Anay lied in a den. Bruno had dug it out for her so she could lay there resting while her wounds healed properly. Anay had tried to protest when he said he’d get them food since she didn’t want him to wander off alone, but she couldn’t really move without his help so her protests stopped pretty soon.  As soon as they had gotten out of their old packs territory and far enough to avoid bumping into any of them, Bruno had decided that they needed to rest and try to plan where to go next. As always, Anay was happy to have him around. While Bruno was out on a small hunt, Anay licked her wounds as good as she could to keep them clean. She still had the pictures of when Nook tried to force her mate with him playing in her mind. She was happy she’d gotten away easily from that. The golden-coated female curled up after cleaning herself and placed her head on the ground between her front paws. Closing her eyes, listening to the sounds around her she started to drift into some kind of dreaming state. She heard a few birds twittering, the trees gently brushing their branches with yellow-green leaves on against each other. Further away she heard a river making its way through stone and mud. Then she heard paws throbbing against the ground and her eyes flew open. Fortunately it was just Bruno coming back with two rabbits in his mouth.
“It’s not much, but it’s all for you. I had my share already. Nook sure picked the right territory. I had to run along their perimeter in order to catch anything.” He sighed. “Preys are getting scarce here Ana… I hope we find our place in some pack rather soon.”
Anay dug into the rabbit closest to her and only after chewing two times she swallowed a big chunk of it, digging into the rest of the rabbit. Bruno watched in amusement as she finished the other rabbit too.
“Satisfied my lady?” He chuckled softly lying down on the ground outside the den.
“Yes. Thank you Bru.”
He reached closer to her and started to lick her muzzle clean from the blood of the rabbits. The female wolf giggled as he did so and nudged him gently away. “No need to clean me. I can still handle that.”
The brown wolf smiled back at her. “I’m sure you can. Just wanted to help.”
“So… any idea of how we find this new pack? I agree with you that we’ll be doomed if we don’t. But who would possibly help us? We’ve fought most of the packs that are around these areas to keep them at their territory and not on ours. I doubt they’ll be welcoming us with open arms.”
Bruno nodded and seemed to sink into deep thoughts. “Indeed they wouldn’t…”
Anay sighed, curling up trying to get some rest. It would take at least three days before they could go anywhere because of her wounds and when they could the question was where they would go. She hoped that Bruno would find a way to swiftly pass through the territories while he ran around fetching food for them. The female let out a yawn, it had been one exhausting day for them both and Bruno soon accompanied her, lying beside her to keep her warm and rather soon they were both asleep.

The following days looked the same for Anay and Bruno. Him haunting rabbits and other smaller animals that he could get his paws on while Anay rested and kept her wounds clean. She got better and better for each day passing and on the 4th day she felt that they had to move on in case they didn’t want to get caught by any member from their old pack. Maybe Nook had sent out scouts searching the areas for them? So the two of them started to move on, not knowing what waited further ahead.
It felt like the only thing they did was walking once they had started as hours turned into days and Anay was so bored with it. She wanted to do something, wanted to have something to aim for instead of this aimless walking. She jumped around, trying to entertain herself and playfully poked Bruno with her paw every now and then. Bruno kept on, smiling a little to her impatience.
“For being a hunter you sure are easily bored with walking,” Bruno chuckled. Anay twitched her tail frowning.
“But it iiiis! At least when I hunt I have something to focus on. Now we’re just walking and walking and walking… without any goal at all! How can you stand it? We’ve no idea where we are heading or where this walking will take us.”
“Tune it down a little would you? And look what we’ve got just in front of us.” Bruno were now crouching, his eyes focused and his voice low. Anay tilted her head looking at his direction when she saw it.
“A lonesome caribou?? How is that possible?” She crouched next to Bruno, her ears perked up and her eyes focused. Her hunting instincts were triggered when she smelled the scent of its flesh.
“It must’ve somehow gotten lost. Anay what are you doing???!” Bruno hissed when Anay started to slowly close in on it. “You can’t take it down all alone! Besides we’re far too close to someone else’s territory! If a scout finds us hunting on their ground they’ll kill us!”
“Shhh! Calm it down will you? We haven’t eaten properly for days, this might be our only chance to get some real food. And I haven’t seen or scented another wolf around have you?” She whispered back. Bruno sighed.
“Well no. But…”
“Shh! Come on, help me out here.” Anay snuck silently through the bushes heading for the caribous left side and Bruno hurried to get the right side, hoping that no one would catch them red handed.
Anay moved swiftly and without a sound closer to the caribou. The luck was on their side as the wind blew from the caribou to them and not the other way around. She spotted Bruno ready on the other side and as if given a signal they both started to move even closer. They had to get as close as possible to the caribou, giving it a real powerful attack and a chance to tear at its throat, otherwise they’d lose. When Anay thought it was close enough she twitched her tail as a signal and both of the wolves sprung out of their hidings, leaping for the kill. The caribou shrieked as it noticed its attacker and started running. But Anay had been seconds faster than the caribou and succeeded to reach the side of the neck with her leap. She dug her fangs deeply into the flesh and the caribou shrieked again in pain. Bruno was running right beside it, however not too close avoiding getting kicked by its hooves or hit by its horn. He had to try to make it stop before Anay lost her grip, otherwise she could risk getting stamped on and that could mean death to her. Anay struggled herself to keep herself in place and not losing the grip. She saw Bruno making several attempts to attack it and even though he succeeded to get some pretty deep bites this caribou refused to give up.  The caribou was heading for a fierce river up ahead, apparently prepared to do anything in its power to get rid of Anay whose teeth sank deeper into its flesh.
‘Darn it!” Bruno thought as he saw the river. But just before the three of them reached it, four wolves leaped in front of the caribou, making it come to an abrupt halt. Bruno stopped as well out of surprise seeing the strange wolves. But they didn’t seem to take a notice on him as one of them sprung up in the air, his fangs making a quick snap around the startled caribou’s throat before he jumped back to the ground, his muzzle dripping of the animal’s blood. The caribou didn’t know what hit it and fell to the ground with a muffled groan. Anay, whose hunter instincts had taken over completely started to dig into the animal but just as she gulped one piece of meat down her throat she found herself being tackled and lying with her back on the ground. Over her stood a black and brown wolf, growling fiercely.
“Don’t touch her!” Bruno growled but was also taken down by two of the wolves.
“How dare you hunt on our ground??? Who are you and why are you here?” The wolf holding Anay snarled.
“We just needed food! I’m sorry we didn’t know this was your territory. We’ve been banished from our own pack and been traveling rather far to find a pack that will accept us. Please understand we meant no harm.” Anay explained.
“Banished?? What have you two done that made your leader banish you from your pack? I bet you’re nothing but unreliable scum!” the black and brown wolf growled. He seemed to be the leader of this small group but Anay was sure that he wasn’t the leader of the pack that he sure belonged to. But he still seemed to be more than just a plain hunter. Maybe even a Beta?
“We got into a fight with our leader since he tried to mate my friend here. But when she refused they broke into a fight and I rescued her. We were accused of trying to kill our leader but one of our Elders ensured our pack that exile was better than death so we were sent away. We’ll be killed if we ever return.” Bruno said. The leader wolf looked at him with a surprised face.
“Mate? This time of the year?”
The other wolves looked as surprised as their leader, exchanging a glance between each other.
“That can’t be. Who would be stupid enough to do such a thing?”
The leader turned back to Anay. “What pack have you been living with and who’s the leader of it?”
“The Southern pack.” Anay’s eyes darkened as she was about to reveal their old leader. “Nook was the leader of it. If you can ever say that he was a leader, he doesn’t deserve to be called leader. He’s a pathetic,