face. Hokee tried following them, but Achak's glare made him freeze in his tracks.

Seeing the blonde pup cowering away guiltily only seemed to increase the alpha's anger. Upon reaching the top, Achak glowered down at the other, advancing as Hokee backed away, his golden eyes wide, and his tail tucked between his legs.

"What did you do?!" His fangs peeked out from under his raised lips. Hokee whimpered at the accusing angry voice directed at him, stumbling and falling over, then scrambling up to continue his retreat.

"I-I didn't mean t-too, i-it was an a-accident!" The large wolf glared his bright blue eyes.

"What. Happened?!" The hybrid pup trembled under the heavy glare. It took him a few moments to answer.

"W-we were playing and I got bumped and knocked Nayeli, but I didn't mean to!" The large wolf seemed to calm slightly, much to Hokee's relief. Did that Achak believed him? "I-is she okay?"

"Thankfully..." No thanks to you, he thought. Reminded of his injured offspring, he turned to look over his shoulder, seeing Kiona coming up the slop carrying Nayeli, Tonrar and Hinto trailing close behind.

Kiona placed Nayeli at her feet gently and glared at Achak with a slight growl. It was an accident and they all knew that. Even though the mother was still shaken up by her injured daughter and not happy, Hokee was sorry and Nayeli was alright, but Achak didn't let up on the blonde pup, who was still scared out of his wits that the larger wolf was going to do harm unto him.

"It's fine." Kiona said firmly. No matter whom it was directed towards, she kept her brown eyes locked into her mate's blue ones.

Achak, completely unfazed by the female's look, gave her one of his own. He couldn't believe Kiona was being so passive about this. Nayeli, thankfully only sustained a sprained leg, but it could have been so much worse. The large alpha was only about half rational right now in his anger.

"It is not 'fine'. Ever since this pup got here there's been nothing but trouble, and because of your infatuation with him you cannot see it!" It was time for this to end, for the blonde pup to go. "He does not belong here...!"

For the first time in a long while, Kiona was enraged by Achak. Her neck fur bristled, and her lip twitched, resisting the urge to rise in dominance. The wolf within her wanted to bite him in the face, but the mother within her won over it. Five sets of eyes were looking at her, and all of them belonged to her loves. The last thing she wanted after she realized what she was doing was to have her children fear her and her mate despise her. Her pups and Hokee stared up at her in surprise, even they knew she was angry with Achak, and such a feeling towards him was foreign to them.

Just the same, Kiona still felt...ashamed of being a hybrid whenever Achak said things like that about Hokee. "He does not belong here," rang through her head, as if to say "You do not belong here." Even though she knew that wasn't what he was saying, that's how she felt about what he was saying.

Kiona looked down at her children, then Hokee. Hokee had nowhere else to go and she felt more than obligated to take care of him. She didn't care...what Achak said about him.

Before Kiona picked Nayeli up in her mouth, she said, "I'm sure your father would be very proud of you, scorning a pup like this... Did he teach you that too?"

The words could not have hit Achak harder if the female had physically hit him. For a moment he didn't know what to think, to say, he was too stunned. How could Kiona say that? The hurt the silver streaked wolf felt soon gave way to another emotion. Anger. How dare the other bring his father into this! Just to spite him too! Also, the wolf hadn't noticed, but he wasn't the only one affected. The whole pack had gone dead silent around them.

Achak's bright blue eyes flashed in fury, ears pinning to his skull, the fur all over his body bristling, making him look even larger than he was, if possible. Lips curling back to show his sharp fangs, with a deep rumbling growl, the alpha stepped forward, intent on voicing his thoughts. Suddenly something slipped in front of him, eliciting another warning growl from the black and silver's throat. It was Kanook, his deep blue eyes staring right into his nephew's. He couldn't let Achak, in his angry state, act irrationally right now and end up doing something he'd regret later. There were the pups to consider.

"Achak, calm yourself, you don't want to do anything hasty!" Surely Kiona hadn't meant what she had said. If only the red hybrid understood why her choice of words had affected the alpha so drastically. Thankfully Achak, after a stare down with his uncle, while still angry, had enough sense to understand this was not the place to lose control. With one final snarl, eyes locked on his mate's form, the silver backed wolf turned, clearly still agitated, and walked off, heading for the forest. Any wolf would be wise to leave him be, all parting to let him through.

Kiona watched her mate depart for a moment, but went back to tending to Nayeli. No one followed her, except her sons and Hokee, who all seemed torn between the two arguing parents. The red hybrid gingerly placed her daughter on the cave floor, careful to not put weight down on her leg, then lay beside her. There was an awkward silence between them all, Kiona didn't make eye contact with any of them.

She must've made them feel terrible, fighting with Achak over Hokee. It was then when she realized what she had said to Achak... It must've really hurt him, but...she couldn't say much else on how he was making her feel. She knew apologizing to him was the right thing to do, but her stubbornness was getting the better of her. She figured the pups needed an apology more than he did, but as soon as she was about to give them one, she noticed the sound of sniffles coming from her daughter next to her. Kiona lowered her head to look at Nayeli's face.

"Nayeli...what's wrong?" Kiona asked, hoping she wasn't hurting too badly.

"Is...Daddy...leaving...forever?" she black and silver pup asked in between gasps. Kiona's mouth hung open in astonishment, then she looked over at her sons, who looked at her with as much concern in the expressions as their sister. Hinto made his way over to Nayeli to probe her face with his tiny nose to get her to cheer up.

"N...No...of course not," the mother whispered. Her voice was laced with unease, but it tried its hardest to stay strong for the offspring. There was another moment of silence, aside from Nayeli's persisting sniffles.

"Want me to go find him?" Kiona asked her pups. They all nodded in unison. Just then, Kanook entered the cave.

With a sigh, Kanook stepped into the cave. Upon hearing the little cries coming from the pups, the beta inwardly felt his heart clench, but outwardly put on a smile, walking up to them. He had heard enough of what was said as he was entering. The cream and chocolate colored wolf gazed down at his great nephews' tearful faces as they glanced up at him.

"Your mother's right. Your father will come back. He would never leave you all alone." Glancing up, and meeting Kiona's eyes, the wolf gestured back outside. The little ones didn't need to be upset any more than they already were.

Escorting the female out, Kanook then turned to her, his deep blue eyes a mix of emotions. Concern and hesitance were the most noticeable. "I know you want to go after him, but perhaps you had best wait a little while, give him time to calm down." But seeing the look in the red hybrid's eyes, the beta could tell she still wanted to go now. "But...if you're intent on going now...just be careful. His father is a very sore subject..." No need to tell her they had all felt a bit hurt by her words. Achak wasn't the only one that the subject was touchy about.

Without a second thought, Kiona rushed in the direction Achak headed before. She looked everywhere for him, from the river, to the brink of their territory, to the lakeshore, to the brown hills, to the meadows, to the underground wolf-made shelters beneath the large trees. A few times she thought she had looked in places twice, and was starting to grow very tired and worried from not finding him.

Where was he? Was he alright? Was he back at home? Yes, he must have been. Kiona raced back home, but...he wasn't there either. She didn't fully enter the area, but she could tell he wasn't back with their family. She ran off again before they spotted her so she could continue searching for him.

She kept looking for him. She knew he wouldn't have possibly left for good. He was better than that. But the more she thought about it, the more difficult it was for her to stay concentrated on her task. When she started calling out to him through barks and howls, he never answered.

"He must be so very angry with me..." Kiona thought to herself, sniffing back tears. Why did she say what she did? Letting her anger get the better of her like that...she was no better than when she was a lunatic. She may as well have bitten him in the face or worse.

She found her way to the base of a tree and crouched beside it, feeling herself break down emotionally and physically. She wouldn't blame him if he stopped loving her...

Unknown to the female, there was a place only the alpha knew of. His father, Cheveyo, had shown it to him when he was younger. A place the black wolf had used himself when he desired to be alone and think. Now of course, Achak was the only one who knew of the spot. It was high up on another set of jagged cliffs. There was a hole, just barely big enough for the black and silver wolf to slip down that went down into a sort of tunnel, worn away by erosion over time. The tunnel lead down at an angle to an open area, like a cave of sorts. It was fairly large as well, and from the other cracks and holes from above, it let in just enough scattered light.

It was rather

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