Moonlight washed over the hillside, casting heavy shadows around a thick wall of thornbushes. The bushes surrounded a hollow with rocky sides that sloped down steeply to an empty clearing.
Pawsteps thudded against the ground. Growls and snarls rang in the tranquil night, shattering the silence. The silhouettes of wovles leaped at each other, locked in battle. Out of the shadows stalked a large burly figure with something in his jaws.
A lithe she-wolf came after him, crying in distress as she reached for the small pup clamped in his muzzle. The larger wolf dropped the pup and lunged for the female's throat, sinking his teeth into her neck and snapping it with a single twist. The she-wolf wailed and collapsed onto the sandy ground. The murderer quickly snatched the pup and bounded off as his rivals surrounded the dead mother, investigating their tragic loss.
The assassin let out a victorious howl and he and his pack retreated from the clearing into the undergrowth. The alpha, pup still in his jaws, gazed at the bloodstained camp. Bodies littered the ground and the defeated pack gathered around their dead she-wolf, their muzzles raised as they chorused mourfully. He then turned and padded off with the pup dangling in his jaws into the darkness.
Rustling disturbed the peace and quiet of the nusery as a large wolf entered, a bundle of fur hanging from his jaws. Woken by the sound and the new scent, a she-wolf flattened her ears and bared her teeth. The intruder set the pup down beside the startled she-wolf. She glanced at the infant then at her alpha. "What is this?" She questioned warily, though concern lingered in her tone. The larger wolf narrowed his eyes. "It's a pup that you are going to mother for the rest of it's life." He growled, leaving the den without another word.
The she-wolf looked down at the new pup, who was crawling about blindly in search of a warm belly. She nosed the hungery pup beside her, letting it nurse along side her only offspring. The she-wolf sighed and rested her head on her paws, pondering the events that just took place as snow drifted from the clouds
