The Moon Wolf

Chapter 1 (1st Draft)

Penn and the pups had been running for weeks on end. The poor pups were exhausted and terrified, but Penn couldn't afford to stop. With a killer like Alpha Codax on their trail, they just didn't have that luxury. She had to get them across the mountain range to safety as fast as their paws would take them.

At least, she hoped it would be safe on the other side. She could only pray to the Moon goddess that the Orthos Pack would take the pups in. The little orphans' Luna had told Penn she could trust the Orthos pack to adopt the pups as their own because Orthos was her birth pack. However, Penn had her reservations about birth packs. Her own had kicked her out ten years ago and she couldn't help but think packs weren't that reliable when you really needed them.

In any event, she was mentally preparing herself to fight to get them to keep the pups because she knew there was no going back to Griffin territory for these little ones. If anyone asked her, she'd bet her canines that their parents, as well as the pack's Alpha and Luna, were all slaughtered by now. 

And there was no way the orphaned pups could stay with her. She couldn't possibly protect them long term from Codax, and she wasn't willing to sacrifice herself for a bunch of kids she wasn't related to in any way. She didn't do pack-life. She wasn't interested in taking over as their Luna. Penn was only driving them across the mountains because their Luna, Penn's only friend in the world, had been desperate to get the kids to safety and Penn was their only way out.  It was as simple as that.

Sighing with regret, she looked over the kids as they rested in a small hidden valley in the mountainside. The littlest ones to the oldest ones were clinging to each other for comfort and warmth. They knew better than to ask for a fire anymore.

Every night for the first two weeks of their hurried escape, the children had begged and cried for a fire to warm themselves. Of course, Penn had outright refused knowing a fire would lead Codax's pack right to them. She told them they would have to rough it to survive. She explained in her curt way that a fire was a death sentence, but still they whimpered for one, until finally she growled low and menacingly at them all.

That put a stop to any more requests. She didn't feel sorry she did it, or sorry for the sheltered pups. They could all transform into their furs and sleep in wolf-form to stay warm if they wanted to. It's not like they were at any risk of freezing. They just needed to learn to toughen up. 

Penn knew she sounded harsh, but, in the end, her way was going to preserve their lives and that's what really mattered. The warmth of a fire was overrated and the pups' feelings, well, they'd get over her briskness and her icy attitude. It's not like she was trying to build lasting relationships with these pups. She was just their escort over the mountain range, and, once she got them to Orthos territory, they'd part ways. End of story.

Her stomach growled loudly and interrupted the miserable train of her thoughts. She needed to hunt up some hares or fowl for her and for them. Penn was use to looking and being half starved. That's how life was when one lived out in the wilds alone, in wolf-form. But the pups, they lived a pampered pack life in a village with electricity, running water and the latest technology. After a few weeks on the run with Penn, they were looking pretty haggard.