I woke to the smell of rabbit under my nose with the slight hint of Gash. Sigh. I knew she would start sucking up to me but I didn't think it would be this soon. By my guess she thought sucking up to me would lessen her punishment, but she was dead wrong. But since I didn't eat last night I ate now, growling the whole time to let Gash know that I still wasn't impressed with her. As I munched on my rabbit I was thinking about how to get Shaggy out when it all suddenly clicked in my head, my ears shot up at the sound of the fence opening and Shaggy strutted past our hiding spot.

I knew he could smell us as while he was walking past he moved his head slightly towards us but his human didn't seem to notice the movement. I knew it was now or never. I growled and the pack jumped to attention. I ran ahead of Shaggy and his human captor and calmly stepped out. Both Shaggy and the human stopped dead in their tracks. Shaggy growled but non threatening at me, more like a plea for help. To the human it would seem like Shaggy was trying to protect him. The human must have heard something behind him as he spun around to find Tank and Scar behind him.

I could smell the fear coming from the human and he was visibly shaking. We all started growling and the human tried to calm us by yapping to us but it wasn't going to work. Nurse and Gash came up behind me as I jumped forward and grabbed Shaggy carefully by the neck and growled loudly getting the human's attention and I started to shake Shaggy... Suddenly Shaggy went limp and I dropped him and the human dropped the rope connected to him. I stepped over Shaggy and bore my teeth at the human and howled low in my throat and the others started to walk forward slowly growling. The human freaked and scrabbled up the nearby fence and ran howling.

I gave a soft yap and Shaggy quickly got to his feet and stretched and shook his horrible short fur. We were about to disappear into the trees but we heard and smelt the humans coming from the trees and from the human village. We would have to run though the middle of the human village to escape, and we knew we had to go fast and maybe to split up and hope that everyone made it out. I growled at Tank who growled at Gash and Scar, Tank took off first with them after him.

Nurse, Shaggy and I started to run the other way and we made it out without anything getting in our way. But as the other three were coming to meet us, we could hear the humans and pets howling and barking not far behind them. Thunder sounded around us and I knew that the silver things that burnt my nose that one time would soon start falling from the sky. I howled to Tank that we were moving on, Tank gave a short bark like howl of understanding. My small group turned tail and ran.

After a long time I slowed our group to a walk, I started sniffing around and found a stream not far from us. We all stopped to have a drink and a dip to rid us of the smell of humans but sadly it didn't completely come off Shaggy. Nurse and I rubbed up against Shaggy to cover the putrid smell. Now we had one more problem... removing the collar and rope from Shaggy. We hung around the stream in hope Tank and the others would find us, we howled and yapped loudly but got no reply. The area we were in was still too close to the humans and their village so I decided it was time to leave and hopefully we would find the other half of our pack.

We left our scent all around the stream just in case the others happened by the same spot and hopefully they would follow us and catch up in the near future. I decided to follow the sinking sun, I had no idea where we were and we needed to find a temporary home base and work out what we were going to do. I sent Nurse ahead of us to scout out the area while Shaggy and I looked around for something eat but there was nothing and Nurse hadn't come back. It was time to go and see if she was alright. We found Nurse backed against a tree by two unknown wolves. They both scents us and turned to look at us, they weren't happy to see us.

The female was pure white with a streak of grey from her nose to the tip of her tail, she had bright green eyes. The male was a mix of greys and he had golden eyes. From the smell of them they were a mated pair with no pack. Rogues. I also picked up on something else... the female was pregnant and due to drop any day or so. No wonder these two were highly aggressive. I wasn't sure what to do... we had to get past them. I lowered myself to the ground and gave a small growl and the others followed suit. The pair seemed confused but then they slipped into the trees and they were gone.

We were lucky we got away without being attacked. But we did and we needed to move on before we ran into any more trouble as I feared the wolves we just ran into had a den nearby and they wouldn't hesitate a second time to protect their land. So once again we had to keep moving and get away from this territory as soon as possible. The sun was just disappearing from the sky when I hear a yelp. I came to a stop and so did Nurse and Shaggy. I sniffed the air and caught the smell of wolves and not just any wolves... pups.

I walked around a large rock and in a grass made den I came upon five young pups. They were all different shades of brown. There was four females and the runt was a male, they all had blue eyes. They were young but no longer nursing. Shaggy suddenly became nervous and growled deep in his throat. Nurse stood over the pups ready to attack anything that came near them as I went to Shaggy to see what he had found.

Not far from the pups was something in a bush. It was dark red/brown colour and it was large. I took a sniff and it smelt similar to the pups but not fully. Then it dawned on me... it was the pups' mother. I snorted and hung my head. She had been dead for a while and her throat had been ripped out, the sight was horrible even for me. I turned away from her and found some branches and started to drag them over to her and covered her body with them.

Once Shaggy saw what I was doing he joined me in hiding the body from the pups. I wasn't sure they would understand that she was dead but best to be safe then sorry later. Once it was done I looked over to Nurse, she had connected with the pups and I knew we could not leave them here or they would die. But how could we travel with a litter that wasn't ours. I didn't know, but what I did know was there was no way that Nurse would leave them behind. So before there was a battle of wills between us I accepted each pup into our pack with a nudge to the nose.

I think they knew I was boss as they all whimpered and cowered as I touched noses with them, in time I was sure they would come to trust me. Nurse had taken the roll of step mum. I started to walk on so we could get the pups away from this place. Nurse and Shaggy worked together and nudged the pups until they understood that they needed to follow me. As normal I took the lead with the pups behind me and Nurse and Shaggy taking up the rear. What had I gotten myself into now I wondered, shaking my head.

We kept moving until the little male stopped and started to whine softly. I knew that type of whine, he was hungry and tired. Nurse looked around until she found a heavily grassed area and led the pups there. I yapped at Shaggy to follow me. While Nurse dealt with the pups, Shaggy and I left to go hunting. Shaggy and I parted ways to search the area better. I found a large hare and caught it before it knew I was onto it. I returned to Nurse and the pups and for the first time the pups seemed happy to see me but I think it had everything to do with the hare hanging from my jaws, then I noticed Shaggy coming towards us with another hare.

The pups would eat well this evening. We both dropped our bounty and the female pups jumped at the meal before them but the male stayed back. Nurse found this unacceptable and growled at the female pups until they backed away, she then nudged the male towards one of the hares and just waited. The females tried to get in on the meal but Nurse wouldn't have it until the male had eaten first. Once the little guy was done then the females were allowed to continue their meal.

The male snuggled up with Nurse and slept. The females soon followed the male pup and slept snuggled to Nurse. Nurse was beaming with a mother's pride at her newly formed family. I knew it wasn't the way of wolves to accept pups from another pack to their own but I always knew I was strange and so I did things my own way, even if that meant taking in these pups not of my own bloodlines.

We, the adults started to settle down for the night. Snuggling around the pups to keep them safe and so they would also smell like us. I was taking the first watch but it was Shaggy once again who noticed the scent of others before I did. Shaggy and I both stood and let out warning growls which woke Nurse and the pups. The pups started to whimper but Nurse whined and then they were silent. Between the long grass I saw white paws. I stood alert and ready for an attack.

Then I saw the rest of the wolf... it was Tank.