A/N It took me a while, but I finally got through. Not one of my best chapters (I don't think any of them are), but reviews will be helpful. Not much to say, except thanks to all that reviewed (not many). Also, thanks to meh Beta, I'm sure you all know who she is by now. Anyway, on with the story.


Chapter Nine

They entered a dark cave that looked like something out of an Evanescence video. Somehow, the wolves had managed to keep it dimly lit so that the light from the fire cast a red glow on the whole cave.

Gathered in a circle, thirteen wolves of different hues and types sat together; some seemed irritated at being disturbed. Rebecca could tell that she had disturbed them when she saw that, to one side, were a couple of foxes of different species.

"State your name." ordered a dark grey wolf with black eyes, in a superior tone.

Next to him, a pure white wolf ducked her head quickly, looking as though she was trying to prevent herself from laughing. After thinking, Rebecca answered the question truthfully. "Rebecca. Why am I here?"

A red-brown male wolf with blood-thirsty red eyes leapt up, snarling. "That's exactly what I want to know. Since when did we, as a consul, agree that any loner could wander into our secret quarters?" As he emphasized the word secret, he glared viciously at Shawn.

The white wolf that had ducked her head rolled her eyes. "Does it really matter Blood? If she's an enemy, then we can kill here then and there, and she'll never be able to tell anyone where we live."

Blood, the blood thirsty one, just snapped his teeth at her and sat a few feet away from Rebecca, watching her closely. Without taking his eyes away from her, he replied. "Aysel, I've never known you to purpose such a thing. Perhaps my ways have gotten to you anyway?"

Ignoring him, she continued. "You're here, young she-wolf, because you've trespassed into our property."

The dark grey one from before spoke again. "Drop the act Aysel, you know neither of us talk like that." The wolf looked at Rebecca. "I'm Grayer, nice to meet you."

A smoky grey-white wolf with ice blue eyes jumped into the conversation. "Don't encourage it Grayer. Now she may never leave."

"And if she proves to be an ally, Ice-T, then we won't want her to ever leave." Grayer retorted.

Rebecca scoffed. "Who said I wanted to stay there, thank you very much."

The wolves exchanged slightly nervous glances with each other and a silence fell over the group, with the exception of the whispering foxes. "Well then," Aysel said, breaking the silence. "Might as well introduce you to the rest of the group; any volunteers?"

A dark brown male with light brown eyes spoke up. "My name is Buffalo With No Horns."

A light grey wolf spoke next, introducing himself as Murat. After him, a goofy looking dark grey wolf with a white underbelly—Justin—and then a tan and black wolf with blue eyes (Adolfo) introduced themselves.

After them were a few with a couple of interesting looks. Ahmer was a red wolf with a red-brown underbelly and hazel eyes and Amare was deep red with a white underbelly and white spots, and, though he was male, had huge, doe-like eyes. Akin, however, was by far one of the most interesting though. He was slim and willowy, and tan with black legs, ears and muzzle. The only one that upstaged him was Timbaland, who drew Rebecca's attention the most.

He's fur was a pure black and his eyes, if possible, were even darker. What really drew Rebecca closer though, was the fact that he was a Timber wolf as well. He didn't speak much, but when he did, his voice was dark, with an underlying message.

The last wolf was without a doubt the oldest. He was a grey-white with pale eyes. He stood up before he introduced himself. "My name," he said formally, "is Raoul, and I am the leader of the Consul of Wolves and our pack. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Having had experience with other wolves in the past, Rebecca dipped her head down respectfully. "Nice to meet you too."

"Ahem." A fox in the back cleared his throat. "Alpha-Male Raoul, are we going to continue our discussion, or are shall we just leave and come another night?"

The elderly wolf shook his head. "No, you shouldn't leave but…Shawn, why don't you go keep them entertained outside of the cave?"

Rebecca turned her head slightly so she could see Shawn's eyes. A flicker of disappointment and fatigue was there, but other then that; his blue eyes seemed to consent. "Yes sir." He replied, and with that, rounded up all foxes and led them out, snapping viciously at one that tried to stay behind.

Settling back down, Raoul spoke again. "So, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself, Rebecca?" He was surveying her carefully, trying to come to conclusions about her.

"Where do you want me to start?" she asked.

"Well, where's your pack?" asked Grayer.

Feeling her ears flicker back and forth, she pawed the ground a couple of times with her right paw. "I, um, don't have one."

Immediately Blood leapt on her, throwing her into the cave wall. With a muttered curse, she got pulled herself up, thinking of only how she was going to be black and blue by morning. "Geez, be a li'l rougher, why don't you?" she asked sarcastically, not thinking that he really was going to attack with all he had.

Which, of course, is what he did next.

Blindly evading the attacks, Rebecca went to bite him, and felt her mouth close tightly on his tail. Snarling, he threw her off him viciously, and as she hit the cave wall yet again, her head slammed into it dangerously.

Weakened, Rebecca lay there, watching warily as Blood advanced closer; horror-stricken as she realized that no one was making a move to help her. Then it hit her. She was expected to defend herself, even if she was weakened.

The look in Blood's eyes was one of triumph, which caused Rebecca to get angry. With a murderous snarl, Rebecca summoned up enough energy to leap onto Blood.

Taking advantage of his moment of weakness, Rebecca attacked all the weak spots she could think of: the tail, the face, the underbelly, the neck. Finally, he gave in.

"I give!" he declared. "Stop, please." He was actually begging.

Rebecca eased off of him, retreating a safe number of steps. She looked up at the rest of the wolves, a glint of anger in her eyes. Ever fight she had gotten to, she had back-up from Diana and Iva; never had she been on her own like that.

"Gee, thanks for helping me out back there." Rebecca thanked sarcastically. "And him too, now that I think about it."

The crowd was silent and behind her she heard a voice. "Damn, that was vicious." Shawn stood behind her, tail up, ears pricked, and eyes nervous.

Raoul looked at him haggardly. "Aren't you supposed to be watching over the foxes?"

He shrugged. "I would, but there aren't any left."

"Did you eat them? Cuz that wouldn't be a good thing, eating the leaders of the major fox packs." Justin joked.

"Oh ha ha. No, they ran faster then I could. Especially when they all split up."

Ice-T jolted up. "We should be out there, rounding them up, instead of standing here, chatting."

Raoul nodded. "Okay, gather some of the others and go hunt them down. They will not be set lose on our territory." He took a moment and looked at Rebecca. "You however, might want to get cleaned up. You're a mess."

Aysel looked her over and laughed. "He's right. You're covered in blood!"

Rebecca looked back and saw that her black fur was streaked with blood. "Ugh, I am, aren't I? Anywhere I can go to cleaned up?"

"Yeah, I can-" Aysel was interrupted by Raoul.

"No Aysel, I want you to go help with the hunt. Shawn can do it."

Aysel nodded and Rebecca turned and left, led by Shawn. As they stepped out of the cave, he tried to make small talk, but Rebecca could tell that he was nervous around her. As they padded further into the forest, Rebecca turned to look at him.

"You're not scared of me, are you?"

He flicked his ears. "No, I'm not."

"You're a bad liar, you know that?"

He looked at her. "I can't lie to beings I don't want to."

Rebecca felt the air around her get hot, and she looked up to see the sun creeping over the trees. "Oh no. Can we hurry up?"

He looked at her sideways. "You have somewhere else to be?"

She nodded. "Yeah, actually, I do."

"Okay then, try to keep up." He threw himself into full speed and Rebecca followed slightly behind him. As they continued on, she was surprised to see how far behind she was.

Soon, they stopped at the edge of a glistening lake. Rebecca, taking the hint, immediately waded into it, shivering at the ice-cold of the water. After a few minutes of blissful cleaning, she stepped out of the lake, shaking her pelt to rid herself of the water.

Shawn gave a grumbling snarl as he was pelted by water droplets. She laughed. Oops, sorry about that Shawn."

He laughed with her. "It's alright. Want me to take you back?"

She thought about it, and then shook her head. "No, it's fine. I remember the way."

He nodded, and than left as she head off the opposite direction.