--the way i die.

Her oversized paws carried her at a steady pace as the struck the ground, returning from her task. She was deep in thought, reflecting on the fruits of her labors these early days as beta and looking forward to seeing her sons again, but the wailing of a newborn stopped her dead. Her head was flung up, eyes wide and wild, heard in her throat. Still caught up in thoughts of her own young children the cry momentarily sent an electric shock through her already-honed instincts and she half expected to see Shtiya racing toward her after having stuck his curious nose into something he shouldn't have.

It was not Shtiya - she had left him with the Solstice healer. Yet the cry continued to echo over her. Realizing her path had taken her into the battlefield Qanik was chilled. There was no plausible reason for an infant to be here. The child had been abandoned. Had she come to late to safe it from the elements? She leaped forward again, this time toward the cry, racing across the land before skidding to a halt near a scarred, purple-eyed white wolf curled around a small pup and Qanik, mother-bear instincts roused, bristled. She noted the scent of the wolf's pack, but she did not recognize it as an ally of her new pack. "Step away from the pup, please," she rumbled, her voice still polite and dignified despite the warning in it.





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