Chapter 1

            16 year old Tia woke up in the Beta house in her own bed while Faolan continued to snore in the other across the room. He always slept in! Tia was a werewolf with silver fur and had a brownish-black back so her hair looked similar with its moon-like shine and faint dark gray and brown streaks topped with her unforgettable amber colored eyes.

            She looked through the blinds of the window to see the first scarlet streaks of dawn float mystically into the sky. The alphas, Buster and Makui, where knocking on the Omega house’s door and tapping their feet impatiently on the ground. Even though it was a few doors down, Tia could barely suppress her squeal of laughter after glimpsing the angered expression on Buster’s face. His short temper always sternly reminded everyone why he was alpha male but made you smile when you were far enough away for him not to see it.

            Tia raced down the stairs and flew out the door into the cold fall breeze towards the Omega house. When she made it within a few feet of Makui she stopped and asked what was making Buster so mad.

            “Oh, the usual,” she replied in her gentle tone, “Mauro and Neeno are sleeping in again.” Tia smiled and walked up to the door.

            “Mind if I get it?” Tia smiled as she waved a key in front of Buster’s face. Neeno had given it to her so she could come in and borrow supplies for the bakery if they ran out. Tia didn’t actually own any business in Otsana, that was the Regular wolves’ jobs, but she always helped Cougar and Jet with their family business in exchange for a few peanut butter cookies.

            As Tia gently pushed the door open she couldn’t hear Mauro and Neeno stirring in their beds, snoring, not even flinching. “Back up,” Buster growled as he turned into a pitch-black wolf and fled up the stairs. A howl of terror soon followed.

            “Sir?” Tia ran up the stairs with Makui hot on her heels. As she entered the room, the hot, sticky smell of blood flooded her senses. Kurt must have been set off by something that Mauro did and took it out on both of the Omegas. It wasn’t the first time Mauro gave him a reason.

            Buster was back in human form, his head on Neeno’s chest. She was his only littermate. Blood began dying his black hair red and the alpha’s sadness spread over the room like a thick fog as soon Makui was at Neeno’s side too, leaving Tia in the doorway, frozen with shock and fear.

            As soon as her legs would move she bolted down the stairs with tears streaming from her fiery eyes. She bumped into James, Blaze, Lucky, Blue, Bingo and Fang as she tumbled out the door and back into the Beta house. Faolan was gone so Tia let the tears pour like rain on her pillow.

            About a half an hour later she managed to stop crying and look out the window. Rex, Kurt, Blaze, and Sandanio were burying the two bodies while everyone else went back home and cried themselves. Kurt kept growling and crying as he buried Neeno. Tia assumed he was drunk when it happened; Mauro insulted him at Lucky’s bar a few times, won a fair game of pool, and the rest was a blur to the white elder.

            Unfortunately, most things were legal for elders, including murder. The worst punishment elders could receive for any crime was a day in jail, and this wasn’t one of those times. Kurt would probably receive some scolding, making him feel like a little pup, but then the pack would be forced to forgive him and all would be forgotten.

            Tia stepped outside right as a human car passed by, heading toward Moon’s hotel. Three young boys and their parents. The ruby-eyed werewolf growled as she caught the scent of a husky dog in the car.

            It was extremely rare for humans to bring their “pets” to Otsana, being about three hundred miles away from any human civilization, but when they did there was sure to be trouble. The alpha a few dozen years ago was shot down by one of their firesticks when he tried to kill the cat that kept eating the blueberry juice in the pharmacy, used to settle stomachaches.

            Tia walked into the hotel, assuming Moon wasn’t here. She slipped behind the counter right before the large family entered through the doors with two huskies and even a German shepherd.

            “Hello, I’m Tia, would you like a room?” Tia asked the five humans in the kindest tone she could manage with three dogs scratching at the counter, being slightly held back by their leashes and whatever strength the three little boys had.

            “Yes please,” the adult male said.

            Tia handed them a room key with her eyes still on the dogs. “You will be in room 102 on the second floor. Oh, and the dogs are allowed in the pool if they’re energetic from that long car ride.” She couldn’t help seeing them contained when they were clearly too excited to do anything but exercise.

            The adult female’s eyes widened in surprise, not many hotels allowed dogs in the pool. Last year a single female’s visit was hilarious for the entire pack when they found out she was allergic to dogs.

            “Here let me take them to the pool, free of charge,” Tia burst out as she ripped the three leashes out of the boys’ hands and ran to the pool. The five seemed extremely reluctant to leave their dogs but didn’t try to stop her.

            Tia burst through the doors and unhooked each dog from the leash. Each of them launched into the pool, next to a surprised Faolan in his russet wolf form. After a howl of surprise the Beta male glared at Tia, but only for a moment. “Come in, the water’s fine!” Faolan hollered to her.

            After Tia was done laughing, she turned into her wolf and pounced head-first into the twelve foot end. Fur quickly leaving her wet sides. The warm water very welcome after an hour of sadness and grief.

            Faolan barked to the German shepherd, “Was that a horrible car ride?” The brown and black dog looked at him with sad eyes, “They never even let us out to run the entire time!” One of the huskies paddled over, “Not to mention with that tiny car we could barely breathe.”

            The other husky let out a snort of disgust before adding, “Kevin even dropped his pizza in my fur when him and Tony were fighting for it.” Tia looked sympathetically at the German shepherd and then the two huskies, “It won’t be long before you’ll be back in a nice comfy place to sleep in a room upstairs!”

            “Faolan! Tia! Get out of there before the family comes!” Moon screeched at them. Tia climbed out of the pool and pulled a towel down from the shelf as she stretched back into a human, Faolan following. The female came into the pool area and quickly walked over to Tia.

            “I hope they haven’t been any trouble for you,” she said sweetly.

“Of course not!” Moon replied for Tia.

            “Rio, Rex, Blue!” the female human called to the three dogs that were happily paddling through the pool water.

            Funny, Tia thought, Rex and Blue are the names of the guardian and a regular wolf in our pack!  “Have a good stay!” Tia called as the female put the leashes back on the dogs and brought them up the stairs.

            A howl pulled Tia’s attention to the alpha’s ledge, where the alphas say important news about Otsana and the pack. Tia immediately burst through the door of the hotel and raced to get a good spot to sit. Too bad she was the last one there.

            “Listen up!” Buster began, “We’ve through some problems already this morning and there will be no new Omegas.” The Crowd began whispering amongst each other.

            “Instead, to make sure we don’t have any financial troubles in the future, we are selling the Omega house to anyone, human or werewolf, except ourselves.” The werewolves grumbled but knew better than to argue with Buster. “That is all!” Makui announced as both alphas bounced off the ledge and walked back to their house.

            Tia saw no problem with this, a new pack member! She just desperately hoped she wouldn’t have to live within a hundred miles of a human! Faolan pulled her out of her thoughts, “The humans just challenged me, you, Moon, Lucky, and Dizzy to a baseball game!”

            Now there was something that really made Tia laugh, “I’m in.” Faolan smiled as he said, “The adult male said his family was the best team in their entire town.”

            “Uh oh, do you think we can beat ‘um?” Tia said in a hugely sarcastic voice.

“Better find out, C’mon!” Faolan ran towards the baseball field with Tia following quickly behind.

            When they got to the field, the family was already there with Dizzy, Moon, and Lucky. Tia pretended to pause to take a breath like she had seen so many humans do before at such a short distance, increasing the power that could be heard to make the humans think they were gonna win.

            “You first,” the adult female said.

            Tia chose the heaviest bat they owned and felt stupid swinging something so weak. Nevertheless she put on a helmet and stepped up to the plate. The adult male had the baseball in his hand and stood with his feet firmly on the pitcher’s mound.

            Tia suppressed a snort of laughter as his “fastball” collided with her bat and launched straight into the fence with a thud. The werewolf just jogged the bases as she watched the female chase after the tiny white ball and throw it to the third base where one of her sons caught it soon after Tia safely made it there.

            Next was Lucky, with his amazing strength he rocketed the baseball far past the fence for a home run. The other three repeating what he did with a new ball each time.

            Now Tia risked being catcher, Lucky was pitcher, Faolan on first, Dizzy on second, and lastly Moon on third. First to bat was the adult male that Lucky struck out on the first three pitches. Next was the female so Lucky pitched about as fast as the adult male but still managed to strike her out easily.

            The oldest male son of theirs’ was up at bat next and hit a pop fly that Tia simply caught in her glove several feet away. The rest of the game was basically repeating, the werewolves never getting out, and the humans always getting out on the first pitches, until finally the human family claimed that they couldn’t beat even one of the wolves in baseball. Tia smiled and gave them a spare ball after Lucky hit theirs’ over the fence.

            “It’s getting late,” the female said, “Why don’t we head back to the hotel.”

Moon led them away while Tia and Faolan went to the Beta house. They weren’t even thinking about sleeping at only ten, which was the time, but they were starting to get a bit hungry.

            “What do you want to eat?” Faolan asked Tia who stopped to think a moment.

“How about we go buy a fresh loaf of bread from Cougar?” She suggested. Mauro was Cougar’s littermate so Tia figured a little company would cheer him up. Kurt definitely wasn’t a wolf to mess with and now everyone knew it, even if he was an elder.

            Faolan nodded, probably thinking the same thing. Tia pushed open the door to the bakery to see Cougar’s mate, Jet, sitting at the counter, twirling a sheathed knife on the marbled table in front of him.

            “Where’s Cougar?” Faolan asked the light brown-haired werewolf.

“She decided she’d try to sleep her troubles away in Regular house 2,” he replied using his, Cougar’s, and Vooko’s house.

            “That bad?” Tia asked. She couldn’t imagine losing her sister Fang or brother Tomaw. She leaned forward and stopped Jet from spinning the knife. “Can we get a loaf of bread please?” Jet looked up at her.

            “They’ll be done in a few minutes,” he said gloomily as he continued spinning the knife on the counter. Tia pulled Faolan into a chair next to her as they impatiently waited for the bread to be done. At some point Jet went into the kitchen and brought out a freshly baked loaf of banana bread. Faolan handed him a five dollar bill and they walked out of the bakery.

            Tia opened the door to the Beta house and went into the bedroom to eat her half of the loaf. By the time she was done with it, crumbs were scattered all over the floor and it was well past midnight. She set her head down on her pillow and fell asleep.

///\\\

            Tia groaned as she saw a car outside the Omega house. Making sure she was in human form she walked the few doors down to greet the new human neighbors. It was only a week ago that Buster had announced he would sell to someone else.

            Being about an hour before dawn she couldn’t expect any of the pack members to be awake…or even humans. Why would they be awake this early and how did they know that a house was for sale so early?

            The Beta female had no clue but walked over to the monstrous car where an adult female human was dragging two chairs into the smallest house in the neighborhood. “Hello, I’m Tia,” Tia began, “Would you like some help?”

            The female stopped dragging the chairs and said, “No, thank you,” in a polite and exhausted tone before sitting on one of the chairs.

            “I’m Mora, nice to meat you,” she managed after a few moments.

            A little boy about eight years old came out of the house to grab some stuff and stopped when he saw Tia. “This is my eight year-old son Tom,” Mora explained, “My eighteen year-old son, Alex, is probably in the house putting the beds together.”

            As if on queue a nearly adult male human walked out of the house and stopped next to his brother after seeing Tia. “Why are you looking at me weird?” Tia asked them.

            Alex pointed to her head, “You have silver and brown hair, not to mention red eyes!” Tia smiled as he pointed out the traits that all werewolves carried when in their human form, wolf hair color and eyes.

            “Most of us have weird hair and eyes here, to us you’re the freaky ones,” Tia said as she smiled at the fact that humans did seem really weird. They slept twice as long, loved warmth over cold, and kept animals as pets to do whatever they pleased like slaves. Now Tia started to notice her fists tightening and her teeth grinding at the thought.

            “Um, Tia?” Mora said as Tia’s knuckles began turning white, “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Tia forced her face to display a smile, “Everything’s fine.”

            “What are you doing awake so early?” Alex asked as Tom hid behind his jeans.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Tia lied, she usually was awake this early. It was already four a.m.! It was the Beta’s jobs to wake up early, but Faolan was allowed to sleep in.

            “Let me help you with your things,” Tia said as she jumped into the truck and began pulling a small dining table out with one hand.

            She trudged it into the house and was still overwhelmed by the scent of blood. She dropped the table and fled outside into the cool morning breeze. “What is it?” Mora asked in alarm.

            “Don’t you smell that?” Tia asked her back. Alex walked into the house and took a deep whiff. “I certainly don’t.”

            Tia got up and shook herself, Of course they don’t smell it, they’re humans! She smiled and walked back into the house, trying her hardest to push the smell of murder to the back of her mind. Even in human form, werewolves had much superior hearing, scent, sight, taste, touch, strength, and agility.

            She lugged the table into the kitchen where Mora explained she wanted it.

            “This is so much bigger than our old house!” Tom said as he looked around. The Omega house was less than half the size of a regular house, which was two thirds the size of the Beta house. The Alpha house was practically as big as the hotel, twice the size of the Beta house easily.

            “Need some help?” Tia turned around and saw Lucky in the doorway, clearly smelling blood as well.

“Grab something out of the van, if you would please,” Mora said to him. With a flash the yellowish-blond werewolf disappeared into the van and came out lugging a couch twice his size with ease.

            “Just bring that in here,” Tom said as he pointed to a room where a big black box and two recliners sat. “What’s that thing?” Lucky repeated Tia’s thoughts when he pointed to the box.

            Mora, Alex, and Tom all burst out laughing, only stopping when they realized the two werewolves were actually confused. “That’s a television,” Mora explained. Tia remembered Sandanio the elder talking about them before.

            Tia slowly nodded and followed Lucky back to the large car. Only one small dining chair was left so Tia let Lucky take it in.

            “So that’s Lucky,” Tia introduced him to the humans as he set the chair next to two others at the table. Mora’s eyebrows raised slightly in shock as she shook his hand. Tom ran up to Lucky, “Can you show me around the town!?”

            The blond werewolf smiled and led him away. “Will you show me around?” Alex asked in a more polite tone. Tia’s heart dropped, she was hoping to get as far away from them as possible but now that couldn’t happen. Sighing she replied, “Sure,” and led him out the door in the opposite direction of Lucky.

            The first rays of dawn were creeping through the sky as they passed by Cougar at Regular house 2. “Hey Tia!” she called as she slid up to them. Her gaze hardened on Alex as she noticed he was human.

            “What are you doing with him!?” Cougar asked Tia in alarm. Tia whispered in her ear, “He’s moving into the Omega house.”

            Alex flinched when Cougar’s icy blue gaze fell on him again with even more hatred. “I’m Cougar,” she growled trough gritted teeth. Tia noticed that she was ever so slowly turning into a werewolf with anger that a human was replacing her brother.

            “Relax!” Tia jumped in between them and slowly patted Cougar on the back, “Just go tell Buster that our new neighbors are here. The light brown she-wolf was back to normal and stared once more at Alex before racing to the Alpha house.

            When they passed by the Beta house Tia could see Faolan peeking at them through the blinds. Obviously no one else cared for human neighbors any more than Tia did, but they had absolutely no choice.

            “Why don’t people like us?” Alex asked Tia. She thought for a good lie but couldn’t come up with one, “I don’t know.”

            “Listen,” Alex told her, “If you don’t want to be by me, I’m sure I can find my own way.” And he took off running.

            Sighing with relief, Tia ran behind a building and transformed into her silver wolf with a black, brown, and gray back. It’s about time she was free to do this again. She ran into the street until she found Cougar Coming back from the Alpha house. They both remained in their current forms as Tia said good-bye to her and began walking to James’s and Pippi’s pelt store. They’ll occasionally buy animal pelts from human hunters in Otsana and sell them to other humans or werewolves.

            Tia froze when she saw Lucky, Tom, and Alex all standing in the corner, looking at a wolf pelt that a hunter brought in a few years ago. “This would be a great blanket, wouldn’t it?” Alex asked Tom.

            The two humans were marveling at the price of $100. It seemed pretty high to Tia, but a wolf pelt was worth a lot to humans. James and Pippi just wanted to get rid of it.

            Lucky was acting extremely nervous; Tom must have pointed out the shop and begged they go in. James was at the counter with Pippi, not noticing Tia halfway through the doors. That is, until Tom turned around and squealed with fright. Now was the time to flee into the forest.

            Tia pelted through the street and into the woods before Alex or Tom could recognize her. Then again it isn’t very easy to recognize a werewolf when you see one, at least for a human. She turned back into a human and smiled as she ran to the hotel to visit Moon. The family of five and their three dogs were just leaving in their car when Tia passed through the doors.

            “Hi Tia!” Akamauro exclaimed as he flung himself into her arms. Little pup was only seven years old. “So what brings you here Tia?” Moon asked as she jumped over the counter and landed next to her son. Seven flew over it right behind her and crashed into a vase.

            “Go swim in the pool!” Moon yelled at her pups. The two excited werewolves turned into wolves and crashed through the doors before sliding into the pool. Tia could hardly contain her laughter at their energy.

            “Is it true?” Moon asked when the doors shut firmly behind the pups.

“What?” Tia asked her in reply.

            “That humans moved into the Omega house!?” The hotel owner shrieked.

            Tia nodded and looked down at the floor. It was most likely to happen, but you couldn’t blame them for being upset at the news. Before they just had to be careful about humans visiting the hotel, now this?

            After a minute or two of thought Tia turned around and bumped into Alex. “Sorry,” she said as she scooted around him and ran out of the doors once again. They just keep popping up wherever she happens to be standing! But she could still make it into the Beta house without so much as the scent of a human.

            Tia slumped next to the door and put her head on her knees. After a while she heaved herself up and managed to look out the window to see Tom carrying a folded white wolf pelt, not the one he was looking at, it was a pup’s. Funny how much the coat looked similar to Bart’s though.

            She let a growl pass her lips at the thought of those three humans with their silly firesticks, ready to blast anything at a moments notice if it has fur and moves.     Tia slipped into the kitchen and shuffled through the cupboard for something to eat. After seeing nothing but bananas, apples, and pears she decided to grab the five pounds of deer meat from the fridge and cook it up. What was the point of Niku being a butcher? Any werewolf could simply hunt down their own prey if needed.

            Once the meat was cooked Tia divided three pounds of it equally on six pieces of bread she had bought from Cougar about six days ago. Next she put a layer of Swiss cheese and another piece of bread and let the cheese melt for a few minutes. During that time she made the rest of the meat into burgers for Faolan when he came back from wherever he was.

            In a werewolf’s human state, raw meat was just as dangerous to them as it was a human’s body, and cooked it was so disgusting to them that it had to be eaten on or with something. Their appetites were just as large, allowing them to consume a lot and survive a long time without food.

            Soon she settled down into a chair and ate each burger one by one until there was nothing but Faolan’s burgers left. Tia stretched her arms behind her back and heard a knock at the door. As she looked out the window she saw Mora, Alex, and little Tom with the wolf pelt draped over his head. She opened the door and put on a big smile.

            As Mora put on a smile as well, she said, “We wanted to go out and explore the forest and since we don’t have any weapons to protect ourselves with, we thought you could be our guide and get us through safely.”

            Tia nodded and locked the door behind her as she left. She hated that they were around her house, rubbing their scent over everything, but she was tempted to see what humans did in the wild without weapons. And besides, Makui and Buster would be very upset if she let them go out there and die because of a bear or something.

            The werewolf kept her human ears twitching from side to side in search of any sounds that could mean danger. Tia led them through the forest along a trail that she usually used to get to the hunting grounds. She smiled to them as they came up to the edge of a meadow with a herd of whitetail deer nesting among the long, golden strands of grass. The humans gaped in amazement at being within fifty feet of wild deer.

            Tia laughed to herself when she realized how easy it was to make a human content in wilderness. They wouldn’t stop staring at them! She grabbed hold of a tree limb and hauled herself up to sit in the fork of two branches so she could see any dangers. She laughed once more when she saw Faolan and Piper stalking a big buck on the edge of the heard in their wolf forms. Obviously those burgers weren’t enough. The russet male and the golden-brown she-wolf were at the opposite end of the meadow.

            “Come up here!” Tia called down to the humans in a low voice, knowing how much some humans loved the sight of wolves. She had even seen a little human girl at the hotel with a complete obsession of wolves, with a costume and everything.

             Alex clambered up to a branch just below and helped Mora and Tom up with him. They gazed at the two wolves, obviously excited to see a hunt.

            What’s so exciting? It’s just our food and how we get it, Tia thought to herself as she watched the werewolves.

            Tom squealed, “Mommy, are those wolves hunting!” and Mora nodded with gleaming eyes.

            Faolan plunged into the mob of animals as Piper waited for the buck to come thundering out at her. When it did she lunged forward and sank her teeth into its neck until it crashed to the ground. Tia suddenly noticed that Tom was out of the tree and slowly walking up to them with the wolf pelt somewhat disguising him.

            Piper lifted her blood-red muzzle from the carcass and smiled when she saw the eight year-old trying to pretend to be one of them. Then Tia saw that Alex and Mora had done the same but both grabbed big sticks and were heading out to ‘save’ Tom from them. But that also meant Faolan and Piper could get hurt so Tia turned into a wolf and leaped off the branch towards them.

            She snatched the stick out of Alex’s hands and pinned him down while Piper grabbed Mora’s and Faolan pinned her down. Alex recognized Tia from when she was a wolf in the pelt shop and tried to heave her off in failed attempts to get free. Tom was pounding his meaty fists on Tia and screaming at her to let go of his brother.

            She obeyed for the sake of the pack and let Alex, Tom, and Mora launch up the tree once more where they soon found out Tia was no longer there. The other two werewolves seemed to be enjoying scaring the three humans. Tia found it pretty fun too, but didn’t leap onto the branch, that would be a bit too much. If the human family had known anything about actual wolves, they’d know that they can’t climb trees.

            Tia watched as Alex grabbed Tom and jumped into another nearby tree and helped his mother across next. Now was the time that Tia would scare them. She jumped up the tree only seconds before Mora made it to the next, then fell back down, unable to reach a branch. Then she took a flying leap to a branch by Alex.

            Obviously they knew they were beaten, Tia, Faolan, and Piper had had their fun with them. Tia slipped behind a tree and transformed again before waving up at them with a terrified expression on her face. The other two werewolves knew that their time was done as well so they went back to their carcass.

            Tia helped the three humans out of a tall birch tree and ran through the forest, acting as terrified as they seemed to feel. As soon as they made it back to town, the humans raced to the Omega house and disappeared. That was fun.

            Tia remained at the edge of the forest and looked up at the horizon to see the golden sun slowly sinking below the hills and trees. If Tia knew enough about humans, she knew that those three were probably gonna be going to bed before the sun even disappeared. She was glad that she didn’t need as much sleep.

            Tia was starting to feel hungry again and decided to head back into the forest to hunt. Perhaps Faolan and Piper still had some deer left to share. But by now they must have eaten their fill and brought the meat to Otsana to sell to Niku. But it isn’t that difficult for her to hunt in the night. Her amber eyes gave her slight night vision and that was all she needed.

            She turned into a wolf and turned back around to slip through the forest toward other hunting grounds even further north because Faolan and Piper scared the deer away from the hunting grounds earlier. But she decided that it had only been about a half-hour so it would be too easy to catch their scent and follow the herd.

            When Tia made it to the meadow she searched for any signs of danger before lifting her nose into the air and following a strong whitetail deer scent trail west. At every tree she’d check for a scrape. At every other time she’d check the forest floor for possible tracks or droppings they might have left.

            Soon, Tia saw them ahead. They were feasting on the leaves on the trees that were starting to die for the year, forcing most of the deer to peel off the bark of the trees. Tia looked throughout the group for the perfect prey until she spotted a big buck that was slightly limping on one of its forelegs.

            Tia burst from the bushes and gave chase to the slower buck that limped more and more with every step until the werewolf brought him down to the ground with a thud and killed it off. As she settled down to eat she noticed a snare trap a few feet away. No doubt a hunter had set it up earlier to get some fresh meat. But as Tia stepped up to it she noticed it was a bit more complicated and seemed very strong if set off. He must have come into the forest to try and capture wolves or even bigger animals.

            She sniffed the trap and confirmed that an a human from a cabin not far off had set it up and only about ten minutes ago. Tia immediately swiveled her ears in every direction for the sound of a human trampling through the woods and found none. She let her amber gaze slide around the forest floor and even up in the trees until she was certain there was nothing nearby before starting to devour the carcass of the whitetail deer.

            When she had eaten her fill there were only two hind legs that still had meat. She took a long stretch and began dragging the legs back to Otsana, forgetting about the snare until she got her right hind paw caught in the ring of rope. The hunter wasn’t stupid when he set up an easy to see snare.

            Having no other choice, Tia swung up and snatched the rope in her jaws. She suddenly realized it was a very well-made rope that would take an entire day to gnaw through. She started to turn into a human until she heard a human walking towards her. She instantly let go of the rope and remained in wolf form in case the human could see her now.

            A human male emerged from behind a tree with a sharpened stick and a steak knife. Really? Tia thought, you can’t expect to kill a wolf with a knife, even if they are caught in a snare! She swung forward quickly and snatched the knife from his right hand in her mouth. Then she swung up and sawed through the rope very quickly and dropped to the ground. Perhaps you could kill a wolf with a knife that sharp.

            At this point he had recovered the knife and was slowly backing away from Tia, occasionally glancing backwards to make sure he wouldn’t trip. When he was a good distance away, he turned around and bolted in the opposite direction of Otsana.

            Tia smiled and continued dragging the two deer legs in the direction of her town, having the wisdom to turn human so as to avoid another incident like that. She walked over to the butcher where she saw Niku at the counter twiddling her thumbs, obviously bored out of her mind. Slapping the two deer legs on the counter, Tia said, “How much?” She was asking how much money Niku would be willing to give her for the legs. The butcher just tossed a ten dollar bill on the counter and looked away.

            “Okay,” Tia began, “What’s wrong?” Niku looked up at her and said, “Humans.”

            Now Tia was really confused about why she was upset, “The humans can’t hunt as easily so they’ll probably buy meat from you!” Niku still didn’t look excited about it for some reason. “But it’s not all about the money, it’s the secrecy, and everyone else is sad and it like, lowers the mood everywhere!” the butcher exclaimed.

            Tia smiled and said, “I know what will make you feel better….”