-A/N Like I said, small time lapse, it went from the late winter to about mid summer, just a bit before the summer solstice-

Warning contains language.

Chapter 10

Marrok got up early that morning, he was to go out on a hunt today. He got up carefully so as not to wake Silver, who had been curled up next to him. He couldn't believe it had already been about half a year since he met her.

Despite many wolves obvious doubts she had adjusted well to life in a pack. She had since learned how to hunt, and had even helped to bring down two adult caribou, on one hunt. She had become an exceptional tracker, the only real flaw was she didn't like to take a life. She even said she still had nightmares about the wolf she had killed the day she was declared alpha female.

Marrok was taken from his thoughts by someone nuzzling his side. Despite his best efforts, she still woke up without the warmth of his body. He couldn't help but smile when ever he looked at her. Their love was still as strong as it was the past winter, if not then stronger. The only thing Marrok was worried about when it came to them, was pups.

"you going out hunting?" Silver yawned while stretching.

Marrok nodded. Usually they had similar duties, but everyone now and again they had to go their separate ways. Today Silver was to take a scouting party to check out a rumor of a human sled team that was nearby. The info came from a hunting group that was known to stretch the truth. Even so they couldn't let something like that go unchecked. Silver was attending in case, for what ever reason, they needed to make contact with the sled dogs they'd be much more willing to talk to another dog then a wolf.

"do you know who you're taking with you today?" Marrok asked as they walked out of the den.

"I was thinking about that last night, it would be best to take a smaller group, maybe four or five counting myself, also they would either need to be fast, stealthy or both. I'd probably go with Surge, Harv* and Kade" Silver said while turning to look at him with a hurt glance.

Marrok looked down slightly, he knew why she looked hurt. Even after all this time he was still checking up on her with questions like that. Every time her answers were spot on.

Surge wasn't the largest wolf but he was one of the fasts in the pack, Harv had earned the nick name ears because she could hear a piece of gossip in a snow storm, or a couple of dogs talking from a safe distance while hiding. Kade was always quite, almost scarily so, he was completely black, his eyes were such a dark shade of brown and yellow that they to seemed black, for months Silver had thought he was a mute until she heard him threaten a younger wolf's life for hitting on his daughter.

"So, tough guy, who are you taking on your little hunting trip?" Silver jabbed back at him jokingly, with a widening smile.

"well lets see, I'd say it would do to have a group large enough to deal with any threat we cross, but small enough to move fast, so about six or seven counting myself. I'll probably take Saber, Kabe, Tanto, Lundy, Shazu and Azul." Marrok replied with an embarrassed smile, he was glad though, that she wasn't to bothered by his worrying.

"Get some food, get everyone together and head out then?" Silver asked while stopping to scratch the side of her head were another pesky flea had gotten her.

"sounds good, lets get to it, and I'll have a surprise for you when you get back" Marrok replied making his way to Lundy's den to make sure she was up and get a meal for him and Silver.

They had the best laid plans, but even the best laid plans, can go straight to hell.

Marrok growled in frustration, The hunting Party had been out all day and had lost track of three different caribou. It was getting late so they were heading back with nothing but a few unlucky rabbits and other smaller critters that had crossed their path. Undoubtedly what little meat the did have would help, but they would need more food soon, especially if the summer solstice was coming.

Marrok's thoughts were interrupted when he caught whiff of a bull moose, normally he would of let it be considering the animals size and power, but they needed the meat and with Marrok and Shazu they could probably take it down easy. Marrok almost chuckled at the thought, nothing with a bull moose was easy.

Marrok silently signaled to the rest of the group the scent. Then took point following the scent about one-hundred-fifty meters to a clearing. In the clearing was a full grown bull moose, grazing completely unaware of the wolves stalking it from the shadows. Marrok slowly made his way about a quarter of the way around the clearing before going low the ground, his belly almost touching the grass as he made his way painfully slowly to the beast before him.

When he was in range he pounced, sailing through the air claws erect, jaws open with his teeth ready to tear into the flesh. As he crashed on the creatures back the silence shattered like glass. Marrok growled as he sank his teeth into the back of its neck, the moose bellowed in rage and started bucking, his hooves crashing into the ground, the other wolves shot from the shadows and surrounded the moose.

After a bit of effort the moose tossed Marrok the the ground just off to his side, and started to look around him, he took in the fact that he was surrounded by wolves, he was already loosing a lot of blood from his neck, he took the time to accept one fact, he was going to die, here, today, no matter what he did he couldn't escape. But, he could probably take at least one of them with him, to his choice it would be the large black and gray one who had jumped on his back.

Marrok hit the ground hard. He felt a rib crack and the wind leave his lungs. While gasping to catch his breath he looked up into the eyes of the great beast, in them he saw many things, anger, a flicker of fear, and then finally acceptance, in his eyes he saw the great beast accepted his death. 'shit' Marrok thought to himself, he had dealt with many animals in his time, he had learned when they were dangerous, many thought the most dangerous emotion a prey could have was fear, but no, it was acceptance, because then they cared not for their life only enough to save or end the lives of those around them.

A few wolves pounced at the moose but he seemed to hardly notice as he smashed them away with his antlers, sending them hurtling to the trees. Shazu could hardly suppress a smile, sure he could of probably helped to take down the creature and end it all now. With both him and Marrok it would be easy, but he would rather just hang back and watch. It was so stupidly simple, let the behemoth crush Marrok like a bug and save him from having to dirty his own hands.

Marrok tried to roll back onto his feet but had to roll back when the huge hoof slammed down right next to him, blocking his path, the other smashed down on the other side blocking him in. Finally the creature reared up, bringing its leg down fast, aimed right at Marrok's chest. 'This is it' Marrok thought to himself.

Silver and the others had to walk for the better part of the day to get to their destination. She knew they were close because she could see a column of smoke off in the distance, indicating a human camp. As they neared it she had them stop more and more often to let Harv listen for any signs of someone or something approaching.

"i don't hear anything." Harv informed

"you sure?" Silver asked

"yes I'm sure, again." Harv sighed, she respected Silver but she was being paranoid.

"sorry, just don't want anything to do wrong."

With a nod they all fell back behind into formation, Harv in front, Silver about six feet behind her, with Surge and Kade flanking them on either side about six feet behind Silver. The point of this formation was for Harv to be the eyes and ears for what was coming up ahead, Surge and Kade to be able to run ahead, fall back, or hide quickly with what ever Silver commanded in the center.

They quickly approached the camp, when they got with in a visual distance they broke the formation, spreading out and getting close enough to make their own assessments, after five or six minutes they all backed up and re-grouped. To share what they had seen and assess the situation. Surge was the first to speak.

"From what I can tell it looks like the human tried to make it across on the last bit of snow before it all melted and turned over his sled damaging it, so now he is camping out until he can fix it. He should be gone within a few days. So we just make sure no one comes near here for now. Agreed?"

Harv nodded but Silver and Kade shook their heads, earning them a tired and questioning look from both Surge and Harv.

"I know you've never been in one of those camps and you may not have looked to closely at many, but its to damn still to be normal, I think someone or something forced them from there, or worse." Silver said flatly,

"I can smell blood, both human and dog, there is also blood splattered on the human tent along with a few holes to suggest gunfire." Kade added in his deep gruff voice that reminded Silver of a human that had spent a lot of his time puffing cigars.

"sorry guys, but we need to take a closer look." Silver informed the others, which earned her a small groan from Harv.

Silver just rolled her eyes and started down the incline. As planned she entered the camp first, with Kade following in the shadows. She found a few snow domes that sled dogs use to sleep but decided against bugging a sleeping sled dog. She made her way to the human tent. There was indeed blood and bullet holes but the human seemed to be sleeping peacefully under his blanket. 'Guess the blood and holes were from another occasion and just never got fix-' her thoughts stopped when she saw part of the human's hand sticking out, the flesh was a pale bluish-gray, no doubt dead for some time now.

Silver pulled the blanket off and jumped back immediately, she had expected to find a dead human, she did, but she also found three rather pissed looking wolverines growling at her. One brave soul pounced, Silver side-stepped and pulled it the ground, biting down on its throat and crushing the bones. She ran back out to find that from the snow waning snow had risen nine more wolverines.

Kade Charged out of the shadows and jumped over three of them, twisting in the air to catch one with his claws and pull it with him. He landed, putting the smaller creature under him and breaking its spine, next to silver, in the circle of now ten wolverines. Silver knew they were in trouble, their only backup was Harv and Surge, and they were two hills away. Far enough that by the time they got there it could be over. Silver was pretty good and defending herself, she had proved that more then once when attacked by other wolves, wild canines, and other animals they had met while hunting. And Kade was probably a good fighter himself, but they were surrounded by ten wolverines. She couldn't see anyway out of this one. Finally something entered her mind, acceptance, she accepted the situation with deadly finality.

-A/N just thought I'd say something that I hadn't even thought of, but as nothing but OCs have been present as of yet every character in this chapter and the past ones belong to me. Honestly I couldn't care less if someone uses them in fact I'll be glade that you liked it enough to use them, but just have the common curtsey to mention my name as of were you got them. Anyway please review-