Penn couldn't get a good sleep. Every time she dozed off she dreamt of the Orthos pack. She wasn't the least bit sure she'd get a warm welcome. It was one thing for them to adopt what was left of the Griffin pack because of blood ties. However, it was quite another thing to welcome a rogue into their midst for any amount of time without trying to go for her throat.

But why she was stressing about it was beyond her. Truthfully, besides Mia, Lily and possibly Cassidy, who all seemed genuinely fond of her, she doubted the orphans would likely want anything to do with her once she'd got them to someplace safe. As it was now, they were still more afraid of her than anything else. So, no one but herself was thinking about her sticking around. And why she was even contemplating it was beyond her. Wasn't the plan just to drop the kids off and get back to her old, solitary life - her quiet life?

Penn sighed with frustration and a touch of self-loathing. She had grown soft in the last five weeks. Somehow, without her realizing it, she had grown fond of the pups and altogether too protective of them. So much so that she was day dreaming about sticking around to make sure they were all happily situated. 

But, there was nothing to think about, nothing to settle in her mind. She growled at herself. Once she dropped the pups off and made sure they were safe, she was going back to her solitary life in exile. That was always the plan and she was going to stick to it no matter what.

That is, if the Orthos wolves would even let her live. She wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they hunted her down and tried to kill her after she and the children parted ways. After all, pack wolves were taught to kill rogues.

The restless dosing was more than Penn could handle, and she jumped up, startling the pups a little, as she suddenly transformed into her skin. When she came near the children to get her pack and pull out her clothes - clothes Lara had given her to wear knowing she'd have to be in her skin a great deal of the time while with the pups - the kids all looked away and plugged their noses.

It was likely the smell of dry blood that had them squirming in their seats. Penn was more amused than annoyed by their behaviour and peculiarities now - now that she was getting use to their finicky, un-wolf-like behaviour and tastes. Ignoring them, she pulled on her filthy clothes and chuckled softly to herself realizing that she couldn't smell much worse than the rest of them. Not a one of them had had a bath or washed their clothes in weeks now. None of them had any right to complain.

Cassidy and Jackson, knowing the drill, got up and came over to her once she was dressed. They were expecting instructions. Penn looked at them with the same inscrutable expression she generally wore. Neither of them could read her when she was like this. They exchanged nervous glances not knowing what to expect when she opened her mouth.

"We are nearly at the Orthos pack's territory," Penn began, drawing in everyone's attention and not just the two oldest pups. "Soon you'll have warm beds and meals three times a day. But, before that happens we will need to arrive there safe and sound. And, even after we cross into their territory nothing is settled until we talk to Cassidy and Jackson's uncle. Understood?"

There were some nods in response.

"This means you stick close together at all times, and you listen only to me and do exactly as I say until the Orthos alpha takes you in. Because, until that time, I am your guardian. Understand?"

The children all nodded their heads dutifully and kept their eyes on the ground to indicate their compliance and their understanding that there were still dangers ahead. Penn was satisfied and with a clap of her hands they broke camp and headed further down the mountain.

They walked till dark and never caught a scent or met a soul. Penn was surprised that the neutral territory was so large. There was a lot of dense forest between where the treeline ended and wherever the Orthos border began. It made Penn a little edgy. She needed to find their territory and the pack's Beta soon. The kids had been on the run for five weeks now. The sooner she got them to safety, the better.

"We'll settle here for the night," she told Cassidy who had stopped by her side and was waiting to find out if this was just a quick break or a real stop. "No fire," Penn told her.

Cassidy sighed but nodded anyway. She knew the kids would be disappointed. It was getting colder at night and the children were finding it harder and harder to sleep through the cold nights. A fire would help, but it would also attract danger. Everyone was learning to accept that it was better to be cold then dead. Though, when their teeth were chattering, that was sometimes hard to swallow.

"Tell the kids to sleep in their furs. You know it's warmer that way," Penn told Cassidy impatiently. She wasn't annoyed at the girl, just tired of fighting the children all the time about the importance of sleeping in their fur at night and doing any number of things that were necessary for survival.

"I'll remind them," Cassidy said with a shaky little smile.

She watched Penn walk off before noticing Jackson and Ace at her side.

"Can we have a fire?" Ace asked quietly.

Cassidy shook her head no.

"Another night wont kill us," Jackson sagely offered to Ace, whose face looked as disappointed as Jackson felt. "Soon we'll have rooves over our heads and warm beds to sleep in every night."

"Better safe than sorry," Ace added with a heavy sigh.

"Lets get everyone settled in for the night," Cassidy suggested and the boys readily agreed.

Penn watched the pups work together to get everyone ready for the night. All of them were so tired form the exhausting journey, that no one seemed to have the energy that night to whine about a fire. In fact, most of the pups just huddle together in little clusters and fell promptly to sleep. It was both sad and sweet.

Once the young ones were settled for the night Penn called the five oldest over to her - Cassidy, Jackson, Noah and the twins, Ace and Archer. She examined their faces as they came. Each one looked as tired and as warn as the littlest pups. Penn's heart ached a little for them. But, it would all be over very soon.

"I'm heading out tonight to find the border of Orthos territory. We might be just about on it or it could take me all night to find it. So, you five are going to have to watch the pups until I get back. Three of you watch the camp and two of you patrol together. And do it in wolf-form. It's safer," Penn instructed.

Cassidy, who was always reaching for Penn's arm did so now and looked a little stricken, "You, you are coming back for us aren't you Penn?"

Cassidy couldn't explain it but she suddenly had this terrible feeling like Penn was going to disappear on them. She knew she would eventually leave, even soon perhaps, but she wasn't ready to let the older she-wolf go just yet. She wanted to hold on to her for as long as possible.

"Of course she's coming back," Ace scoffed. He thought the rogue was quite scary and he didn't know how to interact with her. But he knew one thing, she didn't bring them all this way to dump them now. She was definitely the type to see things through. He was sure of it.

"She'd never leave us out here," Archer added with conviction. The two twins smiled at each other. They felt the same about the she-wolf.

Cassidy never looked at them though. Her eyes were glued to Penn's face. Penn frowned down at her. She felt gutted that the girl had so little faith in her. Brushing off Cassidy's hand, Penn growled at her with displeasure.

Cassidy teared up and Jackson came to give her shoulder a comforting squeeze. Everyone was tired. And everyone, including the rogue, was on edge. It was easy to misunderstand one another. Easy to take offence at the slightest thing. He saw that more clearly than anyone in that particular moment.

"She didn't mean anything by it," he bravely explained to Penn. "She just doesn't want you to disappear without saying goodbye."

Cassidy nodded as she wiped a few tears away.

Penn just huffed and commanded them, "Keep a close watch and send up a howl if there's any trouble. I'll get back when I get back."

She never bothered to look at Cassidy or any of the others. She just stepped away and began stripping down so that she could take on her wolf form, but Jackson caught her arm this time and stopped her.

"If you aren't back by morning, do we wait?" he asked with meaning in his eyes. He tried to give her the same penetrating stare she so often gave him and the other wolves, but when he saw the corner of her lip curl up ever so slightly, he realized his effort to look tough wasn't working.

"You wait," she told him with a faintest of smiles before turning away to discard all her clothes and take on her fur.

That faint smile, seen by all the older teens, instantly eased their minds. Jackson grinned at Cassidy and gave her hand a squeeze. Cassidy smiled down at the ground. She felt sure Penn wasn't mad at her, and more sure that she would certainly see her in the morning, if not sooner.

Penn, for her part, put the conversation aside and lept off into the darkness. She was anxious but not about Cassidy's comment. Leaving the pups behind like this for an undetermined amount of time really bothered her.  At least when she hunted game, she was never far from the camp, but tonight, she didn't know how far she'd have to run to find the border. She just hoped it wasn't all night. 

It was risky - risky leaving the pups unattended and risky being alone in unfamiliar territory - but, now that they had survived the pass, Penn really felt like she needed to get them to a pack and quick. So she raced deeper and deeper down the side of the mountain until she caught the scent of an alpha male.

This startled her and she stopped immediately. An alpha male could mean trouble - trouble for all of them. She also got a whiff of several other wolf scents. However, when her heart stopped racing, she realized the scents were a couple days old. None of these wolves were lurking around the vicinity that night.

She followed the stale scent for a long while hoping it would lead her to the pack border. It didn't take long for Penn to realize that this was likely a patrol route. And then, after a few more miles it dawned on her - the Orthos territory enormous. So huge, in fact, that the patrols only came by every couple days rather than daily.

Their best hope was to make contact with the border patrols, who could get them all safely to the pack house in no time. Penn decided then that they would camp out on the route and wait to be discovered. If the Orthos border patrol wolves made the rounds every couple of days, that meant someone could be coming by in the next 24 hours if Penn and the pups were lucky. She sighed with relief. It wouldn't be long now before the pups were safely tucked away among the Orthos pack.

Penn headed back to the camp where she found all was well and nothing alarming had happened. She transformed into her skin, dressed in her filthy, stiff clothes and beckoned the five teens over to her.

"I found the Orthos patrol route," she told them without preamble. "We'll head there in the morning and camp on the trail. Someone should come along in a day or so and find us."

Noah exchanged a nervous glance with Acer and Archer. All three of them had been bullied by some nasty border patrol wolves in their own pack and didn't like the idea of meeting strange border patrol officers from another pack.

Noah, who never had too much to say, suddenly asked, "What happens when the border patrol finds us?"

"Do you know what those guys are like?" Acer asked Penn.

Penn looked confused so Cassidy reached out, took a hold of her arm gently and half whispered into her ear, "They aren't the welcoming type."

Penn laughed. Out loud. And the teens were shocked. They had never heard her laugh before. They might have smiled and laughed with her but they were too astonished to do anything but stare at each other.

"Don't you worry, I wont let a single Orthos pack member, border patrol or not, touch a hair on your heads. I'll kill the first one who tries. Mark my words," she said with a frighteing but slightly reassuring smile. "Besides, there isn't a wolf in all of Orthos that's half as will as I am. You'll be safe."

"She did take on that bear," Cassidy said to the others and they all nodded in agreement.

Penn was the wildest thing they'd ever met. She was the scariest wolf they'd ever encountered, as well. Surely, if any wolf could, she could, and would given her wild attitude, make mincemeat of anyone who tried to make sport of the pups. They corporately breathed a sigh of relief feeling once again that they were in the safest hands possible with this rogue wolf, who didn't act like any rogue they'd ever heard of.

Seeing that their anxiety about meeting an Othos patrol was now in check, Penn sent them all to bed. She'd arrived back before dawn, but the five teens had been up all this time keeping watch over the others. They needed their sleep.  No one protested. not even Cassidy. Instead, they all curled up next to someone and promptly fell asleep. Penn transformed into her wolf-form once again and kept vigil over her little pack of orphans until morning.

Morning brought rain. And Penn's hope of catching a few hours of sleep were dashed. The children were not going to want to wait around for her in the rain while she slept and she couldn't blame them. She'd have to hope for a few hours sleep if they reached the patrol route before dark. Though, she realized that might be a tall order if the rain kept up. 

With a little nod of her head to Cassidy everyone grabbed their things and started hiking down the mountain as they quietly whined and whimpered about the very wet conditions. Penn felt sorry for them. She knew, better than them, that they had a long hike through wet woods to get to the patrol route.

To keep their waning spirits up she promised them a fire when they camped for the night. Again, it was a risk to some extent, but she felt it was more likely to alert Orthos border patrol that someone was on their territory rather than lead Codax to them, who was likely still on the other side of the mountain range.

The promise of fire did the trick. The pups were elated and managed to get through most of the wet and arduous hike down the forested mountainside without any major moaning or groaning the rest of the day no matter how hard it rained on them. Penn felt very proud of them. They were good little soldiers.

They reached the patrol route just before dark, which meant Penn was not going to get any sleep that day. And, the rain still hadn't let up, which meant she wouldn't likely get any sleep that night either. The rain made it hard to hear and smell danger. So, she'd have to extra vigilant until the rain let up and the forest dried out.

But, at least she didn't have to worry about the children. Penn had shown the older teens how to build a lean-to before and they used that knowledge now to build two large shelters big enough to house them all if they crowded in together. And some of the smaller pups were smart enough to transform into the furs to keep warm while the bigger kids made a fire both lean-tos could enjoy. It was rewarding to see them put these new survival skills to use without having to be told.

Jackson, who had been tasked with carrying firewood on his back from camp to camp, which he kept dry with a tarp - something they brought with them from the pack house when they escaped - had a fire going in no time despite the rain. The younger boys were worried the rain would put the fire out, but Jackson got it big enough that the rain didn't bother it in the least. Normally, Penn would frown at the creation of such a large fire but not tonight. She felt they were close enough to the Orthos pack now to risk it on a dark rainy night.

Once the lean-tos were up and working to keep the rain off them, the children all piled in like so many circus clowns in a car not fit for two. Penn laughed to herself as she watched. She'd already reverted to her fur to keep a watchful eye and ear on their surroundings while everyone worked. She didn't mind the rain - not even the cold rain of October - when she was in her fur.

Cassidy, on spying their guardian, drenched and lying out in the cold under the rain called out to her, "Please, please come in Penn. There is room for you."

Cassidy waved several of the children back to make room. However, Cassidy's plea was only met with a bark. The children, instinctively understanding that bark meant 'no thanks', gladly sat back in their earlier places happy that they didn't have to put up with the smell of wet wolf under their noses all night.

Cassidy frowned at them and they understood she disapproved of their attitude. They hung their heads and stayed like that until they heard her sigh a little while later. She'd been displeased, but she was over it now. They gave her apologetic looks and she just turned to look out at Penn, who sat up and shook the rain off of her very wet pelt.

Cassidy didn't feel right that she and the pups were enjoying some warmth and relative dryness while Penn, their very courageous guardian, was sitting out in the rain, getting soaked to the skin with each passing moment. However, Penn wasn't the least bit put out by the setting. She wasn't aware of Cassidy's personal turmoil as she spent her time trying to listen very closely and carefully for any dangers. The one thing about rain, it didn't keep predators away and it often blocked their scent. Penn would have to be extra observant that night, at least until the rain let up.

By morning the heavy rain had passed and there was just a light mist in the air. But, the air was cold and the damp made it worse. The children were all in a sorry state when they awoke wet and cold despite the fact that the fire was still going.

Penn shook the rain off and set out to patrol the area in the grey light of dawn. Normally, she'd be coming back to the camp to sleep now but the rain had kept her from patrolling all night. She wouldn't go to sleep even for 20 minutes without having some idea of what had been roaming around their camp all night long.

She circled once, twice, and three times. And each time she went out a little further. Everything was so wet that she could not pick up any scents at all. All she could smell was musk. It filled her nostril and made her sneeze. For a wild thing, there was one thing she was not a fan of – the smell of wet earth and decaying vegetation. She let out a huff and returned back to the camp.

She never laid her head down all morning. She was just running on fumes. But, she couldn't rest until she had a better idea what was living and walking around in the area. And that wasn't going to happen until things dried out a bit.

Come noon the mist was gone and the clouds were breaking. The pups said they could see blue sky from time to time through the trees. Penn looked up and saw it too. She could also make out more scents now as the wind picked up and started to dry things off.

The wind brought all kinds of scents with it. One of the most promising scents was that of a male wolf. Penn had been right to camp here on the patrol route. They only had to wait and someone from Orthos would find them very soon. Maybe even before mid-afternoon.

Penn kept this knowledge to herself though. She didn't want to excite the pups unnecessarily or make them unduly anxious. They were already miserable enough trying to dry out. The news would keep a little while longer and she was ready to sleep on it for the time being.