left and look for the wolves. Tell them that Fal sent you."
 Morrer whispered what she had just said to herself. Gale whined, nuzzling her mother's face.
 "Tell them to beware of-"
 She stopped with a splutter. Her eyes were blank and seemed to stare out into nowhere. Morrer took a deep breath. She was in charge now.
 "Come on," she calmly said to her crying sister, "We have to go."

8

The Family

The rain had reached torrential. Everyone had retired to their dens for the night, thinking how no human would dare show their face in this weather. It was freezing and wet and windy and no-one could sleep. Most of the pack spent half of the night re-digging a deep trench in the back of their dens to drain the water, as well as making the entrance smaller so that a river didn't flow into the room at night and drown them in their sleep.
 Buck and Tooth shared a den between the roots of an old oak tree next to the great meadow. There was a small bank slipping down from the lawn, and it was on this bank that the hole was hidden behind a small evergreen fir. Because of being on a slope the young males didn't have many problems with the downpour. It was more of the wind that bothered them, blowing a freezing draft along with the rain straight into the mouth of the den.
 There was no light, just the howling of the wind and the thunder of the clouds. It seemed as if the rain would never stop.
 Through the noise and flooding, Buck had time to think. But what about? He only thought, never spoke, always asking why. Why did he feel so guilty? Why did Fal die? Why did he think it was his fault? Why was he asking why? What was that?
 It was a quiet wimpering. "Tooth," he hissed, "Get up."
 "Why?"
 "Just get up!"
 His brother sighed, then rose shakily onto his legs and joined Buck at the mouth of the den. He yawned, "What is it?"
 His brother nodded in the direction of the meadow. At first he couldn't see it, with the rain and wind blowing everywhere. Once his eyes had adjusted, he could see two shapes coming their way.
 "The Shadows..." Tooth gasped. He was about to run out of the den when  Buck put his paw infront of him.
 "No, look closer." he said softly.
 As the things came nearer, their features became clearer. They were wolf pups. One dark brown and the other, no, no it couldn't be! Light grey with black markings. Buck stared in horror.
 "I-i-it's the g-ghost of-" he stammered, then gulped. "Fal."
 Tooth's eyes were wider than dinner plates. But she was dead, everyone knew that. Unless,
 "Kach was right. There are Shadows. Shadows of the past." He looked at his brother, he looked at him in turn. The Shadow had attacked Kach that night, was a ghost.
 Stories of Caluk and Agali, legends of old, that even once captive wolves knew, brought superstition to the lives of animals. But in the Central Park Pack, such stories were for pups, to teach the to behave, or the demon wolf would get them in their sleep. Heroic tales of battles and fires and man brought courage to them, and knowing that the mighty Agali was crowned a god after his death, for all of the fighting on the behalf of justice and right. He was a wolf-fox-hybrid, an outsider, who was made immortal, and gave the hope to all wolves that their name's, too, could be written in the stars. Such stories were dismissed in this pack, they were just stories. But now, ghosts, images from the past and reborn in their memories and imaination, were stalking the park.

"Go! Run to Kach, tell him to come quickly!" Buck ordered his brother. Although he was youngest, he was incharge. He had the mind of an Alpha, just not the born position. Tooth obeyed out of sheer fear, wishing to be as far away as possible.
 The rain gave him trouble though. It was slippy and dark, and all smells were blocked. The rain was heavier than anything he had ever heard. There were no senses to guide him, Tooth had to run on pure instinct. Eventually, he found it. The grand oak, over 300 years old, and it's intertwined roots, holding up the giant den like scaffolding.
 "Kach! Kach!"
 He was awake instantly, helped by Tooth shaking his sodden coat. "What is it you damn boy!" He hated being woken up for no reason. Lei couldn't help but overhear the conversation.
 "The Shadows, sir, they're coming! Me and my brother saw two of them heading towards our den." he panted. His coat was steaming from the mixture of hot sweat and freezing rain water. Kach wasn't sure whether to belive him or not, but the juvenile did look urgent.
 "And why should I belive you?" he said. "You're a young wolf, hardly older than a pup, who gets frightened by a bit of thunder and a trick of the light. I'm nice and cosy in here, and I used to be dry, until you shook yourself all over me. No-one believed me why I said there were Shadows, so why should I listen to you?"
 Tooth was now shivering. "Please sir, PLEASE!" he chattered.
 Kach had had his fun. "Alright, alright, I'll go and have a look and show you that there's nothing to be afraid of."
 "I'll go too," Lei piped up, joining her mate at the entrance, "I can't sleep anyway."
 "Tooth, you need to show us the way."
 "Can't I just tell-"
 "No."
 He sighed and prepared himself for another rainy run.

When the trio arrived outside the den, there was no sight of the Shadows. Kach was about to tell Tooth not to bother him over nothing in the future, when a voice called them.
 "In here."
 In the warmth, Buck was lying down with two pups at his side. "Some Shadows!" he laughed. Kach wasn't keen to welcome them, where had they come from?
 "Who are you?"
 The two pups looked up, trembling. This wolf was big and talked in a strange way. He must be the Alpha... Morrer said to herself.
 When Lei saw the pups, she gasped in horror. "F-Fal?"
 Gale looked up at this. The white wolf seemed terrified of her, but that name, how did she know it? She knew her mother?
 "No, I'm Gale. Fal was our mother."
 "Fal?" Buck whispered.
 "Mother?" Kach shrieked. He was a grandad. More than that, Fal had suvived the terrier attack. But Lei wasn't convinced.
 "It's Fal." she kept saying quietly, repeating it to herself continuously.
 "And my name's Morrer."

9

The New Pack

Buck offered to take care of Morrer and Gale, but Kach said it was best for a blood relative to take care of them. Unfortunatly, Lei was still up the wall from seeing her 'daughter' who was dead, so Latch took the job happily. They grew quickly, and everyone put it down to Kach's bloodline. He and Latch were better with each other, but the Beta still had issues with him, and so the next arguement uprose about how the leader's blood had nothing to do with how well the pups were doing, but they were actually being taken care of better than any female could do. The she-wolves of the pack found this a highly offencive comment and brought thir own wave of rebellion.
 The concequences of this were Lei being sick of her mate and brother aguing again, and so got her own den with Akila who moved out of Latch's place after he made his comment. Jo kicked out Toma, who went to live with his easy going sister, Difa. Nila finally gave up on Buck, claiming that she was no longer interested in males as they were stupid, sexist, pompus losers who would be nothing without the girls, and Tooth didn't exactly help the situation by making a joke that she was now interested in females instead, which she took far too seriously. The pack was falling apart, all because Kach and Latch were fighting again.

"Alpha is no job for a male nanny!"
 "Or for a selfish twit who's up his own-"
 "STOP IT NOW!" Lei yelled. "I am SICK and TIRED of you two arguing. I thought that you two had settled your differences a long, LONG time ago. But it appears that I thought wrong."
 "Yep." they said together.
 "Don't you know it's rude to talk when others are?"
 "Yes. Especially an Alpha."
 "Is that what your mummy told you,when you were in the invisable den?"
 "SHUT UP!" Lei howled. Everyone looked at her in horror. She had just broken the Second Rule. Never howl.
 Kach gasped, "Lei-"
 "I DON'T CARE!"
 The park went silent. Silent enough to hear it. A returned howl. The wolves looked around in shear fear. That settled it, there were other wolves.
 "Targ was right." someone whispered.
 Fox heard this, and suddenly his heart was racing. Before he knew what he was doing, he leapt at his elder brother. There were snarls and growls so fierce that even Kach shied away. Then he realised that his sons were fighting.
 "Stop it," commanded, "Stop it now!"
 But the boys kept on rolling and biting. Gale's ears were pressed straight back along her neck. She wasn't seeing her uncles fight, but her parents. it was horrible. She ran. straight to the place that she'd last felt safe and happy. Next to Buck.

On a rock, far from the vision of the pack, Caluk sat listening to the sounds that wre being passed on the wind. It felt good to call, like a true wolf. The humans knew they were there, the pack was being broken down, and their plan was working.

There was nothing for it, they were amking too much noise. Kach jumped off his stand and put himself between the boys.