My paws clench, the snow crunching beneath my blunt claws. There is no fight, but the camp is full to the brim with wolves. Some I recognize, others I have never seen before. I thread through the crowd, moving to the den I share with the dogs. I'm not too afraid of an attack, as my own packmates are talking with these new wolves like friends, but everyone seems a little on edge.
        I pad inside of the den, a look of confusion plastered on my face. Dodge is sitting calmly in the den, but I have no idea where the remainder of his team could be.

"What's going on? Where are all of these wolves coming from?" I question.

"I don't know. Nobody will answer when I ask." Dodge responds in a tone just as confused as mine.

         I nod, thoughts of indignation fluttering through my mind. They couldn't even tell him in a few quick words? I definitely have a few faces to snarl in once I find the time. I turn and pad towards the exit of the den, quickly turning my head back to Dodge so I can speak.

"I'm going to go and find out. Stay safe!" I call, leaping out of the den.

           I weave through the massive group. There must be at least seventy wolves in the clearing at this moment. My mind can't even fathom how many must currently be in our territory altogether.

"Braze! What's happening?" I call.

            The coppery orange wolf turns, only just now noticing me.

"The Storm Creek Pack territory was invaded by humans." He explains grimly, turning back to his conversation with one of the relocated wolves. He seems to be comforting them.

          A feeling of dread courses through my body. I almost wish that I had killed the human earlier. Now the humans know that there are plenty of wolves that inhabit this forest. They took Storm Creek, are we next? 
         I pad back to the dogs and my den, slipping back inside. It's surprisingly devoid of the relocated wolves, which is surprising. I thought they'd need as much room as possible. I suppose that our Pack doesn't want to force them to sleep around dogs. 
          Dodge's black ears flick upwards when I enter. He doesn't speak, but I know that he wants to know what earth is going on.

"One of the nearby territories was overtaken by the humans. The Storm Creek Pack's. It's not good, their territory is very close to ours. Well, if they didn't before, the humans definitely know that we're here now." I explain, my silver brows furrowed in fear.

"That's not good. What are we going to do about it?" He questions.

       I notice silently that he said 'we' instead of 'you.' He thinks of himself as a Whitetail Valley Pack member. I hope that the rest of the pack can accept him as one of us soon enough.

"I don't know. But I know that we can't let them take over this territory too. We'd overflow any other camp if they accepted us, which they probably won't. But I have an idea." I tell him, sitting down in the hard packed snow of the den floor.

"What's your idea?" Dodge asks.

"Well, if every Pack unites, we might just be able to take them down. But we'd need every Pack. The Bearclaw Uplanders would be hard to convince, even if Alpha Granite agrees with me. But I doubt he will." I sigh. It's a long shot.

"That's a pretty good idea. Do you think that you can convince him?" Dodge questions.

"That's my problem. I don't know if I can. It's not necessarily the hardest thing to convince him to do something, but convincing the rest of the Pack won't be easy. I have a pretty low standing with a lot of the wolves." I grumble the last few words.

"You need to do it." He insists.

           I chuckle, flicking one ear irately. 

"I doubt they'll listen."

"Well, there's no harm in trying." Dodge points out.

          I sigh, standing up and stretching my tail.

"Alright. But don't blame me if this doesn't work out in our favor." I mutter, padding out of the den.

        I doubt that finding Granite will be hard. With another Pack in the camp, he'll want to keep an eye on them.
        I find him calmly speaking with the flustered Alpha of the Storm Creek Pack, Coyote. His pelt is a light shade of brown, but it fades into grey on his back.  Specks of black and white fleck his fur, making him appear strikingly like a massive coyote. But I've never seen a coyote with such a stressed out and tired face.
        Alpha Coyote is guarding two very young pups between his forelegs. They look strikingly like him, but with much darker pelts. Observing closer, I see that they must only be a few days old. A brother and a sister, huddling against their father in the cold.
         I consider waiting to speak with Granite, but I might as well get this over with. I wait until their conversation is complete before announcing my presence.

"Er, Alpha Granite, I was just wondering something."

        Granite raises an eyebrow, directing his gaze to me. An indication for me to continue.

"Well, I was wondering if you had any plans to counterattack the humans?" I question.

"We don't have enough wolves for that. They'd kill us in a matter of minutes." Granite says solemnly, shaking his head.

"Alpha, with all due respect, we're just sitting ducks if we don't do anything about the humans." I say in a quieter tone, hoping that he won't take it as a sign of disrespect.

          Granite sighs, a puff of white mist spiraling from his nostrils in the cold air.

"Well, what do you suppose we do?" He asks in a slightly annoyed tone. 

"Well, what if the Packs worked... together? We'd have a few hundred wolves. That would probably be enough to take the humans out." I suggest.

"Maybe it would. But getting every wolf to work together would be nearly impossible. And what of the wolves that can't fight?" He replies in an exasperated tone. Maybe I should've waited until he was in less of a stressed mood.

"It's just an idea. A suggestion. My apologies." I mutter, attempting to pad away at a speed that doesn't make me appear to be running away, but fast enough to get me out of there before I can be reprimanded.

          Again, I weave through the huge amount of wolves and slip back into the den. I catch a few Storm Creek wolves shooting confused and even disgusted glances into the den where Dodge is. One even asks me why there are dogs in our territory. I explain to him that they escaped from the humans, and I may or may not have thrown in a little remark about how they have more right to be here than he did. They've been pulling their weight.
        Dodge nods in greeting as I sit down near the back of the den. Before he can even ask how my conversation with Granite went, I cut him off.

"He's not in a good mood. Maybe later. He's got enough on his back right now." I sigh.

"Well, that's a shame. We don't have all the time in the world, and those humans are fast when it comes to destruction." He replies, staring off into space.

        I chuckle when he says humans are fast. The one I saw only an hour ago couldn't run more than a yard without falling on his face.

"What's so funny?" He asks me, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah, nothing. It's just that I saw a human earlier today and he'd obviously been drinking some alcohol. He didn't seem as dangerous as the rest of the humans." I chuckle.

"Oh, yeah. They're nothing after drinking that stuff. Nearly saw an entire team of dogs get away when their master tried to lash them up drunk. Anyway, where'd you even see the human?" He asks curiously.

"I went to speak to another team of dogs, but they weren't so friendly. They would have killed me if they could, they were barking and snarling so loud you could probably hear it from this den. The human heard them and came out of his tent." I explain to Dodge.

"That's pretty crazy. I bet he won't even remember seeing you. That alcohol is crazy stuff." Dodge laughs.

"But I'll tell you, if it's so great that they constantly go back for it, I might have to get myself some of that stuff." He continues jokingly.

"Ugh, no. If your breath ever smells that bad, I will seriously consider feeding you to a bear."

"Maybe then it would reconsider scratching your eye out!" He retaliates back, still laughing.

"Even if it didn't, I'd consider myself lucky to not look like you!" I jest, flicking a bit of snow at him with my paw.

        Our conversation dies cheerfully as we laugh ourselves out of talking. I'm far too emotionally tired to hold a serious conversation, anyway. I just want to sit down and try to ignore the loud crowd outside of the den.