Chapter 2 An Exiled Pup

• I was a pup. Healthy and robust. One that a pack should’ve been proud of. I wasn’t quite as large as my mother yet. We crawled into our den. Separate from the rest of the pack, since she had young to protect. We both knew that sometimes the larger males would kill pups to put the female back in heat. And my mother was a beautiful brown wolf. Pretty yellow eyes in a soft brown face with a black nub at the end of her snout.
• She often sniffed me and nudged me playfully. Hopping around to play with me and my brothers. We whined together and followed her in a line as she taught us to hunt. Feeding on the rabbits in the woods and everything else she taught us to feed on.
• I was too young to understand that the other males already viewed me as too large. I was a threat to them. Mainly to our Alpha.
• So I was dragged out of the den while mother and the other pups slept.
• It was a rainy night. The thunder banged in the sky and lightening brightened over their snarling faces. I ducked my head and pinned my ears back. Wondering why they were baring teeth at me.
• What did I do?
• Where was mother? I looked back toward the den. Trying to slink that way in the slippery mud. Having enough sense not to turn my back on these adults.
• They were vicious and if I gave them my back, they’d surely attack it. So, I moved sideways. Keeping them in view and stepping slowly enough to not indicate I was a threat.
• But it was too late for that. That was already how they saw me.
• When I was just outside the entrance. Close enough to call for her. Or to dive inside. They caught me at my scruff. Another snatched the fur of my shoulder and one caught my back leg. They were all pulling viciously in different directions. Growling so fiercely that I feared they might tear me apart.
• I was yipping in pain. Screaming for my mother.
• She emerged in the pouring rain. Watching in horror as two more large males jumped into the fray. Pulling me in different directions. One of them snapped his jaws over my smaller snout. Raking a long tooth down from my eye and along the outside of my short snout.
• I cried out in pain. Flailing as they began to tear through skin. Stretching me beyond what my young body could endure.
• Mother attacked. The other pups trying to support her with howls and growls, but too little to do anything other than watch. She bit at the males. Getting the one holding my back leg to let go. Which gave me my back legs.
• I began frantically hopping and jerking my body. Pulling at their jaws. With incredible power for any wolf, much less one so young. I wrenched free of two of them.
• They were biting mother. One was trying to climb atop her even as she carried his weight to charge the one holding me by the nose. She barreled into him and sent the one stretched over her back tumbling atop that one.
• She caught me by the scruff. Dragging me sideways.
• I tried to move my legs to keep up. Knowing I was far too heavy for her to carry any longer, I did the best I could to move as fast as she wanted.
• I was dazed and I could see the red haze of blood filling my eyes.
• I didn’t understand why my own pack had attacked me.
• Hours ago, we’d all been sitting in the son within a circle of boulders. Enjoying the feel of cool dirt we’d dug out beneath the tall grass. Everything had been peaceful and quiet. Us pups had been playing and tugging at mother’s ear.
• None of the males had bothered us then.
• But it was clear that they now had every intention of killing me.
• I whined to my mother. Crooning softly. Asking her the question.
• What did I do?
• She shook her head. Still pulling at me, with her teeth holding me up as I loped limply sideways with her.
• My head hanging forlornly. I understood that I’d somehow failed my pack and now they’d turned against me. But I didn’t know why. They often turned on the weak or the disloyal. But I was neither of those.
• I didn’t know the other reasons. I was too young to understand.
• Mother rushed me to the border of the forest. Pushing me beyond the trees into an exposed meadow. Knowing that the other wolves wouldn’t want to go out there anymore than I did.
• She let go of me and gave two short yips and a head bob that told me she wanted me to go across the meadow toward the human village.
• I hunkered, crouching to the ground and gave her a soulful wine. My huge green eyes confused as I stared back at her.
• She bobbed her head again.
• There was snarling behind us.
• I could see a bit of blood on her back and knew they’d wounded her enough to easily track her.
• She was sending me away because it was the only way she could protect me.
• But to the humans?
• She’d taught me humans were dangerous. She’d taught me how to avoid their traps and to stay from their paths.
• Now she believes they’ll be safer than my own pack?
• I was so confused. I whined softly.
• She gave a disapproving huff that I’d not obeyed her before twirling around and rushing a short distance away. Knowing she needed to carry her bleeding scent further away.
• I wondered if the wolves were already attacking my little sisters.
• What’s happened to them? I wanted to go back to check on them.
• I was big for any wolf my age, so I’d always looked after my small sisters.
• But mother was telling me to go.
• I always did what mom said. Because disobeying her meant I was likely to die.