were still there hoarding the pack's former territory. He developed a burning hatred for the wolves more so due to the fact that not only had they taken the lives of half the pack but they had also taken their land. He felt a strong inclination to drive the wolves away from the land his family and the pack had kept control of.

The young wolf learned self-control. He forced himself to accept the reality of his situation.

A few moments had passed and he had walked around the same path, he could make out his many pawprints indented in the snowy ground that almost made a clear line in the snow. The pain had subsided slightly since he started walking. The pain still infuriated him but he was able to walk normally again. He then approached the stream and carefully took a drink out of it. But as soon as bent his legs an overwhelming pain gripped him. He growled loudly and spoke aloud.

"What are you doing you stupid dog..."

He waited until the pain subsided and then crawled on his belly and drank from the cool water of the stream.

He sat down underneath the large tree, thinking about what he should do.

There was only one thing he could do.

He would have to howl.

Dane was always told by his father that howling was only to be done if it was absolutely necessary and under very serious circumstances. Howling immediately gave away the position of the pack and it made a wolf's presence known. A howl soared through the sky and the forest suddenly quietened out of respect.

The young wolf hoped that the howl would attract the attention of the pack members.

He had to keep confident.

He drew his breath and howled, lifting his head straight to the sky. All wolves knew how to howl, his mother had told him that all wolves were born knowing how to howl, it was natural to them. Keeping close to the pack there was any hardly any reason to howl. Ray would be leading them towards somewhere of interest to the pack whether it was prey, a herd of elk or a resting place.

When the pack knew they were safe they would howl into the night together. This was considered a ceremonial occasion for the wolves. The pack leader would choose the times when they could do this and everyone in the pack took part.

Howling together in the pack filled him with a sense of pride. Everyone would howl into the sky and make a noble soaring sound comprising of many thoughts, figures and emotions. It was one of the rare moments he felt every wolf in the pack respected each other and valued their positions.

It was unity.

As soon as he finished howling he hung his head down. He could hear a few birds squawk and chatter above.

Just then he caught a scent.

It was a familiar scent. He sniffed in different directions trying to get an idea of where it was coming from. He then slowly got his feet and hobbled around trying to get closer.

The scent was getting stronger as he approached the stream.

He then glanced up the river and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be an animal around the same size and length as him with white fur that had red markings and cuts all over the body. The animal was not dead though. The head of the animal was bobbing above the water and their eyes met.

He stared into his mother's face. It looked slightly lifeless and tired but relieved nonetheless.

The young wolf didn't know how to react when he saw his mother floating towards him.

He called over to her.

"Grab that tree!"

She lifted her paws and swam to the tree and sided into it. She leaned against the tree with the stream pushing her against it. Her eyes were half open.

"I'm glad you're alright."

She sounded tired and weak, fading in and out of consciousness.

"Why did you do that?"

She remained silent.

"Mum?"

"How are you?"

"My back leg isn't doing so good but apart from that just some cuts. I suppose I just have to keep myself moving."

"You're angry with me."

"Let me help you out of the water."

"Don't." She shook her head. "Don't bother."

"No, I'm getting you out."

"I don't want you to."

The two wolves stood silent for a while.

The scars all across the middle of her body stretched deep like the indents in the bark of a tree. Even if he could help her out he did not know how much longer she would live with the injuries. He bent his head down and shook his head. Lisa sensed this.

"Look at me."

He looked down at her. The lower lips of his eyes glittered.

"Why are you doing this? I can get you out."

"Dane. Stop it. You're better than this."

The young wolf turned away from her.

"The pack is gone, son."

"What happened? I-I don't-"

"You can't concern yourself with this anymore."

"How can you say that? You knew those wolves-"

"Of course I did. I cared about those wolves because it was your father's responsibility and mine. Son, please look at me."

The young wolf stared at his mother. Her stare struck him deep, intimidating and fierce.

"Don't dare think I didn't care about those wolves."

Dane and his mother stared at each other in silence. He could feel her consciousness fading away.

"I wanted you to live your own life. I protected you. You can start again."

"What about the others? They needed help. Are they still alive?"

Lisa sighed, "Linda's dead. As for your father and Lundin I have no idea."

Dane paused as he took in the news of Linda's death.

"Don't go and try to find them. Move on from this. You were loyal to the pack. You have to go out and show these other wolves just how good you can be. I raised you to be a good wolf. You're a skilful young wolf. I see more of your father in you every day. In that pack you were getting nowhere. You were trapped in that pit for so long I...I lost you. And then you became frightened. You were unresponsive, socially inept. All those years I wanted my son back. We saved your life and we didn't know what to do with you."

She faded in and out of consciousness trying desperately to keep afloat and alive.

"From the bottom of my heart I'll tell you this. I'm sick of backing you up. I'm sick of covering for you. You owe me. You owe your father. Your future is yours to do with whatever you want. Our former pack was nothing. I would give all that alpha wolf honour bullshit back just for one day when I could see you achieve your full potential and be something more than anything you could have been in that pack. Your future is the only one I care about now. You can make us proud. You know what you have to do."

Tears fell from his face as she stopped speaking. He shook the tears away.

"I can't let you-"

Dane stopped and looked in to his mother's pearl blue eyes. With the last of her strength she said

"I love you. Please keep surviving Dane."

Lisa's eyes then closed, she fell away past the tree branch and drifted down the stream. Her gleaming white body faded under the water.

She was gone.
03

The valley was still as the morning sun rose above the vast mountain landscape. The animals of the forest committed themselves to their natural activities in order to survive. Some animals hibernated and others were active. Most animals found it harder than others to survive.

The weaker animals knew that if they were to survive they would have to accept their limitations and adapt accordingly whilst avoiding the overbearing presence of more larger, more powerful predators.

The stronger animals kept everything in line, even though they were not aware of this fact. If they did know this then the whole system would fall apart. It was the duty and responsibility of the animals to protect what they had whether it was their own lives or the survival of their offspring.

They could never comprehend duty.

They don't think outside of their duty.

They can't think outside of their duty.

But responsibility came naturally to them.

The sun rose from the mountains and shone a bright light over the tall pointed white silhouettes high above the ground, observing the valley. The sun shone over to one of many large trees with an enormous base under which a young grey wolf yawned and woke up to a new morning.

Dane had had trouble sleeping last night. Every time he closed his eyes all he could see was the image of his mother floating under the dark blue water, her lifeless body flowing through the dark blue abyss. Her figure moved slowly amongst the forest debris. The paws that protected him from danger so much as a young pup now lifelessly brushed by the cold, hard, submerged rock. The ever-rushing current of the stream would soon end and she would float away in the dark blue vastness of a frozen lake.

He decided he was going to try to get to his feet and hunt. He was going to hunt for a small animal like a fox. Hunting for moose or elk in his condition would be close to impossible.

He tried getting to his feet and could still feel the pain in his injured leg but it didn't hurt as much as yesterday. As he slept he did his best to keep on his uninjured leg. He didn't want to damage his bad leg further.

He repeated his path from yesterday as he walked back and forth between the stream and the centre of the large tree multiple times.

He spoke aloud, "A lone wolf can't afford to stop moving."

After a while Dane felt more confident. The pain in his injured leg wasn't so bad anymore though he didn't think he could pounce on prey. He figured he would hide and rush out at the prey when they least expected it.

He was going to try to run.

He walked to the far side of the large tree and began to run across the side of the stream. As he picked up his speed, the pain in his injured leg gradually built up more and more. This would not affect him much when chasing after small prey though but he still tried to fight through the pain.

He then carefully turned onto his back and began to scent-roll on the snowy ground under the large tree so that he could get back easily. Scent rolling was something all wolves did to bring a pack to a particular area. A wolf would roll into the ground so the other wolves in the pack could pick up their scent. One time Dane had spotted a herd of deer so he scent rolled and the other pack wolves ran towards the scent.

He walked down into the forest from the side of the large tree. As he walked, all he could see were the tall, snow-covered trees surrounding him and occasionally a small open plain with no trees. Some of these plains had a boulder or rock growing out of the deep glittering snow. At first, he wondered if he was going to get lost with the amount of identical trees encircling him but he trusted his instincts to bring him back. He thought that the spot next to the large tree would be perfect for him to try to get his strength back. It provided him shelter and a good source of water to drink from. He could see a few animals appear in the forest, he could see plenty of birds in the sky and a few squirrels in the trees. Ray had always told Dane not to bother with squirrels as they were too fast and they were so small they would not be worth the energy for such an insignificant source of food.

As he stepped into a clearing, he began to sense something. He picked up a scent he had sensed before but wasn't quite sure what it was. It felt hostile. The trees surrounded him in a perfect ring. The attacker would have plenty of opportunity to sneak up on him inconspicuous between the many trees surrounding him.

He didn't leave the clearing.

The young wolf felt an overwhelming urge to stand his ground against whatever would emerge from the forest. The pain in his leg no longer mattered.

There was a bristling sound coming from a cluster of trees at his side. A small wind had picked up making it harder for him to hear the approach of this unknown entity.

He still had its scent.

It was edging closer to him.

He turned his body and his nose trying to track the direction of the scent.

He stopped. The scent was getting stronger.

He steeled himself. Claws clutched and dug into the snowy ground.

The bristling of trees continued.

He arched his back, keeping himself alert.

The wind had quietened.

An unnatural bristling.

A different sound.

He spun himself around.

A large figure stood amongst the trees. A bulky black creature stood wandering and sniffing at the ground. It looked much larger than a wolf wearing a large hard crown bone-like and sharp. It also seemed as if it hadn't noticed him yet.

As the figure approached the clearing Dane backed away a little. He turned his body so that the creature would not be able to see the scars down his injured leg, a defensive stance.

The moose turned towards the clearing and emerged from the cluster of trees.

Dane stood still staring down the bulky figure. The creature looked down at him through black beady eyes and blew through its large snout short white puffs of warm air.

The young wolf fought the urge to growl or snarl at the beast. Instead, he waited until he understood the creature's intentions.

The moose grunted a loud, low sound. It then slowly looked away from the young wolf and began to walk past him.

Dane remained where he was. He stood still and kept his head forward.

As the moose walked by his line of sight he didn't turn to face it. He let it walk by unperturbed returning the sign of trust and respect.

As he walked around the endless forest, he finally got lucky and came across a lone fox walking around in the distance. He kept to the side of a tree so the fox didn't see him and readied himself to chase after it. The red fox walked around sniffing the ground peacefully looking for food. He knew he had to get his timing right to catch the fox or risk the animal fleeing.

He was almost ready to run after the animal.

He heard a whisper

"You won't catch this one."

He turned and jumped as the apparition from yesterday reappeared right in front of his eyes. The red blood covered his fur, but it did not drip to the snowy ground, in fact it did not leave a paw print in the ground. He could also see that the eyes of the apparition were bloodshot and black. It wore a cold maniacal smile.

"You are alone. It is your fault they died."

Dane snapped at the apparition and tried to bite at it.

It was foolish. He couldn't believe he would hit out at something his mind had conjured.

He realised now how loud his fury was.

The fox was gone.

He walked further into the forest to find another small animal to kill.

He walked for a while in the familiar background of tall snow-covered trees. All the while his stomach growled and moaned.

His instincts kept him alert. The sights, sounds and scents of the forest kept him alert and alive. The constant alertness enthralled him. The fact he had complete control excited him. The young wolf thought this was the feeling his mother wanted him to feel.

He continued forward.

Eventually Dane spotted another red fox, a little larger than the other fox. A small bird was gripped inside its jaw. The fox stopped, bent over and started digging into the bird, ripping it apart.

The fox would be too busy devouring the bird to see him coming.

He sided himself beside a tree and crouched down. He prepared himself to strike the fox.

The fox was still chomping and snapping away at the bird as he started to make his approach. He moved very slowly. The young wolf was careful not to spook it this time.

Dane was now right behind the fox. A couple more steps and he would have touched the fox's tail.

He gritted his teeth and slashed at the red fox. At first the fox tried to run but he was already biting and gnawing into its flesh. He tasted the fox blood and flesh. He could feel it trying to wriggle itself free. He retracted his jaw and bit hard into the creature's neck. It enraged him. He bit and slashed furiously at the animal. Every attack made him feel more and more powerful. At the same time he was in control. There was no pack and this was his kill. Him alone. No one would be able to enjoy the spoils of this kill but him. The fox gasped and wheezed before it finally gave in to its attacker and it didn't fight anymore. He wretched his jaw from the fox's neck and ripped a streak of flesh from its now lifeless body. Blood had been splattered across the snowy ground.

He clamped his jaw on the fox's body and carried his prize back to the large tree.

He started making his way back to the large tree following his own familiar scent, trying not to confuse it with the smell of the fox corpse in his mouth. Along the way he kept an eye out for any other predator that would come by to try to steal his prize.

The young wolf knew the dangers of keeping prey.

Dane made it back to the large tree. Nothing had changed. He could see his paw prints from before and the indent in the snow where he scent-rolled. It was still very sunny in the sky. It hadn't snowed since the blizzard two days ago at the pack meeting. It wasn't odd for the snow to stop in the middle of the frozen season.

He liked it when it snowed. It always made him feel a part of the frozen world he lived in. When he was a pup he used to roll around and play in the snow, he even tried to catch a few snowflakes in his mouth.

He laid the dead fox on the ground and he carefully sat down on his haunches. He started to eat into the red fox and began devouring its flesh.

He stopped eating for a moment when he realised less than two days ago he was in a pack with eight other wolves, two of them being his own mother and father. It was as if they had slipped his mind. He thought about his mother's final words and continued eating into the small animal.

As he finished his meal, he thought about where he would put the remains. He looked at the water but then his mother came to mind and out of respect he decided to bury the fox instead. He then buried the fox well away from the large tree.

Dane had to go over what he was going to do next. He didn't want to stay at the large tree for a while. He thought he would leave the large tree in a week's time so that he could be fully recovered. After that the only thing he could do was explore the vast valley and try to find a new pack.

He thought about the pack Ray had talked about at the meeting. However, Dane remembered Ray saying the other pack was passing through, that pack was probably long gone by now. He had to meet another pack some way. By walking around the vast landscape he was sure that he would come across at least one other wolf pack. Dane had only seen a few other wolf packs before but Ray had always stopped the pack from making any contact. Ray and other wolf pack leaders were always weary of meeting wolves outside of their own pack. It was natural instincts Ray had told him. Wolves were naturally very territorial.

He had never met another wolf outside of the pack. It scared him but at the same time it enthralled him.

Dane took a drink from the stream and started to run around again, trying to keep himself moving.

It was the middle of the afternoon and Dane had run around so much he thought he was going to collapse.

The running had paid off. He could hardly feel any pain in his hind leg at all. He lifted his injured hind leg and stretched it. The pain was gone.

He set himself down underneath the large tree. He had never run so much in his life despite the small area surrounding the tree. He continually rang rings around several trees surrounding him. In the end it was worth the effort.

Suddenly, he caught a scent.

It was not a familiar scent but he knew it was coming closer to where he was. He sensed more than one kind of scent, several of them.

The young wolf sniffed the air, his tail wagged and a rush of excitement and trepidation coursed through him.

It was definitely the scent of numerous wolves. He remained still on the snowy ground as he let the wolves seek him out while he scanned the area to see where they were coming from. In the distance he could make out the shape of a wolf a bit taller than himself, there were a few other wolves following.

He could not make the wolf out amongst the array of trees. As the wolf came close he could make out his features.

His body had a few noticeable scars, some on his back, some on his side and some on his front legs. The wolf's face was crooked but one eye was covered with some sort of cloth and the other was as normal as any other wolf.

The wolf circled Dane in an intimidating comportment.

The older wolf analysed him. The young wolf stood still, cautious and alert.

The wolf stopped pacing and spoke in a low, slithery voice.

"Hello, little wolf."

"Who are you?"

"You first."

"Oh, that's a good name."

The older wolf cackled and spluttered.

"I like you already, young one."

"My name's Dane."

The older wolf did not look at him once while they were talking. He could now see the other wolves coming to see him. They all looked battered and beaten with many scars across their bodies. They looked frightfully obedient sitting on their haunches waiting for something to happen as if they were all made of stone. Most of them simply looked uninterested in him or anything else he had to say.

"My name is Riley. I am sure you've heard of me."

"No sorry. I haven't."

Riley cackled.

"Oh come on, surely you must have."

"I really haven't."

"Right, fair enough."

Riley turned and with his good eye he stared at him, judging his every move.

"What are you doing here? Come on, fill me in."

"I'm just a little lost, that's all."

"Oh, alright. A little lost. You ever met wolves like me?"

"No."

"Have you always been on your own?"

"No, I used to be in a pack-"

"Oh, so they kicked you out, then?"

"No, my pack was attacked and I survived."

"Is that true?"

"Yes."

"Sure it is."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean."

"I don't really."

Riley looked down on him, giving him a cynical, mocking look.

"Do you think I'm lying?"

"I'm not ruling it out."

"I don't have any reason to-"

Riley interrupted him "You have every reason to. You're a young wolf out in the world alone. You're looking for a new pack and you come across me. You can make up any story you want but the fact remains you're here and nobody can back you up. You don't need a fuckin' story."

The wolves behind Riley sniggered and grunted while still maintaining a stone-like posture.

"You are probably wondering why I have this cloth over my eye."

Dane did not respond.

"Well, I was tracked by this human, you see. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. Should I run? Should I stay? Should I run, should I stay, should I run, should I stay? Anyway, I tracked that human down and bit into it. Wow, was that thing scared. It was crying out. I love it when they cry like that and actually give you a decent fight out of the bargain. So, he picks up this big piece of wood and he rams it in my eye." Dane jumped as Riley shouted the word 'rams', "I get away from the bastard, I get another gullible human to put the cloth around my eye, pretending I was badly hurt and all that. I killed the dumb ape afterwards. You get all sorts of animals to kill in this here forest but nothing feels as good as deceiving these apes. It's just the feeling you know you can topple a giant, you know? Anyway, in the end I became half blind. But by Francis' wolf it made you feel...alive somehow."

"Who are the others?"

"Oh, you don't need to know that. I'm their leader. Now listen to me. You're a good young one and I want to make sure you know what you're doing."

He paused and took a step closer to him "You need to know how things work. How nature works. You see, there are animals who want pesky wolves dead and there are animals who are naturally threatened or afraid of wolves. It's just how things work, that's all. What you need to understand is where you fit in to the whole picture. My little group here is full of good, loyal wolves who will always follow their leader. You want to be a part of something like that. If not now, you can be soon. But unfortunately you don't really look like you would fit in with our group. You look a little nervous and let's face it-"

He stuck his face out at Dane until their faces were almost touching.

"Lonely wolves are always so vulnerable and weak."

Riley backed off and nodded at some of the wolves in the background who all wagged their tails as he passed them. It was the first time the wolves had moved in a long time. They were all watching Riley, waiting for his word.

He then muttered something to them and turned back to the young wolf.

"Maybe it is wolves like you who need to know their place here. This world is cruel and I mean it. It's fucking cruel. The only way to live properly is to go by the rules. You just wait constantly for that one day you get the chance to make something of yourself or become the wolf you always wanted to be. Some wolves don't get that chance. Some wolves waste that chance. Some wolves, like me, take advantage of that chance. As for you, I know you have had that chance and it just passed you by. That is why you were so willingly open to someone like me. You've no idea who I am or what I'm capable of. You are so willing to trust another wolf no matter who they are. However, you have to learn that I cannot just let you go away. You need to learn that you cannot just wander freely into someone else's territory. I have met many other wolves like you, some did what they were told and left, the others who refused to obey my instructions, well, they were not so lucky. So now you have to decide what place you fit in. Will you obey the rules or not?"

Riley stared Dane down. The young wolf sat defiant and silent.

The older wolf turned away from him and approached the group of eight wolves.

"Either way it's going to hurt."

Riley barked and suddenly three of the tallest wolves in the group broke their solid stances and ran towards Dane.

He managed to fling one wolf off to the side but he could not fight the other two wolves who began biting and tearing into his body. He growled as the two wolves attacked and ferociously bit into him. The stronger of the two wolves bit down hard into his body and threw him against a tree. He slammed hard into the side of the tree. The three wolves circled him again and one wolf went straight for his neck. Dane managed to avoid the wolf and bit into the other wolf and managed to flail the wolf to the side, landing hard on their back.

But two very irritated wolves pounced and pinned him to the ground. One clamped its jaw into his neck. He felt the crushing pain as the wolf was determined to drain the life out of him.

Dane could now hear the cackling of Riley's laugh as he approached him.

"Just a lonely wolf who deserves to die in the cold. Would be better for all of us if you just fade away." The older wolf then pinned the young wolf's ears to the ground with his front paws and suddenly Dane's vision became only that of Riley's mocking face "Look at me! This is nature. You are weak. You're nothing. If I ever see you in my territory again I swear I will fucking kill you myself!"

He looked up.

"Stu, you and Buck keep doing what you're doing. He can't take much more."

Dane wanted to close his eyes, the pain was excruciating. He was blacking out. The bright sky was fading out of his vision, becoming blurry as he descended into darkness. Riley cackled again.

As the darkness took him over, Dane thought he could hear a wolf with a higher pitched voice than himself laughing, almost maniacally.

04

Dane slowly opened his eyes.

He could feel the icy snowdrops fall on his head. The sky had turned a dark blue colour with large grey clouds in the sky looking over him.

He was in agony.

His entire body was aching and suffering from excruciating pain. All the work he had done to heal his injured hind leg had been undone and now hurt more than ever. He now had a few more scars on the back of his body. His neck was scarred and so was his stomach. There was also a writhing pain coming from his other hind leg as well.

He shivered and lay in the snowy ground for a while. A growing wind whistled by him as the snowflakes continued to fall on his body.

The storm was beginning to pick up in the vast valley. The snow was falling heavily.

The animals of the forest started to behave differently when a storm or harsh wind took the valley. The animals would never have a plan of what to do in times like this. It was in their nature to protect themselves and their families by providing shelter and food. The animals all reacted differently to the storm but they all had a way of coping with the challenges it would bring. These abilities are what the animals were born with, like an owl's hoot, a raven's call, a squirrel's speed, a badger's burying claws. All animals have their strengths and their weaknesses. It is how the animals would utilise them that would ensure their survival and the survival of others.

Dane finally managed to limp back towards the large tree. He was tired and hungry.

In defiance of Riley's threat he stayed underneath the large tree for a while until the new morning came and he finally began to limp away from its safety.

He had no idea where he would go. He just wanted to get as far away from the area as he could. The young wolf was tired of wasting his time there.

Dane caught sight of a hill branching away from the stream he had been walking beside. He took a last big drink from the stream. His hind legs were tearing him apart as he knelt down to take a drink. Nevertheless he filled himself up and headed off.

The path was different to the rest of the area. He headed up the hill. There were hardly any trees along the path. The pressures of his injured legs were killing him but he was determined to fight through the pain.

He kept walking forward, never looking back for a moment.

The storm became more ferocious.

The wind thundered through the young wolf as even a simple step forward required a big effort. The wind continually tried to push him back. The energy from the big drink he had taken depleted and he could feel his legs getting stiffer and stiffer.

He had to keep going.

His concentration was going. The pure white snow on the ground was turning to murky grey in front of his eyes. His sight gradually became blurry and started to fade away into black.

But he still kept going.

He fell over his legs and landed in the thick snowy ground.

He pushed with all of his strength and managed a futile attempt to crawl forward. Shaking away the snow from his muzzle he continued crawling.

The young wolf finally closed his eyes while still trying to move forward. There was hardly anything beyond him apart from the murky snow and the thundering wind.

Finally, his legs became motionless and fell on the floor.

The last thing Dane could feel was the bitter wind brushing past him.

He lay still.
05

The storm still raged through the vast valley.

Countless tall trees were being all brushed to one side and some weaker trees were slowly being pulled from their roots. The sky had turned dark grey. It was not snowing anymore with only a small shower of rain covering the valley.

The animals of the forest all had to adapt to new climates to survive. They would hardly see conditions as bad as these in their own lifetimes but nonetheless they still had to adapt to them. In these unfamiliar climates the animals would always find new ways to protect themselves and the things they cared about. They would learn new things and develop new abilities all to contribute towards their own duties and their will to survive.

She had caught a scent in the air she had told him. Something that wasn't quite right and was determined to find out what it was.

She ran at lightning speed. He could barely keep up with her.

He called after her.

"Alexis!"

Alexis didn't slow down.

"Francis' wolf." He continued chasing her, tracking her scent.

She stopped in the middle of the snowy plain, looking down and sniffing the ground.

"It's good to see you can still outrun me."

She ignored him and scanned the area.

He wheezed, "So what are we looking for here?"

"I'm not sure."

"You're not sure? Well I'm sorry that's just not going to cut it. Y-you can't just run off. What if something happened? What if some humans started scouring around looking for some easy meat?"

"I severely doubt that."

"Doesn't stop me worrying though."

"Then stop worrying."

"Fine. What have you found anyway? If it were some prey I wouldn't mind. I wasn't even wanting that huge succulent caribou anyway."

Alexis stopped scanning for a moment and closed her eyes.

"Charlie, could you keep quiet please."

"Aye I'll keep quiet. No problem. Not like I was eating or anything. Nope."

Alexis sighed and carried on forward trying to find the source of the unknown scent.

Charlie stared at his sister for a moment. She stood alert and aware. She trotted amongst the snow muttering something inaudible. It sounded as if she was questioning something. The young she-wolf exhibited a special kind of self-control over the natural world she lived in. It made her strong and more than capable to handle any challenge presented to her.

"You found anything?"

"You doubting my abilities there, dear brother?"

"Don't have any reason to, dear sister."

"That's very sweet of you. There may be hope for you yet."

"Ah, you've never been wrong about these things before. We always find something."

Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks, sniffing towards one particular direction. She cautiously walked over with each step slowly gripping the snowy ground.

Alexis was still and unresponsive as she looked down at her discovery.

Deep in the snowy ground was a grey wolf around the same size as the two young wolves. His eyes were closed and his mouth was half open. He had scars across his back and larger ones on his side with a couple of cuts and slashes on his face.

Alexis broke the silence between them.

"What in the name of Francis' wolf happened to him?"

"Fuckin' Riley."

"I'm not sure if all of this was Riley. Some of the cuts don't look that new."

"Is he even still alive?"

"I don't know. I'll check."

Alexis sniffed at the wolf. Her brother watched as she tried to find any sign of life in the young wolf. She then lifted her head and turned to him

"He's alive, but we have to get him out of this storm. Now come on and help me carry him."

Charlie hesitated. She sensed this.

"It's fine. We won't have a problem."

"One out of six seems like more of a problem."

"Come on. We need to at least give him a chance. Our numbers are very low at the moment. We could use fresh blood."

"You know what dad's going to be like."

"Yep but at the end of the day I'll be able to live with myself. Now please help me."

Charlie jumped down and helped pick the young wolf up onto their shoulders.

It was a long walk back to their pack.

Dane felt cold. He shivered and growled under his breath.

The young wolf slowly opened his eyes and all he could see was darkness, pervasive and infinite.

Everything felt empty. The bristling of the trees and the screeches and calls of the woodland animals ceased to exist. All he could hear was his own feverish hectic breathing.

He got to his feet and limped briskly through the blackness.

Just then, a wolf howled in the distance.

The howl sounded disjointed and strange. It wasn't a long solid note but it felt fractured, tortured and unreal.

The young wolf kept walking.

The ground felt solid as stone, smooth and bitterly cold to the touch.

A searing pain crept into his head. He squeezed his eyes shut.

As he opened them he froze in place.

He stood in a vast forest. It looked like any other forest he'd seen in his short life. The tall thick trees stood, bark hard like iron with branches covered in thick pure snow glittering in the dark.

There was no sky. There was no sun.

He staggered onwards.

He saw Henry and Noel's upper halves conjoined and impaled on a steel spike, blood dripping down the spike. The two heads watched him without emotion or response and followed him as he walked another way.

He crawled forward.

He saw most of the members of the pack caught, deformed and mangled within large metal jaws on the ground. Their joints were out of place with bones sticking out through their skin and faces wide open with fear. He even saw his mother and father within the jaws, their bodies mangled by the sharp metal jaw piercing through their limbs. All of them were completely silent as if they were accepting their punishment.

A wolf then walked towards him.

He could see that it was Chloe. She was slyly smiling at him. She approached his side and walked all around him. Dane could feel that Chloe was trying to seduce him as she tenderly nudged the side of his body. As she circled him Dane followed her gaze. He watched as the tall trees behind her came apart and fell to the ground in large clusters, toppling over and breaking apart. The clusters suddenly caught fire and the tall spires burned into oblivion.

After she had walked all around him, she suddenly laughed insanely and started to jump all around, rolling herself around on the floor in some sort of spasm. She started shouting joyfully.

"You killed them! You killed them! You killed them! You killed them!"

Dane wanted to turn away from her but he couldn't. As she rolled around the image flashed and an entirely new one appeared. Chloe was now being mounted and ravaged by a wolf covered in darkness. Her body shook constantly underneath the darkened monster. She had a large wide smile on her face that was twice as large as her original mouth.

He looked out in horror as Chloe's head fell off of her body and the shadowed wolf still ravaged her mutilated corpse.

He fell to the ground.

Suddenly out of the distance he could see the apparition of his younger self again. The only figure standing amongst the burning wreck that used to be a forest.

It was looking into what looked like a blood red river. Its head swayed from side to side, analysing something. It had its back to him with its head bent low.

The apparition slowly raised its head to look at him.

Nothing more was said.

Dane bounded out of his sleep.

A rough rock wall surrounded him.

The young wolf panicked and tumbled around in the dark cave. He couldn't control himself as he ran around the cave. His eyes were still blurry and he couldn't concentrate.

He ran headfirst into a hard wall and fell to the floor. He yelled out in agony.

Pain shot up throughout his entire body, he growled and baulked.

He looked towards a dark blue light in the far corner. A shadowed figure stood watching him.

He could make out the image of a wolf staring at him and approaching cautiously. The young wolf growled in a show of defiance. The wolf also growled but approached him regardless.

Dane tried to focus on the wolf.

The wolf standing over him was a slender female grey wolf a little shorter than him and roughly the same age. As she approached her growl became softer.

The two wolves stared each other down for a moment. He tried to edge his injuries away from her vision.

She sat down and her growl all but faded away.

She waited.

Dane understood. He sat down on his hind legs and stopped growling.

There was silence between them. In the dark cave her eyes looked like black pearls, dangerous in their anonymity. With the injuries and the light reflected on him the young wolf felt frustrated and exposed.

The wolf spoke softly, "If I was going to hurt you, you would be dead already."

Dane didn't reply

"Believe what you want."

"What happened?"

"I found you lying unconscious out on the plain."

The young wolf didn't reply.

"It's completely natural you see me as an enemy. I've pulled six wolves like you from the edge of death and only one returned the favour. I am not your enemy and you are not mine."

There was still no response.

"My name is Alexis."

"I'm Dane."

"OK, that's a start."

"Where am I?"

"You are in the cave with our pack. My brother was supposed to look after you and bring you some food but he's a little late."

"You don't have to do that. I'm fine."

"No you're not." Her response was sharp.

"How can you know that?"

"Just by looking at you." Her tail brushed from side to side.

"I'm fine."

"You are no burden to anyone. Don't think you are."

The young wolf didn't respond.

There was a short silence between them.

Alexis spoke, "Do you want me to leave?"

Dane hesitated and then said, "No, I don't mind."

"You almost died up on the plain. You've been out for a whole day. We licked some of your wounds clean. There were some really nasty injuries."

"Thanks very much. I appreciate it."

The tails of the two young wolves waved from side to side.

Suddenly another wolf came bounding through the cave with a dead fox in their mouth.

Alexis stared daggers at the wolf.

"Charlie! Last time I saw you the sun was still out."

The wolf known as Charlie tried to speak to her but he forgot he still had the fox in his mouth and it was impossible to make him out.

"This is Dane."

Charlie dropped the fox and cautiously approached Dane.

His mouth had a small cut on the left side of his jaw and his face was thinner than that of the normal sized face of his sister. Dane never growled at him, there was no sense of threat coming from him as he moved and stared with a very unsure, insecure deportment with his gaze lazily drifting away from his own.

"I'm Charlie, pal."

"Nice to meet you."

"Sorry I wasn't able to get to you when you first woke up. Getting the fox proved to be a lot harder than I thought."

Alexis sighed, "Francis wolf, what excuse have you got this time then?"

"The bloody thing wouldn't slow down."

"That has always been your excuse."

"That's what happened. What do you want me to say?"

Alexis lifted her front paws.

"You see these. These are two wonderful things and there are two more. Don't worry you have the same. They are all used for an amazing thing that I like to call running. You should try it sometimes, it really helps."

"You're always complaining about my speed. I am what I am, Alexis."

"An incompetent fool?"

Another wolf then entered the section of the cave. The male wolf looked the same age as Alexis and Charlie. He was roughly the same size and build as Dane. As he met Dane's gaze he never looked away once. He crept around the cave with an intimidating demeanour. Each step he made felt as if he was cautiously stalking some prey.

A soft inaudible growl grew in his throat.

"Dane, this is John."

"Hi."

"Hi."

John turned to Alexis and Charlie "I just heard the commotion in here and I thought something was wrong."

Alexis spoke, "It's just the idiot over there as usual."

Charlie sighed and remained silent.

Dane began eating into the fox that Charlie had gotten him. As he ate into the fox he realised just how hungry he was. The last time he had eaten was when he caught the fox in the forest beside the stream.

"Thank you."

The three wolves nodded but then John turned his head towards the cave entrance and two more wolves entered the cave. The three young wolves greeted them. The two wolves looked very old. There was a male and a female wolf. The male wolf was tall and powerful whereas the female wolf was just as tall but a lot weaker in her legs as if she had a limp. Neither wolf looked pleased to see him.

The male wolf spoke.

"Who is this, Alexis?"

"This is Dane." She turned to Dane "These are my parents, Jack and Escuella."

Dane nodded at them.

Neither Escuella nor Jack reacted. Jack turned to Alexis.

"When he is better, I will take him out hunting. If he's useful then he can stay, if not he's gone."

The two older wolves walked out of the cave without saying another word.

"I'm sorry about that. My parents always find new wolves in the pack hard to accept."

"It's fine. I understand."

John added, "You were lucky. When I joined the pack Jack just barked at me, scared me senseless and left."

"So you came here the same way I did?"

"What do you mean?"

"You were picked up by this pack?"

"Yes."

"Were you in a pack before this one?"

John hesitated. Charlie sided away from him and Alexis suddenly looked a little worried.

"I was."

Dane sensed a slight hint of anger in the young wolf's voice.

"John has been with us for a while now ever since he was two years old. Charlie was a little jealous of him at first but he accepted him over time."

Charlie suddenly participated in the conversation, "I wasn't jealous of him. He was just a little faster than me."

"And a more skilled hunter."

"And a more skilled hunter."

"And a lot smarter-"

"That's plenty, Alexis, thank you."

Dane changed the subject "So, how many wolves are in this pack, is it just the five of you?"

Alexis answered, "Yes, there used to be more in the pack but those few wolves were omega wolves. No one went around with them or even talked to them. In the end I guess they just left. We do have friends outside of the pack. There's Giles who comes round to visit us every few months. He has known my dad for many years. He's a very good, kind, wise wolf. Despite his age he is still the alpha wolf of his own pack."

"Really? How is he able to maintain that? Surely there are younger wolves challenging him?"

"I think it's a lot more than just his strength that still makes him a great leader."

John then spoke up "I hope you don't mind me asking you this but, how did you get to that plain and have all those injuries on you?"

Dane hesitated for a moment. His tail dropped to the hard rock ground.

Alexis glanced at John.

"Come on, John. Please."

"It's fine. I was born into a pack that consisted of nine wolves. There were three families. The alpha pair were my mother and father. The other two families-" Dane paused "-had a son and the other had a daughter. I was friendly with both of them. A few days before you found me, I actually had my first hunting lesson. It was agreed at a meeting the night before that we would leave the cave we were resting in."

"What age are you?" John asked.

"Over three years old."

"A little bit old to have had your first hunting lesson aren't you?"

"It just took me a little longer, that's all."

"Why?"

Dane became slightly irritated.

"Why do you want to know this? It's not important."

"It's important to know whether you can actually hunt properly."

"I can hunt."

"Then why did you take so long to have your lesson? You usually have it when you're around two years old at most."

Alexis glanced at John.

"Drop it, John."

"You killed the animal then?"

"I had to just get on with it. I wasn't doing anyone any favours by not doing what I am supposed to do."

John turned to Alexis.

"It's alright that's all I wanted to ask."

"Anyway, we went back to the cave and discovered that one of the wolves in our pack had allowed a murderous group of young wolves to follow them to the cave with a dead fox."

The three wolves sat in stone cold silence. It was as if they had never heard of such treachery in their lives.

"So, we had to fight them off. Protect our territory. They outnumbered us. They managed to kill three wolves in the process. They killed an entire family. Mother, daughter and father all gone."

John cleared his throat and spoke, "Did you know which wolf betrayed your pack?"

Dane turned to him, "It was either father of the two families in the pack. I can't tell you who. I really don't know. To be honest they were both as guilty as each other."

There was now a clear hint of anger in Dane's voice.

"When we were trying to fight them off one of them didn't fight and he let them kill him. The other wolf ran away without warning. Neither wolf even attempted to protect the other members of the pack, even their own families. What can you do about that? I was beside the son of one of the wolves who betrayed us. I had no idea what to say to him. What could you say? Your own father lied to you and left you just to save his own hide. How can you make that kind of decision?"

John sighed, "Francis wolf. Fucking cowards."

"I don't think of them as cowards."

"Surely you must think those wolves were cowards."

"They were a part of the pack. I can't think of them that way. I knew those wolves for years. I can't think of them that way. Anyway, I was with my mother who watched two members of her pack die. The son was furious at his father for deserting the pack. The young murderers then surrounded us. Me, my mother and father, my friend and his mother, we were cornered by the young wolves and then my mother, she pushed me off a waterfall and I injured myself on the way down.

"I managed to regain consciousness and pull myself out of the water. I then found my mother drifting down the water and she told me to find a new pack. She died after that." Dane paused for a moment. "I just had to keep myself moving. I then ran into another group of wolves. Their leader was a wolf called-"

"Riley?" Alexis finished it for him.

"How do you know about him?"

John added with anger in his voice "He attacked me before I joined the pack."

Alexis then spoke "He's a monster. He attacks other wolves when they're in small groups or alone. You were lucky he never finished you off."

Charlie added, "Well, it's not him that does it though. It's always the other wolves in that group."

"You were lucky we came across you. It could have been a whole lot worse."

Dane continued, "So that's what happened to me before you came across and saved my life. So, I have to start again. Start in a new pack."

The three pack wolves were unresponsive. A cold chill breezed through the inside of the cave. Alexis finally spoke.

"I'm so sorry."

"Thank you."

Dane was nervous about what he was going to say next "So, what happens now?"

The three wolves looked at each other.

Alexis spoke, "You'll have to do what my father told you. You have to prove to him you're capable of being in this pack."

"Oh."

"What?"

"You would accept me into the pack just like that?"

"Depends entirely whether you can provide for it. You'll have to go out hunting when you're feeling better. Right now, you can barely walk, let alone hunt. We'll try and help you get better."

"I appreciate it."

"Right now, I think you should rest. The way you bounded around when you woke up must have taken its toll on your legs."

The three wolves then turned and left Dane alone. John turned back.

"Welcome to a real pack."

"Thanks, John."

The young wolf found himself unable to rest that night. He tried crawling closer to the light away from the surrounding rock walls. He tried positioning himself just so that he would be close enough to the world outside without the pack wolves noticing.

He noticed he was still lying beside the wall. He could see the small dent where he had bashed his head. His hind legs were in agony and his bounding around only made the pain worse.

Since being brought in he had gotten plenty of rest. The young she-wolf had said that he had been out for a full day.

He tried standing up on the stony ground.

His hind legs were stiff and sore. Each hobbled step made him grit his teeth. He slowly retracted and lowered himself to the ground. He rose from the ground again but this time he found himself being forced back down.

He tried a few more times trying to bring himself to his feet and finally he managed to get himself up and tried to ignore the pain as best he could.

He started walking around his part of the cave.

The section he had been put in was big enough for him to walk around and keep himself moving. In the darkness, he hobbled and found himself swerving and turning his body in evasion. Nothing was real in the darkness, no shapes or familiar objects he had known in his short life. He continually kept looking towards the entrance where the faint dark blue seeped through.

The section felt slightly larger than the cave he had been in with his former pack even though the two sections of cave were the same size. Dane could now appreciate the size of the cave his former pack had criticised for being unstable.

After a few moments walking around in circles, he walked over towards the dark blue light of the evening.

Walking slowly out of the section, he was careful not to cause too much noise.

He turned the corner and saw the five wolves sleeping in disarray across the centre of the cave. Apart from his section there were no other sections where he was staying and the rest of the cave was one large isolated area with only the cave entrance at the bottom.

Furthest to his section was Escuella, she had a lot more room than the other wolves in the pack. He knew she had a limp when she came in to see him, he guessed that she was either very tired due to her old age or that she was ill.

He could see Jack sleeping next to Escuella, clearly trying to give her space. He looked further down the cave and could see Charlie sleeping on his own. He was fidgeting around trying to get in a position to relax and get to sleep whilst scratching his ear with his hind leg. He looked further away from Charlie and saw Alexis and John sleeping together. Their bodies lay close to each other with the head of Alexis almost touching the upper body of John.

The young wolf walked back towards his own section and shrunk back into the darkness.

Dane woke up. It was morning.

He didn't want to wake up later than the other wolves but he had done so anyway.

He carefully rose from the rocky ground and walked to the main part of the cave. His hind legs were still stiff and in pain but he was able to walk around. The scars and cuts across his body were not hurting him so much anymore either. The pack had already licked most of those wounds. Dane had constantly fought the urge to scratch at them.

There was bright sunshine gleaming through the entrance, illuminating the dull grey rock walls of the cave.

Dane turned his head and he saw Escuella.

She was looking straight at him.

The young wolf stood still. There were no other wolves in the cave apart from him and her. She maintained the motionless expression on her face from last night. She stood still, her paws straight in front of her, her figure straight like a solemn shadow in the dark of the cave.

Eventually the words came out of his mouth.

"Hi."

Escuella's expression remained motionless but she spoke.

"You don't have to be scared of me. I won't bite, much."

The older wolf looked him up and down.

"Dane, is it?"

"Yes, nice to meet you."

He was surprised to see Escuella's tail brush from side to side.

"I'm Escuella. You are a charmer, aren't you?"

Dane's tail wagged.

"Alexis has told me about you."

"OK."

"My condolences to those who died in your former pack."

"Thank you. I appreciate it."

She didn't respond.

"I assume you and your mate are the alpha wolves of this pack?"

"That's right. I was born into this pack the alpha wolf's daughter. There were a lot of other wolves in the pack back then, just around fifteen or so. I was raised to become the alpha wolf of the pack. I trained myself so that I could succeed in almost all walks of life. There were wolves in the pack who did not try so hard, many in fact. There were more omega wolves than there were alpha wolves in our pack at one stage."

"Why was that?"

"Oh it was just the way packs were run in those days, there was absolutely no room for error. You messed up in a hunt you became an omega. You fail to warn the other wolves of incoming dangers you became an omega. I was never in much danger though. My name meant something but I didn't want to find out how much it was worth when the worst came to the worst. I worked every single day, brought back countless amounts of prey. I still do."

She stared outside of the cave and the bright morning sun exposed the wornness of her skin.

"What was your pack like, son?"

"It wasn't that strict, there were no omega wolves. My father believed that all wolves could have some use within the pack."

Escuella nodded.

"Just as I thought, your pack was a lot more lenient than ours."

"I take it the others are out hunting?"

"Yes. Jack found a deer herd."

"That's good. Hopefully they'll stay around for a while."

"Hopefully, yes. They've already been there for a long time. It must be a popular spot for them."

"Where are they?"

"I don't know. I've never been."

They both stood in silence for a moment. The old wolf stared into the morning light almost completely absorbed by its mere presence. She sat in place like a stone monument looking out at the vastness of the world through encased eyes.

"I noticed you were quite, well, I was just thinking you can sleep in that split-off section if you want."

Her head spun round to face him with eyes fixed straight at his own.

"I just thought it was more comfortable for you."

She stared at him for a moment. Immediately he could see the resemblance between herself and her daughter. It was a cold stare that etched deep within the receiver a sense of power and complete control. It could drive down the most powerful of wolves. Then her gaze drifted off, she scanned the young wolf in front of her with his many scars and yielded to him.

"That is...sweet of you."

"You need it more than I do."

She nodded slightly.

"I would recommend that you get better as soon as possible and go out hunting. Sooner or later, Jack will get fed up with you being here and throw you out if you don't contribute. This is the truth. No one is going to question him. I respect his decisions. If he says you are out then you are out. I just want to make you aware of that."

"I figured that. I'll be ready."

"You better be."

Dane turned towards the cave entrance.

"I'm going to have a walk around for a while."

She perked up, "I appreciate your concern. Thank you."

The young wolf nodded in respect of the old wolf and walked out into the morning light. The old she-wolf watched him leave. She then turned and laid down in the darkness.

The herd of deer were all standing over in the distance, their heads lowered over the snowy plain, feeding off of the land.

Jack had always been careful when he was hunting.

He always waited for the right moment. He had hunted this way his entire life. Even his first hunting lesson was hard for him as he continually circled the moose he was hunting. The other wolves in the pack considered intervening because he had taken so long. He managed to attack the moose eventually and kill it quickly.

He had led many hunting attacks in his time. He had gotten used to it. The wolves that accompanied him during the attacks were usually effective. He had been on hunts with wolves who were useless when trying to catch prey. Jack made sure those wolves did not have the chance to fail again.

The younger wolves all lay beside him, ready to strike the plain and kill the deer. They had a routine. They would go after the herd and pick out a couple of deer. The younger wolves would chase after it and bring it down. The wolves would then gather around the deer and maul at it. It was usually Alexis and John who would be fast enough to catch the deer and kill them. Charlie was slower than them but he still had his father's powerful bite.

He looked out and watched the deer grazing off of the land. Small movements were important. Animals that walked with uneven trots were vulnerable but so were those that drifted off on their own. However those split off from the rest of the herd were either one of two things. They were either incredibly feral and dangerous or really weak and imbecilic.

He retracted himself back as an indication to the other three wolves that they were about to attack their prey. All three wolves systematically withdrew, obeying their leader.

Jack then dashed forward, as did the rest of the wolves.

John and Alexis passed him instantly, both lightning quick. The wolves all had their sights set on the herd as it was soon alerted to the threat from the incoming wolf pack. The deer soon became huddled together in a crowd and started running away from the attackers. The wolves tried to catch up with the herd and catch a drifter from the crowd. It would usually be a few moments before a single deer would leave the crowd and run for the last time in their life.

Charlie then passed his father, like Alexis and John he was trying to find a straggler. Jack watched the three young wolves run away and capture their prize.

Finally, a deer from the back of the herd branched off and went in another direction as John had effectively cut off the deer's connection with the herd. The straggler was not a young deer but not an old deer either.

Both John and Alexis gave chase to the deer. She was close behind it. The straggler kept trying to go in different directions, desperately trying to shake the wolves off.

It was all for nothing. Alexis bit into the deer and it collapsed on the ground, completely helpless. John joined her while Alexis bit into the deer's neck. Charlie then arrived to finish off any hope of the deer escaping the inevitable.

When Jack arrived to the deer, he saw the lifeless expression on its face. Its tongue lay out to one side with eyes wide open. When Escuella was with them they would usually feed right there and then.

He never really praised them for their kill. He praised them a few times when the kill was skilfully done or if the wolves had only been out a hunting a few times. There was nothing special about this kill. It would do the job and then the pack would be done with it.

They started to head back to the cave, the deer carcass with them.

Dane took in the view from the front of the cave.

The clear sky was light blue. A lot lighter than it had been in a few days. He could see birds fluttering and gliding through the air. Countless snow-covered tall trees lay out in front of him, a vast forest with a few winding, well worn paths leading to different places. He recognised the two lines of wolf tracks on the ground where the pack had been walking. The fresh tracks were on the path inside a dark forest where underneath the snow-covered spires were large blackened columns of tree stalks. There was another path, which was a lot brighter with fewer trees and the wind blowing through. The cold air brushed over his thick fur.

He looked at the cave itself and discovered it was built in to an enormous mountain that stretched across the full length of the valley.

He turned around and started to walk and make a route for him to follow similar to what he had done at the stream. Hind legs in agony, the pain gripped him hard constantly trying to pull him down to the ground. He fought through it.

A few moments had passed and Dane still felt the agonising pain. He took regular breaks from his routine but what he couldn't afford to do was to stop moving. His legs had to heal themselves up gradually.

He had made a route for himself around the cave entrance. The large indents spread across the front of the cave in a large uneven, fractured circle.

He continued walking around.

There was plenty of space to walk and move around unlike his time at the stream where he was careful not to get too close to the water and fall in.

Dane continued walking.

Something Escuella had said stuck in his mind.

"Your pack was a lot more lenient than ours."

Dane was confused but he still kept walking.

The repetitive path he had made was getting to him. It hadn't bothered him too much at the stream. The experience had been relatively new to him but now as he had more painful injuries, the process had become monotonous to him.

On and on...

Going around the same path...

On and on...

Trailing the same scars...

On and on...

Going around in the same circles...

On and on...

Nothing else to do...

On and on...

All the effort for nothing in the end...

On and on...

The young wolf became increasingly infuriated. He felt like he could memorise the exact patterns of the paths he had made in the snow, where he was supposed to go and what was going to be there.

He heard something growl beside him. It felt metallic, unreal and completely unnatural.

Dane quickly turned to see where the growling had come from.

The apparition stood beside him, its teeth clenched and its coat still covered in blood. It had gotten taller, almost an exact reflection of himself. It stood in the light, growling at him with vacant black eyes.

The apparition then stopped growling and spoke madly, in his exact voice "You are mad aren't you?"

Dane remained silent. He tried to pretend it wasn't there.

It followed him around. Everywhere he looked and everywhere he walked. He tried closing his eyes but the apparition's image was still there, still growling at him. He even felt it in the way he pushed his paws into the snowy ground with the icy wind cutting into his body like razors.

The young wolf wrenched his head. He barked loudly.

"Too loud, might attract moody leader. His mind as old and dead as his mate."

He snarled.

The apparition laughed.

"Maybe the canine will learn not to let the corpses run. Maybe the canine will learn not to let the corpses run. Maybe the canine will learn not to let the corpses run. Maybe the canine will learn not to let the corpses run. Maybe the canine will learn not to let the corpses run. Maybe the canine will learn not to let the corpses run. Maybe the canine will learn not to let the corpses run. Maybe the canine will learn not to let the corpses run. Maybe the canine will learn not to let the corpses run. Maybe the canine will learn not to let the corpses run. Maybe the canine will learn-"

The young wolf pounced on the imaginary creature out of sheer anger and rage. However, by striking out at the apparition, it disappeared. Silence fell on the valley once more.

He stood up. His rash behaviour towards the apparition had forced him to cause his legs even more pain as he had pushed himself off of the ground with his hind legs.

The young wolf squeezed his eyes shut and flailed his head with an animosity that felt unfamiliar but also strangely enticing and satisfying.

He kept on walking around all afternoon. Despite his rashness, his legs were getting a lot less stiff. Every time he put pressure on his injured legs the pain was gradually dissolving away.

Escuella had walked outside for a brief moment and watched him in silence. She then went back inside telling him she appreciated his perseverance.

A few moments later, she came out again and asked him if he wanted to go to the lake and get something to drink.

The two wolves walked to the lake together.

Escuella walked at a very slow, tired pace. The young wolf strode beside her and kept himself alert. A few times on the way over the old wolf winced and had to stop.

Dane asked her if she was OK and every time she reassured him. The young wolf never enquired further into her frailty out of respect.

Escuella told Dane many stories of her time in the pack. There was one time she took down a deer and fell off of a steep hill still clutching onto the deer and amazingly using the deer to break her fall. She also told him of three wolves who were obsessed with the stories of Francis' wolf even to the point they would systematically talk about together in group together, chanting about how great he was.

"It was strange. They provided for the pack but the leaders weren't having it. They made them omega wolves and soon enough the pack leaders banished them completely."

"Did they tell you why they acted like that?"

"They kept saying it was because they loved Francis' wolf or something like that. When anyone in the pack criticised them for what they were doing they would attack them every single time. An even stranger thing was that shortly after the pack banished them we were walking in our territory and found the same three wolves in a bad way. We found them all dead at the bottom of a steep cliff, their bodies broken, limbs all bent, horrible!"

"You think they did it to themselves?"

"I had no idea at the time, I still don't."

Escuella lightened the tone a little afterwards.

She also told him of the wolves currently in the pack, even telling him that Alexis and John were the obvious choice to become the new alpha pair when she and Jack were gone. She had almost never mentioned Charlie as they walked onward.

The lake lay in amongst the forest, but there was a space split off from the countless trees where Dane could see the entire valley and the many tall, snow-covered trees. The white spires scattered around the curving ashen mountain landscape with only the faint sound of birds screeching in the endless ocean blue sky.

He could see the beautiful sunset over the entire valley setting over the enormous mountain landscape.

"I never get tired of that view. We've stayed at that cave for a long time and I love the way it stays the same every time."

They both took a drink from the lake and headed back to the cave. She still went on about experiences within the pack. He kept listening and letting her talk freely. It was a short trip back to the cave through the forest.

Dane and Escuella arrived back at the cave.

"How are your injuries now?"

"I'm getting a lot better now. I'm going to try to run tomorrow."

"That's good. The sooner those legs heal the better. Just remember that Jack is not going to wait for you."

"I know. I'm going to walk around a bit more."

"OK, good luck with that. By the way, where did you learn that technique to heal your legs like that?"

Dane hesitated for a moment.

"I learned it when I was young. I was injured and I walked around a lot just to try and keep myself moving. It was a really painful routine but in the end the pain was gone. I just had to keep moving. A wolf who can't walk is of no use to anyone."

"Interesting. I'll see you later."

"OK, see you."

She turned and hobbled back to the cave.

Dane went back to his routine.

She looked out at the setting sun, turning the sky to black.

There weren't any stars in the sky tonight they hid themselves behind a shroud of pure blackness. Some nights they showed, some nights they didn't. Before she went to sleep each night she would look out for them.

She stayed in her own world, tied to a rope and confined to a metal cage.

It spread around a small area she could easily move around but the only way out was the metal door only the human could access. She looked through the grating into the outside world.

Her sister lay in the cage with her, setting herself down to sleep.

"You never came back to him."

"I never heard him."

"You never came back to him. He called you."

"I told you I didn't hear him. Go to sleep."

She lay herself down on the ground staring straight ahead at the infinite darkness of the forest in the distance until she drifted away.

The night settled in and Dane decided to leave his routine until tomorrow.

As soon as he was about to turn and head back into the cave, he could hear something approaching.

Dane turned.

Whatever it was came from the path through the dark forest where the black columns were consumed by the prevailing darkness of the night.

The pack emerged, returning from their hunt.

A couple of wolves had foxes in their mouths. Jack carried nothing. John had a large deer on his back. He nodded at them as a sign of greeting. He tried not to meet Jack's gaze. The three younger wolves nodded their heads back to him. Jack did not react or even notice him.

The four wolves walked towards the cave, as they came closer they all looked down. They curiously looked at the heavily indented path around the cave.

Alexis put her fox down on the ground and spoke, "Was this you?"

"Er, yeah, I was just trying to keep myself moving."

Jack looked down at the path and pawed at it. He lifted his head and looked at Dane with a hard, motionless stare.

The young wolf looked briefly into the old wolf's cold, solid eyes. He expected the old wolf to get right of him right there and then.

"That's a good day's work. I'm impressed."

Dane cautiously nodded at the compliment. His head rose only to see the old wolf retaining the same cold expression expecting the young wolf to submit to him in his fear and respect his power.

Jack grunted and walked off into the cave. John then followed him to drop off the large deer.

Jack was confused when he didn't see Escuella in the main part of the cave.

He knew that she would have been in the main section of the cave. That wolf had taken the other section of cave. Inside the individual section he was surprised to see Escuella lying there. Her head perked up to see him. He put the large red fox down beside her.

"What are you doing in here? I thought this was-"

"Yes, it was Dane's section but he said I could have it to rest."

Jack chuckled.

"If that wolf thinks he can win me over by doing this."

"He knows that Jack. He's not dumb. I've told him you can be a pain in the arse."

"Oh, well tell him something he doesn't know."

"I don't know. Like what?"

"Like how far I can toss him by the neck, maybe?"

"You'll never change."

"You wouldn't want me to. You'd hate it."

"How was the hunt?"

"Good enough. Several foxes and a deer."

"The young ones do well?"

"Yes."

"How'd you do?"

"You already know."

"What're you going to do about it?"

"I don't know."

"This is something that just doesn't work itself out, dear."

Jack went silent. He walked up to her and lay himself down carefully beside her. He was really careful when trying to sit down, as if he was injured.

"How are you feeling?"

"I could be better, still a little tired that's all."

"OK, anything else you want me to do for you?"

"I want to talk to you about Dane."

Jack sighed, "What about him?"

"Don't be like that. He's a nice wolf. I know you think that doesn't matter. But at least give him a chance to get better and prove his worth to you. The young wolf has been through some terrible things. He needs us."

"Well, it will be up to me to decide whether we need him."

"Look at John. We brought him into the pack and he has done amazing work for us. He's a more than suitable mate for our daughter."

Jack came closer to her.

"Dear, all wolves are different. No wolf is the same as the other. If they need to be treated differently due to their lack of ability then I will make them understand that. All wolves have purpose. If he cannot fulfil that purpose here, then he will try to fulfil that purpose somewhere else. That wolf will keep trying until the day he dies to fulfil his purpose wherever he ends up. Now he's here and he wants a place in this pack. I need to know whether he will become a liability or not. I need to know whether he has the determination to contribute."

"Surely his work today is determined enough?"

"He has fear in his eyes. He did that out of fear."

"Nothing I say is going to change your mind, is it?"

"You know it won't. I don't see why you're even trying."

"I have to try sometimes."

"We got a big deer today do you want some of that?"

"I'll have some of that with you. Give the young ones the fox."

Jack reached over and licked the side of her face. He got up towards the main area of the cave. The old wolf picked up the large fox and threw it out.

"We'll have the meal and sleep in here. The younger ones will sleep out in the main part. We deserve our own space."

He turned back to the deer and dragged it into the section.

"Fruit of your labours?"

"That's not funny."

She licked him on his check and their tails brushed from side to side as they started eating into the deer.

"You didn't have to catch this for me. I could have done it myself."

"You can barely walk. Don't worry. I like it. It gives me more of a challenge."

Charlie spoke, "You always like challenges, Alexis."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, I just like the way you're always up for everything. I don't know how you do it."

"Oh."

Alexis went back to eating her fox, feeling guilty.

Dane turned to John.

"You were right. Escuella is really nice when you get to know her."

"I told you, didn't I?"

"I wish Jack was more like that, though."

"Jack is as comforting as a bite clamped down on your neck. He beat me on a couple of occasions just because I got in his way. He'll get better, like Escuella, when you get to know him."

Dane nodded in agreement.

"I will hold you to that."

Alexis added, "He can be arrogant most of the time. But he is being arrogant for a reason. Me and Charlie know that better than you two, don't we?"

Charlie sat in silence. He was looking out the cave distracted.

"Charlie?"

The young wolf turned, slightly irritated.

"What?"

"I was just telling them about the routines he put us through every day when we were growing up, do you remember?"

Charlie stared blankly.

"Yes."

"We were basically put through these routines where we hunted, ran and just generally worked all day to provide for the pack. He had everything organised and planned out. He was so precise too. He could tell the exact type of wolf you were by looking at you. Oh, what were they again? You either were a runner, a strong killer, a quick killer or an all-rounder."

"What were each of you then?"

Alexis replied, "I was an all-rounder."

John replied, "A quick killer."

Charlie kept silent.

Dane was about to ask him but Alexis caught his gaze and shook her head.

Charlie didn't meet the gaze of the other young wolves. He grunted and went back to staring outside for a while.

Dane looked at the several pieces of meat the pack had brought in earlier.

"That's a pretty big deer you caught."

Alexis replied, "We all caught that thing."

John sighed and said "Well, let's be honest, it was me, you and Charlie who caught the deer."

"He organised us and got us in formation."

"Alexis..."

"OK John, we get it. My dad is old and he can't hunt properly anymore."

Dane turned to Alexis "You seem very passive about that."

"Jack is old. Old wolves are supposed to be weak. That's the way things work."

"Why is Jack still ordering you around when he can't hunt that well when it matters?"

Alexis chuckled.

"He has been the leader of this pack for a long time. Sure he doesn't have the power and strength he once had but he knows what's good for the pack. That's why he is still alpha wolf. That's why this pack is still functioning, anyway are you even in any position to be making that kind of comment? You've only been in this pack for one day and you're already judging him."

Alexis and John stared daggers at him.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you upset. It's not my place to say that."

She hung her head as if accepting defeat.

"Oh, don't worry about it. You're right, in a way. I don't like change but it happens and you just have to live with it. He has done so much for the pack. I don't know if he should already be passing on his leadership. What would happen if another group of heartless wolves come by? They take one look at my old father and think, oh, that's easy pickings. Of course I have my worries. So does John, even Charlie."

Charlie perked up his head, clearly not listening to the conversation until he had heard his name.

"What's that about me?"

"Well, if you had been listening instead of chomping into that fox then you would have heard that even Dane has picked up on our father's problem."

"It's an odd position to be in. You just don't want to say anything and you'll never know how he'll react."

Dane glanced down into the dark cave after Charlie had finished speaking.

John spoke up "We wouldn't be talking about this if we knew they could hear us."

"Oh. OK." He paused as he glanced over at John feeling a little cautious "So, where did you find the deer?"

John replied, "We found a whole herd of deer in a plain not far from here. We keep going back to it. You would think they'd stop coming to that spot but they just don't. We found the foxes on our own in the forest. Any of those foxes yours, Charlie?"

"Er, no. They aren't. I helped you get the deer didn't I?"

"You barely did. You just bit into the deer once we had it pinned down. Also, you don't really catch that much small prey after a big hunt anyway. You don't really catch that much."

"I'm doing the best I can here alright?"

John groaned. Dane changed the subject.

"You collect all the prey and then bring them back to the cave later on. Isn't that dangerous? Won't other wolves fight you for that stuff?"

"No, well, we have had a couple of instances where wolves would steal the prey. It doesn't actually happen that often. We just pile the prey in a place hidden within the forest or something similar. We scent-roll the place where the prey was and then get away from it. We don't go back until we're completely finished. It is just so that if any other predator comes along to find the prey we won't be in danger."

"Good plan. My old pack hunted for large animals in the day and brought them back to where we were sleeping in the daytime and then we hunt for smaller animals like foxes in the afternoon. My dad thought it was the best idea but they kept getting stolen so he set up a system so half of the pack was with the prey and half of us were out hunting."

"Really?"

"My dad almost never stayed with the prey. He trusted his pack to look after it."

Just then Jack had come out of the split-off section of cave and threw the half-eaten deer over to them. John approached it.

"Cheers, Jack."

Jack grunted at him and went back to Escuella.

John dragged it to the young wolves.

"OK. Who wants some of this?" Alexis asked.

"Not me. I'm stuffed. That fox was enough." Charlie replied.

"You and your small appetite. Anyone else?"

"No thanks, Alexis. I'm not that hungry."

"OK, no problem."

"I'll have some of it with you." John replied.

Alexis brought it over and she and John began chomping into the deer. Dane watched them eat the deer and his stomach trembled slightly even with the fox. The deer lay there with the red, luscious meat enticing him. He was beginning to understand things differently. Eating the deer would have given him a brief sense of satisfaction but something about the carcass didn't sit well with him. The carcass looked almost devilish and deceptive with its sharp bones piercing through its body and dark congealed blood entrenched into the tips. The kill wasn't his and it wasn't his to devour.

When Alexis and John were finished, the four wolves now had to decide who was going to get rid of the animal carcasses. Dane volunteered instantly. John also volunteered.

"Dane, do you think you can handle that? I'm just thinking about your injuries." Alexis argued

"It's fine."

"OK, well if you feel you can do it then go right ahead."

Dane picked up a fox carcass and held it in his mouth. John put the deer on his back and held a fox corpse in his mouth. They set off into the dark forest.

The trees bristled in the cold, piercing night wind. Small clumps of snow fell from the short, thinner branches. The forest was silent. Land animals hid from sight with only a few birds soaring in the distance. Parts of the earth where snow had once covered were slowly appearing and the lush, sleek blades rose amongst the frost. In the night, the large tree columns served as a way of guidance amid the infinite blackness that surrounded it.

As they walked, the young wolf kept glancing over at the other with the heavier load alert and wary of other predators looking to steal the remains. Looking over to the other wolf he felt a slight sense of threat. The other wolf hadn't looked at him once since they had set off. He kept his concentration, hoping he would catch him.

Nothing happened. In his mind, he imagined the wolf gazing and analysing him, finding his weaknesses.

John placed the fox remains on the ground.

"This'll do."

The two wolves started burrowing into the ground. John made a bigger hole for the deer. Dane made a normal sized hole for the foxes and the two wolves then sealed the holes up with a thick layer of earth and snow.

"Thanks for helping out with that."

"No problem."

The young wolf stared into the darkness and the shadowed tree branches.

"You want to start heading back?"

John thought for a moment.

"No, no. Let's just go out for a bit. I know this place."

"What about the pack? Won't they start worrying?"

"No, they know me. They know I'm capable."

"Are you sure?"

He turned around and with his clear ocean blue eyes scanned Dane's injured body.

"I'm sure."

"I won't be much help if something happens."

"I know."

"Well, where will we be going?"

"Just out to the plain where the deer herd comes and goes. Maybe it'll give you an idea of what to expect when you're out hunting with Jack."

Dane hesitantly nodded his head in agreement.

"Good. Just follow me. I've been on this trail many times."

The two young wolves turned and travelled deeper into the forest.

The darkness of the forest slowly evaporated as the two wolves trotted through. One wolf walked with a confident, sure deportment the other anxious, unsure and nervous.

Walking through the forest they noticed the cold wind calming making way for the illumination of the bright moon. Long, thin beams of light shone through several spaces between the dark trees. The pure white snow glittered as it was reflected off the moonlight.

The wolves looked up through the spaces and peered at the moon and the endless starry sky above. Each wolf curiously observed it. The moonlight hypnotised the two creatures as their small minds attempted to comprehend the mysterious and unknown entity before them. Something that made them both seem insignificant and powerless irritated them but at the same time absorbed them.

The wolf that was once confident edged out of the light and shook his head without looking back. The anxious wolf continued staring upwards in the moonlight until he realised the other wolf had walked off and stood in the dark waiting for him.

The two wolves continued towards the plain in silence.

The bowl-shaped plain appeared beyond the darkness of the forest. Surrounded by tall snow-covered trees up short, steep slopes, the plain lay indented into the earth filled with small dead twigs and broken stumps. Snow inside the plain had diminished to nothing, heavily trodden and fractured with large patches of black dirt and thin smooth lush grass rose from the trampled soil and ice.

"I told you it wasn't far."

"OK."

John pointed his long snout to the side.

"They usually walk out here every few days or so. We approach the outskirts and catch the whole herd. Of course a few stragglers come by daily but we don't go after them. Jack says we'll scare off the entire herd if they know wolves come here daily so we give them a chance to feed off the land and when the herd appears we go after them."

"What're they like? Had any trouble catching them?"

"They're quite fast. You've got to get to them quickly. Whatever you do don't go for the adult males we had a few problems taking down one of those as a group. You don't want to be on the other end of those antlers. For you, on your own, just go for the younger ones or the does."

"Alright."

In the distance among the vast line of tall trees a dark figure emerged. From the opposite end of the plain to where the wolves sat the figure slowly crept forward like a predator cautiously stalking its prey. As it left the forest and approached the outskirts of the plain the creature kept at a slow pace. Without scanning the area for predators it strode alone and unafraid. It dug into the earth with its heavy hooves in rhythmic motions with long, slow strides.

The massive moose approached the centre of the plain. In the moonlight its hulking, powerful body rose from the dark of the night. It reached its long, thick neck upwards for a moment and descended uninterested. The hard, bone-like antlers were thick and covered in the most insignificant of scratches from the most significant of predators.

The two young wolves stared at the beast with great awe.

"We've seen that thing come over here for a good long while now. Has to be one of the strongest creatures I've ever seen."

"Look at the size of that. Should I try taking that down?"

John laughed.

"We tried a few times but Francis' wolf that thing is tough. It could kill you with one ram of that antler. It'd be like solid stone smashing into you. Believe me I was almost on the other side of it once."

"Really?"

"Yep, we just stopped going for it. But it still stays there even when we're out hunting the deer herd it'll just stride out onto the plain and feed off the land. It never looks at us and never moves for any animal. We were chasing a deer herd once and I swear the deer ran back towards us just to avoid disturbing that thing."

"You ever think about trying again?"

"Maybe. If it keeps coming here definitely."

The two wolves watched the great creature wander the land and feed off of the emerging blades of grass. Occasionally it lifted its great, heavy head and stared blankly across the plain. A few times the wolves thought the moose was staring straight at them but it kept looking away uninterested as if they weren't even there.

Dane sat agitated and irritated as the moose grazed off the land. A slight snarl built up in his throat.

He was thankful when it decided to leave and heaved its great powerful body off the land and vanished amongst the dark tree columns.

"Maybe just try to get the most vulnerable, large one you can. Jack will like seeing you take down one of those."

"I'm not sure he'll like it."

"He'll be pissed rather but he'll accept it."

Dane and John sat in the snow staring into the starry night sky on the outskirts of the forest.

"Do you think you're ready?"

"I think so. Maybe a day or two will help."

John looked him straight in his gold eyes.

"So how are you doing?"

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"I was wondering how you're feeling considering all that's happened to you especially with the loss of your pack?"

"I don't know. I guess I just have to move on from it. What else can I do?"

"You're being incredibly passive about it."

"Like I said, I have to move on from it."

"It's just strange. I'd expect you to be an emotional wreck after something like that. I know I would be."

Dane stayed silent. He turned away from John's gaze.

"I want to know something."

"What is it?"

"How much did you contribute to your pack?"

"What?" The young wolf nervously laughed.

"How much did you contribute to your pack?"

"I did fine. I brought back enough."

"How much?"

"I just told you."

"You never gave me a number. How many per day? How many per week?"

"I can hunt properly and I'll prove it to you and Jack when the time comes."

"How much did you contribute to your pack? It's just a simple question."

The young wolf carefully got to his feet.

"I'm going to look around for a bit."

"Dane. Come on."

"It's OK. I'm just looking around. It's no problem."

John remained lying on the snow in silence as Dane wandered off digging his paws into the slope as he descended into the centre of the plain.

The young wolf walked alone amongst the dead trees and dry, frozen, hard dirt. No animals sounded in the distance. No birds scattered across the sky. Sprawling clouds obscured the bright spots of light in the night sky.

Large pools of dark water lay scattered over the plain with small blades of fresh green grass submerged flowing and waving in the soft winter wind.

His paws didn't crunch or dig deep into the smooth surface of the plain. It was a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time as his paws etched and grasped the earth beneath them.

He approached a large slope and walked up to the surrounding dark forest. As he walked closer the moon and the stars shone through the vast clouds and for a moment the young wolf could see through to the end of the forest where something different lay beyond.

He cautiously walked closer.

Something caught his eye in the deep darkness. It stood out amongst the blackness.

It wore a pure white coat with no other colours to ruin its purity. It bent its slender neck to either sniff or feed off the ground. Amongst the large tree columns it was hard to identify the animal.

Suddenly it launched its head upwards alert and aware. It scanned the area.

The young wolf didn't back away.

The animal's head turned, sniffing at the air and curved its body trying to find the source.

Still the young wolf wouldn't back away.

The animal's head stopped when it caught the wolf's gaze.

The young wolf stared at the animal for a long time. Neither made any movement or threat towards the other. As he stared, Dane thought he could make out the image of a wolf.

The starry sky became shrouded by clouds and the forest became pitch black again and the animal disappeared into the blackness of the night.

The two young wolves rarely spoke as they walked through the forest back to the cave. John talked about his experience hunting with Jack, helping the young wolf when he would have to do it himself.

Dane nodded along clearly distracted. As he trotted towards the cave he looked dishevelled and anxious. He constantly kept siding off to the dark away from John, keeping out of his line of sight.

Charlie and Alexis were not in the main part of the cave. The two wolves were in the split-off section where Jack and Escuella were staying.

They walked out as they caught sight of Dane and John looking visibly shaken and distressed.

Alexis had her head bowed. Tears fell from her long snout. Charlie was beside her, his face motionless with watery eyes. He was staring straight forward toward Escuella and Jack.

Jack was pacing over and over in the section. He looked frustrated with teeth gritted. He took no notice of the two wolves coming in.

Escuella was lying on her side looking really weak and tired. More than she ever did before. She could barely keep her eyes open.

John went over to Alexis and tried to comfort her. He comfortingly nudged her and whispered calming words to her.

He then spoke to Jack.

"Jack, is she-"

Jack stopped pacing and hung his head.

"Not long."

Dane stood silent. His eyes were fixed on Jack, trying his best not to meet his gaze.

Escuella then spoke. Her voice was trembling.

"I-Is that John and Dane?"

Jack looked down at his dying mate and tried to sound as comforting as he could.

"They're here."

"C-can they come here?"

Jack flicked his head and the two young wolves approached.

Dane and John walked closer to Escuella. As soon as she could see the two wolves her tail slowly coiled and breezed over the solid rock floor.

"L-listen to me. Be good wolves now. John, promise me you'll look after my daughter. You are a part of this family now. I'm proud of you."

John looked straight into her eyes and replied "Thank you. I'll look after her."

Escuella then turned to Dane "Dane, I hope you find what you are looking for, whatever that may be."

"Thank you, Escuella."

"Now, please. I would like to talk to the others on my own."

Both Dane and John bowed to Escuella in obedience, they then both turned and left the cave.

Dane and John sat outside the section to give the family space.

They didn't say a word to each other.

John had his head bowed and a tear was trickling down his eye.

Dane's mind wandered as he sat in silence beside him. He thought of his mother, so strong willed and in control. Able to comfort, control and organise her pack standing like a pure, strong, passionate being next to the monolithic, stone-like stature of her mate. She could look through any wolf and find their faults, weaknesses and concerns. It was the kind of experience that came from being a mother first and a leader later. Even as he watched her drift away beneath the dark water he felt as if she had chosen that time to die. She knew she was in complete control.

Dane couldn't hear what was being said inside the cave.

He didn't want to.

He kept silent.

The two wolves tried to get some sleep at the cave entrance.

Dane tossed and turned and tried to make himself comfortable.

He could sense two wolves approaching him from the inside of the cave.

Dane turned and John followed. Charlie and Alexis looked back at them. Alexis' eyes were filled with tears. Charlie just lay down on the ground, turning his body away from their sight.

John automatically stood up and went to Alexis to comfort her.

Dane finally spoke.

"I'm so sorry."

Alexis nodded at Dane, appreciating his condolence.

The wolves then set themselves down to sleep. John and Alexis slept together, John licking her and whispering kind words trying to comfort her. Still paralyzed with grief, Charlie lay in the far corner of the cave.

He could then see another wolf approach them. It was Jack. His shadow was a lot wider than the others.

He was carrying a wolf on his back.

As he walked away the young wolf wondered if he would take her to her favourite place one last time.

06

It was morning and the sun emerged and rose over the mountain range.

A fresh coat of snow had formed across the trees and rocks. Dead trees and broken branches lay deep within. The mountain range in the distance became completely submerged in the pure pallid snow. The whiteness surrounded the entire valley and everything remained colourless and pale.

The sun failed to break through dull, grey clouds. It became a bright spot indistinguishable in the large empty pale sky.

"What are you doing?"

She stopped and turned to her sister.

"Scratching my neck. I don't know what it is."

"Your collar?"

"Yes."

"You've been doing that for a while now."

"Your point?"

"I just think it's strange."

"What is?"

"That you don't actually scratch your neck, just the collar."

She fell silent.

"It's worrying is what it is."

"Oh, shut up."

Just then they heard a grunt come from the distance. It signalled them to approach his position.

Her sister up and went immediately. She watched her run with great swiftness towards her master.

She waited for a moment appreciating her time alone. She saw a large tree over in the distance. She walked over to it and sniffed at it, observing it for a while. The tree was enormous with so many branches covered in white snow. Some snow fell off a couple of the branches as they swayed in the cold wind. The snow landed on her nose and she shook her head to get it off. She loved the way the tree swayed in the wind knowing the tree was just as alive as she was.

She then stood up and trotted over to the master.

Only recently she had found the collar intolerable. It was the way it gripped her neck, as if it was going to strangle her at any moment.

As she approached the tall, statuesque hulk she slowed her pace. With his great hands he grabbed hold of her sister's neck, drew her close and thread rope through her collar.

When she got closer he turned and looked down at her with an uninterested, scornful expression on his face. He reached out and yanked her close and thread rope through her collar. As he did so he spoke down to her in a critical, patronising, mocking tone presumably for her delay in responding to him. She stood still and unresponsive.

When he finished with his other hand he made a circular shape with his thumb and middle finger. A cigarette caught between the fingers with the bright orange rim alight.

He flicked the cigarette at her snout.

She arched and whimpered as the cigarette butt burnt her flesh squeezing her eyes shut in pain.

He then took a couple of paces back and kicked her in the abdomen. She wretched and groaned and the hulk yanked on the rope pulling her towards him. She frantically tried to keep her composure and keep close to him and her sister. The sting of the cigarette temporary blinded her but she followed the sounds of the master's heavy boots crunching the snow.

Her sister softly spoke, "You should have listened to him the first time."

She kept her head and body straight and strong staring daggers at the master while his massive back was turned and her sister wasn't looking over at her.

Hurt was his weapon but her silence and indifference would be her defence.

Dane felt something nudging at his side.

The young wolf slowly opened his eyes. The bright morning sunlight blinded him as he looked out the mouth of the cave.

As his vision cleared he could see that it was John who had woken him up. Alexis and Charlie were waiting outside of the cave. Jack was also there. He was sitting down looking into the forest away from the cave.

"Morning."

"Morning. What's going on?"

"Jack wants to speak to you."

Dane drowsily answered "Uh, OK."

He stood up. When he stood the stiffness and pain in his legs that once gripped them was almost gone.

He walked over to Jack.

Jack stood like an ominous figure sitting down, his back straight and staring forward into the forest without a sound.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

Jack replied without moving his body to look at him "How well are you?"

"I'm going to try and run today."

Jack then turned and got up to look at Dane. His face was straight and unresponsive.

"We're going out hunting, me and you. We will do it late this afternoon. I'm not giving you any more time."

"I'll be waiting for you."

"You better be, son."

Jack turned to the other wolves and motioned them to follow him. His son and daughter now looked worried. John gave Dane a quick glance and hung his head as he followed Jack.

Dane stood in stone cold silence staring at the pack as they faded through the wooden pillars.

Dane got to work.

He walked around his path for a while just to get used to walking. He could feel the pain and stiffness dissolving away with each step.

Like his time at the stream he was careful and he knew that the pain was going to creep back into his legs but he knew it was up to him to keep running and in the end he would get rid of it.

Lining himself up, he got ready to run across the large space outside the cave entrance before the forest started.

He was just going to have to go for it.

The young wolf started to run.

He ran across the large area. He could feel the pain creeping back into his legs as he expected but he fought through it.

He started going faster and faster.

He smirked as he realised that he was beating his own pain. As he dashed the pain and stiffness in his joints had disappeared almost completely.

Confident in his abilities, he decided to run in amongst the trees. He jumped around avoiding obstacles like stray tree branches, roots and large stones.

He ran towards the lake and dashed across the entire circumference of the oval-shaped pool. The beautiful view of the valley rushed past his eyes.

When he returned to the cave entrance he pushed his legs to pounce on invisible prey. He lifted himself high off the ground, raised his paws to strike and opened his jaws ready to bite. He landed hard on the soft snowy ground, biting down and slashing with his paws.

He stood up and stretched his hind legs. There was no pain anymore as he moved the joints.

The young wolf needed to be sure so he repeated the routine a few times to get it perfectly right.

Dane could see the pack approaching in the late afternoon. Alexis and Charlie had a fox in their mouths. John had a deer over his back.

The young wolf couldn't help but wag his tail in excitement.

He ran up to them, he slowed down and trotted towards them, looking straight into Jack's eyes.

"Are we going out, then?"

Jack slyly smiled at him "Oh- ho, now we're talking. The rest of you wait at the cave."

As Dane and Jack turned to leave, Alexis and Charlie nodded at him to wish him luck.

John spoke quietly "Good luck."

He nodded in appreciation. The two wolves turned and went on the path towards the plain.

They hadn't said a word to each other. Dane was too focused on what he had to do. Jack was too angry and irritated with the stray wolf to speak to him.

They almost had a silent connection and understanding of each other. The young wolf was confident in his ability to succeed but he knew that Jack was hard for a reason. Despite the way Jack was disgusted with Dane as a stray wolf integrating himself in his pack, he respected his enthusiasm and defiance.

The two wolves stood on a tall hill overlooking the plain. Several deer stood grazing in the centre.

Jack broke the silence, "Right, you smart arse, let's see what you can do. You are going to go after that deer herd. I'll be at the back and give you some support but I will not be touching or coming close to that deer. That's your job. Go whenever you're ready. Don't wait around too much though. Every moment you spend waiting up here will bring me one step closer to getting you the fuck out of my pack. So, just be-"

Dane looked Jack straight in the face until their faces almost touched.

"I'm going after them now."

As the words left his mouth the young wolf started running down the side of the hill towards the deer herd.

He moved at an incredible pace.

Closer and closer he approached the herd of deer.

The deer heard him coming and started to move in fear.

The young wolf darted forward and managed to catch up to the deer instantly, looking for a straggler from the herd.

The herd were running for their lives. He strafed from side to side trying to find a straggler, barking a couple of times to scare one of them off and split them from the herd.

Suddenly one deer sided off on another path. He darted forward and chased the deer through the broken trees and rugged snowy mounds. His time strafing through the trees at the cave had really done well for him.

Dane was now really close to the straggler and he pushed his legs as fast as he could.

He was so close that he could almost feel the deer's thin fur.

The young wolf leapt on the deer with all his strength.

He caught the deer and bit and clawed into its body. Biting into the deer's throat, he tried to finish it off quickly. The deer squirmed around trying to free itself.

He bit down hard into the deer's neck and wretched and swerved his body trying to rip its throat. As he tugged and wrestled with the deer it became more and more groggy. Its thin legs drooped and sagged under the immense pain.

Dane retracted and dug deep into the deer's throat. As the skin and fur ripped he pulled hard.

His body fell back as a gush of dark red blood sprayed over his body.

The deer collapsed to the ground and stopped squirming for a moment.

He bit down as hard as he could as the creature lay on the frozen ground. The deer squealed and went limp.

Jack was standing just beside the deer corpse. He stared at it for a long time. Dane panted and wheezed waiting for him to say something.

The old wolf sighed, irritated.

"You're in, killer."

Dane had offered to carry the deer back to the cave. Jack accepted saying that it was about time he had done something for the pack.

When they reached the top of the hill they started the hunt from Jack spoke.

"Stop here for a minute. Put the deer down."

Dane did as he was told obeying his new pack leader.

"I want you to know something, lad. Last night was hard on everyone. I looked at her lying there and it just got to me. Really got to me. So I've decided to step down as alpha wolf. Alexis and John will take Escuella's place and mine. I cannot go on leading the pack at my age."

"Wow. How are you feeling about that, sir?"

"How do you think I'm feeling? When you get to my age you'll understand there are certain things you can't control anymore. I can't do this anymore, son. I am an old wolf. It is about time new wolves took over and run the pack. It's the best thing for you young ones, I guess."

Dane nodded.

"As a wolf in this pack you will have to follow John and Alexis' rules from now on. I was told you used to be in a pack. A lenient one I must admit, but a wolf pack nonetheless. We have a system in this pack. We hunt every day as a pack. We eat together as a pack. On occasion we might go out and howl at the moon if it is a good day. Today will now be a more than appropriate time for us to howl tonight. As a member of the pack you're going to join us."

Dane nodded, taking in Jack's instructions and rules.

"I will, sir."

"Why do you keep doing that?"

"What?"

"You keep calling me sir. You don't need to. I've always hated that and besides I'm no longer your leader."

"It might not be my place to say sir but I think the fact this pack is still together and organised for this long certainly deserves respect."

Jack stared at the young wolf for a moment trying to figure him out. The old wolf stood with a motionless face of stone wearing the scars of an old ancient world where battles were fought with razor sharp teeth, fierceness and seclusion. He looked at this strange young wolf and nodded in appreciation of his words.

The young wolf lifted the deer onto his back and they set off back to the cave. Neither wolf said a word to each other.

The sky had gotten cloudy and turned grey. The sun that shone through the clouds during the day had faded away.

The three wolves looked in anticipation to see if Dane had succeeded. The young wolf couldn't help but wag his tail and the three young wolves wagged their tails even before he did knowing that if he had failed he wouldn't have come back.

The young wolves approached them. Dane went inside the cave and laid the dead deer down beside the other pieces of prey at the side of the cave. Alexis turned to her father

"How was he?"

Jack hesitated and answered "Exceptional."

"Really?"

"Great hunter he is, fast and ferocious. Real all-rounder. But now I have to say something important to you and John."

Alexis and John turned to the old wolf.

"As of right now the pack's yours. You two are the new alpha pair."

Alexis and John looked bewildered. John stood frozen still. Charlie smirked a little. Alexis approached her father

"Dad, thank you. Why are you doing this now?"

"I can't keep this up, dear. Last night just proved I'm getting too old for leading. I have to do what's right for the pack. You young ones need to be given a chance."

She came up close to her father and nudged his side in appreciation. John was finally able to get his words out.

"Thank you, Jack."

"Don't worry about it, lad."

John smiled at him but Jack didn't return the favour. Instead he walked on into the cave.

Charlie spoke, "So what do the two alpha wolves want us to do, then?"

The four wolves went inside the cave.

The sun was setting over the valley.

The wolves were already inside the cave eating from the carcasses of the two deer and the two foxes. The mood was good. Jack was continually telling John and Alexis of their duties as the alpha wolves.

The alpha wolves had to constantly look out for the other wolves in the pack. They must always know where they are.

They must always lead every hunt for animals that travel in herds like moose or deer.

They must be constantly aware of the environment the pack have made their home.

They must always provide for their pack any way they can. They are the leaders. Whatever they say goes without question.

Jack explained these rules as if they were some sort of code or mantra.

The pack wolves would all go to the lake and howl together. It would be the last time the wolves would howl with Jack still being the leader. Tomorrow Alexis and John were to be given full control of the pack and Jack would supervise them for a while so they would be ready to lead the pack themselves.

After the wolves had finished their meals they all set off towards the lake.

Jack led the wolves towards the lake. He walked slowly and cautiously, stopping every now and again to gaze into the vast starry night sky murmuring something inaudible. The pack stopped as well, silent as they waited for their leader. Every time he started walking again he hung his head low in defeat.

The wolves would all gather in some spot where they could get a good view of the moon, then the alpha wolves would howl and when they howled the rest of the pack knew they could join in with them. It created a sense of unity, all the wolves would howl with the others. It was a moment of bliss, of peace and knowing that the wolves could all depend on each other for support or help. In that moment the wolves in the pack were a whole, they all connected no matter what they thought about each other.

Dane thought about his old pack for a moment. He wondered what they would have thought of him giving himself over to these unfamiliar, unknown wolves. He imagined them feeling disappointed and betrayed.

His mother was right. That pack was nothing.

When the pack arrived at the lake they could see that the moon was shining brightly amongst a starry sky. Some of the wolves took a drink from the ice-cold lake.

The wolves then turned towards a spot next to the open space where they could see a view of the entire valley.

In the distance, hidden away from sight under an array of thick branches and bushes lay the body of a wolf.

"She's of the earth now."

The pack gathered and Jack motioned Alexis and John to go forward and howl to the moon first. The alpha pair always howled first.

The two wolves wanted Jack to start but he continually refused adamant he was to step aside completely.

The two young wolves went forward. Jack, Dane and Charlie stood behind them. The two wolves looked nervous but they started howling perfectly nonetheless. As soon as the two new alpha wolves had started howling the other three wolves howled with them.

They all created a beautiful harmony together. The emotion put into the howling made it real. The wolves were all in harmony with each other.

The moment passed and the wolves now all stood and watched the moon together as a pack. Dane tilted his head back, took in the cool night air and stared at the bright moon.

She woke with a start as sharp teeth dug into her back.

Her body jolted and staggered trying to get a sense of what was going on, snapping at the animal that clung to her.

Her sister retracted, still growling baring her jagged teeth.

She stood still, a small growl built inside her throat but she learned not to rise to it.

Inside the metal cage, the two sisters once gazed at each other with a sense of sibling camaraderie but now all that was left in her sister's eyes was fury and bitter envy.

Her sister stalked her with a predatory glance and she met her stare but did not return any feelings of anger but of sternness. What drove her sister mad was in knowing she couldn't hurt her. She could scratch her, slash her, grab her throat, gnaw at her leg, bash her against the wall, pounce on her, pierce her back with her teeth but nothing would faze her. It left her sister wondering if she did this out of some twisted, pathetic form of love or pure hatred to make her suffer more.

All the while they both knew he was there beside the metal cage watching them. She didn't even have to know he was there to know why her sister attacked her.

Her sister growled and lunged forward trying to bite at her again. She dodged the attack and paced around the metal cage staring motionless at her. Her sister took this for a taunt and charged at her again. Still she missed.

The pair kept on hunting each other in their own unique way for a while. The master looked on and observed like a war-torn statue standing amongst a new war playing out before it.

He finally unlocked the cage door and brought her sister out. Her sister was genuinely upset as she left and hung her head in failure. She gave her the satisfaction of getting a couple of bites or slashes into her to give her a sense of accomplishment and calm her down but either way it only added to her vanity when he came out of the house and watched them in their power struggle. To her there was no power struggle, only the one her sister devised in her jaded mind.

Her sister jumped up to him as if she was trying to give him a loving embrace. He grunted at her to get off him and he pushed her off. She had done this gesture many times, most of the time he would pet her once or twice and then push her off. She herself never tried to repeat the gesture, he waited for him to do what he wanted with her and then she would just follow him, nothing more.

Her sister peeked into the metal cage and said nonchalantly "See you later, Jen."

Jen sighed, shook her head and lay on the ground.

"See you soon, Jodie."

She watched her sister and the master get into the large metal vehicle. He then did something in the vehicle that made a loud sound that caught her off guard. She jumped up as he set off the loud noise from the vehicle.

She then watched his family walk out. One was just the same size as him, she was just as old as he was with golden hair. Another two came out. One was a thin young girl with sleek black hair with some covering half of her face. Her hair was so perfectly straight downwards. She was toying with some sort of metal stone, distracted and motionless. The last to come out was the teenage boy. He had short brown hair and was quite burly unlike his thin sister. He had something over his back, a large long thin part shooting up his back and a shorter, wider circular-looking base at his lower back. She had seen him with a similar shape before. He would pluck at several wires that ran along the thin part all the way down to the large circular base. He made awful noises with it. He too was on one of those metal pebbles as well. The four humans sat down together in the metal vehicle. It was as if none of them had even acknowledged each other's existence. A few started grunting and the teenage girl started grunting loudly. The man started grunting loudly back as they all drove off.

The young husky was left alone staring out into the vast blackness of the forest beyond. Dark spires surrounded her beyond the mesh of metal wiring. She laid her head down between her long paws and felt the prick of coldness under her jaw. Soft tiny spots of snow fluttered and whirled through the night sky. Her body remained motionless as the flakes seeped into her pure white coat.

She eventually walked to her wooden kennel to get out of the snow but not before she bit down hard on her steel water bowl, thrashed her body and smashed it against the hard wood. She could taste the blood from the side of her mouth where the sharp steel of the bowl had pierced. The husky then whimpered loudly in the dark of the kennel.

"Wake up. Come on I want to show you something."

"Can it not wait until morning?"

"No, it can't."

Dane slowly got up. Charlie's tail was wagging. He looked around him and he could see all the other wolves fast asleep. John and Alexis were asleep beside each other. Jack slept to the back of the cave just outside the split-off section.

"I only want to show you this. Alexis and John would flip out if they saw what I've found. Jack would kill me if I even attempted to wake him up for something that wasn't an emergency. He'd break my neck."

The young wolf was curious. He and Charlie walked slowly and quietly away from the cave and headed towards the path where the dark forest lay.

"What is this thing you want to show me?"

"I can't tell you what it is yet. It would ruin the surprise."

"Is this a good thing or a bad thing you want to show me?"

Charlie thought about it for a moment.

"It's an interesting thing. When you see it you'll understand. It's not that far."

The two wolves walked towards the lake and went down through the forest. They walked through countless trees. He could barely see the bright starry sky as they went deeper into the forest. The trees slowly became more faded and dark. Some of them formed arches opening into the deep blackness that lay beyond.

Over time Dane was starting to doubt Charlie's claim that what he wanted to show him wasn't very far. The two of them were now really far from the cave now. Dane could not tell where they were as the darkness clouded much of his vision. He had to trust Charlie's word. If this discovery was dangerous and the two wolves had to escape from it, they would have no problem losing its trail and ending up back at the cave.

The young wolf felt guilty. He remembered he heard from Jack that one rule of being the alpha pair would be to always know where the pack was. Dane felt bad if Alexis and John were to wake up and find that they had failed in their new leadership on the very night they had started leading the pack. He thought about telling the young wolf that what he would have to show him would not be worth the trouble but then Charlie stopped.

"We're here. Be really quiet, keep your voice down and lay low."

Charlie crouched down and started crawling forward and Dane followed.

He sniffed the air. It was an odd unfamiliar scent and it didn't fit in with the rest of the forest.

He crawled with Charlie up a small hill that overlooked what he assumed was the young wolf's discovery.

Charlie was already near the edge of the small hill, still trying to keep himself as concealed as possible.

"Have a look."

Dane crawled up the small hill so that he could get a good look at Charlie's discovery.

He could see a large, manmade wooden shelter. It was an enormous shelter with a prism shaped roof that ran across the entire length of the shelter. He could see that the human living there had really tended to their shelter in the way it looked so polished. The shelter was full of metal and wooden decorations as well as a couple of large objects he assumed were used to give the humans something to sit on. There was another wooden shelter except this one was a lot less decorated than the other one. This shelter was slightly larger than the other shelter. It had much larger doors than that of the other shelter. He couldn't see what was inside. Further out from the shelters laid a large horseshoe-shaped open plain beyond a short wooden fence that encircled the small individual plain.

"We should leave, now."

"Wait, there is one more thing. Look over to the side of the shelter there."

Dane looked over and saw what looked like a large metal cage with no roof on top of it. Inside of the cage was two small wooden shelters that were tiny compared to the size of the decorated shelter. There were several other items around the small shelters. Then he saw something resting just in front of the small shelter closest to him. Dane couldn't make out the features in the dark but he knew what it was.

It was a dog.

"Poor thing."

Charlie added, "I know. Breaks your heart doesn't it?"

This dog looked a lot like himself. She had a similar build and acted like any other wolf he had known.

Suddenly, she got up, sensing something. She sniffed the air and suddenly she was looking straight at the spot where Charlie and Dane were lying.

Charlie backtracked.

"We have to get out of here, she'll call the human."

Dane watched her closely as she slowly walked forward. She wasn't calling for her human master even though she was looking right at the two wolves.

She walked forward and now Dane could make her out. She wore white fur that didn't have a touch of colour to ruin its purity. Her bushy tail wagged with elation.

She put her paws up on the metal cage and didn't bark but instead she whimpered to them.

"She wants to see us."

Charlie turned to Dane shocked.

"You're fucking kidding me, right? You must know about dogs. You never trust a dog. What will happen if we go down and she decides to bark for her master? We just can't trust her."

"That's the only way she can call out to us without letting her human know we're out here."

"Do not even think about it."

"We should hear her out, at least."

"For Francis wolf listen to me. We. Can. Not. Trust. Her."

Dane stared daggers at Charlie and started moving down the small hill.

As Dane slowly trotted downhill he watched the white dog as she shuffled and wagged her tail in excitement. Her body stood tall and alert but fearful. His tail now started wagging. Now he was closer to her and he could pick up her strange unnatural scent. He continued crawling forward fascinated but apprehensive.

He could see the dog shying away from him, creeping back into the dark.

"Hi."

She stood silent watching the wolf carefully.

"You ever met a wolf before?"

"No."

"Have you ever seen one?"

"Yes."

He glanced over to the short man-made wooden barriers that circled the length of the horseshoe-shaped plain. Up close, the wood was incredibly smooth compared to the massive rough tree bark in the forest.

The young wolf stared into the animal's eyes sensing her fear.

"It's alright." He smirked "I don't bite."

"Really?" She smirked a little.

"Is there anyone else here right now?"

"No."

"Sure about that?"

"Yes."

The young wolf glared at her for a moment. The wind had disappeared and all the two animals could hear were the sounds of their own breaths forming small steam clouds as the hot air escaped their jaws.

"Why were you calling out?"

"What?"

"Why were you calling out to us on the hill?"

"How many are up there?"

"I'd prefer it if you were to answer my question. Please."

The white dog sighed and stared out into the distance beyond the man-made wooden shelters.

"I wasn't calling to you."

"You were."

She stopped for a moment and glared at him.

"I wasn't. I really wasn't."

"You were."

"I was curious, that's all."

"What's your name?"

"My name is-" she paused "-Kiera."

"Had to think about that there?"

"No."

"How long have you been here?"

"I've been here nearly three years of my life."

"And how old are you?"

"Over three years old."

"Who else stays here?"

"My master and his family stay here."

"Your master?"

"Yes. Basically I just follow him around and obey him."

"Like a leader?"

"Kind of. My sister stays here as well. Her name's Jodie."

"OK. Where is she?"

"She's gone out with the master and his family. They go out every week in some metal vehicle."

"Why aren't you with them?"

"Why do you think I called out to you?"

Her tail swung from side to side.

Dane's tail drifted from side to side.

The young dog pointed her snout upwards towards the long hill and dropped down again staring into the wolf's eyes.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Dane."

"Dane."

"So do you ever leave this cage here?"

"I go out with the master. He takes me out to walk around the place. I've never really seen the world outside this metal cage on my own."

"Do you like it here?"

She stopped for a moment.

"Are you alright?"

"No-one's ever asked me that."

"Well, do you?"

She paused and growled under her breath.

"I-I hate this place. Sometimes I wish this place would just be swallowed up and buried under the earth so no-one would find it."

"Why don't you leave?"

Kiera chuckled.

"I've thought about doing that so many times but my sister-"

"She would come with you, surely."

"She won't."

"Why?"

"Between sucking up to the master and attacking me for her own enjoyment I don't think she would take to the proposition too kindly. And then there's the master. I don't know what he would do if I left. He might try to track me down. It's not knowing what he's capable of that scares me."

"I'm sorry. It seems like a difficult situation."

She changed the subject.

"So I take it you're in a wolf pack, then? What's that like?"

"I've been in two wolf packs."

"How did that happen? If you don't mind me asking."

"My old pack was attacked by a group of mindless wolves. I had to find a new one."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I always thought a wolf pack was kind of like a family."

"No."

They stopped talking and Dane set himself down on the snowy ground. Kiera still stood in the darkness against the massive hard wooden human shelter. Dane lifted his head.

"In a pack we just help each other to survive, that's all."

"I understand."

Dane shook his head and walked closer to the metal cage. Kiera retracted a little. The young wolf continued forward. Kiera was now against the back steel wire mesh. When the back of her paw touched the cold steel she felt a slight shiver through her body. Still the young wolf kept continuing forward. She stared into the young wolf's black and gold pearl eyes and walked out of the darkness.

As she approached Dane stopped in his tracks. Her body was tall and well built and about the same size as himself. Her white coat was incredibly smooth and straight. She wore a few cuts and scrapes and a slight cut on her lip. He stared at her pure white coat that looked like freshly fallen snow covering the ground untouched by the paws, claws, feet and bodies of the creatures in the forest. Her eyes were like two beautiful blue moons, full of enchantment, solidarity and beauty.

"You're a wolf."

"What?"

"You're a wolf. You look exactly like one."

"Have you ever seen a dog before?"

"No. But-"

"Then I'm a dog."

"Between wolves a dog is just a derogatory term wolves call each other if they're really angry. A dog is a creature that obeys a human with no mind of its own completely devoid of any morality just mindless devotion. I see none of that in you. Don't ever call yourself that again."

The two animals stared at each other for a moment.

Suddenly she turned to look to the closed wooden gate on the opposite side of the large shelter.

"The humans will be back soon. You and your friend should go."

"Can I come back?"

"I don't want to cause you any trouble. What will your pack think?"

"I'll work it out. It's no problem."

"The humans leave every two or three nights like this. Sometimes my sister goes with them. I can call to you the same way I did tonight. I know it's a lot to ask of you."

"I'll be here."

Her tail whipped the air.

"Thank you."

Dane backed away from her and turned towards the hill.

The young wolf reached the top of the small hill and looked around for Charlie.

Charlie appeared from the outskirts of the forest anxious and irritated.

"What were you thinking?!"

"I was thinking I should help that poor creature out instead of just standing here."

"She knows what you look like now. She knows your scent. She'll be leading the human to the pack and they'll run us out or even kill us!"

"You listen to me, her name is Kiera. She told me she hates that place. I could see it in her eyes."

"From meeting her once?! How can you know?"

"How long have you been coming here?"

"Quite a few times, why?"

"How many times have you seen her by herself in that metal cage?"

"Almost every time. What's your point?"

"What does that tell you? She doesn't obey the human so it punishes her by leaving her behind. She isn't lying. The human can't trust her."

"We can't either."

"No, you can't but I can. I'm going to see her again in a couple of days."

"You're going back? Is there anything going on up there in that head of yours?"

"I guess not. I guess I'm an idiot for thinking I could give some hope to a poor unfortunate creature."

Charlie shook his head.

"Even if you try to help her, what would happen then? Would you help her escape? She wouldn't be accepted in the pack or worse she would have a change of heart and tell her human where we are. We don't know what that human has done to her. She is a dog. Nothing you do is going to change that."

"Think what you want. Let's just get out of here."

The two wolves set off back through the forest. As Dane walked back he gritted his sharp teeth and snarled under his breath.

"She's no fuckin' dog."
07

Over the next week countless grey, ashen clouds sprawled across the winter sky.

The animals of the forest were aware of the snowstorms that came in the frosty seasons. The animals could not prepare for such storms and they did whatever they could to survive in an unsettling and uncertain environment. The animals were unsure if it was going to be calm one moment or horrible the next. They just had to adapt to it. The animals looked to each other, their families, the animals that were unaware of just how much they were helping them to survive and continue their lives in their own unique ways. They didn't give up because they couldn't give up.

It was not their nature.

Dane had gone to see her on a regular basis every night.

Sometimes he got lucky and the humans were not around and he could see Kiera without having to worry about them. On most nights it was either the humans or her sister, Jodie she said her name was, stopping him from seeing her.

Kiera even watched for him coming down the hill to see her. Even if the humans were there in the shelter, Dane and Kiera still stared at each other between the small hill and the metal cage.

When he did get to see Kiera, they would both talk for hours about what life was like in the two wolf packs. She listened intently fascinated at the sense of unity and support the wolves had for each other. He told her everything, his old pack and how it had fallen apart, his meeting with Riley and the new pack and what they were like. He didn't ask about her life that much, afraid he would upset her. He tried though. She didn't have much to talk about other than the humans she obeyed. The younger humans would sometimes have time for her but lately they just ignored her, seeing her more as a hindrance than anything else. She talked of the abuse the master had put her through on a regular basis as he would continually kick her, beat her and encourage her sister to attack her. One time Kiera had just been kicked in the stomach before he went out with Jodie in the metal vehicle and drove off. He comforted her and sat beside her for a while behind the metal cage.

He built a deep hatred towards the cage. The metal mesh of conjoined wires mocked and angered him. His instincts told him to bite into it and destroy it. Every time he left her he felt more angry and agitated. He stared at the hard, heavy structure ruling over him and preventing him from helping the selfless animal held within. It ate away at him, driving him mad with rage. Several times after he'd seen her he had to find a small animal and kill it, enjoying the spoils of his kill as he did so. As he took the animal's life a wave of satisfaction cooled him down. More and more he left the small animal's uneaten corpse rotting in the winter night. Time passed and he was used to killing a small animal every time he left.

In the pack, Jack was teaching Alexis and John how to be efficient alpha wolves. Dane went with them on his first big hunt as an official member of the pack. They kept hunting the same deer herd until they finally left and a new deer herd came to the plain and replaced them. Dane went faster than both John and Alexis no matter how much they tried. He would go after the deer and pull it down to the ground, followed swiftly by Alexis and John together who would bite into the deer and kill it off. More and more Dane finished the deer off instantly and became more visceral as he ripped red bloody strands off the deer's body after it had died hypnotically entranced at the brutality he was causing. The pack wolves found themselves calming the young wolf down a few times.

Charlie kept himself to himself like he'd always done. He found himself at the back of every big hunt, barely getting in a bite before the three superior young wolves had already mauled the deer to death. His contributions to the pack had decreased and even small prey would be hard to come by for him. Jack barely acknowledged his existence and he kept out of the way of the two alpha wolves thinking it was none of his business to interfere in their training. He would drift off into the forest alone for a while to catch more prey. Very rarely did he come back with prey but every time he came back bitter and annoyed. When he and Dane looked at each other Charlie quickly turned away out of either shame or fear, Dane could never tell.

Dane kept close to the two new alpha wolves. Alexis and John appreciated his efforts, his power, his speed and his effectiveness. They could easily run the pack between the three of them.

Dane watched the two alpha wolves swerve and dash through the large wooden pillars. Their bodies thundered and tore through the deep snow meeting each other as they ran. Sometimes they would switch sides and maintain the same speed and formation. They danced around the forest effortlessly and in complete control. As the fresh snowfall came in from the ridgeline they still ran sensing each other's movements without looking at each other. As they reached wide-open plains they would slow down and explore. Upon catching each other's line of sight they approached and brushed their necks against the other almost instinctively.

One day after a big hunt they had just finished burying a large adult deer when Dane approached them.

"Big one today."

Alexis spoke, "Yep, definitely. Thanks for the help today."

"No problem."

John turned to him.

"Something wrong?"

"I need to talk to you two about something."

Alexis turned as well.

"A few weeks ago I went with Charlie to this place, a human farm."

"A human farm? Where?"

"Really far from here. Can't even see the ridgeline from there."

"Oh right. Charlie never said anything."

"I thought he would have at least said something."

John spoke, "Dane, the human farm."

"Yes, so I was with Charlie and we were looking around. We never saw any humans but there was this dog calling to us."

"Calling to you?"

"She just whimpered to us. If she barked she would have been trying to call the human."

"You approached her."

"Yes."

John sighed.

"Thank fuck Jack's out hunting. By this point he would have torn your heart out and showed it to you."

"What did this dog say?"

"Her name's Kiera."

"OK. What did Kiera say?"

"Said she stays with her sister there. She's stayed there all her life."

"So, does she like living with the human?"

"She lives in this small metal cage and gets upset talking about him. She would tear his arm off if she could."

"Is she lying?"

"She can't be. She's alone in the cage because of her disobedience and I've never seen her outside that cage."

"How many times have you gone to see her?"

"I'm getting to that. When I first met her she was desperate. She wanted to keep seeing me."

"Why?"

"Gives her some kind of hope, I guess."

"OK. Why are you telling us this now?"

"I figured you two should know."

The two alpha wolves looked to each other. Alexis spoke first.

"Dane, you have to realise how dangerous this is for us and the rest of the pack. We don't know much about dogs and we certainly don't know much about humans. That's why what I have to say to you next may be difficult for you to hear if you have built up a rapport with this Kiera. I'm asking you to break it off with her permanently."

Dane didn't react. He stared at Alexis.

John added, "We can't take a risk with her if she's tied to a human. We don't know what they're capable of and we don't know what'll happen if she's freed. Even if she wants to keep meeting you and keep her arrangement with you it won't be long until you're caught and when you're caught that then leads them to the pack. This cannot last, no matter what happens. It's going to end badly for someone."

The young wolf sat in silence.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what else I can say."

Dane finally spoke "No, you're right. I understand."

In the afternoon the bright blue sky shone above the bright golden light of the sun as it began to descend into the earth. Swirling clouds crawled across the sky and soft droplets of snow fell to the ground liquefying amongst the thick snow. The pack wandered forward seeking prey through the forest. It was silent apart from the brushing of leaves and branches in the cold winter wind and birds squawking and crowing in the sky. They gazed out amongst the hard oak tree columns watching and scanning for creatures to devour. Between the trees, a bright fragmented orb shone brightly its light welcoming and beautiful. Each wolf descended into the deep depths of the endless forest seeking their own glory.

As the day dragged on, the wolves went their separate ways trusting their own power and instincts to carry them forward.

Dane managed to catch a rabbit and a racoon. He had managed to kill two rabbits but one was left rotting in the frozen ground. Jack had managed to kill a rabbit but he was limping a little. Charlie came back with nothing.

"Didn't get anything?"

Charlie didn't look at his father.

"You deaf?"

"No."

"Then you answer me when I ask you a question."

"OK."

"What are you thinking?"

"About what?"

"Your sister. Seems to be doing alright, isn't she?"

"Yes, she is."

Jack looked down at the dead rabbit and then shifted his gaze to the frozen ground in front of his son. He lifted his gaze and stared at his son who briefly glanced at him and then he turned and walked off into the forest.

As soon as Charlie started walking Jack shifted his body and stared at the broad, massive ridgeline as if nothing had happened.

When Jack caught up with Dane and saw his spoils he lit up.

"Good stuff son. I'm sure they weren't too hard to catch."

"No sir."

"You're very efficient."

"Thank you."

"Do you know where the alpha wolves are?"

"They're off scouting the area."

"Scouting the area?"

"Scouting the area."

Jack chuckled.

"What is it?"

"Me and Escuella gave that exact excuse when we were out of sight of the elder wolves."

"When do you think they'll come back?"

"Well, when they do they won't be able to tell us much."

"Why?"

"Francis' wolf. Put it together, son."

Dane thought for a moment.

"Oh."

"There you go."

"We should change the subject."

"Please do."

"Where's Charlie?"

Jack went silent and stared out blankly.

"Jack?"

"What?"

"Where is he?"

He spoke softly "He's a wolf with no purpose."

The two wolves stood in silence for a while until Alexis and John showed up and they set out to the cave.

In the night, Alexis and Jack spoke at length and argued for a while in the split-off section of the cave. Charlie still hadn't returned and the pack had been out searching for him in the late afternoon. Alexis emerged from the section in tears with her head hung low as if in defeat. John comforted her. Dane asked

"Are you OK?"

"Dane, never become an alpha wolf."

When the wolves were fast asleep Dane looked at Alexis and John sleeping huddled close together and when he spoke to Kiera that same night he told her he would try to see her every night from now on.

She waited for him to appear over the small hill.

Every night he would be there. Even when the humans were in the farm, he would still be watching patiently.

She couldn't help but have concerns over their arrangement. Every time Dane came around she wondered how long they could have kept their meetings secret. The humans would be unforgiving if they found him. He told her that it would be dangerous for the wolves in his pack to know he was seeing her.

Kiera learned much from Dane about wolf packs and she loved the whole unity of the pack, the way they all depended on each other to survive. She also loved the way the wolves would all get together and howl at the moon regularly.

When she slept she dreamt of standing with Dane and the other wolves howling together as a single entity. She saw that future when she stared into his clear gold eyes like thunder.

Dane approached the top of the small hill.

He looked over at the metal cage and Kiera waiting for him. She stood up, wagging her tail. She put her paws on the metal wall and whimpered to him, telling him it was OK to come in.

Dane then moved quietly and swiftly towards the cage.

She had a beautiful, radiant smile.

"Hi Dane."

"Hi Kiera, how are you doing?"

"Much better now that you're here."

She looked at him curiously.

"Is something wrong?"

"Nothing you need to worry about."

"You can tell me."

"Well, this happened a week ago. We were out hunting as we usually do and by the end of the day one of our pack members had left."

Her smile faded.

"What? Who?"

"Charlie. Just left us."

"Why?"

"I honestly don't know. Jack said to Alexis and John that it was his choice to leave and we shouldn't worry about him anymore."

"He can't be serious. That's his son."

"He's proved himself a failure to the pack."

"Jack can't make that kind of decision anymore, can he? I thought you told me he stepped down as your leader."

"John and Alexis made the decision."

"I thought they were better than him."

"They're alpha wolves and one of their pack members abandoned the pack. We were looking for him for days. After a few days Alexis, John and I talked for a while about it."

"Where was Jack?"

"Alexis forced him to search for a day. But he's a wolf set in his ways. It was a miracle Alexis got him to search at all. So between the three of us we decided we had to let him go. He wanted nothing more to do with the pack so that's the way of it."

"I just can't believe you would let him go like that."

"He went by his own accord. He wasn't bringing back much prey and he'd just be on his own, never said a word. We always thought something was wrong but I never thought he would resort to this."

"Do you think it was jealousy?"

"Had to be. That's the only reason I can think of."

"I'm sorry, Dane."

"Thank you."

Her beautiful blue eyes shined in the starry night sky. Dane then approached her.

"So did you think about what I asked you last time?"

"Oh. I..."

"You're still not sure?"

"I don't know. What if the humans come back and they find I'm gone?"

"We won't be long. I can dig under the cage so that you can get through underneath it. After that I can just fill it back up."

She thought about it for a moment. She looked out at the endless forest beyond the farmland.

"Fuck it. Start digging."

"Will do."

Dane walked up close to the metal gate and they started digging to make a space for her to get through. The two of them threw the dirt to the side but not too far away. They would fill the hole up when they came back.

After they had made a hole big enough for her to climb through, she crouched down and stretched herself out of the metal cage. Her white coat had a few spots of dirt as she emerged. Dane walked to her side to help push her out from the cage. She shook herself to get some of the dirt off her coat.

She then gazed out at the night sky and walked around for a moment. She turned to the young wolf able to finally see him properly without the metal wire mesh obscuring her view. She then approached him and comfortingly slid her head against his neck. Her sleek, soft fur brushed up against him. She then backed away.

"What did you want to do?"

"I'll show you. Let's go."

Kiera was constantly exploring the vast natural landscape. She was surprisingly fast and agile for someone who had been locked away for so long. The young dog was full of energy and loved walking around the forest without something constantly calling her back.

They arrived at the top of the tall hill that overlooked the human farm.

The sharp, white mountain peaks stood behind all the snow-covered tall trees. There were many stars up in the night sky with the moon in the distance shining in the darkness. Shrouds of clouds stretched and scattered around the strong moonlight. There was no sound apart from the soft swirling wind and the slight brushes from the branches of the tall trees. The trees swayed in a hypnotic motion across the valley like concurrent ripples and waves in water. The two animals stood above the frozen world gazing at the way it moved and shifted, a home to many creatures little and large in different situations and moments in their small lives.

She was instantly taken aback by the view.

"The view isn't what I wanted you to come up here for."

Gazing out at the starry night sky, the young husky wolf hybrid seemed distant, fixated and mesmerised. The freedom of being outside the confines of the farm without her master excited her. Nothing would be able to penetrate that sense of wonder, not even his own words.

"Did you hear me?"

"Yeah."

There was a sense that he wasn't there.

"Kiera..."

Snapping out of her trance she seemed irritated.

"What is it?"

Dane approached her.

"Look."

She turned to look at the young wolf wearing a face of stone.

"I said the view isn't what I wanted you to come up here for."

"What did you want me to do?"

"I want you to howl with me just like we do in the pack."

"Really?"

"Yes."

She paused and then answered "I've never howled much in my life. I used to do it when I was alone but I've only done it a few times."

"You'll be alright. Just look at the moon."

She looked up and stared at the moon.

After a few moments, she howled. She had a beautiful howl, a soft note but full of passion. To Dane, it was just as good as any howl he had heard from any wolf. He joined in with her.

When they finished, she stared at the moon. Turning to the young wolf, a little tear trickled down her face.

Dane approached her and comfortingly nudged into her side and sat beside her. He sniffed at her fur. It was a wonderfully pure scent. She looked up into his eyes, licked the side of his face and soothed her head against his neck.

Dane and Kiera sat in front of the glorious view, staring at the night sky as they huddled beside each other.

The sun was shining on a beautiful winter morning.

It had been snowing frequently over several days but it started to calm down last night through to the morning.

Dane had slept peacefully.

After they'd spent a long time on the hill they decided to head back to the farm in case the humans came back.

When he slept, he dreamt of her standing in a white winter forest trotting through the trees and falling snow. The sound of soft bristling trees made the only sound. Her pure white figure blended with the frozen atmosphere amongst crystal and ice. Every step she took seemed so delicate like soft patters in the snow. The white fur brushed to the calm breeze of the wind. Her elegance flowed through the air like a mystical presence.

The pack arrived at the plain and the deer herd were waiting for them.

The deer stood scattered across the land with thin bodies and heads hung low biting and grinding the lush blades of grass. All shapes and sizes of deer gathered in the plain from the young to the powerful adult does and bucks. As the deer walked around feeding off the land notice was given to those with an unsure and uneasy deportment. Some may have visible injuries such as a slight limp or various scratches or slashes across the body. The weight and size of the deer mattered. An adult deer was risky but at the same time doable and the reward would be great. The younger deer would be easy prey but come at the risk of a vengeful parent. The older deer would make for plentiful meat but experience would sometimes outweigh the challenge.

The wolf pack scanned the plain their eyes glaring at the prey unsuspecting and oblivious.

The deer suddenly shifted their heads to the sky staring back towards the forest. A large, hulking creature emerged and shuffled its way onto the plain.

It walked with a slow, powerful stride as the snow and ice crumbled and meshed underneath its mighty hooves. The moose strode onto the plain with the other deer still staring at the titanic creature as if in reverence. It never looked at any creature and proceeded to bend its great neck and dip its piercing jagged crown antlers to the ground and feed off the grass.

The deer went back to grazing sensing no threat.

On the other side of the plain at the top of a small hill and out of sight the wolf pack stared at the great creature.

"What do you think?" John said.

Alexis was silent.

"It's your choice." Dane added.

Jack grunted and spoke, "What makes you think we can take that down? We're a four wolf pack and it would take us all day to even stagger it."

"I never thought I'd hear you say we shouldn't take something down. We were practically begging you to stop, you were obsessed with it."

"This is different, John. We'd waste the whole day going after this one piece of meat. If we don't kill it what'll we do for food today?"

"Where's your spirit Jack? Come on."

"These are the kinds of decisions you have to make as an alpha wolf. I'm not saying anything else."

Alexis glanced at her father with eyes vengeful and scornful.

She turned back to the plain.

"We're going for it today."

The three wolves turned to her. Jack shook his head.

"Alexis-"

"Shut up! You aren't the alpha wolf anymore so unless I ask you keep your mouth shut!"

Dane and John backed away. Jack stared straight forward.

"You can't let your emotions cloud your judgement. Your brother left because he wanted to leave."

"This isn't about him."

"Yes it is. Don't say it isn't."

"You gave me and John the responsibility of running this pack and we're grateful for it. Charlie left because of you. You've put it in his head he's a complete failure. Yes he's not as skilled a hunter as me or John or Dane but he was trying. All those wolves we got rid of in the past because they weren't skilled enough I understand but he was your son."

He rose and bellowed "You don't think I care about my son?! Don't ever say that to me Alexis!"

Alexis stared straight into her father's scornful, authoritative eyes and didn't move.

"It's what I do. I think like a leader. I always have and it has never steered me wrong. It never steered any of you wrong."

"But you're not a leader anymore. I want the wolf who would look that big bastard right in the eye and spend days working out a strategy to take it down. He never killed it though but he tried and his wolf pack waited for one day when they could take that thing down. He ignored everything. He even avoided catching prey for himself so his mate and his daughter would come along every now and again and give him a piece of meat but he always looked at it almost as if he was repulsed by it. His family knew it was never that moose meat so he didn't care. I want that wolf. John and I are the leaders now and I'm telling you we're going after that thing today and if we mess up we'll try tomorrow and if we can't do it tomorrow we'll try the next day. You know we can take this thing down."

Jack stood still for a moment staring at his strong daughter. Dane and John approached and Alexis turned to them.

"Let's get ready."

The moose wandered and drifted through the plain.

It strode and crushed the grass underneath its mighty hooves burying the lush green blades into the earth and clamped its teeth to the blades breaking through the frost.

The creatures surrounding it stood some fearful, some passive but it never mattered much to the giant creature. These beings were no different to the trees and rocks and earth. They were physical things that occupied the same world it did except they moved and fed off the same land.

The creatures feeding off the same plain suddenly stood still and a moment later there was a quick flurry of light trampling hooves disappearing into the distance.

The moose continued grazing and all that could be heard in the plain was the sound of bristling trees in the cold winter wind.

Still the moose never looked up.

It could sense new creatures coming down from the outskirts of the plain. There were several soft patters in the snow. The creatures stopped close to the great beast's position. Footsteps circled it and neither of them fed off the land as they stood still bodies directly facing the moose.

It ignored them.

Suddenly one of the creatures barked.

The great creature raised its head slowly like a moving monument. It shifted its head towards the creature making the sound.

A young wolf stood there baring its piercing teeth. It wore several scars along the side of its body and golden eyes staring straight into its massive black pearl eyes.

All around the plain the other three wolves started growling and baring their teeth. The moose never looked at them.

The great beast hung its heavy head and continued feeding off the land.

It sensed four sets of paws thundering towards it.

The wolf pack leaped at the great moose.

They bit, slashed, cut, clawed and charged at the creature but it only staggered a little. Sensing an attack, the beast lifted its head, snorted hot steam through its thick nostrils and watched the wolf pack continually run towards it gnawing and slashing at its thick scar-ridden body.

Every slash felt painless, mere physical objects bounding against an unstoppable force.

Dane delivered frequent slashes to the beast, backing away every so often to regain his energy and avoid any incoming attacks. The moose however barely attacked them standing still and occasionally staggering a little with every attack. It felt like trying to attack a massive, living boulder.

The massive creature stared down at them with its big black pearl eyes almost as if was mocking them.

The cold morning frost had dissolved away upon the arrival of the golden mid-afternoon sun.

The wolf pack kept up the pressure. Their ferocity caused heavy scars and slashes across the great beast's sides, neck and belly.

It still stared at them motionlessly.

Dane backed away from the moose and scanned the creature. John, Alexis and Jack continually snapped and gnawed at the creature's thick flesh and yet still it staggered the same it had done when they started. Fatigue had set in as the wolves were slowly beginning to slow their attacks. Jack flailed his head in frustration and kept attacking. John and Alexis kept to a system of attacking the creature and retracting to save their energy.

The moose was now looking straight at Dane even as the wolf pack dived into its heavy flesh.

Dane's claws curled and pierced deep into the frozen ground. He growled and snapped baring his sharp teeth and jaw wide saliva dripping from the side of his mouth. His body shook and trembled in feral rage.

He bolted straight at the moose, aiming for its great neck. He leaped and dug his teeth deep into the moose's neck. The moose shook trying to get rid of the wolf but he held on. Dane's teeth dug deeper into the thick flesh of the creature's neck.

The moose suddenly felt threatened. It flailed its huge head at the wolf pack bashing and piercing them with its long sharp antlers. It managed to knock three wolves back but one hung onto its neck digging deeper as time went on.

It was now late in the afternoon.

Dane still hung on to the moose's neck.

The moose was getting desperate. It furiously flailed its head and dragged the young wolf slamming and beating him against the cold hard ground. Still Dane held onto its neck with his teeth like a vice grip.

It seemed as if the moose was starting to lose its footing. The wolf pack was now managing to avoid its blows and attack its body.

Suddenly the moose lunged forward hanging its head. Dane landed on the ground and then he dug his claws deep into the snow and flailed his head with the great moose's neck still firmly in his jaws.

Skin was being ripped and stretched as Dane pulled with great vigour.

The pack jumped on the back of the great moose gnawing and slashing whilst trying to avoid the sharp antlers.

Dane continued pulling as the moose snorted hot steam and continued staring at him blankly.

Finally, skin ripped from the great creature's neck and it held on by mere thin fleshy tendrils.

With one last jerk Dane fell back and blood spouted from the great creature's neck.

The moose went berserk. The pack wolves were thrown back and the giant creature charged aimlessly and unleashed its fury at anything and everything.

The wolves kept out of its way, avoiding its every attack.

When the moose started limping and falling to the ground Dane thundered through and ripped through the flesh in its neck. The force of Dane's charge sent the moose collapsing to the frozen ground.

Every bite and slash felt as ferocious as the next. The young wolf delved deep into the flesh and blood of the giant creature. He ripped through meat and bone and the moose lay down motionless with eyes staring blankly into the distance.

Even when the moose lay there dead and defeated the young wolf kept flailing his head chomping at the skin almost as if he was possessed by violence.

The pack wolves ran towards him and tried to coax him down but he wouldn't stop ripping the flesh.

Alexis and John rushed at him and pushed him off.

"It's done! Calm down!"

Dane rushed at the corpse again and the alpha wolves blocked his path. The young wolf tried to force himself through but they managed to back him off.

"Stop it! It's over! It's dead!"

Dane thrashed his head, eyes full of rage and stood still for a moment.

He turned and saw the warm, familiar faces of the wolf pack staring back at him.

The four pack wolves gathered around the gigantic mutilated moose.

"Well, that's our meal tonight. We sure as fuck earned it." Alexis panted.

The pack wolves took turns carrying the great beast back to the cave. They had a system where three wolves would haul the moose and one wolf would keep to the side protecting their prize. The wolves would frequently change positions until they arrived at the cave.

The pack didn't usually go straight back to the cave to drop a large animal off but they couldn't scent-roll the ground and bury the animal for later. The vast amount of moose meat would keep them going for days.

As the wolves shuffled through the fading golden sunlight of the afternoon they couldn't help but smirk and wag their tails in triumph. A great tall beast more than three times their size lay decimated with skin ripped and torn bobbing its lifeless form with every step the pack wolves made. When it came to Jack's turn to keep a lookout Alexis had to call him several times as he kept staring at the enormous creature as if in reverence.

They finally arrived back at the cave. The wolves shuffled and hauled the carcass deep into the darkness of the cave.

John walked up to Dane.

The young wolf stood with his back to him watching the massive creature in the darkness watching the vacant black pearl eyes stare back at him.

"Dane? You alright?"

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

Dane didn't answer.

"Are you sure?"

The young wolf nodded slowly.

"OK."

John didn't enquire further and they entered the cave.

It had taken a long time for the wolves to devour the giant beast.

The wolves had been biting, tearing and ripping into the meat. As they ate into the beast they embraced the moment and their achievement. No wolf spoke a word

The sunlight that once stretched and beamed through the low cave faded away. The light sunk between the vast mountain range and the earth consumed it to make way for the coming darkness that would be erased in time for the coming morning. Nature was a circle of life and death where the strongest and most capable survived and the weak faded away. The pack wolves continued ripping apart the meat of the strongest creature in the valley content and unafraid, powerful and confident.

As the weeks progressed, the wolf pack continued hunting and kept control of their territory. They repeatedly visited the plain and took down the deer herd one by one confident in their abilities. When the pack wolves watched the tall thin creatures graze off the land their thoughts were always on the excitement of the chase and the thrill of the kill. They would pant and pace around in excitement at the very thought of it. After each death the feeling was exactly the same. There would always be one wolf in the pack who criticised the strength and power of the deer they'd killed believing there was one stronger. Initially the wolves hesitated and disagreed with the notion but over time they agreed unanimously and instantly. The pack had taken to hunting two deer at once, then three. The wolves were satisfied once again.

A month had passed since the death of the giant moose. Fresh flurries of snow had buried the smooth green blades of grass devolving and shrinking back into the earth. On the surface a cold wind blew in from the vast mountain range and moved with dust circling and rolling across the thickness of the frost.

By the time the wolves returned to the plain and discovered the deer herd had gone elsewhere they almost didn't want to follow them. The deer and the meat became a meaningless commodity, something that was required for survival but the excitement in taking down one of the fast creatures diminished to nothing.

They decided at one point they were going to move to a new area. The deer were long gone and they didn't follow them.

The wolves continued hunting small animals and the odd lone moose that stumbled into the endless sprawling forest engulfing their territory. In the thickness of the ever-deepening snow the wolves fought their way through. When they ran the snow was too thick and fragile to walk normally and their paws would fall straight through almost reaching their bellies.

Anger and frustration set in. In no one was this more apparent than Alexis. She would regularly become very irritated as the elements pulled her back from her prey. John had to sometimes catch prey for her. When he did this Alexis would stare daggers at him and look about ready to growl and attack him. John, Jack and Dane understood her situation but every time they tried to talk to her about it she would snap and even growl at them. She kept out of the way of the other pack members petrified of showing any kind of vulnerability. As her father, Jack told John to keep with her at all times. He talked to him of the time he became a father. Jack and Dane collaborated and in a meeting with John they told him to stay with her constantly. Alexis hated this and at times she snapped, barked and growled at her mate giving him cold, hard stares filled with loathing and accusation. She even tried to bite at him a few times. And yet John persisted taking all the slashes, bites and anger as if they were nothing, never even raising his voice at her. The young she-wolf could still hunt but John was always there, watching her. When she bit into him he sided his body into her and spoke calm words in her ear and sometimes she let go but most of the time she didn't expecting him to wince or back away in pain but he never exposed anything to her.

The days passed much slower than when the snow was at lower levels. The pack wolves felt time slow down and the valley seemed empty and lifeless. Snow had engulfed the entire sea of tall trees. The thin, weak branches stood tall unaffected by the fallen snow while the thick, stronger trees wore large clumps of snow between their heavy branches. Animals that had once roamed the land making the best of the winter weather had disappeared as the strong blizzards distorted their features and limited their visions.

Dane walked back and forth to Kiera and kept her company through the long winter nights. When she asked him to come closer he hesitated fearing he would come close to touching the cold, hard steel of the metal cage. She would curiously watch him. There were long silences and they would stare out at the natural world and the sky above passing the time. The time passed quickly. Most of the time Dane approached the cage and Kiera did likewise but when Dane felt her warm breath on his neck he retracted and turned his body, growling under his breath.

The sunlight rose and faded day by day as if nothing changed. The pack wolves walked like lost pilgrims in the thick blizzard storms. At night upon returning with less and less prey they shuffled and stumbled like shadowed creatures angry and feeling as though they had been betrayed, by whom they couldn't tell.

They lost themselves in the vast, infinite wilderness.

One day in the late fading afternoon light they heard a sound coming from the forest. It was a bristling sound. A creature was moving through the earth and broken tree bark.

The wolves all turned their bodies to the cave entrance and sought out the source.

A very old grey wolf with a large stature emerged.

Jack's tail swayed and he walked over to the wolf.

"Giles."

This was Giles. His noble stature resembled that of a great iron monument with the scars and tall, strong deportment that came with years of experience. His body stood tall with a face well worn and yet still joyous.

"Jack. How are you keeping?"

"Not bad, old boy. How's tricks?"

"What are you calling me an old boy for? Look who's talking."

"Oh, you're older than me Giles."

The old wolf turned to Alexis and John.

"Don't mind your pop he's a little sensitive about these things."

"Sensitive, aye?"

Giles chuckled.

"So how've you been keeping?"

"Still have my strength left in me, that's all that matters. Where is your lovely mate?"

"Well, I have bad news."

Giles' smile faded away.

"Oh no."

"Escuella passed away about a week ago."

"Oh Jack I'm so sorry. My condolences."

"Thank you. She had a good life, that old wolf."

"Do you mind if I ask how did she-"

"She passed peacefully in the cave with her family around her."

"That's good."

Jack sighed, "It was just old age that got to her in the end."

"As it does to us all."

"Not to you though. You're just an overgrown jolly pup no matter what age you are."

"Too right lad. What's the use of living if you can't enjoy it?"

"After she passed I set her down at the lake and I just sat there for a while. I didn't get any sleep. I was imaging where she was, you know? That must've been the longest night of my life."

"How are you now?"

"I don't think it's sank in yet. But I'm getting too old for this game. I stepped down as alpha wolf the day after she died. Alexis and John are the new alpha wolves now."

The old wolf's smile returned "Really?"

He approached Alexis and John.

"You two must be proud then, eh? Being an alpha wolf is a lot of hard work isn't it?"

The two wolves nodded.

"Oh that is fantastic, giving the young 'uns a chance, eh? That's really good of you. Sometimes I think I should do the same thing but the wolves in my pack clearly want me to keep going as alpha wolf. I can train a couple of wolves up to be ready for the task but afterwards they still want me to lead them." He chuckled.

He looked at Dane.

"Oh, who are you, lad? I've never seen you before."

"I'm Dane."

"Nice to meet you, young wolf."

Jack added, "Alexis and Charlie found him a week ago. He just looked about ready to bite the dust when they brought him in. You should see the way this wolf hunts, Giles. He has some of the best hunting skills I've ever seen."

"Wow, you must have been doing something right to impress this old fool."

Dane nodded.

"Yes, sir."

"Good stuff. Where's Charlie, then?"

Alexis, John and Dane looked to each other.

Jack spoke up.

"He's gone."

"Gone where?"

"We don't know. We looked for days." Alexis added.

Giles shifted his great snout to Jack and stared at him for a moment. His smile had gone.

The old wolf then turned back to the younger wolves. He sighed and shook his head.

"I'm sorry. I've had a few wolves in my pack do the same thing. Terrible business. You never know what these young ones are thinking sometimes."

The wolves nodded their heads appreciating his sentiment. Giles perked his head up.

"Anyway Jack, if it's OK with you-" Giles then realised his mistake, he laughed and said "Sorry, Alexis and John, if it's OK with you could I have a talk with Dane here?"

Alexis answered "By all means."

Giles nodded "Thank you, alpha wolves." He winked at her and John. The old wolf then glanced at Dane and turned towards the forest.

The young wolf followed the joyful old wolf without a word.

The two wolves walked through the dark forest. The old wolf shuffled and felt the earth between his great heavy paws. Dane occasionally glanced at this figure, a relic of an old world constantly adapting and surviving into new ones.

"So what's your story young 'un? How long have you been with Jack and his pack?"

"Its not his pack now."

"Oh, that's right. Sorry, I'm never going to get used to that."

"I've been with them for more than a month now."

"You gettin' on fine?"

"The pack's been good to me. Jack couldn't stand the sight of me in the beginning but that changed."

"Jack's always been like that."

"I get on great with the alpha wolves."

"That's excellent. Very important you keep on their good side."

The young wolf went silent.

"Where were you before Alexis and Charlie picked you up?"

"I was in a pack."

"Oh. Do you mind if I ask what happened?"

"No, its OK."

The young wolf went in detail explaining what had happened to him the past week. He talked about how his pack was torn apart by the young murderous wolves, he never mentioned they were betrayed. He talked about his time at the stream and his meeting with Riley, proving himself to Jack and becoming an official member of the pack. He also told him about Kiera and the old wolf nodded along taking in every word like he had done many times with many unfamiliar wolves.

"I'm sorry about your family. What were your parent's names?"

"My mother's name was Lisa and my father's name was Ray."

Giles thought for a moment.

"And you said this happened more than a month ago?"

"Yes."

"Did your father tell you he met another wolf pack that day?"

Dane's blood ran cold. He stopped and stared at the old wolf.

"How do you know that?"

"Your father ran into my pack that day. I warned him about the threats around the valley like the humans and the dangerous group of young wolves. He reminds me of you."

"Y-you told him about the young wolves?"

"I did. Your father didn't tell you?"

"No he didn't. We were told about the humans. We had no idea about the wolves. What exactly did he tell you?"

"When I mentioned the wolves and the humans he just stood in silence for a moment and then asked how many wolves there were. I didn't know exactly how many, I only saw a dozen of them but I knew there were more-"

"There were many more. What else did he say?"

"He said the wolves wouldn't be a problem but the humans would be. I saw the humans for myself. A group of about five or six carrying metal sticks using them on deer that collapse as soon as the sticks spark and ignite. It frightens me as it does to every wolf never knowing what those creatures are capable of. Anyway I asked what he meant by that and he gave a very peculiar response."

"What?"

"He said he understood the bloodthirsty nature of wolves all too well. Said he understood their needs, their desire for power and their ferocity and that all they needed was order in their lives. He said look at my pack, they have their differences and yet in the end we all pull through every day. He stood silent for a moment and then said he appreciated my advice and left us."

"Was that it? Did he say anything else?"

"Nope that was it. He just left."

Dane hung his head trying to make sense of this new information.

"There's more to this, isn't there?"

The young wolf slowly lifted his head.

"What are you not telling me?"

"The pack wasn't attacked. It was betrayed."

"Betrayed? By who?"

"Either one of the two beta wolves. I don't know who it was. One of them put a fresh fox corpse at our resting place and that attracted those wolves."

"Francis' wolf."

The two wolves stood in silence. The cold winter wind wrapped around them and circled around the tall dark tree columns. Clumps of snow dripped and hung off the thin tree branches while black crows darted through the sky and perched themselves on the thick branches. They surveyed the area before cocking their soft domed heads, opening their wings and they flew high above the dark trees escaping into the brightness beyond.

"Your father told those wolves about those attackers."

"He didn't."

"Are you sure about that?"

Dane stood in silence.

"If these wolves were truly the beta wolves that means they are second in command to the alpha. They left that fox up there for a reason. A reason they were specifically told about."

"But-"

"Or put it this way, if you put a dead fox up on a specific area I wonder how long you would have to wait until something came by. How long would it take for a wolf to find that one dead fox. They knew."

"My father should have told everyone the truth. If we knew what we were dealing with-"

Giles sighed "I'm sorry. I don't know what drives wolves to do things like that but I know your father was a good wolf. You knew he was a good wolf. He made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. You have to remember he kept the threat of those wolves away from you for your own safety. Yes, he should have told the truth but he was your father. He only wanted what was best for his pack by obeying the rules. Sadly in the end he made the mistake of trusting the future of your pack with a couple of traitors. I know he loved you, as any father would have."

Dane nodded in appreciation of the wise wolf's words.

"Thank you."

"I want to talk to you about this Kiera girl, Dane. You really care about her, don't you?"

"Yes."

"And you haven't mated with her, have you?"

The question caught him off guard "Er, no. No I haven't"

"OK good, it would have been much worse if you had. Have you told the pack about her?"

"I've told Alexis and John. Jack doesn't know."

"They've already told you to stop seeing her, have they?"

Dane didn't answer.

"I thought so. They're the alpha wolves and you're disobeying their orders. Why?"

The young wolf turned away from him and hung his head low.

"Why are you disobeying them? I would have thought that would have been the last thing you want to do."

The young wolf walked to the lake and the old wolf followed. He glanced briefly at the clear blue water and watched the tiny minnows drift between the long strands of submerged grass. He looked at his own reflection a few times shifted his head back and forth before turning towards the cliff edge.

He looked out at the valley and stared at the frozen world around him. The massive mountain ridge now covered completely in white with tall spires scattered across the land. Large birds flew across the sky making V shapes in the air. He watched the wind shift the tall spires and shake them free of the snow. He imagined the creatures living their lives below in the vast forests and plains. Animals would be brought into the world, they learned how to survive, grow a family and then they eventually died leaving their own little mark in the earth like tiny seeds that would grow into tall trees.

"I don't know much. I'm nowhere near as experienced as you. You've lived for years and know more than any wolf should know. When I was less than a year old I was very adventurous and I would wander off by myself sometimes. I usually did it when the pack was out hunting or scanning the area. Most of the time I was called back and scolded for leaving them but I kept doing it. I don't know why, I guess I just liked the freedom. One day I set out along this great mountain pass much further than usual. There was this large pile of broken trees and dirt. I stepped on it and fell into a deep pit. I got back up and looked around the area. It was pitch black apart from the one ray of light out of the hole I'd just fallen through. The walls were thick and impossible to climb. At first I was petrified of going away from the light and I thought I would fall down another hole and be trapped. I called out of the hole barking and howling but no one came. I kept doing it until my throat was dry and hoarse. Sometimes snow and ice would fall from the rim of the hole and it was the only way I could feed myself as I let the snow melt in my mouth to water.

"I sat down there for a long time. Unfortunately this was the beginning a harsh winter and the wind drowned out my calls from the pit. So I stayed there and eventually I went away from the ray of light and into the darkness hoping I could find anything useful. When I was walking I stretched my nose out and felt my way around the dirt walls of the pit. It was circular in shape and fortunately I came across a large pool of water. After that I kept myself content I walked around the pit in circles, howling and barking hoping someone would hear. The days dragged on and as I walked through the dark I felt strange. My mind kept telling me there was something else there in the darkness waiting to strike out at me. I couldn't tell because it was pitch black but then I heard sounds. They were very unnatural sounds. They sounded like a creature in agony and some other days they were snarls and growls. I kept to my routine.

"It didn't take long before a few weeks had passed and the harsh winter blizzard ended. I called out of the hole for a few days and finally I heard a creature running through the snow. My mother looked down into the hole and she stared at me trembling with grief. She then called to the other pack wolves and they spent days digging through the dirt and she stayed at the rim of the hole watching me. Eventually they broke through the wall of dirt and I ran out. The sunlight blinded me when I got to the surface.

"After that I changed. Most of the time I would stay in the resting place staring into the dark and when the pack had a meeting I would remain in the corner and never hear a word. My parents tried to coax me out of the resting place and get me hunting but whenever I approached a small animal I just froze and the creature ran off. This happened many times almost to the point my mother and father had to give me small pieces of prey they'd caught to keep the other two families in the pack content.

"So I started obeying the pack. I followed them wherever they went. Assisted in hunting whatever they hunted. I learned from them. After a while I was finally able to hunt small animals on my own and that's when I had to learn how to hunt larger animals. There was tension between the three families in the wolf pack with the fathers constantly questioning my father. The young wolves of the two other families had already gone through their hunting lessons and I was just learning how to help take down larger prey half a year later. So my mother and father helped speed up the process by taking me out on my own without the other families. I watched my mother and father hunt the deer down so easily it felt like they didn't need the other families and they didn't need the pack. Those were the best days of my young life hunting and being around my parents learning from them.

"A few months later I was hunting large animals with the pack. I was never the one who killed the creature someone else always got there first. Finally, I was ready to take my lesson and the rest I've already told you.

"I never forgot my time down in that pit watching the sun rise and set every day as if they were nothing. When I went back to the pack I couldn't focus on anything and I was questioning everything. I questioned the world around me, who I was, what I was capable of and what the pack really meant to me. The reason the beta wolves betrayed the pack was because they were sick of seeing me mope around doing nothing for the pack while their children were excelling. I was pathetic. I came to this pack hoping I could start again and I have. They've given me that opportunity and I'm grateful. Then I met Kiera and I saw in her something wildly different. I think to myself every time I go and see her what it would be like if I could set her free and if I had the power to give an unfortunate creature their life back. That's why I keep seeing her. I want the power to do something for myself away from the pack. I want to be my own wolf."

Giles sat beside him, turned his heavy head and looked out at the valley.

"When are you going to free her?"

"Tonight."

"You know if you were any other wolf I would say you were insane."

"Well I guess I'm insane then. But at least I'll be happy."

Giles smirked.

The two wolves sat at the lake for a while.

A storm had just started and the snow began to fall again. The clouds had started to form and soon the sun had disappeared beneath a blanket of white and grey.

The entire valley faded under a shade of dark blue.

Giles was getting ready to leave.

He had spent the day with the pack. He told the others he had trained the wolves in his own pack to take of themselves in his absence. This helped prepare the wolves in his pack for times when he was not going to be around to lead them. He was an old wolf and it was a good strategy.

While Dane and Giles were talking, the other wolves caught some foxes and brought them back to the cave. Alexis and John invited Giles to have some of the large moose they killed. Giles graciously rejected it, saying that they deserved the spoils of their kill. He had one of the foxes the pack had caught for him.

The old wolf sat in the middle of the cave and shared his many stories, some of which he mentioned Jack and Escuella from their younger days. When he talked he spoke calmly and slowly. Sometimes he would laugh spontaneously in the middle of a story as the memories came flooding back to him and the experiences he told of were something that couldn't be described through speech.

When he started to leave, he turned to Dane.

"You are your wolf. Take care."

His bulky figure then disappeared into the vast, endless forest.

Kiera lay in the metal cage with Jodie.

She couldn't sleep and her eyes fluttered staring out into the night. The young husky stood up and walked around the metal cage.

"What are you doing?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"Then stop moving around for those who're trying to."

"Jodie?"

"What is it?"

"If you were given a choice would you leave here?"

"Oh, not this again. Don't start."

"I just want you to answer the question. I'm not starting anything."

"OK, no I wouldn't."

"If you left me I would miss you."

"No, you wouldn't."

"And what if I left?"

"I would be surprised you didn't do it earlier."

"Would you miss me?"

"It would make my life easier."

"Just answer yes or no."

"No."

"Didn't have to think about that?" She chuckled.

"Go to sleep."

A noise came from the house.

It was the door opening. Jodie's body shot up and she stared daggers at Kiera. The young husky smirked and turned her back to her sister anticipating the attack.

The human appeared at the side of the metal cage. He smelled putrid. It was the kind of smell that came from the small bottles and cans of mysterious, unknown substances.

The master unlocked the cage and wrapped a rope around her neck. He grunted angrily and pulled her sister away.

As usual Jodie jumped on him. She started licking his face and as usual he pushed her off him and grunted at her to follow him.

It was strange the human was taking her out so late.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw him picking up a rifle.

There was a big storm coming. Dane's fur drifted back in short blasts of cold wind.

He walked past the tall dark trees swaying in the wind. The snow shook off the white spires. Some trees arched inwards creating an opening into the darkness that lay ahead like descending into the jaws of an enormous evil unknown beast.

He turned a corner and stopped.

He saw the apparition beside a tree on the small hill.

It growled and stared at him with vacant black pearl eyes.

The apparition sat down. Blood dripped off its grey coat onto the snowy ground but as soon as the blood touched the ground it sizzled and evaporated into thin air like vapours from hot magma.

"What sort of tail is this? What tail is this? What tail is this? Come back. She will die but will she die from the GUNSHOT?"

As soon as the apparition said the last word, a loud crack rang out in the sky.

Dane jumped.

It was a gunshot.

The apparition sniggered at him.

"What tail is this? You WILL come back."

The apparition evaporated in front of him still wearing a demented evil grin.

It was gone.

A blizzard had started as Dane hurried down the small hill. The cold wind and snow battered against his fur.

He could see it was quiet. However, he looked out at the large shelter beside the metal cage.

There were lights on inside.

Dane then looked over to the metal cage.

Kiera was desperately trying to dig herself out. He looked into her eyes. Tears had formed around them.

He came closer. Kiera looked relieved to see him. She stammered

"H-he killed her."

"How? What-"

"He killed her! He killed her with that metal stick. He killed her!"

The young wolf started digging into the same spot they had used before.

Dane and Kiera dug as quickly as they could. Eventually there was a space big enough for her to get through.

She crouched down and pulled herself out with all of her strength. Dane helped her by pushing her forward away from the metal wall.

Something snapped.

Dane looked at her neck. The collar that was once around her neck lay snapped on the ground.

The now collarless Kiera growled and swore at it. She showed a violent, insane maliciousness towards it.

"We've got to go."

The two of them turned around and suddenly they heard something click behind them.

Dane turned around to see a metal stick pointed at his face.

Neither Dane nor Kiera moved.

The hard, worn, tubular steel of the metal stick pointed straight at him. He looked at the human holding it.

He was very tall. He had short brown hair on the top of his head.

Dane looked into the human's eyes.

They were pale blue and partially discoloured.

He didn't know what to do.

Suddenly Kiera barked at him.

He grunted and turned to look at her.

Now was his chance. He jumped on the human and knocked the metal stick from his giant hand. Dane kept slashing away at the human's face. The human desperately tried to cover his face from the slashing. Without the metal stick he was a useless fighter.

He bit and tore and slashed at the human frenzied.

Ending its existence would be so easy.

Kiera stood silently staring in horror at the violence with eyes wide with fear.

She looked at her master and Dane roll around trying to avoid each other's blows and slashes.

As the violence went on, she thought about her sister lying dead and buried in the middle of the forest. She then looked at the human, her murderer, being torn apart by the wolf she loved.

But she knew the other humans would hunt after a murderous wolf and his pack until their dying days.

She barked at the young wolf. Dane kept ripping and slashing away at the human in a furious, demented rage unable to hear her.

Dane felt alive.

Every slash, bite and cut enticed him. He enjoyed the human's anguish, its pain. He was better than it would ever be.

Just then he felt a surge of pain. He could feel the piercing of teeth into his back. Kiera threw him to the ground with a surprising burst of strength.

He gathered himself and tried to make sense of the situation.

She had betrayed him. He growled at her, ready to strike out at her.

The white half-wolf approached him. She wasn't growling. There was a brief moment of silence between them. The human's cries of anguish faded behind her ice-cold stare.

She walked forward. Dane was still growling at her but she remained calm. She didn't even flinch or back away. There was no fear in her eyes.

He let her get close.

Their faces almost touched.

He waited for her to do it.

Attack him.

She licked him on the cheek. She leaned her head into him and felt her warm, soft white fur flow down his neck.

She looked up into his face. A small smile spread across her face. The smallest of gestures that made everything seem that much brighter. He could see the entire world through her ocean blue pearl eyes.

They started to run away.

Dane and Kiera ran across towards the small hill to the side.

The weather was beating against them. The ice-cold gusts blasted into their faces almost blinding and slowing them both down.

He could hear a noise coming from the shelter. The human grunted loudly in anger.

Dane knew he would still rely on his metal stick to stop them.

The two of them kept running.

Suddenly, Kiera stumbled in the snow.

Dane backtracked and ran towards her.

Digging his snout underneath her body he pushed her up.

She started to run again.

Dane watched her run off for her life towards the endless forest.

The young wolf started to run as well.

He heard a gunshot.

Something hit him hard.

The young wolf slowed down.

He was blacking out.

The trees and the forests were disappearing from his sight.

Fading to black, white and grey.

All he could see was Kiera running towards him.

That beautiful wolf.

Kiera rushed to the young wolf.

She dug underneath him and used all of her strength to hoist him onto her back. The human would make it difficult for them but that wasn't important. What was important was getting far away from here.

The human was still loading his metal stick.

She could get away from him before he would get a chance to shoot at them again.

The half-wolf desperately strained and heaved through the deep snow.

Another gunshot rang out into the distance, missing them completely.

She reached the small hill and pushed herself up with Dane on her back.

There were no more shots.

She turned to face her former master and he stood with the metal stick by his side. He picked up a white cloth and patted his face leaving streaks of bright red blood patches. He then set the metal stick to the side of the wooden door and walked back inside the timber shelter expecting the dog to leave. Even as she stopped and stared at him, he would make small movements with his hand towards the metal stick.

He wanted rid of the dogs and to make the wolf that attacked him suffer.

He was satisfied.

The young husky wolf hybrid turned and left the farm forever.

Kiera followed Dane's tracks precisely.

The tracks were being covered up by new snow falling heavily and Kiera brushed the remaining tracks away with her tail. She could still pick up his scent to see where he came from.

She knew the human wouldn't follow her now but she still had to eliminate any possibility of him ever being able to track her.

The tracks circled around the edge of a large lake overlooking a view of the valley.

She followed the path and found they ended at a cave.

A number of shadowed figures moved around in the darkness of the cave. Pairs of beady eyes stared out. All of them were fixated on her.

She stood her ground.

The wolves emerged. They growled at her. There were three wolves. One looked very old, one had a large scar down his face and another was the only female in the pack.

She decided to speak their language.

The young husky barked and growled at them.

"This wolf saved my life. His name is Dane. He belongs to this pack. He's been shot."

The oldest wolf approached her and looked about ready to tear her apart.

He ran at her bearing his teeth like daggers.

The male young wolf tackled him and stood in front of him snarling.

"Jack! Stand down! Now!"

Jack growled and snapped at the dog. The young male wolf still stood in his way knocking the old wolf back if he tried to get close to her. The female wolf ran into the older wolf and the male wolf ran up and restrained him. The female wolf yelled at him.

"Calm the fuck down, now! Stop!"

A moment passed and the older wolf stayed on the snowy ground breathing heavily.

The young husky stood silent.

The female wolf turned and looked into Kiera's eyes.

"Take him in that cave."

Kiera obeyed and went in the cave.

She dropped Dane off in an isolated section of the cave.

The female wolf followed her and spoke as calmly as she could.

"How did this happen?"

"He was trying to help me. The human killed my sister and we turned to leave. He stood there with a metal stick pointed right at him. So Dane just went ballistic and stared clawing and slashing at the human. I stopped him from killing the human because I knew if he died other humans would be out here looking for wolves like you."

Kiera kept talking as she felt the ice-cold gaze of the female wolf at her side.

"So we ran and the human shot Dane with a metal stick in retaliation. He saved my life out there."

"Are you positive the human won't come looking for you? Don't you dare lie to me."

"He won't. He wanted rid of my sister and me and that's what he did. He won't follow your pack, or me. I promise. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't sure."

"Time will tell if you're telling the truth."

"I understand. I'm sorry if I put you into this situation. It wasn't my intention-"

"Just forget it. My name's Alexis, I'll have a look at him."

"I'm Kiera nice to meet you."

The young female wolf walked towards the section and sniffed at Dane's body.

Kiera stood in silence as she sniffed at Dane. The wind whistled and curled through the low cavern. Her paws gripped hard charcoal stone ground and her eyes never moved from the young wolf's unconscious body.

"I should have known."

Kiera froze. The young male wolf set himself down beside her.

"I could see it in his eyes. He wasn't going to stop seeing you."

"I-I'm sorry."

"I've warned Jack not to come in the cave. If he does I'll stop him, don't worry."

"Thank you. I'm Kiera."

"John. Alexis and me are the alpha wolves of this pack. Do you what an alpha wolf is?"

"You two are the leaders. He told me a lot about wolf packs."

"OK, that's a start."

"Did he tell you about me?"

"He did. We also told him not to go back."

She hung her head and cursed under her breath.

"What happens now?"

"Well, that all depends on whether your human will leave you alone for good. You're going to have to get used to our way of life now. I'll explain later what's required of you in this pack and get you hunting." He paused. "I'm afraid to ask but have you hunted before?"

Kiera hesitated and forced herself to answer.

"No."

"Francis' wolf." John shook his head.

"We'll work on it. You managed to haul that wolf a long way so you could be useful to us."

"What about Dane?"

John glanced at the body of the young wolf and then to her.

"He's the best hunter we've got. Whether he gets through this or not we'll figure it out. He's a brave wolf. We just have to adapt."

"I understand. I'm sorry it came to this. My master wanted rid of my sister and me. She's dead and he dropped his metal stick as soon as I left. He won't follow me."

John stayed silent.

After a moment, Alexis walked out.

"I think we just need to give him some time to rest."

"Can I see him?"

"Of course."

Kiera went in to see Dane lying on his side. With the storm raging outside it was impossible to tell whether he was breathing or if his fur was just blowing in the wind.

She went up to him and huddled beside him. His eyelids were closed and his jaw hung half open and legs hanging limply when she touched them.

"Oh, you didn't have to lie to them." She murmured.

She paused as if she was expecting to hear a response.

"Well, I'm here now. That's what you always wanted."

She ran her head against his thick grey back and closed her eyes.

John approached Alexis.

"How is he?"

"I really don't know. What are we going to do, John?"

"We just have to adapt. That's all we can do."

They stood in silence for a while watching Kiera rest next to the young wolf.

Alexis spoke, "He was going after her no matter what we told him."

"Yes."

"I'm not going to tell you we should have gone along with him. We don't know anything about dogs-"

"No, you're right. It'll be difficult at first but we'll get used to it eventually. It'll be a challenge that's all. You've always loved a challenge."

"This is different."

"I know."

Alexis looked at the husky with curious eyes.

"It's amazing how alike we are. I've never met a dog before, have you?"

"I haven't."

"If you were in his position would you have done the same thing?"

"If I was any ordinary wolf then no I wouldn't. But if I had seen what that wolf has seen-" He paused.

Alexis glanced at him.

"I don't know. I do know that if someone like you was being held at that human farm then I'd come running with the teeth of several pack wolves clinging to my legs."

The young she-wolf's tail brushed from side to side.

It was a cold winter morning.

A fog had spread across the valley hiding the trees, bushes and rocks beyond a vast sheet of infinite dull white. The forest became silent with only the faint cries of birds treading the thick mist. From a distance the sprawling grand mountain range had disappeared beyond sight giving the impression they had almost vanished off the earth entirely.

As the young husky wolf hybrid roamed the wide frozen landscape her mind reeled from all it had to offer her. Beyond the mist lay a world that gave her the freedom she desired. She laid down the bloodied fox she had killed earlier and scent-rolled beside a thick tree stump. In the middle of the endless forest lay a large plain dipping into the earth and the snow on the ground remained untouched by any animal or natural element.

She walked slowly onto the plain.

Her paws etched and sunk into the pure snow as she walked forward. She could hear nothing save her own breath. The mist surrounded her and she sniffed the air.

She couldn't see anything apart from the thick mist and the smooth snow. Moving across the plain she left a linear set of tracks behind.

She suddenly sensed something.

A rustling in the distance.

She could hear the soft pattering of snow.

The sounds of a creature trotting through the plain.

It walked slower with uneven pacing than that of a wolf as if it were injured.

"I knew there was a wolf in here."

Kiera jumped and stood frozen in place.

The young wolf emerged from the mist.

Kiera turned and met his gaze. His golden pearl eyes stared back. She looked at his body and the one large black spot where the shot had struck him.

She growled and gritted her teeth.

She ran at him and tackled the young wolf to the ground biting into his neck in an outburst of anger. The young wolf lay on the plain not raising his paws or his upper body to strike back.

When she turned her body with his neck still in her jaw she felt him lick her on the side of her cheek.

She eased her grip and buried her head into his thick grey fur. The young husky wolf hybrid felt the warmness of his coat as she ran her upper body against his side.

The mist was fading away as bright golden sunlight lit up behind the grey vastness.

Kiera shot her head up towards the light.

The mountain range had rematerialized and the sun shone its infinite rays across the trees, rocks and animals lost within.

The summer season had arrived.

