We left nothing, but our paw prints in the snow

Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

I ran through the snow, my pads sinking in and leaving behind the faintest trail. The one left behind by a running wolf.

I rejoiced in the muscles in my legs and in my narrow chest that cut through the snow, because in some places the snow was really high. So, the snow didn't slow me down at all.

I gave a small spring and quickened my pace. I turned a sharp corner, sliding a bit in the icy snow, then continued running at the same pace as before. Another howl broke through the forest. It was one that I knew. It had sung on the dark where I had been accepted, but why did it stick out so much?

Then it struck me. It was the alpha female, mourning something or someone.

Mourning.

Someone.

Someone

had

died.

In my last pack, death had been something we rarely talked about. But my mum had always told me that being afraid of death was silly. She said it was like a sleep, at first, then I see everything, but from the point of view of what she had called a spirit. She said that after that a lot of things happen, but she didn't know what, only that at some point, your spirit returns to earth as a new form of life. I never quite understood how this could work, but then again, I had never quite understood a lot of the things my mum had talked about. Some had said she was crazy. I think that she had seen things other wolves were to narrow minded to see.

But if what she said was true, then why did this alpha sound so very sad that her mate had died. I know it means that this pack is broken. But nobody had ever bother tell me what happens when an alpha dies. My mum had said I won't need to know until the winter before I leave. But now I had left a few winters too early, and I lacked a lot of my education.

Now I heard other wolves pouring out their hearts' sorrow to the world. I still didn't hear him though. My beautiful wolf who might even like me back.

I raced on, wanting to be there. Wanting to sing my sorrow to the world as well, because although my worries were slightly more selfish, it just struck me that unless the alpha female could really keep her cool, and hand the pack over to one of the leavers, it would fall apart, and a lot of the younger ones would die.

And now I know what was so strange about this pack. This year, they didn't have a new litter, and I don't think that the alphas were planning to have babies this year either, because otherwise the alpha female would have had to be pregnant by now.

These thoughts were in my head, when I found the group of howling wolves.

I was about to howl those thoughts to the forest when something stopped me. There, in front of the dead alphas body, was my potential mate. He was sniffing his father. The sight of him made me truly sad. His normal grace and strength he projected by merely being, was gone.

I tilted my head up to the sinking sun and rising moon. I opened my mouth and howled. I didn't quite manage to sound like one of the pack, but then again, I had only been with this pack for a few lights. Two in total, I think.

I heard his voice, as he joined the pack's song. We sounded sad. The death of an Alpha was always more tragic than others.

My mum hadn't wanted to tell me anything, because she thought that it might upset me. I always wanted to learn. How could I not? A lot of the other pups and older wolves back at my old pack, had often told me that I listened to our mother's tails to much. A lot of them claimed that they couldn't be true, but I had a sense that they were. I had spent so much more time training my mental strength with her, than training my physical being with my siblings. My mum had once told me that I should play more. That it was an important part of my education too, but every time I went to play with my siblings, I somehow always ended up... I'm not even sure where, but certainly not where I was meant to be.

Maybe that's why I enjoyed being with the dark wolf from this pack so much. Okay, he wasn't really very dark, but he was handsome. And he did have a lot of dark fur. Dark fur is usually very desirable, because it makes it easier to hide in the shadows, and to hide in the dark. This gave any wolf with a dark pelt an advantage when hunting. Any wolf in their right sense wanted that.

That lead me to think about my own pelt. It was, lie my eyes, unusual. I was mainly white, with some very light brown on my muzzle and shoulders and upper back. The rest of me was white. This meant that my season was winter, when snow was so thick, that even a black wolf could have buried himself in it and not been seen.

Okay, that all seems a bit selfish to me, considering that the alpha male had just died, but when my thoughts wondered there, I was suddenly scared. What would happen to the pack? What choice would the alpha female make. She would have to back down, or wait till the pack breaks, which would be very selfish. Either she could let some other wolf pair to take over. That isn't possible unless you have a foreign wolf in your pack because you cannot mate within your own family. She could choose another mate, but that would be a bit cold, and would anyway only work if you have a foreign wolf in your pack, because no alpha would mate with their own pup.

And then it struck me. A bit late, I'll admit, but it was horrifying. I was the only foreign wolf in this pack. That means, that unless the current alpha female decides to carry on with the pack on her own, which would start a few questions since she's old, meaning she would die soon, leaving a load of young wolves to figure themselves out. I had become, upon joining this pack, a beta wolf. They are rare, and the mate I choose would be a beta wolf too.

I was going to be forced into being alpha.