The moon lighting just enough to see onto the dark forest. Shadows of owls swooping from the tops, just visible in the midnight air.

Howls in the distant. The Night Pack no doubt. Ruthless killers with no mercy. Loners watch their back every step. Many wolves were killed under their claws. Her family was one victim.

Her eyes clouded as Eclipse lost herself in those thoughts. A shadow in the corner of her eyes snapped her back to reality. She tensed looking over into the eyes of a red fox a ways away. A low growl escaped her throat. The fox hesitated then slowly backed away.

"that's right, rat poop, leave! I'm not your food!" Eclipse growled.

Howls from a distant, closer this time, made her jump.

Eclipse shifted her weight, in hope to make her comfortable in the tangle of roots of a pine tree, without much luck.

Willing sleep to pull her in, Eclipse closed her eyes. She didn't sleep much when she was in Night Pack's territory, in fear she would never wake up.

Eclipse jerked her eyes open. She heard footsteps. it wasn't Night Pack though, Eclipse wouldn't even hear their footfalls until it was too late.

Eclipse relaxed a little, listening closely to the passing wolf as it came into view. It was a brown wolf with a cream belly and black markings.

The wolf's amber eyes fell on Eclipse and froze in fear.

"Its ok. I'm a lone," Eclipse whispered.

The wolf seemed to relax a little, "sorry. I thought you were a pack wolf."

Eclipse watched the wolf disappear into the undergrowth. She sent a silent prayer for the wolf, since they were deep into the territory.

Relaxed again, she closed her eyes and listened to the faint flapping of owls' wings. A breeze picked up, making it hard to focus on anything, until all the sounds came together.

A growl snapped her awake. light dappling the forest floor, the tree tops seemed to be gold in the morning light.

A black pack wolf, the sun making it look more of a copper-brown, was in front of a cowarding wolf. The same wolf she saw last night.

Teeth bearing, the pack wolf lunged at the other wolf's throat. Eclipse ran out of the roots and into the pack wolf.

Teeth meeting flesh, the pack wolf yelped in surprise as Eclipse ripped fur and skin of of his haunch.

the pack wolf ripped away, leaving a gash were Eclipse bit him. Eclipse spat out fur and turned toward the other loner, thinking the pack wolf was beat.

The pack wolf barreled into Eclipse, pinning her on her side. Suddenly she felt a blinding pain on her shoulder as he tore a chunk of flesh from her. Spots clouded her vision.

The weight of the wolf lifted from her side. She pushed herself up, blood, shinning scarlet in the light, splashed the forest floor. Dizzy from the loss of blood, Eclipse stumbled to the side of the loner and fought.

Eclipse lunged for the throat. The wolf dodged and nipped her shoulder. She screeched and found his ear and bit down hard.

The wolf jerked back, blood spraying from his ear. The loner lunged and found the soft flesh of his throat. She chomped down, not enough to kill him, and let go. The wolf fell with a thump.

Realizing he was beat, he said," this isn't the last of me, loners!" he rasped, heaving up, "I'm going to find you and kill you both!" he spat and ran back to the pack tail low.

Eclipse collapsed, blinded by pain. Desperately, she tried to get up but fell.

"are you ok?" the loner said frantic.

The world spinned and went blank.

__________________________________________________________________

Hi! this is animal_maniac, please comment on my book and tell others. I'm new so I would LOVE it if you can spread the word about my book so others can enjoy. Hope you like it!