As they fell asleep, and as she was left awake to guard, she couldn't help but feel uneasy. They were too near to those wolves. Too near for her liking.
But it would only take a day more to reach Kuno.
The morning came warm but cloudy. The skies promised rain sometime in the day.
Antsy as she was, she did not stop to try and hunt, needing to leave this claimed area.
When Dante and Quinn were held up wrestling, she told them, "We need to move fast today, my darlings. You can play once we reach Kuno."
"When are we gonna get there?" Chessa asked, underfoot, huffing a frustrated sigh.
"Hopefully by moonrise," she responded, checking behind her to see if her sons still followed.
A storm was growing, the humidity and tossing wind making it hard for her to keep track of her scents.
But, as the wind blew from behind, she stiffened, the trees around them rustling. She closed her widened eyes, focusing harder.
She could hear panting. The sounds of running, paws on earth.
Opening her eyes again, she could not help the fear in her voice as she told her pups beneath her, "Run."
Their little legs couldn't carry them as fast as her. She curbed her speed, staying behind them.
Because the wolves were descending from that direction.
It was a mad dash over what she clearly recognized to be a border line, but couldn't help now as they were hunted and run down.
When her heart was about to burst with fear, when she heard the gnashing of teeth so close behind them, when she looked and saw shadows melting into form amid the swaying trees beneath the gray sky, she lunged forward, stopped her babies, crouching over them, and turned her head, already growling at the first to come. Gray wolves she knew and–
She nearly fell over as her anticipation was fulfilled, seeing him– her own, her beloved– come running out of the trees in great strides, eyes big on her, skidding before her to a stop much closer than the others, seeing she wasn't backing down. Her hackles were not lowering.
She recognized Stryga's voice first asking, "The mutt?" As if for her clarification. She did nothing but continue growling, senses hazed with the red of anger and the yellow of fear as her back legs shook.
She tore her gaze from the wolves circling her to him.
His shocked eyes were fixed on her babies beneath her, everything about him stiff, and she tried to shield them more, giving an especially loud growl just for him.
"I am not here for trouble," she declared, voice stronger than she had anticipated. "I'm just trying to get back to Kuno."
"Kuno," Stryga addressed, "Your mate?" and Luci's head snapped to his alpha.
"The town," she bit out around her growl, "With the people."
"Annabella," he whispered, and it nearly undid her to look back to him. "You had pups..." She had to keep looking around, keep snapping at those in the circle around her who dared to come as close as he. Did he know they were his? Could he see his eyes reflected back at him? Could he see Dante, the spitting image of him? "I have standing," he told her quietly, only for her to hear, "You could come back. It would be different this time–"
"I can't," she insisted, her growl fading, fading as she looked into his eyes, those desperate, intense eyes, the eyes he had given her sons.
"You can," he told her, taking a step towards her. She felt her pups shuffle beneath her and crouched lower, feeling so small compared to him, her snarl starting up again.
