After everything that had happened, things seemed to be going great but I wasn't sure how long our good luck would last. Foxi had settled into the pack without a problem and like the others, she too looked to me as the leader. Which was fine until I found my mate. Nurse was the happiest mother in the world I would think. She had a new litter of pups and Tamer. The twin male pups were growing fast and were almost ready to eat meat. Nurse had started producing milk and even though Tame was old enough to eat meat, Nurse allowed him to suckle with the smaller boys. Tame although now fully healed was still deformed thanks to the rouges. But even if he only had one eye and one ear, his nose was the best in the pack. He could sniff a deer out from across the lake.

Now the rouges were gone we took over their land and expanded ours. It now meant we had the whole lake and a larger hunting area with more food. Foxi spent a lot of time with Tank and me, hunting and training to fight. She was a great hunter and very willing to learn to fight and try new hunting styles. She also had a knack for scenting danger. The snow had melted, and warmer weather was coming our way that was good because soon Nurse would bring the pups out of the den. Nurse would not let any of the pups out of her sight for a second, and I could understand why. I had already named the two pups. The slightly bigger male who was black with a white stripe down his head was named Dozer because he always pushed the other two to eat, he would stick his nose under their butts and push forward. The other I named Knight as he always stood guard over Tame with Dozer. I think they knew there was something different about Tame and even though they were young, they wanted to protect him.

We were all sleeping in the nursing den when Tame started to howl. Everyone woke with a start, Tank was the first to leave the den to investigate. Once we heard growling Foxi, and I soon followed. We both ran from the den and found what Tank was growling at. It was Scar. Foxi was especially aggressive because she didn't know that Scar had once been part of our pack. Scar backed up a step once there was three of us and an unknown to him. I had no idea what to do as I knew the pack would look to me for the answers. Foxi had stepped up next to Tank and was still growling at Scar. Before I could come to a decision, I felt more than saw Nurse pounce over me and jump onto Scar, knocking him to the ground and standing over him growling. She must have been concerned about what was going on outside the den until she saw who it was about. Now I really didn't know what to do...

I watched as Foxi took a step further but looked back to me for the go-ahead to help, I sat down and gave a shake of my head. Foxi gave a snort and sat down herself. I knew she wasn't happy with me for not allowing her to help Nurse, but this was part of Nurse's battle with the rouges. At this stage Nurse had stopped growling and was looking at me, I gave a slight nod. Giving her permission to do whatever she pleased with Scar. Tank was ready to jump in to join the fight but after one step I gave a loud growl, and he looked back at me surprised, I growled again, and he whimpered and sat down like Foxi and me. I knew he too would be upset with me for making him back down. Being the temporary leader was hard, and sometimes I didn't like it. But it had to be done until I found my mate and then he could take over all the hard stuff. I huffed and watched with the others.

Nurse backed up and waited for Scar to do something, but he didn't. Nurse rushed Scar and nipped him in the side, which got him to his feet silently. That was strange, a nip like that should have caused some sound, but nothing came from him. Nurse circled him three times, but for some reason he couldn't keep his eyes on her. Scar seemed unusually slow, something was wrong with him, but I guessed it didn't matter as Nurse was going to take her remaining anger out on him which he would be lucky to survive by the end of it. At the end of the last circle Nurse bumped Scar with her shoulder into his, Scar stumbled a sidestep and fell to the ground. It was like Scar had nothing to give this fight and Nurse was going to use that against him. Scar rolled onto his back, and that's when Nurse attacked. She jumped onto his stomach and grabbed one of his paws in her jaw, and she chomped down. The sound of the cracking was horrible, but there was nothing the rest of the pack nor I could do for him. Scar gave a whimper as Nurse bit down again with more cracking. And then it was like it was all over, Nurse got off Scar and looked down at him and growled. Then she stuck her tail and nose in the air and returned to the den with Foxi close behind. I hadn't even noticed Foxi move until then.

Scar just lay there on the ground, he had managed to roll onto his side and licked his mangled paw. I honestly thought Nurse would have done more damage or killed him but I think she scented something was wrong with him like I did and thought with a mangled paw, he would die soon enough. Tank turned to me, and I think he was hoping I'd let him finish Scar off, but instead I got up and walked over to Scar and looked down at him. I got close to his face and snapped my jaws and growled as loud as I could, rejecting him from the pack. I stood up straight and went to his hind leg and gave it a nasty nip. Scar whimpered and shook but knew he wasn't welcome here. Slowly and by the looks of it painfully, he got to his feet and limped away into the grass. Tank growled a warning.

I turned and headed back to the den. I had done my part, I had banished Scar. I couldn't help but feel sorry for him but as a leader I had to be strong for my pack and enforce rules and Nurse would never accept Scar again after being with the rouges. It didn't look like Scar would last long on his own so best send him on his way to die like the traitor he was. Which brought my thoughts around to Gash. Where was she? Was she lurking around somewhere waiting for the outcome of the fight or was she long gone with another pack? Was she even still alive? In the end I guess it didn't matter just as long as she didn't dare show her face around here, everything was fine. It was getting dark outside as we all lay around the nursing den watching the pups play. Tank stood up and wagged his tail at me, and I knew he was restless and wanted to hunt, I thought it would be a good idea as the food was low and some of us had pent up energy that needed to be spent. I yapped at Foxi, and she bounded ahead of us, she always enjoyed a good hunt and was always jumping around until it was time to get serious. She brought life and energy to the pack.

The three of us headed towards the far side of the lake and into a thickly wooded area. Foxi headed ahead of us to scout out the area and came back leaping in bounds, she was very excited so she must have found something really good to hunt. We followed Foxi back to the area she found our next meal and we could see why she was so excited, she had found us a large gaur. It looked like an old bull on his last legs, even though he was old he was still big, and it would take all of us to bring him down. As we watched the beast I noticed something about his feet, they were rotting which meant it wasn't going to be as hard as I thought it would to bring him down. All we had to do was get under his feet and then pounce, and it was just like the others had the same idea and in no time the beast was down and out. Up close the rot was worse than I thought but we could eat around that. The hardest part was getting the meat back to the den, but Tank seemed to have thought about that and started ripping the rotted legs off and running off with them to who knows where.

Once all the legs were gone, we removed the head, and Foxi took it back to the den and then came back and helped us drag the remaining meat to the food den. The meat we got that day would last us a while, and we wouldn't need to hunt for a while. As always the hunting party was too tired to eat after dragging the food back to the den, and so we slept with the pups while Nurse kept an eye and ear out for any danger that might come our way. Everything was perfect, the rouges where gone-mostly. Scar was around but banished, the pups were healthy and growing fast, and even Nurse seemed to be in a better mood which was good. Life seemed to be moving forward and maybe even to a great future ahead. Only time would tell if our life would stay the same. These were my last thoughts as I snuggled down with the pups and closed my eyes and slept.