The Moon Wolf

Chapter 31 (1st Draft)

* Media pic is of some of the pups in their fur.

Penn danced excitedly beside Mia the moment she saw the pups come barrelling down the street, across lawns, and out from behind one house of another. They came from nearly every direction and all of them were running at her as fast as their four paws would take them. She let out an excited bark and flashed Alpha Troy with another toothy grin.

Behind the pups, running on two legs and trying to keep up but not quite succeeding were their new parents, siblings and what looked like the rest of the pack. Under normal conditions, Penn would have her hairs up and be ready to defend herself and the pups at a moment's notice. But not that night. That night she knew the only danger to the pups was coming from outside the village. These wolves were no threat to her or the pups.

One after the other the pups arrived, all of them in their furs, all of them barking and chirping with excitement, all of them wagging their tails and eager to show their necks or bellies to Penn in submission. She sniffed every last one of them over, licked them all, rubbed her face into their furs and generally made a huge fuss over them. Though it was out of character for her, she felt compelled to mother them, to fawn over them. Surprisingly enough, it came quite naturally to her, and the pups lapped it all up - every single affectionate moment.

Alpha Troy and the others, which included nearly the entire village now, all stood back and watched the happy reunion. It was so touching, so sincere, so joyful that the crowd was quickly brought to tears on the behalf of the pups, whom the village accepted as their own now.

But the crowd was also subdued by Penn's beautiful silver form that shimmered and shone under the moonlight. They were struck dumb by such a seraphic vision. Wolves with pure white coats had always been elevated in pack mentality since the beginning of time because their coats best resembled the full moon. Consequently, white wolves were thought to be blessed by the Moon goddess and consider lucky for the pack.

However, a coat made of silver itself was utterly supernal and beyond their comprehension. In that moment, the rogue wolf they had feared became the object of their reverence. The only ones who didn't seem to think anything of Penn's otherworldly figure were the Griffin pack orphans, who frolicked and tumbled all around her as if she were the most ordinary of wolves.

"Why do you think she's back and come like this in the night to see the children?" Elder Ruuni asked Alpha Troy now that he appeared relaxed and approachable.

"I don't like to speculate," he said quietly, "But, if her instincts have brought her back in the middle of the night, I'm guessing trouble is on the horizon."

Ruuni nodded solemnly. That was her guess as well.

"What will we do?" she asked in an equally soft voice, not wanting their conversation to be overheard by the larger community, which was still raptly watching the silver-haired she-wolf.

"I rung up the head of Boarder Patrol when I first got Fancy's call and told him to double the numbers on watch and to increase the number of patrols." He paused as he pulled out his phone to check the time. "That was over an hour ago now. I'm sure he's hauled some men out of their beds and has already worked out a new patrol schedule."